by Eric Vall
Dragir spoke to him urgently in Elvish and pulled him out of the way of two sparring soldiers, and his father swiftly joined the two as Rali gave a small nod.
I finally let out the breath I’d been holding when the boy grabbed hold of his father’s arm and buried his face against his bloodied tunic, and Shoshanne looked about ready to keel over beside me.
“Gods,” she breathed. “That was horrifying.”
Without a word, I pulled the healer into my arms, and as I pinned her to the tree at her back, she chuckled against my kiss and melted into my hold. Blades clanged around us as flames sparked and rain poured down relentlessly, but I kept the healer locked in a fiery kiss until she began to tremble for me. Her skin was heated despite how drenched she was, and her fingers wove through my bloody hair while she pulled me against her.
If a dagger hadn’t impaled the tree beside our heads, I might have hitched her legs up right there and fucked her brains out.
Shoshanne gasped and whipped her head to the side as we stared at the blade only an inch from our faces, but I turned her back toward me to give her one last tender kiss before I finally loosened my hold on her.
Dragir wrenched the blade from the trunk for me and sent us both a pointed look before he flipped around and drove it into another soldier’s eye.
Shoshanne blushed deeply and tried to hide her smile, and she pulled her rumpled dress back over her thighs with a soft giggle.
I groaned and shifted the velvet of her top for her a bit when I realized her nipple was nearly exposed, and the healer bit her lip in a way that only made me want her more.
“You’re an angel,” I murmured in her ear, and she sighed as she slid her arms around me again.
“Are you done killing elves yet?” she moaned. “I want you to pin me to those boulders up there.”
I chuckled and glanced at the embankment above us.
“Almost,” I assured her, but then Rhys caught my shirt and dragged me away from the caramel beauty.
“Fucking focus,” he growled and shoved the hilt of a sword into my hand, and Shoshanne giggled once more as she quickly ducked behind the tree to scale the boulders on the embankment.
I watched the rain-drenched woman disappear with her cheeks a deep pink, and I still had an admiring grin on my face when a low grunt echoed at my back.
I turned just in time to miss being fully impaled, but the dagger the brawny soldier had hurled still tore a deep gouge across my arm as it passed.
“Godsdamnit,” I cursed as I ducked the next blade to come flying, and I didn’t miss the curt sigh that came from Dragir a few feet away.
Rali was nowhere in sight now, but Rhys and Dragir continued to strike out at every elf they passed, and I was relieved to find the Master’s army was well thinned out.
Bodies floated in the muck that had risen to our knees with the torrential rain, and I sloshed back into the fray as I drove the Halcyan sword into the gut of a feral elf.
With the enchanted blade in my grip, the wound on my arm remained staunched, and I made sure not to drop the sword while the three of us cut our way through the ravine relentlessly.
Everywhere I looked, Aurora’s flames flashed, and as more elves struggled for air, the rest of the troops from House Quyn and House Fehryn poured in from the east.
They were bloodied from their sparring east of Black Rock, but they joined us in the final throes of the battle as the Master’s army began to panic and flee.
“Don’t let them get away,” I hollered up to half-elf on the embankment, and Aurora raised her palms at the same time as me while we turned toward the west.
The sinkhole I’d formed caught several of the elves, but those who started to scale the embankments to get around the death trap were barricaded with a line of searing white flames. Then the ground opened beneath them, and as mud and rain poured in around them, the possessed elves sank into the earth with gargling screams of terror.
I shifted a pile of boulders next to send them tumbling down the further ridge, and they flattened another pack of fleeing soldiers with a thundering crash.
Shoshanne had several of the possessed elves dropping mid stride all over the place, and when Aurora lit the entire mouth of the ravine on fire, the last of the soldiers were subjected to a fiery death.
The ruthless elves who continued to fight their attackers were swiftly dispatched as Rhys and Dragir’s men turned on them in groups of five and six, and I finally lowered my sword when the last wails of pain rang out and faded beneath the sound of rolling thunder above.
I could hardly take a step with the submerged bodies of the Master’s army strewn in every direction, but Dragir and Rhys stepped on the backs and skulls of the dead as they gave orders to their armies.
A few troops were sent west to scan for any escapees, and several more began pulling any of their own injured men from the sludge.
With Halcyan blades locked in their grips, the muddied elves were hitched over shoulders to be carted off, and the armies stumbled to avoid the mudslides still pouring in all along the embankments.
Cayla and Aurora smirked as they waved to me from across the ravine, but they were hardly recognizable under all that mud.
I couldn’t help but chuckle when the princess’ loader crawled out from the underbrush behind them. He looked at Cayla like he’d worship her for the rest of his life, and the princess carelessly dropped her bazooka into his arms as she gestured for him to return to House Fehryn.
The elf nodded fervently and tripped at least four times while he hustled to do her bidding.
Cayla just sent me a little shrug and blew me a kiss.
Then Shoshanne sighed at my back, and I grinned as the healer curled her arms around me and left a light kiss between my shoulder blades.
“You’re covered in blood,” she mumbled.
“Not this side though,” I pointed out, and I shifted to show her the dagger wound on my arm. I still had the Halcyan blade in my hand, and the wound hadn’t lost a drop of blood. “These blades are fucking incredible.”
Shoshanne nodded her agreement and gingerly peeled my sleeve aside to study the wound.
Her copper curls clung to her muddied cheeks, and her warm brown eyes glowed in the dim green cast of the jungle. With her velvet dress thoroughly drenched, it clung to every wonderful curve on her body, and heat began to pulse through my veins as I eyed the pillow of her cleavage while she stooped at my side.
“I should stitch this,” the healer muttered, but when she looked up, her lips curled into a smirk at my expression.
“Got a minute?” I asked with a roguish grin.
Shoshanne giggled and swiftly hopped to throw her arms around my neck, and as I caught her thighs and locked them around me, the sword slid from my distracted hand.
I must have had more injuries than I thought, because the sudden swell of blood seeping out of me made me stumble. My head became light, and my knees buckled, and as I crashed back with Shoshanne still in my arms, the healer let out a surprised shriek.
I managed to return the woman’s heated kisses for a bit before the pain began to catch up to me though, and I winced as mud seeped into all of my open wounds.
Shoshanne didn’t miss a thing, and she abruptly pulled away to narrow her eyes on me.
“You’re too wounded for this,” the healer told me sternly.
I tried to catch her waist, but she stood too quickly, and the spliced muscles in my arm protested angrily at the attempt.
“Fuck that,” I sighed, and as the woman hauled me to my feet, I locked her against me for good measure. “If you’re on top, it doesn’t matter how wounded I am, does it?”
Shoshanne giggled as her blush deepened, and Rhys sighed.
“You’re going to die over your women,” he told me bluntly as he passed. “I am finally sure of this.”
“You have no idea how accurate that is,” Dragir muttered.
I glanced over to find him hauling one of his men from the mud wi
th the help of a guard, and I quickly released the plush hips I was kneading between my palms.
“Sorry,” I mumbled with half a grin, “let me help you with that.”
Dragir snorted. “I believe you have your hands full. Your other women are currently vying for your attention as well.”
Rhys shook his head to himself, and I cocked a brow.
When I looked out across the ravine to find Aurora and Cayla quickly descending the embankment and waving me over, I immediately cut across the river of bodies and the mud to get to them.
Their eyes were wide as they barreled past the warriors, and when they got to me, Aurora caught my arm to pull me along with her.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded.
“The rain,” she gasped as she trudged toward Black Rock.
“What about it?” I asked.
The rain had eased up at some point, and with the mudslides waning to steady streams, I couldn’t see any immediate danger.
“It’s stopped,” Cayla said with a pointed look.
I smirked in confusion, but within a second I caught up. I’d been so relieved when the last of the Master’s army had been destroyed, I almost forgot the battle wasn’t over yet.
“Shit,” I cursed. “Where did the mage go?”
“I don’t know,” Aurora called back as she slipped over a muddy corpse, “but I’ve got a guess I really hope I’m wrong about.”
My gut clenched, and I halted to flip around and holler to Dragir.
The elf furrowed his brow where he and Rhys were working to free a warrior who was pinned beneath a brawny corpse, but when I told him we had to get to the cove, his face went slack, and he abruptly dropped the elf into the mud.
Rhys was staring in confusion as all of us sloshed out of the ravine without another word, and when we finally made it out of the flood, we barreled through the jungle as fast as we could. The warriors were carrying their wounded back to the village, and we wove between them without looking back.
The village at House Fehryn was already strewn with elves patiently waiting to be tended. They propped themselves against the woven huts and on old stumps, and while we swiftly leapt over them, they looked on with concern.
Then someone called Dragir’s name, and he came to an abrupt stop.
We all turned to see Rhys’ wife with Rali smooshed tightly against her ample breasts, and the young elf looked irritated as hell to be locked in his mother’s embrace.
His leg was swollen to a vibrant red where we’d torn his skin off, and Shoshanne immediately doubled back to check on the kid.
Dragir joined them and finally freed the young elf from his mother’s clutches, and as Rali rolled his ruddy orange eyes, the tigerish woman yanked Dragir into her arms.
She practically climbed the guy while she devoured his lips, and Dragir stumbled to brace himself against the hut beside them.
Aurora’s jaw dropped as she watched the two, and Cayla turned her wide eyes toward me.
“Is he kissing Rhys’ wife?” she asked with obvious confusion on her pretty face.
“Yes, he is,” I sighed. “I don’t know how to even explain it besides just saying that elves are fucking weird.”
“That’s been the understatement of the last few weeks,” Cayla agreed.
The sultry woman eventually released Dragir to send him a heated look, and I heard him chuckle and mumble something to her as he gestured over his shoulder.
Then the woman’s vibrant orange eyes snapped on me.
Dragir smirked and led the woman over to where Aurora and Cayla stood gaping on either side of me, and I couldn’t help but admire the heavy sway of Aliasa’s exposed hips beneath the scrap of leather she wore. Her unruly purple hair was drenched and clinging to her skin as it tumbled down across her ample cleavage, and her eyes bore into mine like a cat prowling for its dinner.
“This is Mason Flynt,” Dragir told her. “He is the mage who--”
Dragir trailed off when Rhys’ wife snatched the collar of my shirt, and as she pressed her plush breasts firmly against me, the woman forced her tongue between my lips.
I didn’t fight her a damn bit, of course, and I let the sweet scent of honeysuckle overrun my senses while the woman devoured my lips hungrily. She was soft all over and apparently determined to let me enjoy every inch of her, and she forced my arms around her waist as she moaned softly into my mouth.
My hands naturally slid to her ample hips, and the woman rolled wantonly against me in response. I honestly thought she was ten seconds from pinning me down right there, but when she tore the few ties on my shirt collar open, Dragir cleared his throat.
I glanced over as Aliasa stubbornly held me closer, and when Dragir nodded to the right of us, I realized Rali was storming over with Shoshanne close behind.
I immediately raised my hands to release the erotic woman, but only when her son began berating her in Elvish did Aliasa finally slide her tongue from my mouth.
Her stark orange eyes were hooded with lust as she sent me a tigerish grin, and she let her son drag her away while she waved coyly at me.
I swallowed hard and focused on redirecting my blood flow for a second, and Dragir chuckled as he watched her go.
“She likes you,” he muttered.
I raised my brows and eyed the warm cinnamon hue of Aliasa’s exposed backend across the clearing.
“Maybe she was just thanking me for saving her son?” I winced.
“That might be a small part of it.” Cayla giggled. “You probably shouldn’t let Rhys know she tried to taste your tonsils.”
Dragir turned around and nodded soberly. “Yes, he will kill you if he finds out you did that.”
There were at least twenty elves chuckling to themselves around the clearing who absolutely saw everything, and I stared blankly at Dragir.
“I didn’t do that,” I countered. “That was all her. Why don’t you tell him to control his damn woman?”
“You were a bit involved,” Aurora pointed out, and the half-elf returned my stern glance with a broad grin. “Maybe we should have her visit Illaria sometime. Show her the sights … give her a nice warm bed to spend the night in.”
I sighed and caught the half-elf’s arm to steer her the other direction.
“If Rhys would kill me, he’d damn sure kill you for luring his wife into our bed,” I mumbled. “Now-- cove, possessed mage, lovely elf you’re actually allowed to play dirty with...”
“Shit,” Aurora cursed, and she bolted ahead into the tree line as she finally regrouped.
Chapter 18
I summoned the bazookas and the remaining ammunition to me once we made it to the Mustang, and by the time everyone was loaded up and piling into the car, the weapons came through the trees and lined themselves in the base of the trunk.
I practically planted my foot through the floor to take us back to the road, and with Bobbie growling loudly, the merchant shops of Rhoemir were nothing but a mossy blur as we sped past and headed for the coast.
Everyone braced themselves on the grab bars when we reached the turn that would lead us north to Lyralus, and I quickly veered off to barrel through the ferns toward the south. I kept my Terra powers aimed ahead of us to overturn the undergrowth and help keep up a decent speed, and Shoshanne passed around Tiorlin berries to everyone along the way,
She left a light kiss on my neck before she slipped two onto my tongue, and then she attempted to tend to a few of my wounds between the jolting of the Mustang.
Aurora’s emerald gaze was calm and calculating while she looked ahead of us, and Cayla worked on applying another dose of poultice to her injured knee. She’d been largely ignoring the wound much like I usually did, but I could tell by the tension in her jaw that the pain was getting difficult to overlook.
“I want you up on the ridge when we get there,” I said as I looked back through the rearview mirror at Cayla. “The ammunition’s in the trunk but find a place the water can’t get at you too easily.”
Cayla nodded. “Watch out for the rockets,” she replied. “I’ll probably start with the rifle, but if things look bad, I’ll switch to the bazooka.”
“Do not destroy the fortress,” Dragir warned, and the princess nodded again.
“Will the boy be alright?” she asked the elf.
Dragir let out a sigh. “I do not know,” he admitted. “I have never known an elf to cut a branding from their flesh.”
He sent me a sidelong glance, but I just shrugged.
“Seemed to work fine to me.”
“You did not hear what he was saying,” Dragir countered. “He is lucky your Aer Mage was there. I was worried he might lose control of his mind if it carried on for much longer.”
I furrowed my brow. “I heard my name a few times. What was he saying about me?”
“It is not important,” the elf replied vaguely, but his expression looked deeply worried. “I believe this Master has instilled a certain … hatred for you in his followers, though. Rali seemed deliriously angry with you.”
“Yeah, Mina said the same thing,” I mumbled.
“Who is Mina?”
“She’s an Ignis Mage at the Order,” Aurora explained, and she propped her elbows between us. “While we were in Orebane, she was possessed by an enchanted piece of ice, and when she came back around to being herself, she told Mason she really, really wanted to kill him. She said she wanted to tear his flesh off, even.”
Dragir cleared his throat. “That is similar to what Rali said,” he muttered. “He was rather explicit about his own ideas on the matter. Although, I would imagine these were the Master’s ideas more than his own.”
“Can the Master harness that kind of specific hatred with a degree?” I asked in confusion.
“No, but he can control the thought patterns of those he possesses,” Dragir explained. “The twenty-ninth degree is the surest path to the workings of the mind when paired with the inward directional degree. Once someone is under the power of his rune, he may be as specific as he pleases about what they should do or how they should think. With so many soldiers at his command, he most likely singled out Rali to hunt you down and generally informed the rest of his wishes.”
