Spoils of War: Plunder by Kari Gregg

Author:Kari Gregg [Gregg, Kari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBT Historical Fantasy
Publisher: Loose Id LLC
Published: 2012-08-11T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The feast was a harrowing, gruesome, fierce trial.

When Neera came to bid us dress, I gathered my goat in my arms and meekly followed my master and the servant both. I tucked my chin to my chest, rubbing my cheek against the animal’s fuzzy ears, and pretended not to notice the others watching me as we entered the house.

Maybe they were afraid of me. Not of my power, for I still had not eaten, so the evil within me slept, but my emotions had lain dormant so long I couldn’t control them. Coldly furious one moment, fearful and quivering the next… Why shouldn’t they be wary? Why trust me when I didn’t trust myself?

No one stopped me as I carried the goat to our room, though, and for that I was grateful. Safe inside our bedroom once more, I laid the goat carefully on a low table next to our bed. I quickly shrugged out of the coarse robes that had disguised both my hair and my station and created a pool of fabric on the smooth oak that I maneuvered the goat to rest upon with tender hands.

“My lord Barak has requested a box for the animal be sent up,” Neera said, bundles of cloth in her grasp. “But penning her in the bedroom would be cruel.”

“I’ll take her outside, every day,” I said, smiling as I rubbed the goat’s head, “and guard her so that nothing will prey upon her again.”

Neera grimaced, no doubt already imagining the dirt and the filth.

When I bent, the goat pushed forward to butt my forehead in welcome, and in that moment, I vowed to love the silly animal forever. “I’ll clean up after her too.”

The servant squawked in outrage.

“I will, Neera,” Eli rushed to assure her, taking the piles of clothes from her. “I’ll see to the animal’s bedding and tend to her.”

I arched an eyebrow at my master and smirked. We’d see about that.

My master snickered. “Here, little tyrant. Let us remember what it’s like to make you beautiful.”

What it was, was a chore.

Eli dressed me, first my body in a silky undertunic to ward against the damp of nightfall, and over it a robe as red as blood, the hems heavy with elaborate gold stitching. He fit my feet with sandals and then reached for the brush. He unplaited each of the braids Neera had woven after my bath, and I sighed on my perch on the bed, enjoying his hands caressing my scalp. My master was gentler with the brush than Neera, easier. No tugs that hurt.

The cloth against my skin irritated me, but I could bear it, bear anything for this.

“Oh,” Neera said, laying jewelry from a box beside me for my master’s attention. “I’d wondered if it would curl as Isanna’s did.” She gulped, eyes sheening. “He’s lovely, Eli.”

“I told you.” He groped for the first row of delicate chains on the blanket. I would have preened at the satisfied hum in his voice if I

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