In Her Argent Embrace

Kalbasa pats the air with her hand, indicating that Leuna shouldn't talk so loud. "Mercenaries, I'm guessing. There's been more and more of them around lately, since the attacks on the sulphur mines."

"Are the on our side or the duke's?" you say.

Kalbasa shrugs. "Who can tell? Trouble, regardless. Still, their money is honest, as the saying goes."

She returns to busying herself cleaning behind the bar while you and Leuna get to work on your fresh drinks. The men on the other table are increasingly boisterous and it's hard to talk.

You're in the middle of discussing your plans for tomorrow when one of them gets up and walks over to your table. It's the man you took to be their leader.

"Excuse me milady," he says. His bow to Leuna is just short enough to be insolent, while you receive a grin and an incline of the head. "I couldn't help but overhear you earlier, inquiring as to who we are. My name is Lazgarri and these worthies are my companions."

There's a drunken cheer from the other two men as they lift their mugs.

"Like you, we are keepers of the peace. Perhaps you would like to join us later and discuss matters of mutual interest? Swordplay, perhaps?" On the other table his men start to laugh, although only a thin, mocking smile appears on his own face.

"You will find me and my men more than capable in that regard." He finally glances at you. "I suspect your young companion here knows very little about 'swordplay'."

You start to say something but Leuna interrupts you. "Thank you for your kind offer, but I'm afraid we have our journey to discuss. If you'll excuse us..."

Lazgarri's smile deepens. "Oh, but it won't take but a moment. And your friend can watch. He might learn a thing or two about the best way to fit a sword in a scabbard..."

You stand up, livid, but Leuna puts her hand on yours. You're so surprised by her touch that you forget your angry retort and stare down at her hand.

Lazgarri looks at the two of you and chuckles. "Ah, so that's how it is." With an insolent bow he returns to his table.

The men's conversation starts up again, punctuated by even louder laughter. Leuna has taken her hand from yours, and as you sit down you feel yourself gnawed by shame.

You ask Leuna why she was so polite to him. As a knight, surely she takes insults to her honour even more seriously than ordinary people?

Leuna sighs. "It's against the protocols for a knight to fight anyone other than another knight over a matter of honour." She glances across at the mercenaries. "Although it would be a pleasure to teach him to keep a civil tongue in his head."

After a while Leuna excuses herself from the table to talk to Kalbasa, who gives her directions and indicates the front door. You sit there and nurse your drink and your anger, feeling worthless.

Not long after Leuna gets up, Lazgarri joins you at the table. This time he sits across from you. He's wearing that same insolent smile.

"Well, my hat's off to you, son," he says. "She's a juicy little piglet. But I guess you wouldn't know about that, would you?" He laughs and shouts out to Kalbasa. "Another drink for my friend here!"

You mutter something noncommittal.

"She looks to me to be a virgin," he says suddenly. "Ah, you don't want a virgin. Not for your first time. You should let us teach her a thing or two about pleasing a man. It's a service we offer to young Easterners as yourself. Warming up frigid bitches."

His use of that word to refer to Leuna sends you over the edge. You slowly stand up, your hands trembling, and demand that he take it back.

"No need to take it personally," the man says, standing up. His smile is gone. "You should watch your step. We're far out of the capital here, son, and as far as the Regent is concerned, we're the law out here. Your little friend might play at being a knight, with her crescent brooch and her shiny armour, but around here she's just another whore."

You smash your fist into his face. It's a wild punch but there's a satisfying crunch as your fist strikes his jaw. It's a glancing blow, though, weak due to your lack of training and drunkenness, and Lazgarri grabs your arm, capitalising on your overreach, and pulls you over the table. Your feet skitter across its surface as you try to regain your footing, then you're flung to the ground. You swing to face him and he grabs you by the collar and jerks your head forward to where a glinting blade has appeared in his other hand.

"Not a smart move, son," he says, a trickle of blood in the corner of his mouth. "No one draws my blood and lives. But I guess it's probably kinder this way. You won't have to watch us rape your girl."

There's a sharp whizz and a sudden splash of blood across your neck. You cry out, thinking that he's just stabbed you. But there's no pain. It's not your blood.

Lazgarri stumbles back clutching his hand. There's a bolt sticking clear through it.

Leuna is in the doorway, leaning against the doorpost and steadying her crossbow. She doesn't seem very sure on her feet.

She points the weapon at the ground and is still fumbling to reload when Lazgarri's two companions push themselves from their seats. They're going to rush her, you realise, and before you consciously make any decision you've already flung yourself across the floor at them. You pull one to the ground and the two of you, struggling, kick the feet out from under the other.

They're far stronger than you. The one you grabbed knees you in the stomach and gets on top of you and starts to give your face a painful drubbing with his drunken fists. But he stops when the blade of a halberd appears at his neck and you scramble out from underneath him and get to your feet, rubbing at the blood pouring from your nose.

Kalbasa is holding the halberd's shaft. "It's been a few years and a few pounds since I've used this," she says quietly. "But you never forget how to split a man's skull in half."

Leuna has managed to reload the crossbow and is pointing it at Lazgarri, although he doesn't seem much of a threat anymore, sitting back against a table and clutching his dripping hand. You decide it's prudent to get out of the way and join her. With her free arm she draws you behind her, placing herself between you and the others.

Your hand staunching the blood from your nose, you tell her you thought she wasn't allowed to get involved in matters of honour with commoners.

Leuna glances back at you and laughs. "As soon as you punched him it became a matter of public order."

With Kalbasa's help, Leuna binds the arms of the two men behind their backs and herds them out the door. Lazgarri, not needing to be bound, nurses the dripping bolt in his hand and says nothing as he follows up behind.

Once outside, one of the men says something about their horses. Kalbasa roars with laughter.

"What's the penalty for public disorder under Regency law?" she asks, turning to Leuna.

"A fine of a hundred crowns," says the knight, grim-faced.

"You three don't look you have any money on you, so your weapons and horses will do," she says. "Unless you prefer the gentle delights of the debtor's prison."

The men mutter and make no move to leave but then Lazgarri comes up behind them and starts to kick them and shove them with his uninjured hand. To the accompaniment of the vilest of curses they start moving on down the road.

"They'll be back," you say as you take the rag Kalbasa hands you and apply it to your nose.

Kalbasa just laughs again. "I'll send word around. There'll be a dozen miners with pickaxes here tomorrow morning. If they want to get themselves killed, they're welcome to try."

She busies herself throwing sand on the trail of blood and the few other guests at the inn go back to what they were doing. You sit down with Leuna at a different table. She gingerly unloads the bolt from her crossbow and places it on the table.

She notices you looking at it and smiles. "I always keep a weapon with my horse, just in case."

You remove the rag from your nose. The bleeding seems to have slowed somewhat. Leuna takes the rag from your hand despite your protests.

"Put your head back," she says, forcing you to do it even as she gives you advice. She applies the rag to your nose, dabbing at the blood still there.

Embarrassed by her attentions, you distract yourself from the gentle strength of her hand cradling your head and tell her she's an amazing shot. Even tipsy she only just missed shooting the knife out of Lazgarri's hand.

"Oh no," says Leuna. "I was aiming for his hand this time." Then she blushes. "I'm just lucky they didn't spot me there in the doorway while I was getting my hand steady. Otherwise it might have been your hand I shot." She places her hand on yours. "It'd be a dreadful crime to have hurt this pretty hand."

Your hand, 'pretty'? You're not sure how you feel about that.

"I guess he must have said something pretty insulting to you to make you punch him," says Leuna.

You shake your head and explain that it was something he said about her that made you punch him.

Leuna frowns. "About me? What did he say?"

You blush and tell her that you can't repeat it.

Leuna looks at you, a strange expression on her face. Is she disappointed at you? Does she feel insulted that you took it upon yourself to defend her honour?

"You didn't need to do that," she says. "He could have killed you."

You say there was no way you were going to let him insult you and get away with it.

A shy smile breaks onto the lady knight's face. She dabs your nose a last few times then lets you put your head forward again.

The bleeding seems to have stopped.

Kalbasa comes and brings you some new drinks and after all the excitement of the fight the two of you quickly find yourself drinking one after the other.

Something seems to be on Leuna's mind. In a lull in the conversation she suddenly bursts out with:

"I have a confession to make!"

You almost spit out your drink. A confession?

"This morning," she begins, then hesitates before the rest of the sentence comes out in a whispered rush. "When I woke up, you weren't there and I was worried something had happened to you, so I went looking for you and found you in the river and I saw you bathing and you were, uh, naked and..."

She sighs. "...and I'm sorry."

You laugh and tell her not to be work herself up about it. You're not offended. Lots of people have seen you naked before.

"Really?" Leuna's voice is scandalised, and you realise she has the wrong idea. You quickly explain to her about the public baths in the East.

"Oh," says Leuna. "Of course. I've heard of them. Do... do men and women really bathe naked in the East? I mean, together?"

Yes, you say. But not in the public baths, since they're usually segregated.

"Oh," she says. Somehow she sounds disappointed.

Soon it gets late, and Leuna sighs. "We'll have to sleep. I mean, get some sleep, since we're riding tomorrow." She stands up and almost trips over, but you're out of your seat in a second and supporting her.

"Thanks," she says. "I must be really sleepy."

You tell her she's probably just drunk.

"Oh," she says. "So this is what being drunk feels like?"

She didn't really drink that much, but not being used to it it's gone to her head. You help her up the stairs as Kalbasa leads you to your room. You imagine you look ridiculous beside someone so much taller and imposing than you are, but the warmth of her body, the mixture of softness and firmness as she leans against you more than makes up for it.

"Why does your hair smell so good?" she suddenly murmurs.

It's a question that doesn't really expect an answer, you decide, your heart skipping a beat.

Kalbasa opens the door for you. You guide Leuna inside and sit her on the bed, then turn to the innkeeper and thank her.

"Goodnight," she says with a wink, closing the door.

--

You lie on the bed, staring up at the darkened ceiling while Leuna lays out her cloak and baggage preparing her own makeshift bed on the floor. Unlike the other night, it's only a foot away from you. There was an argument about who would get the bed, and Leuna won.

"I've been sleeping rough for years now," she told you. "And anyway, I've never really liked beds. Too soft. They make me toss and turn."

You continued to protest that there was no way a man could let a woman sleep on the floor while he took a bed, but Leuna just picked you up bodily and tossed you onto it, laughing. Mortified, you gave up at that point.

She grabbed you and lifted you almost as if you weighed nothing. You feel like your masculine pride should be hurt. And yet...

There was something awfully nice about being carried in her arms, if only for a second.

As she makes herself comfortable, memories of the previous night come flood back, how she came to your bedding and spooned you from behind, how good she'd smelled, how warm her embrace had been, her breasts pressed against your back...

Despite everything that happened today and all the ale you've drunk, you just can't seem to get to sleep.

Maybe your raging erection has something to do with it.

"Can't sleep either?" comes Leuna's voice from the floor.

You mutter in the affirmative, your face growing hot even though there's no way Leuna can tell your present condition in the dark.

"I'm glad you're here," she says. "I... I'm not really used to sleeping on my own." She explains that she mostly slept in dormitories, both at school in her little hometown and at the Academy.

"But never with a boy, right?" You remember her earlier words.

There's an embarrassed silence, and you imagine you can almost hear her face turning red.

"So, you usually sleep alone, then?" she asks at last.

You're a little taken aback by the question, but you realise she's asking it literally. You laugh and tell her that although you'd prefer not to, it's the way things usually turn out, even when you're not traveling out on the road.

Silence. You turn over, thinking that the conversation is over. Then you hear Leuna say your name.

You murmur sleepily.

You hear the rustling of material and the soft pad of a footstep. You open your eyes and Leuna is standing beside the bed, a tall shadow in the starlight.

"Move over," she says. "I hate talking to the ceiling."

You think you've misheard her, but when she stays standing there you move aside. There's not really enough room and you're squeezed up against the wall as she gets into the bed, but your heart is beating so rapidly that you wouldn't have cared if you were left clinging to the edge.

Leuna is lying on her side, her face flush with yours. You move your legs in an attempt to keep her from noticing your erection and your toes touch her shins.

She really is tall.

"You punched him really hard," she says. Her breath is sweetly fragrant. She must have brushed her teeth with some herb or other while she was taking a bath.

"What?"

"Lazgarri. It wasn't a bad punch. A bit wild, but there was a lot of strength behind it."

Why is she talking about that all of a sudden?

It's hard to concentrate with her body so close to yours. You're familiar with her back, her wide shoulders and hips and her narrow waist, since you've been riding behind her, but with her front within touching distance... You feel the warmth of her body bleeding off her, the cotton of her undertunic brushing against the bare skin of your legs and arms.

"Why were you so angry?" she asks.

It takes you a moment to realise she's still talking about the fight with Lazgarri. You tell her that you were couldn't stand the thought of someone talking about her that way.

She moves herself closer. The softness of her breasts press against your chest. "So you were defending my honour, then?"

You swallow and say that you guess you were.

"No man has ever done that for me before," she says. "I guess since I'm a knight they think I can look after myself."

It sounds like she's offended, and you mutter an apology. In the East, you say, it's expected for a man to stand up for...

Her arms wrap around you, then, and she hugs you to her.

"Silly," she says, nuzzling her face into your neck, your face covered by her soft, fragrant hair. "I'm not angry. I'm happy. Really happy."

You feel hot wetness against your skin and at first you think she's crying. But then you feel the hardness of teeth and light suction as she kisses your neck.

You go stiff, barely believing what's happening. Leuna's kisses are wet, awkward but eager. Her hands slip down your back to your butt and she squeezes it. She sighs. "I wondered what that would feel like." Then her hands slip under the hem of your shirt. She draws her fingertips across your bare back and you swallow, hard.

"Your skin is really soft," she murmurs. "Just like your hands."

Leuna explores your body, running her fingers over your ribs and then splaying them out across your chest. All the while she's breathing heavily against your neck, peppering it with clumsy kisses that are really more like licking bites.

Tiring of this, she rolls you bodily onto your back and straddles you. She's heavy and the weight of her pushes the air from your lungs. Leuna chuckles and leans forward, taking the majority of her weight off you and at the same time bringing her face flush with yours again.

"Sorry," she says. Her breathing caresses your lips, the scent of her breath maddeningly delicious. "I... I can't stop myself. Does alcohol have this effect too?"

You're really in no position to give her a comprehensible answer. All you can feel is the gorgeous weight of her body covering yours, her knees squeezing your legs together, her stomach flush against your own, her large breasts with the nipples hard behind the cotton brushing against your chest as she starts to lick your neck again. You wonder why she hasn't tried to kiss you yet, and you realise she probably has no idea how.

You lean down and intercept her mouth with your own and she sighs as you take first her bottom lip and then the top and mouth them, touching them gently with the tip of your tongue. She soon realises she's supposed to do the same and she kisses you back, hard, bruising your lips and slipping her hot tongue across your teeth. She's clearly never kissed before. The thought makes your heart melt and you grow even more excited.

You pull her body down closer onto your own as you continue to ward off her more dangerously enthusiastic kisses. You need to feel her on top of you, like before. Her breasts squash up against your chest and you feel the heat between her legs as her pelvis weighs down on your hardness.

Leuna gasps and stops kissing you. You feel her move her pelvis against you.

"Oh. That's it, isn't it? Your..." Her voice drops to a whisper. "Your thing." She moves her hips again. "It's really hard," she mutters, to herself more than anyone else. The pressure sends a delicious shiver up your spine.

You pant as she begins to rub against you. The warmth and weight of her on top of you while she rubs herself against you sends spears of delight exploding in your head. Leuna's voice is heavy with tipsy desire as she, too, pants against your mouth. She's too distracted by what's happening elsewhere in her body to try and kiss you anymore, and so you take the chance to attack her chin and neck with your lips. Leuna starts moaning and you feel yourself getting close. You slip your hands down her back, your fingers tracing her musculature under the soft cotton, delighting in the superb toning of her body, until you reach her hips. You grab them and pull her down closer as she rolls her pelvis against yours, moaning and arching her back. Her face is too far away now for you to reach it with your kisses, so you lay back, focussed on the incredible waves of pleasure flowing through you.