“Why were you there?” she asked. “Why was Dendri Adiron at a simple grade school test out?”
“I wish I could explain it to you. I cannot even explain it to myself. The principal asked me to watch the tests, joked about me proctoring…and I just said yes. It was fate, Yasra. Part of your power as a Necromay is the ability to sense the future…to feel the paths of fate. Perhaps this was all destined. It is said the spirits that surround us help guide us to our fated paths. Perhaps my mother guided my hand that day. Perhaps there is someone guiding you as well. As you become more practiced you will be able to see those that surround you.”
“I don’t think there’s anyone who cares about my fate surrounding me. I don’t know anyone close to me who has died who would give a damn about me.”
His lips tugged down at the corners.
“You really have been all alone all of your life, haven’t you?” he said softly.
Yasra looked back to her coffee cup, shifting with discomfort in her chair. She didn’t want him to feel sorry for her.
“I don’t need your pity,” she said.
“It’s not pity,” he said sternly. “It’s compassion. Do not fault me for feeling emotions on your behalf.”
She was quiet a long minute, feeling ashamed of herself for her mulish behavior. He didn’t deserve it. He himself had done nothing to deserve her causticness. The only negativity attributed to him had come from the mouth of a woman who was supposed to have been his friend. She should not take the words of another over him or his actions. She wasn’t being fair.
“It was your shoulders,” she said quietly, looking up and tumbling into the rich green of his eyes. “I saw you across the way and I thought of how powerful and handsome and virile you looked…and wondered what it would be like to hold onto your shoulders…to feel their strength as you came up against me. Then the next thing I knew they were calling my name and you were standing next to me. You touched me and…”
She didn’t finish. She didn’t need to. They both remembered quite vividly what had happened next.
There was the sudden sound of metal scraping against stone as Dendri shoved himself out of the wrought iron chair and came around the table. He caught up her hand and yanked her up out of her seat and against his body. He was tall and hard, his body unforgiving in its strength and power. And yet she melded with him softly. Perfectly. Her body connecting to his as though they had embraced thousands of times and learned how to get it just right.
“You tempt me mercilessly,” he ground out, his mouth bare inches above hers, his breath cascading over her lips. “And the funny thing is, I know you don’t mean to do it. God help me if you ever figure out the power of your allure. The ways in which you could use it against me.” He wrapped a strong hand around her waist, using the grasp to pull her lower body into deeper connection with his.
“I would never do that,” she whispered. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt anyone.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt me. I meant to hold sway over me. To have the power to drive me to distraction. To tempt me beyond my ability to cope.” He brushed his mouth against hers, the warmth of his lips fleeting. His breath smelled of coffee and she wondered if he would taste of it as well. “Damn it all to hell and back,” he hissed, suddenly stepping back away from her. Confused, she instinctively stepped to follow him, but he held up a hand and stayed her. He closed his eyes briefly, looking as though he were engaged in some sort of internal struggle.
“Good morning!”
Bess chirped out the greeting as she entered the room. Dendri’s eyes opened and she suddenly understood. He had sensed Bess’s imminent arrival. He had stepped away to spare her any embarrassment or discomfort. It had also been incredibly difficult for him to do so.
He turned his back on her and walked back to his chair, drawing it back up to the table and sitting down casually.
“Good morning Bess. I trust you slept well,” he said. But his voice, for all he was trying to come off casual and easy, was rough with unrealized desire. The scorching way he looked at her that next moment only solidified the impression.
Yasra sank down into her seat, her skin feeling uncomfortable and warm on her body. She wished Bess had not come in right then. What had he been planning to do? Would his hands have been on her? His mouth? Would he have been satisfied with just a kiss? Just a touch?
She didn’t think so. She didn’t think so because she wouldn’t have been satisfied with it.
“I did,” Bess said. “But Yasra steals the covers and I get chilled.”
“How very unkind of you Yasra,” he said with amusement softening the heat in his eyes. “If you like I can have one of the maids bring you extra blankets so you may have covers all your own, safe from the thief beside you.”
Bess giggled. “That’s all right. There are extra covers on the bed in the adjoining room. I can use those.”
“As you wish. But remember, if you ever have need of anything, you only need to ask and it will be provided for you.”
“Thank you,” Bess said. “You’ve been very kind to us.”
“Every woman deserves the opportunity to be spoiled and treated well. I want you to feel like you are at home here since you will be here for the next little while. I was thinking you might want to return to your bedsit and pack up more clothes and things for a prolonged stay. You can go while Yasra and I conduct our lessons today.”
“All right. But I was hoping that I could watch you one day, during your lessons.”
Yasra’s face flared with color. Every time she and Dendri had a lesson, they ended up in an intimate situation of some sort. But Bess was innocent of the undercurrent of sexuality charging the room between her and Dendri, so she did not see the devouring amusement with which he regarded her.
“There will be plenty of opportunity for that,” Dendri said.
“I suppose so,” Bess said with a little sigh. “Very well. I will pack for both of us. You can trust me to get everything you need.”
“Of course I trust you,” Yasra said, reaching out to give Bess’s hand a squeeze. “I wouldn’t trust anyone else.”
“I will get Bicky’s toys as well. I forgot them yesterday and she kept attacking my toes through the bedcovers last night.”
“That must have been before Yasra stole them,” Dendri said with a chuckle.
Bess laughed. “It was.” Then after a moment, “I liked your friends last night. They were very nice for the most part.”
“For the most part?” Dendri asked.
Bess was startled to be caught on the phrase. She exchanged a brief look with Yasra.
“Bess is usually very uncomfortable around majji,” Yasra said, rescuing her. She didn’t want Dendri to know what Olla had said to her. She would digest and resolve that matter for herself.
“You shouldn’t be,” Dendri said to her. “Most of us can be quite pleasant.”
“I liked Wil a great deal. He is very charming.”
“And he knows it,” Dendri said. “Wil never lacks for good company. Especially women.”
“I can see why,” Bess said. “Have you been friends long?”
“Almost our entire lives. Since before we tested out.”
Yasra was surprised at that.
“Before either of you knew what houses you were from?”
“Before we showed even the slightest aptitude. I guess you could say we were nons when we met.”
“That really is a long time!” Bess marveled. “It’s nice to have a friend like that. I don’t know where I would be without a friend like Yasra.”
“You’re a good soul with a kind heart. Anyone would want to be friends with you Bess,” Yasra said with feeling.
Bess blushed under the compliment and reached to cover it up by pouring herself a cup of coffee.
“Well, I don’t know about that, but we’re good friends and that’s all that matters.”
“Wil is like a brother to me. He even vexes me like a brother,”
Dendri said with a crooked grin. “But if I am cross with him one moment, it is gone in the next. I want you to consider him a friend as well. Both of you. If you need help or even just a shoulder to lean on…in my absence you should feel free to use him.”
“We will,” Bess beamed at him. “Won’t we Yas?”
“Yes. Of course.”
Tudman entered the room just then, a silver tray on his fingertips. He lowered the tray to Dendri and a letter sealed with wax was folded upon it.
“Thank you, Tudman,” Dendri said, picking up the letter and reading the seal and signature on the letter. There was an almost imperceptible wrinkling of his brow. “Excuse me, ladies,” he said, getting up and leaving the room with the letter.
Dendri walked out of the morning room and broke the seal on the letter. The missive was from triumvir Mason, pressing Dendri for a response on the matter of the rogue majji they had discussed. Dendri tapped the missive against his fingertips in uncharacteristic irritation. He didn’t like to be pressed like this. He understood the critical nature of things…he understood that it wasn’t just about a single rogue majii.
Delongo was gathering an army of degenerates, becoming a genuine risk to the comfort of the triumvirate. If he should decide to act even more aggressively than he already was, it could mean an act of civil war. Sarens fighting against Sarens. True, the Sarens in question were most likely unworthy of the title, but that was splitting hairs. It was possible that any discontented majji or nons might flock to Delongo’s banner…not taking into account the monster they would be siding with.
No. The sooner he was put down the better. Dendri understood the triumvirate’s impatience.
But he had yet to have a discussion with Yasra on the extent of their connection…and the risk involved to them both if he decided to go after this rogue. He would not make a move without her full understanding and her full agreement.
He walked to his study and wrote a short missive, pressing the triumvirate be patient. That he would message them with his decision before the day was done.
He would have a long talk with Yasra today while Bess was away.
Chapter Eleven
Yasra was pacing back and forth in the music room. Dendri had sent her a note asking her to meet him there to begin their lessons for the day once Bess had left for their bedsit. Tudman, he had said, would inform him she was waiting for him.
She had been waiting for the better part of fifteen minutes, anxiety finding a deep home in her belly. She didn’t know why she should feel anxious. But she did have this sense that things were going to be difficult once he arrived. She didn’t know why, she just did.
He walked into the room a minute later, his presence invading the space like a storm…dark, powerful and intense. He crossed to her in three long strides, reached for her arms and grasped them, jerking her body up against his. He swooped in for a searing kiss, his mouth like a brand against hers, his tongue delving deeply. Darkly. It was pure, unadulterated hunger. Hunger for her.
After long, aching minutes, he broke off his mouth from hers and set her back to arm’s length.
“That was what I wanted to do before Bess interrupted us this morning.”
“Oh,” she breathed.
“Actually, that’s an incomplete statement. That was one of the things I wanted to do to you. There is a host of others riding hot on its heels. However, before I can indulge in that, we have other things we must discuss.”
“All right,” she said, feeling a little dizzy from his words and all their sultry meanings. “What would you like to talk about?”
He regarded her for a minute, then reached up to brush back one of her dark tendrils of her hair. He did it so softly, so thoughtfully. It was clear there were heavy things on his mind. She reached up and wrapped her fingers around his wrist.
“What is it?” she pressed.
“Do you understand, in entirety, what it means to be part of a Gestalt couple?”
“I…I don’t know. I have hardly had any opportunity to absorb the shock of it. I was going to find some reading material on the subject, but I haven’t had the opportunity. And anyway, any information I found would be a hundred years old at best. That was when the last Gestalt couple existed.”
“This is very true. But I have done extensive research on the topic. I once wrote a dissertation on the subject of Gestalt coupling and the reasons why I believed we had not seen one in such a long time. It was an arrogant piece of fluff in the end,” he said, waving it off. “What did I really know about it? No one knows. No one alive anyway. No one but you and I.” He reached up with his thumb and traced the gentle line of her jaw, stroking her softly. “But I do know this much…for it was in all the material I ever found on the subject. Once a Gestalt couple connects, once their power meshes and is given birth, they become forever interdependent on each other from that moment on. It is called the Nature.”
“Interdependent?”
“It means that, should I die, it is very likely that you will die shortly after. And the reverse is also true. The stronger the Gestalt connection, the truer that becomes. If I am injured severely, you too will become debilitated. If you fall ill…”
“You will fall ill as well?”
“I will weaken.”
Yasra stared at him wide-eyed. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to think. She had not expected this kind of revelation. Now she knew why she had had that feeling of foreboding in her belly.
“But that’s not fair,” she whispered at last. “Why should you be punished just because I grow weak?”
“It’s not about what’s fair, sweetheart. It’s about two people being so connected on a visceral level that each cannot thrive without the other.”
“You mean like a parasite living off a host,” she said bitterly, Olla’s words from the night before coming back to haunt her.
“No. Not at all. It is more like a symbiosis, Yasra. Neither of us is stronger than the other as far as this connection is concerned. We are equally committed.”
“That’s not true! You are a hundred times more powerful than I am! You are far better able to protect yourself than…oh my god. Is that why you have me under such a close guard? Because you know if something happens to me it will weaken you?”
“No! Do not think that for an instant!” he ground out fiercely. He grabbed for her hands, grasping them tightly. “The guards are for your protection, not for mine.”
“But it’s true that now you have an exploitable weakness. Any one of your enemies will know the fastest way of hurting you is to hurt me!”
He wanted to deny it, but he couldn’t. She could see that in his eyes.
“You have to be patient with yourself,” he said gently. “You cannot expect to know everything about how to protect yourself--how to manage your majic--all at once. I don’t expect it. Are you now, as you say, an exploitable weakness? Yes. For the time being . But that won’t always be the case. Given time—.“
“Time! How much time? How long before I can defend myself and protect you by doing so? What will you do in the meantime? Hope for the best? Hope I don’t fall into the hands of an enemy? You must have some. All powerful majji have enemies. I know my parents do.”
“Yes. I have enemies,” he said quietly but firmly. “I will not deny that. But we cannot live in fear of them. We can just be wise and careful and protect you during this nascent time. That is one of the reasons why I will not have you going anywhere without me or without someone to guard you. Not to protect myself,” he said quickly, “but to protect you. I will not have anyone using you as a means to get to me. I am sorry…I wish…I wish this could be different. I wish I could come to you as clean of burdens as you are coming to me. If anyone is to be held accountable in this, it is me. You worry about how little you bring to this joining? I worry about how much I bring to it. It is grossly unfair to you that you should be burdened with the flaws in my life.”
Yasra softened when she saw the
heavy regret in his eyes. She reached up, pushing back a lock of his long dark hair where it had escaped the tie at the back of his head, tucking it behind his ear.
“What a pair we are,” she said quietly. “We are so very mismatched. This Gestalt makes no sense. You deserve a powerful partner. Someone who can protect herself.”
“You will be able to given—“
“Time,” she finished for him. She sighed. “I know you say I have to be patient, but it scares me to think you could be hurt through me.”
“The reverse is also true,” he said pointedly.
“But you are powerful and can protect yourself. You have no one to fear.”
“That isn’t true. No one is all powerful. There are those who could easily hurt me if they had a mind to. My power does not make me invulnerable.” He paused. “And there are times when…when I am asked to do things that are actually quite dangerous.”
“Asked? By whom?”
“The triumvirate.”
“The tri--! The triumvirate asks you to do things for them?” She was all agog.
“Yes. They have many of the most powerful majji available to them for a variety of reasons.”
“What kinds of things do they ask you to do?”
“Well…in a few days’ time I will be helping in the negotiations of a peace treaty between the Sarens and the Kiltians.”
Yasra gaped at him. She hadn’t even considered the things he did for others. But what had she expected? He was the most powerful Aspano majji on their continent. Who else would the triumvirate go to? How else would he be making his fortune?
“There is something else they wish me to do for them,” he said hesitantly. “But it is far more dangerous than sitting and making certain the Kiltians are negotiating in good faith.”
“What is it?”
“There is a rogue Aspano majji…Fenri Delongo. They want me to hunt him down and bring him to justice.”