by Aaron Crash
Her father, the Storm King, or that was what they called him. It was an honorary title of the Blue Dark. Her father always considered himself to be peaceful, and not the Storm King at all.
The mermaid took a wrap, threw it over her shimmering dress, and ran to Tori, waiting for her at the top of the steps. Tori needed a bath. She had flour on her face, in her hair, and there was a crust of something drying on her left arm. “I know, I know, I’ve been cooking up a storm. I look terrible. But come on. I think we’ve had a breakthrough. I need a third opinion, though. Z and I have been eating so much sweet cream, we’re both a little sick of it.”
“It’s fine,” Charibda said. “I’ll eat your cow leavings.”
Tori winced. “Not the best name for it.”
The pair left the Zoo. The mermaid had to shorten her steps and walk a lot slower. Tori couldn’t keep up with her short legs. The dwab was falling over herself in the pursuit. Sunfire torches lit the way, and the night was clear, a little cold, but free of the wet fog for once.
They walked down the length of the Chapel of the Tree, then crossed over to the walkway on the west side of the feasting hall, across the Flow courtyard, and down the Sea Stair steps.
Outside of the Unicorn’s Uht, Gulnash the Betrayer stood, along with his black-haired orc warriors, all swilling strong beer out of the extra-large steins. Their eyes went to the two women.
Tori stopped abruptly. “Maybe we should find another way to The Paradise Tree. Those orcs aren’t going to let us pass without saying something.”
Charibda felt her heart harden. “We are princesses of the highest order. We are fucking royalty. We will walk by them. They will say what they have to say, and we will keep walking.”
Tori bit her lip. “But, Ribby, you can’t lose your temper. Promise me. You can’t fight them, no matter what they say. There’s all these weird orc rules we don’t understand.”
Anger flashed through her, but she didn’t show it. “I understand, sweet Tori. I understand.”
They walked down the steps, and Charibda decided on a course of action. It might’ve been a mistake, but she wasn’t some child who needed protecting. She was a daughter of the dark blue depths. She fixed her gaze on Gulnash until he was forced to meet her stare.
As the two princesses walked down the steps, one of the orcs elbowed another. “Look at them. Big and small. Fat and tall. One has big tits and the other only has flea bites.”
The orcs grunted and laughed.
Not Gulnash. He kept his face stone. That steel tusk caught the light of a torch, and it also deepened the scars on his face. He wasn’t just some horny Gruul wanting to leer, he was a butcher, a betrayer, a conqueror. He was dangerous in a way that Charibda hadn’t expected.
Fear struck her. But she didn’t show anything to this monster. She and Tori walked by them, and the mermaid never let her gaze fall.
Gulnash nodded at her.
Charibda nodded back.
The other orcs said other things, but they didn’t matter. Those orcs, and their leader, would be dead within days. The Kurzig Durgha was a weekend affair, Friday through Sunday. So, by next week, Charibda would see these creatures dead on the ground at her feet.
Tori didn’t say a peep until they were inside The Paradise Tree, which was closed for the night. “Well, that could’ve been worse. You did well, Ribby.”
Charibda found her mouth was very dry. “Yes. We’re going to kill those orcs. If we can.” And that was the issue. That thing, that Gulnash person, radiated a viciousness that unnerved the mermaid. She realized there was a good possibility that she would die.
And yet, if she died, people would never forget her: an Aquaterrebian princess who gave her life to keep the peace on the land. It would make a good story.
But she didn’t want to die before she gave herself to Ymir and his sharreb. She’d won Tori over, though the pair hadn’t been intimate, and she’d had sex with Lillee numerous times. However, Charibda longed for something other than a chitub. She wanted to be at the center of a sex knot, with Ymir and his other beautiful princesses, so the mermaid could gift them with the gathered pleasure.
Ziziva fluttered toward them, then around them, giggling. She too had marks of cooking on her little face and a bit of something drying in her hair. The little blond Fayee laughed. “Oh, is this Ymir’s new yummy? She’s so long and tall! Does she fit in a bed? Can she bend in so many yummy ways? I would hope she’s a flexible one, like a long piece of taffy you can twist and suck, to lick and fuck.”
“Ugh,” Tori complained. “We got enough dirty talk from those yucky betrayer orcs. Not you too, Miss Z. Can you put a lid on it?”
Ziziva giggled more and spun around them. “Yes, yes, Miss T, and should I call her Miss C? She’s the mermaid princess. I’ve heard all about her. Though the Aquaterreb aren’t good customers. They like their fish guts and kelp chew. They chew their beer! They eat their cheer!”
Tori marched up to the counter, which had been converted into a laboratory.
Charibda eyed the candy. She wasn’t much for sweets, though she did like the Amora Xoca. The fairy wasn’t wrong about the Aquaterreb liking fish entrails. She didn’t tell any of the land people that. She was having a hard enough time fitting in.
Ziziva landed on a perch above a series of covered stone bowls. The fairy pointed. “We have Form magic now for the sweet cream, and it’s kept cold in the stone bowls. We’ll have to have them quarried, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Now the fairy sounded more like a savvy businesswoman than a silly, sex-crazed fairy.
Charibda found her a bit confusing, but Tori took her in stride. She climbed up on a little stepping stool and removed a cover. She had a spoon, which she filled with the sweet cream, white, with a few crystals.
Tori then offered the spoon to the mermaid. “Try this and tell us what you think.”
Charibda felt the cold rising up from the bowl. It was remarkable she hadn’t felt that before. Though the cold didn’t bother her, it still felt odd to have such winter in the room. She took the spoon and tasted the cold mixture. She blinked. It was sweet, cold, creamy, and altogether delicious. “It’s very good. I’m surprised to taste something so cold and yet sweet at the same time.”
“’Cause you’re used to fish guts!” Ziziva screamed.
The old lady in the back let out a laugh. “Oh, Ziziva, you’re a funny girl. I’m so glad you’re working here for me.”
Charibda smiled at the voice. Everyone knew that the old lady who ran the store was so nice and welcoming even when the fairies working as clerks could be so insane.
The mermaid princess frowned. “We don’t eat fish guts.” It was a lie, but Charibda did wonder how the fairy could know about the dietary habits of the Aquaterreb. And Ziziva had referred to her as an Aquaterreb. Very few knew that name. Most of the land people referred to them as the merfolk.
Tori beamed. “Oh, good, and now try this one.” She took the lid from another bowl and supplied a fresh spoon. “This is the xoca cream.”
“Amora Xoca?” Charibda asked, not sure if she was hopeful or not.
Ziziva turned pale.
Tori cast a glance down at the floor. “No, we haven’t been able to...it was...” The freckled woman gulped. “The xocalati sweet cream is very powerful.”
The fairy fluttered her wings. Her voice was soft. She sounded overwhelmed. “Yeah, yeah, the Amora in the sweet cream. It’s, um, we...should talk about something else. It’s safe, Miss C. It’s safe.”
Charibda tried it, and it was immediately interesting. The creamy, the sweet, and a little bitterness, but that only added to the complexity of the flavor. She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. It’s very good.”
Tori clapped her hands. “Oh, I’m so glad. We’re going to try berry next. So we’ll have the three flavors.”
“Which berry?” the mermaid asked.
“Stinkberry,” Ziziva said, laughing. “I promise it’s more berry tha
n stink!”
Tori rolled her eyes. “We call it mountainberry, or even eyeberry, though even that’s probably not a good name.”
Ziziva laughed and took off, spinning around on her furiously buzzing wings. She flew in front of Charibda, and the smell of her tickled the mermaid’s nose. Sweet, feminine, and such a happy smell. There were rumors that the Fayee could do things to you and then remove your memories. However, the Aquaterreb were uniquely resistant to such magic. The mermaid wasn’t afraid—she was more curious than anything else.
The Fayee girl giggled. “We’ll worry about the mountainberry marketing in time, we’ll worry about the stinkberry maybe never. Soon we’ll rule the world with our cold goo, such sweetness, such creaminess, and we have the Fayee to thank for this dreamy creamy.”
Tori nodded. “It was that Dillyday who brought us the spell, on a scroll, that did the trick. Now we just have to hurry up and make as much as we can. Z and I are working hard on it. We were going to have people put it in cups, but I got permission to use the kitchens for sweet bread bowls. We’re going to make a fortune.”
Ziziva tsked the dwab. “You already have a fortune, Ms. Welldeep, deep, deep. As does the ocean girl here. Is it true that you fuck in knots, a knot of naughty mermaids, all wet in the wetness, down in the darkness deep?”
Charibda didn’t immediately lash out, but she came close. Instead, she decided to ignore such a question.
Tori winced. “Come on, Z. Don’t make it weird. You’re making it weird.”
“Do you need me for anything else?” Charibda asked.
“No, we’re good,” Tori replied. “I’ll walk you back.”
“No, you won’t,” Ziziva countered. “I need help cleaning up, and we have more plans, little dwabby dwab. Besides, I’m hoping maybe to see your Inconvenience again. Maybe, yessie?”
Tori frowned. “Definitely a noey. Come on, we’re doing a business. We’re not doing a sex.”
The fairy pouted. “No rubbing noses?”
“Right. No rubbing noses.” Tori let out a shaky breath.
It was clear something powerful had happened with those women.
Ziziva slapped her cheeks. “Oh, and yes, and Ymirry dearie is going to bring down the mean old dwarf professor who hates his ex-wife. D-I-V-O-R-C-E spells sadness. I’m helping Ymir with something sassy. Something fun!”
Charibda wondered what that something might be, but she excused herself.
On her way up the Sea Stair, she hoped Gulnash would be outside the Unicorn’s Uht again. She wanted to give the Betrayer another glare, but he and his orcs were gone.
Charibda met Ymir and Professor Bootblack in the Flow courtyard. The mermaid smiled. “I bet you two are on your way to The Paradise Tree.”
The dwarf let out an annoyed grunt. “Why we’re going to a candy shop is beyond me. There’s beer in the Unicorn’s Uht, Ymir. Beer!”
The barbarian laughed. “First I have to do a little business, and then I’ll buy you that beer I promised.” He turned to Charibda. “Did they perfect the sweet cream?”
“They did,” the mermaid answered
Ymir smiled before unexpectedly darting in to kiss Charibda on the cheek. “This is very good news. Thank you.” He and the dwarf went charging down the stairs.
Charibda touched her cheek. Just that one kiss had quickened her heart. She was halfway to winning a place in Ymir’s sharreb.
The mermaid felt light as she walked into the Librarium Citadel, empty except for Gatha sitting at her desk. She had a light sheen of sweat on her forehead from her time fighting with Ymir. Or had they been doing more?
The mermaid didn’t have much time left to complete her task to seduce all the members of Ymir’s sharreb. Jennybelle didn’t seem as difficult as Gatha. However, the she-orc had found new respect for the mermaid. For the she-orc, the battle was everything.
Charibda wandered over to the she-orc. The mermaid had won some favor with Gatha on the battlefield, and that had translated into fewer growls. But Charibda still wasn’t sure if she could ever win the warrior woman’s heart.
She had to try, and a plan slowly formed in her mind. She drew over a chair. “Gatha. Could I ask you a question?”
Gatha closed her book but kept her finger in her place. “Yes, Charibda. I’ll let the others call you by some ridiculous nickname. I like your full name. It sounds powerful.”
The mermaid found herself smiling. It was rare that Gatha complimented anyone.
“What is your question?” Gatha asked.
The mermaid decided to play it a bit more coy than she normally would. “It’s of a sensitive nature. It might be too private.”
Gatha snorted. “We might be killed or maimed in the coming days. Ask it. If I don’t want to answer, I’ll tell you to fuck right off.”
Charibda had expected that answer. Now she had permission to be graphic. “In my language, to chitub is to masturbate, or to have sex with a single person. We prefer sex in groups, called bitribibs, or sex knots. I’ve been having sex with Lillee, and it has been exciting. But to rub myself alone? I don’t see the appeal.”
Gatha eyed her, a smile curling her lip. “This is your attempt to seduce me. I think it is clever and daring. Would you like me to explain the appeal to you? Or would you like me to show you?”
Charibda felt a knot of lust in her belly. “Showing me would help. And you don’t have to do anything to me if you don’t want to.” That was honest. The mermaid was a princess, and she loathed anyone’s pity.
“Well,” the she-orc said with a grin. “Perhaps we’ll see how things play out. If it’s just the two of us, then it’s chitub either way. I’m not sure you have what I like, however.”
“Tits,” the mermaid said quickly. “I know you like big tits. I’m afraid I’m not large-chested, nor was I even before I joined your training.”
Gatha stood up. “Yes, there is that. I do like big tits. But there is something I like even more. Perhaps you have it, and perhaps not, but regardless. I’ll show you what I do, and how I do it.”
Gatha moved away in her plain white dress, her sandals slapping the floor.
The mermaid followed, her eyes on Gatha’s shapely hips and ass. Where was the she-orc taking her?
Chapter Twenty-Six
CHARIBDA FOUND HERSELF at the far end of the Scrollery, near dark glass where laughing eels went slithering through the water. The eels were bigger than normal, grown with magic, provided by professors at the school, no doubt.
Gatha sniffed the air, a look of worry on her face. “I think someone has been here. That can’t be, though. That can’t be.”
“Should we cast a spell?” the mermaid asked.
Gatha shrugged. “I am not very adept at the Flow’s divination magic. You?”
Charibda felt her brow furrow. “I can try. Jelu jelarum!”
She heard a moan, a cry, and she smelled the sexual excitement of a land woman. It reminded her of Lillee, whose scents she’d grown accustomed to—no, she’d grown to love them as well as her own fragrance, which was so different on land than under the sea.
“Sex,” Charibda whispered. “So many bodies. What am I sensing?”
“Sarina Sia’s orgies,” Gatha replied. “She was a lusty Ohlyrran Princept who never wore her cuff. Her appetites were endless. Go forward in time.”
The mermaid didn’t have that much control. But she tried to sense things around her, and she saw someone, someone tall and broad, and she heard the sound of a coin striking the ground and rolling, only to come rattling down.
Her spell was broken. “I’m sorry, Gatha. I heard a coin drop. I don’t suppose you heard that.”
The she-orc growled. “No. But we’ll tell Ymir and the others. Someone has been down here. Nothing we can do about it now.” Her growl turned into a sigh. “Thinking of Sarina Sia’s orgies has me horny. So you don’t fuck yourself when you’re horny? What do you do?”
Charibda was taken aback by the question. “I...well..
.in the past, I would call my lovers together for a knot. Then I would enjoy the feelings of sensuality and longing until I could come together with my friends. But these past two years? I haven’t felt aroused much. Until recently. Until I began to consider Ymir and his sharreb.”
Gatha picked up a simple wooden chair and brought it to an alcove where a larger cushioned chair sat next to a little table with a pile of books on it. It was a nice, comfortable space. The she-orc adjusted a Sunfire lantern, which cast a warm glow on a lush carpet covering the floor. She then sat and picked up a large book from the table. The tome was weathered, with a paper cover flecking away. She motioned for Charibda to sit in the simple wooden chair.
The mermaid took the seat. The dungeon-turned-library was silent. The perfume of books and scrolls wafted across the cold stone.
“Why did you think of Ymir and our ptoor?” Gatha asked.
The mermaid felt like she was being put on the spot. Sudden anger flared, and it came on so violently, she couldn’t suppress it. “You know the males at this school as well as I. Who would you want to fuck? The Viscount Roger Knellknapp or any of his friends?”
Gatha smiled. “No. I would want Ymir and his women. I had many fantasies about them. Do you have fantasies?”
The mermaid frowned. “Dreams?”
“No. Fantasies.” The she-orc’s voice turned husky. “Stories of sex we tell ourselves. Scenarios. Thoughts of sex. In our minds, we can dream up any number of forbidden things. We wouldn’t do these things in real life, but in our fantasies? Anything is possible.”
The mermaid swallowed. “I know what you are talking about. I’m afraid I don’t have a good imagination. I was given so much, and there was war to think about, and like I said, when I was aroused, I could find a knot to lose myself in.”
“I had to escape,” Gatha said in a soft voice. “I had to run away into my fantasies. And then I discovered my erotica. It wasn’t just my own fantasies I could use to excite myself, it was others’. I was given worlds of ideas to arouse myself, and then I took care of that arousal.”