The Devil's Deuce (The Barrier War) (23 page)

When their kiss finally broke, they were both breathing
heavily. Danner could no longer stop his body from trembling, and his hands
shook perceptibly when he reached up to brush her hair away from her face.
Their eyes met, and Danner thought Alicia had never looked so beautiful as she
did in that instant.

Then they kissed again, and thought fled. Danner’s hands
caressed her back, then he reached lower and caressed her buttocks through the
thick practice pants she still wore. They rolled so Alicia was on her back with
Danner hovering over her and to one side. He kissed his way from her lips down
her neck, then back up toward her ear. Alicia gasped as his lips roamed across
the side of her face and neck, then down and around to the other side. She
clutched him to her, and Danner’s breath caught in his throat as she reached
forward and grasped his ear between her teeth. His entire body practically pulsed
with pent up passion, and he knew he was on the verge of losing control of
himself.

Danner’s hands roamed across Alicia’s body, and soon they
were working together to remove her tunic. With her undergarments revealed,
Alicia arched her back as Danner’s lips worked down across the smooth flesh of
her chest. His hands slid up and down as much of her body as he could reach,
and then Alicia tugged Danner’s own tunic from his body. Her cool fingers
explored the burning skin of his back, and Danner felt intoxicated by the
sensations she evoked in his body.

He pulled her against him, their heavy breathing perfectly
in time with each other. Danner shook and felt Alicia doing the same, and he
wondered if they should stop before one or both of them went too far. She
squirmed slightly in his grasp, either burrowing closer to him or trying to
wriggle free, he wasn’t sure. He touched her side with one hand and her thigh
with another, preparing to push some distance between them so he could see her
face.

The air split as Alicia screamed piercingly, nearly
deafening Danner. She shoved him back, her hands clawing to get away. Danner
released her, hurt and confusion chilling the fiery passion that had raged in
his body only a moment before.

Alicia pressed her face into a pillow and her scream
dissolved into hysterical sobs. She held the soft cushion against her face, her
body convulsing jerkily with the force of her tears. Danner reached out a
tentative hand, but didn’t know how it would be received. His fingers trembled as
they hung suspended in confusion and hesitation.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, too quiet for her to hear.

“I’m sorry,” she echoed through her wracking sobs. “I’m
sorry, Danner. I couldn’t control it. It just felt too much… like…”

And then Danner understood. The demon had raped her while
impersonating Danner, and the sensation was still burned into her memory. For
all the closeness they’d shared recently, still that memory – that nightmare! –
lay between them like a fiery chasm.

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

And now Danner did reach for her, and he pulled her away
from the pillow and brought her into a comforting embrace. He rocked her gently
as she continued to cry, and Danner made soothing sounds and gently eased his
fingers through her hair.

“
Shhhh
,” he whispered. “There’s
nothing to be sorry about. It’s okay.
Shhhh
.”

He repeated this over and over like a mantra until Alicia’s
tears stopped.

“It’s just that I wanted this so badly,” she whispered at
last. “I keep thinking of you, and I’ve wanted this to happen.”

“Well, that certainly makes two of us,” Danner said,
deliberately keeping his voice light. Alicia laughed softly, the sound tainted
only slightly by her lingering tears.

“And now I’ve gone and ruined it,” she said, her voice filled
with regret and pain.

“No,” he disagreed, tilting her chin to look at him.
“Alicia, you have no idea how happy it makes me just to know you feel like
this. The knowledge that you
want
to feel that way is infinitely more
important to me than anything else right now. If we both want it enough, maybe
we can push past this thing, and then… who knows?”

“I don’t know what I want, I just know that I want
something.”

Danner heard what she was trying to say and nodded.

“Let’s just take it one step at a time, and we’ll see where
this takes us, okay? Slowly. Agreed?”

Alicia nodded, then she leaned up and kissed him again, a
lingering kiss that said more than words what might be between them. Then she
settled against his chest and closed her eyes. Danner sighed and allowed
himself to relax.

“We might want to get dressed again, though,” she said
softly, “before the others get home.” Then they both laughed, and the last of
Alicia’s tears were forgotten.

As paladins – warriors of God – we have shackled ourselves to a
particular image: the Knight in Shining Armor. Someday I will train men how I
want them trained, and we will remake the world of combat and warfare.

- Gerard Morningham,

private journals (996 AM)

- 1 -

The remainder of their weekend was a mixed blessing of
dullness. Danner was glad that nothing went wrong and no emergencies arose that
required their attention, and he was immensely happy that things seemed all
right between him and Alicia; they’d gotten dressed and had composed themselves
before anybody came home that night. Trebor gave them a long look and a sad
smile, but stayed silent.

At the same time, he and Alicia had little time alone
together after that first night. It seemed either Faldergash or Flasch was
always somewhere nearby, and they could never get a moment’s privacy. Trebor
did his best to stay out of their way and to steer the others clear, having
read Danner’s frustration in his thoughts, but the denarae met with limited
success.

After a day of no privacy with Alicia, Danner was on the
verge of asking her to his room for the night, just so they could be alone
together. But he wasn’t sure how she’d react to that idea ─ if it might
feel like too much, too fast ─ so he remained silent on that idea.
Probably just as well. He didn’t relish the thought of facing Marc with the
knowledge that he’d spent the night with his friend’s sister, even though
nothing serious would have happened, he was sure.

Then their Sabbatha leave had run its course, and they had
to return to camp. With Gerard’s warnings still fresh in their minds, they
loaded the buggy with the spoils of their excursion into the Prism’s
chapterhouse and drove off. Faldergash had wrapped their tires with spiked
metal chains to make driving through the snow and ice easier, and he added some
sort of chemical to the fluids in the engine to keep it from freezing on them.
Danner glanced in a mirror and saw Alicia standing on the porch staring after
them. He turned back to wave, but she’d already turned to walk back into the
house.

With a sigh, Danner turned back and watched the city speed
by.

They reached the camp without serious incident. A pair of
guards at the city gate gave Trebor suspicious looks, but didn’t question his
presence in the escort of two young paladins. The denarae encampment was a buzz
of activity already, and Trebor leaned over to Danner.

“Gerard beat us back and someone picked up the incident in
the Prism’s chapterhouse,” Trebor said over the hum of the idling engine. “It’s
done wonders for his reputation.” Then Trebor laughed. “Apparently Gerard is
now being called ‘The Shepherd.’ I hope he sees this as an honor.”

Danner smiled, thinking that it would probably appeal to
Gerard’s sense of humor. They parked the buggy in a shed built just for its use
– to protect it from inclement weather – then walked to Gerard’s quarters.

“Enter,” came the barked response to their knocking. They
walked in and saw their friends were already there, standing around a table
with Gerard at the head. The room was decorated even more sparsely than his
office had been in the Prism chapterhouse. His furniture consisted of little
more than a bed, a table for planning, and a nightstand that currently held a
gnomish lamp and a stack of three books.

“Gentlemen, welcome back to the flock,” Gerard said without
a smile.

“You’ve heard then, sir?” Trebor asked.

“Heard? I’ve already commissioned the company standard as a
crossed white sword and shepherd’s crook on a black field,” Gerard said, and
then he did smile slightly. “One of the boys in Garnet’s platoon says he’s a
deuce with that sort of thing and will have the first standard ready by
mid-week. Your friends here took it upon themselves to requisition suggestions
from their platoons this weekend for our company handle. We were just
discussing several possibilities, but I wanted to run them all by my denarae
specialist first.”

Gerard and the other officers talked for nearly an hour
before they were satisfied, and Trebor had already kythed with several denarae in
the company to gauge their reactions. He reported nothing but positive
feedback. Most of the denarae thought the idea was a perfect twist to put on
their unit, and they appreciated the irony of turning derogatory terms into
marks of pride. By the time they left to form up their platoons, everyone in
the camp knew the name of their unit.

- 2 -

“Shadow Company, fall in!”

Gerard’s voice carried through the camp like a ringing bell,
reverberating in the ears, hearts, and minds of the denarae under his command.
Or so it seemed to Danner. A fierce pride shone in the eyes of the dark-skinned
troops, and Danner was sure he’d never seen men stand straighter in formation
or with more determination. As he walked briefly through the ranks, Gerard
could find no fault in their appearance or bearing, and Danner could tell their
commander was having a difficult time withholding an expression of pleasure.

Gerard resumed his position at the head of the company
formation and turned to face them, his red cloak swirling behind him as he spun
sharply on his heel.

“Today marks the first day of your
real
training,”
Gerard announced loudly. “With our own unit name, and soon under our own
company standard, we start the process of survival. By the time we’re finished,
you will be the most lethal group of sentient beings the world has ever seen.
El’Shakir
and
Li’Tiroth
, please
step forward.”

At this, two fair-haired elves appeared from behind the
building nearest Gerard and walked to stand on either side and one pace behind
the Shadow Company commander. Danner had heard of both elves, but had met
neither.
Shakir
and
Tiroth
were both paladins – of the Red and Violet Facets, respectively – the only two
elven paladins currently living in Nocka. They each carried a sleek bow nocked
with an arrow; instead of metal tips, however, the head of each arrow was
wrapped with a blunted ball. The arrows were to be used for some sort of
training Danner had never seen or heard of, but he knew they were also used by
the
deron’dala
[18]
as a non-lethal means of attack and
submission. They had similar adaptations for crossbow bolts. The blunted heads
were more difficult to aim and use than a pointed tip, but they would merely
bruise ─ and perhaps break bones ─ rather than pierce and kill.

Gerard introduced the two elves by name and sect, then
informed the company that they were never to speak to the elves unless invited
to by their platoon leader. He dismissed the company for training without
explaining this order.

Danner’s platoon was first up under the tutelage of the
elves, and he quickly discovered what Gerard had in mind for them. With the
superhuman senses elves possessed, in dead silence they could hear a mouse
crawl through the snow at ten paces. With their uncanny ability with a bow and
arrow, they could shoot that mouse, even while blindfolded. The denarae in
Danner’s company were nowhere near as quiet as a mouse, but they made much
easier targets.

Shakir
and
Tiroth
stood blindfolded in the center of a clearing as denarae tried to cross it
without attracting the elves’ attention. The denarae wore no armor and only as
much clothing as they needed to ward off the cold. If they were heard, one of
the elves would shoot them with a blunted arrow. If they cried out or gave any
verbal reaction, they were shot again. Not a one of them made it across the
clearing without at least half a dozen bruises to show for it, and most had
considerably more.

After all of the denarae had gone, Danner noticed some of
them darting covert glances his way, no doubt wondering whether he would
subject himself to the same possibility for pain and embarrassment. With a
mental shrug, Danner slipped out of his leather armor and removed all but one
layer of clothing. His platoon lined themselves on the far side of the
clearing, watching expectantly and with knowing expressions on their faces.

But Danner had been trained by the best, and he had no
intention of being shot with an arrow, blunted or otherwise. He moved
carefully, but with reasonable swiftness through the snow, and by the time he
was halfway across the clearing, the smirks had disappeared from his troops’
faces. Some scowled, but most watched him intently, studying his motions as
best they could from a distance.

Danner was only a few paces from the edge when he made a
mistake. A patch of snow crumpled and crunched softly beneath his foot, and he
immediately froze. He was motionless for less than a heartbeat before he ducked
and felt a stinging wind whistle over his back as an arrow passed less than an
inch from his body. He watched the elves for signs they would shoot again, then
he stood and carefully crossed the last few feet to the edge.