by D. R. Rosier
He grunted, “Least we could do. I know mages is supposed to protect us, but it hardly ever works out that way, especially on the road. You be decent folk.”
By the time morning chores were done, Ari came out and dragged me into the bathroom. She cut my hair, shaved me, trimmed my nails, and bathed me. She was very gentle and efficient about it, but we avoided being sexual despite my body’s natural reaction.
It was not the way I pictured our first bath together but today was Sienna’s day, dating Ari with Sienna’s blessing aside it would have felt wrong. I gave her a soft kiss before getting dressed. Ari escorted me to the door and once again kicked me out. I hadn’t seen Sienna at all yet since I woke up.
I sat and was relaxing on the porch when a middle aged woman with long red hair and green eyes walked up. She was wearing green robes.
She said, “Hi, I’m Silvy. You are the young man getting married?”
I nodded, “Yes, please call me Marcus. The bride is somewhere in the house. I’d offer to escort you but that might mean my life.”
She snickered, “The goddess’s blessings on you Marcus. Nice to meet you, I’ll go track her down.”
The day both dragged and went really fast. Before I knew it I was standing in front of Silvy in the best clothes I had. I was surprised when Ari came in without a hood and wondered how Sienna had talked her into it. Following her was Sienna in a flowing blue dress. Her hair was up and styled in a way that took my breath away. Her face had some light makeup on and I could see her long eyelashes from across the room, drawing my gaze to her wide blue eyes.
The dress was flowing and the first layer conformed to her curves, but there was another layer which taunted me with brief views of her curves that drove me crazy. I don’t think she had ever looked so beautiful. Her smile when she looked back at me was radiant.
The ceremony itself was simple, the words comparable to Earth, but much shorter. It was also the first time I had felt priest or priestess magic since my arrival here. I actually felt the eyes of the goddess on me as we exchanged oaths of marriage.
I said with conviction, “I swear my life to yours, we will live as one together enduring all good and bad as long as we both shall live.”
Sienna said the words as well with a happy sheen of tears in her eyes. I couldn’t look away even if I had wanted to.
It felt binding and unbreakable as we said the words. I had never asked if divorce was a thing here, and now that I was saying the oath I was sure it wasn’t.
At Silvy’s direction, I kissed the bride.
The oaths were very broad, and I understood why a wife would have to approve other mistresses, girlfriends, or wives. If the two women decided to pull me in different directions it would cause major problems, especially if I married another and gave the same oath.
The next couple of hours flew by. We ate, drank alcohol, and danced. Some of their neighbors had come too and a number of strangers were wandering around. By the time it got dark Sienna and I retired to the room and Ari was nowhere to be found. We’d have to find a way to thank her for fading into the background today.
I kissed her softly, and then caressed her face and neck, “Good day my wife?”
She smiled giddily, “That’s going to take getting used to… husband.”
We slowly stripped each other between kisses, caresses, and sweet pillow talk.
When she was naked I took a minute to admire her up and down, drawing a blush out of her. It was so hard to believe less than three weeks ago I was an undead vampire running from witches.
I kissed her and picked her up while gently squeezing her ass cheeks. She gasped into my mouth while her legs went around me and she rocked her pelvis, grinding her heat against my hardening member. I groaned into her mouth and squeezed her ass harder.
I had thought to carry her to the bed and make love to her, after all it was our wedding night. Instead I found myself pushing her back up against the wall. I heard her gasp as I started kissing and sucking lightly on her neck as I squeezed her ass cheeks and teased her crack. She rocked her body again and I slipped into her ready wet heat. Her head dipped down and she bit my shoulder while grinding into me.
I held her up by her ass, pinned against the wall with my body and I started to drive in and out of her as she rocked her hips the small amount she could under the circumstances.
“Oh goddess Marcus, fuck me… I’m yours forever.”
She whimpered as I picked up speed, grabbed my hair and pulled my mouth to one of her nipples. I sucked it in and bit down hard and felt her nails claw down my back as she gasped and her sex tightened around me, her sweet fluids flooded my hard pleasure. I didn’t stop, there was no reason to hide what I was anymore, she had known for days.
I held her effortlessly her soft nubile supple body pinned between me and the hard wall and I pounded up into her as she begged for more.
“Faster, harder…”
She gasped over and over as I sped up, “Yes, fuck me… faster”
I felt her muscles grip and massage me as I invaded her soft flesh time and time again.
I buried myself deep and grunted as I felt my balls boil over. I filled her with my seed as her body trembled and milked me, greedily trying to get every last drop. I kissed her and left myself in her as I carried her over to the bed.
She looked at me accusingly but her words were light, “You’ve been holding out on me too.”
I shrugged, “I’m actually very fast, and extremely strong, I didn’t want to hurt you.”
She smiled, kissed me, and said in her sultry voice, “We’ll have to experiment.”
I tried to look innocent and said, “Now?”
She snorted, “Damn right.”
So we did… and it turns out I had a way to extend her orgasms quite a bit as well… We did eventually get around to making love that night, but it was very late. It was with a little disappointment I realized we had to leave tomorrow. I thought she, and I, deserved at least a small honeymoon…
I was up an hour before dawn. I kissed Sienna softly not waking her up and got dressed. I wandered outside and found Ari with my magic in the field on the other side of the barn, unseen from the house. I walked over and around to watch her sword dance. I don’t know why it was so important to me, maybe because it was something that she shared with me and me alone even if I couldn’t really participate, excluding sex of course.
I saw her smile and knew that she felt the same way about it. When she got done she joined me on the grass and held my hand.
I said, “Thanks for yesterday, you’re pretty amazing.”
She said deadpan, “I know.”
She squeezed my hand, “I think most nights we will sleep in the same bed, but sometimes it is needed to be alone. A wedding day is definitely one of those times. I slept on the couch by the way, Daniel tried to give up his bed but I wouldn’t allow it.”
I said half serious, “I’m not looking forward to getting back to civilization; it’s nice with just the three of us.”
She grinned at me, “Want to keep us all to yourself?”
I nodded, “Definitely, do you mind?”
She shook her head, “Of course not, because we also get to keep you…”
I shrugged, “It will also be busy, hopefully our schedules won’t be completely conflicting, but we’ll have nights and of course me stalking your morning workout.”
She grinned and sounded satisfied when she said, “Good.”
It was mainly banter; I knew she and Sienna were not fickle. It was mostly paranoia about possibly being in an enemy camp. Divide and conquer, how could we watch out for each other if we weren’t together? I knew I was borrowing trouble, and I didn’t think the king involved in this at all, which meant we’d be safer when we got to Ciren. In theory.
We kissed and held hands back to the house. It didn’t take very long to get breakfast done, pack up our stuff, and head out to the road.
I ranged my magic far ahead of me; we
made good time that day, switching back and forth from a canter and a trot. We didn’t have any problems again and I started to worry about why that was. Whatever it was meant a surprise, because I had no idea what would happen.
Late that afternoon we setup camp. We did some more combined training and from what I could tell Sienna didn’t hesitate at all, but I wasn’t sure how much that meant since she was shooting at compressed grass.
Afterwards, Ari taught me something new.
“I’m going to teach you scrying tonight. It is a way to see where someone, something, or someplace is. It is also a way to spy on someone. Water and Air work best for this, so you shouldn’t have a problem with it. Dig out a shallow but wide hole in the ground and fill it with water.”
I grabbed a spade and started to dig an inch or two down in a circular area, maybe a yard wide. I filled it up with water with a quick thought and very little magic. I looked up at Ari and waited.
She said, “Now, think of a place, or a person, while also thinking you want to view them or it in the water. Then simply send that with a small bit of magic.”
I nodded, I thought of Steve and his wife, the first people I had seen on this world and sent the thoughts and the magic to my elemental.
The water cleared and I saw them eating dinner.
Ari asked curiously, “Who are they?”
I told her about waking up in this strange country in that man’s field.
I tried again, this time thinking of New York on earth. Nothing happened. I shrugged, probably better that it didn’t, I certainly had no plans to ever go back, even if I could. I changed my focus to Sienna and sent the thought and more magic. I saw an overhead view of us and our campsite, with Sienna centered in the picture.
Ari remarked with satisfaction, “Good, very good. Now try this. Create a small tiny little air funnel, on its side and put it close up to one of your eyes. You’ll have to make a drip stream for maintenance. Remember to specify close to the eye, an inch away maybe less. That way when you move it moves with you.”
I nodded when it was done, I could see inside a wind funnel that looked huge, though I doubt anyone else would see it unless they looked closely.
Ari was silent for a moment, probably checking my work.
“Okay Marcus, now you’re going to do another scrying, but this time connect with air instead of water and have it show you in the eye of the tiny twister.”
I tried it and it seemed to work perfectly, not only that but it was private, no one else could see it as the image was protected by wind from all sides except facing my eye, even if they noticed the little twister they wouldn’t see the scrying.
“That works really well. Awesome, how come we haven’t been using this to scan the roads ahead?”
Ari said, “If you’re not searching for a person you know, it is too easy to hide from scrying, especially if they are hiding in the woods, or like that mage was shielded against view. I have been doing it, but it isn’t really nearly as trustworthy as just detecting our elements and what moves within them. That gives us plenty of warning.”
I asked, “Then why teach that now if it doesn’t help us?”
Ari shrugged and looked away. “Our conversation this morning. I realized how hard it would be to watch out for each other once we hit the capitol. If we can check up on each other remotely, even find each other in an emergency…”
I pulled her into a hug and Sienna joined us.
“Thanks, I was worrying about that too. I’m just glad you had an answer for it.”
I grinned evilly and she looked at me questioningly.
I waggled my brows, “Now I can ogle you both from afar.”
I managed to leer at them both before I got whacked in the back of the head by Ari’s spell and slapped in the arm by Sienna. Well at least I’d succeeded in lightening the mood.
Sienna growled, “That’s no good husband, half the fun of being ogled by you, is knowing that it’s happening.”
Ari nodded in mock seriousness, “Really, don’t you dare take our cheap thrills away.”
They both batted their lashes and posed for me. They were obviously screwing with me, but I was pretty sure they meant it as well to a certain extent. I could tell they were also worried about the same thing I was. Not ourselves, but for each of us the other two in our budding family. I could tell Ari and Sienna was truly getting close as friends, which was a relief to me on some level.
This time I used magic to pinch both their asses. I grinned as they shared a glance then wrestled me to the ground. Yeah, because that was a punishment…
It felt good to let loose and just have fun teasing each other. After dinner Ari and I sparred. I finally did as she asked and went fast. She knew my style by now and did manage to back away and block me for about twenty seconds before I slipped through her guard and tapped her shoulder lightly with the flat of my blade.
She surprised me then, I felt her channel magic, but didn’t see the result. Suddenly she was at least at fast as I was, and I was going full speed. We went all out for about a minute, and then she stepped back and released the spell. I knew why, I could see her magic was probably half full now, that spell was wicked but it took a lot to maintain it.
She winked, “Granted I can’t manage it for long, but with enough elemental magic you can make yourself move like the wind. Although it’s probably not something you would ever need to use, I wanted to make you aware of it. Mages that wield swords are rare, but they are out there and you may face something like that for real.”
Close to dark Ari and Sienna whispered to each other, then Sienna got up and went to the tent.
Ari was smiling as she walked over to me and straddled my lap. She kissed me softly and rubbed her soft supple body against mine. I didn’t ask what they whispered about. I was okay with them deciding who, when, and where who slept with who, which is what I assumed they had discussed.
I knew Ari liked to do it outside, surrounded by nature with the stars above us. We loved each other a couple of times that night before retiring to the tent. I spooned Ari and heard Sienna sigh as she burrowed into my back. I fell asleep feeling contented.
Chapter 14
The last couple of days came and went without an attack and we were all on edge about it. We had talked about it at camp last night and there were only two logical answers.
One was wishful thinking when I said, “Perhaps whatever conspiracy this is… it isn’t as big as we thought it was. We should be careful, but maybe they didn’t have any more mages or soldiers nearby to send at us, so they’re biding their time until we get to Ciren.”
Ari had shaken her head and come up with the more disturbing option, “Maybe the mages in Hunter’s Ridge are involved, and they decided to set up a trap and let us ride right into their seat of power.”
We’d been guarding against attack since the third day of our trip, outside of the farm visit, and this was day eight. Yes, we had blown off steam having fun, and sex, but the constant watchfulness had also taken its toll. We had argued about going around the town, or small city, and going directly to the king, but we really have no proof that something is amiss in Hunter’s Ridge. The best we could do was be careful.
Hunter’s Ridge despite its relatively small size, was still the second largest city next to the capitol of Ciren. It was also up close to the mountains where there are a number of Goblin tribes not all that far away. Hunter’s Ridge has high walls surrounding it for this reason; the Goblins can’t seem to resist attacking it since it is so close to their domain. In part, that’s why it was built there, to draw attacks and cut down on the amount of incursions elsewhere along the border.
I was also told there are larger monsters in the mountains, such as trolls and wolves that were changed by magic, turning them deadly intelligent, larger, and stronger. Still, they apparently didn’t roam off the mountains, the goblins and other mountain creatures were their primary food source, so unless we were dumb enough to go mountain climbi
ng it wouldn’t be an issue.
Needless to say, the garrison of regular troops was rather large in the city. There were also more mages besides a mayor and healer unlike in the smaller towns. All this was adding to our stress, it wouldn’t be easy to fight against hundreds of soldiers who were basically innocent in this and following orders, and five to ten mages depending on how many were present at the time.
Perhaps we were paranoid, but if there was some plot and we were right about the assumed danger in Hunter’s ridge… I was sure the best we could do was run if the mages there were a part of it. The only good part was we assumed not everyone could be in on it, so it would be harder to just kill us and be done with it, like they tried in the middle of nowhere. No, if anything happened it would be false charges or attacks to subdue us which will turn deadly when or if we resist.
We were passing by farms now and others on the road. Ari had her marble face and hood up. Sienna looked worried, but only for us, she wasn’t even a target, though she could be used against us and had no recourse at all if she defended herself against a mage. It was against the law for her as a commoner even though she was married to me.
The walls came into view, they were about thirty feet high and there was a line for the gates. There were also a number of merchants set up outside and I asked about it.
Ari answered, “I think inside the city the merchants get charged for buying and selling. So whatever they didn’t bring specifically to sell inside they usually try to trade out here before moving on.”
I pondered that, “Let’s see if we can unload the bows and swords, and refresh our supplies out here. That way if there is a problem inside we are all ready to go…”
Ari shrugged, “Good a plan as any.”
It took about an hour, we had to deal with three merchants to get rid of all the arms. We got just less than thirty gold pieces each for it all. Supplies we didn’t do so well with, most of the foodstuffs, even travel rations, were only sold in the city.
We got on line and waited. I couldn’t detect any mages by the gates, there were only four soldiers and they just performed a cursory inspection on our stuff before waving us through. We picked up the foodstuffs and whatever else we needed for the last leg of the trip, which on horse should only take five days to Ciren.
