7. Clash of Stone and Steel
Clash of Stone and Steel
Talyn
The next morning, Cyra skipped her training sessions with both Axenus and Samhail and visited her new vineyard with Bressen instead. As an added bonus, Axenus left that day on a trip for the lord. Talyn didn’t know where, but she learned he’d be gone a few days.
That left her alone in the house with Samhail. Well, alone with Samhail, the servants, and the extra guards that were now on duty after her failed attempt to get through the wards last night, but close enough.
Luckily, most of the servants and guards were stationed on the first floor. One guard was also stationed on each floor above, but otherwise, Bressen’s steward Ferris was generally the only other servant on the upper floors unless the floor was scheduled for cleaning.
Talyn thus resolved to find a way to ‘run into’ Samhail today.
She had enough suspicions about what was going on between Samhail and Cyra that she needed to find out more.
Or so she convinced herself. After all, if the gargoyle and the lady were close, she might be able to use that as leverage.
If they were having an affair, perhaps she could use it to sow discord between Cyra and Bressen.
If she could separate them – maybe even get Cyra to leave the house unaccompanied – she might be able to kill them easier.
Any hopes she had of killing them at night were gone now that their bedchamber was warded when they went to sleep.
That would’ve given her ample time to escape before the bodies were discovered, but it wasn’t to be.
She’d have to devise a plan to kill them during the day and not be discovered doing it.
She was used to killing mortals or – at best – low to mid-level perimortals, but four of the most powerful perimortals she’d ever encountered lived under this roof, and she wasn’t taking any chances.
Talyn had already checked outside the house, specifically in the training yard, but Samhail wasn’t there. Next, she’d cleared the first floor and had just begun looking on the second where most of the leisure rooms in the house were.
Talyn approached the door to the great room and peered around the corner to see if anyone was there. She drew back quickly at the glimpse of the huge form with white hair seated at one of the tables.
Perfect. Samhail was alone and in a common area. All she needed was an excuse to talk to him.
Then an idea struck her. It was a dangerous idea, but if she managed to pull it off, she might learn a lot.
After a quick pause to reconsider the wisdom of what she was about to do, Talyn willed her body to take the form of the Lady of Hiraeth.
The body of Leeda she normally wore was taller and plumper than Cyra, so she shrunk an inch or so, and her curves pulled in.
Her olive-colored skin also paled to Cyra’s more porcelain complexion.
Talyn walked down the hall to where she’d seen a mirror. The reflection that looked back was an almost perfect re-creation of Cyra.
Whether it was perfect enough to fool Samhail remained to be seen.
Samhail was seated in a chair at a rectangular table where Talyn imagined the inhabitants of the house might play cards or games in their spare time. His boots were propped up on another chair, and she wondered why he didn’t just sit in one of the more comfortable cushioned seats by the fireplace.
The great room had a set of double doors that normally stood open, but she quietly pulled them closed behind her as she entered.
At the very least, she didn’t want a passing guard to just be able to look inside.
She’d seen the guard stationed on this floor return to his post after making his rounds, so she should have a little while before they were disturbed.
Samhail was facing away from the doors, but he looked up and turned to her as she approached. Whether he’d heard her soft footsteps or somehow sensed her, she wasn’t sure, but she made a note of it.
“Back from the vineyard so soon?” Samhail asked as she approached.
“I forgot something and had to come back,” she said, smiling at him. “I thought I’d see what you were up to since we don’t have training.”
“Doing a bit of research,” he said, holding up the book.
Talyn swayed her hips as she closed the distance between them, and the movement didn’t go unnoticed. Samhail’s eyes dipped briefly before coming back up to meet hers.
She sidled up next to him and reached an arm across to half-close the book in his lap so she could see the title on the cover.
It was something about a history of battle strategies, but the subject of the book was incidental.
She was more concerned with making sure her breasts were in Samhail’s face, and she saw in her periphery that his gaze had indeed flicked to her chest.
“It looks like a real page-turner,” she said to him, straightening back up and putting a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s actually been interesting so far, but I haven’t found anything in it yet about how to fight a war without hurting your enemies.”
Talyn blinked at him. “What?”
“Axenus reminded Bressen and I the other day that the symbionts are all human and likely unwilling victims. He wants to find a way to separate the symbionts from their human hosts, but in the meantime, that means trying to win a war without killing anyone.”
Talyn sighed. “That’s a noble idea, but wars are full of innocent victims. Rulers send unwilling soldiers into battle all the time. It’s the nature of war.”
Samhail nodded. “That’s my feeling too, but if I can find a way to minimize the life lost, I’ll look.
I’m not sure how much of Sandrian’s army will be made of symbionts from Rowe, but he’s clearly been raiding Thasia’s own towns and villages to fill his ranks.
We’ll be fighting and killing our own people. ”
Talyn gave him a sympathetic look and trailed her hand inward so it came to rest on his neck. He went still, and she pushed her luck further by letting her thumb run gently up and down the side of his neck. He still didn’t move, but his breathing had shallowed.
Talyn bent closer as she pretended to read over his shoulder.
“You’re a good man to consider such things,” she said next to his ear.
He exhaled heavily.
Talyn slid one hand down the front of Samhail’s chest and let it rest lightly on the hard swell of his pectoral.
She felt the muscle twitch under her hand, but she couldn’t yet tell if he was aroused or just uncomfortable.
Perhaps it was both. She needed to go a little further, but she had to be careful not to push him too far.
Talyn straightened up, making sure to draw her hand slowly back up Samhail’s chest and over his shoulder before she walked around in front of him. She looked down at him and caught his gaze. There was definitely something blazing there as he looked at her.
Be patient, she told herself.
When Talyn wanted a man, she had no problem being bold.
Had she been attempting to seduce Samhail as herself, she would’ve just thrown her leg over him to straddle his lap, but Cyra wasn’t nearly so forward.
The lady was more reserved in her interactions with her husband, at least in public.
Cyra didn’t swing her hips when she walked or do anything openly flirtatious.
Her touches were soft and discrete, although the lord himself had no problem pulling his wife into possessive embraces.
Still, she only had so much time. She couldn’t be too subtle either.
Talyn held Samhail’s gaze for another second before she leaned over to pull the book out of his hand.
Gods, he had such large hands. She couldn’t think right now about how they might feel on her body.
Samhail let her take the book from him, but he angled his head in question. Talyn just turned around and sank down onto his lap. She leaned back against his chest and held the book up in front of her as if she meant for them both to read it while she sat there across his legs.
Samhail’s entire body went rigid as he inhaled sharply, and she wondered if she’d misread something about his relationship with Cyra. Then she felt him harden beneath her backside and smiled. No, she hadn’t misread anything.
“Cyra,” Samhail said in a hoarse whisper. “What are you doing?”
Talyn nestled herself against him more, making sure to rub her ass against his groin. He grunted and hardened even more.
“I’m reading,” she answered, as she flipped a page in the book.
“You know that’s not what I’m asking,” he said. His breathing had become ragged, and Talyn realized just how much he wanted her…how much this man wanted his friend’s wife.
She shifted herself on his lap so she was looking into his face again. There was something there behind the obvious desire that she couldn’t read. Anger perhaps?
“What’s wrong?” she asked as if she really had no idea why every muscle in his body was tense. She reached a hand up to lay it on his face, but he grabbed her wrist before she could touch him.
Samhail’s nostrils flared at her question. “You’re sitting on my lap,” he said matter-of-factly.
“And that’s a problem?” Talyn asked, pulling her hand back.
It was a genuine question. She needed to get a better sense of where the boundaries lay between Samhail and the lady.
That he hadn’t yet thrown her off his lap suggested she wasn’t completely wrong to think there was something between them.
His reaction told her they weren’t having an affair, but the bulge she felt in his pants and his hesitation to remove her likely meant their relationship also wasn’t entirely innocent.
Samhail raised a brow at her. “You don’t think it’s a problem?”
Talyn resisted the urge to frown at how he’d answered her question with a question, but she threw caution to the wind and played a hunch.
“Surely you and I have done worse than this,” she said, leaning toward him so her breasts brushed against his chest.
He didn’t retreat, but his chin rose a notch. “Of course,” he said, “but Bressen was there those times, and I had his permission to touch you.”