Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.kei.com!ssd.intel.com!ichips!ornews.intel.com!ibeam!hutch From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) Subject: [OFFER] (Sorceress/Lover) Message-ID: Reply-To: penny@agora.rain.com Organization: Fearless Vampire Thrillers References: Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1993 16:02:26 GMT Lines: 181 [ADMIN] (Posted for Penny by Steve Hutchison because of brain rot on agora.) This post was written 60% by Andrea Evans and the rest by me. Previously: ar'Elya has invited Kadrys to her private resting place and has asked his help in putting together a child. He has just finished a wrestling match with A'ree... When she had closed the door behind her, he glanced around. The room had changed again. He was lying flat on his back, not on furs but on stone. The stone was oddly warm to the touch, warm enough to be comfortable, but still it was a hard resting place. He tried to get up, and found his limbs would not move. Ancient, instinctive fear seized him as he turned his head with difficulty, saw the lines of a Circle of Containment. He looked up and around, making out the jumble of a wizardly workshop. The fear tightened for a moment. Dasham was still too recent a scar in his mind. He swallowed convulsively at the memory of her shoving that rusty saw again and again through his flesh, slowly mangling his throat rather than cutting it. He looked around once more. No, this was quite a long way from Dasham's workshop. Where she had evidently specialised in vivisections and necromancy and the cruel magics that had to do with the avoidance of age, the materials here were very different: bundles of drying herbs and wildflowers. Mortars full of arcane spices. Crystals spilling the light into countless rainbow fires. Scrystones and mandalas and dreamcatchers. Then, from somewhere on the floor above his head, where he could not crane his neck to see, there was a rapid scrabbling. Small clawed feet skittering across the stone toward him. His eyes rolled and he strained without success, trying to see what it was before it arrived and started to eat his face. Then, clawed forepaws planted themselves on his brow, and a tiny red snout peered upside down at him, looking into his eyes with wondering jewelled orbs. A dragonet. It snuffled smokily at him, cocking its head as if making up its mind. It lifted its head, twining it back over its wing and chirruping encouragingly. A flutter of wings, and an entire flock descended on him, backwinging and landing delicately. Their tiny claws were just on the comfortable side of sharp. Their light scratching tingled on his bare skin as they settled on him in a cloud, blue gold green red silver violet, kneading his skin like glittering kittens, twining their pointed tails, arching their necks to rub their chins against his ribs. Inquisitive noses sniffing at his fingers, forked tongues licking at his ears, paws pacing the length of his legs and arms, heads reaching down to preen him, nibbling daintily at his skin. Kadrys stifled a burst of laughter. "Hey! That tickles..." He twitched his muscles, but the dragonets liked that game, pouncing on the movements and licking at them, wings half-extended and fluttering for balance as they squeaked with excitement and hung on. Then, it struck him. He should've been able to control his reaction. Dammit they shouldn't be getting to him like this, making him want to laugh so hard. Some magic affecting him? He pursed his lips, mimicked their chirruping call with eerie accuracy. The same red dragonet that had called down its fellows was still leaning against his forehead. Its head swivelled down toward him, and he reached for its eyes with his own, intending to find out what was happening. A ripple of laughter. Musical, and free of any hint of mockery. He looked up and saw a woman in a long white robe, embroidered with arcane symbols in gold thread, matching the shining waves of hair that flowed over her shoulders. He craned his head, and looked down, seeing himself covered from head to toe with crooning dragonets. He couldn't help but laugh with her. "Now, now, my dears. I think it's my turn..." she smiled softly. The dragonets unfurled gleaming wings and rose into the air en masse, swirling around her like a cloud of darting swallows, before following each other one by one out the window in a rapid multicoloured stream. The red one rubbed its head down Kadrys' cheek like an affectionate cat, before flying after its fellows. The smile that had illumined her face as she watched the dragonets leave, faded into a soft, sad expression which she turned on him. "You were afraid. They sensed it, and came to you, to comfort you. Why were you so afraid? Here, of all places?" A sombre expression in answer. A faint nod indicating the circle. "I'm imprisoned." She tilted her head, a gesture oddly reminiscent of that of the dragonet. "But you held Aree motionless. Did you expect her to fear you?" "No, but..." he sighed. "I've done a lot of suffering at the hands of mages." The sadness did not leave her eyes, but the smile returned to her lips. "Let's see what I can do, shall we?" She raised her hands, and light streamed upwards from the circle. Kadrys felt the stasis fade from his body, until he was free. And the next moment, he realised with a shock that the sense of weight kept right on fading. Light as thistleseed, he rose, floated above the ground. He gave her a bright, unselfconscious grin, his eyes wide with wonder at the sensation, floating while not in the mistform, flying while not in batshape. She stepped into the circle and soared towards him. Her hair radiated in all directions from her head, shining like a sungoddess' fire. It rippled with her movements, as if she were underwater. And from the tingling of his scalp, he knew his hair was doing the same. She reached out her hands to him as she drew near, and he grasped them. The sigils on her robe flamed briefly, and the graceful silk faded to gauzy transparency, shredded and dissolved into mist which faded away. To his delight, a surprisingly voluptuous body was revealed, which jiggled and bobbled most deliciously as she came closer. The flame of her magic reached out to him, drew a glowing response from his senses. Her hands dripped and ran with liquid light, trailing lines of fire down his flesh. An exquisite tingling pleasure raced through him at the touch. His arms wound themselves round her slender waist, and drew her closer, tracing her lush curves both above and below. Together they spun through the air, rising with languid grace, soaring as one, united in a slow, celestial dance. Her hands gripped in time with his deep, surging movements, kneading his skin like the dragonets had done, pressing her fire into his flesh, until his whole body and being was ablaze with unearthly, magical bliss. Until he could bear it no more. Until he gave a cry like a deeper echo of her dragons' crooning, and bent his head to her throat, sealed their union with a kiss. Gold... Her eyes were like blazing drops of purest molten gold... He laid the depths of his soul bare to her. Showed her prized gems from his hoard of secrets. Giving her the memory she desired. ...The first time he made love. Not the first time he had been engaged in sex, oh no. Forget that bastard Tash. No, the first time he had made love. Mistress Chrysti. Ahh, yes. A lonely woman, with the purse to command the attentions of a boy working the street as an acrobat and contortionist. He had been earning a few coins with his act, and at the same time, distracting the spectators' attention from the other lads, who skimmed the crowd he drew. And then, the sound of her carriage slowed by the crowd, drawing to a halt, her coiffed silhouette at its window throughout his performance. Her hand raised to beckon him over. His hands tight with her gold, his balls tight and hot with eagerness as he rode in her carriage, his hand toying delicately with the lace of her underskirts. Following her up to her bedroom, a desperate display in lace and frills suited to a girl years her junior. Saddening, or it would have been, if she herself had not been so very hot and skilled and demanding. After his first flood of brash passion had been spent, she had taught him the uses of his hands and his mouth, gave him the knowledge of positions and variations, and then taken him through her stock of oils and toys. It had lasted all afternoon and throughout the night that followed. By the morning, he knew he had emptied himself into her, leaving her drowsing in the pink halflight of dawn, satiated at last. Tash had taken the money, of course, but that had not mattered. He had the memory. ...That memory, and others, he shared with her. The ache of separation, the bliss of reunion with Imariye', making love to her for the first time, the night of her confirmation into the priesthood that had cast him out. And many, many more. Lovers down the ages. Bittersweet, an endless reaching for flowers that were snatched from his hands and withered by the winds of Time. Stretching from that ancient past, to the Founder's Day party, and Kardia. - She slipped slowly away from him, floating out of his arms, stroking him into calmness with a smile as he moved to reach for her. He hovered where he was, watching her rising higher, her hair flowing around her, covering her in golden light. The light built, until it flared with golden force like a furnace. He could only dimly make out the shape at the heart of that fierce glory. It was so blurred it could have suggested another shape than the human one. Something as graceful as her firedrakes. And then the light was too much for him, and he had to close his dazzled eyes. [ADMIN] This article and all characters are copyright 1993 by Andrea Evans and Penny Hutchison.