by D. R. Rosier
“So, what makes me so special?”
Karana grinned, “It’s not every human man that catches the heart of a light elf princess, let’s just say I’m… intrigued by any man to manage it, regardless of race.”
I pondered that for a moment, and had no idea what to say. It was a painful subject.
She smirked, “Don’t give up on her yet young James, she hasn’t made her choice until she walks out the gate, and in the last two hundred years I’ve never seen her so in love.”
And with that bit of heartbreaking advice, because I really didn’t need more false hope right now, she sashayed off toward Saria who’d been avoiding me outside of glances, ever since saying thank you for not taking her back in the tent earlier last night. I wasn’t usually so negative, but I was also tired after being up all night, and we had a long day ahead of us.
Still, I took comfort in Regina’s constant presence and support at my side, she would be my wife, and we’d figure out the rest of it together.
Regina asked, “Are you sure?”
I turned and smiled as I looked into her bright green eyes.
“You my love, are the one thing I am sure about in this mess.”
She smiled, and then we faced forward and the room quieted as Saria cleared her throat at the front of the large barracks.
“Karana and I have discussed tactics and various plans. We’ve decided the best time to do this is now, while they’re all still asleep for two more hours. Karana dispatched eighty of her people to invade the Baron’s keep, and to kill everyone there, soldiers, Baron, and the mage. Her people will abandon the walls as soon as they see us on the lane, that will also be the signal for those eighty to start their attack. We’ll be heading to the human slave district with the aid of ten of our darker cousins and Karana. The few dark elves that are left will stay on the walls just in case our people are watching the city and decide it’s an opening to attack.
“We’ll outnumber the humans in the barracks by better than five to one. We’ll all rush in the barracks, and subdue the humans inside without killing. Karana will cast a silence spell on the barracks we’re in, so we don’t have to overly worry about screams betraying us or setting off an alarm. James will free the twenty humans, it should take him less than five minutes to get all twenty. Then we move on to the next barracks, while one of us stays behind to brief the freed humans on the situation.
“There are fifteen barracks, at five minutes each we should finish all the barracks over a half an hour before dawn, when they wake up to prepare to watch the walls. Ideally, we hope the free humans in the rest of the city will be unaware of our newfound freedom until they wake up. At that point, all three races will secure the rest of the city, and give ultimatums to the free human leaders.
“Lastly, we’ll be spending more time here than I estimated, once everyone is free I’ll dispatch a squad of ten to escort the princess back to Lelmalond, and report to the king and queen what has happened here. The rest of us will stay and assist the humans to hold off the king until the situation becomes untenable, and then we’ll call a retreat. We’ll have scouts on the road, so we’ll have plenty of advanced notice if or when the king sends a truly overwhelming force.
“Any questions?”
An elf asked, “If he sends overwhelming numbers?”
Saria shrugged, “He has enough troops presently to overwhelm the city, but he’ll have to balance that against the threat on his western border. If Queen Sera of Gritor notices he’s vulnerable with most of his troops out of position so far to the east, she may invade. That means we can expect him to be cautious at first, and if he sends enough small groups he may be forced to abandon the city until he can replenish his forces. Better to fight them here than in the forest where incalculable damage would be done.”
I think I liked Saria’s assessment of our chances better than Karana’s, of course if it wasn’t for Karana’s advice and thirst for revenge, they wouldn’t be staying at all.
Saria nodded when no one else had a question.
“Move out, move quickly, and let’s get it done.”
There was no point in being stealthy or moving in small numbers, the walls were slowly abandoned by the freed dark elves as we passed save for a few lookouts just in case. As long as we weren’t too loud, there was no way the sleeping humans in the free section of the city would catch us.
The two enslaved humans that stood guard in front of their open entrance were overwhelmed quickly and kept from screaming out by those that had the magical ability to control air. Their breath was released as soon as they were being held and gagged by two elves each.
If anything, humans were even easier for me, since I’d already done it so much tonight. Except, the first one took a little longer to check over and verify, since the instinct twisting was a little different, but the musculature enhancement was virtually identical. Regardless, after checking it all my magic had targeted all the right spots to restore them to who they should be, and at full health.
I let the magic flow and initiated the changes.
Then I freed the second one.
A dark elf hissed when the human started to struggle, and he froze scared out of his mind. I couldn’t blame him. The races didn’t work together all that often on this world. Some of the dark elves and light elves were still giving me wary looks with anger mixed in them.
It occurred to me suddenly that could have been another reason Karana had been flirting with me. It showed her people that respected and guarded her, that she at least saw me as an ally, and trustworthy, so they wouldn’t do anything stupid. Word would spread to the dark elves that were on the walls as well. Well, stupid from my point of view, like trying to kill me. She’d also dropped the information that Saria loved me, in front of a room full of light elves with exquisite hearing. Again, perhaps that had been less about me, and more about manipulating the outlook of the elves on who and what I was. Sneaky.
The glares didn’t bother me overmuch, trust took time to earn, but I believed that vixen had at least secured my safety. It also told me that maybe her emotions were constantly on display, but that didn’t mean she was unsubtle, or stupid, by any stretch.
I could hope that was her plan anyway.
He said, “We are here to free your people from the king’s control.”
The guard looked dubious, especially when a hundred fifty elves started to flow past him and toward the same barracks.
I shrugged and smiled at him comfortingly, as I fell into a light jog and followed the wave of warriors into the first barracks. That one dark elf would stay behind and pass on the plan. Hopefully, he wouldn’t scare them to death.
It got more difficult as the night waned, my magic seemed endless, or at least I hadn’t discovered a limit to the magic that I could wield and channel to free the enslaved, but my mind, stamina, and the stressful strain took a toll on my ability to concentrate. That was the limiting factor in my abilities, the frailty of the human body.
Physically I wasn’t feeling all that tired, but I was mentally exhausted, and thoughts of hot showers, beer, pizza, and my nice soft couch started to invade my thoughts more and more. Fortunately, as an intern I was used to mental exhaustion, and well aware of the price of a doctor making mistakes. My mental discipline didn’t break down that night, but toward the end I’d had to slow down significantly to ensure I didn’t make mistakes. DNA, bodies, magic, it was all becoming a blur.
Regardless of that, I still finished earlier than Saria’s estimate, it took just an hour to restore three hundred and six humans back to health. That was about one every twelve seconds, though in the beginning I was freeing them in about three or four seconds, so in the end when it took closer to twenty seconds each because of exhaustion, it didn’t impact the plan so much.
The plan probably couldn’t have gone better, but we’d still lost three elves, two dark elves, and only one human. A few of the humans had gotten in a lucky strike before they were overwhelmed when we f
lowed into the barracks. There was nothing I could do for them, my magic didn’t work on the dead, and CPR doesn’t work on someone with a mortal wound.
Karana had been an integral part of the plan. Without her casting silence on the barracks before we went in, there’s no doubt in my mind the whole city would have woken up from the screams and battle cries of the humans while they were being overwhelmed and held down.
I was mentally fatigued, wearied, and was spent when we started back to the elven section. Saria and Regina were flanking me, the former’s presence was both soothing and painful at the same time. Karana had headed to the keep already to check on her people there and secure it. I believed her, Saria, Regina, and I would be moving in there, along with whoever the humans put in command, plus a good number of elves and dark elves to guard us.
I wasn’t sure though, I’d just heard them talking about it earlier, while concentrating on healing.
Saria asked, “Are you okay?”
I smiled down at the petite and gorgeous silver white haired sexpot. Silver white didn’t do her hair justice as a description. It was a dazzling white blonde, but at the same time it shone with an exquisite silvery sheen highlight that was all natural. I resisted the urge to reach out and touch it, I didn’t have that right, but my mental filters were a little questionable at the moment.
“Fine Saria, thank you. I just need to rest my mind, unwind, maybe sleep? I used my magic five hundred and… damn, I can’t even do simple math anymore, tonight.”
Regina smirked, “Five hundred and thirteen.”
“Thanks, beautiful.”
She blushed, and leaned against me as we walked, so I put my arm around her.
Saria said, “Well, we won’t really need you for the rest of the plan, there’s no one else left to free in the city if you want to rest. We may need you after, for injuries. I just need you to wake my sister first, so I can send her home with an escort, then we’ll go up to the keep and find you a bed.”
I nodded, “So, I didn’t imagine that? The keep plan I mean.”
Regina giggled, “You really are tired, aren’t you?”
I just nodded, again.
I was, more than a bit. My mind felt like mush, even if my body felt completely fine. I also felt overwhelmed with love for the redhead under my arm, and against my side. My filters were gone, so my emotions were running a bit high as well.
I noted, “A little food wouldn’t go amiss either.”
Regina giggled, “I’ll see what I can find.”
I sighed, as we walked into the elven section of the city, and toward the barracks.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Saria led me over to her sister, who looked beautiful and so peaceful asleep, but I knew her mind would be in turmoil for a very long time. Desirae was a little taller than her sister, and her body was more willowy with gentler curves, as opposed to the petite woman next to me. Desirae’s measurements were similar, B cups with the same size waist and hips, she was just taller and the curves were stretched out a bit more. It was the facial structure and hair that were very close to identical, save age.
I blame my tiredness in that moment, after the night’s grueling events, for making a stupid mistake. I reached out with my magic lazily and woke her up, with the three of us standing close, and practically right on top of her.
Idiot.
I should have done it from a distance, like what I’d done earlier, the night before.
Desirae tensed up as her eyes opened, and then her eyes widened with fear as she saw me. She barked a word of magic in panic, as she held up her hand.
Green fire formed into a ball above her hand, and did I duck?
No, I was mentally exhausted, so I simply froze and stood there like a moron.
Saria didn’t, she slid her body in front of mine, and tackled me back hard as her other hand reached out and shoved Regina unceremoniously to the side. Her face morphed into a study of pain, as the green ball of fire exploded against her back.
Other elves shouted for Desirae to stop as we went flying back, and I had the breath knocked out of me as I landed on stone floor ten feet away, with a burning and screaming Saria landing on top of me.
Needless to say perhaps, my mind cleared with a very large shot of adrenaline and pain.
My magic jumped into Saria, I could only assume the green fire ate through her magical and very much alive skintight green armor, because it was burning and eating into her back. With a thought, I pushed magic into her to rebuild the burnt skin, flesh, nerves, blood, spinal cord, and muscle.
It rebuilt, but I could still feel the heat of the fire even through the rest of the body, my magic was keeping her alive, but at the same time the fire continued to burn, I was merely feeding it and prolonging her agony. Feeding her a constant flow of magic, and rebuilding while the green fire continued to consume.
Hell if I was going to let her die, but I tweaked what I was doing without stopping the magic flow, I couldn’t let the fire get ahead of me, and I deadened her pain nerves. The same way I could stop a heart, put someone to sleep, or eject things from her body. Her body was mine to control, so I simply decided she wouldn’t feel the pain anymore.
My heart was pounding, and I was terrified she’d die. I kept feeding her magic to offset the hungry fire that seemed determined to burn until it fully consumed her.
An elf with a magical ability to control water doused us both, but the fire hissed and crackled, and didn’t go out.
Desirae was hysterical as four elves tried to calm her and get her to dispel her spell, but it wasn’t working very well, she was having a mental breakdown.
It was only when Saria herself called out Desirae’s name, that the elven princess heir and mage seemed to quiet and snap out of it. She still shook, and quailed under my pleading and demanding gaze. She waved a hand and muttered several words, and the fire went out.
Saria jumped up and turned to face her sister, her voice full of barely restrained anger.
“You will not threaten him again.”
I said, “It’s alright Saria, she’s traumatized.”
Desirae looked down at me with fear, hatred, disgust, and guilt mingled in familiar yet alien dark blue eyes. They were the same as her sisters, but so different in how they looked at me.
“Saria is right,” her voice trembled, “If I’d killed you her life would be forfeit. I’m sorry.”
Saria shook her head, “My oath is complete sister, all the enslaved in the city are freed.”
Fuck, I’d forgotten that in my mental haze, then why did she just try to sacrifice her life for me?
Desirae frowned and moved her gaze to her sister.
Saria said, “He is mine, and I love him. Go home, and get well sister. I’m sending an escort with you.”
Wait, what? When did that happen?
Desirae looked as shocked as I felt by the first half of her sister’s statement, but then shuddered as the second half registered in her mind, “No escort, I’ll be fine on my own.”
Saria looked like she was going to argue, so I stuck in my two cents.
“Saria, it makes no logical sense, they were slaves and victims too, but emotionally all these elven men are her tormenters and rapists. She shouldn’t be around any men right now, for her own mental stability, much less them.”
Saria crossed her arms stubbornly.
“I’ll send my squad, none of them have ever touched you, and they’ll have orders to shadow your movements, so you won’t have to speak to them or even see them. That’s the best offer I can offer you, our parents would kill me if I sent you out there alone in your condition. There are still a few human raiding parties and patrols to be dealt with around the city, not to mention the dangers of the fae to the unwary.”
Desirae hugged herself and nodded reluctantly, perhaps the fear of being recaptured was scarier than being shadowed by men on her way home. I seriously considered the idea of telling her the truth about her condition, but she’d be hom
e in a few days, and a female elven physician could let her know she was pregnant. The damage of finding that out, and from a man in private, would do too much harm in that moment.
Then Saria grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the door. I looked over my shoulder at Regina with a confused look, and just saw a smug, joyful, and knowing look on her face.
I was so confused.
She dragged me across the street, and into the quartermaster general store, then spun in my arms and kissed me hungrily.
My heart raced, and even if my brain was still a bit lost, my body seemed far ahead of my mind. Her soft lips on mine, and her soft supple body against me, caused heat to flush through my body, and my cock grew quickly, and strained against its confinement.
She ground her body against mine, and sighed into my mouth.
“Saria?” I whispered in confusion into her mouth.
She broke the kiss, and held a finger over my lips, as her lust and love filled eyes locked on mine.
“Do you love me?” her voice was soft silk, musical, and filled with a vulnerability that made my cock twitch.
I nodded.
She asked, “Do you want me as your mate, alongside Regina?”
I nodded helplessly, my throat was too choked up with emotion to speak. It was the tiredness, along with the shock of this turn of events, and the love I truly felt for her. It was also the joy, relief, confusion, and heated desire I felt that made it impossible to speak.
She said with intense burning desire in her eyes, “Then talking and explanations can wait,” while she reached for my breeches.
I couldn’t talk, so I’d have to show her. I leaned down and reclaimed her sweet sexy lips, and sighed into her mouth. My cock was raging as she set it free, and stroked it softly with her fingers, while she kissed me harder with unrestrained passion and needy desire.
Her armor was still damaged, and I had no idea how to get it off, but it seemed to know. The green body suit simply melted off her body, and then pooled on the floor around her feet.