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  I glanced down at the empty wooden bench inside the cramped room. “I still don’t understand what this is about.”

  “I will explain everything. Please, Maskari , have a seat.”

  Her expression had abruptly softened. I didn’t see any trace of the anger or determination I had seen before. Now she looked almost…desperate.

  “All right,” I murmured, shuffling over to the bench. “But you’d better hope they don’t go complain to the captain.”

  “If they do, we will make them regret it. An amazon warrior and her Maskari are more than a match for any of the dregs on this ship.”

  I watched in idle fascination as she unfolded her red cloth upon the floor in front of me. From the golden tassels and detailed embroidery, I assumed it was some kind of prayer rug. She more or less confirmed my theory when she sank down to her knees on it a second later.

  “Moshalim salah, v’morth kraan Maskari ,” she whispered as if she were reciting some kind of incantation. She placed one hand on each of my thighs and closed her eyes as she repeated the incantation over and over.

  A part of me wanted to stop her and ask for a translation, but another part—a rapidly-swelling part—was far more concerned about the proximity of her lips to the growing bulge in my trousers.

  This is bad. This is really bad. She’s trying to perform some kind of serious cultural ritual here, and my cock is about to burst out of my pants and slap her on the chin.

  My throat went so dry I had to swallow three times before anything happened. The more her lips moved, the harder it became for me to resist imagining what it would feel like to slip my stiff member between them. The fact she was already on her knees just made the situation even more difficult…

  Kaseya’s eyes finally reopened when she finished her incantation. “The gods have blessed our union,” she said. “We need merely complete the ritual.”

  “How?” I rasped.

  “You must don your tan’hema .” She reached into her leather pouch and produced a silver ring crowned by a small red gemstone. “The longer you wear it, the stronger our connection will become.”

  “Wait, this isn’t some kind of marriage thing, is it?” I asked, frowning. “I mean, no offense, but we don’t even—”

  “Amazon warriors do not marry,” Kaseya replied as if it were obvious. “Our duty to defend and serve our Maskari leaves little time for anything else.”

  “Uh…right,” I murmured, taking the ring. I could feel the latent magical energy in the metal, and the tiny fraction of my brain still capable of basic reason pleaded with me to give the thing back and get the hell out of here. I didn’t listen. I couldn’t listen, not with her perfect lips and perfect cleavage and perfect everything hovering an inch above my cock.

  “The tan’hema symbolizes your dominance,” Kaseya said as I slipped the ring onto my finger. “The tan’ratha symbolizes my submission.”

  She reached back into her pouch and withdrew a golden, emerald-studded choker. Its magical aura was considerably stronger than the ring, and the metal was strangely warm when she laid it across my palms.

  “Place it upon me, and I shall be yours,” Kaseya said, stretching out her neck and lifting her long auburn ponytail out of the way.

  I stared blankly at her flawless skin, dumbfounded, until she arched an inquisitive eyebrow at me.

  “I, uh…” I took a deep breath and tried to swallow again. At this point, I was nearly convinced that this was all one big hallucination. But on the off chance it wasn’t, I really needed to get my shit together…

  “Are collars not a sign of submission in your culture?” Kaseya asked.

  “They are, but…” I shook my head. “You are not my slave.”

  “No, but you are my Maskari .”

  “You keep using that term, but I have no idea what it means.”

  Kaseya shrugged. “There is no perfect translation in your language. It is a term of endearment the Sisterhood bestows upon the sorcerers we pledge to serve. I suppose you could say it means ‘bond-mate,’ but that implies equality when there is none. ‘Master’ is perhaps more accurate.”

  “You definitely don’t want to call me that,” I said. “I am no one’s master.”

  “You can use whatever term you prefer. But you are my Maskari , and I am your loyal servant. Your will is my command.”

  Once again I could scarcely believe what I was hearing, but I could tell from the sober look on her face that she was being completely honest. This beautiful twenty-something woman was willingly offering herself up as some kind of bizarre slave/bodyguard to a man she had only just met. It was ludicrous. It was insane. Any half-decent, right-minded man in my position would have walked away and tried to get her some help.

  Apparently I was neither, because I promptly slipped the choker around her neck and snapped it securely into place.

  “It is done,” Kaseya said, smiling for the first time since I had met her. “I will not disappoint you, Maskari . I promise.”

  I smiled back, still painfully aware of the tent in my trousers. “All right. What’s next?”

  “The tan’ratha will take time to fully attune, but I can already feel an echo of your emotions.” Kaseya’s eyes narrowed in concentration as the emeralds embedded in her collar had started to glow faintly. “The sensations…they are almost overwhelming.”

  “You’re telling me,” I squeaked. At this point my cock was so hard it actually hurt.

  Her eyes eventually fluttered back open, and for the first time she glanced down to the bulge a few inches beneath her chin. “You are aroused.”

  No shit!

  “Uh…sorry,” I managed. “It’s just, you know, this is all very—”

  “You do not need to apologize,” Kaseya said. “It is my duty to relieve you.”

  My mouth fell open again. “You can’t be…oh!”

  I yelped when she abruptly pulled open the fly of my trousers and exposed my raging hard cock. I almost exploded right there, and then again when she curled her index finger and thumb around the swollen shaft.

  “Your stem is impressive,” Kaseya said. “I can sense that you have not spilled in some time.”

  “Yeah…yeah you could say that,” I replied, my voice so strained it was barely recognizable. It was taking every ounce of self-control I could muster not to erupt all over her face and hair.

  “Do not worry. All amazons are trained to please their Maskari in preparation for the day we are eventually bonded.”

  Okay, this this has to be a hallucination. I’m not this lucky. No one in the god damn world could possibly be this lucky…

  “I…uh…”

  “Do not strain yourself,” Kaseya said, squeezing my leg with her free hand. “I shall relieve you now.”

  After slowly stroking my shaft a few more times, she opened her red lips and wrapped them around the head of my quivering member. My hands grabbed the armrests of the wooden bench so hard I probably got a dozen splinters. I wanted to let myself go and flood her waiting mouth right then and there, but I kept telling myself over and over again that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. A gorgeous amazon warrior was willingly and eagerly sucking my cock—I could live for a million years and this would probably never happen again.

  “That’s…oh!”

  I tried to find the air to speak, but my lungs had apparently frozen in my chest. So instead I just sat there, breath shallow and mouth agape, as she lathered the swollen head with her tongue. I normally preferred it when a woman maintained eye contact while she pleasured me, but the way Kaseya was staring adoringly at my cock might have been even better. She was like a temple priestess worshipping an idol…or maybe a huntress yearning to devour her prey.

  “I am eager to taste your life-force,” she said. “Keeping her Maskari sated is one of an amazon’s most important duties. I promise, I will become more efficient over time.”

  “Trust me…you’re doing fine,” I said between labored breaths.

&
nbsp; Her eyelids fluttered in concentration while she continued licking up and down the length of my shaft. “I sense your true desire now. You wish me to take you deeper.”

  “What?” I stammered. “You don’t…oh, gods!”

  I crumpled back into the seat when she abruptly lunged forward and inhaled my cock all the way down to the hilt. Her hands reached around to my lower back and clawed into my flesh, effectively giving her full control. I didn’t even need to thrust—between the iron grip of her fingers and the vise-like seal of her lips, she was able to fuck her own face with or without my help. Her throat was like a damned volcano, and I knew I would be able to last much longer. All I had to do was glance down and watch my cock vanish between her lips one last time…

  “Shit!” I yelled so loudly my voice actually echoed off the wooden hull. I grabbed the base of her skull as I erupted, flooding the back of her throat with months upon months of pent-up frustration. Despite her best efforts to keep up, a few white streams leaked out the sides of her lips before I finished and collapsed.

  When my mind finally returned to my body, I belatedly wondered if she might be irritated about my lack of warning…but then I watched in delight as she leaned back on her haunches and swallowed everything I’d given her. I don’t know what it was, but the sight of a gorgeous, powerful woman thirstily guzzling down my seed had always made me hard. It was probably just another of my many character flaws.

  “By the gods,” I breathed, rubbing the back of my hand across my forehead. “That was…I don’t even know what to say.”

  “You do not need to say anything,” Kaseya said, pushing the last few strands of seed into her mouth. “You are my Maskari now. It is my duty to aid you whenever you require relief.”

  “Right…” I murmured. Sooner or later, I knew I would start to feel guilty about all of this. But right now…well, right now I could only assume that the gods were rewarding my charity. Maybe they weren’t all callous, indifferent bastards after all.

  “I should return to Hestiah now,” Kaseya said, standing and retrieving her prayer rug. “Once we reach Highwind, you shall have my full attention again. I am sure you will require further relief.”

  “Yeah,” I breathed, eyeing her body up and down and wondering for the thousandth time how she could possibly be real. “You’re probably right.”

  2

  By the time the ship docked in the harbor, night had long since fallen over Highwind. I hustled out from below decks along with the other passengers, and my gaze, like theirs, was immediately drawn to the skyline I had heard so much about. While the docks themselves didn’t look all that dissimilar from those in Vorsalos, the rest of the city could have been a separate plane of existence. A dozen golden spires stretched up into the night sky, all attached to a different temple honoring one of the many gods here in the North, and the obelisks of the legendary Highwind Academy glowed like twin beacons warding off the darkness. Even from here and at this hour I spotted several of the city’s legendary defenders, the Knights of the Silver Fist and the Duskwatch Rangers.

  But amidst my awe-stricken reverie, I reminded myself that appearance could be deceiving. The Inquisitrix could have easily sent word ahead to her Huntresses here in Highwind. Or she could have simply put out a bounty with any or all of the city’s notorious underworld guilds. Either way, I needed to be cautious.

  “The city is quite beautiful.”

  I nearly leapt out of my boots when I realized Kaseya was standing right behind me, shield and bow slung over her back. Apparently I hadn’t just been hallucinating this morning…

  “Yeah, it is,” I managed. “You’re, uh…you’re sure you don’t want to stay with your friend?”

  She turned and frowned at me. “Hestiah will be continuing downriver. She has her own duties to attend to.”

  “And you just want to leave her alone?”

  “What I want is irrelevant,” she said. “I am pledged to serve you, Maskari . Wherever you go, I shall follow.”

  I nudged her off to the side of the boat away from the others. “Look, I really do appreciate the offer, and what you did this morning was amazing beyond words. But honestly, you don’t have to do this. I mean, we barely know each other, and I don’t want to take you away from your comrades.”

  Kaseya studied me for a long moment, her blue eyes glittering in the moonlight, and I feared she might actually get upset. But then she leaned forward and squeezed my arm. “We completed the ritual. I am bound to you, Maskari , from now until my death. The gods themselves will not allow me to abandon my pledge.”

  I sighed and leaned against the railing. Are you really going to stand here and try to convince one of the most beautiful women you’ve ever met not to follow you around? Are you bloody insane? She just sucked your cock ten minutes after meeting you! Besides, you’re going to need all the help you can get just to stay alive here…

  “All right,” I said, forcing a smile. “I just don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a choice here.”

  “I already made my choice, as honor demanded,” Kaseya said. “I am yours, Maskari. Now come, shouldn’t we be leaving this vessel?”

  I stared back at her for several second before I finally nodded. At this point, there were only two possibilities here: either I was either the luckiest bastard in this whole city or something horrible was about to happen. Or perhaps both.

  We disembarked onto the pier, drawing annoyed scowls from the men we had displaced and terrified scowls from basically everyone else. Sorcery wasn’t technically illegal in Highwind, as far as I knew, but I was still concerned that some of these people might report me to the Mage’s Guild. Even if nothing ultimately came of it, I didn’t want to deal with hassle or the extra attention. Blending in was always the best short-term survival strategy.

  “This way,” I said, tugging at Kaseya’s arm. “There has to be a decent inn around here somewhere…”

  There were plenty of inns, as it turned out, though I wouldn’t describe any of them as “decent.” Just like back home in Vorsalos, the worst dregs in the city always gathered on the docks. The main difference was that here the Highwind Guard actually seemed to care about crime, and there were enough knights and rangers about that I wasn’t scared of getting shivved right out in the open. Still, I had no interest in sleeping anywhere near here with or without a six-foot tall amazon warrior watching over me.

  “The Artisan District is just through that gate, and the rooms probably aren’t that much more expensive,” I said, keenly aware of just how light my coin purse was at the moment. A few extra silvers might literally mean the difference between eating and not eating by the end of the week.

  “This city is enormous,” Kaseya replied breathlessly. “That must be why you are so anxious.”

  I grimaced. This empathic connection of ours was going to get really annoying really fast. Then again, when I closed my eyes and imagined her head bobbing up and down on my cock…well, life was all about tradeoffs.

  We reached the fringes of the Artisan District a few minutes later, and I marveled at the abruptness of the transformation. The architecture and street design looked like an entirely different city; I could only assume that this area had been built years later under the authority of an entirely different set of councilors. The streets were reasonably well-lit, too, which made the nervous knot in my stomach unwind a bit. One wayward glance at Kaseya revealed that she didn’t feel the same way.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “We are not alone,” she said, the fingers of her right hand tapping the handle of her sheathed sword.

  I had spent virtually all of my teenage and adult years on the run from bounty hunters and assassins, so I knew better than to start wildly looking around. But I still reached out to the Aether and prepared myself just in case.

  “How many?” I asked, continuing forward at the same leisurely pace. We were only a few hundred yards from the edge of the plaza, but that left more than enough time for
someone to jump us.

  “Three,” Kaseya said. “They have been shadowing us ever since the guards disappeared.”

  “What are you…?” I frowned and felt a rush of embarrassment in my cheeks. She was right—I hadn’t spotted a Highwind Guardsmen in several blocks now. I should have noticed earlier, but apparently sleep deprivation was taking its toll after all.

  “One of them wields the same magic as the marksman who attempted to kill my sword-sister in Vorsalos.”

  I stumbled despite my best efforts to appear calm. “How do you know that?”

  “I can sense it,” Kaseya said. “All amazons are taught to feel the natural ebb and flow of the Aether in order to better serve our Maskari .”

  “That’s how you knew I was a sorcerer even before you talked to me on the ship.”

  “Yes.”

  I bit down on my lip. I had about a thousand questions I wanted to ask her about the nature of her particular gift, but they would have to wait until we weren’t being shadowed by a Senosi Huntress. “All right, well, we should slip into an alleyway and try to find cover until we reach the plaza. They won’t attack as long as we can—”

  “Amazons do not run,” Kaseya said. “Stay beside me, and I will protect you.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but before anything came out Kaseya abruptly spun around, drew a dagger from her boot, and hurled it just past my shoulder. A stifled shriek echoed down the street, followed by a choked-off gurgle and several thumps as a body tumbled from the rooftops. I froze for a split-second, horrified, before my instincts took over. While Kaseya drew her shield and held it up in front of us, my hands crackled with sorcerous power. I conjured a protective mantle to defend myself, knowing full well that my spell armor would be worthless if we were indeed facing a Senosi Huntress…

  “Now!” a voice shouted from somewhere in a nearby alleyway. A gang of six thugs—three on either side—rushed at from the darkness, swords and daggers in hand. Kaseya pressed her back up against mine, and I felt a strange surge of energy through the ring she had given me.