Chapter 6: Labyrinthine Passions

Note: Thanks to b0b for beta reading this!

Acolyte Sophia – The Golden Hunger, The Nimborgoth

Stars twinkled overhead, the moon burning bright, illuminating the rocky coast of the island of Yalut ahead. The great city of Grahata was to the south, but the Golden Hunger couldn’t dock there. As a pirate ship, there were few ports she could sail into. I stood in the bow, staring at the cliffs, absently trying to spot the cove we would sail into instead, an inlet that led to a secret beach perfect to unload us so we could walk to Grahata.

But I only half-heartily searched, my thoughts danced around a fear. A fear that had been in the back of my mind for a while, something I didn’t want to think about but one that deep inside me I knew was always a possibility. It was easy to ignore until the two day voyage from Hargone to Yalut.

Angela only loved me because she forgot about Kevin. Not that she stopped loving him—as Chaun had reminded me. What if she got her memories back somehow? Kevin was after us, bent on saving Angela from execution out of love, and willing to sacrifice the rest of us to do it.

What if he restored her memories and she didn’t need me any longer? Yes, she said she loved me and not him, but what if she only loved me because I was here? Convenient? I was better than nothing, filling whatever hole in her heart forgetting Kevin had left. What if I was a seal in a leaky roof, a patch that didn’t quite fit over where the missing tile was? It was easy to say I was fine when the original tile was missing. But what if that tile was found?

I didn’t want to lose my Queen’s love. She was my mistress. She owned me body and heart. But if she didn’t need me ... What would I do?

I blinked at the tears forming, hugging myself as the pounding of the surf against the black cliffs grew louder. Phosphorescent flares of blue washed up the dark stones, churned by the water breaking on cliff.

“That’s beautiful.”

I jumped and let out a gasp of shock at the sudden voice. I spun around, clutching my heart. Angela stood behind me in her armor, her red hair falling about her shadowed face. She had a smile on her lips.

“You were deep in thought. So I guess you didn’t hear me.”

“No, my Queen,” I said, trembling. I looked away from her. I couldn’t let her see the tears in my eyelashes. I tried to wipe them away and act nonchalant as she moved closer.

“What’s wrong?” Her hand touched my shoulder, squeezing me through my white robe.

“Nothing,” I answered, staring ahead. She loved me. That touch had to mean she loved me.

But she loved Kevin, too. Deep inside her soul.

“Something is wrong. You’ve been moping about the ship all day. You weren’t even around to hold my hair when I was throwing up earlier.”

I flushed. “Sorry, my Queen,” I answered, shifting. She still had bouts of seasickness. I bet the roll of the ship was making her queasy right now.

“It’s fine.” She pressed against me, her breastplate hard against my shoulders. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing is, my Queen.”

“Nothing?” Her voice went chill, tight. “Nothing? I gave you a command and you lie to me?”

“I ... I didn’t lie,” I protested, my stomach squirming and my cheeks reddening.

“Another lie.” Her hand slid around my body and shoved into my robe. I gasped when she found my nipple and pinched and twisted it so hard. The pain shot through me, making my knees quiver and my pussy clench.

She was so strong. The pain hurt and yet it was exquisite. What I craved. I enjoyed it.

She nuzzled into my brown hair and found my ear. Her teeth nipped my lobe hard, another flare of pain that had me suck in a breath. “When you lie to me, you force me to hurt you,” she purred. “To discipline you.” Her finger twisted my nipple so hard. I gasped. “I’m going to have to spank you so hard.

“Strip!”

“Yes, my Queen,” I panted, my pussy growing juicier. I needed this. I needed her discipline. I did lie to her. She understood me.

Maybe ... Maybe she did love me?

My hands fumbled with the clasp of my robe, desperate to strip naked so she could discipline my naughty ass. The ties came apart. I shrugged out of it, exposing my naked body to the night air. The crew of the Golden Hunger, all burly men, were on the deck, Captain Thyrna barking her orders as they navigated towards the inlet. One man shouted fathom measurements, sounding the bottom.

None of that mattered right now.

The early fall air had a chill to it. My skin pebbled as I leaned over the point of the bow, hugging the ship’s busty figurehead. I seized the naked breasts carved of wood, my nipples rasping into its rough back. I wiggled my hips, juices trickling down my thighs.

Leather creaked. I watched over my shoulder as she took off her sword belt. Her chainmail loin cloth, held up by the wide belt, fell to the deck with a clatter, leaving her naked from the waist down, her pussy hidden by the shadows of her thighs.

I bet she was wet.

She slid her scabbard from the belt and set her sword down on the deck next to the large pouch containing four of the five pieces of the High King’s broken sword. She folded the belt in half and jerked it taunt. The two halves slapped together, cracking across the creaking deck.

I groaned and shivered, wiggling my ass.

This was going to hurt.

The belt hissed as it cut through the air. It cracked across my ass. I gasped as the pain exploded across both my butt-cheeks. I rose on my tiptoes, my nipples rasping against the carved wood. I gripped the figurehead’s breasts, my head arching back.

CRACK!

I didn’t fight the pain exploding across my ass. I embraced it. Tears fell down my cheeks while my pussy clenched. The pain was intense, burning with memory of the second strike. I wiggled my hips, back arching, needing the next one. Needing to be punished.

CRACK!

“Ow!” I screamed out, shaking, my hips wiggling. Juices trickled down my thighs as the searing pain burned into my pussy. My ass was on fire. The belt was so thick, the leather cracking against me inflicting such pain. It was far worse than her hand.

“You!” Angela hissed.

CRACK!

“Do!”

CRACK!

“Not!”

CRACK!

“Lie!”

CRACK!

“To!”

CRACK!

“Your!”

CRACK!

“Queen!”

CRACK!

The belts fell in such rapid succession, hardly giving me a chance to absorb the last burning pain before the next striped my ass. She spanked all across my bottom, striking near the top and down to where my ass swept into my thighs. My pussy clenched with each one. I cried out my pain, my nipples throbbing against the figurehead.

It was intense. I felt her anger. I had lied to her. She wanted to know what was wrong with me. Because she cared about me. Right? She had to care about me. She was spending her time whipping my disobedient ass.

CRACK!

“My queen!” I shouted the pain growing, swelling, overwhelming thought as I wiggled, my orgasm building in the depths of my pussy, churned by the pain her spanking belt inflicted. Every crack brought me closer and closer to the brink. Tears poured down my cheeks, each one a gift from Angela. “My queen!”

“Look at you! Trembling, wiggling that red ass. You want to cum, don’t you? You want to enjoy the discipline.”

“It hurts soooo much, my Queen!”

“Well you can’t cum,” she hissed. “This isn’t a reward!”

CRACK!

I bucked hard, the belt crashing into my asshole. My nipples rasped on the figurehead I swooned, the pain slamming sensations through my mind. My head looked up at the stars dancing overhead. Surf crashed, pounding the cliff like Angela spanked my ass: hard, passionate. I was the cliffs, my body slowly crumbling to my Queen’s surf.

The sensations boiled through me. I laughed and cried and moaned. Everything jumbled together. The blows merged into one constant stream of pain and rapture Ecstasy sent me higher and higher. I drifted in my own space, my own private Astral Realm inhabited by my pain.

Angela spoke, but I couldn’t understand her words. I tried to answer, to speak, but my mouth didn’t want to work. The world spun above me. The stars shone down just for me, twinkling so bright, humming while the pain faded and I drifted out of my world...

And back into sharp pain.

“Sophia,” Angela said, stroking my hair. I was on my back, my head pillowed on her lap. “My Sophia, are you okay?”

“What?” I asked, shaking.

“You were lost,” Angela said. “Out of it.”

“I was,” I smiled. “The pain took me to this wonderful place. Thank you, my Queen.” I winced as I squirmed. “Oh, Gods, that hurts.”

“I spanked you a little too hard,” Angela said, her face twisting.

I shook my head. “No, no you didn’t,” I purred. I didn’t care that my ass was a mass of burning agony. I embraced it, treasured it. She had to love me to give me that much pain. “Thank you, my Queen. You’re wonderful.”

Angela sighed in relief. “Good, good. You should heal yourself. I drew some blood.”

“No wonder I hurt,” I moaned, quivering. I didn’t want to heal myself.

She snagged a potion and shoved it into my hand. “Heal yourself, concubine.”

“Yes, my Queen,” I purred, bringing the milky healing potion to my lips. I downed it, savoring the creamy delight. I shuddered, a mini ripple of orgasmic delight washed through me, ending at the agony in my ass. The pain warmed, softened, melted away. The lethargy faded from my body. I moved, shifted, sitting up.

Dark cliffs rose around us. The ship sailed through the inlet I had been looking for. An hour or more must have passed.

“How long was I drifting?” I gasped.

“Awhile,” Angela said. “I kinda of drifted, too. Got lost in whipping your ass. I just ... had to keep hurting you. I knew you needed it and ... And I needed it, too. Your screams, your whimpers, they made me so wet.”

I turned my head, smelling her tangy pussy. “Oh, my Queen, let me attend to you.”

“Yes,” Angela said, leaning back, her thighs moving. She was still naked at the waist down save for her knee-high boots and metal greaves. She rested on her elbows, her large breasts rising and falling beneath her breast plate as I stared at her shaved pussy.

“Oh, you look in such need of your concubine’s ministration,” I purred, kneeling, breathing in her musk.

I loved that wonderful scent.

With a hungry snarl, I buried my lips into her snatch. I licked her so hard, my tongue sliding through her folds. She shuddered, her eyes widening, her hips shuddering, bucking against me, smearing her pussy lips across my hungry mouth.

My tongue licked and sucked, showing her how much I loved her. I had to keep proving it, keep reminding her in case she remembered Kevin. I couldn’t lose my queen. My hands gripped her thighs. I pressed my face into her snatch, licking, tonguing, devouring her.

She humped, shuddered, grinding on my mouth. She licked her lips, watching me as the ship creaked and sailors shouted, guiding the ship through the dangerous passage. I didn’t care about that.

My Queen needed to cum.

“That’s it, my delicious concubine,” moaned Angela. “Spanking you made me so hot and wet.”

“I have to fix that,” I moaned, lips covered in her juices.

“Yes, yes, yes,” she panted, licking her lips.

I buried my tongue deep into her pussy, swirling it around her tunnel. I caressed her sensitive walls, loving the texture, how wet and silky she was. She gasped, head leaning back as her hips humped against my licking mouth.

I read the signs of her body. I was a trained to please women, to understand their bodies. She was already excited, spanking me was foreplay. All she needed was the last bit to send her into spasming bliss.

And I gave it, my tongue washing across her sensitive pussy, my tongue stud a hard point caressing all the wonderful spots of her pussy. I licked all the places that made her gasp and shudder, her pussy lips clenching as the pleasure built in her, bringing her closer and closer to her explosion.

I flicked up to her clit, batting it with the tongue stud.

She bucked. “You wicked slut,” she hissed. “I need to cum so badly. Make me explode. I want to drench your face in my cream. Lick me!”

I did. I flicked my tongue against her clit, I batted her sensitive nub with my tongue stud. I shifted on the ground, drinking in her juices, inhaling her musk, feeling her body tremble every time I struck her clit. Her ass lifted, humping her pussy into my mouth as the pleasure built.

Her body tensed. Angela let out a moan. Her fingernails scratched at the decking. She was so close. I latched onto her clit, sucked.

“Sophia!” she screamed. “My slutty concubine!”

Her body convulsed as she came. Her armor creaked and rattled as she quivered and convulsed. Her hips humped her pussy against my mouth. I drank down the flood of juices, so happy that I pleased my Queen. I gave her this pleasure.

Me. Not Kevin. Me.

She had to remember that. She had to know that I loved her more than Kevin. That I was the one she had to love, not him. Never him. He was a man. I was a woman. I could give her far more pleasure than he could.

“Sophia!” she moaned again, her pleasure peaking through her.

As she collapsed backward, I squirmed. As much pleasure as I gave her, she still yearned for dick. She fucked several of the pirates during the last two days, enjoying their huge cocks. I couldn’t give her that. My dildo wasn’t a real cock, wasn’t good enough for her.

But Kevin had a real cock.

I trembled as Angela smiled. “Oh, that was delicious.”

“I love you, my Queen,” I said, my voice tight.

Her eyes fluttered. “I love you, too. Mmm, so very much.”

She loved me. Right now, at this moment, I had no doubts. But she couldn’t remember Kevin. So I had to keep pleasing her. I had to make sure Kevin never made her remember. I had to ... to stop him. I had to...

Kill him?

I shivered, my body going cold at the thought of murdering someone. But he was trying to harm us. The attack in Hargone could have killed any one of us. So ... it wasn’t murder. Not really. If they attacked us, and I somehow killed him ... Maybe...

Angela seized me, pulling me to her lips. I sighed as she kissed me. I felt her love. Maybe it wouldn’t evaporate if she remembered Kevin. And that was a big if. A demigoddess stole her memory. They could be very powerful beings. And the Oracles were among the most powerful of them.

Maybe I was just being foolish, but...

I couldn’t lose Angela. I hugged her tightly, kissing her with passion. I wouldn’t lose Angela. She was my Queen. Not Kevin’s.

Thrak

I cupped Thyrna’s cheek as the longboats were lowered to the water, the beach a shadowed slope ahead. The Rakshasa knelt before me, staring up at me with hungry worship in her eyes. She licked her lips, eager for my dick.

“And you will wait here like a good pussycat for us,” I growled. “Our business shouldn’t take more than a few days.”

“I will,” she moaned, her cheek rubbing into my palm like a cat nuzzling against her master. Her lips kissed hot. I had tamed her.

“Good.” I pulled my hand away. “While I’m gone, I want you to remind your crew that you are still in charge of them.” I grinned at the hungry smile crossing her lips. “Amuse yourself. You are strong, which is why it took me to tame you.”

She shivered.

Faoril flashed me a pleased smile from the other side. She had softened a great deal towards Thyrna over the last two days. She had even used Thyrna in her experiments on my rage, having the Rakshasa fuck me while she tried to find the right way to tame it. She felt she was close. It was delicate life magic, and she had to fine tune her spell to find the balance between berserk rage and control.

“I will make them fear me,” Thyrna purred and kissed my palm again.

“Good.” I glanced over my shoulder. The boat was ready. “If we’ve have not returned in a week, do not expect us back.”

“You’ll be back, Master. The Minotaur can’t prevail against you. His horns will break on your ax.”

“Glad someone is confident,” Chaun said as he walked by, Xandra on his arm.

I almost added, “Me, too.” The Minotaur was the War God’s son, his mother the nimble and devious Goddess of Thieves and Criminals. I took a deep breath and nodded. “We shall claim his bloody heart.”

Knave Angela – The Free City of Grahata

The sun was up an hour when we reached Grahata. We had camped on the beach after disembarking the Golden Hunger—I didn’t want to sleep on the ship. It was a wet night, rains coming in some time after midnight. And though the autumn sun was now up, the city of Grahata still looked wet. The dark stone buildings had a sheen.

The city was built with squat buildings, thick, almost overbuilt like fortifications. Everything was made of the same dark stone of the island, a gray so deep it was almost black. The streets were narrow and crowded, the humans of Grahata, most with the red tinge to their skin of a Thlinian, wore muted clothing, mostly robes, though a few laborers wore pants or overalls. There was no bright vibrancy to the city.

It was dreary.

Sophia walked along, lost in thought again. Last night’s spanking had not lifted her spirits. I studied her, puzzling over what worried her and why she wouldn’t tell me about it. I didn’t think it was fear of the Minotaur or fighting the knights again. She would tell me if it was that.

It had to be something else, but what? I didn’t like seeing her moping. I liked her smiling, happy. I liked her walking with a bounce to her step. I liked the way she would get wide-eyed seeing something new on our travels.

We were in Grahata, one of the great free cities of the Nimborgoth. The vast gem and metal mines of the island made the city wealthy, even if you couldn’t tell by looking at it. The Valyans bought their iron from Grahata to make their famed steel. Kings would commission crowns from the goldsmiths and whitesmiths of this city.

And Sophia stared at her feet.

I sighed as we reached a cafe in a marketplace. It was near the heart of town, the Labyrinthine Gardens, the park in the center of Grahata which contained the Labyrinth’s entrance. I took a seat at the table, leaning my shield against it and setting my bag on the ground.

“Okay,” I said as most of my companions settled down. “The Labyrinth doesn’t open until around sunset. This is where we meet. Xera, if you see any signs of the knights arriving in the harbor, hurry back here. We’ll engage them before we head in. But ... I hope we have enough of a lead. If we can be in and out of the labyrinth tonight, we can get back to the Golden Hunger. That will slow them down waiting and wondering if we are down in the Labyrinth.”

Minx laughed at that. “The only way for them to know is to venture down there and find out. Brilliant.”

I shifted. “Maybe. Either way, avoiding a fight with them is better than engaging him. Minx, scour the city. We need that antimagic alchemy.”

“On it,” Minx grinned and then she darted off.

“I have to find wood for a new totem,” Xandra said, her voice quiet. She had lost her earth elemental totem in the fight.

“Not alone,” I said. Minx was already gone before I could tell someone to accompany her, but I didn’t fear for the halfling. Xandra was ... innocent.

“I’ll keep you company,” Chaun grinned at his wife.

“The rest of us, we stay here,” I said.

Thrak grunted, arms folded.

I turned my attention to Sophia as she stared at her hands clasped on her lap, her hood half-hiding her face. What was wrong with her? What could have happened in the voyage to dampen her spirits and what could I do about it.

Minx

“Chromium,” the alchemist said, his bushy eyebrows gone white, making his skin seem even redder. “What in Seljan’s account books is that?”

“A metal that you can alloy with gold to make alchemy that nullifies magic,” I answered. He was the seventh alchemist I had visited. Beyond restocking my alchemical bombs—and picking up a new type that promised to make a screen of smoke—I hadn’t found anything useful.

“Negate magic,” snorted the man. “Preposterous.”

“A gnome alchemist named Fredagest did it,” I said. “I saw her use it.”

“I know that name. You say a bounty hunter knows more of alchemy than me?” he grunted. “I’ve been studying the art since your grandmother was merely a seed in her father’s loins waiting to be planted.”

“She’s a gnome alchemist,” I said. “The Queendom of Naith also knows about it.”

“Rakshasa scum.” He waved his hand. “You are talking poppycock, halfling. I don’t have time to hear about your nonsense. Chromium. That is not one of the metals listed in Andragon’s Account of Metals, Their Alloys, and Their Applications in the Art and Science of Alchemy. And, if you knew anything of the craft, you would understand that he is the authority on the matter.”

I sighed. “Fine, fine.”

I cut his purse when he wasn’t looking, netting me a few silver coins and a large gold dupondius. I chuckled as I walked out. He needed to learn his manners. I pocketed the coins and headed to the next shop, passing the edge of the Labyrinthine Gardens. Overgrown trees and bushes crowded against the buildings that lined it. The grass was tall. No one tended to it.

Clearly, no one in the city wanted to venture anywhere near the entrance to the Labyrinth. Even the plants looked like they were trying to escape, vines growing along the side of bushes, tall trees leaning out from the center of the garden over the Grahaten buildings.

I shivered. Tonight, we would be down in there, navigating the traps, wandering the maze. There were times when I could feel the ground shiver beneath me, like something moved underground, the maze reshaping itself. Other times, I could almost feel like I was standing over the Minotaur, that his horns could explode out of the ground at any moment.

No wonder everyone moved briskly through the streets, their heads down, not making eye contact. Grahata may have all the wealth of its gems and the only decent harbor on the island, but I wouldn’t want to live here. There were better places to make your money than living over a demigod’s prison.

I entered the next alchemist shop, identified by a wooden sign with a mortar and pestle carved on it. The acrid scent of dried herbs assaulted my nose. A paunchy-faced woman looked up from a counter, her fingertips stained yellow.

“Do you know what Chromium is?” I asked.

The dull glint in her eyes was all the answer I needed. No one in this stupid city knew what Chromium was or how to negate magic. Angela’s plan of getting in and out of the labyrinth before the knights arrived was becoming more and more appealing.

Xandra

“Doesn’t she have a cute rump?” I whispered to my husband, nodding to another woman shopping in the marketplace along the vast docks. The woman wore robes of a muted green, a most unflattering color. But the way it fell over her ass as she leaned over was exciting. Almost shaped like the strange fruit she examined. It was not round like an orange, but wide at the base and then narrowing to a thick stem. It’s skin a pale, waxy green.

Like her dress.

“It is,” Chaun agreed as we walked past. “Her husband is a sailor, I think, missing a leg and with an ugly face.”

“Poor her,” I pouted.

“But she has a lover. A brawny man I suspect she visits when her husband is out at sea.”

I gasped. “How terrible of her. We have to find another woman then.”

Chaun’s smile was amused on his reddish face. He looked like a Thlinian human today, the features the same as his real ones, only his hair and skin color had changed, and his ears were round like a human’s. Changelings had a hard life. Everyone mistrusted them. But Chaun was a wondrous person. I hoped he had already quickened an egg inside me.

“What about her?” I asked, nodding to a busty woman wearing a grayish dress. “She would be fun to seduce.”