By My Side ... (A Valentine's Day Story) by Christine Blackthorn Read Free Book Online Page A

those in control. The
most common methods are pain or humiliation over an extended period
of time leading to St Valentine's Day. Less common are methods that
will push the ErGer to the brink of death -- due to obvious
reasons. They can backfire rather badly."
    "Common wisdom?" His voice
sounded choked.
    "Adrianus has, quietly,
collected a wide range of documentation regarding ErGer. Especially
outside the bonding frenzy on Valentine's day, it is necessary to
undermine the mental shields of an ErGer through either fear or
pain combined with sex. Even on Valentine's Day, there will not be
a permanent bond if the bonding partner is not able to suppress the
re-establishment of the mental shields."
    A bond outside those days
around St Valentine, when the blood agent accumulated and drugged
the ErGer, was rare, some thought all the instances thereof as
nothing more than pure myth. But as ErGer were so scarce, and as
most courts preferred to avoid the bloody duels fought for access
to the few there were, rules had been established to avoid
unnecessary bloodshed. Any court could hold an ErGer -- but outside
those few days in February, a Lord had to allow anyone access to
the ErGer, permitting attempts at bonding at least once a month.
That was nothing more than the sad reality of an ErGer's life.
    Still, it was hard to continue
to speak. The topic cut too close to her heart, brought to mind too
well the desolation of her last few years. It was almost impossible
to preserve her academic air. But she would tell him. She had
promised him she would not withhold any information which might
prove useful for a bonding, but if she had to give him the tools to
destroy her, she might as well get it over fast. Her words sped up,
almost tumbling over each other.
    "There was no way for Adrianus
to keep my existence a secret from other courts, and even had he
been able to, his own courtiers would have demanded the opportunity
to bond me. He bought me three years by insisting I was too young
to be subjected to the rigours of bonding outside my immediate
surrounding -- but then he had to allow them access."
    She took a deep breath, somehow
feeling this did not do the situation justice.
    "He did all he could. Even
though he let them try, he made clear that he would only allow it
under certain conditions: no blood, no broken skin or permanent
injury, nothing that would threaten my wellbeing, no choking or
prolonged starvation."
    "How magnanimous of him."
    There was a strange bitterness
in his words and for a moment she wondered if he felt betrayed. Her
inability to bond was common knowledge among non-humans of all
kinds, a tantalising piece of salacious information bandied around
to enliven a dull conversation. When her presence in Innsbruck had
leaked to the other courts there had been a sudden increase in the
visitors to the court but after too many attempts to bond her had
failed, the interest had waned.
    Even now there would be one or
two a year who found their way to Innsbruck in a fool's hope they
could succeed where others had failed, but by and large the world
had accepted that she was defective. They thought her disabled in
some way which would make a bond unlikely at best. She had heard
too often how a disgruntled visitor had counselled Adrianus to
simply drain her, to make use of her blood as she was good for
nothing else.
    Yes, she had banked on his
ignorance as to her deficiencies when she had struck the bargain
with him -- but when he had made clear that he knew of her she had
assumed he knew all her failures. But what if he had not? What if
he, an orc, had not heard all the dirty details of the disabled
ErGer, the stone around Lord Adrianus's neck? She knew some called
her Adrianus's Folly , a play on the title of his most famous
poem, Alexander's Folly , in which he described the downfall
of Alexander the Great.
    She must have made a noise, or
he had picked up her disquiet from the way she had tensed on his
back, for he turned his head