PRINCE OF THE WIND (11 page)

"I would rather die than go back with him. I will not marry Riain Cree!"

"The only man you will marry is me. You have nothing to fear."

They had spent the night in the forest, well away from the more-traveled paths to Serenia. But he knew Miyoshi’s father would have sent men who knew Chrystallus better than Raven to track them, and even now could be closer than he realized. By his reckoning, they had at least a ten-hour lead on the Emperor’s troops, unless the trackers had spent the night searching. That thought brought fear to Raven’s mind.

"We’d best be going, Milady. We aren’t far from the Shiku Pass."

Raven eased out of her arms and stood, then held out his hand for her.

Miyoshi sighed. Raven knew that she longed to know what it felt like to have him nestled inside her, to feel his shaft pressed against the womb which would one day bear his firstborn.

"Lady?" he questioned, his tone filled with admonishment. He had been able to read her thoughts since they were toddlers.

"Oh, all right!" she snapped and placed her hand in his. She allowed him to lever her to her feet, then vigorously brushed the leaves from her skirt. "You are such a tease, Raven Saur."

He smiled, knowing her fit of pique was no more than nervousness. "How am I a tease?"

"You know full well I expected you to take advantage of me during the night."

"I was too tired."

"Aye, well you are rested this morn! What excuse now, Milord?"

"You prefer a bed of leaves in the forest to silken sheets in an inn?"

"I’d take you anyway I could get you."

"You’ll
not
have me ’til the priest has sanctioned the Joining, so stop fussing!"

"Humpf…"

"Be good," he admonished as he walked to their horse.

Because Raven had not wanted to leave any more of a trail than was necessary, he had decided on riding double, leaving her horse in the care of a farmer. He had kept to the forest so the hoofprints would not be so easily seen amongst the thick pine needles and the maple leaves. Though he knew an experienced tracker could determine by the depth of the indention that one horse was carrying two riders, he still hoped the men coming after them would miss their trail.

He saddled the mount, then walked to the stream to fill their water bag. "Don’t leave anything behind," he cautioned.

Miyoshi brought him the blanket upon which they’d passed the night. "You realize, of course, I am much better when I am wicked, Milord."

Raven took the blanket, shook it out, then folded it into a roll, which he strapped to the saddle. "I’ve evidence of that," he said dryly. "Whose arse got caned when you broke your mother’s prize urn?" When she was silent, he nodded. "Aye, Sweeting, it wasn’t yours!"

"But you got your first kiss that day when you told them it was you!"

"That’s not all I got that day, if I remember correctly." He chuckled, thinking of the tongue she had slipped into his mouth, shocking him beyond speech.

"I’ve heard there are things one can do—"

He cast her a warning look.

She grinned. "I intend to—"

Raven held up his hand. "I’ve no desire to hear what you intend until we are safely Joined, then you can do with me what you will, wicked woman."

Miyoshi laughed, then covered her mouth with her hand, as if realizing her father’s men or other ears might be listening in the forest glade.

With a shake of his head at her wide eyes and embarrassment-stained face, Raven threaded his fingers together and held them below the stirrup for her to mount. As she placed her booted foot in his hands, he was amazed at her insignificant weight as he propelled her into the saddle. Once she was settled, he mounted behind her, bracing her back against his chest so she would be comfortable.

"I am hungry," she sighed.

"Aye, so am I."

Not daring to light a fire the evening before, for fear the smoke would lead unwanted guests to their campsite, they had eaten dried meat and stale biscuits. Between them, they had only two strips of mutton and half of a hard biscuit to last until they reached Serenia. What little food they’d managed to steal before riding out to meet they had pilfered from their respective homes—his from the apartments of state where he lived with his father—the Ambassador from Serenia—and hers from the palace.

"I may spend every coin in my possession on food once we reach Crandellton." She twisted in the saddle as he kicked their mount into motion. "We may have to temporarily postpone the Joining until I have had my fill of meat, Saur."

He looked into her playful eyes. "I’ll give you plenty meat, Lady," he replied wickedly, wagging his brows. "More than you may be able to handle with ease!" With that, he kicked the horse into a slow trot, expertly maneuvering the chestnut through the forest stand.

"Evil man," she commented before they passed close to a roaring waterfall, where all sound was extinguished, save the tumble of the water.

Around them, shafts of sunlight speared through the trees. Butterflies flitted amongst the greenery. Their steed kept a steady pace, its hooves making little sound on the blanket of fallen leaves. Miyoshi’s long black hair lifted and fell with the cadence of their mount’s step. Her skirts flapped against Raven’s corduroy-clad legs. His arms were around her, his hands firmly on the horse’s reins. Together they rode, long accustomed to traveling in that manner.

* * *

Miyoshi closed her eyes, reveling in the hardness braced against her rump and the rub of Raven’s arms along the sides of her breast, the clamp of his muscular thighs outside her own. The gait of the horse was exhilarating and she wiggled against the pommel.

Raven placed his mouth to her ear. "I know what you’re doing. Stop it."

"
You
stop it," she returned, giggling at the sudden movement against the cleavage of her rump.

"You are a shameless bawd!"

He shocked her by doing something he’d never done before—he covered one of her breasts with his hand and nearly unseated them both when she jumped.

"Raven!" she gasped, feeling the heat of his palm through the material.

"Be still," he commanded. His breath in her ear caused ripples of sensation through her body. "You’ve been baiting me all morning, now suffer the consequences!"

Though her face burned, Miyoshi experienced what she had dreamt of since puberty. Raven’s hand gently kneaded her flesh, his palm traveling in a slow, tight circle around her turgid nipple. There was just enough pressure from that strong sword hand to cause intense pleasure and make the throbbing between her thighs increase.

"Raven," she sighed on a long breath of contentment.

Laughter rumbled deep in his chest. "Does that please you?"

"Um hum," she mumbled, closing her eyes.

"What about this?"

Her eyes opened as his tongue darted into her ear, lapping at the spiral. Biting her lip to keep from crying out, and not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d shocked her, she kept still, squeezing her eyes closed and enduring the exquisite torture.

"Saucy wench." He caught her earlobe between his teeth.

Miyoshi melted against him, pressed his hand tightly to her bosom. Her breath came in shallow pants and her heart thundered.

""Now, think on that for a while and quit squirming."

"Quit squirming? How do you reckon I can do that now that you’ve practically raped me?"

"Try," he said hoarsely.

"Hard to do when you’re…" She felt him leap against her backside once more, then groaned with the anticipation of that steely strength doing to her what the serving girls of the keep had told her men did to women.

"Have you no fear of it, Milady?" one cook’s assistant had asked her.

"I fear nothing my husband to be will do to me."

"Well, I’d fear Prince Riain, if’n I was you!" another girl insisted. "He’s a Chalean berserker like his people before him!"

Miyoshi had no fear of Riain Cree, for she had no intention of marrying him. Though their fathers had made the arrangements, neither she nor Riain had been consulted. When she heard of the betrothal, she soundly rejected the offer.

Unfortunately, she’d had no voice in the matter.

"I would rather Join with a mongoose!" Miyoshi had shouted. "Besides, I am already betrothed!"

Her mother had laughed. "For the love of Alel! To whom? Raven Saur?"

"Aye," Miyoshi’s brother sighed. "The lowly son of an ambassador is not marriage material for the daughter of the house of Shimota."

"He may be the son of a lowly son of an ambassador, as you so rudely put it, Kiaku," she grated, "but he has more royal bearing than Riain Cree will have in ten lifetimes. And a thousand times more honesty!"

"You’ve never met the man," her father fumed. "How can you compare him to the Saur boy so unfavorably?"

"I have heard the tales of the Chalean berserkers, Father. Raven is—"

"The matter is closed," her mother pronounced. "You will Join with the House of Cree and that is all there is to it!"

"Discussion is at an end," her father added.

Now, Miyoshi sighed as she stroked Raven’s arm under her breasts.

Even with her eyes closed, she could picture his handsome face as clearly as though she was looking at it. With his midnight hair and emerald green gaze, he was a striking man who caught the eye and whimsy of every passing maid. Six feet tall with broad shoulders and narrow hips, a rock-hard belly and wide, heavily furred chest, Raven Daniel Saur was a man well respected at Binh Tae palace. He was devastatingly handsome, strong, capable, and as powerful on the training field as he was in the saddle. He was a warrior’s warrior, and the tournaments he had won since his coming of age numbered in the hundreds. Men instinctively trusted him and listened to his counsel.

And Miyoshi had idolized him since the day he had crawled over to her cradle and pulled himself up to peer within.

Six months younger than Raven, Miyoshi had tagged along behind him since learning how to crawl like a faithful puppy. They had shared food and measles and colds, chicken pox and mumps and stolen wine from the cellar.

And Miyoshi Shimota had every intention of sharing the rest of her life with this beautiful man.

Even if it meant hiring an assassin to rid her of the threat of Joining with Riain Cree.

Queen Christina Cree paced the sunlit solarium of her hostess, the Empress Mariah Shimota, as the Empress sat watching. The two women had been friends since childhood and had taken their initiations into the Daughters of the Multitude at the same time. Though it had been nearly ten years since the two had been able to meet face-to-face, they regularly exchanged long letters. Companions in their youth, they were devoted friends in their adult years.

"What concerns you the most, Christy?" Mariah inquired softly.

Christine stopped pacing and turned to her friend. "I am not upset with your daughter, Mariah," she was quick to say. "If she loves the Saur boy, then she should be allowed to Join with him."

Mariah winced. "Keito will not allow our only daughter to Join beneath her station in life."

"Pompous ass," Christine pronounced. "Didn’t I tell you not to marry him?"

The Empress smiled. "You did not take into account that I loved him."

"I loved my Rysalian stallion, but I did not marry him!"

"Some of our friends said you did the next best thing and married a Chalean." Mariah giggled, putting a delicate hand to her lips.

Christine made a decidedly unladylike snort, rolled her eyes, then recommenced pacing. Hands clenched behind her back, skirts swishing, the Queen of Chale was a study in agitation. "I cannot believe they allowed that crazy woman to go free!"

"What did the Oracle tell you when you went to the Shadowlands?"

Riain’s mother flung out a dismissive hand. "She bid me not question the will of the gods and Their ladies, but this is one time I refuse to sit idly by when my child is in danger." She locked gazes with Mariah. "And yours as well!"

Mariah looked down at her lap. "Aye, mine," she agreed, closing her eyes to the danger in which Miyoshi had been placed.

"Do you blame Riain for this?"

The Empress snapped up her head. "No, of course not!"

"Most women would."

"I am not most women, Christy, and neither are you."

Christine shrugged. "Yet I’ve been of little help to my son these past years."

"Stop blaming yourself for Riain’s abduction," Mariah chastised. "You were ill and—"

"Not paying attention!" Christine said fiercely. "Had I not been so concerned with my own ailment, I would have been able to stop Riain from venturing out that day." Tears filled her eyes. "And he would not have been imprisoned in the Labyrinth!"

"We can not watch our children every minute of every hour of their lives. The gods, Themselves, put such obstacles in the paths of Their charges. What will be, will be!"

"And if Miyoshi dies at the hand of that demented Northzoner bitch?" Christine grated. "Will you tell me then that it was the gods’ will?"

Mariah shook her head. "But if I have done all that I could to protect her and her life is still forfeit, I will accept what the gods have decreed."

"That’s a bunch of hog spittle!" Christine hissed. She pointed a finger at her friend. "And I thought you had more backbone!"

"What is it you suggest we do?" Mariah threw back. "Our children are in danger and neither of us wants something to happen." She came to her feet, her slight frame trembling with the adrenaline rush of confrontation. "What do we do?"

"Make another trek to the Shadowlands."

"We have both journeyed there. We have beseeched the Oracle and asked for the Great Lady’s help. What more can we do?"

Christine’s eyes narrowed to thin slits of vengeance. "We seek retribution for that one at Vent du Nord!"

Mariah’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes widened. "You can’t be serious!"

"Deadly serious."

"No," Mariah whispered, her lovely face blanched of color. "Whatsoever good we do will be returned threefold, but evil…" She shuddered, then lifted her gaze to Christine. "The evil will be returned tenfold."