Queen Yavara Ch. 23

Part Eight: Diplomacy

Chapter Twenty-Three

LEVERIA

"...do you see that?" A nasally voice cut through the darkness. The darkness had been pure bliss, a blanket of nothing to drape over my mind, gently dulling the cruel light of life. The voice was an interloper, a screeching rooster at dawn's window, rousing me unbiddenly from the deepest of slumbers.

"What is that?" Another voice asked. Oh, it was a sweet sound, a songbird's melody to announce the gentle rise of the sun, its warm rays filtering through my eyelids.

"The missile missed her right ventricle by a fraction of an inch." Glendian said, "That is her heart."

"Huh," Elena mused, "so she does have one."

"So do you." I grinned weakly, opening my eyes, "My savior."

"Ah fuck." Elena sighed, "I was really hoping you'd stay in that coma."

"It was quite nice there, actually." I groaned, shifting painfully in the bed.

Elena snorted. "There can't be a worse hell than being stuck inside your head."

"Not if you're the devil herself." I laughed, tasting iron. I looked down at my chest, where the wound was slowly closing beneath Glendian's glowing hand. The muscle stitched together, then the sinew fused, then the flesh reknitted, leaving only a thin white scar. "Did we lose Castle Thorum?" I asked.

"It didn't look good." Glendian said grimly.

"Adarian?"

"Captured or dead." Glendian said, guiding me to roll over so that he could treat the shrapnel wounds on my back.

"Shit." I mumbled. I reached for a hand mirror beside my bed, and palmed the glass. It blurred for a moment, then the portrait of a young high-elf officer appeared, backgrounded by an immense military camp.

"Your Highness." The officer nodded curtly, then immediately disappeared. A minute later, Field Marshal Droughtius appeared, his grizzled and scarred face adorned with an extravagant mustache.

"Your Highness." He bowed his head.

"Castle Thorum has fallen." I said.

The Field Marshall raised his white brows a fraction. "That is... unfortunate. So our intel was incorrect then; the Dark Queen has marshalled her army, and is attacking from the south."

"There is no army to face, Field Marshall, this was an expedition force led by the bitch herself." I said, "Still, the loss of the rangers leaves us blind to the Great Forest. You won't be receiving anymore reports from Adarian."

The general twiddled his mustache for a moment. "Castle Thorum was thought to be impregnable. What flaw did Yavara expose in its design?"

"The roof, apparently. She crashed through it and blew out the entire tower by herself."

Droughtius's brows raised another fraction. "Oh." He paused for a moment, "Your Highness, I would like to make a request."

"Anything, Field Marshall."

"Please have Headmaster Glendian send me all of his mages. The adepts, the red cloaks, the novices; all of them."

I glanced at Glendian's dour face. "Of course, Field Marshall. How goes your progress?"

"Ahead of schedule. We'll be crossing into the marshlands in three days. Five days to the Tundra from there, and two more days after that to Glacier Lake."

"Good. I will keep you updated as this new development unfolds. Thank you, Field Marshall." I palmed the mirror, and sighed as I rested my head on the pillow.

Glendian growled, "Leveria, I will not stand for you sending my students into the-"

"Thank you, Headmaster." I said, "Your services are no longer needed."

The bald little man huffed something under his breath, collected a pile of bloody rags, and left.

"Ten days from Glacier Lake?" Elena asked.

"Then it's just a matter of going around it," I made a circling motion with my finger, "and crushing the ten clans one by one. After that, we pacify the Pines, then the Spruces, then the Maples, and we call it a war and go home. Aren't you glad you hopped on the bandwagon before it was too late? And what a nice seat I saved for you."

"Are you going to make a habit of underestimating Yavara?"

"I could ask you the same question." I said, giving her a critical eye. "You seem to be under the illusion that Yavara is not a conqueror. Will she give back Castle Thorum, I wonder?"

"Castle Thorum was an offensive staging point. Taking it was a defensive maneuver."

"And she will use the victory to rally support from the Ten. Perhaps I underestimated Yavara's power, but I never underestimated her ambition. I brought the full might of the Highland nation to bear upon her because I knew that if I didn't crush the Ten before Yavara united them, then we'd need every able-bodied man and woman in the country just to hold our border."

"She would never invade!"

I smiled calmly at Elena's incensed features. "Perhaps she wouldn't if it were her choice, but it is not. You have a knack for diplomacy, Ambassador Straltaira, but I think you should've spent more time in court with your mother, and less time in the woods with your beloved; you're political acumen is lacking."

"I smell a soliloquy."

"Indulge me this one." I groaned, rolling over on the bed to face her, "Who do you think is the most powerful person in the Highlands?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "It's not you, is it?"

"No. The most powerful person in the Highlands is the peasant. Yes, he must move out of the way when anyone above his station walks the same road, and yes, he must bow and grovel and beg for what he wants, but who is he responsible for? No one. He is at the very top."

"You mean the very bottom."

"It is imperative for us all that he thinks that." I smiled, "But the truth of power, is that it's not a pyramid, but an inversion of it, all balancing precariously on the tip. If the liege lord does not provide for the peasants he rules, they will not blame the baron for their plight. And if the baron does not provide for his lieges, they will not blame the count. If the count does not provide for his barons, they will not blame the nobles. And if the queen does not provide for her nobles, they will not blame God." I grinned at Elena, "And God is blameless, so I cannot lay the burden on her feet. Yavara sits at the same fulcrum that I do, Elena. The Great Forest wants Highland blood, and she will have to provide."

"Don't give me that bullshit." Elena snorted, "Yes, you must placate the Noble Court, but with every degree of separation down the hierarchy, you become more powerful. The counts, barons, lieges and peasants all grovel at your shadow, and they are where your true power comes from."

"Careful, Elena." I said, tapping the side of my nose, "Those closest to you require the least amount of space to slip a dagger into your back. Subverting them is a very dangerous game to play."

"You play very dangerous games, Leveria."

"I gamble, but I don't take unnecessary risks."

"You don't?" Elena asked. She sat on the bed, procured a cigarette from my purse, and lit it between her lips. She studied me as she pulled from the cigarette, letting the smoke fill the air with her silence. "Why did you save me?" She finally asked.

"You're too fun to let die."

"You almost killed yourself." She rolled on the bed until she was lying next to me, propped up by her elbow to loom. "Tell me the truth. Why am I so valuable that you would risk everything for me? What secret purpose are you keeping me for?"

"No secret. I laid it out for you already."

"Then why?" Elena hissed.

I shrugged. "I was just trying to get you out of the way. I guess I wasn't thinking."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "You're always thinking, Leveria."

"Not always with my head." I smirked, snaking a hand into her bathrobe.

Elena grabbed my wrist before I could touch what I wanted. "What am I to you?" She whispered.

"My prisoner, a tool to be used, a thrill when I need a good fuck." I whispered back, "Don't read too much into it, Ambassador Straltaira."

Elena opened her mouth, but a man's voice cut her off.

"Your Highness!" Sir Fraldias yelled from the next room, "Head-ranger Adarian is calling for you on your mirror!"

YAVARA

"I told you everything I know!" Adarian gasped, spitting a spray of crimson. He was suspended over the hole I'd made in the tower, nothing beneath him but two-hundred feet of blackness.

"Oh come now, Adarian," I sneered, "we still have so many teeth to go! There must be something you've forgotten; do I need to jog your memory?"

It alarmed me how easy it was to hurt him. I didn't hesitate; I only paused to consider which tooth would cause him the most pain. He deserves it. He deserves worse. Oh, Adarian probably had told me everything he knew; he certainly hadn't skimped on the details of what my beloved sister was doing to Elena. Maybe he should have. I reached with my mind into the very back of his mouth, clamped on his molar, and tore it from its socket.

Adarian's entire head wrenched with the extraction. "I! TOLD! YOU! EVERYTHING!" He bellowed.

"That was a very convincing reaction, bravo." I laughed, "But I still have more questions."

"What?!"

"Does this mirror work?" I asked, pointing to the enchanted glass on the wall, "Because I've been calling my sister for a while now, and she's usually pretty anxious to talk to me."

"It... works... fine." Adarian said through heavy breaths.

"Really?" I turned my attention to the mirror, "Leveria?! Leveria?! Your sister wants to talk to you! I don't think it works, Adarian; I think you're lying to me."

Adarian screamed again as a wisdom tooth shot out of his gums, and floated before his eyes. Despite the distraction of such agony, Adarian kept his thoughts sealed from me. He'd been trained. I could take his mind, but I could not read it; I was not Prestira Rasloraca. The very thought of her sent a bolt of rage through me, and I tore an incisor out to sound another shriek. The fox in my bag yelped and whined at the sound of her master's tormented cries, and I pondered if throwing April out of the tower window would incentivize him. But I wasn't that cruel; not yet.

"I don't know why she's not answering!" Adarian yelled.

"Being the head-ranger, director of intelligence for the Highland operations in the Great Forest, it sure seems like you don't know very much." I mused, "I can't tell whether you're that good under pressure, or just that fucking bad at your job." I picked up a pile of letters on Adarian's desk. "These," I said as I held up the letters addressed to Droughtius, "are something I know you know about. Decipher them."

"Pull out another tooth, you bitch." Adarian spat.

"As you wish."

I yanked out a bicuspid, prompting another ear-splitting shriek.

"After you decode these letters, I'll put you in holding and negotiate an exchange of hostages with Leveria. You just need to do this one little thing, and you'll live."

Adarian laughed, the sound nearly as pained as his screams. "Now who's the liar, Yavara? You know Leveria won't give up Elena for me, and I know you won't let me live. Not for long."

"I'll let you go once you give me what I need; I'm not my sister."

"No you won't," Adarian spat a glob of red, "because Brock Terdini wants my head, and you'll give it to him."

"Did Elena tell you that? Are you holding out on me?!"

"Elena didn't have to tell me," Adarian laughed harder, "vengeance is all orcs ever think about. So-and-so killed so-and-so's great uncle, and a blood feud that lasts generations ensues. You're the queen of a pack of savages, and you're beholden to their blood lust."

"You're right," I smiled, "you're a dead man. The manner of your death is the only thing you get to decide now. Maybe I should move to different parts; you don't seem to care much for your teeth."

"Please don't!" Yelled a female voice behind me. I nearly dropped Adarian in my surprise. I turned around to see a beautiful naked woman with fox ears and a bushy tail, tear tracks marring her tan cheeks. April.

"Adarian," I chuckled, "for a monster hunter, you seem to have an interesting choice of women."

"She means nothing to me," Adarian said coldly, "she's just a piece of ass."

"I don't think that's true at all." I smiled at him, then turned to the kitsune before me, "April, you're innocent in all this; you can leave now, and no harm will come to you."

"I won't leave him!" She cried.

"I didn't think you would." I grinned, wiping her tears with my thumb, "You're in love with him, aren't you?"

She nodded, her lips quivering.

"What would you do to save his life?" I whispered, bringing our foreheads together.

"Anything!" She blubbered.

My smile broadened.

ELENA

"Well Elena, I didn't want to say, 'I told you so,' but I couldn't help it." Leveria said as we watched Yavara perform her demented dentistry on Adarian through the mirror in her office.

I remained silent. I'd seen glimpses of the shadow of Yavara's darkness before; I could not say I didn't recognize it now, as much as I wished I could.

"I suppose she was driven mad by her love for you," she said, lighting a cigarette, "if that's any consolation. Intent makes all the difference to the torturer, doesn't it? It doesn't mean much to the person being tortured, but of course, Yavara is nothing like me! Oh look, it's April!" She laughed, "The plot thickens. What do you think our protagonist is going to do with her?"

I didn't answer. I was afraid we both knew exactly what Yavara was going to do with the kitsune.

"You could stop her." Leveria said, "You could press your hand to the mirror and tell her to stop; she would listen to you."

I reached for the glass, then paused with my fingers outstretched. A fear I couldn't describe stayed my hand. What would I say? What would she think to see me whole and hale when Prestira and Patricia rotted in the ground? What would she think to see me in nothing but a robe with Leveria smirking in the background? You fucking coward, Elena. I thought, disgusted with myself. I pressed my hand to the mirror. Nothing happened.

"Oh, that's right." Leveria grinned sardonically, "It only works if I press it, and I'm not feeling inclined to do so."

"Touch the mirror, Leveria." I growled.

"No." She said with a sweet smile, "I'd like to see how far my beloved little sister goes with this. Care to watch with me? It'll be like going to the theatre. What a fantastic fourth date for us."

"I can make you do it."

"You can't, actually. I have to speak the incantation in my mind to make it work." Leveria grinned devilishly, "Of course, you could always try coercing me."

I looked at the mirror, then back at Leveria. "You think this is fun, don't you?"

"It's amusing." Leveria said, extinguishing her cigarette.

"Well, let's make it an interactive experience then." I said, pulling off my bathrobe, "Whatever Yavara does to April, I'm going to do to you. We'll see how much you enjoy the show then."

"Am I just a captive kitsune?" Leveria bit her lip innocently, "Please don't hurt my ranger boyfriend, I'll do anything."

YAVARA

I smiled at Adarian as I guided his lover down on the bed. She laid flat on her stomach, tears streaking her face as she whimpered in fear.

"You," I said as I caressed her back, "are going to be an offering to an orc chieftain, April."

"WHAT?!" Adarian yelled.

"His name is Brock Terdini," I whispered to the terrified kitsune, "and he has the biggest cock I've ever seen."

"Yavara, please-" I forced Adarian's mouth shut with my mind.

"You're going to be his little fuck-toy," I hissed as my fingers slid gently down her spine, "he's going to make you pay for the things Adarian did to him; he's not going to be gentle."

April whimpered pathetically on the bed.

"I'm a merciful queen, April," I whispered, "I'm going to prepare you for him so that he doesn't hurt so bad."

April continued to sob into the bed. I reached out with my mind until I found what I was looking for in the mage's office. A purple syringe came flying out the door, and into my hand.

LEVERIA

"Oh c'mon!" I yelled. I was naked on my stomach, and very much enjoying the feeling of Elena's fingers caressing me. And then Yavara had to pull out the succubus extract and ruin the whole thing.

"What?" Elena laughed, "Afraid of a taste of your own medicine?"

"Fine," I grumbled, "stick me with it."

YAVARA

"This will make you feel better," I smiled down at the terrified kitsune, "after I put this in you, you'll be begging for me to fill you. Does that excite you, Adarian?" I prompted the muted ranger, "Do you want to see your precious April moan like a slut for me?"

Adarian just stared back, the most defeated expression on his face. A single tear rolled from the corner of his eye, streaked down his cheek, then fell into the void below. Seeing him finally break broke something in me. For I'd been masking my anguish and terror with cruelty and rage, and when I saw the mask fall from his face, I felt a connection with this man I so hated. After all, revenge is just a quest for empathy.

"Now you know." I hissed at him, letting him see the pain on my face, "Now you know what you did to me!" I plunged the needle into April's supple flank, and depressed the plunger. She seized for a moment, her body as taut as a bowstring, then she eased into a languorous sprawl, her back arching, her limbs stretching with splendid lechery. She laid on the bed for a while, her breath slowing, her ears drooping. Her ears perked up. Her tail wagged. Her hands slid along her body, drew behind her cheeks, and gripped them. As she spread herself, she curled up her tail, exposing the frothing center of her sex, and the tight pink button of her anus. She looked back with eyes full of need, their hue now violet with the poison that had taken her. She bit her lip, and whined, rolling her hips slowly behind me, teasing her presented assets.

"What do you want me to do to you, April?" I asked, positioning myself behind her.

"Fuck me!" She whispered, "Please!"

ELENA

"YES! YES! YES!" Leveria screamed as I pushed my fist the rest of the way into her saturated slit, "DEEPER!" She didn't have the tail to mimic April, but she certainly had the enthusiasm.

"Oh," I laughed, following Yavara's words to the letter, "do you like it when I do that?"

"Yes!"

I leaned as Yavara did, and whispered into Leveria's ear, "I want you to tell your ranger boyfriend what a whore you are."

"No." Leveria whimpered after April.

"Tell your boyfriend," I growled with Yavara, "that his cock can't compare to Brock Terdini's. Tell him or I'll pull out and leave you begging alone!"

"Oh, please don't!" Leveria echoed the kitsune.

"You know what you have to say. Hurt him, April."

"Adarian," Leveria sobbed convincingly, "I'm sorry, my love, but you can't satisfy me anymore! I need... I need Brock Terdini's cock inside me!"

"That's a good girl," Yavara and I sneered, "but Brock has friends, and my right hand is going to simulate them for you."

APRIL

"Not there!" I screamed.

"Why not?" Yavara laughed, "It's my favorite spot."

"I've... I've never..."

"Ah, I see Thomas Adarian is quite the gentleman," Yavara chuckled lowly, "but Brock Terdini is not. Relax, April; you're going to feel a little pressure."

I wanted it to hurt. I wanted it to feel terrible so that Adarian would know I didn't like it, but the succubus extract coursing through my veins wouldn't allow that. My virgin asshole opened easily for Yavara's pinched fingers, and welcomed her into my tight filth. Her digits speared through me as her knuckles pressed into my rectal flesh, a gradient of sensation so alien and wrong, but oh god, so good! I screamed a muffled note of pleasure into the bed, my pelvic floor flexing outward to consume the rest of Yavara's fist, my rim sucking her wrist. She pushed her two hands against the membrane that divided me and kneaded the tender swath of flesh from both sides. My head flung up from the bed and my voice blurted out an involuntary sob of ecstasy. Thomas looked at me with distraught eyes, but I could only look back at him with whorish lust. Yavara was making me feel better than he ever had, and it was killing me inside, but it was true. And as I came to the realization, I came to another; that the poison within me worked to pervert every aspect of my mind, and the longer I thought of Thomas, the more aroused I was by the idea of him being forced to watch me succumb to someone else. I averted my gaze from my lover, doing my best to pretend he wasn't there.