The Perfect Prince (21 page)

 

Nadja threw. The first and second were too short, the third too long, the fourth hit the post with the hilt and the fifth hit it with the blade, but it wasn’t forceful enough to stick. Embarrassed, she glanced at Olek. He merely grinned at her, not caring if she could throw a blade or not. To her surprise, the watching soldiers cheered her effort, charmed by her reserved smiles and shy looks.

 

Morrigan threw next and managed to hit the post on her turn, though they weren’t centered. She curtsied impishly as she received her cheers.

 

“Maybe you ladies should let a man show you how it’s done,” a voice from the crowd called.

 

Morrigan rolled her eyes at the others, retrieving the silver blades for Pia’s turn.

 

Nadja laughed as she went to stand beside Olek.

 

“Ach,” Agro shouted. “You’re hardly a man, Hume!”

 

“Have you given my cream to Zoran yet?” Nadja asked her husband, looking at Pia’s formidable husband. He looked massive, with his crossed arms. Suddenly, Nadja wasn’t so sure she wanted to approach him.

 

“I am having the doctors look at it,” Olek admitted. When she frowned, he said,

 

“Not because I don’t trust you, but because a second opinion never hurt anyone. Besides, if you go around them, they could get their feelings hurt and the last thing we need is a testy medical staff on top of everything else.” Nadja nodded, conceding to his logic. She turned to watch Pia, anxious to see how well the woman did. She had no doubt Pia would outshine them all.

 

Pia took the knives, weighing them carefully in her hand as she tested them.

 

Getting to the third one, she lifted it and studied the blade. Frowning, she went to her husband and handed it to him. She took the knife from his waist to replace it, testing his blade as she did the others.

 

At Zoran’s curious frown, Pia announced loudly, “You need to check the balance on that one. It will pull a fraction to the right.” With hardly moving a muscle, Zoran threw the blade over her shoulder. It stuck just to the right of the target. The men laughed heartily.

 

Not turning around, Pia said smartly, “Told you.” Zoran’s smiled at his wife and Nadja almost fainted. She was sure it was the first time she’d seen him show any emotion aside from displeasure. Olek chuckled.

 

Going before the target, Pia took a deep breath. Flinging one of the blades, she rapidly dropped to the ground to throw two more in roll. Then, coming to kneel, she threw the last two. The fourth blade struck against Zoran’s to knock it free, before sticking in its place. The fifth, she turned her arm and it missed the post completely. The warriors watched in stunned silence, their eyes following the path of her last throw. It was a foot before Hume.

 

“You missed,” Hume said, to break the silence. The men went wild cheering. Pia took a graceful bow. The women jumped in excitement, basking in Pia’s victory.

 

“Did you see that?” Nadja asked her husband with a bright smile. “Do you think you can teach me to do that sometime?”

 

Olek grinned, “First things first and first you have to learn speak my language.”

 

“I have a few words you can teach me,” she murmured naughtily, looking him over with hungry eyes.

 

Olek growled low in his throat in response.

 

Nadja turned back to the show. Olena had the blades and a very irate looking Prince Ualan had just joined his wife. Nadja couldn’t hear what was said, but soon Morrigan was being led away by her husband to the nearby forest path.

 

Nadja frowned, “I’m glad you didn’t get your brothers’ temperaments. I would have drowned you long before now.”

 

Olek grinned. With a wink, he said, “You did try to drown me last night.” Nadja blushed. He was referring to when she’d wrapped her legs around his diving head as he showed her the meaning of the phrase, ‘returning the favor’. Weakly, she hit him, unable to think of a comeback. Olek chuckled.

 

“We’re waiting!” came a cry from the crowd.

 

Nadja watched as Pia turned to glare good-humoredly at Hume. Wryly, she called,

 

“Don’t make me aim higher, Sir Hume.”

 

Pia meant his chest, but the rowdy warriors were only too ready to guess something much bawdier.

 

Zoran gulped. Pia looked in confusion at the men’s snickering. Olena laughed, understanding the soldiers all too well.

 

Olena threw her turn, hitting the post four of the five times. The last blade was close, but teetered off without sticking. The men cheered as she went to retrieve the blades. Olek looked down as Nadja waved away her turn. She had no desire to try it again in front of the crowd. Carefully, Nadja’s hand crept onto Olek’s arm as she watched Olena turn expectantly to Pia.

 

Olek’s heart gripped at the simple public display. His people were openly affectionate, but his wife wasn’t naturally so. It was good to see she wasn’t as embarrassed by her feelings for him as before. At this rate, he’d have her on his lap, feeding him by hand, in a month’s time. His body tensed at the thought, but he forced it to calm. “We need a blindfold,” Zoran called. Miraculously, the call was quickly answered as one was passed over the front to Zoran. Zoran crossed over to Pia and tied it around her head. Zoran then smacked his wife hard on her backside. The men began to laugh.

 

Quietly he backed up.

 

“I bet she makes it,” Nadja whispered in fascination.

 

Olek patted her hand and she looked at him.

 

“Make your throw!” Zoran called.

 

Pia lifted her arm, taking aim. Holding her breath, she threw, hearing the blade land on wood. Pia threw the second and third time. Each blade landed in the post.

 

Suddenly, a loud cheering came up over the crowd.

 

Zoran grinned as she stiffened. He’d motioned the men to make noise. Nadja watched the large warrior Prince in awe. That was the second smile she’d seen from him today.

 

Pia lifted the blade, trying to concentrate over the shouts. She threw. The fourth hit, though it wasn’t as deep as the others.

 

“Oooo,” the men shouted in unison.

 

“Zoran!” came a sudden panicked shout. “Olek! Yusef!” Nadja jolted, looking around at the call to see who it was. Olek stiffened under her hand, moving out of her hold. Nadja blinked in confusion. Zoran began to run towards his brother’s voice, drawing the sword from his waist. Yusef nodded to one of the men, who instantly tossed his good hand a blade. Olek was right behind them, drawing his own sword. Nadja began to step forward. Pia tore the blindfold from her head. Gripping her knife, the woman chased after her husbands. The warriors began to murmur, but following Agro’s command, they didn’t move. Nadja glanced at Olena and they were both soon behind the others.

 

Olek saw Ualan pursued by twelve light blonde Var warriors from the trees, over the forest path. Their bodies grew with fur as they shifted to the vicious, snarling features of wild cats. Ualan dragged Morrigan with one arm. She was unconscious, a dart sticking out from her throat.

 

Ualan was forced to shift to Draig, using his arm to deflect the enemy’s blows as he fought them off with his free arm. He tried to protect Morrigan, her feet trailing in the dirt. Soon all the Princes were by his side, shifting into the Draig as they fought against the Var. The one-armed Yusef bravely hacked forward with his sword, giving Ualan time to get Morrigan to safety.

 

Ualan dropped Morrigan behind them on the ground as gently as he could. He turned back to join the fight against the attackers. Pia didn’thesitate, but ran swiftly to the men, throwing her blade into one of the creature’s throat. When Zoran swung his arm, she ducked beneath him, grabbing the knife from his belt.

 

Nadja’s feet ground to a halt. Her lips began to tremble as she watched Olek shift to do battle. For a moment, she blinked, thinking the suns were surely playing tricks on her. It was very real. She stiffened in fear to see the fighting creatures--human dragons against human tiger-like beasts. Her husband was a dragon. Those drawings he had done were not of mythical creatures.

 

Her mouth went dry. Olek’s skin had hardened, turning a dark brown beneath his clothes. His hair remained the same, but a line grew out from his forehead, pushed forward to make a hard ridge of impermeable tissue over his nose and brow. His eye flashed with golden danger. Talons grew from his nail beds and deadly fangs grew from his mouth. The low, beastie sounds they made caused her blood to run cold.

 

“Nadja,” Olena yelled. She was by the unconscious Morrigan. “Help me!” Shaking herself, Nadja darted forward to the fallen Princess. She trembled to see a dart sticking from Morrigan’s throat. Nadja shivered anew, her eyes dashing around to look into the trees.

 

“Help me,” Olena demanded, trying to drag Morrigan away from the fray.

 

Nadja and Olena began to pull, dragging Morrigan down the path to safety. The sound of battle still rang out. When they were far enough away, Nadja stopped. She dropped down to her knees.

 

“Should we pull it out?” Olena asked.

 

“No,” Nadja answered. Again she trembled as she looked at the trees. Her eyes searched them for movement but saw nothing. “Don’t touch it.” Olek didn’t stop to consider his wife as he fought bravely at his brother’s side.

 

Soon the Vars were retreating in the forest. Ualan turned, smelling Morrigan’s trail as he took off down the path, Yusef and Olek were behind him. Zoran hung back with Pia to make sure the men weren’t followed.

 

Olek froze, instantly detecting Nadja’s pale face. She was by Morrigan’s side, her narrow eyes examining the wound. The dart was still embedded in Morrigan’s neck and the woman wasn’t moving.

 

Nadja jolted to see Ualan’s Draig face as he came beside her. He immediately shifted back to how she knew him. Looking around, she wearily eyed Olek’s human features. Olek watched her mouth tremble before she turned away from him. He didn’t know what to say.

 

Ualan began to reach forward.

 

“Don’t,” Nadja commanded, her voice raw with fear. Olek saw her jump away from Ualan’s hand. Ualan drew back in surprise, but Nadja only nodded at his arm where red blisters were forming on his skin. “She is poison to you.” Ualan’s jaw tensed, but he held back.

 

“You can’t move her yet,” Nadja said, trying to remain calm. She wanted nothing more than to run away, but she couldn’t. She knew the alien dart all too well. She was the only one who understood its poison.

 

“But, the poison…” Ualan tried, desperate to help his wife.

 

“Quiet,” Nadja hissed. Zoran and Pia approached from the battle. They hung back in silence. Nadja refused to look any of them in the eye. Her hands shook as she pretended to concentrate. Inside her heart pumped furiously. Her stomach knotted in fear until she wasn’t sure if she was going to puke or pass out. “Let me think. I need to concentrate.”

 

Ualan looked at Olek. Olek shrugged. He was worried about his own wife. He detected her quiverimg hand. He saw her shoulders shake ever so slightly. And, with the connection that was built between them, he felt the full blown blast of her terror.

 

“Give me your knife,” Nadja said suddenly to Pia, holding out her hand in determination. The woman instantly handed it over. Taking a deep breath, Nadja cut into Morrigan’s throat where the dart embedded into the skin. Instantly, a dark green began to drip and ooze from the wound. Soon, she had dug out the star tipped points of the dart.

 

Nadja dropped the blade and continued to bleed the poison out. When she had 
finished, she quietly commanded Ualan, “Try touching her.” Ualan did. He was left unharmed.

 

“It’s as I thought,” Nadja breathed. The knowledge brought her little pleasure as she again looked frantically to the trees. It was like she could feel eyes on her but couldn’t find them. Weakly, she admitted, “I’ve seen this kind if poison before. Usually jealous, old lovers do it for revenge. If you had torn the dart out of the skin, it would have released a poison into the blood stream. She would have lived but you never would have been able to touch her again. It’s ironic really. That way it’s the current lover that poisons the woman, sealing their fate.”

 

Olek saw her looking at the forest, searching. He wondered if she considered running or if she was scared the Var warriors remained hidden within them.

 

“You should get her to a doctor,” Nadja said, her tone lowering to a mere whisper.

 

Nadja stood, wearily trying to edge away from the Draig shifters to go down the path they’d come.

 

“I would say that whoever poisoned her didn’t want you to be with her,” Nadja said. Feeling she had done all she could, she turned and ran away from them, desperate to get away from the hidden eyes that she looked out at her from the forest.

 

Olek was right behind her.

 

Dragon L

“Nadja, stop!” Olek ordered softly, not wanting to scream at her in front of his family who knew she could hear him just fine. When she only ran faster at the words, he darted forward, using the unfair advantage of his Draig speed to stop her.

 

Nadja inhaled noisily as he touched her. Her shoulder trembled violently beneath his hand. Olek was sorry for it, but didn’t let her go.

 

“Nadja,” he began. Trying to caress her through the dark cotton of her shirt, he whispered, “Please. Don’t do this. Can’t --?”

 

“Let go of me Olek,” she whispered fearfully, not turning around to look at him.

 

She desperately tried to tug her shoulder from his grasp. Her ears turned to the trees to see if they were followed. She couldn’t hear anything, not the call of insects or birds. But with the recent battle, that wasn’t unheard of. Knowing she couldn’t risk being seen with a shifter touching her, she jerked away from him.

 

Olek let her go. His eyes narrowed. He could detect her deep fear and was sorry for it. He wanted to hold her, to comfort her. But, believing he was the cause of her fear, he held back and waited for her to speak.

 

Nadja knew her father was in the forest. She couldn’t see him, but she wouldn’t would she? No, she wouldn’t see him until he wanted her to. He was going to play with her first, punish her with her own fear. She looked around the colossal forest anyway, seeing the red earthen path before her surrounded by yellow ferns that looked almost green in the shadows.

 

She knew what that dart was. It was very alien to this planet and only traded on the highest of black markets. She had transported them in her hair through customs before. Usually only spurned Kings could afford to buy the poison and they did so to punish the local village beauty for not returning their ‘attentions’. It was a valuable commodity. For the Var soldiers to have it meant someone very high up in the Medical Mafia had sold it to him. Her father was about as high up as any could get.

 

If Olek had only been a human Prince, Nadja could have clung to the barest of hope that her father would understand and forgive. It wasn’t likely, but there was always the chance.

 

However, Olek wasn’t human. He was a shifter and that made all the difference in the world. Doc Aleksander, as her father was know by his ‘Medical Alliance’ associates, was a human purist. He put up with alien races out of necessity, but he didn’t think they were good enough to lick the bottom of a human’s boots.

 

Oh, if he discovered she’d fallen in love with and actually slept with a shifter! It would mean horrible death for the entire royal family. Nadja’s heart squeezed with
unbearable pain that she couldn’t let Olek detect. Her father might only disfigure her, but he would skin alive each and every person she’d come in contact with. And, if they were lucky, the other human Princesses would only be sold as slaves to the lowest form of humanoids possible.

 

But no fate would be worse than Olek’s. Looking at his handsome face, she knew it didn’t matter how strong he was or how brave. He couldn’t fight Doc Aleksander or his genetically altered goons. When Olek was caught, as he surely would be if his connection to her was found out, his death would be the most slow and painful. And she would be forced to watch the whole thing.

 

Nerves jumped all over her skin. She’d heard what her father did to people who merely looked at him the wrong way. He’d surgically remove their eyes without putting them under general anesthesia. If they fainted, he would revive them so they didn’t miss an agonizing second of his torture.

 

Olek watched as Nadja’s face shifted from fear to a calm, unmoving mask. The link between them was severed until he was left feeling hollow and dead inside. He could no longer detect her fear. She cut herself from him, refusing to let him feel her.

 

Olek took a desperate step forward, his arm reaching to pull her back to him by force if necessary. Nadja’s eyes darted away, looking again at the trees. He glanced, trying to see what she looked at.

 

“Stay back, Olek,” she warned. Nadja had no doubt that her father knew she’d recognize the dart, just as she knew he’d sent it to her as a calling card. If her father was close, then he already knew these men were shifters. She could only pray that she could convince him that she didn’t know until today--which was true--and that she didn’t have anything to do with any one of them.

 

She would tell him that she just got scared, hitched a ride, and ended up here after she realized her foolishness. The Princes were nice enough to put her in a room of her own until her father could come and find her. It had to work. Seeing Olek’s tortured face, she was sorry for it. His feelings for her were the only kink in her plan. She had to sever them immediately.

 

“Just stay back. Don’t come near me,” she warned in a low voice.

 

“Nadja, please,” he begged. His hand reached for her again. His eyes implored her to him and she wanted nothing more than to go. “Have I ever hurt you?” Nadja held back. If she loved him, then she would be forced to hurt him to save him. Letting a distasteful snarl hit her lips for the sake of her father’s watching eyes, she asked, “What are you?”

 

“I am Draig,” he said, not caring for the look on her beautiful features.

 

“Nadja…?”

 

“I don’t even know you,” she answered before he could give her away. She let her voice rise, praying they were overheard.

 

“You know me, Nadja,” Olek pleaded, his tone soft, tortured, caring. “I’m the 
same man. Here, take my hand. See. I won’t hurt you, solarflower.”

 

“Just stay back,” she hissed, refusing his offered fingers. She glanced around for the sake of her spying father. Her head chanted that she dare not show any affection.

 

Growling, so her voice only carried a short distance between them, she said, “I only asked two things, honesty and loyalty. And so far you haven’t been very honest. You never told me you were a shifter--”

 

“You never asked,” Olek defended.

 

“Well I’m asking now. Is there anything else I should know, your highness? Any other surprises, like do you have five other wives and twenty kids hidden somewhere?” Nadja let an expression of utter loathing settle permanently on her features.

 

Olek flinched to see it. He felt as if his soul was being ripped from him and leaving him an empty shell.

 

“I told you never to lie to me, Olek,” Nadja continued, quietly. “You lied about being a Prince--”

 

“I said I worked,” he broke in. Why was she bringing this up now? It made no sense! They were past this!

 

“You knew what I was asking,” she proclaimed. It was too hard. Every fiber in her being hated what she was doing to him. “Why couldn’t you have just been a small time farmer?”Olek’s heart thundered to a stop.

 

“It doesn’t matter,” she whispered. She realized now that a small time farmer wouldn’t have been able to protect her any more than a Prince. Doc Aleksander wanted his daughter back and he would get her.

 

“I never lied,” he whispered in return.

 

“And yet, you never really told me the truth,” she replied. “Go check on Morrigan, Olek. I need to be alone for awhile.”

 

There. It’s done, Nadja thought, her heart breaking into a thousand different pieces. Her body was cold and she suddenly wished the Var had poisoned her instead.

 

She looked out over the distance, hoping her father enjoyed her little performance.

 

Olek nodded. He didn’t try to touch her again, but moved past her, down the red trail leading to the palace. Hopelessness and despair surrounded him. Nadja was soon behind him, keeping her distance to make sure she didn’t encounter him again.

 

Once she came to the front gate, she ignored the guard on duty, who merely glanced up at her entrance. She took quick steps through the passageways, running when no one could see or hear her. She knew everyone would be with Morrigan in the medical ward. She wanted to check on the woman, but couldn’t risk being stopped.

 

Getting home, she ran inside. Looking around, her heart ached for the life she would never lead here, for the children she would never have, for the ambassadorship she would have worked at with her husband, for all the smiles and laughter she would never have married to a man like Hank.

 

She had been a fool to think she’d ever escape marrying Hank. She’d been a fool to think she deserved more. After the years of her life she spent standing aside, saying and doing nothing to stop her father, she didn’t deserve Olek. She’d known what her father was doing to those poor victims, victims he forced her to help recuperate. Their endless faces flashed across her mind.

 

Now there was only one thing left to do. She had to go find her father first, before he came to claim her.

 

Olek did as his wife asked, and he went to check on Ualan’s wife. He told himself that if he just gave her enough time, she would come around and accept his shifting. He had won her once, he would do so again. He had to. There was no other option to his troubled mind. He needed her like he needed air and food, even more so. She was his heart, his soul.

 

Morrigan was checked over by the doctors and released to go home with Ualan.

 

Ualan was getting ready to take her when Olek got there. He caught him up on all that had happened.

 

To his surprise, Princess Pia had discovered the identity of their spy using a video feed Morrigan had taken of the coronation. It seemed Morrigan was a reporter and was doing a story on him and his brothers’ royal marriages. Thinking of his marriage, he scowled--some story that would be.

 

It had also been determined with this last attack on Morrigan, that King Attor planned on striking the Princes’ most vulnerable place--their marriages. By killing the Princesses, King Attor would assure that they never produced heirs and their line would end.

 

If Olek lost Nadja, there would never be another for him. It was the way of the crystal. When she broke it, she joined them forever. The Draig mated for life. If they lost their mate, they lived the rest of their days alone, never taking another to their bed. If Olek lost his wife, he wouldn’t want any in his bed to replace her. No one ever could.

 

The news came soon after Olek checked on Morrigan in the medical ward that Pia’s servant was apprehended almost immediately upon the Princes entering the palace kitchens. They found him hiding behind one of the big brick ovens, ducking from his work. Zoran’s nose picked up the Var smell beneath a too potent scent of Draig.

 

The spy must have known that he was found out, because he tried to run. It was no use. Yusef was standing in the doorway and with a swing of his good arm he punched the man square in the jaw, laying him out on the floor.

 

The Draig servants blinked in surprise at the sudden attack, but as they witnessed the lazy man sprawled on the ground, they began to cheer even without knowing his deceit. As a fellow worker, the Var spy wasn’t well liked in the kitchen.

 

The royal family was relieved as news was spread of the spy’s capture. Olek arrived just in time to help escort the Var soldier to the lower prisons. A Draig guard was sent to retrieve Agro for the interrogation. It was believed that if any of the Princes 
questioned him, they would most likely kill the insolent man for the harm he intended to their wives. It was better to have someone with a cooler temper. Olek had no doubt that the beefy giant would discover much from the man. When Agro chose to shift, he could be most persuasive.

 

Nadja tried to pack, but she couldn’t risk carrying too much and being discovered.

 

She debated whether or not she should leave Olek a note trying to explain, but in the end decided against it. It wouldn’t do to give him hope. If he tried to come after her, then everything she had just put them through would’ve been for nothing and she would have to watch him die.

 

Taking a deep breath, in the end she took nothing, leaving the house exactly as it was. It was getting late. Dusk had formed some time ago. There was no time for good byes. This was it.

 

Nadja took a deep and steadying breath. It did no good. She instinctively knew where her father would be waiting for her. He would be at the scene of Morrigan’s attack or close to it. Walking down the earthen red trail, she clutched her fingers before her. The dusk made the forest darker that usual, but if she squinted, she could see fairly well where she was going. The deeper sections of the forest were a mystery.

 

Tears entered her eyes and only the thought of saving Olek kept her moving. Her body trembled with an uncontrollable fear, dread making it worse. Her steps began to falter as she neared the place Morrigan fell.

 

Nadja stopped, as she looked around the colossal forest, seeing the red earth before her, surrounded by yellow ferns that looked green in the shadowy twilight. She didn’t move until she detected movement at her side. It was the flick of a match and a light of an old fashioned cigar that first drew her attention. Her mouth opened to speak, but her voice only left in a squeak.

 

She saw the orange glow of her father’s cigar brighten, illuminating his sinister face. He leaned against a tree as if he had been watching and waiting for some time.