A Bargain of Bastards: Chapter One

 

Ondrine

    “Art thou the Beast that guards the Lady?”

   There was a sword tip under my chin. I sat back on my haunches and sighed, “I don’t suppose you’ll let me finish weeding first?”

    “Er… no?” The sword tip wavered.

    I smelled him coming half a mile away, though it usually took another hour to hack through the illusion of overgrown vines surrounding Castle Mistmire. More than enough time to get the weeding done and harvest the tomatoes heavy on the vine.

    I raise dirt-encrusted hands, “There are rules you know. Trial by combat. I get a weapon, there’s even a dueling ground.”

    “Or I could just run you through,” the knight doesn’t lower his sword, but his arm is already shaking from the weight of it.

    “The keep’s enchantment keeps me alive. Could you say the same?” I ask. I lower my hands slowly. “May I stand?”

    “Go on then,” the knight blusters, and lowers his sword with a clank, and I get up off my knees. As I stand to my full height, the knight swallows audibly and backs up.

    I’m not that tall for all that I am half-orc, but I do tower over this particular knight. Or maybe it’s my appearance. My mixed parentage didn't give me the usual green complexion, but a more disconcerting shade of gray. Combined with my broken nose, scars, and tusks, I suppose to a human, I would look rather beast-like.

    The knight, decked out in an ill-fitting suit of plated armor, raised his sword again. I waved him off.

    “What did they tell you, the ones who sent you here?”

    “That a Beast prowls this keep. That when you best it, you break the enchantment on the place. Freeing the lady and castle. And there’s a reward of course,” The knight’s voice echoed in his helm, and I realize he sounds very young. He looks up at the lone parapet that hasn’t crumbled yet. The window shutters are thrown open, with curtains fluttering in the breeze. The thick trellis of climbing roses was awash in pink blooms. It was such a pretty picture, you could almost hear a clear voice singing some nonsensical cleaning song. Another illusion of the enchantment.

    “Then let us proceed to the dueling ground,” I said, leading him deeper into the Keep. ‘The Dueling Ground’ is the Keep’s courtyard. I’d set the whole place up with training dummies and a weapons rack. Initially, I needed to keep up my fighting skills but lately, challengers kept showing up at Mistmire. I painted a circle on the cobbles so they wouldn’t make a mess of the place, especially since the Keep had an intricate network of wards

    I head to the weapons rack and picked up a sword, and hefted its weight. I did a couple of practice swings. The Knight stood inside the circle uncertainly. In the sunlight, the ornate plates of his armor looked awkward on him, and the sword in his hand is not nearly as fine.

    “Whoever set up this bounty has been lying to you.”

    “Why would you say that?” he raises his sword half-heartedly.

    I put the sword down, and pick up a shield instead. I was feeling generous today. The knight wouldn’t last long under the sweltering midday heat and the weight of his armor anyway. I slide the shield onto my arm.

    “Well, for starters, there’s no Beast.”

    “I don’t understand, aren’t you-“

    “Me? I’m the Lady.”

    Then I charged him.

    The fight was barely a fight. I knocked him into a training dummy, and he didn’t get up again. Hard to say if he was unconscious from the shield, the dummy, or the news that I was the so-called Lady he’d been sent to save.

    I dragged him out to his horse and slung him unceremoniously over the saddle. The horse was a handsome thing, midnight black and remarkably even-tempered in my presence. I took a moment to feed him a couple of apples and stuffed several extras into the saddlebags for when the knight woke up.

    “Off with you!” I slapped the horse’s rump, and it took off at a trot, the knight’s head bouncing off its belly.

    The keep’s enchantments would wipe his memory, and I would be afforded a couple more months of peace. I cursed whoever set a bounty on the Beast that prowled the enchanted keep in the woods. It had been eight years of peace, and then suddenly I was swimming in knights, bandits, and men who fancied themselves lotharios.

    Mistmire’s magicks tampered with memories, but as long as that bounty remained unclaimed, the men would come. With every man that attempted to best me, the legend of the Beast grew. Eventually, my clansmen would come. Either to test their mettle against such a worthy opponent or to flush out Ondrine the Shield, prized orc female, spurner of mates, the cursed warden of Mistmire.