The Duke's Handmaid (Book 1 of the Ascendancy Trilogy)

by Caprice Hokstad

  kee shook her head as she thrust the parchment toward him more forcefully. She didn’t belong on the duke’s land. She didn’t want to be seen. If he would just take the parchment, her mission would be fulfilled and she could crawl away and die.

  The lieutenant frowned. “I have to get you inside. The duke would have my head if I didn’t take care of you first. You know that.”

  kee was about to protest, but she could only cough. Windrider picked her up just as two more guards bounded out of the guardhouse, wide-eyed and breathless.

  “One of you run for a healer and get Captain Shil. I’m taking her up to the keep. Someone take my post. There’s a threat on the duke, so be vigilant.” One of them darted out the open gate; the other locked the gate behind him and stood guard.

  kee whimpered to Windrider, begging him to let her down. He whispered assurances the duke would grant her immunity for running away. If only she cared. So what if Master Terzak found out now? What more punishment could he possibly assign? She never thought the duke would turn her over to Terzak, unless she was completely mistaken about what the parchment said. If that were so, her entire life would be some great empyrean joke. Stupidity like that would deserve death. Whether Terzak entered the picture or not, kee didn’t think she would live.

  Why must she have to appear before Duke Vahn looking so horrible? Worse, what would happen if Duchess Saerula answered the door? kee knew how much the duchess hated her. It was simply unfair to have to be called a “filthy Itzi harlot” when one was dying. kee lapsed out of consciousness.

  * * *

  Windrider frowned and quickened his pace toward the front of the keep. “Hold on, kee,” he whispered. It was dark, but he could see extensive wounds. The great ebony doors burst open before he arrived. The duke rushed out to investigate the bugle alert. Windrider hurried through. Duke Vahn blinked as he passed. “It’s kee, your highness,” Windrider explained quickly. “I already sent someone for a healer and Captain Shil.”

  * * *

  Vahn was stupefied. kee here in the middle of the night? Was something wrong at Mors Manor? Why would Terzak send kee and not someone on horseback? Why did Windrider need a healer? He fumbled with his lamp to shed some light. He was appalled with what he saw. This could not be kee. Not his kee. “What in Byntar...?” he gasped. Vahn choked back his emotions as he directed the lieutenant to lay her on a couch.

  Windrider set her down gently, then lifted the parchment from her bony fingers. “This, your highness, is why she escaped. She says Marquis Terzak is planning to kill you.” Windrider handed over the parchment.

  He was too busy scrutinizing kee’s condition to absorb his lieutenant’s report. Vahn knelt at the couchside and placed his hand to her gaunt cheek. It was so cold. He saw the gruesome attack injuries and winced in sympathy. She was still breathing, but unconscious. The lieutenant’s words registered on him belatedly.

  “Kill me?” Why would Terzak want me dead? Vahn had been lenient about the business deal. He took kee’s frail hand in his, held the parchment in his other hand, and read. Not only did the parchment confirm Terzak wanted him dead, but Vahn realized that he would have walked right into the trap in another day. “She saved my life,” he said quietly.

  Windrider nodded, backed away, and watched in silence. Vahn could not hold back the tears. He kissed the blood-stained back of the hand he held. He dropped the parchment to a table to free his other hand. Gently, he brushed dirt-matted hair from her forehead. He pulled a blanket over her shivering form. “kee, I am so sorry,” he whispered to her. “Please don’t die. There’s a healer coming. Hold on.”

  * * *

  That Voice. kee never could resist that Voice. It penetrated her subconscious and stirred her eyelids to flutter. With consciousness came pain. It registered on her face and in the low moan uttered against her will. Damn. She knew he was here, yet she couldn’t control herself. She coughed weakly, then attempted an answer. “kee... will... try.” Her voice was hoarse and broken. She almost slipped and called him “Master”. She knew she had no right to call him that.

  “Shhh. Save your strength. We can talk later. Just listen right now.”

  kee nodded her understanding of the instruction. Her eyes had never quite made it open in the first place. It was just as well. Whether he was Master under law made no difference; she would not look him in the eyes without permission. As for him looking at her? Well, she tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. She rested her eyes and listened.

  “kee, it was wrong of me to use you and the other girls like I did. I should have stood up to Saerula. I should have told her no. Instead I did everything she asked and she left me anyway—left with that inept knave Jallor. She took Dauntere too. I didn’t even have the strength to face you—to check on how you were being treated. Now look at what Terzak has done. Kilbash! Didn’t he feed you?”

  kee barely nodded.

  “I can never repay you for saving my life. You even saved the king and queen. You’re a national heroine and I’ll see everyone knows it. As for Terzak, he’s a dead man. Even if he wasn’t a traitor, I’d cut his entrails out for what he’s done to you.”

  kee coughed. He didn’t know the half of it. She wished she could tell him about xassa. She didn’t have the energy even if he gave her permission to speak. She drank in his every word, latching on to the sound of his matchless Voice like a lifeline. She was deeply comforted with his kind words and soft tone. What more could she wish for than to be in his presence?

  “kee, is there anything I can do for you?” he asked softly, squeezing her hand.

  “Yes,” kee gurgled. She was attempting to gather a better voice when he spoke.

  “Name it. Anything.”

  “Take his bands off, please?” She didn’t want to live another minute belonging to Terzak.

  “Of course, Lady Keedrina,” he whispered as he released her hand. She winced at her old, meaningless name. The duke turned to Windrider, still waiting behind him. “Run down to the dungeon and grab the bolt cutters.” kee raised one leg a bit, cringing at the effort. She didn’t know if he had noticed the steel Ringed band. “Bring the keys too. If I know Terzak, this is the same ankle band I gave him.”

  kee nodded, attesting that it was indeed his old band. Windrider dashed off. Her spirits perked a little despite the pain. Terzak’s bands would come off. It was too bad the zupwolf had bit the wrong arm. The branded Owner’s Mark was undisturbed. Live or die, she was stuck with it. She tried not to dwell on petty problems. She just wanted to be with Duke Vahn—to think of happier days, like the day she was first banded, or the day she came home from the ITC.

  Windrider returned quickly with the ordered items. The duke unlocked her steel band first, shaking his head when he saw how bony her ankle was underneath. He manipulated the large cutters carefully for minimum interference with her wounds. Her left wrist was exceptionally tricky. When she offered her right wrist, he saw the MM brand and scowled. “Lady Keedrina, did you consent to this branding?”

  She gulped. Why did he have to see that shameful thing? “kee was never asked for consent. Master Terzak wished it. kee submitted.”

  “What was he punishing you for?” Something in his tone assured her he was sympathetic.

  “Nothing kee knows of. It was just done so kee would belong to him forever.” She sniffled; she couldn’t stop the tears, yet the crying only exacerbated her pain.

  Duke Vahn winced and gently lifted her forearm to his slender lips. He placed a quick kiss to the despised mark. “You don’t belong to him any longer, Lady Keedrina. You are free. I’ll get these marks off somehow.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “You’re welcome.”

  It was too bad she was losing consciousness again. She wanted to bask in the moment, finally free of Terzak. She wanted to ask the duke not to call her Lady Keedrina. She wanted to hear the name he had given her from his lips again. She wanted to tell him so many things, but she had already ove
rdone it. Her eyelids fluttered; she fell back into darkness.

  Chapter 89

  Vahn fought a losing battle with his own tears. He laid his head to her chest and cried. The injured Itzi did not respond. Niles slipped into the room. “Just hold on, Lady Keedrina. The healer is coming,” Vahn implored through his tears.

  Niles looked a long moment before speaking. “Your highness, maybe we should clean the wounds?” he offered softly.

  Vahn’s head popped up. Why didn’t he think of that? He was so busy with handling her “last request” and anticipating the healer that he hadn’t thought of acting on his own. He cursed himself. “Yes, of course, thank you, Niles,” he murmured as he positioned his arms beneath her. He had told her not to give up. Now it was time he started behaving like he hadn’t. He lifted her easily—far too easily—and headed for the servant’s bathing room. Niles darted around him, holding a lamp and opening the door.

  Just before he entered, Vahn glanced over his shoulder to Windrider waiting at the end of the hall. “Go meet the healer and direct him here. Then go into the city and find a mage. Offer whatever is necessary to get one here. We could use all the help we can get.”

  “Yes, your highness,” Windrider replied, looking glad to have something useful to do.

  Vahn turned back to the bathing room to find Niles had already started the water running. Vahn knelt at tubside with his limp bundle. Carefully, he lowered Keedrina into the tub.

  “We should take those clothes off,” Niles said.

  Any other time, Vahn would have assumed prurient interest, but he had to agree. This was life and death. The healer would need to see everything—not that her ragged clothes hid much to begin with. “I know, but I don’t want to hurt her. I’ll cut them off,” Vahn said. As soon as he had Keedrina propped securely in the tub, he reached inside his boot and removed a dagger. He sliced what was left of a dirty, skimpy uniform and lifted it carefully away. Vahn shook his head in horror when he saw her ribcage showing through thin skin. At least the claw marks on her chest were not as severe as the ones on her cheek.

  Warm water filled the tub, loosening dirt, leaves, and twig fragments from her feet and legs. Niles stood by, ready to do the cleaning, but Vahn wouldn’t leave her. Vahn plucked up the sponge and started to clean the wounds above the waterline. Keedrina stirred and moaned. Vahn wondered if she woke because the cleaning caused pain or alleviated it. He whispered comforts to her as he continued to wash, struggling to hold his tears at bay.

  His thoughts drifted to the time she was in his house—everything had been so idyllic back then. How had he been so stupid to let her and the others go? The rage over her condition was hard to bury. Terzak’s death was assured, but the more Vahn seethed, the longer he wanted Terzak to suffer. If she died, there would be no end to the tortures he planned.

  At last, Pharn Patkus bustled breathlessly through the door. He was still gasping for breath when Vahn looked up. “Thank you for coming, milord. She’s gravely wounded. Looks like something attacked her.”

  “Zupwolves,” kee murmured. “Three of them.”

  “Good Heavens,” Vahn said in a hushed awe. He couldn’t imagine how she escaped three zupwolves. He almost asked her, but Patkus glared in such a way as to discourage it. He nodded agreement this wasn’t the time. Vahn moved aside to give the healer room. Patkus knelt near her chest while Vahn settled at her feet and continued washing, shaking his head at the new damage he found. She moaned some more and jerked her foot as he cleaned the mangled flesh.

  The bath water was littered with so much debris and blood that Patkus squinted to see her wounds. “Your highness, we need to get her out of the water. I can’t see anything and you’ve probably loosened clots here. Looks like she’s bleeding badly.”

  Vahn didn’t even take time to reply before he plunged his hands under the water to scoop her up. He stood slowly and surveyed the room. Niles placed several towels over her nude body. “Where do you want her?” Vahn asked.

  “We should put her somewhere comfortable. A bed or a couch,” the healer suggested. Her old bed was only feet away in the slave quarters. The mattresses Vahn gave his girls were thickly stuffed with feathers. Nevertheless, Vahn took his tenuous package past the slave quarters. Patkus followed closely. Niles remained behind.

  Vahn passed Great Throne Hall, where several couches stood, and headed straight for the stairs. There were guest bedrooms now empty since all the servants but Niles had vacated. These, too, were bypassed. He took her to the master chambers and laid her down on his own bed. He didn’t even attempt to protect the satin bedspread from the dirty water and blood.

  Patkus nodded approval and stepped to the fragile form in front of him. With care, he took the corner of the towel covering her and peeled it back. He studied her wounds one at a time, taking extra time with her left arm and the soles of her feet.

  “Keedrina, now you listen to me,” Patkus began as he urged pain-deadening kinchoo herbs into her mouth, “I am sick and tired of losing members of your family. There is no more room at the oak tree by the stream, so you have to stay with us. No one is giving you permission to die, so just forget that notion.”

  She nodded slightly, though her gaze was glassy and far away. Patkus motioned Vahn to join him across the room, then spoke in whispers. “I need some clean cloths for bandages. Her arm has an ugly chunk missing, but if we can get the bleeding stopped, I’m not too worried about it. I need to pull the sticks and gravel out of her feet. Too much dirt is up inside the wounds. Some of it is already in her blood. Her father died the same way. It won’t be today, but with her so skinny and malnourished...” Patkus trailed off.

  Vahn cringed. Patkus saw his face and whispered again. “You cannot let her know how bad this is. If she doesn’t fight, there is no hope at all. You must believe in her. You are the closest thing she has to family. You never saw the look on her face. I’ve seen her chained to Terzak’s wagon when she caught a glimpse of you. She loves you,” he whispered.

  Vahn blinked. The revelation was not as surprising as the fact Pharn Patkus had dared speak it. Something deep within him stirred. He couldn’t think about it now, but he let it drift around his consciousness. “I’ll get the cloths.” He turned to exit the chamber, but found Niles on his way in. He was carrying an old sheet, some towels, and a bottle of distilled spirits. Vahn managed a small smile. “You read my mind, Niles. Thank you.”

  Niles nodded as he delivered the supplies to the bedside. “You’re welcome. Just doing what I can for her. I’ve missed her around here.”

  “I know. So have I,” Vahn admitted.

  Patkus was pleased with the inventory Niles brought. The healer went to work. He tore the sheet, soaked it in the firewater, and made a bandage around the tiny arm. Blood soaked through. He placed a towel and then a second cloth around, this time tightening it. Keedrina groaned. Patkus apologized and tied it off. A little blood seeped through the second bandage, but not much.

  The healer settled at her feet and removed some tiny silver tongs from his satchel. He removed the offending litter from bony soles. Keedrina screamed as he picked in and out of her raw flesh. Vahn moved to the head of the bed and held her hand tightly, crying nearly as much as she did. Niles held her ankle so the healer could work.

  When Patkus finished, he grabbed a nearby basin and placed it under her feet. He lifted the bottle of spirits and looked at both Niles and Vahn to be sure they understood what he was about to do. “Hold her. This will hurt like a hot poker, but it will help with infection.” The two men held the frail girl. Keedrina jolted against them with surprising strength, letting out a sound somewhere between a scream and a moan, yet she quieted quickly. Vahn praised her for being so brave.

  She smiled through her tears. “Not quite as bad as a hot poker, Lord Patkus.” She coughed. Niles and Patkus chuckled.

  Vahn was silent. That insidious brand mark was made with the very instrument they chuckled over. He wondered how he would keep his prom
ise to her. “Milord, would you take a look at something?” he asked Patkus. With a gentle turning of the hand he held, the MM scar was exposed. “Have any idea how to get something like that removed?”

  Patkus scowled. “What did that fetid pile of koopchuk dung do to you, Keedrina?”

  She coughed. A meek voice, barely above a whisper, addressed the healer. “Mast—Marquis Terzak branded kee with an Owner’s Mark. It is old and unimportant. Duke Vahn said kee did not belong to him any longer. That is all that matters.”

  Patkus growled. “Doesn’t that pig know there are tattoos for that? You couldn’t possibly have done anything worth that kind of punishment.”

  “She did nothing at all,” Vahn said. He noticed that she still spoke in third person and called herself “Kee”. Those were usually the first to go when a slave was freed. Had Terzak so abused her that she feared him even now?

  “I’m sorry, your highness. I have no means of removing something like that,” Patkus said.

  “Perhaps the mage you sent for can help there,” Niles said.

  The mage! Of course. How long ago had Windrider left to find one? The suns were coming up and the room had lightened, but Vahn had no idea how much time had passed. Maybe a mage could help with the Mark and the infection too. Vahn’s countenance lifted a bit.

  Patkus bandaged her feet, then tended to the other wounds, dabbing them with the spirits and applying some salve. He left them unbandaged. Meticulously, he stitched the slashes on her face. Keedrina whimpered, but held still bravely. Vahn stayed at her side, shifting only to give the healer room to work. She smiled weakly when the treatments were finished. Vahn pulled a soft, thick comforter over her, wiped the last tear from her eye, and kissed her undamaged left cheek. “You should sleep, Lady Keedrina,” he whispered.

  “Does it not please you to call me ‘Kee’?”