Priestess Bound Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Priestess Bound

  Lidiya Foxglove

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  More Romantic Fantasy from Lidiya!

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Phoebe

  There was one place in the world I really didn’t want to be, and that was the Emperor’s palace. Particularly, with my feet bound in heavy chains. Especially particularly, wearing nothing but a filmy underdress and thrown onto the floor of an unlit room, with the door shut behind me.

  I swallowed. Yelling for help was obviously pointless. My guardians were all far away from me now.

  I had gotten a glimpse of the room by the guard’s torch before the ominous boom of the heavy wooden door closing. It actually didn’t look too bad, all things considered. I had seen a honest-to-goodness canopy bed with a mattress and blankets, and a tapestry on the wall with a picture of ladies in gowns. There was a window, but it was curtained and I wasn’t getting much light through it, only enough that I could tell where the window was in the darkness. I struggled to my feet and slowly walked forward until I bumped into the wall. My fingers brushed cool plaster.

  I tried to open the curtains. The window was pretty high on the wall. Maybe there was some piece of furniture in here I could climb onto? But then, with my feet bound up, I wasn’t sure I could climb onto a chair or a table.

  Well, it was good to have some puzzle to occupy my mind. Anything to stop me from thinking about the fact that I was captured, and my fourth guardian was none other than Commander Abel, the man who had captured other priestesses before—priestesses who had met a swift demise shortly afterward. Emperor Leonidas said it was suicide, but it was entirely possible that someone had killed them. My other three guardians would surely sense my location and try to save me, but I was skeptical they could get into the imperial palace.

  And that’s why you need to stop thinking, Phoebe. Just get yourself out of here.

  My ears, sensitive in the darkness, suddenly caught the sound of a breath.

  I froze. I’m not alone?

  “Who’s there?” a voice whispered nervously from the bed.

  I shrieked.

  “Who are you?”

  It was a female voice, and it seemed kind of familiar. The accent, I realized. It was formal in the same way as Rin—the prince of Gaermon. The prince had been traveling with us, and he was the lover of my guardian Gilbert, along with protecting all of us a few times with his swordsmanship.

  “Princess Himika?” I ventured.

  “Yes…”

  “I’m Phoebe, the Priestess of the Gate. I was traveling with your brother. He’s worried sick about you.”

  “The Priestess? I didn’t know there were priestesses anymore!”

  “I get that a lot,” I said, with a faint sigh of defeat as I stopped trying to open the window and instead stumbled over to the bed.

  “I’m sorry to scare you…I was sleeping when I heard the door open. I didn’t know what had happened or who you were. For all I knew, you might be a man here to kill me. But when I heard you stumbling around in chains, I thought you probably were not that. I knew it,” she said. “I knew a priestess would rise again.”

  I found the mattress and struggled onto it. It was a very tall mattress. Right now I didn’t feel like I was ‘rising’, unless you counted clamoring onto a bed. Every other priestess had died here in this palace. Not a good situation for breeding optimism.

  “This seems almost like a proper guest room, not a prison,” I said. “The guards took me up some grungy stairs to get here, though.”

  “I believe that was a servant’s passage,” she said. “But you’re right. We are in a nice part of the palace. The very nicest, in fact. The emperor’s chambers are just next door.”

  “Is he…treating you all right?”

  “He has not laid a hand on me… But he would like to marry me. I don’t know what he’ll do with you.”

  “We have to get out of here!”

  “I would be happy to get out of here, but tell me how. The only way out is through a door that is well guarded, and a window that is six stories high and drops into the courtyard.”

  “Do they ever let you out?”

  “No.”

  “Does the Emperor visit?”

  “Yes. He has tried to talk to me after I refused to pledge loyalty to him. He was angry about that.” Himika paused. “Does Raio know that I’m captured here and that I didn’t pledge my loyalty to the emperor?”

  Raio was Rin’s real name, but he didn’t use it while he was trying to hide, obviously. “He knows. He’s been trying to find a way to save you, but…it’s not easy.” I added, “I was in the crowd when you refused to pledge loyalty. That took some guts.”

  Himika was quiet, but I felt her shift on the mattress, turning away. “There is something I’d like to ask my brother. If you should ever see him again, will you ask him?”

  “Of course, princess.” I bowed my head a little, not that she could see me, but hanging out with a real, super beautiful and brave princess was making me feel very polite. Not that I could see how beautiful she was right now, but I already knew.

  “Where—the hell—was he?” she cried.

  So much for formalities. “Um…you mean, when your castle was attacked?”

  “Yes! And before that! The whole time we were getting warning messages from the northern border, where was he? I mean, besides running around with his bard boy toy. Because if he doesn’t have a better excuse than that…” She growled out, “Does he?”

  “Mm…let me be honest. He’s not much of a talker.”

  “Is he still with Gerard?”

  “Gilbert?”

&nbs
p; “Whatever it was.” She paused. “Is he one of your guardians? My disloyal brother? At least that would explain it.”

  This was turning awkward. I wondered if the Emperor would give me a new room. I was okay with a dungeon if it was private. And had a chamber pot. And no rats. And a bed. A nice, private dungeon.

  “Nooo,” I said. “Gilbert is my guardian. Your brother just came along with him. I would like to make it really clear that I have no choice in any of it, and also, your brother talks about you and how worried he is about you all the time. Nonstop.”

  She sat in sullen silence for a moment. “He promised me that he would always protect me. He was the one meant to lead…everything was promised to him, and the only promise made to me was that I would always have him to watch over me. I suppose I know how good that promise was.”

  “Wouldn’t you be of the age to get married anyway?”

  “No. I’ve always been very sickly and fragile. My bones break if you breathe on them wrong. The doctors said I am not well enough to bear children. No marriage for me.”

  “Yes, Rin you’d never even left Gaermon Castle before.”

  “That’s true,” she said, with some regret. “At least, for once, I got to see another place…” Her voice turned to me again. “There was so much expectation on him. To become king, to marry a princess he didn’t really like, to take care of his poor sick sister for the rest of my life. And I knew he liked boys. Father wasn’t very happy about that; it would be very offensive to Princess Leisha when they got married. I know why he left. I do. I might leave too, if I was him.”

  “Still, it must be terrible for you too,” I said. “So…the Emperor wants to marry you, even if you’re not strong enough to have children?”

  “He claims he will find a way to heal me…but even that would never convince me.”

  I thought she must have yearned for a normal life as long as she could remember. If the Emperor could find some way to offer her that…

  “You are the priestess,” she said. “Have you found all four of your guardians?”

  “Sort of. One of them is Commander Abel himself.”

  “Oh, no…”

  “Yeah, he doesn’t want anything to do with me now.”

  More shyly, she said, “If you’re the priestess…is it true that you have to have a relationship with all four men at once?”

  “Yes…” My cheeks burned, but more than anything, I felt a physical ache. I had grown used to being touched and pleasured every night, and although it still seemed impossible, I felt the same yearning for all four of my men—even Abel, the only one I had never joined with. The connection between us was so strong that even if it was created by magic and not love, I couldn’t tell the difference. I wanted to think that the magic simply knew what I needed. Gilbert’s tenderness, Niko’s masterful ways, the mystery of Abel…and Sir Forrest, my first protector…

  “That’s a lot to handle,” Himika said, rather coy.

  “It is.”

  “Back home, men won’t even get close to me. They called me the Glass Princess. I had a cloistered life. Somehow, just because I was too weak to have children and I had to remain chaste, they expect me to be pure and good and inspiring to everyone. As if the physical reality would have changed my heart…I was as interested in handsome men as any other girl.” Then she said, “How many of them have you been with at once?”

  “Just…two,” I managed. “So far.”

  “Don’t be embarrassed,” she said. “I’ve read about the priestess. Your power comes from your sex.”

  “I guess. But they drain the power from me. I feel more like a passage between something outside of myself, and their abilities. I don’t do anything.”

  “That didn’t used to be true. The priestess used to be regarded almost as a goddess. She was the center of it all, the master of the gate. Her guardians fought for her, but they also followed her command.”

  “No one follows my command.”

  “Are you commanding?” she asked, which was a fair question. “I can’t help but be jealous, to be honest. Princesses are political tools without much power at all. In my case, I don’t dare to even have sex considering how fragile I am. It means I’ll be treated like a child forever.” Before I could express any sympathy, she continued, “Do they like each other, your guardians?”

  “Um…sort of? Niko and Gilbert actually know each other from before…but Sir Forrest is my problem.” I smiled in the shadows. “He wants me all to himself.”

  “Ooh…knights are always so handsome in their armor. What is Sir Forrest like?”

  “He’s gruff and reluctant.”

  Himika laughed. “Sounds like you’re enjoying the challenge.”

  “I enjoy every minute with them,” I admitted. “It feels so right. And it feels like more than just having sex. I also just feel alone, like, I can’t talk about it to anyone.”

  “You could talk to me! I can live vicariously. It’s better than nothing. So what is Gilbert like, anyway?”

  Once I started talking about the guys, I couldn’t stop. I missed them so much and it was such a relief to talk to another woman who didn’t judge me on my position. Sometimes I felt kind of grumpy that my fated role in life seemed to be just having a lot of sex with four men. I mean, that’s the kind of dream you save for a naughty moment, not one you go blabbing about to everyone, even if I was pivotal in saving the world from monsters. Having some other girl get envious of my position—a princess at that—reminded me that the priestesses had been keeping the gate sealed for hundreds of years, and enjoying it too. Not bad.

  We stayed up all night talking, as I found out when a door creaked open—not to the narrow hall I had been dragged up in my chains, but to a wide, carpeted hall—and the emperor stood in the door, letting in light from the hallway, where the windows didn’t have curtains.

  And I remembered that I might never see my guardians again, because this place was the end of the line for all the other priestesses.

  “Good morning, ladies,” he said. He threw open the curtains.

  Himika and I squinted. I finally got a good close look at my new friend. I had seen her before on a magical projection displaying the defeat of Gaermon, and in the distance as she defied Emperor Leonidas in front of a crowd, but up close, she was smaller and younger looking than I expected. Her skin was so pale it almost had a bluish tinge, with no color in her cheeks, and her eyes were a very light golden color. She looked like she never saw the sun. Her hair was black and very long, past her waist, but thin. I’m not sure she was even five feet tall. Her voice was more authoritative than her appearance. Still, she had immediately drawn up into a regal posture when Leonidas entered.

  “Are you two getting along?” he asked. “I’m sorry about the chains and the prison cell, Phoebe. My guards insist that you need to be chained in my presence as long as you can’t be trusted. In history, young women have occasionally brought down kings… Still, I don’t want anyone to harm you either. That’s why you’re kept up here, in my personal chambers, watched by my personal guard.”

  “How long will we be kept here, then?” I asked.

  “I don’t really see an end to it,” he said. “You are safe here as anywhere, priestess. Abel suggested maybe the elders have a way of killing you from afar. You have nothing to fear from me… I want you to live out your days. As long as you’re alive, no new priestess will be born.”

  “What do I have to do to get the chains off, then?” The weight was very unpleasant and chafing my ankles.

  “Be good,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. Why aren’t you wearing a proper dress?”

  “I don’t know. I was. Your guards stripped my dress off.”

  “I’ll remedy that immediately.”

  I didn’t say much in response. I still had a terrible feeling about this.

  “I have a surprise for you,” he told Himika.

  “I don’t want your surprise.”

  “Those steamed onion bun
s you mentioned? I found a woman in the city who is from Gaermon and she is in the kitchen as we speak—”

  “I don’t want them. I’m not hungry.” She stared at the wall.

  His face was a mask of patience. He looked at me again. “I heard you were once a Strawberry Girl, Phoebe.”

  “Yeah…”

  “I would love if you would perform for me and some of my comrades tonight.”

  “I don’t feel well.”

  “I have the full complement of musicians.”

  Some little part of me said, Hey, why not? I loved singing and dancing, and I missed it. Once you stopped being a Strawberry Girl, you never got professional musicians to back you up again, unless you lived in some big city like this and found work after your time in the troupe was over. Will Abel be there? I so wanted to ask, but I already knew the answer. Abel never wanted to see me again.

  He must come to the palace a lot, though. I would be hard to avoid if I became part of the palace scene. Tempting…but I wasn’t sure what game we were playing. I had a tendency to be too trusting. I wanted to impress Himika with my defiance.

  “I would rather not,” I said.

  “Very well,” he said. “I will give you both more time to realize I am not your enemy.”

  He sent up the onion buns anyway, and I couldn’t help it. The most delicious smelling steam was wafting off them as their perfect white flour skins sat in a shallow pool of golden broth. I was so hungry. I ate three of them before Himika said, “Hey…wait,” and grabbed the rest of the plate.

  Some maidservants came up and changed out my heavy chains for lighter shackles that hobbled my gait to very short steps, but it was better than before. They gave me a simple, elegant gown like the one Himika was wearing, and brushed my hair. After which, I promptly crashed into bed, rumpling everything. I was all messed up with day and night now, but having a quiet moment, I tried to sense the guys. I knew Forrest, Niko, and Gilbert would be trying to rescue me. I could feel their anxiety from a distance.