Freeing the Prisoner: Kindred Tales Read online

  “Now my sweet…my pet…” Yana was saying, trying to ease Lavi’s tears. “I know it is a far distance away but I’m certain Warro will be good to you.”

  “I don’t care how good he is,” Lavi sobbed. “He’s not Jontu.” She looked up at Dani, appealing to her with wet eyes. “I know I’ve had a lot of crushes in the past, but Jontu is the one for me—the only one. If I can’t be with him I’d rather die.”

  Dani thought grimly that her sister was likely to get her wish if Councilor Tornk’s plan worked. But she refused to give her sister to that monster Warro without a fight. And there might yet be time to stop it.

  “Did you sign the articles of engagement, Lavi?” she asked anxiously.

  “The…the what?” Her sister sniffed, her black eyes huge and unhappy.

  “The articles of engagement! A paper saying you are officially engaged to Warro and he is your prospective husband. Think! Did you sign anything?”

  “I…no.” Lavi shook her head. “No, I just stood before the throne and that awful Councilor Bray-bray read out a proclamation about how I would be given to Warro in a week’s time.”

  Dani felt a surge of relief. If nothing had been signed, the deal might yet be voided.

  She turned to sweep from the room but Geora was suddenly right beside her.

  “Where do you think you’re going now, Princess Dannella?” she demanded, her narrow face pinched into a nasty expression.

  “To the throne room,” Dani said shortly. “Out of my way.”

  She pushed the other girl aside and strode out the door and down the long, mirrored hallway. She had to stop this now before Lavi’s life was ruined. Her little sister might be a brat and a tattle-tell sometimes but Dani loved her fiercely—she wouldn’t allow her to be taken by the evil, abusive Warro as the latest in his long line of conquests!

  “Not if I can help it,” she muttered to herself as she marched through the long mirrored corridors. “Absolutely not!”

  Chapter Nine

  Dani didn’t let the crossed pain-spears of the guards stop her this time. She ducked beneath them and left the guards gaping in her wake, too surprised by her bold move to come after her. She marched right up to the golden throne and stood before it. Then she fisted one hand and put it to her heart while she thrust the other behind her and bowed—giving the same salute any Councilor or officer in the armed forces would give to the Monarch.

  She knew perfectly well she was acting as though she had every right to be there—acting like a male in the throne room would act—and she waited with a pounding heart to hear what her father would say. The entire room seemed to be waiting with her, but though she felt every eye in the place was on her, not a single person said a word.

  At last her father spoke.

  “Princess Dannella, the Monarch recognizes you. What is it you wish to say?”

  Dani’s heart gave a leap at his formal tone and the way he had addressed her as he might any visiting dignitary or member of his Council. Maybe he would listen to her! Maybe he would at last treat her, if not as an equal, then at least as someone whose opinion mattered—as someone who had a right to have an opinion.

  “My Monarch,” she answered, just as formally. “May you live forever. I ask for a private audience to relate some distressing news which is pertinent to one of your royal decisions.”

  “Oh please, your Majesty! What is this nonsense?” It was the voice of Councilor Tornk, of course and he sounded out of breath. Dani remembered now she hadn’t seen him as she entered the throne room. She wondered if someone—Geora perhaps—had run to get him and tell him where Dani was going and what she was doing.

  “Silence if you please, Councilor Tornk.” The Monarch raised his hand, giving Dani another surge of hope that he would hear her out. “I would hear what my daughter has to say.”

  “It is for your royal ears alone, my Monarch.” Dani looked at him steadily, hoping to avoid a confrontation in public, which was no doubt what Tornk wanted.

  “What does this concern, Dannella?” her father asked gravely. “Tell me now, at once.”

  Dani took a deep breath. Well, if she had to make her case in front of the entire throne room, so be it. She was used to speaking out before the Councilors—though none of them liked her very much because of it.

  “This concerns the fate of your beloved youngest daughter, Lavinia,” she said, lifting her chin. “Father, is it true that you have promised her to Warro, Chieftain of the Thuggors?”

  “And if he has, what of it?” Councilor Tornk could apparently keep silent no longer.

  Dani felt her temper rising but she steadfastly ignored him and looked at her father instead.

  “Father?” she asked.

  Her father nodded slowly.

  “It is true that the marriage of your sister to the Chieftain of the Thuggors of the Southern continent has been presented to me and I have agreed to the terms.”

  “And very good terms they are too,” Tornk exclaimed.

  “Father,” Dani said earnestly. “Do you know what he does to his wives? I sat by one at the banquet last night. She—”

  “Was a lovely young lady indeed! I saw her for I sat nearby her as well. She seemed well pleased to be Chieftain Warro’s wife,” Tornk interrupted.

  Dani couldn’t stand it any longer.

  “Would you please do me the common courtesy of allowing me to finish my sentences without intruding your own asinine comments, Councilor Tornk?” she said icily.

  This drew a gasp from the assembled Councilors and Tornk’s blue face grew nearly purple as blood rushed to it.

  “How dare you speak to a male in that way? Your Majesty!” he exclaimed. “This is what I meant when I told you your oldest daughter must be curbed. She cannot be allowed to go running loose in this unseemly fashion speaking up to her betters as though she had every right to do so!”

  “I do have every right!” Dani exclaimed. “And while I was ‘running around loose’ last night, I happened to hear you and Warro bargaining in the hallway. You were trading my sister’s life and happiness for the rights to a gold mine on his lands!”

  “Dani…” Her father’s voice drew her attention and the weariness and sadness in it put her on sudden alert. “Dani,” he said again. “I know about the mine—it is part of your sister’s bride price which Warro readily agreed to pay.”

  Dani felt like her stomach had dropped straight to the floor.

  “But…so you know? So you…you’re selling her for a gold mine? I know gold is a precious metal rare in the rest of our world but isn’t the life and happiness of your daughter worth more to you than that?”

  The moment the words left her lips, she knew she had gone too far. It was one thing to ask for an audience with her father but it was another to question his judgment and decisions in front of the entire throne room.

  The Monarch’s eyes hardened and he frowned at her—her father no longer but the male who ruled with an iron fist over most of the planet.

  “Dannella, you forget yourself.”

  “Father, forgive me, but Warro is cruel to his wives! He—”

  “Oh please, your Majesty,” Tornk interrupted. “He probably punishes them now and then. Females always whine that their lord and master is being ‘cruel’ the moment he takes a strap to their backside and gives them a much needed spanking.”

  A burst of laughter from the other males in the room made his chest swell and his wide mouth twitched with hateful humor. Dani—who had always been quick to anger—was suddenly so full of rage she couldn’t contain it any longer.

  “And what gives any male the right to strike or ‘punish’ any female? What gives you the right to own us? To torture and torment us however you see fit?” she snapped, rounding on him. “Because you’re male? Because of the stupid scepter between your legs? What’s so wonderful about a dangling bit of flesh that makes you superior in any way to a female?” she demanded.

  Inside her head a little voice was whisp