by Megan Derr
"I'm not sure how they will take seeing you again," Demir said. "I guess we will find out." He turned as movement caught his eye and smiled at his mother. "Thank you for having us, mother. I am sorry we must leave in such haste."
She waved a hand in the air. "You may invite me to the palace when all is well again. It is good to see you, Demir, always, and your friends have been intriguing." She crossed the room and kissed his cheek, then turned to Altan and kissed his. "Highness, you were a wonderful house guest. I am glad we could help you. Please know that you are always welcome here, no matter the reason you come."
Altan hugged her tightly. "You've meant the world to me and made all the difference in mine. Thank you for everything."
"Hurry up, now, it's a long way back to Tavala, and you've no time for dallying." She hugged Demir one last time, then ushered them all out of the house. Out front, servants had already prepared the horses and were stowing the last of the belongings. What couldn't be fit into saddlebags, he would have fetched later—assuming he remained at Tavala, which was still quite uncertain.
Mounting up, Demir rode over to Haluk, who smiled in approval. The Cobra surrounded them, Meltem in the lead, Emre taking the rear. With a cry to the horses, they were off.
Though they traveled hard, it still took them five days to reach the palace, and they arrived in the middle of a cold, unusually rainy night. The guards at the door gawked when they saw him, then bowed low and murmured eager greetings. "Harem Master! It's good to have you home."
Demir bowed his head. "Thank you. Has Her Majesty gone to bed?"
"I think she has only just retired, according to the night patrol," the second guard replied. "I'm sure she will not mind being stirred for you."
"Thank you," Demir said. "If you could see that someone is sent to notify her that Lord Haluk and I have arrived, along with the Cobra and a special guest, I would be grateful. We will await her in the large court room. Thank you."
One of the guards hurried off, and Demir led the way through the palace to the second-largest courtroom in the palace. He sent one of the guards on the hall to fetch a servant to light candles and bring them all something warm to drink.
Though he ached to sit down, if he did so exhaustion would get the better of him. Nearby, Haluk, Meltem, and the others looked equally exhausted. The room was dark, lit only by the meager dregs of moonlight coming in the skylights, and that was mostly beat out by the straggling rain clouds.
A servant came bustling in a few minutes later, however, and quickly lit the candelabra, casting warm, flickering yellow light throughout the blue, green, and gold room. Another trio of servants came in just as the first servant was finishing, bearing tables and trays of food. He sat down at the nearest of the two tables and poured hot wine for everyone who joined him, draining his own cup quickly and pouring a second.
A few minutes later, just as everyone had finally left off the wine to pay attention to the food, the doors swung open and Euren walked in followed by her harem and several guards. Signaling the guards to wait outside, she pressed her hands together and beamed at all of them. "Lord Demir, I am honored and humbled that you came. Haluk, Ihsan will be most happy to see you." She hugged Meltem as she approached, then Irmak, followed by Emre and the other Cobra.
She stilled as Altan stepped forward and removed the wrap that had been hiding his face, her eyes widening. Around her the guards all gasped and murmured, a few jerking in surprise. Euren shook her head then went to hug him. "Merciful Divine. Prince Altan! What in the world… We thought you must be leagues away from here."
Altan smiled crookedly. "I could not abandon Tavamara anymore than Ihsan. How is he?"
"He woke up a couple days ago, was in and out for a couple of days, but was awake most of yesterday." She looked for a moment like she wanted to cry but contained the tears and lifted her chin. "We were ecstatic, especially when his chances of survival were fragile at best. The healer said most do not survive losing so much blood." She withdrew, stared at him like she still couldn't quite believe it, then turned to the others. "I am glad you all made it here safely. Sit, sit, resume your meal, you must be hungry and exhausted." She grinned briefly. "I know what it's like to travel hard. I promise you may find your beds soon."
"Has anything else happened while we were traveling?" Haluk asked.
Euren shook her head as she sat down in her chair on the dais, harem gathering around her. Asli offered up a dish of wine, which Euren accepted with a smile, sipping at as she conversed with everyone. "Not really. The whole palace is angry with me for imprisoning the council and putting their deputies and family under house arrest. Those not imprisoned are keeping to their private quarters unless necessity dictates otherwise. The royal palace is not a very pleasant place to be right now. Lord Cenk and Kitt have been working hard to sort out which councilors were party to the slave trading and which ones were bribed or blackmailed. Once they're ready and we've caught Ihsan up on everything, we will be interviewing and removing them. Then we have to speak with the ambassadors. Hopefully after that, everything will begin to quiet down."
Demir nodded, poured more wine, and took a small sip, then another. Finally he looked up again. "Respect, Your Majesty, what is to become of the harems at the end of all this?"
"Ihsan and I discussed it briefly last night before he went to sleep," Euren said quietly. "We are going to go with the proposal you offered. It maintains the honor of the royal harems without ever again leaving them vulnerable to the sorts of treatment they've received these past years."
The words were expected, but they hurt all the same. It was definitely over. He would never again be Harem Master. Tavamara would never have another. He had been recalled to clean up Kagan's mess, and then… "I think it's a wise decision, Majesty. If you will pardon me, I should probably go see to the concubines." He rose and bowed, hating the silence that chased him, the pity he could feel in it.
He did not need anyone's pity, or even their sympathy.
What he needed was somewhere to belong, and what place was there for a thirty-eight-year-old master of concubines?
The memory of a stolen kiss, of quiet, longing looks, rose up to torment him. But desire for the harem master was not the same as wanting Demir. Once the matter of the slave trading was over, and he'd taken care of the stray concubines brought to the palace, there would be no further use for him.
And a few weeks working together to stop a terrible conspiracy amounted to nothing.
What was he going to do? There were a hundred problems more important, but he could not ignore that one. He was almost forty, far too old to start over. Far too old to find someone who wanted him, who would see him as anything but the role he'd served for nearly all his life.
Who would want Demir when he was no longer the Harem Master of Tavamara?
He pushed the worry aside as he reached the harem hall. At least he might be able to sleep in his own bed for a few more nights, enjoy for a little longer being the only thing he knew how to be.
In the familiar lush, beautiful entry of the harem hall, Sabah stood talking to Ruth and several other guards, Demir's keys on a chain around his waist. His words cut off as he saw Demir. "Lord Demir!" The guards whipped around, eyes widening, faces bursting into smiles.
Ruth strode across the room and embraced him, then kissed both his cheeks. "Welcome home."
"It's good to be home, thank you," Demir replied quietly.
"The palace is not the same without you, my lord," Sabah said warmly and then, to Demir's astonishment, embraced and kissed him exactly as Ruth had. "You should go see Ihsan and Kitt."
Demir frowned. "I have duties here, and His Majesty must be asleep by now."
"No, he woke up restless a little while ago. I was going to see him myself once I secured the hall for night." He handed off the papers he still held to Ruth then turned back to Demir. "There are rooms reserved for Cobra. I thought they'd prefer to stay here again rather than elsewhere in the palace. I ass
ume they came with you."
"Yes, they're still speaking with Euren in the large court room."
Sabah's smile faded. "Euren told you what is to become of the harems."
Demir nodded.
"You should come see Ihsan. I am not exaggerating when I say he's missed you." He smiled crookedly. "Though I think while most of it was fear and heartache, maybe the barest touch was jealousy."
"Whatever do you mean?" Demir asked, barely noticing when the guards faded off, attention solely for Sabah's crooked smile and the mischief in his eyes.
Sabah looped his arm through Demir's and turned them toward the door, leading the way back out of the hall, threading through the palace. "It is not a secret among us that Haluk cares for you. There was no reason for the two of you not to become lovers, given your new freedom, hmm?"
Jerking free and stepping well away from Sabah, Demir replied, "I would never do something so vulgar as immediately begin an affair with a man beloved of the king and unjustly taken from him. I had not realized everyone's opinion of me was so low. I believe I'll go directly to bed after all, Lord Sabah. Goodnight."
Of course, once he had stormed off, he realized he did not actually know where he was sleeping. He had assumed in the harem hall, but that was where Sabah currently resided, and they'd not actually discussed it…
"Lord Demir!" Sabah came up behind him, grabbed his arm. "Please, forgive me. That was not what I meant to insinuate at all. Please."
Demir reluctantly turned around, but only because he had nowhere else to go. "What else could you have meant?"
"Ihsan is going to kill me. I am not normally so clumsy with my words," Sabah said, pressing his fingertips to his temples. Dropping his hands after a moment, he looked up. "Lord Demir, there is not a person in this palace who does not hold you in high esteem, save those who are jealous of you or seek to remove you for their own machinations. Ihsan has precious few fond memories of this place and expected to return only to hostility, at best apathy. Your support has meant a great deal to him, and I do not think it would surprise you to hear he is attracted to you—very much so."
"No," Demir said quietly. "That is not a surprise. But that does not explain why you, and he apparently, think I would have an affair with Haluk. We, neither of us, would be so disloyal."
Sabah let out a soft huff. "It's not disloyal, that is what I am failing to convey. Ihsan is twelve years your junior and knows it; he also knows how useless he was growing up, all the reasons no one was terribly sad to see him leave. When we ran off, we did not expect Haluk to come after us, to join us—to become our lover. He is much closer to you in age than Ihsan, me, and Kitt. If the new harem laws passed by the council had held, Haluk, Kitt, and I could never have been more than friends to Ihsan. That would not have stopped Kitt or me, but it would have stopped Haluk. Ihsan knew that, and he knows that Haluk cares for you, believes you two would get on well. He only wished for your happiness, even if he hated he could not be part of it." He stepped in close but did not touch, simply looked up. "We have missed you."
"You don't know me well enough to have missed me," Demir said quietly.
"That's not for you to decide," Sabah said. "I am sorry for my careless words. Would you please come see Ihsan?"
Demir hesitated, started to refuse, but every time he heard Ihsan's name his stomach clenched and his chest lurched. Maybe seeing him would reinforce all the reasons pining after a prince twelve years his junior was the definition of foolish, especially when he had nothing to offer. He wasn't an assassin, a smart and gentle lord, or a bodyguard. Soon, he would be nothing but a man with skills nobody needed, too old to appeal to anyone who could have the same in a younger man.
"All right," he finally said, but he could not return the smile that Sabah offered him.
He followed Sabah through the halls to Ihsan's room, where four guards in black sashes stood guarding the door. Their eyes widened when they saw Demir. "Harem Master! Welcome home!"
"Thank you," Demir said, casting a look at Sabah, who was technically harem master still. Sabah, however, only looked amused.
"That reminds me, I should return your keys," Sabah said and unwound the gold chain wrapped around his waist. He held them out. "It is good to have you back, Harem Master."
Bemused, Demir fastened the keys around his waist, some of the tension bleeding away to have the familiar weight where it had been every day of his life for so many years.
Nodding to the guards, Sabah led the way into Ihsan's room. It was dark when they entered, only a few candles lit here and there. Ihsan was not in his bed, as Demir had expected, but arranged in a nest of blankets and pillows and cushions in the lounging nook across the room. Kitt and Haluk sat on either side of him.
Kitt broke into a wide grin. "Lord Demir!" Surging to his feet, he crossed the room, grabbed Demir's face in both hands, and dragged him down into a quick, hard kiss that was over as soon as it began. "Welcome home. We were just discussing if we needed to hunt you down."
"What in the name of the Divine… You can't…"
"Kitt," Ihsan said with a sigh. "Get back here, and if you do not start behaving I will chain you to the bed—not in a good way."
Rolling his eyes, softly grumbling in Rittuen, Kitt returned to Ihsan's side.
Demir slowly dragged his eyes over them, gaze finally resting on Ihsan. He looked awful, the wound on his throat still red and painful-looking, his chest wrapped in bandages. Demir's stomach clenched as he truly realized just how close Ihsan had come to dying. His hair, lank and messy, was pulled back in a loose tail, and it looked like he wore only a loose pair of faded maroon pants, the hem of which were visible where his leg partly stuck out of the pile of blankets covering him.
Kneeling, Demir bowed his head and said, "I am happy to see you alive, Your Majesty."
"I am happy to be alive," Ihsan said wryly. "Thank you for returning when we gave you no reason to do so, and every reason to refuse. I hope Haluk has taken good care of you."
Demir nodded then slowly looked up. "Of course, Majesty."
Curiosity flickered across Ihsan's face, but whatever question he wanted to ask, he apparently chose not to as he said, "Come and sit with me, by your pleasure. Though if you prefer to find your bed, I of course understand."
Going to bed would be the wiser course, but he had already discarded that option at least twice—no point in retreating to it now. Demir rose and moved closer, sitting near Ihsan's feet within arm's reach of Haluk. Opposite Haluk, Kitt gave a small, smirking little smile, like he knew good and well that Demir was purposefully keeping distance between them.
Which he very much needed to do when he was far too familiar with Kitt's kisses, could still feel the most recent one throbbing on his lips like a burn.
Sabah sat opposite Demir and helped himself to the tea on a nearby tray before handing the cup to Ihsan. He leaned over Ihsan and gave Haluk a brief kiss. "Welcome home."
Haluk carded his fingers through Sabah's hair, smiled softly. "It's good to be home. Did Demir tell you who else has returned with us?"
"No." Sabah tilted his head. "Who?"
"Altan," Ihsan said, smiling. "My brother has come home. The wretch had better come see me tomorrow. Is he well? When did he return to Tavamara?"
"He never left," Demir replied wryly. "Apparently he has been living with my parents this entire time."
Ihsan smiled. "The Harem Masters are loyal to a fault, fortunately for us. How is your mother? How is Lady Irmak? Emre?"
"All well, and Irmak is set to marry your brother to cover up the scandal with your father," Haluk replied. "A pity we cannot tell the truth of all that has happened lately. It makes for quite the story."
"I would greatly prefer not to live in so tumultuous a story," Ihsan said, reaching up to gently touch his neck, face tightening, anger and sadness flickering across it. "One more dramatic story and I'm going to be too battered and ugly to leave my room."
Kitt, Haluk, and Sabah gave him re
proving looks. "You're not ugly, Ihsan," Sabah said.
Ihsan made a face. "It hardly matters. There are more important things to worry about than how pretty I am. Like how soon I am allowed to move around again. It was my neck that was wounded, not my legs, and I hardly need to move to manage court. I can at least do that while Euren manages everything else."
"No," Kitt said, the other two chorusing him.
"Respect," Demir cut in, "but His Majesty holding court is not a bad idea, to my mind. There is no council, court has been closed how many days? The discontent and fear rampant in the palace will have spread to the city, and it will not take long for it to spread further. Holding court is something His Majesty can manage if he does so with care. He will have his harem to attend him the whole time, make sure he does not overtax himself. And seeing him working, his wound still apparent, will instill more confidence than almost anything else we can do. Unless I am mistaken, which I could be, as my skills lie with—"
"If you say your skills lie with the harem, like they have no use anywhere else, I am going to set this fussing trio upon you," Ihsan said.
Kitt snorted. "One day the two of you are going to get caught up in a game of who can be more self-sacrificing. It will be both tragic and hilarious to watch." He rested a pensive gaze on Demir. "Although given how alike you are, I bet the same tricks that work on Ihsan work on you."
Sabah elbowed him in the gut, shooting him a quelling look. "Stop it."
Muttering in Rittuen again, something about stubborn idiots if Demir heard correctly, Kitt turned back to Ihsan and fussed with his blankets, brushed back his hair, fingers lingering on the livid scar. "I wish I could have killed the bastard twice."
"Once was enough," Ihsan said, capturing his hand and kissing the palm. "Stop being angry with yourself." He kept hold of Kitt's hand as he settled back against his pillows once more. "Hopefully we can soon dismantle the council and the ambassadors, have done with this mess and focus on the kingdom the way we should. Though we will have to rebuild the council…"
