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

tongue he was still considering cutting out did she not relent soon.  For even collared and branded, her hope of returning to her own home well lost now thanks to her own sire’s laws, she still seemed to lack any sense.
                  In the end, he told her to serve Lia and Talia, thinking serving her former companion would be a nice bit of irony.  He added that if he heard any complaints from them, he would punish her himself.  So far, bitter as her tongue remained at times, she was surprisingly dutiful in her new chores.
                  The boys, from the look of their backsides, apparently required a bit more attention.
                  He barely noticed the elder prince being ridden not for the first time, the show now being part of an amusement for the men at night.  He simply ignored it, accepting it as fact the prince was held captive and forced to cooperate so.  Simon told him plainly the first night, he knew, that William Hastings could willingly accept his favors, and return them, or he could be gelded, and sold as a toy to men that favored such toys.  Once Simon was finished with him anyway.
                  Did Prince William wish to survive whole to be ransomed, he had to behave, and for the moment accept his new status as Simon’s ‘pet.’  So far, he played a willing sodomite’s pet, though he still burned with fury that Koa could sense in him every time he looked his way.
                  This was one lesson the prince was never going to forget.  It likely didn’t help to know his sister had gained her own true collar while his mother was a mercenary’s apparently willing mistress.  This, even as his brothers were being worked like drudges.
                  Koa could care less.  He had few fond memories of anything Galdynian.  In truth, he had none.
                  They met King Eric three days later at the pass, and everything changed yet again.
     
     
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                  “Commander Sanz," the red-haired, and quite stocky, bearded man greeted him as Jengus saluted him rather than bowing. 
                  Eric Ericson nodded at the mercenary warrior, accepting the mercenary salute of right fist to the chest, and then glanced at the blondes among the mercenary warriors.  Talia remained with the column, but Lia stood close to Koa as they approached the king who had ridden out to meet them, and he turned toward Jengus after glancing at the Hastings, starting to congratulate him on a job well done when he locked his gaze on Lia.
                  “Merciful God.  Bella?”
                  “Bella,” she frowned.  “Nay, my lord,” she blushed.  “I am Lia,” she told him.
                  “Yet you are the very image of my older sister Bella, too, which means….  Tell me of yourself, lass.  Tell me how you ended up in Galdyn,” he demanded.
                  “As you wish, my lord,” she nodded after glancing at Koa.  “I’m just not sure what I can say.  I remember little of that….time before I was taken.”
                  “Then tell me what you may, lass,” Eric told her firmly.  “For I recall the day my father and mother rode out.  My older brother, and my sisters went with him as he was touring the borderlands, and paused to inspect a new garrison near the Tryllsan pass.  He rode out according to all reports, and vanished soon after.  We never found him, or my family.  My younger sister,” he said, still looking at the small redhead, “Was named Amalia.  We all called her Lia, as she was the sort that was a bit of a tomboy.”
                  “My name is Lia,” she told him.  “But I don’t recall much beyond that,” she admitted.  “I know I watched my older sister die fighting after my father and perhaps my brother were slain,” she said quietly.  “My mother