Queen Yavara Ch. 42

She said no more. I looked up at the decrepit white bodies clinging to the ceiling like humanoid spiders, then looked back to Furia.

"What do we do?" She asked with her real voice.

"Run." I said.

And we did. We sprinted blindly through the corridors, moving so fast that my thermal eyes had trouble catching the walls before I ran into them. The vampires overhead scurried after, not chasing us, but simply following. We weren't trying to outrun them, but ourselves. I didn't know where we were going, but indecisiveness wasn't a luxury I could afford anymore. I chose our path, trying to keep an alternating pattern of right and left just to avoid going in a circle. We only needed to find an exit. At this point, I could deal with Arbor's questions. Right, left, right, left, right... what?

We skidded to a halt and spun around, but there was nothing but a rock face where a tunnel had been.

"Shit!" I snapped, and pounded against it. No use. I was stronger than any man on Tenvalia in this body, but I could not break through the five feet of stone that had rolled into place behind us. I took a deep breath, and turned around.

We were in a library. It was ancient by any means, held up by massive obsidian pillars a hundred feet tall, the cavern so large that I could not see the end of it. Only blackness. Endless rows of shelves divided the great room, each one holding millions of books. Ladders on rails were attached to each, though many of the wrought-iron ladders were rusted to nothing. The ceiling was vaulted like a cathedral, covered in tree roots and lit with red light that was not fire, but astral gemstones that would never go out. In the middle of it all, was a black figure staring at us with deep red eyes. She stepped into the light. It was obvious that she was well-fed, for her alabaster breasts looked ready to explode from her long satin dress, and her wide hips seemed to taunt us from beneath her impossibly-narrow waist. Her cheekbones were so dramatic they seemed to be carved from marble, and her lips were so full and red they looked like they dripped blood. I had seen great beauty in my life—I was a great beauty, but never had I seen such a timeless horror of lust as this. She was like an earthbound demoness, too old and too evil to be alive, yet her flesh was such a splendor that I almost felt honored to soon become nourishment for it.

"It's magnificent, is it not?" Gloria asked, gesturing grandly to the library. "What great civilization do you think existed here ten-thousand years ago? Surely one far greater than the paltry kingdoms that exist now. You are but primordial ooze compared to what was before you, and you didn't even know this greatness existed," She gestured grandly, "but this is your destiny. You will rise from this primitive state, compounding knowledge upon knowledge in places like this, and using that knowledge to reach true enlightenment, and then you will destroy it all, and become barbarians once more. Civilization does not dwindle into nothing, but collapses at its peak in a beautiful catastrophe. It's a cycle, like those of Creators and Sentients. People rise, they reach the summit, then they leap back to the bottom. Why do they not keep rising? Philosophers have many hypotheses, but I think it is this: people are never satisfied. We were born to be unhappy with the way things are, and if things are perfect, well, then we're going to fuck it all up." She turned back to us. "Do you like to read?"

"Yes." I said, not knowing what else to.

"Excellent." Gloria smiled, "This is the foremost library in all the world. When the Highland empire—does the Highland empire still exist?"

"It's just the Highland Kingdom now."

"Imperialism is so last millennium. When the Highland empire unearthed this place, they were going to destroy it to get to the copper beneath. Can you imagine? This treasure trove of unique knowledge that could've catapulted their civilization ten-thousand years forward, and they would've destroyed it to get to some shiny rocks beneath the earth! Well, I put a stop to that. Nothing scares away prospectors quite like a violent and gruesome death in pitch blackness. I made this place my home away from home. After spending a few hundred years running gangs, toppling kingdoms, and partying with gods, it's nice to wind down in a good book. There are cyphers on each shelf in case you need help translating. Obviously, none of these books are written in a language you'll understand, but if you're bright enough, you'll catch on. The bathroom is down the hall and to the left, and there's a thermal reservoir a few thousand yards that way that is just heaven on the flesh. If you have any questions, just think them. Enjoy yourselves!"

"Wait!" Furia yelled.

Gloria turned around, and smiled. "Before you embarrass yourself, I'll just tell you that there is no leaving this place. You cannot hide from me, you cannot run from me, and you cannot reason with me. I am going to eat you. I don't care that you're both pregnant. I don't care that the fate of kingdoms rests on your shoulders. I don't care that you want so badly to live that you'll do anything I ask."

Furia looked side-eyed at me, and I turned with her, our muscles tensing to—

"It would be a shame to do that now." Gloria whispered in our ears. She was behind us. She had moved a hundred feet in the time it took our eyeballs to shift a degree. "Once the fangs come out, I don't put them back." She stroked my throat, "You're a leader of men, I can tell that about you. I suggest you tell your hermaphroditic paramour to stand down, or I'll tear her apart in front of you. I promised you a painless death. Don't make a liar of me."

"Stand down, Furia." I said shakenly. Gloria had her hand wrapped around Furia's neck, her long claws digging into the flesh. Furia relaxed, and Gloria let her go.

"There." Gloria smiled, "We're all friends here, if only short-term. You won't need these," she said, taking our food provision, "and this would've never done you any good with me," she proffered the Nadi stake from Furia's hand, touching the bare wood without a second thought. She made to grab my strongbox, but I refused.

"Didn't I just say—"

"It's money."

"Oh, you primitives have finally gotten to paper money?" She mused curiously, and took the box from me anyway. "That's one of civilization's great filters. Can your people assign an agreed-upon value to something that is intrinsically worthless? If yes, then you move forward. If no, then it's time to burn everything down and start over. Ah, the First Bank of Ardeni. Ardeni still exists, does it? That's good. I quite like the place. Whose face do they have on here... oh, it's one from the Dreus lineage. They were nothing more than human traffickers last time I was in Ardeni, but every royal family starts out as a street gang. Well, keep your intrinsically-worthless paper, distant child. I'll add it to the archives for posterity."

She walked away, her well-muscled white back exposed to the tailbone in her luxuriant dress, her full backside seeming to tease her retreat.

"Wait." I said.

She turned, looking rather annoyed. "Yes?"

"Can you take this to the outlet on the west side of the Knife River?"

"It's caved in."

"They've excavated it for us. I know you don't care about our mission, but I can't die knowing I didn't do everything I could to complete it."

She shrugged. "It's only a two-day journey for me. I suppose I could use the exercise."

"Thank you." I said, offering her the box.

She looked inquisitively at me. "Only after you're dead, dear child. The sooner you accept your fate, the sooner your mission will be completed." She grinned, "If you truly love your country, you'll change for me right now."

"I guess I'm not as patriotic as I thought." I mumbled, tucking the box back under my arm.

"No one ever is." She laughed, and disappeared into the black.

YAVARA

I had come to Alkandra to seek a reprieve from hardship before I began the next day's horrors. I should've known that such horrors would be waiting for me there. The family that I'd made had been shattered, the ashes of Alexa Jenania still blowing from the pyre. Faltia was ensconced in her grief, Kiera was in rehab, and Brianna and Eva were helping her. They only asked me to heal any damage done to her fetus by her indulgence in heroin, then they asked me to leave her alone. For all the barriers that we'd broken since that day I first visited, I was still an outsider in the sisterhood of rangers and hybrids. I was at peace with it. Time would bring us closer, and we had all the time in world. Except for Alexa.

"Did you get a look at the assassin?" I asked Soraya.

"No. It was just an androgynous figure. It disappeared into the city."

"There must've been a ship that it got on."

"We searched the hold of every vessel down to the bilge. Nothing."

"Shit." I muttered. Much of the population had begun to move into the castle for the winter. Those who didn't have houses of their own, or those whose houses couldn't weather the cold months formed a long procession. The nymphs harvested the last crops from the fields and stored them in huge granaries, more than enough to feed the populace three times over throughout the winter. Arbor's magic would ensure that the food could never be tarnished by an enemy's poison, nor the winter rot.

"How did Prince Matthew look when he heard about Alexa?" I asked.

"He was beyond distraught. They were very close." She looked at me inquisitively, "Do you think the Lowlands did this?"

"I don't know. I don't know if it's even the same person who tried to have Elena killed."

"Eva thinks it's Leveria."

"Leveria loves her assassins, but I don't think it's her."

"Why not?"

"She hasn't gloated to me about it yet." I said, "I think that bolt was meant for Adrianna, not Alexa."

"Most likely."

"Has Adrianna established a line of succession just in case?"

"No."

"She should." I sighed, "God, I hate thinking about this shit. You know I haven't gotten fucked in three days?"

"This conversation took a sudden left turn."

"Sorry. My body is just teeming right now; it's like background noise on all my thoughts."

"Adrianna got that way when she was ovulating."

"How did she fix it?"

"She got knocked up." Soraya glanced at my belly, "You must be using some strong birth control."

"I'm not using any birth control."

Soraya's brows went up. "Well then... up the butt; no baby in the gut."

I laughed. "I guess it's worked for me so far." But when Soraya looked away, my smile slowly fell.

ELENA

Percian Feltian was a slight boy of nineteen years. His features were soft and angular in the elven fashion, and his fair complexion almost made him pretty. He was dressed like a male model, spoke with an affected lisp, and gesticulated like his hands were autonomous. He was, without a doubt, the gayest man I'd ever met in my entire life. Were he a commoner, he would've been thrown into a brutal rehabilitation school, but he was a rich noble, and so the rules simply did not apply to him. Learning this made it much easier for me to accept Sofia's deception of him, for at least he was not in love with her. That said, I was beyond bewildered when I talked to Sofia about him while he was in the washroom.

"Percian's not gay!" She laughed like I was joking with her.

I blinked. "There is no way you're this naïve."

"He's an infamous lady-killer. Half the minor noblewomen in Feltianas had to go to a mage to get their hymens repaired."

"Uh-huh. I'm sure he worked very hard to cultivate that reputation. How many times has he pressured you to open your legs?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not a common lord's daughter; my virginity actually means something, and he respects that."

"Your... 'virginity.'"

"The perception of my virginity, anyway." She tittered naughtily, "I was saving it for a much larger prize than Percian Feltian."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Sometimes I wonder if I should be worried about you."

She twiddled her thumbs deviously, and we both laughed.

Percian entered the room a moment later, smelling strongly of my perfume. He sat down beside Sofia, and awkwardly held her hand when she presented it to him. "Now, Lady Straltaira, you were talking about the prospects of postwar trade relations with Alkandra."

"The Dark Queen has listened to international concern that the reestablishment of Alkandra will tilt the Tenvalian economy permanently to the east. She is proposing a trination port in the southern Midlands where our countries officially converge."

"A fascinating idea, assuming she can conquer the southern Midlands."

"Progress is inevitable. The wildlands can't stay wild for long, especially with the aid of the Highland army. Having our men fight side-by-side should do wonders healing the wounds they've inflicted upon each other."

"By massacring the natives?" Percian asked with raised brows.

"We call them 'savages' when they're on land we want." I grinned.

Percian looked me over appraisingly, then turned to Sofia. "Oh, I like her." He said.

"I knew you would." Sofia tittered, clasping his limp hand, and leaning in for a kiss. He placed a closed-lip peck on her cheeks, and it was at that moment that she realized I was one-hundred-percent right about him. A younger, more naïve Sofia might've tasted the curt kiss and thought nothing of it, but I had made a true woman of her, and the revelation dawned on her face the moment she parted from her betrothed.

Percian looked upon me, oblivious that his "secret" was known to all in the room. He crossed his legs, and assessed me with an interested eye. "I'll have to talk with my advisers about this development. Perhaps you would care to meet later?"

"Later?" I smiled amusedly.

"At my estate." He smiled back, "I'll have a dinner prepared for us, and then you and I can come to terms."

I sat back, letting my cock slither obviously under my dress. His eyes flitted to it, then back to me, and my grin turned wicked. "Lord Feltian, why don't we come to terms right now?" I asked.

He shifted uncomfortably. "I would prefer to negotiate in private."

"We're in private right now, my lord." I said, swirling my wine glass, "Just you, me, and your blushing bride to be."

I shared a glance with Sofia, and she read my intentions clearly. A shade of alarm crossed her face, followed immediately by an expression of devious excitement. My little protégé; how I loved her. She leaned against her betrothed, letting her breasts pillow into his shoulder. "Yes, dearest, let's negotiate terms now."

His posture was as rigid as stone. "This is a Feltian matter, Sofia, and I'm afraid I must represent my family alone."

"But our families are to be joined, so what is the issue?" She tittered.

"The issue, dearest love," Percian growled, "is that I am my own man, and not beholden to you!"

"That's no way to talk to your fiancé." I chuckled.

"You're so tense, dearest." Sofia whispered into his ear, her hand running down his chest, "Let me be a good wife, and help you relax."

He looked ready to crawl out of his own skin. "Not here, Sofia." He snarled.

"Then where?" She giggled, running her hands down his belly, "And when? Why should we wait until our wedding night if we are already promised to each other?" She gnawed on his ear playfully, "It's not like I'm a virgin anyway."

"What?!" He exclaimed, his face aghast.

"Oh come now, dearest..." She tittered, her hand venturing down his pelvis, over his groin, and sliding between his cheeks. She curled her fingers, and whispered, "...it's not like you are either."

Percian's face was an impeccable shade of white, but his cheeks were rosy, flushed with embarrassment, flushed with arousal. His tight pants could not conceal his growing manhood, and Sofia and I gawked at it as it grew, and grew, and grew.

"Oh, Percian," Sofia muttered covetously, running her hand along the bulge, "how dare you keep this from me."

"Sofia, I need to—"

"Shh." She hissed, placing a finger over his lips, "I don't care if you like having a cock inside you." She crinkled her nose endearingly, "I like having a cock inside me too. Just because you're not attracted to me, doesn't mean we can't be man and wife." She glanced at me, and grinned, "People can change, and very soon, you might find that I'm not so undesirable after all."

I smiled back at her, wearing my liar's mask. To hide my momentary shame, I grabbed my dress, and pulled it over my face, and off my body. I wore nothing but a coreset beneath it, the velvet bindings holding my breasts high on my chest, the vest tapering away at my sculpted abdomen to reveal all the fun things below it. Percian stared at my rigid cock, his lips quivering. I smirked, and stepped onto the couch, towering over him with an imperious glare. I squatted down, and mounted his chest, bringing my knees around his shoulders. My leaking tip was poised inches from his mouth, my bronze thighs trapped his head in a pillowing embrace. I raked my fingers through his hair, and balled my fist in it.

"Well, my lord?" I whispered down, my eyes smoky and lidded heavily, "Shall we negotiate?"

He parted his trembling lips, and I eased myself inside. I groaned pleasurably, feeling his hot sucking lips pulling me in, his soft moist tongue curling around me, its tip caressing me like a beckoning finger to guide me deeper. His throat opened easily around me, and closed in a generous embrace of my head, swallowing the last of me into his gullet. With practiced ease, he swirled his tongue around my consumed shaft, and his hands came up to grip my ass, and push me deeper.

"Oh, my lord!" I moaned, shifting back and forth, "Oh god, suck it just like that!"

He moaned with me, wrapping his lush lips around my base, spit bubbling from the seal when I pulled out. His fingers squished into the fat of my ass, his middle and ring fingers venturing closer together, traversing the pliant flesh of my crack before finding my anus. Oh, he knew well how to touch that part of a man. He circled my puckered center, teasing the entrance expertly until it was popping and winking on its own, opening to receive him. My back curved when his digits penetrated me, and I pressed my crotch hard against his face, savoring the sensation of his muzzle indenting the pelvic base around my cock.

I looked back over my shoulder to see Sofia curiously playing with Percian's testicles. She'd never been with a true man before, and so the organs were fascinating to her. With her dress now discarded, her bra gone, and her panties cast upon the floor, she only wore her high-heeled shoes, and they clicked together as she gently toyed with her husband's sack. She turned a shade of pink when she caught me giggling at her, and she shed her scientific expression to don a more appropriate mask of lechery. With a coy grin, she placed Percian's sack into her mouth, and sucked until each cheek was filled with a testicle, her tongue dividing them. Percian's fingers shot into my ass, his grip on the fat tightening until the succulent meat protruded like dough between his fingers. I cried out in delight, thrusting as his fingertips pressed against my prostate, massaging it with a firm stroke.

"Suck my cock, you little faggot!" I gasped, and he grinned wickedly around my shaft, and slurped me into his vacuum seal. Sofia got too ambitious for her own good, and attempted to one-up her betrothed by taking his rod all the way into her throat. She got halfway down before her eyes watered, and hot spittle leaked down his thick shaft. She looked to me for guidance, but in the heat of my pleasure, and seeing her in such a pathetic state, I could only teach her in one way. I reached back, grabbed the back of her head with both hands, and shifted my weight atop it. Percian seized in reaction, his eyes rolling back, his mouth sucking harder than it ever had. Sofia gagged around a squeal, her face forced all the way down, her head the base of my bodily bridge that spanned her fiancé's torso. Her face was purple with exertion, her eyes streamed, and her neck bulged. I held her firmly down, forcing her to acclimate to it, punishing her for her avarice, though she did not deserve it. But she wanted it. Even as she struggled to free herself, trashing and clawing at my hands, her ass wiggled delightedly behind her, strings of vaginal saliva dripping from between her legs. After a minute, the muffled screams she sounded dwindled. After another, her face returned to its flushed state, and her breath eased evenly through her nose.