Fantasyland 02 The Golden Dynasty (12 page)

So I put my hand to his chest, leaned
slightly into him, tilted my head way back and said softly, “That’s
just the way it is, big guy, so,” I took my hand off him and
pressed it palm flat toward the ground, “
slow down.
”

His eyes were riveted to my hand and he
looked beyond unhappy. He looked, weirdly, pissed off.

Uh-oh.

Okay, maybe I was reading there were times
to be The Tigress but when The Tiger was eager to watch a bunch of
warriors beating the shit out each other, I should just hurry and
keep up.

When he kept looking at my hand in that
angry way, I took a precautionary step back, his eyes cut to mine
then he moved fast. His arm shooting out, his fingers wrapped
around my wrist, they tugged me hard and I fell into him just as he
pressed my hand flat on his chest exactly where I’d placed it
moments before.

I stared at him as his eyes stared at my
hand just under the scratches at his chest and I felt my heart
start to hammer.

Then he looked at me.

“Kay ahnay see,” he murmured and pressed my
hand deeper into his chest.

I knew what that meant.

He was saying he liked it.

Oh my.

“Uh…” I mumbled, “good.”

“Good,” he muttered and I tipped my head to
the side and smiled tentatively at him.

“Yeah… good.”

His eyes dropped to my mouth and his other
hand came up, his calloused skin rough at my jaw, his thumb pressed
hard against my lips.

“Kay ahnay see,” he repeated quietly and my
breath stuck in my throat.

Oh. Wow.

He liked my smile.

Wow. He liked my smile!

I stared up at my warrior husband.

His neck was bent deep so he could look at
me, his skin was firm and warm under my hand, his body the same
against mine and his face, God… he was gorgeous.

Without thinking, I leaned deeper into him,
my hand gliding up his chest, taking his with it, it went up, up,
up to curl around his neck, his hand dropped and started to curve
around my waist, the other one already there as I tipped my head
far back, my eyes closing slowly as he lips got closer and then we
heard, “Poyah, Dax Lahn! Poyah, rahna Dahksahna!”

Damn it all to hell!

My eyes opened to see his head, still close,
was turned but he had not straightened away from me. I looked in
the direction he was glaring and saw a warrior approaching. It was
the grinning one from the wedding rite who was so pleased with his
bride. He was grinning now too, looking no less pleased, in fact,
infinitely more so.

Someone was getting himself some and he
liked what he was getting.

My body tensed when I felt Lahn straighten
and he snarled a bunch of not happy words at the warrior. Although
clearly not happy, as in
way
not
happy, the warrior didn’t miss a step nor did his grin falter. In
fact, it got bigger and then he threw his head back and roared with
hearty laughter.

He stopped laughing and shook his head as he
made it to us and said a bunch of stuff and, while doing it, once
gestured to me with his head.

Lahn returned his volley and also gestured
to me with his head.

The other warriors eyebrows went up in
disbelief and then he said something that sounded disbelieving but,
if I wasn’t wrong, it was a kind of “you the man” disbelieving. I
was pretty sure I was proved right when his eyes came to me and he
looked me up and down then turned to Lahn and nodded his
approval.

Totally
you the man.

Um.

Was my husband bragging about his
escapades with me
right in front of me?

I stepped out of his arms and planted my
hands on my hips.

“Uh… baby,” I called and both men turned to
me, both looked at my face, clearly both read my face and before I
could say more, Lahn did – not to me, to the warrior.

And I didn’t speak Korwahk but it was
clearly, “See what I mean?” and whatever he meant made the warrior
roar with laughter again.

The thing was, Lahn did it with him.

I stood there, staring.

I’d never kissed my husband and I’d never
seen him laugh. I hadn’t even seen him smile.

Until then.

Jeez, how weird was that?

He had a great laugh and he looked good
doing it.

And he had very white teeth.

They stopped laughing, the other warrior
said something and tipped his head to me. Lahn nodded, smiling and
then suddenly he grabbed my bicep and my body was in motion. Then,
I had no idea how he did it, but he swung me up on his back so my
arm was around his neck and my thighs were at his hips. His big
hands came to my ass and he started walking while talking to the
other warrior who fell in step at his side, all the while carrying
me on his back.

I curved my legs fully around him to hold
on, my other arm going around his chest and there was something
about this, something sweet, something intimate, something I
liked.

Oh man.

We walked through the encampment and drew
every eye from every person we passed. I noticed Lahn didn’t smile
or nod his head. I noticed Lahn had his hands on my ass, me on his
back and a warrior at his side and that was his whole focus. The
people we passed did not exist. He didn’t acknowledge them in any
way.

So I did, smiling and nodding at anyone who
caught my eye. And there were a lot of those too.

Lahn’s fingers tensed into my flesh and he
turned his head and said something to me.

I didn’t understand, obviously, so I dropped
my chin to his shoulder and whispered, “I don’t understand you,
baby.”

His dark eyes caught mine and he said
quietly, “Lahnahsahna Circe … okay?”

Oh man.

Yeah, I was okay. Okay with Lahn attempting
to communicate with me in my own language.

Yeah, totally okay.

I closed my eyes and squeezed my arms then
nodded, opened my eyes and whispered, “Okay.”

That got me another squeeze on my ass as
Lahn looked forward again and his warrior said something to
him.

I looked forward too, sighed, held tight and
enjoyed the ride.

* * * * *

Okay, it was safe to say, the minute we
entered the ginormous tent where the games were held, I knew I
wasn’t going to like it.

This was because there were a lot of beefy
men sitting around on benches, it smelled like man and booze and
there were two men beating the crap out of each other in the middle
of the circle of benches. And by that I meant, sweaty, bloody,
grunting,
beating the crap out of each other.

Very few eyes came to us such was the
attention on the match. But an entire bench was open at one side,
the other warrior broke off from us and Lahn walked right to it,
swung me off his back (jarring my shoulder as he did, the big guy
was rough but I was getting the feeling he didn’t know it). He
deposited me, feet to the ground, sat, opened his legs wide,
grabbed my hand, tugged it so hard it jarred my shoulder again and
my knees gave out so I sank to the stone ground. He hauled me
between his legs; I did my best to get comfortable and looked
around.

Lots of warriors, though I couldn’t find the
one who claimed Narinda, not that I was sure I would remember what
he looked like. There were no women except the two scurrying around
with jugs and filling the leather covered cups the men were
guzzling from. One scurried to Lahn, he took the full cup she
offered, put it to his lips, gulped back a huge swallow then
righted himself and his eyes locked on the fighters.

No beverage was offered to me before the
woman scurried off.

Hmm. Apparently women weren’t provided with
refreshments.

Figured.

To get comfortable, I scooted close between
his legs and draped an arm on Lahn’s thigh. I didn’t know if that
was all right but I figured if it wasn’t, I’d find out soon
enough.

He didn’t remove it so I leaned into it and
looked at the shouting, cheering, stamping warriors.

Man, they were eating this shit up. Nearly
frenzied.

Then I looked at the fighters. One looked
about to drop. This was good and bad. Good for me because it meant
this match was nearly over. Bad for him because it was clear there
were no technical knockouts in this game and he looked like he
could use one.

I was right. Five minutes later he was down
and out.

One minute later he was dragged
unceremoniously across the stone ground as the other fighter beat
his chest, threw out his ripped arms, stamped his tree trunk legs
and shouted his triumph. Then he tore a leather cup from a passing
waitress type person and downed most of it in one gulp and poured
the rest of it over his body, shaking his big head, blood, sweat
and booze flying everywhere and he shouted again.

Yikes.

“Lahnahsahna Circe,” I heard Lahn call my
name and I leaned back to look up at him.

“Yeah?”

He brought the cup to my lips. “Gingoo,” he
ordered and it didn’t take a linguistics master to know he meant
drink.

I parted my lips, he tipped the cup and I
noticed as he did he was watching with intense interest.

I expected a beer-like substance, seeing as
we were at a sporting event.

It wasn’t a beer-like substance. It was a
straight, raw, spirit and it burned my throat but it didn’t taste
all that bad. He took the cup away and I grinned at him.

“Kay ahnay see,” I said, he stared at me a
second, his bearded chin jerking back in surprise and then his
entire head tilted back as he roared with laughter.

I didn’t know what was so funny.

His head tipped down, his eyes moved through
the tent and his fist crashed against his chest before he shouted,
“Kah Lahnahsahna ahnay see!” then he lifted the cup, spirit
splashed out, I heard a roar of cheers and turned my head to see,
belatedly, that all the warriors had their eyes on me. Some were
stamping their feet. Some were clapping. All were smiling.

“Lahnahsahna hahla!” one warrior yelled and
they all cheered again.

I felt Lahn touch the back of my head, I
looked up at him again and he held the cup to my lips. “Gingoo, kah
fauna,” he ordered gently and then he tipped the cup and I took
another drink. When the cup came away from my mouth, the warriors
again cheered and Lahn grinned down at me. “Hahla,” he muttered,
still grinning.

“Hahla,” I repeated, not having the first
clue what I said but happy to say anything to keep him grinning at
me like that.

I got what I wanted but he gave me better.
The grin broadened to a blinding white smile.

Then his head went back to the action as two
more fighters came out.

I smiled to myself and turned back too,
thinking, okay, this wasn’t so bad.

Without any ado whatsoever, they went at
each other. I noticed immediately this was not like a boxing match
from home. Not that I watched much boxing at home but these guys
didn’t have gloves, for one thing. For another, there were no
referees. And also, I didn’t think boxers were allowed to part
wrestle, kick, aim at (and sometimes connect with) the groin and
the like.

It wasn’t brutal, it was
brutal.

And in this match, I instantly had a
favorite. I didn’t know why, I just liked him. Maybe because the
other guy kept trying to kick or punch him in the groin so I didn’t
think that was fighting fair.

So, when my guy started to look like he was
winning, I got excited.

And therefore, not thinking, I cheered.
And, as the battle wore on, I cheered
loud
and I cheered
hard.

When the bad guy went down, my arms went
straight up, I bounced on my behind between Lahn’s legs and I
screamed, “
Woo hoo!
You
decked him! Way to go! You
rock!
”

The victor did not stamp, shout, beat his
chest or down a half cup of raw spirit.

His eyes came to me.

Then I felt that all eyes had come to me as
the warriors’ bellows petered out.

My arms dropped.

Uh-oh. I fucked up.

Lahn’s huge hand curled tight around the
back of my neck.

Uh-oh!

The triumphant fighter took two steps toward
me, I tensed and he stopped.

Then he leaned into me, I reared back and
he boomed, “
Suh Rahna Dahksahna!
”

“
Suh Rahna
Dahksahna!
” Another
shout rang out.

Then the stamping began as they stood,
stomped their feet, punched the air with their fists and chanted,
“
Rahna
Dahksahna! Rahna Dahksahna! Rahna Dahksahna! Rahna
Dahksahna!
”

Okay, um… it appeared, crisis malfunction.
Apparently these boys liked it when their women cheered during
blood sports.

Good to know.

I smiled uncertainly at the boys and then
felt pressure on my neck. I tipped back my head to see Lahn looking
down on me, his face expressionless.

I bit my lip, his gaze dropped to my mouth
then his eyes lifted and locked on mine.

Then he muttered, “Good.”

I felt my face melt into a smile.

He shook his head, his lips tipped up then
he brought the cup to my lips. I took another big drink; he took
the cup away, squeezed my neck and then took his hand away. His
attention went back to the center and mine followed. The boys
calmed down, new combatants entered the circle and the games
resumed.

* * * * *

I knew things were not going to be good when
Dortak came in dragging his terrified looking, cowed, eyes-sunken
in, arms covered in bruises new bride.