Hadrian just sat there, assessing the view in front of him with his one good eye carefully, unnervingly silent, as Kael and his men approached him. The captured woman was nearly concealed by the assassins that flanked her sides, and Kael himself, their leader, was walking directly in front of her. Still, even with the dimly lit hall, one could see the unmistakable shine of her naked arms, the outline of her bowed head, and the frame of her long, dark hair. She was a tall woman. Two men at either side of her held one of her arms each, but he could already see that despite her rigid posture, she was not struggling.
He was already frowning when Kael and his men stopped a few paces in front of him, and bowed in deference.
"We have successfully captured her, my lord, as Master Ridel had instructed."
Hadrian merely watched them for a moment, uttering not a word, not even a grunt to acknowledge their presence. The sound of footsteps died when Kael and his men stopped advancing, and now the hall, save for the faint flickering and crackling of torches, was eerily silent.
After a long pause, Kael heard the swish of dense velvet robes against the smoothness of the marbled floor. He swiftly drew to the side, and his men at the back brought the woman up front for Hadrian.
Her head was still lowered. Hadrian reached out and lifted her chin up, his eye pouring over her features. He was not in the least bit surprised to see her glaring back at him, defiantly, but she stayed silent under his scrutiny. A corner of his mouth turned up a bit as he wondered how she managed it…perhaps by biting holes into her tongue.
"So," Hadrian started, speaking up for the first time since they came into his hall. "This is the woman."
Kael heard the statement rather than the question. "Yes, my lord," he replied.
"I suppose you couldn't have dressed her up decently first before presenting her to me," he remarked dryly.
The woman was wearing a dark blue camisole that barely reached past her knees. It might not have been overly revealing to begin with, but the black lace that covered certain parts of the material was ruined. There had obviously been a fierce struggle when the kidnapping happened, as bruises covered her body, and even her neck had a cut encrusted with dried up blood. Her dark hair was a scraggly heap that enshrouded her small face.
"You are certain this is her, Kael."
Again, it did not sound like a question. Yet Kael replied as thus: "We were given strict instructions as to her whereabouts." The masked assassin's eyes slipped about the woman's face for a fraction of a second and a barely perceptible scowl formed underneath his mask. "I am certain this is the woman whose capture Master Ridel ordered, my lord."
Hadrian's sharp eye missed nothing, and he directed his attention back to the woman again, turning her head slightly with his hand. "I was told the elven maiden was a great beauty. Yet this woman," he said, his single eye taking in her features again; from her scalding blue eyes, the dark circles around them, the light tan of her skin, to her pointed ears, "seems none too remarkable."
She shifted her head violently away from his grasp. "A pity," he said, with a bit of mirth, looking at her thoughtfully. "Such women of competence are rarely gifted with physical beauty. Understandably, female warriors here aren't much to look at, and none too different from the men. When some of the lieutenants heard about you, it caused a bit of…excitement."
"Pity that I will have to disappoint," she spoke out for the first time, her tone exceedingly scathing and betraying her disgust.
Hadrian smiled. Then he turned to the men. "Leave us."
Kael bowed, and did as he was told. His men were prompt on his heels.
When they were gone, Hadrian gave the woman a short bow. Then he said, "You are a guest here, my lady, however it may seem otherwise. Do not take offense at my frank assessment of you; else you'll be taking offense at everything around here. It is merely our way—" he paused, and turned thoughtful for a moment before continuing, "—or just mine, in particular. As you might have surmised before arriving here, your summons is hardly a matter of face value. You could look like a bathory and you still would have ended up here."
"And you are sure about that?" the woman tersely queried, annoyed at his implication that her capture would have been a guaranteed success at any given time.
"Yes," Hadrian replied simply. "We would have stopped at nothing."
"And I am a guest, you say?" she practically spat out. Her bound wrists held tightly clenched fists. "From what culture do you barbarians come from?"
Hadrian merely smiled again, indicating a patience for which he was quite known among the elders. "I also apologize on Kael's behalf. He usually isn't so unruly. You must have done something to irk him on the journey."
When the woman's expression changed at this statement, Hadrian's smile widened. He was right on the money again. "Perhaps," was the woman's only reply. But it was Hadrian's next statement that startled her.
"You are not what you appear to be."
Before she could fully comprehend what his cryptic statement meant, he reached out to touch a lock of her ebony hair. As he did so, its color changed to a silver sheen. The woman gasped and backed away, her eyes ablaze.
"Tell me, Lady Ashellenden, are your eyes really blue?"