The Return (9 page)

“She is a statue of living stone, she cannot move or even talk.”

“Is she dead?”

“No, M’Lord, she is not dead.”

“Then you have succeeded beyond even my wildest expectations.”

“So now it is my turn to talk. When I left, I knew that they would send people to find me. I knew, being who I was, I could not hide myself. I had to become someone else. I bound all of my memories into my wedding amulet. I effectively made myself forget who I was. I left certain clues for myself, though. The first, I would always keep the amulet with me, everywhere I went. Second, I left the knowledge of how to bind the pindragon, to a Mage, as a familiar. Third, I left the memory that only a being who can perform magic can cross through the gate. I buried these memories, so that only a trigger would make me realize they were there. This left a chain of thoughts in my head; the first one being that, when Beth came through, I would know something was special about her. Then I got her to bond to the pindragon. Then when that was done, I wondered why those memories were there. Then there was the necklace. I always kept it with me, as a link to my old life, a life that had no meaning for me. For eighty years I carried it. Why carry a remembrance for a life you can’t remember? Last night, it all clicked together. I put the amulet on, here in this world, and its magic was triggered. I remember everything now.”

“Rhys, it is too soon.” Morgana’s voice came from behind me. “If they know about you, they will move against you.”

I turned to face her with tears in my eyes. “Find all the others, and have them meet me in Wine Glenn, in thirty days. Then, we are coming for you, my wife.”

“I am lost, Rhys. Remember me and move on. The spell on me is tailored to me, and it cannot be broken.”

“I will see that for myself, my love. Please do as I ask -- the others have their right to this vengeance, as do you.”

She faded from my sight, as I fell to my knees and wept. When I had recovered, I turned to Beth. “Beth, I need you to do something for me.”

“What do you need, Rhys?”

“I need you to concentrate on the fire, as hard as you can. Reach out and feel it with your thoughts. When you can feel the fire like it is part of you, I want you to speak one word to it.”

“What word.”

“Cool.”

She looked at the fire and stared for a long time. After a few minutes, she said, “Cool.” The fire dampened to just embers. I stirred some kindling into the embers to bring the fire back.

“Again.”

This time the fire died until it was just some warm ashes. Again, I brought it back to life.

“Again.”

Within seconds, the fire was just a pile of old cool ashes.

“Good, we will start your learning as we travel. You are not like the Mages here whom we will face -- you are like me. You are a Mage of the mind. Your magic does not need words or gestures. You just need to trigger it. You could have done the same thing by thinking the word.”

“How do you know the word didn’t cause the magic?”

“Because ‘cool’ is not a word in the language of magic.”

“We ride to Feck now, and we gather up the one known as The Shadow. We will ride through the day and into the night. We should be there by morning. One more thing. Taina?”

“Yes, M’Lord?”

“In all the time you have known me, have I ever treated you as a servant?”

“No, M’Lord.”

“Then if you call me ‘M’Lord’ one more time, I am going to turn you over my knee and paddle your ass ’til it is on fire.”

“Is that a promise, M’Lord?”

I chuckled as we mounted up. “Likka, can you range ahead and scout, please? We need warning of trouble before it arrives.”

“Yes, M’Lord,” she giggled, as she dropped down into wolf form.

“I travel with perverts,” I mumbled, as we started to ride.

“Yes, M’Lord,” Beth giggled out from her mount next to me.

“Not you too, Beth.”

“You better plan on a couple of days in Feck, Rhys. Laina may get you the first night, but you are mine the second.”

“Do I need my belt?”

“Not this time, but maybe in the near future.”

We rode into the cleared lands around the walled city of Feck, just as the sun came up the following morning. We approached the gate at a slow walk. The gates stood open, to allow the farmers out into the fields, and we rode through unimpeded. I dropped down off my horse, in front of an older woman that was selling sweet meats off of a cart. “May I ask how much for the skewers, good lady, and the name of a good inn with bath and stables?”

“A lead coin for two, M’Lord, and the inn name would be free to a customer.”

“I am no lord, good lady; I will take twelve of the skewers and the name, then.”

“The name of the inn is The Golden Dragon, good sir. It is but a few blocks south and east of here, on High Lords Lane,” she said, as she wrapped the pastries in paper and handed them to me.

I pulled a gold coin from my bottomless purse, and palmed it to her so no one else could see it. “Thank you, good lady.”

I handed the girls all their treats, and we rode to the inn. I stepped down off of Reaper, and tossed the reins to the stable boy who was waiting. I palmed a gold coin to him and told him to take care of the horses and bring our gear to our rooms.

As I walked up to the barman I told him, “I need five rooms for the next five days, with baths, food, and extra oats for the horses.”

“That would be one copper coin and seventy-five lead coins, M’Lord.”

I pulled a stack of ten gold coins out of my purse, and dropped them on the floor. Laina scrambled to pick them up, and hand them back. I handed two of them to the barman. “Take good care of us, good sir. We have had a rough travel coming in, and need rest.”

When we were safely in our rooms, Likka became a woman and asked “What was that all about, you went out of your way to hide what you paid the vendor and the stable boy, but made a grand show of spilling a small fortune, on the floor in the bar?”

“Baiting a trap for The Shadow -- she was in the bar.”

“Where? I didn’t see her. And how do you know it was a woman?”

“Because I know who she is now. She will be along later tonight, to earn a little money.”

Laina looked at me, “You promised me tonight.”

“She will be here to steal, like a thief in the night, Laina. You will be here to help guard me from the danger of sleep.” I pulled her to me and kissed her with a deep passion.

After baths, and a huge meal of roast, with mashed potatoes and gravy, bread and wine, the girls and I sat in the common room, talking quietly. All of them were tired from the long ride, and started to drift to their rooms fairly early. I stood up, and started up the stairs to my room. When I entered there was a single candle burning on the nightstand. I walked over and lay all of my weapons, and armor, on the table opposite of the bed, except for one pistol. The pistol I took with me, and tucked into the bed under the mattress. Laina looked at me from the bed.

“That is just in case I am wrong about who our visitor will be tonight,” I told her with a smile, as I finished undressing and climbed into the bed beside her. “Are you sure about this, Laina?”

Her answer was to pull me down to her for a kiss. As our kisses grew in intensity, I let my hands wander about her small shape. I caressed her sides and her face; I ran my fingers along her spine, never touching anywhere that was intimate. Her skin felt like silk under my touch. I let her build her passion higher and higher with gentle loving caresses. “Laina, I can make it so you feel no pain from our lovemaking.”

“The pain is part of growing up and becoming a woman, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will take the pain, along with the pleasure.”

I smiled down at her, thinking how much she had matured in just the time we had been together. As I was admiring her, she rolled me over onto my back and began to kiss down my neck and chest. I ran my fingers through her hair and moaned soft moans of pleasure. When she reached my hardened staff, she began to kiss around it and then lick up the length of it. I was just about to ask her if she was sure about what she was doing, when she opened her mouth and wrapped her lips around the head of my manhood. All my doubts about her readiness vanished at that moment.

Laina began to move her head up and down as she worked my rod into her mouth. Once she was bottoming out against her throat, she began to work her tongue back and forth along it, as well. Soon I was beginning to overheat as my seed began to boil. She looked up at me and smiled around my rod, then very slowly began to force her head downward. I watched as she pushed me into her throat -- one inch, two inches, and three inches. The satiny confines of her throat hugged and squeezed my manhood.

I was looking at her with wide eyes as she buried her nose in my pubic hair. She had managed to push all nine inches of me into her mouth and throat. I moaned as I twitched and jerked, and then exploded down her throat. As my orgasm flowed into her throat, I felt her swallow and squeeze my sword until it was almost painful.

“Oh, my Gods! How did you learn to do that?”

She giggled and looked at me. “My friends are all bargirls, and we would use bananas to play with. I was the only one who could squeeze one ‘til it burst.”

“Viva la bananas!” I said, as I pushed her onto her back and began to kiss down her body. As I kissed her neck, she began to giggle. As I kissed her upper chest, she began a light purring sound. When I kissed the top of her breasts, the sounds became light moans. When I took one of her nipples into my mouth and suckled upon it, she moaned out loud. When I had her twitching and moaning, I kissed further down. I kissed the area where her leg joined her hip at the front. She slid her hands into my hair and began to moan louder. I licked down the strip of skin between her leg and her flower, then up the other side, and she moaned out, “Oh, Gods! What are you doing to me?”

I held her legs up and continued to caress her with my tongue, until she was dripping on the bed. Then, and only then, did I push my tongue between the cheeks of her cute tight little bottom and lick upward, until my tongue flicked her clit. That was all it took, and her fingers knotted in my hair, as her legs closed on my head like a bear trap. She screamed out my name, and begged me to tell her what I was doing to her. As she climaxed, I swept my tongue down and forced it into her opening. With each wiggle of my tongue, she jumped and moaned. As she began to come down, she released my head. She relaxed right up to the moment I buried my tongue in her sweet rosebud and felt her legs slam shut on my head again. The harder she squeezed my head, the further I pushed my tongue into her rear entrance. After a few seconds, I felt her start to relax, so I slid up and nipped her clit with my teeth. Her legs slammed around my head so hard and fast that I thought she would pop my eardrums. She rode this climax out, as she dug her nails into the sheets and ripped large holes in them. In self defense, she managed to push her hands between my face and her sweet flower, blocking my access to her woman fruit and nectar.

“Please, Rhys! I can’t take any more! I don’t know how you did that, but please.”

I smiled at her as I began to kiss up her body. I slid my hand up to her sex and began to push my fingers into her.

“No, Rhys, make me a woman the right way. Take me, like a man does a woman.”

I moved up and kissed her as she felt my hard manhood probe at the entrance to her sweet, tight little orchid. As I worked the head into her, I heard an audible popping sound. She looked at me in surprise, with a smile on her face, as I started to enter her. As I pushed inward, her legs wrapped around me and tightened, forcing me all the way in, with one complete thrust. She cried out in pleasure and pain as my manhood penetrated her barrier.

I held still, allowing her time to adjust, as a tear rolled down each side of her face. After a minute of holding still, she nodded to me, and I began to thrust slowly in and out. I built in speed and power as she began to moan and quiver below me. Orgasm after orgasm rocked her young body, as she convulsed and shook in my arms. My muscles locked up, and I emptied my seed into her young womb.

“Oh, Gods, Rhys! I can feel it! It is so hot! It feels like it is boiling inside me.”

I collapsed on top of her as she panted and squirmed under me. As we panted out our heat, she pulled me to her for a kiss. “There is one more place, Rhys. Are you up to it?”

“Are you sure?”

“I am surer than anything in my life.”

I moved down, as I pushed the head of my staff towards the entrance to her last virginity.

“All at once Rhys -- take it like it is yours, to do with as you please.”

I pushed slowly, until I felt the head of my sword push past her sphincter. I held still until she nodded, and then I entered her in one solid thrust. She cried out in pain, and tears rolled down her face. I held still until she nodded with a small smile on her face, and then began to withdraw slowly. She whimpered as I pulled out until only the head was left inside. Then I began a slow thrust back into her depths. As she grew accustomed to the invasion of her bowels, I picked up speed and power.

She began to moan and writhe under me. Suddenly she cried out and shook underneath me, as her body was wracked by another orgasm. I continued to thrust through several of her orgasms, as she rapidly became overheated. I felt my body tighten up, and I thrust into her one last time as I began to shake and shudder. Her eyes flew wide open as she felt my seed boil into her. She quaked and screamed out as her eyes rolled back into her head, and she fell limp to the bed.

I withdrew from her tight bottom and let her fall slowly to the bed. As her eyes fluttered open to focus on me, I smiled and snuggled up next to her. We kissed and held each other for a time. Listening to her breathe was a simple pleasure for me. I could almost tell what she was thinking as her breathing changed from second to second. I continued to kiss and caress her, as her breathing slowly settled into the deeper rhythm of relaxation. Once she had completely relaxed, I felt her drift into a restful sleep.