Bargain

It was too easy. The sense of triumph made him grin as he looked at her. He leaned closer to her. She was fearful, nervous, and a bit excited by her promise to give him anything. He couldn’t imagine having a more willing prey for his purposes.
In her eyes, he could almost see what she thought he would ask for. While it wasn’t unheard of for men to bargain for sex, that would be a waste of his time. Sirona desired him. With a bit more time and well-placed touches, she’d be melting and pleading with him with her dreamy green eyes for more.
Getting her into bed in exchange for information wouldn’t get him the control over her he would need to make his plan work. He garnered a lot of control of women of use to him with pleasure, but that control was a gentle thing, more of a chain than a manacle.
Fedelm was swayed to be more pliant with sex and bits of affection, but it had only come to be useful after he had established a solid foundation of trust in her heart. That trust had turned into belief and faith as potent as devout prayers to effigies of what Berth supposed was his likeness in the altar temples around the country.
Fedelm had been born in Berth, a noble’s daughter and a member of his cult. The road had been relatively short between meeting her and garnering her faith. Sirona would be more of a challenge with a much higher payout.
He had to make Sirona trust him. Then, he would enjoy her body to take hold of her other emotions until she was just as pliant as Fedelm was.
The most pressing thing he needed from her was her power and a reason for her to fight Anu. Anu’s cult was the reason she was here, so he could give her a good reason to agree to his offer to train her and reap the benefits of her strength.
“Don’t sound so grave, Sirona.” She shivered and he smirked. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know about Conna…Maybe even some things you didn’t know you wanted to know if you agree to let me train you.”
“Train me in what way?”
“In magic.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. Of all the things she expected him to ask of her, that wasn’t on the list. It had never crossed her mind that he might want to train her for anything, let alone in magic.
“What do you mean? What makes you think I have magical potential?”
Arawn gave her a wry smile and gestured around the garden. Sirona looked around the garden. The garden had been restored to a natural, lush green landscape. There were no weeds and every vegetable plant seemed to be thrumming with life.
“If you’re able to deal with a bad draft of magic over Druid’s garden with a few kisses and a talented hand,” Sirona’s face burned as he trailed his fingers between her breasts and down her body. “I imagine you have more than enough magical potential to train.”
“What does that mean?”
Arawn’s eyes twinkled, “That’s a lesson I have planned for you. Are you agreeing?”
Sirona winced at the thought. She didn’t know enough about magic or Berth to know if this was a good idea, and what would Arawn want to train her for? Did he get something out of it? What would Druid think about this? He had promised to teach her anything she wanted. Was magic included in that?
“Why magic?” Sirona asked, “Isn’t there… anything else?”
She winced at her own words as he chuckled.
“I mean like your laundry or something like that?”
Admittedly, she’d never done laundry before, but she was smart enough that she could figure it out. She could be a priest or something like that so long as it didn’t require her to put people on pyres.
Arawn smirked, “Why does any man do anything with a beautiful woman other than for the pleasure of it?”
Sirona’s face heated as he lowered his weight onto her and licked into her mouth, “Besides, you would be getting quite a bit out of it, wouldn’t you?”
Sirona gasped as he nipped her lower lip.
“How?”
“With enough power, you could avenge your father,” he said quietly. “Take the king and queen’s head if it would please you… Tear the cult of Anu down to cinder blocks.”
She shivered. She could almost see the rising fires burning the dark blue tapestries of the main temple in the capital. People would rejoice as the walls of the temple crumbled. Haron and Blodeu would be on their knees, held there by guards as a sword raised over their heads. They’d scream and beg for Anu to save them as she thought of her father.
He hadn’t cried for salvation, but she could imagine that they had taunted him with their faith.
Maybe they’d said told him that if he were more devout, he wouldn’t have to die. Maybe they had offered to let him repent and be cleansed of his sins.
She could almost hear him, Daran’s do not bow to tyrants. Nor do they run from their fates.
Maybe the strange power she’d had that had made all the plants grow and the bird she’d healed were just tastes of her power. Perhaps, she was fated to come to Berth where someone could teach her to use the power the way she wanted to.
Maybe that person was Arawn.
Under his tutelage, she could get stronger than a hundred strong soldiers. The power that Druid wielded that called stairs from the face of a mountain and let Arawn appear and vanish in the air could be hers.
When she crossed the Tara River again to take her revenge and set it all right, she could be strong enough to lead the people against the tyrants on the throne. She could liberate the people enslaved by the temple.
When she had Haron and Blodeu at her mercy, what would she say to them? Would she laugh at their prayers or would it be a cold feeling that would take over her as she prepared to kill them?
She could almost hear the chanting of the crowd.
Revenge sounded beautiful, but Druid came to mind. He was so peaceful. There was nothing harmonious about beheading tyrants or leading a rebellion. He would never support her quest for vengeance and something told her that he would know that is what she wanted.
He’d see it with his divine sight and stop teaching her, or just teach her things that wouldn’t help her towards her goal.
Here Arawn was offering to teach her everything she needed to take revenge.
It was a large undertaking to stand against Conna in that way, but maybe the people would be on her side. Most had never held a sword, but soldiers were not infallible. A large enough crowd could overpower a group of knights easily.
She could see the path she could take across Gunning and straight to the capital as if she were flying over the forests.

Arawn watched her turn over his suggestion. Her eyes turned distant as if she was slipping into some sort of vision. There was a faint twinkling in her eyes and a low-humming power rushing through her body. He felt it pushing and mingling with his. It pulled and drew it out of him, bending it to some end he couldn’t fathom.
Still, he watched her magic moving and doing within her body in fascination. He’d never seen anything like it. He looked back into her eyes and found them filled with light. He wondered if she saw bloodshed and ruin or was it the sight of her father giving her his blessing.
At the thought, he heard the chanting of a crowd.
Death to the tyrant!
Arawn shuddered as he smelled smoke and burning blood. Pleasure and bloodlust rolled through him as if he was on a long-forgotten battlefield or some future battlefield following Sirona into battle.
Slowly, her gaze returned to him. Her eyes grew focused and determined. She looked down to the partially open collar of his shirt before a new flush graced her face. For a moment, she seemed like an entirely different person.
She drew her hand down his chest sending a shiver through him.
“You have a deal.”
“Lovely,” he said, leaping to his feet. He pulled her up after him with a grin. “I will return within a few days for our first lesson.”
He pulled her close, groping her ass as he thrust his tongue into her mouth. The rough squeeze and low moan made her stomach flip before he backed off just enough to vanish into a swirl of sparkling wind.
She stared into the air feeling a bit feverish and hoping that the next time his departure wouldn’t be so abrupt.