Chapter Eleven: Long Shot

Being stuck in her room all day grew dull quickly, and it was two days before Fiyero was able to get away and sneak her the books he'd spoken of. Some of the books were in another language. He told her it was the language of his people before they'd finally given into the pressure and assimilated to the common language of Oz. He didn't know much of it, but it didn't much matter. She hadn't had much hope in a set of old books, anyway.

Still, one afternoon as the hours dragged on, she sat on the floor of her room and sounded out the words, though they felt strange on her tongue. The letters came together beautifully, making an almost musical sound just in speaking. For a moment, she was focused only on the noises coming from her lips and she didn't notice the broom floating on the other side of the room.

The broom had been sitting there since the night Sarima had walked in on them. She'd taken the dustpan but had neglected to take the broom and Elphaba wasn't exactly keen on speaking to her to inform her of such a thing. Now, it drifted in midair. Curiously, Elphaba wound her hands closer to herself and the broom moved towards her. She changed the motion of her hands and it hovered in the other direction. She stared at it, wide-eyed.

Clearly, the spell she'd chanted was a levitation spell. She'd known one, but it had been incredibly difficult, even for smaller items. This had been two lines of text, and she hadn't even realized the power was coming from her until she saw the broom. Other times when she had cast spells, she'd felt drained and an intense pressure had crushed her mind. This was freeing.

She looked towards the time. Dinner was almost upon her. She had to find a way to get Fiyero to her room as soon as they finished eating. He needed to see this. And he needed to be there when she figured out what else this book could do.

That evening, she approached him immediately after dinner. The representatives and Sarima still sat near her. She placed herself on his lap seductively and drew her lips to his ear. "I need you in my room, my sweet. I don't think I can wait." Aware that all eyes were on her, she pressed her mouth against his and kissed him. "I'll see you soon." She slunk out of the dining hall and rushed to her room.

It didn't take long for him to follow. "What in Oz has gotten into you tonight?"

She grinned. "You knew right away something was off, didn't you?"

"I haven't spent all that time in your bed for nothing." Fiyero sat beside her. "Is something wrong? I know you wouldn't have behaved that way in front of everyone if there wasn't a reason."

"Come here and let me show you." She pulled the book off the bedside table and chanted the same spell, watching in glee as he stared in amazement at the desk hovering inches of the ground.

"You did that?" He couldn't take his eyes off of the desk. "That… wow."

"Exactly." She was practically bouncing with joy. Nothing had ever come so easily to her as this. Carefully, she set the desk down. "I don't know what else is in here. And I didn't want to try anything without you here. I don't exactly know if it's safe."

He grabbed her by the waist and buried his face in her hair. "This is incredible."

She couldn't help but smile. She felt like a giddy teen – something she wasn't sure she'd even felt when she was a teenager. "When you told me about these books, I thought it was a long shot. But I'm starting to think you might've had an idea there."

"Try another one." He said.

She flipped through the pages until something stuck out to her. As she chanted, she watched the broom in the corner again. This time it burst into flame.

Fiyero leapt up and stomped it out. "Maybe I need to find a village elder to translate this before you try more. You were right when you said it might not be safe. We can't have things just lighting themselves on fire." He took the book from her gently.

"It has to be someone you trust."

"I will find someone."

"When? They're watching you, Yero."

"Then maybe the King and his mistress need to go for a romantic walk around the grounds and slip away for a little bit. That is, if you can pull off another scene like you did this evening." He grinned at her and pressed his lips to her neck.

She moaned softly. "It was almost fun."

"I loved it," he told her, kissing his way down her shoulder. "You should've seen the way some of those guards looked at you."

"Well," she murmured, falling back onto the bed as he nudged her, "it might be advisable to, you know, continue the little charade. They think we're going at it in here, anyway."

He tugged her dress down from her shoulders and it pooled at her waist for a moment. "I was thinking the same thing." As she yanked his shirt over his head he held his hands up, bringing them right back to her waist when she tossed his shirt to the floor. "Besides, that behavior had me a little excited. I want you to be inside you so badly right now."

"I would be happy to accommodate you." She wrapped her arms around his neck as he kissed her, opening her mouth when he probed with his tongue. Her hips were already pressing against his, pleading for him as he used one hand to finish removing her clothes as they continued kissing.

"You are beautiful, you know." He told her as he caressed her breasts, teasing the tips with his thumb.

"Shut up," she replied, pulling at the clasp on his pants and tearing them off of him. "I want you. Sweet Oz, Yero, I'm already soaked for you." She took one of his hands and slipped it between her legs.

He bit into the tender skin of her shoulder and groaned as he explored her, finding her just as eager as she'd promised. "Gods, you are. And I'm sure you can tell I'm hard for you."

"Oh, I can feel it," she pushed her hips against his again. "Do you want to do something about that? Or are you just going to let your hands do what your cock wants to do?" She spread her legs open eagerly, looking up into his eyes and feeling entranced by the desire she saw there.

He drove into her smoothly with one swift stroke and she gasped. Fiyero buried his face in her neck for a moment. "I can't keep away from you. I don't know what it is, Fae." Then he began to move slowly, at first.

She could tell he was teasing, trying to get her to beg him, but she wouldn't. Not tonight. She opened her legs wider to allow him to go deeper. "You don't have to keep away. Do what you want with me."

He took her invitation and pinned her hands with one of his own. He took one of her legs and placed her knee on his shoulder. "I'm going to make you feel me for days."

"I don't think I care right now." She liked the feeling of relinquishing control. It made her feel free, unburdened by the responsibilities of having to make decisions or take action. So little of her life had really been hers to give up control to anymore, and so much of what she'd had to do made her feel like less of a person. But she was willing to give up control of her body, at least to him. Nothing about him, about being with him, made her feel like she was less of a person. This was different than all the other times she gave up control – to the Resistance, to her family, to all of those nameless individuals who had looked at her deformity as something that made her sick or evil. As he pushed further, she hissed at the mixture of pleasure and pain as he pressed against her inner walls, driving into her harder. But the pain was sweet, in its way. And she tossed her head back against the pillows as he moved so fast her body couldn't possibly keep up. Her body sizzled and exploded over and over as he took her harder and again. "Oh Yero, I do love you."

"I know," he murmured softly, nibbling at her lower lip.

She scratched down his back as he moved, his body gliding into hers, making her feel pleasure she couldn't control as he drove into her over and over, making her cry out until there was nothing left, until her body felt like it was dissolving beneath her into a million little pieces and she felt him in her bones.

When it was over, he collapsed beside her, panting heavily. "Tomorrow, then, we'll head into the village? Maybe at dinner you could come over and pull me away."

"Or you could pull me away. It looks too much like I have control over you if I keep interrupting. You need to look powerful, Yero. And you certainly are." She laid her head on his chest and rested herself against him. "Tell them you need to relieve a little stress and then come to me. I think they'll understand. They've had you in meetings for days. And they might just think that's your way. They know nothing of your culture, Fiyero. This could be normal, for all they know."

"I wouldn't mind if it was," he whispered.

She ignored that. "Then I'll just stay in here and wait for you to find me tomorrow? Because if looks could kill, the looks that your sisters-in-law gave me when I practically jumped you at the dinner table would've killed me on the spot."

He snorted at that. "Let them be jealous. I have no responsibility to them. They're lucky I let all of them move in. Sarima asked and I obliged. If she hadn't wanted them here, they'd be moping about in the village. Although maybe they'd have husbands of their own and wouldn't pester after me so."

"Did you realize what she intended when she asked for them to move in?"

"It was after she got pregnant with our first child. I thought she just wanted help with the pregnancy and then the baby, to be honest. I didn't understand her games, or exactly what our marriage meant. She got pregnant within a month of us being married. Like I said, she's very fertile. By the time I figured out there were other reasons she wanted her sisters here, it was too late. The night they moved in and I approached her, she turned me away and tried to send me to one of her sisters' rooms. Bearing my children was an honor to her, not the sex. So when she was already pregnant, she didn't care much for it. And she wanted her sisters to share in her honor…"

Elphaba winced at the thought. "I know that's how things are done, but that does sound sort of terrible. Not the part about cheating or polygamy, but the fact that those women think that's all they are good for. That's almost sad, in a way."

"It's a product of their upbringing. I worry Nor will end up the same. I'm thinking of sending all of them to boarding school when they're old enough, so they can learn what life is like outside of the Vinkus, so they can become their own people."

"That's a very nice thought," she told him. "I never see you with them."

"That's because you lock yourself in here whenever we're not together. Sometimes, for a few minutes in the morning I'll try to teach Manek and Irji to fight, or get Nor to draw me a picture. They're pretty resistant to it, though. I think the way their mother and their aunts talk about me, as if I'm some sort of higher being that they must worship, I think that causes them to be afraid of me. I realize that wasn't Sarima's intent. She just wanted the children to know how important they are, why they're special. But instead, she's gone and scared them away from me. But she doesn't mind, for she has them all to herself."

"Do you wish she hadn't?"

"I don't know. I have enough trouble handling the tribe. I don't know how good a father I'd be." He seemed sad at that, and she didn't know what to say so she only closed her eyes for a moment and listened quietly to his heartbeat as it slowed back into resting rhythm, as hers must be doing as well. As she drifted off, she thought maybe she heard him whisper, "I love you, Fae," but she couldn't be sure.