The Ward of Falkroy

by Loki Renard

  “Ephemeral and irrelevant,” Victoria said. “Magic is magic. It is the manipulation of the intangible that affects the physical. All those labels I just gave, that is what they are, labels. When I am finished training you, you will be able to enchant, conjure, soothsay, and hex with the best of them. But you must never claim the label witch, because dull people believe words have power and will punish you for using the wrong ones.”

  “Words don't have power?”

  “They have power of a kind, but it is not the kind you should concern yourself with. Leave words to the bards and the politicians and those who sell news as if it were a bawdy whore to be taken any which way the listener pleases. You should aim to be above words, Kelsie, so that they become lost when they seek to find you.”

  Kelsie gave her an awed look and Victoria knew she had made an impression. Unfortunately, that was not the same as having taught her anything.

  “That is enough for the evening,” Victoria said. “Time to take to your bed. We will no doubt start early in the morning. I will place a sealing spell on this room so none will come or go. Rest now.”

  She left Kelsie preparing herself for bed, cast the spell as she had promised and went to find Leo in the tavern. She spied him immediately, sitting between two serving wenches who were neglecting their duties in favor of the dark haired assassin.

  “It seems every young lady in the land seeks you out this evening,” Victoria said when she had chased the girls away with a glare.

  “Jealous, Victoria?” He smiled at her in that irritating way he had.

  “I know I have nothing to be jealous of,” she replied evenly.

  “Your lessons did not take long.”

  “There is no point filling her brain to the brim. A little at a time is the best way to educate a girl like Kelsie. Besides, she needs her rest after an exciting evening of education of a different kind.”

  “You object to my teaching her a little game? She has hardly had any time for recreation in her life, Victoria. A few hours respite will not harm her. It may even help her.”

  “Do I object?” Victoria mused. “I suppose I don't.”

  “Then I can only assume you are ornery as a result of not having rutted in quite some time.”

  She cast a searing look at him. “Impertinence, Falkroy!”

  “Truth,” he chuckled. “You need to be bound, thrashed and thoroughly ravaged to restore your temper. But I shall only do it if you ask me very nicely.”

  “Curse you, Falkroy,” Victoria replied.

  At times like this, his masculine presence was a distraction. Their hearts beat in tandem, but she could not risk coupling with Leo again. It never ended well. Their mutual antagonism always won out in the end.

  “You're tempted, aren't you, Lady Varys.” His smile was broad and confident.

  “I am tempted to turn your tongue into a toad for your impudence.”

  Leo's arm slid around her waist. She allowed the imposition. For a moment, she was not a sorceress. She was just a woman nestled against the large, firm body of a strong, dangerous man.

  “This is nice,” he murmured against her ear. “I have longed for you, Victoria. No woman warms my bed as you do.”

  She glanced across at him. “But they do warm your bed, don't they, Leo. Quite a number of them in quick succession.”

  “As men grace yours,” he said. “We neither of us are virgins. I do not hold your dalliances against you. I know what lies betwixt your thighs is uniquely mine in a way it could never be any other man's.”

  “You are arrogant, Leo.”

  What she did not add was that he was also right. He inflamed her passion in a particular way, having no fear of her as other men did. It was hard to find a cock that did not wilt in fear when the bearer discovered her true nature.

  Leo’s beard was rough against her skin as he pressed his lips to her temple with a gentle kiss.

  She allowed it, closing her eyes as his hand found her thigh under the table and slid up, feeling at her sex as if she were little more than a common wench. The immense familiarity and boldness struck her. They had not seen one another in months and yet he intended to fuck her that very night, she was sure of it.

  As his fingers stroked the golden down of her sex, his lips found her neck and he kissed along the line of it with no regard for who saw. All around them, village life went on. Gossip and carousing were the two most popular past times. Victoria was certain she was not the only woman being groped and fondled with only the barest veneer of subtlety.

  “We will have to find a hay loft or some other corner,” she murmured. “We cannot do this in our room with Kelsie sleeping.”

  “I could do as the soldiers do with the local wenches and take you into a bush,” Falkroy said, his finger running along the seam of her desire with a touch that inflamed her all the more. “Take you as a common maid, remind you of what you are beneath all that bluster and fire.”

  His lips found her throat just as his finger parted her lips and found the welling chalice of her...

  “Is that Kelsie?”

  Leo's hand stilled.

  It was Kelsie. She was wandering through the bar, drawing curious looks from all corners, most of whom were trying to work out if she were male or female thanks to her strange garb, Victoria reckoned. Though truly, there could be nothing less feminine than her whimsical little face surrounded by that cascade of dark hair.

  Leo's hand left Victoria's sex and Victoria felt her irritation grow. She had been about to allow him to take advantage of her, but now the moment had passed.

  She locked eyes with Kelsie and beckoned the girl over. Kelsie made her way through the crowd and hovered awkwardly next to their table, getting in everyone's way.

  “How did you get out, girl? I secured our room.”

  “I don't know, ma'am. I opened the door and uhm... it opened.”

  “I told you to go to bed. You should not have been opening doors at all.”

  “I grew lonesome, m'lady,” Kelsie said, lowering her head in shame. “I am sorry.”

  “She is old enough to have one drink in the tavern,” Leo said. “Let her be a woman, Victoria.”

  “Ah yes, because being a woman means carousing with commoners and assassins,” Victoria replied icily. “Kelsie, return to the chamber this instant!”

  “Stay if you like,” Leo interrupted. “She likes to tongue lash, but her bite isn't nearly as bad as her bark.”

  “Now you are outright lying to the girl. Listen to me, Kelsie,” Victoria purred angrily. “You answer to me, not to Leo. He does not tell you what you may or may not do. I do.”

  “Y... yes ma'am,” Kelsie trembled, sensing Victoria's anger quite obviously.

  “As for you, Falkroy, you will hold your tongue.”

  “I will not,” he replied. “You are overreacting.”

  “Overreacting?” Victoria's voice reached a new pitch.

  “I'm sorry,” Kelsie said, tears starting to form in her eyes. “I didn't mean to cause trouble, really, I didn't...”

  “You disobeyed me,” Victoria snarled. “I told you to go to bed and you came out here. You willfully ignored my order, you spoiled little brat.”

  Kelsie's tears began to trickle down her cheeks. Taking advantage of the moment, Victoria reached out with a soft cloth drawn from her bosom and wiped a few of them up. Now she had all she needed for the satyr. But it was not the satyr causing her the most trouble now.

  “Stop it, Victoria,” Falkroy interrupted. “You are making a scene.”

  “Making a scene! You encourage my apprentice to disobey me and accuse me of making a scene?! I will show you what a scene is!”

  Victoria raised her hand and a bolt of lightening crashed through the tavern, striking directly at Leo's feet. Cries of surprise and fear rippled through the crowd, which formed a wide circle around Victoria and Leo.

  “Dammit, Victoria! Behave yourself! You will not control me. I am not your puppet!”

 
“That is exactly what you are,” she said, her green eyes glittering. “You would have perished years ago had you not become my thrall. I allow you independence because it suits my fancy. But if I wished to have you crawl at my feet like a dog, I could have that just as easily.”

  “You're so mean!” Kelsie exclaimed, suddenly no longer quite so tearful or apologetic now that Falkroy was in the line of fire.

  “A sorceress is never mean, she is effective,” Victoria said, considering it a teaching moment.

  “If this is what being a sorceress is like, then I don't want to be a sorceress! I 'd rather sleep with pigs than turn out like you.”

  Stunned, Victoria stared at Kelsie for a full minute. So that was it. A few hours with Falkroy and the girl was already more loyal to him than to her. Victoria was quite furious at the turn of events, which left her quarreling with not one, but two people who owed her their lives. Their combined ingratitude astounded her. Falkroy was one thing. He at least was a man with some independence and power. But Kelsie? She had been so pitiful even the peasants looked down on her. And now she turned and bit the hand that fed her? Oh no.

  “Finally you find your tongue, and it is to lambast me, you ungrateful girl. Pigs make more sense when they squeal than you do. Go to bed this instant, before I take a lash to your hide!”

  Kelsie burst into fresh tears and ran away, heading blindly into the dense crowd.

  “Kelsie!” Leo followed after her.

  Victoria let them both go.

  ***

  “How can you stand her,” Kelsie sobbed as Leo caught her in his arms, preventing her from running out into the night. “She is so cruel.”

  “Easy,” Leo soothed. “Easy now.”

  She twisted in his grasp, not so much to fight away from him as to vent her frustration. She was terribly upset, tears running down her face in great streaming rivulets. Victoria's scorn was difficult to bear when she was attempting to be mild. The full force of her anger could make a grown man wither and poor Kelsie was utterly undone by it. It was not the words themselves that could cut so deep, but the fury with which Victoria spoke. She could make a king feel like a cockroach with one lift of a brow, and she had turned that power on poor Kelsie without warning.

  “She has a vicious tongue,” Leo agreed. “But hush now, we have made enough of a scene for one evening. Come and speak with me privately.”

  Settled by that prospect, Kelsie followed him obediently back into the room. Victoria was not there, and he did not anticipate her imminent return. When her temper flared, it could be some time before she calmed down - and there could be no doubt that she had lost her temper that night.

  “She called me ungrateful,” Kelsie sniffed. “Do you think I'm ungrateful?”

  “No, but you were disobedient,” he said gently. “And Victoria does not tolerate being disobeyed. Indeed, that is the reason we are on this very errand. Best you learn that now and save yourself her true wrath.”

  “What would that be? Turning me into a toad?”

  “I would not put it past her,” Leo said, gesturing toward one of the two beds in the room. “Lie down. You need your rest.”

  “Do you think she hates me now?” Kelsie asked the question in a small voice as she removed her boots and prepared to lay down as he had directed.

  “No,” he reassured her. “I think she is very fond of you.”

  “She has a strange way of showing it.”

  “She has a sorceress' way of showing it.”

  Kelsie lay down, one arm under the pillow, her head resting on it, gazing at him with big watery brown eyes as he sat on the other bed across the room.

  “Will I have to be a horrible person if I am to become one?”

  “I don't believe it is mandatory,” he chuckled. “Victoria is unique in the world. You will not become like her. You will become more like yourself, I think.”

  Kelsie's gaze swept over his face. “You love her, don't you.”

  “I do,” he nodded.

  “It must be hard, loving someone like her.”

  Leo chuckled and shook his head. That was the thing. It wasn't hard at all.

  Chapter Eight

  While her apprentice took solace with Leo, Victoria sat in a field outside the village, not afraid of the night as the peasants were. She looked into the sky and wondered if perhaps the fact that neither Kelsie nor Falkroy seemed to like her might have something to do with her own behavior. No, she decided. It was not she who was in the wrong. It was they. And the world with them.

  Times were changing. Sorceresses were no longer respected. In truth, respect itself seemed to be dwindling as a concept. Even kings could be cursed by peasants these days if they failed to please the lower classes with sufficient bread and mead. Samilton's fields were lying fallow long past the point where they would usually have been planted, the local farmers instead relying on the ration carts from Englred to keep the populace fed and watered.

  They did not seem to know or care from whence the food and drink came. They only cared that it came without the curse of labor. The tavern was full every night, and yet coin was dwindling. She saw the early signs of ruin among the people who were drinking what little remained of their cares away. Weakness was infiltrating the kingdom. She saw it everywhere she looked. And now her own apprentice and lover were weak too. Demanding “niceness”, as if it had ever been the responsibility of a sorceress to be nice.

  Victoria did not intend to be cruel, but she was a product of her time. A hundred years ago, being a sorceress meant being practically untouchable. Leo used to understand that. Now he seemed to expect her to be like every other Englred lady, just waiting for a man to cross her hearth and make her whole.

  Falkroy. Always bloody Falkroy. Their fates were inextricably intertwined and yet they could never seem to get along for long. From the very beginning, their association had been fraught with life and death dramatics. A soft smile played across her lips as she recalled the day fate had bound them for eternity.

  ***

  Many, many years earlier...

  “Give us your money and let us rut you and we might let you live.”

  A much younger, more tender Victoria forced a laugh as a stinking man breathed the foul words far too close to her face for any kind of comfort.

  He looked back at his comrades, somewhat disconcerted by her response.

  “You think we're joking, whore?”

  “No. I think you're stupid. Very stupid.”

  Deep in a forest far from any kind of lawful patrol, one might easily have mistaken young Victoria Varys for easy prey. The bandits surrounding her certainly had, at first at least. Now they shifted uneasily, put off by her haunting smile that reached nowhere near her eyes.

  “You think I came here alone for a walk for my health?” She smirked softly. “No, gentlemen. I came here to gather supplies.”

  “And what supplies might they be?”

  “Eyeballs, tongue and liver,” she said, her gaze cold. “That is to say, human eyeballs, tongues and livers. It looks as though I have found myself quite a crop. I shall eat well tonight, gentlemen.”

  The bandits stared at each other, mouths open in stricken horror as they realized that they were not the hunters in this little forest tableau. They were the prey.

  “Witch! She's a witch!”

  Some of them gripped their blades tighter, while several of them simply turned tail and ran. They would be the only ones to survive the coming minutes. The others, six or so, decided to fight. Six brawny men against one slim sorceress.

  The odds were not in Victoria's favor.

  She had lied about being out to gather human organs. Her presence in deep woods far from the king's settlements was a matter of very unfortunate necessity. She had crossed a monarch far more powerful than her and now his troops were beating bushes and questioning peasants up and down the Manatiki River.

  Knowing stockades and perhaps even gallows awaited her if she were to be caught, Victoria
had seen fit to make herself scarce. Unfortunately, that inevitably took her into the territory of other lawless people, most of whom were men starving for female company. She had avoided them as much as she could, but she could avoid them no longer.

  Her vocal gambit had failed miserably. She had hoped to make them all flee, but far too many had stayed to fight and where they had simply wanted her money and sex before, they were now determined to kill her.

  She had never seen such brutal vicious intent in the eyes of men before and though she put on a brave face she could not help the fear that overtook her - a fear so deep and complete it froze her entirely. As the men began their attack, that fear would not allow her to use her voice or twist the magic from deep within. She was as stunned as any doe caught in unexpected torch light.