There are only three of us! We simply can't do it!"

"We can, and we must," he said firmly. "And we have help of a kind which no one will suspect."

My voice was getting higher pitched with each sentence. Pretty soon I'd be screeching like a drakna.

"The animals?" I squeaked. "But they can't wield swords or storm the gates! What can they possibly do?"

"They can get inside and gather information, and, perhaps, let us in," Leo said quietly. "I believe sending the squirrel in first would be best."

"Or the bird," Rafe said with an approving nod.

"And they're going to unbolt the gates?" I exclaimed in disbelief. "Come on, Rafe! Gerald is pretty clever, but he probably doesn't weigh enough to push open the door to my cottage! How's he going to pull back a bolt?"

"He wouldn't be capable of that, of course," Rafe conceded, "but he can tell us what to expect when we do get in-perhaps even sabotage something for us."

"Like what?" I demanded. "Wedge the door open with a pebble?"

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warrior 219.

"Perhaps," Leo said, considering this carefully. "We must wait to see what he discovers."

"If someone doesn't kill him first," I grumbled. "The dogs might get him, you know."

"My dog hasn't hurt him yet," Rafe pointed out, "so I'm sure he'll be okay."

"Max hasn't hurt Gerald because I asked him not to,"

I explained as patiently as I could. "And even if I were able to talk to the dogs inside the keep, there's no guarantee that they would be as cooperative. We're strangers, after all, and they have no reason to trust us."

Rafe stared at me as though he didn't trust me, now, either. "You said you would help me," he said evenly.

"And I have paid you with my slave. Don't tell me you're going to back out on me now!"

"I'd sure like to," I declared. "But I said I would help you, and I will. I just don't want anyone else getting killed-I mean, there's got to be a way to do this without any more bloodshed! And besides, while you and Leo might be great fighters, there's a limit to what two men can do against an entire army."

"True," Rafe agreed, "but given what's already happened, if we sent word that we wanted to negotiate, these people would probably kill the messenger."

"I know," I groaned, "it's just that-no, wait!

Craynolt could carry a message, couldn't he? We could bluff our way in!"

"How?" Rafe wanted to know.

"Well," I said, stalling for time while I cast about for ideas. "We could...you know...tell them we brought our own army. Those three men they sent after us didn't come back. They may not know how many of us there are."

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Cheryl Brooks "That is true," Leo agreed. "We may still have that advantage."

"We may think we do," Rafe pointed out. "But they may have known exactly how many of us there were before they planned their attack-after all, we were three against three."

I had to admit he had a good point. "But it still wouldn't hurt to ask," I insisted. "I mean, they already know we're following them, so we wouldn't be giving anything away by asking them to be reasonable and at least parley with us."

"We could tell them we have a witch who will destroy their stronghold with a mere glance from her beautiful, smoldering eyes," Leo suggested, with an amused glimmer in his own.

"Aw, Leo, that's awfully sweet of you, but I'm sure they have their own witch, and-who knows?-she might be able to knock us flat just by blowing at us."

"Wish you witches kept better tabs on one another,"

Rafe said ruefully. "There ought to be a registry of some kind, so you all know where you live and what you can do."

"Well, I've always thought it would be useful,"

I agreed, "but, unfortunately, no one ever asked my opinion. We aren't that well organized-too much distance between us, I guess." I thought for a moment.

"I still think sending in a message would be the best plan. They wouldn't do anything to Craynolt if he just dropped it on a table or something."

"Yes, but what guarantee do we have that anyone will read it?" Rafe asked. "Or that they even can read it for *220 *41*.

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that matter! Some ignorant peasant might pick it up and use it to start a fire."

"Then Gerald must go in first," Leo stated firmly, "discover which is the man who ordered the boys to be taken, and then the otterell will take him a message."

We stood there for a long moment eyeing each other questioningly. Obviously no one thought it was a bad idea-though we hadn't, as yet, approached Gerald and Craynolt with the plan. "Okay, then," I said brightly, "we'll give it a shot. Anybody got a pen?" If their blank expressions were any indication, neither of them did.

"No? Ink, then? Paper, perhaps?"

"You have those purple feathers," Rafe reminded me.

"We could use one of them to write with."

I shot him a scathing glance. "And write in what, blood?"

"That would be effective in gaining their attention,"

Leo said equably, "but I do not believe we have any to spare."

"No kidding," I agreed. "Okay, then, I guess we can use water mixed with ashes or something like that. And we can use a piece of fabric to write on."

The guys both thought this was a great idea. So, in the end, we used my feather, the lining of my cloak, (Rafe's and Leo's were both lined with black cloth) and charcoal from a fire that I'd started. "You guys would be lost without me, wouldn't you?" I grumbled. "See, Rafe, I told you those feathers would be valuable."

"Well, if you're going to gloat..." Rafe began testily.

"I'm not gloating," I argued. "I'll do that if this works."

It took forever, a circumstance to which anyone who has ever tried to write legibly on a piece of cloth with *221 *41*.

222.

Cheryl Brooks a quill pen will attest. Meanwhile, since the keep was still a good distance away, we decided that Craynolt would have to fly in with Gerald riding on his back. It took some doing to convince Gerald to get that close to what was clearly a predator, but his innate cockiness and sense of adventure won out. He thought flying was great fun when we had them take a short test flight to see how well Craynolt could carry him, but I think Craynolt would rather have eaten Gerald than given him a ride.

As usual, the otterell was philosophical about it.

"This need is but one of many," he said gravely.

So, having established that they could fly together, I coordinated a plan for the two of them, gave Gerald a hug for luck, let them both have a share of my stew, and sent them on their way.

I'd have given a lot to see the expressions on the faces of anyone who happened to see them come swooping in, but had to console myself with waiting for Gerald's report. Craynolt would probably see more than Gerald would, since his night vision was excellent, but, as you know, getting a description of anything from Craynolt was unsatisfactory, at best. Later on, I wished I'd asked him, just to hear what he'd have said, but I didn't bother at the time.

That night, sleep probably would have been the best thing for both of us, but our tent was warm and dry, Leo was purring, and knowing that the morrow might bring untold dangers, I threw a leg over his hip, pulled his cock inside me, and he rocked me for half the night. Well, it seemed like half the night-though it might have been longer. It never got old, though, because, if anything, it kept on getting better and better.

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As I lay there in a blissful daze while his hot cock drove me into another orgasmic stupor, I tried to keep quiet, knowing that I was probably keeping Rafe awake, but I couldn't help it-I mean, sometimes, you just have to moan out loud-and Leo, himself, was downright chatty.

"Does that feel good, my lovely witch?" he purred.

"Do you like the feel of me inside you?"

My reply was a long, sincere, "Mmmmmmmm..."

Laughing softly, he said, "I enjoy giving you pleasure, my love. It makes my own complete." I noticed then that he seemed to linger over the outward stroke, instead of focusing on the inward thrust the way most of my lovers had done. When I asked him why, he explained that the outstroke pulled on the scalloped edge of his cockhead, stretching it back on itself. He withdrew again very slowly, his breath hissing in through clenched teeth. "It feels like nothing else you can imagine."

"I don't know," I murmured as another orgasm shook me. "I can imagine quite a bit." Though in this case, I wasn't sure I needed to, because Leo had a way of making any fantasy I'd ever had seem pale in comparison.

As if to further illustrate this, he changed positions, getting up on his knees to slide inside me once more, pushing in with quick, hard trusts, then withdrawing with an almost painful slowness. My body tightened around him, squeezing him in a viselike grip, making it even harder for him to pull out. I could see his outline silhouetted against the walls of our tent, made brighter from the glow of the fire. Even his silhouette was beautiful.

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Cheryl Brooks "Witch," he whispered. "You torment me, making me insane with desire."

I disagreed, since the best I could tell, he was the one tormenting me. He was too much, and I knew I could never love him enough to give him back what he gave to me-but I could certainly try. Still holding his cock as tightly as I could, I reached up to touch him, to feel the smooth warmth of his hard chest. Licking my fingertips, I feathered his sensitive nipples with wet, tantalizing touches.

Leo responded with a tortured groan as I felt his hips curl under me, his balls smacking against my ass. His purring grew erratic, loud, then soft, and then loud again.

His hair teased my own nipples until his head snapped back, flinging those golden tresses over his shoulders as he came, filling me with his cream and sending me flying. I had an idea that even if he hadn't been touching me at all, I would have come, myself, for the mere sight of him in climax filled me with ecstasy.

Not that he didn't bother to try. Backing off, he scooped some of his snard out of me with his tongue and laved my clitoris with it. My mind felt like it was blowing apart, and I'm pretty sure Rafe heard me scream, but this time I didn't care.

It must have been late that night when Gerald and Craynolt returned. Having waited as long as he possibly could, Gerald came hopping into our tent very early the next morning with no warning whatsoever, bursting with news, catching me with Leo's cock in my mouth.

"Tisana!" he exclaimed. "Boy, have I got a lot to tell you!" He paused a moment before asking, "Hey, what's that you're doing?"

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One nice thing about my method of communication with animals is that you don't have to stop what you're doing in order to talk-you can literally talk with your mouth full.

"I'm sucking his cock, Gerald," I replied. "I should have thought that was perfectly obvious."

Gerald moved in for a closer inspection. "Isn't he afraid you'll bite him?"

"If I did, it would be purely accidental," I replied, "and I believe he considers it to be worth the risk-and besides, my teeth aren't as sharp as yours."

"Feels good to him, then?"

Gerald must not have been very good at reading facial expressions because, if asked, I'd have said that Leo looked positively ecstatic. "Yes, I believe it does."

"But what about you?" he asked curiously . "Do you like doing that?"

As I had succumbed to another orgasm at that precise moment, I should have thought the answer to that would be perfectly obvious as well, but I answered him anyway.

"Yes, Gerald. I like it very much. So, what's new?"

"Well, I found out who took the kids!"

"That's great, Gerald! Did you give him the message?"

"No, but Craynolt did-dropped it right in his plate!

I'm glad he handled that part, because once you bite someone, they aren't too inclined to take a message from you." This had been the signal to Craynolt-whomever Gerald bit was the one to receive the message. Painful, perhaps, but an unmistakable signal, nonetheless. After all, it wasn't like he could actually tell Craynolt which one it was.

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Cheryl Brooks "I suppose not," I replied. Leo let out a loud purr then to let me know he was about to climax. I backed off slightly and took a big shot of snard on my tongue.

"You know," Gerald said thoughtfully, "you'd get better results if you-oh, wait, I forgot! You're already pregnant."

"Yes, Gerald," I said dryly. "I am, so this is a purely recreational activity."

He watched for a moment or two, seemingly fascinated by the effect a mouthful of snard was having on me. "Does it really taste that good?"

"Yes, it does," I replied. "But it has an euphoric effect, as well. It's not like human semen at all. It's much better."

"I'll take your word for it," he said hastily. He probably thought I was going to offer him a taste, but he needn't have worried, because it wasn't something I felt inclined to share. "But listen, Tisana!" he went on, nearly bubbling over with excitement. "The boys are there, too! At least, I think it was them. I mean, they looked like they were brothers, but I've never actually seen them before."