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Introduction:

Angela and her companions are lost in the Mirage Gardens. Assaulted by illusions, they have no idea what is real and what is fake.

The Knight and the Acolyte
Book Seven: Illusory Passion
Chapter Nine: Illusive Dreams
By mypenname3000
Copyright 2016

Xandra – The Mirage Garden

My husband's cock slammed in and out of my pussy. I writhed beneath him on the silk sheets, his muscular chest rubbing on my small breasts. My cunt gripped his cock as it reamed into me. Chaun's dick felt bigger than usual. But he was a changeling. He could enlarge himself for me.

The pleasure rippled through my body as I gasped and moaned, slamming into the fog wreathing my mind. Everything was so...hazy since I had arrived in the Mirage Gardens earlier... Today? Yesterday? My thoughts were sluggish, languishing. It was hard to think.

Why was Chaun in the Mirage Gardens?

That question seemed important. But it wasn't. Not with his cock slamming deep into my wet depths, reaming me, giving me such wonderful pleasure. My hips bucked, and I ground my clit into his groin. I shuddered, savoring the feel of him in my pussy.

“Yes, yes, fuck me, my Husband,” I moaned, loving that word, loving Chaun so much. I was glad he was fucking me and not the master of this place.

“Yes, yes, fuck her, Riad,” Sophia moaned, her words slurred. She writhed beside us, naked and fair, her skin glistening with scented oils and unguents. She had both her hands shoved between her thighs, frigging herself.

“No, no, not Riad...” I managed to moan before Chaun kissed me.

“Fuck your wife, Riad,” Sophia moaned as I melted into the kiss. Questions vanished.

This wasn't a place for questions. It was a place for passion. I tightened my thighs about Chaun's waist. My nipples rasped against his chest. My pussy clenched on his dick, the pleasure building and growing in my depths.

Driving me to my release. My glorious, wonderful orgasm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knight-Errant Angela

I hated the Mirage Gardens. Nothing was real. Nothing was the same. I had found the piece of the sword. I could have left, but it meant abandoning all my companions who had entered with me and abandoning Sophia and Xandra to Riad's harem.

It didn't take me long to escape the room Saniyya left me. What appeared to be a room with no way out save her curtain-like portal to the real world, was all illusion. I struck the wall with my sword and it melted away into a rocky tunnel. Three steps down it, and I was in a pond of lilies, water sloshing about the ankles of my boots.

Every few steps, things changed. I saw corridors made of blue stone, corridors lined with pink silk. I walked beneath grape arbors and through steamy gardens. I found the austere beauty of the rocky wasteland where a single flower grew out of the crack between blood-red stones. Every few steps, things changed.

“Las-damn Saniyya,” I cursed as I took a step. The corridor I walked down became a flowery garden. Birds chirped in the sky.

Every few steps, everything changed, rippled. The place was ephemeral. Smoke. Nothing was real. I might be by Sophia and have no idea she was near me. I screamed her name as I stumbled forward. I took two steps and the flowers became an oasis of palm trees around a pool of cool, blue water. Beyond lay the harsh, white sands of the desert.

I turned around, my sword gripped in my hand. I slashed at the nearest palm tree in anger. Before my blade connected, the world rippled, and I stood in a corridor paved with gold. My sword struck nothing. I swung hard, expecting impact. I stumbled, thrown off balance. As I recovered, I bumped into a wall covered in mosaic of figures writhing on a bed...

Sophia writhing on a bed.

I stared at the image, seeing my naked lover, her brown hair fanned over red silk sheets, her fingers shoved between her thighs, her head turned to her right, staring at the couple beside her. Xandra's light-blue hair fanned out beneath the form of a red-skinned efreet. He fucked Xandra, her pale limbs wrapped about him.

Yes, yes, yes, my Husband, fuck me, I almost heard from the wall. Xandra's voice, slurred with passion.

Cum in her, Riad, Sophia answered. Ream her, my Husband.

“Husband?” I whispered, a tear trickling down my cheek. I touched the mosaics, stroking the small, round tiles that formed the larger picture. “What has he done to you?”

A great anger seized me. Sophia was dedicated to Saphique. Her Goddess demanded purity. Sophia could never let a man touch her sexually. When I had been possessed by the karabasan, a male spirit which manifested a spectral cock, I had fucked her. That had been enough to sever her connection with her Goddess. Since she was unwilling, she was able to be restored.

What would happen if Riad fucked her while she begged for it? Would it matter that she was tricked by the illusions of this place? Would it only matter that she asked, that she wanted it, ached for it?

What he was doing was terrible. I roared, all my frustration at walking through this ever-shifting garden mixing with my anger that Riad had taken my Sophia. It was supposed to be me offered up with the others rushing into save me. Not Sophia. She shouldn't be at risk of losing her powers. This was all my fault.

My sword swung. I screamed. The wall faded away. My sword slammed into the soft loam of the garden. Cicadas chirped. Wet heat rolled around me as the white petals of a lily, cut in half by my blade, fluttered to the ground.

My knees collapsed. How could I find Sophia? How could I rescue her? Tears fell down my cheeks as I pressed my face into the loam. Nothing was real. I didn't know where I was. The place was maddening.

“Help,” I cried out as my body shook, my armor clinking. “Please, please. Anyone! Chaun! Xera! Minx! Thrak! Faoril! Gods, I need help.”

My fingers dug into the loam as another sobbing shudder wracked my body. “Gods, please, I need your help. Your guidance. Saphique...” I blinked and then lifted my head up, staring at a vaulted ceiling, half obscured by bluish incense curling around it. “Saphique, please, guide me. You have to. She's your servant. She's so loyal to you. You can't let Riad trick her into losing her purity. You have to help me. Please, Defender of Maidens. Please, Goddess of Virgins and Purity. Help me defend her. Guide me through this maze!

“Help me save my love!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warlock Faoril

“I'm so sorry, Thrak,” I sobbed, kneeling beside his burnt corpse.

I stared at his face, somehow unmarred by the magic which had killed him. Why did I have to be so indiscreet when destroying the illusions about me? Why didn't I think that my companions might be around me?

Again and again and again I abused my magic. I used it poorly. I hurt others. Killed others. Killed Thrak.

I stroked his face. Emptiness swallowed me. It devoured me from the inside, starting in my stomach and radiating through my body until I was only a husk, a shell of skin. Something foul and depraved. Something that should not exist.

I was a danger. I only hurt. I didn't help. I only caused pain. That was all I could do. My magic couldn't heal like Sophia's. All it could do was kill.

I killed him.

“Thrak,” I whispered again.

Power seethed in the emptiness. Reserves of energy that came from his life force, transmitted via his cum. I killed him with his own essence. Killed. Harm. Hurt. I never should have been trained. The Collegiate Tower should have ripped up my application and sent me back to my family.

All I did was kill. Was hurt. “How much longer until it's Angela lying before me, killed by my magic?” I shouted at the walls. “Or Sophia? Xandra? Minx? Xera? Chaun? How much longer until all the people I care for were dead at my own hands?”

I had the power. I could do something about it.

“I'm so sorry, Thrak,” I moaned, rocking back and forth. A keening wail burst from my mouth. I shuddered, the emptiness growing more and more, forcing out my grief. “I'm so sorry. I'm terrible. I...I...

“Don't deserve to exist. Then I won't harm any more people.”

I had the power. I gathered it. One last spell to make up for Relaria's and Thrak's deaths.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thrak

“You saved me,” Saoria purred as we lay in the grass. “You saved me.”

“I did,” I said, coming down from the rage and the release of my orgasm. The night sky burned over us. How was I here? In the past? I entered the Mirage Garden and...

“What are you thinking about?” Saoria asked, her fingers stroking my cheeks, so soft and dainty. So warm.

“How am I here?”

“Didn't you track me down? After the Ghost Wolves kidnapped me?”

“I did.” Tears burned in my eyes. “Only I wasn't in time to save you. I found you dead, and then I found them. And I killed them all. I killed so many until my rage drove me to exhaustion. And it never brought you back.

“How are you here?”

“Because you saved me.” Her fingers slid up to my woolly hair and tightened. She pulled me down to her pale lips. She was human, but that didn't make her weak. Oh, no, not my Saoria. “Isn't that wonderful?”

Yes.

Her lips were silk and sweet and honey. I closed my eyes, savoring the feel of her beneath me. I kissed her. She writhed beneath me, wet and lithe. She felt so real. But she wasn't. She couldn't be. This was the Mirage Gardens.

Gewin's mighty cock, what a cruel place.

I broke the kiss and sat up.

“What's wrong?” She sat up, still so lovely, her pink nipples pierced by bone, more adorning her lips and nose, giving her a primal beauty that Faoril lacked. My mage's only piercing was a slim, silver ring in her nose.

But she was still beautiful.

“You're not real.”

Saoria pressed against me. “I feel real. My heart beats.” She turned, rubbing her breasts against my arm. I felt the beat of her heart. “See. How am I not real?”

“Because you're dead.” My voice grew hoarse. Tears burned in my eyes. She was dead. I had already said goodbye to her twice. Once when she died and the second when her phantom became twisted and ugly, forcing Sophia to exorcise her. “You're not here. You're beyond. In the Astral Realm.”

She laughed. It was so joyous. “Did you hit your head? I am very much alive.” She seized my hand, shoving it between her thighs. Her pussy wet and hot with our combined juices. “See. Didn't I feel alive when you took me. Ravished me. Mmm, you took me soooo hard.”

“How can you know what she sounded like?” I asked to the dark sky, tears running down my cheeks. “How can you create her so perfectly?”

“Because I am your wife.” She shook her head. “Sometimes, you think too much, Thrak.”

“My curse,” I said. I wanted to stay. It was such a sweet dream. To have Saoria back. But what about Faoril. Where was she? My heart ached, split in twain. Saoria was dead. Faoril was not.

I rose as she clutched at my hand, trying to pull me back down.

“Where are you going?” she asked. “Don't you want to lie with me? You just saved me. Let me thank you, Thrak.”

Her sultry purr hardened my dick. Her hand caressed it. My kilt was gone and nothing stopped her from stroking me. Her grip felt exactly how I remembered. I groaned as she leaned over and sucked on the tip.

Just how I remembered it.

But memory was subjective. It changed. There was plenty of evidence discovered by philosophers on the ephemeral nature of memories. I had learned at the University of Allenoth that memory might even be edited. By believing an event happened one way, we changed our minds to remember it that way. So it would make sense that her touch would be how I remembered it because she was spawned out of my mind.

“You are not real,” I said. I wanted her to be real.

“So you're going to leave me?” she asked.

“I'm not leaving my wife,” I answered. “Because you're not her.” She licked the tip of my cock again. I ached to stay with her. To just give in and enjoy her one last time. What could be the harm?

Surrendering again and again to this delusion.

My knees trembled. My hands clutched. Her tongue swirled. It was so sweet. Her brown hair fell about her beautiful face. She looked so beautiful. One last time, one last chance to enjoy my wife, to find solace in her embrace.

My hand reached out, stroking her hair. She smiled. Her lips slid over the tip of my cock. She sucked. “Saoria,” I groaned.

It was a dream. A sweet dream. I could enjoy this. For a bit.

“I'm so sorry, Thrak.”

The words drifted to me. Faoril. In pain. Choked with emotion, calling for me. She was still alive. My Faoril. I was lucky to find another woman after Saoria, a woman my wife approved of, because she wanted me to be happy.

Because she loved me.

And I loved her. And Faoril.

And she was here with me. In this place. The Mirage Garden. What illusions did this place assault her with? How did they try to break her down? She sounded shattered. Her voice cracked with emotion. And she was apologizing to...

Me?

Was she reliving the moment where she hit me with a burst of her magic and sent me flying? She had feared she killed me back in Baraconia. It had unbalanced her. She only recently regained her equilibrium, a top spinning upright, but it was fragile, only a little nudge could send her wobbling and crashing.

And this place nudged.

“Faoril!” I roared, ripping my cock from Saoria's mouth. I spun, looking in the direction of Faoril's voice.

Everything was a lie. So I closed my eyes and listened for her pain. I followed it, stumbling forward towards the woman I still had the chance of saving. Saoria was dead. I failed her. But I wouldn't fail Faoril.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Minx

Gold. Cold, shiny, hard, wonderful gold.

It covered my body. I stripped myself naked and flopped onto the pile of gold coins. They spilled over me, cool against my hard nipples. I shuddered, rubbing more coins into the lips of my juicy pussy, covering them with my cream.

Gold.

So much gold.

A fortune.

I was rich. Filthy, fabulously rich. I could buy all of Baraconia with this gold. I would have a harem of nixies and elves and male halflings all eager to pleasure me because I would be the new Doge of Baraconia. I could buy the election and still have a fortune left over.

So. Much. Gold.

The coins rubbed against the lips of my pussy and teased my clit. I shoved them into my cunt, savoring how they felt inside of me. I writhed on the wonderful riches. My gaze flicked around the treasure room to the stacks of bullion, the priceless works of art, the treasures that only the most powerful in the world could possess.

Me.

I didn't need to steal the High King's sword from Angela once it was reforged. Not when I had this room. I laughed. This was amazing. I chortled again as pleasure rippled out of my snatch. Ooh, gold felt so good in me.

“Yes, yes, yes,” I moaned. “I will drape myself in gold. No clothing, just gold necklaces and belly chains and anklets. Gold netting over my hair. And jewels... All the jewels. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

“All the jewels?” a voice asked.

“Xera,” I moaned, staring at the elf. She stood over me, her ears twitching, her four-leaf clover glittering behind her right ear. She was naked and delicious. “Look at all the gold.”

“I see that,” Xera said. “It's not real.”

“Of course it's real,” I moaned, pushing the coins in and out of my cunt. “I can feel them. They fill my pussy!”

“So you're just going to lie here masturbating in gold.”

“Eventually, I'll leave with my treasure.”

“And you're carrying all of this...how?”

“I'll figure it out,” I moaned. “Join me. You can writhe in my gold, too. You can be one of my hermaphrodites in my harem. You can love me and fuck me and worship me. I'll drape your cock in gold, Xera.”

“I don't think my wife would appreciate that.”

“She can be one, too.” My heart quickened. “Please, Xera, please. Join me. I want you with me when I'm Doge of Baraconia.”

“Because you love my dick?”

“Yes,” I said, my heart beating so hard. Sophia was so wrong. I didn't love Xera. I just loved her cock. Her amazing, beautiful, stupendous cock. “So much. It's the best cock. It's why I need you over all the other hermaphrodites.”

Xera licked her lips. “I bet you want me to fuck you right now. Shame the illusion of my dick vanished.”

“On the gold...” My eyes widened. “You'll fuck me on the gold?”

Xera nodded her head, her ears twitching.

“Cernere's nimble fingers, yes! Ravish me on the gold. Summon your cock. The ointment's in my pouch.”

Xera bent down and rummaged through my discarded clothing and found my pouch. She opened it, clay knocking against clay as she searched. She pulled out the unguent, the alchemical mixture I purchased back in Baraconia, and rubbed it on her clit. Xera moaned, her back arching, her lovely breasts hardening. Green hair tumbled about her shoulders as she shivered.

And then her dick grew.

It sprouted from her clit, thrusting out of the pink folds of her pussy. It grew so long and thick, so hard and wonderful. Precum beaded from the tip. Xera shivered, her pillowy tits jiggling. She moaned, stroking herself.

“There's my cock,” she purred, standing up, holding my clothing and possessions.

“Fuck me,” I moaned, undulating. I pulled the gold out of my cunt so she could get her cock in me. “Pound me. I need you in me, Xera. I love it when you fuck me. I want you to be mine! My hermaphrodite.”

She took a step back, her dick bobbing before her. I gasped, staring at the retreating cock. “No, don't go.”

“If you want to fuck my cock, you have to come and get it.” She took another step back and leaned against a stack of bullion. I bet it was cold on her ass. She stroked her dick, squeezing out a big drop of precum which splashed on the floor. “It's right here, Minx. You just have to come get it.”

“But...the gold,” I whined, staring at her cock. It was so hard. And I loved it when she was in me.

It made my heart beat so fast. Such warm, wonderful flutters shot through me. I glanced at the gold coins spreading across my chest, my small, round breasts peeking out, nipples hard. My skin glittered like the gold in the flickering light of the vault.

“It's so hard and throbbing,” moaned Xera, her ears twitching more. They were so long and pointed. “It's just aching for your hot, tight cunt to slide down it. And I know you must be so wet.”

“But...” I had to leave the gold behind. She was over the. She wouldn't fuck me on the gold. But it was her cock. It was Xera.

“Yes, yes, yes,” I moaned, springing to my feet. A shower of gold coins spilled off of me. More fell from my thighs, stuck by juices to my flesh, as I raced to her. They tinked on the ground, dancing around my bare feet.

I leaped, throwing my small body at her.

She caught me easily. I was half her height, a child to her. And then her huge cock slammed into my cunt as she pulled my close. My arms wrapped about her torso. They weren't long enough for my hands to clasp behind her back, but I could hug her tight. I buried my face between her pillowy tits, rubbing them against my cheeks.

“Yes, yes, yes, Xera,” I moaned, using the tight grip of my thighs to hump myself up and down her thick shaft. “So good. I love your cock in me.”

“Good,” Xera groaned, her voice breathy. “Now we can find the others.”

I didn't care. Her dick was in me. I nuzzled at her pillowy tits and moaned my delight as she walked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xerathalasia

The place had tried to trap Minx the same way it tried to trap me. Only her illusion was gold while mine was showing Minx my forest. There was something important about that, but my dick throbbed and ached in Minx's tight pussy.

The halfling held me tight, moaning and gasping as she rammed her pussy up and down my dick. It burned. The ointment made me want to cum even worse than when I was in heat. It drove me wild. I shuddered, stumbling through the Mirage Garden, trying to listen to others as the pleasure burned and roiled in my pussy's depths.

“Yes, yes, yes, I love your cock, Xera,” Minx moaned between nibbles and kisses of my tits. “So huge.”

“Uh-huh,” I groaned, biting my lip. My ears twitched as juices trickled down my thighs. Her pussy was so tight. It felt so amazing on my dick. I wanted to press her against the nearby palm tree and fuck her.

But I had to find the others.

My hearing was keen. It was the only thing to be trusted in this world. While it appeared we were often outdoors, we were in a real palace. It had a layout of corridors and rooms. The illusions hid them, obfuscated them. And while they could create sounds, they couldn't mask real ones.

Voices echoed through the halls. I heard Faoril weeping, Thrak stomping, Xandra gasping, and...Angela praying.

“Gods, please, I need your help. Your guidance. Saphique...”

The words were louder than the others. She was closer. I tried to focus, but it was so hard. Minx's pussy was so hot and wet, silk sliding up and down my cock. She fucked me so hard. My tip was so sensitive from the ointment.

“Saphique, please, guide me.”

Was Angela to my right? The burning friction of Minx's pussy sliding up and down my dick swelled the bliss in my cunt's depths.

“You have to. She's your servant. She's so loyal to you.”

Yes, yes, the right. I had to— “Matar's cock!”

My cock erupted.

“You can't let Riad trick her into losing her purity,” prayed Angela as my orgasm exploded out of me. “You have to help me.”

I staggered, my hand finding one of the walls hidden by the illusions. I leaned against nothing as cum boiled out of my cock. I snapped back my head, gasping and heaving as I pumped blast after blast of jizz into Minx.

“Yes, yes, cum in me, Xera!”

“Matar's huge cock!”

“Help me save my love!” begged Angela.

All our words echoed through the corridors. I trembled, shuddering, heaving. My eyes fluttered. Ecstasy. So much ecstasy. It was rapture to flood Minx's cunt. I held her tight, clutching my bow in one hand, her belongings in the other.

My body heaved a final time. Minx's pussy spasmed about my dick, milking me.

And then the orgasm passed.

“Oh, keep fucking me,” gasped Minx as I stumbled down the corridor, following Angela's sobbing prayer. “Don't stop.”

“I won't,” I groaned, the ointment keeping my dick hard. I could smell my cum dripping out of her pussy. Drops landed on my feet as I walked.

The bliss was so amazing. I needed to cum again. I had to keep fucking Minx.

“Please, Saphique,” choked Angela.

She was so close. I couldn't stop. I followed the invisible wall, ignoring the way the scenery changed about me. I found Minx this way, listening to her masturbating in the gold. I would find Angela next.

My hand reached a portion of the wall and felt a slight stir of air move through it. I paused, stroking the surface. It looked solid, but my senses told me differently. There was an opening here. Angela's sobs drifted out of it.

But it felt solid.

The illusion real.

And yet the air and sound could move through it. Why?

“Yes, yes, yes, fuck me,” groaned Minx. “Just press me against the wall and fuck me, Xera!”

I furrowed my brows, thinking. My visual senses told me a wall was here, and yet my hearing told me differently. And touch was giving me conflicting information. The wall was an illusion. So why was it solid to me and not the air? Not the sound?

Minx came again, her pussy spasming on my cock. I groaned, my eyes squeezing shut as the pleasure raced down my cock and through my body. I stumbled forward, growing dizzy at the sudden rush of bliss created by her delicious pussy and—

Didn't hit the wall. What? My eyes were closed, and I...passed through the illusion.

“Oh, yes. Cernere's nimble fingers, I love this cock,” gasped Minx.

I opened my eyes. Before me, Angela knelt beneath a domed room, incense wreathing the ceiling in swirls of blue-gray smoke. “Please, Saphique. Don't let him soil her.”

“He won't,” I said.

Angela's head whipped around towards me. She gasped at the sight of me. I must look so strange, Minx fucking me, my legs trembling as another orgasm built in my depths. “Xera?”

“Yes,” I groaned, fighting to keep the pleasure at bay. But it was so sweet. “Nothing here is real.”

“I know. I'm trapped in here. How can I find Sophia?”

I held out my hand. “The same way I found you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warlock Faoril

The power gathered in me. I contemplated how to end my life. What was the best method? I burned Thrak. Maybe I should consume myself in fire. Make a blaze so powerful it would reduce me to ash in moments. I could remove all the air in my lungs and suffocate, or drown myself with water. I could open the floor and let it swallow me.

“Which why is the best way to die?” I asked Thrak corpse. “The best way to make amends?”

“By living,” a gruff voice said.

Thrak's voice.

I blinked, staring at Thrak. Was my minds playing tricks on me?

“Faoril,” he growled. “I'm close. Where are you?”

My eyebrows furrowed. What was going on? Thrak was dead. Was this another illusion to...?

Illusion.

Was I really this stupid? Nothing here was real. So why would I assume this Thrak lying dead before me was?

“Keep talking, Faoril, I'm moving towards you?”

“I'm over here, Thrak,” I answered. “Where are you? I don't see you.”

“Why would you?” he answered, his heavy footsteps growing closer. “I have my eyes closed. They can't deceive you if you don't look.”

“Then how am I supposed to find you?” I asked, wiping at my tears. Anger swept through me. This place made me think I killed Thrak. It made me feel so low and loathsome, trying to trick me into believing that I had no control over my magic.

I did. I wasn't reckless before when I was melting away illusions. I had revealed the truth of this place. And it had tried to trick me into thinking I killed Thrak to stop me. I stood up, turning around, listening and trying to figure out where Thrak was.

“I'm here. Keep coming to me,” I said. “Walk to my voice.”

He grow closer, his footsteps stumbling. He was blind.

“You sound so close. You're almost to me.” I reached out with hands and wiggled my fingers.

I brushed nothing. I swept them before me and smacked into hard muscle.

“Thrak,” I grunted, wincing and shaking my hand.

And then his arms were around me. He was invisible, but I could feel the heat of his body, the pounding of his heart. He was alive. I didn't kill him. Shame and anger swirled together. I was such an idiot.

I sent the fire rippling out of us, controlled, careful. Just a touch. Thrak appeared, the illusion hiding him burned away, and then it radiated out form me, sweeping in a circle, dispelling the illusion and revealing the plain stone of the place. It looked so poor and decrepit, not the beautiful place I had seen. I looked around, searching for a doorway and...

A dusky woman appeared, illusions melting off of her.

She started, aquamarine eyes wide. I growled and seized the jinn with air before she could dart out of the room. “You! You're the one who conjured the illusion.”

She raised her head high, but her voice quavered. “Interlopers have to be punished. You had no right to trespass on my Lord and Husband's domain.”

“We were invited in by Saniyya,” Thrak growled while I tightened the air bonds around her.

The jinn gave a squawk of pain. “Please, please, only the Knight was invited. Only she bested Saniyya. The rest of you should have stayed away.”

Angela. She would be after the piece of the sword. So I smiled. “You are my prisoner. The only way out is to submit and tell us what we want to know.”

“What is that?” she quailed, her amethyst eyes flashing as she struggled.

“Where the piece of the High King's sword is.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chaun

The three jinn, Fawziya, Nida, and Zaina led me through the Mirage Gardens, holding my crimson cock.

It was crimson because I had assumed the form of their husband, Riad. They were confused at first, but this was a place of illusions and tricks, so they quickly believed I was their husband. When I gave them the order to lead me to my wife Xandra, they just assumed this was another of Riad's games.

And he loved playing games.

“Here we are,” Fawziya moaned, her voice breathy as we stepped into an ornate bedchamber, Sophia writhing on the left side of the bed, masturbating while looking at—

I blinked. I lay on the bed fucking Xandra. My wife gasped and moaned beneath me, her pale limbs locked about my midnight-black skin. My wife gasped and moaned, bucking hard into my thrusts. Only I was standing here wearing Riad's appearance.

And he had taken mine to fuck my wife.

He cuckolded me with my own appearance.

The irony was not lost on me, but I hardly cared. Anger swept through me. An anger I had never felt before, a mix of righteous outrage and betrayal. My wife thought she gasped and moaned beneath me. He was stealing her love and honor. He made her break her vows to Luben.

I snatched up my lyre. I had only one way to fight.

I strummed a cord. It wasn't a cord of beauty and majesty. It wasn't a harmonic tinkling of notes echoing through the room. It was something different. Something that offended me to make, but I didn't care. I was angry.

I played discord.

I played clashing notes. I plucked and worked the strings, letting the terrible cacophony. Like something a novice would make who had no concept of musical theory or even which strings on the lyre produced which notes. But I wasn't a novice. My discord was purposeful. It resonated with the power of an Azian bard.

And it banished illusions.

“What in Slata's hairy cunt is that?” Sophia gasped, ripping her fingers from her cunt and clapping hands over her ears.

The illusions fell away from me. The ornate carpet, woven of red and cold, melted away to reveal poor, undressed stone. The bed rippled, the posts of silver revealed to cheap wood and the satin sheets coarse, linen blankets.

And the Chaun fucking my wife became Riad.

“Yes, yes, fuck me, my Hus... No, no, no,” Xandra gasped as Riad reared. “Get off me. You're not my husband.

“Chaun!”

Hearing my wife scream my name as she struggled beneath Riad made my heart beat. She didn't know. She was tricked. She didn't want to cuckold me. She didn't betray me or the oaths to Luben which she held so sacred.

I let myself abandon Riad's form. The jinn, clutching their ears as they staggered around me, gaped in shock as the crimson skin melted into pure ebony. I shrunk in stature and girth, becoming my slim, elfin form. Xandra's sapphire eyes locked on mine.

“Chaun, Chaun. I'm so sorry. I thought he was you.”

Before I could answer, Riad rolled off my wife and fixed burning eyes on me. The efreet stood tall, his crimson skin stretched over powerful muscles, his orange beard oiled to a point. He wore gold cloth wrapped about his head forming a turban, and a bronze torc wrapped about his arm. Rage warped the air about him, moon's heat dancing above the sands.

“You intrude on my bridal suite,” he growled.

“I am afraid that woman is already taken by me,” I answered, still plucking at my lyre, keeping Riad from forming more illusions.

A sword appeared in Riad's hand, made of molten bronze, glowing with all the heat of the smith's forge. It was no illusion. The air rippled about it. I felt the heat even from ten paces away. Rage burned in his eyes.

“Then defend your claim on the woman,” roared Riad.

He raised the sword. I had no weapons. Only my lyre. Fear clutched at my heart. I could run. There was a corridor behind me. I could flee and leave Xandra to be his, give up my claim on her. I never intended to marry her. I had misunderstood what was happening that night she danced before me.

But she was my wife. She glowed with the white aura of a married woman. And in her thoughts, my form danced. My real form. Not another man's I had to assume to seduce her.

I grit my teeth, playing louder, spilling more ear-splitting discord through the room. Sophia and the three jinn screamed in pain, clasping their hands over their ears. Riad grimaced, but he advanced, ready to kill me.

It wasn't enough.

“No,” Xandra shouted and my slim, naked wife through herself onto Riad's back, her arms going about his throat. “No, no, he's my husband. Mine. Not you. Never you! Don't hurt him.”

Though fear gripped me, urging me to flee, I felt such a powerful surge of love for my wife. She was amazing. She bit at Riad's neck and chirped like an angry bird defending her nest. The efreet roared, his shoulders writhing.

“Damn bitch,” he spat. “Remember who your lord and Husband is.”

“Chaun!” she screeched. “Always Chaun!”

“Xandra,” I said, my voice choked by emotion.

Riad roared. He reached behind his back and seized her. She was light, an avian, and he had no trouble gripping her by the neck and wrenching her over his shoulder. He flung her in the same motion. She tumbled through the air at me.

I gasped, twisting, protecting my lyre with my body while trying to catch her with my other arm. She struck me, screamed in pain, and we crashed to the ground. She trembled on top of me, whimpering and kicking. Tears fell out of her eyes, her arm twisted at a weird angle.

Hollow bones. So brittle.

“Chaun,” she sobbed as I struggled to right us. “Chaun, you came for me.”

“Always,” I told her. The words felt so right to say. “You're my wife.”

“Then have the cunt,” snarled Riad, advancing on us. The illusions rippled out from him. I couldn't play with Xandra atop me. The majesty of the room reappeared. Sophia rose on the bed, blinking, her eyes dazed.

Riad stood over us, blade hissing as he raised it over his head.

“Run,” I told Xandra. “Hurry! Get off of me and flee.”

“Chaun,” she gasped. “He'll kill you.”

“He'll kill us both. Run!”

The blade fell.

Xandra scrambled off of me, screaming in pain as she jostled her arm. I had to move, too, but it was too late. The hissing blade arched down at me. I was dead. I just wasn't a strong enough man to save my wife.

Metal sparked above me.

Angela stood over me, her blade arresting Riad's. Her chainmail loincloth swung between her thighs as she grunted, her toned body tense. She threw back Riad's attack, moving before me. The knight to the rescue.

“Angela,” Sophia gasped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knight-Errant Angela

I threw back Riad's sword, anger burning in me, fueling my strength. Sophia was naked on the bed. Was I in time? Or had he ravished her in her deluded mind? I didn't notice any cum staining her thighs, but if he had penetrated her or even kissed her...

I roared, unable to speak. I had to shout out my fury as I hammered back his blade. Sparks flared hot every time my steel hit his hot brass. The large efreet staggered back, eyes wide in surprise at the sight of me.

“Those stupid cunts couldn't keep you distracted,” he growled as he recovered. “Useless. You are all useless.”

“Useless?” whimpered a jinn.

“Punishments. You will all have to be punished.” His eyes became coals, burning as they focused on me. “After you are dealt with, woman. I will show you your place.”

“On my knees, pleasing you?” I sneered. “I'll bite your cock off!”

He bellowed. The room rang like it was a giant bell which had just been struck. My eyes widened as pain crashed down my ear canals and battered my brain. I staggered and everything changed around me. I was in darkness. A void of nothing. I stood on nothing. I floated. I whirled around, struggling to hear, to listen.

But the bell rang from every direction. Not as loud, but overpowering, drowning out any sound, including my own screams. I shouted, whirling, struggling to know where the attack would come from. Where was Riad?

How could I fight him if I couldn't see? Couldn't hear?

So I moved. I danced, I circled, and I swung. It was so dangerous. What if I hit Sophia or Xandra or Xera and Minx? What if I hit Chaun?

My eyes were a lie. My ears were useless. What could I use?

My touch. Air moved about my skin. I stood on something. What? The stone of the room. The bedroom still had to be around me, real walls, real floors. I closed my eyes, the ringing still so loud, and focused on what I felt. The hairs on my arms all felt so alive, rustling from minute currents of air.

Something wafted from my right.

I dived to my left, rolling across the stone and hitting a wall. I grunted, my head throbbing where I struck it. I had found a real wall. Something I could put my back against. Keeping my eyes closed, I rosed, holding my sword before me.

The ringing laughed.

I trembled. My stomach knotted. This was terrifying. How could I fight back? I wasn't even sure I had been attacked last time. It could have been anything causing the wind to billow across my flesh.

And then a new sound rose. Discordant notes clashed with the ringing bell. The brassy note fought the plucking, ear-splitting sound. The brass bell grew tinny, rising and rising in register until it was only a high-pitched whine.

And then it was gone.

I opened my eyes.

Riad charged at me across a plain room, a cheap bed in the middle. Sophia lay on it, shaking her head, dazed. Chaun knelt in the corner, Xandra huddled with him. The changeling bard plucked his lyre, discord breaking the illusion.

An arrow arched across the room, embedding in Riad's sword arm, slowing his strike, giving me a chance to recover and act. I lunged from the wall, my blade stabbing before me. A stop thrust. It buried into the efreet's thick neck. He gaped, eyes widened. Blood smoked on my blade as he slid down its length. His weapon fell from his grip, clattering on the floor. Then he slid off my sword and hit the ground with a loud thud.

The master of the Mirage Gardens died.

Chaun stopped playing his notes. The illusions did not return. Riad was the source, the epicenter of it. He had built this place to resonate with his desires. The three jinn shook their heads. Tears fell down their cheeks as they stared at the corpse.

“We're free,” the emerald-eyed jinn said. “He's dead. We're free.”

“Free,” sobbed another of the jinn. Her ruby eyes glistened with tears. “Sweet Seljan, we're free.”

The third, with eyes of sapphire, threw back her head and laughed for joy.

Other voices echoed through the room. Four different corridors, all made of the same plain stone, led into this room. And women stumbled out of them, a mix of jinn with a few human women. They were all crying.

“My queen!” Sophia shouted, throwing herself into me. She trembled, hugging me tight. “My queen, you came for me. I...I...”

“He tricked you,” I whispered. Please, let me have been in time, Saphique. “Did he...?”

Sophia shook her head. “He took Xandra first.”

The avian cried as Chaun cradled her on his lap. The girl's arm was bent, broken. “She needs your healing, Sophia.”

Sophia gasped and nodded, “Yes, my queen.”

She darted to help Xandra. I sighed in relief—she still had her magic. She cast the spell and pulled the avian's lips to hard nipple. Sophia nursed Xandra back to health as I stared around the room. The efreet's women sobbed in relief at their freedom.

“Now we can find the sword,” Xera moaned, sinking to the floor. She had fired the arrow while Minx still fucked her cock.

“What,” Minx groaned, her head snapping up from between Xera's tits. “Does that mean all that gold was fake?”

“Yes,” Xera groaned. “Matar's cock, it was.” The elf's ears twisted violently as she threw back her head and came.

“But I found the High King's sword,” I groaned, reaching into my pouch to pull out the bottom third of the blade I found and...

Where was it?

“No,” I gasped, digging in my satchel. The other pieces were there: pommel, hilt, and middle blade. But not the piece I found in the... Illusions. “Saniyya, you tricked me.”

“I did,” Saniyya said. She was with the other women, tears falling down her cheeks. “He was my master. It was my duty.”

I groaned. “So he never dealt fairly. Just stole the women he wanted.”

“And enjoyed making you suffer,” Saniyya nodded. Her citrine eyes made her tears appear golden before they trickled down her dusky cheeks. “I am so sorry.”

“Well, it all worked out,” Faoril said.

Faoril and Thrak swept into the room, a jinn bound in invisible ropes suspended in the air behind them. Faoril held the piece of the blade I had thought I found, gripped with a piece of black silk. “I convinced Saliha to take me to the treasury.”

“Treasury?” Minx popped off Xera's cock. A flood of elf-cum poured down her thighs. “Was there more in there?”

“Enough to satisfy Captain Thyrna's hungers,” Thrak growled, setting down a sack that clinked.

“Was there more?” Minx rubbed her hands together.

I looked around at the women. The jinn were already leaving. They were demigoddesses, immortal and full of magic, but the human females had their lives stolen from them. “No, it doesn't belong to us.”

“We're just going to leave it?” Minx demanded, her eyes wide, betrayed.

I smiled with everyone else. “Let's find our way out of here. We have the fourth piece. One more to go.”

I slipped it into my pouch. Next stop, the Free City of Grahata. We needed the minotaur's heart to reforge the blade. Gewin's monstrous son would provide strength for the weapon. And then we had to venture into the Haunted Forest and find the final piece at Drakin Castle, the old lair of the Biomancer Vebrin.

We were so close to being done. Even Minx smiled. Everyone was happy.

Except Xandra. I noticed the avian woman looking downcast as she dressed. Poor thing. What did Riad do to her and Sophia? What did they experience? I hoped Chaun could help her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knight Kevin – The Free City of Hargone

I stared at the city of Hargone sprawling about both sides of the Elpa River. The sun set to the west over the desert, painting the town with warm oranges. Was Angela here? Was there anyway I could save her from justice?

She had violated the honor of the Knights Deute. As much as I loved her, that had to be answered. Somehow. It was why I took this command. To save her. Every day, my dread grew as we closed in on her. After we missed her in Baraconia, there was only one place she could sail next. Hargone.

The Mirage Gardens.

When she returned from the desert, we would be waiting to deliver her to justice.

I licked my lips. How could I save her? Someone had to pay, but why her? She had companions... The blame might be shifted onto them. The priestesses of Slata who accompanied my expedition were more than happy to make Sophia suffer. They were eager to weaken Saphique's influence on the Kingdom of Secare.

If Angela surrendered, I could earn her pardon. She would be stripped of her knighthood, but she never should have accepted the quest. It was folly to attempt to slay the Dragon Dominari. No knight had ever succeeded. It was suicide. No honor was worth death.

If she had not been so stubborn, she would be my wife, living a life of ease attending to our home.

Her stubbornness always got her into trouble. She had robbed the Doge of Raratha and assaulted his person out of the drive to slay the dragon. She was even assembling the High King's sword. Madness. She would drive the world into war.

I had to convince her to see the truth. I had to save her life and convince her to surrender.

I would not let my lady love die. Because I had five other knights and six priestesses of Slata who would see justice delivered one way or the other. I could only protect her so far.

The END of Book 7

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