Rose raised an eyebrow at him. “You are not going to command me to?”
He shook his head. “I will command you in many things, break your constraints and illusions, but this is your energy—your power. It is not mine to offer. I am asking you.”
She gave him a shrewd look. “Begging?”
A loud sigh greeted her, and she swore she saw his mouth quirk at the corner. “If you like to call it such.”
She tapped a finger on her lip thoughtfully. “Well, one begging is as good as another. I think that since you begged, I should be able to have anything you would’ve enjoyed at the evening meal.”
He narrowed his eyes on her. “All you had to do was ask and it would have been yours.”
She shrugged, a sharp smile on her lips. “I like this better.”
“You will not ask but will barter,” he muttered. “This does not serve the objective.” She jutted her jaw out stubbornly, and he growled. “Fine. You have it.”
“Excellent,” she said with a small smile. The smile slipped away as she faced the unicorn. All of her childhood admiration crumbled to a pile of dust. This wasn’t the creature that she’d dreamed about and admired in her youth. Rolling her eyes, she dropped to the ground and opened her arms. “Fine. Come to my embrace, unicorn,” she intoned snidely.
“I really must insist that you replace this human,” the unicorn muttered as it drew near.
Rose flashed it a sharp smile, all teeth. “What a shame, I’m afraid that I’m their mage and I’m not going anywhere, so it looks like you’re going to have to suffer with me. I suggest you avoid damage as much as possible.”
“Infuriating female,” it muttered, but that time, she caught a glimmer of humor from it as it reclined against her, dropping its large head across her lap, smearing more blood over her.
At least she was already covered in enough blood that the excess from the manticore made little difference. Resolutely, she laid her hands across its neck and felt the pulse of power exchange between them. It didn’t lay long in her grasp, but it was, as proved in lore, utterly her captive until she willingly lifted her hands from it and broke the connection. She may have stretched it out a little longer than necessary, feeling the unicorn’s impatience. When she finally freed it, the unicorn jerked away with a loud snort. It didn’t bother to thank her as it wheeled about and darted into the forest, disappearing into a murky haze.
Glancing up, she met Saris’s gaze. “Well, that was an experience. What’s next?”
“We return to the castle and continue where we left off,” he rumbled.
For the first time, she didn’t feel even the slightest bit of shame when her lust rose in response to his words though her mind was not fogged by his pheromones. It only increased when he hauled her to her feet, the leash shortening once more as he drew her close. He brushed his muzzle against her cheek, making her quiver before slowly releasing her.
“There is one more thing,” one of the males said, halting their departure.
“Speak and be fast about it,” Saris demanded.
The male met his eyes. “We have noticed evidence of another human on the mountain… This one we have not yet located.”
Rose stiffened at Saris’s side as he frowned.
“Another human? Find them and bring them to me immediately,” he ordered as he herded her back out of the clearing.
Rose’s heart thundered in her chest, the sound filling her ears. Had Roninbar found a way beyond the barrier?
Chapter 13
Sitting at Saris’s feet in the main chamber wasn’t quite what Rose had in mind when she struck her agreement with the lupo. The dining hall was attached to the kitchen, and the narrow room had a hearth blazing with a fire at one end but was otherwise almost entirely filled with the table. There was only enough space along the perimeter to walk around those seated.
Rose glared at the males seated comfortably, their conversation uproarious as they drank some sort of berry ale and ate heartily. Even Saris didn’t pay her any mind, other than handing down bites of food as if she were a damned pet, his attention on the males as the laughter died down and the lupi began to exchange information.
She should have worked harder to listen to what they were talking about, but she was absorbed with her anger and humiliation. She had expected to be sitting among them, enjoying the food with the same freedom that they enjoyed. But even here, she was still subjected to Saris’s will, and that was why, despite their barter, she sat on nothing more than a pillow—and that was solely the courtesy of a goblin who’d taken pity on her and brought her one after the first ten minutes of sitting on the hard stone flooring.
Right on cue, as if feeling her eyes upon him, Saris handed her another chunk of meat. She lifted her hand, tempted to lob the greasy meat back at his head, but something made her hesitate as one of his long ears turned toward her, no doubt more than aware of her movement. She swallowed back a snarl and lowered her hand. If she were going to risk punishment, she would have to do better than smacking him in the face with her dinner.
Instead, she sank her teeth into the meat and tried not to think of the foul creature the lupi had dragged back to the castle hours earlier. No doubt the goblins made quick work of turning it into their meal, since there were no other servants as far as she could see, and the lupi didn’t strike her as the domestic sort who possessed such skills. She wondered how Saris was able to get the goblins to serve him to such a greater degree than any mage had ever coerced from otherworldly beings.
“I’ve tracked the manticore’s trail. It appears there is an access point to the Fire Kingdom at the southern slope of the mountain. It gets nearly continuous exposure from the sun, and little grows there due to how little rain it gets. There is a gate somewhere there, I believe,” the male recently identified as Jalis reported.
Saris sighed and sat back in his chair, the wood creaking beneath him. “That's what I was afraid of. We have never had problems with manticores or any other beings of the lands ruled by the elemental spirits of fire.” He moved his hand, jerking on the leash he insisted on looping around his hand despite the chain securing to the floor at his side, as he rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. “What of the human you spoke of?”
Jalis shook his head. “There is no sign, Saris.”
“Perhaps you were mistaken?” Saris raised an inquiring brow at Gnaval, a male who, as Rose was beginning to understand, was the right hand of their leader.
Gnaval shook his head. “No, the trail was fresh. Whoever it is, they passed through that part of the forest only a short time before we arrived. It is unfortunate that they missed the manticore. That would have made things easier. At least we wouldn’t have to worry about them making a path through the barrier to let all these creatures out into the human world.”
Saris grunted in agreement as he brought a cup to his mouth. Despite the strange shape of his mouth, the elasticity of the flesh that ran along his shortened muzzle had little problem firming enough to allow him to drink in a manner like a human.
He clearly enjoyed the ale with enough relish that it made her look at her plain cup of water in irritation. She had the same food as he ate, but he didn’t offer her even a drop of the ale. Damn him for picking apart her words and doing only the minimum he agreed to. She didn’t see how this helped her to grow at all. She narrowed her eyes at the cup contemplatively. Her focus was broken, however, when Saris dropped his hand once more, offering her a small bite of the meat that was remaining on his plate.
A snarl curled her lips, and she took from his hand with her teeth, making certain that her incisors caught the more sensitive skin on his fingertips just below his claws. He growled, pulling his hand away as he directed a narrow-eyed glare in her direction. She smiled sweetly back at him.
“Sorry,” she mouthed.
His mouth tightened with anger and disbelief, but he was distracted by Aigra speaking to him in a raspy voice, the only sign that the male recently had his neck snap
ped and everything was still in the process of mending. Rose still found the entire thing beyond any understanding of how the natural world worked. It demonstrated further just how far outside the natural order of things lupi were.
“What I don’t understand is why he would be coming farther into the mountain. Most humans keep to the outer edge. Even mages are more interested in seeking the place beneath the mountain here, where they presume to find knowledge and power waiting. Why would this human be in the upper forests?”
Rose stilled. She couldn’t reveal to them who it was on the mountain or that he was hunting for her. Although she was forced to trust her safety with the lupi, she refused to give them anything else that they could potentially use against her. Simply being a vulnerable human, threatened with being thrown out into the wilds of the mountain, was bad enough. She didn’t know how they would utilize the knowledge that someone was pursuing her with the intent of doing her harm.
“It is strange,” Saris agreed at length. He glanced down at her, his brows drawing together. “Were there any humans with you when you came through the barrier?”
“No,” Rose answered truthfully, relieved that she could do so. She didn’t know if lupi could scent lies, but she was happy to not have to take any chances. “I came through the barrier completely alone.”
He looked down at her but nodded and turned back to speaking with his lupi, dismissing her from his mind just that quickly.
Dinner soon ended, and a small group of goblins entered, clearing away dishes and setting a bottle of sweet liquor on the table along with plates of some kind of sugary confection. The males murmured happily, the bottle opened as small amounts were poured into little, narrow goblets. Saris didn’t hand anything down to her this time, or even look her way.
Rose drew sharply back on her leash so that it yanked his hand, dumping the dessert all over his lap. He stared down at it for a long moment, his yellow eyes slowly turning toward her as another goblin darted in to clean up the mess and replace the dessert.
“Is there something amiss, mage?” he growled down at her.
“I think you are forgetting our bargain,” she snarled back. “Where is my dessert?”
His eyes turned hard, his mouth tipping in amusement, no doubt taking pleasure in exacting his revenge. “Just as with the ale and liquor, dessert is not part of the meal and beyond the stipulations of our agreement. But should you like to beg…?” he lifted one brow in inquiry that had her seething.
Of course, there was that.
“Quite all right,” she hissed, turning away from him.
Although she was no longer looking at him, he tightened her leash and chain so that she was pressed to his leg and drawn closer to the floor—as if bowing humbly. Rose gnashed her teeth, reaching for the wellspring of power within her, calling it to her with every bit of unvarnished seduction in her soul. She was quickly discovering that her power needed to be seduced and called, like the naked truth a lover, to respond fully to her will.
It leaped within her, welling in response to her siren’s call. The rush of energy felt purer and stronger than it ever had even before she’d been collared. Her eyes fastened on the bottle, taking hold of the water element within the liquor, singing to it and rearranging its composition. The liquid churned in the bottle like a current tugging in a tiny cyclone, spinning the liquid deeper to the bottom of the bottle. Her lips parted as the spell concluded, and she released the power with her thanks and waited.
She didn’t have long to wait. Another round was poured, and the males—already slightly inebriated—tipped back their goblets eagerly without even so much as sniffing the contents. The effects of her magic were instant and gratifying. As one, they immediately began spew out their precious liquor, coughing and retching all while she watched with a tiny smile pulling at her mouth.
The only thing that spoiled her pleasure was that Saris, the only sober one among them, had not drunk his, the small cup still poised at his mouth, confusion turning to anger as he watched the males vomit all over the floor and stagger away from the table. His nostrils flared as he scented the contents, and a low, terrible growl vibrated in his throat as he yanked on her leash savagely. His eyes glittered down at her.
“What did you do?” he snarled. “I know I felt your current of magic but could not pinpoint its purpose. What did you do to the liquor?” His fangs flashed so close to her face that she felt a tremble of fear through her, but it did little to muffle the satisfaction that rose to the fore as she smirked back at him.
“Liquids are such fickle things,” she observed as she stared back up at him rebelliously through her eyelashes. “Did you know that water transmutes so easily just by its nature alone, regardless of what it is bound with?” She flicked a lock of hair out of her eyes. “Do not worry. I didn’t poison them or anything—though I doubt it would do much good if a broken neck doesn’t slow you guys down. I merely transformed the taste into a rotten paste of berries rather than the sweet fermentation you were all enjoying without me.”
“And you intended for me to suffer from this?”
“You most of all,” she hissed in confirmation.
With a loud snarl, Saris shoved to his feet, and Rose felt a flicker of fear that just maybe she had pushed him too far. He tossed the leash aside and stalked out of the room, leaving her alone, chained to a loop in the floor by the table, as the other males had already fled in their bouts of illness. Rose waited, her belly quivering with uncertainty.
She let out a relieved breath when she saw him return moments later, but that feeling withered when she saw long coils of chain in his hand. He didn’t speak to her as he crouched down at her side. With a hard hand, he grabbed a hold of her collar, unfastening the shorter chain in order to link the long chain in place. He practically shoved her away from him when he released her and stood again. Pushing herself back up from the floor, she looked up into the yellow fire of his merciless gaze.
“Since you like playing with water—I am happy to see that you’re starting to be able to direct your power despite the collar—you will now be responsible for cleaning up this mess.”
He stepped back as several goblins came in, one of whom carried a large bucket of steaming water, and another of cool water, setting both in front of her. Rags were dumped on the floor in front of her by another before the goblins turned away and set about their duties of clearing the table. The vomit and spilled food and drink were all left to her.
A particularly sour-faced goblin that she recalled seeing before in the workroom approached her with a disdainful sniff, his arms folded over his chest. Saris gestured to the male.
“You remember Equiim? Excellent,” he said coolly at her nod, “Equiim will be overseeing your cleaning. Once he is satisfied with your work, then I will be satisfied and will fetch you.”
Nodding to the male, Saris left.
“Well, get on with it,” the male barked, his voice rough.
Rose pinched her lips together but dunked her cloth in the water. Everything within her rebelled at the indignity of having to clean up the mess. I am a mage! This wasn’t her duty. She swiped the cloth miserably with little effort, smearing the mess in the process. The hard strike of a cane across her backside made her squeal and jerk away, turning to the goblin who raised it threateningly at her.
“No more games. Clean, girl!”
She curled her lip at him and dunked her cloth once more into the soapy water, scrubbing with more vigor. Still, the intentional slops of water and slaps of her cloth on the floor scattering the puke over the clean spots earned her more strikes and then more firmly across her ass when she bent to wipe the table clean. He struck her with the damnable cane until her eyes burned with unshed tears at the terrible sting of her abused flesh.
Equiim inspected her work when she finally wiped away the last of the filth, his beady black eyes narrowed on everything. Finally, he straightened and grunted with begrudging approval.
“A pitiful excuse for c
leanliness, but at least you got the filth up, which I suspect is all I’m going to get,” he grumbled.
Rose threw the rag down into its bucket, her arms crossing over her chest in outrage. Even in her shop and the small apartment above it, she employed someone to go in daily to see to the cleaning. She knew nothing about it, and her arms hurt nearly as much as her ass from satisfying the demands of the horrible little troll.
“It is as good as I can do. I am a mage, not a servant,” she snapped.
The dark eyes turned on her, a bushy eyebrow arching as his lips turned in a sneer. “We are all servants in one way or another, mage. Darthar, may the gods grant him his rightful place, recognized that all that he did was also in service. Anyone can earn coin with their tricks, but they are in even greater servitude than those who accept their service and meet it humbly.” He slowly drew himself up. “As you are done, I will retrieve Saris.”
Rose shifted on her feet as she snorted angrily. There was nothing wrong with earning coin with her own work and skill. She was not in servitude but had her pick of clients all eager for her craft. The goblin knew nothing.
She was still fuming when Saris arrived a short time later. He did not speak to her, or even acknowledge her other than to untether her chain. He led her by it through the castle and back to the workroom, fastening her once more beside the bed. His yellow eyes flashed in warning when she opened her mouth to speak, effectively silencing her in the face of his icy wrath. So she sat on the bed silently as he finished securing her chain, her eyes following every movement until he finished and left.
Alone once more, Rose slipped from the bed and stared around the room, the magic still sweeping through her like a cool stream now that she had bridged a new connection with it. Pressing her lips together, she moved the worktable, picking up a piece of plain white chalk.
Although he was a beast, Saris was right about one thing: she hadn’t done anything to continue developing her skills. Well, if she was stuck beneath the mountain, that had to end. Licking her lips, she picked up a book and began, scribbling a hasty chalk diagram on the slate surface of the worktable. It was time to learn more about her magic and open herself to it further, despite the fear that attempting new magic without the guidance of a Master was dangerous.
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