Despite the fact that thousands of savage enemies were assembled beyond the walls, Tannen Rose was determined to pay a visit to Rian, who still lay comatose in his bed. The third-story room afforded him a good view of their many enemies spread across the greenway, and yet Tannen chose to ignore them in order to leave his badly injured lover with comforting memories. To do so, the Elven Prince reached down and took hold of his wrist, and literally walked into his dreams:
They lay naked in soft grass, beside a blue pond, beneath a silver moon.
“How many ways are there,” Tannen whispered into Rian’s ear, his arms encircling him from behind, his wet cock prodding his ass cheeks, “to masturbate, then, my love?”
The Elven Prince reached around the front of Rian, gripping his meaty, hard cock with thumb and middle finger, allowing his index finger to rest lightly on his pleasure spot just beneath his slick and shiny head.
Rian’s quiet sigh turned to a soft moan as Tannen gently wormed his fingertip back and forth across his sperm duct, triggering off feelings that made him tingle from head to foot. Leaning farther back into Tannen’s embrace, Rian rested his right hand on Tannen’s right wrist, doing nothing to break the rhythm of his rubbing, flickering finger. Soon, his rapid ministrations had Rian rising up and down on the balls of his feet as he succumbed to the pleasure Tannen was doling out in swift yet measured movements. “I am about to cum!” Rian whispered in one long breath.
Tannen stopped his fingering at once. “Can’t have you do that so soon,” he said with a laugh.
He waited several seconds as Rian tamped himself down, then took his cock in a tight-fisted grip. “Featherlight fingerings are nice, but nothing beats a full-on stroke session.”
He beat him in a frenzied pumping method, his hand closed tightly about his shaft, running up to his head, twisting around it, then sliding back down to his pubes and his ball sack. He repeated this over and over. Rian bucked in his grasp, not knowing which way to thrust his hips as the feel-good feelings spread through his loins and his cock. He could just imagine the white creamy sperm his lover was churning in those big balls of his. He was surely going to shoot a power load when Tannen worked him over the edge.
“About to cum!” Rian gasped, rearing up, arching his back, pushing his hard penis forward into Tannen’s tight-fisted grip. Once again, Tannen stopped, releasing his throbbing cock. He peered down over his shoulder. Together they watched his long shaft wobble in the air and pulsate of its own accord.
“Hold it in!” Tannen whispered, urgently. “Hold it in a little while longer, lover!”
Rian squeezed his eyes shut, willing his jutting boner to tamp down, to keep from erupting with the sperm load that was rising up his shaft and about to explode from his head.
“Ahhh!” he groaned. “Close! It was so close, Tannen!”
Tannen released him from his tight hug. He turned Rian around, his hand gripping his erection in an overhand grasp. In this way, he beat him again, working him over even as he licked at his nipples. It took even a shorter time with the added stimulation of Tannen’s tit licking for Rian to go from passive mode to aggressive as he danced in his grasp. “Cummmmmming!” he muttered through clenched teeth.
And again, Tannen stopped his hand movements, squeezing his cock hard to stop him from shooting.
“Oh, my,” gasped Rian, pressing his chest into Tannen’s lowered face. The Elven Prince stopped his beating motions, yet continued to lap at first his right nipple, then switched to a full mouth on his left one, tongue-lashing it wildly. Rian planted both hands on the sides of Tannen’s head, his fingers intertwining into the long strands of Tannen’s golden hair.
When Tannen brought his wet mouth away from Rian’s left nipple with a loud pop, Rian nearly collapsed as he pawed at his shoulders, his back, and any other upper body part to keep him connected to him. Tannen gave him a loving hug, then guided him over to the bed in the room.
Helping Rian to kneel on the bed on his hands and knees, Tannen bent his stiff boner back between his legs in almost a painful gesture. Forcing the head to point straight downward, he ran his hand up and down the shaft as if he were milking a cow. Rian shoved his ass higher in the air to give Tannen a longer portion of his bending erection. When he began to whimper, Tannen stopped once more, keeping his boner bent at such an awkward angle. He moved around behind Rian and licked at his balls gently, all the while milking his bending cock.
Rian began to suck in and blow out, suck in and blow out. He gyrated his hips to help Tannen get a firmer hold on his entire length. Tannen’s speed increased as he wrung the fleshy rod in his hand for all it was worth. “Cum—!” exploded from Rian’s mouth.
Tannen stopped. He released his thick member and it made a meaty thwack! as it sprang up and slapped against Rian’s pelvic region. Tannen toyed playfully with him, bending his rock-hard boner back and releasing it so that it slapped against him.
“Unnnh!” leaked out of Rian’s drooling lips.
Producing a vial of lotion from his belt pouch on the floor, Tannen applied a generous amount to Rian’s ass crack and then his own stiff pole standing up between his hairless white legs. He climbed up on the bed and mounted Rian from behind.
Rian remained on his hands and knees all during the sliding in and gliding back out process Tannen gently, slowly used on him. He would slip his head just past his tight sphincter, allowing his butt ring to stretch. He slipped a tiny fraction in, then withdrew, listening all the while to Rian’s sharp intakes of breath. He would then pull his head out completely. Slowly, he would work it back in, listening to Rian gasping beneath him. He slid forward finally, grasping him by the hips to line him up properly. He made the plunge with one long slide that had Rian lowering his head to his crossed arms and biting the bunched-up sheets on the bed.
Tannen’s cock was curved like a scimitar and perfect for the fucking of an ass. Rian took it in with little resistance, arching his back, spreading his ass cheeks wider, feeling the curved shaft of hard flesh spearing him deep within his anal cavity. Tannen then began to fuck him without slowing, without mercy, taking him there whether he resisted or not.
Rian found himself tossed about by Tannen’s fiercely humping hips. He rose onto his hands, allowing Tannen’s lotion-coated hand to skim his cock. Madly thrusting into him, it took the Elven Prince three tries to wrap his hand around Rian’s wavering hard-on. As he grasped it tightly, Rian gasped and reared up, forcing his ass to meet squarely with Tannen’s pelvic region. A steady Slap! Slap! Slap! soon filled the air as sweaty ass and equally sweaty loins came together over and over.
Just when Rian got ready to cum, he moaned, “Going over, now! Over the edge, Tannen!”
In one swift move, Tannen pulled him up and into his embrace, falling back onto the bed, his cock still buried deep in his ass as Rian sprawled on top of him. With one hand he worked over his nipples, and with the other he began to fiercely masturbate him. He somehow managed to keep up short, steady thrusts of his hips, pumping his curving erection into the depths of Rian’s ass. He had only hit his prostate gland five times before Rian was spewing warm white cream all over his chest and stomach. The first four blasts pelted Tannen’s flickering fingers on his chest, the last four globs landed in Rian’s pubes, the pearly white cream in sharp contrast with the shiny black hair between his legs.
“Unnnnhhhh!” slipped out of Rian even as sperm slipped out of his head in the eight powerful jets that Tannen had managed to work out of him.
“Uuuuuuuuuhh!” slid from Tannen’s lips as he slid his cock repeatedly into Rian’s smooth-cheeked rectum, shooting his own ample load deep inside him.
They then collapsed there on the sweat-soaked sheets. Tannen could feel Rian’s cock pulsating in his grasp. Rian could feel Tannen’s cock throbbing in his ass. He leaned his head back and kissed his Elven lover on one cheek. Tannen leaned his head to one side and tongued his way inside Rian’s mouth. They kissed long, slow and passionately for quite some time.
As Rian finally came up for air, breaking the kiss, Tannen slowly pulled his spent cock out of his ass and walked himself out of his dream.
Tannen stood there beside his bed, feeling Rian’s pulse flow beneath his fingers. “Ride easy on those memories,” he said, “until you come back to me.”
And though Rian’s condition remained the same, Tannen leaned forward and kissed his brow, whispering, “Until then, my love.”
*
At first light, Prince Daggan rode his charger out onto the greenway of Brystyn, prepared to serve as Champion of the Court. Above the armor-clad giant near the front gate, his father gruffly warned him to make short work of the Trial by Combat.
“Scouts report that the Scartan horde will be here soon,” Mandan growled. “So make this combat swift or you’ll find yourself neck deep in a swarm of those wild Elves, with the gates closed and barring your entrance back inside these walls! Kill this bastard upstart who challenged you in Blackthorn’s stead! Remove his head and bring it to me so that I might adorn my mantle with an Elven relic!”
Daggan rode toward the tourney field at the far end of the greenway, snarling, “I’ll spear this replacement for Blackthorn with my first lance!”
Prince Tannen Rose sat at the far end of the tourney field, mounted on his white stallion. The Elven Prince offered the giant Prince Daggan a courteous nod, while the wind played havoc with the wild strands of his white-blond hair.
Beside Tannen stood Blackthorn’s personal servant, Chan Linn. He held two long lances in his grasp.
Hefting them and checking their balance, Chan chose one and handed it up to the Elven Prince.
On the far end of the field, Daggan snatched his own lance out of the hands of Sir Robar Preston, who stood beside a weapons rack, looking nervous and uncertain.
“What,” Robar asked, peering up at the black-armored Prince towering over him, “are the rules of engagement, my lord Prince?”
Daggan adjusted the lance in his grasp. He used the sharpened end to point down at the shield leaning against the weapons rack. “Three passes with lance,” he snapped. “If I don’t manage to kill him when I am done, then it’s hand-to-hand!”
Passing the huge black shield up to him, Robar looked across the field at the slight and slender figure of the Elven Prince. “He’s not even wearing armor, my lord. You’ll kill him with your first lance, I am certain. And if it ever comes to melee weapons? I have never seen a man who could stand against you, my lord. This Elf is dead no matter what.”
Grinning, Daggan spurred his horse into a run.
At the far end of the field, Chan handed a silver shield to Tannen and leaped back as the prince’s horse sprang forward.
On the tall walls of the city, a large audience watched.
King Mandan, Queen Lendra, and Brother Barr stood before a large company of dark-robed Priests of the Lord of Life and purple-clad Sisters of the Sacred Lady.
Off to one side of this larger crowd, Morgan Rivers, Princess Sharlyn, and her blond-haired lover stood watching anxiously, knowing the lives of Corin and Silk were in the hands of Prince Tannen.
A large company of Ravens and golden-haired Fairis Dayan lined the battlements to the right of them, filling up the ramparts all the way to the roof of the Rose Chapel one hundred yards away from the front gate.
On the roof of the chapel, Tristan and Brother Mathias stood on either side of Rian, who sat in a high-backed chair between them. The venom had taken its toll on him, and he barely had the strength to sit upright in the chair in order to witness the trial down on the greenway before the city. “It should be me,” he weakly whispered, watching with a heavy heart as his lover Prince Tannen Rose took his place to win Prince Corin and Silk a pardon. “It is sad and ironic that Tannen risks his life for a prince he does not love. He only stands against Daggan because I can’t.”
Tristan, who had to lean forward to even hear Rian’s words, shook his head. “It is because of his love for you, Rian, that Tannen takes to the combat field. He knows you care deeply for Corey, and yet risks his life against that monstrosity because he knows you cannot. He does so with honor, and with love for you in his heart.”
Racked by a fit of heavy coughing, Rian nearly swooned and fell from the chair. Brother Mathias latched onto his sagging shoulders to keep him in place. “Ah, fear not for your Elven Prince,” the priest said. “He is more than a match for the Ogre. Once we discover an antidote to this toxic venom, you will recover, and then show the young, handsome Elvish lad how grateful you are for his riding in your stead.”
He smiled at Tristan.
Coughing again, Rian doubled over. He finished his bout and whispered, “Let us hope that Fate allows me to show him a night of appreciation.”
The Trial began.
*
Daggan swore loudly as his lance careened off Tannen’s shield, barely grazing it.
The giant Ogre wheeled his horse around, and gave chase to the now-grinning Elf. Tannen’s white steed swiftly cleared the field, causing Sir Robar to leap for safety behind the weapons rack on Prince Daggan’s side of the tourney ground.
The Elven Prince smiled down at him and said, “I think I angered your prince! He meant to skewer me with that first pass, I am certain!”
Overhearing him as he rapidly approached Daggan snarled, “And I shall pierce your flower-loving, tree-hugging heart, you grinning fairy fucker!”
Tannen once again slanted his shield to deflect the point of the lance, which would have been driven through his breast had it contacted. Once again, Daggan’s curses filled the air as the Elven Prince rode past him, his shield barely taking a scratch.
Daggan yanked on the reins of his charger, spun the horse around, and raced back toward his opponent.
“Very skillful,” Chan said to Tannen as the Elf rode past him on his side of the tourney field.
Turning his white steed around with ease, Tannen circled Chan and the weapons rack and smiled down at the boy from the Summer Country. “The trick,” he said, “is to make the big oaf angry. Rage has no place in a combat such as this. And a dark storm already rages in this one’s dark heart. It shall be his undoing.”
Daggan came charging at Tannen once more. This time, the Elven Prince tossed aside his shield, took his lance in both hands, and aimed its tip for the point of Daggan’s. The two lances connected and shattered. Daggan found himself holding nothing more than splintered pieces of his lance’s haft.
Tannen released his ruined lance and continued on to Daggan’s side of the tourney field.
Snatching up two lances from Robar, he hefted one in either hand, then kicked his steed into a slow gallop, clearing the space between him and Daggan.
When he was a mere ten feet from the enraged Ogre, Tannen tossed him one of the lances.
Prince Daggan snatched it out of the air, spinning it round to grip its haft.
Greatly impressed by such chivalrous conduct, many of those watching the spectacle on the city’s walls gave a round of applause to show their appreciation of Tannen’s courtesy.
By then, Tannen had ridden past him, and Daggan did not turn his horse back around to make another pass until he’d reached his end of the field once more.
Scooping up the shield that Robar handed up to him, Daggan narrowed his eyes as he spotted Tannen charging toward him, his lance cocked for another pass. He growled, “This is where I knock your skinny ass out of the saddle, fairy fucker!”
Tannen took careful aim once more, and with pinpoint accuracy, he sent his lance point directly into the tip of Daggan’s lance. The sudden force of the two lances connecting sent Daggan reeling in his saddle. Both riders dropped their shattered lances, and while Tannen rode on, Daggan scrabbled for his reins, losing his shield in the process. He barely managed to right himself, then wheeled his charger around and went racing past Tannen to reach his side of the field.
Tannen rode up to his own weapons rack, smiling down at Chan. “This will be the telling blow,” Chan said to the Elven Prince. “If you don’t defeat him during the joust, you will be forced to stand toe-to-toe with the brute wielding melee weapons, my lord.”
Tannen reached down and took a third lance from Chan. “Such manners you have, Chan Linn. You need not address me with such formality, simply call me by my first name. But why show such distress over me and Prince Ogre taking this combat to the point of melee? He is slow and ponderous. I am swift and lightning-quick. You think I cannot defeat this oaf who moves like a mountain?”
On the next pass, however, Daggan switched tactics. Instead of trying to unsaddle Tannen by skewering him with his lance, the massive prince slanted his lance down at the last instant. The long tip of the pole barely missed the chest of Tannen’s stallion, and the horse danced to one side as the lance passed through his front legs. The hapless animal tripped and fell, spilling his rider from his saddle.
A murmur of disapproval arose from the company of Fairis Dayan atop the wall. Disgruntled curses were thrown at Daggan by members of the Raven Company.
Out on the field, Tannen hit the ground hard and yet rolled agilely to his feet. Behind him, his stallion did the same, his hooves spurting up clouds of dust as he sprinted away past his rider, unharmed. Tannen, concerned for his steed, studied the horse as he ran past him, making sure the lance had not done any permanent damage to the creature.
“Prince Tannen!” shouted Chan in warning from his place beside the weapons rack.
Tannen turned, ducking out of the path of Daggan’s sword.
Daggan had dismounted, drawn his two-handed sword from his shoulder sheath, and raced back across the tourney ground.
Tannen dodged two more swift and vicious strokes by the Ogre, darting to the left and the right.
Chan was there between the two, holding Tannen’s glowing green blade out to the Elven Prince.
The moment Tannen had the blade in hand, he performed a blistering attack on the armor-clad Daggan, striking, lashing, stroking, and hammering away at the prince’s two-handed sword, forcing him back.
Daggan found himself hard-pressed to defend himself against such expert swordsmanship. Each swiftly delivered blow Tannen landed was either fortunately deflected by the black armor Daggan wore or clumsily swatted aside by his battering heavy blade.
In the first few seconds of the fight, Tannen managed to back Daggan all the way back to his side of the tourney field.
The big prince grunted as Tannen drove his blade directly through his plate-mail breast plate, piercing his shoulder with a straightforward lunge. Daggan cursed in pain as Tannen withdrew his green blade and flicked clots of bright red blood from the end.
The Elven Prince wheeled around, holding his blade above his head to show the bloodstained blade to those watching from the city’s walls. Behind him, Daggan stumbled and dropped to one knee, peering down in shock as blood spurted through the rent in his armor.
“First blood!” Tannen shouted up to King Mandan. “First blood should suffice for a proper victory! Decree this Trial by Combat finished, and your son will return to you alive! Order it to continue until one of us dies, and Prince Daggan’s life is over!”
From atop the wall in the distance, King Mandan roared, “You arrogant Elven bastard, continue the trial! To the death was decreed! To the death it shall be!”
Muttering under his breath, Tannen turned back around to face the still-kneeling Daggan. “Yield, Prince of Brystyn,” he whispered only loud enough for the prince to hear him, “there is no need for you to die this day. Forfeit now, and I shall quit this combat and let you live.”
Daggan cursed in pain as he planted his sword in the ground, attempting to lever his massive form to his feet. He slipped twice in doing so, and was just trying to rise a third time when a red-feathered arrow suddenly sprouted in the center of Prince Tannen’s breast.
The Elven Prince staggered back from the force of the shaft that punched the air from his lungs. He grimaced in pain, glancing down at the red-feathered haft protruding from his chest.
He reeled sideways, spun completely around to face the high walls of the city, searching for one last sight of his lover. As his gaze locked on Rian’s face, Tannen cried out, “Blackthorn!”
Tannen Rose sank to his knees, fell back on his haunches, then pitched over and fell to the ground.
He was dead before he could take another breath.