Cities of Power Ch. 09

Trix pulled her hands down his back to his ass as if to urge him to take her fully, and she rolled her hips again, increasing the pressure of his cock against her. She rolled her hips up and down, feeling the head of his cock brush against the tip of her clit, sending electric waves through her, then sliding down between her open lips to find the tight opening and warm pleasure she held for him within her. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to feel him thrust forward and impale her on his rock-hard cock, to feel the stretch and burn that the thrust would cause her, to feel him within her body.

He needed no further urging from her. Talon thrust forward with the urgency of a man who had been denying himself the pleasure he craved, and he groaned loudly as her previous orgasm smoothed the way for him. He sank into her deeply, revelling in the feel of her and the sound of her whimpered gasp as he took her. Talon withdrew slowly before thrusting back in harder and deeper than before, repeating the process until he was fully embedded.

Trix could feel him deep within her bouncing against some invisible wall that stopped him from splitting her in two, and she felt her climax rising again with each thrust. She lifted her legs up higher, feeling her clit rub against his pelvic bone with each thrust and trembled as the sensations overtook her once again. She began to move with him, wanting more, harder, deeper. As if sensing her need, he began to pound into her, and she cried out as her orgasm crashed over her in waves.

Talon felt her grip his cock tightly, then almost massage it as she came and gave vent to his desires and the sensations that assailed his body. He pounded into her hard and fast, groaning with the effort to prolong the agony and hold back his orgasm as he watched her peak and crash, only to peak again, her gasping breaths irregular and laboured.

Trix found that each time the wave would retreat slightly she would only climb up again to have it crash over her tingling senses in a mind numbing, excruciating world of pleasure that had her seeing stars as she fought for breath and equilibrium. It was as if she would float away on a cloud of sheer pleasure.

In a rush, the first pulse of his cum rushing through him, he slammed into her, deeply grinding down into her, feeling the barrier within keeping his cock at bay. He stiffened, his body pulsing with the orgasm he had denied himself for too long. He could feel her milking him with her climax and growled low at the overwhelming feeling of her. He lay on top her as they came back down to earth and, realising he was possibly crushing her with his weight, rolled off her and lay on his back, panting and looking up at the ceiling.

Talon pulled Trix against his side and wrapped his arms around her, not wanting to break the physical connection between them. He turned his head and kissed her forehead, smoothing her hair back from her face. "I love you," he murmured.

"That's good, because I love you," she whispered, and gave him an exhausted smile. "Do you think they will mind if we don't attend the celebration they are enjoying for us?"

"Not at all," he chuckled. "I'm in no hurry to leave this bed or have you get dressed again."

*****

"Talon, get your pants on, you're needed!" Venn's deep voice sounded panicked as he banged on the closed bedroom door, disturbing the newlyweds.

Talon knew Venn well enough to know he wouldn't be here if it weren't something important, so he rolled with the innate reflexes of a warrior and grabbed at the pants he had worn for the ceremony, pulling them up even as he moved toward the door. He looked over his shoulder as Trix sat up, pulling the sheet to cover her nakedness before pulling the door open.

"What's going on?" Talon said, sensing the urgency in the man's body to match his voice.

"Hurry!" Venn urged, and turned, practically jogging back down the hallway.

Talon said nothing, grabbing his boots and a shirt before hurrying after Venn. He knew that once the door was shut again Trix would follow him, and he had nothing to say that he hadn't already said a thousand times over during the night. He loved her, needed her, and was overjoyed that they were married at last. Dressing as he went, he alternately hopped and jogged as he pulled his boots on and pulled the shirt over his head as Venn came to a halt and looked up in the direction of the cities and the mountains behind them.

"What is that?" he asked, hating the note of panic that had touched his voice so that it matched Venn's as they moved slowly through the crowd to where the warriors stood near the sanctum.

"Judah says it's a comet," Sirrus, who had seen them arrive, edged toward Talon. "The late-night revellers saw it first, and then by the watch, who alerted the town council. Everyone's being woken by the sounds of it." He turned a serious face to Talon, "The problem, from what I can work out, is the tail of the comet, it seems to be trailing stars behind it which are falling as it moves across the sky."

"It's moving pretty fast, it will be beyond the mountains soon enough," Talon said, not sounding as sure of himself as he usually tried to project to those around him.

"True enough," Sirrus said. "The trail of stars, however," he turned to look at where the first dim light of the dawn was touching the horizon. Talon followed his eyes and turned, seeing the streaks of shooting stars angling down from the path the comet had taken. "I've never seen shooting stars like that," Sirrus whispered with a semblance of awe in his voice.

Talon had to agree. They were bigger and more vibrant, like the sparks from a forge fire falling to the ground, rather than starlight diminishing as it fell from the heavens. He felt, rather than saw, Trix nestle in beside him, and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close as they watched the strange phenomenon in the sky above them.

"We better find the magicians and get their take on this," Talon said, his rational mind starting to take over again as he felt the eyes of his men fall to him often enough to know he needed answers about what was happening and what it meant for them. The prophecy and all of the legend it had made come to life over the past months had them all more than a little nervous about comets and shooting stars.

"Judah took off on his bike when he heard about the comet. He hasn't come back yet," Sirrus murmured. Talon was grateful for his intelligent and observant friend, not for the first time that morning. He raised an eyebrow at Sirrus, knowing he knew more than what he was saying. "He's following the stream out to the plains, I think," Sirrus added at the unspoken prompt.

"Venn," Talon turned, knowing the veteran would still be close by. "You and Sirrus stay close to Gale, find out what you can from the leaders, be diplomatic, but don't let them push you out of important discussions. Get Bay and the others to do the same. I'll find out what Judah is after and bring him back. Edge, ride with me," Talon sounded confident as he made decisions and gave orders, but he felt anything but confident as he looked back up at the fire streaked sky.

"Stay close to home until I return, please," he murmured to Trix. "If anything happens here find Flint and Emery or Venn and Sirrus, or..."

"Or any number of the warriors and men of the town. I am safe here, Talon," she laughed. "This is possibly the safest place in the world at this moment in time."

Talon smiled and kissed her before moving toward the sanctum where his bike was stored. He and Edge wheeled their bikes to the town gates before attempting to start them and track around the wall to where the canal exited the orchard. They took it relatively slowly as they rode through the foothills, watching for hazards in their way as the canal turned into a stream and finally emptied out onto the plain. It had, Talon noticed, pooled in a natural basin to form a lagoon of sorts. He could see Judah in the distance riding back toward them, and he stilled his bike in the shade of a scraggly corps of trees near the edge of the lagoon.

"Break upon the shores of crystal clear lake, big men march and the earth does quake," Judah recited two lines from the prophecy as he killed the engine of his bike and strode to where Talon stood on the edge of the water.

"You think those stars will land here?" Talon fought the rising panic in his gut at the eerie sight of the flame streaked sky.

"Not all of them, most will burn out before they fall to earth, but a few may remain dangerously intact when they fall, at least four or five, if we believe this is the event foretold by the prophecy," Judah shrugged.

"I think we'd be foolish not to take the prophecy seriously now, don't you think?" Talon said, his stomach tightening, and turning his head as Mica stepped off the bike he had ridden out on with Judah.

"I'll stay and keep searching the horizon, Judah has shown me how to use these," he held up a pair of strange looking goggles.

"I'll stay with him while you two go and warn the town," Edge said, cutting off the argument he saw forming on Talon's lips. "I'll make sure he returns safely." He closed his fist and beat it on his chest in a salute to his leader, but ruined it by grinning like a Cheshire cat. It was no secret he hated being locked inside the foreign town, and was glad of an excuse to escape it when he could.

"Race back as soon as you see anything, and I mean anything!" Talon commanded, not liking the idea of leaving either man out here away from the protection of the magicians and the walls of the town. They may have turned away the storm, but something told him this was completely different and would be much harder to save the town and its people from annihilation. His heart sunk as he thought of Trix, there had to be something they could do, and he stepped onto his bike and revved the engine, leading Judah back to town with the news that once again the prophecy was toying with them.

Once Talon was back inside the town the feeling of doom and despair that had clutched him seemed to dissipate, and he realised that outside of the protection of these walls everyone was still susceptible to the strange magic that seemed to attack their minds. He turned a concerned took toward the plains where Mica and Edge now sat watching the horizon, and hoped they had a way to stay positive against the psychic onslaught.

"I gave them both a small talisman," Judah said, as if reading his mind. "You took a large risk leaving the town without such protection."

Talon nodded, accepting the scolding for what it was. The truth was he should have known and should have been more careful. He had to think more clearly and weigh every decision now instead of being so impulsive. He was sure he could look after himself, but he had responsibilities now, not just to Trix, but to the men and women who looked to him to lead them through this crisis.

*****

Mica and Edge had returned to the town reporting dust clouds emerging from the plains just before dusk, and the townspeople prepared themselves for another long night. Those with any power formed up in rows as they had on the night of the storm, Emery standing with them, despite the protests of his mother.

"What good is my rest and well-being if the town falls?" he had said gently in the face of his mother's tears.

"We'll all stand with him," Spar said, feeling proud of the way his sons had risen to guide the town and show the way, despite fear and uncertainty about what was coming from the darkness this night. His concern, though, did not lie with Emery, who, as far as he could see, recovered from the storm, aside from the golden inner glow that he hid by standing in well-lit circles and carrying bright torches with him. His concern lay with Mica, who even now seemed to be avoiding any of the townsfolk in case he ran into Rock. The fact that Mason was still in Phoenix had not been lost on any of them, as the council discussed the prophecy with the magicians, and he knew his son had chafed at not being able to ride to Phoenix to be within when the meteors came. If the meteors came. The prophecy never said what would break upon the walls, it could very well have been the storm which wouldn't have touched the cities. Spar allowed himself the small comfort of the lie as he went in search of his youngest son yet again.

The sky suddenly turned orange, and the smell of smelting metal reached Spar as an incandescent streak coloured the sky far above them, heading toward the mountains in its angled descent. A far away booming sounded, and the ground beneath their feet shook as the sky continued to change colour between orange gold and deep indigo and violet, as it seemed a storm of fire raged in the night sky. The townspeople screamed in panic, the women and children running for the designated shelters, and those who had been otherwise engaged made their way to the town centre where the magicians stood in a trance-like state surrounded by the Pegasus refugees, the warriors, and the men from Gryphon. The men of the town surrounded them, offering, if nothing else, the strength of their mental fortitude to face the disasters that had brought them to this place originally.

Only the eldest of the men and women remembered the war they all called Armageddon that had destroyed much of the civilised world as they had known it as children, but the stories had survived with them, as had the tales of hardship and the struggle to live they had each faced in their journey to this place. They had resilience and fortitude, and each one of them would have given anything they could to protect this town and what it represented to them now.

It seemed they stood for hours as the earth groaned and shook with each streak of light that shot through the night sky, obliterating the stars and the moon from the sight of anyone seeking reassurance that they remained where they had always been. An ear shattering boom sounded and the earth shook so hard that many of the older men were thrown from their feet while others grabbed onto others around them to maintain their balance. The people at the centre of their city seemed unperturbed, their eyes closed in concentration, the warriors having linked arms and created an unbreakable circle of power to protect those that fought mother nature herself.

Once the commotion of the close by explosion had settled and the townsmen who made up the other lines of the circles that now surrounded the magicians stood prepared to resist any force that threatened them, the levy broke its banks. A sudden gush of washer wrapped itself around the ankles and calves of those standing in mute defiance of the forces that assailed them, sweeping some of the unsuspecting men from their feet. The warriors stood firm, the muscles of their shoulders bunching as they held against the push of water, feeling it slowly recede toward the canal.

Talon knew the dangers of the mud beneath their feet now, and planted his feet, lifting his head, shouting the words, "Mud! Don't slip!" Once, before closing his eyes and bending his will to those who needed it once more.

Half of the village men broke ranks and ran to fortify the levee around the spring before more water could escape, muddying the ground beneath their feet. The other half continued their vigil, ensuring nothing of a physical nature threatened to break the circle of power that had been created by the magicians.

The sky cleared of the flaming boulders that assailed it as the night wore on. The flames lit up places on the distant mountains, giving a strange ruddiness to the southern sky. Each of the men who had worked to save the city over the past few days stood for a long time looking south and thinking of their families. They would leave at day break and trust that they had done enough to save this town and the people who lived here from further catastrophe.

Talon gathered the warriors within the Sanctum, ordering them to rest as much as they could before dawn, as setting watches with the younger village boys who had chafed at having to sit out the night indoors with the women of the town. He then trudged toward the council chamber, thinking he would need to explain his warriors need to return home to check on their families. They all knew of the prophecy, and should the council try to prevent their departure resentment would feed a conflict that he would not be able to stop from occurring.

"You did well, son," Spar intercepted him before he reached the building. "Go home and rest, you will have a long ride come daybreak. You have saved my family and my town once again, possibly at the expense of your own. We are not so selfish that we would expect you or your warriors to stay when your loved ones may be in trouble. I will feel better seeing my Princess on your bike if I know you have rested before leaving."

Talon saw Mica talking quietly with Rock, both men seemed sombre, and their eyes showed the worry they both felt for Mason, who had stayed behind in Phoenix. Asking any of the men and women who could walk the paths to the elementals was out of the question after the exhausting night. Spar was right; he needed rest if he intended to make it all the way home to Phoenix tomorrow. He needed to make sure Trix was well enough and prepared for such a journey as well.

"Mica and Trix will return to Phoenix with us," Talon said cautiously. "Will you keep your other sons here, or will they be free to travel to the cities? Their very presence as part of the prophecy could bring hope to people who have suffered much," Talon asked the question, explaining why he had asked it.

"Flint has asked Scorch for the continued use of Glow's bike so he can take Jade to check on her mother and give her the news about Opal," Spar said. "I believe Emery will ride with Terra to seek out the earth elementals, who may know more about his current condition."

"I see," Talon nodded, feeling for the man who was about to lose his children for a second time to the world beyond this town. "Cobalt will stay and help rebuild the town?"

"I believe he has accepted an invitation from Jacob to be an emissary from our town and visit the city of Gryphon to aid in the disaster relief. Each of the cities was hit hard by the strange phenomenon of the comet, but they survive with fewer casualties than expected," Spar bowed his head and breathed, "Thank the source."

"I am surprised you are so accepting of their imminent departure," Talon frowned as they walked together back toward Spar's home.

"A wise young man once told me that as long as the gate is always open to them, they will walk back through it," he paused and chuckled. "So often I will be sick of the sight of them. I'm hoping that man was right."

"He sounds very wise to me," Talon gave Spar a wide smile and felt his spirits rise for the first time since returning from the plains earlier that morning.

Talon had eaten the pan-fried sandwich Opal had pressed on him, and entered the room he had left twenty-four hours before, feeling as though it had been much longer, and found Trix had fallen asleep waiting for him. He smiled and shed the filthy clothes before sliding into the bed and moving in close to her, feeling the warmth of her body and sighing with the small pleasure of knowing he wouldn't ever have to leave her behind in this town again. Knowing he needed the rest as much as she, he closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of her as he fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

*****