To The Princess Bound (30 page)

Victory was finding it hard to breathe through her panic.  Tears were burning at her eyes, and she was backing away to the very extent of the leash.  More natives began to meld from the woodwork, collecting around them in a dirty, smelly crowd. 
I want to go home,
she thought, tendrils of terror beginning to strangle her heart as she caught all the villagers staring at her, their dirty faces curious, like she was a piece of strange meat. 
I can’t do this…

A warm, sunny blanket broke through her panic, wrapping her tightly in its soothing embrace.  Victory closed her eyes swallowed several times, finding the strength she needed to fight the terror.

“That you, Drago?” one of the larger men of the village demanded from the crowd.  He had cerulean eyes similar to Dragomir, the same muscular build, with a big, easy smile and tousled, curly black hair.  Though Victory hadn’t thought it possible, she guessed the man was even larger than Dragomir, perhaps an inch or two taller.  Then something alarming occurred to her.

Is that his
brother
?
Victory thought, so stunned that she forgot about the hundreds of eyes that were gawking at her.

Dragomir chuckled.  “Who else do you think it is, Thor, you prick?”  The way Dragomir stepped forward to wrap the man in a huge bear-hug confirmed her suspicions.

Oh gods,
she thought, cringing. 
Oh gods oh gods, I can’t do this.

Dragomir went through a long round of hugging—it seemed
everyone
in the village wanted to receive an embrace from the Emp—and spent what seemed like a couple hours chatting and telling his story to the crowd.

In that, Victory realized with relief, he kept to the plan.  He claimed he had been captured to heal a sick princess, beat half to death just to make sure he wouldn’t hurt her out of spite, and then, after being chained naked to her bed for a couple weeks while he tended her, fed nothing but pig slops and groped humiliatingly by her attendants, he had finally been given a pretty new set of clothes and his choice of reward for healing her, then sent home as if nothing had ever happened.  The villagers, of course, ate it up with wide eyes and open mouths.  Victory, on the other hand, found herself scowling at the Emp.

“They ask for your help after they hunt you down and kill ya for no reason,” a big, pudgy woman demanded.  She spat.  “Imperial hypocrites.  Should all be killed to a man an’ their carcasses fed to the ravens.”  A round of agreement followed her.

Looking a bit uncomfortable, Dragomir returned his attention to his brother once more.  “So what happened while I was gone?”

“Quite a lot, apparently,” the blue-eyed devil said, eying Victory and her two companions.  His gaze came to stop on Whip and he frowned.  “What is this?”

“Slaves!” Dragomir laughed, giving a gentle tug on their leashes.  “I healed an Imperial princess.  They asked me what I wanted in return and I said some livestock.  They gave me slaves.”

Thor frowned, eyes still on Whip.  “And you’re keeping them?”

“Why not?” Dragomir asked.  “My bed could use a few Imperial playmates.”  He glanced back at Whip.  “Why?  You want one?”  He turned to grin back at Victory and her Praetorian.  “There’s only so much room in my bed.”

Victory’s jaw dropped at Dragomir. 
He wouldn’t dare.  It’s just a show.

But then Dragomir handed over Whip’s leash to the big man named Thor, and then slapped him on the back.  “I’m so glad to be home.”

Whip, who had gone utterly stiff at the transaction, was watching the two men with alert gray eyes.  She had not, however, demeaned herself by struggling.

Thank the gods,
Victory thought, utterly grateful that the Praetorian was so well trained in the control of her emotions.  Had it been
her
leash that Dragomir had handed to his brother, she would have screamed and flailed like an animal.  Already, he was not sticking to the plan, and already, a sinking feeling was building in Victory’s gut that he had never intended to follow it in the first place.

“What’s going on, milady?” Lion asked softly.  Her voice, while quiet, held the sound of Death in every syllable.

“Uh,” Victory managed, “I think he just gave Whip to his brother.”

She saw fury flash in the Praetorian’s eyes.  “I’ll kill him.”

“Never fear, sister,” Whip said softly.  There was quiet murder in her gaze as she continued to watch the two men.  “We have keys.  If he tries anything stupid, we will simply free ourselves and kill them both.”

Victory knew that her Praetorian were trained in a thousand different ways to end a man’s life, yet looking up at their huge bodies, comparing them to the much smaller forms of her two Praetorian, Victory began to have her doubts.

And, with her doubts, came another wash of terror.  She started to have to fight to control her breathing.  She felt her skin crawl, remembered the cold around her ankles, the stares…

Eventually, Thor’s eyes fell on her.  “That one’s terrified.” 

Victory was surprised that she had let it show.

Dragomir glanced at her, raised an eyebrow, then shrugged.  “Probably.  Poor little thing.  Big guy like me.  Unable to speak the language…  She probably thinks she’s in for a trip through Hell.”

“Maybe she is,” someone in the crowd jeered, and there was a round of harsh laughter.  “How much for the green-eyed one?” another called out.

Victory lowered her head in shame and fear, her legs starting to shake.  To her surprise, the Emp’s energy-blanket tightened around her.

“Sorry,” Dragomir laughed.  “She’s not for sale, folks.”

“What about lease?” someone laughed.

Victory let out a shuddering breath and stared at her feet, knowing now what the Emp had meant.  He could sell her, give her away, lend her to his friends…

…And there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

“These two are mine,” Dragomir said, tugging their leashes.  “You want to work out a trade, talk to my brother.”

His brother grunted, then looked down at Whip as if he was trying to piece together a puzzle.  For her part, Whip stared back at him with all the ferocity of a wolverine.

“She looks like she wants to cut out my throat with her teeth,” Thor chuckled.

“Probably does,” Dragomir said.  “From what I heard, she and the other one were Imperial soldiers.  Maybe even Praetorian.”

What is he
doing
?
Victory thought, horrified.

Thor’s eyebrows went up and he seemed to tense.  “Praetorian?”

Dragomir shrugged.  “Just a warning.  Not sure if it’s true or not.  Just what the handlers told me before they dumped them in my lap.”  He sighed.  “I’m hungry enough to eat my horse.  How’d he hold up while I was gone?”

“Thunder’s fine,” Thor said, “Though a stubborn shit, as usual.  Takes after his owner.”

“You just don’t know how to properly ask his help,” Dragomir laughed.  He glanced at the hundreds of faces around them, then turned and looked up the mountain valley.  “And the rest of my place?”

“We cleaned it, packed it up,” Thor said.  Victory saw a flash of emotion cross the man’s bronze face before he hid it again.  His booming voice was low when he said, “We weren’t sure you were coming home, brother.”

Dragomir glanced back at Victory.  “I wasn’t sure I was, either.”  When Victory looked away, he grunted.  “Well, let’s go see the damage.”  He started down a path that led from the village.

When the entire village tried to follow them, however, Thor rounded on them with a roar.  “Get back to your own business,” he snapped.  “Let the healer find his own way home, fools!”

People scattered like startled deer.

Once they were alone, Thor grunted with irritation.  Gruffly, turning away from the departing crowd, he shook his head and said, “Like a damn wandering circus had come to town.”

“In a way, it did,” Dragomir chuckled, as they walked.  They were following a dirt track out of the village, deeper into the valley beyond.  They went at an easy pace, slow enough for Victory and her Praetorian to keep up, but Dragomir made no motions to free any of them of their restraints. 

As they walked, Victory caught Thor eying the three of them.  He grunted.  “What do you plan to do with them, Drago?”  His eyes stopped on Victory.  “That one there looks like she’s gonna bolt for this hills, first chance she gets.  We both know how long an Imperial would last up there in the snow…”

Dragomir glanced back at Victory, then shrugged.  “Haven’t decided yet.”

Victory stumbled, so great was her shock.  He hadn’t
decided
yet?  She fell to her knees, glaring up at him.

Dragomir reached down and gently helped her back to her feet, then went on chatting with his brother as if nothing had happened.  They talked about the weather, the house, the livestock, the news…

And all the while, the lump of dread was growing in the pit of Victory’s stomach.

About an hour later, they stopped at a crude wooden fence, where Dragomir paused to open the gate.  “Let’s leave them here for a couple minutes,” he said.  “Let them catch their breath.  I’d like to walk around the property a bit.  See what’s new.”

And then, to Victory’s horror, like they were no more than horses, he clipped their leashes out of reach around the crux of a heavy birch branch.  Thor did the same.  Then Dragomir turned his back to them and he and Thor walked on down the fence, chatting casually between themselves.

Once he was some distance away, Victory saw her Praetorian slip their keys into their palms and start working at the locks.

“Don’t,” Victory muttered, watching the Emp’s back disappear

“But milady!” Lion cried.  “This is ludicrous.  He hasn’t yet removed the shackles, and he has us strung up here like beasts of burden!”

“He’s keeping up the charade,” Victory said, praying that it was true.  Her gut, however, was telling her otherwise.  Every instinct was screaming at her to get free, to run, run, run,
run
.

“What if one of those villagers comes along and finds us like this?” Lion growled.

“We knew going into this that we’d have to trust him,” Victory managed.  “So just calm down and let him chat with his brother.”

Muttering, Lion watched the line of the fence where the Emp had disappeared.  “He has one hour,” she snarled.  “If he’s not back by then, we’re taking you home, Princess.”

“Home?” Victory snorted.  “I think my father made it clear that I don’t have one right now.”

“We’re taking you
somewhere else,
” Lion amended.  “He has one hour.”

With the finality in the Praetorian’s words, Victory knew that an angry bear wouldn’t be able to stop her from carrying out her threat, if the Emp arrived a minute later.

“You ask for livestock and they give you slaves.”  Thor shook his head, sounding mystified.  “Don’t they realize that’s more mouths to feed?”

Dragomir shrugged, trying to decide how much to tell his brother, now that they were alone.  “It’s the way the Imperium thinks.  I suppose they were doing me a great honor, giving me their finest livestock.”  He sighed and glanced back in the direction of the gate.  “Now I just need to figure out what to do with them.”

“Don’t give them to the village,” Thor said.  “We have a few thoughtless men who would enjoy breaking an Imperial.”  He cocked his head, his blue eyes fixed on Dragomir.  “But then, you already knew that.  That’s why you gave one of them to me.”

“To look like I wasn’t being greedy,” Dragomir agreed.  “Less chance there will be hard feelings if I’m not holed up on my farmstead with three beautiful women.”

“True enough,” Thor said.  Then he slowed, watching him.  “What are you not telling me?”

Dragomir took a deep breath.  His younger brother had no love for the Imperium, but when asked a direct question, he found he couldn’t lie.  He glanced over his shoulder at the tree where they’d left the women.  “That green-eyed one is the Royal Princess and the evil-looking ones are two of her Praetorian.  I’ve been asked to watch them for awhile.”

Thor’s eyes widened.  “Asked by
who?
”  And then, his voice rising, “Somehow, brother, I think you might be serious.”

“Dead serious,” Dragomir said.  “There’s a power-play going on in the palace right now.  She’s next in line for the throne, and her father has made several attempts on her life.  She needs a place to lay low for a bit.  Stay out of sight.”