Taleoek and my Royal Guard had already manned their posts at the armament openings by the time word of the sighting reached us through our telepathic relay network, at least a full minute later. The delayed report had Aristos issuing commands to Taleoek and Sennika to eliminate five soldiers from the relay chains to speed up the transmission, spacing the remaining soldiers further apart to compensate. He ensured both of my swords, a battle axe, a full set of perfectly balanced throwing knives, a crossbow, my dagger and my shield were within easy reach before he unfastened the chainmail flap that covered my pronounced baby bump and my sex.
If a griffin caught even a quick glimpse of me as he passed by an armament opening, the scene needed to look authentic. It also needed to smell like the real deal, with my body coated in the pheromones only pregnant Syreni females emitted, which explained why Aristos was not so patiently waiting for me to urinate all over myself. The incredibly sad fact that it wouldn’t even be the first time I’d had the pleasure since arriving in Teresolee spoke volumes about the wild-ass turn my life had taken. At least this time I wouldn’t be forced to wear a diaper, pink footed onesie pajamas and a matching bonnet afterwards and sleep in a baby crib with my blankie and my passie. I let out a mirthless chirp of a laugh as Bugs Bunny’s infamous words echoed through my head. I should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque.
Aristos brought my gold and burgundy gauntlet covered hand up to his mouth and kissed the metal as if it was the fine white lace of a debutante’s glove. Knowing Ris, he far preferred my current look. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your cheeks quite so flushed, my love. Would it help if I looked away?”
He was so breathtaking dressed for battle in his polished golden armor with his matching storm grey French braids trailing out from beneath his helmet that I was speechless, lost in his emerald-shaded dark chocolate eyes and glistening emerald lips. I couldn’t keep myself from looping the hand he’d claimed behind his neck and pulling him down into a kiss. “I can do this. You might want to scoot back, though. I’ve been holding it in for hours.”
Rather than heed my warning he nestled even closer against my side. “Fun fact about Syreni childbirth. When we’re doing this for real you’ll lose all control of your bodily functions. The more of your scent you can get on us both the better chance we have of convincing the griffins you’re about to give birth. Hurry, babe. I don’t want them to pass us by.”
I had to pee so bad that once I relaxed my muscles there was no holding back. Urine arced up into the air and came down across our chests and shoulders before the pressure lessened enough for the stream to trickle lower across our bellies. By the time I finished we were both coated in my urine from the waist up. “Well that was just as disgusting as I thought it would be. Although getting some in my mouth was an added bonus.”
The crazy man kissed me again in spite of my aforementioned pee-in-mouth announcement, making me question his intelligence. And my own, apparently, since our intermingling tongues were exchanging powerful jolts of electricity that had my glowing soulcras reaching out to join us together. He had to dance and weave like a champion featherweight prize fighter to avoid my advancing tentacles and give me the precious seconds I needed to get them—and my libido—back under control.
His tender, expressive eyes radiated the same intense love I felt emanating from the portion of his soul that had become part of me. He placed my gloved palm flat against his cheek, his glistening emerald lips stretched wide into an, I’m-head-over-heels-happy-and-I-don’t-give-a-shit-who-knows-it smile. “There is nothing you wouldn’t do for our daughter, my beautiful compar. I have never loved you more.”
“If you two are done with your…bathroom play, we’ve got incoming,” Commander Sennika teased from his partially submerged position in the moat directly across from me. “Looks like the same three Cami spotted, about five hundred yards out. Their leader has weapons strapped between his wings. And full red plumage around his neck. Damn, he’s at least a captain.”
After giving me another soft kiss, Aristos eased himself down into the frigid water, being careful to keep all but his tail above the surface so as not to wash off my scent. He methodically worked his way hand-over-hand around the moat until he reached the leader of my Royal Guard, who he greeted with a hard whack to the side of his helmet in retaliation for his smart-ass comment. Sennika shrugged it off as if he’d expected nothing less. They bumped gauntlet-covered fists in what was apparently the universal It’s-all-good gesture. I rolled my eyes as I watched their very human interaction play out. Boys would be boys regardless of what planet they were on.
Aristos picked up his long bow, which had a detailed image of Neptune wielding a sword and a battle axe carved into the handle, and notched a lethal looking broadhead-tipped arrow. “I can’t pass up an opportunity to take out one of their generals. Hold off on issuing the order for our reserves to surface and surround the chamber until after the griffin leader falls, Commander Taleoek. Start in with your muffled labor sounds like we practiced, Cami. We need to draw them in closer for them to spot us and provide me with a shot.”
During each of our three practice sessions—which all ended with phenomenal make-up sex after he’d royally pissed me off and I’d abandoned him at the surface—he’d tried over and over to correct my exaggerated groans and to get me to stop mimicking the breathing exercises I’d seen in movies when Syreni didn’t have lungs. What could I say? I was a shitty actress who didn’t know a damn thing about what it felt like to give birth to a child as a human, let alone as a Syreni female. Since Syreni didn’t have lungs—we drew in a constant flow of air to pass over our vocal chords and allow us to speak while above the surface through the fanashial flap located between our shoulder blades—there was no limit to how long the groans could go on other than what would sound natural, which placed even more of the onus on me to deliver a believable performance.
I tried to remember everything he’d taught me as I let out my first short moan. Syreni females did their best to remain completely silent while giving birth so they didn’t draw the attention of any griffins within earshot of their birthing chamber. The whimpers that did escape when the pain grew too intense to bear were through clenched lips and were incredibly high pitched, almost in dog whistle range. They could last anywhere from a couple of seconds up to a minute depending on the severity of the contraction. I held my second whimper for almost twenty seconds and varied the pitch as if I was bearing down for one big push as I tried to bring our little Vanessa into the world.
You nailed it, babe! Ris called out excitedly in my head, having switched to telepathy so we couldn’t be overheard. They’re headed straight for us. And based on the way their sucking air in through the scent glands in their gaping beaks they can definitely smell you. Come on, you bastards. Only another fifty yards.
Aristos drew back his bow and held it steady while he waited to take the shot. With my Goddess sight anchored on his position, I was able to glance through the rectangular opening in the metal reinforced stone and watch the three griffins close in while Aristos and the rest of my guards remained concealed from their view, hidden by the dark shadows cast by the mid-day sun. The medieval six foot bow had a hundred-and-ten pound draw. I’d just about torn my bicep and pectoral muscles clean off the bone trying to draw the damn thing back, and yet here he was, the fingers on his right hand not so much as quivering after holding the string anchored at his chin for several minutes. My warrior was a fine specimen of a male.
By the time the griffin general could see inside the chamber and detect the threat he was far too close. The arrow penetrated the thick leather armor protecting its feathery white chest, passing clean through the beast as its sprawling, fourteen foot wings swept downward, desperately trying to alter its course. Mortally wounded, the lifeless griffin crashed into the side of the chamber, the powerful impact sending me tumbling across the rough stone like we’d been hit by a semi. Thank the gods I was wearing my armor or I would’ve left about
half my skin on the floor. By the time I figured out which way was up again Taleoek had issued the command for our reserves to surface and surround the chamber. The two young griffins, a male and a female, wasted no time getting the hell out of dodge, rising up high into the stratosphere until they disappeared. I noticed during their hasty retreat that the male had only two clawed fingers on its right hand rather than the typical four. The deformity would make him easy to hone in on with my Goddess sight.
Aristos gently lifted me into his arms and slid backward a foot at a time from the middle of the chamber where I’d ended up until he reached the moat, lowering me down into the water next to him. His slick, soft as velvet lips kissed the bloody scrape on my chin. “Shit. I’m sorry, babe. I shouldn’t have let him get so close. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Ris. I’m locked on to the male. They’re headed southwest and are really hauling ass.”
Feeling his heavenly lips settle over mine made it damn hard to focus. His tongue worked its dark magic inside my mouth for several delicious seconds while I continued to watch the griffins fly high above the open sea on a beeline toward their birthing grounds. “You were amazing, Cami. That couldn’t have gone any better. Even if they don’t choose to launch a full out attack this time around, killing one of their generals and making them begin to question how they should respond to the scents and sounds of a Syreni female giving birth would be a major victory. Not that I have any doubt they will after witnessing your performance. Let’s gather your weapons and head for the ocean floor. Commander Taleoek, you are now in charge of our forces. Camithia will continue to feed you updates from across the battlefield once we get settled. Commander Sennika, take the rest of the queen’s Royal Guard and secure our exit. We’re done here.”
I sheathed both of my swords and my dagger while Sennika, Kilas, Vanimure and Fryliwan swam beneath the birthing chamber and took up defensive positions. There wouldn’t be much use for a crossbow or throwing knives beneath the surface. I reluctantly left them behind, grabbing my battle axe and my shield before following my compar down the platform and into the frigid water. We assumed our standard diamond formation as we headed straight to the bottom over twelve thousand feet beneath us. When we reached the sea floor the hundred soldiers that greeted us quickly formed a defensive perimeter around our position, allowing me to focus entirely on my reconnaissance.
It only took a moment for me to hone in on the male griffin with the missing toes. The seemingly endless span of marshy grasslands they were flying over reminded me of the Florida everglades, with a spider web of waterways weaving through the tall grasses and clusters of cypress trees. The scouts alarming cackles disturbed the females perched on the elevated nests they passed over, causing several of them to spread their majestic white wings out to their full wingspan, rise up on their lion-shaped hind legs and extend their claws and beaks in defense of their young.
A series of jagged foothills as black as tar suddenly appeared on the horizon, ominously rising up like demonic beasts from the marsh. At first it appeared the towering peaks were covered in a thick blanket of soot-tainted snow until the scouts got close enough for me to see that the hundreds of thousands of yellowish brown and grayish white flecks were moving. They swooped down into the center of their rapidly mobilizing army, landing in a small clearing on the edge of a cliff. The sprawling cave entrance located just behind the barren stone clearing they were now perched on had to reach seventy feet into the air and was as wide as a football field. Griffins were pouring out of the mouth of the cave like a colony of bats at twilight. Without shifting my attention away I passed along the revelation to Aristos and Taleoek, who were both equally surprised to learn griffins lived inside the mountain.
Both scouts were soon surrounded by a semi-circle of griffin generals, with what I had to assume was the griffin king in front. The head of the massive beast was covered in crimson feathers along with his entire neck. His right wing had been broken at some point in his life and had healed with an unnatural bend close to his shoulder. Several scars marred the portion of his white and grey feathered chest and muscular, semi-human looking arms I could see beneath his leather armor, the worst of which left a two inch streak of pink skin stretching from beneath his left arm all the way across his lower abdomen. Eight metal-tipped spears and a long bow were strapped between its wings along with a full quiver of arrows.
There was no way to determine what the scout I’d followed and his female companion conveyed to the griffin king and his generals through telepathy and with their strange clicks, calls and shrieks—my Goddess sight didn’t allow me to read their minds or translate the strange noises for me—but the exchange was brief. With one thunderous cry from the griffin king their army was airborne.
Providing even a remotely accurate estimate to Aristos and Taleoek on the size of the enemy force our troops would be encountering when there was nothing but a tangled blur of white and brown bodies clouding out the entire sky above the griffin scout was impossible. I needed a more distant vantage point. Given the cave’s close proximity to the Ceraspian Mountains, I decided to check in on the raptor King Genevolet to see if his concealed hiding spot on the far side of the mountain range would offer me a better view.
The entire mountainside beneath Genevolet—as far as I could see in both directions—was covered with the one-hundred-and-eighty pound, twenty-three foot wingspan black and crimson birds. There had to be close to three thousand of our allies in Genevolet’s regiment alone. It was only one of twenty such groups scattered along the entire mountain chain, all of which were commanded by raptor generals I’d been introduced to, allowing me to hone in on their positions through my Goddess sight and report on their regiment’s activity. Shifting my view slightly allowed me to look through the tiny crevice Genevolet was using to keep an eye on the section of ocean a few miles to the northeast of the griffin hatching grounds.
The swarm of griffins that soon appeared on the southern horizon resembled the plague of locusts described in the book of revelations. I was so taken aback by their sheer numbers at first that the only insight I was able to offer to our Syreni battle commander and my compar consisted of a muttered, Holy Fuck. If my on-the-fly math was even close to being accurate, there were well over ten thousand in the first wave alone, twice as many as the upper end of our estimate for the size of the force we’d expected to face. By the time the last of the griffins flew past Genevolet’s position, my estimate had climbed to roughly seventy-five thousand. Even with our hundred-and-twenty thousand Syreni warriors and our raptor allies, we weren’t going to enjoy the overwhelming advantage in numbers we’d been counting on. This was shaping up to be the largest battle in the history of our millennia long war.
Taleoek forwarded my intel on through our telepathic network to our twenty-four regiment commanders—each of which had five thousand soldiers in their unit—along with instructions to move their troops forward to their designated positions and await his command to surface and engage the enemy. We planned to form a ten mile diameter kill box centered around the birthing chamber. Once the griffins were inside the target zone our troops would surface and box them in, forming a continuous front around the entire area, while our raptor allies established their own perimeter above us, cutting off any escape through the air. With the enemy troops completely surrounded, we’d be able to direct all of our immense firepower inward without any fear of injuring our own. If all went as planned, our archers would be able to fire at will at a sky filled with captive targets from their protected positions behind our interlocking shield wall.
The raptor king waited until the last of the griffins had cleared the far horizon before he ordered his band of crimson winged predators to take flight, the massive birds falling into line with militaristic precision to form a kind of flattened U formation, the turned up ends almost resembling a grin. With every mile they advanced toward the target area their ranks continued to swell. Each of the battalions that rose up from their conceale
d positions along the sheer rock faces of the Ceraspian Mountains extended the formation until they’d formed a ten mile wide semi-circle, which would join up with the equal number of raptor battalions approaching the kill box from the opposite direction to fully secure the perimeter.
Assured that Genevolet had things well in hand on his end, I switched my focus to the twenty-four Syreni regiment commanders, honing in on each of their locations to see if their troops were in position. It appeared all one-hundred-and-twenty thousand of our warriors were ready for battle. My heart felt like it was going to break right out of my chest at any moment. I’d always wondered how people in their late teens and early twenties had mustered up the courage to storm the beaches at Normandy on D-Day. I was used to learning about famous battles by watching documentaries on the History channel at two in the morning when I couldn’t sleep. Yet here I was, at the ripe young age of twenty-one, pregnant, helping to coordinate a large-scale inter-species battle that could determine the fate of our entire planet for generations to come.
I passed along my thumbs up readiness assessment to Commander Taleoek and my aggravatingly calm, sexy as hell compar. Just looking at him all decked out in his golden armor exuding a quiet confidence that Achilles himself would have envied set loose a kaleidoscope of butterflies in my nether regions that caused my soulcras to glow like molten lava tubes and weave their way out of my chain mail armor toward my smirking mate over six feet away. And guys thought they had it bad trying to hide their flagpole standing at attention. I’d just announced to all hundred of the soldiers protecting me that their queen was horny. I could have kicked myself for not strapping on the iron guard Taleoek had made for me. Well, if I still had feet, anyway.
While Taleoek had overall command and control responsibility—due to my heartthrob of a prince being relegated to my personal protection detail—there were multiple layers in our chain of command. The twelve regiment leaders along the eastern and northern fronts were under the direct supervision of General Gherian, while the dozen commanders lining the western and southern fronts reported to General Sheriolac. The generals had strategically positioned themselves in opposite corners of the kill box so they would have the broadest view possible of their section of the hundred square mile battlefield once they breached the surface.
Kerrigan's Race (The Syreni Book 1) Page 39
