3 comments/ 7146 views/ 5 favorites The Contestants Ch. 01 By: thomcats Author's Notes: Intro: This is a story about a very hard choice; one that is almost impossible to make. It is also a story about the interaction between a human and non-humans. The story has been fitted into the category of Novels and Novellas. It could however have been entered into other categories as well, since it embraces fantasy, romance, and incest. As it evolves, you will find aspects of passion, rage, desire, and jealousy and although violent at times, there is also love in spite of everything, gentleness, and forgiveness. It's a classical M/F tale although two men are involved. Above all though, it is a highly romantic tale. When the story begins, it is set in the 19th century and as it unfolds it will move over time. A couple of warnings: There is an element of incest in the intrigue. Strictly speaking it is not incest in the pure physical sense, but through the nature of the relationships of the participants, incest is implied. Those readers, who are very sensitive to this aspect, should refrain from reading further. Love described here is very explicit, so no underage reading please. Here I would also like to advise those who seek quick action to seek elsewhere because this story takes its time to develop. All other readers, I hope, will be enchanted and wish to follow me into further chapters of my tale. Copyright: This story is a work of fiction, an erotic fantasy/romance written by thomcats. I reserve the rights to be listed as the author of this story, wherever it is posted. Please do not copy/redistribute the story, in part or in total, without my permission. © thomcats AKA VoyaMariner 2014 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = The Contestants Ch. 02 Author's Notes: Intro: To get the most out of this story, I recommend that you read the first chapter, which can be found here: http://www.literotica.com/s/the-contestants-ch-01 Although Anna is in the focus of the conflict, she will be made aware of that she once unleashed the fury and is responsible for the escalation of it. Until now, she has been blind to the suffering of others, but now she will learn that there are consequences to reckon with. The background now is the American Civil War. A couple of warnings: There is an element of incest in the intrigue. Strictly speaking it is not incest in the pure physical sense, but through the nature of the relationships of the participants, incest is implied. Those readers, who are very sensitive to this aspect, should refrain from reading further. Love described here is very explicit, so no underage reading please. Copyright: This story is a work of fiction, an erotic fantasy/romance written by thomcats. I reserve the rights to be listed as the author of this story, wherever it is posted. Please do not copy/redistribute the story, in part or in total, without my permission. thomcats AKA VoyaMariner 2014 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = The Contestants Ch. 02 It became hard for Anna to concentrate on the intrigues of the court life in Paris. To the count, she could easily say that she was worried about her family back home, and this would indeed be the truth. To complicate matters, a friend of the count, a young nobleman from the same circles, started to court her ardently to the great dismay of the count. In the end, the two men got into a heated argument, and Anna received the information that a duel was to take place. She saw her opportunity and informed them both that she on no account would accept that they fought a duel over her and that she intended to leave for the States immediately. They, on the other hand, couldn't withdraw from their joint challenge. Anna left Paris and headed for Calais and Dover in late May that year, saying that she would catch the ship for the States from Southampton. That was however not the way she intended to travel. Anna left with all her luggage, but in Calais she sent it ahead to England to be forwarded to the States from Southampton as planned. She however remained in Calais, and she stayed at a small inn. During the night, she shed the clothes and other belongings to the lady, who had moved around in the courts in Paris, and transformed herself into a plain woman in old and worn clothes. No one looked at her twice when she slipped out of the inn in the late night and disappeared into the small streets of Calais, and not far from the inn she eased through the door to a wagon shed, and she vanished from human eyes for good. ******************** Gareth wasn't present in the castle when Anna arrived. She was informed that he was at the Border and she definitely didn't want to seek him out there. The Border was the only place in Inis that she hated and even feared and it represented all the darkness, which was unquestionably combined with Inis. She didn't want to know what Gareth was doing there, and she even contemplated continuing directly to New Orleans but decided after some hesitation that she would stay the night in the castle after all. There were things that she had to discuss with Gareth before going home. "I trust you've had a pleasant night?" he inquired blandly when they met the next morning. There was just a hint of mockery in his eyes telling her that he was fully aware of why they hadn't seen each other last night. "Now I would like to know why you are back already and evidently on your way to New Orleans?" he continued when she didn't answer. She then went on to tell him about the duel in Paris and her anxiety on behalf of Celia all alone in the house in New Orleans and a war underway in the States. He frowned and started pacing the floor and eventually commented on her departure from France. "I don't like it when you draw attention to your person in this manner," he said to her. "I really didn't do that on purpose," she defended herself. "I didn't encourage the second man when he started to pay attention to me. We had decided that I should concentrate on the count and so I did. I can't help it if I attract attention even if I'm trying to keep a low profile." "God forbid and help us all when you decide not to," he replied and curved his lips into an ironic smile. She looked at her feet and pretended that she hadn't heard his last remark. "I hope that you won't keep me from going to Celia?" she asked instead. "I can't say that I'm overjoyed at the thought of having you there at this very moment, but I suppose that I can't keep you from going. What will you do?" he added. "That depends on what's going to happen. If the war moved to our doorstep, I might have to take Celia with me and come here. I really don't know..." Her voice trailed off, betraying how worried she felt. "We will let the issue rest for a while then," he concluded, "and I will permit you to go there." ******************** As always it was with great exhilaration that she entered the little courtyard to her house in the center of New Orleans. It was still very early in the morning, and the dawn hadn't broken. She often preferred coming home in this manner, not drawing undue attention to herself. It was very peaceful and quiet, yet she immediately sensed that something was vitally different this day. She couldn't pinpoint the cause of this effect. It was as if a strange personality or person had entered the house somehow. She thought however that the new situation they all were living in must be to blame for everything feeling so different. She didn't have much time to brood over this issue. Before she knew it, Celia had flung the doors to the house open and rushed out into the courtyard to hug her. It didn't help if Celia was fast asleep when Anna arrived. Even if Anna tried to move over the courtyard like a ghost, Celia always woke up when she sensed Anna's presence. They spent all morning in the kitchen telling each other of what had happened during the months they'd been apart. Celia wanted to know every piece of gossip from the French court, and Anna wanted to hear about how the city prepared for the conflict. At last when they had satisfied their curiosity, Anna inspected the house the way she usually did when she came home. After her mother's death she had redecorated the whole house and allotted both herself and Celia more space, each one of them now having a whole floor at her disposal. She had also turned the whole ground floor into a space where she housed the living room, a library and the dining room. When she came to the library to open the windows and let some fresh air in, she sensed this strange, disturbing feeling of faint danger again, and her heart started to beat. She stood for a long time listening to the silence, but no other sound but her own heartbeats disturbed it, and in the end the feeling slowly vanished. She didn't feel it anymore, and a couple of days later she had forgotten all about it. During these early days of the war, it was easy to look upon the sequence of events as a romantic adventure. Everyone was so sure of winning and that the unpleasant fighting would end soon. Anna started to make herself useful as all the other women in the city did. She joined a group of ladies, who intended to learn to nurse the wounded soldiers, and she also spent time organizing rallies to bring in boots and clothing. Then the first reports of skirmishes started to drop in, and soon news circulated all over the city about the first major contest between the two armies, which had taken place in Virginia. It was described as a great victory for the South and really boosted the morale. Anna thought it was awful to hear that around 4.700 men had died. Little did she know that in a short while everyone would consider this a moderate figure. As summer turned to fall it started to become clear to everyone that the conflict was not going to be solved easily or quickly. The strategy of the Union started to show. The Federal forces aimed at getting control over the big river system and to split up the Confederation. They also set about blockading the southern ports. In February of 1862 the South learned what heavy causalities meant when around 17.400 men were reported killed at Fort Donelson and nearly 23.800 at Shiloh, both battlefields in Tennessee. Between the two battles, Nashville fell to the Union forces. This fact left the residents of New Orleans stunned. Without warning, the war had come very close to their homes. The parties, balls, and rallies that had kept them busy during the fall and around Christmas stopped, and people started to think about securing their property and perhaps even leave the city. Shortly after the Federal victory at Shiloh in early April, the two forts that guarded the entrance to New Orleans from the sea were put under heavy siege and fire. When it was all clear that the forts couldn't keep the Union forces from sailing up the river to the city, New Orleans surrendered without fighting and bloodshed and the most important town in the Confederacy was lost. The northern army descended upon the city, and the city received it and swallowed it in silence. No one knew at that time that the effects of the stern military rule invoked upon them would last for decades; hard and dreary years with personal suffering and great political unrest, which would form the destiny of the city well into the next century. The eternal and indolent city itself was not to suffer much harm. No army could conquer her. Some twenty years later, many of the northerners would be hard to single out from the original citizens, having been assimilated and neutralized and simply digested by this living structure by the river mouth. ******************** Anna thought seriously about leaving New Orleans with Celia. As they had an opportunity to do so, why not take advantage of it after all? However, it wasn't going to turn out that way. Something happened before Anna could make a choice about leaving; something that would forever change her life yet again. When the news came that everyone would have to be prepared for military inspections and the possibility of confiscation of valuable property, Anna thought like her neighbors that she would hide the most expensive items in her house rather than give them up. She went from room to room for a survey, and when she came to the library, she became acutely aware of a strange feeling of danger again. She entered the room cautiously, but she couldn't see anything that was out of the ordinary at first. Then she spotted something on the window sill that she hadn't put there herself and that she didn't recognize. It was an Indian leather bracelet adorned with small blue beads. Somebody had used it for a long time because it was well worn and almost frail in parts. She took it in her hand to examine, but dropped it almost at once because it burned her fingers. She stared at it in alarm and bent down to look at it. Even before she came close to it again, she knew. She knew that this was something that Conaill had worn close to his body. She called out for Celia in a loud voice. Celia came rushing, fearing that Anna had hurt herself or was being attacked by someone, but when she saw Anna standing by the window, looking at the piece of leather, Celia stopped short in her tracks and she buried her face in her hands. "Celia!" Anna cried again. "You know about this? If so, you have some explaining to do!" "I don't understand it," Celia mumbled confused as Anna went up to her and took her by the shoulders. "He has been here!" Anna said shaking Celia lightly. "When was he here, tell me, I must know!" Celia lifted her head and looked gravely at Anna. "He said himself that I mustn't tell you that he'd been in the house. He made me promise not to tell! So why leave this for everyone to see? I don't understand," Celia repeated. "Celia, just now I don't care about what was said between you, I only want to know when he was here last," Anna implored her. Celia sat down heavily on a chair and motioned Anna to sit too. Then she started to tell Anna about Conaill's visits to the house. It wasn't long after he had been exiled from Inis that Conaill showed up at the house for the first time. He made Celia promise for fear of her life not to reveal anything about his visits to Anna. The house had once belonged to Conaill, and he evidently still had access to it in his own way. As the years followed, he showed up from time to time to inquire about Anna and to see her. "See me?" Anna whispered with a shaking voice. "Yes when you were sleeping," Celia answered, and Anna covered her face with her hands and wailed. Conaill had told Celia a little about what he had occupied himself with but no details. Much of the time he had traveled the world and made his living as a mercenary soldier. He had said with a short laugh that there wasn't a continent left that he hadn't fought a war in. The last time he had shown up was just a couple of days before Anna's return to the house. He had come to tell Celia that he had enlisted in the Civil War on the Confederate side. "I've never been able to resist a losing cause," he had remarked with a wry smile. Anna looked up when Celia had finished. She went up to her and shook Celia by the shoulders again. "Then you must know where he is now. You must know which unit he enlisted with and where they are. You must know, tell me, you've got to tell me!!" Anna shouted in agony. Celia started to cry and so did Anna, and they cried in each other's arms for a while before finally calming down enough to be able to talk in a rational way again. Yes, Celia knew where Conaill had enlisted. He had said that he didn't much fancy the large anonymous battalions and that he intended to join one of the smaller cavalry brigades or partisan rangers as they were also called. They were small very mobile and deadly units, which specialized in guerrilla warfare, constantly harassing the Union forces that dared out of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and their other camps and small enclaves along the river. Most of the time, the rangers were hardly distinguishable from civilians as they had to supply clothing, weapons, and horses by themselves. Today they could be just anywhere between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and with this knowledge in mind Anna ordered Celia to go into the city at once to find out all there was to know concerning the whereabouts of the partisans. "I don't care what means you'll use to get hold of the information I want, just get it and get it now," Anna urged her. When Celia had gone, Anna sank to a chair in the library and stared numbly at the walls and the bookshelves in the room. She tried to come to terms with what had happened and make plans for what to do next. "I will have to go and search for him. There is nothing else left for me to do," she thought. "No matter the cost," she added mentally. She knew that she traveled best alone. She couldn't make herself totally invisible the way Gareth could, but she could become very inconspicuous, blending into the background hardly noticeable at all. Her over-perfect hearing would aid her when she would have to travel among strangers, who perhaps were enemies. One more thing was also painfully clear to her; she didn't mean to involve Gareth in this quest if she could help it. That meant that she couldn't use any of the facilities that Inis offered her. She would have to abide by the human rules if she were to solve this issue. She lifted the small and worn leather bracelet. It didn't burn her anymore, but it felt almost warm to the touch, like human skin. She pressed her lips against it, and then she put it on her arm and tied it securely to her wrist, intending to keep it on and never take it off again, no matter the circumstances. ******************** It was late evening when Celia finally returned. It hadn't been easy to find what Anna wanted. Celia couldn't go around asking questions openly about the Confederate army without arousing suspicion. Her good hearing and her skills in reading people's minds had helped her in the end. She could tell Anna that the special unit that Conaill belonged to had last been seen near Donaldsonville roughly halfway upstream to Baton Rouge. Anna brought out a large map she kept in the library and pondered it for a long time. It was a treacherous part of the river area to travel; that much she knew. It was a swampy and marshy land and could sometimes be flooded by the river. Nevertheless, she thought that the harsh terrain would offer her protection. She could envisage that the enemy operating in these surroundings would most likely try to stick to the new railway and the river and not dare out into the marshland if they could avoid it. When Celia saw Anna with the map in her hand, Celia's eyes widened and she tugged at Anna's sleeve. "You don't fancy going there, I hope?" Celia whispered. Anna merely looked at her. "But you can't!" Celia cried. "Even if they won't kill you, they can hurt and cripple you and even take you for prisoner!" "Do you seriously think that I could just sit here doing nothing, knowing that he is within reach?" Anna asked. "And by the way," she continued, "not a word, not a single breathed syllable to Gareth if he seeks you out while I'm gone." "You mean I'm to stay here while you go out in this wilderness?" Celia protested. They had a long heated argument, and it took a while for Anna to convince Celia that she was best protected if she traveled alone, thus having the chance to blend into the background and not draw attention to herself. When Celia had reconciled herself to the fact that Anna was going to leave in search for Conaill, Celia tried to help in all possible ways. It was all too clear that one of the most difficult parts of the quest was getting out of the occupied city. Celia rallied her contacts and managed to ensure Anna a passage on a small boat, which was to cross Lake Pontchartrain in the middle of the night. The lake had proved to be the best way of escape. It was hard for the Federal forces to keep guard in the delta at every bayou and every little river, emptying itself in the great lake. There, on the other side, friends of Celia's would wait for Anna with the horse she was going to need for the rest of the journey. Celia advised Anna to dress simply and usefully. She brought her a jacket and a knee-length skirt in supple and soft skin. The dress looked as if it had been made for an Indian woman to begin with. Anna roamed the attic and found a pair of riding boots and a hat under which she hid her blonde hair and which shaded the better part of her face. Anna also decided to take her small French pistol, and she had Celia go and find ammunition for it. Apart from the gun and some money Anna traveled very light, there was no need to burden herself with a lot of luggage. Anna tried to rest a little before it was time to leave in the middle of the night, but she found no peace of mind. Her thoughts roamed endlessly around Conaill — sometimes in doubt and despair of what might have happened to him during the time they'd been apart, and sometimes in feverish longing for him. However, she never doubted for a second that she would manage to find him. Celia brought her some food before her departure, and Anna forced herself to eat a little although it felt almost impossible to down anything at all. Even so, Celia watched her like a hawk and didn't leave the table until Anna at least had tried to taste some of the dishes. Then the moment came. Anna hugged Celia in silence for a long time, and she heard Celia whisper something in a language she didn't understand. Anna asked if Celia had put a spell over her but Celia answered that she had said a prayer, an old African prayer her mother had taught her once. "In this night you need all extra protection you can get My Sweet," Celia said, "I will not rest through a full night until you are back here again." Anna accepted the gift, hugged Celia one more time, and then she slipped out into the night and out of the little courtyard. She almost immediately became one with the shadows, and she was soon lost to human eyes and minds when she on light feet headed towards the lake. ******************** The passage took much longer time than Anna had expected. She had found the boat and two young colored men in charge of it at the meeting place Celia had pointed out to her. She had given the specific password to ensure the men of that she was indeed their intended passenger. They didn't question her reasons for being out in the middle of the night alone; they had promised Celia to take her across the lake and nothing else. They kept the boat in the flooded vegetation near the shoreline and moved silently and stealthily in the water. No one uttered a word. Anna started freezing although it wasn't too cold. She tried to the best of her ability to shield it from the men. Several hours later, when dawn was about to break, they ventured into the mouth of a tiny river and eventually hit the shore. An older colored man waited for them. He stood so very still in the bushes that it took Anna a while to spot him. The men greeted each other quietly and the older one turned to Anna. The Contestants Ch. 02 "You've better come with me," he said. "You can't travel in daylight anyway." Anna looked up at him with alarm in her eyes. What he said meant that she was going to lose a whole day. He spotted her apprehension and added, "If your life is dear to you, there is no other way but to travel at night." She agreed then to follow him, and they all started in silence into the woods. Soon enough they reached a small wooden hut well covered with tree branches, and they all entered the cramped space. It took a while to become used to the semi-darkness inside, but no one intended to light any candles or fires. The old man turned to Anna. "I'm Joseph and these two are my sons," he said. "I knew Jeanne La Villiere a long time ago, and I also know Celia. That is why you are here today." Anna looked at him in wonder. It was strange to hear anyone mention Jeanne's name again after all these years. Yet, she realized in a flash that the old man standing in front of her most probably was the very young boy, who had lived with Jeanne on her houseboat. That had happened almost fifty years ago and the man looked to be around sixty, so it could be right. As if also he was skilled in reading minds, he started to smile a little, looking at her and he nodded slowly. "Yes," he said, "you are right." Then he turned to his sons. "You two should start worrying about getting the horse here. We will need it tonight." When the boys had left the hut Joseph made Anna sit on the floor, and he gave her dried meat and bread to eat. Strangely enough Anna was ravenous with hunger now and everything tasted good, even the lukewarm water that Joseph gave her to drink. Then he started to talk to her about the journey. "Should it have been ordinary times, it would not have taken you more than two days in the saddle to reach Baton Rouge," he began. "That is, of course, if you would keep riding without any stops for a full eight hours per day or so. It is roughly eighty miles between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and half that measure to Donaldsonville. However, since these are troubled times — and you are out on an errand that mustn't be revealed — you can only rely on a comparatively safe journey if you travel in the evening and the early morning. Since you are not familiar with the surroundings, I do not advice you to travel in the middle of the night. And you must keep out of the ordinary roads. The area between the lake and Baton Rouge is swarming with little bands of soldiers, both Federal and Confederate, and they are engaged in constant fighting more or less. Don't count on help from any civilian. The civilians in the area are 'friends' one day and 'enemies' the next. Not out of their own choice, mind you. When the soldiers — and that goes for both armies — hit upon the civilians, they force them for fear of death to take sides. This war isn't a pretty sight, lady." "Was there ever one?" she asked quietly. He shook his head and continued. "Celia has told me that you are looking for the Mad Irishman." Anna gave a start, and her eyes widened. "Is that how Conaill is known these days?" she thought. "Captain Conell O'Conaill was last seen near Donaldsonville," Joseph went on, "that is right. He and his men are camping in Confederate territory on a deserted plantation for a couple of days because their commanding officer, Major Templeton, is wounded. They will most likely want to let him die in peace and bury him instead of trying to bring him to Camp Moore across the river. He wouldn't survive that journey." Anna shuddered when hearing Joseph's calm voice describing the hardships of war. He then went on to inform her of the route in great detail, and he had even drawn a rudimentary map on a piece of paper for her. She kept memorizing his description throughout the afternoon, and she asked about the conditions of the small roads he advised. He also gave her dried meat, bread and water to take along for three days and told her to be careful with the water and not drink to excess. He also reminded her not to make any fires unless it was absolutely vital; only if she would have to boil water to make it drinkable. The rest of the afternoon Anna slept to gather strength for the night, but she had a troubled sleep with haunting and vivid dreams. When she woke up later, it was already dusk and the two young men had returned. Anna went to look at the horse and immediately warmed to it. It was a chestnut mare with a quiet temper. "You had better leave now," Joseph said and she agreed. They all shook hands and she mounted the horse, and then she was on her own. ******************** They worked in good unison, Anna and Chestnut; she had decided to call her horse by that name. Anna soon realized that she could leave it to Chestnut to find the best path as long as Anna kept track of the proper direction according to Joseph's advice. It darkened quickly, and soon the bushy marshland around her felt impenetrable, yet she pushed on a little, hoping to find a clearing soon. Then she heard voices in the distance and she stopped, calling out softly within her mind to Chestnut to stand still and not make a sound. Her heart beat furiously against her ribs, and it almost distracted her. She heard a lot of voices talking at the same time, but she couldn't make out what was said. She gathered that it was a military unit of some distinction passing by on the main road, not far away from her. When she observed that the voices grew weaker, she believed that they were leaving the area after all. She breathed again but felt a little bit shaken from the experience and decided to camp for a couple of hours as it was very dark now anyway. She found a sheltered spot under a big tree and rolled herself up against the still warm trunk and felt comforted by Chestnut's presence. She even dozed off for a little while and woke up a couple of hours later when Chestnut gently nudged her as if telling her that it was time to get on the road again. The darkness wasn't pitch-black any longer, and Anna really felt the urge to push on, putting some distance behind her. As the dawn slowly broke, she became aware of the surrounding landscape. They moved in the outskirts of the woodland. Anna could see fields and houses in the distance, only the houses were burnt skeletons of buildings, and the fields were dry and unkempt. She didn't see a single soul around, yet she felt being watched by apprehensive eyes and quickly moved into the forest again. Anna moved deeper into the woods when the sun had risen. She looked for a brook where she could offer Chestnut some water to drink and where they could rest. She found what she was looking for at last and stayed in the shelter of bushes and trees the whole day. It was a rest that wore her out in a way since she wanted to move on as soon as possible, but she remembered Joseph's advice and forced herself into inactivity. Anna tried to figure out how long she had traveled, and she came to the conclusion that she would reach the outskirts of Donaldsonville tomorrow morning if nothing happened that would stop her journey. Anna was right in her calculations. When she sensed the bustle of the nearby town, she moved away from it and stayed near a deserted farm the whole day. There was a well on the premises, which still could be used, and she was grateful for being able to supply Chestnut with fresh water. When the dusk fell, she moved out on the road again, now heading directly for the plantation that was reported being the camp where Conaill and his men had last been seen. She hoped that they were still nearby and hadn't been forced to move on. If that was the case, she didn't know what to do. However, it was no use brooding over problems that hadn't happened yet. ******************** It was near midnight when Anna and Chestnut stopped, hearing the distant sound of voices. Anna could divine that a group of men was not far away. She knew she was on the right path to the plantation so she concluded that this must be Conaill's group of men. She stopped for a while and closed her eyes trying to calm the beating in her body. "What will he do when he sees me?" she asked herself. "Suppose I will put him into peril by coming here?" Well, it was too late to turn back now, and she motioned Chestnut to move slowly ahead. At last she saw the burnt and destroyed building in the distance. She could see that the men had made a campfire in the courtyard. It was rather quiet. A couple of the soldiers were on guard. She didn't sense Conaill's presence here and gathered that he slept elsewhere, most likely in the building itself somewhere. She dismounted and motioned to Chestnut to remain hidden in the shrubbery while she stealthily moved up towards the house. At that moment, she saw the young guard at the back door, and she stopped in her tracks in the shadows. She stood for a long time motionless and concentrated and directed her thoughts towards him, mesmerizing his mind not to observe her. After what seemed ages, he moved yawning and left the door for a short moment to take a drink of water. She used the space of time to move into the building soundlessly. Nothing felt real anymore, and she moved over the floor looking for doors as if in a dream. She whispered his name trying to sense where to look for him, and then she knew that he was nearby in the undestroyed part of the building. She went to the door, which seemed to lead there, and she opened it slowly. Conaill was standing at the far end of the room in front of the fireplace and when the door opened, he turned around in deliberate slow motion until they faced each other. He was still imposing to look at but leaner and more youthful than she remembered. He narrowed his eyes into gleaming slits, and she saw the muscles moving in his face and on his neck when he clenched his jaws tightly; he showed no surprise at all seeing her. They remained looking at each other for an eternity in silence, and then she slowly went up to him. She unbuttoned the soft leather jacket she was wearing, exposing her breasts and when she reached him she opened his jacket too, and she slipped her hands over the hard muscles in his chest before she pressed her nakedness towards his. He gave a low, sharp cry and almost lost his balance, and then he drew her close to his body in an almost suffocating embrace. "Say my name," she whispered in agony. "You never once said my name." "Anna!" he breathed almost inaudibly. "Anna!" Then he groaned and started kissing her like a man dying of thirst, drinking her, eating her, tasting every part of her mouth, sucking on her tongue and her lips. She tried to break free to breathe in between, but he wouldn't let her. He bruised her lips and inserted his tongue into her mouth and filled it for her to taste. She shivered in his grip now, and she licked up every scent that emanated from him; that of horses, tobacco, weapon grease, and possibly even blood, and the indefinable something that was only him and that drew her wild and weak. He undid her hair and buried his hands in it. Then he fell with her to the thick carpet on the floor in front of the fireplace. With frenzied hands, he moved her skirt up above her hips, exposing her, prying her legs apart. He unbuttoned his trousers and freed his throbbing erection, and he entered her not caring to indulge in any subtle foreplay. All the same he slid into her without force, gently and softly, and she sighed with her whole body when he filled her up. For a short while they just lay there joined to each other, and then he started to fuck her urgently and feverishly. He buried his face against her neck and pressed his fangs towards her beating pulses. He didn't bite her, but she could feel the sharpness of his teeth grating her skin. "If he were to kill me tonight, I wouldn't mind," she thought in a daze. She arched her back meeting his every thrust, and she mewled quietly and incessantly now in hunger to be satisfied. Relentlessly he brought them both to the pitch. When her orgasm started to shake her, he raised himself on his arms to be able to look at her. With his eyes locked into hers, he stiffened and succumbed with a wailing cry to the spasms that wrenched the semen out of his body, flooding her. Then he sank down over her with a deep sigh, and she felt his body relax against hers, enabling him to move yet deeper into her, coming to rest with his still stiff cock securely buried inside her. She held him in her arms, and she began to cry with huge sobs as her muscles and nerves snapped at last and left her shivering in the wake of the tension. He rolled around with her on the floor so that she came to rest on top of him. Then he tightened his embrace, and he caressed her back and kissed her face. "Don't cry," he said soothingly in a low voice. "Don't cry My Darling; we have no time for tears." She quieted down after a while, and she was able to look at him at last. He was smiling, his white teeth glimmering at her in the semi-darkness of the room. He lifted her right hand and started gently to finger the leather bracelet, which she had tied around her wrist. "When I realized that I had lost it," he said, "I knew that I was going to see you again. It was just a matter of when and where. I didn't think though that you would be mad enough to come out here." "Do you honestly think that I would be able to stay in the house doing nothing, knowing that you were so close?" she asked and he laughed teasingly at her. She sat up beside him and looked in wonder at him, not getting enough of him. She reached out and traced the features of his face as if memorizing them with her fingers. He closed his eyes, caught her hand and pressed it against his mouth. Then he moved it to his heart so that she could feel the vibration in his chest. "How long have we got before you have to move on with your group?" she went on. "I don't know," he answered. "Perhaps not more than this night." She covered her face with her hands and started to cry again. "How do you know, have you been summoned to move already?" she persisted. "Listen," he said, "this has nothing to do with my present situation. You wouldn't be here in the first place, hadn't Gareth agreed to it." "Gareth!" she exclaimed in alarm, but he continued. "Permitting you to come here and see me is something very extraordinary coming from him. If this also means that he will consider being lenient, showing us mercy in the end I don't know, but it is at least a breakthrough, a move in the right direction. It has given me hopes for the future." He sat up beside her and took her into his arms again. He had her back against his chest so that he could freely move his hands over her breasts and stomach. Now it was her time to close her eyes and give herself over to the almost unbearable caresses of his hands. Even so, the thought of Gareth being behind this meeting was a disturbing feeling in the back of her mind. She had tried so hard to cope with the situation without involving Gareth. Now it looked as if he had been holding on to the strings all the time, perhaps following her every move. "Don't think about him just right now," Conaill soothed her. "There is nothing you can do to spite him anyway. By the way, I know that you have put a spell on him. Was that a wise thing to do?" "Of course, I had a purpose," she mused, "but it wasn't what you might think. I didn't do it to antagonize him. I want him to experience love the way humans do, not in the omnipotent way that the Inis King would. I want him to feel the agony of hell, facing a possible refusal and the sweetness and pleasure of heaven when feeling accepted and loved for his own sake only. I want him to experience the utter fragility of feelings like love and hate. There is such a small difference between the two. I want him to know that no magic in the world will help secure the love of the one he has chosen. In the end, he will have to beg for her love." "You might as well be talking about me now," he murmured in her hair. "Not until I met you, did I become aware of living. And I have lived for centuries already. They don't count any longer. When you happened to me, I was thrown down into an abyss, and I've been made to wander endlessly around the world in search for you ever since. The brief moments I've been able to come to the house just to look at you and touch your face have been the moments that have kept me alive, but I don't complain over my fate. Every second with you is a second of life, and I'm ready to crawl for them, to beg for them." She closed her eyes in agony when listening to him, and tears ran over her face. He dried them gently away with his fingers and rocked her in silence for a while in his arms. The fire had almost died, but the night wasn't cold. They heard almost nothing from the men out in the courtyard, only some muffled commands when they changed guards out there. "How did you manage to slip by the man posted at the door?" Conaill asked. Anna then told him how she had put a spell over the young soldier so that he wouldn't notice her. Conaill chuckled with low laughter and remarked, "You against an army. I wouldn't bet on the outcome of that confrontation." She laughed too for the first time this night. He rose from the floor and fetched a bottle of wine and a glass. "I only have one glass, we have to share it," he said. She liked that idea very much, and the wine warmed her and made her inside melt sweetly. He went to the small camp bed and fetched a pillow that he put under her head. "The bed isn't very comfortable," he added. "We might as well stay on the carpet." He let his hand glide over the soft surface. "A piece of luxury left in this pile of rubbish." He put his army coat over her and rose again. "Shortly before you arrived tonight Major Templeton died," he informed her in an even and calm voice and she looked at him with attention. "In a way one can say that he died a couple of days ago, having been in a coma for the better part of our stay here." Conaill was silent for a while, and then he continued after a brief pause. "The major was a good soldier and a good man. He was totally dedicated to what he fought for, and I did nothing to take him out of his convictions. He died all the happier, believing that he shed his life for a worthy cause. We will bury him tomorrow, but I'll go and check on him to see that everything is all right in the room, and I will also have a look at your horse." "Do you know where I left her?" Anna inquired and he nodded. Anna couldn't rest on the floor when Conaill had left her so she got up and went about the room, examining every item that belonged to him; she fingered his clothes, feeling the coarse material and taking in the scent they signaled to her. She examined the books and weapons that he kept on a table by the camp bed. She lay down on the bed and wrapped the dirty sheets around her and closed her eyes. There he found her when he returned. He went up to her and looked at her for a long time in silence. Then he removed their clothes and lay down in the bed and covered her with his body, he was heavy, and he was already very hard. She moved a little under him, feeling how he pressed and rubbed his swollen cock against her belly, groaning in desire. Then he withdrew a little and resting on an elbow he started to trace the outlines of her body like a blind man. His fingers moved around the hollow at the base of her neck and continued their journey down to her breasts. He wetted his fingers and traced intricate patterns all over them, brushing over her erect nipples, giving them quick, sharp and almost painful squeezes that made her cry out. Then he bent down over her and sucked at her breasts with long, forceful, and yearning licks. It brought her to a state of total frenzy, shivering with heat and unappeased lust. He took her hand and guided it towards his swelling penis, and she greedily took hold of it and rubbed herself against it. His breath came in short, low groans now, and it was visibly hard for him to control himself, but evidently he had decided not to give in to the torture just yet. His hands, now harsh and hot, continued their way down over her body. He brushed his fingers through the curls covering her mound, and she gasped when he inserted them into her vagina to feel her moistness, wetting them and licking them clean. He moved her thighs apart and caressed the inside of each with light teasing touches. Ripples of fire ran over her skin, and she felt like giving herself up for good to him, to make him do whatever he wanted with her body. He jammed three fingers into her pressing them to the roof of her cunt and circled her clit with his thumb at the same time. The frenzied movements of his hand when he pressed his fingers together, trapping her in a vise of pleasure, were too much for her, and she came in a violent orgasm, shuddering helplessly in her throes. When she screamed, he eased up on his hold over her, and contented himself with lightly fingering the silken folds of her vagina, getting his fingers soaked in her juices. All the while she held his hardness in her hands, and she didn't let go of him.