"Rise and shine, Goldilocks."
Another familiar voice. Deep, rumbling, and a little irritated. She mumbled something that was supposed to be "I'm awake," but in her half-sleeping state came out "Muh wayg," and dug a little deeper into the warm bedcovers. The room flooded with light as the curtains were thrown back and the shutters flung open. Lehnah started and threw a hand up to cover her eyes.
A smug chuckle in that same deep voice. "Don't sit up too fast. Aadh made you some breakfast, and I wouldn't want it to end up on the floor."
Lehnah blinked the sleep out of her eyes and saw Enduun, Aadhlei's foster brother, leaning against the windowsill and fixing her with the same arrogant grin he always seemed to have when she was around. Enduun was the epitome of the golden boy; shoulder length flaxen hair shot through with golden feathers, large amber eyes in his hawk-like face, and fair, creamy skin. Enduun was a blacksmith, and his physique showed it. His long frame was well muscled, his upper body almost hairless from years at the forge, his large hands calloused. When she first met Enduun she had fallen for him almost instantly and tried every trick she knew to snare him, but nothing had worked. No matter how much or how little skin she showed him, or the "accidental" brushes of her body against his, the sly looks, the whispered promises, all were shot down with that damned smug smile and a sarcastic remark. And the more he brushed her aside, the more she had wanted him. Enduun was the only man who had ever seen through her, seen her advances for what they were: a cat and mouse game.
Her last attempt at his seduction had been over a year ago, when she'd "accidentally" let him catch her in the garden sunbathing in the nude. Aadhlei had been on one of her bi-weekly excursions into town to bring a new shipment of potions and powders to the shop, and Lehnah had been more than happy to take advantage of the opportunity to be alone with Enduun. She had wandered into the garden in a silken dressing gown, exaggerating her movements ever so slightly. She took long, slow steps, swaying her hips gently. She lay back on a long stone bench in the back garden and shrugged the robe off, so that it draped over the stone slab like an altar cloth. She lay there, nodding lilies brushing her toes, a fluttery feeling in her belly, feeling like an offering to some divine presence. Surely there was no way Enduun could say no to her like this. She had picked her position carefully; Enduun would have to pass her to get from the house to the little building in the back that served as his forge. Her skin tingling from the noonday sun, Lehnah had waited, the perfect honey pot, carefully stretching into an alluring yet casual pose. A gentle breeze drifted through the garden, stirring her hair and rippling through the lilies that brushed against her toes.
"Let me guess," Enduun rumbled, "trying to prevent tan lines?"
Lehnah opened her eyes and saw him standing perhaps twenty paces from her. His arms were folded over his thick chest as he regarded her with a nearly unreadable expression on his face.
"But then you don't tan, do you Goldilocks?"
Lehnah's stomach tightened, feeling a strange mix of exhilaration at the knowledge that his eyes were on her body, and a peculiar apprehension that stemmed from that unknown expression on Enduun's face. Lehnah put on her best coy smile and stretched a little, arching her back. After all, her breasts were her best assets.
"I am a solar creature, 'Duun," she purred. "The more light I can get, the better."
She swung her legs around smoothly, watching as his face colored almost imperceptibly and his eyes flicked away to avoid a glimpse of her most private parts. She stood, smiling, pleased that she had finally elicited some reaction from him. She planted her hands on her hips and looked up at Enduun through her long eyelashes. "Besides, the view isn't that bad, is it?"
His eyes locked on hers and bored into her. "You never quit, do you?" he asked softly.
"Now why would I want to do that?"
He made a low growling noise in the back of his throat. "Put your clothes on, Goldilocks. Or go peddle your wares somewhere else."
Her entire face had lit up as if on fire. She gritted her teeth and balled her hands into fists, absolutely furious. "What, you don't like women, is that it?" she spat. "What are you, a faggot?"
Suddenly the smile was back on Enduun's face and it made Lehnah's blood boil. "The kitten finally shows her claws," he cooed. "And to answer your question, Goldilocks, I like women just fine." The smile faded and his brow creased. "I would quicker bed a pit viper than you, milady. A viper, at least, doesn't hide its nature behind a honeyed tongue. You're dangerous, little girl. You're a scorpion with a fine pair of tits."
Lehnah shivered as her skin prickled hot and cold, a knot in the back of her throat and another in the pit of her stomach. She took a shocked step back as Enduun closed the distance between them in a few quick ground-eating paces and took her jaw firmly in his hand. Her face was tiny in his large, rough hand. He was close enough to kiss, his large golden eyes boring into her. His gaze was so intense that she trembled. She was a dove in the hands of a hawk, and she was afraid.
"I've never hurt a woman, nor do I intend to, little girl, but I am warning you right here and right now to stop this game. Go find yourself a nice little stable boy or a farmhand to bed and discard, provided your bed won't be reduced to kindling if you put another notch in it." Enduun put his mouth directly to her ear and whispered, "I will not be your plaything."
He released her chin and exhaled sharply. He looked down at Lehnah, naked and shaking like a leaf in a hurricane and sighed, picking up her robe and thrusting it into her arms. "For god's sake, put some clothes on and go inside."
He had stalked off to his forge, leaving Lehnah swaying on her feet. Lehnah had stood there for another moment, dumbstruck and then had quickly pulled her dressing gown on and fled inside. She had never felt so humiliated, so furious, and so utterly exposed in her life. Her eyes burned with tears as she stumbled up the stairs and into her room. She had thrown herself onto her bed, burying her face in the pillow until her sobs had quieted and her stomach stopped churning. Finally, a dull pounding in her head, Lehnah had dressed and tossed most of her clothes into a leather satchel. She practically sprinted down to the stables, feeling an apprehensive shiver as she heard the echoing clangs of Enduun's hammer coming down over and over onto a chunk of hot metal, and saddled her horse.
She rode the gelding fast down the beaten dirt roads, desperate to outrun her humiliation. It was miles before the wind had dried all her tears, but her jaw remained firmly clenched and a leaden weight remained in the pit of her stomach. Every time her mind called up Enduun's words, Lehnah pushed the horse a little faster, letting adrenaline flood out her rage. How dare he?, was all she could think. How fucking dare he?
She was so lost in her own anger that she nearly ran down the young man before she saw him. She reigned in her horse at the last minute, the farmhand throwing his arms up and shouting something that was lost in the nervous whinnies of her horse.
"What the hell is the matter with you?!" she shrieked, jumping nimbly off her mount and launching herself at the dumbstruck man. She shoved him hard and he staggered backwards. "What the hell is your problem?"
She shoved him again and he fell into the thick grass beside the road. Half a dozen grasshoppers launched out of the grass, startled by the impact. He was babbling, his hands up in a defensive gesture. Surely this woman was crazy.
Instead of backing off, Lehnah jumped onto the man's stomach and began pounding his chest with her fists. "I could have killed you!" she screamed as she pummeled his chest. "I could have run you down you horse-brained moron! Is that what you want? To be trampled to death with your brains mashed into some backwoods road?"
The young man had finally had enough and his shocked paralysis broke. He grabbed Lehnah's wrists and strained to hold her still. Lehnah only fought back harder, thrashing wildly, trying to wrench herself free from the man's grip. "Let go! Let me go, goddamn you! How dare you, get your hands OFF me! How DARE you? HOW DARE YOU, YOU BASTARD?!"
"Miss, calm down!" The young man tried to make his voice heard over Lehnah's shrewish spitting and cursing. "Please, miss! I didn't-"
Still she fought, seeming to be caught on three words – "How dare you?"
Lehnah shook and twisted, seeing not a startled farmhand beneath her, but Enduun. That great blonde bastard with the holier-than-thou smirk and the unshakable amber glare. How dare he humiliate her like that, belittle her, accuse her of being nothing more than a common whore. How dare he refuse her? Now there was the root. She had never been turned down by a man. Ever. And rejection did not sit well with her.
The farmhand finally had enough and he jerked her wrists down, bringing Lehnah's face down to his so hard she nearly head butted him, and shouted "Stop it!" directly into her stunned face.
Panting, Lehnah finally came to her senses, seeing the face so close to her own was not 'Duun's, but a lupine man with a wild shock of black hair and bright green eyes. He stared at her dumbly, not knowing what to say now that she had finally quieted, and unsure of the way the woman's eyes slowly searched his face. He slowly released her wrists, and not knowing where else to put his hands, took her gently by the shoulders. "Are you," he stammered for a moment as Lehnah's hands found his chest, almost appraising the years of farm muscle there, "are you alright, miss?"
Go find yourself a nice little stable boy or a farmhand to bed and discard, Lehnah heard in the back of her mind. And maybe she would. Maybe she would.
The hands on Lehnah's shoulders began pushing her back gently, but she had other ideas. She grabbed his neck and pressed her mouth hard onto his, quite possibly securing the farmhand's theory that this woman was mad. Not that he cared much about her sanity by the time she was through. The farmhand was young enough that his hormones still had a firmer reign of his actions than his mind, and he was easily swayed to the woman's needs. Lehnah had bedded the farmhand in the grass by the old dirt road while her horse simply wandered ahead to crop at the greens.
Enduun cleared his throat loudly, bringing Lehnah back to the present. He smirked, making Lehnah grit her teeth, and nodded toward the wooden tray in her lap. Herbed eggs on toast, green tea, and a bowl of Aadh's famous apple, almond, and cinnamon honey salad; the smell alone made Lehnah's appetite roar to life. On a normal day, Lehnah would eat Aadhlei's cooking slowly, relishing the flavors (Aadhlei was easily the best cook Lehnah knew), but right now her stomach had overruled her taste buds. She wolfed down her breakfast, foods which Aadhlei had specifically chosen for their restorative properties, saving the tea for last.
"How is she?" Lehnah asked in between sips of the steaming infusion.
"Bad," Enduun answered flatly. He leaned back against the windowsill and tucked his wings tightly behind him. "She's still unconscious, although Aadh woke her up long enough to get one of her brews and a bit of food into her. Nothing much, just oatmeal. We cleaned her up last night, her wounds had to be scrubbed before she could dress them."
Lehnah winced, remembering the extent of the lashings on the girl's back.
"Oh she was unconscious through the whole of it, I doubt she felt a thing." He paused, frowning. "She got…well to put it bluntly she got violent. Gave Aadh a black eye for her troubles. I had to hold her down and Aadh – well, to be honest, I don't know what she did to the woman, but it calmed her right down."
Lehnah eyed Enduun closely, not liking the nervous expression on his normally unshakable features. "The woman, she's got a burn here," he tapped a long finger underneath the hollow between his collarbones. "When Aadhlei touched it, that's when she went crazy. Did you see it?"
Lehnah shook her head. "No. I don't remember it anyway. But I didn't have much time to get a good look at her."
Enduun nodded and continued. "Well, when Aadh touched it, she said she saw things. I don't think she told me all of what she saw, but she's pretty shaken up about it. She's seen things before with that healer's touch of hers, but she says it was nothing compared to this."
Lehnah swallowed hard and set down her teacup. "What did she see?"
He sighed and rubbed the side of his face hard. "Some kind of mob after the woman. A dark-skinned man torturing her. She never got a sense of what the woman's name was, but she says the people she saw were all in desert garb."
Enduun fixed Lehnah with a hard gaze. "What the hell happened? What do you know about her? Where did you find her? Hell, how did you get here?"
"That," she said softly, "is a long story."
He exhaled sharply, exasperated.
"Did she say anything?" Lehnah asked suddenly. "The woman, when Aadh woke her, did she say anything?"
Enduun's brow creased deeper, and he nodded slightly. "The only thing she said that I understood was 'Anu be merciful.' The rest was just screaming. She probably won't be able to speak in more than a rasp for a few days." He dropped his hands to his sides. "I can't just stand around here, I've got a lot of work to do. Aadh's got to keep an eye on the woman, so the housework falls to me today." He grumbled a little. "Aprons don't look good on me, dammit. Aadh wants to talk to you once you're dressed. She's got a lot of questions."
Lehnah looked into the dregs of the teacup and sighed. "I'm afraid I've got less answers than she'd like."
Enduun gave her a quizzical look, and then simply sighed. Let his sister deal with this one. "Well, your clothes and things are still here. Aadh always assumes guests will come back and she's usually right. In fact if she gets any more right about that, I'll be building a new wing on the damned house." He chuckled. "Anyway, Aadh's with the girl in the last room on the right," he jerked his thumb at the door. "Come in when you're ready."
He turned to leave but Lehnah called after him. A rather uncomfortable thought had just occurred to her.
"Wait, uh-" she trailed off. He turned back, fixing her with that calm, unshakeable glance that always aggravated the hell out of her. She tried to clear her throat of the sudden lump that had formed there. "Ciry isn't here…is he?"
Enduun's raucous laughter made Lehnah's face color with embarrassment and anger. She gritted her teeth. Cirobenes, or Ciry as he was usually called, was a close friend of Enduun's who had fallen hard for Lehnah when they'd first met a little over a year ago. He was north man, a bori, known for his imposing stature, impulsive behavior, and a surprisingly skilled hand at gem crafts. Ciry had been raised in a mining colony far into the mountains, and the years spent laboring deep underground had given him a heavily muscled physique. Lehnah was used to flocks of suitors, she'd had her fair share clamoring around her parent's estate as soon as she'd hit puberty, even more after her talents had been discovered, so the come-ons from Ciry hadn't exactly been a shock.. She had enjoyed his advances at first, and had even toyed with the idea of sleeping with him after Enduun's final rejection, but there was an intensity to the man that worried her. Ciry was rough, uncouth, cocky, and had a well-earned reputation as a barroom brawler. Quite simply, he was too much for Lehnah to deal with.
Enduun reigned in his laughter. "No, no, he's not been here for awhile. Out checking out a tourmaline mine up in Cogham, not due back for at least two more weeks. You're safe from his advances for the moment, Goldilocks."
"Go to hell, 'Duun," Lehnah growled under her breath.
He just smiled at her. "Tell you what, milady, if you get there before I do, save me a good seat." He left.
Lehnah passed a hand over her brow, feeling the beginnings of a headache throbbing at her temples. Gods, how she hated that man. Ciry might be hard to handle, but Enduun was simply infuriating. She laid her head back against the headboard of the bed and glanced around the room. It was exactly as she had left it, her own home away from home. The walls were a cream white, the floors dark wood, much like the rest of the house. Her bed was simple but elegant, big enough to be luxurious but not so big as to be excessive, and clad in pale gold damask. A filmy white and gold half-canopy draped over it. On the other side of the room, a marble-topped vanity was scattered with little pots of cosmetics and small jewelry boxes. Nearer to the window was her favorite bit of furniture: a gold upholstered chaise lounge that was thick with stuffing and so comfortable that Lehnah had slept on it more than once. Despite yesterday's events and her always-awkward talk with Aadhlei's big brother, Lehnah couldn't help but feel like she'd come home.
She rose, still clad in the same thin dress she'd worn the day before, and rooted through her closet to see what clothes she had left. She dressed quickly; burgundy trousers tucked into soft leather boots of the same color, and a loose, fluttery white shirt. She took no time to brush her hair as she usually would, and instead twisted it into a knot at the back of her head. She secured the knot with twin porcelain sticks and eyed her reflection. The woman that stared back at her hardly seemed to be herself. This woman was tired, confused, and more often than not, angry. There was a time that she would have laughed at anyone who suggest that she were unhappy. Now, however, it seemed her joys were fleeting.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" she whispered her reflection.
The soft cry of a whippoorwill was the only response.