The Wicked Tower Pt. 02

This will make more sense if you read the earlier parts. Don't worry, they're fun, action packed, and build the tension. Read them first! Also, all characters in sexual situations are 18 years or older. Enjoy.

There was a smile on his mother's sweet, round face. But he didn't believe it because tears rolled down her cheeks. Vel stood awkwardly as she buttoned his robes just right. "Are you okay, Mother?"

"I'm fine." Cassia sighed and did her best to keep her smile going. "I'm fine. It's just that the queens regent wasted no time in naming you the new duke. Your brother may still be traveling, or spending his time on one of his ... hobbies, or ..." Weeping threatened to overtake her so she forced her mind to change course. "I'm just so proud of you. My Duke." She finished with the buttons, patted his chest, and looked up at him. "A man of nineteen years and so handsome. I remember when you were just a little thing at my breast, and you've sprouted like a weed." She reached up and lifted his chin so that his face struck a more regal pose. "Now remember, as duke, you are responsible for your people's happiness. Not the other way around. Many would treat such a position as a luxury, but you --"

"I know, I know, Mother." Vel didn't mean to cut her off, but he'd heard the lecture aimed at his older brother many times. How odd that those words should now find him. Well was the brother who was supposed to inherit his name and nothing more. "I will be good to Ostia Novus, just as she has been good to me. And you will help me rule."

"I hope you will listen to my advice, darling. But I am nothing more than a dowager duchess. To be replaced when we find you a bride." Cassia wiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand and waved the servant girl over to affix Vel's cloak. Sage charred in the nearby brazier, and Cassia breathed in its sorrowful scent. Had she really lost her husband and her first-born in such a short span of time? "Brynhild would like to speak with you before your journey. Your father trusted her, so listen well. But ..." Cassia's stomach turned over as she thought of the tall sorceress and her unnatural eyes. "But you may take your own counsel in all things. You do not have to do what she says."

"Yes, Mother." Vel watched his mother closely as she stood with her back toward him by the brazier. The maternal hourglass of her figure was not well hidden by her stola. Vel longed to curl in her lap and listen to her songs like in the days of his youth, burrowing into her bosom. But he was a man now, and he could no longer hide behind her skirts. "I love you, and I will make you proud."

"I love you too, little sparrow." She turned back to him. The tears had stopped and the smile had widened. "You have the perfect temperament for what lies ahead. But you must steel yourself against those that would steer you wrong."

"I will." He bowed, a gesture no longer befitting his position, and turned to go. He would find the sorceress, Brynhild.

~~

"You may leave us." Brynhild waved her servants out of the room and watched the young man stand uncomfortably in her doorway. This would be all too easy. "Come in, Your Grace." She smiled warmly and offered him a cushioned chair. The Duke took a few steps into the room and stood, waiting. "Congratulations on your ascendancy." She languidly walked over to him, keeping her eyes locked on his. She was one of the few who could do this at his level, they were almost exactly the same height. She ruffled her northern dress, well aware of how much cleavage and leg it left to his viewing. So unlike the prim women of the Surround. "I have a request for you when you visit the Palace."

"Yes, of course." Vel nodded. The woman's smile was warm, and she was very pretty. Her face looked like it was only a year or two older than his. But something about Brynhild had always put him on guard.

"After you meet with the queens regent, you will seek out a young woman in the company of the princess." She pushed her power through her gaze. The people of the Surround had little belief in magic, which made them quite susceptible to its workings.

"I will?" Vel raised a blond eyebrow.

"The princess is taking suitors now, but spurns Ostia Novus." She slowly walked around the duke. He was scrawny, but handsome. He bore himself well enough, with just the faintest hint of a slouch. And she had heard from the servants that he carried a similar package to his brother. He would do well enough. "You are to take one of her courtiers into your bed and gain her confidence. And then you will have access to the princess's ear."

"As you say." Vel nodded. He thought about what his mother had said.

"Very good." Brynhild walked back in front of him and kissed him on the cheek. She reached down and pulled her dress so that the milky skin of her breast was further exposed. "And you may claim a reward in advance, if you so desire." She gave him a daring smile.

Vel cocked his head and a crooked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Was she offering what he thought she was? His cock gave a lurch. He had never been with a woman, and this powerful, beautiful creature was offering herself. Things would be different as duke, he realized. "Um ... thank you, but my carriage waits." He turned and made for the door.

"Oh. Very well." Brynhild's face fell. "I've selected a valet for you. He'll be waiting by your carriage." She needed someone to keep an eye on the duke, just as she had had men with his brother and father in their time.

"Thank you and good day." Vel opened the door and hurried from the room. His mind a cloud of confusion.

~~

"I find it odd that the queens are building such a monstrosity." Vel looked out at the palace from their carriage window as the wheels under them bumped along the narrow ribbon of the Hawk's Road. Even with his poor vision, he could see the nascent tower rising above all others. "Should they not wait for the queen and her new king to ascend? It is her palace after all."

"The princess has been of age for a long time. It may be that the queens regent seek to rule in their own right." Naevia pressed her small hand into her brother's large one and squeezed as they gazed out the window. A breeze swept in and blew a strand of copper hair into her face. She pushed it away and pressed her side into Vel's oversized frame. The two youngest Tullius siblings had always been close. Often ignored as their older brother and sister took the center stage, Naevia and Vel relied on each other for companionship. She adjusted her shoulder to move her right boob away from Vel's lean body. How ever close they were, she was a grown woman, and her brother a young man. The last thing this family needed was the false accusation of impropriety, as Fortinbras had leveled at them not long ago. "Why bring me, Vel, instead of your valet? Brynhild selected him." She looked up into his narrow, squinting face as he dared his eyes to see into the distance. He looked almost comically adorable when concentrating.

"Do you trust the sorceress, Naevia?" Vel looked down into his sister's open and honest face, dappled as it was with freckles, and he smiled at the frown he saw there. She didn't need to answer. "Me either," Vel nodded and then looked off to the sea. It was mostly a fuzzy haze to him. "I've been thinking about sending her back north. But she's been with our family for a long time. I'm not sure how I might relieve us of her service."

"Tread carefully there." Naevia closed her eyes and leaned her head on his arm. The carriage rocked and helped settle her mind. "Have you told Mother?"

"She seems to trust Brynhild." Vel shrugged. The tower grew as they drew nearer the palace. His first summons to court since becoming a duke. All things equal, he'd rather let others carry out the tasks that were now laid out before him.

~~

"How was it?" Naevia jumped up from the marble bench when she saw her brother's long form stride down the hall. His shoulders seemed to droop. She frowned at him and took his hands in hers when he stopped in front of her.

"It was cold." Vel shivered, dropped her hands, and turned his sister away from the throne room. "I said my oath and that was it."

"Can we go home now?"

Vel took a step and paused. "I feel compelled to do another task while here. You should wait at the carriage."

"What is it?" Naevia looked up into her brother's blue eyes. So unlike her own. So unlike most anyone in that palace.

"I cannot say." Vel walked down the hall, and took a right down another corridor.

Naevia lifted her formal stola and hurried her legs to keep up. "You cannot tell me? That seems improbable." She tried to smile.

"Go back to the carriage, sister." Vel didn't look at her. His feet seemed to move on their own.

"Vel. Tell me." her voice carried a sharp note. She grabbed at his wrist and stopped him in his tracks.

Something about her sweet voice shook his brain out its fog. "Brynhild wants me to ..." He was embarrassed to say it, especially with the realization that he would have complied with the sorceress's wishes but for that fierce, little hand on his wrist. "She wants me to bed one of the princess's maidens. She wants me to be a suitor for the throne."

"Oh, my." Naevia put her free hand to her mouth. "But what if you're caught?" She looked around them down the hall. It was empty but for the taxidermized corpse of a moose standing high, its antlers almost brushing the vaulted ceiling. "And why? You're already a duke. Who needs to be king?" Naevia thought it over some more. "Do you even know how to ... um ... do it? With a woman, I mean."

Vel's pale cheeks turned scarlet at this last question. "Let's go home, Naevia. We've done all we need to here." He took her hand and backtracked toward the palace exit. They squeezed each other's fingers tight.

~~

"You didn't find the maiden, Your Grace?" A flash of confusion, followed by anger flashed across Brynhild's unlined face. Then her familiar, calm smile reappeared. A rainbow after a quick summer storm. The young man had refused her body and then ignored her plans. His brother and father had been quite suggestible. What was different about this one? "Did you look for her in the arboretum?"

"I did not." Vel puffed out his chest, ready to send this woman on her way. "Naevia and I left after the oath."

"You didn't take my ... I mean, your valet, Your Grace?" She eyed him closely. He looked almost to fit his station with his fine cloak and robes. But Brynhild could see the teenager underneath his accoutrements. "And now, I feel, you mean to send me away." A most vulnerable sorrow spread across her face. She didn't wait for an answer. "I beg you to keep me here with the Tullius family. I am sworn to help you achieve. The Peaceful North should not lose its most powerful foothold in the Surround."

"What do I know of the North?"

"I will teach you. I will guide you. I am your friend, Your Grace." Brynhild curtsied to him. She felt the change in the room and watched his young shoulders slump. She'd bought some time.

"You may stay. But no more missions. I will not bed women for you." Vel turned and quickly stormed from the room. He thought of his mother and sister. He would find one or the other. He needed their gentle compassion. It had been a rough couple weeks.

Brynhild watched him go and then glided across the room to close her door. With a flick of her wrist, she locked it. "I fear he would never be king. What do I do?"

"He is more of a king than his brother or father." The wind, in a soft whisper of a voice, answered her. It spoke in the most beguiling feminine tongue in the language of the polar circle. "You think too small."

"I work with what I'm given. Fortinbras and Vel have the gifts of their ancestors. They cannot spy and cajole like their Lilliputian father." Brynhild slowly lit her circle of candles by the window. As the wind spoke, the candles flickered. She knew she needed strong magic and quickly.

"I said you think small, not wrong." The wind laughed, a fluttering cascade of ringing sounds. "You promised you would not make him bed more women. Keep your promise. Instead, send the women to him."

"Am I to meet with each woman and push them one by one?" Brynhild sat cross-legged in the middle of her flaming circle with a sour expression on her face. "There is no magic in this world that would do as you say."

"You think too small, child," said the wind. "There are many worlds a hair's breadth away from our own. I will now tear the slightest hole in this world so that you may reach through to a place that has what you seek."

Brynhild felt the wind move into her and she gave her body over. Through the haze of magic that coursed through her like a wild blaze, she felt herself rip at the fabric of their very existence. And then, she reached her slender hand into ... somewhere else. The place was so unlike the Surround, yet she recognized the land and the air. She pulled from that alien world a small stone. And the rend in existence sealed back up as if it had never been there. She gasped as the wind left her. And then held up her hand. She held in her palm fine black dust that seemed to faintly pulse with some secret scarlet purpose. "All that for dust?"

"A pity," the wind hissed. "I have not tried to bring such a rock through before. This one seems to have collapsed from the journey. But ..." The wind picked up and swept around the room, careful not to disturb the dust. "... there is still power left. Infuse the dust in your duke. Bind it to him. This will achieve your aims." The wind whistled out the window.

"But what does it do?" Brynhild felt the power in that dust. A part of some great being had been trapped inside. She was sure. Was this too blunt a tool? Was it too raw a power? A warmth spread down her arm from the dust and moved to her heart. No, this would work well. She made a fist around the dust and felt quite lovely. She stood to prepare a way to get this powder into the duke, but then she felt a bit lightheaded. She steadied herself on a nearby table. Before she knew it, her free hand was under her skirt. Fingers slid into her waiting gash. Had she ever been so wet? All she could think about was her stupid young duke and how terrible a thing it was that he'd refused her body. They would make such sweet music together. As she stood there frigging herself furiously, she started to make very fine solo music. Indeed, it sounded like she was singing her heart out as one sweeping orgasm followed the next.

~~

The duke's guards would not let Brynhild pass. Especially not while the young lord was sleeping. She laughed and flattered the men. She pushed them with words toward sleep themselves, until both men slumped back against the stone wall. Somnolence reigned and their snores followed her into Vel's chambers.

The powder now resided in an enchanted leather pouch. Brynhild thought it wise not to touch the stuff again. She crept to the great four-post bed and looked down on Vel. He slept well, his chest slowly rising and falling under the blankets. She hoped the foreign dust wouldn't kill the young man. Opening the pouch, she held it above his slack face. "Andlinnr ok khange," she whispered and turned the pouch over. The black dust hung in the air still pulsing red with beats as even as a heart. Then, as Vel breathed in, the dust turned to two little cyclones and disappeared up his narrow nostrils. Vel coughed, snorted, and rolled over onto his side.

The wind blew in from the open window, carrying with it the sea's salty depth. The breeze happily tugged at Brynhild's dress, spun about the room, and exited the way it had come. Brynhild turned and left the young duke to sleep. He would need his rest.

~~

Something wasn't quite right. Vel blinked his eyes open. He ached. Not all of him, no. His balls ached like they hadn't been drained in weeks. And he was incredibly hungry. He reached down under the blankets. The familiar steel of his morning tower met his grip. He knew he was bigger than men from the Surround, but that wasn't saying much. And now ... now he was sure he'd never been this large before. And his balls felt overripe.

Torn between two kinds of hunger, Vel stroked himself madly. He needed to eat. He needed meat. But first, he needed to cum more desperately than at any point before. The blankets flapped wildly as he brought himself as quickly as he could to climax. Even so, it was more than a half-hour before the bedding was soaked in a deluge of cum. He'd never suspected a man could produce so much. What was happening to him? He felt bad for the servants that would make his bed that day as he dressed and raced off to an early breakfast. And then he felt for the cook, because he knew that he would be eating near their entire larder.

~~

After his morning episode, Vel felt the day fall into line. He had some awkward moments adjusting to his swollen package, especially at fencing. He thought about requesting a healer, but everything in his body seemed to be working. Maybe working too well, if anything. He was just so hungry.

There were long silences at the supper table as the family ate. This was by far the most uncomfortable moment of the day. Usually, Vel enjoyed family time. But now he shoveled food into his mouth as they sat in quiet. "What did this day bring?" Vel said between bites. He looked around the table and suddenly realized that with his brother and father gone, and his new valet dismissed, he was the only man in the room. How odd a position for a duke.

"We would much like to hear about your day, Your Grace." Brynhild seemed cheery as ever as she fixed her gaze on him. She brought the smallest bite of scallop pie to her pink lips and nibbled on it.

"I woke early." Vel shrugged. "I met with the tutor, the marshal, and the seneschal." As he thought it over, he realized that he'd spent most of the day around men. And now it was women as far as the eye could see. "And your day, Mother?"

"It was fine." She looked up from her pie to her son and she could see that he did not miss the tears in her eyes. Immediately, a look of concern spread on his face. "I attended to the gardens, mostly," she said.

"What's wrong, mother?" Bantia, now the oldest of the Tullius siblings, reached out and patted her mother's bare left arm. "Maybe Fortinbras will return. It hasn't been that long." She glanced quickly at her younger brother, but he had taken no offense. He never did.

"Something in the stars has turned against this family, I fear." Cassia wiped at her tears. "I don't think your brother or father are coming back." She reached with her right hand and held Bantia's hand. Taking a deep breath, Cassia looked around the table. "I am sorry. I've felt odd all day." She fixed on her brightest smile and looked at her children. Bantia as soft, and solemn as ever. So tall and lithe like her brother. Naevia looking back at her mother with those big, innocent round eyes. Short and round like her mother. And then Vel. Vel ... something ancient stirred inside Cassia as she gazed at him. It was the mother's love that had always been there since his first days. But something more wild moved inside her, too. A vertical line formed on Cassia's forehead as she tried to place that feeling. She couldn't do it. "I do not mean to bring you all down." She stood, not looking over at the other person sitting with the family. The sorceress.

"Wait." Bantia stood too, as her mother moved toward the exit. She quickly followed and bent down to take Cassia's hand. "I'll go with you." The pair left the warmth of the dining room.

"Goodnight, you two." Vel called after them. Such a strange day. He shifted in his seat. An aching made itself known between his legs. He knew he would have to relieve himself again. And soon. He stood, adjusting his robes. "I'm tired myself. Goodnight, Naevia." He smiled at his sister. "Goodnight, Sorceress." He nodded to Brynhild, wondering if maybe he should confide in her his new condition. Her power might be limited as magic drained out of the world, but she did seem to have some tricks left. She might be of help.