Kiran- the Warrior's Bride Read online

  I nodded. I didn’t understand anything, but under the circumstances I felt that I should agree.

  “I am old and that is why I can control myself. Gods treat you mercifully. Get up!”

  I didn’t need to get up, I needed to run away. As fast as I could. I didn’t care how far. From my “lying face down” position I got on all fours and started slowly moving toward the other end of the bed. I was planning to get to my bedroom. There was a window, and it wouldn’t take me long to…

  Suddenly, I heard a wheezing sound behind my back. Turning my head, I risked looking at Nrogo and froze. The warrior was panting, drops of sweat were running down his face, his body was tense, fists clenched, while his eyes were something else.

  “A woman doesn’t turn her back to a warrior?” I guessed.

  He didn’t answer and didn’t stop staring at cadet McVarras’s butt. It finally dawned on me. What was I thinking, crawling like that on the bed in lingerie and stockings? I might as well have danced a strip tease for him!

  Nrogo silently pulled at the belt on his pants, still looking lecherously at my lingerie. I crawled faster and got to the other side of the huge bed, jumped onto the floor and turned around to face the warrior. He threw down the sheath he had taken off his belt, then the belt itself without saying a word. Then, without taking his eyes of his target, he started unbuttoning his pants.

  “What… what are you doing?” Well, I kind of figured it out, of course, but somehow asking the question made me feel better.

  The hand that was about to pull his pants down stopped. Nrogo froze, breathing heavily. He took his eyes away from my butt and looked into my eyes. For a while, he simply stared, as if coming to his senses.

  “What?” He suddenly asked.

  ‘I wonder, if I behave like I did with Dyar, how would he react?’ I believe this thought made my fears disappear, and I started thinking clearly, confidently and quickly. I had to test my assumption.

  “Oh, great warrior Nrogo!” I smiled nicely and adjusted my bra strap. “You are so… strong.”

  The realization that this tahr-ehn was an experienced and hardened macho had come too late.

  “I got it,” the warrior suddenly said, smiling. “Kiran is not immodest, Kiran is simply afraid.”

  Busted navigator!

  “Come to me,” Nrogo ordered, still holding his pants up.

  “Yeah, right. Not a chance!” I realized that it was the wrong thing to say and held my tongue.

  It was too late.

  Nrogo buttoned up his pants, still staring at me. Then he crossed his hands on his chest and continued talking.

  “Kiran, your father gave you to me, so you have obligations. Your refusal to share the bed with me, which you have been demonstrating from the very beginning, is clear evidence that Kiran McVarras knows no honor and tries to avoid fulfilling her obligations.”

  I felt really sick.

  “Aren’t you worried by the fact that I don’t want to share the bed with you?” I asked, trying to restrain my well-founded anger.

  Nrogo looked at me strangely.

  “Come here,” he ordered.

  I pulled myself together and walked around the bed to approach the warrior. As usual, he looked into my eyes. He looked for a long time, searching for something and not finding it. Nrogo frowned, his hands slid up my arms and held my shoulders. His eyes were still looking for something deep within my eyes, pondering why it wasn’t there.

  It seemed a shame that he preferred to ponder silently, because the conclusion he came to was pretty bad.

  “Kiran is a rare stone. A panther. Very special. Taming a panther is an exquisite pleasure, I cannot refuse it.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  Nrogo touched my lips with his finger.

  “Women never reject tahr-ehns.”

  This reminded me of Dame when he had said ‘I can get any girl’.

  But tight-lipped Nrogo decided to stop our conversation. He sat at the table and patted his knee, obviously inviting me to sit there. I was in no position to object, so I came up to him silently and for the first time in my life sat on a man’s lap.

  “Your humbleness makes me happy,” the warrior said hollowly. “The fruit contains a sedative poison. Do not eat it. I don’t want it.”

  “I’ll die, if I eat the fruit?” I guessed, remembering the spiteful mama hippo.

  “You’ll be sluggish and drowsy. I won’t like it.”

  Very funny. However, poisoned fruit wasn’t important, I was more interested in something else.

  “Why do you talk to me like that?” I didn’t look at Nrogo, but simply stared into space without seeing anything.

  “Force of habit,” the warrior’s answer was unexpectedly honest.

  “What do you mean?” I looked at him.

  The tahr-ehn winked at me merrily.

  “A warrior must speak with women in plain language,” he said.

  Wow!

  “Do you think I’m an idiot?” I said indignantly and tried to stand up.

  Nrogo looked at me mockingly, so I stopped trying.

  “You are not so smart,” he said quite reasonably.

  I sat in stupor, thinking about life. About life, justice and my sad fate. Not only was I given away like a whore, but I also must honor some obligations and give myself over without any objections. ‘Kill me now!’ I begged the universe.

  I understood that I was about to freak out. So I stood up and went to my bedroom. Nrogo didn’t stop me this time.

  “Where are you going?” He asked.

  “To relieve some stress,” I muttered in anger, trying not to think about how I look in lingerie and stockings from behind.

  Since the warrior didn’t respond, I assumed that the view was impressive.

  In the bedroom, I opened the wardrobe, grabbed the needed backpack and took out a bottle of champagne. There were only two left. Taking the bottle with me, I returned to Nrogo and sat on his lap again. I gave him the bottle and asked for his help.

  “Open please. I’m going to celebrate the loss of my virginity.”

  My betrothed simply pulled the cork out without removing the wire cage. The champagne overflowed. I spilled it all over the petals with great pleasure, then threw my head back and took a sip. Nrogo could have his way with me when I was drunk for all I cared. No such luck.

  “A woman must not…” I heard him say as soon as I took a sip.

  I stopped and looked at the tahr-ehn sternly.

  “What else?” I asked point blank.

  “Take a cup,” Nrogo ordered. He was so tense that he appeared to be petrified.

  “Why?” I didn’t get it.

  “A woman must eat modestly, not arousing the warrior,” he answered, still staring at my mouth.

  Well, this was too much!

  “What? Are you aroused by bottles?” I almost yelled.

  “No, by the way you drink,” he answered tensely.

  “There are no glasses here!” I pointed at the table.

  Then I remembered that Nrogo had never drunk any alcohol. Ever! This meant that he’d get hammered right away. But how would I get him to drink? He wouldn’t drink from the bottle, that was obvious to me even if I was “not so smart”, but what if…

  Looking into the warrior’s eyes, I sipped the champagne and filled my mouth with it. Then I reached for his lips. When our lips touched, Nrogo held his breath. When the bubbly poured into his mouth, he swallowed convulsively. The next second I was back on the bed. I didn’t understand how he had gotten me there so quickly. Just a moment ago we had been sitting down, and now we were lying on the bed. Nrogo was on top of me, while I still held the bottle.

  “I haven’t finished drinking,” I reminded the warrior, breathing heavily.

  Meanwhile, the warrior was breathing heavily in his own right, lying on top of me.

  He growled and stopped. Then stood up, still holding me. So we were back at the table and I still sat on his lap. Surprisi
ngly, I managed to hold on to the bottle.

  “Wow,” I breathed, somewhat shaken by the developments.

  “Nrogo can barely wait,” he chuckled.

  I sighed, looked at the bottle and turned to the warrior.

  “Kiera likes kissing,” I whispered. “Shall we continue?”

  And I repeated the same cheeky maneuver again. And again.

  I wish I knew how it would end.

  * * *

  The bed was creaking rhythmically, faster or slower at times. It had been going on for half of the night. Nrogo was having fun. Obviously he felt very good, while the same couldn’t be said about me.

  I sat on the floor, holding the seyr. The last bottle of champagne was at my feet. It was empty. Nrogo wanted more. I looked at the seyr, Michaela’s face on the screen looked back at me scared and perplexed.

  “Kier,” she whispered. “Is he still jumping?”

  Slowly turning my head, I looked at the bed. Nrogo was still performing somersaults of various degrees of complexity, yelling that he was a good man. I marveled again at the robustness of the Eeristani furniture, wondering how it could withstand such treatment. Then I got frightened by a scary thought: What if the tahr-ehns were equally vigorous when they were with their women, so the beds were made so durably to accommodate them? I wondered if local women were durable as well.

  “Yep,” I answered in despair.

  “Kier, you should sleep,” Micha said hesitantly.

  At this moment, the warrior jumped from the bed toward me, landing on his knees and making a terrible racket. He grabbed my feet and started his usual routine.

  “Nobody understands me… hic!”

  “Yes,” I agreed tiredly.

  “I’m a good man!”

  “Mmm.”

  “No, I’m mean!”

  “Right…”

  “Woman, are you listening?”

  “Yes…”

  ‘Busted motor! It’s five am. Five! I want to sleep. I want to eat. I want to drink. I’ve been listening all night to the complaints of this neophyte alcoholic who only now realized that nobody understood him!’ I was getting on a tirade of my own, it seemed.

  “Do you respect me?” Asked the warrior menacingly.

  “I won’t give you more,” I insisted.

  “Hic!”

  Suppressing my irritation, I started petting him on the head, talking to him in a soothing voice.

  “Nrogo is good. Nrogo needs to sleep. Nrogo must go to bed.”

  “Nrogo doesn’t want to sleep. Nrogo wants Kiera!”

  “Kiera needs to go to the bathroom!” I broke free and escaped.

  I really wanted to sleep. I wished I could lean against the stone wall, feel the soothing coolness after the really hot night, slide down slowly and close my eyes for at least a couple of minutes.

  “Kiera, don’t fall asleep in the bathroom!”

  I totally forgot that I hadn’t hung up. My trusty Michaela hadn’t slept a wink all night either, but at least she had coffee.

  “I can’t take it anymore,” I started whining.

  “Just a little bit longer, it’s almost morning.”

  I yawned loudly.

  “Kier, it was quite a dance, wasn’t it?”

  I couldn’t help laughing. Yes, Nrogo’s dance was remarkable. I was surprised the bed didn’t break.

  “Kierrrra-a…” There was a knock on the door.

  “What now!” I howled.

  “Kierrra, Nrogo misses you very much.”

  “Damn!” I whispered in desperation.

  “Give him a couple of tablets, maybe he’ll fall asleep,” Micha suggested.

  “He drank a bottle of martini, and this is what it did to him,” I reminded her.

  Micha sighed heavily and tried to command me into cheering up.

  “Okay, pull yourself together now! Go cut something and spill blood on yourself, Nrogo and the bed. Then go and sleep in your bedroom. Don’t forget to lock the doors.”

  “It won’t help. He already knocked them down once.”

  We both sighed. I wished I could talk to my mother, but they had injected so much sedative into her that she was out. Suddenly, I remembered something.

  “The fruit!”

  “What?” Michaela looked at me with concerned eyes.

  “Nrogo said that they have some sedative in them!” I jumped up. “Right, I’ll get the fruit!”

  “Er…”

  “That’s it, Mickie. Everything will be fine now.”

  “Okay, but don’t hang up, just in case.”

  When I ran out of the bathroom, I saw Nrogo sitting in front of the door, waiting for me.

  “Your tummy hurts?” The warrior asked sympathetically.

  Twenty-seven trips to the bathroom during one night is not a “your tummy hurts” kind of situation, it’s more like “call the ambulance right away”. But we weren’t going to talk about such things.

  “Kiera wants fruit,” I took Nrogo’s huge hand and pulled him toward the table. “Kiera is hungry.”

  “Nrogo wants Kiera,” he said.

  “Nrogo eat then take Kiera to bed,” I promised.

  That made the goon agree to go to the table. He even sat down and started obediently eating fruit, while petting me on the knee. When the fruit was almost all eaten, his hand movements slowed down, and his eyes started to close. It was getting bright outside.

  “That’s it, Nrogo. Now we go to sleep.”

  “With Kiera?” He asked.

  “Of course,” I picked up the seyr and went to the bedroom.

  By the way, Micha had already passed out, but was sleeping while sitting and holding the seyr in her hand. I smiled, sent her a message that everything was fine and logged off. Nrogo followed me obediently.

  In the bedroom he ordered me to undress him. I simply said ‘Kiera’s tired’ and it worked. In the end, he pulled his boots off and fell asleep. I, too, took my shoes off only and lied down. Then I remembered that I hadn’t imitate the loss of virginity. I tried to get up, but the drunk and drowsy Nrogo wouldn’t let me.

  “Nrogo, I need a knife,” I demanded.

  I don’t know how he did it. Although he was undressed and had no bracelets, the warrior produced a knife out of somewhere and handed it to me.

  I took it and started thinking where to make a cut so that it wouldn’t hurt. The least painful option would have been cutting Nrogo. He wouldn’t feel it anyway. But it would be unfair on my part. I got him drunk and avoided having sex with him, so making him bleed seemed a bit too much. Too cruel, even by my standards. So I cut my finger, squealed, and started dripping blood onto the bed sheets, myself, and Nrogo. I dripped some blood on his privates and on my thighs too. There wasn’t much blood on the sheet, but considering the mess in the living room, one could imagine most of the blood had been spilt there. So sucking on my finger, I fell asleep next to Nrogo. He snored, reeking of alcohol.

  Story Two: The Tricks

  I slept. Somewhere in the distance the sun was rising. I heard hoarse and abrupt shouts, some kind of rattling, and snoring. It reeked of alcohol.

  “Michie, we gotta stop drinking,” I muttered and turned to the other side.

  The snoring stopped. It still smelled terrible, but I didn’t care anymore. I wanted to sleep so badly that nothing else mattered.

  I fell asleep again and dreamt of Ghetakah where mom and I vacationed last summer. We ran along the shore and threw hazelnuts at each other. We splashed in the water, the sun was shining, and seagulls enjoyed the hazelnuts we so recklessly threw around. Then…

  “Kiran!”

  A man’s husky voice almost woke me up. Being used to my morning routine with Micha, I fumbled for a pillow and sent it flying in the direction of the voice. I was always a good shot.

  Bam! My target was hit. But it didn’t help.

  “Kiran!”

  Silently, I fumbled for another pillow. At first, I couldn’t get it from under Micha, but then she moved,
and I sent the second pillow flying in the same direction.

  Bam! Target hit successfully once more.

  I fell asleep again, back to my dream, my mom, and the warm ocean.

  “Kiran!”

  “Unstable gene!” I pulled the blanket over my head and snarled. “If I get up I’ll beat you up, busted motor! Get out of our room, you busted mutant!”

  Silence again… so good… I was falling asleep…

  “KIRAN MCVARRAS!!!”

  This made me jump up.

  “That’s it,” I said impulsively. “You piece of uranium, now you’ll learn how mad I can be in the morning!”

  I jumped off the bed, rubbed my eyes and heard the seyr ring.

  Interestingly, Isinkhai’s ringtone would always wake me up. Usually it cleared my mind immediately too, but not this morning. I fell back on the bed, groaned because my head ached terribly, reached for the device and answered the call.

  “Kiera, how are you?” I heard the voice in the seyr ask.

  “Me?” I groaned, sobbed and started complaining. “I didn’t sleep all night. I’m sick. My entire body aches. It feels like a herd of hippos ran over me twenty times! I want to sleep! Why all this yelling, unstable atom!”

  “Who’s yelling?” Isinkhai’s eyes slowly rounded in surprise.

  “Who?!” I muttered.

  Then I remembered everything. Slowly, I looked away from the seyr, raised my head and saw my father standing in the doorway. Both pillows were lying at his feet. He looked very angry.

  “Give me the device!” Father snarled.

  Then to the left of me I heard another snarl that was equally angry.

  “Who is this man?!”

  Turning my head, I saw Nrogo. He was already sober and fully recovered. I looked at the seyr’s clock and saw that we had slept for less than an hour.

  “Farewell, Isinkhai,” I muttered hopelessly, pressing the device against my chest. “Farewell, world… farewell, little birds… farewell, my poor fate… farewell, my virginity… farewell, wretched father…”

  Then I thought for a while in silence and continued.

  “Are you going to kill me now?” I asked my father.

  Father only groaned in response. I was so stressed out that I snapped.