Cam's Kingdom

Mara nodded, and moved forward again.

"Do we know when?"

Mara replied, "The scents are from early this morning, before dawn."

Cassia tilted her head, "They must've realized and regretted that their bigotry, fear, and anger had exposed them."

Yeah, it was an emotional mistake, on they must've realized after the fact, which honestly surprised me given how careful the cabal had been in the past. But then, no one had ever empowered witches before we came along, perhaps they'd been truly terrified by that and had truly expected the other barons to feel the same way. It was also impossible for me to relate to that kind of blind and irrational anger and bigotry. Still, fear made people believe and do stupid shit all the time, even if they weren't realistic fears.

Lysa nodded, "No doubt, right after working that evil anger out on one of their rape victims. Mara, what does your queen plan to do to them? I have a few suggestions."

Mara laughed, "I bet you do. Don't worry though, they will regret it, and pay back what they owe for their trespass, before they finally die."

We kept heading west through the city, until we arrived at the gate.

Mara said, "They took a carriage from here, and horses. The women and four of the men in the carriage, and presumably the guards on horse."

"Will you have trouble tracking the scents in a carriage?" Lynn asked curiously.

Mara shook her head, "I'll track their horses."

"We can buy three more horses quick."

My six mates and I had horses already from the silver mine mission, stabled there at the gate, but we hadn't yet bought horses for Lynn and Jade. There'd been no need, and it didn't make sense to pay the extra stable fee until we needed to.

Mara shook her head, "Two horses. I need to stay on the ground to follow the scents, I will have no trouble keeping up with your animals."

I grinned, "I didn't expect you would."

It wouldn't take long, there were several stables just inside and outside of the city gates, all with spare horses for sale, and we got to it. The ex-nobles had a twelve-hour lead on us, but I had no doubt we'd catch up at their destination. There wasn't a place on in Cyrene they couldn't have reached in twelve hours. It also seemed like overkill a little bit. We'd faced sorcerers, ancient witch covens, and other deadly threats. We were quite a powerful group, had never been stronger, and I suspected Mara could easily handle it on her own. Yet, I wanted to see it finished, and it would never do to underestimate a foe.

I had six mates, five of them pregnant, with two more I'd be adding to the list soon. We had a tentative peace and even the gratitude of the other witches in the city. We also had a wary peace with the sorcerers. Not to mention our friendship and alliance with the kiss, the royal family, and even a few of the other nobles.

Life was good, the future looked bright for both us and our children, and I hoped that at least for a while, the emergencies and dangers would cool once the cabal had been taken down. Life would never be perfect, and we'd always face prejudice, but perhaps even that would cool once the rumor machine had been taken down.

There'd always be obstacles in life, problems, but I strongly felt taking down the cabal would start a new chapter in our lives. We'd worked hard to get where we were at that point, it was time we started to enjoy it.

We just needed to finish it.

The good news was that they'd only gone ten miles to the city, and there was still a couple of hours of sunlight ahead of us. The bad news was they were far from the main east-west road, and they'd somehow built a highly fortified keep in the secluded area without anyone noticing. The worst news was that there were a lot more than forty guards, it seemed they'd built their own little army with all that illicit silver.

There were at least sixty men on the walls, which made me guess there was at least three times that amount in total, plus the forty more they'd taken with them. So, we faced about two hundred soldiers, in a highly fortified position. The only real good news was that we were fairly sure they didn't have any magic at all. Nope, just steel, arrows, and crossbow bolts, which was bad enough at twenty-two to one odds.

We were maybe a half mile away in a copse of trees, so we wouldn't be seen, but there wasn't much cover between there and the walls to the keep. They'd see us coming from a long way away. Cassia, Irze, Jade, and Lynn could cloak themselves, but that wouldn't help the rest of us, and it was only three guards on the other end last time.

"Ideas?"

Mara said, "I could shift, and take care of it with my acidic and poisonous breath weapon, but I might kill the ex-barons on accident if I did."

I nodded, that wasn't scary or anything.

"Can you keep arrows and bolts off of us?" I asked my sorceresses.

Siora and Tammy exchanged glances, and then Siora said, "It would be risky. The best we can do is deflect with wind, and that won't be as effective against the crossbow bolts. There's also a chance if one of them had bad aim we'd actually deflect the arrow onto a deadly course. We could form a solid shield instead, but that would block us from attacking them as well."

I nodded. I could hit them with shadow fire, Siora and Tammy could create whirlwinds of fire or even air blades. My three witches could end one of their lives every second or two. Killing them would be easy, the trick was to defend ourselves from a storm of arrows at the same time. One on one and up close it was easy, crossing a well defended killing ground wasn't. Not when the defenders would be close to two hundred once we were seen and the alarm was given.

I cleared my throat, and said playfully to Mara, "If only we had something big to hide behind, cover that could move with us."

Mara rolled her eyes, "Fine. I'll be your mobile shield wall."

I grinned, "Good, I've been dying to see your true form."

Mara added, "I can also knock down the wall when we get close enough, with my tail. You'll still have to be careful though, when you peek out to take a shot."

I nodded, "Battle is dangerous, we can only make it as safe as we can. Is it safe for you? I've heard dragon scales are harder than bolts and arrows, but I've never actually seen it."

Mara said, "For the most part, our eyes and snout are vulnerable points, but I can compensate for that with magic and watching where I look."

"Alright, let's get this done. We'll circle around to the western wall in the open, might as well invite them all to the party. Once the sun is at our back, and in their eyes, Mara will shift, and we'll move in. Siora, Tammy, Cassia, Lynn, and I will clear the walls with magic, Lysa and Faith will use bows. Jade and Irze will stick to protection and healing."

Jade gave me a grateful look, she was the less violent sister by far, gentle in bearing, though I knew she'd do what she had to in order to protect our group, if it came down to it.

"Once the walls are secure and the guards down, we'll pick up the ex-barons."

Then we'd probably see Mara off, and spend the night there and head back to the city in the morning. Or... Siora would create a portal again, to a quarter mile outside the city. I think I liked that second choice better, I doubted they had a bed that would fit seven inside the place.

A man had to have his priorities.

"Any other ideas or suggestions, or does that work for everyone?"

They all shook their heads, and we left the grove of trees boldly. We were far out of range of their weapons, as we worked our way around the keep walls. As I'd predicted, they sounded an alarm, and the walls got a lot more crowded. There was definitely danger in that, if we stuck our heads out from behind green scales in the wrong moment, but then given our power it wouldn't take us long at all to clear the walls.

"Don't stick your arm or head out in the same place twice, try to be random."

Cassia smirked, "Yes, dad."

I spanked her.

Cassia grinned, and said in breathy demand, "Harder next time."

I laughed, "I love you."

She winked, "Love you, too."

Siora said cutely, "I've been a bad girl too."

I snorted, and I spanked her too. It wasn't even really about sex or our wild sex lives, we were just blowing off nerves in that moment. It also fit, Siora loved getting spanked, more than the others, Cassia liked it harder but only during sex or the rare playful swat. Siora on the other hand, liked spankings even when we weren't fucking at the time. My kinky elf literally got off on the sting and vibrations.

I got my head back where it belonged, although the jealous heated look that Jade had on her face gave me half a chubby. Apparently, good girls wanted to be spanked too.

I smirked her way, and she gave me the loveliest blush, even as she boldly stared back at me with her light brown eyes. Her and Lynn really were filling out already, the concave look on their faces was mostly gone, and they were even more attractive than I'd suspected they'd be.

Once we were in position, Mara walked away from us toward the wall. Ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet, and I raised an eyebrow when she just kept walking. She was a good two hundred feet away when she finally stopped.

Then her body shimmered, and grew, grew, and grew some more as she went to all fours. She was huge, at least two hundred feet long, including her head and her long scaled and sinuous tail. Her scales were a bright shimmering green, but luckily not enough not to be blinding as they reflected the sun back to us. Her wings were scaled too, very small scales that glittered green.

She was both majestically awe inspiring and intimidating, and I'd never forget that moment in my life. She roared, and I felt the sound rumble through my body, and my heart started to pound. She turned her head and her scaled sinewy neck to look back at us. Her bright blue-green eyes glimmered and whirled.

Lysa said, "Holy shit."

I grinned, "You're beautiful, and mildly terrifying."

She snorted, and even from a couple of hundred feet away I felt a small blast of air from her nostrils.

"Okay, forget the mildly part."

We moved toward the dragon, which seemed mildly insane, at least to my fight or flight instincts in the presence of such a formidable predator, but in my mind, I knew she was our cover and our ally in at least this fight.

She spread her wings, and wiggled them pointedly, and I realized that the wings would make the best place to stand behind, she was far too bulky and tall to effectively hide behind her body and still fight. She started forward with booming steps as we got into place, and we were fairly safe under the canopy of her slightly tilted wings, the back higher than the front giving us perfect cover from arrows and bolts, as long as we stayed there.

It was a bit insane, but we needed the advantage, we were facing worse than twenty to one odds.

Chapter Thirteen

The rain of arrows and bolts started as soon as got within range. The absurdity of taking cover under a dragon wing while sieging the wall of a fortified keep almost made me laugh, if my ladies weren't in danger in that moment, I would've.

The arrows were falling randomly, and constantly, we were under a major barrage and there were no blank spots in the fire, they weren't all firing at once.

Needless to say, I was very fast, as I showed just my eyes and the top of my head to the enemy, then my hand as I raked the top of the wall with a tight stream of fire, then I ducked back down. The sounds of enemy screams reached my ears as their flesh was consumed.

The others weren't idle, my two witches took down a couple with death spells, while my vampire and shifter sent back arrows of their own. My sorceresses however were the siege engines of the magical races. Of course, dragons were the weapons of mass destruction of the magical races, it was still shocking to think she couldn't use her breath weapon without laying waste to the whole area.

Siora raised a flaming and burning tornado of wicked air, and she sent it toward the wall before ducking back beneath the wing. Similar to what she'd made earlier that day, but her intent wasn't merely to intimidate that time, and screams rose up on the walls as the guards were sucked into the twister, set on fire, and burned alive as they were tossed hundreds of feet in random directions by the heavy winds.

Not to be outdone, my sumptuously curvaceous Tammy also used fire and air, but she created a stream instead of a tornado. It looked like a twisting rope of flame, that struck out and ripped bodies in two as it strafed the wall in another place, where her deadly magic hit the wall it also caused the stone to explode.

Between the seven of us, we'd taken out almost a quarter of the forces arrayed against us, in one sweep. We were still about fifty yards from the wall at that point, and I stuck my head out for another strafing attack of shadowy hellfire along another spot on the wall. Several of the soldiers ducked behind the ramparts, but I got a good ten of the bastards.

I ducked back down, when an arrow parted my hair. According to my witch magic, I hadn't been cut, but it'd been damned close.

Cassia and Lynn took down another soldier. My sexy Siora sent another tornado, at the same section of wall I'd attacked, which sucked up and burned all the ones that had hidden from my strafing attack behind the ramparts. Not to be outdone again, my tammy sent a similar attack to the last one but aimed at the top of the rampart wall instead of above it. Her rope of fire ripped through two feet of stone, and it tore apart and immolated the soldiers that had taken cover behind it.

Honestly, I should've just sent in the sorceresses and called it a day. My shadow fire was just as deadly, but easily stopped by non-organic matter, like walls. Witches were powerful, but not truly suited for large-scale battle, at least not off their home ground and preparations.

Mara roared.

I frowned, "They're half dead. Tammy, call for a surrender would you, with style."

She looked startled for a moment, and then giggled as her mind filled in my plan.

Tammy built another one of those twenty-five-foot-tall fire monsters, in the vague shape of a man with white-blue hot eyes, and it's voice boomed out, "Surrender, throw down your weapons, and flee the keep, if you wish to live, puny mortals."

"Puny mortals?" I laughed.

My heart pounded, and the closer we got the better chance one of them would have at actually hitting one of us as we stuck our heads out for a second. I really hoped they'd take the option to surrender. My ladies were bad-asses, but as my love for them grew, so did hating having to put them in any danger at all. Fuck, five of them were pregnant, I really hoped Mara's queen's punishment would be worth it.

The arrow storm continued unabated, if at half of its numbers, which was still over ten to one odds. Well, I'd tried, they'd all die.

I poked my head out again, and I sent out another tight stream of strafing shadow fire, taking out at least ten of them. By the time my four ladies sent another attack, they'd taken out another forty between them, most of those by Siora and Tammy, which left just a quarter of them left, about fifty. They were also spread out a lot more, so the mass deaths were pretty much over with.

The next time I risked my neck, I shot out a staccato burst of three hellfire balls that each struck a target in the same general area. Strafing was a waste of magic with them so far apart. My ladies went again too, and I heard a scream.

My head snapped over, and then I growled deeply in anger at the nasty wound on Lynn's face. Her entire cheek was sliced open, and she was bleeding profusely. Both my willowy Irze and tightly curvy Jade acted quickly though, and both cast healing spells. One as a witch, and the other as a cleric wielding the power of the gods.

Lynn's face closed up, and I let out a deep sigh of relief. It was why it was so dangerous, we were only sticking our heads out to see, to aim our magic, so it made death likely if we were hit. She'd gotten lucky she'd just been grazed. Although, her witch shields might've made her skin tougher, so it deflected the arrow, still, I was pissed.

We were close to the wall however, just fifty feet or so, and Mara quickly moved her body to the side, blocking us all with her bulk, as her tail whipped out.

Boom!

The crack of stone was incredibly loud, as her tail absolutely destroyed thirty feet of the wall. It was one thing to know their scales were harder than stone, it was another to see the results of that fact, as the soldiers on that part of the wall were crushed and killed as it came tumbling down.

There were about fifteen soldiers left, and they threw their weapons down and raised their hands.

I was so tempted to burn them all in that moment, but I pushed it down.

"Get off the wall, come through the broken wall, and run for the city. Do anything else, I will cut your sorry asses down."

We waited then, under cover, as the remaining living guards quit the walls, and ran for it. We waited just a bit longer, to make sure they were out of sight, before we acted.

Mara said, "The area is clear, at least on the outside, though I can't say how many soldiers are in the keep itself."

"I think you should take to the skies, in case they have another escape tunnel built, you can monitor the whole area. We'll go inside, and bring out the four ex-barons for you, assuming they're still in there."

Mara nodded, "That's a good plan, it would irk me if they once again escaped through trickery and cowardice."

I was almost blown onto my ass, as she leapt into the air and her wings beat hard once as she launched into the sky. Several of my mates had to backpedal quickly to avoid going down on their asses.

Her scales winked and shimmered in the late evening sun. It wouldn't be long before nightfall.

"Be careful, cornered rats are dangerous, and these assholes have hostages."

Irze cleared her throat pointedly, but her voice was almost apologetic, "It would be wise for you to leave this part up to me, Cassia, Jade, and Lynn."

I blew out a breath, I really hated that idea, but she wasn't wrong. They'd be safer without the rest of us.

"Fine, the four of you cloak and handle it. But scout first, if there's too many for you to handle come back to get the rest of us."

Irze nodded, "I'm confident I can handle a few guards, while they use magic to knock the four ex-barons out, but I promise if there's too many we'll come get you."

The four of them cloaked, and then left for the keep. It just made sense, and lessened the danger for all of us, Siora was proof a surprise attack when entering a room with a crossbow could be deadly. Better if they didn't even see us coming.

Tammy cleared her throat, and asked playfully, "So, which of us should distract our lord and master so he doesn't fret?"

Lysa snickered, but both Siora and Faith looked ready to volunteer to drop to their knees.

I snorted, "You've been spending too much time with Cassia."

Tammy giggled, but she didn't deny it.

I also couldn't get the idea out of my head, once she'd mentioned it.

Faith snickered, "It was your idea."

To my surprise, Tammy seemed to take that as a dare.

Tammy walked over to me with an extra swish in her step, and kissed me softly, lingeringly, but with the heated promise of untold pleasures, "Do you want your princess on her knees, worshipping at the altar of your cock."

Fuck, she must've been getting dirty talk advice, along with all the other advice too. I couldn't help but notice that since I'd taken her home, all her techniques in bed were improving by great leaps and bounds.

Faith encouraged, "Go ahead, Siora, Lysa, and I can keep a lookout."