Clove could only see their eyes, but even with such a limited view, he was able to draw some conclusions as to their identity, and the driving force behind their attendance today.
Men, women, ambiguous others.Young eyes, very old eyes.Some curious.Some hungry.Unable to defend himself, Clove met each new gaze with a curled lip and a venomous glare, silently promising death to anyone whodaredtry their luck with him.Most moved on quickly when he did, but a few lingered.Intrigued, or perhaps entertained.Clove got the feeling it wasn’t often young slaves dared show prospective buyers their teeth.
Eventually, though, even the most intrigued moved on, and after some time, the sound of footsteps up and down the hall had faded almost completely.By then, Clove was weary with hunger.He was used to scarcity, but for all their sins, the elves had been feeding him well since he’d been captured, and his stomach had become unaccustomed to going long stretches of time without something to eat.
His stomach made a pitiful noise—too miserable to be a growl—which Clove did his best to ignore.He would have to get used to this, if he was going to continue to chase off potential buyers.There would be more than one long day spent paralyzed on this couch without food or drink, glaring at anyone who dared peek in at him through the barred window on his door.
But then there came a new set of footsteps.
They came striking and swift with purpose, their sound suggesting someone large but agile—someone with a clear destination in mind.
The footsteps passed by the other rooms without a pause.
Closer and closer they came, only to stop abruptly just outside Clove’s window.
Clove looked up, ready with his hateful stare, and was met with a gaze as fierce as his own.
The dark eyes looking in at him glittered like obsidian.Black, shining.Deadly sharp.
One look, and they cut Clove open to the soul; he felt instantly that the deepest, most private parts of him had been gutted out for inspection.
Had he not already been paralyzed, those eyes would have pinned him to the couch.
He could barely breathe.
His own glare had been impersonal and cold, regarding each potential buyer like a pathetic insect.The stranger’s gaze obliterated his coldness, melting it with a blazing heat that made Clove’s heart race.
Then, before Clove could make sense of what he was seeing, the stranger was gone.
The hot gaze disappeared, and the sound of boots striking the floor began to recede into the distance.
Shaken, Clove closed his eyes.His heart still pounded.A lump had formed in his throat; he found himself inexplicably near tears.He had been strong all day, and was by nature of his upbringing difficult to rattle, but there had been something about the look in the stranger’s eyes that had made him feel…
Feel what?
Lying there alone, Clove struggled to place the emotion.
Fear?No, it was not fear alone.Shock?Disgust?It had felt so much more personal than that.
He was bewildered to finally find the emotion most closely attached togrief.
It made no sense.
Clove lay there bewildered and trembling, attempting to soothe himself, yet unable to make any headway.In those moments—precisely how long, he wasn’t sure—there was no noise at all beyond the door of his cage.It seemed to him as though everyone had gone, but then there came a new sound: the distant rattling of keys in a door.
Clove strained his ears, listening as a door far down the hall opened.Two sets of footsteps followed, bringing with them mutterings of elvish.Clove had refused to acknowledge any orders given in that cursed language, but he understood it enough to feel a fresh upswelling of hate.
“Are you sure?”came the voice of one of his elven captors.“This one is still feral.Leave him in our hands for a month or so and you’ll find him a much more enjoyable bedmate.We’ll give you a discount on his schooling.”
Clove scowled.
Feral?
Furious heat rushed through his body, and with what little agency he had, he dug his fingernails into his palms until—at last—he shook the vulnerability that had brought the lump to his throat.
He would show themferal.
And then came a new voice.
