The Ring of Perliss Ch. 02: Beloved

I groaned, wishing she would just treat me like Fenizir and Arden had liked to, but we shuffled around until I could lower myself onto her. It was so dark that we were only shadows to each other, but her gorgeous cock was very real, and her hands on my breasts excited me further. "When I do get the belt off," she said, "I'm going to enjoy fucking these beauties."

I was so focussed on filling my cunt with her that it took me a minute to understand what she meant. No one had ever fucked my breasts before, but Perliss... Yes, I had had dreams as Perliss where a man straddled me and I pressed my breasts about his thrusting cock, until he finished and splashed my face and neck with cum. There was something deeply bestial about it, the man marking me as his own the way a dog pisses to mark its territory. It was a messy and dirty act, yet could also be intimate and somehow strangely exciting, if done with the right partner.

Laughing at the absurd yet erotic image, I bent to kiss Hanwe. "I can't wait," I murmured.

*

I dream I am Perliss, and standing in the temple of Veshla in Benatek. I have chosen not to return to Saruz. One day I will, but I will do so at the head of an army.

"Lady Veshla," I call out. "I am Perliss of Saruz, Adventuring Princess no longer. I have killed the three witches and broken their cauldron." I throw the broken iron piece onto the temple floor. "My family has honoured you for generations, but now a serpent sits on the throne. Help me in my vengeance and I will pledge my life to you."

For an agonising age there is no response. I'm aware that by coming to Veshla instead of Ulaxr that I may be making an enemy I don't need, but if I am ever to take Saruz by power, it must be as Veshla's champion.

"Princess," Lady Veshla says, appearing before me. "You have done well and I admire your spirit. Lady Ulaxr demands that you surrender her sword to me, but says she would still enjoy a visit."

I don't doubt I would as well. The memory of her silver cock stirs a restless hunger in me. Yielding the sword, however, is a painful task. "This is a beautiful weapon," I say sadly, laying it at Veshla's feet.

"But it is not one you've earned." Veshla studies me closely, and I hope she can see in my heart my determination to serve her as warrior and queen. "Very well," she says, "I accept your pledge. Gather yourself an army, and I will stand back-to-back with you. No assassin's blade will find you, I promise."

"Thank you, Goddess," I say, joy in my heart.

*

The land between the mountains and the city was once forest. The Black Queen's men had savaged it, leaving a vast plain of tree stumps. In the years since, the land had eroded in places and turned to marsh in others, with clumps of bushes here and there, and feeble-looking saplings. The going was slow, and perhaps we would have done better to circle the edges to the highway, but we were in no great hurry and there was pleasure in being alone together.

Slowly the fortress city of Benatek drew closer, and after two full days of searching for stable paths through the mud and thickets, we came at last to the southern gate. Hanwe was wrapped in her black cloak, her hood up. She was returning to the seat of her former power, and had no allies there to rely on.

The guards at the gate barely looked at her. "State your business," one growled.

"Our business is with Minarwe," I said.

"Oh aye?" he said, staring openly at my breasts. "Maybe I'll see you there later - at the temple."

"Maybe," I said, praying otherwise. "Could you point us in the direction?"

"Were I not on duty," he said sadly, "I would have gladly taken you there myself."

"I know where it is," Hanwe muttered to me, but she was wrong. Benatek had changed in many ways since her time. Her palace was now a burned and ruined shell, and Minarwe's temple had moved to the main market square.

"Wait," I said, crossing the square instead to Veshla's temple. Though it was late in the day, the temple doors stood open. I stood at the threshold peering in at a statue of the goddess. In her hand she held an ancient and powerful blade. "Lady Ulaxr's silver sword," I said. "It's still here."

"Even I never dared to take it from her," Hanwe said.

"And yet I must," I whispered. "That is the sword that killed the three witches and smashed their cauldron." I could read the purpose of that sword's power in a way that Perliss never could. "No other sword could have baffled them so completely."