Hal left her where he was. Keeping one hand on the wall as he walked, he did a slow survey of the space they were in. It was a large, circular cave chamber, with several tunnels extending out. Hal found a rock to scratch a mark into the tunnel they’d come from when he arrived back at his origin point, though without anything to provide light, it was useless.
He sat down next to the unconscious elf girl, and for a time, just rested. He was exhausted, both from the encounter with the dragon and everything that had happened earlier in the day. Hal wanted to sleep, but knew that it would do nothing other than force him to let his guard down.
Half an hour passed by. Hal wondered if the dragon was still attacking the cave opening, or if it had flown back to its roost. After hearing the monster speak, he was certain that it was intelligent enough to set a trap for them, if it wanted to. And that was assuming they’d even be able to climb out, which seemed unlikely, unless they could find a way to climb up sheer rock.
The girl has wings. She could fly us out!
The idea was enough for Hal to try waking her. He touched her in the same way he would have touched a sleeping animal, gently waking her, tensed and ready to pull back if she attacked suddenly.
“Hey,” he said. “Wake up.”
The girl didn’t stir.
“Honored Valkyrie,” he said, in a mocking tone. “We’re trapped in a cave. I need your help if we’re to make it out of here alive.”
“Bitch’s blood,” muttered the girl, in elvish. “What…?”
Hal felt her sit upright suddenly. He couldn’t see her in the dark, but knew that she’d noticed the bracers.
“You!” she shouted. “You disgusting bull! Filthy cattle, I’ll kill you for this!”
Hal heard the rustle of clothing as the girl rushed to attack him.
“Stop!” he shouted.
The runes on the bracers flashed, and the girl let out a pained whimper. Hal heard the sound of her collapsing to the ground and felt a little ashamed of himself, for what he’d done. Though now, after seeing her reaction, he was more certain than ever that he’d made the right choice.
“So,” he said. “I put the bracers on you, and now… you have to follow my commands?”
“You…” The girl’s voice dripped with venom and rage. “This… this is…”
Hal was ready to issue another command, if it came to it, but the girl didn’t attack him. Instead, she began to laugh.
“That’s… not really what I was expecting,” said Hal.
“Oh, by cloud and by sky,” said the girl. “I’d thought I’d fallen as far as anyone could. A slave to one of the cattle. My Empress, if you could only see me now…”
“Look,” said Hal. “This isn’t really what I wanted, either. I’m assuming there is a way for me to take those off you.”
“Only the one who put them on me can take them off,” said the girl.
She reached out in the dark. Hal flinched back at her first touch, fearing attack, but her hand was gentle, soft, and…
“What… are you doing?” he asked, feeling her fingers exploring places lower than they should be going.
“There’s so much I could do for you if you released me,” said the girl. “Master… What’s your name?”
“Halrin,” he said. “Yours?”
“Zoria,” said the girl. “Well, Halrin. Have you not heard of the reputation of the elves? You take the bracers off me, and my body is yours. Use me however you wish.”
Hal smiled.
“I have heard of the reputation of elves,” he said. “Or to be more specific, female elves. How they use sex as a weapon, and dominate their enemies with it. No… I think I’ll be leaving those command bracers on for now.”
Zoria let out a furious snarl and threw herself onto him. Halrin managed to get hold of her wrists as she struck at his face. She was lighter than him by a significant amount, but she fought ferociously, and immediately began twisting and rolling to break his grip.
“Enough!” shouted Hal. The bracers flashed again, and Zoria let out a little whimper.
“Damn… you…” moaned Zoria.
“And that’s exactly why I put them on you in the first place,” said Hal. “If you’re going to try to kill me, I’m not just going to let you.”
“A wiser man would have the sense to kill a defeated opponent,” said Zoria.
“I’ve never been very wise,” said Hal.
“Of course not,” she said, spitting the words. “Foolish cattle.”
Hal took a couple of seconds to regain his composure. He blinked his eyes a few times rapidly, hoping it might prime his night vision and let him see better in the dark. It didn’t.
“Look, I have a plan,” said Hal. “There is a hole back in the direction we came from, the one we fell down originally. Could you use those wings of yours to fly us out of here?”
Zoria let out a sigh in the dark.
“No, surfacer, I cannot,” she said. “The dragon’s breath clipped my wings and shattered my armor. It will take a great while for me to reform both, and I am not enough of a blithering maiden to choose the wings to work on first.”
Hal chewed his lip. It was disappointing, but the plan had been flawed, regardless. The dragon might be watching the hole, and if it was, leaving through it would only put them back into the same danger they’d been fleeing from.
“How does your magic work?” he asked. “Will you tell me, or is that secret elven knowledge?”
Zoria let out a single, mocking laugh.
“You’re beginning to know your place, bull,” she said. “No, this knowledge would do you no good, on its own. What so confused your eyes to see was my Runic Blood Magic, generated from the runes tattooed onto my body. It is a life magic, channeling the vital essence itself for power.”
“The vital essence?” asked Hal. “So… you’re saying each time you use it…”
“It taxes my body, ending in death, if I push myself too far,” said Zoria. “And that’s not counting the vital essence I use to give the magic form to begin with. Days and weeks slough off the end of my life each time I must reform them. I speak not of time lost in their creation, but shaved off my very lifespan. It is a sacrifice I cannot expect you to understand.”
Hal winced.
“So, I’m assuming there would be no way for you to summon your, uh... spear thing? The one that gives off a bit of light?”
“My runic weapon?” said Zoria. “No. Summoning it right now would likely kill me.”
Well, that’s out of the question.
Hal considered for a moment, several dark thoughts sliding their way past his mind’s defenses. If he ordered her to summon it using the command bracers, assuming that was possible, he would either have a source of light to navigate with, or she’d die, and he’d have one less potential enemy on his hands.
He felt disgusted with himself when he realized it was something a part of him was considering. Zoria had tried to attack him several times, even after he’d saved her life. Why should he reward her hostility with anything else?
Because I’m not a monster…
CHAPTER 27
“Explain to me, cattle, why you don’t just use your ruby to craft a torch?” asked Zoria. “It seems simple enough to me, though I understand you have your mental limitations…”
“It’s empty.” Hal thumbed the gem out of his shirt. It gave off none of its usually robust, red glow. He was still rolling it through his fingers, as though he could will some essence back into it, when Zoria began to laugh.
“It’s a ruby,” said Zoria. “Do you not understand how it works? You have a slave within arm’s reach and you bemoan the fact that your passion gem has run dry? Are you a virgin, or just an idiot?”
Hal felt hot fire tickling his neck and face. He scowled into the area of darkness where Zoria’s voice was coming from.
“I don’t know what you’re assuming,” said Hal. “But I’m not the kind of person who would take advantage of
someone like that.”
“An idiot, then.” Zoria stood up and moved closer to him. “Or maybe both? Tell me, Halrin… What was it you were thinking when you first saw me, in the forest? Did you look at my tight tunic and give thought to what was underneath?”
She bumped into him in the dark, her hands sliding sensually along his legs, toward his groin.
“I would dominate you under normal circumstances,” she whispered. “I would show you pleasure that would melt your resistance. I would tease you, bull, until you couldn’t take it any longer, until you were begging for whatever form of release I chose to offer you.”
Her voice was confident and a little disdainful, and Hal had to steel himself against it. Her hand had found what it was looking for, and slowly rubbed at his cock through his pants.
She will dominate me, even with the bracers on, if I let her.
Cadrian’s teaching came to Halrin in a flash of memory. He couldn’t let her take control. He needed to push back with his own passion, and let himself get aggressive. He reached out and gripped Zoria’s arm just above the bracer.
“Oh?” said Zoria. “Do you truly think you can handle a valkyrie, Halrin? Because I think you’ll start to wilt as soon as you get a sense of how much better at this I am than you. I think–”
Hal kissed her. He didn’t really want to, but in the moment, he could think of no other way to shut her up. Zoria kissed back without hesitation, and her body shifted against his, one of her legs trying to wrap around him. Was it out of passion, or was she attempting to trip him?
She bit his lower lip as he pulled back and Hal flinched. Zoria didn’t give him any time to think. She was against him again in an instant, kissing his neck, his face, and his mouth. She jumped up onto him and leaned all of her weight back, pulling them both to the ground.
Hal barely managed to get his arm out in time to break their fall. His wrist didn’t take the impact well, pain flaring as it hit the hard rock. Zoria was already moving again, kissing him and grinding herself on his crotch with lewd, horny movements.
Hal was on his back, and she was on top of him. The significance of that power dynamic was not something he missed. Before he could stop her, she’d undone his belt with lightning fast fingers and pulled his pants down. Hal reached out into the dark, fumbling to find her, and then…
Bliss. Zoria’s mouth engulfed the tip of his shaft, and Hal was unable to think of anything other than how fantastic it felt. He let out a gasp and leaned his head back, completely lost in the incredible sensation of her hot lips and wet tongue.
She wasted no time in her movements, pulling Hal’s cock in as deep into her mouth as it would go. Zoria’s tongue pushed against the underside of his shaft, keeping his attention in the pleasure of the moment.
She’s doing it. This is what she meant. She’s taking control…
Hal forced himself to think through the fog of lust. His goal wasn’t to stop the encounter. It was necessary to refill the gem, and he wasn’t sure he could have made himself stop her completely, if he’d tried.
Instead, he reached his hand down, letting his fingers gather the brown locks into a single fistful. Zoria tried to slap his hand away, but Hal held firm, keeping her head locked in place where it was. He didn’t do it in a way that hurt her, but rather, set a limitation.
“I’m not a fool, Zoria,” he whispered. “We do this on my terms.”
Her hand slapped against his leg in a whip-like crack, but there was no real pain to it. Slowly, Hal brought his hand down, guiding her mouth lower onto his rod. Zoria let her tongue and mouth go slack, as though she’d decided that if she couldn’t control the encounter, she wasn’t interested in doing anything beyond the bare minimum.
“I’ve read stories about female elves being dominated, too,” said Hal. “It’s far rarer than the other way around, of course, but it does happen. Though, I would never use the command bracers to force something like that on you.”
No. Not with the command bracers…
He pulled Zoria’s head back up slowly, letting his cock pop free of her lips and rub against her face. She took hold of it firmly with one hand and Hal tensed up. Zoria gave the tip of it a sloppy kiss, sending another jolt of intense pleasure surging through him.
“You’re too easy, cattle,” she whispered. “You’ve already lost.”
Hal gritted his teeth. Zoria began licking, letting her tongue pull slowly across he sensitive skin of his tool. It was achingly pleasurable, the type of sensation that made him want to moan out loud. He forced his fingers to squeeze her hair and pull her back, stopping her.
“You do it at my pace,” he said.
Conflict raged inside of Hal. It seemed like such a petty thing, to have to keep control of the encounter. Would it really be so harmful for him to let her do what she, as a grown elven woman, was extremely capable of doing?
Yes. The answer came to him as Zoria issued another challenge with her mouth, this time running her lips along the side of his shaft, planting suckling kisses up and down its length. If he gave her room to flex her sexual power, she would bludgeon him into submission with it.
“Just your hands,” he said, pulling back on her hair again. He didn’t say it strongly enough for it be a command through the bracers, and he was glad of that. Not only did he want to stay away from getting into the habit of using them like that, but he also wasn’t sure he wanted to set that particular limitation.
“You’re pathetic.” Zoria used her hands on him, as instructed, and even just her soft palms and teasing fingers felt incredible. “You aren’t enough of a man to handle me, are you, Halrin?”
He smiled. Strangely, her words were having the opposite effect of what she intended on him. She could say whatever she wanted. She was the one giving him pleasure, in the manner of his choosing.
“You’re just a weak bull,” said Zoria. “Probably too meek to go after the surface cows available to you.”
She shifted to a tighter grip on his cock. Hal still had his hand in her hair, and gave her an affectionate pat.
“That’s nice,” he said. “Just like that.”
“Fool!” snapped Zoria. “Pathetic cattle!”
Hal let out a low, satisfied moan. He let his fingers run through her hair, savoring the sensation of her hands. Zoria was picking up on his subtle cues, her hands speeding up, stroking him off with a firm, deliberate grip.
“You can use your mouth again,” Hal said, feeling himself getting close.
Zoria hesitated, almost as though she didn’t want to if it was at his request. Then, she bought her lips down and began kissing and sucking again. Hal felt the hot, wet sensation push him over the edge. He groaned and found his release, his seed splattering into Zoria’s mouth and running down her chin.
Hal pulled his gemstone free of his shirt. It was glowing again, the red light relatively dim in the dark cavern, but still harsh on his unadjusted eyes. He blinked, and then saw Zoria sitting across from him.
Her lips were turned up into a predator’s smile, and her eyes were hungry. There was no trace of submission in her expression, and none of her confidence had left her. If anything, she looked victorious, as if even in defeat, she’d still found a toehold to exploit later.
She is dangerous. Far more dangerous than I assumed…
CHAPTER 28
After regaining his composure, Hal spent a couple of minutes taking stock of their surroundings. His gemstone gave off only enough light for him to make out what was within a few feet of his face. Still, it was enough for him to examine the cave that they were in, and search for something to serve as the base for a torch.
Zoria followed behind him, staying silent, for once. Hal wondered what she was thinking. So much about her was a complete mystery to him. Elves were, according to Roth and every scholar he’d ever spoken to, an extinct species. Could there be a pocket of the ancient civilization that had somehow managed to survive for centuries in total secret?
“Cattle,”
said Zoria. “Here. Use this.”
She passed him a branch, thinner than Hal would have liked, but workable. Hal ripped free the sleeve of his shirt and tied it into a small bundle on the torch’s end. Pulling out his gemstone and pistol, he carefully held the torch in one hand and cocked the hammer with the other.
He focused on what he intended to do and then pulled the trigger. The spell didn’t work much better than it had the first time he’d cast it, and he swore as the flames engulfed both the end of the torch and, for a moment, the pistol and hand holding it.
“Damn!” muttered Hal. Zoria let out a mocking laugh.
“Pathetic,” she said. “How have you survived this long? Have you just gotten lucky and managed to fumble your way through life?”
The torch gave off enough light for Hal to be able to glare at her properly.
“What happened in your past to turn you into such a bitter person?” he asked.
Zoria scoffed.
“Oh, is my attitude not to your liking?” She rolled her eyes. “My deepest apologies. I’ll try to be more appealing to you in the future, master.”
“Knock it off,” said Hal. “Come on. This torch will only burn for so long.”
They cautiously headed deeper into the caves. The tunnel they followed varied in both height and width, forcing them to squeeze through holes that were barely traversable at points. It forked into two or more paths several times, but usually only one or two actually led to anything other than a dead end.
Are we just wasting our time? It’s possible that the hole we came in through was the only access point to the surface…
“You aren’t a warrior,” said Zoria, breaking a silence that had held for almost half an hour. “What were you doing in the dragon’s territory?”
“What makes you think I’m not a warrior?” asked Hal. He regretted the question immediately after it had left his lips.
“Everything about you,” said Zoria. “You’re in decent shape, admittedly. But you have no instincts for violence or survival.”
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