Steampunk Harlots Ch. 34

"It should be guarded," Walen commented, confused.

Hannah gestured for Emma to stand to the side of the door while she took the other side. It was, as Hannah inspected, slightly ajar and unlocked. She pushed the door open slowly and swept her trench gun across the room. Emma, noticing a look on Hannah's face, peered inside.

"I don't get it," Emma stated.

****

"Lady Riven, you won't get away with this." Louise threatened while struggling against her bonds. She was bound to the iron chair, trying to ignore the gaze of the two men with bloodstained aprons leering at her.

"Listen, you stupid little girl," the middle-aged noblewoman hissed. "I didn't go through the trouble of hiring an assassin and manage all the chaos that caused just to let you take the title that is rightfully mine. I would have been happy to let you marry my son after it was mine and let you have it when I was done with it. But then your half-sister shows up and ruined everything. I know she told you something, something that would let you get rid of her if you wanted. You are going to tell me so my plans get back on track -- or I will have these men pry it from your screaming jaw."

"You can't figure it out yourself and you call me stupid? Letting you be Duchess would just be negligent of me. Give it up now and maybe I will let your son inherit your title after your execution."

Even the torturers were taken back by the audacity of the statement. Lady Riven certainly was. She was about to slap Louise across the face when a rap at the door came before a messenger poked his head in.

"My Lady, Duke Ostenberg of the Capital has arrived to discuss... politics."

Lady Riven was surprised, "I will meet him in the study by the inner garden." She turned to the torturers. "Find out what I need to know. Do nothing that will leave a mark that can't be covered. She just needs enough of her mind intact to obey my son and her body still needs to provide him children."

They nodded and she left.

Louise saw the two men, a master and apprentice, grinning as they looked between her and their tools.

****

The ship made almost no noise as it glided downwards. As it kissed the water of the pond, several figures leapt onto the manufactured island at its centre before scrambling out of the way of a larger demonic figure. Without stopping, the ship rose back into the air after igniting only the engine opposite the estate.

The girls were already moving over the bridge as Vile got to her feet. She had been carrying a great deal of weight with her and took out one of the airship's machine guns for her own use. She saw Inky covering her girls as they moved through the garden in the darkness. Thankfully it wasn't a full moon, but there was enough light on the water to let the Lucky Harlot take off again without being noticed.

Inky saw the ship heading away to wait and a small racer taking off from its deck. Laurel and Conna were on it with Ving. She hoped things would go according to plan, and that they could leave without incident. The longer things went without gunshots the better, but it also got on her nerves. Knowing things have gone wrong is more comforting that worrying about it. Assuming it was something she could do something about. She saw Vile crouch beside her, plate armour they had liberated from the armoury covered her body. It had been made for a large and heavy-set man, and she had heated and shaped it with her own hands to fit it to herself.

"Keep to the shadows, you reflect too much light," Inky whispered.

Vile moved behind a statue that cast a long shadow and looked back at Inky, who gave her a smile saying she wasn't any less aroused than she was when she first saw her covered in armour. They had tried to dull the shine but their time was short and it only worked so well with what they had on hand.

Crossing the green garden was tedious, but there didn't seem to be any guards besides the ones at the estate itself. Those were busy, focused on the commotion of the Duke being seated.

"We wait here. When things get loud, we storm the rear."

"Doesn't that cost extra?" Astra asked, earning a few quiet giggles.

****

"My Lady will be with you shortly," the man said to the Duke. He cast his eyes around for Hope, but quickly assumed she had been left outside with the rest of the Duke's men. There was a pang of jealousy for the men at the front entrance who he thought got to speak with her -- but they were actually quite dead by then.

****

Ving got as close as she could to the clock tower that overlooked the central rock garden of the estate, and right into the room where the Duke had just been shown into.

Laurel waited as Easy made the jump first, her wings fluttering hard and letting her land softly. Then she followed, not making it as far, but the quick grasps from the fairy's outstretched arms pulled her to safety.

Conna started tossing the rifle and ammunition to them before grabbing the machine gun that they had mounted on the racer. They took off while the two girls went about setting up their snipers nest.

****

Hannah had closed the door behind them so they could talk privately. They stood over the corpses of two guards who had been stripped and two men who looked like butchers. The chair with restraints was empty.

"So what happened?" Emma asked.

"If they hadn't taken her here or if they moved her, there wouldn't be corpses. If Hope had gotten here first, she would have marked the door. The, I'm going to assume torturers, were killed with several bayonet stabs each. The guards by something less ideal, like a kitchen knife into their necks."

"Servants?" Walen offered. "They would be the only ones who wouldn't have real knives." He trailed off for a moment. "And we just had to hire a bunch to make up for the loss of the Emberborn."

"You think they could have recognized her?" Emma asked.

"Maybe, but even I hardly ever saw Louise. And my mother wanted us getting married. I really can't say."

"Well, either way, they couldn't get her out without the guards noticing, so where would they stash her?"

"Oh, I know," he stated with dread.

****

Standing up to greet the Lady Riven was difficult for the Duke, his gut throwing him off balance. The Lady was also thrown off, as she remembered him being exceptionally fit the last time they met only several months ago.

"Greetings, m'lady. I hope I am not disturbing you." The Duke kissed the offered hand.

"Not at all, a pleasant distraction from current frustrations. Though I must say I am surprised."

"As am I. With the speed that things are changing, I thought I'd come pay my respects to the woman I'm most likely to be dealing with for future business," the Duke explained, not mentioning his respects being part of the rescue plot.

She smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. Can I count on your support then?"

"Of course, assuming no harm comes to the young lady. I do like to avoid that kind of politics if it can be helped."

"That's really up to her," she stated, frustration creeping back into her tone.

****

Hope was peering around a corner when she saw Hannah dart out of a room and away, followed by Emma and the boy. She didn't want to call out and had not been noticed. The young lady didn't seem to be with them either. She started to move again, taking a hall in the direction they had moved so she could catch up.

There were suddenly some raised voices as she moved, and as she got closer, she could see a group of people in the middle of a hallway. Six were guards, though two stood with a group of servants.

"Don't give us that crap," one of the guards remarked. "If you were out entertaining anyone, you wouldn't have two of you dressed in our uniforms and armed."

As she moved closer, Hope noticed one of the guards had caught a glimpse of her and turned to aim his weapon. The moment he did, it got slapped upwards with a wave in the air and a hand clasped over his mouth before the life started to drain from his eyes. His friends turned to face Hope, who swung and crushed the skull of the guard closest to her. The two guards in the group of servants lunged forward with the bayonets on their rifles, both skewering the guard closest to them. One guard, having had the sense to back away a few steps while seeing his friends die, tried to bring his rifle around on Hannah before it was slapped away. Without missing a step, he drew his pistol, but it only just cleared his holster before the boom of the trench gun tore through his chest with a solid slug.

****

"Was that a gunshot?" the lady asked, suddenly very alert and moving away from the Duke.

"Rifles don't sound like that," one of the Duke's bodyguards commented in full honesty.

****

At the front entrance, amidst the dead bodies, some of which still had the cigarettes offered by the Duke's men burning in their dead lips, the assault team twisted the detonator only a few moments after they heard the gunshot.

****

There was a moment of silence before an explosion tore through the front entrance.

"That was also not a rifle," the same bodyguard commented with a smirk.

****

Inky, with her hand in the air, listened as the sound of battle kicked up. She saw the doors she would enter by open up as a whole mess of guards flooded out. Within their group was their lady. Inky lowered her hand sharply. The spray of bullets tore through the escorts from the shadows of the garden.

****

The Duke kicked off the floor to push his chair backwards, like the instructors of his youth kept warning him about when he tilted them during lessons. His bodyguards flipped a couch and took cover behind it. He ripped open his tunic and let the mess of cloth wrapped magazines fall out of his shirt. After picking up his pistol, he started to fire into the throng of guards that had seemed to ignore them in the excitement rather than suspect him. Although they shielded their lady, he needed to keep them busy.

"This, my boys, is why unscheduled visits should always be suspicious!" the Duke shouted.

His supposed herald drew his own pistol from his ostentatious outfit and joined his duke in firing at their opponents. The first volley had dropped several of them before they reacted. The Duke shook his head at the low standards others kept with their guards.

****

Hope and Hannah listened to the battle kicking off.

"Very quickly, what's your deal?" Hannah asked the servants.

"The Lady Riven, she keeps our husbands' prisoner here. We got work to get closer and free them. That's when we overheard them bringing in the young lady. We thought if we could keep her safe, she would help us."

"Where is safe?" Hannah asked.

"The harem, the guards won't ever go in there."

Hannah was confused, it didn't quite make sense but it didn't matter. That's where she was going. "Right, Emma with me, everyone else grab weapons and be helpful over with the fighting. Hope, you are in charge. Walen, if you can do anything to get people out of your way, then do it."

"Right," Walen understood, though he doubted the guards would listen to him at a time like this. "Though you should see a door on your right as you go that way. Old oak like the front door, it leads to the clock tower."

Hannah nodded and left them to get sorted. The northeast of the estate was mostly a rock garden enclosed within the house. She and Emma moved down the east corridor towards the northeast corner while Hope and her group moved west, lengthwise along the southern edge of the garden. The glass walls in between the supporting columns giving them a view of the fancy rock garden. Everyone else was in the west part of the estate shooting it up.

****

Easy looked through the spyglass. She could see the Duke and his men behind the furniture holding their own, and the guards trying to kill them.

"Why don't we start shooting?" she asked Laurel.

"We don't want to give away our position," came the reply. "We are only to do anything if it looks like the Duke might be in trouble or gets wounded."

"What does it look like if not this?"

Laurel fired a shot. "Like some asshole coming out of a false wall."

****

The Duke was surprised to suddenly find a corpse falling behind him and turned to make another corpse out of the man who followed. The hidden door led down a narrow hall. It was empty for the moment, but he knew it might not stay that way for long. He gave a thumbs up where, if the hole in the glass was any indication, someone who had just saved his life was hidden.

****

Hannah rapped on the heavy door as Emma opened the lock with her spectral hand. She only opened it enough to call through it.

"Going to the northeast corner, she should be there!" she shouted before closing it again.

It was impossible to miss the heavy doors to the harem. The cast iron was at odds with the rest of the decor. She motioned for Emma to keep watch outside as she turned the lock with the keys the servants had given her. Past the ante-room with two dead guards on the floor, she came into a gloomy hall lined with the creepiest stone statues of men she had ever seen. They were all naked, caught in motion and terror. She heard something moving in the dark, something big, but it didn't walk with normal steps. It slithered.

****

Vile pulled the trigger on the machine gun again, letting out a mighty warcry that made it difficult for Inky to focus on the battle instead of her lover. They had moved closer to the estate, taking cover against the stone of the estate, and firing inside through the windows and doors. In the brief moment of distraction, Inky noticed a twitch in the expression of the demon. Vile let one hand go of the weapon and raised it in front of her in time to catch a blast of ice that sent her flying.

Inky saw a man dressed in robes like a walking cliche of a wizard passing through the wall, the stone shattering like glass as he did. "Inside now!" she shouted, knowing to be caught in the open with him was far too dangerous.

The girls lept over their cover and charged inside the estate, firing as they went. Inky followed and glanced back at Vile who was getting back on her feet and looked suitably pissed off. It was clear that Vile didn't want to be anywhere near her lover either, as she didn't want to hold back.

"Foolish creature!" the man yelled, hurling water from the fountain he had frozen into a shard and threw it at Vile.

Vile evaporated it with a fiery glare before snorting at him, "Foolish man."

He repeated his attack with more water from the fountain, but Vile wasn't just going to trade shots. She charged him and hurled a ball of fire at him before swatting the ice away. It hurt, touching the ice, but she warmed her skin up quickly enough. As the flames around him disappeared, she could see the shine on his skin like a layer of ice. She smiled as she struck him hard -- but unlike the wall, he didn't shatter under the impact. Getting back to his feet, he took the look of a man who suddenly found himself having to make a much more serious effort than he had planned.

****

Hannah dove out of the way of the powerful tail that swung at her. It was the width of her own shoulders and twice as long as she was. At least the part she could see was.

"Louise! Are you in here?!" Hannah called. "I don't want to accidentally hit you while trying to kill this snake thing!"

"Hannah!" she heard immediately. "No! Stop! Both of you!" Louise came running out of the gloom waving her arms.

Hannah grabbed Louise close and pushed her behind to aim at the slithering movement following her. "Get back to the door."

"No, stop!" Louise pleaded.

"Why?!" Hannah shouted.

"Because we aren't enemies," came a soft, smooth, voice. "My apologies for the misunderstanding."

From the gloom came a breathtakingly beautiful woman on the body of a snake. There were a few notable deviations to her from beyond that as well. Firstly, at her shoulders came a pair of arms for each side. The lower set rested on her hip area. The other set of hands were held open in a non-hostile gesture. The other difference was that instead of hair, she had a mess of snake tails writhing upon her head.

"Fuck me..." Hannah muttered.

"That would be a welcome relief. I've been guarding this harem for years. Although there are many worse tortures in the world I expect, being in a room of fine men and feeling guilty every time you get aroused is still not very pleasant."

"I don't get it," Hannah commented, looking around.

"You see, this is a..." she turned away on her coiled snake body. "Lights! Please! Thank you!" She waited until they came on and Hannah could see the mostly naked men lounging around on soft furniture. "She likes married men, so she finds ones with pretty wives and grabs them. Says she will kill their spouse if they don't do as they are told. So the men please her, the women her guards. If the husbands do anything she doesn't like." She gestured to the statues. "I have this effect on men. That's why she keeps me here."

Hannah struggled not to stare at the soft pair of breasts hidden under the silk sheets the snake woman wore. "Why do you work for her at all?"

"So I am not hunted and killed on sight. My kind is always hunted down. If we look enough like people we get made into slaves. But not a thing like me."

"Eh, not wrong per say, but things are changing. Slavery is illegal now either way. Is there any way we can undo this stone thing?"

"I can't. Lady Riven keeps saying the curse can be broken by a holy man if their wives keep behaving. Of course, those are the same wives who just came in here with the young girl. Said to keep her safe until tomorrow."

"Right. Well, we have another way out and a battle to get stuck into. Help us and we can all be free tonight."

"Fair enough, I won't hold you to that expletive then." She smiled.

"If we get through this without any of my friends getting killed, I'm game if you are," Hannah replied with a smirk, wondering if the black snake tails on her head would make sitting on it more interesting.

****

Hope understood very quickly that the women she was with were not trained soldiers. They cowered in cover, and she could only calm them with her aura so much. Gunfire struck all around them, and the glass windows into the rock garden had shattered all over them. She knew it wasn't the plan, but she needed help. Ripping the flare from her belt, she tossed it through the window after igniting it.

Moments later, the racer swooped in and Hope pointed at what she wanted Conna to do. The moment after that, Conna let rip from her machinegun and tore through the glass and men who threatened Hope's small company. Taking advantage of their distraction, Hope charged, feeling a few bullets bounce off her holy armour and blasted a stream of holy fire into their ranks before laying in with her mace. Conna held fire and the racer took off again.

Several mighty swings and a finishing backhand that snapped the neck of the guard behind her, Hope stood alone and went back to check on her group.

****

Vile was thrown back by the blast that shattered her armour, what little was left from being burnt off due to her own magic. However, instead of being thrown off balance by the sheet of ice that covered the ground, her hooves held firm. The ice mage seemed confused until he noticed the metal spikes. Vile, thinking they looked intimidating, had taken the spike-covered horseshoes for herself from the armoury.

"Why don't you just die!" her opponent raged.

"The closest I get to near death experiences is when I orgasm, and I'm sorry to say, you just aren't that good!"

Caught off guard by her response, he almost didn't notice the fact she had started a charge to tackle him. He knew he had superior knowledge, but unlike most magic users, she didn't have a frail body. Her heat could match his cold, and his only option was to keep her at bay. The idea that an amateur could maintain a stalemate with him was galling.