Authors' Note: We want to thank everyone for their patience as we continue to write Kennice and Cyrus' story.
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Deep within the forest Rhys panted with exhaustion, sweat and blood dripping from his body from cuts and bruises. The battering Nyelene had been giving him as part of his training was wearing him down rapidly. He had at first tried to block one of the swipes from her mighty tail, but found out the hard way that it was a foolish idea. The blow had knocked him through six trees and broken one of his arms.
Since then he had been practically running for his life, attacking when he thought he had found an opening, but every time he was foiled. According to her, this training was enabling her to feel his wants better so she would be more in tune with him in battle. All he could see right now was an angry Hydra hunting him.
"Again!" Her tail swung toward his legs.
He dived out of the way sprinting through the trees and focusing his will out in front of him, the shadows lighting up with fire as a line streaked through the night air. He concentrated and repeated the target of where he wanted it to land on her. If it worked she would block it easily.
"You're getting slow, priest!" she mocked and neatly dodged the fire attacks.
He cursed to himself and skidded to a halt, closing his eyes and rapidly chanting. The air around him sizzled and shimmered as he drew in the heat around him. Frost began to form on his clothes as the ball in front of him warped and shimmered constantly. Suddenly his eyes flew open and the ball hurled forward with incredible speed, slicing through trees and stone, leaving only burned and melted debris in its wake.
Nyelene was caught by surprise at the power behind it and wasn't able to fully avoid the blast which singed her tail. So the puny mortal can learn, she thought before launching a fresh attack against him.
He ducked and dived again and again, focusing now on the singed area of her tail. If her hide was a thick as she made out, then he would have to focus on one spot until he broke through.
She continued her same tactic of dodging but even so every fourth hit of his found its mark on her tail until it broke through the hide and hit the tender muscle underneath. She roared and then snapped at him. "Enough!"
He skidded to a halt, his body still tense, ready to dodge once more in case this was some form of ruse. He winced for a moment, his broken arm throbbing painfully as it hung useless by his side.
"Very good priest. You have learned an important lesson today."
He panted hard, the sweat dripping off his body as his vision blurred at the edges. "And what lesson would that be?"
"That patience can be rewarded."
A small smirk can to his lips. "Indeed, it is a wise lesson." He swayed for a moment, struggling to find the strength in his legs to keep himself upright.
"Come, it is time for you to rest. Your battle with the usurper will happen sooner than I anticipated. Your skills and power keep increasing."
He nodded slowly, staggering over to her before collapsing to his knees. His vision was darkening. "Is it sunset already?" His question was punctuated by the impact of his face landing in the dirt.
Nyelene rolled her eyes and scooped him up in her claw. She headed back to the cave that was their temporary living space.
The cave was dark and damp and devoid of any regular life, nothing dared come near it while the hydra lurked there. As she drew near the back of the cave, a spot on the floor shook as if it were made of sludge. Slowly a cowled form began to rise from it. Not a full form, merely the upper body of it. Slowly it extended its bony hand and pointed at Rhys, its voice dry as a tomb and wheezed though ancient dry lungs of dust. "The time draws closer, is he ready?"
"As ready as such a pitiful mortal can be. I would rather sacrifice the current High Priest. At least he possesses power that could actually give the new Overlord a challenge."
"That is not possible and you know that Nyelene. He would not fight him no matter what we did to him. This one does not need to fight well, only well enough to force the Overlord to use his blood powers."
"He is such a waste. However, he did demonstrate a fire technique that might enrage the Overlord enough to use what our master seeks."
"Indeed, they have been rivals for many years now. Their first clash was a wake up call to the master, he went down far too easily in front of the Overlord and he was not even at full strength! I will leave you with a final reminder of what will happen should you fail in your task Nyelene..." For a brief moment the air before her writhed as it was wrenched open, a doorway into the void beyond realms visible. "Wandering forever...unable to escape..." The creature laughed softly as it descended back into the stone floor, the doorway closing as it left.
She hissed her displeasure once the creature was gone. To be reduced to this was humiliating but the master had wiped out all others of her kind. She had no choice if she wished to live. She glared at Rhys' unconscious form. "You'd better not make me look bad." She grumbled once again before settling down to sleep.
* * *
Erykia stared at the ceiling from her bed. The covers were strewn across the room, her nude body coated in a thin sheen of sweat. The insides of her thighs were drenched from the experience she had been forced to endure, she hadn't expected Cyrus' powers to flow along hers to strike at her core. The reaction had been immediate, her body had taken over and within seconds she was wracked with countless shudders of ecstasy as she peaked time and time again for what seemed like an eternity, but had only been a mere hour. That boy was growing dangerously close to being unstoppable now.
A quick rap on the door and it opened to reveal a scowling Anthony. "Erykia, we have a problem." He froze, his breath caught in his throat. He had forgotten that she had that affect on him. The bond between High Priestess and High Priest was an intimate one. Many times more intimate than the one a husband and wife shared. It was why the High Priestess and her High Priest counterpart were encouraged to marry.
Anthony was one of ten High Priests in the Order's long illustrious history that had been married to someone other than the High Priestess. That of course did not stop the attraction they had to and for each other. It was part of the magic of their position. "Um. Rhys has been spotted in the lands south of here. He is not alone. One report says that he travels with a dragon."
The shock was clear on her face as she struggled to sit up, barely managing to reach her elbows, which only served to give Anthony a better look at her slender body, the thin coating of sweat glinting in the moonlight. "What? That's impossible! I would have foreseen such an event as him bonding with a dragon. What does that fool think he is up to?" She glared at Anthony, her own attraction to him momentarily smothered by her outrage at Rhys going off on his own like this. "Well, don't just stand there Anthony! Help me up already!"
"Of course." He grabbed a robe and handed it to her first before assisting her to her feet. "What happened to you? You're drained, I can sense it."
"It seems our little Overlord has learned a new trick. Tell your troops, especially your females to strength their mental blocks and to have everything go through their dragons from now on." She shrugged on the robe and let him take her weight as they walked out of her room to the meeting hall nearby.
"Why? What has he learned, Erykia? And don't shut me out," he snapped as he saw that look in her eyes. "I don't desire any deaths over YOUR secrets."
"He has learned nothing from me. That I can guarantee. He has...regrettably, somehow learned how to penetrate our defenses by following our mind links with others. We must be on our guard from now on. He may be doing such things with any prisoners he takes."
"That is indeed, unfortunate. However, it gives us a possible tactical advantage as well."
As they entered the meeting hall, she sagged down into her chair at the head of the table. She still had barely enough energy to stand. "At the moment, Anthony, I fail to see how having an Overlord assault your mind can be of any advantage at all. As you can see it has rendered even me completely helpless for the time being."
"That's because you aren't thinking like a telepath. If he invades a mind that means he is looking for something specific. We can set a false trail, leave false information that will lead him to us."
"In theory, Anthony, that would be an exceptional plan, if he were a natural telepath. However, he is not. He is using brute strength to follow the link and smash his way into another person. He was not looking for information from me...he simply wanted a response." She fell silent for a moment and whispered, a tear coming to her eye as she spoke, "He was raping a spy I had sent into his midst to try and kill him from within. He used that energy against me. I had no way to counter its sheer...ecstasy."
Her eyes glazed over a little and she felt herself become aroused once again. Snapping out of the daze she shifted irritably, annoyed that it still affected her.
Anthony smelled her womanly scent and his knees nearly buckled. Erykia hadn't given off that scent in decades, at least not since he had married Elizabeth. "High Priestess, get control. The others are coming," he warned, hoping his formal words would snap her out of it.
She shivered for a moment as the memories brought her to a minor climax once more. She shook her head to defog her mind and rolled her shoulders. "I apologize, Anthony, you're right. I need to be stronger than this and not give in to my...desires so easily."
"It's understandable. And here come the elders." He moved to her left and stood there patiently as they filed in.
She tightened her robe about herself and did what she could to smooth out her clothes as they filed in, strange looks crossing their face as they noted the High Priestess was not dressed in her usual regal garb. "Elders, I am glad you were able to come so swiftly, we have much to discuss."
Anthony frowned as the elders ogled Erykia. It bothered him, their disrespect. He straightened and scowled. The men caught themselves and hastily looked away. "We have new information about the Overlord. I suggest we move to a more appropriate setting that is more protected."
"Of course, High Priest. The inner sanctum is warded and we can speak freely there."
She waited until the Elders had all filed in before getting Anthony to help her up, fussing over herself more to make herself look more presentable. When they entered and he had seated her, she looked over the elders, leaning upon the table and closing her eyes for a moment to calm herself. "First off our common enemy, the overlord, has empowered himself once more. Somehow he has gained knowledge of tracing a person back through their mental links. I suspect that he is using the common link all riders have to force his way into other links he would normally not have access to."
The elders murmured in surprise and fear. Many of them had ties to riders and none wanted their inner secrets exposed.
