Sins of Calate: BOOK II OF THE FOUR REALMS SERIES

Part VI | Fara

The man did not lower his blade.

He was long-boned with a wide mouth and a somewhat cross-eyed stare. When he opened his mouth to smile she saw a row of greenish teeth and a few rotting black mounds where the rest ought to be.

She had no time to contemplate Elyon's absence as every nerve in her body stretched and twisted with panic. Panic she was determined not to show these men.

'You're our princess?' The man scoffed, wide-eyed as he looked over his shoulder at another. In fact, all eyes now drew to the same figure; shorter in height than the one holding the blade to her throat, but more muscular in build and with a slight gait to his walk as he came toward her.

She'd been wrong in her assumption —this man was the leader. This man was the one she would have to convince.

As he drew closer to her, his mouth lifted into a smile. His teeth were white but slightly crooked and his eyes sparkled a meridian green-blue. His face bore a nut coloured beard that she guessed hid a somewhat handsome face beneath it. He ran his cool gaze over her, slow and calculating.

'Hmph. The Princess, you say?' A Southerner, she noted. 'Strange, considering we spoke the graces for you not...' he counted quietly, 'eight moons ago?' When he took a step closer sweat rose to lick the back of her neck. The tall man took a slow side step to allow the leader to move directly in front of her. 'Strange, considering we are now preparing for a war in retaliation for your death at Leoth's hands?'

She swallowed. 'Yes. And if you will escort me to Prissia, to the King, you will not only help avert this war, but you will also be greatly rewarded.' She looked around at each of them. 'All of you.'

'Is that so?' said the leader, entirely unconvinced.

'The men who return the king's beloved sister to him alive and unharmed? Of course. In fact I would say you could likely state your own reward and the king would meet it.' She was afraid of sounding too desperate, and so closed her mouth and said nothing more. A princess would not lower herself to pleading.

Some of the men's imaginations had certainly been piqued for their eyes widened, hungry with possibility. They looked at their leader; whose expression had grown curious certainly.

However when he lowered his eyes to her throat she knew it was not the promise of reward that had drawn him. Her heart sank.

He curled his fingers under the collar and pulled her head toward him, gently. 'And what might this be, then?'

She met his stare. 'Leoth steel,' she told him.  It caused a glimmer of interest to spark in his sea-green eyes. He widened them, expectant.

What information should she give him? How much to tell these lawless rebels who held her life in their hands? She decided on the truth.  With one sole omission. Theodan.

'I was not killed by the Leothine; I was taken,' she said. 'Collared and transported to Leoth, as a spoil. No one knew my identity.'

His head reared back as he considered this, his eyes never leaving her. She could hear his mind tick loudly, the scurrying around of doubt and suspicion. In the silence one of the other men spoke up. One she'd noticed had also been unmoved by the promise of their king's gratitude.

'And what, they simply let you go? The beasts of Ethis? A spoil as pretty as you? Cause I ain't believing you managed to escape them. Not a filly's chance.'

She looked at him. 'One of their kind took pity upon me, and released me.' She felt a twinge at the thought. Of Theodan, pitying her. She did not like it. Instead she thought of the night she'd surrendered herself to him for the promise of release. A trade she'd called it. A lie, the ache in her soul told her.