After a month of following Niles, I was hours from apprehending him. A month of almost trails and dead ends. And now he had just laid his path bare to me. I didn't like it. I could feel him up ahead. Waiting for me. I went to meet him. Finally. A month was a long time to tail someone. I was ready for it to end. For someone else, maybe the trail wouldn't have been so clear. But for me, there were signposts everywhere. They were moving slowly, the women really slowing the war horse down. I came to a halt when I knew that must have stopped up ahead. The pace of the women were getting slower and slower. It didn't look like Niles was going to leave the women and they couldn't have walked much further. I left the road and crept through the woods, keeping the road to my left. A mile later I heard the whinny of a horse. The clomping of steel boots as the horse moved from one spot to another. Grazing.

Gotcha. I carefully took off my pack. I didn't want to be hampered when it came to a fight. He wasn't going to come willingly. And I didn't fancy keeping watch over a mage all the way back to Rhineville. Or worse yet, all the way to Trepple, the capital. This bounty would be coming back dead, not alive. I brought out my crossbow and loaded a bolt. Keeping it at the ready, I crept forward through the woods, getting closer and closer to my quarry. I heard them clearer. The crackle of a fire. The horse moving around. And Niles' voice. The first time I had heard it. But the edge to his tone was a clear match to his picture. Hard and uncompromising.

"Is the food almost ready, wench?" I peered around a tree. The horse off to the left as expected. Well groomed and trained to fight. It stood large, at least eighteen hands. It alone was worth a small fortune. Almost directly in front of me was a fire where a woman was bent over and cooking some food in a pan. She was naked, her round buttocks aimed right at me. I was momentarily distracted by the hint of her pussy lips that winked at me as her legs shifted. She was taut and slim. I forced my gaze away, searching for Niles. I found him not far from the fire, sitting on a log. Between his legs, kneeling on the ground was the second woman - this one fully clothed. She was aggressively servicing him. I heard the sounds of her pushing herself onto him. The gluck, gluck of cock head hitting and entering throat. There was something very familiar to her slight frame and dark, brown hair. The war horse knickered. I looked away from the small woman giving her all to servicing Niles to see the horse looking straight at me. When I turned back, I found Niles' eyes staring into mine.

"Mikal, is it?" he asked loudly. The woman at the fire didn't react, but the woman whose face was in his lap startled and tried to raise herself off his cock. He quickly grabbed the back of her head and pushed himself deeply into her mouth. "I didn't say stop," he growled at her. He looked back at me. I could fire my bolt into his face. "Before you kill me," he said, clearly reading my thoughts. "I have set up some fail safes."

"Oh, really?" I asked as I stepped forward, never wavering from aiming my bolt at him.

"Please," he said. "Have a seat. Want some dinner?" He gestured towards the naked woman cooking at the fire. The woman who still hadn't turned around at the sound of my voice. With his other hand he pressed firmly onto the head of the woman between his legs. She moaned and gurgled around the cock stuffed into her mouth. Her head was pressed into his body.

"What's your fail safe?" I asked, ignoring his question about dinner.

"Wench," he called out. "Turn around." The naked woman turned from the food. It was the serving wench from the Boar's Head.

"Eilen?" I said in astonishment. "What are you doing here?"

"I am your lesson," she said. She reached down with her left hand and picked up a silver blade. It looked like the same one she had tried to stab me with a few days before. Her right hand was swollen and bandaged. It didn't look like anyone had tried to fix it. I could sense the poison radiating from her hand and creeping up her arm. Apart from her hand and forearm which had started to swell as well, she was a beautiful young woman. Her breasts defied gravity with the flush of youth and her curves were all woman.

"Ah, ah," Niles cried out, holding onto the head in his lap with both hands and obviously coming down the woman's throat.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned in time to see Eilen slash her own throat with her blade. Blood gushed from her wound as she collapsed backwards into the fire.

"No," I cried in astonishment. I rushed toward her, my crossbow forgotten in my hands. I pulled her out of the fire, but she was already dead - her blood everywhere.

"Mikal," Niles said. "Listen to me."

"What!" I snarled at him, looking up from Eilen's body.

He pushed the woman away from and stood up. His cock was starting to deflate as he pulled his pants up. The woman at his feet fell over, coughing and wheezing from having her breath cut off for so long. Tears were streaming down her face. I stared at her in confusion.

"Mikal are you listening to me?" Niles asked. There was humor in his voice. And something else. Cruelty. Watching me see who was on the ground at his feet got him off more than fucking her face had.

"My dear," he said, leaning down to the woman. "Go to Mikal. Are you not happy to see him?"

"Oh, yes Master," she said, trying to get her breath back. "Thank you master. I am very happy to see him. What a wonderful surprise." She got up and walked over to me. She smiled broadly at me, finally starting to get her breath back. "Mikal, how did you know how to find us? Did Master tell you? Isn't he wonderful?"

"Cynthia?" I whispered. I dropped the crossbow to gather her into my arms. I looked over her to Niles. "How..." I didn't even know how to finish the question. Or even what the question was.

"It was fun," Niles told me. "to have you following me around like the dog you are. But your woman's body and mind are completely broken. I wanted to see your reaction when you first saw her. You did get here a little faster than I expected." He said. "I was hoping you would arrive as I fucked her ass. I have been told that she never let you do that." He shook his head in mock sadness. "A shame really. The first few times were deliciously tight. You would have loved it."

"I will kill you."

"When I die," Niles sneered at me, "the slut will kill herself. Happily. Just like that wench over there." He looked over at me with a smile that was completely devoid of goodwill. The picture I had of him, didn't do the evil in him justice. This man was vicious and cruel beyond anything I had ever met. "You are weak," he told me. "You will do nothing little dog. Or your bitch will kill herself." He snapped his fingers and Cynthia pushed herself away from me. "Isn't that right bitch?" he asked her when she looked over at him.

"Oh, yes master," she assured him. "I would love to kill myself for you. Thank you."

"When you go back home with your tail between your legs," he told me. "Just remember that I can kill your little bitch anytime and anywhere I want." He whistled and his horse trotted over to him. How did I not pay attention to the fact that horse was still saddled. And the saddle bags were completely full. He had been waiting for me. And now, after destroying me without even touching me, he was leaving. He jumped on the saddle.

"Master?" Cynthia said, stepping towards him. "Are we leaving now?"

"Not you," Niles said. "You stay with Mikal."

"Yes Master."

"Why?" I asked him.

"Because I can," he looked down at me. "It was fun for a while. But then it got boring." He shrugged. "All fun games eventually end." He turned the horse around and started to ride away. He snapped his fingers one last time without looking back.

"I will make this right," I vowed to Cynthia as I watched him ride away. There was a sudden pain in my heart. A cold heat that radiated outwards into limbs. It took me a few seconds to realize it wasn't my hatred for Niles. I looked down at Cynthia. She was watching me clinically.

"What," I said. I grabbed at the slim blade embedded in my chest. It was a perfect match to Eilen's silver blade. "I," I said. Blood gurgled out of my mouth, stopping the words. I didn't know what to say anyway. I fell to my knees. Cynthia smiled down at me. I fell onto my back. I lost the ability to move. The pain was getting worse and worse. The heat from the silver was unbearable. I tried to pull the blade out, but my fingers and hands didn't work. I tried to plead with her, but no sound came out. I closed my eyes, so I didn't have to see the detached interest in Cynthia's as she watched me die.

"Are you dead?" Cynthia asked from far away. I felt her nudge me. As I blacked out completely, I felt her pull the blade out of my body.

*****

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