by Lisa Lace
“You drive me wild, beautiful Earth woman. You’re mine, all mine. I will never let anyone take you away from me.”
Perri murmurs something in response, but I can’t hear what she says. A thunderous pounding at the door drowns out her voice. She looks at me wide-eyed. “Were you expecting someone?”
“No. Stay here.”
I pull on my trousers and run to the door. Before I have the chance to open it, it splinters inward. Two solid kicks from the other side tear it off its hinges. “What in all the hells is going on here?” I fall back into a fighting stance. The two men who enter, enormous and dressed in the uniform of my brother’s personal guard, are unimpressed.
“Prince Rasulus, under the order of the king we are to return you to the palace. The king has questions for you.”
A cold lump of fear sits in my gut. What happens next could be the end of everything I have worked for, the end of me, and of Perri.
“All right. Give me a few moments to collect my things.”
I have a wild idea of ignoring Perri. Most people do not know who she is. If we leave the Pearl without her, she can wait until the danger is past and make her way back to the Savi who will protect her.
Perri has no intention of being left behind. “I’m coming with you.”
With a sinking sensation, I know things are now out of my hands.
Crucis doesn’t greet us in his throne room. He meets us in an obscure room in the southern wing of the palace. It was used for fencing practice in the past when swords were still popular.
With his guards arranged along the wall like an audience of dutiful statues, Crucis, bare-chested, practices sword drills in the center of the room.
I feel Perri draw a quick breath beside me as she sees Crucis’ skill with the weapon. I wonder if Casca or Miruska told her about what had happened to the Savi heir. He was my best friend. Crucis lowers the sword when he sees us enter the room, coming to stand a few feet away from us.
“Brother, it is good to see you in the palace again. You have been away for too long.”
“Have I? I suppose I must have been, but you know how it is. Pretty girls exist from the sand to the shore. All of them need something hard at night.” Next to me, Perri winces. I cannot be concerned with her feelings. Not now, when Crucis has a sharpened sword close to Perri’s tender skin.
“I’ll take your word for it. Responsibilities of the throne have kept me too busy for wenching these days. I guess you wouldn’t know a thing about responsibilities, would you, brother?”
I grin. That’s exactly what I want him to think. “What can I say, Crucis? You have the crown, and I get all the fun of doing as I please while still retaining the titles and property of a prince.”
“I wonder about you, Rasulus. I wonder if you would ever want to trade.”
I try to look mildly interested. “I watched a play like that once. In the end, everyone ends up happier where they originally were.”
“Is that where you have been for the last few days, brother? Watching plays?”
As a matter of fact, I have been on the coast, settling things with a faction that had formerly allied with me but decided it was better to try to seize power on their own. I wonder if one of them had come back to the capital with revenge on their mind. If they had, they could hardly pick a better agent than Crucis.
“I’ve been doing many things over the past few days. I may have seen a play now that you mention it. Why do you ask?”
He turns to me, eyes bright with suspicion. He suspects something, but he doesn’t know for sure. Even though he is a mad king, he cannot do whatever he wants. He cannot kill his brother out of hand.
“I’m saying there are rumors, Rasulus. They sound disturbing. I can no longer ignore them.”
“For the love of God, they’re all true!”
I freeze, my heart stopping in my chest. As one, my brother and I both turn to Perri.
She has her arms strapped around her waist as if she is cold. The look only serves to push up her round breasts. None of the clothes from the Savi were ready when we left the Pearl. She had to make do with some spare silk garb from the other girls. She was forced to appear in front of the most powerful man on the planet dressed only in strips of turquoise cloth held to her body by delicate silver chains.
I must have been staring at her. Perri glares at me.
“And what exactly is true, Earth woman?”
“He took me to a brothel. He made me entertain him alongside his whores.” She speaks with all the viperous rage of an offended wife.
Crucis draws back slightly, eyes narrowed as he listens to her. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. Explain.”
Perri’s glorious eyes fill with tears. Even though I realize what she’s doing, it breaks my heart to see them. She looks so hurt and enraged that I nearly scoop her up in my arms. I don’t, of course. I make myself look bored as she speaks.
“That’s not all. He sent me to the country because he became bored with me. I stayed out there for a while. Eventually, he sent for me because he came up with another game. He made me go to that awful brothel where your men found us. He made me dress like this.”
“Well, he made one good decision, at least. Anything else?”
“He made me learn to dance like the other girls there. He said it excited him and turned him on. When he lost control, he violated every part of me.”
“I thought you treated your women better than this, Rasulus.”
Crucis was beginning to look more amused than infuriated. We might get out of here alive, after all.
Perri keeps her face lifted proudly even as tears drip from her eyes. She looks as if she hated every moment she had to spend with me.
“He forced me to use my mouth on him. I was so furious that I bit him.”
Crucis looks startled, for once. He turns to me.
“Is it true?” There is a warning note in his voice. He expects I am unable or unwilling to show proof of the violation against my masculinity. But he’s in for a surprise. I sigh, pulling down my trousers just enough to show him the vivid bite.
Crucis laughs. The sound is ugly. I can tell he thinks this is all ridiculous.
“What a terrible husband you are. Earth woman, I apologize for my brother’s behavior, but I am afraid there is nothing I can do. He is your master now. You must do your best to appease him.”
Perri looks properly hopeless at his pronouncement. Crucis turns to me.
“I think you should stay closer to home for a while, my brother. Rumors are making their way across the kingdom. Some of them could prove deadly to you.”
“I can imagine where they started. If I don’t put a curb on Perri’s tongue, she might get me kicked out of my favorite brothels.”
I take Perri by the arm, dragging her out of the royal presence and all the way back to my chambers. While we are walking, I pretend to comfort her while she cries loudly about her bad treatment, making sure anyone passing by can hear her.
It is not until we are safely back in my own quarters that she lets out a shaky breath, collapsing onto the bed.
“Perri, what is it? Are you all right?”
“We came very close to something dangerous back there, didn’t we?”
There is no use lying to her. “Yes, we did. You may have saved both of us.”
“But you still won’t tell me everything, will you?”
After what just happened, if anyone deserves to know, it is Perri.
I still can’t tell her.
Perri
I stare at him for a long moment. We have only known each other for a short time, but the bond we feel is intense. I have only a vague idea of what I risked back in the chambers of the king. Rasulus knows more than I do, and he looks shaken.
I can see he won’t tell me what is going on. He feels guilty about it or he would look me in the eyes, but that doesn’t change anything. I know I should feel angry, maybe even furious. I have been promised a safe place in the
world with a man perfectly matched with me, but I am being denied my dream. I wonder if I should fly at him, demanding he tell me what I am involved in before I get myself killed. Another woman in my place would coldly issue an ultimatum. Tell the truth or I would go speak to Crucis and tell him exactly what I know.
I do neither of those things. In truth, I am too tired to do so. I curl up next to him, lying down with my head resting on his leg. Rasulus hesitates for a moment before he gently starts to pet my hair. The simple touch is somehow more intimate than sex. I let my eyes drift shut, soothed in a way I am not sure I have ever been in my life.
“You’re angry with me.”
“No. Maybe I should be, but I’m not. All that matters to me is being with you and having a quiet moment. You should get some rest. You look exhausted yourself.”
“I do?”
“Do you think you have kept it so well hidden? People think that you lounge around because you don’t care. I’m beginning to think it’s because you’re so tired all the time.”
“You are truly a surprise, little wife of mine.” From Rasulus’ soft chuckle, I can tell I have learned another tiny piece of the puzzle.
“I don’t know about that. Don’t they say TerraMates is always right? What did you think you were going to get?”
“Someone genetically compatible. Someone who is attractive to me. I never intended to use TerraMates at all. Crucis must have thought it was a wonderful joke when he used it to find you.”
I snort inelegantly. “We’re told something different on Earth. The woman who matched me with you told me we were a real connection, a one in a million match. We were supposed to be a spectacular pairing. The kind of match that could only come from searching not just one planet for love, but an entire galaxy.”
He makes a soft sound of surprise. “Do you still believe her?”
I am still for a long time, thinking about his question. I half-expected Rasulus to back away from the query, or at least tell me he didn’t want to know, after all. No one truly wants to learn if his wife has given up on her dreams or if she clings to them like a romantic fool.
“I want to. When I was on Earth, I was scared all the time. There was a man there who wanted to hurt me. He did hurt me in so many ways. The things he did to me were personal and terrible.”
Even in my careful words, treading softly to avoid old remembered pains, I can feel the way Rasulus’ body gets tense. I have a feeling that if we ever make it to Earth, Rasulus will be committing murder.
“I’m sorry Arietus has done no better for you.”
He looks astonished when I laugh. “Well, it has done far better in a certain way.”
Rasulus makes a sound of disbelief, and I roll over on my back so I can look up at him. Without thinking of it, I reach up to stroke his face. Despite the number of ways that Rasulus has already had me, there is a new electricity in my caress, and he leans into it.
“I know, married into a royal family, menaced by walking bird monsters, banished to the country and installed in a brothel for a few days doesn’t sound so great. It’s hardly the stuff of dreams, though I have to admit that the nights I spend with you are amazing.”
He puffs up so visibly at my praise that I must laugh.
“As I said, it’s not so bad in ways. The violence here isn’t because of something I did. It’s not because I forgot to pick up bread on the way home or I don’t feel like having sex on a given night. It’s happening in a way that has nothing to do with me. As fucked up as it sounds, it’s almost something I’m grateful for. Does that make any sense?”
“I wish it didn’t, but yes. If we are ever on Earth, you will do me the honor of letting me kill the last man you were with.”
He doesn’t say anything else. I almost fall asleep listening to his soft breathing. The drugs the girls at the Pearl gave me wore off long ago, and I’m beginning to pay the price. I feel an exhausted weariness sneak over me.
“It’s going to change, Perri.”
For a moment, I almost dismiss his words. If I’ve learned one thing in my life, it is that things will always change. Sometimes you lose the good stuff, but it also means the bad isn’t permanent. Something about Rasulus’ voice makes me look up at him. His handsome face is set in determination, and I become even more certain that I am not married to a spoiled prince or decadent.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I can’t tell you more than that, but I promise you, things will be different.”
There is a dark sound in his voice that makes me shiver. He’s talking about the end of the world. The end of someone’s world, anyway. If I were smart, I wouldn’t want to know more.
He gently pushes me off his lap, and I sit up. As I watch, he walks to his wardrobe and opens a drawer I have never seen before. It’s situated so far inside the wardrobe that it might as well be a secret compartment. Rasulus pulls out a wooden box and returns to the bed, sitting next to me.
He looks unsure for the first time I’ve ever seen. “You didn’t have a real wedding.”
I think back to the travesty Crucis put us through, and I smile wryly. “We were both there. Neither did you.”
“There’s no way for you to know this, but you’re right. Weddings on Arietus are grand things, especially for royalty. When my father married my mother, they celebrated for a full month. They might have gone on longer if my mother hadn’t wanted to take my father sailing on the sea for a while. She was one of the sea people. As much as she liked the city, she always preferred to have a ship under her feet.”
“I wish I could have met her.”
“I wish you could have met her too. She would have liked you, I think. But this might be the next best thing.”
He hands me the wooden box with a solemnity that makes my breath catch. I look at him timidly, and he nods at me to open it. Inside, nestled in pure black silk, I find his mother’s jewelry.
It’s a full set of sapphires cast in silver. There are slender silver rings for each of my fingers, as I have seen some of the women at court wear. Two chandelier-style earrings throw showers of glimmering gems that will cascade down to my shoulders. The star of the collection, however, is the necklace. It is wide and designed to ride high on my chest, covering me with silver and sapphire blue. At the center is a gleaming gem the size of my eye. Smaller gems dangle from the main band which fall almost all the way down to my cleavage.
“Rasulus, it’s magnificent.”
“My mother brought the set from her family. My father gave her something even better, but it was taken from her when she died.”
“Was it Crucis’ mother?”
His face is stoic, but I suspect I know the answer already.
“Let’s just say it was lost. These were more important to her, though. No one cared about them because they were only sapphires. She wanted me to give them to my future wife someday. That’s you.”
A small, frantic part of me wants to object. I cannot be worthy of such a gift, something that carries so much weight and value. There is no way I can wear the gems of a queen.
When I look into Rasulus’ eyes, I know he won’t take no for an answer. I trust this man and his judgment. If he says I am fit to wear the jewelry, I must be.
“Will you put them on me?”
Silently, he slides each ring onto my fingers and fastens each earring to the nearly-closed holes in my ears. He saves the necklace for last. When it sits around my throat, cold and heavy, I feel as if I am becoming someone else. Perhaps finally realizing who I really am.
Rasulus guides me to the mirror so I can see myself, and when I do, I let out a gasp.
“You look like a queen.”
“No. I look like I belong to you.”
I take the jewelry off quickly. It is too fragile and priceless for everyday wear, though I leave on the rings. As tired as we are, Rasulus takes me to bed, laying me out over the covers, licking and kissing me until I groan with need. There is no violence in his gestures and no u
rgency. He has all the finesse of an architect. He explores each part of me, tasting and nipping until I am red all over from arousal and from embarrassment. When he finally pulls me into his lap, sheathing himself neatly in my body, I am almost wild with need. With my back to his chest, he can hold me and play with me even as he thrusts inside. I climax with his thick cock inside me and his fingers grinding against my clit. When I come this time, there are tears in my eyes, and a certainty comes over me.
Everything will be all right. It has to be.
The next night, Crucis summons us to court.
Rasulus
Both Perri and I know the invitation is more of a command. She looks afraid for a moment before an air of calm falls over her. I know she will do what needs to be done to get through the evening.
I send her away with the women so she can be bathed and dressed. Tonight, she will wear my mother’s gems, and she will glow. Despite the circumstances, I am eager to see the spectacle.
I wish things had worked out differently. The matter I was attending along the coast has accelerated the time frame of my coup. My allies are ready. Some have been holding their place for almost a year. I have learned a great deal about revolutions, and I know they must come quickly or not at all. We will be ready in another week or two. I have left nothing to chance. It will be as bloodless as possible. I will emerge the king of Arietus. My brother Crucis will be in custody, defanged at last and never able to kill another innocent person.
We only have to last another two weeks.
My thoughts are dark, but when Perri returns to my chambers, I can’t help but feel an intense pleasure when I look at her. She wears rich blue silks tonight to match the color of her jewelry. Powdered minerals add a shine to her eyelids. Almost shyly, she offers me her hands, and I draw her into a kiss, nuzzling along her throat to preserve her lips, which have been painted a deep plum.
