The Dawn of the Raven Omnibus 1: Episodes 1-5 Read online

  “My lord, this is clear treachery. She asks that you allow her army to plant itself right outside your door! She is a villain of the highest order. You cannot believe a single word she says. She will not say why she was here because there is no reason she was here other than to plot to destroy you, to concoct a story that would allow the Typhorians to place us in checkmate. I admit, she is cunning, but she is too bold. Her motives are transparent. This pretty one should have stuck to the battlefield; subterfuge is not her strong-point.”

  The king weighed the beauty’s words and the words of his advisor carefully. Finally, he motioned for silence again and announced his decision.

  “Raveena, if your story is true, and you came here in peace and to warn us of a mutual danger, then I commend you for your bravery. If, however, you are lying, and this is a trap, while I still commend you for your bravery, you are very foolish. While I respect you and admire you, and thus would like to take you at your word, it is by your own sword that many of my greatest warriors have perished. It is your sword, this Deathraken that I hold here in my own hands now, that has made the difference in countless battles against my people. As much as I would like to take you at your word, to do so I would have to be a fool. Yet, to condemn you to death when you may truly be here for an honorable cause would be gravely unjust. Therefore, you will stay as our guest here tonight, under close guard, and then, in the morning, you will take Captain Vol and his men out to the spot where you say you saw these Gekken. If there is any sign that it is a trap, my men will kill you instantly. If, on the other hand, they find evidence that you are correct, and the Gekken have returned, I will allow you to return safely to your people, and our nation will be grateful for your aid.”

  The warrior maiden looked around at the scowling faces.

  “So, I am to be a prisoner?”

  “Strike your tongue!” Rahm bellowed. “You are to address the king only when he asks. His majesty’s will has been spoken, and it will be done. Guards, take her away!”

  The gorgeous warrior maiden seethed with anger. She fought against her captors and her shackles but, bound and outnumbered, even the great Raveena could not escape. In spite of her protests and greatest attempts to resist, and to the delight of the Raganeans who had gathered throughout the halls of their king’s palace, she was taken deep below to the palace bowels, to a cell in its deepest and darkest depths.

  Captain Vol approached Raveena’s cell with apprehension. To see the most fearsome warrior in the realm so powerless seemed pitiful yet, even in this situation, rendered toothless and behind bars, she still seemed like a coiled snake: as if, though he knew it impossible, she might still find a way to burst through the bars of her cell at a moment’s notice. Her eyes relayed the fury of a caged animal, ready to bite the hand of its captor at the first opportunity. He stepped up to the cell so that he was close enough to speak quietly, but not so close that she could possibly reach him, just in case she should lash out. He waited a moment for the beauty to acknowledge his presence, but when it became clear no formalities were forthcoming, he broached the silence.

  “Where are we headed tomorrow” the captain asked the captive.

  “I told your king. The Raganean Forest. A clearing towards the western edge. Their camp was there.”

  “When did you see the Gekken?”

  “Today, around mid-day. I came here straight away afterwards.” She finally lifted her gaze and made eye-contact with the captain. Her dark beautiful eyes softened for just a moment in the flickering light of the lanterns that lit the dark chamber. “Let me go. I can show you the place on a map. I must leave so I can warn my people.”

  “I cannot. I will never disobey my king” he responded. He did feel compassion for the captive. Though he knew she was the coldest, most vile killer that his kingdom had ever faced, he felt a sense of kindred with her as a warrior, and knew that with her reputation and status she deserved more respect than she was being afforded.

  “Damn it. I’m a fool” she hissed. Her mood changed. The momentary softness that had been fleetingly present in her dark, beautiful eyes flashed back into pure rage. “I should never have come here. I should never have trusted you.”

  “If we find the Gekken you speak of tomorrow, you will be released. The king is honorable and is a man of his word” answered Captain Vol.

  The warrior maiden seethed in the flickering lamplight.

  “How many men are you taking?”

  “Forty of my best men.”

  “Forty? You may as well go alone. You will all be slaughtered” she snapped. Her tone was now that of condescension. The captain would not abide by this. Yes, she was a revered foe, but he was a great warrior too, and he would not allow her to criticize him or his men.

  “I can assure you, my men are the finest in this army. They are some of the greatest soldiers in the realm. A pity we have never met on the field of battle, then you would know.”

  The beautiful warrior maiden stood and approached the captain. She leaned into the bars and pressed her face between them. Her cold, dark eyes narrowed into a contemptuous grin.

  “The only reason you’re still breathing is because we haven’t met on the field of battle” she answered. Her beauty was now an afterthought, compared to the cruel disdain the captain felt seething from her eyes. The captain sensed no trace of humanity in them. He wished to conclude his business swiftly, and leave her presence as quickly as possible.

  “Regardless, tomorrow we will go to this clearing” he continued. “We should either find the Gekken or some trace of their having been there. Even if these Gekken are more advanced, as you say, they will not be sophisticated enough to evade the detection of my best trackers. One way or another, we will find out if you are telling the truth.”

  “If you are really taking me with, and only forty men, you’d better give me my sword. You’d better let me fight with you.”

  Giving a weapon to the most vile killer in the realm sounded like the worst idea Captain Vol could fathom. He had never sensed darkness like hers before. He hoped for the first time, to himself, that they would not find the Gekken. That they would instead find out that it was a trap, would thwart it, and would have cause to execute her justly. This warrior maiden had killed enough of their people. She had conducted enough evil. She must be stopped. He spoke again.

  “The king’s orders are not to release you until we have discovered whether or not you have told the truth, and returned and reported it to King Resnos himself. I will follow his orders to the letter.”

  “Then we are all dead” spoke Raveena. As she said this, her eyes reflected the flickering flames of the candles, as if the fire were coming from within.

  The captain left, but he sent his assistant in to tend to the prisoner. As she brought lamb and mead in to the warrior, her nerves were being fully tested. She struggled to hold the plate and cup steadily as she approached the cell. Yet, as nervous as she was to face the warrior maiden, she was also fascinated by her. She had never seen beauty like Raveena’s. The assistant’s own sexuality had never had a chance to fully bloom. She had sometimes fancied men, but her only experiences of sex with them had been all for their gratification, not for hers, and she had been so mistreated by them that she found it difficult to imagine finding love with one. But she had also always been attracted to women. She loved the female form. As she approached, Raveena’s gaze was away from her, to the wall, so the assistant could take a moment to soak in her incredible beauty. Her eyes slowly traced over her, savoring every stop along the way: the soft flesh of her cheek and neck, her back, so feminine yet powerful. Then down it, below her gorgeous long hair, to her beautiful, slim waist, which then spread out and gave way to her gorgeous hips, so wide and luscious. And then, her eyes finally settled on it . . . her incredible ass. Kiella, as the assistant was called, had always loved the gorgeous shape of a woman’s ass, and Raveena’s, forged by years of riding and training, was the most perfect she had ever seen. As she stood th
ere, pausing, staring at Raveena’s intoxicating form, she felt her pussy begin to flush and grow moist. She felt desire begin to overcome her, yet, at the same time, she was keenly aware that never in her life had she been so afraid of anyone. She had lived a hard life: she had been abused and beaten by many, but she had never felt what she felt coming from the warrior maiden. She had never been in a room with someone that she felt could gut her and watch her insides spill upon the floor with no apprehension at all. Yet, it was exactly that thought which plagued her now, that this beautiful woman might do just that if she were not careful, and if she lowered her guard for an instant. Yet, this did not hamper her arousal at all, such was Raveena’s unparalleled beauty.

  Luckily, Raveena was far from the bars of the cell as the assistant laid down the plate and cup just outside of them. Instead, the warrior maiden still sat silent, caught up in her own thoughts, facing away from her at the far end of the cage. Kiella backed away, and took one last moment to soak in the warrior’s incredible beauty, and then announced the arrival of her food. She lowered her head and waited patiently as the warrior came to eat. As Raveena took her first bites, she looked the assistant up and down, sizing her up. She then adopted a contemptuous air, and addressed her with a sneer.

  “Are you meant to guard me? You don’t look like much of a soldier.”

  Kiella fumbled for her words.

  “No . . . No, I’m not a soldier. I’m just an assistant . . . to the captain. I brought you food, and drink.”

  Raveena stared her down, and the young assistant quivered in her sandals. Kiella’s spirit withered beneath the weight of Raveena’s gaze. Her feelings of arousal disappeared. Fear riveted her entire being. Raveena sized her up. No, this one clearly wasn’t a soldier, Raveena thought to herself. She was unarmed, petite in stature, and her form and features were soft and feminine. She was young, barely a woman, no older than twenty.

  Kiella summoned her courage, and then addressed the warrior maiden.

  “There are plenty of soldiers stationed just outside. You cannot escape, I assure you.” Though still scared, Kiella refused to show it, and gained confidence as she continued. “I am merely here as a kindness from Captain Vol. If it is true, what you say, that you are here to warn us of the Gekken, then it is regrettable that we are forced to take these necessary precautions and keep you as a prisoner. The captain recognizes this, and wants me to make your stay here as comfortable as possible.”

  “Comfortable?” Raveena looked at her tiny cell, with a rock floor, rusty old bars, and littered with the remnants of previous captives who likely perished within its small confines. “If this is your peoples’ idea of comfort, of how you treat your guests, then you truly are the heartless savages my people think you to be.”

  “We’re the savages?” Kiella felt herself fill with outrage, and surprised herself with her willingness to talk back to the warrior. “Your people are the savage ones. The cold, hard killers. You celebrate war like it is a deity. And you, you especially; your blood thirst is legendary. I have heard tales . . . stories of the things you have done on the battlefield. They go beyond war. Your cruelty is legendary.”

  “Cruelty?” Raveena grew incensed. “Have you ever even been on a battlefield? What do you know of cruelty there? Is not all cruelty on a field of battle?”

  Kiella refused to back down.

  “I have seen enough. I accompany the captain at every engagement.”

  “Oh, so you are a spectator.” The beautiful warrior maiden sat back and smiled, with thick condescension. “You know nothing of battle then, if you have never fought.”

  “It’s true, I am not a warrior. I have never been trained to fight. My training is in all manners of support: I know how to tend wounds, horses, mend armor and sharpen blades. I have apprenticed under blacksmiths, nurses, and apothecaries. I have never fought, but I have cleaned plenty of wounds. I have rounded up the bodies of the dead. I have been bathed in the blood of the wounded as I try to stitch them back together, or as I try to comfort them in their dying breaths. No, I have not killed or butchered countless others like you, but I know the horrors of war. I know much more of battle than you think.”

  The warrior paused. Her tone and her expression both softened. She fed on the lamb and drank of the mead. Then, she continued.

  “Then be ready to tend to the dead and the wounded tomorrow. There will be plenty.” She paused to eat and drink a bit more, then continued. “Your captain, how good is he? How good are his men?”

  “The best in the realm.” Kiella smiled with pride in her captain.

  “Then perhaps they will put up a better fight than I suspect. But you should hope that the Gekken are long-gone. If not, your captain will be butchered, and you and me as well.”

  “Oh, I doubt that” answered the assistant. “The captain has faced terrible odds in battle. I have seen him and his men outmatched three to one, and still walk away with nary a scratch. He is the best there is.”

  “Even if that were true, that was against men. He has never faced the Gekken.” Raveena continued to eat and drink. She finished and put the plate and the cup next to the edge of the cage, then backed away from the edge so Kiella could approach. As Kiella picked them up, she looked back up at the warrior and spoke.

  “Are the Gekken to be feared so much more than men? We have fought your kind now for decades. The Gekken are so much greater than your own warriors? Are they not just savages? What does that say about your own people, if the Gekken are of such a greater threat?”

  The warrior maiden’s gaze grew somber.

  “What is your name?”

  “I’m Kiella.” The assistant felt uncomfortable telling the cruelest, coldest killer in the realm her name, but would have felt even more uncomfortable lying to her.

  “Well Kiella, you don’t understand.” The beauty’s face showed something new, something that Kiella did not expect, and could not be sure of. Yet, she believed it was fear. Raveena continued. “Your people may have grown arrogant and downplayed the might of the Gekken over the past few centuries. My people, however, remembered. It has been passed down carefully from generation to generation, a warning that an evil that once came close to destroying us all still lurks beyond the mountains. Each generation has prepared for this day, hoping it would never come, but knowing that it could. I have betrayed my own people, I now realize, by coming here first. I thought it was in the best interest of the entire realm. I thought it was imperative that the Gate of Ardien hold. But now, as we sit here wasting time, the Gekken may be about to attack, and my people will have no warning. Together, maybe we stood a chance, but if the Gekken wipe through your people and then catch my people unaware . . .”

  “Wipe out my people?” Kiella was incensed by how little credit Raveena gave the warriors of Ragan. “The Gekken are savages! They are unsophisticated! So they have armor and brandish weapons now, they are no match for us!”

  “You are wrong!” Raveena seethed. “What do you know of the Gekken? Nothing, it sounds like. Do you know the shortest Gekken stands a foot taller than any man? One Gekken is equal to at least three men in strength? They are faster, more agile than humans, and a Gekken can crush a grown man’s skull in his bare hand. Their skin is ashen grey, and they smell like a corpse.”

  “Oh, I think you are mistaken.” Kiella felt she had found a clear hole in Raveena’s story. The gorgeous warrior maiden might have been trying to do her best to scare her, thought Kiella, but her facts weren’t even correct. “I have been told that their skin is dark.”

  “No. Their skin appears that way because they paint themselves in the blood of their victims.” Raveena’s dark eyes seemed to reflect even more of the flickering flames from the lanterns suddenly. Her brow lowered. “They also feed on their victims’ flesh. Your people have forgotten the might of this foe. They will soon be reminded. The only way our ancestors defeated them was because the Gekken weren’t organized, they lacked technology, they lacked strategy. The Gekk
en I saw displayed all of these. If we do not take this threat seriously, if we do not begin preparing immediately, both of our kingdoms, and all of the realm, will fall in their wake.”

  Raveena turned to the wall. Kiella started to speak again, but then thought better of it. She soaked in the warrior maiden’s incredible beauty for one last moment, savoring each perfect curve, and then left. She went to tend to the captain’s horse, his armor, his weapons, and his supplies and rations to be sure all was in order for the next day’s affairs. Then, with only a few hours left before sunrise, she finally retired to her own, squalid cot in the corner of the stable to try and catch what little sleep she could. As she lay there, she couldn’t help but remember Raveena’s beautiful form. As her mind reimagined her gorgeous breasts, and the curves of her incredible, perfect ass, Kiella’s hand found its way down between her legs. First, it rubbed the inside of her thighs. Then, she reached up and rubbed her own breasts, rubbing her fingertips over her nipples. Eventually, her hand found its way down to her pussy, and she began to rub that spot: that sweet, wonderful spot that made all of her other cares slip away. Eventually, her sweet imaginings gave way to true dreams of sleep.

  When Kiella awoke at daybreak, she was hardly rested at all. It felt like she hadn’t slept for more than a moment, but though her entire body begged her for more sleep, she forced herself up and to her duty. She tied back her long blonde locks and fed the horses, checked their hoofs, and then saddled the captain’s steed. She only had enough time for a few bites of her breakfast, and then it was time to meet the captain in his chambers and take care of any last minute orders. As always, she was tasked with bringing the captain his breakfast. As she approached, he turned and lifted his bed clothes, exposing his cock. She set down his plate before him and then, as she did every morning, Kiella got on her knees and took hold of his manhood, rubbing it and kissing it. It instantly grew, especially once she began caressing his balls with her other hand, and kissing and licking its tip. She had pleasing him down now so well that she could just let her mind wander and think of other things while she sucked his cock exactly as he liked it. She didn’t even notice the musty smell, as he seldom washed. As she brought him closer to cumming, his hand took hold of the back of her head and pushed her mouth down further on his cock. She tuned out his moans and gasps as she went over the rest of her chores for before they were to leave in her mind. Yet, as she felt him get close, she focused again. She had heard many women complain about the taste of a man’s seed, but that was actually the part of this chore that Kiella liked the most. Kiella loved the feeling of a man cumming in her mouth. She loved the warmth of the semen. She loved its thickness. She loved a belly full of warm cum. And so, as she brought him to climax, she gave it her full attention. She rubbed his testicles with one hand and stroked his cock with the other, as she flicked her tongue over and around the tip and sucked with her warm, soft lips and brought him to climax. She savored each warm spurt from his cock. Once he’d finished, she swallowed it down happily. This was fortuitous, as the captain would always immediately force her mouth open to make sure that she had indeed swallowed, or else she would have been in terrible trouble.