With a Tangled Skein by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online

arms, and had deliberately accepted the first blow. She saw the youth who had struck him pull back, shaking his right hand as if it had been hurt. Then Cedric started to fight, and in moments it was over. Bare-knucks champ? Surely so!
     
    The scene ended and the vapor dissipated into invisibility. But the evidence was in. "Clean out your rooms," the Prof directed the youths. "You will be discharged from this institution with prejudice; your illicit wine has condemned you." They scrambled up and sheepishly departed.
     
    The Prof turned to Cedric. "You were intelligent to provide them the initiation of the combat; now there will be no question of abuse of your power. You were aware that folk of your prowess are enjoined from abusing it?"
     
    Cedric nodded soberly. "I knew I had cause, but if I killed anyone-"
     
    "You had cause, and you did not kill anyone," the Prof agreed. "I commend you on your discretion. Now take your wife to the guest house; she is in need of cleaning and comfort."
     
    Indeed, now that the threat was over, Niobe was suffering a reaction. She had almost been raped-and Cedric had been set upon by four men! Never before in her life had she been exposed to violence like this. She put her face in her hands, and discovered it wet with tears, reddened by wine. She tried to wipe them away, but they just got worse, and soon she was openly sobbing.
     
    Cedric picked her up and carried her to the guest house. She felt his arms like flexible steel, and his chest and stomach like iron; he was seventeen now, coming into the flush of his physical potential. Growing . . .
     
    She had locked in the image of a boy, and never observed the emerging man.
     
    He set her carefully down on the bed of the guest house. "I will fetch the nurse," he said, concerned. "You are hurt."
     
    But she clung to him. "Cedric, I need you!" she cried.
     
    "I love you!"
     
    He paused. "You're upset, Niobe, with reason. A bath and some rest-"
     
    She drew him down, desperately. "I've been such a fool, and I reek of wine! Forgive me, Cedric!"
     
    "There is nothing to forgive," he said gently. But he allowed himself to be brought down to her until he was lying beside her on the bed. "You have always been perfect, Niobe," he added, murmuring into her ear.
     
    She rolled onto him, hugging him close. Her tear-wet lips found his and she kissed him with a passion that astonished her. Her breast was suffused with reaction and emotion; she could not get enough of him. He responded, as he had to, to the fire of her desire, kissing her in return.
     
    Suddenly she laughed. Startled, he lifted his head to look at her questioningly.
     
    She sat up, reached for his shirt, and unbuttoned it. "There!" she said, smiling. "I have had the first blow."
     
    Slowly he smiled. "But this is no fight."
     
    "Isn't it? We have been trying to do this for most of a year, and have always been defeated by our own reticence. Cedric, you have fought for me, most valiantly and effectively, and now you have won me. Take your spoils!"
     
    "Spoils!" he muttered wryly. "You are the woman I love."
     
    "And you are the man I love!" she replied gladly. "I want to be yours-completely."
     
    He kissed her. Then he undressed her. Her blouse was sticky with drying wine, and her hair was matted with it, but she knew better than to pause for even a minute to clean up. Now was the time to strike!
     
    Now Cedric looked at her body. She smiled and reached up to him. She knew that her reaction was no more important than his and that their physical interaction was only a portion of their emotional one. For the first time she truly desired him, and for the first time he believed he deserved her.
     
    Still, he was inexperienced, as was she. She helped him as much as she could without seeming aggressive and, when he hesitated, she held him and kissed him passionately; when he sought to come into her and found the way obscure and paused in confusion, she thrust herself at him and