Flame of Cytherea: Cytherean Chronicles book 1 (11 page)

She worried though.
 
But she was thankful the Flame of Cytherea was a protective power.
 
Unless things went horribly wrong he would
not be in danger.
 
None of them would
be.
 
She cuddled against him and drew a
deep breath, taking in his scent.
 
Eventually she calmed, determined to protect him if in fact, the worst
happened, and drifted off into sleep.

--------

Nora woke up to a light grunt.
 
She could see the low light outside through
the creases and small holes that tents develop and knew dawn had arrived.
 
She almost giggled when she heard Katrina
moaning into the bedding.
 
She frowned
feeling guilty.
 
She had been almost
giddy a few times recently, spending time with Justin, it was so… unlike
her.
 
And she always felt a stab of
guilt, knowing she should be with her sisters, and hoping that somehow, they
were okay.
 
That somehow, they were
pleased for her.

She almost laughed at the next extremely poor attempt to
suppress the sounds they were making as they tried to fuck sideways in
secret.
 
She had caught them doing it
that first night in the tent, but didn’t ever say anything.
 
They actually thought they were getting away
with something, and she had to admit to herself it was kind of hot they were
fucking not more than two feet away from her.

She was pretty sure both Nicci and Sally knew as well, but
they hadn’t talked about it at all, just shared a laugh one night a few days
ago.
 
She didn’t mind though, she had no
right to judge if they liked the risk of screwing around others.
 
Thinking about how she had begged for the
privilege to lick his ass two nights ago, she definitely didn’t have the right
to judge.

When she felt herself lick her lips she deliberately changed
the track of her thoughts, there was no time for a tryst this morning.
 
They would be shortly marching toward the
enemy…

She was still angry, very angry, that those fuckers had
invaded and killed her sisters.
 
She had
been a bit disappointed to find out she would be in the middle of the
troops.
 
She wanted to protect Justin;
she would be devastated if he followed her sisters without her, or really, died
at all.
 
But she wanted to kill the
invaders as well.

She would surely be sharp and ready for any of their troops
that made it within range of her magic.
 
She had been practicing when she found time alone.
 
Justin had told her about a strange device on
his world, called guns.
 
That shot small
metal things at high speeds.
 
At first
she had been unbelieving that such a small thing could kill when he held his
thumb and forefinger much less than an inch apart.

In the past and in her training she had always compressed
air into blades, as long and as sharp as a sword.
 
But she gave the strange idea a try and
formed highly compressed balls of air that were small.
 
She was taken aback at how little magic it
actually took.
 
When she sent them at a
tree as fast as she could, well, she was surprised at the devastating result.

She was really looking forward to seeing its effect on one
of those Egerian fuck heads…

--------

Sally was staring at the tent top, listening to Kat’s and
Justin’s poorly disguised fucking, deep in thought.
 
She was actually a little turned on and
wistful about it, wishing it was her that his strong arms held from behind as
he… she cut off the thought.

She had been confused though, he clearly wanted her, she
could see it in his eyes when they spent their daily time together, a time she
always looked forward too.
 
At first she
was offended that he hadn’t, but she thought she understood why.

When she had first come here, she had been obsessed with her
dishonor, only to find out the dishonor was her mother’s, and she had been
under a horrifying spell that stripped her will and forced her to think in a
specific way.
 
She thought she understood
why her mother did it, she must have been scared she would slip one day and
bring the
Uleni
down on them.
 
Understanding though, was not excusing, it
was unforgivable.

Not only hadn’t he accepted her absurd oath, he had freed
her, saved her, and she had been instantly infatuated and smitten with
him.
 
He was a strong and good man, and
his body was… she cut off that line of thought when her breathing picked up and
she felt a tingle in her core.

She had also found herself bubbly and joking.
 
She was the oldest of them at twenty four,
although she still looked closer to twenty.
 
She had never been a bubbly person before.

So she was pretty sure he was denying himself because he
didn’t want to take advantage of her.
 
She hardly knew herself right now, that spell had completely altered her
personality.
 
Add to that her hero
worship of him which made her amorous feelings suspect.
 
She was almost sure that’s why he hadn’t ask
her yet, despite the way he looked at her, and the clear signals she had been
sending him.

What was so frustrating was she was sure time was the only
fix for what was keeping them apart; she needed to ground herself as her own
person first.
 
As for her feelings for
Justin, she doubted they would go away.
 
They had only grown as they spent time together.
 
But perhaps, they would mature.

When the scent of Kat’s arousal reached her side of the tent
she almost groaned out loud in frustration.
 
How could they possibly believe it’s a secret?
 
With a small sigh she decided she shouldn’t
be distracted and frustrated today with the coming battle.
 

She needed relief.

She slowly slid her hands down her body, pinching her
nipples on the way down as she constructed a screen around her with magic, to
block both outgoing sound and scent.
 
She
knew how to keep things a secret…
 
And be
as loud as she wanted…

When her fingertips started teasing her core she fantasized
about Justin’s large fingers, and other things on his body…

--------

When Nicci woke up, all the others were already moving
around and packing up.
 
Unlike Sally, she
had no idea why he hadn’t approached her, and she had been getting irritable
about it.
 
She had taken her own advice
and opened up to him, and to some extent the other women.
 

She was happy she did, as the world of companionship was
opened to her.
 
She really hadn’t had
that before.
 
The people she dealt with
in the castle were all nice enough, but she wasn’t treated like a person there,
they didn’t see her, all they had seen was a princess, an ornament.

She could tell Justin was attracted to her.
 
He was more subtle about it than most,
keeping eye contact and actually looking at her face most of the time.
 
But she had caught him more than once, out of
the corner of her eye, with his eyes lingering over her body when he had
thought she wasn’t looking.

They had both also enjoyed their time together during the
march.
 
She noticed he had made a point
to spend a few hours with each of them every day.
 
So what was it that gave him pause?
 
Was she just not good enough for him?

She pushed that thought aside as she got dressed and
gathered her things.
 
Today she would
have another chance to prove herself.
 
She thought she had done relatively well her first time, although,
passing out on the road outside of a town probably wasn’t the best ending to
her debut battle.

She would prove she wasn’t an ornament, maybe then he would
take her…

Justin finally got a glance of the hillock from the scouting
reports.
 
Although it was only two miles
away, it had taken them close to a half hour to march the distance.
 
It looked more like a ramp, then a small
hill.
 
There was only one approachable
slope, and based on what he was seeing it would be costly to take.

The sides were extremely steep, and according to the reports,
the opposite side was practically a sheer cliff.
 
The enemy was dug in well too; they must have
been here for a while.
 
He was a little
worried about it, from what he had read back on Earth, the defenders had the
much easier time, and they only had six thousand soldiers with them.
 
From what the scouts said, the enemy had
about two thirds of that, more than enough to win as the defenders of a siege.

He wasn’t sure how accurate it was, but he had heard
defenders with fortifications if done right could face ten to one odds.

Of course, he wasn’t on Earth, and magical talents would
surely rewrite those rules.
 
Still, he
knew there was a rule about not letting the enemy pick the battle site, but
they didn’t really have a choice here.
 
Actually, they did have a choice, the idea of encircling them and
choking off their supplies had been considered when he brought it up.
 
The idea being they would be forced
eventually to come down and face them in the open, or starve, but too many were
against the idea.

They wanted the enemy gone now, out of their kingdom.

He thought it was foolish, a decision based on their
emotions and anger, but he wasn’t in charge so let it go.
 
They would be attacking.
 
He put his hand on Kat’s flank feeling better
for her presence.
 
Nora and Sally were
close to him too and Nicci was circling above, high enough to take in
everything and out of range of any enemy magic, but low enough to respond
quickly.

They stopped fairly close to the hill and as they formed the
first group of soldiers who would charge what he was sure was a corridor of
death, the ground below them rumbled.
 
Sharp spears of rock burst from the ground all around him, impaling the
unlucky soldiers to be standing in the wrong place.

Without waiting for the order he put out a short flash that
calmed the ground beneath their feet, canceling the magic that had been lying
in wait, but the damage had been done.
 
He shook his head as the initial assault group yelled angrily and
charged.
 

He healed those that were still alive, but many, perhaps two
hundred of the soldiers were dead.
 
He
watched the charge and felt his stomach drop, as he waited for some other
trick.
 
To his surprise they advanced
quite a bit, meeting minimal resistance and mowing over it.
 
A second assault group was sent, followed by
a third.

The better the charge went, the more nervous he got, it
didn’t make sense.
 
From what he could
see of the front lines, it was absolutely chaotic.
 
Fire was thrown around, blades of air,
attacks from the ground, weapons flying through the air, walls of stone
exploded, trenches were collapsed.
 
It
seemed clear they were still advancing, somehow keeping the upper hand in this
fight.
 
Their forces were taking out both
the enemy and their fortifications while taking negligible losses.

The Egerians were caught up with evil, but they weren’t
stupid and the enemy commander had proven intelligent so far.
 
He thought it possible that they just had
better talents, but thought it far more likely there was a trap just waiting
for them to be in position for.

He heard Prince Anton order the middle to advance, and he
hoped whatever trick was waiting wouldn’t be set off before he was in
position.
 
It didn’t take long for him to
reach the position they had gone over during planning, and he waited for the order.
 
He now had the whole hillock in the range of
his magic.
 
Something though, still felt
very wrong.

----------

Arnath
watched the enemy army
advancing quickly, he could hardly believe how well his plan was going.
 
He turned to the earth talent next to him and
ordered, “Wait five more minutes, then start the collapse.”

A month ago he may have felt a twinge of guilt at the
fifteen hundred men he was intentionally sacrificing, merely bait for his trap,
but his soul was so damaged now he felt nothing as he dropped into the trap
door and made his way down the tunnel.
 
He had his earth talents working on this for a while, and in a few
minutes almost the entire hillock would collapse in on itself.
 

Almost all six thousand of the enemy troops were already on
the slope.
 
He thought most would be
killed and buried by the event.
 
But none
would get away, he had three thousand more troops, and they were fresh and
waiting for the collapse before acting on the order he had given to spring the
second stage of the trap.

Sadly, he felt no accomplishment, or really anything about
it.
 
He was just following his
orders.
 
He would gain this kingdom for
his king, and for his new god.

--------

Nora gasped as she felt the ground shake beneath her.
 
She heard Anton’s order and felt flames
refresh and protect her as they all lit up in white fire.
 
But the shaking didn’t stop and like a wave
from the top, the hillock started to collapse in on itself.
 
Whatever had been done with magic, the magic
part was done, this was now nothing but a natural collapse and his magic
couldn’t stop it.

Desperately she reached out with her magic and launched them
all backwards, high in the sky.
 
She was
having trouble cushioning them all properly for the landing.
 
She sighed in relief when she felt Sally’s
magic reach out and take over for herself, and Katrina in her large and very
heavy tiger form.
 
It was easy to direct
the landing toward the base of the disappearing hillock with only herself and
Justin to control.

She watched in horror as all but the air, telekinesis, shape
shifting birds, and earth talents were swallowed up by the collapsing
mountain.
 
Only the thousand or so
soldiers near the bottom were unaffected.
 
The talents had managed to save a handful of others as they escaped, but
not nearly enough.
 
Outside of Justin and
the three women, maybe fifty others made it off the collapsing hillock.
 
She was horrified.

Close to five thousand men dead in just a few seconds.
 

At the sound of crashing behind her she turned and saw the
ground open up and so many soldiers came up out of the ground it wasn’t
convenient to count.
 
It was a trap that
she never could have even thought of much less anticipated.
 
She felt guilty, wishing they had listened
more to Justin’s ideas.
 
So many dead,
and now wasn’t the time to deal with it.

She was still surrounded by white fire, and this was their
only chance, the odds were stacked against them, at least three to one.
 
She just hoped their initial and limited
advantage would be enough.
 
She started using
those air… bullets she thought he called them.
 
She felt a surge of satisfaction as a soldier’s head practically
exploded.
 
She needed to concentrate if
they were to have any chance, and she got to work…

---------

Kat roared and took off another head, her powerful claw
tearing it right off the enemy soldier.
 
She watched peripherally as Nora took out a frightening amount of
enemies but she was focused on those that got by Nora’s hail of air magic.
 
She swore to herself she would not let
anything get to Justin.
 
He was on fire
and his body was still, using all his concentration to maintain his magic.

She just hoped he could hold on long enough to at least even
the odds, if not put them in their favor.
 
The just over a thousand soldiers that were left started to form a line
around them which made her feel a little safer, but she didn’t let down her
guard any.
 
She would die before she let
anything happen to him…

--------

Sally was going to call a storm and lightning, but at seeing
the way Nora was using her air magic, so little power with such devastating
results, she copied it, and started shooting little balls of air at every enemy
soldier she could see.
 
Some things took
her a while to learn, but what Nora was doing was simple.

She saw the sky turn cloudy, and felt the magic at
work.
 
There was another mage on the
battle field and outside the range of Justin’s power, as were the clouds above
them.
 
She regretfully stopped her assault
and concentrated on dispersing the clouds, she was afraid her power would be
caught up in simply stopping the other mage.
 
Still, that was better than allowing an attack.
 
She concentrated on the magic in the area,
trying to identify where the mage was…
 
Failing that, she concentrated on identifying the next attack.

-------

Arnath
growled in
frustration.
 
A damn Flame of the
goddess?
 
His trap worked perfectly, but
his three to one odds were slowly dwindling as his men were slaughtered, unable
to respond with their talents as the gods be damned Flame supported his
enemies.

He had tried to create a storm and attack with
lightning.
 
He wasn’t sure if a Flame’s
magic could stop that, both he and the clouds would be out of range, and the
lightning would actually be a natural force.
 
But there was another mage choking off his efforts.
 
He cursed bitterly as he watched, impatiently
waiting for the Flame to tire himself out…

---------

Nicci was circling after the collapse of the hillock.
 
She saw with relief that Justin and the
others were okay, not safe exactly, but had escaped the trap.
 
But she couldn’t see her brother Anton
anywhere.
 
His form was a wyvern, he
should be in the air, he couldn’t have been caught…

She cawed loudly in denial, then dove.
 
She needed to kill some enemy soldiers while
the white flames were still burning.
 
She
passed between the lines flying low, not wanting to get to far from her
responsibility.
 
She needed to stay near
Justin.
 
She concentrated on her oath,
and the grisly job at hand, trying to ignore the tight ball in her stomach and
the instincts telling her that her brother was gone.

She needed to be careful though, magic or not they still had
crossbows and swords.
 
She tried to
conserve her use of magic, but all too soon she was close to out.
 
She had taken out at least two hundred
soldiers in quick succession with her fire magic as she flew over and she
needed to rest.

She soared back up in the air and couldn’t help looking
around again.
 
Her eyesight was sharp,
and from this height she could see every face clearly below her.
 
She did not see her brother at all.

She had an epiphany at that point, and it was a bitter
one.
 
She had been obsessed with proving
herself.
 
But she realized the only one
that had doubted her, had been herself.
 
She had wanted to prove herself to her brother so badly, but now that he
was missing, it was painfully obvious to her that he already did respect
her.
 
The others along with Justin
treated her like an equal, and listened to her.

She had nothing to prove at all, she wasn’t an
ornament.
 
She was a powerful woman who
had the trust and faith of her friends and family.
 
Thinking back to how often she had talked to
Justin about proving herself to be more than a title and fluff, it became clear
exactly what he was waiting for before inviting her to his bed…

He was waiting for her to grow up.
 
She had been acting like a self absorbed
little girl.

She felt restored, mostly thanks to Justin’s white flames,
and dove back down to take out more of them…

--------

Justin stood there, with his eyes closed, imagining sitting
around a table with Kat, Nora, Nicci and Sally.
 
He focused on them, and what love he had for each, as he pushed out his
power the best he could.
 
He dare not
move or distract himself.

He had felt the anger rising a few times, but had pushed it
down, focusing on keeping his loved ones safe and healthy, rather than what had
just happened.

He had a lot to be angry about.
 
He was angry he hadn’t pushed harder to make
a better plan than to charge in where the enemy waited.
 
He was angry that Anton didn’t listen to his
reasoning.
 
They had been so confident of
success, especially with his help, that he had let his concerns fall.