Thalien

The keep\'s hot steam baths had come to represent a safe haven for Thalien and the other slaves. After a hard night of pleasuring their masters, the baths would let them clean away all traces of the night\'s indiscretions while comforting sore, aching bodies. Best of all, humans valued cleanliness, so they would usually allow the elves to spend as much time as they wished there.

Eleth and Thalien had been there for nearly an hour, and had yet to speak to each other. They were too exhausted from the night before, both content to let the hot water in the great stone basin soothe them. The water was heated by furnaces as it ran through pipes into and out of the different washing and steam room. The furnaces were tended most times of day by elven slaves and a few low-class humans.

The night before had been agonizing. Sarks and Dell were both young humans, which meant they had great stamina to begin with, but like Valenn they sometimes took an herb the elves called henthas to enhance sexual experiences. To elves, henthas was a deadly poison, but when humans took it in small doses it intensified physical sensation and, in particular, made it easier for males to recover after ejaculation. Older humans rarely used it and seemed to disapprove of the practice.

Servicing males who were high on henthas was extraordinarily exhausting for elves, because it shortened the periods between activity dramatically. A group of young men truly intent on having a sex party with some slaves usually would have to wait at least thirty minutes to an hour between bouts of sexual activity, usually more. This gave the slaves time to rest and relax. Under the influence of henthas, males would take longer to reach orgasm and usually recovered in as little as thirty minutes, sometimes less. Often it was the difference between a long night of leisurely sex and two to three brutal, exhausting hours.

Valenn kept henthas in the same room where he had shackled Eleth and Thalien, and Sarks and Dell had made liberal use of it. The intensity of the encounter had been so great that Thalien\'s memory of it was fractured and oddly indistinct.

He believed Dell had been with him for most of the night, fondling and kissing his body more than most humans. He had pulled Thalien\'s tether free of the of the ring on the floor at some point in the night, because Thalien could clearly remember being penetrated, slowly and deeply, while lying on his back. Then Dell had apparently laid back and pulled Thalien on top of himself, forcing his elven slave to fuck himself up and down on his master\'s erection. Dell had seemed insatiable to him, coaxing him on with guttural cries in Human and sly upwards thrusts of his hips. In retrospect, Thalien realized that Dell must have had an extraordinarily powerful body to be able to thrust upwards into him like that. Such power probably explained why it felt like Thalien was atop of him for what felt like hours, panting and sweating with exertion, before Dell became ready to roll Thalien onto his back to finish with a few shatteringly hard, fast thrusts.

The blindfold kept Thalien from being able to recollect very clearly at all what had become of Eleth that night. He believed Sarks had spent the majority of his time with Eleth, and he had certainly heard Eleth\'s tortured cries and the rattle of chains. He had seen no bloody marks on Eleth\'s body, other than carpet-burned knees, when the blindfold had been removed later in the evening, so he could not begin to guess what Sarks had been doing with him. He didn\'t plan on asking or saying anything until Eleth seemed ready to talk.

{So what did you want to ask me?} Eleth\'s soft voice startled Thalien out of his thoughts. He sounded tired but when Thalien glanced over at him, he appeared to be smiling.

{Oh... well, I wanted to ask you if you could teach me how to speak human language,} he replied. The words sounded stupid to him once they were spoken. {... but I guess that\'s not possible now, even if you wanted to.}

{No, it\'s not,} Eleth sighed, thinking of his return to Valenn. {Why do you want to know human speech, Thalien?}

{Something\'s wrong. With the humans, I mean,}Thalien said. {I think it\'s making my master act strangely. If I could understand human speech, I could try to find out what it is.} Thalien left his desire to talk to Valsgav unspoken.

{... you\'re very perceptive, Thalien. There is something wrong, although I\'m not sure how many elves or humans have noticed it,} Eleth said. There was grave respect in his voice, and it made Thalien uncomfortable. {I won\'t have time to teach you human speech, but I can tell you where to go. Speak with your cousin Senneth.}

Thalien was startled. {Senneth? Why?}

Eleth smiled mysteriously. {He helped me learn much of what I know. Tell him what you told me and I\'m sure he\'ll help you. If he tries to refuse you, tell him I want you to know.}

{Thank you, Eleth, but....} Thalien trailed off, confused. {Why would Senneth want you to know human speech? I thought you just... picked it up.}

{It\'s a bit complicated. Senneth can tell you better than I can,} Eleth said.

{Does it have anything to do with you and Valenn?} Thalien asked.

{Yes.} Eleth\'s voice became very grave as he spoke. {I\'ll tell you this so you understand what a dangerous thing it is you want to do, Thalien... Senneth was trying to help me learn how to read human writings. Valenn\'s faction found out, and so he arranged to have me taken into his house. If you let it be known what you\'re learning, or that you even want to learn, to the wrong people... I imagine you\'ll end up much the same.}

Thalien was stunned. Humans didn\'t want elves to learn their language? He couldn\'t begin to think of why. He felt overwhelmed with gratitude for Eleth, and suddenly blurted out one of the most foolish things he ever heard himself say. {I\'ll visit you, Eleth. To repay you for helping me like this.}

Eleth\'s widened. {Thalien! That would mean sneaking into Valenn\'s apartments, and you know what will happen if he catches you.}

{Then I won\'t get caught! It was only an accident that his friends caught me last time,} Thalien said.

{Thalien, I...} Eleth began, then blushed slightly. {... if you could, I\'d like that. Word from outside would make it much easier to bear.}

Thalien felt a strange sense of pride overwhelm him, something like giddiness. {Good. And perhaps, someday, a way could be found....}

Eleth put a finger to Thalien\'s lips. {No, don\'t. I won\'t get my hopes up.} Thalien obediently stayed silent.

Uncomfortable silence reigned in the bath house for a moment. When Eleth drew away from Thalien, the moment was awkward. The bath house suddenly seemed too warm.

They helped each other finish cleaning and then parted ways outside the bath house. Thalien felt perfectly miserable about it; there were still things he wanted to say, and the faint sense that he had lost a companion just as a relationship should have begun. Eleth also seemed hesitant to go, and he\'d actually pulled Thalien into a long, deep kiss before he turned to run back toward his new home. It was all Thalien could do not to cry.

Instead, he turned back toward his little room in the center of the gardens. It was the twilight just before dawn, the air damp and cool, and Valsgav would expect to see him going about his morning chores in a few hours. Thalien had slept little last night, and would need more hours of rest before he was up to his garden work. He would try to forget about things while he tended to the herbs and rosebushes. When the evening came, he would find some way to make his cousin explain what sort of conspiracies were growing in Salthessen.