Page 6 of Ogres Don't Play

I stepped back when I saw the small horns, the glittering black eyes, the red wings and tail and then he was around the corner, heading towards Wonderland.

I watched the upper-level devil riding a battle bot until he’d entered the portal and the last leg had disappeared into that other world. Devils were cousins to demons, less physically powerful but twice as wily. And he was at home in Singsong’s underbelly. Why was I here again?

I turned around to continue on my way and saw a flash of a handsome face sporting delicate tusks before a spell hit me, paralyzing me and making me blind. I froze up stiff like a board and would have fallen like ‘timber’ but he caught me, putting me over his shoulder like a pole, completely ignoring all the defenses my silk robe was supposed to have. I was blind, but I could still feel his hand gripping my calves and higher while he carried me, incapable of movement, but filled with a rising sense of absolute outrage.

How dare some person throw a spell like that in public?! Didn’t anyone else see? Someone must have noticed, but did anyone care in Song? I struggled fiercely against the bindings of the spell, but I couldn’t move enough to even bite my lip to summon the blood necessary to unravel his bindings. It was an ogre. What in the world would an ogre want with me here? No one knew that I was the daughter of the Commander of the Holy Order of the Swords of Truth. Otherwise, my dad would know that I was the current music master of Singsong city, and he wouldn’t just leave me here. Because I was too defenseless for someone so valuable. Was this about controlling his forces? Ransom? The last time I’d been kidnapped by ogres, my dad had paid whatever price they’d asked of him to get me back. That wasn’t going to happen again, but how could I get away when I couldn’t even move?

He only carried me for a few minutes before the chill air warmed and he tossed me. I landed and bounced on a bed. In a flash of light that left me blinking, the world came back into focus. I glared up at my captor, who was none other than thepretty ogre from the mayor’s office the day before. I still couldn’t move, but I could glare. Not that I could narrow my eyes, but I could certainly convey a world of rage in my gaze if he had even a semblance of awareness of other people’s emotions, which he probably didn’t because he was an ogre and went around kidnapping people.

He studied me where I lay on the bed beneath him with a slightly cocked head, looking me up and down as if analyzing the pattern of flowers. “Nice spelling,” he said conversationally. His voice was rich, melodious, the kind of voice that could blend in a choir to elevate its overall tone or stand solo.

Wait. A tall, strong, brutal male was standing over a young woman on a bed. I wasn’t the most beautiful creature in the world unless I was playing an angelic harp of heavenly gold which absolutely made me glow, but I was decent enough, young, and maybe looked like an innocent. I wasn’t experienced with men in the ways of romance, first because my father would kill any man who dared touch me, but mostly because my heart was fully occupied with music as its first and only love. If this ogre thought that he could subject me to his lustful ways, or sell me into some revolting sex market, I was in luck. The second the spell relaxed, I’d fill him with bolts of heavenly lightning until he was lit up with it. He’d change his career fast enough after that.

“I apologize for your discomfort,” he said and then had the nerve to bow! Like an apology worked while he was still doing the thing he was supposed to be apologizing for. Idiot. He tapped his full bottom lip with graceful fingers while he kept staring at me like he wasn’t sure what to do with me. If he was an experienced kidnapper of young women to sell into a sex ring, he probably wouldn’t look like that. Also, he was quite pretty if you didn’t mind tusks. If he went to a bar where women who consorted with males went, no doubt he could find someone who was interested. No, and he wasn’t looking at my body likeit was an object, but my face, my eyes, like he was gauging my character or staring at me as though I was breathtakingly lovely.

He snapped his fingers and the spell partially released. Ah, he’d been mentally altering the spell, not just staring at me like I was too beautiful to be real. That did make more sense.

“How dare you take me like that? And this?” I looked around, finally able to move my head. The room was dingy, all shades of brownish gray, and the bed looked like it had massage settings, or it used to before it broke fifty years ago. “Is this the hourly motel place? It is! You put me on the bed of a cockroach-infested, disease-ridden brothel?” I snarled and tried to gather up my music magic to burn him to nothing, but the magic had a damper on it, like he’d drugged me. “Did you drug me?” I sputtered and stared at the monster before me. How dare he? He just stood there studying me thoughtfully, perhaps weaving more invisible spells, perhaps considering what to do with me. And I was in a brothel! Maybe he did mean to sell me to this place. My eyes widened while horror eclipsed the outrage. If my dad ever found out that I, the daughter of the Commander of the Holy Order of the Swords of Truth had been sold to a brothel, he'd marry me to the most unyielding lion that would take me and I’d be locked up forever.

His voice was an attractive low rumble. “I did inject you with a small cocktail that should wear off before too long, but do not worry, I will protect you until it is dispelled.”

I snorted. “Oh, thanks. Now I’m so assured. Are you insane? You don’t kidnap people in brothels and then expect the victim to be fine with it. Release me at once or I’ll summon my fierce familiar and it will devour your soul!”

He pursed his lips slightly. “It bothers you to be found in a brothel or to be kidnapped?”

“Bothers me?” I sputtered for a few seconds. Seriously? He was still staring at me like I was the weird one around here.Yes, I was wearing florals, and yes, my hat had flowers growing out of the brim, but I wasn’t running around kidnapping people, dragging them to brothels and expecting them to be fine with it.

“You seem unsettled,” he said smoothly, like I hadn’t noticed.

“You kidnapped me!” I roared. “Yaga, attack!”

Instead of my chicken appearing in a flurry of feathers and flames, I found myself with a strong, blue-hued hand over my mouth.

“Let me reassure you that you are the first female I’ve kidnapped. I only meant to use these few hours in conference with the noble music master of this fair city, not as any sort of depraved practice involving your virtue.”

I glared over his hand, which smelled strangely home-like, jasmine wood polish and cold wind. An odd embarrassment crept through my rage. He was suggesting that I was a virgin, or that I wasn’t a virgin, but either way was absolutely not something we could discuss. Was I blushing? At this stage of yelling, he probably couldn’t tell.

He continued with an odd gentleness. “If you summon your familiar again, after exerting yourself and the creature so much yesterday, you’re bound to harm one of you. Do you promise to listen to me before you shout for your creature? Although, to be honest, I’m not sure what it could do to save you.”

I glared at him. Sure, I’d totally promise to listen to him. Right. And then I’d take him to the authorities.

He slowly pulled his hand away, his hands the perfect mixture of graceful and calloused.

“You’ve kidnapped other music masters?” Not that I was the actual master of singsong city, but I was too happy to think such depressing thoughts. Ha! As if kidnapped victims had the luxury of being in a good mood. Yaga would show up soon enough on her own whether I summoned her or not. I spent months after I’d left home trying to get rid of her after I nursed her backto health when I found her on the side of the road. I’d been hitchhiking across the country, so it wasn’t exactly a great idea to have a flaming chicken with you. The ogre didn’t know the kind of chaos a flaming chicken could cause. Then again, he was an ogre, and what were the odds that he’d hesitate to eat her? Sometimes I was tempted to eat her.

His voice was soothing. “No, but artisans of various positions the world over. Ogre society is changing from the simple war machine they’ve been traditionally into tradespeople and…”

He kept talking, but I couldn’t hear him through my own laughter. Sure, the ogres were going to put up their battle axes and open hat shops. The thought of the massive ogre who had saved me yesterday handing people hats to try on and grunting his approval when the customer picked out a winner had me gasping for breath. In my mind’s eye, I dressed him in a three-piece suit with a top-hat like the devil had been wearing. I suddenly stopped laughing, and found my captor studying me with a brow raised, like he wasn’t sure if I’d gone insane. That big burly ogre would look shockingly good in a three-piece suit with or without the hat.

“I beg your pardon for my outburst,” I said, all starchy good manners. “You want to discuss ogres opening a music shop in singsong city with me?” The second I got a chance, I’d stab a dagger in his eye and run.

He frowned slightly. “No, I already have a music shop here. That’s what I was waiting on the mayor for. He’s shown the usual reluctance most of that kind give when asked to allow an ogre for a license, but he gave it to me. Down here in Song there are more illegal businesses than legal, but I wanted to make certain it was strictly legal because ogres tend to be disliked even by the variations of the chaotic division. Being strictly legal means that I can address the mayor when the vampires want to throw us out.”

He sounded so sincere and his voice was annoyingly delicious, hitting me in the music feels like a well-tuned cello. He also spoke like this was a serious situation that we had to be prepared for because vampires just didn’t want to give ogres a chance. Poor things. I sniffed and narrowed my eyes at him. Even if he had a delicious voice, there was no way I was listening to him. “Oh the injustice. How sad that the ogres don’t have rights, says the guy who kidnapped me taking away all of my rights!”

He smiled at me like I was being funny. Agh! Was there anything more frustrating? Also frustrating was how handsome he looked with those soft lips curved, revealing more of his delicate tusks. How could anything ogre-related be that pretty? After ten minutes, I was already showing signs of Stockholm’s syndrome. Just what I needed. He continued, “I apologize. I tried to speak to you yesterday, but you ran away from me. That’s how it usually goes, which is why I began kidnapping those I wished to speak with. Things go much smoother that way. Forgive me for taking your time. I will get to the point. You want money. I want my niece placed at the Music Hall directly under your care. I believe that we can come to a mutually satisfying arrangement.”

I stared at him while my sense of outrage competed with my absolute bemusement. He wanted me to take in a young ogre musician? If her voice was anything close to his in smoothness and tone, I’d accept her. I’d accept anyone who had the money to pay. But sadly, the fact that he’d kidnapped me did not bode well for the state of his wallet. Except that he was dressed very well, his suit clearly tailored to fit his own muscular frame. I needed to repair the music hall, fund a music school, and give Tiago the raise that he deserved. Ah, but Master Cutter was currently at my hall, meaning that I had no hall where his niece could stay. There could be no deal. Of course, there could be no deal. Youdidn’t make deals with ogres, particularly the ones who kidnap you and drug you with potions and spells that he shouldn’t know would be your weakness.

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