Kidnapping Keela (19 page)

“You have one hour to prepare yourself for the fight,” said Abziarr at last.

Marruk nodded.

“Take him to the hall and give him food and drink,” he said, turning to the guards to his right.

The two men nodded and stepped closer. Marruk followed the two guards into the castle where they led him into the throne room. They sat him at the long table and servants rushed in with bread, cheese and ale.

***

Keela woke up and sat up in shock, her heart pounding. When had she fallen asleep? What time was it? It was already light. Had she already missed it? She ran to the window but she could not see anything unusual. Everything seemed to be calm. As she turned away from the window again she saw a tray with her breakfast on the table. Someone must have come into her room whilst she was sleeping.

“Maara?” she tried hopefully, but the computer did not respond. “Damn. There must be something that I can do.”

A shout could be heard, muffled, through the closed window. Had she heard correctly? Had someone just shouted out for Abziarr? Was it really Marruk’s voice that she had heard? With a stifled cry she rushed back to the window. Her heart was nearly leaping out of her chest. There he was. He was rushing towards the castle and he was one hundred per cent the raging, mad man, as she had suspected – there was no trace of him being cool and calculating. Abziarr had stepped out of the building and into her range of sight. He was walking casually towards Marruk, until her mate came to a halt, right in front of the Verkuzzi. The two men were staring at one another. Keela tried to open the window to draw attention to herself, but it was locked electronically. Without Maara she had no way of opening it. In desperation she hammered on the pane but no one in the yard below seemed to notice her.

Abziarr said something to the guards and they disappeared into the castle with Marruk. A little later Abziarr went back inside, too. If she could only get out of this damn room! Angry, she wandered around the room. Then she suddenly stopped, ran to the door and pounded on it.

“Let me out of here at once!” she shouted. “I’ll smash up everything in here! I want to get out of here! NOW!”

There was not a sound in the corridor. She looked around the room and her eyes fell upon her breakfast tray. Like a wild thing she ran to the table, grabbed the earthenware jug from the table and threw it against the door. Crashing, the jug broke into a thousand pieces and the flavoured water ran down the door. Now she was grabbing plates, bowls, cutlery and finally the tray itself - one after another - and firing everything at the door.
 

Breathing heavily she looked at her work. She still had immense energy inside her. Her anger had hardly subsided, so she looked hastily around the room for more amunition. She took the vase off the chest-of-drawers, then a foot stool, a jade bust and finally a candlestick. When she ran out of amunition she began to tear the tapestries down and to throw pieces of furniture around - then the door suddenly opened and Abziarr entered the room. He stood still as if thunderstruck, staring in shock and horror at the scene that met him.

“Why was I locked in? And why isn’t Maara answering? Where is my mate? What have you done with him? Why …?”

“Could you perhaps explain what you’ve done to this room?” Abziarr interrupted her, his voice icey, resonating with the anger that he was only suppressing with great difficulty.

Keela’s instincts advised her to move quite quickly out of his reach, but she summoned up all her courage and did exactly the opposite. With clenched fists she stepped up to Abziarr. He was visibly surprised by her unexpected courage and stared at her in disbelief.

“I want to go to him immediately,” she demanded, stepping up to him threateningly, which looked a little ridiculous as she could not even see over his shoulder. He suddenly laughed out loud and did not seem able to stop. Keela thumped his chest in fury, demanding his attention.

“I don’t find this at all amusing!” she roared, beside herself.

“But I do,” he laughed helplessly. “I think my worst enemy is punished enough with a woman like you. I really wouldn’t want to swap places with him. If he were to annoy you just once, you’d castrate him in his sleep, wouldn’t you?”

“Just so that you know – no! I would never do such a thing! And now put a stop to this childish giggling and take me to my mate.”

“Your wish is my command, My Lady. However, you’ll only see him briefly. I just want to prove to him that you really are here and safe. After that you’ll be locked in again. I know very well that you were forging plans with Maara. I had to shut Maara down to prevent that from happening. I’m not taking any more risks where you’re concerned, My Lady Keela. You really are a handful, I must say!”

His chuckling belied his hard tone, but Keela would have preferred his anger from before. It made things easier if the enemy acted like a damn enemy and not like a mischievous big brother, teasing her.

Abziarr grabbed her by the arm and pulled her along with him. He was not holding her so tightly that it hurt, but firmly enough to make it clear to her that he would not let her go if she were to try anything. They went down the staircase and turned in the direction of the large hall that she had discovered on the previous day when exploring. A guard entered a code as they approached and the heavy door to the hall opened. They entered the huge hall, which was lengthways smaller than the great hall in the Carthian palace, but nevertheless still impressive.

Marruk rose as she entered and was about to rush up to her when he stopped abruptly. Keela could feel the knife that was suddenly at her throat, but she knew he would not kill her. She was about to shout this across to her beloved when ten guards slipped past them and positioned themselves between her and Marruk. Their weapons were ready to attack Marruk, should he make a false move. Keela could see, between the men, that Marruk’s carotid artery was pulsating and she thought she could hear his teeth gnashing, as he had clenched his jaws together so firmly. Only his eyes, searching for hers, softened when he looked into her eyes. She could see his relief when he saw that she was unharmed.

“Has he touched you?” he asked, snarling.

“No, I’m unscathed. But you must not go through with this nonsense. You must not fight one another. Will
you
at least listen to me, please?”

“Take her away,” Abziarr commanded two guards, and he handed her over to the men who held her both to the right and to the left and pulled her away with them.

She resisted and screamed.

“Let me go! NOOOOOOO! I don’t want to! Maaarrruk! Just let me go, you damn swines!”

But the men ignored her shouting and pulled her out of the room.

***

“As you can see, she’s fine,” said Abziarr after Keela had been taken away. “She is being treated like a guest in my house. She has a beautiful room and …” he suddenly chuckled. “At least it was a beautiful room before your little mate had a fit of madness this morning and broke everything into smithereens. I must say, I don’t envy you this wild creature.” Abziarr shook his head, chuckling.

Marruk grinned broadly.

“That’s my girl. She’s as gentle as a lamb as long as she is not provoked too much.”

“Are you ready?” asked Abziarr once he had calmed down again.

Marruk nodded.

“Then come and choose your weapon.”

Marruk followed Abziarr out of the hall to the weapon store. There he purposefully took one of the swords from the wall and tested the weight of the blade. He swung the weapon several times and found it to be well-balanced and excellently fashioned.

Abziarr had stepped up next to him and now slapped him on the shoulder.

“A good choice. I see that you don’t only have a good eye for women.”

“I should hope not,” answered Marruk.

“Then come on. Let’s go to the parade ground.”

***

Maara was weak. However, her energy was slowly returning. She made some initial short test-runs through the data processor. She had only been able to save a little of her own data but that should be enough to set up a provisional connection with the main computer. She just had to manipulate the energy supply. She had no idea how much time had passed since her shut-down and whether she was already going to be too late. But she would never find out if she did not try.

***

Keela was locked into her destroyed room and she banged on the door for several minutes and screamed with all her heart and soul. However much she raged, it changed nothing about her situation. She remained locked in and helpless. In despair she ran to the window and stared down at the parade ground. No one was to be seen. Would the fight take place somewhere else? But after a few minutes, that felt like hours to her, Marruk and Abziarr appeared in the company of several guards. The guards positioned themselves some distance away, whilst the two opponents stood facing one another. They both held a sword. Keela had already realised that it would not be a pure fist fight - not when Abziarr intended to die. The thought that, at any moment, the men were going to attack one another with fatal blades gripped her with a horrible mixture of emotions - fear, despair and anger.

Then the time came. Abziarr and Marruk began to circle one another cautiously. The first blows were carrying out tentatively, but very soon the swords were clashing against one another with full force and the men concentrated, fully focussed upon the fight. Marruk prepared to strike and Abziarr dodged the blade - not quickly enough, and the sharp blade slipped onto his tricep and just superficially cut into his flesh, but Keela still screamed in shock as blood ran from Abziarr’s arm. Just a little later and Abziarr’s lucky moment came as he cut Marruk on his thigh. Keela had put her hand into her mouth and was now biting down on the back of her hand. She could not look. She had to put an end to this! If only she knew how to do this.

The longer the fight lasted, the more wounds Abziarr and Marruk inflicted upon one another. Even from a distance Keela could see that both men were already breathing heavily and sweating. She had never considered herself to be squeamish, but seeing her mate bleeding from numerous wounds made her anxious and she bit into her hand until she realised that her teeth had already left deep impressions in her flesh.

“My Lady,” Maara’s voice could suddenly be heard and Keela was shocked out of her observations.

“Maara!” she called out excitedly. “I don’t believe it! How did you manage that?”

“No time for explanations. You have to stop them!” said Maara urgently.

The door opened and Keela uttered a cry of joy.

“Thank you, Maara! Thank you!” cried Keela, rushing from the room.

***

Marruk was concentrating wholly upon the fight, but the night-time run had robbed him of his energy considerably. He could tell that he was not one hundred per cent in form and yet it did not look as if he was going to lose this fight, as long as everything remained as fair as it had been up to now. Somehow he had the crazy feeling that Abziarr, for some inexplicable reason, was holding back. He was focussed and dealt the blows well, but he had missed several chances and by now Marruk could have had much more serious wounds. But his opponent did not seem to be set on victory. It seemed much more as if he was waiting for Marruk to deal the final blow.

If that’s how you want it, you son-of-a-bitch!

He struck out increasingly mercilessly at the King of the Verkuzzi, with only short intervals, and Abziarr was only able to parry and step away - until he started staggering and landed on his back. Marruk raised his sword.

“Nooooo!” came Keela’s voice suddenly.

Marruk turned his head and saw his mate running onto the parade ground, waving her arms wildly.

“Stop! Don’t! Don’t kill him!” she shouted.

Marruk put his word to Abziarr’s neck as he lay on the ground.

“Don’t kill him!” shouted Keela again. “That’s exactly what he wants. He wants you to kill him! Please! Stop fighting!”

She was now on the parade ground, staring at Marruk from tear-filled eyes. She put her hand on his sword arm and looked into his eyes.

“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t do it!”

“Do it!” snarled Abziarr. “It was a fight to the death. Do it!”

Marruk lifted the sword and flung it up high across the parade ground so that it stuck into the earth at the end of the ground. Strangely he felt relieved. He had not had a good feeling about killing the male who was lying helplessly on the ground. He felt that Keela was right. Abziarr wanted him to kill him. Goodness knows why.

***

Marruk was lying in the bath, his eyes closed. He had refused to go to a medical unit. The wounds were not serious but Keela would still have preferred for him to have been tended to medically. Instead of that he had agreed to take a bath. Damn men! She would never understand these testosterone-driven men. Angrily she moved the sponge over Marruk’s body to wash away the blood and the dirt. When she pressed too firmly on a deep wound in his chest he flinched, and a hissing sound came from his lips that had, until then, been relaxed.

“Sorry,” she murmured and tried to be more careful. Now was not the time to be angry with him.
 

“Perhaps you should use your hands rather than this stupid sponge,” said Marruk huskily. “You’ve missed out parts of my body.”

“You can’t be thinking of sex right now,” snorted Keela. “You’re first going to be tended to, then you’re going to rest.”

“I don’t feel like resting. Didn’t you know that men get an erection when they’re fighting? Right now I need you to tend to the little problem between my legs.”

“If you think that I’m going to … Hey!”

With a splash she had landed in the bath and was now lying on a wet, and very hard, Marruk. His hands were kneading her buttocks and she could not suppress a groan.

“I was so worried about you,” he murmured quietly.

“And me about you,” Keela responded, gasping.

“I need you. I can’t be gentle right now. I have to take you, hard and fast. Turn around, onto your knees, with your back to me.”