Page 2

Chapter Two

B en leaves the next day without bothering me and I thank whatever asshat is calling themselves God these days for small mercies. The days pass uneventfully, David has thankfully grown a conscience and given me two days off from training to heal after his tantrum yesterday, so I stand around and look like I am guarding the harem while I try to will my body to heal faster. After all the beatings my body has endured, I’ve found that I heal remarkably fast when required.

On the third day that Ben is gone a commotion breaks out in the main square. The commotion is short lived and followed quickly by three loud whistles, Jacob’s call for a town meeting. I listen and silently urge the harem girls to hurry the hell up as they quickly dress and start hauling children outside. Asia tries to shove her baby at me to carry but I quickly pass it off, like it might be a zombie in disguise.

“Can’t guard if I don’t have hands to fight with, right?” I say to her, waving my empty hands lamely in her general direction as I avoid eye contact. She gives me an entirely unimpressed look, which I pretend not to see.

I usher the women into the square and set my resting bitch face firmly in place as I stand between them and the commoners. I quickly scan the area and see Jacob standing over a young teenage boy, probably no more than sixteen if I had to guess, who is kneeling in the dirt at his feet. Not a great start to the town meeting then. One of the harem girls behind me lets out a little whimper. It’s one of the youngest girls, just barely seventeen and fairly new to the harem. A pretty hazel eyed girl with the brains of a mashed potato by the looks of it. Harem girls are not to be touched by anyone but the king. The penalty is death. But Hazel is staring at the boy on the ground as if he’s the love of her life. God help us, this is going to get ugly real fast . I shoot a look to Red, who casually hooks her free arm through Hazel’s, so she has a chance to stop the idiot girl from making things worse for the boy.

I sidle up next to her other side “Keep your shit together Hazel or your cousin will not live through the morning” I hiss in her ear, then I make hard eye contact with her as she goes to open her mouth. I nod as realization dawns on her and she slowly closes her mouth and nods back at me. “Get yourself together because this is going to hurt. A lot. You, me and him most likely.” I nod at Red as I step away and she tightens her hold on Hazel. I start to move through the crowd, I need to get to the king before he starts his little show, or we won’t have a chance to do anything but watch the boy die.

I get to within a few feet of the king and his personal guard’s step into my way. I force a polite smile and bow my head for them.

“My lady Hazel has asked that I enquire after the welfare of her cousin, the one the king has taken a liking to...” I trail off and gaze at them with the most polite, innocent and expectant face that I can manage. Nothing to hide here boys, completely innocent misunderstanding is all this is. “I understand Hazel has recently become the king’s favourite.” No lie there, his favourites are always the youngest.

The guards look between each other, trying to decide if they should tell the king or not. Finally, the bigger of the two lumbers away and whispers in Jacobs ears. Those piercing brown eyes immediately snap to mine and I have to swallow a few times to try and breathe around the lump in my throat. Visions of those first three months here try to surface in my mind, but I violently lock them away again. Hell, is this boy really worth me putting myself back on the kings' radar ? Probably not, but I’m already here. My body starts to shake, and my hands start sweating as he smiles at me and starts to make his way over. I think I’m going to vomit. Why did I think this was a good idea? Why did I think I was strong enough for this? Damn my hero complex.

Suddenly I’m staring right into those terrifying, piercing brown eyes. I jerkily bow from my waist, mostly so I can break eye contact and try to hide the fear he has inspired in me. When I stand again, he is no longer smiling. I focus on breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth as he starts talking.

“Why does Andre inform me that you have a message from one of my harem? Why do you think it’s important enough to interrupt me?” he asks. I scramble in my head to try and find my voice, but nothing seems to be working on me at the moment. Come on, Angie, pull yourself together! I mentally shriek at myself in a panic.

“King Jacob.” I state, as though he doesn’t know who he is. I clear my throat and try again. “Highness, your lady Hazel asked me to come over and enquire about her cousin. The young man over there. He is her only surviving family, and she was concerned he may have… displeased you, in some way.” I manage to make that sound halfway plausible; I think.

I am not at all prepared for the hit that follows. He was always a quick hitter, damn him. His closed fist slams into the side of my head and I stumble away from the hit, but I don’t go down. Small wins. By the time I look up he’s striding towards the harem girls, zeroed in on poor Hazel, who is staring at me in horror. I hope desperately that she’s had time to come up with a story for His Royal Craziness, otherwise we are all going to die today. I push through the ringing in my head and follow Jacob. The harem women greet him happily enough, it’s only if you look closely that you can see their utter fear and desperation. Hazel, bless her, jumps straight into the role of adoring favourite, pasting a huge smile on her face as Jacob stops in front of her.

“My lord!” she exclaims in a breathy rush “how generous of you to come and see me! I was so worried that my cousin ” a bit too much emphasis on that word, and I cringe a little “had wronged you and you might be angry with me”, she finishes her little performance with a disturbingly believable pout. Thank all that’s holy the girl does have some brains! I think as watch the exchange apprehensively.

“I was informed you had been meeting with this boy under cover of darkness.” Jacob states in what I think might count as a soft voice for him. Again, I tense and wait for Hazel to crumple under pressure, like I nearly did, but she just smiles at the psychopath. “I have met with him my lord, it is true,” I groan inwardly and try not to hyperventilate “but simply so I might give him the scraps of your generosity, only that he might make himself more useful to you and be strong enough to join your Knights. It is his only wish, my lord” she says it so earnestly and sincerely, I have to glance back at the kid on the ground and re-evaluate his morals. Sleeping with a forbidden harem member is stupid but infinitely better than wanting to become one of them . At least to me, anyway. “Please my lord, show Caleb your leniency and strength. It was my idea that I sneak him scraps” she says the last part with genuine tears in her massive eyes as she stares pitifully up at the king’s impassive face. Ugh, the way he has us talk makes me want to vomit in my mouth. He thinks he’s some old-time king from days gone and that we should address him in such a way. Pathetic.

“Indeed” is all he says as he turns and heads towards the boy again. He passes me and I try not to flinch or cover the right side of my face, which is rapidly swelling. I watch him walk away as soft, little hands touch my back, I roughly slap them away. They should know better than to try and comfort me in public.

It was too easy. I think to myself as Jacob nears the boy, it’s never that easy. He resumes his stance over the boy on the ground, nudging him with his booted toe. It’s abundantly clear the kid has already had a work over by the two brutes Jacob calls guards. He looks barely conscious but struggles to sit up all the same.

“This boy has broken the law” he starts “he has touched that which is off limits. My harem is never to be touched by any other than me! The penalty for such an infraction is death.” I can hear Hazel’s breathing hitch behind me. “However, as this is a relative of one of my favoured women, I have been convinced of the merits of leniency” he stares straight at Hazel as he says this, a gross, slimy smile passes over his face. Then he pulls a huge knife from the belt of Andre, the giant guard, and swings down, all in one motion, across the left wrist of the stunned boy. Obviously, it’s not that easy to cut someone’s hand off, because Andre and giant guard number two rush to pin the boy to the ground with his mangled hand in front of him and the king takes another swipe. That seems to do the trick, and the boys hand comes away from his body as he starts to scream. I hear Hazel’s ragged breathing behind me, but I don’t turn, I can’t look away from the bleeding, screaming mess in front of me. I focus on breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth, again. Been doing a lot of focused breathing lately I dazedly think to myself.

Jacob has cleaned off the knife on a rag and seems like he is about to continue his speech, when there’s another commotion from the back of the gathered crowd.

To my surprise, and disappointment, Ben pushes his way through the packed in people, roughly shoving them aside, a young kid looking barely in his teens follows close behind him. Where do all these teenagers keep coming from?

“My lord!” he shouts as he nears “my lord, we found the store, but there are dead on our tail. We narrowly missed them when returning and I’m afraid they have been following us ever since.” He says this last quietly as he approaches the king but not quietly enough, mass hysteria breaks out in an instant. Shoving and screaming people try to get back to their homes, so easily panicked.

“ENOUGH” Jacob’s command is echoed by his knights around the yard and there is soon silence again. “Return to your dwellings in an orderly way, anyone caught outside or causing a ruckus will be fed to the dead.” That’s a pretty good threat apparently, because people start filing out in a rush but without any of the hysteria of before. I gather the girls and start herding them away.

“Lacey! You will wait.” I freeze at Jacob’s voice saying my name, I really had thought he’d forgotten it. This cannot be good.

As I wait for Ben and Jacob to finish their quiet, secret discussion I stare at the boy, Caleb, apparently passed out on the ground. Everyone’s forgotten about him. He will die if he doesn’t get the bleeding under control. I heave a massive sigh and move cautiously towards the limp form, thankful Jacob and Ben moved away to talk. I crouch next to him and rip a strip from his shirt, I am definitely not going to ruin my only clothes for the idiot. I tightly wrap the limb, using a tourniquet technique I learned at my works first aid course. Look at you, saving lives! I silently congratulate myself as I watch the bleeding start to slow. I feel the kids pulse on his neck and am relieved to find it still beating strongly despite his blood loss. Ah, to be young and invincible. I hope reverently that his youth will help him stave off infection too, but who knows in this place? There’s no such thing as antibiotics or pain relief here unless you can bribe a knight to snatch you some from Jacob’s private sore. I doubt very much this kid has anything of worth to bribe a knight with. Guess he will have to heal the old-fashioned way, like me.

Two shadows make me look up and I quickly stand as I see Ben and Jacob looking down on me, there is no sign of the boy who came in with Ben, he must be on unpacking duty. I swallow and try to look submissive for them as I stutter out an explanation on why I wrapped the arm.

“Lacey, you belong to Ben for the evening.” Jacob cuts me off. His reward and my punishment, I suppose. “You are to return to the harem women before midnight and prepare for an attack on the walls.” He continues, but I barely hear him over the ringing starting in my ears.

I am shell shocked as he walks away, for one I have not been given away as a reward since I started training eight months ago, I thought I was done with that part. For another he just causally stated that we would be under attack by the dead, potentially by midnight. Ben grabs me by the arm as I stare, dumbstruck, after the king and he starts to haul me away in the opposite direction, toward the bathing chambers.

“Unfortunately, we only have a few hours” Ben says, as though I’m genuinely going to be upset by this news, “but don’t worry I intend to make the most of it”. My mind flashes back to the other times I’ve been given to Ben, his sweaty body and disgustingly sweet breath washing over my face as I am forced to physically and mentally cooperate, forced to ‘enjoy it’. Fear coats my skin in sweat, and I feel sick to my core, but deep down, under all that, I’m starting to get mad.

How fucking dare they! For so long I have been good . Disgustingly, nauseatingly placid. I did everything, I worked my ass off to show I could watch the girls. Show everyone that I am better than this! And that pompous dickweed thinks he can just take that away from me?! Ben thinks he can take that away from me?! I don’t fucking think so.

My mind starts to work overtime, and I come up with a plan, pushing the ringing in my head to the side. I’m getting the hell out of here. Tonight.