The Priestess and the Thief Kindred Tales 30 - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,88

the ground with his long foreclaws, he roared his displeasure at seeing Elli in danger.

“Demon!” Elli gasped. “Demon, help me!”

“What? What’s all this then?” The Crown Prince looked up.

He had been so busy trying to push Elli’s voluminous skirts up and get his own stubby member out of his golden breeches that he’d barely noticed anything until Demon roared. Now he looked up at the immense zorel, his bulging eyes going wide with alarm.

“Steady now, boy,” he said, holding up a hand to fend off Demon, who was glaring down at him with red eyes. “Just go back in your stall now, there’s a good fellow.”

“I think you’d better get off me now,” Elli told him, her voice shaking with emotion. “Demon isn’t one of your servants you can order around. He won’t like it if he thinks you’re hurting me.”

At her words, the huge zorel snorted menacingly and took a step forward, pawing the ground again.

“How dare you!” The Crown Prince looked both frightened and angry as he glared from Demon to Elli and back again. “How dare you threaten me with my own beast?”

“Demon isn’t yours,” Elli said clearly, glaring back at him. “And neither am I. Now get off me before I tell him to flame you, Your Majesty.”

“You little bitch!” His fury overcoming his fear, the Crown Prince struck her, hard across the face. “How dare you deny me!” he shouted in Elli’s face as she gasped and clutched at her hurt cheek. “How dare you—”

And that was when Demon roared with fury and a stream of flame hit the Tenebrian monarch squarely in the chest.

Forty-Six

“Warrior, the one I sent you to protect is in danger! Go to her now!”

The urgent words caught Roke by surprise. For the past half hour he’d been having a nagging, worried feeling about Ellilah but he had pushed it away and kept packing. He was sure it was just his own conscience telling him that he had treated her wrong and he told himself she didn’t want to see him any more than necessary. So he had ignored the feeling, though it continued to grow until at last the Goddess—for it must be her—actually shouted at him.

“Goddess!” he gasped, looking around for the deity’s unseen presence. “What…where…?”

“Go to her!” the Goddess repeated, and then she was gone.

Galvanized into action at last, Roke rushed from the room and ran through the palace as fast as he could. He knew without asking where his little priestess was—she would be down at the stables, saying her last goodbyes to Demon.

Has he attacked her? Roke thought, his heart in his mouth. He had always felt uneasy about Ellilah getting so close to the monstrous, vicious beast. Had he turned on her and flamed her as he had his favorite groom the first time they saw him? Would Roke see her shrieking and wreathed in flames when he finally got to the stables?

Fear spurred him on as he rushed through the courtyards, heading for the stables. Would he get there in time? He knew now that the uneasy feeling he’d had must have been sent by the Goddess. And yet, like a fool, he had ignored it. Would he be too late to save Ellilah?

As he burst out into the open space before the stables, his heart leapt into his throat. There was, indeed, a figure screaming and burning right out in front of the stables. Like a human torch it shrieked and writhed as it staggered to and fro, drunk on pain and fear.

“Ellilah! No!” Roke roared.

Putting on another burst of speed, he reached the flaming figure and grabbed it around the middle. Heedless of the flames licking at his own arms, he heaved it into the water trough, extinguishing the fire with a great hiss of steam and smoke.

“Roke! Roke, in here!” a voice called from behind him.

Spinning around, Roke squinted to see who was shouting from the dimness of the stables.

“Roke, it’s me—I’m here.” Ellilah came out from behind the pawing, snorting Demon, who was guarding her protectively. “It’s all right, Demon,” she told him, stroking his neck. “It’s just Roke—you know him, right? He won’t hurt me.”

Her words felt like a knife in Roke’s heart, but he tried not to show it.

“If you’re safe in here then who did I just throw in the water trough?” he demanded roughly. “And who hit you?” he asked, seeing the red mark forming on her swelling cheek.

“You ungrateful foreign bastards! You’ll pay for this!