Emissary- Beasts of Burden

by Silas Post

  Sadine’s hips thrust up to meet Rikki’s palm, forcing her chest to heave beneath me. Now, Rikki bent forward and took my ready length between her lips.

  Rikki’s mouth was wide and warm, swallowing me from head to pelvis in one slow movement. I pinched Sadine’s nipples and played with her breasts while Rikki’s mouth worked at my throbbing shaft. Her head swiveled and her tongue worked in swirling motions against my head as she pulled back, then she dove forward again with quickened breath and loud moans.

  Perhaps she was putting on a show for me, or for Sadine. Or perhaps her hungry, vigorous attention to my sex was involuntary, control over her own body leaving her as Sadine worked her magic below. A long slick tendril of her kraken arm curled and prodded deeper within Rikki, applying her suckers inside and out.

  The kraken’s eyes locked onto my shaft, just inches from her dark blue mouth and Rikki’s tight lips. I curled my fingers in Sadine’s short hair, parting her midnight blue locks while I guided her mouth toward Rikki’s. Her dark tongue was long and slick, toying with the base of my length and further down while Rikki’s mouth engulfed everything else.

  Rikki pulled away to make space for Sadine. Their tongues danced across my sensitive head together, flicking at each other as much as they toyed with me. Whatever misgivings Rikki had about Sadine, they were dispelled now as both girls moaned and probed at each other’s sex, all while tasting mine.

  I wanted to hold out longer, to keep this moment churning for all time, but as the girls began to moan louder and faster, their bodies’ rhythms commanded my own.

  Suddenly, Sadine threw her head back and yelled, “Drench me!”

  I reached behind and grabbed the rim of the barrel I was leaning against. Rikki’s fingers were inches-deep in Sadine’s depths while the kraken’s tentacle continued twirling inside Rikki. Their hips bucked against each other’s ministrations, adding the force of their own thrusts to the power of each other’s rapid pounding.

  My muscles flexed and strained as I tipped that barrel toward us. It tilted over my shoulder, its contents sloshing and throwing its center of gravity in unpredictable directions. I could not see my own shaft, it was so far buried in Rikki’s greedy mouth, and Sadine’s dark tongue toyed at my testicles beneath.

  We had nursed this kraken back from the dry and lonely creature she was to a woman with bold and lustrous skin, whose corporal desires were flush with new life. She had one desire left, one invigorating need, and it was a holy baptism to draw her into Redelia’s circle.

  I gave a firm yank.

  The kraken’s voice rose triumphantly as the barrel’s contents washed over us, soaking our clothing and invigorating our sex-hot skin. Rikki’s mouth tightened around me as I throbbed and erupted in ecstatic sensation. The sound of her hand slapping against Sadine’s skin intensified from the water that slicked the space between them.

  All three of us gasped and moaned as our bodies reached the peak of combined euphoric bliss, washed in the brilliant white light that pulsed from Redelia’s pendant at its brightest intensity. Sadine’s gills rippled madly along her neck while her sweet voice came in short, breathy gasps. Rikki bleated with pleasure, the sound muffled as her mouth engulfed my shaft and sealed around its base. I pumped my hips and pulsed with heat and fervor.

  Even the boat beneath us rocked violently from side to side then, as if thrown into its own orgasmic shudder at the completion of our joint affections.

  We relaxed into a pile of exhausted flesh and limbs as our breathing calmed and our bodies regained their control, but the boat continued to sway with palpable force. Sadine licked my shaft one last time and looked up at me from my lap.

  “I’m relieved to see so warm a smile after everything you’ve endured,” I said.

  “You have never known a kraken in this way, have you?” she asked. “To share in the flesh is one thing, but you nurtured my body back to health on my brink of wasting away. You touch with tender care and express affection warm and true. It drives my normal urge to a depth I haven’t enjoyed before.”

  “And what urge is that?” I asked, expecting a playful, sultry reply.

  “To eat you,” she said.

  My stomach tightened with alarm, but Sadine’s smile endured. “It is an urge I can resist, for now, though this is the strongest I have yet experienced. It is a compliment, in its own way.”

  “No one eats Victor without going through me,” Rikki said, standing over us.

  “Sweet satyress,” Sadine said. “I would happily eat you first.”

  “Oh,” Rikki said. “Thank you, I suppose.”

  While the boat swayed in sharp motions, Rikki and I fixed our clothing. Sadine stood tall and naked, wrapping her tentacles around her chest and her hips to give the appearance of modesty.

  “This isn’t good,” Rikki said, bracing against the wall as she adjusted her scarf.

  “We can’t have lost it,” I said.

  “Redelia’s silk-wrapped soul is tight between my breasts,” Rikki said. “I meant the choppy seas.”

  “No,” Sadine said. “This is a summer squall. I’ve seen many of these storms before.”

  “Do they last minutes, or hours?” Rikki asked.

  “I don’t count time the way you might on land,” she said. “I count by occurrences, which nature tends to gather in useful groupings.”

  “In your sense then,” I said, “how long might this squall last?”

  “Usually,” she said, “the time it takes to swallow a single ship to the ocean’s floor.”

  10

  “This cursed boat cannot yield to the ocean’s swell,” I said. “Not before we reach the shores of Okkor’s Isle.”

  I raced up the steps from the lower level and a gale of wind assaulted me abruptly. It took walking at an angle to keep steady enough to scramble toward Jarah at the ship’s helm. There was torrential rain where there had once been quiet skies. Waves as high as a city wall rose and crashed, visible only when a bold strike of lightning reflected off the white waters that outlined those massive waves against the night sky.

  “Jarah!” I yelled.

  “Victor!” she yelled back. “I was wrong. I cannot govern this ship, not in rough waters.”

  She placed her weight on the wheel, forcing it to turn against its inclination, but the maddened waters beneath us yanked it back again. She nearly fell over from the reversal and I rushed to her side, looping an arm around her waist and holding onto the boat’s guardrail to support us.

  “How did this happen?” I asked.

  “I didn’t notice at first,” she said. “Storms at night gather in stealth, and by the time I saw lightning it was too late to steer away. The storm has spread across the entire sky.”

  “Lightning is an able marksman and we are a naked target,” I said.

  We shuddered as a loud snap whipped through the air behind us. One of the tethers holding our sail to the mast snapped from the wind’s intensity, and the other tethers would follow shortly.

  “Rikki!” I yelled. She shielded her face from the rain further toward the boat’s rear, while Sadine held her tentacles out and closed her eyes toward the sky. She basked in the abundance of fresh rain while the rest of us cowered from it.

  “I don’t like this,” Rikki yelled back, her fur drenching more with each second.

  “Me neither,” I said. “Can you two lower the sail before we lose it?”

  The girls got to work while I turned back toward Jarah. “That’s Sadine,” I explained. “She’s a kraken who got swept up in this fishing boat’s cargo, but now she’s safe and hale. We’ll get her some clothes when we find the shore.”

  “But how?” Jarah asked. “I’ve lost the shore. I’m so sorry, I’ve let you all down.”

  “Nonsense,” I said. “You’re our most able sailor, and you’ll pull us through this. What direction is Okkor’s Isle from here?”

  “Northwest,” she said. “But the stars are hidden and I’ve been tossed around. I don�
��t know what direction that is.”

  “But we were close?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I saw the shape of the island’s mountain against the sky. The storm swell pulled us close at great speed, but I’ve lost our way and squandered our good fortune.”

  “The wind is too strong!” Rikki yelled. The harder she pulled on the halyard line to bring the sail down, the harder the wind puffed the yellow fabric and forced it away from her. Sadine tugged with both arms, but even together the girls couldn’t reclaim control of the swatch of yellow canvas propelling the ship on a teetering course into a watery abyss.

  A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, followed by a crack of thunder close on its heels. Every cloud illuminated for that fractional moment, but when the light receded there was a small flicker of glowing blue that lingered in the distance, somewhere between the ocean’s surface and the clouds raining down on us.

  “There,” I said. “What’s that?”

  “Weather, playing tricks,” Jarah said. “Magnetism? A lingering charge held by the clouds? I don’t know.”

  “What if it’s land?” I asked. “A refraction of hope for water-tossed sailors?”

  “There is that chance,” Jarah said. “It could be the island. It’s better than nothing. Rikki! Keep the sail up and turn it out. Slowly now, until I say to stop.”

  The ship rocked continuously and I stood behind Jarah with my hands firm on her hips, providing as much support as I could to help her wrangle the ship’s wheel. Despite her strong frame and powerful grip, the ship was a feisty match for her strength.

  “That’s it!” Jarah yelled. “Stop. We’re on a course again. Let’s hope that’s the shore, because we’re heading right for it!”

  To the ocean, we were an afterthought. A piece of flotsam carried inconsequentially as it went about the business of churning itself into a frenzied maelstrom. It mattered not whether we drifted toward the world’s end or swept onto the shores of paradise itself. Whatever that blue glow was, that was our mystery to unfold. The ocean was indifferent.

  The surrounding sea did not slow or mourn when an errant bolt of lightning touched our ship’s mast with the power of a thousand suns, showering us with sparks and a blinding wave of whiteness. The mast cracked in unison with the thunder, the mighty sound of splitting wood twisting around the boom of angry clouds. That dense pole flew sidewise and took our sail with it, rising like a yellow kite before it plunked into the angry waters beside our ship.

  “Jarah,” I said. “Can we—”

  “No,” she said. The wind whipped against her cyan skirt so fiercely it threatened to tear it from her body completely. “We are powerless now over our fate.”

  I didn’t know how close she thought we truly were to shore, or what meaning the indistinct smear of light on the horizon held. Was it a mirage, the way a thirsting man sees an oasis in a desert where there is only sand and stone? Or was it an angel, a herald of hope and life amidst a sea of desperation?

  “Redelia’s pendant,” I said. “I left it below, and with all of this tossing about…” I turned and ran without finishing my sentence, lurching to one side then the next as the boat swayed with increasing violence.

  The steps to the area below were slippery and the lower level had taken an inch of rainwater that ran down from the deck above, but Redelia’s pendant still hung from its temporary hook. I snatched it and tucked it back into my pant pocket, relieved that the holy relic was unscathed by the storm that shook us.

  When I reached the upper deck once more, Sadine was standing on the portside guardrail, her knees bent and her tentacles raised high.

  “Sadine?” I asked. My voice wasn’t loud enough over the crash of rain and onslaught of wind. She leapt and I rushed to the boat’s side to watch as she dove into the water and disappeared beneath it.

  I stared at the water a few seconds longer, hoping for one last glimpse of her radiant pink skin, but she was gone and the squall that wrapped us in its grips left little luxury for nostalgic reverie. We could barely stand for all our ceaseless lurching on the maniacal sea.

  “She said her birthplace was near,” Rikki said. “She was grateful we returned her in time to molt.”

  “At least she’ll be safe,” I said.

  The boat rocked then with brutal fury, its starboard rail dipping perilously low as the waters threatened with new height, releasing us to dip equally low on the portside in countermeasure.

  “Do you have any coins left?” Rikki asked.

  “One copper farthing,” I said. “Why?”

  “Put it beneath your tongue, Victor,” she replied. “We’ll not make it to shore, but when the cloud carriers come for our eternal souls, I want them to know you were loved. I want them to know your passage to the next life was paid.”

  “There is no life without you and Jarah, in this world or the next,” I said.

  “We’ll capsize!” Rikki said. “This is no time for bravado. I need to know you’ll go on. I can’t rest in death if I think you’ll suffer.”

  “Expect life then,” I said. “Jarah! Are you tracking the shore’s promising glow?”

  “It has flickered out,” she yelled. She braced herself against the steering device without attempting to turn it. The wheel spun this way and that, wrangled by the storm and not her hands. “I have lost an island. A mountain. A guiding light.”

  I wanted to soothe her, to tell her the task was impossible and we were hopeful fools to commandeer a ship for which we lacked the experience. I opened my mouth to speak some word of solace, but the hull of our boat cleaved open, a sudden crash thrusting us all forward to roll along the rain-slicked deck and collide with the boat’s miscellaneous parts as we tumbled through the chasm that had split down the center.

  Jarah’s body disappeared into the black depths of the swelling ocean, then Rikki. I could cling to the boat’s sinking innards no longer, my fingers slipping from their perch as I too slid forward on the vessel’s now-vertical deck.

  I plunged into cold water, suddenly silent and alone.

  11

  One moment I was kicking at the ocean’s depths, the water’s cold sinking through skin and bone, my vision blackening, my chest spastic with the swell of water where I only sought air.

  The next, my eyes opened to a blue sky and my body racked with violent motion. I coughed myself awake, forcing a spout of salty water from my lungs that left me gasping and thrashing for more breath. Warm hands with scratchy palms held my shoulders steady, bracing me against my own convulsions.

  The sky was bright overhead, though the sun was not in it. The horizon still held turbulent clouds that lit with random lightning strikes just beyond the shore.

  The shore. I was on the shore. The ground molded to my body beneath me as I sat, legs outstretched and arms covered in fine particles of sand.

  I startled at the woman who braced my upper arms while I cleared my lungs of the ocean’s waters. Her skin was sand, from the tips of her fingers, up her shapely arms and toward her slender neck. A face, beautiful in its pale features, with oversized eyes that stared down at me, was also entirely the texture of the beach’s material. She was a sand statue brought to life in every detail. Her ears, her hair, her flowing shirt and the lively breasts that sat beneath it. All sand.

  An identical replica of her every feature grasped my other arm with the same scratchy touch. I dug my heels against the beach and clambered to my feet, uncertain what to make of these beautiful sirens of the sand. They giggled at me but did not move to restrain or attack.

  “Where are Rikki and Jarah?” I asked. “Where are my heart and my soul!”

  “Here,” Rikki said, her voice spinning me around to find its source. “We are here, and we are safe.” She strode toward me, her arm looped within Jarah’s. A third sand-skinned woman escorted them, her feet blending into the beach with each step, then separating from it.

  Rikki and Jarah lifted their legs high as they walked, their feet sinking calf-deep in
fine sand with each slow step.

  Behind Jarah, a mighty mountain rose toward the clouds. Its peak was a narrow tower of solid rock tickling against the wispy clouds that hung leisurely above it, though its highest perch appeared flat and level. A dais of rock overlooking the entire island from on high. The perfect location to found a temple.

  “Is this it?” I asked.

  “Welcome to Okkor’s Isle,” Jarah said. “We were closer than I thought. We crashed right into it.”

  “We found you by the shipwreck,” the three sand sirens said in unison. Their voices were high and melodic, each distinct from the other but blending together in a perfect three-part harmony. “It was no effort to pull you from the water’s depth. We’re happy you’ve come.”

  “We might have drowned if not for them,” Jarah said. “I’d say this comes close to a miracle.”

  “More forestkind?” I asked. There certainly were palm trees and leafy shrubs in the distance, though this stretch of beach was long before it would touch any greenery.

  “No,” Rikki said. “These women spring from some… other power. They serve as acolytes. To the goddess of shifting sands.”

  “So you three are divine creations,” I said. “Is that right?”

  They giggled again. The sound of their mirth, rationed so carefully, was nearly entrancing. They appeared as triplets, each boasting the same long legs, the same curvy hips. Only the gentle play of sunlight and shadow added the hint of color to their skin and the carved garments that clothed their shapes in sparse stretches of sand-hewn coverings. They were beautiful, and they maintained inviting smiles while cocking their heads to the side in coy amusement.

  “I am Victor Coin,” I said, pleased to have my name back at my disposal. “I serve as emissary to Redelia, the goddess of captured light.”

  “We know,” the sirens said. “Come.”