Dont abduct me I'm Welsh!

A golden cage


The healer entered the bay to intrude upon an unusually domestic scene. The blue eyed human was slowly and deliberately reading out an elvish text; a very basic child’s story to the Rhi’Arran. Valdagerion was laid out, his hands behind his head, apparently – and not a little surprisingly – listening to the young woman’s painful literary rendition with reasonable sangfroid, only correcting her most glaring mistakes. For someone who had no tolerance for the smallest fault in his warriors, it was odd to see the Rhi’Arran so mild and patient.

“I’m impressed.” Perran said addressing the girl.

Mary tilted her head at him in query.

“I’m impressed that you have managed to keep him abed for so long.” The healer explained, his china blue eyes twinkling. “He’s usually a terrible patient.”

“That I can believe.”

“I’m not that bad!” Valdagerion stretched indolently a small smirk curving his mouth. “Mary has her ways of persuading me to remain in bed.”

“Val!” The girl blushed hotly, and thumped him on the arm, hard.

“Ouch!” He complained, rubbing his arm, the pained look upon his face spoiled by the laughter in his pale eyes.

“Oh cut it out Val!” Mary declared disgusted. “Someone shoots a hole clear through you and you barely wince! So don’t pretend that that hurt.”

Both elfs began to laugh, and Mary looked between the two of them and shook her head. Parran checked over the Rhi’Arran’s wounds. Only a faint radiating scar betraying that there had ever been a wound. But as Parran explained to the young human, though it might look healed, the internal damage still needed more time. “Here I will look at your bumps and scrapes while I have you Mary. Then the Rhi’Arran can not accuse me of neglecting you.”

He turned her limbs this way and that, inspecting each abrasion.

“Well?” Valdagerion demanded when Parran had fallen silent for to long.

“Oh, they are coming along well, quite well.” Perran smiled at the Rhi’Arran. “Can I borrow Mary for a moment, I could do with a spare set of hands?”


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Mary had grown accustomed to the dim lighting in the elven buildings, and she followed along behind the healer. He was worried about something; she could tell by the way he twiddled with the end of his long braid. But he had not wanted to worry Val. Mary knew how problematic it was for her to leave the room, knowing how agitated that it made the warior elf while he was so week and powerless for her to be out of his sight. She was naturally independent, and it was chafing, but she curbed her annoyance reminding herself firmly that Val was unwell and needed to be kept quiet.

Parran drew her in to an examination chamber, and sat her down. “What’s wrong?” She asked the red haired elf’s sudden contemplative silence making her nervous.

He took a long look at her, suprised, as if he had not realy seen her before.“What makes you think that something is wrong?”

“You brought me here, so that Val wouldn’t worry right?”

“Alright.” Perran said leaning on the counter, looking at her closely. She was growing acustomed to this reaction from the elf's as they got to know her - not just a preity face. “Mary, how long do bruises and grazes take to heal in your species?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged, and scrunched up her face. “I mean it depends.”

“Try to be a little bit more specific. How long has it usually taken you to heal from similar abrasions?”

“About two weeks or so I suppose.”

He sighed. “I thought as much. Mary have you looked at your wounds from the other night?”

Mary had all but forgot the abrasions and bruises that she had got from that awful night. In comparison with Val’s gaping hole they had been utterly trivial. Perran turned her limbs this way and that looking at them. Mary followed his gaze, noticing that the marks were barely visible, almost completely healed. The elf hummed over this, studying each one.

“No whay!” Mary gasped. Looking over her shoulder in her reflection on a shiny surface, to where a vast ugly blue yellow bruise that had decorated her lower back was completely gone. “Those nannites are a wonder!”

“Mary, I didn’t give you any nannites.” He replied. She looked up at Parran in astonishment. “Don’t look at me.” He said. “I have no answers for you. I’m not a human healer.”

Sitting her down, the elven healer shone a light in her eyes, and checked a few other things, asking her if she had noticed any other changes – which she hadn’t - before sitting back with a thoughtful expression.

“So?”

“I don’t know.” Parran said. “What ever is making you heal more quickly is probably not hurting you.”

“Probably?”

“Do you mind if I take a blood sample?” Perran asked.

She looked warily at him.

“It won’t hurt.”

“All doctors say that.” Mary retorted. But proffered her arm, all be it reluctantly. “Parran, has this ever happened before?”

“Not that I know of. But give me a few days and hopefully I will have sorted this out.” Parran said soothingly. Mary could tell that his keen mind was already relishing the challenge this new mystery would afford. “Now run along back to the Rhi’Arran before he begins to fret. Try not to worry about this to much.”

“Thanks.” Mary said unconvinced.



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When Perran had said that the convalescing elf would need plenty of time outdoors in the fresh air, Mary had supposed that it was like back home, a physiological thing. However she soon learned that due to elves’ unique physiology that time spent in the sun was actually a necessity, and that without exposure to the sun over a prolonged time, that elf’s could became mortally ill, like a plant withering in the dark.

She had supposed that Val’s wane appearance had been entirely because of his recent wounds, but the instant that she helped him out to lie on the grass in the morning sun, it was noticeable that his ‘glow’ had returned, and after a mornings worth of sunbathing, before the day got to hot he was markedly much improved. Mary herself, had to admit that the lathery that had stole over her had lifted the moment that she had got in to the light of day, the sunshine doing much to improve her low mood.

With pristine blue skies above, a glittering lake, and only the call of gull like birds disturbing the peace it was a very pleasant way of spending a morning. Mary had been more then happy to lie with the elf curled up against her like some great contented cat and doze in the warm summer like day in perfect helicon.


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A low hum thrummed in the air. Valdagerion stirred as Mary sat up beside him, displacing his arm where it lay over her bare stomach, her robes still open from their love making, bits of dry grass falling from her hair to dust over his face.

“What’s that noise?”

“A ship coming in to land.” He explained, as part of the daily fabric of his life he had not given it much mind, but Mary was transfixed. The elf sat up, and pointed to the faintly glowing dot in the sky, rapidly falling down to the ground. The sleek vessel soon came in to sight, as large as the biggest oil tanker. “It’s a Bera, a trade ship; larger then the one that we use, but a good deal slower, and not half as pretty.”

“What is your ship like?”

“Well it’s not exactly mine. I’m not a pilot by any accounts, though I can fly some of the smaller vessels. We use all sorts of the fleet’s ships depending on what we are doing. But the ship that my men and I usually use is a Haldis. It’s like a blade, a sword, silver but the light moves over it as if it were liquid, not an unnecessary line on it. Comparatively small; which is useful when we don’t want to be easily spotted by residents of a planet. Now that one has probably been visiting the near constellations.”

“What’s wrong?” Valdagerion asked, noticing his companion staring listlessly out over the lake, taking hold of her small hand in his own, gently kissing the back of it.

“Nothing is wrong Val.” Mary said, but after a moment relented under his steady gaze. “I was just thinking that with you recovering we will not be leaving with the next mission tomorrow like you had planed.”

“Oh.” He replied carefully. “I had forgotten.”

“Had you?” Mary said her tone strange. She then smiled weekly and her tone brightened. “I suppose that given the circumstances it’s understandable. We will go on the next one. When will that be do you think?”

He did the maths quickly in his head. “In human terms, about a month from tomorrow.”

“A month!” She repeated softly, a horrified look upon her sweet face. “So long?”

Valdagerion looked at her with real concern. “Are you unhappy here?”

“No.” She said quickly, but not entirely convincingly. “No, but….There are so many people who will be missing me. I hate to think that I am worrying them. My mother, dad….they must be so worried about me by now, if only I could let them know that I’m ok.”

He caught her first tear on his thumb. “Oh, Mary.”

The second he stroked across her cheek, soft like dew. “Mary, Mary precious.”

The third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh all fell on to his shoulder and neck as he enveloped her slight form in his arms, stroking her hair. “Do not cry my beautiful Mary.”

“I will make sure you have no reason to cry.” His lips brushed away the eighth and ninth.

The tenth and eleventh he tasted in their kiss.

“We will go. Tomorrow.” He said, braking the kiss. He could deny her nothing. And it was somewhat a shock to discover that to stop her from feeling a moment of pain he would be willing to do anything. His race really had strong emotions, but when they did, they were fierce.

Her breath hitched. “Val.” Soft hair shook against his neck. “No. No, you’re not well enough yet.”

“I will be fine.” He smiled dismissively.

“Parran said you must not.”

“Darkness take him! Parran would be the first to tell you that I never do as he says.”

“Val. I thought that you were going to die.” He tried to protest but her she stayed his mouth with her hand. Blue, blue eyes looked up at him. Liquid and more sapphire then even the coral seas on a summer day. “I could not stand to see you get hurt again because of me again. You have already risked so much.” This time the tears were for him. “Please, I could not bare it.”

Perhaps she would not leave him after all. He kissed the centre of her palm again. And for a long while that was the end to talking, through she sung out his name soon enough as he lost himself in her feminine mysteries, proving to both of them that he was well on the way to recovery. When he came back to himself, Mary was laughing, her head thrown back, her arms open to the sky. Then she smiled down at him. “You look so cute, so dishevelled!”

“Cute!” He snorted, no one else would dare call him cute. “I am not cute!” But he laughed, along with her. How could he ever bare to let her go.

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Rillian had been very busy seeking out information on what had happened the night that the Rhi’Arran was attacked, but so far his investigations had yielded very little. The blond elf had returned to the Rhi’Arran’s chambers, but it was as before. There was no sign of a brake in, who ever it was that had got in to the complex had done so aerially, or more likely they had some how gained security clearance – which meant that it was an inside job. Though his every loyal fibber rebelled against it, instinct and reason won out, and Rillian was pretty sure that whoever it was that ordered the hit, it was an elf.

And so to the detective work, listening in on all manner of conversations about the city. You could learn a great deal Rillian had found over the years by simply listening. He had hoped that perhaps it had been an outside agent. But when he had returned to headquarters he had found Issilian, and another of his men sitting talking over a cool drink, and his keen ears picked up something of interest in their idle conversation.

“What was that?”

The red haired elf leant back. “Oh, its you Rillian. I was just saying to Thissilan about Nimren, and Eirsylian. They are in the infirmary, took a terrible beating on their last mission.”

“What happened to them?”

“I’m not sure. I’m only friends with Nimren, and he couldn’t talk much when I visited him.”

“Oh.”

Punctuating his explnation with actions Issillian replied. “Looks like something tried to strangle him.”

“I’m not really familiar with either of them.”

“I’m not surprised.” Issillian replied, “They are Rhi’Rhilquis’s men, lifeguard of the Queens. They don’t get out of the palice much.”

“So, what were they doing off world?”

“Duno.” Issilan laughed. “Oh, come on Rillian as if I would know what goes on in the holiest of holies! Probably escorting one of the Princesses on a diplomatic mission, you would be better off asking Rhi’ Valdagerion. Besides why are you so curious all of the sudden?”

Rillian shrugged. “I’m not. Just passing the day.”

Issilian lent in. “I don’t know, you have that keen look.”

“Your imagining things.” Rillian responded, pushing the red haired elf back. Walking away he ruminated on this information. Issilian was a fool, but he was no liar. So two of the Queen’s own guard carried the same injuries that the assailants would have sustained, and no one could quite tell him how they got them. If it involved the Queen, he was reluctant to investigate further, it might only end in more danger for them all.

Rillian’s suspicions were being confirmed. Most likely it was the girl had been the real target of the assassins. It was understandable that someone in the royal household might want the human got rid of. They had probably just panicked when Valdagerion had discovered them.

He frowned. How by the stars was he going to break this to Valdagerion? He neded advice, the only person he could think of was Calis, their old teacher.

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With assurances that the chambers were quite safe, Mary and Valdagerion had returned, only to glad of the privacy. Vladagerion’s men had been particularly horrified to hear what had happened to their leader, and were now energetically providing extra security. Some of them disconcertingly had began winking at her, or patting her arse as she walked by. Surprisingly Val was only mildly disgruntled about this, and he explained that it was his men’s way of showing her affection after she had helped defend their leader.

While Val had been sleeping in the morning, Mary feeling peckish had wondered out of the chamber, to have her arse slapped yet again, by a huge smiling elf. Elf’s set great store by position, but being human, she could not technically be the Rhi’Arran’s consort, so they had settled on a nickname for her. “Aviel.”Which Darrah had explained meant small and fierce, usually applied to female hunting drakes.

“God’s I’m not a pet.” Mary had complained, but was somewhat flattered.

“Where are you going Aviel?” The elf guard smiled at her.

“Well…” She spun around. “I wanted some fresh fruit for Val’s and my breakfast.”

“I will get the salves to fetch some from the market.”

Slaves again. But it had given her an idea. “Where is the market?”

“Almost right on our doorstep. I can hear them hawking from my rooms on the front.”

“Oh, good.” Mary said. “I will go get them myself. No need to bother the slaves. I can bill the house by showing them these right.” Mary pointed to the temporary tattoos that Val had painstakingly drawn on her face.

“Yes…but…the Rhi’Arran…”

“Good. Well I will be back in a bit.”

“Just a minuet…”

“This is the way out right?” Mary waved jovially, and skipped down the corridor, the aquamarine silk of her dress sashaying around her.

The front door was a vast wooden affair. But it swung open, at her approach, slave who looked at her curiously. Mary smiled at them, biding them good morning, but the poor creature seemed to tongue tide to answer. Shrugging to herself she carried on, and went out in to the morning sunshine.

A bombardment of sounds, smells, and colours hit her the moment she stepped out of the archway in to the street. The elf guard had not being lying, a great market was held right outside the gates of the compound. It was how she imagined the great bazaars or Marrakesh, or Istanbul might look. Food of every kind was being sold, spices perfuming the air, green vegetables, butchers and fishmongers hawked their wares, and displayed their skills.

Even so early, the streets thronged with elf’s and their human slaves alike. Chatting and going about their daily business. With a scarf covering her hair, Mary was just one human slave among many. And she revelled in the freedom to browse as she pleased. Promising herself not to go far, she explored the market, taking her time. Picking up some of the many jewel like fruit, and smelling their sweetness, squeezing them for ripeness.

True enough, the markings alone indicated to which house the fruit would be charged to. And so fruit brought, Mary munching on a succulent yellow fruit that was much like a fig in taste and textual, she wondered aimlessly through the rest of the stalls. Elaborate glass ware, plants, fabrics of all hews, in short if you could think of it, it was probably on sale. For once since arriving here, Mary felt normal. Ok so it was not Covent Garden, or Camden but it was shopping, and that was to a young woman brought up in a consumer culture normal.

She came across a shop selling jewellery. Idly she had been looking over some pearl earrings. But the vendor, a greasy man who favoured the hard sell, soon sidled up to her. “Ah, beautiful hairm lady, your master would love to see you decorated in these, it will say that he is a person of class and taste. He will choose you above all the other harem women.”

“I think you have the wrong idea.” Mary stuttered, flushing hotly. They think I am a harem woman?!

The man only became more and more overfriendly, trying to hold up strings of jewels to her neck, and in the process dislodged her silk scalf.

“The Rhi’Arran’s human.” He breathed. “I have been insulting you, oh no mere garnets for you. Look I have diamonds, and sapphires to match even your eyes!”

“No, no. really I don’t….” Mary looked around franticly as her hair colour began to draw attention. She tried to put her scarf back over her head but it was too late, and a number of elf’s and human’s alike were crowding in at the doorway hoping to look at her. Mary managed to push her way out, and half jogging made her way down the street, ducking in to a side ally lose any more determined follower. As little as she wanted to admit it, Mary was a little afraid.




“Mary! I have been looking all over the market for you!” A framilar voice called out.

“Val. Oh I am so glad to see you, there was this horrid vendor.” She exclaimed, but halted mid flow looking up at the Elf who brow was as dark as a thunder cloud.

“Just a moment!” He said. “You have not explained to me how it comes that you were walking alone Mary, when you know not to leave the complex without me.”

“No.” Mary agreed. “But then, you have not explained to me how it comes to be your concern have you?”

“My concern? Mary, you are entirely my concern, you have been nothing but my concern from the night that I rescued you! You can not just run around the city unaccompanied!”

Mary crossed her arms. “I don’t see that it is a problem. All the other females get to walk about on their own.”

“But you are not a female elf!”

“And the human don’t get to go out?” She asked, knowing full well the slaves comings and goings.

“That’s not the same at all!”

“I can’t be tied to you the whole time that I am here. We will drive each other insane. I’m not a pet to be hold up! And in any event, I am not answerable to you for my actions Prince Valdagerion!”

“Oh yes you are!” He retorted, his voice like ice. “If you expect me to protect you, then you will confirm to our societies rules! Either you will do as I bid you, or you will destroy us both! You are not in mans land, and you must abide by our laws!”

She flushed, her lips parted. But what ever stinging reply she had been about to utter was suppressed. Mary pressed her lips together tightly. “I daresay you would be happy to wash your hands of me.”

“No.” He said coolly. “Quite the opposite. You can put that out of your mind.”

“I hate this.” She said softly, so that he barely caught it. “I just wanted to get some fruit.”

“Come on.” Valdagerion said, sliding his arm about her shoulders. “Your still very young aren’t you? After everything that has happened…Mary until who ever it was that attached us is caught and we get to the bottom of this it is important that you stay safe. Let my men and myself watch over you. You know it would destroy me for anything to happen to you.”

Mary sighed. “Why do you have to be so bloody reasonable! You know it makes it very hard to hate you when you are. And nothing makes one more cross then knowing that one is in the wrong.”

“I would not know. I’m never wrong.”

“All the same Val, a golden cage is still a cage.”

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A/N; Roya , Circie, Lovelyl thank you so much for the reviews they are greatly appritated and definatly help keep me going. There will be a happy ending eventuly, but there is a good deal of drama to come ;)