DRAGONLANCE

Machinations of the Gods

by PJ

 

Laurana stumbled through the thick brush, fallen leaves crackled beneath her bare feet. The Elf Queen of the Qualinesti emerged from the slender, ivory trees, her waist-length, red-gold hair wet and gleaming in the silver light of Krynn's single moon, a brilliant eye of heaven that watched with silent detachment as naked elves lay entwined within a large clearing of The Grove, their moans and sighs echoing through the swaying trees as Laurana padded across soft grass to a sparkling brook.

Laurana dropped to her knees near the flowing brook, she dipped her fingers into the cool water and splashed her blushing face and hot breasts. Sitting back on the soles of her feet, Laurana lay her hands upon her damp cheeks, she stared up the glittering, cold stars, the ivory orb that observed the folly of elf and human. The bright moon evoked the memory of another orb, an orb that whispered into Laurana's mind, plaguing her every thought, tormenting with the sibilant voice of a dragon.

"Leave me be!" murmured Laurana, dropping her almond eyes to the glittering, blue water, the night breeze caressing her naked body, cooling the fever that had enfolded her as she had debased herself with the members of the Senate, binding them to her with sex and magic.

"Your subjects miss your presence, Laurana," sighed Alhana, her small, pale-skinned body soaked in love sweat and the seed from a dozen spent councillors.

When Laurana didn't speak, Alhana knelt behind the elf queen, reaching out to caress Laurana's smooth arms.

"What distresses you?"

"The Dragon Orb, it buzzes like a gnat in my skull! I want it out!"

"You belong to the Orb, as I do," murmured Alhana, brushing her scarlet lips over Laurana's skin.

"I belong to so many masters," sighed Laurana, clutching her hands together, the wind tugging at her golden tresses.

"It feels good to surrender yourself to a higher power, you don't have to worry anymore, you are free," smiled Alhana, licking the tapered tip of Laurana's right ear. "Come back into The Grove, surrender yourself to pleasure."

Laurana let Alhana take her right hand and lead her back to the writhing, perspiring knot of naked elves. Grasping hands reached for Laurana, she let them pull her into the feverish tangle of gleaming limbs and splashing seed.

***

Laurana opened her eyes and groaned. She lay on her stomach, naked and sore, her crotch and bottom still aching from the orgy that had lasted all night. Laurana glanced at the other body upon the disheveled bed, Alhana slept on her left side, raven curls framing her peaceful, lovely face, her soft lips parted, her small breasts still marred with the angry red impressions of groping hands. Beyond Alhana's nude form, the Dragon Orb rested on a small, ash wood-shaped pedestal, colors shifting and dancing beneath its crystal shell, the Orb strangely silent in Laurana's drowsy mind.

"I thought you deserved a rest from that thing," murmured a familiar male voice, a strong, muscled arm slipping underneath Laurana's belly to hold her tight.

Laurana looked up from her pillow. "Sargonnas."

The evil god gently bit the tip of Laurana's right ear, then he planted a cool kiss against the side of elf woman's neck. Laurana moaned softly and smiled, she liked how Sargonnas caressed her belly with his palm, rubbing her skin in slow, circular motions around her belly button.

"You've done a good job with the Senate," complimented Sargonnas, straddling Laurana's legs and using both hands to massage her bare back and shoulders.

"Thank the Orb for that, it's working through Alhana, subverting Qualinesti just as it tried to corrupt Silvanesti," groaned Laurana, resting her chin on her crossed arms while Sargonnas rubbed her.

"Except it's using sex instead of nightmares," surmised Sargonnas. "Clever for an artifact."

"I can't control it, can you do anything?" asked Laurana, her brown eyes straying to the sleeping Orb.

"If I have to, for now the Orb and I have similar goals," smiled Sargonnas, running his long fingers through Laurana's shining hair. "We have a greater problem."

"What's that?"

"Chemosh. He's plotting something in Skullcap. A lot of magic is funneling to that cursed place, I need you to check it out."

"Can't you go?" demanded Laurana, looking over her right shoulder at the god resting atop her.

"That bag of bones would sense me, but a mortal could sneak inside his lair and see what he's up to."

"I really don't have a choice, do I?" said Laurana bitterly.

"Would you rather stay here and play the whore for the Orb? Maybe you like fucking every elf in Qualinesti?"

"I feel like I have," groaned Laurana, rolling onto her back so she could sit up and face Sargonnas.

"Go to Skullcap, discover Chemosh's secret, and I'll remove the Orb for you," grinned Sargonnas in his elven form, black hair spilling to his shoulders, skin pure white, eyes glittering orbs of obsidian.

Laurana smiled despite herself, the god's form was quite pleasing, she could feel her cheeks warming beneath his hot stare. "I'll go then."

"I knew you wouldn't fail me," murmured Sargonnas, kissing Laurana's lips, his left palm clutching the elf queen's soft right breast. Laurana moaned and closed her eyes when Sargonnas kissed her throat, his pale hand releasing her breast and dropping to squeeze a bare buttock. "I will reward you in other ways as well, my sweet elfess."

When Laurana opened her eyes, the evil god was gone from her bed.

***

"You shouldn't go, why are you leaving the city?" inquired Alhana, watching with a sharp glare while Laurana secured her gear to a sedate griffin's feathered back.

"It's none of your concern, Alhana," snapped Laurana, checking the straps of her saddle one last time before jumping up onto the prancing griffin. "Keep the Senate happy until I get back, I hear you're their favorite anyway."

Alhana backed away when the immense griffin started flapping its wide wings. With a short sprint across the lawn and a powerful leap into the air, the griffin spread its graceful wings and sailed up into the sun, Laurana leaning forward over the creature's neck.

She is Sargonnas' whore, forget her.

Alhana nodded and began walking back to the Queen's Manor.

Return to Silvanesti. Seduce Dalamar. I have summoned one to rule Qualinesti while you do my work.

Alhana smiled and licked her lips in anticipation. She enjoyed the arts of seduction very much.

***

Laurana realized something significant was happening in Skullcap when she began her approach of the blasted ruin. Boiling, dark gray stormclouds hung above the entire region. Dipping below the angry clouds, Laurana could see movement across the cracked, barren earth that surrounded Skullcap, hundreds of figures shuffled aimlessly over the countryside, stumbling shapes dressed in rags and bits of corroded armor. Laurana guided her mount away from Skullcap, she flew northwest, past the black pits that served as the ruin's fearful eyes. A little over a mile from Skullcap, Laurana landed the nervous griffin and dismounted. Shouldering a leather backpack and sheathed long sword, Laurana buried a silver stake into the parched earth, the blunt head adorned with a crimson scarf. The griffin stared at the flapping scarf for a moment, then fluttered its enormous wings and took flight again.

Laurana took a strip of leather from her backpack and bound her long hair in a ponytail. Securing her pack across her slim shoulders, the leather-armored elf queen belted her sword over her alluring hips, then began the long march to Skullcap, her way lit by flashes of violet lightning and heralded with the howling of the wind.

The figures wandering around Skullcap were easy to evade. While crouching behind a large, round boulder, Laurana risked a look at a nearby gathering of moaning shapes, they were zombies, the squat, rotting forms of the dwarven soldiers slain when the citadel of Zhaman, now the crumbling ruin Skullcap, exploded from the terrible power of the dark wizard, Fistandantilus.

When the groaning undead shambled away, Laurana launched forward, jogging across the sterile ground, dust and ash rising from her footfalls. Laurana knew that the most obvious entrance into Skullcap, the Jaws of Death, would be well-guarded and warded with magic, so she made her way to a winding, turbid stream that flowed down the back of Skullcap, its thick waters foul and sulfurous. Laurana removed her pack and set it on the stream's damp bank. The elfess dove into the deep water, slicing through the cold current with her hands, swimming upstream to the source of the flow.

The way was not long, as dusk descended Laurana disappeared into the side of the hill that had once supported Zhaman. The tunnel used by the chill water was confining and dark, Laurana felt her way along the rough canal, her lungs burning, her arms and legs weary from the long swim up the stream.

Laurana exploded from the water, gasping raggedly for air, her soaked blonde hair snapping around her head. Laurana shivered uncontrollably, the water was freezing and black, sapping Laurana's strength, stiffening her limbs.

The elf woman struggled out of the black pool, hugging herself with quivering arms, teeth chattering loudly. A low groan froze Laurana, she spun on one heel, a pale, translucent form disappeared into the stone wall to her left. When no more ethereal shapes appeared, Laurana left the pool chamber and shuffled into a towering room that rose up at least thirty feet. Shattered columns and pieces of broken stone littered the wide floor, a cold wind moaned through dozens of dark portals that circled the cracked walls of the vast chamber.

Warmth returned slowly to Laurana, she drew her blade, elven vision scouring every nook and cranny. Padding softly across the room, Laurana caught the faint sound of sobbing. Laurana followed the weak sobs, they came from an arched doorway blocked by a fallen marble pillar, the elfess sheathed her sword to climb over the thick column of veined stone.

The doorway opened into a small alcove. A woman sat in the far corner, her body wrapped in filthy bandages, her face blindfolded and gagged by the clinging folds of cloth.

Laurana knelt before the weeping woman. Laurana noticed a medallion hanging between the woman's pale breasts, an amulet of tarnished silver, almost completely blackened, the original inscription worn and unrecognizable. The elf queen drew a dagger from her right boot and started cutting away the tight bandages. Filthy, knotted, black hair spilled from the slashed bindings, the woman's face was drawn, the cheeks sunken, the lips gray and cracked.

"Please! Help me escape! I can't bear to feel his touch again!" sobbed the woman, clinging to Laurana's arms.

"Who are you talking about?" asked Laurana as she cut away the bonds from the crying woman's arms and legs.

"Chemosh! The god of Death! He touches me! He.....forces himself inside me!"

"Do you know where he is right now?"

"No! After he..violated me again, he left without a word. We have to escape before he comes back!"

A chill touch brushed across the back of Laurana's neck, the elfess turned, and a length of bloody cloth snapped around her throat.

"Chemosh!" screamed the woman, pressing herself against the unyielding wall of the alcove, her eyes wide with terror.

"Crysania, it pains me that you have not enjoyed my affections," smiled the death god through split lips that exposed yellowed jawbone. "I will not be so gentle in the future."

Laurana raised her dagger to sever the bandage choking her, but more tendrils of gore-soaked cloth lashed from Chemosh, binding her upraised hand, entwining around her waist, her thighs.

"Come to me, my lovely elf queen," hissed Chemosh, beckoning to Laurana with skinless, ivory claws.

Laurana was dragged out of the alcove and across the fallen pillar that blocked the alcove's mouth. She crashed heavily onto the littered floor, her fingers still struggling with the cloth strip biting into the flesh of her neck. Dragged over sharp stones and jagged fragments of marble jutting up from the shattered floor, Laurana's armor and clothing were in tatters by the time she came to a stop at Chemosh's bandaged feet. Blood dribbled from a dozen small wounds across Laurana's body, the cloth-wrapped elfess glared up at the death god defiantly even as her vision swam and consciousness began to fade.

Chemosh thrust up his left arm, the bandages around Laurana launched themselves into the air, taking the battered elf queen with them. Laurana now hung before Chemosh, arms bound together above her head, feet dangling over the floor. With a simple hand motion, Chemosh removed the strangling cloth from Laurana's bruised throat, the elfess coughed and sucked in mouthfuls of precious air, until the blood-stained cloth slapped across Laurana's mouth, gagging her. A second damp cloth wrapped around Laurana's eyes, the elfess cried out into her sticky gag, but her voice was muffled, almost inaudible.

"It has been a long time since I tasted elfess," wheezed Chemosh, shuffling towards Laurana's hanging body, ivory claws delicately untying the strings of Laurana's snug leather breeches. Laurana struggled and fought her bonds, Chemosh gurgled with laughter, slipping down the elf queen's breeches. The death god tugged off Laurana's boots, then caressed the elf woman's sleek, luscious limbs, a drooling, black tongue slithering over Laurana's skin, tasting the sweet flesh of her inner thighs.

"Mmm, the flower of an elfess in bloom," sighed Chemosh, inhaling the musky aroma of Laurana's naked pussy before he pressed his shredded lips into the golden mound of the elf queen's sex.

Laurana moaned sharply into her gag, her open mouth outlined by the bloody cloth as the rotting corpse god slurped upon her soft cunt, black tongue digging deep into her pink hole, clammy lips kissing and sucking on her swelling labia, her stiffened clit. Laurana's ankle-bound legs quaked and shuddered in the air while Chemosh fed from her shivering pussy, bone claws clutching and scratching Laurana's taut buttocks. Chemosh wildly nuzzled between Laurana's tightly closed legs, soaking her thighs in drool, stabbing his long, writhing tongue through the elf queen's tender cunt lips. Laurana cried into her gag when Chemosh tore open her leather shirt, crushing her heaving breasts, pinching her nipples so hard tears fell from beneath the cloth binding her eyes. Fondling Laurana's small, pliant tits, Chemosh pushed his decayed face into the elf queen's crotch, slurping and sucking ravenously.

The fall of a heavy boot interrupted the hungry slatherings of Chemosh's oozing lips. The death god jerked his face from Laurana's soaked pussy, he spun to confront the intruder.

"How dare..!"

A serrated, ebony sword cut off Chemosh's next words, along with the death god's head. Chemosh's lost crown bounced wetly across the broken floor, then splattered apart like a rotten fruit.

Laurana hung motionlessly in her wet bonds, not daring to make a sound. The elfess felt a blade press against her left temple, there was the sound of ripping cloth, then the blindfold fell from her squinting eyes.

Sargonnas smiled widely as he sliced the gag from Laurana's mouth.

"How..?!"

"You distracted that fool quite skillfully so I could penetrate Skullcap without his knowledge. Chemosh was always a letch," sneered Sargonnas, kicking the dead god's headless corpse.

Wrapping his left arm around Laurana's slim waist, Sargonnas raised his sword and cut free the bandages suspending the elfess from the floor. Laurana hugged the god's neck, sobbing gently. When Sargonnas lowered Laurana to the floor, the elf queen indicated the nearby alcove.

"There's a woman in there, a prisoner of Chemosh!"

"I know of her. Do not worry, I will take care of her needs."

Laurana smiled up at Sargonnas, rubbing circulation back into her burning wrists.

Sargonnas gazed at the beaming elfess wryly. "Time to take you home, I think."

***

Laurana stood thigh-deep in the clean, steaming water. The bathing pool's surface was adorned with pink and white roses, the sweet scent of the floating blossoms soothed Laurana as she splashed water over her bruised and scratched body, washing the dead god's filth from her skin.

Strong hands lathered with soap emerged from beneath Laurana's graceful arms, they cupped the elf queen's breasts, caressing and covering them in perfumed lather.

"My lord," sighed Laurana, leaning back into the naked god's embrace, her fingers stroking his legs as he spread soap across her belly with one hand, the other clutching her left breast, kneading it.

"I must leave you now, my elf queen," whispered Sargonnas into Laurana's tapered ear, his warm breath tingling the back of Laurana's neck. "Chemosh has left a void that I must fill. You have served me well, Laurana, I will remember your contribution to my cause."

"My lord, may I ask a boon?"

"The Dragon Orb is gone."

"Another favor. Will you..take me one last time?"

Sargonnas smiled, "I grant your boon with pleasure."

The god in elven shape dropped his lathered hand to Laurana's crotch, he rubbed slick soap across the elf woman's pussy, fingers combing through her bush of gold fur. Laurana clung to the wiry elf's neck with her right arm, her free hand wandered to Sargonnas' rising cock, slender fingers enfolding his manhood, fondling it. The flushed elfess tilted back her head, Sargonnas devoured her panting lips, Laurana moaned, her hips gently bucking, her belly clenching as Sargonnas slipped a lubricated finger into her cunt, exploring the warm depths of her vagina. Laurana writhed against Sargonnas for a time, moaning into the god's mouth, her slick, lithe body swaying as Sargonnas fingered her sex energetically, splayed hand covering her yawning pussy, two stiff fingers plunging into her hole, penetrating her over and over.

Sargonnas slid his dripping fingers free of the elf queen's cunt and brought them to Laurana's trembling lips. The elfess gazed into the god's obsidian eyes, tasting her own nectar upon the handsome elf's slim digits as she let them enter her pouting mouth.

Dragging his fingers from Laurana's soft lips, Sargonnas dipped his hands into the scented water and grasped the nude elf queen's slim thighs. The powerful elf lifted Laurana from the water, spreading her legs apart. Laurana reached back to cling to Sargonnas' lean sides, she moaned when the god lowered her onto his swollen erection, his prick driving up through her moist cunt. Sargonnas started humping between Laurana's out-spread thighs, slapping his crotch against Laurana's ass. Laurana bounced, golden hair flying, breasts swaying as she clung to Sargonnas' torso, her pussy filled with her elf lover's thick shaft, water, soap, and cum flowing from her moist hole. Laurana sat back upon Sargonnas' smooth chest, holding him, her open legs flying, soft moans falling from her lips as the humping god kissed her rose-scented shoulders and neck.

Laurana arched her back when she climaxed, open thighs shuddering, stomach tightening while her pussy squeezed her lover's throbbing shaft. Sargonnas made one last powerful thrust into Laurana's dripping slit, building semen fountaining within the elf queen's belly, slipping down her trembling, alabaster legs.

Sargonnas lowered Laurana back into the scented water. The elf queen faced the black-eyed god, she embraced him eagerly, arms draped over his pale shoulders while he consumed her tender lips, white fingers digging through Laurana's wet, gleaming hair.

***

Laurana gazed up at the looming Tower of the Sun, the spire shimmering gold in the morning sunlight. The elfess adjusted her rose robes one last time, delaying her entrance until the last moment. Throwing back her shoulders, Laurana entered the Tower, passing through a richly decorated anteroom towards the gilded double doors that granted entry into the Senate chamber.

Senators stood in small groups around the central rostrum, a circular dais of rose-veined marble bathed in a bright shaft of golden sunlight. Laurana searched the murmuring crowd, there was no sign of Alhana, the Silvanesti queen had never returned to the manor, it appeared she had vanished along with the Dragon Orb. Laurana didn't feel particularly troubled by the pale elf queen's departure, but it was strange.

Laurana crossed the wide chamber to mount the rostrum. A tall, lean senator in leaf-green robes emerged from a large knot of councillors and bowed to the elf queen. "It is good to see you back in Qualinesti, Your Majesty. The realm isn't as bright without its most radiant star."

"Thank you, Senator," smiled Laurana, trying to place the councillor's face and failing.

The gracious senator slowly rose from his bow as Laurana entered the shaft of brilliant sunlight to address the chamber. Backing into the shadows that clung to the room's edge, the senator smiled, baring sharp, jagged fangs.

*****