“Iaskedthis of you,” Simon continued, deep, inexorable, horrible. “I said I wish to bare you. Cleanse you. Flaunt you before my kin. You ken what you said to this?”
And as Maria kept gaping at him, she heard —morefootstepsbehind them. And when she whirled around, her blood roaring in her ears, this time it was —Baldr. Strolling casual and smiling into the room, and carrying what seemed to be a large woodenchest.
“Here you are,” he said lightly, beaming toward Maria as he strode straight over to the bench, cleared off a spot beside Simon, and set down the chest. “How are you settling in, Maria?”
Goodgods. Maria belatedly lurched into motion, her hands frantically, awkwardly jerking on the loincloth, and yanking it tight around her waist. Providing some small modicum of concealment, for her lower half at least, and Baldr’s swift glance down toward it might have been approving, or perhaps almost even…envious.
“Ach, Skai like to flaunt their m—, er, their women,” he said, his voice catching. “Very pretty. Is there aught else you need, brother?”
Simon had kept sitting there through all this, rigid and dispassionate, still without a stitch of clothing on, with his legs sprawled wide. With that —beast— still dangling toward the floor, thick and heavy and languid, as if he truly didn’t care in the slightest what anyone saw, as if almosttauntingBaldr to look his fill —
“No,” Simon replied, voice curt. “I thank you, brother.”
Baldr flashed them both another quick smile, and spun on his heel toward the door — but then hesitated, and turned back again. “Will you be long, Simon? The captain waits to speak about that new —”
He broke off there, his eyes darting sidelong toward Maria, and she belatedly flailed to cross her arms over her breasts, to hide herself from his gaze. But Baldr was already glancing back toward Simon, and if possible, Simon looked even more disapproving, more forbidding, than before.
“Ach, I soon come,” Simon said flatly. “I must first show this woman to the Skai.”
Showthiswoman?! The words sparked another stunning, staggering blaze of panic in Maria’s chest, so overwhelming she scarcely noticed Baldr’s reply or retreat. And all that was left was Simon, still sitting there sprawled and shameless, with that insolent colddisapprovalin his watching orc eyes.
“Y-you trulymeanthis?” Maria choked out, as evenly as she could. “You’re going toshowme to other orcs, likethis? Are you — are you playing some kind ofgamewith me?!”
But Simon slowly shook his head, grim, bitter,judging. “I told you, woman, I play no game. You swore to bare. Tohonour. And thus, should you wish to stay, or gain your freedom here, youshall.”
Maria’s breath was lurching in her throat, the panic clattering and jangling, the numbness tingling in her hands and feet. “You didnot specify,” she somehow managed, “that this would include me not beingpermitted” — she gulped in air — “todress!”
“Ach, I did,” came Simon’s voice, now betraying an unmistakable thread of anger. “And you swore you wished for this, again and again andagain. I bear no moreliesupon this from you, woman!”
Good gods, Maria could no longer speak, or think, or move, but Simon seemed entirely undeterred, his clawed hand reaching for the chest Baldr had brought. “Now, woman,” he continued, flat, ruthless, as he snapped up the lid. “This shall be yours, whilst you stay. Here I shall put your things, and your food and drink for each day.”
The disbelief was tilting toward unreality, toward a strange twirling distance, but Simon only kept gazing at her, now waving at the contents of the chest. “You shall also find oil,” he continued, “and tools for each day, to help ready yourself for my taking.”
Wait, what? Maria’s dazed, blinking eyes had finally dragged themselves away from his forbidding face, and down toward the chest. Registering vaguely the basket of food, the bottle of milk, a vial that must have been oil, and — thesetools. Two long, thick, smoothly polished items, with tapering, rounded heads, carved out of what looked likestone…
“What,” she croaked, “arethese?”
But her distant screaming brain knew very well what they were, ohgods— and Simon actually snorted, and then reached inside to pluck one out. Gripping it with astonishing familiarity between his clawed fingers, and holding it out toward Maria as though it were something —normal. Something everyday and ordinary, not — not —
“Last eve, you took not half of my prick,” he said coolly. “These shall help you learn.”
Maria was fully beyond all words now, still gaping down at the — theimplementin his hand. Fighting not to think of all the times she had used such shocking things, hiding away furtive and ashamed, desperately wishing they had been real, with flesh and blood beneath…
“I shall find your fresh scent upon these each day,” Simon continued, steady, brittle. “You shall use them each time I am away from you. And when I return, I shall find you stretched and open and ready for me. Any part I might wish to take. Ach?”
There was no comprehending this, no accepting or answering this — but Simon waswaitingfor her, his eyebrows raised. “Ach?” he asked, the challenge dark and deadly in his voice. “Shall you obey me in this, woman?”
The panic was wailing and raging, and Maria could finally feel her eyes darting around, desperate, searching — and yes,yes, there was the contract, sitting rumpled on top of his shelf. The sight of it so compulsively powerful, speaking so loudly of her freedom, herrevenge. And it had all been going so well, unfolding better than planned, and now…
“Or, mayhap you runnow?” Simon’s voice continued, cold, relentless, as though he’d again peered into her very thoughts. “After you swore to me, again and again, how deeply you wish for this? How you wish tohonourme?”
Good gods,fuckthis utter asshole — and somehow, somewhere in the mayhem, Maria’s rage had finally flared to life. Surging high above the worst of the panic, the fear, the shame.
“Ican’trun now,” she hissed at him, her voice breaking. “And you know it. After last night, I’m likely — we likely — I —”
But it wouldn’t finish, the words wouldn’t keep coming out, and something cruel and dangerous shot through Simon’s black orc eyes. “That no need stop you,” he hissed. “You ken my brothers shall no fix this for you? You ken they must no oft wreak this, for fickle women such as you? Women who speak suchliesto us?!”
A vicious, devastating chill streaked up Maria’s back, but she somehow managed to hold herself steady, to return the fury in his glare. “Ididn’tlie to you, asshole,” she gritted out. “And I have every intention of keeping my word to you. But I certainly donotwish to be used as a vulgar plaything, or paraded around before your friends as a cheap crudejoke, or targeted as the shameful butt of yourmockery!”
