To Stand Beside Her (32 page)

“I don’t know what you did, but it still won’t be enough to stop me,” she glared at him.

Seth chuckled
waving his hands in the air to dismiss her comment
.
“Trust me.
This stuff can stop anyone.
Even you, my dear.”
Seth motioned and several men held her arms and legs as Seth checked to make sure she was tightly secured.
Leila just stood still.
He was being extra cautious but he would eventually let his guard down and she would find her opportunity to leave.
Seth again wrapped the blind
fold aro
und her, but little did he know
she didn’t need her sight to navigate this castle.
Leila felt someone pick her up
because
s
he was wrapped so tightly there was no way she could walk.
After the person weaved through various passageways of the castle, he finally stopped
.
The man
carrying her
then set her down in the middle of a room
. M
etal doors
clanked
locking shut.
S
omeone’s hand remove
d
her blindfold.

Leila opened her eyes to find she was in a large cage within an ornately decorated room.
She turned her head to face Seth.
He was grinning ear to ear.

“I really would like to see the famed Leila get out of this one, but I have better things to do with my time.
Here,
”
he said while throwing clothes inside the cage.
“Once I unlock you, change into these.
We want you to be presentable when I take you before the king to get my reward.”

“So
,
if I leave before you present me, then you won’t get your reward?” she asked.

“Trust
me;
you won’t be leaving so soon.” Seth smiled.

“What if I don’t feel like changing?”
Leila
asked haughtily.

“If you are not changed by the time I return, I will dress you myself,”
Seth
replied.
“Now be a good girl and just change.”
Leila glared at him.
She would dress herself as the thought of him touching her disgusted her as much as meeting with Jahangir.

“I can’t change if you don’t unlock me,”
Leila
said as he turned to leave.

“I almost forgot.
Too bad though, I was looking forward to changing you,” he smiled
and
unlocked all the locks but made no effort to remove the chains.

Chapter 19

Seth left the room, but the guard that had carried Leila in still remained. She quickly unwound the chains, freeing herself. Leila tested her strength as she stretched and found her left side was still weaker than normal. Gazing around the room, the window was the best way to leave, if she could actually scale the walls; Leila was three to four floors above the ground. Leila looked at the clothing before her and changed into the thin dress. They purposely gave her a dress that would be too cold for the weather outside. It was the end of winter, and though they did not have snow in Samael, the nights got bitterly cold until summer time started. As Leila turned back around, the guard was sitting grinning ear to ear from the peep show.

“Can you come here a moment?” Leila asked him sweetly. The man moved closer. When he was within arm's reach, Leila grabbed his head and banged it against the bars. The man slid to the floor, and she removed his keys. He had several identical keys, each of which would unlock the cage. She removed a key and placed the keychain back around his waist. The free key she quickly hid in the closest pillow. She then gently walked back to the man and slapped his face a few times. He woke with a start.

“You tripped and hit your head,”
Leila
told the man.
Men always believe sweet
,
innocent stories.
He seemed confused but did not disagree with her.
“I was going to see if you could get me something to drink,” she said sweetly.
The man nodded.

The guard stood and walked out of the room which provided Leila an opportunity to quickly unlock her cage. She walked to the window and looked down. Under normal circumstances, it would be easy to scale down, but with the numbness on her left side, she doubted it would be that simple. Before she could make her decision, the door opened. Seth walked in the room.

“Having second thoughts?”
Seth
asked.
I
f
Leila
was feeling fine
,
she would have already been out the window and down a few floors.
“Now that you are dressed, would you care to join me?”

Leila was not going to be able to leave quite yet, so she walked back to Seth. She held out her arms to be locked back up. She would need to think of another plan, but it would be easier after everyone went to bed. They had to sleep sometime. Leila had rested for two days which meant she was not tired enough to need sleep. Seth locked her hands together followed by her feet. She could not walk very easily, but there was enough chain to allow her to shuffle. Seth continued to grin like a conquering hero.

“Well, let’s go get you your reward, though from what I hear, she will be very disappointed.” Jahangir’s oldest, and unwilling, daughter was the prize Seth wanted. Leila figured of anyone in the castle, she would be the best bet to help Leila escape. Leila walked behind Seth as two men each held her arms as she walked. Seth did not want to take any chances of losing her while transporting her. Once Leila was inside the royal chambers, Seth posted two guards at each door and window. Seth then chained her feet to a rod in the middle of the room, unchaining the rest of her.

“Please try to be presentable,”
Seth
whispered in her ear as the main door open
ed
.

Jahangir was an old man, fat and balding from age. He already had three wives and over a dozen children, some as old as Leila. Using the countries taxes, he had spent many resources tracking her down and trying to keep her in his castle for the past ten years. Leila figured that with all the chasing he didn’t have much time for anything else and believed the rumors that claimed many of “his” children were not his own blood. Leila gave the man a disgusted look as he approached her. She stood tall and proud as he circled her. As he stopped behind her, she could hear Seth approach him. Together they whispered amongst themselves. Jahangir moved back around and faced her. Jahangir smiled as if he won a contest; Leila just glared back at him.

“Welcome back
,
dear child,”
Jahangir
said.
“I hope they were not too rough in getting you here.”
Leila did not respond.
T
alking to him was not worth her time.

Jahangir
moved closer and picked up her
arm. Leila tried to contain her disgust from being touched by him.
“Such a barbaric custom.
I bet it hurt a lot.
I am sure my doctors will find some way to remove it.”
Leila still did not reply.
Leila
knew enough from her previous encounters with Jahangir that he had a short temper.
As
weak
as
she already felt,
Leila
did not wish to test his temper.

“I am surprised you are not thanking me,”
Jahangir
said smugly.
“I thought I was doing you a favor by rescuing you from Nalick.
I hear he is such an appalling king even his own people fear him.”
H
e was trying to bait her to respond, yet she kept quiet.
Jahangir moved close enough
for her to feel his breath
on her face.

“We have been making preparations since we knew where to find you. The wedding will be in two days,” Jahangir said as he looked down the front of her dress. “And I can’t wait.” Leila was ready to gag but kept her thoughts to herself. Nalick would not wait two days to rescue her, but she also didn’t want to start a war. Jahangir walked away as he was not satisfied with the quiet Leila that stood before him. With a wave of his hand, men surrounded her and locked her back up to take her back to the cage.

“Un
til she figures out there is no
where for her to run to, keep her locked in that cage,”
Jahangir
ordered.
Jahangir
knew
,
as well as Seth
,
that Leila probably already had a plan to run away.
“Al
so, don’t unlock her
.
”

Outside Jahangir’s room
Leila commented to Seth
,
“No prize yet?”
Seth
was upset.

“That is none of your business,”
Seth
replied.

Once she was locked back in her cage, Leila sat down to evaluate the situation. She was still locked in more chains than she wanted to deal with, but chains were never problem. The problem was the weakness in her left side that was slowly spreading to the right. As the guards changed, Leila noticed something seemed different. In the dim light of the room, she could not see the face of the guard, but he seemed familiar. Seth gave checked on her one last time before he headed to his own quarters for the night.

“Do not go near her
,
for any reason,”
Seth
ordered the guard
;
t
he guard nodded.
Once Seth left the room, the guard sat down opposite of Leila and stared at her.

Leila
knew the eyes of the guard, but she could not
remember
where she had met him before.
She continued to stare at him as she began to work her hands free.
The man stared back knowing full well what
Leila
was doing
,
and he made no move to stop her.
Leila looked to the window and could see most of the castle had gone to bed.
The guard noticed also.
Slowly
,
the guard
stood, blocked the door with his chair, and approached her.

“How’ve you been kitten?” the man asked as he unlocked her door.
The familiar voice made Leila immediately stop worrying.

Leila smiled and leapt to her feet and
tried to hug
the man.
“Marx,” she said
,
“
i
t has been so long.”
With her free hand s
he playfully batted the fake nose he had on. The man hugged her back.
It had been a long time since he had last saw her, but in his eyes, she never changed.
Leila
was still as beautiful as the day he
first
met her.

“Let me undo these for you,”
Marx
said
turning
her around and finish
ing
unlocking the chains.
“We will need to wait here a little longer.
The outside guard change will not be for an hour or so
.
”
Leila nodded and quickly searched the room for her old clothing.

“Have you seen anything of mine?”
Leila
asked.

“I got here too late. They already took everything away hoping that it would discourage you from going out in the cold. Little do they know, you like the cold.” Marx strategically moved more of the furniture to block the door. “We shouldn’t be disturbed tonight, but if so, I’d rather not have to draw my sword.”

Marx had always been more of a pacifist. Leila often wondered how he stayed in the job for so many years. What she did not know was that he stayed just so that he could run into her from time to time.