by John Benson
Kira Vorkosigan was hiding in a place she was not supposed to be. Even though she had been doing it for weeks, she still had a rush of fear to her belly as the two wizards walked into the old stable they had rented as a workroom. She had seen and stepped over the spell traps set for the unwary, and reached her hiding place without incident, but a part of her was still petrified she would be discovered.
The wizards placed a bowl on their work table, and called up Power into it. They didn't even set any wards. They then turned and left, with the Power still sitting right there, nothing but air and fear between it and Kira.
She could not resist. She sneaked forward until she was standing next to the bowl which sang strange and wonderful symphonies into her blood. She knew enough to sit down, and then she Reached. The Magick poured into her like good wine, and caressed her nerves like an old, welcome lover.
She closed her eyes, and opened them in the Gray Place. Far off she could feel the quiet Presence of the Goddess softly, ever so softly singing comfort to Her creation. Closer but still far away she sensed several Bignastys, with their black bodies and red souls. They were hunting, but not specifically for her. She heard/felt a mindvoice, but couldn't place its location.
«See how quickly she enters the Dreamspace, and how little energy she wastes to get there.»
«Yes, she hoards it well,» said another voice. «Let's see what she does with it.»
Kira was sitting, just as she had been before her transition. Here everything was gray, with only shade telling earth from sky. She sat quietly creating color. Green leaves and yellow blooms grew from the gray substrate at her urging. She worked slowly, lovingly, making very little noise so as not to draw the attention of the nasties.
«How small the scope of her Workings,» one of the disembodied voices said softly.
«Circumspect, not small,» the other responded. «She is not able to confront the predators, so she works below the threshold of their attention.»
«Perhaps,» came the reply. «Shall we proceed?»
Kira heard «Yes.» Then she found herself back in the wizard's workshop, with the sense in her ass of having just plopped down, even though she was still seated. She heard the two voices again, only this time they were coming from two big unfriendly wizards.
"I am Markus. My friend is Cadwellon. And you are in deep shit." Kira drew breath to scream. Markus drew back his hand to slap her. She nodded and quietly vented the excess air. He lowered his hand.
Cadwellon now spoke up. "We will take you to the authorities, and you will get what you deserve."
Kira looked at the two. They were old. Markus must be at least as old as her rug merchant father, who was a portly forty-five. Cadwellon was ten years older even than that. Freaking ancient. Goddess, they were ugly. Now she would have to fuck them, or take her chances with a legal system that didn't give her a leg to stand on.
Kira was inexperienced, but knew she had only one card to play. "Please, sirs, use me for your pleasure, and let me go. I won't tell if you don't."
They each took an arm and brought her to her feet. Neither of them hurt her, but neither grip felt like she had the least chance of breaking it. Apparently screwing a cute sixteen year old girl before dinner wasn't in their plans right then.
They smiled pleasantly as they escorted her to the municipal building, and told a court officer they had a case that needed hearing now, not in the morning. The bailiff looked the two guys over. They wore the gray robes of Magick workers, but that didn't prove much. They spoke like educated people, but that didn't prove much either.
"Hizzonner the judge isn't taking any more cases this afternoon," he said, and held out his hand.
Markus reacted first. He stared fixedly at the bureaucrat for a short time. There was the sound of chimes, and a little cold wind sprang up, chilling the bailiff. "You could tell your wife this evening when you get home, that you met two wizards. You were nice, they were nice, and nobody got hurt." The last three words seemed to leave an echo.
Kira was impressed. Not by the Power, but by the subtly of what was done. Markus used almost no Power at all. She barely felt the twinge, but he had completely cowed the official. His outstretched hand shook.
Cadwellon had a different approach. He took the shaking hand and placed two gold coins in it. "Please," he said, "as a favor." The official made tracks. "Bribery works better than intimidation," Cadwellon explained blandly.
"But why two coins?" Markus asked. Kira wondered too.
"That way the bailiff can steal one, and the judge still gets an adequate honorarium," the older man answered. "Don't you have any street smarts at all?"
They were issued into the court, and called up as the next case. Markus whispered to the bailiff, so he got the charges right.
"Kira Vorkosigan, being sixteen years of age and thus responsible for her actions, was found hiding in quarters leased and controlled by Markus and Cadwellon, wizards," he intoned.
At the last word, the judge became more alert, and stared nearsightedly at the three of them.
"Tell me, girl, were you found in quarters controlled by these men, without their consent?"
"Yes, but..." Kira began.
"Just answer the questions. And did you hide yourself in the process?"
This time Kira answered only "Yes."
"Hear the judgment of the law," the judge droned, coming to a part he had done altogether too many times before. "Whosoever secretes himself in the holdings of another with a weapon is guilty of attempted murder. Whosoever secretes himself in the holdings of another but has no weapon is guilty of burglary. The punishment for burglary is slavery for life." He banged the gavel. Kira first flinched, then, as the words sunk in, began to cry.
"May I speak off the record?" the older wizard discretely held up a big coin purse, and was invited up to speak with the judge. Toward the end of their conversation, two large stacks of gold coins were placed on the judges bench. One was handed to the clerk to be counted and logged into the record. The other disappeared into the judges ample robes.
"I have decided leniency in this case. Kira, formerly of the family of Vorkosigan, will be given seven years of servitude, rather than life. Therefore her brand will be placed on her ass as a tattoo rather than with a branding iron. She shall be sent to the punishment square, stripped of clothes and rank, and receive the ritual spanking. Then she shall be remanded into the custody of the wizards Markus and Cadwellon for the period of seven years, to be done with as they see fit." The gavel banged again, and the girl was too confused to even cry.
The guards were near the end of their shift. They wasted no time dragging Kira outside, where the sun was getting low in the sky, but there was still plenty of light for the onlookers who saw her clothes ceremonially ripped off piece by piece, and her naked body tied to the punishment frame. The guards didn't take all the time they could have, but when they were done, her ass was a mess of bruises and a new tattoo, and all the fight was completely spanked out of her. The guards untied her and gave her into the tender keeping of the two wizards.
"You must want a slave for cooking and cleaning," one of the guards said as he handed the naked girl over to the two men.
"Help with housework is always welcome," Markus answered mildly.
"Ha," the other guard piped up. "The girl is young, but nicely put together. Bet she becomes a bed warmer." Both wizards smiled, but did not answer.
Again Kira had a wizard on each arm. This time not to stop her from running away, but just to help her stand. She was weak, and her ass hurt like hell. After a couple of miles, she finally started ignoring the pointed stares of the passers by seeing a naked, freshly spanked indentured servant. She finally began to talk to her tormenters.
"Cooking and cleaning?" she asked.
"Yes," Markus enthused. "We each had to do it every other day. Now with you there, the cycle changes to once every three days."
"I thought you'd make me do all of it," she wondered.
"Oh no, you'll be too busy." Markus was still exquisitely happy.
Kira was not. She remembered the guard talking about bed warmers, as if her nakedness in the cool evening air wasn't warning enough about present and future vulnerability. "Bed warmer," Kira finally got the phrase to come out.
"Probably," Cadwellon answered this time, "but we're not sure."
Kira shivered from more than nakedness and exposure. The wizards reached their dwelling, a little house in front of the space they rented for a work room. They brought the cold, tired, sore girl inside. When the door was shut, she was handed a gray robe, soft, warm, just her size.
"It's just like yours," she said, as she gratefully put it on, gaining warmth and hiding her injured buttocks.
"You are just like us," Markus said, his voice suddenly almost tender. He held out his hand, and even in the subdued light, something flashed in it. "Take this," he said, as if he had just said something of extreme importance.
She took what turned out to be a colorless crystal which felt warm to her touch, and sent a shock from the top of her head down to her toes. "What is it?" she said. "Is this what you will use to guarantee my slavery?"
"No, he responded simply, "it is what you will use to guarantee your freedom. You already wield Power well and wisely for a beginner, but you have never learned to find it for yourself. This crystal can be your focus, helping you to find Power in the world around you that you can channel. When you no longer need it, give it back."
Kira was first very moved, then a moment later, very pissed. "You set me up," she said. "I thought I had crept through your spell traps, but you set me up."
"Yes," Cadwellon met her gaze evenly. "Someone who needed Magick as badly as you do, someone who happens to be young and female. Your parents would never have allowed you to live with us, nor would the law have allowed it. Now your parents are out of the picture, and the law not only allows you to live with us, it compels it."
"So all of this was just so ..." Kira started the sentence.
"...so you could learn Magick," Cadwellon finished it.
Kira walked the streets of the city in the afternoon, free to do as she pleased. In fact, she was more free as the indentured servant of the two wizards than she had ever been as the daughter of an upper class merchant house. Every day there were two hours of direct teaching from one or the other wizard, and four more hours of solo practice. Once every three days there was an hour or two of light housework. Other than that, she was free.
If anyone stopped her and asked what she was doing, she would reply blandly, "I am on my Masters' business." She was, too.
Not to be reposted, reproduced or distributed, in part or whole.