Chapter Thirty-Eight
“This is the last one.” Raven took my hand as the carriage stopped. “Today, it finally ends.”
Four days. That's all it had been since we'd returned from defeating Nahel. Four days, and we had already gotten to the end of Bara's list of customers.
Raven helped me out of the carriage, and I looked up, not surprised to see a luxurious mansion rising three stories before me. Columns bordered the front door, with an overhang to protect guests from the elements as they waited for a servant to answer their knock.
But we weren't guests.
When Sir Vanoak's knock was answered, he shoved the servant back, and we followed him inside with five more knights bringing up the rear.
“How dare you!” the Deldin servant stammered, but then he saw the King. “King Raventar.” He bowed. “How may I assist?”
“Where is your master?” Raven was already headed for the stairs directly across from the front door.
“He's indisposed, Your Majesty!” The Deldin hurried after the King.
Chuckling viciously, I followed my mate.
“Up here then?” Raven turned right on the landing but paused when the Deldin caught up to him. He stared at the relief on the man's face and surmised, “No, not this way. Over here?” He headed toward the left.
“Your Majesty, please! The master will be mortified. Allow me to notify him that you've come to call.”
“This is no social call,” the Dragon King snarled. “Where is he?!”
A thud came from down the hall, and Raven honed in on it. The Deldin hurried after him, but I grabbed the man's shoulder and pulled him back.
“Best go downstairs,” I said to him. “You don't want to be here for this.”
The Deldin's large eyes went larger, and he nodded vigorously before darting around the Dragon knights and disappearing downstairs.
Meanwhile, the King burst into the main suite.
“What is the meaning of this?” a man's voice filtered out.
“Get away from her!” The King roared.
I shook my head and sighed. “I'd better go in before Raven kills another one.”
“Good luck.” Vanoak chuckled as I passed him and entered the bedroom.
The ribboned master was a Hulfrin, and the enslaved woman was Lelurra. Gods help me. I had come a long way in my recovery, but seeing a Hulfrin with a Lelurra was enough to make my stomach turn. But then Raven grabbed the naked Hulfrin by the throat and hauled him away from the cringing Lelurra.
“You fucking piece of shit!” Raven growled.
“With all your money and privilege, you couldn't find a woman who was willing?
Or is having a slave in your bed what gets you off?
You like rape, do you? Well, I'm sure your fellow inmates will oblige.” He tossed the Hulfrin at his knights.
“Chain this motherfucker before I kill him!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Sir Vanoak grabbed the Hulfrin by the scruff of his neck and pushed him toward the door.
“Can I at least get dressed?” the Hulfrin shouted, still not comprehending the depth of his doom.
Sir Neriver snorted, grabbed a robe, and shoved it at the man. “This is for our comfort, not yours.”
I glared at the Hulfrin, but he wasn't worth my focus. As soon as he was gone, I turned back to the Lelurra woman.
“You're safe now.” Raven held up his hands as he faced the woman.
The ribboned captives were always like this—cringing but unable to flee. Raven could have approached her, and she wouldn't have done much, but she would have been terrified. So, I took over while he stepped back.
“Hi, I'm—”
“Eliel?” the woman whispered.
I squinted into the shadows of the bed. The woman was sitting up against the headboard, a sheet pulled up to her chin, and her wings curled forward around herself. She opened her wings and shifted forward.
“Kisa?” I gasped and hurried to the bed. “Oh, dear Gods, Kisa!”
She shot forward into my arms, weeping. “Eliel!”
“It's over now,” I stroked her long blonde hair. “It's over. I'm here. You're safe. Give me your wrist.”
Kisa didn't ask what I meant, just leaned back and thrust out her wrist with the ribbon tied on it. I untied it and handed it to Raven. He hurried forward to take the ribbon and paused.
“You know her?” the King asked.
“We were childhood friends.” I rubbed Kisa's wrist where the ribbon had lain. “Can you give us a moment? She needs to get dressed.”
“Yes, of course.” Raven strode out of the room, waving the remaining knights away and closing the door behind them.
“What are you doing here?” Kisa whispered.
“I was like you. Bound. The man who enslaved me created those horrible ribbons. I killed him, and I've been helping the King find and free other captives. You're the last. Oh, Kisa, I'm so sorry. I know what you've endured.”
Kisa shuddered, her dappled brown wings shivering along with the rest of her. “I can hardly believe I'm free. Can I go home?”
I nodded. “Yes, of course, but I'd like you to stay a little while. The King has been awarding compensation to the captives by transferring the wealth of their captors to them.”
Her eyes went wide.
“I know that's not enough to make up for what you've been through, but at least you'll have something to make the rest of your life easier. You can even stay here a while if you're not ready to go home.”
“Why wouldn't I be ready?”
I shrugged.
“Oh, Eliel. You haven't gone home yet?”
“No, but some of the other Lelurra captives took word of my wellbeing back to my family when we were freed, and I've recently written to them. They know I'm safe.”
Kisa grimaced, and then she rubbed her arms. “Dear Gods, I can't remember what it's like to fly. He wouldn't let me out of this house.”
“The sky remembers for you.”
She smiled softly. “Yes, it does. And it will welcome me home. Just as it will welcome you.”
“I can't go back now.”
“Yes, you can. You can always go home, Eliel.”
“No.” I smiled. “I mean, I'm mated to the King. This is my home now. I may visit, but I can't return to stay.”
“What?” Kisa's brown eyes went wide. “You're the Dragon King's mate? Your parents will be so proud.”
I nodded. “They're coming to visit in a couple of days for my presentation to the Tabaa Dread.”
“Presentation,” she whispered. Then she burst into tears.
It didn't surprise me. Freed captives were often calm to the point of seeming normal until their mind began to process things. Then they broke. Again and again it would happen. I knew the process so well that I was already swooping in to hold her before she crumpled.
“It's going to be all right. You never have to see him again, and he's going to be punished by the Dragon King for what he did to you. You're safe. I promise, Kisa. No one will hurt you ever again.”
“Eliel, he . . .”
“I know what he did. It was done to me. Look at me, Kisa.”
Sniffing, she looked up.
“Look at how strong I am now. I wasn't at first. I was worse than you. I was beaten terribly, one wing broken. But I healed in my body and my mind. Now, I'm mated to the King, and I'm so very happy. You will be happy again too. I promise.”
“I don't think I will. He sucked all the happiness from my soul.”
“It will refill itself.” I cupped her cheek. “It seems like you're dying right now. That the hollowness will consume you. But it won't. You will fly and sing again, my friend. The sky remembers.”
“The sky remembers,” she whispered.
“Now, let's get you dressed. As soon as you leave this wretched place, it will get easier.”