The Druid and the Igniad Pt. 06

"She'll be keeping her somewhere safe. She won't put Awenn at risk."

"You say that like Vorris actually cares about Awenn. She's holding her life hostage so that we will surrender."

"Actually...no. She wants to possess Awenn's body as her own, and she won't do that until she has grown beyond infancy. She would be too vulnerable otherwise."

"You have kept more secrets from me?"

"I-I thought Awenn was beyond her grasp. I didn't want to worry you."

"That was important information, Lu! No more secrets!"

"If I don't tell you something, it's because I just want to protect you, Gern!"

"Protect me from the truth? With lies?!"

"I haven't lied to you!"

"Yet you not trust me with the truth!"

"The raw truth can hurt..." Lu said, guilt mounting like a lump in her throat.

"I will suffer it, as I will suffer every ill for the sake of my love for you."

"Gern...I had sex with Chief Gartham," she admitted timidly, and he stared at her in shock. "I didn't want to, but he saw Labolas, and was going to turn everyone against me, and it would have destroyed the alliance you were building...and I sort of also put a charm on him so he wouldn't betray me."

After a long pause, Gern said: "Why did you not tell me?"

"I told you, I didn't want to hurt you!"

"Well you have!" He retorted angrily, taking a step away.

"I didn't mean to! I didn't even want to have sex with Gartham!"

"Yet you did it anyway!"

"I'm sorry!" Lu exclaimed, frustration creeping into her tone.

"Is there anyone else you've coupled with behind my back?"

"No! Why would I do that?"

"I caught you with Opal."

"That-that was different! And you coupled with her, too!"

"Only because you were there!"

"Oh, so it's my fault?" She took a challenging step closer to him.

"Yes!" He stamped forward.

"Well, you're welcome!"

Gern opened his mouth to retort, but didn't form the words. He stooped, the tip of his nose almost touching her's.

They glared into one another for a moment, and then, just like that, the passion of their anger became indistinguishable from the passion of their love, and they kissed. Their tongues dueled with one another, and their hands grasped at each other's bodies as Lu extended an empathic link between them so she could feel his feelings as intimately as he felt them for himself. She felt the fear of dying in the battle to come, and the prospect of losing Gern made her mad to become one with him one more time. She felt the hard crystal slicken against her smooth skin with her sudden wetness, and Gern's manhood swelled in response under his kilt, lifting the heavy leather.

Gern's hand reached to remove her crystal cup, but Lu was still angry with him, as he was still angry with her, and her skirt of flame bit his skin. Gern retracted his hand with an exclamation of pain, and he broke their kiss, stepping back to dunk his hand in the quench bucket. Lu could not help but to smirk at him, glad to have chastised him for contributing to the anger felt between them. Gern gave a smirk back as he grabbed the wooden bucket of quench water behind him and threw its contents at her. The water splashed against her navel and drowned her waist-hugging flames.

Lu huffed in an accosted manner, and wanted to repay the indignant act in kind. She focused on the brass pin of Gern's belt, said: "Nulut aem mina!" The soft metal liquified instantly at the intensity of Lu's spell, and Gern's kilt dropped to the floor.

With his manhood bobbing free of the leather enclosure, he closed the distance between them, sweeping the iron-working tools off the workbench to his side as he advanced. He grabbed her by the waist and swung her towards the cleared tabletop, bending her over onto her belly. Her nipples perked instantly as they pressed against the grain of the wood, and an imprint of them was scorched onto the surface. Beads of water stood out on the curve of her buttock, and she writhed on the table, not to escape, but to get better situated on it.

"Gern," she breathed rakishly in a way that was an apology, a plea, and a demand. Her wetness was evident through the transparency of her crystal protector, showing her purple pedals gently blooming against the smooth surface.

Gern hooked his fingers over the lip of the crystal at the bottom of the valley between her cheeks and tore it away. It almost slipped out of his hand, smeared as it was with her arousal. He tossed it onto the table beside her and situated himself behind her. He seized her rear in his hands and tantalized her slippy cleft with his fully erect love member. She groaned with want and communicated her urgency through their link. Her nether lips tuggled at his massaging tip.

She pulled herself slightly forward on the expansive table, its surface beginning to smoke around the edges of her body, where her skin met the wood. The beads of water on her body steamed from her rising temperature. She inched forward, intending to make him adjust closer so she could then push back onto him. She felt the brush of his divine seed giver on her mons as he followed her hot opening. She dragged herself a couple inches forward, her feet lifting off the floor as her rear arched up. She was about to stop and drive herself back on him, when he suddenly yanked her back and went up on his own toes, launching his rigid staff into her slick depths.

"Oh!" Lu moaned, surprised by his unanticipated entrance and her own exclamation.

Gern lavished her inner walls with his sliding scepter, and she relaxed into pure reception, closing her eyes and tasting the fire-touched air of the smithy through her open mouth. Her hair of smoke tumbled in swirls over the iron working tools that lay scattered around her, and Gern took in the sight of her strong, shapely backside as he slid his member in and out of her sensual furnace, soaking in her heat. Against the wall in front of them, the glowing chamber of the forge crackled, still hot from before the alarm had been sounded.

The beat of war drums reached them on the wind, and it brought with it a feeling of urgency. Both the fear and the anticipation of the encroaching battle heightened their sensitivity, and also a sensation of forbidden pleasure, as if they were doing something they were not supposed to be doing in that place or at that time.

Elemental energy churned in Lu, and she struggled to keep it within her, fearful that an outburst might be harmful to Gern from her mixed emotions. Her insides became hotter, and the magical tension surged into Gern's body through the rigid flesh that joined them. He groaned like a bear when it is surprised by a sudden arrival, and he climbed up on top of her, folding his legs on either side of her her own, then drove into her cleft with the weight his body behind each thrust. Her legs came together as she dragged herself further forward, her enraptured face clearing the edge of the table. Her inner thighs were smeared with her leaking arousal, and her oily skin caressed Gern's shaft each time he drew out of her squeezing tunnel.

She could feel all of him, the pressure deepening within, and she resumed flexing her glutes in a rhythmic pattern so her inner walls would grip Gern's length and milk him of his seed.

"Gern, Gerrrrn..." Lu half-moaned, her natural magic coalescing in her sacral chakra, brimming at the verge of bursting. A lucid part of her realized the power that was about to be released, and if she could harness even a portion of it to help the in the imminent battle, she might triumph, and protect those she loved. She felt her orgasm coming, and could not think of anything else to dedicate it to other than Gern's protection.

"Dia romha," Lu recited, invoking the name of strength, "Protect my love with the Wind in the heart of a swan. Gus a'leon!"

Immediately upon her final incantation to "bring forth" the spell's power, Gern felt a deep heat wash over his enveloped love member, and the magic reached deep into him, summoning a glorious ecstasy that rushed out of his core and reverberated in his hard shaft. His seed burst from him, pumping into Lu's nurturing womb. The magic pouring into him intensified as he exploded into her, and he felt her cumming in his spirit, bequeathing him her essence as he gave her his.

As Lu came, she gyrated her rear against Gern. She squeezed his pulsing shaft with her glutes, coaxing every rush of seed that he had in him. They teetered at the last vestiges of their climax, then gasped a breath of release together. Gern let his body ease down against her's, and she let her head hang over the edge of the table, a bit of drool hanging from her lip. She opened her eyes and adjusted from the timeless place she glimpsed during her orgasm.

"I love you, Lu," Gern said, his mouth brushing her shoulder.

"And I, you," Lu replied with certainty, and she pushed against the edge of the table, arching her back and lifting Gern with it. His weight felt like nothing, as if he were a sack of feathers. She had never felt so strong. Gern removed himself from on top of her and set his feet back down on the floor.

"I feel...amazing," Gern remarked, brushing his hair back.

"You are protected and empowered by strong magic." Lu turned on the table and sat up, crossing her legs. She could feel Gern's copious seed oozing out from her flushed cleft. She smiled at him, and pressed her middle finger over her slit, lovingly keeping his essence inside her. Gern smiled at her and leaned down to kiss her. She tilted her head and they shared a kiss that felt absolutely perfect. When the kiss was over, she took up her crystal cup and placed it against her sex. It snugged up against her skin, hugging her mound as it was enchanted to do.

"Let's finish this," Gern said, putting his kilt back on. "Together." He picked up the new pair of iron shoes he had made her to fit with her armor, and knelt before her, offering them to her feet. Lu pushed her feet into the leather padded foot-casings, then stood up, testing how they felt. They fit her well, for Gern had used a cast of her foot to shape the interlocking plates.

Gern dressed Lu in the armor, clasping the articulated pieces together with embossed leather and ornate buckles of brass. The armor was formed for function, but still bore sleek, ornamental embellishments of knotwork and embossed flame. Lu could sense the subtle tingle of magic from the affixed crystals through the iron, and she loved it. She liked the weight, the contour, the ease of movement, and the feeling of protection the armor instilled. She put on the open-faced helm, which had horizontal vents in the back to allow her hair of black smoke to breathe through it.

"What about you?" She asked. "Did you make none for yourself?"

"My faith in myself is the only armor that can never be broken," he replied, grabbing his fighting staff. Gern took her hand in his, and they left the smithy.

Lu and Gern met with Arkis at the top of the settlement gatehouse. In the glow of fiery torches standing on the battlements, warriors were crammed on the walls and on the streets below them. More than fifty tribes and clans from the Cobalt Islands to the Naledzar Crags had sent their best warriors to oppose the Witch Queen. They all gazed in awe at Lu's armored form.

"Archdruid Gern," Arkis addressed with a nod of his head. "Lu," he bowed his head to her.

"I forgive you for stealing from me, Arkis," Lu said. "You returned them to me in a time of great need. It is the closest I have been to my grove in many moons."

"I am...overjoyed to hear you say that," Arkis responded, tears welling in his eyes despite the seriousness in his tone. "Thank you."

"The forest is distressed," Gern said, watching birds fleeing across the horizon.

"They have cut down many trees," Arkis added.

"Then they will soon try to take the walls."

Just then, Chief Gartham came jogging up to them on the wall from the cliffs. Lu could sense the anger and jealousy bubble up in Gern beside her, and she nudged him with her iron-clad elbow. She gave him a knowing look, as if to say "not now." Gern composed himself.

Lu wished she knew how to release Gartham from her geas spell, especially since there was no longer any reason for him to keep her former secret. Labolas never taught her a spell that could free him, and that made sense, she thought, since he would use it to free himself, otherwise. Unless he did not want to be freed from the geas, she pondered. She was just being paranoid, she decided.

"Lady Lu," Garth said in reverent acknowledgement. "We have proved to our enemies that we can hold the mountainside. They will surely send the bulk of their forces to scale the walls. I am here to fight by your side...if you will have me."

"We will all fight side by side," Lu declared.

"At least we won't have to worry about arrows coming at us from behind our backs," Gern muttered.

"My clanspeople will hold the high ground," Garth affirmed. "It's what we're good at."

"We should not wait for Vorris to chip us away," Lu said. "We need to face her with our full strength."

"Not yet," Gern reproached gently. "I agree that we need to strike, for we shall surely lose in a prolonged siege. But we must wait to launch our attack until after the first wave is sent against us. She will test our defenses, then we will counter."

"I concur," Arkis said. "It will be our best chance."

"Very well," Lu agreed.

They waited under the stars for the attack to come. They could see the shimmer of smoky air beyond the tree-line from the enemy's camps. The tension in the air was thick, and not even a murmur disturbed the warriors crouched against the battlements. Suddenly, a whisper in the wind reached Gern's ears, like the ruffle of feathers.

"Arrows!" Gern called out, and they took cover. Black arrows streaked down out of the night sky and clattered against the stone of the wall and the rock-girded buildings behind it. Warriors took shelter against the wall or under their shields. A warcry rang out as hundreds of black-tattooed men rushed out from the tree-line, carrying ladders in teams.

"Return fire!" Gern commanded, and his warriors in the streets and on the walls worked in pairs, one shielding an archer who sent arrows flying past the ones coming at them. The ladders rose as the black-tattooed attackers hoisted them up against the wall, and with seemingly no care for their own lives, they climbed.

Lu conjured a stream of flames to assail the ascending warriors, but she recognized the glint of crystal about their necks, and they shrugged off the flames, unburnt. Pots of boiling oil were poured from the wall, but the climbers continued upward, despite being covered in bubbling pitch. Some reached the top, and began to fight for a foothold on the wall.

Lu's eyes flared with anger, but she focused her mind. The soldiers were protected from fire, but the ladders weren't, she realized. She invoked the secret words Labolas had taught her, and in that strange tongue, she told the wood to burn. She ran up and down the length of the wall, ignoring Gern's protective protest. She let her elemental power flow out of her hand, and a huge upward fan of flames incinerated the feathers off arrows in mid-flight. The iron-tipped missiles wobbled and spun out of control without their fletching, and they deflected clumsily off her armor. With gestures from her other hand and repeated invocations, she caused all the ladders to crumple in flames, and the warriors fell to the ground. The first wave that remained before the walls retreated, and the hail of arrows ceased as they regrouped.

"The first wave is over," Lu announced as she rejoined the others on the gatehouse. "Let's go."

Gern couldn't help but grin. The hope of victory grew brighter in his spirit, and he commanded that the gates be opened. As a team of muscled men lifted the heavy locking bar from the main gate, Lu stepped to the edge of the wall, overlooking the warriors gathered in the streets.

"Vorris cannot take whatever she wants!" Lu announced, raising her voice. "She has betrayed the living earth and all its creatures with her heartless ambition, and she will cloven down the freedom in life unless we stop her! I will not shrink from her malevolence! Gaia, the Great Mother, does not command you to suffer for a single moment, but it is up to us to oppose the injustice she has wrought! Follow me, and we shall dethrone the tyrant bitch!"

The warriors stood tall and howled in ovation. Garth let out a hearty, gut-felt laugh, then said: "By the gods, I love this woman!"

"Form up!" Gern commanded, doing his best to ignore his intrusive jealously. "Wedge, on me!"

They all jogged through the open gate, and the warriors formed up on Gern and Lu, who marched forward at the tip of a growing wedge formation, with Arkis and Garth guarding their flanks. Gern uttered a prayer and his skin toughened with the strength of oak, his blue tattoos glowing. They quickened their advance across the field as arrows came raining down from beyond the tree line. Lu sent forth her elemental energy from her open palm, and the arrows in the sky burst into flames and crumbled into burning charcoal dust that rained down like countless sparks from a spitting fire. The motes of burning dust pattered against their armor. She focused, and let her breath become red in her mind, condensing all the passions she could summon into the exhalation of her power. The fire from her hand grew, billowing out in great swaths of roiling flame.

"Desires deep," Lu chanted, "beauty unchained, I send my flame to make thou fain, full of lust and mad desire, see nothing but my bright fire!"

The firestorm tumbled through the air and twisted into shapes, and at once the flames became writhing semblances of Lu's own body, each turbid figure contorting in lustful expression. The formations of black-tattooed warriors could not help but gaze up at the fiery images, captivated by the mind-consuming magic.

"Don't let the igniad charm you!" A skull-masked officer behind the formation called, "Flank them!"

Gern began to sing a chant as he charged, and the other druids of his tribe joined him as he serenaded the forest to aid them. Vines sprung forth from the ground and wrapped around the feet of the tree-killers, preventing them from maneuvering into flanking positions.

"Close ranks!" The enemy commander called frantically, but it was too late. Lu leapt forward like a gazelle and smashed her armored knee against the face of a black-tattooed warrior at the front of the formation. He toppled backward, and Lu kicked off the soldier behind him. She wove through the thicket of spears as she spring-boarded through the ranks with forceful bounds, denting helmets with her iron-clad feet. Gern and the rest of the wedge formation plowed through the dumbstruck soldiers, knocking them over and trampling them.

The wedge formation peeled open the battle front and they quickly dispatched the ensnared invaders. Lu commanded their own campfires to lash out like coiled serpents, striking her foes with minds of their own. The soldiers were magically warded from being harmed by fire, but the display was more than enough to distract them from acting in any coordinated fashion. She swept through them with flashing arcs of her armored arms and legs, pounding them to the ground with bone-crushing force.

"Fight to the death for your queen!" The skull-masked man cried, running toward Arkis, who had just run out of arrows. Arkis lunged for a sword stuck in the dirt.

Lu soared out of a whipping vortex of flame from one of the possessed campfires and grappled around the man's neck with her legs, knocking him to the ground and smashing the bump in his throat with her armored pubic mound. She hooked her elbow behind his neck and pinned him in her crotch as she crouched over him.