“Who is this Emperor?”
“He is a good man, a man that has the courage, and always puts the welfare of others ahead of his self.”
“He sounds like he will make a good Emperor.” For some reason this made Taina and Mieko laugh. There are times when women are a complete mystery to me. “Why the challenge?”
“I could not surrender to someone without at least fighting one battle, it would have been wrong.”
“You made me worry about the possibility of killing my own brother, so you could feel better about surrendering?”
“The Imperial Guard must follow the old code; it is part of our nature.”
“What about the guards that tried to arrest me on the road, and yesterday in the market?”
“They were tests, to see if you really are my brother.”
I turned with anger in my eyes as the flames started in the deepest pits of them. “You threw away lives to test me. Those men had families and friends. Is their life so cheep to you, you would throw them away so poorly?”
He started laughing and gesture with his hand, as he gestured five armed men just appeared around us. I tensed and drew my pistols and pointed them both at his head. “Easy, my brother, they are illusions, I still have Dad’s ring. You killed none of my men.”
I looked around, as the armed men wavered and disappeared. “But they had real horses.”
“To add reality to the illusions, even their weapons and armor were real. I had to make them as real as possible, or you would have seen through them.”
“You have learned to play dangerous games Avery. Be careful, games can be lost as well.”
“Me, play games? You have been talking with me for a few minutes now, and you have not introduced me to any of your charming companions.”
I stopped and turned to look at him with an evil eye. “My manners do seem to have slipped. I must be getting senile in my dotage. This Is Taina and her daughter Laina, Mieko and her companion Tia, you know Likka, of course and this is my apprentice, Beth.”
“Apprentice? There is going to be more than one Warmage? I don’t think this world will survive two of you.”
“It will be a couple thousand years before she gets that title and I have promised to get her home to her world.”
“Then why take her as an apprentice, if you are going to send her back?”
“In case I fail, she will be able to protect herself.”
Beth looked over to me. “Rhys, can I ask a question?”
I stopped and turned to face her and took her hands in mine. “Beth, you are my apprentice and you have been in my bed, you do not need to ask permission to ask me a question. You, as the other ladies, are a traveling companion of mine. The very fact that you put up with me has earned you the right to speak to me as an equal. Ask as you see fit.”
She smiled a smile that lit her face. “This group talks about living thousands of years as if it is normal. Is everyone here Immortal?”
“No. Only those that have magic become immortal. Mages and Wizards become immortal from the first time they use their magic. Armsmasters and Kieso Masters Normally are not immortal. The ladies with me were made immortal by mages so they could be tortured forever once I was gone. My brother is immortal because I made him that way a long time ago, by accident, and now I refuse to remove it. You are Immortal because you have used magic. Barring accident or design you will not die until the end of time itself. You can be killed, but no disease will touch you and no age will grace your features.”
“You made Avery immortal by accident? How do you accidentally make someone immortal?”
“When I was a boy our father was killed by a Mage. In a burst of rage I cast my first spell. Part of that spell was that I would not allow our family to die anymore. You have to understand. Magic like we use is completely controlled by our mind. If you can imagine it, you can do it; as long as it would not take to much power to do it.
We are not bound by words of magic or focuses, but because of that all our magic focuses through our own body. If you are not strong enough to survive the forces you unleash you will succumb to them. That is why I am showing you things slowly, so that we will learn the limits of your abilities.”
“What are your limits?”
Avery broke in. “He has never found them.”
“Could I do the same thing you do with the coins?”
“Try it. Focus yourself and reach into your pocket, think about a gold coin like you have seen.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a deformed gold coin. “It’s not right.”
“You didn’t have it pictured clearly.” I reached into my pouch and pulled a gold coin out. “Look at it closely. The more you see, the better your mental picture of it will be.”
She tried again and pulled out a near perfect coin.
“Understand though, I do not use my magic every time I pull coins out like that. I enchanted my pouch so that it would just automatically make any coins I want to pull out.”
“How do you enchant something like that?”
“That is a lesson for another day.”
At this point we had made it back to the inn. I continued to talk to Avery. “You and your men will not be able to travel with me. If I show up at Wine Glenn with a few thousand Imperial Guardsmen the rest of the Life Ward will go underground. How fast can you move your men?”
“We can travel pretty fast when we need to.”
“Good. Can you quietly slip a few thousand extra men into the Imperial City?”
“That I can do.”
“Have them there in forty-five days and wait for me. We still have the Dragon Guard to worry about. When I brace the emperor I will go in alone, but the help keeping the city under control will be valuable.”
All the girls spoke simultaneously. “Good luck with that…”
We headed up to our rooms. I asked the girls to watch the hallway so Avery and I could speak without extra ears. Once we had settled in. “Avery, when I hit the emperor there is going to be bedlam in the cities. Every Mage in the empire is going to think they are going to be the next Emperor. I am going to need the Imperial Guard to keep this tight. I need you to protect the cities and towns from every petty would-be Emperor out there.”
“We are already moving the men into place. I think you should be taking a guard with you.”
“No! Emphatically no! Any guard presence will destroy my plans; I have to get the Life Ward together under one roof again, if only for a night. I am going to rescue Morgana and she will need them.”
“How do you plan on rescuing her, she is trapped in the heart of a tailored spell.”
“I need your memories. I need to hear everything you have ever heard the Arch Mage say about the spell that has her trapped. So start talking, little brother.”
We talked long into the night. About one in the morning he headed back to the barracks, to start the ball in motion for everything I needed the guard to do.
I went down into the bathing room, to clean up before going to bed for the night. As I lay back in the steaming tub, a shadow detached itself from the rest and sauntered towards me.
“Hello, my dancing tigress.”
“Is there room in that bath for me to join you, Rhys?”
“You might have to sit on part of me, but I think we can find a way to fit you comfortably.” She opened the top of her robe, and allowed it to flow down her body in a soft caress, as it pooled like a silken puddle on the floor.
With her back to me, she raised one sensuous leg over the edge, and stepped into the tub. As she raised her other leg, I just couldn’t resist the temptation. I slid my tongue from the top of her leg up through her divide to gently tickle her rosebud. She stiffened and let out a gentle purring moan. “Rhys, if you wanted to give me an old fashioned bath, you should have taken me to the bedroom already.” She giggled.
I smiled as she lowered herself into the tub to sit in my lap. I reached for the shampoo and began a caressing
wash of her body. From the very top of her head, to the very bottom of her feet; paying extra attention to every part of her body. The areas behind her ears and on her back at the base of her tail are especially sensitive, I made sure to caress and gently scratch them well.
By the time I was finished she was purring gently and laying against me in a half doze. “Rhys, I have something I need to tell you, it is important to me.”
“Speak as you will, my tigress, you know I ask all of you not to hide your feelings, wants, and needs from me.”
“Our time as the Arch Mage’s prisoners scarred me, emotionally.”
“I am so sorry for that, my Dancing Tigress; I am ashamed of myself for leaving. I tried to protect you and just threw you all to those butchers.”
“I want you to know something about me now before we continue. For all of my talk and bravado in front of the others, I have not been with another man in fifty-five hundred years. You were the last man that touched my willing body. The mages took us by force, but I never allowed my heart to betray me. When we were freed, I was so mad at you I wanted to kill you myself, but Morgana explained to us so much about you, and why you left. She made us understand that, by your, and our sacrifice, the tens of thousands on the field of battle that day, for our side, would be allowed to go home and have families, and live to hope for a better day. She also told us that we were part of it, that we were supposed to be able to walk away as well. But the emperor betrayed you.”
“Yes he did, and I will exact a high price for the pain you suffered at his hands. There will be a reckoning.”
“After I learned to forgive you, my love for you flooded back into me, but I could not trust other men. Rhys, I want you, no I need you to chain me.”
There were tears rolling down my cheeks behind her back. “Mieko, my first friend in battle and my love for years, I cannot chain you. I will not take a slave and you know that, I will always be here for you at need, and for want, but I will never be your lord and master. Besides you still have a vow to fulfill.”
“A vow! The only vow I have taken is the Life Ward vow… Rhys, you are serious, you plan on trying to rescue her. No one has ever broken a tailored spell before. Rhys, she is lost to us.”
“Mieko, have you ever seen me when my mind is set?”
“Many times.”
“Have you ever seen me do the impossible before?”
“Again many times but… Oh Gods, Rhys, you have a plan, you know something the rest of us don’t. So if that is the case, if I can get Morgana to release me from my vow, will you chain me?”
“Mieko, you know I can’t do that to a person, Slavery is wrong.”
“Not if the slave is willing.”
I shook my head. “You really feel you need this don’t you?” She nodded. “Then for the sake of the love I hold for you, if, and only if, Morgana releases you from your vow. After the Emperor is dead, I will bind you to me with chains. Understand though they are chains with freedom, to stop being my slave. All you have to do is break your chain and it ends with no hard feelings.”
“You might want to make my chains out of Elder Steel then. I wouldn’t want to risk breaking them accidentally.”
I chuckled at her. “My dancing tigress, do you have any idea how much I love you?”
“Not enough to marry me.”
“If I were free then I would marry you in a heartbeat. I however am bound to one I love, just as much as I love you.” I don’t know why I admitted to her that I loved her. For some reason it did not feel like I was betraying Morgana. These women had been through hell for me, and I finally decided that they needed to know how I felt. When the time was right I would tell them all.
“I know, Rhys, but a girl can still dream.”
She began to wash me from head to foot, kissing and caressing until she was sure she had me clean. “Rhys?”
“Yes Mieko.”
“Take me to your bed and make me feel whole again.”
I kissed her and we began to climb out of the bath.
Chapter Five
Taking her hand, I led Mieko to my room. She was smiling at me the whole time. As she started to crawl into the bed, I touched her lower back and gave a quick flex of my magic, removing the spell I had placed there more than six thousand years ago. Her full sensitivity there would now return. Yes, I am an evil man. As I pulled my hand away, I scratched the area with a nice broad slow stroke. Mieko yowled out her orgasm and fell twitching to the bed.
As she lay there panting, she moaned; “That was pure meanness. I have not had one of those orgasms since you left.”
“Then it was overdue, wasn’t it?”
She just nodded her head as I lay down next to her. “How do you know exactly how to hit that spot? My own race cannot even do that to each other.”
“It has to do with the shape of human fingernails, I think. Yours are pointed, and sharp, too. They touch very small areas and can even break the skin easily. Ours are wide and cover more area so we can get the pressure just right.”
“You make it sound so technical.”
I started reaching out to scratch her there again and she rolled away from me. “Don’t you dare! If you do that again, I will be too sensitive to let you touch me.” I gave her an evil little chuckle. “Play nice, Rhys.”
I looked innocent as I leaned in to kiss her. She came to me willingly and our lips met. Her slightly rough tongue caressed my lips and I parted them to let it invade. Her tongue is not nearly as rough as a cat from the other Earth, but it definitely heightens the sensation of contact. We kissed for what seemed like an eternity, as I caressed and touched her. Since she was guarding the sweet spot so well, when I reached up behind her head I scratched at the back of her ears. As soon as I did, she relaxed into me as if she had melted. She began purring into my mouth, as we continued to kiss and caress each other.
She pushed me back and began to kiss down my chest, as I stroked her shoulders and back gently with my hand. When she nipped at my nipples, it caused sparks of pleasure to shoot through my body. She slowly worked her way down to kiss across my abdomen and pelvic region. When her nose first nuzzled into my pubic hair, I thought I was going to begin purring.
She pulled back slightly and rearranged herself on the bed. Then I felt her tongue slide up the underside of my manhood, and it sent thrills through me as my body responded to her affections. She began to run her tongue around the rim of my staff, flicking the underside of the head each time she came around.
She proceeded to lick and suck each part of my rod until she had wet the entire thing with her saliva. She moved to the tip of my manhood and put her smiling lips on it. Then without opening her mouth wide, she slowly pushed her head downward; making her lips slide open and caress my manhood as it entered her mouth. As the head of my staff entered her, she began to work her tongue on it like a thing possessed. She continued to work her tongue and apply suction, as she slowly slid downward until her nose was once again in my pubic hair.
She pushed down hard, and I felt her lips meet the skin at the base of my staff, as she got me all the way in. She rested there for a moment. Then I felt her tongue snake out under my rod and lick at my balls. In just one entry, she had me close to my exploding point. She began to pull upward and I could feel her sharp intake of breath, as my staff cleared her throat. Once she had air again, she pushed back down with more speed than the first time. Within a few seconds, she was bobbing up and down on my manhood like she was possessed. Her tongue never stopped moving the whole time, as she brought me closer and closer to my climax.
I felt her hand travel up to meet her tongue underneath me, and a few moments later felt her push her finger into my rear entrance. Just a few more seconds of these sensations took me to the edge of the abyss, and I fell. My semen squirted like a geyser down her throat, and she swallowed every drop she could. The flow was too much for her, and some managed to leak from the corners of her mouth. As my flow diminished, she licked and sucked all of t
he spillage up, and cleaned my sword off as well as if I had just had a shower.
She rolled over and began to climb up my body, slowly kissing each new place she found along the way. We joined in a slow sensuous kiss that we held for what seemed like hours. When our lips finally parted all I could say was, “Wow!”
She giggled and looked into my eyes. “I needed that, Rhys -- thank you.”
“But this night is just starting. Now it is time to give you some of what you just gave me.” I began to kiss down her neck and throat, until she made small purring sounds of contentment. I kissed her collarbone and shoulders, then started to work my way downward. I kissed and licked her breasts, and her purrs turned into moans as she enjoyed the attention. After lavishing my attention on her breasts for a long time, I moved downward, licking and kissing, stopping only long enough to tickle her belly button with my tongue.
I continued to kiss until I reached that mound of flesh just above her sweet treasure. Then I stopped and moved down the bed as she looked at me with curiosity. I began at the bottom of her feet, and started kissing and licking. As I worked my way up, I sucked on each of her toes one at a time, until she was giggling and purring at the same time. I licked my way around her ankles and up each leg, until I was just about at the place so desperately wanting my attention.
As she reached for my head to guide me into her flower, I pulled back and her face got a look of shock. I reached out and gently rolled her onto her stomach, then moved upward and started at her head again. I kissed the back of her ears and neck, then down her back. Her purrs started getting louder, and mixed with moans of pure pleasure. I kissed her shoulder blades and licked the valley between them for several minutes, before traveling downward some more. By the time I reached the base of her tail, her purrs had become almost a growl, and her moans were approaching screams. I skipped that sensitive spot at the base of her tail, which made her moan in disappointment, and then kissed down both cheeks of her sweet round bottom. I skipped downward and started again at the bottom of her feet, kissing and licking. As I worked my way up the back of her legs, her tail began to caress my back and shoulders. By the time I reached her buttocks again, she was using her hands to spread her own cheeks. I smiled to myself as I started to lift up again, and she moaned out. “Oh, Gods! Please stop teasing me! You are driving me wild!”
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