Uleni's Gamble

by D. R. Rosier

  Riese said venomously, “See you soon Flame, it will be a pleasure to split you, after I have destroyed your life. Then I will destroy the hold your goddess has on this world,” he looked at his women lasciviously, “Maybe I’ll let a few of your mates live, you know, for my entertainment.”

  Before he could do something stupid at that pronouncement, Riese spoke in a loud voice once more.

  “Men of Ares! Follow me, now is not the time to fight, we must gather our army first.”

  He watched helplessly as Riese ran away, very quickly, with about four hundred men following behind.

  When he heard Nora fiercely say, “FUCK!” all he could think was, fuck indeed.

  He asked, “Colonel, where do you suppose he is going to collect his army?”

  Ross said, “My guess will be he’ll bypass Abelaweth and go straight to Egeria. They are still a mess down there and fighting over the throne. My guess is the soldiers are looking for a strong leader, he will find a lot of converts there. Can’t you just destroy that altar?”

  He shook his head, “Not until we kill Riese, and probably most of his soldiers. I am assuming the ones left here will be loyal to the goddess?”

  Ross nodded. “Most soldiers fight to end the fighting, the ones he took were probably the worst of men who fought for the thrill of killing, and the other opportunities war brings. Such as rape and stealing.”

  He sighed, what the hell was he supposed to do? How could he fight a war without magic? That’s when he started laughing. Of course, he was uniquely qualified for that wasn’t he? Not as the Flame of Cytherea, but as a man from earth. These guys had no idea how to fight without magic, he knew very well how to do that.

  Everyone looked at him strangely for laughing, so he said, “We need a truce, then I want you and some mages to come back with me, specifically air, fire and earth. Possibly telekinesis, but they will have it easy. I’ll show your people and mine what we need to do to overcome the enemy’s edge. I know I am asking a lot, but if I don’t get a truce with an agreement to negotiate a peace treaty in good faith, I will not train your people. Do you even have a leader right now?”

  He frowned, if he went this way he wouldn’t be able to use his power more than on himself, or one person at a time. Not that it mattered, not for this war anyway…

  Ross shook his head, “It will go to one of the mage families. Talmon was still young and had no heirs as of yet. It will take a couple of days.”

  He nodded, that was better than he’d been expecting. “Well, we will start back, if your new king agrees to my terms send two delegations, one being your team to learn to come back and teach, the other to work on peace terms. I’d also advise you to wall off the vault and guard it until I can get back to destroy it.”

  The colonel just nodded, “I can’t say I like you, but you are our only chance. Inviting another god here can lead to nothing good, at least the goddess leaves us to our own decisions.”

  *

  Sara had been terrified at the fight. Riese had been a complete blank to her, and seemed to be immune to all they could do. It was disturbing, she had never felt so helpless. Her heart was in her throat when Justin was taken down, she didn’t really understand why Riese had let him live, but she was grateful for that.

  Justin’s confusion hadn’t helped her either, he clearly hadn’t had a clue what to do. But his familiar determination had come back, and confidence, shortly after Riese left. That had made her feel much better. She looked over at him, wanting him, even though she was scared of it. She was also sure if anything happened between them it would have to be her initiating it, he wouldn’t ever ask.

  She almost lost him today, and hadn’t even really shared how she felt, though she thought he probably knew, they all did she believed, that she loved him. She just had to have him, and give herself to him, but it terrified her. As they ran she did something she hadn’t done in years. It was never very conscious, but she had always been angry the goddess could let those things happen to her.

  To be fair, the goddess had given her a power that she could have used to kill her attackers and escape long before she did. It was her fear of the unknown and shame that had kept her there. But the feelings she had weren’t about logic and took some time to overcome.

  For the first time in a long time, she prayed to the goddess for strength…

  *

  Kat was extremely shaken. All of her instincts back there had wanted to transform to a tiger, pounce on the enemy and teary him to pieces. But she knew of course, if she had gotten within ten feet of the man she would have reverted to human. What good would she be in this fight? Her talent was all about close up fighting, how could she do that if she couldn’t retain her tiger form?

  Justin obviously had ideas on how to fight a war like this, but she didn’t think he would have a solution for her, how could he? So what could she do? She was good at fighting human as well, but it wouldn’t nearly be the same. Perhaps she could outfight some of the soldiers with a sword, but she wouldn’t be capable of tearing into them like before.

  She would be there for him no matter what, but she had never felt quite so helpless before and it bothered her a great deal…

  *

  Nora wasn’t doing too well. Her magic had never failed her so badly before, and she watched helplessly as Justin fought Riese. If it could be called that. She wanted to charge when he waved her off, and only the fact Riese hadn’t moved in for the kill had made her listen. She clung to the confidence that Justin now radiated, he clearly had some ideas on how to counter the threat.

  It was the only thing keeping her sane right now. She had never doubted her ability to protect Justin before as long as she was vigilant, but now… how could she?

  She wouldn’t be happy if Justin’s ideas didn’t include that.

  *

  Nicole sighed in relief as they reached the border. They were heading back to the palace and the rooms they had there, given to Justin to use for life when he first went to the palace. There would be time in the morning to make preparations and whatever Justin wanted to do.

  It would be good to sleep, they had been up for a couple of days and travelling hard, literally staying awake off of Justin’s power of restoration. None of them were sure how long it would take Riese to gather his army, so they had hurried back. It was close to sundown, so they all decided it could wait until morning. They may have felt alert, but their bodies still needed sleep to remain healthy.

  She was kind of excited too, she hoped when her father had accepted her back in the family that meant he would treat her like an adult. She would find out soon…

  *

  Sally didn’t doubt for a second Justin would get them through this. The afternoon had gone badly, but they were woefully unprepared for the power that was given to Riese. She was confident whatever Justin’s ideas were, it would help.

  After dinner she was a bit tired, but it was her turn tonight, and she hadn’t really gotten a chance to just spend time with Justin at all, so she figured at the very least they could spend some time together. She grabbed his hand and led him to the smaller second bedroom in their visitor suite.

  Planning for war could wait until morning.

  Just talking for a while was her plan, but that quickly changed as Justin pulled her in and kissed her until she was breathless. She loved the feel of his strong arms around her, holding her as she just fell into him, melding her body against his. She felt safe and loved.

  She smiled and looked up into his eyes when the kiss broke, “I’ve missed talking to you the last day or two.”

  He smiled and said with a sigh, “Me too, I’ll be happy when we can take another shot at settling down,” he grinned, “I missed more than that too.”

  She moaned and ran her fingers through his hair as he started to tease her neck and earlobes with his lips while undressing her.

  She whispered, “What else did you miss?”

  He picked her up and carried her to the bed
, stripping before he joined her in it.

  He kissed her softly, “Lots of things…”

  She grinned, “Like what?” she laughed teasingly.

  He kissed her lips and said, “Your soft silky lips for one, and the sounds of pleasure I can draw from them,” he winked and said, “Let me just show you the other parts with my lips.”

  She gasped in pleasure as he took a nipple into his hot mouth, sucking hard with his lips while he kneaded the bottom of her breasts with his fingertips. Then she felt the cold air hit her now hard wet nipple as his lips locked around her second.

  She smiled as shots of pleasure reached her core and said sultrily, “Anything else?”

  He started to kiss his way down her stomach, her whole body tingling in pleasure and anticipation. She wanted it so bad, just a little lower as he kissed right above her moist lips, but he passed by her core to her disappointment and started to kiss and lick her inner thigh, and all around her center without touching it, dragging out her need, teasing her.

  He licked down her lips once softly, then bit her inner thigh, drawing gasp from her lips. She felt his hands slide under her body and start massaging and separating her ass cheeks as he took a second lick. Her heart was racing, she tweaked her own nipples and twisted them a bit.

  “Please, lick my pussy,” she begged as she arched her back and pushed up.

  “Goddess yes, just like that!” she screamed out when she felt him separate her lips with fingertips and started flicking her clit, and digging deep inside of her with his tongue.

  She felt him moving, his stomach grazing her hardened nipples, his long fleshy pole hung above her head as he straddled her. She licked her lips unconsciously as she saw the precum on his tip. She felt him gasp into her as she wrapped her lips around his tip and swirled her tongue around the head. She couldn’t help but arch her back and grind up against his face at the taste of him.

  She grabbed his base and pulled him down, sucking him in hard until his tip touched her throat. They had never done this position with him on top, and she was a little worried about controlling the pace at first, but he followed the subtle pressure of her hand as he started to slide in and out of her mouth. She moaned and sucked, enjoying the feel of his pleasure running along her tongue.

  Her body coiling in pleasure, exploded without warning, her cries of ecstasy blocked by Justin’s pleasure as he continued to use her mouth. She loved it, trying to adjust her head and relax her throat she started to take him in farther, her own body coming down from bliss, but rising as well, as his tongue continued to pleasure her sex.

  She had to swallow every few seconds as his precum and her saliva mixed at the back of her throat, she tried to time it so her throat tightened and massaged his head as he entered her. She felt satisfaction as she felt him expand in her mouth, stretching her full lips out, as he started to pump his seed she swallowed with each spurt against the back of her throat.

  She ground her sex up against his face as his taste and his tongue threw her over the edge again. She was breathing hard and fast as he moved off of her, and lay beside her. They kissed, and she made a noise of approval at tasting herself on him.

  She said with a wide smile, “Is that all you missed?”

  He smiled back and said, “No, but I can kiss that sweet ass of yours in a few minutes. When I recover.”

  She snorted and shook her head.

  He said in a serious tone, “There is one thing I want but don’t have yet…”

  She said, “What’s that?”

  He took her hand and kissed her softly, “You as my mate. I love you Sally, and want us to stay together for life. Will you be my mate and bear my children?”

  She should have seen it coming, but not so much at all.

  She kissed him back hard and passionately, finally ending the kiss to say fervently, “Yes, I’d love to be your mate.”

  She felt her magic reach out to his, and bond together. Her body tingled and she smiled brightly.

  “Let’s get started on that child thing shall we?” she asked with an arched brow.

  He shook his head, “Have to do something else first.”

  She asked, “What?”

  He winked at her and started crawling back down her body, “I’m not sure you believed me, how much I missed your perfectly round, supple, and sexy ass. I’m afraid that means I have to worship it for a while.”

  She snickered when he turned her on her stomach, she gasped though, when she felt his lips kiss between her ass cheeks. He had never done that before, and she had assumed he was joking. Then he licked her down her crack while kneading her ass cheeks and pulling them apart.

  She thought that felt weird, but good. When his tongue started to play with her puckered star, and she felt two fingers enter her warm and ready core, she gasped in pleasure at the combined feelings, and stopped thinking altogether as her mate pleasured her…

  Chapter 9

  Justin thought about the risks of what he was about to introduce, but thought it would probably be put away and forgotten after the war. Guns and bullets would never go away on earth, but that was because everyone could both make and use them.

  Here, he planned to use a magical equivalent that few people could duplicate except mages. And really, why would mages put such weapons in the hands of others without an urgent reason to? It would after all, even the playing field. Mages liked having more power than everyone else for the most part. Plus, with his powers he could easily neutralize such weapons.

  He also had several other ideas, so he got to work. Or rather, he put his ladies to work. Their first stop was the smithy where he grabbed all the scrap metal, then took it to the side. He made a quick drawing of a rifle, obviously without internal moving parts, he wouldn’t need them, but with sites and a stock to help aim.

  “Sally, can you make what is on this diagram please? This long tube is hollow, and it leads to a chamber in the back here.”

  It took a few corrections that he pointed out and Sally fixed on the fly. Then he had her make bullets that would fit the barrel, just a few for testing. Lastly, he asked Nora if she could set a small jet of air on the back of the bullet, to be activated on command, until then it should store the magical energy.

  It took a few false starts, but they eventually got it working so just the bullet in the chamber would fire if the trigger was depressed. They got an earth and air talent from the army, showed them what it was and had them get started. He wanted a lot of them, to arm as many soldiers as they could with the equivalent of modern rifles.

  He had them get jars of oil, and showed how deadly they could be if flung by a telekinetic, burst by an air talent and lit by a fire talent. The key of course, was to get all that done before the the jar was closer than ten feet to the target.

  He also filled jars with sharp metal shavings for a very crude mine. The explosive power would come from a very dense small pocket of air at the bottom of the jar. When the enemy soldier ran toward it, the magic holding the air together would fail, and push out. No conventional explosives needed.

  He worked with the earth talents on creating similar traps, open holes with stakes at the bottom, the very top of the earth held together with magical support. The key being the loss of the magic causes the cave in, not the presence of it. He encouraged them all to think of other ways the removal of magic could trigger a trap.

  He worked with the telekinetic talents, only telling them to gather things that could be used as weapons, then launch them at speed, even without the magic for the last ten feet, that shouldn’t matter. He had Nora cut some trees then Sally put together a catapult that could fling many large rocks. As for defense, he told the Earth talents they needed to raise the walls to forty feet high, and fifteen wide.

  The enemy would not have magic to knock down walls after all, and forty feet would be far outside their anti-magic aura.

  Not that they would be fighting at the capitol. If they tried that he was sure the bastard would burn
down every southern town and rape every woman there before moving north. He wouldn’t let that happen. But just in case they failed, he wanted to leave behind a viable defense.

  He just hoped they had time to make enough rifles, bullets, fire bombs and mines. They had to start moving south soon, there was no telling when Riese would be ready. Still, it should take Riese time to recruit the soldiers at each town, and kill those who didn’t convert, as he made his way across Egeria. But he had decided three days was all they would dare. They could always make more on the fly at night in camp, after all, it was all done with magic, no machinery or even a blacksmith required.

  He encouraged the mage talents to use lightning storms, from up in the air if they could shift to a bird form. The enemy wouldn’t be able to reach the mage, or the storm, to stop the attack. He had a few other theories, but they had enough to do already, and a few more tricks wouldn’t really help, just split their focus too much.

  Last thing of the day, he called all the military leaders of the rank lieutenant or above, up to Anton, to explain the necessary tactics for the weapons and to inform them they only had two more days before they marched south for the Egerian border. The ones being left behind as the last defense could train the Uleni contingent on the tactics when or if they got there. He was a bit flustered by how everyone listened to him without question, but he needed to get over it and make this all happen.

  He ended with, “The Earth talents may have the most important job. Obviously, the enemy cancels magic at closer than ten feet, that means our new rifle weapons, or more accurately, the bullets will be rendered useless if they get within range of us. It is imperative that we avoid that for as long as possible. The good news is there will be no earth talents or mages blocking you from doing anything.

  “So be creative on slowing the enemy down, trenches, stakes, walls even. Just make sure you make it happen before they are ten feet away. If they get close to overrunning those obstacles we will have to retreat. Worst case if they fall upon us switch to swords. It should be mostly even that way skill wise, outside of their leader Riese anyway. The idea of the weapons is to even the numbers or make them in our favor, he will probably have more people than us. Of course, if we can kill them all from a distance that would be great, but that’s probably not realistic.