by Eva Brandt
I allowed my mother to fuss over me as my handmaidens helped me into my dress and combed my long hair into an ornate braid adorned with threads of woven gold. The pattern and color matched the embroidery of my otherwise white gown. My mother was the one who placed my circlet on my head and lowered a discreet veil over my face.
“There you go,” she said, beaming with pride. “You look like a gift from the gods.”
I didn’t know if that was true or not, but I acknowledged the importance of perfecting my appearance today. After all, these men were taking the trouble to come fight for my hand. If I wanted to pick the best out of the competitors, it stood to reason that I’d have to look my best as well.
Once my mother had deemed me ready for the outing, we left my quarters, only to find my father already waiting for us outside. “There is a sight for sore eyes. There is no greater blessing for a man than to see his two most precious treasures side by side.”
“Flatterer,” my mother said, her face flushing slightly. “Now is not an appropriate time for such things. We must make haste to the arena. It takes forever to get there from the palace.”
She wasn’t wrong. Ys was a beautiful city, but its unique look made it occasionally difficult to navigate. There were ways around that, of course, but I knew better than to use them on such a day, when so many people were around and could witness it.
“Naturally, my beloved queen,” my father answered. “Everything is prepared for our departure. But you need not fret. The tournament can hardly begin without us there, and the populace will not mind waiting for us.”
My father was right. The ornate boat that would carry us through the canals of Ys was waiting for us, flanked by an honor guard ready to jump to our aid should anything go amiss. The moment we left the palace grounds and glided into the public area, flower petals started to descend upon us as countless people called out our names.
“Princess Dahud, Princess Dahud, my son will compete! Pick him!”
“Thank you for your generosity, King Gradlon!”
“Queen Malgven, give us your blessing!”
Considering the cacophony of voices and the number of people who had decided to welcome us in front of the palace, I expected the number of spectators at the actual tournament to be less than impressive. I couldn’t have been more wrong. By the time we arrived at the special arena where the tournament was being held, the stands were already filled to capacity. Almost every single person in Ys who had not signed up as a participant had decided to join in as a spectator. None of them seemed to mind the wait or the unavoidable discomfort they had to endure to be here. Meanwhile, the contestants had gathered on the beach, in front of the tents that had been set up to make sure nobody keeled over and died until they actually had to fight the battles.
Cheers and raucous applause exploded as my parents and I left the boat. Flanked by our faithful contingent of guards, we made our way to the elevated stand reserved for us.
My mother and I sat down, but my father took a step forward and lifted his hand. It was a simple gesture, but his stance and authority more than made up for the lack of flourishes or extravagance. Silence fell over the arena, so swiftly I almost thought my mother had cast some kind of muting spell around us.
Of course, this was not the case, and my father proved this when he finally spoke. “Welcome, my people, to the grandest tournament Kerys has ever held, and the most important one in all of its history. Today is a day of greatness, as we stand here to learn who among the warriors present is worthy of my beloved daughter’s hand. By the time this competition is over, one of these brave men will join my family, and I will be proud to call him son.”
He paused for effect and on cue, the crowd started to cheer and applaud once again. My father allowed them a few moments to express their enthusiasm, and then, silenced them. “But before such a happy event can occur, there are numerous challenges ahead. Come forth, warriors, and fight!”
This time, it was the participants to the competition who started to cheer, all of them eager to do exactly what my father had said. I watched them from my seat and idly wondered which one of them would turn out to be my husband.
I knew better than to think the men with shinier armors had a better chance than the others. If anything, the opposite was the case, as hardship could often cultivate strength that simply did not appear in people who had only experienced luxury. Granted, my father’s trained soldiers and nobles had been to war in the Northern Lands, and that couldn’t have been pleasant. I supposed it all depended on each individual and how they had interpreted their experiences.
It was a shame that I couldn’t experience the enthusiasm they did, but I still found their display promising. If nothing else, I had a wide variety of options to pick from, and that increased my chances to find a husband who best suited my needs.
Relaxing on my ornate seat, I pasted on a smile that was almost honest. My father might not realize it, but his choice had put me on the right path, the path that would lead me to taking the throne of Kerys. It was only a matter of time now until I finally accomplished my goal.
The Suitors
Thrandur
“The king is marrying off his daughter? The princess?”
The innkeeper rolled his eyes at my shocked inquiry. “That’s what I said, yes, boy. For gods’ sake, it’s not like King Gradlon has any other children.”
Halvar took the comment in stride, even if we hadn’t actually known that before we’d started this conversation to begin with. “Well, that’s precisely the point, isn’t it?” he drawled, from his seat next to me. “He only has one daughter. You’d think he’d have her marry some noble. But he isn’t. Can you blame us for being surprised?”
“I heard it might have been Princess Dahud’s idea,” one of the other patrons piped up. He belched, tapped his chest and slid his tankard closer to the innkeeper in a wordless request for more ale. “She wanted to have the most skilled warrior of the land as her husband. Or something.”
“Really?” I shot the man a look of disbelief. I found it highly doubtful that the king would give his daughter so much say in her own future. The offspring of royalty usually tended to have their lives arranged for them by their parents, to the point that their betrothals were chosen since before they could crawl. I knew that better than anyone. As a woman, Dahud should’ve been in far worse position.
Then again, perhaps things were different here than in the Northern Lands. I was a little new to Kerys. I didn’t know that much about the customs of the people here beyond what I’d heard from rumors.
The verbose stranger did not blame me for my skepticism. “My second cousin heard it from a friend of hers who works in the palace,” he explained instead. “She’s the one who came up with this strange idea to include foreigners too. It’s not that big of a secret, and it makes sense that the king would do things this way. He’s always indulged the princess.”
Interesting. I had deemed the nature of the tournament unusual, but I would have never guessed that it had been the princess’s suggestion.
“Do you want to participate?” the innkeeper asked. “You look like fine, strong lads. You might have a shot.”
Halvar took a sip of his own ale and snorted. “Please. We’re only travelers with barely any coin to our names. The king would never allow either of us to marry his beloved daughter.”
That wasn’t completely accurate, but we had no intention of revealing our true identities to these people, or the reasons why we’d come to Kerys. As far as everyone knew, we were Franks who had left their homeland on the Rhine after growing disenchanted with our leader’s approach to the Roman threat. I had actually feared that our cover would not hold, as our Celtic was accented and our looks did betray our Nordic ancestry if one paid attention. However, our efforts to hide our more distinctive features had paid off, and nobody seemed to have pinpointed our origins so far.
The patrons of this inn weren’t any different. Another man let out a loud burp,
as if to confirm my thoughts, and said, “I can understand why you’d be leery, but there are other rewards. Even if you don’t win the princess’s hand, you might be able to earn a position on the royal guard.”
“Not a bad deal, I say,” someone else pointed out. “Nobody can touch Kerys, not even Rome. I’ve signed up, and I have a wife waiting for me at home.”
The innkeeper burst into laughter. “Bet you’d leave her in a heartbeat if it meant you could get between the princess’s legs. I’ve never seen her myself, but rumor has it she’s quite the beauty.”
“That doesn’t mean much if she’s as sickly as they say. That’s the whole reason why they waited so long to marry her, right?”
“She’s probably the type to just lie there and let us do all the work,” another man said. “Wouldn’t matter to me, though. She must be as tight as palace security.”
Several other men joined in, all adding their own assessments of the princess’s looks and attributes. Having had enough of the conversation, I threw a couple of coins onto the counter and left my seat. Halvar followed me without being asked to, and together, we left the inn.
Originally, we had intended to rent a room there for the night, but things had not gone according to plan. Like every other inn we’d run into since we’d entered Kerys, this one was completely full as well. We were stuck having to sleep out under the stars, which was not ideal. It was getting colder and I suspected a storm front was headed our way.
Much to my relief, we managed to find a form of shelter, in the stables used to keep the horses. We climbed onto a haystack and curled together in a ball like we had when we’d been children. Halvar threw his cloak over us and for the longest time, we just lay there in silence, taking in the simple purity of the moment, the scent of the hay, the soft breathing of the animals, the way our bodies slotted together just right.
I could still sense a dose of restlessness vibrating inside Halvar, so I took the initiative instead of letting him fuss over what he wanted to say for hours on end. “You think we should go to Ys and join the tournament.”
Halvar jolted slightly, and in the barely there light that made its way into the stables through the cracks between the planks, his green eyes seemed to gain an almost surreal glow. “You know me too well. It seems like a good opportunity. I mean, think about it, Thrand. We don’t have any coin and it’s proving to be a challenge to find work. It might be better in Ys, but even if we don’t win the tournament—which we don’t actually want to do—the competition could earn us some recognition. People are more likely to hire someone they’ve already seen fight and win battles as their guards. Right now we’re two waterlogged Frankish travelers who look more like street rats than capable warriors.”
“I’ll have you know that, according to the innkeeper, we look like fine, strong lads, more than worthy of the hand of a princess,” I joked.
Halvar chuckled, and his soft breath tickled my face in a familiar, sensual caress. “Well, he’s not the most discerning character, and I do believe he’d indulged a little too much in the ale he sold to his patrons.”
Setting aside all amusement, I decided to approach the matter more seriously. “I don’t know, Halvar. Isn’t this sort of thing exactly why I left home? I don’t want to have anything to do with betrothals or marrying for position.”
“I understand that,” Halvar answered, “and I’m not going to force you to do it if you don’t want to. I won’t lie. I have some doubts as well. But for some reason, I feel like this might be important. I don’t know why. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s just…”
He trailed off, obviously uncertain how to explain his intuitive grasp of the situation. I didn’t need to hear anything more. I trusted Halvar’s instincts. He had never led us astray, and if he believed that this might be a good idea, it was certainly worth checking out.
“One of your gut feelings?” I asked, musing over his words. “All right, Halvar, I’m in. Who knows? If nothing else, it might earn us an actual bed and a warm meal. If those men inside are to be believed, the king has shown generosity toward the competitors. At the end of the day, if we do end up advancing in the competition, we can always fold once we’re in a good enough position, so we don’t have to worry about the whole marriage with the princess thing.”
“Yeah, we could do that,” Halvar whispered, “but if you really don’t like the idea, don’t force yourself. I know it’s a little complicated, considering King Gradlon’s history with the Northern Lands.”
I snorted. “It’s not that complicated. Gradlon won’t start another war, not now, not when he has Kerys to protect. You worry too much. I’m fine.”
He didn’t reply, at least, not through words. Instead, he reached for the bindings of my breeches and slid his hand into my pants, engulfing my already half-hard cock into his hot, calloused palm.
This was a terrible place for a tryst, and we knew better than to engage in such activities when we weren’t behind closed doors, or at least somewhere more private. Even back home, we’d always been very careful. If our relationship had been discovered, it would’ve been a disaster. The sheer concept that I would agree to yield in a sexual manner to another man, especially one beneath my station, would’ve caused my father to try to kill us both.
Maybe he would’ve been entitled to do it. Maybe it would’ve been more honorable and appropriate for me to marry a woman and have children. But I’d found that I couldn’t make myself go through with such a sham of a marriage, not when it would’ve meant tearing myself away from one of the few things in my life that were truly real.
Rumor at my father’s court was that Kerys didn’t frown as much on people who indulged in same-sex relationships, which was why we’d come here to begin with. But it was still only a rumor, and so far, I’d been unable to verify it. If anyone stumbled onto us in a compromising position, there was still a good chance they might not have a good reaction.
Unfortunately, it was a little difficult to focus on such things when my longtime lover seemed so determined to make me forget about them. He twisted his wrist just so, jerking on my shaft the way he knew I liked. I groaned and pulled him closer, crushing my lips to his in a messy kiss that held far too much desperation for my comfort. His beard scratched my cheeks, a familiar sensation I had grown to like. But even if I had hated the feeling, it would not have mattered. Halvar was probably beating himself up again for having lured me out of my comfortable home or other such nonsense. I refused to allow that. I refused to ever let him think that he was not enough.
There was no point in telling him that the wealth I’d been born into had never brought me happiness and he was the only one who’d made me feel less empty. He already knew. Besides, we’d always been better at communicating with our bodies, and as crazy as it might have been, I needed to touch him as well, to give him the same pleasure he was giving me.
As I thrust my tongue into his mouth, I undid the bindings of his pants and jerked them down. It was a little awkward, since Halvar’s ministrations on me and our current position made me less than coordinated. Halvar wriggled his hips to help me, releasing his cock from its confines. The moment I enveloped his shaft in my fist, he let out a low, almost pained hiss and bit on my lower lip so hard I tasted blood. I didn’t care. I started to pump his cock, reveling of the feel of his dick in my hand. Halvar broke our kiss just long enough to express his appreciation for my decision. “Thrand… Fuck, Thrand. Yes, just like that. Feels amazing.”
I would have liked to say that I deserved the praise he bestowed upon me, but I probably didn’t. My motions were too sloppy, desperate, and clumsy, but the spell Halvar was weaving around me through his touch kept me from focusing. We didn’t have much room or any supplies, but it did not matter. When Halvar kissed me again and brought our cocks together, we fell into a perfect, natural pace, like we had always been meant to be this way.
I ended up having to let go of his dick. To make up for it, I clutched Halvar’s shoulders
so hard I knew I would leave bruises. I had just enough foresight to shove both our shirts to the side, mindful of the mess we’d cause, and then, rational thought faded away entirely. I started to thrust into his fist with wild abandon, seeking the pleasure and rightness only he had ever been able to give me.
“Come on, Thrand,” Halvar gasped out between kisses. “Show me… Show me how gorgeous you are.”
I would never understand how he managed to stay coherent when we were in bed together. I always fell apart, and today was no different. The only response I could provide was an inarticulate ‘ngh’, followed by some additional panting, whining, and groaning that would’ve embarrassed me if I’d had any shame left.
The frottage could hardly compare to some of the wilder, crazier things we’d done. Still, at that moment, the simple, visceral pleasure of feeling his cock against mine was more than enough to compensate for the fact that I couldn’t take him inside me. His touch and his taste alone had me writhing against him, and before long, I could feel my imminent orgasm pooling in my groin, threatening to consume every fiber of my being.
Halvar still came first, his seed splattering all over my cock and my abdomen. The sensation of his cum landing on my skin propelled me over the edge as well. Burying my face in his shoulder to muffle my cries, I rode the waves of my climax, the pleasure sweeping through my body like a devastating thunderstorm.
Halvar held onto me, and a low keening cry that sounded like my name escaped his lips. That single syllable, his pet name for me, sounded like a song, fiercer and crisper than any ode my father’s skalds could create. I felt it echo inside me, in that part of me that always felt lacking, and embraced the intimacy and affection written within it, praising the gods for having granted me this gift.
