by Sarah Hawke
“But they do not possess any weapons.”
“They did not,” Hestiah said. “They do now.”
I hissed softly between my teeth. “So the Senosi didn’t just send a few Huntresses. They brought weapons as well.”
“How is this possible?” Kaseya asked. “How could they have docked a ship upon the island?”
“I do not know, but the rebellion will not last,” Hestiah said. “Even with spears and crossbows, the Unblooded are no match for the Kari Vataya .”
“They don’t have to be,” I pointed out. “They just need to pull enough resources away that Ayrael’s fleet can land unopposed.”
“That will not happen. The Mosh’Dalar’s vision was quite clear: the Daughter of Destiny will return and save Nol Krovos from the lies of the Betrayer.”
“Prophecy is a tricky thing,” I murmured. “It doesn’t always turn out the way you think.”
Hestiah swallowed heavily as her eyes returned to the distant island. “I have already told you too much. It is not my place to share the secrets of Nol Krovos. The Matriarch will soothe your worries tomorrow.”
Valuri folded her arms across her chest. “Yeah, I’ll bet she will.”
“Come, we have prepared entertainment,” Hestiah said, gesturing back into the dining hall. “You have only seen a fraction of the beauty Nol Krovos has to offer.”
4
By the time night finally descended upon the island, I was so full of fish and wine that I could have easily passed out in the middle of the street. But my mind refused to settle, and I spent the entire walk to our guest chambers concocting nightmare scenarios about Ayrael’s forthcoming invasion. We had no way of knowing exactly when the Vorsalosian armada would arrive, but it could have been as early as tomorrow.
“We have made some changes since you left, Mistress Kaseya,” our escort, a dainty blonde who couldn’t have been older than seventeen or eighteen, said as we wound our way up the spiraling staircase on the outside of the building. “Still, I trust you will find everything in order.”
Kaseya’s eyes brightened when we approached the doorway. Behind the diaphanous curtains was a room so large and spacious it put the suite back at the Knight’s Lantern to shame. The bed was wide enough it could probably accommodate four people, and the sheets looked so expensive I was suddenly embarrassed by all the places I had forced Kaseya to sleep.
“This was all yours, Red?” Valuri asked, her mouth falling open.
“She is the Vaer Tal’Shira ,” our escort replied matter-of-factly. “She deserves nothing less.”
“It already feels like a lifetime ago,” Kaseya whispered.
“In a way, it was. You are reborn with your Maskari .”
Valuri rolled her eyes but turned away before anyone else saw the sour look on her face. I grinned despite myself.
“If you need anything else, please do not hesitate to ask,” our escort said. “Lady Hestiah was adamant that you receive anything you might require.”
“Thank you,” Kaseya said, taking the girl’s hand and planting a warm kiss on her cheek. She said something I didn’t understand, and the servant left with a wide smile.
“You could have asked her to stay,” Valuri muttered, biting her lip and leering down the stairs.
I slumped against the wall and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “We have other problems to deal with,” I reminded her. “That didn’t go as badly as I feared, but it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, either.”
“It went badly enough,” Valuri grumbled. “If paradise is in open rebellion, the Senosi have been here longer a few weeks. They’ve probably been sowing dissent for months.”
“To be honest, I doubt it took that much effort,” Kaseya said. “Even before I left, there were rumors about Nol Pratos. The Fas’Gor— the Unblooded— have not been treated well for some time. Ayrael knew that as well as anyone, and now she is exploiting it.”
“The armada could be hours away—your people can’t afford to be fighting a war on two fronts,” I said.
“No, but at this point I doubt there’s much we can do about it,” Valuri said. “We’ll just have to focus on the main battle like we planned all along…assuming the Matriarch and her boy are willing to accept our help. No one down there seemed overly thrilled about working with a Senosi or about you bonding with a mainlander.”
“They will learn to live with their prejudice,” Kaseya said. “I am far more concerned about our other revelations. They still do not know the truth about Zalheer or my sorcery.”
“And I still think we need to keep it that way as long as possible,” I told her. “Like Val said, we’re already talking about fighting a war on two fronts. We can worry about overthrowing your whole culture after we’ve held the beach.”
“I do not wish to deceive my sisters-in-arms, Jorem.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Valuri muttered.
“No, I will not,” Kaseya said pointedly. She paced across the room and ran her fingertips along the edge of one of the large paintings hanging from the wall. It depicted a sprawling battlefield of fire and blood where a handful of amazon warriors were standing firm against a faceless enemy.
“If we are right about the power of the Fount, then every Red Sister on Nol Krovos wields the gift, and every woman on Nol Pratos does not,” Kaseya went on. “This segregation cannot be an accident. Someone must know the truth.”
“We don’t disagree,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “We’re just worried about the here and now. I don’t want Nol Krovos to burn any more than you do, but if Ayrael reaches the Fount and collapses the Three Corridors…” I shook my head. “She’ll be damning people all across the world.”
Kaseya sighed. “On my honor, I will not allow that to happen.”
“The truth will come out,” I said. “We just need to be patient. I can’t imagine that more than a handful of people are involved.”
“I’ll bet both my crossbows that this Mosh’Dalar fellow knows, and probably the Matriarch too,” Valuri said. “There must be evidence somewhere if Ayrael learned the truth about Zalheer and Marcella.”
“This doesn’t seem like the kind of secret you write down in a journal for any idiot to read,” I said. “Though it really does beg the question of how your sister learned the truth in the first place.”
“I will ask her myself,” Kaseya said. “Right before I drive my sword through her heart.”
I shared a long, sideways glance with Valuri. We might not have been connected with a magical bond, but we could communicate more in a single look than most people could in a whole conversation.
“Well, as much as I would love to prowl around the city and see if I can find anything interesting, I have a feeling that our hosts will be watching us like hawks,” Valuri said. “That said, I’m still going to sneak out for a bit and run my own little test on the locals.”
“Just don’t get caught skulking around the rooftops,” I warned.
“Who said anything about skulking? Did you see all those pretty little unbound amazons wandering around the commons?” She glanced down over the balcony, her green eyes glinting hungrily. “So young, so taut, so teeming with magical energy…”
I grunted. “Can’t you sate yourself from the air in this place?”
“You can sate yourself with gruel, but you eat spiced halibut instead,” she countered.
“You realize that feeding off the locals won’t make you any more popular with the moshalim , right?”
“How else are we going to test our theory about the amazons being sorcerers?” Val grinned and made a licking motion with her tongue. “Besides, almost everyone loves my tats the first time they see them.”
“Tattoos are rare on Nol Krovos,” Kaseya pointed out.
“So I’ll be even more exotic, then,” Valuri said with a wink. “You kids have fun. I’ll be back later. Probably.”
I grunted softly as she dashed off down the staircase. “Well, at l
east one of us will have fun tonight.”
“Hestiah and I used to spend hours upon hours up here when we were younger,” Kaseya said, a faint smile touching her lips at the memory.
“The view is breathtaking,” I murmured. “There’s nothing like it in Vorsalos. When I stared out at the sea, all I’d see—and smell—were impoverished fishmongers gutting the day’s catch.”
“We would discuss everything we had learned that day during our training regimen,” she went on. Her eyes were so glazed over I wasn’t even sure she’d heard me. “Afterwards we would try and guess which moshalim apprentice we would be bonded to.”
I grinned. The thought of her gossiping about marriage prospects like a normal teenage girl was amusing for some reason.
“Did you have a favorite?”
“Yes. Though at the time, we were honestly more enamored with one another.” Kaseya traced her finger along the edge of the balcony. “I still remember all the times I lifted her up onto the wood and reached beneath her skirt.”
I shuffled awkwardly in place as my cock twinged at the mental image. “Right here in the open?”
“Of course. My people do not have the same taboos against nudity and sex that you do.”
“Evidently not,” I murmured, peering over the balcony. Down to our left, two young amazon warriors were kissing deeply while their hands eagerly removed one another’s armor. Down to our right, an amazon was on her knees with her Maskari’s cock pumping in and out of her mouth. I saw similar scenes unfolding no matter where I looked. Apparently once the sun set, this island turned into one giant orgy.
Not that I was complaining.
“Now that Hestiah is bound, I fear I may never taste her again,” Kaseya said, her eyes distant. “Especially once we finally tell her the truth about Zalheer.”
“She’s been your friend for a long time,” I said. “I find it hard to believe that she would abandon you just because you told her something she doesn’t want to hear.”
“You do not understand our ways. And you cannot understand our code of honor.”
“Maybe not, but I have faith in your ability to set things right.” I smiled and squeezed her arm. “If you’ve been anywhere near as loyal to your friends here as you have to us, then I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
Kaseya smiled. Her blue eyes twinkled in the starlight, and she gently wrapped her arms around my neck. “Do your instincts always tell you the right thing to say, or have you simply found a new way to exploit our bond?”
“The first one sounds more impressive, so let’s go with that.”
She leaned in and kissed me. Her lips were so soft and warm they nearly melted me right then and there. “I am going to drain you tonight,” she whispered, pulling back just enough to speak.
“I had hoped you might.”
“Tomorrow will be busy, and you’ll need to be focused. Three times should do the trick.”
I grunted and smiled. “Three times?”
“I will take you with my mouth first,” she said, nibbling at my lip again. “I want to make certain I taste as much of you as possible.”
My cock stirred in my trousers. “And the second?”
“My cunt, of course. I want you to spill as deep inside me as possible.”
“I should have enough strength left for that,” I said, running my hand through her hair. “But what if I’m still not finished?”
Kaseya pulled me close enough that she could nibble in my ear. “Then you will fuck me in the ass,” she cooed. “Right here on the balcony so everyone in the city will be able to watch me submit to the might of my Maskari .”
“You know…I think I like this plan.”
“I knew you would.”
She kissed me again. Her tongue enveloped mine, and she pushed me back against the balcony railing, her leg frantically grinding against my stiffening member. I was just about ready to tap her shoulders and guide her down to her knees when I heard the sound of footsteps from the stairs. Another amazon warrior walked by, an amused, knowing smirk on her lips. I belatedly remembered just how public this balcony really was, and I realized how important that was to Kaseya. The fire in her quim was growing hotter by the second. Apparently her exhibitionist streak wasn’t limited to screaming in the bowels of a ship; she desperately wanted me to fuck her out here in front of as many people as possible.
I could see the truth in her mind: she wanted everyone here to know that she was mine, unequivocally and unconditionally. She wanted me to parade her around like a trophy. Given the chance, she would have gladly strut around the whole promenade with my seed spackled across her lips and dripping down her thighs.
Who was I to deny her?
After another solid minute of grinding, Kaseya finally pulled away and sank down in front of me. Her blue eyes stayed locked on mine as she unbuttoned my trousers, and I could already imagine how amazing it was going to feel when my cock plunged down her hot, velvety throat…
“I’m glad to see you’re settling in.”
I glanced up to see Hestiah appear at the top of the staircase behind us. She had a half-empty glass of wine in her hand and a wry, playful smile on her lips. She had also exchanged her armor for a flowing cropped halter dress that seemed ready to fly off her athletic body at the slightest gust of wind.
“I had a feeling you’d wish to show your Maskari our spot,” she said while sauntering forward. “What do you think of the view?”
“It’s good,” I squeaked, keenly aware that my swollen cock was now exposed for all to see.
Hestiah glanced down and grinned. “Impressive. I guess not all the rumors about mainlanders could be true.”
Kaseya hopped back to her feet and grabbed her friend’s hand. “I’m glad you’re here. With all that’s going on I thought—”
“The burdens of the present have already cost us an afternoon,” Hestiah said. “They should not cost us an evening as well.”
“You’re right,” Kaseya said, squeezing her friend’s hands and leaning in for a kiss. What started as a soft peck on the lips quickly became something more; within seconds they were pawing desperately at one another.
And then there was me, leaning against the railing with my trousers on the floor and my cock flapping in the breeze.
Rather than interrupt them like a selfish jackass, I did the next best thing: I concentrated upon the bond ring and enjoyed Kaseya’s sensations as if they were my own. Hestiah was a passionate kisser, and it wasn’t hard to figure out where Kaseya had learned many of her techniques. But beyond the lust, I also felt the unmistakable love of two people who had spent their entire lives together.
When their lips finally parted, they whispered words in one another’s ears—words I couldn’t translate. But when they both turned and looked at me like I was a piece of a meat, it wasn’t difficult to discern the context.
“Hestiah’s Maskari has granted her lospalor while we are here,” Kaseya said.
“Uh…what?” I muttered.
“Freedom to associate with other males,” Hestiah said, touching my cheek and then slowly tracing her hand down the length of my tunic.
I struggled desperately to keep my cock from twitching in anticipation. I failed miserably.
“That’s a thing he can do?” I asked.
“Yes,” Hestiah said as if it were obvious. She eyed me as intently as she had on the beach. “Only from the waist up, though, of course.”
“Of course,” I rasped.
Kaseya grinned and turned to her friend. “I have learned more than I ever thought possible these past few months. There are so many things I wish to show you.”
Hestiah smiled back. “Then we should get started as soon as possible.”
I swallowed reflexively when the two of them stepped forward and sank down to their knees in unison. My cock was harder than ever, and I had to squeeze the railing behind me to keep from exploding the moment Kaseya kissed the tip. I nearly lost control anyway when Hest
iah leaned in and ran her smooth tongue across the shaft.
“Escar’s mercy…” I breathed.
Kaseya and Valuri had repeatedly teamed up on me over the past few months, and they had driven me crazy each and every time. But there was always something special about the unfamiliar, and watching a beautiful woman I barely knew bathe my cock with her tongue was always a genuine treat. Hestiah’s beauty didn’t hurt—her brown eyes and flawless olive skin were a perfect combination. The fact that she was “protected” made her all the more desirable. When my cock finally disappeared between her puffy lips, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to spill all over her…
Hestiah swallowed about half my length while she gently fondled my testicles. I resisted the urge to grab the back of her skull and force myself in deep—that would have to wait for at least a few minutes. I didn’t know her limits yet, and I didn’t want to spoil the mood by being overly aggressive. Besides, Kaseya could sense exactly what I wanted. One way or another, I had no doubt that my cock would be buried deep inside an amazon’s throat before this was over.
“It’s like we used to practice,” Hestiah said when she finally pulled away and licked at her lips. “Just a lot bigger.”
“That only makes it better,” Kaseya said. “Amazon warriors live to overcome challenges.”
“Yes, we do.”
The two women kissed again, but this time Kaseya began slowly stroking my shaft to hold my interest. Not that it was necessary—the sight of their tongues swirling together an inch in front of my cock was more than enough to keep it hard as a rock.
“We used to imagine a game,” Kaseya said, smiling up at me with an impish twinkle in her eye. “After we were bonded, we would both bring our Maskari to this spot in broad daylight. Then we would announce our contest to everyone in the market below: whichever one of us could make our moshalim spill first would win. The loser would be mocked by the entire community.”
“Then we would kneel before them and begin,” Hestiah said. “Men from all over the city would come to watch. They might even place bets!”
