A King's Ransom

by Lia Black

"No." Veyl scowled, trying to hide the fear that crawled up his spine, chilling his bones. Lirin was a wild dog, and Veyl believed it was best to not look him in the eye, but simply walk confidently away.

  "Ah, too bad. I was hoping you might have saved me the trouble of killing him myself."

  "Never mind. I'll find my own way." Veyl turned around and began to lead the horse back towards Nesmithe. He swallowed the rising bile and his heart trying to come up after it as he heard Lirin's horse following close behind him. Releasing his own horse, Veyl started to run.

  Lirin caught up to him quickly and leaned down, scooping him under the arms and pulling him onto the horse. He draped Veyl across the saddle on his stomach and held him down beneath one of his thighs. Lirin whistled to the other horse and caught hold of the reins, lashing them to the bridle on his steed.

  "Keep squirming; it makes me hard," Lirin laughed as Veyl struggled beneath him.

  Veyl managed to reach Kaidos' dagger on his hip. The position he was in was possibly the worst for doing any kind of damage, and it was just as likely that he'd hurt himself as hurt Lirin--especially because his dominant hand was still weak. But he had to get away from this man.

  He drew the dagger out of its sheathe on his right side and jammed it backwards, slicing across the top of Lirin's thigh.

  Lirin bellowed and squeezed Veyl's wrist so hard he started to see black spots before his eyes.

  "Stupid cunt!" He snatched the blade from Veyl's numbing fingers and threw it onto the path. Then he pressed his fingers into Veyl's back in such a way that pain blossomed through him, sending a spasm up his spine that left him dizzy and nauseous. He was aware that they were turning off the road as tall weeds rasped against his face.

  "I was planning on being nice to you before you stabbed me. But don't worry--I remember that Kai said you had to show up in Dandre unharmed. I'll make sure to hurt you the most in places where nobody can see."

  *~*~*

  Lirin brought them to a clearing in the forest and shoved Veyl unceremoniously from the horse. He hit the ground, trying to get his legs beneath him as he fell backwards, but pain shot from his spine through his thighs and his knees buckled. He went down hard, landing on his ass.

  Veyl gulped in a noisy breath the shock-wave zinged up his back. His body bowed in response and he toppled backwards, his teeth clacking together as his head struck the cold, hard ground.

  "It'll pass." Lirin said and pushed the foot of his boot into Veyl's belly.

  Veyl gasped and curled up instinctively, rolling into a ball on his side.

  "You move, I'll cut your tendons." Lirin growled, stepping hard on the heels of Veyl's boots so he made no mistake of the meaning.

  Veyl laid very still, gulping in air. Whatever Lirin had done to cause the pain was already fading and his extremities tingled as though they were just waking up.

  His mind raced through possibilities—if he ran now, how far could he make it? Veyl went through the steps of staggering, up, feet slipping as he stumbled forward… the sound of Lirin shouting after him…tree branches smacking sharp and hard against his face, tangling in his hair…shedding the wet cloak as Lirin grabbed it…spinning until he was dizzy but running, ever blindly through the woods…finally, breaking through the trees…and there is Kaidos, stern-faced, holding a bow at the ready to protect him…scooping him into the safety of his arms…

  "You ain't passed out already have you?"

  Veyl winced, as Lirin grabbed the back of his neck and he realized his movement had all been in his head. He reached up, trying to pry the bruising fingers loose and Lirin caught his hands quickly, deftly circling them with a length of rough hemp before letting Veyl drop. Then Veyl was dragged by the piece of rope by his arms. His feet skittered thorough the moist earth to try and keep the pressure off of his shoulders as he struggled to follow.

  Lirin stopped in front of a tree and threw the rope over a branch, forcing Veyl's arms up above his head.

  "No—please!" Veyl begged, worried that Lirin meant to rip his arms from their sockets.

  Lirin pushed Veyl back until he was sitting against the base of the tree with his arms stretched over his head. He then shoved a bitter knot of fabric into Veyl's mouth. After quieting him, Lirin made a campfire and brought out his farrier kit, tending to the horse's bare hoof. He moved around the campsite humming softly to himself, and going about his tasks as if Veyl wasn't even there. He even made himself some dinner and ate it without offering Veyl so much as a bite.

  Veyl hadn't eaten in well over a day, and the canteen he'd taken had unfortunately been the one full of wine, so he'd only sipped a little when necessary, to keep from getting drunk. Right now, he wished he'd taken enough to make him pass out. No doubt, there would have been a nice warm breakfast had he stayed at the inn rather than taken it upon himself to try and do the impossible and escape. Look where it had gotten him. Right back where he'd started but under far worse circumstances. His stomach clawed at him from the inside and his mouth was dry--made more so by being forced around the large knot of fabric. Despite the dire calamity of his situation, Veyl would not cry. If not out of pride then out of the fact that this man did not deserve to have his tears.

  Lirin had finished his dinner and he sat back with his pipe, lazily smoking as he stared at Veyl from the opposite side of the campfire. It was too much to hope for that Lirin would leave him alone, so Veyl staked his hopes on passing out from hunger before Lirin began pawing him. Alas, it was not to be.

  Lirin had eaten rabbit for dinner that he'd caught just after they'd arrived and Veyl noticed now that he had some left. He retrieved something from his pack sitting next to him on the ground--a small jar--and he dipped his fingers inside. He then began smearing some kind of paste over the meat, his pipe between his teeth the whole time. When he was satisfied that he'd marinated the piece enough, he set down his pipe and crawled over Veyl.

  "Dinner." Lirin said and used one hand to loosen the gag while the other held the rabbit haunch very close to his face.

  "N-no..." Veyl shook his head as his stomach knotted itself from terror while churning with acid in anticipation of food. He recognized the scent of the substance that Lirin had smeared on the rabbit. It was something he'd not only brewed before, but also at times used and administered: a powerful aphrodisiac. Veyl turned his head away, pursing his lips as Lirin smeared the greasy, drugged meat over his mouth. The man's patience was frightening, because it came with cold calculation.

  Veyl cried out as Lirin pressed into a spot on his face that forced his mouth open. The pain and pressure threatened to unhinge his lower jaw. As soon as this happened, Lirin shoved the food into his mouth.

  "That's right, swallow it down. Wouldn't want you going hungry, now would we?" Lirin grinned; that horrible tooth-filled expression that confirmed he was a man without a soul. He remembered what Lirin had done to his own brother for years without compassion or remorse. Veyl choked down the food and shortly the first burning tingles of the drug's effects began to manifest.

  The most immediate effect was a languor that made Veyl's tongue feel thick in his mouth, and his entire body heated up. He had no control of the blood rushing to his cock, nor did he have control of the itch that started deep inside. His body ached and tingled as though his blood had turned into thousands of crawling insects, every bit of his skin becoming hypersensitive so that even the movement of air raised goosebumps.

  He whimpered as Lirin began to cut his clothing off with his knife, the man's icy gaze relishing as his body was revealed, and the occasional tiny nick of the blade raised a thread of blood along his golden flesh.

  Lirin leaned down and whispered into Veyl's ear, his breath hot and acrid as he ran the tip of the blade menacingly around one nipple. "I'm wondering...when I shove my cock up your ass, will my little brother's seed ease the way?"

  Veyl began to cry.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  A Brother’s Request

  As the sky turned darker,
so too did Kaidos' hope of finding Veyl this night, though he would not give up until fate proved to him there was no longer any use in looking. He'd been bouncing between emotional states all day: first came anger, then concern, then determination, and now something coming close to despair.

  He understood that Veyl did not love him, and had only been with him by force, but the time Kaidos spent caring for him at Thieves Den had changed his perception of his prisoner. He didn't know if what he felt was love, but it was enough to make him want to give up everything and take Veyl home to Aaullsworthe. And that was what he'd intended to do, coming to the decision as he'd been wandering the streets to try and clear his head.

  If only he'd had a handle on his past, enough to have quietly accepted Veyl's sexual request. It wasn't anything Kaidos hadn't fantasized about before. But the worry that he would only see Lirin, or that his memory of the act had been tainted by trauma, had made the prospect impossible to face at that moment.

  But what he wouldn't give to have that moment back now. The hour was late, and Kaidos had to accept the fact that he had no choice but to find a place to camp for the night.

  Something ahead in the roadway caught his eye as he was almost turning off the path. He got down off his horse to investigate and saw it was a knife--his knife.

  On the muddy road, several hoof prints crossing atop one-another showed that two riders had met and turned off the path where his knife lay. There were also human footprints in the road that Kaidos noticed went back up the path a ways, heading from north to south. One man was walking, and the lack of prints heading south confirmed that the group had exited the road.

  If these were Veyl's tracks, whom did he meet along the way...and did he go with them willingly? Kaidos' heart began to pound harder in his chest. The tracks were a few hours old at best, likely only having remained because of the lack of nighttime travel along the roads. Nausea welled up as he began to worry that he may never see Veyl alive again, and the belief that it would be his fault.

  Broken blades of grass at the edge of the path told Kaidos that the travelers had gone west into the forest. He started to follow them, when he heard a scuffle in the trees.

  Kaidos hissed, crouching low. Maybe he'd found Veyl, and maybe Veyl was in trouble. His hand gripped his dagger until his knuckles went white.

  He tied his horse to a tree at the edge of the woods and followed the noises.

  Running headlong into the forest to confront who or whatever it was had occurred to him, but doing so could actually make things worse for Veyl, assuming he was in danger. Kaidos pressed his teeth into his tongue, letting the pain focus him as he forced himself to remain as stealthy as his thieving had made him. As he moved with cultivated silence, he listened for any sound that could be Veyl's voice.

  The voices of men could be heard now, as Kaidos drew closer. Squinting his eyes, he made out a campfire through the trees and the shadows of at least five men with horses--not a common thing for bandits by any means. Bandits in this region remained in small groups, and worked more from the trees.

  A voice rose up in volume, slightly louder than the rest. It was a deep voice with a precise inflection.

  "Is he alive?"

  "Yes, sir," another man answered.

  "Thank the gods--let's get back to the camp. We'll tend to him there."

  "Yes, Captain."

  A military unit? Kaidos felt both giddy and nauseous at the same time. He wasn't going to be a fool and try to take on a group of soldiers, no matter how small their number. But hearing that they had found a man—apparently close to death—was concerning.

  If it were Veyl, the probability of them immediately recognizing him as male was low. Kaidos had even managed to convince himself during Veyl's initial abduction that he was a woman with a particularly minuscule set of breasts. So it was with this in mind that he tried to get a better angle for viewing, but could make out nothing of the man of whom they spoke. Still, if it wasn't Veyl, it would mean that Kaidos' search would continue, but by the morning, he feared the trail would have gone too cold. Again, Kaidos tried to make himself exist in the moment.

  Kaidos moved a little and found a better spot for viewing. It was then that he could make out a familiar crest—the lion of Aaullsworthe—emblazoned in orange and gold on one of the men's cloaks, and his nausea increased tenfold.

  Aaullsworthe, and that must be Guard Captain Engel. So it appeared he had come after Veyl after all.

  "Let's move out, men. We've got what we came for." The man that Kaidos suspected was Engel barked. In his arms, Kaidos could make out a bundle, and a streamer of mud-streaked golden hair as the Guard Captain swung his horse around and moved along with his men to the opposite side of the clearing.

  Nausea turned to anger. Someone had hurt Veyl, brought him to a point near death enough to warrant concern. Kaidos' hand tightened even further on his dagger, until his palm began to sting and his fingertips went numb.

  He waited until he was certain that the soldiers were clear before stepping into the glade. His gut twisted at the remnants of torn clothing—oxblood leather and a white shirt—near a tree where a rope still hung from the branches. What the hell had happened here? His immediate thought was to run after the troops and demand to see that Veyl was all right; but a Wanderer rampaging into a soldiers camp in the wee hours before dawn was a sure way to end up dead. Kaidos swallowed the acid in his throat and turned away from the tree.

  He heard a moan then, coming from the other side of a log near the smoking campfire. It was the guttural sound of a man very close to death. So the soldiers had gotten the bastards who hurt Veyl. He would certainly be happy to finish off whoever remained.

  Kaidos moved around to the other side of the log and froze. His guts clenched when he saw the man's bloodied face.

  "Lirin..." Kaidos crouched beside him, trying to see the wounds through all of the blood.

  "Brother. Ironic." Lirin chuckled, the sound ended with a soft wheeze. "Looks like neither of us will end up with the beauty or the money."

  "Stop talking--I need to stop the blood." It was a justifiable way to prevent Lirin from confirming what he feared to be true—that he had been the one to hurt Veyl, rather than coming upon him in an already questionable state and trying to offer aid.

  Lirin shook his head, "I'm done. I'm bleeding inside and out..." Lirin began to giggle then, an unsettling high-pitched warble, punctuated with the rasp of blood in his lungs, "Just as you were, my brother, the first time I claimed your ass."

  "Shut up!" Kaidos felt the tears stinging hot at his eyes. He felt helpless, and at the same time, felt little urge to help. What Lirin had done to him throughout the years was one thing, but to visit it on another person—on Veyl—showed just how deeply twisted this man he'd once called brother was.

  Kaidos could see the ragged ends of broken ribs through the tears in Lirin's shirt. He must have fought hard what he should have recognized to be a losing battle.

  "Where, Lirin--where is he? Where is Veyl?" Kaidos knew the answer, but it kept him from asking the question at the forefront of his concern: what the hell did you do to him?

  Lirin coughed up a gout of blood that spattered over his chin and glittered black in the filtered, hazy moonlight. "The soldiers," he wheezed. Lirin's countenance slipped then from bravado, to pale cold fear. He gripped the loose hem of Kaidos' shirt.

  "Please brother, don't let me suffer. If anyone has earned my death, it's you."

  Lirin's gaze briefly flashed down to where his sword lay useless a few feet away from his mangled hand; then he met Kaidos' eyes once again in silent entreaty. He'd already lost too much blood. Soon the wolves and scavengers would come and they would not wait for him to expire before they started feeding. Death was a small mercy, and one Kaidos was loathe to grant, but he was not without a soul or conscience.

  Kaidos got up stiffly and retrieved the sword, then returned to stand over his brother.

  He balanced the blade on Lirin's chest,
carefully fitting it between a place in his ribs so that when he shoved down, the end of the man's life would be immediate.

  Lirin looked up at him and smiled; something genuine, perhaps even apologetic. He spread his hand on his chest as if offering to help guide the blade through.

  Kaidos willed all of his anger, hurt, and hatred into the sword, so that he could release it, letting it die with Lirin. He closed his eyes, and put his weight onto the pommel, then shoved it down. There was only the sound of the blade cutting through muscle and flesh, a hiss of air through battered lungs, and Lirin was dead.

  Kaidos had never dreamed about this day. He'd never planned Lirin's death in his mind. He'd never worked through all of the things he would say to the brother who'd wounded him physically and scarred him to the depths of his soul.

  There was no great release. No feeling of absolution. Just a dead man lying still under his own sword.

  Kaidos wiped Lirin's blade clean on what little bit of unbloodied fabric he could find. Then he hastily buried him in a shallow grave and covered it as best he could with stones he'd found scattered around the clearing. He had to do this—not for Lirin, but to keep himself from running immediately to Veyl. If he went now, functioning purely on emotion, he would make a fatal mistake and lose Veyl forever.

  He was able to scavenge a few items from the campsite.The soldiers had taken both Lirin's and Veyl's horses, but left the worn Wanderer saddles behind. Kaidos grabbed his own and saddled up his ride, then picked his way quietly through the forest towards where he suspected the guard captain's unit would be.

  As much as he hated to admit it, the soldier's camp was probably the best place for Veyl now. They may have even had the foresight to bring a physic. Kaidos had no idea about the extent of Veyl's injuries--he didn't want to imagine what Lirin had done to him, but whatever it was, it had initially been mistaken for death.

  The thought filled Kaidos' guts with lead. He stopped a few yards inside the woods, and swung down from his horse, lashing the reins to a tree. With singular purpose, he strode back to the clearing where he'd buried Lirin's body and stood over the gravesite. Then he unfastened his breeches, pulled out his cock, and pissed all over his dead brother's grave. When he was finished, he tucked himself back inside, returned to his horse, and continued on his way.