To Defend A Bride (Entangled with the Enduar #3)

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

RA’SA

“ M ove your wrist faster,” I grumble as I carry Melisa through the snow.

“Put your glamour back on,” she retorts.

I find it’s easier to travel with my skin blue and my tail long. This morning, I was weary from the poor rest, so I didn’t even bother using Thorne’s glamour.

“No. Now move faster.”

Melisa practices her knife work while nestled in my arms. Perhaps it’s masochistic to keep her so close to me, but I can’t help myself. She is injured. There’s no way I would have her walk like this.

“It’s disappointing that this is the only way you wish to wear me out. I swear, there are much more fun ways to work up a sweat,” she pants.

I try not to notice the way her black hair sticks to her skin or how the cloak parts to reveal her soft, full hips and thighs in the red gown.Especially because of what she said last night.

“There is no better way to prepare to enter Zlosa than by ensuring that you know how to defend yourself,” I retort, and she falls silent.

The quiet doesn’t bother me much. It helps to think about our exchange.

Or rather, her rejection. If it had been anyone else, I would’ve believed it and left her be. Cut myself off.

Optimism does not come easy to me. I tend to see the worst in people. But Melisa is decidedly different. I’m not sure why.All I know is that a sensation deep in my gut tells me to hold on.

I want to help her.

“If you insist on being prepared, perhaps we should work on finding a way to send each other messages,” Melisa says, effectively tearing a hole in my thoughts.

I look down at her. “We will not be able to see each other?”

She avoids my gaze as she straightens her clothes and returns the dagger to the folds of her dress.

“No. When we return, you will take me to Eneko’s cabin, where his whole family lives. You will go to work with the other slaves. We might be able to meet at night every few days.”

Silence hangs in the air between us.

“We should have a method in case something more serious arises,” she says.

The reality that we will make it to Zlosa within the next day begins to weigh on me. Even thinking about her in the home of that monstrous giant makes my skin crawl.

Instead of voicing my displeasure, I ask, “What do you have in mind?”

She is silent for a moment.

“I think it would be best if we use a code my family and I invented. Basically, it’s a pattern of rocks and sticks. It’s easier to disguise than other methods. Each letter has a series.”

The world around us continues to be quiet as we trudge along. The hours spent listening to her voice are strangely calming to me.

It causes me to smile. That expression doesn’t go unnoticed.

“I didn’t know you enjoyed pebbles and branches so much,” Melisa teases. “Or perhaps you are just one of those quiet types excited by secret codes?”

I sneak a sideways glance at her. “Perhaps I am merely excited by the sound of your voice.”

When I look at her, she seems as bewildered as a cave rat before a fire.

“What? You are the only one allowed to tease?” I ask.

Her mouth curves up into a smile. “Not at all. I’m just surprised.”

I hum, pleased. “Tell me more about your sticks and stones.”

“Are you sure it won’t be too complicated?” she asks. “I worry for your tiny brain.”

“I can proficiently speak five languages. They come to me quickly. I know the alphabet of the common tongue.”

More silence passes through the space between us. The birds fly overhead, and the blasted sun continues to crawl into the sky.

“Fine, I will teach you. Put me down. I think I am well enough to walk.”

I reluctantly oblige, casting her a sideways look and drinking in her unusual beauty.

“Tell me how to recognize an A . We have plenty of time before we arrive to memorize a few dozen measly letters,” I say with a smile.

She laughs and shakes her head. The sound is sweet. I wish I had a million days to walk through these woods and learn every secret she keeps hidden.

“A would be a rock and a stick,” she says.

I smile. “Next.”

“B is a stick and two rocks.”

We continue on like that for hours, reviewing her letters until we are half a day away from Zlosa.

“Tell me how to say… Melisa is the most beautiful woman in the world,” she says.

I laugh. “That message is too long.”

She grins. “We have time.”

I shake my head. “Two sticks, one stone, another stone then a stick followed by two stones, two stones?—”

“What’s that smell?” Melisa interrupts, looking away from me.

I stop walking and take a deep breath. The air is thick with charred wood and the roasted smell of burnt flesh.

Acid pools in my stomach.

“Melisa—” I start.

“The sky has been pink. I just thought it was an extended sunrise… oh gods. That’s smoke, isn’t it?”

I swallow, looking up at the sky. Sure enough, the heavens have an orangish hue.

“I am not a land dweller. I hadn’t noticed anything amiss.”

Her eyes widen when she looks at me, and I see past all her walls. “They are burning something. Or there is some massive forest fire. Either way, we must get to Zlosa.”

She picks up her pace, no longer looking at me.

“Melisa!” I call after her.

When I reach her side, I see a column of smoke billowing above the trees. I grab her shoulder, and she whips around to look at me. Small strands of hair puff out around her face as she pants.

The deep, golden skin that usually glows with health has taken on a grey tint.

“Is this another attack? One of your waking nightmares?”

“They’re burning Zlosa!” she yells. “We have to get there tonight.”

I look at the sky and see the ash. “Slow down. It will still take us at least half a day to arrive.”

She yanks out of my grip. “Put your glamour on. They might find us in the woods.”

Reaching into one of my pouches, I grab a glamour pebble. I close my eyes and speak the elvish word that calls the magic on command.

“Blàth,” I murmur.

In seconds, my skin begins to tingle. When I open my eyes, the blue slowly fades and morphs into something more human. A discomfort comes as the magic spreads across my chest and back, and my eyes burn.

When it is done, I drop the small stone. It has become dull and barren. A part of me is sad to leave it behind.

Then she continues walking. No attempts at reasoning will draw her off course. We skip lunch and continue to walk at a breakneck pace in frenetic noiselessness. She swats at me when I ask to check her bandage.

The hills are much more challenging to climb in this cold weather. I had thought that my physical condition was adequate, but we are both out of breath when we reach a hill that looks down on the valley.

It is late at night, but light pours from the city and palace.

The slave pens come into view shortly after. While we cannot see much further than the northeastern lumber yard, the charred houses are easy to see from here.

It looks eerily similar to the homes that were overtaken by lava. My heart skips a beat.

“Melisa,” I start. “Are you all right?”

When she finally turns to look at me, she frowns.

“They did not burn Eneko’s section,” she says at last.

“That’s… good?”

“That is everything.”

A part of me balks at this. Though I am not the most expressive individual, I can hardly believe she would see all this destruction and not be affected.

While I study her, I think of what she said. She constantly extinguishes her feelings and puts them in some dark corner.

“That’s all you have to say? Melisa, they burned hundreds of your people. Maybe thousands.”

She turns away from me, and I notice that her breathing is oddly stilted. When she reaches down and picks up a handful of snow, I move to touch her again.

“Ra’Sa, we’ve arrived. It’s time to prepare to see Eneko. He’s already going to be angry that I’ve been gone a week. I need to make this believable. I’ll worry about the others later.”

I clamp my jaw shut as she tears the hem of her dress and soaks it with ice.She smears frozen mud over her garments and coats her hair in the thick filth, along with her cheek, collarbones, and fingernails.

I come behind her to help her warm up.

“No. I must be chilled as if I’d been left outside for days,” she says.

My brows draw together.

“That would be impossible. If you’d been in the snow for a week, you’d be frozen solid.”

She practically snarls and presses her hand to the waistband of her dress. Her eyes are blank, haunted, when she lets go of the wound soaked in red.

The bandage has been leaking this whole time.

“Melisa,” I growl, grabbing onto the side of her ribcage. Why didn’t I smell it? The fires must have altered my senses.

She gasps and shouts, “Fuck!”

“You do seem to love that word,” I say, and she glares at me. “Why didn’t you tell me you were hurting?”

“When I saw the smoke I…”

“Had a plan. Of course. I should’ve known you were thinking far ahead.” I sigh. “The good news is that you are dirty enough for them to believe you haven’t had a bath lately. I would stand firm on you being an icicle if you’d been outside, though.”

She bites her hand. “You should hit me over the head. They’ll be so focused on my wound, they won’t question everything else.”

I recoil. “Absolutely not.”

“Ra’Sa, if you want me to include you in my plans, you must be willing to play along,” she says.

I grab her wrist. “I have my limits, and injuring you is out of the question.”

It still hurts to think of those scars along her belly and up her arms—not to speak of the scars slashed across her soul, where no one can see. She’s been hurt too much.

She smiles sweetly, as she has done dozens of times. I realize it’s been a mask.

“What if I ask kindly and promise to wrap my lips around your cock?”

A spike of adrenaline rushes through my veins.

“Again—No.” Then I bite my lip. “I will carry you. You pretend to sleep in my arms. Final offer.”

She sneers. “Fine. But I won’t forget this.”

“You won’t forget that I refused to hurt you?” My eyebrows scrunch together.

“If they don’t buy our story, they’ll kill us both,” she spits.

I clamp my jaw shut. “I’ll be convincing.”

“Hide the gear. We’re leaving the trees.”

I suck in a sharp breath and do as she says. Once finished, I turn back to Melisa, she wraps her arms around my neck. I bend down, slide one arm under her legs, and hoist her up closer to me.

“I am sorry for your people,” I say softly.

She meets my gaze. “Me too. Now, head down this hill and turn to the left. You’ll see the slave pens. Before you arrive, there is a hill with a fence surrounded by tightly packed trees. Eneko’s cabin is in that area.”

She adjusts her grip, clearly waiting for me to move.

I take a deep breath.

Our short time alone together is gone. It’s been… it’s honestly been a mess.

As I look back out at the smoking remains of the slaves and the burnt houses, I think of the gruesome things giants had done to my people in the past. The ravaged villages and dead women.

They never stopped being awful. Their lies poisoned an entire generation against us.

A new future gapes before me like the maw of a venomous beast—one that we voluntarily enter. When I take my first step, it is because of the human woman in my arms.

I move quickly. She is silent when we hurry past the first people we’ve seen in days. I grimace when I see a large bonfire in the corner.

Human bodies are stacked atop each other.

I turn away, shielding her from the shock.

What is this hellish place?

When we finally reach the small thicket of trees where Melisa says that Eneko lives, I slow.

The house itself seems ordinary enough. There are no heads on spikes or bloodstains in the snow. Two small children are playing outside.

As giants, they are nearly as tall as Melisa, though neither could be older than a decade or two.

Melisa’s arms go slack, and one hangs down pathetically. When I glance down at her, I see her eyes close. The need to adjust her is strong, but before I can, one of the giant children catches us.

“They’re humans!” one hisses.

The taller and presumably older of the two steps forward. “Da said you can’t come here after dark. Get out, or we’ll throw rocks!”

Though the warning had just come, one of them throws a stone the size of my foot at me. It connects with my leg, and a burst of pain radiates up to my hip.

I curse in Enduar under my breath and step forward.

When I do, one of the children screams.

“Ma!”

When the elder one sees Melisa limp in my arms, he grabs his brother. “Shut up. It’s Da’s human.”

Something hot and angry stirs in my chest, but I keep it clamped down.

The front door to the cabin flings open, and warm yellow light spills into the night. A giant woman with rich, brown hair stands in the doorway.

It’s clear that she’s older, from the wrinkles across her forehead and near her eyes. Decorative scars are carved into the tops of her breasts and around her cheeks. Some of them have been painted red to match the flowing red gown that covers her figure. It resembles what Melisa wears, but the cloth is a finer weave.

“What’s all this?” she demands, moments before her gaze lands on Melisa.

Her frown deepens, verging on a sneer. Quickly, she steps out into the chilly air and pulls the door shut behind her.

“Boys! Go around back and get inside. Tell your father nothing, and go straight to bed.”

She waits for them to abandon their wooden cattle, warriors, and spears before she looks back at me.

She marches over. The woman is tall enough that I have to crane my head to look up at her.

“Get her out of here, or I’ll slice off your cock and feed it to you.”

My mouth drops open to say something as my grip tightens on Melisa. I don’t want her to be touched by these people. Leaving her with them is as preposterous as leaving a newborn outside.

“Are you deaf, you niggling twit? Get away!” she whisper-hisses.

I take a step back. As much as I would love nothing more than to run away with Melisa still in my arms, she was determined to come here. She made me promise that I would be with her as she completed this mission.

I gave my word to her, and I gave it to my king. My duty lies with them.

“She belongs to Eneko,” I grit out, trying to swallow down the sour taste the words bring.

She sneers. “I don’t want her anywhere near my husband.”

The door opens again. “Hibsej, my dear, what is all this?”

Another tall giant walks out. He is much older than Hibsej, much older than I would’ve anticipated. His frame is large, scarred, and stocky, as most giants are. Though, for a commoner, he is much more neatly groomed, and his clothes seem to match his wife’s.

Hibsej glares at me, then turns around, her glare melting into a smile.

“Nothing, dear. I was just taking care of something.”

He peers out past her, first seeing me, and then his gaze drops to Melisa.

“The whore’s come home!” he calls, clearly excited. “Thank the gods. I thought she’d been killed with the others.”

The crass title has me tightening my grip on Melisa. How can I leave her with this brute?

“Eneko—”

“What’s wrong with her, boy?” he demands.

It takes me a few moments to realize he’s talking to me. I meet his eye.

“I found her near the northwestern lumber yards. It looked like she’d been left there to die. Silvester told me to bring her here.” The lie had been carefully practiced, but a part of me worries it will be rejected for its obvious flaws.

Eneko looks at me long and hard, and I try to erase the hatred I feel from my face. When his gaze dips back to Melisa, I resist the urge to cover her.

“Silvester sent you?”

I pause, then say. “Yes, Foreman.”

He nods. “Good. High King Rholker has been too busy to find me a new comfort woman, and I’m desperate for a rut. Khuohr knows that my saggy old wife is no good after two sons. Take her to my bed.”

I freeze. Confronted with my reality is like being stabbed repeatedly in my stomach.

“Foreman, she’s unconscious and injured. We found her with a cut on her side.”

“Godsdamnit. Then put her in the back room.”

I hesitate, and he misinterprets the action.

“Fine. I will show you the way, as I suppose I’m meant to do godsdamned everything around here. Hib, go take care of my sons.” Then he starts walking into the house.

Inside appears exaggeratedly large with high walls and spacious rooms.

“You’re quite tall for a human,” Eneko says after a moment.

I don’t respond.

“I didn’t realize there were so many giant bastards with Silvester. I knew that he helped the king’s halfblood.”

“Bastards aren’t well-liked in the yards,” I say, unsure exactly how to have this conversation.

He snorts. “Damn shame. Your kind is twice as strong as the others.”

We continue walking, but he stops abruptly at a door leading to a room tacked onto the rear of the house. I pull it open.Everything inside is small, hardly tall enough for him to walk inside.

“We’ve lost a few thousand of you in the last week after those humans escaped,” he says before I step inside.

I turn around and look at the man. I hate him as I have never hated before. Every inch of him. May his sons grow up and kill him.

Or, better yet, I hope I do it with my bare hands.

“We are short on slaves in our yard as well.”

“My apologies,” I grit out.

“Work for me. I’ll give you better meals than they do over there.”

I freeze. This was exactly what we wanted.

“My master will not be pleased.”

He frowns. “I’ll tell Old Silv if he asks. In fact, it is decided. You will stay and help my crew. Head over to the slave pens and look for the biggest hut at the end of the path.”

My stomach growls.

He smirks. “Just toss her on the bed. I’ll have Hib give you some bread before you leave.”

I nod, then walk into the room. It is chilly in here, and I worry about the temperature. When I place Melisa on the bed, I try not to linger. Not with her master watching me closely.

The only thing that causes me to pause is when one of her fingers brushes over my hand.

It’s a bit of comfort for a woman who asks for little.

My heart aches.

Risking it all, I covertly squeeze her digit and hurry away.

Once out of the room, I watch him remove a lock and shut her in. I bite back questions, keeping my gaze down.

Silently, we return to the front of the house. Eneko momentarily disappears and comes back with a half loaf.

“Frigid woman. It will be nice to have some soft flesh to touch once more,” he mutters, more to himself than me.

When he offers me the bread, I almost don’t take it.

So much anger simmers beneath the surface of my skin.

I could kill him.

But we wouldn’t get the information we need, and we would lose. There would be no news on the giant king or his court, and we would be clueless about how to get humans to Enduvida.

So finally, I take the loaf.

“Meet in the northeastern yards at daybreak,” he commands before leaving.

I make to walk away from the cabin, but pause. There is a window near Melisa’s bed.

Making sure I’m not being watched, I rush back and organize a quick message with stones and sticks, just as we planned.

Once I am done, I unlock her down and hurry away. When I reach the pens, the stench of unwashed bodies lingers in the air.

Everything is damp and chilly.

There was no way in hell I would eat food from that man, but wasting such a commodity would be cruel, so I stop in front of one of the dens and throw the loaf inside.

I look for the men’s quarters. It is essentially a large building with dirt-packed floors and scraps of oiled wood to keep some sections cleaner than others. At least a hundred men are crammed into one area, and I navigate between them.

When I finally find an empty spot, I lay down and work on securing myself and my pebbles, clutching one so I won’t shift in my sleep. Then I close my eyes.

Sleep refused to come despite knowing that tomorrow would be filled with back-breaking work.

I can only think of leaving Melisa at that cabin with those monsters—but that was always the plan.

We made it to our mark. We are in Zlosa.

May the gods keep us all as we journey through this valley of darkness.