He looked her up and down before responding. “Kwin Longbow.”
“You are obviously a military man.” It was a statement not a question and she was surprised when he spoke.
“Commander of the Western battalion, at least I was until I ended up in this hell hole.”
“I take it you have seen a lot of fighting.”
Without seeming to realise what he was doing, he rubbed his scar. “Some. I always give better than I get.”
“Yet you ended up here.”
“Look lady, I know why you’re here. Trust me, you don’t want me as your pleasure slave.”
Luka could not help smiling at his arrogance. He should not be talking to a potential buyer this way. His mouth would get him into a lot of trouble if he didn’t learn to keep it closed.
“You’re right,” she said. “I don’t.”
She turned away so didn’t see his reaction. Fain was still admiring the posing model. “Come on,” Luka said. “I’ve made up my mind.”
“That was quick,” Fain said as Luka walked up to the nearest guard and gave her instructions.
The two ladies were escorted back into the building, where the auctioneer was waiting for them. Luka explained her intentions then the haggling began. The price started lower than she had been expecting, but she still managed to barter the man down. Coins were exchanged, paperwork handed over and controlling bracelets programmed. Luka was now the owner of her first pleasure slave.
“Before you leave, I should explain to you how to keep a slave under control.”
Luka rolled her eyes. “I already own many slaves,” she said.
The man looked at her as though she was a child. It took all of her self-control not to slap his self-satisfied smile off his face. “Not like this one. He wears the silver. He has magic.”
“I am well aware of that,” Luka snapped. “I know how to make him obey. I think our business here is done. Good day to you.”
Before the auctioneer could say anything more, she stood up, signalling with her head that Fain should do the same. They walked off at such speed the auctioneer had to run to catch up with them. He was out of breath before they had crossed the courtyard to their waiting carriage.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you ladies. If I can be of any further service to you, please let me know.”
Both of the women ignored him as they climbed into the carriage. Kwin and the man who had been posing for Fain were already inside. They had been dressed in loin cloths. Kwin looked at Luka, but said nothing. She gave orders to their driver and the carriage pulled away.
————————————-∞————————————-
Kwin looked Luka up and down. He had been expecting her to be tense as she and her companion were alone in the carriage with two men, one of which was a magic user, but she appeared calm and relaxed. He glanced at her controlling bracelet and wondered, momentarily, if he could overpower her before she could use it, but decided against trying, at least for the time being. He wanted to know more about why he had been purchased. The woman had been there to buy a pleasure slave, which she had done, so why had she also bought him? It was something he needed to find out.
“Thank you for my present,” Fain said to Luka. “I’m going to have so much fun.” She didn’t take her eyes off the slave Luka had just purchased for her.
Kwin forced himself not to react. If the other man was for the sister, that meant this woman sitting opposite wanted him for sex, which didn’t make sense. There were far better options available and she had stated that she didn’t want him as a pleasure slave.
Throughout the journey, Luka and Fain talked. Kwin listened to every word without looking like he was listening. The sister obviously had no idea that he could understand them. From the way she kept smiling and glancing at him, his new owner found this amusing.
“I don’t understand why you spent your money on him, Luka,” Fain said. She looked at Kwin derisively.
“I’m sure he will satisfy my needs.”
She was looking at Kwin as she spoke, her face telling him she was wondering how he was going to react. He pretended to not understand what was being said and looked out of the window as though bored.
His thoughts were interrupted by the other man speaking to him. “I think I’m going to be in for a fun night.” Fain was stroking one of his thighs and the bulge in the man’s loincloth indicated he was enjoying it. “My name’s Nonah, by the way.” He held out his hand and Kwin shook it.
“Kwin.”
“Soldier?”
Kwin nodded. “Commander of the Western battalion.”
“I’ve heard of you,” Nonah said. “I was considering applying but it looks like the decision has been taken out of my hands.” He theatrically raised his hands and turned his wrists, showing the restraints.
Kwin said nothing. What was there that he could say?
The journey continued in silence. The two women began to doze and Nonah leaned over to whisper in Kwin’s ear. “If we kill them both now, we will be free men.”
Kwin frowned at him. “Didn’t you get the same lecture I did before being put in the carriage?”
Nonah shrugged. “The woman who dressed me had such an irritating voice I stopped listening.”
“That could have been a deadly mistake. If their controlling bracelets have been linked to our shackles, then we want these two ladies kept alive. If their hearts stop beating, the defence mechanism in our collars automatically activate, crushing our throats.”
Nonah stared at him incredulously. “So if a Wayvern dies, no matter what the cause, all of their slaves are killed?”
“So it would appear.”
Nonah went pale. “I think I would rather have not known.”
A short while later the carriage slowed and turned into a long driveway. It circled around, giving the occupants a good look at the huge house. Made of stone, with marble columns on each side of the main entrance, it reminded Kwin a little of his family home.
The door opened as the carriage pulled to a stop and a well-dressed man ran out. If he hadn’t been wearing copper shackles, Kwin could have believed he was a servant rather than a slave. Until he saw his face. He had the same look of defeat Kwin had seen on a number of faces as he journeyed through Wayvern.
The moment he opened the door, however, his face brightened. “Lady Luka, Lady Fain,” he said in perfect Wayvern, with just a trace of a Tippetian accent. “I see your trip was a success.”
“It was Stewerd,” Fain said.
“Will Lady Luka be staying?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “I’ll head on home.”
Fain kissed her sister on the cheek before exiting the carriage. “The good looking one is mine,” she told Stewerd as she passed him. “See that he is fed and bathed then send him to my room. Tomorrow you can find him a bed in the slaves’ quarters, but he will be staying with me tonight.”
“Very well my Lady,” Stewerd said then addressed Nonah, speaking in his native tongue. “Come with me. You are to be fed and bathed before being handed back to Lady Fain.”
Nonah grinned at him. “Why look so glum? I think I may enjoy living here, having fun with the young lady.”
Stewerd’s expression did not change. “Only until her mother claims you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nonah asked, but he was given no answer.
“Stewerd,” Luka called as he was closing the carriage door. He looked up and was handed some documents. “Ownership papers.”
“Thank you my Lady,” he said to Luka. “I hope you have a pleasant trip home.”
Kwin waited until the door was closed and the carriage moving before he spoke.
“What did that man mean?” he asked in Wayvern. Luka frowned. Then Kwin realised that she wouldn’t have understood what Stewerd had said. “When Nonah said he was going to have fun, he said something like ‘wait until her mother claims you’.”
Luka shi
vered. “When my mother sees something she wants, she takes it. And she is defiantly going to want Nonah. The fact that he belongs to my sister won’t matter to my mother. Nonah will end up servicing her in any way she wishes and for as long as she wishes. I’ve been told by a number of men that sharing her bed is not a pleasant experience.”
Kwin regarded Luka quizzically. She was a very confusing woman. “Why are you telling me this?”
“You asked.”
“But I’m a slave.”
Luka laughed lightly. “A slave who has a lot to learn.”
Despite his repeated requests, Luka would say no more. Eventually Kwin gave up and spent the rest of the afternoon looking out of the window.
When they eventually arrived at Luka’s estate, Kwin noted that it was much smaller than the one Lady Fain lived at. But it was still an impressive sight.
The man who arrived to help Luka out of the carriage was obviously a slave, as he wore copper shackles, but something about him seemed different. He looked relieved to see his owner back and if Kwin didn’t know better he would have said the man looked happy.
“My name is Drake,” he said to Kwin in Tippetian as he climbed out of the carriage. “I’m the head servant here as well as the translator.”
“Kwin,” Kwin said. He wanted to question Drake’s use of the word ‘servant’ but decided now was not the time.
Two young boys ran up to take care of the horses. They, too, were shackled, but they were laughing and smiling.
“Make sure you rub them down properly,” Drake said.
“Yes papa,” one said, flashing him a cheeky grin.
“Kwin will be staying in one of the spare rooms in my suite,” Luka said as they walked up the steps to the house. “He and I need to have a little talk, then I need a bath. While I bathe, please can you feed him then find him some clothes.”
“Of course Luka,” Drake said. Not Lady Luka, Kwin noted, just Luka. “I will translate for you.”
“That won’t be necessary. He speaks my language almost as well as you do.”
Drake looked at Kwin quizzically.
“I’m a soldier,” Kwin said, answering the question that Drake had not voiced. He purposely said ‘am’ and not ‘was’ and spoke in Wayvern so Luka could understand him. “Knowing what the enemy is saying makes it easier to defeat them.”
Nothing more was said as Luka led the way into the house and up the stairs. Drake didn’t go with them, instead heading off to the back of the house where Kwin assumed the kitchen was.
Luka opened a set of double doors and entered a spacious sitting room with a number of doors on either side. She took a seat on the sofa and indicated that Kwin should take the seat opposite.
Once he was seated, she pointed to a door to her left. “That door leads to my bedroom. You will never, under any circumstances, enter that room without my permission.”
Kwin nodded his head. When Luka continued, her voice was as hard as steel. “You will also never get into my bed. You will never ever touch me sexually in any way, even if I beg you to. Do you understand?”
Kwin was too shocked to speak.
Chapter 8
Kwin was confused. Nothing in the household seemed to be as it should. “I don’t understand,” he finally said. “I thought you bought me as a pleasure slave.”
Luka’s voice lost its sharp edge. “That is what I want everyone to think. Personally I find the use of pleasure slaves abhorrent. Two people should have sex because they want to, not because one is making the other one do it.”
“So why am I here?”
Luka leaned back. “You are here as my protector. You wear the silver. You are a magic user.”
“I am,” Kwin said. There was no point in denying it.
“Then you will be good at your job.”
Kwin laughed. “I don’t see how seeing as these things stop me using my power.” He lifted his arms so she could see his bracelets. He didn’t like the way she was smiling at him.
“Actually, they don’t. They just let whoever is wearing your controller know that you are using magic.”
Kwin wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not. The bracelets on the woman who had been used as a demonstration reacted the moment she had tried to use her power. Or had they? Was it possible that the translator had caused her bracelets to kill her, the same as he had made the collar on the other victim crush his throat?
“Try it,” Luka said.
Kwin looked at her, trying to work out if she was setting him up or not. But why would she buy him only to kill him a short while later?
He was a little nervous as he looked across the room. The curtains were open, so he closed his eyes and pictured them closing. When he opened his eyes, they were closed.
“Alright,” he said. “So how does it work?” Luka had no reason to tell him, but somehow he knew she would.
“The controlling bracelet works the same on silver as it does copper. Once it has been linked to shackles, all the controller has to do is think and the shackles obey. There are just a few differences. The first is that they have more painful ways of killing the person who is wearing them. The other difference is that the silver can detect magic and lets the controller know it’s being used. Let me demonstrate.”
She held out her wrist so that Kwin could clearly see her controller. “Use your magic,” she said, “but watch my bracelet as you do so.”
Kwin obeyed, opening the curtains once more. Luka’s bracelet began to glow.
“I can also feel a strange sensation traveling up my arm. I have never personally experienced it before, but I have been told it would wake me, were I asleep.”
“So I can use my magic but you will know if I am?” Luka nodded her head. “So what’s to stop me using my magic on you?”
Luka smiled at him. “Try it.”
It was a challenge rather than an order and Kwin never backed down from a challenge. Instead of trying to hurt her, he tried to probe her, but something blocked him. It was almost as if she had been trained to protect her mind.
“Try to hurt me.”
“I’m not sure that is a good idea.” So far Luka had treated him well and he didn’t believe in attacking women.
“I said try. You won’t succeed.”
Without saying a word, Kwin made a bolt of lightning fly from his hand, aiming for Luka. Just before it reached her, it hit some sort of invisible barrier which it couldn’t penetrate. All around her lit up blue for a fraction of a second, then the light and the lightning bolt disappeared.
“Impressive,” Kwin said. “So the controlling bracelet also protects the wearer.” Luka nodded. “But what is stopping me physically attacking you and removing the bracelet?”
“Do you really believe you can move faster than I can think?”
It was another challenge. Kwin didn’t like his chances, but he was willing to test her. He suddenly sprang forward, but before he could reach her, his bracelets forced his arms together and every muscle in his body began to spasm.
The agony he had been anticipating didn’t come. Somehow Luka had disabled him without causing him any pain. When his muscles relaxed, he lay on the floor, panting. There may not have been any pain, but breathing had been difficult.
“Would you like to try that again?” Luka asked. He could hear the amusement in her voice.
“No,” he said as he rose. “You’ve made your point.”
He wasn’t defeated yet though. He sat on the chair once more and tried another angle. “What’s stopping me from taking your bracelet off you while you sleep?”
“You’re using your brain I see,” Luka said. “It’s good to know you’re not just brawn. There are two reasons why you are not going to even try that.”
“And they are?”
“Firstly, the moment this bracelet leaves my wrist, the self-destruct mechanism built into the shackles of everyone I own will be triggered, killing the wearer. Unless I switch it off first, of course.”
&nbs
p; Kwin grimaced. “So my actions would kill all of your slaves.” While he was prepared to risk his own life to escape and rescue Shona, he would not put the lives of others at risk.
“Yes.” Was it his imagination or did Luka hesitate before answering?
“So what’s the other reason?” He leaned back in his chair, giving the impression that he was relaxed, but he was a trained soldier; he was always on alert.
“I don’t sleep alone.”
That had his attention. “So that’s why you don’t want a pleasure slave.”
Luka’s laugh was light and had a musical quality. “You couldn’t be more wrong.” Then she called out loudly, “Canis.”
Kwin leaped out of his chair and moved behind it, making sure it was between him and the animal that had just appeared in the room. It was the largest dog he had ever seen, as black as midnight when there was no moon, with eyes that glowed red. It was solid and muscular and growled when it saw him, raising one lip to show its sharp teeth.
But it wasn’t the look of the dog that had frightened Kwin, it was the fact that the door had been closed and the dog had walked through it.
“What in Hellan’s name is that thing?” He was embarrassed to hear a slight tremor in his voice and hoped that Luka would think it was caused by surprise not fear.
“This is Canis, my pet and my best friend. Canis, come here. This is Kwin. Friend not enemy.”
The moment Luka said the word ‘friend’, the dog stopped growling. He sauntered up to Luka and sat down in front of her, turning his back to Kwin as if dismissing him. Luka nodded her head and the dog jumped up onto the sofa beside her, settled down and laid his head on her lap.
Tentatively, Kwin moved around the chair and sat down, not once taking his eyes off the dog, which was watching him. He had to be seeing things, but it looked like the animal was smirking at him.
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“He’s a dog.”
Kwin did his best to remain calm. Losing his temper at his owner wouldn’t accomplish anything. “I can see that, but he just walked through a closed door.” He somehow managed not to swear, though he thought the words.
Kwin Page 6