“At a time??” Her eyes looked like they were going to bug out of her head.
“I meant you could try different people out, but sure…more than one at a time if you’d like. My brother Talon’s mate is a siren. Stick around for her sex magic and you might just find yourself in an orgy…”
She narrowed her eyes like she wasn’t sure whether I was teasing her. It would’ve been fun to watch her spread her wings, but I had to stay here and face my fate.
She bit her lip. “I think I’m going to like it there.” She flushed like she’d done something bad just by whispering it aloud.
“I think you will too.” I smiled, but it turned to a wince when we went over a particularly vicious bump. At least one of us would end up better off.
“We caught one,Your Highness! A little spy who belongs to the bandits. Haven’t gotten him to talk yet, though.”
We’d finally reached the river crossing, and Godric’s booming voice carried to the wagon. They’d caught one of the bandits?
I peeked out of the cover, but could only see out the side where Bastian’s mount stood. Godric was in front of the wagon, out of my line of sight.
In the distance, a small voice uttered angry curse words that would’ve made a seasoned pirate blush. They’d caught a child? A child who sounded like he’d been possessed by a demon?
None of this made sense, and I was desperate to climb from the wagon to get to the bottom of it. What would Elric do? Drag me back to the castle?
I could practically sense the tension in Bastian’s jaw as he silently urged me to stay hidden.
But the noisy little rat was going to alert every bandit between here and the pass of our presence if one of them didn’t shut him up.
“Silence that child!” Bastian snapped.
The cursing stopped briefly, then redoubled when it was joined by the curses of a grown man. “Little monster bit me!”
I’d had enough. It wasn’t like I was going to stay in the wagon for the fight ahead. Elric and the other soldiers were going to find out I was there regardless of when I emerged.
I climbed from the back of the wagon, properly stretching my back out for the first time in hours. Bastian immediately moved to shield me with his horse, but I trudged past him, straight for the little ruffian, and snatched him by the scruff of the neck. He yelped, but he shut the fuck up as I dragged him from the river bank up the slope to the woods.
If the soldiers reacted to my presence, I didn’t notice it. No one chased me up the hill, likely because I’d taken their problem in hand.
The boy was so covered in filth he looked like a bog creature and it was impossible to tell exactly how old he was. I’d be dunking him in the river before this was over.
“You know who I am, boy?”
He tilted his head and looked up at me through narrowed brown eyes, assessing my tattoos and piercings, the braids in my hair and my size. “Some Viking whore by the looks of it. Viking whore with nice big tits. You gonna suck my prick, Viking whore?”
I couldn’t look at him or I was going to laugh. I hadn’t thought anyone could be more out of place amongst the Saxons than me, but this child had managed to offend every soldier present with a few sentences. His scrawny, half-starved, mud-covered body hid the heart of a bear. He knew exactly who I was and still chose to face me down with the only weapon the godshad granted him, his prickly words that he hoped to use to shock me.
“The bandits teach you to talk like that?” I asked, keeping my voice low and serious. Bastian was already trailing up the hill behind us, but I waved him off.
“Don’t know any bandits, cunt.”
I tossed him down against the trunk of a thick tree and stood over him. “Does the name Sigrid Thorvald mean anything to you?”
“No,” he said, and spat on the ground at my feet, but I detected his fear. His eyes flared with terror as I confirmed my identity, but he still managed to say, “She one of your whore friends?”
“Bring me a spoon and two pieces of rope!” I called to Bastian.
Bastian knew the games I’d played with Father Benedict, so he rubbed his eyes like he couldn’t quite believe he was dealing with this shit. But he called back. “I don’t have a spoon, Sigrid. Would a fork work?”
I sighed heavily. “Too sharp. I need something blunt.”
Bastian grinned at me and shook his head from the other side of the tree. His smile took my breath away.
“Would a shovel work?” he shouted, his voice serious despite his grin.
