Blood Ties

Chapter 9: Nadia

Nadia marched off back to her tent, nearly tripping over the cold embers of the fire. Still, she could not allow this insufferable prince to get the last word in. 

First, Declan had stopped her when she had tried to run away. To be fair, she had no idea where she would have run off to, but at least it would have been better than being captured by a foreign prince like some trophy or spoil of war. Then, he had had the nerve to put manacles on her, as though she were a prisoner who had committed some crime! Why did a prince need to carry around handcuffs on his belt, anyways? It was preposterous. Now, she was uncomfortably trying to sleep with the weight of the iron and the press of the leather against her wrists.

For a girl who had spent most of her life growing accustomed to donning heavy layers of clothing to protect her skin, the sudden sensation of the cold metal was overwhelming. She tossed and turned all through the night, hating that Declan could probably hear the jangle of the cuffs. Combined with being saddlesore, it was a miserable slumber. What little sleep she did get was plagued by dreams of her fellow priestesses, the fear that they had felt when the pyre had come crashing down, and the thought of their deaths. Nadia had been afraid to look at the bodies littering the ground on their way out of the city, afraid that she might recognize their faces.

When the sun dawned bright and early next morning, she stifled a yawn, trying to bring one cuffed hand to her face out of instinct. Humiliatingly, she had to be fed because she was chained. She felt like a pet, or some other sort of animal. Nadia waited for Luke to saddle Coconut, since she could not do so with her hands cuffed behind her back.

Nolan and Declan exchanged a look followed by a furious conversation while the other two boys, Mark and Luke, packed up their bedrolls and tents.

"Why is the priestess in chains?" Nolan demanded. "I didn't know we were taking prisoners now, after you somehow accidentally destroyed a whole city. She is not exactly a prisoner of war, now is she?"

"She is a valuable asset--" Declan hissed back, keeping his hands in his pockets despite his obvious annoyance. Was it from dealing with his cousin or from having his decisions questioned?

"Would you listen to yourself?" Nolan said, throwing his hands in the air. The more emotional of the two, though definitely more compassionate. "She is a person. The Milonans are--were--people, not just toys you can play with because you want power."

Declan bared his teeth and she thought of a wounded animal she had once seen outside the temple. Its muzzle had pulled back in a snarl as she backed away from it with a scream. The same expression seemed to show on the prince's face now. Civility and barbarism mingled within his lean form. "Do you think I view Milonans and other foreigners as inhuman simply because they are foreign? You are mistaken. All people are not people to me, cousin, and that includes Astroians."

A shudder ran down her spine at the sound of that, and she had to fight the urge to curl in on herself, to shield her most vulnerable parts from damage. It would only make her look weak. Being thrown into this game of princes and power had not been her choice, but she would have to survive it.

"Well, then what magic has this 'asset' shown?" Nolan asked. "Exactly what signs, aside from those marks she left on your throat?"

Declan said something that was too low for her to comprehend before swinging onto his horse with ease that she hated and envied. "Do not question me again, cousin."

Nolan rode in front of her, making her awkwardly sit behind him on Coconut's saddle while he led his own horse to walk beside them. It was immensely difficult to balance on a horse when one had one's hands tied behind one's back and she had to lean on him uncomfortably. He smelled of horses and hay and leather, the hard muscle of his shoulders difficult to rest on. Nadia had grown up feeling at times like a prisoner in the temple. Now she realized what true freedom had been and she missed every last drop of it.