Sir was asking Blaine about Kurt.

"I do love you," Blaine assured him.

"But you love him too."

Blaine sighed. "I love you too much to lie to you. Yes, I love him. But he doesn't love me."

Sir smiled, and something in it gave Blaine a small and temporary pang of discomfort.

"But you know that I love you, don't you, Blaine?" His voice was silken, the words like a healing salve. Blaine had ached for those words for so long, and Blaine knew that Sir was telling him the truth.

"Yes. That's why I'm here with you. I need to be with someone who loves me as much as I love them."

Blaine wondered if it was odd that he didn't desire Sir the way he remembered desiring Kurt. It seemed like that kind of intense love should be accompanied by intense desire, but he supposed his relationship with Sir was just different.

In the first place, Sir did not seem to desire Blaine at all. He had taken Kessa, one of the female humans that traveled with them, into his tent several times, but shown no desire to spend the night with any of the rest of them. Second, Sir seemed to very much want Blaine to make love to the one Blaine called Madame. Blaine wasn't quite sure why Sir wanted this so much, but Blaine wanted to please him.

On the third night, he had finally tried. He had allowed Madame to undress him and kiss him and touch him, but he couldn't seem to make himself respond to the touch. He had tried kissing her back, touching her, running his hands over her, everything.

There was a moment when he thought it would work. He was running his hand down the back of her knee, and as he squeezed her sweat-dampened thigh, he was thrown into a memory.

The memory of silken skin and trembling thighs beneath his hands. The body against his sliding against slick, moss-covered rocks, head thrown back, gasping his name.

Blaine felt himself start to harden. "Kurt," he groaned, burying his face in Madame's neck.

But it was only a moment. Because she smelled nothing like Kurt. Because he could feel her breasts pressing against his chest. And because she really hadn't seemed to enjoy being called Kurt.

So now Sir was asking him about Kurt, while Madame glowered at them from a distance.

"What is it that makes you hold onto your love for this other elf when you know you were just his plaything?"

Blaine cringed. "I don't think...it wasn't like that."

"No? Didn't you tell me that he rejected your love? That he only wanted to use your body?"

"I wouldn't say use-"

"Blaine, I love you for who you are. I don't need your body. Do you understand that?"

Blaine wasn't sure he did, but when he looked into Sir's eyes it all made perfect sense.

"Yes," he said.

"What I don't understand is why you don't want to take pleasure with our lovely Madame over there. She is most hurt by your rejection."

"I...I didn't mean to hurt her. I just...I've never wanted a woman in that sort of way. I tried, Sir, I really did, I just-"

"Blaine, I can't help but think that if you really loved me you would feel the desire I tell you to feel," Sir said with a gentle smile.

Blaine gazed into his eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'll try harder."

Kurt felt like he was losing his mind.

It had been four days since he'd left S'aufa, and he'd seen no sign of Blaine. The pendant continued to tug him in the right direction, and he could feel Blaine's essence mingled with the stone it sought. But he seemed to be getting no closer. It was maddening.

Kurt strained to close the distance between them, stuffing leaves into his mouth while he rode rather than stopping to eat, hobbling to the ground on road-weary legs to slip in a few hours of sleep in the evenings. Sometimes he slept far longer than he should, but he never slept well and he never felt rested. He was haggard and sore and exhausted, and knew he needed to take better care of himself if he was going to overpower Blaine's captors.

But he couldn't stop. He hated sleep. Because they had Blaine, and if Kurt didn't reach him in time it would not just be Kurt that lost Blaine. It would be the world that lost Blaine. And Kurt couldn't do that to the world, no matter how much he hated it sometimes.

Kurt loved him so much it ached. He loved him so much it burned. He couldn't even spare enough feeling to be furious with himself for falling in love with a human, because just thinking about it made the love swallow the anger whole.

But he had let Blaine get caught. He had allowed himself to wallow in self-pity just long enough for Blaine to be taken prisoner, and it was completely Kurt's fault. And nothing could swallow the fury he felt toward himself for that.

So he pushed ahead, praying to the gods that he wouldn't be too late, that someday he might be able to forgive himself.

On the evening of the fourth day, the Sidhe were rationing out their water. Milord, the third among them, had complained about how little they had, and asked Blaine how long humans were generally able to live without it. Blaine asked why they didn't simply summon a column of rain like Kurt did.

They all looked at him.

"I...thought you said that Kurt healed you?" Sir asked in an odd tone.

"He did," Blaine said proudly. "He even left me with some residual power, so I could melt iron chains. It was incredible."

The three exchanged nervous glances.

"Blaine," said Sir slowly, staring hard into Blaine's eyes, "you need to tell us everything you saw Kurt do."

Blaine was pleased that Sir was being so mature and gracious about Kurt, even though it must be painful for him knowing that Blaine still loved him. He was clearly impressed with Kurt's power, just as Blaine had always been, and Blaine couldn't hide his excitement when he told him about the night in the clearing when Kurt had destroyed Dronyen's best men. When he felt like he had been talking for far too long, he paused.

"I'm sorry," he said to Sir. "Is it...painful hearing me talk about Kurt? I'm sure your power is very impressive too, I'd just never seen a Sidhe use their power before I met Kurt."

"It's fine, Blaine," Sir said shortly. Blaine noticed that the others were busy packing the wagon.

"Are we leaving? But we just arrived here."

"We're leaving. We will ride through the night to L'auhe. Now help the others."

"But-"

"Don't ask questions!" Sir roared. "Just do as you're told!"

Blaine stumbled backward a bit in shock, and then ran to help pack up the wagon.

The pendant was absolutely vibrating. If Kurt hadn't replaced the delicate chain with strong cord before leaving S'aufa, it would have flown from his neck by now. It strained against the cord, digging into the back of his neck. He couldn't stop for the night like he'd planned. Not when Blaine was so close.

He could almost feel him. Almost feel his skin and see his eyes. He could almost taste him in his very bones.

Kurt gave a loud shriek in Elfin tongue, and the horses reacted as if the ground were on fire, surging forward so hard that the carriage was temporarily lifted into the air.

"I'm coming, Blaine," Kurt whispered.

They were almost packed up and ready to go when Blaine felt a tug at his neck. He looked down in surprise to see his pendant glowing, seeming to strain forward of its own volition. He reached up to touch it.

"What is that?" he looked up to see Madame standing in front of him, eyes fixed on the pendant.

"It's just...a necklace. It just started doing this. I'm not sure-"

"Where did you get it?"

Blaine stroked the stone with his thumb. It was warm. "Kurt bought it for me."

Madame screamed something loudly in Elfin tongue while reaching forward, ripping the chain from Blaine's throat so hard that he jerked forward and nearly fell to the ground. Sir and Milord ran over, and the three began yelling back and forth rapidly in a language that somehow sounded much less like music than usual.

They seemed to be arguing about Blaine. Sir was trying to push Blaine toward the wagon, while Milord was trying to pull him back. Madame just kept gesturing toward the pendant, her eyes full of fear.

Finally Sir seemed to prevail. He hurried Blaine toward the wagon with the other two close behind, bellowing for the group of humans to move their asses.

Blaine saw a faint glint against the moonlit sky as Madame hurled his pendant out of the back of the wagon.

They moved toward L'auhe at what felt like an incredible speed.

Kurt pulled the carriage to an abrupt halt.

The pendant had begun pushing back against him, as if trying to burrow into his flesh.

As if he had passed the thing it was looking for.

Kurt stood up and turned around. The pendant strained forward again.

Slowly, he turned the horses around and guided them into an easy walk. When the strain of the pendant became unusually strong, he pulled them to a stop and hopped down from his perch.

Kurt walked slowly around the clearing. It had obviously been left somewhat recently; the embers of a fire were still glowing slightly in a makeshift pit, and tent-sized lengths of grass were still slightly flattened.

Suddenly, the pendant struck him in the chin. He looked up.

Above him, tangled in a low branch, was Blaine's pendant. The chain had been snapped, and it was trying desperately to reach the pendant at Kurt's neck.

Kurt pulled a dagger from his belt and sliced the cord free.

The pendants flew together and Kurt fell to his knees.

Blaine was nudged awake as they reached the gates of L'auhe.

They all muttered their consent to be travelling with the Sidhe, and the Sidhe among them were instructed to show their power to prove that they weren't enslaved. Blaine watched in fascination as Sir caused a flower to sprout from between the cracks in the cobblestone, Madame summoned that same flower to fly into her hand, and Milord caused it to burst into flames.

The three Sidhe paid their way with essence, and rode into the city.

Blaine didn't see as much of L'auhe upon entering as he had in S'aufa. He had been out in the open air in S'aufa, with a panoramic view. Here he was only able to crowd with the other humans and glimpse the scenery through the back of the covered wagon as they passed it by.

They stopped at what looked like an inn, though Blaine was disappointed to find that it was a human-run inn of stone and wood. Blaine's first impression was that it wasn't particularly nice inside, or even clean, but when Sir looked at all of them fondly and asked, "isn't this a lovely inn?" they all realized that it was. Blaine wondered why he hadn't seen it at first. Perhaps he was just a bit cranky because he was incredibly thirsty.

The Sidhe led them upstairs to a dusty, sparsely furnished room with greasy windows.

"This is where you will be staying," Sir said to the group of humans. "We will be staying across the hall. Blaine, would you come with me, please?"

Blaine smiled. Sir wasn't asking for Kessa. Sir was asking for him.

Sir led Blaine across the hall to a considerably cleaner and more pleasant room.

Madame and Milord were already there.

"Blaine," Sir said, looking him deeply in the eye. "I want you to desire Madame. That is my deepest wish. Do you?"

"I..." Blaine faltered. He didn't want to disappoint Sir because he couldn't give him this. He didn't want Sir to doubt his love. But he wasn't sure if he could force his body to respond.

"I do love you," Blaine said desperately. "I just..."

Sir sighed and turned to the others. "We don't have time for this. He's too entrenched. We'll just have stipulate males-only."

"But a caveat like that will bring the price down!" Madame objected.

"We're hardly in a position to worry about that!" Sir grated. "That damn (unpronounceable Elfin word) could figure out where we are before we can make any kind of sale at all."

"If you recall," Milord said coolly, "I did suggest we just cut our losses and leave him in the clearing. Then we wouldn't have to worry about any of this."

Blaine vaguely wondered what they were talking about. None of it made any sense to him.

Sir laughed harshly. "Look at him. Even with a reduced price, he's still worth more than twice what any of the others are." He turned to Madame. "I'm sorry. We have to stipulate." She stomped her foot in frustration.

Then he turned to Milord. "There is, however, still the little matter of his hang-up on our many-talented friend. So...perhaps you can help him work that out."

Milord looked at him with pleasure and surprise. "Really?"

Sir laughed. "Of course. We're stipulating, aren't we? No point in deconditioning that little boy-quirk of his now. Just make sure he can't remember the little (that same word again)'s name when you're through."

Milord smiled, his eyes boring into Blaine.

Madame laughed. "Still wish we'd left him in that clearing?"

Milord snorted. "I think you can leave now."

Madame threw her head back and sauntered out of the room, casting one last lingering gaze at Blaine before slamming the door behind her. Sir touched Blaine's cheek and looked into his eyes.

"Blaine, I know that you cannot desire Madame, and I understand. But it would mean very much to me if you would desire Milord. He wants very badly to make love to you, Blaine, and it is my sincere belief that you want him to as well."

Sir tilted Blaine's head so that he was looking squarely at Milord.

Milord was really quite handsome; that much had been evident to Blaine all along. But he had never realized just how handsome. His hair was blonde like Sir's and his eyes...

Oh. His eyes were blue.

He looked to be around Sir's age, definitely older than Kurt, though Blaine couldn't have said how much older, since he didn't know how to tell a Sidhe's age.

His skin was darker than most of the other Sidhe Blaine had seen, and it gleamed almost golden.

Blaine could do this for Sir. He knew he could.

Milord walked over to Blaine and kissed him, and Blaine shuddered, and leaned against him.

He heard Sir laughing behind him. "Come see me when you're finished, boys," he said in a playful tone, and shut the door behind him as he left the room.