Slave Girl 3: Chapter 63 (Patreon)

Days stretch past a week and more, and sober ones they are as we reflect on what we had learned about my sword and the shadowhound that had been tracking us. The group of us talk it out, time and again, until there was nothing left to say. What could we say? The answers we received had only left us with more questions and an eerie new reverence for the blade I kept bundled in our room.

For Collywaddle it was the sword that she couldn’t fathom. She’d been close with Toke, in some ways even closer than me, his ‘legacy’, as she and the northman had been intimate with each other quite a few times. Colly’s breeding fervor combined with her smitten master Aristocles’ fascination with cuckoldry and the fact that Toke was a man of hearty fleshly appetites had combined into a perfect arrangement for them. The three of them had struck up a strange but warm friendship during those weeks. To now hear that the ‘soul’ or ‘echo’ or whatever it was of Toke now resided inside the metal of my weapon had left her understandably shook. Long minutes would be spent with her just staring at the bundle. She had many questions, questions I couldn’t answer but which made for some of the deepest soul-searching conversations we’d ever had. Colly and I sat at nights discussing such things life, destiny and the ultimate fate of our souls. It was during these conversations I really began to notice a change coming over my portly green friend. She was calmer, more focused, less continuously horny and, strangest of all, her lisp was becoming less pronounced. The coupling with Grub had been a fruitful one and the woman that was Collywaddle before the rabid need to breed had taken a hold of her, a woman I had never met as she’d been deeply in the grip of her fertile years ever since we met, was beginning to reveal herself. She was still her silly self but the change was undeniable. In the end she tells me that she believed that if Toke was denied his afterlife because his mountains were too far away that living on as a hero’s blade would be the best fate for him, though she had nothing to base that on but her own intuition. I had to admit that it felt right to me too.

Cassie’s focus was centered around the revelation that it might be an Amazon that was tracking us, her worries absolutely justified as, by heading East, we were drawing closer to their lands with each passing second. Until now we’d been heedless that anybody in Themiscyra even knew we existed. All this time we had assumed the creature on our trail had been sent by someone working for Rome and so we had fled. It turned out that the hound, like any good hunting dog, had flushed us out of cover and straight toward its master. For the life of us we couldn’t figure out who or why. Our best guess was that it might be some distant relation of Rosa’s mother tracing their bloodline, but none of us really believed that deep down. Rosa least of all. I was hardly schooled in the arcane but even I knew that a spell that could be maintained for such a duration at such a distance summoning a being with enough canniness to track in stealth was no small feat. Whoever had sent that thing was either magically gifted and extremely determined or wealthy enough to hire that skill and determination in others. There was no evidence that the sender meant us any ill tidings, for all we knew it might be some secret benefactor, yet in my heart a dark foreboding began to take hold.

It left us with question as to whether we’d made the right choice. We’d chosen this direction as East meant civilization. South was out due to Rosa’s past in Alexandria and we wanted to steer far clear of that. The Empire’s power stretched West all the way to Oceanus so that wasn’t an option. And North was cold, savage and crawling with red-bearded wild-eyed barbarians, the very people who killed my father. After my experience with Toke my stereotypes of the Picti and Germani peoples had become far more nuanced. That said, judging from what he had told me, we would hardly have been welcomed with open arms beyond Rome’s northern borders. East had been the only direction left to us. Even had the options not been narrowed as they were it was still likely the direction we would have gone as the proud, ancient cultures toward the rising sun were every bit as modern, educated and enlightened as glorious Rome itself. Some would say even more so. On top of that we’d speculated that Rosa’s fluency in Greek, Aramaic and Themiscyric Scythian would help us travel among the locals of the region without drawing Imperial attention that much easier. That logic still held and East was still our best route though now we would travel with this mystery hanging over us.

As for Rosa…she was quiet. She still charmed and entertained the men with that irresistible fanged smile and golden voice. She continued to learn from Kreer, who had grown to treat her as more an equal than pupil. But when she was behind our canvas walls she was mostly silent. Her need of cuddles had not waned and she was still an attentive Mistress to Cassie and I, but her thoughts were her own. As I gaze at her haunted eyes I could only imagine what she must be thinking. Somebody in her mother’s homeland was seeking us. It was a realm she had roots in though she’d never set foot upon its soil, a bloodline she shared with our daughter that had affected every single facet of her life and made her a slave through no deed of her own. She could only be wondering what it all meant. I am there for my Lady, as is Cassie, letting her know that she is loved and protected, and that when she is ready to share her thoughts and feelings we would be there to hear them.

As if we didn’t have enough to contemplate the mainland was visible along the port side with islands ahead. Upon one of the those islands I, with the hubris of Odysseus, was about to lead my beloved family straight into the jaws of two blood thirsty monsters. It was foolishness, it was folly, and yet it was the one answer we had agreed upon without reservations. The island needed help and the empire refused to send it. We’d been supping on the fruits of our undeserved renown since stepping aboard, our bellies full on our own fame and glory. Somewhere along the way reputation had transformed into responsibility. For the first time we would not wait for Fortuna to drop trouble upon us, this time we would seek it out ourselves. It could cost us everything but when we stepped onto that island it would be as heroes.

“Tomorrow.” I say as I step through the curtain and pull it closed behind me. “Nikias says we will reach the island by evening.”

Rosa, Cassie, Colly and even Danae stop what they were doing, a taut silence between us. I look from face to face to face. I see fear and I see courage but nowhere do I see doubt.

“Good.” Cassie takes up her unstrung bow and grips it tight. “About damn time. I’m tired of waiting.”

Beside her Colly takes a deep breath then lets it out. “I’ll do my best for you, Thir. I mean…Quin.” She look up into me. “Thylla-thpawn?” Smacking her lips and swallowing she says again more slowly, concentrating extra hard on the S’s. “Scylla-spawn? My dagger ith hungry for those overgrown crabs.” Her eyes turn to the bundle. “And tho ith Toke. We’ll slice’em and dice’em and cook’em with lemon and herbs!”

With a proud smile I pet her wide head. “We’ll see. Hopefully there’s another way.”

Rosa presses to my side, laying her head upon my chest as she wraps her arms around me. “As long as we are together, nothing can stop us. I truly believe that.”

Kissing her horn I say. “I do too.”

Rosa parts her lips just wide enough for a barely audible techine trill to escape them which allows her to locate Collywaddle. She looks down upon her. “Collywaddle…”

Colly smiles and pats Rosa’s hand. “It’s time. I know.”

As Cassie and I look at each other, wondering what ‘time’ it was, Rosa drops to a knee to hug our goblin friend and kiss her forehead. “We love you, Collywaddle.”

“I love you too, Rotha.” She lets out a frustrated snort then repeats. “Rosa. I love you all.” Taking my hand she kisses it then quietly slips from the room, pinning the curtain closed behind her.

“She hasn’t laid with Grub for days now.” I say. “I thought that was over.”

Rosa rises, taking my hand and Cassie’s. “She’s not going to lay with Grub. She’s given me the gift of laying with my beloveds. I asked her if she wanted to join us but she chose to give us this time for ourselves.” Stepping between Cassie and I, one arm around each of us, she pulls us in and holds us close. “My faith tells me that we will leave that island together, stronger and wiser and closer. But faith is not destiny. Only the gods can see the future. If this is our time and this our last night together…” Her slender hand glides up Cassies side to cup her full breast, her other sliding down my back to take a handful of my ass. “…we will remind each other what it is to live. Our way. Our life. Us!”

“Us!” I echo.

“Us.” Cassie whispers with a smile, eyes flitting to the leather bag in which she stored the project with which she’d passed her downtime. “Living our way.”

Chapter 64