"VICTOR!" shouted the captain. He stopped his advance. Mikail had seen that look before. Sylvia would have killed him. She did not take kindly to people insulting her natural talent or his. Whatever had earned him her respect and protection had caused this flare-up of her temper - it must have - and her prior disposition didn’t help matters. Though he found it surprising that she would act this way when she was so angry at him.
He finished reading the transfer papers. It seems that this man was a problem maker. He was arrogant and liked to slack off thinking that his father would take care of things just the way he always had behind the scenes with his money and rank. Not this time. That kind of behavior gets people killed. Normally, the captain himself would step into the ring to knock down his attitude a notch or two, but he thought of a better plan. Victor and, "Emmett? Is
Chapter 11 The RescueVictor wasn’t quite as fierce with his chores the rest of the day, but had not calmed down enough for people to ask what it had been all about. It had felt good to beat on the captain and that idiot who insulted him. Why did he say I couldn’t break him? That would have been so much more satisfying. She thought to herself as she headed back to the tent aft
At the camp, Marcel was getting nervous. Victor had been gone longer than he usually was when he went hunting and there was a nagging voice that told him he had been deceived in some way. He went to Remus, another of the guards, and told him what happened."You had better go and tell the captain," Remus said to him."He will have my hide for letting Victor out of camp. You tell him.""You are the one who did it, why shouldn’t you be the one to fess up?""Fess up to what?" asked Ian who had walked up behind them."Um..." Marcel started, "Well..." Ian fixed him with a piercing stare. "About a half hour ago, Victor had his bow and a quiver full of arrows and said he was going hunting," blurted Marcel. Ian’s look changed to worry as he waited for Marcel to continue, "I have not see
Ian and Mikail found their way to the rock clearing and were momentarily at a loss as to what to do next. It did not take them long to find a small patch of blood near the center, then the signs that someone had been dragged off of one side. She was alive! At least she was when they started dragging, there were signs that she had struggled to change position. They followed the trail into the forest.When they saw from a distance someone striking her, Ian had to grab Mikail’s sleeve to remind him to stay put until they could analyze the situation. They started dragging her off again."I do not ask you to go with me, Ian. In fact I beg you to return. I likely go to my death. Return to those who love you.""Mikail, I could not look at them knowing I abandoned you to die. My Friend, I will not leave you," he paused, "They will have to take the trail that
Then she told them, "I will adhere to your modesty as much as possible," and paused. They could not see how anything could be left to the imagination on this one. "Help me to sit down. I am going to save as much strength as I can, so untie these laces." She pointed to the laces down the front and at the wrists of the leather outfit she was wearing. They could barely be seen in the shadows they were in, but Mikail knew them well and could see in his mind just where they started near her neck and where they ended a little ways down her left leg breaking at the waist where the top and pants met."Don’t take the laces out, just loosen them," she instructed. When they were loose enough, she told them to help her out of the top of the scouting armor. When they did, to their relief, they found that she was wearing another of the corsets they had both seen. "That has to come off, too, if I am to become Victor again." Both th
Chapter 12 The CeremonySylvia woke to find Kollin bent over her and her corset open enough he could slide his hands along her ribs to see if any were broken. "When did you arrive?" she asked sleepily, but before he could answer, "AH, that hurts, it feels broken.""No, none of them are broken, but three are badly bruised. I arrived this morning. Now, tell
"Yeah, he ate some bad stew going through an enemy camp a week or two ago. Seems like ages now, though. He was out for three days and hated the two day recovery where the captain gave orders that he was not to do anything." Rowell laughed at the memory of Victor sulking around camp looking for anything to do. Emmett tried to picture it, but having only seen Victor in what he was told was a rare, but foul mood he could not imagine the kid begging for anything. "He gets restless fast.""Yeah. That much I could tell about him even through the bad temper yesterday." He walked around the camp with Rowell telling him how things were under Captain Tane’s authority. There was something different about this captain, but he couldn’t identify what. Then again, he had been told this captain was different more than once before he ever left the last camp. One thing Rowell said that struck him was that he would have a private
"I joined the army because my father thought it would be a good idea. I was sent to your camp because I thought I knew better than General Brock how the place should be run and I showed it in more than one way," he replied without looking at the captain. For the first time, he felt shame about how he had behaved. Just being in this man’s presence made him feel like he didn’t deserve this chance."You sound like perhaps you have had a change of heart.""Certain things have been brought to my attention, Sir.""Tell me about them, Emmett," Captain Tane prodded. Emmett told Mikail many things about his past and why he thought he had changed in the last few days. Mikail told Emmett some of the reasons they were fighting this war and why he did such interviews with each of his men. In those two hours, the men became fast friends. By the time his capt
Chapter 13 The LetterWhen he opened his eyes and saw that she was missing, he jumped up and started for the opening of the tent only to run into her as she was returning."Where have you been?" he asked accusingly."Good morning to you, too, Captain. Did you rest well?"Her mood has improved, he thought. "No. What have you been doing?" he asked in slightly softer tones."I have been outside of this tent," she replied. The way she moved told him that no matter how he questioned, she wasn’t going to give in and tell him where she had gone or why. He did the only thing he could think to