"The Price and the Cost" {Uther} (magic M+f nc)

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This material is Copyright, 2003, Uther Pendragon.  All 
rights reserved.  I specifically grant the right of downloading 
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If you have any comments or requests, please E-mail them to 
me at nogardneprethu@gmail.com. 

All persons here depicted, except public figures depicted as 
public figures in the background, are figments of my imagination 
and any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly 
coincidental. 

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                     The Price and the Cost
                       by Uther Pendragon
                    nogardneprethu@gmail.com


"Every piece of magic," the young witch said, "has a cost 
and a price.  The price you can raise from your peasantry, the 
cost you must bear yourself.  And no, Your Majesty, I don't know 
what the cost is of returning your youth to you." 

"The price is high enough," the old queen replied. 

"And the cost will also be high.  Not your life, but that is 
the extent of your guarantee.  As for the price, most goes to pay 
for the ingredients of the potions.  Turning you into a young 
woman isn't a matter of waving a wand.  For my living, I ask less 
than your brute soldiers wrest from a single village in a year." 

"It is a high price." 

"So it is.  Turn it down." 

"No.  My youth once again is worth it.  Worth far more than a 
score of villages.  The soldiers will just have to be more 
persuasive this coming harvest time."  She smiled at the witch's 
wince. 

The dread sisters can put a lot of knowledge into a peasant 
girl in a decade, she thought, but the result is still a peasant 
girl. She ruled a rich land.  Only soldiers could keep it from 
being conquered.  Soldiers required pay, as well as certain other 
inducements.  And almost none of the peasant women who were among 
the other inducements came from villages which had paid their 
full taxes.  The peasants were too self-centered to see the 
necessity.  Oh, well, that was one of the limitations which made 
them peasants. 

The ingredients were already at hand.  The wisewoman guested 
and prepared the chamber two days and one night.  Then the queen 
fasted and bathed.  She entered the room alone and in a plain 
shift.  The scents were already dizzying before the witch began 
anointing her, and those smells were worse.  She could remember 
drinking several concoctions, standing still while the witch 
danced around her, herself spinning until she dropped to the 
floor, giants coming out of the floor and gnomes out of the 
ceiling.  Which images were true and which were drug-induced she 
couldn't say. 

When she awoke, she ached in every bone.  She was still 
dizzy, hungrier than she could remember being, and thirstier than 
hungry.  She was also slender and smooth-skinned.  The best she 
could estimate from what she could see without a mirror, she was 
about 14.  Her breasts were slight and her mound dusted with some 
light fuzz.  The shift from the night before, the only clothing 
in the room, draped over her and fell below the middle of her 
calf. 

All her clothing would have to be replaced, but that was 
minor compared to the new body.  She'd put the servants on the 
job today.  Thinking that, she called for a servant.  At least, 
she tried to call. 

She could hear nothing.  "Every piece of magic," she 
recalled, "has a cost and a price."  Quickly she pushed over a 
chair.  The crash was loud in her ears.  She wasn't deaf, she was 
dumb.  She would roast that witch over a slow fire, but that was 
for later. Now she had youth, and she was going to enjoy it.  She 
nearly skipped out the door and strode toward the great hall. 

"Stop there, girly," the huge soldier said, "where do you 
think you're going?"  She tried to speak, remembered she 
couldn't, and pointed instead.  "Well, you aren't.  Come with me 
to the sergeant of the guard."  He grabbed her arm and hauled her 
with him.  He headed towards the barracks used by the soldiers on 
castle-guard duty. 

She didn't know what would happen to a young girl hauled into 
that barracks who couldn't explain herself and couldn't complain. 
But, as she trotted to keep this soldier from pulling her off her 
feet, she began to imagine. 


The End 
The Price and the Cost
Uther Pendragon 
nogardneprethu@gmail.com
2003/08/05
2004/03/24
2010/04/26

Another story involving magic:
igrayne.txt 
"Igrayne"

This story is indexed under:
etc.txt 
etc. Stories not in other categories 


This story is coded (M+f magic nc).

The code, magic, means: Magic, or ghouls, or that sort of background.

For more on the story codes and how to use them to find the 
sorts of stories to interest you:
http://www.asstr.org/~Uther_Pendragon/code/scfr.htm
"Story codes for readers" 


The index to almost all my stories:
http://www.asstr.org/~Uther_Pendragon/index.htm