Surfacing Ch. 15

He was assuming my fear so I wouldn't have to admit it. That was annoying and yet...well, trying to exert pressure on me to me say it aloud was just a game of control anyway. He was suggesting a different kind of control—mine, over myself.

Mourn kept touching my skin, mindful of his claws, and I'd been slowly moving my hips as I considered these things, idly riding the under-ridge of his cock as things became hotter and moister, our crotches mashed together.

Really, I almost wished I could go back to fucking with absolutely mindless intensity, to not have to consider any of the consequences. No magic surge, no babies, nothing but awkward waking-after. As a Noble, perhaps I would have only gotten away with that for so long.

As a Red Sister and a pregnant survivor of multiple psionic and ritualistic attacks...that wasn't an option. I knew that, and I didn't *really* want to go back to being the blind youth I'd been in the Valsharess's Dark City. I only wished I could know then what I know now. I might've done it differently.

I chose the moment when to rise up, my tits almost in Mourn's face as I braced my forearms on his broad shoulders and moved my hips to work the pointed tip between my lips. Mourn reached between us to help, aiming his cock and keeping it steady, and I slowly lowered myself down.

I wasn't wet enough to impale myself all at once, but that almost made it better; I would wet my toy part of the way down, pull back, go a little farther down, up, and take a bit more. I wasn't sore anymore for having taken one of Shyntre's pellets in preparation for a day-long ride, and my cunt was relaxing quickly to stretch as much as needed.

"I get to take your knot this time, right?" I murmured, my breath deepening with my rising pulse.

I had my eyes closed but hadn't remembered closing them until I only sensed Mourn nodding; he was quivering subtly, and when I opened my eyes, his face was barely lit by the sapphire; he had closed his eyes in concentration as well. It wasn't really necessary to see anything anyway, and I took half a moment to move the pendant to hang around the back. I didn't want it blinding both of us being in between like that. He did not protest.

I leaned and sucked on the salty skin of his throat, feeling the strong blood-pulse beneath my lips and inhaling deep musk into my nose. I began to ride him for my pleasure, and focused only on that, and my senses; if the Surface had too much to see and think about, then this one thing that could be the same anywhere.

My successful link with Jaunda came back to me as well, and the motives that had been behind it: determination, protection, preservation. Rrespect. My Lead didn't have to be altered permanently to get me safely out of the City; I didn't want to see it. I hadn't asked her consent, it was still without her knowledge, and I knew she wouldn't have been happy with me about that, but I'd been leaving and... the meaning had been well.

There hadn't been a magic surge, either; Jaunda wasn't a mage. It had been just me and whatever glow the sapphire had already drawn into itself. Enough for me to control. But I'd bedded Shyntre and Jael and Gaelan quite a lot after that...and nothing happened like what had been happening lately.

Maybe it just showed me how powerful Gavin, Cris, and Mourn really were? I hadn't had a chance to bed Auslan again after he'd healed me...but I would think something strange might have happened if I had.

"Moving fast," Mourn murmured, his breath hot and shaking; he was hard as steel and I could feel the bulge at his base was almost full size. "Mind wandering too much. Focus."

"I like to fuck!" I hissed, feeling the challenge as my pussy gripped him harder. "We did it very slow...your way...on the boat!"

I fucked him harder as I spoke, and he growled low and long, claws digging a little into my ass as he cupped me with support but not restraint. I could move; I could take him as I wanted. I became more aware of his aura, like a barely-physical presence pushing out, pulsing and throbbing in time with his blood and his cock. The sapphire was definitely warm against my back, and the cave wasn't as dark as it had been starting out.

The mercenary didn't instruct me further as I adjusted my grip on him and snugged closer, the tips of my fingers brushing against his spines, which had definitely risen up off his back. I felt his tail next, which had curled lovingly around my left calf and ankle at the small of his back, squeezing but not constricting. Kind of like my pussy was squeezing him.

I was very slick, fully adjusted, hot and spongy, and I was taking him easily now, except for the last bit. The tease of the knot simply shifted my focus and my goal, and I relaxed my back and legs and cunt as I could, threading my fingers behind his neck as leverage to press down and feel myself begin to spread even wider. I felt a twinge of pain inside and adjusted the angle, trying again, and feeling that reasonable, physical limit. I moaned, really starting to stuff all of him inside me, but no, it was too much to go all the way. I had to stretch a bit more, then try again...

"Eyes," he said tightly, with that telltale rattle deep in his throat.

Fuzzily, I realized it was a command.

Eyes?

Did he mean look at him again? How often did I make eye contact while fucking? I knew I didn't need it to make a link...

"No," he growled at me, showing his teeth and enunciating every word. "Do not think. No fear, Red Sissster..."

No demons but us.

I lifted my gaze, kept my eyes open and trained on an intense set of golden dragon's eyes as I fucked him for few more strokes before trying again to push that tight, fist-sized bulge into my cunt. I could feel every stretching movement, every small tear as the pressure grew extraordinary; I had only to relax and let it come, I could not think that it wouldn't fit, oh, it would...it had.

Golden eyes and vertical pupils still filled my vision as I slipped past the point of no return and became locked once again with his body. My mouth was open but making no sound for how tight and full I felt; something burned at my back, and my fingers clutched at hard muscle. Mourn kept his eyes open but blew out a hard breath and an aggressive, almost angry sound as my cunt had caught his knot. His hands and tail squeezed me tightly.

My body flooded with sensation and it was trembling, but I wasn't in the throes of orgasm when my body guard began to spurt into me. He'd lost focus with his direct gaze, I didn't think he saw the shape of my own eyes or my brows or nose or anything...but he saw something else.

Unlike the brutal, battering wave during our first coupling, this time the link was more like riding on the back of the half-Dragon when he had submerged, smooth and quiet, in that mountain river to stalk our dinner. I was passing; I was floating.

And I was in the Underdark again.

******

Vian.

Eallo, Ilse, Jahn.

Saida and Kerym.

I knew each of their scents in the dark, and our scent as one. One of us was bleeding.

"In formation! Stand your ground!" Vian bellowed.

Silence was useless now; our hands would soon be very busy, and our very thoughts gave away our presence.

Outnumbered by thralls, ambushed for trespassing, the puppets were too hungry and our positions too deliberate for them to have coordinated a crippling attack on our squad, despite their masters' will and the thralls' speed, anticipating the need to chase and cut us off.

These creatures were used to hit and run tactics from us. I doubted that they had ever heard these Baenar say, "Stand your ground." There weren't enough of us to be able to do that. Not like those in the City.

Now we were in formation, and it was only a matter of time. The thralls would fall one by one, and their masters would have to get closer or abandon their prey. It had worked before; mindflayers were physically weak and not very fast. The decision whether or not to engage us directly should the thralls fail had to come early, or we would hunt it down as it retreated.

The strength of the formation wasn't solely dependent on me and my ancient weapons, though my size drew the most ire as the enemy assumed this to be the case. Vian had said in training that as eyes and ears focused on my sliders, they would instead be caught by what she affectionately called my "boot daggers."

At first I did not understand. I never wore boots. They had never fit right.

My sliders were new; I'd just finished crafting them, though I had tested their balance and their edge long before now. My elder master was satisfied; they had only to be attuned to sing for me, as his old ones did.

Vian knew how far to stay out from my reach, and she directed the others until we were a tight ball of slashing, stabbing metal and magic in constant motion. Attempts by thralls to enter a gap in our defense proved too narrow to penetrate before they lost a limb. We relied on Jahn and Saida to deflect the area attacks, Kerym and Ilse to return from range. Vian, Eallo, and I cut down the closers.

Our squad leader saw them first, even before the thralls were dead; three mindflayers, and they had decided not to run.

"Gems!" Vian shouted, reaching for her larger emerald around her neck, and I could taste her magic on my tongue as it pulsed inside the tunnel.

It wasn't a command; it was a warning to be prepared. The rest of us had our matching, much smaller gem as a stud pierced through the edge of our left ear. She had based her idea on my dragon pearl, but made it her own. She could send missives to each or all of us, and we could talk back in limited fashion.

Vian had wanted to try something new against the Illithids for a while; now it was necessary for survival. I braced myself as her magic tapped the confusion and pain inside me. I allowed it as I needed to protect my squad; they all knew these thoughts were there regardless, because we had practiced this before now. These six Baenar felt no desire to breed me, and they never used anything like a whip in our sparring and playing. They knew what it felt like.

And if the Illithids wanted our thoughts, they were welcome to them. No secrets, no plans, no relations. Just the fear and rage and pain of a young, dragon's blood slave. We would force them, all at once, down their beaked throats.

It took much focus, and deep reserves, but it ended fast and sudden as it had begun. Overwhelmed by us, our thoughts returned en masse, their quivering bodies could not evade a simple sword. Vian and Eallo sprinted forward to sever their tentacle heads from their too-thin frames as they struggled with the force of singular passion funneled through seven, individual, highly sentient minds.

It had worked, at least this once. Vian would be elated, I knew; her magic and her tactics were proven against mindflayers. This was why we were the best.

As always, it was too quiet after Vian dispelled our magical link. We would look around us, each of us alone and separate again. The first time we'd survived a pitched battle like that, no one spoke of the one vulnerability. Only one of us had to believe we could survive without the others, and fail to keep us together.

It would be like reaching to draw that boot dagger, then fumbling it.

"YES!" Vian gasped, sounding very pleased despite her nosebleed, and proud in a way that warmed my ears and my chest. She was not like my sire, but she would see me grow beyond what I was, as he had.

"Good work, everyone."

We picked over the remains to claim anything useful, even if mindflayers were not known for carrying valuables. I was weak enough to wince when my leader squeezed my shoulder. The harness hid a fresh lash mark high up.

*They are rubbed raw, Mourn,* she signed to me, kneeling down to my level as I harvested. *I gave you something to put between. Put the pads back.*

*Not allowed, Prime,* I answered her, suppressing further anger as it had no use until next time. *Part of the punishment.*

Vian frowned in a familiar way; she tended to curse my Aunt-Matron a lot. She was helpless as I; if she overrode the Priestess's word in favor of her own order, Miz'ri would be able to tell by the rate of healing when I next reported to my House.

She growled low, a quirk she'd adopted only recently, and used her own waterskin to rinse the new wounds from scabs ripped off during our encounter.

*I can smell the fester,* she signed, still scowling deeply. *It endangers us. I will talk to her.*

I only nodded. I trusted her.

*****

I rose up again, became aware of myself—underground but only barely, with the Sun still just outside. I was trembling, badly.

Mourn was rubbing my back and arms, trying to keep me warm as he held me close, my chin against his shoulder. My head throbbed again and I was coated in sweat and still naked with his bulge occasionally pulsing out against my guts. I was shivering enough to make it very difficult to relax and let his cock out of my body, even though the lust had passed and I was more than ready to get it out.

"Sirana?" he asked, and he sounded a little intoxicated.

"Mm."

"Are you returned?"

"I'm f-freezing."

"Yes." He paused. "What did you see?"

It felt like I had sand in my eyes as I blinked; they were so dry and gritty. "Um. Vian and your squad. And mindflayers."

I felt him nod. "Good. That was what you were supposed to see. Anything else?"

"No...I-Is that...who I remind you of? In your old squad?"

"Yes. The one good part of my upbringing among the Baenar."

I bit my lip rather than ask why he had showed that to me. It seemed obvious; if he was trying to show me a psionic link could be deliberate and controlled, why would he pick memories that were chaotic, painful, or regretful?

I also now knew why he wasn't more disoriented after our first psychic bonding; he was fairly well practiced linking minds magically among Drow, thanks to Vian.

Though these other Drow hadn't seemed strange-looking at the time, seeing them as Mourn had been, both his House and his squad, I recalled their faces now and had to acknowledge that they were very foreign to me. There was no way those Drow were from my City, maybe not even near it, though they had some of the same problems.

How would I even describe the appearance...? A mix of the lower Houses, including Jael's House Aurenthin, and some of what I'd seen of Noldor in Tamuril and Krithannia but without the height. They still had the copper and red eyes, and they were still the same dark skin and white hair color.

I let out a slow breath and felt my pussy finally start to relax as the base of Mourn's cock had shrunk a little more. I was tingling inside again, my pussy trying to regain my former tightness, but it was too soon. I also realized what another part of the discomforted pressure was that I felt...and knew we'd be making a mess as soon as we separated.

"Is there *any* way to clean up without having to use our waterskins?" I murmured. "Or will I go through this mission with my leathers glued to my crotch?"

Mourn rumbled chuckle. "There was a stream just outside, a few years ago."

"A few years ago."

"The land changes."

"I know that."

I squirmed in his lap, trying to stretch stiff muscles, and exhaled again to relax. I managed to bear down enough to push the much smaller bulb back out of my snatch with a grunt of surprise from Mourn.

"Oops. Is it all over your sac?" I asked, my lower lip trembling.

"You want to laugh, Sirana. Just laugh."

I did, but part of it came out as a groan as I crawled off of him and to the side. My arms and legs were burning from effort and tension, and my back was all knotted up; my head and my pussy seemed to throb in unison with my heart.

"Come," he motioned me toward the boulder. "Leave your things."

"What?"

"They will be warded."

"I would bring my spiders.

"If you must."

It had been quite a while since I had confronted a ward; it would probably be longer before I would attempt to break one. I couldn't risk it while I was pregnant; it was a definite weak spot for anyone who knew about it. Kind of like Gavin's now-permanent avoidance of silver. Mourn had passed through Brom's ward around the inn without alerting the sorcerer, however, and once he checked the outside and gave me an all-clear, he could let me pass through it now after shifting the boulder just enough for us to crawl out on all fours.

It was middle afternoon and the day was very warm. Even under the shade in the forested hills edging Manalar, the air wasn't moving and humidity hung heavily. I didn't really need clothes to stay warm, although flying insects were already becoming interested in our ripe, sticky nakedness. I swatted a few dead on my skin as we padded through the underbrush, and it did not take much concentration to listen and know that the stream was still there.

Lucky us.

I remembered approaching cold running water while naked before; my spiders hiding in my hair as I prepared to wash off a great deal of dirt and sweat from travel. It had been beneath Moonlight, and Kurn had approached me, surely wanting to accomplish what I looked like now: semen coating and leaking out from between my puffy, well-worked netherlips. Although I was much more pleased with my choice of male donor than he would have been.

I hadn't had Soul Drinker then. That had been mere weeks ago. Kurn was still inside the dagger, and he could speak to me. I wondered if he could lie? Or was he more like Gavin's souls when he held them in his grip and forced them to speak beyond their time?

Mourn watched me use my hands to wash off as I crouched in the stream; his tongue and ears were probably doing the majority of the guarding at the moment. I was starting to notice now that, unless something was close by, Mourn did not tend focus with his eyes. I had rarely caught him training on anything in the distance, as Krithannia and the Humans did. Like me, his ears, nose, and his skin told him what he needed to know directly around him, and I could only imagine what his tongue sensed, if it could even tell one metal coin from another with a flick.

I could appreciate the horizon more now than I could when I first stepped upon the Surface, but I hazarded a guess that I was not as keen of vision at a distance as many daylight creatures, but I could hear faint sounds on the wind, even over a bubbling stream, and catch scents on the air.

I stood up and turned toward the North, sniffing, and the only description of which I could think for the stirred dust, manure, and much else was...density.

Mourn's tongue lashed out and he nodded. "Many travelers in a small time. All with carts and livestock, following the same trail. If the wind shifts, we may sense the Ma'ab to the East."

My feet were cold in the stream and I stepped out onto a patch of Sunlit grass, dripping to dry. I slowly shook my head in confusion. "Why bring all one's belongings to the place about to be laid to siege? Why not take them in the opposite direction?"

"If I am not mistaken, you are doing just that, Baenar."

"Fine humor, To'vah. You know what I mean."

"By order of the Mage-Priests, they are to join them" he answered, also stepping out to dry in a patch of Sun. "Musanlo will protect them."

"They believe that? They could lose without our interference."

Mourn was smirking a bit. "Their army and magic, and their Godblood, will do their best. Also consider there are no schools of magic outside of the Guild and Manalar in this area, Sirana, and even those two are very different. Tales of wondrous blessing and miracles abound among the farmers and common folk about their central city."

I harrumphed. "But tales of the Ma'ab contain as much magic, and of a sort to cause any Witch Hunter to piss himself in a fearful rage."