Warriors of Xel Ch. 05

Aliyah knew a lie when one was told to her, and she knew sincerity. There was more to him than first appeared, and she saw the same emotion reflected in his eyes.

"You are more of a man, than your friend Jorvais and Reerdon can hope to ever be. I accept your condolences with my thanks..."

Damian gave her a hint of a smile, and looked up to Orilios and then back at her. She nodded at his silent question. "He is a marked improvement upon his Father."

Orilios did notice that Damian and Aliyah had moved away from the others, and noted the mirrored body language of the two, with a cock of a brow. They sat close together, heads inclined to the others' words. In an afterthought, he did not begrudge his friend the Deloran vision. They were better matched than he could ever hope to be with her. Now the only obstacle that now lay between them was the striking, and sensuous girl sitting beside him. It was a strange turn of events...

"It doesn't change things Damian..." Aliyah told him flatly.

"You would be surprised how things sometimes transpire...Look how we sit here talking with one another. Would you have thought yourself at ease in my company few hours ago?" Aliyah gave him a sheepish grin and shrugged non-committal.

He nudged her in a teasing manner, and he froze. Aliyah however instead of reacting with violence or a sharp tongue, smiled at him. He was amazed at the difference in her temperament.

"What? You're staring..." She asked frowning at him.

"I was marvelling at the change."

Aliyah was not surprised or offended by his omission. She deserved it, and far worse by her reckoning. The Xelians' had been allies of her people. She as her former self had fought alongside many Xelian warriors.

"Tell me something Damian...I will not anger at you." Aliyah was again serious, and Damian couldn't help but tense. "Why did the Xelian authorities brand so many of our soldiers as mercenaries? Why were we so ill thought of after the war?"

Damian sighed, and for truth didn't know the full politics behind the change in attitude from his own commanders. "I do not know fully. I remember when Deloran and Xel warriors walked confidently beside one another." He sighed and thought for a little while before continuing, "It may have been to do with work, and the sudden influx of armed warriors seeking employment made it more difficult for our own warriors in Xel. It does not make it just though... There was much of fear of angry warriors rampaging, answering to no one, having lost their own homes, and families seeing no wrong in unleashing their rage upon innocents..."

Aliyah felt suddenly deeply shamed. She had not thought of the repercussions that would have come from unsated blood lust.

"I had not thought in my own self pitying grief and pride that my people could fall to levels of such dishonour and depravity. I was a fool..."

"It was not common Aliyah. It did however give the officials the excuse of imposing the law that no Deloran Mercenary, which was their way of saying Deloran soldier could enter many parts of our cities and houses armed..."

"I am not angry with you Damian. I am grateful for your candid truth telling."

"If you are not angry with me, then why are your eyes suddenly so dark?" He took Aliyah by the hand under the table and squeezed gently until she met his gaze.

"I am ashamed, and my Great General would have been more shamed than I. I am glad he did not live to see any of his men sink to such depths." Aliyah clutched Damians' calloused hands tighter even as she continued to stare at the table. Her eyes' stung with tears, and a few fat ones fell down her cheeks.

Damian hesitated for a moment until his chivalry won out and he hooked his arm around her small waist and pulled her to him. She didn't fight him, and rested her head against his shoulder.

Around them the noise continued, and Reerdon and Mari exchanged similar looks, but Orilios and Reina both knew why Damian now had his arm around Aliyah. They were both warriors, and Reina understood it had been a long time since Aliyah had met a man equal to her...

Mari couldn't hide the jealousy and spark in her eyes from Orilios a moment later. He leaned forward and drew her close, to speak privately.

"Do not begrudge your friend this small comfort. I believe they are discussing Xel and Deloran politics. There were a few incidents involving Deloran soldiers. Who wreaked violence upon several Xelian girls, and their families..."

Mari glared at him in confusion and was about to ask what incidents, but he shushed her before she could begin.

"They are also two of a kind..." Orilios leaned back and eyed her as he took a deep drink whilst Mari continued to frown. The anger seemed to flow out of her a little while later.

"I think I may be returning to my Fathers' house after all Reina."

Reina turned to Mari surprised. "I thought you didn't want to return to a life of bondage..." Mari simply shrugged, casting one more mournful look at Damian before suddenly brightening and again took up an earlier strand of conversation with Reerdon.

More time passed, until Orilios asked Mari, "Would you consider returning to Xel Mari?"

"I am not Xelian my Prince Orilios." she replied with a saucy grin, deliberately addressing him formerly as none had done so since the beginning of their meeting.

"Where are you from then?"

"I am one of your subjects my Prince. My Fathers' home is not a day's ride from here."

"May I enquire of his name, my Lady?"

Reina watched Mari squirming uncomfortably under the Princes' avid gaze. She was very curious to find out herself. She and Aliyah both didn't know themselves.

"If you do not mind my Prince, I am reticent to give of his name, should he find the location of my person. It is a delicate matter, my lord..." Mari blushed deeply under all their gazes. Even Damian and Aliyah were now listening to the conversation once more.

"You are of noble lineage..." Reerdon was the one to say it, and to make Mari blush even darker.

Aliyah pitied Mari, and her intrinsic obligation to her family. She would protect her from it, if she could. Now though, everything seemed unlikely.

"Who is your Father Mari?" Orilioses' deep timbre sounded like pressed silk to Mari, and she found it hard to resist him. Sighing deeply she met his unyielding gaze.

"He would have had me sent off to whore for a man I did not know, or at best given to one of his sons' in a baleful marriage in which I would have been tied to a suite of rooms, and given nothing but a cloth and needle for my entertainment whilst my husband waltzed off with any number of whores..." Long buried bitterness gave Mari uncharacteristic fire.

"I would make it my own business to assure your happiness, and not see you bartered away by your

father for profit."

"You don't know what he is like. He would not listen to anyone..."

"He will listen to me. I and my brothers' are extremely close. You would have the protection of the Crown." He expected gratitude, not the mixed look of despair and hatred. He was about to press her again when her lips began to move.

"My Father is Lord Fvronian. I am his only daughter Marina Luvia..." Mari held her head in her hands and Orilios suddenly understood everything. He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of having found her in the company of a Deloran general.

"Your father wanted you to marry my brother, Lycan..."

"Or whore for The King...I am no virgin. Even before Damian, I have slept with others. Commoners, soldiers many more. I am soiled goods now." Mari was defiant, and Aliyah laughed out loud in encouragement. She dared a glance at Damian, to see if he'd give her obvious lack of prior experience away but he simply grinned at her spirit.

Orilios looked to Damian, and cringed when Damian raised his glass to him in a mock toast. He smiled wearily and knew what he must do, by honour and duty to his brother Lycan who thought his betrothed bride had been kidnapped and lost.

"You misjudge your worth my Lady Marina." He teased her, because he couldn't help it from her brazen rebellion.

"Your brother won't want a woman who has been wanton to lusts of many Xelian warriors..."

"You don't know my brother."

Aliyah couldn't help the fit of laughter that

took her then, she knew well that Orilios would not allow her to be wed to someone she did not love. She also doubted from the look in Orilioses' eye, if his brothers' were as close as he claimed that any of them would mind either.

Mari shuddered, and hid her face in her hands.

"You are right about one thing though Mari, your Father will be wild once the joy of seeing you unharmed recedes..." Reerdon found his comment unwelcome as he looked around the faces scowling back at him, he shrugged and left the table to go to the bar.

"I keep my oaths lovely Lady Luvia Fvronian..." Mari scowled at Orilios suddenly while nobody around them had any understanding.

Orilios stood abruptly and walked around to Maris' side. He held out his hand, and gave her a stern look that would not be denied. Mari hung her head and followed him hopelessly.

Aliyah darted quickly to block their way. "I am putting my faith in you Orilios. Do not..."

Orilios beamed oddly at her, and nodded. Aliyah rested a hand on her friends shoulder in a show of support. "If word could reach the Palace that I am here, you will be able to find me should you need me. I will see you soon." Aliyah went to hug the younger woman, but halted when Mari shot her a look of loathing. "You cannot allow your family to go on believing you are dead!"

Mari didn't like it, furthermore she didn't reply but she didn't scowl at her either. She just left with Orilios, with lead weights in her stomach.

"Poor girl..." Reerdon spoke. Then he frowned and asked Damian and Aliyah, "Is she really as skilled as she claimed?"

Aliyah chuckled to herself not saying anything. Damian matched her humour. Aliyah thought about Mari and how she had only ever been to bed with one other man, and even though she had moaned later that it had been two things. Boring, and uninspiring. "Well one thing's for sure, she's no virgin. Damian can testify to that." They would have thought her words' an insult unless she had been trying so hard not to smile when she'd said them.

Reina stayed silent, seemingly in another world. "What do you think Orilios will say to her father?"

"He is a man of honour." Damian didn't need to say it, but it reassured the women.

***

Lycan was having dinner with several of his friends. The chatter was cheerful, despite an air of melancholy that lay over his home. The Palace had lost their King. Now his brother Sander had fulfilled his birth right and had taken the crown. Good for him, Lycan thought merrily to himself. If their father had had his way, he himself would have been married to an insipid girl whose beauty was undeniable, and whose family and wealth were arguably a good match for him but the girl had supposedly been kidnapped by Deloran mercenaries. He doubted that any Delorans had ever had any part in her demise, but both her father Lord Fvronian and he despised the Delorans. Now he'd been recently told by a messenger that his younger brother Orilios had found the girl! He would not marry her, of that he was adamant, he was however curious of her story...

Lycan groaned as one of his brothers' wife's ladies nestled between his legs. He cupped her soft golden hair in his hand, and urged her to take more of his thick length further into her hot wet mouth. She was skilled, at swallowing in his opinion. He groaned in pleasure and flexed his powerful legs, whilst his men pretended to not notice what was going on beneath the table. It was not long before one of his hand held her mouth over his shaft, and he gripped the arm of his chair, he forced the girl to take his seed into her mouth. Holding her head there until he was completely spent. Even after he lost much of his hardness, the girl stayed beneath the table to suckle on his balls. He was more than happy for the girl to remain there, the remainder of the evening...

"I am pleased to find you here my brother!"

Lycan suddenly looked up, and hastily pushed the girl who was busy palming his balls roughly away, so that she landed on her back with a soft whimper. He hastily retied his trousers back up, and rose to greet his little brother.

"Ori!" They embraced each other as siblings do, and both suddenly looked down to see a pink faced, blonde haired woman hastily scurrying back under the cover of the table.

Orilios arched a brow at his shameless brother and smirked, who just shrugged. Lycan looked behind Orilios to the door way where a pale faced beauty stood, looking ready to take flight once more.

"I do not believe it..." Lycan stepped away from Orilios and walked slowly toward Mari. She had changed into one of her least favourite gowns. A deep green, high necked, long sleeved thing. Even though it did not reveal much flesh, it clung to her curves, and complemented her colouring perfectly.

Forcing her courage, Orilios came once more to stand beside her; she straightened her spine and willed her pulse to calm. Lycan was as handsome as she remembered, and as outrageously oversexed as well. Pretending not to have seen the girl scuttle back under the table, she waited to be addressed by name.

"The Maker has returned my would-be wife!" He called back to a raucous noise of cheering, and banging fists on wood.

"I think you'll find it was not the maker, but your brother..." Orilios noted that since meeting with her father again, and seeing the look of pained joy at her sudden resurrection, she found the courage to tell him why she ran in the first place. As Orilios had thought, her father had exploded with fury and ordered her to beg his brother Lycan for forgiveness. She had spared him no details after that. She had been entrusted to Orilioses' care from that moment. He had sent soldiers to fetch her belongings, and had her father told that once he calmed sufficiently he was welcome to visit her at the palace at his convenience.

Lycan stared in disbelief at Mari. He ogled her form with lust, and did not see any reason in hiding it.

"Where did my brother find you?"

Mari blushed crimson under his gaze, and had to look to Orilios for an answer for her. "I first met her company in Xel..."

Lycans' eyebrows shot up, and his surprise piqued Maris' anger. "As I told your brother, I am soiled goods, and of no use to you now!" Lycan began to laugh.

The men trying in vain to catch the conversation grew agitated at not knowing the joke, and cat called.

"One thing I am most pleased of is that you have finally found your tongue...And judging from the colour of your cheeks, the Xelian warriors showed you how to make use of it." He threw back his head and bellowed more deeply.

"Lycan, I see that you are amused, but of a more serious concern. Her father has handed her into my care. He would have her seek your forgiveness, but I was unable to advise him of the futility of that occurrence, nor the need of it."

"So you shall reside within the Palace...I am pleased. I will have the pleasure of seeking your company in the days to come." With that he bowed to her, picking up her hand and kissing her knuckles lingeringly.

Mari opened and shut her mouth, unable to say anything. As Orilios led her away, he gave her an encouraging, and knowing smile. He tried to assure it would be alright, but Mari looked more frightened than ever.

***

Reina and Aliyah found themselves guests of Damians'. His home was large and very comfortable. Reerdon had asked Reina very gentlemanly if she would accompany him for a late night meal, and Aliyah found she was alone with Damian.

They were drinking and exchanging stories of battle until Reina and Reerdon came to tell them that they were setting off.

Silence quickly filled the room. Aliyahs' skin itched as she thought of Mari, but Damian seemed unconcerned.

"If you are worried, we shall go and see Mari tomorrow..." Aliyah gave him a look that told him he doubted she would be a welcome guest of any of them, and they both laughed seeing the irony of the situation.

Aliyah stretched and her vision blurred, she eyed Damian blearily. "I find myself in your home...How is this? I know the wage of a warrior is not nearly enough to pay for walls as thick, and wine as fine as we have been drinking..."

Damian simply watched her, refusing to commit to anything.

"Where would the man of the house have me bedded then?" As intended the suggestive question elicited Damians' response. He pushed to his feet, and took the few steps to where Aliyah was seated, and extended an open hand down to her.

"I would have you..." He caught her wrist, and pulled her to her feet. He stared deeply into her eyes, and pondered how they had come to be where they were now...

"Is it the woman you are staring so intently at, or the notion of the last commander of the Delorans that finds your tongue so unusually redundant..."

"What do you mean?"

"Surely Orilios and his brothers would be comforted to think, that I am being seduced and tempered by a trusted friend."

"You are bringing issues that are not mine to discuss Aliyah, for truth I do not understand any of what you are saying..."

She ran a hand through his hair, and raked her nails gently over his scalp. She watched as his eyes closed, and rolled into the back on his head in pleasure. "No, you have no idea..." His eyes widened in surprise when she arched her warm body into him, and danced her tongue along his bottom lip. She bit down gently, and made him groan. The kiss deepened, and ended with her taunting whisper... "Undress me, and take me to you bed..." Damian felt a craving coursing through his veins, like he'd never felt before.

He quickened his movements, when he saw her ample breasts exposed to his eyes. She turned laughing at him with her eyes, twirling playfully she turned her back on him, he got better access to her bindings and buckles and made quick profit from her manoeuvres. He slid a hand down the front of her trousers, and felt soft, hot, bare sticky skin. He pushed his fingers further down cupping and pulled her hard against his chest. He stooped quickly to pull her trousers fully off, and Aliyah took a small step away from him and turned back to him.

Damians' eyes raked from her fiery golden gaze, to the exquisite curve of her waist, and down the toned length of her bared legs. Above her left hip, sat a scar from a wound that should have been mortal...

Aliyah stroked her scar affectionately, remembering briefly the lover who had tended her, and cared for her long after her scar had healed.

"The physician who saw to that wound, was skilled indeed..." Damians' husky voice brought her back to her present and for a moment her eyes fell closed. "I would have the woman who is about to enter my bed, here with me..." He wasn't angry, as she suddenly looked at him, but he was curious...

Aliyah forced herself to act playful and narrowed her eyes on him. "Come and claim me then..." She got less than three steps before he had her breathless over his shoulder and striding quickly to where she assumed where his sleeping quarters.

Damian moved through the house. It was very cool compared to the fire lit seating area, where he had been entertaining Aliyah. He smoothed the goose bumps on her thighs, with a hot hand, and assured himself they would have no need of a fire tonight. Aliyah was silent as he moved quickly. She didn't want to talk anymore...

Aliyah missed her former lover, and contented herself as best she could with the knowledge that he was alive, and tending the sick somewhere in Xel...

Damian unloaded her, so that she landed atop a pile of cushions. She smoothed her hands out unconsciously about her, enjoying the texture of the soft cotton. She inhaled a strange citrus, and spiced wood scent. She didn't know what it was, but it was very pleasing and she took it all the way into her lungs.