Cheers and Stones
Kazan swallowed her voice and crushed his mouth to hers. His tongue pushed between her parted lips, and Elona's words broke at once into a gasping moan.
"Nn—mmph..."
He took his hand from between her legs and gave himself over to the kiss. Whenever she thrashed for air he allowed her a brief gap, and each time Elona gulped his breath in a panic, only to be devoured again.
Only after he had tormented her that way for a long while did Kazan ease his lips from hers. While she dragged air into her lungs, he muttered as if turning a problem over.
"We can't do it the same way every time. You've got a weak spot somewhere. A place that gets wet if I so much as touch it."
"There isn't—aah!"
The moment she shook her head, he bit gently into the nape of her neck. He nipped hard enough to leave the print of his teeth, and still the pleasure far outweighed the pain.
"N-no, stop, don't!"
She twisted to get free, and he clamped both hands on her shoulders. A smile seemed to touch his mouth. Then he set about her nape in earnest.
First came the hard edge of his teeth, and before long the soft stroke of his tongue tasting her skin. What she could least endure was his mouth, and the warmth of his breath against her.
"Hhh—stop..."
Why are his lips so sweet, his breath so warm? Or is it only that I like his touch? While she floundered in the confusion, his satisfied voice reached her.
"Here it is. Your weak point."
"No. It isn't..."
"I think there's another."
While Elona denied it without the least conviction, Kazan moved lower. When his lips brushed near her breast she clamped her mouth shut and closed her eyes. If his tongue so much as touched a nipple grown that sensitive, she knew she would not be able to hold the sound back.
But in that instant he rose a little without touching her breast at all. Startled by the unexpected move, Elona looked up at him. He gazed quietly down over her body and spoke as if lost in thought.
"Shall I try that."
"Wh... what are you going to do?"
He did not answer. His hand reached for the bundle of belongings at the head of the bed. A cold unease went through her, and Elona covered herself with her arms. She had no idea what he meant to do. What was he looking for? A whip? Chains? A gag?
What he drew out was a small porcelain bottle. Poison? Was he going to make her drink it? Her lips had begun to tremble when he pulled the stopper and looked down at her. The moment their eyes met, he tipped the bottle.
A clear, slick liquid poured over her breasts.
"Kyaah!"
Elona startled and tried frantically to wipe the unknown liquid away. Lukewarm and fragrant, it ran wild along her skin. Scrubbing at herself in a panic, she realized too late that it was perfumed oil. So this was why he had suddenly poured it over her...
"On your front, Elona."
He caught her by the waist and sat her up. The moment her body was forced around, a hand came from behind and seized her breast. The touch was unmistakably rough, and yet his fingers slid softly over skin gone slick with oil.
"Ah—hn...!"
A moan escaped her before she could stop it, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Her voice had been far louder than she expected. In the instant she froze, Kazan leaned against her back and whispered, languid.
"What. I like hearing it."
"Kazan, don't..."
She shook her head, but his hands only grew bolder. The more roughly he kneaded her breasts, the more her oil-slick flesh and nipples twisted in his grip, and a strange pleasure poured through her.
"I hate this—hhh—this kind of thing..."
"You hate it?"
His lips had come close enough to tickle her ear. Kazan gave a short laugh at that sensitive flinch and reached down between her legs.
"Do you really hate it?"
"Yes, really—ngh!"
The moment she nodded, he spread her entrance as if he had been waiting and pushed a finger in. Slick with oil, it slid deep into her, wetter still inside.
"Ah, take it out, stop...!"
"Hold still."
He moved his hand slowly, and a wet, sticky sound began between soaked skin and soaked skin. Squelch, squelch. Elona covered her ears against a noise she could hardly believe was coming from her own body. That was the wrong choice.
"Hn, nnh... stop tormenting me..."
Her tearful voice only excited him further. Kazan drew out the hand that had soaked itself inside her. Even while he stripped and stroked his cock with those wet fingers, Elona was sniffling behind her covered ears.
And so she screamed when something far larger than a finger entered her. She clapped a hand over her mouth too late, and it did no good at all. Kazan leaned closer over her and pinned her wrist down.
"Let go, let go, or outside they'll—"
"Don't cover your mouth. Who said you could."
"Ah, no—aahk! Hhh!"
Every time he drove his hips up, a shameful cry burst from her. He moved faster than his fingers had, and the obscene sound of flesh striking flesh grew louder still. Each time he thrust into her with force, the crude camp bed creaked as if it might break apart. Unable to stop her ears or her mouth, Elona rocked as he wanted and filled the whole tent with her voice.
Someone outside will hear. I'm ashamed. I want to die. I never knew he would torment me this far.
"Hhh, nnhhh..."
Tears streamed from Elona's eyes under a humiliation worse than anything she had known in her life. She was past whimpering. She was crying outright. At the sound of her sobs Kazan turned her body so they faced each other, still buried inside her.
Blue eyes wet with tears looked up at him in reproach. Her misery did not strike him at all. Moving gently, as if to soothe her, he brushed the disordered gold hair back from her forehead. Only after he had looked down at her for a long time did he speak.
"Don't... say..."
Don't. Please. Don't make it so I can never love you again. Elona bit down on her lip and repeated it only in her heart. Despair beyond pain filled her chest.
Kazan would not listen to her. He would not even regard her as a human being equal to himself. Just as he had since they met again, he would take only her body and shove her heart into the abyss, until that heart, flung into the deep, shattered at the end of a long fall.
Nights like this would go on forever.
At some point Elona lost consciousness and could not remember how that night ended. When she opened her eyes the next day, she was being carried along, collapsed on the floor of a dark baggage wagon.
Creak, creak. One of the doors must have warped, for a dreadful sound rose every time the wheels turned. A sound like that night she did not want to imagine.
Only after her eyes grew used to the dark did Elona slowly sit up. The clothes she glanced down at were still filthy with the dark stains of the night before. She rubbed at the cloth, trying anything, but the stains did not fade. They only spread. Elona let out a hollow laugh.
Everything was ruined, and there was no turning it back.
On the twentieth day since they had left the Farcion Royal Palace, the army of Ashatra at last entered the royal capital of Perma. The tremendous cheers outside told Elona they had reached their destination.
"Long live His Majesty the King! Long live!"
"Lord Sindar, bestow your blessing upon Ashatra!"
The crowds who had waited for the expedition's return poured into the streets, shouting their joy and acclaiming Kazan's Royal Name. Inside the slowed baggage wagon, Elona looked through the little window and was astonished.
Perma, capital of Ashatra and a city she was seeing for the first time, was a great city of beautiful prospects. Fountains and statues stood all through the streets, and tall palms lined the clean white stone of the road. While the king's army marched, the faces of the people packed along the avenue were full of hope and joy. Even at a glance the market was abundant, and the women adorned body and hair with splendid ornaments of their own. Elona could only stare, dumbfounded.
This country is far richer than Parsion.
Ashatra had only been temporarily weakened during the civil war. It was a great power of long standing. Elona could hardly believe that Kazan had brought this nation's war to an end. The sight of so many people of Ashatra supporting him without reserve felt like a dream. She was staring in a daze at the streets of Perma when something struck the outer wall of the wagon with a heavy thud.
Elona, leaning against that wall, flinched at the sudden jolt and pulled away. A moment later the same blows kept coming, first against the opposite side, then against the roof. Braving her fear, she looked out the little window again.
Among the cheering crowd she saw several people holding stones. Full of rage, they shouted and jabbed their fingers at her baggage wagon. Their cries flew into Elona's ears and lodged there like arrows.
"Don't let the Parsion bitch live!"
"Give us back our sons and daughters!"
"Drag that woman out! She ought to taste the whip too, the way our people did!"
A large stone flew and struck beside the window she was watching through. Elona let out a short scream and sank down where she sat. The stoning grew fiercer, hammering the wagon like hail.
Elona drew her knees in and trembled. Waiting only for the dreadful moment to pass, she covered her ears. Perhaps because they were far from the horse Kazan rode, the soldiers escorting her left the wagon to the stones. They even seemed to be enjoying the spectacle. Elona crawled toward the carpet, where the impacts landed a little lighter, and then she froze.