The Great Forest: Laya: Dark Sculptor Novel 04

by D. R. Rosier

  Karana and I spent a lot of time together to catch me up to the concepts both Sianna and Saria already knew. Usually at the same time, Saria was spending time with her mother, while Regina and Sianna grew closer, sometimes with us and sometimes not. Not that I wasn’t spending time with all of them every day, but Karana was getting the lion’s share to teach me, even if we did take frequent breaks to wrestle between the sheets, with all my mates.

  Of course, I was still earning my lessons, and loving every minute of it.

  Before I knew it, it was time to pack up and leave for Amathyr. Outside of my mates and me, the only other person going was Claire. The elves would send another light elf to my flesh sculptor school, but directly, Claire was only welcome to go with us to Amathyr because Karana knew her well from the counseling and trip from Malburn, and she’d invited her. The two cities were at peace, but outside of an occasional ambassadorial visit from a royal heir or advisor, they didn’t really mix. One scout group would be coming with us to help guide us safely through the dangerous forest, but they’d be returning to Lelmalond when we got in sight of Amathyr.

  We sat around eating our last breakfast in the suite, right before we were about to leave.

  Saria said, “You’ve put it off long enough, the others need to know what we’ll be facing.”

  Karana grimaced, “Fine. It’s not that bad. I’ll help Sianna with my parents, Abresi and Anasha. I’m fairly sure the king and queen will go with whatever they recommend. I also don’t think we’ll have any opposition to the school idea, for either the mages or the requirements for flesh sculptors, like we did here.

  “King Mabosi is all bark and no bite and is quite outgoing. The queen, Renesa, I believe will be welcoming to all of us. My father… will hate you James, he doesn’t like humans and has been in a few bad scrapes with them. Sianna, don’t stress that so much, he’ll be coldly professional with you but reasonable, James on the other hand deflowered and defiled his precious dark elf daughter.”

  Sianna snickered, and a few of my other mates laughed.

  I swallowed nervously, which made her smile comfortingly at me, “My mother on the other hand will be almost the opposite. She’s… a lot like me, only more affectionate, don’t be surprised if you get hugs, all of you, and while they won’t cross the line they may be a bit… intimate. It’s how she shows affection. Sultry exuberance works as a two-word description for my mother. I don’t have any brothers and sisters you have to worry about, and the king and queen haven’t had children yet either. They’re rather young, about four hundred, which is one of the reasons I got such a high post at a young age.”

  “So, you put off telling us because of your father?”

  She nodded, “Him, and Narroc, which is the last person I need to tell you about.”

  I frowned, “Who’s Narroc?”

  “He’s about three hundred, fifty years older than me. He was one of those rare exceptions and was born a mage into a family that hadn’t shown that talent before. My parents agreed to train him. He… pursued me, for a mate. I liked him well enough, and he was kind to me then, but we didn’t have a spark, or at least I didn’t feel one, and I’m glad of that or I’d have never met you, James. He never gave up though I ignored him, and when I started my training and blew past his fifty-year head start almost effortlessly, he changed. I don’t mean to brag, and I’m not, but most mages my age don’t have close to the same intuitive understanding of magical concepts that I do, and I need to make it clear, so it makes sense. When I learned something new, it always felt to me like I was merely being reminded of something I already knew.

  “He’s Desirae’s age, and Desirae is far more gifted of a mage than he is, and I already far surpass her. In short, I surpassed him and left him in the dust. When that happened, he still wanted me, but he also changed. He both covets my ability and the power it would add to his if I was his mate, and he also resents me for it. He became more insistent though he didn’t cross any lines, I didn’t like it.”

  She shrugged sensuously as she looked at me, “I don’t know if he’ll be around or not, but he’ll hate you even more than my father, at the end he saw me as his, even if I never was. Like… a powerful possession. If there’s danger, it will come from him. Like here, there will be citizens and nobles that don’t like your presence, including my father, but as long as we’re careful we should be fine. If we’re lucky, he found a mate and moved on, I haven’t actually seen him in over two years.”

  I felt a little jealousy of the idea of another man chasing my mate, but it was easily pushed down. She rejected him before she even found and chose me, he wasn’t a competitor of any kind, at least not in my and Karana’s eyes he wasn’t. As for what he thought, that gave me pause.

  “Any suggestions?”

  Karana replied, “Same rules as here, no one leaves our suite alone. Narroc is a possessive ass, but he’s never been violent, so I’m not overly worried. I just wanted to make you aware, just in case losing me in a permanent fashion does push him over that final edge. Also, because I didn’t want you to hear it from someone else. I’m also sorry about my father, he lost a sibling in a skirmish between our people over three centuries ago, not that it makes it right. He shouldn’t judge you all for the actions of a few bad humans, but it is what it is.”

  Karana grinned, “That’s one of the things I love about you, my power doesn’t intimidate you, or make you try and control me.”

  I winked, and then leered her up and down, “Nope, it’s all about that beautiful face, sensual body, and the incredible sex.”

  She laughed sultrily, “Liar, but it’s good to be appreciated and desired, for all of me, including the magic and the sex.”

  Sianna smirked, “Our man is a strange one.”

  Saria grinned, “Very strange, let’s go, burning daylight.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  She swatted my ass, and I grinned cheekily.

  We left the suite and palace, and we met up with Claire on the edge of the city. She was standing among ten other scouts, and she looked at ease until she saw us coming. She looked like she was happy to see us, including me, and at the same time looked afraid and determined. I knew it wasn’t easy for her to be around me especially, but I also knew she wouldn’t quit. She was stubborn, like Desirae, and would claw her way back to a normal life.

  “Good morning.”

  Claire nodded fractionally, “Morning. Everything ready?”

  We all nodded. I wasn’t looking forward to two days of quiet, although once we’d made camp for the night we’d be able to put up a shield against sound to talk.

  We’d barely gone fifty feet from the dome, when a black blur of fur flew out of a bush and slammed into me hard, knocking me on my ass. I was about to blast it away with air, when I noticed two things. One, I wasn’t being ripped apart, even if my heart was beating about a two hundred times a minute, and two, she was purring.

  I also lost a lot of faith in the elven scouts, though I had a feeling the cats could hide from the scout’s eyes and ears easily, and the elven scouts only picked up the threat of being hunted with their instincts. Since this female panther cub meant no harm, they didn’t detect her presence. At least, that was my hope. Otherwise, we were sitting ducks.

  She sniffed my chest, and inspected me, to the amusement of my mates and the elven scouts.

  Karana tilted her head thoughtfully, and then mouthed at me. At first, I didn’t get what she was telling me, but then I realized she’d just suggested I try to bond it as a familiar. It was one of the concepts we’d gone over, because I was curious about the more advanced concept we’d discussed over dinner.

  What made it advanced, was the vast power required to go out and search for an animal that would be both willing and compatible to bond with a mage. Once that animal showed up, the second stage was to bond with it through magic, and that second part was a much less power intensive spell. The second part would bond us both, and also make the animal more intell
igent. It didn’t change the animal, but it gave the animal familiar access to its mage’s intelligence and a longer lifespan, and the mage would gain access to the familiar’s channeling potential in magic. Familiars could also serve as scouts, since they could communicate with their mage much like I already communicated with Oceana in my head.

  I’d been able to create both spells in my ring, the concepts were fairly simple relatively speaking, but I didn’t have nearly enough magical potential to cast the first part. We’d decided to wait until we got home, and I could bond with a much bigger piece of organic elven armor like we’d talked about over dinner, before we tried it. Of course, I didn’t need to cast the first part, a quite willing panther cub was already sitting on my chest.

  Quite probably saying hello and looking for food. The idea of having her as a familiar was an attractive one, she was a beautiful animal, powerful and deadly. I grinned, like all of my females. I thought it over and decided why not, it would give the cub I saved a better chance at life as well, she was a little young to be on her own. Plus, the spell wouldn’t force it, she could refuse the bond if she really didn’t want me, and she just wanted food. A familiar wasn’t a slave, no more than my mates or Oceana were. It was more a partnership.

  I also noticed Karana didn’t look very surprised by this turn of events, as if she’d almost been expecting the cub to be loitering around Lelmalond until I left it. Well shit, at least I didn’t squeak in fear like a little girl that time, even if I did almost shit myself. Almost doesn’t count.

  I slowly reached up and touched the baby panther’s neck. She flinched, but then pushed against it with a cute roar sound. With a thought, I released the spell in the ring. It was strange, yet familiar to what I felt with Oceana, except less, the cub’s mind was not nearly as powerful. I felt her in my mind, tentative and unsure, until there was a mental click and her presence settled into the back of my mind. Huh, I think I just bonded to one of the most feared predators in the Great Forest Laya, she wouldn’t always be a kitten. I hadn’t expected this when I’d saved her life a week ago, but I was grateful for it.

  “Food,” she said in a surprisingly gentle and affectionate tone in my head. Although, it shouldn’t have been surprising, and only backed up her purring and happily raised tail as she continued to sit on my chest. Thankfully, she was only about thirty pounds just then, less than a tenth the weight she’d be in a year.

  In my pack, you need to get down, do you have a name?

  She made an alarming noise in her throat, and it took me a minute to figure out that was her name, as she got off my chest and I stood up a bit shakily. My racing heart had finally settled down, and I dug in my pack for some deer jerky. She was quite happy to snatch the large piece in her small but strong jaws, and then lope off into the forest. I felt her nervousness around the others.

  How about I call you… Ash. I can’t pronounce your real name, even in my head.

  She replied, “Ash fine. Mates fine, other elves want hunt me, fear scent, scared of me. Keep close, out of sight.”

  Karana raised an eyebrow, and I nodded to tell her I now had a familiar. She grinned, and then waved at the rest, and we moved out. I wondered why she didn’t have a familiar yet, I hadn’t met many mages that did. Of course, I couldn’t ask at the moment, damned silence.

  I thought about Ash’s response, and smiled, she’d sensed my worry about her nervousness and responded to it. That was… pretty interesting. I also felt an instant sense of family, although I knew that for her that would be more limited in how far it extended to others.

  There wasn’t much to do on the silent trek, except watch the forest, and exchange glances with my mates. So, I used that time to get to know Ash better and learn what we could do together. She could share what she was seeing, by the feeling of it. I couldn’t see through her eyes, or hear through her ears, but I knew what she was hearing and seeing. She had the same capacity as I did, and she made it quite apparent I was deaf and blind by comparison.

  She liked me, and she’d never harm my mates, to the point she’d even protect us, but she was also a wild animal and quite independent. She liked knowing where I was at all times, and the intelligence I granted her, and was willing to share her magical potential for channeling. It wasn’t much just then, she was a fifth my mass, but she’d be over two or perhaps three times my mass eventually, which meant the organic spells from my ring which drew magic from me to cast, would be three or four times as powerful when she was full grown.

  It was probably a good thing that our manor was in the woods, outside of Eastguard. She’d be able to come and go as she pleased, and the few servants we’d have in the house would get used to her presence eventually. A lot easier than the elves probably, who knew how truly dangerous the cats were in the forest. To humans, they might have a visceral response to a predator before getting accustomed to her, but not because they’d been hunted by one already.

  It wasn’t until later around the night’s campfire that I had my curiosity satisfied on my question about familiars and mages.

  Karana smiled, “Well, remember to get a familiar they need to be master mages in the summoning sphere, and usually two or three others by the time their aura is large and powerful enough to cast the spells. I’m… powerful enough, I just haven’t done it yet. Like your jaguar, most mages aren’t going to keep their familiar in the palace court, or the castle. Most likely you’d be surprised by just how many of the few that are powerful enough, do have familiars, but you just didn’t see them. No one has a panther, only you could befriend one like you did, no one else would save a future hunter of their own species.”

  I blushed, both embarrassed and a little proud of that fact, “So, when will you?”

  Karana shrugged, “Maybe when this all settles down, the first part can take hours. Think I could tame one of those large flyers?”

  I smirked, “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

  Saria laughed, “You did well enough taming a human sister.”

  Regina chuckled, “Only after we got him started Saria.”

  “Hey now, it’s not nice to tell the truth like that,” I complained

  They all laughed, even Claire, and Sianna took my hand and tugged me toward the tent. I guess it was her turn tonight, my honey-brown haired princess...

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I groaned, pushed up hard, and let loose as I exploded into Regina’s sweet mouth. It was a hell of a wakeup call, to open my eyes to her sparkling green ones looking up at me with wicked devotion, as she moaned in pleasure and worshipped my cock with her silken lips, wet talented tongue, and tight throat. She was really getting the hang of taking me all the way in. It wasn’t the first time she’d done it, she loved to go down on me as much as I did her, but the wakeup calls were rather rare.

  My other mates were up already, making up breakfast and breaking down the camp based on the sounds.

  Regina crawled up my body, and then nuzzled my neck before claiming a soft kiss.

  “Good morning, husband.”

  I smiled, “I love you, wife.”

  She smirked, but her eyes were sparkling with that devotion that never ever failed to take my breath away.

  “When I chased after you, I never imagined it would lead here.”

  I asked, “Happy?”

  She nodded and smiled, then bit her lip, “More than I can express, but that’s about you, and my sister-wives who I love. The castles and stuff are nice, but not what fills me with joy.”

  “Good, we’re just getting started.”

  She asked a bit wistfully, “What’s it like, having a familiar?”

  I tilted my head, “Want to find out?”

  What wouldn’t I do, for my mates.

  She looked confused, then her eyes widened.

  “Exactly, I’d be happy to make you a device powerful enough to call one and bond one. But to answer your question, it’s a little disconcerting at first, but I’m already used to Ash being in the back o
f my mind all the time. I can tell what she’s doing, when she’s hungry, or hunting, exactly where she is. She’s like, an instant little sister, but also still a wild animal. She also likes you, and my other mates.”

  Regina bit her lip thoughtfully, “I didn’t think… I would like to try. We should probably get up, we need to break down the tent.”

  I kissed her softly, and I said in agreement, “We really should get up,” as my hand found its way between her legs.

  She only gave me a token protest, which quickly turned into soft moans and sighs of pleasure, as I started to kiss my way down her lush nubile body while teasing her sex with my fingers. We didn’t have time for full on sex, not really, but I was making the time to return the favor, and my mouth was watering in anticipation of my loving mate’s taste. My heart pounded in anticipation of making her sinfully curvy body tremble beneath my tongue…

  We got lucky the second day, and didn’t run into any predators, crazy fae, or killer flora. Ash came out a few times to be near me, but always left rather quickly under the close watch of the elven scouts who were clearly uncomfortable with the cat among us, even if she was still just a cub.

  When we reached the border of Amathyr later that night, the elven team turned and left, they were going to camp some distance from the city. My familiar also loped off into the woods, and she understood quite well the concepts of cities and palaces by virtue of our connected minds, and she knew she wouldn’t be welcomed.

  We also weren’t ambushed by dickhead princes, all in all it was a much nicer arrival, so far.

  Karana wanted to show us all her house, but it would have to wait until we had time for a city tour. That night we needed to get to the palace, and the following day would be a busy day of introductions, thanks, and speaking of our future.

  At first blush, Amathyr was very similar to Lelmalond with the exception of the inhabitants. I wasn’t too surprised by the latter, I’d been around a lot of dark elves before. The men all moved with an unreserved confident predatory grace, and the females all moved with a sensuous predatory grace to my own eyes. Though, they weren’t flirty like Karana was, but that was just us. Karana wasn’t really flirty with other people besides me and our other mates, but she was sensuous with everyone. It was… an instinctual feel, and something not easily pinned down. Any human man not familiar with dark elves, would have thought she was coming onto every man in sight, but it just wasn’t true.