The Prince's Mark

Chapter Eighteen

Early in the morning, just before sunrise, Tracou felt something underneath him. Grunting, he tried to roll over to get away from it, but he couldn't.

Then his stomach lurched, the ground underneath him suddenly much farther down than it should have been.

Tracou's eyes flew open, immediately meeting Pendaer's. The elf held him in his arms, glowering at him.

With a screech, Tracou tried to wiggle out of his grasp. He was tied up, this time with a rope that went around his body in a spiral ensuring that he wouldn't be able to make use of his arms or legs. But it didn't stop him from flailing. Pendaer almost dropped him and scrambled to regain his grip.

"Would you stop?!" Pendaer yelled, as though he was the one being put upon by all this.

Tracou only increased his flailing efforts. "Let me go, you maniac! I hate you!"

With a grunt, Pendaer threw Tracou over his shoulder and held his legs securely. "I don't like this any more than you do."

"You could have fooled me!"

Pendaer turned around. This, along with the way Pendaer's shoulder dug into Tracou's stomach, made him feel queasy. If only there was something he could bite, just so Pendaer could feel how enraged he was.

"Oh, you caught him," Ina said, apparently having been behind Pendaer for who knew how long.

"He slept rather soundly until I picked him up. I would have preferred drugging him."

Ina gave no verbal response, but Tracou felt like she would have shrugged.

"The Zeibr gave him presents, did they? Ina, take the bag back to the wagon."

"All right."

Tracou could only seethe as Pendaer carried him toward the wagon. How could this be happening again? And so soon! He was so angry he was shaking. If he had known that Pendaer and Ina were lying in wait for him, he would have tried to ask for an escort or something, anything. Maybe he would have stayed with the Zeibr.

This wasn't fair. Finally, he was on his way home, only for Pendaer to get his claws in him again. He was never going to go home. He was never going to get his wand back.

That seething fury soon turned into tears.

Pendaer hoisted Tracou off of his shoulder and laid him down flat in the wagon. Ina was close behind him, Tracou's bag in tow.

Being tied up like this, Tracou couldn't hide the fact that he was crying. Both Pendaer and Ina saw and that made it worse. Tracou quivered, hiccuping as he sobbed. Damn them!

Ina bent down and ripped off a piece of her filthy, ragged skirt. "Do you have to be so rough with him?"

Mumbling to himself, Pendaer skulked away from them.

Shaking her head, Ina got into the wagon and sat next to Tracou. She looked him over, disapproving, and lifted Tracou so he was sitting up, his back against the side of the wagon. Then she dabbed at his tears with the bit of skirt she'd torn off which wasn't especially comforting.

"I know this is bad—" she began.

But Tracou cut her off. "Bad?! You beat me with a stick! He—! He tells you to hit me for the fun of it!" Tracou took in a shaky breath, fresh tears streaming down his face. "And he still has my wand," he finished through clenched teeth.

An outburst like that usually would at least give someone pause, but Ina just nodded and continued to try to dry Tracou's tears.

"I know. I'm sorry about that... I really am. Even Nesta would be frightened of me if she knew I did that..."