by Derr, Megan
"Shah," Shahjahan corrected. "When we are alone, you should call me Shah." He smiled, and Nanda could not resist smiling back. "Another kiss, my lovely Nanda? And then I shall have to go and deal with everyone else."
"Yes, Shah." Nanda leaned in to give the requested kiss.
*~*~*
Nanda ignored, as he always did, the negativity he could feel emanating from more than a few people in the crowd. If anyone thought he should have been with his family beneath the rocks on a far-away mountain, that was their opinion. Once he had let such things affect him; no longer.
Eyes closed, Nanda focused on his music. His fingers moved fluidly on the strings; he did not bother trying to think about what he was playing—his fingers always knew before he did, by the time he mastered a song. And this was one he'd known forever; a song he'd written, based on a lullaby his nursemaid sang to him.
He'd been with Shah for nearly ten years. In all that time, he had spent at least a moment of every day wishing that he had become Shah's under happier circumstances. That his family, as aggravating as they were to him, would redeem themselves.
But they had died doing the same things that had gotten them exiled. It felt, on some level, like they were betraying him.
Nanda kept playing, letting the music take everything away. Let the music he loved, and which they had always disdained, wash them from his life completely.
He looked up as the music faded into silence and returned the four gazes watching him so carefully. Shah, who had trusted and wanted him despite the happenings of that night, and men who were brothers as much as lovers. He looked and gave one of his whispery smiles that only they could see.
Beynum
"Majesty," the guards greeted as they released their prisoner.
The king and guards alike were surprised when the prisoner dropped to his knees on his own, rather than having to be forced. And though has hands were bound behind his back, he managed to move with the inherent grace of a wild cat.
Shah arched an eyebrow, instantly intrigued by the seemingly complacent prisoner, by the fact they'd brought a prisoner directly to him at all. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked idly, hand reluctantly sliding from Nanda's hair.
"Majesty," one of the guards repeated. "A pirate, one of three dozen recently captured."
"Then should he not be with his fellows for sentencing?"
The guards nodded. "Yes, Majesty. But this one has something that we thought would be of interest to you."
"And what is that?"
Nodding again, the men forced the prisoner to his feet and turned him roughly around. "My, my," Shah said, hearing Nandakumar's gasp of surprise and pleasure.
Across the prisoner's back in black ink was Shah's sunburst crest. Not the sword and falcon royal crest, but Shah's personal emblem. It spread from the top of his shoulders and neck down to the small of his back, done in a level of detail to match the work of royal artists. Beautiful. "I do not recall giving you leave to use my symbol, prisoner." Shah motioned for his guards to exit, leaving him and Nanda alone with the captured pirate. "So why do you wear it?"
"Wear it?" the prisoner asked, grinning. "You make it sound, Majesty, like the tattoo is a piece of clothing. It's been inked into my flesh from the moment I could afford to have it done. I don't wear it."
Shah fought back a smile, taken with the audacity that he should by all rights beat out of the man. "Why do you bear my mark then?"
A smile instead of a grin, tinged with sadness—or perhaps nostalgia. "I doubt Your Majesty remembers the incident at all. But when I was ten, I was playing with some friends and fell into the Green River."
"You can't be …" Shah stared. "I remember the incident quite clearly." His voice was dry as he continued. "I was made quite the hero while in public, but once in private I was beaten quite soundly for so foolishly jumping in the river to save a mere peasant." He shook his head.
"The mere peasant appreciated the effort, Majesty."
Shah didn't quite succeed in hiding his smile that time. "What is your name, mere peasant?"
Teeth, surprisingly white for a peasant-turned-pirate, flashed in a pleased grin. "Beynum."
This one, Shahjahan thought, was going to be an interesting addition. "Nanda," he said softly, turning his head to glimpse the man sitting to the right of his throne.
Nandakumar watched Beynum, who returned the thorough perusal. "Yes," he said quietly.
"I thought you would approve," Shah said, letting his satisfied smile show. "Beynum," he tasted the name. "A strange name for a man who grew up in the mountains."
Beynum shrugged, looking suddenly less amused. "My father was a sailor. How he met my mother, I don't know. But he left again. My name is—or was, perhaps—his. Maybe she thought I'd be the Beynum that stayed with her."
"But you didn't."
A shrug. "No, I didn't. For many reasons—the largest being that I can see why my father left."
"A hard fact for a son to face, the failings of his parents."
Beynum shrugged again. "I told her I would return, and I did—but in my absence she packed up and vanished. Where she is now, I don't know. I returned to the sea."
"Are you especially fond of the sea?" Shah sat back, relaxing. "Nanda, cut him loose."
Nanda rose smoothly to his feet. His floor-length hair, loosely bound today, waved like rippling silk as he approached Beynum. From the folds of his skirt he drew a small knife and cut the ropes that bound Beynum's arms, then returned to Shah's side.
"Not especially—I enjoy her company, but she does not call to me."
Beynum had all the grace of the wild jungle cats Shah had seen when he was young, traveling every inch of the kingdom that would someday be his. He also had their size—from a distance they did not seem so large; but once close the cats made a man feel quite small and fragile. He did not doubt Beynum was also taller.
Shah bit back an amused smirk; the council would not like this addition at all. Even less than they had liked his selection of Nanda. He wondered sometimes what he'd wind up with if the council was responsible for choosing his harem.
"So you would not miss it if you were moved further inland?"
"… No, Majesty." Beynum looked at him in confusion, sensing that the conversation was more than the curiosity of the king.
"What, precisely, are your crimes?"
Beynum's grin returned. "Stealing; selling stolen goods. I think the captain wished I'd been a bit more bloodthirsty, but I find knocking a man out is healthier for me than killing him."
Shah heard Nanda make a noise that was a mix of amusement and exasperation. It would be entertaining to see how the ever-serious Nanda got along with the more carefree Beynum. "So no family, no great crimes to dismiss … Any other attachments, Beynum?"
Beynum shook his head slowly, as if unsure he wanted to give that response. "None, Majesty."
"Excellent." He stood up and walked toward Beynum. "Nanda is my only so far; you will be the second. I expect you to be a team. Is that clear?"
"H—" Beynum shook his head, blindly standing up as Shah bid, unable to finish his thought as the king leaned up to kiss him—hard, possessively, and not knowing how to back away from a challenge. Beynum was returning it before he had a chance to comprehend anything beyond that he was being kissed.
Shah broke the kiss and stepped away, holding out a hand and bringing forward Nanda. "This is Nandakumar. I expect you to get along."
Beynum shook his head, then looked at Nanda, examining him as thoroughly the second time as he had the first. "Get along how?"
This time Shah laughed, and he could see that Nanda was smiling. "Do you object, Beynum my pirate, to joining my harem?"
"No …" Beynum looked at Shah. "I think you're crazy, Majesty. But you won't find me objecting."
*~*~*
"The palace is going to be filled to the brim. People will be spilling out of their rooms." Beynum leaned on the balcony ledge, watching the crowd being herded thro
ugh the wide front courtyard and into the palace.
Long, thin fingers traced the edge of his tattoo before Nanda was leaned over his shoulder, humming idly in thought. "Shah will have no free time while they're all here. We'll have to see if we can hide him from time to time."
Bey laughed. "That shouldn't be too hard." He shifted his gaze from the crowd to where the king stood watching everything, arms folded across his chest, mouth turned down in pensive frown as he listened to the men talking and arguing around him. "So what precisely happened?"
Nanda moved to stand next to him, folding his arms on the ledge and leaning over to get a better look. "A storm. That close to the coast, it was bound to happen eventually. Though, if I recall correctly, this is the first one of such magnitude in some years."
More than a few of the people who happened to glance up continued to stare as long as they could, eager to get a good look at the men on the balcony who could only be members of the king's harem. "Guess we'll be bloated for a bit, then. But at least it looks like a good number of them survived it."
"Maybe half, or so the early estimates are reporting."
Bey grimaced. "I stand corrected. Poor Shah."
"Poor everyone," Nanda said dryly. "Give it a week and this place will be thick with hostility."
Bey clapped him on the back. "Then I guess you'd better brush off a few of your happier tunes and keep them too busy dancing to fight."
"And what are you going to be doing then?" Nanda demanded, stepping out of range.
"Laugh at you of cou …" Bey drifted off and leaned further over the balcony. "It couldn't be." He shook his head. "I think I'm seeing things."
Nanda just looked at him.
"I could have sworn I saw my mother."
"Possible, I suppose." Nanda smirked. "Personally I think Aik just got you good this morning."
Bey smirked, incident forgotten. "How would you know? You stay in bed longer than a court woman out all night with a man she isn't married to."
"At least I was never the man they snuck off to see," Nanda replied tartly, abandoning the balcony to return to the cooler air inside. The long tail of his hair swung back and forth behind him, secured by a series of dark red ribbons.
Laughing loudly enough to draw the attention of several from the crowd below, Bey followed Nanda back inside. "Do you want me to bring up the rumors about you?"
"Try and see what happens to you."
Bey just grinned. "You love challenging me, don't you?"
"You're going to keep the queen waiting if you don't hurry up."
"Is it that late already? Drat it—I'll get you later then." Bey darted forward suddenly, grabbing Nanda by the waist and hauled him close for a quick kiss. "Stay out of trouble while I'm gone, Nanda."
Nanda fought a smile. "Trouble goes with you, always. Now get."
Laughing, Beynum let him go and headed for the door. "Then enjoy your peace and quiet while it lasts!" He was still laughing as he made his way through the hallways, towards the private courtyard where the queen would be waiting.
"Beynum! Is that you? Beynum!"
Bey froze in the middle of the intersecting hallways as the sharp, biting voice washed over him. He looked down the hallway packed with villagers still waiting for rooms to be made available, stunned to see the small, thin woman shoving through the crowd toward him. Her eyes were still as sharp as a fine dagger.
"It is you. Just look at you!" She said it like he was fifteen again, good clothes covered in sand and torn to shreds after he'd gotten into a fight with the village chief's son. At least, they'd always let her think it had only been fighting.
He drew back as she reached out to touch him. "Mother," he said again, voice level. "It's good to see you're doing well."
"Pah! No thanks to you." She folded her arms across her flat chest and glared at him. "Told me you'd come back, and now I find you living the fancy life here in the palace. Ever spare me a thought?"
"I did return home, Mother." Bey mimicked her stance. "Imagine my surprise to learn that you'd run off with the sheep herder."
"Because I was tired of being abandoned! First my useless husband, and then my equally useless son."
Bey rolled his eyes. There was no point in arguing with her. He'd learned that long ago.
"But I guess you wouldn't be too interested in your poor old mother when you've got all this. How'd you manage it?" The expression made her opinion on the matter quite clear.
Honestly. Bey rolled his eyes again. "It's good to see you're doing well, Mother. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm busy."
"That's all you have to say? Get back here! Right now!"
"I'm not the one who ran away, am I Mother? I promised I'd return home. When I did, I came with gold, silk, and those cinnamon nuts you like so much." Bey looked over his shoulder. "You weren't there. Goodbye, Mother." Bey left her standing in the hallway and continued on toward the waiting queen.
*~*~*
"Thank you, Beynum." The queen smiled at him. "Your presence does more for my safety than a dozen guards."
"Always an honor, Queen," Beynum bowed, "to put my uncouth ways to noble use. A good day to you and yours." He bowed again, this time to three harem women standing nearby, then left them outside the doors to their rooms and took a rambling route back to his own.
An uproar made him pause as he passed by one of the smaller courtyards, filled with people who would ordinarily not fill that section of the palace. Men gambling, drinking. Women playing games of their own, drinking nearly as much. He let his eyes roam, quickly finding his mother in the crowd. Found that he hadn't forgotten all the signs, and that she was drinking but not yet drunk.
He left before she could chance to look up and see him. At least if she was drinking, she wouldn't be doing much else. He wondered what poor man would have to deal with her later that night, heartily glad that it was no longer him.
Banishing thoughts of her, Beynum focused on lunch, which he had not been able to eat while he was out with the queen. Should have eaten before he left, but watching the people arrive had distracted him.
The rooms were empty when he reached them, but a glance into the garden area revealed that someone was enjoying lunch outside.
"What put a frown on your face?" Aik asked as Beynum joined him.
Beynum sat and began helping himself to Aik's lunch. "I'm hungry, that's what."
"I see. Have you heard about tonight?"
"No," Bey replied. "I was keeping the queen company while she was outside. Only returned just now."
Aik moved his food out of Bey's reach. "Call for your own food."
"I want your food." Bey leaned up and stretched across the table, snatched the plate away and set it in front of him.
Aik made a face. "Pirate."
"Monk."
"Funny," Aik said with a grin that still had a shred of his old shyness in it, though not much of it. "I don't think monks are allowed to do what I was doing to Witcher last night."
Bey sucked thoughtfully on a piece of dark red fruit, the juice staining his lips. He contemplated Aik. "Oh? And just what did you do?"
"Should I tell you or show you?"
Shoving the plate aside, Bey licked his lips. "How much time before whatever you still have to tell me about?"
"Not until dinner. Shah's throwing a banquet."
"Then show and tell me. I'm a pirate, we can be slow about these things."
Aik smirked and pushed the table out of the way. "I'll go very, very slowly."
*~*~*
Dinner was normally held in the grand hall. To welcome and comfort the displaced villagers taking refuge in their palace, Shah and his queen had arranged for a massive banquet, complete with all the entertainment they could muster.
Dressed in fine silk dyed a pure, rich black, decorated with gleaming gold, the royal harems drew more eyes than even the royal couple. The king, queen and the seven men and women of their harems were around the main table, sitting in a disordered, cas
ual fashion.
Bey laughed as he teased back and forth with a member of the queen's harem. The table erupted in laughter and he reached for more wine.
But the laughter faded into the background as he looked up and his eyes landed on a woman in the crowd. One who was staring straight at him, waiting in stony silence. Showing no reaction, Bey merely sipped his wine and leaned into Shah, beside whom he sat. "The small woman, staring," he murmured.
Shah showed no reaction, merely sipped the wine that Bey held up for him, but he gave a minute nod.
