Rital of Proof (26 page)

"Very humorous!" She put her hands on her own hips, which only caused the water-cooled peaks to jut out farther. "What are you waiting for? Are you coming in?" Her breasts bobbed as she talked.

Jorlan clicked his tongue. "You couldn't stop me," he murmured to himself.

"What?" she called out as she splashed water up her arms.

"I said, 'I'll be coming right away.' " He was very good about not smiling at that.

"Can you hand me the cleansing lotion? I left it in my satchel."

He bent to retrieve the lotion when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught low movement on the side bank close to Green. As he straightened, his hands went slowly to his waistband.

"Do not move, Green." He spoke in a calm, controlled tone that seemed odd under the circumstances. She
did
hear that last comment.

"What is it?"

"Shhh. There is-a weavermouth behind you."

She froze. Although small in size, weavermouths were deadly. "How many heads?" she whispered.

He untied the hidden knot inside his waistbelt. With an economy of movement, he began to uncoil the meteor-blade he kept hidden from view under his shirt.

"Three."

Green closed her eyes. "You'll never be able to get the three heads in time. Perhaps if I stay like this... ?"

"It will attack anyway; you know that." A tear fell from her eye. "Use the blade on me, then. Don't let it get me, Jorlan." Death by a weavermouth was terribly gruesome.

"No." He would not even think it. He unslung the blade's cords.

"Jorlan, please, I beg you!" She tried to keep her voice even despite her rising anxiety. "I once saw a weavermouth attack... I could not bear—"

"You won't have to." Faster than she could register, he snap-slung the coils in transecting arcs through the air.

Green could not believe what see was seeing!
Jorlan was wielding two meteor-blades at once.

The meteor-blades passed each other in the air. Perfectly thrown, they spun out in opposite directions.

Just as the weavermouth was rearing back to strike, the meteor-blades came at it from two different sides, shearing off two of its heads instantly. The third head was still in its descent strike. Jorlan snapped his left wrist up, bringing the meteor-blade hurling back. At the same time he flung the right meteor-blade in an arc around and over, letting the right side of the cord swing over his neck. The maneuver was almost impossible, yet he had done it. The left meteor-blade sliced back on its path. As it brushed by the weavermouth, the razor spikes extended with a
whoosh!
taking the final head with them.

But the danger to Jorlan was not over, He had to be able to stop the combined momentum of the blades in such a way as to make sure they did not brush by him while they were extended or he would have the same fate as the weavermouth.

It was what made the meteor-blade so difficult to master. You did not get second chances with it. It took years of practice with simulated meteor-blades before one could even begin using the true forms. And years after that before one had the complete concentration and mastery to wield the real weapon. If ever. How had Jorlan accomplished this?

He swung the cords in perfect precision. Easing down the speed, notch by notch, he ran them through a series of the intricate meteor-blade forms of the Gle Kiang-ten. Green had never witnessed the forms used in this particular sequence before. She watched him, spellbound.

Finally he was able to rein in their speed to where he could safely flick his wrists to retract the blades.

She let out a sigh of relief.

Jorlan stopped them altogether and returned them calmly to his waistband as if nothing untoward had occurred.

"How did you learn to do that?" It was said there was once an ancient Golden Master who had the ability. When she had died, it was assumed so had her knowledge. As far as the Select Quarter knew, no one had ever reached that level of the Gle Kiang-ten again.

Jorlan casually began to remove his clothes as if he hadn't just performed a feat of legend.

He shrugged noncommittally. "I mostly taught myself."

Green gawked at him. "Are you saying you taught yourself the meteor-blade? But you would have to know the advanced forms of the Gle Kiang-ten!"

He stepped into the water. Immediately his strong arms embraced her waist, hugging her close to him. "I am glad nothing has happened to you, name-giver." He placed a kiss upon her brow.

"But the skill... ?"

"It is fortunate my knowledge saved you." His mouth covered hers. His lips trembled slightly.

Green gave herself over to the heartfelt kiss. Jorlan was not shaken over the battle with the weavermouth, she realized. He was shaken at the prospect that he might have lost
her.

She kissed him back, deeply.

Right now, something was happening between them that needed to happen. He breathed on her lips. It reminded her of the sigh that a Klee makes when it discovers it can run free. It was the sound of painful joy.

There would be time enough later to talk to him| about the meteor-blade. Somehow, though, she suspected that she might not be getting the answers she sought from her enigmatical name-bearer.

His hands stroked down her back with a perfect sensitivity.

And when he groaned into her mouth, she swore she saw the azure oceans of Forus lapping the shore.

Green pulled back on the reins of her Kloo as they neared the edge of a slow-moving river.

They had long since left behind the lowlands and the dangers of weavermouths. Green's face lit up at the sight before her. The banks of the river were lined with jinto plants and Banta psillacybs; they had been navigating through a heavily foliaged area for hours. Several of the lovely, massive jinto leaves were floating on the water, which was steeped in hallucinogens. The river was safe to bathe in for short periods of time—but not to drink.

Avatar chuckled as she watched the Marquelle. She knew exactly what the auburn-haired woman was thinking. "Go on then," she teased her. "You know you want to."

Green bit her lip. After all, she was the leader here. "How would it look?"

"Like you were enjoying yourself?" Avatar smiled fondly at her. "It's not as if we all haven't seen you do these things before, my Lordene."

"True. But what will Jorlan think?" She sighed wistfully at the jinto leaves.

"What would I think about what?" Jorlan rode up next to them, his sights going to the phenomenal scene before him. He sucked in his breath. "I've never seen jinto before, at least not with my eyes... " he murmured distractedly, overwhelmed by their lush beauty.

Green glanced sharply at him. What did he mean,
with his eyes
... ?

"The Marquelle always gets strange notions when she sees those leaves." Avatar, oblivious to what Jorlan had Just unconsciously uttered, nodded at the cascading leaves gliding gently down the river.

Jorlan turned to Green and grinned teasingly. "What kind of notions,
lexa?"

Green's face colored slightly. She wished he wouldn't call her
that
in front of the others. And she wasn't sure she wanted to tell him about this notion. It wasn't seemly for a Marquelle to indulge in such frivolity, especially in front of a name-bearer who had a tendency toward wildness.

"Come now, Green," he coaxed her. "If you don't tell me, I'll just wheedle it out of Avatar."

Avatar harrumphed and crossed her arms over her| ample chest. "And how are you going to do that, you I sass-bit! Do you think I haven't been around long enough to be able to see through the wiles of beguiling men?"

Jorlan laughed. "Avatar," he whispered enticingly, purposely modulating his voice to a purring tone, "tell me, please?" He blinked his eyes once at her. Slowly. The effect was stellar.

Avatar reddened.

Green chuckled, shaking her head. He was tying them all around his hand! Even Miara's women were completely taken with him. She gave him a look and clicked her tongue. "Leave poor Avatar alone, blaze-dragon. She doesn't know how to respond to your ways."

"What
ways?"
he asked innocently enough, but secret, scalding look he gave her shivered her down her toes.

Avatar recovered from her momentary fluster.

"I know all about young men's enticements. I'm not so c as I've forgotten
that."
She paused, recalling a particularly engaging enticement from her past. She snickered wickedly in fond recall.

Green gasped in feigned shock. "Avatar!
You?"

"Why not me?" She snorted. "Youth always thinks they invented the sport!"

Jorlan nodded in agreement with her, feigning alignment in her corner. "So what is it she is considering, Avatar?"

Not even realizing that Jorlan had simply switched tracks to get his answer. Avatar replied. "She wants to take off her clothes, and lie naked on one of those leaves as it floats down the river to

Jorlan arched his brow. "Green! yoU?"

"Stop that," she grumbled, embarrassed.

He laughed. "Let's do it!" He grabbed the reins of her Kloo.

"We? I never said—"

He gave her a look so fraught with sensuality and unspoken promise that she was momentarily speechless.

Even Avatar started coughing.

Green glanced at her, wondering what she could possibly say.

"It's all right, Marquelle. You'd be foolish not to go now, wouldn't you?"

Green's lips twitched. "Give us time to float around the far trees and out of sight, then come back and take the Kloo. Leave our clothes by the bend at

Jorlan glanced at Green out of the corner of his eye as they slowly floated down the river. Lying side by side, they both stared up at the sky through the interwoven branches of the giant jinto plants on either side of the bank.

The jinto, also known as "the veil plant," was revered Forus for its amazing properties. The oldest living plant on Forus, it was estimated to be five hundred million years old. Because of its staying power, many of the southern tribes regarded it as a symbol of male fertility.

The broad, double-rounded leaf was coated in a velvety supple skin, while the underlying support structure was extremely rigid.

"There is something symbolic in this, isn't there?" Jorlan joked.

Green closed her eyes and smiled. This was sheer bliss.

"It doesn't seem to have the same effect on me as it does you."

"You don't like it?"

"I like it—I just think there is something about the feel of this leaf and the sensation of the rocking water that deeply appeals to the female."

She grinned. "Why would you say that?"

"From the look of utter ecstasy on your face. You know, I've seen that look before. Green," he drawled.

"Have you?"

He turned on his side to face her, rocking the leaf gently. "I wonder what I could do to add to this experience you are having?" His fingers lightly stroked down her arm.

She opened her eyes a fraction, viewing him from the slits.

The edge of his mouth lifted in a sensual half-smile. Without warning, he rolled on top of her. Green's eyes shot open all the way. "Jorlan!"

He chuckled at her expression, the corners of his mouth crinkling.

Green stared up into his sensual face and lifted hi eyebrow. "And what do you think you are doing?"

He actually tried to appear as if he was thinking over her question. Green laughed. The ends of his dark hair prickled her shoulders as his head lowered. He smiled down at her, then brushed her lips with his own.

"That's very nice, wilding, but you still haven't answered me."

He nudged her thighs apart with his leg and settled firmly between them, throbbing in response against her mound without entering her. "You tell me, lexa."

Green arched an eyebrow. "This is not a favored position, Jorlan."

"It seems to be so for me," he whispered down to her. He entered her—just the tip of him.

He was too bold by half. He had actually initiated their lovemaking, which was frowned upon as unseemly for men. On top of it—he was on top. This was a very interesting position, she had to admit. Many women liked the man on top, although they only alluded to it at the clubs. And they engaged in the activity only with their pleasurers, if at all. There was something about the illusion of giving over the control... Although even pleasurers were acting at it. Everyone knew who really had the control.

Only with Jorlan, she worried that this might go beyond illusion. Jorlan would not be pretending to lead the situation. He would. Green wondered if she should let such a blaze-dragon... fly.