Queen Yavara Ch. 49

"Greedy whores." I muttered.

She sneered at me. "Does the queen need her diaper changed?"

I shifted, and felt the warm squishiness between my cheeks. I sighed. I hadn't even noticed. I would be incontinent for at least another day, and wouldn't have my full strength back for several months. If I could stand by the end of the week, it would be a miracle.

"The queen has indeed, shat herself." I grumbled, and bowed my head pitiably as Lady Jonias laughed musically, and wheeled me to the bathroom.

ADRIANNA

The rebel army stared slack-jawed as Esmerelda led me hand-in-hand through the village. She kept her chin held high, and so did I, though it itched with the expectation of a blade. My eyes faced forward, but my vision was focused on the periphery, watching for hateful hands to reach for knives. I remembered well how much high-elves despised those of other races, and I was the very worst; not just a dark-elf, but a bastardization of high-blood, my silver-blonde hair and blue eyes shining just like theirs, a mockery. My hands stayed in my robes, gripping the daggers I had concealed in the sleeves. These women were killers, yes, but not well-trained. I could cut my way through fifty of them with enough luck.

We reached the center of the village, and stepped upon a platform there. Five-hundred high-elf faces stared at me from all directions, their bewildered expressions and scrutinizing eyes collectively solving the puzzle that was me. Though I was in more clothes than I'd been in since my transformation, I'd never before felt so naked.

"Sisters and mothers." Esmerelda said, addressing them all, "Our brothers and fathers are returning to us with thirsty swords."

There was an uncomfortable murmur, and Esmerelda silenced it with her raised hand. "We fought to send a message to Bentius, a proclamation that we—the downtrodden and exploited—would no longer be slaves to their avarice. The message was well-received, but it fell upon deaf ears." She paused, then said, "But our message was heard elsewhere. Queen Yavara Alkandi was once a princess of this land, a high-elf like you and me, and she remembers the plight of—"

"We don't fight for the Dark Queen!" someone cried from the crowd, and there was a roar of approval.

"Send that abomination back in a box to her whore mistress!" someone else yelled, and there was another concurrent roar.

"I'd rather be sentenced to the rack than follow that thing! At least then when I die, I won't have to face the judgement of God!" another one proclaimed to the wrathful adulation of the devolving rebellion.

Esmerelda raised her hand for silence, but she was not heeded. The murmurs became growls, and the growls became a growing rumble, the crowd only seconds away from becoming a mob.

"We need help!" she screamed over the noise, "If we have the backing of Alkandra, then we can—"

The crowd went silent. Esmerelda went silent. Her panicked blue eyes slowly drew from the audience, to the blade I rested against her throat.

"Trust me." I whispered, "This is the only way you and I get out of this alive." I looked over Esmerelda's shoulder, my front pressed to her back, only the top of my head exposed to the crowd. "Did you see how easy that was?" I called to them, "It took nothing more than some honied words and a smile to get me this far." I wrenched Esmerelda's face to the side, and licked her cheek, flicking my tongue with a smile. She hissed, not quite as disgusted as she probably should've been, but the onlookers didn't notice, for they were staring daggers into me. "What a cute thing your rebel leader is," I mused airily, turning her face this way and that, "I heard she was publicly raped by her own taxman. It was the price for her village's debts. Well, the Dark Queen's services aren't free either. What should I do with her, do you think?"

"Adrianna?!" she hissed.

"Trust me!" I hissed back. I turned my attention to the crowd, and grinned wickedly. "Well?" I queried, "Should I fuck her right now? Or are you all waiting for the army to come and do it? Then you can watch them pass her around from officer to officer before they start cutting her open and pulling things out. Is that what you want to see?" I traced my hand down Esmerelda's front, and made a slicing motion across her belly. "I heard the screams get higher the emptier you become." I said, eyeing the archers readying their bows, "I wonder what music your dear leader will make when they unravel her?"

I pushed Esmerelda forward, and she stumbled to her knees. The archers loosed. Ten arrows came for me from the rooftops, all at different speeds, none too accurate. I side-stepped three of them, tilted my head to dodge a fourth, pivoted and twisted to dodge four more, then snatched the last two out of the air, and tossed them on either side of me, their tips imbedding into the platform, their hafts quivering with released energy. The archers all gawked. Esmerelda gawked. The entire army gawked. Only a distant crow could be heard in the pervading silence that fell over them. All eyes were locked on me, horrified, enraptured. I let my loose robe fall from my outstretched arms, and slide from the curves of my body until my spectacular nudity was exposed, my bronze flesh and supple curves all canvased in tattoos, all sculpted over hard muscle. A warrior the likes of which they'd never seen, a savage of legend, a wonder to behold. I knew I was better than all of them, and I wasn't going to feign modesty.

"I am Adrianna Alkandra, formerly Thomas Adarian of the Highland Rangers, traitor of two nations." I said softly, but all could hear it, and all were listening very carefully. "I don't carry the power of the Dark Queen with me; she would kill me if she ever saw me again. I am an exile like all of you. I stand before you as a woman who has nothing left but the child in my belly. Call me an abomination. Call me a heathen. Call me whatever you like, and it is all true. It doesn't matter. The men who are coming won't differentiate between the heathen abomination, and you." I reached to my side, grasped Esmerelda's hand, and hauled her to her feet. I continued the motion upward until our joined hands were thrust in the sky, high and proud before the masses. "Do you think you will be forgiven for what you have done? Those bastards that rule this land don't know what forgiveness is! The only thing they know is strength, and the only strength they know is fear! Together, will show them why they should fear us! Together, we will show them how strong we are! We are going to Bentius! We are going to break down the gates of the palace, and we are going to end a thousand years of tyranny in one bloody night!"

These country-girls had never seen even a glimpse of such glory in all their days; how could they not cheer me? They raised their arms, and roared. Some had tears streaking down their cheeks, some were grinning from ear to ear, some were screeching like banshees, and all of them were in awe of me. I was spectacular, a vision, a radiant angel delivered straight from hell. And as I looked across the mob of Highlanders that had been so easily turned by my words, I realized I didn't care about them at all. These had been my people, and now I viewed them more as livestock. I would send them all to the slaughterhouse for just one chance to get back home. My real home. Alkandra.

"How did you know that would work?" Esmerelda yelled in my ear over the noise.

"I didn't'!" I smiled at her, but she wasn't smiling back.

ZANDER

I sighed as I sat down in my chair, and opened a book. Not a second later, my bedroom door burst into a thousand splinters with a deafening crack. A white figure emerged from the debris, and moved so fast that the falling shards of wood seemed to float by him. He tore through the floorboards with his pounding feet, every step propelling his eight-foot frame closer toward me, his strides covering five paces in one bound. He flexed his mighty legs, his teeth bared, and he launched himself atop of me, clamped his hands around my head, and tore it clean off my shoulders. A moment later, he was suspended in air, snarling and swiping helplessly at the projection I had displayed in the chair while I hid in the closet.

"Drake Titus," I called, stepping from the closet, "I'd say I was disappointed in you, but I understand that love makes even the most rational of us crazy."

He hissed at me, his usually-calm visage turned to a horrifying display of predatory savagery; every vein bulging, every tooth sharp and bright. Then, just as soon as he'd come across the room to attack my apparition, he calmed himself. He cleared his throat, adjusted his black hair, tidied his robe, and dabbed the spittle from his face.

"Well, this is rather embarrassing," he said in his posh accent, "would you be so kind as to put me down?"

"No, I don't think I will." I chuckled, and walked toward him, "Not until I tell you that Adrianna is alive."

His brows went up. "I beg your pardon?"

I released him from the spell, and he dropped gracefully to the floor. "Adrianna is alive." I said simply, "I broke your connections with her, then exiled her. I don't doubt that she's in the Highlands right now, doing whatever it is she needs to do to get back here." I tapped the floor with my staff, and my chair slid behind me. "I'm glad that there's love still left in that black heart of yours, Drake, but I fear it's rather misplaced."

Titus swept his robes away, and sat down opposite me. "Don't be ridiculous, Zander; Adrianna is my blood-child, and I defend all my blood-children the same. And besides, Adrianna is the kind of woman you find once in a lifetime. She's fierce, highly-intelligent, charismatic, fearless, cunning, classy, beautiful, and compassionate. She's a seasoned battle commander, a crafty diplomat, a visionary governess, and a great leader. Oh, and she's also an absolute animal between the sheets."

"Yes, she is all of those things, and she's also not in love with you at all. She used you."

Titus just grinned. "Who am I, Zander? I'm Drake-fucking-Titus. Adrianna will come around eventually." He gestured to the empty chair where my apparition had been, "You were expecting me, I see."

"I was."

"I imagine you have a conversation planned for us then, and the topic of that conversation is: why did you keep Adrianna alive, why did you lie about keeping her alive, and are you about to ask me to betray Yavara?"

"I lied about keeping Adrianna alive because Yavara would have searched for her endlessly if she thought she still lived. I kept Adrianna alive because I need you, and I knew you would never help me if she were dead. I need you because your mother is Gloria Titus. I need Gloria Titus because she is the only woman alive who can confirm or disprove a suspicion of mine. I am not asking you to betray Yavara, but I am asking you to keep this a secret, for now."

"Depending on whether your... suspicion is proved or disproved?"

"Exactly."

Titus tapped his temple, studying me. "I can intuit much from your request, and I like none of it."

"What exactly can you intuit?"

"The only reason you would need Mother, is for her blood-memory. The only reason you would need her blood-memory, is because she tasted Alkandi. The only reason you would need that information, is if you think something is wrong with the current Dark Queen." Titus tapped his temple with more force, his intelligent red eyes scrutinizing every inch of my face, "I can tell you what's wrong with her right now. I can smell a woman's menstrual cycle, you know."

"I actually didn't know that, and I also didn't want to."

"Yavara's is irregular. She ovulates, but her body rejects the egg, making her infertile."

"She's infertile?"

He smirked. "I guess I know something you don't." He cocked his head, "Dark-elves are notoriously fertile. They can mate with any creature and become pregnant. So, why is Yavara infertile?"

"Incubus mutation, perhaps? Her mother laid with one, and you know how those offspring are."

"I've tasted Yavara, and there is nothing genetically wrong with her. There's certainly nothing sexually wrong with her." Titus frowned, and puzzled over something for a moment. "Incubus mutation..." he muttered, "Adrianna once told me she thought Yavara's ability to transform people to hybrids was a result of her incubus venom, but like you said, Zander, incubi only change the offspring of those they infect, not the host-mother. Why is it, do you suppose, that Yavara has the power when none of her predecessors did, and furthermore, why is it that she can only change elves?"

"Do you have a working theory?"

"The question arose to me just now." Titus narrowed his eyes at me, "Zander, why are you even humoring me right now? If you were ignorant of Yavara's infertility, then you must be concerned about something else."

"My concerns are my own."

"You know they won't be for long," he smiled wryly, "I'm going to learn them when you answer this question: what exactly are you trying to find out from my mother?"

I stroked the top of my staff. "It is said that Gloria's palate is so refined, that she can taste beyond blood. She can... detect the flavor of the soul."

Titus sat back, the realization dawning on him. "Kindred spirits," he muttered, "you think Yavara wasn't meant to be the Dark Queen!"

"It's just a suspicion!" I growled, "Nothing more!"

"But it makes so much sense now, don't you see?!" Titus laughed, "The hybrids! The transformation isn't a magical ability! It's the result of spiritual instability! Alkandi merged with her high-elf hosts through orgasmic sex, and so when Yavara has orgasmic sex with a high-elf, there's a partial merge! A failed transformation! That's why they only become half dark! Zander, what happens when Yavara fucks the woman who was supposed to be Alkandi?!"

"Enough!" I roared, "I made a mistake talking to you! I made a mistake letting that Highland ranger-bitch live—all of them, Elena especially! All they do is poison Yavara with stupid ideas, take her off the path she was born for! Yavara is the Dark Queen, she always was meant to be the Dark Queen, and that's that! I'm just being haunted by the parting words of a spiteful, dead, orc!" I pointed an accusing finger at Titus, though it was really meant for me, "I'm just an old man filled with regret, trying to makes sense of why all my triumphs feel like failures!"

Titus looked at me with a bemused smile. "Ah, so you are human after all."

I took a deep breath, and dried my eyes. "I guess we both showed our human sides to each other today, Drake. Neither of them are very pretty."

Titus nodded. "Fine then. I'll go to Mother, but I'll need Yavara's blood."

"You're her blood-father; it shouldn't be hard for you to get it from her."

"I'll also need the blood of the other woman."

I frowned. "I'll have it tomorrow."

ELENA

Lady Jonias levitated me from the bathwater, the magic coming off her fingertips like tendrils of dusty light. Her entire face was contorted in exertion, the veins standing on her forehead, her eyes bulging slightly. When she laid me on the makeshift hospital bed she'd made of a table and some towels, she let out a great sigh of relief.

"I wonder if it would've been easier just to pick you up and carry you," she said breathily. She mopped the sweat from her brow, her blonde hair disheveled and hanging in strands about her face, her cheeks flushed, renewing her mid-thirties portrait with elven youth. She was in her evening gown, and though the garb was modest, it was revealing enough for me to see her robust breasts heaving from her bodice, the alabaster globes glistening in the candlelight with tantalizing droplets of sweat. She grabbed a nearby towel to begin blotting me dry, and I knew the moment I felt her touch upon my flesh, that a new part of my body had awakened from its deathly state.

"Sorry." I groaned, wishing for the first time in my life to be impotent before a beautiful woman.

"Sorry?" Lady Jonias asked with a confused look, "Elena, did you shit yourself again?! If I have to give you another bath, I'll boil you alive- oh..." She noticed the five inches of fun that was throbbing between my legs, and she slowly retracted herself from me. "I see your sexual organs have... awakened. That's... good..."

"Sorry." I grumbled again, feeling myself blushing.

She stepped back from the bed, and examined my penis with a clinical eye. After a while, she said, "I thought it would be bigger."

"Fuck you."

She shrugged. "All anyone in the Noble Court ever talked about was how good a lay you were. Feractian's barons made it sound like you needed a wheelbarrow to haul your goods around. Of course, the dresses you wore to court never left much to the imagination, but I've been told a man's full potential is sometimes concealed."

"There's more to a dick than its size." I muttered, now insulted and embarrassed.

She shrugged again. "I wouldn't know."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no further explanation."

"You're a virgin?" I scoffed, "All those times I called you a whore..."

"I'm an unwed noble girl from a traditionalist family. Obviously, I'm a virgin."

"Don't most rich girls just get their hymen's repaired before the wedding?"

"Or they prick their fingers, but my family was very protective of my virtue, and made certain I kept it." She smiled ruefully, "I turned down every man they sent to me out of spite. Now that I'm older, I wish I hadn't let them dictate my happiness." Her eyes became slightly distant, "If you don't fall in love when you're young, you'll never learn to. That's what my mother always said, but what did she know? She never loved my father. All I learned from her was how to use marriage as a tool for advancement, and so I became her despite myself. Perhaps she was a spiteful twenty-something too." She glanced down at me. "What's it like to be in love?"

"It's a surrender, I guess. Giving up yourself to become 'we' instead of 'me.'"

"Is it truly all it's made out to be?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "You'll never realize there's something missing in you if you never know it's there. For you, maybe never finding love is better. I don't know."

"What do you mean, 'something missing?'''

"There's something missing in all of us, and there's another person out there who knows just how to find it."

"Yavara is that woman for you."

"She's one of them."

"And Leveria was the other." She said, then laughed to herself.

"What's so fucking funny?!"

"Oh, nothing. I was the one who tried to get Ternias to turn you against the queen, but after meeting with you before the battle, he said you would never do it. When I asked him why, he couldn't give me a straight answer; it was just a feeling he had about you. Ternias was all-logic all the time. His non-answer was the first time I became suspicious of him. Ergo, I thought he must've been grooming you to be his bride behind my back. That was why I hated you so much in the court, and that was why I eventually betrayed Ternias to Leveria." She blotted at her mirthful tears, "But too late, of course. Everything I do is too late."

"If only I'd been more of a bitch to you in court, perhaps all of this could've been avoided." I laughed bitterly.

"Perhaps." She sighed, "But I don't know how a woman like you could fall in love with an evil bitch like Leveria Tiadoa."

"Maybe we just have a lot in common."

She gave me a serious look, and shook her head. "I don't like you, Elena, but you're a good woman; perhaps the best of us. If you love Leveria, it is because opposites do indeed attract."

I rolled my eyes. "You're old enough to be my mother, and yet you're so naïve."