Zav bowed and echoed Charis’ thanks while servants led them from the room.
“Our master will speak with you again at dinner,” one of the attendants informed them as he opened adjoining chambers and waved them inside. “Dress formally. The guests will dine on the rear portico.”
“Formally?” Charis asked when they were alone again. He looked down at himself in dismay and touched his middle. Another feast? He would have to roll back into Resedna at the rate he was eating these days. “I have nothing formal to wear!”
“Don’t worry. We’re cloth merchants! Looking our best should never be a problem for us. Granted, I’m not a tailor, but I’ve learned a few tricks with a needle over the years.” Zav winked. “And I didn’t show Masylion quite all our samples. I held a few back for our own use. All we have to do is go out to the wagon and get them.”
They headed back outside, but before they went to pick out some fabric for themselves, they took a stroll through the fruit trees they had seen from the road. While they walked, Zav plucked a plump steenango fruit from the branches and fed it to Charis.
“Do you like it?” he asked as Charis wiped the thick juice from his lips.
“Delicious. But won’t we get in trouble?”
“He won’t notice one missing. Besides, Masylion is a generous man. He told us to make use of his estate, remember?”
“He is indeed most generous.” Charis wondered if the royal family back home treated even their favorite tradesmen so well. He recalled what Zav had said about being confined only to certain parts of the palace and harem when they came to sell cloth there. He wondered if Masylion kept anything resembling a harem for himself.
“Maybe my villa could supplement its income by selling fruit,” Zav mused, finishing off the steenango and tossing the rind away. “There must be ways to earn money that don’t involve cloth. Perhaps I could even train actors and send them out to perform in various villages and at royal festivals. As their manager I could take a percentage of the income they bring in.”
“I am sure you could make a success of whatever you attempt,” Charis said with admiration. Zav’s vision and determination continued to impress him, and he had no doubt he would one day own the estate of his dreams. Part of Charis wished he would be able to see the place for himself, though he would no doubt return to Prince Vidnar long before that happened.
Back at the wagon, which sat parked near the stable area where the xoxobeasts were again relaxing in borrowed stalls, Zav went to work and in no time came up with amazing garments for the two of them—a pale blue tunic with a wide black sash for Charis, and a white and red one with longer sleeves for himself. When he tried it on, and saw how much older and more authoritative it made him look than his decorative harem garb, Charis realized that he would return to the city a very different person than the one who had left. He knew Vidnar would see that, too. Perhaps he would even take a new and more responsible place in Vidnar’s household.
A quick pain pierced his heart as he watched Zav putting the finishing touches on their new outfits. Zav was so talented and intelligent, not to mention kind and fair—really, Charis had never met anyone like him before, either inside or outside the harem. Siphu had been a fool, certainly. Any man would be lucky to have Zav as his lover. No doubt he could have his choice of many if he made his needs known, though it seemed he was too focused on tending to his business to do that.
Jealousy prickled the back of Charis’ neck when he imagined Zav taking another man to the comfortable bed in the corner of the wagon. But then, it was only right that he should be concerned about Zav’s future. They were friends, of a sort, and Charis did not want to see him wounded any more than Siphu had already done. His involvement went no further than that. It could not.
*~*~*
Masylion’s outdoor dinner consisted of wide tables arranged on a huge stone portico, all of them heaped with rich food to suit every possible taste. Tall torches blazed at every corner, while three nearly full moons gave the surrounding countryside a mellow silver glow. The party was well attended, attracting people who seemed to be from neighboring villas as well as other distinguished and well-dressed guests who had traveled from much greater distances. Some even spoke in languages Charis had never heard before.
Though everything he sampled was delicious, Charis found he had no desire to indulge in the feast. Standing around and chatting with his social superiors made him nervous, as did the fact that he had no idea what role he should play at the gathering. Part of him felt he should be serving the food instead of being waited on, no doubt a result of his intensive and deeply ingrained harem training. Zav remained at his side throughout the dinner, occasionally refilling his goblet or popping food into his mouth the way he had among the fruit trees.
“You look uncomfortable,” he said after observing Charis for a while. “You aren’t enjoying yourself?”
“Please don’t think I am ungrateful.” Charis swallowed. Zav was standing close to him…so very close. His thick dark hair shone in the torchlight, looking soft and ready to be touched. The tiny scrap of beard on his chin seemed to frame his mouth, making it look swollen and ready for a kiss. Charis shook his head. This place…this wine…was confusing him. “It’s just that…I feel out of place.”
“I understand. Here, I think I can help.” Zav took his hand, led him across the portico, and tugged him down a set of wide stone steps. Charis wondered if they were heading back toward the rows of fruit trees, but soon Zav turned in the opposite direction, toward the lake. “It’s a bit less crowded down here.”
A thin gravel path ran along the shore, leading across an expanse of sand and disappearing into a cluster of bushes and trees. Beside the path stood a few oddly shaped stone markers, one of which Charis stopped to examine more closely. To his surprise, he saw that the object was in fact a crudely carved statue that resembled a male figure in an aroused and fully erect state.
Zav laughed when he saw Charis staring. “Before this villa existed, these lands were sacred to the ancient ones. According to Masylion, they believed these statues would please the fertility gods and make the men more…shall we say…vigorous?”
“Did it work, I wonder?” Charis nodded, amused. Perhaps these carvings had inspired the smaller versions he had seen in the marketplace the day he had been abducted. There was so much about the outside world he didn’t know.
“Impossible to know now. We are a more advanced society now, and we no longer believe in such things as magic stones. At least, most people don’t. Personally, I’m not bold enough to insult the old gods, just in case there was some truth to them.”
They stared at the figure for a while and then began to move along the path again, their hands casually brushing together as they walked. Presently they came upon a small structure adorned with a domed roof and smooth pillars, its front facing the mirror-like surface of the lake. A few people were milling around it. Charis noticed that some of them—males and females alike—were wearing almost nothing. One woman was laughing as a young man playfully chased her off into the nearby woods.
“This is the bathhouse.” Zav explained. “I didn’t realize there would be so many people about. I’m sorry.”
Charis didn’t respond. He was staring, rapt, at two beautiful young men kissing on the shore. Their bodies were silhouetted against the largest of the three moons as they pressed their bodies and their lips together.
“It looks as though some of the other guests desired a more private setting, too,” Charis whispered.
Zav placed a hand on his shoulder. “We can go if you like. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“I’m not embarrassed. They love one another. It’s beautiful, don’t you think?”
“Yes. Of course I do.”
Charis noticed that Zav’s voice again held a note of sadness.
“Maybe there is something to those legends about the ancient gods,” Charis suggested. He was only half joking. For whatever reason, his heart
did seem lighter in his chest just then, and his blood seemed to surge harder in his veins. “Perhaps they really can inspire those who are open to their powers, even now.”
He moved closer to Zav, whose eyes narrowed in thought. “Do you think so?” he asked in a husky tone.
“I do not know,” Charis admitted. “But I admit that I suddenly feel…different.”
He leaned forward, just a little, and Zav did the same. Their mouths met, lightly at first, and then more energetically. Before long, Charis felt Zav’s hands slide up his back, rubbing and stroking. He liked the way it felt. No one had ever done that for him before, though he had kneaded Prince Vidnar’s tired muscles many times. He knew now why Vidnar seemed to enjoy it so much.
Next, Zav’s tongue crept across Charis’ lower lip. Charis enjoyed that sensation very much, too. He pressed closer, letting Zav shield and cover him. He opened his mouth a bit more and let Zav’s tongue explore. At one point he even forgot where they were and had ceased to worry that others might be watching them. No one seemed to exist except him and Zav.
Not even Prince Vidnar.
All too soon, though, reality intruded and Zav broke away. He stared down at Charis with a mixture of desire and trepidation.
“Was…was it like that with Siphu?” Charis asked as an uncomfortable silence stretched between them.
“Yes,” Zav said. “Sort of.”
“It’s all right. How could I judge you?”
Zav dropped his arms to his sides and stepped back. Charis was all too aware of cool night air filling up the void between them.
“You still want to return to the palace, don’t you?”
Charis looked down at his feet. He felt his cheeks grow warm. He was getting used to that sensation lately. “Yes.”
“You mean you would give up the chance to be with me—to be my partner, my lover, my equal in all things—to serve him? After he cast you out, even?” Zav shook his head in bewilderment. “Why?”
“Because he is the prince. Also…” Charis paused and took a deep breath. “There is something else you ought to know. Prince Vidnar did not eject me from the harem. I was kidnapped…possibly by some of Prince Vidnar’s family members who wanted to keep him from me.”
“Kidnapped?” Zav’s eyes widened.
“Yes. Don’t worry. I doubt your brothers had anything to do with my abduction. I doubt they even knew about it.”
Zav nodded. “As far as they knew, you were a troublesome consort whom they sold off to avoid more disruption in the household. That’s all my brothers told me. As you know, I didn’t approve of what they did, but by the time I found out, it was too late to take you back.”
“I believe you. I also believe that Prince Vidnar will find out who was responsible and avenge my abduction. I do not blame you—or your brothers—in the least.”
“Well…I’m glad to hear that, anyhow.”
“I have enjoyed helping you these past few days, Zav. Truly. But when we finish our business here, I need to go back to the city. Perhaps with the work we did for Masylion, I’ve earned enough to buy my freedom. I will gladly turn over the coins to you. I ask only that you leave me enough to make my way back somehow.”
Zav’s shoulders stiffened, and he turned away to look out at the lake. Eventually he shook his head.
“No. You don’t need to pay me anything. I can give you your freedom now, without a price. And I’ll take you back to the palace myself. We will leave tomorrow.”
“Thank you.” Charis kept his eyes on his feet. He thought he would be much happier than he felt at the news.
“There is no magic in those ancient stones,” Zav decided, still gazing out at the water. “Wine and politics influence men’s behavior, not gods. Society was right to give them up.”
Chapter Nine
The city looked wholly different to Charis when the xoxobeasts pulled them onto the main street on a sunny afternoon. He knew Zav was making a huge sacrifice, both of time and potential profit, to suspend his cloth-selling itinerary in order to escort Charis home. Still, he was happy to have Zav beside him as he entered the city.
No one paid them much attention as they rode through the crowded streets. No one seemed to recognize him, either, mostly because of the hooded traveling cloak he wore. More than once, he glimpsed someone he knew from the harem strolling through the crowd. He even saw some of the courtiers from the palace out walking, perhaps heading to the marketplace or the public baths. Charis made sure not to meet their eyes, even if the hood did cover half his face. He had no wish to give away his presence until he could surprise Vidnar.
“How does it feel to be back?” Zav asked, noticing his uneasy silence as they passed the bazaar where the whole unfortunate sequence of events had begun.
“It feels as though I have lived another whole lifetime away from this place. It looks entirely different to me, though all the landmarks are the same. That makes no sense, I know.”
“It does, in a way.” Zav nodded. “Your life will be much different now. You are not the sheltered boy who left. You are a free man now.”
The words moved Charis in a way he hadn’t expected. Tears sprang to his eyes, but he fought them back. “I thank you again for giving me my freedom. I will never forget your kindness.”
“Nonsense. You know I don’t believe in such arrangements. Your life is your own, Charis. No one had any right to take you from the city against your will.” Zav’s mouth thinned for a moment, and Charis remembered what it had felt like to kiss those lips back at Masylion’s party. He had not done anything like that since, suspecting it would be too painful for both of them to start something they would not be able to finish. “Still, we cannot change what has happened. Would it be so wrong of me to say that I am glad of that, at least? The time we spent with one another, Charis…I will always remember it fondly, even if we can no longer be together.”
He reached across and took Charis’ hand. They squeezed their fingers and Charis felt a thrill race through his body. He had avoided confronting the truth—that most likely he would never see Zav again, unless it was in a formal setting when he came to sell cloth at the palace in the future. They would offer one another brief, almost ceremonial nods and continue with the business at hand.
The prospect made Charis almost too sad to speak.
They continued on to the palace gates, where Zav used his credentials as a favored and recognized merchant to request an audience with Prince Vidnar. As on the street, no one spared Charis a second glance as they were shown to the prince’s private audience room. Even Charis had been there only once before, when Vidnar had taken him on a secret tour while the royal family was asleep. This was not a space for harem boys, but for diplomats and official guests. Again Charis reflected on how his status had changed.
They waited in tense silence until a small flurry of motion commenced in the hall outside. Moments later Prince Vidnar charged through the door, accompanied by two servants and Lord Ezda, the Matriarch’s favorite adviser. Discreetly Charis stepped behind Zav, keeping his hood up, struck speechless as always by Vidnar’s beauty and forceful personality. He looked especially regal today, dressed in flowing robes and ornate jewelry, as though he had just come from the kind of royal function he had always claimed to despise.
“To what cause should I attribute this visit, merchant?” Vidnar addressed Zav impatiently. He never glanced at Charis, no doubt perceiving him as nothing more than another servant unworthy of notice. “Surely I have no outstanding orders or bills to settle?”
Zav bowed deeply to the prince. Knowing him as well as he now did, Charis noticed that his manner was more theatrical than deferential. “My apologies for interrupting your duties, my prince. However, over the course of my recent travels, I have found something that I thought would interest you greatly.”
“Oh? How intriguing.” Vidnar tilted his head, and his eyes scanned Zav’s tunic as if he expected to find the unknown object protruding from a pocket or tucked in hi
s sash. “Let us see it, then.”
Straightening to his full height, Zav held out his hand and bade Charis step forward. He tugged down his hood and grinned—no doubt foolishly—as he did so.
“It is I, Charis!” he cried, dropping to one knee in front of Vidnar and his speechless entourage. “I have returned, my prince!”
Vidnar himself stood as still as a statue. He looked stunned, as though he had been struck across the face.
“How…how is this possible?” he whispered at last.
“I was kidnapped, my lord,” Charis bubbled, waving his arms for dramatic effect. Surely Vidnar would find the story just as fantastic as he did. “I received a note supposedly from your highness. I know now that it was forged. When I went to the marketplace as requested, I was snatched from the crowd, bound and gagged, and finally sold into servitude. But I am a free man now, thanks to Zav, here.” He rose to his feet after finishing the tale and bowed once.
“I…see. So you have found your way back here after all.”
Charis wasn’t sure what he expected. He didn’t think Vidnar would run over and embrace him in front of everyone. But he never expected the look of cold horror he soon found directed at him. No doubt Vidnar was in shock.
“It was far from easy, my prince…but I thought only of reaching you to let you know I was still alive. I have traveled for many days to find my way home.”
“How wonderful,” Vidnar said without a trace of joy. His jaw tight, the prince turned to Lord Ezda. “You are responsible for this, Ezda. You have failed me most egregiously. My mother will not be pleased.”
Charis glanced at Zav, offering a little nod of vindication. He had been correct all along, then—the Matriarch had arranged the whole thing, and Lord Ezda had helped her. It hadn’t taken Vidnar long to figure out the truth.
Vidnar’s next words, however, plunged him first into confusion and then despair.
“You sold him to a merchant wagon? To my own favorite cloth merchants? Knowing they come back here every season?”
Tales of the Thasali Harem Box Set Page 17
