Chapter 4

John awoke from a pleasant dream, to find that reality was just as pleasant, with Sarah looking up at him with his manhood firm in her mouth. She released him, and climbed up the bed until he was positioned at her entrance. She moved to accept him, then began to ride him to two orgasms before he filled her again.

Again he noticed a glow to the cord around her hips, dimmer now, but still visible despite the sunlight coming in around the curtains that covered the window. They finished their pleasure, and cleaned up, and Sarah returned to her and Tina's room to dress for the day. John dressed somewhat more slowly, the better to separate their arrival at breakfast.

He entered the kitchen to find Michelle hard at work producing pancakes, eggs, and sausage for everyone, and he enjoyed a hearty breakfast, thanking her and praising her skills.

"Nonsense," Michelle scoffed. "Laura's the cook around here, but stuff like this even I can handle."

John sighed as he looked around at the rest of the party, and said, "Much as I hate to eat and run, we've got a long way to go today, and we should get moving. I can't thank you enough for your hospitality."

Laura was normally the calm, quiet member of the marriage, but she was almost fierce when she said, "It's not hospitality when it's family, and you and Lisa certainly qualify, and any friends of yours are friends of ours, so there!"

Michelle laughed, and hugged her wife, and told Lisa, "What she said! Now get going; the sooner you leave, the sooner you'll be back on the return leg."

Lisa threw the back of her hand against her forehead, and cried, "Alas, cast out into the cruel world, without mercy. Oh, what will become of me?"

"Arrested for overacting, I'm afraid," John said, offering her his hand, and helping her to her feet. They all hugged Michelle and Laura, and trooped out the back door, towards the barn where their equine and equinoid cargo awaited them.

They got everyone and everything loaded without anyone apparently noticing anything odd about the traveler's mounts, and gave their hostesses one last kiss and hug before mounting up, and moving out.

Their second day on the road went much more smoothly than the first, except for a little bother about mid-day at a rest area when a couple of good-ol'-boys tried to 'pick up' Sarah when she was separated from the rest of the party. John walked up behind the offenders and said to her, "Take them around the back before you kill them, and make sure you aren't seen. I'm tired of spending money on bail when you're just going to jump it anyway."

The two turned to scoff at John, only to frown at his utter dead-pan expression, then paled when they looked back at Sarah and saw the flat look in her eyes as she decided which one she'd have to kill first. John winked at Sarah behind the losers' backs, and she nodded infinitesimally back at him, acknowledging that he didn't actually mean for her to hurt the men.

The two stumbled off in a hurry, and John and Sarah returned, hand in hand, back to the miniature convoy, where they climbed into the truck, and took off.

Somehow, the seating assignments had shifted today. Lisa had Tina in the shotgun seat to her right, and Tom and Andrew riding in back. Sarah was John's co-pilot and the two magic users sat in the back seat.

As John leaned back and relaxed from the mild strain of merging into traffic, he glanced over at Sarah and said in low tones only she would hear, "I don't suppose you're going to offer me a Warrior's Thanks over that little song and dance?"

Sarah shook her head, "No, that would be an offense against custom, to invoke it over a trivial matter. I am, however, going to offer you my attentions again tonight, since Tina said that she wouldn't mind thanking Lisa a bit more. That is, if I'm welcome."

John sighed, "Welcome and more, but I will miss you when you're gone. If I wasn't aware of how useless I'd be in your fight, I'd come with you, and damn the consequences. But I remind myself that you belong with Tina, and I'd only end up hurting all of us, and slowing you down besides."

Sarah smiled a sad little smile, and said, "Well, there are such things as triads, but I'm afraid Tina wouldn't do well in one, and I don't think I'd like being in the center of a tug-of-war."

John said, "Another way your world sounds better than ours. When you've finished your mission, if you're accepting immigrants, look me up."

Sarah said, "I think I'd like that, even just as friends."

They rode for several hours in companionable silence after that, before the conversation resumed, and turned to discussions of the culture of Sarah's homeland. Like all the 'countries' except the one ruled by their enemy, there was almost no government above the village level; instead there was a sort of benevolent dictatorship of wizards, who were far too busy learning magic and practicing it for profit to worry about 'ruling' over anyone.

The occasional exception to the benevolent part of the description usually didn't last long before his neighboring wizards combined to remove him, or he got carried away by thoughts of invulnerability and let his guard down enough to collect an arrow between the eyes. And 'criminal' elements among the untalented were no match for the inquisitive powers of the gifted. As a result, crime as such was almost unknown, and violence and banditry nearly as rare.

It sounded perfect, which to John's way of thinking meant that the inhabitants were so used to the flaws they didn't even see them. He'd read one too many perfect utopias in college that had blindingly obvious faults to truly believe that a perfect society existed in reality, but Sarah's world sounded pretty good to him.

Shortly before dusk, they arrived at a 'primitive campground' on the outskirts of the Greater Santa Fe area, and pulled into their campsite. Their high-tech tents went up in no time, and after a quick meal, they all went to bed. John was sufficiently tired that Sarah only got two loads of his seed, and he was far too tired to notice that her 'pregnancy prevention belt' wasn't glowing tonight.

The two sets of lovers, and the rest of the party, awoke the next day to find Matthew, stripped to the waist, greeting the rising sun. He took a fist full of soil, sprinkled most of it to the four corners of his magical compass, then sifted it across a map he'd laid out on the ground. When he was finished, he touched the only spot that wasn't covered with dirt, and said a few words in his own language.

Matthew dusted off the map, picked it up, and folded it, getting it back to its original shape on the first try. Now that is magic, John thought. It only took him two tries, most times, but he never managed to avoid at least one false start.

Matthew had been very 'laid back' during the preparations for the trip, and the trip itself, but he was completely in charge now. "Pack it up. We have a good distance to go today." Once everyone was packed, and had used the outhouses down the road, he pointed to John and said, "You lead today, and I ride with you. Connie, Andrew, you are with us. Tina, Sarah, Tom, you are with Lisa. Mount up, we ride to battle."

John was startled at the phrase, but somehow knew better than question Matthew. Everyone moved quickly as directed, and John was soon following Matthew's directions as they headed west, nearly at right angles to their previous direction.

About an hour later, Matthew pointed at a turnoff, and directed John to follow a small dirt road off of the main highway. He complied without comment, only to have Matthew tell him to pull over and stop once they were out of sight of the road. The dirt was hard-packed, so they'd left hardly any tracks, but Matthew directed Andrew to obscure them anyway. While he complied, Matthew ordered the horses unloaded, including the pack animals, and the loads prepared.