The Knight and the Acolyte
Book Eight: Labyrinth of Love
Chapter Six: Labyrinthine Passions
By mypenname3000
Copyright 2016

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.”

“She might be,” Chaun said, amusement in his voice. “I think I like this new side of you.”

“Finding the perfect woman for you to enjoy?” I asked. He had a desire, a need, to lie with married women, just like I had a desire, a need, to be monogamous to my husband. It was ingrained in our races, our natures. And fighting my nature was not pleasant.

“She is, alas, not married,” Chaun said.

“Pity.” I turned my head. “Ooh, now look at her curves. Ample and delicious with that long, yellow-white hair. Tell me she is married.”

“She is,” Chaun said, a smile growing on his lips.

“Are you getting hard?” I whispered, sliding my hand around his waist to rub at the bulge swelling the front of his trousers, borrowed from the pirates. Chaun had lost his magical trunk when we fled Hargone with all his clothing.

“Yes,” he groaned as I rubbed his dick.

“Then you should do something about it,” I smiled, a hot itch forming between my thighs.

“Her name is Tlia,” he said. “Her husband is an average looking man. A little taller than me.”

“Become him,” I moaned, stroking his dick, rubbing my body against him.

Chaun did. The shade of his skin shifted in a subtle fashion, adding more red to its hue while he grew an inch. The style of his hair changed, growing shorter, slicked back, the shade darkening yellow. But the real difference was in the face, his nose become thicker, his chin heavier, his brows more manly. The delicate, almost effeminate features of his natural face became blunted, his ears wide.

His dick, sadly, also shrank. Poor woman. She didn’t get to feel Thrak’s big cock in her.

“Now go fuck Tlia, your wife,” I moaned, giving his dick one last squeeze. I rubbed my thighs together as Chaun moved away from me, heading through the crowd. Tlia had her back to him, browsing a shop.

Chaun moved up behind her, his hand grabbing her ass. It was bold. The woman straightened, turned, and then laughed, seeing only her husband. She had lush lips and bright eyes. Her arms went about Chaun’s neck, kissing my husband

But she didn’t know that.

I shuddered, my pussy growing hot beneath my skirt. I walked after them, thighs pressed tightly as Chaun whispered in her words. Her cheeks darkened. Her eyebrows raised. She asked him a question, and he nodded, giving her a grin. She laughed louder, squirming. Chaun’s hand was still on her ass. And then he pulled her away from the stall. I followed, biting my lower lip, trembling in excitement as they ventured down the alley. My husband pinned Tlia against the wall, kissing her hard, bold.

Is that what she expected from her husband? Boldness?

I leaned against the alley’s entrance, my hands rubbing at the front of my skirt, pressing the fabric into my clit. I shuddered, my tongue sliding across the back of my teeth as I savored watching Chaun’s finger untie her bodice.

“Jayci,” the woman moaned. “What has gotten into you? Mmm, you’ll be in such trouble with your boss.”

“I just had to see my wife’s lovely, lovely breasts.” Chaun scooped them out of her bodice, holding the heavy, lush pair, squeezing them.

“Yes,” I whispered, rubbing faster at my clit. “Enjoy those breasts, Chaun. She thinks you’re her husband.”

It was so wicked. Such a naughty trick. And that only excited me more. I rubbed at my clit faster, trembling at our naughty deception. I couldn’t believe we were really doing this. He was seducing her, cuckolding her husband.

His lips sucked on her nipple. My own ached in sympathy I leaned against the alley wall, stroking my clit faster, hoping Tlia didn’t notice. Or if she did, that she didn’t care. I bucked and shuddered, my pussy clenching with the excitement of this.

I had to touch myself directly.

Chaun’s eyes glanced at me as he suckled on her nipple. I yanked my skirt up, not caring if anyone passing the alley saw me. I shoved my hand directly against my naked, shaved folds. I bit my lip, letting out soft sigh as I rubbed up and down my juicy pussy. I stroked my lips, trembling.

And then shoved a pair of my fingers into my wet depths.

“Chaun,” I breathed, my heart racing.

“Jayci,” groaned Tlia. “Oh, you always know how to play with my breasts. Mmm, you are taking such a risk. If Matil finds out…”

“He won’t,” Chaun grinned, so cocky. He kissed Jayci’s wife. She melted against him, her tongue flying, her hands sliding down his body to Chaun’s trousers. She worked her fingers, eager for her husbands cock.

“But that’s not your husband’s,” I moaned, my fingers pumping in and out of my juicy pussy. Pleasure raced through me as she pulled out my husband’s cock. She stroked it as he hiked her skirt, his lips sucking on her nipples again.

“Seljan’s ledgers, I need to be fucked,” Tlia moaned.

“In the middle of the market?” Chaun asked, glancing at me and winking. “While being watched?”

“Yes!”

I shuddered, my pussy clenching. My eyes were fixed on my husband’s cock grasped by a married woman. She pulled it to her pussy. I trembled, the heel of my hand massaging my clit as Chaun came closer and closer to cuckolding her husband.

And then he thrust into her.

“Yes,” I moaned, my pussy clenching hard on my fingers.

I shoved a second one into my cunt as Chaun fucked her hard. He pounded the married woman, pressing her against the stone wall. She gasped and moaned her enjoyment, thinking her husband rammed his thick cock into her.

The pleasure built in my body as ripples washed through me. I bit my lip, fighting to moan out my excitement, to shout at Chaun to flood her married cunt with his jizz. This was such a rush watching while my husband tricked the woman into violating her marriage vows. It was so naughty. Such an affront to Luben.

My husband was cuckolding hers.

“Yes, yes, yes,” I whispered. “Cum in her, Chaun.”

“Oh, Gods,” the woman moaned, bucking, cumming on my husband’s cock. Her pussy spasmed about Chaun’s dick. His back arched, his hips thrusting forward. “Jayci, yes!”

“Cum in her,” I hissed. “Luben’s sacred vows, do it!”

My fingers reamed my pussy. All three of them stretched me open, pleasure firing through my body. Juices poured out of me, coating my fingers as they worked and pumped through my pussy, driving me wild. I squirmed, moaned. My breasts rose and fell as the pleasure built in me. I tossed my head back and forth. I let out whimpering moans of music as my pleasure built and built.

I was on the edge of cumming. I just needed one last thing to send me into paroxysms of pleasure—my husband flooding Tlia’s married cunt.

“Cum in me, Jayci!” moaned the married woman. “Cum in my cunt!”

“Do it, Chaun,” I moaned, my pussy clenching. My clit throbbed beneath the heel of my hand.

Chaun thrust forward. He groaned out, “Tlia,” as he erupted. His cum flooded her married pussy. My husband’s cum.

“Yes,” I moaned as the pleasure exploded through me.

My head snapped upright as my body trembled. I sang out my pleasure, my pussy spasming on my fingers. The rapture rushed through me. It was such a naughty thrill. We did something so wonderfully wrong. I gasped and groaned, bucking against my hand as I drowned in ecstasy, the world swimming around me.

My husband cuckolded hers. So hot.

“Luben, yes,” I panted, bucking a final time before I slumped against the alley wall. My knees were so weak. They buckled.

“Ooh, yes,” groaned Tlia. “Mmm, that was wonderful. But you need to get back to your work. He will be angry.”

“He’ll never know I was away,” Chaun said, winking to Jayci’s wife. He kissed her before darting away from both of us down the alley.

The woman straightened her skirt as I watched her. She saw me and swallowed, then lifted her head and walked by me back into the market place without saying a word. I gasped for breath, my body still buzzing from my intense orgasm.

Chaun, back in his normal form, rushed down the alley to me. He had a huge, pleased grin on his face. I smiled at him as she stopped before me. I took his hand, grateful for his help in standing.

“Well, you came hard,” Chaun grinned.

“It was so hot,” I panted as we walked out into the crowd. Tlia was back to shopping, though there was a noticeable aura of pleasure about her. A woman satiated. “She had no idea.”

“They never do,” Chaun grinned.

“I can’t wait to do it again,” I breathed as we continued exploring the marketplace.

“You are wicked,” he said while steering me to a stall selling exotic hardwoods. I spotted samples of mahogany and balsa on display, trees that grew on the Island of Birds. The right wood was needed for my new totem. I knew that there were other species of tree that would work for an earth totem, but I didn’t know what they were beside kapok, the great trees that grow in the jungle, towering over all of the others.

The merchant was a male halfling, standing on a stool to be at human eye level, his hair a bright silver, his skin burnished a deeper bronze than Minx’s. Behind his stall was a curtain separating his extra wares. A female halfling bustled out with a ledger she studied. She was probably his wife. Halflings males always had more than one wife; there were just so many of their females that they had to share their males.

Before, I would have thought that was sad. But sharing your man with another woman opened up all sorts of naughty fun.

“Hello, good merchant,” Chaun said with a flourishing bow.

The halfling glanced at him then at me and blinked. “An avian?”

“Indeed,” I said, my voice musical. “I see you have lumber from the Island of Birds.”

“Yes, yes, many fine woods for making furniture,” he said, nodding his head. “Look at the quality of this mahogany, how dark it is, how fine the grain.”

“Very fine,” I nodded, touching it. I didn’t need mahogany. My fire totem was in perfect condition. “And I see balsa wood. But do you have any kapok?”

The halfling blinked. “Kapok? Well, yes,” he said. “For the crates. It’s a serviceable wood, I suppose, but nothing fancy.”

Crates? “Do you have a piece at least as thick around as my hand? It is very important.”

“Important.” A gleam popped into his eyes like one I had seen in Minx’s eyes. He glanced at the female halfling, and she gave a quick nod of her head. “Well, my lovely avian, I do indeed.”

The female halfling headed into the back and returned a few moments later with a thick board. I recognized it as kapok thanks to the grain. It was as long as the halfling female was tall. She set it on the counter, and I stroked it, following the pattern of the grain. It was thick enough but so long.

“I only need this much,” I said, placing my hands on the board to measure.

“Afraid it has to be sold as a whole,” the halfling said. “Two dupondius.”

Chaun let out a laugh as I blinked. Was that a lot of money? Dupondius were gold coins, I think. We did not use currency in the Black Rock Aerie, trading our gems directly with the halflings of Baraconia for the goods we could not produce ourselves.

“Two gold coins for a hunk of wood?” Chaun shook his head. “It’s hardly worth five silvers.”

“Kapok is very rare, good sir.”

“No it’s not. The jungle is full of them. It’s as common as pine, and I won’t pay more than that.”

“But you can’t find kapok on Yalut,” the halfling pointed out. “I had to import it. At cost, good sir.”

“So you inflated the price by a two hundred percent? I’ll pay you five silvers.”

“A gold and five silvers,” the Halfling said.

I blinked, watching as they went back and forth, my fingers still stroking the wood. I could feel its connection to the earth. But it needed work, shaping. I had to carve it and bring out the natural lines, attuning it to the elementals of earth. But with it I could replace mine destroyed fighting the knights.

“Fine, a gold dupondius,” grunted Chaun. “You are robbing me.”

“I am not holding a knife,” the halfling laughed. “How could I rob you?”

Chaun pulled out a gold coin and slapped it down. The halfling snatched it up with a blurring hand and bowed.

I grabbed the plank. It was so heavy. “Can you cut it down for me, good merchant.”

“For what we paid, I think you can,” Chaun said.

“Since you have honored me with your patronage, of course,” the halfling said.

I hugged the kapok wood to my chest, eager to get to work shaping it as we walked through the marketplace back to our companions. My steps had such a light bounce to them. I would have access to all my abilities and…

“Chaun.”

“Hmm?”

“I need woodworking tools.”

Chaun glanced at the halfling. “Not from him. We’ll find a blacksmith who won’t overcharge us for a piece of wood.”

“Thank you,” I smiled.

His glum expression melted away as his arm went around my slim shoulders. “It made you smile.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knave Angela

Waiting for sunset was tedious, but it did give me time to contemplate Sophia and her mood. It had to be something new. She wasn’t worried about the fight with the Minotaur, she wasn’t a worrier normally, so it had to be something else.

It came to me around noon. It was obvious I felt foolish for not even realizing it. She was worried about Kevin. Not fighting him, but me remembering I loved him. Which was preposterous. I told her so already. Besides, those memories were gone, holes burned into my mind erasing whatever should be there. I could feel the holes but I had no idea what Kevin meant to me.

“Concubine,” I said, standing up and stretching, “walk with me.”

“You’re leaving?” Thrak rumbled, looking up from the book he read. It was so small in his large hands.

“Not far. I need to stretch my legs. And so does Sophia.”

Sophia rose, her head bowed, still wrapped up in her problems. I led her down an alley, the bustle of the square dying down. I turned around, facing her. She frowned at me, her hands washing together before her.

“You’re afraid that I won’t love you if I remember Kevin,” I said, a nice, blunt attack. “Even though I already told you that I would.”

She blinked. “I…I…” Her head lowered. “Yes.”

“You know I love you, right?”

She nodded her head.

“That I dominate you and spank you and hurt you because you need it.” I moved closer to her. “Yes, I enjoy the way you whimper and squeal, it’s sexy, but I do it to make you happy.” I lifted her chin, her eyes liquid. “Just like you submit to make me happy.”

“I know you love me, my Queen,” she said, her voice hoarse. “I do. It’s just…”

“That I’ll leave? Abandon you for Kevin? That everything that I’ve grown to feel for you over the last five months will just vanish. Poof.”

“Your memories went poof.”

“But I won’t forget you even if I get them back.” I stroked her chin. “Believe that. It’s real. I didn’t fall in love with you because I forgot about Kevin. I was already feeling things for you before I gave up my memories. I was just…conflicted.”

“Really?”

“I think so. I was in turmoil, my world upended by the Quest. I think I had a fight with Kevin. I must have been angry with him. I gave him up, Sophia. Remember that. How much could I have really loved him?”

“But…” her eyes watered. “Chaun sees Kevin when he looks at you. It means you do still love him even if you’ve forgotten about him.”

I froze. I had known that, but… I hadn’t really thought about what it meant. Did I love someone I couldn’t remember? Did my soul yearn for Kevin? I brushed her tear. She was so beautiful. So wonderful. I Loved her.

“Chaun doesn’t see the woman I love. And when he looks at you, he sees the groom you had a crush on as a girl.”

Sophia blushed.

“He doesn’t see me, Sophia. He can’t see me. He sees only men because he can’t appear as a woman. So maybe Kevin’s the man I love the most, but you’re the woman I love even more. I know that. It hurts me to see you sad. I don’t like it. I don’t want you to be afraid that I’ll just abandon you. I won’t. Even if I remember, I know I won’t.”

“My queen,” she breathed, and then she hugged me tight, my armor groaning. She shuddered, crying against me. I held her, stroking her back. I could feel the desperation of her love. Her passion. Oh, I loved this woman.

“You are my concubine. And nothing will ever change that, Sophia. Nothing.” My arms tightened about her. “I love you. I choose you. Every time I’ll choose you. I believe that. So don’t worry about what Chaun sees or the unlikely possibility I ever will remember him. Okay.”

“Okay?” she sniffed. Her arms tightening. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I blinked.

“For worrying. For doubting you. I’m sorry.”

I let out a snorting laugh. “Oh, Sophia, doubts are fine. This is tough on us all. It’s made me think about things, seeing Kevin, wondering just what I lost. But I have to focus on this one fact: I made a choice. I gave him up. I didn’t love him more than doing my duty. I…” I shuddered. “If I had to choose between you and killing the dragon, I would choose you. I…”

Her arms tightened and she let out a sob of joy. Tears fell down my cheeks as I rocked my lover. Remembering Kevin would change nothing. Sophia was mine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warlock Faoril

I set the box on the table and sat down next to Xandra as she worked a piece of wood, shavings covering the table and her lap. Her eyes were focused intently as she worked, almost distant, like she was in a trance. She was making a new totem I realized after a moment.

“What’s the box for?” Sophia asked, sitting on Angela’s lap. The pair looked…close.

The box was a simple chest about twice the size of my hands, hinged with delicate brass. The wood was stained dark. I stroked it, opening the box to reveal its far plainer interior. Then I clapped it shut with a bang, making Sophia flinch.

Xandra kept carving.

“For the Minotaur’s heart,” I answered, a belly full of Thrak’s cum warming me. I reached out life magic, casting the simple preservation spell I used on my vials to keep cum fresh. “To preserve it until we reach the Altar of Souls.”

“Oh, that’s smart,” Sophia said.

“I have been known to be that,” I answered as the life magic settled into the box. Anything living put in there would be kept fresh until it was opened again. My stomach squirmed. We were ready for tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xerathalasia

“His ship never arrived,” I reported as darkness smothered the city.

“Then this might work,” Angela said, taking a deep breath. “We have four hours to kill the minotaur and escape the Labyrinth tonight. Otherwise, we’re stuck in the labyrinthine another day. And his ship will have arrived by then.”

I nodded my head with the others. Minx, standing beside me, did a flourish with her daggers that I was sure she thought impressive. It was childish, but I smiled and my ears wiggled. My four-leaf clover, the boon I earned from Princess Siona, moving with them.

“Let’s go,” Thrak said and cracked his knuckles.

Sophia shuddered.

“I hope we don’t need the Flaming Woman,” Sophia said. “I really thought she would have shown up by now. She’s all we’re missing.”

The Lesbius Oracle prophesied one final companion after Xandra. Sophia was right, I had expected we would have met her by now. Minx shifted beside me and sheathed her daggers. I gripped my bow. It was unstrung. I doubt it would be much use in the tight tunnels of the labyrinth.

We marched through the streets, attracting looks. People shook their heads at us, some making strange gestures with their fingers. “They’re warding against our foolishness,” Faoril whispered. “They know where we’re heading.”

“Where else would a group like us go,” Thrak laughed.

“And they think we’re fools,” Chaun sighed, his lyre in hand.

Xandra was beside him, her new tools and the piece of wood she had been carving tucked into her pouch with her totems. She had her air totem out, the lines of the wood carved to resemble sinuous, serpentine lines. Wind in abstract, I supposed.

We reached the overgrown Labyrinthine Gardens. A stone path, weeds poking through it, led into the gloom. The thick trees, their trunks covered in shaggy moss, loomed over us, plunging us into deeper darkness as we followed the path into the gardens. It was a wild place and yet wasn’t natural at all. I spotted the orderly rows of trees and bushes. It was subtle to detect. The gardens had lain untended for a long time.

As we walked, a grinding sound grew louder. The ground rumbled beneath my feet. Something moved beneath us, stone scraping on stone. My heart beat faster as the path led through the brush to a small clearing, stone benches lined around a small plaza. There was a rectangular hole cut in the plaza only a foot deep. A flat stone, surface smoothed to a fine polish, moved in the depression. It slid from right to left. It must be immense. It kept moving and moving.

“It’s a huge disc,” reported Faoril, “with a slot carved in it. The disk takes a full day to turn. We have to wait for the notch to reach us, then the stairs shall be unveiled.”

“The weights involved are astonishing,” Thrak said, studying it. “How is this possible mechanically? What stone could be shaped into a disk this immense and still move without shattering. It must be a mile or more in diameter.”

“Stone from the moon, stolen by Cernere,” Minx said. “She gave it to Grahat, and he fashioned the labyrinth from it. They say not even magic can touch it.”

“Moonstone,” Thrak muttered then glanced up. “Is that why there are dark patches on the moon. The quarry?”

“Definitely,” Minx nodded her head.

My ears twitched. “The sound is changing, the pitch rising. I think the notch approaches.”

A moment later, a gap in the stone disk appeared, sliding open, revealing a stairs leading down into the darkness. A musty smell rose, the air scented by sweat and leather and blood. I wrinkled my nose at the stench of the Minotaur.

“Four hours,” Angela said, drawing her sword and hefting her kite shield. “Let’s go and slay a demigod.”

“After this, the dragon will be as easy as baking a pie,” Sophia said and then spoke the words, conjuring her pink light.

I took a deep breath and thought of my newborn daughter. I hoped to see her and my wife again. “Matar,” I prayed to the hermaphroditic goddess, “keep us safe in the darkness of the earth.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knight Kevin

“An ugly city,” Mary said, my fellow knight standing beside me on the deck. Grahata lay before us, the harbor teaming with ships, the city rising dark beyond. It took much convincing to have the ship’s captain dock in the dark.

“The labyrinth would just now be opening,” I said. “She’s heading underground. Madness and folly.” I shivered in fear for her. The priestesses divination revealed Angela had reached the city this morning.

“A powerful ritual is needed to reforge the sword. A powerful force of war to power it. What better than the heart of Gewin’s son?” She patted my arm. “I doubt she’ll return. I’m sorry. I know you wanted to save her.”

“She’s too stubborn to lose to the Minotaur,” I said, resisting despair. “And we’ll be ready for her when she emerges.”

“She has a four hour window tonight,” Mary said. “We should go there straight away.”

“I have a stop to make.” There was a temple to Luben, God of Love in Grahata. “I need to consult a priest.”

“We brought six of them,” Mary said. “And Esmeralda and Helena love consulting with you.”

“They serve the wrong god.” Luben’s priests would know how to break the enchantment on Angela. I just had to restore her memories and she would see the folly of her task. She would see reason, and I could save her life.

I would have her back. Silently, I prayed to the gods to watch over her in the Labyrinth. To let her survive the demigod who had slain every hero who had tried. I should have been by her side. I should have went with her on her quest and supported her.

I was a damned fool. No longer.

To be continued…

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