Heirot

Tenara didn’t try to fight Ren’s hold because it was useless. She knew how strong he was, even if he hadn’t been compelled to hold her there by the dagger. She bit back the pain of his hand crushing her broken wrist into the floor, but her eyes watered with the effort.

Her mind raced through the pain, trying desperately to predict what Elias might do. The terror was written on her face. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I-I didn’t think he—anyone—would notice… I just wanted to be found. I wanted…” to be saved.

Elias swooped back in a minute later. He stood for a moment, a silent, still shadow in the corner of her eye. He approached, taking a knee next to them. “Narissa is going to collect your trail of blood. No one is going to find you—either of you.”

Ren looked over his shoulder at the prince. He looked furious. Nervous. That was good.

"Will killing her really solve your problem?" he asked the man cautiously, knowing he was dabbling in things he barely understood. He just had to pray he was right. "Or is what you really need for her to just... disappear?"

Elias mulled over Ren’s words, appraising them like they were a puzzle. “If you are certain you can’t find the spell I’m looking for, I have no need of her. Not for her intended purpose, at least.”

He put the dagger to her throat. “Disappear… what are you suggesting?”

Ren flinched, his eyes flaring wide as he stared into Tenara's. "To get the ingredient from my world, I can't go alone. You will need to send a female with me. Send her, and I'll leave her on the other side."

Elias laughed, and he turned the knife on Ren. “You want me to send the two of you through a portal and hope one of you comes back? And why would you leave her? Do you care so little about her that you would strand her on a world she doesn’t belong?” He tapped his chin with the dagger point. “I will come with you. You will brew this Toothsbane, you will test it on her, and we will leave her there.”

Ren's muscles went numb the moment the dagger touched his skin. He closed his eyes and narrowly avoided leaning on the princess. "It's not some matter of hope. I can't disobey you while you hold that knife. That's not why we need her." He turned to look at him. The dagger's point dipped effortlessly into the flesh of his neck and produced a small rivulet of blood.

Ren didn't seem to particularly care about the wound as he frowned at Laurius. He was still obeying the previous order, holding Tenara like an afterthought. "If you and I go, we won't get far. Two unaccompanied males will be noticed and taken away immediately."

Elias pulled the dagger away slowly. “Then we will go together—me, you, and the princess,” he said. “You will get your ingredients, brew it, and she will demonstrate its healing properties. If you are lying to me, I will break off one of your horns.”

He turned his gaze on Tenara as if he expected to see some sort of clue to whether Ren was lying. He brushed the dagger across her cheek, smearing a bit of Ren’s black blood in a line.

“Can you make your portal by tomorrow evening?”

"I will," Ren said, dizzy now that the knife had been removed. His relief at Elias's agreement to his plan was so intense that the prince's threat about his horn gave him a morbid desire to laugh his head off. "There's something else. She will need to pass for our Yurivis. She will not be able to do that if she is injured."

Elias tsked Ren. He laid down next to them, propping his head on his free hand. “That is a problem,” he said. “We are fresh out of healers, and no one as gifted as her mother. Her state will have to do. We will do our best to not injure her further, then?” He traced the blade feather-light down her neck and across one breast. “You will have to fuck her gently.”

Tenara’s heart had been beating in her ears, relief that whatever plan Ren had seemed to be going his way, and then the words fell out of Elias’s mouth and everything seized up.

“What?” she whispered.

“Is he not like your Havitharon?” Elias asked, prodding the pendant. “Of course, there is the issue of his limp dick, Milandra said. Perhaps I could order it to usefulness… Or maybe I will have you, then? If he is not up to the task. You did a bad thing, Tenara. There have to be consequences.”

Tenara shook her head, and finally struggled to be free of Ren’s weight.

Ren's brain short circuited. He wasn't talking to him, was he? He actually looked behind him, expecting to find another one of his lackeys in the tent with them. He looked at the floor, too terrified to look at either the princess or his master.

No. No, no, no, no. He wasn't like Thvoros. If he attacked a female, he was almost certain his mind would break. "Don't... We will fail if you do. It doesn't matter who you ask to attack her. It will upset her either way." His voice was paper thin as he strained to continue. "She will struggle, and it will leave bruises. Yurivie's garments are much more revealing than the fashion is here."

Elias sighed, looking at Tenara's already battered body. "Yes. Wouldn't want any of those," he said, seemingly skeptical of Ren's excuses. He had no concept of the world Ren was trying to warn him of. Tenara thought it was all a ruse. She didn't believe Ren could open a portal to an entirely different world. She thought he meant a distraction, or maybe a leap to somewhere else, like what she did when she was running from Rami.

"Release her, before you cause her anymore bruising," he said. "And she can decide who."

"Me?" she muttered, bewildered by his game. And it was a game. She knew it was a game. There would be a catch somewhere along the way...

Ren winced up at Elias, as if the idea was a too-bright light shone in his eyes. "What is it that you need? Does it need to be her? Is it something... I can do for you?" If this man was just horny, was it as simple as getting him off?

Tenara shook her head. "No," she said. She couldn't bear the thought of him being treated like Vardner had treated her. She looked at his face and neck, all bruised and battered from what those twins had done to him. She knew they had not only kissed him and drank his blood but she wouldn't allow him to be... The thought tore a sob out of her.

Elias cocked his head at the sudden rush of tears.

"Shh," he said, and swiped his thumb beneath her eye, smearing a tear. "He really cares about you, to offer such a thing. I bet he was good to Laurius..."

"Please," she said, hiccuping a breath.

Elias looked to Ren. "Give me a kiss."

Ren misinterpreted Tenara's "please" as a plea for Elias to leave her alone. His gut loosened in relief when the man seemed to do exactly that. Ren turned on his knees to kneel in front of the prince. This was just another master he had to service. It was nothing he hadn't done before. His training turned on, and his mind switched off. He reached carefully to the prince's face, framing it in his hands, and tilted his head down to kiss him.

Elias kissed Ren without feeling and after a moment he pulled away. "Hmm..." He seemed to be pondering whether or not he liked it, but before the prince could finish his thought, Tenara's hands curled around Ren's face and turned him away from Elias. She kissed him herself, and where Elias had been cold stone, she was warmth and sweetness.