Page 16 of Drawn into Oblivion

She bit her lip in indecision, wishing she had the confidence of any other woman to accept his tempting offer. But it was like asking a person who feared snakes to touch one, hold it in her hand, and have faith it wouldn’t bite her.

“Do you not yet trust me?” he asked. Her attention jumped from his outstretched hand to his face, and the pressure on her heart eased as she realized…she did have many reasons to trust him.

He had fought bravely the night Majo had brought the battle to Vallen’s hidden estate. She had seen the proof of his compassion when he’d thought his friend was gone forever. The destroyed look on his face had touched something inside her. And here in the palace, she had seen how his charm and skills had earned him the respect and support of everyone under his command.

The soldiers trusted him. The high general and the empress thought highly of him, and even the Divine One himself had encouraged her to have faith in him.

Resolved, she laid her hand in his. “So if I ask you to stop…?”

“Then I’ll stop.” He closed his fingers around hers, holding them firmly. “Follow me.” He turned and led her through the darkened hallways of the slumbering palace, taking paths that avoided guard patrols. He seemed to understand the need for discretion, and she was grateful they didn’t come upon anyone.

They entered the north wing of the palace. “What are we doing here?” she whispered. “Only the empress lives in this wing.”

At least ten guards were always near the empress to intercept unwanted visitors and answer any summons or calls for help. They made regular rounds of the halls, and Mai didn’t want them to discover her skulking about with the commander in the middle of the night.

Rosuke smiled at her over his shoulder, his white teeth reflecting the dim lantern light. He urged her closer as he stealthily ducked into a side hallway not far from the empress’s bedroom. Her suspicions grew.

He led her only partway down the hall before stopping in front of a small, dark room, and she was eternally thankful the door didn’t scrape along its track as others in the palace sometimes did. He motioned her inside.

The room’s musty odor told her not even the blondie royals had used this space, but besides the echo of running water and a thin sliver of light coming from a door on the opposite side, she could discern nothing else in the pitch-black room.

Rosuke whispered a word of magic, and a tiny flame flared from his thumb. She made note of the Mahou word he’d used, and looked around as he moved to light a candle. A wall of built-in cabinets and a pair of benches covered with dusty sheets indicated this was a changing room, much like the ones by the main baths. Rosuke set the lit candle and its tray on a sheet-covered table in the corner of the room, far from either door.

“Why here?” she whispered, determined not to take a single step into the room until he allayed her suspicions—and bringing her to a small, dark room was very fishy, even after his sincere declaration to woo her slowly.

“We’re in a changing room, as I’m sure you’ve already deduced,” he said in a low voice. “You should now ask yourself what is likely in the next room.”

Blinking, Mai turned her attention to the door, which appeared to have warped slightly in the room’s moist air—no doubt the source of the musty smell. Too curious to stay put, she set aside her spare underrobe and crossed the small space. Rosuke moved to follow, but he didn’t hover too closely.

The nearer she drew to the gap in the door, the harder her heart pounded. She didn’t know for certain what lay in the other room, but she could guess. Humidity wafted through the crack, and it carried a familiar scent, one her nose recognized from early in her childhood when her mother had bathed using the supply of Kaisuian soap she had taken with her to Stillwood.

Breathing softly through her mouth, Mai gently placed her hands on the doorframe, leaned forward, and focused her right eye on some movement in the other room. Two surging forms, a man and a woman, moved in such a carnal manner that the sight nearly stole her breath. They were at least thirty feet away, and the splash of water continuously pouring into the pool from an artificial cascade was loud enough to drown out almost all other sounds. Almost…

Her mind recognized what was a private hot spring, most likely adjacent to the empress’s bedroom, but she couldn’t think much beyond that. The sight before her demanded her full attention.

A woman lay on her back by the edge of the in-ground pool, her hands clutching the rim and her legs spread wide. The man standing over her was thrusting his hips, his arms hooked under her knees, and his hands tightly gripping her thighs. The water lapped the backs of his legs, and the angle prevented Mai from seeing much of the woman, but the sight of the man’s clenching buttocks made her gasp.

Then the woman moaned with such joy and volume that Mai abruptly backed away from the door and directly into Rosuke’s chest. She gasped again, intending to turn around, but his hands on her shoulders kept her right where she was.

“The empress and the h-high general” was all she could say, voice shaking—but not with fear. A strange excitement had taken her over. Her heart pounded. The swollen part of her throbbed even more intensely than when the Divine One had touched it, and when Rosuke spoke soft and low in her ear, she shivered.

“They are making love, as is their habit most nights, I suspect.”

“Is he hurting her?” she asked despite knowing the answer.

“See for yourself,” he invited, urging her forward. She resisted for a heartbeat but couldn’t fight the temptation to look again. Rosuke’s chest brushed her back as he leaned forward to look over her head. The empress did not struggle or ask for mercy. In fact, she encouraged her lover, sighing his name and chanting yes.

“Can they hear us?” she whispered, almost too softly for him to hear.

“If they could they’d have noticed by now.”

Mai allowed herself a sigh of relief. She focused again on the room beyond and spied waves rippling across the surface of the hot spring. She wondered if the empress and high general had specifically chosen the bathing chamber to drown out their ardent moans. The thought made her swallow.

A sharp moan drew her gaze to the lovers again. They were still in the same position, but Vallen was pumping his hips faster. Their bodies tensed. Shumei moaned again, louder and longer.

“We shouldn’t be watching. It’s not right.” She shook her head, taking her eyes off them again, and tried to step away from the door. Rosuke held her in place.

“What they don’t know won’t hurt them. Quickly, look again. Look now,” he whispered urgently.