Chapter 16
When Maria arrived in the morning, it was by horseback rather than carriage. Rys had asked her to leave Barul behind, so she brought two other guards. They wore guard uniforms of Anceston and had horns protruded through their helmets.
Maria dismounted at the entrance of the manor, waving off the guards who tried to help her. She wore riding clothes, with her only nod to fashion being a frilly skirt. Uncapping her helmet and pulling it over her horns, she gave Rys a bright smile.
“Lord Talarys, what a surprise to stumble into you on my morning ride,” she chirped, blatantly lying.
The guards looked to either side, their expressions stony.
“Grigor, why don’t you join Lady Maria’s guards in one of the break rooms?” Rys suggested.
Grigor nodded and led the guards away, who tried not to stare at his bulk too much. He had covered his chest this time at least.
“I take it that we’re going to discuss final terms?” Maria said as they entered the manor.
Rys led her directly to his study. A plate of pastries sat on the table, along with a carafe of water and some leaf teas. Nobody else was present, as Rys wanted to discuss matters with Maria in private.
Picking at the refreshments, Maria smiled. “I recognize all of this. These are my favorites.” She held up a danish. “They’re even freshly baked, aren’t they? Did you send somebody to my favorite bakery first thing this morning? I’m surprised you found out about the leaf tea, as I buy it so rarely through Tarmouth.”
Rys settled in on his sofa and stretched out his arms. “I figured a demonstration of my intelligence assets would help.”
Maria gave him a sidelong look as she nibbled on a danish. “I see.”
He allowed her to putter about for a few minutes to make her tea and put together a small tower of pastries. Afterward, she pulled up a chair opposite him.
“You move swiftly, Lord Talarys,” Maria said, a smile plastered on her face.
“This is fairly important. I wanted to give it my full attention,” he lied. “Last time we met, you said you wanted to solidify your rule over the territory and we’d share the results. I have an alternate proposal.”
Maria’s smile didn’t shift and she stared at him.
“Any split of power needs to be honest about what we each bring to the table,” Rys said, undeterred by her behavior. “You came to me. I’d say that’s for good reason. Compagnon are a merchant league with effectively infinite wealth compared to you. But I have military assets that cannot be bought, intelligence capabilities, my own merchants, and more magical ability than you know.”
“I can imagine your magical ability,” Maria said. “Mansions don’t appear overnight through normal means.”
Rys inclined his head. Fair point.
He noted that she hadn’t responded to his point, however. Her smile remained firmly in place.
“By contrast, you’re the Lord-Mayor. You might have political influence, but everything else could be taken by force. Compagnon proves that,” Rys said. Maria’s smile flickered, but only briefly. “That influence and your connections do make you valuable. But they also come with baggage, such as—”
“The Kinadain,” Maria interrupted. “The tensions with them are strong and have worsened since Compagnon arrived. I looked into what you mentioned. Fortunately, the Kinadain have promised to help against Compagnon.”
“Have they now?” Rys asked.
Maria hesitated, but pushed ahead, “The elders promised Barul they would send additional warriors to free the villagers around Anceston. That will reduce the amount of work you need to do.”
“That’s it?” Rys said. He sighed, then plucked a pink crystal from his pocket.
The crystal shimmered in the light from the windows as he placed it on a coffee table between them. With a tap of his finger, Rys activated it. The crystal played the audio recording stored within it.
Several voices filtered out into the study. They spoke for close to fifteen minutes. Rys stood up and walked over to his desk while they did, allowing Maria to stare in shock at the crystal. Within his desk was a sheaf of papers—the transcription of the recording that Tyrisa had produced.
The recording stopped. Rys dropped the transcript on Maria’s lap and she jumped a foot in the air with a squeal.
“That’s a transcript of the recording,” he said.
“But…” Maria licked her lips. “That was the liaison for the largest dain in the region. Why is he speaking with that Compagnon bitch?”
“Because they’re colluding with them to control the artifact market here,” Rys said. “The Kinadain have a monopoly on collecting artifacts, but that’s only in this part of the archipelago. The artifact market is larger than this slice of Kavolara, so they can’t mess with prices much. But if you control both ends of a supply chain, you can squeeze the middle like a sausage.”
Rys did a charade of him pressing together an invisible sausage from both ends. “The Kinadain only sell their artifacts to merchants who sell to Compagnon. Compagnon then buy at rock-bottom prices from those merchants and sell the artifacts for massive profit to traders in Tarmouth. This pushes all of the costs onto the ordinary merchants, and those who don’t play along are crushed. The profits are then split between Compagnon and the Kinadain, leaving Anceston and Port Mayfield in ruins.”
Maria stared at him. “You… know a lot about this sort of thing, don’t you?”
Rys shrugged. “It’s more complicated than I expected. I’ll upgrade my assessment of Compagnon’s plan to a nine out of ten. Maybe even a nine and a half. Hard to fuck this one up, save for extreme bad luck.” Like Rys waking up from a 1500 year coma and ruining their plans.
“I had thought…” Maria closed her eyes. “I was so caught up in my family issues that I blamed everything on them. My father felt that everything was tied to the loss of our heritage. I believed him. It seemed so easy to believe. That the Kinadain were reluctant to help because they didn’t trust my family anymore. This is just greed.”
Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. Maria wiped them away, then bunched her skirt up in her fists.
Rys resisted the urge to make a snappy misanthropic remark. This wasn’t the time.
Slowly, Maria regained her composure. “Do you have more?” she asked.
“Several more recordings and transcripts,” he said. “But with less important Kinadain.”
“I’d like them, please.”
“After we finalize this matter.”
She nodded and glared at the transcript in her lap. After several seconds, she refocused herself on Rys.
“I take it you don’t trust the promise that Barul received? Or even Barul?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Barul wanted to kill me the moment he saw me. But I’ll admit that the Kinadain’s attitude toward Compagnon is off. They supposedly hate foreign invaders, so this is out of character for them.”
“It is. If I hadn’t heard that recording…” Maria bit her lip. “Barul dislikes you because this castle is sacred to him. He is a Sword-Slayer, an elite warrior within the Kinadain who holds a special status. He knows things that other Kinadain don’t. When he learned that you had turned this castle into your base, he flew into a rage. I had never seen anything like it.”
Yet she brought him here?
“I think we need to finalize our deal,” Rys said.
Maria nodded, face grim. “You want me to…” she trailed off. “Your captain called your Rys, correct? You want me to be on the bottom of our relationship, Rys? To be the one who begs for aid and assistance from you?”
“That’s not how I’d put it,” he said drily.
“But you want me below you.” Her tone turned sultry. Wasn’t she engaged?
Rys stood up and walked around the table. Maria stared up at him, her eyes widening.
“I don’t need you below me,” he said. “You already are.”
A long pause. Maria’s breathing turned short and rapid, and he felt it on his legs. Her eyes turned downward, focusing on a particular part of him.
Her eyes lidded and she licked her lips. She opened her mouth.
“But now we’re going to formalize that,” Rys said, before she did anything. “You’re going to sign a contract.”
Maria blinked. “Wait, that’s where this is going?” Her voice was a plaintive whine, as she realized she wasn’t getting into his pants just yet.
“It can still go somewhere else if you like, but not until you sign the contract,” he said.
There wasn’t a chance in Hell that he was sticking his dick in Maria before he ensured her loyalty. That was the path to pain and betrayal.
She pouted. “You ruined the mood.”
“I take it you’re not very interested in Barul,” he said as he sat down.
Internally, he contacted Tyrisa using mindspeak. She let him know she’d be over within a few minutes, once she gathered her materials.
Maria rolled her eyes. “It’s hard to be interested in somebody who isn’t interested in you, other than as an idolized statue far above him. If we’re talking contracts, does it include anything about my needs being met? Because I have those, and you’re being rather mean right now.”
“We’re not getting married,” Rys said.
“Not yet,” Maria said cheekily. “But I’m certain that there’ll be an opening shortly, once Barul finds out about this and you need to remove him.”
Ice cold.
“Let’s talk about that in a moment,” he said. “What I want from you is simple: I’m in charge. King, emperor, supreme ruler—I don’t care what you call me. But you run the day-to-day affairs of the region and Anceston. You have the trust of the people here and know how things are run. But I have the army, wealth, and power.”
Maria cocked her head. “I believe I’ve read about that in Gauron. It’s a form of delegated governance. The lower nobles rule provinces or cities, while the king oversees the overarching kingdom and deals with underperforming nobles.”
“If you get it, then it saves me the trouble of explaining,” he said. “In my experience, local rule is always superior to some dumb foreigner trying to force the locals to adhere to a lot of rules and laws they don’t understand. My goal is to keep things peaceful and efficient so I can do other things. I don’t care what they do in their villages and towns so long as they don’t get in my way.”
“What if I disagree with you?” Maria asked. “Now that I know what the Kinadain are up to, I might be able to change things.”
How cute. She thought she had leverage. Rys had the power to conquer Anceston, but he doubted threatening her was necessary.
“Once you sign the contract, you have autonomy so long as I don’t take it away. I doubt that will be necessary,” he said. “As for not signing the contract, you can say no. But then nothing changes. The Kinadain only want you for your demihuman children. Your town kicked out your father because he didn’t have horns. Is that the future you want? To be viewed as a pair of horns by your town, and as a womb by the Kinadain?”
Maria winced. Her face flushed red, and she glared into her lap for several long seconds. Her silver curls blocked Rys’s view of her eyes, so he couldn’t see if she was holding back tears.
The door opened and Tyrisa walked in with a silver tray. It contained paper and writing materials.
“Did I interrupt something?” she asked, looking between Rys and Maria in confusion.
“No,” Maria ground out. “I was simply given a harsh reminder of my situation.”
Perhaps too harsh. Rys made a note to go a little easier on Maria in the future, and probably other people around him. While he had grown up in the shithole that was the Infernal Empire, this world appeared better.
“So, is this like the contract we discussed, or do I need to write up something new?” Tyrisa asked.
“Like we discussed. We’ll make some variations as necessary,” Rys said.
Tyrisa picked up a pile of papers from the top of the tray. The contract was fifteen pages long and full of legalese, clauses, exceptions, and all sorts of extra things.
“I thought this would be a spiritual contract, not an actual contract,” Maria said, bemused as she flicked through the document.
“What kind of idiot uses a spiritual contract for something so important?” he asked.
“I didn’t know there were different types,” Maria said. “So I don’t know why it would be stupid. Please enlighten me.”
“Spiritual contracts magically bind you to the spirit of the contract. Hence the name. The wording isn’t that important, so much as what everybody felt was the intent of the contract. These contracts bind you to the letter of the contract. Go nuts if you find a loophole,” he said.
Naturally, Rys didn’t call it an infernal contract.
Creating this one had been a pain.
Tyrisa had lectured him about all sorts of things. Like how he needed to specify what “poor performance” meant, or else he would have difficulty punishing her. Or the several pages about how to vary the contract variation, so that they could increase or decrease her responsibilities as she aged or Rys’s empire changed.
And, the most important one, which Maria picked up on.
“Are the pages about children necessary?” she asked, cheeks reddening.
“They’re extremely important. Some ensure that the children are bound by the contract until they come of age, in order to protect Rys’s secrets. Otherwise, you might use your children as a loophole.” Tyrisa looked really proud that she had thought up that part of the contract.
“Yes, but none of these require them to serve Rys,” Maria said, carefully reading each page. “That seems odd given the strict requirements elsewhere.”
“Wouldn’t that be slavery?” Tyrisa asked. “Can’t do that unless they sign the contract themselves. The contract only restricts them from doing stuff like blabbing about stuff they only know because of their privileged position. They can fuck off when they’re of age. Or, uh, get fucked, technically. I think it might be unwise to say no to a contract.”
Tyrisa winced at the sharp look she received from both Rys and Maria.
“Well, I’m glad you think I’ll be useful enough to be around long enough to have some children that come of age.” Maria’s eyes twinkled as she stared at Rys.
“It’s standard to include in contracts,” Tyrisa snapped. “Rarely ever matters.”
Maria glared daggers at the knowledge devil, who returned the look smugly.
Despite a bumpy start, Tyrisa was settling in well enough. She knew when to bow and scrape to Rys, and when she could get away with talking shit to everybody in earshot. Fara found her incorrigible.
After some discussion and a few minor variations and additions, Maria and Rys each signed the contract. Immediately afterward, Tyrisa produced two copies with magic. She stamped all three copies and doled one out to each of them, keeping one for herself.
“Triplicate. Really?” Maria said flatly. “I thought that was a joke.”
Tyrisa stuck her nose up. “I don’t know how you do things, but I run a professional office.”
The knowledge devil bounced off, a skip in her step.
“So, that’s it? I’m bound to you for life?” Maria asked. She moved her arm around. “It doesn’t feel any different. If you tell me to jump, do I need to ask how high?”
“You read the contract. It doesn’t work that way,” Rys said.
“True. It’s so different to the one I made with Barul.” Maria smiled at Rys, and it was full of razors. “Now, perhaps I should reveal that to you?”
Rys blinked, feeling as if he had missed something major. She had wanted to discuss the Barul situation earlier and had brought up spiritual contracts.
Shit, he had missed some major red flags.
“I walked into this one, didn’t I?” he asked aloud. “It can’t be that bad if you signed the contract.”
“Oh, it’s not bad. But it does require you to deal with a problem that’s bound me for years,” Maria said. “Shortly before my father was ousted as Lord-Mayor, he forged a spiritual contract with the Kinadain elders. Unfortunately, I was part of it. It restricts me from giving control of Anceston over to anybody except in specific circumstances.”
“What happens if you break it?” Rys asked, concerned that he’d already done that and now needed to sweep up the mess.
“I die.”
Unless Maria had always been a talking corpse, Rys assumed her spiritual contract didn’t think he had control over Anceston yet. Presumably, it would once he formally took power over the region.
“Only my children, somebody I’m engaged or married to, or somebody chosen by the Kinadain elders is acceptable,” Maria said.
“That’s a very specific list,” Rys said. “And this happened just before your father was ousted?”
“Yes. It was his attempt to keep control of Anceston within the family. If it looked like I wouldn’t become Lord-Mayor, or if my position was in danger in the future, I would always have a ‘secret weapon,’ in his words.” Maria shifted uncomfortably. “His bitterness toward the city after they turned on him was immense.”
For good reason, Rys felt. But Anceston might have also had good reason to kick him out.
“So, before I announce myself as the king of the region, I need to resolve this,” he said, musing about the problem. “I could marry you.”
Maria perked up.
“But Barul will still try to kill me.”
Maria frowned. “True. And a sham marriage would cause problems later.”
“How do the elders choose somebody? Was it specified?” Rys asked.
“No, but the elders aren’t dictators. They need the approval of the other Kinadain,” Maria said. “Barul became my fiancé because he was the greatest warrior in Kavolara. No other Kinadain hold the rank of Slayer on the island. If you defeated him in a duel, it would be difficult for the elders to deny your eligibility.”
“These are the same elders that are conspiring with Compagnon,” Rys pointed out. Then he grinned. “But it does give me a great idea.”
Maria’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”
“We know the elders are corrupt, but our problem is revealing that to others. The recordings implicate their subordinates, but they can weasel out of it,” Rys said.
“True. I know how close the elders are to their liaisons, but most won’t,” Maria said with a grimace.
“What we need to do is arrange a situation where the elders out themselves. Even if Barul is innocent, he hates me. In a duel, he’s liable to do something foolish. The elders might then try to go back on any deals they made beforehand,” Rys explained. “That’s our leverage.”
Maria gulped, her eyes wide. “I feel I really have made a deal with a devil.”
“They’re not exactly innocent,” Rys said.
“No, but…” Maria gave him an odd smile. “That doesn’t make this right. This isn’t something I can walk away from once it’s done.” She appeared hesitant, then said, “I know a Kinadain who can help us, as the elders have ostracized her for opposing them, but she is well regarded despite that. I can pass on her details later.”
Maria then paused, her eyes flickering low on Rys’s body. Her cheeks flushed. “I… I believe you promised a later, Rys.” She whispered his name at the end before licking her lips.
Rys chuckled and stood up. “You’re such a naughty mayor. The moment business is concluded, all you can think of is your reward. And you even have a fiance.”
He towered over her. Her eyes gazed up at him, shimmering with desire. He pressed his crotch against her face, and she responded with steamy breaths that hardened his cock.
Maria pressed her lips against his pants, her amber eyes focused on the bulge hidden behind the cloth. Her hands flipped up her skirt and slipped inside her riding pants. Wet noises filled the room as Maria pleasured herself.
Holding her head by a horn, Rys undid his pants. His partially erect cock flopped out onto her face. Her eyes crossed as they stared at the fat rod of flesh slapped across her skin. Warmth and a wet sensation tickled his balls as Maria suckled on them, creating obscene sounds that intermingled with those from her own pleasure.
He rubbed her face along his shaft using her horns as handles. Her eyes curved as he took control of her and she moaned against his balls. Precum dribbled into her curly hair as his tip slipped inside them and he pleasured himself by moving her head against his cock.
She gasped as the hot liquid drooled down her forehead, nose, and cheeks. Her tongue futilely tried to lap it up, but couldn’t reach.
When Maria tried to move herself to suck directly on Rys’s tip, he crushed her against his shaft. She gasped, then moaned with a broad smile.
“You like this, don’t you?” he asked her.
“Are you going to fuck me, Lord Talarys?” she gasped out, the words partially muffled by his cock.
“No. I’m going to feed you,” he said. Her eyes glazed in response and her tongue lolled out of her mouth. “One day I’ll take you. But you’re savoring every second of this.”
“Yes,” she breathed.
Rys carefully moved her away from his cock. Her eyes focused on only one thing, and her tongue tried desperately to reach it.
He held her with one hand and moved his rock-hard prick into place against her lips with the other. Her eyes widened as she finally tasted her prize. Maria flicked, sucked, and licked his tip, while pushing her head against his strength.
Then, when she finally stopped trying to push herself down his length, he rammed her head down the entire thing in one go. Her eyes rolled back into her head. She gagged. Drool poured from her mouth and dripped from his balls.
Maria screamed in ecstasy, the movement tickling his cock inside her throat. Her juices poured onto the chair and her legs raised in the air as she climaxed. Her fingers ran along her clit rapidly as she pushed herself to the peak of pleasure.
Rys joined her by using her horns to move her head. He scraped her throat with every motion of his cock. When he came, he poured rope after rope into her stomach while he pressed her against his crotch.
Afterward, he pulled out and held her face against his length. She moaned against him as streams of white poured along her face and from the edges of her mouth.
“It seems we have an agreement,” Rys told her. “And you have what you want.”
“Yes,” she moaned. She took his balls into her mouth.
Maria left after she cleaned up, but the look in her eyes changed completely. Her desire to be dominated screamed to Rys whenever he met her gaze. She knew what she wanted, and he had it.
For now, he needed to order Grigor to get started. It was time to crush Compagnon.