by Eric Vall
I couldn’t believe it, it was shocking and horrifying, but could I even be surprised at this point? The Duchess actively skinned poachers, kept their skin like pelts, and showed them off to the other wealthy women. Consorts were traded to and from Mistresses like pets, and finally… the very same aristocrats hunted the animals they swore to protect outside of their properties. How could I be surprised anymore? I learned something new and grotesque about them with each day that passed. How could I be shocked at this point?
Was this the reason why the Duchess wanted the super-soldiers? To participate and win the mock-wars for the approval of the Queen? Could she really be that ruthless and power-hungry that she’d participate in something so barbaric? I calculated in my head the exact date that Edony wanted her super-soldiers by, and it didn’t match up with the timeline of the celebration. Did she want them for some reason other than the mock-war? I’d worked with her for months on end and yet never learned the real reason she wanted them made.
I knew Edony pretty well, better than most people, I liked to think, and this just didn’t seem like something she would do, but… I had no other choice than to ask.
“The Duchess,” I uttered. “Does Edony participate in the mock-wars?”
“No,” Lilliana grunted.
“Never,” Adelia chuckled. “The Duchess rarely does anything that involves the capital and the Queen, especially if it has to do with the festivities.”
“What do you mean by that?” Daisy urged.
“Oh, just boring things that have to do with the hierarchy of the town,” Lilliana rolled her eyes. “The Queen has people keep a watchful eye on Edony, she always has since she became the Duchess. We’re unsure why, but the capital likes to keep pretty close tabs on her, maybe the Queen has a soft spot for Edenhart? A hatred of Edony? We’ll never know.”
“Do you think that the Queen and the Duchess are, at least, friendly?” I asked.
Each aristocrat made a face, glanced at each other, and then burst into peals of laughter.
“Edony?” Josephine cackled. “And the Queen?”
“You must be joking, Charles,” Lilliana snickered. “We all know the answer to that!”
“The Duchess hates the Queen, and the Queen despises Edony,” Adelia grinned wickedly. “It’s only natural, the Queen’s hated Edony’s family since the beginning of time!”
“Do you know why that is?” I probed. “There has to be a reason.”
“No one knows,” Lilliana shrugged. “Except for the two of them, I presume.”
“It’s quite normal to see the three of you busy-bodies out here in the afternoon, gossiping up a storm,” a familiar voice snapped from behind me. “But you, Charles Rayburn, I’m surprised at you.”
I didn’t have to turn around and look to know who was behind me, and her voice was burned permanently into my brain.
“If you had any questions about my relationship with the capital and Queen,” Edony snarled through a smile. “You could’ve just asked me, I’m an open book.”
The Duchess’ violet eyes bored a hole into my forehead as she grinned hatefully down at the five of us. The towering blonde wore the same dress as earlier, but her hair and makeup had been touched up.
“W-W-We were just discussing why you don’t partake in the Diefeir,” Josephine squeaked. “It’s just a s-shame that all of your r-resources go to waste when I’m sure you could easily win.”
At the mention of the celebration, Edony’s violet eyes swiveled, stabbed into me, and then narrowed. Her implication was clear to me… she’s never mentioned the Deifeir for some unknown reason, and now she was wondering if I’d told them about the super-soldiers she wanted.
“No,” the Duchess chuckled, crossed her arms, and squinted at each of the aristocrats. “You were just gossiping, sticking your pointy little noses into my business where they don’t belong, just like little Ms. Browning here, I see you’re still spending your time talking about me… this is the exact reason why I sent a letter to your family. Why are you meddling where you don’t belong?”
“Maybe if you were more open to the public about your personal life, we wouldn’t have to gossip,” Lilliana snapped. “I’ve heard that other monarchs in other towns treat their citizens with loyalty and respect. Why don’t you do the same, Edony?”
“If you’re so worried about towns with loyalty and respect, why don’t you try treating me, your leader, with those things?” Edony chuckled. “Better yet, Lilliana, why don’t you move to one of those cities? I’m sure Edenhart would be better off without you in it.”
“You… you bi--” Lilliana shouted but stopped as the Duchess lifted a single finger into the air, and electricity snapped through the air.
“Do you want to finish that sentence?” Edony questioned.
“N-No,” the middle-woman shook her head, lowered her eyes, and folded her hands into her lap. “No, Lady Edony.”
“That’s what I thought,” the towering blonde chuckled. “Now, do any of you have anything else you’d wish to say to me?”
Edony glanced around at each woman seated at the table, scoffed through her smile, rolled her eyes, and then settled her violet gaze upon me. The Duchess seemed to think for a moment, took a sharp inhale, crooked a single eyebrow, and parted her lips to speak.
“Charles,” The Duchess growled. “I’d like to speak to you alone for a moment, if that’s quite alright.”
Chapter Five
I couldn’t refuse the Duchess, especially after what happened this morning, and certainly not in front of her peers. Edony’s violet eyes narrowed on my face. Her jaw clenched, and she jerked her head away from the table.
“Yes, Duchess,” I breathed, stood from my chair, bowed to the other aristocrats, and then followed after the blonde.
Edony glanced at me over her shoulder, breathed a heavy sigh, and then led me a good distance away from the table. The Duchess stopped a few yards away until the two of us stood in the shade of an awning of an empty business, and then the towering woman turned toward me. Her sharp eyes studied my face for a few passing seconds. She clutched the curved head of her cane in her right hand, and then scoffed.
I wasn’t sure what she wanted from me exactly, but I knew Edony pretty well, and from her body language, the Duchess was barely holding in her rage. I could tell that she was bottling it all up in front of the other nobles, but I was about to receive the full brunt of her rage.
“What have you told them?” the blonde hissed.
“W-What?” I stammered. “What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean, Charles Rayburn,” the Duchess whispered. “What did you tell them… about our experiments?”
“I haven’t told them anything,” I responded. “They asked, but I told them that because of our contract, I couldn’t say anything.”
“I’m not sure if I believe you,” Edony snarked. “You’ve given me multiple reasons not to trust you over the past few days… why should I have faith in you now?”
Why did the Duchess want the super-soldiers in the first place, and why was it such a big secret? I’d only just learned about the mock-wars, but the three aristocrats told me that Edony wasn’t interested in those festivities… unless they were lying? The three of them had no reason to tell me the whole truth, but they also had no reason to lie to me, either. Could it have something to do with the Queen? I’d only just learned that the ruler of the capital and the Duchess of our town were on bad terms. Could Edony want to lead some type of… uprising against the Queen?
No, it seemed a little too far-fetched even for Edony, I knew her well enough to know that she’d never step out of line and possibly lose control over the whole town of Edenhart.
“When I first signed the contract, I promised that my lips were sealed,” I stated. “I have no reason to tell anyone about the projects or the end result that you wanted. I’m not a man that likes to meddle in the affairs of aristocrats, you knew that when you sought me out, Edony. Do you
really think I’d want to get involved now?”
“It certainly looks as if you would,” the Duchess barked. “You looked awfully cozy with the three biggest gossips in the whole town. Just a word of warning, Charles, don’t believe everything that you hear.”
“Are you saying that, so I won’t believe the ‘rumor’ about the mock-wars?” I grunted. “Or that the aristocrats are the ones out in the forest poaching animals? Your class isn’t as innocent as you like to think it is, Edony. You blame a lot of things on my sex that are being committed by those in power, and yet, I’m the one that needs to keep my lips sealed?”
“Are you testing me, Charles?” Edony jeered. “You know how powerful I am, I could slaughter you with a wave of my hand.”
“Do you know how many times I’ve heard that?” I exhaled. “Not only from other aristocrats, but most importantly, you? If you wanted me dead, Edony, I wouldn’t be alive right now… which poses the question, why haven’t you killed me yet? If you wanted me dead that badly, I’d be long gone by now. Are you keeping me alive for a specific reason? Is it because you know that I’m the only scientist brilliant enough to make progress on your projects? Is that why you’ve ‘allowed’ me to live?”
“Silence.” The Duchess growled, but I shook my head, bolstered by the fact that she hadn’t laid a hand on me yet.
“No, I won’t let you keep me quiet this one time,” I murmured. “Why have you kept me alive all of this time, Edony? Because I’m competent and skilled enough to do as you’ve asked? Or is it because if you used a female scientist, you wouldn’t be able to push her around or threaten her life? Or maybe, just maybe, it's because you need me, Duchess, I’m the only inventor you’ve made progress with. It was painfully clear this morning that your augmented men are failures, no matter how much testing you do on them, it isn’t going to work.”
“None of that is true, Charles,” Edony protested. “Do you really want to test me? Feel the full brunt of my attack after all of this time? That can be arranged, would you like it to be here or out in front of all of my peers?”
“You can’t do that,” I snickered. “You’ve come too far, all of this, even the little show you put on earlier in front of Adelia, Lilliana, and Josephine, it was just posturing. Even now, all of this is fake, isn’t it? You’re afraid to lose me… aren’t you?”
Dark chuckles burst up my throat, and Edony’s eyes widened in horror as she took a step backward.
“You know now that the augmentation will never work on your pawns, don’t you?” I grinned. “You know what’s kind of funny, Edony? You want me dead, but you also don’t want to kill me. I’m the key to your success, aren’t I? It’s almost as if all of this is fake, like you’re putting on a show for your peers and the Chief Constable--”
“Fake?” Edony roared, slammed out with her cane, and cracked the crook against the glass window of the empty business. “You think that I’d do all this as a farce? As if I’d waste all of my energy on a mere man such as you? Are you listening to yourself, Charles? You speak as if I’m a jilted lover, jealous that I’m no longer the object of your affection. Is that what you think? Do you know why I’m so angry? You wasted my precious time, you goddamn worm. I paid you to do a fucking job, Charles, and you didn’t deliver. I don’t care what my ‘peers’ think, I’m the goddamn Duchess of Edenhart, they can’t land a blow on me individually! These old bats would have to form a posse to attack me, and even then, I doubt they’d do any damage.”
Electricity lifted into the air, lifted my hair from the base of my neck, and bit at the exposed flesh of my arms. Edony had been more annoyed when she’d first brought me over here, and now the Duchess was enraged. Her violet eyes widened, flashed with hatred, and then glowed a neon purple. Her perfectly styled blonde curls frizzled, lifted from her shoulders, floated in the air, and the individual strands glowed.
“You may have been a strange… ally to me in a moment of weakness,” the Duchess barked. “But you were never an integral part of my plans. You’d build me the items I wanted, and then I planned to cast you away like the trash that you are.”
Edony’s cane slammed out, hooked around my left forearm, jerked it forward, and then held it there for a moment as the blonde reached out with her right hand. Golden light surrounded her entire forearm, all of her fingers except the pointer curled in, and she brought the digit closer to my bare flesh.
I grunted with annoyance, and then I realized that I should have been terrified, but I wasn’t.
“You’ve been nothing but a nuisance since the moment I met you, Charles,” Edony giggled. “You think you’re more important than you are, let me show you how insignificant you are. So, you’re tired of my empty threats, Charles? Tired of hearing how and when I’ll kill you? Then let me show you what type of pain you’d experience once it finally happens.”
Edony raised her pointer finger. Her violet eyes flicked to my eyes, her head tilted, and then her gaze rested on a pretty stray tabby passing in between lamp posts. The blonde grinned evilly, barked out a laugh, and then aimed her delicate, pointed finger at the feline. A harsh sizzle of electricity burned my skin as Edony’s power flowed out of her fingertip, slashed into the cat, and a bloom of white light obscured the creature from view.
Smoke billowed up from the place the cat once stood. When it cleared, the feline’s broken and fried body laid on its side, oozing blood out onto the cobblestones. Its fur was entirely burned away to reveal the scorched pink flesh underneath, and its once sleek tail was burned to nothing but a blackened nub.
My eyes focused on the corpse for a second, and I slowly realized that both of the tabby’s eyes had popped entirely out of its small skull and sizzled on the sidewalk like frying eggs. I gulped loudly, fought to keep my lunch down, and averted my eyes away from the horror.
“You felt the movement of my power, didn’t you?” Edony chuckled.
The blonde’s face was smooth and serene as her eyes rested against the blackened body of the feline. Her gaze flicked to my face, and a sly smile spread over her lips. She took a step closer, and reached out for me.
“Do you understand now, Charles?” the blonde asked. “That is barely a fraction of my power… If I wanted to, I could obliterate this town square into nothing more than a smoking crater. You wanted me to show you what I can do, and now, after so much time, I did. Do you finally see that I’m not someone to be pushed around or mocked? I could’ve killed you just now, melted off all of your flesh until there was nothing left but a bloody skeleton.”
“Yes, I understand,” I growled. “Now, what do you want from me, Edony? I have nothing else to give you… do you want me to continue working on your experiments or something?”
“You’re suggesting that I backtrack?” Edony scoffed. “Take back everything that’s happened thus far, allow you to continue living in the manor, and building the items I wanted? Are you daft? Do you know how utterly stupid I would look to everyone? I can’t come back from this, I can’t allow you to scuttle away like the frightened beetle you are. Do you know how embarrassing that would be for me? You’re the one who got yourself into this mess, Charles, you need to remember that. You broke the contract, you shacked up with Ms. Browning, all of this is happening because of you, not me. You could’ve asked me for more time, I would’ve given it to you… I never expected you to become a consort to escape me.”
So this was about posturing. I didn’t say it aloud or mention it to the Duchess, but she’d just admitted it in her own words. She was more concerned about what the other aristocrats would think than actually getting what she wanted. Even though she was more powerful than all of them combined, she still had some sort of fear of them for some reason.
“I did what I had to do,” I grunted under my breath. “My deadline was coming up, and we both know that you wouldn’t have spared my life… you threatened me with death every single time you stepped foot into my laboratory, don’t lie to me or pretend that you didn’t. I bet you even plann
ed to kill me the moment that the experiment worked, didn’t you? I mean, you planned to kill me either way…”
“You know nothing of what I’ve planned,” Edony snarled. “You only know what I’ve told you, which is barely enough to form an opinion.”
“Edony, I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear,” I breathed. “I don’t care what you’re doing, I just want you to leave Ms. Browning and me alone. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“Leave you and Ms. Browning alone?” Edony crooked up an eyebrow. “You can’t be serious?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “That’s all that I’ve ever wanted, Edony, to be left alone in the manor to continue my experiments.”
“You do understand what you’ve done, Charles,” the blonde glowered. “You stole my money, one of my properties, and wasted my precious time. Those are things I can’t get back, but most importantly, you made me look like a fool. I’m the Duchess of this town, I garner respect and admiration from all those around me. You made me look idiotic, and weak, in front of everyone, and as the leader of this town, I can’t allow it to happen ever again.”
Edony giggled, stepped forward, reached out her right arm, and extended her pointer finger again. The entire hand glowed orange with heat. It sizzled and smoked as a wicked smile spread over her lips, and she snickered with glee. I backed away, held my injured arm tightly in my free hand, and kept my eyes glued on her extended, glowing hand.
“Charles?” a familiar voice called.
“Thank science,” I sighed, threw back my head, and took in a deep breath.
“What are you two doing?” Daisy asked. “The three ladies are asking for you again.”
“We were just talking, Ms. Browning,” Edony barked. “Go back to the table, Charles and I are discussing important matters.”
“No,” the bear-girl boomed. “As Charles’ Mistress, if you wish to speak to him further, I should also be present. Especially since males are smaller minded and get into dangerous situations easily without the guidance of their owners.”