[Brat 01] - Princess Brat

by Sharon Green

  “The first condition is that I don’t deal while tied to a chair,” Derand stated flatly, trying to project dignity despite being stark naked. “I want out of here and my clothes given back, and then we can sit down to a meal like two gentlemen to discuss this. We’ll also have to work out a way for me to be out of your reach when my friend is finally in it, otherwise – ”

  “I think that’s enough,” Waysten interrupted, no longer showing ridiculing amusement. “If you’d had any intention of going through with a deal, you would have the conditions all worked out and ready to present. Instead what you’re doing is stalling for time, probably hoping that your people will somehow get in here and free you. But that isn’t going to happen, and you need to believe it as truth before you’ll be ready to speak. Let’s get started with that now, shall we?”

  He stepped aside to give the two men with him access to his captive, and Derand had to grit his teeth to keep from saying something wild and frightened. The men were carrying rolled up packages that had to contain torture instruments, a certainty that turned Derand’s blood cold. He’d have to hold hard to the awareness that it was almost dark out, and even if his men weren’t able to free him, at least they’d be able to end his pain

  Just as the men approached Derand, a servant entered the room and went over to whisper something to his prince. Waysten looked surprised, but there was some sort of pleasure behind the surprise. Something had clearly happened, and Derand expected the torture to be delayed so he could be told about it, but that didn’t happen. Waysten simply walked out of the room, and the two men started their work –

  Elissia tapped a foot impatiently as she waited for Waysten to appear. She now stood in the palace’s main entrance hall, dressed in a gown and a cloak. Behind her stood her “maid,” with a uniformed guardsman in Waysten’s guard behind the two of them. Her maid also wore a long cloak, and Elissia had announced herself as the Princess Elissia, here to speak with Prince Waysten. She’d insisted on having Waysten come to her there at once, rather than letting any of the servants show her to “a more comfortable place to wait.” There were a lot of people coming and going – and standing – in the entrance hall, and she wanted all of them to see Waysten greet her. It would hopefully go a short way toward seeing that she didn’t “disappear mysteriously.”

  Also, Elissia admitted to herself, it might be of help to the savage. If Waysten was having him hurt, he could well suspend the torture until he was able to return. The whole situation was chancy, but Elissia knew it ought to work if she handled it right –

  “Princess Elissia, what a delightful surprise,” she heard, and then Waysten was striding over to take her hand and bow over it. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

  “It’s hardly a pleasure for me, Prince Waysten,” Elissia told him coldly when he straightened up. “My father is terribly worried about Gardal, and I’ve come to find out if you know yet who is responsible for his kidnapping. I know you haven’t found him, otherwise you would have sent a messenger with the good news.”

  “Yes, of course I would have,” Waysten replied, instantly showing compassionate tragedy. “And unfortunately you’re quite right in saying I haven’t yet found your brother, but that dismal fact could well change at any moment. My people have captured someone who knows where your brother is being held, and we’re in the midst of questioning him right now. I’ll have you shown to an apartment where you can rest, and as soon as I have the answer I’ll – ”

  “Absolutely not,” Elissia said, using the tone Waysten had heard more than once before. “If there’s someone being questioned, I intend to be there to make sure the procedure isn’t being botched. There’s been talk about how long it’s taking you to find Gardal, but there will be much less of it if I’m there to witness what’s being done.”

  “You know, that’s very true,” Waysten murmured, the anger his eyes had shown having given way to surprised satisfaction. “Quieting the talk will be to my benefit, and being in the midst of things will be to yours. Very well, then, come along.”

  He offered her his arm, and Elissia made sure to show reluctance before taking it. Waysten knew she didn’t like him, so her being too eager to go along with him would have been out of character. They were only a few minutes away from it not mattering how suspicious he got, which meant it paid to be extra careful.

  Waysten led her to a set of stairs and then up, but he must have been thinking. They’d only climbed half way before he turned his head in her direction.

  “It’s odd that my gate people told me nothing of your arrival,” he mused, now watching her closely.

  “They have strict instructions to inform me when any of my neighbors come to call.”

  “It’s not odd at all,” Elissia immediately told him with a sound of ridicule. “They didn’t let you know I’d arrived because they didn’t know themselves. With people around who dislike my family so much that they kidnapped my brother, you expected me to let the world know I was here? My escort watched me enter the gates and some of them even saw me enter the palace, so my father and his allies know I’ve gotten here safely. The people who kidnapped my brother, though, have no idea.”

  “Yes of course,” Waysten muttered, his expression now hooded. “What a lucky thing you’re so clever ”

  Lucky thing, right, Elissia thought as they continued to the top of the stairs. We’ll find out how lucky you think it is if – when - this scheme works. And it had better hurry up, because we’re quickly running out of time

  Waysten led the way to another wing of the palace, and from there to one of the inner rooms. Elissia’s “maid” followed them with the guardsman behind her, and they all walked into the room behind Waysten.

  “I’m afraid he really is rather stubborn, Your Highness,” one of the two men standing in the room said to Waysten while the guardsman closed the door behind all of them. “He withstood the pain until he fainted from it, and will probably do the same again when we rouse him. I have to recommend that we begin to remove parts of his body.”

  “I wanted to avoid that,” Waysten said with annoyance as he moved toward the man. “We’ll eventually have to turn his body over to someone, and the worse condition it’s in, the worse I’ll look. Well, he is the one responsible for kidnapping Prince Gardal, after all. Getting the prince back alive and unhurt will be all the vindication I’ll need. All right, wake him up and get started.”

  Elissia had nearly been sick at seeing all the blood that covered the savage’s unconscious body, but there wasn’t enough time for her to be delicate and womanlike. It looked like they’d gotten there just in time, so she turned to Renni and took what had been hidden under Renni’s cloak. The bow was strung a moment after she had it in her hands, and an instant later there was an arrow in the string. She also held two more arrows in her left hand, where they would be quickly available.

  And now that she was completely ready, she turned and loosed at the man who was standing ready to “remove parts” of the savage’s body. Waysten jumped back with an exclamation of fear as the man choked from the arrow in his throat and began to collapse, and the second man who had been trying to rouse the savage froze where he was. By then there was a second arrow in her string, and she turned to aim it at Waysten.

  “What are you doing?” a terrified Waysten demanded in a cracking voice, and then he seemed to notice the guardsman for the first time. “You! Don’t just stand there, get that bow away from her before she kills me as well!”

  “You can’t kill him, Your Majesty,” Listan said with his hand on her shoulder, ignoring Waysten completely. “We may need him at some point, so we have to keep him alive.”

  Waysten goggled at the man he thought was one of his own, an expectation Elissia had been counting on. When you see a man in the uniform of your guard and you’re as thick in the head as Waysten, you assume he’s one of yours. Other people learn the faces of those who belong around them, but Waysten had always been much too good to bo
ther with the lower orders.

  “I’m not sure I can imagine a time when we might need him,” Elissia said, the bow held steady and the arrow aimed at Waysten’s heart. “After all, who could possibly care about him?”

  “Please, Elissia, please don’t kill me,” Waysten whispered, his face a mask of terror. He also looked as though he were about to faint, which was what Elissia had wanted. If Listan thought the slime ought to be kept alive, Elissia wasn’t going to ignore the advice. But Waysten had a lot to pay for, and letting him off easy wasn’t something she felt prepared to do.

  “I’ll think about letting you live,” Elissia granted after a long moment that nearly saw Waysten collapse.

  “But you’re not going to be allowed to stand there as if you were of some kind of importance. You, the other butcher! Take Prince Slime and tie him to that device over there.”

  The second torturer was being watched by Listan, who now had his sword in his hand. The man started when Elissia spoke to him, then followed the motion of her head to see what device she meant. The thing was a wide bench with a high padded mound of sorts in the middle, with leather buckles and things at the base of both sides of the mound. Elissia didn’t know what the thing was normally used for, but she knew well enough what she intended with it.

  “Oh, come now,” Waysten actually protested when he realized where Elissia wanted him. “You don’t really mean to put me there. There are so many other places in this room – ”

  “Your choice is there or nowhere,” Elissia interrupted quietly. She wanted Waysten to understand that she was deadly serious, not playing some kind of game. “If you’re not tied down in one minute from now, no one will ever have to worry about tying you again.”

  “All right, all right, don’t let that arrow loose,” Waysten quavered, then he moved to the device with great reluctance. But he did move to it and then arranged himself face down over the mound, whereupon the second torturer began to fasten the straps and buckles. It turned out that they went around both arms just above the elbows and around both legs just above the knees, and in little more than the minute she’d specified, Waysten was firmly held by the thing.

  “Perfect,” Elissia proclaimed, releasing the tension on the bow but not putting it down or taking the arrow from the string. “Now go and get that heavy switch hanging on the wall.”

  Waysten began to babble something in protest, but the torturer only glanced at Elissia before doing as she said. If her expression was half as unyielding as the rest of her felt, the torturer was very wise to obey. The bow could be bent again as easily as it had been relaxed, and the man seemed to know that very well indeed.

  “Good,” Elissia said when the switch had been gotten and brought back. “If I can’t kill the man yet, that doesn’t mean I can’t give him my thanks for having kidnapped my brother and almost causing his death. You’ll be using the switch on your former master, and you’d better not take it easy on him. But haven’t you forgotten something? He’s not completely ready for your attention yet.”

  The man hesitated with worry in his eyes, but he knew that he had no choice at all. After the brief hesitation he put the switch aside for a moment, worked to loosen and lower Waysten’s trousers, then picked up the switch again.

  “You can’t do this to me!” Waysten bellowed, struggling uselessly against the leather binding him. “I’m the ruler of this kingdom, and soon I’ll be ruler of every kingdom!”

  “If you’re very lucky, you’ll be the ruler of a prison cell,” Elissia told him coldly. “But I really would not count on that if I were you. They’ll be fools if they let you live, and I don’t think they’re fools. All right, you can get started now.”

  The torturer had Waysten’s bare bottom now before him, and it seemed clear that he knew what to do with one. He raised the switch and brought it whistling down, and Waysten jumped and howled. Elissia was about to tell the man not to be so gentle, when she really looked at his expression. He was a professional engaged in the job he knew best, so she just stood there and watched him work.

  Each stroke left a long mark on Waysten’s bottom, one that was an angry red. The torturer struck him half a dozen times in one direction, then shifted his stance to strike him the same number of times with the strokes landing in the opposite direction. In a very short while Waysten’s bottom was criss-crossed with angry red lines, and Waysten himself had started to cry.

  That was when the torturer shifted his stance again, and now brought the switch down on Waysten’s seat directly across those other, sideways strokes. Waysten howled and screamed and fought to get loose, but it wasn’t possible to avoid what was being done to him. His entire bottom and a bit of his thighs were taking the brunt of the very serious spanking, and the torturer just seemed to be warming up.

  “It’s too bad his father didn’t do something like that to him many years ago,” Listan murmured from Elissia’s right. “If he had, we all might have been saved a good deal of trouble. How are we going to tell when our people have entered the palace?”

  “I’ll wait outside and listen for them if you like,” Renni offered at once. She’d been flinching every time the switch reached Waysten, clearly feeling sympathy for a man who deserved none at all.

  “That doesn’t strike me as the safest arrangement,” Listan told her with a supportive smile. “If any guardsmen come running up looking for the prince, they’ll be frantic enough not to care who they run over. I’d better stand outside the door myself.”

  Elissia nodded her agreement to that, so Listan went and slipped out the door. He was obviously being careful not to keep the door open long enough for anyone to hear Waysten’s screams, but it really didn’t matter. People must be very well used to hearing screams from that room

  “Renni, will you please go over and see if there’s anything you can do for – Waysten’s victim?” Elissia asked, not quite up to calling the man a savage when he lay covered in his own blood because of someone who called himself noble. “I’ve got to keep my eye on that pair.”

  “I’ll be glad to, Elissia,” Renni agreed at once, then hurried over to the unconscious man. Her hurry was probably caused by the way Waysten was now screaming, “No! No! No more! No!” His seat was more than just blazing red, the weals caused by the heavy switch beginning to open and bleed. But the torturer was ignoring him the way he’d undoubtedly ignored past victims, and just kept stroking his bottom with that switch.

  Elissia let the spanking go on until it had undeniably become a beating, and then she ordered the torturer to stop. By then Waysten lay with his head hanging and his screams muted to high-pitched, frantic whimpers, and probably wasn’t completely conscious any longer. The torturer was directed to throw away the bloody switch, and then he was told to crawl into a small cage which stood to one side of the room. The man wasn’t very anxious to go into the cage, but with the bow spanned again and the arrow aimed directly at him, he did as he was told. Elissia followed to latch the door of the cage firmly behind him, and then she was free to walk over to the chair where the savage still lay unconscious.

  “Most of the bleeding has stopped, but he isn’t coming around,” Renni fretted when Elissia came up beside her. “He must be really badly hurt, more so than I can see. Those cuts are deep and must be very painful, and he really needs a doctor. I’ve removed the restraints from him, but there’s nothing else to do that I can think of.”

  “If he’d told them I was the one who set my brother free, they probably wouldn’t have hurt him as badly,” Elissia said, reaching out to gently brush back a lock of his hair. “My plan against Waysten would never have worked after that, but I don’t think he considered that. He simply refused to betray me, even after I turned my back on him.”

  “What do you mean, you turned your back on him?” Renni asked, the sharpness suddenly clear in her eyes. “What could you possibly have to do with him? And what – ”

  Renni’s list of questions ended abruptly when the door was flung open and
Listan led a large group of other men inside. The newcomers held bloody swords and were dressed in the black leather of the savage’s guard, and Listan wore an expression of great satisfaction.

  “A good portion of the palace is already ours, and the rest will fall to us in its turn,” he announced, then turned to a man in the midst of the others who wasn’t wearing black leather. “The High King is over here, Doctor, and he needs your attention rather badly.”

  The group of men edged Elissia and Renni out of the way in their eagerness to get closer to their king, and Elissia made no effort to keep it from happening. In fact, her business there was completely done, so when the next group of black-clad fighters came into the room, Elissia eased out the door behind them and headed out of the palace.

  Chapter 11

  copyright 1999, 2002 by Sharon Green

  Derand awoke to find someone smoothing some kind of salve on the wounds on his chest. He still hurt quite a bit, but the sight of a lot of black leather was both a relief and a surprise. He’d been sure he was waking up to more of what had sent him down to blackness to begin with

  “Don’t try to move yet, my king,” a voice said, and then Listan was bending over him. “The palace is almost completely ours, so there’s nothing you have to move around for. Just let the doctor finish seeing to you, and then we’ll get you to a chamber where you can sleep.”

  “Listan, have I ever told you what a beautiful sight you are in spite of that uniform you’re wearing?” Derand asked, delighted with this very unexpected turn of events. “I don’t know how you come to be here – with me still alive to see it – but I do know what kind of reward you’ll be getting. Not to mention a promotion to the place of my chief strategist.”

  “I’m afraid the reward and promotion belong to someone other than me,” Listan replied with a grin. “We located the queen just before we found out you’d been taken, so I went to her for help. Prince Gardal was with her and immediately offered to trade himself for you, but she refused to allow that. Instead she ordered gowns for herself and her woman friend and a guardsman’s uniform for me, and then she just walked us into the palace and demanded to see the prince. When he appeared she got him to bring us right to this room, at the same time soothing away his suspicion. Her woman friend, pretending to be her maid, had a bow and quiver hidden under her cloak. Once we were in here she took the bow, killed one of those who had been torturing you, and then held Prince Waysten at arrow point. The prince hadn’t bothered to bring any other guardsmen with him because he thought I was one of his. Then we just waited until our fighters made it this far.”