The sun baked Bonn’s shoulders, the hot rays searing the wound on his neck. He had trained with Telemoko for a fortnight. The dark-skinned warrior was more than a worthy opponent and he had beaten Bonn in most of their skirmishes.

  Gold bracelets, awarded to Telemoko by Esmeralda, looped through the chain around Telemoko’s neck. The bracelets marking each hard-won challenge glistened in the sunlight as a golden challenge to Bonn. The low arc of Telemoko’s sword made a silver streak over the dirt floor. Bonn parried with a lower cut. Steel clanged against steel. The men’s eyes met over the crux of swords.

  The thunder of hooves on sand distracted Telemoko for a moment. Bonn lifted his blade a touch, then rammed it down again, knocking the point of Telemoko’s blade into the dirt.

  “You win, Bonn Skaard,” said Esmeralda as she slowed Flame to a trot. She was draped head to toe in a green silk gown to match the color of her eyes. Gold flecks of her serpent crest trimmed the edges of her garment.

  While Telemoko was on one knee, leaning against his sword to catch his breath, Bonn laid down his weapon and lifted the princess, light as a feather, from her saddle. When he looked at her face he saw her brow was knitted and vexed.

  “Bad news from the city, milady?” asked Bonn.

  Telemoko spat angrily in the dirt and slowly stood. He would receive no gold today toward winning his freedom. He picked up the reins of the white stallion and led him away. The loser of every skirmish would care for the horses and muck out the stalls. Telemoko did not appear happy with his task.

  Bonn trailed the princess to the shade and drew a full cup of water from a barrel. He offered the drink to Esmeralda first. She drank half of it and then handed it back to Bonn who gulped it down eagerly. The man from the land of ice would never grow accustomed to this heat.

  Esmeralda leaned against the rough-hewn barn wall and sighed.

  “Well, milady?” Bonn asked, hoping that whatever was vexing the princess would not be an inconvenience to him or his sparring partner. The two men had developed a distant if respectful friendship despite their daily training battles. Bonn knew the princess planned for both of them to compete in a tournament, but he was hoping he would find a way to gain his freedom before that would commence. But here with the water and shade relieving some of the heat pouring through his body, he saw the writing on the wall.

  “My brother, the king, is taking a new wife,” Esmeralda said petulantly. “She’s a girl from Kalishni.”

  “Where is that?” Bonn asked, thinking that he could perhaps use the conversation he had no real interest in to get a better idea of the land’s geography.

  “A port city, beyond the desert,” she said absently, pointing her delicate chin in the direction of the endless waves of white sand.

  “Is it far?”

  “Why do you ask, Bonn Skaard?” her emerald eyes narrowed. The black coal around them was more slanted than usual, giving them the appearance of a serpent.

  “No reason,” he snorted.

  “I’ve instructed my spies to find out as much as they can about this girl.”

  Bonn gently caressed her shoulder through the light silk of her gown. “Why does it distress you so?” he asked, feigning tender concern.

  “Because my spies report that she is with child. That is why the marriage is being rushed.”

  “But why does that concern you?”

  Her eyes flashed. “Because, you fool, my brother has had many wives, and none has ever been able to conceive his children. The king is impotent,” she said with her silvery laugh. “A deformed beast. If this girl is pregnant it is someone else’s brat.”

  Bonn shrugged and raked his hand through his sweat-soaked hair. “I’m certain that is nothing new.”

  “You are correct,” she said, the crease in her brow adding years to her young face. “Every one of his wives tried the same trick, and every one of them was executed as a result.”

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  “So, why will this one be any different?”

  “That’s just it,” she said, turning to lean her cheek against the wall. “All of those wives became pregnant after the wedding. I suppose they were trying to appear respectful. This girl is quite advanced in her pregnancy, at least six moons.”

  Bonn sighed deeply at his private thoughts. That is how much along Starlex would be if she were alive. Could she be alive? And if she is, why am I serving this snake-eyed princess?

  Esmeralda’s gold-tipped nails gripped his arm. “You are not listening! I tell you there is something different about this girl, something that worried me.” She moved along the shade to the entrance of the stable. Bonn trailed behind, wanting nothing more than a hearty meal. He knew that in order to get it he would have to pretend to listen to the princess’s endless griping, which he did on a daily basis.

  They entered the stable.

  “Come,” Esmeralda said, indicating the ladder to the hayloft where the men slept.

  Bonn locked eyes with Telemoko over Flames’s haunches. The dark-skinned warrior smirked at the Skaard as if to say better you than me. Telemoko went back to brushing the horse's hide while Bonn followed Esmeralda’s softly swaying hips up the ladder.

  With a sigh, she removed the top layer of her gown. The priceless silk whispered to the floor. Beneath she wore a skimpy garment with a split skirt for easy riding and a draped bodice that did little to conceal the ripe breasts underneath. Bonn had gotten used to her demands for lovemaking that sapped his strength, but of late he shared the duties on a rotating basis with Telemoko. The two men joked about it often when they would share a meal and a flagon of wine after their labors.

  “Come to me,” she said, opening her slim tan arms.

  Bonn slid into the familiar embrace, glad at least to see the princess’s pet snake was not on her person. Knowing he had no choice, he released the top of her gown from her shoulders. Her breasts burst forth like ripened fruit, the nipples brown as berries ready for consumption. He dropped his head to one and sucked. Her fingers gripped his sweat-soaked hair and cried so loudly that Flame whinnied a retort from the stall below. Through the slats in the wide floorboards, Bonn could see Telemoko mucking the stalls. He wished he could trade places with him.

  “Where’s your little friend today?” Bonn asked, glancing nervously about for the hayloft.

  “Surprise!” Esmeralda cried, dropping the rest of the garment on the floor. The golden snake, coiled around her upper thigh, lifted its head and made a striking motion toward Bonn’s erect member.

  “Heavens!” he muttered.

  Esmeralda’s silver laugh tinkled as she pulled Bonn on top of her.

  “Can you little friend play somewhere else?” grunted Boon as he ran his calloused fingers down the curves of her soft flesh.

  She whispered some words foreign to Bonn's ears and the snake slithered away, not before bellying over Bonn’s back, causing him to almost lose his erection.

  Wasting no time, Esmeralda, with quick panting breathes, guided Bonn inside her. The bed creaked in time with her gasps and moans as Telemoko whistled a jaunty tune in the stall below them.

  “Bonn Skaard,” whispered the princess as they lay sweating in each other’s arms afterward.

  “Hmmm,” he grunted, his eyelids heavy.

  “If my brother presents his new wife’s brat as his heir than any claim I have on the throne will be finished. You must help me stop this wedding.”

  “How?” he asked, wishing only for some rest.

  “Before this marriage can take place, you must steal into my brother’s palace and assassinate this bride and the child she carries.”

  Bonn rolled on his back and gazed at the rafters. “I don’t kill women, princess, nor babes.”

  With the spring of a tiger, she rolled on top of him, straddling him with her moist thighs. Her green eyes had lost none of their fire despite their raucous lovemaking. “Do you refuse me?”

  Bonn's hands trailed to her hips. “Surely there are other more qualified men for such a…job.” It was all he could do to disguise his repulsion at the mere suggestion. He was ashamed of himself for becoming aroused by a person who could even think such an abomination, but there was something about the green-eyed princess that worked on him like a drug.

  With a smile, Esmeralda trailed her red lips down his chest, teasing him into full arousal. “You cannot refuse me, Bonn Skaard.” Her lips found their target and pressed around it.

  Bonn closed his eyes and gave in to the sensation, letting go of all shame and guilt. He was as far from Kadaar as if he had died and was reborn into a different world, a different body.

  This girl, as diabolical as she is, has power. She is desperate to have me do this thing. If I do what she asked, I will accept no wager but my complete freedom, along with a good strong horse and a sack of gold to keep me comfortable while I search this planet far and wide for my lady wife. He had no intention of killing a woman, any woman let alone a pregnant one. He still carried the faded memory of what happened to his first wife and their son in Kadaar, but he would figure out a way to fool the princess.

  It was decided then.

  “I’ll do it!”

  She lifted her head. “Oh, Bonn,” she cried, sitting up, and lifting her damp hair from her neck.

  “On several conditions.”

  Her eyes narrowed while he listed his terms.

  “Are you so anxious to get away from me?” she said with a petulant pout.

  Telemoko chuckled below, then disguised it with a cough.

  “Those are my terms. Accept or not?” Bonn said, his ice-blue eyes holding strong against the fire in hers.

  Her chin bobbed prettily. “Accept.”

  “Excellent,” he said with a smile.

  To seal the deal, he flipped over the princess and plowed her field until they were both spent and the sunlight rippled the white mounds of sand into infinity.