The Ward of Falkroy Page 4

“Randy little shit,” Victoria laughed. “Well, what can one expect? Let us go and take him.”

  “Tell me what your intentions are towards the girl,” Leo said as they rode. “I've never known you to want an apprentice.”

  “It is my duty to train the blood,” she said. “I do my duty, Leo.”

  “Pardon my ignorance, but she doesn't seem particularly magical,” he observed.

  “Her powers remain latent,” Victoria explained. “For the moment her power is sporadic, uncontrollable. No matter the strength of her blood, no sorceress comes into her full power until she has come into her sexual awakening as well.”

  “You mean until she has lost her virginity,” Leo said.

  “It is much the same thing. Furious masturbation does not seem to do it, so yes, I suppose one could say that a cock must be involved somewhere along the line.”

  He snorted at her dry turn of phrase. “So then, it is a matter of having her mated.”

  “Having her mated? You talk about her as if she were a prize dog.”

  “I'm merely following your line of reasoning, Lady Varys,” Leo said with a slight frown.

  “She will pick a mate at a time of her own choosing,” Victoria said. “Until that time, she remains in a far more trainable, containable state.”

  “Ah I see. You like your little virgin maid. She cannot challenge you as long as she remains untouched.”

  “She could not challenge me if she were touched by every man in the land,” Victoria snapped. “She is a pig herd...”

  “Yes, so you say. But I see the concern in your eyes when you watch her. Something about Kelsie troubles you.”

  “It does,” Victoria admitted. “But I am not worried about her. I am worried about myself. I rode out to do my duty. All childless women of the blood must make an attempt once a year to find another of the lineage. I did not intend on actually finding a girl... I worry I am not cut out to be... whatever it is she will need me to be. She was an orphan child, but she is grown. What lack has that left in her heart? Her poverty should have dulled her mind, but it has not, and though she is obedient now, I detect the stirrings of a headstrong character...”

  “As is practically mandatory in sorceresses,” Leo added with a smirk.

  “Yes... but...” Victoria clamped her lips together. “I don't know why I am speaking of such matters with such a foolish boy.”

  “Because you have nobody else to discuss them with,” he said as their horses slowed to a leisurely trot. “So go on, talk.”

  “She is past the age of molding, and yet she must be molded. I confess, I do not know how to do that.”

  “By engaging her respect, which you already have,” he said. “Kelsie adores you, Victoria. When you sweep into a room it is as though an empress has arrived. She would lay flat on her face for you if you were to command it. I am truly not certain what you are so afraid of.”

  “I am afraid I found her too late. Had I found her at twelve... perhaps I could have done something for her. But now... she is a grown woman. Her talents have been latent so long I do not know if she will ever have conscious control of them.”

  Leo mused on her words for a long minute before speaking.

  “We train assassins at no earlier than twenty five years of age,” he said. “Young men are useless pups. They can learn the skills of soldiering, and fight a war or two, even distinguish themselves in battle, become heroes to their holds and hearths - but it is not until the middle of their twenties, or even later, that they find any center within themselves, the discipline it takes to truly follow our creed. We can indoctrinate younger men, but the assassin's guild requires more than indoctrination. It requires an active, experienced mind. We have taken younger men and all we ever achieved was having to beat them and drag them out of danger until they reached the point of maturity themselves.”

  “So I think she is too old, but you think she is too young?”

  “I do,” he said, scratching the dark stubble of his beard.

  “She is eighteen years of age. Most are mothers several times over by then. There have been younger queens!”

  “But not sorceresses,” he said. “You're almost a hundred years old, Victoria, and you are still a young sorceress...”

  “And you a mere hundred and one,” she smirked. “Dancing on my magic string...” she broke off as his expression became thunderous.

  “As I say,” he continued. “The more complex a calling, the more morally rigorous it must be, the older a person needs to be in order to truly understand what it is they are undertaking. Magic is the art of understanding, and Kelsie is a little peasant girl who yes, could have been bred a half dozen times already, but hasn't been. Innocence hangs about her like the dew...”

  “Very poetic, Falkroy.” Victoria's green eyes glittered at him. “You glance at her often, I notice. Is it the dew that draws you?”

  He cocked his head and allowed a smile to play about his lips. “Jealousy does not become you, Victoria.”

  “It is not jealousy. It is mere curiosity. I wonder at your tastes sometimes, Falkroy... they are so eclectic.”

  “I have had a great deal of time to indulge them... but I will not with Kelsie, if that is what you were thinking, Lady Varys. She is far too innocent for my tastes.”

  “You do not wish to defile her, how sweet,” Victoria smiled. “It seems I may have my virgin apprentice for some time yet.”

  “Hush!” Leo suddenly hissed the word and held his hand up, drawing his horse to a halt.

  A thin cry in the distance drew their attentions. They began to move toward it at a walk, then as the cry grew louder, at an increased pace.

  They burst through bushes, up to a hillock and looked down at what could only be described as an orgy. There were no fewer than five naked young women cavorting upon the grass, their cries not of danger or pain, but of ecstasy. They were touching one another with great abandon, kissing and writhing as if they were unable to control themselves. Sex was in the air, the breeze wafting soft gusts of pheromone laden air toward the lord and lady.

  It took a moment, but they saw the satyr himself. He was human from the cock up, goat legged from there on down. The spell seemed to be leaving him in slow degrees, a pair of neat horns nestled in his brown curling locks. He left the cave and went to sit on the grass, where the young women immediately went to him, crawling with swaying breasts toward the errant prince.

  “You'll not pull him away from that scene easily,” Leo chuckled as the greediest of the lot fastened her lips around his cock.

  “He will not have a choice,” Victoria said, her eyes glittering with something like amusement. “I need to make some preparations, but as soon as I have, we can return here and disband whatever one might call this. Return to the tavern and watch over Kelsie for me, Falkroy. Teach her something useful. I will gather the necessary supplies and return to you soon.”

  ***

  “Where's Lady Varys?”

  The first question out of Kelsie's mouth when Leo returned to the tavern was an inquiry as to Victoria. The girl was quite fascinated with her mistress, Leo noted. A good thing, given how demanding Victoria could be. If that fascination turned into loyalty, she might yet survive her training.

  “Collecting a few things,” he said. “You'll have to tolerate my presence.”

  Kelsie smiled prettily, her cheeks flushing pink. “Your presence is nice.”

  “Good,” he smirked. “Now. As Lady Varys has charged me with your instruction for the afternoon, what shall I teach you?”

  She gave a wordless shrug and looked at him with innocent eyes.

  “Perhaps we should start with what you know,” he suggested. “Tell me, what is the name of the kingdom?”

  Kelsie screwed up her nose and shook her head. “Uhmm...”

  “It's alright if you don't know, I can't imagine the pigs taught much geography.”

  “It's Teroa,” she said with a little scowl. “I'm not utterly stupid.”


  “I never said you were,” he replied calmly. “But there are plenty of people who don't know the official names for these lands.”

  “My mother did teach me some things before she died,” Kelsie replied. “She made sure I at least knew the name of the kingdom.”

  “And the names of the other kingdoms?”

  “I think... I don't know. She probably told me, but... I forgot. I've forgotten so much about her...”

  A pall of sadness fell over the room at the mention of her mother.

  “Let me show you the world as it is,” he said. “So you might understand where it is we are and where you might be going.”

  He drew a map by hand, using a piece of cool charcoal on the top of the table. One kingdom surrounded by six others, irregular shapes and sizes, but orbiting the large squiggle. He drew a large cross two thirds of the way down the circular squiggle and pointed to it.

  “That is Englred City,” he said. “It lies in the largest and richest of the seven kingdoms, Teroa.”

  “I thought it was supposed to be in the middle,” she frowned.

  “Ask anyone who lives there, and it is. But try to follow a map and you'll find it's actually not all that far from the borders of Uhr.” He marked another cross farther down toward the lower tip of the southernmost kingdom. “This is Sellington, capital of Uhr. This is where I usually reside.”

  “You don't live in Englred?”

  “No,” he said, noting her look of disappointment. Moving on quickly, he made two smaller strokes, one to the up and left of Englred, the other further south and further away. “This one,” he said, pointing to the second mark, is where we are now.”

  “And the other one?”

  “That's Kinleigh, or near enough abouts,” he said. “Your village is quite near the border with the kingdom of Issland. But for the mountain ranges, you'd be neighbors. The western kingdom is much more elevated than the rest and is freezing as a result. The mountains keep the worst of the weather from spilling into the central plateaus which enjoy the best land for forests and farming alike.”

  From there he went around clockwise from Issland, naming the kingdoms as he went. “Hundvald, where the men are wild, Fissland, where the waters are rich, Varys...”

  “... where Lady Varys comes from?”

  “Oh yes. Royal blood flows in her veins,” Leo said with a chuckle. “She will never forget it – nor let anyone else forget it either.”

  His finger moved down to the narrow kingdom below. “Set, he said. A dangerous place, very hot and full of incredible warriors. The black river prevents invasions and incursions into Teroa and Uhr for the most part.”

  “And Varys?”

  “That border is held with the force of magic – and that, Kelsie, is why sorcery is so important. Teroa is a rich land in the very center of much more difficult terrain. If it weren't for sorceresses like Lady Varys, the Englreds would likely fall as many kings have before them.”

  “Lady Varys helps maintain the borders?”

  “Yes,” he chuckled. “When she's not tormenting princes, she's keeping the world safe.”

  He watched as Kelsie digested the information. It was easy to see how someone could mistake Victoria as being nothing more than a troublemaker, but the reality of the situation was that she expended a great deal of energy keeping the kingdoms from tearing themselves apart. Her work was as serious as that of any general, and that was why she was forgiven the occasional goat incident. Without Victoria Varys, there was no Teroa. Without Teroa, there was no Englred.

  Kelsie's tongue stammered into life. “Does that mean... I'll have to keep the world safe one day?”

  She looked thoroughly daunted, and for good reason.

  “One day,” Leo said, reaching out to muss her dark locks. “For the moment, we've got some time off. How about a game?”

  “A game?” Her eyes lit up. “What kind of game?”

  Chapter Seven

  It was past sunset when Victoria returned to the tavern. Some of the ingredients had been challenging to harvest. She still needed one last ingredient, tears of a virgin, to turn a horny little prick like the satyr back into a horny prince. Fortunately for their mission, Victoria knew where a virgin was and had a long history of making girls cry.

  She made her way upstairs to the small hall and stopped outside the door of the room she shared with Leo and Kelsie. She could not wait to return to Englred, where she would have her own space and her own bed.

  There was laughter coming from within the room, a girlish peal of amusement, and a lower rumbling chuckle. Victoria opened the door a sliver and peeked in to see Kelsie and Leo sitting cross legged in front of one another, playing at cards.

  “You're cheating!” Kelsie laughed, dashing her cards at Leo's armored chest.

  The simple peasant girl had no idea who she was playing with. Hundreds had fallen to Leo's blade. He was quite possibly the most dangerous man in all seven kingdoms. But in that moment he was simply a man playing cards with a maiden. Victoria smiled to herself, seeing how even a man like Falkroy could be transformed by a woman's gaze. Kelsie was softening Leo. She hoped it was not a permanent effect.

  “Now now,” he chuckled. “You must not be a sore loser. Your cards were not weak. It was how you played them.”

  “I never played cards before,” Kelsie complained. “So how am I supposed to know how?”

  “I thought I left you with the task of teaching her something useful,” Victoria purred as she entered the room. “Not wasting her time with cards.”

  “I don't know your history nearly as well as I know the cards,” Leo smiled, gathering his pack. “And I'm no tutor, as you well know Lady Varys. I don’t seem to have taught you anything in the time I’ve known you.”

  Victoria allowed herself a thin lipped smile. It did not escape her attention that upon her entrance, Kelsie's face had fallen, as if she were wondering if she were in trouble. She had withdrawn into herself and had lowered her head as if to avoid being seen.

  Of course the girl preferred Leo. He asked little of her and certainly did not incessantly fill her head with boring history lessons. He played cards and acted as confidante. They were becoming best friends, he and Kelsie. It was all very tiresome. Kelsie should have been in Englred learning in a contained environment. She should be wearing appropriate gowns and picking up the finer points of femininity instead she was dressed like a young soldier boy and learning the tricks and games common to them as well.

  Falkroy was proving to be quite a thorn in Victoria's side. As fond as she was of the assassin, he had managed to arrive at precisely the wrong time. As he always did.

  “I am going to imbibe in the tavern,” he said, standing and stretching. “I will leave you to your mistress, Kelsie.”

  “I see you have overcome your fear of Falkroy,” Victoria noted when he had departed, crossing the room to elegantly drape her frame into an armchair.

  She nodded, her head still down, her dark locks a mysterious cascade between them. “I like him. He looks scary, but he has been nice to me.”

  “Sometimes,” Victoria admitted. “He is nice sometimes. Sometimes he's very nice,” she smirked.

  Kelsie looked up under her lashes. “Is he... is he your....”

  “That is an impertinent question,” Victoria said swiftly. “And I'll thank you not to form it.”

  “Sorry, m'lady,” Kelsie muttered.

  “You, my girl, have talent that needs to be tended to. Worry less about roguish men and more about your own abilities.”

  “Oh, Lady Varys!” Kelsie blushed. “I wasn't... I wasn't... worrying about him. I was worrying about... well... nothing m'lady.”

  “See that you don't. The very last thing you should be doing is worrying about anyone besides yourself. Even then I wouldn't encourage it, as it tends to be more of a distraction than a help. Have you been paying attention to our conversations during our travels, Kelsie?”

  “Of course, m'lady.”

&nb
sp; “So you will be able to tell me what the difference is between elemental magic and witchcraft.”

  “Elemental magic draws on the embodiment of elements,” Kelsie said dutifully. “Whereas witchcraft...”

  “Will earn you a hot stake and a flaming pile of sticks,” Victoria interrupted. “Witches are burned, Kelsie. They have been burned in every place, every time, every world, every story. So you may be an enchantress, or a sorceress, you can be a soothsayeress or a shamaness, you could be a conjuress or a clairvoyant. But you must never, ever, be a witch.”

  An expression of confusion crossed Kelsie's face. “So the real difference between those things is...”