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“I take it you tried to treat Ludvig’s wounds once you were on the boat,” Magnus said.
“How did you keep Dmitri from double-crossing you again?” Lefric asked, his eyes bright with excitement at the story, before I could answer Magnus.
“By that point, Dmitri knew we had to just get away. He started out rowing while I treated Ludvig as best I could and stopped the bleeding. We rowed for a few hours before stopping to just drift for a bit and catch our breaths. I wanted to make land, but Dmitri said we needed to get as far away from Seymchan and the soldiers as we could.
“In the end, he was right. I don’t know if anyone came after us, but I didn’t want to take that chance. We rowed for more than a day, never leaving the boat. We passed Yakutsk yesterday and stopped for food. That’s where we heard about the meeting in Hedeon, about you and Jorgen being there,” I said to Magnus.
“Dmitri didn’t want to continue on. He tried to force me to abandon Ludvig in Yakutsk so that he could claim me,” I said in a haunted voice, trusting everyone would know what that meant. My friends certainly would. “Ludvig refused to let him. The two of them fought, and Ludvig managed to kick Dmitri in the head once we were all back in the boat and to knock him out, but that took the last of his strength.”
I swallowed thickly, then shrugged. “And then I rowed as hard as I could through the night. You know the rest. Here we are.”
Everyone gaped at me in silence once the story was finished. I could tell they were all thinking about it, trying to decide what to make of the whole thing.
We’d escaped with our lives, but my life was still forfeit. I could have refused to be Dmitri’s pup, now that we were safe, but Dmitri could also refuse to divulge all of the information he had. The others could think what they wanted about him, but Dmitri didn’t just have the key to our prison in Seymchan to hold over me, he had the key of knowledge that would unlock everything Magnus needed to know about the soldiers from the Old Realm, the state of the eastern forest, and the new passage through the mountains.
Magnus wasn’t foolish enough to think my freedom was more important than the advantage Dmitri’s information would give him. And I’d made a promise. As sick as it made me to think about, I’d promised Dmitri that I would ensure he’d stay alive. I’d promised to become his pup.
ChapterThree
Ifelt weak and worn out once our story was told. The others fell into discussion about the things I’d said, and about whether Dmitri really had information that Magnus needed.
I was done with the conversation and just wanted to find a place to sleep before I had to face the inevitable, but I gathered enough strength to say, “You have to honor the terms of the agreement I made with Dmitri.”
Conversation stopped, and everyone looked at me.
Lefric shook his head. “I’m not letting you end up as a sex slave to a man like that. We all know what he’s like. We’ve heard the stories Peter told. He…he’ll hurt you.”
Yes, he probably would. He’d already murmured all the things he wanted to do to me in my ear, and they’d all filled me with dread.
And curiosity.
I felt like the worst sort of whore to even entertain the idea, but Peter liked those sorts of rough things. Gennadi liked them too. Jace liked to inflict that kind of pleasure-pain on people. Lots of people liked it. I didn’t think I was one of them, but if I was ever going to find out, I didn’t want to experiment with Jace and end up losing a friend if I hated it. And Dmitri couldn’t possibly be as abusive to me as Yuri was to Gennadi.
I hoped.
I shook my head to clear those thoughts. I felt sick and dirty even entertaining them.
Lefric and the others probably thought I was shaking my head because I didn’t agree with him. In fact, I did.
“The deal is already done,” I said quietly. I glanced to Magnus. He was the only one who I was certain would look at the situation logically instead of like one of my closest friends, like a Son of the Cities. “I want to do my part to help my king and my kingdom,” I appealed to him. I lowered my head and went on with, “I’m not clever, like Peter and Neil. I’m not brave, like Jace. I’m not organized and disciplined, like Orel and Conrad. And I’m not good with other people, like Lefric and Sebald. But I can grit my teeth and bear whatever Dmitri wants to do to me so that you can learn what he knows.”
“Youareclever,” Lefric argued.
“You’re incredibly brave,” Sebald said at the same time.
I shook my head at both of them. “I’m not. But I want to serve.”
I looked to Magnus again, my gaze passing over Ludvig. Ludvig had either passed out or fallen asleep again, which made me glad. He needed the rest, and I wasn’t sure I wanted him to hear me debase myself.
“Let me do this,” I told Magnus. “Please. I want to serve. I didn’t know this is how I would serve, but I honestly believe Dmitri has vital information. I am willing to make this sacrifice for my kingdom. I made a vow on coronation day to serve you, Magnus, and I can serve you by doing this.”
My friends all started to protest again, but Magnus raised a hand and cut them off.
He stared me directly in the eyes and said, “Do you honestly believe this course of action will change things for us?”
I knew by “us” he meant the Wolf River Kingdom; he meant the entire frontier.
I nodded. “Yes, I do. He knows things, Magnus. He has been living in a place we haven’t been able to touch for a year, and he has become important there.”
