The Pirate and the Amber Cat 1
Chapter 1
A young woman’s morning starts as any other at her wealthy fiancé's vast estate, until a dark threat roars in, armed with vengeance.
The Ulliran afternoon sun was warm on the courtyard's mosaic floor, bleaching the already dulled tiles to lighter hues of green, blue, and orange. Willow trees fringing the gardens bowed in the soft breeze, bringing the scent of lilacs to servants beneath the arched pavilion. The laughter of women drifted across the open expanse of yard to the moat.
The sound did not quite reach the man carefully observing the movements of one young woman in the pavilion.
Suili lounged on the estate's patio, watching the sun glint off the largest alabaster pool's aquamarine waters. The young Hemtitti native maid Venia braided the family's stone of carnelian into Suili's long auburn hair, a practice that made Suili frown.
Not all her grimace was for her hairstyle. Some Suili reserved for her secretly indifferent view of her impending marriage to the Ulliran-Mezparian continent's most prosperous heir, Juriz Shaenen. The passing of her seventeenth birthday was the last step in completion of her long engagement to him. She was oblivious to the eyes that followed from a distance as she moved away from an older maid's reprimand of the Hemtitti girl.
"Leda," she called to the long-time servant, "leave Venia be. Take your old tongue into the house." She watched the discontented servant mutter as she took her leave.
Suili strolled through the fragrant garden, burying the carnelian weighted braids in her hair. Her Uncle Methden's vast estate was secure with the moat completely circling the grand house and grounds. Her betrothal to Methden's nephew Juriz had made her accept as home the beautiful fortress-like palace.
In some ways her fiancé's country of Ullira was easy in which to live. She loved its lush meadows and emerald forests, but not the thundering rainstorm that left a new, wet world in its wade. Her homeland of Luxil was mostly desert and she had never seen rain until the voyage to Methden's house.
The sun showed copper off her hair as she removed her slippers and sat beside the small pool of exotic gold and purple fish. From afar she heard the growl of thunder, but the afternoon sky held no clouds. Sometimes storms swept in quickly from the sea half a day's ride west. Those were the worst storms.
The thunder grew louder, and as Suili felt it rumble in the ground, voices within the house rose to shouts. She glanced at Venia standing at the patio, frowning as the servant girl called to her frantically in her native language.
Suili stood.
Venia's eyes were wide and she was babbling something Suili could not understand. The servant girl ran out of sight around the corner of the house.
Cries and screams from deep within the house prompted Suili to move. It was not the threat of rain she had heard, but the echo of horse hooves.
At the end of the garden a horse and rider appeared and the man spotted her immediately. With a whimper Suili darted across the garden into the maze of hedges.
The man kicked the horse into motion behind her.
Invasion? she thought. Who? How could it be?
She delved into the high, sculpted bushes hastily, expertly, hearing the thick footfalls of the horse in pursuit. For several long moments she lost the man in the hedges. She turned a corner and crouched in an alcove of greenery, stifling cries of her own as garbled screams of agony and begging for mercy reached her ears from the house.
She slowly sunk back into the hedge, her breath stuck in her throat as she watched the man on the horse round the corner, searching the maze for her. With only a turn of his head she would be found. She pushed her back against the tight hedges, barbs biting into her flesh, until her hand felt empty space beyond the outside bush wall. Just as she broke through it she saw the man halt the horse and turn.
Suili was fleeing across the sloping lawn when she heard a crashing in the hedge and the horse grunt from behind her, but she did not look back. The trample of hooves grew louder, quicker. Her bare feet raced toward the deep moat. Suddenly the hot breath of the horse passed over her neck and an arm swept her from the ground.
For a terrible moment she thought she would slip under the horse's pounding hooves as the man turned the animal abruptly. He lifted her higher, his arm tight around her still as she struggled against him, as his other hand pulled her knee over the horse's back. Despite her elbowing and squirming she found herself sitting in front of him. She twisted futilely again until she saw the moat looming immediately before them. She forgot to fight as thoughts of colliding with the opposite stony bank entered her mind. The horse wouldn't make it, even with only one rider. The animal was spurred faster.
The horse gathered for the mighty leap and they landed solidly on the other grassy side. Instead of turning in the direction of the trade road the man behind her headed the horse west to the hills.
The horse's pace had not slackened, but the man relaxed his hold on her. Suili sensed this and threw her leg over the horse's neck. She swung down, but not off, and failed to dislodge the man as she'd hoped. She hung there, suspended and flailing, as he reined in the horse. She was hoisted back onto the horse, which danced and snorted at the movement.
"You left none?" the man behind her said, but he was not speaking to her.
Suili sat still as more horsemen surrounded them. Their clothes were bloodstained, armaments hanging at belts and baldrics. Unconsciously she cringed from their leers, her back pressing against her captor.
"None alive." It came from a wiry, stringy-haired man to her left. She returned a frown to his look of amusement.
"Good," the man behind her said.
They moved off again at a canter, a mild gait compared to the previous mad gallop. Suili made no further attempts to leave the horse, knowing she would be trampled in the crowd before even regaining her feet.
She decided the men were not soldiers, but they moved with a certain unity, as if taking silent commands from the man behind her. It took an hour to leave the Paraimo Valley and another to clear through the forest of cora trees. The little used road they came upon was disappointingly void of traffic. Her hopes of drawing attention to her situation vanished.
She heard many slants of the Ulliran dialect from the men in those hours, but no one spoke of who they were or where they were going. She didn't attempt to speak to her captor, half sick at the attack and her immediate future. Her fingers were laced in the horse's mane and she now unclenched them, leaving purple nail marks in her palms.
The man noticed this movement. He took her hand in his own, his thumb turning the carnelian and onyx signet ring she wore.
She snatched her hand from him.
"You'd best cooperate," he told her, but showed no further interest in the ring.
Her hold on the horse tightened again as they moved on.
PG13. #romance #cleanromance #teenromance #YA #fantasy #pirateromance #pirates #ambercat
 | A guest post by
|