Thomelisa Taken, Pt XII

(I actually wrote more than this, but scrapped and rewrote the first few hundred words.  Still counted it towards my word count, tho'!)

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“And what do we have here?” I murmured, and shifted my eyes back to Ofrse.  She looked as puzzled as it’s possible for a toad’s face to look, so I looked back at her son.  His croaks got louder and more emphatic.

“What is he saying?”  I asked Ofrse.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.  “I don’t actually speak Toad.  That’s part of what makes this curse do damnably inconvenient.”

“Hmm,” I said, and then, before she could react, I reached out and snatched her up with my right hand.  She opened her mouth to release whatever spell she’d been preparing, but I was faster.

“Silence,” I hissed, as I released the binding spell I kept in my the first knuckle of my right hand.  It was too much magic for such a small target, but it was better not to take chances with witches, toad-form or not.  I placed her immobilized body back on the lily pad, and turned my attention to her struggling son.

“Listen to me, Ofrse’s spawn.  I am going to kill your mother.  Do you know why?”

His eyes slitted, and he nodded miserably.  My eyebrows went up in surprise.

“Do you know, I believe you just might.  But just so there are no mistakes, I am going to spell it out for you.  And then I am going to give you a chance to save your own life, because I do not believe you realized her intentions until the last moment, did you?”

“Croak,” he said.

“Your mother told me that breaking your spell requires a kiss from your bride.  But she moved my daughter’s bed to your state hall.  A bed is not required for a wedding; nor is it required for a kiss, nor for a divorce.  But one might consider a bed a necessary part of consummation.  And since my daughter wasn’t likely to give her consent to interspecies congress, it tells me that the marriage she had planned was the older definition of the word- one more akin to rape, in this instance.  Or do I mistake the situation?”

“Croak,” he said, and shook his head as miserably as he had nodded it.

“I thought as much.  I am going to put you down now, child of Ofrse, so I can work a spell of understanding.  But if you try to run- or swim- I will kill you, and find another way to obtain the knowledge I need.  Understand?”

He nodded, and I placed him carefully next to his still frozen mother.  “Remember,” I said as I released him.  “You still have a chance to survive this.”