Taken by the Warrior King

Title Page

Copyright Page

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Further Reading: Her Lady’s Gift

Also By Vanessa E Silver

‘M
other, please try not to worry, I have resigned myself to my fate, which we cannot know the outcome of without much speculation. Reserve your energy for my little brother and sister, who need you to stay strong,’ I spoke with more confidence than I actually felt inside.

‘But Lydia,’ my mother wept, ‘I cannot stand the thought of you being given to those savages....what will become of you, and of the family when they take you from us?’

I understood my mother’s concerns but I refused to give myself into panic as I turned to the window once again to find them riding their horses to the small dwelling where I had grown up right from a baby to a woman of eighteen years now.

‘I believe that all will be well if we do what they say, I need to go with them without a fight. They are not looking for blood at least that is what they told the whole village when they evaded our land not three weeks ago. They say they are merely looking for single young women to take as their brides and bear them children, surely there are worse fates,’ I tried to convince myself as my voice went weak, I watched them get off their horses and look in my direction, I wondered if they could see me gazing out from the corner of the window from where I stood.

‘Worst fates, I am not sure of that my child. Have you looked closely at them all, especially their leader, they are giants and not normal men with their big arms and heaving chests. And the marks they at times paint on their face only make then seem fiercer. Lydia, you are a braver girl than I was at your age, you do not seem in the least bit fearful.’

‘Mother there is nothing that can be done, please they will be here in a few moments, let’s have no more talk about them being savages.’

My mother’s words had a surprisingly different effect on me than the one she may have intended, instead of feeling fear I felt a tingle down below at my wet core, as I remembered my first sighting of the foreign leader, the warrior King. He had indeed looked formidable sitting on his silver stallion, his muscled naked chest bared for all to see, with his large, broad sword strapped to his back.

I had gone out to the village marketplace trying to secure some much needed provisions the day I caught the sighting of him; with all the disturbance and fear among my native people I thought that there may not be a better time in the short term to venture out and get all the vital items that were required for my family’s survival.

I had certainly not expected to see the warrior king in the flesh, let alone positioned with a front row view of him, whilst crowds of people huddled to the side and back of me, we all looking up at the warrior King and his foreign tribe of people with a mixture of curiosity and awe.

Silence was all I heard around me as my eyes fixed upon his proud face; his eyes were a most intense deep blue, his nose was hawk-like and jaw line appeared strong. He wore a mid-sized dark blond beard, a similar colour to his mane of hair that fell below his shoulders. I had never seen the appearance of such a man before; I had been unable to look away from his ruggedly handsome face stained with lines of red war paint. Then something very unnerving had occurred, the warrior King had fixed his own gaze upon me in turn as he rode slowly through the street with his army, our eyes had locked on each other. I should have perhaps bowed my head in reverence and fear at that point just as some of the others around me had done. But I just could not look away, it was if he had cast some strange spell over me as I continued to watch him staring straight at me, at my blushing hot face before moving his eye slowly down my body as if he was trying to visualise my naked womanly curves beneath the garments that I wore. And then his look of hunger was gone as he turned his head and his men rode on disappearing into the distance, leaving me all flustered and breathless by his inspection of my person.

***

‘P
lease do not hurt my family,’ I made the request as soon as they stepped through the door. It was just three of them, two tall men with broad chests and a very attractive slender female almost the same in height as the men, and looking a little older than I, but all had a blonde colouring similar to the memory I had of the warrior King.

At first they did not respond to my words, they just looked me over as my mother held my hand tightly for support and cried softly, and my little brother and sister came bravely out of their hiding places to cling onto the back of my mother and my own skirts.

‘It is her!’ The woman spoke with relief, stepping towards me as she touched part of my mass of thick red curls in her hands. ‘He said the woman had red hair and eyes of the deepest green,’ she spoke as she turned to look at her brethren who nodded in agreement.

‘You speak our language?’ I tried to communicate with them once again, as I resisted flinching or making any sudden moves as she continued to hold on to my hair.

‘Yes I speak a little of your foreign tongue, some of us were taught your language by a traveller who had blood of your people as well as my own within his veins,’ she looked up at me giving me a small smile that put me a little at ease, a feeling that was only increased when she finally dropped her hand to her side and touched my hair no longer. ‘Now in answer to your first question we will not hurt you or your family, we have been given instructions to take good care of you, but we will need you to come with us. So tell your mother to stop weeping, she will not lose her daughter to the sword!’

‘How do we know you speak the truth, we have heard news of the barbaric acts at your hands when you have invaded other lands, how do we know you will not do the same to us?’ my mother finally spoke in her anguish.

‘Please mother!’ I turned to silence her with my worried expression. ‘I will come with you without any fight,’ I spoke calmly to the visitors.

‘Good, that is a wise and potentially very rewarding decision you have made for yourself. Now before I forget I was told to give this to you as the first of your presents?’ the blond warrior woman spoke as she handed me over a little pouch.

‘I don’t understand, why would you give this to me?’ I stuttered as I looked at the silver coins inside, lifting one up to show my family.

‘He wanted you to have it.’

‘He?’

But she would not reply back to my question on the identity of my mysterious benefactor.

‘Can I give it to my family?’

‘You can do what you like with it; the gift is yours not mine.’

‘Mother, please take this, it will help you all while I am away.’

‘I cannot take coin for my child, no matter what amount.’

‘It is not coin in exchange for me; it’s just a mere gift as they have just said. I am leaving here willingly, so please take the money, you will need it,’ I spoke pervasively, and was much relieved when my mother reluctantly took the pouch from my hands.

‘We need to leave now,’ the woman spoke with some urgency.

‘I am ready.’

I hugged my family goodbye, before turning to follow the foreigners out of the place that had long been my home.

I did not know what to feel or to think, I could not predict my future in any way, all remained as a complete mystery to me!

‘A
word of advice Lydia, you look like a smart girl, so I hope you will heed my words, you would do well to make yourself agreeable to the Lord. If he likes you, your life may just take on a change for the better,’ the tall blonde warrior woman spoke as she looked me over for the final time with critical eyes. She had remained not far from my side ever since she had escorted me away from my family and home, which enabled me to learn quickly that her name was Ingrid, as was revealed to me by the way her fellow men constantly addressed her.

‘But how am I to make myself agreeable to the Lord? What if he does not like the look or sound of me?’ I replied back in a panic feeling totally out of my depths.

‘I would not worry overly about my brother not liking the look of you, for he has seen you before, the sight of you bewitched him, to the extent that he ordered me to find you and bring you to him, I was the only one he trusted to do the task.’

‘Your brother?’ I was surprised by her disclosure.

‘Yes my Lord and my brother,’ Ingrid replied back in frustration to me, I knew she was annoyed with herself for slipping out the valuable piece of information to me.

‘And now that I have seen to it that you have been cleaned up and appropriately attired I have no doubt you will dazzle him even further, stirring the heat of desire within him.’

I went through the memories in my mind, thinking hard about the many foreign invaders I had seen from a distance within the past weeks during my brave visits to the village centre, but there was no-one in my mind that I would have suspected of wanting to seek out my presence.

Knowing that it would be pointless to speculate on the identity of my admirer any further, I quickly turned my thoughts to Ingrid’s mention of my cleaned up appearance pleasing the Lord. I knew that I had never looked better, especially after I happened to chance upon a mirror in one of the large tents they had taken me to, my reflection had shown a surprising image of myself that I could barely recognise. With my hair appearing as a mass of thick curls of a vibrant rich red that fell to my waist side. My eyes looked big, green and bright, which contrasted sharply with my pale white skin.

And as I looked down to my body I saw the cinnamon brown gown they had made sure I dressed up in, it clung tightly to my every womanly curve and made my waist appear narrow to accentuate my full rounded breasts and pert bum. I found myself holding back my words to voice my uncertainty at wearing the slightly indecent garment and I resisted crossing my arms in front of my chest when Ingrid had finally looked at me over with approval and confirmed to me that my transformation was complete with a satisfied smile.

‘No, you need not worry about your appearance; it is your tongue you will need to be careful of. My brother is not always known for his patience or even temper at times, you must learn how to tame him.’

‘But how should I go about doing that?’ I became nervous wants again.

‘You will just have to figure that out for yourself, for now we have no more time to spare, he is expecting you, we better go in, or he will have my head, he has been waiting for you for too long already,’ I saw Ingrid speak with a small smile on her face.

I swallowed hard as I turned away from Ingrid to face ahead. I walked into the large tent where the music played and I heard the loud noise of men and women in what seemed to be merriment.

***

I
t took me great effort to keep myself composed as I started to walk through to the other side of the large tent. It became very apparent once I had stepped into this new domain that a celebration was well underway, everywhere I looked there were men and women feasting, dancing or merely interchanging causal words, but all appeared at ease and happy as music from the harps and flute played in the background. But what was quite surprising to me was the fact that the tent was filled with foreign blonde haired male giants, and females who were a mix of their equally foreign and blonde counterparts but also some of my own native female villagers. I even recognised my oldest friends Sonya and Bridget from among the crowd, we had all played together in our childhood, and I still liked to think that we retained a bond of closeness right up to the present day. To the extent that I been deeply worried when just days before I had called upon their homes each separately, to find no sign of them and their families anxious as they told me of how they had been taken away by the invaders similarly to what had now happened to me.

However by the looks of it, I need not have worried. Both Sonya and Bridget seemed happy, possibly happier in fact than I had ever seen them before. I remembered the fear we had all once revealed to each other in our private discussions about the task of finding suitable men to become our husbands so we could improve our lives and the status of our families. Could at least their prayers now have been answered as I watched Sonya sitting down on a man’s lap, giggling as he whispered something in her right ear. And Bridget seemed equally preoccupied being swung around in the arms of another attractive foreigner who looked at her fondly and she reciprocated with her own warm gaze up upon his person.

What was going on, I was in complete confusion and surprise as I took in similar sightings of merry men and women in intimate exchanges.