Kall-Su wanted up and away. Away perhaps from Schneider's uneasy presence, away from the insinuations and the questions that he did not want to answer. Schneider made him answer anyway, just to prove he could. It became important, somehow, to prove his mastery, when someone else had tried to wrongfully assert their own on what clearly belonged to him. He was angry, in a way, at Kall-Su for allowing that mastery. For taking that pledge. He believed him when he said it was for the sake of the girl. Naive of him to think Ramlah wouldn't have killed her outright if he'd laid eyes on her. Schneider was considering it himself. The mere memory of her drew more of Kall-Su's loyalty than his own supposed death had. He wouldn't act on the whim, though. Kall would hate him for it. Yoko would. He did not wish to engender those particular hatreds.
"You're stubborn." He complained, silk voiced and dangerous in his passivity, when Kall refused, yet again to give him the painful details that he wanted.
"Leave me alone." Kall hissed, fed up with the interview, mortally embarrassed at the subject, emasculated by his position in this exchange, pressed in his corner of the bunk, naked save for the sheet he held like a shield in front of him. The lantern light made him all golden and soft, his eyes loomed huge and blue, filled with trepidation and just a tad of uncertainty. Just a tad of fear of Schneider. Which was as it ought to be, really. Schneider hated the thought of himself becoming the passive, domestic creature that Yoko dreamed of making him. He hated the notion of people taking him for granted. His blood boiled for violence. His power was a leashed angry thing inside him. His enemy was not at hand. Kall-Su was.
"Why? It was a crime against you, wasn't it? You didn't let him lay hands on you, did you?"
"Bastard." Kall hissed at him, furious. "No. I told you -- no!"
"Yet you followed him around like a dog on his heels -- for how long?"
"Go to hell?"
"Been there. I like it here better, thank you."
"Why are you doing this?" Desperation crept into Kall's voice. Bafflement. He had expected succor and found -- what? Suspicion, anger -- jealousy? Schneider thought about the latter, curious over the implications. Thought about the utter smoothness of Kall's white skin when he'd run his fingers over it, banishing the wounds. Thought about Ramlah's dark hands on that same lovely skin and ground his teeth in rage.
He leaned forward, resting his palms on either side of Kall's tucked knees, making Kall-Su draw back into his corner, glaring daggers at Schneider for the invasion of his space. He put a knee on the bunk and slunk forward, like a big cat on the prowl. Kall's shoulders pressed into the wood and the daggers faded to a great deal of unease.
"I was afraid you might be dead, left alone to face them." He purred. "I forgot the length and breadth of your resourcefulness. You always were quite adept at whoring yourself out to the powers that be when I was out of the picture."
"Don't ---"
He lifted a hand and pressed his fingers over Kall's lips to quell the retort.
"Did he keep you alive for your magic?" he slid his fingers around Kall's cheek, down his neck to the curve of his shoulder. "Or for the use of this smooth body? It's hardly occurred to me before, what a valuable bargaining chip you have, with this skin, and this hair, and this perfect face."
"God, DS-- what do you want to hear? I don't know what to say to you, when you won't hear the truth. Yes, he wanted my body. Maybe --maybe more than he wanted my magic. But so did you when you took me in, so what's the difference?"
Schneider grinned at the blush staining Kall's cheeks. He ran his hand down the back of Kall's arm, enjoying the discomfort, enjoying the mere feel of his skin. "Yes," he agreed. "But I didn't want to fuck you -- at the time."
That did it. Kall cursed under his breath and shoved at Schneider violently. Schneider swayed backwards, clutched at the sheet and took it with him when he toppled backwards onto his ass. Which left Kall-Su with nothing but long, well-shaped limbs to cover his modesty. There was nothing like conflict to bring Schneider's already surging libido to a head. The jealousy, the anger, the possessiveness, the curiosity all melded together and with a lazy grin and focused intent in his eyes he lunged forward, warning as he did.
"No magic. They'll sense it." Which was all fine and well, and probably all too true. Not that he cared at the moment. All he really cared about was not having the ship sunk out from under him when he had other goals in mind.
He had the advantage all round. He was bigger, heavier, stronger, and most definitely had surprise on his side. What Kall was expecting, he didn't know, but he was most certainly more interested in grabbing that sheet back than he was fending off Schneider. Schneider clasped him about the knees and dragged him away from the wall and onto his back before he fully realized what sort of contest this was to be. Then his eyes got wide and his lips pulled back into a snarl of purest frustration.
"DS -- get off." Kall hissed at him. Kall was all writhing silky skin under him. God if he wasn't softer than Yoko on the outside, but underneath that layer of softness there was all hard muscle and fascinating power. Women didn't have that sort of strength to make the challenge interesting. Women had other things that made it worthwhile.
"You let him." He caught a wrist and pinned it over Kall's head.
"You --- ass." Kall sputtered, enraged, indignant. "I let him do nothing. It was against my will. Can you understand that?"
"Would it be against your will with me?"
That stopped him. That made his blue eyes widen. The both of them lay there, panting. Kall-Su aghast or overwhelmed or baffled beyond words.
"But ---" he faltered. "You want --?"
"Hummm." Schneider agreed, shifting a bit, lowering his head so that his hair fell like a curtain around Kall's face. He remembered the kiss in the whore house. It had been lingering in the back of his mind for some time now. He covered Kall's lips with his own, open mouthed and demanding. Wanting the hidden secrets inside. Kall's lips parted, but he was passive, allowing the intrusion, allowing the exploration but not participating. He was trembling. Trapped under Schneider's weight, he was merely allowing the inevitable to wash over him. As long as he was powerless, he was a victim, and damn him to hell -- that wasn't what Schneider wanted. Not really.
Without breaking the kiss, he tensed and rolled, reversing their positions, felt of a sudden the heady weight and warmth of Kall's body pressing him down into Amir's feather mattress. Kall had to put his hands out for balance. His palms flat on either side of Schneider's head, his fingers tangling in the mass of silvery hair that spread out under him. Schneider kept one hand on the back of Kall's head, and let the other roam down the expanse of his back. He'd had a boy or two before when there weren't pleasant enough looking women about, back in his days of conquering the world -- or the small part of it that had been available to him. There had been a time he'd have fucked anything on two legs, as long as it looked good and smelled reasonably nice. Whether it was willing or not hadn't been an issue. He was well familiar with the concept of rape. He'd raped as many partners as he'd had willing ones. He'd rather it not be like this now. He'd rather a little receptiveness from Kall-Su.
And perhaps with the reversal of their positions there was. Perhaps he even heard a little moan issue from the depths of Kall's throat, and felt a definite return pressure of mouth and tongue. His hand slid over the mounds of Kall's rear and he sighed in contentment. It was quite, quite the nice ass and he was in the midst of fondling it more fully when the door slammed open and Amir burst in for a second time, brimming over with some trivial news that was libel to get him killed. The pirate captain stopped, stared and let for a moment a smug smirk spread across his dark face. A rather, I knew it all along, smirk that Schneider started contemplating spells to get rid of.
Kall rolled off him with a hiss and a rapid gathering of protective sheets.
"How do you want to die, Water rat?" Schneider laced his fingers behind his head, lying there on his back with a most impressive erection straining against his robes.
Amir made a deep and obviously contrived bow. "As much as I hate to interrupt your pleasures, oh great one,-- but there's a sand storm brewing and we've got to get out of here now. Might there be a chance of a little magical wind to help us and the other vessels on our way?"
Kall whispered something that might have been a very nasty curse under his breath.
"Get out." Schneider suggested smoothly to Amir. "Go and put up the sails or pull up the anchor or whatever."
Amir gave him a look and a dark frown, but followed his suggestion nonetheless. Which obedience gave Schneider some small bit of satisfaction until he was kicked rudely and none too gently off the bunk and onto the hard deck.
"You ass!!" Kall-Su glowered fiercely down at him. "You self-serving, arrogant ass!! What were you doing? What were you doing?"
"I thought it was rather obvious." Schneider growled, but it was more under his breath than anything else.
Kall stared, then dug his forehead into his palm like he was trying to compact his skull. "Get out!" he hissed. "Go brew up a wind."
Schneider wasn't sure he liked the tone of command. He wasn't certain he wanted to break this off as it was. He detested starting things that he couldn't finish. The ache at his loins was a damned insistent voice yammering at him to just take what he needed and be damned with everything else. Of course he'd hate to get interrupted in the pursuit of that by the arrival of the Black March. Oh, that would be oh so very annoying. He lifted his brow and tossed Kall-Su an imperious glare.
"We'll finish this later."
"We will not!!" Kall hurled back. "Gods, where are my clothes?"
"Gone. Find something of the water rat's." Schneider suggested, climbed to his feet and stalked out the door Amir had shut on his way out.
Up on deck and the sense of underlying magic hit him like a slap across the face. There was a darkness on the horizon in the direction from which he'd reacquired his ice mage. Ramlah, no doubt, looking to take him back. He wondered idly if Kall was that good a lay, or if he'd mortally insulted someone to the point that justification of this was warranted.
He called a wind to lift him into the air, taking vague notice of the people scurrying to pile into the ragtag assortment of river vessels moored at the docks of this soon to be extinct town. Figures huddled, crowded upon the deck of Amir's ship.
He sent out a tendril of exploratory magic, testing the magnitude of power approaching and found it to be daunting. He hissed in frustration -- forcing himself to listen to the reasonable part of his mind that warned against confrontation at this time and hating it. Absolutely loathing the notion that there was something out there stronger than himself.
He spoke a curse word, then followed it by the recitation of a summoning. He called forth a wild wind elemental that strained and rebelled against his leash on it. He brought it under control with a savage twist of his will. The sails filled with air. Those ships already out into the river's currents sprang suddenly ahead. Those still at dock, pulled at their moorings. Amir's ship broke free, wafting out into the current, its great sails taught with Schneider's wind. He thought he saw Kall-Su on deck, one pale head amidst a hundred dark ones. He swooped down and hovered off the side of the ship. People cried out in dismay at the sight of him, muttering wards against evil, pushing against each other to distant themselves from him.
Kall shoved his way to the rail, face pale and worried. He could feel the power coming their way, too. He'd felt it up close and personal for too long a time.
"The water will deter them." He called over the sound of snapping sails, whistling wind and rushing water. "They've no tolerance for it."
"Stay here." Schneider ordered.
"Where are you going?" Kall looked appalled.
"Up." Schneider said. "To appease curiosity."
"DS -- no! You can't face them all."
"I didn't say I was going to."
"They'll sense you --"
"No they won't. Stay." He shot up as if propelled by more than mere wind, not willing to stay and argue with Kall-Su.
Skyward; high enough where the town was nothing more than a diminutive collection of brown splotches and the river was a narrow, gently winding snake, decorated with tiny black scales that were boats. The sandstorm was a rolling tidal wave of earth. A damned lot of earth to move by the force of magic alone. A mile long swath of destruction that left nothing but a cloud of sand and dust in its wake. A cloud impenetrable by the eye. He watched it wash over the town, watched the shapes of buildings disappear, eaten up by the sand. The river almost stopped it short. It coiled and fumed and spilled over across the water, wasting its sand and earth and wind against the currents. Those boats lagging in their retreat were caught by the weakening tendrils of it. Tossed about and ravaged, the sand scouring wood and flesh and bone. People died down there. It surged along the banks, after the fleeing vessels, sacrificing its power and its momentum as the outer edges of it surged out over the water in the vain attempt to catch the boats closest to the shore. The parts of it that lingered over the river withered and died.
"Fuck this." Schneider cursed, offended. He cared not a whit about those people down there, cared not whether they all lived out their lives or died, but he did care about scores being made against a side that he had tentatively taken. Any side that was against Ramlah was his side. And he hated to see resources of his squandered.
He spat out the words of a summoning spell, hovering there in a tense, angry fit while the creature he wanted strained and rebelled against his call. Not a weak elemental this one. A damned surly, damned powerful one. It surged into the sky around him, scattering the wisps of high clouds, whipping Schneider's hair and cloak about him as if he were at the center of an angry storm. He was. It was a wind elemental he had called forth. A massive, broiling one that could do more than whip up winds to carry ships to dubious safety. This one was a brewer of storms. This one had the force of tornadoes and hurricanes at its beck and call.
You presumptuous, pitiful human creature. It railed at him and Schneider smiled grimly and compacted the force of his will, twisted it in his incorporeal hands and heard it bellow in pain.
Yes, hateful master. What do you wish of me?
That was better. Schneider jabbed a finger at the turmoil below. "Stop that. Force it back from the river. Squash it, if you can."
The elemental gazed down, the faint outlines of its features screwed up in consternation. I cannot stop that. It stated simply. The power that feeds it is beyond my ken.
"I didn't ask for you opinion. I asked for your obedience. Go and try." It enraged him, the calm prediction of its weakness in comparison to what Ramlah had wrought.
The advantage it had, was the river did not daunt it. It swept down over the water and forced the sands back from it. There was a clashing of winds that formed a swirling, snarling black mass there at the shores that rose like a funnel high into the sky. Schneider felt the bitter grate of them and stubbornly refused to put up more shields than he already had. He might have lent a hand, save that he didn't want to fight Ramlah's creation, he wanted to fight Ramlah himself, and to waste himself against that mindless wall of sand would gain him nothing but a disadvantage when the lord of the Black March finally did show himself. Summoning this elemental cost him little but the effort to control it.
His creature sputtered out eventually, no match against the sandstorm, but it had served its purpose. It had allowed the ships to reach the safety the far side of the river afforded. It could rail and sulk on its side of the Nile as much as it pleased.
It was something of a victory. Not much of one, but enough to make him feel a small sense of satisfaction. If he'd had a willing partner down there on that ship, he'd have gone down and assuaged the hard-on that had never quite gone away, and that the small victory had compounded. Fighting always made his blood surge. Arshes had always been more than willing to fulfill his needs. She had understood them. Yoko did to an extent, but was less willing to prostrate herself for the mere sake of his physical urges. He wished she were here now, instead of that annoying, prudish ice wizard who'd gotten under his skin and then refused him the gratification of allowing him to scratch the itch.
He cursed and glowered down at the tiny speck of Amir's ship. Damn Kall-Su anyway. Sex was sex was sex. It didn't make him any less of a man that he wanted it with Kall, who looked 18 and was pretty as a girl anyway. A hole was a hole as far as he was concerned and as long as he was the one plundering it, he had no qualms about it. And it wouldn't even be breaking his promise to Yoko. Not really. She'd said no women. Distinctly made him promise not to have another woman while he was having her. He remembered the pledge in vivid, dreadful detail. She'd bullied him into it and no one ever bullied Dark Schneider into anything. No one but Yoko, who he had a weak spot for. Who could make him promise silly things like no sex with women other than her. She'd never said he couldn't have Kall-Su.
It was just a matter of getting the damned ice wizard to agree to it. Well, maybe not much of an agreement was required, but he truly would prefer it not to be a flat out rape. Kall had obviously had his fill of that. A fight he could handle, though. A fight he would relish. He'd work on it. If Yoko was his weak spot, then he was most certainly Kall-Su's. Always had been, in one form or another. He knew it and had used it to his advantage on more occasions that he could even begin to remember. Now he merely had a different goal in mind.
He dropped back down to the ship. Sat down on a rocking deck drenched with water and stray bits of sand and dirt. The folk on deck were huddled, clutching to each other, holding tight to whatever was bolted down to keep themselves from being flung over the sides. The winds were still ferocious. From this angle the sky was dark and covered in ominous clouds. He'd been above them before -- or they'd gathered at the behest of his dwindling wind elemental. A bit of rain spattered down. It wet his hair and made long strands of it cling to his face and neck. He caught a sailor by the arm and demanded.
"Where's the other wizard?"
The man babbled something, scared witless. Terrified of him as much as anything else. Schneider let him go and stalked for the portal leading down to the lower deck. Kall-Su met him in the narrow dark passage on his way top-side.
"What did you do?" Was the immediate accusation.
Schneider shrugged and kept walking, smiled and refused to turn to the side in order to squeeze past the younger wizard, leaving Kall no choice but to back up and bitch at him at the same time.
"They'll know we're here, now. You weren't supposed to do anything, DS!"
"Oh, well."
"Oh, well? Are you insane?"
Another shrug. He'd been called worse. "He didn't know it was me. It could have been you that called it, for all he knows and he knows you came this way anyway."
"And that makes it all better?" Kall was pissed and a little scared. But not of him. Which could have been a good thing or a bad thing. He caught Kall-Su's shoulder and swung him around and against the wall. Planted both of his hands on the wood at either side of the younger wizard's head and stared down with thinly veiled speculation.
"Much better. It keeps him interested." He allowed a smile to touch his lips. "And if he's interested, he'll follow where we lead, now won't he?"
"And we want this?" Kall licked dry lips nervously.
"A little interest can be a dangerous thing." He leaned closer, grazing his lower body against Kall's hips just to let him know that Schneider's own interest had not faded. Kall got an offended look in his eyes. He pushed against Schneider's chest in frustration.
"DS -- this is not happening. Get off."
"I'm not on." He refused to budge, liking the feel of Kall's flat, hard tummy against his oh so sensitive erection. "You'll know when I'm on."
Something jolted into his chest. Cold as hell and hurtful. He took a painful breath and staggered back into the opposite wall. Drew a hand up to the frigid spot over his heart and felt actual damage done to the tissues around that organ.
"You little fuck." He hissed. "That hurt!"
"Good." Kall hissed back. "Keep your mind on the matter at hand."
"This is the matter at hand." He grinned even as he healed frost damaged flesh. "And I was just thinking about having a fight with you. Thoughtful of you to initiate it."
"Damnit --DS --"
"Ah hummm. I do hate to keep interrupting you --" Amir stood at the end of the corridor, a wan smile on his lips. "--But, I've a proposition to discuss."
Kall-Su looked his way blandly. Schneider snarled and wiped damp hair off his face. "It better be a damned good one." He muttered, then as an afterthought, jabbed a finger at Kall-Su and said coldly. "You, I'm pissed at. Don't talk to me for the rest of the day." Then strode down the hall while Kall was blinking at his back in surprise.
Outright physical coercion wasn't working very well, perhaps a little mental manipulation might get better results.