Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters (71 page)

Your friend,

Jovena

Thinking about it now, you do have a very nice beard.”

I blew on the cloth to make sure all the ink soaked in, and
then I rolled it up just like the note he gave me, and stuck it in the top of
my shoe. Outside, dawn was just beginning to peek through the night.

All I could think was that in a few minutes when I was packed
up and pushed out into the wagon, that Shingo would be out there, wandering
around.

Gods above did I hope.

***

Shingo was not anywhere to be found the next morning, so I
wrote his name on another piece of cloth, tied it around the one on which I
wrote my message, and stuck it in a crack near the wall where he’d been
standing the day before. I don’t know why that seemed the best idea, but
nothing else came to mind. With a heavy heart, I turned toward the wagon and,
helped by another bronze-skinned man, whose forearms were thickly laid with
muscle and scars, stepped up into it.

Our little rolling prison had been on the road for scarcely
half a day. It had been only a week since I left my papa and my mama and ran
off to the big city hoping to save them. The eighty-two senti that selling
myself to this mysterious king from the East made would go in part to my papa,
after my lodging and housing at the market was paid. Still, the
seventy-something senti that he’d get is more than he’d make in years. Two years,
three years, even four the way things were lately. As the little buggy bumped
and heaved and lurched over every rock and crack in the road, I thought about
him, and a tear ran down each cheek.

“Where did you come from that you’re so sad about leaving?”
A girl to my left – a pretty one with curling blonde hair – said.
She spoke Lotanese with a thick accent that I thought was from Guar, the land
far to the south of mine. It was a strange accent, but then Lotan was the
furthest I’d ever traveled, so most accents sound to me curious. Her voice was
small but even then, after only hearing a couple of words, I knew there was
strength inside her. “We’ve been sold to Morzan, the richest man in the Eastern
Kingdoms. And besides the money, have you heard about his cock?”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“I hear it’s big, if that is that what you mean.”

It was her turn to laugh.

“Good,” she said. “You’ve got to keep your spirits up.
Outside from rumors about his prick, no one has ever been to Morzan’s castle
and come back. It’s said that he either is the king of the richest country in
all the world, and the wonders are such that once you’re there, you can’t
imagine leaving...”

“What’s the other possibility?” I was beginning to like this
girl with the strange accent.

“Well, I’ve also heard the he goes through women like he
goes through wine. He lies with all his slaves, but only keeps the ones he
likes best. The others he throws to his men.”

I gulped and ran a hand down the front of my throat. “Lie
with the king? How do you mean?”

“Ahhh, you’re a fresh-faced one, aren’t you? How
did
you end up in this wagon? Rest of us are hard-nosed and weary. You’re different
though. Most certainly fresher than the likes of me.”

“What’s your name?” I said.

“Alix.” She stuck out her hand, grasped mine and shook.
“Nice to meet ya.”

“Likewise.”

“Anyways, as I was saying, this Morzan, no one really knows
what he’s like. No one I’ve talked to anyhow. Only that he’s wealthy and has a
taste for variety in his women. It’s all rumors. None of us knows the truth.”

“Will you tell me the rumors? I don’t know the first thing
about any of this.”

“First one I heard is that he likes to take his women rough.
I mean, he likes to tug ‘em around and pull their hair and such-not. I also
hear he likes lots at once. But then what man wouldn’t? And he can do what he
wants. He’s the king. But there are other rumors. Much stranger ones.”

“Stranger ones? Does he enjoy wearing costumes?”

“Ha! No, no, although he might. I mean rumors about what
Morzan
is
, more than what sort of tickling he likes in bed. Strange
things, I’ve heard. Dark things. I doubt any of them are true, but then, none
of the girls, nor the drivers, nor the auctioneers at the market have ever seen
him if they’re to be believed. Some even doubt he’s real.”

“Oh but that’s ridiculous,” I said. “He must be real.”

“Probably. I’ve heard one that he can change shape, that
he’s some kind of-”

“A magician? There’s one of those in my village, but he
doesn’t turn into anything, he just eats toads.”

“No, no,” she laughed, “not a magician. That he’s so
secretive and such a recluse because he can’t stay out at nighttime, for he
changes into
something
. That’s as much as I know. Can you imagine such a
thing? A man the turns into a beast by night? I wonder if the whole kingdom is
full of them. I hear that warriors from Zor are the mightiest in the whole
world. Imagine having one of them pull your hair, kiss your throat, drag his
teeth down between your tits and then, right when he’s about to...right then,
he turns into a huge wolf. That’s gotta be something to have between your legs,
huh?”

A bit of jealousy kicked up every time Alix spoke so freely
about her body or about what she liked, or men, or anything of the sort. I’d
never so much as seen a man naked, although I’d wanted to plenty of times.

“I’ve never had a man...uh...touch me.” Even as I spoke, I
couldn’t believe I was being so open with her.

“That’s a fairly obvious thing.” She said. “I dare say that
will change soon. A pretty little thing like you bought and paid for? If it’s
the king that takes a liking to you though, you might be in for a rather more
memorable experience than mine was.”

“What was it like for you? Did some handsome boy tell you he
loved you and-”

“Not exactly.” She laughed, but there was hurt in her eyes.
“There was a boy that I loved, but he was out of reach. My ma was a
housekeeper, the kind that lives in a lord’s house and takes care of his
children. A nanny.”

I nodded.

“Anyways, I grew up in his house, and fell in love with the
oldest of his boys. It was stupid. The whole thing was. Little Alix, in love
with a lordling. I tried talking to him, and he was nice enough, but he would
never consider me for anything. Me being the daughter of the help and all.” She
smiled one of those fond memory smiles. The corner of her mouth twitched and
for a moment, her hard exterior cracked. Alix’s eye got a little wet in the
corner and she sniffed, then she laughed again.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry if I brought up old pain.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She sniffed again and smiled, like
she was trying to convince herself it really
was
alright.

“But wait, you said he changes by night?”

“The lordling?” Alix blinked and then furrowed her brow.
Somehow, she was still pretty with a wrinkled forehead. For all her talk about
being weary and tired, Alix sure didn’t show it very much.

“No,” I laughed, “Morzan. You said he turns into some kind
of wolf at night?”

“Some nights. Full moons, I hear. But, again, that’s
probably just the rambling of bored slave girls. He’s likely just another fat
lordling with strange perversions. Nothing any of us haven’t dealt with before,
eh? Okay, maybe except for you. That brings me to something else.” She stared
out the barred window behind me for a moment and seemed lost.

“What is it, Alix?”

“Oh, I saw a shaggy cow. My Gran always told me seeing those
silly things is a sign of good fortune. Of course, she lived to be a hundred
and six, and lost all her teeth. Doesn’t sound like good luck to me. Anyway,
sorry, what?”

“You said there was-”

“Right, right. Something I wanted to ask you. You’re not
like the rest of us. How did you end up here?”

I began to relate the story about my papa losing his farm,
and my resolve to sell myself to pay his debts and keep the family afloat. I
talked about Meribeth and my village, and my mama and everything else. She
listened so closely that even if she wasn’t interested, she certainly convinced
me she was. Maybe I was just better company than anyone else in the wagon, but
then again, maybe not. Maybe she really did care.

The journey to King Morzan’s sprawling castle took neigh on
a month. By the time we reached the front gate of his keep, I had seen more of
the world through the bouncing window of a wagon cart than I ever dreamed.

And more importantly, I made another friend.

“No matter what happens, I’ll look out for you and you for
me. Alright?” Alix said as the driver grunted, slid the heavy oak timber out of
the door and swung it open. “Alright?”

“Yes, of course. Of course.”

When the round-shouldered man dragged us out the back of the
wagon and shuffled us through snow drifts, into the huge castle gate, we held
hands. Hers were shaking, I noticed. Mine were not.

“How is it that you’re not afraid, Jo?” She’d started
calling me that about halfway there. “I’m terrified.”

“I think I’m scared too, but we’ve spent so long trying to
figure out exactly what sort of man this King Morzan is that my curiosity is so
great that it’s overwhelmed my fear.”

“You really are a curious thing, Jo. I hope nothing happens
to us.”

I just smiled and squeezed her hand.

***

If all of the talk about winter didn’t make me realize how
cold Vor was going to be, I should have known by the days we spent climbing up
mountains, then down into valleys and back up again. By the time we were let
out into the castle’s courtyard, we had gone straight up for more than a day,
along a slow, gentle incline.

As we walked through the great portcullis, I couldn’t help
but kick a big pile of white fluff. I’d never seen anything like that before.
Glee struck me as the powder sprayed all over the place in a twinkling arc off
the toe of my boot.

“What are you doing, girl? Get through the gate. Damned cold
out here,” said a man who stood sentinel by the entrance, clad in a leather
jerkin, black bands around either of his biceps and a pair of heavy, woolen
leggings. “Move along.”

Everything was just so strange. I stuck my hand in another
drift and squished the stuff into a ball.

“Have you never seen snow before?”

“Well, is that what you call it? No, I suppose I haven’t.
Lotan is rather warmer than it is here.”

A tug on the rope between us reminded me that I should be
quiet. I lowered my head and only kicked the snow drifts close enough for my
toes to reach without veering
too much
off the path.

“Alix, do you remember that man from back at the camp, where
we were sold? The big one, with the huge arms and bronze skin? He talked to me
for a while. I wonder where he went.”

“No, I wasn’t paying much attention to any of the toughs
milling around. They usually end up spitting on you instead of talking.” My
friend looked preoccupied.

“This way, girls, this way.” A burly guard was reading names
off a list and assigning people to a number of bunkhouses that looked more like
stables than a place for a person to stay. “You two,” he said with a finger
pointed at Alix and I. “You are?”

“Alix and she’s Jovena,” Alix said.

“Lucky pair, you get the king’s best suite. Special note
from Shingo. How’d you manage that?” He squinted at Alix, then me. Back and
forth. “Shingo’s not one to take girls before they’re sent. Which one of you
was it? Well anyway, drop off your things and get changed. King Morzan will
receive you shortly.”

“What did you do?” Alix said as we arrived outside our
cottage-to-be.

For a moment, I didn’t hear her. Straw lined the cobble
floor of our little hut, and we each had a bed. Not big, not particularly
comfortable, but there weren’t any fleas, and we didn’t have to sleep together.
That’s something, anyway
. A chill blowing through the window slit took
me and sent a shiver up to the back of my head.

“Jo? Are you seeing this?” Alix’s voice snapped me out of my
stupor. “This is certainly not what I expected to be wearing as a king’s whore.
Who is Shingo and what did you do with him to get all of this? While we’re at
it, why am
I
being given all this stuff?”

She swooped around the room clutching a rustic, but
beautiful gown around her slim body. Her red hair fluttered just a bit in the
draft whistling through the window, but she was so fascinated with digging through
the wardrobe full of finery that she paid it no mind.

“I...don’t know. I just talked to him the once, and I guess
I wrote him a letter but I don’t know if he got it. Shingo, he’s the one I
asked you about. The man with the wavy, dark hair that I spoke to right after
the auction that you said you didn’t remember.”

I thought of the tiny slip of paper he had secreted away
during our brief chat.

“He gave me this. While he talked to me, he touched me. His
hands were like coals that burned inside my skin. Made me feel...well, anyway,
he got called away. A bit later I found this note.”

“Where’d you find it?”

“Between my breasts.”

That got Alix giggling.

“But you didn’t do anything with him? I mean, you didn’t rub
him, or let him take you? Did you kiss him? You know, around the cock?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her matter-of-fact way of
speaking.

“No, no, nothing of the sort. Although I wouldn’t have
minded much, if the truth be told. He was a beautiful thing. But, no, he just
touched my face, and my neck. He fiddled with my hair a little. Alix, here,
look.” I handed her the tiny note that was never far from hand. For some
reason, it brought me comfort.

“Did you read this?” She held it close to her face.