The whole event took about seven hours. It was the longest seven hours I'd ever experienced.
I was sitting on the floor when she spoke to me. "Den, are you there?"
"I'm here."
"It is finished."
I stood up and walked over to her. She was still lying in bed, her head on the pillow. Her eyes were open now.
"She's safe," Alara said. "She's home…on your world."
"Oh, that's good!"
I was really relived I hadn't humped Sydney to death. "That's a relief."
"You were really worried, weren't you?"
"Well, yes. I guess I was. I was there when she disappeared. I just didn't want to be responsible for something…horrible."
"You're not," Alara said. "You saved her. You rescued her, twice."
"I suppose I did, maybe not on purpose the second time though."
Alara reached for my hand, but I could see she was drained from the long night of prayer and communion, and whatever it took to gain the knowledge of Sydney's whereabouts. I closed most of the distance between our hands and took hold of hers.
"Thank you, Alara. I know that was hard, but I appreciate it. And I'm sure Monica will be happy to hear the good news." Just not the sex part being the only way home, at least not right now.
"You're welcome, Den. I did it not only for her, but for you. I'd do anything for you."
"Then do one more thing for me, would you?"
"What is it?"
"Get some rest now. I'm sure the others are still asleep. Why don't you do the same. We can talk to them later."
"Okay," she said. But a troubling look washed over her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"In my communion I discovered more than I set out to learn."
"What else?"
She looked away from me and shook her head. She was clearly upset.
"What else did you learn, Alara?"
"I caused more harm than I realized. I thought I could manage the summoning on my own. I had to."
"What do you mean, more harm?"
She looked into my eyes and I saw a tear fall from the corner of one of hers. "Sydney and Monica weren't the only ones."
"You mean others were transported here?"
"Yes."
"How many? Where?"
"I don't know. At least eleven or twelve. Maybe more. All women."
"Oh, shit. That's bad."
"Of course, it's bad. It's horrible." Tears began to stream down her cheeks.
I sat down beside her and leaned over to hold her. She reached up and embraced me as I did.
"It's going to be okay," I said. I wasn't convinced of the truth of what I was telling her, but I wanted to believe it, and I knew she needed to hear it. It was all I had at the moment. I knew she needed me to be there for her, and that much I could do. Despite the fact that I had no say in my being transported to Galderia to become the new Guardian for her and her people, I felt partly responsible for the plight of these others she told me about. I already knew I needed to find them, to save them.
After a few moments of silent comforting, I softly asked her again, "Where are they?"
"I can't say for sure." She pulled back from my embrace just enough to look up at me. "But they're in the realm of the Dark One."
Fuck.
Chapter 27
I slept beside Alara for a few hours, but thoughts of the other dozen or so women from Earth, now somewhere in Galderia, likely in peril or at least panicked and confused, kept me from sleeping straight through. I tried to guess who they were. In my mind, I ran through the faces—and bodies—of the college babes I could recall, the ones which caught my eye on at least one occasion, the ones I likely had been picturing the day it all happened. I didn't know most of their names. A few I did—girls from my classes, Allison, Rachel, Stephanie, Keira…and Ms. Thompson, my insanely hot English Lit professor.
I wrestled with the notion that I was partly responsible for their plight. And their beauty was at fault too. Ironic, I thought. Of course, none of us were really to blame, I realized. But I still felt responsible for them. The duty I felt I had to rescue them all made sleeping difficult.
A week ago all I worried about was paying rent and getting good grades. Now I have to rescue a dozen women and save the world!
I chuckled to ease the discomfort I felt when I realized I'd have to have sex with all of these women to return them to Earth. Sure, I was up for the sex. After all, they were hot. That's why I'd been daydreaming about them in the first place. And my arrangement with Sydney and Nithia—and throw Tara into the mix at some point, I was sure—might allow for such activities, if they knew what was at stake. But the discomfort I felt was with the fact that I wasn't prepared to force any of these other women into getting jiggy with me. I'd have to get all of them to want to do it. Talk about pressure. And I couldn't even tell them it was their ticket home. That'd be the same as forcing them, I thought. The whole thing made me feel like an ass, and I hadn't even done anything yet.
I shut my eyes again and tried to get the problem out of my head. Do they have sheep in Galderia? If not, what do they count when they're trying to go to sleep?
An image of crazy-looking pissed off deadly-looking sheep with jagged bloody fangs popped into my head. One-by-one, each of them hopped and floated over a white picket fence to land on the other side.
Oh, come on!
Thankfully counting monster sheep seemed to work the same as counting regular ones. I don't know how long it took—at least seventy of them—but I evidently fell asleep at some point.
I felt Alara nudging me in the arm. I opened my eyes and turned my head toward her. She had propped herself up on her pillow, so I got an eyeball full of boob. No complaint about that alarm clock.
I felt rested despite how little I'd slept.
"I've been thinking," she said.
"Yeah?"
"When we tell them about Sydney-"
"Monica will be happy to hear she's safe," I said.
"Yes," Alara said. "I'm sure she will. But we don't need to point out the energy you felt from being with her. You know? I don't think that's something they need to know."
"Yeah. I was thinking about that last night…and about the other women you said are out there, somewhere. It's the same with Monica. Maybe I could send her home now. Maybe I should. But telling her she has to have sex with me, holding something like that over her, or the others, that's…Talk about a pickup line."
Alara smiled then leaned over to kiss me on the forehead. "I know. Give Monica some time with us…with you. Maybe on her own…"
"Yes, at least right now. That's the best I can think of too. Maybe she'll put two and two together on her own and take the plunge."
"You're an impressive man," Alara said. "I doubt she'll be able to resist for long."
"Yeah?" I looked at her naked body on full display before me. "What about you?" I raised my eyebrows and few times and grinned.
She cocked her head to the side and scanned my body from chest to down below. "Oh, I'm not so easily swayed." She grinned. She moved over to the other side of the bed, slid off, and stood up. "We should go share the good news about Sydney."
"Well, damnit. You're right, of course."
Alara walked over to where she'd dropped her clothes and began putting them on. "I may know where one of the women might be, or at least where she was," Alara said.
I sat up and waited for her to continue, knowing whatever place she named would be where we would be going. Her words were about to hand me the next chapter in my fate.
"In my vision, I kept seeing a place, a tower in the middle of a town. I didn't 'see' any of the women there, but I felt at least one of them might be there."
"Did you recognize the place?"
She nodded her head. "It's a port town on the coast of the Sea of Ronak. Pertlass."
"Is it far?"
She nodded again. "Five days, if all goes well."
"If all go
es well?"
It's beyond the mountains. There's a series of valleys most of the way, but it's past where we faced…Saber-Kong? Is that what you called it?"
"Yeah."
"The sea provides some protection for our land, but that close there'll be more…" She looked dismayed.
"More shit trying to kill us?"
"Yes."
"Awesome." If she had any sense of sarcasm, she knew I meant the opposite of awesome. I laid it on thick.
A few minutes later we were knocking on the door to the slumber party room. Nithia answered. "Good morning, you two. How'd it go?"
She was dressed—savage bikini fashion, as usual. She stepped aside and Alara and I entered. Monica was standing near her bed, also already dressed—evidently in something she'd borrowed from Tara. The blouse and skirt were a little snug. Monica filled them out well, but Tara was clearly a little smaller than she was. Tara wasn't in the room. I could tell Monica had been waiting to hear the news from us.
"She's safe," I said. "Back on Earth, in Austin."
Monica let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness." She took a few breaths while looking down at the floor. Then she turned her eyes on me. "So, what about us?"
I knew she didn't mean us as a couple. She clearly meant, how the hell do we get home? I thought about the conversation Alara and I had. "We'll figure it out," I said, approaching her. Nithia stepped toward me as I got near her too. She extended her arm and I did the same, taking hold of her. She leaned on me. "At least we know it's possible," I said to Monica. "If we stick together, we'll figure out how to get you home." I felt guilty keeping the knowledge of my sex transporter ability from her. But I would have it ready for her whenever she chose to use it, albeit unknowingly. I almost told her the whole truth right then, but I glanced to Alara, who evidently knew what I was thinking. She slowly shook her head to signal for me to keep quiet about that, for now.
"I see you got new clothes," I said to Monica, changing the subject in an attempt to distract her from the fact she'd lost the companionship of her best friend. It was a pathetic ruse, but I felt the need to get us off topic, for her emotional sake…and for mine.
She glanced down at herself. "Yes. Tara." I was right about why they were a little snug. Tara's breasts and hips were far from disappointing, but Monica had a fuller figure.
I smiled and nodded my approval, trying to boost her mood with the implied compliment.
"Where is she, by the way?" Alara asked. "Tara."
Nithia lifted her head from my shoulder to answer. "She said something about helping Cormac with breakfast for the guests."
"That sounds good," I said. "I don't know about you ladies, but I'm starving."
The three of them agreed we should head downstairs and eat. I wanted to update Tara too. And knowing we were about to set out on an arduous journey to Pertlass, I knew I would be asking Cormac for help. I wondered if he'd leave his beloved inn to once again journey into trouble for a good cause.
Alara and I would soon share what she'd learned about the woman in Pertlass in need of help, but not for a little while. We wanted to let the news of Sydney's safe return home sink in first. We also privately agreed to leave out any mention of all the other women for the time being. One more rescue was enough to deal with. When the time was right, we'd tell the others the full scope of what she and I planned to accomplish. I had little doubt Nithia and Tara would go with us.
Tara was downstairs serving up food to a half dozen guests of the inn. She was happy to hear Sydney was safe back in Austin. Cormac floated in and out of the kitchen. He greeted us for a brief moment, but had little time to talk until we'd nearly finished eating. It was then that we told him what happened to Sydney, and then we told all of them about the other woman Alara had seen, or felt to be, in Pertlass, and of our intention to go there to rescue her.
"That's not a friendly town," Cormac said.
"Oh, no," Tara said. "Full of cutthroats and all kinds of dangerous men."
"And women," Cormac said, glancing at Tara, apparently making the remark as a show of respect for Tara's abilities, or something. I wasn't quite sure, but she took it in stride and agreed.
"So, you're staying here?" I asked. "I understand. You have a business to run, after all. I was hoping you both might come with us. But-"
Cormac looked at Tara. She nodded to him, seeming to read his mind. He turned back to me. "And let you have all the fun? Not a chance!"
Fun? I knew I could hold my own in a fight, having faced more in the last week than all my years before then, but Cormac and I clearly had a different idea about what constituted fun.
"Yeah. We're going with you," Tara said. "Someone needs to keep an eye on you." She winked at me. I knew there was little chance it went unnoticed by everyone at the table, but that was Tara. Evidently the other girls were used to her ways by now. I didn't hear a huff or see a daggered glance among them.
"Monica." I looked at her sympathetically. "I know you've been through a lot." I glanced at Cormac. "I'm sure Cormac will put you up here until we return. You'll be safe here."
He nodded.
"No," she said. "I'm going."
I was surprised by her answer, and so was everyone else at the table, by the looks on their faces. I gave her an inquisitive stare.
She addressed Cormac. "I appreciate your hospitality." She looked at everyone at the table. "You all have been very kind." She faced me. "You're the only person I know here." She glanced to the others again. "No offense to the rest of you."
Everyone nodded or gave a polite dismissive hand gesture.
"I want to go home," she said. "But until then, I'm staying with you."
"Okay, then," I said, slightly nodding to her. "We all go together then."
We took the next hour preparing. Cormac and Tara did whatever they needed to do to hand over the running of the inn while they were gone. The rest of us gathered our things.
Thinking about Monica going with us made me feel more guilty for not telling her the truth about what Alara and I suspected was the reason Sydney was transported back home. As we were preparing to leave on our journey, I recalled how Monica was ready to join Sydney in the afternoon romp with me back in my apartment, before all this shit started. She deserves to know now, not later. Especially before heading out on a trip which will likely end up being dangerous for all of us.
I resolved to tell Monica the truth before we left, and I shared my decision with Alara. After all, she would need to back up my story to Monica. Otherwise, it would seem like a pathetic attempt to get her into bed with me. Alara and I agreed we wouldn't be able to convince the other Earth women out there in Galderia—wherever they were—of the truth of my sex transporting ability, but Monica had seen it first hand.
We took Monica aside just after Nithia and Tara went down the hall.
"Monica," I said, blocking the doorway of her room before she stepped out. Alara had already gone into Monica's room. "We need to tell you something important."
She looked confused and concerned. I'm sure the intensity of my tone clued her in to how big a deal what I was about to say was.
"What is it?" she asked.
I glanced to Alara. She nodded to me.
"We think we know how Sydney was transported back home," I said.
Alara took a step closer to Monica. "We're actually pretty sure about it."
"What? Really?" Monica was taken aback and clearly keen to hear what we had to say.
I took a breath, bracing myself for what her reaction might be.
"Well?" she said.
"It's a long story," I said, "but the short version is…when I was brought here-"
"Brought here?" Monica interrupted, surprised by my choice of words.
"Yes," I said, glancing briefly at Alara. "Somehow what was meant for me caught you and Sydney up in the mix." I paused a beat expecting her to say something, but she stayed silent, waiting for me to go on. "Whatever energy was meant for me—the energy th
at brought me here—got trapped inside Sydney. And…"
Alara spoke up. "And he released it, freeing Sydney to return home."
Monica's eyes were as wide open as any woman's I'd ever seen. "So…when you two had sex…you…"
"Gave her an out-of-this-world experience," I said, wrinkling my nose and lifting my eyebrows apologetically.
"Fuck me," Monica said.
"That's sort of the idea," Alara said.
"Hey!" I snapped my head to scowl at Alara. "Not cool."
"It's alright," Monica said, surprising the hell out of me. I thought she'd be flipping out at that point, but she was eerily calm.
"It is?" I asked.
"It makes about as much sense as the rest of this," she said. She gazed at the floor for a moment, then looked back up at me. "Let me think this over."
"So?" I wasn't sure where that put things, in terms of Monica going with us, or if she wanted me to punch her ticket for the trip back home.
"I'm going with you," she said. "That much is for sure. I want to go home, but while I was up for it before…You know." She looked me up and down. "Brad and I…Well, I just can't deal with this right now." She nodded between us, clearly signaling she wanted to get through and head out of the room.
I stepped aside. "Of course. I just thought you should know."
When she stepped into the hallway, she paused, but didn't turn around to face us. "Thanks, Dennis."
“Of course,” I said.
We met Nithia, Tara, and Cormac downstairs. With everyone ready, I asked if we had transportation. Much to my disappointment, my suspicion that there were indeed no horses in all of Darguna was confirmed.
We set out on foot for Pertlass.
Chapter 28
Five days journey to Pertlass included all of the stops along the way to deal with sore feet and general fatigue. We also ran into a another group of travelers. Thankfully they weren't trying to kill us this time. Two men and a woman were making their way to Darguna. They'd come from the mountains just north from where we met them, which was halfway to Pertlass from Darguna. They appeared…less domesticated. Not quite wild, but like they spent little time in towns…or among other people. Tara said they were Balinites. "Hill people," she said, after they'd parted company with us. Meeting them set me to wonder about who else or what else lived in Galderia.
Dennis the Conqueror: A Harem Fantasy (Sword and Sorority Book 1) Page 20
