The Devil's Concubine Read online

  The glint of precious metal caught her gaze as he moved closer still and she glanced at the rows of buttons that adorned the front of the vest he wore. Each bore a royal crest of some house she was unfamiliar with.

  Was he one of the royals who’d gathered for the tournament, she wondered, feeling her heart flutter anxiously at the thought?

  Dragging her gaze from the crest, she met his sharp gaze. His eyes, almost the same golden brown shade as his hair, raked over her and her ladies boldly.

  “I have come for the princess, Aliya,” he said finally.

  Blinking in surprise, Aliya and her ladies exchanged questioning glances.

  “I am Princes Aliya,” Leesa said, stepping forward, her voice quavering ever so slightly. “What is it you want of me?”

  Stunned, Aliya could only gape at her maid.

  The stranger looked Leesa over critically and dismissed her, returning his attention to Aliya and her other ladies. Even as his gaze lit upon Aliya, her lady, Beatrice, stepped in front of her. “It is alright, Lady Leesa. I am Princess Aliya.”

  The stranger strode toward her without a word, grasped her shoulders and set her aside. His piercing gaze swept over Aliya. “I have come a very long way to see the woman that so many men are willing to die for.”

  Aliya swallowed with an effort, still too stunned by the stranger’s brash behavior to sort her chaotic thoughts. “Who are you?” she whispered.

  His hard, sharply etched lips curled faintly in something approximating a smile, but the amusement did not reach his eyes. “I am King Talin, hereditary ruler of the tribe of the Golden Falcon.”

  Chapter Two

  Pinned by his hard gaze, Aliya suddenly found herself alone, for her ladies were under no such constraint. The moment he spoke, they uttered gasps and weak squeaks of fear and scurried to put some distance between themselves and the object of their terror.

  “An unnatural,” Leesa uttered in a breathless whisper.

  Talin slid a speculative glance at the cringing ladies and then returned his attention to Aliya. Looking her over for all the world like a merchant, he surveyed her with interest from head to toe and then moved slowly around her with the same attitude of interest.

  Enthralled as she had been from the moment she’d seen him clearly, and as frozen as she had been more by surprise than fear when she discovered he was an unnatural, a sense of outrage began to seep into Aliya at his proprietary attitude. She was a princess! Her father’s heir! How dare the man behave as if she was some common harlot offering her wares!

  And him trying to decide whether she was worth the price she’d demanded, which was almost more insulting than the latter!

  Her eyes narrowed as he faced her once more.

  “Leave at once and I won’t summon my father’s guards to cut you down like a dog!” she said tightly.

  Surprise flickered over his features briefly. It was replaced almost at once with true amusement and Aliya discovered that even her anger wasn’t proof against that smile, for her heart seemed to turn over in her chest as it transformed his harsh features. “I hail from the tribe of Golden Falcon, not the wolf, but by all means summon them.”

  Moistening her lips, Aliya glanced around a little hopelessly for the guards she knew had already had been dispatched--by this man--she realized now. “How did you get up here?”

  His amusement vanished. “The arrogance of your kind never ceases to amaze me--or infuriate me, for that matter. I am man beast--or, as your maid so rudely pointed out--an unnatural. Inaccurate and insulting, implying that only your kind is ‘natural.’ I am as nature made me, so I can not be an ‘unnatural.’ Moreover, if you’ll forgive me for being equally rude, the many people who make up the kingdoms of the ‘unnatural’ are far superior in every way to your own kind. It is a mistake to think we are as limited in our abilities as you are. For my kind, there are always ways.”

  Aliya couldn’t help the blush that darkened her skin and could only be glad that she was not as light skinned as the man standing before her. For the pale skinned, their discomfiture was always blatantly apparent to all. “Why are you here?”

  His lips thinned. “Because I was not invited.”

  A frown creased Aliya’s brow. “I don’t understand.”

  “You comprehend insult, though, don’t you?”

  The blush that had barely receded flooded back with such a vengeance that it made her feel hot all over. She moistened her lips. “There was no intent to offer insult.”

  He studied her thoughtfully. “And yet I am. I wonder why? I hadn’t thought that I was so thin skinned as to see insult where there was none.”

  “My apologies,” Aliya said stiffly. “My father only thought to settle a … uh … dispute between our kingdom and those invited here today.”

  “Which includes every kingdom in the known world, save those of the--ah-‘unnaturals.’ But you apologize so prettily for the unintended insult that I have to wonder if perhaps my invitation went astray? Am I to understand that I have been laboring under an insult that was purely accidental? If so, then tell me now and I will summon the heirs to the other kingdoms of the many peoples of the man beast so that they, too, can vie for the honor of allying themselves to your father and winning the hand of such a lovely maiden.”

  Aliya stared at him in dismay. Unfortunately, he was right. Her father had very deliberately excluded those of the kingdoms of the unnatural. She had certainly not argued the decision--not that she did in general--but she was no keener on the notion of being wed to an unnatural than her father was.

  His brows rose when she remained silent. “You deeply regret, but…?”

  As skilled as she had thought she was in diplomacy, Aliya could think of nothing at all to say. He’d very effectively boxed her into a corner. There was no way she could claim that the slight hadn’t been intentional without also agreeing that everyone, without exception, was welcome to take part in the tournament.

  The plain fact of the matter was that the unnaturals could draw upon powers the naturals couldn’t and if they did take part, she was going to end up the bride of some ‘man beast’ as he seemed to prefer to call them.

  If she stalled long enough, though, surely someone would discover the guards?

  “This entire dispute has already grown way out of proportion,” she hedged.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” he retorted, his voice carrying an edge. “Even I find you quite lovely--for a royal--but not necessarily so rare a jewel as to warrant such a furor.”

  Aliya felt heat rise in her face again, felt a pang of hurt, too, that he’d pointed out she wasn’t nearly as beautiful as everyone had proclaimed her to be, or at least that he didn’t agree. “I never claimed to be,” she said stiffly. “Nor my father for that matter. Most of these royals gathered here have never even set eyes on me. This isn’t about me at all. They are only here because they want to ally themselves with my father.”

  “And yet,” he said thoughtfully, “I spied at least four who’d crossed the sea, and I have to wonder what possible advantage they might find in allying themselves with a kingdom so far from their borders? I must have missed something rather important, because I’ve seen nothing particularly valuable in your father’s kingdom--beyond the daughter he dotes upon, and as I already pointed out, that is a matter of opinion.”

  Distress filled her. With an effort, she tamped it. It wasn’t as if she actually cared what he thought of her, after all. “Now that you’ve come all this way to fling insults in my face are you quite satisfied?”

  “Not hardly,” he growled, surging closer abruptly so that his face loomed in her vision and his warm breath caressed her cheeks. “I confess I had something more murderous in mind for the insult to me and my people, but now that I am here it occurs to me that there is restitution that you can offer that might appease my sense of injury.”

  Aliya swallowed with an effort. “What sort of restitution? My father will pay--”

  “Indeed
he will--with his greatest treasure.”

  Aliya’s jaw dropped. “Marry you, you mean?” she gasped in both surprise and outrage at his audacity.

  He laughed, but the sound had no humor to it. “I would not sully my line, or insult my people by producing inferior offspring to rule behind me. If you please me, I might consider taking you as my concubine.”

  Shock went through Aliya. Before thaw could set in, she heard a shout behind her. “Run, Princess!”

  She stumbled when she was shoved aside, still too stunned for many moments to figure out what was happening. As another of her ladies, Maude, the youngest, grabbed her hand and tugged on it, however, she followed the pull in blind instinct, lifting the heavily brocaded skirt of her gown to keep from tripping as she burst into a clumsy run.

  She had not gotten far when something hot snaked around her waist and tightened, yanking her to a stop and jerking her hand from Maude’s. She barely had time to register the fact that some sort of cord had encircled her waist when another hard yank sent her flying backwards. She struggled to get her feet beneath her.

  She didn’t succeed. Instead, she sprawled on her backside. When she looked up in stunned surprise, she discovered she now lay in the shadow of an enormous bird of prey.

  Frightened as she was, she realized that as he’d shifted, he’d dropped the whip he’d used to lasso her and drag her back.

  Uttering a sharp gasp, Aliya rolled over and began to crawl quickly away again. Her progress was impeded by her maids, who had banded together to try to defend her, closing in on the man beast and battering at him with their fists since they had no weapons. Pride and shame collided inside of her--that her ladies were brave enough, and loved her well enough, to risk their lives trying to protect her--and shame that she could do nothing but try to crawl away like a coward.

  She was more of a danger to them if she stayed than if she escaped, though, because they would continue the struggle as long as she was there and needed protection.

  Despite their efforts, she made little headway. She’d barely managed to clear the shifting, struggling group when she heard a chorus of screams as he flung them from his path. A split second later, something huge and thick curled around her waist.

  Aliya screamed when she looked down and discovered great talons biting tightly into her flesh, so tightly she could scarcely draw a breath. She managed to scream, though, when a tremendous gust of air pelted her and she felt herself rising free of the garden floor.

  For many moments, she fought mindlessly against the grip around her, so intent on breaking free that it was several moments before she actually took in her surroundings. When she did, the darkness of sheer terror washed over her for her ladies had shrunk below her until they appeared to be little more than insects, and then quickly became mere dots of color. The sense that she was suffocating clawed at her mind, bringing her focus to one thing only, the need to breathe. It was the last thing she remembered before her entire world went black.

  Discomfort roused her some time later. Disoriented, it took Aliya several moments to figure out why she was so uncomfortable. A jolt of fear driven adrenaline went through her when she remembered, and her eyes popped open. The moment her eyes focused another shaft of alarm went through her for she could see little beyond the white, misty clouds that surrounded her.

  She didn’t know if she was glad or sorry that she couldn’t. So long as she couldn’t actually see the ground far below her, she could comfort herself with the thought that she might not be as high as it seemed.

  But then again, there were the clouds.

  Almost upon the thought, they began to thin. Her stomach, even cramped as it was by the grip around her waist and her own free hanging weight, seemed to lift and then fall again. Pressure built in her ears and then dissipated with a startling pop as she swallowed against the knot of fear in her throat that felt like her heart.

  Dark jagged rocks seemed to reach up toward her from below, further terrorizing her as it occurred to her to wonder if he’d only brought her to this place to dash her body upon them.

  How far had they come, she wondered?

  She had never been beyond the borders of her father’s kingdom, and she could not ever recall having seen the like of this, even in the distance.

  Her fear subsided slightly as she searched her mind for an answer. Was this the land of the unnaturals, she wondered? Or was it further still?

  The answer seemed to appear before her almost as if her questions had conjured it. One strangely shaped peak, rising almost like a spire into the sky supported a ‘platter’ of rock. Atop that slab of stone more stone rose, but these had not been formed haphazardly by nature. A castle, starkly beautiful with its tall, graceful towers, and carved of the same stone, had been built upon the seemingly precarious perch.

  Aliya knew immediately that she was gazing upon the castle of King Talin.

  She was lost, she realized in dismay. Even if her maids had managed to raise the alarm, there was no way any normal human could ever reach this place among the clouds.

  The thought led her abruptly back to the battle in her garden. Had he slain ladies as well as her guards?

  A different sort of horror filled her as that thought materialized in her mind. After struggling to sort through the disjointed images in her memory, though, she was relieved that she could remember the expressions of dismay on her ladies’ upturned faces as she’d been whisked away. He’d merely shoved them out of his way, she realized, remembering no sign of injury either on their persons or in their expressions.

  A new anxiety rose, mixed liberally with hope and relief. Her ladies would tell her father what had happened. Somehow, he would find a way to rescue her. He would bring his army to destroy the kingdom of the Golden Falcons.

  King Talin had started a war.

  Chapter Three

  As they drew nearer the dark castle of King Talin, Aliya noticed strange protrusions along each tower. They were very like balconies, except that there was no low wall or balustrade to protect the unwary from a deadly misstep. The man beast approached one such protrusion, hovering just above it. Before Aliya had quite grasped why he was doing so, the great bird’s talons abruptly released her. Instinctively, she sucked in a sharp gasp as she felt herself falling. The drop was no more than two or three feet, but she was numb from cold and restricted circulation. Her knees buckled the moment her feet met the solid surface. She uttered a cry, her arms pin wheeling as she tried to catch her balance and failed, sprawling precariously near the edge. She froze when she stopped, unable to command herself to move at all as she stared down at the abyss below her. A thud close by jolted through her abject terror and she jerked her head in the direction of the sound.

  King Talin had landed at the very rim of the perch she laid upon, morphing into the form of a man once more even as he set his feet upon the ledge.

  The distraction was sufficient to unfreeze her limbs and, in a blind panic to put some distance between herself and the drop-off, Aliya scrambled crab like away from the terrifying edge. Her shoulder made impact against stone so abruptly it sent stinging pain all the way through her, but she realized it was the edge of an opening and rolled onto her belly, racing away as quickly as she could on her hands and knees. She didn’t stop until she met another wall on the opposite side of the sprawling tower room from the gaping mouth and tongue of stone. Even with the added distance, her chest still felt so constricted with fear that she could hardly drag in a decent breath of air. The muscles in her jaws cramped, trembling until her teeth were rattling together.

  A dark form filled the arched doorway, capturing her attention. Talin, she saw, had followed her. His expression was a mixture of anger and confusion as he met her round eyed gaze.

  Shuddering, Aliya glanced past him at the view beyond the doorway for a moment before she returned her attention to her captor. As long as she didn’t look directly at the yawning space beyond the doorway, she felt marginally safe, could feel some o
f the blind panic begin to recede.

  Talin tilted his head at her curiously. “You have never seen a man beast before?”

  There was a questioning lilt to the statement, but she realized it was a statement and required no response, which was just as well since her vocal chords seemed as frozen as everything else.

  “Your fear is … excessive. I will not harm you.”

  Aliya stared at him blankly, trying to wrap her mind around what he’d said.

  He thought his beast form had frightened her out of her mind, she decided.

  It had been unnerving to say the very least.

  The view from the clouds was what had frightened her out of her wits, however, and the drop onto the open balcony. She had thought for several terrifying moments that she would roll off to fall endlessly until she crashed into the rocks below.

  Another shudder went through her as her mind instantly conjured the image.

  He wouldn’t harm her? He’d made it very clear when he’d taken her that he meant to turn her into his whore. Exactly what constituted harm in his mind, she wondered a little wildly? Ruining her life wasn’t harm enough? Destroying all chance of happiness for her wasn’t harm? Was she supposed to just take his word for it that he would not beat or torture her, merely rape her? Because he would have to force himself upon her. She would never yield to him willingly. “My father will come for me,” she stammered abruptly, with something akin to childish bravado since she knew very well that there was no chance at all that her father could ever rescue her from this palace in the sky.

  Talin crouched in front of her so that he was more or less eye level with her. When he did, she drew her knees up tightly against her chest. “He will not,” he said grimly. “The sooner you accept that, the better.”

  A crushing sense of defeat washed over her at his calm pronouncement, because she knew he was right. She was completely at his mercy and she wasn’t at all certain he had any. She could do nothing but accept--whatever he meant to do with her. Her mind simply refused to furnish her with any speculation as to what that might entail.