Out of the Darkness

“Indeed,” Rathar said, and said no more. Could Swemmel have been so daft as to choose this moment to try to be rid of him? It didn’t seem likely, but the same held true for a lot of things Swemmel did.

The crystallomancer’s call came long after midnight. “He’s an Algarvian,” reported the officer charged with guarding important captives.

“Powers above be praised,” Rathar said, and slept sound the rest of the night.

Nine

Every now and then, Talsu began seeing men in Jelgavan uniform in Skrunda. He didn’t see many of them, not compared to the swarms of Kuusaman soldiers who kept going through his home town. The ones he did see roused mixed feelings in him. He was glad his kingdom showed signs of being able to defend itself again, at least with the help of its allies (he tried not to think of them as rescuers). For the Jelgavan soldiers, he felt nothing but pity. He’d been one himself. He knew what it was like.

For a while, he hoped things might have changed since the disaster that led to Jelgava’s collapse four and a half years before. After all, King Donalitu had spent most of that time in exile in Lagoas. The Lagoans had a pretty good notion of what was what. Maybe Donalitu had learned something in Setubal-though the edicts he’d issued since his return argued against it.

But the first Jelgavan officer Talsu saw strutting through the streets of Skrunda smashed his hopes. The major was young and slim and handsome, not fat and homely like Colonel Dzirnavu, Talsu’s old regimental commander. But the noble’s badge on his chest and the way he shouted and screamed at the luckless men who had to follow him made memories Talsu would sooner have forgotten come flooding back.

He didn’t say anything about the fellow to his father. Never having gone into the army, Traku didn’t know what it was like. He idealized it in his mind, too. Even after the way Jelgava collapsed proved its army anything but ideal, Talsu’s father didn’t want to hear criticism and complaints.

In whispers-the only sort of talk that gave even a hope of privacy in the crowded flat-Talsu spilled out his worries to Gailisa when they both should have been asleep. “Nothing has changed,” he said, despair in his voice. “Nothing. The same arrogant idiots still have charge of us. And if we ever have to do any fighting again-”

“Powers above keep it from happening,” his wife broke in, also whispering.

“Aye, powers above keep it from happening indeed,” Talsu agreed. “If we ever have to do any fighting again, whoever we go up against will roll over us, same as the Algarvians did. Our men will want their officers dead, and how can you fight like that?”

Instead of answering what was, Talsu was sure, an unanswerable argument, Gailisa twisted in the narrow bed they shared to kiss him. If she hoped to distract him, she succeeded. His arms went around her. Her breasts pressed against him through the thin fabric of their pyjama tunics. A moment later, she laughed very quietly. He was pressing against her somewhere, too.

He slid a hand under her tunic. She sighed, again softly, as he caressed her. His parents had the flat’s only bedroom to themselves. His sister lay sleeping in her own cot only a few feet away. If he and Gailisa wanted to make love, they had to do it stealthily. Ausra was good about staying asleep-so good, Talsu wondered whether she sometimes knew what was going on and simply pretended not to-but he didn’t want to bother her.

Gailisa stroked him, too. He kissed her and reached under her trousers. She rolled onto her back and let her legs slide open to make things easier for him. Then she slithered down the bed and unbuttoned his fly. Her mouth was warm and wet and sweet. Talsu set a hand on the back of her head, half stroking her hair, half urging her on. If she’d kept going till he exploded, he wouldn’t have minded at all.

But, after a little while, she turned her back on him. Still lying on his side, he hiked her pyjama bottoms down just far enough. She stuck out her backside, and he went into her from behind. “Ah,” she whispered.

He said her name as he began to move. She pushed back against him. The bed creaked, but less from the side-to-side motion than it would have with him atop her. And, when Gailisa shuddered with pleasure a few minutes later, she put her face against the pillow so only a tiny sound escaped. Talsu tried to stay as quiet as he could, too. The joy that filled him, though, made him have trouble noticing how little or how much noise he made.

Ausra didn’t stir in the other bed. Either he’d been quiet enough or she was more than polite enough. At the moment, Talsu didn’t much care which. He leaned up on an elbow and kissed Gailisa, who twisted back toward him so their lips could meet. They both set their clothes to rights. Talsu happily fell asleep a few minutes later. Thoughts of Jelgavan soldiers and Jelgavan officers never entered his mind.