When they reached the dungeon, the girls were treated to a serenade of lewd catcalls from the prisoners in the cells.
“So how big was the prince's cock, Your Highness?”one of them rudely called to her. “And how many times did 'e stick it in you?”
“Even the prisoners know about the wedding?” Kitt whispered to Aislainn. “I guess the news traveled far and wide.”
“Indeed. The wedding is on everyone's lips,” Aislainn told her. “Does it bother you? I can only imagine what it must be like to live in the public eye, to have your life constantly scrutinized.”
Kitt wouldn't have been able to imagine it either—until she lived it herself. “Aislainn, can I tell you a secret?” The dungeon probably wasn't the best place to make uncomfortable confessions, but Kitt needed to unburden herself to someone.
“Of course, Your Highness. You may tell me anything.”
“Well...” Kitt leaned closer to Aislainn and lowered her voice. “The marriage wasn't consummated. Prince Malik and I didn't...”
Aislainn gasped. “You didn't?”
“No. Neither of us wanted to, so we didn't do it. So far, our marriage has been entirely chaste. And thank god for that! Without love, or any kind of fond feelings for him, I can't imagine being intimate with him.”
“That surprises me, Your Highness. But I'm glad you were not subjected to something that would make you uncomfortable.”
When they arrived at Lysander's cell, Lyneah's uncle looked even more despondent than ever. His eyes were dark and hollow, his hair was matted, and his head was sunken between his shoulders.
“Lysander!” When Kitt called his name, his sullen expression didn't change. His face was so blank and vacant, it was as if he was already a corpse.
“Lyneah.” Lysander dragged himself from the ground and shuffled to the bars, getting a better look at his niece. “I'm glad I got to see you one last time. You look lovely.” He turned his attention to the woman at Kitt's side. “As do you, Aislainn. I feel blessed that I got to see two pretty, friendly faces before tomorrow's march to death.”
“I'm so sorry about this, Prince Lysander,” Aislainn's voice crackled as she spoke. “It pains me to see you like this. In my youth, you were always very kind to me. You don't deserve this.” When his eyes were on her, Aislainn dipped into her reticule and pulled out a small, square bar of chocolate. “You asked me to bring chocolate, so I did. After all the sweets you gave me over the years, it is really the least I can do.”
As Aislainn slid the chocolate through the bars, tears gathered in Lysander's eyes. Though they were never shed, the prince looked touched. “Thank you, you sweet girl. You have no idea what this means to me. You're an angel. Truly.”
Aislainn smiled shyly as she stepped away from the bars. “It's really not such a big deal, Your Highness.”
“I object! This chocolate will give me something to enjoy in my final hours. It's actually priceless.” Lysander unwrapped his sweets and tried to offer them a piece, which they both declined solemnly. “Honestly, you girls needn't look so morose. I resigned myself to death some time ago. I'm alright!”
“But it isn't fair!” Kitt shrieked. For a moment, she wondered how the real Lyneah would react to her uncle's imminent demise. “You've done nothing to deserve this!”
“True. Not many people deserve death... but it comes for all of us eventually.” When Lysander tossed a bit of chocolate into his mouth, his eyes lit up. “Ah, Miss Cumberland! You brought me the good stuff, I see.”
“It was the very best chocolate I could find,” Aislainn timidly told him. “I'm glad it is to your liking.”
“It's delicious.” For a moment, Lysander quietly enjoyed his sweets. In the middle of the silence, Mad Petey, the degenerate in the cell across from Lysander, tried to touch Aislainn through the bars. When she saw his hands grabbing for her, she stepped out of range, ignoring him.
“You know...” Lysander spoke again, “it's a bit sad to think this is the last time I'll ever enjoy a bar of chocolate. Hmm. It's quite devastating, really.”
Aislainn and Kitt exchanged pitying glances. “I'm so sorry, Uncle Lysander,” Kitt said, hoping her sympathy was sufficient. In the back of her mind, she wished his real niece could be with him. “I wish there was something I could do. If you have any idea how I might free you...”
“No, Lyneah... it's alright. You needn't put yourself at risk for me. You're a good girl. I want you to live a long, happy life... as happy as you can with the hand you've been dealt.” As Lysander popped another piece of chocolate in his mouth and chewed, he tried to smile for her. “I know it might be difficult to be happy when you've got such a terrible mother... but your uncle's final wish is for you to try. I love you.”
He tried to reach her through the bars, so Kitt grasped his fingers. “I love you too, Uncle.” Her eyes filled with tears as she held onto him, even though she barely knew him.
“And now, if you don't mind... I must ask you to leave before I get to my final piece of chocolate,” Lysander quietly said. “When I start to cry, I'd rather be alone.”
When Kitt turned away from the bars, her heart felt incredibly heavy. “Goodbye, Uncle.”
“Farewell, Your Highness,” Aislainn echoed. “You will be missed, I promise.”
Kitt took Aislainn's arm and led her from the dungeon. Neither of them said a word as they silently reflected on Lysander's fate. When they emerged from the dungeon, Aislainn insisted on escorting the princess to her bedchamber, which might have been a mistake. When they arrived at their destination, King Roen was waiting at the door. Kitt could scarcely tolerate her new father-in-law. After witnessing his brutality against Prince Malik's whipping boy, she could only ever glare at him through narrowed eyes.
Oddly enough, Roen was standing between two of Lyneah's handmaidens: Brigitte and Maia. When he saw her approaching, Roen's eyes lit up. “Ah, Princess Lyneah! You're just the person I'd hoped to see. I figured if I waited for you long enough, you'd turn up eventually. How was your wedding night? Did my son satisfy you? Did he pleasure you?”
Kitt was taken aback by the question. She didn't reply, she just exchanged glances with Aislainn, who looked every bit as disgusted as she did.
“I'm sorry. Is that an inappropriate question in your country? You see, in my country, it's not uncommon for a father to express an interest in his son's marital affairs. In fact, in certain cities, the father will even share the bed of his son's wife. But worry not. I won't expect that of you, my dear.” When Roen smiled at her, Kitt felt a chill on her spine, as if fingers of ghosts were flitting down her back. “Anyway, darling, I'm here to discuss your dowry.”
“My... dowry?” Kitt had no idea what the princess' dowry entailed, so she waited for him to continue.
“Yes, yes. You see, I negotiated the terms with your mother not long ago. As I recall, Loreina was surprisingly willing to meet my demands. I think she wanted you off her hands!” As he chuckled, Roen's meaty fingers drummed against his sizable stomach, which was barely constrained by a tight-fitting waistcoat. “Well... in addition to a considerable sum of money, I am to receive something else, and that is what we need to discuss. You see...” Roen grinned, revealing a set of teeth that were considerably decayed. “You handmaidens belong to me, girl.”
“What?” Kitt tightened her grip on Aislainn's arm. “What does that even mean? They work for you now?”
“They work for me... and more. They'll be whatever I want them to be. My servants. My attendants. My cooks. My lovers. Whatever you want to call it, they're mine now.” Roen suddenly shuddered. “Although I doubt I'd make lovers out of these two. This one is old, and this one has a horsey face.” He pointed at Brigitte and Maia before turning his attention to Aislainn. “However, this handsome dark-complexioned one will be more than satisfactory. The others can clean my laundry.”
“What?” Kitt practically screamed the word this time. “Slavery isn't even legal in this country! This can't be legal!”
“Oh, I'm afraid it is. Your mother wasn't afraid to bend the rules to accommodate my needs.” Roen winked at Aislainn, which had her slinking behind Kitt. “Don't worry, young lady. I won't force myself on you too soon.”
“This is ridiculous!” Kitt wailed. “I'm not just going to let you take them. You can't just claim people! You can't show up one day, take Aislainn away from me and call her a slave. I need to speak to my mother about this!”
“Oh, but your girl isn't a slave, Princess. Even in my country, we don't prefer to use the word slavery anymore. That word is so grotesque. It's so uncivilized. No... your handmaidens are to be my indentured servants, at least until their contracts expire.”
“Contracts?” Kitt hissed the word. When she turned to Aislainn, the handmaiden's gaze was on the ground. “Did you sign a contract with King Roen? To be his indentured servant?”
“I'm afraid so, Your Highness,” Aislainn whispered. “But... to be fair, we were threatened. The queen threatened our lives, as well as yours. If we didn't sign the contract, she was going to--”
“This is ridiculous!” Kitt repeated with a gasp. “I'm going to talk to Loreina about this. There is no way I'll stand for this!”
“You're welcome to speak to her if you want, but I'm afraid the contract is binding.” Even though his waistcoat was tight, King Roen's stomach rippled as he laughed.
“Please don't put yourself in harm's way for us, Your Highness,” entreated Maia, the handmaiden with the supposed 'horsey face.'
“Yes. You mustn't,” Brigitte agreed. “When we entered the contract with Roen, we were fully aware of what we were doing, and what it meant.”
“And,” Aislainn added with a sigh, “we were asked not to speak of this until after your wedding, so please don't be upset with us for keeping it a secret.”
“Listen to your girls, Lyneah. Don't fret, and keep your mouth shut. I'll take good care of them, I promise.” To Aislainn, Roen added, “And I'll take especially good care of you, my darling.”
Ten
“Marcus, Soren and Arthur should arrive within a few hours,” Kieran said of his mercenary friends as he halted the hovercraft in front of the radio tower. “They're coming with the necessary supplies. You know... tents, pots, food. The stuff we'll actually need to survive.”
The radio tower was an immense iron structure with stairs winding around it, topped by a giant needle. After decades of neglect, it was rusty and rundown. Vines had consumed it, and it was leaning to one side, but its poor condition was no worse than Lyneah expected.
Tobias leapt from the hovercraft after Kieran did, and he offered a hand to both of the ladies. Tobey was trying to be a gentleman, but Lyneah chose to neglect his hand and alight from the craft on her own. Carol, however, was only too happy to cling to his hand. Even when her feet were on the ground, she refused to let go of him.
“Woooow,” Carol cooed as she marveled at the tower. “It's bigger than I thought. I thought I'd have this thing up and running in a day or so, but a tower this big and broken is going to require a ton of maintenance.” She whipped off her goggles and studied the structure, slack-jawed.
“You have p-p-pretty eyes,” Tobey quietly complimented her. Carol was usually wearing glasses or goggles, and since they were standing in the sunlight, it was the first time he got a good look at her eyes.
“Awwww!” Carol squealed at his compliment. “That is so sweet, Tobias! Did you guys just hear what he said? He said I had pretty eyes!”
Lyneah could feel herself getting more and more vexed by Carol's company. Tobias never said her eyes were pretty. Lyneah knew they were brown and boring, especially when compared to the silvery-violet eyes of the obnoxious engineer, but she wanted a compliment too. She struggled to recall a time when Tobias ever complimented her.
Lyneah was so lost in thought, she didn't realize her companions were heading into the tower. When she realized they were way ahead of her, she had to sprint to catch up to them.
The interior of the tower was nothing special. It was a cold, gray room with peeling paint and a rotting wooden floor. There was a large pillar in the center of the room, with several square panels on each side of it. Countless dry leaves had somehow gotten into the building and were scattered across the floor. Carol's huge boots crushed the decaying foliage as she crossed the room and approached the pillar. She flicked open one of the panels and peered at the gears, levers, and wires behind it.
“Yeah... this doesn't look too good,” Carol reported. “Some of the gears are rusted, and there are some missing parts. Like I said, this is going to take a lot of work.”
“But it can be done, right?” Lyneah asked. “Please tell me you can do it!”
“Of course I can do it, Your Highnessness! There's nothing I can't do!” Carol donned her bottle cap glasses and leaned closer to the dilapidated gears. She took a screwdriver from her pocket and tapped on one of the wires. A spark flew into her face, nearly singeing her eyebrows. Carol cheered. “That's good! That's really good, actually. That means there's still some life in this big old hunk o' junk.”
“You know, I've dabbled with this kind of thing myself,” Kieran said. As he leaned closer to the panel, he hovered over Carol. At the appropriate moment, he seized the opportunity to stare at her cleavage. The engineer was short, but buxom. “Perhaps I can assist you, love?”
When Kieran tapped on one of the gears, Carol slapped his hand away and gasped. “Eww. No! What are you doing, guy? Please go away.”
Kieran grumbled. “Guy? Is that what you're calling me?”
“You call Tobias boy all the time, so I thought guy would suit you.” Carol shrugged. “But I can call you something else, if you want. So now... let me rephrase myself. Please go away, you big old poop.”
“Big old poop?” Kieran's brow furrowed as he repeated Carol's words. “Is that going to be my new nickname? Poop? I think I preferred guy, to be honest!”
“Well then, you shouldn't have complained. Sorry. Too bad. And now... you're kind of cramping my space, so I really need you to leave the vicinity,” Carol demanded. “Tobey can stay, though. His hair is good for morale.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Tobey timidly asked.
“You can just stand there and look cute. That's all the help I require, hon.” Carol briefly turned around and winked at him. Then she extracted a toolkit from her bag and picked out a small ratchet, which she used on the device she was trying to restore.
“How long is this going to take, if you don't mind me asking?” Lyneah hoped her question didn't sound too rude.
“Umm... well...” Carol tapped her chin as she considered the question. “I'm thinking it'll take an entire day or two. Maybe three? It's difficult to say. But I guarantee you, a lesser engineer couldn't do this job in under a week, so you definitely hired the right girl.”
Kieran left the room, but Carol had yet to banish Lyneah, so the princess hovered close to Tobey. She thought about holding his hand, but she didn't feel comfortable doing that while Carol was around. “I still can't believe you quit your job for me,” she whispered to him. “I really didn't think you'd do that. It makes me feel so guilty.”
“You don't need to feel that way.” Tobey gave her an encouraging smile, which was probably the cutest smile she had ever seen. “Besides, what you're doing is way more important than serving drinks to drunks at Lucky's. I'm just happy to be a small part of this.”
“Well, I appreciate your sacrifice. When this is all over, I'll give you a reward.”
“Lyneah.” Tobias playfully clicked his tongue at her. “We've talked about this before, haven't we? I neither need nor want a reward. My reward is...” He hesitated to complete the thought. It was an awkward thing to confess, so he prayed he wouldn't stutter through it. “My reward is getting to spend time with you.”
“You're so sweet. But honestly, Tobey, if I can give a reward to Kieran's creepy mercenary friends, I can throw a bit of money your way too.” W
hen he opened his mouth to protest, she held a finger to his lips, silencing him. “Don't complain! I want to do it. Giving you a reward would make me happy.”
Tobias smiled again. He actually enjoyed the feeling of her finger pressed against his lips. In the corner of his eye, he could see Carol staring at them, but her face was unreadable.
When she lowered her finger, Lyneah's voice sharpened a bit. “And by the way, Tobey... do you think I have pretty eyes?” For her own peace of mind, she needed to hear him compliment her. She hated to have to fish for it, but she needed it.
“O-o-of course!” Tobey sputtered through his answer. “You have the prettiest eyes in the entire world, Lyneah!”
“Oh, stop!” His compliment sounded too much like forced flattery. It sounded disingenuous. “They're dull and brown. In no way could they be the prettiest eyes you've seen.”
“B-but they are,” Tobias insisted. “And they're far from dull. They have these little flecks of orange in them, and they glow like amber. They're beautiful. And you have p-p-pretty eyelashes too.”
“You're sweet.” As kind as his compliment was, Lyneah wished she could believe it.
Tobey caught Carol staring at them again, so he asked, “Do you think we're distracting her? Should we leave?”
Lyneah chuckled dryly. “Well, I don't think you're distracting her, Tobey... not with your morale-boosting hair.”
“Oh god.” Tobey groaned. “I think I'll go check on Kieran.”
Lyneah nodded as she watched him go, then she turned to look at Carol. The engineer looked like she was trying to reattach a wire, so Lyneah didn't want to distract her too much. Even so, it was the first time she had ever been alone with Carol, and there was a topic she was dying to discuss. So Lyneah shuffled a bit closer and said, “I've noticed you flirting with Tobey. Very flagrantly, in fact. But you're the same age as me, if not a bit older. Don't you think he's a little bit young for you?”
Sky Pirate (Belles & Bullets Book 3) Page 6
