Chapter 17
Ivy
Cleric Delfis is nothing at all like I expected a devotee of Elox to be.
The godlen of healing and peace casts a calming presence from every painted and carved depiction I’ve encountered. In fables, he makes himself known in the most subtle and gentle ways.
Delfis moves around his office in the Temple of Tranquil Skies with a jovial energy, never quite standing still. Even when he stops to peer down at the map we’ve been consulting, the large man cocks his head to one side and then the other while rubbing his hands together.
But strangely, there’s something soothing to all that energy regardless. It reminds me of the swift but rhythmic creak of the printing press, back in my early childhood days when my parents’ workshop was a comfort.
Delfis sweeps his veiny hands across the unfurled paper. His voice is brisk but reassuringly steady too. “From what you’ve told me, I think the sacrificial accomplices that the scourge sorcerers have manipulated could be the key to undermining their stolen authority. And they’re the people who most urgently need our help. Their current lives must be a torment.”
My lips twist as I think of the few mutilated accomplices I’ve encountered. “The scourge sorcerers keep them isolated, with only the bare necessities to live. They can barely move on their own. It’s horrible.”
Delfis nods, his shaggy hair that’s as white as his clerical robe swaying with the movement. “We must heal them as well as we can. And when they’re ready, they could speak out against the Order of the Wild. Their very existence is proof of wrongdoing.”
Casimir smiles at him. “Yes, it’d be hard for Lothar to justify what his followers have done to all those people.”
The courtesan’s gaze slides to me with a pleased gleam. He, Stavros, and I approached the temple alone yesterday evening to evaluate how safe a haven it would actually be for our future queen. It only took one look at the cleric and one waft of Casimir’s gift for him to proclaim his approval.
He told me later that night that the thing he’d seen he could do that would make Delfis happiest was telling him that he could help bring the Order of the Wild down and put a rightful ruler back on the throne. We couldn’t ask for a better attitude than that.
Petra peers down at the map from where she’s standing across from Delfis. “We need to find some of the sacrificial accomplices if we’re going to rescue them. Hasn’t Lothar been keeping them carefully concealed?”
“We have reason to believe that the factory of sorts where the scourge sorcerers are trapping daimon and animating their clay bodies is up north,” I say. “They’d need a lot of power to accomplish that, so they must have quite a few accomplices somewhere in this area.”
Delfis hums and taps a spot near the edge of the map. “I have an idea of where we could start our search. My devouts spend most of their time traveling the province, offering their services to any they find in need. Shortly after the Order of the Wild spread their uprising beyond Eppun, one devout reported seeing odd activity at a cluster of farms up here near our border with Eppun. Several carts coming and going, figures in shrouds being ushered inside. When he tried to extend a welcome, he was told off rather aggressively.”
Stavros frowns. “The accomplices we’ve encountered in the past were shrouded—and we haven’t seen anyone else working with the Order covering themselves like that. How far away are these farms?”
“Only a few hours’ ride. You could be there and back within a day—or over the course of a night.”
My spirits lift with a rush of my own energy, for once nothing to do with my magic. “We should go right away, then. It’s about time we struck a real blow against the Order.”
Delfis steps back with an air of intentness. “All action requires proper forethought, especially in a matter as fraught as this one. I need to consult with my devouts and the records I’ve kept to confirm the details before we proceed with a plan.”
He flashes a smile at me that’s almost apologetic, as if he can sense how desperately I want to make progress. “I promise it won’t take very long. Your dedication to our royal family is impressive.”
As he sweeps out of the room, Petra lets out a soft laugh. “At least we know he’s right about one thing.”
My cheeks warm with a twinge of embarrassment.
Casimir bumps his shoulder affectionately against mine. “Your enthusiasm does you credit, Kindness. We’re on our way now.”
I wrinkle my nose at the map. “Isn’t there anything we can do right away other than wait?”
Every minute Lothar remains in power gnaws at me with the uncertainty of what horrors he might conjure next. What harm he might manage to inflict on the people around me.
Stavros gives my shoulder a quick squeeze. “Why don’t you check up on our scholar and make sure the temple library hasn’t swallowed him up? He may have found something else that’ll be useful.”
At Petra’s encouraging smile, I peel myself away from the table. It feels like too much time has already passed since we made any real moves against the scourge sorcerers, but I don’t want to rush in recklessly either.
The temple’s library is located on the lowest level, a series of rooms that manage not to give the same dreary basement ambiance as the archive where my men and I used to meet at the royal college. Thin windows along the outer walls let in sunlight from their position close to the ceiling, amplified by the magic-enhanced crystal fixtures that dangle throughout the space. The white walls and soft, honey-yellow carpeting add to the bright atmosphere.
Books and scrolls pack the pale wooden bookcases built against the walls. It seems this temple has had a scholarly bent for quite some time to amass this kind of collection.
Cozy chairs with tables set next to them scatter the larger fore-room, perfect for curling up with a thrilling story. I tamp down on my own itch to peruse the shelves for folk tales or adventure novels and venture on into one of the side rooms.
I stop in the doorway, taking a moment to enjoy the view before I interrupt.
Alek sits on the smaller room’s chaise lounge, the only seating available amid the many looming bookcases. He’s bent over a book with tight script and yellowed pages that I can tell must be many decades if not centuries old, with other volumes and a few scrolls lying around it on the low table.
His dark waves have drifted over his forehead, but they can’t disguise the passionate gleam in his bright brown eyes. His lips have parted slightly as if in awe. There’s a joyful glow to his bronze skin that shines right through the mottling of his scars.
He’s dressed in the plain tunic and trousers Delfis provided us all with to change from our travel-worn clothes, which hardly fits his station as a scholar of the royal college and son of a wealthy merchant. But he’s never looked more handsome than here, utterly in his element.
I hate to break his reverie, but he glances up and notices me before I have to speak. A brilliant grin curves his lips. “This place is fantastic! I can’t believe none of my teachers ever recommended taking a research trip here.”
I amble over to the arm of the chaise and consider the assortment of books he’s been browsing through. “They have texts you haven’t found before—more than just temple records?”
“Oh, they are mostly records,” Alek said, his usually even voice as awed as his expression. “That’s probably why no one’s paid attention. There are all kinds of accounts from past clerics and devouts of people throughout the province they’ve met—mostly to provide medical assistance, but you can learn so much about how people lived from the details woven in. I’ve already found several that date back to before the Darium invasion.”
His main area of study before he got drawn into investigating the scourge sorcery conspiracy was Silana’s history from before the Darium empire’s reign.
I perch on the padded chair arm for a closer look at the book he’s currently reading. “Is there anything in there that’ll help us knock the scourge sorcerers on their asses?”
Alek lets out a chuckle and gives his head a rueful shake. “Not so far. But I’ve only just gotten started. Lothar and his followers like to talk about how they’re going back to the ‘old ways’ and how the All-Giver wanted it to be. The more we know about how things really were in the times before the Darium empire, the better armed we’ll be to challenge the Order of the Wild. I suppose that’s what King Konram was thinking with his own reading.”
He has a point. I’m not sure I’d want to argue even if I didn’t see it.
The eagerness in his face and voice brings a swell of affection into my chest—and a sudden prickling behind my eyes.
I almost lost moments like this. I almost lost him and everyone else I care about. If my kidnapping by Lothar had ended the way the former advisor wanted it to—if he’d had his man slit my throat the other night by the guardhouse?—
I still might lose everything, sooner than I’d like to think about. Because the battle is far from over, and what I said to Petra is true. I’ll stretch my magic and my sanity to their limits before I let Lothar hurt her and her siblings.
A lump rises in my throat at the memories. If Lothar had succeeded in his first awful plan, my last words to Alek would have been caustic mockery.
I touch the scholar’s cheek and brush my thumb over the ridged skin that’s as much a part of this extraordinary man as his beautiful eyes and warm smile. “I can’t think of anyone better to do the challenging. I love seeing you like this. Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are right now? You should get to immerse yourself in old books all the time rather than having to run around across the countryside.”
A blush adds a ruddy tint to Alek’s cheeks. He ducks his head a little bashfully, but his tone stays light. “So that I can be more pleasing to the eyes?”
I laugh and lean over so I can kiss his temple. “So all that brilliance inside you can shine through in every possible way. I didn’t fall in love with you for your looks, as much as I appreciate them too.”
A rough note escapes Alek’s throat, and then he’s tugging me off the chaise’s arm, onto his lap.
As my pulse hitches giddily, he cups my face between his hands. He holds my gaze with a hotter light flaring in his eyes. “The books aren’t the only thing I want to ‘immerse myself’ in.”
I can’t help arching my eyebrows. “Oh, no?”
He teases one hand down to my neck, the other dipping all the way to the hem of my tunic. His fingers splay against the bare skin of my waist beneath, and I lean into his touch instinctively.
“I want to learn everything there is to know about you,” he murmurs, his voice gone rough. “Every thought that passes through your head. I want to read every piece of your history that’s etched on your body.”
His thumb strokes over my collarbone by the neckline of my shirt. “How you got this scar.” His other hand finds a mark over my ribs that he must have noticed before. “When you were burned. All the stories in you, even the painful ones.”
All at once, I feel naked, even though he hasn’t removed a piece of clothing.
How much has he already learned that I haven’t told him, just by observing the remnants of my past scrapes and wounds? It can’t all be good.
In my awkwardness, my stance tenses, and Alek must feel it. He draws me closer into a full embrace, tipping his face up toward mine. “But most of all, I want to discover everything there is to know about making you happy.”
He bobs up to claim a kiss. The press of his lips is sweet enough to erase any momentary insecurities his comments stirred up.
“I love you,” he whispers between one kiss and the next. “No matter what happens, I’ll always love you.”
My heart skips again with a bittersweet pang. He knows me well enough already to have guessed at my insecurities—and answered them with more devotion than I’d ever have dared to ask for.
I shift on his lap to straddle him and kiss him back hard. As our mouths meld together and our tongues tangle, the fondness that filled my chest before flares into a sharper desire.
The same emotion must grip Alek too, because he grasps my hip to center me against his groin and rocks up to meet me to the most delightful effect. As I gasp against his mouth, he fondles one of my breasts with his other hand, making full use of the access granted by my simple temple clothes.
The friction between us leaves me tingling. Every want leaves my head except one.
I nip the corner of his jaw and roll my hips against his. “I need you inside me.”
With a groan, Alek yanks at my trousers. As I kick them off, he unfastens his own.
I delve my hand beneath the fabric to stroke his cock up and down. He bucks into my fingers, his gaze burning into mine with an intoxicating mix of adoration and lust.
When he grazes his fingertips over my sex in turn, my breath spills out of me in an eager shudder. My gaze lifts of its own accord toward the doorway to the main library room.
Alek catches my thought before I have to speak it. He lines me up over him, dipping his fingers into the growing slickness of my channel. “I don’t care if someone stumbles on us. Loving you isn’t shameful any more than loving my studies is.”
I laugh, and then he’s claiming me again, with both his mouth capturing mine and his cock thrusting up into my body. The confidence he’s gained over the past few months is so thrilling I quake with the pleasure that shoots through my nerves.
I sink down on him to take him even deeper, and he kisses me with so much passion my head spins. As we buck together, bliss builds inside me with an unexpected sense of urgency.
Every moment we have together could be shattered. Everything we do hangs in a precarious balance.
But we have each other to hold on to, whatever happens. I never knew how much that fact would matter to me until it became true.
Alek swivels one thumb over my nipple while stroking my clit with the other. At my gasp, he increases the pressure, thrusting faster at the same time.
My head drops beside his, our cheeks pressed together. His breath spills hot down my neck.
“Stay with me,” he rasps, as if I’d ever purposefully go anywhere else.
My answer comes out in a mumble. “Always.”
I don’t know if I can keep that promise, but as I careen into the blaze of my orgasm and feel Alek’s chest hitch in tandem, it almost feels possible.