Tender Mercies

"Grajjik," An orc captain stiffened as she called upon him. "Take your company to Caradrin, the light elven fortress to the west. Confront Merikith, their leader, and kill him. Then inform the rest of them I demand their obedience. Should the falter, burn it to the ground."

The orc nodded his understanding and hurried out of the room. Alesha looked to the other men in the room and smiled. "Things are moving well, if a bit slowly. Do what you must to speed things up. We will march before the growth cycle is over, for the rains of the death cycle will slow us and cause us to lose momentum. That gives us 14 weeks."

The gathered officers nodded and agreed to her plans, which made her pleased with their obedience. She turned and returned to her own chambers then, leaving the assembled officers a chance to sigh in relief. Beautiful, yes, but deadly as well. After having seen the lifeless and bloodless corpse of their former commander, then a few more "demonstrations" of Alesha's powers, they had agreed to a man to serve her. As time progressed, they became impressed with her abilities and had begun to follow her out of respect. Always there was the fear of failure and a painful death however, for while she was proving to be an able commander, she had already proven her complete lack of mercy. Ordering the rebellious elven commanders death was yet another reminder to them of the price of failure.

Chapter 10

Kelnozz groaned. The raven haired head bobbed up and down on him as he lay in the bed. Glancing about, he saw that while he remained in a guest room in the palace of Loralost, what was happening to him could not be real. He looked back down and saw Alesha raise her head up and make eye contact with him, letting his swollen manhood slip out of her mouth so she could grin at him with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

He tried to open his mouth to tell her to stop, but found he was unable to. Trying to move his body, he found it was likewise not willing to obey. She descended on him again, swallowing him deeply. He groaned again, desperately trying to deny what could not be happening to him. Alesha's tongue swirled around him, driving him to greater heights and testing his self denial.

Repositioning herself without losing contact, she swallowed his entire length effortlessly. Kelnozz's hips bucked up at her, mashing her lips into his groin. In spite of the incredible sensations of her throat milking his shaft, Kelnozz fought against it. Then Alesha began humming, making him clench his teeth and causing the blood to drain from his cheeks. Taking him near the edge of his endurance, she finally relinquished and slowly pulled her mouth off of his manhood, leaving it dripping with her spit. Strings of saliva ran from her chin to his throbbing staff.

"This is a gift from me to you, Kel," She whispered to him. "My wizards tell me that the Death Cycle will come quickly this year, and be very cold. My forces are not ready, so you gain a few more months of rest."

Struggling against the incredible urges he felt, he found he had control of his mouth again. "Why tell me this?" He gasped, forcing himself to ignore her as she had moved back down and began to lick and nibble at his balls.

"To get it over with sooner," she said after a few more moments of tormenting him. "When I run over the rabble you put together for an army, I will be left with no real opposition wherever I go."

Kelnozz opened up his mouth to say something else but lost his train of thought when her mouth descended upon him again. She pumped her head up and down the entire length of his cock, not slowing in the least as it plunged into her throat. Her hand caressed and lightly scratched his balls, filling him with sensations to powerful to ignore.

Fighting with an inner resolve he did not know he had, he managed to deny her expert manipulations of him for far longer then he thought possible. It was then he had a brief moment of lucidity and he realized her head had stopped moving. Instead it was his own body betraying him and thrusting roughly into her accepting mouth. Seeing the victorious smile on her face, He felt despair. With the distraction, he lost the battle and his seed rushed through him, exploding violently into her mouth and down her throat. An impossible amount of it, it seemed, but at no time did she show any discomfort, instead she was meeting his thrusting hips with her bobbing head now, lost in her own climactic release and swallowing his cum easily. When they finally finished, she licked up any stray drops and kissed the tip of his tired manhood reluctantly.

She stood beside him and looked down at the exhausted elf. "You'd be welcome at my side, Kel," She said, her expression turning sad.

Meeting her gaze, Kelnozz forced himself to be alert. Through the fog of fatigue he responded, "Why?"

Alesha tilted her head in surprise. "Why? Why what?"

Kelnozz found his strength slowly returning to him. He paused for a moment and found that he could move his limbs again as well. Wondering if she had somehow broken through his defenses, or if he had imprisoned himself against her, he slowly stood up from the bed to face her directly.

"Why do you want any of this? You are not the same girl I saved from a band of murderous orcs."

Anger flashed in her eyes and she reared back as if to strike him with her hand. Regaining her calm she lowered her hand. "That girl died that day, lover. I am who I am because you didn't come sooner. I have been given choices and I have chosen my path. I have found someone who gave me the strength and the power to lead a life where I will not be challenged by those stronger then me. I will be the strongest, and with his help, nothing will stand in my way. Not even you, Kelnozz."

Kelnozz let a few moments slip by so that she could calm down. He felt stung by her words, then alarmed as she finished. His first instinct was to protest, but he knew it would do no good. Instead he finally nodded a grudging acceptance. "I told you the next time we met, one of us would not survive."

Alesha tilted her head back and laughed a mocking laugh at him. Kelnozz had prepared himself to leap backwards over the bed to his swords, but her laughter made him stop. "This is but a dream, lover. If you won't join me, then you'll have to die. You're to much of a distraction to me! I might even have had to kill you if you did join me!" Alesha was grinning at him, but it was not a grin of mirth but rather one of bitter irony. "Until we meet again, my love."

Alesha disappeared before Kelnozz could respond to her directly. Still sensing a connection, he looked about and said, "Look about you, Alesha, and see all those who follow you. Look in their eyes. They are afraid. Afraid of you. You will never know what it means to have friends or true lovers, only those who obey you for fear they will be slain. And those very same eyes will stare hatefully at your back when you turn away, waiting for the day when they can plunge their dagger into your back. This is the path you chose!"

Kelnozz felt something change in the room. He knew he was alone again. He looked back at his bed and saw himself laying there, the sheets twisted about him as he had thrashed in his sleep. Determined to increase his defenses against her to include his subconscious mind, Kelnozz laid back down and let his mind and body rejoin.

He came awake instantly, feeling the wetness upon the sheets to indicate that while the encounter with Alesha had certainly seemed real, she had not physically been there. Scowling, he stripped the sheets from the bed and moved to the wash basin to clean himself up. All the while he set his mind to figuring out how he could protect his sleeping mind from her as well as his conscious mind. Somewhere in the back of his mind was the nagging thought that kept surfacing, asking him how could hope to defeat her in battle when he could not even best her in a dream.

*****

Martin stalked the deer through the lightly swirling fog of the dawn forests on Innowendyn. He looked up and spotted it with its head down, munching on some grass. A mighty buck, easily 14 points, and his for the taking.

Moving slowly, Martin fitted an arrow to his longbow and pulled it back. "Guide my arrow, Grandfather," Martin said under his breath, drawing a final bead on the deer. Less then a breath before he loosed the arrow, he heard a girl giggle to his right. Surprised, his arrow flew wide and the buck bolted, running deeper into the forest and escaping.

Martin turned, glimpsing only a hint of movement in the morning mist. He followed quickly, putting his bow away. Moving faster to keep pace, he saw an arm, a leg, or a bit of waving black hair as his new prey nimbly ran through the trees and brush of the forest, staying just ahead of him enough to let him think he was catching her.

"Milady, wait!" Martin called out to her. "I mean you no harm!"

He heard her playful giggle again ahead of him, and frowned at the impetuous nature of the girl. Briefly he wondered if she was a nymph or some other type of forest vixen sent to lure men to their deaths, but he had long ago learned how to deal with them. This girl seemed something else entirely.

He heard her scream in surprise ahead. Redoubling his efforts, he narrowly avoided joining the same fate she had chosen. A sudden drop over some rocks had caught her unaware, and she lay on the ground some ten feet down, clutching her leg in pain. A sense of familiarity nagged at Martin, but he ignored it in order to give help to the damsel in distress.

Climbing down the rocky wall was easy for him to accomplish. He moved to her side quickly, his suspicions raised even more at seeing her laying nude before him. Then he saw her leg, broken and twisted so much that the bone had pierced the skin, and his suspicion was put aside.

"Milady, please, let me help you," He said, kneeling beside her. She flicked her head so that her hair flew out of her face and over her shoulder. That allowed their eyes to meet and Martin immediately knew he was in trouble.

"Alesha!" He gasped, taking a step back in surprise. Alesha smiled faintly, in spite of the tears of pain running from her eyes.

"Hi Martin... can you help me? Please?" She fought back the tears and tried to move a little, but that only brought a squeal of pain from her.

Martin was torn, just seeing her twisted him up inside. He knew how dangerous she was, he had seen it himself, but he was unable to leave her so obviously wounded. He knelt beside her again and reached out to take her leg finally. His mouth had gone dry, but he forced his attention on her leg, yet found his eyes disobeying him and running up her leg repeatedly.

"It hurts so bad, Martin!" Alesha whimpered in his ear.

Martin put his hands on her leg and moving quickly, straightened it out. Alesha gasped in pain, blowing hot air directly onto his ear. Martin found himself sweating, and little of it was from the chase.

"This is going to hurt, Alesha, I have to set it," he warned her, again placing his hands on her leg.

"Oh Martin, be careful, it hurts so bad," Her voice was so weak and soft Martin had to fight the urge to look up at her.

Focusing on her leg, Martin moved one hand above the wound and the other below it. "Give me strength, grandfather, and please help this fallen girl!"

Alesha hissed angrily and pushed Martin away from her. Martin turned, looking at her in surprise. Instead of seeing her crippled and in agony, he saw her standing behind him with on sign of injury. A look of fury crossed over her features. "I don't need the help of Carson, he's done nothing for me but let me be misled!"

"So it's true," Martin said, rising to his own feet. "It was not Carson that visited you so long ago."

Alesha let her anger fade away. It was replaced with a grin that could only be described as malevolent. "No, my pet, it was not your grandfather." She walked closer to him, keeping him motionless with her eyes. Martin felt himself entranced again by her eyes, beautiful and depthless, he could not look away. It was finally broken when Alesha walked around behind him, her fingers lightly trailing across his shoulder as she circled him. She leaned close to him, sending shivers of eroticism down his spine as her breath blew against his neck and then his ear. "It was somebody far better."

Martin felt something screaming at him inside. He struggled to hear it, realizing how close he was to falling into the clutches of the women behind him. He managed to spin around, only to see Alesha smiling warmly. She was so close to him, he had no chance to defend when she leaned in and kissed him. Taken off guard, she easily inserted her tongue into his mouth and caused his own to respond without thinking.

A few moments of a deep and passionate kiss ensued, then Alesha stepped away. Martin blinked a few times, fighting to understand what was going on. He took a stumbling step forward himself, then shook his head to clear it and saw that Alesha now wore a full set of clothing, black boots to her knee, with greaves made of silver scales above them and what looked like a corset fashioned of the same silver scales about her body. A skirt of mithril chain hung from the corset to just above her mid thigh. Gloves made of the same material her boots were made of donned her hands, and she still wore the same bracers forged of dark mithril he had seen her wear when he had met her. Likewise, the sword she had used still rested at her side. A simple but elegant pendant that glowed dully with its own light hung from a simple chain around her neck.

Alesha laughed. It was a mocking laugh, directed at him and at everything around him. "You are weak!" She spat out. "All of you! Men are so easy to control, if only I'd known this before I came here..."

"What do you mean?" Martin stammered out, blushing at his own realization of his temporary weakness towards her.

Alesha turned as if to leave, then turned back to him. She looked into his eyes, looking more like a predator then anything he had ever seen in nature. He felt his knees weaken and his blood sing to him. She stepped closer and reached down in front of him. Unable to break his gaze with her, he felt her hand slip inside his breeches and begin to fondle his already erect shaft. "This is what I mean, dear Martin. I could fall to my knees before you and take you inside of my mouth and you would do anything I asked of you for my acceptance. I could let you bend me over that fallen tree and have you ravage me from behind like an animal. I could push you to the earth and ride atop you, fucking you beyond the point of death and you would be happy to let me do it."

Alesha squeezed his cock one last time for emphasis, increasing the power of her spell to make Martin groan and explode in her hand. She smiled condescendingly and raised her hand. Bringing it to her mouth, she licked her glove clean of his cum and smiled at him again. "I could do all of that and more, time and again, and you'd be begging for more. That is what I mean, Martin. And your God, your grandfather, couldn't have given me that power if he tried."

Martin opened his mouth to respond, his orgasm bringing him back some clarity of thought. Before he could say anything, Alesha stepped back and disappeared. He looked around a moment, lost in confusion.

Waking up, Martin realized that it had been a dream. An incredibly real dream, but all a dream. His relief fled when he realized the wetness on the bed. Cursing, he lurched to his feet and began to clean himself. His disgust turned to shame as he remembered the dream more closely, and how easily Alesha had controlled and manipulated him. He vowed that he would never let that happen. He would prove to her that he was not as weak as she claimed.

*****

Alesha gasped in the air as her consciousness returned to her body. After the first few breaths, she realized how cold she was, especially in her hands and feet. She got off her bed and walked around her room, rubbing her hands together and stamping her feet. As far north as she was, it had already begun getting colder as the Life cycle waned and the Death Cycle approached. Separating her spirit from her body also caused her heart and breathing to slow down drastically, and she had been warned that doing it for to long would cause her body to die, leaving her spirit nowhere to return to.

She donned her armor and left her room, placing magical wards over the door on her way out. Moving outside she summoned her steed with a thought and easily mounted the demonic beast. Riding through the town, she saw those not still sleeping in a drunken stupor scurrying about there business before the heat of the day set in. Seeing her approach, they shied away from her, some running away, others cowering in fear. Everywhere she looked she saw fear. Her anger began to build as she remembered Kelnozz's final words.

Returning to the keep within Mezarbolle, she summoned her captains to a meeting for a progress report on how things were working out. Her frustration grew when she realized that her hopes of marching that year were futile. She had known it was the case when several outlying tribes and clans had hesitated or outright refused to join her side. Only by sending out her slowly growing army to gather them could she enlist their aid, skewing her timetable.

What troubled her more was how all but her oldest surviving captains still showed signs of fear around her. And beneath that fear was hatred and envy. She knew even the oldest captains in her service had only learned how to hide it, they still felt it as well. Frustrated, she dismissed them and returned to her office.

"Kelnozz, if only you had joined me instead of fighting me, none of this would have happened," she muttered darkly, hating the elf all the more for denying her and wanting him all the more for it. She lapsed into silence, brooding. There was little more she could do to prepare her army until all of it arrived, which now looked to be the following year.

Her thoughts returned to her visit to her former companions in their dreams. Kelnozz was, as always, an enigma. She had been unable to affect him in any way for some time now, but then she had learned from Talifernon of the dream travel. She was sure that now Kelnozz would protect himself from her that way as well. Once again, she was cut off from the dark elf. She vowed that before she killed him, she would show him why. More so, he would understand and he would join her... it was so obvious to her, with power and influence like this at her fingers, how could he refuse?

She grinned to herself as she thought about Martin. He was weak and so easy to manipulate. But still he showed some challenge. Nordan she had seduced and gained control over long ago, before she even realized it. The sex starved vampire the two of them had encountered and defeated had showed her how to control Nordan. Gods, that had seemed like so long ago.

After spending a few more moments reliving the time she had spent with Nordan and Kelnozz, she felt herself growing sad. Shaking herself out of it, she angrily stood up and left her office. Heading to the courtyard, she saw some light elves drilling in the yard. Choosing one at random, she drew her own shortsword and went about her daily weapons practice before her later meeting via magic with the dragon council.

*****

"There are five elder dragons," Farathallion lectured, "and each holds a key holding the good dragons prisoner. Find these keys and they can be returned."

"But where are they imprisoned at?" Martin asked, breaching the protocol of the elven council.

Smiling at the irritation showing on the faces of the other elves, Farathallion responded, "The magics used between the light and the dark elves grew so powerful that the last bastion of defense of the dark elves was separated from the rest of Belurian in a great rending of the earth. Water rushed in from the ocean, slaying thousands of elves, both good and evil. This new island was where the remaining dark elves and good dragons struck their bargain with the dark forces, and it was there that the dragons were imprisoned."