Bone lord 2, p.24
Bone Lord 2, page 24
“Start using your hands,” I grunted, breathing hard now from the excitement that was firing up my blood. “Stroke it nice and slow, but start speeding up gradually.”
Millicent did as I instructed, working me with her tongue and hands, and doing a great job of it.
“Is this right?” she asked between licks. “Am I doing it well?”
“You’re doing very well,” I gasped. “You can start sucking on it now.”
She slid her lips over my prick and started sucking.
“Okay, um, not like it’s a lollipop, exactly,” I said. “Give it a little pressure, but not too much, and start bobbing your head back and forth. Yes, yes, that’s it.”
She was moving like a pro now, and I couldn’t resist thrusting in and out of her hot, wet mouth to enhance the movement of her head. She looked up at me, her eyes dripping with raw desire; she was enjoying this as much as I was.
“Okay, faster,” I growled, gripping fistfuls of her hair as my thrusts became more urgent. “More pressure.”
She eagerly obliged, and waves of pleasure were coursing through my veins. Damn, for someone who didn’t do this very often, she was good, really good. I was gonna bust a nut soon at this rate.
“You have magnificently large tits,” I said. “You should use them. Take them out, and put my cock between them.”
She obeyed readily, freeing her enormous breasts from her undergarments. She slid my cock between them and started to rub them against her nipples. The head of my cock tingled with anticipation as she squeezed it between her breasts and tickled my tip with her tongue.
“When I cum,” I gasped, “you swallow it all. That’ll definitely keep the boys coming back time and time again. You’ll have to employ more guards just to fight the bastards off.”
“Mm-mm,” she grunted, her mouth too full of my cock to speak, but it was clear she agreed.
She was bobbing her head almost frantically now and working my shaft with her enormous breasts. The lesson was going just as well as I’d hoped it would. Waves of intense pleasure were coursing through me, and an orgasm was coming at me like a galloping horse.
“Here it comes,” I gasped, gripping her hair.
With a long groan I delivered one final deep thrust, blowing my load into her willing mouth. Millicent gasped, moaning onto my cock with pleasure; she’d enjoyed taking the load just as much as I’d enjoyed delivering it. Once it was all done, and she’d swallowed every last drop, she finally popped my prick out of her mouth, gasping and panting, with a huge grin on her stunning face.
“Did I do well?” she asked eagerly, displaying her breasts as she leaned back.
I stroked her hair and returned her smile. “A perfect score. Remember what you’ve just learned, and no guy will ever pump and dump you again. Shit, those young bucks will be dueling in the streets with rapiers over you.”
“Thank you—oh, I don’t even know your name.”
“And you don’t need to, not yet. Just remember me as the God of Death for now. You’ll hear about me soon enough.” I put my deflating cock back into my pants and buttoned them back up. “But now, like I said, I have a lot to do, so I have to run. Thanks for the mirror.”
“Thank you for the very enjoyable lesson,” she cooed, standing up and smoothing down her dress and licked her lips as she took one final look at my crotch.
I gave her a sweeping bow, and then, tucking the mirror under my arm, climbed out the window and scrambled down the apple tree. I moved stealthily back to the stables and began climbing up the hay bales. Before I got onto the roof, a thought struck me. Perhaps I should test this Beauty Mirror out. Rami, as potent a warrior as she was, didn’t currently have any resistance to magic, so she would make an ideal test subject.
I took the mirror out and realized right away that I wasn’t entirely sure how to use it. Oh well, I’d done pretty much everything so far by the seat of my pants, so that’d work for the mirror too. I held it in both hands and stared at my reflection in the moonlight, and then something weird started to happen: my reflection began to become blurry.
Through the semi-transparent blur of my reflection, I began to see thousands of different faces. Each one flickered as a fleeting image, coming and going in the space of a split-second. I understood that I could choose any one of these faces to be my own while I carried this mirror. There were faces of every race on earth, men and women, from babies to ancient crones. With this mirror, I could become anyone from anywhere, looking any age, from two years old to one hundred. It was a far more powerful tool than I could have imagined.
To see if I really could fool Rami, I chose the face of a Yengishman and added the black ai’tendar of an enjarta. Once this was done, I climbed up onto the top of the wall and looked down to where Rami and my skeletons were waiting. She glanced up, expecting the figure silhouetted against the full moon to be me—which it was—but what she saw was a male Yengishman in the ai’tendar of an enjarta.
“Who the hell are you?” she hissed. “And who is the grandmaster of your sect?”
“That doesn’t matter,” I growled. “I killed your friend Vance, and now, I’m going to do the same to you.”
I sprang down from the wall, landing with an acrobatic roll, and when I came up from it, Rami had her sais out, and a murderous look gleamed like hard iron in her dark eyes.
“Then you will die,” she said, “slowly and painfully.”
She charged at me with a shriek, and in that moment, I knew that she truly believed that I was some rival enjarta who had just killed, well, me. I whipped out Grave Oath and traded a couple of blows with her in a flurry of frantic movements. This was interesting; so this was what it was like to go up against Rami in battle. She was fast, I knew that much, not as fast as me though.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” I taunted. “Your grandmaster must have been a worthless teacher.”
She screamed out a howl of rage and flew at me like a feral cat. Again, we traded a series of lightning-fast blows, sparks flying from her sais and my dagger as we danced in combat. Rami, in her eagerness to get at me, came in a little too close, and I was able to hook her arm in the crook of my elbow and disarm her of one of her sais. She tried to stab the other through my eyeball, but I caught her wrist and gave it a twist until she dropped the weapon. I then threw her onto the ground and pinned her down.
“Just kill me,” she gasped, tears filling her eyes. “If Vance is dead, I don’t want to live anymore.”
I figured the experiment had gone far enough. I pulled the Beauty Mirror out of my belt and tossed it onto the dew-damp grass. The moment I did, Rami’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
“Vance?”
“Sorry Rami,” I said, releasing her from my vice-like hold. “I guess I shouldn’t have done that. I just wanted to see how effective the Beauty Mirror’s magic was.”
“Effective enough to make me want to kill you,” she said with a sly smile, “and think that you were a Yengish enjarta.”
“That’s really what you saw?”
She nodded before laughing. “That was. . . the mirror. . . it’s incredible!”
“I know, right?” I smiled back at her before we got up and dusted ourselves off.
I picked up the Beauty Mirror, but this time, I wrapped it up in a rag before tucking it into my belt.
“Let’s get back to the camp,” I said. “We have preparations to make, while I’ve a ‘vampire’ to catch, a lordship to take back, and an uncle to kill.”
“And a goddess to resurrect,” Rami added.
“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about Xayon,” I said. “And resurrecting her will be the first thing I do after I take care of my uncle. You have my word on that.”
With that, we slipped into the shadows of the woods, heading back to our camp. I had one last task to complete tonight, and then tomorrow, my invasion of Brakith would begin.
Chapter Thirty-One
When we got back to the camp, I decided to try the Beauty Mirror on someone who was Fated, just to see what sort of effect it would have on someone who had a natural resistance to magic. Elyse was bound by her magic to the Lord of Light, so I figured she’d make a good candidate for the experiment.
Once again, I held the mirror in my hands and saw a thousand different faces flickering ghost-like over mine. This time, I wanted to try something even wilder, so I picked a woman’s face. And not just any woman, an Arch-nun of the Church of Light. They were ranked higher than even bishops, the rank Elyse had become only recently.
I looked at my new hag-like reflection in the mirror and snickered. If this worked, it would be a bunch of fun.
I walked up to Elyse, who was sitting beside a small campfire and reading a Church of Light book. Ugh, I certainly didn’t support burning books at all, if but there was any literature in the world that deserved to become kindling for a bonfire, it was their books. For the act of deception I was about to perform, however, I had to pretend that I was as interested in it as Elyse was.
I walked over to her, changing my usual swagger to a limping shuffle. She looked up when she heard the sound and stared at me, her beautiful face scrunched into an expression of utter confusion.
“S-sister?” she stammered. “Wh-who are you, and what are you doing here? And why do I feel like I know you?”
“Is that any way to greet a fellow sister of the Lord of Light’s church? Where are you manners?”
“F-forgive me, sister,” she said uncertainly, her frown deepening. She was confused as hell; unlike Rami, Elyse could obviously tell that there was something off about me, but her immunity to magic wasn’t strong enough that she could see completely through the illusion. “It’s just that I feel like I know you so well, but I cannot place your face. And, I must apologize—I only had one glass of wine this evening, but it seems to have gone to my head because you look... blurry.”
Interesting. I looked “blurry.”
“You know what the Lord of Light’s teachings are on drunkenness,” I said in my best scolding tone.
“I know, sister, I know,” she said, looking crestfallen but still very confused, “and I am very ashamed to say that I have broken his commands on this topic on occasion.”
“Such sins, although grave, can be forgiven, but there are other sins, graver sins, that the Lord of Light is not so quick to forgive. Tell me: a beautiful young bishop such as yourself, must have attracted the attention of many men.”
“That is true, sister. I have had more than my fair share of suitors. But I have turned all of them away, and I gave neither my heart to my body to any of them. I have remained pure, sister.”
“Really? None of them at all?”
“I have never given myself to any man, sister. Never.”
I could hear the lie in her voice and could see her squirming in the face of my interrogation.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked. “There is no man, not even a single one, who has known both your heart and your body? I must remind you of the severity of lying about such matters to an Arch-nun of the Church of Light. Tell the truth, and your sins can be forgiven and cleansed from your soul.”
At this, Elyse grew defiant, and her jaw hardened.
“There is one man, but only one. He has known my body, and I his, and I cannot promise that it will not happen again. I, I’m in love with him, sister, and even though I must share his affections with other women, I cannot help these feelings of mine. And to tell the truth, I do not wish to purge these feelings from my soul. I know that perhaps this makes me a bad sister, but this man: he has set my heart and soul on fire in a way that I never knew possible. I cannot believe that the Lord of Light would allow me to feel such things only for me to have to deny them.” She glared at me, as though challenging me to defy her.
“You are right, dear bishop,” I said, smiling.
“Wait, what?” she gasped, looking even more confused.
“You should give yourself completely to this man,” I said. “Heart and soul and body, but especially body. A body like yours is far too incredible to be wasted on celibacy.”
“Sister! Have you lost your senses?”
“You have gorgeous breasts, nice, round and firm, like a pair of juicy melons. And what’s between your legs is so wonderfully tight, even when it’s dripping wet.”
“By the Lord, sister, are you insane? How can you say such things!”
“And despite your inexperience, you seem like an absolute natural when it comes to sucking—”
“Sister!” she shrieked, jumping to her feet. “I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing here, of all places, but I won’t listen to another word of this, this, utterly inappropriate and perverted drivel! Please, leave!”
I figured that this game had gone on long enough, so I dropped the mirror onto the grass. Elyse’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets, and then a rapid mixture of emotions flashed across her face: confusion, disbelief, amusement, anger, embarrassment. She opened her mouth to speak, but her mind was in such a jumble that no words emerged, simply a weird, strangled gasp.
“Surprise!” I said, flashing a shit-eating grin at her.
“How on earth did you do that?” she eventually managed to utter.
I picked up the Beauty Mirror and showed it to her. “This little thing is quite the party trick, huh? Lucielle’s Beauty Mirror.”
“So that’s why it felt like I’d had two bottles of wine while I was looking at you,” she said. “It was so bizarre. My vision around you was all blurry, but everything else looked normal. It was very unsettling.”
“You should see how well this thing works on people who aren’t Fated.”
“I’m sure. ” A deep blush darkened her cheeks. “Vance, about some of the things I just said, About, um, being, being in love with you. I, oh by the Lord of Light, I’m so embarrassed now, I—”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, “you were just being honest. I could tell you had a hard time lying, and that right there makes me sure that I can trust you. And that’s a good thing.”
“Okay. I just, I just don’t want you to think... ”
“Don’t worry, seriously.”
“All right,” she said, still looking a little embarrassed. “So, um, how are you planning to use the Beauty Mirror?”
“Well, I’ve discovered something that could be very useful to me. My uncle’s ‘vampire’ actor is a dead ringer for me, and he no doubt has direct access to my uncle. What I’m thinking is that we kidnap the asshole, beat some information out of him, and then, when I know how it is that he gets in or out of the castle, I use the Beauty Mirror to get in like that. Even if I come up against someone Fated, all I’m doing is impersonating someone who looks exactly like me, so they’re not really going to see much of that blurring effect you just described.”
“An excellent plan, but how do you intend to kidnap this actor?”
“I know a secret way into the ruins where he’s holed up, pretending to be me—well, a vampire version of me, anyway. The only problem is that my asshole uncle has the place crawling with snipers, and good ones too. I can get into the crypt of the ruins without being seen, but it seems that the actor isn’t too fond of going down there, and he only ever does to hide gold in his stash. And if I go up into the ruins to look for him, there’s the risk of being spotted by a sniper and turned into a human pincushion.”
“What about your own snipers?” Elyse asked. “Couldn’t you bring a few of them with to cover you against your uncle’s snipers?”
I flashed her a grin. “Now that’s a good idea. I knew those zombie snipers would come in handy.”
“I’ll just get my mace, and we can head over there.”
“No,” I said, “I’m going alone. It’s a long hike, and you need rest, while my zombies don’t. And the more people I have with me, the greater the chance we’ll be spotted by the snipers.”
“All right, if you’re sure that you’ll be okay on your own.”
“I’m certain. I’ll see you in a couple hours, and when I come back, don’t be too surprised that there’s two of me.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
I rounded up my zombie snipers and set off for the ruins. It didn’t take us too long to get there. Before I headed into the secret tunnel, I surveyed the ruins from the surrounding woods and noted the positions of the various snipers. They were in different places than where I’d last seen them, so I guessed that they rotated positions regularly so that any potential intruders—like myself—wouldn’t be able to memorize their spots and sneak past them.
After I’d surveyed the ruins thoroughly, I led my zombie snipers through the tunnel and into the crypt. Once we were in, I sent my mind into one of the zombie’s heads so that I could use him as a scout—and arrow fodder, if it came to that. Better one of my zombies get a crossbow bolt through the brain than me.
Seeing through my zombie’s eyes and moving vicariously through his body, I controlled him like a puppet, with a million invisible strings, each connected to a muscle and nerve in my body. For all intents and purposes, I became him. The only difference was that if he died, I didn’t.
I—the zombie, rather—crept up the stairs, taking light, deliberate steps that didn’t make a sound. I was amazed at how intricately I was connected to my zombie’s body now, which had to be a result of my powers increasing. It was a bizarre sensation, that of being yourself and someone else simultaneously. It was like seeing and experiencing two separate realities at once, each transposed over the other. Like everything else with this experience of divinity, though, it was something I was growing increasingly accustomed to.
I edged my way up the stairs, my crossbow loaded and my eyes surveying the scene before me through the sights of the weapon, my zombie finger resting lightly on the trigger. These sniper crossbows my zombies used were extremely high-quality weapons, far more accurate than the average army crossbow, and were capable of pinpoint accuracy up to a few hundred yards. If one of my uncle’s snipers so much as breathed in my direction, that asshole would get a bolt through his skull in a heartbeat.
