Challenge De Coeur, Pt 3

The trip was less an event of dread than a funeral.  Deena traveled with me in the carriage.  I stared out the window at the gray sky, and the street sparkling with a morning frost which rushed past at a brisk pace.

The worst was yet to come.  I was to sit with the Haudens, a cruel statement of inevitability.  Aggie would have to stare up and see me sitting here.  And there would be no box for her family.  She would die alone.

The arena was two stands in a quarter circle, like a cricket field looking over dull grayish-brown dirt.  The stands rose up high to a box draped in red and white, where Duke Loudon and the King were already sitting.

I was seated in the center, on the metal bleachers with the best view of the field.

My family sat on he other set of stands, towards the far edge but midway up.  Father was there in a black overcoat, his cane resting on his shoulder.  Molly and my Mother were huddled together, whispering, glaring at Hauden.

Livia was done below, in her dress uniform.  The wear was a bit formal but then she was quite assured she would win.  She had a long, thin blade with her with an ornate hand-guard.  The blade was pointed downward, and she stood with her weight on her right leg.  A thin smile was on her lips.

Aggie entered.  The crowd gasped.

She wore the tan cloak of a Scarecrow, faded and slightly worn, and carried in her hand a curved knife.  The cloak covered her left shoulder, and she moved forward beneath the hood.

Livia's smile widened.  Doubtless she was thinking of how this would look:  the city's brave hero killing a common gang rat.

"Aggie..." I whispered.

She looked up at me, her eyes pleading.  I knew what she wanted.

I took a deep breath.

"Aggie is going to win," I told myself.  "I don't know how, but she will."

I smiled faintly and nodded.

Agatha grinned up at me.

Duke Loudon emerged from the stands behind us, and signaled for silence.  The King was with him, I knew, though I could not see him.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Loudon said, his voice echoing around the arena.  "Agatha Darry, do you withdraw your request?"

"No."

"Livia Hauden, do you reiterate your claim?"

"I do," Livia said.  She glared at Aggie.  "You are going to die, green rat."

Agatha smiled, but said nothing.

"Very well.  May Fortune favor the winner.  Begin!"  Loudon shouted.

I shut my eyes, not wanting to watch, until I heard a clang of metal and I could not help but look.  Livia had lunged forward with a quick strike, which Agatha had knocked away as she stepped aside.  The two circled each other, Livia clearly savoring this.  For her part, Agatha was staying back and out of range.  It was the best way to keep from getting hit, but a sure way to lose; she would never hit Livia with her short knife, unless she planned on throwing it.

Livia seemed ready for that, curling her cloak around her arm.

I glanced over at my family on the far bleachers.  Mother and Molly were watching, stone-faced, but father...father was talking.  He didn't appear to be talking to anyone; in fact, it seemed he was in prayer.

That was odd; while father was not godless, he was hardly the kind to pray in public either.

The sun faded behind clouds and the arena dimmed.  But it grew darker.  The clouds seemed to blacken.

Father was still speaking, his lips moving furiously, too furiously to make sound.

As the two circled, my heart pounded.  Aggie was quicker on her feet than she appeared, but Livia was still faster, stronger, and had greater reach.

Livia darted forward again, and her blade narrowly missed Aggie as she stepped back.  I gasped.  A vision of Aggie with the sword through her while Livia grinned filled my mind.

"It won't happen," I told myself.  "It won't.  Agatha can win.  Somehow.  Maybe."

The sky had turned black as night.  There was a rumble in the clouds, a deep boom.  I saw nobles look to the sky, holding their hands out and up, waiting to feel raindrops as they marveled.

Aggie looked up at a rumble of thunder, and Livia began her assault.  She struck quickly, like a cobra, stabbing at Agatha as my goblin backed away on her small legs.

But I was now watching father.  As Livia's attack had grown in speed and ferocity, so had his furious prayer.  His lips curled and mouthed words in a blur, his eyes intense and sparkling with almost a light on their own.  And then, father's lips stopped moving.

There was a flash of light, and a sound like the falling of a massive tree which rumbled through the air.   For the briefest of moments I saw lightning snake and dance in the arena.  Smoke rose from where the lightning hit, obscuring everything.

The smoke faded away, and a small figure stood over a larger one.  Livia lay on the ground, steam rising from her groaning form.  Her skin was blackened and her clothes had small embers glowing on them, twisting the fabric as they burned.  She coughed and twitched on the ground, barely conscious enough to whimper.  There was stone silence in the crowd.

Only Aggie acted.  She secured Livia to the ground with her foot, and reaching down, she grasped the key from around Livia's neck and tugged it free.

"I know what this is," she said, holding my key in front of Livia's dazed face.  "I'm taking this, because it's mine."

She put her blade under Livia's chin.

"And I'm taking this, too."

She ran the knife along Livia's throat.  Livia gurgled, and spat up a small geyser of blood, and then went still.  The clouds melted away and the sun showed brightly.

Aggie stood, red and slick with Manticore blood.  She looked at me and smiled.

"It is done," she said, simply.

I was aware only of the sound of my own breathing, the blood pusling through my ears.  Aggie...Aggie won, I thought.  Livia was dead...

I stood to try to make my way to her, but I could not; the crowd was unmoving, staring at the spot where Livia lay.

"The Skyfather..." A man from the a few rows closer to the arena said.  "The Skyfather struck her with lightning."

"She was false," the man's Oni wife added.  "The Skyfather decreed it."

"...she was no Valkyrie..." I heard someone behind me say.

"...had heard she was perverted..."

"...the whole family is rotten..."

"Treachery!" Hauden screamed.  He stood and drew a pistol from his belt.  "The sorceror father!  He did this!"

He leveled his pistol towards Aggie.  "I'll kill you, you green ghetto rat!"

"No!" I screamed.  I lunged, and grasping his arm, I pulled it away from its dead aim to Aggie's heart  -and into myself.

I felt the heat of the shot a moment before the sound deafened my ears, felt the searing of my flesh, and the force which pushed me to the rocky floor.

A dull echo filled my ears, but I saw Aggie screaming, being held aloft by two men as she kicked her feet and mouthed my name, and I heard the rapid crackling of gunfire.  Mother and Molly were pointing and shouting something.  Mercurial was leaping over me, knives in his hands, falling upon Hauden as he screamed.

Only father didn't move.  He merely watched, panting, his eyes sunken and tired.

Slowly, my gaze dimmed, and everything went black.

As I stirred awake I felt a hand in my hair.

"Titus," a female voice said sweetly.

I woke.  Agatha was standing over me, smiling.

"Your bed..." I croaked.  "I'm...in your bed."

"We're at my tavern," Agatha said, smiling.  She kissed my forehead.  "I had you brought here.  You lost a lot of blood.  You've been out for about sixteen hours.  How do you feel?"

I rubbed my shoulder.  "Sore.  But alright."

I sat up in bed.

"I won you," she said with a smile and tears in her eyes.  "You're 100% mine.  No one can take you away ever."

"So...are we married?" I asked.

"I think so.  I'm going to...you know,  put the note up.  Just to make it official.  Are you up for it"

I nodded.  "Just be gentle with me."

She put her tiny hand to my face.  "Do you want to be with me?  If you don't...I'll..."

I put my hand on hers.  "I want this.  I...I can't believe you won.  You...the lightning."

She smiled.  "We can talk about all that later."

"You saved me," I said.  "You fought for me and won me.  Thank you."

"We saved each other; I was the one who was supposed to be risking my life, you know," she touched my shoulder gently.  "It isn't fun to be worried about your one dying.  Speaking of which we have something...serious...to discuss," Aggie said, sitting down on the bed.

I narrowed my eyes.  "What's wrong?"

"You tried to kill yourself," she said, her voice shaking.  "After you promised me you wouldn't."

"I'm sorry, Aggie-"

"I don't want to hear it.  I'm going to make sure it never happens again.  Get your pants off.  Now."

I obeyed her, a little fearful.  I was in loose pajama bottoms - with nothing else - which I removed and dropped on the floor.

"Get across my lap."

I stared at her.

"Do it," she said sternly.

I complied.  My penis was between her soft thighs, and it got hard there, in her warm flesh, my cock head brushing against her pubic hair.

"What you need is a good spanking," she whispered.

Her tiny hand slapped me, over and over.  I felt so ridiculous, laying sprawled across her little lap, but to my horror I felt myself hardeninf.  I shouldn't be.  It was being treated like a child by a tiny goblin.

There was anger in each hit, real force, and the hits stung, but I found the stinging was making me thrust my hips.  The contact of my penis on her skin was stimulating me.  I started sliding with each hit, rubbing my penis against her thighs.  Moaning, almost against my will.

"You pervert," she giggled.  "Getting off on a spanking..."

As I started moaning between yelps, she pitilessly clamped her thighs tightly on my cock, and began gyrating as she struck me with her open hand.

I exploded, more intensely than I ever had before, all over her lap, in her pubic hair.  It kept squirting.

I crumpled and deflated across her.  Utterly spent.

"Wow.  You came so much," Aggie said with a laugh, looking down at her cum-covered thighs.  "Looks like my boy-toy likes being disciplined..."

"Please, don't...don't think less of me," I said.  "I don't know-"

Her face softened.  "Don't worry about it, cutie.  You're my boy.  I love you."

She grabbed my face.  "Now listen, if you ever even think about killing yourself, you are to tell me.  And I'm going to do that to you."

"Y-yes honey," I said, still shaking.

"You alright?" She asked.

"I just...I'm not...I never liked it with Livia-"

"Don't talk about her," my goblin girl admonished, clutching the key around her neck.  "Do you not like this anymore?  We'll stop if you don't..."

"No," I said.  "I trust you.  I want you to do these things to me.  You aren't mean when you do them."

"Never," she said.  "I will never hurt you.  Not like she did."

We kissed, a deep kiss, and she fell into my arms.  I held her for a countless amount of time.

We dressed each other and went downstairs.  There were black uniformed guards there - the colors of the Auberge.  Sitting at one of the stools with a drink before him was Mercurial Banehollow.  For a monent I thought he might be betraying his Puritan heritage, but as I closed I saw the drink was clear.

"Good to see you up," he said with a smile that betrayed his long canines.

"Here to keep any eye on me?" I asked, clasping his hand.

"On the two of you..." Mercurial said, gesturing over his shoulder.

My father sat, unassuming as always, at a corner table.  A small package rested before him, and steam rose from his small cup as he smiled faintly.

"Father?"

My father rose with difficulty and a grimace onto his feet, grasping his cane.  I rushed to his side to aid him.

"Good morning, son.  Or afternoon now, I suppose," he said.

"Good morning Horrie!" Agatha said.  "I mean, um, Dad..."

My father laughed, bowing to her.  "You will be good for the family.  The lively people always are.  You remind me of my niece, Nera."

"I'll look forward to meeting her," Aggie said.

"I'm glad to see you, father," I said.  "Have you been here the whole time I was our?"

"Yes.  I stayed to keep an eye on you.  Your mother would have as well, but she and your sister had...well, to deal with the Hauden remnant."

"I see.  Have you...been alright here?"

"I should hope so; I have a hundred guards and Mercurial with me.  I like this Inn.  Your new wife is a gracious host.  Her clientele are...amusing.  They have a song about me being a wizard or some such."

My father put a hand to my shoulder.  "I'm glad you are feeling better.  Your mother and sister are relieved, too.  You...have to forgive us, son," he said.  "We only wanted what was best..."

"I know," I said.  "And thank you."

"Why thank me?"

"For helping Aggie.  For keeping her alive."

He raised an eyebrow.  "How would I manage that?"

"I saw you speaking during the fight.  When you stopped, the lightning struck."

My father smiled.  "A coincidence, surely.  What power could a mere man have over lightning?"

"So then the Skyfather punished her?"

"I guess so," he said.  He yawned.  "I'm very tired lately.  I've been up late, reading, and I am still not welcome in this city for long.  I should retire back to Auberge.  But before I left, I did want to make sure I dropped off something that Agatha had loaned me."

He picked up the package from the table and held it out.

Agatha smiled.  "You can keep it, you know."

He shook his head.  "That would be most unwise, for many reasons.  Best I not hang on to that particular item.  I know where it is if we need it.  It will be here or in Derceto."

He handed me the package, opened, and I saw a book inside.

"Do you...want to live in Derceto?" I asked Agatha.

She smiled.  "Live in a mansion?  Who wouldn't?!  I've got my bartenders to run my place while we're out of town.  And I'm sure there's a steward or something who can run the mansion for us while we stay here."

"There is," my father said.  "You shall have much help.  We...should like you both to eat with us tonight.  Stay with us at Auberge."

Aggie smiled.  "Sounds good to me. What do you think?" She asked me.

"I'm good with it.  Will you and...my mother and Molly..."

"It's all good," Aggie said.  "We hashed it all out."

I hugged my father and sent him on his way.  Mercurial and half of the guards left; the rest were assigned to protect me, and they seemed quite comfortable with Agatha giving them commands.

I looked down at the package.  "What is this, anyway?"

"Best to say where nobody can hear," Agatha said.  "Let's go to our room."

As she shut the door, Aggie looked about, then spoke.

"Your father came here to help me the day after I made the challenge.  He meant to give me a poison or something I guess, but I told him about grandpa Abner, and how grandma -she was a succubus- grandma had named him for his father Abner, but grandpa changed his last name to Darry because of great-grandpa."

"Abner Darry..." I said.  It hit me.  The name was never far from mention in my household growing up, or on the lips of men when they spoke of my father.  "Abner Daltry...you are his descendant."

"Your father had the same reaction.  Great-grandpa taught my great-grandma the runes for comfort, and a few others.  Came in handy to keep my Pommes from being stolen.  Before he left, he left behind that as well..."

She pointed to the package in my hand.

I took the book out of the wrapping and thumbed through the pages.  My hands shook.  Runes, magic, spirits, dimensions...

"This is his spellbook," I said.  "In his own hand.  His diary alludes to it, but...this...this is the most powerful book of all time."

"I showed it to your father," she said.  "He poured through it, and said the lightning spell would be perfect, but he needed to practice it..."

I swallowed, slowly shutting the book.  "I'd say he did a good job."

"Yes, he told me how it would work, how much time he needed.  I just needed to keep from being a pin cushion before he finished casting.  And keep a good distance away from the lightning."

"My father...this book...did he read anything else?"

"He was very careful not to," Agatha said.  "Grandpa always said don't go to the book too much.  Don't read it cover to cover.  I do have to, um, make a confession..." she said, she twisted her foot on her floorboard.  "You see, I saw you in a stagecoach one time, and I wanted to see you, and great-grandma taught grandpa how to make a love incantation..."

"You made me fall in love with you?" I asked.

"No, no, no, no...I summoned you.  Got you to come back.  I was pretty surprised when it worked, but I guess in someone like your Dad's hands it does even better."

I gave her a big hug and picked her up off the ground.  She trilled in my hands.

"You did good enough, I think."

We kissed again.

We prepared to leave for Auberge when we had an unexpected visitor.  Duke Loudon entered, flanked by two gray-uniformed guards.  My own guards stood fast, but I noted hands resting on belts near pistols.  The two armies had fought alongside each other, but still the tension remained between them.

I bowed.  "Duke Loudon, you honor us," I said.

"Auberge.  You look to have recovered," Loudon said.  He bowed.  "Lady Auberge.  The whole city has decided you are a hero.  The noblewomen are trying to buy up all the Pommes they can."

Aggie blushed, and red shone through her green skin.  "Y-you honor me, m'lord," she said sheepishly.   "Can we get offer you a drink?  I have some good man-scotch..."

Loudon smiled.  He seemed genuinely amused.  "Man-scotch...that sounds fine."

She went behind the counter and poured rocks glasses.

The drink was still strong, and I suppressed a cough.  I suspected Aggie's 'man scotch' was Oni draught that was watered down, and not quite sufficiently.

Hauden did not grimace from the sip, either he was hiding it or immune to it.

"So what brings you to see us?"

"I wanted to check up on you, on things," he said.  "Off to Auberge?"

I nodded.  "A celebration, I suppose."

"Indeed, and well-earned.  I just need to tie up loose ends first," Loudon said.

"Loose ends?  The Haudens?" I asked.

"The Viceroy and Octavia Hauden were both killed during the fighting.    Hauden manor was burned down, ostensibly by a mob, although I suspect your mother paid for it.  The rest of the family- two of Octavia's sisters and their kin- have fled."

"To the Far Islands?"

"No, to deTerre, though that will not be as safe as they think...your mother dispatched the Banehollows there."  Loudon idly took a piece of lint from his jacket.

"As for the Far Islands...that damned Sphinx has half the islands already.  I'm sure once the news reaches it will be worse.  The Viceroy was a moron, but he did know how to keep those savages in line.  His deputy is doing his best, but we have lost much of our strength.  The local Sphinxes respected Hauden, God knows why.  His deputy has many friends among them, but he has little respect - he is single, you see.  The Sphinxes do not respect him because he has no mate.  A union through marriage is our only way forward there.  But that need not concern you.  What I need to resolve is the matter of the Skyfather's intervention.  There are those who suspect sorcery."

Aggie's hands shook, rattling her cup.  I took her hand in mine and clasped it to stop it shaking.

I cleared my throat.  "Hauden claimed sorcery, but he is dead."

Loudon's eye fixed on Aggie's hand.

"Yes, but...there are others who need convincing," he said.

"It is hard to believe that anyone could conjure lightning," I said.

"I have never underestimated your father.  My family did that once," Loudon said.

"My father is a formidable man, but he is not-"

"Speak plain with me, Auberge; your father used legitimate magic, of a kind not seen since Daltry himself came to us," Duke Loudon said forcefully.  He motioned at Agatha, who flinched.  "I looked up your new wife's pedigree.  She is his descendant.  My men saw him carrying a package to her Inn, which he did not leave with."

"Your men were following him?"

"Every step he takes in my city," Loudon snarled.  "It is no wonder where your father's powers came from:  Daltry's missing spell book is with his descendants, and it is here, now."

Agatha blinked rapidly and looked at me.

"My father does not want the book.  He fears it," I said at last.  "You must stop thinking of him as some monster.  You shouldn't hate him."

"You think I hate him because he is a monster?" Loudon asked.  "Quite the opposite; I hate him because...my son was the one..." he stopped and clenched his teeth.

"Leaving him aside, what can the book do?" Loudon pressed.  "What is it capable of?"

"Not even my father knows."

"He's afraid to use it,m'lord," Agatha added.  "The book is dangerous.  Grandpa marked the pages we could look at."

"And was the lightning spell on one of these pages?"

Agatha shook her head.

"My father is a wise man," I said.  "He would not use it unless the need was absolute."

"He would use it for his spider, I know that, as he used it for the two of you.  And if Jewel should desire to be Duchess of Loudon, as she always has, what will he do?" He said.  "The book must be surrendered to the crown.  That is why I am here."

"So you can have it?" I shot back.

"I want no part of it," Loudon said.  "This magic business is wild and unpredictable.  It worked to your benefit here but it very well might not next time.  My scholars say the book can open portals to other realms, created beings of incalculable power.  Who is to say you can control it?  Our alliance is built upon a balance of power.  This book changes everything."

"Our alliance is built upon Deena," I answered.  "And Antonio.  My mother would never harm the family of her son-in-law, or her niece's husband."

Loudon inhaled deeply for a moment, considering what I said.  "Houses allied by marriage have gone to war before.  If we are allies, why not relinquish the book to the Crown?"

"Because it is Agatha's book," I responded.  "Her family's.  She uses it for her Inn.  Her family have used it for generations without incident.  It seems to me that that is the best place for it."

"I'm going to save us all a lot of trouble," Agatha said.  She pulled the book out from behind the bar, and swiftly she raced to the fireplace and tossed onto the dancing tongue of light.  The flames roared for a moment as the book seemed to burst into fire from within.

Loudon and I stared at Agatha, wide-eyed.

"It's better this way," she continued.  "Remember what I said, when you told me what happened to Magus?  That book would destroy us all as surely as the Kroy kid would have.  Do either of you think it's worth it?"

"But the knowledge..." I began.

 "I know what I need," she said.  "Runes for comfort and protection."

 "I have always considered goblins to be wise," Loudon said.  "Perhaps the old laws against your people should be reviewed, if we could ever convince the fluffy tails to relent."

Aggie rolled her eyes.  "Danuki are just jealous because we can do math better."

Loudon laughed.  He took a deep gulp of the scotch.  "That statement would definitely start a war, I think."

Loudon left, and we made our plans to depart.

She came up to me, rubbing her arms as she looked at the fire.

"You're not mad, are you?"

"Of course not," I said.  "You made the right choice.  Are you okay with it?"

She nodded.  "I meant what I said.  We need peace, peace more than anything else right now.  Peace to have babies and rebuild."

I laughed.  "Babies?  So soon?"

"Goblins are pretty fertile, cutie," she said.  "I hope you're prepared."

"Me too.  I think I'll adapt."

The carriage came from Auberge to carry us, and our guard mounted up on their horses.

"Oh!"  Aggie said, running into the house.  "I have to do this!"  She came back out with a note on thick paper, a hammer, and a nail.

I read in the flickering light of the Pomme:

"Agatha Derceto (nee Darry) has claimed Titus Derceto as her husband by forceful consummation in accord with the old way.  They are married by public declaration."

"There," she said, beaming.  "It's official."

We kissed, and she rested her head on my shoulder.   We climbed into the carriage.  As we took off down the street, the city was lined with Pommes, rainbows of colors floating in the dark.  Loudon was right; the city had taken to them, and quickly.  Agatha cooed.

"It looks so beautiful," she said.  "I always knew it would."

"I know one thing," I began.  "I won't ever doubt you again.  Mrs Auberge."

"Don't you mean Derceto?" She asked.

"Heh.  I suppose it will be Derceto, won't it?  I will never doubt you again."

She smiled.  "Goblins don't want much, but what we want, we always get.  It doesn't matter how ferocious the manticore, pretty the succubus, or wealthy the danuki.  We always win.  I love you," she said.

"I love you too," I responded.

I put my lips to hers, and she cuddled up against me, and together dozed off to the rattling of the carriage in the cobblestones.