Defiant Necromancer (Book 2 stubbed)

Princess Liora coughed for a few seconds, until her brother pounded on her back and she seemed to cough up something small into a napkin.

“Really, honey, do you have to make such jokes at dinner?” Queen Kamila asked, raising an eyebrow at her husband.

He really embarrassed his daughter, joke or not, Tybalt thought, watching the Princess’s face. She was avoiding his eyes and blushing furiously.

“It wasn’t a joke, love,” King Colin said, shrugging. “I know it’s not quite what we had all discussed earlier, but clearly the other marriage alliance wasn’t a workable idea anymore. And it is important for practical purposes that our house and King Tybalt’s be held together by more than mere words on paper. Blood and love are more powerful ties than anything else. The Beastking clearly has no interest in marrying Princess Dero off to our son, even though there is a long history of such situations between houses that wish to establish favorable relationships with one another. That is, it has not been uncommon for, say, a house that wishes to gain favor with a king to agree to marry a son off to that king’s mistress.” He looked at Tybalt. “As the chosen representative of our god, I acknowledge that you would be my senior in any joint endeavor. But it’s clear you’re not interested in what I just described, correct?”

“Why would you - yes, that’s correct, I’m not at all interested,” Tybalt said. “I find that a very peculiar mode of politics. If I possess something good, I have no desire at all to share that thing.”

Dero smiled slightly as if enjoying being referred to as his possession.

“Father, perhaps we should discuss this matter privately,” Princess Liora suggested quietly, looking back and forth between Tybalt, Dero, her mother, and her father, her cheeks still burning. “Instead of you throwing me at a man who did not even come here seeking my hand—”

“Dearest daughter, please do not dishonor me by suggesting that my word is not good once it is given,” the King said firmly. “The entire fate of our world, or at least our civilization, might hinge on this conversation, not merely your personal happiness.”

The Princess paled and grew quiet at that, lowering her head as if instantly resigned to do what her father said.

Tybalt looked at Dero, and she traced a word on his arm under the table. “Wait.”

“King Colin, I think your daughter is right,” the necromancer said carefully, moderating what he wanted to say. “You should consider what your family actually wants before making an offer like that.”

“Is everyone around me too sentimental to consider matters objectively?” Colin began.

But Tybalt raised a single finger, and the vampire stopped talking.

“My fiancee and I will discuss this matter, and we will try to get to know Princess Liora over the next day or two, whenever we aren’t in negotiations with Eolas, so that we can give your offer an informed answer that is agreeable to all of the parties most affected,” Tybalt said. “No matter what result we arrive at, however, you must respect that it is not ultimately your decision. It belongs to your daughter, me, and the other women who have pledged to share my life.”

The elven king nodded, but a smug smile played at the corners of his lips. He thought he’d already won.

Perhaps he believed his daughter was just that irresistible.

***

“It’s a good offer,” Dero said when they were alone again, hidden behind Sound Void.

King Colin had beaten around the bush a little before promising to send five thousand soldiers and mages to assist Tybalt and his army if the necromancer would agree to marry his daughter, designate his child with her as heir, and allow Colin to keep the title of King after Tybalt conquered Niet. He was willing to agree that Tybalt would be addressed by the higher title of “Emperor,” and the high elves would be functionally the necromancer’s vassals.

“It’s not a very desirable offer for me,” Tybalt replied. “Not if he insists on the marriage and heir terms. He wants to decide what happens after I die. Through me and his daughter, he could conquer the world without ever picking up a sword personally.”

“He won’t insist on choosing your heir,” Dero predicted. “You can negotiate that point. You also aren’t planning on dying, remember? You were going to live forever, one way or another. Colin has already offered to make you into a vampire himself, and I’m guessing you can do the same thing on your own, considering you created a vampire just a few days ago. And I can tell you think his daughter is pretty. So don’t pretend that marrying her is some big loss.”

“I’ve hardly given her a second look,” Tybalt objected.

“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I think she’s cute, which means once you give her more than one look, you’ll want to sleep with her. Which is perfectly fine.”

“Setting aside everything else, I won’t marry her if the others aren’t all right with it,” he said simply.

“Well, I actually believe you mean that,” Dero said. “So we put off the final decision until we can talk to the others.”

“Do you think it’s actually necessary, adding another woman?” Tybalt asked.

“Strictly, absolutely necessary? No. Beneficial to your cause? Definitely.” Dero chuckled quietly. “I’ve never seen a man act so torn up about his own good fortune. ‘Oh no, I get to marry another elven princess!’ Look, the others won’t be upset about this. I’m not upset. You’re just worried about how they’ll feel. I’ll tell you exactly how it will go over. Vidalia will want to share you with her. She’s, uh, generous like that. Mariella will quietly have the same general feelings. Kistana will happily accept your wishes on the matter. Victoria will say it’s the will of your god that you get what you want, even though I’m fairly certain she’s not interested in women at all. So, yes, as long as you don’t dislike the Princess, I think you should marry her too.”

I’m pretty sure that’s not how Vicky thinks about things, but that’s otherwise kind of fair. Dero’s deliberately omitting one key person, though.

“Why do you want me to accept her?” he asked, eyes narrowing.

“Finally, you asked the right question,” Dero said, a smile slowly spreading across her face. “Because her father loves her dearly, but she’s barely of age. She hasn’t finished forming into what he wants her to be. And I think the best way to punish her father for being a shit person is to take his daughter and help her to grow into a non-shit person. Slowly turning her against him and his ways, all while he thinks he’s getting what he wanted.”

You want me to marry her to punish her father. It could even work.

Tybalt shook his head.

Then he crouched down until he was almost at Dero’s crotch height, and he spoke as if he could talk directly to the child in her belly.

“Your Mom’s pretty devious, kid,” the necromancer said. “Hopefully you grow a fraction of her evil genius.”

Dero rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide her smile.

***

It was market day in Whadesgart.

Victoria couldn’t help smiling as she walked down the central lane, tail wagging excitedly back and forth.

As she glanced back and forth between the various storefronts, her twin sister, and Kistana, the other two smiled back at her, enjoying the eagerness that Victoria usually hid.

“We’re finally doing it,” she said aloud.

“That’s right, Vicky,” Vidalia said, looking like she almost wanted to laugh. “We’re finally doing some wedding dress shopping.”

“I meant we’re finally getting married,” Victoria said, trying to be stern. But her ear-to-ear grin spoiled the effect of her tone.

“I’ve kind of gotten ahead of you there,” Vidalia pointed out. She gently rubbed at her stomach.

Victoria thought today was the day Vidalia had just barely started to show for the first time. Tybalt hadn’t noticed it before he left - he hadn’t seen Vidalia naked in a few days, and her dress was loose-fitting - but the fox twins were both giddy about it.

“Pregnancy isn’t marriage,” Victoria said.

But she gave her sister a kiss on the cheek. She knew what Vidalia meant. Among the fox tribe, the fact that Tybalt had undone Vidalia’s braids was an acknowledgement of paternity for her future child. The level of commitment expected in such circumstances was tantamount to marriage.

“Do you think we should still wear white?” Vidalia asked.

“Well it symbolizes purity, and you’re not any less pure than you were before you were pregnant,” Victoria replied with a twisted smile.

“I’m purely Tybalt’s,” Vidalia said, shrugging. “And yours, and also connected with his other wives, since we’re all going to be joined within the same marriage. As far as anyone else is concerned, I’m as untouchable as a distant star.”

“Based on how he’s enjoyed you so far, that’s the purity he actually cares about,” Victoria said, blushing as she recalled some of the events she had witnessed, participated in, and especially the wild things Vidalia had told her about.

“This will really be your special day more than anyone else’s, Lady Victoria,” Kistana said carefully. “Out of all of us, you’re the only one who’s never been with King Tybalt.”

The catgirl’s eyes darted around the street, never still for long. She had hardly participated in the conversation at all, since she was constantly on the lookout for danger. The two foxgirls had wanted to come out without their mummy bodyguards, since the undead intimidated even ordinary people who didn’t mean them any harm. It made it hard to shop and sightsee like normal people.

Victoria knew Kistana felt uncomfortable being their only line of defense. Mariella was supposed to be here, too, but with Tybalt gone, the four women kept being pulled into various governance tasks. The fire mage was currently consulting with the Beastkings and Tybalt’s own notes as she worked on choosing officers within the Grand Beastfolk Army.

Since officers were, in her view, essential to maintaining order and discipline within an army, and she had already seen that come close to breaking down before Tybalt reined his forces in, she considered it important to finalize these choices as soon as possible.

The trio went into a dress shop.

They stayed there for half an hour, examining fabrics and trying on sample dresses.

Victoria thought the seamstress’s clothing was the height of elegance, though she knew her only frame of reference was the work the foxgirls themselves knew how to do. The seamstress, for her part, seemed excited to work around the challenge of beastfolk tails, or if she was actually annoyed by it, she hid it well.

By the time they walked out, the three women were all of an accord.

“I think she was the right one for us,” Victoria said.

The other two nodded.

“And it’s totally not at all because that was the first shop we walked into,” Vidalia said with a straight face.

“I think the two of you looked extremely becoming in her model dresses,” Kistana said, smiling.

Victoria and Vidalia exchanged glances, and then both reached up and rubbed the catgirl’s head.

“Nya! Stop it!” Kistana said, an expression on her face that said she was enjoying the attention. She reached out and made efforts to push their hands away that were so feeble, she might have been trying to catch a fly in her hand without killing it.

“You’re too cute, Kistana,” Vidalia said, pouting. “We can’t help it!”

I remember when you disliked her just because she was a catgirl, Victoria thought, smiling at how things had changed between them.

A brash male voice shattered the mood in an instant.

“Hello, lovely ladies!” the man exclaimed. “I didn’t know there were any beastgirls in Niet! What a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

All three turned and saw a tall, strongly built young man swaggering toward them. Beside him walked a young, red-haired woman who, like the man, appeared to be strong and built like a warrior.