Chapter Two

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Kaddar woke up stiff, cold, and wet. His back hurt from being pressed against the tree for so long, his leg hurt from where Kalasin had so ruthlessly planted her boot heel, and the light drizzle and the gray of the pre-dawn sky did nothing to cheer him up.

Part of him just wanted to fall back asleep, but with his current aches and pains, that would be impossible. He realized that the rational solution would be to get back up and drag himself back into the palace and take a nice, hot bath, and then possibly go to sleep in a real bed.

Kalasin made a little mumbling noise in her sleep, kicking him in the leg again. Resisting the temptation to just leave her there (because if he did, this lovely little excursion would have all been a waste), he hooked one arm under her knees and the other under her back and picked her up. Westwind and Sari had long since deserted their humans, and left for the warmth and dryness of the stables.

Which left him to carry her all the way over to the doors, or at least, trying to carry her without severely injuring himself. Small and delicate? The thought almost made him laugh. Kalasin may have looked small and delicate, but she hardly felt that way.

After fiddling with the lock with one hand, Kaddar noted with relief that somebody had unlocked it. He swung the door open…

…and found himself face to face with one of the people he did not want to see right now. "…I can explain."

Zaimid gaped at him. "Explain what? I knew you and Kalasin have certain, ah, dynamics, to your relationship that I can't quite understand, but surely there were better times for outdoor trysts than last night! The poor girl is almost blue. What did you do to her? Tie her up to the tree in the middle of the pond?"

Kaddar almost dropped her. "Dynamics? Relationship?" He glowered for a moment, and then drew himself up to his full height. "Kalasin and I do not have dynamics. We do not have a relationship. And we were not having an outdoor tryst!"

Zaimid gave him a look. "Oh, of course. Trysts have to be willing. And I don't blame her for seeking a little alone time, if you are into bondage and torture techniques."

Kaddar glared. "Speaking of bondage and torture, I've been wanting to show you around the new dungeons for a while now. Something tells me you would enjoy the place greatly. Lots of rats. Festering diseases. Chains. Skeletons."

Rolling his eyes, Zaimid smirked at him. "Actually, no. I think that would be a perfect place for you and your lovely Kalasin to release some of your pent-up sexual frustration. I have no doubt that she'd jump at the chance to chain you up, for a change. In any case, I must take my leave now. See, I have better things to do than fulfilling my strange whims on an innocent girl. Unlike some others I know."

Fuming, Kaddar took the stairs up two at a time, until he and the still-sleeping Kalasin had arrived at their chambers. Pent-up sexual frustration, my foot, he thought with a scowl. And I do not have strange whims.

Still muttering to himself, he dumped a soft towel on the bed so that Kalasin wouldn't drip all over it and deposited her unceremoniously on top of it. Half-expecting her to come awake and yell at him for handling her less than gently, he winced. Instead, she rolled over, shivering slightly.

Kaddar sighed and gathered extra blankets from around the room, tucking them around her until she was encased in a warm nest. Then she made a happier sound, wrapping herself a little tighter. He stared at her for a moment. Kalasin was very high-maintenance. Not like a zebra at all. More like a cat.

Part of him wondered if Kalasin could purr.

He had been around Zaimid for too long.

Kaddar left her alone to sleep. A hot bath sounded very appealing right now.

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When Kalasin woke up, the first thing she realized was that she couldn't feel anything except cold and blankets. Which was why she yelped aloud, startling a robe-clad Kaddar out of the book he was reading.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. "How did we get here, why am I cold and wet…and…did you undress me?"

If he had expected to hear anything, it wasn't that. "I did not undress you! Your clothes are just wet all over, that's all!"

Kalasin clutched the blankets close, and was relieved to note that all articles of clothing were safely on her. "How did you know they were wet all over?"

"I noticed as I was carrying you all the way over here." Kaddar was starting to get fed up. First Zaimid, now Kalasin. Why did everybody think he wanted to ravish and/or undress somebody? Couldn't he just be a lonely, asexual person in peace?

Kaddar shook the last thought out of his head. It wasn't safe to entertain such notions unless one was drunk. "What makes you think I'd undress you?" he asked, genuinely curious. "I don't exactly express my feelings by stripping someone's clothes off and hiding them around the room."

Kalasin shrugged, sitting up and wrapping her arms around her knees. "You're a man," she said dryly. "A stubborn one, with a streak of strange Carthaki humor. What am I supposed to expect?"

He smirked at her. "Don't give yourself airs. I wouldn't exactly ravish you right now."

"Why?" she asked, sounding hurt.

"You're cold, wet, wearing black riding leathers, you're also not in the best of moods, and your hair is knotted and stringy right now."

Kalasin gave him a look. "If I was warm, dry, happy, my hair was brushed and gleaming, and I was wearing a red silk nightgown, would you?"

He gave her an inscrutable gaze. "…If you wanted me to."

"Oh." She fidgeted slightly.

"Go back to sleep. I'll be in the study if you need me." He reached out, as if he was going to touch her hair, and hesitated, pulling his hand back.

Kaddar left quietly, leaving Kalasin alone with her now-troubled thoughts.

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