Captive in the Court of the Western Horsemen (closed)

[Arioso]

This is a closed thread for BLACK BART and Arioso


From the west they came, thundering across the inland plains on horses as fierce and driven as their riders. To Elene's village, they were known simply as the horsemen, although their kingdom had a name known to their more formidable enemies and to the people they had conquered. But until now, Elene's people had escaped their notice by pulling up stakes and fleeing to the east at any sign of the conquerors whose ambition to increase their domains seemed to have no bound.

The first warning had come from a traveling trader, who had told the village elders that the horsemen were now coveting the lush, green farmlands of this valley. Then refugees from villages two days to the west had begun arriving, but had passed through the haven of Elene's kinsmen without asking permission to stay: they feared the steady approach of the horsemen. On that day, it was decided that all villagers who were able should pack their belongings and harness their animals to set out toward the east, out of the reach of the conquerors.

And Elene would be left to her fate, for she could not walk and it was not the way of her people to risk the safety of all for those too infirm to keep pace. At 33 years old, she was strong enough to make the journey. Indeed, she was one of the hardier mothers of the village. But she had twisted her ankle in the fields one afternoon while hoeing the crops, and it would be at least two days before she could do more than hobble slowly.

Her husband hadn't wanted to leave her. He'd folded her lithe body against his in a tight embrace, a giant of a man weeping as she'd only seen him do once before, when they had lost an infant daughter. But wisdom demanded that their mule carry their five year-old son and eight year-old daughter. Their fourteen year-old son begged to be able to stay and defend her, but Elene could not bear the thought of him dying on the point of a horseman's sword.

It was on the second day after the villagers had started toward the east, leaving Elene behind with the elderly too sick to walk and a few others bedridden with fever, that she heard the thundering of hooves. She tried to conceal herself in a thick grove of gnarled trees and bushes on the southern edge of her village, but the horsemen were many and soon she found herself on her knees, rough hands binding her wrists and then humiliating her by ripping the kerchief from her head and immodestly exposing her golden hair.

But Elene bore it with silent tears, sharing her anguish with no one. She kept her eyes low and her voice meek when she told the horsemen's menacing leader that her people had followed the river to the southeast...and felt some comfort when fifty riders galloped out in the mistaken direction she'd given them.

If she was able to help her village escape, though, it did nothing to save her from being bundled up onto a horse behind one of the warriors, to be carried back to their domains -- to the legendary great walled city from which they ruled.

Elene's grass-green eyes widened at her first glimpse of the vast, stone walls and tall towers. It was truly the center of a mighty kingdom: tents were pitched in the fields just outside its walls where merchants and traders from across the seas and all the lands around had come to meet, a crossroads of the world's commerce. She feared she might be sold as a slave out in this teeming market, and taken to an even more distant and strange land.

A slave she became, as was the fate of many whom the horsemen had conquered, but within the horsemen's own keep at the heart of the walled city.

Elene considered herself lucky.

She would never have chosen the life of a slave, it was true. But her old life had died the day her village had been forced to flee, and now nothing could be of her own choosing. And although a slave in the horsemen's keep, she was still among a people whose dialect she could understand. What was better, the cook took her in as a scullery maid, which allowed her to sit while she worked until her ankle had fully mended.

Gradually, Elene settled into her place in the keep. The cook granted her a kerchief once again, so that she could tie her long, silky golden hair back to keep it out of the food, or when she scrubbed the floors of the grand dining hall. It was a comfort to Elene -- she felt safer, more modest than the many young concubines that the horsemen kept for their entertainment: nubile beauties who danced for the warriors, massaged their powerful limbs after battle, and yielded their bodies for all manner of pleasure.

Elene thanked her gods that she had already raised a family, that she was no longer a young woman who would be lusted after by these proud, fierce horsemen. With the gods' favor, her children would grow old in happiness and peace, and live to see their own children and grandchildren, while she would quietly grow old in the warmth and seclusion of the kitchen of the horsemen's keep.

Her days grew busier, though, when it was made known that the horsemen had just won a great victory against a northern kingdom and would celebrate it with a grand feast.....

Fate was a capricious mistress.

For the night of the great feast would not go at all as Elene had imagined...

 

[BLACK BART]

The sound of dry wood squealing against even drier leather bindings filled the air for miles…mingled in with the constant, annoying squall of the sturdy, slowly turning wheels came the curses of the men as they urged the cumbersome beasts of burdens along the muddy path…

It was a dismal sight for what it represented in almost a years time and several hundred lives lost…The two wheel carts the enormous oxen stolidly pulled packed were packed high with the prizes reaped from the conquest of that victory. And yet by any standards it was enough to make ten men rich in prizes that ranged in value from trinkets to treasure and varied in content from wheat flour to human flesh. Each if you looked closely enough held testament to the struggles that had occurred before they were brought to this time and place.

It was the way it was…the rules that defined and determined the very survival of the tribes…take or be taken, control or be controlled…kill, or be killed. And yet surprisingly to the man that watched from a not so distant hill the men, women and children that were now slaves destined for an unknown home their faces were not scarred by the trauma of it all. In fact if the children were the barometer of the effect, Talon judged by the way they were merrily playing atop the huge mounds, most had little concern of where they were going in the near future, or where the final destination was, but only of the pleasure of the moment they were in.

Pleasure…The word brought the lean man back to the present and he gigged his horse down the slope towards the lead of the caravan, they were but a few hours away from his Lord’s estate and already word had reached him via fleet footed carrier he and his men were expected at the feast that was already being prepared for them.

Feast? It no longer surprised him as it once did many years ago…but the word described much more than satisfying the hunger in the belly…ALL hungers were to be fed…and by the quickening of the pace each and every one of his men knew they were drawing closer…and eager to arrive as soon as possible to participate.

His men…He pondered that thought as well…Sometime in the past they had changed from the “barbarians of the west” that he was charged with leading…to “his” men…just as they had adopted him over time he too had come to accept them. The fact he wasn’t originally from “their” world was obvious at first glance. The tallest of their race ran to five and a half feet…and when off the horses they used everywhere they looked even shorter due to their bowed legs…but none ever thought them weak or not dangerous for the sheer size of their powerful shoulders and arms chased that thought away quickly.

Talon towered over them at an even six foot and seemed almost slender in comparison, though more than a few found out first hand the whipcord strength in his taller frame. Red hair and sky blue eyes marked another contrast, as did the slight lilt in his baritone voice as he spoke in command or conversation, the vocabulary he used making it evident that at some point he had received a formal education that he was resistant to talking about.

Seven years…He been the right hand of his Lord and King Tajah for seven years, enforcer, bodyguard, advisor and now Chieftain…WarLord for a grateful king that had the wisdom to see past the differences in skin…in dress…in the way a man pronounced his words… Talon was a wanderer when they first met, a warrior without a home who stumbled across a rape about to happen and had stopped it, not because he was opposed to taking pleasure from a woman’s body…but because they were three…and she was alone. The blood that ran at their feet before he returned the woman to her “home” was ominous, for it never stopped running as Talon was quickly given the title of sub lord in return for saving the King’s new bride, and turned his talents to expanding the rulers vision of a new world.

And now he sat in the great hall after stream washing away the last vestiges of that blood in preparations for a celebration in their honor…and toasted the King’s long lasting health as they shared the feast…and the parade of women were brought before them.

“Choose Talon…as is the right of my Chieftain…the first choice…is yours.

 

[Arioso]

"Fetch more wood for the fire, this will be a greater feast than we have seen in years," said Arna, the head cook as she bustled through her busy kitchen early in the morning.

Elene did as she was bid, finding the elderly Arna a mild, kindly taskmaster compared to some of the others in the keep. The eastern light was still creeping up from the horizon, and Elene paused in her chore to breathe deep the morning air as she gazed toward the hills and the rising sun. Somewhere far beyond those hills was her family.

That was the last moment of peace that Elene enjoyed during a busy day of stoking the hearth fire, chopping vegetables, plucking fowl, gutting fish and beasts of all kinds, kneading dough, seasoning dishes and pots, and stirring or basting whatever happened to be over the fire at the moment. The kitchen burst with the bounty of the keep, and as the artfully adorned dishes multiplied, Elene began to grow astonished at the size of the host that must be returning. It had to be hundreds of warriors to warrant a feast such as she, Arna, and the other kitchen hands were preparing.

When the brutish, ox-like steward barged into the kitchen less than an hour before the feast was to begin, Elene expected him to stay only as long as it took to see that the food would be ready on time. But the burly, greasy-skinned man stood for several moments, scrutinizing the busy women for something although Elene could not guess what it was.

Abruptly, he strode toward her and seized her by the arm.

"You, come with me," he grunted.

"What?...Why? The food..." Elene stammered uneasily.

"Warriors have other needs to be tended as well," the steward growled as he tugged her away from the safety and privacy of the kitchen. He bared his decaying teeth in a crude grin as he laughed, "Such a crowd, not all the men can enjoy tender lamb tonight, some will have to make do with mutton!"

His grotesque humor was lost on Elene until she saw the concubines' quarters looming ahead of them. But she was a good ten years older than even the oldest of the pleasure maidens!

Yet there was no mistake: tonight, she was to serve at the feast -- in any way that the warriors might desire. Inside the sumptuous apartment where the young concubines spent their days, Elene saw more women than she'd ever realized were in the keep. There were the concubines themselves, bedecked in alluring silks that revealed the firm, smooth curves of their bodies. But there were also unfamiliar women draped in white cotton: slaves on loan, no doubt, from one of the market traders. And then Elene recognized some of the other servant workers she knew from the keep: the laundresses, the sweepers and washers of floors, those who tended the herb gardens, those who nursed the sick.

As one of the keep's own servants, she was given a silk robe to wear, to distinguish her from the market slaves. With resignation to a situation she could not change, Elene shed her workday clothes and bathed under the stern eye of the shrewd matron who governed the concubines. The grime and sweat of kitchen work was cleaned away, and Elene massaged a cinnamon-perfumed oil into her skin. The green silk robe had no sash, so it hung open in front, baring her from her slender neck all the way down to her ankles. But what truly made her feel naked was when the matron made her surrender her head scarf and let her golden hair hang free about her shoulders.

Surely no one would desire her. All she had to do was conceal herself amid these younger beauties, and she might escape notice. The feast would end eventually, and she could return to her kitchen none the worse...

Two guards arrived and began herding the women toward the vast banquet hall at the heart of the keep. According to custom, each woman was given a pitcher of wine for serving the warriors. Perhaps she could simply slip from table to table, serving wine but not her body?

Such vain hopes and naive thoughts were darting through her mind when she first saw him.

A tall, rugged man with eyes the color of a midsummer sky and hair that glowed as fiery as the embers in a fire just beginning to die down. Elene's heart gave a heavy, aching thump at the sight of a muscular frame that reminded her of her own bear-like husband, Niklos. For a brief instant, she mourned the way her body had fit so well against his large, manly girth.

She yearned.

And in that split-second, to Elene's alarm, her eyes met the red-haired warrior's.

Quickly, she glanced away.

That was no way to conceal herself, by brazenly staring down any man in the room who made her think of her own man, far beyond the mountains.

Elene did her best to blend in, to become invisible among the parade of women on display for the crowded hall. But then the king's voice boomed out:

“Choose Talon…as is the right of my Chieftain…the first choice…is yours."

Even as Elene was trying to edge ever so slightly toward the back of the ranks where she could be overlooked, the red-haired warrior spoke in a deep, resonant tone that froze her in place.

"You...in the green....you there....yes....come here."

He couldn't be speaking to her. Furtively, Elene raised her eyes to find piercing blue gazing straight at her. His gaze was so direct it made her jump. But why? Why does he bid me approach him, out of all the young women here? Elene had to silently command her feet to move. Slowly, she made her way forward, studying this man as she moved. He was strong...his face had character, deep character that spoke of age and experience.

As befitting her position as a slave, Elene knelt before him when she reached his seat. He held his cup out and let his eyes roam all over her as she filled it with wine.

After a long draught, he gestured for her to rise to her feet.

"Fill my plate with the heartiest and most savory dishes the table has to offer. Then return and feed me," he commanded.

With a bow, Elene took his plate and quickly piled it with the choicest morsels. Having prepared much of the food earlier in the day, she knew just which joints of meat had been basted perfectly so that they would be the juiciest and richest; which breads would soothe the stomach of even the fiercest man; and which delicacies would tempt the palate rather than drown it in too many flavors.

Elene returned and eased onto the red-haired warrior's lap when he stretched out his arm to guide her down. He kept one arm loosely wrapped around her as she offered him bite after bite. And while her hands were busy lifting each bite to his mouth, his hands began to stroke her naked flesh in the lazy, appreciative manner of a man who was used to enjoying such pleasures -- and who no doubt earned them frequently.

"What is your name?" he asked her as he casually rolled a nipple between his fingers, making it stiffen.

"Elene, my lord," she answered, flushing at how her nipples were responding to his touch.

"Elene, then," he nodded as he nudged her back onto her knees. He took the plate from her and set it aside. "Suck me. My hunger for food is slaked for the moment. Now let me feel the warmth of your mouth on my cock."

There was no cruelty in his command; he simply stated an expectation born of the privileges of his rank. Elene imagined that he was used to receiving such pleasures.

And the act did not shock her. She had pleasured Niklos this way before....and by now accepted that she would have to pleasure this warrior, for it was foolish to dream that she could run or hide. Her fingers soon had his manhood exposed to her tongue. First, a slow sweep around the fleshy crown...then a lingering, wet trail down the firm column of his shaft...soft, warm kisses at the base and on his swelling sac...then tender nibbles back up to the tip before she took his length between her lips and began to suckle...

All around them in the vast hall, the revels were in full swing as more and more warriors claimed concubines and women of all sorts for their amusement. The body's many hungers were sated in an orgy of feasting, drinking, and fucking...

...yet for Elene, all of that faded away as she focused her attentions on the silky flesh that grew and grew within her mouth until her lips strained tight around it...

...she breathed in the scent of his musk...a deep, masculine scent mingled with that of his steed and the leather battle gear he must wear...

...she tasted the sweet pearls that leaked from his tip onto her tongue...

...and wondered what sort of life he had lived, that he could still caress her hair so gently while she sucked him, when most warriors in the keep were rough and crude.

But Elene would most likely never learn...once this red-haired man had spent his pleasure on her tongue, he would no doubt send her away so he could sample the charms of another....

 

[BLACK BART]

Burning, intense heat spread upwards through Talon's groin and through his body, every hair on his body tingling as the as of yet unknown woman’s lips worked their magic.

Talon looked over the mass of bare flesh that pressed and ground itself against each other in the room and wondered why of all the times he had passed on taking first choice had he now chosen a woman...

Waves of pleasure assaulted his body too quickly and it began to throb in response, each cell crying out for release...for the joy of a release that had been denied for much too long...

Perhaps it had been her hair...in a land where dark hair, skin and eyes were the norm to find a woman with such a "golden halo" was rare...and to find one that was such a beauty?

He stroked her hair as she stroked his throbbing cock, the full length and girth of it disappearing within her full lips to reappear shined with her spit, as if in anticipation of readying his cock for another home. Each stroked driving shivers of pleasure through him and forcing him too quickly towards a climax his mind refused and his body demanded.

It was more than the hair, though as it draped over her shoulders and the dress she wore it reminded him of a cloak fit for a queen, and that somehow fit the impression he had thought of as their eyes had met for the first time...Regal came to his mind as she had walked towards him, the dress that revealed her intimate charms somehow enhancing her stature in his eyes, adding to the mystery of who she was...

His climax became an urgent thing and he arched his head backwards and groaned...dropping his hand from her hair to her delicate throat as she somehow sensed his urgency and took his full length into her..

For the moment he forgot...Faces that haunted him every second for once flitted out of his mind as his body hammered with pleasure and the raw thrill of living...his seed pouring out of his manhood and into her waiting throat.

His hand gripped the edge of the table while his other stroked her neck and shoulder...the blissful moment passing and returning him to his senses...to the smell of the great hall, the aroma of food giving way to the charged smell of sex, the sight of the woman kneeling on the floor before him her eyes downcast as he fixed his trousers and stood on trembling legs.

"Stand before me and tell me your name."

Regal...it fit her. Even as she licked the last of his passion off her lips and then adjusted her dress back unto her shoulders to cover herself...her composure was evident...a quiet acceptance in her green eyes mutely speaking of an inner strength...

"Elene...my Lord..."

Nothing more...why was it he had expected more as she stood and faced him? He had demanded service and received it amply...and when he requested her name?

Her eyes held his and then flickered...as if remembering her "place"...but still not used to it...Talon nodded and then half turned to find his King watching him intently...

"Yours and my LORD sits yonder Elene...we are both his humble servants...I am but a Chieftain that is about to bid that Lord.... Goodnight"

He spoke the words to his King...their eyes meeting and an understanding of more than the words passing between them, the King nodding with a smile and dismissing his "humble" servant.

And then turned back to face the best part of the entire "feast", his eyes detecting something in her own he didn't expect...and puzzling over it as he smiled at her...

"Tis time for both of us to rest and gather our wits, tomorrow will bring us both knew tests...and pleasures."

The strength had returned to his legs, at least to the point where he could walk out of the Great Hall without embarrassing himself...he snagged a near full jug of wine as he began to move between the tables and found to his pleasure he walked fairly steady on his feet.

He was at the doors of the hall that led to the stables when he realized he was missing something...and turned to see her standing by table where he had once sat.



"You are coming aren't you...Elene...or do you wish to remain...and clean the hall?"

He laughed at the surprise on her face, and then smiled as she nodded and moved towards him and open door.

"We have but a single steed to ride for the both of us, I've brought wine to warm us in the nights cool air and perhaps loosen your tongue to tell me who you are..."

 

[Arioso]

Elene relaxed against the warrior's muscular chest as his steed carried both of them a short distance from the Lord's keep. She could still taste the milky sweetness of his seed on her tongue -- not unpleasant, but just strange after so many months without a man. She wondered...would Niklos have taken a new wife already to help him raise their children?

As they drew away from the loud revelries of the feast, human sounds faded and Elene could enjoy the peaceful song of night creatures: the cooing owls, humming insects, and faint rustling of wind in the trees. She sighed.

"This pleases you?" the warrior chuckled, sounding pleased.

"Yes, my l-- ... yes, it is a delight I have not enjoyed since the horsemen raided my home village. I work in the kitchen...and to be out in the fields again..." Elene mused softly, only now realizing how much she had missed the simple joys of tending crops or washing in the stream.

"Talon," the warrior insisted, having caught her near-slip. "My name is Talon, Elene. So where is this home village of yours?"

Elene furrowed her brow as she gazed around them. Even beneath the glittering crown of stars in the night sky, it was difficult to tell one mountain peak from another on the horizon. And it puzzled her that one of the king's most honored warriors would wish to know of a slave's village.

"It is hard for me to see now. But my people used to live in a river valley two days' ride to the east, over the mountain pass seen from the north gate of the keep," Elene explained. She shivered at the light graze of Talon's fingers over her bare stomach. Though he had made no effort to fondle her, the swaying stride of their mount had caused his hands to caress her as he held her safe and steady in front of him.

"Used to?" his soothing, deep voice prompted in her ear.

She shrugged. "It is our way to flee from conquerors. When we heard the horsemen were coming, all but the old and sick packed up their belongings and set out to build a new village safe from the reach of the horsemen. If I had not hurt my ankle so badly that I could not walk, I would have gone with my family."

At the thought of her son, fourteen-year-old Patros, Elene let out a soft, wistful chuckle.

"What is it?" Talon asked, slowing the steed until they drew up at the top of a low hill with a view of the dark waters of the sea as well as the keep.

"I was just thinking of my son, Patros," Elene answered after a brief hesitation. She rested her hands on Talon's broad shoulders as he helped her down from the proud beast that had carried them. "What a man he has grown into! Only fourteen, and he wanted to stay and protect me. It was so hard to let him go...and to leave my Niklos...but they had the little ones to think of, Kiron and Elessa, as well as the needs of the village."

Elene's eyes wandered up to the sky, where she found the Archer, one of the familiar star groups she knew well from home. She smiled sadly. "Patros was learning to handle a bow and arrow. Niklos had started teaching him last season. We ate the first hare Patros shot only a few months ago. I know he will be a fine man soon."

In the dim, evening light, Elene saw that Talon was gathering wood for a fire. She began to help him, searching the nearby brush for dead branches and twigs. When she had found an armful, she carried it to the circle where Talon was kindling a small fire with the graceful, efficient skill of a man who regularly depended on his own abilities for heat or food or shelter.

A faint, golden glow began to flicker over her breasts...her nipples....her supple belly...as she sat beside the fire and watched Talon coax it to burn higher. Still somewhat uncertain of herself around a warrior who commanded the king's fighters, it took her a few moments of reflection and inner debate before she found the boldness to address him....simply as a man.

What could it hurt? He seemed to be a fair man, not at all harsh or cruel. And in the morning, she would return to the kitchen, and none would be the worse.

"Talon...what of you and your people? You are not like the horsemen. Your hair gleams like the embers of a fire after the children have gone to sleep and only the elders remain to stir the coals. How have you come to be here in the great, walled city? Do you have a family somewhere far away, or right here?"

 

[BLACK BART]

Fire...burning everything in its path with an insatiable hunger...Smoke.... thick and heavy so it burned the eyes and choked the breath from you...And still the sounds of death and the dying came to your ears from all around ...

"My homeland?"

Talon cleared the images of his family dying one by one in front of him and the sounds of the men who held and taunted him with cruel jibes

"Gone...so far and long ago I had nearly forgotten them...my father was a "smith"...my mother a "healer" they raised myself and my sister..."

He moved the small kettle off the flames and shifted meat and vegetables skewered with green branches into its place, then lifted his eyes to meet hers.

"I was taken and sold as a slave, then brought over the great waters to an island...Because of my hair and eyes I was purchased by a warrior who thought I might bring him good omens..."

And for a short time all was well...the warrior turned out to be a compassionate man and in time treated him as the son he had never had...Talon had taken to thier ways easily and upon reaching manhood chosen a wife...

"But then war came to their people...and though we were victorious I was a man without a master...a rogue warrior who belonged to no one...or no purpose..."

He had buried them as custom dictated in a single grave...his Master...his Masters wife.... and their daughter...his wife.... and then once again watched as fire and smoke claimed all that was precious and familiar to him.

"Rather then live in disgrace I chose to leave...and traveled from land to land until my spirits chose to guide me here."

So simple it sounded...and yet as Talon poured the water over dried tea leaves he knew it wasn't...at least not to him...

"Try this...it will give you strength and energy...you will need both for the trip ahead of us tomorrow..."

His hand was steady as he offered the single cup he possessed to her and as she took it from his grasp their hands met...

And something happened...not two worlds colliding...nothing as spectacular or heart quickening.... but somehow more intimate

"Drink before it cools too much and it will warm you...and we will share this meager meal while you tell me more of yourself and this thing that your son used...I think you called it a "boh and air-oh"? "

He smiled when she laughed gently at his pronouncing the unfamiliar words...and she handed back the empty cup to him, the conversation swaying from him to a more interesting subject. Gently he coaxed her to describe the instrument in detail and was impressed at her knowledge of not only how to use it but as well as how to make it...They ate the meal from the sticks used to hold it over the fire and then moved to wash themselves at the small creek nearby...

"If you wished you could bathe?"

Talon suggested, offering an innocent luxury to Elene, his suggestion drawing raised eyebrows and flushed cheeks from her as they stood by the waters edge...


"I would stand watch for animals...two and four legged...and guarantee you not to be interrupted until you are..."

The redness had spread...the flush now a brighter red that showed in the moonlight as it spread lower...to her throat. Shoulders...and the flesh that was exposed around and between her breasts...

Talon smiled and then nodded in understanding, his eyes brightening as he paused and then continued in a teasing manner...

"Perhaps you are worried more of what you might find IN the water with you then? Or is it you lack the utensils to properly bathe and require assistance?"

 

[Arioso]

What was it about his short, stoic tale that saddened her so? The man spoke few words, yet Elene could almost taste his grief. In just a slight wince of his eyes, she saw heavy pain of years past...but an ache he had shouldered for so long, it had become part of his roughened face, just like his beard.

And yet...somehow, he could dismiss it so quickly, and turn his attention to questioning her about her son's archery. It was strange that a warlike people like the horsemen knew nothing of such a simple tool as the bow and arrow.

Elene felt his loss keenly, and answered his questions with quiet cheer, offering this stranger what small comfort her company could give him. He, too, had come to the great city after being torn from his family.

"If you wished you could bathe?"

His offer startled her and drew a warm flush to her cheeks.

Even in the keep earlier this evening, when she had been prepared in the concubines' chamber, she had not bathed before a man. Awkwardly, she glanced away.

"I would stand watch for animals...two and four legged...and guarantee you not to be interrupted until you are..."

But why did she feel this shyness? She had taken his manhood in her mouth and still tasted his seed on her lips. Her gown had been open while she had kneeled at his feet.

"Perhaps you are worried more of what you might find IN the water with you then? Or is it you lack the utensils to properly bathe and require assistance?"

Elene saw the mirth dancing in his eyes, and understood that her shyness amused him. Perhaps he thought her still a backward peasant. However, she wanted no trouble, and would bathe if it pleased him.

Slowly she eased toward the creek, searching the ground until she found two sticks. It was late and the night cool. Elene gathered her hair atop her head and secured it with the sticks before letting the silk slip from her shoulders.

"I have no special needs, my l-- ... Talon," she murmured with a quick glance over her bare shoulder at him. "A creek is fine for bathing. And please, do not feel the need to keep watch. If you wish to bathe as well, please do."

The silk robe fluttered into a delicate pile on the bank as Elene stepped into the creek and began to wade in deeper and deeper. She drew in a sharp breath when the sweet, cool water kissed the swells of her breasts, hardening her nipples with its faint chill.

But the chill faded swiftly and left Elene only the pleasure of feeling the pulse of the current on her limbs and belly and buttocks.

The water near the bank churned lightly as he entered the stream a few moments later. Elene's eyes were drawn toward the sound and flared briefly at the sight of his muscular body lowering into the cool, flowing water. He had so many scars...so much pain written on his flesh.

His gaze held hers as he drew closer.

"Talon..." her voice was low and trembled just a little at the troubling thought that had crossed her mind. "The journey you spoke of...I am not to be sold...am I?"

He had taken her from the keep with nothing but a delicate silk gown on her back...not a garment for a long journey, unless she was to be displayed....to buyers?

Talon's gaze softened and he shook his head just once, placing his finger on her lips. He didn't answer her, but merely lowered his mouth to hers as his hands slid around her waist. Elene felt a firm, smooth nudge against her belly and knew what he wanted.

She moaned against his lips. Her breasts rubbed his chest and slid against his hairy skin as she felt his palms kneading her buttocks and slowly lifting her up. She let her knees part around his hips as a fire began to swell deep in her intimate flesh...

 

[BLACK BART]

“...am I?"


Something shifted in Elene’s eyes....

Talon recognized an emotion he himself had felt not so long ago....

and for a moment he softened his own face in reply…

A touch….a kiss…and the passion returned quickly, his body thrilling as he caressed her silky buttocks and lifted her to him, his mind urging him on as she opened her body to him…

It would be so easy, he thought to himself, so easy to take this woman and drive them both to a point of release …to match his moans and thrusts to hers until pleasure erupted and then faded…to forget the look of “servitude” in her eyes as she gave herself to him…and not look deeper to find the passion for this coupling missing…

He held her effortlessly…twined sinews used to yielding a broadsword supporting her diminutive weight as he teased her sex with his…his lips devouring hers with a passion that surprised himself…the hunger for her sweet flesh driving his mouth to her breasts to suckle at them like a starving newborn even as her ankles wrapped around his waist…

“Is this how a great warrior treats his stolen maid then Talon? Teasing her until she begs …is that what you….need?”

Perched on his thighs…her sex grinding against his…her eyes were large and vulnerable as he met them with his own and considered the question for long seconds.

Could he tell this woman how a long dead code of honor still guided his every thought and action? Of the fight he first had with himself and then his Lord to end the practice of raping all and any woman not claimed by the warriors…Of a pride that demanded any woman he bedded had to want him as badly as he wanted her?

No…I want more than the favors you gave earlier as a Kings slave to his first warrior…

The tip of his cock parted her sex and he pulled back… her face showing the disappointment of his deliberate escape, and her confusion as well.

“What is the difference….Talon, I willingly give you what you want…without protest…and am yours to do with regardless if I fight…or cooperate.

Talon winced…deep inside an understanding coming to him, a remembrance of another time in his life and how lost he felt as he stood over the fresh graves of a woman and a child…

“It is the difference between the desire to live, or to simply exist…”

He replied and pronounced her name in a way he envisioned it, the way his own now dead mate had once read it to him from a parchment describing an ancient goddess…

“Ell-ahh-nay”


A second time his cock found her heated sex…and again pulled back…stopping his retreat at the last second so his swollen tip rested between her lips and knowing he was indeed teasing her despite his earlier denial….

And judging by the look in her eyes he was getting results…Elene’s full breasts were heaving…her lust filled eyes intent on his own…her legs gripping his waist and trying to capture more of his own throbbing cock.

“Then what do you want from me. Talon?”

Elene’s urgent question was punctuated with a hiss as Talon slid his cock into her now wet sex and pulled out of it just as quickly…

“Passion…I want your passion.”

Talon held them both still…his hands gripping her waist firmly and defeating her efforts to capture his teasing length…his eyes studying her face as Elene’s touched his face…

“And if I were to refuse you?”


“Then this would end and we would continue our journey”

His voice was steady and level…not betraying the need inside him that had risen to an almost frantic, urgent living thing…and then he kissed her softly on her full lips.

“Then take me…and you shall find…my passion.”

Her reply was soft…her eyes half closed and not meeting his…as she ran her fingers over her lips where Talons own had been…

The tender moment was quickly driven away as Talon’s hips lunged and drove himself full into Elene…her gasp cut off as his lips claimed hers once again…her full breasts pressed against his chest as he moved in and out of her sex in a pace that grew faster…and harder…and as he broke the kiss their eyes met…

“Then show me…Elene…so I can see it and we both…can live.”

 

[Arioso]

Why did he rattle her so...frighten her so? Elene wondered as she felt herself surrendering the calm resignation that had been her mask for so long.

Even as she wondered, though, a small voice in her mind chided softly, he isn't the one you fear....you fear yourself, and what it would be like to feel again.

He wasn't letting her hide.

It wasn't his physical strength, or even his skilled seduction that drew her out...but something in his words...a powerful truth borne of experiences she could read in his stormy eyes.

Elene trembled as she let herself sink into a deep, yearning kiss...crossing that safe line of modesty and self-control that had been her sanctuary...taking a risk she hadn't since her capture. She let slip the first, simmering rush of passion, felt it kindle within her breast at each deep thrust of Talon's cock, and savored the heady burn that seared through her flesh as she surrendered to the need to devour his lips with her own.

And Talon, this strong, mysterious man, so scarred and sober -- he was like a living well, quenching her desperate thirst. Her passion had been shy and hesitant at first, yet as her hunger for his touch grew, he met and matched her with such urgency that Elene felt she might drown in him. Their tongues twined and caressed between locked mouths, echoing the primal rhythm of their bodies as Elene tightened her legs around Talon's hips and rode his pulsing cock for dear life.

Then show me…Elene…so I can see it and we both…can live... he had said.

Was it wrong to desire his touch, to feel her body and soul growing drunk from the passion they were sharing? Was it wrong to start life over again, far from her people and family?

If it was, Talon was not judging her. Each time Elene sought his lips feverishly, he yielded his mouth with utter passion. No matter how hungrily she consumed him, no matter how violently she ground her hips to his and impaled her steamy cunt over his swollen length, he gave her what she demanded with a rumbling growl of pleasure.

"Talon....oh gods!" Elene gasped out as the delicious ache in her core surged, bringing her right to the edge.

Her fingers dug so deeply into his back and shoulders, she nearly clawed his flesh as she arched and tossed her head back. Elene's wide, glimmering eyes took in the bright stars overhead, a night sky enchanted with magic, and she cried out from the depths of her soul as a final, thundering stroke of Talon's cock ripped a blistering release from her most intimate center.

"TAAALLLONNN!!" Elene screamed.

Tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes as she rode the stormy waves of ecstasy and grew dizzy from the beauty of the night around her. The water of the stream flowed against their legs and the sky itself seemed to shine with their passion.

"It's so beautiful," she heard herself sobbing shakily as she clung to Talon's powerful frame and began to thrust against him again....desperately needing to give him the same release...

...needing to feel his pleasure ripple through him...her passion incomplete without his...

And she shivered as the thought tugged at her heart: what happened now? How could she ever go back to the life she had been living, now that Talon had drawn passion from her? What...were his plans for her?

 

[BLACK BART]

"TAAALLLONNN!!"

The word echoed across across the waters surface and into the tiny grove of trees that they were using as thier private haven...

Elena's arms draped over Talon's broad shoulders, her firm breasts hovering tantalizing close even as she sobbed, the proof of how deeply thier loving had touched her in her moist, wide open eyes and voice...

"It's so beautiful,"

And then her hips began to move again...the slick heat of her sex moving like the gentle yet burning hand of a demon on his throbbing cock...and as the tears of...joy...passion....remorse? dried on her high cheekbones and delicate skin Talons own hips begin to match hers, his passion reignited by the woman he held in his arms...

And then it was his turn...his scream of triumph and release echoing as Elena's did previous...

"ELLL-AHHHH-NAHHHHH"

Stillness returned to the glade...and as Talon's own heartbeat returned slowed his soul told him silently that a small miracle had happened...and not just for one of them.

"It is beautiful" Talon agreed as they moved to the original excuse for dipping into the cool water and washed each other. "Almost as beautiful as ....you."

Later...after he had watched her gracefull movements while getting dressed....after she was once again perched in the saddle and in his arms...he guided his mount to the path and let it set its own pace, thinking how natural and good it felt as Elena rested her head against his chest.

"Tell me Elena...of yourself....what stirs YOU...where you found the manner you move with...is it natural, were you born with it...or did it come from station or position?"

 

[Arioso]

"El-EEN," she corrected with gentle mirth, finding it endearing that this great warrior stumbled over her name. She rubbed her palm over his left knee in an affectionate gesture, with a comfortable familiarity she hadn't felt since..Niklos.

Talon's mount carried them easily in a steady, swaying stride that made Elene burrow against Talon's muscular chest, bathing in his warmth.

"I do not know what you mean by station or position," she confessed with a thoughtful cock of her head to the side. "My people have no king, or queen, such as the horsemen do. I am a peasant. My husband and I raised sheep with the rest of our village, and grew the grains and vegetables that were so well nourished by our rich soil. That is all."

"Does your village have no leaders?" Talon pressed her, mildly incredulous.

"There is the council of elders, among which I have been welcomed....was welcome," Elene explained. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, inhaling Talon's scent...and the fragrance of the high grasses near their path.

"Was?" Talon echoed curiously.

"I would not be taken in if I were to return now," Elene continued. "My people place the welfare of the village above the concerns of any one woman or man. The moment I had to be left behind...I became a 'ghost'. It broke my Niklos's heart." Her voice cracked painfully as she recalled their parting.

Did she imagine it, or had she felt a brief tensing of Talon's muscles just then?

"A ghost...as in they gave you up for dead?" he asked curtly.

Elene sighed and furrowed her brow, struggling to find a way to explain the customs of her people to an outsider.

"They could not know whether I would live or die, although we had heard that the way of the horsemen was to take slaves. But the village had to be able to move on...families had to be kept going. My husband would have to be able to take another woman, to help raise our children. So...I had to become part of the spirit world. There would be a mourning ceremony once the village was safely settled away from the horsemen's reach, and now....now Niklos most likely has a new wife. It is the way of things."

They rode in silence for several moments, and Elene could feel the tension radiating from Talon as she listened to the steady thud of the steed's hooves on the ground. But just as she drew in a breath to try to defend her village against whatever judgment he may have passed on them, Talon spoke again in a somewhat perplexed, low murmur.

"Is there nothing for you? You speak of the needs of your people...your children...and seem content at having been left for dead...but El-een...do you leave nothing for yourself?"

A smile tugged at Elene's lips and she felt a glow of warmth at Talon's concern. She twisted her back slightly and craned her neck over her shoulder. With a light caress of her right hand on Talon's jaw, she urged his mouth down to her own into a lingering, reassuring kiss.

When their lips parted, Elene smiled again and whispered, "Until tonight, I was afraid to seek anything that I might truly want...I was afraid to feel passion, because of how it might hurt if I were sold again, and taken away."

She turned and face forward once again, tilting her head back so that she could gaze up at the stars.

"But I have had moments of happiness, even in the keep," she sighed. "It has been like discovering the secrets of a mystery, to see the throngs of life in the great city...to learn how people from far and wide come to the court and trade...and then whenever I have been able to watch the concubines dance for the king, it has kindled in me some of the joy I felt among my own people, when I danced with the women around our fire at night....our dance echoing the dance of the stars in their journey across the black night. In the keep, I have watched the concubines dance...and felt alive once again."

"Even in brief moments during my day," Elene continued. "I felt the fire of my soul still alive. Early in the morning, when I fetched water from the well, I could watch the sunrise over the distant mountains, and almost believe that I was free to run out in the green fields. Or any time a new camp of diplomats or merchants arrived from across the sea -- I would see their strange clothing, and smell the salty whiff of the sea all about them, and dream of what their people were like."

"So...you are curious...and a dreamer," Talon chuckled warmly against her neck, sending a shiver of delight coursing along Elene's spine.

"Yes, I have been since I was a child. It is why the wise woman among our people taught me of the herbs she used to heal others -- I like to understand," Elene agreed, moving her right hand to cover Talon's and lacing her fingers through his. "And it is perhaps my curiosity that makes me wonder -- you have not had to guide your steed, Talon, yet he follows a steady path that does not go back to the keep. Why? Is there another place he knows as 'home'?"

 

[BLACK BART]

"Home?"

It had an odd ring to it. As if it were a word used only in childrens fables told to them as they were tucked into bed.

A magical ring as if it were something you might search for at the end of a rainbow...

"He takes us to my land Elene, where we can rest and perhaps learn more of each other."

It was all he dared offer. He knew the reason she kept asking where they were going...having not to dread the unknown was one small comfort he could offer her...

"I have a house there...nothing so grand or impressive as you came from...but it is solid, dry and warm on the coldest night."

A structure he had built with his own hands...hands so used to killing that at first they were awkward in the chore of building something...a chore he grew quickly to love and appreciate what others saw in the art of creation.

Gradually the land changed from the grassy flatland to a more wooded and rolling hills...Elene remaining silent within his arms as the horse found it's own way...it's pace increasing as a trail became visible and the sounds of water running over rocks came to both of them...the sun was slow in setting, pressing its red rays through the willows that had been planted in a deliberate attempt to create a "lane" of sorts...

And as Talon looked down something twisted inside him and hurt...for his eyes found Elene fast asleep in his arms...her face peaceful without worry or pain...

"Wake Lass...we've found a place to rest for the night despite this tired nags best attempts to get us lost..."

How selfish he was to take such a woman to this place...in foolish hopes she might fall in love with the quietness of the tiny valley...the quaint setting of the single story house...and the way the wind whistled through the trees...and love it all so much that she would want to stay...

"I'll care for the horse at the stables...there's water in the urn beside the front door if you wish to wash...I'll be but a moment."

The horse stopped as if on cue and turned to look over it's shoulder in silent question as the two that burdened it look to each other as Elene became fully aware of where she found herself...

And Talon smiled at her gently before helping her slide from the warmth of his arms and off the patient animals back...and he nudged the steed with his knees, refusing to give into the urge to let the horse fend for itself while he joined Elene immediately...

Instead he let it walk to the stables before sliding his leg over and off the animal...and led it inside to begin the grooming and feeding it sorely deserved...

Cursing himself as his hands brushed out the burrs for the idea that a trainer killer could change...and that a woman who was a mother and healer would ever want him

 

[Arioso]

Elene had blinked the sleep slowly from her eyes at Talon's gentle nudge. When wakefulness finally came to her fully, she was amazed at how well she had slept astride his steed. Talon had cradled her against his chest so solidly....that it had just felt natural.

He lowered her to the ground with a firm but gentle hand, and Elene caressed the horse's flank appreciatively before Talon coaxed the beast toward a finely crafted stable. The horse had earned a good rest and feeding after such a long journey -- indeed, they all had. Elene just wasn't certain what sort of provisions Talon would have in a dwelling from which he'd been absent for....she knew not how long. Long enough at least to fight the last campaign he'd been on.

She lifted the latch on the sturdy, wooden door to Talon's home and stepped across the threshold. Inside it was clean and spartan, yet it did seem soundly built and warm. There was a stone hearth, and firewood piled several feet away from it. A few rough-hewn stools and a table for meals. A bed with woolen blankets and even a few furs draped across it. And indeed the urn of water, just inside the door, as Talon had promised.

Well, they would most likely need some hot water -- for tea, or a stew, Elene couldn't be sure since she didn't know what provisions Talon had stored up. But she had heard a stream outside, and figured she could make herself useful in helping Talon settle back into his home. She crossed the room to the hearth and lifted the kettle from the hook where it hung.

As she made her way down to the clear, bubbling stream that ran only a few minutes' walk from the house, Elene softly sang one of the tunes that she had learned as a child in her village, and grown used to singing with the other women when they worked together. Light dappled through the canopy of leaves as she returned to Talon's abode, making her feel at ease in this place of quiet beauty.

She was not surpised to find a good bit of flint and stone right near the hearth when she had returned. It seemed fitting for a man like Talon to have such useful things at the ready. Elene stepped outside to gather a few twigs and leaves for kindling, and then set about starting the fire. When she had it burning, she hung the kettle of water above the growing flames and debated whether or not she should explore some of the wooden barrels and crates that lined the walls. Were they his food stores, perhaps some dried beans and grains? Or were they personal things that it was not her place to dig through?

Elene decided against disturbing Talon's belongings -- he would be in shortly, and it was his right to let her know what she might touch and what she should leave undisturbed.

Instead, she drew a stool up by the urn and set about washing herself lightly. While gathering her kindling outside, she had also found a good chunk of moss that would be soft enough for scrubbing. Delicately, she loosened her garment and let it slip from her shoulders to pool at her waist while she sat and dipped the moss in the urn. Then, gently, she slid it along her bare skin, wiping away the faint traces of grime and sweat that had built up from the journey. With a light touch, she dabbed the wet moss over her full breasts, shivering at the cool water that made her nipples twitch and stiffen.

Relaxed, she began humming again, another of her people's tunes...not yet aware that Talon had come in from the stables and stood in the doorway watching her.

 

[BLACK BART]

Something had changed. From the moment he had heard Elenes lilting voice as she moved to the stream he was pleasantly aware of it. Talon felt it even more as he walked from the stable below and watched smoke trail lazily upwards from the fire inside. It wasn’t just her presence…it was her being here made him feel.

How different it was to know that someone waited for you inside your own house…and that the person waiting was as lovely as she was talented…

“Lovely” didn’t describe her Talon decided as he stopped at the doorway…”Breathtaking” was a much more apt one…For as she dabbed at her bare, firm flesh he was caught up in the moment…her grace…her beauty…and how the skin of her bare back glowed in the light cast from the fire…

“Allow me”

Talon stepped into the room, his hand outstretched to take the moss she was using…

“I can reach….places… you might have missed?”

And at that moment Elene chose to turn…the innocence of the motion making it that much erotic as the fire cast a golden tint to her breasts…

And Talon smiled, letting the admiration shine in his face…and his want glow in his eyes.

Their hands and eyes met as Elene handed him the moss and he dipped it into the water beside them and moved it to her breast.

Something HAD changed, Talon smiled and reflected…for how long he wasn’t sure…but it was definitely for the better.

 

[Arioso]

Elene gazed steadily at Talon as the moss passed from her hand to his. A brief warmth swelled in her when their fingertips brushed each other. His hands were so rough and calloused -- yet he managed to touch her with such gentleness.

"I would have prepared us a meal, Talon, but I did not know what foodstuffs you had stored here," she said while he rubbed the dampened moss over her naked skin.

The firelight framed his red hair, making it glow like the moon behind thin autumn clouds. Elene took advantage of this quiet, intimate moment to enjoy looking at this man who had...

...had he claimed her? She could not be certain, for he veiled so much of himself.

"There are sacks of dried grain in the furthest crate against the wall," Talon answered with a reassuring smile, even as his appreciative gaze raked over her bared torso. "A few roots which may yet be good, a jug of oil, and dried herbs and some salt. Normally, I hunt upon my return. The woodlands here have more than enough beasts for fresh meat."

Elene let out a soft, whispery moan, but not from the thought of food. Rather, she was discovering how soothing, how seductive Talon's touch could be as he lightly massaged the curves of her breasts.

"Then, should I wait to bathe you until after we sup?" she gasped, swallowing to steady herself as the passion smoldered within her.

Talon's hand paused for a heartbeat and his blue eyes flashed with something fierce and wild. Though his lips parted, he did not answer.

He always seemed to be holding back...the man kept something deeply buried inside, something he seemed loathe to show her.

Elene lifted her hands and began to undo the strings that tied his tunic together in the front. Soon, she was easing the material open wide across the expanse of his muscular chest, her fingers gliding over his skin to nudge the tunic down off his shoulders. As she bared his flesh, she noted every scar. A few that were short, as if made by the stab of a blade. Others that seemed long, but shallow, perhaps from the slice of a sword or axe.

When his tunic pooled around his hips, leaving his arms and chest bare, Elene took the moss from Talon's hand, dipped it in water again, grasped his right forearm and began to stroke the moss along one of his longer scars.

"Talon....how many battles have you seen?" she asked softly.

Her eyes rested on his powerful arm where she washed it, then, slowly, lifted to meet his...wondering if perhaps she might glimpse some of the truth in his eyes.

 

[BLACK BART]

How many battles had he seen?"

"I never kept count Elene...not of the battles...I can still see the men’s faces and the look in their eyes when they faced me...but I've never counted."

How many men would? Talon had become an expert at delivering death and when each man met him they found no mercy.... and yet afterwards each face haunted him, the knowledge that each fallen man could be more than just a man...they could have been a lover, a husband...a father."

"The scar you have your hand on there...it came from a scimitar in the hand of a hired mercenary on the high grounds of Brandish Hills.... the one beside it a spear a young Mongolian drove through my shield...this one on my left shoulder came from an axe thrown by a horseman...

Talon took his time and explained each to the woman in front of him and felt her hand retrace each scar as he did...minutes passed and the awareness that it was growing warm for both of them came to him and he stopped with a sober explanation.

"I'm a warrior trained by a master warrior Elene...that man was murdered and left me without a master...leaving me shamed in a land where honor was everything. My own wife and child died with him leaving nothing for me to stay for, so rather than follow tradition I became a rogue. I quickly found out my skills were of a premium and found a way to make a living…even if it were not as “honorable”."

“And this scar here Talon…how did it come to you?”

Elene had found a thin yet long scar that began two inches below his navel and ran down under the cover of his loose pants, the look on her face part curious as she spoke…and part minx.

“A Dark Mountain witch gave that to me” Talon replied evenly and slid the loose brogans off his hips and down…”She decried I was the devil himself for raiding her village.”

Talon stood motionless and let Elene trace the scar down…down his thigh to where it trailed off underneath the heaviness of his sac…her hand making him shiver despite the warmth of the room…

“Did she too fall before you, Talon?”

It was a simple question and yet as Elene concentrated on her hand and not his face Talon knew it bore more weight than an affirmation or denial required.

Was he a killer of women and children as well…was he that GREAT of a monster to not be able to discern between the warrior and the helpless?

He moved a hand, bringing it under Elene’s chin and lifting, so her eyes were forced to meet his…

“By all rights I should have…yet before we “took” her village I was told of the healers that lived within…even the men were dedicated to preserving life. Rather than kill them and destroy their ways we formed an alliance…and the one that sought to kill me in turn healed me… though she still insisted I had the devil within.”

Elene blinked and before she could speak Talon kissed her, covering her lips softly at first and then almost crushing them as her body pressed against his, the lust rising up in both of them.

He lifted her in his arms easily, knocking the stool over in his haste, Elene’s lips never leaving his until after they found the bed…and each other.

 

[Arioso]

My own wife and child died with him leaving nothing for me...

The words resonated through Elene. Talon's loss buffeted her heart as fiercely as a storm on the open plains. His wife. His child.

He'd lost them...worse, he'd seen them killed.

She couldn't press her lips hard enough against his. Her tongue plunged into his mouth, searching for his living soul, needing to pour her passion straight into his core. Needing to comfort needing to enflame--

Needing to help him live as he had helped her.

Elene felt Talon's mouth lock greedily onto hers, and groaned at the bruising force of his kiss. He stole her breath away and left her drunk for him. Her lips nipped and sucked at his as she tumbled with him onto his bed, their bodies grappling in a sensual battle.

Their hands were everywhere, clutching, clawing, clinging with a yearning that ran deeper than anything that could be spoken. Elene felt her flesh swelling with lust at Talon's raw hunger. Her nipples strained into ripe buds, her clit gorged and glistened with liquid desire, and her lips grew flushed and full as they melded with Talon's.

She wanted him so badly, she did something she had only ever done with her husband Niklos, and then only rarely.

Elene mounted Talon's powerful body, straddled his hips and impaled herself on his proud cock. A rough purr rumbled up from her throat at the primal satisfaction of drawing his rigid, aching manhood into the depths of her heat. Leaning down, she molded her body to his, blanketing him with warmth as she rubbed her breasts against his chest and clenched her knees and legs alongside his hips. Her fingers wove through the wild tangle of his hair as she kissed him, long and deep, and began a steady, rhythmic thrust of her hips.

Pounding him into her body.
Her heart pounding loud in her ears.
Groaning as Talon's fingers dug firmly into the soft flesh of her hips and his hips rose to meet hers in an ancient dance...

 

[BLACK BART]

So close....Talon was so close...His hand reached out to block the killing blow and was knocked away, the biting pain of a blade tearing at his chest and stealing his strength away. He heard the screams of pain...saw his wife fall trying to save their child and watch her take her last breath before she died.


And suddenly in one swift move Elene won Talons heart and took his breath away, drawing him back to reality and the present as her body consumed his and began to move upon it...

The sensations were incredible. Hot, wet heat spread from his cock to his groin...and like wildfire flared across his stomach and chest to flare into his mind with blinding, addictive pleasure...

"Elene"

Talon hissed his pleasure as he placed his hands on her breasts, the sight and feel of her body nearly driving him to a too soon eruption of pleasure...

"Woman you are...beautifullll"

He moaned and lifted his own hips to her downward thrust...the motion drawing a gasp from his partners lips and a smile from his own...instinct telling him in this position Elene could fill her own lustful needs as well as his own...

"Yesssssssss"

Elene hissed her own pleasure as he found a nipple with his lips and sucked greedily on it...her hips hammering his in a staccato like motion and then grinding her sex to his as he grinded and tugged on the swollen, hard button...

Over and over Elene drove her hips downward....and with each thrust Talon greedily lifted his own to bury his full length in her, the incredible...wet....tightness driving waves of pleasure through him.

"Yesssssss"

Talon growled in agreement and gripped her buttocks with both hands, kneading the muscles in them as they rippled with each erotic....mind jarring thrust.

Talons world narrowed to the erotic woman astride his own body, each hammering thrust pulsing waves of pleasure and heat through him, his eyes feasting on her flushed face and firm, swaying breasts as she brought them closer...and closer....and closer.

 

[Arioso]

Elene didn't fully understand why Talon had suddenly returned from the quiet despair that had gripped him. It couldn't be because of her -- she was merely a slave in his Lord's keep, one whom Talon had met not even two days earlier. Yet if there was something, anything that she could do to keep his heart from its pain, she would.

To think of this man trapped in the hell of his memories was unbearable.

Not when he made her feel the way he did.

The heat of his flesh surging into hers, invading her body and soul, stirred her to life at her very core. With each urgent lunge of his manhood into her most intimate reaches, Talon summoned a primal force that Elene had never suspected lurked within her. It was a wild hunger that yearned for strength and passion, that sang its triumph throughout her veins and dared the world to try to tame it.

Untamed, unleashed, Elene bucked her hips in a sensual fury. Talon's cock battered at the very gates of her womb, yet it only made her thirst more desperately for him. As she rode his proud flesh and felt the pure, masculine desire in his kiss, in his grip on her buttocks, Elene could feel the thunder of the plains rushing beneath her and began to understand the bond between a horseman and his mount. His hands...his mouth...the slap of his groin against her engorged, tender lips spurred her on, faster and faster...

"Talon....Talon....Tallllonnnnnn!!!" Elene chanted in surrender to the fiery passion that this wounded warrior had kindled.

"Yesss...Elene!" he echoed, and she could see her own, wild urgency in his eyes.

And with that, Elene tossed her head back, feeling the waves of ecstasy surge out from her blistering cunt, almost too powerful to bear. The pleasure rocked her whole body and left her so dizzy, she lost all sense of herself.

She was no longer a slave...not even a common peasant....she was the spirit of woman, glowing as brightly as the moon, radiating the heat that her Man bathed on her with his desire.

Elene's eyes squeezed shut and she groaned in completion when she felt the first, wet surge of Talon's release. And then she grew dizzy, lightheaded, as if her heart were beating too fast for her gasping breaths. Panting heavily, Elene collapsed forward against Talon's chest and clung to him.

She hung on with all the desperation of one who felt she would be carried away by the wind if she let go.

When the tremors finally subsided, Elene raised her head to peer into Talon's eyes. As she searched those piercing blue depths, her own gaze revealed the transformation within her...the primal force that Talon had unleashed...

 

[BLACK BART]

"It is GOOD to be truly alive isn't it?"

Talon grinned and stroked the damp, silky skin of Elene's back with his fingertips, tracing the ripple of each rip until he reached the swell of her buttock.

"To me it felt as if I were waking from an endless bad dream and once I was awake?"

Talon grinned and lifted his hips suggestively, his half hard cock still nestled in the hot, wet warmth of her body...his eyes fastening on her face and taking in every minute detail of it...

"You've worked a hunger into my body woman...I brought with us fruits... small candied meats and cooked vegetables to tide us over until I can bring fresh meat to our table...as well as a skin of wine."

Talon rolled and pinned Elene beneath his body, his full weight held from her by his arms as he smiled and felt his half hard length slide from her own sex...

"Do not get dressed my woman.... I will return with the food...and after we eat?"

He grinned and let his eyes roam the full length of her body...the change in her face and eyes somehow seeming to spread before his admiring gaze...and then he laughed and turned to stride from the room naked.

"After I want more of what we have just shared."

 

[Arioso]

"Hurry back, my man...for the bed is cold and empty without you," Elene laughed softly at Talon's retreating form.

She sat up, hugging her knees to her chest, and pulling the blankets around her as she watched him dig through one of the canvas pouches that had ridden on his horse's back during their journey here to his rustic home. My woman, he had called her. Such simple words, yet the way he had said it stirred the embers within her and sent sparks crackling through her soul.

Talon made her feel...like she belonged...

...like she had a place in the world again...

..not in the kitchen of the Lord's keep, but here...in Talon's home...or at his side, wherever he went.

Her heart was unprepared for this. She had resigned herself to mourning her lost life, and to eking out a quiet, solitary existence for the remainder of her days.

And yet Talon made her want him so badly...made her anxious to hold him close and give him more and more reasons to desire her...

Now, she wanted nothing more than to spend her days learning about Talon, knowing him...sharing her body and soul with him.

She gazed at him with a silent, profound realization of how deeply he had imprinted himself on her heart, in an astoundingly short time. As he returned to the bed with the wine skin slung over his shoulder, and a large wooden platter bearing many of the foods Elene recognized from the keep's kitchen, she could not help smiling. It almost frightened her to feel such happiness.

"You picked the choicest bits of apricot-glazed boar, Talon," Elene remarked warmly as she plucked a savory morsel from the platter and fed it to him. "This roasted for well over nine hours."

Her lips curved into a playful grin when Talon, in turn, brought a small chunk of smoked fish to her mouth and fed it to her. They supped like that, slowly, affectionately, teasing each other with ripe berries brushed against the other's lips, or bits of meat or cheese dangled over the other's tongue. Every now and again, Talon took a deep draught of wine from the skin and offered it to her, and the sweet brew warmed Elene all the way down to her toes...relaxed her...and stirred her desire for Talon anew.

Soon, her appetite for food was sated, and she turned her lips to more tempting flesh. She kissed Talon's brow, his cheeks, the corded muscle of his neck...his chest....needing to feel his male lust once again...

 

[BLACK BART]

Talon groaned with pleasure and then laughed.

"Perhaps the most choice bit remains to be tasted lass?"

Rolling he pressed his body against hers, pinning her to the beds surface as his hands reached for opposite goals.

"Wine...to bring out that flavor and enhance the experience..."

Talons eyes shined with evil delight as he used his larger hand to pin both of Elenes over her head and lifted the wine skin for her to see.

"Flavors I intend to relish and enjoy....Once I've found them."

Gripping the neck of the bag he rested the weight of its contents on his forearm, slowly tilting the neck downward to let the red nectar drizzle slowly onto Elene's hapless body.

Drawing a gasp from her lips and a confused look from her lust filled eyes as the drops trailed across her breasts and quivering belly.

Lowering his head he let his tongue chase each drop and kissing the flesh once he had captured it, then quickly moving to the next...and the next....and the next. Lingering on the swollen bud on a breast to suckle at it, then moving quickly to where another drop threatened to find refuge in her fragrant cleft to snatch it up and chuckle as another gasp came to his ears and her thighs thrust upwards.

"Perhaps I've found something...my willing wench?"

He gently teased and carefully poured more of the wine, watching it roll downward and betweeh her thighs.

"Perhaps there is a fruit....that you have saved for me?"

 

[Arioso]

These horsemen had such strange ways!

Ohhh, but Elene found herself floating on a cloud at Talon's unexpected, playful showering of sweet wine on her naked flesh, especially as his warm tongue swiftly followed. It was like nothing she had ever experienced, and the sheer decadence of it left her skin tingling.

To be devoured and savored by a man like this...as if she were a feast...Elene's passion sizzled at the delicious, wicked delight of becoming the choice, desired meat for Talon's appetite.

His lips sucked at her ripe flesh, nibbled her womanly curves and peaks, stirring the lust in her loins until it poured forth from the fount of her womanhood.

"Oh! TALON!!" Elene gasped with a shudder when her lover's tongue sought out the wine he'd trickled between her thighs. At the first dip of his warm, insistent tongue into her juicy folds, she became a mighty falcon leaping into flight. Elene spread her thighs and soared.

It was a pleasure no man had ever given her, as if the world was made new. Talon licked her succulent gash slowly, from her clit down through her fleshy lips almost to her bottom, drawing moans from her belly and mesmerizing her like a sorcerer. He must be a sorcerer, for his tongue seemed to be everywhere! Elene felt him probing her tender, slick walls...felt him flicking her throbbing pearl...felt him stroking her pink folds...all at once, it seemed!

She could only surrender; she was his creature -- a beast of pure lust.

Steadily, her hips pumped up and down as she pressed her sensual, dewy blossom to his face, craving the kiss of his tongue.

Talon had shown her paradise...

Would he really keep her here, make her his woman for the rest of their lives?