Seventeen #2
My eyes fastened on the six floor-to-ceiling purple-trimmed windows at the other end of the hall, I shake my head.
The forest stretches out in front of us, the view unhindered by any branches.
I’ve never noticed how pretty it looked from up here.
Anytime Richard flies me anywhere, I always have my eyes closed.
“I didn’t ask if you could wait,” my king says.
There’s a pinch of hunger in my belly, but I ignore it. “I’m okay for now. I want to look at the walls.”
“Then the walls you shall see.”
When we reach the bottom step though, a woman moves in front of us.
Her lips are such a deep purple, they’re close to black.
Plum-coloured studs pierce her cheeks, as well as the top of both ears.
Long thin black chains hang from her lobes and hook onto the circular piercing threaded through the middle of her upper lip.
My eyes snag on it as she bows her head. How does she eat?
“Your Majesty.” She straightens. “It is a pleasure to meet you. I’m Iva Dumaus, the Warress of Delevia. I own Wands and More Wands, which I am sure you know is the largest premade wand manufacturer on Gaera.”
She holds out a hand to her side. A man wearing black gloves places a dark-maroon wand in her palm. Her fingers wrapped around the narrow end, she offers the handle to me. “For you, Your Majesty.”
I grin widely as I accept it. I’ve never played with a wand before.
I’m looking forwards to trying it out after dinner.
“Thank you so much, Ima Dumbass.” I go to swoosh the wand, but Richard plucks it out of my hand and passes it to Fabia.
I frown, but I keep my attention on the woman in front of me.
I might not want to be a good brownie, but I still don’t want to be rude.
“How do you make the wands for the bigger people?”
We’re one of the smallest creatures in all the Seven Planes. Our wands would be toothpicks to most races and mere splinters to the orcs and giants.
“I employ larger species,” she says slowly, her voice much colder than before. “It is all run very smoothly.”
“Oh, maybe I can visit sometime then and see how it all works. I’d love to see how happy your workers are.”
Her lips tighten. “Perhaps.” Glancing quickly at my king, she bows her head, her black hair hanging down her shoulders. “If you’ll excuse me, Your Majesties.”
“Oh, okay.”
She’s gone in a moment.
But is immediately replaced by another.
A tall woman smiles at me, stretching the black and purple tattoos all over her face. Her two canines are sharpened. Introducing herself as the Warress of Prisin, she gifts me with a raven-hilted dagger. Once she’s gone, yet another warress greets us.
A continuous line of them presses in on us as we slowly make our way over to the nearest wall.
By the time we reach our destination, I feel like I’ve received enough gifts to open up my own shop.
I don’t know where they’ve all gone though.
As soon as I accepted one, one of the guards took it, then passed it off again.
Perhaps, like at the market, there’s someone to take them back to my chambers.
But all such wonderings quiet as I peer up at the painted wall before me. I’ve only just started to take it all in when yet another woman begs for my attention.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty,” she says, bowing her shaved head. “I’m Aleka Ream, the new Protectress of Barlow.”
“Talk quickly, Aleka,” Richard says.
“Of course, Your Majesty.” She clears her throat, a blush heating her cheeks.
“I run a publishing house called Bookwyrm’s Hoard.
It’s small. I just started. The arts aren’t prioritised here –” She glances at my king.
“Not that I don’t understand why. The wars take precedence, but –” She swallows. “Ah… um…”
“Time’s almost up, Aleka.”
“Um… Would you like me to publish your books?” she blurts.
“Oh, that would be lovely!” I say, beaming at her. “But I don’t write.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh! Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought I heard you say you did.”
“Nope.” I grab Fabia’s arm –
“Arienna, no –”
– and shove her towards Protectress Aleka. “She’s the author I was talking about, and she’d love for you to publish her works!” I beam at the two of them.
Marrabel looks at Fabia, a smile pulling at her lips, and my heart melts at the sight of it. I hope I can bring the joy to this world that Richard wants me to.
“Oh?” the protectress asks, her fluster turning into excitement. “What do you write?”
Fabia glares at me as she clears her throat. “Urban fantasy,” she grits out.
I frown at her, not knowing where all this hostility is coming from.
“With smut,” I add, wondering why Fabia didn’t.
Those were the best bits. Knowing she’s always dreamed of being published, I decide to sell her work for her.
“Actually, it’s full on monster porn,” I say, looking Aleka right in the eye.
“She writes about zombies that only want to eat pussy or ass and slug dicks that go inside the woman’s abdomen. ”
The lady’s eyes widen. “The abdomen?”
Oh yeah, I have her. “I know, right! I thought the same when I first started reading, but I swear to you, it’s soooo good! You know how you have your normal griffin and dragon porn?”
“Uh…”
“Well, she takes it further and mixes a Razian with an Alzan, so you get this really hot guy called Gage. He has the wings and legs of a fairy but the scales and tail of an Alzan. And when he’s given a slug dick in the last round of the tournament for the fairy queen’s hand, while he’s fucking her in the stomach, he uses his tail to fuck Khodan’s –that’s one of the other guy’s competing in the tournament– in his ass. ”
“Arienna,” Fabia hisses.
I look at her quizzically. “What?”
Lowering her voice, she says, “Alzans and Razians are enemies.”
“I know. That’s why their love is so hot.” My eyes widening, I turn back to Aleka. “Oh my gods, yes! You have to read that book too. You’ll love it. I know you will.”
Fabia groans.
“What uh… book?” Her dark-blue eyes are glazed over, and her voice isn’t as strong as before.
She must be fantasising so much already! I’ll paint her an even better picture! “Romeo and Juliet,” I gush. “Those are Gage’s parents. I had to beg Fabia to write that after reading Queen Persephone and Her Five Warriors – that’s the slug cock gangbang one.”
“Gangbang?”
“Oh yeah, so they all take her at once. So you see, while Gage is fucking her with his dick and Khodan with his tail, Khodan is also fucking her in the belly. Three other men are fucking too, and they’re all competing with each other, going at it real hard.
She’s squirming and moaning between all their hot, bloody, muscled bodies.
And the first guy to fill her ovaries with cum gets to be king. ” I wave my hand.
“But anyway, about Romeo and Juliet. Juliet’s this fairy badass warrior, and Romeo is an Alzan warrior, and they’re fighting each other at war.
He ends up capturing her, and he tries to sell her as an oddity to his king.
But on the way there, he falls in love with her sass.
But by that point, they’re in Ezera, so he tries to get her to act out so the king won’t want her but not so much that he will order her executed.
But she does the opposite to piss Romeo off and so she ends up getting purchased by the king.
Now Romeo has to figure out how to save her without getting himself executed for treason, and ugh – It’s sooo good.
Fabia, why don’t you tell her the rest?”
“Because I’m working,” she mumbles.
“You’re in training,” Jace pipes up. “We can do just as good of a job without you.”
Fabia glares at him. “I can’t train if I’m distracted.”
“That’s exactly what you need to learn,” he says. “Having your focus tested is all part of the job.”
Her eyes turning into daggers, she grabs Aleka’s arm and practically drags her away from us. The lady tries to bow at me and Richard, but Fabia doesn’t stop to let her.
Lifting my chin, I call out, “Don’t forget to tell her about the carrot sex scene! That was the best bit!”
Catching the eyes of all the ladies and lords staring at me, I smile. “You all have to read her books.” I gasp as I turn to grab Richard’s arm. “Oh my gods! I totally forgot. She has a whole series about you and your love of pe–”
He cuts me off with a deep kiss. I try to pull back to finish telling him about the pegging, but his tongue pulls nothing but moans from my lips. By the time he lifts his head, I’m clutching both his biceps, unable to remember what I was talking about.
“So…” Jace says cheerfully. “Do you happen to have any of Fabia’s books about Richard?”
Oh yeah! Grinning wide, I spin to face him. “I have every one! You’re free to read them if you want. She’d love that.” That’s the goal of an author, after all – to get their books read by everyone.
“You wanted to see the wall,” Richard reminds me, looking pointedly at his friend.
“Oh, yes!” Pivoting towards the painting, I crane my neck back to take it all in.
My king steps up behind me, his chest so close I can feel his heat. I curl my toes, struggling not to lean back against him. With how much I teased him in the Council Room earlier, I do not want to push my luck further.
Twenty-one spankings.
I shiver.
“So what is this painting of?” I ask.
The tree is heavily scarred. The fairy city within it is small and in ruins.
There are no homes on its outer branches.
Twelve fairy women are flying under the canopy of the trees.
They’re all spread out – some above me, some at face height.
Their bows are all drawn back and pointing directly into my eyes.
Blood drips from numerous wounds on their bodies, but their wings are all stunningly bright – brighter than I’ve ever seen.