The Barbarian's Captive (Warlords 0f Farian Book 4)

by Bailey Dark

  “Do you have any skills, Zaya? Fighting, throwing, languages, otherwise? Anything we can use?”

  I thought of the skills of seduction and the truth behind it that I could spin in ways that other women only dreamed of that made men melt. I could have this savage, this beastly barbarian, on the ground groveling in a moment, if I wanted to… But that wasn’t the type of skill he meant.

  It didn’t really matter, I had no loyalty to the charzbos. If an opportunity came, I was going to seize it, without him. I didn’t need to be on his team. We weren’t a team. We weren’t anything but two people in a cell together and he had the upper hand because he would use me the first chance he got.

  The guard came around the corner suddenly, loosening his belt, chomping away at some sweet from the Curan’s Farian fare. The charzbos growled under his breath and clenched his fists. I dropped the blankets and stood up. Cartari caught his breath as my body was revealed and a little spike of satisfaction ran through me. I knew how beautiful I was, how the curves of my body ran in just the right places, how my hips swung in just the right rhythm to make men, and women, swoon. My breasts were large, my waist tight. The dress I was wearing was accented in fur around my breasts, cupping them to accentuate the cleavage, brown and black, with flares of blue feathers from the crested crowing that was the symbol of my home region. The dress had leggings underneath that were furred at the bottom, going into tall, black, fur-crowned leather boots. I was a fearsome, sexy seductress. The guard nearly dropped the sweet he was holding.

  I slipped toward the gate, stepping over the Curan, letting him look up at me with wide eyes, letting the dark blue train of the dresslet sweep across his chest.

  “Holy lord…” He breathed out and I smiled smugly. I leaned against the cell bars.

  “Hey there, Officer Tellison…” I reached a slow-moving, sexy looping hand out of the cell and tugged at the guard’s chest lapel. I traced his jawline with my fingertips and gently touched his pouty lips. His breathing was heavy, the paunch of his unbelievably heavy chest heaving with his rapid heart rate. How did a man this out of shape still merit a guard’s job? It was because we were in one of the lower districts of the Capital and so few feats of crime happened here, they could still afford to have someone on the job who would never, without the aid of surprise, a taser, and much younger cops with him, catch a transgressor.

  “I need to use the restroom… Would you please let me use the private one that I know you have down the hall… Please… I don’t want to use the bucket in here with the charzbos… Don’t make me… You wouldn’t do that, would you…” All the while, I played with his lips, his chin, his ears, his eyes never left my face, his tongue darting out to hungrily lick at his lips as he stared at me.

  He reached up to grab my hand and pressed it to his cheek.

  “If I let you use the private bathroom, will you be a good girl?”

  “That depends,” I said and maneuvered my hand so I was squeezing his, and so he wasn’t crushing mine as badly. I taunted him with my eyes and licked my lips, so his eyes traced my tongue’s gentle movement. I slid one of my legs up and down in between the cell bar. “I will… unless you want me to be naughty…”

  The charzbos snorted behind me, but I leaned into the cell bars further and took the guard’s shirt into a gentle fist, pulling him into me so he came closer to the cell, so our faces were close, and I nuzzled him as much as I could through my prison. He gurgled a moan that was animalistic and disgusting. He started fumbling for the keys and my heart picked up a beat. There was a slight stir behind me as the charzbos readied himself to take advantage of the opened door, as well. Damnit, I hope he doesn’t ruin this for me.

  Another guard came around the corner.

  “Tellison! What are you doing!”

  The guard grabbed my hand on his shirt, pulling me forward so my head slammed into the cell bars, twisting my hand so it wrenched off him, and I fell to the floor, dizzied by the blow, tasting blood from having bitten my tongue hard. The charzbos was off the floor in a second. I watched as he used his telekinesis and he launched first one and then the other guard off their feet into the wall, cracking their skulls open. They got up slowly, but left back down the hallway as quickly as they could, the charzbos throwing chairs and tables down the hallway after them until they disappeared.

  Then he sank down beside me on the floor and gently lifted my hand and tilted my head to look at my temple where I had hit the cell bars.

  “You’re not bleeding but you’ll probably have a bruise. And your fingers don’t seem broken. Are you okay?”

  I nodded and stood up to scoot back under the blankets, choking back tears and swallowing the blood from my bit tongue. I had been so close… And now they would be scared of the charzbos and wouldn’t come close again for a while. So, we probably wouldn’t even be brought food or water. And I was hungry.

  “That was good, Zaya,” Cartari said. “I see you do have skills.”

  I shrugged and nuzzled into my blankets, looking away from him. Little good they would do me now. I probably had two more days to go before he would find me. It wouldn’t take long before he tracked me down. I had two more days of freedom and I was going to spend them in prison with a barbarian. That was all I had to look forward to.

  “I will get us out of here Zaya. You’ll see.”

  I looked back at the charzbos and was surprised to see him smiling. He laid down on the cushions, straightening out and stretching. I rolled my eyes. Maybe Curans were known for delusions of grandeur. Then again, maybe that was what made them great warriors. Maybe he would figure out something that I couldn’t. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to be nice to him. If he did figure out a way to escape, and he took me with him, I could always just figure out a way to escape from him next.

  There was no way I would let myself be a barbarian’s captive.

  Three

  Cartari

  There really wasn’t any other way. I had tried to think of other options, but this was going to be the only way out. I had never tried this before, other than as a silly kid, which all Curans did to each other. I had never tried it on someone that wasn’t a telepath, though. I had never tried it on someone that it might actually work on…

  The guards had come back to our cell three times since Zaya’s seductress attempt. Twice it had been just to shoot me with the tasers. One of those times, they had left food for us, which was cold by the time I regained my faculties and was able to eat it. The third time they came back, they were armed with tasers, but I kept my eyes closed and pretended I was asleep, reading their minds instead, to avoid the electric shock.

  Through reading their minds, I discovered that a judge was due into this precinct in two days to make a decision about Zaya. I wondered what she had done to warrant going before a judge, to not just have a black-and-white sentencing handed down by the typical clerics. That same judge would decide what to do with me. The guards were placing bets that I would just be placed on an exile order and sent back to my spaceship. But they wanted to tase me some more, first.

  Sadists.

  I also heard their fairly impure thoughts about Zaya. I knew that her seductive show from before was still on Tellison’s mind. If he came back alone, she would be able to get the keys from him again, easily. My skills might be with weapons and telekinetics, but hers were with womanly wiles.

  They left without electrocuting me that time, for which I was thankful, but that did make me firm in my decision: it was time to get out of there. I would have to use Zaya to do it, but it was worth the risk. I didn’t have any loyalty to her. Besides, it would be getting her out, as well.

  It would just be without her permission…

  It took a few hours of restless waiting, but by the evening of the next day, Tellison found himself too intrigued by Zaya. He meandered back toward us with our dinner. I pretended to be asleep again, snuggled under one of the blankets.

  Then, with the skills of a surgeon, I inserted the tiny
tendril of mental Will into Tellison’s brain and managed to make him approach us even closer as he slid our food under the cell bars.

  It was a bizarre feeling of connection, telling someone to take steps their mind wasn’t making them take. It was like controlling a robot, yet a robot who could turn around and kill me if I messed up in any way. The stakes were high, and I knew that I was messing around in the brains of another sentient being in a way that shouldn’t be permissible; it wasn’t something done on Farian, because we were all telepaths. It was awkward, disgusting, nauseating… But, I had to get us out of here.

  It was an awkward command of his Will, but I made him gesture to Zaya. She looked up at him, confused. I held him there, steady. Then, without looking her way too obviously, but with my other hand, I directed some of my other Will and, feeling a bit nauseated but relinquishing that feeling into the intention of the Will, I flooded her with the need to escape, the desire to do anything she had to, to leave, to get out, to flee… And I made her stand up, then smile, then I slunk slip toward the guard where he stood at the gate, mouth gaping open, eyes wide, devouring her with his gaze as she strode closer and closer through the dim light.

  Zaya’s own inhibitions fought me for a moment as she was confused at what she was doing, realizing it was against her own will, but I flushed my Will through her again, overpowering any of her desire and made her mind focus on what we had to do: “get out, get out of the prison. Do anything you have to do. Do everything you have to do.”

  There was a slight spike of guilt as she passed me, her eyes wide and terrified, but I ignored it, intensifying the drive she needed to feel. I swept the desire she had to have through her, forcing her to feel what freedom would be like, making her taste what it would be like to be outside the cells: the wind, the snowflakes on her face, the depths of liberty within her soul. She had to want it, nothing could stand in her way.

  Her pace picked up, almost of her own volition. She neared the bars, placing her hands on Tellison’s hands against the bars. She breathed in deeply, smiling, dark hair cascading across her cheeks. They both were breathing hard, and I could sense the bewilderment inside their minds, but also their desire to give in to my Will, my overpowering, far too strong, Curan, charzbos Will…

  I refocused on Tellison. I poured intention into him: “want her… Want to touch her. Need her free… Out of the prison… Let her out…”

  Slowly, he reached into his pocket and took out the key. He turned it in the lock. She pushed open the gate and stood before him on the other side. I guided her to step through the gate as I slipped out from underneath the blankets. I made sure I was soundless, keeping Tellison’s focus on her, his eyes never leaving hers. I guided her to place her hand in his. I Willed them to walk ahead of me down the hall, two zombie-like figures, in a daze, looking straight ahead, hands clasped together, driven, now, toward a new goal: “need to get to the office, need to get Cartari’s weapons.”

  I slunk in the shadows behind the pair walking ahead of me as Tellison led us to the office, empty except for one other snoring guard, kicked back in his chair. Tellison gathered up all of my weapons and brought them in a bunch to me. I quickly slipped them into their proper sheaths and holdings: I am whole again. My gearbag, however, had been taken home by someone or other and I would never have it again. My handy comm was gone, too. Axis would surely be panicking about not having heard from me. I needed to get to my ship and send a message.

  I asked Tellison for his money sack and was pleased at the amount of glorains inside. They paid their police well in this city. The guard wavered, looking at me, a weak sense of realization coming across his face, so I Willed a new wave of desire into him and forced Zaya to place her hand on his cheek: “desire her, want her, do as she wants…”

  Then, to Zaya: “he is the answer, he will lead us out of the City… Keep him calm, keep him contained… Keep him wanting you.”

  I took a deep breath and then waved my arms forward. “Outside, we need to go outside. To the edges of the city. Let us go, quickly.”

  As we were leaving down the hallway, we passed a coat closet. I opened it and grabbed a nice long, black fur-lined winter robe-length cloak with red feather accents for Zaya. I wondered who had left it there. I handed it to her just as we were exiting into the snow.

  “Put it on.”

  “Yes.” She was still under my mind control. I half expected her to call me Commander or Sir, at the very least, and it pained me to see the blank look of obedience. She was captured by my mental sway. She swept the cloak over her shoulders with the practiced habit of a queen and I wondered who she really was.

  “To the outskirts of the city,” I told Tellison. “Lead us there.”

  I had to get the guard to do what we needed him to, and I didn’t think I had the strength to get him to do what we needed him to do on my own. Plus, we needed him with us, in case any question came up of us being held under guard. We were just being escorted from one precinct to another. Just until the edge of the city. Plus, Zaya had told me she was from another region; she didn’t know this area well, either. We needed him - for the moment.

  Zaya held to Tellison’s hand and I kept in step behind them, hat low, but warily looking from side to side and checking behind us as we exited the station. The problem with holding these two prone in the mental connection, was that I couldn’t make them move very quickly. They were trodding along rather slowly. I twisted at the mental connection, trying to make them move more swiftly, but their bodies just jerked ahead in a kinesthetic conundrum, as if their bodies were not their own to command; which they were not at the moment. I was going to have to tolerate the slow pace.

  The snow was falling down in light flakes, but there was a mass of black clouds to the north, the direction I needed to go, that said a major storm was ready to let loose.

  “Turn right…”

  Soldiers marched past us and around as we ducked down a right alley.

  We skirted quickly through a market as vendors took down their wares. I snagged some supplies quickly, food stuffs, mainly, knowing I had a trek ahead. I would find a safe place to leave the guard and Zaya, soon. She had been so close-lipped with me, but as soon as I lifted the mental hold, I could ask her where someone friendly was, escort her there, then head back to my ship, and take my leave.

  We rounded a corner and a police precinct was letting loose a shift. We ducked left and headed up a cobblestone street.

  This would actually be a good place to leave our guard friend. We were on the edge of the city. We were backed up to the hills, the mountains and trees broadly visible just on the other side of one last line of residential buildings.

  I left him standing, facing a wall, giving him the command to study its nuances, then took Zaya around a corner and her sit and study the floating snow. I went back to the officer.

  With a hand to his forehead, and a knife in my hand, I released him, stripping away the initial tendril of thought I had placed inside his mind, unweaving all the emotions I had spent into his body, and flooding back into him the idea of freewill and drive.

  He staggered to the side, clutching his head, moaning, nearly falling, and burst into tears.

  Tellison looked at me, face stricken in dumbfounded agony. As his eyes adjusted to my image, seeming not to notice the knife in my hand, he collapsed from his sob into giggles and took my hand.

  Then he backed off and stood still, staring at me, tears still streaking down his face, but his smile was eager and yearning. I backed away two steps and he followed me two steps. I took two more and he followed me two more.

  “Stay here.” I gave the command and backed away, heading back to Zaya. When I turned to look, Tellison was looking after me, still tears, still smiling, still eager, but staying there, snowflakes cascading onto his clothes. I lifted up Zaya from her seated place, where she was staring up at the snow, her face painted with melted flakes. When we came back around the corner, and moved to leave to the left, Tellison
pivoted, watching us go, but stayed in the exact same spot.

  Damnit… I grumbled. He was going to stay in that spot until he died… He wouldn’t move from it. He was commanded, by me, to stay there. The mental release hadn’t worked. No one would be able to help him.

  I turned back around and looked at him. His eyes lit up and he lifted his hands to his chest, clasped together, like an eager little dog. I gestured at him, telepathically communicating with him, “Come on, Telly, come with us.” He scampered to follow, giant belly jiggling as he came along.

  I paused for a long moment, contemplating. We really couldn’t take him along. I looked at his white-washed tear-stained eyes and hugged Zaya to my body where she looked down at the cobblestones, feeling her Will starting to break against my Will that was still telling her to be ready to taste freedom. I didn’t want her running from me. I needed to change that Will I was sending through her consciousness. If she was going to be anything like him, then she might die if she tried to escape from me…

  I turned to Telly. “Wait here for thirty minutes. Then go into that police precinct. Tell them you have been mind controlled by a Curan. Tell them you need to wear it off, that you need to be in a cell for one week. That you will need help with all your regular living needs for that time.”

  Granted, thirty minutes wasn’t much of a start for myself and Zaya, but if would have to be enough. And if word of me mind-controlling cops got to Blatson, he might be less willing to negotiate, but that was a risk I was willing to take… I might have to duel him, anyway.

  I also wouldn’t have time to go to the spaceship and send a message to Axis. I needed to head north right away. Oh well, he trusted me. And if he sent back-up, maybe that was for the best. Things weren’t exactly as expected here.

  Tellison kept his sights on the precinct, focus changed from me to his next goal and I held onto Zaya’s shoulders.

  “Stay with me, focus on me. You are my friend. We are a team. We need to escape together. We are going North. You are safe with me. Trust me. We need to get to shelter and be safe together. Stay with me.”