Feral Mage 3: Chapter 22

Bryce opened his eyes to see Vex sitting in front of him, watching. It took him a second to gain his bearings, and then he noticed the wolfgirl was wearing a dress over her leather armor, the same dress Princess Charlotte had been wearing.

“Why did that take so long?” Vex asked, tilting her head.

Bryce narrowed his eyes at her.

“Why are you in a dress?” he responded, not fully processing the question she asked.

Vex smiled as she grabbed the hems of the dress and held it out, her tail wagging frantically under it. The design of Charlotte’s dress clearly was not meant for a tailed beastkin.

“It’s pretty!” she said, then looked at him. “Right?”

He slowly nodded.

“You look beautiful, Vex. Now, why is it on you and not Princess Charlotte?”

She stood up and stepped away, humming as she played with the seams of the dress. Once she moved, Bryce saw Princess Charlotte only in the slip and petticoat she wore under her dress, a glowing hand on her leg as she chanted a healing spell. Next to the Princess stood Callie and Janna, both with their weapons aimed at her throat.

Bryce rose from the ground and made his way toward them, only breaking his gaze to glance over at Thea sitting under a nearby tree with Omelet beside her, the griffin chick treating one of the frozen Carrion Fairies as a chew toy. She gave a small wave and smile at him, which Bryce returned.

“This doesn’t look like tied up and gagged?” Bryce said when he finally arrived at Janna, Callie, and the mostly nude Charlotte.

“I’m not carrying her back to the Duke’s estate,” Callie answered as he noticed Charlotte’s dagger was now on Janna’s belt. “We took any weapons she had on her, made her strip in case she was trying to hide any, and now we’re letting her heal her broken leg.”

Charlotte glared at him.

“Enjoy the view while it lasts, peasant. You have harmed and humiliated a Princess of the Saltland Kingdom! My Mother will confine you in a gibbet to rot away,” she said with a sneer. “I’ll be sure to visit you and your whores as much as the vultures do to laugh at your fate.”

Callie’s sword pressed against Charlotte’s throat.

“If you’re not casting a healing spell, then shut it,” the snow elf growled.

Bryce’s brows furrowed, but not at the threats. He honestly would be amazed if Charlotte’s corpse wasn’t put on display outside Witchbrook after the city and Duke’s guard extracted all the information they could from her, even if she was a Princess. No, his brows were furrowed because Princess Charlotte was a lot scrawnier than he had thought.

A laugh escaped Callie.

“You’re wondering where her tits went?”

His gaze shifted to her, but he said nothing. Still, Callie had hit the nail on the head and knew it.

“Her dress had a lot of extra padding stitched into it,” Callie answered with a chuckle as she nodded toward Vex. “I guess she felt she needed a bigger bust to effectively lure the nobles to their death.”

Bryce looked over to see Vex sticking her chest out, the padding of the dress making her bust almost comically large. When he looked back at Charlotte, the Princess’s face was crimson as she glared at the ground.

“I’ll kill you all,” she growled softly.

Again, Callie’s sword pushed against her neck.

“No, you’re going to get back to healing yourself,” the swordswoman said. “Then you’re going to walk through these damn woods without pissing me, Bryce, or anyone else off.”

Vex appeared by his side, tugging on the tattered remains of his shirt.

“Why did it take longer this time?” she asked again.

It took him a second to process that Vex was talking about him absorbing the essence of the Quill Wyvern. She had been there when he absorbed the Primal Troll and Pale Queen after all, so she had an idea of how long it took him. His lips thinned as he recalled his meeting with Ciarra. Upon seeing his expression change, Callie and Vex’s eyes narrowed.

“Is this related to the matter we need to discuss later?” Callie asked in a stern voice. “The matter related to mirrors?”

Bryce sighed. He should have figured Callie would insist on his telling Vex and Janna about the Goddess’s blessing.

“We have a lot to talk about,” he said, his gaze drifting to Janna and Vex.

Janna had a worried look, but Vex just nodded.

“Okay, but Aspect now,” she said excitedly, a mass moving under the fabric of the dress as her tail wagged.

Giving the wolfgirl what she wanted and breaking the conversation away from Ciarra, Bryce pulled on the Quill Wyvern Aspect. He felt an itching sensation on his back followed by a sharp stabbing pain as something burst through his skin. The pain wasn’t bad, but it was the first time using an Aspect actually hurt him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that two wings had sprouted from his back, quills lining their forearms. He stared at the quills, only slightly smaller than those the Wyvern had.

That’s probably why it hurt like hell.

Vex let out oohs and ahhs as she walked around him, examining the wings. Janna also stared at them with interest. Charlotte made a disgusted face and almost spoke until Callie glared at her.

“Can you launch the spikes like the Wyvern?” Janna asked.

He turned and looked at a tree in the distance. As he did, he could feel the muscles that Aspect gave him to use the ability. After a second, he beat his wings and several quills shot through the air, only to land a little over a yard away.

“Oh,” Vex said disappointedly, looking at the quills sticking out of the ground before turning to Callie and Janna. “It’s a dud.”

Bryce shook his head. “No, it’s not.”

He tried again, the quills making it a little farther this time, and he gained a better understanding of how it worked. The projectiles were held along the forearms of his wings by a taut muscle. The more he relaxed the muscle, the more quills it released. The trouble was that as he relaxed the muscle, he needed enough momentum with his wings to sling them. The action was similar to throwing a knife, but with fingers Bryce had only possessed for a few seconds and was still figuring out how to use.

“Just something I need practice with,” he said, then looked up into the sky and frowned. “And I want to talk to Bellamy first before I even attempt flying.”

“I can help you.”

Bryce looked toward Thea, still sitting under the tree. Hesitantly, she stood and approached him, Omelet following as he dragged the dead Carrion Fairy with him.

“Bellamy taught me how to fly using…” she took a deep breath. “Using my Sea Drake Aspect. I can give you some advice on it.”

“As long as you’re comfortable talking about it,” he replied, knowing the trauma Thea had from her experience being a chimera. “I would appreciate advice.”

Given what Charlotte had said, he could only have a day or two before he might need to use the Quill Wyvern Aspect in combat. He dropped the Aspect when he saw that Charlotte’s leg was almost fully healed.

“Okay, Vex, give back the dress,” Bryce said, recalling one of Charlotte’s guards mentioning they had scouts. “We need to get away from the road in case the Princess has any friends.”

“No, the dress is mine,” Vex declared quickly. “Princess can walk in her underwear.”

Callie shrugged.

“It might teach the spoiled bitch some humility.”

Bryce sighed as he saw Vex spinning in a circle with the dress, finding amusement in how the hems lifted with her movement. He knew the only way he was getting it off her was by pinning her down and stripping her. Instead, he approached one of the dead sea elf guards wearing a gambeson. It was mostly intact except for three bloodstained puncture marks. He pulled it off the corpse and tossed it toward Charlotte.

“You seriously expect me to wear this! It’s covered in blood!” she yelled.

Bryce kept walking away from Charlotte toward where the puppet lay on the ground.

“Her leg is healed. Tie her up and gag her,” he instructed as he knelt and picked up the wooden toy.

Looking the marionette over, he couldn’t see the runes that had glowed on it when Charlotte had slipped the piece of paper into its mouth. His hand ran along the wood, trying to feel them, but there was nothing. Still, he knew what he had seen.

A gasp and the sound of tearing cloth made Bryce look back at the girls.

“That dress was worth more than you will earn in your lifetime, beast!” Charlotte sneered.

Looking back at the girls, he saw Vex tearing strips of cloth from the dress and wrapping them up into a ball. Callie was by her, binding Charlotte’s hands behind her back with rope while the Princess glared at Vex.

“Why? It’s bad cloth. Tears easily,” Vex responded as she shoved the bits of dress into Charlotte’s mouth as a gag, then followed in beastkin. “Stupid Princess got tricked by merchants.”

Taking the puppet with him, he made his way back toward the girls, his gaze scanning the scene of the battle or anything else he might need to bring with them. He stopped and stared at the Quill Wyvern’s corpse.

“Okay, let’s get away from here. I want to stop before we get back to the Duke’s estate and ask some questions before we hand her over,” Bryce said, drawing his knife as he approached the Wyvern.

“There’s a small stream halfway back to the estate. We can rest there, and it will give you a chance to clean up,” Callie replied as she forced Charlotte to stand.

He looked himself over at her suggestion of the stream and saw how much blood covered his body from his fight with the abomination and wyvern. He doubted the Duke’s maids would even let him through the door in his current state.

When he arrived at the Wyvern, Bryce used his knife to cut free one of its fangs. Proof for Isabelle that the creature was dead, and to complete his contract with her.

Then she’ll be answering for why she gave me this damn blessing.

He swore softly, already imagining a hundred ways that conversation could go, most of them with either him or Isabelle dead. He saw the girls waiting for him on the edge of the woodline and left the corpse of the monster to join them.

As they walked, Callie tugged the bound Charlotte behind them with a length of rope, which Omelet watched curiously, probably because he wasn’t the one wearing a leash for once. Callie also held a large gamebeson she looted from one of the guards that was free of bloodstains. It would be too large for her, but when Bryce asked about it, she said it was for him to change into after he bathed in the stream.

The girls passed the time as they walked by, filling him in on why Janna and Vex were at the Duke’s estate. He already knew about the upcoming attack on Witchbrook from overhearing Charlotte’s conversation, but he was happy that Bellamy and the twins were back.

Thea soon took over the conversation and spoke at length about flying with an Aspect. Now knowing Bellamy was back, he still planned to speak to her about it, but he listened intently to the Princess. She described the importance of angling his wings to catch the wind and that Bellamy had her watch birds for hours to understand wing movement.

Despite her fear of her magic, he could tell she had enjoyed the freedom of flying, and as she spoke, he could see a spark in her eyes that made him believe she would one day overcome her fear.

After several minutes of walking, they neared the spot Callie had mentioned and stopped to question Princess Charlotte.