by Mark Albany
“I can’t argue with that logic,” she said through stifled laughter. “No, wait, I can. Nobody would call their horse Grant. You could just call him Carrot, or something like that.”
“What if I said that I wanted to eat a carrot?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t want people to think that I’m about to eat my horse, now, would I? No, just call him Horse. That way, there is no confusion.”
“But what if people think that you’re talking about another horse?” Aliana said. “At that point you’d need to explain that it’s your horse, and there would be a different kind of confusion.”
“Simple. In that case, I just call whatever horse I happen to be riding Horse, and then there’s no confusion,” I said, and shrugged. “If I call it Horse, then it’s the horse I’m riding. If I call it something else, that means that someone else is riding the horse, and everybody knows it.”
Aliana giggled, her head still against my shoulder. Her wings wrapped gently around me, like an odd blanket that generated its own heat.
“You didn’t answer my question, though,” I said as I ran my fingers through her hair and toyed with the glowing part of her horns. “Is the portal not an option for us, or is there another reason why we’d prefer to keep our travels on land?”
“It’s mostly my fault,” Aliana said softly. “To bring six people through a portal would be challenging, even for me, and the distance would factor in as well. We would need to be a whole lot closer to the location before I could bring this many people through.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”
“Well…” she started, then paused, like she was weighing her words, and wasn’t quite sure how to deliver them. “I could have the power to carry us all through the portal, of course, but there would be a price. Being a djinn is difficult. The darkness inside me calls, all the time. It’s always there, like a temptation that I can never fully push away.”
I knew what she meant. Not only because I felt the temptation through the bond, but because I recalled what happened when a djinn gave in to that darker nature. Memories of the one we’d encountered while chasing Cyron down were still very vivid in my memory. The impish djinn had been hellishly powerful, able to reach out and touch my mind over great distances.
No, those weren’t pleasant memories, and if that was what Aliana faced if she gave into those dark impulses, I didn’t mind riding halfway across the Empire to help her avoid it.
I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry you have to be this way,” I softly whispered and tenderly stroked her cheek.
“If I weren’t like this, I don’t think we ever would have met,” she reminded me, and leaned into my kiss and touch. “It’s not pleasant, and there’s not a day that goes by when I don’t wish that I were remanded back to my truer form, but in all honesty…I think it was worth the tradeoff.”
I smiled, then pulled her closer and kissed her cheek. “You’re not just saying that, are you?”
She shrugged. “I might be. But that doesn’t mean I’m lying.”
“I appreciate it either way,” I whispered as I stroked her cheek. “Besides, I think I know of a way that will substantially increase your abilities that has proven rather popular in the recent past.”
She looked up at me, tilting her head and raising an eyebrow. She knew what I was suggesting, of course, but it wasn’t like she didn’t know how to play coy.
“How recently in the past?” She pressed herself a little tighter to me as she touched her lips to my neck. Her teeth lightly scored my skin.
“As recent as this morning,” I reminded her and kissed her shoulder in return, while my hands started to drift over her body.
“Hmm, something similar does come to mind,” she murmured. She turned and straddled my lap, smiling as my hands settled over her hips and pulled them tight to mine as she started to gently grind against me. “I think I might need a reminder, though.”
I nodded, agreeing but unable to say so. My ability to vocalize was momentarily robbed as her fingers traced slowly over my chest and her nails lightly dug in through the material of my shirt. Her lips were pressed against my neck as her body slowly undulated over me, and the tiniest of moans came from her lips as her tongue flicked out to taste the bare skin of the bridge between my neck and shoulder.
She spread her thighs further and dropped her clothes with a single touch. I still didn’t know how she did that, and at this point, didn’t much care. My mind was on other pursuits. I reached down between us, trying to find the buckle holding my pants up. Three hands were a bit too much, so Aliana finally gave up and reached for my shirt instead, pulling it up and over my head.
We were in a very public and usually populated section of the house, something that wouldn’t worry Aliana much since she was a bit of a voyeur, or at least enjoyed the thought that we might end up being ‘caught’ out in the open like this. I discovered that her enjoyment was spreading to me as well. It was an exciting thought. Considering the risks we’d recently taken, being caught in public while balls-deep inside Aliana felt fairly tame by comparison.
She quietly growled at me as the shirt came off and my trousers were pushed down just enough to let my cock come free. She gripped the shaft with one hand and guided it between her thighs. Once it was poised, she slowly sunk onto the shaft. Her head dropped back as she sucked in a deep breath. I couldn’t help but let out a low growl of pleasure as I felt her slick heat wrap around me. My fingers dug into her sides and pulled her down a little faster.
Once she was down, Aliana took a moment to gently rock against me. Her inner muscles massaged my hard, fat head as she cupped my cheeks in her hands and brought my face to hers for a long, tender kiss while she rose, fell, and then came up halfway. She broke away from the kiss and let a low, hot moan as she started to ride me slowly, but steadily increased her pace as I hungrily grabbed her breasts and kneaded them in time with her motions.
As Aliana picked up her pace, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders, which gave her leverage as her head fell against my shoulder. She pressed her lips to my neck but not in a kiss. I felt her hot, panting breaths against my skin as her hips rose and fell, swallowing me over and over.
My pounding pulse was all I heard. My fingers squeezed and gently tugged her nipples as her pace lost rhythm but not speed. I gripped her thigh with one hand and rubbed her clit with my thumb. Her pleasure washed over me through our bond.
“Please, Grant,” she pleaded. Her eyes were closed and her voice was high and begging as my hips rose to meet her halfway. The soft, wet sounds each time I buried myself to the hilt inside her didn’t help with the sudden hunger that overtook me. She mirrored the sentiment. I knew from the way her nails dug into my back. I gripped her hip with one hand—the other was still anchored on her thigh as my calloused thumb grazed over her clit—and pulled her down to meet each thrust.
She was right on the edge. I felt her edge closer, and then her warm, wet pussy wrapped tighter around me. Soft, incoherent cries were all she could vocalize as she climaxed hard over me—hard enough that I couldn’t stop myself from returning the favor. My hand slid down to grab her ass, leaving her no way to escape as my hips bucked upward, driving me deeper inside her to fill her with my cock and cum.
Her soft cries were all I could hear over my heart thudding in my chest as I clutched her to me. Our orgasms reverberated between us through the bond, making them last a lot longer than I was used to as I wrapped my arms around her and held her close, finally able to do something other than cope as I kissed her.
It took her a moment to react to my touch. A soft chuckle escaped her as she finally collapsed against me, still struggling to breathe as she returned the kiss.
“Feeling replenished?” I asked as I stroked her hair and tucked a couple of errant strands behind her pointed ear.
“Very much so,” she whispered in response, leaning against me and letting her fingers run down my chest. I man
aged to reacquire my shirt as she rested against me, then tucked myself back into my pants and buckled up. She showed no inclination to go anywhere and seemed close to falling asleep. I didn’t think she was going to rouse at this point, and I didn’t really want her to, either.
“Come on, then,” I whispered, and collected her clothes before slowly and gently standing with her still in my arms. She was surprisingly light, which wasn’t something that I would have guessed about her. Maybe something to do with the wings? I’d never really addressed the topic about whether she could fly with them or not, although I’d never seen her try. Gliding, yes, but not full flight. They looked ragged and scarred, which indicated that injury was all that stood between her and actually being able to fly. My knowledge of flying creatures like birds and bats told me that one would need to have lighter and almost hollow bones in order to be able to fly, which might have been why she was as light as she was, even with the wings.
Either way, it wasn’t that important a topic, I thought as I made my way back to the rooms where Norel and Braire were already sound asleep. We had a long day tomorrow, after all, and an early start to begin it.
I moved into the room, and noted that the fire had burned down to embers. Aliana wouldn’t need the heat, of course, but for those of us who weren’t djinn, the night was going to be cold. I gently laid her on the bed, carefully trying to avoid waking the other two up before, then tip-toed to the fireplace and added a couple of logs. I wasn’t particularly cold at the moment, considering what we had just done, but knew I would soon feel the chill.
I dropped to my haunches for a minute while tending to the fire with a poker, waiting for the embers to burn into the new logs enough for them to catch fire. I looked over at the bed and saw Aliana, already mostly asleep, move in to snuggle against her sisters. They groaned and roused just long enough to draw her closer as they wrapped up together. I chuckled softly and shook my head.
I thought I’d have trouble sleeping, the way I usually did every time before we went out on a busy mission. My overactive imagination tried to figure out everything that could possibly go wrong.
But here I was, in a room with three beautiful women, and getting ready to leave with another on top of that. Of course, there was a fifth, but she probably wasn’t going to be much of a help, since she would be both bound and trying to kill us at the earliest opportunity.
I smirked, then shook my head and moved back to the bed, looking for a spot that wasn’t already occupied. It wasn’t a small bed, but it wasn’t made to be shared by four people. I climbed in and pulled a pillow close to me. As I fell asleep, one of them—Norel, I thought—snuggled in behind me and wrapped her arms around me.
4
The women were deadly serious when they said we were leaving at dawn. Luckily, I didn’t feel overly tired as I dragged myself from the bed about a half-hour before the sun was due to rise. The rest of the team was up around that time as well, giving us some company as we finished the last-minute preparations for our trip. I still wasn’t sure if we were going to travel overland or through a portal. I hoped for the latter but didn’t want to pressure Aliana to do something that she didn’t want to and possibly couldn’t manage.
One way or another, we would take the first steps to learn how to break Abarat’s control over someone. Faye would be our test subject, which meant that she would travel with us. It was necessary, of course, but there would be complications.
I strapped my sword to my hip, and then Aliana and I headed off to the dungeon. I thought Faye’s guard might be asleep, but the elf looked as alert as ever. I wasn’t sure if the man just didn’t sleep or if he slept the whole day so he could stay up for most of the night. I didn’t know what the situation there was, but I approved of the fact that he was there to release the woman into our custody.
She had been tied up and gagged in preparation for the trip, and looked like she would rip throats out if the opportunity ever arose. I didn’t much mind that, though. I would worry about it if she ever got free. I remembered just how powerful she was, and how competent. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the four already on my side to handle her, but there would always be the worry that one of us would be injured or killed by someone that we couldn’t kill.
We brought Faye out to where our horses waited and helped her mount. Aliana would lead Faye’s horse to prevent an escape attempt, since I wasn’t a good enough rider to manage two at once—I was barely comfortable with handling Horse.
Horse was waiting for me, looking relaxed as I pulled myself into the saddle. I noted that Faye was studying my saddle bag. I didn’t need to inspect it to understand why, of course. It was where I’d put her spear.
“Oh, don’t worry,” I said as I looked around and saw the first hues of sunlight crest the horizon. “It’s a beautiful weapon, make no mistake. If we manage to break you free of Abarat’s control, it will be yours again if you want it. If not, it’s a nice enough weapon that I might just keep it anyway.”
She glared at me, looking like she was scowling behind the gag. I leaned back in my saddle and smiled cheerily at her. She looked tired and disheveled, but still radiated that sense of annoying power that unsettled me. We went through the gates and moved around the walls, headed toward the pass, as the sun slowly rose.
I studied the land we were crossing. I still wasn’t sure what the plans for the trip were. Aliana was dressed in her regular attire, and while she didn’t appear to have any weapons, I would never assume that she was unarmed. She could flick her wrists and bring forward a pair of long, wickedly curved daggers. Braire had a similar trick, although she was also capable of calling a selection of beasts forward using some runed stones she’d carved.
Norel had no weapons, and no need for them, either. She called lightning when she needed to fight, as well as a hoard of other spells that she could use in a battle when she needed to. I’d seen what she could pull out of thin air, and it was nothing to scoff at. The way the three sisters usually joined in battle had Aliana and Braire form and hold the front of a line, while Norel brought up the rear and struck attackers from a good distance.
I had seen some of Lyth’s fighting ability as well. She had no weapons except for a recurved bow that wasn’t currently strung. She wasn’t expecting a fight, but she had a runed stone like one of Braire’s that allowed her to summon Frarris, Norel’s dragon, when there was dire need for some fiery help from above. I still wasn’t sure if the stone itself was what summoned her, or if it was the fact that a person of royal elven blood was doing it.
I had a great many questions for the four elves that I was travelling with. I had a handful for the sole human in our party as well, but considering that she was currently gagged and bound, bobbing along on a horse that she had no control over, I doubted that she would answer any of them.
We moved deeper into the pass in silence as the sun climbed higher. It wouldn’t reach as far as the pinnacle this close to winter, I knew, and wrapped myself up in one of the coats that had been provided for us.
Faye was still staring at me. I looked around at everyone, wondering if she was paying any attention to them as we rode along, but there didn’t seem to be anything for me to build on. Either she was focused on me, or the rest of them didn’t mind the woman’s staring.
I did, and decided to act on it, reining Horse over to where Aliana guided Faye’s horse in a steady walk.
“What are you doing?” Aliana turned her head to look at me.
“Well, we’ll have to take this thing off her anyway, unless we plan to let her die from hunger or thirst,” I pointed out, not sure if that was supposed to be the idea or not. From the looks that the elves shared, I assumed that this was not the case.
“If she starts any trouble, then we can starve her,” Braire muttered and shook her head as she guided her horse toward the front of our line. Lyth dropped back to the center to watch as I reached over and undid the gag, pulled it clear, and shook some of the disgusting wetness from it
before I tucked it into my saddle bag.
The woman needed a few minutes to get some feeling in her mouth again, and worked her lips and tongue almost nonstop before she noticed my stare.
“What are you expecting, my gratitude?” she asked and looked around at the others, who quickly averted their eyes.
“Well, unless you want that thing in your mouth again, I’d suggest at least staying civil in the presence of your captors,” I growled back. “On the other hand, we can do what others do when facing a long trip on horseback, and either enjoy the peace and quiet, or have a pleasant conversation with us. You choose.”
While I presented a choice, it wasn’t much of one at all. Faye just rolled her eyes and adjusted herself in the saddle. The fact that she could do so with her hands bound behind her back was a testament to her riding ability, but I didn’t feel comfortable enough around her to pay her any compliments.
“Well, I guess we’re going for enjoying the peace and quiet, then,” Faye said when nothing more was said. “Honestly, I wouldn’t have thought that wearing that gag would be the worst of this little trip of ours, but I’m half the way to asking to have it back.”
“That can be arranged,” Aliana pointed out with a cheeky grin. “What do you want us to talk about, the fucking weather?”
“This is good weather for fucking, I think,” Faye said with a nod and looked around as we moved deeper and deeper into the pass. “Just cold enough to make a nice morning roll in the hay the perfect way to get the blood pumping for the day ahead, with none of the detriments that might make someone prefer to just stick to the hay and not use the sex as the perfect start.”
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at her. She was right. Maybe it was better to just gag her and leave it at that. I didn’t like how smoothly she’d turned the conversation to sex.
