Lovers in the Woods (33 page)

Rayenne almost gagged and she could not tell
if it was because of rejection or envy. This woman had so much that
men wanted, it was obscene that she used it for her criminal
activities. If Rayenne had had the chance, she would have ripped
cloth and skin apart to show the men the woman’s black soul. But,
of course, they had seen her nude and had not complained. Maybe men
were less interested in the color of a soul.

Rayenne gnashed her teeth.

Sananda did not need to say a word to
portray her ultimate desire. She had years of practice and both men
understood. Rayenne saw their breaths quicken and their eyes open
wide as if they felt a divine presence enter the small abode. If
she had expected Sajitar to be frightened, ashamed or angry she was
wrong. He was very still, as if a move would give away his
position. Ranien stared at his student, as he had called her, with
unbroken admiration. Rayenne wondered if he had been brainwashed or
if his mind and his body just plainly fell prey to the hands of any
apt woman.

Sananda knew Rayenne’s thoughts by a glance.
There was no hiding, not within this raw confrontation. Rayenne
swallowed all of the ugly threats that came to her mind. The show
was for her, to confront her with helplessness and futile rage.
Sananda enjoyed her own show too much to crown it with Rayenne’s
fury.

Ray had tried to move forward, but the
quick arms of the animal caught her every time. She bided her time,
hoping that sooner or later she would pay Sananda back in full.
Sananda’s smile was a challenge she felt hard to ignore. How she
wished to wrestle that damned woman to the ground and hit that grin
off her beautiful face! She managed to take a deep breath. It did
not calm her, but at least she refrained from another futile
attempt at leaving the mattress. The thin, long arms of the
Falinies touched her gently. Rayenne interpreted their closeness as
an attempt at soothing her.

“How are you this morning, my lovely ones?”
Sananda purred. Even her voice was made to seduce men.

Rayenne rolled her eyes heavenward and prayed
for patience to stand the ordeal.

Sananda smiled.

“
I do hope you slept well. There is so much
to do today, and I would not want you to be too tired to enjoy it.”
She stroked Sajitar’s shin without taking her eyes off Rayenne, who
did her best to remain still even if her teeth hurt. “Are you
willing to serve me, my lovers?” She did not wait for a reply, but
went on as if she were inviting guests for dinner. “Saji, you will
be first. After your little escapade last night I’m sure you want
to make up for your insolence.”

“No, I don’t,” Sajitar spoke up, to the
surprise of Rayenne and Sananda, who lost her pout for a moment “I
want to be left alone. How often do I have to tell you that I will
not stay here? There is no way back! Let us go!”

“Hush, my love, no such angry words in my
presence. I won’t allow that.” She gestured the guard to enter the
cell. “Gag him with Talagg-bark. And make it fast. I will not have
another word from him.”

“Gagging me doesn’t change my mind!” Sajitar
struggled with the guard, tried to move his head away, but the gag
was placed nonetheless.

He bit the wood, and for a moment, Rayenne
wished to be gagged, too. She ground her teeth and cast down her
eyes, unwilling to have more of Sananda’s singing triumph.
Breathing hard, she knew she would explode if Sananda directed a
word at her. There was too much anger in her to be kept inside for
long.

“Take him to the adjacent room.” She stroked
Sajitar intimately and placed a light kiss on his cheek. “I’ll be
with you soon,” she whispered in his ear.

She turned to Ranien and gently touched
his kneecap.

“And you, my wonderful gardener, what brought
you out last night? Was there a new blossom to be studied? A sacred
root you had to plant at night?” Her fingers walked up his leg as
if she guided a doll. “Or did you just stumble over the other two
and decided to have a stroll?”

“I wanted to help them, but I did not intend
to leave you.”

“You did not?”

Rayenne heard puzzlement and smiled in spite
of the situation. The fingers stopped close to Ranien’s crotch, the
nails ground in his flesh.

Two guards came in and loosened Sajitar’s
shackles to lead him out of the cell. Rayenne prayed he would not
come to harm. She felt sick when she watched him disappear, held
between strong arms.

Ranien did not flinch.

“I wanted to ask for your permission to
leave. I need to visit my brother.”

“Your…brother?” If Sananda had had a clear
expectation of her visit to the men’s cell, she was gravely
disappointed. She shook her head as if Ranien’s words made no sense
and took her hand away for a gesture of puzzlement. “Why would you
want to go and see your brother? Don’t you like it here with
me?”

“Oh, I do like it, my very apt student, but I
need to see him. I need to see him with my own eyes and talk to him
after all these moons.”

“And if I won’t want you to leave me?” Her
eyes pleaded. Her gestures spoke of love and grief when he dared to
go away. Her hand moved over his chest, but did not quite touch. “I
need you here. You know that.”

“I will come back,” he promised lightly.

“And if I said that every day you are away is
one day too much?” The hand was back in its original place,
caressing Ranien’s thigh and moving to the center with clear
intentions.

Rayenne felt close to retching while Ranien
did not seem to notice the rather blunt attempt at changing his
mind.

“I consider you well-learned in the lore of
herbs and animals. You will fare well without me being close for a
while.”

“But I don’t want to,” she pouted. She cupped
his balls and stroked a thumb up his length.

Rayenne swallowed bile. Ranien’s
expression changed a fraction.
Did he truly expect her to grant him leave?
Rayenne was close to
shouting at both to stop the charade.

“I have to leave,” Ranien stated
matter-of-factly. “You’ve had my services long enough. It’s time
for me to return to the woods.”

Sananda shook her head slightly, her face
pretended sadness.

“
It’s not the right time, Ranien, my love.
Right now, I need your wisdom more than ever. Please, after another
moon, you can take your leave for some time, but not now.” Her hand
stroked him in the right places, and though Rayenne wished for a
hole in which to vanish and not return, she heard Ranien’s breath
accelerate. Sananda caressed and whispered in his ear and when he
replied with a smile, she stood straight once more, giving Rayenne
a full wave of her best charm. “I will come for you later.” She
kissed him chastely on the corner of his mouth and left.

When the door was closed and her footsteps
were echoes fading, Rayenne let out her breath. “Are you surprised,
Ranien?”

He craned his neck to look at her
placidly. “No.”

“Well, was it another gardener, who was
convinced that the lady would allow him to leave?”

“You shall never stop believing in the
goodness of mankind.” He gently and carefully pulled his hands free
of the shackles inch by inch. “And you shall always have a plan B
up your sleeve that works if everything else fails, including
kindness.”

Rayenne stared at him. An
idiotic giggle bubbled in her throat.
Am I dreaming?

“You can free yourself? Why didn’t you do so
last night?”

“With the guards on alarm?” He sat up and
rubbed his wrists before freeing his feet. “I want to escape, not
end up in a more secured cell.” He got up and checked the corridor
for guards. “We do not have much time, that I know.” He ripped the
blanket from the straw mattress. “Now, bend forward and wait.”

She did as told.

“How did you do that?”

“I told you I had been here before. I tried
this and that. By now you should know that I am an inventor,
someone who loves experiments. Now hold still for a moment and when
I tell you, you head for the door.”

“What are you doing?”

“The Falinies are fast but easy to distract.
You could have done that yourself with a blanket. If you had one,
that is.” He moved the blanket slowly closer to the animals. “Now,
duck and run.”

Rayenne exploded from her place and stopped
close to the bars without touching them. Any noise, she knew, would
bring the guards running. Panting, she looked left and right, then
Ranien was behind her, a smile tugging at the corner of his
mouth.

“Tell me, you know a way through this door,
right?” Rayenne asked.

He fingered the bars with both hands and
looked the construction up and down.

“I admit that I had no need for breaking a
cell before, but—”

“What the hell have you done here? Spied on
Sananda? Who are you, Ranien?”

Ranien said
aah
, as his slender fingers groped about the
hinges and its fastening in the wooden frame.

“
There is no need to spy on Sananda once
you are inside her queendom. She considers every man around here
trustworthy since he cannot get away. Or so she thinks.” He gave
her a queer look. “And that is true, though anyone with a mind and
eyes to see can find out about her secrets.”

“The shield, you mean.”

“The shield, the weapons, the entrances. It’s
all plain to see. She’s not as clever as she thinks she is. If you
know what kind of men she hires you can even tell about their
behavior.”

“That’s why you tricked them.”

“
That is a nasty word.” He fumbled with the
sticks keeping the hinges together until they were loose enough to
be taken out. The barred door was no hindrance any more after that.
Slowly, to avoid noise, they set the door aside. When a guard
looked down the corridor he would not even know the difference.
Ranien looked left and right once more and stepped out, smiling.
“Well, will you take it from here?”

“Sananda said Saji should be taken to the
next cell.”

The next cells were empty and she cursed.
Above, a loud crash shook the foundation. Ranien and Rayenne
crouched and looked up. She had feared the ceiling would crack and
fall down, but it held.

“What was that?”

“By the sounds I would say it is someone
knocking hard on the roof. Maybe he forgot the secret word for
entrance.”

“Who would be so tall to knock? Do you have
giants around here I haven’t seen before?”

“
Giants are old lore,” Ranien replied
indignantly, still checking the ceiling before returning to
checking the empty cells. The noise repeated. “The shield is
cracking, obviously.”

“That means we have to be faster.” She ran
from cell to cell to search for Sajitar when finally, at the end of
the corridor, a massive door remained. Out of breath, she tried the
door hold. “Can you open it? It’s locked.”

“Wait.” Ranien stood left of the door and
gestured her to wait to the right. It was a minute later, when the
door burst open and two men stormed out, clubs at the ready.

“We’re under attack! Back entrance, now!” the
first man shouted and ran off, without so much as glancing in
Rayenne’s direction.

“We have to find Termain first!” the second
blurted out, but followed on the heels of his colleague.

Rayenne put a foot between door and frame.
Quickly, she slipped inside. The guards ran down the corridor,
their boots too loud to hear anything else.

The next crash on the roof was even louder.
The crack of breaking wood followed and men shouting for help.

Ranien stumbled into her, two feet behind the
door.

“
What—” He stopped and sighed, shaking his
head. “Ah, these bastards! I knew they would not pass up the
chance!”

Rayenne swallowed her shock. She had no time
to waste and got closer to where Sajitar was bound on a rack, his
back and behind reddened by a whip.

“How did you know?”

Ranien’s face was furious as he hurried to
open the shackles. His hands shook.

“I knew they would be bruisers. That is why
she hired them.” He gnashed his teeth, working furiously on the
ropes. “I can even imagine her words—tough men to soften others.”
He exchanged a glance with Rayenne. “Do not look at me like that. I
am the gardener, but that does not mean that I agree with
everything that is done here.”

“Sananda orders this to be done,” Rayenne
replied grim. “And if you don’t act you’re—”

“No! There are more ways to fight than open
confrontation!” Ranien pulled Sajitar’s hands free and helped him
up, cursing the chafed wrists. The young man looked at him
wearily.

Rayenne hurried to take out the gag.

“Saji? Are you okay?” It was a lame question.
She could see his wounds, his tiredness, and how much he hurt, but
the words just slipped.

His smile was but a shadow that caused her
pain.

“I will be…later. What’s the noise?”

“Somebody’s invading the territory, I’d say.
Or is too big to fit through the door.” She pulled one arm around
her shoulder. Ranien took the other. “We better be out o’
here.”

Sajitar moaned and bit his lips when the pain
intensified.

“They don’t mean us.”

“What did you say?”

Sajitar lifted his head with an effort as
they slowly made their way toward the door. “They come…because they
know.”

“
Who? And what do they know?” Ranien asked.
He spied around the corner. Above them, the ceiling strained with
the impact of something hard and heavy. Dust and sand slithered
between the timbers, dusting floor and people. The ground shook.
“We better make this quick or we’ll get smashed.”