Bridled Lust

by Faith Eden

  ‘Very observant, my lady,’ the warrior girl said. ‘Yes, I am from Yslandia and I am a Valkyr, Hella Valkyr Mirisopaluna Hildisdottir by name, or Opal to my friends.’

  ‘And your friends attacked the camp earlier?’ Corinna said.

  Opal nodded. ‘Your friends too, my lady,’ she said. ‘I suspect they are striking some sort of bargain with Fulgrim down there, but quite what I cannot be sure. His life for yours, I expect, but then he does not have your life to offer, does he?’ She looked at Halit again, still frozen with fear.

  ‘He doesn’t look much without his whip and horse, does he?’ she sneered. She looked back to Corinna and her eyes narrowed with sudden understanding. ‘Ah,’ she said, ‘methinks it is not his whip that has tamed you to the bit.’ Corinna opened her mouth to protest at this blatant insult, but words refused to form. Opal shrugged.

  ‘No matter,’ she said. ‘It really is none of my business who or what you choose to lie with, nor anything else really, save that I must ask you to come with me now and come quickly. As for this thing,’ she said, nodding at Halit, ‘I think the best thing would be for me to shoot him, but then he is unarmed I see, and you do seem to have some sort of affection towards him.

  ‘So, master Halit,’ she said, ‘you may keep your life, for what it is worth, but not your pony princess, for she belongs to another. And just to make sure you are not foolish enough to try to interfere, I’m afraid I must do this.’ So saying and without even the flicker of an eyelid, Opal pulled the trigger on her crossbow and its iron bolt hissed across the few yards between her and its target.

  Halit screamed and fell back, clutching his thigh and the length of shaft that projected from it. Corinna gasped and made to move towards him.

  ‘Leave him, lady,’ Opal growled. ‘He has his life and for that he has you to thank. Now I must get you safely away from here and if I have to I shall carry you bodily, but get you away I shall. Now, will you walk, Lady Corinna?’

  ‘Do you think the Vorsans will try to follow us?’ Jekka sat astride her horse, looking back along the trail towards the hillside they had just left. ‘We should have kept Fulgrim longer, perhaps.’

  ‘Fulgrim will almost certainly still march on Garassotta and try to lay siege to it, even though he no longer has Corinna,’ Alanna said. ‘He still has a formidable force, especially when he joins up with the Vorsans who are coming via Sorabund, but I gave my word, Vala Marisjekka Marisalannasdottir, and you know what that means.’

  ‘Indeed, my lady,’ Jekka replied, ‘but what does it mean when you use the name to which your mother said I was never to be entitled?’

  ‘It means, my deadly little friend,’ Alanna smiled, ‘that I at least think you are more worthy of that name than any could imagine. One day, assuming of course that our little adventures do not finally kill us first, I shall be Queen of Yslandia, and then all will know your name and for what courage and loyalty it stands.’

  ‘I thank you, my lady,’ Jekka grinned. She nodded to the wagons and horsemen ahead of them on the trail. ‘And what of the Lady Corinna’s name? Her good name, that is?’

  ‘Ah, you saw it in her face too, did you?’ she said quietly.

  Jekka snorted. ‘No, I heard it from Opal’s lips, just as she overheard it direct from Lady Corinna’s in the first place.’

  ‘Ah yes, our youngest Valkyr,’ Alanna mused. ‘Very brave and very fierce for one so young, and yet she perhaps needs to learn the art of discretion. I have spoken briefly to her regarding that, for there are some secrets that are better never repeated - including one of her own.’

  ‘Oh?’ Jekka said. ‘Aahh... you spoke to Moxie as well, did you?’

  ‘Moxie? I didn’t think Moxie was even there.’

  ‘She wasn’t, my lady,’ Jekka agreed, ‘but our little warrior maid has something about her that seems to attract the confidence of certain people, and something about her also that seems to make it impossible for her to keep her mouth shut afterwards.’

  ‘Perhaps none of us is ever blameless, eh Marisjekka?’ Alanna chuckled.

  Vala Marisjekka Marisalannasdottir drew herself up to her full height in the saddle, ran a hand across her peculiarly cut hair and shrugged.

  ‘I really don’t know what you mean, Vala Valkyr Kirislanna Friggitsdottir,’ she smirked. ‘I’m sure I really do not know what you mean.’

  Which is, for now at least, an ending of sorts, dear reader.

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