by Kirby Crow
“I just... I want... you can’t hold me penned up in here. I have to get out sometimes!” It came out plaintively, and Scarlet’s fingers massaged his temples. Liall noted his hands were shaking. “I can’t live in a box, I can’t. My parents, Deva keep them, tried to pen me in at home, and I couldn’t stay, not even for them. I had to be free, and now you... and I can’t...”
Liall strode across the room and put his arms around Scarlet. “Enough,” he said, greatly ashamed. “You can go. You hear me, Scarlet? You can go on the bear hunt.”
Gods, he thought, is this the best I can do? All these years without love, has it changed me into this? This clipped, growling man who snaps when he should be comforting, who answers in anger when he should be thankful?
So much to be thankful for lately, and he was so out of the habit that it was Scarlet’s heart that bore the brunt of his stupidity. He would have to learn how to be a lover again.
Scarlet kept his eyes closed and pressed his cheek to the breast of Liall’s coat. “It’s always so dark here,” he mumbled. Then; “My head hurts so.”
“I know, love.”
After a long moment, Scarlet pulled away and walked a few paces to the window, where he stood staring out at the landscape. “I do not like this place, I think,” he sighed out. “And I’m not sure it will ever like me.”
Liall tried to ignore what that meant, though it set his heart to beating faster. “Your headache is my fault,” he said, turning Scarlet to look at him. “Your people are acclimated to the sun, and you are used to spending all your time outdoors and traveling. You have been deprived of light for weeks now and I have not given one thought that it might affect you badly.”
“There are lamps,” Scarlet said.
“It is not the same.” Scarlet’s look was blank and Liall saw that he did not understand. “The Southern Continent is a temperate one and your seasons are mild,” he explained. “You have never had to stay inside a great deal of the time because of weather, have you?” Scarlet shook his head. “Here, we have learned that staying inside for too long, deprived of sunlight, will have very bad effects on some of us. On foreigners especially, and you were idle on the ship, too. I think it is finally catching up with you.”
“Is that why my head hurts?” Scarlet asked ruefully.
“Probably. We will amend this today,” Liall said. Appointments would have to be canceled and apologies made, but there was no other choice. Scarlet was too important to him. Liall called for Nenos.
***
Scarlet gaped ungraciously. “What’s this then?”
The solarium was tiled in light green glass, transparent as water. Overhead, the curved ceiling rained iridescent light upon the two men in a bright wash. It was also quite empty, this one being for the queen’s use alone, and Scarlet relaxed visibly.
“How’s it work?” Scarlet walked to the wall and touched one of the square tiles. Beyond the first glass wall was the wall of mirrors, a second false wall that served to intensify the light from the reflector above. Scarlet peered closely at the glass, trying to see beyond it. “It’s like looking into the pond back home.”
“Forget the pond. Come here.” Liall pushed Scarlet into a large and airy chair that sat squarely in the center of the round floor. The chair was woven from summer reeds and much too large for the small Hilurin seated in it. Scattered about the room were earthen pots containing green plants and flowering vines, and their scent perfumed the air. “You must come here a little every day at first, and sit with your eyes open. After you feel better, you can come every other day, and so on.”
Scarlet looked doubtful. “I still don’t see how plain light cures a headache.”
Liall kissed the top of Scarlet’s head and drew his hand down his lover’s face tenderly, regretting that he had spared so little time for Scarlet since they arrived. They were barely lovers, and already Liall was ignoring the most basic of duties he owed Scarlet. “You have much to learn here. I will ask Jochi about your education.”
That announcement did not have the desired effect. Scarlet scowled. “I ain’t a fucking draft horse you can curry and primp into drawing a carriage,” he said crudely. “So stop trying. I don’t need Jochi to teach me anything more than how to speak your damned gibberish.”
“That will take years.”
“Watch and see.”
All Liall had meant to do was show concern for him, but Scarlet had taken it to mean Liall wanted to change him. Liall wondered if he really did want to change Scarlet, and how much, and why.
“I apologize,” Liall said, mentally shoving the tangle aside for later. “I do love you the way you are, Scarlet.”
That mollified Scarlet a little. He looked up at the shining arc of the dome. “So this helps?”
“It will, if you follow my advice,” Liall said, careful not to frame it like an order. “There are certain foods and herbs that will help also. I will see to it.”
Scarlet sighed. “And I’ll have to let you, for I don’t know a thing about it.”
Liall’s hand sought the soft nape of Scarlet’s neck as they stood together. He caressed there, easing the tight, tense muscles. “You never had a need to learn before.”
Scarlet leaned back into Liall’s touch, eyes closing. “But I do now.” He looked up at Liall. “Right?”
Liall leaned over, bracing his arm on the back of the chair, and pressed soft, lingering kisses along the line of Scarlet’s jaw and over his chin. “Remember when we first met, and you refused me a kiss?”
Scarlet huffed a sound of amusement. “Wise of me, recalling the first time we did kiss. I bit you.”
“What about the second time?”
Scarlet’s wicked grin made Liall shiver. “Now that was a kiss, ugly mariners watching and all.”
Liall kissed the ink-black line of one eyebrow and then the other. “Now that I think on it, the kiss on the deck of the Ostre Sul was our third kiss. The second time, you were not even conscious.” Liall saw Scarlet did not understand him. “When I found you with Cadan, you had ceased to breathe,” Liall said softly.
Dark eyes stared back at him, and Liall marveled again how much their color could hide, how many secrets could be contained in a look, a glance.
“How did you...?”
“Like this.” Liall blew a short, light breath against his lips. “A mariner’s trick, for those drowned. You opened your eyes and said my name.”
“Liall.”
He nodded. “Your wolf of a Kasiri, as I will always be.” Liall fussed the edge of Scarlet’s silk collar, slightly rumpled, back into place. “It is Scarlet of Lysia I love. Scarlet the pedlar, with a patched crimson coat. Learn all you wish here, or nothing. I will love you no matter what. But can you love a fool of a prince?”
It seemed to be what Scarlet needed to hear. He gripped Liall’s collar and pulled the prince down for a longer kiss, on the mouth this time. “I liked you well enough as a bastard of a bandit Kasiri,” he said, his dark eyes glittering mischievously. “I guess I can love a prince.”
“Rake,” Liall accused, stealing another sweet taste from his mouth.
Scarlet pushed him away, laughing, and Liall followed his pointed look downwards. “I think we should stop.”
“Hm. Yes. It would not do to have the queen or her attendants walk in on us, although it might be fun.”
Scarlet pushed him away more firmly and tried to change the subject. “So, do I get a virca like yours for hunting?”
Liall was already beginning to regret his reckless promise. “For your own sake, you might reconsider joining the hunt. It is very dangerous, t’aishka. Will you not at least think about staying behind?”
Scarlet’s answer was to grin at him. “It’s not my fault if you make promises in haste and regret them later.” He flopped back in the chair. “So, how long am I supposed to sit here?”
***
The nightmare was unformed, all shadows and blood and faces drawn in fear or pain, like the hal
f-thoughts that devil a person just before waking. Scarlet woke, knowing only that he had dreamed of horses and snow, and of seeing Liall racing ahead on his mount while Scarlet shouted for him to stop. Scarlet’s heartbeat thundered and he sat up quickly, a cry echoing in his ears.
“Liall?” he called. He pulled the bed-curtains aside, but Liall was not there.
The outer door opened immediately and Nenos stood there. Gods, did the man never sleep? Nenos approached the bed anxiously.
“Ser? Un huna hircenge’kaya th’hus?”
“What? No, I’m... it was a dream.” Nenos shook his head, and Scarlet made a formless motion in the air. “You understand? Dream?”
He shook his head. “Cenge’kaya?”
Scarlet dropped his hands. “Like talking to a badger, it is.” he sighed and imitated the motion he had seen Liall use, the one of dismissal. It worked like a charm, and Nenos bowed out of the room.
Rising, Scarlet found his robe and went to curl up in the chair beside the fire to wait out the rest of the night. He did not want to risk going back to sleep and dreaming again, not like that, and there was a heaviness all around his heart, as if the dream were a warning.
After an hour or so, he heard the door open again and turned to see Nenos. Nenos seemed surprised to see him still awake, and approached and bowed before speaking softly in Sinha. Scarlet understood very little more Sinha than he had before they landed, but he was getting to know Nenos’s intonations. He shook his head. No, he didn’t want anything.
Nenos studied his face for a moment and withdrew. He returned in a short time with a tray that held che and some cold biscuits with poppy seeds sprinkled on them. Scarlet sighed inwardly, but thanked Nenos and told him to go away again. Scarlet sat there under the window and let the che get cold, brooding and thinking.
Nenos left him alone, but came in a while later. Seeing the untouched tray, he frowned, and spoke to Scarlet softly, questioningly. Scarlet shook his head and waved him away impatiently. Nenos left again, but Scarlet could tell he was not happy about it.
Only a few minutes later, the outer door opened and he heard Nenos let someone in. The lamplight from the hall flooded the room, and Jochi, rumpled and obviously just roused from his bed, stood there bowing to Scarlet. “Can I be of service, ser?”
Scarlet sighed, exasperated and near anger.
Jochi frowned. “What’s amiss, ser?” he persisted.
“Nothing. I’m fine, honestly. I don’t know why they bothered you. I just had a foul dream.”
Jochi smiled again and took the chair opposite Scarlet’s. Nenos closed the door softly. “It is never a bother to serve a member of the royal family. Nenos knows that Prince Nazheradei cannot be disturbed at the moment, so he sent for me.”
Scarlet snorted and looked at the fire. Cannot be disturbed? Why? “I’m not a member of the royal family.”
“Strictly speaking, no, but in Rshan, appearances can matter almost as much as reality. You are a foreigner, yet you enjoy a protected status from Prince Nazheradei and you were accepted by our Queen.”
“What does that mean, protected status?”
“Of course, a Hilurin would need to be protected in Rshan. You know we do not allow foreigners here.”
“What would happen to me if I didn’t have this status from the prince?”
Jochi looked vastly unhappy. “You would be killed, ser.” He looked away, seeming embarrassed. “I am sorry, but that is our law. No lenilyn may set foot on Rshani soil without permission from the reigning monarch. Even then, the people do not like it.”
“Why the hell not?” Scarlet was getting a little angry. “What did we ever do to you that made your people hate us so much?”
“Oh, we... they do not hate you, ser,” Jochi said, excluding himself from the lot of them. “They fear you.”
Scarlet blinked, trying to mask his surprise, and Jochi watched him closely.
“You did not know?”
Jochi had been sincere with him so far, so Scarlet decided to answer honestly. “No,” he said. “I didn’t know. I feel like I’m in a story, or a dream that I can’t wake up from.” He studied his hands next, tired of looking into the fire, which seemed to wink at him with mocking red eyes. “I’ve always had a gift with languages, but Sinha is unlike anything I’ve ever tried to learn before. I’m afraid it will be a long time before I can really talk to people here. And I’m used to talking to new people, being able to exchange stories and ideas with them. Now it seems all I have are you and Liall, and Liall is seldom here.” Scarlet knew he sounded pouting and immature, and so he deliberately pasted a smile on his face. “It’s not that I’m homesick,” he said. “I’m never homesick. But at this moment, I want nothing more than to see sunsets and mountains again.”
Jochi’s expression was sympathetic. “Prince Nazheradei has many important matters to attend to. He had many friends and allies when he lived in Rshan. He is a trained warrior, and more than that; an adept and practiced leader, a skill that comes naturally to him. People trust his judgment.”
Jochi told him nothing he did not already know from witnessing Liall with the Kasiri. “Why did he leave his home for a life in Byzantur?”
Jochi shook his head regretfully. “I cannot tell you that, ser, and I am sorry for it.”
“Can you at least tell me what he’s doing when he’s away all the time? Is he going to be king?”
Jochi looked scandalized. “Indeed not!”
Not the answer he expected. Wasn’t Liall a prince the same as Cestimir, and older? “Oh...well. Why did he come back, then?”
Jochi was silent for a long moment, and then shook his head almost angrily. “Prince Nazheradei wants you kept apart from this, but I cannot see the harm in telling you what everyone at court already knows. Keeping so much basic knowledge from you may prove disastrous at some point, as your question just proved. What if you had asked me that publicly?” He leaned forward. “See? You don’t even know why that would be dangerous. I will tell you what I can, most of which is common knowledge in any home in Rshan. Prince Cestimir is the Crown Prince, next in line for the throne of Rshan. His father, Lankomir, was half-brother to Queen Nadiushka's late husband.”
“Liall’s father was her first husband?”
“The same.”
“Did he die a long time ago?”
Jochi nodded. “Yes. A few months before Prince Nazheradei was born.”
So Liall had never known his father. “How?”
“By misadventure. A snow bear hunt, so I understand. The queen married Lankomir some years ago. They had several other children together, but none who lived beyond their second year. Prince Cestimir is their only child who thrived.”
Liall’s father had died on a bear hunt? No wonder he seemed so unsettled by the prospect of one. And no wonder he didn’t want you to go, Scarlet thought with a little twinge of guilt, remembering how he had accused Liall of trying to box him up. “But I thought Eleferi—”
“He is Prince Cestimir’s half-brother, the son of Lankomir by his first wife, as is Eleferi's elder brother, Vladei.”
Scarlet frowned again. “Liall said that name once. I got the feeling he didn’t like Vladei much.”
Jochi smiled a little. “No, he wouldn't. That’s partly because Vladei, being a nephew to Nadiushka's first husband, the dead king, has a claim to the throne of Rshan that some might accept as more valid than Cestimir's.”
Scarlet wondered if that’s all there was to it. “Does he want to be king, this Vladei?”
“You may depend on it.”
“Do the people like him more than they like Cestimir?”
“That's not a very relevant question when it comes to royal politics. The barons know Vladei and most dislike him, but they don’t know Cestimir at all. They don’t know what to expect of him, and he’s still very young. Vladei is a grown man. All these currents are why Prince Nazheradei is here.”
“So he can convince them to support Cestimir.”
Jochi nodded approval. “Very astute. An endorsement by Prince Nazheradei, along with his promise of support and guidance as Regent, would go very far in securing Prince Cestimir’s future.”
“What happens if he can’t convince them?”
“Then I think, ser, you will be getting your wish to see sunsets again very quickly.”
And what would that mean for Cestimir? The affairs of princes and kings were above his head, but Scarlet knew that few rulers would tolerate having another candidate for the throne alive and well. Would Cestimir have to leave? What would Liall say to that?
“But,” Scarlet said, struggling to put all these kings and princes together in his head “If the queen is Liall’s mother the same as Cestimir, why isn’t Liall next in line? Was his father unacceptable in some way?”
