began to kiss his way down her torso. But this time he did not go directly to her mons. He kissed the length of each slender leg, kissed each dainty foot, sucking seductively upon her toes. Then he surprised her by turning her onto her belly. He licked up her calves, and thighs. He kissed and nibbled her buttocks. Then briefly he lay atop her, kissing the back of her neck, whispering soft words of his love into her ear with a hot breath. Then he rolled off of her, turning her onto her back and looking down into her face.
Cinnia smiled up at him thinking as she did that she would never love him as she did Dillon. Indeed she might never love him at all. But she could see the passion he had for her in his own beautiful eyes. She could never return to Belmair as anything other than an outcast. And like the other women here she would live for who knew how long. She did not think she was meant to be miserable. Dillon would eventually enjoy pleasures with another woman. Why should she not enjoy them, too? Reaching up, she drew his head back down to hers, kissing him slowly, hungrily. “For tonight,” she told him, “I am yours, my lord.”
Ahura Mazda had seen the slight shift in her emotions within her green eyes. And now he meant to punish her just a little for her strength. Laying upon his hip next to her he pushed two fingers past her nether lips and thrust into her now wet sheath. His fingers moved back and forth until Cinnia was actually squirming upon his hand with her need for pleasures. Withdrawing the fingers he smiled slightly at her hiss of annoyance. “Beg me for it,” he said in a cold, hard voice. “Beg me for pleasures, my precious Belmairan sorceress. I have others here to satisfy my cravings. You have only me! Beg! Or I will leave you, and you will go without my cock, which I know you are ready for now.” Then he laughed at the look of outrage upon her face. And to tease her further he found her pleasure jewel, and began to worry at it with a wickedly skilled fingertip.
“Just when I think I might begin to at least like you,” Cinnia told him, “you show me once more the monster you are!” She strained against his finger, trying to gain some measure of satisfaction, but he cleverly tortured her while refusing her release.
“Beg me!” he told her, grinning, quite pleased with himself.
“To Limbo with you, my lord! Go and fuck one of your willing women who will spread themselves and say thank-you afterward,” she taunted him. “We both know that you want only me, Ahura Mazda! That you marked me at my birth to be yours!” Cinnia mocked the Yafir lord. Then she laughed triumphantly as he flung himself atop her, and drove his great cock into her throbbing sheath with a groan.
Now it was he who laughed. “You are begging for it after all,” he told her. “You shall have what you want, my precious. I will work you harder, go deeper until you are screaming with the pleasures we are sharing.” And then he proceeded to do just that.
Cinnia’s head spun wildly. Her heart hammered against her ribs. Their mating was utterly incredible. She could feel every inch of his cock as it drove back and forth inside of her. It was massive, stretching the walls of her sheath, pulsing with life as it made its way deeper and deeper within her until she was crying out with the pleasures overwhelming her, overcoming him. “Don’t stop! Don’t stop!” she whimpered to him. And he didn’t until the pleasures overcame them both, and they fell into a half swoon.
And at that same moment Dillon groaned, and awoke from his sleep. He had been dreaming. Dreaming that Cinnia had taken pleasures with the Yafir lord, and enjoyed them. Tears pricked the back of his eyelids. He swallowed hard. Could he, a foreign king of Belmair, cast aside all tradition just to have his wife back? And if Belmairans would not accept her, what was he to do? He could not take Cinnia and depart. The dragon had chosen him to rule Belmair. His father concurred. He had a duty to Belmair. When the morning came he sought out his mother. “What am I to do?” he asked her. “Last night I had a dream. Cinnia lay in the arms of Ahura Mazda and enjoyed pleasures with him. I believe it is true, Mother. I am coming to realize as each day passes that even if I regain my wife, the Belmairans will not accept her. I have tried to hide from this truth, but I can no longer do it. I do not know what to do. They will force me to another marriage sooner or later, I fear.”
“I have never before seen you at a loss,” Lara said. “You must love Cinnia greatly, my son. If she has taken pleasures with the Yafir lord you know it is because she had no choice in the matter. Why should it distress you? Women are able, even as men, to enjoy pleasures with those other than their mates. She did not seek him out. He took her. She does what she must to survive until you can find her. At least she will not give the Yafir lord a child thanks to the spell you set upon her. We will get her back, Dillon.”
“The searchers grow fewer for the fields needed planting, and tending,” he told her. “Among the dukes only Alban of Belia truly aids me now. We have sought everywhere, Mother. There is no trace of the Yafir.”
“You have searched in all the obvious places,” Lara said. “Where have you not looked, Dillon?”
He shrugged. “We have inspected every cave, the hills, the fields, the woodlands, the meadows. We have sought out villages now deserted but we can find nothing at all.”
He sighed. “Where else is there to look?” Dillon asked his mother.
Lara considered the answer to her son’s question, and then she said, “Have you sought in the sea?” she asked him
“The sea?” Dillon looked surprised. “How could they exist in the sea?”
“I don’t know,” Lara admitted, “but you should consider it. After Napier IX banished them from Belmair they disappeared never to be seen again. And yet they are still here, and they exist. They are in none of the places that you have looked, but they are somewhere, Dillon. Why not the sea? It’s the only place you haven’t sought.”
“That is true,” Dillon agreed, “but how are we to find them? We need Nidhug. She knows all there is to know about Belmair. Britto!” he called to his steward, who came running. “Fetch the dragon to me at once!” he said. “Tell her it is of great import.”
Britto hurried off, and within the hour Nidhug came into the hall with Cirillo. “What is it, Majesty? Has some word come about the queen?” she asked him.
“The sea, Nidhug! We have not looked in the sea for Cinnia!” Dillon cried.
Cirillo looked to Lara. “Your thought?” he asked, and when she nodded, he bowed to her in admiration. “Mother should really make you her heir,” he said.
“Please, little brother,” Lara replied. “Do I not have enough upon my plate?”
“Nay, Majesty,” Nidhug said slowly, “we have not looked in the sea.”
“How are we to do it then?” Dillon demanded of her. “Are there creatures in Belmair’s seas who would aid us, Nidhug?”
The dragon’s brow actually furrowed as she considered his request. She thought and she thought. Finally she said, “Once there was a small clan of Merfolk who made their home near Belia, but I do not know if they even still exist, Majesty. They were extremely private creatures and did not seek the company of mortal Belmairans who considered a half mortal, half aquatic people beneath them. The Merfolk kept to themselves. Now and again they would help the fishermen on Belia seeking fish by directing them to where large schools were swimming.”
“I will go to Belia at once!” Dillon said.
“Nay, I will go,” Lara told her son. “Ahura Mazda watches you, my son. He does not watch me. Better we not alert him to the possibility that we might find him.” And before he might argue with him Lara transported herself to Duke Alban’s hall.
Ragnild gave a small frightened cry as the beautiful faerie woman suddenly appeared practically in front of her.
“Forgive me for startling you, my lady Ragnild,” Lara said. “I forget there is little magic in Belmair. I am the king’s mother, the Domina of Terah, and I have been sent to speak with Duke Alban.” She smiled.
Ragnild smiled back, relieved. “I wish I could command your mode of travel, Domina,” she said. “I rarely leave Belia for I do not enjoy travel upon the sea.” She gestured to a servant who had come into her hall. “Fetch Duke Alban at once. Tell him the king’s mother is here to speak with him.” She turned back to Lara. “May I offer you some refreshment, Domina?”
The two women seated themselves in a window seat that overlooked the sea below, chatting amiably as they sipped fresh fruit juice and nibbled upon cheese wafers.
The duke had hurried to the hall when he had been told of his visitor. He stood before Lara and bowed low. He had been told of this powerful faerie woman. “I welcome you to Belia, Domina,” he said.
“I thank you, Duke Alban. My son has told me of your friendship, and now he has sent me to ask for your help.”
“The young queen has not been found yet, has she?” Ragnild asked softly.
“Alas, no,” Lara told them. “The king has searched every nook and cranny in all of Belmair, but there is no trace
