The Amazon's Pledge- Ultimate Edition

by Sarah Hawke

  Almost. Somehow I still had sufficient reserves to glaze Valuri’s tits and neck before I slumped back into my pillow. The girls shared a kiss and a giggle, and Kaseya eventually started her exercise regimen while the Huntress fed.

  “You know, maybe we should reconsider our vendetta against the Inquisitrix,” Valuri said as she gently ran her fingers across the tiny hairs on my chest. She had pressed up against me, her leg slung lazily over my waist. She was being uncharacteristically snugly; I couldn’t even remember the last time she had wanted to cuddle after sex.

  “You think so?” I asked, clearing my throat in an effort to find my voice.

  “All I’m saying is that we escaped the lion’s den, and a life of idle luxury doesn’t sound so bad,” she said. “I can hang up my crossbows, Red can put down her sword…we’ll just lie around drinking, smoking, and fucking all day.”

  I grunted as I traced my fingers along the soft skin of her silky smooth leg. “You’d get bored.”

  “Not for a long while. Red is still full of mysteries for me to explore, and I haven’t gotten tired of your apprentice just yet.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “My apprentice?”

  “Yeah, this guy,” Valuri said, gently cupping my cock in her hand again. “Though I guess I should start calling him ‘your master’ instead considering how often you listen to him.”

  I mock sighed and slapped her thigh. “You’re unusually snarky this morning.”

  “That’s a lie—I’m always snarky. I’m just not usually this pensive to go along with it.” She nipped at my earlobe and giggled. “Anyway, I’m just saying…we’ve never really talked about how we could just try and start over and forget about all of this. We could just ride to Silver Falls or Falcon Ridge.”

  “We could,” I admitted, “but we both know that’s not going to happen. We still have a score to settle.”

  Val’s eyes slowly drifted over to Kaseya. The amazon, apparently unfazed by the pounding she had taken from Solemi last night, was busy with her morning exercise regimen. She was still stretching out her legs while performing some kind of hand-stand that seemed borderline impossible.

  “Red does most of all, I suppose,” Valuri murmured. “You know, I kind of hope this vision of yours was just a random hallucination.”

  “It doesn’t seem likely, given what Silhouette said,” I pointed out, debating whether or not I should mention that I’d heard the old sorcerer’s voice in my head all night.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Val murmured. “But I really don’t like the idea of you suddenly having visions.”

  “Because it will make me all-powerful and you don’t want competition?”

  She grunted. “Because the Aether isn’t to be trusted.”

  I frowned. “You make it sound like it’s a person.”

  “That’s how the Inquisitrix sees it. Back during my training, she used to tell us how the Aether had a will of its own. She didn’t think it was fully conscious, exactly, but she was convinced it was alive . And like all living things, its base instinct is to consume and grow.”

  I didn’t respond right away. Every once in a while I forgot just how much she distrusted magic. She didn’t hate sorcerers out of principle like the rest of the Senosi, obviously, but she wasn’t naïve about the risks we posed, either. Just like how city guardsmen only ever saw people at their worst, her Senosi training had focused on truly deviant and depraved individuals who probably deserved at least some of what was coming to him. The experiences still shaped her worldview whether she was aware of it or not.

  “I don’t know,” Valuri murmured after a minute. “The whole idea of being fed visions by some random, invisible energy field gives me the creeps.”

  “Me too,” I agreed.

  “One of these days, Red is going to have to confront her own powers, you know,” she went on, lowering her voice. “Maybe Silhouette could help her with that. She’s obviously skilled, and the two of them seem to have a pretty strong connection.”

  I grunted. “Because of last night?”

  “That’s part of it. I don’t know, I just think it might be useful to have an outsider give her the same message.”

  “You just want Silhouette to teach Kaseya how to grow a cock so she can fuck you with it.”

  Valuri shrugged. “Would that really be such a bad thing? You’d get to sleep in more often.”

  I snickered and gently pushed her off me. “I’m going to hit the pools and clean up.”

  We spent most of the day relaxing and exploring the rest of Darkwind, and the day after that was more of the same. My wound completely healed in the interim, thankfully, though I came perilously close to tearing open a bunch of new ones when I fucked the girls one after the other. Kaseya took an immediate liking to Silhouette’s chains and other assorted toys, and I got the distinct feeling we were going to involve a lot more healing magic in the near future…

  On the third day, Silhouette finally returned with real news, and unfortunately my earlier prediction proved right: solving this new mystery was going to be a lot more complicated than we thought.

  “My contact learned more than I expected, though not quite as much as I’d hoped,” Silhouette said, her voice and expression more grave than I had ever seen. She sank down into one of the room’s cushy chairs and crossed her legs. “Thankfully, he was able to find and identify the man Ayrael was searching for.”

  “Let me guess: the old man is another sorcerer who escaped from Vorsalos,” Valuri said.

  “That was my assumption, too, but it turns out we were both wrong. The sorcerer is an exile, but not from Vorsalos.” Silhouette’s eyes shifted to Kaseya. “He is from Nol Krovos.”

  The amazon’s eyes immediately narrowed. “That is not possible. None of the moshalim have left the island since…” She paused, and the color slowly drained from her face. “Zalheer.”

  Valuri and I shared a confused glance when she didn’t elaborate. “Should we know that name?” I asked eventually.

  “He is a powerful sorcerer who was banished from Nol Krovos almost fifty years ago,” Silhouette said when Kaseya remained silent. “Evidently he’s been living as something of a hermit in the mountains for many years. Most of the hunters and fishermen who live there are refugees from the Winter War—people who aren’t welcome in Highwind but don’t want to be crushed by the Roskarim barbarians beyond the White Ridge.”

  I glanced over at Kaseya, but her face was still creased in shock. “Do you know anything else about him?”

  “Not much, unfortunately,” Silhouette said. “My agent wasn’t actually able to reach the village—the area around Therascor’s Peak is infested with ice trolls. But he was able to speak with some of the merchants who occasionally ferry supplies up from Icewatch. They said that Zalheer’s magic is the only reason the villagers are still alive. Apparently he has been acting as their protector for some time.”

  “That’s impossible,” Kaseya said, her head snapping up. “Zalheer would never help anyone.”

  An awkward silence settled over the room. The amazon eventually sighed and began pacing back and forth.

  “Zalheer hates our people every bit as much as Ayrael does,” Kaseya said, her voice brittle. “Everyone on Nol Krovos assumed he died years ago. Once she learned that he was still alive, she probably tried to forge an alliance with him.”

  “But she’s a Senosi now,” Valuri pointed out. “Why would she ally with a sorcerer?”

  “Because she probably assumed he would help her lead an attack on the island.” Kaseya paused in place for a moment and shook her head. “The Matriarch still speaks his name as a curse and a warning. He is the last and only moshalim to turn.”

  “Turn how?” I asked. “Abusing his power like us mainlanders?”

  Her eyes met mine. “He raped and murdered another moshalim’s amazon, then later attempted to murder his own.”

  I grimaced, suddenly wishing I hadn’t been so glib. “Oh.”

  “When the oth
er sorcerers tried to confront him, he struck them down one by one. He was not banished—he destroyed much of the island before he was finally overwhelmed and forced to flee.”

  “That certainly doesn’t sound like a man who would spend decades defending refugees in the mountains,” Valuri commented. “Or the person you saw in your vision.”

  “Helping those people could be some kind of personal penance,” I said. “When people get older, they sometimes—”

  “No!” Kaseya growled. “This is obviously some kind of trick. He sent you that vision to deceive you.”

  I frowned. “To what end?”

  “I don’t know. Does it matter?” She spun away and seethed quietly for a few seconds before she finally regained her composure. “He must be working with Ayrael. He’s using himself as bait to draw us out.”

  Valuri frowned. “You did have your vision just a few hours after we escaped. It’s not the craziest theory I’ve ever heard.”

  “I suppose not,” I said, turning back to Solemi. “How reliable is this information from your contact?”

  “Very,” she said. “He spoke with several local merchants, and they all repeated similar stories. They believe Zalheer is a good man protecting desperate people.”

  “He could have twisted their minds for all we know,” Kaseya said. “Zalheer is a murderer and a monster, nothing more!”

  “He was fifty years ago,” I said. “That doesn’t mean he’s the same man today.”

  She turned and shot me a glare so withering I actually backpedaled a few steps. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she spat. “None of you do!”

  For a moment I actually thought she might punch her fist through the wall or perhaps even my face. But then she clenched her jaw and took a deep breath, and the worst of her rage seemed to melt away.

  “Zalheer is not our ally and never will be,” she insisted. “If my sister asked for his aid against Nol Krovos, I’ve no doubt he would help her.”

  “That may be true, Red, but why would she even ask for his help in the first place? Vorsalos has the largest fleet of warships on this side of the Broken Sea. No offense, but the Senosi could lay siege to Nol Krovos with or without one sorcerer’s help.”

  “My people would crush them,” Kaseya said flatly. “Even with his help, they are no match for an army of amazons and their Maskari .”

  No one had the courage to argue the point in front of her, though I could tell we were all having the same thought: unless there were a lot more amazons than we realized, Nol Krovos would be completely overwhelmed by even a fraction of the Vorsalosian fleet. Once the Senosi neutralized the moshalim …well, the result would be the same as if they neutralized the Silver Fist and the Mage’s Guild here.

  Which was to say, the Inquisitrix and her armies would slaughter everyone wholesale.

  “I’m no expert on interpreting dreamscape visions,” I said into the silence, “but I could feel Zalheer’s desperation even from here. I really don’t think he was trying to deceive me.”

  Valuri eyed me curiously. “Are you saying you want to investigate? What if Red is right and this is a trap?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Kaseya said. “If Zalheer is still alive, then he has escaped justice for far too long. I will make him pay for his crimes myself.”

  Once again we all looked at her in silence for a moment. I had never seen her react this viscerally to anything before.

  “What if Ayrael is waiting for us?” I asked. “We’re still not ready to face her.”

  Kaseya swallowed heavily. “Honor demands that I bring him to justice. If my sister wishes to stand at the side of another traitor, so be it. I will drag both of their bodies back to Nol Krovos.”

  I tossed Valuri a wary glance. If Zalheer really was a monster, she and her Senosi powers could still take him down easily enough. But Ayrael was a different beast entirely. The three of us together might be able to defeat her, assuming we had ample warning and time to prepare. But if she had a sorcerer with her—or, gods forbid, a bunch of Vorsalosian soldiers…

  “I suppose he probably has a lot of useful information whether he allied with your sister or not,” I said after a moment. “And there’s no way to get our hands on it without trudging up there ourselves.”

  I couldn’t tell for certain, but I was reasonably sure I saw the corners of Silhouette’s mouth twitch upwards in a smile. All she had done was drop a single piece of information, and now the three of us were planning a fact-finding mission up into the mountains on her behalf. She wouldn’t have to risk herself or her assets, but she would learn everything she wanted to know anyway.

  Perhaps her secret identity as the Black Mistress wasn’t so hard to believe after all.

  “If you wish to investigate, my ally in Icewatch should be able to provide you with the exact location of the village in the mountain valley,” Silhouette said after a moment. “Derec is a Knight of the Silver Fist—he will have full access to the fort’s patrol schedule and scouting reports.”

  Valuri snorted softly and crossed her arms. “You have one of the knights wrapped around your finger, huh?”

  “Several, actually,” the half-elf replied matter-of-factly. “Derec is an old friend and very reliable. If you need anything, he’ll do whatever he can to help.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be a great help,” I said, forcing a smile. The thought of leaving the city again almost made me nauseous. The threat of death by the Senosi or capture by the Archmage’s bounty hunters was bad enough, but it was also going to be witch-tit cold up north. Trudging through fresh snow in search of an old, murderous sorcerer sounded about as much fun as fireballing my own cock.

  The things we do for love.

  “We should leave first thing in the morning,” Kaseya said. “We’ll need supplies.”

  “My people will take care of everything,” Silhouette promised. “I’ll send word ahead to Derec that you’re coming. He’ll be eager to meet all of you, I’m sure.”

  I nodded idly. “Yeah, I’ll bet.”

  We spent the next few minutes hashing out the details, but I was only half paying attention at that point. Zalheer’s warning started looping through my mind again, and I reached out to the Aether and tried to discern whether or not this whole thing was just an elaborate ruse. I couldn’t sense any deception, though that didn’t really mean anything. I wasn’t an actual clairvoyant, and I definitely wasn’t a seer.

  Still, my instincts told me that there was more to this than any of us realized—and that whatever the truth was, we needed to know it.

  Once Silhouette had left us to attend to her other duties, Valuri sighed and touched Kaseya on the shoulder. “Are you really sure you want to do this, Red?” she asked. “We have no idea what we’re going to find up there.”

  “I know that we’ll find a monster, and that it is my duty to kill him,” Kaseya said flatly. She paused a moment, her blue eyes darting between us. “If you do not wish to help, I am willing to go alone. I will deal with Zalheer and return as quickly as possible.”

  My jaw dropped in surprise. “What?”

  “This is an amazon matter,” Kaseya said. “Perhaps I should deal with it on my own.”

  “But Jorem is your Maskari ,” Valuri said, shaking her head. “I thought you two were supposed to be inseparable now.”

  The amazon’s cheek twitched. “He has made it clear on many occasions that I am free to do as I will.”

  “Of course you are,” I said, my mouth still drooping open. Up until now I wasn’t certain there was anything that would make her leave my side. “But if this is that important to you, I’m not going to sit here and let you take all the risks.”

  “Zalheer needs to pay for what he has done,” Kaseya said. “If he can help us learn more about my sister’s plans, all the better.”

  “Then we’ll deal with him together,” I told her, placing my hands on her shoulders. “We’re a team now—and a pretty damn good one.”

  Kasey
a smiled warmly. “Yes, we are.”

  ***

  We spent the rest of the day preparing for our unexpected journey, and Silhouette’s people provided us with all the food, water, and warm clothing we would need. Horses wouldn’t be useful in the mountains, obviously, but she still arranged rides for our initial journey to Icewatch. I couldn’t help but remember our similar arrangement with Telanya just a few days ago. Hopefully this trip wouldn’t end with us falling into yet another trap…

  Morning came quickly and painfully. After an almost frantic breakfast of berries and bread, Silhouette escorted us out of the illusory maze protecting her lair, and an hour or so later we were on the road north of Highwind. For once, the sight of the city’s shimmering spires fading into the horizon actually made me feel safer. The more time we gave Telanya to forget about us, the better.

  The first day of the trip was long but uneventful. The biggest surprise was the sheer number of caravans we passed along the way. I had assumed that the farmers in the plains here had already harvested their crops this deep into autumn, but apparently they still had plenty of grain left to sell to the worried city folk. The Guild sages weren’t expecting a particularly rough winter this year, but weather was a fickle beast here in the north. It was entirely conceivable that the whole region would be covered in snow before we returned to Silhouette. By the time we set up camp on the second night of the trip, the air had turned cold enough that I almost would have preferred to snuggle with the girls rather than fuck them.

  Almost.

  “Oh, shit…” I breathed as my cock slipped into Kaseya from behind. She was bent over on all fours in front of the fire, and I had pinned her arms behind her back with a pair of shimmering magical manacles. My left hand clutched at her long ponytail while my right repeatedly smacked her bare ass.