The Wicked Tower Pt. 01

"My mother?" Fortinbras frowned. "The gods forbid it. And, anyway, she is ... my mother." Despite the woman working him he felt his dick deflate some.

"You long for her, Your Grace." Brynhild's eyes locked with his and moved her rhythm faster, now bouncing on his dick. She could feel him harden again. "She cared for you your whole life, bringing you countless joys. It is time you brought her happiness, too. Especially now that your father is gone and her bed is a barren place."

"By the gods, you're right." Fortinbras couldn't believe it. He had had these feelings all along, and only now just realized them. "I will bring her happiness on the end of my spear."

"That's my duke." Brynhild bounced and rocked her hips in a motion she had honed over the centuries, guaranteed to bring a man to his completion. Her breasts hopped wildly before his eyes. "Now ... ugh ... give me your seed ... oooohhhhhhhhh." She rolled her eyes and cried out as the young man bellowed and emptied himself inside her.

~~

"I'm already in here, young man. You can take a bath later." Cassia covered her large breasts with her arms and squinted through the swirling steam. She couldn't see the intruder clearly, but his hulking, manly form gave him away. It was clearly her first born son.

"I wanted to join you, Mother." His keen eyes were blunted by the murk of the room. Fortinbras strode in, confident as could be despite his nakedness in front of his own mother. His heavy dick, soft for the moment, swung between his legs as he carefully stepped through the tiled room. "We need to have a talk in privacy." He slipped into the bath opposite her. Now that he was closer, he could see the swell of her hanging breasts behind her arm. She was so full of curves and supple promises. So unlike the young women he normally consorted with. How had he not seen her true beauty before now?

"We can have a private chat when I am fully dressed." Cassia didn't like the way he looked at her. Her sons were so different. If only gentle Vel had been the first born. He would make for a more caring master. "Please leave and we can discuss this later."

"You may go." Fortinbras waved his hand at the shadows of servants that lined about the room. The women quickly exited leaving mother and son alone in the bath. "Now, that's better. I've been thinking, you must be very lonely with Father gone." He slid along the bench around the bath until they were next to one another. Steam rose around them and he could see beads of sweat form on her forehead and exposed shoulders. Such delicate shoulders, wonderfully juxtaposed with the swell of her breasts just below. He put a hand on her arm and slowly lowered it into the water. His eyes feasted on her exposed flesh. Her nipples were large and dark, with wide areola.

"What ... are you doing, darling?" Cassia was well aware that he was aiming to cross a terrible Rubicon. As a woman of the Surround, she always felt small in her son's presence. But never more so than at that moment.

"Call me Duke Fortinbras, or Your Grace." Fortinbras bent down and kissed her cheek demurely. "I am your duke. And you are still my duchess, no?"

"I am ... the duchess ... yes." The steam seemed to constrict her breathing. Cassia needed to leave that place, and quickly. She lifted herself from the water, knowing full well that she would expose her lower half to him. Sure enough, as she climbed out of the bath, she could see his eyes upon her butt. She stood straight above him dripping on the tile, looking down at him over her shoulder.

"You look less a duchess and more a Venus. You are, in my eyes, the very goddess of fertility and harvest." He reached out a hand and clasped her ankle so that she wouldn't slip away. "Come back to the bath."

"Let go of me, Your Grace," she said the last two words with a hiss. She pulled her leg, but his grip was firm.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Vel stepped into the bath, and saw his mother's form through the haze. "I saw the servants leave. I thought you had left, Mother."

"Turn and go, darling." Cassia's voice had a hint of desperation. She could see Vel's tall lanky form hesitate. "You can have the bath in a little while."

"Is there someone with you?" Vel had poor eyesight, but he thought he saw the shadow of a man in the bath next to his mother. By the man's size he could be no other but the duke. "Are you in trouble?" He did not like the tone of Cassia's voice. He took a couple steps across the room, paused, and pulled his robe tight around him.

"You are dismissed, little brother," Fortinbras sneered. His grip tightened on the ankle he held. "Go off and find Naevia so that you might play your games together. Leave me to play mine."

Vel blinked. He could just make out a strong, muscled arm snaking out of the bath, clutching Cassia. He knew that his brother suspected he and Naevia of being closer than they were, which meant that Vel understood the kind of games Fortinbras had planned for their mother. "Leave her alone." Vel hurried to the bath, bent down, and tried to pry his brother's fingers from their mother's ankle.

Having none of the intrusion, Fortinbras slammed his other fist into Vel's right check.

"Nooooo!" Cassia screamed.

Vel's robe opened as he fell to the tile with a crack of ceramic. Fortinbras hesitated when he saw the young man's manhood exposed. Soft though Vel was, he was quite large. He was, indeed, more manly than Fortinbras had thought.

"Get your hand off my mother." Using his brother's brief pause, Vel got to his feet and pulled Cassia from his clutches. "Come, let's go." Vel stumbled away, he protectively pulled her under his robe, aware of her hot skin against his. He felt her boob bounce against his hip as they walked, but he did his best to put it out of his mind.

Outside the bath, mother and son nearly ran into Potitus who was loitering about.

"Where is the duke?" Potitus looked unsure of himself as he blocked their path.

"His Grace is enjoying his bath." Cassia mustered her best smile. "Out of our way, Potitus."

The man didn't move.

"Did you not hear your duchess? Move." Vel was concerned that each moment wasted in the hall offered his brother a chance to retrieve their mother.

Reluctantly, Potitus stepped aside.

"Let's get you back to your rooms." Vel took a deep breath in the clear air of the hall. They turned right and hurried away. He looked over his shoulder frequently, but it seemed Fortinbras had not pursued them.

~~

That night, as the family supped on lamprey bisque, a quiet beset the table. The duke had little to say to the others, but glared especially at his younger brother.

Vel kept his head down, and barely enjoyed the salty meal. He was appreciative of Naevia's hand on his thigh. He hadn't told her how he'd bruised his face, but her green eyes wouldn't leave his cheek, and her freckled face wore a particularly severe frown for one usually prone to joviality.

"I will leave for the palace first thing tomorrow." Fortinbras abruptly stood and cast his bowl into the roaring fire where it shattered. "It should be a day of good fortune for this family. Wish me luck."

They all murmured their good luck to him, though none of them knew of his errand's purpose.

"Goodnight." He turned and strode out, his heavy cloak whirling about him. Potitus followed him out.

Silence lingered in the dining hall after he left. Servants removed the bisque and brought in honey cake. Cassia stood and bid her remaining children goodnight.

Bantia was next to leave. She mumbled her evening pleasantries, and her tall, slender frame vanished out the door.

Then it was just the youngest two.

"Tell me now, sweet Vel." Naevia gently touched the ghastly purple blotch on his cheek. "Was this our brother?" She whispered the words so that the remaining servants wouldn't hear. Like her mother, she had the stature of a woman from the surround, so her hand appeared quite small next to her brother's face.

"It's a confusing business." Vel smiled at her concern and ruffled her copper hair. He took a bite of cake and thought things over. "I hardly know what I saw. You know how my eyes are. I cannot tell you anything for it would surely cast a pall upon our family. And right after Father's disappearance."

"What can't you tell me?" Naevia broke a piece of her own honey cake and took her eyes off her brother to observe it. It was perfectly light and spongy. She squeezed. Yet firm. "You were never very good with secrets."

"I really can't." Vel stood, and gave her a sad smile. He bent low and kissed her perfect forehead. "I'm going to read in the library. We'll talk tomorrow." As he left, his sandal crunched on a piece of his brother's bowl that had ejected itself from the fire. His brow furrowed. He needed to do some research. He couldn't tell up from down at the moment.

~~

The muffled screaming seeped out into the hall. Apparently, the maiden enjoyed her second meeting with the duke. Potitus smirked as he listened to her fall out of her mind. He leaned against the stone wall near the posed carcass of a giant beaver. The taxidermist had done his best to make the beast look menacing, but it was a beaver after all. Potitus gave the creature a nod. They were becoming fast friends, having spent hours in the hallway together.

A deep ringing vibrated the stone gently. The great bell on the tower somewhere far above them told the palace that noon had arrived. It informed Potitus that he had spent his whole morning listening to rutting with his aquatic friend. "Will they ever finish?" He rolled his eyes at the lifeless animal. A few minutes later, he heard a mighty roar and the loudest cry yet from the woman. "Finally. Right?" The beaver did not reply. It had the patience of Pluto.

It was none of Potitus's business where the duke sought out pussy. But the valet wondered why they braved the Hawk's Road, waking up at an ungodly hour, just so the duke could dip his wand in some woman bound to another. Maybe the duke enjoyed taking what was not his? Potitus couldn't say. But if that was the case, there were plenty of wives in Ostia Novus. And none of them bound to the princess as was the Maiden Lucia. But the duke was the duke, and who was Potitus to question?

The door opened and Lucia emerged. She closed the door behind her and didn't look at Potitus. Her stola was ripped at the shoulder, and she waddled away down the hall as if she had just spent all morning riding some giant beast. Which, Potitus mused, she had. Motion down the hall caught his eye. Men in the blue cloaks of the palace guard moved two-by-two down toward him. Potitus cast his eyes to the ground and tried to look like he belonged out in the palace corridor for no reason. Thank the gods the duke had already stopped his rutting. Lucia passed them and disappeared. Potitus waited for the guards' rustling cloaks to pass him, but instead, six pairs of sandaled feet stopped right in front of him. "Good, afternoon," Potitus said.

"Just so," said a cold feminine voice from down the hall.

~~

A knock on the door turned Fortinbras around just as he adjusted his robe. "Hold, Potitus. I am almost dressed. I'm starving. As a duke, do you think I'm entitled to a meal from the palace kitchen?"

The door swung open and Potitus stood in the doorway with the most odd expression screwed to his face.

"Well, man? The kitchens. What do you think?" Fortinbras pinned his cloak and eyed his valet. Was something wrong with the man? And then Potitus fell forward like a board, his face crashing into the stone slab floor. A dagger stuck from his back at about the point where Fortinbras figured the valet's heart would be. The duke's breath caught in the back of his throat. A singular chill entered the room.

"I do not think our kitchen will serve a duke without invitation. Even one from our great port of Ostia Novus." A woman's voice carried over the valet's dead body. It was clean, crisp, and precise. Six men filed into the room, their blue cloaks clasped neatly over their purple tunics. And then, a pale woman with black hair wearing a green patinaed copper crown glided in behind them.

"Queen Regent Valeria." Fortinbras dropped to a knee.

"Rise up." Valeria carried with her a scepter of patinaed copper, with an image of Salacia fashioned on the head.

"You've ... killed my valet ... Your Majesty." Fortinbras rose back to his full height, towering above the others in the room. His brow furrowed. Potitus was a good man. Normally he'd be in a rage. But it seemed one of the queens was responsible.

"A price needed to paid." She stepped around her men and walked up to the duke. "You only just gave us your oath, and yet then you took from our princess."

"Yes, I see." Fortinbras nodded. So, this was his way out. Potitus was not an unfair price to pay for his transgressions with the Maiden Lucia. He'd been caught and now he'd need a new plan. "I hope you'll forgive my passion for your beautiful maiden."

"Your passion I can forgive." Valeria looked up into the man's ugly blue eyes. However could they stand to look at each other in the north, she wondered? Such a hideous people. "You were asking the maiden questions about the princess?" She turned and walked around the man. He reeked of sex. She loitered behind him.

"Only to know her royal highness better." Fortinbras relaxed his shoulders. He was comfortable with words. "My family has long kept safe the Surround's biggest port, but my seat of power is new. I felt in bed with the maiden I might learn more about how to please the crown."

"Fifty-two years."

"Your Majesty?" Fortinbras furrowed his brow again.

"Your family has guarded Ostia Novus for the crown for only fifty-two years. That is when your grandfather came from the north and aided in our revolution. We are the true people of the Surround. We who are dark, correctly proportioned, and do not scheme for others' lands." The queen pressed a button on her scepter and a four-inch spike silently rose from Salacia's copper arm. "We our bound to honor your family's seat and title. But we are growing short on male Tullius heirs."

"I don't understand." Fortinbras tried to look over his shoulder at the queen, but she was standing right behind him.

"On that we agree." Valeria thrust her scepter up and caught Fortinbras with the spike at the base of his skull. With a faint crack, the bone gave way and all four inches embedded in his brain. She then quickly removed the scepter and stepped away from the giant of a man. She did not want to be crushed like some unskilled lumberjack. With a mighty thump, the erstwhile duke's body hit the stone floor. "Let us hope your brother understands more than you did. We will tolerate you Tullius savages in Ostia Novus," she said to the bleeding corpse. "But not here. Never in Accipiter Cubitum. And we cannot forgive treachery."