A King's Ransom

by Lia Black

  "But Your Highness..." one of the boys began to protest and Veyl held up a hand, shaking his head.

  "You're dismissed. All of you."

  The boys looked nervously between one another then quickly left the room as Melina entered. She stood still, watching Veyl undo all the work that had been done on his clothing today until he was down to his breeches, white silk stockings, and his shirt.

  "You don't have to stay, Melina." Veyl sighed, though secretly he was glad that she'd come.

  "Veylisshe, you are so headstrong. Like your mother." Melina said with a wry smile.

  "I don't want this. Any of this. As a courtesan, I was loved unquestionably by strangers. Here, I am the stranger. This is not fair, Melina. I just wanted a simple life with the man of my heart…now I have to beg that his heart be allowed to keep beating…" Veyl dropped into the heavily padded chair in his room, pressing his thumbs to his temples as tears came hot to his eyes. Once upon a time, he'd dreamed of such opulence. Now he couldn't stand it. He hated the way he could barely find a blank stretch of wall through all the fabric and art and expensive clutter and how he couldn't move without tripping over a prepubescent boy trying to straighten his socks.

  "Melina...you spoke to Ahrn…do you think he was able to do something?" He murmured, as she came to stand near his chair. He wanted someone to tell him that everything was fine. That Engel had loved Veyl enough to rescue his rival. That Kaidos would be all right, because Veyl knew in his gut that there was nothing he could say or do to make the king listen.

  "I wish I could tell you the answer to that," Melina said softly, but her eyes darted uncomfortably away.

  Veyl mashed down the sensation of his heart trying to rise to his throat. He took hold of her small, cool hand. "I don't know what I would do without you." Then he let her go, turning his face away. "You should not be near me as much as you are. I fear they will try to harm you because they know you are special to me."

  "I am not afraid, Veylisshe..."

  "I am. Please, Melina. Go. My heart can't take anymore torment now."

  Melina nodded slowly, then bowed to him and left him alone.

  "Your Highness--why have you taken off what has taken hours to put on you?" The chamberlain's tone was that of amusement, as if playfully scolding a child as he entered the room without knocking. The smaller corpse beside him did not smile.

  "Please, just take me to see my father," Veyl begged, as he rose from his chair. His stomach was already knotting with the presence of the sorcerer, Aegeus, and Rheton's cruel smile.

  "No need, Your Highness. Your lover was executed last night."

  The world suddenly narrowed to the size of a needle, and it stabbed him cruelly through the heart. Veyl felt as though he'd been kicked in the stomach; nausea rose in his throat and the edges of his vision began to sparkle like black diamonds. "No…" he shook his head, "you're lying…please…" Veyl felt his throat close around a cry of anguish as the tears welled and flowed, stinging, down his cheeks.

  He looked around wildly at the faces of the men in front of him, hoping to see some sign that this was all just another plot to break him, but all he received were cold and empty stares.

  No. He had to get out of here. He had to run until his lungs could no longer hold air and his heart burst in his chest. He had to scream until there was no sound left and he no longer felt the overwhelming pain of this moment.

  A spike of panic started his body moving forward and he ran for the door. He was stopped, however by a guard filling the frame with his body.

  "No! No!" Veyl shrieked as the man tried to herd him back into the bedroom. Veyl brought up the heel of his hand and thrust it into the man's face, bloodying his nose, then got him with an elbow to the jaw as he was struggling to move around him and out the door. The guard sagged against the doorframe, giving Veyl enough room to squeeze through. Two other guards from the hallway closed in on him, but before they could reach him, Veyl snatched the injured guard's dagger from his belt. A violent flood of energy roared through him as he backed towards the wall in the corridor. His hand was shaking as he pointed the dagger at the two guards trying to box him in.

  "Come now," Rheton rolled his eyes, "do you really think this is helping things?" The chamberlain jerked his head towards Veyl, an indication that he wanted the guards to advance, but neither of them seemed foolish enough to get too close.

  "You do something, magus," Rheton sighed, glancing down at Aegeus.

  "I'm not here for this." Aegeus watched Veyl with his cold, colorless eyes.

  One of the guards finally decided to take the chance and lunged at Veyl. Veyl slashed at him with the blade, cutting the palms of his hands. It was enough of a distraction for the remaining guard to move forward and try to grab him. Veyl felt the man's approach, and realized fighting was pointless with nothing left to fight for. Rather than trying to fight off the guard, he brought up the blade and slashed his own throat.

  "Damn it!" the chamberlain swore as the uninjured guard managed to knock the blade from Veyl's hand before his cut was fatal. "Get that damn elf woman up here to heal him!"

  "Call me if he lives," Aegeus said dully and walked away from the panicked scene in the hallway.

  Veyl continued trying to fight, waving his arms even as the blood ran down, staining his once white shirt. He stumbled backwards as a wave of weakness blanketed him and the guards advanced upon him once more. Sobbing, he dropped heavily into the many arms that held him as someone pressed a hand to his neck to try and stop the bleeding. Once again, he hadn't been able to affect anything—his course was set to fail. The wound he'd made was bleeding profusely, but the angle had been all wrong, and he hadn't had the strength behind it to end his own life.

  He heard Melina gasp as she was brought to the hallway outside of his room.

  "Elf—you fix that wound!" The chamberlain barked at her

  Veyl wished he had some kind of true power—just enough to cause Rheton to explode and cover the walls with the filth that lived inside of him.

  He whimpered as Melina's small hand replaced that of the guard's and he felt a surge of energy. It didn't heal the wound completely, just enough to stop the bleeding, but that was enough to fill Veyl with an even deeper sense of despair. He had no strength left as the guards transferred him to the bed and left the room to tend their own injuries.

  "Oh Veylisshe…" Melina murmured, kissing his forehead softly as she rested his head on her lap.

  Veyl blinked up at her, tears burning his eyes and running down his temples as she stroked his hair, her own eyes sadly looking upon him. It tore him up to see that he'd hurt her, but this wasn't about her. He curled into a tight ball and sobbed, his tears and blood staining her skirts. He just wanted it to be over. He wanted to go back to a time when he still had innocence, he wanted to have died in his mother's arms.

  Veyl swallowed back his anguish; again, a gesture so ingrained that he couldn't keep himself from the inevitability of shutting down. Hide the pain. No one wants to see a beauty cry. His throat hurt when he swallowed and the inside of his mouth tasted of blood, but his tears stopped flowing as numbness settled in.

  A moment later, two fresh guards entered the room unannounced and carrying shackles.

  Melina stood up slowly, placing her tiny body between Veyl and the large men.

  "What are you doing?" she demanded.

  The guards didn't answer her, simply jostling her aside as they clamped the cold iron around each of Veyl's wrists and wound the chains under and over the bedposts, securing them with a heavy lock.

  Veyl watched them with detached interest as they bound him so his arms were held apart and he was unable to move them enough to even scratch his own nose, should he care to. What did it matter anymore? His body was never his own.

  "He's going to see the mage tomorrow," one of the guards finally grunted at Melina. "You'll stay here tonight and go with him to keep an eye on him."

  Veyl heard the words from someplace distant
. He gave an experimental tug against the chains and found they were well-fastened, and the edges of the cuffs were hammered into a curved lip, so no sharp edges would cut the skin. Veyl briefly pondered briefly the notion that these cuffs were made for him, and if it was just coincidence that they had finished them tonight. How very convenient.

  *~*~*

  Veyl sat listlessly as Melina held him in a cellar room that was cold and felt like a cage. A day had passed since the news of Kaidos death and in that time he'd barely spoken a word.

  The guards had released the lock but kept his hands shackled and used the lengths of chain to pin his arms to his body. It made it nearly impossible for him to move without falling over from the weight so they'd carried him down and plunked him on a stool, then stood near the door, waiting until it was time to take him back.

  He let his eyes wander slowly around the room, surprised by how clean it was considering it was so deep below the earth that it felt like a dungeon. The grey stone walls and floor had not a trace of dirt and the wooden surface of every table was polished so smooth that they shined. A row of books was lined up on one of the tables, arranged by size so that they flowed downward like perfect steps.

  At the back of the room was a heavy curtain. With one side pulled slightly open, Veyl could see that there were two beds beyond. The wraith-like mage came out from between them, looking annoyed, and combing his skeletal fingers through his hair.

  Yawning, one of the guards picked up a crystal lying on a shelf near his head and examined it. The little mage hissed and snatched it out of his hand, then proceeded to take every item off of the shelf, setting them on the table below. He begin a ritualistic sorting before placing each item—largest to smallest—in a particular location, pausing between each one to make some sort of comparison with his eyes. After an agonizing amount of time, he finally seemed satisfied and began moving books around.

  Veyl found that watching him was strangely hypnotic; although he needed very little to keep his mind calm. He was slowly slipping into that quiet place where he hid when the pain became too much. The mage took each book down, starting with the smallest, and lay it precisely on the table. Then he took the next one and did the same; making certain they were an inch apart, spines aligned just so. When he came to the fourth out of the seven books, he turned and carried it to another table, spreading it open, then he returned to the task of laying flat the remainder of the books, leaving a gap for the missing volume.

  "Back!" The mage snapped at the guard who had disrupted his order earlier and the man quickly scooted closer to the door. A young boy of about ten years old entered the room nearly hitting the guard with that same door, causing the guard to flinch.

  The boy was a pretty child with hair of deep, fiery red, and eyes that appeared almost burgundy. He regarded Veyl with a cock of his head, continuing to stare until the mage said his name.

  "Finn," the mage said, and then, "Finn," a little louder.

  The boy blushed and turned quickly to the black robed man.

  "Master Aegeus, sorry. I couldn't get any goat's milk—the cook says it's spoiled."

  "That's fine, Finn," Aegeus sighed and flipped the tome he was consulting all the way back to the beginning and began reading again.

  "It's really a boy then?" The Finn asked, looking at Veyl once more. Veyl shivered, though he was unaware if it was from the chill of the cellar room or something about the child's gaze.

  "Be quiet, Finn," Aegeus said softly, not bothering to turn.

  "Why would the king want to be such a pretty boy? Who will take him seriously?" Finn continued to question.

  "He has no choice. Now be quiet." Aegeus flipped forward a few pages in his tome and reached up to a shelf nearby, his spidery fingers hovering over a row of crystals. Finally he took one down and held it up, his eyes scanning the page of the book once more.

  A blue light began to glow from within the crystal, and the brighter it became, the more the mage's hand began to tremble. Perspiration formed in tiny beads on his brow and the glow began to sputter.

  The crystal fractured then shattered with a flash of blue spark, leaving a burn on Aegeus' palm. He turned with a hiss and began tearing pages out of the book.

  "Master," Finn said calmly, as the mage raged against the bound parchment and ink, "you need to eat. Even if there is no goat's milk."

  "What is it you plan to do?" Melina's voice trembled as she spoke and her hand tightened on Veyl's shoulder.

  Finn glanced over at her and gave her a little shrug "Transference."

  Aegeus suddenly stopped tearing out pages and they dropped like dried leaves to the floor as he opened his hands and released them. He looked around at them all, blinking, and his brow furrowed. Then he knelt and began to gather the pages all up again, carefully smoothing out each one. His voice was surprisingly steady as he spoke. "I was contracted to do a job--nothing more. It is the king who sought me out. How was I to know that the vessel was unwilling?"

  "I don't think I'd want some smelly old king taking over my body." Finn muttered, coming to help his master pick up the sheets.

  "I don't even know if I can do this now and if I can't..." Aegeus eyes darted briefly to the boy and for a moment, there was a flash of despair before he stood up and began to count out each page and place it very precisely face down in a neat stack. He froze, a heavy frown pulling at his mouth, when Finn held up a page that had slipped underneath the table.

  Veyl watched Aegeus push the entire stack back down onto the floor, and for just a moment, felt sorry for the man. Aegeus might have been handsome, had something not ravaged his body and mind. Veyl wondered if it was the magick that caused such deterioration. Perhaps healing magicks preserved the user as well as the beneficiary, and whatever dark stuff Aegeus wielded destroyed him as much as he destroyed.

  "This may take a while," Finn sighed, glancing at Veyl again with a shy smile.

  Veyl wanted to smile back at the boy, but just thinking about it made him weary. He looked down at his hands; the fingernails were caked with blood from him pressing them so tightly against his palms.

  "Why is he so quiet?" Finn asked Melina, moving to stand a bit closer while Aegeus returned to his ritual of smoothing and sorting now that he was certain he had all of the pages.

  Melina smiled at him kindly, "He is very sad."

  "Sad?" Finn absently reached out and touched Veyl's silky golden hair, then drew back his hand, embarrassed.

  "Finn—I need you," Aegeus snapped and Veyl met the mage's cold glare, recognizing jealousy in his colorless eyes.

  The boy scampered over to assist his master. He took the book off the table with the loose pages inside and sat cross-legged with it in his lap. Then he began chanting under his breath and licked his thumb, running it over the torn section of each page, and making them whole once more.

  So this child also knew magick. From what Veyl knew of the talents, these two people were extremely rare. Back in Aaullsworthe, he was the only one who had shown any indication of rare craft, but it was only because of his elven blood, and what he exhibited was minimal and benign. The fact that these two individuals both appeared to be possessed of something much more powerful and had somehow found each other was as fascinating as it was frightening. It seemed too odd to be coincidental. Had the mage sought the boy out, or was it perhaps the other way around?

  *~*~*

  Aegeus had no idea why the chamberlain had decided to lie to the prince and tell him his lover was dead. Of course he wasn't dead. He'd escaped with that bear-man that had interested the mage so much. It had obviously been a mistake to lie, as the prince had immediately tried to cut his own throat. What a mess.

  Yet even if the gash scarred—which it wouldn't; the chamberlain had made it clear that the king's new body was to be unblemished—the prince would still be too lovely for words.

  Aegeus could not help but feel a flare of jealousy when he looked at the younger man, and worse still when Finn paid him some attenti
on. The prince was exquisite--even in his despair. How could anyone not wish to be near him?

  His elven blood had made him lean and graceful, with high cheekbones and large slanted eyes the color of a harvest moon. To look at his face alone, his sex was impossible to determine, yet somehow his beauty did not compromise his appeal as a man. Aegeus himself was small, weak, and nearly colorless. A changeling, he'd been left in the cradle of a dead infant and sold as an orphan to a witch, fed from the teat of a sow, and coddled in his own filth. How indeed could his own heart not wish to be shown favor by one so lovely as the prince?

  Veyl lifted his glassy gaze to Aegeus, and the mage shuddered and turned away. He had no choice. The king wished for a chance at immortality, and only a blood descendant could become a host to his parasitic soul.

  Had Veyl been human, the ritual would have been simple: put the young man to sleep, and at the time of the king's death, transfer his spirit into the slumbering body. The host soul would never awaken and his spirit would be absorbed. The new resident would simply take over. But in this case, the elven blood had too much power. The resident spirit would not give up without a fight, and a parasitic soul was too weak to survive an attack. Veyl's spirit had to be bound to the human part of the body so that it could be trapped and slowly absorbed by the invader. The only way Aegeus could think to do this was by weakening the prince's soul through magick, and to do that he would have to construct a place to hold it until most of the power could be drained away.

  Unfortunately, at this point it was all theoretical. Aegeus had never done a partial binding--especially not during a transference. And of the few transferences he'd done, the participants were both willing, or the host body was healthy but the mind and spirit were broken. Looking at Veyl now, that could soon be the case, but Aegeus didn't have the time to wait.