The Choosing

She would not meet my eyes. I brought her back into the shelter of the cave until the worst of the rain had passed. I felt her eyes upon me as I searched Bandar's satchel for dry clothes. Each time I turned in her direction she shifted her gaze—afraid of me.

I too had cold fear chilling in my veins, not at what I had done but at what I had discovered in Bandar's belongings. The leather satchel held bindings, knives and instruments that I could not name but I knew to fear. Sharp, ugly—made for pain. There was food and several changes of clothes. He had planned to stay for some time. To torture us perhaps for days.

Sadistic and insane—and yet she feared me.

I dressed quickly in Bandar's clothes, using the binding from his satchel to fashion a belt. I tied it off with shaking hands. "As soon as the worst of the rain has passed we'll leave."

She nodded. Her face turned from me. I bundled up Bandar's belongings, binding the satchel flap twice, just to keep my hands busy. "Leia, you need not fear me."

Tears swam in the fear filled eyes that finally met mine. "I know sister that you would never seek to hurt me, but the lightening...it came from your hands...it burnt, it..." She shook her head, unable to finish her sentence.

I swallowed hard and pulled the satchel up onto my shoulder. "I'll check outside, we'll leave soon."

"To Askel? Should we go..."

"No!" She jumped at my shout.

She feared me but not Askel?

That thought stung like a slap. The one responsible for bringing me to Bandar. I cleared my throat. "Askel cannot save us sister. He is part of the problem."

"He would not hurt me."

"No I do not think he would hurt you, but he would use you to get to me. I can't risk it Leia."

"All right." She nodded and squared her slight shoulders. "We'll go then. Wherever you say."

She did not sound so certain, but her words gave me some comfort. "Thank you."

"Where shall we go?"

It wasn't until she asked that my decision was made. "The Night Palace."

"To the Dark Masters? But..."

"To the Dark Prince and his son. We shall seek refuge there."

"Will you willingly tether to him?"

"I'll tether to no one sister. We shall not mention it again. There is no need for the Master's to learn of the tethering."

"Askel said if you..."

I raised a hand and cut her off. She flinched again, cowering like a dog hit once too often. I lowered my hand to my side and clenched it in a tight fist. "Askel said many things. What I say goes now. We'll not mention the tethering again. I can no longer hear the rain. Come let's go."

* * * *

I kept a brutal pace. Leia struggled, but kept it with me. Her breathing labored at times, I slowed but she shook her head and pushed on. Before the evening started to fall we paused to rest. It was the third such night we had done so. The cold dropped quickly like an icy shroud, I made a shelter but did not risk a fire.

Leia huddled beneath the rounded hut I had fashioned out of tree branches. Autumn stripped, the low lying branches were fairly easy to break from the trees. I bent them into an arch, weaving them together for strength. As soon as I had the basic structure I shepherded Leia inside. I continued to cover the frame with branches and vines for insulation. The night was bound to be cold.

"How do you know the way sister?" Leia spoke slowly, wheezing in breath between each word. The sound made me cringe.

"To the Night Palace?"

She nodded.

"When we fled from the Palace Hatha taught me how to navigate."

"Your handmaiden?"

I started to nod and then shook my head. "No, my friend. My guide."

She coughed, it shook her whole slight body.

I crouched down. I had avoided this for days but it seemed I could do it no longer. "Leia." She looked up at me with big deep blue eyes. "You are sheltered well here. I need to leave you now. You need wortroot. I'll go now before it is too dark and find some. I'll brew it for you. Your cough will ease."

She grabbed my arm as I tried to stand. "Be safe sister."

I stroked a hand across her spun gold hair smoothing it down. "I will sister."

Before I left I camouflaged the shelter with leaves. If she could tamp down her cough she would be well hidden.

We had passed a stream not a mile back. If I searched I would find the wortroot there, hidden between the damp rocks. I cursed myself that I had not thought to stopand collect some when we passed.

It was not as easy as I thought to find the root and by the time I had made my way back to camp with the meager offerings I had collected darkness had fallen. The copse I had secreted my sister in was silent. I called out softly as not to scare her with my approach. I heard nothing in return. I called out once more, louder this time. Nothing again.

I broke into a run. I tore apart the shelter, scratching my arms on the twigs and branches as I cleared away the cuttings.

She was gone.

Gone.

"Talia." The voice deep and warm blanketed me in heat as it filled me with fear.

Roth.

I had expected to see him—I was on my way to beg his protection for my sister—but on my terms, not deep in the forest with him holding my sister. I spun around meeting his black eyes with shoulders squared for battle.

He smiled. The corner of his beautiful mouth hooked up in bemusement.

"Where is the girl who sheltered here?" I did not name her sister in the hope that perhaps he had not made the connection.

"Your sister?"

I cursed, slumping my shoulders. "Yes. My sister."

"She is safe."

"I am to trust you?"

He took a step towards me. A wave of heat came with his movement. My knees gave slightly. "Have I lied to you my Chosen?"

I planted my legs, standing stiff and swallowed hard. "By omission Master, yes, you have."

He laughed. A rich sound that rolled over my skin. "By omission. What exactly have I omitted my Chosen?"

It was now or never. I had no more artifice, no strength for subterfuge. So I spoke the truth. "That I am The Vessel. That you wished to use me to bolster your forces against the Queen."

He inclined his head, his hip cocking slightly forward as he did. "You speak treason my Chosen. Tread carefully."

My heart pounded, thumping up to my throat. "Where is my sister?"

"Safe."

"With who? She needs medicine." I held up the wortroot still clutched in my fist. "She is frail."

"She is safe little warrior. She is safe."

The tether mark began to make time with my heartbeat, throbbing under the bandage. I raised at hand to press against the hurt and quickly thought better of it, dropping it down to my side.

"How did you find me?"

"How did you come to be here?"

Neither of us answered. We stood staring, daring each other to break. The tether mark hammered as if freshly beaten into my skin. It could sense him. Feel his power and yearned to harness to it.

"Talia. My Chosen." He stepped forward, gliding with his Master's grace. "I can help you."

I shook my head. On my terms. I wanted to come to him on my terms, not be rescued like some hapless maiden.

"Stubborn," he murmured taking my chin in his fingers. "So stubborn."

He brought his lips to mine. A blast of heat. A surge of power sparked like that of the lightening strike. White hot. The smell of burning light filled the air. I could smell it, taste it on his lips.

He felt it too. "What have you done?" he asked, drawing back to look into my eyes.

"What I had to," I whispered.

He asked no more, simply nodded and drew back from me. "Come. I will take you to your sister."

I followed him without question. Tired. Too tired to fight.

Four tents stood in a small clearing ten minutes walk from where Roth had found me. He had not come alone, three Vandarran Guard were waiting a respectful distance from our reunion. They circled behind me, acting as a walking prison cell.

Leia was seated at a fire. Clean and dressed in new clothes, she drank from a metal cup, carefully sipping the steaming contents. As soon as she saw me she threw the cup with complete disregard and ran to me. My heart swelled to bursting at the sight. There was not fear in her eyes, only relief that I was all right.

"Talia." She threw her slight arms around my waist and nestled her head against my chest.

"Shhhh, Leia. It's all right. It's all right." I pushed her away so I could check her over. "You've been treated well?" I asked as I looked from head to foot checking for evidence of maltreatment.

"I'm good. Better than good. A handmaiden gave me a tonic. Listen, I'm breathing better than I have had for days. Weeks even."

She breathed in deep and I was surprised to hear no wheeze. "That's wonderful, who helped...."

Behind Leia came Hatha. I moved to embrace her and then noticed her face. It was bruised from forehead to chin. A swollen streak of purple black skin. I turned on Roth, stalking forward to point my finger in the center of his chest.

"Who did this? Who harmed Hatha? Was it you? Did you dare? Dare touch her!" My voice lowered, resonating in a powerful bass. Anger coursed, hot and heavy. Roth looked surprised; he stepped back, looking at me with a mix of horror and fascination. "Did you? Did YOU?"

It was Hatha who stopped me. The calm press of her hand to my cheek and the soothing croon of her murmured hum in my ears.

"Calm." Was the only word that I made out in her hum. I sank into the comfort, letting the anger seep away with the sound. When I emerged from the angry fugue I saw my finger pointed at Roth's chest and I recoiled in shock. I blushed. A heated flush coursed up my chest to my forehead.

"Sorry Master," I said snatching my hand away from his body. No one

ever

questioned a Dark Master, let alone poked him.

"He did not hurt me Mistress," Hatha said, "It was not the Dark Prince."

"Oh." I felt a flush of shame at the accusation. "Please, Master, forgive me."

He laughed as he so often had at my breaches of propriety. "Oh, little warrior, you have many tricks don't you? How quick you are to protect those you love. I will not punish you for that." He reached forward and tucked an errant lock of hair behind my ear. "You love big, don't you My Chosen."

He lowered his lips to mine. No burning this time, just a slow warmth that flowed like warm molasses. Thick and sweet. Drunk from his kiss I was slow to open my eyes and as I did I saw him, standing silver tall and proud behind his father watching us kiss.

Nadar.

My dark angel.

He met my eyes and quickly looked away. "Father, the guard has returned from reconnaissance."

Roth pulled me closer, pressing his hips against me so that I felt the bulge of his erection. He lowered his mouth to the beat of my pulse. I arched my neck, even knowing that Nadar's eyes were upon me did not stop my craving his father's bite. A fang scraped along the pulsing vein. I sighed. My nipples beaded hard against the soft cotton of Bandar's shirt. When he sank into the vein I cried out, my knees buckled and it was only Roth's hold that kept me from sliding to the forest floor.

My spine melted to wax as he sucked from my blood. My sex throbbed hot and wet in time with the painful beat of the tether mark. The pain, the pleasure and the suck of his mouth set me off to the first release I had had in almost a week. It rolled gaining momentum as the pain and pleasure grew until I wailed out an orgasm that shook the trees around us.

Roth released me to Hatha's arms. She cradled me as I watched him lick his mouth clean and walk away with Nadar.

"Oh Hatha, what have I done?"

"Shhh Mistress. All will be clearer when we have you clean and fed. Be calm. Let me take care of you."

She cared for me. While I was hale and whole and she bruised and battered. She cared for me. Soft hands removed Bandar's filthy clothing and somehow, through some wondrous magic a hip tub of steaming scented water appeared beside two staked lanterns. Bathing in the woods with Hatha's gentle touch made me feel like a wood nymph. I laughed, scoffed at the thought.

What wood nymph could fry a man with her hands?

The thought of Bandar, ashes at my feet rolled my stomach. I had wanted him dead, needed him dead and yet I could not shake the pain that it was I who had done the deed. What hypocrite did that make me? Happy was I to see Roth strike him down, but not myself? Weak, foolish hypocrite.

"You think too much Mistress."

"There is much to think about Hatha."

I rested my chin upon my knees I had pulled up to my chest. Hatha brushed aside my hair, her fingers skimming the edge of the tether bandage. I heard her sigh.

"You knew?"

"I suspected," she said as she carefully peeled back the tattoo covering. "It will need to be changed."

"What happened Hatha?"

"When you dismissed me..."

I turned, reaching up to grab her forearm. "I'm sorry. I'm so..."

She stilled my hand, gently lowering it back into the tub to rest it on my knees. "There's no need Mistress. It is done." She sighed and continued her story as she peeled away the bandage. I was glad for the soothing sound her voice, the pain was near unbearable. "I knew that it was wrong that the Mother had called you to the tattoo room. You had not been assessed, your powers not yet catalogued, how could they then be marked upon your skin? I went to seek the Mother and instead found Audhild and Haakon."

"They hurt you?" Rage spilled out over the pain. My skin grew hot. The water in the tub began to steam with my fury.

"Calm. Mistress, be calm. I am fine. A little hurt no more. There is no need for this display."

"I can't, I can't control it. I have...Hatha I have..."

She placed her hand across my mouth. "I know. I can smell it on you. The fire. The ash. The death. I know. You are not cruel Mistress. What you did. I know...No! I am sure was done because it was needed."

I scrubbed at my skin. "Will the smell leave me?"

"It will, that's why we clean you now. You shall rise from this tub a new woman. Clean and whole." Her voice became that of the Hatha I had first met, a woman who would brook no nonsense. "You will not worry on it again."

The last of the bandage came off, I gasped, exhaling slowly trying to ease the painful throb.

"The mark is bad. Isn't it?"

She did not answer straight away. I knew if I turned my head I would find her, head inclined weighing her words carefully. "It is not good. Not as bad as I thought. But, yes Mistress it is not good."

"They planned to give me to Malchard."

"I suspected as much. The Queen's power is waning. She fears all, she has descended in solitary madness, she barely leaves her Chambers. Malchard rules as her proxy."

"What would Malchard do with me?"

"Feed Beatrix. Give her physical strength and use your powers to feed his greed for more land and power."

"My powers. Like the one that..." I could not say the words. I did not have to, Hatha replied quickly, "Yes. That one."

"I don't want to be an instrument of death Hatha."

"We can't always get what we want Mistress. Sometimes we just have to make do with what we have."

She came before me took my hands and drew me up out of the water. She said with a wicked little smile, "Come, I have a surprise for you."

I stepped out of the tub; she toweled me down and draped a fine soft cotton robe across my shoulders. I followed her, with no hope of a surprise that could lift my spirits. What surprise could do that? I was a tethered, broken instrument of death. Feared and desired only for what I could not control. Nothing could ease the lonely ache that consumed me as I carried the burden of that dark knowledge.

She lead me to a round tent, so lavish it could almost be a permanent structure—

no oil cloths for the Dark Prince

. A guard opened the flap and I entered. It was bright inside, my eyes took time to adjust from the darkness outside and when they did I saw her.

The girl. From the bathing chambers.

An offering.

She lay splayed on a pallet of rugs and furs. Blonde, curved perfection. So clean, so sweet, my mouth began to water as if she were the finest sweetmeat offered to a starving man.

"Hatha?" I questioned, not turning my head away from the sight before me.

"Mistress Vessel I give you Corina. She has felt the call to be your handmaiden." Hatha sounded amused. "Do you feel it too Mistress?"

I felt a throb wet and hot between my legs. I felt pain, burning hot and aching at my tether. I felt need, surging hot and heavy in my belly. I wanted. I wanted.

Corina came up on her knees. Her breasts bobbing as she did. Her hair loose about her shoulders flowed down to brush the rosy tips of the pert mounds.

"Please Mistress. I ache to service you." She moved on her knees to me and nestled her sweet mouth between the slit of my robe. Kissing me first she then lay her cheek on of slight swell of my stomach. She circled the softness of her cheek on my skin her moans vibrating against me. I threaded my hand in her hair and she purred, like a kitten well pleased.

I looked up to Hatha as I thrust my hips forward, rocking my mound against the pillow of her cheek. "Come to me."

"Mistress?"

"I want you. Come to me." I heard the compulsion in my tone. Low it sounded like the sweet deep pluck of harp strings. She came, uncertainty in her eyes. I clasped the back of her head as soon as she was close enough to touch and brought her mouth to mine. She groaned at my lips, a sound that charged through me, sparked like the crack of the lightening.

I widened my stance and with the hand still threaded in Corina's hair I brought her lips to my mound. Her sweet tongue lapped with exquisite precision. It would not take long. I wanted,

no,

needed this first release, quick hard and fast so that I could concentrate on what I truly wanted.

Hatha's pleasure.

I wanted her moans. Her begging gasps for release. I wanted the taste of her cum on lips, on my fingers, coated on my tongue.

Corina's clever mouth rocked me quickly to orgasm. She cried out in pleasure as I spurted on her lips, it took both hands to remove her hungry mouth from my mound. She would not have stopped had I not pulled her away.

"Later," I murmured lovingly stroking her young flushed cheek

Hatha stood beside me, chest heaving as she recovered from the ferocity of my lips. She backed away but I shook my head. I was not yet done.

"Strip her," I ordered Corina who stood, and like the compliant little handmaided she was went quickly to work on Hatha's clothes.

"Mistress," Hatha protested, attempting to bat away Corina's nimble fingers.

"You are mine. Pledged to me Hatha. Mine to take. Mine to pleasure."

Corina had opened her bodice, it gaped revealing the large round circles of her areola dark deep pink beneath her sheer chemise. "It is not necessary, truly Mistress."

"Oh." I took a step forward, rocking my hips as I stalked towards her. "It is so very necessary."

I watched with hungry eyes as Corina knelt to remove the skirt revealing Hatha's lush body. Curved and strong she stood naked and tattooed before me.

"Gorgeous," I sighed.

She shook her head. I came to place a finger at the centre of her chest. "You do not get to say. I am the Vessel. I am the one who gets to say and I say gorgeous." I trailed the finger down her stomach, circling her belly button and then down to the naked lips of her sex. She had no hair there.

Who shaved Hatha?

A vision of being on my knees with a straight razor at Hatha's spread pussy lips sent a surge of wet heat to my own.

I cupped the damp heat of her sex rocking the base of my palm hard against her clitoris. She rocked back, seeking the pleasure, unable to stop herself. She sank against me, lowering her head to my shoulder.

"No Hatha."

She looked up.

"I will see your face as you come. I will see your eyes as I take you over." I kissed her gently, sucking in her bottom lip, releasing it with an audible pop. She shuddered before me.