JESSAN - A TALE OF WIZARDRY Chapter 16
Copyright 2006 Trewin Greenaway All Rights Reserved
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Chapter 16
THIS NIGHT, SONDARAM, WRAPPED IN MIST, seemed to float in the air like a dream. When we came to the arched entryway, I could see wisps floating through the rooms. But the moment I stepped inside it dissipated, as if chased away with an invisible broom. When I was away, would the icy winds of winter sweep through as well, leaving drifts of snow piled up in the corners? Well, I would find out about that when the time came.
As before, I disrobed as I crossed the floor and entered the force, letting it sweep me up. Each time I did so, the effect was different, my power over it more complete. Now I could set up currents within it and send them spiraling around me. I could braid them together, even spin out strands that reached into the room, soaring through the open space and then returning to me.
I spun out another strand and sent it beyond the arches and into the night, circling back to me out of the blackness. On a clear night, these displays would be visible from afar, if any were out on the sea to watch. But on this one, the mist kept the secret, and I was free to play. Eventually, though, I tired of it, eased my body out of the force, stretched myself, and went to Caelas. This time he didn't rise when I approached, and I saw he held something in his lap.
"I've been exploring your palace," he said. "And, as I did so, a strangely familiar aroma drew me onto the terrace. There I found a grove of alestran trees, bent over from the weight of their fruit. I picked some and brought it in for us to share. You'll find it sweet, juicy, and marvelously refreshing. When I was a boy I would be punished for eating too much fresh, for most of it was meant to be carefully dried and set aside for the season of hunger.
I remembered the yellow blossoms that had filled the air with scent when I'd walked there with Orien. The fruit itself was a deeper color, a golden orange, in shape larger but not unlike a plum. Caelas offered me one and I bit into it. Its rich flavor filled my mouth and the juices ran down my chin.
Caelas smiled. "I'll clean that for you when you're done," he said. "Some say alestran is a gentle aphrodisiac, but I believe that the pleasure of eating it just calls to mind other, different forms of enjoyment."
I sat close beside him and we ate the fruit together. "With the fountain for drink and these for food, one could stay safe at Sondaram for some time," I said to him.
"True," he said, in a slightly distracted manner. Each time I took a new fruit from his lap I'd gently stroked his member, and the bulge in his tunic had begun to push the few remaining alestran to either side.
The next time I reached over, I took them all up in my hands. "I think we'll save the rest for later," I said, and set them on the ledge beside me.
He took my face in both hands and licked away the juices staining my face. I then climbed into his lap and returned the favor, but with more concentration because it was tangled in his beard. It was only a matter of moments before I drew his tunic over his head and pulled him to his feet.
I then flung my arms around his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist. We kissed fiercely for a while and soon his sex was pressing firmly into my cleft. I clutched it by squeezing my buttocks together, and looked meaningfully into his eyes.
He nodded, let go of me, and he went to get his small container of salve, which tonight was near beside us. But instead of handing it to me, he opened it himself, and scooped out a small portion with one finger. He rubbed that finger and his thumb together to spread it out, then came over and gently took my own sex and rubbed it all over, from tip to base.
"But," I said, surprised, even a little unnerved, "I want you in me."
"No, little one," he said. "I saw the blood on the cloth when I cleaned myself this morning. You must fully heal before I do that to you again."
"But I am healed," I protested. "And, besides, I couldn't possibly hold you up around me."
He laughed. "Silly head," he said, "there are several other ways, and it's my hope to teach you every one." He reached out and took my shoulder, but when he saw I still hesitated, he put both hands around my waist and pulled me to him.
When we were pressing tightly together, he said into my ear, "It's a great blessing of man sex that each can enter the other as well as be entered. To wish it only one way is to mimic the ways of men with women^×one the lad, one the lass, and always the question of who's to be which."
He reached up a hand and lifted my face to look into his. "Believe me, sweet Jessan, otherwise you cannot know the full pleasure of being entered."
"I'm sure I'm quite healed," I said, but with less force than before.
"Well, then," he answered, "bend over and let me look." He sat on the floor and had me face away, standing with one leg on each side of him. I bent over and he firmly spread my buttocks apart. I expected his look to be over in a moment, but instead he pulled me towards him and began to explore me with his tongue.
I gasped. My sex was instantly rigid. In all my lovemaking I'd never felt such a sweet sensation, wet and warm and flickering, first around the hole and then into it, a little way at first, and then more deeply. My body quivered all over like the string of a lute.
Suddenly, he withdrew, grasped my hips, and turned me around. "Ah," he said, "you now have something worthy enough to offer a soldier. Use it now so that I can feel it fully." He rolled onto his back and lifted his legs, spreading them to reveal himself. His hole, I saw with astonishment, had opened of itself, revealing a bright, wet pinkness within.
If I'd been erect before, I was now rampant. My rod quivered from the force of my anticipation. I dropped to my knees between his legs, and guided it to the opening and, closing my eyes, felt the rush of sensation as it burrowed its way inside.
Caelas groaned. "Deeper yet," he said. I thrust my thighs forward until his sack pressed hard against my stomach, his balls swollen and tight. This excited me almost beyond enduring, as did the tight grasp of his muscles around my cock, and, above all, the way he moved his hips, a rotating motion that drove me to the end of my endurance.
I thrust into him again and again, faster and faster, crying out. Then came an explosion that shook me to my bones. I spent inside him, in a frenzied spasm, which, when finished, wiped my strength away. I simply fell forward on top of him, feeling the cool outside air against my member as it slid out of that warm place altogether. I lay there, panting, whimpering a little, lights flashing in my eyes.
Caelas stroked my head. "There, lovely one," he said, "you see there's something to be said for taking the other role."
I pulled myself up so that I could kiss him, and did so, for several minutes. Finally, I turned on my side, propped my head up on my elbow, and asked him, "Tell me truly, Caelas^×do you like one as much as the other?"
He looked at me. "I've done it so often both ways that I couldn't count. In one mood I want the one, in another mood, the other. Tonight I was in the mood for two things. The first was to feel you inside me; the second," and he gestured toward his sex, which was still hard and throbbing, "to have you finish what last night you started with your mouth."
After I'd done that to both our satisfaction, we lay against each other for some time. I had closed my eyes, so I mistook the first spasm that shook Caelas's body for a smothered sneeze. But the second was stronger, and when I lifted my head to look at him, I saw that his eyes were glazing over and his mouth was slack.
"Caelas?" I said, on my knees now, full of alarm. "Caelas! Speak to me, please!"
He lifted his head, his eyes focused on me for a few seconds, his mouth half shaped a word, but even that effort proved too much for him. Before I could catch hold of it, his head fell back with a thud onto the floor.
Feeling wretched at not foreseeing that, I moved so that I could hold it in my lap, and caressed his hair as I looked down at his face, willing him to recover.
In my youth, I had witnessed an attack of the falling sickness, but this wasn't like that at all. His body wasn't locked in a rigid posture nor was he violently shaking. Instead, it was limp, cool, and gently tremorous, as if he were floating in a pool of water. Nothing in my own studies gave me the slightest hint of what I was seeing, and I dearly wished I had some way of summoning Grysta to my side.
Instead, I used my power to gently probe his mind, but all I could discern was a wash of feelings, impossible to differentiate or define^×much like my own mind must be, I thought, when I am swimming in the force.
Even so, I was just gathering my courage to go wake a soldier and send for Grysta, despite the consequences, when Caelas began to stir. He groaned, slowly lifted his hands to his face and pressed his palms against his eyes. He groaned again, moved his head a little, realized it was in my lap, and looked up at me.
"What did you do to me?" he whispered.
"Caelas!" I said, shocked. "Nothing! I did nothing!"
He regarded me a few seconds more, then closed his eyes again and lay still, gathering his strength. After a bit, he sat up. He had meant to get to his feet, but instead collapsed into a sitting position, and even that required the support of both his arms. He was looking away from me.
I slid the short distance across the floor and put my hand on one of his knees. To my despair, he pushed it away. Groaning from the effort, he got onto his knees and crawled to the ledge that ran along the wall, dragged himself up so that he was sitting on it, then leaned forward, his face in his hands.
I went and sat beside him but dared not speak or try to touch him. After we had sat like that for some time, his body began to shake. I looked at him and saw to my relief that he was laughing. He leaned back until his head rested against the wall and reached out his hand to me. I seized it at once.
"Tell me, truly," he said, his voice still barely audible, "you've never entered a man before?"
"Not like that," I replied.
He turned his head slightly and regarded me from the corner of his eye. "Not like what?" he asked. And so I told him about Telo.
"And this boy, this Telo," he said, "how was he after you were through?"
"Very happy," I answered. "I remember thinking I had much to learn to get as much pleasure out of the act as he seemed to."
This time Caelas laughed out loud. "Oh, Gracious Mother," he said. He drew me to him and wrapped his arm around me. "Idiot boy," he said. "Didn't it occur to you that maybe, just maybe, something in your release might have been the cause of this...intensity?"
"Well," I admitted, "Alfrund did wonder about that, but, well, I didn't have the nerve to ask Orien."
"Alfrund, Telo," Caelas said, shaking his head. "Exactly how much further does this list go on?"
"My list is much shorter than yours," I shot back, hotly, "and, as you well know, much less interesting."
He took my chin in his hand and turned my head so that he could look into my eyes. "Not so," he answered softly, and ran his fingers through my hair. "Everything about you interests me to distraction. Do you understand now what happened?"
I shook my head sullenly. But, of course I knew. I had added another reason to hate being a Nithaial.
"The wizard Occrast lived half his life as a man and half as a woman," Caelas said, "and when asked whether men or women got more from the act of love, he (or was it she!) replied^×the woman, because for her pleasure knows no end, while a man's is over in the time it takes to sneeze.
"Well," Caelas smiled, "I now know sex as a woman..., or perhaps I should say, a very, very lucky woman. But I wasn't expecting it, and I thought you'd cast some spell on me, the power of which you didn't understand. So I fought it, with the result that I simply passed out. I suppose when it enters through the mouth, your spending has less power^×or else young Telo is still lying, wreathed in smiles, on the floor of his shop."
I had to smile myself at that image. "Oh, Caelas," I said, "everything is so complicated about being a Nithaial. Now I can't make love to someone without warning him that, that.... I don't even know what I would say."
"Just tell him to prepare himself for a penetration he'll never forget," Caelas said. "Many promise this, but you, sweet one, actually deliver."
Seeing that I was still unconvinced, he smiled again, and gave my shoulder a shake. "Jessan," he said, "the life of a Nithaial is beyond a mortal's imagining, I know, but this aspect, I can swear to you, will prove the least of your burdens.
"Now, rouse yourself," he added, standing up. "My strength is back, and I have something to show you." He took me by the hand and led me across the great hall.
As we went, he said, "While you were bathing in the force, I did a bit of exploring, as you invited me to do. Sondaram, as palaces go, is infinitely small, It's not a palace at all, really, but a jeweled miniature of one, and all the lovelier because of it.
"Even so, it seemed to me that it should have a lower level, just as it has an upper one. In that case, the staircase is in plain view, public, and open. If there's something below, it's meant to be private, perhaps even secret.
"Of course, if it were truly secret, I knew I wouldn't find it at all. But if it were just meant not to be noticed^×well, I've a little experience with that sort of thing. Wizards often construct invisible doorways for those who can afford them. For the sake of convenience, however, they're rarely completely hidden^×just made imperceptible to those who don't know where to look. And, of course, even if you do know where, the real trick is getting them to open."
By now we had reached what to my eyes was a blank wall, distinguished only by the fact that the stone ledge that ran around the wall ended a short span before it reached the first outside arch. That, surely, was Caelas's first clue.
Then.... I stared and stared and still saw nothing. I went up closer to the wall and looked intently at each piece of tile that covered it. They were all the same, except for one, which, if you looked directly at it, seemed more translucent than the others. When I put my face directly in front of it, I could just make out^×beneath the surface of the tile, where it couldn't be felt nor its ridges catch the light^×the delicate outline of a hand.
I raised my own to see if it matched the one embedded in the tile. Before I'd even touched the surface, the hand began to glow.
"Tell it to open," Caelas said. "Just with your mind; you don't have to speak."
"Open," I thought. There was a click and a door swung inwards. As it did, it revealed a small antechamber. Large crystals set into its walls began to glow as soon as I stepped inside, with Caelas cautiously following me. There was nothing within but two doorways, one open, one shut. The shut one, I realized, would give access to the tower, if that weren't still in ruins. But the other opened onto a flight of stairs leading downwards. As before, as we approached, crystals set into the stairwell began to glow, in anticipation of our descent.
I took Caelas's hand and asked, "Do we dare go down?"
He answered, "That's up to you. And maybe you should descend alone in case what lies below is for your eyes only. But as to 'dare'^×remember, this is your house. All within it belongs to you and all of it obeys you. Whatever you find down there, it's not going to be dangerous."
"That's what Orien said, too," I answered. "But most of what I learn about myself ends up proving all too dangerous^×to me and those who are close to me."
"Up until now," Caelas answered, "those around you were unused to danger. True, it's good to be wary of it, but that only enhances its many pleasures."
"Easy for you to say, great warrior," I retorted.
"Easy also to prove," he answered back, and scooped me up with one arm, as if I were a child. "Prepare yourself, Nithaial." And down the steps we went, the lights glowing on just ahead of us. At the bottom, Caelas let me go, and we looked at what lay before us.
To the extent that I had given it any thought at all, I expected to find a warren of passages, storage rooms, servant quarters, kitchens, and the like. But Sondaram itself had none of these. If there was a separate building that housed them, it had been totally destroyed when the palace was brought down.
What we came upon instead was a vast room the same shape and size as the great hall above, but divided by eight thick pillars, covered with elaborately carved friezes, supporting the room above. In the center was a massive throne. From it, like the spokes of a wheel, extended several rows of catafalques. On the top of each of these lay a life-size graven image of the one whose remains it entombed.
As soon as he saw this, Caelas seized my hand and quickly drew me back up the stairs.
"What is it?" I asked, startled, but he said nothing until we reached the anteroom.
"It's the resting place of the Nithaial who have come before you," he said, "and it would be a mark of great disrespect to enter it in our current state. Come with me to the fountain, where we'll wash ourselves, then dress properly and descend again."