Evernight Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2012 Adonis Devereux

ISBN:

978-1-77130-055-1

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor: Marie Medina

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this
copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are
fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

JMJ

BURN LIKE ICE

Adonis Devereux

Copyright © 2012

Chapter One

Kassius had not expected this. Men dressed in outlandish

outfits of burgundy and white ran down the road toward his
entourage. Their baked-brown skin stood out against their white
shirts, making their clothes seem even more brilliant in the late
afternoon sun. Their olive hues and their dark beards reminded
Kassius of Arixus, but only slightly, for Arixus was half Faror blood,
and much of his mother was in him. These men of Faror stopped just
before Kassius’s caravan and wordlessly formed two single-file lines
on either side of him, linking their arms together. And then they began
to hum – a low hum that Kassius at first thought came from the very
ground, so subtle was its rising. A bead of sweat ran down Kassius’s
forehead and dripped past his eyebrow onto his cheek. He snapped his
fingers at the negligent slave behind him, and the slave rushed around
to hold the gaudy parasol of red velvet and gold tassels in front of his
master. The sun burned hotter in Faror than it ever did in Nirrion, his
homeland so far to the north. How long had he traveled? Weeks?

“What’s this?” Kassius asked his body servant.
“A Faror welcome,” the slave said. “You come in the

Emperor’s name, and they honor you.”

Kassius directed his horse forward, but he did not hurry.

Within sight stood a mighty house, almost like a castle, though it
lacked fortifications to be properly called so. Kassius examined the
scene with a soldier’s eye, for that was all he knew. As General, he
relied solely on his ability to size up any situation instantly and devise
tactics to fit all reasonable circumstances.

“Eriston, then?” Kassius nodded toward the massive, multi-

storied, wide-faced house.

The body servant nodded. “Yes, Dominus. They have been

expecting you for some days now.”

Kassius did not want to dwell on the delays along the way. He

just wanted a nice, soft bed to sleep in for the night. And he wanted to
get back to Nirrion as soon as possible. He wanted to get back to
Arixus. He rode between the human chain until he turned off the
white stone road and trotted up a narrower path that took him between
large iron gates. There, in the courtyard of the house stood what had
to have been the entire household staff. Gardeners stood with hats in
hands, bakers and kitchen staff had stopped their culinary labors, and
everyone smiled as Kassius rode up. Among the throng and standing
nearest a large bronze brazier that came up chest-high on him was the
Lord of Eriston himself. Though Kassius had never seen him before,
he did not doubt his appraisal, for the man wore a long, rich robe and
rings of ruby and emerald on his fingers.

The lord of the manor bowed low. “Welcome to Eriston, my

lord.” He spoke in his Faror tongue, and Kassius understood.

“You honor me.” Kassius dismounted his horse and closed the

distance between himself and his host, though he did not touch him.
He did not know Faror protocol.

The Eriston lord smiled and smiled, his white teeth gleaming

out of his bushy black beard, and then looked toward the brazier.

“Bring the torch,” Kassius said to his body servant.
The slave ran off and returned with a lit torch wrapped in blue

and gold ribbons. Tassels of burgundy and silver hung from the end.
The colors of both Arixus’s mother’s and father’s houses. Kassius
took the torch and set ablaze the tar-smeared wood that lay within the
brazier, and at the sight of the leaping flames, everyone cheered.

“And so at last, the fire of our King has come to us.” Eriston

took Kassius by the arm and led him through a sheltered walkway that
opened into the interior gardens of the house. Servants with plates of
candied apple slices and lemon-cakes topped with shaved coconut
walked beside them, and a cup of dark liquid was thrust into Kassius’s
hand.

Kassius sniffed the steaming drink. It had a rich, bitter aroma.

His unasked question must have spread to his face, for the Eriston
lord answered him.

“It is called coffee.”
Coffee, that strange Faror drink more and more people in

Nirrion seemed to be drinking. Kassius sipped it, and it burned the tip

of his tongue.

“Why hot?” Kassius stretched out his hand, indicating the heat

of the afternoon.

“It cools your body,” Eriston said, taking his own cup and

sipping from it.

That explanation seemed backwards to Kassius, but he said

nothing. He sipped his coffee politely.

“The Emperor has bid me tell you that he holds all Faror dear

in his heart,” Kassius said, “though Eriston is chief in his thoughts.”

“Tell my King that I can know no more greater felicity than

living in his grace.” Eriston led Kassius across the grass and among
the peach trees, whose low-hanging fruit Kassius had to duck to avoid
hitting with his head.

Kassius thought it curious that the Faror people insisted on

referring to Arixus as their King when clearly he controlled an Empire
and ruled from Nirrion. But such was the way of things. The Faror
were his father’s people, the Skenje of Nirrion his mother’s, and
Arixus had wanted both.

“I will tell him all you say,” Kassius said, “and tell him of

your kind hospitality.”

Eriston laughed and stroked his mustache. “You have not seen

anything yet. Wait until the banquet.”

Kassius hoped Faror food would agree with him. “And what

of the Lady Rakel?”

“She is ready. We will have the ceremony before we

celebrate.”

Kassius licked his dry lips. “I must admit I’m a bit nervous.”
“Do not worry, my lord.” Eriston laughed again, and Kassius

deemed him a man easily amused. “You come in the name of Arixus
Akar Judal. There is no more auspicious name in all Gilalion.”

And no greater lover.
Kassius wished he was back in Arixus’s arms. He wished he

could kiss those lips that burned like ice. But more than anything, he
wished he could scream to the world his love for Arixus. He had
shared the Emperor’s bed for some time, and though he was happy to
assume the submissive role in their lovemaking, Kassius had to keep
it a secret. In Nirrion, there was no greater shame than for a man to be
taken like a woman, and as Kassius was a great leader of men, he had
to keep his affair with Arixus a secret. “I will do my duty and stand

for the Emperor.”
****

Kassius was dressed in his finest toga, a brilliant white gown

of wool that wrapped around his waist and over his shoulder, to end
folded and hanging in his right arm. The purple strip that ran down its
seam displayed the role he assumed. He would stand in proxy for the
Emperor. Kassius stepped into the circle of decorated eggs on thin,
bronze stands. The painted eggs bore sigils of Elendrie Earthmother, a
clear symbol of hoped-for fertility in the royal couple, and the
diamonds affixed to the colored shells captured and refracted the
candlelight.

Kassius stepped forward toward the mirror flanked by two

branching candelabra, each holding seven candles of scented wax. He
stared into the glass, careful not to take his eyes from what was
reflected there, for it was Faror custom for the man to see his wife for
the first time in the mirror. Musicians played pipes and horns, strange
instruments that pleased Kassius’s ears and soothed his anxiety.

Into the reflection stepped a veiled figure. Only her long black

hair flowed out beyond the translucent black fabric. Every other bit of
her was hidden. Her dark purple dress fell to her feet and swept the
floor behind her, and her hands were hidden somewhere in the folds
of her costume. Kassius thought the dress looked even more
complicated than a toga, and that was saying something. Here came
Arixus’s bride, and the Emperor would marry her by proxy. Kassius
stood there in his name. The last time Arixus had taken a bride was
forty years previous, before Kassius had been born. He always took
his brides from among the Faror people, and Kassius wondered which
number this one was.

“I am come to give myself and all I have into the hands of my

husband, Arixus Akar Judal, Emperor of Nirrion, King of the Faror,
and lord of all he sees.” Rakel spoke in Kassius’s native Skenje
tongue, and her voice was like honey and spice, smooth yet foreign.
She laid her hand in Kassius’s.

“And I, Kassius Enad Val, claim you in the name of Arixus

Akar Judal.” He stared at her through the mirror. He could already see
that her features were fine beneath the veil. “Where you are Chiel,
then and there I am Alaxton. To my eyes you are fair as Melara, and
may you be as fruitful as Elendrie.”

“Where you are Alaxton, then and there I am Chiel. To my

eyes you are as rich as Galadrin, and may you be to me as just as
Jehiel.”

Having said the ritual words of the Skenje wedding ceremony,

Kassius smiled. It was done. But Rakel moved back to keep him from
raising the veil.

“May you bring forth fruit from me,” Rakel said in Faror, “as

the Sunlord sires his children on the Earthmother.”

Those words were not part of the ceremony, and Kassius did

not know what to say in response, for he knew this woman would
never get her wish. Arixus desired no children. And yet Kassius’s
heart burned in his breast as he considered her words, for it was as if
she were speaking to him. “The gods smile upon our union.” Our
union? She belonged to Arixus.

Kassius raised the veil, and Rakel’s dark eyes, glowing

brighter than any candle, arrested him. She was the flower of Faror
loveliness. A kind of glittering powder covered her smooth, dark skin,
giving her an inhuman beauty. She wore a light perfume that Kassius
could smell as he leaned in to kiss her – to kiss her lips for his friend
and lover, Arixus. His lips touched hers, and when he tasted her, he
knew his relationship with Arixus could never be the same again.
Kassius loved Arixus for his beauty and strength, and he felt drawn to
Rakel for the same reason. This was no perfunctory kiss – Rakel
sighed into his mouth as she fell into his arms. Her body pressed
against his, and Kassius could have given himself to her right there.
But she was Arixus’s bride, and everyone was watching from beyond
the railing. The unexpected intimacy quite stole his reason. Though
loath to do so, Kassius broke the kiss and bade farewell forever to
those sweet lips. He turned to the assembled crowd beyond the
shadows of the altar and proclaimed Arixus Akar Judal and Rakel of
the House of Eriston married.

The Eriston lord and everyone else in the room fell to their

knees and bowed before Rakel. “Hail, our Queen!” her father said.

“Hail!” they all repeated.
Rakel turned her beautiful gaze upon Kassius, and he, too,

knelt, though he did so more to worship her loveliness than to
acknowledge her supremacy. She reached down and ran her fingers
through his short, blond hair. “So fair,” she said.

“Your Grace,” Eriston said. “Daughter.” He kissed her hand.
But she hugged him and said, “Thank you, father.” When she

pulled away, Kassius could see the unshed tears gleaming in her eyes.

“You have worked so hard for this,” her father whispered to

her, “and now look at you: a Queen. His Grace chose you.”

“Long has our house been allied with the Lozabet clan,” Rakel

said. “It was only a matter of time before he bent his eye upon us.”

Eriston turned his grinning countenance toward Kassius. “Let

us eat our fill and toast the long life of the King.”

Arixus Akar Judal needed no such toasts. He was an immortal

Lorin.

“Lead the way.” Kassius smiled as if he were in good spirits,

but his heart warred with his reason. He could not take his eyes from
Rakel. He could not stop thinking about his friend and Emperor’s
bride.

Kassius did not stay long at the feast, for he did not trust

himself to sit too long near the woman he desired. He drank only as
little as he could get away with, and at his earliest convenience, he
excused himself from the festivities, not trusting what he might do if
he got a belly full of wine.

“Going so soon?” Rakel asked, taking his hand in hers as he

rose from his seat of honor.

“I must.” Her touch set a fire in his flesh. “We ride out

tomorrow, and I must be rested. I will not fail to see Your Grace safely
to Nirrion.”

Rakel smiled, and her dark eyes glowed in that way Kassius

liked so much. “Very well.” She squeezed his hand and then released
it. “But you must promise to talk to me along the way. It is a very
long journey.”

“I could refuse you nothing.” Kassius’s voice shook, and he

had to fairly flee the hall. He did not miss the way Rakel looked at
him as he left – there was clearly so much she wanted to say.
****

Kassius’s entourage set out the next day around midday, for

the celebration had not ended until dawn. Though he had spent a
restless night tossing and turning, Kassius praised himself for his
fortitude, for his ability to flee temptation. Rakel reclined in her litter
and pulled the curtain back, tying it with a thick silk cord. She wore a
thin summer dress that left her shoulders bare, and Kassius caught
himself staring at the mounds of her breasts beneath the cream-
colored fabric. Eight male slaves picked up her litter, and her hands

caught the walls to steady herself.

“I must get used to this, then?”
“What?” Kassius nudged his horse closer to her litter. He

looked down again with awe at the jewel-lined saddle beneath him, a
most extravagant gift from the Eriston lord.

“Slaves. We Faror do not have them.”
Kassius squinted in the fierce sunlight and looked north.

Somewhere out there was his home. “Yes. There are more slaves in
Nirrion than Skenje.”

“Faror slaves?” Rakel sipped honey water from a silver goblet.
“All kinds of slaves, from every nation, but most slave stock is

mixed heritage, so it’s impossible anymore to know where anyone’s
come from.” Kassius wondered if Rakel was prepared for her new
life. “Do you know why His Grace takes his wives from among the
Faror?”

“Because he is part Faror himself, of course.” Rakel caught

Kassius with her stare again, holding her in his charms. “It is a
symbol of his loving kingship over my distant country. Arixus loves
Nirrion – his mother’s land – like a bride and Faror – his father’s land
– like a mistress.”

“You know much, Your Grace.”
Rakel shook her head and swallowed her latest mouthful of

water. “Call me Rakel.”

“I cannot.” Kassius looked straight ahead, concentrating on the

very boring road before him.

“We will be friends, no?”
Kassius glanced over at her for just a moment. “If Your Grace

wishes it.”

“Rakel, when we’re alone.” She leaned forward so that her

head stuck a bit out of the litter. “Please.”

Kassius could not help but relent. “Very well, Rakel.” To

dispel his discomfort, he continued on. “So, you know a lot about our
ways?”

“I should. I’ve studied for this moment all my life.”
“You knew you would be Empress?”
Rakel smiled and popped a date into her mouth. “Yes, and

would you believe that I never talked to any man other than my father
before I spoke the vows to you?”

No, Kassius could not believe it. “I think I’d be a bit more

tongue-tied if I were in your place.”

Rakel’s eyes danced with laughter. “Melara guide my tongue

so that I might better please the King.”

Kassius watched her mouth, the way her lips brushed against

the edge of the cup, the way she placed the date upon her tongue and
then took it into her mouth. He wanted to kiss her again. He wanted to
go back to that moment when he held her in his arms, when they
spoke those words of love and devotion to each other. When they
exchanged each other.

“What kind of man is he?”
“Who?” Kassius could have slapped himself.
“The Emperor, of course. What are his ambitions, his

passions?”

Kassius loved Arixus, but he also could not deny his growing

attraction for Rakel rising in him as fast as the morning sun overhead,
burning him up inside with just as much heat. He did not dare tell
Rakel how he felt about either of them, however. “Arixus is truly
unlike any man you have ever or will ever meet.”

“Yes, he is full Lorin.”
Kassius knew Rakel could not understand without seeing the

man in the flesh. “It goes beyond that. Arixus is like the statue of
Jehiel standing in Forum: he is beautiful, perfectly sculpted, yet
completely inhuman. People gaze at him from a distance and stand in
awe when he passes by. The people look on him more like a work of
art than a man. Arixus is the Sentinel; he is the Clearlow. He is an
inscrutable elemental force that is old enough to have seen everyone
he has ever known die, save his parents.”

Rakel nodded slowly, and she swallowed her smile in her next

sip. “Nevia and Melenius. Their names are legendary even in Faror.”

“No one knows where they have gone,” Kassius said, “though

I suspect Arixus knows of their whereabouts. On those stormy nights
when rain pummels the city, the people say Melenius has returned to
visit him. When the Sentinel smokes in its fiery dreaming, they say
Nevia is near.”

“I cannot wait to meet him,” Rakel said.
Kassius wished the trip would take forever.

****

All of Nirrion greeted their new Empress with banners,

confetti, dancing slave girls, trumpets, and drums. The hills of the city

were decked in streaming colors of blue and gold, silver and
burgundy, the four colors of the Emperor. Kassius led Rakel up the
Tendora Road, past the markets and the Circus, to the Eladivi, atop
which stood the Forum, the very heart of Nirrion and the Empire.
They walked on a carpet of flowers, and throngs of people sang out
their praises. Arixus had declared the day a holiday, and all week
there would be feasting and games, all at the expense of the
government. This is what made the people happy, not the mere arrival
of some foreign bride. But whatever made the Emperor happy pleased
the people.

Kassius led Rakel beneath the Arch of the Triumvirate and

into the Forum proper. It was clad like a bride awaiting its groom.
Bright banners fluttered in the breeze; others streamed around the
temple columns. Arixus sat beyond the statue of Jehiel, high up on the
steps to the Sunlord’s temple. He sat beneath an awning of purple
cloth on a high, gilded chair set on the porch of the temple, just before
the sacrificial brazier. Around him stood his lictors, his slaves, and his
sycophants, many of whom Kassius found distasteful. The General
was a plain-spoken man, one who identified an enemy on the
battlefield and sent his troops to crush them. Though he too was
noble, he had no love of politics, lies, and back-room dealings.

Rakel ascended the marble steps and laid her hand in Arixus’s.

The Emperor’s shoulder-length hair floated around him in his Lorin
airs, and when he rose to accept his bride, the earth rose to support
him. The movement was imperceptible, but Kassius saw it because he
knew what to look for. The world loved Arixus, just as he loved the
world, and it cradled him like a mother. It protected him.

Arixus, ancient yet youthful in appearance, had a wife, though

he was Kassius’s lover. As he watched the royal couple stand and bask
in the applause of the crowds, Kassius wondered what Arixus’s
former wives had been like. It had been easy for him to assume that
he was Arixus’s only lover, since no one counted slaves. But now
Arixus would take Rakel into his bed, and Kassius felt the first pangs
of jealousy, both regarding Rakel and Arixus.

Chapter Two

Rakel kept her head held high, her chin tilting in pride as she

looked over these strange new people who were now hers. But she did
not dare to look upon Arixus again. One look had been nearly enough
to overthrow her, and she did not wish to humiliate herself before her
new subjects by prostrating herself on the ground and worshiping
Arixus. Her King. Their Emperor. Nirrion and Faror themselves made
flesh.

“Hail to the Emperor Arixus! Hail to the Empress Rakel!”
The shouts filled the Forum, and Rakel found herself

searching out Kassius. As she was swept along, feeling almost as
though the cries of the people carried her, she felt as though she might
drown, and she sought Kassius’s face as if it were her anchor. She
found him, standing beside the temple of Jehiel, just a little way
behind where she had stood. His pale blue eyes were dark with some
strange emotion, and those soft, delicious lips were turned down in a
frown for which she had no explanation.

But then the door of the temple of Galadrin closed behind her,

and she was alone with the priests of Galadrin and the King, the
Emperor, Arixus Akar Judal.

There was not, Rakel knew, to be any wedding ceremony here.

She was already accounted the Empress. She was already the wife of
the man beside her.

The priests of Galadrin began their chants, and Arixus spoke

over them, his voice carrying over theirs.

“I invoke Galadrin Riverlord, and may he bless my bride with

wealth and honor.” Arixus’s voice was utterly without inflection, and
Rakel could not keep her eyes from him any longer. She did not, of
course, turn her head to stare, but she looked at him as much as
possible while moving only her eyes.

She could see only his profile, but Arixus Akar Judal, King of

Faror, Emperor of Nirrion, was completely perfect. Flawless was the
only word in her thoughts. Flawless. His black hair, so unlike what
she had expected, floated up around his shoulders, but she could not
feel the breeze that carried it. As they passed from the temple of
Galadrin back out into the brilliance of the early autumn sun, she
dropped her eyes, keeping her gaze fixed on Arixus’s feet as they
entered the temple of Elendrie.

Rakel sucked in her breath, but she managed to keep the sound

low. The stone of the Forum floor moved like water up to meet
Arixus’s foot, and only as he pressed down upon it, did the stone
resume its flat, even surface. Even the earth itself loves the King.

“I invoke Elendrie, Queen of the Hearth, and may she bless

my bride with fertile lands.”

Rakel heard the even voice of Arixus, as emotionless as at the

first temple, but she noted the strange invocation. No one prayed to
Elendrie without invoking her blessing of fertility. She was the earth
goddess, the one to bless a young bride with children. Why did her
husband not ask for this?

As they exited Elendrie’s temple and went on to the temple of

Alaxton Battlebringer, Rakel naturally nodded and waved to her
subjects, but her eyes she kept fixed on Arixus’s face. Kassius was
right. My King is like a statue. Arixus’s smooth skin was paler than
any full-blooded Faror’s, but it was not quite Skenje pallor. It was
skin like pale honey, and Rakel felt her womb clench at the thought of
touching that skin. His eyes were wide-apart, set perfectly under
straight, black brows, but when she looked full into the King’s eyes,
Rakel stumbled.

Arixus, without even turning his head, already had his hand on

her waist, steadying her.

Rakel’s breath was uneven, and the wonder of what she had

seen drew her gaze back to Arixus’s eyes. His eyes, even as she
watched, bled from black to a blue more brilliant even than Kassius’s
eyes. But he did not smile at her. His mouth, with its lips so full, so
perfect, was absolutely still. He was carved from living marble.

“May Alaxton Battlebringer grant to me the eloquence to

express my bride’s loveliness.” Arixus’s invocation to the god of war
and poetry was the first sign Rakel had that the King might be pleased
with her.

Then she was swept back out into the light and heat of the

Forum. Its sounds buffeted her, but Rakel kept her eyes safely away
from Arixus’s face, and she did not stumble again. They were back
into the cool, elegance of the temple of Melara. But when Rakel heard
Arixus’s invocation to the Rose-goddess, it took all her self-
possession not to fall into unconsciousness.

In that even, uninflected voice of calm dispassion, with a face

carved from ice, Arixus said, “May Melara Rose-goddess grant me

my Empress’s love.”

Still he had not looked at her. The last two temples, those of

Bright Chiel and Jehiel Sunlord, Rakel did not even notice. Still
Arixus’s voice seemed to echo in her ears, and she did not recall the
litter ride through the city, except that Kassius was there. He was the
one who helped her into the litter, and she focused on his fair face
before the curtains closed. Kassius’s soft, sweet lips were still
frowning, and she smiled, trying to cheer him.

But the curtains of the litter closed, and Kassius was shut out.

Rakel was inside, alone. Arixus rode on a black charger through the
streets, and Rakel did not look out to see the city. She kept her
thoughts only on what was ahead. Arixus was to have her
maidenhead, and she would be a virgin wife no longer.

When they reached the villa, the slaves lowered the litter, and

Rakel stepped out. She sought for Kassius, but the general was
nowhere to be seen.

“Come, my Queen.” Arixus held out his hand to her, and she

laid her hand in his, following him through the wide corridors of the
Nirrion-style house. She had intended to observe the house closely, to
contrast it with the Faror architecture with which she was familiar, but
Rakel could think of nothing except the King’s hand holding hers.

All her life had led to this moment, the moment when the

King of Faror would take her to wife. Rakel had studied Nirrion
language and culture along with her own, having known for as long as
she could remember that she was to be the Queen, but now she could
not think, could not speak. She was accounted beautiful in Faror, but
she looked nothing like a Skenje maid. She could only hope that
Arixus would be satisfied with her.

“So, my Queen.” Arixus sat down on a large bed, and Rakel

blinked. Were they already in the bedchamber? She glanced around,
still afraid to look at his eyes. The room was a spacious one, and
though the furnishings were in the severe and simple Nirrion style, the
draperies and coverlets were in the silver and burgundy of Faror. The
fabrics were Faror silk, and Rakel smiled.

“Your Grace?” She went to stand before him, uncertain what

to do. She had, aside from Kassius, spoken to no man other than her
father. She had, aside from when Kassius had kissed her on behalf of
Arixus, not been touched by any man. Even her father had kept his
distance. Her attendants had been female, and all her knowledge of

coupling was what her mother had told her. Lie back, and let him do
as he likes with you. He is the King.

“You are very lovely, Rakel.” Arixus’s voice was still calm

and showed no emotion whatsoever. He did not sound as though he
thought her lovely.

“Thank you, Your Grace.” Rakel did not look at his face,

instead fixing her eyes on his hands. They were elegant hands, with
long, strong fingers, and she imagined those hands on her flesh.

Into the silence a faint hiss broke, and Rakel, startled, looked

up into Arixus’s eyes. As his eyelids closed the faintest wisp of smoke
rose from them, and their color had become coal-black shot through
with red, as though his eyes were living embers.

“You are afraid of me, Rakel.”
She could not make out whether this pleased him or not. His

voice had not once altered.

“Yes, Your Grace.”
“There is no need for fear.” He looked her up and down, and

Rakel wished she could read any sort of expression in his eyes. It was
as though the sky passed judgment upon her. “Sit beside me.”

Rakel did so, and Arixus took one of her hands in his. With the

other, he tilted her face up to look at him. “You are my Queen, my
Empress. I laid claim to you upon your birth, and I have waited for
you to become a woman.”

Rakel was silent, staring at those ember-eyes.
“Now that you are a woman, you are mine.” His hand dropped

from her chin to rest on her abdomen. “And as you are my Queen, I
will care for you. As you are my Empress, I will trust you.”

Rakel nodded. Her throat was too dry for speech. Despite the

words – which had, say, Kassius spoken, she would have expected
passion in them – Arixus’s voice was as even as though he spoke of
the day’s weather. And yet his immovable beauty made her hunger for
him. She wanted him more than she wanted breath.

“Empress, I am an immortal.” The pressure of his hand on her

abdomen increased, and Rakel wished he would drop his hand to the
aching place between her thighs. “I have held my double-throne for
many lifetimes of men, and I shall hold it so long as the earth and sky
keep covenant.”

Rakel watched his lips form the words, and she wanted him to

kiss her with those perfectly carved lips.

“But I need no heirs. Had I sons or daughters, they would

grow weary waiting for my death. They would have no thrones of
their own, and they would, as they would be my children, need
thrones. They would seek my life, and I would have to destroy them.”

Horror closed Rakel’s throat.
“But I have no wish to slay my children, so I refuse to have

any. I shall not give you children.”

The horror turned to shame. Rakel would remain a maiden-

wife forever, and she wished she could return to Faror to hide. How
could she face Kassius again?

“No, my Queen. As you are my Empress, I have told you these

things, but as you are my Queen, so shall I take you to my bed. But
not before I have made my way clear.” The perfect, even tones of
Arixus’s voice revived Rakel, but she was still confused. How could
he take her and yet not give her children?

“I will take from you your womb,” said Arixus. And the hand

on her abdomen pressed harder. Rakel looked down at Arixus’s hand,
and even as she watched, its flawless honey color faded into
transparency, into water. Her gown was wet where his watery hand
touched her, and she felt a shooting, withering cold pierce her to her
core. It was not pain; it was a glacial death inside her.

Fear shook her. All her life, Rakel had trained to be the Queen.

She had loved Arixus by reputation and name, as every Faror did, but
to be here, in his bed, and feel his inhumanity was not what she had
thought would be her life. She would not ask for mercy, of course.
She was the Faror Queen; she was the Nirrion Empress, and she was
not afraid of death. But she wished that her life could have been
different, that she could have been yoked to a man, and not the stony
heart of the earth.

Then the cold vanished, disappeared as though it had never

been, and Arixus pulled her onto his lap. She felt a hard ridge beneath
her nymphae, and she realized that he must be aroused. That was all
she had time to think before he pressed his lips to hers.

His kiss burned like ice.
Rakel opened her mouth, and Arixus slipped his tongue inside.

He tasted like coffee, and that one little reminder of her home was
enough to bring the dampness to her eyes. She could not help herself.
Her hands slid to his shoulders and up his neck into his night-black
hair. Rakel closed her eyes and gave herself over to Arixus’s kiss.

His hands slid up her flanks, coming to rest on her rounded

breasts. Rakel’s breath caught in her chest, and Arixus broke their kiss
to speak.

“Do not think, my Queen, that because you cannot see my

emotions that they are not there.” He unfastened the clasps of her
Nirrion-style gown, and it fell, exposing the olive expanse of her
breasts to his eyes. “I am a Lorin, and the elements are in me. I am
Fire and Air, Earth and Water, and it is in those things that I express
myself.” His mouth dropped to her breasts, and he took her nipple in,
sucking and nibbling on her sensitive flesh.

Rakel’s lips moved, but she could not fix on a name for her

husband. How could she call this god “Arixus”?

“It has been too long since last I held Faror in my arms.”

Arixus moved to her other breast, and Rakel lost herself in the
pleasure. No man had touched her, and to feel those burning, icy lips
on her flesh was ecstasy.

Arixus rose then, lifting her easily, and then she was lying on

her back on the bed. He looked down at her, and Rakel could see the
smoke rising from his eyes. He unfastened his toga and dropped it to
the floor. As he did so, Rakel wriggled out of her own gown. Her
pussy was shaved in preparation for her bridal night, in accordance
with Skenje custom, and she saw the thick, hard length of Arixus’s
shaft bouncing before her eyes. She expected that he would enter her
then, but he did not.

Arixus lay on his belly on the bed and pushed Rakel’s legs up

and apart. His face was only a breath away from her dripping pussy,
and when he blew on her skin, she trembled. It was not properly
pleasure; it was the promise of pleasure. Rakel could not help herself.
She thrust upward with her hips, and Arixus obliged her obvious
longing. He put his lips to her nether ones, and his tongue slipped
inside her. He licked for a few moments, and then, without warning,
his soft, warm tongue burned like flame. The sudden shock of it
caused Rakel to buck against his mouth, and her cream poured out
onto Arixus’s chin.

“My King!” Rakel found her voice only in time to moan.
“That is a beginning.” Arixus’s words were still completely

devoid of feeling, but Rakel trusted to his words, believing that he did
indeed have emotions invisible to her purely human eyes. “But I will
have you calling me a god before I have finished with you.”

He lay on top of her then, and he kissed her mouth. She could

taste herself on him, and she blushed, despite the intimacy of their
position. Arixus cupped her face then.

“No, my Queen. There is no shame between us.”
She could feel the head of his cock brushing against her

swollen pussy, and she opened her legs wider, wordlessly begging
him to finish what he had begun.

“Relax,” said Arixus, his calm voice a breath in her ear. “The

pain will subside quickly.”

Rakel nodded. She knew that to lose her maidenhead would be

painful, but she wanted so much to be one with Arixus that she could
not wait for the pain to come and then go.

But it was a greater pain than she had expected, as the hard

spear of Arixus’s shaft thrust into her. In one strong push, he broke her
virginal barrier, and Rakel whimpered.

“You belong to me now,” said Arixus. And then he began to

pull out, only to push forward again. His rhythm was deep and slow at
first, but when Rakel hooked her legs around his taut buttocks, he
picked up speed.

That was when Rakel felt the breath leave her lungs. She was

starved for air; she was burning alive from the inside out; the earth
moved beneath her; and then water, a rising wave of it, carried her
away.

“My god! My god!” When Rakel could speak again, that was

all she could say.

But Arixus had no smile for her, no laughter. He had only a

deep kiss, one that made her hunger for him again just as though he
had not filled her.

“Very good, my Queen.” Arixus must have known that Rakel

had no idea if he were pleased or not, for he spoke his pleasure. Then,
still making sure that he was inside her, he rolled over onto his back,
and Rakel was lying on top of him. “Sit up,” said Arixus. “And take
your pleasure from your King.”

“From my god,” whispered Rakel, and she planted her hands

on Arixus’s chest. Her knees were resting against the silken
bedclothes, and she began to rock back and forth, using almost the
same motion she had seen Kassius use when he rode his horse. Rakel
felt warmth begin to build inside her, to blossom out from her
dripping cunt, and then Arixus’s hands closed over her breasts, his

strong fingers pinching the rosy buds of her nipples. The warmth
grew, and then that same elemental shiver shot through Rakel again. It
was as though the sky fell upon her, crushing her with its fathomless
weight, as though the ocean caught her up and held her against the
sky, as though the world split apart beneath her, swallowing up the
ocean – and over it and under it and through it the fires at the heart of
the world pulsed inside her. Rakel sobbed in her pleasure. She was not
sure how long she was lost among the elements of the world, but
suddenly the fires shot up inside her in streams of pulsating power,
and Rakel knew without any doubt that, had she had a living womb
left, that fiery seed must have taken root in her.

As it was, she was left gasping and sobbing, cradled in the

arms of her King, and he held her until, exhausted by his fucking, she
fell asleep.

Chapter Three

Kassius had been out of the city a week, and every time he

left, he missed Nirrion. Every time he returned, he counted the steps
from the last Galadrin temple along the Kaleros Road to the west gate
of the capital city, and each step brought him closer to Arixus and
Rakel. Kassius had departed with legions; he returned only with his
body servant and a few lictors. He passed through the gate and into
the noise of the city. To the south rose Kuthevi Hill, a place of squalor
and violence, where gangs vied for control of the streets. To the north
flowed the Clearlow River, clear as Arixus’s calm eyes. The history
books told of a very different Nirrion before Arixus had created for
himself a throne. The city had been ruled by a Senate, and the
Republic was almost torn apart by civil wars. But more than that –
Arixus had changed things at a fundamental level. As Kassius rode
over the wide stone bridge that led to Aevi Hill, he glanced over the
edge. Though in the midst of the city, the water ran clean. It was
Arixus’s touch, his love for the land and for all natural things. It was
his Lorin way.

Assuming that the Emperor would be at home in his villa,

Kassius made his way up the Aevi and down wide, clean avenues
flanked by high-walled gardens that hid rich houses within. The Aevi
was Nirrion’s highest hill, and from his vantage point, Kassius could
see the entire city. Even though he had grown up there, it was
breathtaking for him every time he got a chance to just stand and look
out across the city. The streets around him were so quiet that he could
even hear the roars of the crowd in the distant Circus. And, of course,
the Forum shone like a jewel, the beautiful heart of Arixus’s Empire.
Everything Kassius saw belonged to Arixus, and this made him love
his Emperor all the more, for among all the men whom Arixus could
have taken to his bed, he had chosen to bestow his affections on
Kassius.

Kassius kicked the flanks of his stallion and sped the rest of

the way to the Akar villa. He entered the villa’s courtyard and handed
the reins of his horse to a nearby stable slave. Removing his stifling
helmet, he wiped the sweat from his brow and brushed back his hair.
He entered the house, and a cool breeze blew through its corridors,
cooling and caressing his skin. He washed from his forearms, hands,
face, and neck the dust of the road using a wide silver basin that stood

before the shrine of Arixus’s household gods. Kassius smiled to
himself as he took scented candles out of his shoulder bag. He placed
and lit them before the tall, marble statue of Jehiel that sat on a high
pedestal catching the afternoon sunlight. Then he turned to the
wooden statue of a woman great with child. Before Elendrie’s feet he
placed a ripe, red apple he had taken from his time in Inum. He cut it
in half with his knife and laid its pieces before her. Once piety was
fulfilled, he went through the house in search of Arixus.

Whom he found, however, was Rakel. “Your Grace.” He

bowed low before her, and his heart pounded in his chest. She was
lovelier than he had remembered, and he had to remind himself that
she was now a full woman. Perhaps it was that glow which enhanced
her natural charms.

“Lord Val.” She nodded to him. She was still dressed in Faror

fashions, doubtless Arixus’s request. He was proud of his Faror
heritage. “You promised to call me Rakel.”

Kassius looked up to find her staring at him, and when he

caught her dark eyes with his, he could not deny his attraction to her.
“Rakel.” He wanted to take the two steps to her and grab her around
the waist. He wanted to tear her translucent, shimmering shawl from
her and taste her dark flesh. Her neck begged him to kiss it.

“Kassius.” She spoke his name with tenderness. “I am glad to

see you returned safely.”

“How is the Emperor?” Though Rakel stood before him the

picture of loveliness, still he longed to see his lover.

“He is well.” Rakel cast her gaze to the floor and traced with

her toe the mosaic beneath her feet. “I now know what you meant
about his inhumanity – not to say that he is unkind, as the word is
often meant to mean.”

Kassius chuckled, happy to see Rakel at ease with him. “Yes, I

know what you mean.”

“He is at once attractive and repulsive, and I do not know

what to think.” She glanced up at him through her dark lashes, and
Kassius’s breath caught in his throat.

Kassius knew what she wanted. She was overwhelmed by

Arixus. Kassius had been, too, at first. But Rakel wanted Kassius to
make love to her; she needed a real, approachable man, a man who
could share her feelings. This longing for real, mortal flesh and bone
was what had first drawn Kassius to Rakel in Faror country. He

worshiped Arixus and his elemental lovemaking, but as a man,
Kassius needed something both more and less. He needed someone as
human as he was.

Rakel stepped forward until she was nose to nose with

Kassius. “I have been fucked by the sea and the wind, by the earth
and the secret fires that run through the dark places of the earth. His
elements run through me, even when we are not touching.”

Kassius reached out and took her trembling hands in his. The

Lorin had left his indelible mark in her in a way that he had not done
for Kassius. But everyone knew how much Arixus doted on his Faror
brides – they were the symbol of his love for his father’s country.
Kassius took her head and laid it against his chest, and there he stood
for some moments, stroking her hair through her veil and comforting
her. She sighed and hugged him around his waist. He thought of their
first kiss and the words of devotion they had spoken to each other that
day in far-off Faror. Fear struck Kassius then, for he felt his cock
rising against her flesh, and he feared she would feel it. He backed
away from her, holding his hands out before him. He could only
imagine Arixus’s wrath at being cuckolded. And so Kassius fled down
the corridor.

He found Arixus sitting in his peristyle with a stylus in hand

writing onto a wax tablet. The Emperor’s body slave stood nearby and
frowned at Kassius’s arrival, but the old man frowned at everything,
so the General did not take it personally.

“Your Radiance.” Kassius used the term most often reserved

for the High Priest of Jehiel because to him there was nothing more
glorious than his friend, lover, and Emperor.

Arixus looked up and regarded him with the inscrutable

dispassion of a bird of prey, a look that used to unnerve Kassius.
“Welcome home, General. Report.”

“All is well. I have delivered the legions to Inum and given

your orders to the commanders there. They will set out from Hinathlor
in three days and strike west, subduing the land and its peoples,
bringing more glory to Nirrion.”

“Do you expect much resistance?” Arixus turned back to his

writing.

Kassius shook his head. “Against Nirrion legionaries? Hardly.

The wild folk of the forests and hills will be subjugated in due
course.”

Arixus suddenly stopped writing mid-sentence and handed his

stylus and tablet over his shoulder to his slave. “Leave us.” Once the
old man was out of sight, Arixus stood and came to stand just before
Kassius. “What’s wrong?”

Throughout his report, Kassius had only been able to think of

one thing: where did he and Arixus stand personally? Could Arixus
have sensed something from him? “It’s just your wife, Arixus.” In
private, he referred to his lover by his first name.

“What about her?” Arixus took Kassius’s hand and held it

before him.

“What’s going to happen to us?” Arixus’s magnetism just

drew the question out of him.

“What can happen? You are my Skenje lover, have been for

years. I love you, Kassius, just as I love Rakel. I am the sea and the
wind, the earth and the fires of the Sentinel. My affections cannot be
divided, for in me is the infinite bounty of all Gilalion.” He leaned in
and pressed his lips against Kassius’s, and his kiss burned like ice.
“Come, old friend.”

Arixus led Kassius to his opulent bedroom where they had

made love so many times in the past. He held his arms out wide, and
Kassius knew he wanted him to undress him. How many times had he
undressed the Emperor before? Kassius took his time unwrapping
Arixus from his toga and savored each moment that revealed more
and more of his lover’s creamy skin. His musculature was perfect,
with strong, rounded shoulders that gave way to slim yet muscled
upper arms. Arixus’s chest dipped from its wide expanse into ripped
abdominals set in a tight stomach. The curve of his back, from the
neck all the way down to his buttocks, turned Kassius on, and he
could not wait to get Arixus’s cock in his hands.

Once Arixus was naked, Kassius tore his own clothes from

himself. He kissed Arixus’s lips again, and then trailed kisses down
his neck to his shoulders. As he bent forward slightly to lick Arixus’s
nipples, he took his hardening cock and laid it atop Arixus’s own hard
shaft. He jacked them off together in one hand, and he felt a breeze
blow through the room. Arixus’s hair floated around him in his Lorin
passion, and though he showed no outward human signs of arousal,
Kassius knew he was turned on, too. Arixus’s eyes turned from sky
blue to black with fiery veins shooting through them. It pleased
Kassius that he could so quickly bring his lover to fever pitch.

“I want to be inside you,” Arixus whispered in Kassius’s ear as

he nibbled at the lobe.

Kassius took slow steps backward, holding onto Arixus’s

waist and pulling him forward. “I want you inside me.”

The Lorin’s eyes smoldered, and every blink was

accompanied by a hissing sound. Tiny wisps of smoke rose from his
eyelids and vanished almost immediately. Arixus laid Kassius down
on his back and kissed across his chest and down his abdomen. He
grabbed Kassius’s cock with his already oiled hands and stroked it. It
always amazed Kassius how his lover could prepare himself without
Kassius noticing. While Arixus kissed Kassius’s mouth, Kassius felt
his lover’s hard cock pressing against his ass. Kassius raised his legs
and spread himself for penetration. All the while Arixus slowly jacked
Kassius off.

Arixus slipped inside Kassius with little effort, and Kassius

moaned at the sensation of being fondled and penetrated at the same
time. Arixus was the best of lovers. Before him, Kassius had only
fucked men and women; he had never allowed himself to be fucked.
But with Arixus, it was different. He did not mind giving himself to
Arixus; in fact, he loved submitting to his Emperor in bed.

Arixus started slow, bringing his cock out all the way up to the

head, then holding it there until Kassius begged him to thrust back in.
Then he did, burying himself in Kassius. The Lorin’s smoldering eyes
erupted in bright flames, and he increased his speed, reaming Kassius
without hurting him, a feat of delicate skill.

Kassius switched positions and laid Arixus back so that he

could ride him. He bounced up and down on Arixus’s cock, taking
him deep inside him, as he jacked himself off. Kassius felt his cum
building up inside, and he longed to shoot his load all over Arixus’s
belly and chest. He knew that when he did, Arixus would release
inside him, filling him up with his hot seed. Kassius stroked himself
faster, flitting his palm over the oiled head of his cock, bringing his
cum closer to spraying. And that was when Rakel walked in the room.

Kassius leaped off Arixus’s cock and threw himself under the

sheets in his shame.
****

Rakel, who had felt Arixus’s elements thrilling through her,

had felt the wind pick up as it did when he took her to his bed, had
gone to her King’s chambers to see why he wanted her. But it was

Kassius who rode her King, Kassius whose lips were pressed to her
King’s. Rakel was torn, for she wanted to be with Arixus; she wanted
to be cradled in his arms, filled with his cock – and yet she had never
seen anything so arousing, so purely sexy as Arixus and Kassius
fucking.

“My Queen.” Arixus held out one hand to her, even as he slid

his other hand beneath the silken sheets toward Kassius.

“My King.” Rakel glided forward, and it felt to her that the

stone of the floor almost pushed her toward him. “Have I displeased
you, Your Grace, that you take another to your bed?” She was almost
touching him now, and she was shocked to realize that she wanted
Kassius, too, to touch her.

“There is enough of me for the both of you.” Arixus pulled on

Kassius’s shoulder, and the gorgeous Skenje general was revealed to
Rakel’s hungry eyes.

To her shock, Kassius’s face was scarlet with shame, and she

reached out to comfort him. Her hand was on his arm before she
remembered that Arixus was watching them.

“It is all right, my Queen.” Arixus’s hand on hers slid up to her

cheek, cradling her face. “Speak to him. Say to him what you will.”

Rakel’s grew wide, and so, she noticed, did Kassius’s. “Your

Grace—”

The winds rose slightly, and Rakel pressed Kassius’s arm.
“My little lovers,” said Arixus, and the breeze itself seemed to

be laughing. “Your thoughts are open to me. You breathe your
thoughts, and your breath betrays you to me. There is nothing you
think that I do not know.”

Rakel listened to Arixus speak, in his unalterably dispassionate

tones, and realizing that he touched both her and Kassius sent her
arousal dripping down her thighs.

“I know,” said Arixus, glancing from Rakel to Kassius and

back again, “that you, my Queen, have desire for my general, and
you, old friend, have desire for my Queen. But I know, too, that both
of you love me more than anything.”

Rakel trembled. “Yes, my King.”
“So, speak to him, Queen.” Arixus pulled her toward him, and

she found herself wedged between Kassius and Arixus.

“Kassius,” said Rakel, and she traced her fingers up his arm.

“Speak to me.”

“I cannot.” Kassius’s face was still scarlet.
“But why?” Rakel gasped then, for the winds in the room

suddenly ripped her clothes from her. She knew that the violence of
the winds could have torn her flesh from her bones if Arixus were
only a fraction less precise, but the thought did not frighten her. He
had complete control, and she felt completely safe. She also felt as
though some deep longing were about to be fulfilled.

“She is not from Nirrion, old friend.” Arixus reached over

Rakel to caress Kassius’s face, and she sucked in her breath from the
beauty of seeing Arixus touching Kassius. “She does not think as a
Nirrion matron would.” Arixus pressed against her from behind, and
she felt his burning flesh on her back. “My Queen,” murmured Arixus
in her ear, even as he continued to caress Kassius. “I took from you
your womb, and now I will repay that debt.”

“Her womb?” Kassius’s face was at last resuming its wonted

color, and Rakel saw the rapid rising of his cock beneath the sheet.

“Yes. She can have no children.” Arixus kissed her neck. “So

we may all play freely. I know that you two will keep secret, and there
is no cause for us to hold back. Love me and each other.”

The winds whipped the sheet from Kassius’s body, and Rakel,

her form still pressed against her husband’s, saw Kassius’s naked
beauty. A low moan escaped her.

“So, General, fuck your Empress.”
Rakel felt Arixus lifting her, and then she slid home on

Kassius’s cock. She shuddered. It was utterly unlike Arixus’s inhuman
fucking, and she wanted nothing more than to kiss him.

“Then do it.” Arixus was seated behind her, and his hands slid

up her flanks to caress her breasts.

Rakel felt the blood burning in her cheeks, but she was not

surprised that Arixus could read her thoughts. His announcement had
not shocked her. Was he not a very god? She leaned forward, and she
felt one of Arixus’s palms turn outward, so that he caressed both her
breast and Kassius’s chest as she kissed the general. Her tongue
slipped between his lips, and the sweetness of his kiss – like spiced
honey, just as she remembered it – brought tears to her eyes. Kassius
was a man, a being like her, and she loved him.

“Rakel.” Kassius breathed the word as soon as she released his

lips. “I love you.”

A sudden pressure on the rosebud of her anus caused Rakel to

freeze in place. She had never felt anything like this, and she closed
her eyes in fear.

“Tell her, Kassius.” The calm words of Arixus were like the

dawn breaking over the sea.

“It’s all right.” Kassius enfolded her in his arms, pulling her to

lie flat on his chest even as he kept his cock deep inside her. “The
pain will soon be over, and then the Emperor will take your ass.”

Rakel shuddered. Just hearing the words had brought her to

climax. “And you will have my cunt?” The crude word slipped out,
but Rakel did not care. She was beyond caring for such trifles. She
was with a man, a mortal, living, breathing, dying man, just like
herself, and her husband and King and god was pleased that it should
be so.

“Yes, Rakel.”
Arixus thrust into her then, but Rakel’s cry of pain was

swallowed by Kassius as he captured her mouth with his. Arixus’s
oiled cock filled her, and so did Kassius’s. Rakel was so full that she
did not dare move, lest she break into a thousand pieces.

But Arixus obviously had no such qualms, for he pulled nearly

all the way out, leaving Rakel aching for him.

“Fuck me, please, my King!” Rakel clung to Kassius’s

shoulders as Arixus settled into a deep, thrusting rhythm.

“And what of me?” Kassius’s shame was nowhere in sight,

and Rakel saw only love in his blue eyes.

“Fuck me,” she whispered in his ear. “As hard as you can.”
“Yes, my Empress.” Kassius winked at her, and Rakel almost

cried. The action was so human, so familiar, that she crushed her lips
against his.

In only a few strokes, the two men matched their paces, and

Rakel realized that there was no similarity between the way the two
fucked. Kassius was a man, a man in every sense. His male musk, his
gold-stubbled jaw, his shining blue eyes, his hard chest, his long, thick
cock – all of these things were real and true. They were Kassius
himself, not some form that housed the man.

Arixus, however, was the Clearlow, the Sentinel. He was the

sea and sky, and the beautiful shape that he wore was no more than a
garment for him. He was all that was glorious, and he was her King,
her god.

An eruption of Kassius’s cock filled up Rakel’s pussy, and the

spasming of Kassius’s shaft must have sent Arixus over the edge, for
he, too, sprayed thick, hot cum into her, filling up her ass. And Rakel
broke. A thousand, thousand glittering pieces were all that remained
of her.

But she did not mind. Her King would put her back together,

and she and the lover he had given her would worship him together.
They would love each other and worship Arixus.

The End

www.boundlessasthesea.blogspot.com

Other Books by Adonis Devereux:

Worth His Freedom

Bride for the God-King

Chasing Earth and Flame

The Twelve Naughty Princesses

Love Comes Twice

The Soldier’s Lotus

Evernight Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com