The Devil's Concubine (16 page)

Raising up on one elbow as he collapsed weakly on his back beside her, she slipped her fingers beneath the wrapping that held his bandage in place and gently lifted one corner of the pad to see his wound.

A frown drew her brows together when she saw only pinkened, healing skin.

Sitting up straighter, she pulled the pad all the way back and stared at his chest, feeling perfectly blank when all that met her gaze was new skin.

THE DEVIL’S CONCUBINE

Jaide Fox

69

Talin, still struggling to catch his breath, tensed all over, meeting her

dumbfounded gaze warily when she finally transferred her attention from his ‘wound’ to his face.

“There is a simple explanation,” he said warily.

“How simple?” Aliya asked, anger already simmering in her voice.

“I heal quickly.”

Aliya’s eyes narrowed. “How quickly?”

“In beast form, almost at once--as long as there is nothing preventing the flesh

from closing--more slowly when I shift to human form,” he added quickly.

“You … bastard!” she snarled, balling her hand into a fist menacingly. “You let

me make a complete fool of myself, dashing around frantically to try to save your hide when you were in no danger any of the time!”

“That is not strictly true,” he said defensively. “I was nigh dead when I first

arrived in the courtyard. If I had waited much longer before I removed the arrows, I might well have died.”

“So you were already healing even before I had you brought up to your ‘death

bed’?”

“I was weak, half crazy with the pain,” he growled.

“Pain? I’ll give you pain,” she growled back at him, looking around for

something to belt him with. “If I had a knife I’d put in your treacherous heart, you devil!

You
tricked
me into giving myself to you!”

Suddenly keenly conscious of the dagger he had tucked beneath his pillow, Talin

slipped his hand under the pillow and very carefully reached back until he could trust the dagger between the mattress and the ropes holding the bed frame together. “I distinctly recall that you said, I am yours!” he muttered tightly, feeling better once he was certain she wouldn’t find the blade.

Abruptly, she planted her hands on his arm. Strengthened no doubt by her fury,

she heaved him onto his side, and rolled him out of the bed. He was so stunned by the move he hit the floor before he could even think to try to catch himself. “Get out!” she screamed, hanging over the side of the bed to glare down at him as he struggled to get to his feet.

“This is
my
suite!” he shot back at her indignantly, planting his hand on his hips.

Uttering a growl of rage, she looked around for something to throw. Seeing her

intent when she reached for the heavy candle holder on the table beside the bed, still filled with six fully lit candles, he whirled abruptly and stalked toward the door with as much dignity as he could muster.

The candle holder sailed past his head as he reached the door, narrowly missing

him.

“Damn it to hell!” he yelped, whirling to face her. “You damned near hit me, you

termagant!”

“I won’t miss next time,” she promised, scrambling out of the bed and heading for

the water pitcher.

Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, he yanked the heavy door open

and went out, slamming the stout panel behind him even as he heard the tinkle of

shattering pottery. “Like it or not, you are still mine,” he bellowed at the door.

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The basin followed the pitcher, shattered on the door, and then joining the broken

pieces on the floor.

He was half way down the tower stairs before the heat of his anger dissipated

enough that it occurred on him he didn’t have a stitch of clothing on. He stopped.

Grinding his teeth, he glanced back toward the door of his suite, where his entire

wardrobe was kept. Deciding that he wasn’t particularly interested in rejoining the battle at the moment, he finally turned and continued down the stairs.

Silence fell as he stalked across the great hall and flung himself into his throne.

The seat, he discovered the moment his bare ass settled, felt like a sheet of ice and he almost came up off of it again.

A couple of the men gathered at one table in a game of chance uttered something

that sounded suspiciously like a snicker and then fell into a fit of coughing when he sent a glare in their direction.

After brooding over the fickleness of women for some time, Talin lifted his head

and surveyed the hall again until his eyes lit on a maid who was standing stock still, gaping at him. “Find me something to wear in the laundry,” he bellowed at her.

She jumped all over, dropping the pitcher of ale she’d been holding. Nodding

jerkily, she glanced down at the mess she’d made and then decided to leave it for the moment and hurried from the great hall.

“Sometimes they toss the clothing after,” Solly said tentatively.

Talin sent him a narrow eyed glare at the man who’d intruded into his dark

thoughts. “Then go and look,” he snarled finally.

Hooking one leg over an armrest, he settled more comfortably, dropping an arm

along the other rest and drumming his fingers on it impatiently while he waited. When Solly appeared again, he glanced at him questioningly.

Solly shook his head. “From the sound of it, I think she’s building a barricade.”

Talin frowned. “I do not understand women,” he growled. “One moment, they

are as sweet as honey, and the next they are threatening to cut your heart out.”

“She did not find the dagger?” Solly asked uneasily.

“She had not when I left, else I would probably have it in my back now,” Talin

retorted. “She hurled everything else she could lay hand to at me. I confess, I had not thought she had such a temper. In general, she is so sweet, so gentle and loving.”

Solly cleared his throat. “I did try to warn you, Sire, that she would not take the

deception well.”

Talin studied the man in fuming silence for several moments. Finally a morose

expression replaced the anger. “I lost my head,” he mumbled.

“Almost literally,” Solly retorted, drawing another glare.

Since the maid arrived just then with the clothes he’d demanded, Talin decided to

ignore that assault to his dignity. Grabbing the clothing, he sent the maid off to fetch him a tankard of ale to take the chill off. “And food. Real food!” he called after her as she took off again.

Standing, he ignored Solly’s amused look and adjusted his loincloth. Apparently,

it wasn’t actually his, for he had some difficulty corralling his soldier and friends, who kept trying to escape whenever he moved. After a moment, he gave up the effort and

grabbed the tunic she’d brought, looking it over suspiciously before he thrust his arms into it. This, too, he discovered, belonged to someone else, for he found he couldn’t put THE DEVIL’S CONCUBINE

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his arms down once he’d managed to shrug into it. Uttering a growl of frustration, he flexed his arm and back muscles. The tunic split down the back, but he managed to get his arms down.

Disgusted when he saw he couldn’t fasten the thing, he grabbed the breeches

she’d brought and examined them. Those, at least, seemed to belong to him and he

pulled them on and fastened them. “Any word from our spies?” he barked at Solly as he dropped into his seat once more.

His left testicle fell out in the process, strangling on the loincloth as it was pulled taut by his movements. Nausea washed over him. Grinding his teeth, he slipped a hand beneath his waistband, examined the injured one carefully and stuffed it back into the loincloth.

Solly’s amusement vanished. He shook his head. “Nothing.”

Glancing around the great hall, Talin discovered the carpenters had been busy.

Most of the windows were covered by shutters. He caught a glimpse of moonlight,

however, through one that still allowed a view of the sky. “I should not have sent them when we had no doubt already been spotted,” he muttered, his anger turning inward.

“But I had not thought, with so many new soldiers arriving, that two more would attract notice. The moon will set soon. We should go now when we can do so without

attracting attention to ourselves and then disguise ourselves and enter the encampment in the morning.”

“We?” Solly asked, alarmed. “Sire! You can not risk capture. The people need

you.”

“
I
need to know if the man children are of any real threat to us, and, if so, how great a threat,” Talin retorted grimly.

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His trunks, Talin discovered when he decided that Aliya had had long enough to

recover her temper, had been dragged out into the corridor. After staring at them in surprise and dawning outrage for several moments, he stalked to the door. It was bolted, or still barricaded, from the inside.

He hammered on the door with his fist. “Aliya! This is childish. You are my

concubine. You can not lock me out forever!”

He waited several moments. When he heard nothing, he pressed his ear to the

door. Inside, he heard furtive movements that told him the room was indeed occupied.

“You have defied your king
and
your husband, for you and I both know that you are well and truly mine! You may be sure that I will expect a full apology before I even
begin
to consider pleasuring you again!”

Something heavy struck the door even as he put his ear to it, certain the panel was

just too thick to allow him to hear her. “You and I and now the entire palace!” she

screamed at him furiously. “I could
cheerfully
slay
you!”

His lips tightened. “They would have known anyway! We are man beasts.

When a male has marked his female we sense these things,
know
them.” He hesitated for a moment. “You said yourself that everyone believed as much already.”

Another heavy object crashed into the door. Again there was no sound of

shattering pottery or glass and he deduced that she had run out of light weight missiles of that nature. He waited for many moments, wondering if she would reconsider. He was

angry enough to stalk away right then, but it had been
days
already. He was not going to be accountable for his actions if she continued to spurn him.

“Very well,” he growled finally. “Soon I will go off to war. We will talk when I

return.
If
I return,” he added for full effect.

He heard brisk footsteps approaching the door on the other side and tensed,

wondering if she meant to snatch it open and try to crack him over the head with

something, or if the threat of death—his--had had the desired effect.

“If you go off and pick a fight with my father, I will never speak to you again as

long as I live!”

That wasn’t precisely the response he had expected and it took him several

moments to realign his thoughts. “I did not start a war with your father! It is he who provoked this dispute.”

“And you returned the insult by making me your whore!” she snapped. “You

may go to him and say that I have accepted my fate and wish that he will make peace.”

Talin ground his teeth, uncertain of which part of that speech infuriated him more.

“You are my concubine!” he growled finally.

“It is the same thing.”

“It is
not
!” he bellowed furiously. “I have had many laymen in my time, but I have not once taken a concubine! You are my first wife … after the queen, which I have not taken,” he added conscientiously.

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She was silent for several moments. “I do not believe that even a king should

have the right to take two wives,” she ground out finally.

“It is our custom! And what is more, it is not only the king who does so!”

“It is not
my
custom. And I can not feel that I am bound only to one man, when he is not similarly bound.”

For the first time since they’d begun the quarrel, Talin felt real fury grip him. “If you do not want the blood of many on your hands, do not even consider that as a

possibility,” he murmured, his voice almost deadly quiet now.

She was silent for so long that he thought she would say nothing else. Finally, she

said, “Why should I worry about the blood of your people, when you mean to let the

blood of my own?”

Uttering an impotent snarl, Talin whirled and stalked back down the tower stairs

to the great hall.

Deciding she had been the victor in that round when she heard Talin stomp off,

Aliya turned on her heel and rejoined her ladies. They sat in silence for some time, focused upon the needlework Lady Leesa had had the foresight to pack when she had

been scrambling to gather Aliya’s belongings. After some time had passed, Lady

Beatrice uttered a snorting laugh. When she did, Lady Leesa let out a giggle.

Aliya sent them both a cross look. “I do not know what it is that you find so

humorous,” she said irritably.

Lady Beatrice shrugged, but after a moment uttered another snorting laugh.

Again, Lady Leesa echoed it.

“What is it that you find so amusing?” Aliya demanded, beginning to be angry

about the whole thing since she was still angry with Talin anyway.

And uneasy about the threat, for that matter, regardless of the fact that she’d

challenged him over it.

“He will withhold his favors,” Lady Beatrice muttered on a gurgle of laughter,

whereupon Lady Leesa fell to laughing until tears began to flow down her cheeks.