by Eric Vall
Cayla giggled under me as I shook my head, and despite the sudden explosion, I still had my erection firmly rooted against her. The princess seemed more than pleased about this, and the effect of the bullet must have only turned her on more, because she promptly locked her fingers in my hair and forced her tongue back into my mouth.
I could hear the automatons lowering my women back down to the ground while they thanked them sweetly and patted their giant arms, but then Aurora let out an irritated “hmmph” I recognized, and Cayla immediately stopped kissing me.
“What is it?” the princess asked over my shoulder.
I already knew they’d seen Haragh, though, because one by one, my women strutted past and headed toward the moat. Cayla even wriggled out from under me to join them without another word, and when they got to the destroyed bridge, they came to a clipped stop.
“Mason,” Shoshanne said stiffly.
“Yeah,” I sighed and reformed the bridge so they could finish strutting off.
Then I glanced back toward the woods, and Haragh sent me a sheepish wave from behind his tree. So, I willed my dick to throttle down while I cursed at the ground, and as the mansion door slammed shut, I dragged myself to my feet and adjusted my pants a bit.
“Thanks, man,” I mumbled. “Great timing.”
“Sorry,” Haragh snorted. “I was watchin’ the bridge explode, and then Aurora saw me. You think they’ll ever talk to me again?”
“Not if you keep hiding in my trees,” I informed him, and I leveled the man with a pointed look until he finally shuffled out.
The half-ogre kept his eyes on the automatons like they might fire at any second, and when he made it to my side, he was still a sickly pale color.
“They’re good guys,” I assured him. “You saw how they protected my women just now.”
“Yeah, but the same women hate me,” he muttered. “What’s to stop them from usin’ these brutes against me?”
“Alright,” I sighed, and I turned to the machines. “Hey, guys, this is Haragh. He’s a cool guy and my best friend. Never try to kill him, alright?”
“Or maim me,” Haragh quickly added.
“Yeah, no maiming, skinning, slicing off a finger … any of that,” I agreed. “Haragh’s one of us, and so is his woman, Taru. She’s the one with the giant ruby. Be extra nice to Taru, she can probably rip your heads off.”
The automatons nodded diligently, and I clapped Haragh on the shoulder as he nodded in return.
“Better?”
“Yeah, thanks for that,” he chuckled. “You know, they’re pretty scary, but they seem nice.”
“They are,” I said with a shrug. “They have their orders, and they’re clearly taking them seriously. If you connect with their gems, you get a strong sense of protection. I think they’ll do us good.”
“Do ye’ really have fifty channeling gems?” Haragh asked eagerly.
I grinned. “Hell, yeah, I do. This is just the beginning.”
“What are ye’ callin’ ‘em?”
“Well,” I mused, “I figure this design is pretty effective, and I’d like to replicate it without too much confusion as I expand my fleet. So, I’ll probably just call the lightning one Bom One and the other Bom Two. Then I can just keep adding from there.”
“Bom?” Haragh asked as he furrowed his brow.
“It’s short for Big ‘ol Machine. Because, I mean …” I gestured to the giant metal men in front of us, and Haragh nodded as he eyed them from helm to treads.
“Yeah, they’re fuckin’ big machines,” he agreed.
“Yep, Bom One’s going to the Oculus, but Bom Two’s gonna patrol Falmount until Big Guy’s back from Nalnora,” I explained. “I sent him and Big Red to get Dragir for me, so hopefully this new element issue will be squashed real soon.”
“Great,” Haragh mumbled. “Love his company.”
I chuckled as the half-ogre’s expression dimmed, and even though I knew he and Dragir would likely never see eye to eye, I had a feeling things would be different this time. After all, we were in our turf now, and Dragir wasn’t branded with a blood-boiling rune slowly taking over his mind anymore. A lot could improve just based on those two factors alone, but I could tell Haragh wasn’t too confident about this.
“Anyway,” he said as he gruffly cleared his throat, “heard you had a shipment come in. Thought I’d come and see if ye’ need help haulin’ it all.”
“Thanks, that would be great,” I replied. “I don’t know what the shipment is, but if it’s really a train car’s worth, I’ll probably need the help. Let me just get these guys to work.”
I walked over to the automatons who were standing at attention, and when I sent them a salute, they promptly did the same.
“Alright, boys,” I began, “I don’t want you to think this is the last you’ll see of each other, because it’s certainly not. You’re just being assigned to different posts for a little while, and I have complete faith in your abilities. Bom Two, you’ll be patrolling Falmount and doing regular passes around the perimeter at all times. We’ve been experiencing some sudden attacks lately, so be prepared to come to our aid should another one occur, and remember to never, ever harm our mages. Understood?”
Bom Two nodded, and as the pulse of his deep red gem surged, I could tell he was soaking up the sense of duty he had here.
“Bom One,” I continued, “same protocol, but you’ll be guarding the Oculus in Serin. Your job will be patrolling the interior of the city, and an attack can come from anywhere in there, not just the gates. If that happens, do all that you can to protect the mages and destroy our enemies, and if you locate an area the enemy forces are appearing from, destroy it. That’ll keep them from sending more of their troops in. Got it?”
Bom One snapped a salute as his light blue gem burned closer to white, and I raised my palm as I sparked my Terra Magic. Then I transferred instructions to him on how to reach Serin and access the Oculus, and once I broke the connection, I nodded.
“You should be set,” I told the automaton. “Now, I want you guys to know there will be more sentries joining your fleet soon, but you two are the heads of this force, so get a good feel for your weaponry, and make us proud. I’ll refill your magazines regularly, and if you ever run out of bullets in battle, get those machetes swingin’. Other than that, there’s a high likelihood that the people you’re protecting will be terrified of you at first. Don’t take it personally. Give them a few high-fives if you can. That way they know you’re ‘of the people.’ It’s good for morale.”
I was going to give the two automatons a moment to say goodbye, but it only took them a high-five to seal the deal, and then Bom One turned away to head south. The ground rumbled under the weight of his treads as he went, and when I motioned for Bom Two to follow me, Haragh jumped at how quickly he followed the order.
Then the three of us made our way down the lanes of Falmount toward the tracks, and I nodded reassuringly to the mages we passed because I figured by now, they should have been used to some giant death machines in their presence.
Granted, Bom Two was huge and holding a gun, but that was just a part of living in Falmount.
The mages who’d witnessed the accidental destruction of my bridge must have spread the word, though, because the lanes were oddly deserted for this time of day, and I could hear nervous muttering coming from the shadowy windows of the houses.
“It’s good seein’ ye’ outside a battle,” Haragh sighed after a moment. “Feel like I haven’t seen ye’ in ages.”
“That’s because you’re deliberately hiding from my women,” I snorted.
“So?”
“Dude, you’re gonna have to find some way to make it up to them,” I informed him. “You’re my best friend, I can’t have you cowering in fear of my women. They’re around all the time, and they went to Jagruel to help your race out. They care about you, you just kind of … ”
“Insulted and infuriated them,” the half-ogre mutt
ered.
“Yeah, that.”
“Alright, then what would it take to clear this up?” Haragh asked, and he nodded to a mage who looked ready to piss himself at the sight of Bom Two rolling behind us.
“Well, never mentioning hormones again is a good place to start,” I offered. “Maybe you should get them something. They like getting gifts, especially weapons.”
“I could get Aurora a flail,” Haragh realized, but I sent him an apologetic look.
“Someone just got her a flail, actually,” I admitted, “but keep thinking along those lines. You know them all, just be genuine, apologize, admit you were an ass, and give them something they can kill someone with. That would make them happy.”
“What if they kill me with it?”
“Hmm,” I mused. “Maybe don’t give Cayla a weapon.”
“Or Aurora,” Haragh muttered.
“No, give her a weapon,” I countered. “It’ll show you trust her, because she can kill you with her magery anyways. So, don’t be a coward. Give Aurora an awesome weapon that she’ll flip over, and she’ll respect you for it.”
“Yeah, I’m sticking with one woman,” Haragh decided as we climbed up onto the tracks and rounded the train car. “Four is three too many. It all gets confusing when there’s more than one.”
“True, but it also gets really fun,” I chuckled. “Did I tell you they made me build cages in our bedroom?”
“Cages for what?”
I waggled my brows at him before I pulled the door of the train car open, and I was still laughing at the look on his face when I turned to get a look inside.
“Holy shit … that’s a lot of marble,” I mumbled.
Haragh came over to look as well, and he let out a low whistle as he dragged his hand over a solid chunk of deep green marble that was easily five feet thick. There were seven more of these behemoths stacked inside the train car, and how the dwarves had managed to load them all up was beyond me. Just at first glance, though, I knew I’d have more than enough for every floor in my mansion now.
“Gotta love the dwarves,” Haragh chuckled as he climbed in to admire the other slabs, but the sound of horse hooves drew my attention toward the stables, and I saw three king’s guards riding straight for me at breakneck speed.
“Defender Flynt!” one of the guards called before he roughly reigned in his mount.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“Notice from King Temin,” the man replied, and he held out a piece of parchment to me. “There’s been another attack. Last night in Rajeen.”
Chapter 11
I left Haragh and Bom Two at the station as I barreled toward the mansion with Temin’s note clutched in my hand, and when I burst through the door, Alfred was waiting patiently to greet me.
“Where are my women?” I panted.
“The ladies are training with their flails in the--” he began, but I was already running down the hall.
My four women dropped their flails to the training hall floor the moment they saw me, and they rushed over as I tried to catch my breath.
“Has Nulena been here yet?” I demanded, and when they all shook their heads, I had to brace my weight on my knees. “Shit.”
“What’s wrong?” Cayla asked. “What happened?”
“There was an attack in Rajeen,” I managed, and I held out the parchment because my lungs were seizing at the moment.
Aurora gasped as she read through the letter, and Shoshanne worked to help me straighten up while she stroked my arm nervously.
“I can’t believe this,” the half-elf muttered. “More than half of Rajeen’s residents must have been killed with numbers like these.”
“I know,” I panted, “and it was all mages who did it. Imagine what the survivors must be thinking right now.”
“Mages?” Shoshanne asked as she paled.
I nodded. “A whole troop. They invaded Rajeen in the dead of night, and the people didn’t stand a chance. Nothing in that letter says anything about Nulena’s manor, though, and I … ”
I worked to steady my breathing, but it was useless. My heart couldn’t seem to find a steady rhythm, and my legs still hadn’t regained the feeling in them after the king’s guard delivered Temin’s letter.
“Mason, breathe,” Deya urged as she came over to support my weight with Shoshanne. “I’m sure Nulena is okay. She can vanish the same as me. If she was there when this happened, she could easily escape unharmed.”
“Exactly,” Cayla agreed. “She’s also not the type to go charging into battle.”
I nodded as the logic of this steadied my pulse a little.
“True,” I admitted. “She wouldn’t have put herself in harm’s way over the others, but what if they found her in her sleep?”
“Nulena was busy assassinating someone,” Aurora reminded me. “If she had finished her work early in the night, she would have come here to sleep with us. It’s most likely she wasn’t in Rajeen at all when this happened.”
“That’s a good point,” I realized. “She always comes here to sleep if she’s not working.”
“So, breathe,” Deya urged once more.
I did as she instructed while my legs slowly regained feeling, but I was still too on edge to fully relax.
“Godsdamnit,” I sighed. “It’s so inconvenient that she’s impossible to get a hold of.”
“It’s kind of charming, too,” Cayla tried, and I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure she’ll show up sometime soon, so let’s focus on what we can do right now.”
“I agree.” Aurora nodded. “Most importantly, Mason was correct, and the Master is ready to coordinate mass attacks. This is four attacks in only two days.”
“No,” I countered. “Most importantly, he sent a bunch of fucking spiders here while his mages were massacring a village nowhere near us. Not that those creatures couldn’t have killed half my mages, but it wasn’t even close to the kind of stunt he was pulling in Rajeen.”
“Maybe he can’t risk an attack of that magnitude near you,” Shoshanne pointed out. “You’ve been the victor in every encounter so far, and his numbers are deteriorating because of it.”
“Or he’s keeping Mason distracted,” Cayla realized, and we all looked her way. “The Master knows Mason is here, and he knows he’ll stop at nothing to fend off his attacks, but it’s impossible for him to be everywhere at once. If these attacks in Cedis and Rajeen happened alone, Mason would have acted or at least begun securing defenses throughout the kingdom. Instead, we were being attacked at the same time, so the threat is here, with his own mages and all of us in the crosshairs. The Master could be keeping Mason busy and hoping to dilute his numbers while he begins working his way across the regions.”
“That bastard,” I growled. “You’re fucking right.”
“I think so, too,” Deya agreed. “It’s an elven tactic Nalnora thrives on. We launch several miniscule attacks throughout the jungles in order to pick off warriors by the dozens. This pulls the Houses’ armies out, too, which leaves the heads of Houses exposed. It perpetuates a constant battle state and depletes defenses.”
“The same will happen if Temin declares war,” I realized. “We’re down on our numbers already, and if our Defenders are sent out and dispersed, Serin will be more vulnerable. We all will be, and we’ll never catch up.”
“Unless you’re already prepared for that,” Aurora countered. “Mason, your mages are gaining skills every day, and by the time you’re finished promoting those who are ready, we won’t be down on numbers any longer. We can still beat him at his own game.”
“Especially with your automatons,” Cayla added. “This is something the Master won’t be prepared to counter no matter what tactic he tries.”
I nodded and considered all of this for a moment, but too much was on the table now, and with my mind still half focused on my concern for Nulena’s life, I knew I needed longer to regroup.
“Does this mean our defenses here are only wasting Mason’s
time?” Shoshanne asked Cayla with concern.
“No,” I answered for her, “we can continue to use this to our advantage, and this is still where the majority of the Order’s mages are residing. If the Master wants to distract us, that’s just more opportunities. Whatever creatures he sends here could end up swarming any area of any region down the line, and now that we know our mages can handle it, it’s killing two birds with one stone.”
“I agree,” Aurora replied. “More opportunities to chip away at his numbers, and the mages are getting their first glimpse at what they’ll be up against soon. It’s a new phase of training for them.”
“This means the attacks here won’t be letting up, though,” I added. “So, I’ll form the underground shelter and check that the rebuilding is well underway right now.”
“Mason, maybe you should take a moment to calm down,” Shoshanne worried. “I can tell you’re wound up, why don’t you--”
“No,” I countered, but I pulled the healer into my arms to reassure her. “I know you’re concerned, but I’ll feel better if I stay busy. I want you all to stay here in case Nulena shows up.”
“Yes, Mason,” Cayla said with a nod.
“Could you and Aurora work on the list of mages for promotion while I’m gone?” I asked the princess, and she nodded once more before I tucked a kiss in Shoshanne’s copper curls and turned for the door.
When I got to the entryway, Alfred was waiting with a small tray that had a glass balanced at the center, and he held it out to me with a solemn bow of his head.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“A bracing glass of spirits, sir,” the man replied. “I anticipated that it might be needed.”
“Alfred, you are an incredible butler,” I informed him, and I downed the glass in two big gulps.
It was indeed a very large and bracing glass of spirits, though, and my knees were already buzzing as I crossed my bridge and headed into Falmount. I took a few steadying breaths as I repeated my women’s logical points about Nulena in my mind, and even though blindly trusting that one of my women was safe went against my nature, I tried to focus on staying busy until I knew she was okay.