The Warrior's Assault

by Kristen Banet

  Senri stepped forward, smiling. Allaina was next to her, presenting a strong visage.

  “Mave. By where you’re standing, can we assume you support the king in this idea?” Senri asked it professionally as if she were talking to a noble who ranked higher than her.

  “I do.” Mave lifted her chin, gaining more confidence as she spoke. “Alchan has my full support in this. I’ll fight the Elvasi to my last breath if it means maybe one day, none of you will see the inside of a cell again or the cold silver of a collar.”

  “And what position do you hold?” Allaina asked. “You’re just a warrior.”

  “She’s the King’s Champion,” Alchan answered before Mave could. “She’s my Champion. Consider her the message we’ll send to the Elvasi and their Empress. Whatever they do to us, we shall reuse to forge us into something greater. We can overcome whatever challenges they throw at us. We will break the bonds of bondage and learn to fly once again.”

  At that, both Senri and Allaina dropped to a knee, lowering their heads.

  “Then we consider Mave the leader of the females,” Allaina announced. “And we shall follow her, and in turn, you in the efforts to free our people.”

  Mave cast a wide-eyed glance at Alchan. He hadn’t told her this would happen.

  Alchan leaned over to her, keeping his voice low.

  “You can tell them you respect their history of leadership and will accept the honorary title. Explain you’re willing to accept decisions they make in your name if they continue to further our goals.”

  Mave repeated what he said nearly word for word. At the end, she added something of her own.

  “Don’t fucking bow to me, please.”

  Senri was chuckling as she stood up.

  “I fucking knew something was coming. This? This is perfect. Allaina and I will see to it the females are trained for war immediately. It’s about damn time we take back the skies.”

  “Thank you, Senri.” Mave extended a hand, and they shook as equals. Allaina stepped up next and took Mave’s hand when offered.

  “Come to me for lessons on politics. You’re going to need them. People are going to look to you for more than just a sword.”

  “I’ll send them to you,” Mave answered. She really didn’t want to be the leader. She only wanted to fight.

  “If that suits you.” Allaina nodded her head in a mock bow. Both females blended back into the crowd.

  “We’ll have more information going forward. Tonight, continue with what you were doing. Hunt down real food. Bathe. Enjoy being home. We’re here to stay, though. We’ll be back on the move in a couple of days. I know these mountains well, and we need to find shelter.”

  “Are we going to use one of our abandoned villages?” someone asked.

  “Most likely,” Alchan answered. “Goodnight, everyone. You’re dismissed.”

  Andinna stood up and walked away. The talk was lively now. Game was going to be hard to find for those hunting, but Mave didn’t let that bother her. She’d make it another few days without a full meal.

  “I’m going to talk to my brother,” Alchan told her, sighing. “Thank you for supporting me in this. I’m going to have to talk to the Company later tonight, but you have time to bathe and see your males before then. Make sure they know we have another meeting coming up.”

  “Go deal with yours.” She was staring at Mat and Bryn. “I’ll deal with mine.”

  They parted ways, and she walked to her lovers, knowing they were probably shocked. Whether they were angry with her, she didn’t know. This was a big secret to keep from them.

  “How long have you known?” Mat asked softly when she drew close to him.

  “I never really did. He and I never said the words. We just saw the same thing in each other.”

  “Let’s get to the stream and talk there,” Bryn said carefully. “We’re dirty, hungry, and tired.”

  “There’s going to be a Company meeting later—”

  Bryn grabbed her chin and slammed a rough kiss on her lips, his free hand wrapping around her back and holding her to him, chest-to-chest. When he released her, she didn’t miss the pained growl.

  “I’m goin’ to spend some time with my wife in a stream before we all start talkin’ about how we’re goin’ to die,” he explained, growling with every word. “I’ll die for ya, Mave. I’ll die for the Andinna, too.” He leaned in and spoke softly. “But I want one moment with ya before that. Don’t talk about it again until we’re done with ya.”

  “Someone is finally talking some sense,” Mat mumbled, walking away, Bryn pulling her along to follow them. She didn’t bother fighting them.

  Through the darkness, she followed them to the sound of running water. The caravan had found the stream halfway through the day and followed it up the mountain. It was cold spring water, runoff from melting snow coming down from the peaks of the mountains.

  Silently, she stripped while they did. Mat didn’t pause as he stepped into the water, which was probably freezing. Bryn was next, and they both started cleaning off.

  “I’m sorry,” she told them softly. “It felt…too fragile to say.”

  “Not mad about the secret,” Mat explained. “We just want you while we can have you. We want to stop thinking about our people dying and just have you for a moment. We haven’t been together since the ship. Bryn and I wanted to spend this first night with you.”

  She smiled cautiously. “So…you’re not angry?”

  “No. No, Mave, we’re not mad about that. We’re not mad about Alchan making you his Champion. That makes sense for him and you, in a lot of ways. We’re not mad about starting a rebellion. We just want you to be quiet and let us enjoy a moment with you.” Mat extended a hand to her. “Now get in here and let’s clean off.”

  “Then I’m goin’ to fuck ya on that rock over there.” Bryn pointed at several boulders.

  “Which one?” she asked, stepping into the cold water, holding Mat’s hand.

  “All of ‘em,” he murmured, leaning to kiss her shoulder.

  The cold water made her nipples hard, but it wasn’t as cold as she had thought it would be. As they washed off, Mat murmured the Andinna were naturally built to handle cold stream water, how it wouldn’t affect anything, and they wouldn’t lose parts to frostbite. It was summer in the mountains, not nearly cold enough to be a concern for any of them. Bryn’s fingers ran through her hair, teasing out tangles.

  Days of dirt left them. Weeks of sea salt disappeared. They found themselves next to the boulders, Bryn leaning up against one, holding her back against him, her breasts on display for Matesh. He nudged her legs open as Mat drew close and kissed her neck and collarbone, creating a line of pleasure down her chest.

  “You need more tatua,” Mat whispered against her breast as he kissed the soft skin. “So much more for me to trace my tongue over.”

  “Ya should get on that tomorrow,” Bryn said to him over her shoulder. His hand ran over her belly, and his cock was hard against her ass.

  “All the way down to here,” Mat decided, kissing right under her belly button.

  Then his tongue touched her core, sliding between the folds. She grabbed his shoulders, holding tightly as he devoured her.

  Days and days of stress and no release made her an easy target and simple to please. When he slid two fingers into her, she gasped, tangling her fingers in his hair for control over him.

  He growled against her, the sweet vibrations making her legs shake. His fingers pumped inside of her as his free hand went around her, massaging her ass.

  She came without warning. He flicked his tongue against her, sending jolts of pleasure through her like she was struck by lightning.

  As he pulled away, Bryn turned her to face him and kissed her slowly, then spun them so her back was against the cold boulder, lifting her legs to wrap around his waist. Sliding into her with ease, he growled against her mouth. Mave moaned, wrapping her arms around his neck as he rocked into her.

 
; “We’re going to have to move faster if we don’t want to piss off Alchan,” Mat reminded them.

  “What about ya?” Bryn grunted as he asked, not breaking his pace. Mave knew each male always tried to make sure they both saw satisfaction at the end of the night. They didn’t touch each other, but they looked out for each other, trying to make sure everyone was pleased.

  “We have all night.” Mat leaned in and whispered in her ear, “After this meeting, you’re mine again.”

  Bryn chuckled and picked up the pace. She held on, laying her head back on the stone as he took her.

  It was fast—too fast. It didn’t take long for her to crest again and take him with her. She was always sensitive after several days of nothing—this was just further evidence.

  “Now we can talk about how we’re goin’ to die soon,” Bryn said, leaning on the stone over her.

  “Yes, we can,” she whispered, sighing.

  39

  Luykas

  Luykas stumbled into a clearing away from the Andinna. Rebellion. His brother was mad. Alchan was completely right about Shadra, but he was also mad. Luykas hated causing a scene like that in front of their people, but he had to leave before anything worse happened. Before anything was seen that couldn’t be ignored.

  His skin itched, and his blood was on fire. Of all the nights, it had to be this one, right before he was certain he would be safe from it. Magic like this was normally done between two consenting people. He’d been fighting it for days now—he was losing.

  Then it all snapped into place, and he growled.

  “That’s no way to greet your mother.”

  Luykas snarled, turning to see the source of the voice.

  It was difficult magic to astral project, but some asshole thousands of years ago had developed a way for sorcerers to do it by anchoring to a family member, using shared blood to keep the spirit from drifting. It was a popular way to practice astral projection safely, and it helped many who would otherwise never have the power to do it over long distances.

  But his mother was well-trained. She saw the use of magic as a way to further her own goals and put all of her hard work and dedication into it. She could use the skill over the entire Empire. No one could escape her if she had the blood for it.

  He hadn’t seen her in over a thousand years—a thousand and one, to be exact. Peace talks and betrayal. She’d asked him to join her instead of dying with his half-brother.

  There were many things wrong with Empress Shadra, but no one could ever say she didn’t love her children.

  At least as long as they were useful to her. She would cull one if it protected the others.

  “Fuck you,” he snapped.

  “A thousand years and this is really how you want to start this conversation?” she asked. Her tone was less than surprised. He took a moment to look at her, really get a good look at her. Her hair was longer than he remembered. She must have kept growing it out. The platinum blonde was white in her astral visage, but he knew the color well enough to recall it. She was just a touch older than she once was, a hint of wrinkles beginning to appear around her lips. She was still lithe and small, too short in his eyes.

  Had she always been so short or was he finally used to Andinna height?

  She was still perfection, though. In the eyes of any Elvasi, she was the perfect beauty.

  “How’s your week been?” he finally asked.

  “Terrible, as you can probably imagine. I’ve been too busy to get this spell right and come see you,” she answered, looking around the small field he’d found. “Where are the others? I expected Andinna to be naked and fucking in celebration, thanks to what you just got away with.”

  “Did you forget I can feel when magic is being used on me?” he scoffed. “You aren’t that stupid.”

  “I’ve never been stupid,” she reminded him. “I’ve made mistakes, thanks to misplaced arrogance and trust, but never stupid. I’ll chalk this one up to…I don’t care. You and I both know, once you go deep enough into the mountains, I won’t be able to do this again.”

  “At least that hasn’t changed in a thousand years.” He rubbed his face and eyes, trying to convince himself she wasn’t really there. She couldn’t be there. When he dropped his hand, she was still there. Where was his brother? Had he gone too far for Alchan to find him? “What do you want?”

  “I’m here to tell you to stop,” she informed him as a mother would casually chastise a child. “This has to end.”

  “It will. Free my people, give us back Anden, and it’ll all go away.”

  “Free your people,” she repeated to herself softly. “Did I do something to you as a child that made you hate me and the Elvasi in you so much? Before the War, before any of it, did I do something?”

  He didn’t answer. He couldn’t.

  “Because if I remember right, I told you I made many efforts to get your father to come meet you, and he never acknowledged them or you. I gave you a wonderful education, and I even made sure the world knew I loved you like a son, even if we never told them you were actually mine. I wished I could claim you, but we both know why that couldn’t and can’t happen. It was better for both of us that no one knew I birthed you. I did so much for you, yet you hated being part Elvasi.” She sounded annoyed with him.

  “I didn’t fit in. We had this talk seventeen hundred years ago when Javon showed up to take me. I went with him because I didn’t fit in with the Elvasi. I never did.” He couldn’t stand how she just rewrote history and forgot he was alone his entire childhood, cursed to deal with nobles and teachers who sneered at him. “And when I made one friend, you fired her.”

  “You were fucking a maid. Of course, I fired her,” she snapped. “That kind of behavior wasn’t tolerated in my household.”

  “No, of course not, but it’s okay if Lothen takes after his father and rapes anything that could be considered weaker,” Luykas growled, trying not to think about how his fucking half-brother, the monster, had touched Mave. It was something he desperately tried never to think about. He didn’t associate with his Elvasi family. Most of the time, he barely thought about them, having dumped them from his heart centuries before.

  But she would dare say his dalliance with a maid was unacceptable when his younger brother was a rapist and torturer?

  He couldn’t allow that to go unnoticed.

  “Lothen takes after his father, it’s true, but he’s the heir to the throne, and I had to make some parenting changes since you were in my household.” Shadra sat on something invisible, and her gaze grew distant. “Only Nyria doesn’t take after her father. She’s a pretty thing—”

  “I am not like my father,” he hissed, stepping closer to her projection.

  “Really?” She looked up and narrowed her eyes. “You both broke my heart and left me. Seems pretty similar to me.”

  “You don’t get to blame a thousand years of pain and war on my father and me. That’s not how we’re going to discuss this.” He shouldn’t have even been trying to discuss anything with her. “You hate all of the Andinna. You were always jealous of them. They can fly and you can’t. They respect females of power while the Elvasi nobles secretly talk behind your back, even as they smile to your face.”

  “I’ve only ever hated one Andinna,” she whispered. “Your father. The rest? Luykas, you knew when I got engaged to the Emperor, I was planning on taking the throne for myself. I had a lot to do to make that happen. I’m not sorry the Andinna were part of that plan. If you had stayed, you would be the lord I placed over Anden, ruling in my stead.” She stood up from her seat. “And I have never been jealous of anything in my life. I’m not so petty.”

  “Liar,” he hissed.

  If she could have slapped him, he knew she would. He could see it in her eyes. She hated when her personal problems with the Andinna were pointed out. She couldn’t afford for her people to know part of her motivation was as a scorned woman and mother who was jealous. They would see her as unfit for the th
rone. Even Luykas could see how the Elvasi would be stupid to judge her that way. Shadra was cunning, hyper-intelligent, and dangerous, but she knew her weaknesses in the eyes of the people. So did he.

  “When did you start to hate me?” she asked again, going back to that topic.

  “When you invaded Anden, and we had to beat you back across the Dragon Spine. I finally had a family that kind of loved me. They didn’t care that you were the new wife of the Emperor. They didn’t care that my father was a piece of shit who betrayed his female. My brother loved me. Still does, I’m pretty sure.” Luykas gave a bitter laugh. “But the looks on their faces the day we learned of the invasion…It was the first time some of them had looked at me with distrust. That was the day I learned to hate you. You have done nothing in your favor since, and there’s nothing to redeem what you’ve done now.”

  “I see,” Shadra sighed. “I missed you the last time you were in the Empire. I didn’t know you were here rescuing your friends and my Champion—”

  “Alchan’s Champion.” Luykas wasn’t stupid enough to miss the big red sign of Mave being there with Alchan. His brother would have asked, and she would have said yes.

  “Fine. I missed you while you were rescuing your friends and Maevana.”

  Luykas didn’t miss how Shadra skipped over calling Mave someone else’s and went straight to a name.

  “Then you stopped me from making her come back. I didn’t have her blood when I did that, you know. It took a lot of energy to make that happen. I was bedridden for days afterward.”

  “What are you getting at?” he demanded, growing tired of her.

  “I would have told you it wasn’t going to end well for you,” she finished. “You had me so busy trying to stop your escape, I didn’t get the chance. I wanted to. You should have had a warning what you did was going to lead to more of this fighting, was going to force my hand into escalating our little game. Decisions have consequences, Luykas.”