Fay Tale - Chapter Thirty
In the end Maidd was not executed for dragging off nobility to feast on their livers. He wasn’t even arrested. Maidd suspected that had something to do with Zara showing up only a little after he did and calming the screaming servants and yelling men-at-arms who had been waving spears in his direction.
After all, what’s a little weaponry between friends?
It was mid-evening before he’d returned to the castle and was now headed to the royal wing. Putting the princess to bed had been the perfect excuse to run away from the party.
Maidd sighed as headed for the nearest stairwell. It was one thing to promise Zara he was going to help stop the King-Under-the-Hill. It was another thing altogether to do it.
And here I thought getting Lily to eat her vegetables would be the hardest task I had to deal with. Though to be fair to the princess she was easily a match for the King-Under-the-Hill in terms of stubbornness.
This is going to take every year of my thirty to manage. Maybe I’ll get lucky and get a few extra years from my human half to spend being tortured in a dungeon Under-the-Hill and-
You look even stupider than usual when you’re deep in thought.
Maidd was proud of the fact that he didn’t even flinch when the bat landed squarely on his head.
I was just thinking about how difficult you were to deal with and considered jumping off the nearest parapet just to avoid the annoyance of dealing with a certain royal pain, Maidd shot back.
You can’t jump now. All the money would be wasted on your present, Seris insisted.
My present?
I don’t think you deserve something so nice, but Angelis insisted. Now follow me while I let Angel know I found you.
Your wish is ever my command, the ogre replied.
Discipline me, daddy.
Maidd swatted the bat off his head with a grumble. Seris laughed at him as he curveted just out of reach before shifting back to stand on the walkway beside him.
“I’ll have you know legions are simply dying to discipline me,” Seris purred as he walked backwards with perfect balance in the dark.
“Oh, I’d be more than happy to discipline you. But my chains won’t be padded.”
“Please. We all know you adore me.”
“Oh yes, I adore the way you make a great, big scene every time you appear,” the ogre grumbled as he followed the prince into the tower. “That’s not a compliment,” he added as Seris preened.
“It absolutely is.”
“You’re a bad example to your daughter.”
“I am the most perfect example anyone could wish for.”
“Of how best to be an ass.”
“I’ll have you know I-”
The ogre shoved the prince down the stairs. Seris careened off the curved wall, flipped midair, and shifted back into a bat before flying over to squeak angrily at him.
“Go whine to Angel. He’s the only one who cares about your tantrums,” Maidd said as he continued to walk down the stairs.
The tiny bat jaw dropped, but Maidd ignored him and continued walking down the stone steps. He nodded to the guard stationed in a small alcove beside the exit. The guard very professionally nodded back quite as if he hadn’t heard the Royal Guardian pushing the Crown Prince down the stairs.
Maidd walked it into the princes’ royal wing and was immediately assaulted by a familiar shriek. Seris, who was now riding and pouting on his shoulder, immediately shifted and stepped forward to scoop up his child. Maidd took two large steps that carried him past the prince and scooped up Lily first as she flung herself into his arms.
“Welcome back, Maidd! We made you a present! It’s super shiny!”
“Liliana,” Angelis cautioned where he stood in the doorway to her room.
“I wasn’t gonna tell!”
“That’s because my baby is so smart,” Seris agreed, trying to tug her out of Maidd’s arms. The ogre simply held her over the vampire’s head which solicited shrieks of laughter from the princess.
“Maidd! Give me my child!”
“Brother behave,” Angel sighed, “or he may rethink our gift. Maidd, if you wouldn’t mind helping me put Liliana to bed before we discuss your gift?”
“Sure.”
Together they tag-teamed the end of day routine and soon the child was bathed, dried, and tucked into bed. Then it was Seris’s turn to lull her to sleep with his inane, but incredibly entertaining bedtime stories.
Angelis and Maidd adjourned to the ogre’s room to wait, and after another quarter-mark, Seris entered as well.
“Out like a satyr after a wine festival,” he said, making Angel chuckle.
The older prince sat on the only stool in the room while Maidd sat on the bed. Seris, of course, settled himself in his brother’s lap.
“So what’s this about a present?” the ogre asked.
“It’s something you’ll love. Trust me,” Seris preened.
“If you start to take off any clothing, I will kill you, Seris.”
“While that certainly would be a gift anyone sane desires-”
“I wonder if your blood will taste sweet because of all the fruit,” the ogre said thoughtfully, “you are what you eat after all.”
“If that were true, my bonded brother would be of a much different temperament,” Angelis sighed.
“Rude. Incredibly, inconceivably rude,” Seris grumped.
Angel ignored his rookery brother and stepped closer to Maidd.
“We have a question of a serious nature to ask of you, Maidd.”
“You can certainly ask,” the ogre replied.
“We desire to bond with you,” Angelis said with a smile.
Maidd’s jaw dropped.
“You…uh…I’m not really a threesome type of ogre.”
Both vampires blinked at him. Then Seris promptly fell off Lily’s bed as he roared with laughter. Even Angelis chuckled quietly which did not make Maidd feel any better.
“What?!” the ogre demanded.
“Bonding is not sexual in origin,” Angelis explained, taking pity on him.
“But you two are always touching and giving each other the googly eyes and I thought-”
“And who wouldn’t want to touch me?” Seris demanded.
“Pretty much everyone with taste really.”
“I beg your pardon?!” the vampire shrieked.
“Brother please concentrate on the matter at hand,” Angel said.
“So you two aren’t together, together?” the ogre demanded. “I thought, well…”
“Everyone assumes,” Seris said, tossing his hair back.
“And there is very little reason to correct them,” Angelis explained. “We are bonded. It is not a relationship which these human nobility are overly familiar with. It is much easier to let them presume we are a mated couple and to let them play their games against a nonexistence bond than to be constantly swatting them away from the one that does matter.”
“I see. I think,” the ogre said.
“Not that Angel wouldn’t love to sleep with me.”
“I sleep with you all the time, brother mine.”
“You know what I mean!”
“So steering the warship back on course,” Maidd interrupted, “a vampire bond is a bond not a sexual relationship. But you do want to bond with me. How does that work, exactly?”
“We’re not entirely certain, magically at least,” Angelis said, “since such bonds outside of vampiric circles are surpassingly rare. What is normally gained is the ability to speak mind-to-mind without physical contact, enhance one another’s magical gifts, and locate one another no matter the distance.”
“And if we can’t magically bond?” Maidd asked.
“Then it should do nothing,” Seris said. “This is not something I share lightly, especially because the non-magical are particularly queasy about anything which gives us Folk the advantage over them, but I have partially bonded to Lily.”
“Partially?”
“I can always locate her, but she can’t locate me or speak mind-to-mind.”
“I can see why that might set the nobility into further hysterics,” Maidd said dryly.
“Please understand it was done from the concern of Lily’s particular nature,” Angel said. “When she reaches her majority, Seris will complete the bond so that they will be more evenly balanced.”
Maidd thought about that for a bit before nodding.
“I can accept that. I can also understand how useful it would be for us to speak to and locate each other. I’m just not too sure it will work on an ogre.”
Especially a half-ogre. But I’m not quite ready to share that bit of news, Maidd thought.
“I can understand your hesitance, but we are fairly certain the bond will work given our mind-to-mind speech has been without issue or cause for concern.”
“Except for your idiocy, of course,” Seris added.
“Brother please. We are trying to convince him not insult him,” Angelis sighed.
“I’d be suspicious if the exalted crown prince were any less his delightful self,” Maidd assured.
“You hear that, Angel? I’m delightful.”
“To someone, somewhere, I’m sure,” Maidd added.
Angel tugged his brother back before he could take physical offense. Deprived of his chance for bloodshed, Seris showed a rude amount of fang instead. Maidd smiled back, ogre tusks considerably dwarfing the vampire’s elongated fangs.
“You two are worse than Bremen and Liliana,” Angel said, sighing deeply. “But Maidd, you must understand there is an emotional bond in addition to the magical one. It is similar to entering into a familial relationship. An adoption, if you will.”
“I see.”
His tone was perfectly neutral, but Angelis sensed they had suddenly lost ground with the Guardian.
“And if I say no?” Maidd asked, crossing his massive arms over his chest.
“A bond must be willing,” Angel said gently. “Or it will not take. That is fundamental to our rookery magic.”
“I’m going to need to think on it.”
“But-”
“You’re offering me a place in your family, Angelis,” Maidd said, rising off the bed. “Maybe that’s just part of the plan for you. A logical decision when you think about your precarious position with the king and keeping Liliana protected. But to me it’s not just some formal arrangement. A family isn’t…you can’t just buy me because it’s convenient.”
Both vampires shifted on the stool. There wasn’t any menace, exactly, but they both felt something old and corrupted seep out of Maidd in that moment.
It was Seris who gently tugged Angelis up and guided him out of the room. The crown prince stopped at the door and looked back at Maidd over his shoulder.
“Our offer stays open, Maidd. If you ever decide it’s something you want to do, tell me.”
Then Seris walked out of the room and shut the door behind him.
~~~
The next day found Maidd going through the motions of Guardianship but more than a little distracted. Neither Seris nor Angelis brought up the offer again, but Maidd couldn’t get it out of his mind.
It wasn’t until that night when Lily was getting ready for a bath did it come again. Not by the princes but princess herself when she tugged an ornately carved box out from underneath her pillow. It had enough magic runes on it to make Maidd sneeze.
“Uh, Lily, where did you get that?”
“From daddy’s room. It’s your present!”
Maidd’s heart sank.
“Lily…Maidd can’t accept the present.”
“Why not? Daddy and Angel made it for you!”
“I know that but…it’s a little complicated.”
Maidd sat on his stool and patted his knee. Lily climbed into his lap with the box held tightly against her chest.
“Maidd and Daddy and Angel had a talk about what the present meant, and Maidd decided it was too much responsibility for him. Your Daddy and Angel weren’t happy about it but they respect my decision.” For now.
“You got in a fight?” Lily asked quietly.
“Yeah, but that’s okay. Just because we ended up fighting doesn’t mean I’m going to leave. Life is full of disagreements with lots of people, even the ones you love. Even Bremen and Majesty end up fighting sometimes.”
“Really?”
“Really. I heard them once and it sounded scary, but because they love each other they worked it out,” Maidd assured
“So you’re going to join our family?” Lily asked eagerly.
“Well…no. Not yet.”
“But I love you!”
“I love you too, precious pup,” Maidd said softly. “I love you the most out of everyone in the castle.”
“The whole castle?!”
“Yep, the whole castle. The whole capital, in fact.”
“I love you as big as Eirendyr!”
“Well I love you from Grand Colc to Eirfayen,” he said, naming one point of the continent to the other.
Lily hesitated, thinking.
“I love you to the moons!”
“To the moons?! That’s a lot of love!”
Lily giggled and hugged him tightly.
“I do!”
The ogre hugged the tiny child back and smiled sadly.
“That makes Maidd very happy.”
“So why did you say no to daddy?”
“Because Maidd lost his last family,” the ogre sighed.
Lily peeked up at him, golden waves tangled together and somehow sporting a leaf even though they hadn’t been outside for candlemarks.
“Is Maidd sad?”
“Yeah, Maidd is sad.”
Lily squeezed him as tightly as she could manage.
“I’ll give Maidd hugs for the sad!”
“Thanks pup.”
Maidd gently patted her head and picked the leaf out.
“Hey!”
“Hey yourself.”
He showed her the leaf, making her giggle.
“So Maidd said no because he has to think about getting another family. He doesn’t want to be sad again.”
“But Daddy and Angel make me happy!”
“I have to make sure they’ll make me happy too. Not just Lily.”
The princess thought that through and nodded slowly.
“Okay. I’ll help you be happy and then you can join our family.”
“Okay. But until I do I think you should take the present back and put it where Daddy hid it, okay?”
“I can do that!”
“That’s because you’re super smart and sneaky.”
“The sneakiest,” she said proudly.
“Actually, I think Bremen is the sneakiest.”
“No he’s not!”
Thus began the argument which lasted through bath time and all the way up to the moment when the blue eyes finally closed. Maidd added a second blanket to ward off the increasingly chilly nights then sat beside the bed for awhile.
He’d been caught off guard by the princes’ offer, and he still wasn’t really sure what to make of it. Part of him was happy. Happy to be asked. To be wanted. But the other part of him knew from experience that blood and promises meant very little to someone like him.
“I’ll stay until you’re old enough to protect yourself, pup,” he whispered softly. “Bond or no bond.”
That decided Maidd got off the bed and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.