The Wicked Tower Pt. 03

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.

The protective spells were supposed to guard Brynhild's sleep. A triangle of futhark runes were set into her headboard, taming all of the remaining magic of the world that would seek her out in her most vulnerable state. Nonetheless, the sorceress tossed and turned in her feather bed, muttering in her sleep. The cold, stone chamber was still and quiet despite the open windows.

In her dreams, a mighty giant thrust her left hand into a fire. The flames consumed her, but the heat concentrated on her small breasts and slim hips. A demon then burned her alive. With a start, Brynhild woke and sat up in bed. She clutched the blankets to her chest. Her chest ... something was wrong. Slowly, she turned her bright, blue eyes down. Her bosom expanded out from her ribs in a way it never had before. A warmth beat a steady rhythm in her left palm as she slowly lowered the blankets. "What is this sorcery?" Her breasts now stood out proudly, with just a hint of obedience to gravity. Her white flesh was expansive, with protruding pink nipples jutting out.

Lowering the blankets further, she saw that her hips were now wide and round. Her jaw fell in horror. She held out her left hand and looked at the skin that had touched that dust. "You did this to me," she said to the absent wind. "I spent centuries beguiling with my Northern looks, and you've turned me into a common breeding sow." The thought disgusted her. She would have to conjure some old magic to bring herself back to the body she knew. But in the meantime ... she couldn't help ... touching herself. The throbbing hand slid down between her legs and her cries filled the formerly peaceful room.

~~

"I know you've done something." Vel entered Brynhild's chamber without knocking. "After I asked ... I mean, commanded you to cease with your sorcery, you've turned me into a monster." He addressed the room without discrimination, spotted her leaning over a table, and turned to face her. "And you've donned a traveling cloak. Meaning to depart? You've turned me against my sister and now you will run?"

"If I understand your meaning, we are both victims of the same plot." She turned away from the book which she'd been fruitlessly searching, stood upright, and faced her duke.

"Speak plainly. What ..." But some of the bile left Vel when he saw the pain on her face.

"I wear this cloak not for travel, but for disguise." Brynhild unclasped the cloak and let it fall. "Behold, I now have the body of a whore." Her normal dress wouldn't fit her now, so she wore an ill-fitting stola that would have been much too small for her even before the changes of the night before. She watched his eyes as they roved her body in confusion.

"You're ... much bigger ... in certain places." Vel tried with measured success to keep his cock still. The woman before him looked less like the severe sorceress he knew, and more like the goddess of fertility.

"Your Grace looks much the same as before. Why did you think I'd turned you into a monster?" In shame, she covered herself with the cloak again. Her left hand throbbed with more intensity at his proximity. "And is your sister well?"

"Yes ... yes ... my sister is well." It had taken Vel two days to gather the courage to confront Brynhild. In that time, he and Naevia had avoided each other. An unprecedented parting for the two inseparable siblings. "I ... my ... I see you have your hands full." He winced at the unintended double meaning. "My problem is nothing. I have to go."

"Very well, Your Grace." Brynhild watched him go. She didn't even try to entice him to stay. Would she even know how to use her sow's body? She turned back to the book. There must be something she could do. The wind, of course, would not answer her questions. It was probably off laughing at her plight.

~~

"I must sail across the Inland Sea." Cassia frowned at her children. Naevia and Vel sat on opposite sides of the council chamber. Obviously, Cassia noticed that they'd had some kind of falling out. Bantia sat between them with a look of shock on her face. Her daughters had just learned that their father was alive. "I will go to Kart Hadasht, find him, and bring Gallio home."

"So, I am not the duke?" Vel's whole body relaxed. His father would be home soon, and everything would return to normal.

"You must stay duke until your father returns." Cassia thought things over. "This is a very unusual situation."

"What did the letter say?" Bantia leaned forward across the circular table. "Exactly, I mean."

Cassia reached into the pocket on her stola and withdrew the papyrus scroll. She handed it to her daughter. Bantia unrolled it, eyed the locked door, and then read aloud to her family. "My dearest Cassia. I have been blown far afield. You may find me in Kart Hadasht if you look, but it is a dangerous voyage and I urge you to remain at home. I trust our lands are well looked after by Fortinbras. When it is safe, I will fly home to you. Until then, I remain your flame in the wind. With undying love, your husband, Gallio." Tears fell down Bantia's cheeks. When she looked up, she saw that her sister and mother were crying, too. But her brother was all smiles. "What are you grinning at, Vel?" She frowned at him.

"What are you crying at?" Vel couldn't wipe the grin off his face. "Our father is alive and will soon be home."

"I only gathered the first part from the letter." Naevia didn't look at her brother as she spoke. She still couldn't believe she had handled him in that unspeakable way and the shame of it bore its way through her. "It's sounds like he has no intention of coming home. Did he flee with a woman?"

"Naevia!" Cassia put a hand to her breast in shock. "How can you say such a thing? The bonds between your father and I were forged by the gods. They are unbreakable. He has had some misadventure, and I will go to him."

"Did the letter not say that it would be a dangerous trip to Kart Hadasht?" Bantia looked back down at the fragile papyrus in her hand.

"Nonsense, it's but three days sail." Cassia shook her head.

"I don't think that's what the letter meant." Naevia scowled and regarded her pale, freckled hands.

A knock sounded on the door. Bantia handed the letter back to her mother who tucked it back into her stola. Vel stood, unlocked the door, and regarded the seneschal. "Yes?"

"Forgive me, Your Grace." The seneschal, Aulus, bowed his head. "But you have a visitor."

"Who is it, Aulus?" Cassia wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Dellia Bellius," Aulus said.

"Our cousin is here?" Vel looked around the table. Smiles sprouted in the room like conidia flowers after a rain. "We haven't seen her in ages. Does she bring her whole family?"

"Just her." Aulus looked around the room. "What would you have me do?"

"Make her comfortable. We'll be there shortly." Cassia stood. "We'll discuss the other thing later," she said to her children. But she realized she had said it to Aulus only, standing by himself. Vel, Naevia, and Bantia had already pushed past him and raced out the door.

~~

"Ho, hey, it's a crash of Tulliuses." Dellia had not yet dismounted her horse when she spotted her family racing across the upper courtyard. Her lorica squamata moved like dragon scale and glinted gold in the sun as she kicked her leg and jumped from the steed. Dellia was tall for a woman of the Surround, but still much shorter than two of her cousins. She held her arms out and Naevia and Bantia embraced her.

"What a surprise." Naevia squeezed her cousin's metal scales. "Are you well?" She and Bantia let go and stepped back to look at her. She did indeed look well. Her olive skin glowed in the morning light, her dark hair tied back in braids, and her brown eyes glowed.

"Well, indeed." Dellia's smile was infectious. "What, no hug for your cousin? Now that you're a big duke, you can't be seen succumbing to frivolity?" She held her arms out to him.

Thinking of what he'd done to his sister, Vel hung back, but could think of no excuse. "It is very good to see you, Dellia." He hugged her but made sure to keep from skin to skin contact. Since her head rested on his chest, that was done easily enough. "What brings you to our home?"

"Did your mother not tell you?" Dellia pushed Vel away roughly and punched him gently on his scrawny chest. "Your mother sent a pigeon to mine bearing excellent news. But she needed an opinion from one who knows the queens regent. And thus, my mother and father sent me with information. I am much more reliable than a pigeon, see. Much harder to intercept." She patted the sword at her hip.

"And much prettier." Naevia's face brightened for the first time in days.

"Thank you, cousin." Dellia turned and regarded Naevia's flowing copper hair. "Though not as pretty as you, I'd say. Not by a long shot." She gave Naevia a friendly shove with her hip. "Now then, get me inside and let's get this message out of me." She had always been the oldest of the cousins, now at twenty-seven years, and was used to ordering them around. This was a hard habit to break, even if one of them was now the Duke of Ostia Novus.

~~

"My father, or I should say, Lord Bellius, has his contacts in the royal palace." Dellia looked about the round room. She was not familiar with this council chamber, but she supposed it was meant to be out of a mold. A room made to indicate a kindred power shared with Accipiter Cubitum Palace. Although, since there was no longer a council at the palace, did they still have need of such a chamber? Dellia supposed the queens might use the room for storage now. She rolled her shoulders, enjoying the pregnant pause as everyone waited for her words. It felt quite good to remove her chest band and armor. She often cursed the heavy, cumbersome breasts she'd inherited from her mother. This was one such moment. "Lord Bellius can confirm that Uncle Gallio, or ... um ... the duke ..." She glanced at her cousin, Vel. "... or former duke, Gallio Tullius, is wanted by the Vulpes."

Cassia's face blanched at this. The room erupted in overlapping questions.

"Why?"

"How have we not heard of this?"

"Is he in trouble?"

"If it's the Vulpes, are we all in danger?"

Cassia held her hand up for calm, but her arm trembled. The people around the table quieted. "Please, tell us all that Lord Bellius knows."

After a while, Dellia finished her story. "That is why you cannot go to him, Cassia. While they suspect you, they believe Vel is loyal to the crown."

"You say crown, but I feel like the monarchy is actually more carefully described as crowns," Naevia said. "They could simply remove regent from their titles and all would be the same."

"Don't be a fool. Do you want to get us all killed?" Bantia looked at her sister with wide eyes.

"Yes, even in a room secure as this, we should not say such things." Dellia nodded, her face somber.

Vel stared down at the table, rubbing his fingers against the inlay. This was his chance to remove himself from the mess he'd created with Naevia. Maybe with some time away, things would return to normal on his return. Especially if he brought his father home. "I'll go and get father."

"If father could return to us, he would have." Bantia frowned. "You cannot go and get him. Did you not hear that the secret police are looking for him?"

"Well, then, I'll go and find him and seek his council. We need to talk to him. Our cousin is right. Pigeons can be intercepted, men not so easily."

"I'm not so sure. They may not suspect you, Vel, but a sudden trip across the Inland Sea might fetch their eye." Dellia watched Vel closely. There was something different about him. Something had changed beyond what she'd expect by just the passage of time and title.

"No. We have to go to him. We have to." Cassia put her hand on her son's hand, but then quickly withdrew it. Her nerves were surely frayed, because when she touched him, she had felt an odd heat. "Vel will go, but he cannot go alone." She bit her lip and thought. "I'll need Bantia here to plan for her wedding. So Naevia, you must travel with your brother to Kart Hadasht."

Naevia and Vel both protested this immediately, but Cassia held up her hand again. "Please, Your Grace, I cannot force you to do a thing, but as your mother I need you to bring someone who can watch your back. If the Vulpes are truly into this, we don't know who we can trust. And Naevia's bow may come in handy." She looked beseechingly into his eyes. It was not a secret among the family that despite Vel's height, he was the weakest Tullius at his martial learning. Naevia had taken well to archery.

"Very well." Vel looked down at his hands again.

Naevia said nothing.

"I would like to also volunteer myself for this voyage." Dellia sat very straight in her chair. "You can, of course, depend on cousin Naevia and her bow, but my sword might also be trusted in a tight situation."

"Vel?" Cassia resisted the impulse to place her hand on her son's hand again.

"Yes." Vel nodded. This was going to be a web of pitfalls. He hoped it was a large enough boat that he might avoid both women.

"Perhaps also your sorceress would make a useful travel companion. That is, if she has any tricks left," Dellia said.

"No, family only," Cassia said quickly. She then paused to think things through. "We'll give the Port Syndicate the fifth pier as they requested. In return, I'll ask them to drum up a reason for a duke to cross the Inland Sea. Perhaps the syndicate needs an impartial trade negotiation on the edge of the Torched Lands. Yes?"

Everyone at the table nodded and rose. It was a somber procession out of the room. So unlike their excitement from just a short time before.

~~

For millennia, ships had been built and bound by magic. This allowed for massive vessels and shipbuilders to focus their knowledge on how best to harness the winds, or turn on a coin. But over the past century that magic waned, the boats shrunk, and tended to take on water. Vel stood on the deck, watching a storm overtake them, wishing magic hadn't been leaking out of the world. The boat was just big enough for his own cabin, but not big enough that he didn't have to share it with his sister and cousin. As such, he had spent much of the first twenty-four hours above decks.

"Time to head below, Your Grace." The captain approached the tall duke with appropriate reverence. "Things are about to get a mite choppy."

"May I stay and watch your crew work?" Vel turned to him and saw the fear in his eyes. He guessed the man wouldn't want to be responsible for the death of his duke.

"Of course, you may. But for your own safety, and that of my crew ..." The captain shrugged.

"I would be in the way. I understand." Vel slumped his shoulders, turned, and took a step. He stopped when he saw his cousin checking the tackle. He turned back to the captain. "Is she to remain above deck?"

"She knows her way around a ship. We can use all able-bodied hands with that coming." The captain pointed to the billowing black clouds that closed in on them. "No offense, Your Grace."

"None taken." Vel headed below deck. He wouldn't want to be responsible for hurting any of the crew. He would face his sister in their cabin. It had to happen sooner or later.

~~

"So, you and the sorceress have been cursed?" Naevia clutched to her cot as the room heaved around her. She stared at her brother across the small cabin as he clutched to his undersized cot. He looked like he was enjoying this even less than she was. That was something, at least.

"Yes." Vel's stomach lurched with the room as the ship took another wave. "I didn't know my touch would make us ... you know. Can we forget about it?"

"I know what your stuff smells like. I know what it tastes like." Naevia crinkled her nose, but it was not actually as unpleasant a memory as she let on. She looked about the room as a book slid across the floor to Vel's cot. She watched him reach over with his foot and step on it to stop it from sliding back across the room. She was glad for his robes to keep her eyes from trying to search out the lump under his tunic. The ship jerked and a great thump reverberated through the hull. Water dripped steadily through the outer wall of their cabin. "But since we may be about to die. I'll forget it. Is it safe to touch you now?" The boat shuddered again. All anger left her. She wanted nothing more than to curl in Vel's gentle arms and hold his hand as they'd always done.

"I'm sorry, Naevia. I don't think so. I thought this trip would give me some time alone to figure this out. I didn't intend for you to come." His face went paler than usual as he watched the increasing trickle of water into their cabin. Small puddles pooled on the floor.

A more powerful jolt ran through the boat. With a scream, Naevia was tossed across the floor. Her cot, now loose from the wall, followed her as the tilt of the room sent her toward the wall several feet from Vel.

"Hang on." Vel stretched himself out, reached out his hand, and grabbed her by the collar of her stola. He pulled his sister to the safety of his cot just as her cot slammed into the wall where she would have been. The broken cot then slid back toward the other side of the cabin and with the force of the storm, wedged its metal frame into the corner of the wall.

"Thank you." Naevia found herself in her brother's arms after all. Even as the storm continued to rage, it seemed the room had settled itself. A quiet fell over her. Warmth spread from the back of her neck where Vel still held her collar and his knuckles pressed into her spine. "I thought I was along on this voyage to watch your back. But you've got mine, it seems."

"I love you, Naevia. I would never let anything happen to you." Lying on his back on the cot, he looked down at his sister perched on his chest. He held the cot and braced his leg against the far wall, hoping the restraints on his side of the cabin would hold better than hers. "I'm sorry for all the strangeness. We'll find a way to lift the curse."

"Curses." Naevia giggled. "As if such things still existed."

"You've seen what Brynhild could do." Vel shifted his weight to stay steady as the room moved about him.

"I've seen her quiet a horse. Nothing more."

"You've seen my ... you know." Vel willed his hand to move away from the back of her neck, but found he couldn't release her stola.

"Yes, I have seen it. It really was beautiful, Vel. So much more ..." Naevia tensed as another shudder rumbled through the ship. She gripped his bony shoulders tight. "Do you think Dellia is okay up above?"

"She can fight. She can sail. She could challenge the gods to a pissing contest and win. I'm quite sure." Vel tried desperately to calm his cock, but the churning room moved his sister just enough so that he could feel pressure from her various curves. "She'll be fine."

"She'll be fine." Naevia nodded and bit her lip. Her body relaxed some. The heat now radiated into the core of her, bringing her closer to her brother. "Can I confess something?"

"Yes," Vel squeaked. Her face rose just above his. He felt her legs tighten around his sides as she straddled him. Were her hips rocking, or was that just the room? As he hardened, he wondered if he would poke at her. Her hips were centered right over his naval.

"Part of why I've been so distant, was that it was so ... um ... wonderful with you in the library. All my tussles with boys have been awkward. Those men were either needy, or somewhat bellicose." She felt him finally release her collar and an emptiness filled her. But joy surged when he brushed her cheek lightly with his fingertips and the warmth again returned with his touch. She leaned her head closer to his. "You are not like those other men, Vel. Your penis is a thing of beastly beauty. Forged right out of my dreams. Built for a singular, furrowing purpose." She whispered these last words in his ear.