Alien's Bride 1-3 (43 page)

“Guards!”
 
He began to scream.
 
“Guards!
 
The prince!
 
The prince…he’s been…”

I ran.
 
Not towards the door where the guards would be barreling through.
 
At the back of the room was another door between two massive stain glass windows.
 
I thrust it open and found myself outside.
 
It was a rear courtyard, but to the west was dense, unkept forest.
 
I ran into it as fast as my legs would take me.
 
There were sounds of commotion behind me.
 
I clenched my fists and kept running.

I saw animals densely populating the woods as I raced at an incline.
 
Elk, fox, even a bear.
 
A strange boundary grew clear through the trees.
 
When I reached it I realized it was solid wood fence, ten feet high, and tracing endlessly in either direction.
 
It took moments for my addled brain to put together that this was wall of a hunting pen.
 
The animals had been herded into the wooded area for the prince to kill.

I reared back and smashed my shoulder into the slats of wood.
 
Splinters bent outwards.
 
The middle of the fence had cracked.
 
It took five more slams to break through.
 
Now I was sure I heard horses and shouting.
 
I burst through the hole I made and kept running.
 

I made my way up a hillside topped with a single tree.
 
From there I got my bearings.
 
The village and the castle lay to my east.
 
The road leading to my home was a quarter mile west, but it was still heavily trafficked, and I was naked.
 
I headed back into the wood.
 
I’d race through thick trees and take the long way home, far from the road.

I ran only for a short while.
 
It was obvious I’d lost my pursuers.
 
Now I walked and caught my breath.
 
The woods were quiet as it approached dusk.
 
I slacked my thirst at a stream and didn’t feel like continuing further.

Damn.
 

My mother wasn’t even gone a single day and I’d ruined my life.
 
How could she leave me?
 
I wasn’t fit to look after myself!
 
All I had were stupid dreams, and no idea how to make them come true.
 
I thought I was the mighty goddess who could have whatever she wanted because she was so grand!

Look at me now.
 
Naked.
 
Hungry.
 
Cold.
 
I’d sodomized a prince!
 
Oh, gods.
 
I had to leave Trummel now.
 
I had no choice.
 
I could never come back.

But how could I leave?
 
I had nothing now, not even my shift.
 
And my money—I realized I’d left it with the retainer in the castle.
 
All my gold was gone!
 
Gone!
 
How could I ever start a new life?

I began to cry.
 
I wanted my mother.
 
She’d always kept me safe.
 

“Mommy!”
 
I sobbed until my chest ached.

I forced myself up because the darkness of twilight was coming fast.
 
Go back to Edgar.
 
He’d already seen me naked.
 
There was no need to be ashamed.
 
Even if he was angry with me I knew he’d help.
 
He could go into the village and get my dress.
 
Then he could help me decide what to do next.
 

I came out onto the road once I was near the underworld.
 
The woods had become too dark to traverse through, and I was nearly home anyway.
 
I froze when I heard hoof beats.
 
No one ever came this way.
 

Perhaps it was mother?
 
Did her intuition send her running back to me?

The thought buoyed my spirits.
 
I looked back and realized the rider had lights.
 
Many lights.
 
No…many riders.
 
They were sprinting their horses.

“There she is!”

Panic raced back into me.
 
It had to be at least twenty knights.
 
I took off faster than a doe, but I knew I couldn’t outrun horses.
 
My home was to the right, but I sped past it.
 
The road ended at the cave that led into the underworld.
 
Surely they wouldn’t follow me so near to it.

They were scarcely fifty yards behind me when the cave leading into the underworld came into view.
 
I halted against the iron gate that closed it off.
 
The knights slowed, but continued toward me.
 
I’d never been this close to the underworld and thought no one else would dare come this way either.
 
Several knights dismounted and drew their swords.
 
They…they were going to kill me!

I turned toward the gate and tried to pry it open.
 
There was a lock, but one bar of rusted metal cracked beneath my fist.
 
I shattered several more with the ball of my foot and crawled in.

***

It was a pitch dark cave.
 
I could see outside it, but no light breached the entrance.
 
I leaned against the wall trying to still my panicked gasps.
 
The knights came right to the gate.
 
They stood inches from me.

“By Helder, she went into the underworld!”

“Can we follow her?”

“No you fool!
 
King Caine will rip out your guts.”

“Back away!”
 
This was a more authoritative voice.
 
“We shouldn’t even be this close.”

The knights withdrew, but I still caught some of their voices.
  

“The demons will probably rape her to death.”

“Keep guard, even so.
 
She might be waiting for us to leave so she can sneak back out.”

Of course, that’s exactly what I planned on doing.

“Prince’ll be mad.”

“Maybe he’ll be glad?
 
She’s got worse coming to her than death in there.”

A huge clawed hand dug into my neck.
 
My heart thundered so fiercely it felt as if it pushed me away from the wall.

“Give me one reason why I ought not to rip out your throat, mortal.”
 
The monstrous voice had unholy deep tremors.
                     
.

I had a reason, but before I could utter it another demonic voice sounded to my right.

“Look, Devroth.
 
She’s full naked.”

The hand grew lighter on my neck.
 
“So she is.
 
You a crazy mortal then?”

“Ain’t a mortal at all, don’t you reckon?” the other said.
 
“They don’t come as big as this.”

“I’m not mortal,” I said, with a tremulous voice.
 
I spouted the reason I’d come up with moments before.
 
“I’m a goddess.”

Devroth drew near enough for me to feel the heat of his breath on my lips.

“Lying tramp.”

I fought to summon up every ounce of my mettle.
 
“No.
 
It’s true.
 
I…I met Prince Riffzer to see about maybe marrying him.
 
He made me strip for him, but then, then—it all went wrong.
 
I attacked him.
 
I had to run away, just like this, without any clothes.”
 
I knew I was raving, but couldn’t stop myself.
 
“I was headed home but he sent his knights after me.
 
I thought they wouldn’t—wouldn’t follow me up to the gate, but they did.
 
They were after me with their swords.
 
I had to escape.”

The demon sounded like he’d lost all patience for me.
 
“If you were a goddess…”
 
His spittle struck my face.
 
“…you wouldn’t be running scared from mortals.
 
You wouldn’t be letting me have a hand on you!”

I winced in realization.
 
“Half-goddess!
 
My mother’s a mortal.
 
My father’s the harvest god Fizu.
 
That’s…that’s why the prince wanted to meet me.”

Silence followed.
 
I felt the demon breathing on me.

“That would explain how come she’s so big,” the other said.

Devroth considered this several moments longer.
 
Then he spun me so that my bare breasts crushed against the rock wall.

“Get some manacles, Haralzin.”

I heard the other demon’s footfalls, and then the clanking of chains.
 
My hands were bound behind me with thick heavy shackles.

“Maybe the king’ll think she’s worth his time.”
 
Devroth plucked me off the wall and shoved me to walk ahead of him.
 
“If she’s a half-goddess like she says.”

I stumbled over the craggy rock floor in the dark.
 
The second demon, Haralzin, was keeping stride beside me.

As we ventured deeper the cave grew brighter.
 
The shadowy figure beside me was a good six inches taller than me.
 
His skin was a musty violet color with lighter markings around his eyes.
 
He had a mohawk adorned with colored beads between two small horns.
 
The rest of his form was covered in shimmering silver armor.
 
A breastplate and back plate hung over his shoulders with leather straps, allowing me to glimpse how densely muscled he was beneath them.
 
He had pointed armor hiding his groin and most of his ass attached to the waist of this piece was a holster baring a grizzly hatchet and heavy-looking broadsword.
 
His legs had armor attached to them in three segments.
 
The cumbersome placement was because he had legs that bent backwards.
 
They were like the hind legs of a dog, except he had the massive three-toed feet of a dragon.
   

His face was mortal except for his horns, coloring, and yellow eyes.
 
I saw a handsome visage, fearsome certainly, for he was massive compare to me, but not at all ugly.
 
As we continued walking I had the unsettling realization that I found him enticing.
 
This—while I was likely walking to a fate worse than death!
 
Haralzin must have known I was looking him over.
 
He met my eyes for one fleeting moment without a trace of malice, then kept his gaze fixed forward.
 
I felt he wanted to look me over as keenly as I had him, but resisted for some reason.
 

I dared but a quick glance to the demon behind me.
 
This one, Devroth, was unequivocally ugly.
 
He was larger than Haralzin, grey-skinned, and bald with gargantuan pointed ears.
 
His thick lips and cruel expression made me shudder.
 
No, I much preferred the muscly mohawked creature beside me.
 
(Not that it mattered, I presumed.)

The narrow passage curled and a domed opening with another iron gate came into view before me.
 
This was where the light had been filtering in from.
 
The gate opened to entire demon village.
 
Black dwellings with flat roofs looked as though they’d been carved out of the onyx rock.
 
Many of them were hollowed out from the high black walls that opened outward to distances further than my eyes could focus on.
 
Glass lamps were ubiquitous; hung high to line the streets, at doorways, and strung throughout a few of the alleyways I could see from my high vantage.
 
It gave the illusion of daylight where there was no sky.
 
There were eerie sounds of commerce.
 
Demonic voices echoed against the broad walls.
 
A black roof above us teamed with creatures.
 
Some climbed over the stalactites; others flew with bat wings despite not being any kind of bat that I knew.