24. The Final Ride
Chapter 24
The Final Ride
T hey trotted into the grand fair outside of the Castle Skye.
“I am rarely here. My realm has its own fiefdoms of responsibility. But duty calls me to seat my throne at times.”
“I’d be glad to see your hall,” Celestine said while they rode towards the hundreds of tents. The past two days had been ones of swift travel and lovemaking. She knew the end of her time with him was fast approaching. There was sorrow there. Regret, but she also knew it was as it should be.
“You already have,” Azure said with a shrug. “That is just a stone castle. Though I had the roof removed above my seat, so the sky may look down on all who come to me. My people are like any other. They have problems, issues with neighbors. There are more livestock ranches than crop farms.”
All vendors, stalls, and tents were centered around the jousting arena. If you listened hard over the bright din of this place, you could hear the parry of wood and hammers. Long, bright banners of blue were everywhere, some with his crest, many with their own.
Along the west, near the coastline, markers were being placed for a race.
Celestine glanced behind them. Thinking of his mention of cattle. All grasses they had passed looked full. “You allow grazing here?”
Azure smiled. “The grass grows quickly, I assure you. Come, let us make merry.”
They passed tent after tent. There were vendors of leather, hawks, sellers, and traders of bows and instruments, and food and drink were everywhere. They reared their horses as a proud sortie of knights in arms meandered slowly on horseback, each raising their helm’s face plate with one hand to Lord Azure at her side.
He nodded to them as they passed, their banner displayed proudly.
“More of your lances, sir?”
“Knights of my Second lance, my Mid-House. I have never requested this dance of arms and allegiances, but I become what my people needed. They wandered into this land, and they sought peace among the plains. They are proud, and part of pride is being seen. It is the opposite of shame. Come, you will see.”
They dismounted, a young girl coming to take their horses, and Azure paid her with a single jewel, the girl’s eyes growing wide with amazement.
“I have a gift for you, but first, we should watch the squire’s melee. It begins shortly. Will you take wine?”
“If you will,” Celestine said. She followed her love to the tourney grounds. The crowds parted, shouting Azure’s name. He smiled and waved to many.
They love him. Who cannot?
Inside the tourney grounds, a grand square arena was made. The posts were removed for the joust, and she saw the shields and sigils of many knights and houses among the walls. As Azure entered, the crier said his name and the crowd grew into raucous applause.
“Please, Lord Azure! Take your seat! And Lady Celestine!” the crier turned to the crowd’s delight and beckoned them to a box where other nobles sat, and two seats of honor were.
In the middle of the ring, a young man and woman wore garlands upon their brows. The woman was in a proud dress, with the stitching of the squire’s sigil.
“Did we miss the wedding?” Azure called out to the crier.
“Alas, Lord Azure. They took their vows for all to see.”
“But they have not,” Azure stood straighter, shouting at the quieting crowd. “Taken their proper places.” His face grew stern.
The crowd murmured, looking around, wondering what had offended their lord.
Then Azure pointed slowly to the raised box of honor, where the twin chairs for he and Celestine sat empty. The young couple looked upon where he pointed, as did the whole crowd. “Take your seats!”
The crowd broke into great applause. Some threw flowers on the tourney ground.
Azure sat, smiling. The wind blew within the tourney grounds and seeing him among his people was such a sight. Encarmine had been their beating heart. Tristien was the master of his realm, but Azure… Azure was like the lifeblood itself. Beloved and respected.
“Look at the happy couple.” Azure leaned over. “They will never forget this day.”
Celestine nodded, a strange certainty rising in her. It was one of those moments, a moment in time where you certainly and unequivocally knew something very true. Something extremely true.
“You want me to leave,” Celestine whispered.
Azure’s back straightened as if he had heard a twig snapping in the forest during a long hunt. Her lover stared at the tourney grounds.
“You brought me here so I could leave.” Celestine’s voice felt far away. Among the din of the crowd and the shouts and noises. She looked to the stands, knowing already, and he was there.
Aidric, in his mirrored mask. Staring at her. Unseen by the surrounding crowd.
“Have you ever heard the saying, if you love something, you must let it go?” Azure did not look at her. His voice held a tone she had never heard from him before. As if some great doom awaited him.
“Once. It makes little sense to me.”
Azure smiled, but there was no mirth in it. He stared at the tourney grounds. “I am a Lord of Summer, Celestine. I am not war or chains. I am choice. The choice to make any choice or none. You could be safe here. You would be happy. But I am not so much a hypocrite that I would cage the wind."
“This is our last night together,” Celestine said, and as she said it, the truth fell like a heavy coin spinning when you already know which shall land true.
“You love me as a lover, not as a partner. Because the wind has no husband or wife. It propels the ships and cools the brow of the traveler. Do you know what makes the banners and seasons so beautiful?”
“What?”
Azure turned now, one eye taking her in. “Their departure… and perhaps, if we are lucky, their return. You have choices to make, Final Bride. The choices that determine the seats at Calendar. Each Lord will love you. Each one will covet you. They may seek to possess you, enslave you, worship you, or even flay the life from you. Such is their love. Or what they mistake as love. But I will always be with you, my camp open. Like the touch of the wind upon your cheek.”
Her eyes watered. There was ancient patience in Lord Azure, and a laughter that made her think of the sky. It was he who took what was broken and mended it, asking nothing else for himself but what she wanted. What she needed. He always read her perfectly. Now he was speaking the last page of their chapter.
She leaned forward, taking his hand clasped in hers.
“Then we have tonight, at least.”
“Yes.” Azure squeezed her hand. “Before your race tomorrow.”
“What?” Celestine laughed.
“I entered you in the bouts. With Garo’s permission, of course. It’s a two-mile along the coastline.” His blue eyes stared into hers, like the sky and wind were bathing her in its finery. “Horses are safest in stables, lover. But--”
“That’s not what they are for,” Celestine finished for him. She watched the young squires take to the tourney grounds, blunted weapons and thick armor ready to batter one another.
They sat and watched it all, the men and women moving quickly and rapidly. Always moving, never the same. Like flames dancing in the final campfire they would share.
That night, Azure himself rode in the jousting tourney. He won three tilts and lost the final to his second lance. When it was over, the reward was given, and Azure hoisted the winner on his shoulders and carried him among the crowd.
The reverie began. Casks of wine flowed into cups. Only those aged twenty years and older were allowed to stay. Squires embraced squires. Maidens and young women took each other. It was like the final slow dance at a summer ball, where you grabbed the partner you had been eying all night.
Azure and Celestine walked slowly. Her head was heavy with wine and she held and his powerful arm. The firelight glowed, and the music was loud and bawdy. Everywhere, lovers clenched in embrace. Man upon man, woman upon man, any variation. It was always two, never more, never less.
But each duel of love had its own onlookers, those who watched in appreciation, in lust, in fascination.
They love to be seen . Celestine walked, taking it all in. The mayhem of this drunken party was more wild than the tourney and jousts today.
I love to be seen too… with him.
Azure drew her forth to the head of a splendid table. Kissing her deeply, knowing what she wanted in this night of wine and merriment, of open lust and even deeper appreciation.
He kissed her. The crowd clapped and roared. Azure spun her around, feasting on her neck from behind. She could not help but grind against him, shuddering, as a hundred pairs of eyes were on her. Maybe more.
They love to be seen…
So did she, she knew. There was an effrontery here, truly. Something she struck back against her time with Tristien. In this place was the opposite of what he had done to her. There was no hiding. There was a display. There was no abuse. There was elevation.
Celestine felt the eyes of hundreds of men and women as her clothes fell to the ground. She writhed and moved under Azure’s touch, his hand exploring her body. Her own lust grew. She thought of the squires, their cocks hardening and gaze slicing her skin like a beautiful knife. Like the talons of a hawk come down to nip at her.
She fell to her knees, Azure’s own clothes falling away. When she looked up at him, taking him in her mouth, he was already hard. She did this because she wanted to, her eyes a mixture of determination and pleasure, of beautiful consummation in front of everyone. As his cock slid in and out of her mouth, barely a third of it, murmurs of appreciation came from the watching crowd.
Azure lifted her.
He always lifts me. He wants me to soar, to fly, even if it means without him.
In his eyes was pride for her. Pride at how far she had come. A bird with rent wings, a soul in pieces, somehow placed together not through his love for her or the lust but with slow and simple days. Days of silence. Days of a horse standing in a vast plain of grass, of the patience of the beautiful lord behind her. Watching her.
Wanting her to succeed.
She fell back onto the table, not in defeat, but in celebration. Her knuckles gripped the edges, back and head still held high, and she spread her legs for him, each ankle sliding into his beautiful, strong hands like feet in a stirrup.
Where they belonged.
The hue of his skin flickering in the torchlight was mesmerizing, even after all their time together. Despite being watched, being explored by the hundreds of eyes and lustful murmurs of this crowd, she felt so close to him. He bent low, guiding his girth and wondrous manhood across her folds, the curls of the hair that had grown back, like grass in the plains of his land now spreading, encircling him as he slid back and forth across the edge of her lips.
Their eyes were for each other only. As he pressed upon the entrance of her, always so broad, stretching her, inserting into where she welcomed him, he held her ankles aloft and strode within.
The crowd and nobles whispered their amazement. She took him in, that wondrous fullness, inch after ridged inch of lust until he joined her with depth. He was lubricated by her need of him, and he fucked her softly at the edge of the table, her body sliding back and forth in their slow trot.
Celestine looked around, meeting each face that was within her reach, shuddering under the sultry prominence of her own body. The most sacred thing was now being shared, being seen. Her lips stretched around him. The feeling of being watched by so many was exhilarating, and where once there had been worry, she felt pride.
She was worth being seen.
Azure moaned her name and strode into her fully now, hips bucking against the bottom of her. She fell back on the table, taken like a queen of wind and sky. Azure’s eyes were so blue, as blue as the circlet on his brow.
When he came, it was a lance striking true. A shield splintering. It was the breath in her throat, hoarse, being captive. It was the warm seed coating and painting her from within, over and over. When he withdrew, it wasn’t the end but the beginning.
“Turn over my love,” Azure growled. She did, turning proudly as he coaxed and teased her with his fingers. The seed flowed from her quim, splattering the lips and nub of her clit. Azure worked her with his touch, gripping her within, reading her, knowing each slide, each twirl that she needed. Her hands and shoulders were taut, back arched proudly.
Celestine came while the crowd watched her, telling Azure she was close. But it wasn’t necessary. She never needed to tell him. He knew her.
In the crowd, she saw the glint of a mirrored face watching her. Aidric was there, seeing her climax under Azure’s hand. When she was close, the Lord of Summer spread her cheeks, exposing her slick muscled ring to the night air, the coolness of it, before the heat of his tongue and the seed coating her. When she shivered, she grunted his name. His tongue within her tight hole for everyone to see, his hand playing her like a furious instrument.
Muscle after muscle clamped down within her body, and the final one was her spasming muscled hole around his tongue as she climaxed. She closed her eyes as her arrival feel on her.
“Open your eyes, my love,” he said as he gripped the meat of her hips.
Lost, there in the torchlight, somewhere outside the grounds, music played. She saw squires and nobles, ladies as well, their hands reaching over their own clothing, and a hundred people around, wet and hard. It didn’t matter, all moved at the sight of her.
There was no tower here. No stones to encase her. She was proud, strong, and more importantly; true. Azure’s cock took her to new lengths, splitting her in half, her cunt stretched and aching, pain and such warm welcome pleasure, the saltiness of the sweat on their bodies, his muscled abdomen slamming into her cheeks, a strong hand gripping her hair not to own her, but to guide her. Celestine arched up from the table, eyes wide as he grunted with pleasure, her own climax rising like an opponent that he shattered, sending it to every nerve in her body.
“Celestine!” he roared, and at that moment, all those days on the plain, all those nights in the camp, she felt she could read him. A single page, a single paragraph'; this evening and moment.
Love. Love and pride. He was proud of her.
Azure brought her down from the table, and she wiped the come from her body and face with a dining rag. They dressed in grins, the music picking up around them, with new unions beginning around the table—spurred by their display. The evening became a gallery of moving paintings.
More wine flowed. She watched lovers with him, and one duel in good humor broke out with blunted weapons.
“My land agrees with you,” Azure said, holding her in his arms as they watched a mature couple in union.
“It does,” Celestine smiled, and the sadness came upon her. “I’ll miss you.”
Azure kissed her neck, squeezing her tighter. “So much of the world awaits you, Celestine. So very much.”
As the night grew deep, she led him by the hand off from the grounds of Skye. Out into the fields and under the stars, just the two of them.
There were tears and tender words.
“The sky is nothing without you,” Azure whispered as he laid her on the grass.
She said nothing for fear she would weep harder. In that sadness, he took her. Pinning her to the earth, her legs spread with the mass of him. Celestine knew it would be the last time. She dug her heels into the black soil, tethering herself there, pinned by him in beautiful friction.
They finished together one last time, hands joined with fingers interlocked. She moaned his name while staring at the stars.