Read The Battle Lord's Lady Online

Authors: Linda Mooney

Tags: #romance, #scifi, #fantasy, #novel, #erotic romance, #futuristic, #apocalyptic, #battle lord, #mutants

The Battle Lord's Lady (29 page)

BOOK: The Battle Lord's Lady
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“Danna, your husband pulled a young
woman from the bundle of prisoners,
prisoners!
, unarmed people!, and he sliced her
face from her skull. And while she writhed in the dirt in agony, he
shoved the tip of his sword into both her breasts until she stopped
moving.

“Karla, you lost Joel. He singled out one of
the little boys. Dragged him from the protective arms of his
mother. And then he laughed as he cut off one of the boy’s hands.
Then the other. Then one foot. Then the other. And when he was
finished, he stood and watched and waited until the child had bled
to death in the dirt. Karla, that little boy couldn’t have been
more than six or seven years old!”

Pointing overhead as if he were
pointing to the building itself, MaGrath coldly told them, “While
all this was going on, while the screams of her family and friends
filled the courtyard, one lone girl was faced with a predicament.
You see, there was no one left in the compound to defend it. All
the other hunters had left to try and find food so they could
survive the winter. Atty had been lucky that day. She’d found a
badger and brought it back so everyone wouldn’t starve. Then she’d
gone home that night and found out her mother and sister, her
entire family, was gone. Killed. She thought
we
had killed them. And now we had descended upon
her home, her compound, in the middle of the night and had begun to
butcher everyone there. If you were her, if you had her ability to
protect and kill, what would
you
have done? Huh? I’ll tell you. You would have climbed up to
the roof of that building, just like she did, and you would have
begun to put an arrow through every man there.”

MaGrath narrowed his eyes. “Our men
didn’t just kill the Mutah. They heartlessly mutilated them. They
chopped off heads, then placed bets to see whose victim survived
the longest. They slit huge, gaping wounds in the woman’s stomachs,
removed the unborn fetuses, and threw the babes into the cooking
fire. And all because they
looked
different from us. Because they were not
normal
.

“Before that night Atty had never
killed another man. She had twenty-two arrows in her quiver. She
told me she knew she had to make each one count because she never
believed she would live after that night. Our men tortured and
maimed, and her people died slowly. Agonizingly. And she placed an
arrow into sixteen of our men cleanly, efficiently, expertly.” He
snapped his fingers. “Our men died instantly. No pain. No
suffering. Every one a merciful shot. Now tell me which of us is
humane. Convince me who is the more
superior
.”

A tickling in his nose made him sniff. It was
then he realized he’d been crying, and he wiped his face with the
sleeve of his shirt.

“I don’t know what happened,
what...miracle...occurred between her and Yulen. One moment I saw
where our men had beaten her senseless, almost killing her, and the
next moment there was this...this knowledge that there was
something rare, a feeling, an attraction...I don’t know what to
call it, but you could see it growing and becoming stronger between
them.”

Casting the crowd a final, sad glance,
the physician shook his head. He was drained and saddened beyond
all rational thought. “Atty knew she was entering the lion’s den
when she came here. She knew the chances were against her, and that
she might never be accepted. Not even for who she was or what she
could do. But she was willing to risk it because of her love for
our Battle Lord, and his for her. She loves him, and she will
defend him, and this compound, and
all
your unworthy asses with the last drop of her
blood! And all she and Yulen wanted in exchange was for her to be
able to walk among you, weaponless, and not fear for her
safety.”

Looking directly at the woman who now
was as white as a sheet, MaGrath restated, “She was weaponless. And
trusting. She trusted that no one would hurt her. So did Yulen. He
trusted
you
. He trusted you
not to hurt the woman he loves. His people.”

He closed his eyes, unable to continue.

“You people make me sick,” he spat bitterly,
then turned on his heel and walked back in the direction of the
main lodge.

Behind him several women began to cry softly,
and men stared in shocked silence at the departing figure. An hour
later every stall in the market place had been closed or
dismantled, shut down early in deference to what had happened that
morning.

For the first time that anyone could
remember, a Saturday afternoon passed empty and quiet and cold,
despite the warmth of the spring sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty

Shift

 

 

Berta walked out of the storeroom after
counting the number of forks she had on hand. Faydra, the new
kitchen help, had a bad habit of tossing the utensils out with the
garbage. And now, as head of the staff for the Battle Lord and the
main lodge, Berta was discovering that they were starting to run
short of the necessary items they needed to feed all the soldiers
who came in to eat.

Rounding the corner of the storeroom on her
way to the back stairs, the older woman nearly ran into the hunched
form leaning heavily against the railing. Seeing the wild mane of
glossy blue hair that shielded the woman’s face from view, she
pressed a hand to her ample bosom and heaved a sigh of relief.

“Oh, goodness! You almost frightened me to
death!” she half-accused the young woman.

Something fell to the floor from the girl’s
bowed head, and the servant’s eyes were immediately attracted to
the movement.

Blood. Fresh blood.

A trail of droplets led from the steps back
to the side door of the lodge. Berta felt herself grow cold with
the realization, and she started to move toward the girl when the
Battle Lord suddenly came running around the corner. Spotting the
figure, he let out a heavy sigh and reached for her.

“Berta, bring up some cold compresses to my
room,” he ordered the servant as he tenderly pulled Atty into his
embrace. The servant shuddered as she saw the bloody mess that used
to be the woman’s beautiful face as he propped her head against his
shoulder. When Atty whimpered in pain, Berta winced in sympathy.
“What happened to the dear?” she asked him, watching as he
carefully picked her up in his arms to carry her the rest of the
way upstairs.

“Never mind what,” Yulen told her. “We’ll
need fresh bandages, too. Hurry, Berta. Please.”

The servant woman turned to obey, but not
before she heard him murmuring against the woman’s hair, “I’m
sorry, my love. I’m so sorry.”

Yulen rushed Atty upstairs and into their
bedroom to lay her on the bed. From the bathroom he grabbed some
towels and a bowl of fresh water, and took them back to the bed to
begin washing away the blood and dirt that was already beginning to
coagulate. Moments later, Berta knocked on the door and let herself
in, assuming the Battle Lord would be too busy taking care of the
Mutah woman to answer it himself. Yulen gave her a nod of
thanks.

“MaGrath should be here any moment,” he
informed her.

Berta nodded. There also would be no meal
tray brought up at midday. Silently she propped the bow against the
wall beside the door. “She dropped this on the stairs,” she
explained at his quick questioning glance. As she turned to depart,
she asked him if he needed anything else.

“Not at this time, thank you,” he told her,
keeping his attention focused on the woman on the bed. Berta nodded
again and opened the door to leave, and was nearly knocked down by
the physician running into the room.

“Is she conscious?” he asked the Battle Lord,
darting around the servant woman.

“Yes, I’m conscious,” Atty managed to
whisper.

Closing the door behind her, Berta hurried
back downstairs. Something had happened, and she was determined to
know what. Who would attack the Battle Lord’s lady? And how had
they been made to pay for the atrocity?

Scowling, the servant woman paused at
the bottom of the landing and turned to glance back up at the door
at the top of the staircase.
When did you
suddenly care what happened to the Mutah woman?
she
chided herself. What provoked such an attack on the girl
when—

Atty

—had done nothing at the compound but prove
over and over her fidelity and loyalty to the Battle Lord?

Grasping the edges of her apron, Berta headed
for the kitchen where she knew the help was waiting, and hopefully,
had more information to share.

 

* * * *

“Yulen? Come on. Let’s leave her alone for a
few hours.” MaGrath gave the Battle Lord’s shoulder a shake. “She
needs as much rest and quiet as possible. Let’s go downstairs and
have something to eat.”

“You go on,” Yulen said. “I’m not hungry at
the moment.”

“Then, as your physician, I’m
ordering
you to come eat with me. You
need to keep up your strength, she needs to be left alone, and I
hate dining by myself.”

Yulen glanced up at the man standing beside
him. MaGrath had given her a thick, black liquid that had put her
under almost immediately. Then, with the Battle Lord’s help, he’d
reset the cheekbone and hoped the damage wouldn’t permanently mar
the woman’s features. Although he had only treated a few Mutah in
the past, all of them had healed quickly and much more rapidly than
Normals. Atty had shown that same tendency on their return to Alta
Novis, thank goodness.

Giving him a soft grunt in response, Yulen
rose from his chair and followed the man downstairs and into the
main hall. Taking a seat at their usual table, Yulen’s eyes scanned
the room. His sixth sense had picked up on the fact that something
was different. Was it a shift in attitude? It was hard to pinpoint,
and even harder to explain. Yet there was no escaping the furtive
looks shot their way from his men.

“Liam?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s going on?”

MaGrath gave him a puzzled glance, unprepared
for the anger in the man’s blue-gray stare. “There’s been a hell of
a lot that’s happened today, Yulen. Can you be more specific?”

Yulen lowered his voice so that only the
physician could hear. “Something’s changed among my men.
Something’s...different. And, frankly, it’s making the hairs on the
back of my neck stand on end. If I’m going to place my life in
their hands, and theirs in mine, I need to be aware of every shift
in their mood. And right now, something major is happening. It’s
like a change in the weather, and I can’t predict if it’s going to
be fair or foul.” He paused, testing the air again. “Can it have
something to do with Atty?”

A soldier passed nearby and off-handedly
commented to the man he was dining with that the market had shut
down in the middle of the day. “Just closed up early and everyone
gone home.”

Getting to his feet, Yulen called to the
soldier. “Greene. Did you say the market had closed early?”

The soldier glanced up, his face blanching at
being singled out by the Battle Lord. “Yes, sir. Shut down for the
rest day.”

“Why?”

Instead of answering, the man’s eyes darted
to the physician. Yulen had his answer.

“All right, Liam,” he leaned over and
hissed. “Somehow you’re mixed up in this. It
does
have something to do with Atty, doesn’t it?
I want a direct answer from you, and I’m wanting it
now.”

MaGrath wiped his mouth with his napkin.
“Truth? I may have said a few choice words to the crowd after you
left.”

“Such as?” Yulen challenged, his eyes
glittering.

“Leave it, Yulen. Suffice it to say, I’ve
reached the end of my rope as well.” Tossing his napkin on the
table, the physician got to his feet. “I’m going to my office to
see how badly Macintyre is botching up my records. I’ll be back in
a couple of hours to check on Atty. In the meantime you would be
doing everyone a great service by going out among your men and
listening to them. Something miraculous happened out on the archery
field today, if you care to remember, and an entire garrison paid
homage to her skill. If you’re the leader I think you are, you’ll
see there’s still the very real possibility this compound will
accept our blue-haired Athena. But you have to go out there and
present her to them by presenting yourself.”

Having said what was on his mind for the
second time in less than an hour, MaGrath could feel his energy
draining out of him like air out of a balloon. Wearily he left the
main hall for his medical suite.

Yulen glanced upstairs, debating with himself
whether to do as his friend suggested, or to go back to Atty’s
side. Although his heart wanted to be with her, wisdom said his
duty was outside.

Grabbing a mug of beer at the serving table,
Yulen quickly drained it before heading for the barracks. He was
woefully past due an inspection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-One

Taken

 

 

Yulen rarely called a surprise inspection.
But since the day already had borne many unexpected events, he felt
one more wouldn’t make any difference.

BOOK: The Battle Lord's Lady
7.93Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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