Night Cursed

by Mark Albany

  “I know how to use a sword,” Jule pulled her head up high. “I fought in the war that the Trelans waged on my people and had to take up the use of the weapon when my husband was killed.”

  “Your people?” I asked, looking at her closer. “You mean these people aren’t yours?”

  She shook her head. “I was born in the Kingdom of Halesaf, one of the first states that was attacked when the God-King decided to expand his borders. He had a prophecy, he claimed, that there was a great evil coming into this world, and the only way to fight it would be a united people. When the kings of the other nations refused to do so, he decided to take them by force.”

  “Wait, how long ago did this war start?” Leena asked.

  “About two hundred years ago,” Jule replied.

  “Your kingdom has been fighting the Trelans for two hundred years?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Sure, for Eira and maybe Kalna that number didn’t sound too impressive, but for humans, that accounted for at least two or three lifetimes. That was a long time to be fighting.

  “Well, yes.” She looked confused for a moment, like she’d expected us to know about this little tidbit of history. Kalna must not have told her we were new to this continent. Jule finally shook her head. “Our war ended after the capital city was taken and the population decimated as a warning to all others that would resist for so long.”

  “Have you actually laid eyes on the God-King?” I remembered something I’d been told.

  “The God-King has not left his palace in Telra for almost a century now. His sons lead his armies, do his bidding, and spread his… well, they call it his legacy. Somehow, they enter a person’s mind and warp them, change them, and make them fight.”

  I nodded. “We’ve seen this. And this is the God-King’s influence? It just doesn’t seem plausible that this sort of power would be able to reach across continents.”

  “His sons are the vessels of his will.” Jule spoke softly, looking away. “That’s what they say, anyway. They raid across the continent, pillaging and killing, taking anything that they please. His Six Firstborn are the worst of them. The most powerful and the most corrupt. Even the God-King must see it, since he sends his Viziers to oversee them and make sure that they don’t carry things too far or get themselves killed.”

  “I guess you can call them his Five Firstborn now,” Kalna commented with a small chuckle.

  “What do you mean?” Jule asked as we started walking through the small town. The fires that had been started had quickly been doused, and with some quick patchwork, there was barely any sign that the place had been attacked at all. Well, except for the bodies, which were still being taken care of.

  “We might have run into one of these Firstborn assholes. And he ticked me off, so I may or may not have torn him in half with my bare hands.”

  “You can just say ‘kill’ sometimes, Braks,” Kalna admonished. “No need to frighten the poor girl.”

  “Wait, you survived a battle against one of the Firstborn?” Jule looked incredulous. “How? There aren’t many powers left in the world capable of standing against the darkness of the God-King and his sons.” She paused when she realized that the three of us were looking at her strangely. “Halesaf was home to one of the greatest and most prolific libraries in the world. I was a keeper there. That is, of course, before the Trelans burned it to the ground. They feared the knowledge that was contained within.”

  “Well,” I said, moving right along. “I didn’t so much survive as win, I guess.”

  It took her a second, but she turned to face me with a look that I was starting to get used to seeing. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but since it didn’t seem my little nickname was going to go away, I might as well stop getting annoyed by it, right?

  “You’re one of the Dark Ones,” she whispered, almost reverently.

  “Dark One,” Leena said to me softly. “Isn’t that what those Trelans who captured us called you?”

  “Apparently, it has something to do with having a great amount of power inside you and having difficulty controlling it. Which applies, but I still don’t like the sound of it.”

  “Well, yes, that’s what the Trelans think of it as.” Jule approached. “Because of course they would. Dark Ones, at least according to some old, dusty tomes that are likely ash by now, are men and women who contain one of the great primordial powers within them. In years past, they were worshipped as gods but slowly became forgotten as they required bodies to possess. And eventually, they kept driving their hosts mad. They were hidden in the forgotten places of the world and lost to time. The rumors are that the God-King has found them, or at least one of them, and is using it to power his armies, using his sons as vessels to keep from being driven mad.”

  “Drucio was rather unhinged,” Kalna recalled. “So that would explain that.”

  “So, how do you draw that power out of someone?” I asked, tilting my head. “Maybe if we could take the power away from him somehow, we might be able to cut the head off this metaphorical, and yet painfully literal, snake.”

  “Well, the only way known to deprive someone of the power would be to kill them,” Jule turned back around after she stumbled while walking backward. “Of course, killing them makes the killer become the host in turn.”

  “And in our case, the God-King perhaps had a way to retrieve the power of Drucio.”

  “Good and bad,” I admitted. “Seeing as I already have one ancient power living inside me. I really don’t want to see what happens if I try to take on another. If only because the voices in my head would make it an impossible place to be in.”

  “Voices in your head?” Jule asked.

  “Well, yes, the Darkness inside me has something of a voice.”

  “There’s no knowledge of the powers ever being able to speak to their hosts,” Jule made a face. “Not in a literal sense. It passes on feelings and emotions, but never words.”

  “Well then, if it’s not the Darkness, that means that I’ve been talking to myself this whole time. That’s never a good sign.”

  Chapter 21

  “Please, Braks,” Kalna cried. “Harder. Oh fuck.”

  Her nails dug into my ass, and her eyes closed as she pressed herself to me, wanting more. And yet, her body betrayed her. Through our connection, I could feel her muscles burning. I didn’t need it to hear her panting and feel the sweat starting to touch her skin as she fought to stay conscious.

  It had been a long night, but honestly, that wasn’t a terrible thing. Leena and Eira watched us, both naked and both already spent from my having taken them earlier. The sight of them only pushed me harder. I could feel myself near the edge, but as Kalna cried out, body spasming and gripping me, I knew she was almost done now, even though she had lasted longer than the other two.

  The firelight illuminated them. Leena was lying on her side, fingers playing with her nipples as she watched me with Kalna. Eira lay behind her, letting her long purple hair mingle with Leena’s red locks. Eira’s hand was between Leena’s legs, stroking the woman’s sore yet satisfied pussy, and she kissed Leena’s neck as she, too, watched us.

  “Braks, please,” Kalna whispered, placing her hands on each side of my face. I felt her reaching into my mind, and she gasped as my hips continued thrusting between her thighs. She wanted me to come. She didn’t even need to say it.

  I pulled away, gripping her shoulder and turning her onto her stomach. I straddled her ass and slipped my drenched cock between her thighs again, pushing in roughly enough that my hips slapped her already-reddened cheeks loudly. I watched as Leena’s hand moved down to guide Eira’s to slip inside her. She closed her eyes and leaned back to press her lips into the ice woman’s heavy breasts.

  I wondered if they knew how arousing it was for me to watch them play with each other. If so, were they doing it for that reason, or did they just enjoy doing it as much as I liked watching? I could reach through our connection to satisfy my curiosity, but my mind was currently occupied els
ewhere. My hips rammed into Kalna from behind, and I felt my cock cumming inside her. She’d stopped talking. The noises coming from her mouth were whimpers and moans of pleasure as her fingers gripped the blankets we’d brought along for the journey.

  Finally spent, I pulled myself away, though not too far. I leaned against the wall of the small, abandoned house we’d picked to spend the night in, and pulled Kalna up against me. She smiled, and her eyes drifted shut as she pressed her naked body into mine, placing light kisses along my chest. Leena turned around to fully face Eira now that Kalna and I were finished. She kissed the ice woman’s lips tenderly and wrapped her thighs around her.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask,” I said, my voice softer now than it had been before. “Do you three—”

  “Yes, we enjoy each other very much,” Kalna replied, apparently knowing the question even before I could ask it. “Though I would be lying if I told you that your pleasure from watching didn’t have a role to play in it.”

  I patted the blankets beside me, indicating for Eira and Leena to join us. Eira growled softly, not wanting to get up, but Leena moved and the ice woman followed quickly.

  What had been a gentle, soft love-making session between me and Leena had turned into something a bit more ravenous and hungrier when Eira and Kalna had returned from collecting wood for our fire. From what I could feel from the three, they rather enjoyed reconnecting physically.

  Leena dropped to the blankets on my left and dragged my face around so she could gently kiss my lips. Eira settled between my thighs, dipping her head and using her mouth to clean my cum and theirs from my shaft. Kalna watched her and played with her hair.

  Her agile tongue ran over my very sensitive head, and I groaned at the feeling. If she kept it up, we’d be starting things up again, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that just yet.

  I cleared my throat. “So, where’s the new addition to our little crew?”

  “Oh,” Kalna said. “We were grabbing firewood, and we came back when we sensed what you and Leena were up to. In our rush, we might have forgotten to tell Jule about it.”

  As if on cue, someone knocked on the door and then opened it. Jule’s head poked in, her eyes immediately on the scene of four naked people in front of her.

  I was mostly covered, but I couldn’t help jumping up to my feet, dislodging Kalna, Leena, and Eira from their respective locations. Eira groaned in annoyance.

  “Just give us a moment, please, Jule?” I asked. She nodded and quickly shut the door again. I picked my clothes up and pulled my trousers on.

  “What are you doing?” Kalna was openly watching me with a cheeky grin on her lips.

  “Getting dressed.”

  “Well, obviously.” Kalna rolled her eyes. “But why? Can’t you see she’s more than eager to get a turn? And from the way you’ve been ravaging us, I think we could use the extra help. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”

  “After our encounter with Vasara, I think we should be more careful about who joins us.” I pulled my shirt on. “Aren’t you all getting dressed too?”

  Leena shrugged. “If you’re uncomfortable with Jule admiring your naked body, that’s on you. For myself, I wouldn’t mind having a bit of her admiration.”

  I shook my head and pulled the door open. Jule stood on the other side, still looking rather stunned by what she’d seen. She glanced over my shoulder, and I could see more than a little of her appreciation for the women still lying openly naked in the firelight. She had a small bundle of firewood in her arms.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I heard… this happening, and I didn’t want to interrupt, but it was getting dark out here. And cold.”

  “Don’t apologize.” I took the bundle from her hands. “Come in. We’re just getting used to having a new member on our team, is all.”

  We had left the village far behind, the one where we’d saved from the Trelans, letting the soldiers take back the news that there was help on the way. One of the elf ships had headed back to the Behran Isles to update the people there about our situation. The rest of the elves joined with the militia who were returning to join the main army. When our elves heard of the massacre of their brethren here, they had been eager to join in on the fighting.

  It was better this way. The news of elves arriving and joining forces with enemies of the Trelans would prick more ears than a small group of travelers if they’d stayed with us. Besides, with the way these local militia had been trained, I doubted they would have been much help to us, even with the weapons and horses they’d taken from the dead Trelans.

  But Jule had insisted on joining us. Kalna had liked her well enough. So had Eira and Leena, now that I thought about it. Despite my misgivings, I thought someone who knew her way around this new land might well be helpful. Plus, her knowledge of the Darkness inside me couldn’t hurt.

  Even so, after Vasara, I didn’t want to leave myself open to being attacked like that again. Trust from me was going to be hard to come by.

  Leena showed a modicum of modesty and covered herself with a blanket, since Jule seemed to have a hard time keeping her eyes focused on the fire. “So, where exactly are we going? It was Braks’s idea to let the elves go and join the… what were they called, again?”

  “The name of the kingdom we’re in is Neuria,” Jule said with a smile. “The Neurian forces being bolstered by the elves are sure to be able to put up a better fight.”

  “That’s not why he sent them, now was it?” Leena asked, tilting her head as she first looked at Jule, then the rest of us. I could see that Eira had somehow made her clothes materialize, and her crown was back on her head too.

  “The Trelans should know by now that it was elves who put their forces on the run back on the Isles.” I sat down next to Kalna, who hadn’t covered herself. Instead, she leaned against me, laying her head on my chest. “The news that elves are fighting alongside the Neurians should have the God-King worried that these elves are on the warpath. Which means he should be rushing to bolster his forces there, leaving the rest of his kingdom with less soldiers, weakening his defenses. It should, logically, make it easier for us to get through into Telra to kill him.”

  “Telra is a mountain kingdom far to the south,” Jule said softly. “As it’s the dead of winter, it will be rather difficult to traverse unless you follow the main roads, which will be heavily guarded whether their forces are drawn away or not.”

  Leena nodded. “Besides, I always thought that our plan out here was to disrupt the Trelans enough to make them stop planning the invasion of Radon… and the Islands, I guess. Also, how can it be winter here when it was the middle of summer back home?”

  I shrugged. Jule seemed to have the answer, and when asked said, “Rumor has it, the whole thing’s part of how the God-King’s power works: the darkness disturbs the natural balance of the seasons, so it’s colder now than normal.” She pulled the map that we’d taken from Drucio out of Leena’s pack and laid it out on the floor, illuminating it by the firelight.

  “In the first hundred years or so of the war, the Trelans took most of the south of the continent.” She ran her hand over map. “Calrad, Yenia, and Maer all fell. According to the stories, the God-King ordered that every single man, woman, and child who resisted his armies be put to the sword. Then one would be spared, given a horse, and be forced to ride to the next city to spread the word. After two or three castles were obliterated, the rest surrendered. It seemed that peace was on the God-King’s mind, and if they were to be spared, the people seemed not to care which man or woman sat on a throne.

  “It was only when the Elf Kingdom of Myriannaven was attacked without provocation,” she indicated a heavily wooded spot on the map, “that the rest of the kingdoms realized that domination was the only interest of the God-King. Of course, stories had been spread of his witchcraft and his manipulation of the minds of those citizens in the towns that he had taken, but none wanted to risk making an enemy of the Trelans by believing suc
h fanciful nonsense.”

  “All the elves died.” I could feel Kalna’s mood darkening as she spoke. “None were taken prisoner. None were given a chance to surrender. The forests where the elves made their cities were burned to ash, and the land was sown with salt to make sure that nothing grew there again.” She paused when she saw me looking at her and shrugged.

  “That was when the rest of the kingdoms decided to band together to fight the Trelans,” Jule said. “The Iron Accords were never that strong, but they at least meant that none of the kingdoms left would surrender willingly. Of course, when the Trelan forces can be bolstered from those captured from our own ranks, there’s not much to be done other than a slow, grinding war of attrition. In each kingdom it usually ended when one of the Firstborn arrived to slaughter all present. Until now, of course. The elves have returned to give us hope, and with them a… man of power.”

  “You were about to say ‘Dark One’, weren’t you?” Leena asked, grinning. Jule didn’t answer.

  “We’ll find a way,” I said, ending the short silence that ensued. “We’re here to end the Trelans’ expansion into our own land as well. So, if there’s no way through to their capital in the winter, we’ll slow them down until spring. We didn’t come here just to be stopped now. But there’s no point in traveling around here at night, not in the dead of winter. We should get some rest and move in the morning.”

  The rest of them agreed and started settling in. If we couldn’t get to the God-King now, I would be here to tear into his forces until he came out and faced me himself.

  Chapter 22

  Even after the long day of traveling through rough terrain in icy weather, my body still didn’t need that much sleep. Not that trudging through snow meant much to me at this point. After a few hours, I found myself looking up at the straw roof of the hut we’d taken over, thinking about what our next move should be.