Legends of Belariath
Infernis
Justice and Revenge: Chapter Five - Bargains
Within most of the known Western Principalities, wizardry is a known and tightly controlled element. Those that show a talent for it are trained by large, shadowed networks known for their secrecy and complete disregard for matters of law. Those wizards that resist conformity and service to these collective Brotherhoods are dispatched with great speed and ruthlessness. Those that survive long enough to become powerful are given an unofficial membership and left strictly alone. Unless they find it profitable to do otherwise.
Cassandra had learned all of this in the week since her husband had left again, this time to the North, in search of the wizard Belial’s center of power. He had never learned of Cassandra’s secret and had, in fact, come to love her all the more for her newly achieved lust for the flesh. In his arrogance, he thought it was about ‘him’. She forgave him that, because he was a man, and prone to such flights of idiocy. Her search for a quiet and permanent answer to her continued enslavement to the wizard had led her to conclude that to beat a wizard, you need a wizard.
All of this ran through the Queen’s mind as she continued her usual and expected routine of Royal matters and parties. Through a number of hand-delivered notes, she had received word that her request for assistance had been heard by the Brotherhood of the Endless Flame. And now, all of that research was returning a result.
Cassandra paced across the empty bedroom floor, doing her best to ignore the fact that she was not where she should be, should Belial return unexpectedly, and how would she, could she, lie to him convincingly? She unconsciously tugged at the crystalline collar that she wore around her neck. It was intangible and invisible when anywhere where someone could see it. In private, or with the wizard, on the other hand...
She shuddered a bit at the conflicting hatred and need that surged up at the thought. There was no doubt in her mind that she would kill him, one day. And she was also sure that until that day, he would abuse and debase her, and she would love it. She hated herself for the weakness, and knew it was based in his hated magic, but that knowledge did nothing to console her the numerous times she found herself writhing beneath him or surging with pleasure at his touch. A whisper of sound was all the warning she had, her mind screaming the fact that she wasn’t alone in the room anymore, and part of her, a large part, hoped it was Belial.
The Queen turned to the robed figure that had appeared in the room as though it had always been there. Perhaps it had.
”Queen Cassandra, the Brotherhood has heard your request. I am Celeste Farborn, Third Circle of the Brotherhood.”
The feminine features that graced the woman’s face surprised Cassandra as much as the soft and lilting voice. For some reason, the idea of a woman using magic disturbed Cassandra deeply. Thick blonde hair and pale skin were visible in the candlelight and crystal blue eyes watched the Queen with a cool superiority that Cassandra had seen all too often in Belial’s eyes. This did nothing to improve her mood.
Cassandra’s tale took a few minutes to tell, leaving out the worst and best of the details. Throughout the telling, Celeste spoke only briefly, asking short questions and staring distantly. Cassandra could not help but notice the woman’s robes were cut in revealing fashion, exposing great expanses of alabaster skin across her sides and thighs. Cassandra’s attention had wandered as she had recounted the tale of being enslaved and her eyes repeatedly wandered to the conflicting light skin and dark robes.
Celeste had kept silent as much as she could; not willing to speak too much until she was sure the woman was not attempting to implicate the sorceress in the assassination of a legitimate Brotherhood Wizard. The woman’s collar was plainly visible to the sorceress and she recognized the quality and magical signature. The Queen continued to ramble on about disgrace and being forced into degradations and her eyes never seemed to stray far from her own form. Celeste could laugh. She had designed these robes to try to distract her own Brethren in the Flame and here it had attracted this lush thing.
”Enough, your Highness.”
Cassandra halted herself and blinked a few times, pulling her eyes from the woman’s legs and to her face. “Then you’ll-“
”This wizard is known to us. He is a renegade and has caused us much grief in the past. The Brotherhood will do as you ask, in return for the payment required.”
Cassandra nearly fainted with relief and smiled for the first time since this meeting had begun. The sorceress approved silently. She imperceptively squeezes her crossed legs together and made a quick decision.
”There is one other thing, Your Highness. I require payment of my own in return for my aid.”
Cassandra’s smile faded somewhat and she shook her head. “Your order does not pay you? I don’t see why I should pay more for something you’ll be rewarded for, in any case.”
”Quite simply, silence.”
”What?”
”My silence. Your tale is incomplete, and Belial’s debasements are known to us intimately. It is obvious to me that he has used you and you don’t wish me to know it. For that, it will cost extra.”
Cassandra had gone cold to her core at the woman’s quiet and cold tone as she laid out her reasoning. Her stomach twisted within her and churned a bit. She recognized the look on the sorceress’ face and immediately flushed.
”You do want my silence, Your Highness? If not, then do say so and I will take my leave to begin the preparations.”
The sorceress made a show of lifting her hood again and going to stand from the plush chair when the Queen came to her feet.
”No! I..That is, please, I do wish your silence. Whatever gold you wish I will be glad to pay.”
The sorceress lowered her hood again and went through the motions of thinking and openly staring at the dark haired woman’s form and merely smiled.
”Gold is meaningless.”
Celeste uncrossed her legs and recrossed them, allowing the strategically cut robes to fall open with the motion, exposing her obvious lack of apparel beneath the robe, her naked thighs flexing lightly as the Queen instinctively looked down and then away. Her own flushed face was betraying her embarrassment and growing sense that she was losing control of the situation.
The sorceress, on the other hand, was growing intrigued by the woman’s lack of anger and inability to look away from her in embarrassment. This one truly was in thrall to the collar. Well, far be it from her to turn down such a delight.
”If you wish me not speak of this, then you’ll need to convince me. There is much to be gained from selling such information, you know.”
Celeste slipped her legs open slowly and reached down to caress herself lightly, already warming to the idea, literally. Cassandra stared openly at the woman’s ministrations and resigned herself to the fact that all wizards were monsters, deep down.
”You’ll destroy him. Just promise me you’ll destroy him.”
Celeste shivered ever so slightly and kicked a leg up onto a chair next to her and smiled coldly as she continued her toying. “If it can be done, it shall be done.”
Cassandra knelt without another word and moved forward between the blond sorceress’ legs. Celeste lifted a leg to brush her inner thigh against the queen’s flushed cheek as she came closer. Soft purrs came from the sorceress’ throat as Cassandra leaned down and began to kiss the blonde woman’s flesh, even as she continued to tease and rub herself. Cassandra was going on strictly instinct, having never had the need or desire to learn such a task. Celeste had worked some magic to remove all hair from her lower limbs and that, somehow, made it easier on the kneeling woman.
Celeste moved her hands to Cassandra’s head, and pressed her face deeper, and arched herself up and purrs again. Cassandra draped her tongue over the woman’s flesh and licked slowly, and savored the woman’s gasps and jerkings. She hated herself for it, but she couldn’t change it anymore than she could change the fact that she was growing wet herself as she nuzzled the pale blonde sorceress’ swelling lips. It was sweeter than she had imagined, she thought absently as she licked deeper into the woman’s body.
Celeste was in bliss. The queen was a born natural, and she envied Belial even more for his having enjoyed this woman for so long. Celeste’s hand slipped inside of her robes and clutched at her hardening nipples, rubbing fiercely and pinching in time with the woman’s rhythmic lapping. A low moan woke her from her reverie as she looked down to notice the queen’s hand was busy itself, between her own legs. A delicious look passed over the sorceress’ face and she squeezed her thighs around the woman’s face, grinding her sex against the woman’s warm face.
Cassandra moaned again, teasing her own slippery sex with each lick on the blonde’s naked and wet flesh, slick with her own saliva and her juices. She was engulfed by warm skin and sweet tasting flavor, her own body squeezing around her fingers and she shivered deeply. Her face was growing wetter from Celeste’s jerking thrusts against her mouth and she covered the blonde’s sex with her mouth, licking deeply into the woman’s flesh, scooping out the savory sweet liquids with an enthusiasm she didn’t know she had in her. Without warning, Celeste groaned repeatedly and Cassandra could feel her muscles flexing around her face and around her tongue and she moaned into the sorceress’ flesh again.
Celeste ground herself against the Queen’s face without respite, drawing out the pleasure to its dregs and then pushed the woman away from her, still panting.
Cassandra landed backward on her ass, her dress hiked up and her fingers still wedged deep inside her and she slowed down not at all. Purring heavily and gasping, the flushed woman came frantically on her own fingers, as she licked her lips and used her other hand to scoop as much of the liquid into her mouth. After a moment, she switched hands and savored her own flavor as she came down from her self-inflicted high. Cassandra finally became aware of the Sorceress standing before her, dressed again and smiling with a cold superiority.
”You did well, your Highness. I will keep it our secret. When Belial is dead, though, I will have you again. As payment.”
Cassandra remained on the floor where she lay, not even bothering to lower her clothing as the sorceress vanished from the room, leaving only the echoes of her laughter.