'I love Allenya,' he said, and instantly wondered why.
'I'm sure if I was to know her, I would love her also,' replied Lerissa. She caught Ullsaard's intrigued glance. 'As a sister.'
Ullsaard nodded and chuckled.
'Why would you speak to me of love?' Lerissa asked.
'Because I want to fuck you,' said Ullsaard. Lerissa stopped and turned to him, and the king cursed his lack of subtlety and scant knowledge concerning the finer phrases of seduction.
'A soldier's proposal,' laughed Lerissa.
'I'm sorry,' said Ullsaard. 'You are right, I speak with a soldier's tongue, and very clumsy it is.'
'Do not apologise,' said Lerissa. 'Your honesty is as alluring as your body. Not the sweetest-tongued man in Geria has the courage to speak his intents so plainly to me, though their desires are every bit as obvious.'
'Still, it was blunt, and I should not have said it.'
Lerissa hooked her arm in Ullsaard's and led him along the path again, taking a fork towards a covered bench set within a tall hedge.
'I think I should very much like to fuck you as well,' she said. 'It has been a long time since I have had the benefit of a soldier's directness. All of these preening suitors have multiplied since you killed my husband, and there's not a man amongst them.'
'I am sorry if my act has deprived you,' said Ullsaard.
'Killing Nemtun? Think nothing of it. He was an odious toad, and I have fine apartments and many luxurious clothes and glittering jewels to keep me company now.'
'It must have been a hardship, sleeping with such a man.'
Lerissa laughed, and the sound was not pleasant.
'If you mean having sex with him, do not worry on my account. Nemtun had only half a cock to his name, and so I was never forced to endure his sweaty attentions.'
'Half a cock?'
'An Anrairian warlord caught him through the kilt with the edge of his sword, almost severing the poor member. He had barely enough to piss out of, and nothing to put inside a woman. I feel a little sorry for him in that regard, for his inability to take me as a man doubtless added to his misery and frustration and fuelled his eating and jealousy.'
'And yet he was content to share you with other men?'
They had reached the bench and sat beside each other. Lightning and thunder was growing in strength and the rain was hammering at the peaked tiled roof protecting them. Rivulets of water were flowing down the path and between their feet. Their shelter was incomplete and gusts of wind brought the rain onto them, dampening their clothes.
'And that was part of his sickness of mind,' said Lerissa. 'I was a trophy, and so he gloried in other men being able to sample the delights of my company without ever being allowed to possess me as he did. For my part, I was happy to indulge his perverse needs.'
'Why?'
Lerissa ran a hand into Ullsaard's tunic, stroking the muscles of his chest.
'Because I am a woman who has needs like any other.'
The wind was blowing stronger, opening the front of Lerissa's flimsy dress, exposing the cleavage of her pert breasts. Ullsaard reached out and mirrored her, placing his hand inside her gown. Rain was coming under the roof steadily, soaking into their hair and clothes, and Ullsaard was fascinated watching the droplets running in trickles down Lerissa's tanned skin.
'Yes, if you would like to fuck me now, that would be good,' Lerissa said with a chuckle, lifting back the leather of Ullsaard's kilt to expose his erection.
She turned and slid sideways, straddling him on the bench. He raised his hips, eager to be inside her, pulling aside the last scrap of cloth concealing her chest so that he could engulf a breast in his mouth. She lowered a fraction, giggling as the tip of his member touched her, before she rose up again, teasing.
Ullsaard growled in annoyance and grabbed Lerissa's hips, pulling her down onto him. There was a moment of resistance and then he pushed up, this time growling with delight at the sensation of penetrating her. She rocked back and forth, head swaying from side to side, her wet hair like lashes across his face and chest. Hands clamped to Lerissa's buttocks, Ullsaard lifted her and then pulled her down, timing the movement with thrusts of his hips.
'I've never fucked a king before,' Lerissa said with a laugh. She gently dragged her fingernails through his beard. 'It's much better than a governor with no cock!'
Ullsaard barely heard her. He grunted and thrust, mind only occupied by the feeling of being inside her, the pressure mounting in his body for release after so much time. With a snarl, he stood up and swung around, pinning Lerissa to the back of the bench, his hips moving faster and faster. Her hands clawed at his hair and her teeth sank into the exposed muscle of his shoulder, almost drawing blood. The pain added to the pleasure and Ullsaard's loins exploded with his climax, a drawn out, stuttering exclamation torn from him.
'Allenya!' he snarled.
Lerissa slapped him across the face, spitting curses. Ullsaard ignored her, thrusting several more times to expel the last of his seed into her.
'You fuck-happy piece of shit!' Lerissa hissed in his ear, struggling to free herself from his tight grip.
With a final shudder, he pushed into her once more. Legs buckling from his release, Ullsaard flopped to the bench, a broad grin on his face. Another slap brought him to his senses.
'What the fuck are you doing?' he demanded, batting away her next blow with his arm. 'Stop that or I'll hurt you.'
'You called me Allenya, you pig-son-of-a-whore!' Lerissa shrieked, jumping to her feet and pointing accusingly at the king. 'You were thinking of her while you fucked me!'
Recollection of his outburst returned to Ullsaard. He shrugged, unable to deny the image that had been in his head while he had been inside Lerissa.
'I told you that I love my wife,' he said in explanation.
'Then go fuck your wife, and every other slut in Askhor, you bastard. I hope your cock shrivels off.' Lerissa stormed away, cutting across the grass, the rain quickly soaking her.
Ullsaard watched Lerissa disappear into the blue-tinged gloom, the post-climactic glow assuaging any guilt at what he had done. He thought of Askhos, lurking in the recesses of his mind somewhere.
'I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did, you dead cunt,' he whispered.
As he sat there, the rain soaking his skin and clothes, Ullsaard thought numbly about doing one thing and thinking another. An idea struggled to the surface amidst his post-coital fugue. Rubbing the rain into his face to clear his senses, the king stood and looked up into the sky. The idea formed more fully and he smiled.
For too long he had been reacting to events. It was time to take the initiative.
III
It was with some satisfaction that Urikh stood on the balcony of a waterfront house and looked over the activity of the docks. The Brotherhood could take some credit, but not much; many of the duties they had reclaimed had been fulfilled perfectly well by the governor's own measures in the Brotherhood's absence. It was with some reluctance that he pulled his eyes away from the scene and turned to Thasalin, standing to his right.
'You see how the king's ship has been given priority?' said Urikh, pointing to his father's trireme. A flotilla of boats crowded around the vessel, attended to by the floating crane-barge Urikh had commissioned. 'With five more of those loading ships, we could double the dock's capacity by freeing up wharf space for smaller vessels.'
'To what purpose?' said Thasalin. 'The majority of trade ships of that size continue upriver to Narun.'
'And that is my purpose,' replied Urikh. 'Your order spurned the needs of the large merchantmen for decades, forcing them to load and unload at Narun. Now they can do so here with equal ease.'
'To what advantage? The traffic on the river will not increase, and so your facility will simply diminish the
