098 – A Queen's Transformation

  Swiftly his mind raced to some old memories. Karen had not grown up in Skarg. proper but in the area beyond, so she had never seen The Queen as human. But the memory was of the guard having sex with a beautiful black-haired woman. But only once, as the binding of him to her service. Then Karen guided his dream to the time when The Queen changed, and what she did to accomplish this. His memories again played out, Karen now in his perspective, with commentary from his memories.

   This guard watched as The Queen stood in her chamber. All was prepared. She was looking herself over in the mirror, admiring her flesh for the last time. She had worked hard to stay fit, young looking and strong. She regularly commented about how she was still desirable above all others to her husband, The King. Three virgin women had sacrificed their blood three separate times for that. Now, though, she commented on a different desire burning in her heart. Age was continuing its inexorable march, dragging her to eventual ill health, ruin and death. She had lost her interest in The King. He still held the seat of power, but their almost twenty year union had proven a barren one, and she wanted to have offspring as strong as she which would strengthen her. The dark arts had led her to an answer. It had taken some time to find the answer, and then to find it palatable. But now she found it desirable, more than anything else.

  Briefly other memories flitted past of the dark haired Queen reading and doing research. Then the narrative returned, as did the guards commentary.

  The preparations were accomplished, and she was ready. The last thing to be done was this last ceremony. The warlock and witch were waiting, as was the sacrifice, and the rest of her personal guard.

  Karen had to suppress the thought that this man had been in the queen's personal guard and thus her personal company for near twenty years, lest it direct his dream to other less needful memories

  The witch had helped her bathe, and purify her body this morning, then departed to the Arbor for the final preparations. Now The Queen looked her naked body over for the last time in this flesh.

  Karen dove into peoples dreams rare enough that it was always uncomfortable, like swimming naked in ice water, or more so swimming in someone else's body in the ice water. But she always marveled at how much meaning she picked up, as opposed to just the memories of the observable.

  The Queen put on the black silk shift and her black robe and left the chamber, her entourage stepping in to plate to escort her. She entered the Arbor and walked to its center. The guards had seen to the Arbor’s construction on an unimproved section of the fortress island, after the pattern of an orchard she had spent her childhood in. After the conquest of her father’s kingdom, and its mergence to Krogg, the Crown Prince had taken her to the same orchard and raped her, claiming her as his own conquest, or so her story was told to her guards. She had been at Crown Prince's side ever since helping his rise to King, and had come to love him, and by extension her own power. Now she was going to gain her own measure of power, though shared with a different lord.

  In the center of the Arbor she had a place cleared and prepared. One tree stood in the middle. It was a relatively young tree, of an old species that would grow tall and straight. A monarch of the forest found and transplanted here especially for this. It stood nearly four stories tall, with a trunk small enough to reach completely around. The bottom half of the trunk just went straight up, before any branches came out. These branches then spread to a ball of branches and leaves around the top of the tree.

  The warlock and witch had been drawing on the ground around the tree and laying patterns in the soil; a sigil for summoning. One of the carpenters, working with a woodsman had carved a spot on one side of the tree earlier this morning; where the sacrifice would be bound to the tree. As she stood and watched the witch and warlock finished their preparatory chanting. A low level of static charged the air around them. Then the witch motioned and others of The Queen’s guard brought the sacrifice.

  He was a loyal, willing young man, chosen for just those qualities. He also had spent the morning purifying himself. He removed his black robe, letting it fall to the ground. He wore nothing, and his freshly shaved head gleamed slightly. He walked across the boundaries of the magic circles, and the sigil, on a proscribed path. He stopped in front of the tree, and turned his back to it. The cuts in the trunk matched his head, neck, back, and part of his legs. The witch and warlock backed him against the tree, and then produced knives. They sketched from the top of his head down to his legs, where his body touched the tree, with the sharp blades. They had him step forward, and used magic to peal the skin from his head to his legs, along the line they cut, exposing his flesh and blood. The removed skin was placed on the side of the tree opposite the young man as he was backed against it again. The witch and warlock chanted and danced around the tree and young man one complete revolution. The young man spoke his one line, inviting acceptance of his offering to this daemon.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then the young man grimaced in pain, as the tree convulsed. In a spurt of energetic growth the tree expanded to twice its width, its roots writhing across the sigil to trace it themselves. Its height increased and it shot out several new branches. The young man sagged a bit, but under his skin it looked like myriad shoots connected to the tree where their raw flesh had been touching. His head was immobile, looking straight at The Queen. Then his mouth moved. The voice was still that of the young man, but with more behind it.

  “What would you have of me, mortal?”

  The witch and warlock remained silent. Only The Queen had its attention.

  “I would have the power of life. The strength of the trees.”

  “What do you offer to me, that I should grant you this?”

  “In this flesh I am barren. In the Power of Life I would have seed. I offer that, and my free will unto thee.”

  The young man/tree stood quiet for a moment, and then spoke again. “Of your own free will, approach.”

  The Queen dropped her robe, and then removed the shift. Naked she followed the same path the young man had earlier. As she approached, she observed that his penis went erect.

  “Make your offering,” the voice intoned.

  She stepped up and mounted. His arms wrapped her, holding her against him. She put her arms around him, and clutched at the trunk. She began grinding against him, reveling in the pleasures she was experiencing. She put her mouth over his, and sought out his tongue.

  The guard remembered the voice came to his mind

  “Your offering is accepted.”

  The arms moved to her thighs, and lifted her off her feet, pulling her closer against the young man/tree. She wrapped her legs around his hips. And her transformation began.

  Again the guard remembered thoughts coming into his mind.

  First the Queen's voice. “For your strength I also offer the two in the circle. One willing and knowing, the other not.”

  “Accepted.”

  Karen was not sure how much of what she was experiencing was memory experienced then or understanding added later on as the guard learned more.

  The guard watched the witch watching as the young man writhed some in response to The Queen. Then the tree groaned. The daemon now within drawing power, a breath before a cry. The tree’s structure suddenly changed again, consuming the flesh of the young man, melding it with its own, wrapping around The Queen. It covered her completely. Then the entire tree began to glow. The warlock gave a startled yell and fell over as the roots grabbed his feet. The tree’s roots and branches pulled the witch and warlock against the trunk, and the bark quickly cut through their clothes.

  The witch had known this was the cost of this summoning, though the warlock had not. The reward for her was death. For her order it would be very great. The bark retracted, scraping off all the skin that it touched, and the meat of the tree within expanded, growing into her flesh. It was rapid enough to be nearly painless.

  With the added mass and energy from these two, as well as the young man, and all the mana already organized and arrayed, the daemon had more than enough strength. The tree’s trunk expanded by the width of the bodies it consumed, and its height near doubled. More branches sprouted at normal points.

  When The King had asked what happened, he was told the truth. When he ordered the tree destroyed they threatened his life, and to reveal what The Queen knew of his doings that would get him dethroned at the least. So he yielded and left.

  Three complete days passed.

  Four members of The Queen’s bodyguard stood vigil in turn. The tree had been quiet after it had consumed the warlock and witch, and finished its initial spate of growth from that.

  Now The King stood with his own guard as the four from The Queen’s guard stood by the tree waiting. Slowly an outline on the trunk became discernible. Body, arms, legs, head, more.

  Like a person releasing a grip, the bark of the tree relaxed and contracted from the form. Its back was to them. First six tubes stood up from its back, then the tail tensed and wings spread. The head rolled back, and the entire creature stretched for its first time, an infant from the womb. It stepped back, and caught hold of the tree as its balance wobbled. Two thickly muscled legs, with high set barbed heals and large toes moved to a wide stance. The tail had a stinger on its end, and swished some as the wings flexed. It stood as tall as the tallest man there, its body shape looked feminine, and covered in bark. After a moment, it turned around.

  The Queen looked at the ten people there to greet her, and smiled. She worked her arms to get some stiffness out. Then her second set of arms. These had some wing to them that looked more like leaves. These limbs had stiff wrists and long single edged blades instead of hands. The third set of limbs at her shoulders had the wings attached to them. Her tail seemed to move almost on its own to balance against her arms movements.

  The voice seamed to speak directly into the guard’s mind.

  “Your structure is not suitable for flight, but it does have the strength you desire.”

  She looked herself over, also noting that her body was now covered in a thin bark. Her long black hair was gone. The Queen took a deep breath and the guard saw the air flow through the six tubes on her back, around her ribs, and to her lungs.

  “Well. It’s done.” She looked at the guards and smiled again. Then at The King, still smiling.

  The King scowled, then turned and left, his guards following him.

  Karen understood from these memories that the guard did not know or care about the magic specifically involved. Only that The Queen now sleeps within the orifice for her in the trees trunk, of necessity.

  She had the dungeons emptied, and the prisoners crucified in the arbor. She occasionally took one and attached that person to her own tree. In the fourteen years since, the tree has grown, so also The Queen has gotten powerful. Not fully a magic user, but very strong.

   Karen was surprised to find veiled disgust and contempt in the guards thoughts. She finished her intrusion by quickly bringing him back to the woman in his arms, and letting his mind go from there.

  Karen returned to the world, finding all as it should be. She pulled the harlot from her imposed sleep back to where she had been. Then she left the room and slipped out of the barracks area.