Page 32 of Tashama
“Then I will wake her. I want a word with her.”
“She was wounded.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of this.” A muffled laugh escaped his lips when he observed the prisoners tied to the wall. “Close the door,” he ordered the guard.
“You want to be alone?—”
“Close the door,” Carissian reiterated, his voice growing low.
“Of course.”
Tashama closed her eyes before Carissian could turn to face her. His footsteps grew closer. Feeling his mind probing hers, she could sense his frustration.
“You’ve been drugged. I can see nothing of your thoughts. Yet, it is as though you read mine.” His knees creaked when he knelt beside her.
He unwrapped her right foot while one of the prisoners said, “The prince made her walk on the poisonous burs of the forest. Even a prisoner condemned to die wouldn’t have been made to suffer so.”
“Go to sleep.”
“The healer said her ribs were bruised. Did the prince have her beaten as well?”
“Sleep. And do not disturb the lady.”
“She says her heart is broken.”
She opened her eyes slightly when the sorcerer tilted his head in surprise. “Who did she say this to?”
“To the healer, when he asked her where she hurt.”
“I wonder.” Carissian tapped his chin with his finger. “Sleep,” he commanded the prisoners.
Tashama sighed deeply, wondering where Balthazar was and if he would ever help her out of this mess, when Carissian’s footsteps hurried out of the room.
The prince reclinedin his bed as the stars filled the night sky. He shook his head when Carissian walked into his chambers. “It’s a little late for sorcerer tales, is it not?”
“Sire, the lady shouldn’t have been made to walk on the poisonous burrs. The notion is quite barbaric.”
“Who tells such lies?”
“I’ve seen the wounds myself, sire.”
Her feet were bare and softened by the water.“I hadn’t realized?—”
“How long do you intend to keep her locked away in your tower, sire?”
“As long as it takes.”
“As long as what takes?”
“To break her, of course. Once she’s broken, she’ll be no threat to me.”
“She wasn’t any threat to you, sire, while she was in her room.”
“She escaped—remember?” The prince motioned for his servant to leave the room. “What are you getting at? You have told me she is dangerous to me.”
“The woman is injured; she’s remanded to the tower where women are never sent. What are you thinking?”
“You said she’s dangerous to me. She won’t be able to escape from the tower. Isn’t that so?”
