“So, all this is Targin’s doing?”
Ganyir snorted. “Targin has played his part, but it doesn’t start with him. Saruqin, the priest. . . the rot spreads from him. He convinced the clan to turn against me, with whispers in the ear and rumors in the streets. He was the one who corrupted Targin with dreams of wealth and power.”
“We take out Saruqin, and we save the city.”
“You still don’t understand. Saruqin isn’t merely a priest. He has power unlike any Augmenter I’ve ever seen before, and I have walked this world for over 50 years. You think it was an easy task for them to take the Earth Core and bend it to their will? That takes something more than you or I could achieve. I can’t take Hyng’ohr City back with Saruqin defending it, and I don’t see anyone, not even a would-be Swordslinger, being able to take him down.”
“You haven’t seen me in action yet, my lord.”
“I have heard such words from many young men. None yet have lived up to their own ambitions.”
“Then I will be the first.”
“Ha!” Ganyir grinned. His sudden mirth seemed to weary him because he sighed and frowned.
“Thank you for your time, my lord,” I said. “It was an honor to meet you, but I should go and sleep. Perhaps we can talk some more tomorrow?”
“Perhaps,” Ganyir said, staring over the brink. “If I’m still here.”
Leaving Tahlis to watch over his lord, I headed back into the temple, through the door Kumi had used, and up a spiral staircase. As she’d said, there were monastic cells at the top, small sleeping rooms set off from a narrow corridor. I found an empty room, with bare walls and only a cot for furniture. I closed the door behind me, dumped my weapons and bag in the corner, stripped off my clothes, and collapsed into bed. I pulled a sheet up over me and, despite the bright morning light streaming in through the narrow window, felt the tendrils of sleep creeping across my mind.
The latch on the door clicked. I reached for my sword, but then saw who it was.
“Vesma,” I said, letting go of the weapon. “Is something the matter?”
“Nothing we can’t sort out between ourselves.”
She closed the door behind her. She was barefoot, wearing only her robes and not the leather body armor and bracers she normally wore everywhere.
“Remember our night at the Resplendent Tears?” she asked.
I nodded and smiled. The Resplendent Tears Guild, a place riddled with the corruption of the Unswerving Shadows, didn’t hold many happy memories, but the night that Vesma had come to my room after dark was one of them.
“This time, we’ll see each other,” she said.
She unbelted her robe, shrugged it from her shoulders, and let it fall to the floor, revealing every inch of her pale, petite body. She reached back behind her head, accentuating the curve of her breasts, and unfastened her hair so that it fell like a dark waterfall down her back.
I started to sit up, but she pushed me back down on the bed, pulled the sheet aside, and lay down beside me.
“It’s been too long.” She ran a hand down my chest, across my belly, and on. I came awake at her touch, nerves tingling as her fingers took hold of me.
I cupped one of her breasts and then moved in to kiss it, tasting the salt tang of her flesh. She let out a quick gasp as my teeth tickled her nipple. She pulled me up and kissed me hard, then pushed me back and swung a leg across me. Our bodies pressed together, and I felt the softness of her take me in. Each of us took a deep breath as we joined together.
She moved against me slowly, deliberately, as we relished every moment. I scattered kisses across her lips, her cheek, her neck, her shoulders, while her hand ran across my chest, tracing patterns only she could see. Our pleasure mounted as we rode that tiny cot together, doing things that monks would never do in these cells.
I ran my hands down her, drawing breaths of delight as I caressed her sides, her back, and on down. I shuddered with pleasure as she moved harder, faster, more urgently.
She leaned down so that her lips were beside my ear. “I want you to take me,” she whispered. “Take me with all the power and strength of the Swordslinger.”
She climbed off me and turned around, revealing the rounded perfection of her ass. I got to my knees and pulled in close behind her. She arched her back, and I gasped in excitement as I slid inside her once more. Then, we were moving together, hot and hard and passionate, building toward a crescendo of pleasure. I watched the curve of her back, the swaying curtains of her hair, the slender beauty of her face as she turned to look back at me, eyes wide.
The pleasure became too much to bear. I gave one last, powerful thrust, and we both cried out as the moment overcame us.
We collapsed together on the bed. Vesma curled up against my chest.
“Now, you really have earned your sleep,” she said.
I closed my eyes, and a moment later, I was lost to the world.
Chapter Seven
I woke in the small, rock-walled room. Light was shining in through the single window, illuminating bare walls and a floor of stone slabs. I yawned and looked up at the ceiling, where cobwebs shifted in a slight breeze. I must have only slept for a few hours because it was still daylight, or, more likely, I’d slept through the
