Queen of Peace Read online

  She didn’t have a chance to thank him for his assistance. One moment he was there, so close she could feel his breath on her face, and the next he’d vanished. She sometimes wondered if he lived in the woods, or if he only traversed the area when someone called out to him for assistance.

  Fayeth didn’t dawdle. She jogged past rock and squirrel and entered Tsarra. The village was as peaceful and quiet as ever, despite how some of her neighbors had helped intimidate the humans that very morning. While she’d hid underneath the road and used her magic to persuade nature to act, ten other elves had distracted the soldiers.

  Fayeth ascended the spiral staircase to the walkways and headed towards the home she shared with her daughter. She smiled at every elf she encountered, and they smiled politely at her in turn. Nothing had changed since they last saw each other, yet she couldn’t deny that she felt different than when she’d left. She hadn’t kissed anyone in forever. Her lips tingled.

  “Mother!” Syvis burst out of their home and disrupted Fayeth’s tranquility. “The humans haven’t crawled back under their rocks. They’ve pushed on east. Do you want me to stop them? Give me the order, I will do what we know must be done.”

  Syvis spoke so loud that her voice carried throughout the village. It wasn’t the first time her daughter decided that they ought to have a shouting match, but Fayeth wasn’t in the mood. It would take days for the humans to get to the other side of the Freow Woods. She did not have to stop them today. The dead had not provided a date for when the humans had to be gone.

  “I am not the leader of this village,” Fayeth said with a patient smile. “This village doesn’t have a leader. And if it did, it wouldn’t be me. Everyone knows I’ve proved my ineptitude in that regard. If you need a queen to give you orders, Syvis, appoint someone else.”

  She pushed past Syvis and slipped inside their home. The cramped hallway with its numerous wood carvings on the walls looked worse than when she’d departed. She could tell by the broken plates on the carpet that Syvis was angrier than usual.

  Her daughter would throw tantrums every once in a while, but she rarely broke their belongings on purpose. If she did, she knew she would have to replace them herself, and Syvis was less than fond of using her hands for creation. She preferred to destroy.

  Fayeth disregarded the broken plates and went searching for blankets she could bring to Leyla. She found two blue ones thrown over the rocking chair in her bedroom. Sunlight peeked in through the round windows, danced across the cracks in the floor, and made her hesitate as she looked at her own bed with a strange fondness. What was she doing?

  She may not call herself a queen these days, but she still had pride, did she not? Why should she bring anything to a human? If Leyla could not survive on her own in the wild, did she really deserve to survive at all?

  “You left us,” Syvis said as she entered the bedroom and tugged on her ginger locks. She often took it out on her hair when something annoyed her. “We thought you would keep up your assault on the humans longer than you did, but you disappeared. Someone could have gotten hurt. We were outnumbered.”

  “I didn’t…” Fayeth thought back to their attack on the humans. Maybe she had left too early. She’d dragged one soldier underground, put him to sleep, and then the second soldier had turned out to be Leyla. Furore’s pet project.

  “I feared you might be hurt, but I can tell you’re not.” Syvis snorted. “What do you plan to do with our blankets?”

  “They’re mine, not ours.”

  Syvis tugged so hard on her own hair that she winced. “And what’re you going to do with them? Are they more important than the humans?”

  “Nothing.” Fayeth dropped the blankets on the bed, grabbed her daughter’s hand, and prevented Syvis from taking out her anger on herself. “Forget them.”

  She might have enjoyed spending the night with Leyla, but she had one responsibility in life which she deemed paramount. If she did not care for her angry bee of a child, who would? Syvis stomped her foot on the floor and pouted, but it was at most a weak attempt to get respect. She did not try to free herself of Fayeth’s grasp.

  “You should repair what you’ve destroyed,” Fayeth said. “Once you’ve fixed your own mess, we can discuss the intruders.”

  “I hate you,” Syvis muttered, but she couldn’t look at Fayeth after she’d said it. She stared at the wall next to them. “Everyone thinks you’re pathetic in your old age.”

  Fayeth laughed, released her daughter, and ruffled her hair. “Only you would dare to say that to my face, or so I thought. Seems the wall caught your eye as you gathered the courage.”

  “They all probably think it behind your back.”

  “How brave,” Fayeth said and pulled her daughter into a hug against her will. Syvis squirmed, a bit. “I only care about your opinion. Among the living, you’re the one I love.”

  “I find it sad, mother. You’re not dead. How am I supposed to move away from home when it makes me think I’ll abandon you to your eternal loneliness?” Syvis asked. “You’ve lived longer without my father than with him, by my count.”

  “That’s…” Fayeth hadn’t kept count. She hated thinking in those lines. “You can move. I’ve always appreciated the solitude I have when you’re not busy screaming my ears off.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  Maybe her daughter had a point. Fayeth let Syvis go, let her leave the room with a quick nod, and figured she didn’t have to help Leyla survive. She could treat her like a prisoner and use her like a slave to get what she craved. No one would find out. Not a single soul.

  She’d denied herself pleasure because of a dead love, but she doubted Pharom would have made the same choice in her shoes. Fayeth picked up the blankets to go and grab food for her eager, waiting slave.

  The Queen’s Slave

  Leyla sort of felt watched, as evening approached, but at least it didn’t take her long to find a suitable branch with thick leaves which might serve the purpose she had in mind. It wasn’t like she had anything better available to dust with in the wilds, unless she wanted to get her clothes dirty.

  While she brushed dust off shelves, walls, and chairs, it amazed her how anyone had abandoned the large room she found herself in. It must have been fit for a king and queen once, but it had been left to fall into disrepair as if no one could bring themselves to care for it.

  She figured Fayeth had had a good reason to ignore it, but it didn’t make it seem like less of a waste. Why not give it to someone in need before it became a ruin? Why leave it to decay?

  If the door she’d knocked off its hinges hadn’t been so sturdy, she would have expected to find a den of wolves inside. However, she didn’t spot a single spider, beetle, or insect while cleaning. Could the ruin have protected itself from intrusions with magic like Fayeth’s?

  Leyla lost herself to fanciful fantasies about the past of the ruin, and what it may once have been used for. She pranced about, hummed to herself, and did her best to rid the interior of a huge amount of dust. She didn’t hear Fayeth enter before the elf sneezed.

  Leyla faced Fayeth and was awestruck by her gorgeous outfit. She’d exchanged her emerald dress for an azure two-piece which left her stomach bare. The top accentuated the elf’s curves without being too revealing, and the skirt trailed far behind. She wore a pale shawl as an accessory over her shoulders.

  Leyla had not met many royals, except for the Algorian king, but she imagined Fayeth would have fit right in with the best of them in what she currently wore. It made Leyla very self-conscious, since she had nothing to wear except her undergarments.

  “I, um…”

  Her mouth collected saliva as she spoke, and she worried she might start drooling like an imbecile if Fayeth kept watching her without bothering to hide what she looked at. It was certainly not Leyla’s face.

  Maybe the elf was insulted that she hadn’t changed her clothes too. Maybe she neede
d to ask for a set to borrow.

  “Thank you for cleaning.” Fayeth placed a basket by the broken door. “I would like to lay with you now, if you’ve no objections, but not here. This ruin is too personal to me. I know of a nearby spring we used to bathe in.”

  The elf said the strangest things while exuding the most commanding presence. Leyla’s heart raced in her chest, pounded in her ears, and didn’t give her a single suggestion for how to respond. She was drawn to Fayeth, they’d kissed twice, but how could she accept her offer? What was the correct response? What were the exact words she needed to use?

  Fayeth pulled a couple of blue blankets out of the basket, threw them on the stone bed, and retreated outside with the basket. She didn’t seem to notice how Leyla hadn’t spoken.

  “No one will find out. We’re alone.” Fayeth winked and extended her right arm in Leyla’s direction, as if she only offered to take a stroll together. “Don’t you want another kiss? Don’t you want me?”

  Leyla did. She supposed neither of them had reason to hide their feelings anymore after Fayeth’s invitation. Besides, she didn’t care if someone learnt how attracted she was to the regal elf, as long as they didn’t try to get between them.

  She approached Fayeth and considered linking their arms together, but her words had emboldened her, so instead she wrapped an arm around her waist. Fayeth snorted, a grin played over her fine lips.

  “Hope you know what you’re doing, girl, because I don’t.” Fayeth battered her eyelashes. “You’ll have to teach me how to take it further than kisses.”

  “H-how difficult can it be?” Leyla said, yet she probably had less experience than Fayeth in this particular area.

  “I guess we’ll learn together as a hopeless pair.” Fayeth leaned her head against Leyla’s. “Don’t leave me disappointed. I think you may be the first with the courage to court an elf. Are you sure you’re up to the task?”

  Leyla hadn’t gotten past the initial hurdle of how they were both women, and now Fayeth suggested there might be more to it than that? No, she wasn’t up to the task. Worst case scenario, if she did disappoint her lover, she could swear up and down that Fayeth hadn’t satisfied her either.

  Fayeth dragged her away from the ruin, descended overgrown, hidden stairs, and lead her on a winding path past a clear stream. When Leyla had ventured outside alone, she hadn’t seen the stairs or the stonework which hinted at a much larger structure than a single home.

  She prayed the elves who’d lived in these ruins reclaimed by nature were at peace, or on the other side of the world. If anyone wanted to stop her from touching their queen, they need only shoot her with an arrow or impale her on a sword. She remained unarmed and defenseless. Anyone would have plenty of cover in the ruins to hide behind too.

  “You’ve grown silent,” Fayeth said, dragged her over to a dead end covered in rich greenery, and pulled the plants to the side like a canvas. The greenery confused Leyla with how it moved when Fayeth pulled it aside, but up close, it did not appear natural. Someone had weaved the pieces and plants into a whole.

  “I don’t want to offend the ghosts of your people, by…” She glanced at Fayeth, took her body in with her senses, and thought she smelled new perfume. Lavender? Her fingers twitched as she resisted touching, and the hairs on her arms rose in anticipation as soon as she stopped focusing on their surroundings.

  “Having carnal relations with their queen? I think there’re more human ghosts than elven spirits in these ruins. Your people defiled our home with their presence, so we stopped living here. Gave it to nature.” Fayeth bit her bottom lip, a blend of hatred and lust appeared in her gaze. “How about you finish the job by sullying the former queen?”

  Leyla pressed Fayeth up against the nearest wall, ran her nose along her lover’s face, breathed in, and licked her skin. Fayeth trembled when Leyla laid her hands on her hips.

  “I joked,” she said and placed her left leg between Leyla’s. “The bath is downstairs. Take me there. It’s nicer, I’m sure. Nothing that belongs to us ages like your kind does.”

  “What if I’m sick of listening to you talk?” Leyla kissed Fayeth’s cheek, moved downward, and created a trail of impatient kisses along her neck. She listened to Fayeth’s breathing grow heavier in her ears, and if it hadn’t been for her azure top, Leyla would have continued her kisses until she was on her knees in front of the elf. “What if I want to hear you…” She tugged on the fabric concealing the queen’s ample chest.

  “Moan?” Fayeth laughed. “Does the sweet girl want to hear me moan? Is that what you were trying to say before you were distracted by my breasts?”

  “I wasn’t distracted. I—”

  Fayeth interrupted her sentence by pushing her chest forward and releasing a loud, needy moan which bounced off the walls and echoed in the ruin. Leyla listened to the marvelous sound, heard its echoes grow weaker and weaker, then she lost control and tugged at Fayeth’s top to rip it apart. She had to taste and worship every aspect of the queen.

  “Downstairs.” Fayeth giggled, grabbed Leyla’s head, and kissed her forcefully on the lips to snap her out of her trance. “Let’s go downstairs, bathe, and eat.”

  Her stomach grumbled. She hadn’t eaten in a while, yet in her heart, she knew she only hungered for Fayeth. Real nourishment could wait till afterwards, tomorrow.

  “I’ll carry you.” Leyla hoisted her lover into her arms. “Tell me where to go, I’ll run faster than the wind.”

  Fayeth rested her head on Leyla’s shoulder and snuggled up against her with a pink blush on her cheeks. “Downstairs, like I said. I’m not so annoying to listen to that you don’t hear what I say, am I?”

  “I’d follow your orders over my own king’s, any day.” Leyla ran farther into the ruins.

  “Watch your tongue, or you might encourage an old crone to believe in life after death.”

  Conquer Me

  When they descended the stairs into the spring where she’d spent days and nights with friends, Fayeth heard the sound of a waterfall which she’d forgotten. The sound didn’t bring to mind sad memories, yet she’d thought she could recall every detail of this gigantic ruin like the lines of her hand. The realization that she could forget details too struck her as droll.

  “You won’t trip and fall?” Fayeth asked.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll shield you if I do trip.”

  The soldier moved fast down the stairs, and the bottom was not as well lit as the top. To Fayeth, the area looked as dark as the tunnels, but it was impossible for her to know what Leyla could or could not see.

  At the bottom of the stairs, a spring with glittering water stretched out far on every side of a landing. The water had risen high enough to flow across the landing’s smooth stones, and someone had left benches and active obelisks of light.

  “Are you sure you want to… explore each other in this dim room? I can’t see the walls. Bears might lurk in the darkness.”

  “Put me down. This is perfect.” Fayeth grinned against Leyla’s dirty skin. She wasn’t about to tell the human, but if anyone needed a bath right now, it was her. “Why are you obsessed with bears? They won’t attack you in my company.”

  “They’re shifty.” Leyla grabbed the basket in Fayeth’s arms, sat it down on the nearest bench, and stepped closer to the edge of the landing.

  “No. Please. I wore this outfit to entice you. It doesn’t give you permission to destroy it.” Fayeth squirmed and tried to slip out of Leyla’s arms and put her legs on the landing.

  “It’s extremely enticing, trust me, but revenge is revenge,” Leyla said, swayed her arms backwards in an arc, and tossed Fayeth a fair distance into the spring.

  She cursed the girl as she soared through the air. Luckily, the water was hot when she landed and sunk like a stone. Familiar. But if Leyla thought she could take these kinds of liberties with her, she would have to teach the girl how to behave. It might be a harsh few lessons before Fayeth was finished with her ass.

>   “Is it warm?” Leyla asked when Fayeth pushed her head and ears above the spring’s surface. Her clothes weighed her down, but she was a strong swimmer.

  “Jump in, check for yourself!”

  Leyla dipped her toes into the spring, flashed a titillating smile, and turned her back against Fayeth. The girl slid her thumbs up under the edges of her shirt and swayed her hips from side to side in a hypnotic sort of dance. She needed more lessons from whoever had taught her how to dance, but Fayeth enjoyed the beauty putting on a show exclusive to her nonetheless.

  Then again, Leyla could have thrown her crotch out in Fayeth’s general direction, and it would have been attractive with her figure. When Leyla began sliding her shirt off her torso, Fayeth knew she had to put a stop to the show.

  “Wait!” She shouted and swam towards the landing. “I want to do that.”

  “Do what?” Leyla looked at her from over her shoulder.

  “Undress you,” Fayeth said and placed her hands on the side of the landing. “Sit, in front of me.”

  Leyla dropped her shirt, so it fell over her athletic form and concealed it from view. It was a brief, regretful moment before she got on her knees and extended her legs, so they dangled into the spring and trapped Fayeth between them.

  The move put her head at the same height as the girl’s stomach. They pleaded with each other, for someone to initiate the act, with lingering eye contact. Fayeth did not grow flustered first. Leyla averted her gaze and tried to pretend like the position didn’t bother her.

  “It’s a shame you don’t have a cock. I would have known what hole to slide it in.” Fayeth smacked her lips.

  Leyla’s eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe her ears. She seemed like she was about to respond, but settled on nothing, sat with her mouth agape, and stared off into the distance. To assure the girl she was everything Fayeth desired this afternoon, she pushed up out of the spring until they were face to face and planted a sloppy kiss on her round nose.