The Return

by Campbell, Sean M.

  “I don’t know. I came back because Morgana pulled me back.”

  A sharp intake of breath caused me to look at her. “She couldn’t have, Rhys. It’s not possible.”

  “Why not?”

  “The Mage Kings caught her almost five hundred years ago. They turned her into a statue. I am sorry, Rhys, but your wife is dead.”

  “My wife?”

  A look of surprise crossed her face. “How can you not know she is your wife? Everyone knows that!”

  As her hand went for her sword, Morgana suddenly appeared in the room. “Taina, Rhys, you don’t have time to doubt each other. You both must be in the central kingdoms before the next full moon, and you must be together. From here, you must go to the town of Feck, east of here. In Feck, find the one they call The Shadow. Taina, leave your disguises behind. You are Armsmaster Taina once again. If this all works, the Mage Kings will be no more inside the year.” With that said, Morgana turned to Rhys. “I miss you, my love. Weep not for me, but remember me.”

  As she disappeared, I looked at the space where she had been standing and whispered softly, “I can’t remember you.”

  Likka looked up from the floor and muttered,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I turned to face Taina. “I will need a general merchant, as we are going to need some traveling supplies. Do you have a horse?”

  “No, and there will be someone else traveling with us.”

  “Who?”

  “My daughter, Laina.”

  “Then I need a good merchant from whom we can purchase horses. Do you need weapons?”

  “Weapons I have.”

  “Pack everything you need. We can’t exactly come back after we leave. Be sure to pee before you leave the house. We leave in the morning. Be here for breakfast at the sixth hour.”

  After a day of going from merchant to merchant, buying supplies and horses, I found myself enjoying a large meal in the common room of the inn. Several of the girls were sitting at my table eating with me. I looked over to see one of the girls, Kimberly, I believe, bringing ale to a group of men at one of the tables. The man on the end pulled the girl down into his lap, causing her to spill ale all over him.

  He stood up, yanking her to her feet, and pulled his hand back for a backhand slap. That is where his hand stayed as he screamed. My reaction had been as natural as it was instinctive. A snap of my arm, and one of the flechettes in my sleeve dropped into my hand. A flick of my wrist, and the blade went through his hand and pinned it to the beam behind him.

  As I stood and strode across the room, he managed to yank his hand off the barbed flechette, and turned to face me. “Apologize to Kimberly for spilling your drink on her dress.”

  “To hell with you! This isn’t your town! As soon as you are gone, I will come back and…” One of his friends started to get up, until five of the flechettes outlined his hand on the table. He wisely decided a sip of his ale was much more important right then.

  “If I even think that you have come back here to hurt one of them, I will come back here and find you. Then I will cut small pieces off of you until you beg me to die.”

  “I am not afraid of you, warrior. You won’t hurt me because you won’t be here.”

  “You’re right -- I won’t be here. So I will just have to make sure the girls are secure before leaving. Kimberly, do you know of a troop of mercenaries with a good reputation in town?”

  “Yes, Rhys.”

  “Go find their leader, and tell him I have a job for them. Kinal!”

  Kinal came running to me, “Yes, sir.”

  “Are you the owner of this establishment?”

  “Nay, sir, Momma Kith is the owner. She is the lady who does all the cookin’.”

  “Please, ask her to come out and sit with me for a bit. I have a business deal for her.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Kimberly returned to find me sitting at the table with Momma Kith. “Rhys, this is Captain Mitch of the Mercenary Guild.”

  I extended my hand to Captain Mitch. “Good evening, sir. Please, sit and enjoy the food with us. They seem to think I eat enough for twenty people when I sit down.”

  He sat and quickly speared a slab of the roast and put it on his plate. “The girl said you had a job for mercenaries. You will pardon, sir, but I was on the wall when you fought the Lithan, if there is anything out there you can’t fight, I don’t know how much help my men will be.”

  “Well, Captain, I can’t fight them if I am not there. So, how much does the guild charge per man?”

  “Ten lead coins per man, per day.”

  Some quick math in my head and then reached into my pouch and pulled out four stacks of four gold coins. “Then, this much gold will buy the services of sixteen men for fifty years, roughly.”

  The mercenary captain’s eyes lit up as the gold hit the table. “Sir, for what purpose do you require men that will take that long?”

  “I need them for protection for this inn and the people who work here. I do not like seeing women mistreated, and the men here can get rough. If a patron hurts someone, they are to be bounced through the door. I am indifferent as to whether or not it is opened first.” I then stacked another sixteen gold coins onto the table.

  “What is that for, sir?”

  “If one of the mercenaries hurts one of these people, four gold coins is the price on his head, dead or alive.”

  “I think we have an understanding, sir. When do you want them to start?”

  “Tonight. Momma Kith, you are going to have guards here continuously, and they will need to eat while on duty.” I pulled out another set of sixteen coins and placed in front of her. “This will cover their food costs so they are no burden to you, but no hard drinks while they are on duty. Does everyone understand what I want here?”

  The mercenary nodded, but Momma Kith looked at me and said, “I am not looking for a partner.”

  “I will not be a partner. This place will remain yours alone. I am just trying to ensure that the girls here are protected. I am paying the mercenaries to guard and protect you and your family here.”

  “What do you get out of this?”

  “Friends.”

  As I stood up to head to my room, the mercenary looked at the pouch on my hip, saying, “That pouch is not big enough to hold all that gold!” My laughter echoed through the room as I walked up the stairs.

  I was getting my gear ready for leaving the town in the morning, when there was a timid knock at my door. I strode over and opened the door to find Miska standing there with her head down. “Please come in, Miska.”

  She stepped into the room as I closed the door behind her. “Sir, I know my daughter asked you to buy me for the night.” She held out her hand, with the two gold coins lying in her palm. To her, those coins were a large fortune.

  I reached out to cup her chin in the palm of my hand and lift her face. “Are you telling me that you do not wish to bed me tonight, Miska?”

  “No sir. But I am still a woman with some pride left, and I will not accept pity.”

  “There is no pity in my heart for you. You are an attractive woman and you are who I want in my bed this night.” I reached out
and closed the fingers of her hand over the coins. “Whether you stay with me, or go to your own room for the night, the coins are yours. If you leave, I will spend the night alone. If you stay, then I will enjoy your charms for as long as you will lend them to me.”

  She looked into my eyes. “Do you really think I am attractive, sir?”

  “My name is Rhys,” I whispered, as I pulled her to me and placed my lips on hers. At first she was tense, but as the kiss continued, I could feel her relax into my arms. I scooped her up into my arms, and carried her to the bed, while she giggled like a school girl.

  I tossed her onto the bed and then began to strip out of my clothing as fast as I could. By the time my gun belt was on the bed post, she was naked in the bed and waiting for me. I leaned in and kissed her again, a long deep kiss that she returned with a passion that nearly consumed me. When our kiss ended, I kissed my way down her neck and chest to her breasts. Taking her right nipple into my mouth, I began to nibble and suck on it.

  She moaned in pleasure as I moved back and forth on her breasts for a while. When I began to kiss downward she moaned louder and louder, the further down my kisses reached. When I moved my face between her legs, she was literally dripping onto the bed. I ran my tongue up the junction of her right leg and the skin of her mound, then down the left side. For about ten minutes, I licked all around her flower, but never touched it, until she was whimpering for more.

  When I thought she was in a near frenzy, I touched the tip of my tongue to her clit. Her legs slammed shut like a bear trap and she screamed. The spray that came from her soaked me from my hair to halfway down my chest. I wet the fingers on both of my hands in the puddle that was forming under her. I waited for her legs to relax, and then I dove deeper, sucking her clit into my mouth. I pushed two fingers into her womanhood, and one into her rosebud.

  Her legs slammed shut while she screamed out an animalistic noise, and again I was sprayed, but most of it made it into my mouth this time. She began to buck wildly into my face, and her fingers entwined in my hair. As she began to relax I hooked the finger in her flower upward, rubbing the spongy flesh inside her. I twisted the finger in her butt back and forth as I nipped her clit with my teeth. She sprayed me a third time as she tried to twist away from me, moaning. When she settled on her stomach she had fainted. I looked down at her as she lay there, and saw a tracery of ragged scars all across her back, bottom and legs. She was covered from her shoulders to her knees with horrid whip scars.

  About five minutes later, her eyes fluttered open and she rolled over to look at me. “What did you do to me? I have never had an orgasm that hard in my life, and never more than one in a single week. You made me cum three times, and you haven’t even entered me yet.”

  “I tried to give you pleasure, so that I would feel worthy of receiving my pleasure from you,” I said, as I leaned down to kiss her again.

  She giggled as she ran her fingers down my chest. “I do believe you will need a bath in the morning, Rhys.”

  “Only if you take one with me,” I said, as I began to move over her. She wrapped her legs around my waist as I positioned myself. Her eyes grew to the size of half dollars as my pulsing staff entered her. The moan that came from her sounded like the sound of a wild animal. Within seconds she began to moan louder and louder, until it was almost a scream. When her legs squeezed tight around me, I felt her spray me again as she screamed out her pleasure.

  Five times she screamed her pleasure for the world to hear, before I thrust into her and filled her womb with my seed. As she felt my hot seed boil into her womb, she screamed out one more time, and then collapsed back onto the bed again. She lay there panting as she tried to catch her breath. I pulled back from her, and she moaned in disappointment as I withdrew.

  Then her eyes lit up as my steel hard staff began pressing into her rosebud. She reached up and grabbed her legs and pulled them to her chest as she rocked her hips up. Her movement caused me to go balls deep in one stroke, as she moaned out in pain and pleasure at the same time. Using long slow thrusts in and out, I reached down with my hand and began to pinch and tease her clit.

  She screamed out as she quivered into another orgasm. I ignored the giggles of the girls outside the door as I continued to thrust in and out. For almost thirty minutes I stroked into her as she orgasmed over and over, thoroughly soaking me and the bed. As I began to thrust harder into her, she moaned out, “Oh gods, Rhys! Fill my ass with your hot seed.” I let go and spurt after spurt filled her, until it began to spray out around my manhood. A screaming orgasm ripped through her again, as she passed out on the bed below me.

  I rolled off of Miska and moved her onto her side in front of me, “The show is over, girls. Go to bed.” I spoke just loudly enough for the girls outside the door to hear. I heard them all scramble away from the door, and run down the hall in both directions.

  As I lay there behind her, I reached out with my hand and began to trace my fingers along her scars on her back. As my finger slid down the scars, they would disappear, until only a thin line, like a simple scratch remained. I knew these, too, would fade with time.

  “That tickles!” She giggled, as her eyes began to flutter open.

  “What happened to your back?”

  “A traveling noble was passing through and came to the inn. He purchased me for the night and lay with me. The next morning, he told Momma Kith I was a lousy lay in bed, and demanded his money back. Momma Kith had him thrown out of the inn. The next morning he showed up with a group of his own guards, and had them drag me into the streets.

  ”They tied me to one of the lamp posts, and his captain lashed me until I was nearly dead. One hundred lashes he gave me, and then they rode off, leaving me hanging from the post with my clothing, and most of my skin, flayed off. Momma Kith had me cut loose and paid what little money she had to have the healer keep me alive. All he would do for the money was to keep me from dying.”

  “What was this noble’s name, Miska?”

  “Edgar Winston. I will never forget his name or face. He was a duke from one of the northern towns. Bithmoore, I think.”

  “Sleep now, Miska; Dream sweet dreams of peace and love.”

  No sooner had I finished saying it, she was asleep. I looked up to see Likka staring at me.

 

 

  I awoke with the false dawn as Miska slipped from the bed, as she dressed she saw my eyes looking at her. “I will go get your bath ready,” she said.

  I climbed out of bed, and after some stretching exercises, grabbed my clothes for the day, gun belt and shaving kit. I walked to the outhouse to relieve myself, then headed for the bathing room. Miska was standing there naked, waiting for me as I slipped into the room.

  I laid my clothing on the dressing table and my gun belt on the stool next to the bath. I climbed into the bathtub, and when Miska stepped up with the scoop to wash my hair, I caught her hand and pulled her into the tub in front of me. I took the scoop from her hand and began to wet her hair. Taking the shampoo from the tray next to the bath, I began to wash her hair. She started moaning lightly, almost like a purr. I washed her slowly and with great tenderness, until she was squeaky clean from head to toe. She then turned to me and began to wash me.

  As she was washing my chest and kneeling over me in the tub, Missa came in through the door. She smiled at me as she saw me sitting there, and then came over to check the water for heat. When she saw her mothers back, she gasped. “Momma! Your back!”

  Miska looked at her. “What, honey? What’s wrong with my back?”

  “The scars are gone! All of them!”


  Miska looked at me with wide eyes, “You’re not named after the Warmage, are you?”

  I put my finger to my lips in a shushing motion, then handed her the washcloth as I leaned back. “Keep my secret for now. I have things to do before I go after the Mage Kings.”

  Miska and Missa both bowed their heads, “Yes, M’Lord.”

  I reached out and pulled Miska’s head up. “Have I ever treated you like a servant?”

  “No.”

  “Then please don’t treat me like one of those arrogant nobles.”

  “Yes M’Lord… I mean, Rhys.”

  “Now, I was rather enjoying our bath, and would ask you to continue.” She smiled at me and went back to washing my chest. Missa walked over and kissed my cheek.

  “Thank you, Rhys. Momma needed to feel like a woman again.”

  “I did not do anything to make her feel like a woman, Missa. I just wanted to share her company and saw something that needed to be fixed. It is who I am. I fix things.”

  After the ladies had gone down to the common room, I went back to my room to armor up and get ready. I noticed that the packs and saddle were gone from my room. Likka told me Peotter had taken them down to get Reaper ready.

  I slipped down the servants stairs of the inn and searched on the first floor until I found Miska’s room. I slipped in unnoticed, and pulled the covers back on her neatly made bed. I placed on her sheets twenty gold coins and then made the bed again and slipped out. With the coins was a note that read, “Keep the girls safe. All of them…”

  As we rode out of the town, Taina and her daughter talked lightly back and forth, Laina was a boisterous youth of about eighteen years old, who swore no man would ever tame her because she was going to be an Armsmaster like her mother. She looked so much like a younger version of her mother it was amazing. They could pass for sisters. Taina looked to be only about twenty three, herself.

  At one point, when Laina rode ahead a little bit, I turned to Taina. “Where is her father?”

  “He was a mercenary, and died in the wars when she was just a baby. She does not even remember him.”

  “She is a bit head strong. I’ll bet she has been a handful for you.”