Page 26 of Her Royal Blood

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him.

As the boat stopped a few miles from the shore, I knew the swim would be grueling, I’d had to keep my mind calm and focused.

“It’s time,” he said and I fit the leather pouch in my pocket. “This is the western tip of the island, the prisoner camps are on the opposite side. Stay near bushes and rock formations and watch the ground for snakes and uneven earth that might trip you up. Stay low, stay stealthy.”

“I will. Okay.” I rolled my shoulders and prepared to make the jump from the bow. “I’ll bring him back.”

“Yes you will,” is all he said before I jumped off the boat and into the freezing cold water.

Battling the surf, frigid water, and a distance that seemed to never end, I finally felt my knees hit pebbled sand. I had made it to shore. I didn’t want to think about having to swim back to the boat or how my muscles ached with fatigue and my stomach lurched with hunger. I needed to stay focused, find a bush, eat the meat in my pocket, even if it was soggy, and rest.

I crawled on my hands and knees through the breaking waves to finally bring myself out of the water and when I did, a rush of dusty and worn leather shoes with steel reinforced toes came at me, all at once, all looking the same, all in perfect precision; the guards. Before I could regroup, stand up, or make a run for it, I was hoisted to my feet by two soldiers. Each held an arm as another came at me. Every nerve in my body froze in fear.

“Well well, we have a runner here, swimming. Did you think you’d escape us?” This particular soldier, late forties, ugly faced, withered, grisled, pockmarked, walked around me enjoying his catch.

I wasn’t sure why they thought a runner would be swimming onto shore, but perhaps they’d encountered escapees who gave up and came back after realizing they couldn’t swim away. Disappointment, anger, and deep fatigue reverberated through my body as my mind collided with itself. Free myself from captivity, find Lex, rescue him, get to the boat.

“She’s from the women’s camp,” a smaller, less gruesome looking guard yelled.

Perhaps it was to my advantage that they thought I was someone else? If I had strength, I’d have magic, but at that moment, I had neither.

“Perhaps, we can have some fun with her before we bring her back. It’s not often we get one of these.” The ugly guard pinched my chin, and held my face up to the moonlight. “She’sa real stunner. I can already feel my cock getting hard.” The guards around me laughed as he removed his hand from my chin and grabbed my wrist, turning it over. Frantically he grabbed the other and his expression crumpled in confusion. “What the hell?”

“What is it?” A guard wearing a helmet standing next to him asked.

“She isn’t marked.” He turned over my wrists again.

“What do you mean?” The question blurted out before I could censor myself.

“Polonius is having all the prisoners shift into their wolves and they’re being marked. Didn’t you shift at intake?” I didn’t want them knowing anything about me and already I’d given too much away but not knowing about the markings.

“No, I’m not good on boats, so I was puking when I arrived.” I lied, trying to present myself as non-threatening as possible.

“They must have overlooked you. You’re going to have to shift now,” the guard demanded and lost his more lecherous interest in me, likely trumped by his duty.

Perhaps this would be my chance. My wolf was blond but for the tips of my ears and paws. I hoped they’d see my wolf and think she was diseased or sickly because of her unusual coloring, so I shifted, hoping to get thrown into isolation.

“Don’t anyone touch her,” the guard shouted and a wave of relief washed over me.

They were definitely going to quarantine me. I would be able to escape and get to Lex. It was almost morning, I could see the sun turning the horizon a lighter shade of blue.

“Wow, I’ve never seen one so blond,” the guard with the helmet said.

“Polonius is looking for blond female wolves. Any wolf with blond hair has to be sequestered and sent to Polonius. He’s marrying all of them?”

All of them? Blond wolves are mages and if Polonius marries as many mage women as he can find, he’ll inevitably have mage children with them and be so powerful...I couldn’t think of the rest. I didn’t want to derail my focus. He could easily ruin the lives of everyone in the land. He truly was a monster. His plans were too well laid to be spontaneous; he had to have been strategizing this take over for years. It may not have had anything to do with me at first, but later I became his means to obsession.

I hoped Gabrielle was okay. I was sure word would spread if Polonius killed the person pretending to me. His rage would be significant enough that he’d want me found and would probably broadcast to the world that I was missing. So far no such news had reached the Isle of Vitoria. From what I understood, Derringer told me they had intel about Polonius and he did have daily communications with the prison warden. They hadn’t been able to decipher all of the messages that were transferred by cargo boats, or prisoner transports that arrived on the island, daily.

If I was being detained, I’d have to stay calm and focused on using my magic to get out and get to Lex. My wolf was going crazy. She could feel Lex was near and sensed that he was in danger. It didn’t feel like an imminent threat but he wasn’t well.

“Take her to solitary and we’ll send her to Polonius on the next boat,” the ugly guard said and then my hands were placed behind my back and restrained with metal cuffs.

I was too exhausted to fight them. I knew I had to save all strength and direct my focus to Lex and only him. I needed to get him off the island, when he was safe we could come back and liberate the prisoners. I was dragged over a great distance to the men’s housing unit, I discovered upon arrival. My legs were so weak from swimming and the miles long hike I nearly passed out, but I was no good to Lex unconscious. I was asked intakequestions and lied saying my name was Mary, from Navarrah City and then was thrown into a cell.

“Aren’t you going to mark her?” the ugly guard asked, grumbling the entire trip about not being able to have ‘time’ with me before I went to Polonius.

“No need. She’s here and is going to the warlord tomorrow morning, no need to mark her.” The intake guard scoffed at the ugly one as if he was a complete idiot, which I couldn’t disagree with.

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