The Devil's Concubine (5 page)

more. Lighting on the balcony of his own suite, he shifted, examining the stout door that now blocked the entrance critically. Satisfied that was sufficient to cage his little bird, he tried the latch.

He had to put his shoulder against the stout panel to push it open. Displeased by

that, he was frowning when he finally stepped inside and turned to examine the hinges.

“It scrapes the floor,” he muttered to no one in particular.

Silence greeted that remark and he turned after a moment to study the carpenters,

who’d frozen in place at his comment. The master carpenter hurried forward. “I will see to that myself, Sire. I will take it down at once and trim just a bit from the bottom and it will swing more easily.”

Talin, finding he was in a far better mood than when he’d left the palace, merely

nodded. “See to it that you do. The objective is to protect my beautiful princess--not suffocate your king. I am accustomed to air--and light.” Dismissing the door, he strode about the suite, surveying the shutters that had been placed over the windows. “It will be as dark in here as the dungeon,” he muttered irritably.

The master carpenter, who’d followed him, looked at the shutters in dismay.

“Solly said you had ordered that shutters be placed over the windows. Did I

misunderstand?”

“Shutters, yes--but there is no light. I have no view!”

“Bars, perhaps?” the carpenter suggested hesitantly. “They would allow a view

and still protect the princess.”

Talin frowned. “I like the idea of feeling caged even less.” He thought it over.

“And I do not care to make the princess feel a prisoner if it comes to that.”

The carpenter gaped at him. “Uh--she is not a prisoner?”

Talin glared at him. “Certainly not! I have decided to keep her.”

The carpenter’s expression went perfectly blank. After a stunned moment, he

remembered himself and studied his feet before the king could take exception to his

obvious confusion over the distinction. “If I may suggest, Sire,” he offered hesitantly,

“with a little more time I am sure I could come up with a design for the shutters that will serve the purpose and still allow in light and view. I could do the same with the door, if you wish--cut some clever design into the panels?”

Talin considered it thoughtfully for several moments and finally nodded. “I will

allow the princess to think of a design that pleases her. Women like to beautify their nests, do they not? It makes them feel--needed.”

The carpenter frowned, feeling that the king had asked his opinion and wondering

if he dared express it honestly. Finally, he merely shrugged. “I think it likely, Sire. She will certainly be more comfortable if she makes the place more like what she is familiar with.”

Talin frowned, but thoughtfully. “An excellent suggestion!” he said finally,

smiling broadly.

The carpenter blinked. “It was?” he asked, wondering what he’d suggested.

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Jaide Fox

20

“I will send men to gather her cherished belongings and bring them here. Then

she may arrange things just as she likes and she will be very pleased with my

thoughtfulness.”

The carpenter wasn’t convinced. In his experience, once a man had thoroughly

infuriated a woman by depriving her of her wishes--which he assumed King Talin had,

for, from what he’d heard, the princess had been less than delighted to come--nothing short of bloodshed--his--would appease them, but he wisely kept that opinion to himself.

Perhaps, he thought hopefully, she
would
be mollified at least a little that the king had put himself out to please her and it would stave off the battle of wills that was sure to erupt from the king’s arrogance for a time.

There was going to be hell to pay, though, when King Talin discovered he would

have to jump through hoops before she was completely satisfied that he’d been punished enough. He only hoped that he could complete his task and make himself scarce before all hell broke loose.

“We must wait upon that a little, though,” King Talin continued after a few

moments. “The man children are preparing for war. It will be difficult to retrieve her belongings before they have abandoned the castle.”

The carpenter’s brows rose. “The man children are warring?” he asked with

interest.

“Aye.”

“If I may be so bold as to ask, Sire, with whom?”

“Us,” Talin said dismissively. “Finish up and move along. This will do for now.

I must go to the dungeon and see if the princess has cooled her heels long enough to feel more reasonable.”

Stunned as he was by the announcement that they were at war with the kingdom

of Anduloosa, the last remark was enough to galvanize the master carpenter. “Cooled her heels?” he muttered when he was certain the king was out of earshot. It was all well and good that King Talin’s temper seemed to have improved, but it wasn’t likely to last once he reached the dungeon and discovered just how mistaken he was in his belief. “More

likely she is thinking of ways to murder him in his bed.”

Turning to his crew, he gauged their progress and decided they were close

enough. “Make haste and finish. We do not want to be here when the king returns. I

assure you, his mood will be foul, most foul!”

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Jaide Fox

21

The first thing Talin noticed as he descended the stairs into the dungeon was an

ominous quiet. More accurately, he became aware that there was no noise, as he’d more than half expected, no curses, no wailing--not even so much as the scurrying of tiny

rodent feet or the flutter of an insect. He did not, in fact, notice until he was halfway down that the silence was not the quiet of peace, but rather the pregnant pause before a storm of staggering magnitude.

Reaching the bottom, he held the torch high and glanced around.

No one was in sight and he frowned, wondering which cell Reyhan had placed the

princess in. He glanced back up the way he had just come and then around the open area at the foot of the stairs. No one magically appeared to show him the way, but as he

glanced down the narrow corridors leading off to the right, left and before him, he saw a flickering light at the end of the one on his right.

The interrogation room.

If that numbskull had taken her there, he decided angrily, he was going to take the

hide off the fool!

Shoving the torch he’d carried down into a holder on the wall, he stalked down

the narrow passage, coming to an abrupt stop at the other end as if he’d just struck an invisible wall.

He felt much as if he had, and that the concussion had not only knocked the wind

out of him, but rattled his brain in his skull at the same time and scattered his wits.

Princess Aliya knelt on the opposite side of the room, her arms chained to posts

on either side of her.

She was also the next thing to naked.

Like a sleep walker, he woke to find himself staring down at her, having no

memory of crossing the room at all.

Saliva pooled in his mouth as he studied her stunning perfection, nearly strangling

him when he recalled the need to swallow. He had thought from the moment he saw her

that she was beyond compare, but he had not dreamed that the gown she wore hid as

much of her lush beauty as it displayed. Her limbs were long and shapely, the skin

seemingly as smooth and unblemished as fine silk, instantly conjuring an image in his mind of those arms and legs entwined about his body.

The imagery set his blood to a slow boil in his veins, pulsing in his skull and groin until he soon felt as if one, or both, would explode from the building pressure.

Her waist was tiny, curving outward below to form rounded, womanly hips, and

tapering upward to breasts that looked far fuller than he’d at first thought, unfettered now by the snug fitting gown that she’d worn.

He had been staring blankly at her face for several moments, fighting the urge to

mount her right then and there when it finally penetrated his heat fogged brain that the heat in her eyes was not the desire his mind had conjured as desire but one of pure rage.

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Jaide Fox

22

A cold douse of water could not have more quickly, or thoroughly, dashed the fire

in his blood.

It left him so quickly, in fact, that the rush was almost as dizzying as the rush
to
his brain and cock had been, and far less pleasant.

Slowly, as his brain kicked in and began to function once more, rage began to

seep into him. “Reyhan!” he bellowed, so loudly that the sound ricocheted deafeningly off the stone walls, floor, and ceiling.

“Sire?”

Whirling, Talin fixed the hapless guard with a narrow eyed glare. “Come here.”

Looking like he would’ve far preferred to make a dash for the door, the guard

approached Talin and knelt.

Talin reached down, grabbed the man by his throat and lifted him to his feet.

“Where are the princess’ clothes and why is she not wearing them?”

Reyhan’s jaw sagged. He glanced from Talin to Aliya and back again. “We

always strip the prisoners,” he stammered weakly. “To … uh … search them for

weapons.”

Talin ground his teeth. “Did I tell you she was a prisoner?” he asked, his voice

deceptively soft now.

“Uh … Sire? Uh … no, Sire. But you said put her here. I thought … I

thought....”

“And the manacles?”

Reyhan blinked several times as the words pelted him in the face. “You said to

make certain she couldn’t injure herself.”

“Which led you to believe this was necessary?” Talin ground out, releasing his

hold on the man’s throat and gesturing toward the manacles.

The man’s eyes were bulging from their sockets. “She fought me like a wild

thing when I tried to remove her clothing--took off half my hide with her nails and teeth.

She injured herself injuring me! I thought the manacles would be bes--”

The last word remained incomplete. Talin belted Reyhan in the mouth with his

fist so hard the man flew backwards, slamming into the wall behind him. Blood spattered the wall. Several teeth ricocheted off the wall and pinged onto the floor. Apparently satisfied when the man slumped to the floor and went still, Talin stepped over to him, bent down to retrieve the ring of keys from his belt and moved back to unlock the

manacles.

Stunned by the turn of events, Aliya’s anger vanished the moment Talin’s

erupted, tamped by a well developed, and heretofore unknown to her, instinct for

survival. More than half fearing his anger would spill over onto her, she merely watched warily as Talin unlocked the manacle from first one wrist and then the other. A cry of pain was wrenched from her before she could prevent it, though, as her arms dropped

limply to her sides and the blood began to flow through them in a stinging, burning tide.

Kneeling in front of her, Talin took one of her hands and gently massaged her

arm. When he was satisfied, he lowered that arm and repeated the process with her other arm. More than a little disconcerted, Aliya watched him warily as he rose, looked around and finally strode to the corner where the guard had discarded her gown. After studying it critically for a moment, he shook his head and returned with it, helping her to her feet.

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23

Pain shot through her knees and ankles the moment she rose, for she’d been

kneeling on the hard stone for what had seemed like hours and hours. Gritting her teeth, she locked her knees and stood docilely while Talin pulled her gown over her head,

adjusted it and haphazardly laced the back.

She was still trying to decide if she could actually walk without hobbling around

like a crippled elder when he scooped her into his arms and turned toward the corridor.

She stiffened. She wasn’t certain she quite dared display her anger over her treatment at his hands now that she’d seen his temper, but she saw no reason to delude him into

thinking she was anywhere near forgiving him for what he’d done to her--and ordered

that son of a pig swiller to do.

She supposed, if she were to be reasonable about the matter--which she wasn’t

particularly inclined to be--she would have to admit that he did not
appear
to have had any notion of what the man would do. On the other hand, if he had cared to check before now she would not have been tortured for hours upon hours with her knees grinding into the hard stone and her arms withering from blood loss.

“I can walk on my own,” she muttered through gritted teeth as he reached the

main level of the castle and stalked down the corridor that led to the great hall.

The words were hardly out of her mouth when he dropped her feet to the floor.

Resisting the urge to glare at him, she focused on trying to keep step with him as he grasped her by one arm and strode to the middle of the hall.

“Solly!” he bellowed, his voice still eloquent of fury even if his rigid countenance

and heightened color hadn’t been enough to assure anyone that saw him that he was in a towering rage.

Aliya clapped her hands over her ears, but jerked them down again when he sent

her a searing glance.

“Sire!” Solly, ashen faced, knelt hurriedly, having virtually run across the hall at

the bellowed summons that had made the crystal in the overhead chandelier tinkle

merrily.

Talin gestured in the general direction of the dungeon. “Seize that fool, Reyhan,

take him into the courtyard, and remove the remainder of his hide with a whip.”

Guilt coiled tightly in Aliya’s belly as the guard flicked a quick glance at her,