Chapter 3 Mischief
The Great hall. A child was crawling the child had blue eyes the shimmered and brown short brown hair.
Tap, Tap, Tap… the sound of footsteps got louder with each second.
'Ooh my God! Finally somebody I was beginning to think I would never be found.'
"Mmh who do we have here," A tall man mummered to himself. He red hair that fell, smooth sharp chinned face and red eyes looked down at the child crawling in the great hall of the Pelvok manor. He did not have a large dominating body as David Pelvok had yet still had
Viktor could only see brown dusty shoes that blocked his path. A cold shiver struck his spine, and did what any toddler would do in his age, cry.
Ngwaaaa!!!!!. He only resorted into crying to express the ominous feeling.
"Young Master Viktor."
The tall red haired man was the captain of the Pelvok House,
Ser Gregor Aldis. His hand moved slowly, reaching down toward the child. Viktor flinched.
'Easy, easy. He's reaching for you not to hurt you.' He tried to reason with himself, but the body was not his to fully control yet. The tears kept coming regardless.
"There, there young master." Ser Gregor crouched down on one knee, his red hair falling forward as he did. He scooped the child up with both arms, careful and steady in a way one wouldn't expect from a man of his frame. Viktor sniffled, his small fists gripping the front of Gregor's coat.
'Okay... that's actually not bad.' The warmth of being carried was still something he hadn't quite gotten used to. Even after eight months.
Tap, Tap, Tap. "Ser Gregor!" A young maid came rushing from the eastern corridor, her apron half undone, hair barely pinned. She froze the moment she saw the child in his arms. Her hand shot up to her mouth.
"Oh thank the heavens." She exhaled, nearly collapsing against the wall.
"Steady yourself," Gregor said flatly. "Go and inform Yanneka. Tell her I have a young master. And walk. The last thing we need is more screaming in these halls."
"Yes sir!" She turned and ran anyway.
Gregor looked down at Viktor and raised an eyebrow. Viktor stared back at him.
'He has the eyes of someone who has seen too much.' He thought. 'I respect that.'
"You are going to give that poor woman a heart attack one of these days, young master." Gregor muttered under his breath as he began walking back toward the east wing. Viktor said nothing. Just blinked.
The sound reached them before Yanneka did.
Sniff. Sniff. "Young... Young master..." She came stumbling around the corner, eyes so red and swollen they were barely open. The moment she saw Viktor tucked in Gregor's arms, whatever composure she had left completely abandoned her.
"Ngaaah! Young master!!" She rushed forward, arms already reaching.
Gregor handed him over without a word.
She clutched Viktor to her chest, rocking back and forth. "Oh young master, I thought something terrible had happened to you. I thought I thought..." She couldn't finish. The tears did it for her.
'Alright, alright. I'm fine.' Viktor thought, patting her shoulder with a tiny hand. Which only made her cry harder.
The other maids gathered said nothing further. They understood well enough. A servant who loses a noble child does not simply receive a scolding. Families have been turned out for lesser failures. Yanneka knew this. Every person standing in that corridor knew this. The relief in the air was real but so was the tension underneath it, the kind that comes when disaster passes close enough to feel the wind off it.
The other maids gathered in the corridor exchanged glances. One covered her smile with her sleeve.
"Yanneka." Gregor's voice was low but firm. She straightened immediately, wiping her face on her sleeve. "Yes, Sir."
"Next time the young master goes missing, you alert me before you scream the walls down. You'll spook the horses."
"Yes sir. I am deeply sorry, sir."
A long silence followed.
Then the sound of heavy, deliberate footsteps came from the staircase at the end of the hall. Every head turned.
David Pelvok descended with the full presence of a man accustomed to rooms going quiet when he entered. Beside him Annesa moved with less noise but somehow equal weight, her blue eyes scanning the corridor before she had even reached the bottom step.
She found Viktor first.
The relief that crossed her face lasted only a second before something else replaced it. Her eyes moved from her son, to Gregor, then back again.
"Where." David's voice was not loud. It didn't need to be.
"The Great Hall, my lord." Gregor answered. "Near the eastern entrance. Alone."
The hall went very still. David looked at the child in Yanneka's arms. Viktor looked back at him.
'Don't look guilty. Babies can't look guilty.' He thought to himself.
David's jaw tightened. He turned to
Yanneka. "You had one responsibility."
"My lord I"
"One."
Yanneka bowed her head so low it nearly touched the child she was holding. "I understand my lord. I accept whatever punishment you see"
"David." Annesa's voice cut through quietly. He stopped. She stepped forward and took Viktor from Yanneka's arms herself, pulling him close without another word. Viktor felt her heartbeat against his cheek. It was fast.
'She was scared too. Really scared.'
She didn't cry. She just held him in a way that made crying seem unnecessary.
David studied his wife for a moment then exhaled slowly through his nose. He looked at Gregor. "Double the interior watch. Someone on this floor at all hours."
"Understood, my lord."
"And you." He turned back to Yanneka who still had her head bowed. "You will not leave this floor without a replacement present. If it happens again, it won't be a conversation."
"Yes my lord. Thank you my lord."
The crowd quietly dispersed like smoke. Gregor lingered a moment longer, gave a single nod and turned down the corridor. His dusty brown shoes fading with each step.
Annesa carried Viktor back toward the solar in silence. David walked beside her. Neither spoke.
Viktor stared over his mother's shoulder at the chandelier light passing overhead in slow intervals.
'So, the captain's name is Gregor. Red hair, red eyes. Calm under pressure, not the largest man in the room but that entire hallway listened to him when he spoke.'
He thought. 'Interesting.'
'And my father punishes with silence. I'll need to remember that.'
'But still... the way mother reacted. She wasn't just searching for a lost child. Those eyes were looking for something specific.'
The ruby earring caught the candlelight as she walked. That slow quiet pulse of energy breathed from it again.
'What are you really worried about?' He thought, staring at it.
Annesa felt his gaze. She turned her face slightly away.
Viktor said nothing.
He was eight months old after all. He could wait.Down the hall, he could still faintly hear Yanneka being consoled by the younger maids. One of them laughing quietly now that the storm had passed. The manor was settling back into its rhythm. Guards returning to their posts. Candles flickering in the draft of closing doors.
To everyone in the Pelvok household, tonight was a scare that ended well. A story they would tell amongst themselves in the kitchen before bed.
To Viktor it was something else entirely.
A first lesson.