yet to decipher it. Some spells like this one are quite unique, and meant only for the person who has been enchanted. You are a handsome young man now, Cam. Is there some lass you have disappointed who might have been jealous of Anoush, and sought out someone to magick her? Think carefully, I beg you.”
A thoughtful look touched Cam’s face, but then he shook his head. “I can think of no one who might have misunderstood my attentions toward her. Ask the lady Sholeh if you would confirm my words. Besides, I spend more time with the cattle than I do in society, Aunt.”
“Then all I can do is try to discover what sort of spell this is so I may lift it from my daughter,” Lara said. “When she is herself once more we will speak on what you would both desire.”
He bowed to her politely. “I can only await your success, but be assured that I love Anoush with all my heart, and she loves me.”
“It pleases me to hear your words, Cam, and I am touched by your sentiments regarding yourself, but as for Anoush I must hear her declare her love for you from her own lips,” Lara told him. Dismissing him with a small smile, she turned again to Noss. “Continue to watch over my child, and send to me if there is any change.” Then Lara was gone from Liam’s hall in a burst of her pale green smoke.
“I must return to Rivalen,” Cam said to Noss and Liam. “There is no reason for me to remain here. If Anoush wakes up will you let me know?”
“Of course, lad,” Liam said sympathetically.
Noss nodded. She had not liked Cam as a child, and she didn’t like him now, but she had concealed her dislike from all but Lara.
Cam hurried from the hall, going to the stables to fetch his mount. He would ride far enough from the village not to be seen, and then he would transport himself to Ciarda’s dwelling. Lara did not know about Ciarda, of course, and so her remarks had been but innocent ones. But it had set Cam to considering if his Darkling lover had put an enchantment upon Anoush so he might not wed her. Ciarda was inclined to jealousy.
He rode from Liam’s stable and out into the cold late morning. He could smell snow in the air as his horse plodded along. Finally, when he saw by the landscape about him that he was halfway between Camdene and Rivalen, he drew his horse to a halt. He tied the animal to a tree, and said aloud, “Take me to Ciarda.” And instantly he was there within her bedchamber.
Ciarda was with her Wolfyn lover. She was kneeling as he pumped himself within her. Cam watched them dispassionately until the Wolfyn howled with his attainment, but he could see Ciarda was not satisfied. He almost laughed as she rounded on her lover, beating him on his long snout with her fists.
“Pig! Do you dare to take your pleasures before giving them to me? Get out! And never return!” Her eyes lit on Cam. “This mortal knows well how to pleasure me, don’t you, Cam? Come, and show this fool of a selfish Wolfyn how easily I can be pleasured if one but tries. You will remain and watch us.”
Without a word Cam loosened his manhood from his breeches. A few quick strokes of his hand, and he was ready. Ciarda knelt upon the bed, her bottom toward him. Cam grasped her hips, and drove himself hard and deep. At once Ciarda moaned.
“You see, Wolfyn,” Cam explained, “she requires a great deal of slow preparation to ready her. Then a quick thrust to impale her firmly so she feels all of your length and thickness.” Reaching beneath the Darkling, he used one hand to squeeze her full breast, pinching the nipple hard before he released it. “Her breasts are particularly sensitive. Come, and slide your head beneath her so you may suckle and fondle her. She will like that, won’t you, Ciarda?”
“Yes!” Ciarda said breathlessly as the young Wolfyn did as Cam bid him, his mouth closing over the sensitive tip of her breast. “Oh, yes!”
“She is a greedy bitch where pleasures are concerned,” Cam continued on in a pleasant tone. “Since you have disappointed and angered her you must work twice as hard now to pleasure her. Suck her! And while you do I will begin to stoke her lust.” He began to move himself in and out of Ciarda, slowly at first, then with increasing vigor and speed. He could sense her grasping for completion, but he deliberately kept her just short of it, explaining as he did so that it would drive her wilder, and give her far greater pleasures to be denied for a time, and then finally satisfied.
The young Wolfyn crawled from beneath Ciarda’s breasts, which he had sucked until they were swollen and sore. Now he forced his manhood between her lips, growling at her to suck him until he bid her cease. The Darkling attained great pleasures as Cam’s juices burst into her as her sheath spasmed and tightened about his manood even as the Wolfyn’s juices spurted down her throat, and he howled again with delight before collapsing onto the bed.
Cam withdrew his now-satisfied manhood from Ciarda’s hot dripping sheath, rearranging his garments into a semblance of order. He smacked the Darkling’s plump bottom a stinging blow. Then, grasping her by her ebony hair, he yanked her head up, looking down into her face. “Did you dare to lay an enchantment upon Anoush, you bitch?” he snarled at her.
Ciarda scrambled to her feet. She was naked, and very beautiful. “Get out!” she said to the Wolfyn, and, scrambling to his feet, he fled her. “What are you talking about?” she demanded of Cam as she picked up a scarlet silk robe and wrapped it about her. “What has happened to your precious mortal lover? Nothing serious, I hope.”
“She lies in a deep sleep unable to awaken,” Cam said.
“Her mother has done this, you fool,” Ciarda said, tossing her black hair at him.
“Nay! There is even an invisible shield about her. Lara says it is not her doing.”
“And you believe her? She has done this to prevent you from wedding her child,” Ciarda said. “She has not given you her permission, has she? But the girl is in love with you. She will defy her mother and wed you. The faerie woman knows this, and so she has woven an enchantment about the girl.”
“Nay, if Lara says she is not responsible then she is not,” he defended her. “She is not known to lie. And I believe she will allow me to wed Anoush if Anoush wants it. And she does, Ciarda! You are jealous, Darkling! Remove the enchantment you have put upon Anoush, or you shall never know pleasures with me again.”
“How prideful you are, mortal.” The Darkling sneered. “There are other lovers I can take to my bed. You are not the only manhood available to me to ride.”
“I saw what you rode but minutes ago, and he did not satisfy you, Ciarda. Only I can do that, and you know it.”
“I swear to you that I have not laid any enchantment upon your beloved,” the Darkling said. “You will tire of the girl sooner than later, Cam. As you are the only one to satisfy my lusts, I know that I am the only one who can satisfy your lust. You have not taken pleasures with Anoush, have you?”
“She was not ready,” Cam said.
The Darkling laughed scornfully. “You were afraid to touch her lest she flee you,” she said. “Does she not like pleasures?”
“She is shy, but once she is mine I will cure her of that affliction,” Cam boasted. Then he said, “If you did not place that spell upon Anoush, and Lara did not, then we must at least find someone who can remove it.”
“Only whoever placed the spell can remove it,” Ciarda told him. “You must forget the girl at least temporarily. Soon you will make your first appearance as the Hierarch, Cam. You can think of nothing else.”
“Is she safe?” Cam asked Ciarda.
“Who? Oh, you mean your little mortal girl. If she has not been harmed other than being put into a slumber then aye, she is safe. If someone had meant her harm she would have suffered. She does not. She only sleeps. I still think it is her mother’s doing, but if not then someone close to her.”
“I tell you her mother is too distraught to have done it,” Cam said.
“If that is indeed so then the faerie woman has another enemy,” the Darkling said, and she smiled. “I wonder who it is, but then it has naught to do with us. Leave me now, Cam. I will call you in a few days, and begin your tutelage for your appearance in Hetar as the Hierarch. I vow, mortal, you have quite exhausted me with your vigorous lust.”
Using the small magic she had given him, Cam took himself back to where his horse stood waiting. It had begun to snow. The first snows of the Icy Season. He hurried the beast along, eager for the warmth of Sholeh’s hall and a cup of hot mulled cider. The horse beneath him was as anxious for his stable. Anoush’s state still disturbed Cam. Someone was lying, but he trusted neither Lara nor the Darkling enough to be able to discern which of them it was. Both had a reason to keep Anoush from him.
