Days of Future Past - Part 2: Present Tense

by John Van Stry

  "Casting uses energy," she told me.

  "Ah."

  "Let's go," Heather said and from that point on we proceeded single file, making sure to stick close together.

  For the next five miles, things were about what I had expected, some wildlife, but no people, and no signs of people. As we came around a bend to the left however Sarah quickly called us to a halt.

  Not that she had to, we could all see it. There was a large tower about a mile ahead. Large enough that we could all see it.

  "What the hell is that?" I asked.

  "Let's move closer to the face of the cliff here," Heather said and moved her horse close to the wall of rock that had probably been cut by the original road workers long before I'd even been born. "I feel kind of exposed."

  Sarah and I both felt the same and followed her, as I dug out my binoculars and once we were stopped I took a good look through the trees, as the girls both did the same.

  It was pretty tall, it had to be for us to see it this far away. It appeared to be made from stone; it even had crenulations on the top.

  "It looks like a wizard's tower."

  "It is," Sarah agreed. "There is magic there and I can feel it."

  "So," I asked looking at the two of them, "now what?"

  "How far is it to go around?" Heather asked.

  "Well, we'd have to go back almost the whole day's ride so far. Then head east a ways and take one of the roads marked on the map there. So, two, maybe three days?" I shrugged.

  "Whoever lives here sure picked a perfect spot to block off any traffic."

  An unknown voice spoke up then, "Oh, I don't know. You have a wasteland to the south, another to the north, just how much traffic could there be?"

  I froze and then slowly looked around, as the girls did the same.

  "Of course if you want to leave, you're more than welcome to do so. However if you want to come up and visit, why I'd be delighted to have a couple of guests for the night, I'm always curious to hear about just what the outside world has gotten up to."

  "And you would be?" Sarah asked slowly.

  "Luvon Sarellious, the proud owner of the estate before you."

  "Have you lived here long, Mister Sarellious?"

  "Oh, please call me Luvon! And yes, I've been here a while. But come, come up to my most humble abode and let us be introduced properly!"

  I looked at Heather who was pulling a long face and nodding over towards Sarah, who looked intrigued.

  "Well?" I asked Sarah.

  "We might as well. He knows we're here, and if he was going to attack us, I'd say he would have done so already."

  I nodded and led the two of them back to the road and off towards the tower.

  As we rode forward I looked around as the grounds around the tower came into view. There was a nice looking building at the base of the tower, and a small lake set not too far behind it, back from the road.

  As we drew nearer, I could see that the tower wasn't as big as I first thought, maybe twenty or thirty feet wide, and perhaps three times that high. I noticed that it was set on a rise that had the effect of making it look larger from the distance. There were windows about two-thirds up, the crenulations around the top that I'd already noticed, and it had either an antenna or a lightning rod sticking up from the very top. I wasn't at all sure which.

  Once we rode through the gate surrounding the estate things suddenly changed, you could now see that there were animals, mainly sheep but some horses and chickens as well, on the property and that there was a fenced off garden of some size next to the house.

  "What the...?" Heather said, looking around.

  "Illusion," Sarah said.

  "These are all illusions?" I asked a little dumbfounded.

  Sarah sighed and gave me one of 'those' looks. "No, he has an illusion around the grounds hiding what's actually on it. Pretty clever actually, it is a lot easier to make people miss a few things, than to make them not see all the things that are there."

  "But I thought you said you couldn't make things invisible?"

  "They are not invisible; you just can not see them."

  I sighed and gave her a look of my own, "And how is that any different?"

  "They are hidden behind a fixed illusion that lets you see most of what is here, just not everything that is here. It is an interesting technique, one I'd never considered."

  We rode up to the front of the manor house then, and there was a tall and slender man standing there waiting for us.

  "Thank you for the compliment, Miss?" He asked looking Sarah over.

  "Sarah Alder," She said and gave a small bow from the saddle, "and you would be Luvon?"

  The man swept a large and rather fancy bow, the kind you saw in the movies about royal courts from the renaissance and the like. Then again, he wasn't dressed all that much differently than what you'd see in one of those movies. The boots on his feet were fine rich looking black leather, the brown jacket and trousers looked like they could have been silk. The dark green shirt he wore under a slightly lighter brown waistcoat was frilled up the front, with frills at the ends of the sleeves that stuck out of the fine brown suit jacket he wore, which again looked like something made for an old European court.

  There was no tie at his neck and the collar was unbuttoned, he was wearing a rather fine gold chain with a device of some sort that hung slightly above his breast. As for his looks, he had sandy blonde hair that went down well past his shoulders and while he didn't look young, the fine features of his face didn't look old either. He was clean-shaven with no sign of stubble or beard and his eyes matched the green of his shirt.

  "Yes, I would have that privilege, who are your friends?"

  "This is Heather Mays, and Paul Young," Sarah said.

  I almost balked for a moment when she didn't mention our status, and I know that Heather glanced over at her for a moment too as she said it. But I did wonder, just how should we introduce each other? This was, after all, the first time we three had met anybody new since we'd all decided to commit to each other as partners.

  I was so distracted thinking about that, that I missed the next bit of conversation, but Sarah was already dismounting.

  "Why thank you for the offer, we would be delighted to stay the night," Sarah was saying.

  I looked at Heather, who shrugged back as me and we both dismounted then as well.

  "Where do we stable the horses?" I asked, looking around.

  "Oh, the stables are around the back," Sarellious said with a smile.

  "Paul, if you'd be a dear?" Sarah asked and handed me her reins.

  I looked at Sarellious and noticed the way he was looking at Sarah. I looked at her next, and then I looked over at Heather who was also looking at Sarah.

  "I'll take yours too, Hon," I said to Heather who looked a little surprised.

  "You sure?" She asked quietly.

  "Just keep an eye on her, okay?" I said softly. Sarah and Sarellious were already talking up on the porch.

  Heather nodded and handing me her reins she went off to join Sarah and they headed inside.

  Leading the horses around behind the house took a minute, as the house was pretty large. When I finally got around to the back I found the barn, which had the door open. I also got a much better view of the tower, which didn't look quite right to the eye for some reason that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I decided I'd put that off as something to investigate later, as leading three horses around wasn't as easy as it sounded and I wanted to get them in the barn and taken care of quickly. Well as quickly as one man can do anything with three horses in full tack.

  The barn was fairly large, with about seven stalls to either side of it, though none of the stalls were currently occupied. I picked out three that looked to be unused and I tied the horses' leads off, and then unsaddled them. After that I rubbed each one down in turn and put them in a stall, then took their bridles off. I was a bit proud of myself for being able to get all three of them taken care of, a
nd fairly quickly at that. I'd known pretty much nothing about horses when I first got here.

  I looked around and found some hay for each of them and then made sure they had water and after that I put all of the saddles and camping gear by the stalls. Next I started to gather up our personal gear to bring inside.

  I was just about to pick up all of our gear, which was actually pretty heavy, between the five rifles two rockets and three packs, when a very attractive young woman entered the barn.

  She was blonde, though her hair was lighter and a more uniform color than Sarellious's had been and had the same dark green eyes and fine features making up her fairly young looking face.

  But where Sarellious had been wearing fairly fancy and almost vintage clothing, she was dressed much more attractively, wearing only a black halter and a black short skirt that didn't make it as far as her mid-thigh. The material looked like silk, and was both thin and tight enough to leave nothing to the imagination, and I had to admit she was definitely the kind of woman to effect most men's imaginations. Her fair skin was flawless; she was incredibly trim with long fine legs, a flat belly, nice hips, a nice butt and an impressive bust.

  I did my best not to drool and to think about Sarah and Heather, including what they'd undoubtedly do to me if they caught me staring at this stranger like a horny teenager.

  "Ah, here you are," She said in a rather low and sultry voice coming up to me, "everyone was wondering where you had gone off to."

  "Everyone?" I asked and lifted up the last pack.

  "Well, my father and the two women you came with."

  I nodded, "Well, please excuse me for not shaking hands," I nodded towards the gear I was holding, "I'm Paul. You are?"

  "Marjeera," She said and strode up to me smiling, then leaning over she gave me a kiss on the cheek, which shocked the hell out of me, but at least I didn't drop anything. She smelled about as good as she looked, and I was sure I didn't smell anywhere near as good after so many days on the trail.

  "Follow me, I'll show you where to put your things," she said, and turning she led me out of the barn as I tried to not stare at that truly sexy butt of hers as she led me into the building.

  I tried to pay attention to our path, but I had to admit that I was having a lot of trouble concentrating. The short half-boots she was wearing had heels on them, and I didn't know if she always moved like that when she walked, or if she was putting on a show for my benefit, but it definitely was having an effect on my mind as well as points south.

  By the time we got to the room, the only things stopping me from grabbing her were the packs in my hands, and the rather tight grip on them I'd seemed to have developed.

  Opening the door, she led me inside the room, and all I could notice was the rather large bed as she slowly strutted up to it and then turning around she plopped down on the bed and smiled up at me giving me the once over.

  "Why don't you drop those packs and come over here?" she said in a husky voice. "I can show you were to take the other's things later.

  I had enough presence of mind to bend over and set everything down, rather than just dropping it. Probably because I had a death grip on everything.

  "They're staying here with me," I said straightening back up as I wiped my surprisingly sweaty hands off on the sides of my pants, "so I don't have to move it."

  "Are you sure about that?" she asked, still smiling, as she beckoned me closer with a hand.

  "Huh?" was about all I could say, because all I was thinking about was how she'd look naked on that nice big bed.

  "We could have so much more fun here, alone," she was still using that husky voice and I was just about to take a step forward and see about just what kind of fun we could have, when suddenly I felt a set of very sharp set of teeth bite me in the ass.

  "What?!" I said in surprise and my hand went to my butt, which suddenly hurt like hell as I turned to see what was behind me.

  There was nothing there of course and I didn't feel any damage to my rear. My hand didn't even have any blood on it.

  But all thoughts of having my way with the admittedly hot and apparently very willing young woman sitting on the bed had fled my mind, and I felt my face turning red at the thought of what I had been contemplating mere moments before.

  "What did you say your name was?" I asked again, trying not to scowl, "Marjeera?"

  She nodded, and looked at me, pouting.

  "Marjeera, all I want to do right now is go find Sarah and Heather."

  "Are you sure?" she asked, looking a little hopeful and patting the bed besides her. I felt a momentary flash of desire, but the lingering pain of that phantom bite was still with me.

  "They're my wives," I said looking at her, "I'm sorry, but I want to go see them."

  Marjeera looked a little surprised and pouted a moment, but then gave me a playful smile as she got back to her feet.

  "Two women? You must be quite the man, Paul."

  I sighed and rolled my eyes. This woman obviously wasn't going to quit.

  "Please?" I motioned towards the door, and stepped back out of the way so she could lead me to wherever in the house the girls were.

  "Aw, you're no fun," she teased, pouting at me as she walked past me. If I thought she'd been strutting before, she really pulled all the stops out now. But it wasn't having the effect on me that it had before. I rubbed the back of my head as I thought about that. Yeah, she was a knockout, she had supermodel looks and hot stripper moves with the way she walked, but I'd never had a woman affect me like that before.

  Especially not when I was already with another woman, or as it stood now, pretty much married to two other women. Two very attractive and very loving women. Who would both kick my ass if they knew what I had almost done back in that room.

  So why had I damn near done something that had 'regret' written so boldly all over it?

  I shook my head again; maybe it was all the stress of the last few months finally coming out. Still, I had better be careful. Marjeera definitely had her sights set on me and I don't think the girls would appreciate that. Hell, our host probably wouldn't appreciate me fishing in what was probably his private pond either.

  I found it far easier to keep my eyes off of that pleasantly swaying rump of Marjeera's, so that when we entered the room the others were in, my eyes were up looking around, instead of where they shouldn't be.

  Which didn't go unnoticed by Heather, who looked at me, then Marjeera, then back at me and frowned slightly.

  I gave my head a shake and smiled at her, then looked at Sarah who seemed rather interested in whatever it was that she and Sarellious were talking about.

  "So," I said a little loudly. "I took care of the horses and put our stuff in our room," I made sure to add a little emphasis on the word 'our'. "Do you think it would be possible for the three of us to go clean up, before dinner?" I asked, looking over at Sarellious.

  "Ah, there you are," Sarellious said smiling. "What took you so long?"

  "Yes," Heather asked a little suspiciously while glancing over at Marjeera, "what took you so long?"

  I shrugged, "Three horses and just me doing the work. Plus we have a lot more gear then I realized."

  I walked over to Heather and bent over and gave her a hug, then tugged on her hand to get her up out of her seat. She came with me and we both went over to Sarah, who was looking at the two of us bemused.

  "Come, dear," Heather said. "Let's get cleaned up for dinner."

  "Oh, you two go on, I'll be up in a few."

  "Sarah?" I said.

  "Luvon is telling me about the spell he uses to hide his livestock, I'll be up when he's done," Sarah looked me up and down, lingering a bit south of my waist, which was apparently still showing the after effects of Marjeera's attempt. "Besides, it looks like you have something for Heather?" and she looked back up at me and winked.

  I blushed and Heather grumbled something as she grabbed my arm and dragged me out of there. After a moment I managed to compose m
yself and led her back to the room.

  "So tell me," Heather growled, "just why is there lipstick on your face?"

  "Huh?" I said and wiped my face where Marjeera had kissed me, and sure enough, when I looked at my fingers there was a smear of lipstick on them the color of her lips.

  "Just what happened, Paul?" Heather asked frostily.

  "She kissed me when I was carrying the gear up here," I said and motioned towards the packs and rifles on the floor.

  "Oh?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

  "And then she sat down on the bed and pretty much propositioned me!" I grumbled.

  "And just what did you do?"

  "What? I turned her down, what do you think I did?"

  Heather eyed me a little warily.

  I took a step closer, and grabbing her I pulled her up against me and kissed her. I was still horny as hell after whatever the hell it was that had happened with Marjeera, but now at least I was with someone I loved.

  Heather laughed a little when I came up for air, "She sure got you going, didn't she?"

  "She lit the fuse, you however are the fireworks," I said and kissed her again, then started steering her towards the bed, any and all thoughts about Marjeera now far from my mind.

  "I thought you two came up here to clean up?" Sarah teased when she came into the room some time later.

  "It seems someone was trying to steal our boy," Heather yawned, stretching languidly out on the bed and drawing my eyes as she did. Yes, Marjeera's body may have been damn near perfectly shaped with flawless skin, but I still preferred Heather, freckles, scars, slender muscles and all. If I wanted soft, that was what Sarah was for after all, I thought as I looked up at Sarah with a grin, who was also watching Heather.

  "Trying?" Sarah laughed, "Or was Paul's libido running away with itself?

  "Oh no, that ran away with me," Heather laughed. "Sorry you missed it."

  "Well, we need to get cleaned up for dinner; last thing I want is to sit next to the two of you stinking of sex at the table."

  I grinned at Sarah, "I would be more than happy to make you stink too, you know."