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Chapter 10:
Captain Gorsini lay alongside the Dark Elf simply holding the woman and drawing in her enticing scent, her unbound silver hair was splayed about her shoulders, and he luxuriated in the feeling of her naked form moulded against him. He ran his hand across her shoulders, tracing his fingers along the silken smoothness of her skin, down the front of her body and over the woman's breasts as he kissed the back of her neck. She responded with a happy sigh of contentment.
Neither of them was a passive lover and their bout of love-play had become increasingly frenzied as the night wore on until they both collapsed, panting, laughing and covered in a light sheen of sweat. After another drink of spiced rum and a mouthful of sweet fruit and berries, they had begun again, only more gently this time, and with no little tenderness. Afterwards, they simply lay alongside each other dozing in the serene afterglow of their nocturnal activities.
Gorsini sighed, "I know we are foes, but if it ever comes to pass you wear my collar, I want you to know I'd treat you fairly, for what it's worth."
Ashunara giggled, she hated it when she giggled for it made her sound like a witless child instead of a mature woman of some four hundred and twenty winters.
"Would you not sell me for coin then?"
He grinned, sensing the game she played, "Never. I'd keep you all to myself, and you would satisfy my every need."
"And if I didn't?"
"Well, then I'd have to apply suitable correction, but gently I think."
The Dark Elf slid her hands lower, and he felt her razor-sharp nails playing along his thigh, "Well, I thank you kindly 'Master', I doubt I'd deserve such tenderness though, for I imagine I'd be quite a troublesome slave."
He laughed, "Of that, I have
absolutely
no doubt milady, I suspect within weeks it would be you ruling my household, and not the other way round. But what of me, would I receive fair and gentle treatment?"
"Fuck no! I'd ride you like my best horse and sell you the moment I grew bored of you."
"Aw, you say the sweetest things, Captain. But I mean what I say, I'd treat you fair, and see you safely ransomed home if such was your wish."
"Go to sleep, you foolish man."
He kissed her again on the back of the neck, "You are a hard woman Ashunara, have you no soft words for me?"
"Oh dear Gods! You are so typically human. Ever has your kind been ruled by your passions and not by your wits. I am a Dark Elf, I have no interest in sentiment, in truth, I cannot afford it, for in a hundred years you will be dead and mouldering in a barrow, and I will be as unchanged as I am now. If you want soft words, go sleep with yon blonde trollop outside! Maybe once you're done making moon-eyes at each other she'll sing you a lullaby. Now either make love to me again or go to sleep."
Gorsini chuckled, "Well, if those are the only choices, I know which one I prefer, and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close once more.
Ashunara turned to kiss him, "Better, maybe there's hope for you yet human."
Outside Tallis sat by the fire still sharing a warm blanket with the tall blonde woman. She had spent the evening in talk with her, asking of her homeland and listening avidly to tales of storm giants and midwinter feasts in wondrous mead halls of legend. The foreign woman's voice was melodic and evocative, her smile was warm, and her grey eyes had an alluring quality that seemed to draw in the young Dark Elf.
Tallis had seemed fascinated by the braided gold torc worn by the woman and also by the tattoo on her neck and she found herself recounting the tale of the strange woman they had taken in.
"So, she has a tattoo like mine?"
Tallis toyed with the braided gold before stroking the woman's neck, "Not precisely, hers paints a more complete picture shall we say, it is more complex, but there is at least a little similarity in form for both your tattoos appear to have a certain serpentine quality to them. This jewellery is most interesting, do you revere dragons?"
"Dragons?"
"This serpentine shape and the engraving, it has the look of a dragon."
"Oh! We call such things a 'wyrm', and aye, they are mighty creatures of great power. They are to be feared and only the very foolish would show them disrespect."
The Dark Elf toyed with the torc for a few moments more before tracing her finger lightly down across the woman's throat, "The way you describe your kingdom makes it seem to be half-way between the Fae realm and the lands of men."
Magda mused for a while, "Perhaps so, for we have our magics as well as rituals and customs to ward off trolls and draugr."
"Draugr?"
"They are the undead, unquiet spirits who haunt graves and barrows."
"Ah, wights?"
"I've heard the term; it seems to fit. Indeed, there are many similarities in our lands, though the creatures you describe as trolls are not as we would call them."
Tallis leaned closer, her gaze met that of the blonde woman and her voice was almost a whisper, "How so?"
Magda swallowed nervously as she stared into those strangely distracting red eyes and tried to focus on her tale, "In my land trolls are also creatures of great cunning and magical power, while here they are described more as ogres. The things you call 'hags' seem more trollish to me."
"I enjoy listening to your tales Magda, you seem well travelled."
The human woman nodded, "Ever was I unsettled. The witch-woman who was my mother's midwife says I am possessed by a restless spirit. I love collecting stories and songs and always have I wanted to see what is over the next hill. Some say it is a curse of sorts for it means I'll never have a home or family of my own."
"It sounds lonely," the Dark Elf's fingers played idly with the woman's long fair hair, "are you lonely?"
The pale woman trembled, "Sometimes, when I sit alone at a campfire in some wild and remote place, or as I shiver on some damp and drizzly eve, then I might find myself thinking fondly of a warm fireplace and the good cheer of trusted companions. But like as not the next dawn sees me wondering, "What's over there," or "What stories do these folks have to share" and off I wander."
The Dark Elf nodded as she pulled the blanket closer about them, "But my Captain says you have been here a while, for she speaks of hearing you sing a year and more ago."
The woman looked at Tallis with a wistful smile, "T'is true I have lingered here longer than is my habit, but there are so many strange folk and stories to be found hereabouts, and oft have I dreamt about the lands of the Fae. It sounds like a wondrous place, full of ancient tales of magic and myth. I think I would give all that I owned to explore such a place."
Tallis chuckled mischievously as she began to stroke the woman's neck, "Would you give your freedom?"
Magda quivered at the touch and her voice all but trembled, "Alas no, for that's the one thing I hold most dear to me. I think if I was tied to one place, one person, I would go mad. I do not think I could suffer it. It's a regret of mine. I wish I could see your lands though, truly, but they say all who wander there uninvited are taken into bondage."
The Dark Elf nodded again, "That's more or less true, for we are a suspicious folk by nature and do not tolerate masterless humans and the like going abroad in our realm. But those in service, or those who are known to us, having already served and earned their freedom, well, that is a different matter. Perhaps if you wish to enter the Fae realm you should seek to indenture yourself with some company of travelling harpers, explorers or cartographers. Thus, you could see out your term of service and have an answer for those who would question your presence in our domain."
The woman looked to her and raised an eyebrow, "Do you think this possible?"
"I don't see why not. My own mother would take you in, though that would be as a slave of our house, and perhaps not entirely to your liking. They say she's a cold and ruthless sort, and that's true enough, but she enjoys music and would happily show you off at any affairs she might host. Like as not she would consider it a coup to have such an exotic creature to entertain her company. And while she would hardly be the friendliest of sorts, she would rigidly abide by any contract you had between you, and she rewards loyal service. If you proved yourself to her, she would probably allow you to explore, provided it did not interfere with any purpose of her own."
"Forgive me, but you paint something of a cruel picture of her."
Tallis smiled, "I think 'ruthless' might be more accurate a description of her nature than 'cruel', but unless you insulted or disobeyed her, and provided you were respectful and not overly familiar, she would not abuse you. In truth I think she despises wanton cruelty and sees it as weakness."
"Weakness?"
"To her cruelty without purpose is nothing more than petty indulgence. Now that's not to say she wouldn't wring the marrow from your bones if it suited her design, but she would never do such a thing on a simple whim."
Mahda stared wide-eyed at the woman, "And this is your mother?"
Tallis laughed, a darkly musical sound that Magda found equal parts terrifying and tantalizing, "We are Dark Elves. Let us just say we look at things from a different perspective and leave it at that."
"Indeed."
Magda frowned at the Dark Elf for at the beginning of the evening, it had seemed that Tallis listened in wide-eyed fascination to the foreign woman, but strangely the encounter with the bound and gagged Dark Elven captive seemed to have dampened her spirit somewhat, and she saw her glance frequently at the bound woman.
Magda put her arm about her and pulled her close as she tried to speak a few words of comfort, "She has not been harmed Tallis, I swear it. Other than being bound and stripped neither Gorsini nor any of his folk have laid a hand upon her."
Tallis nodded as she pressed herself against the blonde woman and pulled the blanket closer about them as she whispered, "I know."
She leaned her head on the woman's shoulder and sighed. Magda for her part stared at the burning embers and shaking her head sadly she began to hum an old tune she recalled as a girl, only to stop as the cold edge of a razor-sharp blade touched her thigh, and then she realised how a fly might feel once it had been enticed into a spider's web.
Glancing down she saw the blade in the girl's hand was concealed by the blanket and when she looked into the smouldering red eyes of the Dark Elf, she felt a shiver of fear run through her. Those strange alien eyes were unblinking and no longer held the slightest trace of the sympathy and warmth of earlier.
