Queens' Warriors

by Mari Byrne

  “If what’s true?” Vincent asked.

  “Queen Sara’s throne will soon be usurped and the new Queen is truly willing to relocate to Aranak.”

  With a malicious grin riding his mouth, Vincent walked into the chasm, a gleeful note in his voice, “One can only hope and pray it’s true, brother. Hope and pray.”

  * * * * *

  “What the hell is wrong with you Candice?!? Did I not make myself clear?” Pacing back and forth in front of the sobbing woman hanging against the wall, Sara took great pleasure in swinging her favorite toy. Every time the toy, a round, blunt-studded “ball” hanging from a steel rod, skimmed the terrified woman’s exposed backside, a cry of terror escaped.

  It pleased Sara immensely to both hear and see the woman’s terror. But to feel her terror… Ah, that was simply exquisite. Sara wondered just how much the woman could take before death overcame her.

  “Not to worry, I’ll soon find out.” The whispered words were spoken into the ear of the terrified subject. The shiver Sara felt go through the female caused her own body to perk up in preparation for the sexual play, which would indeed follow soon.

  “Now, if I remember correctly, my little Flower, I gave you an order. I seem to recall myself saying something along the lines of…what was it?” Sara remembered all too well what she had demanded of her “Flower”, and the penalty the woman’s petals were going to pay would indeed be an enjoyable game!

  Pretending to think for a moment, Sara reached out with the steel end of the rod and ran it between the woman’s legs. Enjoying the shrieking woman’s pain and the sight of the wriggling body before her, Sara smiled, pretending her memory had found the exact words to the woman.

  “Ah yes! It’s coming back to me now. What I said was: ‘Lovely is to die in the morning. Insure he is sent to the Queen’s Guard immediately after I have finished with him’.”

  Even if it wasn’t what she had said, it was what Sara had meant and her subjects should know better.

  Casually raising the rod upward, Sara began to rub it back and forth gently along the inner thigh of her prisoner.

  “It really is a shame you don’t know how to follow orders.”

  Sara sighed heavily but all too quickly brightened.

  “I am ready to pronounce your punishment now.”

  Sara removed the rod and heard the gratifying sound of a moan. Pleased, she turned the rod around in her hands and spoke in the tone of voice she used for making proclamations.

  “Let it be said I am a generous Queen. Your sentence shall be given with this instrument only, and when I am satisfied you are repentant, you will be freed.”

  Extending the rod once more toward the woman, Sara ran it from the woman’s belly to the woman’s groin and back again. Even as she hoped the torture would last for days, she thought to herself, This woman won’t last more than two hours.

  Smiling, the punishment began.

  * * * * *

  I’m going to die, Candice thought as Queen Sara began her torture once again. Dorian had been right. It was going to cost her everything she had. Gritting her teeth to stifle a scream as the hot rod came within inches of her skin, Candice tried to settle on the image of just why she was going to die. Dorian’s life had better be worth her death. If someone didn’t stop the Queen, all this would be for nothing.

  * * * * *

  Sara squirmed sensually on the bed as the four men left her chambers. The quick romp had left the bed wrecked, but her temporarily sated. Her anger at Candice’s failure to carry out orders Sara had given inflamed her.

  “As if the bitch didn’t know exactly what her defiance would cost her. As if defying me wouldn’t matter in the slightest. Why she practically asked for the punishment she received. After all, I am Queen here.”

  Lovely thoughts floated through her head of the time she’d spent on the throne of the Queendom of Aranak, and she smiled wickedly. Everything had fallen into place when her sons’ fathers, Dain and Larik, had died before the twins were born. She had been widowed, and glad of it.

  Being Queen had given her the status she had craved all her life, and the power to do as she pleased. Which was a good thing, as pleasing herself was all she cared about.

  Wallowing in memories of the men and women she’d gone through made her cunt ache and caused her mood to swing once again. All those lovely bodies she’d had at her disposal. The peasants, royalty… The royals were by far the best of them. Not for any reason most people would assume, though. It had nothing to do with men and women of royal birth being trained better in the arts of sexual pleasure, no. It was that royal born members of Azaya nearly always thought they were above such things as sex. Their screams of denial at the things Sara did to them gave her more pleasure because the same upstarts never thought she would actually hurt them. Sara smiled wickedly. Oh yes. The snobs nearly always ended up coming back begging for more. Thinking of the last man she had put under the heating rod and Sara’s hands began to caress her own body at the memory.

  “Yes…” Her fingers made a foray into her pussy and she quickly decided to call back the four men who had just departed, reminding herself of how good it was to be Queen, until a stray thought leaked into her mind.

  But you are not the Queen of Aranak. That upstart, Stephanie, is now Queen.

  Sara’s eyes flew open as a scream of rage flew from her mouth, her fingers drawing her own blood as she let go of herself roughly.

  Sara threw herself out of bed and, with a strength few knew she possessed, proceeded to demolish her royal chambers. An antique chair, older than her dead grandmother, went flying ten feet across the room and smashed into the couch farther into the room. Art flew off the wall as the Queen randomly proceeded to demolish whatever was within arm’s reach.

  “The upstart whore! The frechie slut! Who does she think she is?!? Just because my sons’ wife is to hold the throne of Aranak doesn’t mean I am going to give up my place. It will be a cold day in the seven rings of Hellios before she gets any of my power!”

  The screeching went on for what must have been hours.

  By the time Sara had worn herself out, she was tired, but still horny. The only thoughts running through her mind were for herself as Sara got up from the chair she’d collapsed into and ran to the chamber door. Yanking it open and slamming it against the wall so it near bounced back into her, she began to yell.

  “I want seven men, I don’t care who they are. I want them here now! Their cocks had better be at the ready and able to serve me for hours. And then I want that freching slut, Candice, brought to the black chamber and stripped. Hang her in chains and have her raped. By no less than three people. Man, woman, I don’t care. Get it done!!!”

  The three guards standing outside her door snapped to attention.

  Sara went back into her chamber and slammed the door shut behind her. Her breathing coming in heaving pants and her eyes nearly glowing with rage, she made a scan of the ruined chamber.

  Growling once again in frustration, she went back to the door and yanked it open once again.

  “And get somebody in here to clean up this freching mess!”

  Feeling marginally better, Sara went back into her room and started to calm her breathing.

  This Stephanie would die before Sara ever let her take the throne of Aranak.

  Chapter Two

  “Oh where, oh where has my little doggie gone? Oh where, oh where can he be?” The homeless woman sang loudly and off-key, as her cart bumped along the broken concrete, the fifth of liquor she’d had blunting her vision. The tiny dog hidden in the folds of many blankets struggled to extricate itself from the load of wool smothering him as he yipped and whined for release.

  In front of her, the wind had begun to swirl in fast arcing circles, sending leaves, twigs, and dirt blowing in a tiny tempest through the park. The sound of the fabric of the universe ripping barely made a dent in the surroundings as the rip between worlds widened. The rip grew wider, wide enough for a bo
dy to step through if you were two and a half feet tall.

  The sudden flash and ear-popping pressure came up suddenly as a hole appeared in the middle of the view directly in front of the woman.

  “Clyde! Clyde! They’re a comin’ for me! Hep’ me Lawd! Hep’ me!” Her cries were suddenly drowned out as a figure came barreling out of the opening in a roaring scream.

  A head full of silky brown hair showed in the opening, similar to a mother birthing a child. The wide, brawny shoulders squeezed out followed by a barreled chest, lean hips, and bulging muscled thighs. Suddenly, a warrior dressed in the ancient uniform of another era sprang forward, then rolled to a stop and immediately leapt to his feet in front of the inebriated woman’s cart.

  Slightly out of breath, Vincent straightened to his impressive height of six-foot, five-inches, shaking himself to rid his essence of the otherworldly feeling he felt running through his body. The five-foot sword, which hung at his side, immediately cleared the scabbard in a motion made smooth by many years of practice.

  No sooner had the woman taken another breath to scream for the police when she saw the beginnings of a second figure of equal proportions start to come through the opening.

  A hand pushing at his back caused Vincent to step forward a few yards. Stopping, he turned and waited. He watched the fabric once more part into a diamond-shaped slit as his brother, Shan Lin, went through the same grunts and growls as he pushed his own way into and through the Tear.

  When the pop of pressure sounded, Shan Lin straightened from his tumble, somehow never affected in the least by the travel between worlds.

  The drunken woman gaped, frozen in a soundless scream as the second man’s equally long sword cleared its holder.

  For one brief moment the woman’s lips quivered as if to speak before her eyes rolled toward the top of her head and her body fell in a heap nearly taking the shopping cart and still yipping dog with it.

  Turning back to their audience of one, Vincent spoke.

  “Well, hell, Shan Lin! If they all drop at our feet like this, it shouldn’t be too damn hard to find willing women to bed.” Chuckling heartily at his own brand of wit, Vincent sheathed his weapon and went to lift the woman into his arms.

  “Funny, brother. But the last time we landed in a city, one of the locals tried to behead us on sight. Better to keep one’s head and panic the natives than to lose one’s head.”

  “So? What are we going to do with this one?” Vincent asked as he cradled the fragile woman in his arms. Barely hearing his own question, all Vincent could think of was the misery radiating off the old woman, even in her present state of drunkenness. The memories he was seeing from the contact with her sent a stab of anger mixed with grief through him.

  The woman hadn’t deserved to lose her children in a flood two days after being given the news of her husband’s death in a car accident. Vincent wanted to mend the woman’s heart and take the grief and aloneness as his own, but knew there wasn’t a magic gift in any realm to cure the pain of losing ones you loved.

  “Brother.” Vincent looked up at Shan Lin’s soft rebuke and nodded his head.

  “I know. We can’t help them all, but this one I can. And I don’t need you laying hands on her to see if it’s in her future. I’ll help her regardless.” The grief he was experiencing leaked into his voice making his reply sound harsh.

  Clearing his throat of the woman’s agony threatening to choke him, Vincent sat down on a nearby crate and continued to cradle the woman.

  Shan Lin watched his normally gruff brother use his not-so-inconsiderable powers to ease the grief of a total stranger. This side of Vincent wasn’t widely known about in the Realm of Azaya as both he and Vincent were considered two of the most blood-thirsty Warriors to inhabit the Queen’s Guard in over three hundred years.

  While it was an accomplishment Shan Lin was damned proud of, it wasn’t all the brothers were. They’d come to Earth to warn their Princes and meet their True Queen, if the rumors were to be believed, along with informing them of the machinations of their pretender Queen. They had also come to Earth to bid for clemency and put a stop to the slaughter of the Aranak landscape and more importantly, its people. Something Queen Sara had recently begun.

  Their only hope of success lay in convincing Prince Mitch and Prince Kristain the truth of their words. They also prayed for compassion in their new Queen, if indeed there truly was a new ruler.

  “Vincent, we have to go.” The majority of the Guards who knew Shan Lin would never have recognized him from the gentleness in his voice.

  “I know. One more minute and she’ll be fine.”

  * * * * *

  The brothers left the aged woman with the knowledge she would soon awaken, take stock of her current lifestyle for the first time in a long while, and finally find the courage to move forward out of her drunken grief. It wouldn’t be a perfect life, but the woman would soon find comfort in her drive to help others through times as rough as her own.

  They made their way through what seemed to be an alley between new and old buildings. The ambiance of the surroundings was quaint, but not quite what they were looking for.

  If Shan Lin remembered correctly, their Queen and Princes now lived on the outskirts of a city called Pinion Hills. They needed to get their bearings and find a way to locate the twins soon.

  “Well. Once more have I risked my mind and body to go along with you, brother mine.” Vincent spoke as he scanned his surroundings, a slight touch of sarcasm threading his voice. “And just where in Riad’s name are we?”

  Shan Lin looked around as well, gathering himself. Brushing at his clothing, he straightened to his full impressive height of six-foot five-inches.

  “Well, we’re at least somewhere we haven’t been before.” The answer, quibbling at best, was given in an equally sarcastic tone. “I realize you don’t look fondly on Realm travel, but you must admit, some of the very best adventures we’ve had were when Queen Sara ordered us through the Tears.”

  Vincent looked to his brother, “It’s not the new Realms I have problems enjoying,; it’s the way in which we travel to arrive in those Realms.” Moving forward, Vincent continued to speak while his brother fell into step behind him.

  “I must admit, the Realms have produced some of the happiest times in my life, but I’d still rather not have to ‘walk’ through the rips between them.”

  Chuckling, Shan Lin asked, “Does this imply you fear what you don’t understand, brother mine? Is the ‘Queen’s Most Vicious Warrior’ afraid of a tiny jolt of electrical juice flowing into and through his veins?” Shan Lin gave a tsking sound. “What would your admirers say if they knew the big, bad, scourge of Aranak trembled at Realm travel?”

  Vincent winced at his brother’s reminder of the title some woman bestowed on him when the story of his escapade with four Horrdian border raiders came to light.

  “It wasn’t really a huge deal. So I went a bit overboard when I shouted such a ridiculous line.”

  He nearly winced at the memory.

  Die for my Queen, for you’ll never live again for your family!

  He did wince as his brother spoke in his mind. It had been a stupid spur of the moment, adrenaline-pumping battle cry, which he would never hear the end of if his brother had any say in the matter.

  Which is convenient, because I do have a say in it. You’ll be hearing me rag on you about it until we die.

  His brother was laughing at him. Before Shan Lin could take it further, Vincent drowned out Shan Lin’s laughter.

  “My admirers would no doubt beat you around the head for even thinking I would be afraid of anything.” Vincent gave his own chuckle as he remembered the woman who had flung herself into his arms directly after the battle had ended and proclaimed him “Queen’s Most Vicious Warrior”. The thanks she had given him more than made up for any ribbing he had taken from his fellow Warriors.

  “Just as Lyssa would more than likely lop off your head if she heard you call
me by such a moniker. You know how she feels about her brothers’ nicknames coming to light. We’re her pride and joy. We wouldn’t harm any who didn’t try to harm us first.”

  The last was said with a touch of disbelief. They were part of Queen Sara’s Elite Guard. What the Hellios their sister thought they did in a military campaign was beyond Vincent. But he would tear apart anyone who tried to disabuse his gentle, loving sister of the idea her brothers were only deadly weapons their Queen dispatched with practiced ease when the situation suited her.

  Shan Lin gave a snort of exasperation. “If Lyssa had her way, we’d be known as the kindest, most gentle Warriors to ever walk the Realm of Azaya. You’d think she wasn’t familiar with our Aunt Sara’s reputation. She must know just what the frechie whore is capable of!”

  Anger settled heavily in Shan Lin’s gut as he thought about the last official assignment the Queen had sent them on. It was a trumped- up mission that went fubar almost immediately after they arrived at the village. They had found their cousin, Captain Theresa Lawsai, there in full command of the situation. What had transpired had been nothing short of a disaster. Whatever had set the Horrd off had been instigated by someone in Aranak and carried out by those very close to the Queen.

  It still made Shan Lin sick to think on it.

  Easy, brother mine, it is done. Captain Lawsai will take care of it, and we will finally have the documented proof we need to give to our Princes. The Princes will believe what we tell them about Dorian and Queen Sara’s determination to kill him. But it will all be as before. We have no concrete proof. There is little we can do until we verify there is truly a new Queen. Dwelling on it now will only bring back more grief.