Tales of Tanlien: Rhiannon - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A week's worth of travel brought Melody and I into the Kingdom of Decellos. Another day found me in the town of Meruvyan. This is where Sanford had indicated Tovar's caravans had ended in the past. According to the information from the Society, the main source of income here was the slave market, a rather recent addition. Unlike the Tesserae Empire, which outlawed slavery in all forms millennia ago, Decellon law is a bit more vague in its definitions and applications. Indentured servitude is much more common in Decellos, but there were those few who exploited loopholes in the law and custom to make slaves of the non-human races of Tesserae and the Free Cities.

Few humans in Decellos would see anything remiss in treating a non-human like an elf or a dwarf as a slave, but politics being what they were, and are, between Kingdom and Empire, the Decellon King frowned on any sort of large scale enterprises turning Tesserans into slaves for fear of reprisals. Therefore, what slave trade that existed was small in nature and centered on those Free Cities that had slave markets of their own.

But lately, the taking and keeping of slaves seemed to be growing here so it was no longer the sole purview of the richer and more debauched nobility and merchant-masters. Rumors now hinted of Kingdom mines worked by captured gnomish and dwarven slaves. Places like Meruvyan that were close to the border were no longer hiding their activities, and slaves auctioned here were sent to all parts of the Kingdom.

So this much we knew. We also knew the name of Tovar, who had been one of the earliest businessman to exploit the weakening resistance to the slave trade. But apparently, until I made my request for information, no one in the Society had made a detailed study of the man. But once I did, the loremasters were amazed to see just how many reports the name "Tovar the Slaver" was cross-referenced in. Usually just a footnote or a name on a list of those in attendance at a witnessed function, Tovar had never done anything singular himself. But once the full scope of his associations was placed together, a new picture emerged. Tovar was connected to many, many important people in Decellos, and has participated in a wide range of events far beyond the supposed scope of a slave trader. All of the sudden, there were too many questions about him, and no answers. That's the kind of thing to make the Society a wee bit frantic.

We knew who he was (sort of) and what he did (we thought), but we had no idea where he lived or operated from. Sanford's news was the best we had, and that is why Baldur was so all fired up for me to turn my personal business into work.

Of course, none of that meant a damn to me. But if, in the course of finding Rhi and rescuing her from Tovar, I managed to pick up some info I could pass along, so much the better. I would have probably done so anyway, if I thought it was important.

Before entering Meruvyan, I took pains to disguise any features that would mark me as a breed. I even used a glamour to turn my silver hair into a very pale blond. I look more or less human anyway---my ears are not pointed, my nose is small and rounded, and my slender but solid build no different then any other of the males I had encountered in Decellos.

No one even seemed to look twice at me, and I spent the day hanging around the town square where the slave auctions took place. At least one caravan of slaves were brought in while I was there, and I watched, sickened, as the auction sold off some twenty wretched captives, but no sign of Tovar or Rhiannon.

I'm not sure why, but I was a little surprised by how many of the slaves were women--elves and elf breeds mostly--and these seemed to fetch the highest prices. One or two orc males were sold as well, the auctioneer boasting of their values as guards or gladiatorial combatants, but most of the attention and time was spent on the females, describing their attractive attributes and values and potential as future bedmates. This seemed to be the true driving motivator in the slave trade; not the free labor in the fields or mines, but the chance to indulge in forbidden pleasures and perversions.

Wonderful.

And this was the kind of thing Rhiannon was mixed up in? Was she nothing more than the pampered bed-slave of Tovar, doomed to be killed and replaced when his whim turned, as hinted by Sanford? Or was it more than that? Certainly there seemed to be a haunted look in her eyes that night at docks when we made love, but if she had been a slave, why had she been allowed to roam free without Tovar? And none of that explained why they had been looking for me.

I headed to a tavern conveniently located in the same square as the slaver market and took a seat next to the window so I could maintain my vigilance while I ate. I had plans to visit the brothel tonight, the one that did a lot of custom with Tovar, to see if I could learn anything there. But right now, the only hunger I had was in my stomach, not in my loins, and I wanted a decent meal before having to deal Tovar's business partner.

The table I sat at was mine alone for the entire meal, but when I pushed my stew bowl away and took a sip of ale, a newcomer took the seat opposite of mine. I looked her over carefully, and my eyes widened in surprise. It was not too obvious, or the townsfolk would have surely noticed, but the woman sitting across from me was a breed, I was sure of it. She was small, no more than five feet tall, with tiny, delicate features, eyes of the bluest azure, and auburn hair that hearkened to arboreal settings and autumn weather. It may be very distant, but somewhere down the line, she had fey blood in her, perhaps nymph or dryad, but something.

"I can help you find what you need." Her voice was pitched low, for my ears only, and she leaned forward, her jeweled gaze intent on mine.

Without moving my head too much, I scanned the tavern as best I could, then took a nonchalant sip of the ale. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"Don't play coy with me," she hissed, "You've been asking questions around town. Questions about slaves...and slavers."

"And?"

"Fool!" She spat at me. "You're attracting notice, and not the right kind of notice, breed."

I resisted the urge to frown and took another sip of the bitter brew while I considered my choices. How she knew I was a breed may be the same way I knew she was...but what kind of notice was I drawing, and why? While it was true I had made a few discreet inquiries, I spent more time simply observing. Not to sound boastful, but this is what I do for a living, and I am pretty good at it. So what did I do that gave myself away?

"Lots of visitors have questions when they first get to a new town," I ventured mildly. "What is it exactly that you think you can help me with?"

The woman shook her head in disgust and got up and started to leave. Boy, you really know how to charm the ladies, eh Tan? I caught her arm and stopped her before she could get away.

"Ok, fine--what do you know of Tovar?"

"Let go of me!" She wrenched her arm free of my grasp, then slapped me across the face. "Meet me outside the gate in one hour from now." She whispered this last again, then turned and left without a backwards glance.

Clever. The patrons in the tavern were all looking at me now, and many were smirking openly, but all the saw was some random asshole getting slapped for getting fresh with a woman. Happens all the time in a place like this, and no one will even remember me or her in fifteen minutes. Already, heads were turning back to their original conversations, and I was being ignored again as I stood up, scowling. I dropped a few kingdom coins on the table and left.

At the appointed hour, I rode Melody out the gate at a slow walk. There was a small trickle of people leaving the town with me, heading back to their farms or villages or wherever they came from before the gates closed for the night. I immediately spotted my mystery woman letting her horse drink from the small river that provided Meruvyan with its water. She made no indication that she saw me, but as soon as I was on the road, she mounted up and headed away down the western leading road ahead of me.

Conscious of being watched, I merged into the path of people going that way as well, keeping the woman well in sight without drawing attention to that fact. We traveled that way for maybe an hour, taking several different dusty paths through the rural countryside. It was full dark, and we were the only ones on this particular stretch of road, but still she did not acknowledge my presence.

She turned into a lane leading to a desolate looking farm and led her horse right up to the front door of the farmhouse. I caught no glimmers of light coming from the windows, so either no one was home, or they were taking pains to make it look that way.

The latter was confirmed when a tall dark figure emerged from behind the barn to take the lady's horse, then waited for me finish riding up. The stranger took the Melody's reigns from me, then led the two mounts away in silence. Leaving me alone with the woman.

She glanced at me once, jerked her head towards the house, then led me around it to the back. There was a garden here, around the backdoor, but it was wild now, and overgrown with weeds and brambly looking bushes as tall as myself. It was obvious the farm had been abandoned generations ago, but I was most curious about its new tenants.

Moving the weeds away from the side of the house revealed the hidden doors to the root-cellar. The woman tapped on it in an unfamiliar pattern then waited. The doors were opened from the inside, but I could see nothing inside the murky darkness. The woman signaled for me to follow her again, and we descended the stairs down under the house.

The doors above us closed again, and I was blind in the darkness. A small hand slid itself in mine and led me the rest of the way. I focused on the delicate fingers and smooth, soft skin of the hand, and it felt warm in mine. I decided this trip wasn't really that bad after all.

A door opened in front of us, and we entered a dimly lit room. There were a dozen or so men and women in here, and they were all armed and looking at me suspiciously.

Jolly.

"Who that, Erinna?" growled a hulking, brutish man with an iron-shod club pointed at me menacingly. He was another breed, one with a lot of ogre or orc in him. "Why he here?"

"Easy, Ash" soothed Erinna, my mystery lady as she led me to a small table and poured us both a glass of wine. "This here is Tanilen, the bard we have been hearing about. I think he is going to help us."

"How do you know my name?" The question was asked before I could think about it, but it was nearly drowned out by all of the other voices.

"How we know its him?" asked Ash, reasonably enough for an orc breed, while another voice asked why my hair was not silver. Another, from a pretty young female with spiky blond hair, asked me to play them a song to prove I was bard, but the giggling girl was hushed down by the rest.

Aside from that girl, this was a serious, grim bunch, and I wondered what I had stumbled upon here. A conspiracy, undoubtedly, from the amount of secrecy and distrust, but of what sort?

Erinna held up a hand to silence the room, and she was obeyed instantly. "I saw him use magic to hide his hair color before he entered Meruvyan. He's got a lute strapped to his baggage on his horse, whom I have heard him call 'Melody'...how many other silver haired bards can there be? Especially coming to this town?"

I took the wine she offered me and sipped reflectively. So that's how she knew I was a breed--she saw me before I entered Meruvyan in the first place, and followed me. By why was this group looking for a silver haired bard named Tanilen, unless...they were with Tovar too?

"I appreciate you trusting me like this, to come out here with me," Erinna spoke directly to me now, and took a seat on a wooden chair, indicating I was to take the chair next to it. "My name is Erinna Cordell, and my friends and I also have an interest in your friend, Tovar."

"I see." My hands tightened on the arms of the chair as I wondered just what kind of trap it was I had gotten into.

Erinna apparently read the distrust in my eyes, and spoke directly to that. "Tovar is no friend of ours. He is a cruel and heartless man, a slaver who has destroyed the lives of each and every person in the room, save you." She paused, daring me to respond to that, and continued when I remained silent. "Some of us are slaves who escaped from him, other, like myself, lost loved ones and family to his slavers. We want nothing more to see him dead, and his slaves freed."

"I can...sympathize with your goals," I said quietly, choosing my words with care. "I have no love lost myself for Tovar, nor do I believe in slavery. But none of this tells me why you were looking for a silver-haired bard named Tanilen in the first place, or what I can do to help you."

Erinna sipped from her wine before responding. "We have helped to free many slaves over the last few years. Not enough to make a difference, or to draw too much attention to ourselves, but those we have helped have found new homes in the Free Cities. Many of the them repay us by sending any information to us that may be helpful in our fight. Several of them have sent word this summer that Tovar and that bitch of his were travelling and giving your description out everywhere they went. And they weren't travelling as slavers either, but as minstrels."

It made me cringe a bit to hear the spite and hate Erinna used when she said bitch, and I really had no doubts that it was Rhi she referred to. I wanted to ask about her, but Erinna continued with her story.

"I got the same information from a contact I have inside of Tovar's estate. It said Tovar was really eager to get his hands on you. And while they did not know why he wanted you, it did not sound pleasant. For you, I mean.

"So when I see a silver-haired bard on the road to Meruvyan this morning as I was headed there myself, it struck me funny. Especially when you used magic to hide your hair, and then spent all day in the Slave Market asking oblique questions about our favorite slavemaster. It was not hard to put two and two together."

"You were following me." It was meant to be a statement, but a little of my anger slipped through and it sounded more like an accusation, but Erinna ignored that. She had followed me and I had never noticed; damn, but she must be good.

"Of course I was following you. I figure anyone who is wanted that badly by Tovar would be worth getting to know. The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"Is Tovar my enemy?"

"If he wasn't before, he is now, sweetie." Erinna's voice was sweet and smug. "My contact says there is a Church Inquisitor staying with Tovar right now, and the contact has heard the inquisitor ask about you as well. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never heard of an Inquisitor who had friends, and everyone I know of who has been asked of by them has disappeared or been arrested for treason or blasphemy. They aren't there to ask you to tea, once they find you."

This was not going well. Or perhaps it was going too well. I had only had the one clue about Tovar's whereabouts, which took me to Meruvyan, which just happened to put me in touch with a conspiracy against my target the first day I get here?

"So now you have found me. Who gets the boobie prize? Or is there something you expect to get from me?"

"Don't be an ass," Erinna snapped back. Ash looked from her to me, expectantly. Maybe he hoped Erinna would change her mind and let him pound me? Keep wishing, pug-ugly.

"Alright, let me rephrase. Now that fate and cunning has conspired to bring two of Tovar's mutual enemies together, how do we proceed from here and take advantage of the situation?"

"Better, bard...much better." Amusement, the first I had seen from her, flickered in her eyes, then she turned to her companions. "What we can do now is find out why you are here. If it's not something that will get in our way, we may just help you if you ask us nice enough. But if it is gonna bring us trouble, we'll just deal with you...here and now."

"Threats, milady? I usually need to know a woman a little longer than this before she starts in with the dire proclamations. And speaking of which, who is going to stop me if I decide I would rather just leave now than explain my purposes to you? My business is my own, and it should be sufficient that I am no friend of the slaver's."

"But it is our business...Tovar and everything about him is my business, and I need to know what kind of rogue element you are before I cut you loose. You know of us now, and I can't afford to have you pass this on to him. You may not be a friend of his, but even enemies will do business together when the circumstances demand it.

"If all you are looking for is information on Tovar and his operation, then we can provide that to you, for a fee, and send you back to where you came. But if its more than information you want, then we need to be frank with each other."

I considered Erinna's words carefully and mulled my options.

"Let us say, for now," I began slowly, "that my motives are not that far from yours. I have also heard of Tovar's search for me, and it has made me very curious. And I have become aware that someone who was very dear to me once may now be one of his slaves."

"Once?" Erinna asked, her delicate brows arched.

"I beg your pardon?"

"This person Tovar may have enslaved; they were only dear to you once, not still?"

"I came all the way from Portico looking for Tovar; you tell me." I was angry again. Erinna was toying with me and I did not like it. I set my wine glass down and stood up. Ash made a step forward, violence implicit in his eyes, but his fellows held him back at Erinna's signal.

"Easy, handsome" I winked at Ash and blew him a kiss. "You don't need to be afraid of little ol' me."

Erinna stood now as well. "So what now?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Despite the fact that your group has been searching for me for so long, its obvious you are not all in accord on trusting me. And until this evening, I did not even know you existed, and I sure as hell don't know if I can trust you. But I will tell you this much for free, and I'll let you decide what you want to do with it--I'll tell you what I want. I want to know where Tovar lives, I want to know all about him and his staff, and I want to get into his compound. Can you tell me this? Any of this?"

The petite leader of this rag-tag band showed the first signs of indecision since she thrust herself into my business, and she looked at her co-conspirators as if for confirmation.

"You go too far, 'Rinna," protested one of the men who had been silent so far. "He may be who he says, but its not your choice-"

"-But he can help us!" Erinna protested, "I just feel it, he is the edge we have been looking for..."

The man put a soothing hand on her shoulder and guided her back into her chair. "It's not your decision, 'Rinna, and you know that. It must be discussed and decided upon by the group, the whole group. You have already done much damage just by bringing him without asking."

"Listen," I interjected, "Its clear you all have a lot to discuss amongst yourselves. It appears that we may both be able to help each other, though I am not sure how I could help your group. I am interested in obtaining information, not getting involved in a crusade.

"Now, I have other things I still need to do tonight, so why don't I just go and leave you all to discuss and talk and see if you will help me or not. Tomorrow, if you want, Erinna can find me in the same inn she did today and let me know your decision."

I made for the door again and surprisingly, Erinna told them to let me leave. This was clearly not a popular decision, but one she was allowed to make, it appeared. I was cautious the entire time I left the house and saddled up Melody, but I was able to make the long, lonely trip back to Meruvyan unmolested.

---

It was getting close to midnight before I re-entered the city and made my way slowly down the darkened streets. Most of Meruvyan was asleep, and few people were about, but the place I was headed to would just be getting started in its business.

Madam Adaline's was a quintessential brothel, with a decor as full of brass and polish as its whores, yet there was a certain warmth in the place that was due to more than just the massive fireplace that commanded attention in the parlor. From the prettily made up blonde who greeted me at the door, to the dozens of scantily clad women who draped themselves liberally over furniture and clients alike, there was a powerful sense of welcome and rightness about the place that confused me and kept me off stride.

The owner of the brothel, Adaline, was said to get all of her "employees" from Tovar, and I was expecting the pleasure slaves to be more, well, oppressed. I had seen the slaves being sold in the town square, seen the fright in their eyes and the way they trembled on the auction block. Whereas those slaves were spiritless and broken, Madam Adaline's slaves were vibrant and, if it could be believed, happy to be here.

I immediately suspected magic or drugs were being used to control the slaves and make them even more pleasant companions for the clients. But the former was illegal in Decellos and quite rare, and the latter was very expensive, to get the results I was seeing. Unless Madam Adaline did not mind a high turn over of slaves; I had heard of one herbal mixture that could intensify all physical sensations and leave the partaker in a euphoric, pliant state even as it burned their bodies out from the inside. Asus addicts rarely lived longer than six months before they turned into withered husks. Because of the limited usefulness, it was not terribly expensive, and it would be easy in a place like Meruvyan to replace slaves.

The thought of treating slaves so cheaply made me nauseous, and brought a little more fear to me for Rhiannon; was this what could happen to her when Tovar lost interest in her? Doomed to this whorehouse and a short but intense addiction to Asus?

Its funny how, with Rhi back in my life, even as precariously as it was, my behavior was so altered. It has never been my practice, since setting out on my own, to commit myself to a single woman. Its not that I feel that I sleep around a lot, though I am accused of it, or that I am overly promiscuous, but there is a certain lifestyle associated with being a minstrel and an adventurer, and I have never shied away from sharing intimacy with those that I choose too, when I choose too. I have never made exclusive demands on my lovers, nor they on me.

And yet, since that night on the docks, I had been focused so tightly, so determinedly, on Rhiannon alone. I had no idea what the future held for Rhi and I, nor if I even wanted a future with her. I only knew that I had this burning need to find out why she had come back into my life and left the way she did, to find out why she had been seeking me, and if she was ok.

Until then, I seemingly had no interest in other women. I had been unmoved by Lilly, as adorable and available as she had been that night in the forest, or by Erinna, as alluring and mysterious as I had found her in that hidden basement room. And I certainly had no interest in these painted whores who were trying to ply me with their sweet words and brazen displays.

But perhaps this was all to the better as it kept me from being distracted from my true reason for being here: discovering the true link between Adaline and Tovar. Sanford swore there was more going on between the two then merely a buyer-seller relationship, and I was convinced the path to where the Slaver lived led through Madame Adaline's brothel.

Unfortunately, I had no idea how to obtain this information, I was flying by the seat of my pants, as usual, and I couldn't simply ask Adaline outright. I was toying with the notion of hiring one of the pleasure slaves and see what I could get out of her with chit chat, then use some flimflam to knock her out and explore the house.

At, least, that was the plan that was forming when it all changed...

"Hullo, I am Madam Adaline, welcome to my House."

I turned and found my self face to face with a striking brunette. She was older than I was at the time, but not nearly as old as I had expected, and hers was a mature beauty that I found captivating. But that came later. For the moment, I swiftly composed myself and flashed my most charming smile at her.

"We've been expecting you."

And lost that composure just as swiftly. What the hell? Was everyone in this goddess-forsaken town looking for me? Was there anyone who did not know who I was?

"I...um, er...well," was my eloquent reply, if memory serves. Embarrassing, isn't it?

"Oh, dear, I did think you were the new musician we had hired." Madame Adaline's voice was a sultry caress. Call me professionally biased, but I still think her voice was her best feature, and this was a very attractive woman. Not that I was interested.

But her words did give me a lead in.

"Madam Adaline, a pleasure to meet you." I recovered as best as I could, and kissed her proffered hand. "I'm afraid I came looking for companionship, not employment. But it so happens I am a skilled minstrel if you have a need of one?" This could be ideal; If I got myself hired as an employee, it would give me plenty of access to the House and its secrets. Especially if Asus was being used, I would be able to see it.

"How fortuitous for us. Highly skilled, you say?" Madame Adaline sized me up, then smiled. "We are in a bit of a difficult situations, as it happens. My clientele expect a pleasant environment in my parlor, and entertainment to go with their women. I hired a guild musician sight unseen this morning and so far no one has shown up."

"Then it appears I may be able to do more business here than I hoped for."

It appeared that Adaline agreed as well, for before I was even sure what was going on, I found my self tucked into an inconspicuous corner of the House's tasteful parlor. I played elegant Decellon airs on my lute while watching everything and everyone in the parlor for the next few hours. Confusion appeared to be my new natural state, because I saw nothing to indicate that there was anything sinister going on, and yet there had to be. But all I saw were lots of enticing women wearing very little clothing, and the patrons who were very appreciative of this.

Finally, it appeared the "evening" was over and patrons were leaving, walking out into the crisp dawn air. I allowed myself a yawn and was putting my lute away in its case when a body pressed against mine from behind as a woman's arms wrapped around me.

"Highly skilled indeed," Mistress Adaline's sultry voice was tinged with amusement. "You are everything you promised, Master Bard. It makes me curious--what else are you highly skilled at?"

I gave a dry chuckle and slipped from her embrace, subtly keeping her at arms distance without making it look like that was my intention as I finished caring for the lute. "I wish I had the time to show you, Mistress, but it appears we've run out of night time."

"Don't be silly, Tanilen," the brunette was better at getting what she wanted than I was at evading her and she was once again pressed against me, one elegant hand placed on my chest, the other running through my hair. Outmaneuvered again! And me not in the mood to enjoy... "You came here looking for companionship, you said, but I made you work instead. It would besmirch this House's reputation if I let you leave without getting what you came for. So tell me, which of my girls that you saw tonight did it for you? Who should I send to your room?"

Adaline had plucked loose the ties on my shirt neck and was running an exquisitely lacquered fingernail in lazy patters on my chest. I was finding next to impossible not to get distracted by this lovely woman--she was a business partner of Tovar's, and that meant she could be dangerous to me. But I was feeling the first stirrings of lust since Rhiannon and I was trying to remain in control.

"I don't want any girls--" I started to hedge, but Adaline trumped me by kissing me fiercely, passionately. I was intoxicated with her, and barely heard her.

"I didn't think you were into playing games with little girls---you want a real woman, a lady?"

I felt the brunette's tits mash into my chest, could feel the hard points of her nipples pressing into my skin and lost the battle to stay focused. In the last few moments of clear thought I had, I figured out I'd been slipped a micky or been doused with some lust mojo, but then I was following Adaline's delectable ass up the ornate stairway to her suite, and I didn't care anymore.

"I knew the moment I saw you walk in the door that you were my kind of man, Tanilen. I saw the way you looked around, so cool and collected, and knew you were looking for something more than my silly little girls--you wanted the real deal." Adaline lead me into a sumptuously decorated bedroom dominated by the large bed with blood red silk sheets on it. She gently prodded me to sit on the bed, then elegantly slipped out of her gown.

She was nude, and magnificent, and she gloated when she read the awe in my face. "Honey," she purred, "I am the real deal."

I don't recall that much was said after that, at least not anything that was intelligible. My clothes quickly found themselves unemployed and our bodies fitted together the way the gods, that silly horny bunch of immortal perverts, had intended. And it was good.

Adaline overwhelmed me with her sexuality, controlled me with her caresses, and abused me with my own awakened needs. She had me worshipping her eagerly, attending to her pleasure first while stoking the fires of my own demanding lusts. Her legs--firm alabaster pillars that would put any of her girls to shame--were draped over my shoulders and her fingers entwined in my hair kept me focused on her overflowing sex.

She was one of the best tasting women I had ever eaten, and likening her free flowing juices to honey was not mere poetic artifice. My tongue went everywhere--gliding over the puffy outer lips, following a dribble of her nectar to her tiny rosebud, back up to the pouting slit--everywhere but her clit. There was just too much else to explore and I wanted her primed before I teased her bud.

Fingernails were raking my back now and I could feel them breaking the skin as Adaline arched her hips, mashing her pussy tighter against my face. She was there, and then I attacked what I had been avoiding since the start. I wrapped my lips around the engorged clit peeking from its hood and sucked as I pulled my mouth away quickly, like sucking syrup from a finger tip. The smallest gesture, just brief, intense contact, and it set her off.

The mistress of the house screamed as the first of her climaxes ripped though her body and I backed off a bit, letting her come down from her high. When Adaline's breathing became less ragged, I started again, kissing the tender skin of her inner thigh, letting my lips convey passion to her enflamed body.

She kept me between her thighs for a long time, and I brought her up and down the scales of ecstasy many times, playing her body with licks, nips, kisses and feathery caresses like notes and measures in a song.

But after so many weeks without companionship, my own needs were strong as well, and Adaline finally drew me up her body, her hands once again buried in my hair and pulling my head up to her lovely breasts. Large, firm, and capped with long dark coral nipples, they defied her age and begged for my attention, and I was only too happy to oblige. I sucked those delightful nips into my mouth while I rearranged my body above her. Adaline helped, and her hand, soft and warm, gently guided my cock to the lips of her pussy.

I kissed her then, long and hard as I slipped hard length into her welcoming channel. Adaline sucked my tongue into her mouth at the same time she moving her hips against mine, and I started a nice slow rhythmic fucking, making sure I dragged my cock against her inflamed clit on every up stroke. But I had been too long without a woman, and her cunt expertly massaged my cock, and I felt myself beginning to boil over much sooner than I wanted.

Adaline read my body's cues before I did, however, and her fingers found my cock and encircled it around the base--cutting the flow of blood and checking my need to come for the moment. Wriggling out from underneath me, she turned around and got on her hands and knees. Looking at me over her shoulder, she flashed me an enigmatic smile as she waved that pert ass in front me.

Tell you what--it may have been a while for me, but I sure as heck couldn't miss the message in that and I plunged back into her sopping cunt from behind. My sexy brunette buried her face in the pillow, barely muffling her moans and squeals, and I lost any control I had. Adaline's ass was just too sweet and I began pounding into her forcefully, forcing her body to slide along the silk sheets with each thrust.

Soon we were both grunting and gasping for breath as our passions took us both right back to the brink. This time, neither one of us wanted to stop it for the world. I felt her pussy contract first around my cock as her body gave into orgasm, and then I exploded into her, emptying my lust in her insatiable body.

Exhausted, I let my depleted cock pull out from her and I laid back against the headboard of the bed, a pillow propped underneath me. Adaline snuggled up against me, her head rested on my chest, and we gazed at each other unashamedly as we waited to catch our breaths.

After a few moments, the brunette reached over me, dragging her breasts against me, and tugged on the bell pull. My pulse sped up again at the feel of those marvelous nipples on my skin, but before I could do anything about it, the bedroom door opened and a blonde maid came it with a tray. The girl, a hot young looker I had not seen before, seemed to ignore the sight of her boss and boss' lover naked in bed together and did her job efficiently, leaving the tray on a night stand next to Adaline. The maid left as quickly as she had arrived, and my lover poured us both a glass of the wine.

"To sexy brunettes and classy ladies," I toasted as I clicked my glass against her. "Those youngsters don't have anything on you."

"Well said, bard," murmured Adaline before draining her wine and tossing the glass negligently at the fireplace and straddled my waist. "Time for round two."

We made love for the rest of the morning, doing it hard and fast, then long and slow, and everything in between until I was too tired to move, much less exert myself any longer.

It was one whipped and pathetic looking bard that crawled out of Mistress Adaline's house that bright and sunny noon, and I groaned as I remembered my appointment with Erinna. Damn, well, at least I would be able to get a few beers in to fortify myself while I waited.

No such luck. Erinna was waiting for me in the tavern, seated at the same table we shared yesterday. She had a scowl on her face and she narrowed her eyes in distaste when I entered and sat. I realized she had had a perfect view to watch me leave Adeline's, and I'm sure she could tell what I had been up to.

Gee, swell.

Erinna mastered her displeasure long enough to tell me I was in; her band had decided to take me with them on an extraction planned for tonight. They were going to spirit one of Tovar's slaves out, and then sneak me in.

She gave me the silent treatment the entire way to the meeting place. The only others there were the brute, Ash and the man who had argued against me in the meeting.

At nightfall, we all mounted up and headed south, back towards the Decellon border. We rode for maybe two hours before we stopped and Erinna signaled that we were there.

"This is the outer border of Tovar's estate," whispered the lovely conspirator directly into my ear, her warm breath tantalized my lobes. I may have not gotten any information from my night in Adaline's bordello, but it appears I had found my libido again. Welcome home, boys!

Tovar's property was sprawling, and even with my fey-blessed vision, I could only just see windows lit from within by bright lights, indicating the manor house in the distance. Between us and the house was a fence and a large expanse of fields.

"Dream smoke," I was informed, "and other illegal crops that Tovar grows and sells here and in the free cities. They say he was into drugs first, and slaves came later when he needed a cheap labor force to cultivate his poison fields. Now he sells both and profits from other's misery."

It was a pretty piece of sermonizing, but I was more interested in getting in unnoticed. "Guards?"

"Lot's of them, so keep quiet--we're waiting for our contact to signal us its safe."

So we waited, but the signal never came, but something ugly did. It was swift and vicious and when it was over, only Erinna and I were left of our group, and we were captured....

To Be Continued...

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