A Price for a Princess (2 page)

"It belongs to a friend of the prince's chief counsel.  The stops we will make along our journey are all friends of the prince's, even in this remote village."

It could have been the boogey-man’s house for all I cared, I just wanted to sit down.  They made us pause just outside the end of the forest, looking around carefully before we stepped clear of the dark woods.  The canopy of trees had been so thick that it was like perpetual sunset in the depths.  At night it would be pitch black, and I was very grateful to have made it through.

Rysk knocked three times on the rough wooden door and it was opened by a short, older woman who was as round as she was tall.  "Welcome, princess.  My home is yours."

"Thank you."  I nodded at her as Rysk and Tyrant ducked under the doorframe to get inside and I followed.  The Dire Wolves stayed in their wolf form and scattered around the outside of the hut on order from Rysk.

Inside, the woman introduced herself as Mari, a wood nymph.  The hut was sparsely furnished, with a bed, table and chairs, and a stove and sink.  She gestured towards a doorway at the back when I asked about a bathroom.  Her version of a bathroom was exactly like an outhouse.  A wooden crate with a hole cut in the top of it sat in the corner of the closet-sized room.  A round tub sat in the opposite corner, with a pump next to it.  I used the "toilet" and pumped water into a bowl on a small table and cleaned my hands, splashing the cool water on my face before drying off with a rough towel that hung on a hook.

When I walked back into the outer room, Mari was setting the table for us with a pot of soup and large wedges of thick, crusty bread. 

I joined Rysk and Tyrant.  "Okay, you promised to tell me everything when we stopped, and we've stopped, so spill." 

They nodded, pulling me as far away from the kitchen area as they could, which wasn't all that far.

"What do you know of the white haired wizard?"  Rysk asked.

"Only that my sister-in-law Elizabeth saw him sacrificing me and my whole den slaughtered trying to defend me."  I was very glad that I hadn't actually seen the visions that she had.

Rysk told me that the wizard's name was Urijah, and that he was hell-bent on a quest for power so he could rule the kingdom of Reio.  His family had always stood at the right hand of the kings as head counsel, until the last king died, a noble were-bear named Hakon.  Urijah was his counsel at the time, and there were rumblings in the castle that he had poisoned the king and his only heir, his son Aedan.  Aedan survived and Urijah disappeared before he could be captured.  Aedan was a child at the time, but vowed to get revenge.  Urijah's family was slaughtered in the prince's attempt to get to him, and although the wizard disappeared for many years, he returned to curse the prince, promising to destroy him and his future.

"What does that have to do with me?"  I frowned.

Tyrant said, "In order for Urijah to gain the power he needs to take over the kingdom, he must have a bear of power.  He searched in all the realms for a bear powerful enough to give him the strength he needs, and he found that bear in you."

"I'm a cross between a black bear and a brown bear; I'm nothing special.  Just another in a long line of bears in my den."

They both shook their heads adamantly as Rysk said, "You are special.  You haven't shifted yet because you haven't come into your power. When you do, in a few moons' time, you'll find that you are as unique as any creature in existence."

"What do you mean I won't shift for a few moons?"  I demanded, before realizing that I actually hadn't shifted on the full moon.

"You won't until you come into your power, and that should be in the next three or four moons.  Originally, Prince Aedan wanted to wait to bring you here until after you shifted, so you would have the strength of your shift to aide you, but the flame-god told us that time was running out and Urijah would take you before you shifted.  We were sent to bring you here where you will be kept safe in the prince's castle.  He doesn't want you sacrificed, and he doesn't want to lose the kingdom.  Keeping you safe is something he takes very seriously."

I frowned further, trying to make out just what the hell was going on with my life.  I grabbed onto the one question that kept pinging in my brain.  "How can I be a unique bear if my parents are average?"

They both shrugged, a great lifting of their broad shoulders, "You are as you were made, princess, that is all that the god of fire told us."  Rysk said, and gestured to the table, effectively ending our conversation.  Well, we'd be picking it up again real soon.  I wasn't all that thrilled with anything I'd heard.

I sat down at the table, my stomach growling loudly, and watched eagerly as Mari ladled what smelled like chicken soup into a carved wooden bowl.  The soup was delicious, with dark chunks of poultry and thick cut root vegetables.  I sopped the bread into it, feeling as if I hadn't eaten in days instead of just hours.

"How long have we been away from my family?"  I asked in between bites.

"Almost a week."  Tyrant said.

My mouth fell open.  “What?  It’s still the same day since we passed through the portal.”

He shook his head, “Time is different here than in your realm, slower.  But we’ve only been in this realm for approximately eight hours.”

The bread I was holding in my hand fell into the bowl with a splash.  "You kept me walking for eight hours?"  No wonder I was so miserable.

They stared at me blankly.  Rysk shrugged, "We had to get through the forest before the sunset."

"That's insane.  We hardly stopped, I was starving and miserable.  With all the wolves with us, why couldn't we have just rested for a while?"

"Too dangerous."  Tyrant said.

I was beginning to become disillusioned with them.  I finished my meal in silence, feeling a familiar twining of thankfulness that they were with me and keeping me safe and annoyance at their lack of explanation for anything.  Didn't they know that I was floundering in doubt about what my life was going to become?  Couldn't they feel my fear?

When I'd eaten and drank my fill, I pushed the bowl away and thanked Mari for the meal.  She smiled and nodded, and urged me to rest on her bed.  Turning to the men, I felt my mouth curl into a snarl, "I do get to rest, don't I?"

They looked surprised.  "Of course, princess."

I slapped my palm on the table, anxiety coursing through me.  "Stop calling me that!"

The room fell silent like a tomb and I took in a slow breath and let it out even slower before standing and trudging over to the bed.  I didn't bother taking off my clothes or shoes as I climbed up onto the lumpy mattress and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the equally lumpy pillow.  I'd never been more grateful for a bed in my life.  Lumpy or not.

Chapter 2

My temper didn't improve any with rest.  Once more, my body ached in new places and the last thing I wanted to do was move, let alone walk.  After eating and cleaning up in the bathroom, they stopped me before I stepped out of the house and Rysk handed me a long cloak.

"It's too hot for that," I protested.  Every joint in my body ached, including my fingers.  Sleeping on that mattress had been hell on my joints.

"You stand out, princess," Rysk said.  "Your clothing, you skin tone.  Everything about you screams other-realm.  We have to travel through two towns today before we get to our next stop for the night.  We don't want to draw attention to ourselves if possible."

"It's for your safety."  Tyrant added, giving me a please-don't-argue look.

I'd never felt so agitated and I didn't really think it had anything to do with my aching feet and body.   I felt like I was late for something, or that I had to get somewhere, and soon.  I tried to shake the feeling, but my bear rumbled in the back of my mind, urging me to cooperate. 

Sucking my teeth in annoyance, I slipped the cloak over my shoulders and fastened it at my neck.  I pulled the hood up, which covered my hair entirely.  The cloak was dark brown and felt like it was made of burlap.  I thanked Mari once more for her hospitality and walked out of the hut.

We walked all day again, along an unkempt dirt road, and at least this time they allowed us to stop frequently.  In the distance, towns were visible.  When I asked why we were walking and not using something like a horse to make the travel easier, they told me that they had been unable to leave horses in the forest while they came to get me, so we would have to travel several days on foot before we reached the horses they had left behind.

We stopped for the night in another tiny hut, home to a short man.  I cleaned up in a round tub, filled with ice cold water, using a bar of soap that smelled like aloe.  I changed into another pair of jeans and a long sleeved top, and after a hot meal, I passed out on a straw covered mattress in the corner.

The third day, we were going to pass through the first town.  When we got to the outskirts, the sight before me was something out of medieval times.  Wood and stone buildings lined the main street where stalls were loaded with wares and food.  Men and women bustled around, buying and selling.  We ate kebobs made of a cow-like animal called a
grunde
and drank a sweet fruit juice called
farla
.  While we stayed to the street as we moved through the town, the Dire Wolves were in their human form, scattered around us as we walked, always watching for danger.

"What the hell is that?" I asked, stopping in my tracks as I saw a long wooden stage set up to the right, just outside of the market area of the main street.  Men and women of differing species were chained by their wrists to an overhead beam, many of them entirely naked, while a man in a dark suit called out their attributes to a few standing in front of the stage.

"It is an auction."  Tyrant said in my ear, giving me a gentle shove.

"A slave auction?  Are those humans?"  My mouth fell open in shock.  I'd never seen anything so barbaric.

The men looked at the stage, assessing the three females and five males.  "Two maybe are human, the others are different species.  Come, princess," Rysk said, giving me a harder nudge.

"But it's wrong.  Slavery is wrong," I hissed angrily and a few in the crowd turned to look at me.

This time they didn't just nudge me, they locked their big hands under my arms and towed me the rest of the way out of town.  When we were far enough away, Rysk said, "Those people, as you called them, are slaves for a reason.  Either they are debtors and could not pay what they owed, or their families or owners sold them, or they are being punished for breaking the laws of the kingdom."

"Families sell their own into slavery?  What the hell for?"  I glanced backwards, seeing the Dire Wolves gather to move with us.

"For money, princess.  This place, this realm, is not like yours.  Slavery is alive here, and many of those people were born into slavery with parents as slaves, and they will die with their chains."  Tyrant said.

Fury stole over me, combined with something I wasn't used to:  impotence.  I had absolutely no control over what was going to happen to those people, and I knew that storming over there and punching the man in the dark suit in the nose wouldn't help those people.

"Does the prince keep slaves?"

"He does.  It is our way.  But the prince takes care of his slaves and treats them well."  Rysk promised.

I wanted to argue that no matter how well someone was treated, if they were owned by another it wasn't right, but I kept my mouth shut.  I mentally kicked the images of the slaves into the corner of my mind, determined to talk to the prince about the practice when I got to his castle.  Right was right, and there wasn't anything right about keeping people in slavery.

Time eeked by as we followed the well traveled road.  What had just been a mild ache in my feet when we began walking that morning, turned into acute agony by the time we were halfway to the next town.  The town we had just left called Dran was populated mostly by traders, who were used to traveling through the
Meadowlänz
and tended to be of less than reputable character.  It sounded like an entire town full of pirates.

The town we were headed to was called Cholas, one of the largest towns in the kingdom.  I asked about Cholas, and the sort of town it was, and they assured me that it was a safer place than Dran, but the peace the town knew was an uneasy one.  The town was shared by not only various forms of nymphs, nearly extinct shifters, and various monsters that sounded like the stuff of nightmares, but the two major groups were the Centaurs and the Vehsi.  The Vehsi were a human-like race that considered themselves the law and order in the town and treated the Centaurs like chattel.