Max woke, and his head felt like it had been filled with rocks. He opened his eyes, but all was darkness. Was it still the dead of night? Then he felt the material next to his face, coarse fibers scratching his cheek. A sack. He was lying in the back of a small cart bumping over rough ground. He heard the sounds of two runners pulling the cart.
“He’s waking up,” one voice said. It was a voice soft and sweet like honey.
“You just want to have another look at him,” the second voice said in deep husky tones.
“No look, he’s moving.”
Max struggled to get up. His head was pounding; his wrists were bound. The bag was pulled off of his head, and he looked up. Two figures looking down at him. It was a blur. Dark hair tumbling down over bare shoulders. Fur scarves wrapped around a pair of scantily clad beauties. Tight-cropped tops straining to contain ample breasts. The skin shimmering with a fine film of perspiration.
A cloth was pressed to his face before he could focus. A familiar stench overwhelmed him, and he slipped back to unconsciousness.
When he next woke, he was sitting up. The sun was rising, and cold morning light was streaming through the trees. A fire crackled nearby. Max opened his eyes, his head pounding like he’d been on the liquor all night. His vision was still blurry, but he could just make out two figures sitting by the fire, eating and drinking.
Max felt a pang of hunger. He’d only had heavy bread for the last few days. His mouth and throat were dry. He tried to move towards the fire but found he was bound to a tree, a fine cord around his chest tying him to the trunk. His hands were bound in front of him. His feet bound too.
He tried to cast a Magic Missile to fight off these attackers. His hands were bound in such a way that he couldn’t perform the casting gestures. He opened his mouth to speak the incantation, but his dry throat made it painful to talk. He wasn’t actually sure if he had any active spells. He had rested on his Blanket of Comfort, so maybe he had rested long enough for them to become active before this pair had captured him.
“He’s awake,” the honey voice said.
“Give him the knockout juice again,” the husky voice said while chewing a mouthful of food.
“He needs a drink. He needs food. We have to deliver him alive, remember?”
Max blinked and his vision cleared. He saw the two women. He knew he had seen them before. One stood up and brought a drinking pouch to him. She bent over in front of him, and Max’s first clear view was of a heaving chest.
“Here, drink this.” She spoke so sweetly, but Max felt he could detect a hard flint edge, like glass hidden in an ice cream.
Max took the drinking pouch with his bound hands and drank. The liquid was cold, but it burned. He juddered as the fiery liquid went down. He gasped for breath.
“It is black mead,” the honey voice said with a smile. “Drink. Drink.”
Max steadied himself for another hit and drank again. It didn’t burn quite so fiercely the second time. It cleared his vision, and he looked up into a beautiful smiling face. Round face, full lips, thick brown hair in thick curls. Her eyes were dark and smiling.
“Are you Shazera or Debhora?” Max said.
The woman stepped back. The second woman came over and rasped in her husky voice, “How do you know our names?”
Max wondered if it was unwise to let them know that he knew they were hunting him. He tried to distract them with a bit of flattery. “I have been warned by the Mage council that Assassins are after me. You are regarded as two of the most accomplished in your deadly trade. I was warned to watch out for you two in particular.”
Max knew everyone wanted to be famous, or if not, infamous would do.
“The Mage council warned you about us?” the honey voice said, delighted and taken aback by the news. “I am Debhora.” She sat down next to Max and ran a long black-painted fingernail up his leg. “Tell me more about what they say about me.”
Max looked at her deep dark eyes. “They said you are an expert in your field. But they didn’t say how beautiful you were.”
Debhora smiled and grabbed him by his hair. She moved her lips close to his. “You are sweet. Maybe I’ll give you one last wish before they chop you up into delicious little pieces.”
“Stop flirting with him,” Shazera said. She sat down on the other side. “He’ll tell you anything to get out of his bonds.” She turned to Max, her warm breath on his ear. “Wouldn’t you?” Her voice was like a tiger purring, hot, thrilling, and deadly.
“I was told you always get your man.”
Shazera ran her finger around his ear. “Not always, sweetie, but often.” She stood up and walked back to the fire where she grabbed a pouch. She tossed it into his lap. “Feed him, Debhora,” she said.
Debhora picked out a pinch of bread and held it to Max’s lips. She teased him for a moment and then let him eat. She sighed as he chewed. “You are so handsome. We usually have to kill our targets, but I’m glad they want you alive so we can spend some time together. Maybe I can grant you one last wish for a night of pleasure before, you know.” She made a sound of flesh being cut and drew her hand across her throat. She let out a sigh and ran her finger down Max’s chest, down, down. “Such a pity,” she said. “Such a waste.”
Sitting at the fire, Shazera had Max’s Satchel in her hands, and she emptied it next to the fire.
>
>
> Inventory:
>
> • Satchel
>
> • Mage Book
>
> • Good Boots
>
> • Golden Roc catapult
>
> • Blanket of Comfort
>
> • Polished Wooden Dagger
>
> • Superior Bullets
>
> • Fine Rope
>
> • Collar of Control
>
> • Padded Leather Tunic
>
> • Dagger of Poison Blade
>
> • Potion of Intelligence
>
> • Flint Tool
>
> • Scroll of Summon Storm Elemental
>
> • Shortsword of True Strike
>
> • Shortsword of Cold
>
>
The items spilled to the ground. Swords, Mage Book, his Blanket of Comfort. But he couldn’t see his Ring of Extra Spells or his Pendant of Defense. He wasn’t wearing them. Then he spotted the Hood of Sneaking around Shazera’s neck.
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The girls had looted him when he had been unconscious.
“Look at all that stuff,” Debhora said. She moved closer to Max and wrapped her arm around him. She curled her knees up and into his lap.
“Typical Mage-class Satchel. They always have so much useless stuff. Look at this.” Shazera held up the Polished Wooden Dagger. “This looks like a bandit item. Useless decorative trash.” She dropped the wooden dagger next to the fire. Max was sure it would be thrown on with the next bundle of firewood.
“I think it looks cute,” Debhora said. She kissed his ear and whispered, “Just like the owner.”
“And what’s this?” Shazera held up the Collar of Control.
“That’s a Collar of Control. I took it from a two-headed wolf I defeated.”
Shazera held it to her neck. She fluttered her eyelashes. “I bet you would like to control me for a few hours, wouldn’t you, handsome?”
Debhora ran her fingers through Max’s hair and then grabbed a handful. “It’s me he wants, Shazera. I don’t know if he could handle us both. We’d probably kill him.”
Max turned and smiled at Debhora. “Worse ways to go.”
Debhora chuckled and kissed his neck. She ran her fingers around his neck, tickling him gently. She looked up at Shazera. “Oh, can’t we keep him?”
“And lose out on a bounty just because you find him cute?”
Debhora let out a disappointed moan. She kissed him once lightly on the lips, stood up, and walked over to her companion.
“Besides, they will strip the skin from our firm young bodies if we don’t hand him over.” Shazera walked over to Max. “You wouldn’t want them to harm us, would you?”
“I’m sure you can look after yourselves,” Max said.
Shazera smiled. “Sure can.”
The two Assassins sat down and picked through his inventory. They took time for a play fight with the pair of shortswords. Debhora picked up the poison dagger.
“This is an Assassin’s weapon,” she said. “Have you defeated some Assassins already?” She wagged the dagger at him. “If we are going to have our night of passion, I might have to keep you tied up. But you wouldn’t mind that, would you?”
Max spotted the Fine Rope amongst his loot. He wondered if he could get free and tie them up before making his escape.
“You could always use your dark movement,” Janet said, appearing on his shoulder. “That’s if you wanted to get away. Or do you like having these scantily clad beauties teasing you?”
Max looked at Janet and shook his head.
“I could use dark movement to tie them up?” Max said.
Debhora and Shazera looked over at him.
“What’s dark movement?” Shazera said.
Max looked at the rope. He needed to get there. The edge of his vision started to go dark; even the rays from the rising sun couldn’t penetrate the darkness. His vision shrank down to a tunnel focused on the Fine Rope that lay amongst his loot.
Then he was moving. His hands slipped free of the bonds that tied them as easily as if he were waving them through a smoke ring. He looked at the pair of deadly beauties staring at him as he moved. They were frozen in time. Max moved slowly, walking to the rope. He picked up the Fine Rope and wrapped it around the pair of them. He pulled it tight and had them tied back to back in a moment. He secured their hands and ankles and stepped back to look at his work.
“Don’t stay in the dark movement for too long, Max,” Anita said.
Then the darkness at the edge of Max’s vision vanished, replaced by morning sunshine. Debhora and Shazera looked around, bewildered, and then up at Max standing over them.
>
>
> Max gains experience points.
>
> Dark Movement improved.
>
>
“Mages!” Debhora shouted.
“I hate Mages.” Shazera seethed.
Max took the Hood of Sneaking off her neck and slipped it onto his. He collected his rings and pendant from the two Assassins. He gathered his loot and put it all back into his Satchel. He quickly looked into his Mage Book to check his active spells.
>
>
> Active spells:
>
> • Magic Missile
>
> • Magic Missile
>
> • Magic Missile
>
> • Strength
>
> • Strength
>
> • Fireball
>
>
He was missing a couple of Magic Missiles because his Ring of Extra Spells had been taken off him. He slipped on the ring and hung the Pendant of Defense around his neck.
>
>
> Max gains bonus first level spell slots.
>
> Max gains defensive bonus.
>
>
He really wanted to add some new spells to his Mage Book. Elderon had some really impressive ones. He hoped he’d find some soon. He looked down at the Assassins.
“Ladies, tell me. Who sent you?”
Shazera looked up at him, pouting and fluttering her eyelashes. “I could tell you, sweetie, but then I’d have to kill you.” She tested her wrists, trying to wriggle free.
Max spotted the small pouch on her short fighting skirt. He reached down cautiously and took it off. He opened it up and pulled out a pair of scrolls. The first he unrolled had a portrait of him. He held it out from them to see and then dropped it onto the fire were the dry scroll burned in seconds. Then he unrolled the second, and he looked down at the perfect charcoal portrait of Anita.
Max felt a surge of rage. He looked down at the Assassins.
“Where did you get these? Why do you want Anita? What have you done with her?”
“We didn’t find the girl yet,” Debhora said. “She’s our next target.”
Shazera jabbed backwards with her elbow and struck Debhora hard in the back. Debhora wasn’t about to take that, so she struck back. The pair began trading increasingly violent backwards elbow jabs until they were both thrashing about.
“That’s enough,” Max said. He spotted the cloth and the bottle filled with the knockout juice. He grabbed it. “If you don’t stop, I’ll stop you.”
They both looked up at him, chastened and demure.
“Sorry, cutie,” Debhora said. “Can you untie me now.? I can’t treat you right if I’m tied up.” She fluttered her eyelashes.
“Don’t believe her, sweetie,” Shazera said. “She does not mind being tied up, not one little bit.”
Debhora looked up at Max and bit her lip. “It’s true,” she said.
“How can I make you talk?” Max said, more to himself than to the Assassins.
“You could make us squeal with pleasure, I’ve no doubt.” Shazera said.
“Take me,” Debhora said, closing her eyes and tossing her head back. She held her bound hands up before her. “Just be gentle.”
Max was losing patience. “Enough of your games,” he said harshly. “Why are you hunting my friend? Who sent you? Where can I find them?”
“She’s lucky to have a friend like you,” Shazera said, her husky voice breaking slightly.
Max heard a crashing in the trees. The Assassins heard it too.
“Friend or foe?” Debhora said sweetly.
“Is that someone for me or for you?” Shazera said.
Max walked away towards the sound. He drew his catapult and loaded a bullet. After a few paces, he caught a stench, rotten fish and wolf dung.
The slug came sliding through the trees. Max stepped back. He’d thought he could easily outpace this slug, but it had caught up with him.
“It is not the same one,” Janet said, appearing at his shoulder. “You create one every time you use dark movement.”
Max looked up at the slug. It looked exactly the same, but it was perhaps a little bigger. He walked back to the campfire. He looked at the Assassins and jabbed a finger over his shoulder.
“Someone for me,” he said casually. He grabbed the Assassins and dragged them away from the fire.
The Assassins smiled nervously.
“Is it your party? That Mage or the stinky dwarf? They couldn’t have tracked us.”
“No, not my friends. It’s a slug.”
The pair chuckled. “We are not afraid of creepy crawlies, sweetie,” Shazera said.
Then the slug came crashing into the clearing, eighteen feet high and dripping in slime. Max stood on the far side of the fire and let the slug slide towards him.
“Now tell me,” Max looked over to the Assassins, safely out of the way of the huge dark slug, “who sent you after me and Anita?”
The Assassins remained tight-lipped.
Max stepped back as the slug headed directly for him.
“I am going to run out of time and patience,” he said with as much charm as he could muster. “You are both lovely ladies, and I’m sure we could have a lot of fun together, but not if you are crushed and covered in slug slime.”
Max stepped back. The slug took another surging slide forward, headed straight for him. It slid onto the fire. The slime turned to steam in the heat, and the fire was squashed out. The slug showed no sign of distress but surged onwards towards Max, who took another step back.
“You see, this slug is some kind of dark demon creature sent to destroy me.” Max moved away quickly and ran over to the Assassins. He stood behind them.
The slug turned.
“And this slug will pursue me over all Eveirea to crush me, do terrible things to me, no doubt. And I don’t think it cares what, or who, is in its way.”
The slug surged forwards, and the Assassins screamed.
“The Dark Mages,” Shazera said. “It was the Dark Mages.”
“Yes. And they have Anita already,” Debhora said. “They are camped not far from here.”
“We’ll take you,” Shazera said.
“Where?” Max said firmly.
The slug surged forward.
“There is a ridge about a league north of the Salt River past the pine trees of Deepwood and at the edge of the first broadleaf trees.” Shazera spoke fast, looking from the slug to Max and back again.
Max stepped out from behind the Assassins and into the clearing. The slug turned towards him, rasping jaws dripping slime, inches from the cowering Assassins.
Max looked down at the girls. They were trembling, covered in sweat, their chests heaving in their tight tops.
“Don’t leave us, Max,” Shazera said.
Max walked away a few paces as the slug surged closer to him.
“You’ll be just fine. I think you can take care of yourselves.”
Max led the slug further away, checking it was on his trail.
“No hard feelings,” Debhora called out as Max backed off. “You really are a cutie. Look me up if you are ever in the town of Aston Gate in the Kingdom of Ragewind.”
“Don’t tell him where you’re from,” Shazera said. Then she shouted. “But if you are ever in Milford City in the Kingdom of Eastwind, ask any merchant gnome for Shazera. They’ll tell you where to find me.”
Max moved off at a rapid walk and then a steady jog, putting as much distance between him and the Assassins as quickly as possible. He had to admit, Debhora and Shazera were hot, dangerous, deadly, possibly insane, but very, very attractive. However alluring they were, they could never distract him from his goal to find Anita.