Chapter 3 #3
The four porters lifted her between them, and I moved to mount my horse among the other riding guards.
Gallow was huge and his fur was the deep, red-gold colour of the Lyrian sand, paired with a cream mane that was braided down his neck in the style of all the war horses, his tail twisted up into an intricate knot.
I climbed onto his back and patted his shoulder in greeting, a small snort leaving him and the word “apple” filling my head in a demand.
An amused smile pulled at the corner of my lips as I took up the reins.
“Later, Gallow,” I murmured. My Affinity with animals occasionally extended to him, especially on account of our bond, but the beast’s wants were simple. Apples, sugar lumps and ear tickles.
I guided him to the side of Austyn’s platform and donned the helmet one of my fellow guardsmen passed me.
The rebels in the slums were growing more restless recently and you could never be too careful on these parades.
It was another reason why I despised the princess being taken beyond the palace walls like this without even containing her within the confines of a carriage.
But Magdor wanted her on full display, or at least as on display as a woman bound in silk could be.
Gallow fell into a steady pace beside the platform as Princess Austyn was carried towards the gates behind two lines of guards. No man on foot could possibly get close to her, but what of a well-aimed arrow? What of the fire bombs the rebels were known for throwing?
I was on edge as we moved through the gleaming palace gates, and I kept one hand on my sword while the other gripped the reins. Vigilance was my name today, and I would live up to it in every way I could.
The parade went smoothly as we marched through the streets of the royal circle and I hunted the faces of the waving crowd for any potential threat.
Women called out to us guards, desperate to catch our attention, but I ignored all of them even when one girl tossed her handkerchief at me and tried to get hold of my leg.
Gallow swung his rump right into her, nearly knocking her to the ground as I hunted the rooftops for signs of danger.
Any flitting shadow drew my attention as I prepared for some kind of attack, my muscles tensed as I readied to dive into action at a single second’s notice.
Sweat was beading on my brow, the sun on my metal helmet making my head feel like it was cooking, but it was nothing to the intensity of the heat beneath my breastplate.
My heart was labouring with the temperature, but I didn’t let it distract me.
I’d bleed out every drop of water in my body before I gave in to the burn of the sun.
Princess Austyn waved to the people who praised her name and pledged their undying love to her.
She pulled at her silken clothes occasionally, shifting uncomfortably on the cushions and I glanced back at Magdor in her open-air chariot, a lace umbrella offering her and her son shade where it was held by the guard riding beside them.
Irritation made my skin prickle over their set-up compared to the insufferable position Austyn had been put in.
The parade went on for over two hours under the high sun and the horses were panting by the time we turned back towards the palace, relief washing through me as we closed in on the promise of shade.
Sweat dripped down my spine and the crowd thinned as they returned to the shelter of their homes, the last of them waving from doorways or windows, not wanting to step out into the intense Osarian heatwave.
After another visual sweep of the rooftops and alleyways close by, I shifted my attention to the princess as she clutched her chest and seemed to be fighting for breath.
“Are you well, my lady?” I asked anxiously.
“Yes, I just need to…to…” She started falling sideways so fast that I barely had a moment to react, acting on instinct alone as I kicked Gallow’s side to force him closer to her.
Austyn tumbled from the platform and I caught her in my arms, her body slack and her head lolling against my breastplate.
“Halt!” I bellowed as my pulse skyrocketed with fear, but it seemed half the guardsmen had already noticed anyway and were drawing the entourage to a standstill.
“Get your hands off of the princess!” Magdor shrieked as I turned Gallow about, holding Austyn against me with one arm while charging back up the line towards the chariot.
“She’s fainted, Your Highness,” I said urgently, despising this woman but knowing I had no choice but to seek her orders. “She needs to get out of these clothes.”
I took a knife from my hip, not willing to see the princess in peril any longer even if it cost me my life to free her from the confines of this silk.
“Stand down,” Magdor barked. “Place her in here.”
My grip tightened on the knife and I forced myself to obey this false empress as I returned it to my hip and leaned over into the chariot, placing Austyn on the seat beside her.
“Is that quite enough drama for you, child?” Magdor muttered, shaking Princess Austyn, and making my hands tighten to fists.
“We must return to the palace,” I encouraged.
“Your duty is done,” Magdor clipped at me. “And I am yet undecided about your punishment for touching the sacred daughter of the emperor, guard, so you will bite your tongue or else I will have it cut out.”
Rage slid up my spine, but I held myself in check as Magdor called out for the entourage to return to the palace.
Kahn handed her his water canteen and Magdor upended it over the princess without care, making her splutter and sit upright as the fabric of her veil clung to her face and she was forced to pluck it away so that she could breathe again.
“There now, are we quite done being theatrical?” Magdor hissed at her, and my relief at seeing Princess Austyn wake was sullied by my fury at the empress for speaking to her like that.
My heart pounded to an excruciating beat as the princess reached for her veil, clearly intending to take it off before Magdor grasped her wrist, her sharp talons digging into the material there.
“You forget where you are, Austyn,” Magdor growled, and the princess looked around, her gaze landing on me, and though I couldn’t see her eyes, I could feel them everywhere.
“What happened?” she murmured.
“You know exactly what happened.” Magdor clucked her tongue. “You threw yourself at a guard, feigning heatstroke. I mean, really, girl, are you so in need of attention after the whole city has come out to see you?”
“I didn’t feign anything, Magdor,” she snarled.
“I saw it. She fell and that one caught her.” Kahn pointed at me, looking like a brick with a face in it. “I guess she could have died otherwise.”
He shrugged his big shoulders, and I supposed I had to be grateful to the troll for noticing what had really happened or else I could be facing the hangman’s noose for my actions.
Magdor huffed like his statement angered her, but she couldn’t deny it either, so she didn’t try to dispute what had happened again.
“You will take thirty lashings from your captain, guard,” she snapped at me.
“Yes, Your Highness,” I said, bowing my head obediently. It was a small price to pay for the princess’s wellbeing.
“What?” Austyn gasped, looking to her vile mother-in-law. “He caught me. My head could have been dashed on the cobbles if it wasn’t for him. It’s his job to protect me and he did just that.”
“Which is why I am being so lenient in the punishment, Austyn. But rules are rules. He cannot touch you. The price should be far, far greater, but considering the circumstances, I deem a whipping appropriate,” Magdor said, waving a hand at her like she was being irritating and I fought the urge to take my sword and drive it into her hollow chest.
I flexed my fingers as I gripped the reins, guiding Gallow a little away from their chariot as energy burned along my palm.
The same palm which had held her against me.
If my body hadn’t been so laden with armour, I would have felt her everywhere and the thought of that was so sinful, I could taste the blasphemy of it.
We marched on back to the palace and my heart rate didn’t settle once in all that time.
I’d held the princess in my arms, her body curved into mine.
I’d felt her warmth through all that silk and it had already planted an ache in me to feel it again, to have her that close so I could keep her from the likes of Magdor, the blazing intensity of the sun and anything else that might dare harm her.
I had always been her protector, but I had a feeling I had just become something more dangerous than that too. Because I was pretty sure my desire to safeguard her had officially turned into an obsession that would transform me into the most corrupt of devils in the face of her enemies.
My soul had been stamped with the royal emblem a long, long time ago. It was no more mine than the stars in the sky. But if I had to guess who held it in their possession, I was fairly certain it was her.
I focused back on the dreary room I was in and the mask of the torturer before me, the touch of that old memory draining from my skin and leaving me barren once more.
I am made of steel.
“Once you've seen something you can't un see it,” I mused aloud and the torturer stilled before me with his rusty spoon - which was maybe more of a knife now that I was seeing it up close.
And it was very apparent he took no care in washing his tools.
Hadn't this arsehole heard of basic hygiene?
The foul scent of sweat sailing off of him said he hadn't and it made my upper lip curl back.
I leaned as far forward as my tethers would allow, smiling through the agony in my flesh as I tried to tempt him closer. “Do you want to know what she looks like?”