Dino Riders, page 8
“You still alive down there?” the younger guard asked. “Or did the witch put a hex on you?”
“I’m still alive,” I huffed and climbed up to the surface. “But she’s a lot harder to deal with than I thought she’d be. I need you to bring me something to eat. Something hot like a stew that’ll drive her mad with hunger.”
“We haven’t tried that yet,” the pimpled guard snorted and hit his comrade. “Go see what they have at the tavern.”
The younger man took off like a bat out of Hell, and I turned all my attention to the smelly man in front of me. It took all of my self-control not to gag as the pimpled guard laughed and slapped me on the back, especially when his rancid breath hit me. I just needed to make the guy trust me for a little longer.
“How does she taste?” the lecherous man waggled his eyebrows at me. “Or have you not gotten that far yet? I’d expected to hear some screams. Though that stubborn woman hasn’t let out a cry yet, and I’ve done my best to get her to scream for me. It’s always so sweet when they do. Like honey. ‘Course, I haven’t really been able to get into her yet. But I’m looking forward to when you’re done with her so I can finally get a real piece.”
“Naturally,” I said in a dry tone. “She hasn’t given anything up yet, but if the hot meal doesn’t loosen those lips, then I have another idea that just might.”
“Just make sure not to use her up before I get some.” He patted me on the back again, and it made my skin crawl.
“Did you manage to get all the supplies that I need?” I asked. “I want to leave by sundown.”
The guard nodded and strolled over to the little shack to lift up a leather satchel. It looked stuffed to the drawstring, and it was heavy when the pimpled man handed it over, but at least everything was inside. Everything except for the hunting knife that the creep handed me with a wicked grin.
“I kept this out for you,” he said. “Just in case you wanted to play. Those high-bloods always have such pretty skin. It would be a shame if something marred it.”
“It would,” I said and took the sheath, knife, and the belt that came with the hunting blade. “I appreciate all of this. Why don’t you two have a nice long dinner?”
“Want to be alone with her?” the guard snorted and then turned as his friend came back. “Can’t say that I blame you. I’ll be sending this one off once it’s my turn. I don’t want anyone to interrupt my fun.”
“Naturally,” I said.
“Here’s some stew,” the younger guard said and skidded to a halt right in front of me.
It was a minor miracle that anything was left in the clay bowl with how much the guard had sloshed over his hands, but there was enough for Sara to have a hot meal, and it was better not to eat too much after being starved. There was no doubt in my mind that the two men in front of me hadn’t given the curvy woman a proper meal since she’d arrived, especially with how loosely her torn dress had fit. No. It was better to let the brunette eat a small dinner, and then we could eat properly once we’d found somewhere to hide in the forest.
“This is perfect,” I grinned and slid the backpack over one shoulder, took the bowl, and then looked at the two guards expectantly. “I’ll be needing you to go now. It’s best that I’m alone for what happens next.”
“You just remember what I said,” the pimpled man said and wagged a finger at me. “I’ll want enough to devour once you’re done. And make sure that she’ll still be able to scream.”
“We’re leaving him?” the younger guard asked as his friend started toward the tavern. “B-but I thought that we were going to get to play with her, too.”
“Oh, we will,” the first guard laughed. “We will.”
I watched them walk toward the tavern and fought the urge to stab them with the hunting knife right then and there. I’d never actually been responsible for anyone dying before, but there was a first time for everything, and the two guards definitely deserved it. Still, that would ruin my plan, because someone was bound to see, and then the rest of the colony would come to throw me into a cell right next to Sara.
“They’ll get theirs eventually, K.O.,” I said. “Keep your eyes on the prize.”
The stew smelled delicious as I trotted down the stairs, but my stomach was still full from the lunch that the Governor General had laid out. It may have been hard to eat with the stench of burning flesh in the air, but that meal would last me well into the next morning. Besides, the guards had packed a few loaves of bread in the bag that they’d given me, so I didn’t need to worry about food just yet. I just needed to make sure that my new companion had enough strength that we could get into the forest before anyone realized we were gone.
“Your dinner,” I said as Sara peeled away from the wall right next to the bottom of the stairs.
“It smells divine,” the brunette said and quickly tucked into the meager meal. “You didn’t tell me the rest of your plan.”
There was still distrust in the tough woman’s teal eyes like she wasn’t entirely sure whether or not I’d betray her, but that would fade once we were out of the colony, and after I’d proven that I wasn’t like the disgusting men that had just gone off for their own dinner.
“I didn’t,” I said as I tied the belt and knife around my waist. “But it’s not that complicated. And it’s going well already.”
Sara lifted an eyebrow and then stuffed the last of the stew into her mouth. The pointy end of the brass spoon in her hand would be the perfect shiv if the colonial woman decided to turn on me, but there was no ill-intent in her body language, and I’d learned the hard way how to read violence before it was released. My new friend managed a smile as she set the bowl onto the stairs, and everything in me wanted to protect the gorgeous woman from the men on the surface.
“What’s the next step then?” she asked.
I pulled the bag around and tugged the drawstrings open. It had been a bit of a longshot to ask for a change of clothes and expect them to fit an unknown woman, but thankfully it had paid off, because Sara was curvy enough to fit easily into the tunic and hose that the guards had packed for me. I handed the extra set over to her, motioned to one of the cells, and then sat down on one of the steps.
“Go change into those,” I said. “You’re about to become a man. And we’re going to walk right out of here.”
Chapter 6
“I’ve never been particularly fond of the hose that men wear,” Sara said as she came back out of the nearest cell. “They’re too tight in some areas and too loose in others. And they don’t have the proper pockets to store anything.”
I nodded as the tall woman complained about the outfit, but most of my attention was on the curves that the tunic and hose did nothing to hide. There was no way that anyone would think that Sara was a man, even with all the dirt that covered her face. I walked around her in search of any way to modify the clothing to be baggier, but her large breasts and bubble butt filled them out a little too well for what I had planned at the moment.
“You still look like a woman,” I sighed and then came around to stare at her face.
Sara’s teal eyes were brighter than anything that I’d ever seen back home, which was also a dead giveaway. None of the other colonists had them as far as I could tell, but if we stayed far enough away, then maybe no one would notice. Which brought us back to her very lovely body. She was just too feminine, especially with her button nose and pouty lips. At any other time I would’ve been excited to meet her, but at the moment I needed her to be more masculine.
“Thank you for noticing,” she said as a blush crawled up her pale cheeks.
“Of course I noticed,” I laughed and met her gaze. “But you’re too pretty for us to sneak you out as a man. I’d hoped the clothes would be baggy enough.”
“Then what do you suggest?” she asked with a look around. “I’ve heard that some women bind their breasts to look more like men, but I don’t think that the ropes around here will work.”
“I don’t think they will, either,” I said and ran a hand through my hair. “Okay. New plan. Go put your torn dress over the tunic and hose.”
“It’ll tear more,” she frowned but followed my instructions. “It was just loose enough to be a decent work dress. And that doesn’t allow much room for another set of clothes beneath it.”
“It’s fine,” I shrugged and then studied her as she came back out.
The hose and tunic’s cuffs were still visible, but the modest dress managed to cover almost everything, and I doubted that the guards would be paying that much attention to her outfit.
“What is your plan?” she asked as she fidgeted with her clothing.
“You have to die,” I said.
I glanced up the stairs at the door to the cellar-like dungeon. The two guards were supposed to stay away long enough for me to do whatever I wanted with Sara, but something told me that their curiosity would get the better of them. It was why I wanted to hurry and get the hell out of there before they came back, but now they needed to be witnesses.
“I have to die?” Sara repeated slowly with a look around. “I was a fool to trust you.”
“What?” I asked as the colonial woman reached for a loose chain curled up on the ground.
“Was this all some joke?” she asked and tried to free the end of the chain without success. “You wanted to make me think that I could have my revenge and freedom before you brought me to the Governor General?”
“No,” I said and put my hands up to show her that I didn’t pose a threat. “You’re not actually going to die. You just need to look like it.”
The tall woman paused her struggle for a moment to pin me with a suspicion-filled glare. Sara’s body language was like a cat ready to run from a stranger on the street, or maybe hiss and scratch at me, but at least she let go of the chain. The brunette straightened, lifted her chin in the air, and then motioned for me to go ahead with my explanation.
“We’ll use the blood pool that the Spurya man left,” I explained. “We’ll soak it into your dress enough to make it look like I’ve killed you during the torture session. And we’ll add some more dirt for good measure. You’ll scream and then go silent. The guards will think that you’re dead, and I’ll volunteer to bring your body to wherever they keep the dead. And then we’ll sneak out.”
“Interesting.” Sara nodded and tapped her foot as if it helped to process the plan. “They’ve recently started to throw the bodies outside of the walls. There was a terrible disease a few years ago that almost wiped out half the population, and the Great Reverend Michaels suddenly realized the dead needed to be buried away from the colony before they could contaminate the rest of his… flock.”
“That’s good,” I said. “But will anyone see you stand up and walk away?”
“I doubt it,” she said. “It’s far enough away that they hardly ever go there except to add another body.”
“Perfect,” I grinned and then clapped my hands together. “Let’s kill you.”
“Such an odd man,” she smirked, but a playful light danced in her eyes. “I have to admit that I’ve never met someone quite like you before. Where did you say you were from again?”
“Somewhere very, very far away,” I shrugged and started toward the Spurya man’s abandoned cell.
Curiosity filled Sara’s eyes as I went to work painting her with the dead man’s blood. There was enough of it to really play up the idea that she’d been mortally wounded during an interrogation, and there was just enough wet sand and mud in the cells from the morning mist to cover her clothes. I walked around the tall woman to make sure that we hadn’t missed anything, nodded, and then led her back into her old cell.
“Here’s where the hard part comes in,” I said.
“Harder than smelling blood all over me?” she asked and then grimaced as she fidgeted with the blood smears on her arms.
“Yeah,” I laughed. “You need to scream like your life depends on it. Because it does. If they aren’t convinced that I’m doing something terrible to you, something that could kill you, then this will never work.”
“I think I can manage that,” she said.
“Good,” I said as I knelt down to wipe the blood from my hands on the sandy floor. “I’m going to see if the guards are back. And then the show can begin. You can start screaming the second that I nod.”
Sara bobbed her head as I headed back to the stairs. They were steep enough that I could duck down and sneak up for a look around the guard shack, but the two men hadn’t returned from their dinner yet. I was almost at the top step when I finally spotted them near the end of the road.
They both had tankards in their hands as if the tavern owner had let them take them along, though something told me that they wouldn’t take no for an answer even if they had bothered to ask. Evening light poured over the colony as the sun sank toward the treeline faster than I’d expected. At least the guards were finally back, and the cover of night would make it easier for us to sneak away from the graveyard without being seen.
“You’ve gone on night hunts before, K.O.,” I said and rolled my shoulders to release the tension that had built up. “This is no different. Okay. Maybe a little different. You’ve never dealt with dinosaurs before.”
I waited a few more heartbeats before I headed back down into the underground dungeon and nodded. Sara was by the cell door with an expectant look, and a grin spread across her pouty lips as she threw her head back and released a scream that would make a fox proud. I hurried back over to the woman and tried to ignore the ringing in my ears as my new friend screeched at the top of her lungs like I was actually torturing her.
It didn’t take long for the guards to stumble down the stairs, with their tankards still in hand, and Sara was on the ground by the time they reached the last cell. I’d reached down to grab the chain that we’d brought in as a prop, and it didn’t take much effort for me to breathe heavily as my nerves tried to get the better of me. If the two men didn’t believe that I’d accidentally killed her, then we’d both be dead, and that was definitely not part of the plan.
“What the hell happened?” the pimpled guard snarled as he looked down at Sara’s prone body. “I thought that you were supposed to save her for us.”
“Is she dead?” the younger man asked and then chugged the rest of his mead. “Tell me she isn’t dead. I’m not fond of playing with corpses.”
“The damned woman wouldn’t give up the information,” I huffed and tossed the chain to the ground.
I knelt next to Sara and put my head on her ample chest like a lifeguard checking for signs of breathing, but the gorgeous woman remained perfectly still as if she really had passed away. It took me a second to find her pulse, just to make sure that she was alive, but the vein in the colonial woman’s wrist raced like a hummingbird’s wings. I bit the inside of my cheek to hide a smile, stood up, and then spun toward the guards as if I was pissed.
“This is your fault,” I snapped and waved a hand at her.
“Our fault?” the first guard gasped and flung his tankard against a wall. “How is this our fault? You’re the one that killed her. We left you alone to eat dinner and came back to a dead body.”
“If you had fed her properly, then she would have been strong enough to withstand the interrogation,” I said with an accusatory glare. “But you let her get so weak that her heart gave out. Now I’ll never get the information--”
“And the Governor General won’t have another witch to burn,” the other man said with wide eyes. “And he won’t get to taste her, either. You know that he’s been wanting to try her out.”
“If he really wanted to take her for a ride, then he wouldn’t have given us permission to play with her,” the pimpled guard rolled his eyes. “He knows that we aren’t very gentle with our toys.”
I balled my hands into fists as I resisted the urge to punch the men straight in the teeth. A woman had supposedly died right in front of them, and all they were worried about was the fact that they couldn’t fuck her until she was a useless husk. I managed to take a calming breath and reminded myself that the two men would die, and die horribly, once we took down the colony, but for the moment, the idiots still served a purpose.
“I need to leave,” I said and stomped over to grab my satchel from near the cell door. “It’s already getting late, and the Governor General wants that land cleared whether the witch gave me any information or not.”
“You’re not leaving her here with us, are you?” the younger man gasped. “You weren’t supposed to kill her.”
“Of course he’s not,” the pimpled guard snapped. “He’s going to take the little witch out to where we dump all the trash. It’s just on the other side of the wall. Just follow the smell.”
“Who’s going to tell the Governor General?” the other man asked and shifted from foot to foot nervously.
“We both are,” the first guard sighed. “I’d send you, but you’ll start crying like a child. Which’ll be helpful since you’re his favorite nephew, but I’ll need to actually tell him what happened. And you… if you don’t come back in the alloted time, then I’ll join the hunt that comes for your head.”
The pimpled guard glowered at me like an angry doberman, but there was no bite in his bark, especially with his yellowed teeth.
“I’ll get the job done,” I huffed and then stared down at Sara. “And I’ll take the witch’s body with me. You just make sure to tell the Governor General that I’m on the way to clear that land.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said with a lecherous look in Sara’s direction. “It’s a damned shame. She would’ve been such a sweet toy. But at least I got to hear her screaming before she went into the Great Beyond. Sweeter than honey, that was.”
