The Bladed Tiger's Empress (Claiming Her Empire Book 1) by Bethany Bliss

Author:Bethany Bliss [Bliss, Bethany]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The Warrior Princess

For a week Marilla learned all the odds and ends of the temple. She worked the laundry, the kitchen, the medical care and did most of the cleaning around the tavern. She even worked at the forge one day, somewhere Francine had neglected to mention in Marilla’s lengthy list of duties. As exhausted as she was at the end of each day however, Marilla felt highly accomplished. Especially when coming from the kitchen where she was graciously thanked for her exotic blend of spices the warriors adored, or the medical building where she was told she had a knack for caring for the weak, and even the forge where she learned some black-smithing. She enjoyed returning to Hayden at the end of each day who was away caring for his own duties, but she also enjoyed exploring the temple herself and learning these new skills without his fretting.

She still trained with Hayden almost every night when her energy wasn’t totally depleted from their intimacy and her many jobs. Watching the many sparring matches going on around her however, did motivate her to become stronger faster. She trained harder than before, insisting on longer training sessions until Hayden made her stop.

“Okay, that’s enough for tonight. Too many more scrapes and bruises and Vince will accuse me of beating you again,” he said one night when he had knocked her into the dirt for the fifth time.

“I’m not done yet!” she’d cried as she rushed him with her dagger, feeling a slight bonk on her head as his fist gently tapped her forehead to gain her attention far before her blade reached him.

“You’re done.”

“I’ve never met a princess that was so interested in getting dirty,” Vince had teased when she complained later that night, her clothes filthy, and a streak of dirt just above her lip and forehead.

“You’ve never met a princess period,” Blythe had countered.

Marilla felt she had grown closer to the two warriors, not that that would last long. They were both destined to be mercenaries. They hadn’t been purchased yet, so soon they would leave the temple as “swords for hire.” Marilla felt this to be a real shame that they wouldn’t be fighting for what they believed in and instead whatever man or woman had the coin to pay them believed in, but neither man shared her opinion. “We’ll be free to make our own decisions,” Blythe had explained.

“What if they order you to do something you don’t agree with?” Marilla asked.

The men had exchanged glances as Blythe said, “Either we do it anyway or we quit.” Vince had bitten his lip then, alerting Marilla that the uncertain future as a mercenary did indeed frighten him. “If we were purchased by the castle or some other place we’d have to obey or be labeled deserters.”

Marilla had swallowed her uneasiness at that. Hayden was considered a deserter for protecting her. She wondered if he had ever been ordered by her father to do something he didn’t agree with but had done anyway because he had been ‘purchased’ by the late emperor.

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