Cavern Dancer
by Kate Hill
Series: Fantasy Flames
Format(s): Ebook
Heat Level: Erotic
Pairing(s): (M/F)
Genre/Themes: Paranormal
Length: Collection
Cover Art: Sahara Kelly
Purchase Links: Changeling Press
Cavern Dancers… Handsome, athletic, and powerful, their name speaks of mystery and magic. Gilana knows she cannot afford to marry for love. Yet in her secret dreams she longs for one of the exotic divers she’s glimpsed from the safety of her carriage. Still, she clings to her dreams.
Two men fated to love women who will never be theirs…
The Cavern Dancer… Jehf, half brother to King Tabor, must do what the king cannot — get the new queen, Gilana, with child. By day, Gilana despises the man she has married, yet every night he fulfills her deepest desires. Just when Gilana realizes she is dealing with two different men, Tabor orders Jehf’s execution. Only with the help of the mysterious Soothsayer can the couple hope to survive the king’s evil plan.
The Soothsayer… Vlas Sascha Evgenyl sold his soul to free his brother from an existence far worse than death. For sixteen years the powerful Soothsayer has served an evil master, trapped by the power of a spell whose very use has exiled him from his own people. Free at last, he seeks the only solace his tortured soul has ever known — the love of a woman he can never have.
Publisher’s Note: This collection contains the previously released novellas Fantasy Flames: Cavern Dancer and Fantasy Flames: Soothsayer.
Excerpt:
Vlas closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. It had been over sixteen years since he and Ivana made love that one and only time, yet every touch, every kiss, every word that passed between them was etched into his mind.
Returning to Ori Paz after so long was most likely a mistake, especially since Ivana was probably another man’s wife. Still, now that he was again master of his own life after sixteen years of serving a king he despised, the only place he wanted to go was home. Even if they banished him forever, at least he would see the icy gates of Ori Paz one last time, and more importantly, he would see the woman who had never left his thoughts.
He wanted to say he’d never stopped loving her, but when he’d invoked the ritual that bound him to his former master, most of his emotions had been lost. His weak, mortal sensations had been trapped in the same black glass bottle as the severed part of his soul. For the duration of his servitude, he had become one of the walking dead. Though he’d aged, and could sustain injuries, even feel pain, as long as his master held that bit of his soul, he could never be free, even through death.
Fourteen years he had waited for the signs that he could somehow win back his freedom. Through cunning and manipulation, his plan had finally succeeded. Yesterday, he had reclaimed his soul. He was no longer a slave. His evil master was dead.
Yet his freedom had come at a price.
Vlas glanced at his bandaged wrists where they poked through the sleeves of his white robe. Luckily his horse responded to his commands with scarcely a touch, or else the wounds on his wrists might reopen yet again. Though far too weak from blood loss to travel, he’d chosen to make the journey home today. He had no desire to remain for another day in the place of his former enslavement.
Even if I might have had the beginnings of friendships there.
He shook his head. “Impossible.”
The few people who had even the slightest bit of compassion for him could never truly be his friends. He’d used them to secure his own freedom. He ignored the fact that if not for his plan, the man would have died, the woman bound to a man she hated, and the young prince raised without ever knowing the truth about his parents.
The young prince was the reason for Vlas’s injuries. To save the child’s life, Vlas had used a protection ritual which required the blood of an Ori, or soothsayer, as humans preferred to call his kind. The amount of blood required would have killed a human. It had been enough to steal most of Vlas’s strength. A single night’s rest had done little to restore his health, but it wouldn’t matter. Within a few days, he would reach Ori Paz.
His gray stallion snorted and tossed his head, indicating his boredom at the slow pace. “All right, I’ll let you run for a while,” he said, urging the stallion to a gallop. Vlas hadn’t the energy to ride the speeding horse for long, but at least the release of pent up energy would help keep the animal from indulging in a fit of temper. Equines of Ori Paz tended to sense weakness in their riders. Normally Vlas could easily control the animal through his powers as an evoker, but now he needed to reserve his energy for the more difficult part of the journey to come.
At dusk they reached the continent’s northernmost shoreline. Several stone fishermen’s huts huddled amidst snowdrifts, smoke from their chimneys slicing through the darkening sky. Only a handful of ships waited on the dock. Two men and a boy who had been stacking firewood against the back of a barn glanced in Vlas’s direction. The men approached, signaling for the boy to continue working.
Vlas dismounted and placed a hand against his horse’s shoulder to keep from swaying. His head spun, and for a moment he thought he might be sick, but the feeling passed before the men reached him. Their dark eyes, buried deep within folds of brown flesh, stared at him cautiously. “Looking for something?” one of the men asked.
“A ship. I’m traveling to Ori Paz.”
The other man smiled, revealing a missing front tooth. “I could tell by looking you’re a soothsayer. It’s a bad time for you to be returning home. The weather has been harsh this winter and it seems another storm is coming.”
Vlas knew the man spoke the truth, but the storm was exactly what he was counting on to reach Ori Paz in record time. Even with the help of a strong wind, it would take half a night of sailing to reach the shoreline of his homeland. After that, it would take yet another daylong journey on foot to arrive at The Falls.
“Are you willing to sell a ship?”
“We’re fishermen here,” said the man with the missing tooth. “Our lives depend on our ships. If you’ll wait until the storm clears, I’ll be glad to take you to the shore of your homeland myself.”
“That is a fair offer, but I wish to leave immediately. Yours is the closest village to my destination.”
“Look, we told you that we can’t afford to sell a ship.”
“Even for the price of a year’s worth of catch?”
The men exchanged glances, greed shining in their eyes.
“That wouldn’t be fair,” said the first man. “No ship we have here is worth that much.”
Vlas removed a black pouch from the folds of his cloak and poured its contents into his palm. The men’s lips fell open in silent wonder at the sight of gold and jewels glistening in the soothsayer’s black gloved hand.
“I can buy at least three new ships with that.” The toothless man reached for the small fortune, but the soothsayer returned the contents to the pouch. He slipped the valuables back into his cloak.
“You have a ship for me, then?”
“This way.”
After tethering his horse to a fence, Vlas followed the toothless man to one of the ships. “It’s old, but in good condition. It will get you and your companions home safely.”
“It’s just me and my horse.”
The man curled his lip. “What? I thought you must have a camp somewhere close by.”
“No.”
“Sir, it’s a small ship, but it will take at least two men to bring it in. Trying to sail this vessel alone, even if you are a soothsayer, is suicide.”
Vlas stared at the man with his sternest expression.
Casting his gaze to his boots, the fisherman shook his head. “Then it’s your funeral.” The man snatched the pouch that Vlas held out to him. As he walked off the ship, he glanced over his shoulder with a disbelieving expression. “Good luck to you. You’re going to need it, that’s for certain.”
Reviews:
These two stories are volcanically hot. Kate Hill has a talent for combining romance, sex, and action unlike anyone else.
–5 Cherries by Holly, Long and Short Reviews
