Mac Tire � Son of the EarthPart 6 - A Time For Speech....Dom slept for an hour, and when he awoke, it was to find himself wrapped in Lij's arms, his head in its accustomed place on his spouse's chest. Dom lifted his head and looked drowsily at that face he loved above all others, still fathoms deep in healing sleep. There was so much to talk about; so many hidden feelings to explore. He could imagine Lij's wrath when he read the note, and discovered his spouse had rushed off to the other side of the world without speaking a word to him. He could imagine Lij's fear and terror for his love, travelling into who knew what danger? Yes, there was much to discuss, but later. There was always their love to cushion the blow - everything else could wait. Ayveen was hovering about the fire, stirring something in a large pot. He recognised the smell, realising with a start that he was very hungry. Carefully unwinding the slumbering Lij, he rose and went over to the woman, whispering, "is it ready? I'm famished!" Ayveen nodded and smiled. "It is, so. Help yourself." She pointed to some bowls and a wooden ladle in a container near the fire. Dom put a good sized serving into his bowl. Thick mutton stew with root vegetables. Dom licked his lips; he loved this food. Plain, satisfying stew. He had attempted to make it in Egypt, Lij leaning over hs shoulder and laughing at his efforts, but the meat never tasted quite the same as this mutton did, fed as it was on lush green grass. "Dhia, but I've missed this!" He spooned the stew into his mouth, grinning at Ayveen as he did so. "Should I wake him to eat?" Ayveen shook her head. "Let him have his sleep. That was a bad one he had, Dom. The rest won't hurt him." She put some stew into a bowl and started to eat it. "The contents of Nekeb's bundles proved very interesting. Would you like to explain, now, exactly who your Lij is? And while you're at it - who you are?" Dom continued with his meal. He had not thought what he could say about Lij. His appearance together with Nekeb and his bundles -whatever they contained - had not formed any part of his plans until now. "No," he answered shortly, as the silence between them stretched like a wire. "No? No, you do not wish to answer? That is a pity, because I will find out from someone on the boat, eventually. I would rather have heard it from him - or you." Dom put his bowl down, and licked his lips. "I very much doubt if anyone on that ship knows who Lij is, Ayveen. And I am no-one of any importance, here, any longer. They would not believe it, anyway, if you told his shipmates who he was. They would laugh. Come to think of it, I do not know if you would believe it, either." Whilst she was pondering the significance of these words, a husky voice came from the bed. Lij rose shakily, standing amongst the skins, staring at Dom and Ayveen with an expression on his face Dom knew so well. Lij stared down his nose at them. "Is my manner and form so contemptible, Lord and Prince of Memphis, that dressed as I am, men would laugh at me, seeing me out of my kingdom, and my clothing of state?" Dom knelt, and putting his arms out in the gesture of submission and reverence, bowed his head. "No, Great One. You are a king wherever you are, and however you are dressed. You are my master and my lord. I have sworn fealty to you - you do not need me to tell you that again.� � I am sorry, Ayveen," he said switching effortlessly into his native tongue, "We are rude to speak thus before you. We will try to remember in future that you do not understand us." He sat down again on his stool. Lij advanced to the fire. He was still pale, but looked more composed. He smiled at Dom, and put his hand on his shoulder. Dom pressed his face into the hand, making of the touch a caress. "I am sorry, Dom. I am sure you did not mean it to sound so...so....condescending." Ayveen, who had missed none of the visual aspects of this short interchange, spoke gently. "I can see you are someone to be reckoned with in your own land, little man. I don't think you are much used to having your will thwarted. Is that so?" Lij grinned and sat down. Dom gave him a bowl of stew, which he took with a nod of thanks. "That is true, lady. Once I was a slave in a foreign land, and I learned much there about the nature of men, and how some are judged by social position not by merit. However, it is more difficult for me to retain a balance at home. Here, I can be myself. In my own country I am regarded as a god." Avyeen stared at him, dumbstruck. Never had she met a man who claimed to be a god! His country must be very backward and very small to regard such a youth as a god, she mused. The Son of the Sun, Horus - Mighty Bull of Ma'at, Lord and God of Egypt, Pharaoh Knefer-Lijedefer, Living Forever, twenty nine years old, and wise in the ways of men, picked up a wooden spoon and ate his stew. "Good!" he said, his mouth full. They watched him until he'd finished eating. "Not a bit like that...mess...you tried to make at home, Dom. The cooks complained that the smell lingered for a week, so I was told." Lij licked his lips and wiped his mouth in his sleeve, lacking a linen square. With a sigh he realised that this would be how things were from now on. "Dom, I need a bath!" Lij looked at Dom with a wry grin. Ayveen said, "We use the river in summer, but in the cold weather, no one bothers much with bathing. It is far too chilly." Lij clicked his fingers. "Nekeb's bath!" he crowed. "It is a bath? I thought it was a huge shield of some sort," the woman giggled. "Why did he...?" She thought better of asking any more questions and just sat there, grinning. Dom smiled at his spouse with love in his eyes. Only Lij would be concerned with bathing in cold weather in a strange land after being immersed in the sea for hours after a shipwreck. Dom had got used to the cleanliness that was Egypt, but he knew his native land only too well. He rose to his feet. "Come on, then, love. We'll go and fetch the bath. We'll walk about in the fresh air and stretch our limbs for a while." Ayveen nodded. "There is more stew and some apples and cheese in this basket. They are a little wrinkled, but sound. You may feel like something to eat before you retire. I will not be returning later, as I have business concerning the village to discuss with the elders. I shall stay elsewhere tonight." Lij blushed and bowed his head, and Dom pressed his lips together to stop himself laughing. She was a clever woman all right, he thought. "Thank you," Lij managed gratefully. He rushed Dom out into the bracing air. "She knew...she knew we...I...we...tonight..." Dom whispered into Lij's very pink ear. "It is no secret that I want you, Lij. I have missed you so much. Missed holding you in my arms - missed your body entering mine..." Dom was glad that the warm clothing concealed much of the evidence of his urgent desire for his spouse. Lij looked up at him. "And I, Dom. I look forward to tonight, very much." No more could be said, there were others walking by. They passed two dogs fighting over a bone. There were three children standing near the hounds, quarrelling over whose bone it was and which dog deserved it most. Two of the children, a boy and a girl of about eight or nine turned to the passing men and asked them to intervene. Dom and Lij moved towards them, but Lij stopped in his tracks staring at the two blond children in dismay. "Twins!" he whispered. Dom patted his shoulder. "Twins." he replied softly. As they moved away from the children - the solution to the problem was to remove the bone altogether - Dom threw the bone behind a hut. "Some dog will find it quickly enough," he said, putting his arm around Lij's shoulder as they walked. "I miss them, Dom." "I know, Lij; so do I, my love." He tried to give Lij something else to think of by pointing to a man carrying a bundle of wood on his shoulder. "Look, we'll ask this man where it is." Lij looked away embarrassed. He was not used to relieving himself in public, but they both needed the latrine. Their bodies were not going to cease functioning until a more suitable place could be found. The man pointed the way, smiling. Lij's nose found it before his eyes did, and it wrinkled fastidiously. Not even in front of Dom had he ever done such a thing. Yes, they had passed water in company with each other, everyone did that....but this! Some things were totally private. He steeled himself to do what had to be done, and a few minutes later opened his eyes. A handful of grass was no substitute for a square of soft linen, but he had managed. Dom was standing a few paces off, his back pointedly turned to Lij, but there was another man there grunting and straining. Lij felt sick. This was a barbarous country! He needed a bath. Dom pointed to a tub of water standing nearby, and Lij swilled his hands in it, wiping them dry in his cloak as Dom was doing. "Let us go to Nekeb, Lij. We can rescue the bath - I am longing to see this prize - and see if there is clothing we can use in his bundles." Lij grinned. "Well, if you have a fancy for white pleated kilts and gold pectorals, not very much, I imagine,� Lij remarked wryly. "Nekeb thought I should dress, when we arrived here, as befits my station. Unfortunately, no one had advised him where this island was. He thought it would be somewhat...warmer." Dom laughed. "In the summer it is...." he began. Summer. The Summer Person. Sowrawn. Murderer! Thief! Despoiler of women! Dom frowned. Lij stopped outside the hut in which Nekeb lay. "What is it, my love?" Dom shook his head. "Not now, Lij. Tonight we shall speak of many things..." Lij touched Dom's arm gently. "Tonight!" he breathed. Dom squared his shoulders and held back the cowhide curtain for Lij to enter Nekeb's hut. *** Nekeb had been much better on their second visit. Lij had made light of the missing crown, even if it was far from how he really felt. He lied and told Nekeb there was a duplicate in the treasury. Nekeb's eyes lit up with joy, and Dom clasped Lij around the shoulder with his one free arm, as they left the hut. "That was well done of you, Lij. Is there a spare one, as you said?" Dom hefted the copper bath higher onto his back. The leather strap chafed on a wound that he had not taken into account whilst offering to carry the thing. Lij shook his head. "I was distraught, Dom, when he first told me, otherwise I would never have said what I did. The poor man has suffered enough. When we get home, I will order another one made. He will not need to know I lied. Lying in all its forms is abhorrent to me." Once back in their hut, Dom placed the bath on the earthen floor. Lij looked at a pile of what looked like dried mud bricks next to the wood in the pile. "What are these, Dom? Are they fuel?" Dom nodded. "Peat. I do't know why some earth burns and some doesn't - but peat does. I'll offer to go and dig some when my shoulder heals." There was a large wooden barrel of water outside the door, and Lij took the huge iron cauldron and filled it up, staggering a little under its weight. The two men managed to put it on the hook on the frame over the fire. Neither man had any doubt that Ayveen could carry it in one hand, but said nothing. While the water heated they sat and ate. Slowly the talk about their injuries and Nekeb and Ninus dried up, and the men sat, silent, staring into the fire. "I was so angry when you left me without a word, Dom. So very angry. In those first few moments after I read...I thought I truly hated you - then realised it was fear that had struck me. I was nearly paralysed by it, by the feeling of helplessness. Tell me what happened, Dom. Make me understand." Dom looked up quickly, and then lowered his gaze to the fire again, as if the hurt in Lij's eyes was too great to bear. "I...When Raya told me that my heir had been killed, I rushed to find Ninus without thinking, Lij. I had no other thought at that moment but that my country, my country was at the mercy of a murdering tyrant.� �My cousin, Colm, who had been my Tanist heir was a good kind man, sensible, caring. He had a wife and seven beautiful children, four boys and three girls, the eldest would have been about ten when I... left... the baby a few weeks old. They were a loving family and he would have been a good and just king. Ninus told me a relative of Colm's - someone I'd never heard of called Sowrawn - had claimed the throne by right of being born before he was. We do not subscribe to the view that ones birth gives one the right to rule. Merit is the only criterion we accept. Kingship is only granted after a fair vote.� �Ninus had been here when all this happened about a year and a half ago. Although he had not seen Sowrawn, he saw the ravaged bodies of Colm and Maeve and the children spitted on spikes on the walls of Tara..." Dom's eyes darkened with fury. ��and for this, and other crimes Ninus told me of, I will have him, Lij. I will split his head open like a ripe melon for these things. The blood of my dead cries out from the ground for vengeance. Can you understand this? Can you understand why I left? Not thinking, not being able to think, just needing...Dhia...just needing justice for my dead?" Dom's voice broke, then, and Lij moved to sit beside him on the floor, holding him in his arms. Dom put his head on Lij's shoulder, and swallowed the lump in his throat. "I understand, Dom. If it were me, I would have done the same thing. I would have come - who could not, being a man? But my love, I think I could have waited a few days and spoken to my spouse of it. Were you so afraid I would say "no"? How can you be so sure?" Dom raised his head and stared at Lij. "Because you are my liege lord I would have obeyed you, Lij - I would have stayed if you had refused to let me come..." His voice cracked again. In a husky whisper he said, "and I would have died of it." Lij touched Dom's face with a trembling hand. He brushed the tears off his spouse's cheek, and tried to smile at him, failing dismally. "Could you not have taken the chance that I would have said "yes," my heart? Do you not know me better than that after the years we have spent together?" Dom shook his head, slowly. "I was half out of my head with grief, Lij. I was not rational. Neither were you when you got my message, I expect. Else you would not be here." It was Lij's turn to lower his eyes. "It is true. I was half crazed with grief. All I could think of was you heading into who knows what dangers, alone...and that I might never see you again." Dom caught Lij roughly in his arms, and held him close, smoothing the long dark braid with hands far from steady. "That thought did not occur to me until days after the ship had sailed, Lij. If I could have, I would have turned back then. Never to see you...never to hold you again...never to see our children..." They stayed there within the comfort of each others arms for some time, not speaking, just happy, so happy, to be together again. The bright flames of the fire dimmed slightly, and Dom got up and laid some peat all around the edge and on top of it. The water was steaming. Dom brought the basket over. "We should eat. We will need all our strength for the journey to Tara." They both resolutely put their other anxieties and concerns out of their minds Lij took an apple and an oatcake and nibbled them thoughtfully. "How far is it, Dom?" Dom sighed. "I do not know, Lij, because I�m not sure exactly where we are." Lij stopped eating for a moment. "How will we be able to find our way?" Dom shrugged his shoulders, breaking off a piece of cheese to eat with his oatcake. "We do not have to think of that for a few days, Lij. There is Nekeb and his wounded leg to be thought of first. We cannot leave until he - or we - are fit for the journey. Leave it to god." "Which god, Dom? Some are more helpful in crises than others." "Let us leave it to the Mother, Lij, whether Holy Isis or Brigid, The Exalted One, it matters not. The Mother will avenge those ravished and murdered children." Lij shuddered, thinking, as he had, of his own children so far away. "Yes, Dom, the Mother will aid us." He ate another oat cake. "These are very good!" he said, trying to take the darkling look out of Dom's grey eyes. "They are! My mother used to order them made for breakfast..." Dom brushed the crumbs off his clothing, and stood. "No more talk tonight, Lij. Bathe we must... then..." Lij blushed, his eyes shining by the light of the fire. Then...?" He teased. It was Dom's turn to flush. He placed the bath in the centre of the room, near the fire, and poured the hot water into it. Some cold water followed it. "Perfect!" he said. "Who will bathe first?" Lij put a finger to his lips. "I have had a great desire to see you naked for some time, my spouse. I think it shall be you!" He sat down to watch. Dom slowly began to undress, his breath hitching slightly as he did so. Lij sat on a stool and watched him, his eyes enormous in his pale face. Dom unwound the bandages from his shoulder and leg, and threw them onto a stool. There was no longer any bleeding, so he thought he could do without them. Besides, the wool chafed his skin. Lij held in his lap a natural sponge rescued from Nekeb's jealously guarded bundles, together with a small linen towel, and a flask of fragrant oil, ready to hand Dom when he was ready. The bath was large enough for a small man to sit in comfortably - Dom did so. Lij divested himself of his outer garments and wearing only one of his woollen shirts, moved forward to unbraid Dom's hair. "Lij, there should be a bar of yellow soap here somewhere. Would you look? I should have thought of it before now." Lij wasn't sure what it would look like, but he found it quickly enough, in a basket against the wall. He sniffed it. It smelt sharp. "I'll wash my hair in it, it needs it!" It was not as gentle as the liquid cleanser Raya made at home, nor did it smell as sweet, but it lathered well, and Lij kneaded it into Dom's scalp as he sat there, sighing contentedly. Lij ran his hands through the hair after rinsing it. Dom stood and shook his head like a terrier. "Ah, that feels good!" he sighed. Lij looked at the body revealed in front of him, bronzed after weeks at sea and finely muscled. He wondered, as he did, sometimes, what a man like Dom saw in his own pale slim form. Dom was beautiful. His body taut, his limbs covered in fine blond hair. His cock thick and long, the hair surrounding it fine and... Lij felt himself stir. He was tired, yes, but sometimes other feelings outweighed tiredness. Dom rubbed himself briskly with the towel, and indicated to Lij that he should empty the bath into the slop tub and refill it. Lij shook his head, just pouring in a drop of hot water to warm it. "It is not dirty, Dom. I will wash myself in your essence, I can smell you in the water." Dom's eyes changed from grey to darkest black. "Hurry!" he growled. Lij hid a secret smile. It was not often that his mate was so dominant in their private moments, preferring usually that Lij take the lead, but when Lij looked, as look he must, Dom's cock lay flat upon his stomach, risen so far in desire that it looked almost painful. Lij shed the shirt, but did not remove the dressing on his chest, as Ayveen had directed it stay on for a few days. Lij's hair was longer than Dom's reaching, unbound a it now was, to his hips. Lij bent over the bath, and Dom wasted no time in lathering the dark mane with the soap and rinsing it off. He rubbed it quckly with the towel, trying the keep the bandage dry. Lij then sat in the warm water with a contented sigh. Dom had put on one of two fine transparent linen gowns found in the precious bundles, and sat on the stool watching his spouse with avid eyes. Lij quickly sponged his own lower body and when his ablutions were completed, he stood, ready to get out. Dom whispered "Stop!" and Lij stared at him. "Why...?" "Just stop," Dom repeated in the same tone, and Lij stood dabbing himself with the tiny towel while Dom watched him intently. Dom knelt and being careful not to tip the bath up, leaned forward slightly and took Lij into his mouth. Lij held back a cry of delight. At last. Dom was mouthing him like a baby starved of nourishment. He finally released Lij, and stood, crushing him to his chest and winding his trembling arms around the body of the man he had so sorely missed of late. "A thaisce! My treasure!" Dom whispered in his ear. Lij managed a breath. "Am I truly your treasure, my Dom?" Dom nodded, too full of emotion to speak. Lij smiled gently at him. "Then come to our bed and claim me!" **Brigid, The Exalted One. A Pre - Christian goddess of Ireland **A thaisce -Ah hashkeh, - my treasure. |