by Eric Vall
The moment the woman registered Dragir, though, her vibrant orange eyes softened seductively, and her lush lips curled into a tigerish grin. Then she tousled her deep purple hair and hooked the strap of Dragir’s glaive to pull him closer.
I stared openly while the woman murmured in a sultry voice steeped with innuendo, and Dragir chuckled as he let her trail her hands all along his torso.
He spoke to her quietly for a moment, and the woman sent him a heated look in response before she unabashedly pressed her ample breasts against him and slid her arms around his waist.
Then Rhys hollered something from inside, but Dragir made no effort to remove the man’s wife from his hold.
Instead, the tigerish woman sent a lethal glance over her shoulder before she tilted her chin defiantly and pulled Dragir into a heated kiss.
I raised my brows while the woman let out a soft whimper and bit hungrily at Dragir’s lips, and when Rhys came storming over to the doorway, the two continued to ignore him completely.
Rhys sent me a furious look and caught his wife roughly by the arm to remove her himself, and Dragir blatantly admired the woman’s full figure as she was ripped away by her husband.
Then he muttered something in Elvish which the tigerish woman seemed to like quite a lot, and which Rhys vehemently scolded.
I shifted uncomfortably while the two men exchanged a few coarse words, and the whole time, Rhys’ wife continued to eye Dragir like she was about ten seconds away from tearing his clothes off.
Finally, Rhys shoved her past the two of us and ordered for her to leave.
The wife gave a dirty chuckle and bit her bottom lip as she appraised Dragir once more, and all three of us stared at the sway of her broad hips when she turned away and headed off through the village.
Her cinnamon waist cinched her figure into an hourglass shape, and the scrap of skirt around her hips left both cheeks of her ass bare without any apparent concern. I eyed the muscular build of the tigerish woman’s back and thighs and decided she wasn’t technically more beautiful than Deya, but definitely sexier than I’d been prepared to encounter.
Unbelievably so.
Dragir had a familiar smirk on his face when we finally dragged our eyes away and turned back to Rhys, and the green-haired elf looked ready to skin us both alive.
He only locked his jaw, though, and left us standing in his open doorway as he returned to the dim hut.
I leaned toward Dragir. “You and his wife didn’t … ” I muttered as I gestured to the hips still swaying in the distance, and the elf grinned shamelessly.
“What?” he asked. “I met her first.”
I could hear Rhys spit angrily inside the hut, and Dragir looked more pleased than I’d ever seen him as he smirked and entered the home without need of an invitation.
I tried to reign in my shit eating grin as I followed, but Rhys’ exotic wife was still overrunning my thoughts.
I worked to focus on the task at hand despite the fact that my mind’s eye was still admiring her tantalizing curves, but the heavy jostle of her warm brown cleavage when she’d brushed past me was hard to forget so quickly.
There was something about her piercing gaze that heated my blood just at the thought, and I figured Dragir was of the same mind, because he posted himself against the vines of the wall and crossed his arms while he thought quietly for a minute.
Rhys was readying his arrows on a table in front of the spent fireplace, but after he’d frowned more than a few times at Dragir’s expression, he finally dropped his work and sighed.
“Wipe that look off your face,” he growled at the elf, but Dragir only grinned more.
“You cut my hand off,” Dragir shot back. “The least you could do is let me fuck your wife again.”
Rhys overturned the table as he lunged for Dragir, but I had my revolver drawn and cocked before he made it halfway.
The braided elf stumbled to a stop as he immediately raised his arms.
Rhys sent a deathly glare at both of us as his amber eyes narrowed, but Dragir hadn’t moved an inch from where he stood against the wall.
“She’s bored with you,” Dragir informed Rhys. “Why didn’t you mention it? I could have distracted her for a while.”
Rhys bared his teeth.
“Mind your tongue,” he warned, “unless you would like me to cut it out for you.”
I glanced between the two elves as I took stock of how many weapons there were between the three of us in the small hut. Considering the sudden brawls the two had been falling into lately, I decided to clear my throat and distract the situation a bit.
“Maybe we should leave the wife out of this one and focus on the more prevalent issues.”
“Alright,” Dragir agreed flatly. “Give me the weapons, or I’ll fuck your wife in your own bed the next time you head north.”
I gave the elf a pointed look, but he shrugged.
“She offered,” he added. “I am giving him another option. That is fair.”
I sighed and turned to find Rhys scowling at the floorboards.
“Yes, I heard her,” he snapped, and he didn’t look up as he continued. “My son is missing. I will not sit by while this Master attempts to destroy all I stand for, everything I’ve dedicated my life to.”
“We’re not asking you to,” I told him, “but those weapons are more powerful than anything you’ve ever witnessed, and they sure as hell weren’t created for your army. If you want us to protect your House, you’ll tell us where they are. If not, you’re on your own against the Master’s army, but you should know he’s gathered House Ceres since his last attack.”
Rhys looked up abruptly, and I could tell he was wavering in his resolve.
“You’re sure about this?” he demanded.
I nodded. “Luir’s known about it for days, and he won’t offer his army in our aid,” I explained. “You need Dragir’s help if you’re going to survive, and those weapons won’t do you any good without me. Hand them over, and we’ll honor our original agreement. Otherwise, you and House Fehryn will fall, and Dragir will be comforting your wife in any way she sees fit.”
Rhys ground his jaw as he considered this, and his hand tightened on the hilt of his sword in his fury.
“The bazooka cannot be that difficult to operate,” he muttered.
Dragir spoke up in Elvish, and he must have explained the new rune he’d added to the weapons, because Rhys’ face finally went slack as he stared.
“You lie,” he accused the elf.
“Would I have left them all sitting there if I thought anyone could use them?” Dragir challenged.
Rhys cursed to himself and shifted his weight while he thought, and after he’d eyed to two of us darkly for a long moment, he finally gave a curt nod.
“Fine,” he relented. “The bazookas are in the storehouse at the other end of the clearing. The ammunition as well, but we move out within the hour.”
Dragir sighed. “See some sense, Rhys,” he advised. “The Master will be at your doorstep within the day. Abandon your revenge and let him fall into our trap. We have every chance of defeating him if we wait. Move your army out, and you guarantee your defeat.”
“I will not be told how to lead my own army,” Rhys growled.
“And I won’t offer my own to be led to their deaths,” Dragir countered. His jaw was set firmly as he returned Rhys’ gaze, and I waited with my revolver still drawn as the two remained locked in silent hatred.
When I realized neither would abandon their stubbornness without losing another hand or two, I cleared my throat once more.
“Shoshanne’s already in position, and my women are retrieving the bazookas as we speak,” I informed Rhys. “We can help you if you let us, or we’ll leave with the weapons. Final offer.”
Rhys slumped slightly, and a tortured glint suddenly came to his serpentine eyes.
“Don’t kill my son,” he ordered in a strained voice. “I don’t care what they’ve made of him. Don’t k
ill him, you hear me? Either of you.”
I glanced at Dragir, and the elf furrowed his brow.
“If he’s been branded--” he muttered, but Rhys growled over him.
“Your word!” he demanded. “You will not kill him.”
Dragir sighed and pushed himself from the wall. “You have my word,” he said in a low voice as he headed for the door, “but I cannot speak for my army or yours.”
Rhys’ expression twisted painfully as he fought to remain composed.
“You have my word as well,” I assured him. “Are your scouts keeping an eye on House Syru?”
Rhys nodded to the floorboards.
“Good,” I replied. “We’ll meet you in the west.”
Dragir was waiting in the clearing when I emerged from the woven hut, and he led the way toward the other end of the clearing without a word. We passed the deserted homes of House Fehryn and several soldiers along the way, and the few who had fought beside us at the battle at House Quyn nodded their respect while we passed.
“So … you and his wife,” I mumbled with a half a grin. “When was that?”
“A couple months ago,” Dragir replied, but when he noticed my confused stare, he nodded to himself. “Oh, you mean the first time. About fifteen years ago.”
“Holy shit,” I chuckled. “Does Rhys know you’re still at it?”
Dragir smirked. “Aliasa has made sure of it,” he replied. “She knows it pisses him off, and she likes to get her way. If Rhys denies her anything, she usually tracks me down.”
“I can’t believe he hasn’t killed you,” I admitted as I considered having a wife like her.
Dragir furrowed his brow. “Why would he?” he asked. “Rhys knows Aliasa is a difficult woman to maintain. I’m doing him a favor, really. His wife fucks her frustrations out with me and doesn’t set his village on fire. Rhys gets pissed about it and gives her whatever it is she wants, and my own House lives without much concern about House Fehryn.”
I was laughing heartily when we came to find Cayla and her rifle barring the entrance of the storehouse where Rhys had once retrieved spools of bowstring for me to create the magazine bows.
The princess cocked a brow at our filthy grins as we approached.
“I take it everything went well?” Cayla asked.
“It’s all sorted out,” I said through my last chuckles. “You found the bazookas, yeah?”
“Aurora is getting the last of the rockets now,” Cayla informed us as she nodded toward the storehouse at her back. “Shoshanne is posted in the west, but two scouts arrived a few minutes ago. They’re speaking with the leader over there.”
I looked beyond the elves who eyed Cayla’s rifle nervously and kept their distance, and the head of House Fehryn was just turning from his guards to bolt in the direction of Rhys’ hut.
“Shit,” I muttered and turned to Dragir. “Take the Mustang and get your army moving fast. We’ll hold them off as best we can until you arrive.”
Dragir shook his head. “They’ll be here any minute,” he told me without concern. “I sent them out a few hours ago.”
I cocked a brow at the scheming elf, and he shrugged once more as he continued.
“Rhys is terrified of your revolver. I knew he would cave.”
Chapter 16
Within five minutes, every elf in the village of House Fehryn was in motion divvying up arrows and securing newly sharpened blades in their sheaths. Rhys joined his army with his anger palpable in the way he spoke and moved amongst his men, but when he approached Dragir and me, he behaved as if no conversation had taken place in his hut.
Dragir and Rhys conversed in Elvish to quickly arrange their troops, and the head of House Fehryn himself took the missing son’s place with a troop of his own. He was nearly as tightly wound as Rhys was, and he barked orders at anyone who crossed his path. I heard each of them say the word “Rali” enough times to realize this was Rhys’ son’s name, and every elf nodded curtly in response to their orders.
Dragir’s army arrived not ten minutes after Cayla and Aurora had the storehouse emptied, and by the time I left with them to join Shoshanne in the west, all of the troops had filled the village and overrun the surrounding jungle as well. Dragir must have upped his end of the bargain, because it looked like all of House Quyn’s army were there, and between the two Houses, there were well over two hundred warriors gathered and awaiting orders from Dragir and Rhys.
The two men decided the ravine just west of Black Rock would be ideal for the initial ambush, and we all agreed their troops should span the jungle between Black Rock and House Fehryn, but no closer. With the bazookas and our mage magic as the primary weapons, it was best no stragglers could possibly end up in the crosshairs, so Rhys and Dragir made sure their men knew to stay back from where the initial attack would take place.
This meant we’d only have the ravine to work with before House Quyn’s army took on the next attack east of us, and beyond them, House Fehryn’s army would be strewn through the jungle as a barricade around the main village.
Cayla and Aurora led the way up a steep embankment within the trees, and I suspended the bazookas and ammunition ahead of me as I followed close behind.
We could barely see the concealed troops who sprawled throughout the entire jungle beyond the large black and moss-covered boulder at the bank of the River East. Every now and then, a glint of a sheer Halcyan glaive would flick out above the ferns, but this was the only hint that another force waited in the jungles at our backs.
I only hoped we’d be able to hold off the brunt of the oncoming soldiers for them.
Dragir and Rhys joined us on the embankment with six guards in tow to serve as our loaders, and Rhys eagerly took hold of the first bazooka he came to.
I gave the guards a rundown of the safety precautions needed while operating the bazookas in order to avoid scalding anyone with the back blast, and then I explained how the sights I’d secured to each bazooka worked.
“You’re going to look through the nearest sight to find your aim, and each notch on the furthest sight marks the gradation of the distance you’re working with,” I explained to my firing squad as I mounted a bazooka on my shoulder to demonstrate, and the others did the same. “If your target is at one hundred yards, you’ll align your sight with the top gradation. Two hundred yards is just below, and on like that to four hundred yards. The further your target is, the higher you’re gonna need to tilt the barrel.”
Dragir explained the loading process in Elvish for the guards who joined us, and they all stared wide eyed at the hefty steel weaponry as he spoke. Then they gingerly held the runed rockets in their palms, and Dragir furrowed his brow as he realized they were afraid to touch them.
He sighed impatiently and caught a rocket from one of the piles at his side, and then he clanged it against his good palm to show there was nothing they needed to worry about. The guards nodded uneasily and took their positions at our flanks, but I could tell the unrecognizable runes had concerned them.
Dragir made each guard load the bazookas one at a time for him to be sure they had the process down, and once everyone was prepared, I finally scanned the treetops around us.
I could have sworn I saw the flick of a large, tawny wing somewhere, and I ground my jaw.
Luir had no doubt sent his transmuters to catch the show, but I worked to ignore this as I tried to find any sign of our Aer Mage.
“Where did you put Shoshanne?” I muttered to Aurora at my side.
“She’s over there,” the Ignis Mage responded in a low voice, and she gestured to the canopy across the ravine from us. “She climbed up from that stack of boulders, and she says she can climb down easily without being seen if she sticks to the limbs on the southern side.”
Two embankments flanked the ravine and created a low pass that turned its way through the jungle toward House Fehryn, and both sides were far too steep to scale very quickly, which eased my mind a bit.
I didn’t like th
e idea of Shoshanne being separated from us by a sea of possessed soldiers, but she had her own bazooka, bow, shuriken, and her Aer magic to protect her. So, I could probably afford to relax a little.
The line of trees that jutted up from the ravine floor to form the canopy was too dense for the army to bother tearing through, but the majority of the ravine’s base was flecked with ferns and exotic plants that would be wholly destroyed by the time we were done with the initial attack.
Dragir shifted on my left and nudged me with his arm. “Where is the healer?”
Rhys frowned and leaned around the elf. “What healer?” he asked. “What do we need a healer for in the middle of battle?”
“Shoshanne’s an Aer Mage,” I explained. “She’s in that tree over there, so watch your aim.”
The two elves nodded and eyed the canopy, but I could tell neither of them could see her either. Another tawny wing twitched, though, and I slid my bow around from my back.
“What does the Aer Mage do?” Rhys asked and sent a nervous glance toward Aurora.
“Shoshanne can take the air from anyone’s lungs, but she doesn’t need to be near them to do it,” I told him bluntly. “She’s concealed so she can focus on taking down groups at a time. Think of it like mass suffocation, but no hands required.”
Rhys’ amber eyes stared blankly for a second before he gave a harried nod.
Then I took my aim with the magazine bow and let an arrow loose.
The serrated arrow pierced the massive owl between the eyes before it could take flight, and Dragir snorted as the body fell to the ravine floor with a muffled thud.
Rhys looked over. “The head of House Orrel will kill you for that, you know.”
“Luir already wants to kill him,” Dragir informed the braided elf.
Rhys nodded as if this required no further explanation.
“If any of you see Rali, tell me immediately,” he muttered as I returned my bow to my back. “I need to get him out of there before Aliasa kills me.”
