The third woman approached, tears in her eyes as she kept looking up at him then quickly throwing her gaze down. She grabbed at his hand without looking, and Endrance held the pinched chain between his fingers and grasped her hand to guide her. She twitched, and a shudder went through her. At the same time, Endrance felt a jolt through his hand, as if he had been struck by a very weak form of his own lightning. His heart started pumping, but not out of the desire to flee, but the desire to be there for her.
He blinked the sensation out of his eyes, and helped her slide the ring onto the end of the chain. He took the end back and let go of her hand. The pounding of his heart finally started to slow.
“And… in so doing I-I die to my king, giving my-my life so that the kingdom be ser-served.” She stammered out, ducking her head and walking to stand in her place. Endrance watched her move aside, perplexed. She was still taller than him, and likely stronger than him, but she seemed so very scared. So one hated him, one was afraid of him, and one felt sorry for him. Great.
The king stepped forward. “It is finished!” he cried aloud. “Your three daughters no longer belong to Balator, but to the Spengur! As they have died, they give up even their titles. For here on, they are Draugnoa!”
Everyone was seated, and Endrance finally got to sit down and take stock of the situation. Joven sat to his left, and the three to his right. No one else sat within ten feet of his end of the king’s table. He leaned over to Joven and whispered to him between mouthfuls of admittedly good food.
“Wait.” Endrance whispered. “I thought they were Ergkinoa.”
“They were.” Joven explained. “The owl women are what they were called while they lived. But since they have ‘died’ to our country but still remain behind, our people have taken to calling them Draugnoa.” After watching the three women a few seconds he continued. “They’re the ghost women now. Dead but can still be seen and heard.”
“That seems pretty extreme.” The mage observed. “And belonging to me?” he said. “Are they slaves?”
Joven grinned, a strip of roast hog stuck between his teeth. “No no…” Joven responded. “More like your wives.”
Endrance turned to look at the three, who were eating their food more delicately than Joven. They paused mid bite, watching him as he stared at them, like he was about to say something to them. He waved them on, and they resumed eating. He turned back to Joven.
“Wait, wives?” he asked.
Chapter 26
The building that housed the Spengur was a longhouse, with one floor but several rooms on either side of the moderate center hall. Double doors were in the front center of the house, with only a window on the long ends. The building was two dozen feet wide, and six dozen feet long. The walls were formed of wood, with decorated moldings in the corners and along the floors. The ceiling had two main beams that crossed from end to end of the house, and several other beams crossed those. Their intersections had support pillars which formed the corners of the rooms within. The ceiling above was one large open space, which all rooms looked up into. Many comfortable furs were laid over the worn wooden floors. Four braziers stood in the main room, one in each corner where their contents burned quietly, providing both warmth and light to the comfortable room. A faint waft of incense trickled through the room, pleasant but also too faint to distinguish. In the back and center of the room was a low backed wooden chair with a single cushion in the seat for comfort. Tapestries were hung from the walls, well away from the burning braziers. They depicted many different things, from starry night skies to dragons battling with barbarian warriors.
The double doors flung open, and Endrance stormed into the room. His entire demeanor showed both confusion and extreme distress. His shoulders hunched, his face contorted, and his pace quickened he paced back and forth in front of the chair in the back of the room, his hands lifted as if he was holding something in his hands that obviously wasn’t there. He raised his hands in frustration and with a heavy sigh dropped down into the chair, the air seeming to deflate out of him.
The women quietly stood in a half circle in front of Endrance’s seat. They waited silently as Endrance peered at them from behind his disheveled hair, his face like that of a man faced with his demise. He sighed again, rubbing his face. “Tell me again what just happened?” Endrance requested his voice soft but confused.
The eldest of the three nodded as she stepped forwards. “My name is Anna.” She began. “What don’t you understand? The feast is complete, your sacrifices are being brought in the morning, and you are now officially the Spengur.”
He waved his hand. “Yes yes, I get that part.” He muttered. “All that I understand, but what happened after that has me confused.”
The woman looked puzzled, frowning slightly as she thought back. “What was confusing about what happened next?”
Endrance raised a hand pointedly and replied, “The part where Joven said that you three were my wives?”
Anna nodded affirmatively. The brown haired woman scowled, and the young one blushed. Anna spoke again, her voice comforting and explanatory “It is tradition in Balator. The Ergkinoa are sacrificed to the Spengur so they may serve only him from the day that he is chosen, to the day that they die. The Draugnoa are no longer people of Balator but property of their Spengur. This way they will have no conflicting loyalties.” She stepped forwards and knelt before him. “Please, accept us and use us as you will, great Spengur.”
Endrance was shocked. He was barely past fifteen, and the first day of his first job he was… married? Not only was he married, but to three women?
“But…” Endrance stammered. “I don’t even know any of you. How can I be married to someone I don’t even know, much less love?”
Anna nodded. “We know what you mean, dear husband. But there will be time for you to come to know us, and for us to come to know you.” She smiled at him soothingly. “We will serve you from here on out until our time to die, or you send us away, no matter if you love us or not. It is our duty.”
Endrance shook his head. “But, I don’t want to force you into a marriage you don’t want!”
The brunette spoke up, “Bridget.” She identified herself before continuing. “It’s not like we have a choice, Endrance. We are all born of the owl totem. Our sign is rare, and the owl has by tradition only been allowed to marry the Spengur. If we were not to marry you we could not marry at all for as long as we lived in our lands.” Her voice was throaty, unlike Anna’s smooth and velvety voice. “I’m no happier about this than you apparently are.”
“I’m not against it!” the raven-haired keeper interjected. She blushed when he looked at her again. “I’m Selene, by the way.” She muttered as he looked at her.
Endrance sighed, standing up and approaching Anna. He placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke in an assuring voice “Please get up. You need not lower yourself before me as if I was your master.” He smiled at them as she stood again. “I do not ‘own’ you, nor do I dislike you!” he began walking back and forth before them as he spoke. “I was just caught off guard by the situation. My master believed I was both intelligent enough and mature enough to handle this task and I shall not prove him false. I will need your help to succeed, and I would be a fool to deny your assistance. You know more about Balator than I likely ever will.
“Now I may not know you yet, but we will have plenty of time indeed to get past that obstacle. I am sure that you will all serve to the best of your ability, and I am confident that we can all get along. You are all beautiful women, and I would likely have fallen in love with someone like one of you easily if things had not already been arranged. Now I don’t know how I feel about being… bonded so quickly, but I will manage.”
Endrance considered now the course of events in his life. Now in his early fifteens, he had a position in a generally feared if not respected kingdom, he had a bodyguard that was also one of his best friends, and was now bonded to three of the most beautiful women he had ever
seen. Even through the optimism of his good fortune he knew that something like this could not have happened by circumstance, and he was certain that he would find out quickly what lurked beneath the surface of this otherwise perfect career.
Endrance had been told numerous times that the world outside of his village was greatly different from what he grew up knowing. It was violent, strange in some places, and many parts of it were evil. He knew to be suspicious of something that seemed too good. He knew that this situation was almost the literal interpretation of the phrase ‘too good to be true’. His father taught him how through honest, hard work one makes it to the places they dreamed of being. So what does that place me at then, Endrance thought, if I came up from a life of relative peace and luxury into a position many wizards had to fight tooth and nail to get into with practically no effort on my part?
Endrance shook his head, clearing himself of errant doubts. “So,” He began, pulling his hair away from his face, “What happens next? Are you supposed to teach me about my duties or something?” His expression dropped to worry when he saw them exchange a glance and nod at the same time. “What?” he asked worriedly “Did I forget something?”
“We need to agree on our… sleeping arrangements.” Anna stated. Selene blushed and looked down, while Bridget rolled her eyes and looked like she had eaten something sour.
Endrance blinked at them, perplexed. “Well, I’m sure there’s some bedrooms around here somewhere.” He said, walking to the door to the right of the entrance. Opening it, he saw a large bedroom with a massive bed covered in many thick furs. “Oh,” he exclaimed. “Here. This one’s big enough we all could fit on it. Easy.”
Bridget snorted, shaking her head and walking away. “Forget it.” She blurted out angrily. “I sure as hells am not going to sleep with him.” She walked to the opposite end of the hall, taking the door into the rooms beyond. Endrance scratched his head. “Well I guess you wouldn’t feel comfortable sleeping in the same room as me yet…” his voice trailed off as the door slammed shut.
Selene remained still, uncertain if she should follow Anna or Bridget. She raised a hand nervously. “Anna?” she said uncomfortably. “I don’t think I feel ready to do it yet either.” She said, looking timid. Anna shrugged.
Endrance felt a sudden rush of panic as he realized they were inferring another part of marriage. The physical part. He gulped and shook his head. “Wait!” he exclaimed. “That’s out of the picture!” he shouted. “I don’t know any of you nearly that well! That is not going to happen tonight!”
Selene looked relieved but also embarrassed. She half smiled apologetically, “Sorry.” She muttered. “I… I just can’t do even that much.” She went off after Bridget.
Endrance turned to Anna and sighed. “Oh dear.” He said, running his hands through his hair. “Well, I’m sure there’s another room on that side you can use.”
“No, I think I’ll sleep in this room.” Anna said coyly. She walked towards the big bedroom. “It’s a comfortable looking bed, and there’s more than enough room for the both of us.”
Endrance let out a long suffering sigh and plodded in after her. As he closed the door he heard her say “You can sleep here too, but beware I don’t prefer to wear anything to bed.”
The next morning came with him awakening sprawled across one side of the bed, with Anna lying at his side. He had given up any pretense of modesty after a while and just lay there naked. She idly traced her hand across his back, something that both felt relaxing and made him mentally uncomfortable. “Your back… Where did you get those?” she asked, propping herself up on an arm and looking his markings over.
Endrance sighed, “It looks pretty scary huh?” he said. He tried to keep his eyes from wandering off of her face as they talked.
She nodded. “And painful. It looks like someone just went to work with a tattooing needle on your back in one run.”
He wasn’t certain what to say. He figured he would carefully approach telling her the truth. “It was done in one night. Well, they’re kind of self inflicted, I guess you would say.”
She raised her brows, curious. “If you did this to yourself, I would have to say you are either insane or incredibly talented.”
Endrance rolled onto his back, taking the subject of their conversation out of sight. “Well, a little of both really; it wasn’t something I had control over. I kind of inherited something more than most normal men do.”
“I see. I’ll have to find out what you mean by that sometime.” She responded.
“I’m sure you all won’t be able to miss it.” He said. “Can we talk about something else now?”
Anna leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I have to go help with the day’s preparations.” She said, stretching in front of him. “Go ahead and come out at your leisure.”
The young mage was simultaneously glad and disappointed when she dressed and left the room. He hadn’t slept very well, being so vulnerable sleeping next to someone for the first time, and had rested fitfully. He closed his eyes now and let out a sigh of relief. He drifted back off to sleep without realizing it.
Rays of warm sunlight poured from the only open window in the bedroom, illuminating Endrance's face as he slept. The bedroom was built in the same style as the main hall, though somewhat smaller. A large multi-hued rug covered the center of the floor and the large rectangular bed sat near the back. Near the door to the main hall was another door leading to a storage room roughly half the size of the bedroom. Across the room near the open window was a long table pressed up against the wall, with mainly alchemical tools displayed across them. Near the bed were two large armoires, one on either side of the bed. There were articles of clothing within them, most of which belonged to one woman or another. Everything gleamed with the shine of having been recently dusted and polished, and though many of the tools displayed throughout the room hadn’t been used in over a generation, they were in top shape and ready to be used soon. A third door was near to the back of the room, very easily missed.
Endrance stirred, and suddenly remembering the night prior snapped awake with a start. Seeing no one around, he quietly slid out of the furs on the bed. Realizing he was naked, he quickly searched about for his clothes. Finding many articles of clothing, but none his, he turned to the armoires. Inspection of one’s contents proved futile as it was immediately evident it held only women’s clothing. The other however had an assortment of articles of male clothing, many of which were sized to fit him. Finding a few that seemed to go together, he swiftly and quietly dressed. He then carefully made his way to the door he vaguely remembered entering through the night before. He paused, his hand on the door latch as he looked back at the rumpled bed.
Endrance pulled the latch free and stepped into the main hall beyond it. Selene was moving about the hall, cleaning and dusting as she hummed some song he had never heard before. She was wearing warm clothes with a many pocketed leather apron across her waist. He could hear the other two throughout the longhouse, going about various chores and cleaning. Walking past the girl to the door leading to the rest of the longhouse he caught the glance of Selene, who gave him a shy smile and a blush. Immediately an image entered his mind, a memory of her face from the night before, shy and scared. Endrance blushed nodded at her as he sped past, giving her his space.
He entered the next chamber of the longhouse, and found several doors along the sides of the hall, four in total, and two on either side. The rooms to the back of the longhouse were a kitchen and library, and the other two were guest chambers. Anna was at the end of the hall, arranging some mountain flowers in an earthen vase. She set the vase down on the window ledge as Endrance approached and she turned to greet him. “Good morning, dear husband!” she greeted him cheerfully.
He nodded at her, smiling pleasantly as he approached. “Morning, Anna.” He responded, coming up to stop in front of her. She looked him in the eyes and smiled as he was acutely aware of what subject came to mind as she began speaking.
“So my dear husband was last night… all that bad?” she asked, reaching out and caressing his cheek.
The young wizard sighed, smiling despite himself. She was very beautiful and had not done anything to him. In fact, if he didn’t take control of his imagination it would quickly put him in a rough spot.
Anna raised an eyebrow, silently urging him to speak. “The thing is,” Endrance began. “I am not sure how to… I’ve never done…” He shrugged, embarrassed to be bringing this up and feeling lame. “It’s not that I’m not capable, I just don’t think it would be possible for me to be any good…”
From behind one of the doors nearby he heard a girl laughing. Anna glanced at the door. “Back to your cleaning Bridget!” she called, and the laughter beyond the wooden portal fell silent.
Endrance gulped, trying to loosen his frozen voice. Intimacy was new to him and he found it hard to control the emotions rushing through him. He knew little of these women save for their names and their devotion to their tasks. Yet despite the little they knew of him, they were willing to give their lives over to the task of supporting him, much less giving their bodies to him? He couldn’t comprehend it and his frustration boiled over, thawing his voice in an instant.
“I don’t understand!” He blurted out suddenly, stepping away from her and leaning against the wall, his back to her. Glancing over his shoulder he responded. “You three know me not, yet you have been preparing your entire lives to serve me! You met me for but a day, and you agreed to give everything to me?”
He slammed the hand he was leaning on into the wall, too angry to be surprised that the blow split a crack up the wall. “How?” He demanded. “How can you do so much for someone you never knew?”
Spellscribed: Provenance Page 28