by Logan Jacobs
I hoped that the guards on duty would be ones that we knew, and maybe they would just wave us on through. Instead, we had a couple of new recruits who took the instruction to search all people and their possessions thoroughly to heart. I was glad I’d only brought the textbooks that Maderel had given me, and not one of the banned texts that would have led to my arrest. Not that the guards would have recognized the banned texts, but the mage who stood nearby keeping an eye on the proceedings would have.
“We’ll definitely have to camp out tonight,” Aerin sighed. “We’ll be lucky if we make it halfway there at this rate.”
One of the guards approached our group and ordered us to dismount. We did so, and he did a quick look through each of our packs. Nothing set off any alarms, though he did look surprised by the sheer volume of clothes that Maruk carried. He glanced at the orc, but didn’t comment.
The mage walked over and whispered in the guard’s ear. The guard shrugged, and the mage said something else. The guard still didn’t look impressed, but he waved us on through without any further poking or prodding through our bags.
“Wonder what that was all about,” Emeline said as we finally made it outside the gates.
“The mage recognized us, even if the guards didn’t,” I replied. “Maybe doing all that work for the Academy has some benefits besides just the gold coin.”
“Or maybe he’s one of Murillo’s secret buddies, making sure we get out of the city so it’s easier to attack us,” Aerin pointed out.
“When did you become such a cynic?” I asked as Emeline stared furtively at the people all around us.
“Since this whole quest started,” she replied. “By the way, Lena thinks any color change will take place overnight, so we’ll have something to look forward to tomorrow when we wake up.”
Aerin gave me a sunny smile, then urged her horse forward to join Lena. I laughed and snuck Merlin one of the mints. He was snuggled down in the hood of my cloak, and he quickly shifted to his puca form when he sniffed the candy. His paw came out and grabbed the mint from my hand, and I heard the crack as he bit down. My horse did as well, and his ears swiveled backwards at the noise. I promised to save him a piece, and we rode on in quiet contentment for the rest of the day.
We made camp well after sundown. The wind had picked up again, and I shivered despite the warmth of my cloak. We turned off the road and picked our way towards a small glen we’d used many times before. There were just enough trees to provide some shelter from the wind, and a nearby creek for fresh water. I was happy to see that the spot was empty when we arrived, and we set up camp quickly. Emeline soon had a fire going, and Maruk set out the ingredients for what he assured us would be a masterpiece of campfire cooking.
When the horses were settled for the evening, the rest of us gathered around the flames, our cloaks pulled tight against the cold. Maruk’s dinner was as good as advertised, and I was beginning to believe that Maruk could start a second career as a world renowned chef. With our stomachs full, and the fire tamped down just enough to keep us warm, we headed for our bedrolls.
It wasn’t long before I heard Maruk’s steady snoring and Emeline’s purr. Merlin was curled up next to me, and normally, I would have been happy for his warmth. But tonight I had a thousand thoughts buzzing around in my head, and I kept turning uncomfortably under the blanket. Merlin finally had enough, and I saw his form scurry across the camp towards one of the other lumps. He cooed softly when he arrived, and I saw Aerin’s red hair for just a moment as she lifted her blanket to let the puca settle in underneath.
When the camp was quiet again, I scooped up my cloak and my blanket, and felt around in my pack until I found Lackland’s Treatise and one of Lena’s glow sticks. If I couldn’t get to sleep, maybe I could at least read Chapter One. Or, even better, maybe Chapter One would finally put me to sleep.
There was a small ring of young trees near our campsite. It wasn’t big enough for our entire group, but we’d found signs that one or two people had used it recently. I figured it was a good spot to read without disturbing the team and still be close enough to keep an eye out for trouble.
I ducked beneath the low-hanging branches, and found a nice, cozy spot that was dry and sheltered from the wind. I activated the glow stick, and the place suddenly had a rosy warmth. With the blanket on the ground and my cloak wrapped around my body, I could almost pretend I was sitting in front of a fire. I settled back against a tree trunk and opened Lackland's Treatise.
I made it halfway through the first chapter before I felt my eyes start to close. It amazed me that even on a topic as exciting as magic, textbooks could still be so dull. I tried to focus, then gave up and skipped ahead to the exercises.
I had just managed to create a tiny spark when I heard a rustling sound among the branches. A familiar voice cursed quietly, and then Aerin stepped into my little nest.
“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked as she pulled a twig from her hair.
“Figured I could get caught up on my lessons,” I replied.
“You could have stayed by the fire,” she pointed out.
“Didn’t want to disturb anyone,” I said as I held up the glow stick. She looked like golden honey in its light, and just as delicious.
She smiled as she sat down next to me. I smiled back, and her hand slid between my legs. I unfastened her cloak and tossed it to the side as she rolled on top of me. I inhaled the elf’s intoxicating summery scent as her long limbs entwined with mine. My mouth found hers, and I devoured it even as she undid the laces to my pants and pushed her hand inside.
I moved on top of her without breaking the kiss. She groaned into my mouth, and I felt both of her hands move across my groin, then start to stroke my penis. It was my turn to groan as I nuzzled her neck and took a playful bite at her ear.
“I didn’t want you to get cold,” she whispered in my ear. She licked the edge of my ear, and I groaned again.
“I may have to throw one of these cloaks off,” I whispered back. “It’s getting very toasty in here.”
“I can think of a few other things we could remove,” she replied as she pushed my pants off my hips.
She squirmed beneath me, and her delicious neck dipped out of view. A moment later, I felt her tongue slowly working its way downward. She reached my balls, and I groaned again. I strained as the tension in my core built up, and I felt her own body respond.
When my penis was fully erect, she slithered back up my chest. Her hazel eyes glowed with a golden light of their own as she pulled me inside of her. She was warm and slick inside, and her heat fed my own. I felt like I was smothering her with my weight, but she groaned again and pulled me tighter.
“Do it,” she ordered quietly. “Please, just do it.”
I rocked against her, driving deeper inside. Her nails raked along my back as she tried to steady herself against the flood. She panted against my neck, and then she was moving with me. My penis found her favorite spot along her clit, and her body convulsed in ecstasy.
“Oh please,” she begged quietly over and over again, her lips pressed against my ear.
When she climaxed, she muffled her scream by biting down on my neck. Then I held her against me until I felt her body go limp, and I placed her gently back onto the bedroll. We stayed like that for a moment, while we caught our breath, and then her hands went back to work. I smiled down at her, then pressed my lips against hers. I drove my tongue deep inside, and I could taste the salty sweetness of her.
Her hands trailed slowly back up along my spine, until they reached the back of my head. She grabbed a fistful of hair and held me in the kiss, letting her tongue explore my mouth. I sank down on top of her again and let my penis rub against her still wet thighs. She arched back for a moment and then wrapped her legs around my waist.
I drove into her again, with deep, powerful strokes. She started to quiver and her eyes nearly rolled back inside her head. She gave up on using her hands, and simply laid back, splayed in front of me
like a red-headed Venus emerging from her shell while I had my way with her body.
Her second orgasm came in great, powerful waves that swept through her body. I felt the incredible pleasure surge through my own body, and all I could do was keep pounding into her as my own climax came. The pleasure felt like it would never end, and when I finally finished filling her to the brim with my seed, she finally unwrapped her legs and lay spent beneath me. We’d been making love for most of the night, and I honestly thought I would see the first rays of morning sunlight breaking across the horizon.
I finally lay down beside her. My breath sounded ragged, and I was drenched in sweat, but I pulled her to me, and kissed her gently across the forehead, and then down the bridge of her nose, to her lips and chin.
“Gabriel,” she murmured softly from swollen lips. “I've stopped taking the moon weed.”
“I guessed that,” I whispered.
“I maybe should have told you before we started,” she continued as if she hadn’t heard me. “You aren’t mad?”
“Nope,” I chuckled.
“So, uhh, you want one? With me, I mean?”
“Yes. I want you to give me a baby.” I ran my hand across her breasts and felt how enlarged they still were. “I love you.”
“I’m so happy,” Aerin moaned, then rolled on top of me. She held herself above me while I teased her nipples, and when she couldn’t take it anymore, she started grinding down on me.
We stayed awake for another two hours, going back and forth, feeding each other’s pleasure. The moon was well past its zenith by the time we finally collapsed for the last time, and somewhere I heard an owl hoot. Or maybe it was a puca.
Chapter 11
We broke camp early the next morning. Between the biting wind and the unhappy horses, no one wanted to linger. Even Maruk was up and moving with little encouragement from the rest of us. We made good time to Constello lands, despite the snow that still covered the ground.
Rezo was outside and ready to greet us as we came to a halt at the massive front doors. Two servants rushed forward to take the reins, and I slipped my faithful steed a peppermint before the servant turned him towards the stables.
“All is well?” Yvaine asked as she glided up the steps.
“Of course,” Rezo replied with a small cough. Yvaine’s eyebrows went up, but she didn’t ask any more questions.
“Tea,” Yvaine declared as we stepped across the threshold. “in the drawing room.”
Rezo bowed and quickly retreated while another army of servants collected our cloaks and gloves. The slippers were already by the front door this time, and we peeled off our boots and quickly tucked our feet into the welcoming coziness. Two more servants scurried forward to take our boots for yet another polishing.
“Ah, now this is pleasant,” Maruk sighed when he was finally seated in the orc-sized armchair that Yvaine had recently added to her furniture collection.
“Well, it’s about time,” Dehn declared as he stepped into the room. “I thought you were leaving yesterday.”
“Late start,” I mumbled as I held my feet out towards the fire. “We had to camp last night.”
“I see you made it here safely,” Yvaine noted.
“Made good time traveling on my own,” Dehn replied. “Lavinia and I have worked out a few times since I got here. And Imogen joined us a couple of times. That one’s got a few moves, I gotta say.”
“And where are the fair ladonae?” Maruk asked.
“Looking over some maps,” Dehn replied with a shrug. “They were having some long discussion about where to take the Shodra. I left when they started talking about using hot air balloons to cross the Iolian Sea.”
“Is that even possible?” Aerin asked.
“Don’t know, don’t care,” Dehn said as he claimed a seat. “I’m not doing it.”
Rezo returned with enough tea to fill a swimming pool, and three platters full of ham and cheese sandwiches. The crusty bread was still warm enough to melt the cheese, and the ham had just a hint of honey sweetness. I added a nice dollop of mustard and some crunchy pickles to my sandwiches and decided that a good ham and cheese was one of the essentials in any universe.
“That was good,” Emeline purred as she settled into her chair. “I could eat that every day.”
“But then you’d grow bored with it and want something else,” Lena pointed out.
“I don’t know,” Aerin replied as she licked a bit of mustard from a fingertip. “I don’t think it’s possible to have too much ham and cheese.”
“Now that would be an interesting test,” Maruk mused. “If I served you ham and cheese sandwiches, say, for lunch every day, would you grow bored?”
“Would they be the same ham and cheese sandwiches every day, or would you have variations?” Yvaine asked.
“It’s ham and cheese,” Aerin said. “Does it matter?”
“Absolutely,” Maruk asserted. “Just look at the ham options alone. Thin sliced Ayermo, thick slabs of Boranian butt, the smokey flavors of Iskanda porchulla.”
“I’m sorry I asked,” Aerin sighed.
“And then there’s the bread options, the cheese options, the condiments,” Maruk continued.
“It doesn’t sound like we could get bored with all those possibilities,” I replied.
We were saved from any further contemplation of the infinite varieties of ham and cheese by the arrival of Lavinia and Imogen. Both ladies wore all black today, in nearly identical design. I might have risked a comment if the tension between the two hadn’t been so obvious.
“Oh, you look like sisters,” Lena blurted out in delight.
So much for my plan.
“We look nothing like sisters,” Imogen snapped. “And really, I don’t know how you people are still alive. Haven’t you ever tried to plan for something more than a day in advance?”
“We always have a plan,” Maruk replied.
“They just don’t always go the way they’re supposed to,” Dehn added.
“Wandering around a mountainside looking for a castle is not a plan,” Imogen huffed.
“That was the puca’s fault,” Lavinia replied.
Merlin looked up from his bowl of cream and raspberried.
“So, how’s the planning going?” I finally cut in.
“We have a few possibilities where Maderel might have hidden the Shodra,” Imogen said. “The Tower’s been through quite a few renovations over the years, especially whenever a new High Mage takes over. But I think we have a pretty good picture of what the Tower really looks like. Emeline, since you’re the one who’s most familiar with the Tower, I’d like to go over a few floor plans with you, just to confirm some of the information.”
“Of course,” Emeline agreed.
“We’ve also been trying to work out what to do with the Shodra once we have them,” Lavinia continued.
“Dehn said you were thinking about crossing the Iolian Sea,” I replied.
“That’s one possibility,” Lavinia said. “King Farouk is no friend of Ovrista, or the Academy. He created his own training facility for mages, and he won’t allow Academy officials to visit either the school or his court.”
“But?” I prodded.
“In some ways, Farouk is even more repressive,” Imogen explained. “There are even tighter limitations on the type of magic one can perform, and women and most other races are definitely second-class citizens. Only human and elf males can move around freely.”
“That’s no good,” I said.
“I was thinking we could use it as a waystation if we were desperate,” Imogen replied.
“This is where it gets crazy,” Lavinia warned.
“We would only be there long enough to arrange transport to Augustine,” Imogen added. Lavinia rolled her eyes but offered no other comments.
In fact, the only sound I heard after that statement was the crackling of the fire. I glanced around the room, but I had a hard time deciphering the looks on the faces of m
y team.
“What’s Augustine?” I finally asked.
“It was one of the free cities during the civil war,” Emeline replied. “Some of the world’s greatest thinkers, musicians, artists, idealists all came from there. It was all set to host a peace conference when it was destroyed. Each side accused the other, and there are a lot of stories about what happened, but no one knows for sure.”
“It’s been rebuilt,” Imogen said.
“That’s just a myth,” Lavinia snapped.
“So are the Shodra,” Imogen replied.
“If it had been rebuilt, people would know,” Lavinia insisted. “You can’t just hide an entire city.”
“No one has ventured to the Eastern reaches since the end of the civil war,” Imogen protested. “Our world has become considerably smaller. But, I do believe that Augustine still exists.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Things that I’ve seen and heard in my travels,” Imogen replied vaguely. “There aren’t many people willing to risk a trip to the East these days, but we could do it.”
“What’s so dangerous about the trip?” I queried.
“It’s like all of our recent trips packed into one very long, very hard crossing with no guarantee that there’s anything at the end,” Maruk explained. “Even my family won’t bother with trying to travel to the Eastern reaches. There’s hasn’t been a merchant ship seen in the area for centuries.”
“When was the last time pirates traveled that way?” Yvaine asked.
“Quite a while,” Maruk admitted
“So if someone had rebuilt it in the last few decades, the orcs wouldn’t necessarily know,” Yvaine pointed out.
“Especially if they have no interest in trading with the west,” Imogen said. “There wouldn’t be any shipping traffic for the orcs to see.”
“But, wouldn’t they want people to know they were there?” Aerin asked.
“Why?” Lena mused. “The last time they involved themselves in worldly affairs, they were completely destroyed.”
