Fledgling Demigod Ch. 11

11

["Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey,"] Devi said in his head, and Galen groaned. ["Come on, lover. You need to get up to eat and drink. You're dehydrated and malnourished."]

["How long have I been out?"] he thought to her with a groan.

"Five days," Lucinda said sleepily from his side. She was naked except for a pair of panties, and Galen moved to cop a feel before feeling a bulge between her legs.

"What?" he said groggily.

"My flow week," she replied, lazily getting out of bed.

"Oh," Galen said as he sat up slowly and swung his legs off the side of the bed. "Sorry," he apologized. "I didn't know... I didn't mean..."

"Don't concern yourself with it," she replied as she came back to him with a cup of something warm. She kissed him as she handed him the cup.

He took a sip and nearly spat out the contents. "Ugh, what is this?" he asked.

"It may taste like dung, but it will help you regain your strength much faster than normal," she said as she unabashedly stripped and changed a wad of cloth from the crotch of her panties. Then, she washed her face and began to get dressed. "It should be cool enough to down it all in one swoop," she said as she put on her uniform. "Then you can have some water or tea to wash out the taste."

"Ugh," he said again, almost retching. "I think I'll take my chances," he said as he moved to put the cup down."

"I'll force it down your throat if I have to, my love," she gently threatened. "But you need it."

"Fine," he said and downed the contents of the cup. It tasted like horse shit and charcoal. He retched a few times, but she was back in front of him with a pitcher of water, and he downed the entire thing.

"Shouldn't have drank the whole thing," she said as she cupped his cheek. "Gonna make yourself sick."

"Thirsty, though," he groaned and moved to lie back down.

"Uh-uh-uh," she said, catching and pulling him back upright. She looked into his eyes and smiled. "You need to get up and get dressed. We're going to the dining hall to eat so everyone can see you're still alive."

"Fuuucck!" he groaned in disappointment as he stood. He wobbled slightly as if he were a newborn giraffe.

Lucinda helped him walk to the wash basin and helped him wash his face. She helped him get dressed. "Glad to see you're not too proud to accept help," she commented with a kiss on his cheek.

"Where are we?" he asked as they made their way to the dining hall. "Still in Redd?"

"No," she replied. "We're back home in Spellthorn. After you passed out, we cleaned the field and brought everything back to the castle. We went through all of the duke's belongings, and anything deemed important was brought back here. Lady Hannah was instrumental in helping with that."

"Is she alright?" he asked with a concerned expression. "You made sure she was taken care of?"

She smirked at him. "She's fine," she said. "She, uh, seems to be under the impression you're going to make her your wife."

"Oh, for the love of the goddess, please don't start trying to push women on me," he pleaded. "Devi already has her hand deep inside that punchbowl."

"What's a punchbowl?" she asked.

"Think of it as a wine cask," he replied. "Only filled with fruit juice instead of wine."

"Ah. Well, no. I'm not going to push women on you, my love," she said. "Only informing you of what they are thinking. Although, Priscilla has been anxious to see you since the battle."

"Why?" he asked, confused.

"Didn't Devi and I tell you she's quite smitten with you?" she asked. "She visited you every day while you were asleep. Sometimes twice in a day."

"Odd," he replied.

"No more odd than the other two women who keep trying to sneak a peek at you while you slept," Lucinda said with another smirk.

"Huh?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"You make quite the impression with the ladies, my love," she said as she squeezed his hand. "Laird and Brittany, I think, are their names."

Galen groaned again. "Seriously?" he asked with a scowl. "And it's Lairn."

"Come now, husband," she whispered with a secret smile. "Let us not pretend you wouldn't rearrange their wombs if given the chance." She giggled. "They'd happily endure the pain, I think, if you were to do so."

Galen blushed. She was right. Though why, he wasn't sure. He'd never been more than a one-woman man. Elle had been all he needed or wanted. Now, though, on this world, for some reason, he couldn't help but think about bending every woman he met over his desk and railing her until she couldn't think straight. "Must be something in the atmosphere," he muttered.

"What was that?" Lucinda asked.

"Nothing," he replied. "Just thinking out loud."

Arriving at the dining hall, Galen could hear that it was more crowded than usual before he even came within sight of it. When he crossed the threshold, though, the room slowly got so quiet you could have heard a cockroach skittering across the floor. Then, slowly, people started clapping. The dining hall shortly devolved into clapping and raucous cheers as he made his way to his table amid claps on his back and people offering him tankards of alcohol.

"Wonderful!" Lucinda yelled sarcastically into his ear so she could be heard over the noise. "You're going to have to make a speech after this!"

Galen groaned again as he gave tentative smiles and waves to people. Sitting down at his table, he saw Priscilla across from him with her ever-present scowl. To her left was Brittany with a happy smile and to Priscilla's right was Lairn with a proud smile plastered on her face. Lairn and Brittany were both wearing guard uniforms. Lucinda sat next to him, and people crowded around his table to congratulate him or touch him.

"Give him some space!" Priscilla roared, but the crowd didn't hear. Her hand came up and electricity crackled around it. That gave them pause, and the room went quiet.

"Let him eat, please," Lucinda begged them. "He's been asleep for five days and needs his strength. Afterward, I'll bring him to the great hall and let him tell his tale there."

That seemed to satisfy them for the time being, and they slowly dispersed. Priscilla sat back down and crossed her arms over her breasts as she eyed him, that scowl never leaving her face. Remembering she had been injured, Galen asked, "You alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked with a snort.

"I thought you got injured in the battle," he said.

"What made you think that?" she asked cautiously.

"It's kind of hard to mistake a scream of pain even if it is coming from a dragon," he replied.

"Oh," she said, then the flash of a smile crossed her lips before returning to a scowl. "I'm fine, my lord. Thank you for asking."

Galen nodded, and as he began eating, Lucinda informed him of everything that happened while he was out. Duke Latham was still in a cell in Redd. He had told Rodrick pretty much anything Galen would want to know. Troop movements, tactics and strategy, anything the man was privy to, he spilled. All Rodrick had to do was let him see his daughter one last time before he died.

"Did Hannah want to see him?" Galen asked.

Lucinda shook her head, but it was Priscilla who spoke, surprising Galen. "She went if only to slit his throat," she said with a malicious grin. "She somehow managed to sneak a dagger up her sleeve. She almost succeeded."

"Who stopped her?" Galen asked.

"I did," Priscilla answered. "I thought you'd be the one that wanted to end his life."

Galen waved the notion away with his hand. "Let her do it if she's so determined," he replied. "If she doesn't succeed, have him hung from the city walls as a deterrent to anyone else who thinks they have the balls to attack me."

"If you let Hannah kill him, then by default his duchy goes to the emperor, husband," Lucinda reminded him.

Galen groaned. "Not this again."

"You could always marry her and then let her kill him," Lucinda said innocently. "However, that would constitute keeping him alive until you're ready to wed her."

"Are you a soldier or a politician?" Galen asked her.

"I'm both when needed, husband," she said and leaned in to kiss his cheek.

"Let me know what you decide, my lord," Priscilla said with a quip.

"We also started a network of spies in the capitol," Lairn almost blurted out, and Galen raised his eyebrows at her. Blushing slightly, the ex-sentry continued. "Lady Priscilla has agreed to fly there once a week to gather reports from the spies and relay any messages."

Galen looked at Priscilla again. She still had a scowl on her face but somehow managed to work in a smirk. "I'm impressed," he said.

"It will take the better part of a day," Priscilla said. "While we dragons can change from any form to dragon form in less than thirty seconds, it takes the better part of three hours to reverse the change."

"We figured it'd take about a month or so to get the network up and running efficiently," Lucinda explained. "But once it does, we can branch out to other kingdoms from there."

"I don't understand, my lord," Brittany piped up and blushed when everyone looked her way. "Why don't you just go to the capital and kill the emperor? Surely with your strength, it will be an easy feat."

"It's not as simple as that," Priscilla answered curtly. "Cut off the head of the snake, and the body won't know it's dead for some time."

"Meaning?" Lairn asked.

"Meaning," Priscilla sighed with a roll of her eyes. "If he kills the emperor, he'll still have the surrounding kingdoms to contend with."

"But he'll be the emperor," Brittany said.

"Whoa, whoa," Galen said with a mouthful of egg. "I don't want to be the emperor."

"The kings will have to submit to his rule," Brittany finished as if Galen hadn't said anything.

"Maybe for a time," Priscilla countered. "But if they disagree with his rule, they could always mount an army against him. He may be strong, but even he can't withstand an army that size. Even though he's conquered the kingdom of Redd, there are still some of his vassals that don't want to see him sit on the throne. And there are five more kingdoms to contend with before going after the seat of the empire."

"Conquered?" Galen asked, but Lucinda put a hand on his arm to forestall his objections.

"Let them talk, my love," she said with a kiss on his cheek as the discussion continued across the table. "What they are saying, so is everyone else."

"But I don't want any of this," he protested. "I don't want to rule."

The table quieted suddenly, and the three women opposite him looked at him quizzically. Priscilla glared at him. "You have given people hope for the first time in ages," she said hotly. "You have to rule."

"Why?" he asked. "You and anyone else are just as capable, if not more so, of ruling as I am. I'm an idiot who's only real skill in this world is hunting and fishing."

"And killing," Lucinda said. "Don't forget that."

"That's exactly my point!" Galen exclaimed. "I don't want to kill. I don't want that on my conscience!"

"Says the man who just decimated an army of almost a thousand," Priscilla quipped. "Single-handedly."

"To protect you!" he exclaimed, and her eyes went wide in shock. "And you," he said to Lucinda. "And everyone unable to protect themselves, but I'd prefer not to kill if I can avoid it."

Priscilla shot to her feet, her chair skidding across the floor behind her. "Killing is unavoidable when dealing with tyrants," she said. "Only a coward chooses not to kill." She stormed out of the room.

Galen sighed. "I know that," he said in defeat. "But it doesn't mean I have to like it."

"No one likes killing," Brittany said. "But it's necessary at times to achieve peace."

Galen took a drink and sat back, looking at her. She couldn't keep his gaze and softly looked down while blushing. "Wise words," he said, finally, and she looked up at him with a smile. He raised his glass in a toast. "To peace," he said when they did likewise. "And may the goddess forgive us for the souls we send to hell in the meantime." They clinked their goblets and drank.

"My lord," Lairn said.

"Hmm?" Galen said.

"I wonder if you wouldn't mind me telling your story in the great hall?" she asked with a blush. Galen and Lucinda looked at her in confusion, while Brittany smiled knowingly.

"What do you mean?" Galen asked. "You were on your way to the castle when the battle started."

"I... uh... forgive me, my lord, but I wasn't," she replied. "I couldn't help my curiosity at how the battle would turn out, so I waited just out of sight. I watched you kill Farnk and Jamus. I watched you sneak into the camp, and I watched in awed horror at the bodies you left in your wake as you slaughtered my former comrades, seemingly one after the other."

"Damn," Galen said with chagrin. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I'm not, my lord," she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"You're not?" Brittany asked. "Why?"

"All that power displayed on the battlefield by one man was, well, invigorating, to say the least," she said with a blush.

Brittany gave her a knowing look, and both of them nibbled on their bottom lips as they looked at Galen. Lairn blushed a deep shade of red. "Let me guess," Lucinda said with a playful sneer. "If given a chance, you would have mounted him on the spot."

Both women's eyes went wide at the forwardness of the question. "Gladly," Lairn said through a blush so deep she looked almost as red as Drusilla's scales.

"I still want to," Brittany said, blushing equally as red.

"If I may be so bold, my lord, I would place myself in contention to become one of your wives at your earliest convenience," Lairn said.

"I was well, my lord," Brittany said.

"They know I'm sitting right here," Galen said, looking at his wife. "Right?"

"Yes," she said with a knowing smirk.

Galen sighed and finished his breakfast. Feeling better, he fixed Lairn with a pointed expression. "So if you didn't immediately run for the castle like I told you to, when did you get there?" he asked, ignoring her proclamation for the moment.

"After the battle," she said, still blushing. "When Priscilla had dropped Duke Latham at your feet. I heard your conditions of surrender before making for the castle."

"I trust you didn't have any problems getting through the gates?" he asked.

"Only minimal," she replied.

"I happened to be coming back from getting the horses we'd saved situated," Lucinda interjected. "I was heading back out when I saw the gate guard arguing with her."

"If it wasn't for her," Lairn said with a smile for the redhead. "I'd be in a cell with the rest of the prisoners."

"I trust you took care of the situation with the guard at the gate?" Galen asked Lucinda.

"I informed him you'd cut his balls off if he threw her in a cell," she teased.

"I wouldn't do that," Galen said. Then, grinning, he said, "I'd just cut his dick off."

The women giggled and blushed. "So the guard wasn't letting you in?" Galen asked Lairn. "Did he say why?"

"No, my lord," she said. "He wouldn't let me speak at all."

"I came upon them as the guard was putting her in shackles," Lucinda said, continuing the story. "She was practically raving to anyone that would listen about a man in the forest that almost killed her, but spared her life by sending her here. I stopped, and when I inquired of the guard what this was all about, he just shrugged his shoulders and said she was a prisoner."

Galen fumed inwardly. "Get with Altus and let him know that anyone who comes through the gate in times of peace or war is to be questioned with a measure of respect and to make sure they fucking listen," he growled.

"This was in Redd, Galen," Lucinda said. "Remember?"

Galen sighed. "Either way, make sure both cities' guards know," he said. "They can make their own judgments from there, but anyone that gets incarcerated needs to go before a judicator before the day is up."

Lucinda nodded. "As you will, my love," she said.

"Please allow her to tell the story, my lord," Brittany begged, motioning to Lairn. "She's told it nonstop since we got here, and as it turns out, she's quite the bard."

"I have to agree," Lucinda said. "She does a captivating job of recounting the details."

Lairn blushed, but she was pleased with the praise.

Without answering, Galen stood. He felt better, but he was still wobbly as he walked to the great hall. Lucinda walked beside him with one hand around his bicep to give the illusion that he was strong enough to support himself, but in reality, it was in case he needed help. He smiled at her, and she blushed slightly at his attention but returned his smile. Lairn and Brittany followed close behind. Whispering with his head tilted toward his wife, Galen asked, "Does the city still think Lairn was a sex slave for the army?"

"Yes," she answered. "Why?"

"Just making sure," he said as they entered the great hall. The hall was packed so tight that Galen and his entourage barely had room to wiggle their way to the dais. He drew up just short of the dais when he saw Priscilla sitting on the throne immediately to the left of his throne. She sat with a bored expression on her face that turned down to a scowl when she met his eyes. Galen raised a single eyebrow at her, and she returned the gesture. Motioning Lucinda to the throne on his right, Galen sat down without a word to his arrogant dragon.

"I'm on duty, my love," Lucinda whispered.

"Isn't that what they're here for?" he asked, pointing a thumb at Lairn and Brittany behind him. They were standing to either side of his throne with a watchful eye on the crowd. Sighing with a roll of her eyes, she sat down. She looked uncomfortable, but not physically so. The crowd was chatting amongst themselves, and it sounded like a loud buzzing of a beehive. Slowly, Galen stood and cleared his throat. The hush that followed was almost immediate.

"I uh..." he started to say. "I'm afraid I'm not very good at telling stories," he said. "I'm so bad I used to bore my kids to sleep at night." There were chuckles around the room. "So I won't bore you all with my inability to spin a tale." The crowd groaned in disappointment. "However!" he said, and they quieted again. "I'm told one of my guards, Lairn, can tell a good story, and as she's the only witness to the event in its entirety, I'm going to ask her to tell it for me." He turned and motioned for Lairn to come forward as he sat down.

Lucinda was about to stand to take Lairn's place as guard, but Priscilla beat her to it. Lucinda gave her a curt smile, and Priscilla rewarded her with a snide smile of her own before turning her eyes back to the crowd. Lairn came forward confidently and stood in front of Galen. She bowed at the waist and waited for him to acknowledge her. Galen looked perplexed at Lucinda. She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Just nod your head slightly," she instructed, and Galen did so. Lairn smiled at him before turning to the crowd and relaying the tale from her point of view.

Galen tuned out the first part of the story as Lairn went into surprising detail about how she was supposedly treated in the camp and how she'd escaped. Turning his head to look back and up at Priscilla, he quietly said, "How many did you get trying to run back to the empire?"

She grinned wickedly. "Thirty or so," she replied proudly.

"Nicely done," he replied, and her cheeks colored slightly at the compliment. "No one got by you that you're aware of?"

"None," she said. "I scoured the land well after sunrise and was able to spot two more on foot that had hidden away. They thought they were safe, so they were taking their time walking back. Little did they know I was high above and could see them. Their bodies practically exploded when my lightning struck them."

"I would love to see that one day," he replied. "Maybe the next kingdom we conquer, I'll let you kill their king that way." She beamed at him hopefully. "Will you speak with me after we're done here?"