“Yarrow, have some of your men get that poor creature out of those chains and taken to the doctors,”

  Elissia said, riding over Tellita’s sleek nastiness as though the other woman hadn’t said a word. “That kneeling man needs to be taken there as well, and possibly even the third? ?”

  “No, ma’am, I’m not hurt that badly, and my name is Jael Farange,” the man with the whip said when Elissia turned her attention to him, at the same time throwing away the bloodied whip. “But she does have my sister locked up somewhere, which is why I had no choice about doing as she said. She - “

  “Silence!” Tellita screamed, whirling on the speaking man and glaring venom at him. “Adding lies to what this slut put forward won’t do either of you any good, and you’ll pay for trying to betray me. My brother can’t be out of power, not when her father’s kingdom couldn’t scrape up enough fighting men to put down so much as a troop of children! Your sister will pay for your betrayal just as her brother will do the same when he’s found, so - Get away from that servant, you men, get away!”

  “It’s over, Tellita,” Elissia said, fighting to hold onto her temper. “I did find my brother and free him, but not with my father’s fighters. Waysten was stupid enough to try making people think that the high king of Arvin was responsible for kidnapping Gardal, so the high king brought his fighters in to take over the city.

  Where have you put that man’s sister?”

  “The only way you’ll find out is if you leave these slaves right where you found them,” Tellita stated, her face set into a little-girl pout. “I’m a princess and my father is the king, and I can do anything I please to anyone I please. That’s the truth, and if you don’t like it that’s just too bad.”

  “I think it is going to be too bad, but not for us,” Elissia said, having noticed the anger on the face of Jael Farange. “Jael, since it’s your sister she’s hiding, you can be the one to question her if you like. If you’re the kind of man who can’t bring himself to ? be firm with a woman, I’m sure one of my men will be able to - “

  “No, ma’am, thank you, but I’d like to be the one,” Jael answered at once. “I don’t approve of hurting women, but punishing them is another matter entirely. And punished is what she’ll be at least until she tells me what I need to know.”

  “Go to it, then,” Elissia said as Tellita’s expression changed to one of complete disbelief. Two of Yarrow’s squad were carrying out the man who had been whipped, having discovered that the man wasn’t able to stand, not to speak of walk. Another two had urged the kneeling man to his feet, and now were getting that man moving after the one being carried.

  Elissia watched the two victims being taken out of the room, and it was hard not to wonder how many others Tellita had broken or killed. Tellita always had been as much of a spoiled brat as her brother Waysten, but it was possible to be a brat without causing terrible harm. Could there be something in the family’s blood to cause such destructive -

  “No! Don’t you dare!” Elissia heard the words Tellita screamed and turned back to see that Jael had already gotten started with his former tormentor. He’d moved the dressing table chair away from the dressing table, then had sat down and pulled Tellita across his lap. He hadn’t bothered to find something to cover his nakedness, but had found a springy length of wood about two inches wide and better than twelve inches long that looked somewhat like a ruler. Pulling up the skirts of Tellita’s robe and gown took Jael only a moment, and then he was ready to proceed.

  “You’re going to tell me where my sister is and you’d better do it fast,” Jael said as he kept Tellita from struggling free or covering her bottom again. “You are going to be well punished for what you’ve done, but that punishment won’t start until you tell me what I want to know. The longer you take to speak, the worse that eventual punishment will be for you.”

  “You expect me to believe that you’ll actually be allowed to strike me?” Tellita spat as she continued to struggle. “I’m a princess, and no one is permitted to - Ow! No! Stop that at once!”

  Jael had used his slender paddle twice on Tellita, and the smacking sounds against her round white bottom were accompanied by a faint pinkness left on the white. Even as Elissia watched, Jael smacked Tellita’s bottom twice again, and the strokes made the girl writhe as well as scream. Tellita’s right arm was being held to keep her from covering her bottom protectively, and Elissia felt a faint urge to tell the girl how well being a princess did with keeping your bottom from being spanked. But if anyone deserved a good spanking Tellita was the one, so Elissia just watched quietly without the least urge to interfere.

  The paddle kept whacking across Tellita’s bottom as it made that bottom more red than pink, and Tellita screamed and writhed and kicked without being able to free herself. Ten or twelve strokes produced nothing but cries from the girl, but then she broke through the shock of being treated like something other than queen of the world.

  “Stop! I’ll tell you!” Tellita shouted, the words savage rather than repentant. “You disgusting beast! Your sniveling little sister is two doors down, and now you will let me go!”

  Jael looked up at us, so I nodded to Yarrow to go and take a look. Tellita kept insisting that she be released, but Jael continued to hold his former “owner” over his lap until Yarrow came back with a girl who was rubbing her wrists. The girl wore a simple day gown, but the gown was rumpled and dirty as though it had been worn much too long.

  “That miserable female threatened to have me raped when I refused to call her mistress,” the newcomer was saying to Yarrow as they entered the room. Jael’s sister’s voice was trembling slightly, but Elissia thought the girl was more angry than frightened. “She’s crazy, and she really needs to be - “

  The girl’s words broke off when she saw her brother and Tellita, and an expression of deep satisfaction settled across her face.

  “Don’t worry, Jaesi, I’m taking care of it,” Jael said to his sister. “Are you all right?”

  “My wrists and ankles hurt from the way I was tied, but aside from that I’m fine, Jael,” Jaesi answered with a smile for her brother. “You just go ahead and continue with what you were doing.”

  “Oh, I certainly will,” Jael murmured, looking down at the girl across his knees. “So she threatened to have you raped, did she? ?”

  “I told you what you wanted to know, and now you have to release me!” Tellita screeched, her face having paled at what Jael had said. “If you hurt me any more you’ll be killed slowly and painfully, and so will that sister of yours! You - Ow! Oh! Noooo!”

  Jael had started to spank Tellita again with the paddle, and now he seemed to be really putting his back into it. As Elissia watched Tellita kick and struggle and scream as her bottom turned an even deeper red, she felt a small shudder go through her from something Jaesi had said. She’s crazy, Jael’s sister had stated, and probably would have gone on to say that crazy people who couldn’t be cured needed to be put down. Elissia didn’t know if she’d have the strength to condemn Tellita along with her father and brother, but that decision didn’t have to be made now. And certainly not by her?

  “Yarrow, leave one or two of your men here, to take Tellita to a cell near the rest of her family once Jael is done with her,” Elissia said as she turned away from the punishment a crying Tellita was being given without stint. “If there’s anything in the woman to be saved, being treated like the criminal she is might bring it out. If all it does is make her resentful? Well, let’s just wait and see.”

  Yarrow nodded and spoke to two of his men, and then the squad leader and the rest of his men followed Elissia out of the room. Elissia waited until they were back out in the public hall, and then she turned to Yarrow again.

  “Now that I’ve done the job Lord Listan gave me, I think I’ll go back to my apartment and have some tea,” she said, working to keep from sounding weary. “If you need to accompany me back that’s fine, but once we get there - “

  “Your Majesty, excuse me for interrupting,” Yarrow said, his expression telling Elissia that he really wasn’t happy to be saying what he was. “Lord Listan left orders that if you finished this chore before lunch, I was to tell you that he’d also like you to take a look at the laws that have been recently enacted.

  Prince Waysten

  -“

  “All right, yes, I know that Waysten passed laws that were to his benefit rather than to the people’s,”

  Elissia said with one hand raised, annoyance starting to touch her again. “Lord Listan is right about someone needing to go over those laws, but I’m giving you fair warning right now: if Lord Listen is foolish enough to show up in my apartment again, I’m going to order you to knock him down and then jump up and down on his prostrate body. If I’m going to be the only one around here doing the work, I intend to get some pleasure out of it.”

  And with that Elissia headed back toward her apartment, pretending she didn’t hear the way Yarrow and his men were chuckling.

  Chapter 3

  Derand woke slowly, as though finally surfacing from a very deep dive. The last thing he remembered clearly was being in bed with Seea, so he reached a hand out to the side of the bed where she ought to be. When his hand found nothing but cold and empty bedclothes he woke even more fully and began to sit up.

  “Slowly, my king, slowly,” Listan’s voice came, along with his hand on Derand’s shoulder, keeping him from sitting up. “Everything is fine so you don’t need to upset yourself.”

  “Seea,” Derand croaked, his voice, for some reason, sounding long unused. “Where’s Seea?”

  “Your queen is here in the palace, busily engaged in straightening out this kingdom,” Listan replied at once. “If you feel up to sitting, let me help you.”

  Derand still felt a bit vague, only now noticing that he no longer lay in the cabin he remembered falling asleep in. He let Listan help him to sit up, then leaned back against the extra pillows his friend and advisor had piled behind him.

  “Moving didn’t hurt as much as I expected it to,” Derand observed aloud once he leaned on the pillows.

  “My body feels ? rusty and unused, but barely more than sore.”

  “Complete rest has helped you to heal faster, my king,” Listan said, standing to Derand’s right where he could be seen more easily. “Are you hungry? When it looked like you were about to wake up I ordered a meal prepared and brought.”

  “Hungry?” Derand echoed, now aware of how hollow he felt. “I’m not hungry, I’m starving! If you have food around here somewhere, have it brought in before I go to wherever it is.”

  “Just stay where you are,” Listan said with a wide grin before turning and nodding to one of the guardsmen standing in the room. The guardsman went to the door he stood near, opened it, then beckoned in a group of waiting servants. A minute later the aroma of hot food was turning Derand into a slobbering mound of appetite, and as soon as the first dish was put in front of him he dove in. It was breakfast he’d been brought and he wasn’t able to eat as much of it as he wanted to, but once all he could hold was inside him he sat back against the pillows with a sigh.

  “I felt as though I hadn’t eaten in a month,” he said to Listan, who sat near the bed sipping from a cup of tea. “Would you like to tell me now what’s been going on? The last thing I remember is falling asleep in a forest cabin.”

  “You may have fallen asleep, but you went from that to unconsciousness,” Listan said, amusement no longer touching him. “Happily, though, the queen was with you and she called your guard. They all got you back here, and after examining you the doctor said that if you went running around again before your wounds were allowed to heal you could die. That’s why I let the man keep you asleep for three days, feeding you broth every time you came close to waking up. You’re in a lot better shape now and can get out of that bed as soon as you feel up to it.”

  Derand sipped from the cup of tea he still held, forcing the angry words he wanted to speak to cool off before he let them free. The idea that he’d been kept asleep for three days without his permission made him furious, but it was Listan’s job to keep him alive. And the fact that Listan had taken full responsibility for what had been done meant the man was fully aware of the fact that his king could well explode in anger. Derand knew that blaming someone for saving your life was a surly way to say thank you, but the matter couldn’t just be overlooked.

  “The matter is over and done with, so this time we won’t say any more about it,” Derand finally allowed, speaking very softly and holding Listan’s gaze. “If the same should happen again, though, I’ll make sure that a third repetition will be impossible. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” Listan said after clearing his throat, no longer looking directly at Derand. “You have my word that this will never happen again, since I know you’ll never again put your life in danger the way you did this time. Would you like the tea in your cup refreshed?”

  “Not yet,” Derand answered, letting his annoyance be buried under wry amusement. Listan knew well enough that he could never stand against Derand in a fight, not when Derand had so far bested every opponent he’d ever faced. But Listan had also refused to back down, stating in so many words that if his own life

  was forfeit in the saving of Derand’s, so be it. It wasn’t possible to fault loyalty like that, and Derand knew he would be a fool to try. With that in mind, he decided to change the subject.

  “All through the meal I wondered where my wife was,” Derand said after sipping at the tea again. “Didn’t you let her know I’d be waking up about now?”

  “I thought you might prefer to be on your feet again before she saw you,” Listan replied, and this time there was a sigh behind the words. “For the past three days she’s been in here every time she had a spare minute, and afterward the look in her eyes was painfully bleak. I have the feeling she blames herself for your collapse, for making you ride after her when you were in no condition even to stand up very long.

  But she’s also been really busy and I didn’t want to interrupt her schedule until you were able to reassure her.”

  “What’s she been busy with?” Derand asked, mostly to distract himself from the thought of the guilt Seea might be suffering from. He’d have to speak to her about that, but not while he still lay helpless in a bed?

  “And I need to talk to you about precautions that have to be taken, things that should have been done three days ago. I just hope we’re not locking the barn door after the horses are already stolen. The surrounding kingdoms will be aware of what happened here, and they might - “

  “It’s all right, my king,” Listan interrupted with an odd kind of amusement. “I already have scouts watching those other kingdoms, and if any of them starts to gather what looks like an army our scouts will ride for Arvin and bring back an army of our own.”

  “Well done, Listan,” Derand said, really meaning the words. “That’s one worry taken care of, but there are others. There are sure to be people in this city who want Waysten back in charge, so - “

  “That’s also been taken care of, my king,” Listan interrupted again, the odd amusement increasing. “Those in this city who have grown fat under Prince Waysten’s rule are being watched, and if any of them tries to recruit assassins or troublemakers we’ll know about it almost at once.”

  “Listan, I’m delighted and very impressed,” Derand said, his brows high with surprise. “I never realized you were this good a strategist, and I feel better knowing that our people here aren’t in as much danger as they might have been. You should have shown me this talent of yours when we first began the campaigns. I could have used the help.”

  “Talent was definitely used, my king, but it wasn’t mine,” Listan answered, a grin finally breaking through.

  “I wanted to distract your queen and keep her from deciding to ride off again, so I asked for her ‘help’

  just as I did when you were Prince Waysten’s prisoner. To my shock and chagrin she immediately mentioned just what you did, and I fell all over myself rushing to make the necessary arrangements. You were absolutely right when you suggested she was a master strategist.”

  “So my people were in good hands while I slept,” Derand murmured, his delight increasing. “And she’s foolish enough to feel guilty that I didn’t let her ride out of my life? But you still haven’t told me what else she’s been busy with.”

  “I realized that I didn’t have the authority to make decisions about the royal family,” Listan said after sipping from his own cup of tea. “King Limond is a drunk and Princess Tellita was running wild, so I asked the queen to decide on what their disposition ought to be. The queen interviewed them both, then had them sent to the dungeons with Prince Waysten. King Limond, by the way, knew about and approved everything Prince Waysten did.”

  “Then Limond can also join his son in death,” Derand said, all delight and amusement gone. “We were wondering if Limond was a victim or a co-conspirator, and now we know. But what about Tellita? Does Seea seriously expect me to execute a woman?”

  “It seems that Princess Tellita made a hobby of turning innocent men into slaves,” Listan answered heavily. “She had them chained up and beaten at her whim, and even broke at least one man that we know of. The queen had the princess put in the dungeons to see if punishment made the woman regret what she’d done. But Princess Tellita has been showing resentment instead of regret, and that’s why the queen has recommended that she be executed with her father and brother. If the princess is allowed to live, the queen said, no one you place on the throne here will ever be safe.”

  Derand made a sound of understanding, knowing just what Seea meant. Anyone interested in revolution had only to marry Tellita, and the legitimacy of the man’s claim couldn’t be argued. Seea was right again, and Derand would have to find the innards to back her decision. If he didn’t, he had no right to jeopardize anyone by putting him on the throne.