The Goddess of Blood and Bone

by Nattie Kate Mason

  As Agnes continued to pump her fingers inside the Queen, she lowered her head and caressed her tongue along the inside of Nushka’s thigh. The Goddess arched into the handmaiden’s touch, still riding her fingers like a beast. She craved more, needed more. Another moan escaped her lips as Agnes continued to tease her with that mischievous tongue of hers, those full luscious lips, before finally, finally answering her sinful demands and feasting upon her.

  “Fucking hell,” Nushka roared as the need grew stronger and stronger inside of her.

  Each stroke of her handmaiden’s tongue was the answer to some unholy prayer. Only this once had she treated Agnes even remotely like an equal, only this once had she placed herself in such a vulnerable position to an underling. The Goddess didn’t know why today was different, and in that moment, she didn’t fucking care. The thrill of it fueled her inner fire. Her dark desires beckoning for more, craving more. Her depraved soul sang in earnest.

  Another moan escaped Nushka’s lips. Agnes’s returning muffled moan sent heat flooding through her.

  The pressure within continued to build as the Goddess thrust in time with her handmaiden’s pulsing fingers and tantalizing tongue. Writhing against her, she silently begged for more. Agnes answered. She replaced her fingers with her tongue and suddenly the Queen couldn’t catch a breath.

  The desire and longing for release all too quickly became agonizing. She didn’t want to play anymore; she’d had enough of her handmaiden’s teasing. The need building within her begged for release. The Goddess arched her back, tilting her pelvis to allow the maiden easier access to tend to her more deeply.

  Nushka pleaded for more, as she fucked Agnes’s mouth. She had never asked for anything in her life, except for this. Her hands fisted deeper into the handmaiden’s hair.

  Each breath rasped as contentment was drawn out of her. Agnes replaced her tongue once more with her fingers, working her sharply and deeply. Her tongue replaced her massaging thumb as she anticipated her Queen’s needs.

  Moments later, as release found the Goddess, she flung her head backwards, freeing Agnes’s hair as she roared gloriously towards the castle above, her shadows blotting out all light before simmering down like a second skin. The pool and the ground trembled beneath the power she released as she found her climax. Her alabaster skin glowed beneath the raging shadows. A warmth flooded through her, the pleasure so powerful, so satisfying, that she found her eyes fluttering closed, savoring the feeling.

  Lowering her head after a moment, panting softly, the Queen eased back into the water before her maid and kissed her gently. The lingering release echoed with every taunting slow pulse of her maiden’s fingers until at last her need was fully sated, and the handmaiden leisurely ceased her ministrations.

  Drawing her mouth away from Agnes’s lips, the Queen smirked.

  “That was… unexpected,” Nushka rasped, still trying to catch her breath.

  “You’re welcome My Queen,” Agnes grinned wickedly, her breathing labored.

  Sudden unease swelled in the Goddess’s stomach. A feeling that stemmed from allowing herself to be vulnerable. A situation that she considered utterly abhorrent. To be vulnerable was to be weak and she was not weak.

  Nushka came to her senses and with a wave of her hand Agnes was once more in spirit form. A dismissive move by the Goddess to remind her servant who was in control here, despite Nushka enjoying her company.

  “Lest you forget your place…” Nushka snarled taking a step back.

  Nushka did not miss the flash of disappointment that crossed Agnes’s face. A fact that gave the Goddess a different kind of gratification. The kind of enjoyment that came from delighting in the disappointment and pain of others. Satisfaction from causing heartache. A small part of her questioned if she had acted too brashly, but the wise part of her knew that the handmaiden meant nothing and she needed to reassert her dominance. And if that train of thought made her the nastiest immortal alive, she didn’t give a fuck.

  “I hope I have pleased you, My Queen,” Agnes remarked insincerely, nostrils flaring.

  Even in soul form, Agnes’s now sullen brown eyes exuded dejection.

  “You have served your Goddess well. But this was just sex, nothing more,” Nushka glowered. “Count yourself fortunate that your Queen allowed you to enjoy the privilege of her own ministrations. It will not happen again. You are a servant and nothing more. One pleasant evening does not mean my feelings for you have changed. You are a worthless handmaiden and I am a Deity. You mean nothing to me,” the Goddess of Blood and Bone spat, flexing her claws for emphasis.

  Agnes straightened at her tone, and a flash of rage crossed her face at the dismissal, just as the Goddess liked it. Order once more restored.

  “Now leave me,” Nushka snapped. “And do not approach me again unless you are summonsed.”

  Agnes stood there momentarily dumbfounded.

  The Goddess exited the pool with impossible grace and stood once more upon the rocks, completely bare. With little effort, her power had her dry and redressed in her gown. Her hair calmly swayed at her back, clinging to the endorphins still flooding the Goddess’s very being. Her shadows pooled around her.

  Head bowed, Agnes exited the pool in soul form and as she did so, her flimsy black gown reappeared upon her frame. She paused for a moment, then bit her lip as if weighing her words. To dare challenge the Goddess now, she must know, would be a permanent death sentence despite gaining the Goddess’s favor.

  “My Queen,” Agnes spoke hesitantly. “There is something I wish to discuss with you.”

  Nushka stared at her in disbelief which quickly gave way to rage.

  “Ha! The reason for your offering I suspect!” Nushka’s tone cold and unrelenting. “In case you didn’t hear me the first time, I told you to get the fuck out of my sight! Do you want me to end your existence?” Nushka thundered.

  Agnes bravely raised her head, eyes burning with conviction. Nushka caught a glimpse of the calculating warrior within.

  “I can help you take over the Land of the Gods,” Agnes announced. “I have a plan to do it, and it does not require a war.”

  *

  6

  Agnes

  Hands fisted, teeth clenched, Agnes tried desperately to subdue the bottomless pit of rage that welled within. To cast her aside like that, to return her to her spirit form, even when the Goddess had so obviously enjoyed herself, was cold, even for her. To treat her with such disrespect...

  Now, as the Queen of Moor led them towards the War Chamber, it took all of Agnes’s might to not scream her frustration at the Deity. To fight Nushka on this would only make life harder for herself—might cost her everything. She tried and failed to rein in her anger, her frazzled thoughts clouding her better judgement.

  Caught up in the passion of the moment they shared in the pool, Agnes had dared consider that she might have meant something to the Goddess. How wrong she had been to think for even a second that Nushka could possibly care for anyone other than herself. It was just sex for the Deity. She had made that perfectly clear.

  ‘I will never allow myself to become as heartless as her. I will never give up that speck of humanity within me, that prevents my human soul from giving way to the beast within. There must be a better way to live. I want more than this pitiful existence.’

  With a heavy sigh, Agnes pushed her thoughts and feelings aside, needing to refocus on the plan and her end game.

  As Agnes had beheld Hyacinth, the High Witch of the wendigast that evening, she had known exactly what she needed to do. Thus, a variation of the original plan began to form in her mind. A plan still inspired by Hyacinth’s rise to power, but one that played more to her strengths. If all went well, the Queen of Moor would be indebted to her. A way of shifting the balance of power between them forevermore, not just temporarily in the bedroom. A way to secure her eternal existence, and attain an afterlife worth living.

  Agnes and the Goddess of Blood and Bone approached
the entrance to the War Chamber, the latter’s shadows writhing. Two peuchen guarding the entrance slithered away from the double doors to permit them access. The peuchen were smaller than usual, likely still young, though they still filled much of the hall. They left only a couple of feet between them for the Deity and handmaiden to walk between. Their black scales glimmered in the light reflected off the lit sconces lining the hall.

  Without a word, the Goddess glided through the double bone doors and took her place upon the imposing stone chair at the head of the table. The War Chamber was exactly how Agnes had imagined it; a smaller version of the throne room with soaring bone walls, a long rectangular table made of volcanic rock and an assortment of chairs to accommodate various creatures’ shapes and sizes. Two burning hearths either side of the room provided the only source of light in the windowless chamber.

  Agnes gently closed the bone doors behind them before approaching the long table, head held high. Clouds of shadow radiated irately off the Dark Queen.

  “Sit,” Nushka commanded, and Agnes did as she was told, taking a seat two places down from the Queen, keeping a respectful and wise distance away.

  The Goddess’s hair whipped frantically around her. Her eyes blazing, Nushka surveyed Agnes with a look of utter contempt.

  “You may present your plan but choose your words carefully. If you waste my time, I will end yours,” The Goddess reckoned.

  A sinister smirk adorned the Deity’s face as she scratched her claws against the table, the sound akin to screeches on a blackboard. Agnes knew that look well. It promised pain should one displease the Queen.

  Self-preservation finally allowed her to see better sense, as she set aside the remnants of her anger to focus on the task at hand. Agnes straightened in the hard stone chair and spoke frankly.

  “My family are living the life of luxury either in the Land of Milk and Honey, or alive and well in Alearia,” Agnes explained before she lost her nerve. “I want the vengeance that is owed to me. I want to make all the do-gooders pay from treating us other-minded souls as less than worthy. Everyone loves a hero, but being a villain is far more compelling. Besides, the only thing that separates the moral from the immoral, is that villains are not afraid to defy social norms. Villains will do whatever it takes to achieve their end game, and I will do whatever it takes to make you Ruler of the Gods,” Agnes divulged.

  “How are you, a worthless, insignificant handmaiden, going to help me defeat the Gods? A task that in all my existence I have thus far failed to do. Do not insult me by insinuating that you are more cunning than I,” Nushka reprimanded, leaning forward on the table, staring daggers towards the maid.

  The Goddess’s spiteful words found their mark, but Agnes did not give her the satisfaction of letting it show. Instead, the handmaiden kept her head held high and took a deep breath—a now useless trick from her human days—and refocused. The act of deep breathing still helped, even if breathing was no longer a necessity in spirit form.

  “From a young age,” Agnes began, “I was trained to say and do all the right things, to disguise my true intentions. I learned all the courtly, manipulative tricks. Lies and deceptions passed my lips so smoothly that I could deceive even my own family with little effort. That is how I know, without a doubt, that I can fool Archè himself. Together, we will invoke the rule of redemption,” Agnes smugly proclaimed.

  The Goddess appraised her momentarily, before gesturing with a noncommittal flourish of her clawed hand for the handmaiden to continue. Agnes knew the wicked Queen would grow tired of her before long, that she was living on borrowed time, but she had somehow caught the Goddess’s mild curiosity and so she would make every word count.

  “Offer me up for the Goddess of Darkness’s re-appraisal,” Agnes continued desperately. “If I can convince Lilith that I am redeemed and worthy of the Afterworld, then Archè will offer you a place in the Land of the Gods once more. I heard about the rule of redemption in Moor. I know we can do this.”

  Nushka looked at her as if she had utterly lost her mind. Perhaps she had, but she was not going to give up. Agnes knew that she could do it, that all her training had led to this. A chance to enact revenge.

  “We will re-enact the story of Hyacinth’s rise,” Agnes continued urgently. She grappled to hold the Queen’s attention and avoid becoming the late-night amusement in the castle’s torture chambers. “After I am welcomed into the Land of the Gods, my soul considered redeemed by Lilith, they will surely hold a banquet or ball in your honor to welcome you back into the fold. Before the event, I will slip a tonic prepared by Hyacinth herself into their drinks, rendering the Gods powerless. I will pave the way for you to sweep in with your allies and take what is rightfully yours. Only then will you be free to obtain your vengeance, to destroy Archè and Aria, and take your place as Queen of the Gods.”

  Agnes sank into her chair, feeling the Goddess’s penetrating stare rake over her, weighing the merit of her words. Agnes prayed she had not overstepped and doomed herself to pain for her insolence.

  “My sister, Lilith, is ruthless. She and I are one and the same in so many ways. What makes you think you could outsmart her? What makes you think that, after a millennium of attempting to have souls re-appraised, you will be any different?” Nushka raised an eyebrow.

  Agnes leaned forward and spoke with the voice of a Queen.

  “I want power and I will do whatever it takes to get it. If I can convince you that I can do this, then I stand a good chance at convincing Lilith that I am a changed woman,” Agnes assured her. “If I fail, then you are no worse off. But if you start a war without trying my idea first, you could stand to lose countless followers and allies in an all-out war with the Gods that you may not even win. We can prevent numerous deaths and guarantee success with my plan. It’s possible to take the ultimate seat of power through scheming rather than violence, I know it is.”

  “I suppose you believe you are entitled to something in return for your assistance?” Nushka speculated. Her shadows furled and unfurled ready to strike.

  Agnes tilted her chin, brazen defiance written on her face.

  “I want you to restore my life force, transform me into an immortal and restore my former mind conqueror gifting. After that is done, I want command over the Afterworld.”

  The handmaiden’s spirit quivered as she walked a dangerous line with the Goddess, a being who could destroy her with a mere thought. Nushka rose from her chair and moved to open the bone door back out to the hallway.

  Turning on her heels to face Agnes directly, Nushka demanded: “Why should I reward you for something I could simply order you to do? I am a Deity after all, and you are nothing more than a servant whose company I am quickly growing tired of.”

  Agnes raised her chin boldly, drawing on her last dregs of courage.

  “You need me,” she said fearlessly, looking down her nose at the Queen. “If you do not agree to my terms, I will tell Lilith of your plans to overthrow the Land of the Gods. Before you even have a chance to rally your allied forces. Archè himself will arrive and smite you where you stand. And before you act brashly, you should know that I have briefed someone in The Pitts to send a message to Lilith if I am wiped from existence during this meeting.”

  Off course that wasn’t true, but Nushka didn’t know that. Agnes silently prayed the Goddess didn’t see through her deceit.

  “Alternatively,” Agnes continued more confidently, “if you deny me the chance to prove myself to Lilith, you will risk losing countless allies in a war you cannot win. Not if the Gods retain their powers. So, I suggest you let me help you and reward me as I deserve.”

  A smirk grew across the Goddess’s pale face.

  “Fine,” Nushka replied indifferently. “We will try it your way. But if you fail, I will roast you, torture you and place your corporal head on a spike. After all that is done, I will banish you to the ether for all eternity. Do we have an accord?”

  Agnes gulped, or she would have if her bo
dy were once more corporal. She rose from her chair and followed the Goddess’s cue of dismissal.

  “As you wish, My Queen,” she agreed, bowing unsteadily.

  Agnes quickly made for the door.

  “Just one more thing Agnes…” Nushka added, stopping her in her tracks.

  Agnes cautiously faced the Deity.

  “Yes, My Queen,” her voice shuddered.

  “You will find it is not in your best interests to attempt to blackmail a Goddess. I will allow you to leave this room safely but I will not be so merciful the next time you cross me,” she cautioned.

  “Thank you My Queen.”

  The handmaiden did not notice the peuchen’s overbearing presence as she hurriedly exited the War Chamber. Not as the Goddess slammed the door after her, a tremor of shadow power reverberating into the hallway. Agnes did not dare look back as she quickened her pace, trying to create as much distance between her the Deity. The Queen likely dreaming of wiping the floor with her bloody corpse.

  *

  7

  Agnes

  Her freedom was short lived, as Agnes found herself unceremoniously thrown into the dark, rancid cell beneath the bone castle. The two peuchen that had guarded the War Chamber were not gentle by any means as they wrapped their tails around her newly returned corporal form, constricting around her waist, before dumping her on the hard-slate dungeon floor. Agnes figured the peuchen had received the order telepathically. A useful gift for guards, she mused. It would also appear that the Goddess of Blood and Bone did not even need to be in proximity to change Agnes’s form. A piece of information that may prove useful later.

  Daring to blackmail and then make demands of the Goddess was never wise, Agnes knew that. But desperate times had called for drastic measures. She wouldn’t continue existing the way she had these past five years, couldn’t bear the thought of it. She had needed to act, even if it meant stooping to the Goddess’s level. She regretted nothing and would do it all again knowing her actions had achieved the desired outcome.