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[Fair warning: the steamy scene continues.
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“What of it?” Soran bent his head and tasted the luscious mouth again. “It’s the task Helios gave me, and I wouldn't have chosen it. I had no right of choice, unlike yourself tonight, with me! Forget what the god made me, it means nothing, not here, not now. Only one things matters. Choose me, and let me show you what pleasure is all about, before some temple sinks its claws into you.”
The silvergold eyes looked up at him, half-closed against the lamplight. Green sparklets danced in them, and Soran checked in surprise. Few people indeed showed the green sparklets, and only ever the Zeheftimen who were related through the old royal line to the ancient Keltoi. This one had more than a little Keltoi blood in his veins; the heritage was written in every line of his body as well as his complexion and the cloak of his hair.
But Faunos’s head was shaking slowly. “You’re the witchfinder,” he spat the word, “the scion of Imperial Vayal who stalked into this camp and appointed me to this, without even asking me. You’ll surely have me, since I place a high value on my liberty, not to mention my life! I’ll be able to say a prince made away with my virginity; you’ll say you went out on the night of your coming of age, drank ale and plowed a freeman.”
Anger crackled through Soran’s chest. For one moment he was angry enough to do it, take what he wanted and walk away. He caught Faunos’s arms, threw him over and tossed him down on his belly. Faunos lay still, and Soran glared at him, seeing every detail, from the wide, still-bony shoulders to the mark on his left buttock -- a birthmark in the shape of a sea eagle with upswept wings. It drew the eye to the incurvation of his hip, and Soran touched it lightly.
Still Faunos did not move, challenging him mutely, and Soran wondered how a man’s surrender could he so damned insulting. He had never seen a more beautiful form -- the palace and temple boasted a hundred like him, the most gorgeous from every part of the world; but none was more beautiful, more prideful, and Soran was keenly aware of rejection. Desire dwindled like a neglected hearth.
Bruised, angry, he snatched up the cloak and wrap and dumped them over Faunos’s legs. “Get dressed. Get out of here. At least my reputation will hold together if you walk out without a mark on you. I’ve never been accused of rough-handling my companions. It’s never been necessary for me to take what I needed, nor even ask for it a second time. You wound me, Zeheftiman. You could be flogged for far less than you’ve done tonight.”
Faunos rolled over and hugged the cloak against him. “Damnit, I offered you exactly what you wanted.” Sulky, defiant, truculent.
“You offered me nothing,” Soran snapped. “You must find me ugly as a baboon’s rump.” He dragged both hands through his hair and turned his back on Faunos. The wine jug was full, and he poured a deep cup.
For a long time, as he drank it, the young man was silent; and then Faunos said quietly, “No, not ugly. You’re very beautiful, my lord prince. I’ve seen you before -- just once, many years ago. I was ten years old. My teacher brought me to see Vayal. You’d just killed your leopard. I watched the chariots go by. I thought you were the most beautiful boy … and now you’re a man grown, and no less beautiful.”
Soran spun toward him, spilling the wine. “Then why reject me? That damned Zehefti pride!”
“You’re the witchfinder,” Faunos murmured. "Witchtaker."
“And unless you’re a witchboy of the line of damned Diomedas himself,” Soran spat, “what does it matter? It’s the task the god gave me, boy, just the work they trained me for before I was old enough to know properly what I was doing, or why I was doing it.” More perplexed and frustrated than ever, he glared at Faunos. “Do you fear me, is that it? Do you dread me, because you have the green fireflies in your eyes, and you know I've seen them? They give you the look of Diomedas’s sons, but I’m not quite the fool you take me for. Those eyes are also born in the Keltoi, boys and girls alike. I’ve seen more Keltoi cat’s eyes than you have! Is this why you fear me?” Faunos did not answer, and Soran rasped a sigh. “Oh, just get dressed and leave. “I told you to get out of here.”
Faunos sat up and toyed with the cloak and wrap. “I meant no disrespect.”
“Liar. There was insult in every line of your back when you turned it to me,” Soran snorted. “What, you creature, you want to make amends now? Does it occur to you at last that I would make a bad enemy?” Faunos’s face was shuttered, like a mask. “All right,” Soran said in an ominously soft tone. “If I gave you leave to go, you’re no prisoner here. In fact, you never were. Not being a prisoner, you have the right to choose.” He drank deeply and turned his shoulder to Faunos with a dismissive gesture. “Go or stay, freeman. Do what you will. I no longer care.”
It was a profound untruth, but Faunos would not know it. The wine scorched Soran’s throat as he drank it to the dregs. For longer than a minute he waited for Faunos to move or speak, but the Zehefti did neither. In all his life, Soran had never seen anything so beautiful, nor half so vastly infuriating. No man save his father and brothers had ever faced him down and denied him any slightest whim. No other man would have dared argue with him.
And then Faunos stood, reached out and laid one palm on Soran’s breast. A chill prickled through the witchfinder from the soles of his feet to his scalp.
“If I have the freeman’s right to choose,” Faunos said, soft, husky, “I choose to stay.”
Again, sheer disbelief overwhelmed Soran, but this time a thread of mad humor wound through it. He threw the cup down and took Faunos by both shoulders. “You infuriating little -- I should have known. They breed them more arrogant in the backstreets of Zeheft than in the palaces of Vayal. Take care, for one day it’ll cost you dearly … but not tonight. Not at my hands.” He held Faunos at arm’s length and looked him up and down with fat satisfaction. “All right, then, since you choose to stay. Come here, Zehefti virgin. Come to me and learn a few things about love.”
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