Author's notes:

About the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)

P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 22 -- Flashback: Pirates

Alashiya (Cyprus) and Wilusa/Troia, Anatolia (Modern Turkey). Ca. 1222 BC.

The trading area of the city was bustling with people going back and forth, looking at the many stands and the goods they offered. With the island kingdom of Alashiya being a major trade hub in the eastern Middle Sea, most of the goods were imported, while others were locally produced, like the copperwares and olive oil.

I smiled to myself as I made my way through the crowd. Some assignments are better than others and this one had turned out to be one of the better ones.

Some of the shipments of both cobber and olive oil meant for Baylon had failed to reach Honey Island and because I had done so well as a merchant on my previous trip, I had been sent out on an information-gathering trip that had taken two months so far.

In that time, I had lived here on Alashiya, pretending to be a rich merchant, buying, and selling goods and cargo space on trade ships in the area, while discretely searching the customer's minds for bad intentions.

So far, I had detected four different pirates who had bought goods or cargo space with the intention of assaulting the ship later. Those assaults had failed as the targeted ships had carried Baylon trained guards and a mage from Securitas Externus. Prisoners had been interrogated and more pirates had been taken out.

It might seem like a complicated way to secure our wares, but unfortunately, Securitas Externus didn't have the manpower to secure all ships and as most of the ships were local anyway, this was a way to take care of the problem discretely.

A well-dressed man selling three slaves caught my eye. I had seen him selling various goods before, but it was the first time I had seen him with slaves.

Not that there was anything unusual or illegal in trading with slaves, but as the source of slaves frequently were piracy, it could indicate that the man had dealings with pirates. Especially when considering the many different types of goods, he had been peddling in the last few months, as that type of merchants usually just sold plundered goods of any kind.

I changed my direction and walked over to him, followed by my armsmen. I had five of them, but as usual, only three escorted me on the marked.

Personally, I would have preferred to go alone, but as tradition dictated that successful merchant had armsmen for their protection, I had armsmen. Everything else would have been out of character for the merchant I was portraying.

As I walked closer, I looked at the slaves. It was a local looking man and two women that looked like they came from somewhere in the Nile delta of Kumet.

"Hello, Sir." Greeted the merchant with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Could I interest a fine gentleman as you in some slaves?"

I hesitated, causing him to launch into a longer sales pitch about the slaves. According to him, the man was an excellent gardener and workman, while the women were good cooks and housekeepers. The only negative according to him, was that the women didn't speak the Alashiyan language.

Looking over the slaves again, their professions were clearly something the merchant had invented. The man had the look and body posture of a sailor, while the two women didn't look like house slaves. The women were also badly scarred on both face and arms, with most of the scars looking recent.

They didn't have the look of malnutrition some of the other slaves had and their arms looked too muscular for them to be daughters of a rich merchant. That made me look at their hands. Female slaves normally had their hands free, but those two had their hands bound.

Reaching out with my mind, I tried to connect with the still talking merchant, but his natural mind-shield was too strong for a causal examination and while I most likely could overcome it, I couldn't do it without him noticing that something was wrong.

Instead, I turned my attention and mental scan to the two women and quickly discovered that my hunch had been right: Their names were Nofret and Khenut and they were not housekeepers, but sisters and acolytes at a Bastet-Sekmet temple in Pi-Ramesses and had been caught when their ship was attacked while on the way to Byblos. Both Bastet and Sekmet were lioness goddesses and many of their followers, including their priests and acolytes, were trained in combat.

That explained their muscled arms as well as why their hands were bound. Their scars came from whipping, as the women had fought against the pirates attempts to use them for sex and had even killed one of their attackers, before the fight was broken up by a high-ranking female pirate.

Turning my attention to the man, I connected with his mind and struck gold. He wasn't a local sailor, but a Phoenician from Tyre named Batnoam, and he had been the navigator on the ship carrying the two women. As Phoenician navigators were usually either pressed into service or tortured for information on trade routed by the pirates, he had pretended to be an ordinary sailor when it as clear, that they couldn't escape the pirates.

The gold part was that he knew the route leading to the pirate's hideout and that there were no less than four pirate ships there... or at least there was two weeks ago, when the three of them were moved out.

The merchant finished his sales pitch and looked expectantly at me, the smile never leaving his face or reaching his eyes, while I thought it over. Buying the slaves would give me the time and privacy needed to get the information I wanted, but my budget didn't include the buying of slaves, as they were quite expensive.

On the other hand, if I did get information enough to take down four pirate ships, Securitas Externus would almost certainly cover the expenses. The only problem was that the only things I personally owned, was worth either a lot more or much less than the three slaves.

"Why would I buy two women, who're obviously troublemakers, judging from the scars they're wearing?" I asked him. "And the man is old, way past his prime."

"They're still valuable" The merchant objected. "What do you have to offer in return?"

"More than you have here." I said with a snort and turned to one of my armsmen, who were carrying my goods. "I need the Lion sword."

He nodded, took it out of the bag and unsheathed it before he handed it to me.

Smiling slightly, I turned back towards the merchant and placed a bronze sword on a case in front of him. It was one of the swords, I had made in the crafting halls of Ordo Architectus and while it had been made as a showpiece, it was very much a useable weapon.

The merchant's eyes light up with greed, as he took in the details from the richly engraved double-edged leaf-shaped blade, over the lion paw cross-guards to the ivory handle and the lion's head pommel. It might have been a showpiece in Baylon, but here it was a weapon fit for a king or a chieftain. Reaching out, the merchant gently ran a finger over the edge of the sword to test it.

Under normal circumstances, that would have been a fairly safe procedure, but this wasn't a normal bronze sword and his eyes widened in surprise, when the edge cut deep enough to draw blood. His eyes reluctantly left the sword as he looked at me again. "We might be able to come to an agreement."

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

The trading took a while, but when we were done, I owned not only the three slaves, but also fine linen from Kumet, along with some incense and perfume.

Normally, I would have taken my time to look around in the marked after more goods, but the linen, incense and perfume filled the small chart completely, which gave me an excuse to return to the house immediately.

Once safe inside, I willed all three slaves to sleep and then set about searching the mind of the Phoenician for more details about the pirates and their hideout. I did the same with the acolytes, but their memories mostly confirmed what I already knew.

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

It was evening when I had the information I needed and reached out with my mind to contact Varro, who was the second inquisitor on the mission and the leader of the small force dedicated to take on the pirates I found.

Normally called Varro, Decimus Livius Varro was a year older than me, about four cubit (6'11"/208 cm) tall and had been my rival for being the best swordfighter in the class. He was also a member of the Varro clan, which was not only nobles, but also extremely rich and sported some of the best magic users in the Baylon Empire. Since I came from a family that wasn't any of those, that had caused some trouble between us when we were younger, but as time went by our families' differences had meant less and less and by now, we were friends.

"< Varro... I got a target for you >"

"< About time >" He answered sounding and feeling somewhat grumpy. "< I'm sick and tired of sitting on my butt here, while you have all the fun >"

That caused me to chuckle. "< Get over it. They think I'm a giant and you're a head taller than I am! You would scare the daylight out of them >"

"< Yeah, I know... Anyway, where and what is it? >"

"< Look at the waiting time as a form of vacation >" I sent back, filling the link with amusement, before giving him a quick briefing about the slaves and the information I had taken from the Phoenician. "< Go and scout the place. Chances are they're still there >"

"< Ohh >" His mind voice was filled with anticipation. "< If they are, this is gonna be good >"

"< At least it will lessen the piracy here for a while >"

He sent a snort over the link. "< Until the next shows up. Alright, I'll go pirate hunting >"

"< Good luck >"

"< Thanks. Watch your back in town >"

My work done for the moment, I ate a late supper, relaxed in the upstairs living room the rest of the evening and was about to go to sleep, when I suddenly felt the familiar sensation of somebody using magic. From the feel of it, it was human magic and a heartbeat later, I could hear the sound of running feet and fighting, along with the shout of "Attack! We're under attack!"

The door to the living room was made of thin wood and it splintered when two big guys in leather armor burst through it, waving bronze axes in the air. They fell to the floor, as my two bronze throwing daggers hit them with deadly accuracy.

More fighters followed and without thinking, I flowed into the state of Mutatur Tempus Mente (Baylon: "Time shall be changed in the mind."). My brain accelerated and everything else slowed to a crawl, as I drew my two bronze Diucultro (Baylon: Long Knife) and went to the attack.

While not as good as Adamant weapons, the bronze Diucultro was still a lot better than anything the locals had. They were part of a three-piece set I had made to complete the forging course at Ordo Architectus and the metal was a beryl-copper alloy that was every bit as sharp, durable and tough as steel, enabling me to parry with the weapon. Something that wasn't really an option with the much softer bronze weapons.

The forward curved long knives glittered golden-red in the light from the oil lamps, as I danced around the attackers, weapons cutting easily into the intruders, killing some of them and made them retreat into the next room.

I was following them, when I felt human magic again and a heartbeat later, the air around me exploded in a ball of fire. It wasn't as intense as an Ars Magica Fireball, but it still made my clothes burst into flames and burned the hand I had lifted to protect my eyes, causing me to drop the knife.

With a curse, I dodged into the room I came from and cut the garments off before the fire damaged me seriously. Fortunately, the outfit I was wearing was of the loose hanging type favoured by almost all people living in hot climates, so I did get them off quickly, even using only my right hand. The left hand was badly burned by the fire ball, making it unusable for now. The healing Ars Mentalis started by itself, but it would take a while before I could use that hand again. In the meantime, I blocked the pain to stop it from distracting me.

The feel of human magic filled the air once more, but this time it washed over me, without taking effect and I heard a startled gasp from the doorway.

Looking up, I saw a female spellcaster hurrying to cast a new spell, while her two guards looked like they would like to charge me. Instead, they stayed close to the woman, protecting her with their shields.

It was a disciplined move from their part, but it wasn't going to help them much. Looking at the woman, I activated an Ars Mentalis trick and an invisible force contracted around the woman's throat, choking her.

By itself, the Ars Mentalis trick isn't that good, as choking people to death usually takes longer than most people suspect, leaving the target amble time to hack you down with whatever weapon he or she was using. However, it was a brilliant way to stop spellcasters from uttering their spells and this time was no different, as the woman's spell was cut off abruptly, causing her to stagger and point desperately at me.

The two guards understood her gesture and finally charged me, only to be cut down as I met them halfway. The woman joined them on the floor a few heartbeats later, when I used another Ars Mentalis trick to send her into an hour-long coma.

I could still hear the sound of fighting in the house, but for a few heartbeats, the room was quiet enough for me to hear somebody moving behind me. Spinning around, I discovered that the three slaves had been awakened by the noise and they were now trying to hide in a corner. Leaving them would give them a chance to escape, but it was likely that there were more attackers outside, waiting for us to come out.

"Stay inside." I commanded, adding mental power to my voice to ensure they obeyed.

Since I was standing next to the first two attackers, I bent down, removed the bronze daggers and other weapons from their belts, and threw them to the slaves. "Here. Defend yourself, if the attackers arrive before I come back."

Then I quickly checked the next room for enemies, before taking the beryl-copper copy of Shadow Fang out of the trunk, dropping the long knives. From the sound of it, there were lots of attackers and I would need the longer reach the sword gave me, since the burned hand prevented me from using a parrying weapon.

I went off in the direction of the fighting and was halfway there before I realized that I was going into combat, wearing only loincloths and a sword. Not the best idea in the world, but with spell casters around, I couldn't just stay in the room. The house was not a Baylon house, which meant that it was easily affected by magic and they might decide to tear it down with me inside it.

It wouldn't even help to call out to Varro. Neither he nor his men had seen the inside of the house I was using and thus they couldn't teleport or gate here.

Most of the fighting was going on in the courtyard and when I came out of the house on top of the staircase, I could see my badly outnumbered armsmen fighting unknown attackers.

They weren't unknown for long though. In the middle of the crowd, I spotted the merchant from earlier, fighting an armsman using the sword I had sold him. I guessed the merchant had decided that he wanted his goods back, along with any more swords or other expensive goods I might have, and had enrolled his pirate friends to do most of the fighting.

Unfortunately, unlike Ars Magica, neither Ars Mentalis nor Vis excelled against multiple targets, so I would have to do it the hard way.

Time to dance with the Goddess of Death again.

Mental energy surged through my body, making me stronger and faster, before another Ars Mentalis trick transported me instantly to a spot just behind the merchant and a heartbeat later he fell when I hit him on the side of the head with the flat of the sword. With any luck, I haven't crushed his skull, enabling me to read his mind later. If not, the death of a merchant pirate wasn't a great loss to the world.

Slipping into Vis Meditation for a heartbeat, I activated Pugna Promptu (Baylon: "Combat Readiness"). A power that made me aware of all attacks aimed at me, and then hurriedly dodged away, as one of the pirates slashed at me from behind. My counter strike slashed his throat.

As the next pirate attacked, I discovered two things: The limited space in the courtyard severely hindered my ability to evade attacks and the pirates had more experience than I had in fighting in such restricted areas. I did evade the attacks, but it seemed like I constantly bumped into other attackers or one of my few remaining armsmen and while I avoided serious injury, my healing was working overtime to close the multitude of superficial wounds I got from not being able to away completely.

Fortunately, the burn wound on the hand healed during the fight and I quickly snatched up the bronze sword from the fallen merchant to use it as a parrying weapon. That alone most likely saved my life. With fewer glancing blows hitting me, the healing started to catch up and when the last pirate in the courtyard fell, I wasn't bleeding anymore.

Even with the courtyard being empty of attackers, I could still hear fighting inside the house along with the sound of female screaming. With a sigh, I told the two remaining armsmen to stay and guard this side of the house and went back inside. This time, I walked as silently as possible, while looking out for enemies.

I didn't see any until I reach the kitchen, where two pirates were getting ready to rape the cook. One was holding her down on the table, while the other was between her legs, opening his garments. She did try to fight against them, but the two attackers were a lot bigger and stronger than she was. Fortunately, like the rest of my servants, Sevina was born and raised on Baylon, which allowed me to use powers without causing any stories to circulate in the town later.

An Ars Mentalis trick paralyzed the one holding the woman, giving me time to take down the other one, before knocking the first one out for good.

More yelling sounded, and this time it wasn't a scream, but a curse yelled in Kumetian. With a sigh, I set of toward the room where I had left the slaves.

I hadn't needed to worry about them. When I entered the room, the Phoenician was holding two pirates at bay with his axe and shield, while the two acolytes had armed themselves with a pair of knives each and had taken down yet another pirate.

Both women and the Phoenician widen their eyes in surprise when they saw me, causing the pirates to glance in my direction as well. A heartbeat later, they screamed in terror, ran to the window opening and jumped out. From the sound of it, they hit the ground running, screaming about blood drinking demons.

Slightly confused, I reached out with my mind and connected with Phoenician, so I could see myself from another point of view.

It took me a moment to recognize myself, since the pirates had been right: I looked like something out of a horror story. A blood covered demon, the body criss-crossed with closing wounds and blood dripping on the floor from both the blood-soaked loincloth and the swords.

The friendly smile I was trying to show looked like a savage snarl, being mockingly white in a blood red face.

Instead of trying to explain anything, I retracted my senses and placed the swords on the table, before I took a pitcher of water and emptied it over my head, washing most of the blood away from my face.

That calmed them down somewhat.

"Anybody seriously hurt?" I asked in Kumetian, the language all three understood.

They all shook their heads, with the Phoenician adding. "Only a few small cuts."

"Good." I walked over to the trunk and took out a jar of healing lotion, followed by to smaller jars that contained another kind of healing lotion. All three lotions were created by Master Healer Sheng using Lescarian herbs and magic and since I planned to free the slaves, I didn't want to use Ars Mentalis on them. They might tell other people and I didn't want to be known as a sorcerer.

Then I walked back and handed the bigger one to the Phoenician. "Here. This should take care of the small cuts. Just spread it over the wound and let it work."

He looked at the jar with surprise painted on his face, but quickly recovered and took the jar. "Thank you, kind sir."

"You're welcome. Just so you know it, I'm going to free all three of you as soon as I can. I neither need nor want slaves." Looking at their astounded faces, I added. "But it will have to wait some days. We need to leave the island first."

They slowly nodded, most likely not really believing their own ears.

Ignoring it, I handed the two other jars to the Bastet acolytes. "This is for the two of you. Spread it over your wounds and scars. It will help."

"Yes, Sir."

I felt an incoming link from Varro and quickly said, "After you have done that, please clean up the mess in here."

They nodded, so I took the swords from the table and walked into the other room, while opening the mental connection.

"< Ivah, watch out. We have taken the pirates down, but only half of them are here. The rest, about twenty strong, is coming for you. They even have a human mage to support them >" He sent hurriedly.

"< Thanks for the warning, but a bit late. They assaulted the house and we have just finished them off >" I replied tiredly. I wasn't about to tell Varro, that it had been touch and go for a while. When I got back to Arcem Discendi, I seriously needed to have some training in how to fight multiple opponents in a limited space, because this fight had nearly ended in a disaster.

"< Good job >" Sent Varro. "< Did you notice something special about them? >"

"< Yes. They're a lot better than the usual pirate scum and they know how to use close quarters to their advantage >"

"< That's because they're not normal pirates >" sent Varro, irritation coming through the link as he continued. "< I interrogated several of the captured 'pirates'. It turns out that they're part of the Alashiyan navy and are working for the king. The Hittites're going to be displeased to say the least >"

I agreed. Alashiya was a client state of the Hittite Empire and the Hittites generally took a dim view of anybody interrupting the trade, especially the bronze trade and Alashiya was one of the largest sources of bronze in the whole area.

"< Let's worry about the politics later >" I sent. "< I need to heal the remaining guards now >"

"< Good idea... hmm... With the local king being involved, we need to take this to a higher level, so I'll send my armsmen to your house for more protection and then teleport to Kumet and talk with the ambassador there >"

"< Good plan. Take care >"

"< Likewise >"

Closing the link again, I looked around. The house was a mess, with broken doors and ditto furniture everywhere. The only good news was that Verro had said that the force sent against us had been about twenty men, because that was about the number of pirates we had killed, taken prisoner, or allowed to escape. Hopefully, that meant that we wouldn't be attacked again until Varro's armsmen arrived.

The sight of blood falling on the floor from the edge on my sword caught my eye. I really needed to clean both the weapons and me, not to mention getting dressed instead of running around in a loincloth like a lunatic.

Since I was alone, I used an Ars Mentalis trick to clean the weapons and myself. Then I felt like slapping myself for being stupid. As it was designed to do, the Ars Mentalis trick removed everything that wasn't supposed to be there, and, in this case, that included the dye I had used to make my hair black.

With a sigh, I dressed, returned Dragon Fang to the trunk in the bedroom and placed the long knife in the belt before I used one of the magical dyes from the trunk to recolour my hair. At least I could use a Baylon product that worked almost instantly, instead of waiting the hours it took for one of the local products to work.

I was making too many mistakes and that needed to change before one of those mistakes ended up killing me - like forgetting about both an enemy spell caster and a captive pirate merchant.

I ran into the room I had left the spellcaster in and breathed a sigh of relief, when I saw she was still there. Human spell-casters with the ability to command fire were far in between which made her special and I wanted to know more about her.

There wasn't much in her facial structure or colours that gave away her origins. She could be Hittite, Assyrian or from any of the hundreds of islands in the Middle Sea area. Her clothes were fine quality, but as a pirate, she could easily have gotten them from one of the many ships passing Alashiya.

Looking at her face again, I recognized her from the two women's memories as the 'female pirate' that had stopped the pirates from raping them. That was a nice gesture, but unfortunately, it didn't tell me more about her.

Mustering some of my last mental energy, I did a quick read of her mind and got dumbstruck, when I discovered, she was Paula Flavia Pulcher, part Baylon and granddaughter of one of the Pulchers in Grove. She didn't have the ability to use Ars Mentalis or Ars Magica, so she had been raised in Tyre at the east coast of the Middle Sea, where she had been taught to use human magic.

She had never even been to Baylon but was in awe of the spell casters in the Pulcher family and it was at their orders, that she had accepted first to work for the King of Alashiya and then for the pirates. That itself was strange enough, but even stranger was the Ars Mentalis enforced order, that she should kill herself if she was ever in danger of being caught by a Baylon.

Slightly stunned, I withdrew from her mind as fast as possible and sat back to think it over.

The Pulcher family was a rich merchant family without any strong mages and close to no Mentats, so why were they involved in piracy in the human world?

"Idiot!" I mumbled to myself. They were involved and rich exactly for that reason. The stronger a Power user was, the more trouble they would have when operating outside Baylon. However, if you didn't have any of the strong Magi or Mentats, that wasn't a problem and even a weak Baylon mage would be magnitudes more powerful than the strongest human mage.

Another aspect was the social standing of the family. Not counting the nobles, there were three things that could enhance a family's standing: Strong Mages, ditto Mentats and excessive wealth.

Since the Pulcher family didn't have any strong power users, their high social standing was built on their considerable wealth. However, there was a strong possibility that the fortune the Pulcher family had made, haven't been earned by trading at all, but by piracy and other illegal methods. If that was the case, they would do almost anything to avoid being caught, up to and including sacrificing individual family members for the good of the rest.

A thought hit me, and I reached out to talk with Varro. Thankfully, he answered the call. "< What's up, Ivah? And make it quick, I'm about to go talk with the Ambassador >"

"< That's why I'm calling. I've been too busy to follow up on what happened after I arrested Mettius Clodius Pulcher, but do you happened to know the outcome of the trial? >"

There was a snort over the link. "< It never went to trial. Mettius Clodius Pulcher tried to teleport out of jail and died when the wards kicked in. The testaments from the guards alone carried the case and the Pulcher family was fined, but that was the end of it >"

"< I don't think so >" I said and quickly explained what I had discovered. "I think Mettius Clodius Pulcher killed himself to avoid being interrogated >"

"< Tits of the goddesses! >" He cursed over the link. "< The Ambassador is Licius Clodius Pulcher! >"

"< Exactly. If he's involved in this in any way, it would be unwise to tell him that we have destroyed the Pulcher family's pirate operation on Alashiya >"

"< Agreed. No worries, I'll tell him something else. Then I'll have to talk with the Dominus Grande personally. This is a job for the Old Man >"

"< Oh, I agree. How long will it take? >"

"< A few days at least >" He admitted. "< I need to rest, before I can teleport to Dilmun to use the gate there. Added to that, I need to get hold of the Old Man, before I can teleport back to you. Let's call it three days >"

"< Fair. I'll make sure our human mage doesn't wake up before that >"

"< Deal... Take care >"

"< I will and likewise >"

As the link dissolved, I turned my attention to Paula Flavia Pulcher. She was still out, but just to be on the safe side, I bound and gagged her to stop her from casting any spells. Then I found my acupuncture set and inserted needles in the correct positions to do the same. More needles followed to ensure she didn't wake up before I had to chance use Ars Mentalis to send her into an even longer coma and to remove the suicide command.

I wished I could have ensured that right away, but I had used too much energy on healing myself, so that would have to wait.

Instead, I found some more healing lotion and walked to the courtyard to check on both the armsmen and the pirate merchant. While I had been occupied by other things, the servants and armsmen had cleared up the courtyard somewhat.

The wounded, which included one more of the armsmen, were just below the stairs, while the dead were near the gate and the few surviving 'pirates' were in the middle. All of them were expertly bound, with no hope for them to get away, including the pirate merchant.

I quickly examined him and found that his scull had not cracked from the blow I had given him, though he would be out for some time.

Satisfied I dragged him to the stairs and secured him there before I walked over to check the wounded armsman.

He had taken some serious hits, but his Hittite style bronze scale armor had deflected most of it, except for the blow to his head, that had taken him down. Fortunately, his leather helmet had softened the impact enough to make it a knockout blow instead of a killing blow and he would be fine in about ten days.

I had just finished the examination, when an armsman informed me, that Varro's two squads of ten armsmen had arrived. Sighing with relief, I left the securing of the house to them and walked up the stairs to my room to get some much-needed sleep.

Now that the need for light was gone, most of the upper part of the house was clad in darkness, and I was yawning as I walked past the smashed door to the bedchamber.

Seeing the Sevina the Cook standing next to my bed was a surprise, but not exactly an unwelcome one. Good looking, without being a beauty, she had an easy smile that more often than not made her eyes sparkle. Instead of the working garment she had been wearing earlier, she was now wearing a white dress made from linen so thin I had no problem seeing the outline of a well-shaped body with all the right curves in all the right places.

She also radiated lust, tempered by nervousness.

The nervousness was understandable. Like all the servants, she knew I had taken human women to bed as part of my cover, but she could only guess if I had done it by choice or as part of my cover, and few Baylons found people without power sexually attractive. Yet she was here, presenting herself to me.

As she saw me studying her, her lips parted in a small insecure smile. "I hope you find me desirable, Sir."

I smiled back at her. "Oh yes, Sevina. You're a very sexy woman."

The insecure smile turned into a happy one and without saying a word, she started walking towards me, hands opening the clasps that held the dress together. Free from its constraint, it opened to reveal the naked body underneath. With a little move of her arms, she tossed the garment at my chair and stood completely nude in front of me.

I let my eyes wander over her light brown skin. It looked at smooth as silk, but before I could compliment her, she took a step forward, reached up to put her arms around my neck and gave me a soft kiss filled with desire. I kissed her back, hands exploring the soft skin of her back, feeling her shivering slightly as I lightly let my fingers run down her spine and down between the crack between her cheeks.

Sevina broke the kiss, whispering "Sorry for surprising you like this, Sir, but I felt like my saviour deserved something special... and I want you."

While she talked, her hands wandered down my body, opening buttons and unclasping my belt.

Since her actions had created some space between us, I moved my hands to the sides of her hips and ran them up slowly to cup her warm breasts, running my thumb over her stiff nipples.

She gave a little jump and her breath hissed between her teeth.

With a shiver, Sevina sank to her knees, dragging my pants down along with her.

My hard cock sprang out to greet her and with a smile, she ran the tip of her tongue around the head several times before sucking just the tip into her mouth, while she used the tips of her fingers to caress my balls.

I groaned at the warm wet feeling as her tongue swirled around and round the head of my dick.

Then her hands gripped the shaft of my cock and the pleasurable feeling turned into the worst oral sex I had even been given. Her teeth scraped the head of my cock as she tried to take more into her mouth than she could handle, and her grip was so tight it felt like she was trying to choke the life out of a small animal.

I endured it for a few moments, but then stopped her with a gentle hand on her head. "Later, Sweet One. I want to hear you come first."

Sevina looked a little confused at first, but allowed me to lead her to the bed, where I placed her on the edge, so her feet were on the floor. She did catch on and spread her legs with a smile.

I smiled back at her as I sat down between her legs, enjoying the sight of the pussy just in front of me. It looked tempting, so I turned my head slightly to one side, ran my tongue along the soft and sensitive skin of her inner thigh and ended by running my tongue over the top of her pussy, teasing the sensitive skin over her love-pearl.

Sevina gave a sharp intake of breath and moaned as I licked both outer lips from bottom to top and back again. She tasted fresh with a hint of spice.

Using my lips, I sucked and nibbled on first one then the other outer lip, enjoying the sound of her sighs and moans as I took my time swirling my tongue on and between her lips.

Her juices started to flow for real and I lapped it up, as my tongue caressed the wet opening, before moving up towards the love-pearl.

Her hips gave a little jerk as my tongue made contact with it, so I licked in a circle around it and back down her pussy, before going back up to flick my tongue directly on the love-pearl. This brought another jerk and a slight gasp.

Making my tongue hard and stiff, I slid it from side to side over the love-pearl until she moaned softly, then I moved down the lips until I was at the opening again.

Sevina started to rock her hips slightly and I swirled my tongue in time with the rocking of her hips.

Her moans increased and I felt her fingers on my head, pressing my mouth against her pussy as if she wanted me to get further inside.

Unfortunately, my tongue isn't that long, so instead I licked my way up between her lips until I reached her love-pearl again. Sucking it into my mouth, I flicked my tongue over it a few times, making her whimper as her moans turned into groans.

She started to shiver, her hands pressing my mouth against her pussy once more. A few flicks of my tongue later, she exploded in an orgasm with a scream and a shuddering of her hips and thighs. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on absorbing the Vis and was rewarded a moment later, when energy surged into me.

As her orgasm subsided, she sat up, steadying herself with shaking arms and hands.

"That... was... fantastic!" She panted with a smile that almost took her ears.

"Thank you." I said and moved closer, so I could give her a kiss.

Sevina kissed back passionately, moaning as the position we were in, allowed the tip of my cock to brush against the wet lips of her pussy.

Eagerly, Sevina wrapped her legs around my hips, using them to press me forward, while reaching down between us to guide it to the right spot. A moment later, I could feel her lips stretch apart to welcome my dick into her opening.

Then she threw her arms around me again, moaning as she wriggled her hips from side to side, slowly working my dick into her. Her tight channel slowly yielding to the steady pressure, while I caressed her breasts with one hand as I kissed the soft skin of her neck and shoulder.

The groans got louder and louder. Her hips were wiggling and jerking like crazy, and I could feel her inner muscles squeezing and massaging the head and upper part of my cock.

With a howl, Sevina came again, shaking all over. The orgasm made her hips move even more and before the first orgasm was completely over, she came again.

That made her fall backwards into the bed, but the changed position and the continuing movements of her hips made her come yet again, trashing her arms into the bed, while her hips jerked wildly, and her breasts bounced.

Reaching out, I placed my hand on them, caressing the soft flesh. Catching a nipple between my fingers, I gently pressed my fingers together, squeezing the nipples between them.

To my amazement, that made Sevina come again, and I moaned with pleasure as her slippery wet pussy caressed my dick in response.

Going with the principle that 'more is better', I moved a hand from her breasts to between her legs and placed a firm but gentle thump on her love-pearl, moving it in small circles.

She went off like a fireball, screaming with pleasure.

Then, just as suddenly as she had orgasmed, she went limp. Her feet hitting the floor as the legs lost their grip on my hips. Hurriedly, I checked her pulse, but that was beating steadily, and a quick examination showed that she had just fainted.

Relieved, I withdrew my dick from her, placed her on the bed and covered her with a bed sheet, while I wondered why she had climaxed that fast and easy. I'm good, but I'm not that good.

Using some of the Vis I had just absorbed, I used a healing power to check up on her and wasn't overly surprised, when I found the residue from a love potion in her system. She must have taken it before walking to my room, which would explain her forwardness, since love potions by their very nature made people extremely horny. She had also discovered the drawback of taking too much, as that would make you pass out due to pleasure overload.

A sound from the other room made me look in that direction. At first, I couldn't see anything in the darkness of the other room, but then I noticed four eyes looking at me. Nofret and Khenut, the two Bastet acolytes, were sitting in the other room and with the door having been smashed by the pirates, they had been able to see everything Sevina and I had done.

I sighed. It seemed like I kept forgetting thing today. I did send the Phoenician down to help the armsmen clean-up but had forgotten about the acolytes.

Fortunately, there shouldn't be any problems as there wasn't any nudity or sexual taboos in Kumet.

Seeing that I had noticed them, Nofret rose from the pillows they had been sleeping on and walked towards me. She was wearing a linen top that waved as her breasts moved and a skirt that draped beautifully over her legs. The sight instantly made my slightly deflated dick hard again.

As she entered the low light of the bedchamber, I noticed that Master Healer Sheng's healing lotion had worked its magic: The scars were gone, leaving smooth unblemished skin, and revealing that the acolyte was a good-looking young woman, with the coppery tan most Egyptians had.

She had even found time to shave her head and apply a little bit of make-up.

Instead of apologizing as some might have done, she stopped in the doorway and quietly asked, "Who are you really? Are you a personification of Maahes?" as she nodded towards a small alabaster statue of a lion on the bedside table.

According to the mythology of Kumet, Maahes was the son of the sun god Ra with the cat goddess Bastet (Known as Sekhmet in Upper Kumet) and was one of the many Kumetian war-gods, as well as being a protector god and god of knives.

"No, I'm just a merchant." I said, as I walked over to a chair to sit down. Despite our civil conversation, my dick was still hard and Savina's juices reflected the light from the oil lamps, making it shine in the semi-darkness. "Why do you ask?"

Her eyes left my dick and returned to my face. "You move as graceful as a cat and excel in fighting with knives, using them to protect other people. You have lotions that works like Bastet herself had made them and you're obviously well versed in the art of sharing pleasure." She paused. "All signs of Maahes."

With a shrug, I repeated. "As I said, I'm just a merchant."

Nofret studied me for a few heartbeats, but then smiled with a nod and said, "I think you have been sent by the goddess to rescue me and my sister without you knowing it..." She walked closer while she talked and there was a seductiveness in her steps and voice, that hadn't been there a moment before. "and I don't argue with my Goddess."

She stopped right before me and before I had the chance to say anything, she kissed me. It was a hungry, lustful kiss and as our tongue danced, a hand was sliding around the back of my head to tangle in my hair. The other hand reached down to touch my cock, fingers sliding down the still wet shaft, caressing it.

Then she broke the kiss, whispering. "I need to have you."

The soft whisper prompted me into action, and I slid a hand over her warm smooth skin of her legs, feeling their firm softness as I followed the inner thigh, going upwards.

Nofret moaned softly as she spread her leg to grant me better access. Her mouth returned to my mouth, kissing me hard as she started stroking my dick.

My fingers found her shaved pussy, making her moan into my mouth. She was so wet she was almost dripping, getting my finger nice and slippery. Apparently, seeing me sharing pleasure with Sevina had really turned her on.

Nofret gave a little shudder when I slid my finger in between the lips of her pussy, circling the opening a few times, before I slowly inserted a finger in her, enjoying the feeling of the moist warm tunnel even as she squeezed and clenched around me.

My thumb found her love-pearl, adding to her pleasure as I added another finger and found the pleasure zone just behind the pubic bone.

With a groan she let go of my dick and straightened, her eyes closed in pleasure caused by the fingers inside her.

"Yes!" she whispered breathlessly, moving her hips to meet my fingers. "Goddess, it's good!"

"Take your top off and I'll make it even better." I promised with a smile.

Two heartbeats later, the thin linen top was gone, revealing a pair of nicely rounded breasts, with dark nipples that begged to be licked. Since she was standing up, her breasts were now in front of my head, so I just leaned in and took one of those tempting hard nipples into my mouth, nibbling and licking.

She let out a loud low groan and put an arm around me, clutching my head to her breast, her hips starting to rock just slightly to the rhythm of my hand.

It didn't take too long before Nofrets's breathing started coming in short little breaths.

Still licking and nibbling her breasts, I put my other arm around her, groping her firm butt. Her whole body tensed up and when I suddenly jammed my two fingers into her while using the thump on her love-pearl, she came in an orgasm that wracked her body. Her arm around my head tightened its grip as she fought to stay on her feet, helped by my equally tight grip on her butt.

Concentrating on absorbing the Vis, I kept fingering her through her orgasm until I sensed that she had enough.

Now it was my turn.

She was still dizzy from her climax, when I stood up, dragged her to the wall and placed her on my travel trunk, with me standing between her legs. The height of the trunk was perfect for what I had in mind and judging from the smile on her face, Nofret totally agreed, as she leaned back against the wall and lifted her legs.

A few heartbeats later, I positioned the head of my dick at the slippery entrance of her pussy and pressed forward, sinking my rock-hard dick into her wet pussy.

"Oh yes!" Nofret groaned and a big smile spread across her face as she wrapped her legs around my back. The feeling of having my cock slide inside her was wonderful. I pulled out a bit, and then slid it back in. Little by little, I started stroking in and out faster and faster.

Nofret groaned with pleasure as I slammed into her, using her legs to signal that she wanted it hard and fast. Every time I tried to slow down, her strong legs pulled me in, leaving me little choice but to continue.

I wouldn't last long, and it must have shown on my face, because suddenly Nofret gasped. "Tell... me... when... you're... about... to... come."

I nodded and groaned as her inner walls twisted and pulsed around my dick.

A moment later, she came with a loud groan, grinding herself against me as hard and fast as she could.

It took all my self-discipline not to come right then and there, but I held out until her orgasm faded, before through clenched teeth I said, "I'm coming."

Hurriedly, Nofret removed her legs from me and a moment later, she was kneeling on the floor with my dick in her mouth. Soft lips encased the head, sucking lightly while her tongue played, and her hands stroked the shaft. Unlike Sevina, the Kumetian was really good and it was heavenly, but short.

She was too good, and I felt my hips starting to move in involuntarily little twitches. With a groan, I came in her mouth. She moaned slightly as she drank it all, continuing to use her mouth and hands, until I became too sensitive and pulled away.

"That was fantastic!" She said as she stood up with a slightly dazed expression on her face.

"Yes, it was." I agreed and yawned. "I'm sorry, but now I really need to get some sleep."

"Yes, Sir. Sleep well." Flashing me a smile, she turned around and walked out, remembering to pick up her linen top from the floor on the way.

Even with the amount of Vis I had absorbed, I was tired to the bone, so I walked over to the bed, moved Sevina to the side and lay down to sleep.

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

Wilusa/Troia, Anatolia (Modern Turkey). Between 1223 and 1220 BC.

Five months later, I was putting the last touches on yet another bronze sword, when Varro materialized in a corner of the old stable, I was using as a workshop. As he had warned me before he arrived, I wasn't really surprised and it's always nice to see a familiar face.

He did his usual casual wave as a greeting and walked closer, smiling as he saw what I was doing. "Shouldn't you be doing something more constructive than making inferior weapons?"

"I would love to, but the weather doesn't allow it." I said with a sigh and held the sword up, so I could inspect its edge. It needed a little refinement, but it was nearly there. Then I looked at Varro again. "We could trade places. I go back to Arcem and teach, and you stay here instead of me."

"In your dreams." He replied with a snort. "You're better at working with humans than I'll ever be, so you're stuck with the job of investigating the Pulcher family outside Baylon."

The day after the attack on Alashiya, I had done a deeper reading of Paula Flavia Pulcher, the human fire mage, and while she didn't know much about the Pulcher family's trading, the reading had confirmed that the family had a stronghold on an island. As trading with the humans was supposed to happen only through the colonies, having a stronghold was illegal and strong evidence against the Pulcher family... if we could find it.

Unfortunately, there were hundreds of islands in the sea here and as none of the captains or navigators had survived, I had spent a week reading the minds of the few surviving pirates in an effort to get a location.

As luck would have it, several of the pirates had been to the island and from their memories, I got a general idea of the area, which was near Wilusa (or Troia as some people called it), and mind images of how the stronghold looked.

That was as close as I could get, so when Varro returned with a small group of trainees and orders from the Dominus Grande to find the stronghold, I had put Nofret, Khenut and Batnoam on a ship to Tyre (as I had promised) and went to work.

The merchant identity was too good to let go, so I loaded the pirate loot onto two of the captured ships, crewed with Baylon-born sailors and sailed north towards Wilusa.

Once there, I set up shop and sent the trainees out on the two ships, so they could search the islands under the guise of looking for trade, while I stayed in Wilusa to see if I could find someone with connection to the Pulcher family there.

It didn't go according to plan. Summer was over and with autumn came strong winds that made it almost impossible to navigate the small islands without violently meeting a rocky coast.

Consequently, the two ships were now harboured on two different islands, while the crews took a break, and the trainees was back in Arcem Discendi for more training.

I wished I could do the same, but as I was still playing the part of a merchant, I couldn't just disappear and return in the spring without people wondering where I had been.

So, I stayed here in the city, patiently waiting for spring to turn into early summer.

"Anyway..." said Varro and held up a bag. "I only came by to give you this."

Surprised, I lay down the sword and took the offered bag. Inside there was a bunch of Phoenician Shekels: A silver bar that was widely used for trading all over this part of the world.

"It's from the Old Man. He thought you would be short on wares by now."

Now it was my turn to snort. The loot we had taken from the so-called pirates on Alashiya had included linen, papyrus, silver, copper, bronze, perfume, oils, pearls, ivory, and several barrels of tin. Added to that was the 31 swords, 43 daggers and 10 bows that had been their weapons. It might not be a king's ransom, but it might just be enough for a minor noble and even after having stayed here all winter, I still had most of it left. "I'm not that bad at trading."

Varro chuckled at my snort. "I know, but I don't argue with my commanding officer."

"Wise of you."

He nodded sagely. "I'm like that... Oh, you remember we agreed that the Hittites weren't going to be pleased with the pirate scheme?" He waited for my nod and then continued. "King Tudhaliya's fleet was sent on a punitive expedition and Alashiya now have a new king."

"Not really surprising. They need a lot of copper for bronze weapons."

"Yeah." Varro agreed. "It seems like ...."

The sound of voices reached us and made Varro stop talking. Wordlessly, he waved a quick goodbye as he retreated into the shadows and disappeared just as suddenly as he had arrived, using a silent Vis power, instead of his usual magic.

As soon as he was gone, I turned towards the doorway, as one of my armsmen come to inform me, that we had visitors. I gestured to him to let the visitors in and a moment later, a giant of a man opened the door and walked inside, looking around with watchful eyes.

The sheer size of him marked him as belonging to one of the northern steppe people, but even then, he was big. Some of the tallest of their nobles was about my height, which is tall for a human, but this guy was about the same size as Varro and just as wide.

Like most other steppe people, he was dressed in linen clothing with an outer layer of leather and fur. He had a shield on his back, but curiously, he appeared to be unarmed. It took me a moment to realize, that he was wet, despite the dry weather outside, and he was limping slightly.

As soon as he saw me, he stopped and held up his right hand to show he didn't have a weapon in it. "Greetings good sir. We're looking to speak with Tazkul of Dilmun."

Instead of the Hittite language I had been expecting, he was speaking Assyrian or at least the version of Assyrian that was commonly used as a trade language further south.

"I'm Tazkul. How can I help you?" I asked in the same tongue.

"I'm Ligish of Aea." He introduced himself. "We're in need of weapons and tin. Can you supply that?"

"For the right price, yes."

He nodded and said something in a language I didn't recognize. A few heartbeats later, a woman entered the room. She was dressed in a finely crafted leather armor and somewhat to my surprise, she had a sword by her side, which was unusual for this part of the world, where it was usually only men that carried weapons.

She was also tall for women of this area. Not Baylon tall, but she was about the same size as most of the men around here. Another curious thing was the finely crafted bronze headband she wore. Most likely some kind of jewellery, which, along with her height, marked her as a noble. She was also good looking, with light brown hair, a finely chiselled face, and grey eyes.

The two of them spoke quietly for a few moments. Then Ligish turned back to me. "We have silver to trade."

"Excellent." I replied with a nod and gestured towards to other door in the barn, which led into the lower part of the two-story building I was using as a base. "Why don't we go somewhere warmer and talk it over?"

Ligish translated what I had said, but I noticed the woman eying the bronze sword I had been working on when Varro had arrived. It was still laying on the workbench, glittering dimly in the low light from the two lamps. Then she nodded to the giant and said something.

"We have two more people outside. Can we bring them inside as well?" asked the giant.

"If it's only two."

A little while later, we were all inside the warm house. The two additional people had turned out to be two more women. One old, one young and both were hurt and soaked. Not that they were bleeding, but the older one had to be supported by the headband-clad woman, while Ligish carefully lifted the younger one and carried her inside.

None of them had any luggage to speak of and pieces started to fall into place. Wet from head to feet, hurt and without belongings, weapons or horses, they had cleanly suffered a major mishap of some kind and the clues pointed to a shipwreck.

Located at the coast by the Thracian Sea, just at the start of the Strait of Dardanus, Wilusa was perfectly situated as a middle ground for long distance trade as reflected by the wares offered on the marked. Exotic goods such as oils, perfume, ebony, and ivory were sold side by side with jewellery, metal and glass ingots, as well as bronze weapons and tools. Some of it was supplied by Phoenician ships, but the Hittites came here as well, trading metals and other goods for the furs and ambers from the tall steppe people like the ones that had just arrived at my door.

However, to get here, people from the north had to cross the Grey Sea, sail through the narrow strait by Lygos, cross the Marble Lake and finally sail through the Strait of Dardanus.

In summer, this journey was fairly safe and easy, but at any other time, it could be treasonous.

The only reasons I could think of to travel it now was either that they desperately needed something or simply wanted better prices for their goods.

"What is wrong with the Lady?" I inquired, when one of my two armsmen had giving me a cup of steaming hot tea. With seven people in the room, it was somewhat crowded, but I didn't want to give the four newcomers the impression, that I was an easy target. Not that I expected a fight. The older of the women had been placed in a chair, while the younger, but wounded one, was laying on one of the armsmen's bed.

Ligish looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "A blow to the side, some broken ribs. She'll be ok."

"That happened when your ship went down?"

His expression went from curious to suspicious in a heartbeat. "How do you know about that?"

That made me chuckle. "You're all wearing damp clothes, none of you have any heavy objects or weapons and most of you are hurt. Not really that hard to guess."

Ligish thought it over for a moment and nodded. "You're right. The ... ladies thought that they could get good prices for their goods if they were here early in the year." He grimaced and explained that they had been hit by a hard crosswind as they cleared the Strait of Dardanus. The wind had driven the ship towards the shore and before they knew what happened, rocks had torn a hole in the ship. It quickly sank and only the four of them managed to get to safety.

Taking whatever was left, they had walked the short way to the city and since unarmed people were easy targets, the first thing they had wanted to buy was weapons. When they had asked if someone sold good quality swords, the person asked had directed them to me.

The most surprising part of the tale was that they were from two different areas, with Ligish coming from the city of Aea, while the women came from a city or area known as Azzi.

Ligish had wintered in their city and in return had agreed to go with them to Wilusa as their translator, since none of the women spoke Assyrian.

"Just a warning." He finished. "The women from Azzi are called Antianeirai by the Yauna... It means 'equivalent to men' and they got it because the woman from Azzi fight men on the battlefield. They're not meek women."

"I can deal with that." I said drily and looked over, as the woman on the bed coughed violently. The woman with the headband helped her, but when the coughing fit was over, she said something to Ligish in a worried tone of voice.

He replied, also sounding worried and the two of them talked for a little while, before he turned towards me. "We have bad luck. Toxophone, the woman on the bed, is coughing blood. She was thrown into a rock by the current."

I nodded slowly. They did indeed have bad luck. Especially if the woman had been hit so hard, that she had broken ribs and a penetrated lung. In my experience, that usually led to lung infections and death within weeks.

"We will go to the temple in the morning." He said with hope in his voice. "Maybe their healers can help."

"If the Gods will." I answered, but privately I doubted they could do much. The healers at the temple were far from being as skilful as those in Kumet or Lescare, and when it came to wounds inside the body, any healing done by them was likely to fail.

Ligish nodded and changed the subject. "We still need weapons and by that, I mean as soon as possible. Do you have them here?"

That caught me by surprise, but I nodded. "Yes. How many?"

"Three swords for the women and an axe for me. A knife and a bow for each would also be nice to have. Especially for Xanthe." He listed calmly, nodding towards the woman with the headband, but I could feel his emotions and he was deeply worried about being attacked. Not by me, though.

With a slight sigh, I reached out with my mind, connected with his and did a fast read. Then I swallowed a curse.

The reason for their journey was to get tin for weapon making, as the Azzi tribe was under attack from another clan and member of that clan had pursued the ship he and the four women had been on. As far as he knew, their pursuers could be here any moment and they needed the weapons to protect themselves. The only reason he had talked with me for so long before getting back to trading, was not to seem desperate, which might make me raise the price of the weapons.

"Let me show you." I said as I placed the tea on the table and walked over to staircase.

I was about halfway, when the front door was kicked open and two young men rushed inside with swords at the ready. They didn't spare me much attention, because as soon as they saw my guests they howled with glee and ran towards them. Both hit the stone floor with their throats cut, before I even realized that I had drawn my two bronze Diucultro (Baylon: Long Knife), but by then two more men had entered the room.

The world slowed down, as I entered Mutatur Tempus Mente (Baylon: 'Time shall be changed in (the) mind') and used the long knives to kill the next pair as well.

The limited width of the door restricted the numbers to two at a time, which made it a lot easier to defend against and this fight was going much better than the fight against the pirates on Alashiya. The pirates had been experienced professional fighter, equipped with shields and leather armors reinforced with metal.

This bunch of hotheads was young men with hatred towards a rival tribe, a bronze weapon and not much else. The fought clumsily and being unarmoured, died easily. However, armed with swords and driven by bloodlust as they were, they were still dangerous. To make it worse, there were more attackers outside and there were noises coming from the barn.

I moved to the side and kicked the front door shut, before hammering one of the long knives into the doorframe to hold it there for a little while.

The door to the barn was thrown open as two men charged into the room. Turning, I threw two of my bronze throwing knives in rapid in rapid succession with my free hand. The knives hit perfectly, and the attackers went down.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my two armsmen, who had just drawn their weapons.

"Alexus, guard the front door!" I commanded. "Milo, go to the roof and..."

One more attacker entered the room from the barn, but just as he came in, focusing on me, an earthen mug hit him in the head. He went out like a fallen tree.

"... shoot anyone who gives orders or have better gear." I finished.

A quick look behind me showed that it was Ligish's mug. As I watched, he bowed down and took a sword from a fallen attacker.

"Yes, Sir." Said the guard and ran up the stairs.

The table we had been sitting at gave me an idea. It was made from thick wood and would be an excellent door blocker until we could get the thick wooden bar in place.

"Ligish! Get the table to the back door!"

"Will do!" He said loudly, throwing his shield aside and lifting the table.

Two more attackers came in, but before they had a chance to do anything, Ligish ran them down, using the heavy table as a cross between a giant shield and a battering ram. One was pinned between the wall and the table, unable to move or use his weapon. He went down when Ligish smashed the pommel of the sword into his head. Still holding the entire table with one arm, the giant used the point of the sword to kill the other attacker.

A loud bang from behind told me that the front door had been forced open again and I hurried over to help Alexus the Armsman, who were being pushed backwards by the onslaught.

Mental energy roared through my body, making me faster and stronger as I joined the fray.

A heartbeat later I was happy that I had used the Ars Mentalis trick, because right behind the first two young men, came another pair of attackers and these did have metal armor. They were also middle aged and looked like they had been in a fight or two before.

Leaving the young ones to Alexus, I ducked under an attack and cut of the hand that held the sword, before kicking the man back through the doorway with a hard kick.

The other man swung an axe at me, but I dodged his attack and hit him in the chest with the long knife. Unfortunately, the edge didn't penetrate the armor, so he tried to hit me with the bronze dagger he had in his left hand.

I caught his wrist with my free hand and forced the weapon away from me. With perfect timing, Xanthe, the woman with the headband, used the opening to lunge forward and ran him through with her sword, penetrating the armor.

An expression of surprise mixed with pain showed on his face a moment before I threw him the same way as the other.

There was shouting outside, mixing with the sound of arrows hitting bodies followed by the sweet sound of people running away.

Suddenly there was relatively quiet inside the room and I used the short break to look around.

Alexus, my armsman, had taken down the two the young men he had been fighting.

The elderly woman was guarding the coughing Toxophone, using a sword she must have picked up, and over to the side of the room, Ligish was still guarding the door.

'So far, so good' I thought and closed the door again, before picking the other Diucultro up from the floor and sheathing both weapons.

"Friends of yours?" I asked Ligish. I only had knowledge about the attacker because I had read his mind and most people would like to know why they were attacked.

"They're Watna... A rival clan." He explained as he looked at the floor. Then he put the table down, picked up the wooden bar next to it and barred that door as well. "They want the Azzi territory, since their own area isn't that good, and they have followed us here."

I grimaced. That was bad since such wars tended to go on until one of the clans was eradicated.

Ligish saw my expression and nodded. "Yes, that is why we needed weapons."

"Well, you got some now."

That made him chuckle, despite the situation. "You're right about that... hmm... You have impressive fighting skills for a merchant. Where did you learn that?"

"A long time ago and far away, I was a bodyguard for a noble merchant, learning the art of trading by observing him while we travelled." I answered. "Then his wife gave birth to his first-born and he stopped travelling. As I was no longer needed, I got my pay with a bonus and decided to become a merchant myself."

Ligish nodded and before he had time to ask more questions, my armsman Milo came down the stairs and announced that the City Guard was coming.

As soon as the City Guards heard that there had been an attack, they went chasing after the clansmen, leaving the mess of dead bodies to us.

That suited me just fine, since that would give me time to look at the two men with armor. They seemed like the leaders and might have something of interest on them, so while armsmen moved the other dead bodies into the barn, I dragged the pair into the forge and stripped them from their armor.

While well-made, the armors were nothing special, but the damage Xanthe's sword had done was. Initially I had thought that the point of her sword had found a space between the bronze plates of the armor, but to my surprise the sword had pierced the plates. A feat that was close to impossible, given the relative softness of bronze swords and the close quarter we had been fighting in.

Thoughtfully, I packed the armors away. Something was not what it seemed like and it was something I had to investigate, but first we needed to clear up the current situation.

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

The next couple of days was a flurry of activity.

Since Ligish and the women he escorted didn't have a place to stay, I invited them to sleep in the room on the ground floor of the house, which they accepted.

That meant that my two armsmen had to sleep in the upstairs living room, but that was a minor inconvenience. I did take the time to set up an alarm, so that nobody could open the door soundlessly. Only fools trusted desperate strangers they had just met.

The guards caught the remaining Watna clansmen and threw the survivors into jail, so they could be bailed out by their clansmen. Unfortunately, that also meant that I couldn't read their minds, but I doubted that they knew much anyway.

The women of Azzi bought twenty swords as well as enough tin to make a lot more. I had a feeling that they would have bought everything I had, if they hadn't been forced to use some of their silver on hiring a ship to take them back to Azzi.

To make matters worse, Toxophone was becoming weaker and had reached a stage where it was clear to everybody that moving her would be fatal. The healers at the temple had tried their best, but simply didn't have the knowledge to help and had resorted to sacrificing two chickens and a goat in the hope that the Gods would help the wounded woman.

Personally, I would have placed more faith in a potion, but none of the potions in the trunk were of any use against a broken rip or a penetrated lung, and I couldn't heal her using Vis or Mentalis with the others looking over my shoulder.

"We have a favour to ask." Said Ligish, while we were eating a late dinner a few days later.

Still chewing, I motioned for him to continue, which he did.

"Can we pay you to house Toxophone and Xanthe while we sail to Azzi with the wares? It shouldn't take more than a moon or so."

Translating 'a moon' into 28 days, I nodded as I swallowed the mouthful. With them not knowing anybody personally here and Toxophone too weak to move, that was the logical thing to do. They still took a chance on trusting me, but I guess that if I really wanted to double cross them, I could have done it by now.

"Yes, I'm willing to do that."

"Thank you." He said with a sigh of relief, that made me raise my eyebrows. It was the kind of sigh a family member would make, but as far as I knew, Ligish was just a hired hand.

He saw my expression and smiled sadly. "I'm with her mother and I don't want to come home with the body of her dead daughter. Here, she has a chance and Xanthe will take good care of her until we can return."

"I'll guard them." I promised, which made Ligish chuckle. "Don't let Xanthe know that. She's very independent and the thought of a man protecting her would really make her angry."

"It's not a matter of gender." I pointed out. "I have armsmen and as a warrior she should know that four swords are better than one in a combat."

"Ah... good point." He said with a grin and stood up. "I need to go prepare for the journey, but thanks again for the help."

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

With half the Azzi group gone, my house wasn't quite as crowded as before, which I liked, but Toxophone was still in the living room with Xanthe tending to her needs and her condition was gradually getting worse.

I managed to ignore it for all of four days, before I gave in and decided to heal her. I don't like to see people suffering when I could prevent it without any risk to myself and those around me.

The only obstacle was the ever-grumpy Xanthe, but even she couldn't spend every waking moment by Toxophone's side and when she left to go to the temple to make more sacrifices, I told my armsmen to stand guard and went to work.

First, I removed the bandages from her rib cage, so they wouldn't obstruct setting the rips right. Then I placed my hands on her chest, went into the Vis Trance and started to heal. It was about time too. Not only were her lungs punctuated, but the internal wound had developed an infection and I doubted that she would have lasted more than a few days.

It took some manipulation to get the fractured rip out of lung, but with the help of some telekinesis, I got it done. After that it was a simple matter of fusing the bone, removing the infection and heal the wound. I didn't heal the wound or the fracture completely, since that would have seemed like a miracle, but enough to make sure that she would recover.

Then I exited the trance, put on a healing salve along with a new bandage and went back to the forge to rework the two bronze armors I had taken from the attackers.

I was closing down for then night, when Xanthe quietly stepping into the forge.

"Hello, Xanthe." I greeted her with nod. She didn't respond to that, but since she didn't know the Assyrian language, I haven't expected her to.

Xanthe did look at me, and as our eyes met, she tensed up, asking "Why did you change Toxophone's bandages while I was away?" in the Hittite language. She might not speak Assyrian, but her Hittite was fluent, and she was clearly betting on me knowing that language.

"It was needed, so I changed the bandaged and set the ribs right, so she can heal." I answered casually in the same language. "No harm done."

"And what is the strange smell coming from the linen?"

It took me a moment to understand, that she meant the healing salve. It was made from Lescarian herbs from half a world away and she most likely haven't smelled anything like it before.

"That would be the healing salve." I said with a smile. "They tend to smell awful... though this one is better than most."

"So how much will this cost us?"

"Nothing." I said with a shrug. "If I wanted riches, I would have bargained before trying to help her."

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "You expect me to believe that?"

"Yes, I actually do." I answered calmly. "As I said: If I just wanted your silver, I would have offered it earlier... instead of letting Ligish and the rest sail away with the wares."

Xanthe looked thoughtful for a moment, but then nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense." She paused for a moment. "If you're able to that, why wait 'til now? Why didn't you set her ribs straight a week ago?"

That made me chuckle. "Would you have accepted my help, if I had offered it?"

She looked at me in silence for a few seconds, but then shook her head. "No." Her eyes darted to the wall separating the forge from the living room and back to me. "Do you think she will survive?"

"Now that the broken rip is out of her lung, she has a good chance... We will know for sure in a few days."

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

With the infection gone, Toxophone did indeed improve over the next couple of days. She was still feeble and spend most of her time sleeping, but the fever was gone, and some colour had returned to her face.

The improvement in Xanthe's mood was almost as big an improvement as Toxophone's health. Her grumpiness faded and by the end of the week she had even smiled a few times.

As it became clear, that Toxophone would heal completely, Xanthe became pleasant company and while I used most of the day to work in the forge, we got together in the evenings and talked.

"Oh, I need to ask you a question." I said one stormy evening, when we were relaxing in front of the fireplace with a cup of wine after dinner. "Where did you get your sword from?"

The question caught her off guard and she looked at bit guarded when she asked. "Why do you ask?"

"I saw the damage the armor from the dead leader had taken and only high-quality sword can make that kind of damage. In fact, it's so good that I would like to talk to whomever made it."

"I doubt you would be well received." Said Xanthe with a frown. "During the latest battle with the Watna, I killed the Chieftains son. Unfortunately, my own sword was stuck in him, so I took his and that's the one I'm using now." She paused for a moment, but then continued. "It's a mighty sword. Stronger than anything I've ever seen and to be honest I was lucky to survive that combat."

"May I see it?"

With a nod, she picked up the sword and slowly drew it, holding it up, so I could see it.

Slim and leaf-shaped, it was slightly longer than usual for this area, but otherwise it looked exactly like one of the local swords except that both the build quality and the finishing were extremely good. Like the ones I made, it was cast in one piece with the wooden scales of the hilt riveted on, ensuring the strongest possible construction. Three fullers ran down the length of the blade, strengthen the blade further and making it lighter, and two small horns protruded from the end of the hilt, functioning as a guard.

Lifting my eyes from the sword to look at Xanthe, I asked. "May I touch it to test the edge?"

She nodded again, so I carefully touched the metal and activated an Ars Mentalis trick, that allowed me to examine the sword with more than my eyes.

As I had suspected, the bronze alloy had been magically hardened to a point where it was almost as sharp and durable as steel. Not only did it make the weapon extremely valuable, but magically hardening was a Baylon technique, requiring Baylon magic and thus impossible for humans to use.

Since weapons made with this technique was a lot better than anything the humans had, it was illegal to sell or otherwise export these weapons and the fact that the fighter had one of these weapons, showed that someone had broken the law.

To make matters worse, there was even some kind of magical enchantment on the sword, but it would take a mage from the Ordo Architectus like Tia Magnus to know exactly what it was. Unfortunately, that demanded that I somehow got the sword to Baylon and I couldn't see Xanthe parting with a sword of this quality of her own free will.

Having found what I was looking for, I withdrew my hand. "This is incredible. Do you happen to know where the Watna got their swords from?"

"As far as I know, they make them themselves." Xanthe answered.

I shook my head. "I examined the rest of the swords the Watna had and they're nothing like this. This is not locally made."

Xanthe was silent for a moment, as she looked thoughtfully into the air. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

With a sigh she slowly said, "In the spring, there was a rumour, that the Watna had been visited by one of Suwaliyat's sons..." She paused for a heartbeat to see if I recognized the name and I slowly nodded. Suwaliyat was a local Warrior God.

Seeing my nod, she continued, "... and had not only been blessed by him, but as the son of the God of Warriors, he had given them mighty weapon in return for their offerings." She sighed again as she fastened her grey eyes on me. "I hope it's just a rumour, because if they have a Son of Suwaliyat on their side, my people are doomed."

I swallowed a sigh. After having seen the sword, I was willing to bet, that the 'Son of Suwaliyat' was a Baylon and given the area we were in, that could easily be the Pulcher family.

The big question was what 'offerings' the Watha given in return for the weapons, so I asked her that and to my surprise, she answered. "Oh, we can ask Toxophone when she wakes up again. She's the trader and the one who told me the rumour, so chances are that she will know it."

"That would be nice. Thank you."

"That is the least I can do." She said and drank from the cup, before asking. "Can I ask a question in return?"

"By all mean."

"Are you a man lover?"

The question took me by surprise and made me laugh. "No... why do you ask?"

She gestured, indicating the whole house. "This. I've rarely seen a male merchant without a female around for pleasure."

"Ahh... hmm... I don't really know what to say, except that I'm not a man-lover and the lack of females here is more a matter of circumstances than by plan." I explained, while making a mental note about needing some female company next time I was sent out. "The last lover I had was from Kumet and she left by ship, as I travelled here. I wasn't really expecting to stay for the winter."

"You could have bought a slave." She calmly suggested.

"No thanks. I like smart, independent women, who willingly enter my bed."

That made her laugh. "You won't find many of them around here. For most men here, women are meant to be seen, and taken to bed, not heard or talked with."

I nodded. "I know... that's why I don't have a woman here."

Satisfied with the answer, she changed the subject and a moment later we were talking about the return of her friends.

The rest of the evening we just talked and relaxed, while listening to the howling wind and the rain drumming against the roof before we went to each our beds. Me on the first floor and her on the ground floor.

However, I had just closed my eyes, when one of my armsmen knocked on the door and told me, that Xanthe wanted a private word with me.

I told him to show her in and moment later, Xanthe and I was alone in the bedroom.

Usually, she was dressed in her fine leather armor, but now she was wearing a simple linen dress, with a heavy cloak over it for warmth.

"So," I said as the armsman closed the door, "what was so important, that it couldn't wait until morning?"

With a smile on her face and a gleam in her eyes, she took a step forward, the heavy cloak sliding to the floor as she moved. "I don't know if I'm smart," She said as she continued forward. "But I am an independent woman." She loosened the knots on the shoulder of the dress and then that too flowered to the floor. "and I will willingly enter your bed."

As she wasn't wearing any underwear, she was completely naked by now and she was gorgeous, with the trim athletic physique one would expect from a warrior woman. The breasts fit the rest of the body: A good handful of perfectly rounded tempting flesh, swollen nipples a the dark red against the lightness of her skin.

I felt the desire raise in me and lifted the warm skins that covered my bed. "Do come in."

She practically dived under the covers and a moment later, I had a soft, but slightly cold naked body against me.

"It's chilly out there." She giggled and kissed my neck. The lips were indeed cold, but the tongue that followed was warm.

Turning my head, I caught her lips with my own and a heartbeat later we were kissing. Tongues dancing against each other. That caused her to moan and throw a shapely leg over mine. Without breaking the kiss, I pulled her closer, caressing her well-shaped ass. She clearly liked that as she wriggled her body against me, nipples hard against my skin.

The coolness of her skin was rapidly fading, and I moved from the mouth to her chin, kissing my way to her neck, moving down to her collarbone. Pausing for a moment, I took my time to admire the shape of her breasts before I bent down and flicking her nipple with my tongue.

Xanthe murmured something inaudible but happy sounding, and I continued, gently sucking, and running my tongue over the sensitive skin of the breast. She tasted good and smelled clean with a hint of leather. As I was kissing and licking my way to the other breast, I felt her hands on my body, moving over my arms and shoulder, as she whispered, "Don't stop."

Stopping was the last thing on my mind and for reply, I turned and moved across the smooth skin of her stomach, running my free hand over her thighs.

She was breathing heavily as I moved my tongue down to her hips, making swirls just to the side of the mound of pubic hair.

Then the light disappeared, as Xanthe pulled the fur cover over my head, mumbling "Sorry, but it's cold."

With a chuckle, I moved my head down between her parted legs and ran my tongue along the crack. Then I used my tongue to part her moist lips and probe the warm inviting flesh of her pussy.

Xanthe gasped in pleasure, her hips squirming against the bed.

She clearly liked the treatment, so I put my hands to her firm buttocks, and continued to suck and lick, darting my tongue against her love-pearl and making swirls around it.

Moaning softly, Xanthe reached down, sliding her hand over my butt and down between the legs to caress my balls and dick, stroking along its length, and running her finger over the tip.

In response, I gently inserted a finger in her, causing her to gasp as I found the internal pleasure spot and tenderly massaged it, while my tongue danced on her love-pearl, licking in an ever-increasing rhythmic pattern. Xanthe's body started to shake more and more and her hand on my dick became erratic, as she lost some of her control to the pleasure.

Her inner muscles started to contract around my fingers, so I picked up the pace of both fingers and tongue. She bucked against the bed a few times, before she trembled and came in a long, drawn-out orgasm, that sent waves through her body, making her body jerk. As always, it was amazing to feel. She finally slowed down, and I stopped licking and pulled my fingers out, before turning around so I could look at her.

"That was amazing." Xanthe said with a smile. She was breathing heavily, and I watched her tits move with her deep breaths.

Giving in to temptation, I moved upwards and licked one tempting nipple and then the other.

Xanthe groaned and then moved her right leg, so I was positioned between her legs. "I want you inside me, but don't come. I want to suck you off."

That was a clear message, but not an unusual one, as it helped avoid unwanted pregnancies. Of course, I could have told her that I was sterile, but since that was quite hard to prove without the use of Powers, chances were that she wouldn't believe it anyway, so I just nodded and moved up further. That enabled me to kiss her, which I did, while she kissed me back passionately, I arched my back, bringing the tip of my dick in contact with her wet pussy.

She moaned into my mouth, adjusted her hips just enough to make the tip rest at her wet opening, before she crossed her ankles behind my back and used her legs to pull me into her. She fit me like a scabbard to a sword. Tight enough to apply pressure, but soft and warm enough to be blissfully welcoming.

"Yes!" She almost hissed and then went back to kissing.

Our tongues entwined as I slowly tried to pull back, but her legs wouldn't allow it. Instead, she started moving, her hips lifting from the bed circling to screw her wet pussy around my dick.

I stayed there on my elbows, luxuriating in the feeling of her squeezing slickness around me, as Xanthe gasped rhythmically against my mouth with every circle her hips made, bringing herself closer and closer to a second orgasm with each wonderful move. Her pussy was hot and slickly smooth, and her clasping walls squeezed me expertly, like a stroking hand or a sucking mouth around my dick.

Sweat was forming on her body as she moved, but she didn't stop. If anything, she went even faster, her hips pumping my hard shaft, and filling the room with the wet sounds of her pussy swallowing my dick along with her gasping moans.

I could feel her muscles contraction around my dick again and then she squealed into my mouth as she exploded in another orgasm, her body jerking beneath me.

Then she finally relaxed her hold on me, and her butt hit the bed again, still twitching.

I wasn't about to just let her off that easily and instead of relaxing with her, I started to fuck her with long hard strokes, my dick pounding into her before she could so much as catch her breath.

Her eyes flew wide open, when my pubic bone hit her love-pearl in a not too gentle fashion. Then I did it again and again, going all the way into her with each stroke. I could her pussy pulse around me as she started to gasp for breath, digging her fingers into my back as I continued to slide in and out of her.

Xanthe exclaimed something in a language I didn't understand, but the tone of voice was happy and a heartbeat later, she bucked and writhed, slamming herself into me as another violent orgasm tore through her body.

"Are you close?" She asked, still breathing heavily.

"Not yet." I kissed her and started moving again. I wanted to come. I needed to come. Badly. The local girls weren't really available, and it had been a long winter.

The only thing that held me back was remembering my promise to her, which slowed my pace, kept my self-restraint in check.

So, I moved in and out of her slowly, savouring the feeling, while I listened to her sounds of pleasure, as I kissed her neck and licked her ear.

She mumbled something in a language I didn't understand, but a heartbeat later, she repeated it in Hittite. "Faster."

With a nod, I increased the tempo, making her moan and twitch. Her pussy started to tremble and squeeze my dick in the most wonderful way, and I could feel my orgasm coming closer with each stroke. Xanthe threw her arms around me and kissed me passionately, just as she came again.

Her body tensed, then bucked against me, as she shook with pure, unadulterated pleasure, muffling her scream against my skin.

The feeling of her coming brought me to the brink of orgasm. Hurriedly, I pulled out of her and took some deep breaths to control myself.

With a gentle shove, Xanthe made me roll of her and onto my back next to her. Then she dived under the cover and a heartbeat later, her mouth found my dick.

Teasingly, she kissed the tip, running only the tip of her tongue from the base of the head down to the root, before working her lips slowly up my shaft, making me groan as she reached the head, took it into her mouth and began to bob up and down on my cock. A moment later, her hand closed around the shaft and started to stroke me, while her tongue played on the head.

I gave up trying to hold back and came with a grunt, filling her mouth with my semen as the orgasm ripped through my body.

She just swallowed and kept sucking and stroking, until she was sure I was empty. Then she left herself fall beside me with a satisfied smile, pulling the furs over us both.

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

A feeling of unease woke me up. The wind and rain had lessened, and the night was quiet. Beside me Xanthe was stirring slightly in her sleep, breathing softly against my skin and the room was pleasantly warm, haven been heated with a brazier which still illuminated the room in a soft reddish light.

All in all, a peaceful scene, but something was wrong. It was nothing I could put my finger on, but every instinct in my body told me, there was danger somewhere close.

A quick scan told me, that there weren't any unwelcome visitors in the house, but still, I got out of bed and got dressed. It couldn't hurt to look now that I was awake anyway.

"Where're you going?" Xanthe whispered in the darkness.

"Something is wrong." I replied in a whisper. "Get your armor and weapons."

"I can't. They're downstairs."

She was right of course. She had entered my room to share pleasure with me and not to fight.

Fortunately, I kept my work from the forge in my room, as it was the most secure place in the house, so there was no lack of equipment.

Walking over to the closet, I opened it and took out the bronze scale armor I had been working on.

Since my knowledge of armor making was limited, I had simply taken the two armors from the attackers, changed the base to fit Xanthe and Toxophone and reworked the bronze scales, so they were lighter and harder. Then I had crafted some knee-, shin- and forearm protectors from light bronze plate to complete the outfit.

Since I've had plenty of time, everything was highly decorated and engraved, using a horse motive as a tribute to Wilusa, since the city was famous for trading in horses. It also matched the last of the swords, I had made in the crafting halls of Ordo Architectus, since that one had a horse's head pommel.

More than anything, it had been an interesting learning project for me, but the result was a functional armor, that was somewhat better than anything else people could get in this part of the world and since it didn't break any laws, I could give it away freely. Not that I intended to do that. Instead, I hoped to trade her the sword and armor for her Baylon crafted sword.

Taking the sword and scabbard in the other hand, I walked back to Xanthe and placed it on the bed. "Here you go. I hope you know how to put it on."

She nodded wordlessly and I went back to the closet, took out the sword and added to the pile on the bed and whispered. "Follow me when you're done."

Looking wide-eyed from the equipment to me and back, she nodded and with a slight smile, I picked up my own weapons and quietly walked to the door, as I used an Ars Mentalis trick to make myself stronger and faster.

The room outside was empty, except for my armsman Alexus, who was sleeping on his bed, snoring slightly. Still walking as silently as possible, I walked over to the stairs.

I was halfway down, when I suddenly felt Baylon Magic being used and a heartbeat later, the front door disappeared as the wood turned into a cloud of dust.

I froze and activated an Ars Mentalis Power called Chameleon. Immediately, my outline faded away as I took on the same colour as the stairs and the wall behind me, making me almost invisible in the near dark of the room.

Reaching out with my mind, I contacted Varro. "< Red Wine, repeat Red Wine! >"

There was a moment of surprise silence, but then the answer came. "< On my way >"

Since 'Red Wine' was the code words for 'Danger' and 'Baylon opponent', I could understand his surprise, but sometimes the opponent found us, before we found them and unless I missed my guess, I needed him here.

Just as I broke contact with Varro, a group of scale-armor clad human soldiers armed with swords and shields moved into the dimly lighted room from the darkness outside, silently spreading out as soon as they were past the now empty door-opening.

One of them signalled to the rest as soon as the saw Toxophone laying sleeping on her bed. Then he added some more signals and I assumed, that he had spotted Xanthe's empty bed and the sword that lay beside it.

A few heartbeats later the soldier by the door stepped aside and a Baylon male walked into the room, bowing his head to avoid hitting his head on the low door.

It wasn't somebody I recognized, but he was dressed in a traditional mage robe and he had more than a passing resemblance to the Pulcher family, making it likely that he was a member of that clan.

Self-confident, he didn't even look around, but strolled directly over the empty bed, reached down beside it, and picked up the sword, while I flowed into the state of Mutatur Tempus Mente (Baylon: "Time shall be changed in the mind."). My brain accelerated and everything else slowed to a crawl as the mage cast a short spell. A heartbeat later, he smiled triumphantly.

Looking at the soldiers around him, he nodded and said something in a language I didn't understand, but the soldiers nodded in response and the one nearest Toxophone lifted his sword as if to run her through.

"< Excellent timing >" I heard Varro say in my head as a magical word resounded in the room.

Glowing coils of magical energy snapped into place around both the Baylon mage and the soldier with the raised sword, immobilizing and catching them at the same time.

On the surface, it was a brilliant spell to use, as anyone trying to use powers to escape would get seriously hurt, but as the Pulcher family had already demonstrated a willingness to die instead of being captured, I would have used another spell.

The hum of Baylon magic filled the air and then the coils around captured enemies faded away as they were dispelled. But not by the mage in the room. The spell had come from the outside.

That left me with four separate problems: The soldiers in the room, who was looking in the direction of the forge, where Varro had appeared. The soldier with the raised sword. The mage holding Xanthe's sword, who was now loose and who could teleport away at any moment, and the unknown mage outside, who was strong enough to dispel Varro's spell.

Judging that the mage holding the sword was the biggest problem at the moment, I unleashed an Ars Mentalis attack that fried his mind and sent him into a coma for some hours.

He fell and I activated an advanced version of the Mico Gradus (Baylon: "Flash Step") Vis Power, which allowed me to move incredible fast for a short distance, while still being able to react to my surroundings. Then I dashed across the room to the far-side corner, attacking four of the surprised soldiers as I moved past them in a blur, taking extra care to hit the one with the raised sword next to Toxophone.

He went down, which was the second problem taken care off.

The mage outside must had detected my use of Ars Mentalis, because just as I left the stairs, a small ball of fire whizzed past me and exploded in the exact spot, I had been and engulfing that part of the room in fire for a few heartbeats, before it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"< I'll go outside >" sent Varro and disappeared again, not waiting for my reply.

Not that it was needed. We had trained these situations so many times, that there wasn't any doubt about who was doing what. He would take care of problem number three, leaving me with problem number four.

My move had taken out half the soldiers, but that still left five active and they quickly regrouped, moving closer together, so they could protect each-other with their shields.

Using a telekinetic push, I sent them flying backwards, and danced away from the corner, as they tumbled to the floor. One of them landed near Toxophone, but before he had a chance to do anything, I took him out with a throwing knife.

There was a flash of bronze, as Xanthe jumped down the stairs, catching another soldier unprepared and cut him down.

With a grin I cancelled the Chameleon power since I didn't want to explain it later and it didn't really work when moving fast anyway.

Two of the soldiers charged me, swords raised high and shields in the front to protect them, so I quickly moved to my left, where only one of them could swing at me.

Still being in the slow, secure world of Mutatur Tempus Mente, his attack was slow and easy to avoid, while my counterattack sliced his throat.

Surprisingly, that didn't stop the last one from trying to kill me instead of running away or surrender, but he had as little luck as the other and fell to the ground at the same time as Xanthe's opponent.

She sent me a grin. "Was that all of them?"

"I think so." I answered and then looked up as my armsman Alexus came charging down the stairs, ready for battle. Quickly taking in the scene, he looked a bit shameful. "I'm sorry, Sir."

"No worries." I said and meant it. The battle had been so fast the armsman hadn't had a chance to join in before it was over.

The hum of Baylon magic filled the air again and then Varro sent. "< All clear. He's ash >"

"< All clear here as well and we got a prisoner. Keep guard while I get this mess fixed >"

"< Will do >"

Switching my attention to Xanthe again, I nodded. "I have a friend outside, who took care of the last one." I glanced over at Toxophone and couldn't help but laugh. She was still sleeping soundly on her bed, completely unaware of the battle right next to her.

Xanthe followed my eyes and then laughed as well. "That is medicine really works!"

"Yeah, well... I didn't think it would put her in a coma." I answered and studied the sleeping woman for a moment. She wasn't wounded or had been hit at all. She was just out cold.

However, there were some things that needed to be fixed.

Alexus still looked shameful when I turned towards him. "Don't you come from a family of carpenters?"

He looked surprised at the question but nodded. "Yes, Sir."

"And can you work with wood?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good." I pointed at the opening where the door had been. "Get Milo from the roof, take the extra door from the forge and put it up as fast as possible. Preferably before the guards arrive."

"I can do that." He said with a smile and walked out to the forge.

The new door was set up, the dead bodies moved to the forge along with the captured mage and I was looking at them, when Varro warned me that he was coming in. A moment later he appeared in the usual dark corner.

"Hey there." He greeted. "All well?"

"Yeah. Anything interesting at the harbour?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. They didn't come by ship. Anyway, I set a watch tower on fire, so don't expect the guard to come running here. They were quite busy when I left and just to top it off, the attacking mage had put a zone of silence around the house, so I doubt that anybody even know that you were attacked."

"Clever of them, and thanks. By the way, did you see who the other mage was?"

"No and nobody would recognize him now." He shrugged and glanced over at the dead warriors and the mage. Then he blinked in surprise. "Oh. My. Goddess." A grin started to spread on his face. "That's Felix Clodius Pulcher!"

I looked over. "Are you sure?"

Varro nodded, still grinning. "Yes. I've met him several times at Schola Magica. Quite intelligent, but his magical abilities are limited, which have made him bitter."

"So basically, a typical member of the Pulcher family." I concluded.

Varro chuckled. "More or less. The real question is what he is doing here."

"I'm about to find out." I said and pointed to the worktable, where Xanthe's magical sword was placed. "Could you take a look at that sword? It's magical and illegal, but I have no idea about what enchantments it has."

"Sure. Do your stuff and I'll do mine."

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

Half a glass later, I came out of my trance and looked over at Varro, who was sitting on a barrel, looking at me in return. As soon as he saw me looking, he grimaced. "We have a problem!"

"More than one." I sighed, "But do tell."

"That sword is cursed." He nodded in the direction of Xanthe's sword. "Anyone who uses it for a few years, will become more and more power hungry as time goes by." He sent an angry look at the sword. "But to make it even worse, after a while, the wielder of the sword will also be subject to mind-control by the Pulchers. Basically, they'll become a loyal subject, if the Pulchers declare themselves kings and it doesn't even have to be a Baylon Pulcher. Any half-breed human with Pulcher blood in his or her veins, can do it."

I nodded slowly. "That fits with what I've got from his mind and you're not going to like this."

"What?"

"That is not the only sword. There are twenty-nine more out there." I sighed. "The Pulcher family has spread these swords among the largest warrior-tribes in the Middle Sea area."

"Twenty-nine? That's insane!" Exclaimed Varro. "Sooner or later, that would be discovered and the Pulchers brought to justice."

"Agreed, so there's something we don't know about this. The Pulchers are not that stupid and unfortunately, they're clever enough not to tell people anything they don't need to know." I nodded at Felix Clodius. "I search his memory, but all he knows is that the cursed sword was made as a part of a larger plan and that there are thirty of them. He did however know that the family have four castles in the Middle Sea area and their location."

"Four!" exclaimed Varro. "How the freak did they manage to do that without being discovered?"

"Well, I'm not sure, but because they have so few Power users, nobody on Baylon really think of them as a threat, so nobody keeps an eye on them."

Varro thought it over for a moment and then slowly nodded. "Makes sense... and because they're so limited in The Powers, they don't get affected when they're outside Baylon, so they deal a lot more with the humans than the more powerful families." He stood up. "I need to get him and the sword back to safety on Baylon. This will be one of the most serious trials in centuries."

"You'll need to put a Power restraint on him somehow. Like the others, he will kill himself to save the rest of the family if given the chance." I stood up as well. "And I need to go make a deal with Xanthe about the sword. I don't want to just take it."

Varro's eyebrows rose in surprise. "You're not coming along now?"

"No. The Pulcher family may have agents here and if a merchant they have targeted just disappear along with the group they sent out to retrieve an illegal sword, they might think that someone from Baylon is on to them. If I just stay, chances are that they think we were just better fighters than they expected."

"I hate when you make sense." He said with mock grumpiness, but then smiled. "Go make the trade, then I'll teleport all those ugly corpses to Baylon in the meantime. They're evidence."

"Good. Less work for me."

Making the deal with Xanthe proved to be easier than I had feared, but then again, I offered her two good armors and two superb swords for her newly acquired sword, so it was a good deal for both of us.

As Varro had said, the guards never came around to us, which suited everybody. I wanted to avoid any agents from the Pulcher family and Xanthe wanted to avoid catching the Guards attention more than she already had done, since the city could and would exile any strangers, that became too much trouble.

Another positive happening, was Xanthe. After our first night together, she had proved to be a passionate, eager lover and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

Of course, we both knew that it would end as soon as Ligish and the rest came back, but we were doing our best to make use of the time we had. That Toxophone was healing steadily, but spent most of her time sleeping also helped, as it gave Xanthe a lot of free time we could use together.

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

One afternoon a couple of weeks later, I was in the forge, when Varro contacted me and after I sent the confirmation that I was alone, he appeared in the corner as usual.

"Hey there." I greeted him. "Any news?

There wasn't a hint of a smile on Varro's face as he said, "Well, you missed one of the biggest military operations in recent history. Not only have all surviving members of the Pulcher family been arrested, but everything they own have been raided... up to and including the four castles outside Baylon itself."

I blinked in surprise. As Varro had said, it was indeed the largest operation in recent history and, short of an attempted coup about a thousand years ago, the only time an entire family have been arrested. A word stuck in my head. "You said 'Surviving members.' How many died in the raid?"

"Few in Baylon, but the ones in the castles died in the raids... many of them by their own powers."

There was silence for a moment, as he paused and I was busy wondering what could be so awful that people would kill themselves rather than stand trial, when he continued. "For some reason, they had been experimenting on both Baylon and Humans and we found a lot of dead people inside those castles. To make it worse, the few survivors we found were insane, sick or both." He shrugged. "We cured the humans as much as we could and then sent our own people home for treatment. Hopefully, some of them will regain their senses and witness in the trial."

"What about the swords?" I asked, adding. "And what do you mean with 'we'?"

"Oh... not me personally, but some members of my family were there, and they gave me a good recount of what happened." He sighed. "They only found nine swords, so there're still twenty of them out there... and with that a potential future problem."

I understood. With most of the Pulcher family dead, there was no way of knowing how many half-breeds there were out there and if just one of them knew the swords secret, we could see a new king, queen or nation come into power soon.

Thoughts and scenarios spun in my head, but they all had one conclusion: This was not the whole plot. There had to be more.

Varro must have seen my expression because he nodded. "I know. As you said last time, we're missing something. If someone became a ruler using Baylon artifacts, we would stomp them into the ground faster than they could blink, leaving the plot to go nowhere and the Pulcher family were aware of that as well."

"Yeah, there're still some pieces in this puzzle that we don't have." I said thoughtfully. "Did the Pulchers in the castles say anything or did they just kill themselves outright?"

"According to my uncle Otho, one of those who did put up a fight was screaming something about it 'being too early.' and that 'they weren't finished yet'." Varro shrugged. "He died before anybody was able to figure out what he was talking about."

There was silence in the room for a moment and I guess we both tried to find some meaning in those words, but with the limited information we had, none of us came up with anything.

"Anyway," said Varro as he looked around in the forge. "Your mission here is done and the Old Man wants you home as soon as possible. You can send the goods you have left with the ships, but I'm to teleport you to Arcem Discendi when you're ready."

Having expected that, I just nodded. The Azzi group would return soon anyway. They were already late for the time frame Ligish had given me.

"I'll contact you, when I'm ready." I promised and a moment later I was alone in the forge again.

With a slight sigh, I reached out with my mind and told the captains of the two merchant ships to come to Wilusa as I had cargo for them. Then I closed the mind link again.

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

"Well, if this is one of our last night's together, let's make it epic." Declared Xanthe when I told her, that I had received news that my merchant ship was arriving soon.

Lifting my eyebrows, I looked at her. "Sharing pleasure with you is always epic, so what exactly do you have in mind?"

It wasn't an idle statement. Xanthe was the type of woman, who liked to change positions after each orgasm and we had tried a lot of different positions, since our first night.

She pushed her full lips, as she thought about it. "As much as I would like to try sex outdoors with you, that's not going to happen as long as we're here. Two attacks are enough. I don't want to invite a third."

"Wise." I commented with a chuckle.

"I know." She said with a smile and returned to thinking. "Hmmm... I have an idea, but it will not be possible until tomorrow... if at all. Do you mind if I bring another woman in on it?"

"I'll live." I said drily.

She chuckled. "I imagine." She was silent for a moment, as if pondering how to continue. Then she added. "It's not for me... I don't like women that way... but I find it exciting to watch."

"As long as you find someone reasonable sexy, I'll live."

"I know just the person." She said with a smile. "We meet in the temple when Toxophone was sick and have talked many times."

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

As soon as Toxophone had fallen asleep the next evening, Xanthe gave me a wink and whispered, "Undress and go to bed. I'll be back shortly.", before she slipped out of the door.

With a smile, I walked up the stairs and spent some time cleaning myself, pouring wine and relaxed under the furs, waiting for her to return.

I didn't have to wait long before the door opened and Xanthe came in along with another woman.

She was not what I had expected. In many ways, she was Xanthe's opposite. Dark red, slightly curly hair adorned her head, framing a pretty face and a pair of sparkling eyes. She was also of normal height for the people of Wilusa, making her short compared to Xanthe and me, and she had the extra padding typical of someone who lived well, without being fat. Her knee length dress was a simple design, closed in the front with a belt, but it was colourful enough to signal that she came from a family with money.

She turned to say something to Xanthe, and I took a moment to admire her ass, which was magnificent. Somewhat larger than Xanthe's, it looked firm and inviting.

With that exception, she wasn't my preferred type of woman.

Then she looked in my direction and smiled.

For some unknown reason, that simple, dazzling smile, carried a sexual presence, that made my dick stiffen, and suddenly, I understood why Xanthe had wanted her to join us: The woman was extremely sexy.

Xanthe dragged her closer and introduced her as Muza but didn't give a family name. Not that it mattered.

Muza looked at me and said in heavily accented Hittite. "We need to have a few rules."

"Yes?" I said as I sat up.

"You have to give me an orgasm and you don't come inside my pussy." She stated, looking at me like a general delivering an ultimatum to an enemy. "I don't want to get pregnant."

I blinked in surprise and glanced at Xanthe, who looked like she was trying to swallow a laugh. Then I looked at Muza again, keeping my face straight, as I said, "I can manage that."

"Good!" she declared, leaning in close and kissing me. For a woman as commanding as she was, the kiss couldn't have been sweeter and more tender, but as we kissed it became more eager and lust driven.

Muza broke the kiss and took a couple of deep breaths, before looking at Xanthe. "You were right. He's really a good kisser."

Xanthe nodded with a smile as she walked over to us and kissed me. Demanding and lustful at the same time. Her hand sneaked in under the furs and found my stiff dick, giving it a little squeeze.

"I think he's ready."

Another hand found my dick. Touching, feeling it.

Reaching out, I took hold of Muza's neck with one hand and dragged her in for a kiss, while the other hand sought and found her breasts. I gently fondled it, felt the soft flesh under the cloth.

She was very responsive and even with me taking it slowly, it didn't take long before she was moaning with every touch and her kisses became more aggressive.

Her nipple stiffened under the attention and I caught it between two fingers, gently pressing in from both sides through the thin cotton.

"Ohhhhh," she breathed into my mouth, as I caressed the breast without ever letting go of the nipple. Her breast felt wonderful in my hand: Soft and firm at the same time.

Muza moved a hand behind my head and crushed my lips to hers, while the other hand kept feeling up my cock. Instead of trying to give me hand job, her caresses had a gentle touch that stood on sharp contrast to the way she kissed.

Xanthe's hand had left my dick and for a few heartbeats I wondered what she was doing, but then the belt on Muza's dress disappeared, causing the dress to open.

I moved the hand under the open dress and ran my hands over her naked breasts, making her purr with pleasure, and when I brushed over the stiff nipples, the purr turned into a moan.

Closing my fingers around a nipple, I pinched it gently. She bucked and the hand behind my head pressed a bit harder.

Mimicking it, I pulled on the nipple a few times, testing how rough she wanted it, before I settled on a medium. Rough enough to be felt, but not enough to cause real pain.

Testing done, I kept caressing her breasts as we kissed. Rasping the nipples in my palms and stretching them in my fingers, gently rolling them. Each action was rewarded with a moan or a lustful shudder and I could feel the skin under my fingers heating up ever so slightly.

Xanthe must have seen it as well and with surprising lightless, she loosened a few strings in the dress and a moment later, Muza was naked. Then Xanthe walked away, leaving us to kiss and fondle each other.

After a while, Muza broke the kiss, whispering a long "Yesses." as her body started writhing.

That felt so much like an incoming orgasm, that I reached out with my mind in an attempt to find out if that was true. It was true, as her breasts were extraordinary sensitive, and she had been aroused since she had accepted Xanthe's offer of riskless pleasure.

I withdrew from her mind and with the hand on the neck, I made her stand up straight.

Since I was still sitting in the bed with her standing beside it, that brought her breasts to the same level as my head, and she groaned when I closed my lips around one stiff nipple, while stretching the other with my fingers.

"Sweet Goddess." She panted when I kissed my way to her nipple and swirled all around, feeling the small bumps of her aureole with my tongue. Finally, I captured the straining nipple in my lips and ran my tongue over it, playing lightly on the tip.

Muza gasped and her arms came around to press my head at her breast.

I kept kissing her breasts and licking the nipples, while my other hand wandered down her back to grab that tempting ass. Like her breasts, it was both soft and firm at the same time.

I took my time, caressing breasts and ass with my hands, while my mouth and tongue played with her nipples.

Her breathing became a panting as I felt the pleasure building up inside her. Up and up, it climbed until the tension was so great that her body became rigid. Then she stopped panting.

Her body shook and a shudder ran through her. I had expected her to scream as she orgasmed, but she bit it back.

I stopped fondling her breasts, slowing down to a gentle caress instead. Another shudder ran through her and yet one more.

Then she slumped down onto the bed as her body released the tension, smaller shocks still wracking her body.

"That was fast." Remarked Xanthe.

I looked over at her. She was sitting naked on a chair, eyes burning with lust, but otherwise she looked remarkable cool.

"Yes, she's sensitive." I agreed with a smile and looked at the naked panting woman beside me on the bed. "Time to part two."

I didn't wait for Xanthe's response as I reached out and gently turned Muza over.

She sent me a little smile and spread her legs invitingly.

I was pretty sure she expected me to fuck her then and there, but I had other plans and started to caress her legs, working my way along the inner thighs.

Muza looked wondering at me for a moment, but then placed her head back on the bed, purring with pleasure as my hands slid over the smooth skin. Finally, I caressed one side of her pussy, feeling the outer lip radiating heat into my finger, before I teasingly traced it all the way to the other side, avoiding touching the love-pearl as I did so.

Just as she thought that I was still teasing her, I let a finger graze her centre, feeling the wet and slick inner lips from bottom to the top.

"Sweet Goddess!" She exclaimed, taking a hold of the furs one the bed with her hands.

Once at the top, I added another finger as I drew a circle on top of the love-pearl a few times, before going down between her wet inner lips once more.

Then I went upwards again, making sure that her wetness covered my fingers, making them slippery, before I placed one finger on each side of her love-pearl, trapping it between them as I had done with her nipples. Muza grunted and bucked on the bed.

Slowly, I started to move my fingers up and down with the love-pearl stuck between them, getting a slight rubbing each time I moved. Her breath became fast and shallow as she climbed towards another climax. I kept the same rhythm for a while, not wanting her to come yet.

Muza relaxed for a few heartbeats, when I relaxed my grip on the love-pearl and left it alone as the fingers wandered in between her inner lips again. Then she groaned when I didn't stop at the entrance to her hole but slid two fingers inside her. She went wild, bucking her hips so that my finger slid further inside her boiling depths to the sound of a long, drawn-out moan.

With deliberate slowness, I started to move the fingers in and out of her, eliciting more groans from her.

The position I was sitting in wasn't that comfortable and without removing my hand from her, I got on my knees, so I could move closer.

Feeling me move, she lifted her head, opened her eyes to look at me briefly. Then she sent me a smile, lay her head back and spread her legs even more.

I smiled slightly to myself. From the way she moved her body to support a weight, it was clear that she expected me to remove my fingers and stick my dick inside her.

Instead, I bowed down and let my tongue draw a circle around her love-pearl, while the fingers inside her went in and out in the same steady motion.

Her head flew up from the bed again, as she looked wide eyed at me, but before she had a chance to say anything, I stiffened up my tongue and licked hard on the little hood covering the love-pearl. At the same time, my fingers found her internal pleasure point and gave it a good rubbing.

Muza cried something in a language I didn't understand, but her hands buried themselves in my hair and pressed my face against her pussy, so it clearly wasn't something to make me stop.

I didn't stop. Instead, I licked and fingered her right to the edge of an orgasm, before taking a short break. I did keep the pressure on the love-pearl and my fingers in place, but I left her on the edge as she bucked her hips against me, keeping her from going over the edge no matter how hard she tried to make me start again.

"You're mean." I heard Xanthe whisper.

From my position between Muza's legs, I couldn't see her, but now I had stopped, there were no mistaking the sound of fingers toying with a wet pussy.

"Yes, he is." Muza panted, looking down at me with angry, lustful eyes as her hands left my hair and went to her breasts, squeezing the nipples.

I smiled against her pussy, the slight movement making Muza groan again. Then I started licking and fingering her again, but in a much slower pace.

"I'll fix that." Promised Xanthe and I heard her leaving the chair.

A moment later her strong warrior hands parted my legs just enough for her to her head between them from behind. Laying on her back, that also enabled her to reach my dick with her mouth and now it was my turn to moan as her soft lips closed around the head, while fingers ran teasingly up and down the shaft.

Xanthe really knew what she was doing, I decided, as she closed her hand around the shaft and gently stroked it, while her tongue played on the head.

In order to distract myself a bit, I dove back into Muza's tasty pussy. Gone was the teasing and as I licked her love-pearl, while my fingers drew circles on the internal pleasure point, I felt her tremble and quiver as her soft cries started to get louder and louder with each passing moment.

It didn't take long before the trembles in her body turned into shakes and with a suddenness that surprised me, her hands went to her mouth, muting the scream as she went off like a fireball. Her thighs clamped around my head and the bed shook from how hard she bucked against my face.

I slowed down but kept licking and fingering her all the way through her orgasm, trying to keep up with her twisting body. That Xanthe's mouth, tongue and hands were doing wonderful things to my dick at the same time didn't make it easier but it did add to the sense of pleasure I always felt, when bringing a woman to orgasm.

Muza's body spasmed one final time and then she went limp on the bed, breathing heavily, but with a wide smile on her face.

Between my legs, Xanthe grabbed the base of my dick and sucked the head into her mouth, closing her lips around the head as her tongue swirled around the sensitive skin in a way that sent shivers down my spine.

It was pure pleasure and I sighed when she suddenly stopped and removed her mouth from me.

Then she moved down a bit so she could stand up and walk back to the chair, ass moving seductively as she did so.

"Sorry about that... I couldn't help myself." She explained with a grin. "Do continue. I think Muza is more than ready for the next part."

I nodded to her and looked over at Muza. Her breathing was back to normal. As our eyes met, she said, "Come here... I want to be fucked."

Not one to argue with a lady in need, I moved over between her legs and bent down to kiss her. A hand snaked down to gently stroke my dick a few times before a little tug signalled that I should come closer.

The hand stayed where it was, until the head was resting at her entrance. She moved it up a down a few times, spreading her juices on it and making to slick. Then she nodded in satisfaction and brought her hand up to my neck, kissing me fiercely.

Kissing her back, I pressed forward and we both groaned as my dick slowly sank into her, the walls gripping the shaft and massaging the head.

Halfway in, I paused and pulled back a little, giving her time to adjust to my size.

Then I gently pushed forward again until I reached the end.

She broke the kiss, whispering, "Careful now."

I nodded and moved down the bed just enough to make sure, that I didn't go to deep by accident.

Resting on my elbows to get closer, I kissed her cheek as I slowly pulled back, stopping just inside her and the pushed back in, while I let my mouth wander down to kiss the soft skin in her neck.

"Ohhhh, that's wonderful!" she moaned, her wandering hands caressing my back and arms.

Still careful not to go too deep, I began to move in and out in a steady rhythm, one I could keep up for a long time and then focused on kissing and nibbling her neck.

Muza's breath became a panting once again and she locked her ankles over my hips, moaning as her hands found my head and dragged in away from her neck, so she could kiss me. Her tongue was frantically dancing with mine, and her body writhed under me, causing her breast to move slightly from side to side and her hard nipples to drag across my chest.

She felt fantastic around me, the inner muscles spasming delightfully around my dick, giving it an extra massage in addition to the feeling of being squeezed by her pussy.

I adjusted my position, so my pelvic bone pressed firmly against her love-pearl, caressing it with every move I made.

Muza gasped into my mouth as she shuddered under me and her nails dug into my back.

I kept the same slow, deliberate pace, my cock steadily easing in and out of her, along the warm, silky walls of her pussy, feeling the tension building up inside her until she felt like a coiled spring.

Then she locked up and screamed into my mouth as a huge convulsion ripped through her body.

It didn't stop there. Waves of pleasure surged through her as I kept fucking her gently throughout her climax, removing my mouth from hers to make it easier for her to breathe.

Her body kept shaking while she moaned and whimpered through a long series of contractions.

I slowed down, caressing her hair while she came down from the orgasm and after a while, her body relaxed under me. Or as least as relaxed as one can be, when they're gasping for air.

There was a soft laugh from our left, followed by a "I think you kept your promise."

Looking over at Xanthe, I discovered that she had moved, so one of her legs were over the armrest and her hand was between her legs, gently playing with her pussy. It was an extremely sexy sight.

"Good. I don't like to disappoint people."

She wetted her lips with the tip of her tongue. "That's the most intense orgasm I've ever seen."

Muza stirred and looked over at Xanthe as well. "Try being on the receiving end then."

Xanthe laughed. "Been there and want to do it again, but later."

My dick twisted at the thought and Muza blinked a few times, as she turned to look at me. "You're not done?"

"No... I did promise not to come in you." I pulled out of her, causing her to moan again. "Get on all fours."

Shaking her head, she did as I asked and a moment later, she was on all fours with her glorious perky ass pointing right at me.

I resisted the temptation to slap it and moved closer, sliding my stiff dick in between her legs.

Muza grunted and shifted her hips as my dick touched her dripping pussy and it slid right into her.

"Oh, yessss," she said in a throaty voice and looked at me over her shoulder. "I don't know how much more pleasure I can take... This is beyond my wildest dreams."

I just grunted and took hold of her wide hips. In this position, her perky ass would stop me before I vent too deep, which enabled me to go as fast as I wanted... and I wanted to give this sexy lady a good hard fucking.

Pulling back just a bit, I thrust into her with much more force than before.

"Shit!" Muza groaned and squealed with delight a heartbeat later when I did it again.

I repeated that several more times, each time increasing my speed and force until I was thrusting in and out of her pussy as fast and hard as I could, slapping her ass with my hips every time, loving the way her pussy seemed to pulse each time I drove into her. The feeling sent chills down my spine and directly into my balls. It wouldn't be long before I had to slow down to prevent myself from coming.

Fortunately, Muza loved it. Her small cries of pleasure growing in intensity each time I drove into her hot quivering pussy, despite her efforts to mute herself by biting into the bedcovering. I could see the light layer of sweat forming on her skin and her body began to shake.

Then her pussy tightened around me as she came again, hands hammering down on the bed as the orgasm tore through her. I kept pounding her all the way through her climax and somewhat to my surprise, she came again as soon as the first one was finished.

With a slight scream, she fell forward on the bed, making my dick leave her pussy, and then just lay there, shaking all over, mumbling. "No more! No more!"

For a moment, I just stood there, breathing heavily. A few heartbeats more and I would have come as well, and the feeling was almost overpowering.

"Goddess, that was hot." Moaned Xanthe from her place in the chair. Looking over, I discovered that she was playing with herself. The fingers of one hand slid up and down on her love-pearl, while she fucked herself with two fingers with the other hand. Both hands moved slowly, and she looked like she savoured the feeling, as her juices glittered in the light from the brazier.

I was still trembling with lust as I pointed at the bed. "Get up here. Now."

She stood up with a grin and sashayed towards the bed, but as she was about to pass me, she suddenly went to her knees and took my cock into her mouth.

It felt like being hit with a lightning bolt of pleasure, as her wet lips closed around the head, while her tongue licked the underside, making me groan with bliss.

Delightfully slow, she retracted her head a bit and gently licked the tip, before she ran her tongue up and down the shaft, ending with taking the head into her mouth again.

Knowing that I wouldn't last long if she continued like this, I pulled away from her mouth. "On the bed, woman. Now!"

With a grin, she stood up, walked the few remaining steps to the bed and crawled onto it.

Stopping almost immediately, with her well-shaped ass pointing towards me. Looking over her shoulder, she mumbled. "Take me from behind."

With a smile, I placed myself behind her and slid my cock over her wet pussy, feeling it open as the head pressed against it. Adjusting the angle a little, I let the head glide over her love-pearl ever so gently, causing her to shiver and moan. Since I needed a break, I followed with the shaft, enjoying the feeling of her soft, wet pussy against my dick.

"Ohhhhh.... Yeah!" Xanthe groaned as she shivered. "I'm so close!"

Still moving back and forth over her love-pearl, I cupped her ass cheeks and pulled them apart, watching her tempting little star blink to me as it trembled whenever I moved. Moisture from her pussy had run down between her legs and the whole area looked wet and slick.

Moving my hand, I placed it so I could tease it with my thumb, drawing circles around it and pushing the tip inside from time to time. It was a fun and pleasurable game: Each time I moved my cock, her ass would quiver and each time I fingered her ass, her pussy would do the same.

Xanthe gasped and started to move, grinding her pussy against me and I could see her fingers tightening around the furs as her pleasure began to build even more.

I slowed her with the other hand. Her getting off like that was not what I wanted, and she allowed me to do it.

Changing the angle again, I thrust forward into her warm, tight, but welcoming pussy.

"Shiiiiiiiiiit!" Xanthe breathed, shivering all over, as I began to slide in and out of her.

Despite the breather the teasing had given me, I knew that I wouldn't last long, so I picked up the pace, slamming into her. Each stroke starting with only the tip being inside until I bottomed out in her. Xanthe stopped talking and just gasped and moaned into the fur, her pussy squeezing me lovingly with each stroke.

Then her pussy started to pulse deliciously around my cock and a heartbeat before she came, I slipped my thumb all the way into her other hole.

She exploded like a fireball, screaming into the furs. Her pussy clamped down and urged me to keep on thrusting. A second orgasm followed a heartbeat later. She screamed again and moved forward away from my cock and finger, collapsing on the bed, shaking like leaf and gasping for air.

For a moment I just stood there, breathing heavily while looking at Xanthe, but then Muza crawled over to me. "My turn. Are you close?"

I nodded wordlessly.

"Good, because I can't take much more." She said with a smile and turned around, presenting her voluptuous ass to me. "Now, take me in the rear until you come!"

With a nod, I stepped up behind her and inserted two fingers in her pussy. She was still extremely wet and aroused, so I took a moment to tease her even more as I wetted my fingers in her juice. Then I let my hand wander to her other hole and gently pressed a finger inside. It went in easily, so I added another one.

"So good!" she mumbled and wriggled a little. "Give it to me."

Carefully, I removed my fingers from her and placed the head at her opening.

I had intended to be slow so I wouldn't hurt her, but Muza immediately pressed back against me, forcing the head inside her.

She groaned and wriggled her ass some more as she continued to push back and with my dick still slick from sharing pleasure with Xanthe, it kept sliding into her until her buttocks met my hip.

"Oh God, this is good." Muza moaned as her body quivered on my cock.

I agreed. She was tight and as she quivered, her muscles contracted around me in the most wonderful way.

Taking hold of her hips, I started to fuck her. Hard.

It wasn't that I wanted to come. I needed to come and Muza was the perfect willing partner.

It didn't take more than a few strokes before she came, as before screaming her pleasure into the furs but that just made me fuck her harder and faster. I could feel my own climax approaching rapidly and I wanted it.

Reaching around her, I found her pussy dripping with her juices. Her body jerked in surprise when I slipped a finger into her pussy, followed by another. I found her internal pleasure point and gave it a massage in the same rhythm as my strokes.

That made her groan louder and wriggle even more and I could hear her making small noises of pleasure every time I pushed myself into her.

It felt fantastic and it didn't take long before I felt the orgasm overtake me. With a moan, I moved my thump up to her love-pearl and rubbed it as I came, releasing that almost unbearable tension, that had been building inside me.

Muza screamed into the furs again, shaking violently on my shaft and fingers, as an orgasm hit her like a tidal wave.

Then we both let ourselves fall on our sides, ending up spooning with my dick still inside her, while we both were trying to catch our breath.

"That was awesome." Muza panted after a while.

"Oh, I agree." I said and reached out to caress her back.

Xanthe crawled over to us and gave me a kiss. Not a 'thank you' kiss, but the heated kiss from an aroused woman. Breaking it, she caressed my chest. "I want to fuck you again!"

That made Muza turn to look at her, making my dick fall out. "Sorry, Xanthe. I can't take any more." She smiled. "I'm simply too tired to do it again."

Xanthe smiled wickedly. "Good... but I'm not, so when you leave, I'm going to ride that." She gestured at me. "Remember, he's leaving soon, so this is your last chance."

Muza hesitated as she looked me over, as smile slowly starting to spread on her face. "I'm going to need a break and something to drink first."

"So do I." I said and stretched. From the looks of it, it was going to be a long send-off.

The dream blurred, flickered and disappeared as the darkness came back.