Easily Blade lowered himself, gently but firmly he entered Neena. Her eyes widened until Blade could see the whites, then flickered shut. Her mouth opened in another, very different sort of gasp, then hungrily sought his again.

She was silent for a little while after that, but her body spoke more than loud enough. Her lips devoured his, her arms went around him and her nails raked up and down his back, her legs clamped tightly around him. She gripped him tightly in every way she could manage, by everything she could reach or touch or take into herself. She seemed to be afraid that if she loosened any part of her grip for a single moment, Blade would float away and their joining would be incomplete.

Blade wasn't going anywhere. He would have gripped Neena as tightly as she was gripping him if he hadn't been afraid of what his own strength might do to her. He seldom felt a woman throwing herself into the act of love as Neena was doing. He seldom felt as completely drawn into it himself. All his awareness and every breath he took were centered on the woman he held and who held him.

He felt her beginning to twist back and forth under him as he rose and fell inside her. He felt blood joining the sweat where her nails clawed at his back. He heard her gasp, then sob out loud, then begin a low, continuous moaning. The moan grew steadily louder. As it rose, so did Blade's own passion. He was gasping now, trying desperately to hold on, hold back, carry through to the end.

Neena's moan turned into a shriek that echoed around the clearing, sending birds and animals squawking and whirring and crashing away in all directions. She arched upward against Blade as he pressed down into her, clawed, bit, sobbed, gasped, tossed her head from side to side so that her hair fell like a blanket over both of them.

Before Neena's climax could pass, Blade reached his. He did not shout, because all the breath seemed to go out of his body in a great sigh along with his hot jetting into Neena. He clamped his arms around her, and for a moment he held back none of his strength. She did not protest, she did not care, she hardly seemed to notice. In that moment he could have crushed half her bones to powder and it would have been several minutes before she noticed what had happened.

Those several minutes passed, as they lay locked and tangled together in the flattened grass, sweat trickling off them and the sun beating down on them. Eventually their breathing slowed until they could hear the world around them, and their vision cleared until they could see it. It was more minutes before either of them could move or speak. Then they sat up, brushed themselves off, and looked at each other.

Blade noticed that barely ten feet off to one side of them was where Kubona's body had lain. Twenty feet to the other side lay the skeleton of one of Desgo's soldiers. Neena saw where he was looking, and laughed.

«No, Blade, I doubt we need fear that their spirits will have anything to say about what we have done here. Kubona-well, she was no more a blushing virgin than I. If she watched us, she will go happily and in peace, seeing our happiness.»

«And the soldiers' spirits?»

«If they were still around to watch-well, they have seen us alive and happy. They will go off to torment, knowing that they died in vain, that we returned here together, to love in the very place where they died. I doubt if we could have found a better way of adding to their torments.»

Blade laughed at Neena's ferocity. Then he said, more seriously, «I think we would do well to get our clothes on and get back to camp.»

«You would rather hide in the darkness than lie in the sun?»

«I would rather spend the rest of the day where no one can see us. There may be only the spirits of Trawn's soldiers left in these woods. I would rather not find out otherwise when a spear drives through your guts.»

Neena sighed, then nodded. Together they rose and pulled on their clothes. Then hand in hand they slipped back into the forest.

Chapter 15

By the time they got back to the camp in the hollow tree, Neena was ready to make love again. They lay down in the musty darkness among the dried vines and leaves and joined once more. After that Neena seemed contented at last, and slowly drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face. Blade lay quietly beside her for a while. Eventually he was able to ignore the rumblings of his half-empty stomach and join Neena in sleep.

They slept through the rest of the day and most of the night. In the gray light before dawn Blade awoke to find Neena already up and rummaging through the gear. As he watched, she gave a little cry of triumph, and drew out of one bag a wide golden bracelet. It was studded with enormous emeralds that blazed with a magnificent cold green fire even in the semidarkness.

«Blade, raise your left arm.»

There was a note in Neena's voice that Blade had never heard before. It was unmistakably a note of command, but at the same time surprisingly gentle. Blade obeyed.

Neena snapped the bracelet open, put it around Blade's left wrist, and snapped it shut again. She let his arm drop, then rocked backward, kneeling naked before him. Her eyes fixed themselves intently on Blade's face.

«Now, by the will of the gods, by the laws and customs of Draad, and most important of all, by my choice, you are betrothed husband to me, Neena, Princess of Draad.»

Blade hadn't seen this coming, but he wasn't particularly surprised, and not at all unhappy about it. To be betrothed to a woman of high rank would give him a place in Draad that might prove valuable. To be betrothed to Neena, with her beauty, skill, and lively wit, would be far more than useful. It would be a very agreeable experience indeed.

His ruby ring that he'd snatched back from Lord Desgo was on his finger. Slowly he took it off.

«Neena, it is your turn. Hold out your left hand.»

Blade took the small, strong hand and thrust the ring on to the index finger. It was too large to stay on any of the others. He smiled as Neena raised her hand to look at the ring, then spoke.

«Now, by the will of the gods, the laws and customs of England, and by my consent, you are betrothed wife to me, Blade, Prince of England.»

To his surprise he saw tears glimmering in Neena's eyes. He said nothing, only reached out and brushed one hand lightly across her cheeks, brushing away the tears.

«I am happy, Neena,» he said.

«So am I,» she said, her voice not quite steady. «My father-well, whether he is happy or not, I doubt he will say anything against you. He has long known that I would have no husband except one I chose for myself. I have chosen you, and as he loves me, I think he will not let himself hate you.»

That was just as well with Blade. He had no objection to marrying Neena. He would, however, rather not make an enemy of King Embor by doing so.

«In fact,» she went on, «I think he may find good reason to be happier with you than with any man of Draad. Any of the warriors or chiefs' sons I might otherwise have chosen would be of one clan or another. The clan of my husband would rejoice. The others would not, and some of them might raise their voices or even their spears against my father. This is not the time for the feuding of the clans of Draad, not when Trawn may march against us at any time.

«Queen Sanaya will be another matter. She will be-«

Neena broke off, looking worried about having perhaps said too much.

Blade placed a finger under her chin and tipped her head up until their eyes met. «Neena, I cannot be all that you will want and need in a husband if you do not tell me what dangers may face me in Draad. You have said enough about Queen Sanaya to make me wonder about her. I have met such women as her before, and they have seldom been my friends.»