Flame of Cytherea: Cytherean Chronicles book 1 (22 page)

They weren’t sure by how far, but they knew they
outdistanced any pursuit by a wide margin as they raced for the capitol.
 
He just wasn’t sure what they would do when
they got there.
 
If the enemy looked to
be at high alert, maybe they could try entering in some kind of disguise?
 
Still, the enemy would be foolish not to
check any one man traveling with many women.
 
It wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t all that common either.

He gave up thinking about it; they’d just have to see what
happened.
 
It was a crappy plan, but they
were going into the unknown.
 
They talked
about it during lunch a bit.

Sally said, “Why don’t we have Sara stop us when were a
couple of miles out, then I can take a look, see if they are at high alert or
not.
 
We can make plans then.”

Nora replied, “That sounds workable, but you’ll need to be
very careful, stay out of range.”

Sally agreed.

----------

Sara wondered if she’d lost her mind.
 
She had just met these people and she was
going back to the one place she feared above all, just to stay in their
company.
 
Over the last couple of days
they had all made an effort to get to know her, and as for Justin, well he
fascinated her.

The fact he was surrounded by four beautiful strong women,
and never once treated them as anything but precious intrigued her.
 
She was also taken aback when all four women
had almost been desperate to take him last night, she had turned off her magic
blushing furiously after him and Nicci had disappeared into the tent.

They all treated her so well, and she wondered…
 
She knew she was being ridiculous though, why
would he want her at all, when he already had all of them.
 
Plus… she was broken.
 
She doubted she could even tolerate his
touch.

She knew he was a good man who wouldn’t hurt her, yet it had
taken all she had and the fear of the soldiers to brace herself enough to touch
him and wake him up this morning.
 
Still,
she must have had hope.
 
Why else would
she be going with them?

------------

Kat felt good.
 
Despite the reason for it, it felt good to her as she ran in tiger form,
the road flying by under her powerful paws.
 
She was a little scared about tomorrow, but mostly just determined to
keep Justin and the others safe.
 
They
would face it together, win, and live the rest of their lives together.

They had to…

-----------

Nora snorted.
 
She was
in
Egeria
, she finally had the opportunity to kill a
very large amount of the fuckers.
 

Kick them in the teeth, help Justin show a god to the door,
and go home.
 

But that wasn’t what she was thinking about.
 
She was thinking about the future, about when
this crazy ride was over and they could live their life together.

And to her shock, she found herself wanting kids.
 
She loved her new family, and she wanted it
to grow.
 
If anyone had mentioned the
possibility of what she wanted now three weeks ago, she’d have laughed in their
face…

------------

Although all they could see was a red spot in the sky, Nicci
could see them all in perfect clarity.
 
She was feeling better about things with time.
 
She was where she belonged, and she knew her
father would come to his senses, even if it took a few years and a grandchild
to do it, it would happen eventually.

---------

Sally came down to land as they set up camp, she didn’t see
any soldiers at all close by as she circled down from the sky.
 
They ate a quick dinner and all went to bed
early, trying to get a good rest for the morning.
 
She knew she would have to pay attention
tomorrow, she had a feeling she wouldn’t be the only mage there.

She took some time to pray to the goddess, she wanted a long
life with this amazing family she was a part of, and she wanted each and every
one of them alive at the end of the day tomorrow.
 
She also gave thanks to the goddess for
everything that she had…

----------

Cytherea wished she could grant that, but tomorrow was in
their hands, she could not interfere.
 
She had already given them the strength, power and ability to see it
through, now it was up to them.

“Daughter, I see he’s picked up another stray.”

Her lips twitched in amusement, “Well, I can’t see
everything like you can father.”

He nodded, “That is what faith and hope are for… and love.”

She grinned, “I’ve got those three, but I’ve also got worry…
 
They have come a long way the last few
weeks.”

“That they have daughter.
 
That they have.”

----------

They were well hidden a couple of miles from the capitol of
Egeria
.
 
Sally had
scouted, and the walls were manned with at least a hundred archers, he didn’t
think it looked good for either sneaking in or subterfuge.
 
Main assault was… crazy.

Justin wasn’t sure there were any other options though.

Half joking he said, “So, how do we siege a city with six
people?”

Nora snorted, “Very carefully love, very carefully.
 
Sally, can you do tunnels?”

Sally said, “Sure, but they will have earth talents and
possibly even mages monitoring under the walls, I’m sure they would block me
once we got close.”

Nora asked, “Would they even feel it if Justin covered with
his magic?”

Sally considered that for a second, “Not mine, but if they
are actively checking they will notice an area that doesn’t feel right, that
their magic can’t enter.”

They all thought about it and he said, “So, forget going
small, I’ll cover a huge area while you dig us in.
 
A two hundred yard circle would make it hard
for them to guess where we were coming up.”

Sally said dubiously, “But they’ll know we are here.”

He shrugged, “They already do, know were coming at
least.
 
Unless someone can think of a way
to sneak past…
 
At least in the city we
can limit how many soldiers come at us at once.
 
Wait for nightfall?”

No one was crazy about the plan, but they made lunch and
prepared as they waited for the sun to go down.
 
The closer they could get to the wall before digging the better, he
wasn’t quite sure using his power on full for so long right before needing it
the most was such a great idea, but they didn’t seem to have an alternative.

Then he heard Nora mutter, “Chamber pots.”

He looked at her questioningly.

Nora cleared up her obtuse comment when she asked, “Sara,
you said when you emptied the chamber pots it led directly through an aqueduct
to the river.
 
Do you know if that’s
guarded?”

Sara shrugged.
 
“I
don’t know.
 
Even if it is though, it
leads directly to the castle.”

Sally volunteered, “Let me check it out, I’ll be careful.”

He kissed her and said with concern, “Hurry back.”

It seemed like forever, but was probably only twenty minutes
when she returned.

“There are steel bars, and they aren’t easy to get to, about
forty feet from the ground.
 
They are
also
warded
, so someone in the castle will know when
we enter.
 
I also felt what could have
been traps, but Justin can disarm them easily with a burst.
 
I couldn’t feel any talents or people by it
though.”

He sighed, “It sounds better than the tunneling plan, but we
need to be careful.”

It took them an hour to work their way around the city to
the river side.
 
They did run into one
patrol along the river, but as soon as he saw them, he watched them topple over
and guessed Sara took care of it.

He watched as Nora using her air talent took two people up
at a time, a flying jump forty feet up to the ledge of the aqueduct.
 
He used his magic of change and one of the thick
bars turned to rust and collapsed into dust.
 
As he stepped into the aqueduct he flashed his power once on high to
cancel out any spelled traps.
 
They
followed it for a while, every hundred yards he flashed his power again, until
they saw an access door.

It was locked, but that was child’s play for Sally, he
watched as she stared at the lock and it clicked open after a second or
two.
 
Once they were in the castle Sara
led them.
 
They came across a number of
soldiers but only two at a time, he was impressed that the soldiers were
knocked out before they even came into view.

Sara turned and whispered, “Through here is the royal halls,
there are too many for me to knock out at once.”

He nodded in understanding, and they burst through the
door.
 
He had his white fire on, but only
large enough to cover the women, trying to conserve it for what lie ahead.
 
The battle was fast and brutal as the ladies
took out twenty soldiers in three seconds with air, fire, claw and mind.
 
They followed Sara down the hall, then turned
to the right.

He could feel it then, like sandpaper against his skin, but
this was evil against his mind and talent.
 
He stubbornly pushed the feeling aside and marched for the door at the
end of the hallway.
 
When they stepped in
he was overwhelmed by the stench of death.
 
It was dark and forbidding and he was afraid to step forward.

He connected to his talent and burst into white flame,
giving him the courage and strength of his goddess’s love, which drove him
forward.
 
The light from his flames partially
lit the room, and when he came within range of the altar he could see runic
designs all over it, and the stains of blood.

This is what he came here for, he knew he was most powerful
in effect when he was in physical contact, so he stepped forward, took a deep
breath, and touched it…

He heard mocking laughter in his mind, as his power fought
against the power of the evil god’s anchor.
 
Then he heard a voice, “I am a god, you cannot defeat me.
 
You and your mates will die here, in this
room.”

He almost snorted at that, but then he heard the sound of
battle behind him.
 
As he went to expand
his protections to the women he loved, the altar attacked him with shadow.
 
He was almost completely overwhelmed until he
put his entire focus on the fight before him.
 
He came to the grim realization he could not do both, this would take
all his power.
 
A shiver of fear and
despair went through him, the women were on their own.

Nora watched in shock as Kat was catapulted back.
 
She caught her in a pocket of air right
before Kat slammed into the wall, and then with a growl started firing
back.
 
She knew then that Justin could
not help them, he was embroiled in his own battle, and they had to stand and
protect him.

She watched, impressed as Nicci sent a rolling wave of flame
through the door and down the hallway.
 
She must have killed half of them in one shot, the rest however were
protecting themselves with their own talents.
 
She was busy putting up shields of air while Sally was doing shields of
stone, air or water.
 
She thought this
would be the best way and she barked out orders to the others.

“Sally and I will protect, Kat, kill anything that gets
through the door.
 
Nicci and Sara, kill
them!”

They clicked as a perfect team, Sara seemed to be killing
them outright, or confusing them enough that Nicci’s fire burnt through and
killed them.
 
Between her and Sally’s
shields they were able to defend against all the attacks so far, but she hoped
Justin would be done soon…

---------

He had heard Nora’s confident orders and voice, and the
screams of the enemy.
 
His women were
powerful, and as his confidence in them grew, he threw himself into a battle
with the evil and corrupt power of this altar.
 
But no matter how much he channeled his power into the altar, the
darkness didn’t seem to be giving way.

He wondered if he made a mistake, maybe they should have
attacked the city, killed the king and all the other corrupted talents first,
weakened the altar even more before this confrontation.
 
But from the tale Celia told, the altar
should not be powerful enough to win.
 
But he felt himself weakening, the more of his magic he fed to the
struggle, the faster he felt himself being drained.

He was doing something wrong, and he needed to figure it out
fast or he’d be dead in moments.

The goddess couldn’t intervene because of free will.

Free will, free will was the key.
 
But how?
 
The dark god grew more powerful when his followers unwittingly
surrendered their free will, became slaves to foul darkness and misery.

That was the key, there was power in sacrifice, power in the
will of a person given over to a god.

The dark god tricks it out of its followers, and consumes
them.
 
But what if it was offered freely
to a goddess, without trickery, to love?
 
Not to darkness, but to light.

He bowed his head and through the connection he felt to the
goddess’s love, he gave himself freely and completely, with trust, over to her
will, and to her design.
 
His life and
will were no longer his.

His vision turned white and his mind shied from the
immensity of power that came back through that connection.
 
The shadows melted under white flames as
bright as the sun and the altar cracked and fell to dust.

He felt the love and gratitude of his goddess as the power
pulled back, and though he heard no words he knew she had returned his free
will.
 
When he turned, the women were all
staring at him with awe on their faces.

He winked and said faux brightly, “What should we do
tomorrow?”
 
He couldn’t help it, he
didn’t do awe and it brought out the really bad jokes that weren’t funny.

Nora snorted and he relaxed.
 
He wanted his intended mates, not followers.
 

They searched the room and found some books as well as notes
on parchment, he asked Nicci to burn them while his mind spun.
 
He couldn’t read it, but he could swear it
was written in Latin.
 
He just hoped it
was the last of them, although he guessed this would probably happen again,
hopefully long after he died of old age.

They had one more unpleasant task, even with the books and
notes burned the king might remember how to do it.
 
He was a little uneasy, he wasn’t an
assassin.
 
But when they got to the
throne room, it turned out to be an unnecessary trip.
 
The king and two other men were already dead,
he guessed that when the god was cut off from the world their magic power
snapped or something.

Either way he was glad, self defense he didn’t mind, but
killing in cold blood?

After they went over their options, they headed back for the
aqueduct.
 
No one saw a need to fight
their way out of the city when they could sneak out.
 
Whoever set the ward must have died in the
castle battle, or was connected to the dark god, because no one was waiting for
them out there.

They travelled about three miles, it was the middle of the
night after all and they couldn’t go their full speed, plus, they were all
tired and needed some sleep…

----------

It took them a week to get back across the border, they had
made a side trip to the mountains.
 
There
weren’t very many soldiers at the mines there and they had no problems freeing
the people taken from the southern villages.
 
As for a pursuit, that just didn’t happen.
 
The capitol must have been in turmoil while
they tried to select a new king.
 
He
thought probably by the sword.

Regardless, it would probably be a long while before the
consequences of last night were known.

They decided to stop in
Nerin
and
spend a few days at the tavern.
 
He
wasn’t sure exactly what plans the ladies had, but knew they were going back up
close the capitol, but not in it.
 
Nicci
wanted to be closer to her family, regardless of their current estrangement,
and Kat didn’t like the city.
 
What they
would do when they got there, he wasn’t sure.

They had barely been back in
Nerin
an hour when Kat dragged him upstairs to the room they shared that first night,
and started to playfully wrestle with him to see who’d be on top.

“Stop a second, I need to say something.”

Kat froze in surprise and looked concerned, he had never stopped
their version of foreplay before, “What is it?” she asked.

He kissed her softly, reassuringly, then asked, “I’ve been
waiting for the crazy ride to be over first, now that it is, will you be my
mate?
 
Have my children?”

When she whispered out a shocked but pleased yes, he felt
his talent reach out and connect with hers, and something… changed.
 
It didn’t hurt, but it was a strange feeling.

He asked in confusion, “What was that?”

She furrowed her brow, “I didn’t explain that?
 
That is the mate connection, it means we can
have kids.
 
Didn’t you ever wonder why I
wasn’t pregnant yet?
 
Only mates can
produce children.”

He spluttered, “You left that part out, I assumed there was
some kind of birth control, but I didn’t ask.”

She giggled as she stripped in front of him, prompting him
to follow suit.
 
Then for the first time
ever, she lay down on her back without a fight.

She said in a thick sultry voice throbbing with emotion,
“Come give me a child mate, I love you.”

He knelt between her legs and kissed her softly as he
checked her.
 
He could feel she was more
than ready for him.
 
He lined up and
slowly sunk into her welcoming warmth, relishing the feel of her walls hugging
him as he slowly slid in.
 
He gasped as
she rocked her hips up, increasing the penetration.

He stared deeply into her deep brown eyes as they slowly
coupled, the pleasure they created as he slid in out of her love sheath slowly
brought them to blissful release together.
 
He felt her wet warm velvety core contract and undulate around his manhood
and he expanded within her.

He felt himself fill her womb with the result of his
pleasure…

He cuddled with her as he thought about the future and what
it might bring.
 
He had fulfilled his
goddess’s purpose and his whole life lay before him, he was ready for it…
whatever it may bring.