by Judith Post
"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Thurstan stopped to consider the idea. "No, Isolda has many talents, but cooking isn't one of them. I've started preparing our evening meals. It makes us both happier."
Jarman looked surprised. "My Emma's a wonderful cook."
"My point," Thurstan said. "When the sisters lived together, Emma cooked. Isolda didn't."
"A man who cooks is a break with tradition," Aelio said, studying him carefully. "Most Englishmen cling to tradition like a drowning man clings to a raft."
"Werewolves don't value mortals' tradition as much as you'd think." Thurstan stood. He started clearing the table. Christian and Brom joined him. Aelio's eyes widened.
Jarman laughed. "None of us here are traditional Englishmen. We had to adapt."
"And witches? Do they follow tradition?" Aelio glanced at Wymare, and her look turned almost amorous.
The girl shrugged. "Not so much. Our ties to magic pull harder than mankind's holidays and rituals."
"Do you have a coven?" Aelio asked.
"Not the usual. All of the witches in our serfdom work together."
"Women with women?" Aelio smiled. "I've always preferred that myself."
Wymare frowned, seeming uncertain how to respond.
"I hope you brought sleeping mats with you." Aelio abruptly changed the subject. "This castle seems to be stripped of everything."
Christian answered quickly, grateful for a new topic. "Vagrants take what they find."
Thurstan nodded. "We've traveled before. We're ready."
When the embers of the fires burned low, they started upstairs to sleep.
"Linata and Wymare can share my chamber," Aelio invited. "It's clean. Ignisia's welcome, too, if she can part with her husband."
Brom scowled and Ignisia laughed. "For tonight, we can separate. We'll have a girl's room and a boys'." She patted her husband's fanny. "That way, he can get some rest."
Aelio glanced at Aldith and Forwin.
Aldith shook her head. "We'll sleep in the turret."
The men moved to a room across the hall from the women. They threw their mats on the floor. The fortress was devoid of furniture. People had come and gone, taking what they wanted. Christian looked at the stripped, stone walls. No murals or tapestries. Not even oil lamps for light. It saddened him to see property treated with so little respect.
Brom glanced at the empty, dusty space. "Nothing to brag about, is it?"
Jarman shrugged. "Mortals! Wherever you find a place to hang is home."
"Hang?" Brom quirked a dark eyebrow.
Jarman swooshed to a ceiling beam, gripped it, and hung upside down, ready to sleep. He grinned. "Happy dreams."
Brom grimaced. "A hard floor, a drafty room, and a vampire dangling over us. What more can a man ask for?"
But the truth was, they were all so tired, the minute they closed their eyes, they slept.
Buzzing noises woke them in the pre-dawn hours before morning.
Christian pushed himself onto his elbows and looked toward the open shutters of the window. In the dim light, he saw bodies hurl themselves at it and bounced off. "Linata's bubble," he said.
Brom and Jarman followed his gaze. "They're here."
The men strapped on their weapons and rushed down the stairs. The women followed close behind.
Christian rolled his shoulders, readying himself. "I'll step out first. While the women focus on me, Brom and Thurstan can release the dragons, then seal the castle again."
Linata gave a quick nod. Christian called on his magic and burst into flames. When Linata muttered a quick chant, a rip tore in the bubble for one, brief moment. As Christian strolled through the opening, Jarman and the vampires followed close on his heels. The vampires could see in the faint light, but Christian shot fire to torches, set in the high walls, to illuminate the courtyard.
Linata turned to follow Brom and Thurstan to the dungeons. The snake women sensed the temporary rip and buzzed toward it, trying to find a way inside the castle, but the bubble sealed behind Jarman, and Christian motioned for the vampires to give him more space. They moved so fast, they were blurs, and Christian amped up the power of his flames. One snake woman didn't retreat fast enough and fire consumed her.
Two other women zoomed to sink their tails into Jarman's flesh. Once their barbs entered his skin, he squashed them like pesky insects. Jarman rubbed the spot, like an itchy mosquito bite. Aldith and Forwin smacked their palms together, aiming for others, but missed. Their targets escaped.
Christian followed the women as they retreated until finally, they clustered at the opposite side of the courtyard and grew to their full shapes. Nine, beautiful, charming faces smiled at him above shapely torsos. Firm, rounded breasts gave way to small waists and full hips. The hips were covered with scales, and the scales grew thicker as the women's lower physiques coiled into thick, snake-like bodies that tapered to barbed tails.
One of the women slanted her eyes at Christian. "I always fall for tall,
good-looking men. If you choose me, I'll make sure you'd never regret it."
"Because you'd poison him and probably eat him," Aelio said, stepping out to join the others.
The woman hissed. "You poison his mind."
"You'll poison his body. Be gone with you!"
The woman whipped her tail. A barb struck at Christian from across the cobblestones. Before it hit his fire, Linata slipped out of the castle, raised a hand, and formed a bubble shield to protect him. Thurstan forced his way through the narrow gap before it closed once more. The barb bounced off the clear shield toward him.
"Look out!" Linata raised a hand, but couldn't summon a shield fast enough.
Thurstan rubbed his shoulder where the barb had struck and grinned at Christian. "Told you it would tickle."
The snake woman narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you?"
"A minstrel. Care for a song?"
Christian stepped toward him. "Are you all right?"
"After your mother's healing? I probably won't catch a sniffle for five years."
The woman switched her gaze to Linata. "You must be a witch. I thought your kind hid their talents these days."
"Not in my lands," Christian told her. "We came to protect Aelio and warn you away. There are many more witches and many more magicks here."
Her smile grew bold. "But not all of them came with you. Once we kill Aelio, we can leave this place." She struck again, but this time, a blast of fire melted the barb at the end of her tail. She jumped back toward the wall.
Brom, straddling Lothar's back, landed beside Christian. Smoke curling from his nostrils, the huge, black dragon glared at the snake woman. The other three dragons landed with Ignisia.
The snake women formed a semi-circle. "Do your allies know why we hunt you, Aelio? Do they know how evil you are?"
"They know that you've killed our offspring because one of them stole a mortal from you."
"Do they know what she'd have done to him?"
"The same thing you wanted him for—food. And she didn't know you were hunting him. But whereas, I usually wear my mortal form, you have none. Mortals are your favorite prey."
The tail struck again, but this time, flames reached the snake woman's hair before she jerked back once more. The green dragon beside Ignisia licked it lips. Dragons, too, enjoyed the taste of flesh—sheep, cattle, or snake women. It made no difference to them.
Echidna's daughter touched her singed hair and screamed her displeasure. "Kill them, my sisters!"
They rushed forward in mass.
A halo of flames surrounded Christian, and he shot fire at the woman on the far right. Lothar torched the woman next to her, but the woman in the center flicked her tail with its poisonous barb at Aelio. A giant, furred paw blocked it as Thurstan shifted into a werewolf. Not a wolf. No wolf would stand a chance against this beast. Thurstan snapped at the tail, sinking sharp teeth into the scales. Then his lips turned up in a canine grin. He bit down, hard, shaking his head, and that part o
f the tail broke free.
The sister on the far left aimed at Aelio, too, and Wymare shot sparks at her. No small, bright display. More like zaps of white lightning. They hit the woman in the chest and knocked her flat. Aelio shifted into her Harpy form. She raised sharp claws and opened her fanged beak to rip and tear at the next woman.
The woman quickly sprang back to join her sisters. The women took a minute to huddle. Finally, one of them glared at Aelio. "Clearly, you've convinced these mortals to help you. We've sworn vengeance upon your kind, though. We'll return."
Aelio spread her hands in frustration. "Why? Haven't you killed enough. Can't you declare a truce, let it go?"
The woman's eyes widened in surprise. She turned to her sisters. "What say you? Have we exacted enough justice? Can we put our differences with the harpies aside?"
A sister who'd been blackened by Lothar nodded. "I'm tired of chasing Aelio all over the globe, trying to destroy her. I'd rather be in our homeland, enjoying our forests and caves."
Another sister joined in. "I have no quarrel with these people. I have no real quarrel with Aelio. We've destroyed the harpy who stole from us, along with many more."
The sister who served as the group's speaker turned to Christian. "We have no desire to anger you or yours. We'll depart now, if you swear to let us leave in peace."
Christian didn't believe them. It had been too easy. He glanced at Brom.
Ignisia said, "Will you swear an oath?"
The sisters placed their hands over their hearts. "By almighty Jupiter, we swear to leave Aelio in peace."
"Then go, and don't return," Brom said. "If you do, you've made enemies of both our serfdoms."
The speaker's lips curled in a mocking smile. "And that's of significance?"
"We'll hunt you down and destroy you and everyone with you," Brom said.
She looked surprised. "You'd truly do that? For a stranger?"
"We never make empty threats." Red flames blazed in Christian's aura, a sign of anger, but she probably didn't know that.
She gave a careless shrug. "We'll leave then, and we hope to see you no more."
She and her remaining sisters shrank to the size of eagles and flew away. From a distance, they dipped and soared.
Brom put his hand on his sword hilt. "Did that strike you as sincere?"
"No." Christian looked at Linata. "Raise your bubble again. I think we'll need it." But an hour passed without incident. The sun rose, and for the vampires' sake, they had to return to the castle, seal it tightly, and wait.
They gathered in the small kitchen to make plans.
"Do you think they're really gone?" Wymare asked.
Linata shrugged. "Maybe they're tired of their vendetta. Maybe it's not worth it anymore."
"They made an oath," Ignisia said.
"To Jupiter." Aelio shook her head. "We're Greeks, not Romans. We worship Zeus, not his Roman counterpart."
"So they tricked us?" Ignisia's eyes flashed just as darkly as Brom's.
"Their oath is worthless." Aelio reached for a round of bread. She glanced at the empty shelves lining her kitchen and sighed.
"Maybe they're prepared to wait us out." Christian wanted nothing more than a huge tankard of ale, but there was none to be had. Brom and Thurstan looked as though they could use some, too. A second night of sleeping on a stone floor held no appeal. "If we stay here, we starve." He couldn't face another meal of salted fish and onions—the only supplies that remained in the storage cellars. "I say we escort Aelio to my fortress. I'll protect her until she thinks it's safe to return to her lands."
Jarman gave a quick nod of agreement. "We can leave here at dusk. I'll station some of my pack with you, but we can't dig in here unless we replenish everything first."
Brom glanced at Ignisia. "We can station dragons with him until this threat has passed, can't we?"
His wife shrugged. "Either that, or we can search these snake women out and crisp them into oblivion."
Christian secretly liked the second choice, but doubted it was practical.
Aldith decided it. "The women can easily outlast us. Aelio has nothing in place. She just arrived here."
Christian gave a grim nod. "Then we return to my fortress at sunset."
Aelio agreed to the plan more quickly than Christian expected. "I didn't realize how unprepared I was. I didn't come here, really, to claim a serfdom. I came to make a stand. After that, I planned to return home."
Wymare sighed. "What do we do for food until we leave?"
"That part's easy," Thurstan said. He and Christian hunted, returning with half a dozen rabbits and bags of wild greens. Brom fussed about being left behind, but he had no magic to defend himself if the snake women jumped them in the forest.
Wymare and Aelio cooked a passable supper which they all enjoyed with the last of Aelio's wine. They waited until dusk. Aelio sprouted wings for the trip. Jarman, Aldith, and Forwin did, too, placing Aelio between them. Brom and Ignisia mounted their dragons. When they took to the skies, they flew on the outer edges of the group. Christian, Thurstan, and the two witches mounted their horses. And they all set off, staying close together, for their trip home.
They made it to the forest that bordered Christian's serfdom before the sisters attacked. They ignored their other enemies and concentrated on Aelio. With a scream, Wymare blasted streaks of electricity upward at them, killing one. Brom and Ignisia turned their dragons and hurried to attack. Lothar crisped a second sister.
Jarman and his vampires sprouted fangs and claws to rip through two more of them, but still one of the snake women threw herself on Aelio. The barb on her tail sank into the harpy's flesh, over and over again.
The dragons couldn't torch the woman. They'd burn Aelio, too, and by the time Jarman disposed of her, Aelio was spinning out of control and crashing toward earth in a sick spiral. The green and blue dragons raced after the four other sisters. They caught the first two with their powerful claws and hurled them toward earth. Damaged wings couldn't hold the women, and they splatted noisily. Then the dragons raced after the last two. Gobbles and burps were heard from a distance.
Christian braced himself and nodded for Thurstan to help him. The two men crossed their arms, forming an impromptu net as Aelio fell. Linata bespelled a bubble to cushion the blow. Aelio landed in their arms, nearly knocking them down.
Wymare raced to Aelio's side. She sagged onto the ground, tears spilling from her cheeks. "Will she survive?"
Christian wasn't sure. He looked at Thurstan again. He'd never forced healing energy into anyone before, but he had plenty to spare. So did the werewolf. His mother had seen to that. What had she read in her Tarot? More than he realized. They placed their palms on Aelio's shoulders and pushed magic from themselves.
Aelio's pale face gained some color. Her breaths came more easily. Christian threw himself back onto his horse and Thurstan handed her up to him. Cradling her to him, Christian raced toward his fortress. The others did their best to keep up.
When his friends strode into the Great Room, Lady Enid was already at work on Aelio. She was alive when he'd reached the castle, but barely. None of them knew what her odds were.
Wymare raced to her side and sank onto her knees. "Please," she sobbed, "you can't leave me once I found you."
Aelio's eyelids fluttered.
Lady Enid turned a curious gaze on Wymare, but said, "Speak to her more."
Wymare did more than speak. She lowered her head and pressed her lips against Aelio's. Aelio's chest heaved. Her fingers curled, and her eyes opened. She gazed at Wymare with open lust.
Christian sighed. What was it about his serfdom? Wasn't it enough to attract different magicks? Did they have to attract different everything?
But Cook clapped her hands in happiness. "She's going to be all right."
Brina laughed. She came to stand beside Christian to press herself against him.
He couldn't help himself. His hand went to the new bulge of her stomach
. He yanked it back, surprised.
Brina took it and gently returned it. "Our child likes to kick."
Christian waited, and yes, Brina's stomach moved again. He hugged her to him. He had no words to express his thrill and joy. He glanced at Brom, but Ignisia had her hand cupped on her husband's ass. Holy England! He'd worried for most of his life about people discovering his magic, about making changes to his serfdom. How many things had been hiding in the shadows, ready to reveal themselves?
But with Brina beside him, and his people safe, calmness seeped into him. He watched Wymare and Aelio, and their affection was real, every bit as real as his devotion for Brina. He sighed. If Aelio proved a just and wise leader for her lands, what did it matter? That, for him, would be the true test.
* * *
Several months later, Christian and Brom rode to Gilbert's old fortress. According to travelers, Wymare and Aelio had followed the same route that Brom had. They'd offered cruck houses to serfs for small annual dues. People living in poverty in the cities came in droves, and they soon had a full serfdom. The women were trying to rule fairly, even though neither had any experience. They often sent riders to Christian or Brom, asking for advice.
When Christian rode through the first set of gates that led to the villages, he noticed gardens spilling with produce, just as his gardens did.
Brom grinned. "People work harder when they keep most of what they grow."
"And why wouldn't they?" Christian noticed that doors were being installed in place of curtains on the huts. Better to keep out wild animals. Wells were being dug for each village.
Brom looked pleased. "Your ideas are spreading. Soon, this entire region will prosper."
Christian could only hope.
When they reached the high walls that circled the fortress, female guards nodded them through the gates. At first, women soldiers made Christian uneasy, but once he thought about it, his witches had fought alongside him in many battles.
Both Aelio and Wymare greeted them before they dismounted in the courtyard.
Wymare threw herself into Christian's arms. "Thank you! Thank you!"
Christian stared at her. "For what?"
"You could have refused to let me leave your lands. You owned me, but you set me free, let me come to Aelio's serfdom. It's been nothing but happiness ever since."