by D. R. Rosier
All I could do was do the right thing myself, Regina would always be respected and treated as an equal, even as she submitted to my authority and she seemed very happy with me. I still couldn’t understand her desire for me to have more wives, but I could respect it, and that would hardly be a hardship for me.
My mind was kind of wandering a bit, going over the same points again and again in circles, as I crept through the woods toward the road. Maybe it would help put steel in my spine, as I continually thought about what I was fighting against, and perhaps more importantly, what I was fighting for.
I made it within about forty feet, before the mage detected my presence.
His sonorous voice started to chant again, and I cursed under my breath and ran at him. My only hope was closing another twenty-five feet before he was done with his spell, whatever it was. I couldn’t help but think I was on the other end of the equation, of the soldiers I’d taken down as they ran to close with me.
Whatever the spell was, it was a lot shorter than the last one, and when he finished it with a booming word, I dove to the ground and rolled behind a tree to put it between us.
Coruscating lightning blinded me, even as I heard a loud crack as the tree I hid behind split. All the hair was standing up on my body, and I felt covered in the static of electricity. My face and chest hurt, burned really, and I hopped back up on my feet and charged the last five feet to get within range. I was in pain, and scared, but it was him or me at this point and I wasn’t holding back.
I reached out with my magic, which didn’t connect. My magic couldn’t reach the mage. I didn’t think about doing it, or plan it, fear and rage overcame me, and I just continued to run and charged out of the trees. His voice rose sonorously again, but this time he didn’t have enough time. I dove and tackled the bastard, with my hands around his throat which cut off his ability to speak.
I was angry, full of fear and rage at this bastard, and started to lift and push down on his neck, banging his head against the hard-packed dirt of the road as I continued to strangle him. I wasn’t thinking, I just wanted him to stop, I wanted him fucking dead. The magical shield he used must have only stopped my magic, because around the twentieth time I smashed his head into the ground, I finally noticed he was out cold.
I gasped and released his neck, and collapsed to my side and took deep breaths. I was both shocked and horrified at the murderous rage that had overtaken me, knowing that this mage would kill me, and then kill my Regina, along with Saria and the elves, had made me lose it completely.
The mage was still alive, just unconscious. When I tried to send my magic in him again, it worked. Maybe knocking him out had removed his protection from my magic? Ended the spell? I noticed something surprising as my magic read his body and DNA, and made a mental note to ask about it later. I finished him, and stripped him of valuables before dragging his corpse off the road. I wasn’t sure what to do with the horses, maybe the other elves could use them? For now, I left them there and headed back to Regina.
I guessed our marriage would have to wait, that mage was in no condition to conduct the ceremony. I laughed a little hysterically at that ridiculous thought, and made it back to Regina in a fairly short amount of time, killing the sleeping soldiers as I went. Each one twisted my gut, and I felt different, sullied, but I’d do what I had to do.
The elves were still frozen when I arrived, and Regina was frightened.
I said, “We’re safe, they’re all dead.”
She jumped up and into my arms, and I held her while she got it all out. A part of me wanted to join her, and break down, but I pushed that grief, anger, and confusion down. She eventually quieted after several minutes of crying, and I broke the silence.
“Let’s gather the elves together, and we’ll wait for the mages spell to expire.”
At least, I hoped it expired on its own, and didn’t need some kind of counter spell. We gathered them together in the copse of trees, and Regina started to set up a quick and dirty campfire. A few of the elves had broken bones from the fall out of the trees, as well as scratches on their skin. I healed all of them, or regrew their skin, and fixed their bones. Skin was an organ, so I had to rebuild all of it, but each bone in the human body was defined separately in DNA, and I could just replace the broken ones.
It took us a while to get all that done, and I sat down and leaned against a tree. Regina joined me, and laid her head on my shoulder.
Regina asked, “Think Saria will be mad we didn’t run?”
I snorted, “Probably, but I wouldn’t leave her to be killed. She’ll have to get over it. I have a question, but I’m not sure you know the answer.”
Regina tilted her head, and looked up at me.
I asked, “When I used my magic on the mage, he didn’t have a magical ability in his DNA.”
Regina nodded, “That’s because mages aren’t like the rest of us.”
“Irwin told me that, but why are they different?”
She looked thoughtful for a moment, before she replied.
“It’s more a legend than fact, a story. A long time ago there were no magical talents. There were the common people, and we were all ruled by the mages who were in power. Mage power is random on our world, and while it can run in families that isn’t always the case. Back then there were terrible diseases, people got sick from eating bad food, or plague. They even say there were diseases that were transmitted from person to person through sex.
“One of the mage kings decided to do something about it, when his children all died in one of the plagues that swept the land. Mages couldn’t heal or cure disease, they still can’t, so he decided to go at it in a different way. I don’t understand how a mages power works, but they can gather and shape magical energy, but all life has magic. So, he used his magic to experiment on people and modify their very being and what made them what they are.
“It’s said he was trying to create a healer, someone that could shape magic instinctively by what they were, and heal others. He failed in that, and created a flesh sculptor by accident. The sculptor could heal, but not in the way the mage had intended. It was the first flesh sculptor using his magic that discovered the truth about disease, and the micro-organisms that caused it.
“So, the sculptor created a second ability, by changing the essence of another person, and enabling them to kill and remove those organisms using magic, like that girl Maria you told me about. It’s said he also modified them to be more resistant those diseases. The other magical abilities sprung up later, slowly over the years, to fill similar needs. Like telekinesis, fire, air, earth, and water wielders to assist in battle against invaders. My own talent was probably to fill a different kind of need.”
I smirked at that, even as my mind whirled. Could I create magical talents? Assuming the legend was real I mean. Maybe, but I’d no more do that than twist someone, enhance them, or enslave them. Killing in self-defense was one thing, but punishing others by stealing their will or who they were was something else entirely, and was why the king was a monster. The only reason I’d done even the cosmetic changes to the elves was it caused no true harm, and they’d volunteered to do it to support our plan.
I also imagined the magical abilities in the DNA were a dominant trait, which was why most of the population in this world seemed to have one, even if the stronger ones were rare. It also didn’t explain why I had the talent. I was from another world, a world where people hadn’t had their DNA modified to wield and control magic in one specific way. There must have been more to the story, or the legend was just a fairy tale.
Then again, my world had stories of the fae, and the fae were here. Maybe one of my ancestors were from here, and from a line of sculptors that were banished or something. It was clear enough, either the legend was false, or our worlds had been crossed before. It could also be both, there was probably no way to be sure.
I kissed the red curls on the top of her head, and pulled her closer.
“He blocked
me, my magic.”
Regina replied, “Mages understand magic better than us with talents, some say they wield it with their souls.”
I frowned, “Why don’t they stop the king then, why do they all allow his evil if they don’t fear his power?”
Regina shrugged, “I don’t know love. Was the mage modified to be loyal? I know they’re identified early, as children, perhaps they’re all twisted and educated at a young age so they can’t threaten the king?”
I grunted, “He was, good point.”
I kissed her softly, and we relaxed a little more as time separated us from the battle. It took over two hours for the elves to be freed from the spells magic, and Regina had been correct about the elven maiden.
Saria had scolded us quite soundly for not running and leaving them behind.
She was even more beautiful angry, but I wasn’t dumb enough to tell her that. We hit the road for a few more hours of travel that afternoon.
Chapter Eighteen
It wasn’t until the three of us were around the fire eating at the night’s campsite, that something occurred to me. I blame the adrenaline, fear, and death for missing the obvious so long.
“How did the mage know I was there? He didn’t know about the rest of you until after we’d started to kill his guards, but somehow he stopped right where we left the road.”
Saria was sitting close to me again, not quite inside my personal space, but she’d obviously given up on the large separation she’d kept last night. The beautiful elf was a mystery, and drove me crazy. It wasn’t just the battle I couldn’t get out of my mind.
Saria said, “They could have been tracking us, and seen our horses leave the road, but I doubt it. They were moving at a canter, and this road isn’t that lightly used. Does Irwin have anything of yours? He could be tracking you with magic, from something that belongs to you, he also could have been in communication with mage Raiden to lead them right to you.”
I frowned in thought, and tried to ignore her direct and unwavering gaze into my eyes as she waited for an answer. Key word there is tried, it didn’t help that Regina was clearly enjoying the effect Saria was having on me.
I was also painfully aware that Saria’s staring eyes were no doubt picking up the heat spikes in my body, and knew quite well what effect she was having on me. I knew one thing, for a person on the run and about to start a rebellion by healing people and doing the right thing, my mind was on this issue of Saria’s allure far too much.
I did my best to gather my thoughts.
“I woke up in my boxers and a t-shirt, it’s what I’d been wearing when I went to sleep on my world. I still have them, so I don’t…” I trailed off in thought.
Had I taken my watch off that night? Sometimes I took off my watch for sleep, but more often than not after a grueling two-shift workday I’d forget to take it off, and simply pass out on the bed as soon as my head hit the pillow.
“He might have my watch, it’s a piece of jewelry that tells the time. If he does, he removed it before I woke up.”
For that matter, it might have been why he slapped me awake, perhaps I’d started to wake up as he took the watch, and then used that to cover.
Saria said, “This might complicate our plans, if he sees you approaching the city and contacts a mage there, they’ll be there to meet us making sneaking in almost impossible. He also might know about us, though that isn’t certain, Mage Raiden may not have contacted Irwin to tell him, we’d have heard him cast the spell, unless it was already active.”
“I thought you said Irwin had told him where to look?”
Saria nodded, “Communication is a one-way spell, both mages have to cast it for two-way communication. Chances are Raiden was conserving his magic use, he wouldn’t have cast it if he had nothing to say. Also, tracking you by your watch just tells Irwin where you are on a map, it doesn’t let him see you, or who you’re with.”
“What can we do about it?”
Saria shook her head, “Without another mage to shield you or break the link to your property, nothing. We’ll have to take the risk and hope Irwin still doesn’t know about us, and that they won’t be expecting you to be dressed as a guard escorting enslaved elves.”
“That’s a rather large gamble.”
Saria nodded, “I don’t see we have much choice. The guards may not give you a second look, as they’ll hopefully be looking for you to show up on your own, not with us. People see what they want to see. If we’re really lucky, they don’t have your… watch? They don’t have your watch, and they were just tracking our horse’s tracks.”
I went back to eating my dinner, deep in thought. There had to be a better way, didn’t there? I couldn’t think of one, and even if we found a different way into the city the baron would find out I was there quickly, since Irwin would know I was there as soon as he checked to see where I was.
Huh, that thought gave me an idea, he wouldn’t be checking in his sleep.
“How about we leave the road, and go around the city in the forest. Make Irwin believe we’re bypassing the city altogether, and then set up camp a mile or two past it. We’ll wait until it’s late at night, and then head back toward the city and get in. Hopefully, Irwin will be relaxing or sleeping late at night and won’t check on my location again until the next morning. That will give us about six hours to free the elves, get your princess on board with the plan, and free the dark elves and get them onboard with things. If we’re fast enough, we’ll be working on freeing the humans before Irwin detects our presence and it all falls apart.”
I knew there were only about a hundred elves and dark elves in the city, they were hard to catch after all. The majority of the enslaved abominations were human, about three hundred of them. There were about the same number of free humans living in the city as well. Point was, I should be able to free a hundred elves and a hundred dark elves in less than six hours, easily.
If we weren’t caught at it that is.
Saria smiled, and said in a soft voice, “I like that plan, I’ll pass it to my men. Don’t forget, while we go around the city, Irwin may send someone after you. One of the patrols perhaps, we’ll still have to be cautious.”
She got up and ghosted away, but didn’t go far from my side as usual, just about twenty feet.
Regina poked me, and when I looked she pointed at Saria, and then at me, before crossing two fingers and waggling her eyebrows. If I lived to be a thousand, I’d never understand her, but clearly the idea turned her on and she hadn’t changed her mind. I rolled my eyes, which made her giggle wickedly and kiss me.
I honestly didn’t get it, I mean another wife maybe. She said she got status from it, but any relationship between Saria and I would just be a hot torrid affair that couldn’t lead anywhere. A very hot and wild affair. Saria would be leaving us in just days once the humans were free her oath to protect me would expire. Humans and elves didn’t mix on this world, and I wasn’t welcome to follow her into her homeland.
In other words, I got the extra wives bit, at least a little, and understood why she would want it at least intellectually if not emotionally. But… for just casual sex, it was different, wasn’t it? I wasn’t into casual sex or one night stands, never had been. I also didn’t see how she’d get anything out of it, unless she was really turned on by the taboo of it, and it was simple lust? Or… was she attracted to Saria and wanted to join in? She had said she belonged to me and I was the only man that would ever have her, but men were only half the population.
My mind almost short circuited as I imagined that last possibility, although I was pretty sure that was just my male mind, and that threesomes weren’t really on my horizon. Outside of the random thought, I hadn’t seen any indication she was attracted to the elf, just hot by the idea of me being with Saria.
Regina was hardly shy about sex, or talking frankly, but I couldn’t ask her to explain it from her point of view without the aforementioned Saria hearing it. I had a feeling I wouldn’t unde
rstand her point of view, but I didn’t have to, I just needed to know what it was and respect it, no matter my ultimate choice in the matter.
Either way, both of them were driving me nuts, and I quite firmly grabbed her hand and dragged her into the tent. She had a wicked look on her face, in a good way. Let’s just say the first time we made love that night, we didn’t make love at all. I spent all my confused lust, questions about her and Saria, and joy to be alive after the battle, in a hard-rutting fuck that both got my frustrations out, and was a desperate affirmation of life.
She seemed to enjoy it. Actually, she reveled in it, my fiancé was mine, and had only ever been mine, but she was also quite naughty and beyond sensual in her wanton excitement. She loved me, and she loved to drive me crazy and please me. So much so that it humbled me, in the quiet moments, when I thought about the love of my life.
I’d do anything for her, as she seemed to be dedicated to taking care of me.
I sighed deeply as I held her close, and decided what the hell? Saria hadn’t been insulted by talk so far, so I explained my reasoning on why I was resisting my strong attraction to Saria, and why I believed the elven woman was doing the same. I explained that it was doomed, and didn’t understand why she wanted it, or what she’d get out of it as first wife, or whatever.
She giggled, “A part of it is the taboo, I’ll admit, but a very little part. Another part of it is I love you, you desire her, and more than just her tight little sexy body. It’s obvious you respect her honor, her straightforwardness, and abilities. But… most importantly, I also don’t agree with you, that it’s doomed.”
I frowned, “You think she’d give up her home for a human?”
It was really the only way it would work, she’d have to stay with me, since I couldn’t go with her.