The Destroyer Book 2

by Michael-Scott Earle

  One of Gorbanni’s commanders went down off his mount and another howl of joy escaped the enemy ranks. I took a dozen steps over crushed and mutilated Elven bodies and ripped my newly acquired sword across the neck of the golden armored bastard that was about to deliver the final blow. Gorbanni’s commander bled from a spear thrust that had penetrated his armor on the side. I tossed my sword like a spear into the back of an Elven who was trying to flank Gorbanni, and then I ducked down to yank the spear out of the fallen horseman’s side. It came out of the armor cleanly, but I didn’t know if the man would be able to heal himself before death came to claim him.

  The Elven’s attack increased almost to a state of unbelievable fury. Six of their kind surrounded me and I swung the spear in a wide arc to keep them at bay. Fortunately, they had either lost or never been equipped with their own spears, or it might have been the end of my struggles. Instead they seemed to favor long curved blades and crescent-shaped shields with carvings of mountains and trees elegantly etched on the metal surfaces. They tried to snake into my warded spear circle, but their attacks weren’t coordinated and I punished two of them by impaling one through the stomach and the other through the thigh. I had to watch my footing carefully so I did not trip over Gorbanni’s commander.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gorbanni and his last commander brought down by a swarm of Elvens that leapt to the backs of their horses. A cry of victory went through their ranks again, tempered and less robust than their previous cheers had been. There were already fewer of them to cheer.

  One of the Elvens in front of me and one to my right attacked at the same time. I smacked the one on the right across the helm with my spear butt before I adjusted the angle and drove the point at the left Elven. He dodged the attack easily by knocking it aside with his sword and darted forward to shield-slam me. The spear thrust had been a feint on my part, and I wished I could have seen the look of disbelief across his masked face as my mace took him in the right side, crushing his shield arm, ribs, and neck with a powerful attack he had tried to avoid.

  A barrage of arrows suddenly whispered past my head and embedded deep into the armor of the Elvens who circled me. Half of them screamed with surprise. Then I dove into their lines and killed another two of them, one with a spear thrust through her armored face mask and the other with a powerful smash to the side of her plated neck guard. I sensed movement behind me and twisted around, angling my pike toward my new opponent.

  It was Shlara, and fortunately, she guessed I would have attacked her on approach. Her agile body wrapped around my spear thrust like she was made of smoke and fog. I saw about sixty of her team ripping through the rest of the Elven ranks that Gorbanni’s men had dented. Shlara’s warriors were quick, intelligent, and trained in small groups of three that could pick apart our foes with merciless efficiency.

  “Dropped something?” Shlara said as she kicked up my shield into her free hand. I heard a horn to my west, of different timbre and pitch then the calls Malek would use to signal.

  The Elvens were retreating.

  “One of the bastards wanted it more than me. So I gave it to her, then I gave her death,” I said as I caught the effigy of death that doubled as my protection.

  “They have broken. I can’t believe that you did it. You are amazing Kaiyer.” Shlara drew her sword quickly as she spun away from me. One last Elven charged us from the left and she cut him from the shoulder to the groin with an attack that was so fast I almost couldn’t follow her movements. Her dragon armor was sprayed with blood, but the small delicate etchings that decorated her pauldrons and armored sleeves were not entirely covered.

  “I did nothing but lead the charge.” I walked over to Gorbanni as he helped one of his commanders to their feet.

  “Was that their horn? Are they retreating?” he said as Shlara and I approached.

  “Yes,” she purred. “It has only been an hour but they did not expect us to attack on this side. Once they turned their forces around, Malek's men flanked and butchered their mages.”

  “We should finish them," Gorbanni said. I noticed that his breathing was labored and I could see blood trickle down from his armor at the joint between his armpit and torso.

  “We have won this day and should recuperate. We should also reconvene with Thayer and Alexia. The army needs a break for a bit.” I turned to look over the mile of corpses, mostly Elven, toward the fleeing golden hues of their retreating army.

  “I never thought I would hear you speak those words. I didn’t think you ever took breaks.” Gorbanni wheezed and coughed up a spit of blood.

  “Go to the infirmary and get whatever is stuck in your lung removed. We’ll meet back in my tent in four hours,” I commanded him. He saluted before walking back to the other side of the battlefield. Our medics were searching through bodies, doing what they could for our wounded and finishing off Elvens who might still be alive. They attended to Gorbanni’s commander, whom I had stood vigil over during the battle. He coughed and sat up with their aid.

  The sun was high in the sky now and it shone over the blue water of the ocean like an adoring mother.

  “You may not think you did anything important today, but you did. We would have lost if not for your speech and you leading the charge. The O’Baarni is nothing without you,” Shlara whispered from my side. She stepped closer and the metal of our armor made a soft slick sound as we touched. I realized that I had somehow kept my cloak on during the whole ordeal, and the wind from the ocean fanned the red cloth out from our connected bodies like the tail feathers of a thunderbird.

  “One thing I am sure of.” I turned to look at her green eyes in the depths of her helm. “We would not have been in this predicament in the first place if I had not made errors in judgment.”

  “You are a real pain in the ass sometimes,” Shlara huffed and then walked away. “I’ll meet you at your tent in a few hours.” The sun reflected off her armor and the blood that soaked it as she walked down the hill toward her troops and the ocean.

  Chapter 2-Kaiyer

  I crawled from the dream like I was digging out of a sandy pit. I had to grab handfuls of the memories, dry and sharp, and claw them away from my face. Finally, I felt cognizant, but groggy and still tired. My eyes weren’t open, but something stroked my face. It was a gentle caress from soft fingers.

  “Are you awake?” Jessmei’s honey sweet voice asked. My body relaxed and filled with warmth when I realized where we were.

  “Yes.” I opened my eyes. Our cave faced north, wrapping us in a perfect shelter from the harsh light of the rising sun.

  “Did you have a good dream?" Jessmei’s naked body lay atop mine and her soft skin was more comforting than the warm blankets.

  “It was another memory.” She smiled down at me and the hand that stroked my face moved to scratch my scalp. She knew that I liked this.

  “You were laughing in your sleep. I think it was a good dream. I’ve never heard you laugh that way. You seemed so happy. Was I in your dream?” She leaned down and kissed my mouth before I answered. Her tongue carefully explored my lips and then darted into my mouth when I opened it to return her kiss. She sighed in pleasure and bit my bottom lip before she ended the kiss. Her eyes looked down at me with unabashed lust.

  I gave a dry chuckle and moved my hands up to grasp around her perfect hips.

  “If I had been dreaming of you I wouldn’t have been laughing. I would have been moaning in ecstasy.” My fingertips lightly dug into her skin and her mouth opened in pleasure at my touch.

  The day after I rescued Jessmei the storm picked up dramatically so we sheltered in the dense cover of the forest. The ground quickly became covered with snow, but I harvested enough wood to keep the horses warm. Jessmei’s captors packed enough food to last the two of us most of the journey back, and I was sure I would be able to fell a dear along the route. That left the beautiful princess and I with only one activity while we waited for the weather to pass.

  When the st
orm subsided we continued to make our way south, back to Nia. It would have been a four-week journey if we would have rushed.

  And even though we both knew that our friends and Jessmei’s family were worried about us, we didn’t rush.

  She had an appetite for the newly discovered pleasure I gave her. During the stay in the forest we made love almost the whole day, slept for the coldest parts of the night, and then continued the next day. We took short breaks for food, more firewood, to relieve ourselves, and when we took naps of exhausted pleasure after lovemaking. When we began to make our way south we would start the morning with energetic passion. When we took our midday meal we would enjoy each other for dessert. After we had set up the camp and tended to the horses we would hastily retreat into the tent to explore each other’s bodies again before sleeping.

  When I first made love to her she had been hesitant, which was understandable given her lack of experience and what she had been told. After a week of travel, she became as fierce and uninhibited in bed as I could have wished. She enjoyed all the different positions we experimented with but seemed to prefer to be on top of me, where she would bite her lower lip, grind against me, and go at the pace she preferred. I hurt her once on accident when I had climaxed and grabbed her hips to pull her down onto me so I might force myself deep into her quivering body. My fingers had left purple bruises on the side of her stomach. I could have crushed her skull with an accidental squeeze during our lovemaking so I needed to be careful.

  After two weeks of travel with only cold rain to bother us, another snow storm descended and forced us to hole up in the cave. A week passed as the weather raged outside our stone nest but we didn’t mind the delay. Yesterday the sun had finally shown itself but we decided to wait until the next morning before resuming our travels. I took the day to see if I could catch any game that would have journeyed out because of the better weather. After a few hours of tracking I found a small stream where some deer had gathered to drink. I killed a small buck with the Elven’s bow and we had feasted.

  “We should continue on our journey today,” I said as my hands circled up above her hips and gently rubbed her lower back.

  “No. Let’s stay here forever.” Her cheek pressed down on my chest and she murmured in approval as my fingers worked up to her mid back and rubbed the small muscles there. I kissed the top of her head where her soft blonde hair met her scalp.

  “We will still have a few weeks of travel ahead of us. Besides, we’ve been cooped up in here for too long.”

  “I only want to be here in your arms.” She squirmed a bit more as she tried to force her body into mine. Her breasts pushed against my stomach and I felt her nipples rub against me. I laughed again and pulled her mouth to mine for another kiss. It started off gentle and then turned almost angry as our passion rose and our tongues battled for dominance.

  "Let's get going," I said after our kiss broke and each of us finished gasping for air.

  "No. Not after a kiss like that. I need you inside of me," she demanded and then bit her lower lip. Her face transformed from the beautiful girl that I remembered eating lunch with in the Royal Garden into a woman who recognized what she wanted and would get it at any cost. Before I consented, which I would have, she moved up and rubbed her body against mine with urgency. I reached my hands around her ass and found her opening with my fingertips. She was wet and moaned my name when my hand brushed against her sensitive skin. I had been half-erect since I awoke to find her naked on top of me and feeling her body moist and ready for me hardened my penis. I moved my hands from her entrance around to her hips and pulled her on top of me. We had done this enough so she knew what to do from this point. While I steadied her body Jessmei reached down with her right hand and led me into her. She gasped in pleasure when my tip slid in only an inch and then stopped. Her tunnel was very wet, but we normally had to spend a couple of precious seconds easing my shaft into her before we began our love making.

  Jessmei leaned forward and kissed my face, mouth, and neck while she rocked herself back down onto me slowly, taking more of me inside of her each time until I was in as deep as possible. She gave a satisfied moan before she leaned back onto my hips and sat up straight. The blankets fell away from her shoulders and I got to study her beautiful body in the bright reflection of the dawn. Her skin was pale, smooth, and reminded me of milk or cream. The pink lips to her entrance and small pearl nub of flesh at the top of the opening were easily visible through her blonde pubic hair. The lips were spread wide to accommodate the shaft inside of her and the nub was erect with excitement.

  "You are so thin Kaiyer," she said matter-of-factly as she gazed down at me through half-closed eyes. Her hips made slow, tiny circles which dragged me across her velvety walls. The overwhelming pleasure allowed me to only grunt in agreement.

  "We'll have a feast for you when we get back. With all the food you could possibly eat." Her mouth grinned and then formed a round shape when I made contact with a spot she enjoyed. She changed her tempo from the slow pace to one significantly faster and less circular. She put her hands down on my hips to keep my body from moving while she rode me. Her eyes closed and she let out soft moans of pleasure as she set about the task of pleasing herself.

  My hands and fingertips traced lines across her arms and shoulders. My touch created goose bumps on her sensitive skin and also produced additional sighs of pleasure from her. After ten minutes of her movements I felt her begin to shake like she did when she tried to keep herself from climaxing. Her eyes finally opened and she stared down at me like I was the first glass of water she would drink in a week. Then she took her hands off my hips and leaned down to kiss me, pushing her chest and breasts against my torso.

  I wrapped my hands around her hips and pushed myself into her deeper. It seemed to trigger her climax and she let out a whine of joy into my mouth as she kissed me. Her body shook like it had when she almost died from hypothermia. I could feel her tighten around my shaft and the thought of her taking such an extreme amount of pleasure from my body drove me over the edge. I tried to resist the urge to release so soon, since I would normally wait until she experienced pleasure three or four times before I would. The sensation of her open mouth screaming into mine, the shaking of her body on top of me, the way she used me to pleasure herself, and the tightness of her entrance forced the climax upon me. My orgasm filled her small body with my seed while she gasped with pleasure.

  Our mouths parted after we calmed. I was still inside of her and she made no effort to remove me when she sighed in relief and laid her head back on my chest. She gave another small gasp of pleasure as her body suddenly trembled again and gripped my erection.

  We lay there for another quarter of an hour until the sunrise turned into full morning and the rays infiltrated the nook of the cave. Jessmei shook when she descended into a deep and relaxed sleep. I figured that I should let her sleep a bit longer while I got the campsite packed up and tended to the horses. I carefully slid her over off my body and onto the sleeping mat next to me. Jessmei was a heavy sleeper and didn't stir at all as I moved her. Before I covered her with the blanket I studied her naked body with appreciation.

  Her blonde hair spread out from her head like a gold halo. It fell down to about the mid part of her back, just enough to cover her breasts when she was naked. It was usually straight but now developed a small amount of curl since she hadn't been able to wash the blonde tresses in the last few weeks we traveled. Even though she had often complained that it, and her body, smelled awful from the travel it still carried the scent of gardenias and citrus.

  Her skin was flawless, except for a few cute freckles that dotted her nose and cheeks. They added to her girlish appearance and complemented the small dimples that framed each side of her mouth when she smiled. She was half-smiling now in her sleep and I hoped that she was thinking of me in her dreams. The rest of her body was lean and toned from our travels. She wasn't as tall as Nadea, but where Nadea had the lithe body of a warri
or, Jessmei's seemed to be made for pleasure: soft, sleek, smooth, and curvy in the right places.

  "I like it when you look at me when I am sleeping," she whispered softly. Her clear blue eyes opened and she smiled up at me, increasing the size of her dimples and exposing her perfect teeth behind full red lips. Her eyes were the color of an ocean that cradled icebergs, a pale shade of sky.

  "How could I not? You are like a work of art, created for me to appreciate." I smiled down at her and then gave a small laugh as she flushed red all over her body. That was another quality of hers that I liked, she blushed at almost any compliment. Her hand grabbed my arm and she pulled on me to help her sit up, then she kissed me lightly.

  "Thank you for saving me again. I owe you everything." She wrapped her arms around my shoulder and sighed as I hugged her back.

  "No. You don't owe me anything Jessmei. I did it because I am your friend." My arms circled her slender waist and I thought about taking her again. Maybe we should just stay here for the day?

  "So are we still friends? Or are we more?" she said as she pulled away and looked into my eyes. Her smile was still there but her question seemed serious. I considered before answering.

  "We are lovers. I realize that it means a sort of commitment in your society." Her eyes glimmered and her smile got bigger so I assumed that I was on the right path with my conversation. "But please realize that in my time, we were involved in constant battle. We never knew when we would live or die, so becoming a lover with someone didn't mean more than a mutual attraction."

  "I'm not sure I understand," she said with hesitation.

  "Let me use us as an example." She nodded. "If we were both soldiers in the army and were lovers, how much of a commitment should we make to each other?" I figured having her explain what was expected in this example would lead me to understand what she wanted of me in our relationship.