They had been riding for two days through the kingdom of Veynhollow, the only country Kailynn had ever known. The open plains were separated by a massive river marking the border between Veynhollow and Thessandor.
"Why can't we cross through? It would save a full day rather than going around." Kailynn snapped. "How much longer to you want to be in this damn saddle??" She twisted her body uncomfortably.
"Have you ever heard the phrase fought like a Thessadorian?" Alac studied the horizon, judging how much further they needed to go that day.
"No. Why?"
"Thessandor is a tiny Kingdom that had broken away when the lands of the Horse Lords were seized and given to the king of the newly formed country of Veynhollow." Alac paused, admiring the view looking out over the river. One could almost see the towers of the Capital City of Ashvane. "The bulk of Lord Beaufort's defeated army had settled there after the war and they were not about to bow to anyone but the one that they chose."
Kailynn urged her horse to stand beside Alac's. "Usually that doesn't work out for the smaller one in a fight."
"They defended their little Kingdom so fiercely and so for long, the puppet King of Veynhollow had given up trying to re-claim the territory." Alac looked at Kailynn. She met his gaze. He looked away first. "Fighting like a Thessadorian" became a phrase that was used to describe the best fighters in all of Everwind."
"Like you?" Kailynn asked half joking, "The Deathdealer fights like a Thessadorian?"
Alac didn't smile. Kailynn cleared her throat. "What about survival though? They are landlocked between Skelmarrow and the wildlands to the north. Veynhollow most certainly wouldn't trade with them, right?
"Their main export was those beautiful and deadly fighting war horses that they bred in secrecy. Everyone wants those horses." Alac grinned wickedly at the land across the river. "They never sold a mare and only gelded males. You couldn't try to replicate their process in anyway."
Alac urged his horse on. "We need to keep going. Its going to be dark in a few hours and we need to be at the Wildlands border tomorrow."
"Couldn't you just steal some of their horses and breed your own? Kailynn looked puzzled. "It seems like someone would have tried that already."
"A few have," Alac admitted. "They died very slowly and publicly. Now only some random fool tries that every decade or so. The last one was pulled apart by four horses. One for each limb. They left him screaming on the ground to bleed out."
Kailynn looked at him sharply. "You talk as though you were there. Were you?"
"I was." Alac had a faraway look in his eyes, lost in the visions of his memory. "I was visiting as part of a delegation of... important trade partners."
Kailynn leaned forward in her saddle as her horse jumped a small creek that fed into the raging torrent of a river. "Delegation?"
"I begged to go." Alac smiled one of his rare smiles at Kailynn. "My father finally relented. I-I, I ran away first chance I got. My father was a hard man and I figured then was the best time to make a break for it. I stayed in Ashvane for five years, then moved around for another five."
"How old were you?" Kailynn had never seen this side of Alac. She rode closer and put her hand on his knee. "You don't have to tell me anymore if you don't want to."
Alac avoided eye contact. "I was ten."
Kailynn made an understanding sound. "How did you survive?"
"I stole, I fought and I found odd jobs. Delivery boy, things like that." Alac studied her hand where it rested on his knee. "We can stop here for the night." He pointed with his chin at a small clump of trees.
Kailynn withdrew her hand. "That must have been hard."
"No more difficult than your life was, Lady." The title slipped from his lips, surprising them both.
They entered the thicket of small trees, dismounted and started un-harnessing the horses then staking them on a picket line to allow them to graze.
Kailynn started laying out her bedroll while Alac dug a hole for the fire. She flopped down on her back, resting her head on her saddle like a pillow. She studied the emerging stars for a moment.
"Alac? You learned how to fight in Thessandor?"
He didn't look up from building the fire with broken sticks. "Yes."
"They were ok with teaching an outsider?"
"They didn't know. Not at first."
"What happened when they found out?"
"I was arrested and sent home."
"And where is home?"
"Where I lay my head."
"You don't have a home?"
"Not in the way people think of home."
She considered for a moment. "Well, I guess I have the same home you do right now then."
Alac turned and studied her upturned face as she watched the stars wink into being against the darkening night sky. The tiny few flickers of light played across her pale throat and the small surface cut on it. She lowered her head and seeing him staring at her, sat up and scooted her back to her saddle.
"Why are you staring at me like that? Something on my face?"
"On your neck." Alac could feel something inside him growing, pushing, demanding. He scooted a little closer to her, his eyes on the cut on her neck. "Right here." He reached out a hand that shook slightly and gently traced the line on her skin with his index finger.
Kailynn watched him warring within himself. Somewhere in there, something wanted out. She closed her eyes as he stroked her neck again. Radiating heat spread from his touch like warm liquid spreading across a table after being spilled. She leaned her head into his hand as he slid his fingers around her throat to the back of her neck. His thumb stroked her jawline, turning her head, bringing her ear into his breath as his face hovered inches from hers. He leaned in, still holding her head turned and brushed his lips against her earlobe.
She inhaled deeply and reached up to grab his shirt pulling him closer to her ear. He brushed little kisses and bites on her ear, down her neck and to her collarbone. Kailynn slid down against her saddle to be flat on the bedroll. Turning her head to face him, she opened his shirt and pulled him down to her, bringing his mouth to hers. The heady rush of his body weight settling against her as he circled his arms around her wrapping her tightly to his chest. Their kiss deepened as his tongue ravished her mouth.
"Kailynn." Alac started to pull away. "I'm not sure this is a good idea."
Kailynn opened her own shirt, exposing her chest to the firelight, the cool night air hardening her nipples and stiffening her breasts. "Maybe it's time to share a home with someone Alac. Even if its just for one night."
She reached for his hand and placed it on her wildly beating heart as it pounded with the promise of belonging, of being the only thing that mattered to someone. Even if it was just for a night, just one night to not be alone, just them against the world.
Alac thought that he had never seen anything so beautiful in all the places he had ever been. His own longing for something other than a cheap thrill or the weight of never really belonging swelled him. Kailynn looked down and then back up to his face. "We can stop running from our memories, from the past and be something new. Even if its only for a short time, right?"
Alac slid his hand across her chest and lowered himself back down to be skin to skin, chest to chest with her as she wrapped her legs around his waist. "One night."
"That's all," she agreed.
The stars watched as their breath quickened and fingers fumbled with buttons and buckles. Her low gasp as he filled her for the first time. Kailynn trembled internally as her heart answered a call other than loneliness or loss. Her pale skin glowed under the moonlight as his dark tan contrasted and gleamed with sweat. Kailynn held onto his waist as her longing for a place to call her own was replaced with his fullness. He withdrew, his eyes searching hers. Their searching wounded souls had found a momentary safe harbor in each other under the stars. Kailynn nodded to him and pulled his head down to her neck as he filled her again. A sharp and fleeting pain shot through her as he pressed through to her inner reaches. She gripped him tightly with her muscles and she held him still with her arms wrapped around his neck.
Slowly it subsided as her muscles relaxed and he lay still, filling her but not moving. She slowly rocked her hips under him sliding herself up along his length.
"Okay," she whispered. "I'm okay." He reared himself up on his arms and looked into her eyes with those sea-green eyes of his as they clouded over with concern. Seeing that concern filled her with the confidence that she was safe here. Here with her Deathdealer in this moment. She held his eyes as she reached down to his hips and pulled him into her again.
"I'm okay." She whispered nodding to him. "Really."
Alac let her pull him into her and then slowly slid most of the way back out. Over and over his rhythm pressed him more deeply inside her, only to pull back tantalizing all the nerves in her as she stretched around a man's girth for the first time. Each thrust built on the pool of electric heat that was building in her groin and belly. It filled and strained against her control as he continued to build up his rhythm and speed. She ached for this new feeling to drown her in whatever lay in its coming moments.
She threw her head back, crying out to the heavens as she was completed in ecstasy. It flooded every cell in her body with wave after wave of warmth and electricity as he growled out his own completion.
They collapsed together, both breathing hard, the firelight glistening off their intertwined bodies. The skies looked on as he kissed her tenderly and gently and stroked the side of her face with the back of his fingers.
Kailynn reached under her hips and opened the bed roll and wriggled into it. She held it open as an invitation for Alac to join her. He smiled one of his rare smiles and slid in beside her. She nestled in beside him, laying her head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. Together they watched the star dance in silence until they both slept.