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A few days later, he was notified that in case of his troop being sent to battle, they would be commanded at the battle site by Death Knight Egretta Mel`crae. She would be arriving to drill with them the next day. Elanus frowned at the notice as he placed it into his logbook. Grandmother again? Or house Mel`crae flexing its own influence? He doubted if he'd be told which. Did she really think this would win his affection, or gratitude, or even his respect? Maybe the last of those. Or did she just think it'd encourage him to be as willing as he could to get out of his punishment? Grandmother had, he realized as he thought back, not said as much as his agreeing to marry Egretta would end the restriction from battle and the chaining, but she had implied it in how she had given the orders. If he agreed to marry Egretta Mel`crae, he'd have his command back. It was as simple an equation as that. And probably, until he did so, she'd be keeping it. Was it a fair trade, he wondered, one pride and duty for another?
The rumors started flying immediately when he announced this to his troops. Lady Mel`crae was not a student and not an instructor. She was also a higher ranking Death Knight than their own commander, strange in itself; substitute commanders were usually commoner Knights of great experience when they weren't fellow students or instructors. That way they would be properly subsidiary to the real commander in addition to being able to pick up the way of things particularly well. So the immediate rumor was that Elanus had been forced to marry Lady Mel`crae and it was she who'd put him in the chains. She was not known to be an opponent of the Prince, but that was an additional component of the rumor. Elanus wasn't sure what to say about this rumor -- it wasn't that far from the truth, but at the same time it was wholly inaccurate. He decided to tell a part of the truth to his troops. So he explained, to one of the older male warriors who'd been in his command since it began, over a drink after practice that same day, that the chains were a punishment of his oversentimental, overprotective grandmother for disobeying her orders and going on the raid against the Ent rebels. The knight agreed that Elanus had done the only thing he could rightly do, and Elanus assured him that he had no regrets, and that the punishment probably would not last long. At least he believed the first to be true; the second was a lie, but not one he could possibly be caught in.
Elanus's attempt at a counter-rumor was only partly believed; the other apparently seemed more plausible to his troops. When Egretta showed up and greeted him in a very friendly manner, that only made the situation worse. She started off with a short speech to the troops, to the effect that she did not intend to change a thing about how they operated, and only wanted to become part of the cohort in order to properly guide it at any battle Elanus was unable to attend, for whatever reason. They were too disciplined to speak it aloud, but Elanus knew that between themselves they'd be grumbling that Egretta could simply remove the chains and let their real commander lead them. Elanus was proud of their loyalty. After he'd drilled the cohort about half their usual time, Egretta asked him if she might lead the next set of drills. Elanus felt obligated to allow this; it was his responsibility to make sure her leadership worked as smoothly for his cohort as it possibly could. And he felt she did a good job with them; she had flawless leadership style, much more polished than his, although in a more traditional vein. His troops did well, making him proud of them all over again. He felt a bit better about the whole situation than he had when he'd received the orders.
After the training, Elanus typically would go relax with some of his troops, but not this time. Egretta kept near him and he was obligated to attend her, the troops he would usually accompany left on their own when he was not able for politeness sake to take his leave of his suitor. Once they were all gone, Egretta invited herself back up to his room for further discussion of their working together. Once again, Elanus found that his word to his grandmother to treat her in a polite and friendly way kept him from saying no. She was too good at this level of social interaction for him to have a chance against her at that level of discourse.
When they got to his room, Kyla was waiting inside. She curtseyed politely. "Lady Mistress," she said, eyes downcast, at the low point of the curtsey, then held her position.
The mist elf stayed curtseying until Egretta said with pleased amusement, "You may rise."
"She never does that when I come back to the room by myself," Elanus observed.
"Do you wish her to? I will be happy to command it." Egretta smiled at him, a small line of her white teeth showing between red lips. She reached with one finger to toy with the links of his armor at the shoulder.
Elanus didn't particularly like the implication that the slave was obedient to her commands over his, though he already knew it to be true, since they were her slave, not his. "No need, Lady Egretta."
"When we are in private, you should call me Gretel. And I will call you Lano. It's so much more friendly, isn't it?"
Kyla bit her lip, knowing that if Kyle were listening, he would smirk. Those were the pet names Lady Egretta had invented for her games where Kyle was Elanus in pretense. Elanus noticed the gesture on the slave's part, though he had no idea of the reason for it. Kyle might have told him, but Kyla was too shy.
"That's never been a nickname I went by," Elanus said, trying to maintain friendliness and politeness while not giving her any reason to believe he really liked her at all. This was such a hard line to walk, and he knew he was slipping to either side of it all the time, both incredibly risky.
"Even better," said Egretta as she touched the back of her fingers to his cheek in a soft caress. "It will be just between us, a special pet name." Elanus couldn't think of anything to say that fit into his narrow scope of behavior. Egretta read whatever she liked into his silence. "Lano, love," she whispered. "I know you can't say what you want to say. It is all right, I know. You yearn for me, but you cannot betray the one who is still in your heart."
Elanus surprised himself with the depth of anger he felt. It was particularly hard for him to keep from showing it on his face. It was exactly because she was saying the same kind of things Nyctea might have said, except that she had not earned the right to say such things, she could not possibly feel them; when Nyctea told him she understood what he couldn't say, she had known, she had been right, she had been able to put his feelings into words better than he possibly could have himself. Whereas when Egretta tried, she stepped all over his real feelings and made even them feel false.
"I couldn't possibly," he began, a feeble attempt because he was so put out and so unable to say the truth without a complete violation of his given word.
"Then don't try, Lano," she whispered ardently, and gestured a spell, touching it to his lips. Unspeakable name of the god! She had silenced him with a spell. He knew that spell -- it lasted an hour, exactly. "Secure the door, Kylie," she told the slave. Kylie went and locked it, standing at the ready just inside.
"Let's undress him," she said, whispering conspiratorially, as if she and the mist elf were girls playing with a doll. Apparently Egretta knew the basic control words of the chains -- they were the same on all such magical bonds of this vintage, so it was no great surprise. Though Elanus was unable to speak them to allow them to undress him, they managed easily between them. He had some idea of what they were going to do, and his dread was growing, still small though as he stood naked except for the chains.
At first he schooled himself to feel nothing. It was not that difficult; he had spent his lust very thoroughly that first day he'd been given Kyla, and it had not had time to build up to any kind of threshold he could not control. What could have been intimate, was nothing at all, he ignored it completely.
Then Egretta showed she'd learned more of the tricks the chains could play on their prisoner than Elanus's mother had shown him. They were, as he'd known but not really thought about, a tool of sexual conquest as well as imprisonment. They yanked him willy-nilly into positions he'd stretched himself to for love of Nyctea, amenably; it was so much harder to reach when his body fought it, but the chains won the battle. So bound, he was no longer able to feel nothing; every touch was an invasion, disgusting, horrible beyond his comprehension. It did not physically feel very different from Nyctea's touch; but emotionally it was at the other end of an entire universe of possibility. And yet...
The hour seemed to pass with terrible lassitude. By halfway through its span, Elanus had been through an entire spectrum of emotion. He began to feel he had to deserve this for something. Of course, the something was obvious once he'd had the thought. He should be tortured for his failure and betrayal, his inability to avenge her. And when he'd decided that, it all began to feel different again. Still horrible, still disgusting. But now the disgust and horror was itself arousing, because it was deserving punishment for him. Hatred wrapped not only the inflictor of this torment, Egretta, but himself as well. And then he finally betrayed himself, out of such feelings.
Egretta exclaimed happily. It had been difficult, he was stubborn, but she'd finally managed to arouse her newly captive beloved. She slaked herself in her time remaining against this trophy she'd won herself. He was not going to achieve any release this time, but that pleased her just as well. She tied a little ribbon round it with her name on it, then kissed his unresponsive mouth goodbye. "We'll do this again, Lano my love, and it will be even more fun. You'll see." With that, and a final bidding to Kyla, not to help him with any release until she should have one from him, she left him to Kyla's hands.
He could not speak the word to return the bonds to their rest state until the spell wore off, ten minutes later. Those minutes were excruciating ones. Finally, Elanus whispered the short word, and they released him to lie panting and aching.
The first thing he did was rid himself of the ribbon. He was not satisfied with tossing it in a wastebasket, he needed to completely destroy it. A spell of decay made it rot over a period of minutes, and he watched intently the entire time. By then, he was mostly recovered physically. He dressed, with Kyla's assistance, in a simple cloth garment and went to bathe.
The springs housing the baths were at the base of the college, in its basement area. Water sprung from the ground at a warm temperature, from a spring stabilized by spells hundreds of years old. Elanus relaxed into the warm water and thought he could go on with the day now. And the next day. He played and replayed alternate conversations to keep Egretta from ever getting into his room again the way she had that day.
Elanus spent the evening catching up on his reading. The history of battles fought and the treatises on tactics, strategy, and leadership that were his college's assigned reading for advanced students were suitably absorbing to his mind. When night fell, he noticed Kyle looking at him in a different way than he had before.
Elanus looked back at Kyle. "Yes?" he said expectantly.
"What is it that you wish, master?" Kyle replied, with obedient words but the same undertone in his voice that Elanus had seen in his look.
"I wish to know what you were thinking when you were looking at me just now," Elanus answered. He saw no reason to be indirect with a slave.
Kyle looked back at him almost insolently. "You don't want to know what I was thinking, master."
"Tell me anyway." Elanus looked at the slave expressionlessly. If Kyle refused, the Death Knight would make him regret it. "I have a curse spell ready if you refuse again."
"You'd think I hadn't been serving your kind for years. I've been better than cursed. You want to know what I was thinking, do you? And you'll probably curse me for telling you when I have. There's no clean way here. I really need to learn to watch my thoughts better. But thoughts, that's all a slave has to himself." Kyle crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I was thinking you don't deserve her, all right? Because you don't. Here's a woman who is beautiful, powerful, noble -- she puts literally years into figuring you out, she's wanted you for that long, and been working at it. She and I watched I don't know how many enchanted illusion recreations of you and your," Kyle paused, because he knew if he called Nyctea anything remotely rude, both Egretta and Elanus would be furious, "beloved, together and she watched how you reacted, what you liked, practiced and practiced, she wants so badly to please you, and nothing is good enough for you. No one is. You're a thick-headed arrogant twit. That's what I was thinking."
Elanus, in reply, simply dropped his expressionless mask and let Kyle see his real feelings. There were no words he would choose to express them to a slave, but he wanted them seen. Then he turned on his side and tried to sleep.
So, he thought as he lay there with his eyes closed, so. There would be no evading Egretta. She was obsessed with him. He had to get rid of Kyle, Kyle was jealous. Kyle had been Egretta's pleasure slave, he realized that now, and for a long time. And had been -- this angered him even more -- pretending to be Elanus, for her. She was invading everything Elanus valued, and doing her best to destroy it all. It was a war, between them. And as far as he could see, it was a war where she held every high ground, had every possibly ally, and he had none. No, not quite. He had his troops, they were on his side, if they knew there were sides. But she was there too, and he could not use those allies against her for tactical reasons. Stopped at every turn in his attempt to figure out how to proceed, Elanus finally fell into a fitful sleep.
By the next morning, Elanus had thought of one idea that had not occurred to him the night before. He should consult his mother: he had not done so since he had apprehended her failure in the advocacy of Nyctea. She would like to be warned of what was happening, and she at least would not be happy about it. She was an ally in addition to the knights serving under him, and although limited in her reach, she was free to do as she liked while they were not. He was free to ask that of her, and not of them.
Before he went to see her, he thought he should see about getting himself a new set of clothing. Something must exist that would be easier to change into and out of, without assistance.
The market was busy, and Elanus felt more conspicuous here than he had at his college. He felt many sets of eyes on him, the minds behind them busy with speculation. This was the first time he'd ventured into the market in his armor in a long time, and the first time ever he'd come here wearing the chains. He almost hoped he was not recognizable with his helm on. He ducked into Tyto's shop, grateful to be concealed from the majority of watchers.
Tyto was astonished, and did not recognize him at first. The awkward shuffling stride the chains inflicted, as well as the helmet, had disguised any cues he might have spotted, and the clanking was a distraction. "How may I help you, my Lord?" Tyto asked, in a formal tone and without the subtle cue of recognition that Elanus usually saw when his friend addressed him that way for whatever reason.
"Do you have anything to hand that would be easy to put on and take off around this impediment?" Elanus tugged at the chains holding his wrists within a foot or so of his waist, to illustrate.
The tailor recognized his friend's voice immediately. If there hadn't been several customers in the shop, he would have exclaimed, or let his mouth drop open. As it was, Tyto behaved professionally, and didn't completely boggle. "My Lord, let me show you some possible items. This way, please." One of the shop assistants moved quickly to take care of the other customers, as Tyto led Elanus to one of the back rooms where measurements were taken and fittings done. It was small, and not completely soundproof, but it was private enough. "Elanus, what happened?" Tyto asked. He gestured broadly.
"I did do what you suggested," Elanus told him, "and told Nyctea's aunt where to collect her blood price. For some reason, my grandmother decided to restrict my movements. I don't believe the two are directly related," he added, thinking what he had said might be misunderstood. "I don't know why she didn't want me going anywhere. But she's certainly managed it. This is my first time leaving the college since she had me chained up."
"What do they think of it at the College of War?" Tyto asked.
"They think she's forcing me to marry, that's the predominant rumor." Elanus shrugged with a clank. "I really do need clothes I can get on and off. The armor is easier than my street clothes, but I'm tired of wearing it to sleep in."
"Is she forcing you to marry, then? Or is that just a rumor?" As he spoke, Tyto rummaged through a rack of clothing that was kept back here. Some of it might be in Elanus's size. It was not particularly fashionable wear, but there were things that were loose fitting and might be taken up here and there, closures added to make it work for him.
"Mostly a rumor. She is pressuring me to marry appropriately, but not forcing me, or even ordering me as my clan head. She's using other techniques." Elanus frowned, wondering if he should mention any more to his commoner friend. "There's a woman who wants to marry me that she thinks is appropriate, and she got me to promise to be civil to. Though now I'm wishing I hadn't given my word on that."
Tyto almost laughed. "Just one, huh?" He pulled out a long piece of cloth patterned in black and icy green. It resolved into a robe with deep armholes, no sleeves, and a sash. "This might work. Shrug into it, the arm holes are big enough to leave the chains where they are, and then tie the sash around your waist to hold it in place. You'd probably want to wear something under it around your waist, kilt or shorts. Kilt would work easier I bet." He thumbed through again for a while, then pulled one out. "Here we go, black kilt. Wear this under it and you're all set. Not particularly warm, and not any kind of armor, but very easy to wear."
"I'll take it. How much?" Elanus looked at the clothing. It was pitiful, but simple, and it'd be a visible protest if he wore it in the Duchess's presence, that was certain.
"A gift. And I'll make you something much more appropriate to your status, but it'll take a few days. Let me get measurements on where those chains sit, all right?" Tyto named a very reasonable price. Less, in fact, than Elanus had paid for the cloth and leather outfit he'd worn here the last time he visited.
"If I take this one as your gift, you'd better charge me the going rate for the hand-sewn one."
"All right, if it makes you feel better." Tyto named another, higher price. "You're such a --" he paused, and then substituted a different word, "nobleman. Now, since you're paying extra, your order will be ready soon, come back let's say day after tomorrow." He made a few of the measurements in silence, then asked his next question in a more personal tone as he knelt down to measure the length of the chain between Elanus's ankles. "What did the Duchess say you had to do to get out of those things?"
"She didn't say specifically. She implied directly that it would be giving my word to stay at the College when my cohort went to battle, if she told me to. Since that's what I disobeyed to get them in the first place. She implied indirectly that if I agreed to marry her 'suitable' candidate, I'd get them off also." Elanus winced in the last sentence.
"I bet this 'suitable' candidate is really horrible, eh? Beyond just not being ~her~, I mean." Tyto was still looking through the clothes, to see if he found anything else he could give his friend.
"Yes," Elanus said with finality. "She's really horrible."
"Did you give your word to wear the chains, too? Because if not, I know an Adept who could probably magic them off for you." Tyto gave up, deciding he wasn't going to find anything else, and sat down on a padded stool.
Elanus smiled at him. Tyto's familiarity and friendship was heartening. "I didn't give my word, but the Duchess said if I were to take them off, it'd be a week in the dungeon for me."
Tyto grinned. "Well then, you don't want to do that, she'd probably let Lady Horrible come visit you there, and you wouldn't be able to get away from her." Elanus had not thought of that. Not even once. He gritted his teeth to suppress the shudders and the nausea that the idea gave him. Tyto frowned, the grin gone immediately when he saw this reaction. He'd been thinking horrible as in boring, or insipid. But for any Tier`dal to react that way -- much less a noble Death Knight who had the self-control that Tyto knew Elanus had -- she had to be on a completely different level of horror. "Elanus? I didn't mean --" Tyto didn't know what to finish the sentence with. He didn't mean, what, exactly? He stopped trying to explain, gesturing instead with hands moving slightly apart, then palms turning upward.
Elanus was by that time completely expressionless. He gave Tyto a smile completely devoid of warmth, friendship, or cheer. A skull's smile. It looked remarkably appropriate on a Death Knight in full armor. Only part of the smile showed behind the helmet. "You are right. Thank you for the caution, my friend." One more shudder shook the Death Knight, and he tasted bile in his mouth before his control locked down again. He had thought only of the boredom and confinement of the dungeon. He had not thought at all of the advantage Egretta might take of his captivity; now that Tyto had suggested it, it seemed all too plausible. "Thank you for the robe and kilt. I may need it. I'll be back in two days for the other. I'm sure it'll be good." By this time he managed an actual friendly smile for Tyto. "Thank you, too, for being a friend. I appreciate it." This last couple of sentences sounded so peculiar between Tier`dal, but nevertheless it was Elanus's way.
As he walked toward his clan steading to visit his mother, Elanus came to some new conclusions. He was trying to shore up his sense of self. He had to keep strong enough to avenge Nyctea. First of all, he spent some time working through to a conviction that he had done nothing wrong in the matter of vengeance for her, and that it was appropriate to spend time planning to make sure it went right, and that delay was no betrayal of her, but only the correct action to take. He would not betray her as long as he held the determination to act when the time was right. Then, he addressed his newly brighter hatred for Egretta Mel`crae. She was the enemy he thought of first and last, not Nyctea's killers, now. That was acceptable too; she would be easier to take revenge on, failure would be less intolerable -- the dead understand nothing, but with Egretta he was only avenging himself, so understanding would be possible -- and it would be good practice. Not to mention that because she was part of another clan, he would be able to get assistance from his clan in the action, if he could convince them. That was what he was going to have to do with his mother, right now.
He walked in and up to her room without seeing anyone but clan slaves and servants. Elanus knocked on his mother's door. There was no answer, so he pushed at the door, but it was locked. Probably magically, as a precaution. Elanus went into the hallway, and asked the first maid he saw if she knew where he could find his mother. Getting directions to the rear garden, he went out there and found her sitting reading a book on a garden seat, grown from the stump of a tree by their Eant slaves.
"Elanus, what a pleasure and surprise," she said when she looked up at the clanking sound and saw him. "Come, sit by me."
Elanus sat down next to his mother. The two of them had always gotten along well. His mother was, as much as anyone in the Chal`daer household could be, a supporter of the Prince and of equality for men. Despite this, she and his father were very distant; Elanus's father lived in another clan house, in the city, rather than at the clan steading. Both his parents seemed to prefer to see one another as infrequently as they could. Elanus spoke in a low voice. There was no one visible nearby, but he wanted the discussion to be between him and his mother. "It's always good to see you, Mother." He wanted to add something, but he was unsure how to open the topic. He should have thought of a starting line on the way over.
"You don't come visit often enough. Though it's understandable, especially in your last year at college." She paused, then said, "I know you know I tried my best for you. I do for all my children. Sometimes what we want, we can't have, though. You, I, all of us. Our hatred for what stands in our way, can sometimes make us strong enough to overcome. But we are not the god, our hate isn't all-powerful. We fail, sometimes. And we learn to live with failure."
Elanus thought that was about as close to an apology as he was going to get from his mother, and more than he'd expected. It was easier after that to ask what he had come to ask. That was probably why she'd said it. "Yes, Mother. But some things can't be lived with. The Lady who Grandmother finds so suitable for me is -- not. Not remotely. Will you help me avenge myself on her?"
His mother was confused for a moment, then her face cleared. "On Egretta Mel`crae, you mean? What has she done?" She raised one white eyebrow.
Elanus answered flatly. "She raped me. Using these chains."
The Duchess's middle daughter was not at all pleased, though neither was she furiously angry. "Your best revenge on her is simply not marrying her. She covets you fiercely."
Though he would show it to no one else in the Darkwood, Elanus could tell his mother how desperate he was. "I can't even let her get near me again, mother. I know she wants to do it again. And if Grandmother puts me in the dungeons, you can't let her in. Please. But how do I get out of these things?" He rattled his chains. "If I weren't in them, I'd be able to defend myself against her."
Elanus's mother would have laughed, if she weren't angry at her son's being taken advantage of by some much older out-clan noble who should have known better. "Your grandmother doesn't care at all if it is Egretta who you marry, or some other noblewoman. She simply wants you suitably matched. If you need protection, and freedom, then you need to find someone suitable, Kite. Mel`crae isn't the only noble clan. In fact, your best bet would be to find a royal lady. She would be easily able to keep Egretta away from you, even if your grandmother put you in the dungeons. There are quite a few unmarried countesses (translation of female of the royal family's title). Even a married one, if she fancied you enough, would do -- your grandmother could easily be brought to believe she'd divorce her husband for you." Since there was but one clan of royalty, and no Tier`dal was permitted to marry within his or her own clan, the Prince's clan chose their mates from among the nobility.
Elanus realized something as his mother spoke. He'd always viewed his attractiveness to women as a problem, something to be worked around, a difficulty of his life. But as his mother was pointing out, it was also a weapon and a power. He could use that weapon against his enemy. It would require more compromise than he would have allowed himself a week ago -- but that was a week ago. That was before 'Gretel.' However, he further realized, he'd have to be very careful. Any royalty he found to be his defender would also expect something in return. And he'd have to make sure that whatever it was, was tolerable to him, because he'd have no recourse even to his family, against a member of the royal clan. "Can you do anything to keep her away from me while I look for a countess to hide behind?"
His mother's eyes, as green as his own, twinkled at him. "I'll talk to your uncle Porphorio." This was his mother's brother, only three years younger than her. Porphorio had married into the royal family, a third cousin of the Prince, and was still in his wife's favor. Elanus barely knew this uncle, but he knew his mother and her almost-twin were still close. Then she got more serious. "No, Kite, there isn't anything I can do. Keep away from her as best you can. Porphorio might know who of his clan is interested, and I'll tell you as soon as I know anything."
Restlessly, he stood up, and paced back and forth in front of his mother once each way, then stopped. "Can you restrict the chains to only the commands you taught me?" Elanus was grasping for some ease from the emotional turmoil he still felt.
His mother looked irritated. "What, she used commands I didn't teach you? Unspeakable. No, I don't know anything about that level of adjustment of the chains. They're antique, they probably can't be respelled at all. Let me get an Adept to look at it for you, though. Just because they were used in bygone years for unwilling husbands doesn't give her, or any suitor, the right to use them that way on you. You haven't married her or even agreed to. She's overstepping." She stood, and looked into her son's eyes, speaking to him very softly. "Hate her, but don't fear her, Kite."
His mother would be the one to name the unwelcome emotion he was suffering under. "I'm trying, Mother." Tier`dal did not fear. Death Knights especially did not fear. But Elanus was afraid.