"What's on your mind?" I asked with a genuine interest in my tone. I didn't want her to think my standing naked before her meant I had no interest in her talking with her. We'd been naked together many times, and, even though the site of her still turned me on like crazy, I felt comfortable being exposed in her presence. She had always seemed to feel the same way being naked in front of me.
"Everything." Keeping her knees up and wrapped in her arms, she made an effort to scoot over a little, but only move a few inches.
Recognizing the effort as a signal for me to join in bed, I did so, sitting beside her. "Everything is a lot, but I get it. We've been through so much recently, and now..."
"Things will probably get worse." She looked at me, and I could tell from her eyes that she was asking me to comfort her.
I put my arm around her and gave her a kiss on her cheek, then nodded. "I'm not going to try to tell you they won't. Truth is, I'm not sure how everything will go, but... But what I do know is being with you is one of the most important things in my life. And I'll do everything in my power to make sure when are still together when all this is done."
She put her hand on my forearm and looked lovingly at me for a long moment. Her eyes became glassy. A second later tears streamed down her cheeks. "Oh, Den. I'm so sorry about leaving you before." Speaking had opened her floodgates. More tears came and she started sobbing.
"Hey. It's alright. That wasn't your fault. You had to. I told you to. I needed to know you would be safe." I put my other arm around her too. "And it turned out okay. I made it. I'm here."
She continued crying and buried her head in my chest, so I held her, gently rubbing her back and stroking her hair until her tears stopped and I could feel her breathing had steadied.
She said something, but her face was still buried in my chest, so I couldn't understand her words.
"What did you say?" I asked.
I felt her move slightly as she chuckled, then she lifted her face from me and looked into my eyes. "I said thank you."
"Oh. You're welcome." I moved my hand from the hair on the back of her head and wiped away the tears from below her eyes. "You feeling a little better?"
She sniffed and wiped her face too. "Yes, much better. I think I've been holding that in for too long."
"I get it. I'm glad you let it out."
She smiled at me, then rested her cheek against my chest.
The two of us sat quietly for several moments, and our breathing began to rise and fall together.
Tara put her hand on my chest. "Speaking of keeping things in too long."
"Huh?" I wondered if I missed a beat in our conversation. "What do you mean?"
She looked up at me. "Well, I was thinking..." She slid her hand down my chest and over my stomach, settling her fingers on the base of my manhood. "Keeping it in for a long time could also be a good thing."
"Oh, you think so?" As we were talking and when I held her as she cried, I hadn't expected anything more for the rest of the night except the two of us eventually going to sleep, but once again she surprised me, a quality of hers which at times brought difficulties. But in this instance, I had little doubt things would slide into place just right.
Chapter 21
Nithia seemed to have met the new day with a fresh perspective. Whether she'd forgiven me for choosing to face my destiny with Kurg, I couldn't be sure. But she rode alongside me as we headed for Rastersia, and she gave me smiles and conversation freely. I wanted to tell her how much I looked forward to settling down with her, Alara, and Tara when this was all over, but I didn't mention it for fear of spoiling her good cheer.
Alara spoke little on the way, and when she did it was invariably to discuss how we might fight the Dark Lord. She ran through scenarios of possible moves and countermoves. Listening to her, I felt like she thought I was her star quarterback of the football team and she was my coach. She imagined offensive and defensive plays, guessing at outcomes and what our enemy's team formations might be. I nodded and said 'uh huh' a lot, but really I thought the speculation was a waste of time. Her understanding of how our encounter with the Dark Lord would go had to be like her understanding of football, severely limited like mine. I only knew about watching the cheerleaders on the sidelines. Unfortunately, that was going to be little help to us.
Tara rode her horse just behind mine. She kept quiet most of the time, but I knew that was because she felt tired. I felt tired too, which was no wonder given how little sleep either of us got. The sex with her was just as thrilling as it had ever been, but I considered that it might've been prudent to spend some time with Alara and or Nithia as we made our way toward the Dark Lord. Traces of the magic used in the ritual the two of them performed to bring me from Earth to Galderia had always had a restorative effect on me, even increasing my strength early on. But, I thought, that hadn't really been the case the last many times.
Maybe I've recovered all they had of what was supposed to be mine.
I didn't like that conclusion. If the Dark Lord is as powerful as he's made out to be, I thought, I could really use a power up before facing him. I remembered Becca, who we left back in the Fektal camp.
Being with her might've helped...but that wasn't my choice to make. Didn't seem right to even entertain the idea.
I realized I might have to rely on what I already had: the strength already in my body, the skills Mettin helped me improve, the three loyal women who rode with me to face certain peril and an uncertain outcome.
~
We reached Rastersia by nightfall, but the town had something we'd not seen elsewhere, lamp posts singing the streets, making it easy to navigate despite the end of daylight. They burned oil, of course. While I missed the conveniences made possible by electricity, I was glad these hanging lanterns were wicked and lit accordingly. I knew enough about Galderia to know that electricity, apart from lightning in a storm, meant magic. Alara's staff had shown me that. I wanted Rastersia to be as mundane as possible, in the non-magical sense of the word. More magic surely meant more trouble, I thought.
At first we rode our horses through the streets, doing the same inquiry we had made in Tiern. "Any word in town about oddly-dressed strangers?" we'd ask passersby. "Have you heard news of travelers from a distant land?"
One of the people we stopped told us we needed to stable our horses, unless we were leaving town. So we did, then continued looking around the city in hopes of finding the fellow Austinite rumored to be there.
We got nowhere with our questions. Rastersia was an even bigger port city than Tiern. Travelers from a distant land were common, as far as the locals were concerned.
I questioned whether the Fektal elder had gotten bad information. I didn't even know his source, but I decided not to give up yet. Our plan was to spend another night in Rastersia before following the river out of town toward Craa, the last stop before we'd come to the mountains in which Kurg's stronghold was to be found.
Half an hour later, as chance would have it, we spoke to a man outside a pub—or tavern they might have called it in Galderia, I suppose. He was slight of build and finely dressed. His peppered hair made me think he was on the older side, though his skin appeared youthful.
"Yes, actually," he said, sounding sad as he responded to our question. "Not only have I heard about a woman who didn't seem to belong here in town, but I know her. Her name is Keira." He shook his head and looked into the distance a moment, as if remembering something about her. "She was strange alright, but I didn't mind in the least."
"Where is she now?" I asked. "Did she say where she came from?"
I wanted to ask him if she said she was from Austin, or from Earth, but bringing up the fact that she and I were from another world entirely would likely complicate matters more.
He chuckled, then said, "If I told you where she said she's from you wouldn't believe me." His expression turned sad again. "As for where she is now..." He looked away from us and took a deep breath. He bit his lower lip. A mom
ent later, he turned back to us and said, "Same place the others went, I'm sure."
"Same place?" Alara asked.
Nithia glanced at me than looked at the man. "The others?"
"What happened to them?" I thought I already knew what he was going to say, but I waited for him to confirm my guess and to say what others he meant.
"His minions brought some from across the sea. Other women, I mean. They're probably taken to the mountains by now," he said. "In the Dark Lord's place, or at least will be soon." He inhaled quickly one time, like the tears I knew he'd been fighting back had almost com out.
I wasn't happy about being correct with my guess. "How far is the ride to the mountains?"
The man looked surprised by my question. "You can't go there. Are you..."
"Crazy? Yeah, maybe," I said. "But something like this can't be left alone."
"I wish something could be done," the man said. "But it's been bad like this around here for as long as I can remember. Well, since I was a young man, at least."
"How far is it?" I asked again.
He looked at me as if he was waiting for me to change my mind, but I stared back at him until he answered. "A day on horseback, but through the mountains is another day to get to his stronghold. Not that it matters. If you make it that far, that'll be your final resting place."
"Thanks," I said.
Thanks for the vote of confidence too.
"I'm sorry about Keira." I glanced to Alara, Nithia, and Tara, then looked at him again. "I can't imagine how hard it's been for you. But if she's there with him, I'll find her...and the others."
I knew I was making a big promise, one which I may not be able to keep. But I'd already decided I was going to take Kurg down or die trying.
"Thank you for the promise," he said. "You won't be able to keep it, but I won't blame you for that. As foolish as you're being, your willing to try to do something. I'll give you that." He gave a half-hearted wave goodbye before turning away and walking down the street and around a corner.
The four of us lamented the plight of the women Kurg's men had taken, but the horrible revelation only strengthened our resolve to carry on with our desperate mission. Even Nithia, at hearing what had happened to Keira and several others, abandoned her resistance to me going after Kurg—though I could tell by the way she looked at me that she continued to hold fast to her hope that we'd settle down once it was all over.
We walked for another twenty minutes or so, until we'd circled back toward where we boarded our horses. The stable sat beside an inn. We were ready to get some rest, knowing tomorrow would be another long day of travel.
Standing outside the entrance to the inn, Alara, Nithia, and I waited for Tara to return from the horses. She'd wanted to check on them before heading inside.
"What's that?" Alara said, pointing down the street.
I looked to where she was directing our attention. Something was moving across the ground, coming around a distant building. "I can't tell, but I don't think it's normal."
We looked at whatever it was for a few more seconds, but it was too far away and, even with the lit lantern poles lining the streets, the area was too dark for us to tell what we were seeing.
"What are you three looking at?" Tara had come back from checking on the horses. She stepped beside us and peered down the street as we were doing. "Oh, no!"
"You see it?" I said. "Can you tell what-" I realized what we were looking at. "Oh, shit. It's water, a lot of water. And it keeps coming."
"How?" Nithia said. "The port is so far from here." She glanced at the sky. "And there isn't even a storm."
"It's not natural," Alara said. "Den, this isn't good."
She was right. In the few seconds we'd been talking the volume of water had doubled, and it was still growing.
"Den," Tara said. "I think it's going to make it all the way down here."
I looked to her briefly and saw she was looking toward the stable.
"The horses," she said. "Do you think they'll be okay?"
"I think so," I said, but a few seconds later, I realized I might be wrong. The water had spread out around all of the buildings at the end of the street, rising halfway up their doors.
"How?" Alara said. "Who could do something like this?"
Is Kurg this powerful? He's not even here.
Tara ran toward the stable.
"No, Tara!" I chased her and caught up with her before she reached it. Grabbing her wrist, I pulled her back until she went with me. "We need to get to higher ground. Look." I pointed to the water, which now covered half the street in front of us. It was moving our way, and rising up higher on the buildings in its wake.
By the time Tara and I returned to Alara and Nithia, the water had completely engulfed all the streets in one direction, and it looked like it might submerge the buildings on that side of the city entirely. I looked behind us to see if the streets were higher, hoping we could retreat to stay clear of the water, but somehow the water had already wrapped its way around us, flooding the city in every direction. Ours was the last dry spot I could see, but the wall of water was closing in us on quickly.
"We need to get inside!" I yelled. "Get up to the second floor!"
No one wasted any time. The four of us ran into the inn, ignoring the perturbed reactions of everyone as we jostled tables and overturned drinks to make our way toward the stairs.
I stood aside and gestured for Alara, Nithia, and Tara to go up first, then I called out to everyone else in the room, "Get upstairs now! There's a flood heading right for us. You'll drown if you don't get upstairs! Now!"
A few people immediately heeded my warning and ran to the stairs and past me, going up. Most yelled back at me, telling me I was crazy and I need to get the hell out of there before they threw me out.
"No!" A woman screamed as she looked out a window at the front of the inn. She turned around, her face nearly white with fear. "He's right! Go! Run!" She took her own advice, shoving a chair out of her way and running to the stairs.
As she past me, I kept waving my arm for everyone else to follow her. "Come on! There's little time! It's a wall of water. This whole room will be under water any second!"
Two more people looked out the windows at the front of the inn. Both of them screamed and ran toward safety on the upper floor. The rest of the room finally bought into the urgency of the situation and all of them, twenty men and women, and a few children, shoved and shouted until the last of them climbed the stairs.
I heard Nithia shouting my name from the top of the stairwell. "Get up here, Den!"
I glanced around the room to make sure no one had been left behind. Once I'd confirmed I was the last person downstairs, I turned to go up and join the others. But before I made it up to the fifth step, water crashed through the windows at the front of the inn, then through the one on either side of the room. The chairs and tables moved across the floor as the water rapidly pooled into the room. I kept going up the stairs and a second later I heard the door to the inn shatter. The broken wood shot across the room as a great torrent of water rushed through the opening where it had been.
"Den!" Nithia sounded panicked.
"I'm here!" I leapt over several steps to avoid getting hit by a wave from the rising water, then ascended the last of the stairs taking three steps at a time.
"I'm here," I said coming before Nithia and taking her into my arms.
"Oh, Den." She embraced me and the two of us took a few steps back from the top of the stairs.
I looked down at the water, which had risen halfway up to the second floor, but, after watching it for a few seconds, I could tell that it has stopped rising.
Nithia and I made our way through the shellshocked guests and staff of the inn and found Alara and Tara at the other side of the room, looking out one of the second-story windows.
Like everyone else, we were horrified at what had happened. Looking out the window, it was obvious that many people had just drowned. We had no ide
a how many, or who had seen the water coming in time to get to safe ground. I looked at the buildings in view from the window and tried to remember how many more I'd seen on those streets before the water. There were many buildings that were two stories high, and I hoped they had saved many people. But I knew much of the city and it's population were now underwater.
We all sat much quieter for the next thirty minutes. Finally, someone looking out the window said the water appeared to being going down. Several people scrambled to look. Alara, Nithia, Tara, and I did the same. It was true. Almost as fast as it came upon us, the water flowed back toward the sea. Before long, the streets could be seen again, along with the bodies of many unfortunate souls who hadn't made it to safety in time.
Nithia and Tara were shedding tears quietly. Alara and I held ours in, but I could see that she was taking it as hard as I was, but trying, like me, to stay strong...because someone needed to do so.
"Guardian!" The woman's voice came from outside.
I scrambled back to the window to look. Several others in the room did the same at the same window and the other facing the street outside the front of the inn.
The woman stood in the middle of the street, facing the inn. The flood had extinguished the lanterns, ripping most from their posts too. I couldn't see the woman's face, but from her silhouette I could see she was fit, maybe on the younger side.
How does she know who I am? Or that I'm here?
Alara moved her head beside mine to see the woman. "How did she survive out there?"
"Guardian!" the woman yelled again. "Come out and play with me."
Shit. That's one crazy bitch.
"Den," Alara said. "Don't go."
I hadn't planned on it, at least not until I knew what the hell was going on. A crazy woman standing in the street yelling for me to come out and play after the entire city got hit by an unexplainable flood did not bode well.
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