Divided (38 page)

Tareth’s tastes were varied, and so he made sure to collect
an assortment of men and women from Dark District.  Some of the men were
larger, while some were small, and the women had all sorts of hair colors,
though their size varied less.  As he scanned his choices, he decided on a
short-haired, blond woman.  She wore nothing—none of them did, and she offered
little resistance, aside from a few whimpers as he led her over to one of the
beds.

He had beds for when he wanted to focus on pleasuring
himself, and tables for when he wanted to focus on causing pain to his
servants.  This sun, he wanted the focus to be solely on him—with the servant
as the backdrop.  He fastened her ankles to the lower portion of the bed, using
a crank to flip her from her front to her back, as he analyzed which side from
which he wanted to enter.  At last, he settled on her front, for if he was
going to use a woman—then he may as well get a fine view of her breasts.  This
woman didn’t have much in the way of breasts, but there was enough.  He chained
her wrists to the top of the bed and slowly slid off his clothes.

He no longer had to gag his servants, as none of them were
very new.  They were all accustomed to the punishment that screaming brought. 
No, but Tareth knew the person that he wanted in this room—that he wanted bound
and gagged and whimpering helplessly for mercy as Tareth worked his overly
graceful body like an instrument. 

“Evil would always exist, but his proof was that the
good would shine brighter and longer within the kingdoms.”

-A Hero’s Peace v.i

Traveling on horseback had certainly not been as glorious as
Aela had seen it in her mind.  Her feet were sore from clinging to the horse
for so many suns, and she had never guessed she would miss that wagon so
feverishly.  They had abandoned it, and most of their belongings—hoping any
guards that found it would assume all the people in it were dead.  It was a
fair guess, considering the carnage that they’d left around the wagon.

Leif and she had both strapped a single pack onto their
backs and they brought only what would fit in those.  To make matters worse,
the saddles on the horses’ backs were not meant for very much riding, and
Aela’s inner thighs were so chapped that she didn’t know if she would make it
to Telandus.  In fact, Telandus seemed like a faraway dream now, as they rode
in complete silence for what felt like an eternity.

The weather had finally given way to sun, so at least she
was no longer being soaked as they rode.  The more they traveled, the more
thankful she was for the haircut she had given herself.  Aela watched Leif
quietly as he rode a few paces in front of her.  He hadn’t had any trouble at
all adjusting to his injury on the horse.  “I hope we run into traders this
sun,” he said briefly, “from the looks of this plain—I don’t think we’ll be
seeing much game for you to shoot.”

Her bow had been their saving grace for the last few suns,
as traders had become scarcer as they had neared Telandus.  Leif had told her
that this was due to the fact that Telandus was so unkind to most traders, and
the ones that did trade for the city were scrutinized for dealing with unknown
travelers. 
What a lovely city,
Aela thought.

The only good that had come of the whole ordeal was her
attachment to her new horse.  The brown and white splotched creature was very
good-natured, considering how little they had been able to stop for water. 
Aela thought the horse was much better a sport about the situation than she was
herself.  “I’m sure if we don’t that I’ll make due,” Aela said, with a little
forced confidence, “I am very good.”

“Good, are you?” Leif mumbled dryly, bringing his horse to a
stop at the top of one of the hills.  Aela pulled on her own horse’s reins so
that they could observe the landscape that they would be traveling for the next
sun.  “If you were really so wonderful at hunting, love, then you would shoot
your game through the eye, and not cause such bruising to the skin.”

Aela narrowed her eyes in irritation.  He ought to be
grateful that she was giving him any of her food, and yet all he could do was
complain.  Then again, Leif was right about her aim.  She should have been
focusing on preserving what she caught.  She didn’t allow her mind to think
about the name that he’d called her.  That was, after all, Leif’s way of
speaking—and to let herself get into a tizzy over it would have been
imprudent. 

“Well, the bruising wouldn’t matter so much if I didn’t have
to share with such an insolent companion.”  A wry grin crept across his face at
the insult, but he said nothing, instead choosing to focus on finding the best
path.  “Looks like we’re out of flat land to ride,” he pointed out.

Aela let her eyes skim the landscape before them.  They
were, in fact, about to be heading into a vast of hills and valleys.  She
didn’t like the idea of riding without being able to see very far in front of
her, but there was really no choice.  “May as well get started, then,” she
said.

When she glanced across to him, there was a flicker of
admiration on his face before he looked away.  He didn’t comment, and instead
dug his heel into his horse and started down the first of many hills.  As she
rode, Aela occupied herself with more trivial thoughts.  She considered how
dirty her face must be—and that Veyron himself would probably not have
recognized her in this condition. 

Leif wasn’t even recognizable at this point in their
journey.  Aela’s brow furrowed, though, at the idea of Cathalar men being the
ones to find the destroyed wagon.  Her father, surely he knew she’d gone with
Leif and the others, would think her dead.  Though Veyron was not a soft-hearted
man, the death of his daughter would be a pain that he would not soon forget. 
Aela had no way of easing that pain, either.  She had to finish the mission before
her father could ever see her again.

Her eyes moved ahead to Leif.  She wondered idly what he
must be thinking about.  Did he miss the men that had died in the attack?  Was
he able to forget them more easily than she was?  Did he wish she wasn’t there? 
Was he glad she was?  For the amount Leif spoke, she was always surprised at
how little he said.  He never revealed what he was truly thinking except in
very rare moments.  “What are you thinking, Leif?” she finally asked when the
silence felt as though it might destroy her.

He slowed his horse and allowed her to ride at his side.  He
offered her a quirked eyebrow for a moment, as though he thought she was
unintelligent.  “I am thinking about not falling off my horse, princess.”  She
knew that wasn’t true, though.  That may have been true for the first few suns
that Leif had ridden with his injury—but no longer.

She frowned at him.  She would never understand why he was
determined to keep so many emotions pent up inside of him.  Perhaps he knew it
made her want to know them that much more.  That seemed very much like Leif
Firenz.  “I don’t understand why you never talk about yourself.”

“I do talk about myself,” he disagreed.  That was all he
said, though, which she thought did a fair job of winning the argument for
her.  “Why do you want to know about me, sir?”  He emphasized the ‘sir’ in
quite a comical fashion.  “I thought you didn’t care for me.”

“I don’t,” Aela was not about to be drawn into that
particular trap.  “But haven’t you ever heard the saying keep your friends
close, and your enemies closer?”  A smile at that triumphant remark found its
way onto her lips.  Two could play at these silly little word games, she
thought. 

Leif rewarded her with one of his more genuine smiles, and
she felt a spear of happiness at seeing it.  “We should not say much out here,
I think.  There are too many possibilities.  You saw the guards a few suns
ago.”

They had seen another caravan of guards, but because they
had been on horseback—avoiding the group had been fairly easy.  Aela’s heart
had suffered for it, though.  She doubted Leif would get much more talkative
when they entered Telandus, but she decided that pushing him out here was
unwise.  “True enough.”

Leif moved his horse with a quicker speed, and Aela followed
in his footsteps. They rode in companionable silence, or Aela thought it was. 
She enjoyed Leif’s company more than she ought to.  Even though he didn’t have
much to say most of the time, there was something about him that was
reassuring.  Well after the sun had reached its peak in the sky, they stopped
for a brief lunch.

They found a stream to let the horses drink, and they shared
one of the few loaves of bread and wheels of cheese that they had left.  Aela
would have to insist on hunting tomorrow if they were going to remain fit
enough for this journey.  Though, Leif never liked the idea of staying still in
these lands long.  “Do you think we will have much trouble getting into
Telandus?” she asked as she took a long bite of the bread.

Leif, who was sitting, leaned back on his arms glanced at
her without much emotion.  “I’m not sure.  I’ve never been there, but I doubt
the guards will see much harm in us.  I hope they don’t.”  His eyes were
clouded for just an instant, and Aela was able to get a glimpse of some of the
thoughts that he didn’t speak.

They were both worried that they would be found out at the
gates of Telandus, and they were both worried that they may never get there. 
After all, they had been traveling for many cycles, and they had yet to see the
city itself.  The thought was sobering.  “When we do arrive, I wonder how we
are going to fit into the city.  You know we will have to find a way for
ourselves, as we cannot simply investigate matters in a single sun,” he pointed
out.

She had thought about this, but she had no solution to it. 
That seemed more of the type of thing that she would solve when it was placed
at her feet.  After all, at that juncture, they would have completed the most
difficult part of their mission.  “It can’t be that hard,” she said.  “We have
money enough to buy a room at the inn for several cycles before need will
befall us.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Leif admitted.  Though, his mind
was obviously elsewhere.  Aela wondered what he was worried about.  The thought
that they would be trapped in Telandus with no means to support themselves was
disturbing.  Another problem might be leaving Telandus, as well—were they
strict about that sort of thing?  Cathalar never had problems with traders
coming and going, but Telandus was not Cathalar.  “This will not be easy,
though.  I need you to be careful in everything that you do,” he said
seriously.  His eyes were shining with genuine concern.

Aela was touched a little by it, but she also wished that
Leif would stand back and believe that she could handle herself.  “I will be
careful.  I have no doubt that this will be no easier than the journey to
Telandus.  I don’t intend to make many friends.”

Leif laughed.  “You never know, Aelic.  You might find
people to your liking in Telandus.  After all, we will be in Dark District, and
none of the nobles should be there.  You always did love Lower Town,” he mused
aloud.

She smiled.  She doubted very much that the people in Dark
District of Telandus were like those of Lower Town in Cathalar.  “I would
rather be safe and not find out.”

He stared at her for a moment and then shrugged his
shoulders disinterestedly.  “I am curious as to what we’ll find there.”

Aela flashed back to her dream.  She thought of Taeru
standing in that field, looking unsure of himself and frightened.  Since then,
she’d had so many dreams of him—and none of them good.  Some had involved him
hanging, some had involved him screaming in pain in some far off place, and all
of them had involved her brother in some sort of trouble.  Surely, Taeru would
not have gone to Telandus, surely he would not have made such a target of
himself.

All by himself, stuck in a world where he knew no one. 
Would any of the people in Telandus have helped him?  Certainly not all of them
were so heartless.  No, she couldn’t think like this.  She could not worry
about Taeru.  Her dreams were the product of worry and stress, and none of them
meant anything. 

As they finished their meal, Leif saddled the horses up once
more.  They would have a few more shifts before they had to rest for the moon. 
After gathering their belongings, they mounted the horses once more.  Aela
sighed in discomfort, every moment that she got to spend off this horse was a
blessing.  “Not enjoying the horse rides, princess?” Leif teased.  “You were
always so keen on them before.”  Leif made sure never to say Cathalar aloud,
and never to say Aela’s real name.  Princess could easily be taken as a silly
pet name that he called his companion—her name was another story.

“I hope you chafe so badly that your balls bleed, sir,” she
snapped.  He feigned hurt and then grinned at her. 

They started forward again, down the hill of which they had
stopped near the top.  Aela tried to remember how high she had totaled on the
sun that she had spent all sun counting upwards as they walked.  Leif did not
enjoy too much talking, and she had to find some way to entertain herself. 
But, for now, Leif seemed content to talk.  “Stop thinking about my balls, you
pervert,” he said.

A frown moved onto her face, and she worked to keep from
blushing.  That was not the direction that her thoughts had been going, but now
it was.  “I do not like you very much,” she told him pragmatically.

“That hurts,” he said.  “I wish you wouldn’t take your
inability to ride a horse out on me.  It isn’t my fault.”

Her teeth snapped together at the insult, and by way of
pride, challenge.  “I have plenty of ability to ride a horse, thank you, sir!”
she growled.

“Is that what you call it?” he asked.

Her eyes burned with irritation.  Her hands tightened around
the reins of the pinto horse she rode.  She could feel the horse reacting to
her increase in body temperature, and she narrowed her eyes.  She would show
him what it meant to ride a horse.  With a flick of her wrists, she smacked the
reins into her horse and dug her heels in with renewed vigor.  The horse,
letting out a quick sound, broke into an immediate trot, moving down the hill
with incredible speed.

“Are you racing me?” he called.  She heard the snap of his
reins, and a childish grin came over her features.  The wind blew through her
still short hair as her horse moved with a steadily increasing gallop.

She leaned forward on her horse, and at once, the creature
was moving faster.  She could hear the beat of hooves behind her, though, and
she realized that Leif was not going to lose this surprise race so easily.  Her
heels dug in a little harder, and the horse moved in accordance with her
unspoken commands.  Once she reached the bottom of the hill, she didn’t stop,
she pulled the horse’s reins so it understood that it was now on an incline and
started up the next hill. 

She could still hear Leif behind her, and if she wasn’t
mistaken, he was getting closer to her.  The beat of the horses’ legs was like
a drum, and her heart raced with it.  The wind slammed into her face with a
refreshing feeling that she had not felt in several suns.  She’d never been
allowed to drive a horse so quickly back in Cathalar—that would have been
considered reckless and dangerous.  But Leif lived to be reckless, and
therefore he was simply rising to the challenge like she had anticipated.