“This is getting good.” Nina remarked; “Twenty coins on the queen.”
Erica smirked.
“I’ll take that action. She looks like a badass, but he seems pretty scrappy.”
“Girls, please.” Nameless pinched the bridge of his nose; “We need to stay focused.”
“I will accompany you, Queen Julia.” Volka declared, setting her hand on the angry Antlion’s shoulder before she could deliver on her threat.
Curbing her anger with the aid of the Valkyrie’s aura, the Antlion dipped her head in gratitude.
“I would be grateful for your aid.”
“We were about due for another adventure.” Erica declared brightly; “Watching our master sit on his ass all day and shill monster girls is hot, but it gets super boring, so it’ll be good to get out in the field again.”
“He’s not going.” Booker shook his head; “There are too many unknowns in this for us to risk our only Empath.”
“Hate to make you look like an idiot there Book-Book.” Nina declared while cracking her knuckles; “But my Empath goes where I go. Or did you miss the big ass Valkyrie talking?”
“My ass is hardly big.” Volka pouted quietly, but no one heard her.
Booker turned on the Gigas, his one healthy eye set in a severe glare.
“Miss Nina, I realize that you don’t consider yourself under the authority of the Aegis, but your bond-mate is, and do you really want me to demote him just so you can prove how strong you are?”
“I dunno. Do you want to find out what your spine tastes like just so I can prove how strong I am?” She retorted flatly; “My angel is going, so I’m going. And since he’s wearing my heartstone on his arm, our man is going too. The math is pretty simple, so figure it out numb-nuts.”
The thick silver bracelet she was referring to held her heartstone, embedded in a raised image of her hammer set against a depiction of Volka’s shield, and she didn’t bother telling him that she could remove it if she wanted.
Recognizing the potential for a serious argument, Volka gripped Nina’s shoulder and intervened.
“Our focus now needs to be upon young Avita. I’m sure that on that point we can all agree?”
Booker ground his teeth together in frustration, but couldn’t argue against that.
Then Ophelia spoke up to point out the obvious.
“Since we finished working with Miranda and her task-force, my bond-sisters and I have been pretty much left to our own devices, while our bond-mate has either been sitting behind a desk or working at the auction house. Respectfully, I must point out that our ‘manpower’ is being underused as it is.”
None of the councillors could argue with that, in fact, a few of them looked like they had just been found out doing something they shouldn’t.
Nameless frowned when he realized that he really had been sidelined.
Margaret Bloom stepped in.
“Yes, and everyone here knows why that is.” She turned to Nameless; “I’m sorry Aegis Armstrong but Booker is right, you must be kept safe at all cost.”
He surprised most everyone when he firmly shook his head at her.
“Begging your pardon ma’am, but I’ve never been safer than when I’m standing next to my bond-mates. Unless anybody here wants to challenge Nina to an arm-wrestle?”
The Gigas nodded firmly and dropped her hammer on the floor with a heavy thud, kneeling beside it and setting her elbow on top of it to get in position for what he proposed.
“Taking all comers.” She wiggled her fingers in invitation as she looked around the room; “Anybody? No? Here, I’ll even close my eyes.”
“Insubordination is not a laughing matter young man.” Booker scowled at Nameless, but notably didn’t accept Nina’s challenge.
Watching on with a bemused expression, Queen Julia shook her head.
“I do not care how or where it comes from, but I need help to find my daughter!” She reminded the room.
Margaret Bloom sighed, giving up.
“Very well. But we can’t afford to send both Holt and Semper, so we will only send Holt. A Wolfen’s nose isn’t as good as a Grizzly’s but she should still be able to find an entire colony of Antlions! And besides, Miranda was assigned to protect you once before so it seems a fair... compromise.”
Nina shrugged indifferently as she gave up her arm-wrestling posture.
“Not really a compromise. I told you what we’re doing. Don’t really care what you do.”
Before his bond-mate could talk him into getting demoted, Nameless clapped a salute to his chest as if taking the academy’s headmistress’s words as an order.
“Yes ma’am. When do we leave?”
He was trying his very best to hide it, but he was desperately glad to be doing something important again.
Chapter 21:
In the Dark
Using her knife, Helena carefully peeled back the black crust of the massive tree, Escrya and Kaylee watching on warily.
“I think it is safe to say that we are here.” The oldest of the three Amazons announced when she pried a piece of the exposed trunk away.
It was black, and as she worked it between her fingers it crumbled like charcoal.
The three of them had traveled fast from Garland, their destination set and their resolve unwavering.
But their headlong journey came to a halt when they reached the massive black cedars of the Darkwood.
“Safe is not the word I would choose. How can these trees still live?” Kaylee wondered.
Escrya took up her spear and looked into the darkness between the towering monoliths. Five feet back from where they stood the trees were smaller, young and healthy.
It was as if the Amazons stood upon a dark precipice.
“A mystery that we three will certainly not be able to solve.” The young teller declared; “Come sisters, we must press on.”
Kaylee chuckled and nudged at her ribs.
“You’ve become so decisive since you bonded! Why, it is as if Alcaia herself was here to command us!”
“This is no time for jests Kaylee.” Helena chided quietly as she wiped the charcoal-like wood off on her skirt; “The moment we trespass underneath these trees, we will be under a sentence of death from the Matriarch.”
Kaylee’s good humour evaporated, but she squared her shoulders against the dark.
“So be it. At the very least, she will need to meet with us to deliver upon that sentence.”
“Now who sounds like my mother?” Escrya muttered.
The three of them stepped into the dark.
Immediately they felt a change; the atmosphere grew oppressive, the air thick and cloying all around them.
But it wasn’t until they were far enough from the healthy growth that they noticed the real worrying part.
“There are no birds.” Helena murmured, unwilling to speak in a normal tone amongst the dark sacred hush of the alien forest; “No crawling animals. Nothing that should be in the woods dwells here.”
They listened, but the only sounds they heard were the deep and ominous creaks of the massive trees around them swaying in the muted wind.
The Saenga warriors trained their whole lives to seamlessly blend into the wilderness, to move without making a noise even on a bed of dry and crackling leaves.
But here the quiet was so total that even their practiced footfalls could be heard amidst it.
And after two hours of walking, another sound joined their steps.
A quiet and constant rasp, just barely within the range of their hearing.
“The ground!” Kaylee hissed suddenly; “Look to your feet!”
The others flinched, no one had said a word in some time, and immediately afterwards they did as she asked.
Were they not hardy warriors, panic would have filled their hearts.
Snakes.
Countless tiny white snakes, no longer than the span of their feet, squirming around and atop their sandals, drawn out of the ground by
the warmth of their bodies.
“It’s alright.” Escrya breathed, her heart hammering in her ears belying her words; “They are harmless. They have no mouths.”
“How do they feed then? And what upon in this wretched place?” Kaylee queried.
“It is not known. At least, not to me. My grandmother only told me tales of the white snakes of the Darkwood, but she never dared set foot here to see them.”
Helena lifted one of her feet and gave a little jerk to shake off the strange snakes.
“With good reason. If I did not fear the trees more than the snakes I would be halfway up one by now!”
Feeling their resolve shaken, Escrya extended her arms and nudged at them both.
“Do not forget our purpose, my sisters! We must locate the Matriarch’s people, and it will do us little good if they see us behaving like frightened children when we do!”
To help remind them of their quest, she pulled her bond-sister’s feather from within the hem of her skirt where she had tucked it for safe-keeping.
Though she had to suppress a shudder when she did; as they walked the feather had shifted over within her skirt so that when she pulled it out it tickled across her bare pussy lips.
Regardless of the sudden longing she felt to experience the angel’s touch again, Escrya held up the golden feather.
“This is our path. And one day our daughters’ daughters will speak of it around the cook-fire. So let us hope they leave out the part where we trembled in fear at these fangless-snakes!”
Helena and Kaylee reached out and clasped their hands around her fist, the feather suspended between them.
“Then we adapt to this place.” Helena suggested; “That maybe we find the reason the Matriarch and her people stayed here for so long.”
“Perhaps there is beauty here that we are too ignorant to see.” Kaylee offered hopefully.
As they stood in the heavy silence, where the sun’s kiss was barely able to filter down to reach them and with cold white snakes writhing around their feet and ankles, they very seriously doubted it.
All the same, they pressed on.
__________
Despite the circumstances it felt good to be traveling with Miranda and her girls again, though they had barely cleared the city when she rounded on Nameless.
“Alright kid, what the hell did you say in front of the council? I’ve never seen Booker look so annoyed during a briefing.”
“Does that guy have a first name?” Nina asked before her master could respond.
“Not one that I know.” Miranda shrugged but kept her focus on Nameless; “Now answer the question probie.”
“I didn’t really say anything. It’s just gotten a bit... awkward, since now two of my bond-mates don’t really recognize their authority.” He uneasily looked over his shoulder as he spoke, but Volka was too deep in conversation with Queen Julia to hear him.
“Hey, I’m fine with following their orders.” Nina protested mildly; “You know, just so long as it’s something I was going to do anyways.”
Erica was habitually spinning one of her knives in hand as they walked, dressed in her full-body leather outfit.
“Can I be a rebel too? Nina always makes it look like so much fun!”
“You don’t have the temperament for it.” Jan tossed out.
“Yeah.” Jez agreed from Milly’s back; “You need to be cool like me if you want to be a rebel. I’ll show you!”
Her whitish pink tongue shot out and the bulb on the end swatted Ophelia’s ass, causing her to yelp and flutter into the air for a moment in surprise.
Most of them laughed, but when she landed again the Flutterby stormed over to Jez, who suddenly didn’t look so smug.
“You are not going to try to eat me again young lady!” Ophelia sternly chastised the tiny frog.
Meanwhile the Gripau scrambled around on Milly’s torso, trying to keep the Minotaur between her and the upset Flutterby.
“Kala help! I started a rebellion but I don’t think I can finish it!”
“I’m afraid you are on your own this time, little warrior.” The Amazon smirked.
Miranda sighed and shook her head.
“You know what kid, forget I said anything. I hope everything works out between you and the council.”
Having been distracted from her conversation with the Antlion Queen by the commotion, Volka frowned when she heard the senior operative’s words, but she didn’t comment on them.
They traveled until quite late, passing through little hamlets and farming communities as they went, far too many of which had been abandoned in fear of the Chimera.
Nobody said anything about it, but they all knew.
They settled in for the night, bunking down in a series of simple tents that the Antlions set up in perfectly ordered lines.
Within their tent though, Milly was struggling to get to sleep.
“What’s the matter lover?” Erica murmured, not wanting to wake the others.
The Minotaur hugged her close, taking comfort from her lithe form and the deep purr that her embrace elicited in the Katje.
“Just thinking too much I guess.”
Erica nuzzled against her chin and neck, her tongue gently rasping against her jaw as she began to groom her.
“Feel free to elaborate.” The Katje teased while rubbing their cheeks together.
She waited patiently; knowing that Milly would tell her whatever it was that was bothering her so long as she was given the time to work through it.
“I know I shouldn’t have told Queen Julia that we could save her daughter. But she was so upset, and I just... I wondered if my mother felt like she did.” The Minotaur finally admitted with a sniffle; “I’d never thought about it until that moment. I missed a mother I never knew, but she lost a child.”
“Oh baby, that’s-” Erica’s purr faded as she looked into Milly’s eyes; “Okay, I don’t know what that is. I don’t remember anything about my mother except maybe the two of us playing with yarn. Assuming that was even her.”
“It... whenever I think about it now, I feel sad. Aren’t you sad?”
The Katje rolled on top of her, their bare breasts pressing together, their nipples exchanging loving kisses.
“I’ll admit, I don’t really think about it much. We have our master and we have our bond-sisters.”
But she could tell that the Minotaur was still discontent about it, so she nuzzled against her some more.
“One day Milly, when all of this stuff is over, I promise you that together we will find your mom. And heck, we can even find mine while we’re at it! Because maybe I do have some questions for her!”
Milly’s eyes brightened and she smiled, her melancholy forgotten as she kissed the cat over and over and held her tight.
Erica sighed and tamped down her body’s natural reaction to such affection, knowing that the two of them needed rest more than sex at the moment.
“But first we need to focus everything we have on helping our master and Volka save the world. Starting with this Avita chick.”
The breasts beneath her rose as Milly drew in a deep breath.
“You’re right. Let’s get to sleep, and then tomorrow we’ll do our best!”
Nearby, the angel watched them, her brow slightly furrowed as she remembered making a similar promise with Milly regarding her mother.
But in the end she too had to sigh as her priorities were organized against the Minotaur’s quest.
“After we save the world.” She repeated Erica’s words as an oath, too low for anyone to hear.
Chapter 22:
History Repeats
On the morning of the third day after setting out from Garland they passed through Fairbright, where Nameless and Grant Semper had dealt with a teenager-driven wool poaching ring only a few weeks ago.
This time though they turned south and headed up into the mountains rather than following the road northeast towards Algrade.
“My bond-mate rema
ins at my colony, protected by my Myrmidons.” Queen Julia was explaining to Erica as morning waned into noon; “I love my daughter but I could not expose her father to danger, no matter how much he begged me to.”
“Wait, there are more of you?” The Katje blurted out.
“Of course. These are but one dispatch of the Longinus legions.” Julia said with a raised eyebrow.
“Antlions are the most numerous of the insect breeds.” Miranda commented from nearby; “If you were thinking of Oldeera without wings, you were thinking wrong. I suspect that one Hornet hive would barely make a tenth of Queen Julia’s family.”
The Antlion monarch adopted a slightly smug expression.
“I do not know this Queen, nor how her numbers would stack up against mine but I would not say if I did, as only a foolish sovereign would reveal her strength so readily.”
Erica bit her lip as she thought on that, until finally she shook her head.
“But don’t they need to be close to your heartstone?”
Miranda sighed at the questions, but Queen Julia readily answered them rather than argue with the curiosity of a cat.
“No. Though it is a burden to communicate with my girls if the distance is too great, and eventually they would weaken and fade away if I do not return to them. But they can survive for some time away from my heartstone. I do not mean to be rude, Katje, but did you not learn of this in school?”
Erica shrugged.
“Nah, was too busy getting laid.” She replied drily; “I’ll stop with the questions though if they’re bugging you.”
“Actually, I... I appreciate the distraction. But we are nearly there. My workers await us over that rise.”
Following her directions through the mountainous terrain they soon reached a large plateau. At this point they were a few miles south of Algrade and from their vantage point they could actually see parts of the city in the distance.
When they arrived at the location of her daughter’s colony the queen’s antennae twitched as she received the reports of her waiting workers and she gnawed at her lip.
The Heartstone Saga Page 20