The Wood Knot Warrior Pt. 02

He frowned as he recalled he'd be busy today hiring a new Chief of Security as Taggart was found hanging in his apartment, seemingly a suicide. That would also need to be investigated.

He wiped his lips as he felt some jam residue. Messy stuff.

He heard a knock, then the door opened, and in walked his sister, who was a year younger than him. He wasn't expecting guests, and more importantly, he'd told his staff he wasn't to be disturbed. Heads would roll after she left.

He looked at Geneviere and sighed. She was plain and lacked any fashion sense, but he admitted she was keenly intelligent. But it was all book smarts as she was forever losing herself in her books.

Then he noticed his younger brother, Harold, hiding behind her. He was three years younger than his sister and no threat due to a sad lack of ambition and his obsession with his stupid plants.

He forced a pleasant smile on his lips which he wiped once more as it still felt like there was something on them.

"Geneviere, Harold, what brings you two around so early in the day?" He managed to keep his annoyance out of his voice.

His sister did the talking as Harold was the quiet one. "We came here to congratulate you on achieving your goal of becoming the master of the family." Harold remained silent but watched him with a slight smile.

Lucien found that a little odd, but Harold was always odd. He was pleased to hear his sister acknowledge his title. "Thank you."

"How you achieved it was more bloodthirsty than I'd have done, but I shouldn't have expected more from a man with so little imagination," Geneviere sighed.

Lucien scowled at his sister's sharp words and rubbed his napkin across his mouth angrily before tossing it on the table's surface.

"What are you going on about?" he snapped.

"The collateral damage you caused, taking out so many of the household staff and then random travelers from Portoa. So messy and unnecessary," she said critically.

Lucien froze as they shouldn't have known anything about that. He cleared his throat. "Whatever do you mean?" He tried to inflect as much innocence into his voice as he could. It sounded convincing to him.

She shook her head in disappointment. "Your effort to prevent our father from receiving some promised mystical cure from Magus Thaneblood. Hiring the bandits to steal and a wizard to open the courier pouch. An empty pouch, proving father to be a bigger fool than his eldest son. So many needlessly dead. Sloppy. And seriously, for what? So you could join the other families squabbling over meaningless issues? Pathetic."

Lucien was truly angry now, but he was having difficulty getting a breath. He touched his mouth, and his lips were severely swollen.

His eyes slid to Harold, who was openly grinning now.

Geneviere continued. "If you'd shown any interest in your family, you would have realized how outclassed you were. Even the Commander of the Grennesh Guardsmen figured out your feeble plotting. He was concerned with our safety, so he shared his findings with us."

Lucien tried to stand, but his body betrayed him as paralysis seeped into his muscles. He fell to the floor, his throat closing up completely.

His sister and brother moved to stand over him, examining his reddening face.

"That's quite a strong allergic reaction to your jam, Harold," she said with interest. Harold just nodded with a smile as he switched the jar of preserves on the table with one in his pocket. "Is it time?" she asked, and Harold nodded again. She walked to the door and screamed for help. She returned and knelt next to Lucien, who was quickly fading. Harold took his hand, and after an amused glance at her younger brother, Geneviere took his other.

"Say hello to papa in Hell, brother," she said as life faded from his eyes.

-=-

Magus Thaneblood was feeling particularly grumpy this morning. His family was causing him distress as they'd expressed concerns about his inability to lead the family during a meeting the night before.

Kess was scheduled to return this morning from his little trip to Grennesh. Magus would sit down with him later to discuss which members were the biggest threat to the family's stability. Some pruning of the family tree was in order.

Meanwhile, he needed to visit his special chamber to get his daily health elixir.

Thinking about Kess, he recalled there'd been some more rumblings of trouble from Grennesh aimed his way. Kess said it was a credible threat, so he'd left to ensure that danger never reached Portoa.

The room was in the northeast corner of his private suite and only accessible to him. The door was hidden and keyed to only open with his or his wizard's touch. As he walked down the hall, he ritually counted out his steps, turned to face the wall, looked in both directions to ensure no eyes were watching, then placed his palm on the enchanted section of wall and heard the distinct click. The hidden panel opened, and he smiled as he stepped forward.

The large boot that smashed into his back launched him forward and onto his face, which bounced off the stone floor.

It took minutes before his faculties returned, and he painfully rolled onto his back.

The first thing that registered was a strong smell of ozone, like after a lightning storm.

Then he smelled scorched flesh.

He turned his head toward the door to his wizard's studio and saw the old man sitting on the floor, leaning back against his open door, with a large hole where his face should have been.

Magus screamed, but he couldn't move or look away.

When his terror finally dulled enough for him to stop screaming, he blinked his eyes at the monstrous brute of a Wood Elf standing a short distance away, watching him like he was a disgusting insect.

"H-how did you get into the mansion?" Magus asked.

"We were invited in," the Elf said, and that's when Magus spotted an equally tall female Wood Elf leaving the wizard's room, stepping past the corpse. She was holding a glowing staff.

She smiled at the male. "His journals and all his possessions are dust now." She joined the male and smiled at him, then she turned to frown at Magus like she'd discovered shit on her shoe.

"How did you get onto my floor? Into my suite?" Magus' voice began to become slightly panicked.

The brute patted the sword on his hip. "This was all I needed to get past your guards."

The female held up something. "We were given a key to your suite. You aren't a well-liked man."

"But... I didn't see you in the hall!" Magus yelped.

"Big-time magic user," the male said, pointing to the female, then he looked at her with a slight frown. "It was hard holding my breath that long, though." She nodded in agreement.

Magus could feel the lethargy seeping into his body. He needed the elixir. "What-what do you want?"

The dark-skinned male glanced at his female companion, then back to Magus. "Us? Nothing. Oh, by the way, your man Kess? He says hello." He tossed a bag he'd hung from his hip onto Magus' stomach. It was fairly heavy, so it hit with a thump.

Wheezing, Magus glanced warily at the bag and opened it cautiously. He flung Kess' head to the side and vigorously wiped his hands against his body.

"He was a nasty piece of work. A very skilled fighter with a lot of dirty tricks, but hey, once you lose your head, those skills are moot," the big thug said.

Magus was trembling uncontrollably now. They killed Kess. A Master Assassin.

"What do you want?"

The female leaned closer and frowned. "You already asked us that, and we answered honestly. We want nothing because we aren't here for us. We're here for a friend of ours, who you ordered that man," she pointed to the head, "to abduct from her home. She said you also had one of her people imprisoned here. That's why we're here."

"I have her."

Magus craned his head to look behind him. He saw the new Pixie assisting his possession down the hall.

"NO! You can't take her! I need her!" Magus suddenly shouted and tried to stand.

The heavy boot hit him in the chest, and his breath wheezed out as he fell onto his back again.

His world spiraled down into a pinpoint but didn't quite go out.

-=-

"Is she going to be all right?" Eryllis asked in concern, seeing how weak the Pixie under Tawna's arm was.

Tawna smiled at Eryllis as her charge watched the two large beings cautiously. "Yes. This is Emmita, and she'll be fine once I get her home."

Dell watched her in concern. "You may have troubles of your own when you go back."

Tawna raised a hand. "I'll deal with that. Your kindness and generosity have given me the strength to face them. I know what I must do now. You two have my undying thanks for saving me and fulfilling your promise." She looked at Kess' head, and her lips twitched slightly from an echo of her rage. "I'm grateful I was able to take my revenge, but I now understand what you meant, Dell."

"Love and life," he repeated softly.

Tawna nodded, then looked at the female she was supporting. "Emmita, would you care to say goodbye to your former captor?"

Emmita immediately bared her teeth, then glanced nervously at Dell and Eryllis. They smiled and took a step back to show they wouldn't interfere. She gave them a shaky smile of gratitude, then glared back down at the older man, who was again opening his eyes. She held out a hand over his body

"I take back that which was taken from me!" she snarled and whispered silent words as her eyes glowed brighter. Tawna was feeding her power for this.

Magus stiffened, then began to tremble, hard. His muscles tightened and his head, heels, and elbows drummed against the floor as the tremors grew in severity.

The old man began to bleed, but it was a fine red mist that rose from his body to collect in a shiny orb hovering just below Emmita's outstretched palm.

The pain of its extraction was contorting Magus's face into a rictus of absolute agony. Once the orb completely absorbed the mist, it rose to touch her palm and sank inside until it was gone. She sagged, and Tawna tightened her grip on the young female.

Magus was quite dead, and from his frozen expression, it hadn't been a pleasant way to go.

Tawna held Dell's eyes. "I will speak to Emmita of the meaning of your words and my own experience. She has a road ahead of her, but she will survive. We must go."

Eryllis leaned forward and kissed Tawna's cheek. "Be well, and you know where to find us."

Tawna had a tear in her eye as she smiled at Eryllis. "You as well."

Dell leaned down and caressed her mouth with his. She leaned into the kiss, which deepened. Tawna once more felt herself being swept away.

When he pulled back, she leaned forward slightly, then blinked her eyes open.

Dell's voice was a little rough with emotion. "You will always have a home with us."

Emmita was watching this, her wide eyes jumping between their faces. Tawna blushed as she smiled at the young woman. "They are my friends and are beautiful souls. Let's get you home."

As she wrapped her arms around Emmita, she looked into Dell's eyes, then closed hers.

Blue butterflies faded into existence to flutter and land on them. Moments later, they beat their wings again to fly and fade away. The Pixies were gone.

-=-

Queen Stella was silently fuming as her youngest had thrown a lit torch into the grain storage silo of her court with her little stunt of stealing away their prize breeding stud. News had gotten out amongst the senior court matriarchs of his fertility, prowess, and performance, and they were expecting to be serviced too.

Seeing their Queen and a small group of their peers glowing with gravid bliss made them annoyingly impatient.

If only she could think of a means of recapturing him!

In the meantime, she was addressing the full court with an open gallery of her people as their mid-season celebrations would begin in just days.

The mood of her people was high as they were so pleased to see her carrying another child. It was a fortunate sign for the year ahead!

She stood, and a cheer went up. She caught the eye of several of her senior most councilors, who watched her enviously. She sighed.

"Greetings! We have some exciting times ahead. The crops are doing well, and it looks like we have a very fertile growing season," she said, and the gallery cheered.

There was a sudden commotion on the floor below the podium as people pushed back from the center of the court.

Blue butterflies were appearing, and the people gave them room. The moment they dissipated, the Queen stared in shock at Tawna supporting another Pixie.

"Emmita!" two voices cried out from the gallery.

The young female in Tawna's arms turned to face her parents. "Mama! Papa!" she cried.

Tawna gently handed Emmita off to two guards who helped guide her to where her parents were waiting for her with tears in their eyes. Everyone turned back to Tawna.

"Mother, as requested, I rescued young Emmita from her captor with the assistance of our new friends Dell du Krane and Eryllis Harrowane of Grennesh. The Human who kept her captive, his wizard, and the Human who stole her from our lands have been executed for their crimes against your citizen." Tawna bowed her head forward in respect to her mother.

Everyone looked at Stella as she quickly got up to speed with Tawna's maneuvering. Despite how pissed she was inside, she was surprised to find how impressed she was with her youngest.

"Thank you, Tawna. You have served my citizens and me well. We must discuss how we can thank our new friends for their efforts."

A great cheer went up for Tawna and Queen Stella as the two women faced each other with smiles on their lips.

The Queen had to return to her presentation for the mid-season celebrations, but eventually, she was able to wave to her adoring people and leave the podium.

She had a crafty young daughter to strangle.

-=-

As the butterflies disappeared, Dell sighed and looked at Eryllis. "It would be so nice to go home that way. So much faster."

Eryllis snorted in amusement.

She did another inspection of the rooms and found no evidence of the method Magus used to extract his cure from the Pixie. Her belief was that information had been in the wizard's journals. Perhaps she'd been a little overzealous to turn everything in the wizard's room to dust, but better safe than sorry.

The fact that Emmita was kept alive meant if someone did learn how to repeat this foul experiment, she and Dell would have the opportunity to save them.

It was time to leave.

As they left the suite, they picked their way through the groaning guards who'd taken a beating from the flat of Dell's sword. They'd recover.

When they reached the main hall on the ground floor, they nodded to Thaneblood family members gathered and waiting in the lounge off the main hall. Eryllis handed the suite key to the woman closest to the door with a folded sheet of paper, then addressed the silent room.

"Uh, the evil curse has been lifted, and the instigators of the curse have been terminated. Your patriarch's unnatural life extension has expired. You have our condolences for your loss. Here is your copy of the Topaz Order's contract. Have a good day."

They left the mansion and walked back toward the inn where they'd left their traveling gear.

Once they were sufficiently far from the Thaneblood home, walking along the city streets, Dell could no longer suppress his laughter.

"I can't believe the curse story worked!" he chuckled.

She grinned at him. "What? It fit! Morgan told us Magis' Wizard was once a Life Mage but was cast out of the Topaz Order in dishonor. Harris Kess, the Master Assassin, was also kicked out of the Order for abusing his studies to be a Body Mage. He was probably trying to become a deadlier killer. Informing the Topaz Order that these two rejects from their school were using their forbidden knowledge to create a curse wasn't outrageous. They were only too pleased to hand off the responsibility to us to clean up their mess. After all, we do have a reputation for dealing with curses. They gave us the contract only for the two as that's all we needed. And you'd already dealt with Kess." She smiled at Dell, and he just shook his head in wonder at her clever mind.

"As for the Thaneblood family, Karter told us he'd heard that Magus was on the outs with all of them. When we got to the mansion with the contract from the Topaz Order and explained the curse removal and what might happen, you could see they all desperately wanted Magus gone. We gave them an excuse to step back and leave it to the experts. Should any of the family try to double-cross us, we can honestly say we didn't kill Magus. Any truth reader would see it on our faces. We get to walk away with clear consciences."

Dell gave Eryllis a big kiss and once they were done, they saw scowls aimed at them from some of the locals, so they continued on their way.

They had a long way to go, and both were eager to return to their children and the rest of their extended family, so they collected their bags from the inn and left the city to put in as much distance as they could with the rest of the day. There wouldn't be a wagon going back to Grennesh for a week, so they decided to get started.

Besides, leaving Portoa's city limits was a wise move in light of their activities in the Thaneblood mansion.

Mid-morning, Dell glanced over at Eryllis' pretty face as she was lost in thought and reached out to take her hand. "A silver for your thoughts," he said with a grin.

Her smile bloomed, and she stopped to pull him into a hug.

"I was just going over my Druid spells to see if there was anything like the butterfly spell," she sighed.

He grinned. "Any luck?"

She pouted, and he grinned, seeing her lip poking out so temptingly. He leaned in and kissed her until she patted his chest.

"We should keep walking, or we'll never get home," she sighed.

He continued to hug her and closed his eyes with a smile on his face. "If I still had Tawna's magic in my head, I would concentrate on going home really hard... oh, I can almost feel it," he said with a grin as he bumped his pelvis into hers.

Eryllis felt that delicious pressure down below and was about to slap his chest playfully when she suddenly realized she was sensing something else. "...and how would you call the butterflies?" she asked quietly.

Dell was marveling at how strange it felt to recall the sensations of Tawna's mind brushing against his and her feeding the translocation spell into his head. "Home," he said as he brought up the image of his bedroom like last time and pushed with all his will. He felt the word reverberate in his head like the sound of a cathedral bell but slower and much deeper. This was accompanied by a sudden lethargy as it was so much effort.

Eryllis' eyes widened as they were suddenly surrounded by the delicate blue creatures until she couldn't see anything but the color.

There was a strange lightness then they were falling and hit the edge of the bed before crashing to the floor in a pile.

Eryllis' pack slid upward onto her shoulders as her legs were on the bed, and she was sprawled across Dell's chest.

She heard the thump of running feet, then the door to the bedroom burst open, and Kharza was there with Karter directly behind.

"Did Tawna use her magic butterflies again?" the Orc warrior asked as she helped Eryllis get her pack off. "Where is she?"

Eryllis managed to climb off Dell and touched his face. He was unconscious again.

"What's wrong with Dell?" Karter asked in concern.

"Tawna didn't use the butterfly spell to get us back from Portoa. Dell did!" Eryllis exclaimed.

Karter's eyes widened. "What? He can use magic?" he asked in shock.

Eryllis was frowning as she tried to recall the sensations she felt as Dell triggered the spell. "I-I'm not sure if it was him or not, but it worked. We were just outside of Portoa on the road back. He said wouldn't it be nice and then he tried."