Free Steel and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy by LaJonn O. Klein

princess.  She might even be canny enough to try to use her still admittedly obvious charms to sway the commander.
                  Try, because he knew that while Jengus was a man of appetites, he was unyielding when it came to duty.  He’d poke a whore, a slave, or a queen if he were randy and able, but he would never turn his back on his duty.  And to that canny mercenary, once a job was taken, it was done.  Only death would keep him from fulfilling his charge.
                  The queen might accept a bit of poking, but he knew she would never sway his commander.  His friend was too honorable to be so easily bought.  Still, as to the older prince….
     
     

Chapter 5
     
     
                  William howled and the men cheered and jeered as the bound and now naked prince was forced to accept Simon’s hard sex into his boy’s gate as his mother sat at Jengus’ side watching the ‘show,’ and serving the commander.
                  It was closer to midnight than not that first night when they finally stopped, and they had set watch, then rested.  Three more days they traveled hard and fast, ever due south before turning east toward the Spine, as the high mountains that ran north to south cutting off Kanlys from Valdor were called.  Certain passes were hidden this far south, though, that allowed free passage, and smugglers and rogues had been using them for years.  On the second night, Simon had accepted the ‘gift’ Jengus gave him.  Since then, he led the proud prince around on a leash, naked as any slave to both break, and embarrass the proud Galdynian.
                  The queen still wore her common dress, but she was often in Jengus’ company, and none doubted that he was enjoying her often.
                  The blonde healer he now knew named Talia was often in Lia’s company now, and she was treated by extension with the same kindness, and compassion extended the former slave girl.  None, of course, dallied with either of them. 
                  The young princes, still wearing only breeches, and now hobbles, were forced to work with the camp followers at whatever chore demanded of them, or face a whipping like any true slave, though they were not collared or marked as yet
                  Ironically, Princess Miranda was often in Lia’s company, too, but she was both collared and branded now.  She had a rather abrasive manner at best, and Jengus, in a fit of fury of his own after one insult too many just that morning, had branded her himself, and then gifted her to Koa on impulse.
                  Koa was actually as horrified as Lia.  He was, to be honest, still getting used to Lia and Talia’s company, and the idea he was now in possession of a slave, even one so well blooded, annoyed more than it pleased him.  At first, he considered just hiring her out to the men as he had first considered suggesting, but she had begged quite earnestly after that brand was literally burned into her flesh with hot steel rather than the now usual means of a branding rod which used ink-tipped needles to ‘humanely’ mark human stock.  Talia had, of course, instantly healed the raw burn, but it only left her looking like a true slave branded years past. 
                  He had her rubbed in tanys root for her fair, pink skin was too likely to burn, and soon enough, he knew, she’d be as bronzed as any slave that labored long under the sun.  After he cut off most of her long hair, annoyed at how dirty and tangled it was on her, he was left with a blonde imp that looked as if she were a trueborn slave.
                  Especially as her clumsiness left her in a torn, and dirty dress that was fast becoming more skirt than dress.  He didn’t bother finding her another.  Let her learn to care for herself, he decided.  Besides, a bit of humility might finally curb that willful