Terrible Company - Chapter 13 - Part 3

Chapter 13 - Part 3

"Bring him to me."

The Queen lounged on her lavish bed, an expanse of down and satin. Her eyes were large and ravenous, projecting confidence she held in herself, in her power, and in her body. At her command, two handmaidens crawled off of Ayen, one from his face and one from his middle. Ayen lay there, spent, in the middle of the room on a makeshift pallet of blankets and pillows, and when two of the guardsmen stepped forward to lift him, he had no strength in his legs. They carried him between them to the foot of the bed, and the Queen's unadorned coterie gathered behind.

"Now!" Katsa yelled.

Val broke open the double doors with a mighty kick, sending both flying apart with an irreparable bend to them. As soon as the path was clear, Katsa hurled a swirling purple vial past her, right into the center of the crowd where it struck one of the guards holding Ayen, and the center of the room erupted in smoke.

It felt like an eternity... No. It was an eternity as Ivy waited for the cloud to dissipate.

Ayen stumbled out of the hazy gray, coughing harshly. He looked down at his hands, and even though his respiratory system was in full revolt, his eyes betrayed the deep shock at what he saw. Val surged forward, surprising him again, and ran him through with a long dagger. He stared up at her, jaw slack, blood spilling over his lip, in complete disarray.

Even as Ayen fell to his knees, light fading from his gaze, Ayen stumbled out of the thinning fog further across the room. And then another. And then another. And as the air began to clear, many Ayen stared back at them and at each other. All of them nude. They grasped their chests, and they took hold of their cocks, and they gaped at each other. Ten of them, counting the one at Val's feet. All of them completely identical.

"And that is how you use Polymorph," Katsa cried, though no sooner were the words out of her mouth than her breath caught in the throat, because behind them all, in a clear void within the smoke, stood the Queen, her arms extended and her eyes full of malice. The little blonde's voice quivered, nearly breaking, as she hissed, "She's an Elementalist!"

Ivy had never seen an elementalist. Only elves were able to call upon the elements directly, as compared to the way Katsa and other arcanists manipulated them with equations and secret words, and even among the elves it was a rare talent.

The Queen stood, rising above the heads of the many Ayen before her, and glared at them imperiously. It was truly an awe-inspiring sight.

Katsa was the first to regain her senses, reaching forward with one hand and touching one of the embroidered patches on her glove with the other. A ball of fire several feet in diameter issued forth, soaring across the room and impacting spectacularly against the Queen's impenetrable barrier of air, but the Queen's smugness was replaced with horror when the reflected explosion sent the host of Ayen crashing forward. Those who had been nearest to her were engulfed in righteous flame, flailing in the throes of excruciating agony.

"Noo!" Queen Lisbet screamed, staring back and forth at the indistinguishable bodies before her. "What have you done?!"

"Smoke bomb!" Ivy cried, as she threw one straight down at her feet.

"Nooo!"

Val, Katsa, and Ivy raced back out of the royal chambers, with the lifeless body of Ayen cradled in the Orc's arms.

"Smoke bomb! Smoke bomb! Smoke bomb!!"

Ivy threw them everywhere, sowing misdirection and confusion to slow any pursuing force. As they neared the front gates of the castle itself, the three of them began shouting "The King is dead!" at the tops of their lungs, and Val dropped Ayen's body in a crumpled heap in the middle of the great hall of the royal castle of Winternia.

---

Mathilda blinked as she stared at Ivy. She probed the inside of her cheek with her tongue, and then half-turned to Val. "Is any 'o tha' even remo'ly true?"

Val nodded, though her eyes stayed forward on the road. "More than I'd like to admit."

"Huh."

"More water?" Ivy asked brightly.

Mathilda nodded, and leaned back against the side of the cart to drink. Val stuck two fingers into her mouth, piercing the air with a terrific whistle, and Katsa wheeled around on her horse.

The dwarf sat back with a sigh. "S'then wot 'appened?"

"We hurried back to our room, scooped you up, and fled the city just ahead of what promised to be some pretty neat rioting!"

"Is it over?" Katsa asked, as she pulled up alongside the cart. Val gave her a nod, and the arcanist shook her head in exhausted frustration. "I can't wait to be done with this whole stupid country. I am never coming back here."

"I was against coming here the whole time," Val replied, "and I won't miss it one bit."

"How far to the nearest town?"

"We'll get there tomorrow night," Ivy said brightly.

Mathilda tried to lick her lips, but her mouth was dry.

"I don't care what you guys say," the orc scoffed. "I'm building a big fire tonight. It is too cold to try and get away with another one of those little rinky dink cookfires."

"Ye jus' left 'im on the floor there?"

"Well yeah," Katsa said. "They had to see the body or they'd have just kept coming for us."

" 'e deserved better'n 'at!"

"That guy was a piece-of-shit lowlife," Val chortled. "He was no better than the rest of them."

Mathilda made a squawking noise in shock.

"That reminds me. Did anyone have 'destabilizing a nation' on their bucket list bingo sheet?"

"I did," came Ayen's muffled voice from beneath the pile of waterskins.

Mathilda shrieked, heels scrabbling against the floorboards of the cart, as she backed herself as far away from the pile as she could get. Deep inside the pile, Ayen chuckled.

" 'e's alive?!"

The bard frowned in thought. "Did I not mention that?"

"No, ye mos' cer'ainly did no'!!"

"I was sure that I did."

"Nope."

Ivy rummaged through her pack, which was in reality just a large bag full of hats, and withdrew a long green cap with a yellow feather in it. After situating it properly on top of her red curls, with the pointed end ever so slightly off center, she sat in thought. "You're right," she said, after several seconds. "I did not."

Val and Mathilda shared a bewildered look.

"Please don't ask," Katsa whined.

"Why not?"

"You are enabling this insanity."

"Lass," the dark-haired dwarf said, "wha' ha' was tha'?"

"Secretary hat," Ivy said, removing it and sliding it back into her bag. "Had to check the minutes."

"And you needed to actually put on the hat for that?" the Arcanist sniped.

"Most definitely!"

"Why do we let her be in charge?"

Val laughed. "I love it when you get all jealous and petty."

"I'm not jealous," Ivy said.

"Maybe this is my time," Ayen said, from his hiding spot under the piles of water skins. "I was just starting to get used to a little power. Maybe I should take a leadership role in Terrible Company."

"Not just yet, your highness" Val said. "Trouble ahead. Stay under there."

Mathilda looked ahead and frowned.

"I don't see anything," Ivy said, craning her neck this way and that.

"No, they're right up there."

"I see them too...?" The arcanist frowned and shrugged.

"I think those are just more trees," the bard said, squinting.

"No, it's definitely guards." Val bit down on her hand. "They look like they might give us trouble. Stay in there, Ayen, and uh... Ivy, why don't you go ahead and bring the girls out."

"Okay," Ivy said, as she looked down and started working on her buttons. "Better safe than sorry."

"There's no guards out there," Ayen said.

"You hope."

Ayen sighed under the pile. "Why did I want to come back here?"

---

As promised, the bonfire that night was towering. Everyone else seemed themselves. After days on the road heading south they'd moved out of the bitterness that had gripped the capital city, but there was still a crispness in the air that Mathilda had a hard time shaking. It was tough for her to tell how much of her lethargy was from the weather or leftover from days in a coma, and how much was her own inner turmoil. Like most dwarves, though, Mathilda had an extremely short emotional refractory period, and by the time dinner was ready the Healer was feeling more like herself.

"Who decided tha' the plural of Ayen is Ayen?" she asked, around a mouthful of stew.

"I did," Ivy said excitedly.

Val shook her head, and Katsa made a frustrated sound.

"I approve of this," Ayen proclaimed. "It sounds... regal."

"Isn't that a characteristic you want to be distancing yourself from?" Val laughed.

"At this point," he said, leaning back, "I think I'm in the clear."

"Ah still don' understan' 'ow you lo' didn' kill 'im."

"Who?" Ayen asked. "Me?"

"Yeah, when the little firebug se' the room ablaze."

"Oh, I was long gone. Every member of the Thief's Guild knows what to do when a smoke bomb goes off. It's like reflex."

"Isn't it a thieves-" Katsa started, but Val cut her off with a hand across her chest.

"Just don't," the big orc said, shaking her head.

"So ye ran away," Mathilda said.

"Oh absolutely."

"Bu'ow did you knew 'e was gone?" she asked, turning to the Arcanist. "If they all looked th'same."

"Your accent is so weird," Katsa said, frowning.

"There were seven guards," the orc said, leaning forward. "Then there were three of the girls, the Queen, and Ayen. One was missing after the smoke cleared. It was just the queen and ten Ayen."

Mathilda frowned and counted on her fingers.

"By the way," Ayen said, leaning forward with elbows on his knees. "How did you do that?"

Katsa blinked and licked her lips. "Do what now?"

"Make all those people look like me."

The blonde paused with her spoon just in front of her mouth and smiled. "...Magic?"

"So can you just make anything look like anything else at any time?"

Katsa chewed slowly. "... I mean... with the proper materials? Yes?"

"Why does it sound like you're hiding something?" Val said, smirking.

"I'm not," Katsa squeaked.

"You don't have, like, a stash of Ayen's hair, don't you?"

Katsa sat up very straight, composing herself. "Actually-"

Ayen, Mathilda, and Val launched to their feet, groaning variations on the theme of 'Ew!".

Ivy took another bite of the stew before her expression twisted sourly, and she extended the tip of her tongue through her lips.

"All of us?" the big orc asked incredulously.

"It's for your own protection," Katsa said evenly. "You never know I might need to-"

"Gross," Mathilda said. "Jus' gross."

"I've been reclaiming them from brushes and combs," the Arcanist said louder. "They're all ethically harvested."

The bard's eyes crossed as she reached down and pinched her nails at her tongue, pulling a long red hair from her mouth. She blinked at it before turning to offer it to Katsa, who in turn snatched it after a moment of nervous inaction.

"You'll all be thanking me" Katsa muttered, as she carried the red strand, out at arm's length, over toward her pack.

After a minute, Val got up, scooped the little blonde up under her arm, and carried her squealing into the darkness.

Ivy squirmed, listening to Katsa's obviously-feigned cries of indignation, and scurried off after them.

Ayen sat next to the fire whittling, as he often did in the evenings, and he didn't seem surprised at all when Mathilda came around to sit next to him.

"Ye alrigh'?" she asked, handing him a bottle.

"Yeah." The half-elf put down his knife and half-finished piece, uncorked the liquor, and then held it up. "I suppose this is all the apology I'm going to get?"

Mathilda rolled her eyes, but then watched with a knowing smirk as Ayen took an exploratory sip. The burn, as it slid down his throat, was a little more he'd seemingly been expecting, and he coughed twice with a shine in his eye.

"The good stuff," he wheezed.

"Ye look good," Mathilda said, reaching over to run the tip of her finger through his shortened hair. "Did she 'ave ye groomed?"

The thief cleared his throat. "She's a woman of particular tastes."

"Sorry abou' yer mum."

Mathilda frowned briefly, regretting being so blunt but seeing little value in berating herself after the fact, and dug the heel of her boot into the dirt.

Ayen looked down into the bottle for a moment, and then took a long swig. And then another, longer one. "There's a... " He coughed again. "There's a special kind of..."

The fire crackled fiercely, sending embers up into the night sky. They rose, lighter than the air around them, until they were indistinguishable from the stars beyond.

"It leaves a hole. You know?"

Mathilda looked over, her expression neutral.

"When the people who... who are supposed to care for you the most, and teach you, and... and... and when they manipulate you? And take advantage of you? It..."

"Ah think Ah ge' i'," Mathilda said, nodding.

"Yeah." Ayen took another long pull on the bottle, and threw the empty glass into the fire. "Incest is... the most despicable... awful...it's-it's insidious. It ruins your self-confidence, and just..."

"Aye," Mathilda said, nodding. "Ah mean, tha' wasn' my experience, y'know, bu' Ah can empathize."

The thief nodded slowly, but confusion crept across his brow. "Wait. What wasn't your experience?"

"Well m'sister 'n me 'ad a thing fer a bi'. No' so bad as all tha'," she said, gesturing back down the road toward the city, "bu' Ah can imagine."

"Whoa," Ayen said, holding out his hands. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You and your sister?"

"Aye."

"That's awesome."

Mathilda reared back. "Wha' 'appened to 'incest is the mos' awful'?"

"That's with a parent! With a sibling, it's freaking hot!"

"She was old enough t'be my mother!"

"Even better!"

Mathilda's eyebrows shot up in outrage.

"You have to tell me about it!"

"Ah do no'," she fired back.

"Come on!"

"Are ye daft?!" The dwarf looked horrified.

"I need to fill this awful hole in me, and this would go a long way toward that."

"Yer barkin' mad if ye think Ah'll-"

"You owe me."

Mathilda came up short, and her jaw clapped shut.

"You. Owe. Me. Big."

" 'at's... 'at's no'..."

"You basically sold me into slavery."

"Oh come off i'," she snarled. "Ah didn' know!"

"You knew," he said, leaning in. "You might not have known the specifics, but you knew I wasn't just running for nothing."

Mathilda bit down hard on her tongue. A part of her had known. No matter how much she'd wanted to believe that he was simply that lazy, a part of her had known there was a reason for not going back.

"Hashtag She-Knew."

"Whoa," the dwarf sputtered. "Tha' is jus' wildly inappropria'. An' way too soon!"

"Alright, alright."

"Way too soon!"

Ayen held up his hands, conceding the point.

The healer growled at him and shook her head slowly. "If Ah tell ye abou' i', tha'll pu' us square?"

"How many times was it?"

"Was what?"

"You and your sister."

Mathilda blinked. "Ah dunno. A lo'? Ah don' remember'm all."

"Start with what you do remember, and we'll see where that gets us."

Mathilda grumbled and tossed her head back and forth. "Fine."

Ayen was almost successful in hiding his fist-pumping reaction.

"Ah need 'nother drink fer this," she said, as she stood up and tottered back to her back.

"Can I have one too?"

"No." She muttered under her breath as she fished out one of her blessed spirits, and dropped down onto a low outcropping of rock. "Le's see. Now... When Ah was-"

"Wait," Ayen said. "Can I touch myself while you tell me this."

"...N...no," Mathilda said.

Ayen tilted his head. "Can I touch you while you-"

"No!"

"Okay," he said, holding out his hand. "Clearly I misread that."

"Fer fucks sakes." The Dwarf rolled her eyes and took a sip from her bottle. " 'ow much d'ye know abou' dwarves?"

"Basically nothing."

"Well... among Dwarves, ye come of age when yer abou' twenty. Yer no' an adul', mind, but yer no' a child no more either. 'at's when ye'll star' gettin' tasks 'o yer own rather'n doin' e'rrythin' wit' someone older'n wiser."

"Makes sense," Ayen said.

"I's bollocks is wha' i' is," Mathilda snapped. "Older'n wiser my pale arse." She took an angry draw from her bottle and exhaled loudly. "Wha' was Ah talkin' abou'?"

"You and your sister."

"Oh. Righ'. So one 'o the boys who worked th' forge wit' me, Torrin Ah think 's name was, started makin' advances on meh. Romant'cally, tha' is. Askin' me down fer a round now an' 'gain."

"Right."

"Nice boy. Bad sex."

"Whoa. You can't just skip that part! I need details"

"Well 'at's th' point o' it! I' was over soon as i' began, an' Ah didn' feel 'ardly nothin'."

"You're a bad storyteller."

The dwarf glared at him.

"How long did he last?"

"Only like ten minutes," the Dwarf cried.

"Ten minutes? Fuck, I'm barely warmed up after ten minutes."

"Oh shut it," Mathilda snapped. "Now Ah 'ad nine sisters, an' all'f em were monstrous 'ittle 'ags. Petty, annoying miners." The word practically dripped with disapproval. "All'f em except fer m'oldest sister. Breta."

"Oooh," Ayen said, leaning back a little. "I like that name."

The healer rolled her eyes. "Breta worked th' forge too, like me, an' she was a sigh' wit' an 'ammer inner 'and. Determined. Focused."

"That is hot."

"Stop interruptin'!"

"Can I please touch myself while-"

"No!"

"You owe me," he repeated.

"Fine!" she shouted, throwing up her hands. Ayen smiled happily, and Mathilda shook her head. "Breta 'n Ah were th' closest'f all our kin. Ah wouldn' say Ah worshipped 'er or th' like, bu' Ah definitely looked t'er fer... yanno. Advice'n whatno'."

Ayen slouched a little lower, sliding his hand underneath the waistband, and Mathilda tried to pretend she hadn't noticed.

"So when mah firs'time, wit' Torrin, was a big pile 'o nothin', Ah went to 'er to... yanno... check. Did Ah do somethin' wrong? Did 'e? Was 'at 'ow i' was s'posed t'feel? Issat all there is?"

Ayen licked his lips and smiled as his hand moved slowly beneath his pants.

Continued in Chapter 14

---