Alicia, on the other hand, was beginning to draw quite a crowd. In spite of the bruises.
“That fine bone structure! What is your lineage, girl?”
“I-I am Eloran, sir,” she stammered, flushed beneath her stains of green and deep purple. Playing the part.
“Prettiest Eloran I’ve ever seen, to be certain. Now tell me, have you been trained in a pleasure house?”
She nodded, eyes dropping to the floor. Demure.
“Have you now? When?”
“T-Two years ago, sir.”
“Ah. Very good news, indeed.”
I bared my teeth, heart hurting for the brilliant woman I’d endangered. For everything she’d gone through, and everything she’d go through because I’d failed her. Because I’dcontinueto fail her once I was sent to the mines or sold to the freak show.
“Oy, Captain! Would you get a look at this one?”
I stilled, eyes dropping to the bronze ring on the floor between my knees.
Goddess, no.
Not so soon…
Surely there were dozens of captains employed by the Caledonian army? Hundreds, even. It couldn’t behim.
“Come on, move along. You’ve had your chance with the pretty one. Give the rest of us a look, will ya? I’ve been slaving away on the front lines all day, for pitiful pay and terrible working conditions under a tyrant. That’s right. Move along. Dear old Marco needs the distraction more than anyone here.”
A pair of black boots clomped into my peripherals. “Yes, Marco, you’re quite hard done by, aren’t you?”
Something inside me began to shake. Something deep I couldn’t name. Something that had sweat beading on the back of my neck as acid churned in my stomach, clogging my throat with a thick clump.
“Would you like to come home with me, pretty girl?”
“I-I—” Alicia cleared her throat. “Of course I would, sir. But my friend—”
“You hear that, Captain?” Marco crowed. “You’d be doing the girl a disservice by allowing her to go to someone else. Shewantsto come with me.”
“I’m quite sure that’s not the case, soldier. It would be cruelty of the highest order to subject her to your charms. Beside, nothing she says in this festering pit can be taken as anything other than words spoken under extreme duress.”
I clenched my fist, claws biting deep. Even through the Raith, I knew it. I couldfeelit.
Him.
Marco laughed, and I watched his shadow clap the captain on the shoulder. “You remember that day… oh, I don’t know… three or four years ago? I think I’d just saved your life or something equally heroic”—from my peripherals, I saw him grin at Alicia—“you said—and this is a direct quote—‘name anything your heart can think of, Marco, and it shall be yours.’”
“Is that what I said?”
“Sure is, old man. Your memory is going, but don’t worry. You have me to remember these things for you.”
“Old? I’m not—”
“Shall we start the bidding?” the auctioneer cried above the din, cutting the banter short.
But the scuffed boots didn’t turn away.
The man bent at the knee, balanced on his haunches. Rough fingers brushed my chin and I jerked back as far as possible, eliciting a deep, raspy chuckle. And yet, I did what he wanted.
