by D. R. Rosier
There was another Rhimeran military mage, along with fifteen troops with their swords out. Alethea was standing in front of Tina who was in the corner. It didn’t look like anything had been done yet, my jaw twitched as I suppressed the need to kill them all.
“Halt!” I yelled.
The mage turned as well as a few of the other swordsman. I’d hoped to be able to explain who we were, that we had both the permission and protection of their emperor. But I never got the chance.
The officer growled, “Another filthy Elf, kill them now.”
I believe I’ve said it before; stupid can’t be fixed, just put down. The magical block he had up actually only affected his magic. Apparently no one had told him about Elves, or he’d forgotten in the midst of his stupidity. The common room was large, but not that large. Alethea could have probably killed them all without breaking a sweat without our help, but guarding Tina made it almost impossibly dangerous since she couldn’t really move around much.
I chose however, the path of mercy toward the soldiers… sort of.
I released my magic and ordered my elemental to disarm of the soldiers, and called for the death of stupidity, namely the Rhimeran officer.
The officer managed to widen his eyes slightly as the shards of ice pierced his head, neck and chest, he was dead before he hit the floor. The soldiers all cried out as shards of ice and slashes of air cut into their wrists and the backs of their hands.
Their swords hit the floor and once again I screamed at them to hold. To a man they all grabbed for daggers. I didn’t know if it was the typical stupidity, or the strange honor the Rhimeran’s had, that they were conditioned and didn’t have a choice. I hardened myself and was about to release death upon them all, but changed my mind and hit them all with the flash bang magic.
I’d been tweaking it ever since that fight in the throne room where I couldn’t use it, now it was personalized to whom I wanted effected. It was simple enough, the light would flash right before their eyes, and a high decibel sound right by their ears, but I added sound muffling and light blocking to the spell, so it only effected the targets and not the whole room.
They all screamed, and most of them fell to disorientation. I moved in and started to knock them all out with kicks and punches, I was on number three by the time Alethea and Ari figured out the plan and joined in. Seconds later they were down for a nap, and no doubt a large headache when they finally woke up.
I felt Arno leave his room and come our way and turned to face the stairs grimly.
Arno looked… completely unruffled, “What happened here?”
Alethea replied, “We came to get breakfast when these came in. The officer gave the order to attack as soon as he laid his eyes on me. I assume because I’m elven. My mate and Ari came down right before they started attacking. He attempted to start a dialog twice but was ignored. We managed to simply knock out the soldiers…”
Arno nodded, “My apologies.”
I gave him a short nod of acceptance.
Arno frowned, “You would spare these? By all rights they should be killed for impinging on the emperor’s honor.”
I sheathed my sword before replying, “I leave that to you. As far as I’m concerned it was the officer who was responsible and he has paid with his life.”
The four of us walked out at that point for a morning workout before we left for the day. There was still plenty of time for that, a quick breakfast, and a bath before the sun rose. Plus it would work out the anger I felt, I wasn’t happy at all that Alethea and Tina were put in danger. I thought it was pretty interesting that their lives were forfeit because of the emperor’s honor, not because they attacked us…
That day we travelled at fairly decent pace. I found myself guarding my tongue and being abnormally introspective. Like Ari has asked me last night, I wondered if we were making a mistake. We would be fighting for our survival against something anathema to life. Anti-life. Yet, I felt like in this case, the Empire’s case. The enemy of my enemy was not my friend. Just another enemy.
I’d have to be wary.
I sighed as we stopped in the early afternoon in a town. I felt the urgency and wondered how long it would take for the goblins to break out their master, but apparently this was more of a state visit and I found myself in the position of ambassador and prince consort. As I dismounted I wondered if our pace was being dictated by the layout of the towns, rather than the urgency of the matter.
I shook my head. Part of it I knew was the absence of Sienna. She had a way of brightening up my day. Alethea had a very similar cheery demeanor, but only in private, when in public she was as inscrutable as Ari was. Tina also had a good sense of humor, although very understated in comparison, but she was nervous about being on the road, or at least that was my guess.
Of course, there was much more to my bad mood than just missing my wife. It just… made everything seem worse.
I barely took notice when it happened again. We walked into the inn and a strained silence fell. The citizens of Rhimera all finished their meals as quickly as possible and left.
Somehow I kept hold of my tongue and ate dinner; we headed up to our room as soon as we could without appearing impolite. The idea of facing a goblin horde was becoming more attractive by the moment. This time Sally and Steven joined us and shut the door as we all went in. I checked for magic and then warded the room for sound.
It was almost funny as we all let out relieved sighs and found a place to sit.
Sally looked at me pointedly, “You just had to invite us…”
I grinned, “Misery loves company, just think we have weeks of this to go. Besides, it was my wife’s idea.”
Steven blew out a breath and said, “There’s no life here. I don’t think I saw anyone smile outside of us since we got here. I wonder if that’s how it really is, or is it just when military men pass through.”
I nodded slowly. “A bit of both I’d imagine. Feel free to express that to Serina in your reports.”
We talked for a while more, not that we resolved anything or came up with anything new. It was a vicious circle really. The best way to keep Cirenthia safe would be to go through with this and bargain for time on the treaty. If we got that agreement we could fight here and not only keep our own commoners from the fight, but also reduce the collateral damage of Rhimera’s citizens without fearing an invasion from Rhimera directly after.
But still, none of us liked the idea. It felt like making a deal with the devil, but it was just more palatable than letting Rhimera get torn apart and then fighting on our own soil. It was good to vent our frustrations, but I didn’t let it go on too long.
“I think we are all of similar mind, just keep your eyes open.”
After that I took out a couple of books. The five of us were still learning spells and it was only late afternoon. So we killed an hour or two that way. Sally and Steven left for their room when we wrapped up and it was just the four of us for a while.
Ari gave me a kiss goodnight and went with Tina to her room.
Alethea gave me a soft kiss and led me to the bed before she said, “Lay down love, you’re stressed.”
We both stripped and I got in bed. She smiled at me and motioned me to turn over so I rolled over onto my stomach. I felt her settle herself above me, straddling me. I could feel her heat and soft supple ass against mine as she leaned forward and started to give me a massage. I could feel her using minute amounts of fire magic and her hands got warm as she started to firmly work out my tense muscles.
I moaned softly, “You’re a goddess.”
She giggled and continued the massage. It felt amazing and was exactly what I needed to help me release some stress, especially when she asked me to turn over…
A couple of hours later I was spooning her, my sated manhood nestled between her ass cheeks and my arm around her, my hand cupped one of her breasts. I was really close to sleep when she said my name.
“Marcus?”
I said
her name lazily with a smile, “Alethea.”
She asked, “What do you think of Tina?”
I frowned, I hadn’t seen that question coming.
“She’s… practically family. I like her, why?”
She shook her head, “That’s not exactly what I was asking, I mean, do you find her attractive?”
The wheels started to spin in my head and I immediately got suspicious.
“Did Sienna put you up to this?”
She blew out a breath, “It may have come up. We all know you said the four of us was more than enough for you. I was… volunteered for this conversation.”
I have four mates, and they wanted me to have another one? This world was so damn strange.
“Why, I mean… why her? The four of you must have a reason to bring it to me after I asked…”
“Because she’s already like a sister to Serina despite her station, and the rest of us really like her. You already said it, she’s like family. This isn’t about gaining an advantage or making our family more powerful, this is just about… how we all feel. We’re also pretty sure she is attracted to you. You must be blind if you haven’t noticed the way she looks at you.”
I considered that for a second. She did smile at me a lot, but it felt more like a smirk. I’d always gotten the feeling she was both happy to see me and kind of laughing at all of us at the same time. As if we all amused her somehow, if that makes any sense? I guess I was blind.
I asked, “Wouldn’t things change though, I mean what would she do?”
Alethea shrugged, “Sienna suggested taking her as a mistress first, if you were at all interested in that. That way it wouldn’t be odd when she was still the servant to the queen. If that works out, we’d figure it out later. You still didn’t answer me though. If you aren’t attracted to her the conversation is pointless.”
Tina was attractive, but I’d never really considered her in that way before. Sienna, Serina, Alethea, and Ari were quite enough to juggle after all, and all of them beyond beautiful in my eyes.
Tina was five foot five and extremely curvy. If I was forced to guess she was a 38 D, 24, 36 on the measurements. She had raven black hair down to her shoulder blades, gray eyes, and a heart shaped face. Her body was in great shape, there were no out of shape servants after all.
I replied, “I hadn’t given it much thought, but yes, she’s attractive. I’ll have to think about it though, I feel like I don’t spend enough alone time with the four of you as it is.”
Alethea rolled over and looked me in the eyes, “I love you for saying that, but you shouldn’t worry so much, we also support each other. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of you, but on the other hand I don’t feel neglected, or unappreciated, quite the opposite.”
I nodded, “I’ll think about it. Spend some time with her to see how I feel about it.”
Alethea nodded and then turned back over. She burrowed her body backwards into mine as I wrapped her in my arms. She was silent for a few moments.
“Are you tired?”
I grinned, “Not anymore.”
She wiggled up against me and squeezed my manhood with her butt cheeks. I might be clueless when it came to women most of the time, but I got that hint pretty clearly. It was quite a bit later before we settled down again. I managed to put together a report of our progress, and tell my mates at home I missed them, before I gave in to sleep.
Chapter 14
The next week went similarly as we moved farther and farther into Rhimera. We met a few more of the military mages but there were no other incidents. I can only assume they finally got on the ball and sent out general orders about our visit. We stopped early every day at a town to my frustration, yet I held my tongue about picking up the pace and just camping on the side of the road.
It seemed beyond folly not to rush, but I kept reminding myself I was here to represent Cirenthia and Serina, the niceties had to be observed.
To distract myself I was trying to get to know Tina better, but my mates couldn’t have picked a worse time for that if they tried. Everything we said except in those rare moments we were assured privacy was well thought out. I was tempted of course, she was an attractive woman and sexy as hell, but I wasn’t really getting to know Tina, I was just talking to her public face.
The playful smirks and smiles I’d seen in the past seemed to be replaced with utter subservience, she was simply playing a role. It was… annoying to say the least. Not her, but the fact she had to do that, the same as the rest of us. Come to think on it, the whole trip was annoying me.
After lunch I daydreamed about all the ways I could torture and kill Arno, I even came up with a few nasty affinity magic ideas that I’d never try… probably. It wasn’t Arno’s fault really, it was just he was there, so he was an easy target to blame for all the misery I’d witnessed over the last week.
I started to get disgusted with myself as well for all the brooding I was doing. I was usually much more patient. I decided to scry my mental list of goblins and see if I could get through yet. I almost fell off my horse when a picture came through crystal clear. He was in some kind of large cave, along with thousands of other goblins. I was both disturbed by it, and glad I had something constructive to do.
I started to move my scrying window around, searching the nearby corridors. The amount of corridors and caves full of goblins, wolves, trolls, and ogres seemed almost endless. As I searched I could see fights break out, and quite a few of the goblin’s larger allies using them for snacks. It felt like hours, but it was probably only a little over an hour later when I stumbled onto something different.
The cavern was huge and I estimated there were at least a thousand goblin shamans there. They were all on the outskirts of the chamber surrounding and looking toward the center. In the center of the room was what looked like a stone sarcophagus of some kind with writing on it. When I zoomed in I could make out the language was the language of magic, but a lot of the symbols were unknown to me.
I couldn’t hear anything of course, but they all appeared to be chanting something. I considered this for a while and concluded that there must be multiple protections around the site where the demon was held prisoner. I could only guess that whatever protection had been preventing scrying was now broken. I had no way to know how many they had left to break.
I zoomed in on a couple of faces, composed a report in my head, and sent it to Serina as well as Maggie and Carl. Perhaps Maggie would be able to read the spells inscribed on the… jail. I kept wanting to think about it as a tomb, but the demon wasn’t truly alive, it was the opposite of that, not dead but anti-life. It was a concept I had trouble understanding.
Sure, I could define it. Death was the absence of life, where anti-life was the opposite of life. Not the same thing at all. That didn’t mean I could truly grasp what that meant.
Since I couldn’t talk freely right now I sent the same message to Ari, Alethea, Steven, and Sally. I felt a little silly doing it, since they were all within hearing distance, but that’s what I did. I wondered if there was some spell that would enable us to speak mind to mind without our potential enemy ally hearing it. If there was it wasn’t in any of the books I’d brought.
I’d thought about trying it with affinity magic, I was sure I could talk to all of them that way, using air to vibrate my voice lightly in their ear canals, like a pair of headphones. But outside of Ari, and perhaps Steven, none of them had the required air affinity to respond. I was also cognizant of the fact that if I did that I would appear to be muttering to myself under my breath all day, and that wouldn’t be a good thing.
I also sent a separate message to Serina with my affections and asked if I should push Arno into moving faster. It was just a matter of time before all the spells fell and we were still close to three weeks away from the capitol city of the empire.
Because I didn’t have much else to do, I left one scrying window open and started another to map out the cave system and gather the enemies numbers. I
was sure others would be doing the same, but it was always good to have multiple sources. By the time we stopped for that night, I had found over thirty large caves with an estimated forty thousand goblins, two thousand wolves, twenty five hundred ogres and three thousand or so trolls.
The scary thing of it was I knew that wasn’t close to all of them.
As far as the main chamber went, it looked like the goblin mages were taking a break. They looked exhausted and most of them were sitting or lying down.
The large numbers almost made me wonder why they even bothered finding their master; they could probably kill us all without him. Of course, he was in command if the stories were true, still controlling them from his jail cell. It wasn’t hard to understand why he’d want to be set free and take revenge on us personally for our ancestors trapping him there.
After dinner that night we all piled in one room again to talk in private for a while. We had long since decided not to care what anyone thought about it. I filled them in on the numbers I’d found so far.
Steven sounded frustrated as I felt, “Shouldn’t we pick up speed. I know it will take them time to break him out, and even longer after to reach the capitol, but…” he shook his head.
I blew out a breath, “We’ll see. I asked Serina about it. These people are touchy, so let’s wait until we hear back, unless the magic is broken before then. I know this hasn’t been the most fun trip, everyone holding it together?”
They all gave me half hearted nods or grunts in response. I guess it was the best that could be expected at this point. We all tried to chat about other things, but eventually we gave up on it and everyone left. Alethea was spending the night in Tina’s room again. I kissed Alethea goodnight before she left, and gave Tina a hug. I was still unsure what to do there, was I just being a stubborn ass about it?
Ari and I were left alone and we started a bath with a comfortable silence between us.
Ari said softly, “You know, there are some similarities between some of the writing on the tomb and our enchantments.”