Romancing the Stone

by Romancing The Stone [lit]

  ROMANCING THE STONE

  By

  Nicole Ash

  © copyright September 2005, Nicole Ash

  Cover art by Eliza Black, © copyright September 2005

  ISBN 1-58608-641-3

  New Concepts Publishing

  Lake Park, GA 31636

  www.newconceptspublishing.com

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

  Dedication:

  For my sister, who is always sure I can do what even I don't think is possible.

  Chapter One

  Aunt Dionne’s apartment was messy. “A sure sign she didn’t get the chance to clean up. She’d have never wanted the police to see it like this,” Lexi muttered uneasily as she looked around.

  Her coffee cup sat on the coffee table, hardly missing a sip. A book lay on the floor beside the table with its pages splayed and bent, dropped at some point and never touched again. “Something else Aunt Dionne would never have done.”

  Books mattered too much to both of them for either to purposefully damage one that way. It had taken great effort on Lexi’s part not to pick up the book when she had first discovered that her Aunt Dionne was missing. She had come for a visit, as she did almost every day, and found the door unlocked. This of course would not have been suspicious if Dionne were actually home, but she was far too paranoid about being robbed of what little she had to consider leaving her place unlocked if she’d just decided to go out.

  Lexi had immediately called the library. The manager had confirmed that Dionne had not come in to work that day.

  She had never missed a day of work in her life. She loved her job and everything about it. The moment she had heard that, Lexi knew that something was terribly wrong.

  In a panic, she had called the police, insisting they come and start a search for Dionne. They had, in effect, called her crazy.

  “They aren’t going to look for her. She could be dead and they just don’t give a damn!” She wiped away tears that came unbidden to her eyes, with very little success, and sat back on Dionne’s small brown love-seat.

  Aunt Dionne had always referred to the apartment as cozy, but they both knew it was just plain small. When they’d first moved out together to this side of town, they had rented the apartment together. It had been much roomier at the time, but that was before they’d proceeded to fill it with the books they both loved so much. It had been hard at times living under each other, but they’d lived like that most of their lives, first at her father’s house, then here. They had a lot in common, and that made things a little easier for them. They were almost the same age, since Earl, Lexi’s father, had started early and her grandfather had never willingly stopped. They were practically sisters.

  Lexi surveyed the living room, fighting back the tears. The walls were lined with the black metal bookshelves she had helped Dionne put together, each shelf filled to capacity with books. Since she’d left, Dionne had started stacking books in front of the shelves and all around the seldom used T.V. leaving nothing but a tight winding trail between her furniture and the shelves. Pictures hung high on the walls, pictures of their long dead family, but most were obscured by the books. Other than the dark brown couch she sat upon, the T.V., and Aunt Dionne’s recliner, there was no furniture.

  “Why did I ever leave?” Lexi’s shoulders shook and she sobbed uncontrollably. “Why, oh why, oh why…? She needed me here. She was lonely without me. I was lonely! Oh god, it’s my fault she’s gone!”

  Lexi had decided to move out on her own just over a month ago and had regretted it every single day since. She’d thought it would be great to be able to stretch her legs without bumping into Dionne, to live where she wouldn’t have to scoot past her in the kitchen. “I thought we’d both be better off. What on earth made me think that?” They had both ended up miserable without each other to talk to, and because of the one year lease she had signed, she couldn’t even afford to move back.

  “Dionne wouldn’t have left this place willingly. I know she wouldn’t.”

  The police weren’t so sure, but they didn’t know Dionne like she did. The officer who had come to take her report told her himself, after looking scornfully around himself at the mounds of books, that since there was no sign of a struggle and Dionne’s purse was missing, that she’d probably decided to get away from it all. ‘It isn’t illegal to leave without telling anyone,’ he’d said. ‘Give us a call if you don’t hear from her in a week or two.’

  Lexi had visions of poor Aunt Dionne lying dead in a ditch somewhere, which brought on another round of sobs. “Aunt Dionne wouldn’t have left without telling me! She wouldn’t do that to me! I’m the only family she has.” She stumbled into the kitchen and washed her face, forcing herself to calm down. “You’re not doing her a bit of good crying and carrying on like this. What would she do if you were missing?” She wouldn’t be able to get help from the police, that’s for sure. “She’d try to retrace your steps, find out where you were last.”

  Wait, doesn’t that only work when you’re trying to find your keys? “It has to work for people too.”

  She looked around at the kitchen spotting the carton of milk she’d noticed earlier on the floor beside the refrigerator. “If this is on the outside….” Picking the still cool carton up, she opened the frige. “Ah ha!” There, between an open can of Coke and some leftover Chinese was Aunt Dionne’s missing purse. “I knew she didn’t mean to leave!”

  Suddenly, the small triumph of finding her purse seemed like a bad thing. At least if she’d left on her own…. She sniffled, swung the purse onto her shoulder with her own, dropped the spoilt milk into the sink, and stalked back into the living room, hands on her hips.

  “Only one thing in the world can distract someone that completely.”

  She sat on the couch and looked down at the book on the floor, agonizing for several moments over whether or not she should touch it. “I guess it doesn’t really matter what I touch or move now.” She lifted it carefully, smoothing out its pages. “I bet she was reading this when she was abducted.” She turned the book over in her hands several times. “Where on earth would she find a book like this?” She peeked inside, but didn’t see a library card.

  The book was really more a leather bound tome than anything else, with an intricate lock. Why would anyone want to lock a book? Unless it’s something no one’s supposed to read…. She ran her fingers over the worked leather, marveling at its age and craftsmanship. “Water, fire, earth, air.” The designs were interwoven, but still plain to see. “The four elements. Looks like heavy reading.” She’d always been partial to romance herself, and for the most part Dionne was as well, but she sometimes went off on a tangent, reading strange books few people could understand. It was actually just like her to read a book no one was supposed to read. Curiosity piqued, Lexi opened it to its first page. “Greek? What was Aunt Dionne doing reading Greek?” Aunt Dionne had tried to encourage her own love of languages in Lexi, but she’d only been marginally successful. Lexi simply didn’t have the head for it, only actually understanding one in twenty words in French or Spanish, less where Greek was concerned, even if she could read and speak it tolerably. What use is it to anyone to be able to read a word but not know it’s meaning? It was Dionne’s greatest disappointment.

  Lexi stared hard at the alien words, trying harder than ever before to understand, but still failing as utterly as before. “Maybe….” She read out-loud, hoping that hearing the words might jog some forgotten memory of their meaning. She paused, squeezing the bridge of her nose, trying to ward off the headache s
he felt forming behind her eyes. There has to be a clue here somewhere. Maybe it doesn’t matter what’s in the book. Maybe it only matters where she got the book. She looked down at the last two lines and decided to finish them before scouring the book stores in search of the one that had sold the tome to Aunt Dionne.

  As she spoke the last word, cold blue fire leapt from the pages of the book, spreading up her arms in moments, climbing higher. Screaming, Lexi slammed the book shut and frantically slapped at the flames with it, but that only seemed to fan them. Dropping the book and throwing herself on the floor, she bumped her head on the table, rolling, knocking piles of books atop herself. Though the books thankfully seemed immune to the flames, the rolling did nothing to extinguish them. Lexi screamed hysterically as her world was consumed by flame and her vision turned to darkness.

  Chapter Two

  The pain had at last subsided, but Lexi knew that she must be dead or dying. She had yet to open her eyes, not all together sure that she wanted to see the damage the fires had wrought, but she heard a number of voices muttering and curiosity was calling. Her mind was racing. That many people couldn't fit in the apartment. How did the T.V. get turned on? Is it even plugged in? She would have to get up eventually. Had the carpet melted? Acrylics did that in heat. Was she stuck to it? She had never noticed how hard the floor was before.

  Finally unable to resist the urge, Lexi slowly cracked open one eye. She sat up, blinking, before she could think better of it. Was it more surprising that she didn't have a burn on her body, that her clothes were whole instead of ash, or that she was outside, on a cobblestone road, surrounded by men in armor? Men with spears. Spears whose tips were uncomfortably close to her vital organs.

  All of the knights wore shiny silver metal armor, with long flowing dark blue capes, except for what she took to be the leader, whose cape was bright red. They were tall to the man and more than a little bit handsome, though that may have been due entirely to the armor. Or, they would have been if they hadn't look so mean and cold standing over her with their weapons drawn.

  "Rise, witch."

  "What?"

  "Rise, or we'll skewer you where you sit."

  The hard look on the faces of the men around her left little doubt in Lexi's mind that he was actually very serious.

  "How? You've got your spears so close, I'd skewer myself if I tried to stand!"

  With a growl, the leader ordered his men to assist her to her feet. When several moments went by with all of the men looking doubtfully at each other, but none of them moving, he cursed and shoved his way past them, pushing aside their spears, and pulled her up by the arm, almost wrenching it out of socket.

  "Hey! That hurt!"

  "Hold your tongue or I'll cut it out." He barked an order to someone behind her and the world suddenly went black again as a heavy cloth was tied around her face. Lexi hissed as some of her hair was caught in the knot and torn out. Her hands were grabbed and tied tightly behind her as well.

  "What are you doing!"

  "I said hold your tongue! You there, take her pouches.

  Cowed, at least for the moment, Lexi fell to her knees, her vision going red for a second from the pain, as someone gave her a shove from behind. "Hey!"

  The person swore, and hands immediately pulled her back up, hastily withdrawing. She was prodded forward a little more gently after that. Where the heck am I? Is this what happened to Dionne? She shuddered to think of what they may have done to her poor aunt, trying hard to formulate a plan of escape. Unfortunately, her thoughts were constantly interrupted and she needed every ounce of her concentration to keep her feet. She had never been able to balance in the dark and she knew she must look like a drunkard to everyone on the streets.

  There seemed to be a great number of people, if the cacophony of booing, cursing voices were any indication at all. Why are they doing this to me? I haven't done anything! If she didn't know it was utterly impossible, she would think this was a medieval town. It might actually have been kind of neat to look around, however puzzling it's existence was, if it weren't for the fact that everyone was hostile. Toward her. It must have been that book! How else could I have gotten here?

  How could a book have gotten me here? My God, Lexi, you've lost your ever-loving mind. Am I dead? Is this hell? No, wait, no fire and brimstone. Heaven was out as well. I've gone as mad as a hatter.

  Stubbing her toes painfully against something, Lexi almost fell again, but one of the knights acted quickly enough to stop her, hissing and drawing back as though he'd touched something horrible by mistake. As grateful as she felt that he had at least stopped her from hurting herself worse, Lexi couldn't help but resent the way these jerks were treating her.

  "Steps."

  "What?"

  "Steps. As in, we're going up, understand? Step up."

  "Oh," she muttered to herself. She stepped up and tried as hard as she could to keep her balance, but in the end, it was entirely due to the man behind her that she didn't fall backwards. I'm not grateful. If they'd remove the blindfold, I wouldn't have to worry about falling at all. What's the point in blindfolding me? It isn't like I could get away just by using my eyes!

  Lexi was very grateful when they at last reached the top of the steps and she no longer felt the sensation of falling backwards. I’ll have nightmares about it for months. Not that anyone warned her not to take that extra high step, which almost cost her her balance.

  It seemed to take forever for the forced march to finally end, but a hand suddenly grabbed the rope her arms were tied with, wrenching them painfully and stopping her in her tracks. She was forced, rather painfully, to kneel on the hard, cold floor.

  "Your Majesty, we caught this witch in the town square. It was reported by witnesses that she appeared in a ring of strange blue fire."

  "If I were really a witch, wouldn't it have been harder to catch me?"

  "Silence!" Someone, apparently the lead knight, put a foot to Lexi's butt, pushing her down so that her face smeared across the smooth, stone floor. It had the added effect of pulling the blindfold down far enough that she could finally see out of one eye. The stones where she lay were polished, almost glass-like, and while she could not identify exactly what type of stone it was, it had a pleasant purple hue. She could see the bases of two columns, made of cream stone, and could even see a number of very interesting boots. Unfortunately, that was all she could see without being too obvious about the fact that she could actually see at all.

  The king sure has been quiet a long time. Lexi was almost positive that was a bad thing, but she didn't feel up to trying to explain herself again. Given what had happened last time, she rather doubted they would listen no matter how reasonable her words were.

  "King Chal, if I may?" The voice, which almost gurgled, may have been a man, or a woman. She could not see the person's shoes, so she assumed the speaker was close to the king. An advisor, maybe?

  A pause.

  "I believe this girl is a celestial maiden--"

  Several men gasped, muttered to each other about the impossibility of it.

  "--sent to us in the kingdom of Romaneo in our time of need to awaken the stone warrior."

  "Truly? She doesn't look at all like I would have imagined, even if her dress is rather unusual."

  "Sire, she is the one. I am sure of it. She should be readied and taken immediately to the temple for sacrifice."

  "Sacrifice!" Lexi struggled as a weight was applied to her back.

  "Quiet!"

  "Fuck that! Let me go, you ass hole!"

  Something hard hit her on the side of the head, and her vision blurred and went black.

  ***

  It struck Lexi, just as she was starting to come around, that she had spent the better part of the day blacked out, for one reason or another. Is it still Monday? It had been late in the afternoon back home, but the sun here had been high when she first came to. The time difference was extremely disorienting. Prying her lids apart and fighting hun
ger nausea, she found that the blindfold had at last been removed. Somehow, she did not feel at all surprised to find that everything else had been removed with it. She was bound tightly, hand and foot, in the lap of a statue. Her arms were tied around it's neck, her legs bound so that they encircled it's waist, and she had been perched, rather precariously, on a block of wood. Her fingers and toes were tingling with the restriction of circulation and she knew it was important to get loose quickly or she wouldn't be able to walk, let alone run, when she needed to. Looking around, Lexi found that, except for herself, there was no one inside the dark, cavernous room.

  They're going to sacrifice me. The realization hit her suddenly and she started struggling with her constraints. She had just brushed her finger tips against the knot that bound her legs, when the block of wood slid from beneath her bottom. She was almost impaled by a long hard rod, but she managed to catch herself with her arms before it had done more than barely enter her sex. What the hell...? Flexing her leg muscles and leaning back, she saw at last what had penetrated her.

  A dick? The statue had a long, broad cock, and it was happy to see her. This has got to be some kind of joke. Lexi swung her gaze around the room, but no one had come in to start laughing. Her arm muscles were tiring fast and there was no way to push herself far enough away from the cock to sit in the statue's lap. The only way to relax her arms and thighs was to slide down the cock, something she had no desire to do.

  Since my life depends on it.

  It did depend on it. Someone might come in at any time and kill her. She had to get away. It just felt so much like...masturbating. She enjoyed herself as much as the next girl, but it took a lot to get over the very real fear of being caught in the act.

  Lexi squirmed, getting the head inside, but she was not at all in the mood, so there wasn't a dab of lubrication. Lifting and lowering herself several times, trying not to enjoy what was fast becoming rather stimulating and may have otherwise been a pleasant experience, she finally managed to lower herself to the hilt.