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by Sarah Hawke

  “Come on, fuck her!” Valuri breathed into my ear. She was pressed up so tightly against me I could feel her nipples poking into my back. Her hands raked across my chest while she nibbled at my ear. “Give her what she wants!”

  I slammed into the amazon’s cunt over and over again, and I could feel the shockwaves of every thrust rippling through our bond. Even now, after I’d fucked her dozens of times, I couldn’t help but marvel at how much she loved being taken like this.

  And she really, really loved the fact that another woman was helping me dominate her.

  “You better not be empty after Darkwind,” Valuri taunted. The fingers on her left hand reached between my legs and clutched my testicles from behind while the fingers on her right continued clawing at my chest. “It’s freezing out here, and it’s going to be even colder in the mountains. You better make enough to keep me warm.”

  I bit down on my lip. “This batch isn’t yours.”

  “I’m willing to share,” she said, licking at my earlobe. “Fill her up, Jorem. Inject her sweet little cunt with your seed!”

  I yanked on Kaseya’s ponytail, fully prepared to explode at any moment. But surprisingly, her climax actually struck first. Valuri’s words must have pushed the amazon over the edge; her entire body seized up, and she screamed so loudly I wouldn’t have been surprised if it woke the farmers down the road. My cock was already firing by the time the echo of her pleasure crashed over me, and Valuri moaned into my ear with every spurt. She didn’t even give me time to recover after I was spent; she almost violently pulled me out of Kaseya before she replaced my cock with her mouth. As my seed hemorrhaged from the amazon’s quim, Valuri’s tongue promptly lapped it up. Her tattoos flared to life and bathed the whole camp in their eerie green glow.

  “Fuck,” I repeated, slumping back onto my bedroll and enjoying the view. Val’s hunger only seemed to have grown after watching Silhouette fuck Kaseya. I couldn’t even imagine how ravenous the Huntress would be if she could learn to conjure a magical cock of her own—I doubt we would have been able to travel more than a mile at a time before the girls called for another fuck break.

  At the moment, Val was probably hoping that Kaseya would eventually embrace her sorcerous powers and learn to conjure her own cock. Personally I was a little conflicted. I wanted Kaseya to acknowledge her abilities, and I definitely wanted to watch her hold down and fuck another woman. But I was starting to get a little worried that the whole thing might make me obsolete…

  “You seem distracted,” Kaseya commented a few minutes later after she had stretched out next to me. “You are typically more relaxed after coitus. Did I not perform adequately?”

  I grunted. “You were wonderful, like always,” I assured her. “The proof is inside you…well, what’s left of it, anyway.”

  She tilted her head. “Then what is the problem?”

  I sighed and nervously licked at my lips. I had been planning on bringing this up for a while, and now was probably as good a time as any. But that didn’t mean she was going to like it.

  “This isn’t something you want to talk about,” I said, “but maybe it’s worth trying to see if we can awaken your powers.”

  Kaseya’s expression soured. “I already told you: I do not—”

  “Lying to yourself isn’t going to help anyone in the long run,” I interrupted. “There’s Aether in your blood, Kaseya. You need to learn to accept it.”

  She glanced away and scowled up at the moon. “You said yourself that you’ve never heard of a sorcerer whose powers waited this long to manifest. Even if I do possess this ‘gift,’ perhaps it is too weak to be of consequence.”

  “You can already sense the presence of Aetheric echoes. That may not be as dramatic as lighting a house on fire, but it’s still magic. We might be able to build on it somehow.”

  Kaseya sighed softly. “I will do as you command, Maskari .”

  “It’s not about what I command ,” I said, placing my hand over hers. “Look, you’re a warrior, right?”

  “You know I am.”

  “Well, good warriors are always searching for new skills that will give them an advantage over their opponents, right? How is this any different?”

  Her blue eyes studied me for a long moment. “What is it you wish to try?”

  “Nothing crazy,” I said. “Let’s start with something simple—something we’ve tried a bunch of times before.”

  Taking a deep breath, I reached out to the Aether and sheathed myself in a protective mantle of energy, then echoed the spell upon her. The glowing, translucent barrier of energy lit up the entire camp, and Valuri even snapped out of her feeding trance long enough to see what we were doing.

  “All right,” I murmured. “Can you feel the magical currents rippling between us?”

  Kaseya closed her eyes and nodded. “Yes.”

  “And you’ve always been able to sense these currents, right?”

  “Not always. My sword-sisters and I learned the technique during our training many years ago.”

  “Wait, your instructors taught you this technique but never acknowledged it had anything to do with the Aether?”

  “They said it was a gift from the gods,” Kaseya explained. “The ability to feel magic was imperative for us to properly serve our future Maskari masters.”

  “Did any of the other girls struggle with it?”

  “A few. But they eventually learned.”

  I nodded and pursed my lips. It wasn’t a completely ridiculous explanation, of course. There were three ways to channel the Aether, the so-called Three Corridors of magic: divinity, sorcery, and wizardry. Personally, I had always found the first one to be the most mysterious and disturbing. I had never been a religious man, not even as a child. I didn’t doubt that the gods existed—something was obviously giving the paladins of the Escar and the rangers of Shalassa their powers—I just wasn’t convinced that the source of divine power was a bunch of invisible men and women living in the sky.

  Regardless, it was at least conceivable that the amazonian gods were the ones providing them with their limited powers. It would explain how all of Kaseya’s sword-sisters could feel Aetheric currents, though it wouldn’t explain why she could sate Valuri’s hunger. The Senosi could disjoin any type of magic, but they could only feed on sorcerers. Neither priests nor wizards had any Aether in their bodies.

  “Close your eyes and concentrate on those currents,” I said after a moment. “Focus on their ebb and flow between us. Focus on the way they resonate through our bond and gain strength. Can you feel it?”

  She fell silent for a moment. “Yes.”

  “Good. Now try and manipulate them. Imagine they’re a stream running down a hill—place your hand inside the water and force the current to go around you.”

  “Jorem…”

  “Just try,” I pleaded. “See what happens.”

  Kaseya took a deep breath, and I watched as her forehead creased with strain. I couldn’t feel anything—if she was reaching out, her efforts were too weak for me to notice.

  “Nothing is happening,” she said, her eyes blinking open. “I told you: I am not a sorceress.”

  “Yes, you are, honey,” Valuri said, propping herself up on her elbows. Semen was still trickling from the corners of her mouth—if she had fangs, she really would have looked like a vampire right now. “Spread those long legs for me again and I’ll prove it to you.”

  Kaseya turned. “You already fed.”

  “Yeah, but I’m always happy to eat again, depending what’s on the menu.”

  “It’s all right—we can let this go,” I said, releasing my hold on the Aether. An instant later, the barriers protecting us faded. “I’m not going to force you to try something that makes you uncomfortable.”

  “Unless it’s anal,” Valuri snarked.

  I rolled my eyes at her. “This is serious.”

  “Yeah, well, so is anal.”

  “Thank you, Jorem,” Kaseya said, touching
my cheek. “I do not wish to be difficult or upset you, but I do not want anything to do with this.”

  “That’s all right,” I said, and meant it. I had a feeling she would come around eventually, but eventually didn’t have to be tonight.

  “Good,” she said, leaning in to kiss me. “Valuri is wrong, by the way.”

  I sighed. “Her Senosi powers—”

  “Not about that,” Kaseya said, leaning away and reclining back onto the bedroll. She grabbed her thighs and gently pulled her knees up against her chest until her feet were straight up in the air. “Anal does not make me uncomfortable.”

  I grinned and slowly stroked my cock back to life. I had no idea if this was just a gambit to change the subject, but after looking down at her perfect, cream-colored ass, I honestly didn’t care.

  5

  From a distance, Icewatch was every bit as imposing as I had been led to believe. The outer wall— a towering stone monstrosity sealing off the wide gap between the mountains like a dam—was visible for dozens of miles across the snow-dappled plains, and the jagged castle at its center rolled into view not long after. The fortress had been built over a century ago to protect the people of Highwind from the Roskarim barbarians of the White Ridge, though for the past several decades it had also served as a bulwark against a potential attack from Vorsalos. Even bolstered with magic, no army in the region was strong enough to punch through.

  That was the conventional wisdom in Highwind, at least, though as we drew closer I realized that, as usual, conventional wisdom only told part of the story. The fortress was still enormous and imposing by the time we reached the gate, but it looked far less invincible than it had from a distance. The outer wall was cracked and crumbling in numerous places, and only about half the defensive towers were still functional.

  The condition was even worse on the other side, if the rumors I’d heard in Vorsalos were to be believed. The Roskarim had laid siege to Icewatch for almost three months near the end of the Winter War, and most of the damage they’d inflicted had never been repaired. It was hard to understand why, given Highwind’s wealth and the historical importance of the fortress, but after Highlord Kastrius and the Silver Fist army had slaughtered the Roskarim clan-lord and a third of his army at the Battle of Bleak Hollow, the Council had obviously decided that the barbarians were no longer a threat. Repairs were time-consuming and expensive, and people had an astonishing capacity to ignore non-imminent threats in my experience, especially when their personal holdings weren’t on the line. Complacency and entropy were the two most powerful forces in the multiverse.

  “If the Inquisitrix does start a war, she won’t shy away from attacking this place,” Valuri commented as we waited for our turn to enter. “A few trebuchets could crack that wall open in an afternoon.”

  “I still don’t think she’s the ‘march an army across the region’ type,” I said. “She conquered Vorsalos from within. She probably believes she can do the same thing with Highwind.”

  “The more you describe this woman, the more cowardly she seems,” Kaseya scoffed.

  “You won’t get any argument from us.”

  The guards eventually let us inside, though not before they thoroughly searched our wagon. The Council was probably worried about weapon and artifact smugglers, but I wondered if anyone here knew about the secret battle for the region’s vatari crystals. Some of these men couldn’t have been in Telanya’s pocket, for all we knew. The thought made me more grateful than ever for our disguises.

  The castle interior was a bit livelier than I expected, given the temperature and location. A handful of merchants had set up permanent shops inside the walls to try and sell their goods to the soldiers, and there was a large inn catering to the travelers passing through the mountains. The brothel—owned by Silhouette—was even harder to miss: the music and laughter from the three-story structure echoed through the whole damn courtyard.

  “Five thousand men on the walls, maybe twenty whores to keep them all occupied…” Valuri commented. “Those women have got to be sore.”

  “At least they’re well compensated,” I murmured. “I bet Silhouette gives them a bonus for every secret they coax out of an officer.”

  “I certainly hope so.” Valuri sighed and peered around the courtyard. “Her contact should be inside. Shall we get this over with?”

  I nodded as I glanced around. I had never been particularly comfortable around soldiers, Vorsalosian or otherwise, and a full-blown military fortress like Icewatch was the worst of the worst. Everything about this place made my skin crawl. The faster we finished our business here, the better.

  “Yeah,” I murmured. “Let’s go.”

  I felt bizarrely at home when we actually entered the brothel, which probably said more about the true nature of my character than I wanted to admit. The ground floor had a stage, several gaming tables, and a genuinely astonishing number of half-naked women. Evidently I had grossly underestimated the whore-to-soldier ratio here.

  The man we were looking for was easy to spot, given that he was the only one still wearing his Silver Fist armor. He was a few years older than me with a trim beard and long, dark hair. His face lit up in a welcoming smile when he noticed us, and he waved us over to his table in the corner.

  “Solemi said you would be hard to miss,” he said when we drew close. “Please, have a seat. Sir Derec Montabon, at your service.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” I replied with a crisp. “I’m Jorem. Behind me are Valuri and Kaseya.”

  “A knight in a brothel,” Kaseya murmured, her brow creased in confusion. “Don’t your vows prevent this kind of behavior?”

  Sir Derec snorted. “You really are new around here, aren’t you? Our code is a bit more lenient than some of the orders to the south.”

  “In other words, the paladins out here are about as chaste as we are,” Valuri said, flashing him a seductive smirk. “I think we’ll get along nicely.”

  He smiled back, his blue eyes drinking in her cleavage. “I’ve no doubt we will.”

  “Silhouette—sorry, Solemi—said you could help us track down Zalheer,” I said, trying to steer the conversation back to business. I didn’t normally get jealous when she flirted with other men, but this guy was a little too handsome for his own good. Bloody paladins…

  “I can point you in the right direction,” Derec said as his eyes slowly shifting back to me. “As far as I know, he’s still in the fishing village up in the mountain valley just past Therascor’s Peak. It’s not an easy trip in the best of times, and with all the trolls riled up…” He shrugged. “Normally I’d suggest you wait a few weeks to see if they scurry back into their holes, but I know how much Solemi wants information on the Inquisitrix’s new Hand.”

  “Do you know anything about her?” I asked.

  “Only what Solemi has told me. I never actually saw Ayrael up there myself—the knight-commander rarely lets me leave the fort.”

  “Then how do you possess all of this information?” Kaseya asked.

  Sir Derec smiled. “The old fashioned way—I talk to people. Icewatch isn’t a major trade hub or anything, but the merchants who pass through have plenty of stories. The only trick is figuring out which ones are worth listening to.”

  “So you’ve never actually met Zalheer,” I said.

  “No. The old man hasn’t left the valley for a long time, apparently. All the merchants who normally head up that way are assuming he’ll deal with the trolls eventually. Apparently his magic is something to behold. He’s the only thing keeping the refugees safe from the trolls and the Roskarim.”

  “Whatever you have heard about Zalheer is a lie,” Kaseya hissed. “I promise you that he is not protecting anyone. He is a monster.”

  Derec frowned at the sudden intensity in her voice. “Well, according to—”

  “He is a monster,” the amazon repeated. “And I will be the one who finally brings him to justice.”

  I had never been more thankful f
or background noise. Otherwise I could have heard a pin drop on our table.

  “We just really need to find him,” I said, forcing an awkward smile. “We have a lot of questions, and any help you can give us would be appreciated.”

  Derec nodded slowly as he dragged his eyes away from the angry amazon. “Normal maps aren’t much use up in the mountains, but I did snag this for you.” He pulled a rolled-up scroll from his belt and sprawled it out across the table. “It’s a little crude, but the landmarks should point you in the right direction. We haven’t had any major storms yet, so the path itself should be reasonably clear.”

  “This will help a great deal, thanks,” I said, smiling again. “We’ll probably grab something to eat then head out. It’s still early, and I’d rather get there sooner rather than later.”

  “You should really stay the night—camping in the mountains isn’t as fun as it sounds.” Derec smiled and turned back to Valuri. “Besides, this place isn’t as boring as it seems. There are plenty of ways to have fun and pass the time.”

  “Really,” Val said, leaning her arms across the table. “Such as…?”

  The paladin grinned. “Well, we could—”

  “We really can’t afford to waste any time,” I interjected, smacking Val’s leg beneath the table. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she actually wanted to fuck him, but I also wouldn’t have been surprised if she was flirting purely to taunt me.

  “I agree,” Kaseya said, taking the map and rolling it back up. “Thank you for your time, Sir Derec. We appreciate your help.”

  She stood and made her way back towards the exit without waiting for us. I was genuinely starting to dread encountering Zalheer. Even if it wasn’t an elaborate trap—even if his message had been completely genuine—I was worried that Kaseya might just rush forward and impale him without giving him a chance to explain himself…

  “I’ve never met an amazon before, but I see they are just as driven as I’ve been led to believe,” Derec commented after a moment.

  “That’s one way to describe them,” I murmured.