Serpent's Claim (Serpent's Touch 2)

AMIRA

Ufaris, the palace of the King of Lorsan, wasn’t housed in a single tree or even in a group of trees. It took up an entire forest.

The giant royal trees grew in the placid waters of Ufaris Lake that sprawled as far as the eye could see. Golden lights illuminated the branches, competing with the silver moonlight flooding the night.

Wisps of fog rose in the air from the surface when one of the guards yanked me up to my feet.

I didn’t know exactly how long it’d taken us to get here. I’d spent nearly the entire journey curled up on the bottom of the boat, unmoving. Daylight had warmed me, nights had chilled my skin through the bedsheet I had wrapped around my body. Someone must’ve fed me and given me water because I was still alive. But I had no recollection of eating or drinking.

The boat lurched side to side with the guards’ movements. I struggled to stay upright. Someone stepped on the sheet wrapped around me. It slipped from me, pooling at my feet. I remained covered only by my veil down to my knees, but I had nothing left in me to care or even feel ashamed.

“Well.” A guard smirked, giving me a leering once-over. “She’s pretty, but nothing special. I don’t get the nobles. What do they see in her?”

“Humans are rare,” the other one explained. “She’s exotic. Which is enough to get the lords’ cocks up and wagging.” He snickered. “What do we care, as long as they pay?”

The other one chimed in, “Is she supposed to get the king’s shriveling cock up? He’s dying, I’ve heard.”

“Why would the king even buy her?” someone else asked from the back of the boat. “The Great Serpent is about to take him. The king doesn’t need her or anyone else, anymore.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. I already secured a buyer, and he’s ready to pay a fortune for her. This little human is literally worth her weight in gold. Aren’t you, precious?” Grabbing my chin, he lifted my face to his. “That fucking bruise is still visible, asshole!” He kicked the guard sitting in the boat at our feet. “If it ends up costing me money, I’ll rip your senties out and boil them in a fucking soup.”

I listened to their conversation with an odd detachment. My body was there, but my soul had been suspended in another place ever since my last glance at Kyllen on his knees. I didn’t care what they did to me now. The worst had already happened.

The boat smoothly glided through the fog. We were surrounded by at least a dozen more guards on paddle boards. It was quite an entourage to deliver “the gift” to the king.

As we got closer, the lights of a giant royal tree shone brighter through the tendrils of fog. Its trunk was lifted slightly over the water, supported by the thick, gnarly roots, each the size of a thick tree itself. A maze of interconnected docks and pathways spread from them in every direction.

A dark figure stood at the end of a dock section that was shaded by underbrush and hidden from the water traffic that was busy despite the late hour.

“Cover her up,” the guard who seemed to be in charge ordered the other two in the boat with us. “No one is gawking at her without paying first.”

The two picked up the sheet from the bottom of the boat. The fabric that used to be the color of pale lavender was now dusty and muddy after the days of traveling. They attempted to wrap it around me.

On the dock, the tall figure, shrouded in a dark cloak and moonlight, lifted a hand.

“Leave it,” a male voice commanded. “I want to see what I’m buying.”

“Listen to the man,” the leader of the guards told them hurriedly. “You see that bag at his feet? I bet it’s filled with gold and jewels. I told you she’s precious.”

The guards removed the sheet again. The leader grabbed on to one of the dock’s support pillars, bringing the boat to a stop.

“Is she really a human?” the man on the dock enquired.

“She sure is.”

“Where did you get her?”

The guard shifted from foot to foot, looking uncomfortable. “As I said through the man I sent to the palace yesterday, the young lord returned to Ellohi from the human realm last week. He brought her with him.”

“Why?”

The guard shrugged. “For his pleasure.”

“Why is he selling her, then?”

“He’s dead. His nephew is the one selling her. Lord Bherlon knows a rare thing like her should belong to the king, no one else.”

The cloaked man shoved his hood back. The moonlight hit his pale face and dark senties. It bounced off with a silver-blue shimmer, making him look like an ethereal being.

“Lift her veil,” he ordered.

“If I do, she’ll die,” the guard replied.

The man jerked his head in a gesture of frustration. “I didn’t tell you to kill her. Lift it up to her neck only. The veil casts a glow on her skin in the moonlight. I wish to see her body without it, to make sure she’s human as you claim she is.”

Following his orders, the guards hiked up my veil. Now, there was absolutely nothing between the stranger’s scrutinizing stare and my body. I didn’t bother to try covering myself with my hands, letting him stare instead. My soul was dead, and shame had died with it.

“She’s rather quiet,” the stranger observed, curling his lips in misgiving. “Listless.”

“Obedient, my lord,” the leader of the guards rushed to reassure him. “She knows her place. As she should.”

The stranger gestured at the dingy sheet in the guards’ hands. “Is that all she has for clothes?”

“Well,” one of them started to explain. “We were in a haste—”

The leader shoved an elbow into the speaker’s ribs, cutting him off.

“Yes. That’s all she has,” he replied instead.

The man in the cloak watched me in silence for another moment.

“Let her cover up, then. I’m taking her,” he said. “This is yours, as agreed.” He kicked the large bag at his feet. It made a clinking sound. He then stretched his hand my way. “You’re coming with me, human.”

Throwing the sheet over my shoulders, the guards shoved me toward the dock. The boat swayed. I grabbed on to the stranger’s hand for support. He yanked me in his direction, and I stepped up on the dock, climbing out of the boat.

I didn’t look back at the people who’d just sold me. After days of traveling in their company, I didn’t know their names and would not remember their faces. They didn’t matter.

Nothing did.

The man with the dark cloak and the face that glowed like moonlight brought me up a set of carved stairs to one of the lowest branches of the castle. He opened a small door and shoved me through it.

“Tonight, you rest,” he said. “Tomorrow night, you’ll be presented to the king.” He shut the door.

I was left standing in the middle of a small, round room with smooth carved walls and a grate high under the ceiling. A pile of blankets made a small, messy nest. A metal chamber pot stood nearby.

With a clunk, the door locked behind me.

I was not a guest in Ufaris. I was a prisoner.