The Slayer (Completed Book!)

Chapter 24 - Lord Vaunder (1st Pass)

**********Reader's Warning**********

Well, as some of you might have guessed this coming, some sexual content is writen in this chapter. Not going for an X rated thing, just enough to get your blood pumping.

ryc

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Back to: "Chapter 23 - Casenda (1st Pass)" 



John slowly awoke to the smell of Mia’s flowery soap. He kept his eyes closed as he listened to her steady breathing. She stirred in his arms as if she knew he was up. Wrapping her arm around his chest leisurely, she rubbed her cheek against his chest as she settled down contently into him. He became acutely aware of their naked bodies pressed together.

“You can’t fool me,” she murmured sleepily to him.

“Hmm?”

“You are awake.”

“No I’m not,” he replied just as drowsily as she had.

A sound similar to a cat came out of her. “You call that a yawn?”

John received a playful jab to his ribs before he too yawned. Nice and loud.

He finally opened his eyes and found her starring up at him.

“Morning,” she said with a smile.

“Hmm.”

“You look content.” She pulled herself even closer to him. His eyes went to her lips when he realized what she was doing.

What he had thought and said the other night went out the door when her lips brushed his. He knew if he said no, his body would betray him. So, like any guy in his position--in bed with a beautiful, very naked woman--he returned the kiss.

Her left hand raked into his chest enough to bring just the right kind of pain to entice pleasure. She was a passionate woman.

Slowly he broke the kiss just as her tongue started to find his. Breathing a little more heavily, John gasped, “You’re persistent. I’ll give you that.”

It was about that time that he felt her hand grip one of his appendages that hadn’t been touched in a very, very, very long time. She gave him a devious smile as she leaned in for another kiss, her slow tantalizing motions casting him into a red haze. Just as her tongue started that long trek into oblivion, a knock came from their door.

John didn’t know whether to cry in agony or in relieve when Mia stopped her ministrations.

“My Lord, forgive me but we need to leave soon if we are going to make it by noon.” Weryn said from behind the door.

If anyone was listening in on them, it was the norm for the Lord to be addressed instead of the Lady.

Mia made a soft growl from the back of her throat as she glared at the door. Weryn, who must have heard it, retreated from the door quickly.

John hadn’t wanted his relationship to go as far as Mia had just taken it. If Weryn hadn’t shown up, he knew exactly how far it would have gone--and he didn’t know if he was prepared for that. Regrettably, he admitted to himself that it had been a bad idea to sleep in the same bed with her. He knew next time he would have to swallow his pride and sleep on the damn floor.

Mia, who must have learned a thing or two about how John’s brain worked, pushed an accusing finger into his chest hard enough to make him grunt. “Don’t you think about it.”

“What?”

“You were regretting.”

He didn’t dignify the question with an answer.

“Fine, keep ignoring me.” She threw back the warm covers and stalked across the freezing cold room to their things. Quickly, she grabbed one of her bags and stalked loudly to the bathroom. John sighed heavily before he pulled the covers away and started to walk toward the bags. He quickly picked up the pace when he realized the floor was as cold as ice against his bare feet. Grabbing his bags he practically sprinted to the bathroom where Mia was already dipping into a steaming copper tub. Arching an eyebrow at him, he realized he would have to wait his turn. The woman was insufferable when she wanted to be.

After his bath, Mia tossed him one of his finer set of clothes. “You will be meeting High Lord Vaunder and, since we can’t use Nina’s title to get in, you will be acting as a noble from Ce’l.” She made it clear he was acting as one and not really one. “Unfortunately, I’m going to have to play as your Maiden if he is going to take you seriously.” It wasn’t exactly a sneer… not exactly. Hey, he was optimistic.

John knew from his readings that Caprians took status the most seriously out of all the northern lands. It told him just how pissed off she was with him if she didn’t consider him a Lord.

I really shouldn’t have kissed her.

Yeah, he was an idiot. He didn’t know why he was holding back. Learning she had only been playing at being a slave should have made it all okay in his head to court her—or marry her from what she was suggesting, if not demanding. Sex was just as binding as saying ‘I do’ in the northern lands.

Unless if they were a slave.

He really didn’t get northern customs.

“I’m sorry I inconvenience you,” he said a little bit too coldly. If it had been too hard, she didn’t show it. Opening the door, she stalked out. Weryn made like wall art as she plowed passed him. Nina glared at him as if it was automatically all his fault before she chased after Mia. He expected the same from Weryn but the man only shrugged and followed in his Lady’s footsteps.

I guess men do have to stick together.



It took the group five quite hours to cover the distance to the Vaunder’s Estates. They would have made it in better time but they were impaired by the freshly fallen, ankle deep snow. When they topped the last tree topped hill, the group as a whole stopped at the sight.

The Vaunder’s Estates looked like something out of a fairy tale. An enormous castle-like structure, white as the snow that surrounded it, spanned the entire hill in front of them. Walls as high as ten men sheltered the city and towers twice as tall as the walls themselves loomed upward at every hundred spans along the wall. The surrounding forest around the castle had been cleared out for a good league in every direction, and frostbitten crops were found in its place. The road they were on winded down their hill, through the farm land, and straight into a twenty span high gate that looked heavy enough to withstand anything the Empire’s Builder’s Guild could throw at it, burning tar included. Using the slope of the hill, the main castle was built up higher than the wall where graceful arches, flying buttresses, and towering spirals dazzled the eyes. It was a sight that made the Empress’s Palace look like a doll house.

“By the Gods,” John whispered.

“Home,” Nina said with pride.

Mia handed Weryn a letter and, after having a private mindlink conversation, he took off at a gallop.

John looked at her expectantly but she ignored him. Instead she turned to Nina. “You will have to hide until we get inside. If we can get you to the Mezzanine, will it be safe?”

Nina nodded absently. “Yes, it should be. You have visited here before?”

As Mia turned back toward the fleeting figure of Weryn, her smile faded as her eyes passed over Johns. “Long ago.”

It hadn’t occurred to John that his slave could be well older than the twenty-five he thought she was.

John handed Nina his cloak and she gratefully accepted it. Tying it on, she pulled up the hood to hide her features. Since the cloak was a little large on John, it consumed Nina as if she were a child. Both Will and Akara stripped their cloaks and overcoats off to reveal Ce’lian livery.

“Where in the hell did you get those?” John demanded. Will frowned at him as if he were the child, while Akara only grinned.

“General Briar,” Mia said as she strode past him. The anger in her had been slowly giving out during their journey to the Vaunder Estates, but it hadn’t completely died out.

Leave it to the General to think up of everything.

As they rode down the hill and across the country side, John nudged Ronin closer to Mia’s large mare. When she didn’t pull away, he said, “I’m sorry. For earlier.”

He’d come to the conclusion that even if he was in the right, he should apologize. John vaguely remembered Rand advising one of their Squad Leaders that the woman was always right, no matter what kind of drugs she was on. The memory of Rand sent a pain through him. He didn’t feel like meeting his friend after so long--he didn’t think Rand would see him as the same person. John knew he didn’t think of himself as the same man.

She stubbornly looked straight ahead for a full minute until her eyes softened and the corner of her mouth curved upward. “I was wondering how long it would take you.”

“I’m mule headed,” he agreed. Well I’ll be a goat’s testicle. Rand was right.

She playfully pumped into him and he grinned at her. The farms had long been abandoned since fall and only John and his companions were on the road. Because of this, they were immediately met at the gate by a squad of guards. Mia let her mare fall back half a pace behind him and all of John’s teachings of northern culture came to him like a river’s torrent.

Don’t bow first unless you are the lesser. If you wish to shake hands, they must be your equal and it must be done with the right hand. A man’s lady shouldn’t be addressed to until he introduces her. Never drink first unless you are the host. Always let the host lead the conversation. Never look at someone’s eyes unless they are your equal. Stand upon the host’s entrance if you are--

The compilation of memories from Celia and Nina’s teachings halted the moment he stopped in front of the squad. At once John noticed the stripes of a Captain. It was a good sign. A squad so small was normally managed by a Squad Leader. It meant they knew who he was.

“Lord John, House of Ce’l. On behalf of High Lord Vaunder, House of Alwin, we welcome you to the Estates and ask to be your Host.”

John kept his eyes on the man’s forehead. “House of Ce’l accepts your offer.”

The man bowed deeply, fist to heart. Turning on his heels, he barked a sharp order and the squad took up an honor guard. John looked up the winding road that led up to the castle and saw Weryn looking back down from a retaining wall. He must have been a quarter of a league up but John could see him as clearly as if he were only a span away.

From Sergeant to a bloody Major blueblood. Who am I kidding? I can’t pull this off.

The sudden doubts ate at him as they winded their way through the crowded streets, up the hill and toward the looming castle.

Almost an hour later, they reached the end of the road where the slope flattened out to a massive gate. Weryn silently took his place behind Nina as the party made its way through. Looking back, John was rewarded with a panoramic view of the farmlands and surrounding countryside. Tree tops covered in glistening snow could be seen as far as his eye could see, and that was pretty damn far for John.

He suppressed his awe when he heard foot steps beyond the two massive doors to the castle. Dismounting, he turned to watch the doors open without a sound. It was a wonder to John that the hinges could do such a thing in the cold.

A rail thin man, who reminded John of Slayer Reed, came forward and announced to the small courtyard, “I present to you, High Lord Vaunder, House of Alwin.”

Out from the shadows of the castle, a man in a brown, green and gold robe strode out. He was a little larger than John but not by much. In the late forties, the man had the air of a king. Black hair hung loosely down to his shoulders and a crown sat atop his two azure colored eyes. Confidence and power exuded from the man. John felt small compared to him, much like the way Briar sometimes made him feel.

In much the same way John had sized him up, he felt Vaunder do the same to him. What the man had concluded, he did not know.

“I must say, when your man came to me, I was a bit skeptical. I did not know the Empire paid visits this far north, let alone have men who aren’t Ce’lian.”

To the point. Nina must have gotten it from her mother then.

He held out his hand and John accepted it.

“Only when you can drag us out from the warmth of our homes,” John replied in the same casual tone, ignoring the question concerning his company.

Lord Vaunder glanced down at John’s callused hand before smiling politely. Releasing his hand, the Lord clapped twice and a swarm of white robed slaves streamed out to take the animals and their bags. Following the Lord in, John stopped just within the entrance.

“What are you doing?” Mia’s voice came to him like a whisper.

Turning to a table, John started to remove his weapons. Lord Vaunder stopped upon sensing John wasn’t behind him and turned to watch him curiously.

As John pulled yet another dart knife from the folds within his coat, he said, “In my land, it is a sign of trust when a man lays down his weapons upon entering another’s hold.”

Lord Vaunder took in the small army surplus that John had pulled off himself and smiled. “I can see why.”

He is nervous. Well better him then me.

Weryn did the same but, to John’s instructions, no one else did.

Lord Vaunder led them down the main hall to a large comfortable room that was built on a large mezzanine. An enormous fireplace took up half the wall while back-breaking-looking chairs lined the other walls. Thankfully, two sofas were placed in the very center where both of the Lords took their place.

When Vaunder didn’t say anything, John waited him out patiently, as if taking in the new room. Finally the man broke the silence, almost nervously, “So what marks this occasion?”

During the brief silence, John had taken the time to hear for any eavesdroppers. To his surprise, he did find four beating hearts nearby. When he looked in the direction of the four, Lord Vaunder turned to look as well. Although John knew the man couldn’t hear the heartbeats, the man bellowed, “Boys, what are you doing there?”

Four young men ranging from late teens to late twenties stumbled out from their hiding spot. “I told you he would know,” said the youngest of them all.

“My apologizes,” Lord Vaunder said with a sigh. “Winter doesn’t suit them.”

John felt a swell of warmth from Nina through the mindlink the moment the four men tumbled unceremoniously into the room. Having been caught, the young men grinned boyishly. He could see a little bit of Nina in all of them.

Thinking of her, he knew she was itching to throw her hood back. Clearing his throat politely, he said, “I’m probably not the best person to be explaining the situation.”

Lord Vaunder’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at John. It was when John nodded toward Nina did the Lord turned to her. She pulled down her hood and smiled nervously.

Slowly Lord Vaunder’s eyes changed from suspicion, to recognition, to surprise. “Nina?”

The four boys gaped at her for a long heartbeat before crying out her name. She laughed as they tackled her with bear hugs and a thousand questions. John smiled at the display of affection but turned a worried frown at Lord Vaunder’s silence. He appeared to be conflicted with emotion and Cedrick’s rough explanation of the situation came to his mind.

“I’m the one that asked for her help,” John said quietly as the two men watched the brothers smother their sister. “She wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t asked.”

Lord Vaunder turned from the dog pile to John, and then he smiled. As if it was enough to justify everything in his mind.

Strange people.

“Nina. Come with me.” Lord Vaunder said thickly as he turned to walk down the main hallway, away from them. The boys paused at the teasing and eyed their father nervously. Like a Queen, Nina raised her head high and followed her father.

“I don’t think she is the same woman when she last left this place.” Mia said over the mindlink.

“Aye.” John didn’t know how to extend his emotions over the mindlink but if he could, it would have surly been pride.

John watched the boys, who could have been his own brothers, watch their sister leave. Unexpectedly, he recalled how he couldn’t have his own children. He sat down quietly and pondered on just how much he had changed over the past two moons. Before Tekal, he hadn’t thought twice about having kids of his own.

Mia sat down next to him and, once again, amazed him at her ability to read his thoughts. “You know, Hunters were never poisoned. We can have children.”

The ‘we’ part startled him a bit more than knowing she was right.

Blushing--yeah, he hadn’t imagined it--she said, “That is--I. I don’t mind sharing you with Celia if that’s the reason why you are holding back.” 

John blinked…. And then blinked again.

“But I will not allow you to take on a Roof Mistress.” She said it fiercely and as if everything was perfectly normally with the conversation they were having.

Did she just… But…No. No way. She…

I think she did.

Shit.

But a good shit. I mean… right?

You’re the devil. You tell me.

Lost to his own conversation with another part of him, he didn’t notice Mia holding back her laughter.

She has to be joking… Surely…

The boys all suddenly bombarded Weryn and John’s ‘servants’ with questions about their sister. Some invisible line had been crossed when it was known that they were friends of their sister. The oldest of them walked over to John and sat down beside him. Unlike his father, the man wasn’t as confident.

Oblivious to Mia and John’s private conversation he asked, “So, how do you know my sis?”

John stopped looking at Mia and turned to the man who could have easily been his age, or even older. Staring at him blankly, still dazed about what Mia had suggested, he tried to recall what the man had asked him.

The man interpreted John’s silence differently and immediately looked uncertain. “I apologize, Lord John. That was rude of me.” The man immediately started looking everywhere but at John.

Blinking dumbly at the man, John said, “Rude?”

Mia elbowed him in the ribs and he growled at her. Finding something to latch onto, he said, “Forgive my slave, she thinks she knows everything.”

The nervous man suddenly took on a look of wonder. Mia was dressed like a Queen and looked nothing like a slave.

“Slave?”

“Long story. Ahh, as for your question, I know your sister from Tekal. We’ve become friends you might say.”

Mia sniffed loudly. “If you call beating her with swords friendship, Master, I’ll never take your House.”

“What’s you name?” John asked the gaping man, ignoring Mia’s jibes.

“Uh--Tomas Alwin.”

“Tomas Alwin,” he said the name to himself aloud. He really was horrible with names. “Call me John. And this lovely woman is Mia-- what is your House?”

She rolled her eyes. “Dayton.”

“So you are Priscilla’s sister! I thought you two looked alike.”

“No, no, no,” she said in a lecturing tone. “High Dayton. She is Low.”

“There is a difference?”

Tomas sat goggle eyed at the two.

“Of course. High Dayton is the purest line of Dayton. During the War of the Thrones, our family was exiled and only the lesser families of Dayton were allowed to continue living.”

“Your slave is in the bloody High Dayton House?” Tomas asked in a burst of incredulity--just before looking surprised at his own outburst.

“My father was King Beckler of House Dayton,” Mia said in amusement. Turning to John, she said in a more serious note, “You will have to meet him if you ever start thinking straight.”

“And before we can do certain things.”

He should have been shocked. Hell, he wanted to be shocked, but it never came.

“You have any more surprises you want to tell me?” John asked with a sigh--more out of exasperation than anything.

She looked up as if to think on it. “Nope. Well, maybe one thing. But I’ll hold on to that one for a later time.”

John rubbed his head. “You should have killed me long ago and saved me the trouble.”

“Oh, but then that wouldn’t be fun.”

She smiled at him and he returned it. Like his relationship with Nina, he was relaxed around Mia. But there was more than just friendship. John was starting to re-evaluate his no-marriage policy, which scared him.

Lord Vaunder and Nina walked in just when the other three boys were walking over to join their older brother. They had started quite a commotion.

“Boys, why don’t you all go help your sister settle in.”

Tomas looked at John as if he was missing an opportunity. Smiling, John held out his hand. Tomas reached for it uncertainly but, as he began to shake his hand, he gained more confidence. “I’d be honor to meet you again,” he said politely.

“The honor is all mine Lord John,” Tomas replied with restrain.

Just like Dylon. A kid at heart.

Weryn nodded approvingly in John’s direction and, of all things, saluted him. John played Lord and nodded at him. Everyone filed out of the room and he heard just as they rounded the corner Waylon’s name.

He will never know what hit him.

“Lord Vaunder, I’d like you to meet my Maiden. Lady Mia, House of Dayton.” John said as they stood up. He didn’t know if he had to say ‘High Dayton’ but, from the little he had gathered, it was probably not best to mention it. Calling her his Maiden felt surprisingly comfortable. Like a new pair of boots that he knew he could get used to using every day for the rest of his life.

For the rest of my life? Oh John. You have truly fallen.

Lord Vaunder gave her a courtly bow, “You have a beautiful Maiden, Lord John.”

“Please, call me John.” While he had to play Lord, he didn’t have to play by the rules. Lord Vaunder nodded as if to say he should say that he should do the same as well. Mia frowned at him but it was so slight he thought his mind had played a trick on him--and then he remembered who he was with.

Lord Vaunder’s ‘compliment’ irritated him but he couldn’t let that rule his judgment. John kept reminding himself that he was in another people’s land and women were considered trophies, more times than not.

“Relax my love. His perception of me will be his downfall.”

Her unnatural ability to read his thoughts almost irritated him more than the Lord’s comment.

“My daughter has spoken very highly of you.” Vaunder said as he started to walk in the opposite direction from everyone else.

“I can promise you the feeling is mutual. You’ve raised a fine woman.” John followed him down the corridor, Mia trailing behind him.

“I suppose.”

Insufferable people. Aloud, John said, “Has she explained to you why we are here?”

“That Tekal is planning on a massive ambush?”

“And that there is a traitor.”

“Aye, she has said as much. She also claims that I should trust you impeccably.”

John felt he had to defend himself but he chose restraint. “It could be said that I am already trusting you impeccably. We still don’t know who the traitor is.”

Vaunder nodded as if to accept the parry. It was a sword fight between the two but with words.

“This is true, but then, you could be the traitor trying to use me and my daughter for the Empire’s advantage.”

John hadn’t thought of it that way, but he could see how the man could think it. “Aye, this could be true, but then she wouldn’t be your daughter. Would she?”

The Lord paused in the hallway, a ghost of a smile crossing his face. “She was right. You are very good at what you do.”

“And what’s that?”

“War.”

“’Politics is the only war that you can die a thousand times over’,” John quoted.

“You know I have every known nobleman in the Empire memorized. You aren’t one of them. By your hands I mark you as a swordsman and by those pins you so strategically placed on yourself, you are a Major. Who are you?”

“Just a grateful friend to the Lady Tyrn who is trying to return a favor.”

Vaunder’s eyes narrowed on his. “Do you trust her?”

“No.” John said it without pausing. The man was testing him.

“You don’t lie do you?”

John gave him a toothy grin. “I’m indeed a horrible liar and thus a horrible politician. I can only tell you what I think. And what I think is that every land is endangered come two days from now. My only request is that you keep your guard up, watch for anything suspicious, and warn anyone else who you wish to be on alert. When the time comes, I hope that you will be on the side you deem right.”

“For someone who claims to be a horrible politician, you are a pretty damn good one.”

John laughed heartily and Vaunder joined in.

Nodding, Vaunder said, “Aye, you seem like an honest man. You will have the backing of Ghourd come two days. I will make sure of it.” His eyes suddenly took on a curious sheen. “What does that woman have planned?”

John didn’t know if it was something he gave away or just a hunch the man had, but he had smelled it. “Why do you ask?”

“The papers your man handed me were legal papers stating you are in fact John Ce’l and the ink looks like it was just pinned. A new nobleman. You look like a man of war so I’d pin you as a Vanguard. The only reason Tyrn would choose a new man, who didn’t give a flying dung about politics, is for the support from the people that admire you, the people. Which only leaves one thing. Something is on the horizon. Change?”

John bowed his head in defeat. “You are a true General Lord Vaunder. Indeed. Change.”

Frowning, Vaunder shook his head. John knew the man had figured out the trade embargo--and all from a sheet of paper. And then his face brightened. “Do you play Stones? Nothing beats a good game of Stones to get the mind off of things.”

John couldn’t help but smile.



That night, John let his body sink into one of the many chairs that dotted his overly extravagant room. After playing Stones with Vaunder, he talked with Tomas for hours along with the rest of the boys about Tekal. Both John and Nina had played off each other when they recalled the few stories they had of pranks and gossip. He felt at home, in a way, but he had also felt like the intruder. Not belonging.

Mia walked over to him and started massaging his shoulders. “I have sent out a request for more of our people to the Summit. I don’t know how many people can make it with such a short notice.”

“Hmm.”

She paused in her menstruations before saying, “I’m proud of you, Master.”

“Please. Call me John,” he sighed automatically. And then the meaning of the words sank in. “Why?”

“For getting Lord Victor to agree and for gaining their trust.”

John shrugged uncomfortably at the compliment. “Anyone with half a sense could have done it.”

He felt her hands leave his shoulders and watched her walk to their nightstand, all the while saying, “Why do you insist that anyone can do what you do? I know few who could do what you have done in the past 24 hours.” She pulled her hairpins out and her long curly red hair bounced free. Pulling her hair off to one shoulder, she looked at him from the other.

John stopped breathing when he saw the predatory ‘do-me’ look she gave him. His eyes took in the black dress she wore, how it cut low to the small of her back and exposed a large amount of skin. Shrugging her shoulders, he watched her straps fall to her elbows. Turning slowly, the dress gave away to her breasts and taut stomach. John’s eyes followed the dress’s cascade until it landed at her feet, her body completely turned to him.

She took a slow deliberate step out of the pool of thin cloth and his eyes started to ravish her body. Slowly his robe tented and the feeling of constraint took over as she advanced toward him.

“Oh boy…”

The corners of her lips curved upwards in a wicked smile.


"Chapter 25 - Thirteen (1st Pass)"