Daughter Of The Sun Ch 07

IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS...

Sent by Queen Hailey on a mission to warn the Duchesses Dasha and Sung about the feared threat of the Night Lord, Darya and Eluan had reached first the city of Vinevris. Here, Darya meets with the Duchess Dasha Feyner, a former liege of her, as Eluan continues her trip toward the distant city of Hadun. Darya's embassy is in the end a success, but the success come with a price: in exchange for the commitment of her army, Dasha is intended to demand Darya in return, with the obvious intent to turn her into her lover and plaything...

***

The Great Southern Road unraveled in front of her eyes, broad and straight, prolonging its apparently infinite length until the very edge of the horizon. It was one of the main highways of the whole Kingdom, the one connecting Syfall, the capitol, to the city of Vinevris and from there, flanking the coast, reached the town of Nanlin, the main port of the southwestern part of Mur.

Princess Eluan was riding along that route since almost a week, escorted by her pack of selected loyal knights of the Sun's Guard. Two days have been passed since the group had left the Lady Commander Darya D'Agatos by the gates of Vinevris and, prior to that, three other days had been requested to arrive to the Ducal city from the Tower of the Sun.

From their current position, they were estimating that two other days would have been necessary to reach the port of Nanlin, from which they would have embarked to cross the narrow strait of sea which separated the mainland to the final destination of their trip: the Isle of the Lotus, and the court of Duchess Sung, in the great city of Hadun.

She was aware that she was carrying out a mission of the utmost criticality, on which the fate of her family, of her Kingdom and, possibly of the entire world, could depend upon. If the nightmares of her sister were truly proved to be messages sent by none else than the Goddess of the Sun Herself, then they were meaning that a terrible and obscure force had awakened in the desolated lands of Gloomdor, far in the north, a power capable to threat their own existence and freedom.

Eluan still vividly remembered the deep sense of terror that the concerned words of her sister had awakened in her during that morning of almost one week ago, as she had described to her, Darya and Praja her nightly visions of enslaving marching armies of nude, savage and ferocious women, and for the immediate next days the Princess had suffered of similar haunting nightmares herself, dreaming about being captured by those savges, taken to the northern lands of Gloomdor, and there being forcefully converted to the service of the obscure forces of evil.

Yet, as she rode in the clear air of the afternoon, under the warm rays of the shining sun, she couldn't help but feeling incredibly elated. The cool breeze coming from the ocean brushed gently against her face, filling her lungs with the deliciously salty tang of the sea, galvanizing her spirit and making her feel free as a bird, a sensation she had never seemed to experience so strongly in the entire course of her young life.

The landscape around her was indeed breathtaking. To her left, the magnificent, endless expanse of the Southern Sea stretched out as far as the eye could see, its deep blue hue gradually fading into the horizon. Whitecaps danced upon the waves, sparkling in the sunlight, and gulls soared gracefully above in the sky, their cries filling the air with their lively melody.

To her right, the terrain was more varied and luscious, rolling low hills covered in vibrant green grass and dotted by clusters of trees, which alternated with vast areas of richly cultivated fields. Farmhouses, barns and mills could be occasionally seen, tucked away in the folds of the hills, a testament to the existence of the many hardworking farmers and artisans who called those lands their home.

So far, their travel had been smooth and had proceeded without incidents or any remarkable encounter. By that time, they had almost reached the westernmost part of the territory of the Duchy of Vinevris, passing through the fertile lands belonging to the noble family of the Counts of Neis. In short, they would have crossed the borders of the Duchy of Hadun, entering in the area of the inland which had always traditionally under the jurisdiction of the Dukes of the Isle of the Lotus.

In all sincerity, Eluan would have much preferred to have the chance to undertake this mission and this journey alone. However, before her departure from the Tower of the Sun, Hailey had strongly insisted for her younger sister to be escorted by not less than five knights of the Sun's Guard, who had been immediately recruited by Darya from those who were positioned to guard the borders of the Sacred Area around the Tower.

Since the beginning of their travel westward, they had been used to ride for all the day long, stopping to camp out in the open air at night by the sides of the road, sleeping on the ground wrapped in their traveling cloaks under the shining stars, dividing the guard shifts in order to keep the Princess under constant protection.

Even during the day, the group proceeded in strict formation, to ensure that no harm could possibly happen to the Queen's sister. In front of all, the pair formed by Anja and Lydia led the way, one of them occasionally straying away from the group to scout the road ahead, looking for any possible sign of danger. On both flanks, Eluan was protected respectively by the third woman of her escort, a girl of her same age named Nicole, and by the young Willard, one of the latest and most promising recruits of the Sun's Guard. On the rear, the old and experienced Gerrard closed the group, ensuring in that way the total safety of the Princess.

It was unlikely however that their group could have been attacked during their travel. The Great Southern Road was a well trafficked and patrolled route, and it was extremely improbable that the Night Lord could already have dispatched any of His servants so far south.

Yet, other dangers could always be lurking along that road. Bands of marauders, bandits and throat cutters were always a concrete menace for the incautious travellers, and there was always the possibility to come across in a group of raiders and pirates from Lyras, landed on the southern coast of the Kingdom to take captives among peasants and village girls, to be sold afterward in the immense slave markets of their infamous city, on the other side of the sea.

It was of course just a remote possibility. The southern coast of the Kingdom was dotted by small castles, watchtowers and fortress built through the centuries, each of them hosting a garrison of soldiers ready to intervene at the first sight of any hostile or unidentified ship which could have approached the land. In addition, the mighty war galleons of the Admiral Eugor Vaxavros of Vinevris were constantly patrolling the waters of the Southern Sea, intercepting and sending any possible threat straight down to the bottom of the ocean.

Despite this, the menace represented by the sea pirates had never been completely eradicated over the time. The fair-skinned women of Mur were always considered valuable goods by the greedy slavers of Lyras, and the wealthiest men of the continent of Gowanda, merchants, warrior chieftains and high priests, were willing to shell out exorbitant quantities of gold and gems to further enrich their already immense harems with some of the sweet, rare pearls coming from the northern continent.

And the one who could have accidentally captured none less than a royal Princess of the Val Lumenar blood, could have surely become rich as any King or Emperor in the world. For all such reasons, Hailey didn't want for her only sister to be exposed to the minimum risk during her mission.

"Hailey..."

The thoughts of Eluan went once again to her sweet and beautiful sister. She loved Hailey with all of her heart; in her regards, her older sister had always been so tender and caring, so protective, especially after their mother had passed away, four years ago, in that terrible year of war and mourning that had turned their lives upside down forever.

Yet, sometimes she found herself suffering for the lack of liberty that her royal status and the over protective attentions of her sister seemed to imply. In her twenty-two years of life, she only had very rare opportunities to leave Syfall and the Royal Palace and, in those occasions, it had mostly been to attend to some official or public event, in the presence of almost the whole court.

She never had the chance to explore the world by herself as she has always dreamed, being forced to limit her travels to those made with the imagination, in her long, lonely afternoons spent by reading books of adventure and romance set in some distant land. This mission, aimed to deliver Hailey's letter to the Duchess of Hadun, was for her the most adventurous event she had experienced so far. Yet, it seemed that her sister still didn't fully trust her or, at least, that she didn't rely on Eluan's capacity to defend herself.

"I'm an adult woman, and a skilled fighter," she thought within herself, not without frustration. "She should stop treating me like an unprotected, little child."

By mid afternoon, they stopped for a short while by the banks of a bubbling stream, in the proximity of an ancient bridge made of stones, to allow their horses some moments to drink and rest, as well to refresh themselves a little bit before resuming their journey.

Dismounting from her horse, Anja knelt by the bank of the stream to fill her goatskin, and then kindly brought it to the Princess, handing it over to her so that she could be the first to drink. She was a beautiful young woman of twenty-five, the firstborn and heir of the noble Count of Summerstone, one of the most loyal vassals of the Crown. Her long, golden flowing hair were reaching down almost to her waist, and her clear blue eyes were vivid and enlightened by a friendly spark.

Eluan had often heard Darya referring about Anja as one of the most skilled and capable knights of the Sun's Guard and, possibly, as a good candidate as her successor as Lady Commander, should Darya have left the role for any reason. And, as a matter of fact, it was to her that Darya had assigned the command of the second part of their expedition, in the moment in which she had to leave their group to go and confer with Duchess Dasha.

"We are not very distant from the lands of my family," Anja said, as Eluan gracefully accepted the goatskin from her hands. "Summerstone Hall is less than a day on horseback, up to the north. If we were not in such an hurry, I would have proposed for us to make a detour and stop there for a while. My father would have certainly offered a warm welcome to all of us."

"I would really like to visit your family's manor sometimes, Anja," Eluan replied with sincerity, after having tasted a sip of that deliciously fresh water.

"I'm sure you would love it, my Princess," the blonde woman knight responded nodding her head, her smile broadening as she began to celebrate the beauties of her homeland.

"It is a shelter of peace and tranquility, laying in the middle of a luscious countryside, surrounded on all sides by sweet, low hills and by ample, silent ancient woods in which one could enjoy long walks and pleasantly get lost in such green for hours and hours. All around the manor there are delightful gardens, filled with clear ponds and pools of crystalline water in which the body can find refreshment and relief, especially in the hot summer season. And we don't lack of piece of arts and of a refurbished library, to take care of the pleasures of the mind and of the spirit, other than of those of the body. Yes, you should definitely be our guest, whenever you will want, Princess."

"Listen to that," the almond-shaped eyes of Nicole, typical of the lands of Hadun where she was born, were shimmering with humour. "Who would have thought that within our rough and strong Anja may have been hidden the soul and the heart of a poetess? You just made me want to pay a visit to your father's house. They say he's also a really handsome man."

"I was speaking for the benefit of the Princess," Anja replied with a playful grimace. "And you would better hold your tongue sometimes."

Eluan watched with amusement the playful exchange between the statuesque blonde and the small but intriguing black-curled girl with amber skin, as a sudden thought crossed her mind.

"She seems to know me very well," Eluan reflected, realizing how Anja's words had mentioned many of the Princess' passions, walking in the nature, swimming and reading, and on the fact that they never basically spoke to each other before.

And there was even more. There was something in Anja's blue eyes, a peculiar light which seemed to shine brightly as Eluan handed the empty goatskin back to her, something that, for a short moment, touched the Princess deeply, and not in an unpleasant way at all.

If there was something that the Princess craved for in her life, even more than freedom, it was love, the purest form of love at all: the love which could exist only between two women, the only kind of love that Eluan's mind could even conceive.

And, even if she didn't dare to openly admit to herself, she craved for pleasure. At her age, her young body was literally yearning for pleasure, her senses always so prompt to get enflamed with desire, even at the slightest of stimuli and suggestions. Even in that moment, just a simple smile and an ambiguous glance from that beautiful blonde warrior, had been enough to ignite the Princess's imagination. And Eluan was getting tired of being forced every time to find remedy to her arousal all by herself.

When three years ago Hailey had officially announced her engagement with Darya, in front of a throne room full of utterly scandalized nobles, Eluan had been moved to tears by the beauty and the romance of such a gesture, seeing in that the triumph of the pure love over everything else.

But also, a bit more egoistically and naively, she had hoped that such an announcement would have offered her the chance to emulate her sister, giving her the freedom to find for herself a female lover and to live their relationship openly in the sunlight.

However, the reality had turned soon to be very different than her expectations. Due to her elevated rank and outstanding beauty, Eluan was possibly the most coveted women of the Kingdom, second only to the Queen herself. She had no shortage at all of suitors or would-be suitors, especially among the young men of the nobility. And although her orientation towards women was widely known, many men were looking forward to the chance to change her mind about the relationships with the opposite sex.

Hailey, however, was always very careful and wary of anyone who got too close to her sister. She was so towards men, and she was even more so towards women, especially toward those who were known to share the same inclinations as Eluan. The young Princess of Syfall therefore often felt like a little bird, imprisoned in a gilded cage, alone and unapproachable by anyone.

"Why I cannot have somebody by my side, just like my sister has Darya?" she had often protested within herself.

As they mounted back on the saddle to resume their journey, Eluan decided that she wouldn't have missed any opportunity that the travel could have offered to her. And also that, if the circumstances would have allowed it, she would have tried to find a moment to remain alone with Anja, and see what it would have happened between the two of them. Even just one night of pure sex, without any sentimental involvement, would have been more than welcome; she was definitely too much in need of some loving, womanly touch.

Almost four entire years had passed since her first and only relationship with another woman, a period which seemed to be an eternity to her. It had been a fleeting, clandestine thing and, due to this, possibly even more thrilling, forced abruptly to end within a very short time, but of which Eluan still retained the most loving and exciting memory.

Lady Cassandra Ashcroft; this was the name of the woman who had initiated her into the sweet mysteries of the feminine love. A young, astonishing beauty of twenty-four at that time. Of her, Eluan remembered her soft, curly brown hair, her perfect skin the color of the purest alabaster, and her sculptural breasts, the perfect crowning feature of a majestic body with practically no defects. She was a priestess of Alia, the Goddess of the Sun, and one of the tutors entrusted for the teaching of the young noblewomen of the court of Syfall.

Eluan clearly remembered how it all began, in that hot, sultry summer afternoon of almost four years ago. For nearly an hour Lady Ashcroft had been delivering an extremely tedious history lesson to the half-dozen of the noble maidens of the same age as Eluan who were sitting in the lectures room, all of them listening diligently to her words and taking notes, as their teacher spoke.

All of them, except for Eluan.

Despite her huge love for reading, and especially for poetry, Eluan had never been a brilliant student, definitely preferring the practice of physical exercise such as fencing, riding, running and, most of all, swimming by the sea, rivers and lakes, to the tiring boredom of studying.

In the lectures room, her sitting place was right next to a small arched window that overlooked one of the Sun Guard's training courtyard, a few meters below. That afternoon, the insisting clang of weapons banging constantly against each other, mixed with the grunts and groans of fatigue, had reached her ears from the outside, adding a further reason of distraction from the boring lesson.

Distractedly, Eluan had glanced down, out of the opened window. A group of about fifteen female members of the Guard was engaged in an intense routine session. In the scorching heat of the early afternoon, all of the women were practicing fully naked, assiduously alternating hand-to-hand fighting exercises to fencing sparring sessions with training weapons, under the strict surveillance and the barking commands of their recently appointed new Lady Commander.

Eluan's eyes had gone wide, being immediately enraptured by such an enchanting sight, as her fantasy had immediately started to wander on its own, daydreaming about how delightful would have been to be together with those women in the courtyard in that very moment, completely nude as they were, among those splendid bodies touching each other amidst the dust and the sweat of the training. Unconsciously she had licked her upper lip, as her gaze had remained glued to that wonderful show of female beauty, strength and grace.

"Are you paying attention, Princess?" Lady Cassandra's voice, so unexpectedly close to her, had made her jump in surprise.

"Yes Ma'am," Eluan had lied, blushing in embarrassment, trying to quickly regain her composure. "I apologize. I just got distracted for a moment by the noises coming from the courtyard."

"Then, what was I just explaining, Princess?" Lady Ashcroft had wanted to know, with a dangerously inquisitorial tone.

"I..." Eluan had stammered, trying her best to recall what the tutor was saying just few moments before, or at least to invent something which could have sounded credible. But, despite her best efforts, her mind had remained completely blank.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am," she had been forced to admit, lowering her gaze, full of shame.

An embarrassed silence had fallen over the lectures room.

"I think we can consider the lesson over for today, young Ladies," Cassandra had announced to the whole class, her voice turning menacingly cold. "You may all go."

Quickly, the girls had gathered their books and notes from their desks and had promptly headed in silence for the door, obviously more than eager to get out of there as soon as possible and to put themselves at a safety distance from the wrath of their teacher. Eluan had risen from her place, intended to follow her classmates, but the decise voice of Lady Cassandra had stopped her immediately.