Authors: Charlotte Boyett-Compo
Kharis smiled warmly. “My mistress is giving a party in his honor this evening.” His dark face crinkled with amusement. “You have heard of Prince Chase Montyne of Ionary.”
“He gonna be there, too?” Meggie asked, her scrutiny sharpening on the tall man.
Kharis lowered his head and his voice. “He is my mistress’ lover, dear lady. Do you think he would allow her alone with the legendary Dark Overlord of the Wind?”
Meggie giggled. “Don’t know many men who would,” she answered.
Kharis nodded wisely. “Precisely so, Madame.” He continued on with Meggie hanging onto his arm. “I was sent to gather fresh vegetables and fruit for the meal. Have you the time to help me? I fear I am not nearly as adept at such things as the Lady Sabrina thinks me.” Once more he lowered his head. “It is one of my most valuable ways of finding young ladies to court.” He winked at her puzzled frown. “You dear ladies love to help a man who is out of his depth. What better way would I have to meet eligible ladies than to ask assistance in buying a commodity all women know more about than I, a mere man?”
Her face broke into a knowing grin. “You’re the very devil with them, too, I’ll warrant, eh, Kharis?”
He shrugged eloquently. “I try, sweet lady. I try.”
He held the door open for her, frowning immediately at the destruction scattered about the room. He shoved Meggie to one side and drew his blade, stepping over the threshold and sweeping his gaze about.
“What the hell happened in there?” Meggie gasped as she took in the mess.
“Stay back!” Kharis warned as he rushed to the adjoining sleeping chamber and pushed open the door. The room was not scattered as was the sitting room. He looked about him, then spun around and found Meggie standing in the doorway, her face pale and frightened.
“Your mistress was here when you left?” Kharis asked, sheathing his blade.
“Oh, sweet Merciful Alel!” Meggie stuttered. “She’s been taken. I know it!”
Kharis squatted down and picked up a handful of beads that lay tumbled about the floor.
Gripping them in his fist, he carried them to Meggie. “Was she wearing these?” he inquired.
Meggie looked down at the shiny gold beads. She nodded miserable. “Aye, lad. She was.”
Hissing with anger, Kharis turned on his heel and headed for the door. “Lock this behind me, Meggie, and don’t open it to anyone you don’t know.” He stopped, then spun around and pointed a finger at her. “On second thought: don’t open it to anyone!”
She nodded, too numb to answer. Moving in a state of confusion to the door, she double-locked it behind his exit, then slowly sank to the floor in a heap of fear.
“Oh, lad,” she said, covering her face with her hands. “How will I explain your lady’s disappearance to you?”
Prince Jaleel Jaborn read the missive then crushed it into a ball and threw it into the massive fireplace in his chambers. He smiled.
“They have captured the men of the Wind Force and are bringing them here.”
Prince Guil looked up from paring an apple. “Alive?”
“All of them,” Jaleel answered.
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A knock at the Prince’s door, stopped Guil from commenting. “Come!” Jaborn called out.
A servant entered, bowing meekly to his master. “Well?” Jaleel asked.
“A messenger just rode in to say the woman has been taken, My Liege.”
Guil chuckled softly and cut away a section of apple. “I would say your plan is falling nicely into place, dear friend.” He put the wedge of fruit into his mouth and grinned. “You have the bait.”
Jaleel motioned the servant away. Once the door had closed behind the man, the Prince went to the fireplace and stared down into the crackling flames.
“Yes,” Jaborn acknowledged. “I have the bait and the
game is under way.”
The pounding at her door made Meggie shriek with fear and go rigid, but the urgent voice calling her name managed to galvanize her into action and she rushed to the door to twist at the locks. She pulled the portal wide and found the man called Kharis standing there.
Kharis walked into the room and turned to face her, his eyes filled with murder. “I have learned your mistress was taken by Prince Jaleel Jaborn’s men. They have taken her to his fortress at Abbadon.”
Meggie’s trembling hand went to her throat. “Who is this man?”
“The vilest of the vile,” Kharis spat. “Someone must have seen your lady and reported her to him. Is she a beautiful woman?”
“I suppose so,” Meggie answered. She didn’t think the gal nearly as pretty as Elizabeth McGregor, but there was something about her that men would find irresistible. Her bonny lad certainly had.
Kharis’ gaze narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me, Meggie?” he asked.
She chewed on her lip for a moment, then made up her mind. “I think I can trust you, Kharis,” she said, clutching her hands at her waist. “I ain’t really her servant. I’m just kinda looking after her for my lad. You know?”
“No,” he answered. “I don’t know.” He sat down on the edge of the settee. “You’d better tell me the whole of it.”
“You asked if I knew the lad,” Meggie answered.
“Prince Conar?” Kharis asked, frowning. “Yes. What of it?”
Meggie’s face scrunched up with apology. “The lady is his wife. She came here to find him.”
The dark face of Kharis El-Malick turned ashen and his eyes widened. He slowly stood up, his mouth opening in shock. “You can’t be serious,” he breathed.
She nodded. “As serious as I can be, son. But what’s worse, the lady is the daughter of the Outer Kingdom Tzar. She’s like a princess in her own right, I guess.”
A groan of despair escaped Kharis’ slack mouth. “By the Prophetess, this is not good.” He searched the floor at his feet, his mind racing with thought, then he looked up at Meggie. “Prince Jaleel would have known this, then!
Just recently he went to St. Steffensberg to vie for the hand of this woman.”
“Well,” Meggie said, her lip thrust out, “he damned sure didn’t get her! My bonny lad married that little girl on the ship here.”
“Just before someone tried to kill him,” Kharis mumbled.
Meggie’s gaze turned suspicious. “How do you know that?”
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Kharis waved a dismissing hand. “Because my mistress bought him at the slave block three months ago,” he said, missing the shock which shot across the old woman’s face.
“He’s at in encampment not far from my mistress’ farm.” He clenched his fists. “I must get word to him that his lady is taken.” He strode toward the door, making up his mind to find several cousins to go with him to Balizar Arbra’s camp. They would need all the men they could get.
“Wait a minute!” Meggie called out, grabbing at his arm as he passed. “We’ve got men here. His men! Don’t you think we ought to find them first?”
Kharis stared down at her. “What men are you speaking of?”
“The men of the Wind Force, lad!” Meggie informed him. “Eleven of ‘em came here to find him. We heard he was leading this--this--“ She couldn’t think of the word.
“The Samiel,” Kharis provided. “Just this dawn they raided a quarry and set the slaves free.
It is the talk of Rysalia.”
“That’s my bonny boy,” Meggie said, beaming with pride. “He don’t hold with human misery.”
“So his men came to aid him in what he has decided to do here?” Kharis said.
“They met up with some guides who were going to take him to where he was.” Meggie frowned. “But unless I dreamed it, lad, that Abbadon place you named is where they were heading.”
“The Prophetess be merciful!” Kharis gasped. “Who told them he was there?”
“Some holy man, I’m thinking,” Meggie answered, fear beginning to show in her wrinkled face. She could see stark concern replacing the pallor on Kharis’ dark face. “We got something to worry about, don’t we, lad?”
Kharis slowly nodded. “Yes, Meggie. We do.”
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Chase dipped his head to Sabrina’s lips and tasted the pomegranate juice along the dusky fullness. He licked at the corner of her wide mouth and chortled as she squirmed beneath him.
“You like that, lady?” he whispered against her mouth.
Sabrina’s dark arms came up to entwined around his strong neck. She brought his mouth to hers and pressed their lips tightly together. Her tongue slid along the firmness of his lips and smiled at the shudder of pleasure which raced down his tall frame. Pulling her mouth from his, she stared into his blue eyes.
“Do you like THAT, milord?” she countered.
Montyne shrugged. “I suppose.” He tried to roll away from her, but her arms grew rigid around him and he was not allowed to escape.
“I have been thinking, slave,” Sabrina told him, scanning his face as she spoke. “I think I shall have my men come in and tie you spreadeagle to my bed.”
One tawny brow lifted in amusement. “Is that so?”
“I shall have you stripped, of course.”
“Of course,” Chase agreed.
“Bound hand and foot.”
“Is there any other way?” he retorted.
Sabrina’s sultry smile was wicked. “And I shall have my way with you, slave.”
Chase answered her smile with a retaliatory grin of his own. “And I shall fill you to overflowing,” he responded.
Her arms unlocked from his neck and her hands moved down the silk of his shirt. “Shall I call them, now, slave?”
Chase flicked his tongue along her jaw. “Who, milady?”
Sabrina felt the shiver of excitement run down her spine and settle in her lower belly. “My men,” she whispered.
“I’m the only man you need,” he answered as he lowered his head to her breast. He nipped at her through the diaphanous satin of her gown, his warm mouth settling on one dark nipple.
She gave herself up to his love making, blocking out the uproar outside that told her Kharis had returned. She had given orders that she was not to be disturbed, even should the world be crashing down around them, and she knew her servants would obey her to the letter.
Chase stiffened at the crash which hit the door to their sleeping chamber. He pulled away from her questing mouth and craned his neck to look behind him. He barely had time to roll off her, to reach for his sword, before the portal was thrown back, hitting the wall with enough force to knock it half-way off its iron hinges. Crouched beside his lady’s bed, sword in hand, he was furious to see Kharis standing there.
“What the hell is the meaning of this?” Montyne shouted, straightening even as his hand tightened on the grip of his blade.
“It’s the Prince’s woman!” Kharis yelled back, sweeping his gaze from the Ionarian to his mistress. “She’s been kidnapped!”
“What woman?” Sabrina managed to ask, sitting up and covering herself.
“Prince Chase?” Montyne heard a woman calling to him.
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An immediate frown crossed Chase’s face and he skirted the bed, coming up short as a distressed Meggie Ruck hurried into the sleeping chamber behind Kharis.
“What the hell?” Chase managed to ask before Meggie threw herself into his arms.
“His wife’s been stolen, Your Grace,” Meggie sobbed. “The lad’s wife’s been stolen!”
Chase looked over Meggie’s head to Sabrina’s bodyguard, Kharis. His confused look would have been comical had it not been so intense.
“Prince Conar’s wife,” Kharis explained. “Jaborn has taken her.”
“Liza?” Chase gasped. “Liza’s alive?”
“No, lad!” Meggie growled, pushing out of his arms. “The Outer Kingdom woman he was courting! He went and married the girl and she’s carrying his baby and--“
“BABY?” both Chase and Kharis shouted in union.
“You didn’t tell me that, Meggie!” Kharis bellowed.
Meggie ignored his outburst. “You gotta get her back for him, son,” Meggie said, looking up into Chase’s blue startled gaze. “That son-of-a-bitch has got the others, too. If my bonny lad goes--“
“What others, Meg?” Chase interrupted, his whole world off kilter with this news.
“The Wind Force,” Kharis told him. “It seems eleven of his men have been captured by Jaborn and taken to Abbadon.”
“The Prophetess help them,” Sabrina muttered, getting out of the bed.
Chase looked down at Meggie. “Who?”
“The Hesar boys,” she answered. “Prince Grice and Prince Tyne.” As she watched, Chase’s face began to lose color. “That little monkey man--“
“Ching-Ching?”
Chase
whispered.
Meggie nodded. “The lad’s brother, Jamie. That lumbering ox, Thom. The sea captain.
The older du Mer and Senti.” Tears began to form. “And the lad’s eldest.”
Chase crumpled to the bed. “Wyn?” When Meggie didn’t answer, he reached out to grasp her hand. “Please, Alel, don’t tell me they’ve got Wyn, too!”
“Who is this Wyn?” Sabrina asked, sensing this was the worst news of all. She watched the old woman slowly nod and felt the pain in her own heart that suddenly ricocheted through her lover’s.
“Oh, sweet Merciful Alel,” Chase sighed. “This will kill him.”
“I gathered twenty of my cousins,” Kharis said, “men I know I can trust. There are another forty or so here who can go with us to the camp.”
“What are you suggesting?” Sabrina gasped. “You can’t mean to attack Abbadon! The fortress is impregnable!”
“Any keep can be taken,” Chase muttered, feeling Meggie’s troubled gaze on his face. He reached out to caress her withered cheek. “Don’t worry, Meg. We’ll get them back.”
“There is no way!” Sabrina told him. “Men have tried to storm that place and died in the attempt, Montyne! It can’t be taken, I tell you!”
“And I tell you it can!” Chase repeated. He pushed himself from the bed and reached for his baldric.
“Chase, no!” Sabrina sobbed, hurrying around the bed to clutch him. “This is madness!”