Eternal Palace (Sexcraft Chronicles Book 4)

by Edmund Hughes

  He kissed Zoria, forcing himself to go slow, even as he felt her lips moving greedily against his. She took his hand and pulled it down between her legs. She was ready for him, hot, wet, and sensitive to the movements of his fingers.

  Slowly, Hal pulled his shirt off. He moved to lower Zoria underneath him, but she set a hand on his chest and pushed him so he was flat on his back.

  “I was here first,” she whispered. “That means it’s my turn to be the one who takes you.”

  Hal couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. “Is that so?”

  She was already pulling his trousers off. His cock pointed straight up into the air, and only a second passed by before Zoria had her hands on it.

  “If you want to take control, you’re welcome to try,” said Zoria. “But of course, that would mean missing out on certain fun things.”

  He saw her move her face closer in the darkness, and felt the wet tickle of her tongue against the underside of his shaft. Hal let out a pleasured groan. Zoria’s mouth closed over his cock, and the pleasure of it was enough to make him feel like he was melting into the pallet.

  She stopped almost as soon as she could tell that she was making him feel good. Hal lifted up onto his elbows, furrowing his brow.

  “Maybe I’ll just tease you, today,” said Zoria.

  “Two can play at that game,” said Hal.

  Zoria laughed, then planted a wet, exaggeratedly sloppy kiss on the tip of his tool. Hal reached down and seized one of her ankles. She let out a little cry of surprise as he roughly pulled her body into a new position, leaving her face by his cock, while bringing her legs and lower half toward his mouth.

  It was a challenging position for the two of them, given that Zoria was an elf and very short, by human standards. Hal had to sit up slightly, and since he was partially supporting Zoria’s weight, him leaning up forced her mouth and lips down. She made a slightly annoyed noise as his member tapped against the back of her throat.

  Hal made it up to her by bringing his tongue along the length of her slit, and then gently probing and teasing with his fingers. A few seconds went by with each of them trying to do their best to focus on pleasing the other while enduring the marvelous pleasure of it for themselves.

  Zoria rolled away from him, breaking the spell. She moved to straddle him, making good on what she’d said before about taking control. She was tight, and as she lowered herself down on Hal’s tool, he felt a sudden urge to grab her and take her roughly.

  I should make her scream with pleasure, loud enough for everyone in camp to hear.

  It was an unnecessary, boastful type of thinking, but he found it hard to break himself out of it. Zoria was warmed up to take his length, but she still let out a sigh that was half pleasure and half pain as she let his cock slide into her.

  She leaned in close and kissed him. Hal groped her butt and thrust upward, pushing as deep as he could go. Zoria moved his hand to her breast, instead, and slowly began to ride him.

  He contented himself with being passive for a minute or two. She was beautiful in motion, her petite hips rolling forward, up, and then back as she got into the rhythm. She kept both hands on Hal’s chest, as though she was holding him down, keeping the beast inside of him tame.

  “I like this,” whispered Zoria, in a self-satisfied voice. “It’s just like when you were my slave.”

  She took one of her hands and mockingly patted him on the cheek. Hal caught her wrist, picking that moment to buck to the side and flip her underneath him. Zoria let out a surprised cry that he was sure the others would overhear.

  “You forget,” said Hal. “You were my slave once, too.”

  Zoria shuddered as he found her hole and reentered her. Hal pinned both of her wrists behind her head, feeling like it was his turn to be the teaser and the punisher. He drove his shaft into her hard, the sensation of her tightness its own, thrilling reward.

  She pushed her mouth against his shoulder to muffle her noises. Hal could still hear her squeals, even quiet as they were, and he could feel her teeth biting into his skin as he really began his sexual onslaught. He slammed into her, letting his body act on its own accord, intoxicated by lust and primal urges. He was close, and he knew she was, too.

  The crack of thunder came from outside the tent, followed by the familiar sound of pouring rain. Hal ignored it for a second or two, and then slowed his thrusts as he realized what it meant.

  “Get yourselves decent!” came Laurel’s voice, from outside the flap. “Or the rain is going to ruin our dinner!”

  Not fair. Not even close to fair.

  CHAPTER 35

  Hal had only just pulled his trousers on when Laurel pushed into the tent. She held the cooking pot with several pieces of roasted fish meat inside of it. It smelled good, but not good enough to make Hal’s mind shift focus from Zoria, who’d been naked and willing just a few seconds ago.

  “Cadrian is taking first watch again,” said Laurel. “She said that if Tessianna had valkyries following us, they’d choose a time like this to attack.”

  “That’s good thinking on her part,” said Hal. Zoria was sitting next to him on the pallet. He reached over to put a hand on her knee, and she responded by setting hers on his inner thigh.

  Laurel noticed, but she didn’t say anything, instead turning her attention to the food. It was fully cooked and only slightly wet, which was a small saving grace for the night.

  Another crack of thunder came, this one much, much closer to their camp. Hal frowned.

  “That didn’t sound good,” he said. “One of us should check on Cadrian.”

  Laurel and Zoria both looked at him expectantly. He sighed, and moved toward the tent flap, leaving his shirt off so at least he’d have one dry garment left.

  Cadrian stood at the edge of their camp, leaning against a tree. Her green robe was soaked, the water making it stick to her in a manner that showed off every curve her body had to offer. It was about as lewd as clothing could get without actually revealing anything, and Hal had to make an effort not to stare at her.

  He was about to turn and head back into the tent when lightning struck again, this time hitting the tree Cadrian was in contact with. It struck with explosive force, knocking her off her feet and leaving her in a stunned sprawl on the wet grass.

  The tree was falling, on a collision course with her. It was a huge tree, easily large enough to crush a house, let alone an injured woman. Hal shouted, but she was in no condition to hear him or act on his warning.

  He felt his emotions flash the spectrum over the course of an instant. Panic, fear for Cadrian. Anger toward her for not being more cautious, given the conditions. Anger at her for everything she’d done to him. Anger at himself for not knowing whether he wanted her to live or die.

  His anger was what fueled him. Hal reached out, feeling his heartgem pulsing inside his shirt. He couldn’t draw his pistol fast enough for what he needed to do. He couldn’t even think fast enough to decide if what he was doing was a wise course of action.

  The coals of the dying fire pulsed in rhythm with Hal’s heartgem as he entered Ruby Ascension. Power coursed through him, and steam hissed off his skin as the flames dancing across his body met the pounding raindrops. His hand was still outstretched, and he cast his newest spell without thinking. He knew what it was called, now.

  Burning Hand.

  It all happened in the span of a second, one reaction flowing into another, leaving no room for him to change course. A hand of flame the size of a person erupted forth from Hal’s palm, slamming into the section of tree that would have landed on Cadrian and squeezing. The wood of the trunk turned to black ash, and burning wooden shards of cinder exploded out to either side.

  Hal had just enough time to see that she was safe before the toll of Ruby Ascension overwhelmed him. He was staring at Cadrian and feeling an angry, passionate lust for her as he collapsed.

  ***

  He wasn’t sure how long had passed when he awakened. He was
in the tent, and he could hear birds chirping outside. The storm was gone, and judging from how warm he was, he’d been unconscious through the night.

  And he was naked. He winced slightly at that detail. His traveling companions had draped his dry shirt over him as a blanket, but his lower half was completely exposed, and in its usual eager morning state.

  “Don’t try to move yet.” Cadrian’s voice came from next to him on the pallet. “Take a moment to be aware of your body. Feel for anything painful or unusual.”

  Hal took her advice, though he would have done it even without the suggestion.

  “I’m fine…” he said. “Just… a little groggy. And hungry.”

  “The fish is gone, but Laurel gathered some edible berries this morning,” said Cadrian.

  Hal slowly sat up. His pants were on the ground next to him, and he hurried to pull them on. He tried not to think about how the last thing he remembered had been the rush of emotion from channeling ruby essence, and how it had manifested as passion toward Cadrian.

  “You didn’t tell me you’d figured out how to reach Ruby Ascension,” said Cadrian.

  Hal looked at her. Her robe was dry, but shabbier looking than he remembered it. All of their clothes were becoming shabby, and none of them had anything else to change into.

  “No, I didn’t,” said Hal.

  Cadrian exhaled through her nose, her jaw tightening slightly.

  “It’s dangerous to use it so freely,” she said. “There is a massive difference between entering a Trance and entering Ascension.”

  “I’m aware of that,” said Hal.

  “What happened to you last night will happen again,” said Cadrian, raising her voice. “Each of the enhanced casting states is more efficient at using essence than the last. Entering a Trance lets you stretch your essence further than being at Baseline, and entering Ascension is similarly more efficient than being in a Trance.”

  Hal didn’t say anything. He hadn’t asked for her wisdom, and a rebellious, somewhat petulant part of him didn’t want it, even if it was valuable information.

  “The issue you ran into comes from what Ascension does to your emotions and inhibitions,” said Cadrian. “It makes you stop considering how much essence is appropriate for each spell. You go all out, blow off everything you have in a spell or two. And Ascension is unique in the fact that when your heartgem runs empty, it lets you pull the essence directly from your own emotions.”

  “And that’s what caused me to pass out,” said Hal. “Got it.”

  “It didn’t just cause you to pass out,” said Cadrian. “It stole something from you.”

  Hal folded his arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Cadrian shrugged. “This is where I run into the limits of my knowledge. Part of the spell came from something that you gave to it. It could be time off your lifespan, days, months, in the same way that the runic magic of eklids draws from their life essence. Or…”

  “Or what?”

  “It could have taken some of your memories,” said Cadrian. “Something related to the emotions that feed into ruby essence. A passionate memory, one of anger, or lust.”

  She shrugged her shoulders, making it clear that it was only her best guess. Hal didn’t say anything. He took a couple of seconds to pull his shirt on. Cadrian looked expectant, like she was waiting for him to ask more questions. He chose not to.

  She isn’t my teacher anymore. I can handle whatever is happening to me on my own.

  “Halrin,” she said, as he reached for the tent flap.

  He looked over his shoulder at her. “What?”

  “Thank you. For saving my life.”

  Hal didn’t say anything. He left the tent, feeling the same irrational anger that plagued so many of his recent interactions with Cadrian.

  Laurel and Zoria were waiting directly outside the tent, and Hal almost ran into them. Laurel pulled Hal into a tight hug, one that made him aware that his body was a little more bruised than he’d realized.

  “You idiot,” she whispered. “You need to stop doing that.”

  “It wasn’t really my choice,” he said. He wondered if that was the truth or not.

  “She’s right, master,” said Zoria. She moved to stand with her shoulder against his, as close as she could get without being a part of the hug. “It’s dangerous for all of us. We’ve been waiting for you most of the morning. Cadrian says that she found signs of a scouting party tracking us left from earlier yesterday.”

  “Then we need to get moving,” he said. “Sooner, rather than later.”

  They set about striking their camp. Hal ate a late breakfast, mostly just the berries Cadrian had mentioned before along with a small head of wild lettuce. They set off before midday, traveling at a faster pace than they had before to make up for lost time.

  Cadrian had them stop once or twice every hour, so she could get a sense of their surroundings and confirm that they were covering tracks properly. It gave them time to rest, which Hal sorely needed. He felt like he hadn’t gotten any sleep the previous night, though he’d been unconscious for half a day.

  They traveled through into the early evening, stopping to set up camp only when they were completely exhausted. Hal was tired, and past the point of having energy left. Even Zoria’s offer for them to pick up from where they’d left off in the tent just before the rainstorm wasn’t enough to spur energy back into his exhausted muscles.

  He fell asleep shortly after eating a dinner consisting of more fish and some wild carrots. Laurel woke him up a few hours before dawn to take the last watch of the night.

  “Are you okay?” she whispered.

  Hal mumbled something that must have sounded vaguely like a yes, and she let it drop. She squeezed his hand as he left the tent, and the spot where she touched felt warm for a while afterward.

  CHAPTER 36

  All of them were up for sunrise the next morning. They ate the rest of the carrots they had for breakfast, and then proceeded to pack up their camp, preparing for another day of hard traveling. Hal wasn’t sure how long they’d be able to keep up their pace for.

  It was midafternoon when they finally left the forest. The sleepy town of Tarne was immediately in view on the horizon. It was little more than a small fishing village on the coast of Lake Krestia that served as a waypoint for anyone planning on venturing into the untamed wilderness in the northern half of the realm.

  Cadrian held them back for an hour, and they waited impatiently as she scouted the edge of the forest and watched the town from a distance. The presence of Tessianna’s valkyries would have been obvious, had they made it to Tarne before them. It was only an hour or two before sunset when she finally gave the go ahead for them to approach.

  “We need to keep a low profile while we’re here,” said Cadrian. “I’ll take care of purchasing the supplies we need. If anyone has any extra coin they can lend me, it would be appreciated, because I don’t have much.”

  She glanced in Hal’s direction, and he passed her his coin wallet after taking half to keep for himself.

  “I’ll handle renting us rooms at the inn,” said Hal. “I doubt we’ll be able to afford more than one or two.”

  “It’s not as though we’ve had all that much privacy up to this point on the journey,” said Laurel. “We’ll manage just fine.”

  There was a quality to Tarne that made it seem to Hal like he’d been there before, even though he was sure that he hadn’t. The houses were simple wood structures with brick chimneys and patched roofs. There was a garden in almost every backyard, though it was late enough in the season for most of them to be empty.

  Children played in the road, most of them wearing dirty clothes, but otherwise looking well-fed and looked after. An old man in a rocking chair sitting on the porch of one of the houses on the edge of the town gave them a wary look as they approached.

  “I suspect they don’t get many visitors,” said Zoria.

  “Mind my advice,” said Cadrian.
“Tessianna could have an agent in this town. It would make sense, given that she knows the direction we’re heading in. Head up to your rooms as soon as you can and don’t draw attention to yourselves.”

  “We’ll be careful,” said Laurel.

  Cadrian split off in the direction of a large building with an attached supply shed that looked to be a general store of some kind. Hal led the others toward the inn, which as in many small towns, seemed to be the center of local activity.

  The laughter and noise coming from within was enough to make him think that most of the town had retired from working for the day. Hal pulled open the heavy oak door and led Laurel and Zoria inside.

  The barroom was spacious, with clean wooden floors, plenty of tables to sit at, and a few serving girls carrying food to paying customers on trays. Hal made his way over to the man behind the bar, who was tall, but young for his occupation, perhaps a few years short of thirty.

  “Hi,” said Hal. “Any open rooms for a couple of tired travelers?”

  “We got two rooms available,” said the bar man. “One gold for each.”

  “We’ll take both.” Hal fished out the coins and handed them over, thankful that it wasn’t more expensive.

  “They’re the last two upstairs, across from each other at the end of the hall,” said the bar man. “It’s extra if you want water for bathing.”

  “We’ll manage,” said Hal. It was an option if it turned out they could afford it, but it also wouldn’t be too much trouble for them to dip down to the lake, if they really felt the need to wash up.

  “Food is extra, too,” said the bar man. “Talk to one of the serving girls when you get hungry.”

  He nodded to the man and then moved to rejoin Laurel and Zoria. He only then noticed that Zoria had used a piece of cloth to tie her ears back. It had the effect of hiding the fact that she was an elf, while also making her look at least a decade younger.

  “We’re all set,” said Hal. “And I still have money left over. Are you guys hungry?”