The Hawk Lord by Amy Sumida
Chapter Two
There were perks, beyond the obvious, to having a fae captain as a lover. Raeshal had made me his aide, mainly so he could get me in his tent whenever he wanted, or mine, for that matter, but also because he knew I had other talents. Those techniques I mentioned earlier? They had only been the start of my blossoming skills. It turned out that I was pretty good at fighting—fast, quick, and with great balance. As a human soldier in the Hawks—a mostly aerial army—I had learned to make use of anything that could get me off the ground. The Farungal knew to watch for birds attacking from the sky, but they never expect to see a human. I'd taken more than a few monsters unaware by jumping out of trees or off cliffs onto their ugly heads.
As we approached the largest tent in camp, the one in the center of it all, I started to get nervous. The walls were striped with black and gold—the Hawk Lord's colors, and a black flag with a golden hawk in flight crested the center pole. And if those two clues weren't enough to tell you who slept in that tent, the two enormous hawks, the size of bears (grizzlies, not koalas), sitting to either side of the entrance flap should clear things up quickly. They weren't real birds but shifted Sidhe, knights in Lord Dalsharan's personal guard. Many of the fae Hawks were knights of the Hawk Kingdom, but they held a separate rank in the army. These faeries didn't. They were knights, period. They didn't command any troops or take orders from anyone but their warlord. Their sole purpose was to protect the Hawk Lord and do whatever the fuck he said. When they perched outside that tent, it meant that the Hawk Lord was inside.
And the Hawk Lord was... he was everything.
My first sight of Dalsharan Arandel was what had first prompted me to label the Fae as gods (at least in my head). I'd known they were beautiful and powerful, but I hadn't thought them divine until him. Because I'd never seen a man like the Hawk Lord before—one so handsome that the word handsome horribly failed at its job. He had the kind of raw masculinity that screamed power, with sculpted muscles and broad shoulders, but not the overdone bulge of wrestlers. It was a body built to kill, not merely pin men down. Though many men fantasized about being pinned down by the Hawk Lord, myself included.
And his face... it was the face of a god. One look had me aching to get on my knees and worship him. The Hawk Lord was so brutally beautiful that seeing him for the first time was like a punch in the gut, leaving me gasping for air. And he radiated magic; it poured off him like steam from boiling water. Even a magic-less human like me could sense it. You just knew that he could snap his fingers and you'd be toast. Dalsharan had a reputation for being brutal when he needed to be, but he was a fair leader and never asked anything of his soldiers that he wasn't willing to do. On top of all that, he was wicked-smart and cunning. I had seen him take down an entire Farungal unit with subterfuge alone. As I said, he's a fucking god.
Okay, so maybe it's not all the Fae who are gods, just the Hawk Lord. And I was about to walk into his tent.
I swallowed past the dryness in my throat. I'd been to the Hawk Lord's tent before to deliver messages, but I'd always passed them to the guards outside or to one of the generals. I'd never gone inside, never seen more than a glimpse past the heavy flap that served as a door. And the closest I'd ever gotten to him was once when he had come by the human camp to inspect our troops. He had walked past me, looked over my armor, and nodded in approval. And I'd instantly gone rock hard. Thank goodness I'd been wearing armor.
I wasn't wearing armor now.
Don't look at him, I said to myself. Just don't look. If Raeshal sees you get a hard-on for the Hawk Lord, you will never hear the end of it. And you'll never be taken into that tent again.
Oh, fuck, there it was. A few more feet...
“Hey.” Raeshal slapped my arm. “What's wrong with you?”
“Huh?” I cleared my throat. “I, uh, I'm a little nervous.”
Raeshal laughed. “Relax, Ravyn, you'll be fine. Dal's a good guy. He probably won't even notice you're there.”
“Dal?” I whispered in wonder. My fae lover called my fae fantasy Dal. Dal—yeah, I could totally scream that name in bed. Oh, shit, I was already getting excited.
The Hawks on guard outside the tent nodded to Raeshal as he strode past. I lagged a step behind and had the flap smacked in my face for my dawdling. I grimaced and shoved it out of the way, then gawked. The tent was divided into sections by fabric partitions that hung from the ceiling. The center section, maybe 20 feet long and half that across, was full of people. Everyone with the rank of captain or higher was there. They stood around a central table where the Hawk Lord was seated—and he was the only one seated—while he stared down the length of it... at me.
When our stares collided, something pulsed through my body, and I flinched in shock. It was as if someone had stroked a hand down my back—no, a fingertip—right down my spine. The Hawk Lord's gaze lowered, roaming slowly over my entire body before going back to my face. Then he smiled at me.
To my credit, I didn't get a hard-on. I did, however, fall a little in love. Just a little. Maybe a bit more. Okay, a bit more than more. I couldn't help it. I know it's shallow, but he was just so fucking hot. Golden-brown skin coated his warrior's body like poured metal and hair so blond that it was white streamed over his broad shoulders, framing a face of sharp angles that was softened by a pair of lusciously full lips. And those lips had smiled for me. I grinned back lopsidedly and self-consciously, the movement feeling awkward. Then I followed Raeshal forward.
The Hawk Lord's eyes tracked me through the room, and even as I wove around the bodies of men much higher ranking than me, I couldn't drop his gaze. I held it until Raeshal brought us right up to the table. And then I was standing closer to the Hawk Lord than I'd ever been before, close enough to see the color of his eyes. I had thought his eyes were green, but they weren't. No, of course not. This man was too fucking special for green eyes. He had green eyes bordered by rings of bright violet. Fucking purple. They were the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.
“Raeshal,” the Hawk Lord spoke in a voice deep enough to cause a vibration.
The other men stopped speaking, even though they'd obviously been in the middle of a conversation. Everyone went quiet to hear what the Hawk Lord had to say.
“My lord.” Raeshal bowed.
“Is this the man who leaps out of trees and off cliffs?” The Hawk Lord—Dal—was still staring at me, even as he spoke to Rae.
Raeshal glanced at me and grinned. “Yes, my lord. This is my aide, Corporal Ravyn Ravellar.”
I gave the Hawk Lord my most perfect bow. I'm sure it was lacking.
“Ravyn,” the Hawk Lord made my name into something special just by speaking it. “What a coincidence. We are in need of a crafty bird.”
“My lord?” I asked and finally broke our stare to glance at Raeshal.
My lover only shrugged. None of the Sidhe were ugly, but standing beside Dalsharan Arandel made Raeshal look drab. Even with his crimson hair and perfect features. Even with his wry smile and shining blue eyes. I could only glance at Rae before my stare was dragged back to the Hawk Lord. Ugh! I wasn't supposed to look at him and now, I couldn't stop.
Dalsharan's lips twitched as if he'd heard me.
Oh, fuck, I thought. Can the Fae read minds?
“Corporal?” The Hawk Lord lifted a brow at me.
Raeshal smacked me.
“What?!” I barked at Raeshal. Then I blanched. “My apologies, Hawk Lord. Were you...” I cleared my throat. “Uh, did you just say something to me?”
The men around us shook their heads, especially my General. There are always two generals in a beast army—a fae and a human.
The Hawk Lord chuckled. “I tune people out too. Especially when they all talk at once.” He rolled his eyes around at the other men pointedly. “I was saying that I'm looking for a special type of soldier.”
I gulped and tried to think of open sores, broken bones, moist female parts—anything to keep me from getting an erection. “Oh?” I tried to sound casual but it came out as a whimper.
“A human,” the Hawk Lord went on. “One with the skill to scale walls and slip into a castle unnoticed. Raeshal has spoken highly of you.”
“He has?” my voice broke a tiny bit.
The Hawk Lord grinned again and this time, his eyes twinkled mischievously. “He has—all good, don't worry.”
“Oh.” I cleared my throat again and glanced at Raeshal, who looked on the verge of exploding with laughter. “Great. Um... may I ask why you need a human who can scale walls?”
The Hawk Lord went serious. “I've had some unsettling news. The Farungal have stolen two amulets from fellow warlords. Amulets that, when added to a third, would give them enough power to breach the wards of Varalorre.”
Varalorre—that's what the Fae call their home. I glanced around the room. As I said, the general in charge of the human soldiers in the Hawk Army was there, but other than him, I was the only human in the room. I started to sweat, all possibility of an erectile display fading.
“We know where they're keeping the amulets, but no faerie can get into a Farungal stronghold undetected, not with their magic-sensing wards,” the Hawk Lord went on. “We could travel to Alantri and lay siege to the fortress, but that would require a huge force, and even if we succeeded, the Farungal could destroy the amulets before they surrendered. The best option is subterfuge. I need a human to slip in and retrieve those amulets for us.”
“From a Farungal stronghold?” I asked as if someone might slap me on the back and start laughing while everyone else pointed at me and declared how funny it was that I'd fallen for the joke.
No one laughed.
The Hawk Lord said, “Yes. Two, actually.”
“He's only twenty-six, Dalsharan,” Raeshal's voice had lost its amused tone. “That's a lot to ask of a young man.”
“Only a young man will have the dexterity we need,” the Hawk Lord argued. “I believe you said that he can climb trees like a monkey born in one and scamper up mountains like a goat.”
Raeshal grimaced—first at the Hawk Lord and then at me. “He can and he can scale any wall, but that isn't a skill limited to Ravyn. Find someone else, Hawk Lord. Please.”
“But that's not his only skill, Raeshal. There's one more thing that's special about our Ravyn,” the way the Hawk Lord said my name made my throat constrict. That possessive “our” before it didn't help either. “When he walked in, I tested him, and he passed.” He paused to grin at me. “With flying colors.”
“What do you mean, you tested him?” Raeshal snapped.
“No one with magic can enter a Farungal fortress undetected,” the Hawk Lord said. “So, the obvious choice is a human. But to find the amulet after getting inside the fortress, that human must be sensitive to magic, as sensitive as the Farungal wards themselves. Corporal Ravellar has just proven that he can sense magic.”
“I have?” I gaped at him.
“I touched you when you first walked in,” the Hawk Lord said.
Why the fuck did he keep saying things like that to me?
“You what?” it came out a bit breathless.
“With magic,” he clarified. “I touched you, and you felt it, didn't you?”
That jolt—the fingertip along my spine. It had been real, I hadn't imagined it. It had been him!
“Yeah,” I whispered. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Yes, I felt your... magic.”
The Hawk Lord grinned at the rest of the people in the room as if I'd just performed a great trick. “See? He's perfect.”
Perfect. The Hawk Lord had just called me perfect. Hold on. What was I perfect for? Right. This wasn't good.
“You can't do this,” Raeshal growled at the Hawk Lord. “If they catch him, they'll torture him to death.”
“They won't catch him.” The Hawk Lord set his stare back on me.
My heart was beating in my ears. I'd fought the Farungal hundreds of times on battlefields, but to leave the continent and sail to theirs? To sneak into one of their strongholds and steal magical amulets? Fuck me, no man was beautiful enough to convince me to do that.
But then something shivered through my chest, and I heard myself saying, “I'll do it.”
Raeshal gaped at me, then lifted a hand. “Hold on a second. He ambushed us, Ravyn. I didn't know he was going to ask this of you. You can think about it.”
“Raeshal,” the Hawk Lord growled.
“No, he's a damn kid,” Raeshal growled back. “And he doesn't deserve to be sent to his death.”
“Old enough to fuck,” one of the other men muttered.
“He's a grown man by human standards, and he's our best option,” the Hawk Lord said gently. “I'm sorry if you feel blindsided, Rae. But it's Corporal Ravellar's decision.” Those incredible eyes shifted to me again. “Take a day to think about it, Ravyn. I'll postpone the mission for you.”
“I don't need a day.” I lifted my chin. The last time I'd felt that tingling surge of rightness, I'd been walking into a recruiter's office. I knew I had to do this. Of course, I wasn't about to squawk on about some weirdo human feeling I got to the Hawk Lord. Instead, I simply repeated, “I'll do it.”
The Hawk Lord abruptly got to his feet and held out a hand to me. “Thank you, Corporal.”
I shook his hand, the warmth and strength of it cementing the feeling that this was my path. “It's my honor to serve, Hawk Lord.”
“Good. And I'll be honored to fly you to Alantri personally.” He winked at me as if he knew exactly what kind of chaos those words would cause, but he still winced when everyone started shouting at once.
