Erotica | Fantasy | Serial Fiction | Short Story | Fiction
The Paladin’s Remorse Part Two
A Man in Love
I could tell that Angus’ spirit rose as we approached the mountains. He was always happiest high on the moors or picking along mountain passes. In the present case, it was a major road that led from Cat’s-Eye Paradise through the mountains to the west, but mountains are mountains.
The tower that controlled the western pass had been visible several times as I slowly went uphill, crossing bridges and ascending switchback roads. Each pass across the mountains which encircled the haven that was Cat’s-Eye Paradise had one of these towers, made to control the pass and restrict access. But slowly the vigilance of the queen’s knights at Cat’s Eye Castle decreased. Really, it was not necessary to enforce the exclusion of males from within the girdle of mountains. By some magical agency enacted by the creation of the sanctuary men lacked strength and will within the circle of mountains, while women were strengthened in body and will.
But recently it had been a woman in the form of a dark sorceress who had threatened the well-being of the haven, and the neglect of the borders now seemed to be a problem.
So it was that Angus and I slowly approached the supposedly abandoned tower, and found it was occupied, and by men. They were not just any wandering homeless men, they were wicked men. I could sense it.
A part of a Paladin’s powers come from their ability to discern what they call the Impetus of another being. It is their motivation, their reason for their actions. These men had darkness in their hearts. It was possible that in their past it was a choice of poverty that they became brigands, but I could sense that those days were long past, and their life of living off of others, killing, stealing, and taking whatever they wanted, had darkened their hearts.
As I approached, they saw me coming, in fact, they had been watching me for some time, just as I had repeatedly seen the tower in the distance. Clearly, they did not mean to talk, their weapons were drawn, their intentions were ill, and their hearts were dark.
I, too, drew my sword, and slowly approached them. A distant bow twanged, I deflected the arrow with my sword and charged. As I came closer the wickedness of these men became clearer, and I knew what I had to do.
Angus courageously charged into their midst, my blade came down onto one of the men, striking the sword aside and cleaving his skull. Another raised a bow, but I raised my hand and by the power of the Eternal Light I smote the man, and he did not rise again. As Angus charged through their disordered and scattered numbers and got to the other side, I slipped off of his back and turned to face the men. One swung an axe up but was too slow and my blade darted into his eye. Another thrust with a sword, but I deflected it and brought mine up to his throat. I worked through a dozen men like this, all ruffians with no skill, just brutish strength. But here I was stronger, even without the Light of Ainyah the effect of the enchantment on these lands made wicked men weak, and good women strong.
I could have swept through them with my eyes shut and only sensing the Impulse that directed their dark hearts and their vain attacks. One after another fell to my blade, to the force of the Light, or my knife which I threw into the throat of an archer.
But my strength and power made me foolish. All the dark-hearted men were down and I thought we were done. But there was one man left, and he suddenly attacked like a demon. He was strong, when he should not be strong, and skilful unlike any of the others. But what unsettled me most was that his Impulse was not wicked. It was love that was in his heart.
The strange man dismayed me and I was challenged like never before. His tirade of blows drove me back. I might have regained my footing and prevailed, but suddenly I was attacked from behind by a source I did not expect. Women filled with grief assailed me, and some blunt implement hit me hard on the back of the head, and darkness took me.
When I awoke I gave thanks to Ainyah that I was not dead, and cursed my own arrogance to not expect the unexpected. Such thoughts were quickly overtaken when I realised that I was naked and tied spreadeagled in the main hall of the tower.
Quickly I assessed the others in the room, using my eyes and not just my Paladin’s perception. The man was sitting in a large chair at the head of a feasting table. I don’t know if he had been watching me all the time, or had noticed that I was awake. He was handsome, but in a strong way, with robust brooding features. His hair dark and shorn short, his body tall and broad, with the build of a warrior. He really did not fit in with the brigands that I had earlier defeated.
“The bitch is awake!” came a woman’s voice, and a small group of very disheveled women came out of the dark corners of the room. The man looked impassive, but the women were anything but that. Some of them had faces distorted by anger, others had faces filled with grief and tears. Then I used my Paladin’s training to discern them more deeply. All of the women were afraid, but I could not discern what they were afraid of. The man was still, but I could see what his motivation was. It was love that moved him. I was still perplexed with the idea that love could make a man become a brigand.
“We should fecking gut you, bitch!” said one of the angrier women, standing uncomfortably near me with a carving knife.
“Be careful,” said the man. “I saw her kill men at some distance with no weapon.”
“She’s a witch?” asked a woman. “Or a sorceress?” asked another.
“I think she’s a Paladin,” said the man.
“What’s that, Cat?” One of the women asked. I smiled.
“Your name is Cat?” I asked. I think he was slightly embarrassed.
“That’s what they call me here, yes. I think some of the men did not mean it kindly, but I will not speak ill of the recently departed. You are a Paladin, aren’t you. Your accent would also suggest you are from the Western Isles. But you wear the armour of a knight of Cat’s Eye Castle.”
“Are you the leader here? You do not seem like the other men.” He smiled.
“You certainly have no fear. You are naked and bound yet you answer my questions with another question. Yes, they took me as their leader. Well the men did, the women actually had no say in the matter.”
“So they have no agency here, yet they tied me up like this? Is it because you all started your time here tied up like this?”
“You killed our men, bitch!” shouted one of the angry women, gripping her knife.
“Were they yours? Did you choose them? Or did they take you and beat you until you submitted to them?” I could sense that their moods were changing, the grief and anger was ebbing. But the fear remained.
“What is to become of us?” one of the women with tear-stained faces asked.
“Stay here. Become women-at-arms and protect the border for the queen. We will train you.” One woman who had been standing at the back stepped forward, taking the dagger from the angry woman, and cut the ropes that held me.
The man known as Cat stood up and walked over to stand in front of me. He was really quite tall, more orc-sized than human, and certainly a lot taller than me. He actually made me feel rather naked, which was unusual for me. I did not seem to mind the feeling, however.
“So I suppose there will be more of you coming if you aren’t back in a day or two.”
“Yes,” I said, a slight glow under my hands showing that I was healing the marks on my wrists. “Don’t worry, if I have not killed you they won’t.”
“So why didn’t you kill me? I’m not that much better than the rest of the men.”
“You are in love.” I said. He was awestruck.
“You can tell?” I nodded. “Well since this is now your tower, I will show you to your room. There I will tell you all about it.”
“First, where is my horse?” Angus had resisted any efforts by any of them to capture him, but he was very pleased to see me. I left him in the stables with some attentive children who wanted to feed him apples.
Cat and I climbed the spiral case built within the wall of the great tower, and then passed through a door into what was once a fine room with a beautiful bed. Arched windows went around the perimeter of the room, providing an excellent view of the mountains and the pass below. There was no evidence of a woman ever sleeping in the room. He sat in the window looking West, where the sun was starting to set behind the mountains, and I stood by him, gazing at the setting sun.
“It was years ago, when I was a knight in the army of Flussberg. There was a delegation from Cat’s-Eye Castle, and it was then that I saw her. I never even got to speak to her, but I saw her several times as she was one of the queen’s guards, and I was one of our king’s escort. I don’t know her name, but she had the most beautiful pale blue eyes and light blonde hair, with the cutest nose.”
“I’m afraid that sounds like half the women in Cat’s Eye Paradise, I think they mostly come from the same stock.” He smiled.
“Yes, I have been beaten up and sent back by several women that fit that description, but she was different. You actually remind me of her, although you look nothing alike.” He was looking at me strangely in the dying light of the Sun, his chest heaving with emotion. “So why have you not asked for your clothes to be returned to you?”
“Possibly for the same reason that I haven’t asked for them,” I replied. Slowly his hand reached out to me and settled on my bottom. His large hands caressed the firm roundness of my buttocks, and I rested my hands on his thick arms, looking him in the eye. He could tell that I wanted him just as easily as I knew he wanted me. Abruptly I was pulled towards him, and his arms were around me, the buckles and studs of his leather army hard against my soft bare skin. His huge arms wrapped around my petite body in a tight bear-hug, and he lifted my lips towards his. Fiercely he kissed me, his lips were hard against mine, his tongue reaching deep into my throat. All I could do was give myself completely to his desire.
He carried me to the bed, and threw me on it, feverishly pulling at his breeches until his massive cock sprung out. I thought of reaching for it, but his need was too great, and immediately his immense armoured body was on top of me, I only had time to spread my legs to welcome him.
Desperately he held me, his throbbing shaft stabbing between my thighs until it found its home. So wet was I that he powered straight into me in one massive thrust and I groaned with the arousal. Like a beast he urgently fucked me, ferociously slamming his body into mine, harder and harder and harder. He growled like an animal as he neared climax, then with final brutal lunges he shouted out his ecstasy, filling me with his seed.
He paused as his lust ebbed, laying on top of me, his cock pulsing the last cum into my pussy. But he was not done. More gently now he kissed me while he tried to unbuckle his armour. I pushed him away so that I could help him. His body was covered with scars from a life as a warrior and clearly he did not concern himself with the potions and poultices that heal completely. My body, although wounded in past battles, was unblemished, for the Light of Ainyah is a healing light.
Now he was naked too, and tenderly his powerful arms embraced me. We lay on the bed in the dying light kissing and kissing, inhaling each other’s breath until our lungs were filled with each other. But after a while his passions returned, but not so much that he lost control. He entered me again, and in that state of union we existed for some time as the moon swept across the sky. He and I moved from position to position, at one moment he was on top, then later I was in his lap, and then I was on top, but of one flesh all of the time. The man was so large and strong, and I was so petite and light he could literally walk around the room with me impaled upon him. It was no bother for him to stand, holding my legs out each side, and slowly lift me up and drop me down on his shaft repeatedly. His cock was so big, and my body so toned, the movement of his member within me was always powerful and tight. Yet my desire for him meant he could turn me around from facing forwards to facing backwards with no bother at all.
I do not remember sleeping that first night at all, but only that our bodies writhed together in passion, then at times clung together in affection.
