02 - The Barbed Rose (34 page)

Wh-what are you doing, sister?
Karyl’s mental voice sounded almost frightened.

Speaking. Am I not doing it right? We discussed you sending the Reinine’s farspeaker the information we collected, remember?

Yes, of course I remember, but
—Karyl paused for a steadying breath Kallista could somehow
hear
before
speaking
again.
I see your Torchay and your new iliasti with the remains of a meal on the table. Am—am I seeing through your eyes?

Kallista turned to look at Obed near the window.
Now what do you see?

That staggeringly handsome dark ilias of yours
. Karyl paused.
Are you seeing through my eyes?

It’s not all I see, but—as if I am looking through a small window, perhaps, yes. You’re also finishing supper with your ilian
. Kallista rubbed her hands together with glee.
This will make the transfer of information very much easier
.

It would, if I could pass the ability on to Fenetta in Arikon
.

Maybe you can. Try
.

But the ability, rare and treasured among farspeakers, apparently stopped with Karyl. Kallista was left to stare for hours at page after page of information with Karyl’s
voice
murmuring endlessly in her mind as she relayed the words to the far-distant Fenetta.

Obed had departed on his mission and returned again before Karyl read out the last page.
Fenetta says the Reinine orders your return to the capital as soon as possible
.

Respect to the Reinine, but we will return as soon as we have gathered our ilian together again. We’ll be of more service to her whole
. Kallista closed her burning eyes.
Karyl, be ready. You and yours need to get out of Turysh
.

You have a plan?

Yes
. Kallista reasoned that it wasn’t exactly a lie. They would have a plan sooner or later.
But be ready. There may be no time for plans when the time comes
.

We will. Be careful
.

We will
. Kallista cut the contact. It felt strange to be so alone inside her head again. Though she wasn’t ever quite, completely alone. Not anymore.

She stroked along the fascinating new presence tucked in with the rest of the magic and felt Joh’s shiver across her own skin. Had there been this fascination when the other links had formed? Would it be the same when Viyelle’s link solidified?

Kallista couldn’t find it in herself to care. Not at this moment, when Joh tugged at her like a fish on a hook. She tugged back, not sure which of them had hooked the other, and drew a strangled sound from him. She opened her eyes and saw him staring at her, an odd expression on his face combined of hope, disbelief and desire.

“Come, ilias,” Torchay said.

In some distant corner of her awareness, Kallista knew he touched Obed’s arm and tipped his head toward the larger of the two beds, the one near the window.

“No place for us there tonight.” He gathered up Viyelle, turned her around and steered her away. Obed went with them, watching for a moment over his shoulder.

Kallista held her hand out to Joh. “Come, ilias.” She deliberately repeated Torchay’s words.

Joh had proved himself a hundred times over, doing whatever was needed when it was needed without argument or question. Or sulking or eye-rolling or smart-mouthed comments or picking a fight or—Goddess, she missed her Tibrans.

But Joh was Joh. It wasn’t in his nature to argue or sulk. He tended to withdraw into himself, but it wasn’t a sulking withdrawal. More like a protective gesture, almost as if he was afraid to want too much, to reach too far. It made Kallista want to give him whatever it was he wanted.

She crooked her fingers, beckoning, pulling on his magic as she did. Like a marionette, he came.

His braid hung forward over his shoulder. He’d spent the evening taking each page Kallista passed to him and copying it over in his small, neat hand using the code General Uskenda had given them. The code was based on the
Meditations of Orestes
, a book Joh knew well, and his writing was the neatest of any, so the job descended on him. Kallista could feel the ache in his back, the cramp in his hand—at a distance, not as if it were her own. She could also feel his rising desire.

“There is still another page to be copied and coded.” He toyed with the quill in his hands, passed it from one to the other. “And all of it to be cleared away and hidden.”

“The last page is trivia. You know it, as do I. And all of it is already hidden.” She took the quill from him and set it on the table as he turned to look at the otherwise empty table top.

“When did—?” He looked back at her, bewildered.

“Our sergeant is very efficient. Just as our lieutenant is.” Kallista picked up his heavy braid, running it through her hand till she reached the soft brush at the end.

“I’m not a lieuten—” He stopped when she put her fingers over his mouth.

“You’re not a lieutenant in the Adaran army, true,” she said. “But you’re
our
lieutenant.” She pulled free the tie that fastened his queue and loosened his hair, beginning at the bottom.

Joh cleared his throat. “Torchay is your second.”

“Torchay is my bodyguard. And the father of my child. He is very important to me. But
you
are our lieutenant. Just as Viyelle is our courier and Obed is our merchant. You have your own place among us.”

She turned him so she could reach the top of his braid, sliding her fingers through his hair to free it, stroking them along his head beneath. His rich brown hair fell to his waist when free of the queue, slightly crinkled from being braided when wet. She combed the shining mass with her fingers, spreading it out across his shoulders.

“And what is Stone? What is his role in this ilian?”

“I don’t know. Our clown?” Kallista stepped close and put her arms around him from behind, hunting through the fall of hair to nuzzle his neck. “Do you really want to talk about the others now?”

She leaned into him, started them walking to the smaller bed, the one that stood empty most nights. Joh pulled her forward to his side and tucked her there against him.

“Truthfully? No, I do not.” He paused beside the bed so long Kallista could almost feel him thinking through the link. She stroked her cheek over his hair, giving him the time he seemed to need.

“I suppose talking about the others is a way of learning what I want to know without having to ask,” he said finally.

“Ask. You know you can ask me anything.”

He turned to face her, brushed her unruly hair back off her forehead. “Why now? We have been bound for over a month. This could have happened at any time since then. It could wait another month. Or week, or year. Why now? What difference does this link make? Is it the link?”

Kallista sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, patting the mattress beside her. After a brief hesitation, Joh joined her. Kallista leaned into him and after another moment, he put his arm around her.

“You realize this requires thinking,” Kallista said. “That’s never been my best thing. It’s one of
your
best things, but not mine. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just do sex?”

Joh almost choked on his chuckle. “Absolutely. Never think I’m willing to pass that up. But if I can have answers
and
sex, that’s better.”

He searched her face turned up to him for so long Kallista lost patience. She closed the tiny distance between them herself and kissed him. Immediately, his mouth opened and his tongue touched her lips, requesting entrance, demanding it. Delighted by the demand, Kallista opened to him, welcoming him in, following his retreat. They kissed, tongues dancing together in a simple, seductive pattern until Joh bore her down on the bed and began kissing his way down her neck.

“Greedy,” Kallista teased, keeping her voice low, though it sounded as if those in the other bed weren’t sleeping either. “No either-ors for you. You want both, don’t you?”

“Don’t
you?
” Joh raised onto an elbow to look down at her as his hand slipped under the hem of her tunic to find skin. A faint smile curved his lips, visible in the moonlight coming through the window. When had the lamps been blown out? Very efficient, their iliasti.

He seemed to be getting lost in his thinking again, so Kallista took action, stripping off his tunic and his trousers, pausing to admire him when his small clothes were gone. He smiled that calm little smile and let her look, lying on his back with his ankles crossed and one hand behind his head.

Or maybe he was still thinking. Her suspicions were confirmed when he spoke.

“You said thinking was one of my best things, but not yours.” Joh caught her hand and pulled her down on top of him for a kiss that went on longer than he seemed to have intended.

“What if—” He paused, speaking with his mouth pressed to her forehead. “What if I help you sort it out?”

“Sort what out?” Kallista slid her hands across his chest, pausing to play in the puff of hair over his breastbone.

“Why now?” He tugged her tunic up but stopped halfway apparently distracted by the feel of her back under his hands.

Kallista pushed herself up far enough to see his face. “Do you ever stop thinking?”

He flushed. She couldn’t see it well in the moonlight, but she could feel his face burn, faintly, through the link. “Hardly ever,” he admitted.

“I am trying to distract you.” She rose to her knees to finish removing her tunic and chemise.

Joh helped, or tried to. “I know. Sorry. I’ve never been very distractible. I just—I want to know.”

“Why now?” Kallista lay beside him again and rolled to her back to get her trousers and smalls off. Joh was more help this time.

“
Does
the link make the difference?”

She sighed. He was obviously not going to leave this alone, so she might as well answer his questions—even if she didn’t quite know what the answers were. But she was not about to give up her campaign to distract him. She’d always enjoyed a challenge. She would even play fair and keep the magic out of it. As much as she could.

“Yes,” she said. “It does.”

“How?” He shivered when her fingers found his nipples and pinched. “Does it create a physical awareness, or is it just—what does it feel like?”

Now she paused, turning inward to test, to probe, to measure.

Joh’s lips skimming across her shoulder distracted her, made her shiver and arch upward, begging for more. His hand settled warm and still on her stomach, over her navel. “Tell me,” he murmured, his breath warming her ear.

“It’s like—a tiny piece of you curled up safe inside me.” Kallista’s fingers dug into his shoulders, tangled in his hair as he kissed his way down the upper slope of her breasts. “So yes, there is a physical awareness. I can feel what you’re feeling, in a way. And you’re new, so I’m not used to it yet.”

He pressed a kiss at the margin where her breast changed from white to pink. “Like a new toy at Year’s End?”

She twisted, brushing her nipple against his cheek, wanting more. “Yes. But no. That’s part of it, but—” She caught his head between her hands and tried to move it where she wanted him, but Joh wouldn’t move.

He caught her wrists and pinned them to the bed, continuing his leisurely exploration. Just who was distracting whom, here?

“What’s the rest of it? A new toy and—what?” Finally, finally his mouth closed over her nipple.

Kallista’s whole body reacted, jerking into a high arc, and she cried out. Her hands convulsed where he held them helpless, curling into claws that would have marked him had she been able to reach him.

“What?” He moved to her other breast and she cried out again, unable to keep from tweaking the magic inside her. Joh’s gasp echoed from other throats.

“Mine,” she said before she could think. “You’re mine now.” She struggled for control, to grasp one magic and leave the others to themselves.

“I always was.” Joh released one wrist to smooth a hand down over her stomach.

She used the freedom to touch him, memorize the shape of his shoulder, play in his hair. “It’s different now. You’re part of me. Wherever you go, whatever you do, I’ll know it. No matter how far you might run, I still have you with me. Here.”

She set his hand on the lower reach of her stomach, just above the tangle of black hair where her skin showed a few pinkish marks left by her twins.

“Is this where we live?” Joh curled down to kiss her navel, to kiss the places his hand covered. “No wonder the magic feels like it does.”

He made as if to move lower and Kallista stopped him. “Another time.” She wrapped her hand around him. “I want you inside me.”

Joh groaned and collapsed, pulling himself from her hold, his face pressed against her belly. “I’ll never last.”

“Yes you will.” She caught a fistful of hair and lifted his head until he looked her in the eye. “I won’t let you fail.”

He shivered. “That’s almost a frightening thought.”

She wanted to shake him. Wanted much more. “Do you want this?”

“Do you?”

Patience stripped from her, Kallista took hold of him with both hands and magic. She brought him up over her, wrapped her legs around his waist, and when she felt the blunt head at her entrance, she lunged upward, impaling herself on him.

“Don’t ask—stupid—questions.” She gasped the words out between clenched teeth.

Joh seemed at last to be beyond thought. He froze motionless for a few ticks, then exploded into a near frenzy. The bed rocked, banging into the wall with the force of his thrusts. Kallista rose to meet him, her passion as fierce as his. Strange sounds emerged from his throat, others came from hers. She held tight to his magic as the sensation built. He touched her deep and deep and deep again. Her body seemed too small to hold all he made her feel, until she screamed with the pleasure he drove into her.

She lost her grip on the magic and he shouted. His body shook as he poured himself into her. His hair fell in a curtain to either side of her face, hiding them in a private world of their own, until he lowered himself carefully onto her. “I’ll move in a bit.”