The Elfmaid's Curse (The Elfmaid Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  Taara's smile turned just a touch mischievous, and then she angled her foot and dragged the sharp end of her stiletto heel down his shin. Not hard enough to break the skin, but she dug in enough to make Danic stiffen.

  Leaning forward and resting her heavenly face inside those exquisitely manicured hands, "Tell me about yourself."

  Danic hesitated, because it was all wrong. A woman of such wealth and power shouldn't be out carousing, much less interested in a strange man in a seedy tavern. Still, she was just so gorgeous, and with Carl and all the others watching, he couldn't back out now. Besides, he garnered the impression maybe she was one of those women who loved to live on the edge, to take dangerous chances with their life and liberty.

  "Little to know," he said, lost in her eyes for the moment. "I'm from the Kingdom of Dakkor, from the Duchy of Drakehorn. As the younger son of the duke I'm pretty much free to do what I want." With an evil grin, "My elder brother had to join the army."

  "A fate you seem happy to have escaped."

  "A dreadful, dreary life, for sure."

  "But you could learn so much," she said.

  "My training as a knight had already taught me all I need. Besides, I’ve gained more experience in one year than my brother will in ten," Danic said. "He's fought in one war, I've been in seven."

  She sucked in a sharp breath, looking on the verge of ecstasy. Was it common soldiers that got her juices flowing? It wasn't unheard of for high status women in the large cities to seek out men of low birth for trysts behind their fathers' or husbands' backs.

  "A freelancer," Taara said. She leaned a little closer, appearing on the verge of panting. He noticed how her fierce gaze seemed to look him over with growing interest. Though it didn't appear to be sexual, but she was elven. Maybe they displayed lust differently. "Mercenaries have all sorts of interesting...talents."

  Spellbound, Danic watched as the tip of her tongue slipped out and wetted her upper lip. Deep hunger consumed him. He so wanted a taste of those lips. He wanted to kiss her more than anything in the world.

  "I learn something helpful on every adventure," he said, struggling to keep his wits. She was so bloody distracting. "And I've had quite a few adventures."

  "Have you learned to use that sword yet?"

  Danic stared at her. He was a knight! His teeth clenched tight, and he took a slow breath.

  "I think so," he said, managing to keep his tone casual. "I'm classified as a swordmaster in Dakkor. You may not be aware of it, but Dakkor has the highest standards of any city."

  Taara squirmed with delight as her smile broadened and her eyes sparkled. Danic wondered if she could do that at will, or was even conscious of it, but now he knew her true weakness. Swordsmen. Fighters. Taara had a thing for dangerous men.

  "What level are you?" she asked, voice an octave lower.

  "Level? Oh, you're from the Amazon Empire," he said and frowned, just a little annoyed. "I've always found it strange that Amazons have three levels of swordmasters. In Dakkor, indeed, in all the Jarland cities I know of, there is only one level. But different cities have different standards."

  "How do you know who is better then?"

  "We fight."

  "But what if you don't really want to fight?"

  "Then it isn't important enough," he said, shrugging. "You have to realize that even the Amazons' system isn't perfect. I've known Amazons who were third level swordmasters who defeated first level swordmasters, and rather handily, too."

  Taara looked surprised at that, "Truly? I didn't know. I'm not a swordfighter, but you probably could tell that."

  He took in her perfect face, long silken hair, those delicate hands with the long red nails, and smiled. No, she was no warrior. She was a beauty out of legend. The kind of woman men went to war over.

  "Your beauty is all the protection you need."

  "Actually, I've found that my beauty makes it imperative that I retain lots of strong men, like you, to protect me," she said, looking bitter. "Beauty — especially feminine beauty — is a valuable commodity."

  "True, unfortunate as it is," he said.

  He knew women, friends, who were now missing and presumably slaves in some distance city. Indeed, one of his oldest, dearest female friends, Princess Carolyn of Dakkor, had been captured by their ancient blood enemy, Cerre, and was even now a slave in that city. His family was close to the royal family in Dakkor, and he had literally grown up with her. He had already made two failed attempts at rescuing her from bondage. The thought of trying a third now that they were so close to Cerre crossed his mind.

  Seeing the bitterness spread across his face, Taara squeezed his hand. "Why so glum? Surely you, a knight and mercenary, have enslaved the women of a city you've just conquered? Maybe even — "

  "I've never taken a woman against her will, after a siege or otherwise," he snapped. "In the heat of battle I've done many things I've come to regret. But we both know that slavery is the unfortunate fate of any survivors of a siege, both male and female."

  "It's the nature of the beast," she said, staring off into space a moment. "But no one blames you." Then giving him another wanton smile. "And I find your discomfort rather...pleasing."

  Suddenly remembering why he'd approached her to begin with, "I am grateful, my Lady. To cause you distress would surely break my heart."

  Taara laughed delightfully. Danic didn't think there could be a more beautiful sound in the world. "Sir Knight, I truly find it hard to believe your heart is so easily injured, but..." Her foot again slid up his leg as her tongue glided over perfect white teeth. "But it would surely distress me mightily if I were the cause of your broken heart."

  Danic grinned. Maybe he’d poured it on a little too thick, but Taara didn't seem offended. Indeed, it apparently reawakened her own desires.

  "Command me, your faithful servant, that I might please you," he said.

  Taara smiled. Then glancing around uncertainly a second, she appeared to come to a decision.

  Smiling, "I can't take you back to my room. People would talk. A Lady has to protect her reputation."

  "I could rent a room here..."

  She added a low moan to her squirm and smile.

  Rising to his feet, Danic offered his arm. She took it without hesitation. As he led her to the bar, he felt as if every eye in the tavern was on them. Without a doubt, he had the most beautiful woman in the place...maybe the city.

  Danic paid for a room, and then quickly led her upstairs. The room was small, with dark, peeling paint and only one tiny window overlooking a night-shrouded back alley. The furniture, if anything, was even shabbier. The one chair was heavily patched, and the small bed's mattress had a deep valley down the middle with brown-stained sheets.

  Taara looked upon it with distaste.

  "A popular room with the whores, I see," she said, eyeing the bed as if it were a dangerous animal and best avoided.

  "Despite appearances, it is clean," Danic said. "The Ten Horses Tavern is known for its clean rooms. I always stay here when in Elfhaven."

  Taara pressed up close and caressed his face. "That's not what I came up here for anyway."

  Danic lifted her chin and then kissed her hard and deep. She seemed to melt into his arms. His spirit soared. Strangely enough, he found the very idea of bedding an elfmaid thrilling. He had never thought in those terms before, but she was such a rare and exotic beauty.

  After several minutes of passionate kissing, Danic managed to slip Taara's dress over her shoulders and down to her waist. Her head rolled back as he began exploring her neck and bosom with hands and lips. She unfastened his pants, pushing them down over his butt.

  "By the Gods, I love your body," he said.

  "Then my body is yours," she purred, pushing him onto the bed. Wiggling as she slipped her dress down over a tiny waist and well-rounded hips, Taara watched him with a sultry look. He swallowed as she then crawled up and straddled his waist. Taara took his erection in hand, gave it a firm stroke, and
then guided him into her, impaling herself upon him. "Ugh, yes."

  Danic's back bowed as he penetrated her warm folds. The wetness of her arousal excited him. Knowing she wanted him as much as he wanted her was heady, thrilling.

  "Take your time," Danic said, fondling her jostling breasts as she started a little bounce, slowly working herself down his shaft. "We have all night to enjoy each other's body."

  "I wish," she said, really more a groan. She lowered her lips to his, kissed him gently, then more passionately. "Let us enjoy the time we have."

  Taara leaned back, grabbed her ankles, and rode him for all she was worth. Danic was amazed. He expected such enthusiasm and talent from a tavern girl, but not from an obviously high born elfmaid. It wasn't long before she was yipping and mewing with abject pleasure, her body shiny with sweat, and long blonde hair flying all around as she whipped her head.

  "Don't stop! Just like…ugh…Oh Lyss!" she cried to the Goddess of Love and Sex, eyes going wide. "Just like that! Yes! Aagggh!"

  Danic watched her belly quiver, her eyes roll up, and her back bow dramatically. Taara tightened around him, squeezing his shaft in the most wonderful way. It pushed him closer and closer, but she stopped humping, lost in her own pleasure. So Danic started thrusting up into her, eager to enjoy his own climax. And it was close, too.

  "Yes, Sir Knight, that's how you do it. Drive this body crazy. Own this body."

  "You are so gorgeous," Danic said, feeling that heady rush to climax begin. He thrust harder, faster. "So beautiful."

  "Do you love my body?" she asked, with the most mischievous little grin.

  "More than anything."

  "Do you want this body?"

  "Ha! Yes, more than anything else in the world," he said, almost there.

  "Then I give it to you. A trade," she said. "You get my body, and I gets yours."

  Before he could respond, Taara placed her right index finger on his forehead and spoke a single Word of Power.

  Fire exploded in Danic's head. He felt himself writhing under her as the fire surged through his body. Pain liked he’d never experienced before, surged through him and sent his world spinning. Then as fast as it started, it ended.

  Sitting — kneeling? — on the bed, Danic waited, panting, to recover and for his eyesight to return. Though his eyesight was only fading in slowly, he knew that he was somehow on top now, and straddling Taara.

  Druigh! Danic thought. The Forest Elves had a caste of clerics, called the druigh. I have to get away. Fast.

  Taara was a sorceress? Or an elven druigh, a cleric to strange elven gods. As he struggled to rise, strong hands seized his wrists. Their viselike grips surprisingly painful. His jumbled mind recalled that elves were far stronger than they looked. Then the grip tightened and he heard Taara gasp. No, not Taara.

  "Oh, my Gods!" Danic cried out in Taara's voice.

  Straining to see through the black haze filling his eyes, Danic saw his own face grinning back. His other body's hips thrust up, and he realized he was being penetrated by it.

  Impossible! He thought, frantically trying to pull free of Taara's grip.

  He felt one wrist released and a calloused finger pressed to his forehead. Another strange word uttered, only now in his voice, and everything cleared.

  "What have you done?" Danic croaked out. He was looking down at his own body, with…Taara?...looking back with a malicious grin of triumph inside it. "Why?"

  She grunted as she continued to thrust hard and fast up into his body. His new body?

  "I have powerful enemies. I found myself in need of a warrior's body, and preferably a swordmaster's."

  "You can't do this!"

  Taara suddenly rolled him over onto his back. His legs were around her waist, and she was still impaling him. The mage pressed Danic's wrists to either side of his head, holding him down, and really started humping like crazy. Ripples of intense pleasure filled him, the likes of he'd never known. Danic grunted with every deep, fierce thrust, mind spinning, until Taara finally came deep inside.

  "Gods of Love and Lust! I've always wondered what it was like for men. Very nice," Taara said, huffing and puffing with a big smile. Grinning evilly again, "Now you will learn the horrible fate of a woman on the losing side."

  Tensing at the revelation, "So I'm to be your slave, while you demonstrate all the degradations possible."

  Danic's suddenly fertile mind ran through a myriad of degrading and sickening possibilities. His chest tightened painfully, as did his throat, as visions of Taara using him, trapped within the elfmaid's body, in every conceivable manner. Try as he might, he couldn't stop the tremors spreading throughout his new body, or stop those frightening visions.

  Taara gave him a fierce kiss, and then pulled out. It was quite a relief once his own penis was away from his new body. Danic released a sigh, but couldn't relax. Not yet.

  "No," Taara said, standing and pulling her pants back up. "Though the idea is tempting, I plan to sell you to slavers right away and take my leave."

  Danic closed his eyes, trying to get his raging emotions under control. His mind still didn't want to believe he'd lost his body. He knew how beautiful the elfmaid's body he was trapped inside was. And how terribly valuable an elfmaid would be to slavers. He knew what men would do to possess it. What they would do to it. All those wicked things filled his too fertile mind, leaving him shaking and breathless.

  "I-I d-don't understand. You're not taking me with you? H-How will you get your body back?"

  Danic felt his face heating up. He sounded so pathetic to his own ears. Taara had unmanned him in so many different ways. It didn't help that visions of serving Taara sexually filled his mind, along with what life would be like in a brothel.

  "I don't want it back." She laughed, in his voice, at his look of shock. Danic never realized his voice was so deep. It sounded strange to him. "That body has served me well for three hundred and twelve years, but now I'm ready for a change."

  "A body snatcher!"

  Danic had heard the myths, legends, of the ancient nobility who prolonged their lives by stealing the bodies of others. The Gods forbade them to practice their foul sorcery, had even ordered them hunted down and killed. He didn't know any still existed.

  "Not hardly," she said and laughed again. "I'm am just a sorceress...no, a sorcerer, a wizard. The spell was difficult, but well within my powers." She smiled. "Sorry about the pain, it has been a long time since I used that spell, and I had to disable you long enough to pull it off."

  "How could you so callously discard your own body — your own sex!"

  She chuckled. "That isn't my original body. Remember, I'm an Amazon. I was a human sorceress for some time before capturing the elven sorceress and taking her body as my own. I wasn't that young or pretty as a human. As for sex...before I learned the High Arts, I was a slave and victim of your Jarland brothels." She glowered a moment at the memory. "I'm rather asexual now."

  Desperation filled Danic. I'm really going to be sold to slavers. A slave...A woman! Gods!

  "I don't know how to be a woman," He — she gasped, fighting vertigo. "I'll help you. Change us back and I'll serve you faithfully. I swear on my honor!"

  Taara seized his wrist, yanking him off the bed. Danic teetered atop those high heels, only able to remain standing with help from Taara.

  "I'm sure you would," Taara said, lifting Danic's chin with a finger and admiring her beauty. Danic felt her lower lip tremble, and felt shame burn. "Surely being such a delicate beauty at the mercy of heartless, lustful men must be setting your pretty little heart all aflutter."

  Her heart pounded so hard it ached. She started panting, struggling to breathe and muster her wits.

  "Lady Taara, I — "

  "Lady Taara? I think not. My name is now Talar," he said. "I'll take my father's name." He looked Danic over mischievously. "And what shall you be called?" He studied the stunned beauty a moment. "It'll have to be something simple, since men are all simpletons.
Danica, maybe? Yes, I think even you could remember that one."

  "You don't understand — "

  Grabbing her suddenly by the chin, and squeezing, "I understand your predicament all too well, my elven beauty. Far better than you do at this moment. Now what is your name?" Talar squeezed until he forced a small cry from her. "Answer me!"

  "Danica," she whispered, face flushed and eyes burning.

  Chapter 2

  Danica landed on the bed with an umph, then scrambled to her knees, ready to put up as much fight as she could muster. Talar might take her however he wanted, but it wouldn't be easy by any means, but then she noticed he wasn't even paying attention to her.

  He was running his hands over his newly stolen body, and flexing his muscles with growing delight. She watched warily as he pulled the sword and tested its weight and balance. He seemed satisfied. Then he began stomping around the room in an imaginary fight.

  "Sloppy," Danica said, clearly not pleased to see her former, rightful, body perform so poorly. "Obviously you didn't inherit my talent as well."

  "On the contrary, my pretty, I did. But, I fear, it may take a week or so to totally master it," Talar said, barely glancing at her. "I have all your memories and skills at my disposal."

  Danica started at that revelation. She quickly scanned her own memory. Nothing! Where were Taara's memories of sorcery? If she could find them, then maybe she could someday challenge Talar for possession of her old body.

  Slamming the broadsword back into it scabbard, "In case you're wondering, you won't be finding any magic left in that body. Magic is knowledge, and I stripped all the stored energy, wards, and knowledge of magic from that body when I transferred over." He grinned. "In fact, I stripped away all of my memories and knowledge, just to be sure."

  Bowing her head, "I see."

  She had never felt so helpless in her life. It wasn't the first time she'd been taken prisoner or enslaved. But then, before, as a man, she didn't have the same concerns a woman had. Men and women were definitely treated differently when taken prisoner. The thought unsettled her.