Unexpected

(Swords with Souls)

By Dan Watt

Cover by Darren Joy

Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

That the girl his uncle saved is now in charge disarms him. Some of the girls have been here much longer. And some of the faie are here hidden within trees, the swamp he sometimes smells but has never seen, and the deeper parts of the River Tyne.

The archer takes him to a hot spring surrounded by a naturally occurring ground elder hedge. The steam coming up from the pool reminds him that his uncle believes there is a volcano not far away but hidden within a circle of the distant mountains.

Aquamarine eyes peer at him through the steam. He watches, stunned as she rinses out her hair and steps fully nude onto the shore beside a pile of clothes. She stands there a moment so he can fully gaze upon her pale skin as water gradually runs down it. Her eyes are large and farther apart than he is accustomed to seeing. And her neck is longer as if she has more neck bones than most. But it only adds to her beauty. He doesn’t miss the double-edged stone knife in her left hand or the archers hidden in openings within in the hedge. His mind tries to justify why she would want to ambush him. But her nakedness suggests something else. A challenge to his manhood? Even when he visited Madame Swan’s brothel as a young man full of desire, he never forced himself on a girl. It was always reciprocity. And he was always tender. But he also listened, and instead of just seeing objects of desire, he started seeing daughters, sisters, and sometimes mothers. He started caring about the girls and occasionally protecting them even when they didn’t want it. So, he stopped going. Now, he wonders if his absence has Madame Swan intending to remove him as co-owner?

Endellion’s eyes are not full of lust but venom and distrust. Yet he doesn’t believe its directly towards him, but his entire gender. At first her expression says, you men are failures and we no longer want you. He watches without moving as Endellion slowly pulls on her clothing without ever setting down the knife. When she’s done, she steps up close to him. “You are the nephew of Crimthann and the Sword Master?” she asks with her chin up and eyelids narrowed.

“I am,” he says in a neutral tone. He never gloats about others calling him the Sword Master, but he is that good, and this will not go well for her or the archers she thinks are hidden, if they attack.

To his surprise he does nothing as she places an edge of her stone knife against his neck. She stays like that a moment then nicks his throat ever so slightly. He watches in complete confusion as she puts the trickle of his blood on her knife between her lips and licks the blood off. What she does next baffles him even more. He watches aghast as she nicks her own neck and places the edge with her own blood between his lips. He’s even more concerned that he willingly tastes her blood. He had heard her people were enchanters but never believed it.

“We are family now,” she tells him. “Not cousins, but sister and brother. Now come with me.”

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