Read Online The Malmillard Codex by K.G. McAbee - Free Book Online Page B

I
would never have dealt with you as an equal. I know how…irritating
it can be, being treated above your station," she said, and her
words were thick with hidden meaning. She turned and wandered
towards the single window of their room, which looked over the
water of the harbor. Her back was stiff and unrepentant.
    Val followed as if drawn by some magic
force; he watched her as she peered through the slatted shutter. A
sea bird whistled outside, arguing with another over a piece of
rotten fish.
    Val felt very much like that piece of
fish.
    "But it's not," Val said at last. "You
don't."
    Madryn turned and looked into his
pain-filled eyes. Her own softened. "Not perhaps the clearest of
statements—Did you ever have training as an oracle, by any
chance?—but I think I can decipher your meaning. It's not
irritating? I don't speak as if I'm far above your station?"
    "No. Yes."
    Madryn reached out one long finger and
wrapped it around a lock of Val's hair. No longer shorn to the
skin, it was beginning to curl over his broad forehead in thick
auburn ringlets. He had contemplated cutting it, but remembered
that lords and gentlemen cultivated their hair as they did their
bodies.
    Madryn gave the lock a gentle tug. "You
remind me of someone, Val," she said as she twisted the hair over
her finger, staring at it instead of meeting his eyes. "More and
more each day…it's almost frightening how much. And you should have
realized by now that I do not share the common opinions of
my—class. So try to get over this feeling of inferiority, won't
you? Although, grant you, it's far more pleasing that Val's—the
first Val, you understand?"
    "Was he arrogant and high-born?" Val asked,
trying to control the shaking in his voice.
    "The most arrogant and the highest born,"
she agreed with another bitter laugh.
    Were those tears in her eyes?
    "There were times when I most willingly
could have slapped his arrogant, beautiful face. But of course, I
didn't dare."
    "Why?" Val smiled, not believing that there
was anything this woman would not dare.
    "Why? My dear Val, he'd have had me whipped
to within an inch of my life, of course."
    Her words were a blow to Val's belly that
knocked all the air out of him. His view of the world gave a
sudden, unexpected lurch.
    "Whipped you?" Even to his own ears, Val's
voice sounded strangled with disbelief.
    "Of course," Madryn replied, releasing the
lock of hair as if it had grown hot under her fingers. "It's what
one does to one's slaves, is it not? Remember, Val. Slavery is not
always something that is done to you. Some of us, poor fools that
we are, seize the collar with sick joy and tighten it about our
throats with our own hands."
    Before Val could think of a reply, Madryn
had turned and left the shabby room. She waited for him downstairs,
and without another word, they had gone out to seek his blade.
    And now she had left him alone again.
    ***
    The trip to Daemon's stable residence was
quickly accomplished. The huge horse was glad to see him, snuffling
and snorting as Val reached up to rub his arched neck. Val checked
to see that his water was fresh and his food plentiful before
leaving Daemon to the competent hands of the stable attendants.
    Now, the day stretched before him, empty
until sundown. Val cast a quick look at the brassy sky. At least
three more hours until his supper with Madryn. The town beckoned;
he had never been alone, unattended, without a guard or an owner,
in any town. He wandered away from the harbor, his sword slapping
companionably against his thigh. It was a most enjoyable feeling,
and did some small part in lessening the tight pain in his
chest.
    In the Street of the Courtesans, he garnered
a great deal of attention from the boys and girls offering their
bodies for rent. He eyed the merchandise spread out for display,
noting here a full bosom, there a lean flank, as he strolled down
the street, smiling at their calls. In his time as a gladiator, Val
had been used as breeding stock,