The Barrow (87 page)

Godewyn and Arduin threw themselves at each other in a fast, dizzying clash of arms, each surprising the other with their speed and skill. Holding his war sword with both hands in the Aurian longsword style, Arduin delivered three fast killing strokes to the head and body of a rapidly and desperately backpedaling Godewyn, only to have each either turned aside by broadsword parry or find empty air where the big man should have been, and then found himself ducking a blow from Godewyn's axe that would have taken his head off had he been a hair slower.

They separated, eyeing each other warily and perhaps a bit more respectfully. The next time they approached each other with quick feints and little jabs, tests to see speed and reflexes, dueling around the bier slowly at first, then with increasing vigor as they began to take each other's measure. Arduin fought like a champion sportsman, confident in the protection of his full steel harness; Godewyn like a veteran street fighter using guile and speed and sheer bravado. Godewyn quickly realized that his broadsword and axe were ill-suited against Arduin's steel harness; without a sharp pointed tip to drive through a bit of mail or under a joint in the armor, his only chance lay either in a shot to Arduin's bare, blond head, or to batter the armor until he crushed it in on the flesh beneath it. But the axe head was too lightweight, and Arduin had been trained to wear and fight in a full harness since he was eight, and he used the armor like a shield to deflect and turn Godewyn's blades, never taking a blow flat to the surface, and managing to keep his opponent well away from his head and face.

Godewyn felt a rising frustration and sinking desperation as his blows caromed off the curves and planes of the hard armor shell. He sent a series of sharp, hard blows right at Arduin's head from both sword and axe, hoping the flurry would overcome Arduin's defenses, but the knight parried them deftly with his war sword and counterattacked, sending Godewyn spinning back to escape his onslaught. Godewyn managed to punch his broadsword out and across Arduin's stomach in a move that would have gutted an unarmored man, but all he did was ring the armor like a bell and the knight's cuirass didn't even dent.

Although they were well matched, Arduin was gaining the upper hand.

Stjepan lay on the iron casket lid, his hands still tied behind him, his boots braced in the black muck at the bottom of the pit. Annwyn's shapely ivory legs straddled him and the casket lid, her feet digging into the slopes of the funneled pit, and she ground her hips down onto his lap, one hand clutching the back of his bloodied head, the other braced against the casket lid above him.

Her head went back, wide-mouthed in pleasure as she gasped and moaned at the sensations of being filled. She laughed as she ground against him, running her hands over his skin then back to grasp his hair.

She leaned back and thrust down onto his lap, harder and harder.

The headless corpse leaned upright in the standing casket, a few feet behind her, a mute witness to their coupling.

Godewyn knew he was losing his duel with Arduin, he knew it in his bones, and grew angry at the unfairness of it all. In skill they were perhaps well matched, but the knight's superior harness was all the difference that he needed. It changed the way the knight fought, the way he could afford to take risks, and there was nothing Godewyn could do about it.

Arduin slammed his war sword across Godewyn's right arm, biting deep into the brigandine sleeve's leather and plates and sending a shock of pain up and down the arm, and Godewyn dropped his axe with a sharp cry. Godewyn backed away from him and almost toppled over several urns filled with grave goods into one of the arched crevices that ran the length of the sides of the room. He had to put out his right hand into the crevice to brace himself against the fall.

Triumphantly, Arduin grinned and leapt in for the kill, but Godewyn had put his hand on top of a small pile of coins, and his fingers closed around them and he hurled a handful of gold coins, glinting in the lamplight, right into Arduin's face. It was just enough to distract the knight, and Godewyn's broadsword snaked out to slap Arduin's sword from his grasp, and it flew across the small chamber.

Arduin leapt back, unarmed.

And now it was Godewyn who wore a jackal's grin of triumph.

Arduin measured with his eye the distance to his war sword on the ground, and he knew in an instant that he couldn't get to it before Godewyn could get to him. Grimly he looked at Godewyn and raised his hands to beckon him forward in defiance:
come and get me if you dare
.

Annwyn leaned back further, arching her torso as she ground down against him, and Stjepan could see the whole of the map swirling on her skin. His body shuddered at the sensations of her tightness slipping wetly up and down upon his shaft, and he groaned and thrust his hips up at her, his eyes fluttering. And then suddenly his eyes were wide open with surprise; he frowned and stared, mouth open in confusion, but no, he was correct, there was a new set of letters and runes swirling on her skin, letters he had not seen before. He looked up at her; she was in the throes of passion, her head thrown back and her sweetly parted lips issuing wordless, insensible sounds, and he was uncertain if she was even aware of what was appearing on her writhing body.

Godewyn switched his broadsword to his right hand and lunged at Arduin, but the knight hurled himself across the bier, knocking the corpse that lay upon it off and onto the floor.

The masked head of the body bounced into a corner of the chamber, and came to a rest as if watching the proceedings.

Godewyn made to come around the bier, broadsword raised high in both hands for a quick chopping deathblow, but he skidded to a halt and froze.

Arduin slowly stood, holding the beautiful sword that had been on top of the body in his right hand, a look of cold disdain on his face as he contemplated his opponent.

“Ah, fuck me,” Godewyn cursed.

Annwyn leaned forward until she was coiled about him and they were in an embrace. She stared down into his eyes, her golden hair falling about his face like a veil. She grabbed him by the hair, looking at him imploringly, and his final reserves crumbled and despite his hands tied behind his back he began thrusting up into her, faster and harder, pushing toward climax, and she thrust her hips and pelvis down against him.

She began to laugh as his pace increased, a laugh of joy, of pleasure and delight, of discovery and surprise. He thought it was one of the most incredible things he'd ever heard in his life.

And suddenly he went stiff against her, arching his back and hips off the casket lid to lift her bodily into the air, and she wrapped her legs around his and ground herself down onto him, riding his orgasm.

The masked head sat in its corner, its blackened, sightless eyeholes given a grand view of the final confrontation between Arduin and Godewyn. Breathing heavily, they contemplated each other with a mix of wary respect and condescension and hatred.

“Hardly seems right that a sword of legend, once wielded by the hands of kings and great heroes, would need to be used on the likes of you,” said Arduin, raising the sword up in both hands and contemplating its gleaming length.

“No,” Godewyn said with resignation. “No, it don't seem right at all.”