healer. Another clerist offers to help Aron out, but he only wants me and a hot bath.
“How was it?” I ask as we go up the stairs to our room, Kerren following close behind.
The smile on Aron’s face is pleased. “Glorious. It was an intense battle. Neither side gained much ground from the other. I am well pleased with the Cyclopae army.”
“No ground gained?” I ask, dismayed. “None at all?”
“Patience, my Faith. Battle will decide all things.”
I help him bathe and remove the arrows from his chest, neck and back. His wounds close up the moment the arrows are plucked free, and he’s in good spirits as he bathes. He’s practically fucking cheerful.
“Once you’re off to bed, I’ll rejoin the men,” he says as he towels off, a hot look in his eyes. It’s the look that promises some hot lovin’, because post-battle Aron is clearly a randy Aron.
“Rejoin the men? Why?”
“They are burning the dead,” he says. “I would give them an honorable send-off on their journey to the afterlife since they died in my name.”
I bite my lip as Aron takes my hand and pulls me to bed. He drags me against him and cups my breast, teasing the nipple even as he kisses my neck. His touch feels good, amazing, really, but I can’t stop thinking about his words. “How…how many men died?” I ask, trying to bite back a whimper when his mouth goes to my breast.
“A hundred, maybe more,” he murmurs, then licks my nipple.
A hundred? In just one day? Just to run up against the brick wall that is the opposing army? “Aron, maybe there’s another way—”
“I am the god of battle,” he says, pushing me onto my back on the bed. His big hand goes to my pussy, and he strokes it with his fingers. Even though I want to talk more about war, he’s far too good at distractions. “The men will spend eternity at my side. They will be rewarded. Now, let me touch my anchor.”
And he lowers his mouth to my belly, completely distracting me.
We make love twice before Aron tenderly washes me and gives me a kiss. “Sleep,” he murmurs, caressing my face. “I will wake you up when I return.”
For more sex, most likely. I can’t even be mad—I crave his touch like a junkie. But even after he leaves, I can’t stop thinking about the battle.
A hundred men gone in one day. For nothing. I think of the pinched look that came over Halla’s face as the king showed up with a wounded arm…and I’m starting to see why she’s so worried. How many people will die to gain a few feet of ground across the river? That still doesn’t get us Hedonism Aron’s anchor. It just gets us a toehold closer.
There’s got to be a better way.
77
“You see what I mean,” Halla says in a fretful voice the next day as we sit in her library. “I have tried to beg Mathior not to go out, not to fight such senseless battles, but it is in their very nature. Everything they believe is that battle is glorious and honorable. To die fighting in Aron’s name? To die for him? There is no greater glory. But…we are getting nowhere and every day, more men die.” She shakes her head, her hands trembling as she turns another page of the book. “Every day, it is the same.”
I pace near the window, rubbing my growling stomach. Halla has sent a maid to bring food, but this one’s new and a little slow. She’s taking her time biting all my cheese and tasting all the meat. We’re probably getting the best stuff in the castle, so no wonder she’s being pokey. I do my best not to glare at her, but staring out the window as men die is surprisingly hungry work. “What do we do?” I ask Halla for the millionth time today. “What if your husband refused to go out on the battlefield with Aron?”
Solat watches me pace as he leans against the wall. “Ask a cyclops warrior not to go to war? Better luck asking the sun not to shine.”
I scowl at him. “Not helping, buddy.”
“He’s right,” Halla says. “He will never refuse Lord Aron. This is the greatest honor he can imagine. You don’t know how it’s rejuvenated him to fight alongside Aron. Having him here makes me have hope once more. I’ve been so worried.” She pauses and closes the book in her lap. “So