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Zelda lay with Arryn on the giant stone brick, holding the smaller woman to her breasts, smoothing a loving hand again and again down Arryn’s long black hair. All around them, white flowers swayed in the gentle breeze, birds were singing, and sunlight shed warm over their naked bodies. It was a beautiful day, and Arryn was the most beautiful part of it. So pale and shy and pretty, yielding to Zelda’s hungry touch with a moan. Zelda couldn’t stop thinking of how desperately Arryn had sobbed with arousal as Zelda’s mouth had sucked upon her sex. How desperately she had twisted and blushed until suddenly, she had released her passion! Zelda wanted to taste her again, wanted to watch her curvy body heaving, wanted to see those violet eyes blinking yet again in bafflement and shock as the pleasure thrilled through her.
Arryn’s eyes were closed now, and she was resting her head contently against Zelda’s shoulder. Her cheeks flamed the tiniest bit when Zelda groped one of her small breasts.
“They are so small and soft . . . like the rest of you,” Zelda whispered huskily as she massaged the little breast in her fingers, enjoying the supple give of it, the way the nipple hardened from her touch. She leaned closer and whispered in Arryn’s pointed ear, “You surrendered to me so sweetly.”
Zelda kissed Arryn hard on the mouth, and Arryn kissed her back with the same gentle submission, allowing Zelda to overpower her as she pleased. She was trembling in Zelda’s arms when Zelda pulled away again.
“What’s the matter?” Zelda whispered, kissing Arryn’s forehead, her ear, her cheek.
Arryn shrugged, moaning when Zelda kissed the tender flesh between her neck and shoulder. “I love surrendering to you a little too greatly, my lady,” she confessed. “It . . . frightens me.”
Zelda kissed Arryn’s lips again, nibbling the bottom lip as she pulled away. She smiled into Arryn’s eyes, and Arryn smiled back.
“I suppose we had better get dressed,” Zelda said with great regret. “I must find my way back to my baby. Will you come and see her?”
They sat up and began to dress. Arryn stepped into her woolen hose, and Zelda pulled up her panties.
“I have seen her already,” Arryn confessed.
Zelda smiled. “I do not mean your spying. I mean I wish for you to properly meet her! And all the Falcon Knights! Selene and Gweneth and Cassandra would welcome you like a sister, I am certain of it.” She let her gown fall over her head and adjusted it against her heavy breasts.
“And Calain?” said Arryn, smiling. She was struggling to buckle on her armor. Zelda drew near and helped her.
“Calain likely won’t be at Wolf Fortress when I return, you know that,” said Zelda quietly.
“And you’ve no intention of finding her?” said Arryn in amazement.
Zelda laughed mirthlessly. “Why? You told me already: Calain despises me! She thinks I abandoned her for Melvalda! She probably thinks I’m with Raven’s Cross right now!”
“How does thou know what Calain thinks,” said Arryn gently, “unless thou asketh her?”
Zelda dropped her eyes. Arryn was now fully armored, and Zelda turned heavily away, not wanting to think of Calain any longer. It was too painful. Behind her, Arryn buckled her scabbard across her chest, so that her sword was on her back. Her violet eyes were pitying as she watched Zelda’s sadness.
“If you truly love Calain,” said Arryn soothingly, “you will find some way to reconcile. Calain loves you. This I know.”
“How do you know?” said Zelda to the ground.
“Because she’s coming right now to slay me,” answered Arryn.
Zelda looked up and went still in shock: Calain was marching at them through the trees, her face tight with rage, her red ponytail streaming. She was not wearing her silver Falcon armor and was instead clad in a tunic with the sleeves rolled up and plain trousers. She had been pulling a brown horse along by the reins, but she released it when she laid eyes on Arryn, she sneered, and her muscly arm bulged when she reached back for her blade.
“Gods be good,” Arryn muttered weakly as Calain ran at her, big and strong and flexing with powerful muscles. Arryn pulled her blade just in time to parry a wild blow from Calain. Their blades sparked as they crossed.
“Calain, don’t!” Zelda cried, aghast.
Calain ignored Zelda and pressed her blade down hard on shorter Arryn, who grimly held her at bay. “All that lecturing you did,” Calain sneered, “about cherishing Zelda’s heart and duty and honor – and you’re fucking her behind my back!”
Arryn shoved Calain off. “Whose fault is that? If you hadn’t abandoned your duty, I wouldn’t have had to step in!”
Calain roared and ran at Arryn, who – being lighter and smaller – easily sidestepped her. Calain nearly lost her balance but caught herself and whirled, bringing her sword down on Arryn again. They fell into a series of exchanged blows, blades clashing almost wildly. Arryn was merely parrying and deflecting, but Calain was trying almost desperately to draw blood. Her strikes were brutally hard, so that Arryn’s blade trembled to repel her. She finally managed to disarm Arryn, who held out her hand and deflected a blow with a shield of light that sprang from her palm.
Calain shouted angrily as her blade harmlessly bounced off the light-shield. She ran at the shield, slashing at it madly, until Arryn’s arm was trembling as it became difficult to sustain the spell. Lips tightening, Arryn held out her other hand, and Calain froze mid-swing, sword in hand. She was only able to move her eyes, and they darted back and forth in shock and fury.
“I shall take my leave,” said Arryn breathlessly. She summoned her sword to her hand and sheathed it on her back, looking reprovingly at Calain through strings of black hair. “And you shall not follow, young knight. . .. If you know what is good for you. Fare thee well, fair Zelda.” And with that, Arryn turned and marched into the trees. Calain remained frozen until she had gone.
When the spell had lifted, Calain dropped to her knees, clumsily losing her sword in the process. She reached for it in the leaves and closed her fingers on the hilt.
“Calain . . .” Zelda said apprehensively. She came to Calain and put a careful hand on her shoulder, but when Calain tensed against her touch, she drew her hand away, feeling stung.
Calain snatched her sword from the leaves and sheathed it on her back, her back to Zelda. “Do not touch me,” she said in a low voice. “Only the gods do know where thy hand has been.”
Zelda blushed angrily. “As if you had any room to talk! I felt you fucking other women, Calain!” she practically screeched.
Calain turned to face her in surprise, and Zelda was satisfied by the look of shame that passed through her green eyes. Those damned pretty green eyes. Zelda had to admit that, furious as she was, it was good to see Calain again. She had missed her eyes and her wild red hair, the sound of her voice, the way her muscles flexed when she moved . . . That puppy face she always made when she was guilty.
“That’s right!” Zelda yelled at Calain, furious now, tousled hair falling in her blazing blue eyes. “The Binding goes both ways! Did you think I would not notice?!”
“I knew you would notice,” said Calain darkly, “I just didn’t think you would care.” She marched past Zelda to the horse she’d abandoned, which was grazing nearby, indifferent to all that had happened.
“Why wouldn’t I care?” demanded Zelda, turning to watch as Calain went to the horse.
“Because you were too busy riding Melvalda’s fingers, perchance?” said Calain scathingly, not looking at Zelda. She was about to swing up into the saddle when Zelda rushed to her and grabbed her arm. She paused and looked down at Zelda angrily.
“Take thy hand from me,” Calain complained. “There is nothing more to say—”
“There is everything to say, you stubborn . . .!” Zelda closed her eyes and took a breath to calm herself. They would get nowhere if they started name-calling. “I lay with Melvalda to protect you!”
“Horse shite,” said Calain at once. “You lay with Melvalda because you wished to! I felt it when you did. You enjoyed what she did to you!” She glanced at Zelda’s small hand again and said, “Release me.”
“No!” Zelda said at once. “I shall never let you go!” She threw her arms around Calain’s neck and hugged her tight. And then she went still, determined not to be pried away. To her surprise, Calain very slowly twisted around in Zelda’s grasp and closed her strong arms around Zelda. She squeezed, hugging Zelda tightly to her, and neither of them knew why, but they suddenly began to cry.
“Thy shall send me to an early grave with thy madness,” said Calain helplessly into Zelda’s hair. “Why did thou lay with Melvalda! And Yrsa! And Arryn as well! I should kill them all for having touched you!”
“Oh! But that’s how we got into this mess! You slew the queen!” Zelda said, pulling back to laugh through her tears.
Calain’s eyes softened as she looked down at Zelda, and Zelda felt a thump in her. For a second, she was a virgin again, lying naked beside the waterfall, so breathless and nervous, as Calain came to her with hungry green eyes.
“I did miss thy laugh,” Calain quietly confessed. “And thy eyes, the scent of thy hair . . .” She held Zelda close again and nuzzled her nose in her hair.
Zelda happily huddled in Calain’s bulging arms and closed her eyes as all the old feelings of safety and happiness and content came rushing back to her. “Were you really going to abandon me?” she asked.
“You are rotten to the core and would have deserved it,” Calain said, but she did not sound angry.
Zelda laughed weakly. “Yes,” she admitted, “I would have . . . I wanted Melvalda. I . . . liked it when she touched me. But I wouldn’t have gone to Ravenhold if she hadn’t threatened you. I couldn’t let all of you die for me defending Wolf Fortress!”
Calain pulled back and looked down at Zelda. “Then next time, speak to us, Zelda! We are not small children you must conceal. We are your knights! We should do things together, not alone!”
“I know that now,” said Zelda, gazing lost in Calain’s eyes.
Calain grudgingly smiled. “I did miss thy doting blue eyes,” she confessed. She took Zelda by the waist and lifted her easily onto the horse, then climbed up behind her. “The port is just west of here. The elves of this island have told me. We could try to book passage and leave the island. You cannot apparate from here.” So saying, Calain gently snapped the reins, and the horse started off at a trot.
As they rode along, Zelda could feel Calain’s hard, muscular body against her own, and it suddenly felt as if everything in her world had finally been put right. For Calain was near her again, her hard body against Zelda’s, her strong arms encircling her as she steered the horse, her warm breath upon Zelda’s golden hair. The absence of it all was something Zelda never wanted to experience again! But then she reflected on Calain’s words and found herself distracted.
“The elves of the island,” Zelda repeated suspiciously. “Are these elves, perchance, the women you have lain with?”
“What does it matter?” said Calain evasively.
Zelda wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but she supposed she had all the time in the world to drill and interrogate Calain until she learned the truth. It didn‘t seem fair that Calain knew who all her lovers had been. If Zelda wanted to confront one of Calain’s lovers about staying away from Calain, she wouldn’t know where to begin!
They rode for the port in silence, though Calain occasionally grabbed Zelda’s bouncing breasts in playful fistfuls, making her giggle. She blushed a little, thinking of the first time Calain had touched her. It had been on horseback, and it had been the first time her sex was ever stroked, her clitoris massaged, her breasts groped. Her entire body had felt as if it was pulsing and throbbing and awake with desire, and then Calain had stripped her naked at the waterfall, and the rest was a blur of helpless orgasms as she was licked, sucked, and massaged for hours.
“What is my lady thinking of, I wonder?” said Calain when they had left the forest at last. “Thy cheeks are bright as any apple.” She sounded a little suspicious. Perhaps she thought Zelda was thinking of Melvalda or one of her other lovers.
Zelda was embarrassed to admit it, but she answered, “The f-first time we made love.”
Calain was silent a moment, then said quietly, “Oh.” Zelda thought she seemed pleased by that and was in a good mood by the time they reached the port.
The port to Eldaris was packed with elves departing in cargo ships. Shipments of potions and herbs were being loaded in boxes onto the waiting ships as elves ran back and forth, preparing to depart.
The elves glared upon seeing them, and Zelda knew before they had even dismounted the horse that they would not find a ship willing to carry them across the sea. Once they overcame their shock and outrage that humans were on the island in the first place, the elven captains all sneered at them and turned them away, stating they would not give passage to humans. One captain mockingly gave them directions to the nearest Venom Six cell in the hope they would be riddled with arrows on approach.
“Why Arryn thought I would find a ship to take me across is beyond me,” said Zelda tonelessly.
“She places greater faith in her people than they deserve,” said Calain, putting a soothing arm around Zelda.
As they were standing there wondering what to do, a little elven girl came up to them. She had been carrying cargo boxes onto a boat, but having noticed their predicament, she dropped the box she’d been carrying, ducked beneath a long box that was being carried by two shirtless elven men (“Hey!” one of the men shouted), and ran up to Zelda and Calain, hair streaming.
Zelda looked down at the girl, whose auburn hair reminded her of Aereth. “Yes?” she said kindly.
“You won’t get no ship out the port,” said the little girl, speaking with the broken jargon of a peasant. “Cap’ns ‘round here would sooner let you swim to Eldaris. But the mermaids hava ship under the water you can take. They might give it to you if you ask nicely, I reckon.”
“Um . . . Thank you,” said Calain awkwardly.
The child nodded seriously, then turned and ran off, back to the ship she’d come from. The men there were shouting for her to get back to work.
Calain looked down at Zelda. “Did any of that make sense to you?”
“Yes,” said Zelda, feeling greatly relieved. “If the mermaids tell us where the ship is, I could raise it from the water and use it to carry us to Eldaris.”
Calain stared off as it occurred to her. “Ah.” She looked down at Zelda. “Then what are we waiting for? Let us make haste!”