The Devil's Concubine

by Jaide Fox

  The woman stared at him in horror. “She’s … she is alive?”

  Talin glared at the woman. “Why would she not be?” he demanded.

  Her jaw sagged in surprise, but after a moment, instead of responding verbally, she merely nodded jerkily and looked around the room blankly. Grabbing the satchel he’d brought to fill, Talin removed the long strap slung around his neck and over one shoulder and handed it to her. “Fill it--clothing.”

  He grabbed the blond and hauled her upright. Catching a second satchel one of his men tossed to him, he pushed it into the second woman’s hands. “The princess’ favored things.”

  When he’d dragged two more of the cowering women from the huddle and put them to work, he moved to the window to survey the lay of the land. Below, he could see the castle’s defenders pouring into the palace from every direction. “We are about to have company,” he muttered grimly.

  Nodding, his men began to pile everything of weight against the barricade they’d created with the armoire. When they’d finished, most of the room’s contents were piled in front of the door.

  Commanding the women to hurry and finish, he moved to the window again and uttered the keening cry to call his men to arms. When he saw the first arrive to begin the bombardment of the palace, he turned to study the women again. He’d hoped to bring them all, but he had only three men with him and all of them were weakened from wounds. Disgusted that his plan had degenerated into a scramble to grab whatever could be taken quickly and certain that he would find when he returned that the mindless females hadn’t packed the half of what they should have, he nevertheless realized that they had to go if they had any chance of carrying off what they’d gathered.

  The two maids he’d first drawn from the group were the same two who had tried to defend Princess Aliya from him, and he felt certain the bond between them was strong. She would be most pleased, he decided if he took those two.

  Unfortunately, the soldiers did not seem to care where they placed their arrows so long as they hit something. If he was not careful, he would end up delivering two corpses so full of arrows they looked like pincushions.

  Striding to the bed, he began tearing strips from the linen.

  Grabbing the blond, he bound her wrists together and shoved her toward the man least injured. “Carry her on your back where she will be protected,” he said grimly.

  Instantly, the woman began to scream and struggle.

  Wincing at the high pitched shrieks, Talin tore another strip from the bedding and gagged her. They would all be deaf if they had to listen too much of that, to say nothing of the danger inherent in it. For it would not only make it impossible for him and his men to hear what they needed to hear, but would insure that everyone for miles around knew their exact position.

  Almost as an after thought, when he remembered how terrified Aliya had been of the height, he tied a second strip over her eyes. Satisfied, he lifted her up and hooked her arms over his man’s head and then turned and eyed the red head. The moment his gaze fell upon her she began to scream, dashing round and round the room in a blind panic.

  The noise from the bombardment didn’t help, nor the battering against the barricade.

  Instead of chasing her around the room, he waited until she’d made the circuit and grabbed her before she could whirl and dart off in the opposite direction. The moment he seized her, she whirled on him and, curling her fingers into claws, went for his eyes. He caught her wrists, but he discovered he couldn’t hold both and bind them. Gritting his teeth, resisting the urge to simply knock her out, he hunched one shoulder and ignored her pounding while he bound one wrist and then caught the one she’d been using to club him and tied that to the first. The gag came next, more because she’d resorted to trying to bite him than the screaming.

  The barricade had begun to give way to the pounding from the corridor by the time he lined his men up at the window to depart.

  It was too narrow to allow them to shift before they went out. They had, perforce, to dive from the window and shift as they fell. Despite the gags, both women screamed deafeningly as they plunged downward. He wasn’t certain at what point the woman he was carrying lost consciousness, but he was in trouble himself by then and had little time to worry about it.

  He was the last to leap from the window, and even as he shifted he felt a blazing hot poker pierce his chest that almost made him black out. At almost the same instant, two more arrows slammed into him, piercing his side and one thigh. Fighting to remain conscious and airborne, he managed to catch an updraft of wind and with that added buoyancy climbed beyond range of the archers.

  The wounds were bleeding profusely. He knew that, knew also that they could not close so long as the arrows remained embedded in his flesh. He didn’t dare land to see to the wounds, however. In his weakened state, he was far too vulnerable and the lands were crawling with the man children gathering for war.

  His men were in no better condition, but he encouraged them onward. The sooner they reached the palace, the better off they would all be. Catching first one updraft and then another, the group managed to gain enough altitude to glide most of the way which was a fortunate circumstance since they were all in a sorry state and the effort to stay aloft with their burdens only made the task more difficult.

  Despite the nearly blinding pain, Talin felt his spirits lift when he spied his palace in the distance. He was almost home. Aliya was going to be beside herself with joy when she saw what he’d brought her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Aliya felt a stab of unease run through her when she heard a shout and looked up to see the sudden alertness of the men manning the walls of the castle. Listening intently to hear what had caught their attention, she heard a great whoosh of air. It almost seemed to reverberate, bouncing from the mountainside across the courtyard where she walked and pinging from wall to wall, a ricochet of sound rather than an object.

  Stopping, she tried to discern the direction of the noise. When she found she couldn’t, she moved away from the wall so that she could see the men atop it better.

  To the man, they had turned to gaze to the south--where Anduloosa lay.

  Her heart fluttered uncomfortably at the thought, but before she could even fully form the hope that sprang in her mind, a tremendous golden falcon burst into view. It circled, spiraling lower with each pass and finally landed. Frozen with fear at the sight of the great bird of prey, it was several moments before Aliya realized that shadows raced along the ground all around her. Instinctively, she looked up, discovering more of the giant falcons.

  Too stunned to move or to flee in any direction, she merely stood stock still, watching as they settled. Several, she saw, were carrying great, bulging leather satchels. They arched their necks, allowing the packs to slide from their necks and drop to the ground.

  Two others carried not only satchels, but human burdens. She stared at the two women that crumpled to the dirt where they’d been dropped in disbelief and horror. They were captives. That much was obvious--their wrists bound, gagged, blindfolded. They scarcely moved after they’d fallen, merely lay where the fell, moaning piteously.

  Anger began to boil up through her fear. Without even realizing she had done so, she began moving toward the two women. As she drew nearer, her gaze traveling over them for signs of injury, a prickle of recognition dawned and then blossomed when she recognized the clothing they were wearing as dresses that belonged to Lady Beatrice and Lady Leesa. Abruptly, she caught her skirts, lifting them away from her feet as she broke into a run.

  By the time she reached them tears of pure rage were rolling down her cheeks. Her ladies! Her dear friends, battered, manhandled, frightened out of their wits, were struggling blindly to crawl away from their tormenters.

  Uttering a cry of fury, she focused on the falcon nearest Lady Leesa and flew at him in a rage, hammering at him with her fists. “You monster! You conscienceless devil! What have you done to them?”

  The falcon wavered
. Abruptly, its legs gave out and it settled to the dirt and then fell over on its side. Losing her balance, Aliya fell on top of it. Her surprise killed her rage instantly. Stunned, she struggled to her feet, her gaze drawn from the great falcon to her hands by bright red blood. She stared at the blood for several moments and then down at her dress, feeling a wave of dizziness wash over her when she saw she was covered in blood.

  Glancing from her dress to the bird, she saw that there were arrows protruding from his chest, his side, and one thigh. As she watched, he caught the shaft jutting from his chest with his beak and wrenched it free. Fresh blood gushed from the open wound.

  She uttered a pained cry, feeling almost as if the arrow had been pulled from her own flesh. “Talin! By the mercy of the gods, what has happened?”

  She was almost more stunned when he spoke to her in Talin’s voice than she had been by anything that had happened before.

  “Your father’s archers send their greetings,” he muttered, catching the second shaft and tearing that from his flesh.

  Aliya clapped a hand over her mouth, feeling bile rush into her throat, though she wasn’t certain what sickened her more, the ripping of his flesh, or the thought that her father had ordered this. “Don’t! Please don’t! You’re only hurting yourself worse!” she cried as he caught the last arrow and tore it free.

  Bursting into tears, she rushed to his head as he collapsed limply on the ground. Falling to her knees, she lifted his head gently and settled it in her lap, stroking his beautifully feathered face soothingly. “You are wounded nigh unto death! Why would you do such a thing?”

  “I thought that it would please you,” he muttered.

  Uttering a sob, she grabbed a handful of her skirt, balled it and pressed it against the wound in his chest. “You fool!” she sobbed. “It doesn’t please me at all to have you dead!” Bending over him, she lay her cheek against his, wishing she could think of something to do for him.

  The chest wound, she knew, would be fatal. If it had only been the arrows in his side and thigh, he might have had some chance.

  She wasn’t certain of how long she lay like that, sobbing against his neck, but she finally became aware that he’d gone perfectly still. Lifting her head, she brushed the tears from her eyes with the back on one hand. His golden eyes opened, gazing up at her keenly.

  It took all she could do to keep from bursting into tears again. He was too weak even to shift into man form again.

  She covered her mouth when he closed them, certain that he was dying right before her eyes, that he would breathe his last. Instead, as she watched, he began to change before her eyes, his body shifting. At first, thinking that he was convulsing, a hot then cold flash of fear went through her. As she sat trying to blink the tears from her eyes, though, she saw his beak and feathers vanish, and then his head and body contort and change shape. Within moments, Talin, the man beast lay in her lap.

  It was almost more frightening that he had shifted. Did they change to human form when they died, she wondered? Or had he used the last of his strength to change because he knew she felt only revulsion for the man beasts and he wanted her to see him as a man?

  She didn’t know, but he still breathed and she became abruptly determined to do whatever she could for him to make him comfortable. When she looked around for help, she discovered that everyone in the courtyard seemed frozen in a tableau of horror, unable to move.

  Her ladies were no longer bound. Their gags and blindfolds had been removed, but they stood as still as statues behind her, their expressions bewildered, as if they weren’t completely certain they were awake and not dreaming.

  “Help me with him!” she said commandingly.

  Both of them blinked, as if coming out of a trance, but neither moved. Before she could leap to her feet and slap them to bring them out of it, several men rushed forward. Grabbing Talin, they lifted him from the ground. Dismissing her maids abruptly, Aliya hurried to follow them as they moved Talin into the palace. “Be careful with him!” she said sharply. “He will begin to bleed again if you jostle him!”

  In truth, she didn’t think that he had ceased to bleed, but it would certainly not help at all for him to be battered and jostled by his men. The procession had reached the king’s suite before she realized her ladies had followed, as docilely as puppies. “Find something that I can use to bind his wounds!” she snapped at them, rushing to grab the basin and fill it with water. “If only I had my medicines,” she muttered.

  “I brought the chest,” Lady Leesa responded hesitantly.

  Aliya glanced at her. “Then find it, and be quick about it!”

  Without even glancing at the men who’d brought Talin up, settled him on the bed, and stripped his tunic off, she made a shooing motion in their general direction as soon as she’d settled the basin on the floor. He was conscious, she saw as she wet a cloth and began to carefully bathe the blood from his chest. Trying not to think of the pain he must be in, she focused on bathing the blood off until she could see the wound. Relief so profound it made a hard, painful knot in her throat went through her when she was finally able to see the wound. Instead of the great, deep hole she’d expected to find, she saw that it was not at all deep, a good deal more than a flesh wound, to be sure, but she could see that the arrow head had not penetrated beyond the muscle tissue.

  Sniffing, she flicked a relieved glance at his face. “It is not nearly as bad as I had feared,” she said reassuringly. “You will live.”

  Something flickered in his eyes when she spoke to him, but his expression was bemused. Smiling, she stroked his cheek reassuringly. “Really! It is not bad. I have herbs that will help to keep infection away … and more for fever if needed. In a few days, you will be fine. I am certain of it.”

  She wasn’t, though. The herbs helped, but they did not always keep wounds from becoming infected. As often as not, the wounded survived the wound but died of the fever that came later.

  Vaguely aware of a commotion behind her, Aliya dragged her attention from Talin to see what was going on. Several men had trooped into the room with the satchels she’d seen the golden falcons carrying. As they dropped them onto the floor and turned to leave, Lady Leesa and Lady Beatrice hurried to the packs and opened them, disgorging the contents all over the floor.

  Recognizing her belongings, Aliya glanced at Talin again. “You risked your life for … things?” she asked with a mixture of remorse and disbelief, remembering with shame the things she’d screamed at him when she’d seen her friends so roughly treated, remembering that she’d flown at him and tried to pound him to death with her fists.

  He shook his head slowly. “So that you would not miss your home so much.”

  Aliya felt her chin wobble. Resolutely, she clamped her lips firmly together and rinsed the cloth again. The water, she saw, was red with blood. Setting the cloth aside, she went to the chamber pot to empty it and returned for fresh water from the pitcher.

  “We will attend him,” Lady Leesa said, rushing to the bed as Aliya reached it once more.

  Aliya studied her friend for a moment. “No,” she said finally. “I will see to his hurts. He was hurt because of me.”

  “Your grace! He is the next thing to naked,” she whispered.

  A faint smile curled Aliya’s lips. “I have seen him completely naked,” she whispered back. “I will not faint.”

  “It is not … fitting for a maiden to tend a man--especially not a future queen,” Lady Beatrice exclaimed in a hissing whisper.

  Anger surged through Aliya. Why, she wondered, had she never noticed what snobs they were? “I will never be a queen now. I am King Talin’s concubine.”

  Both women gaped at her in horror. “He … he dared to … to ravish you? And you mean to tend his hurts? You should leave him to die! Or better yet, slit his throat while he is weak.”

  It was only with a great effort of will that Aliya refrained from slapping Lady Beatrice at her cold, unfeeling comment. “Beyond taking me
from my home, he has not forced me to do anything!” she snapped angrily. “And that is probably more than could be said of those who had come to fight over me … as if I was a bone and they dogs to snarl over my carcass! Do you think any one of them would have hesitated at all to claim me, willing or not, once I had been given into their keeping?”

  Both of her ladies fell back as if she’d slapped them, staring at her as if they had never seen her before.

  Perhaps she was a stranger to them, she thought wryly. Maybe they had never really known her at all. “You can make yourself useful by putting away my things,” she said tightly, dismissing them abruptly and returning her attention to Talin.

  He was watching her intently, she saw. Ignoring the questioning look in his eyes, she picked apart the tie that held up his loincloth and tossed it, almost defiantly, in the general direction of her ladies, who had moved to kneel beside one of the satchels. It smacked Lady Beatrice in the back of the head.

  Biting her lip to keep from smiling, Aliya opened her chest of medicines and packed the wound she’d cleaned, folded a pad over it carefully and wrapped a strip of linen around his chest to hold it in place.

  “Why did you bind them?” she asked abruptly.

  He was silent so long, she glanced up, meeting his gaze. “To keep them from falling.”

  Guilt flushed her cheeks with heat. She had immediately thought the worst of him when she really had no reason to, she realized. She had been his prisoner for almost a week, and except for the rough beginning, which she had come to believe truly had been a misunderstanding, he had behaved surprisingly well. True, he had taken liberties he should not have, but she felt fairly certain that any of the men who’d vied for her hand in marriage would not have shown even that much restraint if she had been at their mercy.