Author: Triane
Disclaimer: Not. Mine. Except Iona. Everything else belongs to someone else.
Summary: Dag and Iona make a discovery, and Iona makes a decision that could change things forever.
"Do we have to go back?"
Dagonet chuckled low in his chest at Iona's petulant expression, and smoothed her wet hair out of her eyes. They were facing each other, Iona in Dagonet's lap with her legs around his waist, in a calm pool made by an inlet of rocks in a small stream, during a long summer's twilight. They had wandered the southern part of the island for the past three days, only stopping in villages to complete their duty to Arthur, but mostly staying to the open fields and wooded areas where there were no people, paying attention only to each other.
"Well, if we don't, Arthur will send someone after us. And they might find us at a…bad time." Dagonet grinned wolfishly and bent his head to nibble at Iona's collarbone, causing her to tip her head back with a sigh and slide one hand to the back of his head.
"That would be…ummm…right. Bad." Dagonet chuckled again, lifting Iona slightly with his hands at her shoulder blades to allow him more access to her body, knowing exactly what to do to pull moans and gasps from her. He lowered her slowly, tortuously, kissing his way up her torso to swallow a gasp from her lips and answer it with a groan of his own as they fit perfectly together, pausing absolutely still for one long moment, their foreheads pressed together and breathing in each other's breath. Iona's voice was a sigh.
"Dag…" Her husband responded by wrapping her tightly in his arms and rocking back and forth with the tiniest movements, just enough to make Iona's breath catch in her throat. Losing themselves in the rhythm, they gradually picked up the pace until the water around them was slapping against the rocks and Iona was crying out with every motion, her lower lip caught between her teeth. She threw her head back with a ragged shriek, her hands clutching convulsively at Dagonet's shoulders; moments later he shouted wordlessly, his face pressed into the hollow of her exposed throat.
For a long moment all they could hear was the blood pounding in their ears and their own harsh breathing, but eventually the sound of the water and the birds around them returned. Dagonet kissed his wife lazily, still trying to catch his breath.
"See? If someone had found us in the middle of that, it wouldn't have been nearly as good." Iona laughed and kissed him again, then stood on shaky legs and slowly made her way to their discarded clothes. Dagonet watched her go with a smirk on his face, then stretched in the cool water and stood, sauntering past her and slapping her backside as he passed. They dressed in comfortable silence, saddled Agravain and Ardin, and then swung onto their horses' backs to ride slowly through the woods in the direction of the fort.
They rode for perhaps an hour before noticing the silence that was falling around them. Iona shot Dagonet a look and he nodded, swinging down off Agravain and crouching beside Iona as they crawled silently towards the edge of the woods. They peeked over the lip of the small hill at the end of the forest, peering down into the valley to see what had startled the birds.
There was a camp. A ragged, dirty, haphazard one of maybe three dozen tents and as many fires, set up in the middle of the valley with no regard to any natural protection the land might offer. It was swarming with filthy, stocky men, most of them with long blonde hair and beards. Iona drew a quick breath.
"Saxons." Dagonet nodded, and they slid quietly away from the top of the hill to take shelter further into the woods.
"About a hundred of them." Iona nodded, her gaze calculating as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth.
"Too many for just the two of us. We need Arthur and the rest." Dagonet nodded and took a deep breath, his mind racing.
"We need to know what they're doing here." An idea dawned in Iona's eyes and she nodded slowly, her mind racing as well. Dagonet watched her face and waited until she finally spoke, staring absently at his belt.
"One of us needs to go down there, pretending to be a spy for them. The other can go back to the fort and get the others." Dagonet frowned at her, already guessing which one of them she meant.
"No." Iona pursed her lips at him.
"Dag, you just said that we need to know why they're here! And if we just blaze through and destroy the threat, we'll never find out." He shook his head at her again, but she reached up and grasped the back of his neck in her strong hand, pulling him down closer to her.
"Dagonet, I know their language. I can pretend that I was sent here several years ago to spy out the land on orders from their king. They won't do anything to me because they'll think their king will punish them if I don't give him the information." Dagonet clenched his jaw.
"Iona, that's suicide. I won't let you." Iona raised a haughty eyebrow, ice in her voice.
"It is not your decision, Dagonet. And it is not suicide. It would be suicide if we went without any sort of plan and got ourselves killed. This way, I'm just making it easier for you to come through with a blazing rescue." She grinned rakishly at him and then softened, smoothing the frown lines out of his forehead.
"Nothing is going to happen to me, Dagonet. We're less than a day's ride away from the fort, so you'll be back by tomorrow night, with the rest of the men ready for some Saxon blood. And I will be sitting, waiting, probably bored out of my mind and ready for some decent company." Dagonet could feel any control he had over the situation slipping away from him.
"What if we both went back to the fort?" Iona shook her head immediately.
"They could break camp and move on, and we would waste time trying to find them, as well as lose time to find out what they're up to." Dagonet huffed at her.
"What if they break camp when you're with them?" She grinned again.
"Then I'll just run away."
What if you can't? It was on the tip of Dagonet's tongue to ask, but he closed his mouth again.
"Wife, you'll be the death of me." Iona smiled at him, a rosy glow warming her heart at the protectiveness and love she saw in his gaze. She pulled him down to her level and pressed her forehead to his.
"You need to promise me something, Dagonet. For both our sakes." Dagonet's heart dropped into his stomach with trepidation, and Iona met his gaze solidly, without a trace of fear.
"No matter how they receive me in the camp, you need to ride for the fort. You can't come after me when it's just the two of us. There are too many of them, and we would both be killed. You need to go for the others, no matter what." Dagonet could feel a lump forming in his throat at the thought of what could happen to her while he was gone, and he wrapped his arms around her as if holding on for dear life, kissing her desperately.
"I can't lose you, Ai." She shook her head confidently, holding his beloved face in her hands.
"You won't. You'll see. You'll get here with the others, and I'll be waiting for you. I trust you, Dag. You'll make a daring rescue and sweep me off back to the fort where we can spend a few days locked in our room." She wiggled her eyebrows at him and Dagonet laughed despite himself, closing his eyes and concentrating on the feel of her in his arms.
"I love you, Iona." She smiled and kissed him softly, her lips just a whisper on his.
"I love you too, Dagonet." With a huge effort he pulled away from her, swinging onto Agravain's back and taking Ardin's reins in his hand. He looked down at his wife, memorizing her face and the way she smiled up at him, feeling as though his heart was still down there with her. He stooped down and kissed her one last time; hungrily, desperately, as if he were a man forty days in a desert. Then he straightened and nudged Agravain forward a few paces, towards the fort, looking back at Iona.
"For the record, this is a very bad idea." She simply laughed and disappeared over the top of the hill, striding down into the valley with confident steps. Dagonet didn't stay to watch, but started to ride immediately. He heard her voice calling out in a guttural language, heard a response from some of the men.
And when he heard a struggle, he spurred the horses to run faster than they ever had before.