His Pet Princess Read online

  “No, Father, you are still…”

  “Hush, child,” he said. “This is the way of the world. As I decline, another must take my place. He must be strong. He must be ruthless. He must understand this power and know how to wield it. There is but one man I trust with the world gate: General Isodor. When I am gone, he will become its guardian—and yours. You must marry him, Sabine.”

  He spoke as if he knew she would not be pleased with the match and he was correct. At the very mention of the name, Sabine felt her blood run cold. General Isodor was a man with a reputation. A man feared by all those who were driven before him in rivers of fire and blood. He was the man who had led much of the expansion of the realm and Sabine had known somewhere in the back of her mind that he was a likely match, but she had never been able to bring herself to think it directly.

  She tried not to look as horrified as she felt, and her voice became tight and quite tense as she attempted to argue her father out of his decision.

  “But Father, he is cruel to the servants and there are rumors that he razes innocent villages for the simple fun of it.”

  “Nonsense,” her father replied. “Isodor is the strongest and most ruthless of my generals. When I am gone, he will become king. He will be the most powerful man in Ere—and you will be at his side, reaping the rewards of his work.”

  She fell silent, knowing that her father did not care to be argued with. He had already suffered more questioning than most fathers would. It was not a woman’s place to question her match, and he was the king. Who was she to question his decision to marry her off?

  “I know you are not immediately pleased, Sabine,” the king said gruffly. “I am showing you this so you understand what your birthright is, and where your power heralds from. Through this gate is a world unlike any other. It is full of wonders and powers and…”

  “Can we visit?”

  “No! You must never cross this barrier, Sabine. It is a wonderful world, but a dangerous one. This is the border we must guard most fiercely. That is why these chambers are always ringed with soldiers. Should the castle ever fall, this room is designed to destroy itself, forever closing the gate. There is but one man who has ever passed through, one man I trust to walk among the magi’s people.”

  “What do we have to fear from the people of the other world?”

  “We are a wealthy land, Sabine. We have endless lands and rich soil. We have flowing rivers with sparkling clean water. We have a bounty of nature, beasts and birds, predators and prey. With the tools in their world, they could overrun ours in days, if not hours.”

  “But your armies are the greatest in all the world.”

  “The greatest in all this world,” he said. “But not that world. Not yet. Now go, Sabine, and remember what legacy you are marrying for. You must marry someone capable of guarding this gate. The man does not matter. The power does. Do you understand now?”

  Sabine looked at the glowing sphere that stood between stone pillars, its light warm and inviting. She felt herself drawn to it. She almost reached out and touched it, but her father snatched her arm and pulled her away.

  “You must not get close to it,” he said. “It will draw you in and you will be lost to me. I have tried to send many through the gate but only one seems to have the constitution to survive. Believe me when I say that it is the most dangerous thing in all Ere, and now you know what it is, you must not look upon it again.”

  “Yes, Father,” Sabine agreed swiftly.

  Her father escorted her out of the little labyrinth and Sabine paid close attention to each twist and turn. An idea was already forming in her mind, a possibility of new things.

  As they left the outermost chamber, her father was called away to some royal matter and she was left to return to her chambers alone. It was a short walk, but not one without danger. She walked with her head down, deep in thought. There was the duty she had been born to, and now, the possibility of a world beyond it.

  “Princess Sabine.”

  She wanted to pretend that she had not heard the voice behind her, but the rasping tones carried and she was too far from the nearest door to simply slip away. She turned and plastered a forced smile across her face as her husband-to-be approached from behind.

  General Isodor was misshapen from an incident that he claimed happened in battle, but which rumor said occurred when he was slaying prisoners. One of them had gotten free and made a desperate bid for life, throwing molten oil upon Isodor in the process. Why there had been molten oil so close at hand was something Sabine preferred not to think about.

  If the man had ever been handsome, he was not now. The hair did not grow at all in a patch above his right brow, and the flesh on that side of his face was like a melting candle. It was all Sabine could do not to physically recoil. She maintained royal decorum as he drew closer, his robes gaudy with gold chains and medallions. Isodor liked to wear his wealth and his rank. He had no sense of restraint, and she saw the sneers on the faces of those around him when he was not looking in their direction with his one good eye.

  She already knew that her father was making a mistake in choosing Isodor as his successor. Her father saw nothing but strength and results. But a king could not truly rule alone. He had to have the loyalty of his generals and of the nobility beside. Isodor could not command loyalty. He could only instill fear.

  “You have been informed, I take it.”

  “Yes, General Isodor.” She bobbed into a curtsy.

  “You will bear me many sons,” he said, putting his great hand on her belly. “I live in anticipation of our wedding night. I will hear you scream then, Princess.”

  Sabine shivered in disgust. She could not imagine how it would be to be trapped beneath his evil heaving flesh, impregnated with his dark spawn.

  “Look how you tremble,” he laughed. “I hope you calm your nerves before we are wed. I have little patience for weakness from anyone, including my bride.”

  Sabine stammered something that was not quite a word, something somewhere between an apology and a plea for forgiveness.

  He drank in her expression of pure horror then turned and walked away, chuckling to himself. He had not made any attempt at romance. There was no need, Sabine reflected. She had been promised to him by the king himself. She may as well have been a horse or a gold chain, some object for his use. She was surprised he had bothered to spare three sentences on her.

  His mention of the wedding night had struck true fear into her. She had some awareness of what took place on such a night, of where a man’s member plunged inside. But Sabine had explored her body a little and still did not understand how such a thing could be possible.

  She knew one thing now more certainly than she had ever known anything. She would not marry that man. Not if the entire citizenry of Ere were to command it with one voice. And as it happened, she didn’t have to. Her own father had just shown her a sure way out of the match, an escape to a world far away.

  Sabine did not waste another moment in thought or consideration. There was nothing to think about. She waited until the outer guards were in between their shift change and slipped back into the chamber housing the gate. The men on duty had become complacent, largely due to the fact that they didn’t know what they were guarding. They knew there was a great treasure beyond the door, but they did not know the nature of it.

  Slipping through the twists and turns memorized minutes before, Sabine approached the gate with an excited reverence. It was glowing even more brightly now, she could swear, humming and almost droning in a way that seemed to draw her in. Twenty years she had been trapped in the castle and grounds, a prisoner to her royal status. That was all about to change.

  She stepped forward and into the unknown.

  For a moment, she was blind. There was a heat and a light and a feeling of being terribly fuzzy all over and then her vision cleared and she found herself in a small room, facing a window. Outside that window was a world she had never seen, a world she could not
wait to explore. The ill effects of the gate seemed to have been exaggerated, or perhaps her royal blood had insulated her. Whatever the reason, she felt energized and excited, and not the slightest bit ill.

  She knew she couldn’t stay where she was. The gate still standing open behind her would be useful if she ever decided to go back home, but at the moment all it was good for was getting her caught. There was no doubt that someone would come looking for her. She was never going to be allowed to choose her own path. Not ever. She had to get as far away from it as fast as she could and lose herself in this new land. Without stopping to examine her surroundings even a little bit, she went through the room and into another and then into another until she emerged into a hall with a stairwell. She practically ran down the stairs, and then out through a great and grand empty space that led to the city beyond.

  Her feet carried her toward the noise and excitement of the world beyond her own. As she stepped out a pair of great crystal doors, she found herself faced with more people than she had ever seen in her entire life. They were everywhere. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe. They were moving in a constant stream and she stepped into that stream, allowing it to carry her along through this new world. As they jostled and pushed and hurried her along, she felt more like a fish in a school than an individual person.

  She was faintly aware in the back of her mind that she had absolutely no idea where the house she had just left was, but she didn’t care. She wanted to feel a little danger. She wanted to see where the path she had taken would lead, and so she followed the crowd between incredibly tall buildings, each of which was several times larger and more impressive than the castle she had grown up in. This was a vast world, a world where it seemed everyone lived as kings.

  The crowd carried her through the walkways, all laid out with geometric precision and eventually, like a river flowing into a large lake, the rush of people let out into an open space between the mountainous buildings festooned with moving lights and images. Starting upward, she wandered in circles, just staring at everything.

  The crowd started to thin a little, giving her space to breathe, which she was glad for. A little space, that was all she wanted. She saw that there was part of the area that very few people were walking in and decided to walk there instead. As she stepped into some empty ground, she heard an almighty screech and then a horn blared in her ear, heralding she knew not what. A man leaned out of the window of a metal beast and screamed at her incomprehensibly, shaking his fist. Confused, Sabine stood stock still, not knowing what the problem was. Was the large metal beast his pet? Was it hungry? Why was the man so angry?

  Suddenly, Sabine felt herself pulled out of the path of the angry metal beast and its occupant.

  “You trying to kill yourself?”

  The person asking the question was a taller girl about Sabine’s age. She was wearing tight black leather pants and a short jacket. She had beautiful brown skin and brown eyes, with features that were so much fuller than Sabine’s. She was the most incredible thing Sabine had ever seen. For a second, all she could do was stare at her.

  “You okay? You trying to off yourself?”

  “No, of course not,” Sabine said. “That thing almost ran me down!”

  “They’re harder to hear coming now that they’re electric,” the girl sympathized. “But still, didn’t anyone ever teach you to cross the road? Look both ways?”

  “Uh, I can’t remember.”

  “You can’t remember?” The girl threw her head back and laughed. “You’re crazy. What’s wrong with you?”

  “I’m new in town,” Sabine explained. “I’m from… far away.”

  “Real far away if they don’t have roads and cars.” The girl’s eyes ran over her. “That’s a cool dress.”

  “Thanks,” Sabine smiled. “My mother made it for me.”

  “Where’s your mom now?”

  “Back home,” Sabine said. It was technically true. Her mother was back in Ere, resting in the royal tomb. “She didn’t come on this trip with me.”

  “So you’re out here all by yourself and you don’t even know how cars work?” The girl smiled broadly and looped her arm around Sabine’s shoulders. “You need a guide, I reckon.”

  Sabine couldn’t have agreed more.

  Chapter Two

  “I should have given her no notice,” King Savik rumbled to himself, pacing the floor of his private chamber in real agitation. “I should have married her to Isodor the moment she came of age. I should have locked her in her chambers. I should have…”

  He should never have shown Sabine the gate. That had been the final mistake in a great series of mistakes, all of which had conspired to spoil the princess. Savik adored his daughter and had given her as much freedom and education as possible throughout her life. Where other princesses never left their towers, he had given her the run of the castle, and even allowed trips into the city once or twice a year. He had thought he was being kind, but all he was doing was creating a strong-willed, hard-headed wench instead of an appropriately compliant princess. The nobles had tried to warn him, but he had ignored their advice, at huge cost.

  “Women need to be kept,” he snarled to himself. “Chained down if necessary. No woman can be trusted. No woman should be trusted.”

  Sabine was to be wedded to Isodor at the end of the month in a ceremony so grand that all of Ere would be speaking of it for generations to come. Her disappearance was a problem, but one he intended to have remedied. For the moment, her absence was a secret. Isodor was a strong general, but an impatient man and if he sensed he might be denied his bride, Savik could see him taking extreme measures to retrieve her. That, the king could not risk.

  In spite of his agitation, all was far from lost. Her absence had been quickly noted. Sabine did not know it, but she was never out of the gaze of royal spies for long and when she disappeared back into the forbidden chamber, one of them had given an almost immediate report to the king.

  He stopped pacing and coughed as his breath drew short. She would be the death of him, that girl. Fatherhood had taken a toll upon Savik in unexpected ways. Sabine’s mother had passed in birthing his only child but amidst the tragedy, Sabine had become the joy of the world. So bright and brilliant, she had been special from the beginning. All had known it. She had become an icon from her earliest days, a symbol of hope and beauty. He hoped that in giving her hand to Isodor, he would forever be cementing a lineage of strength upon the throne of Ere.

  “Sire. Lord Maxim is here,” a servant announced.

  “Bring him in immediately!”

  The man who stepped into the king’s chambers carried with him an air of indescribable foreignness. The Ere nobles wore silk and satin and leather in various configurations, but the material this man’s clothing was made from could not be sourced anywhere in the world. It held an uncanny sheen and was tailored with angular perfection, turning his body into myriad masculine planes. He wore boots that rose to his knees, similarly crafted with aggressive attention to detail.

  Had the king’s attention not been focused so singularly upon his missing daughter, he might have taken a moment to admire the attire. As it was he could not have cared if the man came to him utterly naked. In that moment, all that mattered was getting Sabine back.

  “Lord Maxim,” he said. “A grave matter needs your attention.”

  Maxim had been chosen for his role personally by Savik years earlier. He had come up through the royal guard, but had shown independent ability that made him more or less wasted in common battle. Had he remained in Ere, he would have been a general equal or perhaps even superior to Isodor, but there had been a greater purpose for him.

  Savik was attempting to maintain a great number of borders already—one of them with a world far ahead in time of their own. Some of his advisers believed that the Other World was their very world some several millennia hence. Others believed it was some alien place that just so happened to contain men like themselves. It did not much m
atter, for it was a source of endless riches and power.

  He had to be careful in siphoning power from the Other World. Should armies from that place come to his world, he knew he would quickly be at their mercy as much as the other kings had been at his. Maintaining the secrecy of his world was paramount—and yet some presence had to be maintained in the new world to guard the gate. Maxim had carried out that task impeccably for ten years.

  It was not a role without danger. Unlike Ere, the world beyond was a strange environment filled with chaos. It took a special kind of character to exist there. Strength, resilience, flexibility, and above all, bravery. Maxim was on his own on the other side of the gate. It was a burden he seemed to bear easily. In his years in the other world he had distinguished himself as a paramount guardian. He had saved both the world beyond and Ere time and time again—and now Savik needed him to save something even more personally precious than either of those things.

  “My liege,” Maxim said, his upper body dropping into an easy, graceful bow. “I am at your service.”

  “My daughter, Sabine, is missing,” Savik said, wasting no time on preamble. “I have reason to believe that she has taken to the other world. I need you to retrieve her.”

  Maxim nodded briefly, his expression entirely composed—though if one had taken close note of his eyes, the flicker of concern would have been quite apparent. “Of course, sire. I will do so immediately.”

  “Go with all good haste,” Savik dismissed him.

  Chapter Three

  His audience with the king had been brief, but necessarily so.

  For the second time that day, Maxim strode through the world gate, his eyes peeled for the princess, though he knew she was unlikely to be in the apartment. If her timing had been just a little different, she would likely have run right into him. As it was, she had managed to time her entrance while he had been out for the day. It was only when he returned to the apartment and found the missive that had been thrown through the gate that he knew it was necessary to return to Ere.