Kinder, more leisurely days would have found Zara and Cordelia spending hours in one another's arms. In the bandit queen's tent, the outside world seemed to fade away, allowing the two to become lost in the sensations of shared pleasure. Even with the night as eventful as it was, Zara was determined to enjoy every moment she could with her precious lieutenant. Something about the day's events had her on edge, positively humming with excitement. Perhaps it was the danger involved in everything she had set in motion. Or perhaps it was merely the idea of the riches that would soon be hers if all went according to plan.
Between whatever the strange magic woman would give them for the girls, and what she could ransom the prince for, she could probably buy a manor somewhere. She could rule a little plot with her merry band, and give Cordelia the noble life that she so deserved.
It was with these thoughts in mind that Zara lavished loving kisses along Cordelia's neck as they lay upon the piled furs and quilts that served as her bed. She loved the way her lieutenant's lean body looked, sheened with the perspiration of their earlier lovemaking. She loved the way Delia smelled, the way she tasted. The way, even after being brought to peak after peak, she still offered a little moan, and dreamily toyed her fingers through Zara's golden locks.
"Mmm, still not exhausted, my Lady?" Delia's voice was a dreamy purr.
Zara responded by nipping at Cordelia's neck, before breathing out, "I thought you preferred that I keep alert, in case my plans went astray?"
Cordelia giggled softly as those teeth dragged over her tender flesh. She sat up, and turned on her side to face her leader. Her fingers traced a soft touch over the curve of one of Zara's full breasts. The teasing touch elicited a gasp from the bandit queen.
"Are you trying to exhaust me?" Zara tried to offer the redhead a coy look, but Delia just pushed her onto her back.
"Maybe I am, my Lady."
Warm lips once more grazed Zara's flesh, teasing along between those heavy breasts, down along her tightly muscled belly. The bandit queen gasped gently, and curled one hand into Cordelia's short hair. "A...again?" It was all she could manage to utter before those dextrous hands pushed her thighs to part once more.
Zara wet her own lips with a quick flick of her tongue, then gazed down along the lean frame settling between her parted legs. As Delia's tongue begin to play down along her wanting flesh, she hooked one leg over a slender shoulder, urging the petite woman onward.
Her sweet Delia's skilled lips grazed and nibbled at her already slick folds, and her breath played warm over Zara's skin. The bandit queen closed her eyes and laid her head back upon those piled quilts.
Fleeting wondering about just what had come over her lieutenant, to be so insatiable that night, soon gave way to a haze of pleasure. She ground her hips upward toward that questing bit of muscle, and raised her free hand upward. The tall blonde gripped at one of her own breasts, kneading in time with the flick and dance of Cordelia's tongue within her.
Zara licked at her own lips once more, savoring the taste of the other woman which still lingered upon them. Every tease of that expert mouth, every stroke of those teasing, masterful fingers brought her closer to yet another peak. At this rate, she actually would be too exhausted to handle an emergency.
Her lover had no intention of letting up, and as Zara's fingers tightened in her hair, Cordelia intensified her attentions, alternating between nibbling kisses and snaking tongue. Tensing once more, Zara's pleasure overwhelmed her. Still Cordelia's nimble fingers worked to draw out that orgasm, and the dazed blonde stared down along her body to those mischievous jade eyes.
When at last she was allowed to come back down, Zara nearly collapsed back into those quilts. Her chest heaved with gradually slowing breaths.
Cordelia kissed at her inner thigh, and nuzzled against that smooth skin. "Rest well, my Lady. I shall watch over everything."
Zara nodded, reassured, and still lingering in the haze of sensation, only the latest in that night's endeavours. Soon, she drifted off to a light doze.
In retrospect, the bandit queen really should have realized something was up. As much as they adored one another, the readiness with which Cordelia had accompanied her into her tent while so much remained undecided was uncharacteristic. With two prisoners in the camp, and so many of their fellows still out on missions, the ever conscientious lieutenant should have rebuffed her. At least until the men were back and the prisoners transferred to that strange woman.
It was only when Zara awoke from her slumber of pleasure induced exhaustion that the idea that she had been tricked dawned on her. Rather than the expected tangle of limbs, or comforting embrace, Zara found herself alone, sprawled nude across her bedding with no sign of Cordelia.
Outside of her tent, the camp was quiet. She was used to the almost constant chaos of the outlaws who followed her. It's not that they were bad men, though they all had their reasons for living beyond the reach of civilization. But they were, for the most part, as unpredictable in their jests as in their quarrels, and the one so often lead to the other.
The tall blonde swept up a tunic and her leather leggings from about the chamber, and tugged them haphazardly over her powerful figure. Still disheveled, she ducked out of the confines of her tent and into the camp proper. There was hardly a soul in sight. Her first thought was that those men who'd gone out after the Prince just hadn't returned yet, though by all rights they should have been arriving soon enough. By the moon and stars, it was closer to dawn than to midnight.
Her first concern was finding where Cordelia had wandered off to. That should have been a straightforward task, but as Zara cast her gaze about the camp, the redhead was no where to be found. A few bandits still stood watch about the perimeter, as they should, while three sat with Jenrea near the fire, chatting away. Zara was impressed with the girl's endurance, she had surely thought the raven haired beauty would be sound asleep by now. The innkeeper's daughter had been up all night through stressful situations, and unlike the bandits, Zara guessed Jenrea was unused to such things.
As Zara's long legged stride carried her with an unhurried pace toward that fire, Jenrea turned her smiling gaze up to the bandit queen. That cheer was infectious, and Zara couldn't help but smile back. The men who'd been chatting with Jenrea offered merry grins and raised their mugs in customary salute.
"Well, dear," Zara rested her hands at her hips as she regarded Jenrea, "it certainly seems that you've been enjoying yourself. I fear I must remind you that you are, in fact, a prisoner."
Jenrea's expression fell at those words, but a weak smile soon returned. "I know, Miss Zara. Your men here told me all about what happened. While I'm kind of scared, I know that you don't have much of a choice in the matter."
Those honest, forgiving words set Zara off guard. They were anything but what she expected. Zara's brows furrowed. "You aren't... angry?"
"Of course not, MIss Zara. If a strange magic woman suddenly showed up in my home, I don't think I'd refuse her demands either. But if you ever did decide to go against her, know that I'll be behind you all the way. And so will these fellows. Right?"
The last was directed to Zara's men, and the three cheered, nodding their agreement. Zara wasn't certain whether to be impressed at how readily they had taken to her, or upset at how easily they had spilled the information about their client.
Although there was nothing condescending in Jenrea's tone, a certain sense of indignation stirred within the bandit queen. In her innocent way, Jenrea seemed to be operating from the assumption that she, the great Zara Blade, was somehow forced to comply with a demand, rather than working toward some expected reward. Was that how the situation appeared to an outsider? For that matter, had her own men given the young woman that impression?
Zara frowned faintly, but nodded to Jenrea's words. "We will have to see how the exchange goes." And then, eager to change the subject, she quickly asked, "Have any of you seen Cordelia?"
"The pretty little redhead that seems so devoted to you?" Jenrea's question brought the faintest of blushes to Zara's cheeks. Fortunately, the innkeeper's daughter seemed oblivious to the reaction. "I'm afraid not, I got caught up in talking. I'm sorry," as if keeping tabs on Zara's lieutenant should have been her job.
When none of the three bandits sitting about the fire with Jenrea could help either, the amazonian blonde was hardly surprised. When she wished to move unseen, Cordelia might as well have been a ghost. As Zara turned her gaze back about the camp, Jenrea rose to her feet, and stepped quietly toward her. The raven haired beauty went near unnoticed until she grasped one of the bandit queen's hands gently. When Zara turned toward her, those beautiful eyes gazing upward captured her attention for a long moment.
"Miss Blade?" Jenrea's question went unanswered. Indeed, it was only when she continued speaking that Zara realized she was being asked something, "Where is Lady Marissa? I'm worried about her."
Zara's fascination with the enthralling beauty of the innkeeper's daughter was swept away with the return of memories of the night's events. She recalled the holding room, Cordelia whipping the half clad noblewoman, the talks they had. Her eyes tore reluctantly from Jenrea's, and drifted back to the secure little storage hut where the prisoner was being held. She couldn't have gone back to torment the Squire's daughter more, could she?
And yet, that was the only place Zara could think of looking. The bandit queen began to stride toward the structure. So intent was she on her goal that she didn't realize Jenrea's slender hand was still holding hers, at least until the shorter woman stumbled trying to keep up. Rather than release Jenrea, Zara just moderated her own pace. If Jenrea were so concerned about that bitch Marissa, she had every right to see whatever may lay behind that sturdy door.
Indeed, in a moment of irrational jealousy, the bandit queen half hoped Cordelia would be in the midst of torturing the squire's daughter. It would serve her right, though Zara was not immediately certain why: capturing Cordelia's attentions so, or having Jenrea hold her in such high regard.
The tall blonde flung the door open with a crash. Inside, Cordelia stood, holding a long, thin switch torn from one of the local trees. A half clad Marissa was still bound to a post in the middle of the room, and bore fresh stripes from where Cordelia had struck her with a switch. About her neck, from a crude loop of twine, hung a pair of copper talismans that Zara recognized from Cordelia's collection.
They were tokens stolen from the capital city, said to be able to cleanse dark magic from the afflicted, or hinder a caster from working their own spells.
The copper tokens swung wildly on their loose tether, dangling between the swells of Marissa's pert breasts. It became clear that the squire's daughter's head wasn't hung in defeat, but rather to keep those talismans from touching her body. Every time one brushed against her pale skin, a visible spark jumped between flesh and metal, earning a spasm and pained yelp from the young redhead.
