Victoria was glad when they arrived in Samilton. The prince would soon be corralled and taken back to his loving mother and that would be the end of the matter. It should be simple enough to find him, judging by the BEWARE THE GOAT MAN signs posted prominently on trees along the way.
They made their way to the tavern, where Victoria and Kelsie took a room and Falkroy made inquiries as to the 'goat man' who had been terrorizing the town.
“Stay here in this room,” Victoria instructed Kelsie. “Falkroy and I will attend to our business. I want you to remain here and await our return. You may sleep as you please, but do not leave the room. Above all, eat only from our provisions. Do not touch anything from this inn. Understand?”
“Yes, ma'am.”
Victoria allowed herself to smile at the girl.
“You have proved very obedient thus far,” she praised Kelsie, reaching out to brush a few stray strands of hair from the girl's face. “I am pleased with you.”
An adorable blush consumed Kelsie's face. “Thank you, m'lady,” she murmured.
Having bolted Kelsie in with a charm, Victoria left her apprentice and made her way to the tavern proper, where Falkroy greeted her with news.
“Six miles north east, a little cave system in the hills,” he said. “Apparently our goat prince has been luring the local maids there and having his way with them. There's already one swelling belly in the village, and they're expecting more.”
“Randy little shit,” Victoria laughed. “Well, what can one expect? Let us go and take him.”
“Tell me what your intentions are towards the girl,” Leo said as they rode. “I've never known you to want an apprentice.”
“It is my duty to train the blood,” she said. “I do my duty, Leo.”
“Pardon my ignorance, but she doesn't seem particularly magical,” he observed.
“Her powers remain latent,” Victoria explained. “For the moment her power is sporadic, uncontrollable. No matter the strength of her blood, no sorceress comes into her full power until she has come into her sexual awakening as well.”
“You mean until she has lost her virginity,” Leo said.
“It is much the same thing. Furious masturbation does not seem to do it, so yes, I suppose one could say that a cock must be involved somewhere along the line.”
He snorted at her dry turn of phrase. “So then, it is a matter of having her mated.”
“Having her mated? You talk about her as if she were a prize dog.”
“I'm merely following your line of reasoning, Lady Varys,” Leo said with a slight frown.
“She will pick a mate at a time of her own choosing,” Victoria said. “Until that time, she remains in a far more trainable, containable state.”
“Ah I see. You like your little virgin maid. She cannot challenge you as long as she remains untouched.”
“She could not challenge me if she were touched by every man in the land,” Victoria snapped. “She is a pig herd...”
“Yes, so you say. But I see the concern in your eyes when you watch her. Something about Kelsie troubles you.”
“It does,” Victoria admitted. “But I am not worried about her. I am worried about myself. I rode out to do my duty. All childless women of the blood must make an attempt once a year to find another of the lineage. I did not intend on actually finding a girl... I worry I am not cut out to be... whatever it is she will need me to be. She was an orphan child, but she is grown. What lack has that left in her heart? Her poverty should have dulled her mind, but it has not, and though she is obedient now, I detect the stirrings of a headstrong character...”
“As is practically mandatory in sorceresses,” Leo added with a smirk.
“Yes... but...” Victoria clamped her lips together. “I don't know why I am speaking of such matters with such a foolish boy.”
“Because you have nobody else to discuss them with,” he said as their horses slowed to a leisurely trot. “So go on, talk.”
“She is past the age of molding, and yet she must be molded. I confess, I do not know how to do that.”
“By engaging her respect, which you already have,” he said. “Kelsie adores you, Victoria. When you sweep into a room it is as though an empress has arrived. She would lay flat on her face for you if you were to command it. I am truly not certain what you are so afraid of.”
“I am afraid I found her too late. Had I found her at twelve... perhaps I could have done something for her. But now... she is a grown woman. Her talents have been latent so long I do not know if she will ever have conscious control of them.”
Leo mused on her words for a long minute before speaking.
“We train assassins at no earlier than twenty five years of age,” he said. “Young men are useless pups. They can learn the skills of soldiering, and fight a war or two, even distinguish themselves in battle, become heroes to their holds and hearths - but it is not until the middle of their twenties, or even later, that they find any center within themselves, the discipline it takes to truly follow our creed. We can indoctrinate younger men, but the assassin's guild requires more than indoctrination. It requires an active, experienced mind. We have taken younger men and all we ever achieved was having to beat them and drag them out of danger until they reached the point of maturity themselves.”
“So I think she is too old, but you think she is too young?”
“I do,” he said, scratching the dark stubble of his beard.
“She is eighteen years of age. Most are mothers several times over by then. There have been younger queens!”
“But not sorceresses,” he said. “You're almost a hundred years old, Victoria, and you are still a young sorceress...”
“And you a mere hundred and one,” she smirked. “Dancing on my magic string...” she broke off as his expression became thunderous.
“As I say,” he continued. “The more complex a calling, the more morally rigorous it must be, the older a person needs to be in order to truly understand what it is they are undertaking. Magic is the art of understanding, and Kelsie is a little peasant girl who yes, could have been bred a half dozen times already, but hasn't been. Innocence hangs about her like the dew...”
“Very poetic, Falkroy.” Victoria's green eyes glittered at him. “You glance at her often, I notice. Is it the dew that draws you?”
He cocked his head and allowed a smile to play about his lips. “Jealousy does not become you, Victoria.”
“It is not jealousy. It is mere curiosity. I wonder at your tastes sometimes, Falkroy... they are so eclectic.”
“I have had a great deal of time to indulge them... but I will not with Kelsie, if that is what you were thinking, Lady Varys. She is far too innocent for my tastes.”
“You do not wish to defile her, how sweet,” Victoria smiled. “It seems I may have my virgin apprentice for some time yet.”
“Hush!” Leo suddenly hissed the word and held his hand up, drawing his horse to a halt.
A thin cry in the distance drew their attentions. They began to move toward it at a walk, then as the cry grew louder, at an increased pace.
They burst through bushes, up to a hillock and looked down at what could only be described as an orgy. There were no fewer than five naked young women cavorting upon the grass, their cries not of danger or pain, but of ecstasy. They were touching one another with great abandon, kissing and writhing as if they were unable to control themselves. Sex was in the air, the breeze wafting soft gusts of pheromone laden air toward the lord and lady.
It took a moment, but they saw the satyr himself. He was human from the cock up, goat legged from there on down. The spell seemed to be leaving him in slow degrees, a pair of neat horns nestled in his brown curling locks. He left the cave and went to sit on the grass, where the young women immediately went to him, crawling with swaying breasts toward the errant prince.
“You'll not pull him away from that scene easily,” Leo chuckled as the greediest of the lot fastened her lips around his cock.
“He will not have a choice,” Victoria said, her eyes glittering with something like amusement. “I need to make some preparations, but as soon as I have, we can return here and disband whatever one might call this. Return to the tavern and watch over Kelsie for me, Falkroy. Teach her something useful. I will gather the necessary supplies and return to you soon.”
***
“Where's Lady Varys?”
The first question out of Kelsie's mouth when Leo returned to the tavern was an inquiry as to Victoria. The girl was quite fascinated with her mistress, Leo noted. A good thing, given how demanding Victoria could be. If that fascination turned into loyalty, she might yet survive her training.
“Collecting a few things,” he said. “You'll have to tolerate my presence.”
Kelsie smiled prettily, her cheeks flushing pink. “Your presence is nice.”
“Good,” he smirked. “Now. As Lady Varys has charged me with your instruction for the afternoon, what shall I teach you?”
She gave a wordless shrug and looked at him with innocent eyes.
“Perhaps we should start with what you know,” he suggested. “Tell me, what is the name of the kingdom?”
Kelsie screwed up her nose and shook her head. “Uhmm...”
“It's alright if you don't know, I can't imagine the pigs taught much geography.”
“It's Teroa,” she said with a little scowl. “I'm not utterly stupid.”
“I never said you were,” he replied calmly. “But there are plenty of people who don't know the official names for these lands.”
“My mother did teach me some things before she died,” Kelsie replied. “She made sure I at least knew the name of the kingdom.”
“And the names of the other kingdoms?”
“I think... I don't know. She probably told me, but... I forgot. I've forgotten so much about her...”
A pall of sadness fell over the room at the mention of her mother.
“Let me show you the world as it is,” he said. “So you might understand where it is we are and where you might be going.”
He drew a map by hand, using a piece of cool charcoal on the top of the table. One kingdom surrounded by six others, irregular shapes and sizes, but orbiting the large squiggle. He drew a large cross two thirds of the way down the circular squiggle and pointed to it.
“That is Englred City,” he said. “It lies in the largest and richest of the seven kingdoms, Teroa.”
“I thought it was supposed to be in the middle,” she frowned.
“Ask anyone who lives there, and it is. But try to follow a map and you'll find it's actually not all that far from the borders of Uhr.” He marked another cross farther down toward the lower tip of the southernmost kingdom. “This is Sellington, capital of Uhr. This is where I usually reside.”
“You don't live in Englred?”
“No,” he said, noting her look of disappointment. Moving on quickly, he made two smaller strokes, one to the up and left of Englred, the other further south and further away. “This one,” he said, pointing to the second mark, is where we are now.”
“And the other one?”
“That's Kinleigh, or near enough abouts,” he said. “Your village is quite near the border with the kingdom of Issland. But for the mountain ranges, you'd be neighbors. The western kingdom is much more elevated than the rest and is freezing as a result. The mountains keep the worst of the weather from spilling into the central plateaus which enjoy the best land for forests and farming alike.”
From there he went around clockwise from Issland, naming the kingdoms as he went. “Hundvald, where the men are wild, Fissland, where the waters are rich, Varys...”
“... where Lady Varys comes from?”
“Oh yes. Royal blood flows in her veins,” Leo said with a chuckle. “She will never forget it – nor let anyone else forget it either.”
His finger moved down to the narrow kingdom below. “Set, he said. A dangerous place, very hot and full of incredible warriors. The black river prevents invasions and incursions into Teroa and Uhr for the most part.”
“And Varys?”
“That border is held with the force of magic – and that, Kelsie, is why sorcery is so important. Teroa is a rich land in the very center of much more difficult terrain. If it weren't for sorceresses like Lady Varys, the Englreds would likely fall as many kings have before them.”
“Lady Varys helps maintain the borders?”
“Yes,” he chuckled. “When she's not tormenting princes, she's keeping the world safe.”
He watched as Kelsie digested the information. It was easy to see how someone could mistake Victoria as being nothing more than a troublemaker, but the reality of the situation was that she expended a great deal of energy keeping the kingdoms from tearing themselves apart. Her work was as serious as that of any general, and that was why she was forgiven the occasional goat incident. Without Victoria Varys, there was no Teroa. Without Teroa, there was no Englred.
Kelsie's tongue stammered into life. “Does that mean... I'll have to keep the world safe one day?”
She looked thoroughly daunted, and for good reason.
“One day,” Leo said, reaching out to muss her dark locks. “For the moment, we've got some time off. How about a game?”
“A game?” Her eyes lit up. “What kind of game?”