Chapter 26
T he first thing she noticed upon waking was a pink glow and the scent of rosewater. The next thing was Shikra’s face looking down at her.
“My sweet,” he said, holding her in his arms as she sat upon his lap. His hand smoothed her hair down and away from her face.
Shikra was acting odd. Also, why was she sitting on his lap? They’d gotten close but not that close.
Not that she minded. Despite his faults, mainly his arrogance and indifference to the sanctity of life, what she truly desired was closeness like this, to be held by him, and to see another side of him that was soft and vulnerable.
If he could just give up control and give in to his feelings.
Somehow, it felt more intimate than the night they spent pleasuring each other.
“What happened to little flower? Don’t tell me you’ve come up with another name for me.”
“Little flower, is that your name? But I think you are sweet, and you are mine. They can’t have you. They don’t deserve you. Those brutes don’t know the value of something so lovely, so precious. ”
“Brutes?”
“They only give me the used ones, all soiled and dried up like old husks. I don’t want to play with broken dolls.”
“Who are ‘they?’ What are you talking about?”
He traced his fingers down her jaw to her throat, paying no mind to her questions. “Skin so soft, unmarred by corruption. Untouched by vermin. A sweet flower.” His hand caressed down her neck and stopped precariously above her breast. “Ready to be plucked.”
She blinked in confusion at him, waiting to wake up from this dream.
He looked like Shikra, but the words that he spoke didn’t sound like him at all.
The longer she stared at him, the more he started to change—the face, the nose, the hair, and she noticed the body she sat upon was smaller in stature and less muscular.
Gradually, her mind started to awaken from the rose-colored stupor she was in.
“Oh, it’s fading. One moment, my sweet.”
When her eyes reopened, there was the scent of roses and Shikra’s face smiling at her, his eyes full of tenderness.
What was she doing just earlier? Strange, she couldn’t remember anything before this moment, but a feeling of unease spread, as if she was missing something important.
The rosy scent intensified, filling her senses, making her vision turn pink. Her head felt heavy, and her fears from before eased.
This must be a dream. It was a good dream. That meant she was free to say and do what she wanted without limitations.
“Sweet flower,” he asked. “Have you ever been with a male before?”
“Not really, only you and one other.” Her face reddened, and she dipped her head shyly .
“Oh,” he drawled. “What did we do together?”
He knew what they did that night. Did he want her to say it aloud? The indecency of it turned her body hot. She couldn’t say it out loud, so she whispered it into his ear. “We pleasured each other with our mouths.”
His hands gripped her tightly.
“Ooh. Oh, so we did, did we?” He gave her a dirty laugh. “But you’ve never had sex? You’re the most beautiful elf I’ve ever seen. Surely you must have gotten a lot of attention?”
“I am a maiden.” Didn’t Shikra already know that? “And … I took a vow of chastity.”
“I know you are a maiden. I was only wondering why,” he stated matter-of-factly. “But a vow of chastity is wasted on such beauty.” He drew her face to look up at him with his finger.
Wasted beauty. Her vow was important to her, at least at the time. Now, she wasn’t so sure. She had nothing left to be chaste for.
“Yes, my sweet. There is no reason for chastity, but you have been good at remaining chaste so far, just for me. That’s why I saved you.”
Did she say the last part out loud? Or was he reading her mind? She didn’t like how possessive he sounded over her chastity. Is this what she wanted? Why would she dream this?
“The other male besides me. Who was he?”
What was she just thinking a moment ago? She couldn’t remember. Did she tell Shikra about the elf she met in the forest? How embarrassing. But it was strange, something prompted her to answer him and not keep him waiting .
“He was a hunter. I met him in the forest. He was handsome with tan skin and long blond hair.” Her face turned hot remembering that time in the woods with the boy she had met once.
“Tell me all about it.”
She’d never told anyone this. Not that she was ashamed of what she did, but because she had never had the opportunity to talk about sexual things with anyone before.
Her only other companion for the past ten years had been Lindana, and such things were improper to speak about with the virgin high priestess.
But now, for some reason, she felt exhilarated and wanted to tell him all about it. It was just a dream after all.
“We talked and kissed, and …”
“And?” His breath quickened.
“We explored each other’s bodies … with our hands. And mouths. But it was better with you.” She felt something harden below her.
Shikra just adjusted himself and muttered, “Ah! Look what you do to me, like I’m a teenager all over again.”
“What was that ?”
“Pay no mind to that. Did you … see him again? This boy?” His voice hitched.
“No …” She blinked and tried to focus her vision on him, but her head felt fuzzy. Something was off. This was a strange dream. But Shikra’s comely face coaxed her to respond. “We agreed to meet at the same spot at the beginning of the new moon. But I never showed up.”
“Why not? ”
“I was too nervous and became shy. I didn’t know what to do or say around him if I met him again. And I left home for soldier training soon after.”
“Oh, you tease.” He chuckled. “That boy waited for you, came every new moon. In more ways than one.”
“I don’t think so …”
“Oh, I know.” He cut her off. “He comes there every new moon to beat his meat and thinks of you while doing it.”
Shikra sounded rather harsh. Uncouth even. He was usually more suave than this. Is this what she wanted from him in her dreams? No … This wasn’t right. Something was wrong.
“You’re not Shikra,” she said, and then everything went blank.
“You’re Light Elf, my charm spell isn’t working that well on you. No matter. I’ll focus all my magic on you, my sweet. For you are worth it. The others can wake up; they are not my problem anymore.”
She blinked, hearing the words but not registering them. Everything was pink, and the air smelled cloyingly sweet.
“My sweet.” Shikra’s face was smiling down on her.
“Shikra.”
Shikra frowned. “Don’t call me that. Call me Darkor.”
“Darkor. Is that the name your parents gave you?” Happiness grew inside her. “You trust me enough to tell me.”
“Yes, my sweet. I would do anything for you. I have sacrificed everything for you.” His face turned grave, and he looked down, but just for a moment, and then his attention was back on her, and his smile was back up.
“I know you’ve wanted this for a while,” she said shyly.
“Oh, I’ve wanted it. I’ve wanted it badly.”
“I … have, too.”
“What do you want to do with me … when … you get me?” He was becoming aroused, but so was she.
“I … want… want to …”
“Yes?” He was hanging on to her words, getting off on them.
“I want your tongue down my throat and … cock deep inside me, at the same time.”
The words shocked her as they came out of her mouth. This wasn’t her. It’s as if her tongue was being manipulated by honey wine or a spell. This was no dream. It was a trick.
She turned to the stranger whose lap she sat upon. Her hand balled into a fist.
Then, everything went black.
What happened? Everything looked pink. She was sitting on Shikra’s lap. Why? She couldn’t give an answer to that, but she had a sudden and desperate urge to tell him all her deepest desires. “I want you,” she blurted out. “I want you, now!”
She straddled him.
His hands gripped her hips tightly. “How you tempt me so. But we mustn’t do it here.
” He looked around as if there were others watching.
“They pursue us. We must hurry and escape. I will take you to a place where they’ll never find you.
No one ever will. My tower. There we can be alone, and you can give,” he said, moaning a little in the back of his throat, “all of yourself to me.”
“How about one kiss? Before we go.”
“Oh,” he moaned again. “How could I say no, my sweet?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he held her around the waist. When her lips were on his, her tongue slowly emerged.
He took her tongue and caressed it with his.
The kiss was sweet, and there was passion, but it lacked the raw emotion their kisses usually brought her.
She broke from the kiss feeling dissatisfied.
But he didn’t seem to feel the same way.
“That was…” he sighed, tilting his head back, not finishing his sentence. “If I were to die now, I’d be a happy elf, and all this would’ve been worth it.”
He took in her beauty as he stroked a finger down her cheek.
“I first saw you in the tavern. I tried knocking on your door when the brute you were with left. But you must have been shy because you did not answer, so I followed you, and glad I was at that. I was worried, my sweet. I thought that he had you. Imagine my relief to find your purity was not taken from you. All my trouble, all my hard work paid off.”
Aelrie stared at Shikra, but his face started to change, the eyes smaller, the nose broader.
The door then burst open. It was then she noticed her surroundings and what she was wearing.
Her vision was a little hazy, especially her peripheral vision, but they were in an old storage room of some kind that had long been forgotten.
The boxes and barrels were empty, and it was dank and musty with dust and spiderwebs in the corners.
It was dark except for a few candles that were placed in a circle around where they sat, which was on a pallet of straw.
Also, she wore a long silky robe and not the clothes she fell asleep in.
Shikra stood in front of her to protect her from whoever burst through the door. “There you are,” came a gruff voice from in front of him. She could not see past Shikra to who it was.
“Stay away,” Shikra cried. “You can’t have her. I won’t let you ruin her like you’ve ruined all the others.”
Another voice, a higher-pitched female one, came from the door. “Ooh,” it crooned. “You done messed up Darkor. Seven long years you’ve been with us, and never once have you sampled the merchandise before they go to auction. We thought you knew the risks should you ever cross us.”
“Yeah, you knew what would happen, the consequences.” This came from one more voice. Three had come into the room.
“You brutes!” Shikra … Darkor yelled. A shout of “ Deren !” came from him, and along with it, a bolt of lightning burst forward from his hands into the darkness at whoever was in front of him. Then came a yelp and the smell of burnt flesh and leather.
“He killed Zen!” the female voice screamed, and then there was a scuffle.
Aelrie ran to the corner, so she didn’t get caught in the crossfire as Shikra shot more bolts of lightning out.
It crackled the air around him, causing chain lightning to branch out and strike in random places.
His magic was out of control. There was more screaming, and then an arrow struck him through the shoulder.
He limped to his side. The lightning bolts stopped.
“Shikra!” Aelrie yelled.
He turned back to her. His face was full of fear, a look she’d never seen from him before. “Run, my sweet. They will force you to do horrible things. Run, you must run. Don’t let them …”
He didn’t finish his words because he was run through the back by an iron broadsword.
“Nooooooo!” Aelrie screamed and ran up to him as the sword pulled out, and Shikra’s body fell to the ground. Desperation clung to her every thought. She could fix this with her healing magic. She had to. She had to heal him.
She turned him over, and that’s when confusion struck. The fog that was in her mind started to clear. He was a Dark Elf, but he was not Shikra.
“Where…?”
A hard hand jerked her roughly off the floor by her arm. She looked up and saw the face of a large orc with green skin and two tusk-like teeth protruding from his lower jaw. She’d heard stories about what orcs looked like but had never seen one up close.
She fought to free herself, but the orc twisted her arm around, and the sharp stinging pain made her scream.
“Don’t damage the merchandise, idiot!” A female Dark Elf carrying a crossbow and a mean look on her face came up and smacked the orc on the backside of his head. “This one’s worth too much. She’s gonna make us a fortune. ”
The orc lessened the pressure on her arm. Relief instantly flooded her, the stinging pain gone.
“The charm’s wearing off cause the charmer’s dead.” The orc looked down at Aelrie as he spoke to the Dark Elf.
Only having bits and pieces and not the whole story, she tried to put things into context. The last thing she remembered before this was waking up in her tent to the face of a Dark Elf hovering over her. The same one that was dead on the floor now.
“Yeah,” the Dark Elf narrowed her beady red eyes at the orc. “That’s cause you killed him. The best damn charmer I’ve ever seen. We’ll never find another one as good as him.”
“This is bad. All the other girls will wake from the charm. We gotta get to Madam Zaya’s,” the orc responded, becoming more aware of the problem he caused by killing the Dark Elf Aelrie thought was Shikra.
“But first,” the female Dark Elf said, turning to Aelrie as she slowly started to regain complete consciousness. “We gotta put her to sleep.”
The Dark Elf held her hand out and blew golden dust into her eyes.
Aelrie blinked, trying to get the dust out, but the more she did, the deeper she slipped under.
The last thing she heard before everything went black was the Dark Elf telling the orc, “Mind your feet, you don’t trip over Zen on your way out.
Now I’ve gotta do something with his body, and Darkor’s.
That’s two bodies. I’m blaming all this on you. ”