Days of High Adventure (11 page)

“Wizarding is thirsty work, I imagine,” Ladina suggested wryly.

Amanda continued to throw her blasts of force. The goblet kept moving. “Concentration,” she answered calmly. “Endurance. I need to get used to doing several things at once with magic. Need to see how long I can sustain the effort.”

“You look like you could create those magic darts all night,” Ladina said. “You practically have.”

“Sorry if I’m boring you both,” Amanda said, but she kept up her mystic workout.

“No, it’s not boring at all,” Nishan giggled. “Though it’s just not as fun as...other things.”

Amanda grumbled, but grinned at the same time. She literally had to command them both to keep their hands off of her so she could practice. She adored them for it, too.

“Can you show us something else?” Ladina asked.

The constant barrage of magical blasts ceased. The goblet reversed direction, glowed brightly, and changed color.

“Bravo,” Ladina said. Nishan clapped.

“I could put you both to sleep,” Amanda offered with a shrug.

“What fun would that be?” Ladina asked.

“Do something else,” Nishan urged.

Accepting the challenge, Amanda turned back to face the tapestry. Swiftly, she clapped her hands together once and outstretched her fingers. A broad rainbow of light burst from her hands, engulfing the entire tapestry. Amanda turned and smiled. “You like?” she asked.

Her companions stared, dumbfounded by the swirling colors. They were slack-jawed and
mesmerized, unable to speak even after the lights faded a second later. Several heartbeats passed before either of the pair blinked, shaking their heads to clear the cobwebs away.

Amanda smiled. “Perfect.”

“I am glad to see you back at your studies,” came a sultry voice from the doorway. Salatis entered with a serene, approving smile, coming to kiss Amanda deeply in greeting. Their hands roamed as they touched. The priestess had Amanda swimming in arousal almost instantly. With Salatis, nothing was forbidden. Nothing was too familiar.

“I thought you wanted me to stay occupied with other things,” Amanda said, breathing more heavily now that those hands caress
ed her chest once more.

“I would be happy to see that, too,” Salatis smiled. They stayed together, enjoying their natural attraction and freedom to explore. “But I would see you grow in power. As a wizard, yes, but also as a woman.”

“You’ve already helped me with that,” Amanda said. “You all have. So much.”

“You only needed confidence,” said her lovely mentor. “It is the same with so many young men and women. It is not sex or love that turns a boy or a girl into a man or a woman, but confidence…and for some, those intimate experiences push aside the doubts and insecurities of youth. That is what makes the first time so special, not the simple joys of flesh.

“Allow me to help you more,” Salatis suggested. Her hands continued to roam. “Pleasure can be instructive...but it can also be a challenging distraction.”

She kissed Amanda
deeply again, while her fingernails dug lightly into Amanda’s back. She then kissed along Amanda’s neck, slowly bending at the knees to sink down with her mostly naked body sliding all along Amanda’s. “Work your magic now,” Salatis beckoned.

Amanda’s breath shuddered. Those lips were on her breasts again, teasing and exciting her. “You want me to ignore that?” she whimpered.

“Ignore or enjoy,” Salatis murmured casually. She slipped one hand up Amanda’s inner thigh, coming maddeningly close to the warm wetness above but then slipping over her hip to pinch at her ass. “Pain and pleasure have much in common. They can overwhelm the senses and the mind, if we let them. Master one and you may build the willpower to overcome the other when you must.

“Surrender yourself to me, and I will give you what your body needs,” Salatis offered with a seductive grin. “Or learn to master your body, and enjoy its pleasures that much more.”

Tiny earthquakes shook the younger woman. Salatis said no more, turning instead to arousing her with those expert fingers and that talented mouth. Forcing herself to act in spite of her desires, Amanda took in a deep breath, lifted her hands, and concentrated on the words and motions of magic.

She lifted the corner of the tapestry with an invisible hand created by a simple spell. She turned the tapestry a bright shade of purple, then made it glow, then gave it a strong sent of lavender. Salatis pinched the nipple of Amanda’s breast between her lips, giving Amanda a jolt of excitement. Amanda’s hold on the tapestry wavered, but she maintained it. She summoned up a bolt of force and hurled it at the tapestry, causing it to billow and shake.

“We should have helped you practice like this all along,” Nishan grinned.

“What is your most difficult spell?” Salatis murmured. She sank down further against Amanda’s body, kneeling before her. The priestess
’s nose brushed against her belly before the knot of Amanda’s sarong came loose.

“Uhm...” Amanda’s eyes fluttered with pleasure
as Salatis silently guided her to spread her legs a little more where she stood. Knowing what was coming, Amanda grew even more excited. “Ffffffireball,” she said.

“That sounds a touch too destructive for my chambers,” whispered the mouth that hovered just below Amanda’s
belly. She could feel her partner’s breath upon her flesh.

“Webs,” Amanda blinked. “I can conjure webs. They’ll go everywhere but fade in moments. Aahhh,” she sighed. The tongue that crossed over her
flesh left her shivering with delight. “It’s just as...just as...oh...just as hard to cast.”

“Then perhaps you should try it,” Salatis suggested before her mouth
became fully occupied with her delicious work.

Amanda groaned. She had experienced a great deal of this over the past few days, but it
would never get old. If anything, she learned to enjoy it more and more. She reminded herself that enjoyment wasn’t the point here, though. The point was to think past it.

Though her head swam with pleasure, Amanda recalled the words to the difficult spell. There weren’t many, but she had to get them just right, along with the motions of her hands. Amanda ran through the proper gestures,
mouthed the words without voice and gently pressed herself more against that wonderful mouth that gave such rapture...

Amanda spoke the words aloud. She twisted and bent her fingers just right, feeling all along like she
would soon explode, riding both the pleasures of her body and the power of her magic all at once as she threw the webs all over the room. Thick, sticky strands too strong to be cut by blades filled the chamber, covering everything around Amanda.

Ladina
and Nishan both let out yelps of surprise. The one was amused, the other a bit annoyed. “You could have told us to leave the room!” Nishan complained.

“Ohh, no,” Amanda moaned, placing her hands on the head between her legs. “No, I couldn’t.”

There was the briefest pause in Salatis’s work. “Practice, dear one,” she coached. “Practice.”

“Mmh,” Amanda grinned. “I like practicing.”

***

“I don’t know what happened to her when the tower fell!” gasped the beaten man. He sat slumped against the stone wall, his arm broken and his sword fallen away. Eric and Fallon had made short work of
the warrior and his compatriot, who lay dead or broken in a mess throughout the alleyway. “Bel-Danab and his apprentices held a gathering of sorcerers from nearby lands and slew all but one, who escaped. The master and Randast left to pursue him. Then there was some terrible battle up above. Yaol was slain, but I saw not by whom.”

“You didn’t bother to look?” Eric snarled. He stood over Bel-Danab’s former guardsman with a bloody sword in his hands. Fallon
lurked at the other end of the alley, watching the street for trouble.

That their battle had been heard by the neighborhood was not in question. It was a rough place, though; nobody seemed interested in summoning the town watch. Just the same, Fallon remained on guard for anyone who might feel compelled to investigate.

“I didn’t want to die,” the guard said. “When I reached the site of the battle, I saw what had been done to Yaol and the other guards. Some had been burned, others
melted
. How does any man fight such magic?” He gritted his teeth in pain. “Had I remained within, I would have died when the tower fell.”

“But you don’t know what caused it?”

“We saw blasts of magic from a rooftop hit the tower,” the man groaned. “They seemed harmless against the stones at first, but then a great fireball erupted in the middle of the tower. It started to collapse, and so we ran. No one saw who did it.”

“And you’ve been hiding out in taverns ever since?”

“Waiting for the master’s return. He will find me. He will, and then you will...you will pay.”

Fallon hissed sharply. She retreated from the edge of the alley, her sword at the ready. “Trouble,” she murmured.

“Hey!” came a shout from the street. A tall, scruffy and dangerous-looking man in a dark cloak stepped into the alley. He was flanked by several other rough-looking men. “You can’t rob people here! This is our territory!
We
do the robbing here!”

“Think we can handle these guys?” Eric asked in a low voice.

The leader of the thugs whipped out a dagger, hurling it straight at Eric. He lunged to one side, clearing the dagger’s path. It landed squarely in the throat of the man he’d been questioning.

“Is there any need?” Fallon asked with a shrug.

“Not really,” Eric frowned. The thugs came rushing down the alleyway with a roar.

“Then let’s not make any more noise than we already have,” Fallon said. Eric’s partner and mentor leapt up to catch the top of the wall of the dead-end alleyway. She swung herself up and over with hardly a pause.

Eric wasn’t far behind. He sheathed his sword, then stepped up onto the shoulder of the dying man sitting against the wall for a boost as he launched himself up after Fallon. They fled across the rooftop together, leaping to the next building and then down into a wide alley emptier than the one they had just vacated.

Less than half an hour later, they were on the other side of the city, slipping into the room they rented above a busy tavern. It was a decent enough place. With the gold they had taken from the priest of Set in their riverside ambush, Eric and Fallon were able to afford better blades, better gear
, clothes and a comfortable place to stay. It was hot, of course, but then they were in the middle of a city in the middle of summer. The inn had been built with ventilation in mind, but even clever construction could make only so much of a difference.

Eric sat down on the bed, pulling his sword and sheath off
his belt and dropping it to the floor. His shoulders slumped almost as low as his spirit.

“You don’t know if she’s dead,” Fallon said
as she wedged a small piece of wood in the door to ensure their privacy. She turned back to him, looking on as he stared at the floor.

“Sure looks that way,” Eric muttered. “I keep thinking...I keep thinking that I was too late.”

Fallon came over to him, sitting beside him on the bed. “You have done everything you possibly could,” she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “There is no shame.”

He shook his head. “I’m not worried about that,” he muttered. “It’s not guilt. I mean yeah, there’s that, but...I’m worried about
her
. Not about me or how I should feel about it. God, she’s had such a rough life. I just wanted her to be okay.”

“You knew her well?”

Eric shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know.”

“Did you ever face danger together? Hardship?”

He let out a bit of a laugh. “Only in games,” he said. “Unless you could call high school a hardship. Amanda is... She never wanted to lean on anyone. Always wanted to take care of things herself. But I think she was always kind of lonely.” He sniffed. “But she’s smart, you know? Smarter than anyone I know. Tough, too. Inside. She hurts, but she doesn’t let it stop her.”

“Listen to yourself,” Fallon said. Eric looked up at her quizzically, finding Fallon’s confident grin once more. “You speak of her
in the present, not in the past. In your heart, you know she still lives. We’ll find her.” She gripped his shoulder encouragingly. “If she is all you say she is, have faith in her. Perhaps she brought down the tower herself.”

It drew from him another small chuckle. “What would I do without you?”

The woman beside him shrugged. “Probably get beaten to death by the other slaves,” she mused. “Or be eaten by serpent men.”

“Oh, as if you wouldn’t have been shot climbing out of that cave?” Eric grinned.

“I’d not have been there,” Fallon said, shoving him a bit. “I’d have left already.”

“No you wouldn’t have,” Eric retorted, nudging back. “You’d have still been waiting for your cousin or whatever to show up.”

“Not likely. I’d have given up waiting by then.” Her eyes seemed to dance as she looked at his. “I’m not a patient woman. I won’t wait long for what I want.”