Fay Tale - Chapter Eighteen

“Majesty.”

The king slipped his quill into the ink to refill it.

“Majesty.”

The king slid the quill tip up the lip of the glass bottle to drain the excess ink and returned to writing in his document.

“Majesty!” Two brown ears poked up from the side of the desk.

Anand paused and the ears swiveled excitedly, but he simply blew on the ink to hasten the drying. Two blue eyes joined the ears at the edge of the desk as Bremen peered up at him.

“Majesty?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Whatever it is you wish the answer is no.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask,” the cat complained.

“I know that it will be ridiculous and unnecessary. Therefore the answer is no.”

Eyes and ears withdrew with a grumble.

They were gone for so long that Anand completely forgot about their presence as he burrowed into his work. Supplies and their costs were double and triple checked. Notes were jotted in a neat hand. When he felt his quill touch the bottom of the inkwell, the king paused only long enough to retrieve a new one from the compartments of his desk. He pried the cork out with a penknife then dipped his quill into the new bottle of ink just as a cold nose poked the back of his neck.

The king’s hand involuntarily jerked the quill out of the container, tipping the bottle over and spilling ink onto the desk’s contents.

“BREMEN!” Anand roared and the feline beat a hasty retreat from his perch on the back of the king’s chair.

The king snatched up the bottle, but the damage was already done. Ink soaked through the pages of his notes and the diagrams supplied by the dwarves. Anand growled words that would have sent his nobles into hysterics as he dumped the whole mess into the wastebasket. He wiped up the excess ink with a rag then scrubbed his own stained hands before adding it to the growing pile in his wastebasket.

The king stood stalked into his bedroom, grabbed an overcoat, and shrugged into it.

“I am going out,” he snapped at the brown tail that protruded out from under the bed.

The tail scooted out of sight as the king walked past. With a final, quelling look Anand left his suite of rooms and limped off down the corridor.

His expression warned his royal guard not to speak to him, and they wisely acknowledged his presence with a simple salute before returning to their former positions. Servants scattered before him like pigeons. There were no nobles to be found.

Frowning at the lack, Anand almost went to check on his court but decided against it. Seris would handle them. He would just have to deal with the complaints of how his prince handled them when he returned.

Instead, his steps turned toward the castle gardens where he might find a modicum of quiet privacy in the midst of the bustling castle. Both bush and tree were still heavy with leaves, but the glints of brown among the green held the promise of fall rapidly approaching.

As the king limped through the hedge maze, the stiffness slowly eased from his body. By the time he’d completed a slow circuit through the gardens, he was ready to admit that Bremen’s attempt to get him out of his chambers, ill-favored though it was, had been a practical one.

Stones baked hot in the summer sun were still unwilling to give way to autumn’s cooler air, but the inner part of the castle was mercifully cool, the heat unable to penetrate straight through the great stones from which the citadel had been built. A certain relief in the summer but absolute torment in the winter when roaring fires warmed only a fraction of the rooms they burned in.

His knee throbbed at the memory, and Anand made his way back toward the shade of one of the walkways only to pause as a blast of hot air swept into his path. Anand shaded his eyes as the wisp whipped around him, ruffling his overcoat and hair. When the elemental refused to move on, the king bent and plucked a few leaves from the nearest bush. Satisfied it was being taken seriously, the wisp backed away as the king set one leaf on his open palm

“You have a message from Lady Aisha,” he said aloud.

No wind stirred the leaf.

“Does the Lady wish to see me?”

Again no wind.

“Is she in her chambers?”

A quick puff of air blew the leaf off Anand’s hand. He placed another leaf on his palm and tried again.

“Are you here to escort me to her?”

This time the leaf stayed where it was.

“Is this an urgent request?”

The wisp didn’t bother with the leaf but shot behind the king and buffeted him forward, forcing Anand to take a few quick steps to avoid falling on his face. Satisfied the king was moving, the wisp shot ahead down the covered walkway. Since it was an urgent matter, Anand did not berate the wisp but followed as quickly as his leg would allow after it.

~~~

Lady Aisha watched the combatants circle each other warily. Hoofsbane had taken first blood, but it was a comparative scratch to his opponent. She could tell the centaur had quickly reassessed the strength of his opponent by the quick, cautious jabs he sent the ogre’s way. Every strike was now calculated in strength and impact.

Maidd, however, was in no mood for caution. He surged forward, diving past the blade of the lance, and jabbing the tip of his quarterstaff into meat of the centaur’s lower shoulder. His staff moved again, and Hoofsbane danced backwards.

As the centaur retreated before the onslaught, the Lady’s eyes glinted as she saw several possible futures unfold at once. She was still blinking away the visions when Hoofsbane stumbled, matching the future where he lost. Maidd leapt in, swinging his quarterstaff toward the centaur’s head.

Hoofsbane ducked, changing the future yet again, then stabbed wildly with his lance. The strike was weak and off-balance, but Maidd’s dodge brought him out of striking range of the centaur’s vulnerable head. And into range of the formidable back hooves. They lashed out and slammed into Maidd’s chest.

There was a loud crack as something broke, and the onlookers winced as Maidd flew backwards. He hit the ground hard and lay there, unmoving.

Hoofsbane regripped his lance then charged after him. The ogre lay still as his death galloped closer, and Aisha saw Angelis cover the eyes of the princess to keep her from watching.

He need not have bothered.

The Lady watched with a faintly approving smile as the ogre lifted his arms at the last moment, holding up the crossed segments of his broken staff. His timing was perfect and the lance sailed gracefully over his body to crunch into the stone behind. The metal tip cracked and broke, leaving the centaur with a blunted weapon.

Hoofsbane lifted the lance overhead, meaning to plunge it straight down this time, but Maidd smacked one half of the broken staff against the tender anklebones of the centaur’s leg. Hoofsbane bellowed with pain and danced away. Maidd scrambled to his feet out of the reach of the wicked hooves and danger of being trampled. But instead of retreating he shot forward, throwing one piece of his staff like a short spear.

The centaur dodged, but his injured leg gave out. He stumbled just as Maidd launched himself into the air. The ogre slammed into the front quarters and upper torso of the centaur. Both fighters fell to the ground.

The disadvantage of the stallion half of the centaur was now clear. Hoofsbane could do no more than writhe on the ground while Maidd wrapped an arm around the neck of his opponent. He snapped the centaur’s head back and pressed the cracked end of his remaining quarterstaff against the exposed throat.

“Yield!”

The entire assembly went silent.

Hoofsbane struggled a moment longer, but he could not lift himself up with the weight of the ogre pressing down on him. Maidd gave him extra encouragement by pressing the splinters of his staff into the thin skin of his neck, drawing blood.

“I...yield.”

There were no cheers for the ogre’s victory. When the silence threatened to stretch, Lady Aisha sent a spark of magic to goad the herald into speech.

“The match is finished!” he announced belatedly. “The ogre Maidd has claimed victory!”

There was a small cheer from the royal seats, and everyone turned to see the princess of Eirendyr sail over the barricade. She hit the ground on hands and feet then scrabbled upright and ran toward the two fighters. Maidd abruptly released the centaur and rolled away.

Hoofsbane wasted no time in getting clumsily to his feet as the princess approached.

“Hi Hoofsbane! You okay?”

“I will be fine,” he replied stiffly.

“Good. I’m really glad Maidd didn’t hit your head.” She beamed up at him then turned and launched herself at her Guardian. “Maidd you won! You were really good! You went smack smack and you rolled and I thought your arm was broken!”

“Bruised only princess. The Commander is a good fighter.” He glanced up at the centaur who watched them narrowly. “It was an honor to have fought him.”

Hoofsbane abruptly bowed.

“The honor is mine,” he replied before turning away.

“I think he likes you,” Lily said as the centaur limped off.

“Maybe so.”

Maidd scooped up the princess who continued chattering about the fight. The ogre bowed to the vampire princes who were still staring at him then walked to the barricade and vaulted over. The crowd parted abruptly and Maidd walked out of the courtyard with his princess.

The moment they were gone the assembly burst into excited chatter. Lady Aisha stood up from her chair and made her way through the seating area, occasionally nudging an oblivious citizen out of her way with a bit of magic. She passed two guardsmen at the foot of a set of stairs, which led up to the balcony ringing the courtyard below. They nodded to her in acknowledgement then turned their attention back to the crowd.

The pads of her feet pressed against the warm stone as she climbed the steps to the top. Following the tug of her magic, she made her way to the far side of the balcony. There was a slight haze in the air beside one of the supporting pillars and she stopped beside it.

“What did you think of the match, Your Majesty?”