The Edge of Harmony: The Guardian Maidens Book 2 Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Preface to Book Two

  Chapter 1 - Preparing for War

  Chapter 2 - Starting a War

  Chapter 3 - Cleanup

  Chapter 4 - A Little Battle

  Chapter 5 - Another Night in the Orchards

  Chapter 6 - Changing Tactics

  Chapter 7 - New Tasks

  Chapter 8 - New Homes

  Chapter 9 - Relaxing at Home

  Chapter 10 - Sunshine and Roses

  Chapter 11 - A walk in the Meadows

  Chapter 12 - New Abilities

  Chapter 13 - That Settles It

  Chapter 14 - It's New For Brenda

  Chapter 15 - The Fifth Woman

  Chapter 16 - Lucy Visits Dawn

  Chapter 17 - Another Third Woman

  Chapter 18 - About The Custom

  Chapter 19 - Alice's Secret

  Chapter 20 - Shower at the End of The Day

  Chapter 21 - Morning at the Farm

  Chapter 22 - Settling Things With Alice and Brenda

  Chapter 23 - New Family

  Chapter 24 - Family Meeting

  Chapter 25 - Practicing with Lucy

  Chapter 26 - Moving In

  Chapter 27 - Midday

  Chapter 28 - With Jack and Harmony

  Chapter 29 - Morning with Widow-Wives

  Chapter 30 - Milk and Honey

  Chapter 31 - Secrets and Revelations

  Afterword

  About The Author

  Other Series by The Author

  The Edge of Harmony

  The Guardian Maidens Book 2

  Marilyn Foxworthy

  Partially Revised and Corrected December Edition

  Copyright © 2018 Marilyn Foxworthy

  All rights reserved.

  Preface to Book Two

  My name is Marilyn. I have written before about some of the remarkable men of the Jensen Family. This time, we are in the middle on an epic fantasy about a novice adventurer monk. This is the second book of his story.

  I call it “Book 2: The Edge of Harmony”. That’s how it starts. It starts with our novice finding Harmony, the unpredictable new addition to our hero’s family. He and the others need Harmony. And they’ll do anything to find it. I mean her.

  Well, ready? Our story starts on a dark afternoon on a garden patio…

  But first, before you turn the page, beware of several things that you’ll find on the other side of this door. I warn you now. Here’s what you should know before you decide to read the story of our hero and his wonderful life:

  The story is, at times, highly sexual. At times graphically so. If that isn’t what you want to read, you better stop right now. Take the book back to the store and get your money back. There’s a lot of sex.

  The story is long. It isn’t a quick read for a single afternoon. In fact, the tale is several volumes long. This is probably just one book of an epic saga. The entire series is long. If you want a short little diversion, stop now. If you get hooked on the story and spend more time than you wanted to reading, and possibly rereading, the entire adventure, maybe that’s my fault, but I make no apologies for it.

  Spoiler alert: And this refers back to point 1, our hero is remarkable in many ways, but one of those is how several women may fall in love with him at the same time. And because he’s so remarkable, they generally have no jealousy between them. I’ll leave it to you to read how that plays out, but if the implications disturb you, I recommend a more traditional ‘Bodice-Ripper’ romance. OK, let’s just spell it out: there’s probably going to be some harem elements to the story. Heroes know how to satisfy. But, pay attention to the next point…about the allegory aspects of that.

  Allegory alert: If you read the story correctly, many of the people, especially the women related to the primary hero in the story, will actually represent different aspects of the same person. As people, we are complex beings. You will find explanations of the ‘oneness’ of the characters, so keep in mind that what may sound polygamous, may actually be an allegory of one monogamous relationship. Or don’t. You can read it however you want to, but it was written in many respects as an allegory. That doesn’t make it any less fun. It does make it more like eroticism for philosophers though.

  The story was written by me, but in the same style as my other books, as if our hero had kept journals of his adventures, and I just edited and published them. That may have been more the case in some books than others, but it’s the style I enjoy right now. I was a fan of the great pulp writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs, and I think it influenced the language and style to some extent.

  I’ve tried to write the story in a way that’s easy for text-to-speech reader software to make sense of. I love listening to the stories myself, and I use a text-to-speech program on my phone or computer, and while I’m exercising or driving. I find that the rereading isn’t perfect, but it’s adequate. Some of the words will be mispronounced consistently, but you can probably tell what’s being said.

  You may notice frequent references to quoted movie lines, song lyrics, and passages from other books. They may seem obscure. If you find something that one of the characters says to be a bit weird, it’s probably a movie line. You can look it up on the Internet or something if you want to. If you get it, that’s fun. If not, I hope you don’t feel like you’re missing the joke

  Refer to point 1, above. Really. I’m not kidding. It gets graphic. And pay attention to points 3 and 4 as well. You have been warned. And, just so you know what to expect, there’s no sexual humiliation, violence, bondage, or anything like that presented in any erotic way. If that’s what you’re looking for, something darker, this isn’t for you. There’s a lot of sex, but it is portrayed as respectful, consensual, and loving.

  Happy trolls.

  Chapter 1 - Preparing for War

  Gerald had just asked what we were going to do next. And I had said that we were going to prepare for war.

  There were seven of us in Lucille’s courtyard garden, behind her house: myself, my mates Dawn, Valeera, and Harmony; my father-in-law Gerald and his wife Jean; and Lucille, Jean’s sister and now Gerald’s second wife as well. The topic of discussion was the fact that Lucille’s niece, and Harmony’s sister, Delilah, had gone to become the self-appointed Queen of the kobolds, and had sworn to destroy both the village of Sturgil’s Mark, where we were currently seated, and Gerald’s farm and his orchards. The orchards that supplied not only our village, but several others, with the bulk of their food.

  Two days ago, Val, Dawn, and I had finished cleaning out the giant rats from the lair from where they had been plaguing the fields at the farm. This morning, we had our first encounter with the kobolds who had taken to camping in the orchards. The girl Harmony had joined us just hours ago, but she had immediately declared herself one of us, and one of my wives. That’s where we were at this moment, as we sat on Lucille’s patio and prepared for war.

  I repeated, “What we do now is prepare for war. It’s going to be tricky at first. We have to protect both the farm and the village. Delilah will attack whichever of them is left vulnerable. At the farm, the kobolds will probably use the tunnels left by the rats to get near the farm house before attacking. The village is a little protected by the miles of open meadow between here and the orchards, so they will probably attack the village at night. Our best hope is to take the battle as close to them as we can, as fast as we can. But there are only four of us. I need to get to where we can contain them in their caves. If they can’t get out, they can’t attack. And we don’t really even know where the caves are. I assume that they
are near the orchards, but I don’t know. Does anyone here know where the cave might be?”

  Gerald said, “There are hills at the edge of the orchard. And some rocks at some places. It could be anywhere along that area.”

  Harmony said quietly, “I know where it is.”

  We all looked to her and she shifted in her chair and said, “Delilah and I played there when we were children. She knows where they are as well as I do. There were no kobolds then, not near the surface where we would have seen them, but I’m sure that I know the place. We never went inside the cave because it was dark, but it’s at the back of the orchard, near the point where we fought today.”

  I sighed heavily and said, “If it’s near the camp where we attacked them this morning, we might get lucky. It seemed like very few were there when we found them. They may not know that all the rats are gone yet.”

  Dawn said, “The rats have been gone for two days. I think that they would notice that the pattern of them appearing had changed. And if they were counting on them for food, they went hungry today.”

  I said, “You’re right. They must know that something happened to the rats, even if they don’t know what. I think that we have to try to set up a position as close to the cave as possible as soon as we can.”

  Lucille said, “Ronin. What if the rat tunnels were sealed?”

  I said, “Well, if the tunnels were sealed, I suppose that the kobolds couldn’t use them to get close to the farm. That could provide some protection. On the other hand, if we leave the tunnels open, and if they use them, we will know exactly where they will come from. I don’t see another way but to attack very soon and try to establish a way to keep them in the cave except for times when we want to draw them out. That will take all four of us, but we need provisions and potions and perhaps some more weapons and those things.”

  Gerald said, “Ronin, we can help some. A few of the men from the village have a bit of courage now. You showed them the way. How about this? We can provide arrows, food, darts, and potions for you, and deliver them to a point near the opening of the tunnels at the orchard. If you keep the kobolds away from that end, we can bring you supplies, and you can drop down and retrieve them at set times.”

  Harmony said, “I can easily go back and forth from the tunnel to whatever encampment we have and deal with a few kobolds at a time, killing them if necessary.”

  I said, “I believe you can. But I don’t want anyone going alone.”

  Dawn said, “The orchard is very close to the hole. I can be in the trees with a bow and arrow, and protect her from above.”

  Harmony said, “And if I’m careful, I will move in the shadows once I reach the hole, and if there are kobolds, they will die silently. If there are too many, I will disappear and return to the camp, or hide until I can make it safely.”

  I said, “That works. And we have little choice but to take some risks. OK. Gerald, keep us supplied with arrows and darts and food and potions. I want a different sort of blowpipe and darts for this. Describe to the woodworker, Tark, a dart that is more like a needle, with a tuft of wool at the back. Make it only an eighth of an inch in diameter, and just an inch and a half long. Have him make four pipes to fit them. Those will be for the darts that cause illness. For the darts that will be used for raising sores on the skin, have him make two more pipes like we have already, but blunt darts, half an inch long and with a hollow in the blunt end, and a tiny point in the center. The potion will be applied to the hollow cup. I want the point to just prick the skin, but not stick. The dart should fall to the ground and hopefully be lost in the dirt and leaves, and the kobolds should never see what has hit them. Is that clear?”

  Gerald nodded.

  Val said, “Mother, you and I will work out what potions to make and you will have to get women who know how to find the plants. You will have to prepare them for me.”

  Jean said, “Of course. I’ll take care of it. The plants for this are very common and easy to find. One potion to cause sickness, fever, and loss of appetite, and another for irritating the skin and the flesh beneath.”

  I said, “This is a good part of our plan. I think that we will be away from home for quite some time, and we will need provisions and also encouragement.”

  Lucille said suddenly, “Oh, speaking of home, we need to settle this. Ronin, this is your home now.”

  I said, “Of course, and I appreciate that and I will protect the village as my own.”

  She laughed and said, “No. I mean, this house. This house is yours now. I am giving it to you and the girls as a gift. I have to move to the farm now and you need your own place to establish a new life together.”

  Jean said, “Of course, you are always welcome at the farm, and we will always have rooms for you, but Lucille wants you to have this house in the village as a home.”

  I said, “Lucille, that’s very generous! I wasn’t expecting anything like this!”

  She said, “Of course not. I’m just sorry that you won’t be able to enjoy it much for a while. But, from this moment on, it belongs to you and the girls.”

  Val said, “Aunt Lucy, thank you so much.”

  Lucille smiled and said, “How long are you going to keep calling me your aunt?”

  Val said, “Oh, I mean mother. I keep forgetting.”

  Harmony said dramatically, “Well, Mom, it’s good to have a mother again, and not just a loving aunt. And thank you for the house.”

  I said, “I do wish that we had even a day to enjoy it. But, I think that we should leave again in the next half an hour.”

  Dawn said, “And, if you are willing to do it, we need to have our food already cooked so that we don’t need fires.”

  Val said, “A good point. And we won’t have a tent or shelter of any kind, will we?”

  I said, “I’m afraid not. Not at first. Dawn, do you remember that I didn’t want to ask you to suffer the hardships of this type of life? Being an Adventurer and living this way? This is what I was talking about.”

  Dawn said, “I will relish it. We are together and the trees will be our home for now. And when we can, we’ll move into a nice comfy cave in the side of the hill.”

  Harmony said, “My heart is already there and has been for several days.”

  Val said, “And mine too.”

  I said, “So, that is a plan for weapons and food. We have no tents, but sleeping cloaks will be good for us.”

  Lucille said, “We have some here, and we can get more from the merchants. This is as much for them as for us.”

  Gerald said, “And I will take care of getting men to guard the tunnels and deliver our packages.”

  I said, “About that. One thing that we want to do is deprive the kobolds of food. It will make them turn on the sick and wounded among themselves. A hungry kobold is an angry kobold, and if they start fighting each other, that will help us and give Delilah more to worry about. Gerald, will any of the men come and take away the dead bodies for us.”

  He said, “In exchange for kobold leather? I think that they will. Exotic leathers like that are very valuable.”

  I said, “Well, I know where they can find at least forty this afternoon. But we will wait until at least tomorrow. After we have seen more of what our situation is. OK, we have supplies and you will have men to help us take away the bodies and keep them from becoming food for the others. All we need before we can start is a little food for tonight and a supply of arrows. Is there anything else that I haven’t thought of?”

  Val said, “I will want more medicines and bandages, just in case.”

  Jean said, “I will take care of it.”

  Lucille said, “Then Jean and I will run and get some food and cloaks for you.”

  Gerald said, “And I will go have arrows sent here and afterward describe the new darts and pipes. Then, when you are gone, Jean, Lucy, and I will go to the farm and I will talk to the men there and establish a plan for keeping you supplied. And I will find the men who will guard the tunnel a
nd the ones to help you with the dead.”

  Val said, “Jean, since both of you are called ‘Mother’ now, Jean, I will follow you to get food and cloaks and we can talk about the potions as we go.”

  I said, “OK. We have several more hours of daylight today. And this is as good a plan as we can make until we see more. Someone bring us a supply of paper and ink so that we can leave messages. We might deliver them by bow and arrow at times. Put up a target near where the first fence was and look for messages there occasionally. We will take messages from you when you leave supplies. Shall we go now?”

  Dawn said, “I will go with Gerald. Harmony, you stay here with Ronin and show him the house and let him clear his head.”

  Val grinned and said, “Yes! I told you about clearing his head before a battle, didn’t I? Help him get ready. We will be away for only twenty minutes.”

  The five of them left and Harmony and I shut the door behind them.

  Harmony spun to face me and leaned her back against the door. She smiled and put a finger to her lips and gave me a look up and down as if she were suddenly hungry for a dessert after a good meal.

  I said, “Harmony, do you want to show me our new home? We have to be quick about it. If there isn’t time, I understand and we can do it another day.”

  Harmony pounced and grabbed my hand and dragged me toward a set of stairs, saying , “Come on, I can show you my bedroom, at least.”

  We ran up the stairs and into the first room on the right and she threw open the door. The room was mall. Inside was a single bed, a window on the wall opposite the door that looked down on the courtyard, a small chest of drawers, a bedside table, and a little clothes closet. It was surprisingly sparse.

  Harmony closed the door behind us and said, “I don’t spend much time in here. Can we get undressed at least?”

  I said, “Harmony, we can do whatever you want to. This is the first moment that we have been alone together, and you must have questions and concerns.”

  She was already dropping her skirt and removing her vest as she said, “Nope. We were alone when you taught me about fighting. And the only question I have right now is do you love me?”