Chapter 18:
It was clear to Billy that his new fling had the same workout-addiction as the old. Rags had dragged him on a long run around the Candy Palace a couple of mornings. After birthing Adaeze, Abeiuwa had quickly gotten in on the act. Noemi had come late to the party, ironically spurred on by jealousy of Olesia, but she'd become an enthusiastic convert. Hamest got out of bed and followed Billy into the streets of her city just like she did this every day. Indeed nobody seemed at all surprised to see her, although a couple of dudes ogled those legs and the perky, free-swingin' knockers under her tee-shirt. "Gonna' have to get you a sports-bra," Billy opined, as they cleaned up for the day. The lizard-girl blushed.
Still there was shit that had to get done. This wasn't a pleasure trip. With a hand to her shoulder, the young prince steered his beautiful older woman to the breakfast table. Once there, he began quizzing her on what needed to get done. "We have no stone," she admitted. "It's been too cold to get any. We tried to get by with wood, but wood burns." Hiring somebody to plan walls did nothing for her if she had no stone to use. "Ok," he said. "I'll go look at the problem. Where's the quarry?" Hamest gave him a look of dismay. "Where," he pressed? "A hundred miles to the northeast," she said. "You'd never make it with an army out there..." "Yeah," he said, "I will..."
He meant to fly. She knew what that did to him! More to the point, she'd heard the stories of the Ice-Queen's creeping madness and how the source of her powers had precipitated the problem. "I do not agree," Hamest rumbled. His expression suggested he intended to do it anyway. The Lizard-Princess shot to her feet, shouting, "you can't risk that! I forbid it!" When Billy appeared unmoved, she threw herself on him, crying her eyes out. The big man whispered into her long, blonde hair, "this is our shared life, Hamest. This is what we do to our partner when we fail each other." The young man rose, gently pushing her aside. He left her there, crying her eyes out.
The young wizard headed out, breakfast forgotten. He'd hated to do that to her, but he'd learned fast just how little leeway the world let you have. Playing games could wreck his family. His parents had never played these games. Finn the Human could be counted on to be at the dinner table at five sharp, or Simone was getting a phone call explaining why he wasn't. Simone always had the house and kids squared away, or she was on the phone explaining the crisis she was looking at. Emeraude played switch-hitter, picking up the slack when something might have got missed. They kept the family running by carrying their piece of the load and speaking up when they couldn't. Hamest would learn to do the same.
In the now, the young prince headed for the stables. There was a village sixty miles to the north. He thought that gave him a place to stash a riding lizard so he didn't have to risk the Ice-Tiara's embrace the whole way to the quarry and back. The attendants in the stables were talking when he arrived. The topic, unsurprisingly, was him. His father had warned him about the risks of Royal Entanglements when he started out with Rags. People didn't care much about who you were bangin'–until money was involved.
The young wizard-prince moved in and began saddling a riding lizard–startling the attendants. It was a lesson for them. He couldn't stop the gossip, but he could force it underground. He could make the gossipers a little more careful about what they said and where they said it. That would go a long way towards making this crazy business work. He was their princess's lover. People would have to accept that, and part of that was coming to grips with the gossip.
Finishing his work, the big man led his mount out of the stables, bound for the gate. The land was cold as he rode across Hamest's kingdom, and Billy found that oddly comforting. Spring was coming. And after that would be the blazing heat of summer. In the now, he was warm enough, and the air felt good after a night in Hamest's quarters. It was incongruous–a woman who detested the cold–wanting a life with him. It made him think that having Olesia go off to work for Ingrid was a good thing. He had a lot of reasons to discourage her infatuation. He was in deep with Hamest. His wives had helped make a hash of things by assuming Hamest was just another of their friends–chasing young dudes for fun. He didn't have to make things worse with Olesia.
Back in the Candy Kingdom, Hurletta the Slime Princess entered the King's office to find Finn getting a checkup from Drew. It appeared the curvy doctor was no longer in such a snit. "I thought you'd be ready," murmured the plush princess. Not that she minded the view. Drusilla Princess-Mertens shushed her. She was listening to Finn's heart and lungs. Finn's resigned expression said it all. She'd barged in and just started poking and prodding him. It made little sense when she threatened to make him late for the counseling she told him to take.
While she was about that, Bonnie, Cherry, and Lollipop came barging in, with the pack of them looking frantic. "Ok," said the King, "what's gone wrong now?" Lollipop flushed to her hair. It was coming down to that, wasn't it? She'd committed herself to the change as Cherry called it–getting a new, young body, but it was a process that took days. It hardly seemed like she was going to get the time. There was still too much swirling chaos to tame, and it was all hands on deck right now.
"Someone raided my Science Academy last night," Bonnie howled! Her voice was edging towards panic, and she was all but waving her arms. Finn was dead calm in the face of that shocking crime. His eyes flicked to Cherry. "Outsiders," she confirmed. "Way outside." That brought a quirk of Finn's eyebrows. "The usual suspects are accounted for," said Cherry. "Weapons are all accounted for. There shouldn't be two-hundred free-lancers roaming around." Finn was a little shocked himself at the idea that there were two-hundred armed men in their midst. "Our friends from the east," the King murmured. Cherry nodded. Just so. The room held its collective breath just then. They were all waiting on the explosion.
It was an explosion that never came.
"Lollipop, can you send somebody out to the Treehouse to let Thor know what's going on," said Finn. Cherry blew up at him, shouting, "Star's having complications, Finn! He can't..." "Doctor," said Finn, "please send an ambulance to have Princess Star brought to the Candy Clinic. Thanks." Cherry's mouth shut with a click, and her face went red hot. Bonnie opened her mouth to speak and shut it again when she realized she was about to make an ass of herself by saying something stupid and self-contradictory. "I expect that the Captain of the Guard will conduct a thorough investigation into events at the Science Academy," said Finn. Nobody moved. "Is there something else," he asked? The trio turned around and went back out just as they'd come in.
"I'll be down in a minute, 'Letta," said Finn. Taking that for a dismissal, the plump woman slipped back out the door. "If you're trying to impress me...," Drew murmured. "I'm trying to be a King," Finn retorted. Drew went hard at him, saying, "I was angry, Finn. I know this is how you are. I don't expect anything more. Throwing Star out of her house to try to show me you're trying to change..." Climbing to his feet–and pushing her aside–Finn retorted, "who's being sentimental now, doctor?" Drew's mouth hung.
"Star shouldn't be at home if she's having troubles," said the King. "Thor's not a doctor. Hanging around the house waiting on an emergency is something a dummy does. When I was concerned for my wife's safety, I brought her to a place where she could get immediate care. Or did you forget that?" As Drew stood there staring in shock, the big man swiftly donned his tie and jacket before heading out the door. As he stood in the doorway, he paused and said, "perhaps my wife should learn to expect better out of her husband." And then he was gone.
Down in the basement, Sarah Mertens sat dividing her concentration between the task on the table and the petty annoyance out in the main laboratory. She'd come perilously close to murdering Blargetha twice in the last few days. The little bitch liked to prick at her, and Sarah's patience was strained to breaking right now. She was deeply invested in doing the very things Bonnie so often did–ducking friends and family to avoid dealing with what was really bothering her. She was a mess, and she halfway felt like she needed to be shut down.
As her mind worried at the growing pile of intertwined problems, a knock at the door announced the end of her dispensation to block out the world. Frowning–she was prepared to skin the slime-princess if she had one more demand to make–Sarah announced, "come in." The door opened to admit Breakfast, who wore an expression akin to panic. "Th-they're turning him into a machine," she muttered. "What do you mean," Sarah demanded? "I... those things are making him change," Breakfast babbled. She had a vial in her hand, and Sarah realized it was full of blood. "Let me see that," she demanded.
Breakfast handed the vial over, explaining, "I... I had to steal that. Drew's... she doesn't know what she's doing, and Nadia can't be bothered. I think she likes him this way." Now Sarah began to understand what this woman was babbling about. She meant the nano-machines in Finn's bloodstream. They'd talked about it. They'd batted ideas–mostly worries–back and forth about what was going on with Finn. Nobody had been doing much to dig into the problem. Truth be told, Sarah had discounted the whole thing. She'd hardly thought Finn was in any real danger. At the same time, Breakfast looked horrified. "Ok," said she, "what's he done now?"
The Breakfast Cutie babbled and stumbled her way through what she'd heard Finn say and do. It sounded like much ado about nothing. At the same time, there were hints there that Finn's behavior was veering in a negative direction. "Ok," said Sarah. "I'll look into it. I've some things I have to get done today, but I'll have this analysis done as soon as I can." Sarah leaned over the desk and hugged her. "It's going to be ok," Sarah burbled.
Meanwhile, Finn headed out to the car to find Hurletta waiting on him. Climbing into the car, the big man settled himself beside her. "I would have understood if you couldn't go," she offered. "This is as important as the other things," Finn replied. Taking her hand, he said, "we're partners in this. We're healing. Together." The plush princess turned to face the window to hide the tears that wanted to fall. She was confused and utterly conflicted. There was a piece of her that liked this–loved this–but this wasn't the Finn she had grown up with. This was a rank stranger, and she wanted the man she'd grown up with back. It was selfish and mad because this was what he needed to be. It was what she needed him to be, because she wasn't sure she could carry these feelings alone.
He'd been horrifyingly correct about one thing. Murdering Blargetha would have done nothing to erase the pain. His support had been helping her get through this. The certain knowledge that he was just as sick and devoted to helping her all the same kept her from going mad. But she wanted Finn back. She wanted the slap fool who could never seem to help behaving like an ass even in the most serious situation. A part of her felt responsible. He was carrying her, and he knew it. He never said a word, but he was carrying her, when he was just as sick. The plump woman took her hand back, folding her fingers in her lap. Finn knew she was disturbed. He could feel it. There wasn't much he could do about it, so he let her be, and the two rolled out to go see the head-doctor.
Back in the Lizard Kingdom, Billy the Human was riding hard and moving fast, rolling cross-country to avoid the risk of bandits on the roads. Hamest's land was beautiful in the winter. He could see why her people loved this place. The clannish lizard-folk seemed to prefer to huddle together in their massive farm-villages, leaving the land around him a magnificent desolation. He could see smoke off in the distance, suggesting one or more of the outlying villages. His destination was in the far northeast corner of the Lizard Kingdom. His plan was to stash his mount there, get a room for the night, just like he'd done in Sakura's domain.
The riding-lizard surged beneath him, taking the rolling terrain with easy grace. The gait wasn't quite the same as the horses he'd grown up around. He'd had to get used to that. Of course, honestly, it had been quite a while since he'd ridden very much. As Bonnie's kingdom grew and became ever more prosperous, the well-to-do and even people like his father began to get their hands on cars and trucks. He remembered Betty talking about the height of human civilization and the similar changes from back then, and he'd been amazed and delighted to be living through it all.
At least until he forgot what the 'old way' looked like.
As mid-morning came sneaking up on him, the young hero crested a rise and paused to give his mount a rest and the land around him a good looking over. These mountains were one place Rags might enjoy visiting. They reminded him of the way things were, and he found some of him missed riding horses for days to get out to another town. Of course, there were larger issues he had to deal with and an eight-hundred pound gorilla in the corner, staring him down.
Taking a sip from the canteen at his left hip, the big man pondered how he was going to explain this. He could understand why his dad got irritated with the moms sometimes. They clearly didn't think all that far ahead to the consequences of whatever it was they were squealing about at the moment. Finn the Human often had to clean up the mess. He'd become adept at seeing just where they were going to be down the road when the crash came. So you have to start planning how you're going to deal with your eventual half-lizard kids, the big man thought. He was in far too deep now to back out. More to the point, Hamest wasn't interested in him putting on a rubber. She hated the things and claimed they made her itchy. He was pretty convinced she didn't take the pill. It was a question of when and not if. Hamest would likely get her Royal Baby long before Nieve's grandma.
Putting his canteen away, the big man booted the riding lizard back into motion. He was pretty sure he could reach one of the bigger villages near the stone quarry before noon. That would let him get out to the quarry, look around at what he was dealing with, and come up with a plan. With luck, he could get himself back to the village. He wasn't going to hide what he was from his would-be wife. This was their common life now, and that was another big lesson from his dad. At the same time, he didn't need to worry her if he could get himself to shelter.
As the Ice-Queen's son rode off to the north and west, hostile eyes watched him from a small grove of trees. He was here. The terrifying force that had slaughtered their friends was here, just as the Bandit Princess had predicted. He'd killed hundreds of people alongside the terrifying fiend that had accompanied him. The four men hiding among the trees felt their blood run cold. This was their job. Their whole reason for still being here in this place was to get this man to come back here. We succeeded, thought their leader, though it brought him no joy. Now they had to keep the ice-wizard here without getting butchered.
Reaching into the backpack that he carried, the lead bandit drew out the heavy handset that the Bandit-Princess had given them. Carefully, he adjusted the heavy antenna. This wondrous gadget made communication with their distant master much easier, but it had pretty severe limits. Among them was the need to get a clear line of sight with the antenna. It was funny, but the lizards were unwittingly providing them the means to lay siege to their kingdom by providing open access to the radio transmitter in their capitol.
The voice on the other end of the tenuous link was immediately suspicious and hostile. "What is it," she demanded? "The wizard is here," rumbled the patsy. "It's just as your spies said. He's come here. We saw him riding through on a lizard, headed north and east." "The quarries," muttered the Bandit Princess. He was doing exactly what she would have done in his shoes. His idiot lover had been diddling around while her kingdom lay open to ruin. Now he was making a bee-line for the one place he could get the stone they needed to fix the problem. "Keep him there," muttered the Bandit Princess. "You know the cost of failure."
The evil ogress hung up on her patsies. Sitting back in her chair, the tall woman put a licorice stick to her lips and inhaled deeply, drinking in the calming smoke. She'd been critical of Chelsea's stoner-habits, but she was having to admit that this stuff made her less prone to violence. Exhaling a massive, blue smoke-ring, the evil harridan growled, "where is the Warrior Princess?" "She's holding position in the ruins of Wildberry Kingdom," responded her lieutenant. "She's mopping up the remnants of the peanuts' army." Chelsea's patsies had played their part, occupying their adversary's principal army. That business had worked better than she could have dreamed. Unfortunately, her scheme's were not yet at fruition. She needed more time to play. "I need her at the barrier," growled Peihong. "Launch the next phase."
She'd learned her lesson. She wanted all her enemy's resources occupied. She wanted them all busy. If they were busy, they couldn't be interfering in her master plan. She hadn't quite figured out where she would get Finn himself occupied, but she was working it. Once she had them all busy, she could move into the next phase of the master strategy. They were getting closer. The rocket-factory was almost up and running. Now she needed weapons–weapons to hold all of Ooo hostage. And then there would be a reckoning with the so-called King of Ooo.
As the Bandit Princess issued marching orders to her legions, the target of her wrath was meeting with a dear, old friend. Finn hadn't seen Breezy in months. She hadn't even come down for Billy's wedding. A part of him was curious both about why she'd stayed away and why she'd just shown up again just now. Honestly, he was worried about her. Her mental state had been off the charts bad the last time he'd seen her.
It said something about how bad her mental state was that she'd come wearing the ugliest, most frumpy dress he'd ever seen her wear. Not her typical, skin-tight flying suit. Not one of the soft mantles she usually wore around her house. This dress covered every inch of her skin except her face and the roots of her wings. It was as far as you could get from the sexy micro-mini she'd worn to seduce him as you could get. His heart went out to her as he realized they were losing their friendship.
Indeed, the Queen Bee offered the King of Ooo a curtsy as a greeting instead of the customary, 'hey, Finn'. Finn took her hand and kissed it, causing her to flush. Turning to the pack of busy-bodies, the King informed them, "you may wait here. My words are for the Queen's ear, not the Consort's." Breezy's face went red hot, but Finn took her by the arm and steered her for the far side of the garden.
"I will not lose my dearest friend," Finn announced. Breezy swallowed what she might have said. "What brings my old friend," Finn murmured? "Invitation," Breezy murmured. Finn's eyebrows climbed. With a sigh, the Queen Bee murmured, "Council used to ride my ass for making moon-eyes at the blue-eyed scoundrel and wasting time and money on him and his pal..." The pretty queen turned and said, "now they're pissed off that I missed out on marrying one of my daughters to his son..." Finn rolled his eyes. He was sooo done with that. Having heard rumors of what Nieve was doing, he would gleefully have stuffed her ass in a box and shipped her back home. Postage due.
Shyly, the pretty queen murmured, "I think a couple of them wish they could go back in time and marry me off to you instead of Barton..." The thought made her laugh. Finn couldn't help a chuckle himself. That ship had sailed. "My firstborn's getting married in a few months," the Queen Bee announced. "I'd love for you and Simone to come." "Then we'll be there," Finn replied. Still, it was clear that something more was bothering her. "Talk to me, B," Finn murmured.
The bee-person took a deep breath. Her face was red, and he feared what she was going to say. The nasty little gossips who were, just now, hanging out on the far side of the garden had put him on edge. He'd heard rumblings that they kept Bart apprised of everything Breezy did. He hated snitches. "Breezy," he whispered. "I've loved you as my best friend for over half my life. You know you can speak freely..." He loved her as more than a friend now.
"They... I'm to ask if you would marry one of my daughters...," she blurted. The blood drained from the big man's face. "They would have asked for William," Breezy muttered, "but they fear Nieve's influence..." "B," Finn started to say. She knew he meant to turn her down. The Council would have a fit. And she'd catch the flak. Cutting him off, she said, "Naome's very sweet. Penelle's young, but she's really smart..." "Their momma should let them live their lives," Finn retorted.
"You're being stubborn," Breezy muttered. "This is your world now." She meant the ugly, political liaisons. "I live with the world I have, Your Highness," Finn retorted, "but I refuse to let it make me a monster. I won't do to your daughter what was done to you..." Breezy flushed to her crown, her face darting away. Finn had made his dislike of Barton and the way he treated Breezy quite clear. A part of the Queen feared what Finn would do if Bart ever crossed the line from jerk to violent asshole. Bart might go from Royal Consort to Royal Corpse in short order.
"You haven't even met them," she murmured. "How do you know they wouldn't want to be your wife?" The King had no response to that. Cracking a smile, Breezy whispered, "I happen to know the King has a really nice flashlight. I hear he knows how to use it, too..." Finn sputtered incoherently, his face going as red as a beet at the reminder that he'd gotten a massive fucking hard-on while she was carrying him. Seizing the moment, Breezy said, "do me a favor, Finn. Meet my daughters. Go through the motions so I can get the Council off my back." "Ok," sighed Finn. The pair started back, with Breezy bending his ear about a joint declaration.
Finn summoned his cabinet and held court in private, letting Breezy lay out her councilors' ugly suggestion. Finn let her talk, though it was clear he wasn't interested in another arranged marriage. It made Breakfast simply stare at him. A man. Turning down sex. Turning it down with younger women. When he had a perfectly good excuse to do it. As the day drew to a close, Finn sent the functionaries on their way, inviting Breezy to dinner with the family. Let the gossipers try to make something out of that.
Billy, meanwhile, stood in the empty rock-quarry, staring around at a great big nothing. There were no workers, which stood to reason. He was cold. The lizards likely found it intolerable. They wouldn't be getting stone cut anytime soon. Not with the workers they had, which was none. Staring down at the valley, the wizard tried to gauge how far off the city was. Forty miles, he thought. Nothing for a truck, but he didn't have a truck, much less a fleet of them. Steady run, Bill, he thought. It was a steady run down to the town where he'd left his riding lizard. It was another downhill run a few miles after that. Ideas raced through his keen mind. He had a couple of ways to work this.
But he would need Olesia.
The young wizard frowned as he thought about the risks. There was a mutual attraction there. He risked damaging his family. How many times had his dad risked that? There had been a time where Finn endlessly dodged princesses and their fast hands. But he needed Olesia to make this work. Hell, as much as he'd need to use the Ice Tiara's powers, he might need her to save his sanity. He could feel the entity tugging at his thoughts even now just from using it to fly here, and he still needed to fly back to town. Wearing his unease like a coat, the young hero headed for his digs to get some rest and make a few essential phone calls.
Hundreds of miles to the west, an irritated Bronwyn returned to her rough quarters to make dinner. The nymphs were stonewalling her. She was sure of it. Patrick and Fionna were no help at all, having decamped to the grasslands outside the forest. They made the quintessential odd-couple–a dude married to his niece. They weren't blood-related, but it was weird to Bronwyn nonetheless. More on point, that left her dealing with Emeraude herself, and she'd damaged that relationship beyond repair.
As she got out the spices and started working up dinner, the plush-puppy reflected on that. Prejudice. She'd allowed her rage at her dad's side-chick to cloud her mind with the ugly fog of prejudice. Now she could have used a relationship with Emeraude to get to the bottom of what happened to Barry. She felt... guilty. She felt as though Barry got killed working something her dad wanted.
She'd been arguing with herself over that. Did she really want to know? Was she prepared for her dad to be doin' dirt? She'd cleaned up the mess when Mr. Taylor's grand-daughter got caught paying to have dudes beat her boyfriend's ass. The little bitch got shipped to Truth Kingdom until it all blew over. This was a lot worse than a broken arm. A man had lost his life. Two people had lost their lives, and a third was about to pay the price of it all.
Knocking at the door snapped her out of her fog. Wiping her hands, the hybrid headed across her room to the door. "Who is it," she called? "Housekeeping," announced a soft voice. Bronwyn rolled her eyes. Nymphs. She'd probably been too busy fucking some random stiff to clean the room. "Be quick," the half-bear growled, as she jerked the door open. The tall stranger on the far side blew a pale blue dust into her face. The startled woman was falling before she could half-register what had just happened.
Two burly men moved in, quickly shutting the door. They stretched the mark full length on the carpet before rolling her up in it. Hefting the carpet, the larger man put their target over his shoulder before nodding for his partner to grab the door. With the nymph playing lookout, the pair swiftly made the back stairs. There was a delivery wagon waiting on them behind the ramshackle inn loaded down with carpets. The driver was sleeping off a drunk in the back of the cab. With the few drops of knock-out juice they'd slipped into his bark beer, he wouldn't remember a thing, and this little bitch would disappear for a while. Neither man knew what she was wanted for, but she was definitely the mark. You couldn't miss knockers like that.
South and west of the Grey Forest, a slime person stood watching the plush fire-girl, as she sat 'writing' on a tablet made of thin sheets of glass. It was a fascinating bit of business that had many in the army amazed and amused. Some were curious about what she wrote. Most took it as an opportunity to gaze in fascination and fantasy at the second most beautiful woman in their world. The first was their deadly leader, and nobody was stupid enough to spend much time staring at her.
"Is there something I can help you with," Olesia asked? She had gotten herself used to the staring. Honestly, sometimes it was a little flattering. Others... she felt like some kind of strange monster. However, tonight she wasn't really in the mood. "The general wants you," the soldier replied. Putting her journal away, the plump woman gathered herself to her feet, dusting ash from the fire off her butt, taking note of the way the soldier stared. It was funny. It would have been if her heart wasn't burning for somebody else. As she got on her way, the plush pretty opined, "maybe you should tell me that Princess Ingrid wants something a little sooner. Might keep her from chopping your head off."
She left him sputtering in fear and worry. Her mind was already on the looming conversation. Ingrid liked to spar verbally with her. The younger woman hardly understood it, but Ingrid would prick at her until she had to respond with something. Invariably the older woman got the better of those little verbal exchanges. Olesia had been doing her best to either learn to fight back or learn to shut up.
Arriving at the general's tent, the plump girl knocked politely on the slate outside. "Who's there," demanded Ingrid? "It's me," replied the young princess, "Olesia." "Come in," Ingrid commanded in her usual imperious tone. Even for a princess, she was obnoxious with that. Biting back an angry retort, the plump girl let herself in to find the tall woman at a wooden tub. Naked. She was standing with her back to the door, and she was washing her long, golden hair.
Olesia envied that body, scars and all. The tall woman was fantastically fit and surprisingly curvy for all of that. She made Olesia feel inadequate. "What kept you," Ingrid asked? She was soaping up that lustrous hair. It was hard to believe that she was the Angel of Death. Olesia knew better than to even mention it, though. "The guard decided that staring was more important than communicating," she replied. "You're prettier than their hands," Ingrid declared.
Olesia flushed to her hair. She didn't like where that thought led. She wasn't a prude. She understood the hunger. She just didn't want to think about being some dude's fantasy while he was rubbing one out. "What did you need," she asked? "You're going to Lizard Kingdom," Ingrid declared. "Tomorrow." That news startled the plump girl. "Are you sending me away," Olesia muttered? Her tone suggested that she was suspicious.
"I'm reassigning you," Ingrid replied. She never stopped washing her long, golden hair. "I'm sending you to where you can help us," she explained. Glancing up at the image in her mirror, the tall woman told her, "we're down to small numbers. The peanuts have been routed. And we even found their nasty little surprise. We're in good shape here. Billy's..." "An ice-wizard," Olesia retorted. Rolling her eyes, Ingrid turned and said, "you're behaving like a petulant brat. You won't get your prince that way." The plump girl flushed to her hair.
Folding her arms over her plump bosom, the tall woman advised her, "you've been playing the game well–behaving as a responsible member of this family. Continue to do just that. Do as you're told. Put in good work." Turning back to the wash basin, the tall woman said, "you may be dismissed, Olesia. I'll need you to do one last patrol before you go. The airship will be here tomorrow afternoon." Stunned, the plump girl turned to go, her face a mask of shock and confusion. She didn't know what to make of this. Only one thing was certain. She was going to see Billy, and the thought terrified her.
Under the same moon, the object of her thoughts sat curled up on the rough bed he'd been given, cradling his phone, watching the messages as they came trickling in. Pics of his babies. Pithy advice from Rags. Raunchy thoughts of what he should do with Nieve from Abeiuwa. In the middle of all that, his phone rang. Glancing at the number, he realized it was Hamest. Flicking it open, the big man announced, "hey, baby." "Are you ok," she sniffled? "Yeah," he said. "I got out here to this village near the quarry. Didn't have to fly too far. I got out there and back, no sweat. I'm'a hole up here until morning and ride back." His new addiction offered him profuse apologies. "S'ok, baby," he said. "Was a pretty easy ride. I got some ideas on how to get some stone down to the city. Just you wait for me..."
As the Ice-Prince worked to console his unhappy princess, knocking on the door announced that a new problem had come to his door. At first he tried to ignore it, but the banging only grew louder and more insistent. That suggested trouble. Trouble out here could be very hazardous to his health. "Hang on, babe," said Billy. Rising, he went to the door and opened it to find a pair of frantic lizard-guards outside in the chill of the hallway. "Soldiers," the older of the pair announced. "There's an army out there in the darkness." Billy found his blood running cold. An army. And he was all alone out here.
TWO cliffhangers for the price of one.