Drunk on blood lust, Duel’s men had been like savage animals as they’d torn through the innocent village that had been caught in the cross fire of the two battling forces. New to the ways of humans, and a virgin in warfare, Kalder had been sickened by the sights and smells of it all. By the wanton slaughter.
Worse, he’d been horrified by the part he’d played in telling Duel’s army it was safe to advance on an unprotected population, and had blamed himself for the misery of the victims.
He’d held himself accountable for the countless bodies strewn about and left out on the ground so callously, with no regard for them or how their loved ones would feel once they returned to find them like this.
Until the soldiers had mercilessly cornered him. No longer did they view him as an ally or the one who’d allowed them their victory.
Now he was as hated as the ones they’d slaughtered. Why? Because he had information they wanted, and he wouldn’t give them that one piece they didn’t need to have.
“Where’s the queen, you little rat?”
It’d taken Kalder a moment to understand their language. He was still getting used to their inelegant words and dialect. “I-I-I don’t know.”
Their largest, beefiest soldier had grabbed and backhanded him so hard that it’d dazed his senses. He could have sworn he’d lost half the teeth in his mouth from that one strike alone.
Doubting he would survive another hit of that magnitude, Kalder had tried to get away, but like a pack of hungry dogs, they’d attacked en masse and brought him low. He’d been certain he was as dead as the innocent villagers around him.
Blow after blow had fallen against his flesh, as well as boot heel after furious boot heel. His body had become numb to the pain of it all. When suddenly, he’d heard Duel’s fierce shout in his native Myrcian. He’d looked up to see their commander in his black-ringed armor, astride his huge ebony warhorse.
His armor stained red with blood—along with other unsavory things—Duel had glared at every one of his soldiers. “What is this?”
“He won’t tell us where the queen’s hiding!” The soldier had kicked at Kalder again, causing him to groan out loud in response. “I know he’s hidden herandtheir treasury!”
“He’s a mutant!”
“Aye, he’s not one of us!”
“Kill him!”
Duel had held his hand up to silence them. “Harm him again, and it’s my sword you’ll be facing.”
That had finally quelled them and sent most of them back to their pillaging. Albeit this time they were less enthusiastic about it.
His expression grim and intense, Duel swung his leg over the back of his massive horse and dismounted. With a feral eye to the bastard who’d started the beating, he dismissed him then knelt beside Kalder on the ground.
Kalder could barely focus on his face through the blood that obscured his vision. He ached so badly that in all honesty, he’d wished himself dead just to stop the pain. And given the amount of furyin his overlord’s expression, he’d expected Duel to finish what the men had started. To gut him as he’d done the others who’d gotten in his way.
Indeed, Duel had been just as ruthless in this battle as Kalder had first suspected when they met. He’d spared no man his sword or his fury.
Until now.
With a shocking tenderness, Duel had reached out and gently wiped the blood from his cheek. “Can you stand, lad? Or do you need me to carry you?”
“I can walk on me own.”
He cocked a doubting brow.
But Kalder quickly proved that he wouldn’t let anyone help him. Especially none of these vile bastards who’d spared no one a second thought or single mercy as they gutted them. Worse, they’d mocked him for the fact that he’d refused to blindly murder or kill.
Duel handed him his skin of wine and waited for him to take a drink. “Did you see where the queen went?”
So that was it, then, was it? He should have known. No real mercy given. Only a ploy to win his favor and use him.
Bloody wanker.
Kalder choked and sealed the skin before he gave it back, wanting no part of it or the man who was using it for no other purpose than to bribe him. “I won’t let you or the others rape her or harm the children she took with her. You’ll have to kill me first. They took nothing with them, save what supplies they could carry to sustain them. She has no treasure. That I swear to you on me own life.”
Duel scowled at him. “You took this beating to protect a woman you know not?”
