Bella...
Hours Later...
Land. I saw it before I even heard the sea gulls that circled now over my head. They were everywhere and they seemed especially attracted to me, despite my attempt to persuade them to go away. Only about an hour or so left and we would dock. I could handle that.
"Have you always had such animal magnetism?" A voice asked in amusement from behind me and I scowled. The prince seemed to enjoy goading my temper. I didn't even turn around.
"Must be, sire. It seems I have a knack for attracting beasts." I murmured as he chuckled lightly, seemingly unfazed by my obvious, scathing remark. It wasn't that I was intentionally being rude. Okay, I was. It's just that I was scared, that the idea of landing in an unknown principality, so close to the one I had been imprisoned in, full of prejudice against my kind terrified me, and I chose to be angry rather than afraid. The prince didn't say anything more, just moved away. He was silent so long that my curiosity got the better of me, and I turned around only to regret the movement when I discovered the very man I was pretending not to notice was standing on deck naked from the waist up.
By Gads!
He was built as if sculpted from an artist's hand and his hairless torso and upper arms glistened slightly with sweat as he yielded a sword and stood defensively across from one of his comrades. He was very precise with the metal and as he turned I caught a glimpse of the large tattoo that covered his back and I almost gasped. I had heard that men who lived on the sea tended to mark their bodies as well as pierce their ears but never had I actually seen it. The man was infinitely intimidating, and I tried to cover my surprise as I stared now at the wolf etched on his skin, sitting confidently on top of a boulder howling at the moon. It seemed symbolic somehow, although that seemed a ridiculous way to symbolize a meaning. Not to mention, who would put themselves through the obvious torture you most certainly had to endure in order to get the etching there in the first place. Idiots are what they were. The prince glanced up then and caught me staring. As it was, it was scandalous for me to be here staring as I was. Propriety didn't allow for a female to stand anywhere near the vicinity of a scantily clad male, but rules obviously didn't apply for me. Maybe because I was a slave, the men assumed I was not a virgin. Most slaves weren't.
"The wolf is strong, a force of wit and strength—Strength from brutal force as well as in multiple numbers for wolves move in packs and mate for life." The prince said suddenly, feeling the need to explain the marking as my eyes finally made their way back up to his face. I would not allow myself to feel embarrassed.
"And so you felt the need to immortalize the creature? Seems somewhat obsessive, don't you think?" I asked shortly as the prince parried a move made by his partner before continuing to speak. Once again he seemed amused by my point of view.
"Sometimes we immortalize what we fear, Sprite." He replied vaguely as I creased my brow in confusion. He was afraid of the wolf? I never got the chance to ask because he managed to relieve his partner of his sword before turning the metal over and holding it out to me hilt first.
"I hear you know your way around this weapon." The prince stated as I shrugged. The tales about me were exaggerated, but I did know how to handle a sword. Anyone who has had to survive in this brutal society could. But I shook my head.
"I have no desire to work out with you." I grumbled as he shrugged before turning the sword in his hand.
"Are you telling me that you're not proficient in the sword?" He asked me lightly as I growled before jerking the weapon out of his hand. He assumed position with a raised brow.
"A little feisty aren't we, sprite?" He asked quietly as I narrowed my eyes.
"Indignant maybe, sire. Some may view that as feistiness. As for my name, it isn't sprite." I retorted as he nodded before jabbing his weapon in my direction. It was a practiced move meant to goad the partner into combat. I parried and settled into the rhythm of the movements. I wasn't a strong woman, never had been. My body was lithe and slender, my muscles there but not prominent. I did look more like a wood sprite or a dancer than a warrior so I am sure I made a funny sight challenging the large prince. But there is also an advantage to being short and small. It made you faster. And I had learned years ago that sword fighting was more about speed and wit than it was about brawn. The prince was definitely more adept at the sword than I, even with the width and breadth of his physique. It was almost as if the metal was a part of his skin, as if it were an extra appendage. While I was better than most men, I had come to acknowledge the fact that the prince was not a normal man. But I was still willing to, at least, hold my own enough to garner a little respect. We moved around each other, parrying until I was exhausted as I felt him get the upper hand. He raised a brow.
"Where did you learn to use a weapon?" He asked me quietly as I stared over into his blue-green eyes. I didn't answer. He had no right to know. He lifted up his sword and came down hard enough I lost my grip on my own weapon and it slid across the deck. He bowed.
"We all have secrets, sprite." He commented as he came close enough I could feel the heat emanating off of his skin.
"But sometimes, sprite, it's okay to talk about some of them." He admonished as he brushed past me. It was then that I noticed the wolf on his back had green eyes. It was eerie.
"Prepare to dock!" the prince yelled as his men scurried to do as he commanded. I took a cloak he offered me and wrapped the green material around my shoulders. It bore the crest of the royal family but what choice did I have.
"Prepare to face your previous owner." The prince whispered as he pulled a shirt on over his chest and placed a hand against my shoulder. I looked up at him.
"What do you mean? Lord Horton will challenge your claim for me?" I asked him quietly as he looked down into my face.
"I was promised to his daughter, sprite. That country will not take me choosing a half-breed slave over a noble woman lightly no matter how crude that sounds. I can guarantee that Lord Horton left immediately for Ridgeland as soon as we departed and because he traveled over land, his entourage will have already arrived at the palace." The prince explained as I tried to keep from shivering. I hid the reaction by pulling the cloak tighter around me. The prince's earring glistened in the sun, and I reached up to remove the prince's hand off my shoulder. He jumped at the contact, and I noticed him crease his brows together in pain. His eyes closed, and I let go of him completely. What was that about? The prince re-opened his eyes.
"Remember something, sprite. I'm a cursed man. Be very careful around me." He whispered once more before leading the way toward the gangplank that was set up to allow us a speedy exit. I was confused, but I shrugged off the eerie sensation. Instead I glanced at the town ahead, watching with wide eyes as the people along the port city's shore stopped to stare. I knew why. I was used to being stared at. And while it had begun to become something that didn't bother me, the prince didn't seem to hold the same sentiment because he pulled me ahead of him before placing the head covering attached to the cloak over my head, shielding me from prying eyes. I wanted to hit him, to yell that I didn't hide myself from the world, but he gripped my arm tightly enough to let me know he wanted silence. I complied.
The trip to the palace was long and winding, and I stared out from underneath the robe at the villagers, at the small children that tramped across my path, at the sound of the baker yelling at a vagrant for stealing bread, at the sound of the Black Smith's anvil as he worked on his metallurgy, and at the sound of the shopkeepers as they yelled out their wares. It was almost overwhelming. I had not been allowed out of Lord Horton's castle much and a good deal of my youth before my captivity had been spent in forests because forests were safe. Haden, Prince Connor's friend, snuck up beside me.
"Look up." He whispered as I gazed up at the sky only to gasp. There it was. The palace was just that…a palace. It was amazing. The stones were blocks of marbleized rock that glistened in the sun and reached up so high that many of the torrents seemed to touch the sky. I couldn't keep myself from gasping. Haden chuckled.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Haden asked as I nodded absently.
"Yes, m'Lord." I murmured as I ducked deeper into the robe. The prince may be intimidating but by the looks of the palace, I was in for many more surprising events. How had this happened to me? Why was the prince really interested in using me as a pawn in whatever game he was playing? And which pawn was I? The prince stopped at the gates and pulled his own hood off of his sandy hair so that the guards could see his features. They immediately came to attention.
"Your highness!" They exclaimed as they rushed to get the palace gates open. I listened to the iron creak and I couldn't help but wonder what kind of prison I was entering now.