Page 15 of Given to the Fae (The Dark Realms #3)

His pitying look is enough of an answer, but he still gives me one. ‘Slaves who aren’t fighters don’t leave that place, Bryn.’

I want to beg him to help me to escape, but to where?

‘Will Bere not reconsider?’ I ask. ‘If I’m so sensitive to the Breach as the healer claimed, then surely I’m too weak to?—’

He shakes his head. ‘He’s promised a female to them. He won’t give either of the other two. They wouldn’t last a week. You, he believes, will last several. He wants a reputation for selling slaves to them who are more robust than the usual.’

‘I see.’

And I do. There’s no point in asking Morgan for help. He won’t risk himself and I don’t blame him for it. No one would, not for a slave.

‘I’ll find some food.’

He gets up and leaves, taking his mug of tea with him and locking the door behind him.

I need a plan. If I’m not still Fate Touched, they’ll kill me.

If I am still Fate Touched, they’ll kill me faster.

The only reason Ogdan didn’t have someone do it was because his superiors forbade it.

I can’t assume the same will happen again.

My final moments will be filled with pain and suffering no matter what.

I need to stop Bere from selling me somehow. Perhaps if I stop eating, if I refuse the tea and get weaker and weaker, by the time we get to that place, they might not want me. They might refuse Bere, and the slavers might take me somewhere else.

So many ‘mights’ isn’t ideal.

I hear the door and look up expecting to see Morgan, but it’s Bere who saunters in.

I jump up from my seat at the table, my gaze moving to the floor as he barks a laugh.

‘Naughty, naughty,’ he tuts. ‘Sitting at the table like your betters. Normally I’d have one of the lads give you a good lashing for such a liberty, but the healer gave her orders. Come here. Let me look at you.’

With leaden feet, I go to him, and he grasps my face with his meaty fingers, turning it this way and that.

‘She already looks better,’ he remarks to Morgan who’s looming behind him I see belatedly. The head slaver sounds surprised.

‘Her eyes are clearer, and her skin brighter.’ He looks back at the huge fae. ‘You’ve done well. You’re definitely in charge of her until we get to the pits. You’re to keep her safe, healthy, and fed.’

Morgan nods. ‘Aye, Bere.’

‘Put the collar back on her and bring her out. We depart soon. Give me those sandals. She won’t need those.’

Bere leaves the room, and I look up at Morgan’s inscrutable face.

He hands me a flat oven cake packed with spices and raisins which tastes delicious, but it's really only given because he feels guilty about what he said when he thought I already knew.

He makes sure his supplies are packed and buckles the thick collar around my neck.

‘I won’t be cruel to you out there, but I won’t be kind either. I’ll try to keep you close to me though,’ he murmurs.

I nod my understanding. ‘As was ordered,’ I say. ‘Until I’m sold to the pits.’

He doesn’t reply, but when he sees me trying to re-plait my hair in vain, he quickly does it for me, securing it with the same leather string.

Afterward, he leads me back through the inn, now quieter than last evening, and out to the stables where everyone’s ready to leave. I’m glad at least that Bere took those uncomfortable shoes away and isn’t making me wear them again.

I look around and find that the two bulls are nowhere to be seen, so I suppose they were sold on last night.

Bell and Ila are already ensconced in the cart.

Both sets of eyes take in my washed body and smooth hair.

I hear some of the other slavers make comments to Morgan about having spent the night alone with me and my fresh appearance, but he ignores them and the door to the rolling cage is opened.

I get inside, offering my neck to get the collar off, but I’m ignored and the door clangs shut.

I notice that both Bell and Ila look even more worse for wear than they did when I saw them yesterday, so I assume they had another bad night with the slavers while I was bathing, eating, and being treated kindly despite Bere’s orders that they not be touched.

‘I knew it,’ Bell hisses. ‘I knew you weren’t above using your body like the rest of us.’

‘Quiet!’

The iron rungs are hit with a sword, clanging loudly and Bell stops talking, but she and Ila still stare angrily at me, and as soon as the slaver moves on, she leans forward and continues.

‘Always acting so high and mighty, pretending you’re better than the rest of us.’

Guilt gnaws at me. I wish it didn’t. Logically, I know that nothing could be different, but I still feel it. I may have more scars then they do, but they’ve both likely been hurt worse than I have over the years.

I don’t look at either of them again, and I don’t speak to them either. What is there to say?

We go back the way we came, through the streets that are much quieter this morning than they were last evening.

The Ring is in the square, and a pixie mans the hut beside it.

His wings flutter as we draw near and he lifts off the ground just a little as he makes marks in his logbook, humming to himself as he twirls his fingers around his long mustache.

After a few minutes of waiting, Bere huffs. ‘Where’s the fucking Breach? It should have connected by now!’

The pixie glances up and rolls his eyes. ‘You’re early. It’ll open in a moment.’

As he speaks the words, the Breach roars and the bridge between worlds appears, the surface shimmering faintly.

Bere snorts and urges his horse forward. As soon as the portal opened, I could hear the whispers. I clench my fists and my nails dig into my palms. We get nearer and nearer and the cart goes over the threshold. I see Bell and Ila disappear and my eyes widen in fear.

And then my eyes lock onto Bere’s second, Locke. He’s watching me, his horse walking beside the cart. His gaze doesn’t waver and we’re suddenly in the Breach.

I can see nothing, not the horses, nor the cart, not even Ila and Bell.

Darkness swirls around me and the wails and screams begin.

I clench my eyes shut, curling into a ball in the bottom of the cart.

Tears come to my eyes and desolation that isn’t my own pervades my mind and body.

It seems to go on forever, much longer than before.

It feels as if minutes pass and all I can hear is screaming.

Am I trapped in the Breach? Will I become one of these screams?

And then there’s sunlight and blessed silence.

We’re overlooking a valley of lush vegetation, and I can see waterfalls flowing down from the hills. The sky is blue and cloudless. The air smells faintly of jasmine.

I look behind us. The Ring is made from black stone and sits dormant for now. The Breach has closed.

My head pounding, I lean my head back against the iron rungs and hear Bell and Ila tittering quietly. A subtle glance at them through a cracked eyelid confirms what I already suspected. They’re talking about me, giggling about my hair and the scars on my skin. I don’t say anything.

I look for Locke. He’s speaking with Morgan who side-eyes me and frowns. Not wanting anymore of that disgusting tea just yet, I sit up straighter and pinch some color into my cheeks.

I lose track of them both and the procession begins moving again.

We travel slowly down a wide path which starts as dirt and becomes cobblestone.

I wonder at it because I haven’t noticed even one building yet, but then we go over a hump in the road and I can see that beyond it is a thriving town.

My brow furrows as I see a second Gate in the square.

I didn’t know there could be more than one in a place.

My stomach rolls without warning and I double over as pain radiates through my body. No longer caring if Morgan notices and gives me the tea, I curl into myself with a groan, and I hear Bell call out.

‘My Lord, the favored one ails. Mightn’t she need some of that tea?’

I curse her name silently as a skin is thrust through the bars. When I make no move to take it, I hear Morgan’s voice.

‘Drink it. Now.’

I make a grab for it without looking, afraid if I open my eyes I’ll bring my oven cake back up. My fingers brush against nothing, and then I feel strong fingers that almost seem to caress mine before he lets go of the skin.

I uncork it and pull myself up just enough to take a swig.

Then I retch all over the straw.

I hear Bell and Ila shrieking and cover my ears before the cart is enveloped in shade and then stops.

When I next open my eyes, we’re in another stable.

Except as I look around, I realize that this isn’t a stable for horses.

A few other slavers mill about. There are several human girls and some small children on one side in a large pen.

The bulls are on the other side. Some of them gaze hungrily at the females who largely ignore them. The cart opens and I’m hauled out unceremoniously and then dropped to the floor.

I hear Morgan’s voice telling off whomever let me fall, and I vaguely hear a bit of a scuffle before Bere’s voice booms out.

‘What’s the fucking problem? Offload the cargo.’

‘Bere, this cunt laid me out. Hit me jaw, he did!’

‘You gave the keeping of the Breach Blet one to me. Silve nor any of the others should touch her.’

‘Enough. Silve, no one touches that one. Make sure the others know.’

‘Aye, Bere,’ the one called Silve defers and I don’t hear his voice again.

I’m picked up carefully off the ground and cradled like a babe. I don’t need to look to know that Morgan has me, and I relax against him without even thinking.

‘How do you feel, female?’

‘Dizzy,’ I murmur.

I tack on a belated ’my lord’ at the end in case anyone’s listening closely.

‘I’m going to lay you in the clean straw for now, until Bere gives his orders. Rest. I’ll be close by.’