Whispers of Yesterday - Chapter Five
Aug. 19th, 2011 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dracoqueen22a/n: Still no word from Break of Day. I got the chapters written, but now I have to send them off to be edited. Until then, here's another chapter of Whispers of Yesterday. Enjoy. This, also, is NSFW.
Title: Whispers of Yesterday
Series: Infinity's End, Book Two
Warnings: smut, het smut, hints to slashy goodness, violence, language
Description: Now firmly entrenched in the Theravada -- and firmly involved with Gale as well -- Ione discovers the hidden sides of both Grayshire and Theravada. She questions her own decisions -- and her feelings -- as the war takes on a more murderous, personal turn for the worst.
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Chapter Five
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Gale’s sleep was remarkably undisturbed, lacking even the gentlest of images that tended to haunt him late into his waking hours. While he hadn’t suffered as hard as many of his fellow Theravada, there were things Gale had seen that he wished he hadn’t. There were times when he’d been far too late, when his strength hadn’t been enough. Such things tended to return to life in his dreams.
Not this time, however, and Gale reveled in that. He was surrounded by soothing warmth, floating on a soft bed, his head pillowed somewhere quite comfortable. His aether was a quiescent presence inside of him, cloaking his skin, the outer tendrils twined quite comfortably with Ione’s. Without waking, he knew that she was beside him, the refreshing breeze of her magic as familiar to him as his own.
The press of fingers fluttered across Gale’s conscious and he stirred, rising out of a light doze slowly. Pleasant sensations were trickling over him, like taking a careful dip into the heated waters of a bath. Warm breath ghosted over his flesh and he felt himself twitch. He rose slowly to wakefulness, focusing intently on the cascade of sensation in his lower regions. His eyes opened to late afternoon, a reddish-orange sunset peering through the gaps in their wooden blinds and making slats of light across the bed sheets.
Ione’s voice was a husky purr in the half-light. “You finally woke up. I was beginning to think I’d lost my touch,” she said, her warm breath puffing over Gale’s stiff length, the base trapped by her encircling fingers.
His hips thrust toward her mouth, a small groan escaping him. “Impossible,” Gale gasped, and jerked when her tongue touched the head of his cock, lapping quickly over the seeping tip before vanishing again. “Tease.”
Ione chuckled, her fingers tickling at his scrotum, gently tugging on his balls and rolling them in her touch. “Not so. I fully plan on following through with my actions.” As if to prove her words, she pulled the head of his length into her mouth, tongue flicking over his straining flesh.
Sucking air through his teeth, Gale slapped a hand against the comforter, twisting the fabric with his fingers. He pushed himself toward the welcome heat of her mouth. His entire body had already started to thrum, his aether rising around him in subtle pulses.
“Gods,” Gale groaned, and threw his head back against the pillow as Ione grinned and sucked him deeper, fully engulfing his cock into her warm mouth.
Ione was incredibly good at this, and it showed as she quickly dissolved him into a state of utter need. Gale twitched under her ministrations, concentrating on the sweet pressure of her mouth and the wet swipe of her tongue. Ione’s fingers fondled his scrotum with skilled touches that racked up the pleasure, made Gale struggle not to choke her with a forceful thrust.
Her hair tickled his bare thighs as she sucked on him, swallowing around his cock and making Gale groan wordlessly. All Gale could think was that this was the best way he could have been woken. One of his hands found its way to Ione’s hair, tangling in the long brown strands, and judging by her rumble of appreciation, she didn’t mind one bit. Gale sucked his bottom lip into his mouth as he rocked upward, reveling in the sensation.
A low heat building in his groin, Gale knew it wouldn’t take long. Ione was too good at this, and his body was already keyed up. The room smelled of sex, and their aether was linked, enough that Gale could feel Ione’s arousal as well. She got nothing out of this but the sight of Gale’s pleasure, but it still made her hot. Gale liked that.
Ione’s free hand curled around Gale’s length, stroking him where her mouth didn’t quite cover, and he moaned, hips jerking toward her lips. She pulled back, teasing the head of his cock with her tongue, making him twitch. His pulse raced through his body as Gale chewed on his bottom lip, trying to stop the embarrassing sounds that wanted to pour from his lips.
Her tongue flexed across his rigid length and Gale sucked in a breath. “Like that,” he hissed, and gasped when she repeated the action, following it with a gentle scrape of his teeth. Ione sucked him deeper, until the head of his cock hit the back of her throat, and Gale lost it, as she must have known he would.
Biting down on a deep moan, Gale shuddered as he spilled into Ione’s mouth, his lover swallowing him without hesitation. His aether quickly expanded with his orgasm, buzzing brightly before pulling back toward his body as the last of the tremors faded, leaving behind a languid pleasure that loosened all of Gale’s muscles. Ione’s tongue lazily traced the contours of his softening arousal, lapping up the last drops of his release.
Gale dragged his fingers through Ione’s hair, brushing them out of her face. “Come here,” he said, his voice husky as he gave a light tug to her hair.
She looked up at him, tongue sliding over her lips pointedly as she crawled up his body, hovering over him with two hands firmly planted on either side of his chest. “Good morning,” Ione purred, her amber eyes dark with arousal.
“Good evening, you mean,” Gale corrected, and pulled her down for a kiss, the taste of himself present on her tongue but not as off-putting as he’d once thought.
She straddled him, knees pressing against the outside of his hips, and as she leaned down to kiss him, her breasts brushed his chest. Peaked nipples rubbed teasingly against him, drawing a moan out of Ione. She pulled back from the kiss with a nip to his lips, her breath puffing warmly over his moist lips.
“My turn,” Ione said with a grin, grinding her hips against his.
Gale felt himself twitch, his hands moving to her waist before sliding upward to cup the full roundness of her breasts. His thumbs toyed with her nipples as he admired the sight of her flushed skin, her loose and tangled hair sitting on her shoulders. He couldn’t decide what he wanted to do most, taste her with his lips or watch her writhe under his hands.
“It would be my pleasure,” Gale purred, and pressed the pad of his thumb over her nipple, watching her shudder and suck in a hungry breath.
A voice cut through the heat building between them, and the delicious sight of Ione moving atop him, her abdominal muscles flexing attractively.
“Or you could attend the meeting that started five minutes ago,” A male voice cut in, filled with amusement.
Gale briefly considered moving. Somewhere far, far away where he and Ione would never again face another interruption in the form of a friend, or a foe, or an unabashed, nosy familiar.
His eyes cut past Ione to find Fenris sitting beside the door, having obviously invited himself inside at some point. Maybe he’d been the one appointed to fetch them.
“What meeting?” Ione demanded.
Gale, however, felt himself flush with embarrassment. That meeting. The weekly strategy meeting with other key members of the Theravada that everyone was supposed to attend in order to discuss their next move against Grayshire. The one that – Gale glanced toward the clock – probably had started over five minutes ago.
Gale groaned before Fenris could answer and abruptly sat up, nearly causing Ione to tumble backwards if not for his grip on her waist. “He’s right,” Gale admitted, knowing that they would be, in all likelihood, the last to arrive and teased mercilessly for it.
“Of course I am,” Fenris said with a canine sniff. He turned around, tail swishing pointedly behind him. “If you don’t hurry up, I’ll spill the details about why you were late.” The wolf added before dismissing himself from the bedroom.
Ione huffed and crawled off Gale with a disappointed look. “This is hardly fair,” she complained with an idle stretch of her limbs that made Gale pause, mid-motion, to watch her muscles flex under her sun-kissed skin. “You owe me one.”
“Who was the one in desperate need of a nap?” Gale reminded her as the both of them scurried back and forth around the room, digging through piles of clothing for something clean, barely wrinkled, and mostly presentable.
Ione slid into her underclothes and quickly wound a cloth about her breasts, binding them as was her usual. She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re not dressing fast enough.”
Shaking his head, Gale hurried to pull on the first robe, not bothering with the heavier second robe. Pants were yanked on as he shoved his feet into a pair of thick-soled boots, and with a quick twist of his wrist, his sash was nodded and he was ready for the public. A quick glance Ione’s way showed her fully dressed and in the midst of pulling up her air into her signature ponytail – something she had once explained as necessary for battle.
“Ready?”
“Of course.”
Gale stopped to scoop up Quetz from her bed in the corner, draping the snoozing snake around his neck, and then he and Ione rushed out the door. Quetz hardly stirred, her tongue flicking out against his neck in greetings before she nuzzled back under his shirt and went to sleep. No doubt Inari was already at the meeting with Fenris which left…
“Where’s Aponi?” Gale asked as they hurried through the halls to the higher levels and the room where the meetings were always held, just before the mural room. They occasionally passed other members of the Theravada who tipped their heads in greeting.
Ione made a thoughtful noise in the back of her throat as she considered it, hands struggling to pin her hair up properly. “I’ve not seen her since this morning. She’s probably with Manah though. They’ve been talking a lot lately.”
How curious.
“About what?”
Ione shrugged. “I don’t know. Old times? I don’t stick around to listen.”
It wasn’t necessary for a familiar to stay attached to their human. In fact, Gale hardly ever saw Inari nowadays, what with the way she’d taken to roaming about Paragon on her own or chasing after Fenris. Another something that rather boggled his mind. But Aponi had always clung to Ione as though they were inseparable and she couldn’t bear to be apart. Gale wondered what had changed.
“Aren’t you the least bit curious?”
“A little,” Ione said as they rounded the corridor, the door coming into sight. “But if it was important, I’m sure Aponi would share.” Without missing a beat, Ione turned the handle on the door and gestured him inside. “After you.”
How kind of her to let him take the first round of teasing.
Gale stepped into the room and the low murmur of conversation, his gaze quickly sweeping over the eight men and woman present. The five members of the Sergei had gathered – Ishmael, Sabriel, Grayson, Helene, and Siobhan – as had Talya, considered to be the one in charge of Paragon’s domestic affairs. Azriel and Kieran were near the window, perched together to no one’s surprise, as one of Azriel’s free hands idly stroked over Orion’s furred head, the tiger reclined lazily at Azriel’s feet.
“Well, look who finally decided to show up,” Sabriel drawled, lifting a hand in greeting and pretty much announcing Gale’s arrival to everyone else. “Does your delay have a name, cousin?”
Gale refused to blush and he fought the heat that dared enter his cheeks. “We’re not that late,” he said instead as Ione entered behind him, pointedly closing the door. Ishmael, who had been standing to the right of the door, moved in front of it, leaning against the door and folding his arms across his chest.
Sabriel, however, just grinned and leaned to look around him. “Evening, Ione. Did you happen to catch the name of whatever mauled your neck?”
Gale’s battle with his blush ended in a loss as he felt the heat of it break out over every inch of his face. Damnit. Sometimes, he hated that Sabriel knew him so well.
Ione, however, had about as little shame as Gale’s cousin. She just grinned. “Whoever he is, he owes me one.”
Restraining a sigh, Gale pretended he didn’t know either of them and made a beeline for Kieran and Azriel, the so-called maturity in the room. “Sorry we were late,” he said quietly.
Azriel inclined his head. “This is all rather informal anyway, Gale. No need to apologize.” He cleared his throat noisily, trying to dispel the joking conversation that Sabriel and Ione exchanged. “Though it would be nice to maintain some semblance of order, yes?”
“In other words, Our Fearless Leader would like to get started,” Kieran added, amusement dancing in his gray-green eyes.
A look of long-suffering crossed Azriel’s expression but he refrained from rebuking the scientist, instead letting his gaze roam over the gathered men and women.
Gale moved aside, finding himself a clear spot in the room to take a seat. Or stand, whichever he preferred. There weren’t any actual chairs in this room, though someone had taken it upon themselves to scatter a few empty storage crates here and there. Ione, he noticed, had found herself a perch near Helene, the two women sharing conspiratorial glances.
“Benchley was attacked today,” Helene said, the first to bring up a topic. “Ione and I discovered it smoldering just before noon. There didn’t appear to be any deaths so in all likelihood, the villagers had already fled.”
Azriel looked grim. “Benchley was not one of our associates…”
“They don’t have to be, for Grayshire to take a stab at them,” Grayson muttered, leaning back against the wall and folding his arms over his chest. “Especially if those bastards make it look like we’re doing it.”
“What do you mean?” Ione asked.
Sabriel sighed, dragging a hand over his head. “They’ve started wearing masks. Crude ones compared to ours, but the commoners can’t tell the difference. They think we’re attacking them.”
Gale’s eyes widened. That was new twist that he should have seen coming. Grayshire wasn’t full of complete idiots, after all. Some of the greatest military and tactical minds still remained in command, and Vance Wyndham was the craftiest of them all. This had to have been his idea, or if not, then at least the Lady Misae’s. She was more skilled in plots of subterfuge after all.
“Trust those nobles to use such dirty tactics,” Talya said, her voice thick with disgust. “Even going so far as to attack the innocent.”
“It’s not just an attempt to sway the commoners against us,” Helene added, gesturing vaguely with one hand. “They think they can manipulate us into ending our side of the war in an attempt to save those innocent lives.”
“Even more would die if we just waved the white flag,” Azriel said, his face pinched with contemplation. “We knew that such things could happen. We were prepared.”
Grayson squared his jaw. “Tell that to the little boy crying over his dead mother. The people aren’t going to understand.”
“And we can’t make them understand either,” Siobhan said with a sigh. “Not when all that’s wrong with Meropis keeps getting turned on us. We need proof. We need something solid to show the people that we’re not the enemy.”
“We needed someone like Dharva,” Ione said, sliding down into a sitting position with her legs stretched out in front of her. “She wasn’t high ranked, but she was an ass-kisser and a favorite of the commanders. She would have known things.”
“Considering that she’d rather poison herself than stay in our custody, I think that’s pretty much a dead end,” Grayson muttered.
Gale shook his head. “But Ione has a point. Maybe Dharva wouldn’t have been one to talk, but there might be others. Someone who knows all these secrets, and is disgusted by them, but doesn’t want to consider the possibility of betrayal. If we take that decision out of their hands, they might be willing to talk.”
Talya inclined her head, nodding thoughtfully. “You mean, take them prisoner in order to give them a reason to speak, so that they don’t appear traitor to their own?”
“Yes.”
“But Grayshire would then just dismiss them as traitor anyway,” Helene said, and gestured to Ione. “They always abandon loose strings, which is probably why Dharva opted for poison in the first place. She knew help wasn’t coming.”
That Grayshire could so easily abandon their own had always been a stick in Gale’s craw. It made him sick. He had to admit, Helene was right. They could only rely on those already committed to the Theravada cause.
“The only way to prove to the people that we are not their enemies is to win this war,” Azriel said softly. “History is written by the victors, I am sorry to say, and villains are always perceived as the losing side no matter what their original intentions may have been.”
“And in the meantime, Grayshire’s going to do their damn best to undermine us. Blaming everything on us,” Sabriel muttered with another sigh.
A sigh that seemed to resonate throughout the room, echoing through each person in the room.
“And in that vein, I have a proposal,” Kieran interjected, sounding serious for once and not his comedic self. “Though more of a necessity than a proposal.”
Grayson’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, a rather intelligent reaction considering Kieran’s tendency to make things explode. “What kind of proposal?”
Kieran spread his hands. “You all know I’ve been working on the taint in the Varos Flats and how to cure the Merihem that it creates. But I’ve reached a dead end in my research. There’s only so much I can do without actually visiting the source.”
Gale watched the blood drain from Azriel’s face, surprise etched into the boss’ features. Obviously, this was news to him. As well as to pretty much everyone else in the room, judging by the startled silence.
“You can’t mean to head into Varos then,” Talya said lowly. “The last team we sent in there barely emerged unscathed.”
She was, of course, referring to the team headed by Ishmael that had ventured into the Varos Flats with the intentions of searching for all signs of the Brigade Quintile sent to its death there. All for Ione’s sake, as Malcolm had been a member of the Quintile and meant something to her, something like friend and family.
“No one died,” Kieran pointed out. “And thanks to that minor excursion, I learned a lot. But I’ve reached a key point in my research. I can’t go any further without seeing the cause myself. And more, I need to see the core.”
Gale went cold inside. The core… No one dared go to the core. Not in all known history. It was the rumored place where the taint had started, the very center of Varos where a city was rumored to be buried beneath rubble and vegetation. It was also a Merihem breeding ground, though breeding was the wrong term to use. Merihem weren’t born; they were turned. They were pure creatures infected by darkness and turned to something vile, malignant.
“That is tantamount to suicide,” Azriel said lowly, and Gale recognized that tone. Azriel had no intentions of allowing this.
Kieran shook his head. “Not if I’m careful. A small team can slip in and slip back out after I get the data I need. If we’re cautious, watch our backs, and make our presence as invisible as possible, then we should be fine.”
“He’s right, you know,” Siobhan added quietly, always one to support her mentor when the situation arose. “The Merihem’s presence has an unique feel which makes them easier to avoid. And provided we don’t drink the water or consume anything within the border, we face no fear of infection ourselves.”
Azriel lifted a hand, rubbing furiously at his forehead.
Grayson snorted. “And who the fuck you think is going to volunteer for something like that? Because it sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”
“You had no problem with it a couple days ago,” Ione said, her eyes brightening with a fire that Gale knew all too well. It had been directed at him this morning.
Shrugging, Grayson folded his arms over his chest. “That was different. All we did was walk the perimeter, making sure it hadn’t spread.”
“But it had,” Sabriel pointed out, his voice uncharacteristically solemn. “The tainted area is growing wider and wider with each passing month.”
“This is something we can’t continue to ignore,” Helene added with a frown, in complete agreement with her lover. “Grayshire seems perfectly content to pretend there isn’t a problem. They don’t care about the commoners killed by the Merihem. They think it’s too far removed from Meropis.”
Ishmael’s soft but commanding voice cut through the tension. “Grayshire isn’t completely ignoring the Merihem either. The more we work to cure it, the harder they work to figure out how to use the taint in Varos against us.”
“Even if this wasn’t a problem, we have to face the fact that eventually, whatever has swallowed Varos will eventually swallow Talemar as well,” Talya said firmly, reaching down to stroke her fingers over Kalulu’s trembling form. The small rabbit was huddling at her side, never one to enjoy talking of the Merihem, former friends turned mad by a poison none of them understood.
Kieran nodded, some of his usual enthusiasm poking through his quiet reserve. “That’s why this research is so important. I have to do this, and I will do it with or without permission, though personally, I’d prefer to go in with a team than alone. Safer that way.”
Gale could see the refusal dancing in Azriel’s eyes, and thought to himself that he ought to throw the boss’ words back in his face. Azriel had told Gale that Ione wouldn’t like to be protected, but wasn’t it the same with Kieran? Who was even more of a grown man – relatively speaking – than Ione? And uncle and niece could rival one another for stubbornness. There would be no talking Kieran out of this.
“How many?” Ishmael asked, a distant look in his eyes as though he were already considering who to send by their strengths and weaknesses, plotting strategy and routes in the back of his mind. Ishmael was, after all, their tactician. “And how long do you plan to stay?”
“It would be dangerous at night. A danger I’m not willing to risk so we will leave by sunrise,” Kieran explained, and settled back against the windowsill. “Five at the most, including myself. And unfortunately, our familiars cannot go with us for obvious reasons.”
“They are too vulnerable to the poison,” Siobhan elaborated, perhaps upon seeing the confused faces of the non-scientific members of their core group. “And I, for one, will not risk Mayura to that disease.”
“I take it you’re volunteering then,” Helene said, tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear. She looked thoughtful, and Gale wondered if she planned to volunteer as well.
Siobhan nodded, a look of eagerness brightening her pale blue eyes, a color so soft they could be confused for purple in odd lighting. “Master Kieran will need an assistant of course,” she said, as though there were any doubt.
“All the better to keep things from exploding I take it,” Grayson said with a sneer, never one to put much value in the blending of science and magic, or the experiments of the Azura.
“Oh? Does this mean that you’re offering to go, too?” Talya asked sweetly, planting her hands on her hips.
Expectedly, Grayson backpedaled, so quickly that Gale thought he would collide with the wall behind him. “Fuck no. Poking around the edges is fine. But my ass is staying far away from the core.”
“I’ll go,” Ione announced and Gale startled in shock, his gaze swinging toward his lover in utter surprise, feeling much like Azriel. “I’ve been feeling pretty useless anyway.”
A denial bubbled up in Gale’s throat, words dancing on the tip of his tongue. Until he remembered Ione’s anger and Azriel’s warning. Remembered his promise to stop trying to protect her no matter how foolish she was being.
Kieran, however, protested where Gale couldn’t. He was her precious uncle; he could get away with it, Gale supposed.
“I can’t allow you to do that.”
Ione sniffed. “Tough,” she said, with a square set to her jaw that Gale knew very well. “Because I’m going. I may not have been Special Ops but I was a lieutenant for good reason. I know what I’m doing.” Her eyes flickered to Gale as though daring him to argue, daring him to contradict her determination.
Gale firmly shoved down all intentions to do so and settled for second best. “As I’m most familiar with the area, I’ll be your guide.”
There. Now Ione couldn’t protest him coming too unless she wanted to look like the immature one.
“And I as well,” Helene added. “The Varos Flats are of great interest to me.” Helene’s hunger for history was pretty common knowledge.
Unsurprisingly, no one saw fit to argue, though not even Gale was so naïve to not notice the various tensions building in the room. Sabriel didn’t look happy and Azriel appeared on the verge of a righteous burst of anger. But the arguments would be saved for later, for privacy.
“Well, Kieran, it seems you have your team,” Azriel said tersely, only the tightening around his eyes betraying his dissatisfaction with the situation. Kieran had sprung it on them out of nowhere after all. “With that, our business is concluded.”
It was hardly concluded as they still hadn’t decided on a course of action or discussed half of the intelligence reports, but no one seemed willing to contradict Azriel and Gale wasn’t about to. There was a storm brewing and he’d like to be clear of the wreckage, thank you very much. Without so much as a farewell or an announcement for everyone to work hard, Azriel left the room at a fast clip, heading instead for the corridor to the mural room above them rather than the door.
“We’ll leave first thing in the morning,” Kieran said, chewing briefly on his bottom lip as he followed Azriel with his eyes. “At first light. So don’t be late,” he added, and quickly made himself scarce as well.
Gale was glad he wouldn’t have to bear witness to that argument. It would feel strangely like being forced to watch his parents fight as creepy as that sounded. Though he had to admit, the idea of Kieran in an apron and exuding motherly instincts was utterly hilarious.
A whistle at Gale’s right side announced Sabriel’s approach. “The boss is pissed,” he commented, hands shoved in his pockets nonchalantly.
“He’s not the only one,” Gale said knowingly, glancing pointedly to the harsh set of Sabriel’s shoulders and the tension vibrating in his tall frame. The two cousins were nearly the same height.
Sabriel inclined his head soberly. “I know better than to try and stop her though.” He smiled faintly. “Good thing I have my trusty cousin there to keep an eye on my precious one, yes?”
“You could come, too, you know.”
“Who’s going to watch the kids? Antoinette has her hands full.” Sabriel shrugged. “No, I’ve learned to pick my battles. A necessity with Helene who is like a force of nature when she has her eyes set on something.”
Gale chuckled. “Like another child perhaps?” he said, amused as recent rumors had floated to his ears. Despite Naomi, who was a terror in her own right, and newborn Xavier, it seemed Helene’s passion for motherhood hadn’t faded.
“Must you remind me,” Sabriel said with a groan.
“You’ll have to give in eventually, cousin.”
“It all depends on whose stubbornness lasts longer.”
Gale snorted. “Unstoppable force meets immovable object.”
The two cousins laughed as the room emptied out, leaving only their respective lovers waiting behind.
“I seem to recall a favor being owed,” Ione called out, sharing a grin with Helene as she interrupted the men.
Gale felt his ears burn, sometimes wishing that Ione could exhibit a bit more tact. Well, to be fair, Ione did have tact. She just chose not to use it at embarrassing times because she liked the look of a blush on his face. Her words, not his.
Sabriel chuckled, clapping Gale on the shoulder. “Must be an Arlen thing,” he joked. “Us falling for such predatory women.”
“Sometimes, I do wonder what it would be like to date a gentle girl,” Gale said as he rolled his shoulders, easing the kinks out of his neck and back. The mid-afternoon nap had probably not been a good idea.
“What changed your mind?”
“Ione would probably kick her ass.”
Sabriel burst into laughter, much to the bewilderment of Ione and Helene who watched the two cousins with growing confusion.
“We were thinking about dinner,” Helene said warily, watching Sabriel from the corner of her eye. “Ishmael’s cooking tonight.”
Gale felt his stomach grumble. There were few in Paragon with any culinary talents. Ishmael was one of them. As well as being oddly skilled at needlework and obsessive about keeping things neat and tidy. Some day, Ishmael would make a very elegant housewife.
Sabriel brightened. “Stew?”
“We can only hope,” Ione said with a laugh, amusement curling her lips.
“Lead on,” Sabriel said with a broad gesture, moving forward and throwing an arm across Helene’s shoulders so that they walked side by side.
Helene rolled her eyes.
Gale watched them ahead of him, amused by their behavior, as Ione fell back to walk next to him, bumping him with her shoulder. The fact that she wasn’t incredibly pissed at him was a plus in Gale’s book. At least she wasn’t protesting his presence on the mission.
Small favors, he supposed.
*****
a/n: Hear that sound? It's the Background Music playing a tune of trepidation. *grins* The next few chapters are FULL of action.
As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Title: Whispers of Yesterday
Series: Infinity's End, Book Two
Warnings: smut, het smut, hints to slashy goodness, violence, language
Description: Now firmly entrenched in the Theravada -- and firmly involved with Gale as well -- Ione discovers the hidden sides of both Grayshire and Theravada. She questions her own decisions -- and her feelings -- as the war takes on a more murderous, personal turn for the worst.
Chapter Five
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Gale’s sleep was remarkably undisturbed, lacking even the gentlest of images that tended to haunt him late into his waking hours. While he hadn’t suffered as hard as many of his fellow Theravada, there were things Gale had seen that he wished he hadn’t. There were times when he’d been far too late, when his strength hadn’t been enough. Such things tended to return to life in his dreams.
Not this time, however, and Gale reveled in that. He was surrounded by soothing warmth, floating on a soft bed, his head pillowed somewhere quite comfortable. His aether was a quiescent presence inside of him, cloaking his skin, the outer tendrils twined quite comfortably with Ione’s. Without waking, he knew that she was beside him, the refreshing breeze of her magic as familiar to him as his own.
The press of fingers fluttered across Gale’s conscious and he stirred, rising out of a light doze slowly. Pleasant sensations were trickling over him, like taking a careful dip into the heated waters of a bath. Warm breath ghosted over his flesh and he felt himself twitch. He rose slowly to wakefulness, focusing intently on the cascade of sensation in his lower regions. His eyes opened to late afternoon, a reddish-orange sunset peering through the gaps in their wooden blinds and making slats of light across the bed sheets.
Ione’s voice was a husky purr in the half-light. “You finally woke up. I was beginning to think I’d lost my touch,” she said, her warm breath puffing over Gale’s stiff length, the base trapped by her encircling fingers.
His hips thrust toward her mouth, a small groan escaping him. “Impossible,” Gale gasped, and jerked when her tongue touched the head of his cock, lapping quickly over the seeping tip before vanishing again. “Tease.”
Ione chuckled, her fingers tickling at his scrotum, gently tugging on his balls and rolling them in her touch. “Not so. I fully plan on following through with my actions.” As if to prove her words, she pulled the head of his length into her mouth, tongue flicking over his straining flesh.
Sucking air through his teeth, Gale slapped a hand against the comforter, twisting the fabric with his fingers. He pushed himself toward the welcome heat of her mouth. His entire body had already started to thrum, his aether rising around him in subtle pulses.
“Gods,” Gale groaned, and threw his head back against the pillow as Ione grinned and sucked him deeper, fully engulfing his cock into her warm mouth.
Ione was incredibly good at this, and it showed as she quickly dissolved him into a state of utter need. Gale twitched under her ministrations, concentrating on the sweet pressure of her mouth and the wet swipe of her tongue. Ione’s fingers fondled his scrotum with skilled touches that racked up the pleasure, made Gale struggle not to choke her with a forceful thrust.
Her hair tickled his bare thighs as she sucked on him, swallowing around his cock and making Gale groan wordlessly. All Gale could think was that this was the best way he could have been woken. One of his hands found its way to Ione’s hair, tangling in the long brown strands, and judging by her rumble of appreciation, she didn’t mind one bit. Gale sucked his bottom lip into his mouth as he rocked upward, reveling in the sensation.
A low heat building in his groin, Gale knew it wouldn’t take long. Ione was too good at this, and his body was already keyed up. The room smelled of sex, and their aether was linked, enough that Gale could feel Ione’s arousal as well. She got nothing out of this but the sight of Gale’s pleasure, but it still made her hot. Gale liked that.
Ione’s free hand curled around Gale’s length, stroking him where her mouth didn’t quite cover, and he moaned, hips jerking toward her lips. She pulled back, teasing the head of his cock with her tongue, making him twitch. His pulse raced through his body as Gale chewed on his bottom lip, trying to stop the embarrassing sounds that wanted to pour from his lips.
Her tongue flexed across his rigid length and Gale sucked in a breath. “Like that,” he hissed, and gasped when she repeated the action, following it with a gentle scrape of his teeth. Ione sucked him deeper, until the head of his cock hit the back of her throat, and Gale lost it, as she must have known he would.
Biting down on a deep moan, Gale shuddered as he spilled into Ione’s mouth, his lover swallowing him without hesitation. His aether quickly expanded with his orgasm, buzzing brightly before pulling back toward his body as the last of the tremors faded, leaving behind a languid pleasure that loosened all of Gale’s muscles. Ione’s tongue lazily traced the contours of his softening arousal, lapping up the last drops of his release.
Gale dragged his fingers through Ione’s hair, brushing them out of her face. “Come here,” he said, his voice husky as he gave a light tug to her hair.
She looked up at him, tongue sliding over her lips pointedly as she crawled up his body, hovering over him with two hands firmly planted on either side of his chest. “Good morning,” Ione purred, her amber eyes dark with arousal.
“Good evening, you mean,” Gale corrected, and pulled her down for a kiss, the taste of himself present on her tongue but not as off-putting as he’d once thought.
She straddled him, knees pressing against the outside of his hips, and as she leaned down to kiss him, her breasts brushed his chest. Peaked nipples rubbed teasingly against him, drawing a moan out of Ione. She pulled back from the kiss with a nip to his lips, her breath puffing warmly over his moist lips.
“My turn,” Ione said with a grin, grinding her hips against his.
Gale felt himself twitch, his hands moving to her waist before sliding upward to cup the full roundness of her breasts. His thumbs toyed with her nipples as he admired the sight of her flushed skin, her loose and tangled hair sitting on her shoulders. He couldn’t decide what he wanted to do most, taste her with his lips or watch her writhe under his hands.
“It would be my pleasure,” Gale purred, and pressed the pad of his thumb over her nipple, watching her shudder and suck in a hungry breath.
A voice cut through the heat building between them, and the delicious sight of Ione moving atop him, her abdominal muscles flexing attractively.
“Or you could attend the meeting that started five minutes ago,” A male voice cut in, filled with amusement.
Gale briefly considered moving. Somewhere far, far away where he and Ione would never again face another interruption in the form of a friend, or a foe, or an unabashed, nosy familiar.
His eyes cut past Ione to find Fenris sitting beside the door, having obviously invited himself inside at some point. Maybe he’d been the one appointed to fetch them.
“What meeting?” Ione demanded.
Gale, however, felt himself flush with embarrassment. That meeting. The weekly strategy meeting with other key members of the Theravada that everyone was supposed to attend in order to discuss their next move against Grayshire. The one that – Gale glanced toward the clock – probably had started over five minutes ago.
Gale groaned before Fenris could answer and abruptly sat up, nearly causing Ione to tumble backwards if not for his grip on her waist. “He’s right,” Gale admitted, knowing that they would be, in all likelihood, the last to arrive and teased mercilessly for it.
“Of course I am,” Fenris said with a canine sniff. He turned around, tail swishing pointedly behind him. “If you don’t hurry up, I’ll spill the details about why you were late.” The wolf added before dismissing himself from the bedroom.
Ione huffed and crawled off Gale with a disappointed look. “This is hardly fair,” she complained with an idle stretch of her limbs that made Gale pause, mid-motion, to watch her muscles flex under her sun-kissed skin. “You owe me one.”
“Who was the one in desperate need of a nap?” Gale reminded her as the both of them scurried back and forth around the room, digging through piles of clothing for something clean, barely wrinkled, and mostly presentable.
Ione slid into her underclothes and quickly wound a cloth about her breasts, binding them as was her usual. She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re not dressing fast enough.”
Shaking his head, Gale hurried to pull on the first robe, not bothering with the heavier second robe. Pants were yanked on as he shoved his feet into a pair of thick-soled boots, and with a quick twist of his wrist, his sash was nodded and he was ready for the public. A quick glance Ione’s way showed her fully dressed and in the midst of pulling up her air into her signature ponytail – something she had once explained as necessary for battle.
“Ready?”
“Of course.”
Gale stopped to scoop up Quetz from her bed in the corner, draping the snoozing snake around his neck, and then he and Ione rushed out the door. Quetz hardly stirred, her tongue flicking out against his neck in greetings before she nuzzled back under his shirt and went to sleep. No doubt Inari was already at the meeting with Fenris which left…
“Where’s Aponi?” Gale asked as they hurried through the halls to the higher levels and the room where the meetings were always held, just before the mural room. They occasionally passed other members of the Theravada who tipped their heads in greeting.
Ione made a thoughtful noise in the back of her throat as she considered it, hands struggling to pin her hair up properly. “I’ve not seen her since this morning. She’s probably with Manah though. They’ve been talking a lot lately.”
How curious.
“About what?”
Ione shrugged. “I don’t know. Old times? I don’t stick around to listen.”
It wasn’t necessary for a familiar to stay attached to their human. In fact, Gale hardly ever saw Inari nowadays, what with the way she’d taken to roaming about Paragon on her own or chasing after Fenris. Another something that rather boggled his mind. But Aponi had always clung to Ione as though they were inseparable and she couldn’t bear to be apart. Gale wondered what had changed.
“Aren’t you the least bit curious?”
“A little,” Ione said as they rounded the corridor, the door coming into sight. “But if it was important, I’m sure Aponi would share.” Without missing a beat, Ione turned the handle on the door and gestured him inside. “After you.”
How kind of her to let him take the first round of teasing.
Gale stepped into the room and the low murmur of conversation, his gaze quickly sweeping over the eight men and woman present. The five members of the Sergei had gathered – Ishmael, Sabriel, Grayson, Helene, and Siobhan – as had Talya, considered to be the one in charge of Paragon’s domestic affairs. Azriel and Kieran were near the window, perched together to no one’s surprise, as one of Azriel’s free hands idly stroked over Orion’s furred head, the tiger reclined lazily at Azriel’s feet.
“Well, look who finally decided to show up,” Sabriel drawled, lifting a hand in greeting and pretty much announcing Gale’s arrival to everyone else. “Does your delay have a name, cousin?”
Gale refused to blush and he fought the heat that dared enter his cheeks. “We’re not that late,” he said instead as Ione entered behind him, pointedly closing the door. Ishmael, who had been standing to the right of the door, moved in front of it, leaning against the door and folding his arms across his chest.
Sabriel, however, just grinned and leaned to look around him. “Evening, Ione. Did you happen to catch the name of whatever mauled your neck?”
Gale’s battle with his blush ended in a loss as he felt the heat of it break out over every inch of his face. Damnit. Sometimes, he hated that Sabriel knew him so well.
Ione, however, had about as little shame as Gale’s cousin. She just grinned. “Whoever he is, he owes me one.”
Restraining a sigh, Gale pretended he didn’t know either of them and made a beeline for Kieran and Azriel, the so-called maturity in the room. “Sorry we were late,” he said quietly.
Azriel inclined his head. “This is all rather informal anyway, Gale. No need to apologize.” He cleared his throat noisily, trying to dispel the joking conversation that Sabriel and Ione exchanged. “Though it would be nice to maintain some semblance of order, yes?”
“In other words, Our Fearless Leader would like to get started,” Kieran added, amusement dancing in his gray-green eyes.
A look of long-suffering crossed Azriel’s expression but he refrained from rebuking the scientist, instead letting his gaze roam over the gathered men and women.
Gale moved aside, finding himself a clear spot in the room to take a seat. Or stand, whichever he preferred. There weren’t any actual chairs in this room, though someone had taken it upon themselves to scatter a few empty storage crates here and there. Ione, he noticed, had found herself a perch near Helene, the two women sharing conspiratorial glances.
“Benchley was attacked today,” Helene said, the first to bring up a topic. “Ione and I discovered it smoldering just before noon. There didn’t appear to be any deaths so in all likelihood, the villagers had already fled.”
Azriel looked grim. “Benchley was not one of our associates…”
“They don’t have to be, for Grayshire to take a stab at them,” Grayson muttered, leaning back against the wall and folding his arms over his chest. “Especially if those bastards make it look like we’re doing it.”
“What do you mean?” Ione asked.
Sabriel sighed, dragging a hand over his head. “They’ve started wearing masks. Crude ones compared to ours, but the commoners can’t tell the difference. They think we’re attacking them.”
Gale’s eyes widened. That was new twist that he should have seen coming. Grayshire wasn’t full of complete idiots, after all. Some of the greatest military and tactical minds still remained in command, and Vance Wyndham was the craftiest of them all. This had to have been his idea, or if not, then at least the Lady Misae’s. She was more skilled in plots of subterfuge after all.
“Trust those nobles to use such dirty tactics,” Talya said, her voice thick with disgust. “Even going so far as to attack the innocent.”
“It’s not just an attempt to sway the commoners against us,” Helene added, gesturing vaguely with one hand. “They think they can manipulate us into ending our side of the war in an attempt to save those innocent lives.”
“Even more would die if we just waved the white flag,” Azriel said, his face pinched with contemplation. “We knew that such things could happen. We were prepared.”
Grayson squared his jaw. “Tell that to the little boy crying over his dead mother. The people aren’t going to understand.”
“And we can’t make them understand either,” Siobhan said with a sigh. “Not when all that’s wrong with Meropis keeps getting turned on us. We need proof. We need something solid to show the people that we’re not the enemy.”
“We needed someone like Dharva,” Ione said, sliding down into a sitting position with her legs stretched out in front of her. “She wasn’t high ranked, but she was an ass-kisser and a favorite of the commanders. She would have known things.”
“Considering that she’d rather poison herself than stay in our custody, I think that’s pretty much a dead end,” Grayson muttered.
Gale shook his head. “But Ione has a point. Maybe Dharva wouldn’t have been one to talk, but there might be others. Someone who knows all these secrets, and is disgusted by them, but doesn’t want to consider the possibility of betrayal. If we take that decision out of their hands, they might be willing to talk.”
Talya inclined her head, nodding thoughtfully. “You mean, take them prisoner in order to give them a reason to speak, so that they don’t appear traitor to their own?”
“Yes.”
“But Grayshire would then just dismiss them as traitor anyway,” Helene said, and gestured to Ione. “They always abandon loose strings, which is probably why Dharva opted for poison in the first place. She knew help wasn’t coming.”
That Grayshire could so easily abandon their own had always been a stick in Gale’s craw. It made him sick. He had to admit, Helene was right. They could only rely on those already committed to the Theravada cause.
“The only way to prove to the people that we are not their enemies is to win this war,” Azriel said softly. “History is written by the victors, I am sorry to say, and villains are always perceived as the losing side no matter what their original intentions may have been.”
“And in the meantime, Grayshire’s going to do their damn best to undermine us. Blaming everything on us,” Sabriel muttered with another sigh.
A sigh that seemed to resonate throughout the room, echoing through each person in the room.
“And in that vein, I have a proposal,” Kieran interjected, sounding serious for once and not his comedic self. “Though more of a necessity than a proposal.”
Grayson’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, a rather intelligent reaction considering Kieran’s tendency to make things explode. “What kind of proposal?”
Kieran spread his hands. “You all know I’ve been working on the taint in the Varos Flats and how to cure the Merihem that it creates. But I’ve reached a dead end in my research. There’s only so much I can do without actually visiting the source.”
Gale watched the blood drain from Azriel’s face, surprise etched into the boss’ features. Obviously, this was news to him. As well as to pretty much everyone else in the room, judging by the startled silence.
“You can’t mean to head into Varos then,” Talya said lowly. “The last team we sent in there barely emerged unscathed.”
She was, of course, referring to the team headed by Ishmael that had ventured into the Varos Flats with the intentions of searching for all signs of the Brigade Quintile sent to its death there. All for Ione’s sake, as Malcolm had been a member of the Quintile and meant something to her, something like friend and family.
“No one died,” Kieran pointed out. “And thanks to that minor excursion, I learned a lot. But I’ve reached a key point in my research. I can’t go any further without seeing the cause myself. And more, I need to see the core.”
Gale went cold inside. The core… No one dared go to the core. Not in all known history. It was the rumored place where the taint had started, the very center of Varos where a city was rumored to be buried beneath rubble and vegetation. It was also a Merihem breeding ground, though breeding was the wrong term to use. Merihem weren’t born; they were turned. They were pure creatures infected by darkness and turned to something vile, malignant.
“That is tantamount to suicide,” Azriel said lowly, and Gale recognized that tone. Azriel had no intentions of allowing this.
Kieran shook his head. “Not if I’m careful. A small team can slip in and slip back out after I get the data I need. If we’re cautious, watch our backs, and make our presence as invisible as possible, then we should be fine.”
“He’s right, you know,” Siobhan added quietly, always one to support her mentor when the situation arose. “The Merihem’s presence has an unique feel which makes them easier to avoid. And provided we don’t drink the water or consume anything within the border, we face no fear of infection ourselves.”
Azriel lifted a hand, rubbing furiously at his forehead.
Grayson snorted. “And who the fuck you think is going to volunteer for something like that? Because it sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”
“You had no problem with it a couple days ago,” Ione said, her eyes brightening with a fire that Gale knew all too well. It had been directed at him this morning.
Shrugging, Grayson folded his arms over his chest. “That was different. All we did was walk the perimeter, making sure it hadn’t spread.”
“But it had,” Sabriel pointed out, his voice uncharacteristically solemn. “The tainted area is growing wider and wider with each passing month.”
“This is something we can’t continue to ignore,” Helene added with a frown, in complete agreement with her lover. “Grayshire seems perfectly content to pretend there isn’t a problem. They don’t care about the commoners killed by the Merihem. They think it’s too far removed from Meropis.”
Ishmael’s soft but commanding voice cut through the tension. “Grayshire isn’t completely ignoring the Merihem either. The more we work to cure it, the harder they work to figure out how to use the taint in Varos against us.”
“Even if this wasn’t a problem, we have to face the fact that eventually, whatever has swallowed Varos will eventually swallow Talemar as well,” Talya said firmly, reaching down to stroke her fingers over Kalulu’s trembling form. The small rabbit was huddling at her side, never one to enjoy talking of the Merihem, former friends turned mad by a poison none of them understood.
Kieran nodded, some of his usual enthusiasm poking through his quiet reserve. “That’s why this research is so important. I have to do this, and I will do it with or without permission, though personally, I’d prefer to go in with a team than alone. Safer that way.”
Gale could see the refusal dancing in Azriel’s eyes, and thought to himself that he ought to throw the boss’ words back in his face. Azriel had told Gale that Ione wouldn’t like to be protected, but wasn’t it the same with Kieran? Who was even more of a grown man – relatively speaking – than Ione? And uncle and niece could rival one another for stubbornness. There would be no talking Kieran out of this.
“How many?” Ishmael asked, a distant look in his eyes as though he were already considering who to send by their strengths and weaknesses, plotting strategy and routes in the back of his mind. Ishmael was, after all, their tactician. “And how long do you plan to stay?”
“It would be dangerous at night. A danger I’m not willing to risk so we will leave by sunrise,” Kieran explained, and settled back against the windowsill. “Five at the most, including myself. And unfortunately, our familiars cannot go with us for obvious reasons.”
“They are too vulnerable to the poison,” Siobhan elaborated, perhaps upon seeing the confused faces of the non-scientific members of their core group. “And I, for one, will not risk Mayura to that disease.”
“I take it you’re volunteering then,” Helene said, tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear. She looked thoughtful, and Gale wondered if she planned to volunteer as well.
Siobhan nodded, a look of eagerness brightening her pale blue eyes, a color so soft they could be confused for purple in odd lighting. “Master Kieran will need an assistant of course,” she said, as though there were any doubt.
“All the better to keep things from exploding I take it,” Grayson said with a sneer, never one to put much value in the blending of science and magic, or the experiments of the Azura.
“Oh? Does this mean that you’re offering to go, too?” Talya asked sweetly, planting her hands on her hips.
Expectedly, Grayson backpedaled, so quickly that Gale thought he would collide with the wall behind him. “Fuck no. Poking around the edges is fine. But my ass is staying far away from the core.”
“I’ll go,” Ione announced and Gale startled in shock, his gaze swinging toward his lover in utter surprise, feeling much like Azriel. “I’ve been feeling pretty useless anyway.”
A denial bubbled up in Gale’s throat, words dancing on the tip of his tongue. Until he remembered Ione’s anger and Azriel’s warning. Remembered his promise to stop trying to protect her no matter how foolish she was being.
Kieran, however, protested where Gale couldn’t. He was her precious uncle; he could get away with it, Gale supposed.
“I can’t allow you to do that.”
Ione sniffed. “Tough,” she said, with a square set to her jaw that Gale knew very well. “Because I’m going. I may not have been Special Ops but I was a lieutenant for good reason. I know what I’m doing.” Her eyes flickered to Gale as though daring him to argue, daring him to contradict her determination.
Gale firmly shoved down all intentions to do so and settled for second best. “As I’m most familiar with the area, I’ll be your guide.”
There. Now Ione couldn’t protest him coming too unless she wanted to look like the immature one.
“And I as well,” Helene added. “The Varos Flats are of great interest to me.” Helene’s hunger for history was pretty common knowledge.
Unsurprisingly, no one saw fit to argue, though not even Gale was so naïve to not notice the various tensions building in the room. Sabriel didn’t look happy and Azriel appeared on the verge of a righteous burst of anger. But the arguments would be saved for later, for privacy.
“Well, Kieran, it seems you have your team,” Azriel said tersely, only the tightening around his eyes betraying his dissatisfaction with the situation. Kieran had sprung it on them out of nowhere after all. “With that, our business is concluded.”
It was hardly concluded as they still hadn’t decided on a course of action or discussed half of the intelligence reports, but no one seemed willing to contradict Azriel and Gale wasn’t about to. There was a storm brewing and he’d like to be clear of the wreckage, thank you very much. Without so much as a farewell or an announcement for everyone to work hard, Azriel left the room at a fast clip, heading instead for the corridor to the mural room above them rather than the door.
“We’ll leave first thing in the morning,” Kieran said, chewing briefly on his bottom lip as he followed Azriel with his eyes. “At first light. So don’t be late,” he added, and quickly made himself scarce as well.
Gale was glad he wouldn’t have to bear witness to that argument. It would feel strangely like being forced to watch his parents fight as creepy as that sounded. Though he had to admit, the idea of Kieran in an apron and exuding motherly instincts was utterly hilarious.
A whistle at Gale’s right side announced Sabriel’s approach. “The boss is pissed,” he commented, hands shoved in his pockets nonchalantly.
“He’s not the only one,” Gale said knowingly, glancing pointedly to the harsh set of Sabriel’s shoulders and the tension vibrating in his tall frame. The two cousins were nearly the same height.
Sabriel inclined his head soberly. “I know better than to try and stop her though.” He smiled faintly. “Good thing I have my trusty cousin there to keep an eye on my precious one, yes?”
“You could come, too, you know.”
“Who’s going to watch the kids? Antoinette has her hands full.” Sabriel shrugged. “No, I’ve learned to pick my battles. A necessity with Helene who is like a force of nature when she has her eyes set on something.”
Gale chuckled. “Like another child perhaps?” he said, amused as recent rumors had floated to his ears. Despite Naomi, who was a terror in her own right, and newborn Xavier, it seemed Helene’s passion for motherhood hadn’t faded.
“Must you remind me,” Sabriel said with a groan.
“You’ll have to give in eventually, cousin.”
“It all depends on whose stubbornness lasts longer.”
Gale snorted. “Unstoppable force meets immovable object.”
The two cousins laughed as the room emptied out, leaving only their respective lovers waiting behind.
“I seem to recall a favor being owed,” Ione called out, sharing a grin with Helene as she interrupted the men.
Gale felt his ears burn, sometimes wishing that Ione could exhibit a bit more tact. Well, to be fair, Ione did have tact. She just chose not to use it at embarrassing times because she liked the look of a blush on his face. Her words, not his.
Sabriel chuckled, clapping Gale on the shoulder. “Must be an Arlen thing,” he joked. “Us falling for such predatory women.”
“Sometimes, I do wonder what it would be like to date a gentle girl,” Gale said as he rolled his shoulders, easing the kinks out of his neck and back. The mid-afternoon nap had probably not been a good idea.
“What changed your mind?”
“Ione would probably kick her ass.”
Sabriel burst into laughter, much to the bewilderment of Ione and Helene who watched the two cousins with growing confusion.
“We were thinking about dinner,” Helene said warily, watching Sabriel from the corner of her eye. “Ishmael’s cooking tonight.”
Gale felt his stomach grumble. There were few in Paragon with any culinary talents. Ishmael was one of them. As well as being oddly skilled at needlework and obsessive about keeping things neat and tidy. Some day, Ishmael would make a very elegant housewife.
Sabriel brightened. “Stew?”
“We can only hope,” Ione said with a laugh, amusement curling her lips.
“Lead on,” Sabriel said with a broad gesture, moving forward and throwing an arm across Helene’s shoulders so that they walked side by side.
Helene rolled her eyes.
Gale watched them ahead of him, amused by their behavior, as Ione fell back to walk next to him, bumping him with her shoulder. The fact that she wasn’t incredibly pissed at him was a plus in Gale’s book. At least she wasn’t protesting his presence on the mission.
Small favors, he supposed.
a/n: Hear that sound? It's the Background Music playing a tune of trepidation. *grins* The next few chapters are FULL of action.
As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.
