"David Freer - The Forlorn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Freer Dave)

but now she scarcely recognized him. He was a minor courtier, always servile, and exquisitely polite, like
so many others. She'd not realized how power and triumph could transform a face. She shrank back.

"Scream and I'll kill you, you little cow." His voice was cruel and deliberate. Blood still dripped from his
fingers. Behind him stood several more armed men.

"Try not to, Lord Blis," said a voice from down the passage. The princess was an expert on tone, and
this speaker did not sound as if it would concern him greatly if she was mutilated, but not quite dead.
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"We have her father, but it would be nice to have two little `gifts' for our great liberators."

The tall, sardonic speaker stepped into the room. The naked and bloody falchion in his hand belied his
otherwise foppish appearance. With a single sword-stroke he severed the head of the still kneeling
majordomo.

"You promised meI could have her!" There was a mixture of fear, chagrin and a dangerous edge of
insanity in the guard killer's shrill demand.

"And so you shall, my dear Blis. And so you shall. But only for the next half an hour. The gates are
opening now, and I want her alive when our `friends' arrive. But they won't mind if you've used her first."

The courtier smiled, a dribble of spittle leaking across his thin lips. "Yes,EmperorDeshin." He looked at
her, his wild eyes hungry. "She'll be . . . alive!" He laughed. "Leave me ten guards. They can take it in
turns when I've finished."

The tall man lifted a disdainful lip. "The title is premature, Blis. And I doubt if even the most desperate
will use a girl after you've finished with her. Enjoy yourself . . . her body will be worthless to the hive
anyway." He looked at her then, his eyes cold with hatred. "You're not going to be raped, little Princess.
Rumor has it that you'd enjoy that. Blis has no interest in sex. He can't get it up, so he likes to use knives
instead." With this chilling finish, he turned and walked out, ignoring the dangerous glitter in his ally's eyes.
The girl wished desperately that she'd not used Count Deshin for one of her little games. But it was too
late now. She could hear him selecting guards outside. The door closed.

The thin-lipped Blis dropped the spike, and took a dagger from his highly polished boot. He began to
advance, very slowly. "You can scream all you like now. We've secured the palace," he said. His voice,
just above a whisper, was full of almost palpable anticipation. He licked his lips, his eyes glowing with an
evil inner brightness.

For the first time in her life the Princess knew real fear. Nervously her hands strayed across the golden
bangles as she edged further away. The wall was behind her. She tried to press herself into it. She looked
around, desperately seeking some avenue of escape. All that she could see was the majordomo's head,
the eyes staring vacantly. Bilberries . . .

Blis lunged toward her suddenly, seizing her arm. She screamed in pure panic, and grabbed her own arm
with the other hand as she lurched forward. Her fingers closed on a jewel-adorned golden bangle, which
abruptly became a lump of dry ice . . .