This was better.
Taking control, Kamal fucked her deep and fast. She still had her arm between them so she continued her flickering assault on her clit.
The dream felt so real as she approached her climax. Kamal still thundered against her. He was breathing hard, grunting like an animal. Rhee heard the slap of their bodies coming together and the wet sounds of her own arousal.
Holding back a scream, her pussy clamped around his cock when she came. Finally. Goddess. Yes. She drifted in bliss as he continued to pound inside her. Eventually, Rhee floated back out of his dream. She felt sated, a little cheated and sad.
His jealousy had ruined everything.
And now the unpleasant part. Running her hands over her breasts, she sighed. She was still needy and wanting, but she didn't want any more of Kamal's ugliness. Her body knew who she really wanted and that's why Kamal's words cut so deep. She cheated with Guy in her heart and in her dreams, but never with her body.
Kamal still looked like a dark angel when he slept. His cock hard and straining against his night clothes. Yet, he was different. There was a stain of darkness around him that could have been Maron’s magic.
Rhee envisioned herself fully clothed again and whispered in his ear. "Wake up, Kamal.
“Rhee!” He woke up with a start. For a moment, he was her lover again about to beckon her back to bed. Then horror, shame, and anger chased across his face. “Faithless whore! What are you doing here?”
Like he hadn't just been dreaming of fucking her.
He tossed aside the bedcovers. “Get out of here. I’ll have you thrown into the dungeon.” He went to grab her arm. “Do you have that sewer rat, Larkspur, with you? Him, I’ll kill.” When his arm passed though her, he stopped in mid tirade and blinked stupidly at her. “Rhee, are you dead? Is this your spirit come to haunt me?”
“I have come here to warn you.”
“Don’t you threaten me.”
“Kamal, our child is in danger,” Rhee said.
“Danger? Danger? She is more guarded than the treasury. This is just some kind of ploy to get me to relent and allow you back into our lives.”
“I have never been out of my daughter’s life. Even though you have tried your hardest to make it so."
“You can’t have her,” Kamal said. "She needs to be trained."
“Why would you think I want to take her away? Her home is here. It is stable, and until recently safe. Wait.” Rhee narrowed her eyes at him. “Trained? You know! You know she is Talented.”
“Of course, I know!” he roared. “Every time she has a temper tantrum she sends her toys flying around the room.”
“And you wouldn’t have told me?” Rhee felt her eyes fill with tears. “You would deny your own daughter to be taught by her mother.”
“She doesn’t need you. I don’t need you. You chose Larkspur over us.”
“I did not. You banished us.”
“I was going to hang him.”
“He was innocent. So was I.”
“You set your lover free from the gallows, so I told you to join him.”
“Kamal, there was no proof. I would never have betrayed you. I loved you.” Guilt flashed through her, but fantasies didn't count. She never acted on them. “How could you believe that conniving witch Maron, over your own wife?”
At the High Mage’s name, Kamal seemed to become even more enraged. “Don’t talk about her like that. She is the only one who has stuck by me. When you turned my people against me, she helped me win back their trust.”
“If the people turned against you, it was because you were wrong.”
“I will hear no more of this. Get out or I will summon Maron and have her scatter your spirit to the four corners of this world.”
“The world is round, you dolt.” How could she have thought she still wanted him? A nice face and a fat cock didn't make a husband.
“Maron, attend me,” Kamal snarled. “Guards! Alarm!”
Rhee felt the wardings sound. “No, Kamal, listen. I didn’t want to fight with you. There’s great evil. Our daughter is in danger. See to her safety.”
“I don’t need you. I can protect my daughter just fine. Now, get out.”
Rhee flickered like a candle and left. She did not want to face Maron tonight, not when her thighs were sticking and the room was thrumming with sex magic. She soared back to the wooded area feeling sorry for herself and missing her daughter even more. Entering in her body, she was hit with a tremendous weariness.
“What happened?” Guy said.
“Your mother will be notified about Irena’s Talent appearing,” she said and tried to rise. “Hopefully, she can sneak in a tutor from Ferriskeep.”
Guy went over to help her, but was propelled backwards as soon as he entered the circle. Rhee waved her hand and the protection dissolved. “Sorry about that.”
“No doubt, Irena will try and contact me again when she needs me. I will be there for her. If only in the astral plane.” Rhee tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
“What of the King?” Kess asked.
“He’s an ass,” Rhee said and leaned on Guy for support.
Chapter Two
The rest of the night passed uneventfully. They all slept later than usual the next morning, so it was midday when they started to break down camp.
“Are we still off to Leeds?” Evan approached Rhee as she was saddling the horses.
“That’s where we had planned to spend the summer.” Rhee looked at him.
“I figured with your daughter in trouble that we would head to Winterlore.”
“Evan, Guy’s mother is a very capable mage. I feel safe leaving Irena in her care. Besides, we wouldn’t be welcome in Winterlore.” And as much as Rhee longed to go, she didn’t want to risk her friends’ lives if Kamal and Maron decided to make them pay for her crimes.
“Not if we went through the front gates.” Evan smiled. “So how much do you think the King has in the royal treasury?”
“A lot of gold, gems and priceless objects of art.” Rhee smiled back. “My crown.”
“Another time, I suppose.” He sighed.
They rode out of the forest and picked up the road that would take them to Leeds. It was a crisp, spring day and the wind blew musically through the trees. They were in single file, with Guy in the lead when Rhee felt the power slam into her. Her horse shied and she toppled off. But she was racked with so much pain, she didn’t feel the impact of the ground.
“Rhee!” Kess quickly leapt from her saddle and soothed both horses with several intricate hand motions. Then she bent to where Rhee was curled up in a fetal position.
Guy wheeled his horse to get a look at the attacker. “Kess, is it an arrow?” Guy shouted.
Evan scurried off his horse, and up the nearest tree.
Kess tried to pry Rhee’s hands from her body. “I can’t tell, but I don’t think so.”
Evan started to curse loudly about magical attacks and wizards in general.
“Wynne!” Rhee cried. The anguish in her voice made the trees weep. As the pine needles rained down upon the four warriors, a vision was wrenched from Rhee’s gripping hands and appeared on the road before them.
A handsome man who vaguely resembled Guy stood in a child’s bedroom holding a bloodied sword. Tears rolled unchecked down his expressionless face. “Wynne..." He choked. The wind rippled through the vision of him.
“Looks like a loss instead of a win,” Evan said.
“Shut it,” Kess hissed at him.
“That’s my cousin Nigel,” Guy said hoarsely.
The bedroom scene opened up to show a pretty little girl with black curls screaming, “Daddy! Daddy!” She kept her blanket clutched to her chest and she edged towards the headboard.
“Don’t get off the bed, Irena. Please stay there.” Nigel whispered, trying not to look at the tiny little body that was sprawled on the floor soaking the frilly lace blanket with blood.
“Where�
�s Wynne? I can’t see her anymore.”
A booming voice from behind Nigel swore viciously. “What thing violates a child’s room at night?”
“Your majesty.” Nigel inclined his head coldly, his eyes never leaving Irena’s bed.
“Dara blessed, that’s King Kamal,” Kess gasped in recognition.
“I’m waiting for an explanation, Sir Knight,” Kamal said.
At the appearance of her father, Irena hurtled off the bed to him. But Nigel was faster. He swept her up with his left arm and held her to his chest awkwardly. She kicked her little feet. “I want down.”
“I suggest you listen to the Princess.”
Nigel hesitated long enough for his sword arm to twitch almost, but not quite, at the King. Slowly, he eased Irena to her feet. “Get her out of here. She doesn’t need to see this.”
“Daddy! A m-monster with red eyes and pointy teeth was under the bed and Wynne said. . . Wynne said that she’d protect us with her dagger. But I told her it wasn’t a dagger it was a hairbrush and she got mad at me.”
Kamal picked up his daughter and held her head against his shoulder. Nigel sheathed his sword and pulled the woven blanket from the bed.
“So, she jumped at it. ‘Cause she’s not scared. She’s a Larkspur and they fight to protect us. And the monster bit her. But she didn’t cry. Not Wynne. She’s a Larkspur and Larkspur’s don’t cry.”
Nigel wrapped the body on the floor in the red stained coverlet. Gently, he picked it up and hugged it to him.
“I think it hurt her. She fell down and didn’t get up. I didn’t see her move.”
“Where’s the monster now Irena?” Kamal whispered in her ear.
“The knight stabbed it and then I made it disappear.”
Nigel moved reverently through the door and out of the vision’s scope.
“Monsters don’t just disappear.” Kamal turned his head to follow Nigel. “Captain, I want this palace searched.”
“I made it. I pointed my finger like Mommy and it became smoke.”
“There is a magical aura in here,” a silky feminine voice said from the fringes of the vision. She stepped into the vision and it almost burst from the energy that crackled around her. Maron had flaming red hair and was dressed in a tight fitting black robe. She had the grace of a cobra and the red highlights on her lips looked like blood.
“She can cast a spell on me anytime.” Evan whistled.
"Have you no shame?" Kess snarled at him.
“Maron, thank the Gods. Can you detect the evil behind this?” Kamal asked.
“No, but the princess did dispel it. I can smell the banishment. Crude yet effective. She probably destroyed it to atoms if the trace can be interpreted correctly.” Maron reached her hand towards Irena’s head, as if to stroke her hair.
Maron’s coated red nails looked like talons, but her hand flinched back as it connected a blue spark inches from Irena. Maron looked sourly at the girl and shook off the stinging electricity that stung her fingers. “Rhee’s protection wards were around Irena and the bed only. As soon as Wynne left the safety of the field, well, she was torn to shreds.”
“Bitch,” Guy snapped.
Irena started to whimper and cry again. “I want my Mommy.” Irena sobbed into her father’s nightshirt. “I want my Mommy.”
The vision fizzled until only the four words carried on the afternoon breeze. Even Evan was silent. Rhee expelled a loud, long breath and her body sagged against Kess. Kess murmured blessings in an ancient, but soothing tongue and gradually the chill was chased out of the forest glen where they were traveling.
When Rhee felt she had her strength back, she let Kess help her to her feet. “I’m sorry, but I can’t go to Leeds anymore.”
“Then it’s a good thing we’re going to Winterlore,” Evan said crawling down from his tree perch.
“Couldn’t pass up the chance at the treasury, huh?” Rhee smiled. “Or is it Maron’s charms that attract you?”
Evan shuddered dramatically.
“Dara commands me to help the innocent and banish evil where I find it,” Kess said. “So, you know I will also travel with you.”
“Thank you,” Rhee said. “Once we’ve finished in Winterlore, we can head out to Leeds, if you still wish. I don’t anticipate that we will be in Winterlore for more than a couple of days.”
“Why is that?” Guy asked.
“Because, I’m taking my daughter with us.”
Evans spluttered on the wineskin he was drinking. “We’re kidnapping the princess? The heir, herself?”
“She’s my daughter, too. I have every right to teach her our family magic.”
“Yes, but your husband, the King, you remember him . . .?”
“Former husband,” Guy said from atop his horse. He had pulled his helm over his face and was in the process of wrapping a black cloak over his armor. “He ritually divorced her.”
“He promised me Irena would be safe. He broke that promise.”
“Rhee, to be fair. It wasn’t his fault,” Kess said.
“I don’t care.”
“All right, say we decide to take the little one with us. What do you plan to do with her when we accept work? Will she be flinging spells alongside her Mommy? Do we have to cater to another fainting, willowy mage?” Evan asked.
Guy purposely let his sword hiss out of the scabbard menacingly. “I can get you before you reach the tree, monkey-boy.”
“Call off your guard dog, Rhee. I’m just trying to make a point,” Evan said, trying to reach for a dagger without looking like he was in a hurry to get it.
“Do you really think I have any control over him?” Rhee asked.
“Look, it’s bad enough we have to worry about getting you out alive when you push yourself. I can’t worry about a child.”
“That’s not fair! You have no idea of the control it takes or the amount of power we channel through our bodies. Picture trying to stay in your tree during a tornado.” Kess glared at Evan.
“No, Kess. Evan is right. I suppose I will have to bring her to Ferriskeep or Larkspur. But still, that should only delay us a fortnight or two,” Rhee said.
“You’re going to leave her there all alone? What’s to stop the King from just taking her back?” Kess asked. “And won’t she be lonely without either of her parents?”
Rhee bit her lip. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.”
“Well, you can think on the way. Let’s see how many miles we can travel today,” Guy said.
“Maybe you could join forces with the King long enough to destroy the common enemy and then Irena could stay there while you are with us?” Kess suggested.
“A mother’s place is at home with her child,” Evan said in an odd tone of voice.
Kess opened her mouth to snap at him, but sensed that he wasn’t making a joke and instead said kindly, “In a perfect world.”
Evan looked back guiltily and stammered, “Along with cooking and cleaning and taking care of her husband.”
“You have to go and ruin it, don’t you?” Kess gave him a smile that made him blush fiercely.
He glanced away, clearing his throat.
They made good time and reached a decent size city where they could each have a comfortable tavern room instead of sleeping on the ground. Rhee would have liked to have ridden until their mounts dropped from exhaustion, but she knew that would be cruel as well as impractical.
They had a decent meal and afterwards Rhee left them drinking wine while she went upstairs for a hot bath. The water felt divine as she scrubbed off the last month of road grime with a cranberry and orange scented soap. She lathered some through her hair and as she was rinsing it out, she heard footsteps in her room.
Readying a spell, she held her breath and listened. The footsteps came to the bathroom door and a soft knock relaxed her stiff spine. An assassin or burglar wouldn't knock.
"Rhee, can I come in?"
She should have known. "Of course, Guy."
"I know." Rhee sighed. "Wynne."
Guy's hands clenched into fists. "She shouldn't have had to protect Irena."
"Don't blame Nigel." Rhee sat up in the tub.
Guy quickly walked behind her. She hid a smile. She had no modesty, but nudity still made her hulking protector blush like a young boy. They had grown up together, like Wynne and Irena should have.
"I don't. I blame Kamal."
Washing the soap out of her hair, Rhee winced at how dry and snarly it was. She was surprised he said that. Usually, he kept his thoughts about her ex-husband to himself. "We can't know that it's not some attack against him."
"I don't care. If we were there, Wynne would still be alive."
Rhee couldn't argue with him. "Can you grab me that bottle of oil. My hair is a wreck."
She had expected him to hand it to her. Instead he knelt at her back and drizzled the oil through her hair and began to finger comb his fingers through her hair. Her breath caught in her throat. "You don't have to."
He hadn't done this for her since they were children. Since, they became aware that they were not unattracted to each other. "I need a distraction," he said in a dark voice that made her shiver.
Guy's touch was gentle and soothing. His fingers on her scalp was more erotic than Kamal's had been rubbing roughly on her pussy. And it was effecting her the same way. Her nipples puckered and Rhee could have blamed the cold and sank under water, but the tightened felt good.
This wasn't a dream. This wasn't her fantasy. It was real. Rhee trembled as his fingers pulled through the wet strands of her hair. The oil was scented with a heady flower that made her eyes half closed.
"I'm sorry about Wynn," she whispered.
Guy hadn't come here to fulfill her fantasies. He had come here for comfort. She needed to stop thinking between her thighs and start being a friend.
"I've asked myself why after all our years together, Kamal would pick then to accuse us of infidelity. If he suspected we were lovers, why would he marry you? If he suspected we were having an affair behind his back, why would he send me with you when you travelled?"
Betrayed: A Sexy Sword & Sorcery Short Story Page 2