The Princess and the Blade

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi strained to keep pressure on the wound, shifting his weight as his abs protesting sitting up. "Keep your eyes open, unless you want Tenara to beat you worse than I did," he panted. "And don't let go of the sword until someone gets me away from you."

He glared over his shoulder, looking for signs of the guards he heard rushing around. What the hell was taking the medic so long?

______________

"Come with me, I will guide you," the guard said.

Ren's cheeks still tingled where Tenara had held them. Her excitement was infectious, but something in the guard's demeanor kept a curl of anxiety in his throat. Perhaps the servants of the house were simply unhappy that Thvoros had lost, but there was something close to sympathy in the guard's eyes. Ren didn't like that one bit.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius chuckled darkly. "I imagine she'll throw a party if my eyes close for good," he said, truly believing the princess hated him that much. He deserved it, he told himself. He thought of the writing carved in Ren's arm, and knew for certain he did. He held tight to Havitharon's sword as best he could, even if his eyes felt heavy. He wondered what would happen if he let it go. Would Havitharon kill him or assume he was near death and move on? Would he go after the people in the room with them, like the other Ivi lurking in the shadows, marveling at what he had done and no other male had been able to do before?

Laurius blinked, but found he was slow to open his eyes again, and his hand grew a little loose around the swords hilt.

---

Tenara followed behind the guard, too happy about Laurius's win to pick up on the sympathetic strain tugging at their features.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi grimaced as he noticed the man fading. He noticed a pair of guards closeby, but they seemed uncertain whether it was safe to approach. "If you idiots won't do something, I will do it myself," he growled. He pulled Laurius's arm over his shoulder and struggled to his feet. The room spun and his blood burned with false hormones. He held Laurius against him with one hand and reinforced Laurius's grip on the sword with the other as he began half-dragging the man toward the door. The guards took up behind them at a guarded distance and followed them into the hall.

The guard came into view first, followed by Ren and Tenara. The rounded the corner of the corridor he was struggling down, and the sight of them stopped Havi in his tracks. "Yurivis," he said. He meant to bow to her, but ended up spacing out for a minute. When he was aware again, he was on his knees with Laurius still clutched tight at his side.

Ren stopped short at the sight of them both, and at Laurius's bloody footprints trailing behind them.

[Emora Deen]

The elation buzzing through Tenara fizzled the instant she saw Havitharon and Laurius and all the blood trailing them. It was mostly red, so she knew that most of it was Laurius's. The man's head hung heavily, and he barely seemed to be awake. She'd come to a stop, and for some reason her feet wouldn't move. They felt grounded, planted. But then Havi dropped to his knees and her feet came unglued. She rushed toward them, falling down in front of them.

Tenara pulled Laurius from Havitharon's arms. He was heavier than he looked and she struggled to let him down easy. He was a bloody, broken mess. "How did he..." How did he win? How could he have possibly won if this is what he looked like at the end of the fight? How long had he been like this? "Is this how you treat your guests?!" Tenara roared at them. "You let them bleed out on the floor? Where is your healers? Your medicine?"

Instinct took over. She had no time to ponder the uncomfortable feelings she had around her magic or its sensations or her complicated feelings surrounding the merchant who had effectively given her over to monsters as a byproduct of his silence. She saw an injured man, a dying man, and all the goodness that was in Tenara begged her to help him.

Tenara smoothed her hands over Laurius's beaten face. He blinked his eyes open, called her a goddess and thanked her for ferrying him to the afterlife. She scoffed at the wry smile tugging his lips, and smoothed her hands over his belly. "Thank you," she said to him, and looked at Ren. She had promised to mend Laurius, and she would. Tenara connected to her magic, let it free and wild. She felt the rush of blind, burning ecstasy, and terror chased it.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren dropped down next to Tenara and cautiously lifted Laurius's wrist, studying his wounded hand and arm in horror. His arm wasn't just injured... it was eviscerated. The same arm that had held him the night before. How had he thought for even a moment that Thvoros wouldn't try to kill him?

Tenara's power bloomed next to him, and he could feel it raising the hairs on his arms. But for once, he wasn't focused on being afraid of her magic. "Please, Yurivis," he croaked.

Havi leaned forward on his arms to keep from keeling over. He was transfixed watching Tenara try to help Laurius. His blood pounded with concern for her health and baseless anger at the man in her arms.

Someone was touching his shoulder, and he glared at them blearily.

"Marquis," the physician said, "the toothsbane..."

It was nothing new. After all the duels he'd fought, the whole process was routine. "Not here. In private," he muttered to her, swaying to his feet.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara was too focused on controlling her magic, on feeding it into Laurius, to notice Havitharon getting to his feet beside her and stepping away. She wrestled with the pleasure swarming her senses and the fear that seemed to follow behind it, like a storm chasing away the sun. But Laurius began to mend, and as he did he arched at the feel of her hands on his body. His grip on the sword renewed, tightening as he clenched his teeth and stifled a moan. He held himself painfully still, even if pleasure was an overwhelming force accosting him. He hated his body. Hated how it betrayed him because he did not want to respond to the feeling. He wanted to live, wanted to be mended, but he didn't want to harm this poor, traumatized girl in the process.

"Hold me down," he murmured to Ren. "Please. Hold me down."

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren's eyes burned as he scanned the man for something he could hold down without hurting him more. His hand looked horribly bruised, his forearm a mess of ribboned flesh, and his stomach...

People were watching, the hallway feeling more and more crowded around them. He didn't care about any of them. He placed his hands over both his master's shoulders, carefully leaned down over Laurius, and pressed his lips to his.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius did not expect the kiss, and it did very little to keep his body from responding. He moaned against the man's mouth, arching again at the sensations pouring through him, but at least this time he couldn't sit upright. And, maybe it was good that Ren kissed him. It meant he could focus on the man and not the girl. The pain began to ebb. Wounds slowly closed up, the largest of them first. His belly pieced itself back together, then his arm. He found himself kissing Ren back, forgetting himself and where he was or why he was on the floor at all, with maddening magic burning through him. It consumed him to the point he barely noticed when Tenara had finished mending him, when her delicate hands pulled away.

She was flushed and panting, her skin shivering with want. It was a strange thing to want desperately to be touched, devoured, and also be terrified by anyone other than Havitharon. She pulled her hands away and knotted her fingers in her clothes, clenching her eyes to hide the lust burning there.

It didn't occur to her that they should keep her magic a secret, or the consequences of showing such power. It was only healing, though. They wouldn’t know how dangerous she really was. It also didn’t occur to her to worry about Laurius and Ren’s public display of affection.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren completely melted into the kiss, drinking in the man's reactions like fine wine. He thought he lost him. Lost him again. "You're okay. You're okay now," he whispered. He pulled his shoulders up into a tight hug and kissed him again.

Behind them, Kishva pushed through the crowded hall to see what everyone was staring at. She stopped dead when she took in the sight of Artisuren and the injured challenger on the floor. It was the strangest thing she'd ever seen, and yet she couldn't take her eyes off of it. Had Artie always kissed that way? She remembered him as clumsy, at best. She rarely invited him to do more than rub her shoulders and watch, and he had been docile and happy to do so. Was this the same creature, greedily kissing another Ivis like he was deep aflame? What kind of training had that strange woman taught him?

Possessive envy roiled inside her. "You have an interesting way of training your males, princess.. I wonder if you're aware that magic is a capital offense in House Ruthe's territory. Every other challenger has paid the fair price in blood for the chance to win the Marquis, but you seem to want to pick and choose which of our customs apply to you. Is cheating and stealing what belongs to others the only way you know to build your harem?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenara’s bright blue gaze slid slowly to Kishva. Laurius saw the lust and want in her eyes harden dangerously.

“It is easy enough to bend and break rules when they haven’t been stated,” she said, rising slowly. “Perhaps House Ruthe should provide a pamphlet or overview of the rules and laws of their territory before engaging their guests with hostility? I wonder, what do the rules say about drugging another Yurivis’s males without her explicit permission?” She took a step towards the woman, anger pushing the need flooding her body aside. A bead of red light bloomed in her pupils. “And as for Magic, you are lucky the only thing I’ve done is mend what is mine—and he spilled more than enough blood to win House Ruthe’s farce of a challenge!”

She turned her head to one of the guards. “I demand you return my other blade, and…” It was then that Tenara realized Havitharon was missing.