(Continued from Ch 48, Evil Spirits)

The Chronicles of Rapina
Chapter 49, Land of Desolation 


Rapina screamed and shuddered as a massive orgasm shook her sweat-soaked body. She bucked her hips forward and backward gasping with pleasure as she came. She only barely managed to touch the minds of the smiths at the last second, sending a calming message at last. The bucking of the two half orcs began to slow to a saner pace. Rapina panted for breath as the two smiths continued to plunge in and out of her, their glistening pink spiral-ribbed cocks teasing each other through the flesh between her vagina and rectum. Her ride had been a bit wilder than she had expected. On her first orgasm she had lost control and touched their minds with her own lust. Her second orgasm had carried a message of alliance, and after that her orgasms had become so intense she had done nothing but buck and squeal with pleasure.

"Hruuuuuuunk!" Daing grunted long and hard as he spent yet again into the raging lusts of Chontral Melina. His orgasm was long and intense. Her charmed cunt squeezed him rhythmically as if to milk the very last drop of lust from his loins. He could not remember ever having creamed a woman so many times without a rest. 

Droplets of sweat shook from Tangzar's fatigued body as he slapped his loins against Melina's generous jiggling butt. "Rreeeeeeehruunk!" He squealed as he jetted hot cum deep into her clutching rump. Her caress along the sides of Daing's face was light with mystic precision as she pushed her firm cheeks against Tzangzar arching her back to receive the power of his spend. 

"Clang... ... ... Clang... ... ...Clang." 

Tzangzar collapsed on Melina's back and perked his ears. The clanging on the gate was spaced as though the one knocking had grown fatigued with repeated effort and had decided to clang the gate regularly but much less frequently. Tzangzar groaned and pried himself off Melina's back. His knees were a little weak causing him to squat as he walked before he recovered himself. Tzangzar peered out the door and across the courtyard. "Chontral Oagmak is waiting. There is someone with him carrying a suit of spiked plate. Perhaps it must be resized." 

Each day for the next three days, Rapina was called back to the smiths for fitting and to heat their hardened rods in the forge of her loins. The party among the Ragebloods seemed to go in cycles of lust, drunkenness and insensibility. Rapina ate and drank modestly, washed frequently and slaked the lusts of her kahlorcs interminably. Her grasp of orcish improved from use and exposure to words and phrases she had not yet learned. During the times most of the orcs slept, Chontral Oagmak gave her additional instruction in orcish. He felt it was in the best interest of the tribe for her to speak their language well.

By the morning of the fourth day, Kahl Rageblood had drunk up the last of the alcoholic swill they had bought in town. The hung-over orcs began to pack up their belongings at a pace that was too slow even to be called leisurely. By afternoon it was obvious camp would not be struck until the following morning. In the afternoon, Krahl Hluk and two bodyguards took Rapina to the armorers to retrieve the finished armor.

When they arrived, Hluk began to don his re-sized armor. Tzangzar showed Rapina how to put on and adjust her foundation garments and armor pieces. Since orcs never stopped growing, provisions had been made on most pieces of her armor for some adjustment in the fit. Tzangzar had worked with a seamstress in town to produce Rapina's foundation garments. These included dark elven style panties in a variety of colors that featured reinforced openings at their crotches, and matching bustiers that cupped the lower compass of her breasts leaving her nipples accessible to roving lips. Next there was a tunic and leggings of silk padding, notable for the areas they did not cover. 

The armor itself consisted of several parts. The helmet was a smooth deep dwarven plate helm with an open face from the forehead down and a nose guard. It had flared edges at the bottom to keep the rain from running down her neck and an optional dark-elven chain veil that could go across her face from just below her eyes. The breastplate was a combination of a half breastplate of deep dwarven metal that covered her upper chest and back and dark-elven chainmail that covered her down to her hips. Her breasts were contained in expandable banded cups that were built into the breastplate. A band of plate went over her hips. Both her banded skirts and her chainmail leggings attached to it. The dark-elven chain leggings were cut high towards her hips almost to the point of being a strap at the hip and low towards her inner thighs so that they left her crotch and butt uncovered beneath her banded skirts. 

"It is beautiful," Rapina beamed hugging each of the smiths in turn once she had donned her new armor. Both of them looked very proud. 

"It is only fitting that a Chontral's armor should fit the quality of her chont," Tzangzar bowed. 

"Chont schmont. You shared the full measure of your robust charms, juicy cunt and thucking prowess with us, Melina; It was our pleasure to share the full measure of our smithing prowess with you," Daing beamed. "There is some extra mail and plate in the sack there for repairs. We want you to be protected, but we know you will not always be near us when your armor is damaged." 

"Thank you mastersmith Daing, and thank you mastersmith Tzangzar. I will think of you whenever my armor protects me and each time I put it on or take it off, or thuck while wearing it." 

Daing grinned like a pirate, "Hup, don't thank us yet, the armor has not yet undergone its final testing. Kahl Rageblood has given us the opportunity to see that your armor has properly grown more robust to contain your swollen udds, but the final test of your armor has not yet been done." 

Rapina blushed; the long party had left her breasts flushed and swollen firmer and larger than ever before. 

Hluk finished donning his re-sized spiked plate chief's armor. He moved around in it, and then nodded to the smiths in satisfaction. 

"Kahl Hluk, since you are Kahl of Rageblood, would you like to be the first to test Chontral Melina's new armor? It is designed so she can practice her chont while she and her partner are both armored." 

Hluk grinned, "I will test it." 

"My friend Tzangzar suggested this refinement. Daing pinched together two small studs spaced far apart just above Rapina's right breast. He pulled down the bands over her breast so that they nested together to cup only the lower part of her breast, exposing the lion's share of it to the air. 

"Clever," Khal Hluk smiled. He kissed Rapina's swollen right nipple then undid the cup over her left breast and slid the bands down to land a kiss on her second nipple. 

"Most cunning." Rapina grinned. 

Hluck removed his codpiece, lifted Rapina up, and laid her over a large anvil standing in the courtyard. He lifted her banded skirt and watched the contour reverse to hug her body. "Good, even an orc with skirts in front would be able to thuck Chontral Melina." Hluck entered Rapina and began to pump. His spikes slid harmlessly across her banded skirt. "It is working." Hluk quickened his pace and thrust more forcefully. "Fine... armor... Uuuhhrrruuuuk!" Hluk grunted as he jetted orc cum into Rapina's lively cunny. 

Rapina moaned. She felt so wonderfully stuffed with energy but she gluttonously drank up what Hluck had to offer nonetheless. 

At that moment, there was a clanging at the gate. It was Chontral Oagmak with a huge escort. The smiths hastened to let him in. 

"Chontral Melina, this is Drugarg, half ogre servant of T'zar, high chontral of the orcs. He brings a summons from T'zar. The High Chontral wishes to meet with the chontrals of Rageblood." 

Oagmak was usually impassive, but he seemed nervous. Rapina hoped that was not a bad sign. 

"Kahl Hluk, may we have your leave to go? The High Shaman's chont is great. He is especially well known for his curses. We must not offend him by withholding our presence." 

"Then you must go, Chontral. I will wait for you at the camp," Hluk said.

"I do not know how long he will keep us, perhaps a long time. I have brought Chontral Melina's things and my own. If Kahl Rageblood leaves before we are able to come, we will catch up with you." 

Hluk nodded. He embraced Oagmak. May the lie of the bones be with you, Chontral. 

"And you Kahl," Oagmak said.

Oagmak turned to Rapina, "We must pack your armor and weapons, it would be an offense to come into the abode of the High Chontral obviously prepared for war. Since our tribe is soon to leave, will the High Chontral forgive us our luggage?" 

Drugarg grunted and nodded in the affirmative, "High Chontral T'zar has a place you can leave it." 

Oagmak nodded, "Then get into some clothing quickly Chontral Melina. We must not keep High Chontral T'zar waiting." 

The journey to the high shaman's abode took some time. Whenever Drugarg got ahead or was preoccupied with the trail, Oagmak whispered to Rapina in the common tongue of humans. Rapina in turn whispered back. 

"The high shaman is very powerful. I fear him. He acts in unpredictable ways, but we must obey him. He is very powerful and his curses have a very long reach." 

"Is he an orc?" Rapina asked.

"He is half orc, half dark elf like Tzangzar, but much older and darker," Oagmak said.

"Does he have servitors?" Rapina asked.

"Very few. He does not need them. Everyone is so afraid of his magic they obey," Chontral Oagmak said.

"Does he have a woman?" Rapina asked.

"He used to have one, a slave, a young Avengene noblewoman. The rumor is he cared about her, so he sacrificed her to gain some new spell or power. She would not have been sufficient as a sacrifice unless he cared about her a great deal," Chontral Oagmak said.

"Eeuww, Uhoh," Rapina gulped.

"If I had known before we came to Joodig, I..." Oagmak low voice trailed off.

"Whatever happens, it is not your fault. You could not have known," Rapina said. 

The tunnels Drugarg led them through were long and winding. They crossed steamy water several times and the air grew warmer as they approached the lair of the high shaman. Soon they could not see farther than ten feet in front of them because of the steam that billowed through the caverns. Rapina wondered how Drugarg could find his way. 

Suddenly Drugarg stopped and pushed a stone slab into the wall. Once past the slab they reached an area where bones and beads hung from the walls and ceilings in strange constellations. 

"You can put your tings dere in dat alcove next to da chest Chontral Oagmak, and Chontral Melina, you can put your tings on top of dat chest," Drugarg rumbled. 

Once through a couple of partitions made of collages of bones and beads, they came to a small raised pool with a thick border. The odd half-orc that squatted near the pool waved as they approached. Rapina looked at him. He was beefier even than Tzangzar, but he was blacker as well, his hair, his nose, his skin, all of him. 

"High Shaman, T'zar pointed to a small cup sitting on the edge of the pool, "Chontral Oagmak." He pointed to another cup on the edge of the pool opposite Oagmak's cup, "Chontral Melina." Then he sat down in front of his cup. Welcome Chontrals. Let us drink, then we will speak. T'zar tossed the contents of his cup down his throat. Oagmak did the same. Rapina hesitated for a second and then followed suit. How is your chont coming, Oagmak? "Slow master. I can cast the bones, but I lack practical powers. Were it not for Chontral Melina, the Ragebloods would have lost our chief and other warriors as well to the wounds of Avengene." 

"Chontral Melina, you wear upon your neck the jool with no clasp that you cannot remove. It makes you slave to a master. I am the high shaman, sworn enemy of Avengene. I can help you; come with me," Chontral T'zar said.

T'zar led the way through the steamy chambers and through a curtain of bone into a room that was eerily dry as though no steam could pass its hanging of strung teeth. There were many shelves cut into the living rock walls of the chamber and these were filled with vials and tiny boxes and baskets of herbs and reagents. T'zar took a small vial of black liquid and a brush of black bristles and motioned Rapina to him. "Hold your hair back, Chontral Melina. Rapina complied. 

High Shaman T'zar began moaning utterances as he painted the thick black liquid on her jeweled collar. He painted the entire thing except for two narrow bands, one below each of her ears. He then corked the bottle and took Rapina's hand. Follow me quickly. He ran, nearly pulling Rapina off her feet. Oagmak followed. He stood Rapina in the middle of a room across from a pool filled with a multitude of tiny colored stones or beads. He stopped and steadied her and then began droning an incantation while motioning Oagmak to stand behind Rapina. 

The black substance had dried and now began to crackle and fissure. "Oagmak grasp, pull and lift just as I do." T'zar grasped Rapina's collar in the front and pulled. Oagmak did the same in the rear. The bands on the collar below her ears that had not been coated by the dark liquid stretched like hot taffy. The orcs stretched and lifted the collar right off over her head. "Now let go." The high shaman told Oagmak and then quickly tossed the collar into the pool on the other side of the room as if it had just stung him. Rapina could see the collar return to its former shape in mid air, but when it hit the water, the water churned and bubbled so that she could no longer see it. 

"You see there is nothing to it. Now let us return to my chambers, we have much to speak about," High Shaman T'zar said. When they returned they found the cups had already been refilled. "Let us drink." 

Each chontral tossed down his or her cup. Rapina wrinkled her nose. The first cup had tasted something like the swill the Ragebloods had been drinking, but this second cup was distinctly bitter. The others did not seem to notice. 

"Now, Oagmak, your chont is worthless to save the warriors of Kahl Rageblood. Many do not respect you. They say your powers are weak and worthless. You are as a deep pool covered by strong ice. Your chont can be seen but not reached. You might practice for years and never see more than your reflection. The ice must be broken. Few living could ever give that priceless gift to you. Smear this ointment in your eyes. T'zar gave a small stone vial to Oagmak and then began droning incantations as Oagmak did as he was bidden. 

T'zar looked deep into Oagmak's dilated pupils, "The coming moments will be etched into your memory. You will never forget them for as long as you live. T'zar began casting another spell, droning and moving his hands in bizarre patterns. T'zar then took a small knife from his pocket and made a cut down each of his forearms. Blood welled from the cuts. "I have imbued you with the ability to cast a healing spell one time, one time. Use my power now and remember everything, everything, the shaping of the magic, the words, the inflections, everything! Nothing can ever be forgotten from this moment, nothing." 

Oagmak blinked and began casting, the incantations, the power it all seemed so simple, so unforgettable. At the end he placed his hands on T'zar's right arm and let the power flow. The cut shrank and disappeared. 

T'zar smiled for a moment, "Now repeat the spell from memory. Use your own power this time." 

"But I," Chontral Oagmak stammered.

Tzar's eyes drilled into Oagmak's soul, "Do it, you will succeed." 

Oagmak remembered; how could he forget? He wove the words and gestures and shaped the power. The spell was etched perfectly into his mind and now he etched it yet again, this time his own chont sealed the wound on High Chontral T'zar's left arm. 

Welcome to the circle of power, Oagmak. Tzar gestured at Rapina, "One priceless gift for another." T'zar took Oagmak's nerveless hand and pressed several gems into it. "For Kahl Hluk," he said. Practice your spell at least once a day this month. You may go now Chontral Oagmak." 

Oagmak looked at Rapina. A tear rolled down his cheek. He would never forget this moment; he could never forget it. He had gained and lost so much. Oagmak walked out as if in a trance. When he reached the room with his gear Drugarg handed it to him and then took his hand and led him back to Jooldig. 

With glassy eyes, Rapina witnessed what had transpired without reaction. When T'zar lifted her and set her in the center of the pool she only stared at him as he arranged her body in a seated position. He took a chime and rattles from a nearby alcove and began to dance around her. A sound like the rushing of water filled her ears. She felt like a zombie, she could hardly think. She closed her eyes to concentrate but her thoughts were as sluggish as the black, frozen river she was seeing in her mind. Frozen? No sluggish, viscous. Her world was dark oranges and browns; the terrain was barren and rocky and there was no sky. Instead, a dark orange mist offered a small bit of light and vistas of barren stone lost in the distance. A woman came to her, but as she drew near Rapina knew she was not a woman. Her eyes were as flame red as her hair; she was translucent and non-corporieal. When she saw Rapina she stepped *into* her. 

"We meet again child, and this time you have no power to thwart me!" Vulvilea growled.

The woman was in her mind; she was taking over. Instinctively Rapina struggled but she felt so sluggish. That voice, that voice in her mind. She knew it. Rapina gasped. It was the lust spirit. The lust spirit from the dreamstone agate she had, had as a child. 

Vulvilea's laugh was light yet sinister, oh yes, yes I can feel your power T'zar. The child is fighting; help me. Bring me forth. 

"Nooooo!" Rapina began to cry and shake. She looked around her at the desolate landscape for a moment. What could she do? Where was she? 

Vulvilea opened her living eyes, the same ones that had belonged to Rapina a moment ago and smiled. 

"You said the instant you appeared..." Tzar held a brazier of smoldering herbs under her nose and watched her breath deeply. 

"Ah, my head is clearing. Yes, yes spin an illusion of your Bellany in my mind... Yes I see. Vulvilea felt Rapina's breasts. The reserves were more than sufficient for the task T'zar required of her. Mmmm, yes this should be simple enough, first her hair, all of it... Rapina's hair began to curl then it lengthened and fell to waves as the color lightened from black, to deep brown to a ruddy auburn. Now the face as I promised... Her green eyes turned hazel and changed shape as the features of her face altered themselves. Now I must hear her voice in my mind, simple enough... the bones of her neck altered to resemble the girl in her mind as her vocal cords changed to produce the girl's voice. Vulvilea shifted the structure of her legs and arms, her abdomen and chest. Only minor adjustments were necessary since the two women had been approximately the same size. Are you sure you want me to change her butt and breasts? Rapina's are so much more delicious," Vulvilea said.

The high shaman nodded. 

"Very well but it is better for energy reserves if the mass of flesh is more generous. Rapina has her reserves up here. Vulvilea squeezed her generous breasts as she changed the nipples to look like the woman's in the illusion. It needs to be a soft area that can expand, the butt, the belly or breasts what part of her would you like augmented. I will shrink the rest to your lady's proportions... "Gaah! The bitch is fighting me again. I cannot concentrate; I will have to do the rest later. You have her visage and more; the letter of my promise is fulfilled. I wear the face of Bellany Norwit. I will fulfill the spirit of our bargain when this headstrong bitch Rapina is sealed in her grave!" 

T'zar nodded and tugged Vulvilea's arm. They ran through several tapestries of bone. Then they entered a room with a pentacle etched into the stone floor and colored with gold leaf. 

For a moment, Rapina was lost in her tears, but she had never gained anything by crying. She had to pull herself together. She had to fight, and fight she did as futile as it seemed. She could hear Vulvilea talking to T'zar, "Seal me in my grave?" Rapina's sluggish mind grasped the phrase and then she realized. This was the land of the dead. This was where the lust spirit Vulvilea had gone when she died, all except the bit of her that she had stored in the dreamstone. Vulvilea's lord had been killed as had she, and they had gone to land of the dead... and its lord was... 

T'zar pushed Vulvilea down onto the pinnacle. "Your hands," he said closing manacles over her wrists and then moving to her ankles. 

Vulvilea glared at the shaman. 

"The spell involves grave pain, but you must not break the circle," He said as he manacled her ankles to the floor." 

Vulvilea gasped. Suddenly her eyes filled with fear, "Hurry!" She screamed. 

Mortaebius was the lord of the dead and this was his land! Rapina realized as she began a prayer of invocation known only to select priests and a single naughty deaconess: 

"Mortaebius, Sovereign of the dead, thy reign is threatened - in thine own kingdom. Hail Mortaebius Lord of the dead, I invoke thee!" 


"Thy dead escape the grave by a profane hand." 
Hail Mortaebius, spirit of mortomancy, I invoke thee!" 


"Thy power is usurped by an untamed spirit." 
Hail, Mortabius soul of the dead, I invoke thee!" 

"Thy divinity is profaned! Hail Mortaebius, God of the dead, I invoke thee!" 

Tzar retrieved a vial from a nearby shelf and poured the effervescent liquid it contained into the pinnacle's channel. He flicked a mystic spark from his fingertip and set the fluid ablaze. 

Pain joined fear as the flames began to sear her without visible damage. "Quickleeeee!" She wailed. 

T'zar raised an eyebrow and took up his rattles. He began to dance around the flaming pentacle, droning and squealing as he danced an intricate pattern... 

"Treacherous snake! Vulvilea writhed in pain. I know that ritual. You seek to banish me! Aaaiii! Vulvilea wailed as the flames burned her without apparent damage. "You have summoned me hither to change the girl's body, and now you seek to banish me? What!? Do you seek to replace my spirit with the spirit of Belany Norwit? Oh you soft fool! You seek to bring her back from the dead after you sacrificed her. Your love for her blinds you to your folly!" 

Rapina completed the prayer of invocation. She did not think about the fact that she should not have known it. There had been a locking cabinet in Guardian Rames' room. She was a patient and curious girl; she had checked it every night they made love after he fell asleep. One night she found it had been left open. One of his priestly books was inside. She had studied some of the prayers it held adding them to the boundless number she enjoyed impressing Guardian Thane with. Using the prayer of a full priest of The Shroud in Mortaebius' own domain might mean her death, but what choice did she have? She was nearly dead already and T'zar and Vulvilea were busy making it a permanent condition. Rapina was too busy invoking death to contemplate death, and then she felt...death, pervasive death, all-encompassing death. Death welled up in her from nowhere, from everywhere, lifeless and numb and final. Death was she. She was death. Death. 

T'zar danced and whirled and groaned his incantations. He had nearly completed the circle when he felt a presence. He did not let it break his concentration. The room began to rattle. An earthquake? No, it was only the bones, all the bones began to rattle in unison, the sound was deafening. High Shaman T'zar's concentration was not rattled with the bones. When Vulvilea's eyes turned to black holes, his concentration still did not waver. 

He was about to complete his dance, just another syllable. A bone claw separated itself from the convulsing mobile across the room, bolted forth and pierced his throat. The syllable was left unspoken, the rhythm broken. Vulvilea's chains rusted and turned to dust. Her stolen flesh began to putrefy and rot off her bones as she raised upright without having to first get to her knees. Her left hand touched his heart. He felt his power, his life and his soul wrenched from his rotting body. All he could do was scream, a long silent scream. 
-------

This ends, Land Of Desolation, chapter 49 of The Chronicles of Rapina.
The story continues in chapter 50, Lady Doe.

Copyright 2001 by Rapina