Oathbound: The Emperor's Conscience, Book 2

by Michael Combs

  And call to them she did. As I touched her and teased her, she called to them. Several stopped their busy lives to watch the woman in the window struggle and writhe. They heard her beg. They heard her moan. They heard her curse and wail and thrash. Through it all, she reached for the knife.

  The Mata cut the tip of her index finger. A single bead of blood welled up and began its slow slow trek down her long, delicate digit. She had been thrashing against her bonds in an effort to reach the knife. Each of her wrists was tied to a bedpost. I was contending with her kicking legs when she lunged and nearly grasped the blade. I pulled her away, just out of reach, but the damage was done. I untied the wrist of her injured hand and held it in front of my face. I looked down into her emerald eyes and took her finger into my mouth, sucking it clean. She moaned her approval. I pinned her now free hand above her head to prevent her from getting into any more mischief and returned to my work. The Mata wrapped her legs around my waist and responded with vigor.

  I saw her stare at the blade embedded in the floor between her knees, and calculate. Gods, but she was sexy, bound as she was. I had tied leather straps just above her knees and secured them to recessed loops set in the floor. I had been just as surprised as Galateia when I discovered them. I was also in no better shape than this beautiful creature at the time. The Mata’s hands were lashed together at the wrists and secured to a single loop. I gave her a little extra slack this time. She needed some hope after all. At the ends of her fingers lay the knife. I had turned the edge away to prevent further injury, even though I enjoyed the taste of her skin. She thrashed against her bonds and cursed as she strained toward her goal. She froze in near panic when my shadow fell across her. Then she stiffened her back and her defiance returned.

  Gods, what a woman, I thought.

  I stood astride the knife, ran my fingers along her scalp as I grasped her hair. I pulled her head back and forced her to look up at me. Her eyes were wide and filled with anger.

  “You bastard,” she spat. “I will get that blade and then we will see who serves whom!”

  “You might,” I conceded. “But first, we are going to discuss your vulgarity.”

  The sounds of our pleasure filled the room and beyond. At one point, her screams and curses became so loud and so urgent that her guard kicked in the door, sword drawn, prepared to defend his mistress.

  I flew across the room with Aspect-enhanced speed and punched him, closed fist, square in the chest. The blow took his breath and stunned him completely for several seconds. Shani stood over him as he collapsed in the hall and struggled to rise. That was when the Mata began cursing.

  “I’m sorry, Evan,” Shani said. She was naked and panting from running up the stairs from her room. “We heard her screaming, and he just stormed out. He had a sword and everything. He threatened to kill anyone that tried to stop him, and—Oh my!”

  Shani’s eyes flew wide and her mouth dropped open. She seemed to have completely forgotten the armed guard gasping for breath at her feet.

  The Mata was suspended horizontally from the ceiling from a hook in the rafter. Four ropes led to bindings that intertwined with a thick, ornate braid, which started at her left shoulder and wound between her breasts in a gentle curve. It laced along her ribs and stopped at her right buttock which still carried faint welts from when we had discussed her attempt on my life. Her legs were bound with the same strands, one leg bent behind, toes pointing toward the ceiling, and the other foot bound to that thigh. She faced the floor to better view her prize and spun in a slow circle. Whenever her turn brought her near the dagger, she would lunge for it. Her hands flexed and stretched as she strained against her bonds to reach it.

  “We’re busy, Shani. Do you need something?” I asked.

  Shani didn’t move. She just stood there watching the helpless woman struggle. I heard a thump from behind me as the Mata struck the floor. She had gotten the knife and cut herself free. Shani looked on in fascination, and I in horror, as we watched Galateia cut the bindings from her body and rise. Blade in one hand and a fistful of ragged ropes in the other, she shook her hair from her face just as her guard began to rise.

  “Finally!” she said, staring lustily at the dagger in her hands. Then she turned her attention on Malcius.

  “Hessa’s tits,” I cursed.

  The naked, raging woman stomped toward the doorway.

  “I didn’t call for you, idiot!” she screamed. “I told you to leave me be! Now that I have my damned knife back, I’m going to use it on you for interrupting my entertainment!”

  Malcius turned and fled. I grabbed the furious Mata around the waist and half carried her back toward the bed as she beat at me and anything else in her reach with the mass of ropes.

  “Shut the door, Shani,” I said. “I’ll handle this.”

  Shani and Nan looked for all the world to be thinking small thoughts, trying to not be noticed, when the Mata and I descended the stairs. Galateia wore my longcoat and nothing else, as I had ruined her dress the previous night and one of her shoes had broken during our little dance. I resolved to buy some clothes in her size in case we had any more wardrobe mishaps.

  “I can’t believe you did this,” Galateia said. “You’re such an ass.”

  “I did promise you could keep it,” I said with a smile. “Next time I’ll not turn my back on you.”

  “Next time, I’ll stick you harder,” she said.

  We stopped at the bar, where Nan was going over the night’s earnings. Nan and Shani’s brows rose while they watched the Mata fumble and fail to manipulate the coat with a dagger tied to her fist. I had grown tired of losing track of it during our play, only to find that Galateia had remembered she had it when she started using it on me. After four or five pricks with the tip, I pinned her down, tore a pillowcase into strips, and bound the cursed thing to her hand. It was much easier to account for after that. I also told her, just for my amusement, that she wasn’t to remove it until she got home.

  “Help me, inside pocket, ” Galateia said, waving the knife around. “I’m a little tied up at the moment.”

  Shani failed to cover her snort with a cough.

  I reached inside the lapel of the coat and felt around for the pocket. I admit that I may have searched longer than I needed to. Galateia’s eyes widened and she blushed. I fished inside the pocket with a smirk and retrieved her purse.

  She took it and handed it to Nan. “Proprietor,” she said with a nod and turned for the door. I opened it for her, and her guard, Malcius, snapped to attention. “You,” she snarled, pointing the dagger at him. “I should probably thank you for barging in last night, but we will be having words when we return. Now, get the carriage.”

  Malcius sped away to comply.

  “Don’t be too hard on him, love. I hit him fairly hard,” I said.

  “That is the only reason I am not going to have him beaten,” she said.

  I kissed her.

  “Your husband will be jealous,” I said as I cupped her chin while we waited.

  “Nonsense,” she said. “If anything he will be grateful. I plan to use him to his fullest this morning. Not that I am unsatisfied, mind you. Quite the contrary. But it has been long since he has felt my touch. I think it is time he remembered it.”

  “Let’s hope he survives it,” I said, glancing at her bound hand.

  Galateia Haemund smiled her sexy, wicked smile. “Let’s hope he doesn’t.”

  Move-in Day

  Shani tried to kill me, and she giggled like a little maniac the entire time. We were driving down the road from the north gate of the city to gather Brother Balinar and his belongings and show him to his new temple. Willem had asked to come along, as he had never been outside the city before. I had rented a wagon and made the mistake of asking Shani if she wanted to drive. In her defense, she’d admitted she had never driven a wagon, and the one time she rode in one wasn’t a pleasant experience. I thought to change that by teaching her how to handle a team.r />
  We bounced merrily along with Shani weaving the confused horses back and forth across the road. There were a few times we found ourselves in a ditch, but I coached her on how to get us free and back moving again. Willem was asleep on a pile of blankets in the back, and even with Shani’s abysmal teamster skills, he didn’t wake once. I guessed the excitement of seeing the world beyond the walls was not as exciting as he had imagined.

  We laughed and talked. It was a pleasant day for the trip. Birdsong in the trees told of the chill evening to come. Summer was over, and the trees along the road were nearly in full turn. Orange and red leaves littered the road and blew from branches. One drifted into Shani’s hair.

  “Tell me about your childhood, Evan. What was it like?” she asked, removing the oak leaf—the same color as the fiery locks that fell about her shoulders in large curls.

  “I don’t remember anything until I was about six,” I said. “After that, I lived at the temple. I played with the other kids and went to lessons.”

  “To become a Priest?” she asked.

  I nodded. “And a Guardian. My Aspect had begun to manifest, and it was clear I wasn’t like the other kids. I could do everything the Guardians could do, and things the Priests could do, and more besides. I don’t think the Keeper knew what to do with me, so he had me train with both.”

  “All that study. It sounds horrible.”

  “I was busy to be sure,” I said with a grin. “I still found time to get up to some mischief.”

  “Of course you did.” Shani smiled. She had a smile that lit up her entire face. I was willing to do much to see it aimed in my direction. I wanted to return the opportunity for her to talk about herself. I wanted to know more about Shani and what made her the way she was. But from what I had gathered, in the brief snippets she had shared, hers was not a pleasant childhood. I thought it best to leave it be. If she wanted to tell me, she would. So I approached another topic.

  “So how did a nice Trulari girl like you come to be an Imperial spy?”

  “It wasn’t a hard decision on my part. I see how Trular is. The backstabbing and politics just make it harder and more dangerous for everyone. The Prince goes after the King, the Jardir runs the soldiers about the kingdom to aid him, and the Mata tries to control the lot.” She shook her head. “It’s disgusting. At least the empire tries to improve the lives of its citizens.”

  “I’m not so sure the empire is really any different,” I said. “We have our intrigues and assassinations. There are affairs and scandals, but they are largely kept behind closed doors.”

  “That’s what Nan says. When I first figured out she was a spy, I kept my mouth shut because I figured she would kill me if she was aware that I knew.”

  “I’m surprised she didn’t.”

  Shani looked at me sidelong.

  “What? It would have been easier. She had been found out. It would have been far simpler for a courtesan to disappear rather than for Nan to try to vet you for service to an Emperor to which you have no ties.”

  “It was almost as scary as you make it sound,” she said. “Nan regularly questions the girls. Most think she does it to get blackmail material. It’s common in the business. But I had a client once that was a dignitary from the Empire. During his appointment, he let slip some information about weapons and armor being smuggled in from the empire, Taranis, in fact. It wasn’t sanctioned by the Emperor. Something secret, sneaky. He bragged about facilitating it. I don’t know why men feel the need to impress a whore. We don’t care. We just want paid.”

  “Unless you work for Nan,” I said. Shani nodded her agreement.

  “Nan had me try to find out answers to certain things she ‘couldn’t reconcile.’ It was ridiculously easy. I ran us a warm bath and gave him a massage. He opened up and told me everything.” she shook her head in amazement. “I asked only two questions the entire time. I rewarded him with a nice evening, and the next morning I told Nan everything. Not long after, the man disappeared. Nan shrugged it off, saying that he probably went back home. I didn’t buy it. We had an appointment and he just never showed again.” Shani shrugged. “I told her what I had pieced together. She said I was a natural and asked if I wanted to learn more. She said eventually I could replace her, and that would be that. I believe your Emperor tries to take care of his people, so I accepted.”

  “You told the story in a short time. I imagine it was not so simple.”

  Shani smiled. “No. It took months before she trusted me.”

  “Well, I can’t say for sure that the Empire truly takes care of its people, but Escian is a good man. Or at least tries to be.”

  “From what I can gather, he is a decent ruler. What do you know that I don’t?”

  “I’ve met him,” I chuckled. “I punched him, actually. Bastard deserved it, too. We were quite drunk.”

  Shani shook her head in amazement. “If it were anyone but you, Evan, I would call you a liar.”

  Balinar’s voice up ahead drew our attention. He stood at the edge of the road in front of his little shrine and waved at us. Shani brought the wagon to a jerky halt, and I helped her set the brake and hopped down. I reached up and took Shani by the waist, and she squeaked when I lifted her easily and set her on the ground.

  “Hey,” came a sleepy voice from the back, “what ‘bout me? She’s bigger’n me.” Willem’s sleepy head peeked just above the sideboards.

  “Is she now?” I asked, then grabbed his ears and pulled. He followed. When I was young, the Guardians would occasionally roughhouse the kids at the temple. They said it was to toughen us up, but I understood that it was a way for hard men, who constantly trained for violence, to show affection without the perceived weakness so often wrongly associated with sensitivity. The idea of sensitivity in men being something to hide was rubbish, but I knew from experience that many children loved the rough play.

  Willem squealed and grabbed my hands, but I shifted to a headlock and dragged him over the side of the wagon. When he was midway, I put a hand on his stomach and flipped him head over heels so he landed on his feet, giggling and staggering.

  “That was fun. Do it again!” he said.

  “I will,” I said. “But you have to work first.”

  Brother Balinar laughed at our show, and Shani had a warm smile on her face.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure, Brother, and who do we have here?” Brother Balinar said, placing his hands on his knees.

  “Brother Balinar, this is Willem, a fine young man that I recently met. He has been helping me search out a new temple and orphanage.”

  The Brother extended a hand to Willem with a warm smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Willem.”

  Willem looked at him with narrow eyes. Ever distrustful was he.

  “You need a bath. Evan threw me in the fountain,” Willem said with a scrunched-up nose. “You need new clothes like mine, too. I even have shoes!” Willem stomped the dust in the road, making a small cloud.

  Balinar laughed. “I believe you are correct, my young friend. Perhaps I shall visit the stream tonight.”

  “Or you could bathe in a proper tub in a proper temple,” I said with a smile. “Well, an almost proper temple. Thing is, we have this building, but we have no statuary.” I looked meaningfully toward the stature of Hessa that the good brother had hauled all the way from the empire to this roadside shrine.

  “You can’t be serious,” he said in disbelief. “It’s only been a few days.”

  “Shani’s contact was most helpful,” I said with a bow to the smiling woman. “It is all arranged, but for one minor detail.”

  “What is that?” Balinar asked.

  “You haven’t packed your things.”

  Balinar grabbed my shoulders. “Thank you, Brother.” Then he pulled Shani into a hug. He let her go, and grasped at her hands, and kissed them over and over. “Thank you so much, Lady Shani. May the Great Queen watch over you and guide you and you children. May she welcome you into her warm embra
ce and keep you safe forever.”

  Then the brother sped off to pack, leaving Shani quite flustered by his attentions.

  I nudged Willem. “Go help him carry things.”

  Willem went to do his part.

  “He’s excited,” Shani said.

  “His dream is becoming reality.”

  “That’s what you do, isn’t it? You make dreams come true,” Shani asked. “You rescued Willem and even gave a temple to a roaming Priest. What are your dreams, Evan?”

  “I don’t know that I have dreams anymore,” I said. “None that I enjoy, anyway. I have plans, objectives. Once those are seen to, we will see what happens. What about you, Shani? Do you dream?”

  “I do,” she said with a sad look on her face.

  “You know my offer is still open. You can come with me back to the Empire.”

  She looked up at me, and it wasn’t sadness I saw but the faintest sense of indecision.

  “We’ll see,” she said with a warm smile.

  A thud sounded behind us and startled us both.

  “You done making stupid faces at each other?” Willem asked. “We need help with the statue.” He held blocks and ropes in his small hands.

  Shani and I both laughed, and I set about rigging the ropes and helping Cedric lay the statue of Hessa into the wagon, padding her as best we could with Willem’s blankets.

  “This place is immense, Brother Evan,” Balinar gasped as we settled the statue, the centerpiece of the new temple, into place.

  “This is only one building,” Willem said. “Wait till you see the other two.”

  “Other two?”

  “The temple came complete with three rather large buildings,” I said. “I figured they would come in handy as you grew.”