Warrior

"Miri," Goren growled preparing for the tongue lashing he was about to get from the only person in the world who would dare to speak to him that way.

"Father, when were you going to tell me you plan to dump me in the castle like a prisoner and go off with your friends to fight again?" she demanded.

"You will not be a prisoner!" he growled at her coming to his feet to tower over her intimidatingly. "You will join the court and learn how to be a lady as well as fine tune your skills with bow and knives. The castle has the best equipped practise fields."

"Knives, interesting," Sieben said urbanely. "A good choice if I think about it. You could hide them quite well in the folds of your dress or tops of your stockings. I bet that will surprise more than one courtier who may try to have his wicked way with you," Sieben chuckled.

"You are not helping," Goren growled at his friend.

"Oh, do you need my help? What a rarity," Sieben drawled fishing a small folded piece of paper from his pocket. "Do you know what this is?" he asked passing it to her and watched her face until he was sure she understood what it was. "If you and your father had stayed in the village you would have condemned every person there to death along with you. They will not just kill him, but anyone else who may seek vengeance in his name, do you understand?"

Mirabel nodded dumbly, still looking at the warrant in her hands willing it to be wrong.

"You and Alaina will become wards of the Duke and enjoy his protection until your father and I return to you. It is the best and safest place for you. It will also keep your village safe as they will not know anything other than the fact that you disappeared one night. Your house will be cleared out and appear abandoned. Odell will see to it. What your father and the rest of us who with him travel do is important if you ever want a future where you are free to return to your mountain home." Sieben spoke in a lilting hypnotic voice as he spoke of her imminent forced stay in the castle of the Duke. There were no choices and arguing would only slow them down.

"Father?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"I have no time to argue this with you Miri. It is what it has to be, and you will have Alaina to advise you and keep you from any of the games of intrigue that wicked people may try to draw you into," he grumbled. "It is the best solution in a situation that requires haste."

"Best for who?" she asked with tears in her eyes at both the loss of her home and the imminent loss of her father as he went to battle again.

*****

Part 2 - Dorian

Dorian smiled as he looked out of the window into the courtyard where Goren and Sieben dismounted and handed their horses to the grooms. He loved them both like brothers and was glad to have them both here in the castle. He was surprised that two women were in their party. He knew well the three companions and the squire Tevin and wondered why the battle-hardened veterans travelled with two women. The brotherhood hadn't told him about the women, only the importance of calling Goren from his mountain home. He knew they had their own motivations and as long as they paralleled his own ambitions, he was content to take their advice.

Both women looked up at the walls of the castle, and he studied them for a moment. One was pale, slender and willowy. Her fair hair and grey eyes only adding to her pale and fragile beauty. She was pretty and if she chose to stay would do well in court with many suitors trying to seduce her. The other was almost the polar opposite. Tall for a woman she had a solid implacable appearance under the heavy dress that seemed to weigh her down and make her stoop her shoulders. Her dark hair seemed to glow with violet highlights at its ends, and her eyes, when she looked up toward his window, seemed similarly dark with the same violet glints as they reflected the sun. She was a striking beauty, exotic and unusual, and he felt his arousal build as she stepped down from the wagon and stretched her obviously well-muscled but innately feminine body.

His curiosity about the two women more than piqued, he moved from the window considering his guests. He would welcome both women to court and give them his protection if that was why Goren had brought them. He knew Goren would not have come to the castle without serious counselling from Sieben, and he would reward his sword brother as soon as he had the truth of the meeting for himself. He had his own agenda to push forward, but one that he feared couldn't be met successfully without the legendary Axeman who was the focus of the brotherhood's motivations.

He turned back to the window. These men were his friends; he had stood shoulder to shoulder with them at the battle of Fort Fennec. At that time, he and his companions had cared nothing for titles and claims to land. They had merely been trying to survive and rally the remnants of their army to hold their ground until reinforcements arrived. The King had taken his time in sending reinforcements to the beleaguered troops, and it had cost them dearly in the lives lost. He had almost lost his own life on more than one occasion if not for the men he stood shoulder to shoulder with. He was sure his cousin, King Mikhail, had been hoping this delay would ensure that outcome, and that was why the weak and stupid little man was trying to cause hardship in the southern realm where the men who threatened his reign lived.

Mikhail thought himself safe in his great palace surrounded by his personal guard which was why he had signed the warrant for Goren and played straight into Dorian's personal plans for vengeance. The weak King would soon find that the men of the south would not be taken so lightly. The small army that marched from the capital to invade the south and squash any perceived rebellion against the king would not be aided by his cousins in the eastern or western realms. The Dukes of those realms would wait and watch ensuring their own army's safety lest they were next in the paranoid King's sights. The Duke in the West was an overly cautious man, and while there was no love lost between them, Dorian knew he would not aide their cousin the King. In the east, another cousin had been named Duke and was dealing with too many of his own peoples' crisis and insurrections to be bothered with a war that didn't threaten him in any way.

Content to live in their mountain home away from the machinations of the capital, the southern men would not stay content when they and their way of life were threatened, and Dorian planned to use that discontent and turn it to rage against their king. He would use their greatest hero to ensure the weak and arrogant king could do no further damage to the realm he now commanded. He would use Goren to raise his army and set them in the path of the invaders as other more skilful men took down the King from within his own palace.

Dorian had a plan for himself and his friends and if taking in two women for a time was what it cost him to ensure Goren's allegiance and assistance, he would do it happily and use the women to his own advantage. He looked up as the Lady Abagail who served him without question slipped through the closed door.

"Abagail," he greeted her noting that as always, she dressed provocatively and eyed him with feral heat. He knew the woman would not approach him unless he had summoned her, and he wondered if she had been sent by the brotherhood. It would not be the first time they had done so.

"One woman is a seer," she said without preamble. "Wear this talisman while she is here lest your plans are revealed to the wrong people."

"And the other?" Dorian asked taking the talisman from her and hanging it from the leather thong around his neck.

"She is the match you seek to set you on your path to greatness and will be a formidable presence in the world if you have the strength to tame her and the stomach to do what must be done," she pronounced, making him raise his eyebrow at the tinge of jealous venom in her voice. "She will not bow to you nor do your bidding as easily as you would want or expect from a wife," she purred enticingly moving toward him and placing a hand on his chest. "They say it is you who must seduce her and wed her before others learn of her true nature. Be sure this is the road you wish to walk before taking the first step," her hand had caressed down his body to curl around his manhood. "The Brotherhood has their own ambitions, and I care only for yours."

Dorian turned back to the window to look down at the two women. He did not need to be told which his match was. He had known as soon as he had seen her and desire coursed through him to harden his cock. She was desirable, not just for the athletic suppleness of her body but for the promise of a future he desired above all else. Abagail was too eager, too pliable, too willing, and he knew she debased herself for him with the belief that she would continue to be his mistress and hold power in the castle even after he had taken an unsophisticated mountain woman as his wife. Dorian would enjoy the game of seduction of the woman chosen for him, of that he had no doubt. She appealed to him physically in a way the Lady Abagail never could. Once seduced, however, the real games would begin, and he smiled at the thought of the challenges that awaited him and the pleasure he would have in taming the woman Goren had unwittingly brought to her future husband.

Abagail felt Dorian's arousal grow and not realising that it was the woman arriving at the castle and the promised future she offered him, she freed his cock from his pants and glided her soft hand up and down cock revelling in the hard thickness of it.

"Be silent," Dorian warned her and with a vision of the woman below firmly in his mind he turned Abagail away from him. He had her bend forward placing her hands on the seat of the chair that stood there. Lifting her skirts, he thrust forward and heard her softly muted cry as he thrust into her without care. "Silent," he hissed and smacked her hard on her thigh as he began to fuck her with forceful strokes. His mind filled with the image of the strong mountain woman who would likely never be so docile, and his lips curved at the thought of teaching her what it meant to be his wife and lover.

The images in his mind enflamed his need, and he came hard after only a short time. He groaned, clamping his teeth together to muffle the sound and once sated stepped back and leaned against the large solid desk waiting with his cock still hanging from his pants. Dutifully Abagail crawled to his feet and knelt up to clean him with her tongue and place his cock back in his pants.

Walking to the window again he noted the party had left the courtyard and would be on their way to greet him. Without acknowledging Abagail or speaking to her at all, he walked from the room to welcome his guests. He knew the woman would be gone when he returned. She knew her place well and bargained her body for the prestige it gave her amongst the other women at court when he treated her in a favoured way on the few occasions he dealt with his court. That would have to end, he acknowledged if the mountain woman who arrived today was indeed the one he had been waiting for.

*****

Sieben had grown up in a town in the foothills of the Kayode mountains. Dorian's father and his father before him had been good and kind rulers of their people. For the people of the towns in the foothills and plains surrounding the Castle the taxes had been low and the benefits of having the standing army close by was that the laws were enforced and obeyed. The laws were observed less the further one went into the mountains where the villages were mostly self-governed and paid a yearly tithe of goods as their taxes to the duke.

He had run from his home and violent father at an early age to join the army. He had been the same age as the Duke's son and had been taken in by the Master of Arms despite his young age and made the young Dorian's sparring partner. He had been given the same education and upbringing with the Old Duke encouraging friendship between the two boys despite their different stations in life. Sieben had been a highly intelligent boy who enjoyed watching the machinations of the court and spying on the duplicitous men and women who jockeyed for the Duke's favour.

While Sieben had enjoyed the intrigue, Dorian had become a master of it, his quick mind out manoeuvring many intricately laid plans. Sieben knew that nothing happened within the lands surrounding castle that Dorian did not know about; so it did not surprise him to find that rooms had been prepared for all of their party including the two women with them. What would surprise Dorian though was the identity of one of those women, and Sieben was looking forward to seeing that realisation dawn. It was rare that he could take his sword brother by surprise, and he grinned as they made their way the great room after cleaning up from the journey.

"Greetings my friends," Dorian said from the foyer before the doors to the great room. He walked forward to embrace Sieben and thumped his back in genuine pleasure at his return before grabbing Goren's wrist in the warrior's way but still drawing him close to thump his back in a show of affection for the old warrior. He nodded to the three companions and Tevin as they all bowed awkwardly and eyed the two women who were younger than they had looked from his window viewpoint. Both gave little dips of their knees in deference to him rather than the low curtsies he was used to from the women of the court and which would have allowed him the leisure of viewing their cleavage. Still, he thought, it was better than nothing, and they would learn to show proper deference to him.

"I believe your companions may like to rest until dinner is served. I would like to talk to my two most favoured knights," Dorian said shortly, dismissing the women without asking their names along with the four men who stood behind Goren and Sieben. There would be time to seduce the woman. First, he needed details from the two men he called friends.

"What you would like and what you will get are two different things Laddie," Goren grumbled in a deep hard voice.

"Take a moment my friend," Sieben said once again donning the cheerful urbane tones of a courtier. "There are things that must be discussed between Dukes and their knights that would not suit the delicate ears of the fair ladies." He patted the huge shoulder of the old warrior then turned to their companions.

"Ciaran, please take our friends to meet the weapons master, Martel, and tell him of the contest in the village. He will want proof of the facts of course," he chuckled, "So tell him I will be along to confirm the deed. Tevin, I am sure there is no better than you to ensure the safety of the ladies, but I will insist that Ulan, being a knight of this realm, take on that duty as you meet with the Master," he said easily. "I am sure the ladies will enjoy seeing the castle practise fields."

"As you wish," Tevin said as the other men nodded their assent.

"There now, our friends are occupied and well protected while we obey our Lord," Sieben said giving Goren a hard look despite his cheerful words. Goren grunted, and the companions led the two ladies away with Tevin walking behind them.

Dorian had watched the scene and was curious about why the men seemed poised for an outburst not from Goren but from the dark-haired woman. Still, he said nothing as he led the two men through to his chambers and took a seat in a comfortable chair indicating that they should join him.

"Does he know it all?" Dorian asked.

"No, only what he needed to know to get him here," Sieben said. "The rest is up to you."

"Mikhail's paranoia and his advisors have caused him to believe a genuine threat to his reign comes from the south," Dorian began. "From you particularly because of your threats against him." Dorian went on to outline the Kings plans to lay siege to the southern realm while sending every assassin with a pulse south in search of Goren.

"He is not just paranoid Laddie, his brain is diseased if he thinks the men of the mountains will just fall to his sword or bend the knee in loyalty to the man who would kill the strongest of them," Goran spoke for the first time. "I had thought to go to the castle and kill him myself, but I will stand as you ask and rally the men to fight again if, as you say, others will ensure his death. However, you will need to ensure the safety of what is most precious to me before I do this for you."

"Surely you standing with the army will ensure your mountain home survives as it is now," Dorian said knowing that all Goren held dear was on that mountain of his.

"Aye laddie, but this is more precious than a mountain, so much so that I have kept the knowledge of its existence a well-guarded secret until now," Goren said.

"Did you bring this precious thing with you?" Dorian asked as realisation began to dawn on him.

"Aye, my daughter, Mirabel. You will take her and her companion as wards of your house, or I will go back to my mountain and take my chances," he said gruffly. "I will not leave her unprotected against assassins despite the fact that she can defend herself better than any single man could."

"Any single man?" Dorian scoffed.

"She bested Sieben in a contest of bows," Goren chuckled looking at his friend who he knew still found it hard to accept. "She also knocked my squire out cold and tied him up when he arrived at my home unannounced before I returned home from the war," he continued to chuckle.

Dorian said nothing as he listened to the pride in Goren's voice and saw the smile on Sieben's face that told of his admiration for the woman who had bested him when he thought he was unbeatable. He knew now that the dark-haired woman with the unusual hair and eyes was Goren's daughter. She had an almost exotic beauty, and Dorian wondered briefly at her mother as he considered Goren's request.

"The taking on of wards is for old men with comely wives who wish for pretty young things to grace their tables. I do not need the burden of such responsibility for two young women who would have to look to me as a father figure. Surely, I am not so old as to be adopting wards," Dorian began but held up his head as he could see the fury of being denied colour Goren's face. "I do however have a counteroffer that would ensure your daughter's safety not only here within the castle but anywhere she chose to travel, even the capital."

"I will not have her placed as a servant, not even for you Dorian!" Goren shouted belligerently misunderstanding Dorian.

"That is not what I am suggesting at all, my friend. The very thought never crossed my mind," Dorian said calmly in the face of the old man's temper. "I would like to propose that you allow me to marry your daughter. She will become Duchess and be untouchable even should we fail in our attempt to rid the land of the mad King. We will, of course, invite him to the wedding along with the other nobles of the various realms. That will bring him from behind the palace walls and forestall the war, giving us more time to plan our resistance and for our assassins to do their work. He will not be able to decline an invitation from the heroes of Fort Fennec without losing face with his own people and his army, many of whom were there and saw the carnage."

"Marriage?" Goren was stunned.

"I told you that I wished a wife from the mountains. This union would serve multiple purposes and would not be arduous to the woman I assure you," Dorian said. "She will marry one day regardless. Is it not better she is settled with a man you know as you know me?"

"You don't know which of the ladies it is that you are proposing to marry," Sieben said carefully assuming Dorian thought the pretty Alaina was the daughter of Goren with her fair colouring.