The Battle of Dragon's Bay

Daiyu cracked an eye open, her mouth squeezed shut, and sputtered a stifle laugh.

"Why do you spill your seed on my face?" she asked, her speech stiff as she tried to keep the cum on her lips from falling into her mouth.

"I wanted to mark you as mine," he replied breathlessly. "And you look a vision of lust with my cum on your beautiful face."

She blinked, a strand of cum stretching across her eye. "May I clean my face, husband?" she asked shyly, and Caeruthir laughed.

"Aye, enough men have seen you marked now. Use the flag," he said, and she wiped her face clean with her father's green and gold flag. Caeruthir smiled again, then turned to his lieutenants. "Now I am interested in hearing about the treasure."

"We have only just begun to count the plunder," said Ramairan with wonder. "I can only guess at the total value of it all, but it will be enormous."

"How much spice have we seized?" Caeruthir asked. Tirannion had gold and jewels in abundance, but spice was always scarce in a kingdom of sorcerers.

"This ship carried the spice cargo," Syrandor replied, "and we were just going to find out."

"Well then," said Caeruthir, rising to his feet. "Let us go together."

Ramairan raised a hand. "Captain, do you need me? For there are many beautiful women here who require my attention."

"Do as you like, Ramairan," he replied with a shrug. "You have earned it."

With a nod and a smile, Ramairan moved off in the direction of Zhi, on her knees and sucking two cocks at once. Caeruthir chuckled to himself and looked down to Daiyu, lying on the silken flag as she dabbed it on the cum that hung from her pretty face.

"Come," he said, and reached down to gather her up in his arms, "It is time to go below and see what treasures I have seized." He slung Daiyu over his shoulder and made for the stairs.

He descended the stairs into the lower decks, which were a scene of utter depravity. Pirates dragged naked women from room to room by their hair, satisfying their bestial lusts before moving on. Women who had already been savaged lay sobbing together in the corners, wet with sweat, wine, and cum.

On the third deck, around the rim of the stairwell, a score of naked women hung by their wrists from the hull beams above, their feet just alighting on the deck beneath them. A hairy, pot-bellied man walked a circuit of the stairwell in the nude, a bosun's whip in hand as he collected payment from pirates who would fuck them as they hung. The pirate pimp bowed to Caeruthir as he descended the stairs with his lieutenants in tow and Daiyu over his shoulder.

Caeruthir replied with a nod of his head, his eyes instead on the women hanging like meat in an abattoir. They went to one woman, buxom, full-bodied, and with wide pink nipples, her head hanging in defeat as she balanced on her toes. Her pale round ass called to Caeruthir, and he set Daiyu down on the deck.

"How much for this one?" he asked the pirate. The man bowed his head in respect and pointed with his whip.

"No charge for you, the bringer of victory," he replied. Behind him, one of the women cried out in orgasm, and the man fucking her came as well.

"Princess Daiyu," Caeruthir said, taking his cock in one hand and laying the other on her waist. "Make me hard before I fuck this wench."

"As you command, husband," she replied obediently. She did not protest his marital infidelity in the slightest, and that pleased Caeruthir. Women the world over knew that men could never keep to one bed, but some women of high status still insisted. Caeruthir thought of Li Mei, safely stowed in his cabin aboard Tempest, and the dozens of other concubines on the zaratan. Daiyu would meet them soon, and learn how to please him as part of a company.

The princess knelt behind the hanging girl and dutifully took his cock in her mouth again, sucking and stroking with both hands. The hanging girl whimpered, and the pimp looked on with lascivious glee, arms folded across his bare chest. Beneath his pot belly, Caeruthir could see his cock hardening.

"Captain," said Syrandor with a sigh. "The spice?"

"Belathir is guarding it. But fear not, this will be quick." He gave the girl a slap on her ass and she whimpered. Caeruthir took his cock from Daiyu's mouth and slipped it into the hanging girl. She moaned, and whimpered again. He reached around her to grope her breasts, and felt her quiver in his arms. With a slap of flesh on flesh, he thrust himself deep inside her and she cried out.

The watching pirate grinned, and Caeruthir smiled back at him. "You like to watch?" he asked, and the man nodded eagerly. Caeruthir pumped his hips into her again. "How many of these girls have you fucked?" he asked, "And how many have you watched get fucked?"

"One," the man answered, "and all of them."

Caeruthir fucked the girl with powerful strokes, the clapping echoing down the hall to draw more pirates out to fuck or watch. Caeruthir attracted admiring stares and bows of respect, and Daiyu attracted much attention as well. Naked, her rarified status as a daughter of the imperial family was not apparent, and Caeruthir was forced to fend off several offers from men who wished to pay for the privilege of tying her wrists to the ceiling beams and fucking her raw.

He did so without breaking rhythm in the hanging girl and came quickly in her as well. Taking his wet cock from her dripping sex, he held it out for Daiyu to lick clean. She did, and he slung her over his shoulder again.

Syrandor sighed and led them further into the bowels of the ship. They encountered a strange sight on the next deck. A long-haired pirate rode seated on the back of a naked slave girl crawling along the deck on all fours. Ahead of him, he had leashed four more naked girls like horses before a chariot and made them lead him and a gaggle of his followers down the corridor. The charioteer cracked a whip above their heads, and they cried out in fear before hurrying away down the hall.

"Songs will be sung of this day," Syrandor mused. "Let us see what they will say about the treasure."

At last, they reached the vault, where Belathir stood guard in full armor, joined by three others of Caeruthir's guard. Caeruthir set Daiyu down against the wall.

"Is it open?" Caeruthir asked. Belathir shook his head.

"We were waiting for you."

"Well, I'm here now. Let's get it open."

The heavy steel door was banded with runed bronze. Belathir picked the lock easily enough, but Caeruthir bid him to stop before he opened the door.

"Can you dispel the wards?" Belathir asked. Caeruthir inspected the runes closely. They were of a form of magic unfamiliar to him, some old practice of Leiyan whose secrets had never made their way west into the libraries of Tirannion.

"I am... unsure," he muttered at last. "Princess Daiyu," he turned to his wife. "Do you know what these are?"

She stepped forward timidly, holding her arms around her as the interested stares of the elves around her reminded her that she was still naked.

"Father employs many court sorcerers," she said shyly, "I do not know which one did this work."

"No matter, no mortal sorcerer can craft a ward that defies the efforts of the elder folk. Belathir, spice." Caeruthir held out his hand and into it his lieutenant put a vial of spice with which he infused himself with sorcerous power. He closed his eyes and sighted the vault's wards in his mind's eye. Bands of molten bronze flowed around the heavy steel door, and Caeruthir's first attempts to reach the door were defeated.

He sat back and studied the passage of the bands. The bands twisted and turned, rotating around their charge like the arms of a great orrery. Slowly, he began to learn their patterns, their waves, their dances. Weaving through the realm of mind's eye with the fluid motion of a dancer, he moved to the door of the vault and turned the handle.

There was a loud click, and his eyes opened unbidden. He was back in the mortal realm, and the door was open.

"Well done, captain," Belathir cheered. Caeruthir looked to Daiyu and saw wonderment on her face.

"I do not know what I saw," she murmured, "but it was not of human make."

"Indeed," Caeruthir replied. "Now you know the power of the elves. Come, let us see what lies within."

He pulled the great door open wide and revealed a hoard of unimaginable wealth. Bolts of brightly colored silk, porcelain, gold ingots, chests of gems, arcane artifacts, and mountains of coins awaited them inside. Caeruthir and his guardsmen stepped inside, even their elven eyes awed by the plunder before them.

They ransacked the vault, prying open treasure chests and strongboxes to get a better look inside. Coffers of spice were broken open to measure their contents. In all, Caeruthir measured thirty tons of the invaluable stuff in this hold alone. Years of piracy had not prepared them for such a haul, and Caeruthir found himself giddy with elation at their success.

"And it was so easy!" he laughed, speaking in elvish that his new wife might not hear how easily her father's soldiers had been crushed.

"The dynasty is old and rotted," Belathir said. He turned a lustful eye on Daiyu. "You have stolen the only thing of value left to them. This defeat surely spells their end."

"Their end, aye," Caeruthir answered, opening a coffer of spice and drinking in its powerful aroma. "And a new beginning." He too looked to his wife, still wet with his sweat and cum.

"There is much still to be done," Belathir said, and his captain nodded. He dug a hand into a chest of gold and lifted out a handful, letting the coins rain down from his fingers.

"This gold will open many doors."

"Many ports," Belathir suggested, and Caeruthir smiled. Thoughts of further conquests raced through his head, and a vision entered his mind. He saw a half-blood, dragon on one side, elf on the other, sitting on a throne of jade surrounded by the broken forms of his enemies. The man looked through his mind's eye and saw Caeruthir, then bowed to him.

But his reverie was interrupted. His elven ears detected the presence of someone outside the vault. Turning, he saw Linanthras standing there, with a scroll case under his arm.

"Captain," he said with a curt nod. "Thoramar has departed."

"Departed?" Caeruthir asked with narrowed eyes. "Already? We have only just begun to plunder the fleet."

"He sent an emissary to say that he has secured the Axis of the Heavens and departed for his own isle."

"That one takes no joy in what he does," Caeruthir mused. "But that is why it will be he who fulfills the promise."

"Indeed," Linanthras replied. He held forth the scroll case. "But before he left, he sent you this."

Caeruthir took the case and looked inside. He smiled.

"This is all I needed." His lieutenants beamed. "Come now. Belathir, secure the vault and shut it. There will come a time to divide the plunder, but it is not now. It will be almost nighttime, and I want to see the stars when they first shine on our victory."

They climbed to the top deck, where they sacrificed a tun of wine and a cask of spiced meat to Arvoran in thanks for their victory. Leaning against the rail with Daiyu, Caeruthir and his lieutenants looked out over the fleet. In the distance, the hulks of three warships were still burning, and on the southern horizon, a cold blue star was rising to the heavens.

"Where do we go from here?" Ramairan asked and Caeruthir smiled.

"East to where the zaratan waits," he answered, "then west. We will go home."