Agree to go with her and impregnate her

Realizing his best hope for survival is to get away from Cassandra and her flesh-eating family, Duncan agrees. ”Very well,” he says. “I agree to your terms, but understand this — your child will have no claim to the throne or any of the wealth or privileges of royalty. If this is some plan to infiltrate the royal line, you can abandon it right now.”

Madam Banntrach smiles. “The royal line need not concern itself. My sole interests lie in perpetuating my own lineage. I daresay your genes will bring fresh strength and vibrancy when joined with my own. And I would be lying if I suggested I was not looking forward to the actual experience of conceiving with you.” Banntrach smiled hungrily and knowingly. Duncan had to admit he factored this into his decision as well, and was hard pressed to see any negatives that might come from a passionate romp of unprotected sex with this mysterious MILF.

Turning to theirs hosts, Madam Banntrach announces, “Thank you for your hospitality, but it is time for me to depart and to take His Highness with me.”

“Are you sure?” asks Carl, as he and the others return to the room. “He’s a feisty one; he might try something.”

“Oh I think not, will you, Your Highness?” asked Banntrach. “You’ll be on your best behavior and you won’t betray the location of this lovely family, will you?”

Duncan tried not to scowl at the words “lovely family.” Granted, the sex with Cassandra was great, but it was harder to imagine a worse fate than falling under her control being devoured by her creepy clan.

“I give you my word, as a Prince of the Realm, that your location is safe with me,” he replied. “Assuming, of course, that this is not all some twisted deception. If you betray me, I shall unleash an outpouring of fury upon you!”

“Speaking of unleashing an outpouring of fury, I’ve got to make my leave of you now and spend some time on my own throne,” said Carl. “Gladys, I don’t care what you say, but that young man you served up for dinner is not agreeing with me. I may have to wear a seatbelt to keep from getting launched through the roof of the outhouse!” With that unceremonious announcement, Carl exited the house, assisted, in part, by the propulsion of several bursts of loud, noxious gas.

“I take that back,” thought Duncan to himself, as his eyes watered from the stench. “There is a worse fate than being eaten alive!”

“So it’s settled, then,” said Banntrach, hastening to the door, the others following suit. “We will depart at once.”

“Wait a minute,” said Cassandra. “Just like that? I was going to be able to sell him for a goodly amount. Are you just taking him, with not so much as a shilling?”

Madam Banntrach stopped and stared evenly at Cassandra. “One would think I should be the one who should be paid. Had it not been for me, you would likely be dead now, with the seed of the Felechon-enchanted man-thing swimming through your decaying corpse. But if you’d like to negotiate, well....”

Duncan saw a fierceness in the woman’s eyes that was nothing short of terrifying. He was not the only one who noticed, because Cassandra’s fury instantly dissolved into fear, and Gladys stepped forward and intervened.

“Not at all, Madam Banntrach! Take him, please, with our compliments. Would you like a little something for the road to munch on along the way? I can wrap up a nice slice of inner thigh... Or how about a nice jar of pickled clitoris? I have a nice batch from last summer?”

“No thank you,” she replied, motioning for Duncan to climb into the driver’s bench of the buggy. As he does, she climbs up and sits beside him. With a few more cursory words of departure, Banntrach takes the horses’ reins and commands them forward.

Duncan looks over his shoulder and gets one last look at Cassandra and her mother. He remembers the first time he saw her, naked in the water, and shakes his head at how disasterous that encounter proved to be. Thinking with his penis had gotten him in trouble before, but not nearly as much as this time.

Speaking of his penis getting him in trouble, he turns his attention to the mysterious woman beside him. Agreeing to impregnate a total stranger would have been unthinkable just a couple of days ago, but so much had happened since his eighteenth birthday that he wondered if he would ever be capable of being surprised again.

“Now, I believe you have some more information for me,” said the prince, once confident the Gratiri family was well out of sight.

Madam Banntrach glanced at Duncan and smiled slightly. “So you believe me when I say that your true father may not be the King?”

“I believe you know something about me that is of value,” he replied. “As for the business about my mother and some nameless wizard.... Well, that remains to be seen.”

She laughs. “You are wiser than your tender years would suggest.” She looks over him, appraisingly. “Yes, I believe I chose wisely. I suspect you are capable of much more than a tender youth.”

“Could we stop using the word tender?” asked Duncan. “I just escaped a family that couldn’t wait to sink their teeth into me, and I’m also not crazy about being called a youth. I’m a man.”

Banntrach laughed. “One can hardly blame the Gratiri for finding you delectable. I confess, I do, as well, but for different reasons.” Duncan was the look of undisguised lust in her eyes, and the sight bypassed his brain and went straight from his eyes to his groin, resulting in instant arrousal.

“And while I understand you are an adult man in your human terms, you are but a wee lad to one such as me, but I trust my advanced years have not so marred my beauty as to make it difficult for you to fulfill the terms of our bargain?”

Duncan shook himself when he realized she had stopped talking and was waiting for an answer. “Um... not at all. You are very beautiful — at least from what I’ve seen so far.” His eyes fall to her ever-present cloak, and he wonders why she retains it on such a pleasant, sunny day.

Before Madam Banntrach can respond, the horses tense, ears alert.

“Something has spooked the horses,” she says.