by Hooke, Isaac
She gave him a considering look. “But it will offer a release as well. At least to the two of us.”
“Maybe.” He grabbed her by the shoulder. “Come on then, Fire Mage, if we’re going to do this, let’s do it.”
Malem moved to a corner of the room on the opposite side of the door to the horses, and rearranged some of the abandoned crates, creating a screen of sorts so that Abigail and himself would have at least some privacy.
His heart was already pounding in his chest by the time he placed the last crate; not from the exertion, but from the promise of the coming intimacy.
Standing behind the screen of those crates, he turned toward Abigail. She was chewing something. She held out her palm, offering what looked like small pieces of dried root. He shook his head, and she returned the plants to a pouch, then stuffed it into a secret pocket in her dress.
He approached her hesitantly, and she gazed down demurely, seeming reluctantly to go through with this. Almost ashamed. He didn’t blame her. It was the most awkward place to have sex with someone, considering he was separated only by a small screen from his other lover, along with a former bedmate, both of whom would be listening in to everything that transpired.
He stopped when he was standing directly in front of Abigail. He stood over her by a half a head, so close he could smell some sort of perfume. It was intoxicating. She must have applied it only moments before, because she hadn’t been wearing any the entire trip. The scent of her hair clashed slightly with it, which only turned him on all the more; it was a flaw in her otherwise perfect presentation, a gaffe that made her all the more attainable, bringing her down a notch from that mighty pedestal she often placed herself upon.
When she looked up, her eyes glinted with something he had never seen in them before. Want. But the glint vanished as she lowered her lids, sealing those fathomless pools from him so quickly that he thought he had imagined it. Yes, he must have. There was no want there, not in this woman. She fancied herself too far above him for that. Still, she kept her chin raised. That was a good sign.
He could feel her warm breath on his cheek; it smelled of mint. So, that was what she had been chewing. A nice touch.
“Already thinking about my needs,” he whispered. “That’s hot.”
He pressed her against the wall, hard, and kissed her. He expected her lips to be cold, refusing his touch, but she returned his kiss passionately. Eagerly.
He suddenly realized she wanted him as badly as he desired her. He had misread the entire situation. She wasn’t ashamed that she had to do this to improve their chances of getting out of here, she was ashamed because she wanted to do this.
In that moment, all thoughts of his former lovers listening in, and all self-consciousness, were forgotten.
She hiked up her dress, revealing the panties underneath. He explored the front area with his hand before shoving a finger under the band. He slid it down until it was inside her. She was wet, moist with lust. She bit back a moan.
He removed his hand and shoved down his breeches. They fell to his knees, constraining him.
She glanced down, and her eyes widened when she saw him revealed before her.
Then her eyes became mischievous. “You’re so big.”
She licked her lips as she shoved down the band of her panties. She frantically wrapped her hands around his buttocks, pulling him in.
They made love desperately like that, half clothed, thrusting and rubbing against each other as if it was the last time either of them would feel the touch of another human being. It probably was.
He kept her pinned against the wall as he did the deed.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
He slid a hand under the top of her gold-laced bodice, and roughly wrapped his hand around her breast, squeezing one of the hard nipples.
Abigail moaned.
The moan seemed to come from both in front and behind him. The rational part of his mind, which was still barely hanging on, assumed it was some inherit echo quality of the room. Either that, or caused by his heightened sense of her in this moment.
And then, as he was nearing climax, her mental barriers weakened, and he felt the sexual energy begin to pulsate in waves from her mind. As each wave hit him, he staggered in place slightly, a spasm of pleasure passing up and down his body. Her primitive mind had taken over, and in its search for raw pleasure, it was reaching out to him, inviting him in.
He smiled lasciviously as he plunged inside her mind in unison with his next thrust.
As he tangled his will with hers, and their pleasure centers combined, the feedback loop kicked in. He aroused her, which in turn aroused him, which in turn aroused her even more, and so forth. Their pleasures fed upon each other as they were passed back and forth; it was like staring at a reflection in a mirror that repeated ad infinitum.
His eyes felt like they had rolled to the very back of his head, and the bliss that overwhelmed his mind and body seemed even more powerful than his times with Gwen. It was so strong, in fact, that he stopped his physical motions entirely, and could do nothing as his body convulsed in release of its own accord. He felt Abigail shuddering against the wall in front of him at the same time.
When it was done, his legs gave out underneath him, and he slid to the floor. Abigail similarly collapsed beside him.
She was panting. When she looked at him, her expression was one of awe. “Where have you been… all my life?”
He smiled weakly. That was all he could offer at the moment. His clothes were soaked in perspiration. Sweat beaded his brow. He was spent.
He sensed motion above him. Unsurprisingly, Felipe was perched there atop the crates, looking down at him. As soon as the monkey realized it had his attention, Felipe began to clap, screeching at the same time, in that way only the little monkey could.
Feeling suddenly exposed, Malem hiked up his breeches. Abigail self-consciously raised her panties, too, and then lowered her dress.
The monkey placed its little hands between its legs, and made a spurting action with its fingers.
“Get.” Malem kicked the bottom of the crates, and the monkey lost its balance and leaped from view.
Malem stayed there, propped against the wall, taking a moment to catch his breath.
“So did it work?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “Too weak… to tell. You’re linked to me now, I know that much.”
“So you broke me,” she said.
He nodded. He could feel her there, sitting in his mind, but the post-coital exhaustion overwhelmed everything else at the moment.
He realized he no longer heard the knocking of swords against the ceiling. Still propped up against the wall, he looked around the screen of crates to find out what was going on.
On the other side of the room, next to Bounder, Gwen was lying on the dirt pile where she had apparently fallen off the iguanid. Xaxia was kneeling beside her in concern.
“What happened?” Malem asked.
“I thought she fainted,” Xaxia said. “But when I jumped down to check on her, she was panting and moaning with lust. And she wasn’t even laying a finger on her own body. And she couldn’t see the two of you, either, so I’m not sure what was going on.”
Gwen sighed with ecstasy. “I came at the same time the two of you did. All of our animal minds participated, feeding off the pleasure of one another, and amplifying our own. Sharing you isn’t going to be so bad, if I’m going to feel this way every time.”
So that’s why the bliss had seemed so powerful that time. In the heat of the moment, he had completely forgotten about his link with Gwen while he was joined with Abigail. There was probably a way to shield Gwen’s energy bundle and prevent it from partaking, but why would he want to? What the three of them had was far beyond anything any normal human being could ever experience. Sex was overrated, many people said. That might be true of the limited sex those ordinary people knew, but not this sex.
The weakness was beginning
to fade, replaced by a new sense of power. Something had definitely changed inside of him. He was still linked to Abigail, and of course Gwen and the other animals. Abigail’s link had that same peculiar quality as Gwen’s, in that it felt stronger, unbreakable, as compared to those of the animals. As both women recovered, they lent him their strength and stamina through that link, which explained why he was feeling so good right now.
Also, it felt like the barrier that constrained his mind had expanded. He was sure he had new mental slots to hold beasts and monsters, he just wasn’t certain how many yet. That said, he didn’t want to waste his energy experimenting on the nearby rats he sensed. No, he would conserve his strength, and when the time came to test his new powers, oraks would serve as his research subjects.
He glanced at Abigail. “In answer to your earlier question, I think it worked, yes. I’m definitely stronger. Though by how much remains to be seen.”
The fire mage nodded. “Good. I feel stronger than before, too. I think.”
“It’s part of the link,” he said. “We share mental and physical endurance, now. Though it’s skewed heavily in my favor.”
“But you can give me more strength if I need it, right?” she asked.
He inclined his head. “And stamina.” He glanced at Xaxia. “I take it you didn’t break through the bedrock?”
“No,” the bandit said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Spirit reported the arrival of another war party. Malem watched from the hawk’s perspective as the newcomers approached the makeshift camp of the dragons and the orange-robed mage. A brown-robed orak leaped down from the saddle to confer with them.
“Another party of oraks just arrived,” Malem said. “I think they brought an earth mage with them, judging from the robes.”
“Brown?” Abigail said.
He nodded.
“That’s an earth mage all right,” Abigail said.
“That’s bad, isn’t it?” Gwen asked.
26
Malem watched as the earth mage left the dragons and other mage and entered the keep with an escort of six oraks bearing torches. He sensed their presences join those gathered in the basement, in front of the cave-in.
He could sense the presence of the mage for once, and was aware when it paused in front of the cave-in.
Malem reached out with his will and experimentally wrapped it around the earth mage’s mind. He was pleasantly surprised when his mental energy didn’t evaporate upon touch, like it had with other mages in the past. Too bad he wasn’t able to get a good grip: every time he tightened his hold, the mage eluded him, tearing free.
Malem gave up trying to take the mage, wanting to conserve his mental energy.
A moment later the group was moving forward, past the cave-in site.
“They’re through,” he announced.
Abigail nodded. “The earth mage must have cleared the collapse.”
A scout emerged from the entrance of the keep and shouted something. Oraks began gathering from across the estate grounds, racing back to the keep. They were rushing inside to join the others in the cleared subterranean tunnel. Even the dragons approached, taking up defensive positions around the entrance, ready to breathe their acid breath if Malem and his party emerged. The orange-robed mage stood at their side.
“The war parties are all coming down here,” Malem said. “Things are going to get… interesting.”
He sensed the oraks as they fanned out to search the different subterranean rooms. They were slowly closing with the team’s hiding place.
He reached out once more and tried to grab an orak next. The creature squirmed beneath his will, resisting. Malem tightened his grip, but the thrashing increased, and at last the orak broke away.
Well that was disheartening. He was hoping he wouldn’t have to physically subdue lower level monsters to Break them, now that he had added another human mind to his stable, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
Then again, he had held onto the beast far longer than he ordinarily would have, at least without physically injuring the orak first. That made him wonder if perhaps there might be some weaker willed oraks out there that he in fact could Break without making any physical contact.
He tried the next closest orak.
This time when he tightened his will around the thrashing bundle of energy, the creature couldn’t tear free. He squeezed that vise until the orak was firmly bound in his will, and the beast finally ceased struggling.
The orak was his.
He smiled. Now that he had confirmed he could take over the weaker willed oraks among them, he simply had to move between them with his mind, testing each with a quick vise of will until he found one he could conquer.
In that manner he discovered another three distributed in the tunnel outside so that he had a total of four in his pocket, each of them using up two mental slots, for a total of eight. That placed him at eleven slots in use when including Felipe, Bounder, and Spirit.
The mental barrier felt close above him; he probably had at least one more slot, enough to bind an animal, but not another orak. Sure enough, when he found another weaker-minded orak, he was unable to take final control of the beast, and had to release it before exhausting himself.
Speaking of exhaustion, holding that many creatures was very weakening. Even with the extra stamina he drew now from both Abigail and Gwen, he still felt the drain. He would have to act quickly if he didn’t want to be out of this battle before it even started.
Wait a moment.
He tried leeching stamina from one of the oraks in his control.
It worked. He felt better immediately, and straightened up, standing to his full height. Meanwhile, the orak under his command didn’t fare so well—he pulled too much from the beast, and the creature collapsed. Malem quickly restored some of the stolen energy to the associated bundle in his head, and the orak clambered to its feet once more.
“What’s wrong with you?” another nearby orak said.
“Nothing,” Malem’s orak said. “Just lost my footing for a moment.”
“You don’t look so good,” the orak said. “Maybe you should wait by the horses.”
“I’ll be fine, scum,” his orak snapped.
Abigail studied him uncertainly. “Why are you smiling?”
“I’ve taken control of four oraks,” he said.
Through their shared viewpoints, he watched as the oraks gathered outside the door. One orak not under his control attempted to shove the door open, but couldn’t budge it thanks to the empty crates and barrels the team had piled at the entrance.
The others heard the sound of creaking wood, and then the resultant thud as the orak threw itself at the metal door.
“They’re here,” Gwen said.
“No shit.” Xaxia swiveled her blade toward the door.
One of Malem’s oraks was unceremoniously shoved aside by something. The other nearby creatures hastily moved out of the way as a larger shape lumbered through the passage. Malem switched to the viewpoint of a different orak under his control, trying to get a better idea of what that thing was.
“There’s some kind of humanoid out there,” he told his companions. “I can’t sense it with my beast sense, but I’m watching it with one of my oraks. It’s big, but all hunched up, barely fitting the subterranean passage. Too large to be an orak, too small to be a dragon. Its skin looks pretty dark under the torchlight, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s made of dirt.”
“That would be an earth elemental,” Abigail said. “No doubt the mage created it from the soil of the cave-in itself, which explains how they were able to penetrate so quickly after his arrival.”
Malem spotted the brown-robed orak mage following closely behind the elemental.
The oraks in front of the door stepped away, making room for the elemental. The big creature approached the door, and with one punch, tore it off its hinges, and partly slid back the pile of barrels and crates in behind.
“S
tay back!” Malem warned his companions.
He sent one of his oraks forward and stabbed the mage in the back. The stricken creature screamed as it fell. Malem could still sense the mage’s energy—as desired, the attack wasn’t a killing blow.
The other oraks hewed down the attacker in outrage.
Malem felt the whiplash effect as his connection to that orak was severed, and he slumped.
He had three slots free now. But needed four to control a mage.
Rather than simply releasing another orak from his control, instead he drained it entirely of its stamina first. When the creature fell, he released it, freeing up another two slots, then he wrapped his will around the injured mage. He squeezed tightly, expecting a battle of wills, but was pleasantly surprised when he quickly took control.
He commanded the mage to attack with the earth elemental, and a moment later the hunched earth creature was bashing any oraks foolish enough to get into its path.
Malem had his other two oraks attack in the confusion, and in a few moments he had cleared out the entire war party.
He was feeling weak from controlling so many monsters, so he leeched stamina from the two lesser oraks. Not enough to make them useless, but definitely enough to make him feel better.
The three women were watching everything go down from the wall next to the entrance, which allowed them to peer through the gap that had formed when the door broke off its hinges.
“It’s time to leave this room,” Malem said.
He and the women moved enough of the crates and barrels away from the door so that they could open it wider and fit their animals through.
Felipe climbed onto his shoulder, and promptly dove into his collar to hide.
Malem guided Bounder, leading the way into the passage outside. The women kept their weapons drawn—or in Abigail’s case, her arm raised—ready to strike should the remaining orak betray them. Abigail kept her flaming sphere active above the party, since the oraks Malem controlled didn’t have torches, and the passage was dim outside, lit only by the glowing embers of torches the dead had dropped.
The earth elemental filled up almost the entire corridor in front of Malem. The earth mage stood dwarfed before the summoned creature.
