Wastelands

by Jack Porter

  Lady Gamma had given me an order. I was to seek out the spellcaster, defeat him if possible, and then return to the wagons. I had failed to kill the wraith, but the compulsion now drove me to return to Gamma. Because of this, I knew which way to go. All I needed to do was follow the path of least resistance.

  I couldn’t help but give the universe a self-satisfied smirk. Then, making sure my sword was clipped back into place, I jogged at a steady, mile-eating pace over the sand.

  It was well beyond dusk by the time I made it back. Ash was already on duty, keeping watch over the camp. I slowed down to a walk and saw her monstrous form stiffen at my appearance out of the darkness. She had been leaning her forearms on the tail end of her club, its head resting on the sand at her feet, but quickly changed her grip to one every baseball player in the world would have recognized.

  But instead of sounding the alarm, she hesitated.

  “Rogan?” she rumbled quietly, unwilling to disturb the others.

  “Yes,” I said. “It’s me.”

  The huge creature visibly relaxed. She didn’t drop her weapon and rush out to hug me in a bone-crushing greeting, and for this I was thankful. But she did lower her club back to the ground and grin at me.

  “It is good to have you back, my friend,” she said. “When Camille returned with the tale of you leading the spellcaster and hundreds of sand walkers away, we thought you were lost.”

  She may have been going to say more, but I interrupted. “Camille is here already?”

  Ash nodded. “She and another. The woman taken from the spellcaster’s cage.”

  Before Ash could say anymore, Camille herself appeared from the back of the supply wagon, no doubt attracted by our voices. With unnecessary haste, she climbed down the short ladder and made her way over, smiling broadly.

  I wouldn’t have minded if she would have welcomed me the hug I had feared from Ash, but she too paused some few paces away and contented herself with a grin.

  “You have survived,” she said. “When you led the spellcaster and his people away, I couldn’t see how you would.”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t let them box me in,” I said. “They couldn’t hurt me, and while I had to keep clear of the spellcaster, his sand walkers were no match for my blade. I carved a good chunk of his army away from the rest and left them behind.”

  “Good,” Camille said. “Good.”

  She didn’t know what else to say, and for a moment, neither did I. I sensed that something had changed between us, but I wasn’t sure exactly what.

  Then I recalled why I’d needed to lure the sand walkers away in the first place. “The woman he had captive. The butterfly girl. You got her, right? Is she okay?”

  “Her name is Zera,” Camille replied. “She’s fine, if a little exhausted. Lady Gamma gave her a potion to help her sleep, and to restore her strength. But… Rogan, she could use something extra to replenish her chi. The spellcaster drained her severely.”

  I gaped at Camille. It was one thing for her to come to me in the middle of the night, but quite another to go climb into a wagon looking for sex with a complete stranger who may not want it. Ash shifted uncomfortably on her feet, and I tried very hard to avoid her eyes.

  “What is it?” Camille asked. “Zera knows you have a chi gift. I have already explained.”

  I cleared my throat. “Oh. And how does she feel about that?”

  “Why don’t you go ask her? She is in Lady Gamma’s wagon.”

  Lady Gamma’s wagon… I was at a loss here. What was I supposed to do? Just hop in there and ask Gamma to step out while I gave Zera a chi-boost?

  “If you do this,” Camille said, “she should be back to full strength by the morning.”

  I wanted to think that I was the only one feeling uncomfortable, but the way Ash was looking at everything except Camille and me, I knew it wasn’t true. But Camille’s words raised another concern, and for the moment, I was grateful to be able to latch onto a new thought.

  “We may not have until tomorrow,” I said. “I don’t know for sure, but I’d bet good money that the spellcaster is already heading this way. We took the butterfly woman from him, and at the very least, he’ll want to get her back. Not to mention the rest of us.”

  “What do you suggest we do?” Ash rumbled.

  “I don’t think we have any choice. I think we have to put as much distance between them and us if as we can.”

  “And travel through the darkness?” the huge creature asked.

  I didn’t blame her for being concerned. The Wastes were dangerous enough even in daylight. At night, a shadow on the ground could be hiding a hole that could lead to a broken leg.

  But I didn’t think we had much of a choice. “It’s either that or wait around to fight him again. It was a near enough thing last time. Do you want to face him again?”

  Ash shook her head.

  “Neither do I.”

  39

  Ever since I’d met her, I’d only ever seen Lady Gamma in full regalia. Her hair teased up into intricate patterns, layers of silk on her body, and her face hidden by elaborate makeup that might as well have been a mask. I’d never even considered whether she slept in her full regalia or not, but it seemed that she didn’t.

  When she emerged from her wagon at Ash’s request, her hair was down, and her face was clear and clean.

  I’d thought before that she might have been beautiful, but it had been hard to tell. But now I knew she was. Though different to Camille in just about every possible way, Lady Gamma was equally stunning.

  In my time, her face could have appeared on the cover of magazines, and her hair was both straight and surprisingly long, falling to the backs of her thighs. It was dark and silky, and shimmered in the light from the fractured aurora like a living thing.

  I tried to remember to keep my mouth closed as she joined our discussion.

  She wasn’t pleased to be woken to such news. Nor did she seem at all relieved that I’d made it back in one piece. Instead, she seemed to blame me for the inconvenience, and so did her pet monkey.

  And she wasn’t happy that I had failed to kill the spellcaster.

  I thought that was a bit unfair. I’d still managed to weaken him by killing off a fair number of sand walkers and by removing the butterfly woman from his grasp.

  Not that either of those two realities made any impact on Lady Gamma.

  She simply shared her glare between Ash, Camille, and myself, and answered as if we had a choice.

  “Do as you must,” she said with a dismissive gesture. “But be gentle. I intend to get a proper night’s rest regardless.”

  Despite her dismissal, she proved to be surprisingly useful. I could use my AC lens to see in the dark, but that was only an intermittent, chi-draining solution–and the others had no such advantage. So I was tried to figure out how to use the remains of the night’s fire as torches, but the cow-beasts, steel-hearted creatures that they had been thus far, seemed to be spooked by the fire waving around in the air.

  Lady Gamma must have heard the noise from inside her wagon, because she emerged a second time, and again didn’t bother to wait for me to help her down the steps. Instead, she grumbled out loud as she moved to the supply wagon. Within moments, she re-emerged with two different flasks.

  Within one of the flasks was a liquid that looked almost silver, while the other was so black it was difficult to see.

  “Mix a little of these liquids together, and the result will let off a bright glow more stable than any flame. Coat your sword with it, or Ash’s club, and that will provide all the light that we need.”

  With that, she turned and headed back to her wagon, not even waiting for our thanks.

  It worked as advertised, and we didn’t need much. A single dab of each liquid was more than enough to light our route. It was like turning on a fifty-watt light bulb, one of the frosted ones that gave a warm, consistent glow.

  I found it hard to resent someone who offered such elegan
t solutions to a problem. Lady Gamma’s skill was a useful one to have, and certainly more versatile than my gift for creating sparks at my fingertips.

  As we began our wary trudge into the night, with me and Ash on foot lighting the way, Gamma and the butterfly woman safely in the wagons, and Camille sitting in the driver’s seat of the front wagon, I thought that at least some good had come of this nighttime adventure.

  As we trudged along the track in the middle of the Wastes, ignoring the occasional complaint from the cow-beasts, I couldn’t help but think it a shame that Lady Gamma and I didn’t get along better than we did.

  40

  By the time the sun rose once again, we had already covered many miles. Despite using my chi to replenish my energy reserves, I’d been walking all night after a day filled with ongoing battles. I knew I could probably keep going for a while yet, but sooner or later, I would need real sleep.

  Beside me, Ash strode along, apparently impervious to any such weakness. At one point, I asked her if she ever got tired, to which she replied, “Of course I do. But if I need to, I can stay awake for a week.”

  As for Camille, she disappeared into the wagon sometime during the night, and we hadn’t seen her since. I was irrationally disappointed. But she had been awake the whole night as well, and I hadn’t seen any evidence of her being able to power back up as I did. So perhaps she had simply needed sleep.

  I tried not to think of what she had proposed about Zera. But I also hoped that the butterfly woman would be okay.

  By mid-morning, the landscape began to change. Ahead, instead of the horizon being filled with miles of sand and stones, I could see what looked to be low, rocky hills. Perhaps we were nearing the end of the wasteland.

  When I looked closer through my AC lens, thought, it didn’t make me feel better.

  If the Wastes were a wasteland, a barely survivable desert full of hot air and gusts of gritty wind, the rocky hills ahead seemed even more hostile. As much as I scanned, I saw no sign of life whatsoever. No scrubby plants with spiky leaves, no patches of green, nothing at all.

  Yet, beyond confirming with Ash that this was indeed where we were heading, I said nothing. I didn’t know this world in the least, but my traveling companions did. I would have to trust them to know where they were going.

  At the same time, I kept half an eye to the rear, making sure that there was clear sand behind us, and not an army of sand walkers or a wraith conjuring dark magic.

  Not long before noon, the butterfly woman emerged from the supply wagon and made her way over to me.

  I learned then that I was surrounded by beautiful women, all of them different, and not necessarily human. The butterfly woman, Zera, was no less a beauty than Camille or Lady Gamma.

  She was nowhere near as tall as the lizard woman, being closer to Gamma’s height, and was built much more delicately. With long, stunningly red hair, pale skin, and blue, iridescent wings at her back, my mind made a connection that my tongue had to express.

  “Tinkerbell,” I said, as Zera approached.

  She paused, looked puzzled for a moment, and said, “Huh?”

  I smiled. “Nothing,” I said. “You just remind me of someone from long ago.”

  She didn’t seem to know what to do with that either and in the end went with a shy smile in response. I thought that of all my traveling companions, Gamma was angry, Camille fierce, Ash solemn and phlegmatic, but Zera was by far the sweetest.

  Unless she was simply a good actress. I didn’t really know anything about her other than she’d been kept in a cage by a powerful wraith.

  And I was staring at her, saying nothing.

  “Zera,” I blurted. “Camille told me your name. How are you feeling?”

  She seemed to blush lightly at my words, and I could understand why. “I’m doing better, thanks to you,” she said. “Camille told me what you did. If it wasn’t for you, I would still be in Vesh’s cage.” As she spoke the name, her face seemed to darken, and she shuddered. It was as if a cloud had blotted out the sun for a moment, but only for her.

  “Vesh?” I asked.

  She nodded, not meeting my eye. “Vesh D’Agon. The spellcaster. It’s what he called himself.”

  Despite her reluctance to speak the spellcaster’s name–or perhaps because of it– I found myself again thinking that Zera was something sweet in this difficult, violent world. I didn’t necessarily believe in things like auras and couldn’t see hers, not exactly, but I got a sense of innocence from her. She seemed unsullied by the grimness of the world she lived in despite her recent experience with the wraith.

  “I’m happy I was able to help,” I said.

  In response, Zera flashed me a brilliant smile. Then she stepped toward me, wrapped her arms around me and gave me a huge hug.

  “Thank you,” she said, before pulling away. Then she took my hand. “There is more you could do. Camille told me of your chi gift.” Zera looked into my eyes in a happy, resolute way.

  “And that’s what you want?” I asked.

  She bit her lip and looked at me from under her beautiful lashes. “If you are willing, yes.”

  I’d have to be crazy not to be, and even Camille had suggested it would be good for Zera.

  I realized then that Ash and the wagons had been pulling ahead as we’d been speaking. With a broad grin on my face, I suggested we catch up to the party.

  She let out a giggle as if I’d told her a joke, and to my surprise, instead of walking at an increased pace, she launched into the air and fluttered about on her wings, albeit a bit haltingly at first. Then she seemed to recover. “See?” she said. “I need you.”

  I’d thought her butterfly wings to be no more than decorative. But, to my astonishment, they actually worked. As she flitted about, maybe five feet off the ground, she turned to me.

  “Come on,” she said, as if playing a game, then shot forward at a respectable speed.

  For some moments, all I could do was watch.

  “Tinkerbell,” I repeated, and laughed out loud.

  Then I put on a burst of speed and caught up to her at the supply wagon.

  At this point, Lady Gamma and Camille were each taking up a wagon. Even though we could have asked Camille to use her wagon, I didn’t want to disturb her. And anyway, Zera seemed to have a different plan.

  She landed on the driver’s seat of the supply wagon. It wasn’t discreet, not at all, but with the fabric of the wagons offering a semblance of privacy, I followed and sat on the seat next to her.

  Without any preamble whatsoever, Zera straddled my hips, wrapping her legs around my waist. “There aren’t many left with a chi gift like yours,” she said. “I’ve never met one, anyway.”

  “Me, neither,” I said truthfully. My body was already responding to her proximity, and I put my hands on her waist to grind her into me. She closed her eyes, smiling shyly as she moved with me. The clothes separating us felt like torture, and at her urging, I ran my hand up her thigh to reach under her shorts.

  She put her hand on mine and guided me closer to her center, and I shoved her clothing out of the way as much as possible to touch where she wanted me. But her shorts were too tight, and I didn’t think it wise to rip them off her, much as I wanted to. Zera put her head on my shoulder as I circled her sensitive bud with my thumb through the fabric, and let out little contented sighs as she continued to rock her hips against me.

  There was a rustling behind me, and I turned my head to see Camille opening the front fabric of the supply wagon.

  I didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t the look of raw desire that crossed her features when she saw us.

  Zera looked over my shoulder at the lizard woman and bit her lip again, but this time it was less out of shyness and looked more like teasing. She smiled and then fluttered her wings enough to lift off my lap. There, hovering in the air just out of reach, she undid her shorts and slid them off.

  Zera looked decidedly human, with pale skin to match the rest
of her. And, she was hairless. I saw her already swollen bud leading down to her pink slit and lips. Zera untied her jacket, too, to reveal small but perfectly shaped breasts with pale pink nipples.

  Already, my dick was straining uncomfortably against my pants, and as I reached down to free it, I was surprised to find Camille’s hands there. She leaned over me, her chin resting on my shoulder, and undid my pants.

  I’d never had two women at once before, and while I wasn’t sure that’s what this was, exactly, I’d also never had sex with one woman while another looked on. And it seemed that’s what was about to happen.

  After checking once more that Gamma’s tent flap was closed, I took Zera’s hand and pulled her toward me. Although if Gamma wanted to watch, too, at this point I really didn’t care.

  Zera straddled me once again and took my shaft in her hand. Her eyes opened wider for a moment, and she grinned, and then she sat down on me, easing me into her slowly with her eyes closed.

  She was tight and wet, and her walls seemed to tighten around me even more as she sat all the way down. I waited a moment for her to adjust, and she looked into my eyes. I leaned forward to kiss her, tasting those beautiful, delicate lips. They were sweet, as if she’d just eaten a piece of candy, and I delved my tongue inside her mouth hungrily. She responded with a moan and began to move her hips against me. Her technique was different than Camille’s, and she squirmed around until my pelvic bone caused her the most pleasure. And then, with another sigh, she delicately began to move.

  If I’d tried this slow method before I’d broken my six-hundred year fast, I wouldn’t have been able to hold on. But as it was, I was content to let this small creature ride me as long as she needed. I pulled away from our kiss and watched her face. Her eyes were closed and her mouth open, and small gasps escaped her lips every few moments. While keeping one hand on her hip to steady her, I used my other to cup her breast and thumb her nipple. I didn’t get as much reaction as I wanted and thought maybe she wasn’t very sensitive there.

  Her antennae wiggled enticingly as she moved, and, entranced, I reached up to tweak the end of one of them. It was soft and as delicate as I had imagined. Zera moaned when I stroked the end of it, so I pinched it, and her walls clenched around my shaft.