Page 23 of What Fury Brings (Wrath and Fury #1)

Once Sanos didn’t have to spend all his willpower ignoring Glenaerys, he had the energy to again be upset about his current predicament.

I am a prince. The crown prince of Brutus, and I’m wearing a godsdamned nipple chain.

It wasn’t uncomfortable. His nipples weren’t particularly sensitive. It was just humiliating to have so much jewelry hanging off him.

Olerra made him follow her outside. The stones were warm beneath his bare feet, and he had to take more care to ensure he didn’t step on loose rocks or other sharp objects. His soles would be filthy once they finished running her errands, whatever they may be.

Olerra took one look at his bare skin before calling for some kind of oil. She rubbed it all over him, assuring him it would prevent him from burning. Then she led him into a carriage, sitting close enough to him that their thighs brushed.

“That was well done back there,” she said when the carriage took off. “You have a level of intelligence that I find admirable.”

“Great, I can die happy now,” he deadpanned.

“Your sense of humor is somewhat lacking, but I will take it given the current circumstances.” She laid an arm along the back of the carriage seat and used it to run her fingers up and down the side of his neck.

His skin burned at that touch. Realizing that he was enjoying it all too much, he pivoted to sit on the opposite bench of the carriage. “Keep your hands to yourself,” he said to her.

“Is that what you prefer?” she asked. “Would you rather watch while I touch myself again?”

“No,” he said, if a bit too loudly.

“Shame,” she said. “It was better when you were watching me. I’ve never come so quickly in my life.”

Sanos closed his eyes against the memory that presented itself in his mind. “Must you speak?”

“Must you continue to pretend you don’t want me?”

“I pretend nothing. I’ve told you my desires from the start. I want out of these chains. I want to go home.”

She leaned back in her seat. “And what is so great about home? What would you be doing if you were in Brutus?”

With his birthday over, he’d be on his way back to the border to fight the Ephennans. He’d be alone on the road, with his mind free to wander. He’d worry about his family.

Gods, his family.

Sanos turned to Olerra.

His heart pounded as urgency surged through him, but there was nothing he could do to be free. He would be stuck here until an opportunity for escape presented itself. There was only one thing he could do.

“I would ask something of you,” he said.

He could tell she was surprised by the topic change. “Today is meant to be disciplinary, yet you would ask for a favor?”

He pressed on. “I have come to realize that I will be in your country for quite some time, despite my best efforts. I know that you cannot tell my family where I am, but could you deliver a message to my mother, telling her I am well? I don’t want her to worry any more than she needs to.”

His request was met with a beat of silence.

“Why would she worry?” Olerra said at last. “Are you not prone to leaving the palace from time to time?”

He reminded himself she thought him his younger brother. Andrastus was more free to go where he wished.

“Hardly ever,” he said. “Only on brief outings with my brothers. She will think the worst has happened. This is not some ploy to get a secret message to her. Anyone can write it. I just want her to know that I’m alive and I’m all right.”

Olerra sat back in her seat, keeping her eyes on him. “And what will you give me in return if I do this for you?”

He swallowed his pride, though it nearly killed him. “I will behave. No more fighting you in public.”

The princess thought it over carefully. “All right, Prince. I will send word to your mother the moment we return.”

“Thank you.”

It felt wrong to thank her after everything she’d done, but she needed to know he was sincere in his request and promise.

The city swept past them slowly. The traffic was horrible, causing the carriage to jolt to a stop many times. Sanos looked out the window, taking in businesses and neighborhoods. The common people of Amarra seemed happy enough. Sanos didn’t see any homeless or destitute among them.

He must have voiced that aloud, for Olerra said proudly, “We have programs in place to care for the mentally ill and those who need help finding their way.” Her voice lowered. “Despite Glenaerys’s best efforts.”

He brought his head back inside the carriage. “What do you mean?”

“She wants to cut off the money for such programs. They’re funded by the richest among us. She would give that money back to the nobles. Just another reason why she’s so popular among them.”

He returned his attention outside. Compared to the palace, the common people looked so normal.

The men didn’t wear makeup or obscene amounts of jewelry.

They wore simple armbands out of common materials.

They weren’t paraded about. They were doing chores like everyone else.

It would seem that only the nobility made spectacles of their men, showing them off like trophies.

He watched a father bend down to pick up his daughter and hoist her high on his shoulders. She wrapped her thin arms around his head and laughed. Another man leaned down and kissed his wife on the cheek before resting his head on her shoulder as she bargained for something at one of the vendors.

He’d never seen peasants looking so pleased with their lot. In Brutus, there were homeless on every street. In Ephenna, he saw urchins fleeing in droves away from his soldiers as they marched on each city.

The Amarrans may have had a fucked-up society, but they were doing something right with their common people, at least.

Sanos scowled as he realized he’d thought something complimentary about this place. He turned away from the streets again.

Olerra was watching him. “What are you thinking?”

“Nothing.”

She smiled as though she’d guessed his thoughts. “You never answered my question from earlier. What would you be doing if you were back in Brutus right now?”

He felt petulant. “It doesn’t matter what I’d be doing. Only that I’d have freedom once again.”

“Freedom? You mean drinking and whoring? Is that what you miss? Is it the thought of being tied down to one woman that scares you so much?”

“If that’s what you think of me, then why in the world did you take me?”

“Because I have hope for what comes after.”

“After what?”

“After you accept what has happened.” She was silent for a moment. “There are two ways I see this playing out. Either you accept that this is your life, give us a chance, and we have a shot at happily ever after…”

“Or?” he asked, knowing that option was never going to be his future.

“Or you help me win my throne and we go our separate ways. Either way, we both win, don’t you think?”

“What about the option where you let me go and we pretend this never happened?”

“I will not entertain any ideas that don’t result in me ruling this kingdom.” Her tone had the ring of finality about it.

When they reached their destination, Olerra exited the carriage first. She reached out a hand to help him down the steps, but he ignored it.

His hands may have been bound behind his back, but he didn’t need help walking.

They moved slowly to accommodate his bindings, but he also suspected it was because she wanted him to study his surroundings.

They were in some kind of market, that was clear. Hot foods could be purchased, the smells filling the streets to cover up the less pleasant stenches of filth and sex. Olerra’s knuckles tightened on the leash, though she didn’t tug him with any force.

There was a ring where men fought, the onlookers placing bets. One woman collected money, while another was conversing with a group of nearby women.

“Who wants a night with the winner?”

The onlookers started bidding, the amounts raising to sums that made no sense to Sanos. Their money was different from his. But from the amount of gold that was exchanged, he couldn’t imagine the sums being small.

In another area, there was an upraised bed on a dais. A woman sat on the edge, a man kneeling at her feet. “This is Barov. He’s got a tongue like a serpent, and the bidding starts at two ederos. Who would like to see him perform?”

A cheer went up from the watching crowd. At a nod from the woman, Barov leaned forward, pulling down the woman’s pants before burying his head between her thighs for all to see. Her moans were covered by the cheers of the crowd.

“A sex market?” Sanos barked. “That’s what you brought me to see? You want me to mind myself so you don’t decide to sell me off here, is that it?”

Olerra didn’t answer, just dragged him farther down the street, passing by more vendors with less obscene wares.

They neared a merchant with all kinds of trinkets that Sanos didn’t recognize, until his eye caught on the various phallus boxes for sale like the one Olerra had used.

A woman perusing the stall picked up some kind of metal device and held it up to the vendor. It consisted of wires that were shaped like a flaccid cock and had a lock on one end.

“Will it rust if it gets wet?” the woman asked the vendor.

“No, it’s perfectly suited for bath play.”

Sanos realized a moment later that it was a device meant to keep a man’s member from hardening.

“Fuck,” he whispered, the horrors of Amarra drawing the swear from him.

This place was a nightmare, one he hadn’t even known he should be afraid of.

Everywhere, women shuffled men about, their superior strength allowing them to control them.

Men were little better than slaves here, and while they put on brave faces before the crowds, he could see others behind the stalls, waiting their turns.

Some smoked to take the edge off. Others had faces downcast and souls broken.

How could Olerra stand it?

When he turned to her, he saw that she wasn’t taking it all in like he was. No, she watched him carefully.