by Megan Derr
Back at his main warehouse, Raiden was surprised to see that the boy he'd sent off with his missive had already returned, and was accompanied by a hooded figure who was nevertheless instantly recognizable. The posture, the way he moved—Raiden would know him anywhere. Raiden dismissed the apprentice and bid Takara follow him and Kin to his office.
It was disconcerting to feel the rush of want and mine after so many years of feeling nothing beyond the easier affection he felt for Kin. He poured his energies into his business and his jewelry collection; he did not attach himself to people, not that way, not anymore.
Takara Noumi, however, was irresistible. It was all Raiden could do not to stare like a moonstruck idiot as Takara unwound his hood and let it fall to rest around his shoulders. His hair was a rich green, cut to just past his chin, straight and smooth. His eyes were the same, set in a face that was pretty even if the pale lips were always frowning or scowling. "Master Raiden."
"Secretary," Raiden greeted. "I was not expecting so personal a reply."
"His Highness does not like to trust things to paper unless he must, and I am in town on other business anyway," Takara replied. "His Highness is happy to hear we may depart so quickly and is grateful to you and Captain Ningyo for managing it. He bids you meet him at the Temple of the Setting Sun tomorrow at dawn to finalize all arrangements. He will have the jewels and the contract."
Raiden smiled. "We will be there." Takara nodded, then restored his hood and left without another word.
"I actually believed you when you said you wanted him as a secretary," Kin said, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "You want him less for his secretarial abilities, I think, and more to see what he can do in bed."
Raiden chuckled. "He's beautiful, I admit it, but as I will shortly be his boss, he will want nothing to do with me. Still, I will admire the view the entire journey."
"I already wish the journey was over," Kin groused. "Dawn! Why dawn, and at that storming temple. Royalty! Watch him show up late and then be completely useless. I am going to get some rest while I can, since obviously I will not be getting much of that once we set sail. I will see you shortly before dawn, Raiden. Try to stay out of further trouble until then."
"Sleep well. I will try, but I cannot, in good conscience, make any promises."
Kin snorted. "You don't have a good conscience anyway." Then he was gone, leaving Raiden alone in his office, anticipating all that could and would happen over the course of the next three months.
Chapter Five: No Going Back
Taka wanted badly to go back to bed. "Why did you have to arrange this damnable meeting for dawn?"
"Because once the morning bells ring, the palace will be bustling with the departure of Prince Culebra and Lord Krasny. I will not be able to get free tonight, either, not when there is a supper in my name and too many people will be paying me too much attention. I cannot begin to tell you, Taka, how grateful I am that I am travelling on the Kumiko and not on one of the royal vessels."
"I do wish you would tell me where we are going and what we are doing," Taka complained, even though he knew it was futile. "All this mystery is not helping anything."
Kyo only shrugged and sipped at the tea they had brought along, sitting at the low table with morning sunlight spilling across the open space. The temple was made of cream-colored marble, rough in some places, smooth in others, evidence of all the centuries it had endured. It was open on all four sides, with only columns to support the roof and a prayer room that overlooked the sea far below.
Dressed in dark blue, his white sash decorated only with abstract swirls in various shades of blue, Kyo might have been a high-ranking priest. As a royal prince, he was, by default, a priest as well, but he was the only one in the royal family who practiced the priesthood in any capacity. Even his hair was unadorned, thought that was mostly because there had been no time to decorate it.
Taka yawned and drank more tea and hoped Raiden and his captain showed soon. He had no idea how he was going to stay awake all day; one of the few luxurious of being a royal secretary was that he did not have to rise at dawn like most servants. He kept Kyo's hours, and while Kyo himself did get up far earlier than any noble or royal, his office hours did not start until late morning and so Taka was permitted to sleep in a bit. "I still think you could have picked a time a bit later than dawn, and at the very least you could have the decency not to look so storms-forsaken awake."
Kyo laughed. "Do not be petulant, Taka. I—" He broke off, and a look Taka had never seen before flitted ever so briefly across Kyo's face. It made his gut twist, that look: longing and pain and resignation. Taka turned to see who he was looking at, but saw only that their guests had arrived.
Raiden was flamboyant as ever, and like Kyo, he looked entirely too awake for the hour. They all did, which just made Taka want to hit them. Raiden wore a pale green robe with accents of yellow and dark blue and a sash of yellow with all colors of fish embroidered on it. He was a gaudy eyesore, but the most annoying part was that he carried the look off, right down to the scarf over the top of his head that matched the ridiculous sash. He also had three earrings in each ear: gold hoops at the very bottom, then jeweled studs in the remaining holes.
The man beside him was bold in his dress, but not flamboyant and, by comparison, almost severe. He was dressed in black breeches and high black leather boots, the sort that came up to his thighs and were meant for wading through water. He wore the short, thigh-length tunic favored by sailors so deep a red it nearly looked black, except when compared to the black undertunic. His sash was deep violet decorated with red flowers.
Kyo strode past him, and Taka recalled himself, following him across the room to greet the two men. He bowed. "Master Raiden, Captain, good morning to you both. Thank you for joining us."
Raiden smiled at him. "It is always an honor to serve."
Silence fell, making Taka frown because Kyo was normally quick to move along with the pleasantries and get to business, but when he looked at Kyo, he was staring at Captain Ningyo, who stared back with a slight frown. Taka wondered what in the storms he was missing, but shrugged the matter aside for the moment. "Shall we have breakfast?"
"Yes," Kyo said, finally breaking away from the odd staring contest. "We have much to discuss. A good meal seemed a sensible and easy enough thing to provide. Come and sit." He turned away and led the way to the table, and Taka really wanted to know what had become of the cool, controlled prince who had been in the room just a moment ago.
Stifling a sigh, he resumed his seat and set out the portfolio of papers he had brought along, as well as the jewel cases he would rather throw into the sea than hand over to the smug bastard across the table from him. Taka shifted impatiently on his cushion, then forced himself to hold still. He served breakfast in silence while Kyo exchanged pleasantries before moving smoothly on to business.
"May I ask why the timetable has been moved up, Highness? As I said, we are happy to accommodate, but we could more thoroughly prepare if we had more time."
Kyo stared at his tea in pensive silence for a moment before he finally said, "As I am certain you are aware, my journey is not entirely sanctioned. My father will be making a formal announcement this afternoon that I am expected to go on a different journey. I want no part of it for reasons that are my concern alone. So I must leave with you before I am forced to leave under my father's guard."
"Yes, Highness. We can depart at dawn tomorrow."
"Good. Taka."
Hiding a grimace, Taka pushed the portfolio across the table. "Authentication papers for the jewels you are being given in exchange for unlimited passage and the final draft of the contract granting you Prince Nankyokukai's royal secretary for the duration of the voyage, to be renegotiated in exactly three months' time."
"Excellent," Raiden said, and he flipped open the portfolio, fanning the papers out to look them over. "All looks reasonable to me. Are those the jewels?"
Taka nodded and pushed
the two leather cases across the table. Raiden opened them, and Taka seethed at the look on his face. Those were his, storms forsake him! Even if technically they were Kyo's, they were his. Now they were in the hands of a gaudy, arrogant merchant who probably cared for nothing except how much more he could get from Kyo before the journey was over.
It made him sick to think that in exactly one day he would have to follow Raiden's every order, and Kyo … Kyo would no longer be his master, and Taka did not know what that meant so far as their relationship went. It was perfectly normal for a secretary to spend a great deal of time with the master he served, but without that between them there was absolutely nothing between them. Just a prince and a servant, and that meant they were not friends. But surely, at least trapped on a ship, their friendship could linger and hopefully, when they returned to Kundou, everything would go back to the way it had been.
"These are beautiful," Raiden said at last, lifting out the choker called The Mermaid's Grasp: three rows of perfectly matched black pearls, interspersed every two pearls with a small jewel bead of esmeralda. "Breathtaking. I thank you, Highness."
Kyo shrugged the words aside. "Tell me if you have any trouble securing supplies."
"I shouldn't have any trouble, but I will let you know, Highness. We should be able to slip away with little fuss, and the crew knows better than to speak to anyone of ship business. They are the finest me in my employ. I do feel I should warn you, however, of the dangers involved in such a journey. Kindan can handle it, he always does, but there will be trouble and probably frequent, at that."
"Are you warning me of the usual dangers of foul weather and mermaids, or warning me specifically of the additional trouble with mermaids that your captain will bring? In any case, you must know that I likely present a danger, as well. Neither the captain nor I am loved much by the sea or its inhabitants."
"I can handle the mermaids," Kindan said. "But extraneous passengers are a problem I typically prefer to avoid. When I tell you to go or stay somewhere, Highness, it's important that you listen to me."
Kyo smirked, and Taka wanted to roll his eyes and warn Kindan that saying things like that only ever provoked Kyo. "I know I look as if all I do all day is sit around and look pretty, Captain, but I promise I can handle myself. I also know the fine art of staying out of the way."
Sneering, Kindan replied, "I doubt you know what it's like to have someone come at you with claws and teeth bared, mad with a desire to not simply kill you, but devour you while you are still breathing. They attack in the dark and with you aboard, my men are in thrice the danger they were before. If the mermaids manage to kill you, there will be nothing to stop them from making a try at the islands themselves once and for all."
"I told you, I can handle myself," Kyo replied. "I have not learned to swim with sharks by sitting around in court simpering all day." He smiled sweetly, in a way anyone in court knew meant Kindan had just made himself an enemy.
Kindan did not seem impressed. "We shall see, Highness."
"Then by all means, let us sign the papers and be done," Kyo said, and Taka handed Raiden a pen. Taking it, Raiden briskly signed his name to the secretary contract and the papers of authenticity and ownership for the jewels. When he finished, he handed all of it to Kyo, who quickly signed his own name, and then added his royal seal. Finished, he handed everything off to Taka. "See that is filed discreetly and then lost in the shuffle, Taka."
Taka bowed his head and set the papers aside, then sipped at the broth that was all he preferred to have for breakfast. All around them was the palace, the temple, and the sea. What would it be like not to see any of it, to see nothing, but the ocean for days and days, for weeks that stretched into months. He would not see Kundou again for six months, and he wondered if anything would seem the same after he returned.
He had the sense it would not, no matter how much he wished, and the thought made him sad. Dragons! What was Kyo up to? Taka could not fathom it, and the only reason he was more amenable to it was that the only other option was for Kyo to leave him on his father's orders and travel alone under the care of guards the king had chosen himself.
It was only moderately reassuring one of those men was Captain Midori, who had always been slightly moonstruck for Kyo. Taka wondered morosely what would happen when they realized Kyo was gone, and there was no clue as to where he had gone or where he would be going.
He did not doubt for a moment that Kyo was positively delighted by the idea of the chaos he would be leaving behind. Taka wanted to throttle him. More than that, he just wanted Kyo to confide in him—but he may as well wish for the gods to return, for that was far more likely to happen.
"You have finalized our course?" Kyo asked.
It was Kindan who nodded and set a map upon the table. "We could do the journey straight through in three months, but we will be attacked heavily along the way. We will leave here and head for Pozhar; there, we will make any necessary repairs and take on additional supplies before heading for the destination you've indicated. We will be taking supplies enough for six months. From Pozhar, it will take two months to reach the island you've indicated. We can remain two months and still have enough supplies to return to Pozhar. If we need more than that—"
"No, we won't," Kyo said. "We will not be there very long, but the precaution is wise. Taka and I will be ready for the journey."
The look on Kindan's face said he did not believe that for a moment, and Taka wanted to laugh at him. Kyo was not nearly the fool for which he let people mistake him. If Kindan was going to make assumptions, Taka was more than happy to let him learn of his error the hard way. He loathed when people were quick to judge Kyo, who endured far more than any one person should.
"Unless there is something else to discuss, gentlemen, I think we are done here. We shall see you tomorrow at dawn; let us hope we travel well together, hmm?"
Raiden smiled in a way that made Taka shiver, though he couldn't say why. "I think we will get along together just fine, Highness. I am looking forward to the adventure after doing nothing for years but sitting behind a desk."
Kyo laughed and rose with them as they stood, nodding politely when Raiden and Kyo bowed. Taka led them out of the temple, leaving Kyo with his tea and the map Kindan had left behind. Kindan bid him farewell, then after exchanging a look with Raiden, departed. Taka scowled when Raiden remained. "Is there something you required, Master Raiden?"
"Walk with me a moment?" Raiden asked. Taka wanted to tell him no, but he had not become a royal secretary because he always gave in to his child impulses. Whether he liked it or not, he was effectively Raiden's property until the contract was renegotiated. "I know you resent that I asked for you—"
"I am not a piece of jewelry to be bargained away," Taka snapped.
Raiden's brows lifted, and he stopped walking. "You are, though. More valuable, certainly, but as I understand the workings, you can be bargained away on a whim."
Taka looked away, somehow disappointed. What had he expected? Kyo was literally the only person who did not see him as property, as a thing. "Be that as it may—"
"I asked, and his Highness agreed," Raiden cut in. "He had the right to say no and keep you to himself. The bargain was fair."
Irritation only growing because, of course, that was how a merchant would see the situation, Taka turned sharply and strode to the ledge that lined the path upon which they walked, staring down at the beach below. "I am aware I am only an object, Master Raiden, but that does not mean I enjoy or approve of the situation. I have never enjoyed being a mere object."
"Then why did you become a royal secretary?"
"To be close to a friend," Taka said softly to the distant sea. "My friendship matters more than being a pawn, and being my friend, he kept me from every really being one—until now."
"Friend?" Raiden echoed, sounding surprised.
Anger overtook Taka, and he whipped around. "Yes, friend. I know everyone finds it hard to believe that a prince and
a pawn could be friends, but we are! The only reason I am going along with this mad scheme is that he is my friend, and I am willing to trust he has reasons for his actions."
He made to storm off, but was halted by a firm, calloused, and surprisingly warm hand wrapping around his wrist. Stopping, he glared over his shoulder at Raiden. "Unhand me."
"Do not stomp off, then," Raiden said. "I apologize, I didn't mean—never mind. I do firmly believe that you are friends; it is in the way you treat each other. I know you are angry at me for acquiring you as I did, but I promise that I had the best of intentions, even if they are somewhat selfish."
Taka did not reply, merely waited in cold silence for his explanation. "I need someone I can trust," Raiden said. "I have gone through ten secretaries this year alone, and that was before the year was half gone. I am busy and cannot watch every little piece of my business no matter how hard I try. I own nearly thirty ships, and each of those with crews that range from fifty men to three hundred. I trade across four nations, and have no fewer than one hundred and thirty different licenses and permits to track, never mind the special ones that must be renewed per ship. I make a fortune, but lose more of it than I care to think about to those who take advantage of the size and chaos of my business to rob me, both of money and goods. Any secretary working for me is in a position of power, one that has been abused every single time. The integrity of a royal secretary is without question. I thought you would be able to help where no one else can. But no one is going to give a royal secretary to a mere merchant, even one as powerful and wealthy as I."
To his great annoyance, Taka sympathized. The explanation made perfect sense, and someone like Raiden would resent that so much was taken from him—as gaudy and arrogant and infuriating as he was, no one got to Raiden's position by being stupid and lazy. He would have worked hard, and of course there were people eager to help themselves to the catch that Raiden had hauled in.
"Fine," he said. "I do admit I understand what you are saying, and even Kyo's staunchest detractors have never been able to question my integrity. But contract or not, I'm not one of your baubles." Raiden smiled at him, slow and hot, and Taka shivered before he could catch himself. He jerked his wrist free. "Whatever the rumors say about the relationship between Kyo and I, Master Raiden, I do not sleep with my masters. Integrity, common sense, and good taste forbid it."
