P. Power - Knight Esquire

Leaning in quickly he kissed her hard. Thanks to Ursala, Sara and Varley he’d actually gotten a little practice. She kissed him back for about a minute and then pulled back, with tears in her eyes.

“Right, so you’re still short, but you don’t kiss like a dog any more. Tor… I’m so sorry. I would have married you, you know that right? I still will, when this is over, if you’ll have me…” Trice’s voice actually sounded hopeful.

“Um, well… No.” He said firmly, then kissed her again. He didn’t know if it would soften the blow, if it was a blow to her at all, but she did at least kiss him back.

After a few minutes she pulled back and raised her eyebrows a bit. “Why not?”

It sounded a lot more hurt than Tor would have thought.

He shrugged. It was in the letter anyway, so he might as well tell her now, right?

“I’m already engaged again.”

“Who? Sara? I… know she was going to ask. Really, I was kind of surprised you didn’t say yes. Now it would be outside the three steps, but… well, who’s going to tell you no?”

“No, um, Varley. Sara kind of stepped in as a backup though, unless she gets something going first, which, I mean, come on, she’s great, right? I’m a little surprised she doesn’t have someone lined up already. If she doesn’t soon, my little brother will be all over her.”

That led to a whole conversation about their options, which given everything shocked Tor more than a little. He’d figured that he’d be lucky if Trice would be his friend again someday and wasn’t really sure he wanted her to be anything more. That she wanted to be his lover… Well, that made him blush. Then again, it could, he knew, still all be a trick. It was easy enough to lie about things like that, at least to him, wasn’t it? For all he knew she really was trying to set him up to die. Tor shrugged mentally, if so, then he’d do what he had to in order to be a good friend. As long as he could at least. Smiling he agreed that they should be close again, but put her off for the night, since he still hadn’t been with a woman and really wanted Ursala to be his first.

“Oh?” Trice sounded surprised at that.

“Sure! She’s great and really, if I suck with her, which I’m sure I will, well, she’s already going to be marrying someone else anyway, so it won’t matter too much. Besides she already promised to teach me this stuff, we kind of have a deal of sorts, so I want to get good at it first.” He chuckled softly. “Besides, I have other plans for you tonight…” He let his own voice go as playful as he could get it. The next part wouldn’t be fun, but fighting with the girls about it first would just make it harder. Even he could see that.

What he said was true of course but he knew that by saying it playfully it would make it sound a little naughty. The fact was just that he didn’t know if she’d go along with the plan if she knew it. No. That wasn’t right. He knew for a fact she wouldn’t. Who would? It was insane. Tor started dropping into a trance and not thinking about it himself.

First he had some questions for her.

“Do you remember the guy that started hanging out with Dorgal Sorvee and Marko at school? Older, about twenty-five, mustache, black eyes that were kind of freaky?” Trice stiffened and sat up straight.

“Yeesss. He, uh, hangs out with the Wards. I think that he’s one of Maria’s lovers. Laval? I think that’s the name I’ve heard at least. I’ve been hiding as a prostitute and had less cock in the last month than Maria in any given week…” She looked away suddenly, as if embarrassed.

“What? Some of my best friends are ladies of industry. Kind of own the house you’ve been working in you know, so I’m not going to judge. Besides, it’s all practice, right?” It was hard for him to believe the words himself, but she gave him a shy look and nodded, looking… grateful. Tor nodded back, faking a confident air. Friend or not, the idea left him a little jealous. She was willing to take on all comers, but not him? Then, he hadn’t exactly pushed her that way, had he? Maybe she would have hopped into bed with him at any time, if he’d just asked, or even hinted it would be fun… It probably didn’t matter really. The past had already happened, now it was time for the future.

“So, what did you want to do? I could… you know, with my mouth? Just don’t grab the back of my head or get overly thrusty and it’s kind of hard to mess that up. You’d surprised how many men do though. I’m even wearing the right boots for it.” Taking her hand he led her to the main portion of the room where Sara and Ursala sat at the table nervously.

“Right, so Trice, get down on your knees please, since you offered so nicely and it works so well with my plans for you.” He said, holding back a chuckle. She looked at the other women, then nodded a little shyly and took a deep breath. Trice sunk to her knees in front of him her eyes down and started working on his belt.

“Little kinkier than I thought we’d go the first time, but if it’s what you want, we’re all friends here after all…” She blushed, but that could just be because she was in front of people she knew, not because he was there and she felt embarrassed about him being… Him. Right? Shaking his head a little to clear the idea Tor spoke calmly, making a point of holding his mind away from what was coming. He sank deeper, until it could be heard in his voice, he knew.

“Not… exactly the plan I’m afraid, though that does sound like fun. And please know, I am afraid. God this is going to suck. These two need to be here in case it goes wrong. If so, sorry in advance?” Tor sighed, a big and slightly shuddering thing.

“Got a knife?”

She did have one, and after a few seconds she pulled it her eyes showing a lot of fear. Did she think he was going to use it on her? That would be unthinkable.

“So, I think that the guy that tried to kill me, maybe two or three times now, is with the Wards. If you’re going back there, you need a reason for him to have seen you here. I don’t know if he did or not, but if he didn’t notice you, he’s a moron. You ran out openly enough. So…you’d come to kill me yourself, but then someone else tried and botched it, being a moron no doubt, so you had to act fast before you got caught in the sweeps that will be coming of all personnel, and replaced my regular girl from the house, because I’m so pathetic that I have to pay for it, obviously, and just walked in here, sacrificing your… virtue a bit, so that you’d know where to stab, because, you know, it’s all dark, which is why I didn’t know it was you, too dark to see and really, you and I never did anything like this before, so how was I to know? I probably keep the lights low so I can pretend it’s you, don’t you think? You were servicing me in my part of room, kind of like this but a bit more mouth action, Waited for me to really get into it, then you pull your knife and…”

Without giving her warning at all he grabbed her hand and stabbed himself in the left side. Pain seared through him. Not just the wound, it felt like it ranged through his body. He gasped at it but managed not to scream. Well, good thing he hadn’t thought about this much first! He did it again, making all the girls gasp. Then once more and sank to the floor.

“Got a flying rig and shield?” He asked her as the color faded from her face.

“Not on me, in my stuff back in the room. I’ve got a shield, but it’s one of the ones Madam Clarissa passed out earlier…” She actually shook a little and dropped the knife.

“Pick the knife up and wipe it off on my shirt Trice. Make it look like you thought I was dead, or would be soon. Take my flying rig and grab a handful of shields, since that was what I’ve been working on today anyway, and makes sense that you’d get some. Sara, next to the bed, one panicked Trice size handful please. Ursala, if you could get me a cloth? I really don’t want to bleed to death here… Plus, you know, I’m ruining this rug, we’ll have to move it to my section, next to the bed. I don’t think I can help with that…” He started to laugh, but it hurt too much. God this was stupid. But then he was banking on the fact that no one would ever stab themselves three times like this to make an attack look real and not like some faked up trick. Now all he had to do was not die. Easy. He’d been not dying his entire life.