Chapter 5: The Hot Spring

The hot spring lay behind the camp in a hollow of black rock.

Steam rose from it in the cold dusk.

The first frost of the year glittered on the stones around the rim.

Kaede had walked her there without a word.

She had a lantern in one hand and a folded towel under her arm.

She looked like a girl on a school trip, not the general of three thousand.

"Ume says it's the only good thing about this valley," Kaede said.

"The only one?"

"One of two."

"What's the other?"

Kaede looked at her sideways, and did not answer.

Rin stripped at the edge of the pool.

Her robe went on a rock, her underwear on top, and the cold air hit her bare skin hard.

She walked into the water fast, hissing at the heat, and sank to her collarbones.

It was perfect.

It was so hot her bones loosened.

Kaede undressed more slowly.

She folded her jacket, and her shorts, and set the lantern on a flat stone.

The light slid over the muscle of her back as she stepped in.

She sat across from Rin with the water at her chest.

Her shaved side glistened.

"Come here," Kaede said.

Rin waded across the pool.

She stood in front of Kaede, knees against Kaede's knees.

Kaede put both hands around her waist and lifted her up onto the stone ledge at the pool's edge.

The rock was warm from the water.

The air was cold on Rin's wet shoulders.

Steam curled between them.

"Last night you made me hold still," Kaede said, low. "Tonight it's my turn."

"Your turn to do what?"

"Look after you."

She pushed Rin's knees apart.

Rin's heart slammed.

"Kaede, someone might..."

"They won't. I posted the guards on the road. Nobody comes here after dark."

"You planned this."

"I've been planning it since dawn."

Kaede kissed the inside of Rin's knee.

Then she kissed higher, slow, open-mouthed, along the soft inside of her thigh.

Rin's hands found the stone behind her and gripped it.

"Lie back," Kaede murmured. "Let me see you."

Rin lay back on the warm rock.

Stars were coming out over the steam.

Kaede's hands slid under her thighs, and Kaede pulled her closer to the edge.

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