Chương 392: 11.1

Smithson watched the Countess' three daughters interact, braced to be needed as Gem once did, yet he was growing ever more certain the longer he saw the trio that he was not going to be required, and he found he wished he was. As a younger man he would have been surprised by that, now the title of Nurse Knight had long since gone from an insult to a point of pride.

After all, he could fight as well as the captain had been able to train him, he'd practiced against the Kaeketeh City guard and earned their respect in bouts, and training with Jewel was an experience that tested the spirit of greater men than he. Smithson was, he could admit many years past the whip-thin stature of a stableboy. In all regards he was a proper Knight.

He'd not seen true combat until the ambush by the Vampires, but even then his bravery and mettle had not been found lacking where hardened mercenaries faltered and fell, Smithson was undeniably a Knight in truth. Yet, he yearned to dot on infants. He watched three children that did not move like children, eyes always roving, heads turning. Even at rest one watched while the others were occupied, it was unnerving. They were, despite their size, far more toddlers than infants.

With Gem it made some amount of sense, she was more or less a grown woman despite her size, but the other two? They moved with Gem with a determined assurance more at home in the steps of a filly their age then a human. Only three days after they hatched, they were already assuredly able to navigate the halls of the Vahstrehgin beside their elder sister with hardly a stumble!

They didn't yet speak, but there was none of the uncertainty in either of the diminutive reptilian faces or their dark coal eyes that Gem had at their age, there was also a strangeness to their proportions. He remembered Gem being despite her scales, tail and snout more or less the proper shape for a baby at least as far as he could compare her to Jewel's sister at that age. But these twins were too slim for a child despite their size.

Far less of the round pudgy look, the muscles were prominent and lean under their scaled skin. The press of their ribs were very prominent at their sides. And of course quite independent for their age. That wasn't all bad, he didn't need to see to their nappies and cleaning, but he found himself missing that there would be none of the nicer moments too. Like Gem they had hatched with a full set of teeth, but unlike her their snouts were already longer than Gem's had been, closer to their mother's.

The nubs of horns on either side of their heads were already growing more prominent. Gem's horns never really grew to more than dulled dark cones on either side of her skull framing her face just above her ears. The twins' however? even ten days into life their horns were developing distinctly sharp points and already had a longer length than their elder sister. There were other differences, the pattern of their scales while the same color as their mother and sister had larger scales for their size.

Especially on the back and at the thighs, elbows and knees. Their tails were also significantly longer than Smithson remembered Gem having at that age, along with having a tuft of dark hair at the ends, speaking of which! The hair was only present in a narrow band on either head, favoring a thin line going down their necks and backs much closer to Jewel's mane then Gem's.

And all around both of the twins sported just an overall harder, sharper look to them, even small as the youngest toddlers they had an angled character to their bodies, Gem had always been unmistakably soft and childlike even now that she had finished growing. These two?

Their hands and feet were overly large, elbows and hips disturbingly boney, shape of their jaws much more prominent, all told they gave an impression more like a sheep or goat's offspring then a man's Their hands especially looked strange, overlarge palms in a way that reminded him of hunting hounds when they were still pups. Gem had never grown taller than his waist, but Jewel's newly hatched daughters? He wouldn't bet on them staying so small.

And beyond even that was the way they acted, they trailed with Gem as she moved through her regular winter activities, but even compared to the way that she played with the Valasect youths there was an eerie silence to their time together. Gem was older then she looked but there was still usually an exuberance to her, the way she would swish her specially made gowns about as she twirled or practiced.

The three of them barely spoke, not even signed when they were on their own together, when she sat to read they simply sat around her and watched the rest of the room. When she helped them eat meals Gem hardly even looked at her sisters, nor did they look at her. The trio moved far too little like children, rather than like a pack of rangers in unfamiliar woods.

Never with less than two sets of eyes following those around them, checking around corners, handing food and water between each other without words or even gestures. In grown men the coordination would have been impressive, a sign of close knit teamwork, it maybe even would be suited to siblings of a few years old. But Gem and the twins had only known each other for eleven days!

It was all certainly some extension of their mother's Wyrmish nature, perhaps even a new expression of the nature of spawn, but it worried Smithson, Gem was still her mother's daughter not her mother herself. He'd spoken to Gwenn about it, they were separate if also the same when they came back together. So the same should hold for these two as well? Then what did it mean that they seemed to be so easily falling into line with Gem as if they had known and worked with one another for years of training?

What did it mean for the children, infants even that they should be that they seemed to not even need to speak or even gesture to draw food or the necessary attention from their sister? Jewel and Gem both had to practically be badgered to acknowledge how much they needed to comfort one another as Mother and Child and not different parts of the same self. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

And here he saw the same mistake he thought he'd broken both of them of what was now playing out twice over! Or perhaps it is something even worse? Smithson shook his head and went to go fetch another plate of honeyed pig from the Vahstrehgin kitchens. The Marche Lord Dominik had not been in a good mood when he found out Jewel and her men would be needing food and accommodations for winter. Especially given that his lands were also going to be the muster when the armies gathered for the war next year.

Still that was beyond Smithson's responsibilities. He was Jewel's Nurse Knight, and his countess had produced a pair of new daughters for him to try and figure out what was needed to look after them. It wasn't how he'd expected his life to go when he became Jewel's Squire. But he honestly could not say he was unhappy with it. The Nurse Knight was a far more rewarding position in Jewel's court then he suspected any foreigner could understand.

The smell of cooking meats, sauces and of course Jewel's favorite peasant's stew filled the air and the hint of spices stung the eyes as he entered into the chambers of the Vahstrehgin's mess kitchen. The room meant to cook the bulk foods for the barrack had been conquered in a fury of wills by Jewel's staff the first night. But it was the only space that the sheer volume of her entourage's needs could be prepared.

The maids and serving boys parted around Smithson as he strode into the room, bushels of turnips, onions and fowl still warm from their slaughter and yet to be plucked flowing around him. The whirling chaos was never ending, bracing in a way, like a storm of warmth and food and mostly good smells.

"A plate of the honeyed pork for the countess' daughters." Smithson spoke the familiar words, they were practically etched into his tongue he'd said them so often over the years. Dariusz smiled, the lines in the man's face deepening with it. The touch of gray to his hair, brows and close cut beard. They were barely different ages, hardly four years between them and yet the other man looked so aged.

"Are the newest girls still behaving themselves?" Smithson could only laugh and shake his head.

"Uncannily so, if this is a mark of things to come I fear the countess might have little need for me." The master of kitchens nodded, hand gliding over the cutting board, knife in hand. An onion dissolved into cut portions and then scooped up on the broad blade into a bowl for one of the staff of the Vahstrehgin to do some kitchen work with. He considered the arrayed army of his dominion and then barked an order to an inattentive boy at one of the pots before turning back to Smithson.

"In all honesty that's preferred from the alternative, my dear children were all a drain to manage in the first years. Hardly any sleep those nights. If I could trade that for how dutiful the Countess' spawn are?" Smithson could only smile and nod, having no children himself, other than Gem and the yet to be named twins.

"If I'm being honest Gem seems to be more caring for them now then I do, not everything of course, the little lady still forgets her meals." Which brought a laugh between them, it was so peculiar how astute and focused on so many things their charges could be. And yet how she still missed the most obvious, Gem in particular had gone whole days without eating and not realized why she felt faint! Dariusz nodded and moved onto another pile of some kind of vegetable.

There were other hands to do the work, but none were as practiced as the master of kitchens. What took a scullery maid minutes could happen in seconds under his hands. And ever since the Elf, Alder, Kitchen master Dariusz had taken to every fundamental in his craft with a will, honing every aspect of the trade. The results were impressive as far as Smithson was concerned, he was confident in a sword, but he'd never want to face Dariusz with a cleaver.

The speed and assurance he could sever meat from bone would be horrifying if he ever took it against a man.

"I suppose that will secure your place and mine then oh, Nurse Knight of Viznove." Smithson nodded, simply enjoying the smells, the clatter and business, no one told him to leave, not like they would have when he was just a stable boy. No Smithson was a knight, unlanded but in many regards even higher in station for his direct assignment to Jewel's Retinue. He could spend the Jewel's silver as if it was his own in pursuit of his responsibilities. A trust afforded him he never would have imagined.

A metal plate made its way to Dariusz' hands and was passed over the table and cutting board for him to take. But before relinquishing the dull metal plate the kitchen master fixed Smithson with an intent gaze.

"The fortress is running low on pigs fit to slaughter, we will need to hunt, draw on the salted preserve stores, or tax the villages if we are to meet the lady's preferences through the winter season, Smithson." That was certainly something, Dariusz would not have brought it up to him here and now if there was not a much more dire shortage elsewhere. He nodded a moment then sighed heavily.

"And the stores of honey?" The kitchen master waggled a hand before grabbing some vegetable and utterly shattering it into near perfectly proportioned cubes in what seemed almost like two passes of the blurring knife in his hand.

"Fine enough, as long as I aim to make it not quite so strong, I'd normally recommend a berry preserve to bring the sweetness further, but as its for the little lady-" Smithson nodded.

"It wouldn't suit her constitution no. That should be fine, maybe sear it more in fats? She does love the crisp of it. That might lend well." The Kitchen master mulled then sighed.

"Winter is a poor time for fatty meats, all the game will be leaning as the days pass, but I'll see what I can do. Still we will be through the Vahstrehgin's pigs in fifteen days, less if we hold some over for the longest night celebrations. I cannot cook a honeyed pig from stones and water." The Nurse Knight nodded to that and finally stepped back with the plate.

"I'll arrange a hunt with the lords, perhaps the Countess would welcome the diversion as well and we can use her wings to do a farther ranging." Dariusz nodded and dismissed Smithson with a wave.

"We can only do our best."