“I’m sure he’s fine.” With another look at their new imp, Damien grimaced. “You can keep watch tonight, yes?”
Katz nodded, slow and long as if the weight of his own head were too much. “As you wish, Master.” He did not sound the least bit happy about it.
CHAPTER 10
THE AMOROUS EFFECTS OF VERY ORDINARY WATER
Vanders’ reappeared the next morning beneath Amma’s chin, all of his tiny paws nestled against her neck for warmth. She was curled up in a ball to generate heat too, beneath her cloak. She would have preferred curling up in Damien’s arms, but he had made no invitation, and she was unsure if she were more upset at the oracle and their supposed rules of chastity or the blood mage himself for sticking to them.
Sleep had come easily despite her irritation. After the initial rush from sprouting the acorn, the conjuring weighed heavily on her, and when she woke, the sluggishness still hadn’t wrung completely out of her bones.
Then there was Katz. In some ways, he was an improvement on Kaz, never implying Amma was any kind of prostitute, though after meeting Fryn at Yvlcon she supposed that wasn’t such an insult. He instead called her only Mistress, which might have been pleasant if not done in a voice that made it sound like he were carrying the whole plane on his shoulders. She knew she shouldn’t be upset with him for simply sighing and existing, but it was grating.
And their constant upward trajectory wasn’t helping either.
“Why does the oracle have to be at the top of a mountain?” Amma annoyed even herself with her whine, but she couldn’t help it.
“I suppose if it weren’t arduous, everyone would attempt the trek. We are fortunate to have missed the direwolf packs that troll the base of the mountain and to avoid the dwarven tribesscattered about. To speak of grumpiness.” Damien hefted a sigh, and his breath swirled before him in the chilly air.
Amma chuckled weakly at that and then nearly lost her footing on a slick rock. Mounds of perpetual snow dotted the terrain, the turning of the season making for a brisk march. They had left the larger trees behind as they scaled a higher peak, the mountainside rockier and covered in thick shrubs that didn’t provide as much cover from the wind.
Taking her next step more carefully, Amma tied back her hair to keep it from whipping into her face. No longer with a shield, Vanders scurried down her shoulder and dove into the front of her tunic, curling up in the pocket between her breasts, just poking out his little muzzle to watch the way ahead. That made her chuckle a bit more deeply, and when she caught Damien staring at the vaxin—because that was clearly what he was staring at—asked, “He looks happy there, doesn’t he?”
The redness that crawled over Damien’s face was at least a bit satisfying.
But another two cold days and even colder nights, made exponentially worse by sweating despite the chill as the climb grew more strenuous, Amma found very little else to be satisfied by. In fact, a twinge in her stomach that grew into telltale cramping made her tolerance nearly bottom out, the spell she employed from medicinal mages back home to avoid such things choosing the absolute worse time to wear off. According to the map, they were at least coming upon their destination, their red dot inching closer to the stagnant purple one, but even enchanted maps did not account for verticalness.
Pulling herself up onto a plateau, Amma flopped right down on her stomach, Vanders smartly scurrying up to her shoulder, saving himself from being smooshed between her breasts. Damien’s boots were just before her, Katz’s taloned feet beside, and she just groaned, not bothering to lift her head. He tapped atoe on the ground, impatient.
“Your arms and legs aresomuch longer than mine,” Amma whined, face flat against the stone, a surprisingly pleasant heat there. “I can’t keep up.”
“Must you be carried the rest of the way?”
Avoid more hikingandhave a good excuse to finally touch Damien again? “Yes!” she squealed, not even caring how eager it came out as her head popped back up.
But in the space between Damien’s legs, she could see the plateau was laid out differently from where they had been. A thin sheen of snow covered the rocks, a wall of stone rising at its back, overgrown thickly with vines and sheltering them from the wind, and just in the center a layer of steam hovered over a pool.
Amma pushed up onto her knees, knocking Damien out of the way. Ignoring his confused squawking, she scurried to the edge of the water and dipped a hand in, the perpetual cold of the last three days melting away. “By the grace of the gods, it’s a hot spring.” She peered back at Damien and didn’t care how desperate she looked. “It’ll be sundown soon, these rocks will be dangerous in the dark, and we should definitely try and be clean for the oracle too—please say we can stop here.”
Damien was already unbuckling the shoulder straps of his armor. “You really don’t need to convince me.”
Amma jumped to her feet, kicked off her boots, and pulled at the leather cord that laced up her vest, but as it fell open, she caught it and froze.
Chest armor off, one boot abandoned, Damien grabbed the bottom of his tunic, but had also fallen completely still. They stared at one another, half undressed, and even the frigid gust that blew over them didn’t cause either to sway.
Amma swallowed. “Maybe you can turn around?”
Damien hopped in a small circle so that his back was to her, otherwise holding completely still.
“You too Katz,” she said, but the imp was already averting his gaze, just doing it in his painfully slow way. Damien mumbled out an order for the imp to do a wide perimeter check of the area, and Katz traipsed off.
She watched Damien’s back for a moment longer, making sure he stayed still until Vanders tapped her on the neck as if to say get on with it. In a rush, she pulled off her tunic, shimmied out of her breeches, and abandoned her chemise in a small pile up on a dry rock before stepping into the water. Trepidation at Damien seeing her naked melted away as she sank in. An entire layer of grime peeled away from her skin, the knots in her muscles unraveling, and her lungs filled with a heady, warm mist. Even the cramping in her belly subsided, and she dreaded the coming days a little less. Gods, was it good, and she sighed aloud.
“Um, Amma?”
“Oh!” She spun, ducking down to her shoulders and giving Vanders her hands to jump into. “Go ahead, I’m in.” She’d made it to the middle of the pool where the steam was a bit thicker, body totally submerged.
Damien kicked off his other boot and pulled off his tunic, and even in the falling light of the coming evening, nothing was hidden by shadows. Peering up over Vanders’ ears, she watched the muscles of Damien’s back curve and contract even with the small act of removing the dagger strapped to his forearm. He turned to the rock he used for the rest of his things, carefully setting his bracer atop the pile, then straightened, every crease in his stomach sharp. Hands firmly took his belt, and as he unhitched it, there was a jolt between Amma’s legs she hadn’t been expecting as the leather fell away. Damien’s thumbs hooked into the waist of his pants, revealing an extra inch of hips carved out like stone, and then Amma inhaled so sharply she nearly choked.
