Steel and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy by LaJonn O. Klein

queen-mother is there, I shall find her.”
                  “Koa?”
                  Koa turned to her, and nodded as Lia reached out to take his nearest arm.  “Aye, lass….  Lady!  If your mother is hidden somewhere around the palace, I shall find her.”  He looked up, and eyed the sun yet hours from setting.  “When night falls, I shall go alone,” he told Jengus.  “Best have the ransom messages ready by then.  I shall deliver them while I search.”
                  “Commander,” Eric frowned at the mercenary.
                  “Trust me, my lord-king.  When Koa travels alone, he is faster than lightning.  And unable to be stopped.”
                  “Then I shall prepare the missives at once.  I’ve most of the demands written out already.  They but need proving, and seals.”
                  Then he eyed Miranda.  “Why, however, is the princess already collared,” he asked.  “I can see masking them as you did, but….?”
                  “She was more than a bit of a handful, and her mischief ended up landing her in a slave’s collar ere she would settle down,” Jengus told him.  “I put her in Koa’s keeping simply because he was the only one the witless woman seemed to truly fear enough to heed.”
                  “Well, then, by their own vile Accords, the little wench is well and truly collared, isn’t she,” Eric smirked uncaringly at the young girl.  “I assume the others were more….cooperative.”
                  “The queen ever seems the height of wit and decorum,” Jengus smiled at his recent lover.  “And while the princes are spirited, they kept quiet after they learned how far defiance would take them,” he said pointedly as he eyed the three shackled princes standing before the king in simple garments, hobbles, and little else. 
                  Eric nodded.  “Well, you’ve obviously the skill for handling troublesome guests.  I bid you keep them until we hear back from the Galdynians,” he said, and headed for his horse to lead them to his nearby camp in the heart of the pass. 
                  He took Lia with him, and while she hesitated, Koa nodded, and only then did she let him lift her into Eric’s arms so he could carry her with him after he mounted.
                  “Are you untouched, Lia,” Eric asked on the short ride to the camp where he was supporting legions sent out to harangue the border communities.
                  “Nay, I am not,” she admitted baldly, though she flamed doing so.
                  “They used….?”
                  “I was raped by the slaver that stole me.  He….favored very young lasses.  None ever touched me since,” she told him.  “They….disdained my blood.”
                  “Not even your champion,” he asked quietly.
                  “Sir Koa has been the most gallant of all gentleman since the moment I met him,” she smiled, the smile transforming her drawn features until she resembled his other sister whose beauty had been compared to goddesses by some at the time.  “He has cared for me, kept me safe, and even avenged me when a Galdynian noble tried to have me beaten to death.”
                  “And what did he do to him,” he asked her quietly.
                  “He cut off his hand for striking me, and cut out his tongue for ordering me whipped.”
                  He gasped.  “He had you whipped!”
                  “There was a healer of some power that came with him.  She spared me even a scar, my lord.  I was fortunate.  And, as I said, Sir Koa well avenged me,” she smiled.
                  “You care for him?”
                  “I owe him much, aye, but….I do care for him, too.  Aye.  He,