“Ah…haaaa…” A long groan escaped him as he pushed inside. Stars, let them make a child. His breath caught as he drew back and pushed deeper, a heavy thrust that sank him to the root.
“Oh, like that,” she gasped, wrapping her arms about his neck. Her heels dug into the soil, lifting her hips to receive him, and Remin gave her a hard smack with his hips that made stars burst behind his eyes.
“Stars…stars, let us make a child,” he said hoarsely, laying his hand on her abdomen andwillingit to be so. Another bleeding had come and gone, dashing his hopes that she might already be carrying, and tomorrow they would be leaving the valley, and any moment his enemies might strike again.
“I want to, oh, there,feel…”Her hand covered his, guiding it, pressing it flat so that he could feel himself moving inside her, the deep stroking of his body.
“I feel it,” he managed, but it was too much and he gripped her hips tight, leaving the dark marks of his hands as he rocked into the cradle of her thighs. Bending his head, he caught one of her nipples in his mouth, lapping at breasts that would one day be heavy with milk to nourish their children. Everything was bountiful. All of her was life. Stars, let them make a child!
Their voices rose together, and there were no more thoughts. Sweat burst on his skin and he groaned, the tent billowing around them as he mated with her, churning the earth into mud.
“Nngh…nngh…ah, ah,ah!”Ophele’s voice leapt an octave, her body arching in a sinuous caress that made his hips buck helplessly. Bands of earth wrapped his legs, the fertile soil of his valley, and the greedy grasp of her body pulled him down, in, deep.
“Oh—oh there, oh there, oh…good!”she cried, and he felt her go, the rippling spasms of her climax that finished him instantly, deep, good, and endless.
He groaned, his head hanging. Inside her was fertile ground, a blessed place for planting, and hewilledit to happen as he filled her, praying wordlessly that his essence would take root there, so part of him would grow and be with her always.
“Stay,” he managed, catching her hips to keep his softening length inside her. His head was spinning and he couldn’t make his eyes focus, but he found her lips and kissed her. “Brother Oleare said…we have until dawn.”
“We’re not done?”
“No.” Holding her thighs to his hips, he let his forehead rest on hers, drawing long, deep breaths to get his strength back. “I will plant you as many times as I can. Does it hurt?”
“No. Just…muddy,” she said, and kissed him reassuringly. “Is that what we’re supposed to do?”
“I want to try.” He grunted as she fluttered around him, slippery with his seed. She was so warm in his arms, always warm, his little flame. “Again,” he made himself say, focusing on how she felt to him, all the things about her that made him hard and wanting for her. “And again, I will…you feel so good on me, my wife…”
Talk like this did not come naturally to him. Especially when her body was still wringing the last of his seed from him, and his muscles were twitching with the urge to move, and his own weight on his knees was making them ache. He didn’t know if he even believed in the stars. He didn’t know if they cared what he was doing, whether they would bless him with a child or let him die in his blood. All he could do was everything he could.
“So beautiful,” he whispered, his sides belling in huge, deep breaths. Her small face was darkened with dirt and streaked with sweat, a jagged mask around her extraordinary eyes. Stars, she was lovely. His lips brushed hers, tingling. “Your face…your chin, I love your chin, this little point…it makes me want to catch you…”
“Kiss me,” she breathed as he caught her chin in his fingers and tasted her tongue. Her skin, her body, the hot and slippery silk inside her, tangled around him and tugged tighter.
“You’re…squeezing me,” he said breathlessly, his big hands sinking into the dirt even as he sank into her, and felt like he was melting in the fire. “Oh, I do love you, Ophele, I do…”
And never more than when her arms wrapped around him and her body moved to meet him, receiving him like the earth opening to the plow.
He wanted to see it so badly. Small, lovely Ophele ripe with his child. He wanted to see the fields his people would sow, and the vision that flickered behind his eyes was like waves and waves of golden grain, alive with the breath of the wind.
Distantly, he heard her voice rising and falling, her high cries of pleasure. Felt her breasts against his chest and her legs wrapped around him, the heat and the wet and the grit and the hardness of his body, working furiously to completion.
“Rem—oh,oh! Remin!”She bucked beneath him, a seismic shock of joining that made him cry out hoarsely.
“No—don’t, don’t move!” Gripping her waist, he strained to keep himself inside her, when it felt so good he could hardly stand it. “I can…I can, one more time…”
He could, because he must. Through his closed eyelids he could see the growing light beyond the glow of the stoves, sense the approaching dawn in the noise of distant birdsong, the stirring of morning. But he could do it, he could do it once more. Plant, and bless the planting.
The back of his mind understood what he was doing, and why. Hemustmake a child. Hemustgive her a child. Beneath that heavy stone in his chest was the knowledge of his own weakness, the kernel of terror that fed him nightmares every night, that he would not be strong enough for this destiny, that he would fail and die and leave her all alone.
Remin was as mortal as anyone else. He could die. He could be afraid. He had been afraid, for so long.
Beneath him, Ophele’s sides heaved. Her thighs flexed and her hands covered his and her eyes lifted to his face, willing to help even when she didn’t understand why he was trying so hard. He loved herso much.He loved her, and he loved this valley, and it was his duty and his honor to bind himself to them for all of his life. He would give them everything he had.
One more time.
Pebbles chewed into his knees. Muscles burned. How long had they been doing this? How much time was left? Hurry, hurry, he had to go faster, dawn was coming and that would bethe end of the spell, this blessed time when all the magic in the world was bent toward life.
“Stars…” Ophele gasped. Her legs tightened around him, her nails biting into his shoulders as she flung her head back. “Stars, let us—let us make a child!”
