Chapter two: Exiting the castle
**Sorry for this chapter taking so long, lots of real life stuff happened, and I was trying to work on four or five other stories along with this one! Hopefully I'll be able to post more often...
Also, not every chapter is going to have sexual stuff, but I'll try to keep it interesting still!**
Seliste jogged down to the entrance of the dungeon again, trying to go as fast as possible and still look calm and collected. She was wearing a charcoal grey tunic with tulip sleeves that came to her elbows, and slim, open-side pants in the same color that stopped just below her knees. Lord Jaalstrad liked seeing her legs, so she wore these to accommodate him, as well as being easier to move in than a skirt. Still, she did wish once in a while she looked more feminine, but with so many scars, and her natural frame, realism overcame her wants again
However, she had spent too much time planning this one to let it slip away from her grasp, like so many other dreams and hopes had.
Damn it, I need him in one piece. Of course, if he doesn't co-operate with me, it's not like I'm losing too much, just all the damn time and effort I put into pulling this together. He's not the most important link in the chain, but one I really can't afford to replace without a lot more time, which I don't have.
As she walked into the chamber he was being held in, she noticed he was awake, and was just in time to see him get punched in the gut by one of the guards.
They often had petty pleasures in doing extra punishments for the prisoners, and could often be found down here, fulfilling their own sick desires on whatever was caught in the chains, male, female, child, or corpse. Of course, they weren't hired for their attitudes toward others. Or, rather, they were, in a twisted way. Their Lord didn't care what happened to people when he was done with them, as long as no rumors got out. So as long as the guards kept their mouths shut to outsiders, they had free reign down here. They almost did, anyways. She was very thankful at this moment that she outranked them.
She shouted at him, in her raspy, slightly harsh, but still feminine voice.
"Enough! You, stop that immediately!"
The guard turned with a grin, and then paled when he saw who had ordered him to stop. He grinned again, but it was also mixed with a nervous bravado.
"Well, miss..."
"You shall refer to me as lady, scum. You're unimportant to our lord, and go beneath his notice. However, you wouldn't want him to have to notice you, now would you?"
"Uh... no, mi... lady."
"Very good. Now, go get me the keys for his shackles, and a bonding collar."
"Yes, lady."
As the guard left, Verlorin coughed and spat out a mouthful of bile he was holding in. He looked at her and grimaced.
"Oh, you. I suppose you've come to kill me now that you got what you wanted out of me? Hah. I wasn't expecting to be tortured like that, I'll give you that much. Still, it was..."
She hurried over and clenched his mouth shut with both hands. She whispered in his ear, "Look, you foolish, foolish man. When I say he doesn't trust any of us, I mean it. If you want to get us both killed, just keep talking. Otherwise, SHUT UP, and maybe we can both get out of here as intact as we wandered in today, all right?"
Velorin stared at her a moment, then nodded. She walked away again, composing herself just as the guard walked in, but another guard has also followed him. She snarled and asked, "What? Do you really think I need help taking care of prisoners?"
The first guard still looked nervous, but the second one shook his head.
"No, ma'am. I came along because our lord said he wanted him cut up and dead, and it's my turn this time. I don't plan on losing my turn, especially if I can cut up one of those damn cats."
Seliste looked at him and said in a deathly calm voice. "First off, yes, he is lord to both of us. However, he has given me permission to use this prisoner further,"
This comment made Velorin blink and stare at her, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
"... and that order supersedes any torture you may have planned. Second, I am higher rank than you, and I do not like my orders being countermanded by something like you. Third, if you want to argue this, you can ask our lord. I'm sure you know his temperament about having his orders questioned. And finally..."
She whipped out a throwing dagger from the folds of the charcoal grey tunic she was wearing, and threw it perfectly into his shoulder. He screamed, and pulled it out, and screamed even louder as the wound started to smoke.
"You shall address me as Lady Seliste. Now, will you give me the damned key and collar?"
The first guard quickly walked over and handed her the items, did a small bow and walked out. The other guard glared at her, then, holding his shoulder, walked stiffly out.
"Well, Lady, are all your kind so vehement?"
She snorted and shook her head.
"No. I'm sure you've talked with enough of the commoners to know better. The guards here, though, tend to attract people with a specific mindset."
"I see. And what attracted you to this place?"
She looked at him blankly, and then put the collar around his neck before he realized what was happening. It felt like it tightened itself around his neck, and a tingling sensation caused him to try and feel it. However, where the collar should have been, simply felt like normal fur. He paused as she unlocked his shackles, then he massaged his wrists and ankles, still looking at her.
"What was that thing you put on my neck?"
" It's something magic to make it so if you try anything stupid, you'll suffer for it, and possibly hurt yourself for doing so. Call it a fast training program. I'm not going to go into any further details just yet, we don't have much time to waste, and dealing with those idiotic guards took more time than I would have liked."
He stood up sharply, and then grinned. He bowed, rather stiffly to her, as being chained up to the wall for all of a day and a half did nothing for his flexibility.
"After you, Lady."
She snorted again and started leading him out.
Velorin thought to himself, Well, having a chance at freedom is better than no chance at all. I wonder what she wants me for. Hmm, I almost wouldn't mind more of her style of torture. Ugh, what am I thinking?! I was drugged and raped by her. I mean, yes, it could have been worse. She's so... harsh, and dominating. I wonder why she didn't answer my question about working for Lord Jaalstrad. With as many scars as she has, maybe she's in a bad situation herself. Still, she could be who she says she is, the Bloodletter. I'd have to kill her on principles, then. Her pants look really nice on her, though, the way it shows off her hips. Damn it, I'm getting aroused again. It must be a side effect of the drugs. It has to be.
He was musing over how to turn the situation into his advantage when he realized which way they were going. It was the exact route he had used to escape the first time.
He had found quite a few things about the Lord of this area before he had been captured the first time. One of the things was that Lord Jaasltrad took very poor care of himself, letting his teeth rot out and, from what he had heard, refused to take baths except once every six months. He had terrible table manners, letting whatever he was eating fall wherever it may, on expensive robes, on the floor, or anywhere else.
Both of these were not terrible traits in a ruler, although they weren't pleasant ones either, but the man was also capricious, one time giving free cattle to a village, another, forcing the population to move because the town looked better in a new spot on a map of his lands. He was also very paranoid.
Not the normal kind of paranoia a ruler gets; one where assassins or poisoners could be lurking anywhere, but the kind that thought demons and evil spirits were crawling through the cracks of his walls. It was said he had drained most of the treasury magically protecting his castle against any invaders, real, ethereal, or otherwise.
There were only a few routes out of the castle because of this, so he knew that this one was just as well as any of the others she could have chosen, but it still made him slightly nervous. How could she have known that this was the way I chose, anyways? It's not like anyone saw me leave. It's probably just the quickest route out, like I found. It doesn't have to mean anything...
As they passed through the servant's quarters near the exit, there were some of the jackal servants in here. When he had come through, it had been very early in the morning, and they had all been fully asleep when he passed through like a ghost, which is where he got his nickname.
I wonder where she got her nickname... I haven't really noticed a fondness for blood, like the rumors mention. She did stab the guard, but I believe it was more to get a point across, as it were. She seems rather inventive, at any rate. I wonder what she's going to use me for... damn it, I'm getting turned on again. Damn potion.
When they got outside, he had to blink several times and shield his eyes against the harsh sunlight. It was late afternoon, and he hadn't seen anything brighter than a torchlight in a while.
She paused for a moment, looked around, then grabbed his wrist and jolted him into walking with her. After about twenty minutes, they came to a worn down part of the city that surrounded the castle. She stopped at a building that was worn and run-down looking, then looked around again. She opened the door, and shoved him inside. As he staggered to regain his balance, she quickly entered and locked the door behind her.
"Well, we weren't followed from what I can tell. And this house is as safe as any house can be in this city, so we can speak more freely. I still wouldn't suggest saying anything stupid, though, because it can still cost you your life."
She took a couple chairs and motioned him to sit in one of them, while she sat in the other. He half fell into it, glad to be able to relax his muscles, although mental relaxation, he decided, would be not so easily coming.
"All right, Lady. What did you have in store for me, if you don't mind me asking?"
She looked at him for a moment, then smirked.
"Cut to the quick, don't we? Well, for all my skills, being stealthy and getting people to trust me easily are ones that haven't come to me. I need your skills in that, and since I figured you would rather be alive than dead in this situation, that you'd be willing to do a few things for me in exchange for not being dead and your corpse being thrown into one of the eating pits."
Velorin stared a bit. "Eating pits?"
"Lord Jaalstrad has captured a few flesh-eating beasts and keeps them for amusement and easy disposal of certain objects. They're kept in cages that can be easily looked into, but they all also have a pit that opens into them for him to toss their food to them. He claims he likes hearing the squishing sound it makes. By the way, are you hungry?"
Velorin made a face as Seliste went to one of the cupboards and brought out some bread and wrapped cheese. As she stretched and hopped slightly to reach some bottles on the top of the cupboard, it made her breasts jiggle under her tunic, causing Velorin to look away, as he said, "Perhaps later. For some reason, I'm not very hungry at the moment."
The inside of the house was much more well-kept than the outside. While there weren't any leaks or cracks he could see, from the outside, there had been boards nailed haphazardly to the walls, and the paint was peeling off. In here, it was clean and well-organized, if somewhat sparse. The furnishings were simple, but much more expensive looking than he would have guessed for this place.
"Very well. I feel I should tell you about the bonding collar. If you try to go outside of a certain radius of a centralized location, in this instance, wherever I am, it will affect your body in a very unpleasant manner. If, against most people's common sense, you continue, you'll do quite a lot of damage to your own system. You also can't attack me or try to harm me, or the same effects will happen. Other than that, you have a bit of leeway. Of course, if I give you an order and you disobey, I can and will find other ways to punish you."
Velorin thought about his last 'punishment' then shook his head, trying to keep himself from getting aroused again. "All right. So, what would you have me do?"
"Oh, it's simple enough. I need your help to stop a war."