The next several days were an education in the reality of war and both its noble and dark faces. I wished on a daily basis that there had been some way to spare my girls that experience, but they pushed through with admirable grit, and I made sure they knew how proud of them I was.
The fire continued to burn for over a day, sending a massive cloud of smoke high into the sky like a great sign pointing towards the excavation site that I’m sure the enemy had thought was secret. It was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing came that it prevented the nearby forces from getting on our trail and following us into the hills, allowing us to get up into the pass and away from the plains where we could be easily surrounded. It was a curse in that it drew the attention of several warbands that we could see changing direction to come this way across the plains.
I was also proud of the Juneau students who, after dealing with the harsh reality of the guerrilla battles we’d been through, all came through the other side with more respect for the rank-and-file warriors that protected them. I saw young nobles helping change bandages, supporting injured soldiers, and sharing emergency supplies with those who had taken wounds to protect them. Not a single one of the student-mages complained about the lack of comfort or what was being asked of them. They all knew how close things had come, and the fact that all of the students had made it this far without dying was astonishing, especially when you considered the number of enemies they’d had to deal with.
Kassandra, my loving linguine and mischief-maker, did everything she could to help out. She drained every mana coin she could spare patching up the injured so they were able to travel. It got to the point that she had so burnt herself out that I had to carry my dwarf lamia, something that I was more than up to the task for.
My suspicions about Jane being the one to cast the great wall of wind that had thrown the fire back towards our enemy was all but confirmed when I found Shayla struggling to carry the mouse girl only minutes into our flight. I’d silently taken Jane from her arms, cradling the exhausted mouse kin against my chest as we trotted into the night. I knew that Jane had made the choice to act in a split second, judging the odds and acting with critical thinking, but I also knew that creating a forest fire like she did was going to bother my smallest lover, and I would be there for her when the problems came.
In all, over half of the warriors from the Ironclaw tribe were injured in some way, and we had almost a dozen dead. Two-thirds of the student-mages from Juneau were injured in some fashion, but it was a testament to the dedication of the Ironclaw warriors that most of those were minor injuries.
It had taken us roughly four days to get down the pass and find the enemy camp. During that time, we’d skirmished with several groups and snuck past others, doing our best to keep out of sight. The return trip was at the best speed we could make, since we knew there would be pursuers coming after us if they could find our trail. Even then, it’d still be a few days back to our lines.
At Valda’s order, we stopped our headlong flight as soon the sun broke the horizon the morning after our battle. That one night felt like it encompassed several days, and everyone was basically dead on their feet and needed some rest.
The Ironclaw warriors didn’t hesitate to pass out food and water, establishing a quick rotation of watches for this break we were taking. It would only be for a few hours, but everyone was grateful, with many simply pulling out their blankets and curling up on the ground to get as much sleep as they could.
My girls didn’t even bother with the tent, and I ended up in the middle of a pile of women with Kassandra draped over my lap and legs, Shayla pressed to my back, Jane still in my arms while Rieka snuggled into my side.
I hadn’t expected to get any sleep, but it was Valda poking me in the nose that woke me with a start to find the sun high in the sky.
“Up,” Valda ordered with mock-sternness. “The fire behind us looks to be out, so they have a couple of shamans with the force now. We need to get moving to keep our lead.”
“Got it,” I answered, muffling a yawn by pressing my mouth into Jane’s hair, getting a sleepy grumble of protest from the mousy scholar.
“Come on, ladies,” I urged, tickling Kassandra’s ear with my fingertips while turning to kiss the edge of Rieka’s ear. “We need to get moving.
“Mmmph,” Kassandra refuted smartly, but the dwarf lamia complied, sitting up to rub at her eyes with a cute pout.
“I second that,” Shayla mumbled sleepily, her soft antennae tickling my cheek as she pulled her face out of my shoulder.
“Come on, loves,” I urged, nipping at Rieka’s ear gently and getting a moan from the wolfish princess. “You can rest when we get back to the safety of the fortress.”
“What if I don’t want to rest when we get back?” Jane mumbled, the sleepy defiance making her sound adorable as she roughly ran her fingers through her messy mohawk while squinting up at me.
Shayla actually spoke before I could, the moth woman resting her chin on my shoulder so that her warm breath on my ear sent a tingle down my spine.
“I think that Liam deserves a reward for all he’s done on this trip and intend to see he gets that when we arrive back.”
“Seconded,” Jane chirped, the sleep vanishing from her features to be replaced with a wicked smile and a blush. “You mind sharing?”
“Sure,” came the equally shy reply from Shayla, muffled by her pressing her own hotly blushing face into my shoulder.
“Oh, I want in,” Kassandra whined, wiggling distractingly while her long, serpentine coils squeezed my legs.
“Let them have this,” Rieka gently rebuked her. “You’ll get your chance later.”
Kassandra’s salacious smile turned on the princess and she waggled her eyebrows at her friend.
“That is true, they do have some ground to make up, don’t they Rieka? Think they’ll also share your desire to be br—mph!”
Kassandra’s teasing was cut off by Rieka’s hand covering her mouth, though the rapidly wiggling eyebrows she still utilized got the message across, at least to me. Jane and Shayla both seemed entirely unaware, given that they were still blushing and looking at me with twin expressions of desire.
Deciding to both cut Rieka a break and get us all moving like Valda had asked, I gave Kassandra’s muscled bottom a pinch—making her jump and squeak as a result which was a bonus as far as I was concerned—before throwing my two cents onto the pile.
“That sounds fine to me, we will figure it out when we are back somewhere safe. Gives me a reason to hurry back to the fort and safety. Let’s get moving.”
All four girls shared a look and a moment of silent communication. I would have been afraid if not for how much I loved and trusted all of them.
Kassandra scrambling off my lap while tugging her bloody clothes straight once more sparked the others off, as we all joined the rush to get moving once more.
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Our luck held through the rest of the day and the following night. Everyone was exhausted, but it was by unspoken agreement that we all decided to keep moving and push to get as far up the pass as possible.
The extra elevation helped our scouts keep an eye out for pursuing enemy forces. For the most part, though, it seemed like the groups were still converging on the ruined camp. The forest fire that had burned for the second half of that first night was well and truly extinguished, leaving a dark smear in our wake.
Jane, as I had expected her to, had a bit of a meltdown during the second night and I reassured her that she made the right choice to protect us all in the moment. I would like to believe that my words helped her through the mental anguish of it all, but it might have also been the fact I’d scooped her up into a princess carry to give her some reassuring snuggles as well.
Repeating our previous tactic, as soon as the sun was fully up, our group bedded down for a rest break. I ended up in a pile of women again, but this time Valda joined us and I drifted off listening to her talking quietly with Rieka about the results of the battle and what other dangers remained ahead of us before getting home.
It was remarkably comfortable to have Valda leaning back into my left shoulder while talking with Rieka who was using my leg and Kassandra’s butt as a pillow.
Waking in the mid-afternoon, I found Valda was already up and receiving a report from one of the scouts that had been sent ahead of us to check the path.
“—sure that there are enemies ahead. It looks like either they slipped past us as we were heading out, or they passed through while we were in the foothills,” the scout was saying, his face severe.
“And they are already pressing the walls?” Valda asked. Even with her back to me, I could tell from the set of her shoulders she was upset.
“Yes,” the scout said with a grimace. “While I am confident that our troops will hold out against the siege, with the reduced numbers of troops I don’t think they’ll be able to break it with confidence.”
Valda growled deep in her throat, a primal sound of frustration.
“Hit them from behind,” I suggested, gently lifting the still dozing Kassandra out of my lap.
The dwarf lamia began to protest at being moved, but quieted when I draped her over Shayla’s lap instead and she automatically twined around the full-figured moth woman. Shayla, however, woke up and shot me a vaguely annoyed look at using her to escape Kass.
Blowing the moth woman a kiss, Shayla’s look of annoyance faded into a blush instead as she cuddled Kassandra to her as a distraction.
“You propose we hit an active enemy camp, while more than half of our number are injured and we’ve already suffered over twenty percent casualties?” the scout asked, anger flashing onto his features.
I ignored the man’s anger, standing and brushing myself off while keeping my eyes on Valda who was giving me a thoughtful look.
“It’s not the best choice,” I continued. “But it is a choice, and we don’t have the luxury of hiding out. Either we pincer them against the walls and drive through their numbers, or we get pinched between pursuers and them.”
“Or we can descend back down the pass and keep going south to skirt the mountains,” Valda suggested, but I could tell she didn’t think that was a good option based on her tone alone.
“And that would take how many weeks to months?” I asked, keeping my voice neutral. “As your man just said, we have injured. At this point, we need to give it one last grand push, and we’ll be behind the walls and safe. Then your people can rest, see actual healers, and recover.”
“I don’t know if they can muster another push,” Valda said with a grimace, glancing back at the camp that was slowly stirring back to life. “We’ve been driving hard to get this far. I would prefer to give them more rest before we try something like that, but our pursuers…”
“Are going to be there regardless of what we do,” I continued, and Valda bit her bottom lip in thought.
As we had talked, I watched Valda fingering the pommel of her new sword and a thought blossomed in my mind.
“How about with new weapons?” I suggested. Valda’s eyes flashed and she followed my gaze to the weapon at her side. “Everyone here has fought and bled to protect their home and people, surely if anyone has earned a reward, it’s these people.”
“What about the student-mages?” Valda asked, though the excitement lacing her tone I knew she was leaning towards my idea.
“They can have one each as well,” I said with a shrug. “We captured hundreds of weapons in that armory. I know that we will need to divide them between your family and the queen later, but from what I know of Queen Gemma, she won’t begrudge those who risked their lives a reward to ensure survival.”
“Why didn’t I think of this sooner?” Valda asked, her tone turning from hope to self-recrimination. The scout was frowning as well, clearly not understanding what was going on.
“Because you were doing your best to ensure everyone made it home alive. You focused on the march and ensuring people were fed, bandaged, and could sleep,” I answered with a shrug. “I’m sure you’d have thought of it soon with a fight on the horizon, now that the priority has switched and a battle is guaranteed to get home.”
“I agree with Liam.”
Rieka’s voice was firm as she stepped up behind me, linking her arms with my right one. My princess still looked mussed from sleep and her normally immaculate clothing was stained with blood, smoke, and other marks of travel, but she still looked gorgeous in my eyes. Her ice-blue eyes were bright and resolute as she continued.
“If you have the supplies to do it, then break open what we recovered from the ruins. Kassandra and Jane at the very least should be able to identify the enchantments on the equipment. So long as everyone is equal in what they are given, then I don’t see a problem with it and will stand for my mother, the queen, in this decision.”
Rieka’s support was apparently all that was needed to tip Valda over into a decision. She’d taken custody of the dimensional pouches the trio of guards had used, while I’d held on to Rieka’s pouch which we’d filled with the flamecasters. So she gave the order to the scout to start waking everyone up and spread the word so she could start handing out the new weapons.
Kind of wish that I’d taken the time to fill up a few of the tanks for the flamecasters, I thought while watching Valda do her thing. But then again, they are far more volatile and risky. I don’t think we want to risk them falling into the wrong hands. Hell, if I can help it, I’d prefer they not even go to Gemma. But that’s not going to happen. Even if Rieka agrees with me, reports are out on them and too many folk already know about the damn things.
Rieka tightening her grip on my arm drew my attention down to my wolfish princess, and I found her blue eyes drilling into me. The way her fluffy, platinum-blonde tail whipped back and forth behind her told me that she was happy to get some time cuddling me, so I pulled my arm free to wrap it around her shoulders and pull her into my side.
“I miss being back at Juneau… and being able to just relax with you,” Rieka murmured as she burrowed into my side.
Squeezing her closer, I ran my hand up her back to gently rub the base of her ears.
“Soon, love,” I murmured as her tail picked up speed, whipping against the back of my legs. “I’m hoping that destroying that ruin and emptying it will lead to infighting with these folk, so that things relax. Do you know how long we were supposed to be stationed out here?”
Rieka was rubbing her face into my chest now, and it took her several seconds before she responded. It was in a low voice though and hard to make out, so I used Shape-Shifting to sharpen my hearing as soon as I realized.
“—mother. She’d issue orders for us to return early then,” Rieka murmured. “But the others would have to stay, and while I’m not as close to the other students, it’d feel like abandoning them.”
“Then we’ll stick it out. I’ll be right here with you whenever you need,” I reassured my wolfish princess, and she let out a happy whine, squeezing me a little tighter.
“Thank you, Liam,” Rieka sighed, pulling back to peek up at me through her bangs. “Having you with us has helped keep me from losing it during this whole thing, and I am sure the other girls are all thinking the same thing.”
“It’s my job,” I teased, which got me a pout from the wolf girl in my arms. “And I could do no less than support the women I love.”
That statement replaced her pout with a loving smile. I knew from the way Rieka bit her bottom lip that she wanted a kiss, but this was a bit too public for my princess, with the sheer number of soldiers and students around.
She has such odd layers of reservations, I thought as I looked to where my other three lovers were rising slowly. Rieka is so cuddly and affectionate when we are alone—and wanton in bed too—but when we are around others, it’s like her obligations to be a princess put a leash on her psyche.
That thought brought another grin to my face, this one decidedly more lusty.
I wonder if Rieka would like a leash and a collar too, she’s definitely liked the more… wild side of things in the past. Something to remember for when we are safer, I promised myself.
“Well love, we should finish getting ready,” I said eventually as the other three started towards us. “Sooner we get this finished and get home, the sooner I can go back to spoiling my girls like they deserve.”
“That is an idea I can get behind,” Rieka growled, the arousal in her tone obvious as her eyes danced happily. “Or under.”
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