Intimate Interruption

Muld finds the Autocaster ring Syndi placed on his finger brings him into a very embarrassing situation.

19.

Intimate Interruption

 

 

For a few moments, Muld thought he was in hell.   As soon as he had pulled his hand back into the Bag of Holding, everything had taken on the feel of a nightmare.    For a few moments, everything in the parallel dimensional space of the Bag of Holding stayed constant.   He stood in the midst of the furniture of Master Hofflis, praying that the magic pouch would not be damaged enough to cause damage to anything in the Bag of Holding. 

Then, suddenly, there was a terrible jolt that sent everything tumbling over.   As he was buried under the heavy bookcases in the magic pouch, he knew exactly what had happened; fire from the blast had compromised the magic enough for a percentage of the force of the fall to the ground to be transmitted into the extra dimensional space.

But that knowledge came to him only seconds before the edge of one of the cases cracked his skull.    There was a flash of pain and he knew nothing else.

Until he awoke, lying on his back on something soft, with a woman screaming while clawing and punching his face.

Muld yelled out and pulled himself blindly away, shielding his face.   Rolling away from the attack, he tumbled off the side of what he guessed was a bed, onto a wooden floor.

“Guards!  Guards!”  A male voice that sounded vaguely familiar yelled as the woman kept screaming. 

Muld staggered to his feet, stunned and bleeding from scratches to his face, wildly looking around.

He was in a very fancy bedroom and as a handful of armed men crashed into the room, he saw -to his horror- which room it was that he was in.

It was King Eiolmoel and Queen Synthaeia’s private chamber, and though it was the middle of the afternoon, he had apparently appeared here - somehow- during an intimate time between them.

Queen Synthaeia held a sheet over her nude form and King Eiolmoel looked as if he could personally kill him with his bare hands.

Numb with confusion, he meekly let the guards grab his hands and roughly bind them behind his back.

“Bring him here!”   The king angrily commanded and they pushed him in front of Eiolmoel, forcing him to his knees in front of the monarch.    He slipped on a robe and glared at Muld for a moment before speaking.

“Muld Mozzil what in Yesh’s name caused you to appear in my private chamber?”

“Your Majesty, I have no idea-“

“No idea?   Surely you would know why you are here!”   The king said crossly.

“I’ll tell you what I do know, Your Majesty.”   Muld quickly recounted the events on the airship, including his attempt to escape death by using the Bag of Holding and his head injury.

“How ridiculous!”  Queen Synthaeia snapped, also donning a robe.  With her hair loose around her shoulders, the queen was quite lovely, despite the terrible scowl she wore, “That still doesn’t explain why you are in our royal chamber.”

“I don’t know, Your Majesty!   The last thing I remember was being struck on the head… then I woke up here.”

The Queen shook her head, then her head snapped upright as if she had just thought of something.   She leaped off the bed and rushed to him, the guards stepping out of her way.    She went around to the back of him and pulled his hands upright.

“I knew it!   You are wearing my daughter’s Autocaster ring!”  She slapped him furiously, “What have you done to her?!   If you’ve killed her"“

“I didn’t know I was wearing it!”  He protested frantically, “I didn’t even know she had an Autocaster ring!    I swear to Yesh, Your Majesty!”

As King Eiolmoel moved to restrain and calm her, the Queen grabbed Muld by the throat and yelled into his face, “If you have harmed her in any way, I will make you wish you were never born!”

Thankfully the king commanded the guards to pull his wife back.   Muld was desperately trying to think what he could say or do to disarm this situation, when suddenly an elven man wearing the robes of a wizard rushed into the room and in spite the situation, went immediately to the queen.

“Your Majesty, forgive my intrusion, but Princess Synthaeia has contacted you by scrying ball.”

Relief flooded over the queen’s face and she ran out of the room, her robes flowing behind her as she went to converse with her daughter.

 

There was a terribly awkward silence in the room as soon as the queen left.   Muld didn’t dare say anything, but just knelt there with his head bowed, coughing after being choked by Synthaeia.

Suddenly the guards were gently lifting him to his feet, apparently after a nod or silent motion from the king.

“Bring him a chair and free his hands.”   King Eiolmoel told a guard.    A few moments later, Muld was seated across from the king, who sat at the end of the bed.

“Thank you, Your Highness.   Everything I have told you is the truth, sir.”

“I imagine that it is, Master Muld, but we will wait until I hear what my daughter tells the queen.”

Muld nodded, clearing his throat several times in an attempt to ease the discomfort caused by the queen’s hold on his neck.

“We were expecting you tomorrow with the cannons.   Now I guess that has all changed,”   King Eiolmoel said with a faint smile.

“I just hope all of my crew are safe, especially Syndi.”

“Oh, she’s safe, Master Muld, I know that.   Only my daughter would take an expensive and powerful ring that I gave her with the strictest orders to not tell anyone of its existence, and put it on your finger.”

“Perhaps she feared I was close to death, Your Majesty, and had no other option.”

“We’ll learn soon enough.”   He paused and cocked his head slightly.   Muld could also hear what sounded like a heated conversation somewhere in the palace.

“What is that?”  He asked the king.

Eiolmoel sighed and shook his head, “Master Muld, that would be my wife and my daughter arguing with each other.”

“Oh… I’m sorry, sir.”

“You have been a point of contention between the queen and my daughter, Master Muld.”

“I seem to have a knack for making Her Majesty hate me.”

“Today was a particularly upsetting time.   Your appearance in such an… intimate time… embarrassed both of us, Master Muld, as you can certainly imagine.”

“I felt like I could have simply died, Your Highness.    May I ask you why Syndi’s Autocaster ring was programmed to send her to your private chamber?”

“It was the queen’s idea.   Mothers always want to know immediately if something happens to her child.    By selecting the bedchamber, she knew that if something happened to Syndi during the night and her ring was activated, she would be brought to us at once.”

“I am so embarrassed, Your Majesty, I don’t think I can ever make restitution.”  

“We were rather foolish to plan such a rendezvous in the afternoon anyway.”

“I hope I haven’t traumatized her… um… relationship… with you.    Having your privacy violated like that…”  

To Muld’s surprise, the king began to laugh.    “Master Muld, forgive me for saying this, but of all the people that could have interrupted us, you have the distinction of causing her the most distress.”

Muld tried to not laugh, but could not restrain himself.    Thankfully, both of them now could see the humor and it eased the tension in the room.

A moment later, the door to the room opened and Queen Synthaeia entered, her face flushed with suppressed anger.    She frowned upon seeing Muld sitting there.

“Princess Synthaeia explained your presence, Master Muld,”  She said coldly, “Apparently you were gravely injured and had lost a lot of blood.    Lacking a healing potion, she decided to use her Autocaster ring to keep you from dying.    You succumbed to your wounds and the ring activated,  healing you and bringing you to the place I had selected for my youngest child to appear if she was in danger.    I am…sorry… that I attacked you.   That was not something a lady does, Master Muld, and I apologize.”

“Your Majesty, there is no need to do that; you were as confused as I was.    Is Syndi and my guild members alright?”

The queen nodded, “Syndi said that all of them are well.   She also said that the blast destroyed all of the airships that had surrounded your ship.”

“I praise Yesh that Princess Syndi and my guild were uninjured.”

The queen smiled weakly and then turned to the king, “She wishes to speak to you.”

King Eiolmoel hesitated, but a look from the queen told him that she expected him to leave them alone.    With a somewhat sympathetic look at Muld, he stood up and left to speak to his daughter by scrying device.   

As soon as he left, Synthaeia nodded to the guards and they left the room as well.

Without a word, the queen pulled another chair from across the room and sat across from Muld, looking at him disdainfully for a few moments.   She took a deep breath and began to speak.

“I will be quite frank and truthful to you, Muld.    I don’t like you at all.”

“I know that, Your Majesty.”

“I’m sure that you do, I have not tried to conceal it.    The reason that I don’t like you is that you have charmed my daughter.”

“I can’t see how I could have done that, Your Majesty.     I certainly have not tried to do anything disrespectful toward her.”

“You befriended her, Muld, and that is disrespectful of her.”

“It is?”

Synthaeia leaned forward as if explaining something to someone witless, “Muld, my daughter is a princess and needs to be associating with people of her own social circle.”

“I understand that, Your Majesty, but surely you don’t expect her to look down on anyone not of nobility?”

“Of course not, Muld!   But being kind and polite to the lower classes is different from befriending them.     I don’t mean to be rude, but by associating with you and the members of your guild, she is lowering her status.    Then she decides to become a sorceress, wearing vulgar attire just so she can cast spells.    It is unheard of for a princess to behave like that.”

“Queen Synthaeia, I did not persuade her to do any of this.   She made her own decisions.  Believe it or not, I know that she is a princess and is much better than I am socially.    I’m not trying to deceive her or take advantage of her.    She is extremely intelligent and will certainly have a brilliant future.    I don’t think she would do anything that would ruin her future, Your Majesty.    She disagrees with you on a lot of issues, but she knows who she is and I don’t think she’ll give up her heritage or status for anything… or anyone.”

There was a knock on the door and a servant meekly opened the door, “Your Majesty, I have brought afternoon tea.”

Synthaeia gestured for him to enter and he carried a tray with a flask of tea and three cups.     The servant hesitated and looked around, “Is His Majesty having tea elsewhere?”

“Just pour his cup; he will be returning soon.   Serve us and then please leave.”

The servant bowed then rather nervously poured three cups of the amber liquid, bowed again and hurried out of the room, closing the door behind him.

 The queen gestured to the cup of tea, “Please feel free, Muld.”

Muld took the cup and drank deeply, to ease his sore throat.    The tea had a strange bitter taste that caused him to look up questioningly at Synthaeia, but the queen had stood up and began to pace.

“Muld, I appreciate your candor with me and I do believe what you have told me.    But I also know my headstrong daughter.   She delights in… challenging the proper flow of things.    She snubbed Lord Deryck, whom she has known for years.    She is feigning interest in you, Muld, but the reason for this is to make a point against me.    She hates to be told who to see and what to do.    She finds you charming, Muld, because she knows that by doing so, she will irritate me.    But I am confident there is no real depth of feeling for you.    She may like you somewhat, but I suspect that after the novelty of learning your craft - as well as the sorceress art- she will grow bored and rather rudely snub you and her teachers and return here.”

Muld heard the queen’s words, but was experiencing a strong ache in his stomach that had slowly come over him after the drink of the tea.     He was feeling sicker by the moment; his throat began to close up, his head pounded and his vision fogged over.  His body felt numb and cold -- very, very cold.    There was a roaring in his head and he began to feel as if he couldn’t breathe.    Panicking, he jumped to his feet, gasping and clutching at his throat.

As if from far away he heard Queen Synthaeia’s voice asking him what was wrong and saw the fearful look in her eyes just before the room started to swim and darkness covered him for the second time that day.