The Battle Lord's Lady (33 page)

“You’ll be able to make it up to her, Yulen.
She’ll understand. After all, look at what she’s already endured
because she loves you and wants to be with you.”

He watched Yulen bow his head. The man’s
right hand nervously played with the pommel of his sword, the only
outward sign of the roil of emotions battling inside him. Sighing,
MaGrath placed a hand on the man’s arm. Yulen responded by laying
his free hand over MaGrath’s and giving it a squeeze.

They remained in wait until Dion appeared
from seemingly nowhere right before noon.

“Ready?” the little man asked. At Yulen’s
nod, he handed him the coat he’d brought along. The Battle Lord
removed his weapons belt and handed it to MaGrath. Donning the
coat, Yulen turned to give MaGrath an unexpected yet sincere
hug.

“She’s my life, Liam,” he whispered in the
man’s ear.

“I know.”

Breaking away, Yulen lowered his eyes and
turned to follow Dion back the way he’d come, leaving the physician
behind to pray for their success.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Cell

Yulen stepped into the dungeon, hesitating
slightly as Dion closed and locked the door behind him. The little
window at head level opened, and Dion whispered so only he could
hear, “Better hurry, sir. I’ll come back for you when they change
the guards.” The covering slid shut, leaving him alone in the dim
light.

He stepped further into the tiny cell,
appalled by the dungeon’s conditions, when a fist of guilt punched
him in the gut, and he realized conditions at Alta Novis weren’t
all that different where they kept Mutah prisoners. The place was
freezing, the bare rock like ice. What little covering there was
contained soiled or moldy hay, or the remnants of filthy clothes
left by prisoners who had once occupied this same cell.

“Atty?” He peered into the darkness, waiting
for his eyes to adjust. He finally could make out a small figure
huddled in the farthest corner of the irregularly-shaped room.
“Atrilan?”

Dion wouldn’t have led him to this room if he
wasn’t absolutely certain she was here. Biting his lower lip, Yulen
walked over and knelt in front of the shivering figure. A lock of
hair fell over the thinly covered shoulders. Deep blue hair the
color of morning glories.

“Atrilan!” He lifted her into his arms and
tried to give her his warmth, willing her to be well, to be whole
and unhurt while he tenderly kissed her face. The huge, ugly bruise
from her assault at the market place still colored her right cheek
and jaw.

“Yul?” She blinked, drawn from the escape of
sleep by a voice from her dreams.

“Atrilan. We haven’t much time. Are you
okay?”

“Time?” Groggy, she reached for him and
clutched his shirt. “Yulen, get me out of this place. Take me away
from here!”

“I can’t,” he admitted, his voice breaking.
“It’s too risky. Too dangerous. Listen carefully. Are you
completely awake?”

She pulled back to look up at him. Her face
was unnaturally pale, and Yulen felt his heart ache at the
circumstances.

“Atrilan, in a short while Collaunt is going
to have you taken into the main hall where he’s going to have his
physician check to see if you’re still a virgin.” He could tell by
the fear in her eyes that she was listening and understanding. “If
you are, he’s going to have you publicly raped in front of
witnesses. And then he’s going to test you to see if you still have
your skills.”

“Why?” her voice quivered.

Yulen shook his head. “He’s an evil man. He
hates me, hates my having you. This is one way he knows he can
humiliate me. He thinks it’ll break me, treating you like that.”
Kissing her forehead, he admitted in a softer voice, “He’s right.
It will break me.”

Atty sobbed quietly. “Why are you here? Why
can’t you take me with you?”

“Because it’s too dangerous. So we’ve come up
with a plan.”

“We?”

“Me, Liam, and Mastin.”

“What is it?”

“Listen. There’s very little time. I’m here
to do the only thing that will save you from Collaunt’s brutality.
I’m going to have to take your virginity.”

She started to say something, but paused when
she saw Yulen pull off his coat and lay it on the ground before
guiding her down onto it. “Yul...”

“Shhh.”

Silently she allowed him to tug off her
pants. Earlier the guards had taken her boots, and now her feet
were numb from the cold. When she was naked from the waist down,
she watched him unbuckle his own pants, noticing for the first time
that he wasn’t carrying his sword.

“This is going to hurt, isn’t it?” she
whispered.

“Forgive me, Atrilan.” He knelt before her to
lift her knees and spread her legs before leaning over and covering
her with his body. She shivered against the icy temperature now
attacking her flesh until his warmth shielded her like a
blanket.

He lifted her face so that she looked up into
his eyes. “I wanted our first time to be special,” he murmured.
There were tears in his eyes. “Forgive me. I promise you, once we
get out of this, I’ll make every night from here on a gift.”

“You’ve already made this special,” she
whispered. His hands were tenderly stroking her thighs and buttocks
where they rested on his coat. Her own hands had found his waist,
and even now were burrowing underneath his shirt to find the hard
muscles of his back.

“How?”

“You’re doing this to save my life,” she told
him.

He pressed his lips her throat, feeling her
pulse under his tongue. They had to hurry, but he couldn’t rush it,
or else it still would be too much like rape.

Incredibly, he was hard for her. With extreme
gentleness, he guided himself to her entrance, until the tip of his
erection buried itself between her lower lips. She was dry. And
there was no way she could take all of him.

He knew it would hurt her beyond anything
she’d ever experienced before in her life, but it couldn’t be
helped, and he prayed she would forgive him. She continued to
shiver beneath his weight, and he adjusted himself so as not to
crush her with his weight. One hand continued to cup her buttocks.
With the other, he played with her clit, rubbing the end of his
penis across the tiny bundle of nerves until he was rewarded with a
drop of her wetness. Smearing the head of his erection with her
warm cream, Yulen fitted himself into the entrance of her tight
little tunnel. Atty gasped at the sensation.

“I’m afraid,” she choked. “What... Do I need
to do anything?”

“Try not tense up, Atrilan,” he whispered
into her ear.

“Is it going to hurt much?”

“Yes, but not for long. I promise, not for
long. And after this one time, never ever again.”

A soft sob trembled in her breath. He felt
her lips against his cheek. “Do it.”

Holding her steady, he pushed into her,
quickly and forcefully, so as not to prolong the agony, and at the
same time clamped his mouth over hers. She cried out, her scream
was muffled as her body spasmed against the sharp, overwhelming
pain. Her nails dug into his back, leaving thin trails of blood.
Yulen didn’t move, but kept himself motionless, enveloped deep
within her, until she began to weep.

“I love you,” he whispered, kissing the warm
drops sliding over her temples. “I love you, and I’m so sorry it
had to be this way. My love...”

“It...
hurt
.”

He could hear a small whine in the back of
her throat, and he cursed himself for not doing it sooner, for not
taking her to wife the day after they’d arrived at Alta Novis. He
wished there could have been another time, another place, another
circumstance. If only she had been in the throes of passion, coated
with sweat and her own womanly juices. If only he’d had enough time
to bring her to another moment of release.

“Does it still hurt?” he asked
tenderly. He’d remained frozen, a little more than halfway inside
her. He felt her head move slightly against his.
No.

Very, very slowly, he moved himself within
her. Her body accepted him, creaming her inner channel and making
passage easier. Atty’s reaction was instantaneous. “What are you
doing?” Her voice contained the agonizing memory of her
penetration, but something had changed.

Yulen lifted his face again to look down at
her. She opened her eyes to gaze up at him. He watched her
expression as he moved again, sliding deeply, carefully, until she
sheathed almost three-quarters of his length, then retreated with
excruciating slowness. Her body was a glove three sizes too small,
yet it tried to stretch and accommodate him. Nature took over and
found a way. A softness came into Atty’s eyes. She arched her head
back, and he bent over to taste her silky neck.

“What are you doing to me, Yul?”

“
Now
we’re making love,” he whispered in her ear as he continued
to move in and out of her, feeling her tight, inner muscles
beginning to contract around him.

She caught her breath. The breath became a
low moan.

He closed his eyes and allowed himself to
savor that which he’d denied himself, had dreamed about, ever since
that time in the little shop when he knew he would have her by his
side for the rest of their lives. He felt her lifting her knees,
which gave him greater access, and he pressed his forehead to the
coat on the floor as his body responded.

The quick rap at the door startled them both.
The little window opened, and a frantic voice whispered, “Sir! One
minute! No more!” before it shut.

Immediately, Yulen withdrew and rose onto his
knees.

“What—” Atty started to ask, but he shushed
her while he tore off a piece of her shirt. She watched as he
cleaned himself, and her eyes widened in shock to see blood smeared
on the material. Before she could say anything, he reached between
her legs and gently wiped her down, then tossed the stained
material to one side.

“Quick. Your pants.” He stood and strode over
to the door as he pulled up his own pants and fastened them. When
he looked back at her, she had managed to pull hers back on. He
rushed back over to snatch up his coat from the ground.

“When they take you to the main hall, say
nothing,” he whispered against her lips. “MaGrath and I will be
there once we allow them to take us prisoner, but that is another
part of our plan.”

“Yul! No!”

“Sir!” the voice came from the little window
once again. There was no mistaking the urgency.

Yulen gave her one more loving look, one more
soft but quick kiss, and he slipped out of the door seconds before
Collaunt’s men came down the corridor to fetch their prisoner.

Dion led the Battle Lord back to the outer
wall where MaGrath was waiting with baited breath. “Well?” He was
answered with a dark, unfathomable look, but it held the answer he
sought. “Thank God.”

They hurried to the strand of trees where the
horses were tethered. Dion melted back into the underbrush, but not
before repeating the Battle Lord’s instructions.

Taking a deep breath, Yulen swung into his
saddle and turned his horse around, prepared to leave the
protective covering of the trees. “There are more despicable things
I’ve done in my life, Liam, but right now I can’t think of any of
them.”

“Is she all right?”

There was a long silence. “Yeah,” Yulen
finally whispered. “Yeah. She’ll be fine.”

MaGrath nodded. “Now let’s go get her.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Evil

Atty allowed Collaunt’s men to take her from
the cell to the main hall, but not before she demanded her boots
back.

“If I cut my feet on the rough stone and
those cuts get infected, who do you think is going to have to face
Collaunt’s anger?” she’d spat at them. It was only a short wait
before one of the soldiers returned from heaven knew where and
threw her the footwear. And, amazingly, they were willing to wait
that extra couple of minutes it took for her to hurriedly lace them
up. Once she was done, though, they were just as rough handling her
as they’d always been.

It didn’t matter anymore. There was an aching
soreness between her legs and below her belly, a throbbing heat
that wouldn’t go away. Except for that, she would have thought the
past few minutes had been nothing more than a dream.

Now we’re making love.

She remembered the pain, the brilliant flash
of burning agony that had cut into her, slicing her apart. She’d
never believed it could hurt so much, but now it was in the past.
Gone and hopefully soon forgotten...except for that last part. The
slow part. The unbelievably delicious feelings that had come over
her as he filled her and moved inside of her while he murmured her
name.

Now we’re making love.

She stumbled against a table jutting away
from the corridor wall. One of the guards grabbed her by the arm
and half-led, half-carried her in case she’d done it on
purpose.

The main hall was so brightly lit, as opposed
to the dim near-darkness of the cell, Atty had to squint until her
vision could adjust. There were at least fifty or more people
scattered around the room. All of them had been partaking of food
and drink, as if they’d been invited to a party.

“Guards, how is her health?” a familiar voice
boomed to her right. Collaunt sat in his chair near the fireplace.
He wore a robe of green velvet and a tight, malicious smile.

“Adequate,” the guard behind her
answered.

“Has she been under watch this entire
time?”