The Tournament (6 page)

The mage's lips parted. She dropped her knitting.

"I'm coming," said Ruby, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back. She drew out the climax, teasing herself to a second and third peak, to give the mage as much fluid as possible.
 

The mage snatched up the jar before Ruby could drop it.
 

"Look," said the mage. "See what you've done."
 

Ruby looked. The fluid inside the jar had deepened to a rosy pink, the color of her labia.
 

The mage handed her a clean cloth. "Wipe yourself. I'll keep the rag, too. All arousal can make powerful magic, but the arousal of a recently bedded aspirant is the most powerful of all. You've truly done me a service today."
 

"I didn't realize that." Ruby cleaned herself, then returned the cloth to the mage. "Would you like me to lick your pussy before I go?"
 

"Not today. If I don't get to work quickly, the magic in this rag will spoil." The mage opened the thick, iron-bound door. "The jar I'll save for something important, but this?" She dangled the soiled rag. "I can have fun with it."

"I'm glad," said Ruby.

"You be careful," said the mage. "And may you win many beads."
 

Ruby waited for the massive door to shut before she turned and started back down the corridor. She'd return to the staircase and keep exploring. Maybe she could find something to eat. Amazing, that she could think about eating inside the Mage Hall. The doctor had been right. She didn't have to be scared.
 

It took her a while—too long—to realize that she should have arrived at the staircase, and hadn't. That no corridor, even in the Mage Hall, could go on and on forever, as this one seemed to be doing.
 

How long had she been walking for?
 

She thought about turning around and retracing her steps, but she'd lived in Morrow all her life. This was magic, and she'd stay trapped until the mage who'd caught her decided to let her go.
 

Ruby sat down on the bare flagstone floor to wait.
 

The corridor melted away and she found herself sitting in a spring meadow opposite a young man of surpassing beauty. He had broad shoulders and slim hips, the elegant musculature of a swimmer, and skin the color of dried blood.
 

"Do you know why the King sends you to the Mage Hall?" asked the young man.

"No," answered Ruby.

"Because he has no choice," he answered. "The mages have power, so they get what they want."

Ruby nodded. She believed him. The Third Trial was not like the others.

"The mages harvest you, like a farmer milks his cows."
 

"I am glad to be of use," said Ruby. "Why should I be proud?"
 

"You could be of use to me," said the young man. "I need you very badly."
 

"Take what you need," said Ruby. "Use me as you wish."

"I will," said the young man. He was calm, even cool. "Get on your hands and knees."
 

He mounted her when she obeyed, and his cock was…not right. It was hard as metal and rough as gravel. She'd have wondered if it was a cock at all, if it weren't for the perfect fit of his hips against her ass, the smooth skin of his chest on her back as he covered her. He had a man's shape, and a creature's cock.

"You're hurting me," said Ruby.
 

The young man snarled and pumped in and out of her, each thrust a wound. Blood trickled down her thighs to soak the spring grass.

"You'll kill me," said Ruby.

The young man smacked her cunt with his dried-blood hand. Magic flared and Ruby came instantly. The orgasm was so sudden and fierce it smothered the pain of the young man's penetration, even as he grabbed hold of her hips and slammed into her.
 

His cum burned like acid and mingled with her blood.

Ruby did not turn to look when he withdrew. She didn't want to see the weapon he had battered her with. She did not want it to be the last thing she remembered. She lay down in the grass, silky against her cheek, and bled.
 

"Leave me here," said Ruby. "Let me die in peace."

"Why would I move you?" asked the young man. "Your blood is for the grass. It will fertilize my seed."
 

Ruby shut her eyes and began to drift. She felt peaceful now, sleepy, and that was good.

She woke in the doctor's tent.
 

He was not alone. Another man stood with him, identical in bearing, but taller and more muscular. A soldier, Ruby thought.

"I failed the Trial," Ruby said, panicked. "I didn't complete it. I failed."
 

"No, Ruby." The doctor knelt in front of her. The stranger followed behind and stood at the doctor's back. "You were injured, and needed care. You passed the Trial. Of course you passed."
 

The doctor and the stranger exchanged a look.

"The King has come to visit you," said the doctor. "Will you greet him?"
 

"The King?" Ruby repeated.
 

The doctor slipped away. The stranger took hold of a stool, then sat where the doctor had knelt. He looked comfortable, at ease. Ruby wondered how many times he'd sat down at a soldier's deathbed during the war, perfecting his bedside manner, and shuddered.

"I'm sorry to meet you under such terrible circumstances," said the King. "But I wanted to apologize in person. All aspirants come under my protection the moment they enter the Tents. It is my responsibility to keep you safe, and I failed. If there is anything it is in my power to give you, any restitution I can offer—"

"My cunt," wailed Ruby, remembering the young man. Tears flooded her eyes and spilled onto her cheeks. "My cunt is ruined."
 

What could the King give her? She'd die without her cunt.
 

"Is this a show?" asked the King, pitching his voice low.
 

"You know what I think," said the doctor, close by. "I won't tell you again."
 

"You should explain," said the King.
 

"Go wait by the door," said the doctor impatiently. He took her hand in his own strong and capable one and gentled his tone. "Ruby, listen to me. Nothing is ruined. You will make a full recovery."

Ruby tried to reach between her legs. "I don't believe you," she said. The handsome young man had ripped her apart.
 

"Not yet." The doctor grabbed her wrist. "You nearly died. It took all of my skill and all of my magic to make you whole again. Give your body time to heal."

Her tears slowed. "Do you swear? That I am whole, and I will recover?"

"I swear it," said the doctor.

Ruby sighed back into the bed.

"Should I call one of the other mages?" asked the King. "Pia has offered to help."
 

"She's fine. Heavily sedated, that's all," said the doctor, his robe rustling as he stood. "What will happen to Zov?"
 

"Nothing," said the King. "He didn't break the treaty. He's allowed to take what is given freely."
 

"And how was she to know that he didn't belong in the Mage Hall?"
 

"Some people will do anything for a crown," said the King. "Or even a bead."

"He took her by trickery," insisted the doctor. "He abused our most sacred tradition. And if he can get away with it once…."
 

"What do you suggest I do?" demanded the King. "Make a list of demands? You know I can't."
 

"If you don't lay hands on her before this Tournament is over," said the doctor, his voice low and angry, "I will leave Morrow, and sell my skills to the highest bidder."
 

"Should your threat make me eager?" replied the King. "Already for this woman you have betrayed my trust and squandered your magic. Now you jeopardize your position at court. She sounds like a poison, not a prize."
 

"The cures to many diseases begin as poisons," said the doctor. "And vice versa."
 

"Peace, brother," said the King. "I can take her off your hands, if that's what you want."

"I'm thinking of you," said the doctor. "And of Morrow."
 

"And I am thinking of my cock, and how much she will love it," said the King. "She'll never want yours again."
 

The rustling of the tent flap marked the King's exit.
 

"Doctor?"
 

He returned to her side. "I didn't think you were awake."
 

"I will never deny you."

"I know," he said, stroking her hair. "I know."
 

The doctor put Ruby in a palanquin. The bearers carried her to her tent, and Lily helped her settle into her bed.
 

"I saw the doctor carry you into his tent," said Lily, after she tucked Ruby in. "You were white as milk and covered in blood."
 

"Don't tell me," said Ruby, shivering.

"I thought you were dead."
 

"I did too," said Ruby. "I don't remember being saved."
 

"Would you like me to find out what happened? The other aspirants at the Mage Hall must have seen something."
 

Ruby nodded. "I would."
 

Later that day, the Steward visited her tent to give her a bead of milky green jade, which Ruby strung on her bracelet. Three beads, now: amethyst, pearl, jade. She could leave with her head held high. Years from now, she might have grandchildren who would look at her three beads with awe, and wonder how she'd done it.
 

But she wouldn't leave until she'd recovered. She needed a doctor to get well, and a handmaiden to get her through the days. Lily changed Ruby's sheets, helped her to and from the toilet, brought her meals, and sang her to sleep.
 

She brought gossip, too.

"Other aspirants who undertook the Third Trial were bled," said Lily one afternoon. "One girl lost so much blood she fainted. But the doctor was busy with you, and then he was too weak to treat anyone."

"Isn't it odd," said Ruby, remembering what the beautiful young man had told her, "that there have always been more Tournaments in Morrow than there are princes to marry?"
 

"If the King can afford to hold a Tournament, he can afford to wait until the right woman enters it," said Lily. "Besides, the Tournament binds us together. We've all spent time in the tents."
 

"But why are the fluids in my body more magical than yours?" Ruby asked.
 

"I don't know," said Lily.

The doctor visited her every day. He supervised her first steps, then assigned Lily to take Ruby on short walks around the Pavilion.
 

She hobbled along, feeble and diminished, trying not to worry when she saw women lounging by the pool wearing four, five, even six beads on their bracelets.
 

While Ruby struggled to swim, and then to run, the Tournament continued. The women who'd entered with her either left, or left her behind.
 

One girl even wore a cut diamond on her bracelet, a sign that she had tasted the King's cock. The other aspirants stared at her as though she already wore the crown. She was lovely, with olive skin and plump breasts that begged to be fondled.
 

"Show me my cunt," Ruby begged the doctor. "I have to see it."
 

The doctor spread her legs and held a mirror for her. Ruby looked and looked, but it wasn't enough.

"Go ahead and touch," said the doctor. "I will supervise."

She parted the folds of her pussy. She felt slick, warm, elastic—and just as sensitive as ever. Ruby held her breath as she penetrated herself with two fingers, but she found her cunt hot and ready. Exactly as it ought to be.
 

"Make yourself come," said the doctor. "How does it feel?"
 

Ruby spread her legs wider so that he could watch. She couldn't remember the last time she'd gone for so long without giving herself pleasure, without the stimulation of a man's touch. The sensations rose up eagerly, like a dam waiting to burst.

"Are you close?" the doctor asked, pulling his robe up over his head. His cock was hard, already beading with moisture.

"Mmm," moaned Ruby.

He penetrated her as she came. His eyelids fluttered shut as her inner muscles rippled around his hard length, his pale, sculpted lips parting. Such pleasure on his handsome, ascetic face.
 

Ruby wrapped her arms and legs around him, so that he would feel her tremble. "Oh, yes," she murmured. "I love the way you fill me up. I love your cock."
 

He set a steady, slow rhythm.

"You don't have to go slow," she said.
 

"But I want to," he replied, driving deep.
 

Ruby tried to force him to pick up the pace by thrusting up at his cock, but he stilled her hips with a firm hand.

"No," he said, inching into her. "I want it this way."
 

Ruby began to whimper and squirm. She felt irritable, and finally she—who never lashed out at a man with a fine cock—raked her nails across the doctor's back.

He laughed. "You're close, aren't you?"
 

The phantom lips closed around Ruby's clit, and she came in seconds. The doctor finally began to move freely, shuddering as he spent, his hips jerking.
 

Afterwards, he lay by her side and cuddled her close.
 

"Are you really the King's brother?" Ruby asked.
 

"Yes."

"Are you really a
doctor
?"
 

The doctor chuckled. "I am."
 

"Surely you don't have to work."