Kirati was jolted awake some time later by what felt like a steep drop. She tried to sit up but found that her arms and legs weren't up to the job. Her mind was very hazy and confused as well. She shook her head to clear her vision and mind of the cobwebs and then looked around her.

She was in the back of a cart. It was obviously covered and not meant for carrying people, because it was very dark and reeked of animals. The floor where she had been laying was covered in hay and, running a hand through her hair, she discovered that she was as well.

Her limbs had regained their ability to move now, and she tried to get onto her hands and knees but found that the cover was too low. Reaching up, she found that the cover was only two or three handspans off the floor. "Gorgeous?" she called to her flit, feeling around in the hay for her friend. She found a tail and pulled it, causing Gorgeous to wake with an angry squawk.

Now that she knew Gorgeous was at least with her, Kirati turned to the business of finding out where she was. "Emarian?"

No answer. Only silence until Gorgeous growled low in her throat. Kirati stroked her back to calm her, trying to stay calm herself. She had been kidnapped, that was obvious enough, but by who? Her father didn't have any enemies low enough to stoop to kidnapping. Or did he?

She frowned as she tried to remember, and seemed to recall him telling her once that her father had had a mistress, and off her he had sired an illegitimate son. The son had challenged her father to become Holder when his father had died, but he had died in an accident, so it couldn't be him.

The wagon came to an abrupt stop, throwing Kirati forward into the hay. It moved and then settled itself again as someone got off. She heard footsteps and then light flooded into the back of the cart, nearly blinding her. Once she could, she looked up to see Emarian standing there. "Did they kidnap you too?" she asked, reaching up for him.

Emarian sneered and slapped her hand away. "Not quite. And don't try to play the concerned girlfriend to me anymore, you little bedhopper. I've been putting up with you for long enough and it's been driving me crazy!"

Kirati flinched back from his outburst. "Emarian?" she asked, her voice wavering.

"I don't suppose your father ever told you about his half-brother, did he?" Emarian asked, ignoring her question.

"He did, actually," Kirati snapped, her immediate fear having progressed to anger and outrage at having been tricked.

"Well then I suppose he told you of his little "accident", hmm?" Emarian's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Well it was no accident, it was cold blooded murder. Do you know what it's like to grow up without a father? Especially when I could have been living as you have been instead of in rags as I was?"

"You mean, you're his son?" Kirati stammered, anger banished for the moment by suprise. "But he was so young when he died! My father told me he was seventeen!"

"My mother was pregnant with me when the 'accident' occured," Emarian snarled, though there was a hint of sadness in his voice. "It's been almost unendurable having to pretend with you, but it'll be worth it to get even with your father for my father's death."

Kirati couldn't help a shiver at his words and the smile that accompanied them. She knew what he meant to do, but she asked anyway. "What do you mean?"

"What do you think I mean?" Emarian sneered. "You really are stupid, aren't you? To avenge my father's death, I'll kill you, but not until I've given everyone at the Hold plenty of time to realize you've been kidnapped. But I'll be around to play the devastated boyfriend and look for you. And then, of course, I find your body and am properly heartbroken. Then your father is so thankful he wouldn't dare let me go to another hold and I stay there, picking off his sons one by one until, when it comes time to choose an heir, there is no one left for the position except that helpful harper."

"You wouldn't dare!" Kirati exclaimed. "My father is no fool, he'll see through it in an instant!"

Emarian chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Ah, such a pity such beauty and spirit has to go to waste. Unless you can think of a way to stop me, which I highly doubt, I will dare, and with pleasure."

Kirati tried to slap him, but he caught her wrist and twisted it behind her back to bind it to her other hand with a rope. "Don't even try," he warned her. "We're very far away from your home and even if you did get away you'd get lost and starve."

He lifted her out of the wagon and she kicked him as hard as she could in the stomach. He doubled over and dropped her, making her wish she hadn't kicked him. Another rope quickly bound her feet and Emarian hoisted her over his shoulder and started walking.

"Where are you taking me?" she demanded.

"The place that will be your home for the rest of your life," Emarian replied. There was, she noticed gleefully, still pain in his voice. "I think you'll find it quite comfortable."

After what seemed hours to Kirati, he stopped at a little shack. Actually, even calling it a shack was exageratting. It was little more than four wooden boards with a door in one. It was just barely taller than Kirati and Emarian had to stoop as he carried her in. The floor was dirt with a mat spread across the length of the back wall. "Like it?" Emarian asked as he dumped her on the ground and slit the ropes with a knife.

"It's lovely," Kirati spat.

Emarian smiled and then threw a package and a waterskin at her. "I'm glad you like it. I'll be by with food every morning, so eat wisely. I wouldn't want you to starve to death and miss out on the fun of doing the job myself."

Kirati didn't say anything, she turned her back to him and went over to the mat to lay down. She heard the door close behind him and then sat up to take stock of her situation. The package contained a generous meal and the waterskin was full, but those were the only two good things about her situation. She was stranded in the middle of nowhere and the only person who knew where she was was planning to kill her.

"Well," she said aloud to herself and Gorgeous, "at least I'll die with a full stomach."

Despite her words, however, Kirati had not yet resigned herself to the fate Emarian had planned for her. As she lay down on her mat and chewed on a peice of smoked herdbeast she was already planning Emarian's death and her escape.

. back . next .