Taste the Day 2/2
Taste the Day
13k
written for fantasybigbang
art by deadflowers5
mix by cerulean_sky
beta'd by postnotice
summary and rating in first part
6.
Rainer woke up late the next day. Stretching out on his back, he stared up at the canopy above him. It was thick enough that it barely let in any of the sun, so it wasn’t painful to his sensitive eyes. He’d never woken outside before; it was an interesting sensation, waking to the sound of birds rather than servants moving around outside the room, but not unwelcome.
Sighing, he rolled over and yelped when he discovered he was under scrutiny. Cefin was awake and looked more alert than he had when Rainer had first met him. More alert also meant more hostile. He was glaring openly and had one of the rock-blades clutched tightly in his fist. Rainer looked around for Dei, but discovered he was nowhere to be found.
“He’s gone to collect something to break our fast,” Cefin said in a low voice, snapping Rainer’s attention back to him.
“Oh. Okay,” he said, sitting up slowly so as not to startle him. “How’s your back?” Cefin sneered and didn’t answer. He hesitated, but the urgency made itself known, and Rainer rose, crossed the grove, and went to relieve himself. When he returned, Cefin was still watching him and appearing to be barely holding himself back from attacking Rainer.
“Did Dei say anything about,” he motioned vaguely toward Cefin who remained silent. He huffed and started to sit back down, but instead, he started to explore the grove a bit, not venturing too far in case Dei returned. He didn’t recognize the area, but he wouldn’t, as most never ventured too far from Avila unless they were travelling down river to trade with the Cathali Humans.
Rainer briefly considered turning back, but decided it would be better for him and Cefin to just keep going. Dei seemed to have the uncanny ability to track him down when he least expected it.
Frowning, he noticed that the trees were becoming sparser the farther away from the grove that he got and the ground was sloping upward. He broke through the trees and came to a stop, barely keeping his mouth from dropping open.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Dei said behind him.
Whirling around, Rainer stared incredulously at him. “We’re still on Avila!”
“Of course we are,” Dei said with a shrug. “Where else were we to go?” Rainer made a face at him; covered in blood, he dropped the carcass he was carrying to the ground. Dei followed his eyes to the dead animal and snorted. “What were you planning on eating?”
“No, no, that’s fine,” he said, trying to keep the distaste out of his voice. When Rainer ate meat, it didn’t still look like an animal and it was already cooked by servants. He shook his head, annoyed at becoming sidetracked. “I thought you left Avila. They are looking for you, if you haven’t realized.”
“I’ve realized.” His voice was flat. “But I imagine they had the same thought as you,” he continued, approaching Rainer and crowding him up against a tree. Trapped between the rough bark of the tree and the hard, solid weight of Dei, he couldn’t help but recall what had occurred the previous night.
“Tell me what it is you thought we’d done? Fled toward Cathali and left anything or anyone who would slow us down?” Rainer stiffened, eyes flying up to meet Dei’s. “That’s what you think, isn’t it? That I just left Aled behind because we’re-what’s the word?-barbarians.”
Flustered, Rainer shoved at Dei’s chest, but it did no good. “What was I supposed to think?” he snarled. “You left him down there.” He helped Cefin escape. “You threaten me constantly.” He saved his life. Rainer poked him in the chest. “Your own people didn’t want you.” He didn’t know why exactly Dei had been banished.
Dei’s eyes narrowed, Rainer’s breath caught, and he gripped Rainer’s upper arms in a bruising grip and pushing them against the tree trunk. “You think you know the reason for my banishment. You have no understanding and no right to question me. Do you understand?” he asked, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl.
After a moment’s hesitation, Rainer nodded his head. “Good.” He loosened his grip the barest amount; Rainer winced as the tingling sensation swept across his arms, as his blood started flowing again, and removed the bruises. He worked his mouth, but no sound escaped and he averted his gaze away from Rainer’s. “I don’t need to explain myself.” The ‘to you’ was as explicitly stated as it could be without him actually speaking.
“No. I suppose you don’t.” He sighed in relief when Dei finally released him, looking surprised that he had shoved Rainer against the tree.
He sniffed and stepped back. “Where were you going?”
Rainer shrugged. “I was just looking around really, trying to get my bearings for when you abandoned me to make my own way back to Avila.” He looked back in the direction he had been walking. “Imagine my surprise to learn we hadn’t even left Avila.”
“You recognize where we are?”
“I’ll have you know,” he said, walking past the line of trees, “I have a great sense of direction. If I didn’t, I would constantly get lost at home.” Living underground in Avila could be a chore, he imagined, if one was easily disoriented. Not that he knew any Avilian who had that problem.
Humming to himself, he examined his surroundings. Shielding his sensitive eyes, he took note of the position of the sun in relation to the mountainside and forest. Scanning the area, a flicker of light slightly right of his position caught his attention. “Oh! I know where we are. Come,” he said, motioning for Dei to follow, “I want to show you something.”
“I doubt your mountain has anything of interest to me.”
Rainer snorted indelicately. “I doubt it. Avila appeals to all the sense of anyone with the least bit civilization,” he said loftily. “You’ll be quite amazed, I promise.”
“Well, I promise you, it will be quite amazing if anything manages to amaze me.” He crossed his arms, but started to follow Rainer. “The only thing this mountain does right is breeding.”
“What does that mean?” Rainer asked, looking askance at his travelling companion.
“That means,” Rainer yelped when he was grabbed around the waist and dragged against Dei’s powerful body, “that you are lovely.” Fighting down a flush, Rainer struggled out of Dei’s grip, glaring at him all the while.
“That’s not enough information to base any sort of decision.”
“Plus,” he continued as though Rainer hadn’t interrupted, “my father caught one of you, Avilian, and I have the prettiest younger brother.”
Rainer stiffened. “How can you so casually reference the defilement of a female?”
“Depends on why you call it defilement. Is it because she was with a Cathali or because she mated at all?”
Pondering the words after Dei spoke them, Rainer couldn’t help twisting them to what he was doing with Dei. “It is not disgusting,” he said hesitantly, “if it is what is wanted.”
Dei snorted, startling Rainer into looking at him. “Do you think we’d trust an unwilling Avilian anywhere us when we’re so vulnerable?” He laughed. “Yeah, maybe if we had no plans for children.” Shaking his head, he looked at Rainer out the corner of his eyes. “While you’re quite passionate when you’re riled, I can understand the appeal to have that passion of a different sort.”
Flushing, Rainer turned away from him. He suppressed a relieved sigh when he saw the rock formation he was looking for. As they rounded the corner, Rainer held up his hands and announced, “We’re here.” Rainer watched Dei’s face carefully.
The Cathali deeply inhaled the steam rising from the spring and his eyes widened the slightest bit. “Amazed?” he asked, resisting the urge to smirk.
Dei sniffed, letting his eyes drift across the hot spring. “It’s not bad,” he conceded, stepping closer. “What is it?” He peered over the side into the murky water.
“It’s called a hot spring,” he said, sidling up next to him. “Touch it.” Raising an eyebrow, Dei stared at him. Confused, Rainer returned the look until, “Oh for the love of Avila. It’s perfectly safe.” Dropping to his knees, he murmured, “Paranoid barbarians,” and rolled up his sleeves. He stuck his hand in the water, resisting an urge to hiss at the heat. He failed. “It’s just hot,” he said quickly at Dei’s askance look.
“In Cathali, any holes belching smoke are poison wells.”
“This isn’t smoke, it is steam. And Cathali sounds horrible.”
Dei crouched down next to him, trailing his fingers through the water. “Cathali is wonderful.” His tone had turned wistful. “The Goddess provides everything we need. It’s prosperous; a land of milk and honey. We do not want.”
Rainer had never before heard such emotion from Dei. He almost wanted to comfort him, but he knew to say it would not be well-received would be an understatement. So instead of embracing him, Rainer got to his feet and slowly started to strip. Dei watched him with sharp eyes as he folded his clothes and easily slipped into the pool. Dei pulled off his clothes with little finesse and followed him. Unable to resist, Rainer stated, “You miss it.”
Dei blinked and visibly re-suppressed his emotions. “Are you telling me you wouldn’t miss your Avila if you left,” he said, letting his fingers trail over Rainer’s shoulder.
“If I left?” Rainer repeated. He’d honestly never considered leaving before. To elope would lead to his mother living in disgrace without him. He didn’t want to marry, but he still wanted to provide for her as was his responsibility. “I’ve never thought about it,” he said slowly, picking over his words with care. “I suppose some parts would be memorable. I suppose I would miss my mother. Nothing really ties me here except to leave would be social death for myself and mother. I could never return.”
Humming in agreement, Dei’s hand drifted down to grab a handful of his backside. Yelping, Rainer shoved him away. “What are you doing?”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing?” he murmured, pressing his face against Rainer’s shoulder and licking a wet trail across. “You don’t expect me to keep my hands to myself with all this lovely, wet, steamy skin sitting next to me, do you?”
“That’s exactly what I expect you to do,” he snapped, shoving him away again. Putting some space between them, he crossed his arm. “This is a cleansing pool. To do,” face hot, he hesitated, “that would be sacrilegious!”
Dei frowned, but stopped attempting to come closer. “This is a sacred pool.” He looked down into the smoky depths. “You bathe in your sacred pool.” He sounded dubious.
“It’s a cleansing pool.”
He snorted, but touched his fingertips to the tattoo on his forehead in a sign of benediction. “Well? Have we been cleansed? And if we are does that preclude us from activities of a more enjoyable sort?” He dragged his finger over Rainer shoulder in a clear indication of what those activities entailed.
Rainer shook his head. “It is said that the Goddess bathed in the springs, heating them for all eternity. To be cleansed in one without scalding is to be blessed by her.” The other pushed himself to his feet. Rainer shifted his gaze away, only briefly catching a glimpse of slightly reddened, golden brown skin. He cleared his throat. “We can’t stay here, so where would we go?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Rainer saw him shrug and stretch his arms above his head. “We’ll go back to the grove. Cefin won’t mind.”
Rainer twisted around to stare blankly at him, momentarily forgetting his nudity. “Won’t mind what?”
He motioned between them. “Us.”
“No. Definitely not.”
“Great. Get out then.” Rainer felt like they were speaking two different languages.
“You misunderstand me,” he said clambering out and reaching for his clothes. “We’re not going to the grove; I’m not interested in voyeurism.”
Dei intercepted his hand before it could close in on his tunic. Forcing him to his feet, he stared at him. “I said Cefin won’t mind. He’ll probably just sleep.”
“Cefin hates me,” Rainer said, trying to appeal to another sense of his. “I’m sure you must have noticed by now. I probably represent everything that he hates. There’s no reason for him to tolerate me.”
Shaking his head, Dei crowded his personal space and wrapping his arms around him. He hummed, resting his head on Rainer’s head. “No, I haven’t noticed. I don’t think he’s hates you.” He was quiet and Rainer thought he was through speaking. “In fact, you’re probably actually the only one he can tolerate. You are speeding his recovery.”
“It certainly didn’t seem that way this morning.”
He snorted. “Were you expecting him to fall over prostrate at your feet in thanksgiving? We are Cathali. It is undignified.”
“To show gratitude?” Dei leaned back to raise an eyebrow in his direction. “Never mind.” A simple thanks would probably be too much to ask of a Cathali. Still. “Could he perhaps stop looking like he was contemplating homicide?”
“When most say never mind that generally means the subject has been dropped,” he observed with an unsympathetic shrug. The barbarian.
He was quiet while Dei dragged his fingers up and down his back. He ignored it while he turned over his words in his mind. “You said I’m the only one he can tolerate. Does that include you? Or does that mean he hates you also?”
“For the moment,” he said, unconcerned. “Along with himself, the Avilian, and this whole mountain. To name a few.”
“Oh. Is that all?”
“Not in the least. And not his main antagonist by half.”
“Yeah?”
“Yea-” He cut himself off, drawing back to glare at Rainer. “I’m not seducing you so that we can talk about Cefin.”
“Then talk about yourself.” He lightly drew his claw across Dei’s chest, attempting to distract him into sharing more information. His scowl deepened.
“I will do no such thing.”
Rainer crossed his arms. “Then I don’t much feel like being seduced.” Dei growled, but Rainer just raised an eyebrow.
“You should just leave it be. It’s none of your concern.”
Mulling his words over, Rainer was only silent for a moment. “What about-” Dei sighed in frustration, “-a bargain? A question for a question? And you have to answer honestly and completely.”
“I doubt there’s anything I want to know about you,” he said, running his hand through Rainer’s damp hair. “You’re very troublesome,” he mused, almost as though he were talking to himself. “So unlike the Cathali.”
Pulling Rainer’s arms apart, Dei dragged him over to a boulder. Laying down his cloak, he took a seat and pulled Rainer down next to him. “Cefin is disgruntled about my decision to remain here until he is more fully healed rather than immediately making our return to Cathali. He’ll be able to regain his honor then just as well as now.”
“But I thought-”
He pressed his lips against Rainer’s in a quick kiss before covering his mouth with his hand. “Quiet. It’s my turn.”
Digging his claws in, he removed Dei’s hand long enough to say, “I thought you didn’t want to know anything about me.”
“I changed my mind. Now be silent while I think.” Rainer’s glare deepened when intrigue entered Dei’s mahogany eyes. “What happened to the first lover you mentioned yesterday?” His breath brushed against Rainer’s ear like he was whispering secrets rather than enticing them from him.
“I hardly think those are on the same level,” Rainer protested as soon as Dei allowed him to speak. “What happened with Veit is personal. Nothing like your information.”
“A question for a question? Is it no longer applicable once you’ve learned all you were interested in knowing?” His mouth stretched into a wide smile as he attempted to goad Rainer. And it was working.
Re-crossing his arms, Rainer turned away from him as he arranged his thoughts into some semblance of order. “It’s not even a secret, really,” he said. “Just personal.”
“You don’t think we’ve passed personal at this point?” His hand pressed against Rainer’s stomach and smoothed down slowly.
Pushing his hand away, Rainer rolled his eyes. He had a point, though. His shoulders drooped in defeat. “I was young. And stupid. And not nearly as cautious about my conquests as I am today,” he finally said.
“And by cautious you mean celibate,” he interjected.
Rainer hit his arm. “I didn’t interrupt you when you were speaking.”
“That’s not my fault.”
Rainer bumped him again with his arm. “Long story short, my mother caught him, ah, preparing for our tryst-”
“What was he doing?” Dei purred into his ear.
Shoving him away again, Rainer felt his face heat even more. “Stop asking questions or I won’t answer.” Dei huffed, but motioned for him to continue speaking, and then started to scrap his fangs across his ear. A shudder wracked Rainer’s body. “Um, she, she found him, unfortunately, and sent him to rehabilitation at the temple. I haven’t seen or heard from him since. I suspect he’s dead.”
Dei blew cool air against the wet spot. “Rehabilitation?” he murmured. “Your Avilians sound like a backward bunch of people.”
“They are not,” Rainer protested more out of obligation than any real objection. “I’ve always imagined that my mother knew Veit had plans to meet with me. That was when she first broached marriage. She used him as an example of what could come about without matrimony.” He cleared his throat and turned away from him. “My turn now.”
Dei grunted and put some space between them.
Thinking carefully, Rainer proposed and discarded numerous questions. What did he most want to know? More about Cefin? More about Dei? More about Cathali? “Why were you banished from Cathali?” As soon as the words escaped his mouth, Rainer felt the distance between them increase although Dei did not move.
His mouth twisted and his eyebrows lowered. “Why was I banished? Simple: jealousy, greed, and dishonor. My brother, he runs the land ragged and the people even more. He gives no thanks to the provider. He knew I was to challenge him for the authority, but he was too weak and cowardly to accept. Instead, he has banished Cefin and myself on false charges, so he is just a deceiver and not a kinslayer; he’s a coward, not a fool.”
He rested his forearms against his knees and sighed. “That’s not the worst of it either,” he continued without prompting. “I fear Cefin and I may have gotten the better end than our other brothers. Meirion, my brother, my twin. He’s been locked away to be used whenever it is convenient. Like a human’s-what do they call them?-pets. He’ll use Meirion’s abilities to wreak even more destruction to the land. Meirion would never challenge him; he’s a seer, blessed by the Goddess, not a warrior.
“And Taliesin? Goddess knows what he’s done to him. He’s never liked him; Taliesin is half-Avilian. I imagine he won’t you like either.” He blinked, straightening to look at Rainer as though he’d forgotten he’d been sitting there. “You’ve got more honor in your ridiculous hair than he has in his whole body.”
Something about what he said niggled at Rainer’s thoughts. His phrasing was odd. His thoughts were interrupted when Dei placed his hand over his mouth and stared intently off to the side. Following his gaze he didn’t see anything. Tensing, he heard it; voices, approaching and quickly. Dei slowly got to his feet pulling Rainer along with him.
They were coming too quickly. They’d never be able to get away from the cleansing spring before they were upon them; even if they deigned to leave their clothes behind. Inhaling softly, he caught Dei’s eye. “Go,” he whispered into his ear. “I’ll distract them. I-” The words got stuck in his throat. “-I might not be able to return to the grove, but just leave.”
Dei hesitated once before nodding sharply and turning away. He gathered his clothes and disappeared into the brush, immediately ducking out of sight. Rainer hurriedly pulled his clothes on, not looking to make sure he was truly gone.
The footsteps arrived just as his tunic was tangling over his shoulders. “Rainer?”
The tunic muffled his curses as he fought to extricate himself upon recognizing the voice. Freeing himself, he looked into his mother’s shocked pale green eyes. “Oh. Mother. What are you doing here?” he asked, straightening his clothes into something presentable.
“I should be asking you the same question,” she said, her voice tight with anger. Approaching him with angry steps, she presented a complicated hand gesture and her companions dispersed into the woods. Rainer hoped Dei was long gone by now. “Well? Care to explain yourself?”
He affected a look of confusion. “Did you not read my letter?”
“Of course I read it,” she snapped. Her hand dug painfully into his upper arm, just shy of drawing blood. He suppressed a wince. “You said you were going to the waterfall. This is quite a ways away from the waterfall, wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes, Mother, but after I left I changed my mind. I thought the cleansing pool might be a better location for relaxing. After, after what I saw…” he trailed off, letting his gaze fall down to the ground.
Sighing, she gripped his chin and forced him to look her in the eye. “Rainer. It is not safe here. You must return home.” He started to protest, but she tightened her grip, so that his words were cut off with a gasp of pain. “There are no tracks leading back toward Cathali; they’d probably be killed the moment they stepped back on Cathali lands. But, Rainer, listen carefully. They’re still around here and they are wounded. Like wild animals, they’re more dangerous when they’re injured. Do you understand? You must return to Avila’s protection.”
“Yes, but I don’t think they are around here. Honestly. If given the opportunity, wouldn’t they have attacked me?”
She sighed again and slowly released her hold on him. “So, there’s been no sign of them here?”
He shook his head. “Absolutely not. It’s been quiet.”
“Good, good.”
“Mother-”
“Back to Avila,” she said, just as the other Avilians returned. “I imagine we’ll have those Cathali run to ground in no time.”
His shoulders slumped as he suppressed a sigh. “Oh, right then.”
7.
Fundamentally, Rainer was neither stupid nor reckless. He thought his plans through. He was thorough and meticulous. He was not the type to decide that he’d rather run away after a taste of freedom than stay in the nice, safe Avila. He really wasn’t, but the nice, safe Avila left him starved.
Sitting on his bed, he twisted the knife he had commandeered from the kitchen around his fingers, letting it whisper between his fingers. He had to leave; he couldn’t say any longer. It wasn’t like he hadn’t expected to have to leave eventually; he’d always believed his mother would eventually be able to marry him and he knew he’d never be able to stay after that. Still, he’d thought that was still at least a few years off yet.
He hadn’t planned on Dei.
Resting the sharp blade against his cupped hand, he inhaled sharply, holding his breath, and dragged it across his palm. The blood blossomed in the cut, running down his hand and dripping onto the floor. He smeared the rest on the desk and frowned at the small amount of blood left behind. It wasn’t enough.
He mussed the bed, knocked over the bookshelf and overturned the desk. Wincing, he ripped the pages from his book and scattered the paper across the room in a rainstorm of parchment. He was breathing heavily from the exertion and exhilaration. One last thing to do.
Grabbing the discarded knife, he sliced his arm from his elbow to his wrist and winced as it slid through a sensitive area. Spinning on his heels, he slung the blood and painted the wall red. His legs buckled underneath him and he collapsed on the floor when the world didn’t stop turning after he had.
Blinking at the ceiling, he tilted his head and brought his heavy arm into his line of sight to see the wound on his arm was still bleeding, albeit sluggishly. He guessed he might be feeling blood loss and decided he didn’t enjoy it in the least.
The door opened out of his sight and his eyes widened. If he was found now, the only good thing it would bring was it would take the focus off of Dei and Cefin’s actual trail wherever that may be. He wondered what servant would dare open his door without knocking first.
“What a mess,” Dei said, shutting the door behind him with a click. Rainer tilted his head to look back at him to ascertain that he was actually here and not a hallucination. “I knew you couldn’t survive without me, but I thought you’d at least have the decency to be eaten by a wild animal or eat poisoned mushrooms. Something ‘dignified’ like that,” he said, crouching down in front of him.
“Dei?” he squeaked.
“Who else?” He tore a strip off Rainer’s tunic, ignoring his protest to the action, and bandaged his arm. “Can you sit?” he asked, forcing him into a sitting position without waiting for a response.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, after blinking the world back into some semblance of order.
Flashing a grin, he tangled his hand through Rainer’s hair and dragged him closer. Pressing his lips into Rainer’s, he tasted his mouth briefly before backing off. “What else? Kidnapping you, of course.” He waved at Rainer’s battle wound. “And might I ask, what you were doing?” he asked, moving to crouch in front of him.
Rainer’s world titled as he was forced to his feet, but it righted itself quickly. “Oh. I suppose I’m being kidnapped by some horrid Cathali barbarian.” Shaking his head, Dei snorted and looked around the trashed room. “Great minds. You know, you shouldn’t be here. Everyone’s looking for you.”
“I noticed.” He shoved Rainer toward the door, catching him when he stumbled halfway there. “You really are useless,” he mumbled to himself. “They won’t think to look here, since they’ll be too busy following my other trail, the false one, at least.” Rainer wrapped his arm around his neck and sighed. “You, Avilian, aren’t too good obvious footprints from other more subtle trails.” He grinned again.
Rainer frowned as he was shuffled toward the door. “You’re strangely happy.” He eyed him with a raised eyebrow. “I’m not sure how much I like it.”
Rolling his eyes, he opened the door and peeked around the corner. “There’s nothing to not be happy about. We’re going back to Cathali.” Pulling back into the room, he grabbed Rainer’s arm and unwound the bandage from it. “It looks like you’re going to scar, though now you won’t stick out quite so much in Cathali.”
“Won’t!” Rainer said, a touch loudly. “By the cleansing pool, you said your brother won’t like me. Have you been planning this since then?”
“I’ve been planning this since the moment I said ‘agreed’ to the pretentious little Avilian leaning over my cage.” Rainer gaped at him as Dei opened the door. “Come on, lovely. Let’s go. We don’t have all day and Cefin’s waiting for us.”
“Don’t call me that,” Rainer said, more out of habit than any annoyance. Dei threaded his fingers through his and led him out of the door. They trailed down the hallway with their backs to the jagged wall, stopping when they got to the corner.
“Quiet, now, lovely,” he said with a slight frown on his face. “Someone’s coming.” He started to ease them back in the direction they had come from. “Why are your Avilians always interrupting us? Can’t leave us alone for one moment.”
“They aren’t mine.”
Just around the corner, they heard, “Somebody send for Rainer. I’ll meet him in the library.”
He winced. “Oh. That would be my mother. Unfortunately.”
“Shit,” Dei hissed. “We need to hide.” Forcibly turning Rainer around, he shoved him down past his doorway and turned the other corner. Two servants turned the corner, screeching to a halt at the sight of Rainer with a Cathali behind him. The one on the left tumbled to the ground in a faint when a familiar looking knife went sailing over Rainer’s head an imbedded itself in the wall. The other screamed and scrambled backward, away from her fallen comrade.
Shoving past Rainer, but grabbing his arm and yanking him along with him, Dei took off down the hallway. She scrambled away from him, but Dei ignored her, barely taking the time to yank the weapon from the wall with a manic grin. Rainer glanced behind him to see his mother’s shocked face before he was jerked around a corner and out of sight. Forcing his legs to cooperate, he increased his stride to keep up with Dei’s.
They took a couple of more turns before Dei slowed to a stop. He pushed Rainer against the wall, breathing harshly, but softly, into his ear. “You know where we are?” Closing his eyes and resting his head against the wall behind him, Rainer pictured Avila’s layout and nodded hesitantly. His head was a little fuzzy, but he was slowly regaining his mental faculties. “Which way should we go?”
“Straight down this hallway and a left at the third turn. There’s an exit that will put you out near the base of the mountain.” He pushed his hands against Dei’s chest until he put more space between them. “You should probably just leave. I can distract them away from-
“No.” He turned away and started moving down the hallway at a brisk pace. Suppressing a grin, Rainer quickly moved to catch up.
They continued moving quickly and Dei followed his whispered instructions without question, even when they had to change course at sudden obstacles. “There’s a way out around the next bend,” Rainer said into Dei’s ear, standing on his tiptoes to speak into his ear, “baring anymore unforeseen circumstances.”
Dei tilted his head so that Rainer could feel his words ghosting across his lips, “To hell with unforeseen circumstances. I’m tired of your mountain. We’re getting the hell out of here and back into the sun.” He reached down and grabbed Rainer’s hand, rubbing his thumb across the knuckles as he started down the hallway with a purposeful stride. “I confess, when I intended on capturing you in the beginning, my motives were a bit different than what they are now. I also thought you’d object a bit more.”
Smiling, Rainer lowered his voice. “If you’d like, you can throw me over your shoulder like the barbarian you are and maybe even ravish me when we make it back into the sun.”
He glanced back at him with a smirk. “If it’s in my barbarian nature, I suppose I have no choice.” He started around the sharp bend, but retreated fast enough to bump into Rainer. “Goddess damns them.” He pushed Rainer farther back and said, “I believe that’s your mother.”
Frowning, he inched around Dei to take his own peek around the corner, drawing his head back before mother could catch sight of him. “Damn,” he agreed.
“How the hell did they know we’d be here?”
Rainer tightened his grip on Dei’s hand. “I don’t-”
“They must have been herding us here this whole time.”
Relieved, Rainer thought over his words and said, “That actually makes sense.” He patted Dei on the back and magnanimously chose to ignore him when he muttered something unflattering about Rainer’s mentality. “I have a plan,” he said, pushing Dei’s cloak aside and reaching underneath it.
“Ravishment is supposed to wait until we’re outside and away from your damned mountain.” Rolling his eyes, Rainer pulled out the knife he had stashed there earlier.
“Don’t be stupid.” He waved the weapon in front of his face. “We’re going to walk out.”
Dei stared at him. “I think ravishment was a better plan.”
“Just take it,” he said, pressing the hilt into Dei’s hand. He ducked underneath the muscular arm, presenting his back to him and trapping himself in Dei’s lax grip. “My mother, whatever her faults, cares for me.” He lifted Dei’s unoccupied hand to his throat and titled his head back. “Wave that dagger around quite like a barbarian and she’ll let us go. Rough me up a bit if you must. You know I can take it. Maybe add a battle wound or two to go with my scar and I’ll blend right in with the other Cathali, won’t I?”
He smiled up at Dei, but the gesture slipped from his lips when the Cathali didn’t return it. Instead, he said, “You’re not serious,” in an incredulous voice after a moment of quiet.
“Why not?”
Dei blinked and then a wicked smirk spread across his face. “Meirion was right about you.”
“What? The seer-” His words were cut off when Dei pressed a firm kiss against his lips, nipping at the bottom one until it tingled. Rainer groaned when he pulled back, drawing his bottom lip to his mouth to taste the sweetness.
“I’ll explain later,” he said, twisting Rainer back around before he could say another word. “Quiet now, lovely. Captive’s don’t speak.” Rainer bit his lip as he was dragged out in front of his mother.
Her eyes widened in horror when she caught sight of them. He felt a moment of remorse about putting her through this, even if ultimately it was the right thing to do. “Rainer?” she whispered.
“All right,” Dei said in a low voice, practically a growl, while shoving Rainer forward. “Let me pass or I’ll snap his lovely little neck. He won’t heal from that, will he?”
Her eyes hardened and her grip tightened on the crossbow in her hands. “Let him go. This is a violation of the treaty.”
“I’ve been banished from my tribe-” Rainer had never heard him or Cefin refer to it as such; he was really playing on the barbarian bit, “-I care nothing for the treaty. Though, neither do you after what you did to my brother-in-arms? I’m just here for my lovely revenge.” He dragged his tongue across Rainer’s cheek; Rainer’s eyes widened in response to the action. “Don’t worry though. I’ll treat him better than you did my people.”
She faltered, the bolt tip drooping toward the ground, and her gaze snapped back to Rainer. She eyes bore into his as Dei pushed him forward a step. His heart stuttered in his chest; she knew-maybe she didn’t know all of it, but she knew that he didn’t completely object to being kidnapped.
Dei edged around the small army his mother commanded, each step slow and deliberate, and his hand tightened threateningly around Rainer’s throat. “Don’t, don’t hurt him.” Dei snorted. She blinked and her face tightened. “I will find you.”
Rainer was unsure of which one she was speaking to. He felt Dei shrug behind him. “I’m sure you’ll give it a good try,” he mocked as they started to back through the exit shaft, “but if you so much as move one foot before a count of two hundred, all you will find is a dead body.”
She inhaled sharply, her gaze flickering over to Rainer’s. “One. Two…” He didn’t hear anymore as he was yanked backward through the tunnel and they fled together.
8.
It was only much later, after they caught up with Cefin and set up camp deep into the Cathali woods, that Rainer remembered to ask what Dei’s twin had said about him. In response, Dei snorted and passed him his portion of the unidentified, roasted animal Dei had hunted.
Cefin, looking more alert and a bit less hostile, looked up from his food to stare in surprise at Dei. “Meirion said something about him? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Dei waved his question off with a twist of his wrist. “I didn’t believe it myself until we were on our way out of the mountain, I realized right about the time you insisted I hold the knife to your neck.” He met Cefin’s startled gaze with a smug grin. Cefin’s eyes flittered between the two of them and then he burst into laughter. Dei quickly joined him.
Rainer frowned at them. “I’m glad this amuses you, but could somebody tell me what’s going on? Is this one of those Cathali things?”
Getting himself under control, Dei said with a grin, “In Cathali, there is a ritual, a mating ritual, that binds two people together. It requires a show of great trust, typically by offering your neck with the belief that you’ll come forth alive at the end and wearing a mark that shows you completely belong to the other.”
Staring at the two barbaric Cathali Elves in front of him, he demanded, “Did, did I propose?”
Dei smirked. “Essentially, yes, though we don’t call it that.”
“But, but, but we hardly know each other!”
Waving his hand, Dei dismissed his concerns. “Meirion says that’s not a problem.” Rainer stared at him with wide eyes and he laughed again. “Don’t worry. We’re not mated. Yet. I haven’t reciprocated and you’ve nothing to show for it.” He nodded to the side and Rainer followed his gaze to Cefin, who tipped his head backward, revealing a long scar, stretching from his ear to his collarbone. Mouth dropping open, Rainer’s hand flew to cover his neck.
Naturally, the barbarians started laughing at him again.
The End.