Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 20:07:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Corrinne S <quasito_cat@yahoo.com>
Subject: Dark Wishes Installment 33: Part 5 Chapter 6

This is the ongoing sequel to `Dark Wishes', both
copyrighted under Nifty and International Common Law.
This is a love story of kings and magic.  How you
choose to interpret the way the characters show their
love for each other is at your discretion.

Unspoken Wishes

M.C.Gordon

Part One: Markel

Chapter Six

     Efren ran blindly through the dark night,
slipping on the ice several times.  He fell more times
than he could count and, with the final fall, felt the
bones in his right arm snap.  Overwhelmed by pain he
managed to drag himself until he was hidden behind a
cluster of stones.  The night was bitterly cold and it
had begun to snow again.

     Leaning against one of the stones, the lad
clenched his eyes to hold back tears that threatened,
knowing that they would freeze in his eyes and
eyelashes.  How could he have touched the king's hand?
 How dare he feel the heat that shot through his veins
and caused his manhood to stir and make its presence
know?  The Qell chose, were not chosen.  King Tynan
had made no indication of desire for him.  How then
could his body have betrayed him so?  Unsure of how he
should comport himself in the presence of men of his
own persuasion, he had allowed himself to feel desire
rise and announce itself in the person of his special
appendage.  His own shock at his reaction had sent him
fleeing the warmth and comfort of the small shelter
without cloak or blanket.

     Bitter cold surrounded Efren and, in spite of the
pain in his broken arm, he gave in to the call of the
cold.  Winter would claim him and he would cause no
further disgrace to himself or his kin.  A sad smile
graced the handsome face; for a short yet endless
moment in time he had known the touch of one such as
himself.

 . . .

     "What?"  Tynan asked when Efren had bolted from
the only warm shelter of Aolane.  "Why did the boy ..?
I said nothing.  I did nothing," he spoke to Iashain
who was glancing at him with a questioning look.

     "We will ask his reason when we find him, for
find him we must.  He may become lost or injured, and
this is too terrible a night for any living soul to be
without shelter," Iashain replied.  "I know you did no
wrong, brother," he added.  "Let us first see if our
magic can find in which direction he fled.  He will
freeze to death if we stumble about aimlessly in
search of him."

     The two lords of magic joined hands and minds and
cast out into the darkness, searching for the young
man.  "I cannot feel his mind," Iashain finally said.
"He can hide his thoughts, or he is lost to us so
swiftly."

     "Efren has no gift," Usan said, full of fear for
the lad was kin and his responsibility.

     "Then we must seek others who have eyes that may
see him," Tynan replied.  Again they cast their
thoughts outward, asking for the help of any living
thing that might be about in the bitterness of the
winter night.

     It stopped suddenly, the large beast stalking the
still figure lying against solitary stones.  Hunger
had driven it from the cave that gave shelter from the
storm, hunger and the sound of something pulling
itself across the ice.  Large yellow eyes looked this
way and that, trying to locate the voices that called.
 Ears twitched against the blowing wind.  Shaking
itself loose from imaginings, the creature crouched
against the ground and began once again to inch slowly
forward.  The prey was very near.

     Tynan broke the touch with Iashain and grabbed
his cloak from a peg near the hearth.  "I know now
where Efren is," he said.  "Add to the fire and
prepare warm blankets.  I will return with him as
quickly as I can."

     Quickly indeed, but carefully because of the ice,
the Qell made his way toward the pile of stone he
could see through rounded yellow eyes.  He cast a
warning toward the creature that had helped locate
Efren and promised meat at the eastern wall of the
castle.

     The giant cat, unique in Elanen, reluctantly
turned from his prey.  He rose, barely visible in the
falling snow except for dark grey stripes, and made
his way toward the eastern wall where a hare appeared
frozen in the sudden storm.

     Tynan went quickly to the fallen body of Efren.
There were puddles of ice on the lad's face where
tears had finally fallen and frozen.  The Qell wrapped
the cloak around him, noting the awkward angle of the
right arm.  Calling on Iashain's mind for added magic,
he breathed warm breath across the boy's frozen face
and into his lungs.  Sensing a shallow intake of
breath, Tynan lifted the still form and hurried back
to what served as the seat of power for the Qell
Kings.

 . . .

     The world came slowly into focus when Efren
opened his eyes on the third day after his
death-flight.  He knew he was lying on a soft cot
wrapped in blankets.  He stirred restlessly and a few
fragments of ice were placed in his parched mouth.  He
tried to move, only to cry out softly at the pain in
his arm.

     "He wakens," Markel whispered to Tynan who had
fallen asleep near the hearth after hours of vigil.

     The tall lord yawned, stood, and took the four
steps that brought him back to Efren's cot.  "Thank
you," he told Markel.  "I will tend him now."

     "I do not mind my lap as his pillow," Markel
replied.

     "You do not but he might," Tynan said, full of
relief that the lad was finally showing signs of life.
 "Your lap will not make a comfortable pillow until
Frina's cooking adds more weight to your spare frame.
Tend to your lover, but be still about it for the
others still sleep."

     Markel blushed, for he and Iashain had not lain
with each other since Tynan brought Efren in from the
frozen cold and their need was so strong that everyone
was aware of it.

     Tynan eased himself to the cot, slid beneath the
blankets, and gently took Efren into his arms, the
injured right arm resting against his chest.  The boy
was breathing more easily, for the distressing rattle
that had started in his lungs seemed to have passed.

     "Gently," the great lord whispered as Efren began
to stir.  "You were near to death and have been
gravely ill.  If you move too quickly you will only
cause yourself pain."

     Efren slowly opened his eyes and found himself
gazing into the odd silver eyes of the Qell.  He tried
to speak but Tynan placed a finger across his lips to
prevent words.  He was surprised beyond belief when
his king kissed the fingers of his uninjured left
hand.

     "You are well and safe now," Tynan told him.  "I
can ease the pain in your arm until it has healed.
But never, ever, go wildly into the night again," he
added with a touch of anger born of fear.

     "I offended you when my fingers touched yours,"
Efren managed to whisper.

     "Nay, lad," Tynan returned, "I was not offended.
I found beauty in your touch.  You did not give me
time to respond.  And now we must wait until your arm
and bruises have healed."

     "Then you are not angry that I touched you and
was filled with desire for you?" Efren asked, still
unsure of himself.

     "I was not angry," Tynan replied.  "Do I not now
hold you in my arms?  Your countenance overwhelms me,
so fair and desirable you are.  But we will speak of
this later.  Now you must rest and mend in heart and
body.  Soon enough the day will come when I will claim
you as my own, if you will have me."

     "If, My Lord?" Efren asked through a haze of pain
and the beginnings of contentment.  "I would have you,
but why would you want me?"

     "None of our brothers before us questioned the
love they found," Tynan replied.  "Who am I to ask why
Markel and Iashain found love from the moment they met
while I, who had traveled with Markel, felt no love
for him at all?  And will I now ask why you have
touched my heart?"

     He leaned gently across Efren, mindful of the
broken arm, and cupped the lad's face with his right
hand.  Gazing into the amber-flecked grey eyes barely
visible in the light of the hearth-fire, he brought
their lips together.

     Efren clung eagerly to the kiss, embraced it, and
sought to gain more from it, whimpering from desire as
much as from the pain in his arm.

     "Not now," Tynan whispered, barely able to keep
his own passion under control.  "You must mend and be
sure that this is what you want before we join
together."

     A touch, a wish made but not spoken, freed Efren
from the pain in his arm and sent him into restful
sleep.  Tynan molded himself around the sleeping body
of the young man he intended to make his lover,
granting warmth and protective magic.

     Deep in the forests of Elanen the grandmothers
sensed that both of the Qell had found those they
would love.  The healing of the world had begun.