"The ground," Gryphon grunted.
"It's dirty."
"We do not get infections."
I laughed humorlessly. "Just sun and silver poisoning." I spread my old pants and shirt on the floor and Gryphon gently lowered Amber down to the ground. The wounded giant let out a harsh groan of pain as his raw, ravaged back touched the floor.
"God," I breathed, looking at the horrible mess he was. "Can his body heal this?"
Gryphon looked at me and shook his head. He glanced at Beldar, who was supposed to be guarding us but instead hovered by the door. "Beldar, could you bring us some water, clean cloth, and some salve?"
Beldar hesitated, clearly torn over whether or not to leave us unattended. His gaze drew almost compulsively back to Amber. Or rather, to what used to be Amber. Nodding jerkily, his face wiped clean of humor, Beldar left, leaving me troubled.
In that brief unguarded moment, I had caught a glimpse of the man beneath Beldar's carefree façade and I realized that I had underestimated him. I would not do so again.
"What can we do?" I asked Gryphon.
"You passed your ability to withstand the sun's rays to me," Gryphon said. "Perhaps you can do so as well with him."
I looked at him blankly. "You want me to fuck him?"
Gryphon spread his hands. "As you see, males may gain power from joining with a Queen."
"Gryphon," I said carefully. "Even if I wanted to, I don't think he's in any condition right now for sex."
"I can think of nothing else that might save him, milady."
"Queens don't fuck all their men. Even I know that," I said harshly.
"You are correct," Gryphon said, his own voice edging with hardness. "But it is a Queen's duty and responsibility to care for her men in the same manner that those men care for and protect their Queen."
"Perhaps you should tell Mona Sera that instead of me."
Gryphon sighed, a weary sound from deep within his soul. "As I have stated before, Mona Sera ranks among one of our worst Queens."
"Always nice to hear that about one's mother."
Gryphon pressed a comforting hand to my shoulder. I brought his hand to my cheek and went into his arms, seeking comfort in his embrace. "Thank God you're alive. I'm sorry, so sorry. It's my fault we were caught."
He shushed me. "I should have realized the pull the moon, the ceremony, would have over you."
"How could you when I'd never felt it before, not that strongly." I sniffed and pushed away from him. "Mona Sera claims she does not have the cure for silver poisoning." In truth, she had told me that there was no no cure.
He dredged up a smile. "It was a poor hope to begin with."
"But we're going to the High Court. We'll ask the other Queens there. Seek out healers."
Gryphon smiled, raised my hand to his lips and placed a tender kiss there. "My heart," he murmured. "But if I am to die, all the more reason to try to save Amber. Though his spirit has been damaged by his years under Mona Sera's rule, he is still a great warrior and will serve you well if you can but save him."
I gazed at him with stricken eyes. "How can you want me to sleep with him?"
"Only a small part of you is human," Gryphon said gently. "The greater part of you is of the moon. We are not like humans. It is natural for Queens to be drawn to more than one man, to take many of them as lovers, as is it natural for men to desire to join with a Queen. It is a survival instinct deeply inbred to increase the chances of a fertile union."
"It might not even help," I said. "He's already burned."
"But it cannot hurt him," Gryphon returned with infallible logic. "And I sense a strong healing power hidden deep inside you. Perchance you may pass that to him. If you truly wish to claim him as you said, then be his Queen. Be our Queen."
I gazed down at Amber. His swollen eyes were closed so he could not see us. I didn't even know if he could talk. But he could still hear us.
"Do you wish this, Amber?" I asked.
Amber lay there unmoving for so long that I thought for a fleeting moment he had lost consciousness. Then his breath wheezed out of his swollen passages and his cracked, blistered lips moved, straining to speak. But his tongue was so thickened and his mouth was so dry, only a garbled sound emerged. He swallowed painfully and tried again. Once more, mutilated sound came out, not words.
"I can't understand you, Amber," I said. "Just nod or shake your head."
Amber's tense mouth and neck relaxed. He nodded.
I took a deep breath and bent down to him, the decision made. I would try to save him. He was under my care now. I just hadn't known what it would mean when I'd bargained for him.
Gryphon carefully removed Amber's pants. Untouched by the sun, Amber's skin below the waist was a smooth, marble white, unblemished. His long shaft was soft, too wracked by pain to be aroused.
I couldn't do it. It seemed wrong to touch him like this while he was in agony.
"Close your eyes," Gryphon whispered, kissing my lids closed. "Just touch him like this." He guided my hand to Amber's thigh. With my eyes shut, I did my best to block out the smell and just concentrate on the pleasure of touching him. He was hairier than Gryphon, with long cinnamon hair dusting his thighs and legs. They were silkier than they looked. I smoothed my hand down his leg and felt the tingle of desire strengthen and spark between us.
"Your skin is so soft," I murmured in surprise and appreciation, flowing with the natural attraction, bringing my other hand up to stroke around the bones of Amber's knee and down the hard swell of his calf, to trace the graceful lines of tendons and muscles. I rubbed my cheek against his hairy shin and caught the faint scent of his skin.
"You smell of musk. Like fur." And I liked it. The smell called to something within me. I kissed my way up a few inches then nuzzled him behind his knee, licking him in that soft, vulnerable spot. His leg twitched in my grasp.
"You taste of salt and sweat," I said, and did not protest when Gryphon unzipped my gown, lifted it off me, unhooked my bra, and slid my underwear down. I slid my body around that strong leg, rubbed my breasts against him and felt his hair tickle my sensitive nipples. I opened my mouth and sank my teeth into his sinewy thigh, stroking the firm muscles with my tongue, making my way up in leisurely manner, stopping here and there to take a mouthful of that brawny flesh, to test its suppleness between my teeth, to lave and lick him until I reached the hollow of his groin. I opened my eyes then, careful to look at just his lower body.
"Ah. You're happy to see me," I murmured. "And very, very big, like the rest of you." I took him into my mouth, my hair spilling over him like a flowing silk curtain. I had to stretch my mouth open to its widest so I could take him in. It was an unusual sensation, having him within my mouth, and not an unpleasant one. I swirled my tongue over the ridged head, and felt his thighs tense beneath me as I licked the sensitive rim around his cap.
"So thick." A tiny pearl of pre-come fluid oozed responsively out like a sweet tear. I put my mouth back over his tip and lapped him there and sucked hard. Drawing out every last bit of the fluid, I swallowed and rumbled my appreciation. "You taste even better than a lollipop. Salty and sweet." The scent of our arousal lay heavy in the air as I nuzzled him.
Closing my eyes, I straddled him, guided him to me, and felt his thick shaft probe my entrance. But he didn't go in. I groaned with pleasure and frustration. Circling against him, lubricating him with my moisture while pleasing myself, I sank down onto him once more.
"Oh, God," I breathed. "You're so big." I took him in, centimeter by delicious centimeter, feeling his broad head stretch me more and more. And he was still only a couple of inches within me. I lifted up, felt his cry of protest and drove myself back down onto him, deeper, I groaned with the luxurious reel of him within me and circled my hips, taking him increment by tiny, torturous increment more into me. Then lifted up and sank down again and again, until he glided more smoothly, more easily within me.