She dug her fingers into the flesh of his shoulders. “I want you to take me,” she said. “Please, I want you.”
She could feel him, his manhood jerking against her thigh. For a moment he was still, looking into her eyes, paralyzed by his passion. She lifted her head to kiss his lips, and for a moment he was still, perhaps in shock.
Suddenly his mouth moved, and he let his weight fall upon her, his manhood close to her dripping center. She pushed against him, lifting her hips, feeling her salvation nearing…
He wrenched himself free, and pushed himself up, rolling off of her and turning his back to her. “Gods, woman!” he shouted.
She reached for his body. “Master—”
“Stop!” Sedrak yelled. He put his head to his hand and rubbed his face. “Leola, do you not understand?”
Leola pushed herself up on her elbows. She did not understand. “I only know that I want—”
Sedrak turned to face her, eyes alight with fury. “Leola, Leola, Leola!” He rose, gathering furs about him.
“I do not understand,” she said quietly. Anger overtook her suddenly. “I do not understand you at all! Your moods, dark as the night, cold as the winter, and then burning like midsummer and the sun!” She was crying.
Sedrak sighed, clenching his fists. He turned slowly to her.
“Leola. I love you. Do you not understand anything? I love you… I must take care of you. If I cannot… think! If I cannot find a solution, I cannot… take your maidenhood.” He dropped to his knees and gripped her fiercely, suddenly. “I cannot leave you to that fate. You could… marry in your own land, could you not?”
Tears welled up in Leola’s eyes. The cold feeling in her chest that had now become familiar—the ache of love—built up until she believed she could not stand it.
“It is a maze, my love,” Sedrak growled. “And I cannot find the exit.”
Leola sobbed, and he pulled her close to him.
“I have given my word to my uncle, to the people. I can defy him, and dishonor myself, and I do it gladly… but should I do so, where will that leave you? I have thought of it all night, my love. You must return home—”
“No!” Leola cried, balling her fists and struggling to beat them upon his chest. “I will not! I cannot—”
“Listen to me!” Sedrak barked, holding her so tightly that her flailing fists fell against his back uselessly, like rain on solid rock. “You know I am right. You will do as I say.”
“I will not,” Leola sobbed. “I love you, I will not go home—”
“If you love me, you will go home as I command,” Sedrak said with finality. “You will return a maid, and you shall marry, and I shall honor my oath. It is the only way.”
Leola tried to speak, but her chest was too tight to allow the words to escape. She knew he was right, she knew in her heart that he was thinking only of her. “There must be a way,” she complained uselessly.
But suddenly, she went stiff, and her crying ceased. “Sedrak,” she whispered. She pushed against him, so that she could look up at his face. “Why must you form an alliance with the Eastern lands?”
Sedrak looked back at her, and she saw a great tiredness in his eyes. “My love,” he said patiently, as though speaking to a child. “This is a matter of politics, matters for men—”
“But why? Tell me why you must form this alliance. With the Eastern lands, what of the Eastern lands?”
Sedrak searched her eyes questioningly. “They are… rich with wealth and resources. Their armies rival our own. We wish to bring a permanent peace between our lands.” He rolled back onto his heels. “It is a marriage of convenience, crucial to the fate of our people. The Easterners do not wage war against us but only because they fear loss. Should word arrive to them that we are weakened… by our enemies to the South, by the true barbarians to the West, from the raiders to our North, all of whom threaten our land, at this crossroad… they shall seize upon the weakness and exploit it. Unless.” He stopped there, shaking his head, for they both knew what ‘unless’ meant.
Leola blinked, tears falling from her eyes, her mouth open as she thought. She knew nothing of politics, she had never wanted to know. Her place in her kingdom had been to… to what?
“Ryken has no heir,” she said aloud. She looked at Sedrak. “My uncle has no heir. Our land is bordered by great mountains, that no army can cross.”
Sedrak looked at her blankly for only a moment.
“Master,” she began.
“Sedrak,” he said in a low voice.
“Sedrak,” she said, the word making her heart flutter. “Why did my uncle go to your lands to steal?”
Sedrak’s face turned dark. “He is a cruel barbarian, and a thief—”
She held up a hand, placing it on his chest, rising to her knees. She spoke quickly, the ideas bursting in her mind, her mouth unable to keep up with them. “What if he is not? What if he invades because we have no resources? What if he would… welcome an alliance? What if his heir was also heir to your lands? What if then, the Eastern kingdom knew that its neighbor to the West was a vast land, that your lands would not be raided by the South? Because you are one with them? Would that not keep the Eastern kingdom… at bay?”
She used this final phrase with some insecurity, for she had never spoken of politics or war, and the language of such talk was unfamiliar to her.
Sedrak looked, at first, skeptical. He began to shake his head, and her heart plunged. But then he stopped, and stared through her, thinking.
“Leola Grace,” he said, shifting his focus to her. He pressed
