Having her sitting on his lap was far more stimulating than when they were holding each other earlier. He could feel her breath on his neck, and her soft breast pressed to him. It grew even more stimulating when she shifted her sitting position; her bottom ground on his manhood when she did.
Ari giggled and said “Oh you are a beast aren't you? But you're my beast now. Now and forever.”
“Mistress?” Thorel said in some confusion. The heat rising through his body was undeniable, and so was the embarrassing response of his manhood.
She took a drink of her wine and wiggled her bottom on him again. “I can feel that. I'll bet you just want to put me on this table and have your way with me, don't you?”
Nigel stood up with his glass and mouthed; “I'm going man.”
Thorel had no idea how to reply to that. He was both grateful and annoyed that Nigel was leaving now. The door closed quietly.
“Well? You want to just fuck me like a beast now, don't you?” She slurred, but her eyes were hard when she looked at him.
Thorel had never heard her use language like that before, it was strange coming from her. “I'm not ready to be a father, Ari. I care for you, but I won't do something I'm not ready to take responsibility for.”
“Good,” She said cuddling into his shoulder again. “If you were that kind of beast I would kill you. But you're not, and that's why I love you.”
Thorel blinked. He had no idea how to reply to that. He just sat there, holding her. He listened to her mumble incoherently about killing bestial men and how much she loved him. Soon though, she grew quiet and her breathing steadied.
Thorel carefully picked her up and put her in his bed. He pulled a blanket over her and sat in his large comfortable chair nearby. He closed his eyes ready to wake quickly in case she got sick like he did that night with Nigel.
* * *
Nina sat in the carriage with an arm around Tara. It was past the twenty-second hour now, and they had been waiting in this carriage for four hours. Anny and Traia had left nearly two hours ago. Tara had fallen asleep a little while ago, cradling the dagger she'd bought before they came here.
Tara had insisted they come here and wait for the whore. She told an unbelievable tale that a Wizard had come to her room last night and told her she would be here. She said the Wizard had given her silver to get them here, and she went to a smith’s and bought her new dagger.
Tara had been so intense today, it disturbed her. Nina had never seen someone go mad before, but she was starting to wonder if she was now. She really wanted to believe Tara's story, but it was hard to. It was very clear Anny and Traia didn't, but they played along with her; long enough for Tara to buy a dagger for each of them.
That really pissed Nina off. After all Tara had been through, for those two little bitches to take advantage of her deserved a solid beating in her opinion. Especially if she really was going mad now. She held her peace though. It wasn't going to help anything to start a fight with them here. She knew where to find them if she decided to do it.
They would truly regret it if she decided they needed it though. On her father's ranch, she had always played with the sons of the stable hands that lived on his lands, not the daughters. The girls were too squeaky and boring to her. She enjoyed climbing trees, wrestling and getting dirty as much as they did.
Her father often told her that her mother would have been appalled by this. But it mattered little since she had seen one of the young stallions throw her mother when she was six. She remembered sitting there trying to wake her for hours, and how she had grown cold before one of her father's stable hands found her there shaking her and crying for her to wake.
Nina brushed Tara's blonde hair away from her face and looked at her there sleeping under the light of the half moon. Even with the metal clip holding her broken nose straight she was still a pretty girl. She was getting tired too, but she wasn't going to leave her here all alone.
She stifled the yawn that cracked her jaw when the carriage door opened suddenly. “Let me help you, Miss,” she heard the carriage driver’s voice say.
Nina put her hand over Tara's mouth and shook her friend awake. Tara started instantly in a slight panic until Nina made a shushing noise and pointed to the open door. Tara nodded and grabbed her dagger. Nina took her hand off of Tara's mouth.
“Had a few too many tonight, Miss?” The man asked.
“Yeah, you could say that,” she heard the whore’s voice say clearly. Tara shivered in excitement beside her.
Nina put her finger to her lips again for Tara. She was getting far too excited. Nina didn't want her to make a noise and spoil it. She was tired of this pursuit. She just wanted to get it settled tonight so she and Tara could actually go out and have fun together instead of pursuing this whore.
“Ma'am, are you alright?” The man asked with concern.
“It's just moon blood. Take me to Rik's Bakes and Treats in West Vallad,” the whore said. She crawled into the carriage painfully on all fours. Nina could see the stain of blood on the backside of her light blue dress.
“Alright ma'am,” he replied and closed the door.
She motioned for Tara to stay quiet again. Don't do anything until the carriage starts moving, or the driver will hear was the plan they had agreed on.
Tara nodded with a disturbing smile and drew her dagger quietly.
The whore looked like she was in bad shape to Nina. Like she'd already been thoroughly beaten by someone else. She pulled herself up to the bench on the other side panting painfully, and a quiet sob escaped her. Nina didn't like the idea of beating anyone when they were already hurt, but she had brought it on herself. It was time to settle this so Tara could move on with her life.
The carriage lurched forward. The woman’s sobbing grew louder: she didn't even try to get up to sit on the bench. Her head was sitting on top of her arms with her red hair covering them. She cried the way Tara had when she'd told Nina what that whore had done to her. The stain of blood on her backside was growing, Nina could see.
This isn't right. Was all Nina had time to think before Tara leapt from her seat with her dagger in hand.
“TARA!” She yelled.
Nina heard the woman grunt and a wet thump as Tara buried her new dagger in her back. By the spirits, no! Nina cried out in her mind as she grabbed Tara from behind.
Tara snarled and struck again. The red wet spots were growing quickly on her light blue dress.
This wasn't part of the plan at all. Nina wasn't going to let herself become a party to murder. She grabbed Tara's arms and pulled her away from the whore. The dagger protruded from her back, buried to the hilt between her ribs. Her head slid from the bench to the floor of the carriage, blood spilling readily from the grievous wound in her lower back.
“Let me go!” Tara screamed.
“What are you doing, Tara?!?” Nina screamed at her.
“What in blazes is going on back there?” The driver yelled.
Tara bit Nina's fingers holding her arm. Nina pulled her hand back quick and decided she'd had enough of this. With the grip she still had on Tara's left arm, she yanked her around.
When she did, Tara clawed her face with her free hand leaving a trail of bloody nail marks on her left cheek. Nina's anger flashed hot: without even thinking about it, she brought her elbow up into Tara's jaw as hard as she could. She heard the sickening sound of bone breaking. Tara went down limply on the carriage floor beside the bloody whore.
“Fuck!” Nina said as she clutched her bloody cheek.
The carriage came to a halt and the driver yelled again. “What in blazes is going on, girls?”
“Get help!” She yelled. “This woman is dying!”
“What?” He called back.
Nina ripped her sleeve off of her dress and held it hard to the whores gushing wound. “GET HELP NOW! SHE'S DYING!” She looked at Tara on the floor and knew that saving this whore was the only way she could save her too.
* * *
Nigel walked down the street in the western part of Dothranan hold through the warehouse district. It was strange in a way for him to see the patrol wearing the Dothranan Guard's sigil instead of the Legions golden crown. But such is the way of it when one was in a hold: the Lord or Ladies Guards were the law in that place.
When he asked the carriage driver in the manor where he could find a good groundbreaking party, he'd recommended this place. Nigel took the ride and tipped the man a copper.
He was pretty sure Thorel was getting some firsthand experience with sex tonight. Nigel chuckled at his farm bred friend. He might have been a virgin before now, but at least he wasn't a sheep loving weirdo like one of the farm boys he'd met before.
He was definitely a bit envious of Thorel though. He would give a lot to be able to bury his sword in a woman like that. She was the perfect height as far as he was concerned: from his vantage point without looking up all he would see was her nice modest bust.
That suited him just fine.
He was wearing the new jacket he'd been given with the Dothranan sigil on it. It fit well, but it was hotter than he would have liked: he left the coat open to keep himself cool. Being a part of a house meant he was employed and secure, or at least he had money. He was sure to get a lot more ladies volunteering to help milk his manhood with it than without it. He grinned at that idea.
He wondered how that party Eliel had told him about had gone for her tonight. She'd joked with him; “I might not walk straight for a week, but I won't have to work for three months!”
Sounded good to him. And now that he knew Thorel wasn't interested, he could make a play for her. If she wasn't interested, at least he'd be making enough money to be able to bed her anyway. She was a lot of fun.
“GET HELP NOW! SHE'S DYING!” His sensitive ears heard a woman's voice cry.
Nigel felt a cold shiver run up his spine and started running towards the voice as quickly as he could.
He took the alley quickly between a busy tavern and an inn. When he reached the next street, he saw a stopped wagon with a man opening the carriage door. “Call the guards!” He cried.
Nigel normally would have found a safe place to watch this kind of event from. But something inside told him not to this time. He ran straight to the carriage door shoving past the man who'd cried for the guards.
Nigel's heart caught in his throat when he saw the blood soaked scene.
He dimly recognized the brown haired girl; she wore a light brown dress with one sleeve missing. She was holding a bloody wad of cloth on a woman's lower back. The girl Eliel had stoned lay in a pool of blood coming from the woman between them; her jaw was at an unnatural angle.
And between them lay a red-haired woman with a dagger protruding from between her ribs.
“No,” Nigel said quietly as he climbed in and confirmed his worst fears when he moved her hair.
Eliel's eyes were open and rolled back in her head.
“By the spirits, she's dead!” He cried.
“Not yet man, get a doctor!” The brown haired girl yelled.
Nigel just looked at her, not comprehending her words.
“Her blood's still pumping, man, get a fucking doctor!” She yelled, trying to hold as much of her vitae in as she could.
“We need to get this out of her..,” Nigel said numbly putting his hand on the dagger hilt.
“No, you fool!” The woman yelled. “She'll just bleed more! Don't touch it!”
Nigel's hand pulled away from the dagger in her back. His hands shook more than they ever had in his life.
Nigel felt a strong hand grab him from behind and yank him out of the carriage. His breath left him in a rush as he struck the cobbles of the street. When he looked up, he saw the glittering blade of a long-sword pointed at his chest.
A man in a Dothranan guards armor climbed into the carriage where he had just been. The man shouted. “I'm Calling it in! Tower, we have two women down, one critical. We need medics and a wagon. We're at the intersection of Facen street and Tora.”
“Sir, he wasn't even here, he's just a passerby,” the driver said indicating Nigel.
He looked at the driver and said, “Get on your knees, man. Put your hands on your head. You too.” He poked Nigel's breastbone with the sharp blade drawing blood.
Nigel was too mentally numb to react to the pain. He couldn't believe this was happening. He got up slowly, putting his hands on his head and getting on his knees as ordered.
Nigel heard the thin voice come back from the guard’s stone inside the wagon. “Backup is inbound. Expect medics in eight minutes. Wagon should arrive in twelve.”
“Understood tower,” the man replied. Nigel could hear the sound of cloth ripping. “Keep holding that wound, woman. Gent, give me your sulfur!”
“Right!” the man said pulling a small box off of the back of his belt and handing it to the man inside while keeping a sharp eye on Nigel and the driver.
“Pull it off, woman,” Nigel heard the sound of flint and steel as a pair of mounted guards arrived. He smelled the stench of burning sulfur and flesh.
“Get out, woman. Go that way, or I'll spit you like a hen,” the man inside said harshly.
“What do we have here soldier?” The newly arrived guardsman demanded.
“Sergeant! It looks like attempted murder, sir.” The brown haired woman got out of the wagon as he spoke. Blood was all over her dress and hands.
“Get on your knees, woman! Put your hands on your head!” The soldier commanded, pointing his blade at her.
She knelt on the cobbles beside Nigel, putting her bloody hands on her head.
The other man got out of the carriage and saluted, fist to heart.
Some Holders had gathered, ogling the scene. The mounted woman drew her blade and shouted “Move along, laggards! Clear the way!” She made her horse rear at the nearest of them. People started moving quickly.
“Report, Corporal!” The sergeant shouted.
“One woman has a broken jaw, she doesn't seem to be in danger though. The other one's bled white. I burned her wound closed: she still has a dagger in her back though. She probably won't live to see the medics, sir.”
Nigel felt the tears falling from his eyes. He heard a choking sob from the woman beside him.
“Right. Bind these three, soldier,” the stern-faced Sergeant turned his attention to Nigel and the other two and addressed them.
“You will be taken for questioning on the matter of murder. Resist, and I'll kill you myself.”
Sunday May 19th 1624th year of the First Great City
Lamenting
Nigel and the bloody woman he had been hauled in with sat together on the stone bench in the Dothranan guard tower. He was exhausted; the clock showed it had just passed the first hour. His eyes had never been this sore, he felt like he had cried more tonight than he had in his whole life.
Eliel was dead. He'd heard one of the Dothranan medics tell the Sergeant before they were all loaded onto the wagon. His mind was numb. He just couldn't believe it. He would never hear her call him “little man” again. He couldn't believe that was what he thought of just now. He hated it when she called him that. But that didn't matter. He wished more than anything in the world that he could hear her say it right now.
He looked around the stark stone room: there were at least twenty other people in here besides him and the bloody woman with her bandaged cheek. Their manacles were locked onto chains coming out of the floor just as his were. Each person was spaced far enough away from each other that no one could touch the other, even with their feet. The others were most likely drunks or brawlers. The smell of sweaty bodies and old alcohol filled his nostrils. It was pretty much the same here as it was in the Legion tower he'd found himself in after a night of drunken revelry he barely remembered last year.
A toothless old man on a bench across from him said “What in blazes is up with you, bitch? You kill someone?” He was at least the tenth person to ask his b
loody companion this while they waited for the guards to process prisoners. The carriage driver was being questioned by an officer now.
“No,” she said quietly. She seemed to be in as much shock as Nigel was.
“Well, you sure look like you did,” he said with a chuckle.
“What the hell were you doing in that carriage?” Nigel asked. Did she have something to do with Eliel's death? It seemed likely. And if she did, he was going to find out exactly how much give this chain had.
“Yeah lass, what were you doing? We're all just bored waitin' here,” the toothless man said with a leer.
Nigel gave the man a hard look. “Ooo, Milord is lookin' fierce. Don't be punishin' me for my disrespect, please Milord!” He mocked.
“I was just trying to help my friend,” she said quietly.
Suddenly, this woman's face placed itself in his mind. She was the tall girl that had been dogging Eliel all this time with the little bitch she'd stoned.
“You did it! You killed her! You fucking bitch!” Nigel screamed at the top of his lungs. The murmur of the room died instantly. Nigel struggled to get his hands up so he could wrap them around this murdering bitch's throat. The manacles bit painfully into his wrists.
“Quiet down there!” A guardsman called cracking his whip near Nigel.
“I didn't kill her!” She turned and faced him. “Tara did!” Tears rolled down her face.
“Aww look at that, man. You made her cry,” the toothless prisoner chided him.
“Yeah right. You've been following her for weeks now! You and your friends!” Nigel's lip curled in utter contempt.
“I tried to save her man. I tried..,” she said quietly.
Nigel ceased his useless struggle with the heavy chain. “Well, you didn't. Now you and your friend are gonna hang for it,” he spat on the floor.
“I didn't do it, man! Tara did! I thought she was just gonna cut on her some, I swear!”
Then he remembered her words in the carriage. Get a doctor! Don't touch it! She'll just bleed more!
Spirit of Magik (The Dothranan Chronicles Book 1) Page 31
