by Eric Vall
“No need,” General Kralok assured me. “Just point us to the ale.”
I grinned. “I can certainly do that. We have two pubs in the market, and both serve dwarven wine, dwarven ale, ogre Rosh, and home cooking.”
The general promptly saluted me before he returned his helm to his head, and when he turned to his soldiers, he gave a gruff order in Dwarvish. Then the general looked at Kurna, and he was about to lead the dwarven army to the pubs when I heard a metallic screech not far from the village.
Which wasn’t ideal timing, given the relationship between the elves and the dwarves.
“Quickly,” I ordered under my breath, and Kurna nodded before he briskly headed into the lanes.
Then the dwarven soldiers marched off one line at a time while I anxiously glanced up at the sky every few seconds, and I hoped the majority of the dwarves would be under the oak trees before the dragon flew over.
“You sure we got room for all these dwarves in the pubs?” Haragh asked as he nudged my side.
“Shit,” I muttered when I realized he was right. “Clear the mages out of the pubs, and have the Terra Mages form seating areas around the square. Then get some of the students to help the barkeeps serve everyone for the day. Tell Raynor it’s all on me, and give the dwarves whatever they want, but go light on the Rosh.”
“Yes, sir,” the half-ogre snorted, and he headed off to take a back route to the market.
The last line of dwarves had just turned to march off when Rammstein reached Falmount, but the sound of their armor seemed to mask the beating of his metal wings, and I held my breath without moving a muscle as he soared over the lanes with a giant platform of elves swinging beneath him.
The last twenty dwarves looked up at the last second, though, and I let out a long sigh as they immediately began grumbling to one another in their native language. It didn’t sound like they were exchanging compliments, either, but Urn took up the rear to march off with the Arms of Aurum as if everything was under control.
Then I nearly dove off the platform and sprinted back up the lane, and the mages who’d gathered in the street jumped out of my way while I apologized left and right for the toes I stepped on.
I was panting again when I barreled over my bridge, and I helped guide the platform down with my powers so it wouldn’t crush my new automatons. The elves remained crouched on the volcanic rock with warrior scowls while I removed the chains from the metal dragon, and after he touched down on the other side of the moat, Nulena dismounted.
I was caught off guard to see how murderous her expression was as she strolled across the bridge, and for a second, I wondered if I’d have to set aside thirty minutes to discuss my background sooner than I thought.
Nulena kept her gaze on the elves who still hadn’t moved, though, and as soon as she came to my side, she spoke to them in Elvish.
I jumped a little at how commanding her tone was, and the ebony woman ordered the elves as firmly as any general while they all straightened up and left the platform to form four strict lines in the clearing.
The warriors Rhys and Dragir had sent me all looked to be around my age, were well built, and also armed with no less than ten blades each, and Rhys’ elves had their crossbows strapped to their backs as well. The two Houses remained divided by a few feet, though, and I recognized the telltale look in the wall of serpentine eyes staring back at me. Like all the warriors I’d come across in Nalnora, these guys were devoid of any moral compass and were purely focused on killing anyone they came up against, and as I noticed a couple of them tilt their ears in the direction of the ogre lair, I glanced at Nulena.
“You made it clear they’re not to harm any of my allies?” I asked as a few elves tightened their hold on their hilts.
Nulena nodded, but then she addressed the warriors more harshly than before, and they bristled at her words. As the Baroness strolled forward, though, her tone dipped into a murderous one, and I tried not grin as every warrior clasped their hands behind their backs and dropped their eyes toward the ground.
“Where would you like them?” Nulena purred when she turned back to me.
“They can wait in the woods just south of the mansion,” I decided. “I’ll have the mages build them barracks out there. Can you tell them it’ll be a little while before I can have food sent over, and that they should be prepared to move out by two o’clock?”
Nulena translated my words for the elves, and an elf from each House who stood at the forefront of the others responded.
“They will hunt for themselves,” the Baroness informed me.
I nodded. “Even better.”
Then Nulena ordered the elven warriors away, and they filed over my bridge and into the southern woods with their hands still clasped at their backs. I could hear them muttering to one another in Elvish as they went, and the Baroness watched them like a hawk until they were out of sight.
“What did you say before they all looked down?” I asked
Nulena smirked. “You don’t want to know, my love.”
“I see,” I muttered. “Do any of them understand my language?”
“A few, but they don’t speak it well,” Nulena replied. “Now, I must go. I have a butcher to drown.”
“Right,” I chuckled. “Well, thank you for helping me out today. Will you let me know as soon as you get an answer about the nobles’ armies?”
“Yes,” the Baroness said, but she looked concerned as she met my gaze. “You will be prepared by this evening, won’t you?”
“Should be. We’ve got our means of travel secured. If no one decides to start killing each other in my lanes, I’d say we’ll be stationed by nightfall.”
Nulena nodded. “Good. I’ll be back later.”
I furrowed my eyebrows as the ebony woman turned away and conjured her shadows, and she sent a small smile toward the metal dragon before she vanished without another word. I tried not to dwell too much on how tense she seemed, but the Baroness was usually more inclined to stick around than she had been this morning.
Still, I’d recently learned how much effort went into her operations, and I figured she had as much running around to do as me, especially since she was helping me out with Temin. So, I shrugged it off, and once I got a few Terra and Flumen Mages from the lanes, I sent them to the southern woods with instructions to build two-story barracks for the elven warriors. I warned them about the hostility of the elves before they left just so they wouldn’t be too intimidated, and while I kept half an ear on the southern woods, I returned to the mansion.
I’d just gotten to the training hall when I heard Kurna arrive, though, and while my women all ceased their training, the brawny mage came down the hall with a concerned look on his face.
“Mason, we’ve hit a snag,” the general told me. “The dwarves say they won’t reside in Falmount if the elves are here as well.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I muttered. “Tell them the elves are residing in the southern woods. They’re hunting for their own food, too, so I doubt the two armies will be crossing paths here.”
“That’s what Haragh told them you’d do,” Kurna said, “but they’re not backing down about it. General Kralok says he’ll get his dwarves back on the train if you don’t send the elves away.”
“Great,” I snorted, and Aurora propped her flail up on her shoulder as my women came over.
“Kurna, go to the station and send Bagneera away,” Aurora told the general. “If there’s no train to board, then the dwarves will have to suck it up and deal with the arrangement. Make sure she knows to be back here by one o’clock. Then tell Raynor to bring out the larger glasses from the back of the pub and double the helpings of ale. I’m sure the dwarves will calm down after an hour.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I agreed.
“There’s also the issue of the ogres, though,” Kurna added. “Grot’s torn down the western wall of the training fields because he’s tired of hearing the pistols going off.”
&nb
sp; I nodded. “Tell him those pistols will be saving our asses pretty soon.”
“What if he gets mad?” the brawny mage asked as he shifted his weight.
“Tell him Mason’s battle dragon would be happy to make the message clearer for him,” Deya growled, and I grinned at the way she propped her hands on her hips as she said this.
“Yes, ma’am,” Kurna chuckled.
“We’re leaving for Cedis now, so try to hold everything together,” I told the Ignis Mage. “When I get back, we can start on the rosters for the posts. As soon as the dwarves are feeling less hostile, maybe you could remind them that they came here to fight beside the elves, so they’ll be expected to do so.”
“Do I have to?” Kurna checked, but when Aurora stepped a little closer, the look on her face sent the brawny mage straight for the door.
“Another thirty minutes has passed, sir,” Alfred announced.
“Thank you, Alfred,” I sighed. “Cayla, we better get to Cedis.”
“Are you sure you don’t want anything else from us?” Shoshanne murmured as she came up behind me, and when I glanced back, her gaze was so obliging I almost dropped my pants out of habit. “Your shoulders are so tense, and you know we always help you relax better than anyone else. You could spare an hour, couldn’t you?”
“No,” Aurora answered for me. “Mason’s on a tight schedule, and I heard Alfred say we cost him fifteen percent of his productivity!”
“Damn, fifteen percent?” Cayla muttered with some chagrin. “That’s not ideal.”
“Maybe not, but he needs something to keep him level-headed,” Shoshanne countered as she slid her arms around me and clasped them against my abs. “Mason has so much on his shoulders, and I can’t stomach the idea of him going without us in his time of need.”
“Seriously? This is one day we’re talking about,” the half-elf clarified. “For the past four or five days while we were on the train we had sex nonstop. We can go one day without sex for the sake of this war, right?”
No one nodded in agreement, but I crinkled my eyebrows as the half-elf finally just yanked Shoshanne’s hands off me. Then the healer blinked her thick brown lashes at me, and the mixture of concern and arousal on the caramel beauty’s face was so intriguing, it took Cayla and Deya pushing me out of the training hall to get my focus back on track.
“Cedis,” Cayla reminded me. “Deya, you have five minutes to meet us out front.”
“Rammstein’s actually out there right now, so we could take him,” I suggested, and my women all furrowed their eyebrows.
“Who?” Deya asked.
“Oh, I named the metal dragon Rammstein,” I said with a grin. “I’m never changing my mind about it, either, so Mason Jr. is out.”
“I like it,” Shoshanne decided. “It sounds sort of violent, but complex.”
“And foreign,” Aurora mused.
“That is like… exactly correct,” I snorted.
My women tried the name out a few times, and I couldn’t help chuckling at how cute they made the word sound. They even giggled when they said it, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed it was some adorable breed of rabbit. This only made me like the name more, though, and when I compared their pronunciation to the jarring pyrotechnics of the concert I’d gone to, I began laughing even harder.
“What’s so funny?” Deya giggled. “Are we saying it wrong?”
“No, you’re perfect,” I croaked. “I just love you all.”
“Well, we love Rammstein,” the beautiful elf informed me with a curt little nod, and I doubled over all over again.
“Mason, what happened to your supposedly tight schedule?” Shoshanne sighed.
“I’m going, I swear,” I chuckled as I turned to Deya. “Do you want to sit this one out and save up your energy for later?”
“Absolutely not,” Deya scoffed. “I want to see the beautiful place Cayla comes from.”
“Deal,” I agreed. “We’ll meet you out front. What are the rest of you up to today?”
“Shoshanne and I only practiced our magery for a couple hours last night, so we’re gonna work on that some more,” Aurora said. “Could you repair the training hall before you leave, though?”
I nodded. “Sure. How’s that cyclone going?”
“Umm… ” Shoshanne hummed, and I smirked as I started returning all the battered stone to its proper place. “I would say it’s going neutrally. Maybe on the negative side of neutral.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Aurora chuckled. “I think it’s awesome, she’s just worried because she keeps making her whirlwinds bigger each time.”
I glanced at the healer. “Bigger than the one you threw at the wall?”
“Yes?” Shoshanne squeaked. “So… it’s not going well.”
Aurora shook her head in disagreement, and I chuckled as I finished securing the last of the targets in place.
“Hey, bigger’s better sometimes,” I told the healer. “Are you at least feeling more in control of the process?”
“Not at all.”
“Oh… well, that’s okay, too,” I assured her. “How many of these whirlwind things have you made?”
“Seven,” Aurora snorted, “and before you ask, we have no idea where they’ve all gone off to.”
“So, there’s that,” Shoshanne mumbled, and she nervously toyed with the hem of her skirt as I came over to pull her into my arms.
“Don’t worry so much,” I murmured. “If you get anxious about the process, your magic isn’t going to be any easier to control. Forget about the results you’ve been getting, and focus on your objective. Remember, this is all for the sake of killing that bitch who tried to abduct me.”
Shoshanne immediately flushed and scowled. “Gods, she’s such a bitch.”
“Exactly,” I chuckled. “Stay in that frame of mind, and I’m sure you’ll get better results.”
The healer nodded, but her eyebrows seemed stuck in a furious knot now that I had reminded her about Aloshi, and I tucked a kiss into her curls before I headed for the door with Cayla on my arm.
“We’ll hopefully be back in an hour,” I called out over my shoulder. “Aurora, keep an ear on the southern woods, alright?”
“Okay!” the half-elf hollered back, and Alfred handed Cayla her 1911s at the door.
“I’d rather bring my rifle,” the princess decided.
“You don’t need the rifle in Cedis,” I pointed out. “Take the 1911s.”
“But I love my rifle,” Cayla countered. “I know you are going to make many like it, but this one is mine. It’s like my best friend. You know my life is about shooting, and I really want to master it.”
I blinked at her a few times, and then she tilted her head.
“What?”
“Uhh, nothing.” I nudged her out the door, and then I grabbed her pistols from Alfred before I followed. I was so busy trying to secure the 1911s to Cayla’s swaying hips that I forgot to keep her out of the clearing, though, and when the princess shrieked like a banshee, both guns went flying from my hands.
“Mason, I love them!” the princess squealed. “I love everything about them! They’re beautiful, and huge, and perfect, and I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”
“Yeah… it was supposed to be a surprise,” I chuckled as she ran over to the four automatons. “I wanted to show you once I got all eight of them finished.”
“Gods, I want a hundred more just like them!” Cayla laughed. “Can you make a hundred more before tonight?”
“No,” I snorted, “but I’ll put in on my to do list.”
“Mason, fuck me right here,” the princess suddenly demanded, and my eyebrows shot up as she tore her bodice open.
“Woooah, wait a minute,” I tried as I checked over my shoulder, and more than a dozen mages were gawking at Cayla’s porcelain breasts from the lane.
Then I fumbled to get her top closed while Rammstein turned on the mages, and while the
y all sprinted down the lane, Cayla just wrenched her bodice open again.
“Please?” she whisper-begged. “I can’t wait a whole day, not when you made all these rifles and gave them to automatons just for me. I’m soaking wet, and I really, really, really need your cock deep inside of me.”
“Cayla,” I groaned, and I locked her top shut with one hand while I shielded my belt with the other. “Deya will be here any minute, and there are so many reasons not to fuck in our front yard today. Come on, take a deep breath with me.”
“But rifles,” the princess moaned as she tried for a kiss.
“Deeeep breaths,” I coached. “If I can resist all of you for one day, then you can totally do this. Just bury that lust deep, deep, down, and--”
“Mmm… that’s how deep I want you in me, though,” Cayla whimpered.
“Let’s do another breath,” I decided. “Let me see you breathe a bit, and instead of focusing on rifles, we’re gonna focus on ogres, okay? Two hundred ogres who live just on the other side of our house from the eighty elves we don’t want to piss off.”
Cayla tried to take a few shaky breaths while I led her away from the automatons, but every exhale came out as a lusty moan, and I locked my teeth together until my jaw ached.
“Moldy ogres with rotting teeth,” I muttered more for myself than for her, but it seemed to do the trick.
Cayla grimaced as she finally managed a steady breath, and while she worked through a few more, I tucked her breasts in and got her leather latched up again. Then I kept counting out her breaths for her while I quickly ran over to grab her pistols off the ground, and I got back to her side before she could turn around for another glimpse of the automatons.
“There you go, you’re doing great,” I praised. “Let’s go over our next task. That should help. We’ll be visiting Cedis, talking with your father, and hopefully gathering more soldiers.”
Cayla smiled as her blush cooled down a little more. “I am excited I get to see my father again. It’s been ages.”
“Yeah, it has,” I agreed. “He’ll be so happy, and you’ll be so happy. Concentrate on that for a minute, and while you keep looking at the moat, I’m gonna get Rammstein back to Mors Pass.”
