Stolen (The Blueblood Stories Book 1) Read online

  Unable to contain my curiosity, I leaned past Raven, desperate to see what exactly she wanted me to explain. My mouth fell open. It wasn’t what I’d expected. There was nothing there. Not a cut, not a scratch and certainly not a burn. The entire injury had completely vanished overnight. In fact, were it not for the bandage, I might have hallucinated the whole thing.

  “When did you say that you were burnt?” she asked, looking at me in confusion.

  “Oh,” I said, thinking fast, “well, my brother has been bandaging it for . . . um, let’s see, maybe a week now. He was worried it might get infected, but it looks to have healed up nicely. I did tell the assigner it was nothing, but he insisted I come and see you. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”

  Raven stared at me, her pupils dilating, making her eyes appear even more intense than before. The sensation was invasive — as though she was somehow trying to read my mind.

  “Well,” she said, releasing my foot and resting it back on the floor, “it certainly would appear that —”

  Raven’s words were cut short however, when the door to the room was flung open. The woman who walked inside was stunning. She was tall, with long blonde hair that trailed down her back and striking features, like large eyes, a slender nose and high cheek bones. From the style of her dress, I could tell instantly that she most definitely was not from Carnell. It was long and black, with thin strips of silk coming from a leather collar around her neck, allowing the fabric to flow down her body, cascading over her breasts and buttocks.

  Blushing, I realized she was wearing nothing under her dress. With each little movement, I was afforded a tiny snapshot of her body, allowing me to picture her in far more detail than I cared.

  “Raven, oh good,” the woman said, moving dramatically over to the cushions before shooing me away. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

  Immediately I stood, glad for a distraction from my wound and any further questions Raven might have.

  “How can I help Catena?” Raven asked, folding her arms over her chest.

  “I don’t know if anyone can help me. The assigner has gifted me five women!” said the woman called Catena, placing her hands over her head as she sighed dramatically. “What’s wrong with this village that there are just five? How can that be possible? There must be more than a hundred people to choose from for crying out loud!”

  “I am sure that Master Drake will be —” Raven stared to say, but she was cut short once again.

  “You, girl,” said Catena, looking suddenly at me, her eyes narrowed, “you’re from this village?”

  “No, I’m from another village,” I said quickly, not wanting to anger this woman. “My brother and I —”

  “I don’t need your life story girl,” Catena said, rolling her eyes. “What I mean to say, is that you’ve been assigned a position of work here?”

  “Yes. The assigner placed this one to work the fields,” said Raven, looking at the little green ribbon on my wrist.

  “The fields!” Catena exclaimed. “He’s supposed to send me ten women and he has the audacity to send this one to the fields.”

  The woman called Catena stood then and began to circle me. It was strange, even though she was beautiful, there was something obviously sour about her. Like biting into ripe fruit, only to find that its flesh was spoiled.

  “I think Master Drake wanted more attention to be focused on the revenue of the land rather than —” Raven started to say.

  “True, there is something off putting about the shade of her eyes,” Catena interrupted, not even listening to Raven. “But I’m desperate.”

  “Are you sure?” said Raven, standing also and moving over to me. “What I mean to say is — she seems a little thin don’t you think, and I see what you mean about her eyes. They are dark, but too dark — she looks empty. I don’t think she will be received well. Why even bother?”

  I was so confused, all I could do was stand there, completely still, listening. What was it that Catena wanted me to do? And, why was Raven eager to stop her from taking me?

  “Of course I agree with you Raven but what choice do I have?” said Catena, moving over to the door. “Six is better than five. I’ll just have to do my best with her. Inform the assigner that I’ve commandeered — what was your name?”

  “Nat,” I said quickly.

  “Nat— how absolutely absurd,” said Catena, rolling her eyes. “What a ridiculous name. Why are we even in this backwards hell hole?” When Catena finished her rant, she turned to me, apparently not very impressed with what she saw. “Very well then — Nat, you will come with me now.”

  Catena was out the door before I’d mustered up the courage to follow her.

  “I’m sorry little one,” Raven lamented, holding the door open for me.

  “Sorry?” I asked, looking at the dark-skinned beauty curiously.

  “You best hurry. Catena does not like to be kept waiting. If I can give you any advice, it is not to anger that one. Her tongue is quick, but her bite is worse.”

  I did as told, racing from the room so that I was hot on Catena’s heels before she could make it half way down the hallway. Instead of returning to the main foyer, when the hallway ended, Catena turned left, directing me instead to the courtyard I had noticed earlier. Like the walls and ceiling, this outdoors area was also cast from sandstone, with large palm trees rearing up in each corner. Several women were musing around, each wearing a similar design dress to that of Catena, and all with a small purple ribbon tied around their wrist.

  “This way,” Catena directed, moving out into the courtyard.

  As we approached the center, I saw a large bathing area, easily able to fit ten or so people, maybe more. The water feature had been dug into the ground, so that it completed the tropical oasis. Currently five girls occupied the bath, each looking stunned and unsure of what was happening.

  “Ladies,” Catena called, and everyone turned to face her. “I’ve managed to find another candidate — that’s assuming we can get all the filth off you.”

  Catena pressed her hand to the small of my back and pushed. I screamed, hitting the water hard. When I emerged, all the Spinton women were laughing at me.

  “I expect this lot to be cleaned thoroughly and presentable by the end of the day,” Catena instructed, and then she was off, disappearing back down the hallway.

  “I’ll take the new one,” said a girl somewhere behind me.

  Spinning in the water, I saw a young girl looking down at me. She couldn’t have been much older than I was. The fabric flowing from her leather collar was pink and she wore matching sandals. The pinkness of the dress seemed to melt against the blondeness of her hair, making her appear much younger than I originally thought she was.

  “I’m Sindra,” she said, producing a glass bottle filled with some sort of purple liquid, which she poured into her hands and then began massaging into my scalp. “What’s your name?”

  “Um — Nat,” I said sheepishly.

  As I sat in the water, having my hair washed, all manner of horrid thoughts rushed at me. What exactly was going to happen to me? Why would Catena have need of ten Carnell women? Were we to be sacrificed — perhaps the Spinton’s believed in such things?

  “So, Nat,” said Sindra, working my hair into a lavender smelling lather, “what’s Carnell like? Do you have all four seasons here? What do you do for fun?”

  I stared at her in horror. This girl was talking to me as though she were here on holidays, as opposed to having invaded our kingdom. And even though I had never been one for violence, I was left with the desperate desire to slap her.

  “Don’t worry,” she added, looking at me sideways, “I know how hard all of this is to take in. A year ago, I was just like you. It’ll all start to feel normal soon enough. I promise. And you’re one of the lucky ones.”

  “Were you branded?”

  “Branded? Of course not,” she boasted, and before I could ask any more, she was dunking my head und
er the water, rinsing the soap out.

  For the next few minutes my teeth were on edge, as Sindra rubbed some unfamiliar white cream into my hair. Her long nails raked my scalp, making me feel uneasy. Looking around, the other five girls in the bath were being treated similarly, though some seemed to be taking it better than others.

  To my surprise, two Carnell girls were chatting animatedly to the Spinton ladies waiting on them, almost as if they were enjoying the attention. I couldn’t understand why. Fortunately, just when I thought I couldn’t bare it any longer, Sindra left me to go and get a large bar of soap, which she instructed me to clean myself with.

  “And take those awful clothes off,” she said. “They stink of smoke. Even submerged in water I can smell it from here.”

  Gulping, I looked around at the other girls in the bath who were also being washed. What with the bubbles, I hadn’t realized until now — they were all naked. My eyes danced to the entrance of the courtyard, where two guards were posted. The pair stood staring at us, their dark eyes wide and hungry.

  “Quickly,” said Sindra, staring at me, her hands on her hips. “You heard Catena. I don’t have all day to turn you into something respectable looking.”

  I grimaced. The way I saw it, I had two choices. I could refuse and probably be forced out of my clothes, undoubtedly by those two guards, or I could do as I was told, hide in the bubbles and pray that my dignity remained intact. Quickly I pulled Marcus’s jacket off, followed by my dress, careful to keep my body low in the water, so that my breasts remained hidden from sight. It was horrid. Last night no one in the kingdom had seen my face, now my entire body was on display to anyone who might chance a glance.

  When I finished cleaning myself of the dirt and filth, Sindra was waiting for me with a towel. Perhaps sensing my hesitation, she moved over to the steps of the bath and held it out for me, trying to shield me from the guard’s view. I raced towards it without hesitation.

  “Alright, follow me,” she said, directing me back inside the house. “Oh and take off that green ribbon. If you’re lucky, you won’t be needing it.”

  Removing the green ribbon, I quickly followed Sindra down the hallway. We entered a small room, opposite to the one Raven had taken me into. The moment I was inside I screwed up my nose. There was a strange vinegar smell inside; it made my eyes water. When I adjusted to the odor, I looked around. There were three tables inside, though no chairs, and a small fireplace atop of which a cauldron hung, with something bubbling inside. Undoubtedly, this was the source of the stench.

  “Lay down on this table,” Sindra directed.

  “What are you going to do to me?”

  “Oh, it won’t hurt — much. Just a sting really. Trust me; you’ll get used to it.”

  “What’s this all for?” I asked, laying back on the table, my eyes focusing on the ceiling above.

  “Has no one told you then?” she asked, giggling. “That’s unusual. Catena is normally praising the position. I mean — it really is wonderful. Maybe a little daunting at first but after a while you really appreciate just what we get from being so respected.”

  Was she talking about being a sacrificial lamb? Had I been right? I was just about to respond, when I felt something very warm on my leg. It was a nice sensation, soothing almost, until — “AHHH!” I screamed, sitting bolt upright, my mind reeling from the pain. “What was that? What did you do to me?”

  Sindra smiled, showing me a thin strip of fabric covered in some sort of wax. I squinted at it. Embedded in the wax, was hundreds of tiny hairs — my hairs. Still smiling, Sindra took my hand and guided it against my leg, gently running it along where the wax had been.

  “It’s called waxing,” she explained. “It’s a way of removing hair. Don’t worry, it’s not permanent, though you may wish it was. I know it’s painful the first time but trust me, after a while, you really appreciate just how smooth your skin is without all those nasty hairs. Men love it.”

  “Why . . . why on Earth do I need my leg hair removed?”

  “It’s a Spinton custom,” she explained, pushing gently on my stomach, so that I was forced to lie back down again. “I will try to be gentle.”

  Whether she tried to be gentle, I wasn’t sure. It certainly felt like I was being tortured. When she was finished with my legs, she moved to the hair under my arms. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, perhaps that I would have adjusted to the pain by then, but I was wrong — if anything it hurt far worse. Just when she had pulled away the last strip and I was celebrating my survival, she removed the towel covering my torso.

  “Oh no!” I challenged, the moment the hot wax touched my most intimate region.

  “It will be over in a second, just lie back and trust me.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “Then I’ll have to call a guard,” she warned, shaking her head as she pouted her lips. “And believe me, you don’t want them in here watching you. They’ll take immense pleasure in restraining you. Better it just be us girls.”

  My eyes shone with tears as I nodded, then braced for the pain I knew would follow. I was right. It hurt more than I could have imagined. But it wasn’t just the pain — it was the humiliation. Never, in my whole life, had I felt so violated.

  “That’s the last of it,” Sindra said a few minutes later. I blinked, pulling the room back into focus after having my eyes forced shut for so long. “Don’t worry, it’s all smooth sailing from here. Come sit down on this stool and I’ll doll you up.”

  I did as I was told, the threat of having some revolting guard restraining me still close in my memory. When I was seated, Sindra wiped my face with a soft cloth, then immediately began massaging some sort of cream into my skin.

  “Can you just tell me what this is all for?” I asked, smelling something acrid that she immediately began rubbing down my neck. “Am I to be a sacrifice?”

  “A sacrifice?” she said, looking at me sideways, a little smile turning at the corner of her lips. “God no. Where did you come up with that idea? In war, masters are granted a household from the new lands taken. That way they get something from the spoils but are also responsible for maintaining control. Whenever we go somewhere new, the assigner places people from the town into the work force. Most are selected for mundane tasks, you know, sowing fields, teaching, fishing, guard-duty . . . stuff like that.”

  “I know all of that,” I blurted out, starting to lose my patience. “I was assigned to work the fields. So why am I here? Why do I need my legs waxed and face painted to plant vegetables?”

  “Don’t be silly,” she said, taking a brush from a pot of brown powder and dabbing at my face, “you’re getting dolled up to meet Master Drake. It’s a custom in Spinton that when a new kingdom is taken, the villages put forth a selection of women for a master to choose from. Those selected join his harem. That’s what the purple armband represents,” she added, looking down at the little purple ribbon plated around her wrist.

  “What’s a harem?” I asked, unfamiliar with this term.

  Sindra giggled. “A selection of women who share a master’s bed, on the occasion that we are invited. He usually spends some time training us so that we can best please him. Some of the higher-ranking soldiers under Master Drake’s command, are granted our company also — it just depends on what the master feels like.”

  “You aren’t being serious?” I said, my mouth falling open in surprised horror — I hadn’t decided which was worse: being part of the harem or being a sacrifice.

  “Of course I am,” she said, grabbing my chin and adjusting the angle to paint something pink near my cheeks. “In Spinton, it’s considered a great honor to belong to a Harem. I’ve been by Master Drake’s side for a full year now. You’ll find that it takes a little while to get used to the notion, but I promise you, if you are selected, you’ll soon beg for his attention. I mean, have you seen the guy? Though he never kisses anyone on the lips. Still, he’s just so . . .”

  Her words trailed o
ff and she giggled, then began brushing my hair, pulling my dark locks until they were held high in a bun on my head. Next, she retrieved a black pen, using it to colour in my lower eyelids.

  “Keep your eyes closed for a bit while this sets,” she added, as though we had been talking about something mundane. “I’m not sure if it was wise to use so much black on your eyes, given how dark they are already, but this makeup is standard for us.”

  The darkness allowed me a moment to gather my thoughts. I was exhausted, both mentally and physically. How could this be happening to me? I’d never been intimate with a man before and now I was expected to join a group of girls, whose sole purpose in life was to wait for a man to take advantage of them?

  Still, when I thought hard — really hard — there did seem to be one or two benefits from my predicament. If I was afforded a place inside the household, perhaps I would be able to find out exactly what had happened to my family. And, if there were so many girls to choose from, maybe I would be able to keep my head down and avoid the attentions of Master Drake, long enough to find a way for Marcus and me to escape.

  Chapter Four

  After I’d been cleaned, waxed and painted, Sindra directed me to another room down the hall. We weren’t alone; five other girls waited inside. One of them turned to offer me a half-hearted smile; I recognized her. She, along with the other four, had been in the bath earlier. They were almost unrecognizable from the bold makeup they now wore, not to mention their elaborate hair styles. Was this how I now looked? Like a painted doll . . . completely unrecognizable.

  From the depths of the room, a very bent-over, elderly woman appeared. She hobbled towards us, employing the help of a cane. Her skin was dark, like Raven’s, though wrinkled and timeworn.

  “Ah,” said Sindra, smiling broadly at the elderly woman, “Kotty, thank goodness you’re here. We need six dresses for these candidates. Nothing too special —it’s just the initial selection stage. Just make sure they fit and dress them in any color other than black silk. You know how Catena gets when someone wears her color.”