Authors: Scarlet Hyacinth
Tags: #Romance
With a mental sigh, Graham pushed those thoughts away and focused on his mate. Caelyn’s arm still hurt from the burn, and likely he wouldn’t receive any medical attention. Graham couldn’t heal him, but he could distract him from it.
“Do you know, angel, what we’ll do when we get out of here?”
he asked.
“We’ll build a little house of our very own, somewhere in the mountains, where no one can find us. I’ll watch over you as our child grows inside you, and when the time comes, as you bring a new life into the world. And we’ll raise him there, in the shade of the trees and under the clear blue sky, a free wolf, a free sprite, loved by both of us.”
He could almost see the image now, see the two of them laughing in the shadow of a large tree, wiggling their fingers at a small wolf pup.
“And maybe we can give that wolf a sibling. What do you say?”
A small smile flitted on Caelyn’s lips for the briefest moment. His gaze met Graham’s, and in spite of the awkward angle, it no longer seemed to matter that they were trapped in the stronghold of the draechen. They were together, and out of the blue, Graham truly felt like everything would be all right.
The illusion was shattered when suddenly, Shtamakarein stopped. Apparently, they’d reached their destinations, the cells that the draechen had assigned to them. As far as he could guess, they’d been taken into a lower level of the palace compound, dug directly into the mountain.
There were even more guards at this level, so any hope Graham might have had left of escaping this place unaided faded altogether. The soldiers all saluted upon seeing Shtamakarein. The draechen prince waved off their greeting without much ceremony. “Open this cell and give me the key,” he demanded.
As one guard complied, unlocking the door to the cell, the prince turned toward Graham. “Get up and get in.”
Graham silently obeyed, but only after Shtamakarein himself entered. He didn’t put it beyond the draechen to separate him and Caelyn, and he wanted to avoid that at all costs. Fortunately, their unlikely ally didn’t seem to have this intention.
“Shackle them down,” Shtamakarein continued, confirming Graham’s hope and guess.
As the soldiers rushed to follow their general’s order, the princess asked, “Are you putting both of them in one cell?” the princess asked. The idea appeared to displease her.
“For the moment,” Graham heard Shtamakarein reply. “I have my reasons for it.”
His tone held a dark promise, which seemed to please the princess. As the guards pushed Graham to the wall and began to strap him down using heavy silver chains, Akarawem added, “Well, I should be going. But first…”
She walked to Graham’s side and gripped his hand. At first, Graham didn’t even realize what she wanted, until her fingers brushed against his wedding ring. “How sweet,” she sneered. “The mutt actually got married to his whore.”
Graham clenched his hands into fists. The draechen had taken everything else from him. He wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to steal this memory, too. Fortunately, Shtamakarein stopped her before she could do anything like that. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Akara. Don’t you have something better to do? Like a celebration to prepare?”
“I know my duties perfectly,” Akara replied, glowering at her brother.
“Good. Take Sage with you,” Shtamakarein suggested. “There isn’t much time left until the appointed hour, and you need all the help you can get.”
“I don’t need a babysitter. It’s not the first time I’m doing this,” the princess commented. Obviously, she didn’t like being ordered around.
“You mean you’ve prepared a feast with the entire court in five hours before? All by yourself?” Shtamakarein sounded bemused. “When? Mother’s always helped you.”
Akarawem huffed, but nevertheless turned toward the draechen lieutenant. “Come on, Sagenamadeen. We need to make haste. The hour grows late.”
“Yes, Highness,” Sage replied. Bowing toward Shtamakarein, he saluted. “With your permission, General.”
As the two draechen departed, Shtamakarein waved the guards off as well. “I don’t want anyone to disturb me,” he said, “only if Their Imperial Majesties have new orders for me. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Highness.” With curt nods, they abandoned the cell, closing the door behind them.
Graham was relieved that at least they’d gotten rid of the princess, who’d seemed intent on being as petty as possible. Even so, he waited, not sure if it was fully safe for them to talk in here. As if guessing his thoughts, Shtamakarein said, “It’s all right. They can’t hear us now, unless you shout really loudly.”
“Is that practical?” Caelyn asked softly. “Someone might attempt to escape, and the guards wouldn’t realize it.”
“You’re kidding, right?” The draechen laughed. “No one, not even I, could get out of here without…I don’t know, dynamite? What do the humans use these days to craft tunnels through mountains?”
“How can you laugh?” Graham asked, anger bursting through him. “Do you think anything at all about this situation is funny?”
The prince’s mirth instantly vanished. “Actually, no. In fact, the sooner you grasp the seriousness of the situation, the better.”
“What exactly is going to happen to us?” Caelyn inquired.
“Father wants you two to put on a show for him,” Shtamakarein replied.
“A show?” Caelyn repeated inquiringly. “I don’t understand.”
“He expects you to fuck for his entertainment. Hopefully, if you’re in luck, it won’t occur to him to add something else to it, other people, although I wouldn’t bet on it.”
What the fuck? They couldn’t be serious. Sure, the draechen had been discussing something like that in the throne room. Graham had understood that much from the conversation. However, he’d thought the idea had been struck down. At least, that had been his impression. Apparently, he’d been mistaken.
He only realized he’d said most of that out loud when Shtamakarein replied, “Yes, you were mistaken.” He walked to a small cabinet, the only piece of furniture present in the room. As he opened it, he added, “Also I’m expected to torture you, so prepare yourselves to scream.”
Graham went rigid, straining against his bindings. He watched helplessly as the draechen retrieved several wicked looking knives and torture instruments from the cabinet.
It had all been a deception, false promises spoken to stop them to eliminate any resistance. Graham had been a fool to trust the Dog-Catcher.
“Do whatever you want to me, but leave Caelyn out of it,” he gritted out.
Shtamakarein rolled his eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Give me some credit. I have no intention to torture you. You just need to play along so I can make it convincing. Got it?”
Graham shared a look with his mate. Together, they nodded. “What do we have to do?” Graham inquired.
“Like I said, scream. Don’t overdo it, or it won’t be believable. Unfortunately, I do have to harm you a little. Otherwise it will all be for naught.”
Graham said nothing. Even if he’d wanted to refuse, he was in the hands of the draechen prince. He had no real choice.
As it turned out, Shtamakarein was very good at what he did, disturbingly so. He handled all the utensils with the ease of someone who’d used them many times before. “Let me ask you something,” Graham said as a silver knife dipped into his flesh. “Just how often do you torture people?”
“Not often,” Shtamakarein replied offhandedly. “It’s considered beneath me. I have more important things to do, and a personal dislike for it, if you must know. But this time, my father specifically asked me to do it, so I couldn’t have refused even if I’d wanted to.”
“Why did he ask you?” Graham asked, half because he wanted to keep his attention away from the poison in his blood, or rather, distract Caelyn from the pain it was causing.
“Come now,” the draechen prince answered, “surely you can figure it out on your own. He doesn’t trust me, at least not completely. He knows something went wrong when you escaped. I’m not someone who’s easily deceived or beaten, and he realizes that.”
That actually made sense. The situation was far more complicated than Graham himself had dared to believe. In a way, Graham didn’t understand it. He couldn’t figure out why, in spite of everything he risked, Shtamakarein was helping them.
Over Shtamakarein’s shoulder, Graham smiled at Caelyn. His mate’s eyes were swimming in tears, but he smiled back. Suddenly, their situation no longer seemed so grim. What Graham had told Caelyn was a dream and a hope, nothing more, but they still had a chance to reach it. He had to believe that, because the alternative was inconceivable.
For a long time, Caelyn had been in a privileged position, enjoying the comfortable security of being allied to draechen and watching as the rest of the world, those not so lucky, suffered. He had hated it with every fiber of his being and had wished to do something about it, even if he hadn’t known what.
Today, though, the wheel of fate had turned, and he was the one on his knees in the face of a gathering, weak and defeated. As the guards carried him into the throne room and dumped him on the floor, Caelyn looked around, only to see what seemed to be like hundreds of faces staring down at him, observing him with both lascivious and disgusted interest.
More soldiers brought Graham, depositing him next to Caelyn. His mate looked worse than he actually felt. In fact, Karein’s efforts had been so thorough that Caelyn would have been seriously concerned if not for the mate bond.
But Karein had explained that all of this needed to be done for the final part of the plan to have any chance of success. Caelyn himself had suffered some minor injuries, which seemed far more serious than they were.
The result was gratifying, or at least Caelyn thought so. The empress, who had been sitting on her throne, tsked lightly. “It seems like you got a little overenthusiastic, my son.”
The words themselves might have seemed reprimanding, but they weren’t, not really. Caelyn didn’t know the draechen emperor and empress well, but he was pretty sure they weren’t warm parental types. In fact, he suspected this was the first time the empress had called Karein “son” in quite a while.
Nevertheless, Karein played along. “You have my apologies, Your Majesty. In my anger with the enemies of the empire, I overstepped my boundaries.”
“It’s quite all right, as long as they can still perform,” the empress said.
“The ninth caste is full of rutting beasts,” Karein answered, his voice dripping with cool disdain. “They can perform.”
A small pause followed, during which the large red dragon made his way toward the thrones. His large tale swished on the marble floor like a whip as he positioned himself straight in front of Caelyn and Karein.
He must have said something through his mental abilities, because Karein stepped back and ordered, “I live and die by your command, Majesty. Jertan, Goyan, come here.”
Two draechen appeared from the crowd, so imposing and huge they almost rivaled Karein’s size. “You will fight the wolf. Should you defeat him, you will both share the wolf’s mate. You’re not allowed to kill either of them. Begin.”
So Karein had been right to fear that something else would occur to the emperor. Caelyn released a soft whimper. He couldn’t fathom his mate being able to face both those two draechen, win, and still preserve the illusion that they’d been tortured by Karein.
He opened his mouth, intent on protesting, on somehow stopping this. Karein gave him a look that silenced him, but he wasn’t the one who spoke.
“Do you understand, mutt?” the empress asked. “You need to defeat these two soldiers.”
At that, Graham struggled to his feet. “And if I win, you’ll let me and Caelyn go?”
“Oh, the dog speaks. Wonders never cease.” She shook her head and replied, “Don’t be ridiculous, mutt. You’ll die either way. But you’re being given the chance to do so with honor.”
Caelyn got up as well, but didn’t address the empress. Instead, he forced himself to speak to Graham using their bond. The disruptor still kept him from focusing, but he’d managed to circumvent it, which at least allowed him to speak to his mate.
“Graham, this is hopeless. You can’t possible hope to defeat them. Let me—”
“No,”
Graham interrupted him.
“Don’t even say it. I will die before I allow them to touch you.”
That was the problem. Caelyn feared that his mate would perish, that they wouldn’t get the chance to follow Karein’s plan, their only hope to get out of this place.
“Don’t be afraid, angel,”
Graham said, taking a deep breath as he scanned his two opponents.
“Just trust me. I can beat them. You are my strength, and they don’t have that.”
Caelyn pushed back his own apprehension and focused on his bond with Graham. The situation seemed desperate, yes, but the draechen underestimated Graham. They underestimated the mate bond between Graham and Caelyn.
Steeling himself, Caelyn opened his heart and believed.
“Yes,”
he replied.
“We can do it.”
It was the last thing he managed to say before Karein pushed him back and away from his mate. Meanwhile, someone released Graham from his shackles, supposedly to give the battle a measure of equality. “Let the battle begin,” he shouted.