To Make a Kinder Children's Tale

7: Bedsheets

Althalos lay back in the bed he had rented for the night, holding the young woman loosely as she traced his ears with her delicate fingers. She looked even better out of that awful dress, but everyone looked weird when they were mere inches from your face. That wasn't the only off-putting thing, either. Her social cues were so offset that he couldn't tell what she wanted, especially as the bond had not quite settled-which amused him greatly. "Are you trying to get me to hold you tighter or let you go so I can see what you do?"

That brought a smirk to her face. "As indecisive as ever, M'Lord."

He could almost hear her laughter, unvoiced. But he was more concerned about the admission she just made. His eyes went from half closed to intently looking her still-flushed face over. Strange how her much paler skin showed her emotions so readily. "When did you figure it out?"

"About the time I pulled that stupid cap off your head." She raked her hands over his chest, kneading the flesh like a cat would a blanket. His muscles were about the thickest she'd ever seen, and hairless. Not the common Aelfine ideal, surely, but she had reveled in it-still wanted to. "It's unfortunate that whatever plans you had for me-to capture the guild-won't work now."

"What makes you think I had plans?" He frowned a little at that, as she wiggled in tighter against him, rubbing along the whole length of him in a way that he couldn't remember a 'skirt ever doing. Maybe innocence had it's perks.

"What other reason would you have to bed me? Anyway, I'm out the guild. My actions this morning were too much for my people to bear from an already incompetent thief."

Althalos sighed in frustration-this part would ruin many of Rileus' plans, certainly. But his own? No. He was here for her-for the both of them before this bond hurt them. The part she picked up on was his concession, unfortunately. "That wasn't at all what I came here for and you know it."

The girl had the audacity to laugh, shaking her slim frame beside him in a manner most distracting. "A moment's connection in a world of intrigue is hardly something to search for a woman to make a 'skirt of, and you know it."

The man had enough: he nipped her shoulder, pulling her tighter to him, to keep her from moving around so much while he was trying to speak to her for any length of time-a sort of mixed signal. "The name is Althalos. What are you called?"

The problem with holding a woman tight is that she then speaks into his chest, making the words bounce around a bit before they met with ears. He understood her anyway, but it took a bit of concentration."The moment you met me I was called Esme, a name I've lived with for over ten years. I've been told I must call myself Haldraine from now on, for the sake of my license."

This was beyond his understanding-names were permanent things, though rarely used. She had to have one that was. "And what were you called before Esme?"

She pulled herself back a hair. "My mother called me 'human get' most the time. The rare occasions where she felt kindness towards me, I was called 'baby'. Mother was not a happy woman."

"Why would she call you human when you're not?"

That produced a frown on the young woman's face. "I look human. I act human. She called me what she saw in me." Esme shrugged. "I mean, what else am I? I'm certain that mama was no Aelif."

"Do you know what our connection is?" He had been searching her face, but idly switched over to smoothing her hair out of her line of sight, apparently needing the distraction to truly pay attention.

"No, Lord Althalos, I do not-but I did not think it was much."

His lips formed a soft frown at her insistence on the title, but until she fully understood, he didn't have much hope in stopping her. "Do you know who the Crystal Queen is?"

Her eyes widened. "She's mentioned in Mama's book of tales. She's just a story of mother's people."

"She's real history, Esme...Haldraine." He blew out a frustrated breath."You have to have one name that doesn't change on a whim, woman."

"Stick with Haldrane, for now. I have to use it. Tell me, why is she important?"

His frown deepened at the idea of being forced to change a name, but let it go to answer her. "Before my people even kept records as the Aelif, we fought against the Crystal Queen. Her people themselves fought mindlessly in her control, so that any Aelif forces on the battlefield were always known to the next fighting drone. The wars were a great cost to both our people, so we eventually made a bargain with the hive mind, and made a race of people somewhere between us-neither hive or fully individual. They bond with a mate-up until you, always an Aelif male-and by treaty, we honor that bond. We're taught from childhood to care for them, as they enter our lives because they cannot resist their mate and it harms them greatly for us to withdraw from them."

The young thief still in his arms laughed heartily at that one. "You and I share no such thing as a bond that could hurt me. That is ridiculous. I have no intention of being your slave."

"No, not a slave, Haldraine-a wife." He sighed, trying not to shake his head at her incredulity. "This bond is a commitment of a lifetime, if you take it."

She looked up into his face, and he down into hers. She stared at this almost-stranger for a long, hard moment, hoping to see any reason to believe that he was joking. That, and she was certain he still hid something important-or lied outright. It is a shame that such a virile man would be so insane. But at the same time, he couldn't know that he was offering her a way out of her predicament. She might trade insanity for her very life. But she had to know at least one thing. "Just what is it that you want in exchange for marriage?"

"Nothing exchanges for that bond. It's law and burden, but never a transaction." he said this firmly, like it was not to be challenged or questioned. Althalos began tracing her curves with one lazy finger, again, clearly done with their conversation.

For her part, it took most of this round with him to figure out that he had come, in part, to use this so-called bond against people she owed her life to-in spite his protests. She did believe he thought there was something in her to tie to him, whatever this bond was. So she poured everything she had into these last moments, as she didn't intend to seek this one out again. This Althalos-whatever-all he was-was dangerous to toy with.