Conquering Lazar Read Online Free PDF Page B

you. I will not accept any disobedience from any of you."
    Elbi looked at the ground in fear that she would otherwise glare in the woman's direction. It shamed her that she disliked Mistress Tula so much. Mistress Tula had been placed in charge, and Elbi was to respect her at all times, but she found it difficult. Elbi knew her place and recoiled back into herself.
    Nico moved forward. "What we will do today is learn the most preliminary measures of defense. You will learn how to have the correct posture when you are being grabbed so that you may find a way out and free yourself. If you are unable to free yourself, we will show you how to move your arms and legs in such a way that will harm or slow your captor, do you all understand?"
    The fifteen women nodded without saying a word. For each woman there was an assigned soldier and for a moment, Elbi wondered if Nico would be the one to work with her. He began to walk toward her and she felt her stomach tighten. With subtlety, she eased her shoulders back and watched him as he approached. He looked at her, but she felt as though he was looking through her. Not seeing her. Another soldier stepped from behind Nico and moved toward her as Nico walked past and stood before Briar. Elbi didn't dare look at him in that moment, and she didn't know why. She instead rested her eyes on the soldier before her, a younger man with a deep olive complexion and green eyes.
    He smiled at her obligingly. "Ma'am," he deflected to her, giving her a brief nod of the head.
    "Elbi," she replied shortly, as she noticed Nico say something to Briar and then quickly walk away.
    Elbi looked at the soldier squarely. And so, the first morning of the harem's training commenced.
    Trained first in positions and stances, the women felt shy and awkward. Their bodies were not accustomed to prolonged bouts of physical activity. Their life of leisure had kept them soft and supple. And, undoubtedly, their grooming and pampering had left them as real life works of art, more to be admired than handled.
    But Nico walked around the women as they were propped up and guided, arms and legs poked and pulled into the right positions, and as the morning hours faded away into the afternoon, his voice grew louder and more forceful. To encourage their attention, he would tell them what they were up against and hoped that fear would be the greater teacher of the day.
    "Most of you have lived in Lazar for your entire adult lives, I am told," he began. He circled around each woman as he continued. "You have no idea the battle we have in store to conquer Lazar. Though we will be there to try to protect you, we will be easily outmatched by Jaden warriors, three to one. We are lucky that our army is growing daily, by allied forces, but Jaden still has the upper hand. I will tell you now what they will do."
    Elbi hung on his every word. Before they'd left Lazar they were told of Jaden's murderous rages through the desert communes. It had seemed that with each commune conquered, they become more fearsome and bloodthirsty. They considered themselves, Elbi had heard, to be equalizers of the world's wrongs. She was inherently afraid of them.
    "There was a siege on the commune I lived at last. Jaden came running down the dunes, screaming shrill calls to each other. I watched as they picked off our men one by one. Their swords were guided with swift pursuit, and I watched them kill men who were easily bigger in size and by far the smartest men of the commune. But their swords cut through them at the neck. They had a thirst that my commune didn't know existed. It wasn't for precious water. It was for blood. We didn't see it coming. I watched blood stain the sand, and I saw men who I called friends…" Nico's face contorted with the memory.
    Elbi was surprised to see him show such emotion now. He would stop every few moments and gaze at one of the women as she was held in a locked position by a soldier who would then guide her arm back and into