“Well, not right away. First, the king sent the other hero. And that hero was a good man. Next to Varin, he was the best warrior in the kingdom.”
“But he got eaten all the same.”
“Have you already heard this story?”
“I’ve heard your other stories. I’ve noticed a pattern.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but as it happens, yes, in this one case, the other herodidget eaten by the dragon. And all the villagers screamed and wailed, and they begged the king to summon Varin. But the king was too proud. So he called together his ten best knights, and sentthemafter the dragon.”
“Why doesn’t he just send everyone at once? What’s he going to do when the ten knights get eaten, send the next twenty?”
“So youhaveheard this story before.”
Theos was smiling. Lying there in the dark, listening to his crazy virgin Elkati floorwarmer, and smiling to himself. It was strange, but it felt good. “I haven’t heard the story. Keep going.”
“Well, let’s skip over the multiple failures from increasingly large groups of knights and warriors. But we should be clear that all this time the dragon isn’t just eating the people who come to fight it, it’s eating innocent villagers too. So finally the villagers approach the king, and they’re angry. Everyone knows who can kill the dragon.”
“But Varin’s balls-deep in his beautiful wife and doesn’t even know thereisa dragon.”
“He’s not— He’swithhis beautiful wife. In their home. Just—withher.”
“Fucking.”
“That’s between Varin and his beautiful wife.”
“I’m going to lose most of my respect for Varinandhis beautiful wife if they`re not spending alotof time fucking.”
“Varin and his wife don’t care what you think.”
“That’s because they’re too busy fucking.”
“If there is one more interruption, story time will be over.”
Theos made himself be silent, and finally Finnvid said, “Even though he knew Varin was the last chance for the land, the king refused to call him.But the villagers couldn’t just sit around waiting to be eaten, so they sent a delegation of their oldest, wisest men to ask Varin to help them. And as soon as he heard of their plight, he buckled on his armor and grabbed the star god’s sword and headed off. As he walked through the village, the people fell in behind him, cheering him on. The king heard the noise, came out on the palace balcony to see what was happening, and he seethed with rage. But there was nothing he could do. Varin found the dragon, and the battle was fierce. The dragon’s long claws were only one of the problems; he also had horrible teeth, and there were spikes on his tail sharp enough to impale a man right through the strongest of armor. Varin had to use all his strength and cunning and speed, but finally he managed to dart in underneath the monster’s jaws and slice the creature open from belly to chin.”
Of course he did. Finnvid wasn’t much good at giving details of the battles in these stories, but Theos could fill many of them in for himself. He could practically feel the tough dragon hide surrendering to his sharp sword, the heat of the blood that would pour down on his head from the wound . . .
“So naturally Varin won,” Finnvid said. “But you know what the best part was?”
“The victory fucking?”
“No. Is that really–is therevictory fucking? Do you do that?”
“I’m sorry, I think you’re getting distracted from your story. You should stay focused, or I’ll stop listening and go to sleep.”
Finnvid paused before he said, “You know what the best part was? It was when Varin walked back through the village, with all the cheering villagers behind him. The king was out on his balcony watching them, and Varin didn’t even glance in his direction. He’d realized the king didn’t matter. He was a hero because of who he was, not because of a title some old man gave him or took away from him. He didn’t need the king’s approval to be who he was meant to be.”
Theos let the message sink in. It was a good story. Still, “I think that Varin ignoring the king was probably thesecondbest part. It was good, but really, the best part was almost certainly the victory fucking.”
Finnvid made a disgusted sound, and Theos heard the blankets rustle as he rolled over. They lay in silence for a while, and then Theos said, “Thank you for the story, Finnvid. And for the kiss. They both helped.”
“You’re welcome,” Finnvid said quietly, and then they both lay still until they fell asleep.
Chapter Eleven
The kiss might have helped Theos deal with his surprising demotion, but it did nothing to cool the desire for his uninterested slave. Frustration with his careerandwith his sex life led him to train more intensely than ever, trying to tire himself out enough to keep his emotions under control.
“Festival tomorrow,” Andros remarked. Theos had just knocked him to the frozen mud of the training grounds, but Andros didn’t seem concerned. He let Theos help him up, then clapped him on the shoulder. “Maybe that’s what you need. You can’t forget about Finnvid when you’re fucking othermen, because they’re too similar. If you’re fucking a woman, though, it’ll be totally different. You should try for a really soft one . . . big tits and a round ass, nothing like your little pile-of-bones bedwarmer. That’ll make you forget all about him.”
