Winter Nights

Finding Rahab proved to be less of a challenge than Marlon had expected. All it took, really, was ignoring the bulge in his pants and the blue balls he'd given himself while walking through a room full of half-naked women.

First, he looked for Brianna, peering around the room at the faces rather than the tits bouncing all around the place. Unfortunately, the redhead was nowhere to be seen. The next best option, however, was the madam.

Unlike the other whores, Tarissa didn't debase herself by trying to lure in customers. She didn't need to; the customers came to her. She stood tall with her arms crossed at the front of the room. She'd eye men as they entered, daring them to meet her intimidating gaze. Very few did, and she wouldn't be interested in anyone that couldn't match her energy.

"I have to hand it to you," Marlon said coolly as he walked up, "you run a good place here."

Tarissa's eyes lit up as he approached, and she dropped her arms to her sides. Where most of the women kept their tits out and their asses protruded, Madam Tarissa kept herself covered, refined. She still showed off her best assets in a tight-fitting corset that made her buxom bosom pop, but apparently her nudity wasn't so cheap as to be gained through entry to the whorehouse alone.

"Even better than Memsim's?" She asked.

Marlon took a daring step forward and clapped one hand around her backside, reaching under her skirt to give her big ass a slap that made it jiggle under his touch. "Much better."

Tarissa smiled. "I don't know as I can afford too many free rides, champion, but you almost make me want to forget what kinda business I'm in."

Marlon smirked, but he didn't have time for another screw, despite the painful boner he still kept in his trousers. "Maybe you can help me out in another way," he said. "Your whore Brianna: Did you see her leave with a girl?"

The large woman tilted her head. "As a matter of fact, I did," she said, her eyes looking off in the distance as she thought. "I didn't think Brianna swung that way. But--then again--we don't see women in here all too often, so I guess I can't exactly know what to expect."

"Was it a woman with dark hair? Big tits?" Marlon questioned, giving Tarissa's ass a tighter squeeze.

Tarissa laughed lightly and nodded. "Yeah. That sounds about right."

That had to be Rahab. "Where did they go?" Marlon asked, finally releasing his grip on the finest piece of meat he'd ever felt.

The madam tossed her thumb over her shoulder towards the front door. "They left out the front, but I didn't care to see which way they wandered after that."

"Tarissa, you are a sweetheart," Marlon said before rushing past her. Before he left the brothel, he called over his shoulder, "Save some of that ass for me later, won't you?"

Of course, the head whore just rolled her eyes and returned her brooding gaze to the common room where her women worked. And then, with a slight flash of light as Marlon threw open the door, he was gone.

Marlon shielded his eyes from the midday sun. Until he'd stepped outside, he hadn't realized how much time had been spent in the temple of ecstasy behind him. Yet he was reminded of another temple, one of a more important nature.

His eyes flicked over to the heap of rubble that supposedly held King Hammond's blade behind a magical lock. Was it possible Brianna had taken Rahab there?

But for what purpose?

he wondered.

The champion had never been one for tracking, but he spied the dirt hopefully, wondering if two sets of dainty footprints might reveal the direction he should search. Unfortunately, this brothel was frequented often enough that any such hope was dashed quickly amid the many shufflings of dirt and bootprints.

With a sigh, he headed towards King Hammond's temple. It was the best he could think of. If Rahab hadn't been taken there, he promised himself, he would seek Torim's advice--even if that meant admitting he'd sold his brother's wife to a whore.

What was once a door was now merely an opening into a large pile of rock. Still, it beat climbing mountains of boulders to find another entrance. The champion had to lower his head to avoid knocking it on the crumbling archway. The entryway was little more than a hovel with its ceiling and walls crushed downwards, but another opening at the far end promised more space in the blackened room beyond.

Walking quietly, Marlon crept further into the temple. As he proceeded--first through one room and then another--more of the temple seemed intact, as if the outer layer had collapsed but left the innards untouched. It also became darker.

If it hadn't been for the few beams of sunlight thrown from the cracked ceiling on high, he would have been wandering blindly. He wished he'd had time to make his way back to the inn--namely back to the innkeeper's daughter, Lessy. Partially he yearned to feel her insides again, but mostly he wished for his equipment, part of which included an oil-soaked torch with which he might better see.

All his yearning and wandering stopped as he entered another room, this one circular and with a much higher ceiling, domed and painted with images he could barely make out in the dimness. What stopped him wasn't the beauty of the space around him, nor the promising lone pedestal that rested in the center, but rather the light flickering beyond one of many doors cut into the curved walls around him.

Marlon halted entirely and listened for any hint at activity. Unfortunately, he could hear nothing.

With even more caution, he stepped one foot in front of the other, pressing lightly on the rubble beneath him. With each booted step, the ground cracked, and he could only hope that whoever was casting that light was too busy to notice the unstealthy manner with which he crept around the curved wall towards the firelight.

Finally he stood in the shadows just beyond the enchanting light. He let out a breath and strained his ears once more. This time he could hear voices. Voices and moans.

"Come on, slut. Cum for me," someone seemed to be whispering. Someone else moaned in response.

Gritting his teeth and hoping that this was in fact Rahab--though doubt was now beginning to set in--Marlon sprang around the archway to catch the unknown pair in their lecherous activity.

As soon as he left the shadow and stepped into the light, it went dark. Whoever had been moaning seemed to be cut off in the very midst of their ecstasy. Strangely, though, Marlon could see quite clearly into the completely empty room before him. As he stood there, he realized this was due to the fact that there was now another lightsource directly behind him.

Turning slowly, he saw a doorway on the far side of the chamber flickering with the same light as before. Only now it cast huge shadows along the walls. He watched with rapt attention at the gigantic silhouettes of two women, one seemingly suspended from the ceiling by a web of shadows leading to several points where her arms and legs met behind her back, and the other walking slowly around her, the shadow sliding lithely along the wall.

Both appeared to be completely naked. One set of tits massed in shadow along the walking girl's chest, but the second set hung so clearly that he could even see the stiff tips of nipples dangling off of them.

Marlon shook free of the enchantment he'd found himself caught in and rushed to where the light now streamed. As soon as he reached a point where he might have been able to peer inside the doorway, everything once again went dark.

"Shit," he muttered, spinning around. Now an opening a few doorways down was lit. The shadows didn't project nearly so well on the crumbling wall opposite.

At a full sprint, Marlon raced, leaping at the last second in a desperate attempt to reach the pair of women who he was now almost certain had to be Rahab and Brianna. As before, the moment his body entered the light, it went out and relit in another doorway.

The moans resumed, and Marlon glanced upwards to see two silhouettes combine into one, the dangling woman lifting her head and opening her mouth, dark shadows of hair stringing down from her face in gigantic, perfect resolution. The other woman crouched behind the first, her face combining with where Marlon assumed was her pussy. Which woman was which, he could only guess--though judging by the massive dangling shadows, his money was on Rahab in bondage.

"Rahab!" He shouted, and watched the shadow-show. The suspended woman's head jerked to the side.

"Marlon?" He heard Rahab call from somewhere more distant than she should have been.

The second shadow stood abruptly and brought a hand down on Rahab's backside. "Shut the fuck up, whore!" That was Brianna's voice; Marlon recognized the pitch, but not the hardened tone. "You exist only to moan when I command and to speak when I say."

Brianna's shadow slid across the cavern wall to Rahab's frontside and reached down to force Marlon's sister-in-law's face into her pussy. The standing silhouette threw her head back and let out a gasp of pleasure that echoed all around.

"Rahab!" Marlon called again, running for the lighted doorway. Once more, as soon as he reached it, the light was extinguished and reappeared elsewhere.

"Damn it!" he cried, not daring to take one more step lest it prove fruitless. "Brianna!" he called instead this time. He craned his neck to see what shadows were now cast above him, but they were formless against the craggy rocks. "Brianna, I've made a mistake."

The moaning continued, heedless to his calls. Though as he listened, the sounds of pleasure seemed not to emanate from the lit alcove but rather from the center of the room--from the stone table there. Marlon crept around the outskirts, moving towards the lit doorway, though he knew it was of no avail. He paid attention to the noises and watched the pedestal.

"Oh my god," he heard Brianna cry. Though her voice echoed all around him, there was no mistaking that they originated from where he fixed his eyes. "Do you love the taste of my pussy?"

When Marlon had once more reached the edge of light and shadow, he took one more step. Again, the flickering stopped at this particular opening and started up at another. And yet the sound didn't change.

"Mmm-hmm," he heard from the center of the room, and then a moment later, "I never thought it would taste so divine."

Marlon began creeping towards the stone table now instead of the lit doorway. Could it be possible that the two women had somehow been right here all along?

Brinna spoke again. "You mean you've never done this before?" She sounded genuinely shocked. Marlon felt a sudden twinge of regret that he hadn't explored a bit more to find out what Rahab could do with her tongue; from the sounds of it, she was quite skilled. "Don't tell me you've never even tasted yourself?"

Marlon had nearly reached the center table and there was still no sign of the ladies beyond their vulgar conversation.

"No. Never," Rahab confessed, her words echoing around the chamber.

"I'll have to remedy that," came Brianna's response. A moment later, Rahab's groans replaced Brianna's.

Finally Marlon stood before the slab of granite. He looked to where he could hear Rahab's rapid breathing right in front of him. He reached out his hand. The moment it passed over the top of the pedestal, it vanished.

He withdrew it quickly enough and held it up to his face. Even in the dark it seemed intact. The sounds before him--Rahab's moaning and a wet

thuck, thuck, thuck

--was enough to assure him that neither woman had seen his momentary pass through whatever enchanted veil was draped here.

"Oh god," he heard Rahab say one more time, and then Brianna's "Taste yourself, bitch."

He steeled himself and hurled his whole body forward, leaping with confidence that he hoped would not be as final as it felt onto the stone bench. Instantly he emerged from a cold, dark cavern of endless doors and into a bright-lit, cozy chamber. The walls around him were no longer stone; they were wood. And they were not dark but lit by warm torchlight all around. The granite table was not a table at all but a rather plush bed.

Before him were two shocked and naked women. Brianna knelt at the head of the bed holding a length of smooth wood in Rahab's mouth. Rahab was bound in a dizzying criss-cross of brown rope that suspended her body from a hook in the ceiling. The cords wound around her legs, binding calves to thighs, and around her torso, making her breasts bulge downward from their tension.

All three of them stood stark still for but a moment. Brianna was the first one to break the spell. "You fucking idiot!" she screeched. "She is mine!"

The woman came at Marlon with her wooden club. The warrior dodged it easily and Brianna stumbled off the bed, disappearing in thin air. Marlon stood with uneasy balance on the shifting sheets of the bed, watching all around him for the missing whore.

"She's nobody's!" Marlon called out, unsure if Brianna were even still listening. He glanced back at Rahab who still hung from the ceiling with a dazed look on her face. "Well, except for Torim's, of course," he added for her benefit. Rahab gave him a small smile in acknowledgement before her eyes opened wide in shock.

With his back turned, Marlon hadn't seen Brianna return to the bedroom. Her attack made contact this time and Marlon fell to the bed as her wooden club cracked across his head.

"You sold her to me. That makes her mine." Brianna stood above him with her makeshift weapon and swung downward at him.

Though dazed from the surprise attack, Marlon regained his senses enough to roll away at the last moment. In doing so, the world shifted in color from a warm yellow to a cold gray. He landed hard at the edge of the pedestal, his elbow smarting where it had smacked into stone.

He stood quickly, jumping to his feet and dancing away from the bed. As a fighter, he had undergone worse injuries than a bruised arm and sore head--though he had to admit it had been some time since his glory days of the arena. A moment later, Brianna leapt from out of nowhere, her phallic length of wood gripped in both hands. Fortunately, she was aiming for where Marlon had been rather than where he now was, and she missed entirely.

Her weapon smacked the stone floor dully and seemed to send a jolt through her body, her bare tits jiggling even despite their small size. She recovered quickly, much quicker than some opponents Marlon had faced. Her green eyes shimmered in the low light and she leapt again with her club.

Marlon blocked this blow with his arm, forgetting that only a moment ago he had smacked it quite squarely against the floor. Brianna's attack made contact with his already injured elbow and Marlon dropped his guard in a sudden shock of pain. Once more, the woman reacted too quickly for a whore and brought the wooden instrument up to strike Marlon's jaw.

The warrior's mouth clicked shut with a sound that echoed all around them and he tasted blood in his mouth as he stumbled back. And yet, Brianna was not finished. Before he could even assess whether all his teeth were still in place--or even clear the stars from his eyes--another blow landed in the dead center of his chest, pushing him backwards.

Marlon stumbled, his feet knocking against some heap of rubble lying on the floor, and he lost his balance entirely. Before he even had time to register the first of many blows, the warrior found himself staring up at the ceiling. His entire body ached and blood dribbled down his cheeks. Brianna climbed atop the rubble that had tripped him and glared downward.

"Marlon!" Rahab cried from somewhere beyond. She sounded far, far away, though Marlon knew this fight had only traveled a few steps and a fall.

Brianna put a hand to her ears and pretended to listen to the other woman's cries. "You hear that?" she asked. "She's calling for you, hero. Why don't you save her, hero?" she spat the word at Marlon.

Clenching his teeth against the pain, Marlon knew he'd have to treat this as a proper fight. Perhaps he'd let his guard down simply because he'd been fighting a woman--a skinny whore at that. But no more. Brianna obviously knew what she was doing, and pulling his punches wasn't an option.

His breathing heavy, the champion climbed to his feet. Brianna watched him closely, but she didn't strike. Strangely enough, that worried Marlon more than anything. This woman seemed so capable, so confident. What did she know that he didn't? Did he even stand a chance against her if there was more at play than a simple one-on-one?

"She's mine," Brianna hissed again, crouching low and holding her club to the side.

Marlon stared her down and raised his fists, ready for the inevitable leap. He considered reaching down to his boot for the knife still kept there, but didn't like the idea of taking his eyes off this dangerous woman.

"What claim do you have on her beyond my unlawful sale?" he asked.

At his words, the whore smiled, though the look in her eyes was still murderous. "What claim do I have beyond the claim I've already laid? I have captured her and freed her; I have done her no harm and harmed her irreparably; I have stolen her life and returned it." She spat. "In short, hero, I have spoiled her. She is tainted with me, and I with her.

"True, our contract was only verbal, but I sealed it with far more than a wax seal.

That

is the claim I have on her. And

that

is why I say she's mine."

With those words, the woman pounced. Marlon was ready this time. Catching her weapon in mid-air, he swung her around. Brianna held tight, but after a moment her grip slipped and she was flung backwards, over the edge of the stone table to disappear.

Beyond the invisible curtain, Marlon heard Rahab cry out in shock.

Brianna had left him her weapon. He readjusted his grip and stepped towards the pedestal. He held the bat up with both hands and darted his eyes about, watchful for any sign of movement. All was silent once more, and Marlon worried with each passing second that Brianna might have killed Rahab where he couldn't see. Still, he held his ground. Moving into the smaller space with no sight would put him at a disadvantage once again, and he was willing to bet that Rahab wouldn't die quite this quietly if that were truly the case.

Suddenly Rahab shouted. She shouted nothing distinguishable, but that was all Marlon needed. He was ready.

When Brianna reappeared, leaping as if from nowhere, naked body lean and deadly, he was ready. With a solid swing of her makeshift dildo, he cracked the side of her head and sent her sprawling off in the dust to lie still.

Brianna's whimpers were the only indication that she still lived, and Marlon kept his weapon ready for any more tricks. He walked up until he loomed over her. She curled into herself and held her head, though she watched him from the sides of her eyes.

"You don't understand," she whined through tears. "She holds the key."

"The key to what?" was all Marlon said.

"To ending this war!" She exclaimed. "To stopping the Western Kingdom's oppression of Larkton! Long live the Larks!"

Those words were her last. Marlong brought her instrument down hard against her skull and spilled her blood to commingle with the fiery hair among the ruinous floor.

"God," he muttered, letting the wooden club clatter beside Brianna's body. "It's such a shame; You were the only one that I've actually paid to fuck in a long, long while."

Then he retreated to the center of the room. Already whatever magic had been cast here was unweaving. He could see little glimpses of the warm room beyond, little rips appearing in the eaves of a magical fabric and tearing slowly downwards. Marlon stepped up on the table and disappeared.