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By Michele aka Ygraul Verdemorte |
Chapter 8. Nightmare |
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eleri was already asleep by the time Zhou had dismissed him and sent him off to bed. Pendaran nearly fell over in exhaustion as he tugged off his boots. He fumbled with the long rows of buttons, once more reminded that he hated the elaborate Adept attire. It made even the simplest task a weighty chore. Still, he consoled himself that his master was well pleased with his work and had lavished rare praise upon him. Shivering in his nakedness, he used the jug of cold water and the washstand to remove the grime and strain of the day. Despite the chill of winter, his heavy attire made him sweat miserably while he was indoors and he was not about to inflict that upon Teleri. He finished his ablutions and slowly drew back the blankets, grateful for her warmth as he carefully drew down beside her and pinched out the lone candle on his bedside table. In a less considerate time he would have gathered her against his chest but instead he shivered quietly while curled on his side, consoled by the slow sough of her breath. Teeth chattering, he tried to distract himself from the biting cold by reviewing the day’s events. His eyes burned with weariness and he closed them, immediately feeling the pull of sleep. Gratefully he gave himself to the swelling tide of dream, the chill of his sore and weary body falling away and the reassuring caress of forgetfulness carrying him to a finer place. The familiar toll of bells matched the slow beat of his heart. The colors of twilight swathed the unknown shore in lavender and star-strewn blue as the waves surged frothing onto the black sand and curled around his bare feet. “So lightly you destroy my gift,” keened a distant voice. Fear surged through him and he backed away from the thrust of the tide, scrambling upward onto dry land. He felt her everywhere, watching and tensing to strike. “Leave me alone!” he cried, “I owe you nothing!” “You owe me your life,” Threnody sang. Pendaran fought to awaken, running now over coarse stones and biting grass. “Where do you think you are going, my love?” Crying out, he slid to a halt, narrowly avoiding slamming into her. Pale and ghostly, she towered over him as he lost his balance and landed on his back. With unnatural grace, she leapt astride him, his arms pinned beneath the chill press of her knees. Horrified, he lunged against her frigid weight, his feet churning up the sand as he sought for a purchase. She pressed her cold hand over his mouth, muffling his panicked cries. “Shhh, my love. You are but a mortal. You cannot hope to escape from me.” He could not dislodge her and to his utter disgust his body grew tense with lust as she surged against his pelvis, riding him with a wicked glint in her pale eyes. Sickened, he lay still, turning his mind to his last moments of freedom, to the horror of the jade cave and the sensation of drowning. Tears rolled down his temples as the heat left his loins. She had betrayed him. He had never wanted to belong to her. “Do you like the body I gave you, my love?” she murmured, pressing down over him now so that her chill breath curled against his throat. He wanted to vomit as the taste of her salty fingers invaded his mouth. “Please leave me alone.” “I gave you something precious and you squandered it, my love,” she murmured, a dread weight over his chest as she lay atop him, her brow pressed against his temple. She drank of his tears, kissing him lightly and growing warm with the stolen heat of his body. “I am not your love!” he mentally screamed at her. “But you must be,” she hissed coldly, the pressure of her palm withdrawing from his jaw and her fingers tracing the lines of his face, “or I will take away all that I have given.” “Take it, then!” he roared at her, “I am not yours!” She reached for a gleaming silver key on an intricate chain around her neck. He stared at it in horror as she dangled it before his eyes, its green gems flashing in the twilight. “Come to me on the new moon, or I will destroy it.” “I hate you,” he sobbed. “Ah my love, you break my heart, but you will be mine.” “Pen!” Threnody loomed over him through a blur of tears, her lips closing over his mouth as he screamed, thrashing desperately to escape her vile touch. “Pen! Wake up, darling.” He gasped for breath, his body shuddering with adrenalin as he lay upon his back. Teleri sat beside him, her gentle face lined with concern in the candlelight. “You must have had a terrible nightmare, sweetie,” she said, smoothing the tears from his face. He was so grateful to see her. As he tried to say her name, a shuddering sob of grief emerged from his throat. Her eyes glistened with compassion. “I nearly lost you. I didn’t want to die, I wanted to be with you. I would have done anything. Gods, what have I done?” “Breathe, my love,” she said, slowly scooting back onto her side and drawing him against her, “Let me hold you.” He felt mildly foolish as he rolled over to face her, nestling against the warmth of her breast and belly like a frightened child. Drawing the blankets over them, she pressed her arms around his shoulders, stroking him as he wept and fought to regain his composure. “I love you. I will never leave you,” he breathed when he grew calm once more. He touched the silken roundness of her belly and she reached for his hand, holding it tenderly. “Do you want to talk about your dream?” “It was nothing. I’m just very tired.” “Get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow,” she said sweetly, kissing his forehead, “Zhou won’t begrudge you a sound sleep, not with as hard as he had been driving you.” “I have so much to learn…” She kissed him silent and he yielded to her, his fear forgotten as he lay warm and contented beside her. But he was weary beyond measure and somewhere in the middle of the second kiss he drifted away, dreaming of the two of them curled together like napping children in the sticky heat of a warm summer day.
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