by Lora Darc
“Take off your dress and hop in,” said Sheek as she sprinkled in a handful of salt. Danielle scarfed down the last bit of bread and drank her cup of water then got up and stood beside the tub. She wiped her mouth with the side of her arm and looked down at the tub water with unease. The water was a murky blue; thick like ink.
“Go on, go on, no time to lose your wits now.” Sheek began to lift the dress up off her. Danielle let the dress slip from her to fall to the ground. She hugged her sides, not moving to step into the tub.
I hope I don’t regret this.
“You won’t regret it, I swear,” said Sheek as if to hear her thoughts. The witch took hold of Danielle’s arm and gently dragged her over the tub. Danielle bent her leg up and dipped one foot in. The inky blue water was surprisingly warm and smooth. Danielle began to relax and set her other foot in so that she stood in tub.
“Good. Very good,” Sheek crooned. “Now lower yourself slowly… that’s it.”
Danielle placed her hands to each side of the tub and carefully sunk into the water. She sat back against one end and stretched her out her legs, to have her feet touch the other side.
“Now... just relax.” Sheek moved around the tub. “Close your eyes... and lie calm. Do not fight. The spell will be over quicker if you let it take over you.”
Danielle opened her eyes and looked up at Sheek. “What do you mean?”
As soon as she said it, Danielle felt her body grow hot as something like a tongue or tentacle lapped at her inner thigh. Danielle gasped and nearly shot up from the bath, but Sheek stilled her with a hand.
“Do you want this or not? I will not attempt it again if you don’t. And no refunds for my payment.”
Danielle nodded. “Okay... Okay.” She slipped back down into the water and could see long tongue-like tentacles blue like the water, as if made from it, barely breaking the surface.
I won’t back out now. After everything I had gone through in the palace, I won’t let this shock me.
Danielle laid back and let the blue tentacles and water envelop her whole body, sticking to her. She could feel their slickness against her skin as they lathered her. Danielle grabbed hold of the tub’s edges and slowly parted her legs. A wave of tentacles slipped through to cling to her center. She could feel a few thick tongues penetrate her and few others swirling around her clit. Danielle lifted her head back and moaned.
“That’s it... let it consume you.” Danielle heard Sheek nearby.
Tentacles licked at her breasts and tightened around her legs to keep her in place. The sliding and whirling of the several between her legs made her throb and spasm. Danielle closed her eyes and let them into every part of her. She began to move with them. Opening her legs to them more. She arched up and rose from the water and gasped with pleasure. The tongues on her core reminded her of the jets of water from the pools within the palace. They massaged and stroked her in a way she never could.
“Yes. Now, when you feel your release coming,” Sheek said, brushing the hair from Danielle’s neck, “Sink your whole body into the water.”
Danielle barely heard her but nodded to show she understood. Moaning and arching her back she could feel her release coming painlessly quick.
As her center spasmed and tightened around the tongues, Danielle let out a cry.
“Now, girl. Do it now!”
Danielle plunged back into the water, head and all. The water went over her and bubbled and froth. Danielle writhed at the bottom of the tub as the water disappeared into clouds of steam.
The steam rose and disappeared until no water was left. Sheek reached into the tub and gripped Danielle’s arms. Danielle rose slowly, barely needing Sheek’s aid. As she stood, Danielle felt her body tingling and throbbing all over. She took a breath and sighed.
Sheek looked her over and nodded with satisfaction. “The spell is complete.” She smiled at her work, her eyes flitting down Danielle’s form, becoming almost lustful.
“How do you know it worked?” Danielle said in a smooth voice. She could taste the sweetness of the air on the tip of her tongue. Every sensation, every touch, seemed amplified. She felt the last drops of water trickle down every inch of her skin, Felt the heat still simmering in her core, more hot, more intense. She knew now she had answered her own question, but Sheek was already gone, going into another room to bring back a full-length mirror. She set the mirror before Danielle and Danielle let out a little gasp of shock.
She clearly saw herself standing before the mirror. She knew it was her by the familiar attributes. But she was different somehow. More sleek, more firm and polished. Her skin smooth and glowing like ivory or pearl; the cuts she had received from within the palace now completely gone. Her eyes now sparkled like gems, burning with their own fire. Her lips were redder, her hair shinier and thicker, and her breasts fuller and tighter. It was like she had been a dull caterpillar that had gone through its full metamorphosis to become a magnificent butterfly.
Danielle stared into the mirror for some time until Sheek took it away to place it against the side of the wall.
“Now that I’ve given you this gift,” Sheek said while taking Danielle’s hand and gently setting her out of the tub, “it is time for mine.” She took up her knife and turned over Danielle’s arm. The witch sliced into her skin and Danielle felt the sharp pain cut into her. Danielle gasped as the pain spasmed into pleasure, rippling up her arm. The sensation was not unlike the one she felt after drinking the wine from the crow prince. She moaned in surprise, watching as the witch took her crystal vile and filled it with Danielle’s blood.
When she was finished, Sheek took a scrap of cloth and wrapped it around Danielle’s wound. She wiped her knife on the end of her robe and raised it to Danielle’s head. Gently clasping a lock of hair, Sheek cut it with the dagger. She took her thin piece of rope and tied it around the lock and set it and the vile on a shelf nearby.
“Our deal is set.” Sheek handed Danielle her dress and she took it, placing it over her head, covering her new, strange body. “Remember the power you hold now is weak, but the more you use it, the stronger you will become.”
Danielle didn’t know exactly what the witch meant, but she could guess. “I will use it to help me find a way out of this place.”
Sheek arched a brow at her. Her mouth turned up in a sly grin and her eyes sparkled mischievously. “In the end... you may not want to leave.”
Chapter 3
Danielle rested within Sheek’s dwelling—recovering from her transformation and regaining her strength—for one moon cycle longer when Sheek told her it was time she went back.
“Best not to keep the princes waiting much longer or they may start to hunt down nightkin and interrogate them to find out where you are hiding.” Sheek handed Danielle a black leather pouch and a canteen of water for her journey back to the palace. “I expect you to tell them of my kindness now, girl, in what I have done for you. I would dearly love an invitation to the palace now that it has been reopened.”
Danielle took the items Sheek gave her. “I will tell them,” she said. Outside Sheeks home, the moon grew large and fat as it rose above the horizon. Danielle turned her head to look toward the mountains one last time.
“Sheek... I have one last request,” Danielle said as she stared out at the distant swamplands. She looked back at the witch who stared at her curiously. “Do you know anything about a key that can transport you into the human world?”
Sheek arched a brow at her. “I have heard of such a thing, yes. But they aren’t readily available if that is what you are wondering.”
Danielle shook her head. “I understand that. But do you know where I could have one possibly fixed?”
Sheek’s eyes widened. “Fixed?”
Danielle nodded. “The key that brought me here... I accidentally broke it. When I was within the palace, Torq… the geist... he said I would be able to leave if I opened the great door to the palace. He had lied to me, but before I had gone to col
lect the keys to open the door, he had shown me the key—an orb made of purple glass—that I had found in my world. But it was shattered.” Danielle dropped her eyes and wrapped her arms around her waist as a breeze at her back made her shiver. “I think if I return he may still have it. And I wonder if it can be fixed.”
Sheek was silent for a long moment and when Danielle looked up, she saw the witch heavy in thought.
“To fix it would mean to be remade. At least that is how most things are here.” Sheek pondered. “The key you speak of, I have heard of it. It was made by Prince Morgin.”
Danielle frowned. “Of course it was,” she mumbled.
Sheek shrugged. “He is a great sorcerer, you know. Said to be the most powerful in the land. It is he you would want to take the key to.”
“And if I didn’t? Or if he refused to fix it? Is there another way?”
Sheek thought again for a long moment.
“You would have to use the recipe…” Sheek glanced at her house then back at Danielle. “I may have among my own books a copy of such a recipe. But I will not have the items you need to make it.”
“Please, won’t you show me?”
Sheek gazed at her deeply then made a flitting gesture. “I will show you. It will do no harm I think. The chances of you finding such items are rare. Even I haven’t managed to find a single one.”
Danielle’s heart dropped at the thought. She watched Sheek trod back inside the bent and twisted house and stride back out with a thick tome of a book.
“Let’s see here.” Sheek licked the tips of her fingers and flipped through the book. “Aha, here you are.”
Danielle stood beside her and looked down on the page. Drawn in deep purple ink was a picture of the key orb. Alongside it was, what Danielle could only assume, a list of items and directions on how to make it. The letters and symbols were unrecognizable to her.
Sheek laughed. “I don’t suppose this helps you much at all does it now? Here,” Sheek grazed her nails across the page and then shot her hand up, catching a piece of paper in the air which appeared in a flash of white. She handed Danielle the paper and, when Danielle looked at it, she found her own copy of the recipe.
“Only because I pity you. But I will help you no more.”
Danielle grimaced and put the recipe inside her pouch. Reluctantly she thanked the witch.
“Now, when you journey back, go East first.” Sheek pointed eastward going parallel to the mountains. “The mounds are easier to jump and, at some point, you will come across a narrow road.” Sheek grabbed hold of Danielle’s shoulder as she turned to leave. “Ah, but be warned. A great Night Lord occupies the onyx mountains before you. Be sure that his servants do not catch you on the road,” Sheek squeezed her shoulder, “and hide if you must. Do not let them find you. The Night Lords rule these lands. But now that the princes are free, they will seek to reclaim what’s theirs. And the Night Lords will want to stop them. If they see you, they will take you, do you understand? Even if they don’t know yet that the princes seek to claim you.”
Danielle nodded and Sheek released her. “Good. Go now, girl, and don’t look back.”
***
Danielle found the road just as the moon peaked in the center of the sky. It was narrow like Sheek had said, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. It was made from cuts of white stone that glowed in the moonlight.
The stones cut into her feet making it hard to walk on. Sheek hadn’t given her shoes, only a drab gray dress for cover that went to her knees. She flinched and winced, hopping about as she tried to walk along the path.
After a mere quarter of an hour, Danielle couldn’t take it much longer and sat to rest. She found a lone tree growing slanted by the edge of the road and sat under it. When she picked up her feet to inspect them she saw blisters already forming and a few cuts with smatterings of blood.
She had a long journey ahead of her back toward the palace. She decided she would make it to the grassier part of the desert—almost more like plains—that lay between the desert and the swamp, then she would go farther East. She wasn’t ready to go back to the palace, even with her strange new gift from Sheek.
But, If she could only walk for as long as she had, she would run out of food and water long before she even made it halfway.
Sighing, Danielle went to stand up when she caught the sound of flapping wings. Her first instinct was to hide but remembered she was far from where the princes searched. She walked to the middle of the road to look up at the deep blue sky, splattered with stars and the great moon, but saw no shadow of a large crow or bat fly by.
Danielle frowned and looked back at the tree and nearly jumped out of her skin. On the branch above, a great owl watched her. It looked shabby and unkempt, even balding in a few places where it had picked at its feathers. Its great yellow eyes glared at her and it let out a short, pitiful shriek.
Danielle gazed back at it. She made to step away and, as she did, it took off, back into the night. Danielle tried to follow the bird with her eyes, but it became a mere shadow in the darkness and disappeared.
Feeling uneasy, Danielle continued onward. She made it a half-hour down the road before she was limping and once again had to stop.
Forget taking the road. I’ll just walk alongside it.
Though it was a slower pace going through the swamp, Danielle found the soft mush of mud and grass better on her feet. After an hour more of treading through the swamp, Danielle could see the outline of the grassy field ahead. She was almost out of the swamp.
She laid down one last time to rest before continuing on, eating a small bit of bread and sipping her water. As Danielle got up to continue on, the owl returned, landing nearby and squawking at her.
“What do you want?” she said to it. “Go away.” Danielle turned from the owl and saw on the road ahead of her a great shadowy mass. She froze staring at it and it moved towards her, its long gait revealing it walked on all fours. It looked like the silhouette of a great bear or dog and immediately Danielle thought to turn around and run the other direction. As she looked back, however, she saw the owl fly back up in the air and circle her, and a few more shadowy masses coming toward her the opposite way. As they grew closer Danielle could tell in the moonlight that figures road atop the giant masses. Once they were only a few yards away, they began to circle her.
Danielle turned each way looking for an escape, but every time she went to bolt one direction, one great creature was already there in front of her. The beasts were reptilian-like, with glowing orange eyes and leathery, dark-blue hides. Riding on top of them were humanoid figures wearing barbaric attire; leather and bone covering them from head to foot.
The barbaric figures all stopped their lizard steads to encase her in a tight circle. The owl that circled above, swooped down and landed on the shoulder of a particular barbarian who was larger than the rest.
“What have we here? A nightwoman who has lost her way?” said what Danielle assumed was their leader. His eyes flashed blue underneath a skull-like mask. “What are you doing out here all alone?”
One of the barbaric men got closer as if to get a better look at her. “This is no nightwoman, Captain.” He sniffed at her and drew back in surprise. “It’s a human.”
The others studied her curiously.
The captain laughed. “A human hasn’t stepped in these lands in... Gods, centuries, hasn’t it been?” He tilted his head, leaning off his stead. His eyes flickered down her form then back at her face. He righted himself and frowned. “Strange... don’t recall the last bit of human scrap let out into the wilds looking so intact and so... savory.”
Danielle cowered away from them but held her ground. She remained quiet as they observed her.
“Shall we bring her to Lord Tyris then?” said one beside her.
The captain smiled. “Yes. I think he will be amused at such a find.”
Danielle waited for them to move, then she bolted, slipping past two of them.
She raced off the road and back into the swamps. She heard their jeers behind her and the hissing of their steads.
She got farther than she hoped. Almost making it to the edge of the swamp before a net caught her. She fell and struggled inside it, but couldn’t find an opening to free herself. One of the men got off their mount to approach her, a long rope in his hands. He lifted the net from her and the men laughed as she hit and bit at him like a wild animal.
No! I can’t be taken now!
She struggled in his grip and screamed. But as the man tied her hands and gagged her, no one dove from the sky or raced across the fields to save her.
“Give her to me,” said the captain. His man did as commanded. Danielle was lifted up on to the captain’s mount to sit in front of him, her back crushed against his thick body.
As she was secured against him and tied to the mount, Danielle sat helpless as they turned their reptilian steads around and rode out across the swamp, toward the black mountains.
Chapter 4
They raced across the swamps, slowing only every so often to swim across instead. Danielle gripped the front of the captain’s mount tight with her legs to keep from falling. The rising and falling movement of the lizard as it leaped and ran over mounds and pools caused Danielle to grind against her captor. She grew hot (with embarrassment or desire she was uncertain) as she could feel the thickness of him against her. The leader didn’t seem to notice nor care as his sole mission was to bring her passed the swamplands and into the dark and twisted forest at the foot of the mountains.
They slowed their pace as they neared the side of one great mountain and came to a massive metal gate.
Guards in black armor emerged from the shadows.
“You’ve come back so soon, Bohren?” called a guard.
“I bring a gift for Lord Tyris,” said the captain, kicking his mount closer so that they could see.
