Feral Mage: Chapter 3

Callie made her way through the remains of the castle. The fire had destroyed much of it, but a few sections remained free from the destruction. The pathway gate that led to these sections was decorated with human heads on pikes. The count, his family, and the soldiers under his command. A sight that did little except normalize cruelty among the soldiers and would inspire horrific acts of retaliation by the humans once they learned of it. She saw two guards standing before the door of her destination.

 “Good morning, Lady Queenshield,” one of the guards said as he greeted her with a salute, the other followed suit but remained silent.

 Both stood outside an open door that led to the room the Duchess had set up as her court.

 “At ease,” she said to the guards. The guards dropped their salute and quickly opened the door and she made her way inside. She paused as the door closed behind her as she mentally prepared herself for meeting with the Duchess. She heard the guards start to speak on the other side.

 “Why has she not healed that scar? Is it cursed?” One of the guards said softly.

 “If so it’s a shame. Perhaps they will call her the ‘Wilted Rose’ instead of the ‘Frozen Rose’ now,” the other guard said with a chuckle.

 Callie gritted her teeth. The jest meant nothing to her. Callie could have killed both guards with her bare hands, even with them being armed. The mention of the scar had dragged up thoughts of him. The bastard.

 She had allowed the small cut on her face to scar intentionally, even using tonics to aid in the pursuit. She swore to herself that she wouldn’t heal the scar until she killed that human who toyed with her.

 “Bryce,” she said his name as if it were a curse.

 Her hand itched for her sword, but she steadied her nerves. She had scouts looking in the east for signs of him and with luck, she would soon have his head. Not for the spikes, no. She would use it for something better and more meaningful, like a chamber pot.

 Perhaps if she took him alive, she would poison him and force him to degrade himself before her for the antidote. She would need to collect a variety of poisons to use on him, of course, manticore would be the first one.

 She took a deep breath and made her way into the Duchesses Court. Already she could hear the court nobles that had accompanied the Duchess whispering about her.

 She ignored it and moved with purpose and elegance. Her family might have fallen, but she was of noble blood. Even without royal titles or land, they had to respect her blood. The bloodline of the family that served as the Ice Queen’s personal guards for over five hundred years.

 The duchess drank a glass of wine while she and her inner circle stood at a table overlooking the maps.

 “Duchess Frozenveil,” Callie greeted as she knelt.

 The Duchess looked up from the map and smiled at her as she sipped her wine.

 “Good, you’re here, Lady Queenshield. Would like some of the count’s wine? The quality is decent for a human variety,” Duchess Frozenveil offered. “I don’t think he would mind.”

 Her small jest was quickly lapped up by those in her inner circle who erupted with laughter.

 “Thank you, Duchess, but it’s not fitting for a soldier to drink while on duty,” Callie answered still knelt.

 “Such dedication! This is why I’m glad to have the Frozen Rose here. She sets an example for the soldiers, even if she did fail to capture or kill this Demon of the North the soldiers were so fearful of,” the duchess said as she raised her glass and sipped it.

 Many of the soldiers still didn’t believe Callie that the attacks on the supply line were caused by a single human. Instead insisting that it was the work of a monster as they had originally believed.

 “I’ve called you here because I have an important mission for you to undertake,” the Duchess said. “I want you to head south to the Red Pine Kingdom and work to forge an alliance between us and the forest elves.”

 Callie frowned.

 “Do you suspect the Kingdom of Volpin to give us that much trouble?” Callie asked.

 She doubted the human kingdom would waste much resources to retake the castle. The land had only been within the human kingdom’s domain for less than twenty years. A prize they had taken during a moment of opportunity when the Winter Kingdom fractured into a warring state following the assassination of the Ice Queen and her family. It was the greatest failure of her family and what lead to their downfall.

 “No,” the Duchess said with a chuckle. “But the rest of the human kingdoms will. I have a dream. No. A vision. Where elven kind drives the encroaching humans back to those vile Selkie Isles they came from.”

 A cheer went up from the Duchess’s inner circle followed by clapping. Callie almost looked up at Duchess Frozenveil in surprise but kept herself from doing so. Trying to push back the humans would be idiotic. They had held those lands for thousands of years, and elvish society had changed from when they held the lands that humanity now held. They were as dependent on the humans as the humans were on them. Talks of driving the human’s back were just dreams of the elves to far into their wineskins.

 No, that’s not her real goal. Duchess Frozenveil had proved herself to be many things, but not stupid. Ruthless, cruel, and ambitious? Yes, but not stupid.

 “I have scouts looking for the human that was attacking our supply line,” Callie stated. “To allow him to go free would affect the morale of the soldiers.”

 She hoped this might free her from whatever machinations the Duchess had in mind.

 “No need. If what you said is true, he’s a mercenary no longer being paid. He is probably long gone.” the Duchess chuckled to herself. “Though if your scouts did find him, I might be interested in hiring him. Given how much trouble he caused the renowned swordswoman, the Frozen Rose. I expect you to be on the road at dawn, Lady Queenshield. You are dismissed.”

 Callie stood as she fought back the urge to glare at the horrible woman and saluted her. As she left the room, she stopped by the guards who watched the door and quickly drew her sword, pressing the blade to the neck of one of them.

 “I ever hear you refer to me as, the Wilted Rose, again I’ll spike your head beside the humans on a pike over the gate,” Callie said as she glared at them, putting enough pressure on the blade to draw a little blood.

 “Y-Yes, Lady Queenshield,” the guard squeaked as his fellow guardsman watched fearfully.

***

 The first guard that caught sight of Bryce and Vex when they entered Sawtown turned and raced towards the mayor’s building. Well, less at the sight of them and more at the troll’s head Bryce was carrying.

 “Good. Hopefully the mayor will have everything ready for me when I get there,” Bryce said to Vex.

 Vex didn’t answer. Instead, she was looking around Sawtown and Bryce wondered if this was her first time in a human settlement. A smile crept up on his face as he pictured her reaction to seeing a real human city. She wordlessly followed behind him as he made his way to the tavern.

 “Let her go,” Bryce said when he walked into the establishment.

 Snowflower was pinned to a table as two men held her and a third stood over her with a knife as if preparing to slice off her ear. He recognized them as some of the patrons who had been glaring at her earlier.

 Everyone else had cleared out of the establishment, save the bartender who cleaned a glass and did his best to ignore what was unfolding.

 “Of course, the prick is back,” the thug holding the knife said with a laugh.

 He turned and pointed the blade at Bryce. The man’s pudgy face was bright red, either from too much booze or anger. Spittle flew from his mouth as he spoke.

 “Get the hell out here or we’ll cut your balls off after we’re done with her.”

 Bryce started walking toward the men. Already plotting the order he would kill them in.

 “What in the hell is he holding?” one of the men asked.

 Before anyone could answer the man’s question, a chair flew at the one who brandishing the knife. The chair struck him and broke into pieces, Bryce heard a snarling growl. Vex shot forward, grabbing one of the legs that broke off the chair as she neared the man with the knife. She drove the splintered end into the man’s neck before pulling the knife from his grip and charging the two men who held down Snowflower.

 Bryce shrugged and made his way to the bartender, who had stopped cleaning the glass he held and watched with a pale expression as the wolfkin slaughtered the three men. The bartender turned to face him as Bryce set the troll’s head on the bar’s counter.

 “I would like a beer and a hot meal for my friend,” Bryce said as he laid a coin on the table. After a thought he put two more coins. “Also, draw a bath for her.”

 Bryce took the beer the bartender quickly made him and turned back to the scene that was unfolding. Snowflower stood off to the side of the room with a shocked expression as Vex wiped the knife clean on the shirt of the last man she killed. All three of them were dead and the blood-drenched wolfkin was standing over their bodies as she happily examined the knife. When she caught sight of Bryce watching her, she smiled and held up the knife as if it were a prize.

 “Good work, Vex,” Bryce said and the wolfkin’s tail started to wag.

 He looked over to see Snowflower was coming out of her shock and was now looking at him. Bryce gestured to Vex with his mug of beer.

 “Snowflower, meet Vex,” Bryce said before locking eyes with the wolfkin and gesturing back to the snow elf with his beer. “Vex, meet Snowflower.”

 Vex turned and looked at Snowflower, then back to Bryce, then back to Snowflower. Her tail frizzed out and Bryce heard a low growl coming from the Wolfkin.

 “Bryce, she’s snarling at me,” Snowflower said as she started at the wolfkin.

 “Vex, she’s a friend,” Bryce said giving the wolfkin a stern look. Vex pouted and said something in her native language.

 She moved away from the dead bodies to stand by Bryce at the bar, her tail wagging as she smiled at him. Bryce wished he had learned about beastkin culture, then he might have a clue what was going on with Vex. The only thing he had figured out in their short time together was it would be difficult to get away from the wolfkin.

 This thought was proven true when Bryce tried to leave her at the tavern to go visit the mayor for the reward. He had to reassure her three times that he would return and even then it took the bartender bringing out food before she let him go.

 He wanted to talk to Snowflower before he went to the mayor. Mostly just to bust her chops about trying to use him, but she was still shaken up from the attack, so he dropped it. There would be a chance for them to talk once she was debt free.