The Devil's Concubine (2 page)

Her face crinkled with barely suppressed merriment. “I thought you would not be able to resist long!”

Aliya chuckled. “It is almost as frightening to watch as it is exciting,” she

confessed, keeping her voice low so that the others wouldn’t hear her.

Several different emotions flickered across Leesa’s face. “You are soon to be a

bride. You should have no other thought in your head but the thrill of having so many magnificent warriors vying for your hand!”

Aliya smiled but shook her head. “It is here--I think,” she said, kneading the coil

of tension in her ribs. “But....” She broke off, staring down at the mass of humanity and carts and animals below. “It is a little overwhelming, too, don’t you think?”

“I would be absolutely petrified if all of this were on my account,” Leesa

responded with a chuckle. “But you are Princess Aliya! The most beautiful princess in all the known world. You should be accustomed to this sort of--adoration!”

Aliya’s lips flattened. A faint frown drew her brows together. “That part is

almost as scary as the rest, if you must know,” she muttered. “It would almost be easier to think they had only come because they were so anxious to ally themselves to my

father. It would not matter then if I was hump backed or lame--no one would be

expecting perfection. What if … what if the one chosen for me does not find me the least appealing as a woman? I had expected a wedding of political significance from the time I was a small child, but I am a woman now. I may have been born a princess, but I am still a woman and I want the same things that every woman wants; a husband whom I can

love and respect that will care for me.”

Leesa stared at her in genuine confusion. “But … you are beautiful!”

Aliya rolled her eyes. “I am a princess! Do you think I do not know that that is

why I am considered beautiful? My father loves me. That is why he thinks I am

beautiful. And everyone else--well they would not like to displease him, I am sure.”

“Your grace, please forgive me if I am too familiar, but--that is just plain silly!

Have you not looked in your mirror?”

Aliya blushed but brushed aside Leesa’s anxiety that she would offend her

princess. “I am afraid if I look too hard I will see the imperfections I fear are there,” she said wryly. “Anyway, I can not be an impartial judge and beyond that, beauty is what THE DEVIL’S CONCUBINE

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pleases the eye of those who look upon it. It can not be the same for everyone who looks.

Even if I was enchanted with myself, it does not necessarily follow that anyone else

would agree with me--if I was not a princess.”

“But that is only a part of what disturbs you?” Leesa asked perceptively.

Aliya frowned. “I know what my duty is and I will not shirk my responsibilities.”

“But?”

Aliya shrugged and laughed, but wryly. “I do hope that I will not find myself wed

to some grandfather.”

In an unaccustomed display of affection, Leesa slipped an arm around Aliya’s

waist and gave her a consoling squeeze. “Then you are right. You are not so different from the rest of us. You must try not to worry too much about such things. If he is very old, he will be less likely to trouble you in the marital bed, more likely to cherish you for yourself, and be considerate enough to leave you a young widow.”

Aliya bit her lip to contain a smile. “That is not a very charitable sentiment,” she said primly.

“Perhaps not, but it is very true, nevertheless, and I see you are feeling much more

yourself already. Now, stroll with me. I saw a particularly handsome young warrior

arrive at the gate only a few moments ago and I am sure he must be in the bailey by now so that we can view him much better.”

A chuckle escaped Aliya. “How do you know that he is handsome? You could

not possibly have seen him well enough from here to tell if he was well favored or not!”

“Deduction, dear princess!” Leesa replied promptly. “I could see quite well

enough to discern that his hair was a glorious shade of gold, and his figure a very fine one. For the rest, I am assured by the way all the ladies he passed who stopped to gape at him that he is extraordinarily well favored.”

Aliya gurgled with laughter. “Perhaps they only stopped to gawk because he was

quite hideous?”

Leesa grinned but shook her head. “If that were the case then they would have

fled, not stopped to stare.”

Intrigued, Aliya allowed Lady Leesa to lead her to the other end of the garden.

To her disappointment, but without much surprise, she saw no one fitting the ‘golden

young god’ Leesa had described. “You were only teasing me,” she said accusingly as she turned from her perusal of the guests gathered below them.

Leesa was frowning. “Truly, I was not. Look there. He was mounted upon that

great golden horse there with the trappings of red and black.”

A thud not far behind them distracted them both. As Aliya turned, she was

stunned to discover a strange man had just landed in the garden, having apparently leapt down from the roof just above it, or perhaps from the window of the room overlooking

the rooftop garden, though how he could have accessed either with the palace guards

everywhere was a mystery to her.

As he strode purposely toward her, she glanced around instinctively to look for

the guards. A needle of alarm stabbed through her when she saw the two who’d been

standing near the garden entrance were nowhere in sight. By the time she’d checked

every post and found every man missing she was beginning to feel downright faint with fear. “The guards are gone,” she whispered a little breathlessly, transferring her gaze to the man approaching them.

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Striding purposefully, he had already covered more than half the distance that had

separated them when she had first seen him and yet she sensed no urgency in his

movements, and certainly there was no stealth in his approach.

A flicker of doubt went through her. Did he present a danger or not?

He was not armed.

He was scarcely even decently dressed for she saw that not only were his feet

bare, but he wore nothing more than a scanty breechcloth below the waist, leaving the entirety of his golden brown flesh from hip to foot exposed. The vest that covered his chest was little more than woven strips of leather, open along the sides from shoulder to waist, save for the woven bits of leather that held it together.

A coiled whip was secured at his waist.

A horse master from some distant, primitive kingdom?

Aliya dragged her gaze from him as her other ladies, apparently becoming aware

of the stranger and the absence of the guards, scurried to her side--whether to protect her or to draw courage from her presence, she wasn’t certain which.

When she returned her attention to the stranger, she saw that he had halted little

more than a yard away and was surveying her and her ladies with interest.

A sensation midway between fear and fascination went through her. His features

were harshly angular, almost predatory. For all that, he was the most striking man she had ever seen and she felt a sensation wash through her that made her feel weak and faint and breathless with excitement all at the same time.

The glint of precious metal caught her gaze as he moved closer still and she

glanced at the rows of buttons that adorned the front of the vest he wore. Each bore a royal crest of some house she was unfamiliar with.

Was he one of the royals who’d gathered for the tournament, she wondered,

feeling her heart flutter anxiously at the thought?

Dragging her gaze from the crest, she met his sharp gaze. His eyes, almost the

same golden brown shade as his hair, raked over her and her ladies boldly.

“I have come for the princess, Aliya,” he said finally.

Blinking in surprise, Aliya and her ladies exchanged questioning glances.

“I am Princes Aliya,” Leesa said, stepping forward, her voice quavering ever so

slightly. “What is it you want of me?”

Stunned, Aliya could only gape at her maid.

The stranger looked Leesa over critically and dismissed her, returning his

attention to Aliya and her other ladies. Even as his gaze lit upon Aliya, her lady,

Beatrice, stepped in front of her. “It is alright, Lady Leesa. I am Princess Aliya.”

The stranger strode toward her without a word, grasped her shoulders and set her

aside. His piercing gaze swept over Aliya. “I have come a very long way to see the

woman that so many men are willing to die for.”

Aliya swallowed with an effort, still too stunned by the stranger’s brash behavior

to sort her chaotic thoughts. “Who are you?” she whispered.

His hard, sharply etched lips curled faintly in something approximating a smile,

but the amusement did not reach his eyes. “I am King Talin, hereditary ruler of the tribe of the Golden Falcon.”

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Pinned by his hard gaze, Aliya suddenly found herself alone, for her ladies were

under no such constraint. The moment he spoke, they uttered gasps and weak squeaks of fear and scurried to put some distance between themselves and the object of their terror.

“An unnatural,” Leesa uttered in a breathless whisper.

Talin slid a speculative glance at the cringing ladies and then returned his

attention to Aliya. Looking her over for all the world like a merchant, he surveyed her with interest from head to toe and then moved slowly around her with the same attitude of interest.

Enthralled as she had been from the moment she’d seen him clearly, and as frozen

as she had been more by surprise than fear when she discovered he was an unnatural, a sense of outrage began to seep into Aliya at his proprietary attitude. She was a princess!

Her father’s heir! How dare the man behave as if she was some common harlot offering her wares!

And him trying to decide whether she was
worth
the price she’d demanded, which was almost more insulting than the latter!

Her eyes narrowed as he faced her once more.

“Leave at once and I won’t summon my father’s guards to cut you down like a

dog!” she said tightly.

Surprise flickered over his features briefly. It was replaced almost at once with

true amusement and Aliya discovered that even her anger wasn’t proof against that smile, for her heart seemed to turn over in her chest as it transformed his harsh features. “I hail from the tribe of Golden Falcon, not the wolf, but by all means summon them.”

Moistening her lips, Aliya glanced around a little hopelessly for the guards she

knew had already had been dispatched--by this man--she realized now. “How did you

get up here?”

His amusement vanished. “The arrogance of your kind never ceases to amaze

me--or infuriate me, for that matter. I am man beast--or, as your maid so rudely pointed out--an unnatural. Inaccurate and insulting, implying that only your kind is ‘natural.’ I am as nature made me, so I can not be an ‘unnatural.’ Moreover, if you’ll forgive me for being equally rude, the many people who make up the kingdoms of the ‘unnatural’ are far superior in every way to your own kind. It is a mistake to think we are as limited in our abilities as you are. For my kind, there are always ways.”

Aliya couldn’t help the blush that darkened her skin and could only be glad that

she was not as light skinned as the man standing before her. For the pale skinned, their discomfiture was always blatantly apparent to all. “Why are you here?”

His lips thinned. “Because I was not invited.”

A frown creased Aliya’s brow. “I don’t understand.”

“You comprehend insult, though, don’t you?”

The blush that had barely receded flooded back with such a vengeance that it

made her feel hot all over. She moistened her lips. “There was no intent to offer insult.”

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He studied her thoughtfully. “And yet I am. I wonder why? I hadn’t thought that

I was so thin skinned as to see insult where there was none.”

“My apologies,” Aliya said stiffly. “My father only thought to settle a … uh …

dispute between our kingdom and those invited here today.”

“Which includes every kingdom in the known world, save those of the--ah--

‘unnaturals.’ But you apologize so prettily for the unintended insult that I have to wonder if perhaps my invitation went astray? Am I to understand that I have been laboring under an insult that was purely accidental? If so, then tell me now and I will summon the heirs to the other kingdoms of the many peoples of the man beast so that they, too, can vie for the honor of allying themselves to your father and winning the hand of such a lovely

maiden.”

Aliya stared at him in dismay. Unfortunately, he was right. Her father had very

deliberately excluded those of the kingdoms of the unnatural. She had certainly not

argued the decision--not that she did in general--but she was no keener on the notion of being wed to an unnatural than her father was.

His brows rose when she remained silent. “You deeply regret, but…?”

As skilled as she had thought she was in diplomacy, Aliya could think of nothing

at all to say. He’d very effectively boxed her into a corner. There was no way she could claim that the slight hadn’t been intentional without also agreeing that everyone, without exception, was welcome to take part in the tournament.

The plain fact of the matter was that the unnaturals could draw upon powers the

naturals couldn’t and if they did take part, she was going to end up the bride of some