The Destroyer (50 page)

"You feel so good inside me," she moaned in my ear over the sound of our love making.

I growled into her ear before I pulled her hair aside and lightly bit her neck. She whimpered again and her body began to spasm like it had when I had used my mouth on her.

"I'm going too . . ." she started to say before she cried out again in carnal pleasure. I could feel her body spasm and the walls of her entrance squeeze around my erection. The sensation made me lose control and I felt my own body start to shudder. I gasped with pleasure and my penis convulsed. Then we both gasped again as my seed filled her like a tidal wave. The orgasm was intense and my vision began to blur as I felt another quickly follow after the first one. We both cried out and kissed each other passionately again as our climaxes subsided and I finished filling her.

We kissed and licked each other for a few more minutes as we detangled from the sitting position and re-tangled on the soft surface of the mat and blankets.

"That was amazing," she traced her hand across my chest again as she snuggled up next to me. "It didn't hurt. It felt so good. Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I took as much pleasure from your body as you did from mine." I smiled as I pulled her head into my shoulder and wrapped my left arm around her body. We lay silent for a few minutes and allowed the night air to cool our steaming bodies. Eventually I had to pull the blankets back on top of us.

"Any regrets?" I said to her.

"No. Why would I have any regrets?" She lifted her head off my chest and looked into where she thought my face lay.

"You spoke about your father and--"

"No. Don't worry. I wanted this," she said with confidence. "I can decide whom I make love with."

"Good," I said as I pulled her back into my chest. My headache had left at the same time I had climaxed and my body was just left with its incredible exhaustion.

"Kaiyer," she whispered before I drifted off to sleep.

"Yes?"

"Can we make love again tomorrow morning?" she asked eagerly.

"We definitely will," I said with a smile as I tried not to chuckle.

"Good." She wiggled her body into me more. "Can you . . .”

"Of course. Whatever you want, princess." This time I did laugh a little, she had really enjoyed my mouth tasting her.

"Oh. I do want it, and you. I can't wait until the morning," she said before her eyes closed. Within moments she twitched gently as she dived into a deep sleep. I lay awake for a few more minutes. My body felt extremely relaxed and my mind was content. The headache was gone and my skull felt wonderful. Was this what Shlara had been trying to give me all those years ago? I may have been foolish to deny myself the pleasure of her body. Then again, I had an army to command and having a relationship with her would have created negative consequences.

The wind was picking up speed. It almost sounded like a woman wailing in despair as it cut through the trees. I listened to it for a few more minutes before I drifted off to Jessmei's dream world.

"Get your ass down to Nadea!" Greykin screamed at me over the piercing ring in my ears. I nodded, mouth open in shock, as another crash of fire, power, and lightning shattered into the side of the castle wall and sent us both to our knees again. Bits of sharp rock and gray dust sprayed into the air and fell down upon us. The big man was up before me and looked over his shoulder at the hundreds of troops that scurried around the top of the wall like frantic ants. He turned and yelled something to them and then faced me again. His glare was disapproving when he noticed that I hadn't gotten to my feet yet.

I was just so tired. My body was sore and exhausted from lack of sleep. It had been almost two days since the attack started. I had been running errands for Nadea and Greykin since I got here. My feet were raw and blistering and I was only able to spend half an hour every day scribbling frantic notes so that I would remember the details of our siege.

After leaving Grandfather I arrived back at Nia against a current of fearful refugees that were fleeing the city as the horde of Losher could be seen in the distance. They surrounded the pearl white city from the east, and within a few days we were under siege.

Greykin bent down and scooped me up in his thick arms. Another magic spell of power collided into the walls. Greykin ran through the small quake it caused as we descended a set of stairs, through a courtyard, and into the massive doors of the main Planning Room. All the soldiers we passed wore a grim look of fear and desperation on their faces. No one knew how to combat magic, and the Losher forces easily breached the outer walls of the city in less than a week with the aid of their Ancient allies.

"The south and east walls are cracking," Greykin said as he sat me down on a purple chair that everyone else had been too tense to use. The king, duke, Maerc, and the other generals glanced up from the table and then looked back down at the map of the city. Greykin wasn't delivering them news they didn't already know.

I looked over the sparse room, once filled with fine works of art. Nadea sorted through a small stack of loose papers and scrolls, her smooth brow wrinkled in frustrated concentration. She wore finely crafted leather armor that seemed to hug her lean shape with efficient curves. The prince was on the other side of the room, conversing with a few of his personal guards. Like his father and the duke, he was wearing light chain mail with the purple and orange trim of the Nia Kingdom. His nose had been set after Nadea broke it, but it still looked red and irritated. His hair was put perfectly in place and he smiled slightly as he whispered to his entourage. Unlike everyone else here, he seemed confident we would get through this. I wished I could have a taste of the wine he was drinking to calm his nerves.

It looked like Nia was about to fall.

The Losher Kingdoms were composed of over a dozen small clans that constantly made war with each other. Their land was made up of thousands of miles of grass, mud, and high desert that made them a tough and hardy people. They were excellent bowmen, horse riders, and their constant bickering amongst their own kind gave them a thirst for blood that was unmatched among the warriors of the other kingdoms. Luckily, Nia had been safe from an invasion because they were so fond of fighting amongst themselves and because of the steep mountain range that separated the borders. When they arrived to circle the castle, I used one of Nadea's spy glasses to observe them for my writings.

They looked far different from what I had imagined. Their leather armor was dusty from travel but still well kept, their hair was pulled back into short ponytails with the tops of their scalps shaved clean and tattooed. Losher did not allow their women to fight in battle, but they could come to tend to the horses. These women were as tall and dark as their men, but possessed a savage beauty and elegance that made me want to learn more about how their culture worked.

The city had been a frantic ant hill under a flood before the horde arrived, but its insides twisted, churned and grew feverish as our worst fears turned into reality.

The Losher forces didn't have any sort of siege weapons, so we wondered how they planned to rout us. Even if the Losher forces didn't have the ability to destroy our walls, no one liked the idea of being trapped like a rat under a bucket.

Then the Ancients had shown themselves, and the power of their magic.

"Paug! I need your help!" Nadea yelled from across the room. The king, duke, and some of the guards stopped what they were doing to watch me scurry over to her. She was looking at ancient scrolls. They looked to be faded labyrinthine maps with carefully placed notes.

"How can I assist?" I thought that Nadea would have been happy to see me after I arrived back in the castle. I had run to her room within a few minutes of giving my horse to the stable boy. She answered her door after I almost broke my fist knocking on it for two minutes. It looked like she had been crying, but there were no tears on her face, just an expression of deep worry and fear. She yelled at me. Then when I cried, she wrapped her arms around me and grieved with me. We were both afraid of what would happen when we were under siege, but there was still hope.

That hope had been dashed quickly.

"This is a map of the ancient dungeons and sewage systems that run under the castle and the city. I need you to help me study them to determine if there is a way for the people to safely flee the city." She handed me one and I looked closely at it. It looked like the scrawling of an imprisoned madman.

"How old are these?" My brain hurt from just the few seconds I looked at the complicated, faded parchment.

"Many hundreds of years. I asked the servant managers about the sewer system, but the people they employ to keep them clean, the people that know the underground the best, have left the city. We have to figure out a way through the tunnels. I don't think we will last more than another day." Her voice faded into an urgent whisper as she met my eyes over the map.

"I'll try, Nadea." I noticed that there were no more explosions from outside the wall. Maybe I was looking for a way to get out of this arduous job. "Did the magic stop?" I asked a little too loudly.

"Sire! The Ancients wish to speak to you again!" a soldier yelled as he ran into the room. there was a cut over his eye where a sharp piece of flying wall had probably grazed him.

"Let's hear what they have to say," the king said with a sigh as he left the table. I had never seen anyone so tired. He put up a valiant effort to encourage the troops, but I could tell his happy blue eyes had lost much of their luster since the Ancients kidnapped Jessmei. I hoped the princess was okay. If she was here right now we would all be in much better spirits, even though it wouldn't have changed the outcome. She was probably safer where she was, I thought dismally.

I looked to Nadea as she carefully set down the scrolls and followed the group of men up the staircase, through the throng of soldiers in the inner courtyards, and up another long flight of steps to the edge of the wall. I guessed the Ancients would talk to the king about surrendering. It was going to be the same message they brought two days ago, when they had walked just short of arrow range on the grassy fields before the walls of the city. Their presence created panic amongst the soldiers and citizens. We hadn't realized that Ancients were working with Losher. We hadn't realized that they organized the disbanded clans into one of the most capable military forces that had roamed our land in the last one hundred years.

The four Ancients that led the Losher forces were powerful mages that ripped massive holes in the side of the city wall in only twelve hours. The army lacked siege engines because they didn't need them.

The king adjusted his cloak around his muscular frame before he reached the edge of the walls that gave us a view of the sacked city. We had moved most of the citizens that remained into the walls of the castle when the hole was made in the outer wall. There were probably still many out in the city, trying to avoid the Losher troops that were looting and raping.

"Greetings King of Nia," the silver-haired man said from the distant street below us. He didn't have to yell, some sort of magic made his voice easy to discern. I had a feeling that everyone on the walls heard him. The man stood with three women that wore dark blue robes, he wore silvery armor that looked similar to the armor of the Ancient who had interrupted the banquet. It had seemed so long ago, but it had only been five or six weeks. I remembered how Kaiyer fought against them and easily won. I wished for the thousandth time that he was here right now.

"What do you want?" the king yelled down over the wall. I worried that the wind had taken his voice and dashed it against the distant city, but the Ancient seemed to hear the words.

"Your army is defeated, your city sacked and ruined. You have lost, fair King." The man smiled a careful smile and the brisk winter gust made his hair flow out from his body like a silver flag imitating ours.

"I don't see you inside the castle walls. I don't see you standing over my dying body. We are not beaten," the king yelled down. "We are Nia. We do not fall in any battle." I had to applaud the king's bravado. I stood up a little straighter after the words sang out of his mouth and I began to think that we might win this. Then I slumped over as I realized how hopeless it was. Their magic was so powerful. We were like children trying to unsaddle a fully armored knight.

"Our empress is benevolent, good King. She understands how proud you and your people are. She has made numerous requests to partner with you and has been refused. Yet still she would like to offer you a truce one last time as a token of forgiveness and gratitude. She believes we can work together to offer a bright future for your people and hers. I have a written agreement and terms." He reached his hand out to the right and one of the blue robed Ancients placed a scroll case in it. "I believe that you will find them very agreeable given your current circumstances." He held his arm out straight as if to hand them to the king. The position seemed odd considering that the king was on the wall more than eighty feet above him.