“What do you mean I’m your prisoner?” Shara was so angry she hardly even noticed the crossbow pointed at her.
“I mean,” Robert said, “you’d better do as you’re told or I’ll start slicing at your toes and work my way up.”
He said it in such a cold, unemotional voice Shara fell into stunned silence. She hadn’t the slightest doubt he’d do just what he said.
One of the women disengaged from the group and slithered over toward them. Shara gave the woman a disdainful glance. As she got closer Shara realized how striking she looked with long black hair tied back in a ponytail and the most piercing blue eyes Shara had ever seen. Cords of muscle flexed on her bare arms as she approached.
Though lean and well muscled there was nothing masculine about the way she carried herself or the way she filled out the top of her leather armor. The only flaw Shara could see was a ragged scar on her right cheek and even that seemed to add to rather than detract from her beauty.
Robert dropped his crossbow as the woman approached. He seemed to think Shara wouldn’t try and escape with all the others watching her.
The woman wrapped her arms around Robert’s neck and purred, “Miss me, Bobby?”
Robert slid his arms around the woman’s waist. “Every moment hurt, Blade.”
Blade glanced over her shoulder at Shara. “Sure you didn’t find some other amusement?”
Robert grinned. “You know the rules, Blade. Never play with the merchandise.”
Shara’s mouth hung open. That woman thought Robert had had sex with her. And what did they mean by merchandise?
She intended to ask but had to look away when they started kissing in a way Shara thought totally inappropriate considering the number of people watching.
She tried to ignore the rather wet smacking sounds they made. When she got up the nerve to look back Robert had Blade’s breastplate half off and his free hand on her rear end. For her part Blade had her hand down the front of his pants. Heaven’s mercy, were they going to do it right in the middle of the clearing with everyone watching?
The others seemed to think so as well because they started hooting and hollering, trying to egg the pair on, though they didn’t seem to need any encouragement.
To Shara’s relief, before they could get going someone yelled, “What the hell’s going on out here?”
The others fell silent and Robert gently disengaged himself from Blade. Shara heard him whisper, “Sorry, Blade, business before pleasure.”
A big man, most likely the one that had yelled, emerged from a tent. He stomped over looking like he wanted to break something. Shara put his height at nearly seven feet—he towered over Robert and Blade.
Ignoring Shara for the moment he said, “How many times have I told you two to keep it inside? The men can’t think straight for a week after one of your performances.”
Shara looked the newcomer over. His nose looked like it had gotten broken half a dozen times and his brown hair was hacked short like he cut it with a dagger. He gave off a rather brutal impression and she suspected that was intentional.
Robert looked properly chastised and said, “Sorry, Shale.”
Blade didn’t seem the least bit intimidated. She gave Robert one last long, lingering kiss then said, “See you later.”
She shot a glare at Shale that made the big man flinch.
Robert’s eyes burned as he watched her saunter off, hips swaying. What had she been thinking? A man like that couldn’t be her savior.
“Well, Bobby, did you get ’em?”
“The driver bled to death before I could catch him. That fat little merchant was tough. He ran six miles before I caught up. I put a bolt in his back first chance I got.”
“Good,” Shale said. “No witnesses. Now what have we here?”
The two men turned to regard her. “This,” Robert said, “is Princess Shara of the High Kingdom. She wandered into my camp last night.”
Shale looked at Robert and raised an eyebrow. “You’re kidding.”
“Just look at her, the style of her dress and jewelry.”
Shale grunted. “It’s a wonder you didn’t rob her before you brought her in.”
Robert gave Shale a wounded look. “I’d never do that. I figured that ring in particular would be right up your alley.”
What was Robert doing? He knew the ring was magical. As soon as Shale looked away from him Robert winked at her.
The scoundrel actually winked at her!
Shale grabbed Shara’s arm, engulfing half of it in one massive paw. “Don’t move.”
The warning was unnecessary. Shara couldn’t have moved if she wanted to. Fear held her immobile. The giant raised her hand up to get a better look at her ring. “Nice.”
Robert sniffed. “Of course it’s nice. I wouldn’t capture just anyone, you know.”
Shale reached for her ring. Just before he touched it a blue spark leapt from it. Shale yelped and dropped her arm.
He rounded on Robert.
“Did I mention it’s magical?” Robert asked.
Shale’s fists opened and closed like he wanted to wrap them around Robert’s neck. “No, damn you, you didn’t mention it.”
Robert shrugged. “Must have slipped my mind.”
Shale shook a warning fist in Robert’s face. “One of these days Blade will get sick of you. When she does I’m going to break your scrawny neck.”
“You’ve been saying that for a year and a half, Shale, and I’m still here. Now do you want to discuss our prisoner or what?”
“What’s to discuss?” Shale asked, getting himself under control. “We’ll sell her at the slave auction next week.”
“Slave auction!” Robert and Shara said at the same moment.
“Are you nuts, Shale? Her father would pay ten times what we could get at the auction. I bet he’d pay a thousand gold pieces, easy.”
“I’m still not convinced she’s a princess. I say we sell her at the auction and be done with her.”
“Get Scratch to do a truth test on her. That’ll confirm it.”
“No need.” Shara spun toward the camp to see who had spoken. A man carrying a gray tabby cat was walking toward them. “She’s worth considerably more than one thousand gold pieces. She’s the one, Shale. I did a mind scan to confirm it.”
“One what?” Shale asked.
“You forgot our conversation already? She’s the one from the sending I received yesterday.”
“What sending?” Robert asked.
Shara was curious as well. Perhaps the royal magician was looking for her.
She laughed at herself. She knew who was looking for her, she just didn’t want to admit it.
“Come on, Scratch, fill me in,” Robert said. “I wasn’t here yesterday. Remember?”
“I received a sending from a powerful sorcerer, the most powerful I’ve ever encountered. He’s offering ten thousand gold pieces to anyone bringing Princess Shara, unharmed, to some place called the Chaos Hills in the High Kingdom.”
Robert whistled. “Wow, that’s a lot of gold.” A confused look crossed his face. “Why did the sorcerer send this message to you?”
Scratch sighed. “The message wasn’t to me specifically. The same message went to every magic user in the world.”
“Damn. Could you do a sending like that, Scratch?”
The wizard laughed. “There are less than a handful of sorcerers in the world powerful enough to do that. I’m certainly not one of them.”
The three men looked at Shara. Scratch said, “He must want you bad.”
“All right,” Shale said. “After dinner we’ll have a council and vote on whether we want to take her to this sorcerer or sell her here. Tie her up, Bobby, wouldn’t want her wandering off.”
Robert led her to a tree near the tents, picking up a length of rope on the way. He tied her wrists together first then tied the rope to the tree. Very efficient was her captor.
“Too tight?” he asked.
“It’s fine,” she said without looking at him. “Get a lot of practice tying up prisoners?”
He grinned. “Nah, just Blade. Speaking of whom, I’d better get going or she’ll be upset. I’ll see you for dinner.”
Robert scurried off to find Blade, leaving Shara alone to contemplate her fate. Slavery or the sorcerer, neither option thrilled her.
When Robert returned darkness was fast falling. He carried a plate and mug and wore a big, stupid smile. No doubt he’d found Blade.
“Hungry?” he asked.
She turned up her nose but the growl from her stomach betrayed her. “Maybe just a little.”
Robert set the plate and mug down so he could untie her. She picked up the plate. A joint of meat sat on it. She looked around but saw no knife or fork. Apparently the savages didn’t use utensils. Shara took the meat in a delicate grip, careful not to burn herself, and took a bite. It tasted wonderful. She set it back down and took a drink. The liquid nearly gagged her, it tasted so bitter.
“What is that? It’s disgusting.”
“Beer. I’m afraid it’s all we have.”
“Aren’t you having any?” she asked.
Robert shook his head. “I ate with Blade.”
“Oh. What’s going to happen to me now?” She tried to make the question sound nonchalant and failed.
“When everyone’s eaten Shale will call a council and we’ll vote if we want to take a chance on delivering you to the High Kingdom or if we’ll just sell you here. Whatever the majority decides, that’s what we’ll do. Anyone who doesn’t want to go can stay behind, except you of course.”
She had to spit out some of his awful beer as she laughed. Heaven’s mercy, the man was incorrigible. He was reminding her she was a prisoner and making her laugh at the same time.
She sighed. “I don’t get you, Robert.”
“What don’t you get?” he asked. “Perhaps I can offer some illumination.”
He seemed serious so she said, “I don’t know. All this just doesn’t seem like it fits. You don’t seem like a bad guy.”
“Once upon a time you would have been right. That story I told you out in the forest about growing up at sea with my father the merchant, all that was true. When my father retired he bought an estate about three hundred miles north of here. He also used his wealth to buy a title. That was the only bad deal he ever made.”
“What do you mean?”
Robert leaned against the tree she’d been tied to. “Father might have bought the title but the other nobles would never accept him. A year later he was killed and I came into a lot of wealth with very little knowledge of the nobles. A group of them tricked me into helping in a plot to kill the king. The plan fell apart and I took the fall. The Crown stripped me of all my lands and my title. I escaped and hooked up with Blade and this crew. I used what knowledge I had of merchants and nobles to help plan attacks on the caravans that pass through the Vale. I took great pleasure in killing anyone that had anything to do with my former associates. I’ve killed three of those that betrayed me. There are only two left.”
“I’m sorry,” Shara said. She could hardly believe she’d said it much less meant it but she did.
“Don’t feel too sorry for me,” Robert said with a grin. “As awful as it may seem out here, I wouldn’t trade one day with Blade for the return of all my lands and title.”
Shara shook her head in amazement. “You really do love her.”
“More than you can imagine.”
“Because she saved you when you fled the nobles?”
“Yes, though not exactly the way you mean. When I fled I didn’t much care if I lived or not. Back then, I probably would have paid Shale to strangle me. Then I met Blade.” He smiled as he remembered. “She lives life with such pleasure and abandon it’s intoxicating to be around her. When we were together, I found I wanted to live. It helped that she fell for me almost as fast as I did for her. We started sharing a tent the day after we met.”
Shara wanted to know more but before she could ask, someone struck a gong or something and Robert said, “That’s Shale calling the council. Let’s go.”
He untied the rope from the tree and rebound her hands.
As they walked toward a large fire she asked, “How do you think the vote will go?”
Robert shrugged. “Blade and I will both vote for going to the High Kingdom. She’s never seen the desert which is all the reason she needs. Most will probably vote with us. This crew’s been together a long time. I doubt they’ll want to split up now.”
They reached the fire and found Shale and six others seated around it. Robert found a stump to his liking and plopped down. Shara sat on the ground a few feet away. The rest of the crew came drifting in. Blade appeared next. She came over and sat on Robert’s lap. When everyone had arrived there were twelve bandits and Shara seated around the fire. That made thirteen, a very unlucky number.
“What did you bring her for?” Shale asked when everyone had taken a seat.
“I would have had to tell her what we decided anyway,” Robert said. “I figured she could just as well hear firsthand.”
“Fine,” Shale said. “Fill everyone in, Scratch, so we can have our vote.”
The wizard sat directly opposite Shara, his gray cat curled up in his lap. Scratch quickly brought everyone up to date. He made a point of emphasizing the ten-thousand-gold-piece reward.
When the wizard finished Shale said, “I call for a vote. All those in favor of going to the High Kingdom raise your hand.”
“Wait,” Shara said. “I’m certain my father would pay even more than the sorcerer.”
“Shut her up, Bobby, or I will,” Shale said.
Robert leaned down. “Keep your mouth closed or Shale will end this debate by caving in your skull.”
Shara clenched her jaw tight. Robert was dead serious, no doubt about that. Some of the others started mumbling about what she’d said. Perhaps she’d gotten her message through.
“Maybe we could get the father to pay fifteen thousand,” the other female bandit said.
“I’ll have no part of a plan like that,” Scratch said.
“Why?” Shale asked. He looked like greed might get the best of him.
“How long do you think it would take the sorcerer to find out who had returned her to her father? The minute he learned, he’d crush us, like that.” Scratch snapped his fingers.
“All right,” Shale said. “Let’s vote. All in favor of taking her to the sorcerer raise your hands.”
All but Shale and two others raised their hands. Shara’s heart sank. She was going home, but not the way she’d hoped.
“Fine,” Shale said sounding none too happy. “We leave in the morning. Morden, you’re on guard duty.”
A huge man, at least a foot taller than Shale, lumbered over toward her. He grunted and held out his hand. Robert handed over her rope and Morden led her away. She looked over toward Robert but he was speaking to Blade and didn’t pay her the least attention.
Morden led her to the tree she’d been tied to before. He plopped down and stared off into space. Shara got as far from him as the rope would allow and lay down. She hadn’t been there long when someone appeared. It was Robert and he carried a blanket over one shoulder.
Morden looked over but Robert just waved and said, “Relax, Morden. I just brought a blanket for our guest.”
The giant grunted and returned to staring off into space.
Robert handed her the blanket. “It gets chilly at night.”
Shara rolled up in the blanket. It felt heavy and warm. “Thank you.”
He nodded. “Try and sleep. We leave early.”