The Knight and the Acolyte
Book Nine: Blossoming Danger
Chapter Six: Heady Perfume
By mypenname3000
Copyright 2016

Note: Thanks to B0b for beta reading this.

Warlock Faoril – Drakin Castle, The Haunted Forest

After ten days of traveling through the Haunted Forest, eight since the werewolves and that twinborn witch attacked us, we had arrived at Drakin Castle. It lay just where rumors claimed it would be, up the Kemoh River from the coast. I studied the vine covered ruins, the walls stretching overhead, glimpses of towers and other structures peeking through gaps in the dense foliage above us.

A shiver ran through me. Here, the most infamous warlock of history had lived. The Biomancer Vebrin, creator of some of the worst monsters prowling the world, had used this fortress from some ancient and lost civilization as his laboratory. Here, in this remote place, he worked centuries even before the High King founded his empire and even longer before the Magery Council came together to put an end to rogue warlocks, codifying rules to keep the practitioners of magic from abusing their powers.

“What unusual vines,” Xera said, her ears twitching as she approached the walls. The elf, naked as always, stroked the spade-like leaves. They were larger than Thrak’s hand. “This color is most unusual on a leaf.”

“Plants can show a great deal of differences even among the same species when separated by distances,” I answered, pulling out a vial of Xera’s cum. Biomancer Vebrin was an expert of life magic, and if he left any of his creations behind, having a greater skill in that element may prove useful. I generally used Thrak’s cum which gave me no advantage in any of the five elements. But Xera, being an elf and intimately tied into the element of life, had jizz that would enhance that branch of magic.

“I’ve seen ivy like that,” Angela shrugged. “Not with purple, but with cream at the center of leaves.”

“As have I,” Xera said. “But ivy does not flower.”

Angela looked up at the castle. “We’ll go slow. Be careful. Xera, watch for traps, Faoril and Xan… I mean, Aurora have your magics ready.” Everyone was adjusting to calling Xandra Aurora. Now that she could turn into a bird, she had chosen her adult name. “Chaun, lyre out.”

“Already out,” Chaun said and struck a boisterous and adventurous chord. The notes hung in the air, stiffening my spine and relaxing my nerves.

Angela drew her sword, nodding to Thrak. He unlimbered his ax and moved up to her. Sophia’s enchanted dagger came out, only tinged with pink. Danger, but not immediate. I rolled my shoulders in my robe and nodded my head.

“Let’s find the last piece of the High King’s sword.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thrak

I pushed aside the ivy vines and peered into the castle. Rubble covered the ground, everything coated in thick dust. More vines snaked through the room, crawling in from the collapsed ceiling. Sunlight penetrated through gaps in structure. No hulking trees obscured it from reaching the castle.

I sneezed, shaking my head. “Lots of dust,” I grunted, stepping forward, kicking up the fine powder on the ground. It danced through the sunlight, drifting on the wind. “Nothing has walked in here in a while.”

“Not even animals,” Xera said, ears twitching. She didn’t leave footprints on the dust.

“So how did the sword even get here?” Sophia asked as Angela and I stepped over the ceiling rubble to a rotten door leading deeper into the castle. “I mean, the Haunted Forest is pretty remote.”

“How did any of the pieces of the sword get anywhere?” I grunted. “My people were entrusted ours.”

“As were mine,” Aurora said. “By the fiery lady.”

“Who we haven’t met yet,” Sophia said. “The last member spoken of in the Lesbius Oracle. Do you think she’s here? Waiting for us after a thousand years?”

“Would that make her a form of demigoddess?” Faoril asked.

“What else can live through centuries?” I grunted and opened the door.

The wood disintegrated into pieces, sawdust falling about my arm. It clattered loud on the floor, bursting with more dark powder. I stared at the tarnished handle in my hand then tossed it to the ground and peered through the hallway.

“Elves,” Minx said, her voice lacking her normal exuberance.

“Yes, my kind can live a thousand years,” Xera said. “The eldest of us. Most die in their six to seven hundreds. And the other hermaphroditic races are also long-lived. Gnomes can live even longer than elves.”

“So a demigoddess or an elf,” Minx said, her voice thoughtful. “Like the redheaded elf with the gnome bounty hunter. You thought you saw her once before, Angela.”

“Yes, but how could they be the same one?” the knight said, advancing down the hallway with me. “One we saw running just briefly through the Deorc Forest, the other was a bounty hunter on our trail.”

“Well…” Minx licked her lips. “Maybe I know this red-haired elf.” I turned, seeing her blink. She sneezed, shaking her head, motes of dust drifting through the beams of sunlight lancing around her. “Boy, this place is dusty.”

“What do you mean, you know a red-haired elf?” Angela asked.

Minx lifted her chin. “Well… her name was Adel…something. One of those long, elfy names.”

“Elfy?” Xera asked, ears twitching, a smile on her lips.

“And she recruited me for a job.” Minx flipped her dagger in her hand. “To steal the High King’s sword from Angela after she reforged it.”

Angela blinked.

“What?” Sophia gasped. “You… you…”

“It wasn’t an accident I picked Chaun’s pocket. Though I feared I ran away too well and thought I lost Xera. But she found me with her elfyness.”

“You were going to steal the sword?” Angela asked, her face hardening. “From me?”

“I’m a thief, Angela,” Minx said like it was the most casual thing in the world. She sneezed again. “Ugh, this dust is everywhere.”

“And are you still planning on stealing it?”

“Of course not,” Minx said, waving her hand. “I really wasn’t going to mention it, but…” She shrugged. “Why not.” She let out a giggle, her eyes wide.

Sophia suddenly burst with giggles, too. “She was planning on robbing us. Oh, Slata’s hairy cunt, that is funny.”

“Yep.” Minx grinned. “And Xera would have chased me, and maybe I would have let her catch me.”

“Maybe?” smiled Xera. Then she let out a giggle, too. “Oh, you naughty, little minx.”

Xera scooped up the smaller halfling and gave her a hot kiss on the lips. I blinked, glancing at Angela, whose jaw had dropped. She shook her head, the point of her sword waving as she struggled with it.

“Y-you were planning on betraying us?” Angela said. And then she giggled, too. “Why am I shocked by that? You’re a thief.”

Xera broke the kiss, setting her lover down.

“I know,” Minx giggled. “it would have been this amazing robbery, but then I grew to like you all and… Now we’re going to kill a dragon instead. So let’s find the piece of the high king’s sword.”

“Sure,” Angela nodded, another giggle burst from her lips. “Mmm, one more piece.”

“That’s it?” I grunted, shocked by how…nonchalant everyone was acting. “She was holding back this elf thing.”

“She knew the lady on fire,” Sophia said, giggling, “and lied to us. Minx…”

And then I snorted with laughter. Minx just had this incorrigible grin on her face. Chaun struck a thoughtful chord while the snort turned into full laughter. I shook my head, grinning back at Minx.

“So a redheaded elf got Minx involved in the quest, and a redheaded human got me,” Chaun said. “Interesting.”

“So Lady Delilah is the elf?” Sophia giggled. “Oh, Slata’s cunt, that woman doesn’t make any sense. She helps the warlock and turns into elves. What is she up to?”

“Being annoying,” giggled Angela. She leaned against me. “Right?”

I stared down at her large tits swelling the front of her armor, the low-cut breastplate showing off her magnificent cleavage. Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked up at me, a saucy smile on her lips, her red hair glowing in a shaft of sunlight dancing with dust motes.

My cock throbbed. What would those tits feel like on my dick? Behind me, Aurora was giggling about the fiery lady being Lady Delilah with Faoril, my mage wife nodding her head, her nose ring flashing in another beam of sunlight. Sophia, giggling worse, stumbled back and bumped into Xera while Minx did a little dance, shaking and wiggling her ass. Meanwhile, Chaun strummed a joyful song on his lyre.

My eyes drifted back to staring at Angela’s tits. I pictured them soft, spilling about my dick, sliding up and down. My eyes looked around the hallway, the vines wrapped about the ceiling and walls, adding splashes of color. A nearby door, half-rotted away, looked promising.

“We should search in there,” I nodded to Angela. “For the…uh…thing we’re here to find.”

“The sword?” she asked with a giggle.

“Yeah…that…” Those were such lush tits.

Angela sheathed her blade and nodded. She walked to it, her ass wiggling, the thin strip of chainmail loincloth swaying, showing flashes of her butt-crack. Red hair bounced. She kicked the half-rotted door apart, her blue eyes flashing as she gave me a look over her shoulder.

I grunted, setting down my ax and following. I sneezed once, my cock throbbing harder and harder. Damned dust was trying to ruin my excitement. My dick tented the front of my kilt, a large shaft aching to feel those tits.

I ducked through the door. I was taller than the builders. A long room, one end of the ceiling collapsed and forming a pile or rubble. The vines grew in here, too, broad leaves spread wide, the occasional flower open in shafts of sunlight, slender beams shining through tiny holes in the remaining ceiling. They dappled Angela’s body as she turned, her loincloth swinging over her pubic mound and between those lush thighs.

“I think I found it,” Angela purred as I walked to her. She licked her lips, so moist and pink.

“Oh?” I asked, looking around. “I don’t see it.”

She dropped her kite shield to the floor with a clatter then lifted the front of my kilt with eager hands. She found my hard cock, stroking it. I groaned as her grin grew as mischievous as Minx’s. Her thumb rubbed across the tip, smearing precum and brushing my crown’s piercing.

“It’s right here.”

“Yes,” I grunted. “But you have to work it free with those big tits.”

“Oh, do I?” she asked, letting go of my cock. She reached for the straps holding on her pauldrons and breastplate.

As she unbuckled, I moved to the collapsed rubble, sneezing again.