by Phil Parker
‘But why are you moving it at this time of day?’
Cori’s calm reply. ‘So as not to upset the population. This is the first case within the castle walls.’
‘Fuck!’ The second boggart, clearly shocked. ‘I didn’t think it had reached this far.’
Cori again. ‘This man had travelled from the Green Marshes, arrived last week. He fell ill soon after arriving but I guessed what it was and kept him in quarantine. That’s why I want to get him out of here before it starts a panic.’
‘Good idea.’ The deep-sounding boggart. ‘Get going.’
We started to move.
‘Wait!’ The first boggart. ‘We’ve got to check everyone going through the gate. One of the escaped prisoners was a big guy like him.’
‘What escaped prisoners?’ Cori asked casually.
‘A bunch got out yesterday. One of them was a big bastard.’
Cori’s voice stayed liquid calm.
‘Well don’t upset Cullo. He’s as dumb as they come but if you take that mask off him he’ll think you’re trying to give him the swamp fever and he’ll go berserk.’
Silence. I heard boots stomp over stone slabs and the boggart stand over the bier.
‘Well, we’ve got to make sure.’
I saw him hold his shield over the lower half of his face as he loomed a little closer. I closed my eyes and held my breath. I felt the cotton sheet pulled off me.
‘He looks a real mess. Is that what swamp fever does?’
‘Yes. I told you, he had it bad.’
‘How long does it take until they die?’ the first boggart asked.
My lungs weren’t happy about not being allowed to expel air. My head began to throb.
‘It depends.’ I could hear tension forming in the young nurse’s voice. ‘Mainly on the severity of the condition. I shouldn’t stand too close, germs will be floating in the air now we’re standing still.’
The other boggart’s panic cut in. ‘Did you hear? Let them fucking go.’
‘I suppose.’
The cotton sheet fell back over my face and body but I knew it was so fine they’d see any movement beneath it so I held my breath a little longer. The pain grew.
‘What’s going on over there?’
It was a voice full of stern authority, I heard the two boggarts stand to attention instantly, the first one explained the situation in an urgent and anxious lisp. The same voice approached, I thought I recognised it from when we’d first been imprisoned, an official I’d upset by commenting on his bad skin and bad breath. Me and my big mouth.
‘You’re the nurse who works with Lord Taranis, aren’t you?’
I could just make out Cori’s face, who’d moved forward to position himself between me and this other man.
‘Yes sir. But I also work in the castle hospital. I was just telling these guards that I spotted this man had swamp fever when he arrived and I quarantined him immediately. His lordship wants him out of the castle urgently.’
A pause. It felt like an age as my lungs begged for air. Pain, like fireworks, exploded in my brain. I could just make out the man moving along the length of the bier.
‘But his lordship hasn’t returned yet. How could he have commanded you?’
Cori paused, he’d done so well in inventing his story, I hoped his creativity hadn’t come to an end. Instead I heard a terse tone in his voice.
‘He doesn’t need to. I know he won’t want a plague victim stored in his castle any longer than is necessary. But you obviously think differently, sir. If you believe he will want us to return this man, along with his deadly germs, back into his lordship’s home, we will take him back. Men, let’s go back.’
I felt the bier start to turn.
‘No! No! It’s all right. You’ve done the right thing. Take the body out of here quickly. Guards, open the gate.’
We started moving again. A moment later I could see the stone wall pass over us. The exploding fireworks consumed me, my head pounded like a military tattoo performed inside my skull. Spasms convulsed my body, vibrating the material beneath me. I clamped my jaw shut like I had in the early stages of Taranis’s torture, to stop the screams forming in my mouth. I hoped we’d left the guards behind, I shook now. Visibly.
Then Cori whispered. ‘You can breathe.’
My lungs pulled in air. Cool air. Like starvation, I couldn’t get enough of it to satisfy me. I shook. Couldn’t stop. At least not for a minute or two. My bier swayed and it relaxed me. The urge to fill my lungs eased. My chest muscles stopped spasming and breathing became natural again. The fireworks in my head sputtered and faded.
‘You did well.’ Cori’s voice, calm again too.
We kept moving, the bier continued to sway and the sedative made my eyes feel heavy. I didn’t know where we were going. I didn’t care. I just wanted to get away. I’d made a mistake, coming back. A risk I should have avoided. I knew what Taranis was like. I’d been stupid to believe I could have avoided him.
The bastard’s words floated around my skull as consciousness slipped away. Experiment. Hard to break. Others with minds like glass.
He’d done something to me. Whatever he’d pumped into my body might still be there. The purpose of an experiment was to see the outcome. To do that he’d needed to break my will.
My addled brain couldn’t process very much. Just a couple of questions. Had my sudden departure allowed Taranis to complete his experiment? If he had, did that mean, hiding in those synapses that Puck called home, had the bastard planted another demon?
With that delightful thought in my head, I fell asleep.
Chapter 12
Everyone stared at the fraudulent High Lord. That’s what I was, Keir the Pretender. They’d call me that, in years to come, when they made jokes about me.
I followed the procession of starched courtiers, frock-coated page boys and plumed soldiers through the Great Hall with Lord Cernunnos’ instructions repeating in my head in a mantra of regal decorum. Maintain an upright stature, a winning smile on the lips, focus eyes ahead and not on the feet, display a confident facial expression. Though I tried to do those things, the peering faces of the great and good on either side of the procession, eroded any self-belief my mantra might have built. All I could see were expressions of hatred, ridicule and treason.
The advice from Mab was simple; ignore them, she’d said. Remember you are about to be crowned High Lord and once ensconced on the throne, their behaviour will change, she’d said.
She didn’t understand. No one else realised it was all a huge mistake. When that day came, I’d be imprisoned, executed on the orders of Lord Cernunnos when he took my place. The implications of my deception would be dire and they made me sweat.
I was hot. Unbearably so. Under my fur robes and majestic clothes of state, sweat trickled down my body like a pig on a summer’s day. Nearby women wrinkled their noses as I drew level, their revulsion only made me sweat even more.
Then, embarrassment. Sweat on my forehead caused the crown to slip. It might be little more than a band of gold but it slid down my face and covered my eyes. I stopped in case I walked into something, it brought gasps, a courtier hurriedly stepped forward and replaced the thing, I set off again. I’d walked only a short distance when it happened again. This time the crowd giggled. I tore the gold bangle off my head impatiently, threw it on the floor to gasps of horror but continued my journey. Laughter spread, no longer hidden by gloved hands over aristocratic mouths. Murmurs of words like servant, pretender, hybrid grew. If this was treason, everyone was guilty.
My destination, the High Magistrate in his purple robes, was so far away I couldn’t see his face, I needed my suffering to stop. I walked faster yet he remained just as far away no matter how quickly I walked. The laughter and the insults grew. I burst through the procession and ran towards the High Magistrate, a small figure on the horizon. The crowd cheered me on like I was a racehorse. Then disaster, my feet caught in my long gowns and I tumbled. I
slid along the polished floor to arrive at the feet of a morbidly overweight woman. More laughter, people slapped thighs, held their sides. I stumbled to my feet, slid on the polished marble, my regal trapping slipping off me one by one, to arrive in a tangled heap in front of the High Magistrate. Naked. In a voice so loud that it echoed amongst the rafters of the Great Hall, he spoke his proclamation.
‘He can’t be the High Lord. He’s the wrong colour.’
I woke up sweating, calling out for help.
Darcel was at my side immediately. ‘Sire, is everything well?’
I tried to smile at her and gestured for her to return to her own bed on the other side of the room. ‘I’m fine. It was just a dream.’
But she was the one to smile, genuinely, as always. She perched on the edge of my bed and looked at me with her sultry, dark eyes, the same caramel colour as her skin. I’m certain Mab chose her as my servant for that reason. She took my hand and squeezed it in reassurance.
‘Well, I’m here if you need anything.’
I looked down at her hand, she hadn’t released mine, I felt her eyes on mine. I was fairly sure what the offer involved, my face flushed with embarrassment until blood rushed to my groin as my imagination kicked in. It made the embarrassment worse. I shifted position to avoid the tenting of my bed sheets, though her mischievous grin hinted I was too late.
‘I just want some sleep. I’m exhausted and I need to be fresh for tomorrow.’
She nodded and smiled. ‘It is going to be a big day, sire, but you will carry it off successfully I am sure. I have faith in you.’
She still hadn’t let go of my hand and I stared at its delicacy, astonished how someone with such petite features could fight so ruthlessly. Two nights earlier she’d killed the latest assassin, another rat-boy, breaking his neck with a cracking noise so loud it made me feel sick. I owed this girl my life.
‘Thank you Darcel. I wish I shared your belief in me.’
She gave a huge sigh and shook her head, a gesture that always prefaced a criticism.
‘You shouldn’t listen to those nose-in-the-air types, sire. They’ve had it easy, they don’t know what challenges you’ve had to face. Just believe in yourself and you’ll be fine.’
I placed my other hand on top of hers and patted it, like you would an elderly aunt; I really was useless with women.
‘I wish you could be at my side tomorrow Darcel. I’d feel so much safer.’
Her smile broke into a grin, white teeth shone against her dark skin, she always looked so sexy when she did that. She sat up straight and flexed her shoulders, it pulled the thin cotton smock over her pert breasts, revealing her dark nipples. The tenting sheets were obvious now.
‘Lord Cernunnos will have the Great Hall filled with guards. They will escort you and they will be positioned everywhere to leap to your defence, but no assassin would dare attack in front of so many people in such a public place, they wouldn’t have an escape route for one thing.’
‘I hope you’re right Darcel.’
‘I am sire. Now don’t worry. What about if I give you a massage? That will help you relax.’
It would have the opposite effect but I wasn’t going to refuse. She pulled my nightshirt over my head and I lay on my chest so I could avoid displaying the embarrassing reaction that refused to go away. She kneaded my shoulders with the kind of strength I didn’t think possible from such delicate hands. I’d fantasised about those fingers grasping more delicate parts of my body until she found a tender knot of muscle at the base of my neck and dug into it so hard I yelped. Her strength in despatching the assassin made me appreciate how those hands were her weapons, I winced at the thought of placing my manhood into them.
‘You have a lot of tension in your muscles sire,’ she said softly, ‘you must not worry so much. For now, I will ease your problems away with the magic I can work with my hands.’
I replied with a moan that was half way between pleasure and pain but it wasn’t long until I felt my shoulders ease, as if a switch had been flicked, I groaned softly as pain fled and pleasure reigned victorious. Now her hands floated across my skin, gently massaging with such tenderness I melted under their touch and expressed my satisfaction of her magic by repeated sighs. I made a mental note to thank Mab for sending me this delightful young woman, not only could she protect me, she made me feel better about myself and aroused passions in me I had never known before.
With my shoulders addressed, she turned her attention to the rest of my back. She straddled me, rocked backwards and forwards as her hands moved up and down my spine, her strong legs gripped my hips so her groin pressed against my backside.
‘Is that helping you relax, sire?’ she said with a huskiness I’d not heard in her voice before.
Her rocking action precipitated a very different response, in seconds I was about to lose control of sensations building inside me. Relaxation was the last thing I felt. I didn’t want it to end but I was about to embarrass myself in a way I would never live down.
‘That’s enough! You need to stop Darcel!’
She climbed off me and patted my backside affectionately and sat cross-legged on the bed, watching me. I didn’t dare move, the delicate balance between self-control and release, sat on a knife edge. She asked me if I was all right, I could hear the amusement in her voice, it lacked Deidra’s scorn but had genuine delight in its tone. I spoke into the pillow and told her I was fine.
It took some time for me to recover so that it was safe to turn over. She’d returned to her bed on the other side of the room. I cursed my awkwardness. I wanted her so badly everything ached, yet finding the words to tell her was beyond me, I didn’t dare start a sentence in case I sounded foolish, insincere or, most of all, inexperienced. It was obvious she knew what to do, she would have been trained, whereas I was completely unschooled. No one bothered to educate slave boys in the ways of the bedroom. I lay on my back and searched for the words to describe the feelings she provoked in me. The excitement. Her beauty. How I wanted to stroke my fingers over every part of her body and return the pleasure she gave me. My need to spend the night kissing her lips.
I must have fallen asleep eventually because daylight flooded into my bedroom and the day began with the usual routines and quickly developed into very new ones. A dozen courtiers, tailors, jewellers and hairdressers arrived so they could turn me into a figure of ritualised authority. I felt hot before they placed the white gold circlet on my head, once in place I began to sweat uncontrollably. My dream was going to come true, I knew it.
A gold coach waited outside in the sunshine. It was pulled by four gleaming black stallions resplendent in highly polished tack, purple feather plumes perched on their heads and purple ribbons wrapped around their bridles. The coachmen and driver sat atop the coach in uniforms of the same colours. Palace servants stood to attention in two lines along the staircase from my new apartments, they formed an avenue of respect, even though I’d worked alongside many of them, even Irvyn cheered politely.
Lord Cernunnos dazzled in his military uniform with its emerald green braid and shining medals. Mab told me they’d once called him the Green Knight because of his pride in wearing the colour of his demesne. He’d toned it down but he still looked every inch the military leader. He waited for me at the door to the coach and nodded his approval as I stepped inside its luxurious interior.
‘You look every inch the High Lord, sire. You scrub up well.’
I didn’t trust the man but I couldn’t deny he had charm, I grinned.
We rode together through the streets lined with cheering citizens and banners decorated with messages of good wishes proclaiming the long life of High Lord Keir. I waved as instructed and hoped their wishes would come true and that assassins weren’t about to leap into the coach to kill me.
‘Remember what you have to do, sire?’
I nodded. ‘Just like we rehearsed.’
The big man grinned. He did that a lot. It made it harder to accep
t who he really was, rather than the supportive and wise mentor he portrayed. I snatched a sidelong glance at his fatherly appearance and reminded myself that he was conniving and treacherous, the man who’d orchestrated the events that led to the death of my predecessor. He had proclaimed his guilt in murdering the human Knights too, and while they were human and our enemies, it was wrong to have them murdered. This man didn’t hesitate in taking others’ lives, he even felt what he’d done was right. It reinforced the knowledge I would probably be his next victim.
It was like dealing with two people; the treacherous murderer I’d heard talking to Mab and the friendly advisor who smiled at me from across the coach.
‘Are you sure you are well? You look anxious suddenly, sire.’
I wasn’t guarding my facial expressions properly. I had to improve that skill.
‘I am well, thank you, my lord. I was just thinking how grateful I am that you’ve prepared me for this moment.’
It didn’t hurt to pander to the guy, it was a skill you learned quickly as a servant. The more you flattered them the less often you got beaten. He snorted at my compliment.
‘You can stop all that horse shit, sire. I’d hoped we’d moved beyond that.’
I smiled my most disarming smile.
‘Old habits, my lord. It’s the servant in me trying to assert himself.’
We turned a corner and entered the main square, people were everywhere, they watched out of windows, climbed trees, there even a few on rooftops. I hoped none of them were archers with bows and arrows.
‘Well, in a few minutes, that young man will no longer exist. You will be High Lord and you won’t need to ingratiate yourself with anyone. They’ll be doing it to you.’ His grin widened to reveal perfect white teeth. ‘So you’ll be the one getting all that horse shit.’
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He slapped my knee and did the same.
The noise grew louder as we drew up to the Great Hall, though the roaring in my ears was louder still, I couldn’t pass out now. It was going to be embarrassing to step down on the marble steps and collapse, or vomit. Or both.