52 Chapter 52: Goals Part 1

The braided shark-leather cords creaked around Trals's wrists. He twisted, pulled, but Andrea had tied him up well.

She gave him a little slap anyway. "Stop that."

"It is a prisoner's first duty to escape." Light from the tent's smoke-hole shown off his teeth. "But perhaps the knots in which you gird me are more tightly binding than this mere shark leather."

Andrea rolled her eyes. "For Christ's sake. Is there any time when you shut up?"

"I might be more amenable to bargaining if you took off your clothes."

Her lips pursed. "I think there are some things you need to learn about submission, amante."

"One lesson that Trals Scarback has never taken to heart."

"Time to go back to school, cave-boy." She straddled his body, leaned toward his face.

Trals twitched under her. "Strange. I feel the impulse to kill you, but the rage is but an echo. A hole where something once - what are you looking at?"