Theriss catches sight of me gaping and raises to her full height. “Out! This is a sacred place; get out!”
The girl doesn’t seem to hear, bearing out a wave of pain and collapsing breathless.
I turn back through the entrance, headed for my post, but I can hear Theriss sloshing behind me.
“When I say wait–”
“I didn’t know. I thought something was wrong.”
“This is not a place for–”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry.” I hold out my hands, placating. “This place isn’t safe for you, and I thought you were in trouble.”
She zips a long blade free and hurls. It sings past my ear and I take a second to realize it wasn’t meant for me, about the time I hear it clang like metal on metal.
The maideak every bit resembles Theriss, as much as the girl in the grove, minus serpents in his sweep short black hair and a paler cast to skin that’s been without sun. He’s big, cobalt chest rippling with power equal to his coiled tail. Not big enough for me to fear his strength, but his speed, his senses? Theriss has shown me enough to know the risks. I draw my sword.
“Don’t” she whispers. “This is not for you to interfere. Halith and I will settle it as the water gods have decreed.”
I don’t think Theriss gets that she doesn’t exactly have a say when it comes to me. Even if she weren’t an Artifact, she’s a companion. A fellow combatant. I’m going to fight for her, if it comes to it.
“Stand aside,” orders Halith, another maideak slithering out from the tangle behind him, pale blue and less broad but close enough terms of potential danger.
“You know the price, Theriss.” I expect anger, outrage, but the even, matter-of-fact thread through his words carries more weight. He draws a sword cut from the same curve as her twin blades and raises it, waiting expectantly for her to come forward and accept punishment.
“I won’t be executed.” Her words tremble at the sound of raising cries beyond the tangled gate. “I will fight you with my last breath to keep Thelia safe till the end.”
“I will deliver you justice, and then her.”
A sheen films Theriss’ eyes. “You don’t care, even a little? The first offspring our people have seen in a–”
“Enough!” His blade cuts a furious swath through the weeds, leaving stubble. “A hundred times; you revisiting it one hundred and one times doesn’t change anything. They are abominations, and you are a traitor.” His gaze flicks to me. “And a rival for the throne, it seems.”
“You would know.”
Halith coils tighter, scales prickling outward like spines. “You permitted our sister to consort with an outsider, to mate him. You condoned it, concealed it, and when the elders faced you down you brazenly told us all to accept this deviance.”
“We were too weak to feed! Too weak to fight off the unghul; say nothing of bearing young!” Theriss moves further into the grove entrance. “Jalanth’s people have lived in the sun; they’ve eaten something more than swamp rodents in the last century.”
“They are of the red.”
“We have a chance to–”
“They are of the red!” Halith springs, cutting the air. Theriss weaves, avoiding his strike. Her serpents go mad.
“We have a future to think of, even if you won’t.”
“We have our people to think of; something you never managed on our father’s throne.”
“Something you’ll manage quite well when the last of us is gone.”
Halith’s finger’s blanch on his haft. “That will never happen, even without the help of the Hesperia.”
“You’re right. And you’re wrong. Our tribes will go on strong, and Thelia will have her young.”
“She can have them in the hells!”
This time Theriss strikes first. Her blades cross, slice. She signs a scarlet X across her brother’s chest.
“Days; mere days in the sun,” she pants, “and I can outdo you. You took advantage of enslavement; you were never the stronger one!”
“Strength alone isn’t the mark of a ruler!”
“I defeated Maeve. I set us free – after I was stripped of everything.” Her last word strikes with force. Theriss catches Halith in the gut with her tail and staggers him.
She doesn’t dart away. Theriss slithers in, lashing her tail, spiraling Halith’s torso, arms, hips. She buries teeth at his neck, more grip than bite.
Her instincts are sharp as flint, but it was too easy. Halith isn’t built to be overcome without a fight.
Halith’s man at arms raises his blade a fraction, eyes unblinking, trained on Theriss. Waiting for an opening.
“Theriss!”
She doesn’t react, skin blanching, scales tight as woven silk while Halith lets her strangle his body.
His man charges.
I rush to intercept.
The tip of Halith’s tail spikes up, point threaded in the handle of his sword. He’s about to backstab Theriss.
I sheath my blade, focus. Flames erupt from both palms. Halith’s man hisses, twists and coils away in the closest a serpent can come to stumbling.
Halith thrashes against the fire, less openly terrified, but singed by my closer hand. He bulges, breaks Theriss’ hold and darts back, clutching his blistered flank.
Theriss turns on me, lips painted with blood, eyes feral. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand honor!”
“I understand honor and stubbornness.”
“That’s my sister in there, not yours.” She spits. “What do you know?”
“My sister is the whole reason I’m here! She’s all I have left of my family. I’ve dragged my body, chopped, poisoned, and half drowned through seven realms for her. And I have pride in spades, but I would never let it get in the way of saving her. Honor and foolishness aren’t the same.”
Gods, somewhere I became my mother.
Theriss stutters. Before she can answer, the undergrowth cracks. The sound ripples outward; in seconds we’re surrounded by lamia and maideak, ruby skinned and fair-haired, stouter than Halith and his companion. They overtake me, Theriss, Halith in the space of a breath. A blade point kisses deep in the flesh below my chin. I can take its owner, but I’m not sure I should. Things are changing rapidly, and these newcomers aren’t with Halith. I can bide my time.
So, these are the reds that brought divided this family. Five occupy the small clearing. A sixth, another male, hurries in. He only has half a glance for me, for anyone. His attention is on the glade beyond the vines. “Let her be. And the mortal. I didn’t come for them.”
“Jalanth. I’ll split your tail into a massive cunt.” Halith surges in. I draw, raise my sword. Our blades bang. He recoils, thrusts. I parry with half what I’m capable of. He’s a slow learner, stubborn as Theriss. I smack his arm broad with my blade, drop low and wind him in the gut. He sprawls back, wide-eyed. I think he’s finally starting to get it.
“I’m taking Thelia,” says Jalanth.
Theriss raises a hand. “Wait!”
He doesn’t. Thelia’s moans are one long ebb and flow. I don’t know anything about human childbirth, let alone lamia, but it seems close now.
“One sister whore to a red and one whore to a demi-god.” Halith rights himself with a lot of pride. “The water gods must hold grudges against me that are heavy indeed.”
My blade ignites. “Theriss is my champion. Maeve’s death sentence. Speak about her that way again and I’ll make you into a gaping quim.”
“Leave her be,” warns Theriss over me.
“Oh, I’ll not touch the pair of you. No king could hold the respect of his people if they knew he shared blood with the like.” He grabs up his sword and draws away. “I’ll let you leave...”
Like he has a choice.
“You can cross untouched this last time, and Thelia and her böllur.” He sneers the vulgarity, forked tongue flicking. “Cross the heights again in your lifetime and I’ll fang your guts out your back before you’ve so much as heard me breathe.”
At some point Jalanth’s people have receded, faded into the jungle like ghost serpents. Theriss notices too. She draws away from her brother, the clearing, and the grove entrance with finality. “These will always be my lands. You took them by deception, and you’ll never be fit to rule them. Keep your gills keen, Halith. Your teeth won’t reach my back before my champion’s blade fucks a hole so deep in your coil a cave giant could plough you with ease.” She spins her blades and sheaths them. “I’ll be back.”
She spins with grace and slithers back toward the trench.
I ache to shank him now and save her the wait. But Halith moves off into the jungle with his man, and I’m not about to draw him back toward Thelia.
I follow Theriss, who says nothing as we cross the jungle.
-The Oasis-
We move across the basin side by side. She’s silent, jaw tight. Even with Meridiana’s gift I can’t get a clear impression.
“I’m sorry,” I offer as we reach the rise. To break the silence but also because I feel I should apologize. Maybe she didn’t need my help. Maybe my interference cost her some respect or at least some fear from Halith. Tagan always accused me of charging into battle before I’d settled if the other half was friend or foe.
“Don’t.” Her word is clipped. “There wasn’t...it was never going to end well. I just want Thelia to be safe, and you helped me see that through.” She snorts. “I could smite Halith with the power of Heijl and all the water gods, and he’d say I put the sun in his eyes or caught him under-fed. You’re the first thing in years to give him pause.”
“It could be a while before you see Thelia again.” If she wants to follow Jalanth’s men and say goodbye, now is the time.
Theriss’ face says this idea hadn’t set in. One pointed-pearl incisor rolls her full lower lip. “How long since you’ve seen your sister?”
“Days, I think? A week?” Iden let her have an hour in the garden when Mynogin wasn’t looking; I could just spy her from the cathedral’s bell tower. “Not so long. But time in here...it feels like years. Centuries. I expect to leave the temple and find the world overgrown, people extinct, and Esmanth a long-forgotten footnote in the Cathedral record.”
“You’ll see her again, someday. Soon,” Theriss adds, chin tipping up in a warning that I shouldn’t challenge her assertion. “I want to go away for a time. Maeve, my brother...I think I can love my home more easily when it looks less tainted.”
“Well, I can certainly give you time away and comparatively…” I turn a slow circle, thinking of Etain’s kingdom, “it’ll look less tainted.”
“I don’t like the way you say that…”
“Oh,” I nudge her. “You’ll be fine when the screaming stops.”
“I’m too exhausted to scream,” she mutters. We’ve reached the shallow pools of the oasis and, as if to put weight behind her words, Theriss twines into the water on her back, head on the grassy lip. “This feels amazing. I will miss the waters of home.”
I nod to the portal. “The temple garden has a pond. Small grove, decent sunlight.”
“Sounds really nice, actually. Anything but sand.”
“It’s pretty wonderful. And the others are there waiting. You’ll like them.”
“Ah right. Your conquests.”
I wave her off, falling to sit on the grass. “Think what you like.”
Her tail flicks the back of my neck, wet and cool. “I took it too far. I’m sorry.”
I’m not letting her off the hook, not yet. When I entered the temple, the Artifacts were just...artifacts. All I cared about was winning, revenge. I won’t defend the bond we all share now, or how lucky I am to have it.
“Lir,” she calls softly. “I want to confess something.” There’s still a hint of pride in her voice.
I turn, raise a brow.
“When Thelia confessed her tryst with Jalanth...just the idea of her with a red was illicit. Exciting. My species only couples with itself, save those of us taken as concubines. And they’re considered dead in my culture; I’ve never given them thought.”
She sits up, resting on her hands. “The red are one thing. You? You are so forbidden.”
Until now I’d been this close to believing we’d probably never couple. Our time so far hasn’t exactly been friendly.
She arches. Water trickles down the blue skin between her breasts and over scales painting them. I follow a single bead’s path, down her ribs, to a sequined line that runs her flank from hip to chest. It slips along the arc of black and blue at her belly, surrenders at the lowest point, a dip in her scales, and runs downward, suggestive.
I struggle for my voice. “Forbidden? Does that mean you’re not interested?”
Scales cupping her chest soften like fans of black oval feathers. Her breasts engorge until the scales at their tips draw back. Bright pink nipples bud from the dark rings, thrust out eagerly. They contrast with her dark scales and blue skin, flesh around the firm points soft and new-looking. I feel the rough-silk texture in my mouth just looking at them.
One small difference, and she’s essentially naked.
“I don’t remember saying I wasn’t interested.” Theriss tips her head and flicks a nipple with her forked tongue, painting a glistening ribbon over puckered flesh. “I’m just not sure you’re equal.”
“After everything you’ve seen today, you don’t think I’m worthy?”
“I don’t think you’re equal. If I didn’t think you worthy…” She rolls pink nipples between her slender blue fingers.
I yank both straps on my cuirass. It loosens. “What makes you think I’m not equal?”
“Our women are taken and prized as slaves and concubines for a reason.” Theriss strokes one of the serpents nestled in her thick dark mane. “What makes us dangerous also makes us sought-after. Venom of the lamia is fatal to lesser creatures; it’s a test of strength to couple with one. Some survive.” She shrugs.
“And the rest?”
“Die happy.” Her smile is coy. “But they’re still dead.”
I can’t exactly poke fun at any of this. A history of letting my cock make bad decisions now and then is greater than I’d like. But still, this sounds ridiculous even to me. “So, these men steal and enslave lamia to be poisoned, hoping to survive?”
“Partly. But survival becomes a distant worry; our venom is nothing like the serpents who dwell in deserts and on the forest floor.”
“It’s an aphrodisiac,” I guess, stripping down to my tunic.
Theriss bats long lashes, rising from the pool. “We use a different word, but I think it means the same thing.”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
Her hands are warm and damp, skimming the ladder of my ribs and tossing my garment aside. Theriss’ mouth finds mine, soft but forceful, while matchstick tongues of her snakes lick my face. Her fingers run wild, brushing my shoulders and hips. Her soft nipples brush my chest in contrast with a slip of scales.
“I’ve never touched anyone like you,” she pants against my cheek. She ripples away, and her eyes widen. “Just one?” She brushes my cock, laughing when it stirs. “And it does that?”
I’ve never had such an awkward, incredible conversation. “Your maideak don’t…?”
“Ours are hidden, with the exception of coupling. Males grow aroused inside and we females draw them in.”
The image rushes hot, deep into my gut. Theriss sucks in a sharp breath as I fully harden. “Draw them in how?”
Theriss rubs a hand over the indigo skin of her belly, then lower, to the soft mound where it becomes mothwing scales, and lower still where her flesh tucks, rolling inward like thighs. Her scales raise along a vertical line, part almost shyly along a coral ribbon of flesh. She flexes, writhes, and both sides swell, revealing thick black lips that engorge until they fold in on themselves. Dark pink flesh inside rolls outward, wet and beckoning me.
“You like that…” she murmurs, running a finger along her mound.
&n
bsp; “I do.” I have to swallow to go on; I can’t stop staring. “With mortal women it’s hidden away.”
She nods. “Between the legs. That seems cruel. What happens when the frenzy strikes her and there’s no male to couple with?”
In the mortal world I don’t think this ever happens. We never go that far from a potential bedding. “What do you do when that happens?”
Theriss’ smile is wicked. The S of her body tightens, lowering her face. Through the curtain of hair, I watch her tongue slip like a ribbon between the thick folds of her pussy, and she thrusts into herself. She moans, low, then does it again. One of her little snakes darts forward, and I watch, entranced, as its tiny tongue circles the swollen bud of her clit. It wraps tight, tugs, as Theriss’ tongue flicks in and out. Her pants come faster, and faster, as her tongue dives deeper, doubling in on itself. My cock throbs in the wet air, sweet torture, yearning for her.
When she cums, it’s almost violent, and her tail thrashes, rippling with waves of pleasure. Her body trembles, and when she pulls away, her pussy is slick, wet. She raises, flushed and triumphant. “Like that.” Her eyes linger on my cock. “Ready?”
“Gods yes. Yes, please.”
She ripples close. “Willing to take the risk?”
“It’s not a risk if I already know the outcome.” I cup her face and punish her mouth, serpents hissing at my ears like a furious breeze.
Theriss twists away and slips down my body like water. Her lips brush my hips, thighs. Her breath on my throbbing flesh is like a touch. I need to be inside of her.
She smiles up at me, tongue drawing a long line across her bottom lip. “You’re sure? Completely in-”
I drag the head of my cock across her mouth. “I’m this sure.”
Theriss parts her lips around it. Her tongue is cool and wet, a searing lie of contrast along my shaft. She coils me with it, constricts it tight enough to ache, and it circles me from head to base, round and round, like impossibly soft fingers. She takes me deep, until my tip brushes the back of her throat, and then her tongue pulls, jerks me off in sharp strokes.
I fall slowly backward as she sucks, and she rotates her body until her tits hang above me, bouncing gently as she fucks me with her tongue, her mouth.
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