Tanys Defiant Read online

  One of Carathan’s men stumbled before the advance of the ever-growing blood fiends, and he fell. In a flash, one of the demons was on him, plunging the needle-like feeding tube through the man’s armored chest. Tanys raced toward the fallen man, but, even as another demon moved to intercept her, she could see it was too late. As she joined battle with a demon nearly the size of a bear tribesman, she could see the first demon drain the lifeblood of the fallen ghast in a few convulsive gulps. The triumphant fiend shuddered once, lifting its gory tube toward the sky and then exploded as Thael had done, giving its life to create three more new demons that now writhed and rose from the blood-slick deck.

  Feeling the burning of exertion in her arms, Tanys hacked her opponent’s legs from beneath it. As the demon fell, the ropy tendrils of its hands coiled around her waist, pulling her to her knees on the deck beside it. The bony tip of its feeding tube jabbed painfully between her breasts, but slipped away, unable to penetrate the tough silk of her bodysuit. Tanys hooked a dagger beneath the demon’s chin and lifted its head cleanly away with a quick slice of the enchanted blade.

  On her feet again, she saw another of Carathan’s men borne screaming over the side by a grappling blood demon that fell with him. A lone guardsman remained, defending the pale sorcerer whose face showed clearly the exhaustion of battle. The three newborn demons crowded close around the remaining spawn of Thael’s betrayal, a demon now the size of an ice giant. A swing of the guardsman’s sword felled one of the smaller fiends, but the giant, sensing an opening in the man’s defense, crushed the ghast’s skull with a single blow of its massive arm. As the two smallest demons ravaged the dying guardsman, the blood giant hammered terrible blows down upon the flickering shield of blue fire that surrounded the kneeling and weary Carathan.

  With a raven’s war-shriek, Tanys was among them. The two smaller demons fell dead beside the guardsman’s body even as she ripped the stringy tendons from the back of the blood giant’s leg, unbalancing it. The giant struggled to recover, its shredded leg reforming beneath it as it stood again. Now Tanys stood between the demon and her new benefactor, her gory blades raised high with a feral grin on her blood-streaked face, her eyes wild, flashing like green fire. The demon faltered and fell back a step.

  “Who sent you?” Carathan shouted, leveling his rapier’s blade at the thing. “Speak!” he commanded, and an arc of green light leapt from the tip of his sword to pierce the demon’s chest.

  Shrieking in hideous ululation, the blood giant writhed in apparent torment, struggling against the shackles of Carathan’s spell. “Speak!” Carathan shouted again, and the demon shivered, thrashing its sightless head from side to side as half-formed words began to sound amid its anguished howls. At last, it clasped its tendril fingers tightly around the bony tube of its proboscis and snapped it off. The screams of the beast ceased as gobs of blood poured from its sundered face. It turned, and with a mighty leap, disappeared over the side.

  Tanys scanned the deck for more demons, finding none. The pounding of her pulse slowed as the killing rage faded from her blood. She had never felt so alive. Helping Carathan to his feet, she quipped, “I could have taken him myself”.

  “Where’s Misha?” he asked weakly.

  They found Misha lying still in the hatchway in a pool of dark blood. Her skin was pale and cold when Tanys lifted her. Tanys feared the girl dead at first, but Misha’s eyes fluttered open when she heard Carathan’s voice, heavy with emotion, calling her name.

  “My lord,” Misha smiled weakly, “you are alive!”

  “And you, dear Misha,” the pale sorcerer laughed through his tears, as he held her hand, “and you.”

  Misha’s eyes lifted to Tanys’ worried face. “I told you she was strong,” she whispered, and then went limp in Tanys’ arms.

  Chapter 4

  Tanys stood numbly at Carathan’s side during the many hours he worked his subtle magic on Misha’s body. The girl lay motionless on a long table in a dark room, deep in the hold of the ice ship, naked but for the bandages wrapped tightly across her small breasts and over one shoulder. The only light came from a crystal sphere, suspended from the ceiling above the table, glowing with a golden fire, that faded now almost to starlight as Carathan touched it, his work complete. The sorcerer draped a sheet over Misha’s body, folding it back to uncover her face, the white silk contrasted starkly with the dark curls of her reddish hair and the flush of her olive skin. Misha sighed softly, her lips parting slightly as if to speak, but then she sank even further into enchanted sleep as Carathan tenderly stroked her forehead with his long thin fingers.

  “Will she live?” Tanys asked as they stepped from the room. Carathan gently closed the door behind them as they stepped out into a narrow passageway that ran the length of the ship.

  “Thanks to you,” he replied softly. He looked troubled for a moment, as though his confidence had been greatly shaken by the ordeal. “I’m sorry that our initial meeting did not go quite the way I had planned.”

  “I enjoyed it,” Tanys smiled ruefully, “and thank you again for the knives. They are very well crafted.”

  “And what of this?” he asked, lifting her left arm to reveal the long gash left by Thael’s blade.

  Tanys laughed. “Only a scratch, luckily. The way you dress your women makes for poor armor, I’m afraid.”

  “Poor armor!” the sorcerer scoffed, “Thael would have easily taken your arm, were it not for this silk. It is light as air and tough as dragon hide. He was my blood guard after all.”

  “And what about my other arm?” she demanded, reaching her bare right arm across the narrow passageway, blocking his path as he tried to move past her.

  Carathan stood face to face with the raven-haired warrioress, the fire of battle still in her eyes and the scent of it on her body. She leaned close, pressing him against the wall of the corridor. She could see the effect she had on him, something raw and animalistic. Something he would never find in the delicate embrace of the southern girl. His breath quickened as his eyes drifted to the swell of her breasts, soft and full as they brushed against his chest. His hands rose defensively, and then halted, almost touching her. His long fingers flexed uncertainly as she lowered her eyes and leaned closer still, her breath hot on his neck. Her lips almost touching his ear, she whispered, “Why leave so much of me… exposed?”

  Carathan breathed deeply, his back stiffening as he lifted his hand between them. The tips of his cold fingers traced along her collarbone from the hollow of her throat to the warm bare skin of her shoulder. “You had to earn that piece of the armor,” he said, smiling slightly as he gently pushed her away.

  “I’ll give it to you later,” he said, as he walked away, “after you’ve had a bath.”

  “You people are too clean for your own good,” Tanys laughed, leaning back against the wall with her arms crossed, watching him go. The silvery-haired sorcerer gave no indication that he heard her at all.

  ****

  Tanys emerged from a long bath to find that someone had taken her black bodysuit that had lain in a crumpled pile by the door, and that a long dress of shimmering burgundy silk now lay across the foot of her neatly made bed. She had never heard anyone enter the room as she lay in the steaming waters of the enchanted bath. She glanced quickly around for her daggers, but they still lay where she had left them, within easy reach of the tub.

  She dried herself and wrung the water from her hair with an impossibly soft towel that never seemed to grow damp. As she stood before a full-length mirror of silvered glass, brushing her hair with an ivory-handled brush, her thoughts wandered again to the mysterious sorcerer. Her fingertips brushed across the hollow of her throat and her lean body shivered with desire at the memory of his touch. Tanys wondered why Carathan affected her so. She was not one to throw herself at a man, no matter how powerful he seemed. Stepping away from the mirror, she dusted her body with some of the perfumed powder she found in the bath cabinet then crossed to the bed to try on her
new dress.

  The dress hung from her slender neck, tied back with two ribbons of silk that anchored either side of a neckline that plunged almost to her navel. The thin burgundy fabric shimmered in the pale light of her bedroom. It poured like warm water over the curves of her toned body. The dress dipped low in back, leaving her long raven tresses to hide most everything above her waist. The dress fit snugly to her hips, clinging softly to the roundness of her backside, revealing the faint outline of the scrap of underwear Carathan had given her to wear. A small triangle of black silk, strung from her waist by the thinnest cord, covered her sex. Though no more than three fingers wide, the dark silk radiated toasty warmth that kept the night’s chill at bay. The dress itself hung almost to the floor, but was slashed to the hip on either side to provide mobility while simultaneously showing a great deal of leg.

  A pair of jewel-trimmed sandals, soft as doeskin, wrapped her feet in magical warmth, but Tanys only felt truly comfortable once she buckled the dagger belt around her waist. She found her coat again in the cabinet and wrapped it loosely around her shoulders in case she might need to lose it again in a hurry. Crossing the room to the door, she questioned the wisdom of so readily accepting a wizard’s gifts. Then again, what choice did she have?

  She stepped into the shadows of the hallway that ran the length of the ice ship, one level above the hold where Misha lay in enchanted slumber. The air was cold and a draft blew from the direction of the staircase leading to the upper deck. A pale light farther up the hall told her that the door at the top of the stairs stood open to the outside. As she turned to move in that direction, she heard a noise from behind but turned to see nothing but the darkness of the empty hallway. Tanys wondered if Carathan had any more servants. A faint scuffling noise, growing fainter as it moved away down the hallway brought to mind Misha’s comment about large spiders, and she lost all motivation to investigate further.

  She found Carathan topside where she had first spoken with him, all traces of the battle wiped clean somehow from the deck. The pale sorcerer stood at the prow of the ice ship with his back to her, his hood thrown back, long silvery hair whipping in the arctic wind. As she stepped onto the deck, the wind hit her hard, nearly stripping her of the bearskin coat. Pulling it more tightly around her, she crossed the deck as quietly as she could. At first her thought was only to surprise the man, not giving him the chance to use his magic to shield her from the icy winds to which he himself paid no heed. As she drew near to him though, the memory returned of Carathan standing impassively beside the troll chieftain, watching as Tanys was cast into the slaughter pit for the amusement of the devilkin. She left the bearskins at the base of the steps leading to the forecastle and closed the remaining distance to him, prowling as silent as a wolf, though the wind bit through the thin fabric of her dress like a thousand icy teeth. He seemed to take no notice as she silently closed the distance between them, his back exposed and defenseless.

  Carathan did not flinch as she wrapped her arms around him, the numbed fingers of her left hand closing around his throat, and a black dagger point pressed inches from his heart. Her voice trembled from the cold as she whispered in his ear, “What magic would keep me from killing you now, sorcerer?”

  “None that I possess, dear girl,” Carathan answered softly, no hint of fear or surprise in his voice.

  “Then tell me now of your business with the trolls,” she demanded through chattering teeth. The wracking pains of exposure were already fading from her limbs, replaced by the numbness of the frozen death that waited for all who challenged the sovereignty of the lifeless wastes. “What are your plans for my people?”

  Carathan turned his head slightly, his large dark eyes looked hard into hers. “I know nothing of your people,” he answered, “I bought only information from the trolls… something that concerns no living man.”

  “And what of your plans for me?” she asked, shaking violently, her voice no more than a soft moan. She could not be sure of her grip on the dagger in her hand anymore. Her fingers were so numb.

  Carathan’s eyes softened and he whispered a word in the sorcerer’s tongue, causing the wind to die away, whistling around the magically sheltered deck. “Firstly, I plan to keep you from freezing to death.”

  Tanys slumped to the deck, feeling very foolish as he knelt beside her, draping his coat over her bare shoulders. He smiled gently, pressing his palm to her chest, and warmth spread into the core of her body. His fingertips brushed lightly over her face, and feeling returned to her nose and lips. He took the knife from her hand and rubbed warmth back into her fingers. His touch brought sensation to her toes again and firmly rubbed life back into her calf muscles. He hesitated then as his hands slipped behind her knees and up the side of her thighs. Tanys’ hands covered his, holding them there as he tried to pull away, a confused look in his eyes.

  “What are you plans for me?” she asked again. This time it was Carathan who was shaking.

  “I…” he said, faltering. His eyes lifted towards the doorway leading below decks, his thoughts on the southern girl who lay injured and sleeping in the hold, but Tanys reached up with her left hand to brush the hair from his eyes, drawing his attention again to her.

  “It is only us now,” she whispered, gently stroking back his hair. She lay back in the soft folds of Carathan’s coat, pulling him down with her. With her right hand, she guided his hand up her inner thigh, pressing it softly against the warm silk between her legs. His other hand she guided to her left breast, her strong fingers squeezing hard, though he needed little encouragement. He massaged her gently at first, then harder, the passion of the moment driving the protest from his eyes.

  He pulled the dress open, cupping her naked breast in his hand, kneading her gently with his long fingers. The full dark nipple hardened as he rolled it between his fingertips. His breath came faster now, and hers quickened as well. She shivered in pleasure as his fingernails raked playfully across the soft black silk stretched tightly across her sex, exploring the contours of her secret places. She dragged her skirt up, baring her long firm legs as she arched her back, pressing herself firmly into his grasp.

  He leaned over her, pressing his mouth to her breast, sucking gently and tugging her nipple playfully with his teeth. Tanys ran her hands through her hair as she shuddered and writhed, giving herself to him. Then, taking his head in her hands, she pulled him tightly to herself, pressing her full breast into his mouth. Her breath came in hissing moans as he took her in like a starving man devouring a feast. Her underwear was gone now, and his long fingers slipped between the tender pink lips of her sex, exploring her and finding the budding flower of her womanhood, sending a shockwave of pleasure through her body.

  She grabbed a double handful of his silvery hair, forcing his head downward between her legs. He resisted at first, but Tanys’ strength prevailed over his hesitance, and he submitted. She smiled fiercely, knowing that Misha would never have been so bold, then all rational thoughts scattered from her mind as he pressed his lips against her softest parts.

  His tongue flicked lightly across the soft pink flesh of her womanhood, teasing open the petals of her flower, then darting in, hard and probing, to take away all thought of resistance. Her hands were there now, spreading herself wider to accept him, lifting her hips, offering herself more fully to him. She gasped in mindless ecstasy as he knelt on all fours like a wild beast ravaging some fallen prey. At last she cried out, unable to bear the sweet torture any longer, “Take me now!”

  With a feral passion in his eyes, Carathan lifted his head, his white teeth bared in a hungry grin. He rose to his knees and stripped off his shirt. His pale skin stretched taught over toned muscles, belied by his thin frame. He cleared the long strands of wild hair from his face with a toss of his head as Tanys rose, knocking him backwards onto the deck in animalistic need. She ripped the belt from his waist and tugged hard, pulling his pants down to his knees. His manhood bounced free as she tore away the last barrier betw
een herself and satisfaction. He was long and hard, throbbing with need for her, and she straddled him, taking him in with a shuddering moan. It had never been like this for her before. She had never felt the way she did now, feeling him deep inside of her as she rocked fervently back and forth, driving him into the deck.

  Carathan gasped, trying to reach for her, but she pinned his hands above his head as she leaned over him, almost face to face, her breath coming hot and fast between her tightly clenched teeth. Her eyes burned with a fierce green flame, his eyes full of mute supplication, ecstasy or pain. His hips rose and fell, the rhythm of their embrace irresistible now, neither one in control of it anymore. Tanys lost herself in wave after wave of pleasure that crashed over her and swept her up again with hardly a moment to catch her breath between them. At last, with a roaring shout, his passion exploded, and they fell together, tangled and gasping for breath in the heat of their lovemaking.

  Tanys lay curled in Carathan’s arms for a long time. She brushed the hair from his eyes and saw the look of amazed adoration in them. Then he looked away, and seemed again the mysterious sorcerer, distant and aloof. Tanys let him go, and he rose, dressing himself. Carathan’s hands trembled slightly as he buckled his belt, and Tanys knew he would not soon forget the fierce love of a raven woman.

  He watched her get dressed, smiling as she wrapped herself again in his coat, crossing to join him at the prow of the ice ship with a satisfied strut to her step and a wicked smirk on her lips. Tanys looked over the railing towards the front of the giant sled, seeing for the first time the two enormous reptilian beasts that pulled the ship smoothly across the ice. Their scales were charcoal black, and they were each larger than the common hall of her village. Rows of crystalline spines protruded from their backs, and great wooden yokes had been stretched between them with chains and tethers pulled taut as the huge beasts pulled against the weight of the sled, making no sound but the crunching of their sword-like claws, digging into the packed ice.