by Clayton Wood
“That’d be downright rude.”
“So thoughtful,” Sukri mused, leaning in and kissing him again. She tightened her grip a little, moving faster.
“Just the kinda guy I am.”
“Shut up,” she ordered. He obliged, resting his head back and closing his eyes, feeling her work on him. Staying at that same pace, up and down, taking her time. No rushing, no hint of impatience. Then she switched things up, gripping him close to the top and rubbing her thumb in small circles near the head. He gasped at the unexpected change; it had its intended effect, bringing him quickly toward the inevitable conclusion.
Then she slowed, and stopped, holding him there.
“Vicious,” he murmured.
“Thought I told you to shut up,” she shot back, leaning in and biting his earlobe with one of her canines. She did it gently, just enough to hurt a little. Then she continued, circling with her thumb again. At the same time, she slid down, kissing his neck, then his chest, then his belly. His hips bucked involuntarily, and he bit back a moan, sweat beading up on his forehead. He was close now…very close. Hunter tensed up, holding back.
Then he felt warm wetness engulf him, and there was no holding back anymore.
He groaned, the end coming far more quickly than he’d expected, peaking within seconds. Hunter tried to warn her, but she ignored him, her pace unchanging. He cried out, wave after wave of pleasure overtaking him, until there was nothing left.
After a long moment, she released him, giving him a lopsided grin.
“Feeling relaxed?” she inquired.
He nodded mutely, wiping sweat from his eyes.
“All right baby,” Sukri declared, standing up and turning away from him. “Time to go to work.”
He watched as she got dressed, pulling on her armor. She turned to face him then, raising an eyebrow.
“You gonna get dressed?” she inquired.
“Uh, yeah,” Hunter mumbled, getting up and doing just that. He retrieved his sword and bow, and the oversized quiver Amado had made for him after Hunter had complained about running out of arrows during the siege on Tykus. Then he followed Sukri out of the cabin, stepping out into the morning sun. The air was sweet with the fragrance of flowers, the sky utterly clear. “Good day for flying,” he noted.
“Hey kids,” a voice greeted. They turned, seeing Vi walking toward the cabin. Hunter frowned.
“What’re you doing here?” he asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be with the army?”
“I’ll catch up,” Vi answered.
“And how are you going to do that?” Hunter inquired. The Ironclad, being nocturnal, had most assuredly traveled all night long, and would be miles and miles ahead.
“I got lots of stamina, kiddo,” Vi reminded him. “And after drinking your brother’s goo, I can basically run nonstop. You guys ready?”
“Yep,” Hunter and Sukri replied in unison.
“Good. Take care of yourself Hunter,” Vi instructed, leaning in to give him a quick hug.
“You too Vi,” Hunter replied. He smiled. “Love you.”
“Love you too kiddo,” Vi replied with a grin, tousling his hair. “Don’t forget your helmet. We’re all gonna need to wear one if we want to resist Zagamar’s will.”
“Don’t I get a hug?” Sukri inquired. Vi obliged, embracing Sukri…and grabbing her butt with one hand. “Whoa,” Sukri exclaimed. “Just gonna help yourself to my ass I see.”
“Think I’m gonna miss that most of all,” Vi replied with a wink. “All right, get outta here.”
“See you soon,” Hunter said. He went back to the cabin, retrieving his helmet, and the harness to hold Sukri while he flew. Attaching Sukri to himself, he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready.”
He unfurled his wings, then leapt into the air, flying upward. He spotted Vi below; she waved at them.
“Fly fairy, fly!” she cried.
“Asshole,” Hunter grumbled.
Within moments, they were soaring high above the forest, gaining altitude steadily, until they were several hundred feet in the air.
“Damn, but I will never get used to this!” Sukri exclaimed.
“Pretty cool huh?” Hunter asked.
“Turns out my boyfriend is pretty awesome,” she agreed.
Hunter glanced at the sun, turning north. He relaxed into a glide then, feeling for favorable air currents. Warm, rising air filled his wings, and he used it, gaining more altitude as he went.
“You getting used to this yet?” Sukri shouted over the howling of the wind.
“Little bit.”
Minutes passed, then hours, the landscape flying by. He gazed at the scenery, remembering how he’d taken days to journey from Vi’s place to Lady Camilla’s mansion in the past. A trip that he could accomplish in hours now, without fear of absorbing foreign wills. In the air, nothing could hurt him. He was safe.
Free.
Eventually he spotted dark shapes moving through the trees far below. At first he thought they were Svartálfar.
“There they are,” Sukri declared, pointing downward. “Our boys!”
It was the Ironclad. A massive army advancing south. Sukri’s eyesight was clearly better than his.
“Bringing us down,” Hunter notified. He descended gradually, aiming toward a clearing a few miles ahead. A short while later, they landed, and Hunter unbuckled Sukri from the harness.
“All right Hunter,” she stated. “I’ll join up with your brother. You go find us something to kill.”
“Yes ma’am,” he replied. She leaned in to kiss him, then gazed at him for a long moment. “What?” he asked.
“Would it be too soon to say ‘I love you?’” she inquired.
“Little bit,” Hunter replied with a smirk. “Kinda makes you seem clingy.”
“Well I might not get another chance,” she retorted, putting her hands on her hips. Hunter grinned, pulling her in and kissing her again.
“I love you too,” he murmured.
“Never said I loved you,” she pointed out. “I just asked if it’d be too soon.”
“Wow. You know, I’m starting to think you’re a terrible person.”
“And you love it,” she retorted, her eyes twinkling.
“Kinda, yeah.”
“Well I love you too, Hunter,” she confessed, kissing him again. “Now love me and leave me.”
“As you wish,” he replied.
Chapter 38
Zac paced.
His tent, situated a few hundred yards away from his crypt at the base of the mountain, felt like a cage. A prison cell. He paced within it, waiting for General Roden to finish speaking. The words came out with agonizing slowness. He could practically make out each vibration in the man’s vocal chords if he concentrated hard enough.
With effort, he could slow time even more than usual, but there was nothing he could do to speed it up. To make it normal again.
He grit his teeth, knowing everything Roden was going to say long before the man finished saying it. Whereas he’d once enjoyed the man’s company, now he found it maddening. They were all maddening, the humans. Ponderously slow.
Zac realized that Roden was almost done speaking, and stopped pacing, putting a hand to his belly. The hunger was there, of course. It was always there. No matter how much he ate, it remained. Weaker at times, agonizing at others.
It was irritating.
“I don’t care,” Zac snapped, not even bothering to slow down his words for the man. “We march on Caeruleus in the morning!”
Caeruleus, the ancient kingdom to the north, by the sea. Home of those who’d called themselves Romans long ago. The most powerful kingdom in the known world, save for of course the Kingdom of the Deep.
“B…u…t…” Roden droned.
“I’ll take them on myself if I have to,” Zac interrupted, resuming his pacing. “The whole damn kingdom!”
He watched as Roden processed thi
s, watched as the gears turned. The man would complain that their army was too small. The kingdom was too well-fortified. Blah blah blah. And it would take minutes for the moron to get it all out.
Roden had no idea what Zac was capable of now.
Zac suppressed his anger, grabbing a hunk of bread from the table and chewing on it. The hunger was making him irritable. Roden didn’t deserve his scorn. The humans couldn’t help being what they were.
Slow. Inferior.
I need to make them better, he realized.
Sure enough, Roden began arguing that their army was too small and that the kingdom was too well-fortified. Zac tolerated this, waiting as patiently as he could for the man to finish. Then he walked up to Roden, taking care to do so slowly, so as not to alarm the man. He put a hand on Roden’s shoulder.
A spark of fear appeared in Roden’s eyes, his throat bobbing as he swallowed nervously.
He’s afraid of me, Zac realized. Afraid of becoming what I’ve become.
“I appreciate your concerns,” he told his old friend, speaking slowly. “But you have to trust me, old friend.”
Roden’s shoulders sagged ever-so-slowly, and the man nodded.
The meeting ended, and Roden left the tent, taking what seemed like minutes to do so. Zac watched him leave, then waited a while, gorging himself on the food on the table. When he was as sated as he was capable of being, he stepped out of the tent and into the sunlight.
Soldiers and workers as far as the eye could see, all moving with that awful slowness. The whole world doing so.
He tried to remember when this had been wondrous for him. When he’d marveled at it.
Now Zac saw it for what it truly was. A gift and a curse, to sense time differently than his fellows. But he had a plan now. He would do as he had always done, offering humanity the chance to experience a sliver of his will. He would bring them into his perspective. This perspective. They would see the world as he did now, and he would be able to talk with them as he talked. Move with them as he moved. And then he wouldn’t feel like he did now.
Alone.
Humanity, he knew now, was flawed. Weak and simple-minded. Slow and superstitious. Vain and petty. He would change that.
He would make them better.
* * *
The creature awoke, rolling onto all fours. It took only a moment for it to remember where it was, in a small burrow it’d dug in the forest floor. It emerged into the morning sunlight, shaking the dust off of it.
All around it, its fellow creatures did the same, stepping out of their own burrows. Disciples of the Dark One, thousands of them. Black brethren amidst the trees for as far as the eye could see.
No one had to tell them to march. No orders needed to be given. They all shared the mind of the Dark One. His plan was theirs.
And so the creature started northward with its fellow creatures, weaving through the trees. Marching as the Dark One had long ago, north toward the kingdom of Caeruleus. A kingdom now known as Tykus.
Millennia had passed, yet humanity had not changed. One kingdom had been replaced with another.
And just as Zagamar had laid siege to Caeruleus, deposing its king and anointing himself monarch, so too would they see to the fall of Tykus. Zagamar would rule, and with his wisdom, humanity would evolve. They would cast off the shackles of their humanity and become something more.
The Ascension had begun.
Chapter 39
The endless thump, thump of thousands of armored feet marching through the dense foliage of the Fringe reached Dominus’s ears as he straddled his horse, his army of Ironclad having nearly reached their destination. A few more kilometers north and they’d reach the Deadlands. His new army had proven themselves incredibly resilient, marching without complaint or rest for hours on end. Long after a human army would’ve collapsed, they forged onward.
He glanced at Tykus, riding a horse beside him, then beyond at the sea of black-armored beasts at his command. Xerxes marched ahead of them, a full head and shoulders taller than any of them, his blue mane and tail making him impossible to miss.
A shadow passed by overhead.
At first glance it appeared to be a large bird, but then Dominus saw that it was a man with wings, carrying a woman.
“Everything going as planned,” Tykus noted, watching as Hunter descended toward a clearing a half-kilometer ahead.
“So far,” Dominus replied. Tykus chuckled.
“A Duke of Wexford is never satisfied,” he mused.
“That’s what makes me effective.”
“But of course,” Tykus agreed. “That’s why I gave your progenitor the Duchy.”
They rode for a while, and then Dominus glanced at the former king.
“What does it feel like, to not be king anymore?” he inquired.
“You mean to go from being a king to a lowly soldier?” Tykus asked. Dominus nodded. “Oh, it’s an adjustment,” he admitted. “A relief to discard the responsibilities of the throne, but difficult to come to terms with not mattering so much.” He smiled. “And how do you feel?”
“Similar,” Dominus confessed.
“The problem with having is that we feel like we’ve lost something when it’s gone,” Tykus stated. “Even if we never wanted it in the first place.”
Dominus frowned.
“You never wanted to be king?” he asked. Tykus shrugged.
“Not really,” he admitted. “If I’d had my way, I would’ve gladly spent my years exploring the land and writing books. Kingship was thrust upon me…and I just so happened to have a talent for it.”
“That you did.”
They reached the clearing, and found Hunter and Sukri there. Hunter waved at them, then flew off toward the Kingdom, leaving Sukri standing there in the long grass. Dominus gazed at her, both repelled and intrigued. A human who’d chosen – voluntarily! – to become a cat. To so visibly discard her humanity.
It was unthinkable.
“Hey boss,” she greeted, waving at Dominus. “Hey king.” Xerxes stomped up to her, dwarfing her by well over a meter.
“ON…BACK,” he growled.
“I ain’t saying no to a piggyback ride,” she replied with a grin. She leapt up onto his back – a distance of nearly three meters – with ease. “Thank goodness your mane isn’t too stiff,” she stated, looking down between her legs. “Otherwise this would end up being a noisy ride.”
Xerxes chuckled.
“NO…TELL…HUNTER.”
“You got it big guy,” Sukri agreed.
Dominus realized Tykus was watching him watch the two, and turned to the former king. Tykus’s eyes were twinkling.
“Would you ever have imagined this?” he inquired, gesturing all around him. “Commander of the legions of Ironclad you once tried to destroy? The descendants of the very citizens who lived in the bustling city that is now the Deadlands?”
“Never,” Dominus replied.
“Life is strange, isn’t it?” Tykus mused. “I suppose that’s why I never tire of it.”
They rode in silence then, weaving through the trees, the King’s Road visible ahead and to the right. After a few more kilometers, Dominus spotted a hint of yellow dirt in the distance…the telltale sign of the Deadlands.
“What’s that?” he heard Sukri ask. She was looking up, pointing at another shadow flying in the sky. It took Dominus a moment to realize that it wasn’t a bird…or Hunter. It was a winged horse, two riders on its back. It overshot them, then circled around, descending to land in the Deadlands ahead.
Dominus kicked his horse’s flank, breaking into a gallop. There was a narrow dirt path through the trees, and he followed it, eventually arriving at the end of the tree line. The winged mount was ahead, a man and a woman dismounting from it. It was Lady Camilla, he realized, and her bodyguard. Dominus stopped before them, nodding at Camilla.
“Dominus,” she greeted.
“Camilla,” he replied. “Why are you here?”
“The S
vartálfar destroyed my mansion,” she answered. “Even my horned serpent was no match for them.”
Dominus grimaced.
“Your artifacts?” he inquired. She – and her family – had undoubtedly collected a treasure-trove of powerful artifacts and Ossae.
“I saved the most valuable ones,” she replied. “And I doubt they’ll breach my underground stores. I also have a great deal kept in vaults in the Kingdom of the Deep.”
Tykus rode up to them from behind, the Ironclad army close behind…and Xerxes and Sukri.
“Hey bitch,” Sukri called out, glaring at Camilla. She turned her gaze to Dio. “Asshole.” She leapt from Xerxes’ back, striding toward them. “Not so tough now, huh Dio?”
“Sukri?” Camilla inquired, eyeing the girl. “You chose well.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Calm down,” Dominus ordered. “Whatever your previous relationship, we’re allies now.”
“Speak for yourself,” Sukri retorted. “Camilla’s lapdog tried to kill Hunter and Xerxes.” She smirked. “How’d it feel getting your ass beat, Dio?”
Dio did not answer.
“The Svartálfar have greater numbers than I suspected,” Camilla told Dominus, ignoring the girl. “Zagamar must have anticipated our aerial surveillance. He may be hiding his true numbers underground.”
“If so, they’ll need a food supply chain,” Dominus reasoned. “There isn’t enough vegetation underground to feed a Svartálfar army. We should look for these supply chains.”
“I’ll tell the Kingdom of the Deep as soon as I get a chance,” Camilla replied sarcastically.
“So we may be facing larger numbers here than we expected,” Tykus interjected. “And they have the power to heal from terrible wounds.”
“We need to use fire,” Dominus said.
Footsteps approached, and Dominus saw a woman approaching them. A woman with that unforgettable brown leather uniform, the face of a skull embedded in her chest. She mock-saluted as she approached.
“Hey boss,” she greeted. “Hey former boss,” she added, nodding at Tykus. She passed by Sukri, making her way to Camilla and Dio. “Well well well,” she proclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. “Look who the cat dragged in.”
