Apology to younger readers: When I started writing this story I wasn't sure how it would all work out, so I've had to change the rating as I went along. The following chapter is definitely R-rated - not exactly a lemon but more explicit than a lime. You have been warned!
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'Folken!' Carenza raced across the courtyard towards the familiar tall figure. 'I wasn't expecting you back in Palas so soon.'
He beckoned her into the shadows of a colonnaded walk.
'I'm here on business, I'm afraid,' he said. 'Though the thought of seeing you again made the journey seem far too slow.'
She smiled and hugged him, slipping her arms under the heavy silk-lined cloak and around his waist. He bent his head down to kiss her.
'How are things going?' she asked after a while. 'With your plans, I mean?'
'Something has come up. I can't tell you all the details, but...Van is king of Fanelia now, and he's threatening the empire.'
'Van? Your little brother Van?'
Folken nodded.
'I can't believe it. He was such a sweet little boy - and Fanelia is too small to threaten the mighty Zaibach Empire, surely?'
'I don't understand it myself, but Emperor Dornkirk assures me it is true.'
She shook her head slowly.
'What are you going to do?'
'Wait for him here. He took refuge in a fort commanded by Allen Schezar-'
'Allen's mixed up in this?' She might have known. The blond knight seemed drawn to trouble like a moth to a flame.
'Van was brought up to be king. His next logical move is to try and raise support from neighbouring monarchs, and since he is already in Asturia that suggests they will come here. I must impress upon King Aston that it would be unwise for him to help them.'
'But...he's your brother-'
'I do not want to harm him. I want us all to be together, as allies. Partners.'
'And if he won't...?'
Folken looked down at her sadly.
'It could mean war. A war to end all wars.'
'No...' She hugged him fiercely and kissed him as though she would never let go. After a moment he responded with equal passion. She wondered if he would ever be able to give himself freely, without that initial hesitation.
'Will I see you again before you leave?'
'I cannot say. I have much to discuss with the king and his advisors, and I do not know what will happen once we find out where Van is hiding.'
He kissed her chastely on the forehead and released her.
'Now I really must go. Until next time.'
He turned and walked away, his long black cloak trailing in the dust.
'Until next time, my love,' she whispered.
Carenza fretted all evening, going over and over what Folken had told her. If war came she might lose him for good...Not, she could not bear to think of such a thing. She was not going to lose him again.
Perhaps she could offer to go with him. That was what he said he wanted, for the three of them to be together. Surely she would be safer with him in Zaibach than in Palas? She made up her mind to go to him this very night, before it was too late. After dismissing her maid for the night, she wrapped herself in a heavy silk robe and took the lamp from her bedside table.
There were two of the young Dragonslayers on guard outside Folken's room, just as before. To her relief one of them was the dark-haired boy who had found them together in the music room. He at least might recognise her and let her pass.
'Migel, isn't it?'
He bowed stiffly. She put on her most winsome smile.
'May I go in?'
'It's late, miss. The Strategos has retired for the night.'
'It's really urgent that I speak with him,' she said, letting the robe fall open a little to reveal the lace-trimmed neckline of her nightgown.
The boy looked her up and down and his adam's-apple bobbed nervously.
'I'll j-just go and see if he's awake, m-miss.'
'Thank you,' she murmured.
A few moments later he came back out.
'Lord Folken will see you now.'
Carenza curtsied to him and went in, pretending not to notice the significant glances the two Dragonslayers exchanged. Let them think what they liked. It sounded like they would gossip about their commander's love-life whatever he did; at least now they would have something halfway truthful to go on.
Folken was reclining on a chaise longue in a black silk kimono, reading a sheaf of official-looking documents. He seemed to have been taking a bath; his bare feet were pink and slightly wrinkled from the soaking, and his hair drooped in damp silvery spikes. It made him look much more like the young prince she had once known.
'Carenza, my love, what are you doing here at this time of night? Not that I object,' he added quickly, putting the papers down on a table.
'I want to go with you.'
He cocked his head on one side.
'Go where?'
'Back to Zaibach. If war is coming, I want to be with you. I won't lose you again.'
He swung his feet to the floor and gestured for her to join him on the chaise. She sat down beside him and he put his good arm around her waist.
'I'm not sure that's a good idea, beloved. I'll be out on the Vione most of the time. At least here in Palas you have friends and family around you-'
She buried her head in his shoulder and choked back tears. She had been afraid he would take this tack.
'Hey, don't cry!' He stroked her hair and ran a hand down to her cheek, pulling her chin gently up to look into her eyes. 'It may not come to war. King Aston is a wise man; he knows better than to defy the Zaibach Empire.'
'B-but-'
He silenced her with a long kiss.
'Come on,' he said. 'It's getting late. Time we were both in bed.'
A sudden memory forced its way into Carenza's thoughts. Dared she?
'You remember last time you left me?' she said, her heart pounding in her chest.
'How could I forget it?'
'You promised me you would come back.'
'And I did, didn't I?' He kissed the tip of her nose.
'I-I made you a promise, too. I'd like to keep it.' She smiled coyly and pressed against him.
His eyes widened at the memory.
'Don't you want to wait until we're married?'
'I've waited long enough. Next time you might not-'
'I don't know...' He shook his head, frowning.
'Please, Folken, just one night? You cannot deny me that.'
He sighed and took her in his arms.
It had started so well. They had kissed for a long time, unsure of how quickly to progress. After a while he had stood and lifted her ever so gently in his arms and carried her through to the bedroom. She had coyly looked away as he slipped out of the kimono and between the sheets.
Now it all seemed to be going wrong. The more Folken tried to keep his cybernetic arm from kept getting in the way, the more intrusive it became. He tried lying on his right side, but that proved uncomfortable, and now they found he couldn't lie on his good left side for fear of accidentally clawing her with his free hand. At last he rolled away and buried his face in the pillow.
'I'm sorry,' he mumbled. 'This just isn't going to work...'
'It's all right.' She squeezed his left shoulder and felt the tension in the muscles there. 'Here, roll over onto your stomach and I'll give you a back rub.'
Slowly he did so, burying his right forearm under the pillow for safety, and she knelt beside him, kneading the knotted flesh. His skin was smooth and pale in the lamplight, and there was no sign of where his wings might be.
'Mmm, that's good. A little more to the right, please?'
'Are you sure?' She pressed tentatively at his right shoulderblade, where the cables of his cybernetic arm seemed to burrow into the flesh.
'Yes, just there - ah!'
She pulled her hand back as if it had been burnt.
'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you.'
'It didn't hurt, exactly. I'm just a bit sensitive there.'
'Well I'm going to kiss it better anyway.'
She bent down and planted tiny kisses all around the base of his prosthesis. His skin was warm and slightly salty, with a faint hint of sandalwood perfume. From there she made her way down his ribcage, around the small of his back and up the spine, kissing the tip of each vertebra where it mounded through his skin, all the way up to the nape of his neck. She brushed the strands of blue-grey hair aside, breathing in the sharp herbal scent of his shampoo, and kissed the side of his neck. He was breathing more heavily now.
'Roll over,' she murmured.
He did so, smiling lazily. He raised his head to kiss her, but she placed a finger on his lips and gently pushed him back down.
'Not yet.'
As slowly and deliberately as before, she made her way down his smooth chest, across his stomach and circled his navel. She was rewarded by a brushing against her cheek. Pretending not to have noticed, she made her way outwards across his belly, tracing the line of his pelvic bone with more kisses, paused tantalisingly, then swept her tongue in a single stroke all the way back up to his throat.
'Ready now?'
'Oh yes!'
Carenza raised herself on her forearms and knelt astride him. Folken's eyes widened, and she grinned wickedly at him. She took his right wrist in her left hand and pinned it to the pillow, then pulled another pillow over his right shoulder to cushion herself from injury. When she was happy with the arrangement she raised her hips and lowered herself onto him. He grunted softly and bit his lower lip. She was surprised how easy it was; maybe so-called common knowledge about the pain of deflowering was exaggerated. Luckily Folken was too distracted by his own pleasure to notice. She raised herself again, teasingly slowly, then thrust down hard. Folken gasped and opened his eyes to look up at her. His pupils were huge and dark, like a cat's when it sights prey. She bent down to kiss him, thrust again, and he reached round with his good hand to pull her closer, arching against her until with a yelp of ecstasy he clutched her to him convulsively.
After a few moments he relaxed and let her go. She lay against his left shoulder, panting. Sweat pooled in the narrow space between their bodies.
'I hope I didn't disappoint you,' he said at last. 'I...don't exactly have a lot of experience. My work always took up so much of my time, I never-'
'Me neither.'
He pushed her gently away to look into her eyes.
'You're telling me you never did - that - before?'
She blushed.
'Dryden has a very...comprehensive library...' She started to giggle; the expression of shock on his face was so comical. 'It's very tasteful stuff, nothing sleazy. One of the books even had its...instructions in the form of love poems.'
'I see,' he said faintly. 'It sounds like I had better raid your brother's library myself, if I am to please you.'
She smiled. 'Oh, you please me well enough.'
'But you did not...did you?'
'Well, no, but it was our first time together. Girls can get performance anxiety as well, you know.'
It was his turn to grin wickedly.
'If you were nervous this time, I can't wait to see you when you're relaxed.'
'Folken dearest?'
'Mmm?'
'Can I ask you something personal?'
'What?'
'Why did you never tell me you were a Draconian?'
He tensed in her arms. Carenza cursed herself. Why could she never leave things alone? She always had to open her mouth and put her foot in it.
After a long pause he relaxed a little.
'I wanted to tell you, but our mother always impressed upon us the importance of hiding our wings. She told us people wouldn't understand why we were different, that they might be jealous or scared. So I tried not to think about them. I couldn't tell you in a letter, and I didn't want to tell you that day before I left, in case you...stopped loving me...'
'Oh my poor love,' she murmured. She kissed his chest, and felt him reach down to kiss the top of her head.
'W-would you like to see them now?' he asked after a while.
She craned her neck to look up at him.
'Only if you want to show me.'
'I want to.'
He got out of bed, and stood naked before her, his good hand cupped selfconsciously at his groin. Lamplight gilded his steel arm and spread like honey over his taut muscular form. She had to resist the urge to pull him back to bed and ravish him all over again.
Folken grimaced with effort, then snow-white wings burst from his shoulders, spreading from wall to wall. White feathers drifted to the floor. Carenza's breath caught in her throat. He was so beautiful...She rose and embraced him.
'My angel...' she whispered.
She slipped away in the pearly light of dawn, dodging servants and scurrying up wide empty staircases with the silk robe clutched tightly around her. She was already planning how she might be able to stow away on the Vione.