"Or a face full of piss," she mumbled, handing him the basin.

Kafele heard the remark and smiled. He severed the robe to the neckline, taking his time, obviously fearful of material

being stuck to the Shadowlord's back. He started to work on the right sleeve.

"You're being very gentle with my husband, Kaffie," Aradia said. "I appreciate your help."

The servant blushed as he headed to the other side of the bed. "It is my honor to care for the Shadowlord, Your

Grace."

Aluino reached for the section of severed material closest to him and frowned. "Damn!"

"What?" Aradia asked.

"The garment's stuck to his flesh." Aluino tried easing it away from the skin, but snatched away his hand when Jaelan

groaned.

"Move aside, warrior," Aradia ordered. After pushing him away, she took a deep breath and grasped the two sections of neckline. She waited until Kafele had finished severing the material of the left sleeve, then jerked the sections apart.

Jaelan's eyes flew open. A hard shudder rippled down his body. His gasp of pain as his fingers dug into the pillow stopped Aradia's breath. His chest arched from the mattress, his arms went rigid, then he collapsed with a whimper. A blush of shame crept into his sweaty face. Another shudder gripped him and he squeezed his eyes shut. "By the Prophet that hurt, 'Lui..."

Aradia stared in horror at the destruction of her husband's back. Though she'd seen similar marks on him in Diabolusia, that had been long ago, and there had been no connection between her and the grimy, emaciated man whose life she had saved. Now, a connection existed, one that grew deeper by the minute. Seeing what had been done to him because of her drove Aradia to her knees. She covered her face with her hands and wept.

Aluino hunkered beside her, putting a supportive arm around her shoulders. "Lady, you did what I could not. You did whathad to be done."

Overcome with guilt, she rocked back and forth. "I hurt him..."

"Aradia," Jaelan whispered.

She raised her head and saw a gentle smile on her husband's face.

"Come lie beside me."

She frantically shook her head. "No, warrior. No!"

He sighed. " 'Lui, pick her up and deposit her by me." The Diabolusian grinned. "With pleasure,amigo ." Chuckling, he started to scoop Aradia from where she knelt. She scampered out of his reach, warding him off with an outstretched arm and casting him a dangerous look. "Keep your greasy hands to yourself, warthog!"

Aluino looked at his palms, then held them out to her. "They're not greasy, wench. I washed them this morning," he

said in a voice that pretended hurt. "Come lie beside me," Jaelan repeated. "I need you, Lady." Cautiously, she climbed on the wide mattress and sat facing her husband. Aluino grabbed the medicine bottle from the table and a nearby crystal tumbler of water. Uncorking the bottle, he poured a liberal amount of the cherry-colored liquid into the glass, then opened the drawer of the night table and withdrew a small dried reed. He stuck the reed into the liquid, swirled it, then extended the tumbler toward Aradia. "Give him this."

Aradia took the glass. "Are you sure it's safe for him?" "It's all right," Jaelan whispered. She held the hollow reed to her husband's lips. He sucked in the liquid. His grimace left no doubt the brew tasted as unpalatable as it appeared. When he consumed the potion, he settled down and closed his eyes. "He'll sleep for a few hours," Aluino said, taking the empty glass from Aradia. "Should you need us, Kaffie and I will be down the corridor in the receiving room." "Where's Tarsis?" Jaelan asked, his words slurring. "He's sleeping, Jael," Aluino replied. "He was up all night with you." "Um..." Jaelan lifted his left arm. "Come here, wench." Aradia warily moved closer to her husband, fearful of causing him discomfort. Ducking under his arm, she settled as closely to him as she thought advisable. Apparently he thought it not close enough, for he hooked his hand around her waist and drew her to him, enclosing her in a tight embrace. "You'll hurt yourself!" she warned. "Don't feel...a damned thing..." He rested his forehead against hers. "Now...I can sleep." With that, he was lost to the world.

* * * * By the time Aradia stirred again, night had fallen. When her eyelids fluttered open, she found herself on her side, looking into her husband's still face. She exhaled softly, concerned she would wake him. His arm was still draped over her, and the heat from his touch alarmed her. From what little she could see of his back, the flesh looked bright red, oozing, giving off a stench almost as bad as a decomposing body.

"It burns," he said without opening his eyes. "What can I do?" she asked, touching his sweaty arm. "I wish I were in Virago, standing naked in the snow." "You've been to Virago?" "Once, a long time ago." He opened his eyes. "Wish I were there again." "Would lying in a tub of cold water help?"

He frowned. "Tarsis took me to the baths, but that warm water hurt like hell." "I imagine, but don't you think cold water would soothe?" "Wouldn't hurt any more than it already does." Gently, she removed his arm from around her and got out of bed. "I'll send Kafele for cool water from the fortress'

spring." "No,aziza . Too much trouble. I can walk to the lower level. There's a room in the dungeon where cold water--" "The hell you will!" Not giving him a chance to protest, she left the room, her jaw and fists clenched. "Aradia!" he bellowed. She came to an abrupt stop, then turned, stunned to see him limping toward her. Her eyes dropped to the cloth wrapped around his hips, relieved to see he'd covered his privates. When she opened her mouth to order him back to bed, Jaelan shushed her with a stern look. He took her hand and started toward the door. "You areanide ," she told him. "It's easier going down the stairs than up. Humor me." Refusing to comment on the obvious untruth, she walked beside him, her hand aching from his pressure. The few people they passed bowed respectfully to him, then turned away, their faces showing their embarrassment. "Rysalian warriors don't parade around in theirizars ," he explained, then clarified. "Loincloths." "Are you going to get into further trouble because you're doing it?"

"Doubtful. The Tribunal will send a letter of protest which the king will read, laugh over, then tear up." A malevolent aura weighed heavily on Aradia's shoulders when they reach the dismal and dark lower level of Abbadon. The foreboding place made her skin crawl as though infested with vermin. The deeper they went into the bowels of the fortress, the more unsettled she became.

"This is an evil place, warrior," she whispered. "Demons reign here." He led her to a room cast in deep shadows. Burning rushes did nothing to alleviate the despair saturating the atmosphere. A brisk draft shifted arond the black stone walls. In the center of the floor, a square opening filled with water looked as black as the walls. "What do they do here?" Aradia asked. "Torture people."

She looked into the dark water. "How?" "The water is ice-cold,aziza ." He pointed to a vat. "Over there is a cauldron where they heat water to boiling. Upthere is the means for moving a victim between one place of torment to another."

Aradia saw a system of pulleys and a sling into which she could imagine some unlucky man would be strapped before being lowered into the extreme temperatures. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. Jaelan eased himself down at the side of the pool, drawing in a shocked breath as his toes disappeared in the water. "By the Prophet, but this water has nothing on the lakes of Virago." Before Aradia could ask why he had traveled to that frigid North Country, her husband slid into the water, sucking in a breath loud enough to echo through the room. She squatted at the edge and put her fingers in the water. Her eyes widened. "How can you stand that?"

"It's not so bad once you get used to it," he said, though his teeth chattered as he went lower. His soft "ahh" said the water had doused the fire in his back. Seating himself on the middle step, the water covered his shoulders.

"How deep is it?" she asked.

"Eight feet, maybe." He frowned when she stood. "Where are you going, Lady?"

"No where." She slid out of her pantaloons, then stepped into the water. As the water lapped up her calves, she gasped, making him chuckle. "Beast."

"That I am," he replied with a leer.

She sat beside him, their knees touching. "You're right. It's not so bad. Is it helping you?"

He looked down at her muslin tunic, now soaked through. The dark aureoles of her breasts appeared behind the clinging fabric. The shape and size of her breasts seemed to mesmerized him.

"Warrior?"

Slowly, his gaze lifted to hers. "You are beautiful."

She shrugged.

Jaelan swallowed, then lifted his hand to touch her cheek. "I had wanted our first night here to be special." He caressed her. "A man does not want to bring his bride to a hellhole such as this, then leave her wondering if he'll return."

"I understood, Milord."

"I know you did, but it doesn't erase the memories you'll have of it." His face took on the look of a man who knew helplessness. "I had wanted to lie with you in our own bed. To have you get to know me. To make love to you. To--"

"There will be time for all that, beloved."

Aradia eased off the step and knelt between his spread legs, the water gently lapping around them. She cupped his face in her hands, then brought his lips to hers. Her mouth moved over his, her tongue slipping between his lips to plunder. When she drew back, she saw passion had turned his amber eyes a rich, tawny brown.

His hands clasped her shoulders as they stared at one another. The look of need on his handsome face made her smile. She slid her palms down his heavily muscled chest to the tops of his thighs. His muscles tensed. As she arched her questing hands down the insides of those taut thighs, she heard him draw a shuddery breath. When her fingers snaked toward his groin, the nails sliding under theizars to lightly touch his scrotum, he jerked her to him, his mouth brutally slanting down to cover hers.

Aradia felt the white-hot stab of arousal quiver in her belly as he kissed her. With her arms trapped between them, her fingertips pressed along the ridges of his heavy sac, she realized he trembled. Pulling away from his insistent mouth, ignoring his grunt of frustration, she slid her hands beneath the leg openings of theizars . What filled her palm made her grin wickedly.

"MyHeh-Matsimela ," she whispered huskily.

Jaelan stared at her, his face turning as red as the wounds on his back. "Where did you hear...?"

He got no further, for she boldly caressed him, running the tips of her nails over the head of his throbbing shaft.

Jaelan was as hard as he could ever remember being. Not even as a young boy striding unsure and untried into manhood had he known such a strong erection, such a burgeoning desire.

"You don't need this," she said.

Before he could stop her, she unwound and peeled apart the two sides of theizars , exposing him to her conquering hands.

Her touch was as gentle as a butterfly's wings, yet as firm as a swordsman's grip. She encircled his turgid flesh, alternating hands as she pulled his flesh. She gingerly twisted, moving her hand upward, then her fingers traveled from the swollen head to the base of his member. Her palm circled the tip of him, then a delicate fingernail teased the oozing slit.

"Aradia," he breathed, panting from the emotions ripping through him. He closed his eyes, giving himself up to the pleasure he had heard other men describe but had never known in his resentful couplings with Saahira. "I can't...I'm not..."

"Shush..."

Jaelan's eyelids flew open when he felt her teeth graze the sensitive underside of his crown. Her long brown hair floated on the water's surface when she dunked her head beneath the waves. Her mouth engulfed him, sucking, her tongue swirling. Her hands kneaded his balls, the nails dragging beneath his stem.

He moaned, burying his hands in her hair.

One moment he was straining for the release he knew would be the closest he'd ever come to heaven, and the next he was throwing back his head, yowling with a climax that shook him to the core.

Limp, his breath ragged, he became barely aware of Aradia rising from the water. She raked hands through her hair pressed tightly to her scalp. His attention locked on her breasts, the swollen nipples pressed against the wet fabric. He could no more have stopped himself from capturing those firm mounds than he could deny the sun its rising at dawn.

In bliss, he molded her, sawed his thumbs across the nipples, then plucked at the turgid flesh.

"Beautiful," he whispered. "So..."

A boot scraping against the flooring separated the husband and wife as though they were randy teenagers caught by an incensed parent. Both turned guilty eyes to the doorway.

"Is he hurting you?" Tarsis asked Aradia, his lips twitching beneath the shaggy beard.

"Not so much as before," she answered.

"You saw to his discomfort, did you?"

"I believe I had everything well in hand, aye."

"And I bet those hands were full," the warrior teased. "Did he acquit himself reasonably well?"

"Tarsis," Jaelan said in warning.

Aradia smiled. "I must report, Milord Jaelan rose staunchly to the occasion."

"Stop it," Jaelan snapped. "The both of you."

"Are we embarrassing you, brat?" Tarsis gave Aradia an innocent look. "He can be such a little squirt, you know?"

"I wouldn't say that, Milord. He filled my..."

"Stop!"Jaelan shouted. "Not another word out of either of you!"

"I didn't hear you, brat," Tarsis said, slapping at his one ear. "Come again?"

"Get the hell out of here, Tarsis!"

The warrior tsked, shook his head, then threw up his hands. "You don't have to drill home the point, boy. I heard you the first time."

Aradia started to counter the old warrior's barb, but Jaelan's glower made her snap her mouth shut. She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.

"It was nice meeting you, Your Grace," Tarsis said, bowing to Aradia. "I'm relieved to know you care for this young jackass."

"Not as relieved as he is," she muttered.

Tarsis' laughter boomed from his barrel chest. He held out a hand in farewell.

"Send two robes back by Kaffie," Jaelan ordered.

Tarsis didn't turn, but acknowledged the order with a nod.

"I think he and I are going to be good friends," Aradia commented.

"Wench." Jaelan speared her with an angry look.

Aradia wiped the grin from her face. She wondered if she'd gone too far with the old warrior and caused her husband embarrassment. "Milord?"

"Stand up."

Her brows drawn together, Aradia got to her feet.