The Queen's Consorts (21 page)

The storms were suddenly wild and dangerous as they ran down the hallway. Lightning bolts seemed to strike, one after another, as if chasing them. Even with her face hidden, Sari could see the brilliant flashes of light reflecting through the windows out of her peripheral vision.

Calder spun around wildly. “Did you take her?”

“No,” Taryen said a little too quickly before he hesitated. “But she put her mouth on me. Does that count? Is that like entering her? I’ve never had a female do it before.”

“Obviously it does. It looks like the lightning is following us. The storms were never that concentrated before now. It’s going to give us away.”

“You there!
Cease in the name of the great mother, Queen Darisa!”

Calder spun around, and Sari lifted her head. Taryen had raised his sword, pointing it at the small group of queen’s guards who stormed in on them. She let out a choked gasp when Taryen lashed out at the closest guard, knocking his feet out from under him in the blink of an eye. When the guard ended up flat on his back, Taryen pressed his sword against the red robes over the guard’s heart.

“We came to help! Taryen,
it’s
Jafit. Don’t you recognize him?” one of the other guards shouted. “The captain sent out soldiers to search for you and offer protection.”

“Laysa owns as many guards as Macro does.” Calder shook his head. “I say kill them. We can’t take the risk.”

“We’re your friends. We spar with you every day. Why do you think Macro gave us the honor of helping you all this time? He knows where our loyalties lie. Do you think we would help you train only to kill you later?”

Taryen seemed unmoved by his passionate plea. Sari let out a hiss of horror when she thought he might actually kill one of his friends. How literally was he taking those words she’d uttered in the baths just to get a small taste of heaven after a lifetime of hell? Until now, she didn’t think someone pure of heart was capable of killing anyone, let alone a friend. Now she saw Taryen would do it without hesitating if he thought it was for the good of the cause.

“Let us get you to safety,” Jafit, the guard on the ground said quickly when Taryen pressed his sword so tightly against the material it started to rip. “Once she is safe,
then
kill us.”

“You’d die for the honor of helping us?” Taryen seemed to waver on the best course of action. “That’s a noble sacrifice.”

“The monarchy must be preserved. It’s one we all swore to make if the opportunity presented itself. Let us help you get her to safety, and then we’ll lay down our swords and let you execute us in the name of your queen.” Jafit took a long, shuddering breath, but he looked steadily up at Taryen. “I don’t know how else to prove our words other than to tell you the captain dispatched only those he knows are most loyal. When he saw that he and Haven had been poisoned and were unable to offer protection, he revealed her secrets to the rest of us. He sent two groups out with orders to save a young girl named Aria and the servants he assigned to protect the queen. The rest of us have been looking for you.”

“Very few knew of Sari’s young friend and how important she was to her. I’m inclined to believe they are doing Macro’s bidding.” Calder nodded. “Let him up. We can’t afford to turn away known allies.”

“Walk in front of me.” Taryen’s voice was commanding and cutting.
“Backs to her.”

Sari wished her thinking were clearer. This all seemed like much more fuss than should be allowed. Wasn’t their relationship a secret? Why were guards willing to protect her when it was obvious they were very untrusting of most sisters? All those questions rolled through her head, but they were foggy and weak beneath the throb of something much more compelling. She liked how Taryen looked with a sword in his hand. The way he had knocked that trained guard off his feet had been awe inspiring. The danger around him was shocking when she considered how devoid of anger and hatred his soul was.

Calder’s hold was so tight, as if he were afraid she’d break. She could actually feel the hum of desire pulsing off him as he followed behind Taryen and the guards, moving quickly despite her weight. When she went back to stroking the nape of his neck and running her nails over the sensitive skin, she could feel the goose bumps spread out underneath her fingertips. That compelled her to slip her other hand beneath the neckline of his robes. She leaned up and pressed her lips to the hollow spot at the base of his throat where his heartbeat was thumping hard and erratic.

Calder let out a grunt of pleasure. “I’m definitely killing Laysa for this.”

Rather than respond Sari just agreed with him by pulling his robes down farther and then placing another kiss against his collarbone.

“We need to make haste,” Calder shouted to guards. “We’re going to the queen’s guard station on the south side.”

“There’s an entrance to the tunnels past the courtyard,” Taryen argued. “That’s half the time.”

“We’ve never heard of escape tunnels,” one of the guards said in surprise. “And we know all the exits to the Sacred City.”

“Your job isn’t to question us. It’s simply to get us where we’re going,” Calder snapped before he resumed his argument with Taryen. “The courtyard is filled with enemies. We’ll need to go around to the south side.”

“Gods.”
Taryen let out a groan of agony. “That’s an extra twenty minutes. To say nothing of the tunnels
that go
on forever.”

They were running now, but Sari barely noticed past the aggravation it caused. She really hated these black robes, and when she found the small buttons, she started pulling at them, revealing inch by inch of Calder’s tanned skin. She contented herself with tasting him, all the while wondering what his cock would feel like in her mouth or sliding deep inside her pussy. Gods, she was aching, and she ran a finger lightly over one of Calder’s small, deep brown nipples and was rewarded with another grunt of pleasure. She smiled against his skin, loving the way he sounded.

She enjoyed the warm, masculine taste of his skin even more.

“The storms have eased again,” one of the guards mused thoughtfully once the cool night air hit Sari’s sensitive skin, which was still moist from the baths. “Odd considering she’s running for her life.”

“It’s her,” Calder ground out. “She’s just distracted. Laysa has her so high on herb she’s very one-track-minded at the moment.”

“What herb are you talking about?” the same guard asked, making it obvious this herb wasn’t part of the Rayian culture but rather something Calder and Taryen dealt with exclusively.

“Gods, Cal, look at what you’re helping her do just by letting her touch you.”

Taryen’s voice sounded so awed Sari reluctantly pulled away and looked up to the sky, seeing a break in the clouds directly over them, revealing two brilliant orbs in the sky. “The moons,” she gasped in surprise, feeling as awed as Taryen sounded. “I’ve never seen them so clearly before. Gods, they’re beautiful.”

“They are,” Calder agreed softly, since they had all stopped to regard the phenomenon.

Sari stretched out, letting her head hang back against his forearm as she stared up at the beauty of the moons set against the backdrop of a starry sky. The clouds parted as she admired them, and a smile spread across her face. She couldn’t imagine a more perfect moment than right now, seeing the moons so bright, with Calder’s scent surrounding her and his strong arms supporting all her weight as if she were as light as a feather.

She reached up, imagining she could actually touch them, and then harbored the idea of lying right there in this secluded corner of the Sacred City and getting lost in Taryen and Calder’s touch.

“You know what I want more than anything?” she asked Calder.

“I do.” His voice sounded as entranced as she felt in that moment.

A guard’s voice cut through the magic of the moment. “Gods be blessed, it’s really her. What is she saying, Taryen?”

“Why do you think the language exists in the first place? It’s private,” Taryen chastised before he switched languages and said in an equally reprimanding tone. “What was your one goal, Sari?”

“To be quiet.”
Her smile widened as she dropped her hand to touch something much more special than the moons. She ran her fingers over Calder’s lips and then beamed when he sucked one of her fingers into his mouth. “I want to be right here when you and Tary show me heaven.
Under the stars.
That’s what I want more than anything. Would you do that for me, Cal?”

“Of course.”

“You’ve lost your privileges.” Taryen broke the spell by dropping his sword and scooping Sari up when Calder made a move to fall to his knees right there in a hidden back alley of the Sacred City. “Why am I the only one not completely mindless right now?”

“Might have something to do with your taste being on her lips,” Calder suggested, but his voice sounded as dreamy as hers. “I can’t believe I missed that. I bet she looked amazing sucking you.”

“I’ll suck you too,” Sari offered, recognizing the lust in his tone much more than all the other ramblings going on around her. “Do you want that?”

“Yes. I do.”

Calder’s voice was husky with desire, but Sari couldn’t respond because Taryen took off and actually started running. He forced the others to follow and eventually take the lead, but Sari didn’t pay too much attention to the others.

The haste of getting to the south tower made Taryen sweat, and that made his scent even stronger, more tantalizing. She licked at a drop of it that slid down the side of his neck. Even though his urgency was obvious, Taryen didn’t complain as she struggled with his buttons, needing the comfort of his warm skin. She pressed her cheek against his bare chest, listening to his heart beating faster and faster.

When they finally stopped from their dash across the grounds of the Sacred City, Sari could hear the clank of swords being dropped and bolters hitting the soft grass.

“For our queen.”

There was a deathly silence, as if Taryen and Calder were trying to decide what to do, and in that moment Taryen’s arm fell slightly slack and Sari was able to crane her head to see the soldiers all kneeling, with their necks bowed.

“You can’t kill them!” Sari gasped. “They’re your friends.”

The sword fell out of Calder’s hand at her words, making it obvious it was her will and not his own that caused him to give up his only defense. He turned to look at her with haunted eyes. “They’ll know where we’ve gone.”

“They should die, Sari,” Taryen agreed.
“For the good of the monarchy.”

“No.” She whispered the word, knowing she’d never forgive herself if Calder had to kill those he cared about just so they could have one night together. “Let them live. You can’t kill the soldiers.”

“If you tell him that, he’ll have to obey.” Taryen sounded stricken. “Do you understand we can’t know who to trust? Laysa bribes the army. Some are loyal; just as many are not. It’ll only take one.”

Sari turned her head back toward the welcoming security of Taryen’s powerful chest, refusing to be swayed. This all felt like insanity anyway. Taryen’s scent washed over her, and just as quickly the horror started to fade. She ran her hand over the warm, smooth curve of his pectoral muscle, feeling it tense under her fingers. She pressed a kiss above his heart and felt him sigh in defeat.

“Leave,” he announced. “Go back to the palace. Resume your search as if you’d never found us.”

“
Your
Majesty. We can’t—”

“She’s spoken.” Taryen’s body shifted as he shrugged. “Go.”

“And know if you betray us, I will find you, and death won’t be as swift as you were offered this time,” Calder added.

Sari kept touching Taryen, barely hearing the shuffle caused by a group of confused men gathering their weapons and walking off.

“We’ll wait until they’ve gone inside.” Calder’s voice was closer, still sounding tense and uncertain. “They don’t know where the entrances are.”

“But they’ll still know where we’re hiding.”

“They’ll think we got out into the city.”

“Anyone with eyes could tell we can’t make it that far. We barely made it here.” Taryen let out a bitter snort before he added in concern, “They could torture
Darin
for the information.”

“He would die before he revealed that secret,” Calder said confidently. “You forget, Tary, he raised us, but she’s his child too. He’ll keep us safe.”

Taryen nodded. “True.”

Sari reached out to Calder. She grasped a fistful of his robes and pulled him closer. He surprised her by grabbing her hand and then leaning down to reverently kiss the inside of her wrist. “Are you cold?”

“No.” She smiled.
“Quite the opposite.
I’m burning up.”

“Gods, me too,” Calder moaned in complaint, making the crack in his armor more than obvious as he reached down to caress her face as if he couldn’t help touching her. “I’m sweating in these robes. I’m so fucking frustrated. I can’t wait to be bare with you.”

“Cal!” Taryen shouted. “Show respect. You can’t swear in her presence.”

“Sorry.” He stepped back to wipe at his forehead and fall heavily back against the wall. “I don’t think her words are holding out as strong as they need to. I’m about to strip right here and beg to serve. I feel like I’ve found hell.”

Taryen groaned. “Talking about it doesn’t help.”

“I never ached for it like this before,” he went on as if he didn’t hear Taryen. “With the sisters, the denial hurt, but this feels like actual torture.
Gods,
and I thought I wanted her before the herb. I’m fairly certain this is what insanity feels like.”

“And to think she’s got at least a half an hour head
start
on us.”

“She’s stronger than most,” Calder said in agreement. “She has moments of clarity. I doubt we’d be that strong. If we didn’t have her words to carry us, we’d have already lost this war. Thank the gods you thought of making her demand protection. I’d be so lost without you.”

“And I you,” Taryen agreed softly.

Calder let out a choked sound of misery. “Who knows how many of our friends were bought by Laysa to gain our favor. We should have killed them.”