Chapter 14: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Kat awoke before her two lovers, excited to see if last night’s “school time” had had its desired effect. She crept out of bed, threw on her dressing gown and tiptoed out of the bedroom, closing the door quietly behind her. She made her way to the sitting room where Jade kept a small stock of her favourite magazines. They didn’t use this room much, preferring the bright and airy orangery, but, on a cold or rainy day, this was a good place to sit in front of the fire and relax in the large, high-backed leather armchairs.

She picked up one of the magazines and opened it, and, just as she expected, she could now read it, even though it was written in Reijik. It was her native language, but Rhys, in trying the previous time to speed-teach her how to read and write, had accidentally taught her to read and write his native language, Seibjern, so she’d been limited to whatever books or periodicals that they could get hold of in that language, plus the small number of books that Rhys had brought with him from home.

She spent some time reading, just because she could, then, with a broad grin on her face, she jumped up and headed upstairs. She opened the bedroom door and saw Jade and Rhys in bed, still under the blankets. They’d moved since she got up; they now faced each other, Jade sleeping with her face pressed into Rhys’ chest, wrapped in his arms. Kat took a running jump onto the bed, yelling “Got morge, somntotes!”, landing on their legs, still hidden under the blankets.

Unsurprisingly, Jade and Rhys awoke with a start. Both sat up and immediately saw Kat’s beaming face looking up at them. “Vaken, vaken!” she told them. Rhys, still only half awake, was more than a little surprised to hear Kat telling him “wakey, wakey” in Seibjern. Once he realised the implication of it and why Kat was so delighted, he smiled broadly, then pulled his legs from underneath Kat’s body and leapt out of bed. “I’ll teach you to wake us up!” he told Kat (in Seibjern), which made Kat screech in delight and dive off the bed.

The room wasn’t really big enough for a proper chase, but Rhys wasn’t really trying to catch Kat, and Kat wasn’t really trying to avoid Rhys, so they ran around for a while until Kat dived back on the bed and Rhys dived on top of her. Rhys spun Kat onto her back, grabbed her wrists and held them above her head while kneeling astride her, pinning her torso to the bed. She was breathing deeply, partly out of breath at the short bout of exercise but mostly from arousal.

Rhys bent down and gave Kat a proper kiss before standing up and lifting her. Kat squealed and put up mock resistance, but she allowed him to put her face down over his lap as he sat down on the bed. With one hand between her shoulder blades, applying gentle pressure to stop her wriggling as much, he started to smack her ass cheeks, one at a time. He wasn’t applying much force, just enough that her ass cheeks started to take on a pink hue. “Naughty girl,” he told her in Seibjern, “Naughty girl for waking your master up.” Kat kicked her legs from the knees down; “I’m sorry, master,” she repeated over and over. Both were role-playing, and they both knew it.

After a few minutes of the light spanking, Rhys started to sense Kat’s arousal, so he stopped. With no preamble at all, he pushed her legs apart, still holding her face down between the shoulder blades with one hand, and pushed his other hand between her legs. He inserted his thumb into her vagina – no lubrication was necessary as she was soaking wet – and his fingers moved to find her clitoris. He started to thumb-fuck her from behind, searching for her G-spot as he moved, teasing her clit with his fingers at the same time.

He noticed movement at his side. Jade, who, awakened by the pantomime, had been sitting up in bed, now crawled over to see the action in close-up. Rhys looked at her and smiled. She smiled but inclined her head towards Kat, telling him to concentrate on the task (literally) in hand. He did just that, continuing to stimulate Kat. She started to form words in between her gasps and cries: “Master” and “Please”. Her breathing increased until, suddenly and spectacularly, she came under his hand. He held on to her as her body shook, as her orgasm crashed through her until she finally, breathlessly, gasped at him to stop.

He held onto her for a few seconds, giving her a short time to recover, then moved his arms underneath her and lifted her clear of his lap, turning to place her gently on the bed. Jade bent over her, checking her out. Kat managed to give her a thumbs-up signal but otherwise lay still, on her front, on the bed.

Rhys looked at Jade, a questioning look in his eye, but Jade shook her head. “It was sexy as hell to see, she said, “but I’ll keep my ‘sexy time’ credit for another occasion.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Rhys smiled at her.

“No,” she replied. “I know it doesn’t. But still, remember that you both owe me.” She smiled at Rhys, bent forward and kissed his cheek, then jumped up off the bed and headed for the bathroom.

Rhys watched her go and briefly considered getting dressed and going downstairs for breakfast, but instead he lay back on the bed next to Kat. They had Kat’s first-ever proper conversation in Seibjern as she explained to Rhys that, as far as she could tell, last night’s “school time” had been a complete success. She’d been able to read Jade’s magazines in Reijik and, as she’d demonstrated, understand and speak Seibjern. She admitted that she had to concentrate when speaking and sometimes had to remind herself which language she wanted to use. Rhys assured her that it would get easier with practice.

They had the morning to themselves, their first appointment of the day being in the early afternoon with Richard Spencer to collect a message that Jade had offered to take to the government in Seibjerg. That was the reason that Kat had been so keen for Rhys to “teach” her the Seibjern language. She was excited to speak a new language and to go abroad for the first time as a free person, giving her the chance to put her new skills to use.

Rhys took a small suitcase down from the top of the wardrobe and tossed it onto the bed. He started pulling items out of the wardrobe and drawers to pack for an overnight stay and to wear for the day. Kat disappeared into the dressing room to do the same. Jade came out of the bathroom and, glancing at Rhys packing his things into the case, also headed off to the dressing room to join Kat.

Rhys watched her go, admiring her poise and grace as she crossed the bedroom. She gave her hips a little wiggle as she reached for the door to the dressing room, sensing Rhys watching her. He smiled, and she went through the doorway, leaving the door open behind her. Kat appeared in the doorway with an armful of clothes, naked as well.

Kat didn’t have Jade’s poise and grace, but she made up for it by having superb muscle tone. She’d filled out slightly in the days since the shipwreck due to the improvement in the quality and quantity of food she’d had. She was magnificent, maybe a head shorter than Jade, but her body was perfectly proportioned, with hardly an ounce of fat on her, a cheeky personality, and, despite her recent past, a charming, worldly innocence. She dumped the clothes on the bed and went into the bathroom.

Rhys had selected one change of clothes, nightwear and his travel pack of toiletries. He’d assumed that if they picked the letter up from Richard at lunchtime and took it straight to Seibjerg, they wouldn’t have an answer ready the same day. It looked like Kat had come to the same conclusion, as she’d brought the equivalent things in.

Rhys added Kat’s items to the suitcase and left it on the bed for Jade to pack hers when she was ready. He pulled on his clothes for the day and headed downstairs. Breakfast was, as usual, laid out in the orangery, and he poured himself a cup of tea, filled a bowl with Mrs Shaw’s mix of seeds, nuts and dried fruits, then added milk.

He sat in one of the chairs, looking out at the garden and the remains of last evening’s al-fresco dinner party. All that was left was the rented trampoline and the garden games, waiting on the lawn for the rental company to pick them up. He thought of going back to Seibjerg, to Roligvan, its capital, and maybe to his village of Solvstrom, where he grew up, and to see his mum. He hadn’t been homesick up to now, but now, with a chance to pop back for a few hours, he realised how much he missed his life in Solvstrom. It had been a simple life: school, playing sports, laughing with his friends, and, of course, his mum, Aoline, had been the constant presence. He missed her so much.

He felt a set of arms hold him loosely around his neck from behind. He could tell it was Jade; he could see her hands and feel her closeness through their connection. “Hey, babe,” she said.

He held her hands on his chest. “Hey, babe,” he replied. “Just a little nervous about going back to Seibjerg.” She moved around to sit on his knees, looking in his eyes. “Nervous about going home?” she asked. He nodded. “I’ve no reason to be,” he continued. “My mum will be delighted to see me, and she’ll be fine about the three of us being together. Probably even pleased I’ve found someone. Even multiple someones.” He smiled. “And my friends will be jealous as hell. But, you know, it’s still introducing her to the new people in my new life, a reminder that she’s not as involved as she used to be.”

Jade smiled up at him. “It’s perfectly fine for you to be concerned about your mum’s reaction,” she said. “I’m not going to say all those trite things, but I think you know she’ll be okay. She’ll see how you’ve moved into the next phase of your life, and she’ll have moved on into hers, whether that’s pining for you, which she’s probably done a little of, or something else.”

Rhys looked at Jade with wide eyes, then changed to a quizzical look. Jade held her hands up. “I don’t know anything,” she said. “It’s just the way of life.” She stood, giving Rhys a quick kiss on his forehead before heading over to the food and drink that were on the sideboard and helping herself.

The door opened again. It was Kat, hair still wet from her shower. She moved over to the sideboard and kissed Jade on the cheek, then helped herself to the mix of seeds, nuts and fruit. Jade poured a cup of tea for her, and then the two women took their breakfast and sat together on the rattan sofa. They chatted together in Seibjern, Jade happy to help Kat practice. Rhys smiled at them. Jade was almost perfect at speaking Seibjern, but he could tell she’d been taught it as a foreign language. Kat spoke with a regional accent, the same as Rhys’s, and she had his grasp of idioms, so she sounded native.

Kat’s conversation with Jade had turned into a discussion on what they could do with this morning’s free time. Rhys wasn’t paying much attention to them, lost in his own thoughts, until he became aware that both of them had stopped talking and were looking at him. “Sorry,” he said, “I’ve not been listening. Too busy thinking about going back to Seibjerg.”

They nodded at him, understanding. “We thought,” said Kat, “that we could go to Richard’s house via the National Museum. Our previous visit there got cut short, and we did say we’d go back.”

The events at the National Museum, where Rhys had been overwhelmed by a black rock in a display case, had been followed by a dream of a remarkably similar black rock and a dragon. A dragon had also appeared in a later vision in which, as a baby, he’d been carried in its claws. Whether there was a link between the three events, he didn’t know. It was possible that the rocks and the dragons were linked, or even the same, but it could also have been his own mind conjuring these images, perhaps triggered by the event in the museum. The only way to answer these questions was to get more information, and the best way to do that was to go back to the museum and that rock.

The women could feel his nervousness, and both were relieved when he nodded back at them and smiled. “That’s a good idea,” he said. “Let’s do that.”

Kat ran up the stairs and brought the overnight bag down. Jade went to the study, picked up their identity papers, and put them in her bag whilst Rhys went to find Mrs Hawthorne, the housekeeper, to let her know they’d be away overnight. Once back together, they set off to hail a taxi.

The journey to the National Museum took a little under an hour due to morning traffic, but eventually the taxi deposited them at its grand entrance. They walked up the wide stone steps and went through the entrance door. They picked another map from the reception desk and headed to the geology section, where Rhys had found the black stone last time.

Once there, they paused at the doorway. Kat looked at Rhys. “You’re not going up to that rock on your own,” she said. “Last time you were lucky that you didn’t bang your head on one of the other cases when you went down. That could have been a serious injury. Maybe even fatal. So this time, Jade and I will be there with you. And we’ll take it slowly.”

Rhys looked back at them, his eyebrows raised. “Don’t argue with the healer,” Kat told him, holding a finger up in warning. “Or else.” Rhys smiled.

Jade and Kat each took one of Rhys’s hands, and together they moved towards the display case that held the rock. “I can feel it,” said Rhys, stopping as he stared at it. Kat and Jade approached Rhys, standing slightly in front of him, still holding his hands. They stood there for a minute until they were sure Rhys was in no immediate danger. Kat looked at him again, then held her index finger up again, telling him to stay.

Jade and Kat released Rhys’s hands and moved to the display case, keeping themselves between it and Rhys. Jade peered at the rock closely. “I’ve seen something like this before,” Jade murmured. “When I was much younger. There was a fireball in the night sky over ... the city I grew up in.” She glanced at Kat. “I saw it myself,” Jade continued. “Lots and lots of people saw it. It seemed to be getting bigger and bigger but hardly moving; it was only later that we realised that it was because it was coming almost directly at us. And then there was a loud bang. In the morning, some children found a crater in their school’s playing field. The teachers kept the children away from it and called the city guards. They turned up, and one of their squad climbed down into the crater. At the bottom was a rock that looked very similar to this and was still hot – fortunately, the guard felt the heat before trying to pick it up. They put barriers up around the crater and left a team to keep people away. I got to see the rock the next day, after it had cooled and been retrieved.”