‘Why won’t he talk about it?’ Hirad had seen the benefits, the power and the speed.

‘Because of how people view him,’ replied Jandyr. ‘There are enough who think all shapechangers are abominations whose lines should be stopped by death to make him scared to admit what he is.’ Jandyr rose. ‘Look, you have to understand that Thraun is a man like any of us. But he has another side he would rather not have. He is not to be feared, more to be pitied. Just treat him like a man. It is all he wants.’

‘I understand,’ said Hirad.

‘None of us can ever truly do that,’ said Jandyr.

Denser opened his door in response to the soft knocking. He didn’t consider a threat - with Sol guarding the corridor for all of their rooms, he didn’t need to. Anyway, he knew who it was.

So there she stood, and the first thought that rose in his mind was that, cleaned of all the grime of the trail and wearing soft, loose fabric, she was, as he had thought since he had first laid eyes on her, very attractive.

His groin stirred, unbidden, and he suppressed a smile. He wondered if she could read his face. He would enjoy this. He pushed the door wide.

Erienne swept into his room, smiling. ‘Tonight I will conceive.’ Her face was turned away from him, her voice emotionless.

He chuckled. ‘Is that really all it is to you?’

‘We made a deal. This is the payoff of that deal. What else could there be?’ But her smile betrayed her words.

Denser closed the door and moved towards her, his eyes tracing the shadow of her body beneath her white robe as it flickered in the candlelight.

‘It may be that the payoff of the deal could be pleasurable to you,’ he said, eyes sparkling, pupils dilated.

‘That isn’t why I struck the deal,’ she said quickly. ‘But things do, um, develop.’ Denser saw her face colour.

He stood close to her now. She didn’t move away.

‘I did it because I respect your skill as a mage.’

‘And my power,’ added Denser.

At last she turned to him. ‘That’s the main reason I chose you instead of Ilkar.’

‘Ilkar, he . . .’

‘He is certainly more handsome than you.’ She was smiling again.

Denser stood squarely in front of her. ‘But Ilkar’s an elf !’

‘Yes, and a Julatsan. Two more reasons I favour your seed.’ The smile broadened and softened her face to beauty.

‘Well, I’m flattered my College is so much more attractive to you,’ said Denser.

‘Lucky, more like, or I could be standing in front of Ilkar now.’

‘Not short on self-confidence, are you?’ He placed a hand on her cheek, cupping her face as she leaned into it.

‘It covers the emptiness,’ she whispered. She pushed a hand through his hair, smoothing it down his neck.

‘Do you still hurt inside?’ asked Denser.

‘Like a knife is twisting through my heart.’

‘Tonight, I want to stop that.’ His voice was barely audible as he moved his lips to her ear. ‘Together, we can make you whole again.’

She grabbed his face in both hands and looked deep into his eyes, searching for lies. She found none and felt tears well up.

‘What’s wrong?’ Denser asked.

‘Nothing.’ She kissed him gently and he let his tongue whisper across her lips. Her hands moved to the back of his head and his arms caught her about her waist, crushing them together.

The kiss gained intensity, their tongues meeting, exploring mouths, heads moving, breath drawn in hard. Hands searched. He felt hers trail to his neck, where they kneaded and pressed before moving down to his chest to pick at the buttons of his shirt.

She was wearing a simple white shift, clasped at the shoulder. He found the fastening, fumbled briefly, and snapped it open, hearing her gasp involuntarily as the shift dropped soundlessly to the floor. Beneath it she was naked. Denser’s arousal was complete. He walked her to the bed and laid her down, straddling her body on hands and knees and looking down at her face and at her breasts, which were moving in rapid response to her breathing.

He cupped one in his hand, feeling the nipple harden.

‘You didn’t want to waste any time,’ he remarked.

‘No. And I still don’t.’ She grabbed at his belt and the button of his fly, and while she hauled his trousers down over his hips, Denser pulled his shirt over his head. Together, they added his trousers to the pile of discarded clothing.

She took his penis in one hand and guided it towards her, Denser looking down at the hair between her legs, which was as dark as her skin was pale. She moved her legs apart and he responded, moving his inside hers and leaning down to her. His mouth was on her breast as he entered her, and as he began to move inside her, the clamour of the mana swept him away.

Shafts of blue light shattered before his eyes as he pushed himself fully inside her. The trails they left spread away, flickering and dying, absorbed by the warm orange pulsing all around Erienne.

She felt smooth but he barely noticed as, with each gentle thrust, the mana poured around him in ever darker tendrils, catching and mixing with the Dordovan strain. The sight was so beautiful it took his breath away, and as Erienne began to move with him, it took his rhythm too.

‘Don’t stop,’ she whispered, and he picked it up once more.

To Erienne, it was a mana-meld miracle. She could feel his hand on her breast, his lips on her neck and his movement inside her, confident and sensual. She held herself in check, denying herself orgasm as she watched their manas weave while the colours became indistinct, ultimately forming a cocoon of softly pulsating deep mauve.

Now the conditions were ideal. Denser’s thrusts were more urgent, his tempo increasing, and she felt him deeply, her legs and back tingling and numbing with pleasure.

She reached a hand down to cup his testicles, his breath hissing out suddenly against her shoulder. She moved her pelvis with him, swift but controlled, bringing herself to the point of orgasm.

Above her, Denser moaned as he approached climax. His penis hardened further, delighting her with its touch, and they came together in an explosion of mana light. The cocoon disintegrated, sending rainbow teardrops splashing around them. Erienne cried out in pleasure and triumph. Denser pushed hard once more then stopped moving, still deep inside her.

She placed a hand low on her stomach and probed down with her mana to warm the semen, to keep them alive and to imbue them with the beginnings of the power her child would possess.

Denser lifted his head and looked down at her. Erienne smiled, put her hands either side of his face and kissed him.

‘Now we should sleep,’ she said. ‘And then next time we can concentrate on pure enjoyment.’

Chapter 24

During her run into Parve, Selyn thanked the Gods for the unusual order of the Wesmen encampments. Although it had seemed from a distance that they were pitched anywhere, the stands of tents were all grouped in half-circles around large fires, giving her the opportunity to skirt the light, people and dogs.

A CloakedWalk spell, although rendering its caster completely invisible, did nothing to deaden noise or scent, and Selyn’s principal concern was the Destrana pure-bred war dogs favoured by the Wesmen tribes. Men’s eyes deceived the other senses; not so those of the Destrana.

Unable to stop except in deep shadow, Selyn ran, walked, crawled and trotted as circumstances dictated, always with one eye on the ground for a stray twig or loose rock. A thrill was in her heart. This was what she had trained for so long to do. Deep infiltration, awesome odds, a deadly enemy, and Selyn passing through it all like a breeze through the undergrowth.

Where the firelight cast good illumination on the ground, Selyn slowed to examine the encampments more closely. All had the same characteristics. A tribal standard stood proud in front of a blazing wood fire, over which cookpots hung and steamed.