by Derr, Megan
"Have her escorted away. She'll cause trouble."
Bey drew the shallow wine dish back to his own lips as Shah finished, and drank from the same spot, finishing the wine. Beside him, Shah motioned for a guard and spoke quietly. His fingers drifted up and down Bey's spine.
Minutes later the banquet hall went quiet as a woman began to shout and snarl and fight the guards that were trying to quietly drag her away. Shah frowned and motioned, and the guards ceased trying to be nice. One clapped a hand over her mouth and secured her arms, dragging her out with another to assist as she kicked and fought.
"That's going to be an interesting story," Shah murmured quietly.
Bey laughed and poured more wine as the talking and laughing resumed.
When the banquet finally wound to an end, Bey walked with Nanda while the others escorted the queen to her chambers.
"So you did see your mother," Nanda said quietly.
Bey made a face but did not reply.
"You don't really look like her."
"For which I was always grateful," Bey said with a grin. "I think that's part of the reason she was always so hard on me. I'm too much of a reminder of what she scared off. I'd be upset at losing me too, if I were her."
Nanda rolled his eyes, but his reply was delayed by the arrival of the others.
"So, Beynum my pirate." Shah folded his arms across his chest and stared at Bey with mild amusement. "Should I ask what you did to anger her so?"
"So quick to assume I did something." Bey made a face. "That was my mother, if you must know."
Shah's amusement faded and he let his arms drop as he closed the space between them. His hands landed on Bey's waist, fingers stroking tight muscles. He looked up, frowning. "Why were you so concerned?"
"My mother is a shrew. She wasn't too pleased to see me so comfortably situated here when she's still a 'mere' peasant." A grin. "I didn't think she'd kick up a fuss until I saw her glaring at me. To be honest, I thought she'd find a way to get drunk long before the banquet."
Shah shook his head and leaned up to give Bey a quick, hard kiss. "You should have said something sooner. That incident could have been far worse than it was."
Bey nodded, burying his fingers in Shah's thick short hair to hold his head in place as he kissed his king deeply. "I'm sorry. I really didn't think much on it."
"You didn't think much on your mother?" Nanda asked from the corner where he was allowing Aik to help bind his hair for sleeping. "After you've not seen her in all this time?"
Shrugging, Bey released Shah's head to hold him in a loose embrace. "I don't think much on the past. It doesn't interest me. She was my present and future for a long time. Then it was the ship. Now it's here, so that's all I think on. She chose to give up on me, for no good reason, and ran off with the first man she could fool. Doesn't interest me anymore. I should have realized sooner she could be a problem, but that's as far as my concern in regards to her goes."
Moving behind him, Shah traced the lines of the tattoo spread across Bey's back.
"No regrets to keep you up at night, pirate?" Witcher asked lazily from where he was stretched out on Shah's low bed.
Bey grinned. "None. I make my decisions and don't look back. Too much in front of me to waste time with what's behind me." He started laughing. "Well, some things behind me are worth looking back for." Spinning around he captured Shah, pinning the chuckling king to the wall.
"Feisty for someone who should be in trouble."
"Ah, but pirates never got out of trouble by being complacent when they were in it."
*~*~*
"How long did it take them to ink this?" Nanda asked, fingers delicately exploring the tattoo across Beynum's back.
"Hours. Days. Lots of money, the sort only seen by nobles and criminals." Beynum rolled his shoulders, sending the muscles in his back rippling.
"It's beautiful," Nanda said. "Though I'm surprised you were able to find someone willing to do it."
Beynum laughed and turned, catching Nanda's exploring hand in a light grasp. "Where there's a want, there is someone willing to fill it." His skin was darker, deepened by the sun, where Nanda spent most of his days indoors. Hands calloused in different places, a rough edge to his movements and words, a willingness to grin and laugh.
"Indeed," Nanda murmured, fingertips just teasing beneath the fabric of the new pants and skirt in which Beynum had been dressed. He leaned up, breathing in the scent of fragrant soap that still clung to him, but the smell of the sea and sand was there, a rough edge clashing with the smooth the palace was already trying to give him.
Fingers threaded through Nanda's long hair. "So it's okay if I touch you too, then?"
"I would be sad if you didn't," Shah said from the entryway. "I do believe I mentioned wanting the two of you to get along." He ran a hand up Beynum's arm as the two men reached him. "I'm surprised you're not pierced," he said thoughtfully, fingers tracing Beynum's ear. "I saw some of your former comrades; holes everywhere."
Beynum grinned. "Mostly in their brains, trust me. If they'd listened to me in the first place, they might still all be at sea."
"Is that where you want to be, Beynum my pirate?"
"It was something to do, Majesty." Beynum captured the hand playing with his hair and leaned in to steal a kiss, making Shah smile. "Nothing interesting enough to keep looking back on. Do you know what my former comrades called me?"
Shah shook his head.
"Arrogant?" Nanda murmured softly.
"That," Beynum said with a wink. "But they also called me 'King's Man'—mostly as a joke, but there was always more truth there than they realized." He shrugged again, muscles built by a life at sea rippling under his sun-darkened skin. "This wasn't quite what I always figured, but I think I'll more than enjoy it while it lasts. Then who knows—maybe I'll go back to being a pirate."
"Hmm," Shah said thoughtfully. "I think, my pirate, that you will last here longer than you think. But enough of this serious talk—I think I walked in to hear something about fulfilling wants. Let us further that discussion."
Aikhadour
He'd thought the inns and taverns as they traveled had been noisy, but the bustle of the palace was something new again. Aik wished he had something to take for his head, or better still, a quiet place to rest. He lowered his head a bit, barely listening as Eldest spoke with His Majesty, King Shahjahan.
Already he missed the quiet of the temple, the remoteness of the mountain. Aik closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, breathing in and out slowly, willing away everything that unsettled him and slowly regaining his center.
Opening his eyes slowly, feeling slightly more in control, he took another look at his surroundings.
So many people—courtiers and nobles, servants and guards, and a seemingly unending crowd of people waiting their turn to be presented to the king. Foreigners seeking permission to live or travel, nobles coming of age, visitors begging permission to dwell in the palace for a time, on and on the list went.
Aikhadour had journeyed with four other monks to study in the royal libraries. He had barely been granted permission; only his exceptional skill and devotion to his studies had earned him the chance when men older than he were still not permitted to leave the sanctuary of the temple. He was beginning to wish he'd stayed. Forcing away the negative thought, for thinking so would not improve anything, Aik let his eyes wander but was careful not to stare at anything lest he unintentionally seem rude.
His eyes settled on the throne, and it took a moment for him to realize he was staring.
For all that he'd heard nothing but praise for King Shahjahan, and more than a few remarks on his looks and prowess—it was said the two men in his harem were quite intriguing, one a traitor, the other a pirate—he had not really expected the king to be as handsome as he was. Dark skin and a solid build, neither slender nor overly large, short dark hair and shadowed eyes, probably brown. Most intriguing of all, there was no softness to him. He didn't l
ook like so many other nobles that Aik had spied on the long journey from the mountain. King Shahjahan looked like a man who stood with his men, his people, instead of giving orders while safely ensconced on his throne.
Perhaps he was over-thinking things, though the real problem was that he noticed at all. He'd never noticed what anyone looked like before. His life was the temple, his brothers, all else was irrelevant. Aik frowned and looked away, but in his mind he could still see the king, and now it was impossible to block that deep, warm, ever-so-slightly rough voice.
Realizing he was letting himself be distracted in the worst way, Aik began silently reciting a prayer of concentration. He was halfway through it when someone nudged him, and he realized with chagrin that he was being presented. Flushing, humiliated, Aik looked up at the king then immediately down, bowing low, forehead just touching the floor.
"Brother Aikhadour," Shahjahan said, and Aik was jarred by the way his name sounded when the king said it. "Be welcome in my home and consider it yours for the length of your stay."
"My most humble thanks and gratitude, Your Majesty," Aik said, sitting up as he spoke and bowing again as he finished. He dared another glance as he sat up, only to find that Shahjahan was watching him. Disconcerted, Aik dropped his gaze and waited until they were finally dismissed.
His brothers laughed once they were outside, a couple of them nudging him. "Poor Aik," one said. "Is all this too much for you?"
The Eldest—highest ranking among them, a level eight—frowned. "Leave him be. Aik, are you all right? Is all this too much excitement for you?"
Humiliated, Aik shook his head furiously back and forth. "No, Eldest. I was simply intimidated to be presented to His Majesty. I am only a humble student, hardly worthy of his time."
"We are always worthy of the king's time," Eldest said calmly. "The royal family has always looked favorably on the Order …" Aik stopped listening, knowing the story of when King Shahjahan's great-great-grandfather had been rescued by a monk. "Come," Eldest said eventually. "It is time for our prayers and drills. By the time we finish, no doubt we shall have to attend dinner." He said 'have to' but Aik could hear the eagerness in his voice, and suddenly wondered if they were here just to study.
*~*~*
"How does a man look both humble and extremely smug at the same time?" Bey made a face.
Aik bowed from the waist, hiding a grin. His hair, just past his shoulders in length, finally fell free of the thong that had grown looser and looser during the sparring match. He knelt to retrieve the fallen strip of leather but did not restore it, merely shoved the loose strands of thick, dark hair from his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Bey." He bowed again. "Thank you, my better, for being so kind as too—"
"Oh, shut up," Bey interrupted with a grin. "You're not fooling anyone, decadent monk."
"A decadent man cannot be a monk, and a monk cannot be a decadent man," Aik said patiently, as though instructing a temple initiate.
Bey threw his head back and laughed. "You're on a roll today."
"I guess I'm feeling rather playful after neatly trouncing you," Aik replied, then immediately turned and fled, chased by Bey's roar of outrage.
"You did not trounce me, monk!"
Aik bolted from the training grounds and into the king's private garden, both of which were only accessible from the king's chambers. Looking over his shoulder as he darted through the doors, Aik heard too late the shouted curse, turned—and crashed right into Nandakumar.
"Uh-oh," Bey said, trying to draw air and laugh at the same time and winding up coughing instead. "You're in trouble."
"Sorry!" Aik said, immediately contrite as he scrambled to his feet and helped Nanda up. "Didn't think you'd be awake yet."
"So you were just going to wake me up with your monkey antics?" Nanda snapped. His normally neat hair was bound but messy, disheveled while he slept. Until Aik had crashed into him, he had only just barely been awake.
Bey snickered. "If the councilors saw Nanda at this hour, they would cease to wonder how Shah can be so fearless about everything."
"It's far too early in the morning for bloodshed," Nanda said slowly, levelly. "But don't think that will stop me."
Aik elbowed Bey in the stomach, then took one of Nanda's hands and led him to the table. "Breakfast should be arriving in a half hour or so, Nanda."
"So don't kill us," Bey inserted, cheerfully disregarding the warning look Aik shot him.
Nanda looked up from glaring at the table, a glint in his eyes. "If I asked prettily, Aik, would you beat him up for me?"
"How prettily?" Aik asked.
"Hey!" Bey protested. "He's the one who knocked you over."
Ignoring him, Nanda rose up on his knees so that he could nip playfully at the skin of Aik's flat stomach before wandering lower, fingers teasing and gripping up his legs, along his backside. "Very prettily."
Aik combed a hand through Nanda's hair. "Then consider it done, Nanda."
"Thank you, Aik."
Bey turned and ran.
*~*~*
If being presented had seemed overwhelming to him, dinner was positively dizzying. Aik didn't know where to look and finally settled on staring at his plate, which was heaped with foods they would never even think about in the temple. Rich, decadent, extravagant … unnecessary. Aik frowned and finally looked up, not even certain how they all were to be eaten. He was used to bowls of plain grain, vegetables from the garden and simple tea. Occasionally he indulged in the wine the temple brewed, but he knew that was a far cry from the dozens of carafes scattered across the wide table.
The table of the king, and he didn't understand at all why they'd been invited to sit here. What was Eldest's true purpose in coming? He had hardly spoken of studying since giving that as their reason for visiting in court.
Not knowing what else to do, his brothers too busy talking with other guests to bother with their youngest brother, Aik mimicked those around him and sipped hesitantly at the pale liquid in his drinking dish. It turned out to be a bitter, potent wine, and Aik was surprised to find he liked it. When he dared to attempt one of the foods on his plate, he found that the almond-sweet taste of it went splendidly with the bitter wine. Encouraged, he began to sample other bits, mimicking those around him when he was unsure of how to eat one.
Several sips of wine later, Aik found himself relaxing and finally able to pay attention to some of the conversations around him, though he could not bring himself to look at the king. He sat drinking his wine and nibbling at the rich foods, allowing himself to be lulled by the movement and noise around him.
A rowdy laugh, so unlike the careful, cultured chuckles he'd heard so far, brought Aik's head up. He stared down the long table at a man sitting on the king's left.
Definitely not of noble blood. His skin was unfashionably dark, no doubt from years in the sun, and he had the build of someone who had labored hard all his life. His laugh was a real laugh, an honest expression of joy and amusement, not simply a polite, tittering sound. Short hair, even shorter than Aik's own, not the way most men of luxury wore it.
Then Aik noticed he was bare-chested—as if his proximity to the king weren't enough of a clue—and realized this was one of the king's harem. He ran through the rumors he'd heard and guessed this one must be the supposed pirate.
Curious now, Aik sought and immediately found the other member of the harem. Where the first was a rough sort of handsome, this one was elegant and beautiful. As cultured and refined as the first was unpolished and easy. His hair was as long as rumors had said, and he moved with the instinctive ease of one who had spent his entire life at court. Rumors said he was a traitor, or tied to traitors, but Aik doubted it the way he held wine to the king's lips, the way the king touched him when all eyes were elsewhere.
All eyes but his. Feeling guilty, Aik hastily looked away, accidentally catching the glance of the one called a pirate. Dark eyes regarded him with amusement and something like challenge. Aik h
ad seen that look often enough in the sparring ring to recognize it, though he did not understand why it came from this man.
Jerking his gaze away, Aik refilled his wine dish and did not look up again.
*~*~*
"Match!"
His expression remained solemn, but the smirk in Bey's dark eyes was unmistakable. Only the fact that protocol must be followed kept Aik from rolling his eyes.
They turned as one and bowed as Shah approached, clapping approvingly for the performance. "Well done. Thank you for the performance."
"It is an honor to perform for Your Majesty and honored guests," Aik said loudly, clearly. Beside him Beynum added his own platitudes, then they bowed again and returned to the table as Shah called for the next entertainment—Nanda.
