Steampunk Harlots Ch. 41

Sarasha, for the first time in a long time, felt like she was the normal person in the room.

"We needed to keep those golems! They were so much fun!" Harriott exclaimed.

"They were all bound to that guy's brother, who was dead in the basement," Conna replied.

"Plus. they were too unpredictable. We don't need them going on a rampage or turning into nightmares when we sleep or something," Cat added as she walked into the lounge. "Besides, toys are fun but I'd rather have a real man in me than some paper golem."

"The golems didn't finish too soon or sob because they can't get it up," Inky pointed out.

"Faults be damned, I want the real thing!" Hannah announced as she carried Ving into the lounge over her shoulder like she was abducting her.

Cat raised her glass at her friends' support and smiled as Ving was tossed to the couch and mounted for a hard kiss.

Harriott refused to admit defeat. "All I'm saying is that between them and the vibrating wand, I choose them."

Hannah stopped her kiss to respond while Ving whined, "Maybe, if the golems also vibrated. But they are still just toys. I need the personal connection."

"How much personal connection can you have when you have a man behind you and you don't even know his name?" Harriott asked, confused and trying to not sound snarky.

Ving huffed in annoyance as Hanna responded again. "If I have someone inside me, I think that's a damn solid connection. The golems just feel hollow."

"That's not the sensation I had when I was stuffed full of them." Vile entered and went over to Inky. "And I bet you had that emotional connection before you knew what they were."

"Seriously!" Ving shouted.

Hannah hushed her, "Sort of. Something did feel missing. Like, it was all about me. Normally that's fine, some men like to please, but it didn't feel like someone was enjoying it besides me."

"Like they were just being paid to like you?" Leira sat up from inside the fountain. "Because I'm willing to bet more than a few clients feel that way with us."

"That's why it's so important to have that connection for me!" Hannah responded, her breasts in Vings mouth to keep her from complaining when she continued speaking. "If I can feel it, so can they. Most of the time. Point is, it won't ever replace the real thing. Sure, if we had one for fun I'd prolly use it like I do the vibrating wand, sparingly and probably with someone else on the ship."

"Moot point though. We couldn't keep those ones and we can't make any new ones," Liddy finally added after closing her novel.

"I figured out the golem spell!" shouted Emma as she ran through the ship and up the stairs, falling only once.

Liddy took a deep breath, wishing Emma had said something before she had.

Emma arrived in the lounge, excited and holding a picture frame. "I got it!"

"Easy girl, slow down or you will hurt yourself." Cat reached out to steady the elf against the rocking of the ship in flight.

"Right!" Emma started. "So you know how the golems responded to what people wanted? Well, that part was easy. Then there was the paper for the golems, that was easy as well."

"Glad to be of help!" Easy shouted as she and Mari came into the lounge with others who were interested in what was going on.

Emma paused for a moment before she got the joke and smiled. "So the real trick was the scale of it."

"Damn," Hannah interrupted. "There is a Trixy joke in there somewhere."

Liddy threw her paperback at Hannah and hit her in the shoulder. "Continue, Emma."

"So I did things small scale."

"Well, you are tiny," Hannah interrupted again.

"Hannah! I only have a table left to throw at you and it's an antique so hush!" Liddy threatened.

"I got her," Ving replied as she pushed Hannah's head to her chest and felt her love nibble at her breasts.

"I cast the spell but used this picture frame instead. On it, I used our photos. So the idea is that we have it on the podium where we greet clients. They look at it, even from behind it shouldn't matter, and the image of who on the ship they want most shows up to whoever greeted them."

"What makes you think they will look at it?" Cat asked, curious.

"Well," Emma started. "I don't know about you, but men always stare at my breasts. If it's on the podium in front of us then they will be looking at it. I tested it on Tonna and she and Hope are fucking right now because that's who it showed!"

They all went silent to listen and could hear the sounds of sex below.

"That better not be my room again," Liddy commented sternly before focusing on what Emma had made. "But this is remarkable. Let's set it up! We can test it on Sarasha since she knows us all the least."

Sarasha got up and followed the gang down the main staircase to where Emma and Liddy were setting up the picture frame. When they were ready, she looked at Liddy who was focused on the frame.

"It's just swirling, not showing any faces," Liddy stated.

"Imagine you are looking for sex with someone on the ship," Emma instructed.

"Haven't had much of a mood for that in a long while. Tis why I be living on my own. Only ever brought me trouble," Sarasha explained.

"Damn, we need a stranger to test it on. A man ideally," Emma stated.

"We are in the air. We aren't going to have a man in sight for days." Liddy rested her hand on Emma's shoulder.

Suddenly a loud noise and a shadow flew by outside, followed by several others, then they could see outside the windows a pair of men sitting in a flying machine coming alongside them. One was the pilot, the other manned the machine gun that was aimed at their ship.

"Liddy, stop talking. Or at least say things the opposite of what you mean." Hannah commented, stuffing her breasts back into her top as she went down the stairs to get her kit. "Like, 'We aren't ever going to have over a hundred orgasms in a day' or something."

Everyone rushed to their stations. Ving took the helm while Liddy picked up the radio and scanned the channels. Inky and her soldiers kitted up and readied their weapons but stopped short of letting their escorts see them. Tonna and Hope emerged from Liddy's room and got the holy warrior dressed for a fight. The rest changed into more utilitarian outfits and waited for something to do.

Liddy finally found the channel, "...ntion unknown yacht, you are being ordered to alter your flight path. Respond and divert or you will be fired upon. Your ship is now the property of the Mad King." She could see the pilot to the left of the ship, flying closely, with his hand to his mask whenever the voice spoke.

"Tonna, on the left, guy with the gun, stone him!" Liddy shouted.

The aircraft suddenly dipped hard before struggling to get back to where it was.

"Hey asshole," Liddy started diplomatically. "I just had your gunner turned to granite. If you want the curse broken, you are going to play nicely now before I do the same with anyone who looks in our direction. Understand?" Liddy cut the transmission. "Inky! Fangs out!"

Very quickly, girls armed with machine guns appeared at every door on the ship aiming in all directions. Vile climbed on top of the ship, battling with the wind with her powerful body before igniting her hands in flame. The streams of fire flowing from her hands as the ship moved.

Liddy could see the man on the radio but nothing came over her set. She hazarded a guess that he was speaking with his boss until she saw the fighter that was in front of them slowing down and getting close with the gunner keeping his head down. Liddy was about to order Ving to turn sharply when the fighter did it instead.

"Dumbasses," Emma snorted after using her spectral hand to move the tailfin on the fighter.

"Nice try, I'll give you that. But we have more than what you have seen to swat you with," Liddy announced over the radio. "Accept the loss or learn to live as statues and hope they don't break when you crash."

A different voice came over the radio. "This is the..." the voice paused to sigh, "Mad King. I see we made a mistake in accosting your vessel. If you really did turn one of my men to stone, then I'd like it undone before you leave."

"We can do that but there is an obstacle at the moment."

"It can't be done in flight I assume."

"I was going to say it's expensive, but that as well."

"I'd be offended if it wasn't exactly how I would have done it. Fine, if you follow my fighters you can dock at our main base and-" there was a brief disconnect. "Like I said, our main base. You will be under my protection."

"You will respect the fact I will protect my ship and crew."

"Of course."

"Fine, we will be there soon." Liddy finished, nodding to Ving to follow the fighter that had returned in front of them at a longer distance. "Looks like we are landing someplace special. Everyone keep your guard up."

****

Inky kept looking out the open door. On their approach to the lake, they passed a few spots where it looked like ships could land. A few sheds and vehicles surrounded them and the tracks lead to the water. It was clearly a well-run operation where ships were forced to land and give up their possessions. She knew Liddy had made the right call. Getting into their main base was a gamble but a stand-up fight against manoeuvrable fighters would have gone against them if they simply attacked from below. Whatever kills they earned before then would have just made survival afterwards more difficult. She noticed they seemed to be going in circles so she went up to the bridge to see what was going on.

"They haven't told us to land yet, so I'm not going to until then," Liddy explained as she saw Inky come up the stairs.

"This low they can't get under us, so we can still fight if we need to," Ving explained.

"Good call," Inky agreed. "What's the plan then?"

"Land on the water, let a single boat approach, probably have their stone man with them. Then we are off," Liddy postulated. "Unless something hap-"

Something happened. The lake was fed by the waterfall coming over the cliff that lined its eastern side. In the middle of it, a massive metal triangle emerged, splitting the flow of water to reveal a massive internal space beyond it.

"You need to speak faster Liddy," Ving stated as she started lining the ship up with the gap in the water. "Land inside yes?"

"Yes," Liddy agreed.

****

"New girls with me," Hannah explained to the women standing before her with their weapons ready. "We will escort Liddy wherever she needs to go. Everyone else stays on the ship to cover us with Inky."

"I'm coming as well," Hope chimed in. "They need me to fix the man we turned to stone anyway."

"Anytime. Now, remember, we try diplomacy first but if they make a stupid mistake, we punish them for it." Hannah decided she needed to add something else. "We do NOT want to be the first to make a stupid mistake. It's not fun and more lives than our own are on the line."

"Foxy! Spot for Laurel when we land. It's going to be in a cave under the waterfall and I don't want any hidden surprises," Inky ordered when she came back down the stairs. "Though if you do see something, call it out first, then shoot if they don't comply."

Foxy saluted and nodded.

"If this is anything like the last time we were at a diplomatic function, I'm going to end up drunk under the buffet and you will be getting laid in the stables," Hannah reminisced with Inky.

"Well, Liddy hasn't said anything about expecting this to go well, so we will probably both get laid, become rich, and neither of us will smell like a distillery."

****

Liddy walked out with her escort when their ship landed and a party arrived to greet them. There were several guards but it was an obvious attempt to diffuse the situation by not bringing an army. They paused to watch the fighters land on the runway beside them and were surprised at how much space was in the hanger. One of the fighters had trouble since it was carrying a stone statue with it but it landed safely at the far end of the runway.

"Welcome to my home." The largest man in the greeting party bowed. "I am the boss around here. I must say, this is an unusual day for me."

"I wish I could say the same," Liddy responded. "You are the Mad King?"

The man sighed, his muscled shoulders sagging under his suit. "Yes. I really hate how reputation seems to focus on the things you don't want."

"Now THAT, we have in common." Liddy gestured to Hope. "She can break the curse of stone on your man there."

They all looked at the fighter that had taxied closer before crews climbed over it to try and free the statue from his seat but failed.

"Good, I hate to lose people," The man replied with an air of honesty in his words.

"You would have lost a lot more if you had pushed us." Liddy snapped her fingers and very quickly Inky and her girls appeared on the top deck with weapons aimed and ready.

The man took a moment to look at the women ready to kill him. "I don't think I have ever been this intimidated before," he finally said after spotting Vile and Tonna.

"I'd tell you if I ever felt intimidated, but I doubt you will be around if that ever happens." Liddy set her tone to maximum snarkiness.

The whole greeting party started at her in surprise, unable to believe someone would say such a thing to their leader. He chuckled hard before speaking, "My dear, I-"

"Lady Captain," Liddy stated with well-practised arrogance.

"My Lady Captain," he corrected himself with another bow. "I do have an army here. Numbers alone should be at least a little intimidating. Perhaps some hidden surprises you can't see?"

"Like the snipers up there?" Foxy asked, pointing to an alcove high up in the cave wall. "You know their codeword for you is baldy right?"

This caught the man off guard. He, of course, knew his balding head was a source of some amusement but not that he was referred to as such. He turned away to hide his surprise from his guests as he pointed to the alcove and gestured with his thumb to get out.

"You would be surprised what we can see, and hear, oh Mad King," Liddy explained while trying to sound condescending.

"I really don't like that name," he said as he returned his attention to Liddy. "Please, call me Inver."

"Alright, Inver, any more surprises you want to avoid for yourself?"

"Look, I accept you are formidable. But you can't expect me to roll over like a fool. I can overwhelm you all."

"Your men could, maybe," Emma started. "But I can crush your heart or your balls on a whim."

"Oh, really? How?" Inver asked, not quite buying it.

Emma held up her hand, put her thumb on her middle finger, and flicked.

Inver grunted and his face turned red as he stumbled and coughed, leaning on the man next to him for support. His escorts were getting confused, but he waved them down before they could get jumpy.

"The hardest lessons?" Inver asked.

"Come from stupid questions," his escorts replied in unison.

"I think my best tactical plan at this point is to run away and let my men deal with you," Inver added a forced chuckle - either to show he was kidding or pretend to have recovered.

"Sounds more like a testicle plan to me," Hannah commented dryly.

The woman who had been standing behind Inver let out a loud burst of laughter before shutting herself up.

Hannah checked her out and recognized the fellow soldier under the fancy dress. "Jessica?!"

The woman shook her head, suddenly aware of the familiar face, "Hannah!?" She pushed past her boss to embrace Hannah, who shouldered her trench gun. "Oh my, it's been years! I was actually thinking of how costly it would be to overwhelm you all with numbers!"

"Ugh, been there, done that, climbed over the corpses," Hannah replied.

"No kidding. Knowing you."

"No seriously, got overwhelmed with vampire thralls, almost actual corpses attacking just Hope and I plus some frightened clerk. The whole hall was full of corpses by the time we were done."

"I helped!" Vile added. "Ya know, at the end there."

"I know, I blame the soundproofing, not you," Hannah called back to Vile before returning to her friend. "So what's the real deal here?"

"Well, first we just make ships land, take the loot, drop the crew off near some city and take the ship to sell or whatever. Offer employment to any freed slaves, they are usually the most loyal. The rest we have started taking to this new Emberborn city."

"We started that city!" Hannah explained.

"Really!? Is that why its called Harlottown? I remember you used to spend a lot of 'not so private' time with... well most anyone."

Ving gasped, "Scandal!"

The rest of the girls kept their responses minimal, trying to focus on their jobs.

Jessica didn't even think for a moment that they had been actually surprised. "Anyways, the plan changed with your ship. We wanted our man fixed, so we were gonna let you dock and trade. We have a lot of expensive goods that are a hassle to transport so figured a pricy yacht would probably take them off our hands for us."

"Still a big risk, letting us see your secret base." Hannah gestured to the whole complex that seemed to run deep into the rock behind them.

"Well, it's a combination of 'who would believe you?' and 'who doesn't already know?' so we figured why not. Only reason the cities haven't moved on us is that we are a tough nut to crack and their armies are busy elsewhere."

"Here I thought that nuts were easy to crack here," Emma commented with a happy smile at Inver.

"Right, I'm going to get some ice." Inver walked slowly away. "If Jessica trusts you, that's good enough for me. Help my man and do whatever trading you like in your own time."

"I guess this means we can do some business after all." Liddy smiled at the girls.

"What kind of business do you do on The Lady Harlot..." Jessica trailed off as she read the name on the side of the ship before looking slyly at Hannah.

Hannah looked at her friend like she was stupid, "We have a priestess on board, we're a convent. Duh!" Then gave a silly smile once her friend was sufficiently confused.

"Maybe we can overwhelm you with men after all!" Jessica laughed.

"Score!" Mari shouted.

****

Mari was certainly not disappointed. Within an hour of word getting out about their business, and willingness to trade, a crowd gathered outside the ship. While they weren't as wealthy as the normal clientele, their numbers more than made up for it to satisfy Liddy.

Mari felt her throat widen as her first client slid himself down, her tongue wiggled to tease him as he reached the limit of what he could offer her. She couldn't see the man opening her legs but felt him pushing into her hard enough to feel the man in her throat go a little deeper during each thrust until he had to give her a chance to breathe.

Easy loved seeing Mari having fun. She licked the long shaft that penetrated her woman as it slid in and out of her while the man holding her by the hips penetrated her. Her long tongue wrapped around the man and tasted Mari every time it pulled out of her for another thrust. Easy kept her eyes on the massive breasts of her lover and watched them move with every jolt her body endured, and the hard breaths of air she gasped between her sloppy gags.

Mari loved to hear her fairy moan with satisfaction as a man savaged her body. The sight of a man deep inside her about to spill his seed was enough to bring her to the edge of climax alone. When the man grunted and started holding himself deep inside her to make sure she didn't lose a drop, Mari screamed as hard as she could with her mouth full as her body shook. She knew Easy would taste her on the man her tongue wrapped around. As the man slid out of Easy, Mari beckoned over one of the men who were waiting for their turn and saw her woman get penetrated by the next in line. Suddenly her mouth was full of seed. She greedily swallowed, giving her a few moments to breathe before yet another man took his turn.