Chapter 3: Forgotten Love

Knight Kevin – The Free City of Hargone

Angela’s face hardened at my pronouncement of her crimes and the declaration that her name was attainted and stricken from the rolls of the Knights Deute. The wind from the desert whipped at her fiery hair. We stood on the outskirts of Hargone, the Halani Desert’s sands only a block away. Crowded tenement buildings made of yellow-white mud loomed around us. The pedestrians on the streets hurried inside, leaving it empty. I didn’t care. My focus was on Angela, studying her face for any sign of her heart breaking. She so wanted to be a full Knight Deute. But now her Quest would not end in her gaining full rank and acceptance into the knighthood. She was a villain, an outlaw, and I was here to bring her to justice.

And to save her life.

My heart quickened as I stared at her. Three years I had loved her, training with her, watching her grow as both a woman and a knight. The gangliness of youth replaced by an athletic, toned body, her skill and confidence swelling along with the radiance of her personality. My heart had sickened at how our last meeting had ended.

In a fight.

I had reacted badly to the news that she had been given the most dangerous Quest—to slay the Dragon Dominari. No knight in five hundred years had survived attacking the dragon. None who’d venture into her desolation returned. It was avoided. When Angela received her Quest, I tried to convince her to quit the knighthood. I proposed marriage to her, desperate to save her life.

But it offended her pride as a knight to quit. She was a true believer in the purpose of our order. She saw the Knights Deute as something pure and strong, willing to die for its honor. So I was shocked to learn the stain she brought on our order’s name by her theft and assault of the Doge of Raratha, stealing a piece of the High King’s sword from the Great Vault.

Now staring at her, seeing the changes the last four-and-a-half months had wrought upon her, I saw the determination. She was focused on the quest. Nothing would stop her. Her eyes hardened as they stared at me, her hand reaching for her sword. She was leaner, her flesh tanned by the sun, her eyes harder than sapphires.

Her sword sliding from her scabbard made a slow rasp, metal against leather. She hefted her kite shield. She wore her armor as she sat astride her camel, her large breasts contained by the shining breastplate, her midriff bare. I could see the chainmail loin cloth draped over the right side of her saddle, pressing on her thigh and reaching towards the greaves protecting her shins and strapped over knee-high boots.

But where was the love? The anger? She walked her camel forward, motioning to her allies to stay behind. I gripped the reins of Blackthorn, my warhorse, searching for any emotion in her face beside determination.

“I would ask that you let me pass, Sir Knight,” Angela said, her voice flat, cold. Her eyes didn’t flicker with anything. “And let me and my companions be about our task. We have a dragon to slay.”

“Angela,” I said, lowering my voice now that she was closer. “You must understand the grave nature of the offense you have given the Lord Doge of Raratha.”

“I have seen my wanted poster,” she answered, eyes flint. “Again, I ask you to step aside, Sir Knight. I do not have time to dawdle.”

“Your name is attainted.” I shook my head, baffled by her remoteness. “It’s me, Angela. You don’t have to act like this. I want to help you avoid your execution. You’ve stained our order. I thought you would care about that.”

“I did what I had to,” she answered. “The High King’s sword is the only weapon that can slay the dragon. My crimes against the Doge are less important than slaying that monster.”

“What happened to you, Angela?” I leaned forward, resting my gauntleted hand on the pommel of my saddle, my full suit of armor clinking around me. I wore plate covering every inch. Female knights were trained to use their sexuality to disarm and distract.

And Angela had a lush body to do just that.

“Are you still this angry at me over what I said the morning you left?” Pain pricked my heart. “I am truly sorry. I should not have besmirched your honor. But I was just afraid for you. And now even more so.”

“You’re...” Angela’s eyes narrowed. Her expression turned curious, studios. It was like she had never seen me before. “I guess I can see it.”

“See what?”

“Sir Kevin,” she said. “I have no intention of stopping my quest. You can bring me to justice after the dragon is dead.” She took a deep breath, and her voice broke for the first time. “I understand the need for punishment. It was wrong what we did in Raratha, but so is letting that dragon live when I can stop it. I have four of the five sword pieces. I will finish my task. Step aside, Sir Kevin, if you truly love me. I do not want to harm any of the Knights Deute.”

“Dammit, Angela,” I snapped. “What is wrong with you? Why are you so cold to me? I can still save your life. You don’t have to die for this. You can’t be a knight, but one of your companions can be the culprit. The halfling thief you consort with or the orc.” My face curdled. “You travel with an orc, Angela. How many of our order have died defending the borders of Secare from their deprecations?”

“Step aside,” Angela said, voice again level. “I will not warn you again, Sir Kevin.”

“Do you hate me that much?” I demanded. “Are you that wroth with me over the words I said at Shesax? I have regretted them every day as I worried over you. I volunteered to lead the company sent to arrest you so I could protect you. Please, Angela, hate me, but don’t let yourself die because of it. Please.”

“I don’t hate you,” she answered, her voice softened, her eyes growing wet. “You truly love me, Kevin?”

“I do.” My voice was choked. Hope beat in my chest. “If you don’t hate me, then what do you feel?”

“Nothing. I don’t remember you at all.”

I flinched before her words.

Knight-Errant Angela

It was so strange facing the man I must have once loved. Here stood the hole in my memories, the shadow that I couldn’t ever make out in my thoughts. My memories danced around him. I could see the love in his handsome face. He was every inch the dashing knight, flowing hair peeking out the sides of his helmet, looking so powerful astride his black warhorse.

But there was nothing stirring in me. No hint of recognition. I didn’t even realize it was the knight Sophia spoke about. And yet I could see it now. Chaun had assumed this man’s form the night he tried to seduce me.

“How can you have forgotten me?” he asked, his voice broken.

“I traded my memories of you for a prophecy from the Lesbius Oracle,” I said. The pain in his face made me regret the callous tone in my words. But this was so surreal. He knew me, and I had no inkling who he was, what type of man he truly was.

But he must have angered me greatly if I was willing to give him up.

“You...” He took a deep breath. “That’s how much you hated me?”

“Apparently. I do not remember.” My hand tightened on my sword. “I will complete my quest. If you know me as well as you appear to, then you know that you cannot stop me. I do not want to harm you, Kevin, but I will not stop.”

“Always stubborn,” he said, his voice bitter. “You truly won’t let me save your life?”

“I never asked you to.”

He took a deep breath, straightening. “Angela ev’Xarin, if you will not surrender, then I shall force your capitulation through main force.”

His voice boomed. The clattering ring of iron on paving stones answered, the steps of warhorses. Five more knights swept out of the surrounding alleys, three from his right, two from his left. I recognized young Lisa, who was on her Quest when I left. Mary guided her roan warhorse beside Kevin, blue eyes focused on me, sword gleaming in the sun. Danielle, Richard, and Phillip joined them.

Six knights.

“You are outmatched, Angela,” Kevin said. “You know our skill. You know our training. Do you think your companions are up to facing us? Surrender before blood is shed. Before any are killed.”

“So we can be executed by the Doge of Raratha?” I demanded. Sophia was behind me. I would let no harm come to her because of my crimes. “I have already pledged to surrender once my quest is completed. You have my word.”

“The word of an attainted knight,” sneered Mary, “has all the worth of lead leafed gold.”

“Surrender and face justice, Angela ev’Xarin,” repeated Kevin, his face hard. He drew his sword.

I had a Quest to complete. I had sacrificed too much. I had faced obstacles and enemies. I had done things I bitterly regretted. I had paid too much in blood and sweat and tears to be stopped from my task. Faoril had lost her chance to be a Master Mage because of me. My other companions faced the gallows because of me. I would not allow any to come to harm.

I gripped the reins on my camel and hoped it would not spook. “Faoril,” I called out. “Attend to them. I do not want them harmed.”

“Harmed,” sneered Richard. “We are knights, not children.”

Warlock Faoril

“Your magic makes battle bloodless,” Thrak said as I focused on the six knights.

“Yes, it does,” I agreed. “I am glad you recognize that.”

Minx yawned nearby as she lounged on her camel. Six knights did not intimidate us. They may be the finest warriors in the world—Angela could certainly stand toe-to-toe with Thrak when he wasn’t enraged—but they did not have any powers. No magic. They relied on martial strength to overcome their obstacles.

The cum warming my stomach, drunk from a vial the moment Kevin stepped out, bubbled with energy. I seized it, channeling it into my magic. Wind would suffice. I would hang the six in the air, and we could go about our business.

They would be a nuisance. They would hound our steps for the rest of our quest, no doubt, but I understood Angela’s reasoning. They were only doing their duty. They were her brothers and sisters-in-arms. Even if she were attainted, harming them was abhorrent.

“Seize her!” shouted the lead knight, his sword pointed at Angela.

The air obeyed my magic. I wield it like an extension of my body. I was the channel and the will. The wind swirled, kicking up the pervasive desert dust coating the streets in a fine, yellow film. My wind swirled around the knights and seized—

Ghostly ramparts burst to life around the six knights. My wind struck the ramparts and was rebuffed. White light flared and a low gong rang through down the street as the knights heeled their mounts and galloped at us.

“Now would be the best time to seize them, Faoril,” Chaun said.

“I’m trying,” I gasped, sending my wind in again, but the wards around them again rebuffed them. Who had enchanted them? What had enchanted them?

And then Angela raised her shield and took a female knight’s sword stoke on her shield. Her camel screamed in fright, bucking beneath her as she managed to parry the leader of the knight’s blow. The other four charged past, racing for the party.

Two charged for me. Fear tightened my chest. Their horses were huge, like Angela’s Midnight, the warhorse left behind in Raratha when we fled the Doge’s palace. They hurtled towards me, moving like an avalanche.

I threw fire. Heat coalesced into balls of sputtering flames. They splashed across the charging knights’ shields, the flames rippling upward, deflected by ghostly shields hanging a hand’s breadth before the knights. The white light flared and the gong rang.

And then Thrak was before me, bellowing as he slashed his ax into the charging knights.

Thrak

The warhorse screamed as my ax planted into its chest. The female knight, her wavy, brown hair flying past her as she vaulted from the saddle as her mount died. She landed in a roll and came up, her round breasts heaving in her half-breastplate, the chainmail loincloth swinging about her hips. She was a lovely creature, her face youthful with touches of baby fat still lingering around her cheeks.

The second knight, charging after her, swung his sword in a scything arc for my head. I pivoted, letting the horse charge past me, his steel-shod hooves smashing hard on the ground. My left hand let go of my ax and seized the bridle as it charged past.

And yanked.

The horse screamed in pain as I twisted its head around. I grunted as the force of its charge pulled me along with it, my fur moccasins sliding across the ground, the soles heating up. I yanked again, and the horse stumbled, fell, throwing the knight.

He did not land as gracefully as the female knight had. He wore the full armor of a male, hitting with a loud clatter that I hoped broke bones. I didn’t wait to find out. I heard the movement rushing behind me, the clink of chainmail loincloth.

I spun and caught the female knight’s sword stroke on the top of my ax between the two crescent blades. I kicked out my foot, and she moved her shield down, blocking it. She stumbled back a step but kept her balance.

“You alive, Richard?” she asked, heat in her voice. Despite her youth, she attacked at the same moment.

“Pater’s cock, yes, Lisa,” the knight behind me grunted as he rose.

And then he charged in, his sword hissing. I grunted, swinging my ax, parrying their strokes as the two knights pressed their attacks on me. I had sparred with Angela, and she was an amazing fighter. The Knights Deute trained their members well. And they specialized in fighting monsters.

Opponents bigger and stronger than them.

Like me.

“Knave, yield,” Richard shouted. “Even one of your brutish race can receive justice.”

“For what crime should I surrender?” I demanded. “I am not one of the wanted criminals.” I kicked out, catching Richard on his shield, stumbling him back and turned to attack Lisa.

Only she was lunging in, moving with such speed, reacting instantly to my blow on Richard. I swept the haft of my ax, knocking aside her blade and stepped back. They pressed me. From behind, rocks struck the knights, but ghostly wards flared up and defeated Faoril’s magic.

“You are harboring fugitives,” Lisa said, her voice girlish yet dangerous, her eyes hardening. She attacked again, her swings sweeping back and forth. She had fought monsters before. These were seasoned knights.

“You were no doubt complicit in their crimes,” Richard answered, “just because you were not seen.”

“So you are both the judge and the jury determining my fate? And executioner, seeing how you are trying to slay me unlawfully.”

“Unlawfully?” Richard laughed as he attacked, Lisa darting in at the same time. “Since when is it unlawful to slay an orc?”

I swept both attacks aside and swung at Richard. My ax slammed into his shield, wood splintering. “Did not the Treaty of the Forest acknowledge that all sentient beings, and not just humans, are deserving of protection under Secare’s laws?”

“Are orcs sentient?” Richard demanded, face twisted as his sword hammered in.

“Am I not conversing with you?” Anger bubbled through me. “Am I not engaging you with rational discourse while you only seek to maim and slay me with no regard to the justification of your actions.”

His face twisted in anger and he slammed his sword at me. And so did Lisa.

They reacted at the same moment. I angered and provoked Richard into attacking and somehow Lisa knew to attack at the same moment. The pair were far more coordinated attackers than I would thought possible. As I danced back, they attacked and defended, one covering for the other, moving without any form of communication.

Often, when you fought with two or more opponents, they would interfere with each other, their attacks keeping their allies from engaging. They would stumble into each other, even hit each other with weapons.

There was none of those issues of coordination.

I glanced at the battlefield and realized that the other knights were still up. Angela was pressed hard. Chaun sang as Xandra used her elementals to keep the other two knights at bay. Xera’s bow sang, but her arrows always missed, the knights dodging or bocking the missiles. And Minx, who attacked the knights fighting Angela from behind, never found flesh with her knife. The knights reacted to what they could not see.

What was going on?

And then a chill struck me as I was driven back again. Faoril’s magic deflected by some form of wards, the knights coordination and inhuman reactions, none of our blows landing in a meaningful fashion. More magic enchanted them, giving them an advantage.

We were losing. They were eroding us down. How long before one of us was cut down. Before we lost?

Xandra

Fear surged through me as two of the knights, a male and female, charged past Angela, racing for the party. My camel let out a scream of fear. It bucked beneath me. I didn’t like it. I hopped off, landing light on my feet as I pulled out the first totem I could get my hands onto. My fingers shook as I traced the sinuous lines carved into it.

And then Chaun began his song, sitting astride his camel behind me. Confidence stirred through me. Fear wained in my heart. All the pain, all the guilt I felt for cheating on Chaun, for being what he wanted, vanished.

It didn’t matter right now how terrible a person I was, how the God Luben must despise me for making mockery of his marriage vows. It didn’t matter that I was the lowest avian ever born. My inability to fly, my adulterous ways, proved how filthy I was. But I couldn’t worry about that. Not when I had to protect us.

I didn’t understand why Faoril’s magic failed. I only hoped mine faired better. The trembling in my fingers stilled. I held my air totem, gripping the light balsa wood carved with sinuous lines representing gusting, twisting wind.

I channeled my magic into it as my fingers traced the lines. Around us, elementals danced and played, invisible and unseen. Where there was air, earth, water, and fire, they existed. They were the embodiment of the four elements. Faoril manipulated the elements directly, bypassing the spirits. I didn’t. I reached out and seized them. They responded to the spark in me, channeled through my focus.

The elementals coalesced for me, the air swirling into vaguely humanoid shapes, gathering the yellow dust pervading the street. They swooped at the charging knights. I trembled, hoping my magic could do something to them.

“Please, please, stop them. Protect me.”

The spirits wanted to please me. The vortices composing their bodies spun, the air howling, and they slammed at the knights. The two humans reacted in an instant, yanking on their horses’ reins, changing the directions of their charge.

Xera’s arrow hissed out, crashing into the woman’s horse. It squealed in pain, stumbled. She vaulted from the saddle and then ducked my swooping air elemental. The other knight corrected his charge right at me.

“Chaun,” I gasped in fear, hooves thudding.

“On the field of stood the maid so bright,” sang my husband, his words for me and me alone,

“her courage shining with soul’s pure light,

and there she faced the Lord of Death

and did not falter and did not fail,

her faith so bright, her soul so white,

too pure to stain, too strong to maim

and be dragged into dark’s domain.”

My hand shot into my bag, pulling out a second totem. It was a hard totem carved of kapok wood. I commanded the earth elementals to rise. Paving stones buckled, bursting free before the knight’s charging horse, forming into a body to house the elemental’s essence. It punched as the knight pulled on his reins, reacting so fast.

But momentum could not be denied. His horse skidded, the elementals fist crashing into the roan mount’s head. I flinched as the horse screamed in pain. Its body crashed into the elemental’s form, the poor beasts bones snapping. The knight was thrown over beast and elemental, landing with a clatter.

“Chaun,” I breathed. “Thank you.”

“Do you understand what you are doing, girl?” the female knight shouted, charging around the earth elemental. “Do you understand you forfeit your life by interfering?”

“I will protect my companions,” I said. “My husband and my friends.” The song stirred me. I faced death charging at me, sword gleaming, and placed the air elemental before me. It howled with fury. The knight swung, her blade passing harmlessly through the vortex of its body.

“Shaman, you will regret this,” the woman spat as the air elemental punched.

She didn’t even guard. The howling fist landed and struck the same magical wards that prevented Faoril’s magic from touching the knights. I had no idea what form of magic could do this. I only knew the shamanistic arts.

“I need a ward of earth,” I shouted at the earth elemental, directing my will through the totem, puppeteering it. The words were unnecessary. I knew that, but my heart beat so fast and they just tumbled out. “Entomb the knight.”

The elemental stomped away from the dying horse kicking on the ground. It swept towards the female knight as she used her shield, and the magic enchanting it, to batter the air elemental aside. The earth elemental reached her, shoving its hands into the stone of the road. Cobblestones rippled about the knight’s feet.

“Pater’s cock,” she gasped as suddenly a wall of paving stones surged up around her, the elemental merging with the ward.

“Luben’s sacred vow,” I sighed in relief.

“Watch out,” Xera shouted.

An arrow buzzed past my face. The fallen knight was up, his nose broken, blood streaming down his face, as he charged at me. Without even looking at Xera, he raised his shield and caught her arrow on it. How did he see it?

I stepped back. Chaun’s song surged louder.

“And though foul dark around,

the maiden brave from lips did sound,

a note of light, a note so bright,

that even Lord Death felt fright.”

“I need a wind curtain!” I sang.

The air elementals swooped towards me as I faced the broken-nosed knight. I was brave. I was the maiden. I would make these knights afraid of me. The air elementals crashed before me, forming a wall of howling downdrafts, cutting off the knight from me. Sand blasted from the street, swirling in dust. The knight raised his shield, blocking the grit.

And then he barreled through the howling wind. White light flared and a gong rang as he broke through the warding. The two air elementals blasted away, one slamming into the ground, the other dissipating out of my control. The balsa wood grew hot in my hand, smoldering.

I dropped it in a gasp of fright. I needed something else. I summoned another earth elemental to interdict the knight. Sword rang on stone as I bent down and picked up my warm air totem. I put it away and retrieved my fire totem, the dark mahogany wood carved with triangles.

“I need fire. I need to drive back the knights with heat!”

A gong rang. The female knight burst out of the wall of stone, her shield held before her. My earth totem grew hot in my hand as the magic drove back the elemental spirit. How were they doing that? What were these wards?

How could I stop these knights from killing my companions?

Minx

“Stop doing that,” I shouted in annoyance as I darted in at Kevin as he drove Angela back with sweeping swords. The female knight’s brown hair hissed behind her as she attacked from Angela’s left.

The way they moved was unnatural. Angela’s sword was a blur as she fought. I knew she was enhanced by a ritual of Gewin, and it showed. But how long could she defend herself from both knights coordinated attacks?

And why couldn’t I land a single blow on them.

I drew a sticky bomb from my pouch and flicked it at the male knight. This had to work. Kevin pivoted. The alchemical bomb caught the attack on his shield. The sticky foam expanded. I grinned in delight as it rushed around the shield. He couldn’t dodge it and—

“Cernere’s black cunt!” I howled.

In the same motion he used to block my attack, he had thrown his shield. At me. The kite shield tumbled for me. I dived to the side, the yellow-brown alchemical foam gurgling as it expanded. The shield struck the ground by me and the expanding foam caught my right arm and side. It washed over me, holding me in its sticky mess. I hit the ground hard, rolling over, my right side and both legs trapped.

“Cernere’s nimble fingers,” I screeched in annoyance as I stared up at the sky. My pouch was on my right side. I stared at the knight, now swinging his sword with both hands, hammering over and over into Angela’s shield. “How did you do that?”

He reacted so fast. The helmet made him blind to me. He shouldn’t have been able to see the attack. And then he caught it and threw his shield all in one motion. It was like he knew exactly what the sticky bomb would have...

“Faith magic,” I snarled. When Angela was sent on her quest, Sophia accompanied her. The acolyte had faith magic. But Saphique wasn’t the only god who had priests and priestesses. Divination, warding, these were all providence of the divine.

So where were the priests or priestesses?

Warlock Faoril

“Faith magic,” screamed Minx as she writhed, trapped in her own alchemical attack.

I blinked. Of course. Wards and the preternatural reaction speeds. A form of divination magic gave them such swift reflexes. I was so preoccupied with struggling to find a way around the magic—to attack it with fire, water, air, earth, and even tendrils of life magic—I hadn’t put my thoughts to faith magic. How did I undermine an abjuration spell strong enough to deflect my magic and a shaman’s elemental?

“Sophia,” I said, glancing at the acolyte huddled nearby, her face pale. She stared at Angela, forced against a wall. She gripped her dagger, her robes already open, milk beading her nipple. She was ready to begin healing.

“Yes?” she answered, not looking towards me.

Chaun’s music played louder as Xandra stumbled back, an earth elemental warding her from the two knights pressing in on her. Xera’s arrows hissed across the battlefield, mysteriously blocked by the two knights. Thrak fell back farther and farther, separated from the rest of the party as he struggled to hold his own against his two opponents.

“Things are not going well,” I told her.

“I noticed,” she said, biting her lower lip. Her green eyes flashed to me. “Do you have any ideas on how to bring down the warding magic?”

“It’s faith magic, I hope you know more about it than me.”

Her eyes widened. “Right, right, faith magic. Um ... Okay. Those wardings had to be prepared in advance. And not just by one priestess. It was a ritual spell. Probably the knights enhanced reflexes are from ... Yes, yes, the Ritual of the Womb, I think it’s called.”

“Ritual of the Womb?”

“Slata’s spell that unites several individuals, making them like spiritual twins. They are reborn together.” Sophia grimaced. “It involved sex with a male as the focus. Slata’s big on using men and cum in her rituals.”

“How distasteful of them,” I said, trying not to laugh. Things were too serious for laughter. I downed another vial of Thrak’s cum and asked, “How do we undermine the spell?”

“I sorta know the theory,” Sophia answered. “There’s probably a way I could undermine them, but...”

“You’re an acolyte who shouldn’t even have magic and you’re not properly trained,” I sighed.

“Well, if I had paid better attention.” She squirmed, her face flushing. “I do regret my ... lax attention during training now.”

“How much magic will it take to undermine them?”

“Probably a lot. It’s really up to how much the goddess is invested in maintaining the spell. And, well, Slata doesn’t like Angela, remember?”

“And you’re sure it’s Slata behind the faith magic?”

Sophia nodded. “White energy flaring. And it feels like the womb spell. It allows them all to react together, to use each other’s senses. I bet there are priestess hiding in the buildings around us, watching us. That’s why the knights keep blocking Xera’s arrows.”

“What happens if the priestesses die?”

“Well, Slata couldn’t channel through them any longer and their spells would fail.”

I spun. “Xera, did you hear that?”

The elf nodded, her ears twitching as she scanned the buildings. Her bow drew back while I sent my magic to hammer into the knights, to wear down the wards, to keep Thrak from getting run through. I was not losing my orc.