When I opened my eyes I found myself lying in the bed in the guestroom. Dani and Lia were sleeping besides me. I felt better compared to all the pain that I had experienced before blacking out. I reckoned I had been carried all the way to the chieftain’s home from the forest.

The spell Mintuk had used on me had felt like it was going to kill me with the pain. Thankfully, like all spells the particular spell had lasted only a certain duration of time before wearing off.

I ran my fingers through Dani and Lia’s hair. Lia opened her eyes a chink.

“You are awake,” she said with a small smile. “Are you feeling better now? Is the pain gone?”

“Yes,” I replied, caressing her cheek. “Thanks for all that you and Dani are doing for me.”

“Nah,” Lia replied drowsily, “we’ll do anything to bring back Rozy.”

Lia kissed me on the neck and then fell sleep again on my chest.

I looked at my two wives. Both of them were girls from the civilised realms. None of them had ever been to a forest before coming on the quest to rescue Dani. But they had readily accompanied me despite everything. I felt like a lucky man that I should be wed to such women.

Lia was a princess of another kingdom of the civilised realm and my marriage to her had been more or less to foster more peace between our two kingdoms. Dani on the other hand was the daughter of a wealthy trader and architect. I had married her on the suggestion of my father. My father had gone to her house once and had been very impressed by her and had made up his mind to make her a daughter-in-law.

Initially, I had had taken some time to get on well with the either of them. But the marriages, even though arranged ones, had proved to be very successful and were still proving to be successful. My marriages with both of them had comprised of many rituals which had involved me proving to them that I was worthy of them and them proving to me that they were worthy of me.

Rozy was my only wife with whom I had fallen in love before marrying her. There had been no strict rituals in our marriage either through which I had demonstrated my worthiness to her and she to me. Thinking about the situation that I was in, I reckoned fate itself has given me this ritual of sorts through which I must prove that I was worthy of her by rescuing her from the sorcerer.

Suddenly a noise at the doorway of the room alerted me and I looked up. It was Slia.

She was looking at me and my wives sleeping together in the same bed. Her eyes met with mine and I didn’t know for how long we stared at each other.

“Slia!” someone called her from another part of the house.

“Coming,” Slia said with a blush as she realised that we had been staring at each other. She made a somewhat pointless and awkward movement with her hand in her shyness and then she went away.

I kept staring at the doorway, thinking of her. I shook my head. I was getting drawn to Slia. I looked at my wives under my arms and shook my head again. I would have to keep my distance from Slia. Doing otherwise would be very selfish of me.

***

The sorcerer Mintuk was angry.

Usually he maintained a rather frightening kind of calm, but today he was openly angry. Today’s council was turning out a fright fest of sorts and the Wahaki elders sitting on the daises were very much uncomfortable and seemed like they would rather not be sitting there. The Wahaki men, women and children were seeing a new side of the sorcerer and their stunned silence was proof of how scared they were. Up till now, the Wahaki respected the sorcerer, but today they feared him.

And the one Wahaki most bitten by fear was Ramda. He wished if only he had not come to the council was chained to the pillars. Her head was drooping and her arms that were chained to the pillars were in considerable strain as they were completely supporting her entire weight. Rozy had been subjected to a painful spell by the sorcerer multiple times and eventually she had lost consciousness.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I am telling you,” the sorcerer said for the hundredth time that day, “there are men and women amongst you who are supporting the lover of this bitch.” The sorcerer pointed at Rozy while saying this. “Do you all not remember the agreement that we made with each other, eh?” the sorcerer asked the people, coming very close to the common folk and looking at their faces. Nobody dared to look up at him. “As per the agreement we were supposed to completely trust each other! The only reason I came to the Wahaki and did not go to some weak tribe from the plains was because I had heard how the Wahaki were single minded. Every single Wahaki was more or less the same. They had similar dreams and goals! They were united unlike nobody! And yet… and yet it is clear to me that one or more of you are helping the lover of this bitch in secrecy. Otherwise I deem it impossible for the lover to come to this place in my presence using magic! What more I have been unable to detect his presence in the rest of the civilised realms despite all the Sense Screens that I have spread about the forests. He is clearly hiding from me somehow. And guess what? The only place in the barbaric realm where I have not kept the Sense Screens is the Wahaki mountain. Why? Because I respect the Wahaki! I respect your privacy. It’s your mountain after all. But now, I must put my Sense Screens in this mountain too. I have been disappointed with the Wahaki. There is every possibility that the lover of this bitch is in this very mountain hidden safely inside the home of a traitor Wahaki!”

“Wh… what if some other tribes of the barbaric realm is helping the lover, lord?” one of the Wahaki elders asked the sorcerer. The sorcerer turned on his heels and went towards the elder. Even from the distance Ramada could clearly see how much the elder was shivering. Ramada was sure that the elder was regretting having spoke. The sorcerer bent, such that his face was at level with the elder who was sitting.

“You see,” the sorcerer said to the fear stricken elder, “it is very unlikely that a person from one of the other tribes could have told the lover of the bitch that the bitch is in the fort! While I understand that the lover could come to the barbaric realm searching for his wife, it is very unlikely that he could have known that she was in the Wahaki mountain… unless a Wahaki had told him that she was here… because besides me only the Wahaki know that she is here!”

“But the bitch is a Wahaki, lord,” the frail man standing right in front of Ramda spoke, so that Ramda’s heart skipped a beat. The sorcerer looked sharply in the direction of the frail man, and Ramda could very well feel the gaze of the sorcerer touch him as well. The sorcerer left the elder and came towards the common folk.

“What did you say?” the sorcerer asked the frail man.

“That the bitch is… was a Wahaki,” the frail man replied and he was shuddering so violently that his teeth were audibly clattering. Ramda couldn’t help but think the frail man to be an idiot. If the frail man had been so scared then why had he opened his mouth in the first place? But what truly scared Ramda was that this particular line of conversation could end up making the sorcerer suspicious of Ramda. None of the Wahaki had till now told the sorcerer that Rozy had once belonged to the tribe, as after she had fled from the Wahaki mountain the Wahaki had completely disowned her. Ramda had been able to return to the Wahaki mountain with the excuse that he had never gone with Rozy and instead had come down from the Wahaki mountain to hunt, but had met a giant monster that had chased him in a direction away from the mountain which was why he had taken so long to return. Ramda had never been sure if the other Wahaki had accepted this lie to be a truth, but they had accepted him back into the tribe anyway.

“She was?” the sorcerer asked the frail man. He glanced towards the unconscious Rozy and pursed his lips. “I have always wondered that there were traces of tattoos on the bitch’s body that were rather similar to the traditional tattoos of the Wahaki. But I somehow failed to make the connection.” And then the sorcerer let out an amused laugh, that he ended suddenly, which only served to thicken the air of tension.

“I do not understand how a Wahaki girl ended up as the queen of a king of the civilised realm!” the sorcerer said.

“Was a Wahaki girl,” the woman standing right next to me corrected, “she no longer is.”

Heck, she was one of the girls who had been good friends with Rozy up till the time she had fled from the hill.

“Amusing,” the sorcerer said, staring hard at the woman, “you all seem very keen to make it clear that the bitch was and not is a Wahaki. I assume she did something which earned her the hatred of the Wahaki?”

“She fled from the Wahaki mountain,” the woman said, keeping her head respectfully bowed. “That is considered a sin in Wahaki traditions.”

The sorcerer scratched his chin.

“Amusing,” he said, “very amusing! All the same I am quite guaranteed that there are more people amongst you, standing right in front of me who are not Wahaki in their hearts as they do not want the good of the tribe and hence are helping the lover of the bitch. I do not know who you are, but I know you are here. And I promise you that I will find you out and that day… you will suffer with the bitch!”

And saying so, the sorcerer wheeled around, pointed his hand at Rozy who was chained to the pillars and shot his curse. The very next moment Rozy jerked to consciousness, even as the muscles of her body visibly convulsed with extreme pain. Only soft moans issued from her lips. Her throat had long lost the ability to cry out.

***