The Amazon's Pledge

I had never been much of a stickler for rules. The entire concept of a "law-abiding citizen" had always seemed rather privileged to me, given that I carried my crime with me wherever I went. I embraced a more

nuanced

interpretation of right and wrong, and that flexibility had served me well over the years.

That said, I had always adhered to my own personal code. I tried not to use my magic on people unless it was absolutely necessary, and I went out of my way to avoid actively harming them unless they left me no other options. I also followed the simple but prudent guideline that a man should never wake up naked unless he was pressed against a beautiful woman.

At least until today.

"What the fuck...?" I gasped as my eyes fluttered open. My head felt like it had been bashed in with a shovel, and my vision was so blurry I knew I had been out for a while. But the real problem was that I was stark naked and hanging from the ceiling.

"Good morning, Jorem," a voice said from somewhere nearby. "I'm glad you're awake. Don't worry--my sister will be along shortly."

I blinked as much of the fog from my eyes as I could before I glanced around and took in my surroundings. I appeared to be on board the lower decks of a ship. My hands were tied above my head, and I was currently dangling back and forth with the floor a few inches beyond my toes. My ankles had been bound as well, but I was far more concerned about the black metal ring clasped snugly around the base of my cock.

"I'm sure you recognize one of the devices from the Castarium back in Vorsalos," Ayrael said, pacing around from behind me. "I hope it's not too uncomfortable."

I bit down on my lip and desperately tried to swallow the lump of fear rising in my throat. It didn't work. "What do you want from me?"

Ayrael smiled. Her mouth was almost identical to Kaseya's, which made the malice in her grin all the more disturbing. "Where to begin?" she asked, sauntering forward. "I suppose you could start by apologizing for what you've done my sister."

I closed my eyes and swore under my breath. This was bad. This was really, really bad. I didn't even want to imagine what Ayrael had planned for Kaseya, but I knew

exactly

what she had planned for me. The Castarium had a grotesque "theater" back home where the Inquisitrix and her Huntresses would torment male sorcerers. The women would use whips, knives, even crossbows--anything to cause pain and leave open wounds. They would then siphon the residual Aetheric energy from the sorcerer's blood, effectively feeding off him like a coven of vampires. Before their victim lost consciousness, however, the sated Huntresses would attach one of these devices to his cock, giggle at his discomfort...

And then castrate him.

"Kaseya is the one who came to me," I said, struggling not to blubber incomprehensibly. "She bonded herself to me after I--"

"You put the collar on her," Ayrael said. "You made her your toy. Now I am going to do the same to you."

She paced around me twice before she abruptly clutched my testicles in her hand. I whimpered and clenched my teeth, waiting in horror for the inevitable...

"If I touch this crystal on my armband, your cock and balls will hit the floor," she said, leaning up to whisper in my ear. "If you try and channel the Aether, your cock and balls will hit the floor. And of course, if you try and spill your tainted seed, your cock and balls will hit the floor."

"Please," I begged. "I never wanted to--"

Ayrael backhanded me across the face. "

Maskari

do not beg. I can't believe my sister would pledge herself to someone so pitiful." She scoffed in disgust and turned toward the door. "Thankfully, you will not be her burden for long."

The door to the lower deck burst open, and someone pushed a bound and gagged Kaseya inside. She was still wearing her armor, surprisingly, and other than her restraints, she didn't look any worse for wear.

"I was just getting to know your master, sister," Ayrael said. "Suffice to say, I found him...lacking. I doubt the Matriarch would have approved."

Kaseya growled something unintelligible into her gag. I could see the fear in her eyes as well, though I wondered if her terror was merely an echo of my own. Her collar was still fastened tightly around her neck, after all.

"Aren't you going to kneel before him?" Ayrael asked. "I'm sure you've already done it a hundred times by now."

The guard standing behind Kaseya kicked the back of her legs and knocked her down onto her knees in front of me. It was only then that I saw the guard was Valuri.

My stomach sank even further when I saw the rage behind her piercing green eyes. The tiny spark of regret I had sensed in her back at the pier had completely evaporated. I couldn't even begin to imagine what the Inquisitrix had done to her these past few months. He twin hand-crossbows were holstered on her hips, and she was still wearing her Senosi armor--a black, corset-style leather breastplate and matching trousers, a flowing red scarf, and heeled, knee-high boots--which meant that her betrayal must have been forgiven. But surely the Inquisitrix's clemency came at a high price...

"Much better," Ayrael said, smirking down at her sister. "The Inquisitrix is looking forward to meeting you. Once I have freed you from the

Maskari-Shan

, you too will be blessed with the Mark of the Huntress. You will be welcome in the ranks of the Senosi." She grinned. "You'll like it there, I think. Our sisterhood is not so different from the

Kari Vataya

on Nol Krovos. You will be surrounded by smart and powerful women, except they won't all be glorified chattel waiting for a master to claim them."

Kaseya snarled, but she knew she was helpless. There was nothing either of us could do but wait for the inevitable.

"You'll have to prove yourself, of course," Ayrael went on. "Her Huntresses are quite skilled, and the Senosi only accept the best. But I've no doubt that you will win them over eventually, and one day I guarantee you will thank me for what I've done. The rest of our sword-sisters will as well, once you and I return to the island and cleanse the corruption of the

moshalim

for good.

She chuckled softly and glanced over to Valuri. "But first things first. Vorsalos is still a few days away, and Huntress Valuri promised to help me free you from the yoke of a man she knows all too well."

Valuri nodded and strode up next to me. "You have pledged yourself to a coward," she spat. Normally she had one of the smoothest, most seductive voices I had ever heard...but right now it was drowned out by hate. "A man who turns his back on his allies the first chance he gets. Trust me: he would have thrown you to the wolves the instant he grew bored of you. Your sister and I are doing you a favor."

Valuri stepped behind me, and I closed my eyes and bit my lip in anticipation of her whipping me or stabbing me or something else just as brutal. I should have known better than to come after her. I should have known better than to assume she would be the same woman after the Inquisitrix had worked on her...

"We will both find our redemption in his cleansing," Valuri said. Her arms snaked around my waist on either side, and she slowly removed the glove covering her left hand. Her long, pale fingers curled around the shaft of my cock, and despite my best efforts, I began to swell at her touch.

"Val, don't," I whispered. "Please..."

"You've never complained before," she said. "Don't tell me you haven't christened your amazon's pretty face yet. Those bright blue eyes, those plump red lips..."

I clenched my teeth so hard I was surprised they didn't crack. Valuri's fingers had always been magic; she had tugged and squeezed me to climax so many times I had lost count. The power of Kaseya's collar might have given her supernatural insight into my needs, but Valuri had mastered them the old fashioned way.

"I'm sorry I couldn't rescue you," I said. "You know I would've risked everything if I'd thought there was even a small chance."

"Do I?" Valuri asked. "You fled the city the first chance you got, and I never heard a peep about you trying to mount a rescue."

"You were in the Castarium surrounded by hundreds of guards!"

"All because I made the mistake of working with a sorcerer. In a way, I suppose I should be grateful. Your cowardice gave the Inquisitrix plenty of time to show me where I had gone wrong."

I hissed though my teeth as my cock continued to swell. Valuri was aiming the tip directly at Kaseya's face, and Ayrael had swept behind her sister to hold her in place.

"His emasculation is your liberation, sister," Ayrael said. "When his tainted seed and corrupted blood spill across your cheeks, they will wash away all your sins. You will finally be free to start anew."

"This is sick, Val!" I shouted when the magical clamp began tightening around the base of my cock. "This isn't right! This isn't you!"

"I am a new me, reforged in pain and fire," she said, stroking me even harder. "I'm not the same girl you met on Raven's Bridge a year ago."

My heart skipped a beat. Raven's Bridge...I hadn't met her on Raven's Bridge. We had already known each other for months before we'd teamed up against a renegade sorcerer and his cabal of charmed cronies. It had been one of our greatest victories together. We had caught the idiots completely by surprise by pretending that she was my prisoner and--

The truth hit my like a brick across the forehead. I managed to keep myself from gasping, but my sudden burst of hope echoed through Kaseya's collar and made her brow furrow in confusion.

"I guess not," I croaked. "That girl wasn't trapped by Senosi dogma. She could still think for herself."

"The truth isn't a trap, Jorem," Valuri replied. "It's the key that will set you free."

She began stroking me even harder, driving me toward a climax. I kept my face clenched as if I were trying to fight it, but deep down I let myself go. It was conceivable that she was being a sadist and trying to trick me into castrating myself, but I didn't think so. I remembered what we had done on Raven's Bridge--I remembered the trap we had set and the "key" we had used to spring our ambush. If she had done the same thing here, Kaseya and I might still have a chance of getting out of this alive.

"No," I gasped as my climax approached. "Val, please!"

"Do it!" Ayrael demanded, her hands clutching around her sister's face. "Redeem yourself in the eyes of the Inquisitrix!"

Valuri pumped me over the edge. I spilled with a panicked roar, splattering Kaseya's upturned face with a thick barrage of seed. My blood, mercifully, did not follow. The cock ring didn't budge; its blades remained firmly retracted. Valuri had already disabled it.

"What?" Ayrael gasped, her sadistic delight morphing into confusion. She shoved her sister onto the deck and leaned forward to check the device--

At which point Valuri sprung her trap. Her booted foot whirled out from behind me, kicking Ayrael in the chin and knocking her flat on her backside. Before the amazon could recover, Valuri drew the twin crossbows from her hips and fired. The bolts struck Ayrael squarely in her breastplate, easily piercing the tough leather at such short range. She shrieked in pain, and as blood spurted from her wounds I heard the distinctive whirring

click

of the crossbows' automatic reloading mechanism snapping more bolts into place. Valuri fired off another pair of shots barely a second later, but Ayrael had already dived out of the way. I honestly thought she might charge straight at us despite her injuries, but instead she dashed back up the stairs and onto the upper decks.

"To arms!" she shrieked. "We are betrayed!"

"Shit!" Valuri hissed while her weapons reloaded. "We need to get off this bloody ship!"

Whirling on a heel, she took aim with her right crossbow and shot the rope binding my hands. I tumbled to the deck and grimaced in pain when I tried to move. My arms felt like I had just dipped them in lava.

"You can cry about how much it hurts later," Valuri scolded, drawing a knife from her boot and slashing Kaseya's restraints. "Right now you need to blast us a way out of this ship!"

I clenched my jaw and reached out to the Aether. Concentrating on channeling was hard enough even when my muscles weren't melting, but after a few moments, I managed to flood my body with restorative energy and numb the worst of the pain.

"We cannot allow my sister to get away," Kaseya said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "She must pay for what she has done!"

Valuri had already raced over to the door and fired several shots up the stairwell. A gurgling shriek echoed down from above, and an armored man clattered down the steps. He landed next to us, a crossbow bolt jutting from his neck and a pool of blood gathering around his corpse.

"There are twenty Vorsalosian soldiers up there!" Valuri warned, pressing herself against the doorframe for cover. "We can't take them all!"

"I can," I said, my fingertips crackling with energy. Striding forward, my naked body sheathed in a protective mantle of pure Aetheric force, I unleashed a cone of flame directly up the stairwell. I continued moving step by step, my vision clouded by sulfurous smoke and my ears filled with agonized screams. A barrage of crossbow bolts greeted me when I emerged onto the top deck, but they all deflected harmlessly off my spell armor.

"Jorem, what the hell are you doing?" Valuri called out from behind me. "Are you bloody insane?"

I ignored her. Even though I couldn't actually see all my opponents through the growing clouds of smoke, I unleashed a fiery barrage in every direction I heard movement. Every blast rumbled with the intensity of a thunderbolt, rattling the ship and eventually splintering the masts to pieces. Once the sails were completely immolated, I turned and focused on the last voices I could make out--

At which point a biting, dagger-like pain stabbed at my chest. My concentration faltered, my spell armor vanished, and I collapsed to a knee. The Aether, it seemed, had already had enough of me. I had overchanneled its power, and now I was paying the price.

"Ahh!" I cried out as a crossbow bolt streaked past my head. My vision threatened to blacken entirely before a pair of arms grabbed onto me and yanked me back down the stairs to the lower deck. My eyes stung from the smoke, and my nostrils flared at the stench of scorched flesh. But eventually I was able to make out Kaseya's body looming over me protectively.

"We'll drown or suffocate if we stay down here," Valuri called out. "You have to blast open the hull so we can escape!"

"I can't," I said through clenched teeth. "I can't do anything."

"Well, then fuck it," she hissed. "I guess we'll go through."

I dropped to a knee as the two women raced around the deck, Kaseya to retrieve her weapons from the captain's quarters and Valuri to find anything else remotely useful. The ship lurched and creaked--if we had been out in the middle of the ocean, we all would have been doomed. Since we were only in the river, we still had a chance to swim to safety. Maybe.

"Can you walk?" Valuri asked as she removed her cloak and tossed it over my shoulders.

"Yes," I croaked, biting my lip even as the pain of overchanneling slowly faded. I hadn't stressed myself this hard, this quickly in a long time, and I had forgotten just how much it hurt.

"Then come on--we're leaving."

With the two women at my side, we rushed up the stairs through the smoke and sprinted for the edge of the boat. I half expected Ayrael to be waiting there for us, bleeding but ready to cut us down before we could flee. She was nowhere in sight, however, and the rest of the crew was either dead or already in the water themselves.

We ran off the edge. The river was choppy thanks to the gusty winds, and the glint of the full moon on the waves was almost blinding. But once I saw that Kaseya and Valuri were next to me, I just put one arm after the other and focused on reaching the shoreline. Freedom had never felt so far away.

***

The swim was mercifully easier than I feared, though I still slumped against a tree in exhaustion the moment we were out of the water. Off in the distance, the Vorsalosian ship was little more than a brilliant pyre sinking below the horizon.

"Maybe you should consider listening to me next time," Valuri panted, her black hair plastered against her face. "What the fuck were you thinking?"

"What the fuck was

I

thinking?" I growled back. "You poisoned me! You tied me up and put a clamp on my cock!"

"For one, I didn't tie you up," she corrected. "For two, I disabled the ring before I put it on you. And for three, that poisoned dart saved your life. How could you be stupid enough to walk into a trap like that? Haven't you learned anything?"

"I was trying to save you! You would rather we left you to Ayrael?"

"I would rather you have busted me out of the Castarium a few months ago. But apparently that was too much to ask."

I continued panting as I glared at her, trying to figure out why in the name of the gods I had risked my life to rescue her in the first place. "If you weren't really working with Ayrael, then why didn't you help us battle her at the docks?"

"Because I was tied up and didn't have my weapons," Valuri said. "She didn't completely trust me yet. I had to poison you first."

"Still, the three of us could have--"

"The three of us would have ended up dead on the pier," Valuri interrupted. "You've seen that woman fight. She's a bloody force of nature, and that's

before

she's fed on magic."

"We should track and pursue her while we can," Kaseya said. Unlike us, she wasn't even breathing heavily. Her eyes were focused on the horizon. "Ayrael's injuries were serious. She could not have gotten far."

"She's already gone," Valuri said, shaking her head. "And if she isn't, we still don't want to find her. Not until we're a lot better prepared."

Kaseya turned. "Ayrael is not invincible."

"Are you sure? Look, I appreciate your confidence, but you don't know what she's capable of."

"She is my sister!"

"She

was

your sister," Valuri corrected. "Now she's a Senosi Huntress who mastered every single trick the Inquisitrix taught her in just a few months. Once she feeds, she'll be patched up and back on our trail before sunrise, I promise. We need to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible."

Kaseya glared at the other woman for a long moment. "You are afraid of her."

"Of course I'm bloody afraid of her! I've seen what she can do firsthand." Valuri snorted and crouched down next to me. "This little ruse was the only way I could get her guard down long enough to escape. Do you really think I set all this up just for fun?"

"You certainly looked like you were having fun," I muttered. "Even if you weren't confident that we could beat her on the docks, we still could have run. She wouldn't have been able to chase us through the whole city."

"I doubt we would have made it that far." Valuri stared at me for a minute before her lips curled into a lop-sided smirk. "Besides, I owed you a bit of revenge. And it was pretty fun to put that ring on you and watch you squirm. Ayrael applauded the idea, and I was reasonably confident I could sabotage it correctly."

"

Reasonably

confident?" I hissed. "You mean you weren't sure you'd actually disabled it?"

"Sure enough to take the chance," she said with a shrug.

I scoffed. "Unbelievable. You haven't changed a gods-damned bit."

"No, but that's exactly why you love me."

Valuri leaned in and kissed me. I was tempted to throw her off, and I was even more tempted to choke her. But instead I kissed her back, and her tongue swirled together with mine so easily and so comfortably that it was like she had never left.