Warlock Ch. 05

John nodded. "I understand. How is it you think I can help?"

"I need you to take her. Get her away from Khalas. I'd thought sending her south and finding a ship, but I'm sure her father has already sent word south and deals have been made."

"I'm not sure," John said. "They're searching everyone for her, whether you enter or leave Khalas. How am I to smuggle her out?"

"Magic!" Brie pleaded. "You said it yourself, you're a wizard!"

John looked to Corsa. She averted her eyes from him but he'd seen a mix of fear and hope in them. He returned his attention to Brie. His seed had spread through her by now. He knew she ached not just because of him, but also for him. She needed his help and she'd do anything to get it. None of that meant this was good for him though.

"You have her, Artesia. She's not a slave, but a servant you pay and show some measure of respect. You are not like the lords of these city-states, John. You have a kindness and decency to you. A nobility greater than that given by title or lands," Brie pleaded.

John smiled. He liked to think that but he'd done some things that brought that into question. Dark thoughts he had. People he'd killed and the manner in which he'd killed them. Even using his magic to help him seduce Brie and others...

"Please, my lord, if you need gold I have some I can spare. I have no one else I dare trust with a charge as important as her."

"Why is she so important?" John asked.

"She's the king's illegitimate daughter. It's more than uncommon that a human and elf have offspring. To see two of them so similar... surely it's a sign from the saints!"

"What does the king do with her that's so terrible?" John asked. He held up a hand to stop Brie and turned to Corsa. "Speak, Corsa. Tell me of your life."

She stared at him and trembled before swallowing. A tear ran down her cheek and Brie hurried over to wipe it away and squeeze the girl from the side. "Go ahead, dear. You can trust him."

Corsa hesitated and then nodded. She opened her mouth and John saw in an instant the first, if not the worst, of the horrors she'd endured. Her tongue had been cut out.

"Bones of Skelos! What happened to her?" John hissed.

"She spoke out against the Queen one time too many," Brie said. "She demanded King Pellagryn have her tongue torn out so she could never utter such filthy lies again."

"Where they lies?"

Corsa shook her head.

John frowned as he looked on her. "Tell me, child, can you communicate at all?

Celia snickered, earning a dark look from John.

"I'm sorry, my lord," she rushed to say. "I... you're so young. Calling her a child when she's what, five years your junior?"

"Well... I have an old soul," John explained. He turned back to Corsa. "Well?"

She shook her head and then looked up at him with wide eyes. She held out her palm and then took her finger and scratched across it.

"You can write, just not speak?"

She nodded.

"We'll have to do something about that."

Corsa's forehead furrowed.

"There are languages that don't require the mouth to speak. Gestures and movements of the fingers and hands. I don't remember them, but I know I've heard and read of them," John explained. "If I can't remember more, I'm sure we can find something about them... or if there's nothing at all we can make our own."

She nodded, her eyes shimmering.

"So you'll help her get out of Khalas?" Brie asked.

John looked to Artesia. She refused to give him a gesture or expression showing she leaned in any direction. He turned back to them and sighed. "It seems I've gotten myself involved, doesn't it? Tell me, why has she run away. Just because of the Queen?"

"The Queen and because King Pellagryn has promised her as a wife to a noble in Carvin. A noble that that owns a great many sand elves and takes their children and turns the boys and half the girls into soldiers."

"Half the girls?"

"The other half become whores for his soldiers, friends, or any man with the many to spend. He breeds them... it is said that Corsa's mother was one of these slaves."

"Breeds sand elves? But I thought they rarely had children," John asked.

"It's uncommon with humans, rare for dwarves. With other elves they bear fruit quite readily, but the life of a sand elf is harsh and many children do not survive to become adults."

John unclenched his fists and let loose the breath he'd been holding. "So he has expectations of how elves should be have and what better wife for a slaver lord to have than a mute one?"

"Now you know why I agreed to help her."

John nodded. "I will help her. My affairs take me to Dilly, but she may stay or go at any point along the way. I don't know where I'm bound after Dilly, but if my Mistress has no demands and you're still with me, Corsa, I will see to it that we head further and further away."

Tears glistened in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Brie hugged her and then moved to John and hugged him. She stretched up and kissed him, sparing no intimacy for her company as she shared her affections with him.

"I should help damsels in distress more often," John quipped when she pulled back.

She smiled at him. "Stay as long as you like, my lord, but I urge to leave sooner, rather than later. Not for me, but for Corsa. If I had my way you'd stay with me forever."

"Tempting," John said. "But I must be on my way and I agree, the sooner we can get her away the better."

"Have you a plan already?"

John grinned. "I do. Have you any wine to spare?"

"Of course! Celia, fetch Lord John a cup of—"

"Not a cup, barrels," he corrected her. "I think ten should suffice."

"Ten barrels of wine?" Brie squeaked.

"You offered me gold earlier, consider this in exchange."

"I will, but I have one final demand," Brie said.

John raised an eyebrow even as he had another hunch aided by his magic.

"Spend the night with me. My bed, not yours. You've ruined me, my lord, but I crave at least one night of you beside me."

John chuckled. "You drive a hard bargain, Matron Brie. Still a deal is a deal. Bargained well and done."