Dennis the Conqueror: A Harem Fantasy (Sword and Sorority Book 1)

by Scot C Morgan

  "Okay," she called down the shoot. "I'm lowering the board back down. But it's not long enough."

  "Yeah," I said loud enough for my voice to carry up to her. "We knew that. I'll have to climb up a little way. Go ahead."

  She put the board back in the chute and let go of it. I watched it slide down toward me. It stopped about five feet from the bottom of the chute, which put it about two feet out of my reach when I just stuck my head and arms inside the chute and stretched out as much as possible.

  I adjusted my sword, getting it out of the way for the attempt. Oh, shit. My belt. I could've given her my belt to tie to her bow string. That would've been long enough. "Oh, well," I said to myself as I stuck my torso into the chute and began the struggle to contort and push my body against the slick inside of the tunnel until I could reach the end of the piece of wood. It took me about a minute, which is a ridiculously long time when a hot girl such as Tara is watching your every clumsy move. The fact that we'd already done the deed and done it justice took the edge off though. But she did chuckle, and it echoed down to me. I couldn't help but laugh a little too at what I was doing and how stupid it must have looked from her perspective.

  The string of her bow held. She'd tied a good knot around the leg of the table in the room above the chute and on the end of the piece of wood. I climbed out much less gracefully than she had, but I didn't have her flexibility. I immediately repositioned my sword to be ready for anyone who came barging in. Thankfully nobody did.

  Once Tara finished restringing her bow, I broke the news to her that she wasn't going with me into the tower. She was upset and argued with me for a good while, but once she saw I wasn't going to give in on the matter she agreed to go back to the tavern as I asked. I knew I was bruising her pride a little, but I needed to know she was safe.

  I explained to her that if I was by myself I might have a chance of sneaking into the tower. "With two of us," I said, "we'd be easier to spot. It's like the scene in Conan the Barbarian when he sneaks into the tower of Thulsa Doom." She didn't get the movie reference, which, of course, she couldn't since Galderia didn't have movie theaters or Netflix. I knew that, but the scene popped into my head when I was talking to her and I just had to mention it, since it's such a cool movie. The fact that Conan didn't actually sneak into the tower by himself was a detail I intentional got wrong.

  I took her back to the gate we'd come through in the fish wagon and got it open for her. I told her to head straight for the tavern to find Alara and the others, and to stay there with them until I returned. Miraculously, she agreed without an argument.

  Before she stepped out into the street, I grabbed her wrist to stop her. "Tara."

  "Yes, Den?"

  "I'll make sure there are right times for us."

  She smiled. "Come back to me, Den."

  "I wouldn't have it any other way."

  She nodded and looked at me as if she was choosing to trust my words, choosing to believe I was going to be okay. She kept her eyes on me as she backed out through the open gate.

  "Now, go to the tavern," I said. "Be careful and tell the others I'll return once I've done what needs to be done."

  "I will."

  She started to walk away, still looking back at me. I closed the gate.

  I wasted no time getting back to the corridor where we'd faced so many of Ruja's men. It was empty this time. I knew I had a fifty-fifty chance of choosing the right door from the ones at either end of the pathway. I chose the one to my right, for no reason other than I had to pick one. I opened it with my sword drawn.

  I knew every step I took through the compound of buildings held the potential of me running into Ruja's men. I moved as quietly and quickly as I could. I made it to the courtyard surrounding the tower without anyone spotting me, though I did have a close call when a man came out of a room into the hall I was in and could've seen me. But he seemed to have remembered something he'd forgotten in the room, and he turned around and went back inside. I took the lucky moment to run past the room and dash around a corner.

  Maybe it was shift change, or maybe the fact that they'd already caught a group of intruders earlier gave them the idea it was implausible for another intruder to sneak inside the compound in the same night. Whatever it was, I was astonished I'd made into the tower and up two flights of stairs before someone stopped me. But on the second floor of the tower, which was a very medieval-looking place, a man strolling down a hallway saw me.

  It was one-on-one and I didn't have time to second guess what I was doing. I jutted my sword in front of me and charged him. My bold move seemed to surprise him. He took a couple of steps toward me, but hesitated. He drew his sword, then looked down at it. I was ten feet from him when he turned and ran.

  So much for deadly mercenaries. Shit. I realized if he got away he'd tell all his buddies about me. That would completely fuck up my best chance of pulling this whole thing off. I chased him down.

  He slowed to take a spiral staircase and that's when I caught him. Well, that's when I slammed into him. I was running so fast I couldn't slow down enough when I saw him start to take the stairs. Fortunately for me, he wasn't ready for me, so his sword wasn't pointed in my direction. Unfortunately for him, I outweighed him by at least fifty pounds—all barbarian muscle. He got pancaked against the curved stone wall of the staircase. When I stepped back off of him, he slumped to the ground and moaned. Clearly I hurt him quite a lot. He had dropped his sword and he seemed to be making no attempt to get up.

  I grabbed him by his collar and shoved him against the wall, but not too hard since I didn't know what all I'd already broken in him. I wanted to get his attention and ask for directions, not knock him unconscious.

  "Where's the girl?" I said.

  "What?"

  I realized I needed to be a little more clear. "Ruja," I said. "Where is Ruja and where does he keep his women, his slaves?"

  Despite apparently still in considerable pain, he ceased moaning for a second and told me I was crazy. Maybe he had a point, I thought. I didn't have time for a lot of introspection, though. Still holding him by the collar, I shook him. "Where? Tell me where he is…and the woman he's holding prisoner." I hadn't consciously planned on it, but my second query came out sounding like Batman. I wanted to intimidate him, so Batman must've been my subconscious mind's take on that.

  Score one for the Dark Knight because the guy buckled, maybe even peed his pants. He slowly raised an arm and pointed up the spiral staircase we were on.

  "Oh. Thanks," I said, almost feeling bad for plastering him into the wall when he was about to lead me to exactly where I wanted to go.

  I released him and he assured me he was no threat, collapsing to the floor at the base of the stairs. I glanced behind me to make sure nobody else saw us, then I went up the stairs.

  I couldn't bring myself to regret the naked time Tara and I had earlier, but my legs were not as spry for the stair climbing as they might have otherwise been. I paused the hero soundtrack—yeah, Basil Poledouris, from Conan—in my head when I had to stop for a breath after several floors. But I hit play on the internal speakers when I got going again.

  There was no door at the top of the last curve of the stairwell, so I came dashing out into the room. This tossed my whole element-of-surprise angle out the window. A man at the other side of the room turned and faced me. He appeared really pissed off. He was a little smaller than me, but looked like he hit the gym…or whatever people did in Galderia to stay in shape. He stepped over to a long table, and from the display stand on it he retrieved a long sword.

  "Who are you?" he demanded, holding the sword down at his side.

  "Den, Guardian of Carnera." I'd been meaning to try out the title Alara gave me, and this seemed like the best moment to do so. I said it partly to declare my awesomeness to the guy—hoping it would give me an advantage—and partly to bolster my own confidence that I was going to make it through this rescue and takedown.

  I don't know if he w
as duly impressed, but he did continue with the formal introductions. "I am Ruja Kurg, ruler of all the world this side of the Sea of Ronak. And you are a dead man."

  I scanned the room to see if he had anybody around to help him in his dirty work. I didn't want to get blindsided, or sucker-punched like at the tavern. It looked like it was just him. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. The fact that he was willing to take me on by himself meant he probably knew how to use his sword pretty well. I, on the other hand, had only a week's practice. But, I thought, so far so good. And I certainly was stronger. Whatever doubts I had, I knew I couldn't show him any sign of weakness. I decided to double-down.

  "I should've been a dead man about five times since last week," I said. "So far, it hasn't happened."

  He looked enraged at my dismissal of his threat.

  Maybe I can get him to make a stupid move. It worked a couple of times when I had to face down a bully in high school, a few years back. Of course, it dawned on me, those times I took advantage of the sloppy attack to duck and run. Not an option here, but I was winging it and I didn't have time to think of anything else.

  I pushed his buttons some more. I also knew I needed to find out if the woman was actually here somewhere, hopefully nearby. I knew getting her out fast after he and I faced off was the best way to get her out safely and to keep myself alive.

  "I've also managed to hook up with a string of hot babes over the same time. So, I'm thinking I might be too lucky for what you say to be true. Speaking of which, I hear you have one around here somewhere. I'm here to take her with me."

  He glanced to his right. I know he didn't mean for me to see him do it, but it was a dead giveaway. The guy clearly hadn't watched the same YouTube videos I had about poker tells and reading people. I looked to where he'd glanced. There was a woven tapestry with an image of a dragon. I looked at him again. He now appeared ready to spring on me, but he hadn't made a move.

  What's his game?

  I looked back at the tapestry and noticed it was hanging from the ceiling, but it was about ten feet out from the wall behind it. It was blocking another area of the room, a space he didn't want me to see.

  "So, what's behind the curtain," I said.

  He was pretty far away from me, but I saw the anger in his face. He glanced at the tapestry again, out of the corner of his eye without moving his head that direction.

  Badgering him got me what I wanted…and didn't want—which were one in the same. He bolted toward me. I ran for the tapestry.

  Just before he reached me, I pushed the tapestry aside and stepped past it. I brought my sword up to meet his, as he swung at me half-blind by the woven dragon-emblazoned make-shift matador cape. The metal of our two swords clanged and I swung my blade back at him. He stepped wide and blocked, but I could see the force of my swing jarred him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what he had been hiding behind the curtain.

  "Holy shit!" I couldn't believe my eyes. In a metal cage five feet to my left was a dragon. Not a big one. The cage was only four feet tall. It wasn't the sort of dragon you'd expect to fly around and burn down villages. It was about the size of a large pig…and it was asleep. It had red scales—pretty standard for dragons, I knew, but I was still freaked by the sight of it. If it had wings, they were folded under it somehow.

  Ruja raised his sword overhead to swing it down on me, but I gave him a strong kick to his chest, sending him back five feet onto the floor. He landed on his ass and slid a few more feet. Maybe he'd recently had the floor waxed, but I think I might have just kicked him that damn hard. I think seeing the dragon gave me a surge of adrenaline.

  But when I said holy shit, it wasn't just from seeing the dragon. Beside it, also asleep, but on a bed instead of in a cage, was a beautiful young woman clothed in a sheer red outfit. It was basically a nighty.

  I took the moment, with Ruja on his ass, to get another look at the woman. Made sense that she had a nighty on, I thought when I got a good look at her. She could've been a Victoria Secret model. I knew she had to be the woman Alara said I'd find. She was definitely in need of rescuing. Her wrists were tied to the bed with thick ropes.

  There was little chance it was mistaken identity. She was the Earth girl. I could tell by her feet, or more accurately by the fact she had on socks with images of cats riding unicorns which were shooting rainbows out of the horns.

  I heard Ruja's sword pulled across the floor as he picked it up. I returned my attention to him just in time. Somehow in no more than a second, he'd gotten his sword, returned to his feet, and cleared the distance between us. He thrust his blade toward me, but I managed to clumsily deflect it with mine.

  He'd caught me off guard, but I was ready for him now. I gripped my sword with both hands and met his next swing, doing my best to put my muscle behind my weapon, hoping to jar him again. Just as his blade connected with mine, he took a quick step and slid his blade down and off mine, turning his body and swooping his sword underneath my guard. The end of his blade caught my right leg near the top. The cut was long, but not deep enough to get the muscle…but it hurt like hell. I cried out from the pain. My instinct was to cover the wound with my hand, but I fought the urge and shifted some weight to my other leg to stay in the fight.

  I threw a sequence of swings at him, hoping a fast barrage would get past his defenses, but he met my every move with skill, parrying or evading my blade. When I paused for less than a second to check my balance—since my cut leg was giving me trouble—he attacked with a flurry of moves. I blocked the first two and leaned my head out of the way of the third, but his fourth swing sliced my left shoulder. I almost dropped my sword, but instead went to using only my right hand to wield it. I didn't have time to look at my shoulder to see how bad it was, but I could feel the blood running down my arm.

  I realized he was too fast for me. I had yet to get my blade on him, and he was taking me down a little at a time. I knew if we kept at it the way we were going, I'd be bleeding out on the floor before long. I needed a change of tactic. He cut me again, this time across my chest—not as deep, but one more source of stinging pain on my body. I wasn't sure what the next few seconds would hold for me. Ruja looked far from tired and he looked dead set on taking me down.

  I heard a loud thud to my right, then a clatter against something metal. I glanced to my right and saw the dragon was awake. It was slamming its body against the bars of its cage, which was jumping a few inches each time.

  I deflected another of Ruja's swings and backed toward the dragon's cage. Ruja advanced and kept attacking. Since I wasn't trying to get a swing in back at him—set on defending only—I was able to stop several more thrusts and swipes of his blade. I could feel the warm breath of the dragon behind me and hoped I hadn't backed too close to its cage. I gave a quick stab toward Ruja then stepped back once more and took my sword out to my side in an exaggeratedly slow loop, as if I was bringing it around to attack him again. I left myself completely open to his sword for as long as I could without making it obvious I was doing it on purpose. He took the bait and rushed me to run me through with his blade. I leapt aside at the latest possible moment, so he would have no time to pull back from his charge.

  It worked, mostly. His blade ripped through the right side of my waist, opening a gash about a half inch deep. I fell over from the pain, dropping my sword as I landed. I wrapped my left hand around my stomach and clenched my palm against the wound, which was pouring blood.

  There was a loud cry of anguish, but it wasn't mine. I looked up at Ruja. His face was pressed against the bars of the cage. I saw both rage and terror in his eyes. The dragon was in a fury, hurling its talons through the gaps between the bars, ripping at Ruja's body. Ruja's sword was stuck into the dragon's left wing, but it didn't seem to dull the beast's fight.

  I tried to get up, but the pain in my side sent a jolt through me and I decided I needed a moment to gather my strength.

  Ruja screamed again and the dragon let out a shriek. I wa
nted to cover both my ears, but I couldn't get myself to pull my hand from the wound on my side.

  "What the fuck?" I said, watching the monster eviscerate him. It was graphic and more than I'd have wished on him, or at least more than I wanted to see.

  The cage clanged and jumped as the dragon kept attacking him. He must not have treated it well, I thought. Then I realized nothing wants to be caged, no matter how well it's treated.

  He kicked his feet about, desperate to get away from the creature. The clanging sounds of his heels hitting the cage sounded throughout the room as he struggled in vain. The dragon kept ripping into him.

  I knew Ruja deserved what he was getting, but I decided the viciousness of the disembowelment was more than I wanted to see.

  I averted my eyes and a few seconds later the savage sounds stopped. I looked up and saw Ruja's body—what was left of it—in a pile on the floor just outside the cage. The dragon had settled into a corner, leaning against the bars. It was staring at me.

  "Okay," I said to myself. I didn't want to be the center of the creature's attention, so I forced myself to get up.

  Keeping one hand firmly against the wound on my side, which was the worst of all the ones Ruja gave me, I picked up my sword and stepped around the woman to get a clear swing at the heavy ropes holding her. I raised my sword and brought the blade down fast and hard. It cut through the rope holding one of her arms. I stepped around and did the same to the other.

  I glanced at the dragon and it was still watching me. I ignored it and tried to wake the woman. I knew getting her to walk out of there would be a whole lot easier than carrying her. I wasn't even sure I could carry her in my condition. And there was still the problem of Ruja's men. I knew we'd need to go fast and quiet.

  It took a few moments, but I roused her. She opened her eyes wide, as if she was scared.