Severance (The Sovereign Book 1)

by Michael Pritsos

  Daemyn walked into the dark bilge and found Saija hard at work fixing the leak. Her lean muscles tensed in the loose tunic she wore as she dug the trowel in between the planking of the vessel. She glanced in his direction for a moment and went back to work, slightly grunting with the labor of her task. The prince wandered over to her, making as if to inspect the odds and ends below deck as he walked. She stood abruptly with a satisfied smile and turned to find Daemyn standing beside her.

  “Good job,” the prince said with a nod of approval at the freshly caulked leak.

  “It’s hard to be a woman on a ship full of men, Highness,” Saija said. “One has to find many ways to pull their weight if they are not to be a mere delight for men’s hungry eyes when they’re away from their women.”

  “I can see why their eyes would be so hungry,” Daemyn replied and looked the young woman from top to bottom. She had short brown hair pulled back in a small ponytail behind her head with a few wisps that fell around her long face. Her lips were plump and pink and her eyes emerald green, both colors contrasting well with her sun darkened skin. She was slender, and Daemyn thought perhaps too much so, with small high breasts and long legs hidden by blue trousers.

  “You flatter me, Highness,” Saija said with a shy smile.

  She made a move to leave the underbelly of the longship and Daemyn playfully stepped in front of her. Saija giggled and faked left before going right, backing up against the wall of the bilge. Daemyn walked over to the woman casually, but he could already feel his manhood beginning to tense. Saija grinned mischievously and announced that she should probably go check on the weather to make certain the sail was still pulling the ship forward. As she went to move past him again Daemyn lightly touched her cheek and she lunged forward for a kiss. They stayed there for a moment, pressed tightly against one another with each set of lips caressing the other with the passion of former lovers that had found one another again. Daemyn always prided himself on his ability to turn lust into the illusion that it was more than momentary desire. That the ecstasy might last forever.

  Daemyn pushed her back against the wall during their kisses and she fumbled at the laces on his breeches as he undid hers. His heart was racing and each kiss was more passionate than the last. He moved down her neck and wanted to tear off her tunic but halted himself from performing that degradation. Instead he slid his hands over her small breasts and pinched lightly to tense her nipples. She moaned and pulled his manhood free, instantly dropping her pants and kicking them aside. He put his hands on the backs of her thighs, pulling her to him and sliding inside of her. Daemyn took his time, the rhythm of the waves guiding him back and forth.

  When they had finished, Daemyn wiped the sweat from his brow and deftly laced up his trousers. His blond hair fell around his face and he pushed it back into place as messy waves around his head. Saija fell against his chest breathing raggedly, and as she held onto her momentary lover he adjusted her oversized tunic so that it covered her backside. She looked up into the prince’s face with a smile and he returned it dutifully.

  “That was wonderful, Highness” Saija said as she pulled away from his chest.

  He buttoned the shirt that had somehow undone itself during their play. “The other sailors will have noticed our absence for this long.”

  “I don’t care,” Saija proclaimed and touched his clean-shaven cheek. “Let them think what they want.”

  “I would rather not,” Daemyn said seriously. “I think you should retire to your bed for the rest of the day. I shall tell everyone you were feeling ill.”

  “I am not a girl, Highness,” Saija declared. “I am a woman, and a sailor. I will do my duties as the captain sees fit, and the others can be damned if they wish to think poorly of me.”

  “Do you not see that could be perceived as shameful?” the prince scolded. “It is not that I am ashamed, I enjoyed our encounter as much as you did but I will not tolerate any of your companions speaking ill of you. In order to prevent that it is imperative that you shut yourself away for a time. Trust me on this.”

  Saija thought for a moment and finally gave a conceding nod. “I sleep in the captain’s quarters most nights and he stays with the men in their bunks down here, to prevent any problems. I suppose, if I must, I will retire to his room now. Come visit me tonight?”

  She is more independent than most, Daemyn thought and ultimately smiled. “I think I can do that.”

  * *

  Prince Daemyn strolled down the longship’s boarding ramp with all the grace that could be expected of him. He looked to the other side of Triton’s ramshackle dock and noted with a chuckle that the large Gaian ship was already there and emptied of all its passengers. Turning towards the small town he walked down the dirt street at a pace matching his apathy towards the meeting. There were small cobblestone homes lining the street that led directly to the Thalassan Embassy, if it could even be called that. The meetings held at the embassy usually only contained between six and ten people at a time, so the building was little more than a small manor. Before making his way to the meeting he stopped off at the largest building Triton possessed.

  The building was the size of a fortress and was made entirely of mud bricks that dated back hundreds of years, but it was so well-constructed that the foundations barely had any cracks to mark their age. It was one of the only buildings on the miniscule island that was not roofed with thatch but instead had a shingle roof that prevented even the slightest leaks from rain. There was only one story to the building but he had been there enough times to know that there was a large cellar beneath the pine flooring that kept hoards of milk cold enough to preserve them for as long as two to three weeks in summer.

  A timid woman greeted Daemyn when he entered. He wondered whether that was in her personality or, often as not, whether her shyness was the result of seeing the prince of their lands. He gave her his best smile and marched passed toward the sound of wailing coming from the room beyond. When he opened the oak door to the following room the noise rose into a clamor of crying babies. Daemyn cringed in agitation for a heartbeat before doing his best to put aside the annoyance to look at the beautiful faces of the scores of infants in the room.

  “Well this is a rarity,” a woman announced as she approached. She was in her forties but still a handsome woman with long brown hair that tumbled down to the middle of her back. In her right arm she carried a sleeping child and in her left she had a writing tablet with a bronze stylus plunged through the wax to keep it in place.

  “Good day, Sophia,” Daemyn declared.

  The babies whimpered quietly now as another woman walked among them. Daemyn recognized her as Ana, Sophia’s daughter, and cringed as he remembered she was a Gaian. The young woman gave him a brief glance then and he turned to Sophia and continued their conversation.

  “Would you like to hold any of them, Highness?” Sophia asked.

  Daemyn thought for a moment and was actually surprised to find that he did. Perhaps I am maturing a bit, he thought with a grin. He nodded at the middle-aged woman and she went to put the sleeping baby down in his cradle before picking up one of the wailing infants. Sophia brought the child over to the prince. He was at a loss for a moment when she delicately placed her into his arms.

  The baby was only a month old, perhaps two, and its cries began to hush as the prince bounced on the balls of his feet to calm it. The girl began to coo softly and looked up into the blue eyes of the man holding her, reaching out to grab his sharp nose with a strength that amazed the smiling prince. One day I shall have one of my own, he pondered. And I will take him to each place I go. He shall be a little Daemyn to match his father in every facet. Well… perhaps not every facet.

  “She likes you,” Ana, Sophia’s daughter, announced suddenly to disrupt his thoughts. “Your presence is calming to her.”

  “One would not have to be a Gaian to know that,” Daemyn said with a smirk. Sophia looked at him disapprovingly and he quickly changed his tone. “W
hat is the child thinking now?”

  “They do not have cognitive thoughts at this age,” Ana answered with a shrug. “It is more like basic wants and needs that are lumped together for each individual. If any of those are fulfilled then the child is happy. From what I can tell she wanted to be held tenderly yet firmly, and you happen to be the one who has given that to her.”

  Daemyn smiled at the prospect of bringing some comfort to the child. “I should not linger. They will worry over my absence at the Embassy.”

  The child was sleeping then and he made to give her over to Ana when quite suddenly the ten pounds of weight relieved his arm. The baby floated ever so gently into Ana’s waiting arms and the Gaian girl gave the Thalassan prince a sweet smile as a farewell. He turned and scratched his head as he left the nursery, nodding goodbye to Sophia and then the meek woman at the nursery’s front desk before stepping back out into the street. Pretty girl, he thought with a shake of his head, I can at least admit that much, even if I do loathe it when they flaunt their abilities before us.

  He entered the embassy and walked directly to the meeting room, joined upon his entrance by two guards flanking him. There was a large rectangular table at the center of the room and seated opposite his gilded chair was the newest diplomat the Gaians had to offer. She was a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties, with long blonde hair and eyes of jade that flickered in annoyance in his direction when he sat down. She wore a silk dress that shone silver in the candlelight, and suddenly the Thalassan prince felt slightly underdressed in his linen shirt and breeches. The only thing to distinguish him from the nearest sailor was a brooch displaying a golden symbol for Pontos that fastened his scarlet cloak at his neck. His two guards stood to either side of him and stared straightforward, probably hoping beyond all hope that the meeting would be a brief one so they would not have to keep avoiding the glances from the Gaian diplomat’s two guards flanking her. It was not cowardice, simply discomfort.

  “We are thankful you could join us,” the Gaian stated frostily.

  The bitch is annoyed that I’m tardy, Daemyn thought with a smirk. “It was my pleasure, my lady.”

  “Let’s get down to business,” Nicolette stated.

  What, no foreplay? Daemyn mentally quipped. “Typically William would begin with discussing the number of orphans that were brought to Triton.”

  “You would know that number already, would you not?” Nicolette inquired with narrowed eyes. Before he could confirm this she continued, “There was a large shipment this month, forty-one mouths for your father to figure out how to feed.”

  We figure out how to feed them every month while still sending you your precious gold, Daemyn thought. “I’m sure my father shall be able to work out those logistics. Now there’s the matter of payment.”

  “First I would know the population of Thalassa, William saw fit to overlook that for some years,” Nicolette said. She brought out a piece of parchment from the bag at her side and dipped her quill in ink.

  “It has changed little,” Daemyn said with a shrug. “There are around one million residents on the whole archipelago.”

  “I wish to know specifics,” Nicolette said without looking up from the parchment she had begun to scratch upon.

  Then perhaps you should come count each citizen yourself. “I do not know the exact number, perhaps around one million and one hundred thousand?”

  “The contract written by William’s predecessor had stated that for every five thousand citizens of Thalassa a tax of one pound of gold would be taken per month,” Nicolette declared. “If your population has jumped a hundred thousand citizens since the last time William recorded it, then that means your financial obligations to Gaia will have changed as well. Two hundred pounds of gold has now become two hundred and twenty.”

  Has this fucking bitch lost her bloody mind? Daemyn almost wanted to slap her. He calmed himself with a breath and narrowed his blue eyes to stare into her green ones. “The payment should stay as it is. Two hundred pounds of gold every month is more than enough to keep you Gaians sitting high on the mainland.”

  “Your father signed the document that puts you under contract to match a pound of gold for every five thousand citizens. You are lucky that I do not have you scrounge up the documents of every isle in Thalassa to get the proper population growths over the past few years.”

  Daemyn thought about it for a moment and decided that his father would want what was best for Thalassa even if it meant losing over two hundred more pounds of gold every year. Let’s hope our mines never run out, Daemyn thought with clenched teeth, for Gaian greed knows no bounds. “I shall agree to the payment of two hundred and twenty pounds of gold per month, beginning with next month. On this day you will take the shipment we have brought, which contains two hundred pounds.”

  “I feel inclined to push for two hundred and forty pounds next month, to make up what was not paid today,” Nicolette replied. She set her mouth into a hard thin line and Daemyn wondered what that mouth would taste like. She’s not a bad looking woman, he thought with a mischievous grin. Perhaps she just needs a good rutting to get her mood up. I wonder if she’d call me “Highness” in bed.

  The prince noticed that one of her guards was staring at him with his mouth slightly parted. Daemyn burst into laughter. That’s the price of being able to read everyone’s minds. Stretching back in his chair he lifted his leather boots upon the table and closed his hands together. “No, I will stand firm on that extra twenty pounds. The next thing I know you shall want two hundred and forty every time we meet. The deal is two hundred this month, two-twenty every following.”

  “Fine,” Nicolette said curtly.

  “Then it’s all settled,” Daemyn declared. He grinned in spite of her scowl. “Draw up a copy for me, would you? I do not feel much like writing today.”

  Nicolette’s gaze met Daemyn’s in a brief challenge before she wordlessly grabbed another piece of parchment that she placed next to her own. He stood and delivered a half-assed salute to the two guards flanking her, who both gave him a short glance before staring straight ahead once more. His own guards followed him when he exited the room, cloak flapping lightly around his ankles as he made his way back into the streets of Triton. There was an open residency close to the nursery he wished to inspect.

  * * *

  Daemyn lay in the captain’s cabin with his arm draped over his eyes to cover his agitation. The door creaked open and was silently shut again and he heard footsteps cross the room to the hammock he sprawled on. He did not move his arm but took a deep breath of the damp air to show he was not asleep.

  “Seasick?” the young woman’s voice inquired.

  “Hardly,” Daemyn answered.

  “Then you will not be disinclined to this,” Saija whispered and slid his free hand up the softness of her inner thigh.

  “I am disinclined at the moment,” Daemyn said and put his hand back onto his chest.

  “Have I done something to offend you, Highness?” Saija asked innocently. “You did not come to the inn the night we spent on Triton, and since yesterday morning when we boarded you have hardly said a word to me.”

  “It is nothing you have done. I feel a knot in my belly after every meeting with those mainland bastards. I have just spent a lot of money on a friend I am not so sure I even wish to keep any longer,” Daemyn added with a flicker of agitation over Xander. “All I want is to be alone, and here you come hoping for affections. I’m just not in the mood.”

  Saija was hurt but hardened her heart. “I’m sorry to hear that, Highness. I suppose I just thought that—”

  “Thought that what?” Daemyn asked suddenly. He pulled his arm away from his eyes and stared into her emerald gaze to find tears there. His heart went out to her then and he sighed. “I am sorry, Saija, truly. I do not mean what I say, forgive me.”

  She smiled at the prince then and leaned down for a kiss, which he obliged to deter any more tears from the confused young woman. “Pe
rhaps I can stay in Pontos for a time?” she suggested. “Then when you have to pay the taxes again I will come back to the ship with you.”

  “That would not do,” Daemyn said gently. “You have your duties to attend to on the ship, but in a few weeks when we embark to Triton again then we shall see one another.”

  Saija looked at a loss for a moment but tried her best to stay calm. “I am looking forward to it, my prince.”

  “As am I,” he returned with a practiced smile. She took one more kiss from him and then returned to the deck.

  The time passed swiftly and Daemyn soon found himself disembarking the vessel yet again as the night was settling over Pontos. He took a horse to the castle rather than walk, the entire ride enjoying the wind in his hair and wishing it would blow all the troubles of regal life away. The ride from the dock to the castle was not exactly a long one. Only a few miles through cobblestone streets. King Philip’s castle was situated perfectly on Pontos with a grand view of the ocean out to the north and west, with only the port city between. Out to the east and south of the castle was a stretch of forestry, spattered with a few villages and towns dozens of miles away but the main population of the isle resided in the city of Pontos itself. Three hundred thousand mouths, stomachs, and asses could place a heavy burden on a king. If they weren’t so good at self-sustaining.

  Daemyn glanced into a blacksmith’s shop as he rode past and felt a brief envy for the man working hard at his anvil. How simple so many folk have it, Daemyn thought with a shake of his head. All they needed to do was ensure their rent was paid and they had food on the table. Little did they know what needed to happen in order to ensure that that food was at the market, or those homes were not threatened by anyone.

  He arrived at the castle when the moon was high and found it hardly stirring. The workers had all gone to bed and the only men still awake were the guards making their normal rounds. As soon as he plopped himself down on his bed Theodore walked in with all the confidence of a mouse and informed him that Roselyn was begging for his audience in her chambers. Is there not one moment of peace? He thought as he began to lace up his boots again. What in the name of the gods could that woman want now? Daemyn’s thoughts drifted to Xander and he felt a surge of agitation as he realized that could be the only thing she wished to speak about.