Queen Yavara Ch. 50

After a very rough bath that left my skin raw from the sponge, Jonias held my hand, and guided me through my first steps. My ankles didn't want to stay rigid, and I cried out numerous times when I rolled them, but I savored the pain, the sweet sensation of life coursing through me. After a half an hour, and a tirade of insults from my caretaker, I was able to walk on my own two feet.

"You'll have to stand up and do it every hour on the hour." Jonias instructed as she helped me into my wheelchair, "Within a week, you won't need this chair anymore."

"I'll be done with it by nightfall." I grunted.

She scoffed. "You still can't even piss by yourself."

"What time is it now?"

"Six in the morning."

"Fine then. At six tonight, I'm going to walk up your grand stairs without even using the railing."

She snorted. "If you can walk up the stairs by six, I'll..."

"What?" I grinned up at her, "You'll give me a big fat kiss?"

She smirked down at me. "I'll push you back down them, you insolent little shit."

"Then I'll be a paraplegic, and you'll have to take care of me for the rest of my life." I snickered, snuggling myself into the chair, "I guess you like wiping my ass."

She dumped me forward, and I was sent sprawling onto the floor. Her heels clicked past me as she walked to the far end of the room, and flung open the door. "Come now, Your Highness! You wouldn't want to be late for your own coup!"

I raked my fingers against the floorboards, and growled. Looking back, the wheelchair seemed like an unscalable cliffside looming over me, the greasy wheels threatening to slide the entire contraption away the moment I clumsily threw my weight on it. I sighed, and gave my caretaker a pitiful expression. "Please help me."

She sneered at me. "You can do better."

"Pretty please with sugar on top?"

She pointed at the chair. "Come on, Ranger. You can do better."

I looked back at the wooden chair, and gritted my teeth once more. I grabbed the wheel with my right hand, and slowly brought it toward me. After taking a deep breath, I lurched forward, extended my left hand, and snatched the other wheel. My forehead struck the frame of the chair, and stars burst in my eyes, but I kept my grip. With a whine of pure distress, I unclenched my right hand, and lurched forward again. The wheels spun, the chair began to roll away, but I kept my left hand firm just long enough to barely get my chest onto the seat before the chair whipped around the pivot I'd made. I stopped the momentum with my dragging knees, and lurched once more to get my left arm onto the seat. Then, with both elbows propped in front of me, I shifted my weight forward and up until I was dangling with my belly on the edge. I reached up, grabbed the back of the chair with my right hand, then my left, and hauled myself forward. The chair threatened to tip forward and fold me backward, but I managed to bring my thighs up just in time to shift the balance in my favor. Having conquered the momentum of the chair, I took a deep breath, and let it out from my flaming lungs. My entire body was pouring with sweat, my hair was matted, and my clothes were damp and hot, but I had done it. With just a simple twist of my body, I was slouched back in the chair, and facing Catherine Jonias.

"There," I wheezed, "you fucking cunt."

She stared back at me; an appraising look on her face. "Very good," she said, "very... very good." She turned around, "You can wheel yourself around now, Your Highness."

"That's my reward?"

She looked back at me. "Reward? I believe I was punishing you." She turned back to the door she was about to exit, "Besides," she said, "if you want to climb stairs, you'd better be able to sit in a chair." And she shut the door behind her.

ADRIANNA

When I awoke, Esmerelda was watching me from the corner of the room. The grey sunlight shone in beams from the window, bringing about the cold morning. It seemed unusually brutal, and I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into the covers and wait until night fell, but my ranger training kept me from indulging myself.

"Watching me again?" I groaned sleepily.

"You talk in your sleep, you know." She said softly from the corner.

"I do?" I asked, getting to my elbows, "And what do I say?"

"Just a name. Over and over and over again."

"What name? Furia? Alexa? April?"

"Gloria."

I froze, and ran my tongue over my teeth. No, not teeth. Fangs. I glanced down at my body. It was a splendor of silken vampire flesh, contouring over shadows of muscle and impossibly-full breasts. I looked back at Esmerelda, and saw that she was quivering from head to toe, her hand wrapped white-knuckled about a wooden stake.

I sighed, and transformed back into my elven body. "Esmerelda, I—"

"Stay where you are, Adrianna," she said carefully, "do not move from that spot."

"Look, I—"

"Stay. Where. You. Are." She said, raising the stake threateningly, "One false move, and I'll burst your heart."

I rolled my eyes, jumped to my feet, ran across the room, and snatched the stake away from Esmerelda in the time it took her to blink. "This is oak wood, you dimwit," I growled, throwing the stake into the fire, "You need Nadi wood to break vampire flesh."

She tried to scramble away, and I snatched her by the hair, and tore her head back so that she was forced to face me. "This changes nothing, do you understand? Nothing!"

"It changes everything!" She snarled, "You think I don't know who Gloria Titus is? You think I'd let a fucking day-walker into my camp?! Get out! Get out now, or I'll—"

"Enough." I said, and placed a firm hand around her jaw. "Enough, Esmerelda. You're being childish." I let go of her face, and traced my hand down her throat. "You're in no position to make threats."

"Neither are you!" She hissed, "I have an army out there!"

I smiled pitiably. "You had an army."

She spat in my face, then delivered a hard kick to my groin. I doubled over, and she sent a knee crashing into my jaw. I flipped backward with the momentum, caught myself on the ceiling beam, and redirected my bodily force back at her. My feet slammed into her chest, and she slammed into the wall. Air blasted from her lungs, and she crumbled into a heap, her lips gulping as her diaphragm spasmed. I wiped the blood from my mouth, grabbed the wood axe from over the fireplace, and walked over to her.

"Don't!" She mouthed, unable to give voice to her scream with the wind knocked from her lungs. I raised the axe overhead, and brought it down. The axe thudded, and Esmerelda jolted. The blade was imbedded into the wood between her legs, a fraction of an inch from her inseam. I knelt beside the axe so that our eyes were level.

"It's my army; it's your cause. If you want to get into Bentius, then you'll do as I say." I placed my hand over her heaving chest, "After we kill Ternias and all his noble friends, you'll be in charge, and you, Esmerelda, are going to appoint me as your ambassador to Alkandra. Sound good?"

She heaved in a breath, and wheezed, "The Dark Queen won't care if you're my ambassador. She'll kill you anyway."

"Eh... things are about to get really tense between Alkandra and Ardeni Dreus. There might be another war soon, and uh... well, I might've inadvertently started it. Anyway, Yavara isn't going to want to be fighting on two fronts, so she'll probably have to eat this one."

Esmerelda blinked. "Did you just say there's going to be another war?"

I shrugged. "If everyone keeps a level head, there shouldn't be any problem, but... that's not going to happen."

YAVARA

Leveria's screams carried over the roar of the crowd. I cast healing spells when she needed them, and she needed them frequently, but I otherwise left her alone for now. It would be unfair for me to take the spotlight from her. There was a long line of beasts that formed from the dugout that eagerly awaited their turn with the queen of the Highlands. Most of these were men and women who had been hand-selected by the hybrids for their service to the civil advancement of the nation; the others were picked for their massive cocks, though a giggling Brianna noted that they had performed vital services to Alkandra's ruling hybrid elves. Now, they performed that service for my sister.

I sipped my wine in the luxury box of the arena, but I was not enjoying it. After what Zander had told me, there was nothing but bitterness in my mouth.

"I'm surprised Leveria didn't tell you," he mused.

"She probably thought Adrianna would kill her to keep her from talking. She was hoping for a quick out." I hissed into my wine, "I wonder what else she hid from me."

"She'll break eventually."

"'Eventually' might be too late for Leveria." I said, "She lays her plots years in advance. Adrianna knew what kind of woman she was dealing with." I fought the wrathful tears that threatened my eyes, "I can't believe she betrayed me."

"You can't?"

I glared at him. "You don't know what she and I shared."

"Enough hatred to start a war or two."

"We'd moved past it. We were... we were on even ground."

Zander shifted in his chair. "Adrianna was a complicated and conflicted woman."

"She never stopped being Thomas Adarian."

"Perhaps. She was many things, but she was above all, fiercely loyal."

"Loyal?! She betrayed me, and you killed her before she could know my vengeance!"

Zander blinked, and it was the closest I'd ever come to seeing him flinch. "I did," he said after some consideration.

I felt my rage cool in my veins, and I took two successive breaths to calm my heart. "You always think you know what's best for me."

"I do know what's best for you." He downed the rest of his wine, and poured himself another glass, "She's played her part in your life, now let her go. Don't think on what she took from you; think on what she gave you." He gestured to the city, "She gave you this, for one."

"And would've had it destroyed." I growled, "Arthur and his fleet haven't yet rounded the Alkandran Horn; he doesn't yet know what has befallen his father and brother! We can't hardly claim ignorance when we cut off his brother's head in the arena!" I gestured disgustedly toward my sister, "After that, he won't care about her confession."

Zander chuckled, and nodded toward Leveria. "You have to give it to her, she's damn good."

"Yes, I'm sure she's feeling very pleased with herself right now." I muttered into my wine glass, irritated that its contents had disappeared so quickly. "Have you told Certiok yet?" I asked.

"I have. She was nearly as devastated as the rest. More than others, perhaps, since Adrianna carried her child-to-be, and Trenok's only living heir."

"She's strong."

"But not unbreakable. No one is." Zander said, and I didn't like the way he studied me.

"What?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it.

"Zander..."

"Did Arbor tell you?"

"Tell me what?!"

"Of course she didn't," he muttered, "Furia will tell you then."

"Why don't you just fucking tell me?" I snapped.

"I don't like to be the bearer of bad news twice." He said, "Especially when your temper is this hot."

I eased myself with another breath, stuck somewhere between anger and dread. Given the successive subjects of the conversation, I had a terrible feeling about what it was Furia was going to tell me.

"So then," Zander coughed, "what will you do with Arthur?"

I shuffled in my seat, uncomfortable in every position. "Try to talk to him. If that doesn't work, well..." I poured myself some more wine, and contemplated my screeching sister. "For the sake of his nation, I hope he's willing to talk."

LEVERIA

I had been cleaned after my parade. They readjusted my bovine headwear, and redecorated my belly with udders; apparently, I was to be a cow all day long. After extracting a blood sample from my finger, they took out a syringe bigger than my arm, filled it with Yavara's aphrodisiac, and plunged the needle into my anus once more. I screamed then, my eyes growing wide, my bottom lip quivering. I felt the warmth suffuse my rectum once more, flood through my bowels, wash away the filth of my innards before dumping into my belly. They pumped me so full that my midsection swelled as though pregnant, and then they pierced my septum, and hooked a bullring through my nose. They looped a chain through that ring, and led me out into the arena on my hands and knees.

I had never seen so many people in all my life. A hundred-thousand beasts roiled in the stands, their numbers stretching to the rafters, their collective roar thundering in my ears. I wanted to cower in the shadow of the dugout, but I was yanked by the chain, and the pain propelled me into the cold sunlight. Eva was waiting for me. The hermaphroditic hybrid was dressed in black leather straps, each strap covering her where she was modest, and revealing everything obscene. She wore high-heeled leather boots that went to her thighs, and carried a flail in her leather-gloved hands.

"Your Highness," she hissed with an evil grin across her black-sheened lips, "you honor us with your presence. Let me show you to your throne."

She took me by the chain, and guided me to the platform at the center. I went willingly, knowing by the glint in her steely eyes that she would relish my defiance. To her credit, she was fair with me in a twisted way. If I did not resist her, she did not punish me. She walked me up the wooden platform, and presented the contraption I would be tortured in: stockades for my wrists and neck, and stirrups for my knees to keep my legs spread wide open. The terror gripped me when I realized what position I'd be put in, and I tried to flee. It was a mistake. Eva yanked me by my fresh septum piercing, sending me sprawling on my face with my nose searing in agony. Then, she moved behind me, her high-heeled boots clicking on the boards, and the crowd roared in anticipation of what was to come. I looked back just in time to see her raise her leg, and I opened my mouth just in time to scream. She stepped on me. No... she stepped in me. She shoved all five inches of her hard, pointy heel into my puckered anus, and the pain cut through me like a hot knife. The terrible pleasure followed. I screamed a soprano note that pierced the winter air, and the people of Alkandra harmonized with me. Needless to say, I obeyed her from that point on.

She forced me to bend over before putting me in the stockades, then she forced my legs painfully apart before putting my knees in the stirrups. My back couldn't hold me in such a position, and it bowed to let my grotesquely-distended belly sink low. My pelvis followed after, presenting my plump backside high in the air. Eva grabbed my head by the cow-horns, and pulled it up so that my neck craned, and I was forced to look upon my audience. She shoved a block of wood beneath my chin to hold me in that position, then grinned as she presented me with a hand mirror.

"You look so pretty today, Your Highness," she sneered, showing me my reflection. I supposed I did look pretty, actually, but like how a whore looks pretty. Rouge flushed my cheeks, red lipstick sheened my mouth, and dark liner framed my eyes. The septum piercing and cow-horns gave my portrait a sluttiness that had a bedroom appeal, though to be honest, I wasn't feeling too naughty. The face staring back was etched in horror, and I knew from my experience of being the torturer, that the expression was more arousing than even the most lecherous of smiles.

"Yes," Eva hissed, stroking my hair behind my ear, "you look absolutely wonderful." Her cock had risen before my face, its bronze length throbbing, its tip pulsating and leaking. It was only an inch from my mouth, and I hated myself for enjoying the scent wafting from it. "Ah, I wish we could, Your Highness." Eva sighed regretfully, stroking her shaft in her gloved hand, "But I have orders from the boss. We're not to touch you until the seventh day." She pouted her black-sheened lips, "It feels like a lifetime from now. I suppose it is for you." She squeezed her cock hard, and moaned as a dollop of cum bubbled from her tip, and secreted onto her finger. "But for you," she whispered, "I'll let you have a little taste. It'll be our little secret." She brought her gloved finger to my lips, and pushed it gently into my mouth. It was remarkable how little resistance I gave, and even more vexing that I so enjoyed her flavor. Was it the poison sloshing in my belly, or was it that she tasted so much like Elena? Either way, I couldn't stop myself from sucking her finger as it retreated, and I was greeted with her evil smirk when I looked up at her. "Our little secret," she snickered, "yours, mine, and all our friends."

She stepped out of my vision, and I was greeted with the sight of... me. I was enormous, fifty feet wide and thirty feet tall, my image displayed in crystal clarity on the largest mirror I'd ever seen. It shimmered with magic in the sunlight, broadcasting the reflection shown from Eva's hand-mirror for all to see.

"Do you like it?" She asked, "It was my idea. I think it's the single greatest idea anyone's ever had, if I may be so bold. Now everyone gets to see all the up-close action in all its vivid, gritty detail." She knelt beside me, and adjusted her hand-mirror so that we were both in the frame. She smiled brightly next to my horrified face, and the crowd delighted in it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, and everything in between," Eva called, her voice magically projected for all to hear, "I give you, Queen Leveria of the Highlands!" The crowd roared back at us, and she beamed, the pleasure-centers on her face alight. "Soraya is probably so jealous of you right now." Eva said only to me, adjusting the mirror so that my entire situation was displayed, "She wanted to be the first to get on the jumbo-mirror, but even she wasn't willing to do the things you volunteered to do."

"Volunteered." I growled.

Eva's eyes alighted. "Ah, so she does speak! I was wondering if Yavara had cut out that silver tongue of yours." She pulled a gemstone out of a pocket in her collar strap, and pressed it to my throat. "Do you have anything to say to the wonderful people of Alkandra before we begin?"

I hocked until my mouth was full, and spit in Eva's face. The crowd hushed, but Eva didn't even blink. She just grinned, the droplets of spittle running down her nose and cheeks, cornering her lips.

"Yavara be damned," she whispered to me, "I'm proud of you, Leveria." And she grabbed me by the hair, and pressed me into a heated kiss. Before I could even think about biting her tongue off, she'd released me, leaving her decadent flavor on my palate, and my lips burning with her touch. My shocked face was broadcasted to the masses, a black sheen of fresh lipstick smeared across my mouth. The crowd lauded the move, and Eva mouthed a faux apology to the royal box, where my sister's tiny figure could be seen waving her forgiveness.

"Now," Eva called, "on this first day of Retribution, we honor those who were instrumental in building this city. In remembrance of Alexa Jenania..." Eva swallowed a knot in her throat, "...in remembrance of Alexa Jenania, we celebrate the construction leaders who built this city with their bare hands. I give you: Joh Proudfoot, Sloka Terdini, Jisha Protaki, Hosika Aska, Bracie Leshtana, Foshia Broacktia..."

Eva announced each name with her showman's gusto, and the crowd applauded each as they appeared from the dugout. There were ten, then twenty, then thirty, then forty, then fifty. She didn't stop calling names until seventy-four beasts stood in line before the platform, and at the very head of them, was Joh Proudfoot. He was a massive brute of a man, and oh, he had the bottom half of a black stallion. When Eva finished the last name, she beckoned him to come up, and he trotted proudly up the steps, each clop of his hooves sounding louder and louder, seeming to beat in cadence with my thundering heart. Eva sauntered over to him, nothing but lust in her eyes as she gazed upon the monstrous man. He bowed lowly to her, and she took him by the hair around his bald pate, and kissed him deeply. His hands moved down her body, obviously knowing her curves by memory. She had lain with him before, but... how?! For when I glanced between his legs, my jaw dropped.