Page 10 of Madness

The delicate flick of her wrist signaled the waiting guards who prodded the unlucky Nymph woman forward. Red’s scowl had never appeared deeper, creating a sharp wrinkle between her dark eyebrows. Metal shackles rattled with every step she took down the stairs. Both her hands and ankles were tightly bound. She didn’t fight them, but she also didn’t seem like she was coming willingly.

“I will miss your cooking, Red,” Maggie pouted for a moment. “Well, have a nice trip.” She pointed a long slender finger at me while I leaned by the wagon, foot tapping, wondering how sincere her words were. “Don’t forget. Every. Single. Detail.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I grunted, lifting Red into her seat at the front of the wagon. Her body slumped against me, legs and arms dangling as much as she could manage them with the bonds. She let all her dead weight fall into the lack of movement. If she had weighed any more it would have been an inconvenience, but even with her resistance, she was still relatively light. “You’re bound to make this rather difficult aren’t you?” I hissed.

“Well, it would be very unlike me to make it easy.” She sniffed, lifting her chin.

Despite Maggie’s confidence that this would be a quick trip, I had the feeling it was going to drag on and on.

Gritting my teeth, I walked around the carriage and found my seat next to her. Leather reins warmed by the sun felt like silk in my hands as I scooped them up and looked at Red. I gave Princess Maggie a final wave and then yanked on the reins.

The wagon lurched forward. Our bodies rocked against the seats and we sat quietly until we put distance between us and Princess Maggie. At every dip in the road, the wood under us squeaked and groaned.

“You know, I’ve never seen you in bindings.” I leaned over, letting my voice rasp softly into her ear. “Would it be ungentlemanly of me to say that I like it?”

Red stiffened. Her spine became impossibly straight as she tilted away from me with her dagger gaze.

What did these men do to her?

“Oh, calm down,” I smiled. “I’m taking those off as soon as we get out on the road.”

“What makes you think that I won't run away?” Red huffed.

“What makes you think that I won't catch you?”

She sighed, reclining into her seat. It may be a very long ride indeed if she was bound and determined to hate me so. Not that I blamed her. She was a slave and I was the man charged with dragging her off to see how badly she could be tortured. Something inside me rallied with happiness at the thought. Not of it being Red, but at the idea that I may actually get to be a part of something I was good at and something I actually enjoyed. I guessed that made me a sadist.

“So, since I’m being taken away to my death anyway, care to share youractualstory?” Red had the audacity to look over at me with those half-hooded eyes like this conversation was the only thing keeping her from dozing off with the sway of the wagon.

“At it again I see,” I answered.

“I need something to entertain me.”

I glanced back toward the distant white castle walls, the gate on the perimeter passing and closing behind us. She did have a point. I didn’treallythink with how bad of shape she was already in that she could make it through whatever torture the Acture Court had in store for her. My head still got a little foggy when I thought about the idea that the king had spared my life and was instead going to use me as a mole in another court. It’s like I was a spy, spying for the person I was spying on. A spy within a spy within a spy. Except for the fact that I wasn’t, I reminded myself.

It would be nice to share something with someone while I was here, and there wasn’t anyone else I could even talk to. My eyes roamed the passing city streets I had once strolled through looking for work. Only this time, I was wearing a simple guard uniform. Not too dressy for travel, but still presentable enough for when we arrived at the Acture Court. And of course, the material was suffocating. I slipped my finger into my collar, tugging it away from my neck.

“You wouldn’t believe my story, even if I told you,” I mused.

“Try me.” She tilted her head up to the sky, letting the sun play over her features.

For a second, the angular point of her nose, the paper thin line her lips were pressed in, and the narrowness of her far too small eyes actually looked…attractive. Like the sun was where she really thrived.

I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing them closed as tightly as I could, then opened them again. That had to be a trick of the light. That or this clothing was actually causing me to be delirious. When I opened them again, Red cocked her head and stared back at me.

“Well, out with it.”

“Why don’tyoutell me about what you were doing that night I caught you in the woods? Now that sounds like a story that needs to be told.”

Red snorted. “Just so you can get those details for Princess Maglehwhore, no thank you.”

I didn’t bother to hide the smile her word-play on Princess Maggie's name provoked. Sometimes when Red wasn’t trying to be, she was funny. Though I didn’t think she ever meant what she said as a joke, it always tickled my dark humor bone.

“She won't entertain you, you know.”

“Excuse me?” I glanced away from the road.

A few other wagons in front of us moseyed about the street, unrushed in their morning errands. They called and waved on occasion to familiar faces and business owners. That sort of enthusiasm was just plain exhausting and I couldn’t be bothered. When I gave Red my attention, my mouth sprung open, her words registering in my mind.

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