Six months after their return to Englred...
“Kelsie! Get back here! Now!”
Leo thundered the words across the forest in the wake of the fleeing figure zipping among the trees with more than a little magical impetus to help her. A little knowledge was a very dangerous thing where Kelsie of Kinleigh was concerned. Dressed in fern green doublet and matching leggings, she was like the very woods themselves.
It took all his speed and all his strength to catch her, but finally he did so, grabbing the back of her doublet and swinging her entirely off her feet as her momentum carried them both in a semi-circle. He turned her around, one hand on each of her shoulders and looked down at the little brat with no small measure of fondness.
Her once innocent gaze was now decidedly impish, laughing brown eyes looking up at him with a total lack of repentance.
“Victoria expects me to bring you home in one piece,” he lectured the budding sorceress. “If you go running off a ravine, I'm going to be damn hard pressed to do that.”
“Victoria expects you to keep me out of her hair this week,” Kelsie laughed. “I annoy her when she is trying to impress other nobles. I don't have the airs and the graces see... so she sends me out with you.”
“And I let you run wild, not helping the situation at all,” Leo sighed.
“I like running wild,” Kelsie shrugged. “I hate the lessons in Englred. I hardly learn any magic at all. It's all where I'm supposed to put my elbows and what knife to stab my fish with.”
“You've picked up a trick or two though,” Leo said, scratching his beard.
“On my own time,” she complained. “Victoria's embarrassed of me.”
“I have never known Lady Varys to be embarrassed about anything at all,” Leo replied, with a particular emphasis on the words Lady and Varys. Kelsie's speech was becoming far too familiar for her own safety. If Victoria heard her apprentice referring to her by her first name, well, he could only imagine what she'd do.
Kelsie gave a cute little shrug and smiled. She deserved a clip over the ear for running off like that, but he'd always been soft where she was concerned. For all Victoria's proclamations that he was to be the disciplinarian, it was she who Kelsie feared. An impressive feat, given that Victoria had never so much as laid a finger on her.
“Don't do that again,” he lectured, putting a little more force into his tone. “I want you to stay in my eye line, understand? I'll not risk losing you. We're due back in two days.”
Kelsie fell into a visible sulk. “So I've got two days of freedom,” she moped. “Before she sticks me back into a dress and makes me repeat the alphabet with all round vowels.”
“In the years to come, you'll look back on these days fondly,” he said. “Believe me, everything you learn now has a purpose. Victoria does not waste her time on irrelevancies. I know what it is to endure arduous training, but I can assure you it will be worth it.”
“Of course that's what you'd say,” Kelsie said. “You think everything she does is wonderful.”
He snorted under his breath. “You want to waste the next two days whining about your mistress? Or do you want to enjoy the hunt, and bring back some food worth eating?”
She chose the latter option, and for a few hours there was peace in the forest. Later, they sat down by the fire and cooked and ate the rabbit they'd caught. Kelsie slurped on the marrow – a habit Victoria had not managed to break her of, and piped up.
“What's it like?”
“What's what like?”
“Being an assassin? What's it like to make people die for money?”
It was an indelicate question, but a simple one. Six months ago, she would not have had the courage to ask him. Six months from now, she would have learned enough to know that it was not appropriate. She was in a curious place in her education, and though he did not hold the question against her, he did not know where to begin to answer it.
“Why do you ask?”
“I'm curious,” Kelsie said, snapping a bone in two. “Is it like taking an animal?”
“No,” Leo replied. “It is nothing like that.”
“You avoid killing when you can, don't you,” she said, astutely.
“Always,” Leo said. “It is no small thing to have blood on one's hands. An assassin does what he does because sometimes, one evil can prevent a greater one.”
“Two wrongs do make a right, then?”
“One timely wrong can stop a greater wrong,” he said. “Why the questions, Kelsie?”
She looked into the fire, her expression growing sullen. “I don't think I'm going to make it as a sorceress,” she confessed. “I thought maybe I could try being an assassin like you instead. You don't judge me like Victoria does. I get along with you. You don't snipe or punish me. You don't tell me I'm doing things all wrong...”
“Kelsie,” he interrupted. “I don't do any of those things because you're not my apprentice. Believe me, if you were to learn an assassin's trade, you'd go through far worse than a long tea time with an extraordinary number of spoons. And you wouldn't like me either. I wouldn't be as I am now.”
“How would you be?” That dangerous curiosity had returned.
“Strict. Harsh. Even cruel, at times.”
She shook her head, her expression incredulous. “No you wouldn't be.”
He had never been seen through the eyes of someone like Kelsie before. When she looked at him, she saw someone who was always giving second chances, rarely raising his voice, allowing her misbehavior, acting at times as a confidante, even a co-conspirator. She had no concept of what he truly was. Or perhaps she did. She had seen a glimpse of it on the night they met the demon and she had hated it. She seemed to have forgotten that. Leo wondered if it might not be time for a reminder of sorts, a taste of sorely needed medicine. He did not wish to return her to the same state of fear she had been in when they first met, but she did need to know what she was dealing with. A sorceress with no fear of assassins at all was a dangerous thing.
“Do you want a taste, Kelsie? You want to know what being an assassin's apprentice is like?”
She nodded.
“Get up, turn around, go fifty paces north, stop, and stand there.”
“For how long?”
He did not give her any further instructions. He just looked at her, waiting for her to comply. After a second or two, she stood up, brushed her hands on her britches and did as he had told her. Leo did not miss the fact that there was a little smirk on her face, as if she thought it was all a game. She could not have been more wrong.
Leo waited an hour or so, passing the time by preparing an instrument of apprentice correction. When he was ready, he slipped through the trees silently as a ghost and found her. She was standing in a small clearing, her head bowed as if she was sleeping on her feet. It had been a long day's hunt and he knew she was tired. He also knew that the mere act of making her go out here alone was a hardship. But it was not hard enough. Not yet.
He stole up behind her, raised his arm and bought the switch he had carefully selected and stripped down across her rear. Hard. She must have heard the swish of the branch moving through the air, but didn't move in time and the switch landed across her ass with a wicked welting blow. Her resulting screech of surprise and pain made the roosting birds in surrounding trees shoot into the sky.
“An assassin must always be aware of danger,” Leo lectured as she screeched. “Your senses must constantly be tuned to what you cannot see. You should know when a living being is within several feet of you, you must sense danger a mile away.”
“Ow, by all the gods owww...” Kelsie gasped, clutching at her rear.
“Silence!”
She bit her lower lip to stop from crying out and looked at him with tears welling in her eyes.
“Go another fifty paces,” he said. “Wait again.”
“Leo...”
“GO!”
She let out a small squeak and obeyed him.
***
Kelsie had made a big mistake. She knew that now, even as she reluctantly walked through the forest, her rear burning from the single stroke of the switch. She shouldn't have taunted Leo, not even the little bit she had. The look in his eye had changed completely. He had become a different man, a colder man, a man with little in the way of mercy to spare.
She counted out what she hoped was fifty paces and then stopped. She stood there, looking all around her, trying to listen as hard as she could so she would hear him coming. Not that she was entirely certain it would make a difference. If Leo came for her with a switch, then she was getting switched.
The minutes stretched out and she began to tire again. The ache of the welt was beginning to abate, letting her body start to fall back into a sleep state.
SWISH!
“No!” Kelsie cried out just as the lash found her rear again, this second stroke laid perfectly across the first one. How he did that in the dark she had no idea, but he'd compounded the effect massively. She bounced up on her toes, clutching at her rear and bouncing as she rubbed furiously.
“Stand still!” He barked the order in a way that made her body obey.
“Leo...” she whimpered his name.
“Master Falkroy to you, he growled. “Another fifty paces. Go.”
“Leo, I'm...”
“GO!”
She went again, given no choice. The moon told her that the hour was growing very, very late, though she did not need to see the silvery glow to know that, because her exhausted, sore body was telling her the same.
He repeated the process again and again and again. He always seemed to know the precise point where she was losing the struggle for awareness and lay his damn switch across her rear again. By the time she had received six strokes across her aching cheeks, she was fifteen hundred feet from their camp, her whole bottom was welted and sore and she was ready to burst into tears.
“Please, Leo,” she begged. “No more. I can't.”
“This is nothing,” he said, folding his arms over his chest, the switch still held in his large hand. “This is a gentle induction. In my first month of training, I was left to stand on a plank suspended between two tall towers overnight. Had I fallen, that would have been the end of me. In the second month, I did it while carrying lead weights. The third there were nails driven into the plank. Assassins are trained to the very limits of physical and mental endurance and it is not a pleasant process. Pain is a constant companion. Those six little strokes I gave you are nothing compared to the beatings I endured. And the beatings are nothing compared to what happens later. There were days I begged for a beating rather than do what they asked of me.” He leaned down so his pale steel gaze was locked on hers. “I died and was made a monster, Kelsie. I do not want that for you. Victoria is working to civilize you. I would take you apart, find the beast that lives in every human heart and I would stir it until it consumes every bit of good feeling. You'll not understand these words, but I hope you can understand some of their meaning.”
She shivered and nodded, forgetting her sore bottom for a second as his words and his tone conveyed a kind of horror she knew she did not want to face, let alone experience. Men like Leo were not born. They were made in brutality and blood. His goodness and kindness existed in spite of all he had been through, not because of it.
“Are you ready to return to Englred, and your mistress?”
Rubbing her rear with rueful shame, Kelsie nodded in the affirmative.
With that nod, he transformed once more. He dropped the switch and his features softened. Warmth and life returned to his eyes as he looked at her with some measure of compassion.
“Come here,” he said, pulling her into a hug.
He wrapped his arms around her and she was enveloped in his masculine strength. It was much needed comfort after the cold and painful night, and she pressed against him for physical and emotional warmth.
“I couldn't do this if I were your master,” he murmured against the top of her head. “And I like being able to do this, so how about you mind Victoria as best you can, and save me the trouble of having to be tough on you. There are enough sources of pain and misery in this world. I do not want to be one of them.”
***
Three months later...
“You have no idea how tiresome it is being a good influence,” Victoria sighed as she gracefully collapsed onto a chaise next to Leo one fine afternoon. She had been at court for what felt like weeks, but had only been a matter of hours. Since her return to Englred, she had been attempting to behave in a manner befitting the kind of sorceress she wanted Kelsie to think she was. Responsible. Respected.
He wrapped his arm around her and pressed a bristly kiss to her cheek. “Do you need to misbehave, Madame Varys?”
Victoria turned her sparkling gaze on him. “Always.”
“You're doing a fine job of restraining yourself when Kelsie is around,” he complimented, his fingers running through her hair with a gentle touch.
“And you're doing a fine job of pretending to be tame,” Victoria replied. “I know you would rather be in some far flung corner of the kingdoms, slaying someone deserving.”
“You know that, do you?” He allowed a hint of a smile to play about his lips. “It does not cross your mind that I might be content here with you?”
Victoria cast her gaze about the well appointed room, all stuffed furniture and carved curlicues and wallpaper tinted with gold. This was the room of a stuffed person, and she felt very much stuffed inside it.
“It does not cross my mind that anyone would be content here,” she said with more than a little pique. “I am tired of attending to court matters. I am tired of explaining to the king why the Black River cannot be forded, and why it would be folly to do so even if such a thing were possible. I am tired of pretending to care about fish from Fissa, or arguing about the price of authentic Issland ice. I am tired, Leo. I am just plain tired. For all I know Kelsie has spent the last week harpooning passersby from the balcony. I have had so little time with her.”
“Kelsie is well entertained,” Leo assured her. “When you have not been present, she has been tucked away reading.”
“Yes, I suppose teaching her to read was a good idea,” Victoria mused. “I do worry she might learn something though.”
Leo let out a chuckle and his hands began to roam her body. “Less worry about Kelsie,” he said gruffly. “More worry about yourself.”
“Do you worry for me, Falkroy?”
“I worry for the world when Victoria Varys is compelled to behave herself for too long,” he said, cupping her breast and running his thumb under her nipple with a teasing touch. “You are chaos' finest companion. It will seek you out if you do not at least have it to tea.”
“You make little sense, Leo,” she breathed as his fingertips teased a nipple erect beneath her gauzy dress, then pinched it hard enough to send sensation shooting straight to the core of her. “But I appreciate the attempt to distract me.”
“I'll do more than distract you,” he promised with an erotic growl.
They fell into each other's arms, mouths meeting, hard rod finding hot sex. Domesticity had made their passion more regular, but no less intense. Yielding herself to his desire, Victoria lost herself in Falkroy. He was demanding and fierce, taking full control of her and making her forget her propriety and her powers. She was naught but a woman in his arms, a soft, willing woman whose flesh clung to the cock which plunged in and out of her, her internal muscles gripping him, drawing him deeper, coaxing his seed forth until it spilled inside her, coating the walls of her quivering pussy.
He thrust languidly inside her for some time after he spent himself, pushing his cum deeper and yet also drawing it out with every other stroke. He had covered her sex most thoroughly in his sticky pale seed and she was caught on the verge of climax as he simply toyed with her, his shaft still hard as he pushed himself in and out of her with an almost casual demeanor.
“Let me cum, Falkroy,” she gasped.
“Ask me nicely,” he smiled, his gray gaze masterful.
“Let me cum or I'll... ouch!”
He had pinched her clit as she began to make her threat, warning her that he would not tolerate her usual attitude in this moment. She would never tell him, but she adored when he became so dominant and demanding.
“Ask me nicely, Victoria.”
“Please... Lord Falkroy...” she moaned as the head of his cock strummed between her cum soaked lips, bumping up against her clit every now and then. “I wish to cum...”
“Have you earned orgasm?”
Her eyes met his, her head tilting as she silently begged him not to play this game. But he was going to play it anyway, she could already tell.
“I believe I have,” she said, answering with uncommon politeness.
“Is that so?” He raised a brow and his finger hovered about her clit again, teasing her with light pinches which brought her closer to that blessed release.
“Yes!” She could hear the desperation in her voice, the unbridled need. All the dignity she usually clung to was slipping away as she rolled her hips toward his cock, trying to capture it again.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, sir! Please, Lord Falkroy! Allow me this orgasmmmmm... ohh!”
He thrust himself back inside her roughly and she felt her inner walls clench tight around him with a grip so intense that she came immediately, release rushing through her, taking every thought, every intention, every bit of conscious control and unleashing erotic chaos through her quivering body. Her cries were as primal as they were ecstatic and for a brief, blissful moment she was simply floating in the space of pure sensation before being caught in his arms and bought gently back to earth.
“Do you feel better now, m'lady?” He murmured the question down at her and attempted to restore the position of her lust torn dress with little in the way of success.
“I do,” she said with a little sigh which spoke to contentment and yet inadvertently gave away her hidden emotions.
“Coupling will not be enough, will it,” Leo chuckled, still caressing her body.“You need to get into some real trouble.”
She cast a curious look at him. “You have something in mind, Falkroy?”
“There is a trial of assassins beginning soon,” he said. “They're looking for a willing target.”
She raised a skeptical brow at him. “You want me to make myself bait for novices?”
“You could put your most wicked powers to use without fear. It's rare any of our apprentices have the chance to go up against a sorceress.”
“And perhaps if there is a particularly talented neophyte, I find myself assassinated,” she smirked. “Leo, truly. We have responsibilities now. We cannot go about allowing assassins to try to kill us for practice. If I die, you die, and what will become of Kelsie?”
“You will not die,” Leo promised. “I'll be there. If anyone gets uncomfortably close, I will tend to them.”
“The poor lambs,” Victoria laughed. “Your 'tending' is not something I would wish on anyone.”
***
Midnight found Lady Varys standing in the center of an empty bastion, one of the many at the walls of Englred. There were soldiers posted above upon the ramparts, and of course, both inside and outside the city. The likelihood of anyone reaching her seemed remote.
The trial of the assassins was the worst kept secret in Englred, and every year there were quite a number of soldiers and citizens alike who delighted in attempting to foil the apprentice assassins. Anyone who captured one would be given a hundred gold pieces by the assassin's guild. What happened to the captured apprentice was not as well known, but it was universally known to be unpleasant.
The shadows shifted and it took all her effort not to roll her eyes.
“Really, boy,” she said to the darkness. “I can not only see you, I can smell you. Take a bath!”
“Wha...aaaaaaa!!!”
SPLOOSH!
She heard the faint, but distinct sound of an apprentice falling into the moat beyond the wall and smiled with satisfaction. The moat was rather cold this time of year, but a bracing swim might give the young man a chance to clear his head and cleanse his body at the same time.
The single candle before her flickered momentarily.
“Hello, Leo,” she said to the shadows.
“You're alert tonight, Lady Varys,” he complimented as he stepped into the crown of light.
She very much liked how he looked in his assassin's attire. A man in black silk never failed to excite her. It had the effect of making Leo look both debonair and dangerous.
“You've been quite ruthless,” he noted with a broad smile of approval.
“They have been relatively tedious,” Victoria yawned. “I have turned one into a frog, magicked one to the center of Fissa, and I'm not sure how many white mice there are around the place now, but let us hope there is not a motivated cat nearby.”
“A fair number have made it past the guard into your presence,” he said. “That's encouraging. It must be a good crop this year.”
“Perhaps,” she said. “But Leo, I fail to see how this is supposed to serve as entertainment. It is like being a fish shooting fishermen from a barrel. Amusing for a time, but there is no real sport in it.”
“No real sport, you say? One year during my apprenticeship the novices turned upon one another on the rooftops and it rained limbs into the courtyards. Nasty affair. Very much frowned upon. Compared to that, this is highly sporting.”
“With recollections such as those, it's a wonder either of us survived your training,” Victoria mused, moving closer to him and taking him by the lapel. She drew him down and their lips met in a passionate kiss which was all the hotter for taking place at the axis of danger.
As their lips met, a shadow dropped from the roof twenty feet above and landed nimbly mere inches from Victoria. Leo moved swiftly, but not quite swiftly enough. The dark little figure zipped forward, hand extended. In a fraction of a second, it made contact with Lady Varys' posterior, delivering a sharp slap along with a laugh.
A moment later, Leo's boot met the novice's stomach as Leo kicked the assassin back, sending him sliding across the stone floor, short blade in hand.
“How dare you, boy!” He thundered furiously, pacing after the novice. “You were sent to kill, not to fondle.”
“Apologies, Lord Falkroy,” the hooded figured mumbled once he had caught his breath. “We were told to make contact, is all. That was the nearest part I could reach without harming her. I did it out of respect for you, sir.”
“Respect for me? You'll lose your nearest part, boy,” Leo snarled, advancing upon the lad. He couldn't have been very old, for he was slight of frame and quite short as well. That did nothing to stop Falkroy's fury.
“Easy, dear,” Victoria called out. “He was simply performing his duty.”
Leo grasped the novice assassin by the front of his tunic and hauled him up off the ground.
“And now I'll perform mine.”
He gave the assassin a firm shake and in the process the boy's hood fell back, revealing...
“Kelsie!” Victoria and Leo shouted her name simultaneously.
“What are you doing!?” Leo demanded, renewing his grip.
“The trials are open to anyone,” she said with a shrug. “I thought I'd try my hand. A little levitation, a hint of shadow walking... being an assassin is easy.”
Leo's eyes sparked with fury as Victoria laughed, both in surprise and out of great amusement. Finally, something interesting had taken place.
“I apologize for taking liberties with your person, Lady Varys,” Kelsie smirked over his shoulder, dangling quite comfortably in his grasp. “I just wanted to be sure I'd made contact.”
“You've made contact,” Victoria agreed. “Now I wonder what will make contact with you.”
Kelsie looked back at Leo and her smile faded as the very angry master assassin glared at her unrelentingly.
“You could have been killed!” He snarled, very much not amused. “There are dangerous men afoot tonight. This is not a game!”
“It seemed like a game to me,” she said, arguing quite boldly. “ A game I won. You underestimated me, that is why you're angry.”
Victoria was impressed how Kelsie had the courage of her convictions. It was quite fascinating to see Kelsie and Leo butt heads. He was usually so mellow when it came to her, and she would usually do anything to please him. This little antic had put them at rare odds. Victoria was quite certain that Kelsie had not expected chastisement from Leo. She had probably imagined she would receive praise, but that was the farthest thing from the man's mind.
“No, I'm angry because you could have been thrown from a roof by one of the others, or stabbed in the liver by an overzealous guard, or turned into a damned rat if Victoria had seen you coming. This is the most dangerous night of the year in Englred, and you are supposed to be at home in bed!”
“It's the most dangerous night of the year and I won!” Kelsie shouted back. “I'm wearing the clothes you bought for me, wielding the dagger you gave me. I'm here because you led me here, Lord Falkroy, and I don't care what you say!”
“Oh you'll care, you little wench,” he growled. “You'll care until you can't sit for a month.” He set her down, turned her about, and landed an open palmed slap full force across her cheeks.
She hissed, but did not cry out. Kelsie was learning to control her reactions, Victoria noted with approval.
“Go home,” he ordered. “I will deal with you tomorrow.”
Victoria raised her hand just as Kelsie opened her mouth, and before whatever impertinence was able to be spoken, she was sent back to her chamber, safe and sound and very much locked in. Victoria did not waste her breath on lectures or threats. It would be quite some time before her apprentice had the freedom to leave her room, let alone the house.
“I'm going to have to pay much closer attention to her,” Victoria mused, trying to keep the smile from her face as Leo turned to her, his expression incredulous.
“Can you believe that? She infiltrated the trial.”
“... and won,” Victoria said, allowing her mirth free reign.
Leo turned his scowl on her. “What are you laughing at?”
“I have been so concerned about being a bad influence, I did not realize it was you who would lead her astray.”
“I did not lead her astray,” he said, sounding somewhat offended. “I have impressed upon her the importance of her sorcery studies. I have discouraged her from any notions of training as an assassin...”
“Exactly,” Victoria smiled. “You have made it exciting and dangerous and transgressive – everything a young woman wishes to be. Oh, Leo. If you could have seen the look upon your face...”
“Your mirth does not become you, Lady Varys,” he said sternly. “This is not a laughing matter. Our charge almost killed herself.”
“She did no such thing,” Victoria disagreed. “She used her limited knowledge of sorcery for an alternate purpose and was successful in the act. She's creative, and intelligent, Leo. The more she learns, the more trouble she will be.”
“We are both going to have to keep a close eye on her,” Falkroy said, his brow furrowed with concern.
“Yes,” Victoria agreed. “Yes we are. I think I will forgo the royal court and make my apologies for future sessions. Kelsie needs my full attention. I positively yearn to see what she comes up with next.”
“I do not think either of us will be bored for quite some time,” Leo agreed, his temper calming as he regained equilibrium. He was never angry for long, not even when he had reason to be so. In this case there was not truly a reason to be angry at Kelsie. She was more than powerful enough to manipulate the world as necessary to survive an assassin's nest. That was something she should be praised for – proof she had worked hard at her studies.
“You are allowed to feel some pride,” Victoria teased as she watched him struggle internally. “It was quite a feat.”
“It was,” Leo said. “And this time she survived. I hope I can say the same next time.”
“So you know there will be a next time.”
Leo took Victoria in his arms and looked down at her with a mixture of love, lust, frustration, and joy. “With sorceresses, there is always a next time.”
The End.
Really.
Probably.
For now, at least, definitely.