Steel and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy (8 page)

             
Albert Tode felt more than afraid now.  He cursed the men that hired him to follow and undermine the Wolf’s campaign.  He never would have hired on anyway had he known the shadow was real, and not just a rumor of war.  Such exaggerations were common among some circles.  Unfortunately, he had found out too late that this rumor was all too true.

             
“Koa,” a man rode up just then.  “The lass is waking.  You said you wished to……know,” he trailed off as Koa instantly turned his horse, and simply rode back down the column.

             
“I think our lad is in love,” Samuel chortled.

             
“I wouldn’t laugh too loudly, my friend,” Jengus told him.  “I’ve never seen him react as he did back there even in the heat of battle.  God help anyone that trifles with that lass.”

             
“In truth,” the lieutenant nodded.

             
“Oh, and Caleb,” he told Barques.  “You’re now my new captain.  You have Tode’s command, so be wary until we’re certain we’ve weeded out all his agents.”

             
“’Twere just the two,” Samuel drawled.  “The first fellow we caught was more than cooperative.  Apparently, he wasn’t much for loyalty either.  ’Tis how we knew to watch for the second messenger.”

             
Jengus nodded, and then glanced around.  “All the same, best we pick up the pace.  We don’t stop, or camp until we’re well into the grasslands beyond the border this evening.”
             

X

             
“I told you I’d be back,” he said as he rode up to the cart where Lia had sat up, looking genuinely confused as she found herself untouched despite the memory of her beating, and the lashing that followed.

             
“Koa?  Was I dreaming?  I thought I was dying…..”

             
“I fear ’twas no dream,” he admitted sadly as he rode alongside the cart where she sat with the female captives.  “But this lass is a healer, and saved you.  Still, you need not fear those dogs again.  I punished them so that they shall never forget you.  Not that you need fear them.  You shall never see them again, likely.”

             
She looked over at the young blonde in a simple freeman’s dress now, as were the two other women.  Two young boys sat looking miserable in only worn breeches, and all of them were bound hand and foot other than the one young lass.  Jengus had decided their finery was simply too out of place, and might draw unwanted attention as they made their way to the borderlands.

             
“Thank you,” she told the one girl who did have kind eyes, though the others around her looked less than happy, or friendly.  “And, of course, you,” she told Koa.

             
“I told you I would come back,” he told her.  “Now, as promised, we are on our way to Valdor,” he told her, making the queen gasp, and her daughter pale as that sullen arrogance faded only then to be overwhelmed by true fear.  “I vow, you will be safe there among your own.”

             
“I think I would never be as safe as I am at your side,” she smiled up at him.

             
He smiled back, and the healer was stunned to see that face, earlier so twisted in pure, raw primal rage, could look so warm and handsome just then.

             
“Sir,” she asked, looking up at him just then as Koa focused only on his….friend. 

             
“Aye, lass?”

             
“Your commander’s captives are getting hungry, and thirsty, and their need pulls at me.  Mayhap I could see them given provision?  I swear, I shall not trouble you beyond the asking.”

             
Koa nodded.  “I shall have bread and water sent to you.  You may remove their gags to feed them, but they are not to be untied.  Nor,” he added, looking pointedly at the princess, “Do I expect to hear a single complaint.  I have already taken one tongue this day.  A few more ’twould not trouble me,” he told them pointedly.

             
“I am certain they will not complain as you are kindly offering us food and water,” the lass said with a true diplomat’s skill.

             
He nodded, and smiled down at Lia again.  “I’m guessing you are hungry, too,” he asked more tenderly.

             
“Starving,” she agreed.  I could help…..”

             
“Just tend yourself, lass.  They are not guests, but captives the commander holds for the time being.  I won’t be a moment,” he said, and rode forward again.

             
A few moments later, he brought back a heavy waterskin, a single tin cup, and a chunk of bread he handed to the blonde. 

             
Lia, however, was handed a thick slice of cheese, and a strip of seasoned jerky, too.  “I’m sorry ’tis not hot food, but for now, we must make do,” he told her.

             
“’Tis a right wondrous feast,” she assured him, and surprised him by splitting the cheese with the blonde, thanking her again for healing her.  The princess, and the young princes eyed that simple fare enviously as the girl in turn fed them from the stale bread.  The queen, he noted, simply accepted what was given with a practical air.  She was, it seemed, a surprisingly pragmatic woman.

             
“I’ll check on you later,” he told Lia.  “And you lot, best recall what I said about those tongues,” he turned to glare at them.  The younger princes cringed, and whimpered, but the elder prince, and the princess only glared. 

             
Young as she was, he briefly imagined the little lass under a warrior with legs spread wide, and forced to labor, or rut for her next meal.  There was a bitter part of him that relished the idea of breaking that haughty wench.

             
The queen, he already suspected, was going to end up in his commander’s bed ere it was said and done.  Not that he cared overly much.  He simply suspected the woman would be more accepting of what was demanded of her than the shrewish princess.  She might even be canny enough to try to use her still admittedly obvious charms to sway the commander.

             
Try, because he knew that while Jengus was a man of appetites, he was unyielding when it came to duty.  He’d poke a whore, a slave, or a queen if he were randy and able, but he would never turn his back on his duty.  And to that canny mercenary, once a job was taken, it was done.  Only death would keep him from fulfilling his charge.

             
The queen might accept a bit of poking, but he knew she would never sway his commander.  His friend was too honorable to be so easily bought.  Still, as to the older prince….

             
William howled and the men cheered and jeered as the bound and now naked prince was forced to accept Simon’s hard sex into his boy’s gate as his mother sat at Jengus’ side watching the ‘show,’ and serving the commander.

             
It was closer to midnight than not that first night when they finally stopped, and they had set watch, then rested.  Three more days they traveled hard and fast, ever due south before turning east toward the Spine, as the high mountains that ran north to south cutting off Kanlys from Valdor were called.  Certain passes were hidden this far south, though, that allowed free passage, and smugglers and rogues had been using them for years.  On the second night, Simon had accepted the ‘gift’ Jengus gave him.  Since then, he led the proud prince around on a leash, naked as any slave to both break, and embarrass the proud Galdynian.

             
The queen still wore her common dress, but she was often in Jengus’ company, and none doubted that he was enjoying her often.

             
The blonde healer he now knew named Talia was often in Lia’s company now, and she was treated by extension with the same kindness, and compassion extended the former slave girl.  None, of course, dallied with either of them. 

             
The young princes, still wearing only breeches, and now hobbles, were forced to work with the camp followers at whatever chore demanded of them, or face a whipping like any true slave, though they were not collared or marked as yet

             
Ironically, Princess Miranda was often in Lia’s company, too, but she was both collared and branded now.  She had a rather abrasive manner at best, and Jengus, in a fit of fury of his own after one insult too many just that morning, had branded her himself, and then gifted her to Koa on impulse.

             
Koa was actually as horrified as Lia.  He was, to be honest, still getting used to Lia and Talia’s company, and the idea he was now in possession of a slave, even one so well blooded, annoyed more than it pleased him.  At first, he considered just hiring her out to the men as he had first considered suggesting, but she had begged quite earnestly after that brand was literally burned into her flesh with hot steel rather than the now usual means of a branding rod which used ink-tipped needles to ‘humanely’ mark human stock.  Talia had, of course, instantly healed the raw burn, but it only left her looking like a true slave branded years past. 

             
He had her rubbed in tanys root for her fair, pink skin was too likely to burn, and soon enough, he knew, she’d be as bronzed as any slave that labored long under the sun.  After he cut off most of her long hair, annoyed at how dirty and tangled it was on her, he was left with a blonde imp that looked as if she were a trueborn slave.

             
Especially as her clumsiness left her in a torn, and dirty dress that was fast becoming more skirt than dress.  He didn’t bother finding her another.  Let her learn to care for herself, he decided.  Besides, a bit of humility might finally curb that willful tongue he was still considering cutting out did she not relent soon.  For even collared and branded, her hope of returning to her own home well lost now thanks to her own sire’s laws, she still seemed to lack any sense.

             
In the end, he told her to serve Lia and Talia, thinking serving her former companion would be a nice bit of irony.  He added that if he heard any complaints from them, he would punish her himself.  So far, bitter as her tongue remained at times, she was surprisingly dutiful in her new chores.

             
The boys, from the look of their backsides, apparently required a bit more attention.

             
He barely noticed the elder prince being ridden not for the first time, the show now being part of an amusement for the men at night.  He simply ignored it, accepting it as fact the prince was held captive and forced to cooperate so.  Simon told him plainly the first night, he knew, that William Hastings could willingly accept his favors, and return them, or he could be gelded, and sold as a toy to men that favored such toys.  Once Simon was finished with him anyway.

             
Did Prince William wish to survive whole to be ransomed, he had to behave, and for the moment accept his new status as Simon’s ‘pet.’  So far, he played a willing sodomite’s pet, though he still burned with fury that Koa could sense in him every time he looked his way.

             
This was one lesson the prince was never going to forget.  It likely didn’t help to know his sister had gained her own true collar while his mother was a mercenary’s apparently willing mistress.  This, even as his brothers were being worked like drudges.

             
Koa could care less.  He had few fond memories of anything Galdynian.  In truth, he had none.

             
They met King Eric three days later at the pass, and everything changed yet again.

X

             
“Commander Sanz," the red-haired, and quite stocky, bearded man greeted him as Jengus saluted him rather than bowing. 

             
Eric Ericson nodded at the mercenary warrior, accepting the mercenary salute of right fist to the chest, and then glanced at the blondes among the mercenary warriors.  Talia remained with the column, but Lia stood close to Koa as they approached the king who had ridden out to meet them, and he turned toward Jengus after glancing at the Hastings, starting to congratulate him on a job well done when he locked his gaze on Lia.

             
“Merciful God.  Bella?”

             
“Bella,” she frowned.  “Nay, my lord,” she blushed.  “I am Lia,” she told him.

             
“Yet you are the very image of my older sister Bella, too, which means….  Tell me of yourself, lass.  Tell me how you ended up in Galdyn,” he demanded.

             
“As you wish, my lord,” she nodded after glancing at Koa.  “I’m just not sure what I can say.  I remember little of that….time before I was taken.”