Vampyre: Desire Immortal

Chapter 40

The Lucky Man

Too drunk to hatch a better chick.

But drunk enough to shite a brick.

*****

"The King's a lucky man," Kelda said.

They were halfway through their third tankard. The handsome man sharing his company was as chatty as a magpie. Kelda had learned much.

His eyes kept wandering toward the Queen. She was a beauty. In fact, Kelda thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

"Her skin is so soft and pale," the warrior said.

"Mine would be too if all I had to do was stay holed up in my finely furnished chamber and count my jewels."

"I cannot take my eyes off her," Kelda said. "It is almost as if she has cast a spell on me, and I am besotted."

"Drunk is more like it. My name's Dyryke. Call me a former favorite of her Royal Fickledness."

"You do not speak as a loyal subject," said Kelda.

"My loyalties stay with me."

"I see," said Kelda.

Dyryke looked up at Perdix sitting awkwardly between the royal couple. He grit his teeth and drained the ale from his tankard.

"The little wizard on the stand looks as if a turd is lodged and won't come out," said Kelda.

He laughed heartily at his joke.

"He is not a wizard. Not an alchemist either," said Dyryke, "though he claims to be both. He is what you say – a worthless turd unfit for the dung heap."

"If that is so, why is he sitting up there and you down here with me? Me thinks the green-eyed monster doth bestrangle the feelings that your raging heart entangles, my friend."

"Fyke," said Dyryke. "I don't know! I am too drunk to discern the meaning your riddles."

"But not too drunk to hatch an egg and watch it fall to earth and crash into a million pieces?" Kelda said over the edge of his tankard.

Kelda watched as the drunken Dyryke attempted to make sense of what he'd just said.

"Do you want to see the miserable one you despise wallow in ashes and ruin?" Kelda said.

"Of course," said Dyryke. "I'd like nothing better."

An oily grin spread across Kelda's dirty, bearded face.

"You can throw a couple of crowned partridges into that pot while you're at it, too."

"Ahh," said Dyryke. "That is an excellent idea. Come. We'll set our plans in motion this very instant!"

The two ambled over the castle drawbridge and down the road leading outside the castle walls. Kelda was never seen or heard from ever again.