Shattered (9 page)

Nathan hung limp from his
arms.  Although his feet reached the floor he wasn’t supported by them.  It was simply too much effort to get them beneath him properly.  What was a little more pain in his wrists when he hurt everywhere else.

“I don’t have anything left to give you Mistress,”
Nathan whispered.  Tears that sat trapped against his eyes by the blindfold fell free and streaked his cheeks, but no new ones fell.  He was too tired to cry any more.

Robin continued on as though she
hadn’t heard him.  She dropped his chin and paced back and forth in short steps in front of him.

“
Lying is the worst thing you can do.  Lying tells me you have energy to spare, that I’ve been too easy on you.  You must think I’m stupid.  Is that it?  Because I can’t even write my own letters?”

“No Mistress
.”

“Then why would you try to manipulate me? I thought I was clear with you.  How many times have I told you that you
don’t control this, yet you try to by lying? Of all things!”

Nathan was confused
, exhausted, but he felt the smallest rekindling of strength as her will began to show itself.  He had none for himself, she had destroyed it already, and he had been borrowing hers to survive.  Without it he had nothing but despair.

He gathered some of it now as he lifted his chin just high enough to meet her eyes. 
He had to know what she wanted.  Despite everything he wanted to appease her.  “When did I lie to you?”

“Today, at the pool.
  Why would you say I’m beautiful?  Was that really the best you could come up with?  Did you think I’d hurt you less if you flattered me?”

Nathan
knew his mouth sat agape but he was at a loss for words.  He had never met a woman who became so offended at a compliment.  Then again, he had never met a woman who made a life out of inflicting pain.  Nor one he wanted to please more.

“I want an answer from you Nathan. 
You will tell me the truth or I will show you just how good I am at my job.  These last few days have been nothing next to what I can do.  I’ve left you whole so far, but that can change.  You have no idea.”

The slip from his pet name to h
is real one sent a chill down his back.  She was serious, and he sensed that apologizing was the worst thing he could do right now.  It would be a lie for he wasn’t sorry at all.  She wanted the truth and it was the only reason he was able to give it.

“
I think you’re cruel and terrifying Robin.”  It was hard to force the words out past the pain in his chest.  They came out slowly.  “A hundred other things atop that too. But I need you, and that makes you more beautiful than anything or anyone I’ve ever known.”

Her eyes narrowed
a little but Nathan couldn’t read her.  “You really expect me to believe that…”

“I’m dead Mistress
.  You’ve left me with nothing.  No modesty, no shame, no hope.  Tell me what you want from me and I will do it.  Tell me you want me to suffer for your revenge and I will, endlessly, until you’re satisfied.  But please, don’t think I was lying.”

Her frown softened a little but a
knock at the door, three quick hits in succession, interrupted whatever she might say next.  Robin dropped the whip.  Her face went blank and Nathan realized there had been some warmth there before, evident only in its absence now.

“Eyes down, not a word,” she
whispered as she turned towards the door, taking two steps forward to place herself between it and him.

Nathan honed every sense on th
e person who would come here so clearly uninvited.  But he wouldn’t disobey her, he sensed her trepidation, and he kept his eyes firmly on her heels.

Whoever it was their step was heavy and the current of air that followed them in was ridiculously sweet, though it just barely managed to cover the stale sme
ll of perspiration.  Perhaps he was cueing his emotions off of Robin, but this person disgusted him already.

“My
little sparrow,” a male voice said playfully. “Have you been enjoying your present?”

Nathan pressed
the nail of his index finger into his thumb, hidden above his head at the ceiling, to keep himself from voicing his disgust as he heard the man touch Robin.  He heard their skin rubbing together, his hand on her face, an innocent gesture that seemed perverted by something.  And he realized what.  That man had power over her.

“Yes m’lord,
” Robin replied.

“Good, good.  I’m glad,” he said, but he wasn’t.  Not in a benevolent sense anyway
, but only glad in a way that someone who was now owed a favor might be.

His hand traveled from her face and down.  Nathan could hear the movement in the rustle of his sleeve, the grating of his palm over leather, the small breaths Robin took to minimize the rise of her chest into his hand.

“Pig,” Nathan mumbled.  The weight of both sets of eyes fell on him at once.  He kept his face down and watched the cumbersome shadow creep across the floor.  The first blow he took was to the stomach and it knocked the air out of him.  His head came up reflexively and he met Robin’s wide eyes beyond the man’s shoulders.  He saw her disbelief.

Nathan silently congratulated himself on his choice of animal.  Th
is man really did resemble a pig, though one dressed up like a noble.  The thought of a pig in silk made him laugh too, for what else could he do hanging here.  He was a defenseless target to this man’s fists.

Robin let a few more blows go before she came beside the pig-noble and
placed her hand upon his arm.  “Please m’lord.  You’ll kill him at that rate.”

“I
’ll not tolerate his insults, sparrow.  You’ve gone too easy on him.”  He landed one more punch at Nathan’s center and sent the air out of him again.  But the pig-noble wheezed at the effort that left him winded.

“
Let me make him suffer for his insults then.  If you kill him now you only spare him from pain.”  Robin bent at his feet and retrieved her whip.  Nathan hung limp from his wrists, unable to spare the energy to balance on his toes as he coughed and gasped for air.  She jabbed he butt of the whip against his tender side and he groaned.  She spun him around until he was facing away from them.

“
In fact, we were in the middle of this when you arrived,” Robin explained.  She dragged the hard leather down the center of his back and it traveled slick through sweat and blood both.  Nathan arched his shoulder blades together, pulled at the ropes, and groaned at the ceiling.  Behind him he heard the noble draw in a sharp breath, like the sight of his torn back was somehow unexpected.

There was no
thing gentle about Robin’s touch, but it was bare of the displeasure that had tainted it earlier.  It felt almost caring now, tender somehow, like she was doing this for him.

She stepped away from him and swung.  It was two blows only, so quick that they were practically o
ne motion, and both cut across the welts on his ass.  The pain ignited along his flesh like fire set to dry kindling.  Nathan screamed so loud, his throat already so raw, that even the pig-noble shifted uncomfortably.

Robin walked slowly around to his front, dragging the hardened leather handle of the whip around his waist as she went.
  Their eyes met and hers held him there.  For the moment he did not drop his face back to the floor.

“
Has he told you anything I might find interesting yet?”

“No
, but we’ve only been at it for a few days now.  Those men you hired to bring him here nearly killed him in the process.  I lost three full days letting him recover before I could even start.”

The man wheezed out a quiet breath, a weak grunt of acknowledgement, like even the effort of that was too much to be bothered with.  Nathan watched Robin blink once, twice, before the noble spoke again.  “He’s seen my face sparrow. 
He doesn’t leave here now.”

Robin’s stare
never left Nathan’s, though she still spoke to the other man.  “You needn’t worry.  The only way he leaves here is over my dead body.”  She let the words hang between them for a few seconds before dropping the whip again and rejoining their guest.

“You must have come here for a reason m’lord,”
Robin said as she took his arm and led him away from Nathan.  “You’ve some other business to discuss?”

“
I need you to come to the palace for a few days.”  He handed her an envelope and righted his displaced fineries, smoothing the crease in his sleeves and tugging the waist of his tunic.  The sweet, flowery perfume he seemed bathed in stirred again in the air.  “I’m on my way there now and I expect you’ll join me by tomorrow night.  I’ll explain the rest when you arrive.”

The rest of their short conversation fell hushed as Robin
saw him out, but she went no further than the threshold to her room.  She was all duty and politeness until the door shut.

“You’re an idiot
, prince.” Robin stalked over to the wall and released the loop locking the other end of the rope. It fed through the ceiling and Nathan fell to the floor.  He groaned as he tried to curl onto his side.  She looked down at him with her arms folded across her chest.  “If he wanted to kill you I wouldn’t have been able to stop him.  I’m beginning to think you’re suicidal.  Is that your plan? Push someone to kill you?”

“May I speak freely Mistress?”
Nathan didn’t look up at her, he couldn’t.  He could barely move.

Robin sighed
and sat down beside his head.  “There’s no such thing prince, but I really don’t feel like hurting you any more today.”

“
You didn’t want him to touch you and he did.  He shouldn’t have, that’s all.”

Robin
shook her head.  “You really are stupid.”

Nathan started to slide his
bound hands over his side, to touch at the damage he knew this latest beating had caused, but she stopped him.

“Lay still,” she commanded. 
Her hand came down on the side of his face and rested there.

“How bad is it?”

“That’s not for you to worry about.  You don’t own your own fate.”

Nathan shut his eyes. 
He could only afford shallow breaths before the pain overwhelmed him.  He knew he shouldn’t speak but he needed to hear her voice right now.  It was a comfort.  “Who is he?”

“
Lord Denrick A’rin.  You didn’t recognize him?” Robin sounded surprised. “He attends your court often enough.”  When Nathan shook his head she continued on. “He rules over the southern providence, that area your kingdom conquered, the area that was once my home.”

“I’m the youngest of
three sons,” Nathan mumbled, as though it were excuse enough.  “I don’t spend much time in court.”

“Too much time in the bedroom
I hear, and not usually yours.  Yes prince, I know all about your personal conquests, just like I know all about your kingdom’s territorial ones.  You’ve been on my list for a long time now.  But to not even notice the man who plots to usurp your kingdom, that’s something.”

Nathan gave a small shrugged
and winced.  He should care about all that, he knew he should, but the truth was it seemed trivial and unimportant from where he lay.  The stone floor was cold against one side of his face, contrasting the leather that still rested upon his other, and that was more real to him right now than any of the games of court.

“Do you really not question the state of things when a prince can be
abducted? You must realize your kingdom is rife with corruption.”

“Of course I know
Mistress, but what difference does it make now?”

Robin chuckled quietly.  “I might actually be a little sad when this is over.  You continue to surprise me.”

Nathan was quiet again.  Her words only confirmed what he already knew, that he wasn’t getting out of this alive.  He shut his eyes and let the realization wash over him.  It should bother him.  Breathing hurt, his back stung and burned in so many different places that it all blurred together in one long sheet of agony, but Robin’s hand against his face was so warm he didn’t care.  And he realized he had already divorced himself from the affairs of the living.

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know
,” he whispered.

“
Be quiet now prince. I’ve told you once already, there’s nothing at all I need from you.  Do you understand?  You’re not to say that again.”

Nathan
didn’t understand why she wouldn’t want the one thing she was expected to get, but it was no longer his place to understand.  She desired silence, so he nodded against the ground, beneath the shelter of her palm.  Robin relaxed a little and moved her hand across his forehead to stroke her thumb along his brow.

“Good,” she said softly
.  She sat there until he fell asleep, and then longer, until the nausea in her stomach abated enough that she could stand.

***

“You need to drink something,” Robin said, but she sounded so far away.  Nathan struggled through the haze of his
hurt-filled sleep as he tried to focus in on her voice.  Everything felt so muddled.  He remembered Denrick and he remembered hitting the floor.  After that, nothing.