by Randi Darren
His people knew their business and were prepared for it. He’d done all he could to make them weapons of war.
And that was exactly what they were.
“It’s butchery,” Eleanor said.
“Yeah,” Nannie said, then sighed. “And it used to make me crazy for the thrill of it. I don’t feel shit now. Just… sad.”
“Lord of the once broken,” Katherine said. “Protector of the redeemed.”
“I want to argue with that, but… I can’t,” Riley said.
From one end of the camp to the other, it was bloody carnage. A mess of corpses sprawled in every position imaginable blanketed the plain.
“I don’t think they can surrender,” Dave said.
“Oh? Why’s that?” Alex turned toward where Dave was looking, hoping to see what he did.
Riding their way was Dan. He was moving at a slow trot, as were the women and men riding behind him.
It was now quite apparent that Dan had indeed taken the crossbow soldiers, as well as some mounted infantry, and done exactly what Nannie had proposed.
Bound, gagged, and tied to her saddle was Niqil. She was slumped over it like a bag of oats and seemed utterly devoid of life.
“Either he brained her, or she’s given up even the idea of struggling,” Nannie said.
Ranging out behind Dan was a long line of horses, all with occupants trussed up in a similar way.
It seemed he’d not just taken the general but her command group, guests, and any dignitaries with her.
Pulling up in front of Alex, Dan let out a soft breath and then shook his head. “I should have haggled with you over the price per prisoner before I did it.”
Alex grinned. “Probably. It’s a good thing we robbed them blind in every city we burned down. I’m feeling rather generous. Go ahead and get them secured with all the other prisoners we took. Anyone interesting?”
“No, but I get the impression they had a few visitors from the Imperial lands up until a few days ago,” Dan said. “They were quite quick to blame it all on them, though no one had a name to give them. We’ll have to take descriptions down and go from there.”
“Mm,” Alex said. He wasn’t surprised in the least. Truth be told, it made him feel better. This whole thing had been orchestrated by the duke, or an ally of his.
The harder he made it for Alex to support Regina, the better off he was. That was just the simple reality.
“Great,” Alex said. “I’m leaving. Dave’s in charge of everything here; defer to Quinn otherwise.”
Turning his horse, Alex started riding back for the capital city. He wanted to take a nap, have a good breakfast, and start riding back home.
Regina needed him.
And he still had a vassals feast to hold, and Amy Ridge to put to death. Then he could have Valeria back at his side.
The world would be much better with her there.
Her, Carla, Rebekah, Valeria… everyone. I don’t like being away from them, hopefully no less than they like being away from me.
Damn… maybe… maybe they’ll all come with me from life to life.
Leah said it was only Carla, Rebekah, and Valeria so far.
Maybe Eleanor…? She’d do it if I told her to, I bet.
But that leaves Riley, Sylvia, and Nannie who wouldn’t.
Alex shook his head, trying to clear the morose thoughts from his brain. They’d do him no good, and right now wasn’t the time for such things.
He needed to bed Quinn a few more times and then hit the road. Hopefully leaving her with a child in her.
Chapter 13
Alex was trying to be patient as he sat there next to Quinn.
Truth of the matter was he didn’t have any patience at all, and him just trying was probably more than everyone should hope for.
But he had to do this. Had to be here and support Quinn.
Kneeling on both sides of the throne room in her keep were all the clan heads, generals, hostages, and anyone else who wanted to curry favor with her.
The same day that Niqil’s army had been flattened, a large portion of the clans involved had rushed their clan heads off from their homes on horseback to swear themselves to Quinn.
“Fetch me my knife and lock the doors,” Quinn said aloud.
A servant rushed up and laid a small red-and-black box on Quinn’s lap as guards began closing and locking the door from outside.
Only Alex, his Numbered who’d made the journey with him, Quinn, and a few of her personal guard remained.
“This will be very simple,” Quinn said. “Very, very simple. You’ll be given three options, one and all.”
“I’m going to first go through those that were captured, then those that arrived,” Quinn continued, opening the box in her lap. “You will be given an offer to swear yourselves to the Xer, with me as your queen. An oath given to the magnificent lady Leah that you will abide by all my declarations, without reservation, on pain of losing your soul and life.
“And an offer to swear yourselves to my husband in a similar manner. Though I do know for a fact that if you’re a woman with any sort of skill or beauty, you’ll end up in his bed. To be fair, it isn’t unpleasant,” Quinn said as she pulled a knife from the box and then closed it, setting it aside.
“Ha, she kept it,” Nannie muttered off to one side.
Looking at the knife, Alex recognized it. It was the same knife Quinn had used to takes the heads of her uncle’s kinsmen who wouldn’t swear to her.
“Or die,” Quinn said, holding up the knife. “Those are your three options.”
There were shocked gasps, wide eyes, and frightened faces all turned toward Quinn. When it looked like someone might stand up, Nannie pulled her short swords from their sheaths. The hiss of the blades leaving their scabbards was loud.
Eleanor pulled her rather large longsword from her side and flicked it up, the leather-wrapped base of the blade thunking onto her shoulder plate.
The room quieted down quickly after that.
Standing up, Quinn walked over to the person who was in front of her throne.
Kneeling there, held down in heavy chains to the point that it bowed her shoulders and head, was Niqil.
She was the picture of defeat, and she hadn’t done much since she’d been brought in strapped to a horse.
Like loot.
“General Niqil, you have a different choice,” Quinn said.
Using the tip of her blade, Quinn lifted Niqil’s chin up.
“You can be my husband’s concubine, a corpse, or my personal general,” Quinn said. “You showed a great aptitude to employ and adapt to my husband’s tactics. I’d like to employ you and use you to my own benefit. My husband has often told me good tools are hard to find. If you have to steal it from your neighbor to get it, sometimes it’s worth the price.”
Niqil stared up at Quinn with almost unseeing eyes. It was clear to Alex she hadn’t processed the statement.
“Really?” Katherine murmured next to him.
“Yes,” Alex said. “Take the tools you need, even if you have to slap someone else for it. Whoever has the best tools is far more likely to succeed.”
“You’re quite fortunate that everyone overlooked all the tools you found, then,” Katherine said.
“Very,” Alex agreed.
“…as a general?” Niqil asked.
“You’d have to swear yourself to the mighty Leah, but that isn’t much of a chore. I myself am sworn to Leah,” Quinn said. “She’s… swift to anger, swifter to punish a betrayal, but kind and loyal with those who are trusted.”
I’d agree with that assessment.
Alex was disappointed to get no answer for his mental compliment of Leah. He did miss the late-night conversations with his friend.
“Well?” Quinn asked. “I’m afraid I have to force the issue. Take your fate, as it was, or make an oath and alter it.”
Alex wasn’t that interested in Niqil.
He’d bed her just to add to his
crystal pillar, then give her to Anna. Women who ended up there tended to get used up if they didn’t suit Anna’s purposes, then discarded to a menial job.
Those who did fit whatever was going on in her head received a considerable amount of rewards and specialized jobs.
“Concubine,” Niqil said, then shook her head even as she said it. “General. General. If you’ll trust me, and… and treat me as a general, then general.”
“Aah. You don’t get to add to your collection,” Katherine said.
“Don’t be so sad for me. I’ll let you eat Quinn tonight when I’m done with her,” Alex said. “Can’t have you missing out on a chance to eat up Wilds clam.”
“Alex, my love and future husband, could I not? That’d be awkward later on when I’m made a wife,” Katherine said. “The Numbered are forgiving girls when it comes down to it, and they’ll take it as an opportunity to join me in bed with you later on, I imagine. But… I’m not so sure it would be good for me to be that way with a future wife?”
Oh. It would make things a bit strange, wouldn’t it?
Especially with Anna ramping up all the wives but not allowing them to touch one another.
It’d quite possibly confuse the issue and make it much harder for her.
“Fine,” Alex said after several seconds. “But I’m going to use you up tonight one way or the other. Maybe it’s time for me to see about that other opportunity you mentioned.”
“It’s of course always available to you, Alex,” Katherine murmured. “Just be gentle with it. Other than you, no man has touched me.”
“…to Leah,” Niqil said.
Quinn nodded at the defeated general. “I accept your oath. Unchain her. Give her the implements of her rank.”
The queen of the Wilds moved to a short, scrawny-looking man in his fifties at the head of the line.
“Oath to Alex and the Imperial life, me, or the afterlife,” Quinn said simply.
“Afterlife,” said the man, lifting his chin.
Reaching out, Quinn grabbed the man by the top of his head and pushed her blade into his throat.
A flood of bright-red blood washed down over his clothes as Quinn started to rip the blade back and forth.
Alex wanted to turn away from the sight, but he knew he couldn’t. He didn’t have Carla here to hide him away either.
With a pop, the man’s head dropped to the tiles and lay there. His body fountained blood up in spurts and slumped forward.
Standing upright, the blood-stained Quinn looked to her nearest personal guard.
“Send a message to this man’s clan asking for another clan head,” Quinn said in a flat tone. Then she looked at the young woman next to the man.
“Imperial, me, or the afterlife,” Quinn said.
“Alex, could I trouble you for a moment?” asked a warm voice from behind him.
When he looked over his shoulder, he found Riley fussing with something behind the throne Quinn had made for him.
Getting up, Alex got a few looks from people, but they quickly looked back at Quinn.
Alex moved to Riley and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“What’s up? Need help with something?” he asked, wondering what she had in her hands. They were clutched to her chest.
“Yes,” Riley said, and she turned toward him, giving him a great vantage of her cleavage. He could see practically all the way down to her stomach. She’d been unbuttoning her maid outfit.
Sylvia stepped up beside Alex, blocking everyone’s view of what was going on.
“Could you just… keep your eyes on me and keep me busy?” Riley asked, reaching up to lightly touch his jaw. “Two mentioned that we needed to be on the lookout to protect your heart. This seems like a perfect example of that warning come to life.”
Staring down at Riley’s exposed self, Alex was suddenly reminded of how lucky he was to have his Numbered.
They often worked against him just to make his life harder in their little games, but also with him when it came to his needs.
Sylvia wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him in close to her side even as he they both stared at Riley’s assets.
Alex didn’t say anything, just nodded.
He was their soft-hearted master, and they were his bad girls, broken tools, and redeemed souls.
***
Rolling over, Alex couldn’t feel Anna immediately. He reached out and found her soft warmth just slightly further away than he’d expected.
Snuggling up into her side, Alex pushed his face into her neck and draped his arm over her well-endowed chest.
Turning toward him, the full-figured wet dream that was his wife wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in close.
“Love you, wife,” Alex mumbled against her neck.
“While I appreciate the sentiment, I’m afraid I’m not your wife,” Rebekah said, her fingers trailing up and down his back and neck.
Huh?
Now that he thought about it, the woman he was holding did have a bit extra in every way, more than he remembered Anna having.
Anna had a perfect figure; Rebekah just had a bit more all the way around.
Which meant Anna had gotten up in the middle of the night and left for one reason or another.
Probably to feed the babies.
“Mistress came to me in the middle of the night. She asked me to stay at your side. She didn’t want you to be alone in the bed or wake up without anyone there for you,” Rebekah murmured, laying her cheek down on the top of his head as she held him. “Sorry to disappoint you that it’s me.”
He wasn’t disappointed, truth be told. Some of his Numbered were a single short step below Anna in his heart. Nothing would ever replace Anna, but they were a very admirable and close second.
Rebekah was his drug of choice, after all, and Valeria was rapidly becoming a follow-up to that.
Maybe this is the opportunity we were looking for.
Carla, Riley, and Valeria all re-bound themselves to me.
I suppose it’s time to test our beloved Rebekah.
The one that scares me the most… because it’d hurt if she actually left.
And that thought did scare him. Significantly.
Because sometimes he secretly thought of Rebekah when he knew he shouldn’t. When he was with the other women in his life.
When Anna was being strange or running him over, when Riley was being overly clingy, when Valeria was being too coy, or Sylvia too combative.
He sometimes thought of Rebekah and how she seemed to know everything he wanted and gave him exactly that.
“I love you, Rebekah. I release you from all your oaths,” Alex said, the crack of her oaths shattering loud in his ears.
Alex pushed in closer to the thief turned self-titled comfort-wife, not knowing what to do. Then he drew away from her just as quickly, realizing he needed to give her a little bit of space right now.
“You can do what you want,” Alex said.
Rebekah froze in place, her fingers lost in Alex’s hair. Then they resumed their playing, and she pulled him up against her front.
“You love me?” Rebekah asked.
“I do,” Alex confirmed.
“You freed me?” she asked.
“I did.”
“You called me Rebekah,” said the thief.
“It was your old name, and you’re not a Numbered right now,” Alex said.
“Not a Numbered,” Rebekah said, then fell silent, laying her cheek on the top of his head.
Lying there with her, Alex was afraid. Rebekah had always been a strange question mark in his head, even when she knew everything he wanted.
It was partly because she did know what he wanted that it made him uncomfortable. He couldn’t tell where her sex-kitten act began and ended.
When he asked her about it, she always claimed she didn’t know herself anymore. But that she was happy, at least.
“Normally,” Rebekah said, her voice soft and unsure. “Normally… I thi
nk my instincts would be telling me to run. Run fast. Run away from you and go live my own life. As I did before in any situation I found myself.”
Alex nodded, his forehead bumping into her jaw.
“But my instincts are telling me the opposite this time. That I need to just… buckle down, pledge myself to you all over again, and maybe… maybe see how I can get even closer to you. Give you my soul perhaps, or push out a kid or two, because I see the way you look at your children.
“Whatever I can do, however I can, to make you love me more and invest even more in me. To try and surpass even Anna if possible, though I think that unlikely,” Rebekah said, rubbing her cheek back and forth against the top of his head. “Can I get you to invest more in me? Will you give me more, Alex? I do love you, you know. I should say that now while I’m unbound. Just to make sure you hear it. So your heart never questions me.”
Alex was thinking on her words. Her question was hard to answer, in a way. He would never want to reveal favorites to his numbered, but Rebekah and Valeria did hold special places for him. Riley trailing behind them only by an inch.
“Of course,” Alex said after really putting thought into it. “It should be rather apparent by now that I’m particularly vulnerable to you. One might be a blind spot and slips in things when I’m not paying attention, but you just ask for them and get them. Of all the Numbered, you are the most dangerous to me, because I want more of you all the time.”
Rebekah chuckled at that. It sounded warm to his ears.
“Mighty Leah? Could you please put all those oaths back on me and take my soul away? I’d really like it to follow Alex,” Rebekah said aloud.
What? There’s no way—
“Fine,” Leah said. “Do not call on me so lightly. I’m only responding now because of how you dote on him.”
“Fantastic. You’re a peach, mighty and lovely Leah. May I make offerings to you going forward?” Rebekah asked.
To Alex, it sounded like she was pushing it.
“That’d… that’d be fine. Yes,” Leah said.
“Do you prefer any scents? I think scents are quite lovely. It’d be good to establish a divine scent for yourself, by the way,” Rebekah said, all the while petting and holding Alex. “Imagine if the scent of fresh bread were attributed to you. Everyone couldn’t help but think of you every morning.”
