by Lisa Lace
“Who are you?” It comes out as a wail, and I push myself away from him, seeking refuge at the head of the bed. The shirt he gave me is torn to rags, and I feel more naked than ever. I draw my knees up to my chest and cover myself. The old posture, curled up small and feeling desperate to protect myself, is so familiar that I want to cry.
“Do you really want to know?”
“What do you mean?”
“We have all our lives to learn about each other. There is nothing that says we cannot start tonight. Feel free to ask me anything you like.”
I look at him suspiciously. “Do you mean it? No questions are out of bounds?”
“I would be a pathetic husband if I kept things from my wife. Ask me a question, and then I’ll ask you one. Will that ease your mind?”
“I suppose it will.”
“Good. You go first.”
“Okay. I’m not sure what to ask an alien.” In a panic, I think about the questions I would need to answer if I wanted to reset my TerraMates password. “Who was your best friend growing up?”
I thought it would be simple to answer, but darkness flickers across his face. I see anger, pain, and something else before it fades away. He touches my hand gently and I don’t flinch. He smiles at me.
“That would be Shanar Amada of the Amada Clan. His father saved my father’s life before losing his own. Shanar was raised at the palace. He was a few years older than me. I suppose I hero-worshipped him. My father taught me to fight like a gentleman with a sword and knife, but it was Shanar who taught me how to survive a brawl in the lower city. It was that kind of friendship.”
“Is it over now?”
Rasulus shook his head. “A question for a question. It is my turn to ask you something. Who struck you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me no one has. It is as obvious as your beauty. Someone hit you before. I want to know who did it.”
For some reason, his demand brings tears to my eyes again. This time he does not relent. Instead he watches me with a cool gaze, willing to wait me out. I have no choice but to answer.
“My father when I was small, I suppose. Not my real dad. They took me away from my parents. My foster parents certainly gave me the odd blow—”
He is still waiting. I take a deep breath.
“His name is James. He was my boyfriend back on Earth. It didn’t start badly, but it ended terribly. I was afraid of him and didn’t want him to find me. I thought I would never feel safe if we were on the same planet.”
“So you ran.”
I thrust my chin up, daring him to say anything else. “It was the best decision for me at the time. No one trained me in swords or knives or how to survive barfights. I was alive. I didn’t want to die. When someone offered me a choice of something better, I took it.”
“That makes me glad. Surviving takes strength and a courage all its own. You made your way to me, and I am grateful.”
He takes my hand in his, turning it over so he can kiss my palm. To my surprise, he truly does seem like he appreciates me.
“I felt like a coward.”
“You should never think like that about yourself. Is James still on Earth?”
I sense something ominous in his voice. Maybe I should want the bloody vengeance I imagine in my mind, but I know it will bring emptiness. I never want to think about James again.
“I don’t know, and I don’t particularly care. That’s two questions for you. Now it is my turn.”
“Very right, wife. What do you want to know?”
“Do you remember the man in the hall? The one who married us. What relation is he to you?”
I am afraid to ask the real questions in my mind. Would I ever need to see him again? Did he have any power over us? Rasulus seems to understand. His face is mostly expressionless with a certain amount of wariness. When he speaks, it is with honesty.
“He is Crucis Velorum, first of his name. He is also my brother, the king of Arietus. We share a father. Both our mothers are of noble blood and my father’s lawful wives.”
“And you’re the younger?”
“I am the older.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Shouldn’t you be the king, then?”
It’s my second question, and he has the right to deny me. He answers anyway.
“Succession on Arietus can be a tangled web. The answer is both yes and no. I am older biologically, but it’s not the only factor. My mother’s people were less in favor and not as powerful as his. When my father died, Crucis’s family pushed him forward.”
“What about your family?”
“I haven’t seen them in a long time. They were exiled or handled off the record.”
I see a shuttered look in his eyes now, a ghost of pain. He doesn’t want to talk about it. I can see that, and I want to move on. Something in me refuses to let go.
“Did you lose both of your parents at once?”
“I did. My mother died in her sleep under suspicious circumstances. My uncles passed away the same night. Everyone else is scattered to the winds, hiding in the wilderness or on remote estates. The few who remain are too weak to be a threat to Crucis.”
“They left you here alone.”
“I am alive. It has been enough so far.”
He looks down, surprised to see my hand touching his. His hand is large and strong, scarred, I think, from where he learned to fight. He may be a prince. He may be the person on this planet who stands closest to the throne. Right now, there is something so painfully lonely about him that it makes my heart ache.
“You lost your family all at once.”
“I didn’t tell you so you could pity me.”
“I wouldn’t dare. But even though I was taken from my parents because they weren’t ready to have children, I think I know something about what it’s like to lose them.”
To say more would have been an insult. Instead, I simply hold his hand, and we are silent together, immersed in the memory of a family cruelly taken away from him. I feel a shiver of hatred for Crucis, the man who had stripped me in the main hall, who had apparently set up our marriage in the first place.
Rasulus’ loss makes my momentary humiliation seem small, but I will not forget any of the king’s crimes. The thought of Crucis still brings a sharp lance of fear through me. I know things will be different the next time I see him. He’ll be an enemy to be beaten, not just someone to be feared.
Rasulus glances at me wryly. “You are new to a world whose people have treated you very badly, and yet here you are trying to comfort me. What a strange and lovely creature you are.”
“I’m not a creature, alien. I’m just a woman with a heart in her chest.”
“A good heart, and a kind one. How did I get so lucky?”
I start to respond to him, but before I can say anything, he reaches out to cradle my face with one large hand. At some point during our game, I uncurled and came closer to him. He closes the last of the space, leaning in to kiss me. The kiss is gentler than the ones that came before but no less passionate. Before I know it, he is easing me down to the mattress again. His mouth is exploring mine. His body is pressed close to me.
I sink into the sensual web he weaves, letting my mind drift as my body takes control. My body does not need to consider alliances or fear or kings. All it knows is that his touch brings me pleasure and makes it sing.
Rasulus murmurs my name, and I start to respond, but a knock on the door interrupts us. We both freeze. Before I can say anything, Rasulus is up and out of bed, throwing on a thin robe. I follow in his wake, dragging the blankets with me. I forget all about how I must look, my hair tousled and my lips swollen, until he opens the door.
I can’t believe my eyes.
On the other side of the door is a gorgeous Arietan woman dressed only in a sheer cloth wrapped around her hips. She is tall. Her honey-blond hair flows loosely around her shoulders. Her breasts are bare and tipped in gold paint, giving her a wild and exoti
c appearance.
“Who sent you, you gorgeous girl?” asks Rasulus. A sharp pang goes through me, as well as a rising fury. His voice is tender and flirtatious. My face blushes with shame. The only thing stopping me from marching over to demand better treatment from him is how different he sounds from when we are alone. The man who is eyeing the beautiful woman in the doorway is as different from the one who confessed his family’s misfortunes as night is from day.
The woman smiles and gestures for him to move closer. When she leans up to whisper in his ear, I see a number of expressions flicker across Rasulus’ face before it settles into a sly and hungry look.
“Well, by all means. Perri!”
“What?”
“There’s some very urgent business the lovely Tasmeen here thinks I need to take care of immediately. Stay in the apartment. I’ll be back. Eventually.”
“How long is that going to be?”
With nothing more, he vanishes, closing the door behind him with a click. I’m left wrapped in a blanket, blushing with embarrassment, and wondering all over again what I have walked into on Arietus.
Rasulus
I throw my arm around Tasmeen’s shoulders, letting my robe hang open as we walk back to her quarters. Passing courtiers smirk and nod at us. In the morning, the news will be all over the palace.
Prince Rasulus left his wife’s bed for Tasmeen Locarnan.
Tasmeen smiles a beautiful smile and nods at my slurred compliments. She’s technically married to my brother—another one of his many wives. In our father’s time, the king’s wives were honored and respected. Being Crucis’s wife means something very different. The girls he brought to the palace were fair game for his favorite suitors.
We keep up our charade until we are in Tasmeen’s private chambers. She disentangles from me with a slight shudder of disgust and gestures toward a small chest under her bed.
“Your extra clothes are in the chest over there.”
“Thank you. Should I assume I will be needing them?”
“Yes. My brother has decided to meet with you. He’ll be at the Andorri Fountain for an hour before dawn. If you aren’t there, he will not come again. And he will add a second Velorum to his list of enemies.”
“Your family doesn’t do things by halves, does it, Tasmeen?”
She smiles at me and curtsies. She has been my brother’s wife for almost a year. There were still bets on when Tasmeen, with her Locarnan pride, might kill herself with shame. She had beaten them all so far.
“No, we don’t. You would do well to remember that fact, my prince.”
It doesn’t look like Rohani Locarnan is going to make things easy for me. I sneak through the quieter passages, the ones nearly forgotten by the courtiers and only known to the servants. I keep my head down and the hood of my cloak drawn. I look like a noble making my escape before my mistress’s husband returns.
A small stable is located close to the entrance of the palace. A sympathetic and stolid innkeeper keeps a pair of strong kashaks exclusively for me, along with a box containing an unadorned sword and a pair of fighting knives. I strap on the weapons and saddle and bridle the larger kashak myself. As I ride for the Andorri Fountain, I curse at the lightening sky.
I cannot spend too much time looking up. Kashaks, the tall flightless birds we ride for hunting and sport, are vicious. The fiercer the bird, the faster it is. The one I am riding has sleek black feathers giving it an imposing appearance. I can tell that it is ready to throw me and make a bid for its freedom as soon as I give it a window of opportunity. I keep a heavy hand on the reins, keeping myself ready for it to shy or attempt a long fluttering leap. It is looking for an opening that might make me fall and dash my head open.
Despite the need to concentrate on my mount, I cannot keep my mind away from the woman waiting for me in my chambers. The Earth woman is full of surprises. She is brave when she should be frightened and kind where she has no reason to be. If I concentrate, I can still feel her small hand touching mine, trying to offer comfort to someone who she barely knows.
We are meant to be a match, but this feels like more than a meeting of blood and flesh. Something about her, something in her pale blue eyes, calls to me. She haunts me. Somehow, I know I will never rest peacefully if she is away from me.
I wonder what Perri thought when Tasmeen appeared at my door like a beautiful vision, and spirited me away from her with only a whisper. If I were actually as clever a tactician as I would like to be, she would be furious, screaming her fury to the skies. Rasulus Velorum seeking another woman on his wedding night suits my reputation quite well.
For some reason, the thought stings more than anything has in a long time. I do not mind her screaming in pleasure, but having her dishonored and humiliated, cast into the role of a jilted wife, makes me flinch.
The kashak stops short from a dead run, nearly pitching me over its head. If I fall in front of it, I know the animal will not hesitate to trample me under its enormous claws. I barely maintain my seat and urge the beast on again.
I come to the fountain as dawn is about to break, lashing the kashak’s reins to a nearby tree. I look around frantically. Have I missed him?
Andorri Fountain lies in the wooded area outside of the capitol. It’s part of the ruins of a much older city, the origins of which have been lost to time. We believe it to be a cursed place, haunted by ghosts. As I look around at the shattered stone paving and dry fountain that is almost twice as tall as I am, it is easy to imagine the spirits of our ancestors watching our every move. I wonder if they are baleful and angry at the mess we have made of things.
For a moment, I think that I have missed my chance and the Locarnan clan will happily put my head on a pike along with my brother’s. There is a flicker of movement in the shadows, and Rohani himself steps forward. He is a big man, taller than me and more powerfully built. In his own way, he is as beautiful as his sister. It would be hard to say which is the deadlier of the two.
“I’m surprised you had the balls to come out here. The princeling Velorum himself.”
“I am not here for you to insult me, Lord Locarnan. Your sister says you come in good faith.”
“Not exactly. I have to come see if you are worthy of my good faith. I hear many things from my estates in the country. They call you a drunken idiot, one who does not even know what was stolen from you.”
“They are wrong. Believe me when I say that I do know what I lost, and I am ready to fight to win it back. If you think I am a fool, why did your sister bring you here to meet me?”
“Tasmeen still has hope. I confess I am rather short on hope myself.”
“What can I do to restore it?”
“Fight for it, princeling.”
For a man as large as Rohani Locarnan, he moves as fast as the wind. He lunges at me from a dead stop, crossing the courtyard with his sword drawn. I am ready for his attack and parry easily, pulling back and evading his deadly charge.
I can imagine what he is thinking. He will either find that I am a warrior worth backing, or there will be one less Velorum in the world. Either way, he wins. I can only win if I can both keep the man alive as well as prove my worth to him.
Rohani fights with the will of a person who has glimpsed hope and wants to see if it is worth what’s left of his soul. He batters at me with some skill, but I can see that his once legendary battle prowess has been blunted over time. I circle him, feinting at his defenses and learning more from him than he can from me.
My lessons are not without cost, of course. Rohani scores more than one cut on me. The lightest is a graze over my thigh. The deepest is a slash at my ribs when he slips past my defenses. I strike back, bloodying him as well.
Finally, my foot lashes out, catching his ankle and laying him flat on his back. We are both breathing hard, covered with sweat and blood. I kick his sword away. Instead of putting my sword’s tip to his throat, I offer him my hand.
For a moment, I think he will not take it,
and lunge at me instead, unable to accept defeat. As the madness clears from his eyes, he smiles ruefully, grabbing my hand and letting me haul him up. When he is not consumed by grief, it is easy to see the relation between him and Tasmeen.
“All right, Prince Rasulus. Perhaps you are a man worth following after all.”
“Princeling is a perfectly acceptable title until we have the strength to strike back against my brother.”
There is not enough time to speak beyond that. The ruins can feel like a maze, but the enemy could always get lucky. I have been planning too long to allow for bad luck. We part, deciding to use Tasmeen as a go-between.
As I ride back to the capital, it strikes me that I have had only a few hours of sleep in the last few days. Even though Perri’s charms are great, being in bed with her is hardly restful.
The idea of curling up next to her, of feeling her body safe and warm against mine, almost makes me sway in the saddle. When I return to my apartment, I will grab her and drag her to bed. Explanations can wait. The succession and throne can wait. At the moment, the only thing keeping me going is the thought of being buried under the furs with my wife.
Even the word wife makes me smile as I ride for home. I can’t remember the last time I smiled or thought about anything besides deposing my brother.
The palace is silent as I creep in, hugging the outermost wall to avoid being seen. There is little chance of discovery at this point. Most of the courtiers and nobles of the palace are sleeping off last night’s drinking and fucking. The only ones remaining are the servants. They are well-used to my comings and goings.
I am almost to a small door into the palace itself when I hear a sharp cry. I would normally ignore it, but something about the cry sends a tremor of cold, sharp fear down my spine. I am momentarily unable to move, and then pull myself out of it, breaking into a run. I don’t care who sees me or what they think.
I recognize the voice. Just a few hours ago, I had heard it raised in sweet passion. Now it’s laced with fear, and it comes from a direction that fills me with cold dread.
