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Baron Storm Nattas
I wouldn’t worry about it
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“Where’s the Queen Regent Lord Nattas?” King Jeremy asked, the crown of Regia almost touching his eyebrows and probably hurting his head by now. Storm eyed Sir Herus Comes, the new leader of the King’s Guard and a knight that Jeremy knew well since he was a kid and the middle-aged man pressed his lips tight in condemnation.
Whether it was for Storm’s dilapidated appearance, or his tardiness in replying to the King’s queries Storm didn’t know. He stared at his dirty shoes for a moment as if thinking it through and replied much like he had earlier.
“Had Lord Doris allowed me to look into it your grace, I could have told you in no time at all.”
“Time has gone by, Lord Nattas,” Jeremy argued. “And Lord Doris has good reason for arresting you. You must know, the consensus was to have you executed… in a rather harsh manner.”
“There’s no kind way to kill a man your grace,” Storm said. “Just faster and slower options.”
Jeremy sat back on the old throne his father had occupied for decades and frowned, he had to adjust the crown on his head once.
“You are not going to talk then?” He asked.
“Your Grace, I’ve been imprisoned like a thug, lived in a hole for weeks and now dragged to Alden sardined in a wagon too short to stand upright for days. Twenty to be exact,” Storm replied. “I need time to recover and reach out to my sources.”
“Your sources know where my mother went?” Jeremy asked. “How would they, unless what Lord Doris accuses you is the truth?”
Storm licked his dry lips and grimaced.
“You know the Queen Regent,” he started.
“Of course I do!”
“Has she ever expressed any interest in my person?” Storm asked him.
“She didn’t like, nor trusted you Lord Nattas. The rumors surrounding you are disgusting. Where one should start? Philanderer, frequents ill-repute brothels, torturer and rumored to have people assassinated, or ‘disappeared’ left and right.”
“In service to the Crown your Grace, one has to foul his hands so that nobler hands remain clean.”
“Bah, so all rumors are false? There are no orders issued giving you this kind of leeway Lord Nattas. Everyone is lying but you?”
“Not what I meant your Grace, I have perhaps misstated it. Rumors can be that, they can also be false aye, or spread by my enemies to take me out,” Storm argued. “But back to my previous query, do you truly believe the Queen Regent would take me as a lover?”
“You should not talk about her this way!” Jeremy blasted him turning red in the face and almost losing the crown from his head. He readjusted it again, breathing heavy and glaring at him.
“Is Lord Doris words less harmful your Grace?” Storm insisted calmly. “Should we sully her name on an ancient Dottore’s opinion, or even her own false self-diagnosis? Do you know how a woman’s womb works? Because I don’t, not really.”
“Why would you resign from the council Lord Nattas?”
“I’m still the Queen Regent’s Shield your Grace, until she removes me, but I can’t serve Regia, if another King is sitting the throne.”
“Your King!”
Storm bowed deeply. “My King has the right to pick his own Council.”
“You are calling Lord Doris a liar? There were other knights’ present Lord Nattas.”
“What do these knights know? Nothing. The Queen Regent got sick, appeared swollen and asked for a Dottore who assumed she must be with child. Perhaps she feared it as well and let it slip. That doesn’t mean she was right. This isn’t proof of anything my King.”
“A child can’t just appear out of nowhere Lord Nattas! That means she was having an affair behind my father’s back!” King Jeremy yelled, youthful face all flushed with anger.
Miranda having an affair behind his back was the other part of what the king meant.
“Without a child produced this could be nothing but a misdiagnosis your Grace, a common case of rot in the intestines, unreleased gasses due to stress, or even something else and the Queen perfectly innocent, though in grave danger,” Storm replied, keeping his composure.
“So you say, but how are we to know, if she’s missing?”
“As I said King Jeremy,” Storm reminded him. “I could find her, if I was allowed to breathe. Another month down the line I’ll be dead and the Queen Regent still missing.”
“Why would she hide, if she’s innocent?” Jeremy asked, sounding a bit hurt.
“It’s not easy defending your innocence, when the first words on everyone’s lips were to cut her open and kill whatever she had inside,” Storm explained.
“Was the Queen threatened, Sir Comes?” King Jeremy asked, the scowling Knight.
“I wasn’t present your Highness,” Sir Comes replied. “But the rumor is Sir Turner attempted to slash at her with his sword. Sir Barnard intervened, afore removing the Queen Regent and disappearing.”
King Jeremy rubbed his pale face with both hands troubled. “This is unacceptable. What was Lord Doris reaction?”
“He suggested it your Grace,” Storm replied, throwing the Lord Treasurer under the proverbial wagon.
“Why for goodness sake?” King Jeremy gasped. “His own sister?”
“He believes I’m having an affair with the Queen Regent,” Storm replied and left it at that. It was of course the absolute truth, but under this kind of light it sounded absurd to the young King.
“Can you find her Lord Nattas?” The King asked.
“Certainly your Grace,” Storm replied humbly. “But first I must find myself and learn what date it is. I haven’t had wine in weeks, or a month and what I’m given to eat I share with sewer rats. Why, I can barely stand upright your Grace, but for my zeal and desire not to have your Grace insulted by collapsing on the tiles.”
“Sir Comes,” King Jeremy said a little moved at his honest and heartfelt outburst. “Have good Lord Nattas released immediately.”
“Right away my King,” the hale knight thundered and Storm bowed his head deeply, over the protests of his crackling back.
“I take it you have property in Alden? I’m aware you frequent with… the merchants in Cartagen, but not much else,” King Jeremy asked him. “Should we arrange a place for you to stay?”
“I have a small apartment in the city your Grace,” Storm replied. “I’m a man of simple needs.”
Lord Nattas had numerous properties of course, be it houses, inns and large parcels of land spread throughout Regia and most of its major cities and ports. He also had a Barony that showed uncultivated land, forests and a tiny village on the maps, but sported a port and a half-finished manor by now, the size of the King’s palace in Alden.
If one wanted to find one thing Lord Nattas wasn’t, other than a lover of truth, then that search would quickly reveal he was anything but a man of simple needs.
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Storm eyed the driver of the carriage not remembering him, but the young man kept looking directly to the front and the horses’ flapping tails. The side door opened and Sirio’s head popped out, a dark shadow on his face making him look older.
“My lord,” the historian said and quickly came down to help him climb up the small ladder. “We heard a rumor you’ve died.”
“How did it happened?” Storm grunted taking one side of the leather-dressed bench inside, right behind the driver, with Sirio sitting across from him.
“Heart attack, when the Queen stepped down,” Sirio replied.
“Not going to happen,” Storm scoffed. “They’ll have to kill me to get rid of me.”
Lord Nattas stretched his back on the narrow but comfortable bench, as the carriage started moving away from the square.
“How was it?” the young man asked a little tensed.
“Girls were hairy and rat-faced,” Storm deadpanned. “The venue had terrible hygiene. I wouldn’t recommend it, but for the price. It was cheap as fuck.”
“You heard the news about Antoon?” Sirio probed a awkward moment later. Storm eyed his fresh clean redingote with envy.
“I did, we’ll talk more of this later. I’ll need a fresh set of clothes,” he added.
“I have given orders. A proper meal will be ready as well.”
“Uhm, good-good,” Storm said. “Sudi?”
“On site Lord Nattas,” Sirio replied, adding to sound mysterious. “With the package.”
“Is that code talk?”
“Yes, Lord Nattas it is. At least it was my intention.”
“Lets not use the term again,” Storm advised him. “Lord Doris stayed in Aegium?”
“He did. Lord Sula had over three thousand men ready and rumors are he is training at least a couple of thousand more.”
“Where did he find the men? Is he emptying the mines?” Storm asked curious.
“Cartagen. Men are deserting the city guard,” Sirio replied. “Lord Ursus might be ordered to move to the city if Baron Valens fails to keep the order.”
“What’s his problem?” Storm asked with a snort.
“People don’t understand why Jeremy sits on the throne,” Sirio explained.
“Lucius was nowhere to be found is why,” Storm replied, adding. “But let me guess, ‘people’ had no idea the ‘Bloody Tiger’ is missing.”
“He’s not,” Sirio corrected him. “Lord Lucius has taken Kas from Sovya and has an army with him. Some say another Legion.”
Of course he has, Storm thought with a deep sigh.
“What is Lesia doing?”
“Parts of the Second Legion appeared near Flauegran and the road to Cartagen.”
“Eh, they have regulars aplenty to send up north, this is for King Jeremy,” Storm said. “King Davenport knows the young king has no control over his realm yet.”
“Surely he wouldn’t—” Sirio protested just as the door opened en route and a hooded leather-clad Maja climbed inside the moving carriage.
“Boys,” the assassin teased and sat on Sirio’s lap. “Husband, give me that tongue.”
“For fuck’s sake!” Storm exploded, while Sirio was getting sexually assaulted across from him. He wasn’t exactly fighting her off, Lord Nattas noticed. “Enough!” He barked wishing he had one of his canes at the near.
“Storm, it’s five minutes to your place,” Maja explained. “I can have the marriage consummated by then.”
Storm scrunched his face taken by surprise, fingers working at his unkempt goatee and then nodded much to Sirio’s shock. Granted the young man’s shock wore off not a minute into their frenzied coupling, with Storm a witness per the custom. Lord Nattas just wished there was a liquor cabinet in this carriage and vowed to have one installed as soon as possible.
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Lord Nattas cut another piece of soft yellow cheese, then dropped it amidst the hot caramelized onions and cooked in orange juice potatoes. He watched it melt for a while, while Maja and Sirio assaulted their plates with the enthusiasm they’d been fucking earlier.
With a sigh and another taste of his wine, he used a fork to stab a well-roasted potato, run it through the melted cheese sauce and brought it to his mouth. Storm chewed on it slowly savoring the rich flavor and washed his mouth with wine between each forkful.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Antoon is alive,” he finally said, when he felt full enough and pushed back on his comfortable chair. A person appreciates simple things in life after he spends time sleeping in a dark cell for a while.
Maja placed her fork down and glanced at the frowning Sirio.
“He’s a member of the family,” Storm grunted. “Open your ears Sirio, fucking has consequences and despite appearances is never free.”
“Lord Nattas,” Sirio started blushing.
“Call me Storm,” Nattas cut him off. “Maja dear, I expect an answer.”
“The Gods wanted him alive,” Maja replied with a pout. “Sirio doesn’t have to hear this.”
“He’ll love and honor you despite of it,” Storm retorted. “Don’t worry about him.”
“I told you what happened,” Maja hissed unwilling to talk in front of Sirio.
What in Abrakas rotting cock? Did you really expect I’ll give you a rose garden to live yer fucking dreams, or whatever you lost being a murdering cunt?
“Tell me again,” He grunted.
“Antoon made it almost unscathed down the stairs,” Maja explained. “So I had to use a spear and a hammer.”
“You had them with you?” Storm asked eyeing the paling historian.
“I had to take out a servant the day before, pose as her for a night. A girl must be prepared,” Maja murmured, playing with her food. “Still I was given no time to finish him off, or reach his wife. I thought about it but the guards were on me. As I said Storm, the Gods wanted him to survive, but he doesn’t have long to live.”
“Gods forgive us,” Sirio gasped, looking like he was about to throw up.
“Have some wine,” Storm advised him callously. “Breathe deeply through the nose.”
Maja stared at the young man hurt.
“He’ll get over it,” Storm reassured her. “Love you the more for it,” he added and Sirio turned his head around visibly frustrated. “The Eikenaar’s had your ancestor hanged, drawn and quartered. His skeleton is still in the Royal Treasury,” He reminded him. “You wanted revenge, this is how it tastes son.”
“The Queen was pregnant Lord Nattas,” Sirio protested, red in the face. “And not an Eikenaar!”
“I would have killed that boy another way, if there was one,” Storm explained and Sirio recoiled. “But I couldn’t without going through his mother. If it’s any consolation the boy lived and his mother didn’t apparently. How did she get out of the city?” The latter he addressed to Maja, who was more concerned with her husband’s reaction.
Which of course was ridiculous.
“A group of knights rode towards Midlanor that morning,” Maja explained. “I had the roads closely watched. No pregnant woman with them. Nienke wasn’t in a condition to ride, or even walk. I don’t believe the story.”
“Pfft, so in other words you don’t know?” Storm grunted. “Ah, at least they are fighting about it, giving Regia the time to sort this fucking mess!”
“What mess?” Sirio murmured and glared at Maja that started crying miraculously. With great sobs and everything. Storm scrunched his nose and gulped down his wine in numb silence only broken by her sniffling.
Now this was obviously all fake, but still it was very disturbing and depressing to witness.
“Let us talk of this later,” Storm said and got up to escort a distressed Sirio out of his office. “Give her space son.”
“This is a terrible business you have her mixed up in Lord Nattas,” Sirio admonished him. Storm smacked his lips and paused at the door of his office to stare at his youthful, despite the manly shadow face.
“I was just released from the dungeons,” Storm told him patiently. “It was a surprise, as the original plan was to have me killed quietly and toss my corpse to the pigs. The High King of Kaltha had your King, who happens to be my king, assassinated and the wrong heir sits on his throne. I tried to even the playing field, give us a chance to breathe and prepare. I shall let history judge my actions, but I ain’t going to take a cock up the arse without retaliating son!” He breathed in and out a couple of times to calm himself down afore continuing. “This is what we do. We are mean, unforgiving motherfuckers. This is the family business Sirio. This is the family you married into.”
“You shouldn’t use her anymore,” Sirio muttered very disturbed and pressing his mouth tight. “Find another killer Lord Nattas.”
“When you’re the head of this family,” Storm replied evenly. “You can use whomever you want, but until then I shall use her Sirio. Do you know why?”
Sirio licked his lips disgusted.
“That’s not a talent,” he croaked.
“Oh, but it is,” Storm replied harshly. “Just as you’re good at keeping notes, figuring old schemes out, but also writing stories that will have you killed in the future, unless you have people doing what you’re not talented enough to do yourself son. Each talent is useful, each skill valued in our business.”
“What business is this? Murder?”
“Right now its real politics, shadow government. Be it kingdom running today, or a crime syndicate tomorrow, whatever the fuck people will call it in fifty years.”
“When does it end?”
“It doesn’t. You will learn to live with its many nuances and with her secrets. You will learn to look the other way and you will learn to treasure your survival above decency and what’s right or wrong,” Storm sighed and clasped his hands behind his back. “If you don’t, you’ll have yer ancestor’s fate and while it’s your choice Sirio what to do with your life, I have a kid on the way that depends on you running things for him and not her to survive and be happy. I need you to steer the ship right the mid and not turn my family into a den of killers. Killers might survive this world, but theirs is a miserable existence.”
“I don’t understand what you mean,” Sirio said.
“In time, you will,” Storm replied.
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Storm stood near the open behind the curtains window and stared at the setting sun. It had engulfed the city of Alden in a sinister reddish hue, the summer heat still present, but slowly retreating. The door opened and a refreshed Maja walked inside, wearing an expensive yellow summer dress.
“A gift?” He asked seeing her reflection through the glass.
“He’s very sweet,” Maja replied and found a chair to sit down, crossing her fit legs. “Nothing like you.”
“Or you,” Storm said and turned around. “Which is a problem, since he’ll get himself killed unless you take care of him.”
“I can take care of my own Storm.”
“You will take care of my own as well,” he told her and walked to his desk to sit down. He stared at the scrolls on his office, reports coming in and the messages from people on his payroll. “You will work under Sudi.”
“Haha, Sudi hates me,” Maja chuckled and then turned serious. “I don’t work for you Nattas. That not how this goes.”
“You do. You’ve thought this through, getting your Guild join me and mine, but you are missing some details,” Storm explained. “You will never run my family. What I have built isn’t for you.”
“You think Sirio—”
“Miranda will have a son. He’ll grow and grab them fuckers by the balls,” Storm said confidently. “All this is for him.”
“You can’t possibly know that,” Maja shook her blond head. “She might not make it, or pop a little girl out.”
“Abrakas is a vile god, but he rubs the truth in your face. No visions and half words, no contracts in the middle of the night.”
“You’ve turned religious now?”
Storm stared at the shadows gathering outside the window as the light went out. Some real, some less so.
Ah.
“Fetch us a couple goblets,” he told her and opened the last drawer to get a fresh bottle out.
“You could have some servants helping in this place you know,” Maja murmured going to the cupboard.
“Servants talk,” Storm replied. “But you know that.”
“You can’t keep the Queen hidden,” Maja said bringing the goblets.
“I won’t, but I have to keep the child out of sight.”
Maja poured wine in the goblets and took her seat again.
“How are you going to do that?”
“Yours was a matrilineal marriage,” Storm explained and she looked up surprised.
“Why…?”
Storm tasted the wine with a smile. “Never thought of looking at the papers didn’t you? There’s nothing there you decided. A minor detail. There are no minor details. The first male heir of my house inherits everything. Down to the last nail under these floorboards.”
"I'm past the age of bearing children, for reasons you're well aware," she murmured tensely.
"Divine providence has given ye a second lease in life. You shall have a child," Storm replied dryly.
“What does Sirio think of this?”
“Leave Sirio out of it,” Storm replied and glanced at the breathing curtains, now shaded in the yellowish light of the oil lamps. “This is about you and what you will do for me.”
“Another murder?” Maja asked raising a thin brow. “Eventually you’ll run out of people to kill Nattas and I will move on to another client.”
“No other clients. You’ll retire and take up a full time task. Call it penance for yer sins, if you prefer,” Storm told her and set his goblet on the table. A breeze came from the window, it made the lights flicker and Maja tensed up seeing the small scarred, one eyed boy appear next to the open window.
He was covered in a long cloak too big for him and looked more like a ghoul than a kid.
“Who’s this?” Maja whispered and placed her goblet on the table.
“I asked for a Servant,” Storm said and the boy walked to his desk. He stopped and tended his hand. Storm reached and took a small piece of parchment the boy kept there and dropped it on the desk amidst his other papers.
It was a small brown piece of old vellum with no words written on it, but Maja stared at it visibly shaken.
“Who’s the contract for?” she asked trying to read the black scribblings slowly forming on the surface. It was magic this, Storm thought and checked the name written in old blocked Imperial Script.
The freakish kid named Tout turned his head and stared at her with an unnerving toothy grin.
“What the fuck did you do?” Maja hissed and dropped her hand into the folds of her dress.
“I put a mark on you,” Storm elucidated.
“You can’t do that you piece of shit,” the assassin snarled and another assassin stepped into the room. Ralnor had been standing on the open window all this time, just a layer of unassuming shadow. A shadow too many.
“There’s no need for that child,” Ralnor advised her and Tout chuckled, earning a reproachful glare from the similarly dressed aberration. “He called for a servant apparently. I shall hear him out.”
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“Do you know what he is?” Maja hissed clenching her fists.
“I assume he’s good at his job,” Storm replied and watched the small boy going through his cupboard and checking outside the office, after cracking the door open.
“You’ve no idea what you’re getting yourself into!”
“Why didn’t you use poison?” Ralnor asked her calmly.
“I had used it for the attack on the Priests,” she replied nervously. “They could have traced it back to him, make the connection.”
“Why do you care?” Ralnor asked, as the boy sat on the chair and started drinking from the bottle watching them.
“She doesn’t care about me,” Storm explained. “But she wants her husband kept out of trouble. She found a thread of light in her black heart and grasped at it desperately. The why is quite a mystery perhaps, but I don’t care enough to investigate.”
“The ship left port heading for Eplas,” Ralnor said, changing subject. “I want transportation out of Aldenport Nattas. The discreet variant.”
“What?” Maja murmured. “What does this have—?”
“You’ll have it,” Storm replied, over her protests.
“What are the terms?” Ralnor said evenly. “I assume you want something more than simply have her eliminated.”
“Nattas you despicable scum!” Maja snarled and Tout started chuckling finding it funny. Ralnor stooped and grabbed the bottle away from him with a grunt.
“Your terms Lord Nattas,” Ralnor repeated examining the bottle of Flauegran, before placing it on the table carefully.
Dar Eherdir. This was the name written on the parchment and Storm shouldn’t have been able to read it, but he did. Lord Nattas just knew in his heart that this was what it said.
So Storm told him what he wanted in turn.
You don’t throw away a tool that is foolish.
You put it to good use instead.
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An owl called from his open window and Storm who hadn’t slept at all, glanced at himself in the mirror. He spotted new wrinkles on his face and several strands of white hair on his head. No grey. It seemed he'd skipped that part and rushed straight for the finale.
Lots to do still, he thought and turned around, when Sirio entered his office.
“Maja is leaving,” Sirio said immediately and Storm grimaced.
“Good morning son,” he told him, feeling an ulcer burning in his stomach.
“I fail to see how it is, Lord Nattas,” Sirio noted sourly.
“She has a soft spot for you,” Storm advised him. “Use it to get what you want, but know that if you betray her trust you’re a dead man.”
Sirio smacked his lips, head not as well-combed that morning, the young man busy ‘consoling’ the rattled assassin for most of the evening. “I shall go with her. I’m needed at the Barony.”
“How is she?” Storm asked.
Miranda was his meaning.
“Asked for you, rumors that you’ve died worried her,” Sirio reported.
“How was the journey?”
“Difficult, but surprisingly absent danger. The workshops are driving her crazy.”
“She’ll manage. That’s a tough woman,” Storm commented and gulped down to chase the weakness away. This next part left no room for sentimentality.
“You’ll travel to Islandport near Asturia,” Storm continued. “There’s a certain woman there that ‘works’ for me. She received a chest with ‘tools’ recently and instructions to keep it safe, until you arrive.”
Sirio Veturius stood back and stared at him unsure.
“When you do,” Storm continued. “You’ll seek passage up North, you’ll stay alive whatever the fucking cost and reach Kas. You’ll arrive there in the middle of harsh Winter, so plan accordingly. Where’s Secundus? I haven’t seen him since before I got arrested!”
“No one has seen him in more than month,” Sirio murmured deep in thought. “Sudi is worried about him. What did you have him do last?”
Hmm.
“It matters not at this junction,” Storm pushed forward. “You’ll do as I say now Sirio. You’re leaving tomorrow.”
“What am I to do in Kas?” Sirio asked him, clenching his jaw and growing up in a night by at least a couple of years.
“You know what.”
“How am I to get into Lucius’ entourage Lord Nattas?” Sirio asked. “You’re working for his brother.”
“You’re a fucking writer, concoct a story for crying out loud. Speak of marrying my daughter and having to run away.”
“He’ll never buy that,” Sirio protested, but then paused and stared at Lord Nattas alarmed. “What’s in the chest?”
“Credibility,” Storm replied dryly. “For your arse. Legitimacy for Lucius and assurance my family plays both sides of this idiotic conflict that’s about to erupt.”
“Lucius will fight his brother?”
“Don’t be an idiot son,” Storm admonished him. “Lucius been fighting this war afore any of us got wind we were in it. He’ll fight us all, but if he wins you’ll get some of the credit. You’ve my family’s future in yer hands, don’t fuck this up.”
“I don’t know Lord Lucius,” Sirio replied apprehensively.
“Eh, he’s just yer type,” Storm reassured him. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”