Bonds of Silver, Bonds of Gold 14: Warranty (Part 1)

Mister Valentin’s grip on my chains never faltered as he walked, pulling me hastily along. He strode down the stone corridors towards the kitchens, his ears flat against his head and his other paw gripping his spear, white-knuckled. Not once did he look back at me; he kept his muzzle rigidly forward, as if trying to pretend that the slave stumbling along behind him was someone else’s concern.

At first, I had been too stunned to struggle, to scared to run. It was the rattle of my chains, as the sergeant-at-arms reached for them, that had shaken me enough to try to bolt. I made a dash for the door, but Miss Datsia stood in the way, staring down her muzzle at me. She held her arms across her chest, bemusedly watching as I charged at her. She didn’t look angry, or even smug. Her ears stood erect above her and a faint smile sat on her muzzle, and as I stumbled backwards after barreling into her, she only chuckled. “I’ll leave you to clean this, then,” she said to the lynx before giving a salute, which my master’s betrayer returned before grabbing the lead to my collar.

A few of the kitchen help turned to watch as Mister Valentin dragged me past the fires, back to the slaves’ entrance, and then out into the mid-day sun. Between the rear of Deterikh Keep and the wall enclosing it, squash and late-planted peas grew in haphazard rows, along with patches of kale. A weatherbeaten wooden shed leaned against the stone wall, its door ajar to reveal a small cluster of tools. It reminded me, with a shock, of the garden Anya and Nadzia kept under the kitchen window, lovingly tended with Father’s tools and carefully weeded by paw, each week after services. Once, near the end of summer harvest, Justik and I dug up the gourds and took turns throwing them, to see who could reach the furthest or make the biggest mess. By the time we were done, most of their crop was ruined, and the pair were beside themselves with anger. Father, though, didn’t yell; he only sat us down, paced before us, and told us how disappointed he was. I could still hear his voice in his mind, thinking back to that moment. You think you’ve ruined a few crops, but what you’ve really destroyed is all your sisters’ hard work. Look outside, at the mess you’ve made, then look me in the eye and tell me it was worth it. Neither of us could meet his gaze, or each other’s.

A sudden tug on my leash jerked me in front of the lynx and back to the present. Mister Valentin followed up with a shove against the middle of my back, which sent me stumbling into the patch of vegetables. I dropped to all fours among the crops and pressed my paws into the ground. The soil was slightly damp, and it clung in small patches to the fur of my palms. Someone had spent time with this plot, watering the soil and plucking the weeds. I wanted to be afraid. I wanted to beg for my life. I lifted a small ball of dirt to my muzzle and took a deep breath, filling my nostrils with the heavy scent of earth.

“Listen, Ta—Stannis,” Deterikh’s sergeant-at-arms called out from behind me; his tone was completely at odds with his acts, hesitant, uncertain. “I… I’m sorry, for all of what happened to you. You didn’t deserve it.”

I lowered my paws and let the clumps of dirt fall from the stumps of my fingers. A few stubborn grains hung in the fur. “No, I didn’t, sir.” I agreed quietly, not turning around. “It doesn’t matter, though. I’m just a slave.”

“Oh, Koshki,” Mister Valentin swore. “You aren’t just…. that is, you are, but….” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his muzzle. “Listen, Taneh, it’s… complicated. There’s a lot more going on than—”

“Sir,” I interrupted, not lifting my head, “do you remember when I said, not too long ago, that if you were going to pretend I was your equal that you should just do it?” I paused for a moment, but the lynx said nothing. “I know that you didn’t trust my… trust Mister Erik with the throne. I know that he trusted you with his life, and that he wanted you to have me if anything happened to him.”

The sergeant-at-arms returned the smile, but then groaned and put one paw over his eyes, the other’s grip on his spear tightening. “Listen, I just need you to understand that I… I tried to find some other way. That I wish I could have done something to stop it.”

I blinked. “Sir, why are you justifying yourself to me? I’m a slave. The one who bought me first said that I could be killed and that nobody would….” I paused, watching the way the lynx’s ears flattened and his shoulders slumped when I said that. “And that nobody would care. Compared with that, the last half-year has been a dream,” I finished.

The lynx looked even more discomfited. “Yeah, about that. Listen, T… Stannis, I… I’m sorry. I don’t want to do this. You know that, don’t you?”

I shrugged. “Then don’t do it, sir.”

Mister Valentin laughed darkly. “Oh, comets. If only it were that easy.”

I smiled. “It is that easy, sir. I’m a slave; I follow orders because I have no choice. You’re not a slave.”

“That’s not true,” the lynx countered. “You chose to become a slave.”

I nodded. “Yes, and I choose not to run because I made the choice to be what I am, which includes not having the freedom to make other choices. Choices you can make.”

Mister Valentin sighed, his shoulders sagging. “I chose to help Datsia get rid of Erik. You’re the only one left who knows, and she doesn’t trust you not to tell. Given that, my options are to risk letting everything I’ve done collapse in my wake, or….” He fidgeted with his spear in both paws.

I ignored the weapon and focused on the lynx’s muzzle. “Why did you help Miss Datsia?”

That made the lynx chuckle. “You saw Erik’s temper. You heard his aunt. He’d give in and give in and then snap suddenly and we’d end up in a—” He stopped himself suddenly.

I smiled a bit wider. “In a war.”

“Yeah,” Mister Valentin agreed. “Listen, I think I can talk Datsia down from this, once she’s not in the moment.”

I nodded. “Of course. I’m sure the Regent will give up this chance to retake the holdings she thinks her brother gave away too cheaply, given how she’s handled everything else to this point.”

The lynx was silent for several moments more. “I definitely liked you more when you were just a distraction.”

At that, I chuckled softly. “So did I, sir.”

Mister Valentin hung his head. “Listen, I think you’re right. I thought getting Erik off the throne was the right thing to do, but it’s put somebody even worse in his place. What can I do, though? This is the path I’ve already chosen. Can’t you understand that?” He practically snarled the last at me.

I nodded, once. My heart pounded in my chest and my muzzle was sticky and dry, but my mind was painfully clear. Was it worth it?. “I do understand, sir, which is why you should hurry up and dispose of me, before Miss Datsia starts to doubt your loyalty.”

The lynx visibly tensed, shrinking in on himself. “Yes,” he said quietly. “Yes, I should.” He was silent for several moments, then advanced slowly and raised his arms. I tensed and closed my eyes, trying keep my heart calm. I knew this could happen. I knew it probably would. My master’s eyes came back to me, his relaxed and open smile as he stood on the roof overlooking Baris. Seeing his muzzle in my mind, an almost liquid warmth suffused me, spreading up from between my thighs and through my entire body. Yes, yes it was.

The tip of Mister Valentin’s spear whistled as it dropped, and then I heard a wet crunch that shook a cry out of me, but several seconds passed before I realized there was no pain. I opened my eyes and looked down, but my chest was whole and intact. Beside me, one of the squash sat in pieces, smashed by the force of the lynx’s impact. I blinked, then lifted my head, but then suddenly his paws were at the back of my head, his muzzle pressed hotly to mine. His fingers encircled the bases of my ears, and then suddenly bright flares of pain erupted from them as his claws sunk into the tender skin. He forced his tongue into my muzzle, then sucked mine back into his and bit it fiercely, making me gasp against his lips.

As the lynx forced me backwards against the ground, he took one of his paws from my ear and fumbled at his waist, then started to roughly shove his pants and breeches down to free his sheath. As soon as they were at his knees, he shoved me down, then loomed over me and began squirming between my legs, forcing them apart. It felt awkward and wrong and embarrassing, the way the emptiness between my legs throbbed as he ground himself against my nethers. My cheeks burned, but it was nothing compared to the fire rising from within.

Mister Valentin wasn’t gentle. As soon as he was close to positioned, he rose onto his knees and rammed himself forward, hilting himself inside of me in a single thrust. I screamed as his cock slammed into the back of my sex, dropping back to a whimper as he withdrew. Reflexively, I wrapped my arms around him despite myself, then tensed as he drove himself back into me. He snarled as he took me, his claws sunk into my sides, ruining open Master Iladin’s efforts in one and gouging the other. The lynx hissed, then sunk his teeth into my shoulder, sending a wave of hot agony to match the fire that rose from my sex as he claimed me.

I hurt and my cheeks burned, but my body responded despite itself, hips rising to meet the lynx’s with every thrust. The pleasure began to swell deep within me, flashes that ran from the base of my tail up my spine. Each time Mister Valentin took me, a guttural hiss escaped his throat and his jaws clenched down on my shoulder, and I pressed myself more tightly to him. Soon he was gasping, grunting against me as he took me, and I cried out each time he buried himself into my sex. The shocks came faster and faster, and then suddenly stars swarmed behind my eyes and my whole body clenched. The lynx answered with a yowl and a sharp snap of his hips, sinking himself within me, followed by a few short twitches and a fresh flow of heat deep within.

For several seconds, he simply held himself within me, muzzle pressed to my shoulder. He gingerly withdrew his teeth from my skin, then tenderly licked the bite, making me whimper. The lynx slowly pulled himself away, then rose to his hinds. “How do you feel, Stannis?”

The sound of my old name, my birth name, made me grimace. I hurt, both inside and out. My heart sat heavy in my chest, the sense of having cheated death only just sinking in. The bases of my ears burned, as did my shoulder and sides. I felt blood seeping into my fur at points, along with other fluids. I looked down at myself, then back up to the sergeant-at-arms. “Used, master.”

Mister Valentin smiled faintly at that, his ears flat against his head once more. “That’s about as disposed of as I can make you, pet.” He reached down and took one of my paws in his, then pulled me to my hinds. “If we’re lucky, we have an hour before Datsia sends someone around the taverns to find out what I did with your body. I intend to be long gone by then.”