Dragon of the Island (22 page)

“This is it?” Aurora asked Maelgwn
dubiously.

“Aye. It is only a summer camp. Their winter
camp is further north and has better defenses.”

As they rode toward the camp, people came
out to greet them dressed in brightly woven cloaks and heavy
jewelry. The Brigantes immediately reminded Aurora of the Cymru,
although they were bigger and even more dramatic-looking. Many of
the men were taller than Maelgwn, and the women would have towered
over most Cymru men. Their coloring was striking, too. Reddish hair
was common, although it was a deeper shade than Gwenaseth’s and not
so bright as the Irish slave’s.

The biggest man came forward to meet them,
and Aurora guessed he must be the chieftain, Cunedda. Esylt spurred
her horse ahead, dismounted, and threw herself into Cunedda’s arms.
The man picked her up as if she were a child and swung her around
delightedly. Aurora heard his excited words of greeting but could
not understand him. It seemed the Brigantes spoke a dialect
different from that of Maelgwn’s people.

The rest of them dismounted, and Maelgwn
greeted Cunedda formally. Several men came up to Maelgwn, and
Aurora guessed that they must be Cunedda’s brothers. As Aurora
moved close to Maelgwn, one of the men, who had hair the color of a
fox’s pelt and eyes of brilliant blue-green, stared at her in awe.
Maelgwn saw his interest and pulled Aurora forward proudly, holding
her arm possessively.

“Cunedda, king of the Brigantes, I would
like to present my queen, Aurora, daughter of Constantine of
Viroconium.”

Maelgwn had spoken in the familiar British
speech, and Cunedda answered him in a heavily-accented, but
pleasing voice: “I had heard Maelgwn brought back much wealth from
the Cornovii—now I see what riches he has plundered.”

Cunedda smiled at Aurora in a leering,
open-mouthed fashion that both pleased and dismayed her. His
dark-blue eyes did not meet her gaze for long, but moved quickly
down to assess her body appreciatively.

Aurora returned their host’s probing look.
Cunedda was not a handsome man. His reddish hair was thinning, and
his eyes showed too much white, giving him a surprised, excited
appearance, but he certainly was imposing. His body was as broad as
a tree trunk and his huge hands and thick neck bespoke tremendous
physical power.

Aurora bowed gracefully as Cunedda’s eyes
returned to her face. She still felt embarrassed. Esylt’s ease with
their host disturbed her, and she couldn’t help wondering what lies
her sister-in-law might tell Cunedda about her when she got him
alone.

After their horses were taken care of,
Maelgwn and Aurora were led to one of the round huts. The structure
was made of hides stretched over branches, with a smoke hole in the
center. It hardly looked to Aurora like a proper dwelling in which
to house guests, but the inside seemed comfortable enough. A pile
of furs and sheepskins in the corner promised a good night’s sleep
at last, and on a low table there was a bronze ewer of water for
washing, and a pottery urn.

When their escort had left them, Aurora
gratefully stripped off her grimy clothes and started to wash. She
had hardly begun to splash her face when she felt Maelgwn’s strong
hands reach around to cup her breasts, and felt his warm breath
blowing in her ear.

“Not now, Maelgwn,” she said with a shiver.
“I am all dirty and sweaty from traveling.”

“I do not care. This is a raw, wild place,
and I want you as you are—salty and tangy like the sea,” he added
as he began to lick her neck.

Aurora sighed passively, feeling his fingers
reach for the crack between her legs and rub her there. Slowly his
mouth moved down her body, leaving a wet pathway that cooled in the
air. At last he reached the tip of her pelvis, and his hands pulled
her thighs apart before he tasted her with his tongue. Aurora stood
unsteadily, with her legs supported by Maelgwn’s shoulders as he
licked and probed. This was something she must tell Gwenaseth
about, she thought dreamily. She was sure that not every man was so
wonderfully skilled at this sort of lovemaking.

Maelgwn knew her tolerance. Aurora could
stand the teasing, light touch of his tongue for only so long
before she wanted something more substantial within her. He always
took her to the edge—left her gasping and weak—and then he knew he
could find his own satisfaction in any position he wished. Tonight
he pushed her down on the cozy bedplace and lifted her legs up
high, almost to his shoulders.

Aurora was overwhelmed, pushed to the edge
of ecstasy and beyond. It was like sliding off a cliff as she
surrendered to the dizzying, blind exhilaration of her body. When
she returned to awareness again, she found that Maelgwn still
thundered within her, and she held on, amazed that he could control
his own climax for so long after she had lost herself in the
radiant waves of her own.

At last Maelgwn moaned, and Aurora felt the
hot, sweaty weight of him upon her. For a moment she wanted to
cradle his burning face against her breast, but she did not. He was
too heavy to move, and he seemed content.

“Did you bring your green dress?” he asked
as he watched her wash in the firelight a few moments later.

“No. It would have been ruined after being
squashed in a pack all this way.”

“Uhhh,” Maelgwn grunted, sounding
disappointed.

“I brought this white one,” she said
quickly, pulling it out of the leather bag that she carried her
things in. It was simple and showed off her figure well, but
perhaps in Maelgwn’s eyes it did not look rich enough to suit his
queen. “Will this do?” she asked, suddenly doubtful.

“Put it on, I cannot tell like that,” he
said impatiently. “But wait, before you do, come here and let me
look at you one more time.”

Aurora thought they would never get to the
feast—and it was held in their honor. She had not even begun to
dress when Maelgwn had pulled her down to the sheepskins again.
There was something erotic about this strange alluring place, but
Maelgwn’s strenuous attentions had left her sore, and she had
barely had time to dress and take out her braids.

Gwenaseth had been right, she decided,
looking down at the dress. The simple style and creamy whiteness of
the gown stood out dramatically from the clash of vivid colors the
other women wore. With her hair smoothed into a thick wavy mane,
she looked more elegant than any other woman in the thatched-roofed
feasting hall. What would her mother and sisters think of her
though? she thought with a smile. She looked like a Saxon, with all
the jewelry, and married Roman women were never supposed to wear
their hair down in public.

But then, her family would have been
horrified by everything about the Brigantes. Even for this formal
event, they dressed like savages. In the warmth of the hall, the
men had taken off their furs and their cloaks, and Aurora saw that
underneath they wore little—shawls woven of several different
colors over one shoulder and short tunics that barely reached to
their bare knees. In the flickering light their fair skin writhed
with weird shapes and colors, for many of the men had pictures of
beasts and patterns covering their arms and chests.

The men ate greedily, stabbing their knives
into the barely cooked haunch of beef to tear off large chunks,
which they washed down with great gulps of heather beer and mead.
Aurora watched, appalled but fascinated by the crudeness of their
hosts. The Brigante women ate separately from the men, and Aurora
and Esylt were the only women close to Maelgwn and Cunedda. They
had a place near the fireplace, and their food had been brought to
them in trenchers so that they did not have to tear at the carcass
like animals. Still, Aurora felt awkward, sitting on the floor,
trying to balance her cup as she took a bite.

The hall was smoky and full of menace, and
Aurora was glad to have Maelgwn’s reassuring presence so near. She
watched her husband carefully. Maelgwn looked relaxed and at ease,
but she knew that nothing escaped his keen eyes. For once he was
not the biggest man at the gathering, but it did not matter. The
aura of power and kingship marked him as clearly as if he wore it
as a mantle.

Esylt, on the other hand, fit right in with
the uncouth Brigantes, Aurora noted with disgust. Her sister-in-law
was sharing a cup of mead and some ribald jest with Cunedda. In the
crowded atmosphere of the hall, Aurora was only inches away from
her enemy. She watched surreptitiously as Esylt moved her jeweled
hands over Cunedda’s bulky body. The man obviously enjoyed her lewd
attentions, and in a moment, he began to return them—sliding his
reddish, raw-boned fingers into the neck of Esylt’s gown.

Aurora, repelled, turned away and glanced at
Maelgwn, who sat impassively sipping his beer. His face looked calm
and imperturbable, but Aurora saw the slight twitch in his jaw, and
knew that he, too, was displeased by Cunedda’s and Esylt’s
familiarity. It was bad enough for them to fondle each other so
obviously in this public place, but it was worse to know that
Cunedda’s wives—and perhaps Esylt’s lover—were watching, too.
Aurora hoped Maelgwn would never be so crude as to caress another
woman while she watched. She had a feeling he would end up with her
eating knife in his gullet if he ever shamed her so!

Perhaps Cunedda tired of Esylt, too, for
presently he turned to Maelgwn and began to converse politely with
him. Aurora could not quite hear what they were saying, and she let
her mind wander, glancing around the large room in curiosity. She
picked out the figure of the young red-haired man she presumed to
be Cunedda’s brother as he stood near the wall with a group of
other warriors. With his extravagant coloring he easily outshone
the other Brigante men, and Aurora found it hard to pull her eyes
away.

The young warrior was much younger than
Cunedda, and it was likely he had a different mother. He was also
leaner and more gracefully built, and the air of fierceness about
him came not from brute strength, but from a fiery energy that
burned in his sharp-boned face. He was handsome like a wild animal,
Aurora thought, intrigued, and as she watched, he looked directly
at her, catching her in the act of admiring him.

Aurora glanced away in embarrassment,
realizing too late how inappropriate, even dangerous, her behavior
was. As she lowered her gaze, shamefaced, she could feel the young
warrior’s magnetic eyes boring into her. She hoped no one else in
the room had noticed their quick exchange of glances.

She looked over at Maelgwn and Cunedda and
was relieved to find the two men were still deep in their
discussion. But her indiscretion had not gone completely unnoticed.
Aurora realized that Esylt was staring at her intently. She kept
her glance directed down, avoiding the venomous hatred in Esylt’s
glittering blue eyes. Her heart pounded ominously in her chest, and
the chill of fear that moved into her bones deepened as she flicked
her eyes up to see that Esylt had gotten up and was walking in the
direction of the red-haired man.

Aurora almost jumped when Maelgwn put a hand
on her knee to get her attention. She looked into his smiling face
for a long moment before she figured out that he was explaining
that the next part of the festivities—the gift giving—was about to
begin. Within seconds, servants came to take the remains of the
food away, and Cunedda stood to formally welcome the Cymru to Manau
Gotodin.

Balyn and Gareth had long since left the
hall, and now they returned with the red-haired slave. Each of them
carried a heavy load, and one by one, the gifts of Maelgwn to his
host were brought forward and displayed—baskets of grain, jars of
wine and oil, and then the more luxurious items: a small box of
pearls from the Gwynedd coast that was passed around among the
delighted women, finely crafted iron tools, and the beautiful skin
of a spotted cat, the snarling head still attached.

Then it was Cunedda’s turn. Several women
came forward to present the gifts, and for a moment Aurora’s
attention was focused on the women themselves.

In addition to their exceptional height, the
Brigante women looked very strong, and to Aurora, they seemed
almost as frightening as the men. They were beautiful, though, in a
haughty, lurid way. Their skin was milky white, with blue veins
that shone in their necks, and their hair was thick and heavy, in
varying shades of red and reddish gold. They wore their hair in fat
braids, fastened with ornaments of gold and bronze. Aurora saw in
awe that one of the women had braids to her knees.

The women walked toward Maelgwn with
stately, regal grace. The first one brought forward a pile of
beautifully dressed hides and laid them at Maelgwn’s feet. Another
carried a flash of gold in each hand. When she reached Maelgwn, she
kneeled down and placed a heavy gold torque around his neck, where
it flashed in the firelight. Sitting as close as she was, Aurora
could see that the ends of the torque were formed into snarling
wolf heads.

An identical, but smaller torque was placed
around Esylt’s neck by the same woman. At first Aurora felt a stab
of anger that Esylt was deemed worthy of such a royal gift, while
she was not, but her disappointment faded when she saw the necklace
a third woman had brought to place on her neck. It was made out of
large creamy white beads that looked like bone, but which had a
finer, more delicate texture. Each bead had been intricately carved
into a tiny figure, and as Aurora looked down in awe, graceful
birds and strange and fanciful beasts seemed to dance around her
neck. Many of the animals depicted, she had never seen, but from
her lessons with Arian, she suspected that one was a lion, another
an elephant. There was even a dragon with a minute arrow-like tail
and forked tongue.

“It’s beautiful!” Aurora exclaimed in
delight, and then looked up and saw that her pleasure was mirrored
in both Cunedda and Maelgwn’s faces.