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Eirik blanched. "So they were once children?" He thought of his ax wedged deeply into the boy's skull, and felt sick.
Kaer shook his head. "They are monsters. What you killed were imitations, not corpses." He sighed. "They are flighty and ruthless, but they have a mile-wide cruel streak that makes them natural killers. They would have been hired to risk the trip to your world and make sure the job was finished."
"By..." Eirik prompted.
Kaer shrugged. "One of the families. A war is coming, and my death would be a blow to my own. It could have been any one of them."
Eirik scowled. "A war is coming! You elves take no responsibility. In my world, we say 'this clan is stealing our livestock, and we will go to war to stop them', or 'the Law Speaker ruled against me, so I must go to war to defend my honor'." Men go to war, Kaer. I don't understand this talk of war coming on its own, like an uninvited guest."
Kaer considered it gravely. "I don't know what you consider wars," he said finally. "But in my world, they make men act like something other than men. Perhaps it is because of the monsters whose aid we clamor after during such times. War brings atrocities, massacres, and evil. These are not things of men in times of peace."
Eirik looked away from the boy's shining pale gaze. "If it's so awful, why do you talk like it's unavoidable?"
"Because it is." Kaer's words were cool. "You should warn your family."
Eirik reached across the small pool and grabbed the hulduman, digging his fingers into the smooth flesh of his arm. "My family," he grated, his voice deadly quiet, "is not to be involved."
Kaer met his eyes and Eirik felt a sharp jolt as the tension between them sprang suddenly higher. "That was not a threat," Kaer said softly. "I only meant for you to be prepared, if the fighting spills over beyond the hidden paths. It usually does."
Eirik was breathing heavily. "It won't," he insisted, angry at the disbelief shining in Kaer's eyes. He felt foolish towering over the boy and twisting his arm, but the thought of imitation children running through the villages with their ugly daggers made his stomach turn and his blood boil.
"I will try to keep you out of it," Kaer went on. "The little monsters will have run back to their master with tales of the great human warrior who stole their prize. Their descriptions are unlikely to have any truth in them, though, to save their own pride." His lip twitched. "You will be nine feet tall, in their retelling, with four arms and as many axes. You'll have come on them unawares, attacking from behind and using your dirty human magic to shield my body from their weapons."
Eirik grunted. "Don't make me regret saving you, Ljuflingur." He released the boy's arm, and felt a grudging guilt when Kaer drew it quickly back and massaged it, wincing. "Will they try again?" A protective determination hovered unspoken around the question.
Kaer shrugged. "I could try changing my name," he said ruefully. A wicked smile touched his lips. "I could disappear from the hidden paths, into your world."
Eirik snorted. "And leave behind a trail of weeping mothers and their half-huldu babies? I won't let you."
Kaer looked genuinely stung, and Eirik instantly regretted the words. "I didn't mean it," he said quickly. "You can stay with me and my family for as long as you need."
The hurt on Kaer's face changed to surprise. "Thank you, Eirik," he said slowly, in a tone that implied he understood how much that should mean to him. "But I'm afraid that would endanger your family." He shook his dark head. "I could never do that, even if it means going without my monster slayer."
Eirik splashed a face full of water at him. "Don't tease," he said sternly. "I won't let them hurt you."
Kaer wiped the water from his eyes and smiled. "Monster slayer, you are serious enough for the both of us." He splashed Eirik right back, with enough force to send a good amount of water up and over the edge of the pool. It sizzled where it touched snow. Eirik squeezed his eyes shut, held up his arms, and shouted his surrender until the onslaught stopped. Coughing, he wiped his face and warily cracked his eyes.
Kaer's face was directly before his, close enough so that the clouds of their breath mingled.
Eirik blinked, and then Kaer's lips were pressed gently against his own. The young man was standing in the middle of the pool and leaning forward, so that their bodies were not in contact except for their lips. Their kiss.
Eirik parted his lips, whether in protest or welcome, he could never say, and suddenly Kaer's tongue was darting into his mouth, exploring eagerly.
Still stunned, Eirik used his own tongue to trap Kaer's and force it back into his own mouth. But then he followed it in, and was suddenly kissing Kaer back with some force. He reached up and grasped Kaer's jaw with both hands, holding it in place while he licked and felt and sucked at his mouth. His cock jumped.
Kaer moaned and leaned in closer, seeking to entangle their limbs, and Eirik broke the kiss off abruptly. "What?" he gasped.
Kaer drew back to stand before him. He was, Eirik thought again, so beautiful. He had noted it earlier, but without desire. Desire rose in him now, hotter than the heat of the spring. He fought to clear his head.
"What are you doing?"
Kaer wet his lips. "I want you." The words were bald, honest, and threaded with visible lust. Eirik swallowed, hard. Kaer had a youth's body, sinewy and flat-stomached. His nipples stood out on his chest, small and hard. Glossy black hair was slicked against his cheeks, shoulders, back. The sculpted, harmonic angles of his face were dominated by glittering pale eyes that peered down at Eirik with all the intensity of a building storm. "I want you to take me."
Eirik tore his eyes away. He looked out at the frozen, deserted landscape. The glacier streaked mountains glowe
d gold where the sun spread down their tips. "How old are you?" he rasped.
Kaer chuckled. "Older than you."
