The Twilight Lord. Bertrice Small

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СКАЧАТЬ as much as he loves himself. He is a very ambitious man and has just been waiting for an opportunity. Who knows what will happen when he sees the woman he cares for being abused and embarrassed before all of Hetar? As for Anora, she will destroy herself with her outrageous behavior when she realizes her rival has bested her. She has always considered Vilia her inferior in the emperor’s heart.” The prince smiled. “In the end it is Lara’s destiny that will prevail. Remember that from a distant tomorrow will come Hetar’s true destiny.”

       “The prophecy,” Ilona said softly. Then she sighed. “I just wish I could have prevented my daughter from the pain she has, and will, experience.”

       “Look! Look in the mirror,” Kaliq said. “Shifra is about to begin her journey!” And the Shadow Prince and the queen of the Forest Faeries watched fascinated as the band of slavers rode into the meadow.

       Shifra looked up at the sound of hoofbeats. Recognizing the breed of horsemen bearing down on her she picked up her skirts and began to run. With a whoop of delight the slavers bore down on her until their leader, a man named Lenya, came abreast of the fleeing girl and scooped her up. Shifra fought him, beating at him with her small balled-up fists, and struggled to escape his grasp. “Let me go!” she cried. “Let me go, you barbarian!”

       In reply Lenya swiftly turned the girl about so that she now lay facedown before him over his saddle. “Be silent, girl!” he told her. “You are caught and there is nothing for it but to accept your fate. It will probably be a most comfortable one, for you are beautiful and young.”

       The slavers rode on until nightfall when they stopped to make a camp. Shifra was tied to a young tree while the slavers built a fire, found water and began to cook their evening meal. When they had eaten Lenya came with a bowl of stew and began to feed Shifra a small portion. He was pleased to see her eat for often captives did not. And as she ate he began to question her.

       “What in the name of the Celestial Actuary were you doing all alone out in the middle of nowhere?” he demanded.

       “I am an orphan,” Shifra began. “I lived with my old grandmother in a hut in the forest that surrounds the meadow where you took me. She will be alone now and she will surely die.” Shifra began to sob.

       “If she is old then perhaps it is her time to die,” Lenya replied sanguinely. “I believe we passed a hut near the forest road as we came. There was an old hag digging in a garden. She was much too decrepit for us to be bothered with, but you are a nice tender little morsel. We shall get a goodly profit in The City for you.”

       “That was my grandmother,” Shifra wept. “She will wonder what has happened to me now. Oh, my poor nona!”

       Lenya snorted. “Are you a virgin?” he asked her rudely.

       Shifra colored at his words and hung her head. “Yes,” she whispered.

       “I am going to check,” he told her. “I cannot represent you as something you are not, despite your beauty. If you are a truly a virgin I will get a much higher price for you than if you are not. What is your name?”

       “Shifra,” she told him. “I am called Shifra.”

       He nodded. The name meant beautiful, and it certainly fit her. Calling to his men he untied her. “Put her on the blanket and two of you secure her arms. The other two of you, spread her legs wide for me,” Lenya said. When his men licked their lips and leered at his instructions Lenya continued. “She says she is a virgin. If she is then she will bring us a much, much higher price at the slave market in The City, you fools. We will make so much coin off of her that you will all be able to spend at least two nights at the Pleasure House of Maeve Scarlet,” he told them with a grin. “Now get the girl on her back so I may examine her.”

       “What if she isn’t a virgin?” one of his men asked.

       “Then we shall all take pleasures with our little Shifra tonight, my lads, but I hope she has not lied, for the Pleasure Women at Maeve Scarlet’s are exceptionally well trained and always welcoming of a hardworking man.”

       As they brought her down onto the blanket Shifra began to struggle wildly, sobbing and begging them not to harm her. But she was a dainty girl and no match for the big men holding her prisoner. They quickly had her secure, both of her arms pinioned to either side and her legs spread wide. The tears pouring from her eyes and her little cries of distress would have moved a stone cliff.

       Lenya knelt by the girl. He pulled her skirts up, revealing the snow-white skin beneath and a mound of tight red-gold curls clustered upon her mons. He looked admiringly. No doubt about it, she was prime goods. Now if only she spoke the truth. He pressed a single finger past her plump nether lips. Shifra sobbed and begged him to stop. His finger found her passage and he pushed it slowly into her. Shifra shrieked her distress. Lenya’s finger reached the barrier of her virginity. Quickly he pulled his finger back and out lest he damage that barrier. He looked up smiling broadly at his men. “She is as pure as the driven snow, my lads. Our fortune is made! Now release her,” he said.

       Shifra curled herself into a tight little ball, weeping with her shame.

       Lenya stood up. “Remember,” he said to his men. “I will cut the balls of any of you who touches her and make you eat them roasted,” he threatened. “Drop another blanket over her. I will be sleeping next to her tonight.”

       The other slavers knew their leader well enough to know he was not jesting with them so they said nothing more. Two days later they arrived at The City. Shifra was taken to a public bath to be scrubbed. Lenya left his men there while he went to an open market to seek a more attractive garment in which to display his treasure to the slave master. Presentation was, he knew, half the battle when selling a piece of choice merchandise. Finding what he sought, he returned to the bath to find Shifra almost ready. He gave the garment to the bath mistress. “For the girl Shifra,” he told her.

       “She’s a real beauty, Lenya,” the bath mistress told him. “Where did you find her? I’ve done an extraspecial job with her. I hope you’ll remember me when you get your price.” And she smiled, showing several broken and blackened teeth.

       “Have I ever forgotten you?” he replied.

       “Aiiii, but this girl is truly valuable,” the bath mistress said.

       “I will not forget you,” he repeated. “Now finish up. I am in a hurry to get to the slave market. The auctions begin at noon. I’ve been looking forward to an evening or two at Maeve Scarlet’s.”

       The bath mistress cackled and then disappeared back into the baths. She returned a short while later with Shifra, who was now garbed in a pale green gown of sheerest silk through which her lush and rosy body could be just faintly seen. The skirt of the gown was narrow. One of her beautiful rounded shoulders was bare as were her arms. Her long red-gold hair had been washed and now flowed loose down her back to her buttocks. Her feet were shod in a pair of simple sandals.

       “Here she is,” the bath mistress said, pleased. “You have an eye for the right costume, Lenya.” Then she lowered her voice. “I have given her a cup of Razi so that she will not be so frightened or struggle.”

       Lenya pressed double the amount he would have usually paid the bath mistress into her hand. “And there will be more later,” he told her.

       “You are generous beyond measure, but come back before you and your men go to Maeve Scarlet’s,” she chuckled.

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