by Eric Vall
“They call me River.” The commander smirked. “Why are you here, Lord Evan?”
“I’d like to invite my fiancée down here to help me explain that.” I gestured back up the hill to the rest of my group.
“Fine,” River said with a dip of his head. Then he waved the rest of the centaurs forward, and they eased around the cracks to stand on solid ground.
With that, I turned around and waved my convoy down to join us.
“They centaurs are playing nice for now,” I murmured to my friends when they reached me.
“Now they want to be nice?” Laika retorted as she put her sword back in its sheath.
“They must have been scared of the sexy, badass dragon,” Trina giggled.
“I like watching Lord Evan be a sexy dragon,” Marina added with a wink.
“Ladies, as much as I’d like to continue this conversation, we have to talk to the horses,” I reminded the dryads. “I’m guessing everyone is okay, then?”
“All good,” Nike confirmed with a nod.
As soon as Alyona was next to me, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and guided the princess to meet the horse-man commander.
“Alyona, this is River,” I introduced her to the centaur. “River, this is my bride-to-be, Lady Alyona.”
“Your fiancée is the Divine Maiden?” River asked with wide eyes. “I thought she was in the Cave of One Thousand Sages.”
“Old news,” I remarked, but then a sharp elbow dug into my ribs. “I mean, Alyona left the cave a while ago to pursue the source of the miasma poisonings.”
“I see.” The centaur pursed his lips.
“Alyona, successor to the White Jade Sect Seat of Rahma,” the princess finished her introduction with a curtsy. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, River.”
“But what are you here for?” River cut to the chase.
I guess Aaliyah was right about their manners.
“We have been sent by His Eminence, King Rodion, to visit with many cities in Rahma,” Alyona explained. “We’d like to see your city’s leader, if we may.”
“Why should we take you to her?” River scoffed. “The king hasn’t been here in decades. What makes you think our queen wants to hear from his daughter?”
“I don’t really care what your queen wants at the moment,” I growled. “We came here to see the leader of Lumin, and you’re going to take us to her.”
“Oh?” River quirked an eyebrow and looked around at the other centaurs, who stared at me in disbelief. “And if I don’t?”
“Then we go through you,” Aaliyah hissed from behind me.
“That works for me.” I shrugged.
“Ooh, Lord Evan is about to scare the horsies like he did the cats!” Polina whispered loudly.
“We didn’t come here to hurt anyone,” Alyona soothed. “We only want to help.”
“We don’t need your help.” River’s face was smug. “So, whatever the king asked you to do here, you can do it somewhere else.”
“Listen, River, we’ve been on the road for a week,” I said as I decided to try another tactic. “We have to stop in all these cities and check in. If your queen says she doesn’t need us, then we’ll move on tomorrow morning. Just take us to her, and she can decide for herself.”
The centaur rubbed his chin and stared at me, and up close, I could see his tattoos were depictions of battle scenes. His entire human torso was covered in ink that showed his warriors as they fought humans, giants, and even dragons.
Ah, that explained his comment about my kind. I’d have to ask about that later.
“Fine,” River grumbled at last. “But if the queen doesn’t want you here, then you have to leave tonight.”
“Fair enough,” I agreed. “Lead the way.”
The centaur turned toward the gate at the end of the huge wall surrounding Lumin, and the rest of the warriors surrounded us as we followed him to the entrance.
“I told you I could be nice,” I snickered as I looped my fingers through Alyona’s.
The princess looked up at me and pursed her lips. She obviously wasn’t thrilled with my tactics to get into the city, but it had worked.
Laika followed closely behind the princess and me, while Ravi and the dryads walked with Aaliyah. Nike brought up the rear, and I could feel his tension as the centaur warriors trotted behind him.
Then River signaled someone through a hole in the wall, and the metal gate clanged as it slid open a moment later.
As we trailed after the commander, I got a better look at Lumin. It wasn’t as big as Tikal, but the city was larger than it had looked from outside the walls. The buildings were tall and loomed over us as we followed the dirt road, and I noticed this city was the most modern place I’d seen in Inati. The houses were built out of rocks joined together with some kind of hardened paste, which made the stones look almost like bricks. Each house had a number on it, and the structures sat in rows along the flattened pathways. The doorways were taller than normal, probably to give the centaurs room to walk through in their horse form, though some people walked around in human bodies.
Then I noticed a trend. I didn’t see any women.
The men stared at us with a variety of expressions from anger to fear to disgust as we walked down the path, and I wondered if the women were inside the houses to keep them safe from us.
After nearly half an hour of walking, we arrived at the doors of the castle, and I could see the intricate carvings in the stone walls showed more battle scenes. The art was enhanced with gemstones embedded into the rock, and gold and silver paint highlighted the centaur warriors. Then I looked up at the giant wooden doors, and they featured a metal decorative horse hanging above the large rings that served as handles.
River grabbed one of the rings and pushed the door open to reveal a large entryway, with huge tapestries hanging from the walls on either side. He stood next to the door and motioned for us to go in, but the other warriors waited outside the doors.
We walked past River into another large room with a fireplace burning to our right, and a circle of cushy armchairs sat to our left.
“You can sit here.” River pointed to the chairs. “I’ll go see if the queen is available.”
The centaur’s tail whipped around behind him as he strode out of the room before I could respond, and we looked around as we sat.
“I told you they were rude,” Aaliyah whispered, and the lioness fought back a smirk.
“I like it better this way,” I laughed. “I don’t have to bullshit. By the way, how do they have a queen if Rodion is the king of Rahma?”
“They are one of the cities that existed first.” Alyona shrugged. “Some of the cities in our country existed long before Rahma was founded, and the first rulers of Rahma didn’t see the point in making anyone change their titles. I’d say you could ask the centaurs to make sure, but you’d probably start another fight given the way River looked at you.”
“Lord Evan would win the second one, too!” Trina giggled.
“Yeah, the horsies were scared after he gave them a little earthquake,” Marina squealed.
“I wouldn’t mind another one of his earthquakes,” Polina sighed.
“Oh, me either!” Trina agreed and batted her green eyelashes at me.
I smirked at the insatiable dryads, but before my thoughts could derail, River marched back into the room.
“Lord Evan?” The centaur commander nodded to me. “You and the princess can come this way.”
“We should bring Aaliyah,” Alyona murmured before she rose from her chair. “She can vouch for our time in Tikal.”
“Good point,” I agreed as I stood up to face the centaur. “I need to bring Lady Aaliyah as well.”
“Fine,” River grunted. “This way.”
Aaliyah stood up, and the three of us walked behind River’s large horse form down a hallway and up a flight of stairs. The battle-themed décor continued throughout the castle, and I saw more tapestries, as well as decommissioned
battle axes and swords, hanging from the walls.
We stopped abruptly as River knocked on a wooden door guarded by two stoic centaurs. Neither of them looked at us as they stared straight ahead, and they reminded me of the Buckingham Palace guards, except without the funny hats.
“Enter,” a female voice drawled from inside the room.
River pushed the door open and stood back, and we walked past him into a room that made my mouth water.
Everything was gold.
From the decorative vases on the window to the candlesticks on the table, the entire room was adorned with gold. A golden jewelry box sat atop a wooden dresser with gold paintings decorating each drawer, and even the queen’s bed frame was supported by gold columns intricately carved from the floor to the ceiling.
A low, quiet growl resounded deep in my chest, and it took everything in me to resist stuffing the gold pieces into my spatial storage to add to my horde at home.
Then I noticed the queen.
She was in human form as she laid on a giant red pillow in the corner of the room. Her chestnut colored hair flowed from a ponytail on top of her head down the side of the pillow, and she wore almost nothing other than gold jewelry. A large, ornate gold necklace covered the inside curves of her breasts but left the outer halves and her entire tan stomach exposed, and I could see a hint of red panties under a skirt made of gold scales barely long enough to cover her ass. Her long, lean body was stretched out on the pillow, and she watched us walk in with absolutely no interest on her beautiful face.
“Lord Evan, I presume.” The queen had a slight lilt to her voice that reminded me of an Irish accent back on Earth.
“That’s me,” I confirmed. “River didn’t exactly tell us your name, so--”
“You may call me Mona, or Your Highness.” She smirked.
“Okay, Mona, I’m Lord Evan,” I replied before I gestured toward my women. “This is my fiancée, Lady Alyona, and Lady Aaliyah of Tikal.”
Both the women dropped into a slight curtsy toward the queen.
“I know who the Divine Maiden is, Lord Evan.” Mona rolled her jade eyes. “Why did you bring the lion?”
“King Rodion sent us out of concern for the cities in Rahma,” Alyona explained carefully. “Our hope is to heal our people before they start a civil war, so we can fight against the Breach together.”
“The Breach?” Mona echoed and sat up with a confused expression. “It’s still open?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “You didn’t know?”
“We are a bit, ah, out of touch with the outside world,” Mona said as she toyed with the scales of her skirt. “Continue.”
I wondered what the centaur queen meant by that, but I pushed away the question for now.
“Basically, we’re rebuilding or fixing everything so we’re stronger as a country,” I explained. “We’ve already been successful in Tikal, which is why Aaliyah is here. She can attest to how we keep our word and take care of our people.”
“Your people?” Mona raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were from Hatra.”
“We are,” I agreed. “But my bride-to-be is the sole successor to the throne, which means we will eventually rule Rahma together. So, we consider all of its people to be our people.”
“Well, that’s all nice, but why should we care?” Mona laughed as she leaned back on her pillow.
“Because it’s better to live in peace,” Aaliyah answered as she stepped forward. “Lord Evan and Lady Alyona saved Tikal from self-destruction.”
“If your city needed some dragon and his priestess to come save it, it probably wasn’t stable to begin with,” Mona told the lioness matter-of-factly.
Aaliyah’s growl rumbled in her chest, and her orange eyes narrowed into slits.
“So, you have absolutely nothing going wrong here?” I asked as I stepped in front of the lioness to give her a moment. “We’ve set up water systems, killed poisoned animals, and cured a cursed river. There’s nothing we can’t handle.”
“Nothing?” Mona repeated, and she finally looked interested.
“Not a thing,” I assured her.
“If that’s true, you can go find whatever has been taking my people,” Mona sighed and pointed out the window to the city. “Every couple of nights, someone goes missing without a trace. The gates are locked every night, and my people have started locking their doors, but whatever is taking them has no trouble getting in and stealing them from their beds.”
I glanced at Alyona, and she nodded.
It looked like we had ourselves a new mission.
“Okay,” I agreed. “We’ll start our investigation at first light, but we need to eat and rest for the evening.”
Mona looked surprised, but she rose from her pillow and glided to her desk by the window. Then she pulled open a drawer, removed a rolled-up piece of paper, and spread it out over the desk.
I walked over to see what she was doing and realized the paper was a map. The forest near the city had been divided into sections, and several of the sections had large X’s drawn through them. Apparently, the centaurs had been working in grids to search for whatever was kidnapping people, which was exactly what I would have done.
“We didn’t find anything in these areas, but we’ve only searched about a third of the forest so far,” Mona explained as she pointed to each area on the map. “How long do you think it will take you?”
“It depends on what we find,” I countered. “If it’s magical and requires a large spell, it could be a couple days. If it’s a creature we can hunt and kill, it would be a few hours.”
“I have no idea what it is,” Mona admitted, and her beautiful face creased with a frown.
Suddenly, the door clanged open again, and two young boys in human form ran into the room toward the queen. The kids looked to be about eight and three years old. The older boy’s brown hair matched the same shade of the queen’s, and the brown strands were plaited at the nape of his neck. He also had deep mahogany eyes that flashed with mischief as he rushed into the room.
The younger boy looked vastly different. He giggled as he waddled along behind the older child, and his green eyes looked almost neon next to his white-blonde hair. He still had the chubby face of a toddler, but he’d clearly begun growing into a more lean and athletic shape.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness!” An adult centaur, also in his human form, rushed in after them. “I told them you had visitors.”
“Mama!” the smaller boy cried and wrapped his arms around her leg.
“It’s okay, Cesar,” Mona addressed the worried, older centaur. “The boys were probably just curious.”
“Yeah, Mama.” The older son nodded and peeked over the desk at me. “We heard there was a dragon.”
“Yes, Archer, Lord Evan is a dragon,” Mona answered as she plucked the smaller child from her leg and held him on her hip. “Maybe he can show you later on, but right now, we’re discussing important business.”
“Oh.” Archer straightened his back and took on a serious face. “Leo and I can wait.”
“Please wait for me in the dining hall, and I’ll join you for dinner soon.” Mona ushered the boys back to Cesar.
The boys nodded seriously and followed the older male centaur out of the room.
“I apologize,” Mona sighed. “They are very curious children.”
“No need to apologize,” I chuckled. “Kids are great.”
The boys had reminded me of Ilya and Ilyushina, the Asuran children I’d taken under my wing back in Hatra after their village had been destroyed. Now that I thought about it, I needed to send them another messenger dragon when I had some free time.
“You have children?” Mona asked as she blinked curiously.
“Not yet.” I grinned. “I have an egg, and I have a couple kids in Hatra who we rescued, but none of our own yet.”
“Well, you may not be too bad, Lord Evan.” Mona returned my smile.
“Can I ask you something, Your Highness?” A
lyona questioned, and she looked confused.
“Yes,” Mona said as she cocked her head to the side.
“Where are all the women in your city?” Alyona asked.
I’d wondered the same thing, since we still had yet to see any females other than the queen, even once we entered the castle. I thought we’d at least see one or two working for the queen, but there were none.
“Right here,” Mona answered with a furrowed brow.
“In the castle?” I questioned.
“No.” The queen looked more confused than we did. “Are you not familiar with a centaur tribe?”
“I’m not,” I admitted. “This is my first time seeing centaurs in person.”
“Oh.” Mona twirled her chestnut ponytail around her finger. “Well, basically, there is only one female centaur in a tribe. She rules the tribe as soon as she is of age. During her rule, she mates with whomever she desires from the tribe until she bears a daughter. Then the child is raised to learn the ways of being the queen, so she can take over the tribe.”
My eyes widened as she explained their culture. Only one female with all these males? And she just fucked a bunch of guys until one of them gave her a daughter? I imagined a line of centaurs out the door, ready to ravish her beautiful body on her golden bed, or maybe even on that big red pillow. I knew I’d personally like to rip off her gold clothes and devour the queen in either of those places.
I felt my blood rush south as I pictured the rest of her naked body writhing underneath mine while I pumped my cock deep inside her. Afterward, she would be my woman, and she would take no other man. It was the dragon way. I would make every beautiful woman mine. And mine alone.
“And so far, you’ve only had sons?” Alyona’s question cut my daydream short.
“Yes,” Mona confirmed, “but there’s plenty of time. Centaurs generally live at least two hundred years, and I’m only eighty-two.”
“Fascinating,” Alyona breathed, and her amethyst eyes were wide.
“You really don’t know much about our kind, then?” Mona directed the question at me.
“Nope.” I shook my head. “The king’s campaign is a big learning experience for me.”
