The Queen's Consorts (8 page)

Taryen rolled off Sari, leaving her exposed and empty. Not only did his gift not last once he was gone, it left her missing him so much she curled into herself, wanting to cry from the onslaught of emotions. The rush of sadness was startling when she had been in such a different place moments before.

“He shouldn’t have exposed you to this curse,” Calder whispered softly as he fell to his knees next to her and stroked her hair softly. “I know the crash after losing him is hard. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t call it a curse,” Sari whispered, hating the idea of Taryen’s lifemate not appreciating his amazing gifts. “He’s magic.”

“It’s a curse if you become addicted to it,” Calder admitted softly, still stroking Sari’s curly hair away from her face. “It makes your soul feel empty without him around to soothe it.”

Sari looked up at him curiously. “Do you let him heal you?”

“I used to.” Calder looked haunted. “Until I stopped being able to function without him. I wanted to stay in this room wrapped up in him day and night. It became dangerous. My dependence on him started to be obvious. I made him stop. Now it’s a very rare occasion that I let him heal me. The pain has to be too potent to be denied.”

“For you or him?”

“Either-or.”
Calder shrugged. “Sometimes he needs a release. He hasn’t healed for a while. It’s likely the reason he lost track of himself with you.”

“What about the other pure heart here in the Sacred City?” Sari asked curiously. “Doesn’t she become addicted to him?”

“Her soul is as pure as his. She doesn’t need a release from the pain that makes him addictive. She just enjoys the connection. Something about them, they need to reach out to others, to feel the pulse of life in another person. It’s not even sexual when he’s with her.
Just feeling each other.
They both have difficult lives. Healing is enjoyable to them.”

“Can they heal physical pain?”

“No, only mental hurts are eased with their gifts.” Calder lifted his head when Taryen walked over to Sari, carrying a washbasin and a cloth. He took them, settling the basin next to him and dipping the washcloth into it. “I’m sorry the water is not warm, my lady.”

“It’s fine.” Sari took the washcloth from him when he made a move to clean her. She wasn’t comfortable being someone he served, knowing how much he resented it. “Did you find out anything about little Aria?”

“Your friend is being housed with the other young girls who are training to be attendants.” Calder sat back on his haunches, watching Sari clean herself with hooded eyes, making his attraction to her obvious.

“She could be trained to be your personal attendant.” Taryen sat next to Calder, comfortable naked. “Then you would be near her.”

“If they’ll let her,” Sari said sadly. “She has hormones.”

Both men stared. “She’s forbidden to be here. No common female with hormones is allowed in the Sacred City.”

“She doesn’t have them yet,” Sari reminded them with a smile. “She’s young.”

“They made an allowance for you.” Calder looked hesitant. “But it won’t be allowed for long. The other sisters will forbid it. There’s a hierarchy, one you’re currently on the bottom of with no family to claim you.”

“Some sisters are more powerful than others?” Sari asked curiously, knowing this was important information.

“Oh yes.” Taryen reached out, touching Sari’s neck. “I’ve marked you. You’ll need to go to the baths to rid yourself of the bruises. I apologize, my lady.”

Sari cupped a hand to her neck, knowing she wanted the marks Taryen had left on her. “Don’t apologize.”

Sari stood up, feeling both men watch her as she shook out her hair, cursing herself for falling asleep with it wet and unbraided. The tangles were almost unmanageable in her thick curls. Her cheeks heated as she felt their eyes on her, and she turned to look for the robes. Her behavior since she’d arrived in the Sacred City had been more than a little shocking.

“I should find little Aria.”

“A bath is essential, my lady,” Calder said firmly. “Going out with your skin marked would draw undue attention to yourself when there are already rumors going around about your arrival. Most know you were brought to us.”

“I see.” Sari’s shoulders slumped, because she felt genuinely bad leaving Aria, and she knew spending too much time with Calder and Taryen was asking for trouble.

“We’ll go with you,” Taryen suggested. “And explain some of the rules of our society to help ease your transition.”

Sari hesitated and then met Calder’s gaze. He seemed as uneasy as her about the three of them sharing the intimacy of another bath, but then he surprised her by shrugging. “We’re similar souls. It’s not like we haven’t seen a naked body before. I’m sure between the three of us we’ll find a way to stay the course.”

She smiled in spite of herself when she heard the hitch of something in Calder’s voice that said it was unlikely they’d behave. She should run as fast as she could in the other direction, but these two men touched something inside, and she wanted their friendship—even if it was dangerous.

“What’re these?” Sari asked as she leaned over in Taryen’s arms to reach out to Calder who was sitting next to them in the large, warm pool of healing waters in the consort baths. She placed a finger against Calder’s full lips, which parted to her instantly. She eyed his tongue, seeing the golden beads that ran down the center of it. “Why do you have those?”

Calder smiled and then stuck his tongue out, pushing his top teeth against the line of three small golden balls that ran down the center of it. “You’ve never heard of Tourillan gold?”

“No, tell me.”

“You wear it.” He let his gaze fall to her breasts. “Yet you do not know the advantages of it?”

Sari stiffened, bringing her arms up to cover her breasts as her cheeks burned. She dipped her head to hide as Taryen wrapped his arms around her waist soothingly. She took comfort from his touch as she mumbled, “I don’t recall getting the piercings. Not here, nor—” She faltered, squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment.

“I know where else you’re pierced,” Taryen whispered against her ear. “It’s another sign of your status. All Rayian females have the same piercings as you.”

“We get the piercings as infants, both males and females.” Calder stuck out his tongue once more, showing off the gold balls that decorated it. Then he said, “None of us remember getting them, thank the gods. For males the piercings need to be changed as we grow, but it’s not painful. Yours, obviously, have conformed
with
your body and grown with you.”

“So all males have those?” She studied his tongue and remembered what he and Taryen looked like fully naked beneath the water. She wasn’t really certain why she did it, but she reached behind her to feel the length of Taryen’s cock, her fingers stopping to rest on the golden ring around the base of it. “It’s not just consorts.”

“No, not just us.”
Taryen’s voice hitched, but he didn’t complain about her touch. “Tourillan gold plays well together.”

“I don’t understand.” Sari let go of him and brought her hand around to rest in her lap in an attempt to behave. “I thought they were just decoration.”

“I could show you.” Calder eyed her breasts once more. “Would you like me to?”

“Just for demonstration purposes.”
Sari couldn’t believe her curiosity was allowing her to do exactly what she’d promised herself she wouldn’t. “But we shouldn’t get over our heads.”

“Playing’s allowed.
Encouraged, actually.
Ask anyone. We exist for the sisters’ amusement,” Calder reminded her as he moved closer to her and Taryen. Sari wanted to comment on such a dark statement, but she gasped instead when he fell down over her, his head resting in the crook of Taryen’s arm. His other arm tightened around her waist protectively as if sensing her uneasiness. Calder leaned in, his breath warm against the tip of her breast. “Just close your eyes and feel.”

Sari did as she was told, closing her eyes tightly when he took the tip of her breast into his mouth. The beads on his tongue brushed against the small beads that had decorated her nipples for as long as she could remember. He did the action rhythmically, and a strange heat spread out from her nipple. Some of it came from the warm, wet feel of his mouth around her, but most of it was the gold that warmed and vibrated in a way that sent a surge of profound pleasure washing over her.

“Oh.” She opened her eyes to look down at Calder, who was watching her curiously as he continued to suck and tease. “I feel it and not just there.” Sari moaned, her head falling back against Taryen’s shoulder as the pleasure continued to roll over her. Somehow what he was doing to the one nipple caused all her piercings to warm and vibrate. It was with a shock that she realized she was very close to climax from just that small effort on Calder’s part. “I-I think I’m supposed to tell you to stop.”

“You don’t have to,” Taryen answered for Calder when Sari’s hips arched as the pleasure had her blindly seeking release. Taryen lifted a hand, running it down the line of her jaw. Then he gripped her chin lightly and turned her face toward him. He leaned down and captured her lips with his tentatively, and Sari was already too far gone to fight him. She parted to him, welcoming the sweep of his tongue into her willing mouth. She moaned as his tongue brushed hers, the gold balls feeling divine if not disappointedly cold. He pulled away after a moment and smiled at her. “Watch this.”

Taryen reached down and grabbed one of Calder’s hands, bringing it up to his mouth. Calder moaned against Sari’s breast when Taryen sucked on one of his fingers, his tongue brushing against the small golden band Calder was wearing. There was something strangely erotic about the way Taryen sucked on Calder’s finger, his tongue running back and forth against the ring at the base. She raised her eyebrows when Calder’s moans grew louder against her breasts, and she realized the gold they wore must do the same as the ones she did. When one band or piercing warmed and started vibrating, they all did.

She reached behind her once more, her fingers running over the line of Taryen’s cock, which was growing longer and thicker as she touched. She found the ring at the base of it and felt that it was indeed warm and vibrating.

Tourillan gold really did play well together.

Taryen released Calder’s finger with a wet
pop
and rasped, “Now may I kiss you again, my lady?”

She tilted her head up to him invitingly. “Yes, please.”

Taryen leaned down and captured her lips once more. When his tongue swept in, this time it was humming pleasurably, and it somehow upped the intensity of
her own
piercings.
If she had been swimming in pleasure from Calder’s ministrations before, now she was drowning in it.
Taryen’s tongue brushed against hers expertly, making her writhe in his arms as Calder sucked harder, moving his tongue faster.

Her body bowed when the pleasure slammed into her. Taryen swallowed her scream as the bliss pulsed through her violently, making her entire body shudder from the force of it. Her heart was beating against her ribs, and Taryen freed her lips to let her catch her breath.

“Oh,” Sari gasped when Calder released her nipple with one final sweep of his tongue. She reeled back when she realized the piercings had stopped their powerful pulsations and had settled into a low hum that was soothing instead of overstimulating. “How’d they know?” she mumbled, finally opening her eyes to look down at herself curiously. She fingered the beads in one nipple in awe. “What slowed them? Did you do that?”

“Tourillan gold responds to our energy,” Calder explained as he lay sprawled over her, his head still resting comfortably in the crook of Taryen’s arm. “It comes alive for all Rayians. I have no idea why, but it almost has a life of its own. Females can learn to control it completely. You could move huge golden boulders across vast areas with just the will of your mind if you wanted to.”

“Rayian males can’t do that?”

“No. The gold will warm and vibrate for us when stimulated, but we can’t move it or control it—unfortunately.”

“Your wristbands,” Sari mumbled in understanding. “They control you with those.”

“They would not need the wristbands.” Calder avoided her gaze and looked to the other side of the opulent bathing room. “Our birth deems us obedient; the wristbands are purely for amusement purposes. Many females enjoy having a consort tied down. You could bind either of our arms easily with just a thought.”

Sari reached out and caressed Calder’s beautiful face, staring down into his breathtaking light eyes. “I think it’s unjust your birth forced you to be obedient. Do you really have no free will?
None at all?”

“None at all,” Calder confirmed. “We were born to the minute of the queen’s birth. Our mothers knew the gods deemed us her natural consorts, and they turned us over to the Sacred City before either of us had made it to a week of age.”

“You weren’t born here?”

“No.” Calder grinned. “I was born in the palace by the Cavaden Sea.”

“That’s quite far,” Sari said in surprise, knowing Cavaden was on the other side of the planet. She turned her head to look up at Taryen. “Where were you born?”

“I was born in the Darvid Mountains,” Taryen said wistfully. “Imagine, Calder and I being born at the exact same time, yet it was a beautiful, sunny day when he came into the world and a dark, forbidding night deep in the wooded mountains when I did.
Strange, yes.
Same minute, completely different settings.”

“Your coloring.
It’s appropriate.”

“Mmm.”
Taryen stared down at Calder with a smile. “He looks like sunshine and sea, does he not? His eyes are the color I imagine the Cavaden Sea to be when sunlight hits it.”

Sari laughed at him. “You’ve never seen the sea…or any real sunlight.”

“True.” Taryen raised his eyebrows and smiled in embarrassment. “But I have a good imagination.”

“What was your mother doing in the Darvid Mountains?” Sari asked with a frown. “I’ve been there. They’re dreadful.”