The Edge of Harmony: The Guardian Maidens Book 2

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  I said, “I think that I do. I feel it. A connection.”

  She said, “No, I meant, do you make love to me right this minute, or do we have to wait.”

  She sat on the bed, put her feet in the air, and pulled at her boots. This position made it plain that her pants were indeed cut out in the middle and I could have easily made love to her even if she didn’t remove them. It seemed like a splendid idea. Not right now, but some other day. Right now, as I gazed between her legs and felt the heat from her soul, even from a few feet away, I wanted to feel her against my skin again right now.

  She said, “Ronin, get undressed. We don’t have much time. My Lord, we can talk later, we can talk during sex if you want to, but please, if you are going to love me, take off your clothes!”

  She continued to struggle to get her boots, and then her pants, off, and I shook myself out of my paralysis and started to quickly take off my own clothes, but I kept my eyes on Harmony the whole time. She was so small, just five feet tall, and very slim. But very shapely nonetheless. She wasn’t at all skinny, just very fit and trim and petite. Her hips flared beautifully, and her breasts were marvels. They were large and round, and topped with very large nipples the size of my thumb nail at least. Her areola were small, just slightly larger than the nipples themselves, and the pink color contrasted beautifully with her white skin. She was already erect, and when I glanced down at her sex again, now that her pants were off and she was more aroused, I saw a truly amazing sight. Harmony’s pussy lips, which had been closed and tight a moment before, were now visibly moist and open. The inner lips puckered like a mouth. As I watched, I saw them actually move and twitch, as if blowing a kiss to their lover.

  Harmony was lying sideways across her bed, with her hips at the edge. She held out her arms to reach for me. I let myself be drawn to her embrace, and as if shot from a bow by an expert marksman, as I leaned into her arms, my shaft hit the bullseye of her target and pierced her slick tunnel.

  As I first touched her, before I was aware that I was being enveloped in her sex, she said urgently, “There’s no barrier! Don’t stop! Come to me!” and I slid all the way to the bottom in one slow, but perfectly smooth movement.

  It was a little slow because, even though I didn’t find her hymen in the way, and she was wetter than I would have imagined, she was very tight. When I did hit the bottom of her vagina, I was still at least an inch from being all the way inside, but I never paused, and I pressed in that final inch, regardless.

  Harmony moaned in pleasure. She gave no hint that she was in any pain, and even as I pressed against the last bit at the end, she encouraged me saying, “Yes. Deeper. Love me.”

  She said, “Oh, we have so little time. Just minutes before we need to dress. Wait.”

  I felt her grip my penis and she arched backward and bounced her hips beneath me in sudden climax.

  She said, “My Lord, how lovely. And how brief. Ronin, there was no hymen because it was broken by exercise, not by any man before you. And there was no pain for me because of my training in Lucille’s arts. And Master, I have been given the mating potion by Val already.”

  Before I knew what was happening, she grabbed my head and dragged me to her breast. I put my lips on her wonderful nipple and instinctively sucked it. A wave of arousal hit me, crashing against both my mind and body as Harmony gushed forth in orgasm. And gushed she did. I felt a surge of wetness around my post and seemingly against the hair covering my groin. But in the next instant, it was as if a wave had crashed against the shore and was now drawing itself back to the sea, and my penis with it. I was pulled deep and hard by the muscles of her pussy, and as I continued to pull at her nipple with my mouth, and she exploded in another climax. My own orgasm surged and flooded her body with my semen in the same moment. I couldn’t help myself as I raised my head and grabbed her hips and thrust hard in and out of her, pounding against her fleshy mound over and over until my passion subsided and I got control of myself. When I had stopped thrusting, I froze in place, buried balls deep in Harmony’s pussy, shaking with the aftershocks of my release. Harmony had a final shudder and groaned sensuously and gripped my arms hard with her fingers.

  She looked up at me and said, “Next time, we will take more time. And next time, you will be more sure of my place with you. Right now, I want you to lie on your back here and let me ride you from above. And then to get on my knees and have you ride me from behind. I want to stoke you with my hand and then with my lips and then between the globes of my breasts. I want to feel what it’s like to have your lips kiss my delicate flower petals and for us to taste each other’s nectars. But we don’t have time. Let me clean you up quickly,”

  She pushed me off of her, and quickly took me in her moth and gave me a very brief sucking and then stood up. I was still in a dazed state, but Harmony was more sensible. I watched stupidly and she grabbed the sheet of her bed and rubbed between her legs, drying her legs briefly. I saw that there was a large wet spot at the edge of the bed were we had been. I thought that I had only imagined it, but apparently Harmony’s gushing was very much real. I think she noticed a look on my face and as she finished mopping up.

  She said, “Some girls have that ability. We squirt our juices very vigorously when our Master makes us erupt in pleasure. Lucille calls it ‘the voluptuous volcano’.”

  I said, “I like it.”

  Harmony laughed and said, “And that inability to form a sentence is call ‘low tide’. But, lover, get dressed. They will be here in just a minute.”

  I weakly reached for my shirt and tried clumsily to make it fit me. I said, “What about the puddle? We have to clean up.”

  She smiled and said, “Lucille will do it for us. There’s no shame in the evidence that we had a good time. She’ll be happy for us. Do you think that you can get your pants on? Do you remember how they go?”

  I did manage to get my pants on. And I fastened my belt. And I was able to put on my boots, and more or less adjust myself. When I was fully dressed, Harmony grinned and re-buttoned my shirt correctly where I had missed a button in my post-sexual stupor.

  Harmony said, “Oh Ronin, I want so badly to tease you to another round right now. To show you my body again. To rub up against you and tell you what we could do. But I won’t. It isn’t time for that. But I want to. Desperately. Let’s go down and be ready. They will be here very soon. Oh, and I wish that we could lie in each other’s arms and talk about the past and the future and what life will be like and then get up and train for fighting and you could teach me what you know and we would swim with Dawn and Val and sleep in a tangle of loving. But we don’t have time.”

  She led me back down the stairs, to the front room. We had our clothes and our weapons, and that was all we needed, so we were ready to leave as soon as the others returned.

  I said, “Harmony, you killed nine kobolds by yourself today.”

  She corrected me and said, “Actually, it was fourteen. Nine when you took Delilah to the orchard, but five before that when you rescued her.”

  I was surprised and she said, “Yeah. When you came to the camp and killed the first ones, I killed five as they tried to join the others against you.”

  I said, “You did? Oh. So you were there?”

  She said, “I have been there many times, gathering information and waiting for you to come. I considered rescuing Delilah myself, but I knew that it was better in the long run to wait and have it happen as it was supposed to. And I couldn’t kill them all at the same time by myself, so I just watched and waited. Do you want to know what I learned?”

  I said, “Of course. But wait. My question was, where did you learn to fight and to use your knives, and stealth and invisibility?”

  Harmony sat in a chair and I sat beside her and she said, “Before my parents were lost, we visited my father’s parents for a month. My grandparents, my grandfather and four grandmothers, taught me every day. Each one had a different skill. It was a long time ago and I only remembe
red part of it, but I remembered more after you taught me better ways again. I remember how they told me that someday, a war would come and that I needed to be able to handle myself in a fight to protect those that I loved. When the troubles started a few weeks ago, I started practicing. I knew that I couldn’t do it by myself, but I knew that I would be part of it when you got here.”

  I said, “Did you know that I would come?”

  She smiled and said, “Of course. Lucy told me. She said that we didn’t know just when, but that you would come and that we would be with you and that there would be another girl too. Where did Dawn come from? It seems like she is as new to you as Val is. And Lucy said that she was sick.”

  I said, “I’ll let her tell you about that later. Are we ready to go? Do you need anything else?”

  She jumped up and said, “Yes! We should take scissors and needles and thread for modifying clothes and improvising armor. I’ll be right back,” and she ran upstairs for a minute.

  Chapter 2 - Starting a War

  When she returned, the others were just coming through the door.

  We divided what we needed into two small packs. We would take as little as possible with us, but rely on Gerald to deliver more to us by way of the rat tunnels. He had two more bows, another supply of arrows, and two quickly shaped darts like I had described as prototypes. I approved the rough designs and he said that more would be ready by morning. He had taken a moment to have a small council meeting with the village and everyone agreed that they would work day and night if necessary to do what was required. We took a little food and some bandages and potions, but everything else would be taken to the tunnels for us. Except for our weapons, we were traveling light. Even our sleeping cloaks would be picked up later.

  Our goodbyes were jovial, not tearful. There was no hint of worry or fear. Just good wishes and assurances that we were not alone in this. And then we were on the street and headed toward the meadows.

  I was still unsure of what we would actually face out there. I waited until we were outside the village before I started talking about it, but once we were out of hearing of the villagers, I wanted to see if Harmony had any helpful information.

  As we headed into the open meadows, I said, “Girls, Harmony has been to the orchards several times gathering information that might help us. She says that she was there this morning when we first encountered the kobolds, and that she killed five that we didn’t know about. Harmony, what else can you tell us?”

  Harmony said, “Well, first, the camp that you attacked seems to be the only one that they have. They haven’t spread far. The entrance to their cave is in the rocks, about fifty yards behind the camp site. They seem to come out for food, just like you guessed. About fifteen to twenty at a time. They wait for the rats, and three of them at a time will kill one and then take it to the cave. The ones at the camp keep one of the rats each day for themselves. For every three rats killed, I would say that one of the kobolds is killed or seriously injured. They aren’t actually very fierce in small numbers. They seem to prefer to attack as a group, and even push others in front of them when in danger. There seemed to be a feeling that they didn’t need to run faster than a rat, only faster than their companions.”

  I said, “If there are only fifteen or twenty at a time, why were there forty this afternoon?”

  She said, “I don’t know.”

  I said, “Maybe because they discovered that the camp had all been killed and they sent a party to find out how.”

  Harmony said, “Or maybe one of them escaped and reported to the others.”

  I said, “Maybe. Do you have any idea how many are in the cave?”

  She said, “No.”

  I said, “How many rats a day do you think that they took to the cave?”

  She thought for a moment and then said, “I would guess ten. That’s a good thought. If we know how much food they take, we can get an idea of how many they feed.”

  I said, “Did you see them stop killing rats after a certain amount? Or did they seem to keep hunting late if not as many were taken?”

  She said, “I’m not sure. My guess is ten rats a day. And they left one for the fifteen at the camp. And it was eaten by morning.”

  I said, “So, they had food every day for about a hundred and fifty in the cave. From rats, at least. They may have other food as well. But we can guess that there is no less than a hundred and fifty at the very least. We would know more if we could see how many they would have killed tomorrow. There are fifty less than there were. If they took fewer rats, we would know that they had less need for food. But there are no more rats for them to kill, so that path is closed to us.”

  Dawn said “Ronin, if there are only a hundred and fifty, and we killed fifty already, is it such a problem? Can we do what we did today and wipe them out quickly?”

  I said, “I don’t think that we can. Today, we surprised them. Twice. And neither time was Delilah really giving orders. The first time, she wasn’t in control of them, and the second time, all she was able to command them to do was to kill us all. There was no plan. I don’t know how soon she will have a plan, but we need to assume that it won’t be so easy from now on.”

  Harmony said, “Walking across the meadow like this, they will know that we are coming.”

  I said, “I think that I want them to. They will see that we are coming to them and report it to Delilah. If they are hungry, or still have orders to kill us on sight, they will run out to meet us and we will deal with them as they come. They will also know that there are only four of us and that all of us are her most hated enemies. If she deals with us first, there is no one to keep her from invading the village and the farm after we are gone. I don’t think that she has learned to fear us yet, and the more she hates us, but doesn’t fear us, the safer the village and the farm will be. If she thought that we hid at home, she would most likely bring the war to us. If we bring war to her, she may focus on the war and leave the village and farm as treasures to be plundered at her leisure. That’s my thinking for now.”

  We walked on in silence for a little bit, and then I said, “Girls, this isn’t going to be easy, but if the fight stays in the orchards, it won’t be as bad as if it spreads to the point where the kobolds come out all at once. If twenty attack the farm when the workmen are away, and another hundred attack the village at the same time, they would win very quickly. Then all the four of us could do would be to exact a slow revenge over the weeks to come. I am determined that not one of our family or friends should die in this.”

  Dawn said, “Except for Delilah.”

  I said, “So far, Delilah has tried to have us killed, but she hasn’t succeeded. She has cursed us, but her actual crimes aren’t really so bad. Not yet. If she were able to find her way to repentance, she could live. However, if her minions do kill more innocent people, now that she is giving orders, then she will be more guilty of their murder than the kobolds themselves. If a child, or a woman, and a man who is not fighting dies and his wife becomes a widow, or his child becomes fatherless, then she is responsible and no amount of pleading will save her. But if she can be saved, I would welcome it. But not through deception. If she tries to save herself by lying, then it won’t save her.”

  We were about a hundred feet from the tree line now, and we stopped. I asked Harmony if she could point out the spot where the cave mouth was, if it was visible from here. She pointed into the hills, at a rocky outcropping beyond the orchard, about seventy feet up the hill. As we peered carefully at the spot, apparently we were spotted in return. We watched as four or five kobolds climbed into view on the side of the hill and began telling and roaring and jumping about to attract our attention.

  I said quietly, “Sit down. Here on the grass.”

  We all sat down, still facing the orchard, and I leaned back on my elbows and waited. The noise from the cave increased. It seemed to enrage the kobolds that we didn’t immediately either run to attack them or run in the other direction. We
sat for a while and saw two or three of the things run down the hills into the trees.

  Val said, “What are we doing.”

  I said, “We’re winning. Here, listen. This is a very good sign. Here’s why. This is a trap.”

  Harmony said, “There are ten that I have seen so far, hiding in the trees. Not directly in front of us, but to each side of our path. If we run to the trees, they ambush us.”

  Dawn said, “You can see them?”

  Harmony said, “Dawn, you are part elf. Lucy said that she had talked to you. Your accuracy with your bow is enhanced by the fact that you see more than others. I see more still. And because we see so well, time slows down for us.”

  Dawn said, “You’re right! It does seem to slow down when we are in a battle.”

  I said, “So, Delilah sets a trap for us. They are taunting us to draw us in. It’s a good thing. It’s a bad plan, but it’s good for us. A better plan would be to have forty kobolds surround us and come from every side so that we couldn’t protect each other as much as we can if they all come from one place. Her trap would be a wonderful plan if we were stupid. If we were rats or kobolds, or even ogres or bandits, it might work. Have us focus on opponents too far away, rush in to the trees, and be set upon from behind when we were past them. Those that we see running down the hill are supposed to entice us to go meet them.”

  Val said, “And what does all of that mean for us?”

  I said, “It means that Delilah has not sent kobolds to the farm or the village yet. It means that when we have killed the ones in the trees now, all of the rest will be still in the cave, up on the hill where we can watch them. Even if a few escape us, there won’t be enough to attack on their own. If one or two or three are left alone in the trees, I will bet that they will try to make it back to the cave in the dark, rather than stay out here where they are in danger. Three kobolds might attack a giant rat, but they won’t attack the four of us unless we give them no choice. Harmony, do you see ten of them?”