Chapter 4: The Knight’s Resolve

Aurora Xandra – Unmik, Asunow Princedom, The Princedoms of Zeutch

The alarm resounded through the cell, my delicate ears flinching from the piercing reverberations while the smile grew and grew on Princess Adelaide’s face. The strawberry-blonde woman shuddered on Chaun, eyes casting to the ceiling of his cell.

My stomach twisted with fear and anger. She triggered an alarm. She had just alerted the entire castle to our presence. Minx and I had spent the last hour sneaking into this place. I distracted the guards with a sexy performance, Minx had picked locks, we had disabled the guards protecting the cells, and all we had to do was slip back out again with our friends and loved ones.

And this spoiled bitch of a princess thought she owned my husband. That she had the right to keep him here when her own husband, Prince Gruber of Kivnar, wanted to execute Chaun for the crime of cuckoldry.

“You bitch,” burst from my lips.

“Now you’re not going anywhere, Chaun,” the princess gushed. “You’re all mine.”

Chaun stared up at Adelaide in shock. “What have you done?”

“Claimed you.”

“He’s my husband!” I screeched. “Not yours!”

Sophia burst into the cell, her white robes half-belted, barely covering her slender body. “That’s not...” She groaned, staring at the glowing symbol on Adelaide’s stomach, a heart being pierced by an arrow. The symbol of Luben, God of Love. “That’s a fidelity warding.”

“My husband’s foolish insistence after he caught us last time.” Adelaide leaned over Chaun. “But I took a little precaution. I can trigger it at will.”

“The entire castle will have heard it,” Sophia groaned. “Especially her husband.”

“Who wants to kill Chaun!” I fumed. “And send the rest of us to Doge to be executed.”

The princess shrugged.

Anger surged through me. I shoved my hand into my pouch and seized the first totem I could. I ripped it out, my fingers tracing the straight lines. The stones at my feet buckled and then bulged outward, the earth elemental fashioning a vessel for its spirit. Princess Adelaide shrieked as I puppeteered the elemental’s hand to lash out and seize her by the throat, hauling her off my husband’s body.

“Make it stop,” I snarled, wanting to crush the life from her throat. This was the woman whom Chaun used to love. This was the woman who supposedly used to love Chaun, and she was endangering him?

It would be so easy to break her neck.

“Xandra,” Chaun gasped, rolling naked off his cock, his dick still hard and covered in the hussy’s juices. “What are you doing?”

“Make the alarm stop!”

The princess let out a gurgling sound and touched her belly. The piercing sound died, the light fading away until the mark vanished, leaving pale, unblemished skin. She shivered, her eyes wild in shock.

“I’m ... Princess ... Gruber’s ... wife...” she choked out.

“And I’m Chaun’s,” I answered, tossing my hair, glaring at this woman. My fingers danced faster on the totem’s straight lines. It would be so easy.

Warlock Faoril

Xera’s cum warmed my belly. I had three vials in my pouch. It was the best for life magic. I sent out the tendrils into the female mage and the guards who were gangbanging her. She dripped with cum, lost in the fog of Damiana induced lust. The spell wormed into their brains, touching spots identified by Fireeyes’s journal as controlling the sleep response.

All of them fell into a heap. They would sleep for days, perhaps as long as a week. Without Fireeyes’s obscene research, I never would have the knowledge to put a human to sleep for so long. I tried not to think about the poor people he vivisected to learn this information.

“Useful,” Thrak grunted.

I nodded my head. I had used up half of Xera’s reserve of energy. I grabbed another vial of Thrak’s cum this time. I carried ten vials of his around, preserved magically so it was still as warm and fresh as when he donated it weeks ago. I savored, a hot tingle racing through my body as I swallowed it.

I loved cum.

“Fireeyes’s research?”

I nodded my head. “But safe to use. They’ll recover without any ill effect. But we won’t have to worry about the Prince’s mages coming after us.”

“Three journeyman mages,” Thrak grunted. “Who has three mages on retainer?”

“Someone expecting trouble.” I shook my head. “We’ve been lax. Clearly, those who seek the Doge’s bounty have figured out our goals and—”

The blaring alarm resounded from the cells. My head snapped around, eyebrows furrowing. Thrak let out a grunt and hefted his greataxe. It was a wicked weapon, double-headed, each blade a crescent that could hew through a man thanks to Thrak’s strength. He headed to the stairs leading down from above, readying himself.

“A trap we missed?” I asked, frowning, my stomach curdling.

“Perhaps,” grunted Thrak. “The entire castle has to hear this. We’re fighting our way out now.”

I grabbed a second vial of Thrak’s cum and downed it. I would need power. I stared up at the ceiling and sent out tendrils of earth into the stone, feeling the vibrations of the castle. People were moving, assembling. It was the middle of the night, the soldiers who had arrested us woken up from their sleep.

But this time I had my magic. This time we were ready.

Xera stepped out into the room. She opened her mouth to speak and the alarm died. The elf’s ears twitched and she let out a sigh of relief. The alarm was ear splitting, and she had keener senses than all of us combined.

“Princess Adelaide triggered a fidelity charm,” the elf explained. “Soldiers are assembling through the castle.” She bent her bow, limbering a beeswax string on it. “We have several minutes before they group up.”

“We should move,” Thrak growled. “Cut our way out now.”

Knave Angela

“And kill how many of the soldiers just doing their duty for their Prince?” I asked, stepping into the guard room. I wore my armor, feeling comforting in the metal cladding my breasts and the chainmail loincloth dangling off my heavy sword belt.

Blessedly, the pieces of the High King’s sword were still in my pouch. Our belongings were not despoiled.

“And so we should just surrender or own lives to the justice of this Prince Gruber and the Doge of Raratha?” Thrak grunted.

“We are criminals,” I answered. I no longer said that with a bitter twist. I had accepted it. “Killing these guards is wrong. They are the lawful authority here.”

“So we should surrender?” Thrak grunted. “I don’t want to swing from a Rarathan gibbet. And I won’t let Faoril swing either.”

“You won’t.” I glanced at the mage. “Seal off the entrance.”

“That will trap us in here.”

“It will give us time to plan.” I took a deep breath. “We have to think of some way to get out of here without killing. We are trying to protect these people, not murder them.”

Faoril licked her lips, her silver nose piercing glinting in the torchlight. She nodded her head and turned to face the entrance. Stones groaned and shuddered as her magic shaped the wall, closing off the entrance into the cells. Above, metal clattered, soldiers gathering to storm down here.

“They’ll break through with picks,” Faoril said.

“And it won’t take them long,” Minx said from behind. “That wall doesn’t look like it’s made of the sturdiest of stone.”

“It doesn’t have to hold for long,” I said.

Angela and a naked Chaun spilled out, his clothing held over one arm, his lyre in the other. Then Aurora appeared, an earth elemental following behind her, holding a naked woman in its grip. Her face was pale.

“Princess Adelaide, my Queen,” Sophia answered when I gave her a questioning look. “The source of the alarm. She is ... attached to Chaun.”

“She wants him to stay,” Aurora said, her face livid. “She’d rather see the rest of us dead just so she can have Chaun. She thinks she can convince her husband not to kill him!”

“He won’t...” Adelaide groaned. “He’ll do anything for me. Loves me...”

Minx let out a derisive snort. Then she sighed and flopped down on a chair, lounging. Men rushed down the stairs, their armor clattering. Exclamations of shock rang. Metal struck the wall. More shouts came, passing along upstairs. Mind gave me a look. “So, what now?”

“We figure out how we’re getting out of here. Ideas.”

“You know my thoughts,” Thrak said, leaning against the barrier Faoril made.

I shook my head.

“It’s simplest,” purred the pirate captain, lounging beside Thrak with a feline grace.

“Well, Faoril can use her magic and bind up all of them,” Sophia said. “She’s done it before.”

“To a whole army?” Faoril swallowed. “It would take a lot of cum, and ... I could only hold them for so long. And once I’m too far from them, I won’t be able to maintain the spell, then they will be chasing us. I would have to expend more energy to hold them down.” She glanced at Thrak. “It would be ... easier if I did something more permanent.”

“No!” I clenched my fist. “Then we truly will be outlaws.”

Sophia gave me a supporting nod. She understood. What we did in Raratha, stealing from the Doge, wasn’t right. But it hadn’t hurt anyone. When his guards attacked, I had defended myself. I tried not to kill them ... But ... What if I had? Even if my order stripped me from their ranks, I still felt I was a knight. And it was my job to protect people, not kill them.

“We will not fight.”

“And if we have no choice?” Thrak asked. “If there is no way out of for us except fighting? Do we die?”

I glanced at Sophia, at her beautiful face, her green eyes. I led her here. It was my duty to protect her on the Quest. I couldn’t let her die. My stomach twisted. “If we have no choice,” I conceded. “But we do. There has to be a way out.”

“We’re underground,” Minx said, ticking off her finger, “our only way out is blocked off by Faoril’s magic, there’s about a hundred angry guards on the other side, and even if we do get past them, there’ll be more. We’ll be hunted all the way to the Altar of Souls.”

“Just let me have Chaun,” Princess Adelaide said, squirming in the elemental’s grip. “I’ll free the rest of you.”

“No!” Aurora screeched, her eyes angry.

Chaun, dressing, bit his lip. His violet eyes caught mine. I can see it in his eyes. He would do anything to make sure Aurora escaped here alive, even taking up the princess on her deal. But that would mean abandoning Chaun. And that was assuming this woman even had this much influence over her husband.

“Come on, we’re smart, diverse, we can come up with something better than fighting,” I said, the sounds of weapons striking the wall. How long would it hold? The soldiers were shouting for tools. “We have Faoril’s magic and Xandra’s elementals. There has to be something we can do. Someway to make a path.”

Chaun stopped halfway in pulling up his trousers. He was bent half-over, his balance wavering as he stared at me. “We can make a new path out of here.”

“How?” I asked.

“With my magic,” Faoril said, nodding her head.

“Faoril did split apart the street when we fought the knights in Hargone,” Chaun said. “She could tunnel us through the rocks to outside the castle. Then we could escape.”

“The stables,” Minx said, snapping her fingers. “We need horses. The ones we bought are at the inn. So why not steal the fine mounts from Prince Kivnar.”

Captain Thyrna purred her approval.

My stomach twisted at that. But it was better than fighting through the soldiers.

“Where’s the stables?” Faoril asked. She looked around. “I don’t even know which way is north down here.”

“That way,” Xera said, pointing at the wall to the right of the closed off staircase.

“And I know where the stables are,” Minx said, hopping off her chair. “Ooh, I like this plan.”

“Where’s the closest point to the stables from here?” Faoril asked, excitement in her voice.

“Well, let’s see.” Minx bit her lip. “Back into the cells.”

“How long will this take?” Thrak asked. He moved from the wall. “This won’t hold for more than a quarter hour.”

“Longer,” Faoril bit her lip.

“I can put a warding up at the tunnel down the cells,” Aurora said. “It should last a few hours. They will not get past it.”

“Like the warding to the caldera of Mount Peritito?” Faoril asked.

Aurora nodded. “I do not have the power or skill to make it permanent, but the elemental should last a few hours.” She reached into her pouch and pulled out a totem carved with triangles. “It will be too hot for them to approach and try to attack.”

“Good,” I nodded. “Minx, show Faoril where to start digging.”

“What do we do about the Princess?” Sophia asked.

I blinked. I didn’t even think that was an issue. “Let her go.”

Sophia gave me a look, something hard in her expression. What was she thinking? But she didn’t say anything.

Minx, however, had no problem, saying, “Take her as a hostage. If her husband cares about her, we can use that. Threaten to kill her.”

“Kill me?” squeaked Princess Adelaide.

“We’re not going to kill you,” I told her quickly, giving Minx a glare.

Minx shrugged. “Prince Gruber doesn’t know that. We’re dangerous criminals, after all.”

Chaun

“Chaun,” Adelaide gasped in shock as I pulled her arms behind her back and bound her wrists. She was now dressed in the blue brocade gown she wore when she slipped into her cell. It molded to her body, enhancing her natural, curvaceous beauty. Her strawberry-blonde curls fell about her shoulders. Her green eyes shone with tears. “What are you doing?”

The words were expertly pitched to make me feel terrible as I pulled the hemp rope taut, binding her wrist together tightly. Aurora watched, fingering her earth totem, her eyes still hard. Our travels had changed her so much. She was far more quick to act with violence now, all her innocence lost by the dangers we had faced.

My heart ached. I was her husband. I should have sheltered her from such pain.

“I’m tying you up,” I told her. “Relax. You won’t be harmed. Trust me.”

“I do, Chaun,” she said then glanced at my wife. “I love you, Chaun. I know you won’t let your friends hurt you.”

Aurora let out an annoyed chirp.

“I don’t love you, Adelaide. I’m not sure I ever did. I think I just loved the idea of loving you.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, eyes blinking.

“She needs to be gagged,” Aurora said. A smile crossed her lips. “I can do it.”

I gave my wife a look. “I’ll do it.”

Farther down the cells, stone groaned as Faoril ripped into the corridor’s wall She had drunk half her cum vials already. “I’ll need a lot of power to do this,” she had said before getting started. The tunnel was already deep, her and Minx walking down it as she forced the ground out of the way.

“You don’t have to gag me,” gasped Adelaide. “I won’t call out. I give my word.”

“We wouldn’t be in such danger if you hadn’t already sounded one alarm,” Aurora huffed, her arms folded.

“Which is why we have to gag you,” I told the princess. “I am sorry, but you brought this on yourself.”

“By loving you?” she gasped. “By wanting you? By missing you so much? These years have been so dull and gray without you.”

“I’m sure you had other lovers to amuse yourself with.” I tore off the sleeve of one of my shirts.

“They weren’t you, Chaun. No one could replace you.”

Aurora nodded her head in agreement then stopped herself, setting her jaw.

“I am flattered I affected you,” I said as I rose. “But I’m sorry, Princess. You’ll have to find another toy.”

“Toy!” she gasped right before I shoved the gag into her mouth. The rolled up cloth forced her jaws open. I tied it tight behind her neck. She tried to speak, her words muffled.

“I don’t think you’re a toy, Chaun,” Aurora said, her body trembling.

I reached out, touched her face. “I know. When I look at you, I can see myself in your thoughts. The man you love and the man who is your husband. I only see Gruber in her thoughts. Her husband. She either loves him or loves no other man.”

Princess Adelaide let out a loud, muffled groan, her eyes wild.

“I know, you think you love me, Princess, but you do not.” I sighed. “You want to own me. You think of me as a toy, as a possession. And that’s not love.”

I pushed Adelaide out of my cell and towards the tunnel. Thrak stared down the hallway at the crackling wall of fire, the warding Aurora had summoned. Even from here, I could feel the heat rippling. If there were guards on the other side, I couldn’t hear them.

“Can your earth elemental repair the wall after we go through?” Thrak asked as I pushed Adelaide into the tunnel. The orc lounged nearby, the pirate captain kneeling beside him, her cheek resting on his knee like a cat rubbing up on her owner.

“Yes,” Aurora said, her voice sounding lighter, like she normally did. “That is a good idea.”

Thrak grunted.

It was cramped in the tunnel. A pink light danced around Sophia, summoned by her magic. She stood up with Faoril and Minx. Stone ground behind me as Aurora sealed the tunnel smooth, hiding any evidence of how we had escaped. Maybe we could be well on our way towards the Altar of Souls before we had any pursuit. It lay in Princedom of Kot-Ner, an enemy to Prince Gruber. But his Princedom of Kivnar lay between Asunow and Kot-Ner. We’d have to cross through Gruber’s realm to reach the Altar. If we could stay ahead of him and cross the Nyer River into Kot-Ner, we’d be out of his reach.

Faoril grunted as she worked, sweat pouring off her forehead. She formed an upward ramp after the tunnel cleared the central keep, climbing us up to the stables located, according to Minx, against the back of the courtyard abutting against the outer curtain wall. Princess Adelaide panted as she walked up the steep incline.

“It will be all right,” I kept telling her. I was still ... fond of the woman. I didn’t want to see her afraid or bound. I didn’t even like using her as a hostage, but we couldn’t let Prince Gruber stop our quest or execute us.

I was attached to my head. And I would prefer to see my wife live.

Faoril was on her seventh vial of Thrak’s cum when the tunnel broke open into the stables. The smell of dung and the musk of horses flooded down the tunnel. I wrinkled my nose against the shock of the reek as Faoril staggered out and leaned against the wall.

“I never want to do that again,” she groaned.”

“You’ll have to do it one more time through the exterior wall,” Minx pointed out.

Faoril let out a bitter sigh.

The castle still rang with activity. Through the stables open doors, we could glimpse people hurrying around in the rainy night, holding torches. Lights blazed in many of the castle windows. I imagined Prince Gruber fretting, worried what we were doing to his wife, hating how we were escaping. He thought he had us. He was the type of man who did not react well to surprise.

I could attest to that personally.

The horses were chosen by Angela. I helped saddled them as Faoril ripped the hole in the curtain wall while Aurora sealed the tunnel we bored through the floor. She nodded her head in satisfaction when she finished as I lent her a white mare to ride.

She gave it a dubious look.

“No different than a camel,” I said, “except horses have a smoother ride.”

“We should kill the other horses,” Minx said as Faoril scrambled up into a saddle, a resigned look on her face.

“No!” Angela, Sophia, and Xera said at the same time.

“They’re such majestic animals,” said Angela.

“They’re beautiful,” said Sophia.

“They are regal and noble creatures,” Xera said, scratching the nose of Sophia’s roan gelding.

“Sorry,” Minx said. “But ... They’ll use the horses to pursue us.”

“They would just buy new ones in the city,” Angela said. “It won’t do anything to slow them down.”

“Well, it would,” Minx muttered. “They’d have to take the time to buy the new ones.”

I swung into the saddle of black gelding, patting the horse on the neck as he snorted. Angela shook her head, mounting a palfrey warhorse, a mean brute that stamped his iron-shod hooves and snorted. Angela looked small on the big mount, but at the same time, she looked natural. She belonged on a warhorse. I knew she missed Midnight, her stallion she had to abandon in Raratha.

I wondered what happened to our horses. Maiden was a great mount. We had wandered the lands since my flight from Prince Gruber’s court and my downfall as a Bard of Az. Was she still in the Doge’s stable? Did he ride her from now and then? Or had he sold her?

“Then let me rig a trap,” Minx said. “A nonlethal trap.” She pulled out an alchemical bomb and her knife. She pried up a paving stone and dug out the dirt beneath it, setting her bomb into it. Then she carefully set the stone over it.

“Pressure plate,” nodded Thrak in approval.

“First person that steps on it will get hit with a sleep bomb. Probably knock out some of the horses and the men. That might slow them down.” Then Minx scrambled onto the back of Aurora’s mount. “Let’s ride!”

I took the reins of Princess Adelaide’s mount. She slouched over it, her skirts hiked well over her body. A horse blanket was thrown over her shoulders as an impromptu cloak. The rain poured out there. She was in for a miserable night.

We rode out of the castle, Aurora sealing up the wall behind us. It was on the edge of the city. With all the bustle in the castle, none of the watchmen were paying attention. Thyrna broke away, riding for the cove where her pirate ship lay to ensure it was safe, following orders from Thrak.

She wasn’t a part of our quest. Not really.

In a quarter hour, we were on the highway leading north from Unmik. It would take us northeast to Kivnar and then into Kot-Ner. And once we reached the Altar of the Souls, it would only be days before we fought the dragon. In two weeks, this would be over.