by Isaac Hooke
“This is more than politics,” she said. “This is the end of the world.”
“Is that why you’ve come?” he said. “So you could convince me not to do this? To betray Vorgon? Well I won’t.”
“If you live, he can’t Break Wendolin,” she said. “If you die, his power will become unstoppable.” She gripped his hands tightly. “Come back with me. Let’s run away together, you and I. You don’t have to do this.”
He smiled sadly. “I wish I could. But I serve Vorgon, now. This is my duty. I wish we’d met under different circumstances. In another life, you and I might have been man and wife. If I had grown up among the Metals, perhaps. Or you among humans.”
She blinked rapidly, looking way. “Don’t say that. Your life isn’t over, not yet.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said softly. “It ended the day Vorgon broke me.”
She began weeping softly, then.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I was thinking of Khaledonius,” she said. “The oraks running through the streets, looting. The black dragons breathing their acid on the buildings. The blue dragons smashing into the towers.” She shut her eyes. “Most of my family fled, while I stayed to fight. My brother, and my sister, stayed. I don’t know what happened to Jalal. My brother. We were separated. I was so glad to have Brita with me, even if it meant we were in servitude. But not knowing what happened to Jalal, it’s just heartbreaking.”
“He probably got away with the other Metals,” Malem said. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
“And if not?” she said. “That’s on you. And Vorgon.”
He nodded. “I have many deaths on my shoulders. What’s another?”
“You’re so cold,” she said, looking away. The tears came anew. “He was my brother.”
“I’m sorry,” Malem said. “If it’s any consolation, I’ll pay for that death tomorrow, with my own.”
“But you don’t have to!” she said, looking at him. “Don’t you understand? You can stop this. You! Run away from Vorgon. Stop him from becoming invincible.”
Growing angry, Malem stood. It was all he could do not to slap her in the face. “You might as well leave. It was a mistake to call you here. I realize that now.”
She turned away, and continued weeping.
As Malem stared at her, his anger softened, eventually subsiding entirely. A portion of her robe had fallen away when she turned from him so that her left breast was exposed.
Yes, how could he be angry when she offered him that to look at in consolation?
He sat down beside her again and wrapped an arm around her. He pulled her close, making sure to press that bare breast against his chest.
She hugged him, and wept into his shoulder.
“I haven’t cried since the day Khaledonius fell,” she said.
“Cry now, sweet thing,” he said. “Let it all out.”
And cry she did.
Finally, no more tears came, and she simply held him. She began to tremble in his arms, and Malem knew she was ready. He resisted the urge to check her emotions via her energy bundle, and instead pulled away slightly to look into her face.
Even though her eyes were red and puffy, she was still beautiful. Very much so.
He pressed his lips against hers, and she didn’t resist him. She gazed into his eyes with such longing.
I’ve wanted you for so long, she sent into his mind.
And I you, he returned passionately.
He kissed her harder, literally mashing his lips against hers.
She bit his lower lip, her eyes glinting mischievously, and she pulled away slightly, bringing his lower lip with her. When she released it, it slapped gently against his gums.
He waved an admonishing finger.
“No biting,” he said.
“Hey, you’re sleeping with a dragon,” she said. “If you don’t want biting, you’ve got the wrong woman.”
“We’ll see about that.” He leaned forward and bit her on the neck in turn, hard enough to mark her. She moaned with pain, and pleasure.
He slid his lips up toward her ear, and nibbled her lobe. He reached up at the same time, and ran a hand into her short hair, squeezing the fingers tightly around the scalp. There wasn’t really much hair for him to pull, so he just pressed his fingertips into her skull as he bit her neck once more. Once again, she moaned.
He planted his lips onto hers once again, and reached into her robe. He slid his hand into her soft, moist mound. A louder groan, almost a whimper.
“Malem,” she said.
“Sylfi,” he answered.
She kissed him back while he caressed her, and she began to thrust her hips against him, pushing her mound repeatedly into his hand. He held two fingers together and slid them inside her to give her what she wanted.
Because of their mental link, he felt the pleasure he gave her, which turned him on even more. He was just throbbing inside. She in turn felt the thrill she gave him, and that mental echo effect occurred as the pleasure bounced back and forth between them, magnifying each time.
She was getting close to climax—and so was he, incidentally, though he had no physical stimulation of his own. It was all mental.
But as she approached the brink, he withdrew his fingers.
She spun on him. “Don’t stop!”
“You want release, I know,” he said. “But I’m not going to give it to you.”
“Why not?” she pouted. “After all this, you’re just going to tease me? You can feel the pleasure, too, through me. So all you’re doing is teasing yourself!”
“I know,” he said. “But I don’t want to feel it vicariously. I want to live it.”
He disrobed then, first pulling off his tunic, and then his breeches.
Then he shoved her backwards, and she smiled in anticipation as her back hit the bed.
Malem mounted her, driving deep inside her.
“You’re so big!” she said. “It hurts!”
“Shit,” he said. “You really know how to turn a guy on.”
She squirmed beneath him as he fell into a rhythmic thrusting. Soon her hips were gyrating as well, timed to meet his own thrusts.
The pleasure echoed back and forth, not just between the two of them, but between everyone he had Broken. It rose exponentially, and before he could stop himself, he exploded inside her. He shuddered above her for at least the next minute, unaware of anything else but the sheer bliss he felt, and then, at last, his legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed beside her.
Both of their legs hung over the edge of the bed. She cuddled against him, pressing her lips against his pecs, inhaling. He breathed her in, too, wanting to relish in her scent.
“That was incredible,” she said. “You weren’t kidding when you said the pleasure is enhanced.”
He nodded. “It is truly something that can’t be matched. Once you’ve felt this, you can’t go back to ordinary sex.”
“No,” she said. “I suppose not. Which is why it’s going to be so much harder tomorrow, when I’ve lost you.”
He had nothing to say to that.
All of a sudden the oraks standing guard at the front of his tent screamed.
29
Malem sat up.
The head of a huge dragon lunged through the opening.
Those massive jaws headed straight for him.
But before it struck, Sylfi intercepted. She was transforming, and was halfway to a full-blown dragon when she blocked the blow with her body. Malem was pushed off the bed by her transformation, and the mattress frame broke in two. As she continued to grow, Sylfi expanded into the surrounding fabric of the tent, and the edges were ripped away around Malem, along with the stakes that held them down, as the entire tent was ripped into the air.
Malem rolled away, naked, and scrambled to his feet in time to see Sylfi shucking off the fabric that had wrapped around her, and turning to face her foe.
It was another chromium.
Brit
a.
The orak guards lay in chewed pieces at her feet.
“Get out of my way, Sylfi!” Brita growled. “I’m going to slay that Defiler for what he’s done to you!”
Brita tried to go around her, but Sylfi repositioned, blocking her way.
“Stop!” Sylfi said.
Malem retreated, stepping into the pool of light from a nearby campfire.
Brita’s eyes immediately focused on him, and narrowed.
“I awoke to the unwanted pleasure again,” Brita said. “But this time, when I saw my sister was gone, I knew what you had done. You drew her here. Forced her to bed you. And now I’m going to kill you.”
“I’ll kill you before you kill me,” Malem said casually. He reached for his hips, momentarily forgetting he was naked, with Balethorn out of reach.
Brita growled, and tried to shove past Sylfi. But no matter which way the other chromium moved, Sylfi was always there to intercept her. Brita, who was bigger, shoved her head between Sylfi’s legs, and tried to lift her up. The smaller dragon wrapped her arms around her sister’s neck, and pulled Brita to the ground.
Other oraks and goblings rushed to the scene, but they were knocked aside like playthings by the dueling dragons. Brita pulled her neck free long enough to target Malem, and unleashed a stream of fire, forcing him to flee. Around him, oraks were set aflame.
Malem drained Brita’s stamina, threatening to fulfill his earlier promise of killing her.
Brita slipped away from Sylfi’s grasp; when she stood, she staggered because of the lost stamina.
Sylfi flipped upright, and when she saw her slouched, panting sister, she looked over her shoulder at Malem. “Please, Defiler!”
Malem hesitated, but then stopped draining Brita. “Take her out of here.”
Sylfi moved toward Brita, and nuzzled her face. “Brita. It’s going to be okay. Let’s go.”
But then Brita abruptly lunged past Sylfi with surprising energy, and those jaws dropped down toward him.
Malem dodged, draining Brita again. Hard.
The chromium stumbled, and then struck the ground behind him, losing her balance. Her head slammed into a campfire, and the flames partly engulfed it. The fire wouldn’t harm her dragon scales of course. Even so, it was obvious she was in bad shape from the terrible wheezing that came from her throat, and the effort with which her chest rose and fell.
“Brita!” Sylfi rushed to her sister’s side, and tried to shove her upright with her muzzle. Then she spun on him. “Defiler! Don’t make me choose between the two of you. Because I will choose my sister!”
He felt the wrath of the Balor rising inside of him, and he drained Sylfi then, just to show her who was boss. She gasped, and one foreleg collapsed in front of her.
The hurt he saw in her eyes, plus the disappointment and sheer sadness he felt from her energy bundle, caused him to release them both. He Broke the surrounding oraks and goblings that had gathered to watch instead, and drained them of their stamina all at once so that they all collapsed where they stood, dead. He gifted the stamina to the two of them.
Brita slowly stood up, raising her head from the campfire.
“Go,” Malem said slowly, angrily.
“I am not leaving,” Brita said. “Until you are dead.”
“Fine,” Malem said. “Wait until tomorrow, and you will have your wish.”
But she lunged at him once again. It was a weak lunge, through the campfire, and Sylfi was able to redirect her course with a simple nudge.
“He didn’t force me!” Sylfi said.
Brita paused. “What did you say?”
“He… he didn’t force me,” Sylfi replied, more quietly. She hung her head in shame. “I went to him of my own free will.”
Brita seemed confused. Then her eyes narrowed once more. “He impelled you. I know he did. Maybe it was subtle, so you didn’t know what was happening. Perhaps he’s manipulating you even now, forcing you to fight for him.”
“I wanted to fuck him, okay?!” Sylfi said, in an uncharacteristic outburst. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I wanted to see what it was like to be with a human. I wanted to feel that distant pleasure we felt while he had sex with the others. I’m an evil bitch, I know. I slept with the enemy. And I should die for what I’ve done.”
Brita stared at her sister in shock. But once again her expression hardened. “He’s doing this right now.”
The chromium suddenly leaped at Malem, with talons bared and ready to strike. The movement was so quick that Malem barely had time to react. He tried to leap away, but he knew those talons were going to rip into him.
But something else smashed into him before Brita reached him. Strong, powerful jaws scooped him up. But those jaws were gentle, and cradled him between their sharp teeth.
He felt that mouth shift as it took a terrible impact, and then he was rolling on the ground. The jaws released him, going slack, and skidded across the dirt. He saw Sylfi dragged across the earth nearby, with Brita on top of her, talons embedded in her neck. They plowed through tents, ripping them away, until at last they came to a halt.
Brita released Sylfi, realizing what she’d done. But the latter dragon didn’t get up.
Instead, Sylfi shrunk, returning to human form. She remained unconscious. There was a huge gash down the left side of her neck.
“No!” Brita became human, too, and knelt beside Sylfi. Brita hoisted Sylfi into her arms, and blood oozed over her naked chest.
Malem rushed over.
Brita gave him a dark look. The hatred flowed from her energy bundle. “You did this,” she hissed.
Malem desperately transferred stamina to Sylfi. “Quickly! To Weyanna!”
Brita hauled Sylfi to her feet, holding her in her arms, and Malem led the way to Weyanna’s tent. He continued feeding stamina to Sylfi, but the endurance drained as fast as he gave it: it was like pouring water into a sieve. He also gave some stamina to Brita so that she wouldn’t flag under her sister’s weight. He took from Vorgon’s well.
They reached Weyanna’s tent. Malem rushed inside.
“Weyanna, get up!” he said, both verbally, and in her head.
The white half dragon sat up, startled, but then rubbed her eyes sleepily when she saw him. “I don’t feel like having sex now.”
Brita lowered the bleeding form of Sylfi at the base of the bed, and when Weyanna saw her, she stiffened and went to her. “What happened?”
But neither Brita nor Malem answered.
Weyanna released misty loops of white magic that curled into and around the wounds, slowly knitting them up.
“The wounds are deep,” Weyanna said as she worked. “Whatever did this was powerful. It cut into her main neck artery. She’s lost a lot of blood.”
It took another thirty seconds for her to finish the task. Finally Sylfi’s neck wound closed, and there was only blood left on the surface. Weyanna wet a towel in a basin nearby, and weakly wiped the blood away.
Malem dolled out more stamina to Weyanna and Sylfi, with an emphasis on the latter.
“Thank you,” Malem told the white half dragon.
Weyanna straightened when she felt the endurance boost, and shook her head. “Don’t thank me yet. I’m not sure she’s going to pull through. Even if you give her stamina, it won’t replace the blood she’s lost…”
“But can’t you restore her blood?” Malem said. “I’ve seen you handle worse wounds.”
“Worse wounds, perhaps,” Weyanna said. “But I dealt with them before the fluid loss became critical. I don’t have the power to restore lifeblood, you see. I’d recommend you bring in another healer.”
Mauritania, can you bring your top healer? Malem sent.
A moment later: What? You woke me up.
Your top healer, Malem said. We need him.
A few minutes later Mauritania arrived with her healer, and the Eldritch restored Sylfi’s lost blood. Finally, the stricken dragon opened her eyes.
“Sylfi!” Brita sa
id, giving her a hug. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Sylfi said from her lying position.
Brita glanced at Malem, and lowered her eyes. “I have to apologize. I might have been… wrong about you. The care you showed her back there… you wouldn’t have done this if she was just a mere plaything.”
“Sometimes the hints of the old Breaker show through,” Mauritania said. “On the rare occasion.”
“Yes, well, the Defiler rules me now,” Malem said, his eyes upon Brita. “And I’m grumpy, so don’t piss me off again.”
She nodded slowly. “I’ll take my sister away. We won’t come back. I don’t want to watch you die anymore.”
“Whatever you want,” Malem said. “I plan to spend the rest of the night alone anyway, so you won’t miss much. I’m going to pass my last few hours on this earth in contemplation. Dying is something that one can prepare for only to a degree. Trust me, I know, I’ve tried before.”
“Who’s dying?” someone said from the tent’s entrance flap.
Malem spun toward the opening and saw someone he hadn’t ever expected to see again.
Xaxia had returned.
30
Malem stared at Xaxia in shock.
He felt a mix of emotions, mostly a mix of joy, but also anger that she should come now, only hours before he must die.
He ignored her question, and instead blurted the first words that came to mind: “How did you find me?”
“Wasn’t hard,” the bandit said, stepping inside, though keeping her distance, Malem noted. “I just followed the path of death and destruction left in the wake of Vorgon’s army. When I drew close, I could see your campfires from miles away. Not to mention the flames of the burning Dothweald. Looks like your pal Vorgon is burning the place down. Not surprising. As for finding you in this warren of tents, you can thank the Metal dragons for that. While I was moving furtively from tent to tent, I spotted a Metal dragon flying overhead. I knew it wasn’t a Black or a Blue because of the way the light from the campfires reflected from its underbelly. Who else would keep company with a Metal dragon in a place like this?
“I followed that dragon for as long as I could, but it proved too fast, and I lost sight of it when I had to dodge an orak patrol. I continued prowling, but then a few minutes later another Metal dragon arrived, and led me right to you. I’ve been watching from the shadows all this time. I wondered if I should intervene when those two dragons started fighting, but I thought better of it. I followed you here, and watched from a hole I cut in the canopy opposite the entrance. I could only catch snippets of your conversation, however. But when I saw that the dragon you had brought here was fully healed, I decided it was time to reveal myself. So, who’s dying?”