Nuë and the Djinn

Chapter 7

Nuë woke. It was very early in the morning, just beginning to get light, the air cool. They were outside of Heltas, southeast of the city, camped on the steppes. It smelled good after the city, which had been so closed in, now only the sky and the land around her.

Something had woken her. Luta was back. He and Mihel were two hulking shapes and low voices.

"Go back to sleep, Nuë," Mihel said.

Nuë sat up, the fire still showing light that illuminated their faces. "What are you two talking about?" Nuë said.

"You always say that to her," Luta said to Mihel. "For hundreds of years, we're talking, she wakes, and you tell her to go back to sleep and it always makes her sit up and ask what we're talking about. If you didn't say anything, she would go back to sleep."

"Hello, Luta," Nuë said.

"It's good to see you, little sister."

"I didn't tell him about the brothel. He found out another way," Nuë said, sleepy, rubbing her eyes.

"I know. Don't remind him. He's just getting over it."

"A brothel, Luta," Mihel hissed.

"I was looking for a place to stay," Luta defended himself.

"You wanted a woman," Mihel accused.

"That too. We've already talked about this. You already yelled at me and threatened me and told me horrible things about myself."

"Mihel," Nuë said. "Luta isn't horrible."

"Thank you, little sister."

"He's awful," Nuë said.

Mihel laughed.

Nuë lay down again. They were quiet. She waited. She sat up. "What are you two talking about?" she said.

"We weren't talking," Luta said.

"I noticed," she said.

"I thought you were going back to sleep," Mihel said.

"You don't want me to know," she accused.

Mihel sighed. "Luta found the sorcerer."

Nuë felt tension roll through her belly. "Why was he looking for him?"

"So we can kill him," Mihel said.

Nuë got out of bed, coming and sitting next to Mihel. He reached and picked her up, putting her on his lap, turning her sideways. She frowned up at him. "Why would we do that? Why don't we go home?"

"Because he still has the necklace where my true name is written. We didn't find it in the tower. If he recovered his strength, he could bind me again."

"And we need to kill him soon, while he's still weak and doesn't have his magical objects," Luta added in the tone of someone once again making the same point.

"You're afraid to go because you don't know where to put me," Nuë guessed, looking at Mihel. "And every day, the sorcerer gets stronger."

"Yes," Luta said.

"Luta," Mihel objected, looking at him.

Luta looked away, his lips tight.

"Put me in a cave, Mihel," Nuë said. "In a public house. Dig a hole, stick me in it, and go kill this dog."

"It's not so simple, Nuë," Mihel said.

"What's complicated?" Nuë said.

"The sorcerer is dangerous," Mihel answered.

Nuë narrowed her eyes at him. She realized. "You're afraid you and Luta won't come back? You're afraid I'll be left out here alone with nowhere to go and nobody to protect me?"

"Yes," Luta said.

"Luta," Mihel objected, louder this time.

Nuë struggled to get out of his arms. "Let me up, Mihel," she said.

He waited and then tipped her back whenever she shifted forward enough. On her fourth failed attempt, she stopped. "Now," she said sharply.

Mihel sighed and set her on her feet. She turned around and looked down at him, drawing herself up.

She saw Luta grin, looking away.

"Look what you've done," Mihel said to him, gesturing at her. Mihel looked up at her. "Don't get upset, my light--"

"You take me with you or leave me here now," she announced.

"Nuë--" Mihel began, his voice so reasonable.

"No," Nuë said, making a gesture at him with one hand, shooing him. "Go away from me. This is my camp. You're not welcome."

Luta laughed, Mihel shooting him another look.

"I can't leave you here by yourself," Mihel said to her.

"Will you take me to fight this sorcerer?"

"No," Mihel said, adamant, shaking his head.

"Then go away. This is my camp. Come back when he's dead."

"And if I don't come back?"

"Stupid ifrit!" she cried. "How are you alive for so long and you're so stupid?" She was furious, going to her things, packing.

Mihel got up, following her. She was rolling her blanket.

"What are you doing?" Mihel said.

"Leaving," she said, sitting to put on her boots.

Mihel took her second boot and tossed it into the darkness. "Where are you going?"

She got up and hobbled, one bare foot, finding it, sitting where she was and shoving it on her foot. She got up, stomping, tying the leather as he unrolled her blanket. "Somewhere else. You won't leave my camp. I will make my own somewhere else. Don't follow me."

Mihel grabbed her pack. "I'm not letting you go wandering off alone."

"I'm not a goat," she said, stomping to roll the blanket, trying to grab her pack from him. He held it out of reach. "Give it to me!"

Mihel handed her the pack.

"You can't stop me, Mihel," she said. "I will stab you if you try."

Luta laughed again, Mihel glaring.

Nuë walked, carrying her pack, trying to pick the saddle up to put it on her horse. Mihel put his foot on it. She straightened and looked around quickly, choosing a direction. That one would do. She began to walk, a brisk stride.

Mihel walked beside her. "Nuë."

"Don't speak to me. I don't know you," she said.

"You can't just leave alone."

"Is that the wind?" Nuë said, looking around, walking. "I hear a great wind."

Luta laughed behind them.

"Incora," Mihel said, stern.

Nuë stopped and faced him. "Don't you dare to speak to me that way, Mihel," she said, advancing, Mihel leaning back a little. "I am not even insisting I go with you, but you're not grateful I'm willing to sit in some place, anywhere, idle, braiding my hair and waiting to see if my life is over because I murdered you and Luta. You won't take me. You can't stay with me. So go now."

"You're not safe here alone, Nuë."

"I don't want to live without you anyway!" she yelled, breathing. She gestured at him, dismissive, her eyes raking his form. "I'm not speaking to you today, big stupid ifrit." She turned again, walking. She would walk to Fada tribe if she had to.

#

Mihel watched Nuë walk away, following her, walking behind her. She was upset. Once, when she'd been like this, he'd tried simply picking her up, and she had screamed until he had put her down and then she hadn't spoken to him for over a week. She had only relented when he'd volunteered a promise never to do it again.

He thought about that, behind her now, watching her butt, the tight circles her hips made as she walked briskly. He had made the promise to one of her earlier selves. She didn't remember. He could--

"No," she said in front of him.

Mihel stopped, staring at her back. He resumed walking. She wasn't bluffing, he knew. She would keep walking until she reached Fada tribe if he persisted.

He wanted to take her to the mountains and leave her with his mother and father, but Luta was right. By the time they got back, the sorcerer would be far more dangerous. Ezrel was vulnerable now, without the magic objects he needed, still healing from the stab wounds.

But Mihel was supposed to leave his incora on the plains alone, in the middle of nothing? She couldn't return to her father in Heltas. She wouldn't be safe on the trade road alone going back to Fada tribe. Was she going to live in the hills like a stufa, a mystic woman, muttering incantations and living off beetles and bristle grasses until they returned?

He looked up as Luta joined him, riding his horse.

"There's Vassi," Luta said from the saddle, walking the horse, Nuë in front of them, his incora pretending they weren't there and that she couldn't hear them.

"You want me to trust Vassi with my incora?" Mihel said, incredulous. "You're crazy."

"It's a day's ride. It's even in the right direction."

"A caravanserai. People coming and going."

"They're not bandits, Mihel. They're merchants, traders. If we paid him, he would protect her."

"I don't trust him."

"Vassi can be trusted, especially if you pay him enough. We promise him more later. You just don't like him."

"He's a liar. Opportunistic. A criminal, Luta."

"Only when he really wants something. I've known him for a long time. He's not so bad as you think, Mihel."

Mihel blew out his breath, wishing he could think of anywhere better. But short of taking her with him, which he was not going to do, he couldn't. "I'll tell him I will skin him alive if anything happens to her," Mihel said, deciding.

"Maybe I'll go ahead. You should let me talk to him first, Mihel," Luta said.

Mihel sighed, his stubborn incora still headed in the wrong direction. He gestured at her. "You tell her, Luta. She won't talk to me today."

#

Mihel woke in the morning, curled around his incora, his forehead on her hair and his cock already hard. She was still asleep. His hand wandered under her shirt and to her firm breast, her flesh warm. He squeezed her nipple gently, rolling it.

Nuë squirmed in her sleep, pressing on him. He could push a few pieces of cloth aside and be inside her. They would stay quiet until they couldn't anymore. She wouldn't care by then.

They were under blankets. Luta was asleep, and he would pretend to be if he wasn't. Mihel just had to persuade her, his hand moving to push her pants down over her round butt.

Her hand stopped his on her breast and she rolled on her back. "Mihel," she whispered, frowning, her eyes sleepy.

Mihel smiled at her and bent to kiss her mouth. His hand tried to slip down the front of her pants.

"No," she whispered, stopping it.

"Why not?" he whispered back, settling for putting his hand on her pussy outside her pants and pressing.

"Don't, Mihel," she whispered.

"You know it feels good," he said, whispering back, pressing.

"It doesn't."

"It does," he whispered. "I can hear the lie, Nuë."

"Stop doing that."

"You might as well let him fuck you at this point, Nuë," Luta said, sitting up and running his hand through his hair. "I can't sleep with all the noise anyway."

Nuë sat straight up and picked up her boot where it was beside her, throwing it at him. Mihel was surprised to see it go wide, to the right of Luta's head. Nuë had excellent aim.

Seeing her grab the boot, Luta moved left to evade, perfect timing, the boot hitting him in the face. "How do you do that?" Luta cried, his hand going to his nose, Mihel laughing.

"I think about it all the time," she answered.

#

After breakfast, they rode.

"We're a few hours away," Luta said. "I'm going to go ahead and talk to Vassi." Luta urged his horse, which broke into a canter.

Mihel watched Luta go. Trust his incora to Vassi, that thief, that liar. Mihel had gone crazy. He and Nuë rode. After a time, behind him, Nuë began humming.

It took Mihel straight back to hear her. Long black hair and black eyes, rich dark brown skin, her lips. He'd been so aroused the first time he'd seen his incora, hundreds of years ago, that he'd shown himself. And when he'd caught her and stripped her, it had been jutting breasts with red nipples, her pussy flushed that same red color. He'd let her run naked again to watch her and then chased her, letting her almost get to her village before catching her, Sersha fighting him.

She'd been just as fierce and delicate then, hundreds of years ago, her shrieks, her round ass butting against him as he'd gotten behind her, holding her. It had excited him too much and he'd taken her. It had felt so good. He was hard now just thinking about it, his spirit knowing that hers could join with him.

That had made her angry at him, though. Except for their mother, he hadn't spent as much time with humans as Luta had. When he'd taken Sersha to their mountains, his mother had learned about it and had scolded him and come and taken Sersha to herself and out from under him, giving her clothing.

He'd had to woo Sersha all over again, talking and talking before she would fuck him and they'd joined. He would never forget discovering that pleasure.

And Cao. When he'd taken Cao from her people, she had waited for him to sleep after he'd taken her and then stabbed him, Mihel waking only in time to catch her before she did it again.

His incora didn't remember, but Mihel never saw any difference in her selves. It was like calling an apple changed because you put it in a different basket.

"You should ride with me," he invited when they had stopped for necessities and were ready to ride again. "I have a big horse. It's not so far. We'll lead yours."

"Why do you want to?" Nuë said.

"So I can touch you while we go," he said, obvious.

"It's indecent to do that on the back of a horse."

"Why? They don't mind."

"How do you know? Have you done it before?"

Mihel opened his mouth and then shut it.

"You have done it," she said. "Did you do it with me before?"

Mihel turned and mounted his horse. "We should go, Nuë."

"It wasn't with me?"

"I don't know what you're saying," he said.

She walked and got on her horse.

"Nuë," he said.

She didn't look at him, riding her horse around him. He followed. They were quiet. She didn't look at him.

"It was a hundred years before I even met you," Mihel said after a time. "I didn't know you. I didn't know you existed."

Nothing. Silence.

"She was ugly," he lied a little while later.

"You remember her so well, a hundred years before you met me?" Nuë said. "Tell me what she looked like."

"I don't remember," he lied.

"Then how do you know she was ugly?"

"I only remember she was," he said.

She looked to him. "Was she so beautiful?"

"Not beautiful like you."

"So she was beautiful."

"I don't remember," he lied.

They stopped for water, Nuë stiff with him.

Mihel approached her. "Incora," he said, touching her cheek. "I did that before I met you. I've been alive for a thousand years. Some of them were beautiful, yes. They don't matter to me. Only you matter to me."

"I understand," she said.

"Good."

"I did something similar."

"What?" he said.

She wasn't lying. She walked to her horse, getting on. She urged the horse. Mihel got on his horse, following her. He brought his horse alongside hers.

"What did you do that was so similar?" he said.

"As you say, it doesn't matter. It was long ago."

"If you remember it, it wasn't so long ago."

"It was long ago to me," she said. "Before I met you. I didn't know you existed."

"What did you do?"

She shrugged.

"Tell me," Mihel said.

"No."

He blocked her horse, stopping his and dismounting, walking to her and pulling her off of hers, picking her up, his arm behind her shoulders, his other arm under her knees. "Who touched you?" he demanded.

"Why do you want to know?"

"So I can go and kill him."

Her lips twitched and then she laughed. She touched his face. "I was eight and he was nine. He held my hand by the water."

"You allowed this?" he said, scowling.

She shrugged. "He was a handsome boy."

"Who was he?"

"A boy, Mihel," she said.

"Not anymore. Tell me his name."

"No."

"Was he one of the men of Fada tribe who offered for you?"

She looked away. "Maybe."

"Was he or wasn't he?"

"I don't remember."

"You're lying."

"Yes, it was one who offered for me."

"Which one?"

"It doesn't matter, Mihel."

"You're too beautiful," he accused. "Duvin loves you. All of them want you, wherever you go. I'm here now. Only I can hold your hand by the river."

She smiled at him. "Yes, Mihel."

He slowly smiled at her. He set her on her feet, working the fastenings to her tunic.

"What are you doing?" she said. "You said we have to ride, Mihel."

"That was before you told me you'd been touched by other men. I need to touch you now."

"He wasn't a man. It was just his hand in mine."

"He became one. I don't want to talk about it, it makes me crazy. I forgive you for letting this happen, but I need to touch you now."

He was stripping her while she debated with him. He decided she could leave her boots on, liking how they looked on her. He sat, bringing her down with him. He lay on his back. She perched on him, her hands on his chest, her tits sweet, her braids brushing her thighs.

"Show me your skills, little incora," he said. "You have so much experience with so many men.'

She laughed, Mihel grinning, his eyes roaming her face.

"Here, I'll help you to begin," he said, reaching and undoing the fastening of his trousers, pulling out his cock. He was already thick. He lay back again, his fingers coming and squeezed a jutting nipple.

Her breath hitched. "I thought I was going to show you my skills," she said.

"I'm doing this while I'm waiting," he said, pinching another nipple, rhythmic tugs. She had beautiful breasts. He grabbed her waist, bringing her to him so her tits were in front of his face, sucking one and then the other. Her hands were on his shoulders, propping herself, her knees coming up, that way she'd always had of curling up on herself.

"Mihel," she objected, but her voice said she didn't mind so much.

He decided he hadn't spent enough time doing this since she'd been back and didn't stop, her nipples hard. By the time he was satisfied, her nipples were red and her eyes glazed. He set her back down, reaching to cup her round butt, feeling her plumpness in his hands, his thoughts going in certain directions.

"Lift," he said, a brisk slap on her little ass, remembering too late Nuë wasn't used to that, didn't know about that yet.

Nuë startled, staring at him. He was suddenly rock hard. Yes, he wanted this now. He touched her nipple with his fingertip, rubbing.

"At our joining, you came so hard, incora."

Nuë flushed like he'd accused her of something, looking away.

His hand left her ass and snaked in front of her, touching between her legs, pressing lightly on her clitoris, her pussy slick from his attention to her nipples. She liked that. He stroked, two fingers, trapping her clit, pushing his fingers into her.

She bit her lip like she did, lifting, leaning forward. He raised his head, licking her nipple.

He paused. "Did it feel good when you were with me in the sorcerer's head?"

She didn't look at him, nodding. "Sometimes," she said low.

"What did you feel the first time?"

She blushed red. "I was asleep," she said.

That blush said something had happened. He pressed on her clitoris again, light pressure.

"So you don't remember?" he said.

"I do," she breathed, shivering. "I was dreaming."

"What did you dream?"

"I don't want to tell you," you said, her eyes heavy. "You'll think it's strange."

"I won't."

"Luta made me tell him. He told me it was important to know what was happening with you and then he didn't stop teasing me."

"I'll kill him the next time we see him."

She was still blushing, but his fingers were moving so much more easily, her pussy slick now. He rubbed the whole pouch, long strokes, her clit a hard nub he ran his fingers over, light and slow.

"I dreamed the grasses grew and they held me down and then--" she said, looking away.

He was so aroused right now. "Then what?"

"They were moving," she said, evasive, pulsing on his fingers.

"They were touching you?"

"Not at first. First, they held my arms above my head and the grass struck my breasts." She said it all at once, as if he wouldn't notice the statement if she said it faster.

Mihel reached out, his cock pulsing and surging, smacking a jutting nipple straight downward with his open hand. Nuë cried out in surprise and then rubbed her pussy on his fingers below, giving a soft cry. He did it again, not too hard. She liked that.

"And then?"

"I can't say it, Mihel."

"You will, though," he said, grinning, lifting her. He turned her on her belly, turning her and bringing her over his lap sideways, her round cheeks under his hands. He raised his leg, her ass rising, jutting. She looked at him over her shoulder. He cupped her ass, rubbing gently, his hand slipping between her legs, more light stroking. "Do you want to feel it again?"