“It’s their queen!” Eurig yelled. He tore the goblin from Bym’s back and hurled it into a wall.
Feral eyes blinked at them from the dark. It sounded as though a rain had begun falling in the chamber, but she knew the sound for what it was, salivating goblins, hungering for her blood. For each of the monsters the men cut down, two more filled its place.
“Eurig, Guto, what have we done? Go, go while you can!” Despair filled her heart.
“I am at your side where I’ll stay,” Guto said.
“I won’t ever leave you again. Don’t ask it of me,” Eurig said as he swung his sword.
They ran to Drem and Hopcyn, clearing a path with their blades. The goblin queen roared and brought back the claws of her other hand. As if time slowed almost to a stop, Bym watched the foul claws sink into Drem’s chest. Blood bubbled to his lips, and the light in his eyes began to fade.
White heat filled Bym. “No!” Her scream was a sonic wave and knocked every goblin flat. Fueled by pain and rage, she screamed while running across their backs. Raising her blade, she swung it at the queen’s neck. The goblin pushed herself up to sit, and her massive thighs heaved as she swung her arm. Hitting Bym in the side, she sent her slamming against stone. Bym slid down the wall, feeling the stone scrape away the skin on her back as she did. The goblin queen struggled to get onto her feet. Pushing herself away from the wall, Bym called forth starshine and sunlight. She pulled at them, drawing them into her being until she ached from her teeth to her toenails. The power filled her and burned. She ran forward, gritting her teeth in agony against the raw power which scorched her from within. It came to a crescendo as she drove her blade in to the hilt. Green blood spilled over Bym’s gloved hands. Light poured from her eyes.
Men cried out and shielded their faces. However, the goblins did far more than cry out. The goblin queen disintegrated in Bym’s light from her head down. The globs of fat and green blood turned into dancing motes of dust which coalesced into four tiny spinning orbs which danced in the air where the wretched beast had been. Two were shining white, and two were black as night. They sped in a frantic, ever-widening and hypnotic dance, never touching but always in motion, lazy circles, synchronizing with that which resided within her. She cried out as they shot into her chest, dissolving and becoming one with the Temporal Locum. It was something which she remembered from before as the world around her seemed to splinter into millions of prismatic lights. The orbs of black sank into the eyes of her favored snake. The orbs of shining white became the eyes of day. They flamed, and light spilled once more from Bym’s eyes to race along the tunnels.
She stumbled over to Drem and kicked a crumbling goblin corpse away to sit at his side. She pulled his body across her lap.
“He knew. He knew to send the goblins to sleep that he’d have to die,” Hopcyn rasped. Blood bubbled from his lips with each word.
“No!” she screamed. He couldn’t leave her. He couldn’t. He couldn’t sacrifice his life and their bond for nothing. The stones of the tunnels trembled. Reaching for him along their bond, she seized upon the power of the stars and moon, and gently she pushed it into his being. Lowering her lips to his, she pushed her air into his lungs. Weakly, she felt him push magic back to her. A rush of hope stirred in her soul. Drawing in all of the starshine she could bear, she pushed it into him again and gave him more of her air. It felt as if something burst between them.
Then, he was holding her head in place, keeping her lips to his where she’d done his breathing for him.
A healer ran to them, took Drem into account, dismissed him, and focused his attention on Hopcyn.
Bym pushed Drem’s robes aside and found his flesh unmarked but bloody. He was unscathed. He gazed up at her in wonder. Making a fist, she punched him hard in the stomach.
“Ooh! Ugh!” Drem groaned.
She stood, letting him fall from her legs to the stone. Then, she was on her feet and storming past Guto and Eurig. They spared Drem a glance and then followed their goddess. She stomped. Her boots smacked against dusty stones. The dust was all her anger had left of the goblins. Within her chest, the Temporal Locum slithered peacefully, but her skin radiated a soft white glow. That same glow extended to Guto and Eurig. Men went to their knees and bowed as she stalked her way to the exit.
“Goddess, please! Wait! I can explain!” Drem called to her as he ran to catch up.
Cold air and moonlight washed over her the moment she stepped from the crag. Her calls to the moon and stars had been so desperate that they’d frightened away the sunlight. Gethim laid on his back while a healer saw to him. Sausage and Potatoes were at his side. Captain Arwel sat with Vitaliana fussing over him. A healer held a glowing red palm to Danior’s jaw. Her priestesses had come and brought reinforcements just as they’d promised.
“Bym, wait,” Drem called. He caught her.
Rounding on him, she shoved his back against a fallen tree, made her hands into fists, and hit his chest and stomach over and over again while the tears froze on her cheeks. “You knew! You knew you’d die! Imani even foresaw it, but you brushed her warning off! You knew you’d die, but you came here anyway! How could you?” Huffing for air, white puffs left her mouth. Looking at him pissed her off. His stupid fucking eyes were filled with adoration and love.
“I foresaw my death, but it was a price worth paying.”
“What could be worth your life? Would you put me through such a hell of living for centuries knowing I’d lost you?” Her voice cracked with the pain his death had just caused her and didn’t want to consider how agonizing it would have been had he not been given back to her.
“If it meant you living in peace and blissful happiness for centuries along with our people, then yes, I would gladly pay such a price.”
She drew back her fist to punch him again, but this time he caught her wrist, pulled her to his chest, and kissed her the way he’d dreamed of kissing her every hour of every waking moment since he’d seen her lying in Iago’s healing room.
Barely removing his lips from hers, he promised, “Short hours from now, I will have you on your back, your legs spread wide, soaking wet and crying out my name with your every breath. Do I make myself clear?”
Her eyes had gone wide. Weakly, she nodded.
“Now,” he said, “we get everyone out of this cold, through the gate, and home to the fortress.” Slowly, he stepped away from her.
To her right, standing in the snow with steam rising from him, a man glowed with a soft light. The head of his war hammer rested in the snow beside his boot. Bym lifted her eyes from his thick wrist, up his forearm, and to a bicep which strained his jacket. Her mouth went dry, and her pulse quickened. He said, “I’ve been looking for you.” Lifting the hammer as though it weighed nothing, he slid its handle into a loop on his belt and strode closer.
“Abner?” she squeaked.
He brought his arms around her, blocking everything else from sight. He lowered his lips to hers, ever so gently, as if he kissed the feathered head of a baby bird.
Rowe, one of her priestesses quipped, “It’s a good thing we can transport everyone home with the gate’s magic. You’ll be too sore tomorrow to sit a horse.”
“Hush!” Vitaliana scolded.
Bym noticed the soft, ethereal glow emanating from her priestesses. Taking a step away from Abner and his luscious arms, she said, “We have to get Yeva, Iago, and Donkey from the Golden City.”
“Oh, shut up,” Guto said.
“Oh!” she exclaimed as he picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
“Let someone else worry about it.”
The portal glowed blue. Then, while the priestesses held the spell, Vitaliana took Bym, Guto, and a dozen others through.
In the Umbra fortress, Guto carried her into the unpopular warriors’ bathing pool which they’d previously commandeered. Heavy footsteps followed. When he finally placed her on her feet, she felt a blush rise from her toes to the top of her head. Guto had no pa
tience for her sudden modesty. “Take ‘em off. You smell like goblin twat.”
Bym scowled at him, but the goblin queen had been a thunder cunt. Nasty goblins. She removed her gloves and threw them at his head.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he said as he stripped naked.
Eurig’s clothing joined his, but his red cloak was quickly hidden by Drem’s cloak of black. She tried to sneak glances of Drem and Abner while she undressed.
“Ah, yes. This is just the thing,” Hopcyn said loudly. His boot landed on the clothing pile. “Here are your pretty red shoes. No need to hide them now.” He tossed them on the pile. His dick flopped around as he walked to the pool and eased himself into the water. None of them felt much like jumping in after what they’d survived.
“We were in the middle of something here,” Bym said.
“Middle of what?” Gethim asked. His hounds ran, claws clicking, and landed belly first with loud splashes in the pool. Well, the healers had Sausage and Potatoes back to their former energy at least.
Sighing in exasperation, she took her hair down and waded in.
Hopcyn said, “If you were in the middle of something intimate, don’t mind us. We’re happy to watch and offer advice. We’ve been studying Aurora’s own advice to you, written in her own hand no less. I’ve got the book under my mattress if you’re wanting proof.” He yelped and swam trying to get away from Eurig.
While soaking in the hot spring with her legs resting across Drem and Eurig’s thighs, she leaned her back against Guto’s chest while he combed through her long, wet hair with his fingers. Guto said, “This is going to take forever to dry. Have you considered going bald? It’s much easier.”
A chorus of males yelling, “No!” was his answer.
In the dim light, all of them had a faint glow, even Potatoes and Sausage. Feeling contentment for the first time she could ever remember, Bym said, “I’m safe. All of us are safe.” She wouldn’t face the centuries alone. All of them would age but at a much slower pace. The burden she carried was a heavy one, but surrounded by the love and friendship she shared with her new family, fading was a long way off.
Eventually, when they all grew tired of soaking their tired muscles, they climbed from the water. Guto wrapped her in a towel, but Drem dried her hair with a whispered spell. Then, the sorcerer took her into his arms, turned them into a sparkling black mist, and sped with her to the upper reaches of the fortress. They manifested in her meditation room beneath the quartz atrium. The moon and stars shone down upon their nude bodies, bathing them in their soft lights.
She shoved his hands away. “Why, Drem? Why have you been so persistent in pushing me away?”
The hurt and anger in her voice cut at him. “I knew from my visions what my death would do to you if I were to give in to our desires. I couldn’t do that to you, not knowing what I had to do. I couldn’t let you face centuries of fear. The only way to prevent it was to find the Stones of Luna Ignis and send the goblins to sleep. Now, you are safe.”
“You are an idiot,” she enunciated slowly and carefully.
“Pardon?”
“You misinterpreted the prophesies.”
“I did not.” He took an affronted step back.
She looked down at his dick and tilted her head to the side. Could dicks blush? She wasn’t certain, but this one quickly hardened and stood. “Yes, you did. I’ll ask Yeva to explain it all to you, slowly so you’ll understand.”
The sorcerer used his magic to draw her into his arms. “I foresaw my death. My visions never showed me this. Many times, I’ve held you in my dreams, but never did I imagine this day would come when I could feel your soft skin and the warm press of your body to mine. In the moment of my death, you embraced your powers and used them to pull me back from the precipice with the strength of your will. Your will is stronger than my own because I can no longer refrain from this.” He sank his fingers into her hair and held her still.
His lips met hers, and he took possession of her mouth until she rewarded him with a soft moan of pleasure. He kissed his way down her throat and to her breasts. She felt her feet leaving the floor and made a startled gasp when she discovered that they floated in a cloud of black mist. He moved his hands over her body, tickling the backs of her thighs with his gentle caresses. When she laughed and pulled them away, he lifted her knees to his shoulders and buried his face at her center. He pushed power through the tiny bundle of nerves above her folds as he licked and tugged at her with his mouth. Encouraged by her screams of release, he continued.
“Drem!” She couldn’t take any more pleasure. She trembled, helpless to pull away, addicted to the intensity of the orgasms which he kept coming like waves. As soon as one crashed, another one peaked and drowned her in ecstasy.
Spreading her legs, he pushed himself deep, but he didn’t pump himself within her. He didn’t need to. The magic did it for them. Her power filled his shaft, and he pushed it back. Each exchange left them breathless until neither of them could do anything more than shiver in each other’s arms. Then, it was as if the black mist claimed them.
“Tea?” Guto asked.
Bym cracked open an eye. Drem was a heavy, sleeping weight on top of her. Pillows were under her back and right foot. Every other part of her rested on hard stone. Drem’s cock was still buried inside of her.
“I’d love some.”
Guto nudged Drem with his toe.
Bym wrapped her arms around him and kissed him awake.
During breakfast, Bym wasn’t the only one sitting gingerly. “Where is that healer when you need him?” Drem asked. He stretched and twisted while attempting to loosen up his lower back.
“Why will a gate take me through to my gate, but it won’t cooperate with one of my priestesses?”
Pausing before taking a bite of his scrambled eggs, he explained, “You can stand before any gate and be sent through to Noctus Luna. However, it takes a complex spell cast simultaneously by several of your most astute followers to send your servants through the portals to do your will. Afterwards, they need time to recover their magic. There are very few who can call upon the moon and stars as you and I do. Speaking of which, in the coming months, sorcerers will gather here. We have a certain portal to repair and a fortress to rebuild.” He winked at Eurig, Guto, and Abner. “Our Goddess deserves to have Noctus Luna restored to its former glory.”
She was intrigued but continued to feel troubled. “What about Yeva and Iago? What if Eskil has tossed them into a dungeon?”
Guto covered his ears. Hopcyn winced. Gethim cringed.
“Bym, we celebrated with too much ale last night to be able to handle such high-pitched whining,” Eurig said with a groan of pain.
Hopcyn whispered, “The priestesses meditated on the situation. Yeva and Iago are fine. Apparently, the two of them are positively glowing in their new delight of each other.”
In a loud, booming voice, Perri said, “Yes, my daughter has finally taken a husband, one with whom she can enjoy the centuries. I began to despair of ever having grandchildren. Then, in the blink of an eye, both of my children have found their loves. By the way, Vitaliana and Arwel have become quite taken with one another. They may end up splitting their time between here and the Golden City.” A soft, ethereal glow radiated from her. She had a pleased smile on her face as she filled Bym’s plate with steak and eggs. So loudly that even Abner cringed, a man desensitized to noise from working as a blacksmith, Perri said, “In a few days, we will begin bringing people home and sending people back. No worries.” She winked at Bym and walked away.
Eurig glanced over at Bym. He seemed worried about something.
“What’s wrong?” Bym asked.
He cleared his throat. “I was wondering, since it’s safe and all, if you might want to go on a little trip home with me.” He’d turned suddenly shy and unsure of himself.
“Oh, you want to introduce me to your family.” She stared at nothing as various scenarios played out in her
imagination.
“They’re good people,” he said defensively.
“What? Of course, they are.”
“Then, what’s with the expression?”
“I’ve never been introduced to anyone’s parents as far as I can recall.” She gave him a tiny smile. Her memories were few. “What if they don’t like me?”
A fork clattered to a plate. Then, all of the men laughed until most of them were clutching their aching skulls.
Drem said, “You’ve met my mother, and she adores you.”
Guto said, “Eat your food. It appears we’re going on a winter camping trip.”
Bym frowned. “Iago isn’t here. Who will help me prepare for bed each evening?”
Hands shot up so fast that eggs fell from Gethim’s fork to his bald head. The dogs ate them when they fell to the floor.
Their small party made their way from the fortress to the village. Bashfully, Abner reintroduced Bym to his father, Lyle. The ensuing celebration kept them there for two nights. Drem generously paid Mistress Seren for the damages to the wall behind Bym’s bed at the inn. Eurig purchased what livestock he could to take home. Herding the animals kept Sausage and Potatoes’ tails wagging.
On war horses, even with cattle, sheep, and goats, it didn’t take them too many days to reach Eurig’s family farm, but they hadn’t hurried. His mother cried tears of joy when she saw him. His father clasped his shoulders, stared into his eyes, and told him he was proud of him. His brother picked him up in a crushing bear hug and spun him around until they fell laughing to the ground. Bym went inside the cabin, but she wasn’t simply welcomed into the home but into the hearts of her new mother and sister-in-law.
Eventually, they all made their way to Abigail’s farm where understandably very little progress had been made in rebuilding. However, with Drem, Guto, Eurig, Abner, Hopcyn, and Gethim aiding the Fernhollow men, they had Abigail’s new log cabin constructed in a week. It amazed everyone the way Drem could wield his magic so effectively to fell a tree and lift it into place. Eurig had brought enough animals for them to easily begin their lives again come the spring. Abigail was so pleased as to insist that Bym keep Donkey whose actual name was Daisy. Surprisingly, the two of them had never gotten along.
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