Princess of the Damned (5 page)

Sayan had never met her, but he knew who she was. The princess of the Western Kingdom was known for her beauty, good taste, and extravagance spending. He had heard many other things, but he was never the kind of man who listened to the words of mouths.

The princess’s dark brown eyes looked up at him. She was frightened at first, but the feeling quickly subsided to make room for a pleasant surprise. Her future husband did not have the face of a demon like the rumors had said. For a princess, her thoughts were too transparent. Perhaps that would be a good trait in a wife. He could always get what he wanted to know from her without so much an effort. He was starting to have interest in doing business with the Western Kingdom. This marriage arrangement may not be such a bad idea.

“
Forgive me!” a servant girl mopped down to the ground. The entire court became eerily quiet. “Please don’t kill me!”

Sayan looked to his left shoulder and followed the trail of spilled wine down his cloak. Now he doesn’t need an excuse to leave. Even though marrying the princess of the Western Kingdom may seem like a good idea, he needs to think it over. The woman could cause him more harm than good.

Sayan got up from his seat and headed toward the front exit. Not even the King uttered an objection. His men followed him out.

He drew out a sword by reflex when he heard suspicious rustling sounds coming from the three branches above. He looked up and saw a young girl standing barefoot on a thin tree branch. Her left arm was holding on to a branch above her shoulder and her right arm was reaching for a large ripe peach. Her fine, brilliant, and silky hair hung from leaves to leaves.

Images rushed back into his head.

She clumsily stepped on the train of her pale pink gown and lost her balance. If he hadn’t caught her in time, she would have tumbled onto the ground and probably broken an arm or a leg. She swept her hair out of her face to see who had saved her from the fall. A pair of pale green eyes was staring into his.

Those same pale green eyes.

His men were pointing their swords at her, accusing her of being an assassin.

“
The girl is not an assassin!” The King ran toward them breathlessly. “I assure you she can do no harm!”

His men slowly withdrew their swords.

“
She is the bride elect of my son,” the King quickly replied. “He is off to battle and left her in my care. The girl is no assassin.”

Sayan looked down at her. “Instead of the princess, I will take this girl.”

Horror crept up the King’s face. “That will not do! If my daughter does not please you, our kingdom has many beautiful women!”

“
I want this girl.” Sayan flipped her onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Normally there would be a lot of kicking and screaming, but she remained still. Perhaps she had recognized him.

“
She belongs to my son, Prince!”

“
They are not married.”

“
There will be a wedding once he returns-”

“
I want this girl,” Sayan repeated.

There was no further objection from the king. He could only watch as Sayan carried the girl away.

The news struck him
like lightning.

Ce thought he wasn’t going to be able to stand. He shook away the dizziness of the shock and shoved his servant aside from his path. He wandered out of the camp, desperately searching for a horse healthy looking enough to carry him home. He needed to talk to his father, and immediately.

He stopped a soldier, grabbed the horse’s rein right from his hands and mounted the animal. He knew he owned a far superior specimen, but this one would have to do. He couldn’t afford to waste another second. The woman he loved and his dignity was depending on it.

The words of the messenger burned into his chest. Someone was going to have to die if it was true. His father had given his bride elect as a peace tribute to the tyrant prince of the Northern Kingdom. The messenger reminded him several times to think of his country, but those words fueled the fire coursing through his vein. All he had thought about was his country! He had spent restless years at the border securing the kingdom from invaders instead of enjoying the luxury of a prince inside gilded palaces. His father rewarded his loyalty by taking away the only woman he had ever loved?

He felt tricked, deceived and beguiled.

He fell head over heels for her the first moment he laid eyes on her when she performed
courting dance of the butterflies
. He had spent so much effort tracking her down, fencing off the vengeful prime minister, and finally managed to persuade her to marry him. Now all of these efforts had gone to waste because his father had just given her to another. The sole thought of another man’s hands on her was enough for a murderous rage to burn a hole in his chest. Humiliation was eating him away.

He rode nonstop for two full days and night before his city came into sight. His horse was near the brink of exhaustion, but he needed it to survive until it got him through the gate. The soldiers on the city wall were on the lookout, and when they saw him, they immediately opened the gate. He dashed onto the city streets with the goal of getting to the palace’s gate. He didn’t care who or what was in his way. They better get out of his way and fast.

Escorts were following him as he walked down the hallway. They informed him that his father was in the study and that was all he needed to know from them.

With his sword firmly in his right hand, he kicked the door to the study open. Despite his obvious entrance, his father sat calmly at his desk. His father had been expecting him.

Protocol demanded that he kneel before his lord father.

“
Where is she?” The question he couldn’t wait another second to ask.

His father looked up and calmly answered, “I’ve given her to Sayan.”

“
She’s my wife!” He restrained the urge to shout. Even if he was a prince, such insolence could sever his head.

“
Bride elect,” his father corrected him, “and now she is the concubine of Prince Sayan.”

He glared at his father. All the respect he had for the man evaporated in an instant. “
She is mine
!”

“
If and when I say she is,” his father slammed a firm fist on the table to put him back in his place. Such display would only work on his subjects, not on him.

“
There are many beautiful women in our kingdom, why must it be her?”

“
I specifically forbid her from attending the banquet. However, Prince Sayan accidentally discovered her in the garden and asked to have her. What was I supposed to do?”

He clamped shut.

“
Think of your country, my son.”

Those words again. He stood up without permission to challenge his father’s authority. His father walked around his desk and stood face to face with him.

“
Do not let a woman cloud your judgment.”

A sour taste rolled down his throat as he turned away and exited the doors. His father could ask him for any kind of sacrifice and he would not utter a word, but he could not sacrifice Nala for the sake of ascending the throne. Even if he becomes the king, this humiliation would follow him to the grave.

He must get her back before she crosses the border.

There is a desert
separating the Northern Kingdom and the Western Kingdom.

Nala snugged her abductor’s cape around her body and used it to veil her face. They were traveling toward the North against the northern wind. It would hurt to breathe in the sands flying at her.

The scent of blood was all around him.

She looked up at her abductor and saw a violent storm in his dark brown eyes. His chest was very warm, even hot. She didn’t understand why he was so angry. She should have been the one who is angry. She waited for him to make the first insult so she could counter, but he said nothing.

The full moon was rising higher and higher. The wind had calmed quite a bit. The group stopped at her abductor’s command and set camp at a tiny patch of oasis. Her abductor dismounted the horse first before he grabbed her by the waist and flipped her onto his shoulder again.

They said men from the Northern Kingdom were brutes, and now she knows why.

She didn’t bother to fight him. He would have to put her down eventually. She may not weight much, but combined with the weight of the weapon behind his back, a ton of feathers still amount to a ton.

Her abductor carried her into the newly set up camp and threw her onto a pile of cushions. He may be rough, but he was nice enough not to throw her on the hard ground. He unstrapped the blade from his back and set it aside. He glanced at her every so often. There was still an angry expression on his face, but he said nothing to her, not even a word.

“
Are you…sulking?” she asked curiously.

“
Who’s sulking?”

“
You’re obviously angry with me, but you’re not saying anything.”

“
What should I say to you?” He asked. “I don’t have any rights to say anything to you.”

“
You…abducted me,” she reminded him.

He knelt down to her level and stared her in the eyes. “Do you really want to marry that man?”

“
What does ‘want’ have anything to do with it?”

He curved his eyes downward. When she thought he would stand up again, he lay down onto the cushions and turned his body sideways, facing away from her.

“
Do you have any intentions of taking me back?”

“
No, you are coming back to the Northern Kingdom with me.”

She leaned forward and rested her elbows on his arm. “You look like someone I know, but that really can’t be. He’s a shepherd and you’re a prince. One had to be born a prince, right?”

He turned to lie on his back. Her elbows slipped onto his chest.

Nala slowly got up to create distance between them. The ripe peach she’d kept in her bag had been squished when she slipped. The juice leaked out of the bag and damped the fabric of her gown.

“
It’s starting to feel sticky,” she was referring to the juice stain. She got up and headed out of the tent.

Sayan watched
as Nala leave the tent.

He had expected many things from this trip to the Western Kingdom, but finding Nala had not been one of them. Just when he was about to give up hope of ever seeing her again, she fell from the tree branch into his arms. He didn’t know how to deal with the shock. He also didn’t know how to deal with the bottled up anger.

She appeared in his life the same way as how she disappeared – without a warning.

The soldiers outside were getting rowdy. Sayan got up and headed out to see what was causing the commotion. Nala was standing by the desert spring and began loosening her gown. She pulled on the belt holding her gown together and the fabrics quickly slipped off her smooth skin.

Sayan hastily stepped in front of her to shield her away from the lustful eyes of his soldiers. He covered her body with his cloak and swept her off her feet. He could see the objections in the soldier’s eyes but they didn’t dare to voice it. He carried her back into the tent and stopped in his tracks as soon as the tent provided them with privacy.

“
What did you think you were doing?” He asked in an interrogative tone.

“
I need to bathe.” Her reply was too casual for what she had just displayed in front of a bunch of horny bastards.

“
If I didn’t step in, do you know what they could have done to you?” He didn’t even want to think about it. Unlike her, he had seen it more than once before.

“
Are you protective of me?”

Her pale green eyes looked up at him. He found it strange that she would even ask such a question. If he had ever felt protective toward a female, it would be her. She knew that damn well.

“
Don’t ever do that again.” He subtly sighed and then let her down to her feet. She was away from the protection of his cloak now. Her naked body was fully exposed. Sayan avoided looking at her as he removed his cloak and then wrapped it around her.

“
You’re looking away as if the sight of me hurts your eyes.”

“
I’m looking away because it doesn’t.” He returned his eyes to look at her. There wasn’t any sign of embarrassment he could detect on her face. “Are you trying to seduce me?”

She responded with a confused look in her eyes. “It must have been done without my awareness.”

He felt irritated with her. He pushed her down onto the cushion and mounted over her. Her pale green eyes were still as if she was a doll. He inched closer to her lips, went passed it, and whispered into her ear.