by Vi Voxley
“No, really, why are we here again? Even I have already taken part in one siege on this poor world and I’ve been with you for only a few months.”
“It’s a vital part of my plans,” Areon said.
Both his lieutenants rolled their eyes, giving him the perfect excuse to growl at them. “I’m being serious, you bastards. This is my problem, you see. No one ever believes I’m capable of telling the truth from time to time.”
“Make a habit of it and we’ll see what happens,” Reim said, shrugging. “Now explain yourself.”
“It’s complicated,” Areon said.
“Yes,” Reim shot back. “Pretend we’re not complete morons.”
The Raider Prince laughed. His lieutenants amused him. People that bored him were the worst, except for the people they were paid to hate, of course. At that particular moment, no one was paying them for the siege, but the others didn’t need to know that.
“It serves as a good central point,” he said. “And I wasn’t entirely joking about the home thing. This way, when I feel like it, anyone can find me. This is the first place they’ll look for me, laying siege on Salinet. But to answer your next question, yes, there really is a reason. A lot of galactic routes cross here. Some people bring me information, some bring me things. Some just amuse me. Salinet, for its part, keeps me occupied. You know what I’m like when I’m bored.”
“That is not even close to an answer,” Reim said.
“It will be the first Raider world,” Areon said simply.
His lieutenants exchanged looks, trying to discern whether he was joking or not.
“The first,” Reim finally said. “Implying there will be others? Areon, we’re mercenaries. We don’t conquer. We fight a battle to the exact result written in our contract, take our pay and run off before our allies become our enemies.”
“And you never wanted anything more?” Areon asked, although he knew the answer.
“I try to live a simple life,” Reim said, glaring at him. “Is it too much to ask that you let me?”
“I’m afraid so,” the Prince said.
Reim snorted. “Alright. You want to explain how you plan on taking over a world with a mercenary band?”
The Raider Prince grinned. “The plan for that has been in motion for a long time. What do you think we’ve been doing here every time we come home?”
“Blowing up ships,” Reim said. “Only to return half a year later to find they’ve built new ships. Then we blow those up too. It’s beautiful, it really is…”
“Every time we’re here,” the Prince said, slowly to make them understand he was being serious for a change. “We blow up very specific ships as to further our goal. This world isn’t doing all that well. They’re looking for strong leadership. I happen to excel in that.”
Reim looked like he had quite a few quips in reply to that, so he ended it quickly. “Silence,” he said in the voice of the Raider Prince. Reim shut his mouth at once and Ronay drew himself up to guard.
“It’s time you know what we’ve been doing,” he went on. “We’re mercenaries, yes, for now. In the near future, we’ll be something more. But not to worry, I won’t be the kind of ruler that sits in his fortress. We’ll still wage war; we’ll just have a home base. Salinet likes us, if you can believe that. The ships we’re blowing up, as you so eloquently put it, belong to a tyrant the people aren’t very fond of. The coup to overthrow him will happen soon, and I expect an increase in our numbers after that. Salinet will be a Raider world and we will be a fiefdom – my fiefdom.”
“You said the first world, my Prince,” Reim said, a twinkle in his eyes.
For all his talk of wanting a quiet, simple life, Areon knew he actually liked the idea. He wouldn’t have stuck with him for all those years if what he truly wished for was simplicity.
“Yes,” the Raider Prince said. “The first world of the new Atreen empire.”
That was too much even for Reim.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Not at all,” the Prince said, grinning, enjoying the look of pure horror on the faces of his lieutenants. “It’s a late wedding gift for Violet.”
“I hesitate to repeat myself,” Reim said.
“Alright, the part about Violet is a joke. I don’t think she even wants to be an empress.”
“Areon.”
Time for the voice again. He sighed inwardly. The paths of all great men were doomed to be filled with doubters, weren’t they?
“I am not joking,” the Raider Prince said.
Both Reim and Ronay stopped to listen to him again, as they should. He appreciated that about them. They joked around with him and expressed their concerns honestly, but once he got around to ordering, they fell in line. Just convincing them showed he was properly qualified to rule that world, and those that would follow it.
“We have the strength to take it,” he finished. “And we will. Think about it. All those feuding warlords sitting in their own worlds, thinking they could and should rule others. We are better suited and better equipped. The tournament proved as much. We triumphed over the rest and won the calayas. It was because of our skills and the fact we knew the weaknesses of others. This is the same, only on a much bigger scale. The end will be the same.”
“You know,” Ronay said slowly. “Now that you say it, I’m starting to think you did it on purpose, my Prince. The entire tournament I mean. You put us squarely in the center of attention. Two big champions are dead now. No Grom to resist you in your plan.”
The Prince grinned. “Granted, it helps. My goal always was Violet, but I do not deny the tournament factored into my other long-term plans as well, yes.”
“You knew you’d win,” Reim went on, now really glaring at him.
Before them, forgotten, the siege went on. It handled itself just fine without them for the time being – the Raider Prince had made sure of that. Causing confusion in the ranks of the enemies was just one tactic in his arsenal. He could use the time to sort out some confusion in his own.
“You knew you’d win, that’s why you made sure everyone was watching. All those tricks, using the proxy…”
“Yes, Sarto did excellently as well,” Areon agreed. “While the Overlord was too busy with trying to get us very creatively murdered, he won us a few allies. Rumeon, in particular, will come in handy, I believe. Did you notice how well he delayed the guards from catching us on the arena?” The shocked expressions on the faces of his lieutenants at that revelation were amazing. “Sarto isn’t as incompetent as he seems. Reminds me of someone a bit, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“You were making a name for us,” Ronay told him bluntly. “Not just as the champions of the tournament but as serious contenders for the empire.”
“It’s what we deserve,” said the Prince. “We proved that. Even the Overlord would think twice before defying us. He now knows exactly what we are capable of.”
Ronay and Reim both looked like they’d just stepped into the light and were seeing properly for the first time.
“You son of a bitch,” Reim said at last. “You were sizing up the champions as well, making sure that the ones who would never join us died. And the ones that could –”
“Would do that,” Ronay finished, chuckling. “Well, I must say it’s quite impressive. How did you know I wouldn’t join the fight against you?”
“A good guess,” the Prince said, although it wasn’t true.
In the beginning, he’d just been rooting for him and Maige like everyone else. It wasn’t until Ronay had joined him in the third trial that he decided that the warrior was trustworthy enough to be accepted into the Raiders.
“What about Forial?” Reim asked.
“Life took care of him before I could,” the Prince shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. The gnaour had to take a victory point too.”
“It is impressive,” Ronay said. “You gave us a reputation, won the tournament, and made sure all the calayas would marry me
n you approved of.”
Once again, a bonus more than the actual goal – that had always been Violet alone – but it helped, yes. It also helped to have Ronay and Reim think he had planned that. Reputation was everything in their line of work.
He grinned.
“Just one more thing,” Reim said, giving him a hard stare. “How long have you been planning this? Honestly.”
“Oh, for years,” the Prince said.
“And you didn’t think it necessary to tell me?” Reim asked, glaring again.
“I thought it would upset you,” the Prince said, smirking back at him. “Clearly, I was correct in that estimation too.”
“How many years?” Reim pressed on. “You were already scouting when you went to work for the Overlord, weren’t you?”
The Raider Prince laughed. “Yes,” he admitted. His lieutenants growled in frustration, united in their endless torment of having to deal with him.
Finally they shrugged, as they usually did, knowing it was futile to fight him. “You know,” Reim told Ronay, returning to watching the siege unfold. “He is a bastard, but I think he might really pull it off.”
It was true. Areon had been planning his future for many, many years. Learning tricks from every fief lord he could meet, serving them to find out how they ruled their domains, while taking note of the champions and noteworthy warriors in their ranks who might succeed the fief lords.
Enlisting with the Overlord had been part of the plan, but Violet had happened like a sudden strike of lightning. She had been the first thing to take his mind off his plan in years. She still was. Areon had stayed longer than he’d planned, but the time didn’t feel wasted.
Before, he’d just had a goal, a future he knew he could achieve carved out in his mind’s eye – Violet had given it all a reason.
EPILOGUE
A room had been set aside on Beren just for the calayas. It had been the Prince’s decree that they needed their own space, away from the mercenaries and space battles they were now technically a part of. That room was where the calayas liked to spend most of their time.
“He’s really going to do it?” Marelle asked as soon as Violet sat down.
“So he says,” Violet replied. Her mouth was grinning, a habit she seemed to have picked up from the Prince during the months she’d spent aboard Beren. It was infuriating, but she saw its allure. Marelle was rolling her eyes – very Reim – but they all kept to their champions’ sides, as they should.
“Well,” Marelle said. “I thought as much. Reim says that if something is crazy enough for the Prince to try, he probably will.”
Maige laughed. “Yeah,” she said. “Ronay says something similar.”
Violet agreed with them. She was beginning to dearly miss Irmela now that she had a better understanding of what she had had to deal with. The Overlord and the Prince were more similar than they let on. Perhaps that was why they couldn’t stand each other. Of course, the Prince denied any such sentiment.
“I think he will, yes,” Violet said. “He explained it to me. It has too much detail to be one of his pranks.”
Marelle sat back on the couch, shrugging. “I think so too. So we’ll have front seats to another attempt at rebuilding the empire. And I thought the tournament was enough excitement for them.”
Now that she knew the Prince well, Violet thought better of saying there was never enough entertainment for him. Areon knew what he wanted and he took it. His words were still pounding in her heart. Explaining to her carefully how, over the years, he had managed to create a vast network that he soon planned to put to use. And how, in all the long years of his life, only she had distracted him from his vision, how she was the only one he’d give his dream up for.
Violet didn’t ask that of him. It was enough to know that she was a bigger prize than all of the Atreen worlds combined. Now that the Prince had her, he would be free to pursue his second dream. It amused her, in truth, to be considered primary to an empire.
“Do you think they’ll succeed?” Maige asked. Violet could have sworn she hadn’t stopped beaming from the moment the tournament ended, but she guessed none of them had. Marelle had revealed to her in private that all of them got the champions of their dreams. She had been rooting for Reim from the beginning. So the grin perpetually planted on Violet’s lips was mirrored in the faces of the other calayas.
Marelle chuckled. “I think they actually might,” she said. “And if they don’t, it will still be the most glorious of their defeats so far.”
“Have some faith,” Violet said, smirking. “He has a plan. Many plans. More plans than he could ever explain.”
“Hah,” Marelle said. “Can you be sure he won’t mess any of those up because an opportunity to have fun distracts him?”
Violet laughed. “No,” she said. “I can’t promise that. No one can vouch for that.”
“Can you be sure he won’t get us all killed?” Maige asked.
“Yes,” said Violet. “That I can promise.”
They all turned to look outside, where a battle raged almost forgotten around them. It was the perfect symbol for the way things worked with the Raider Prince. Reim had told them that he looked after his own, and he did. The flagship was surrounded by fighters and smaller vessels that didn’t let anything near Beren. Certainly not near enough to pose any real threat, even if they did feel the flagship shake from time to time.
The calayas had been worried about being in a real battle, sailing with the warriors in an active battle ship. It had turned out there was nothing to worry about. The Prince played his games and did his tricks with only his own life on the line. His crew didn’t need to worry about anything other than him – like Reim said, mostly tolerating him.
“I think he just might succeed,” Marelle said again. “I would pay good money to see the look on the Overlord’s face once he does.”
***
When Violet relayed the conversation to the Prince later, he laughed. “And people say I am good at making enemies. I don’t think I know anyone who wouldn’t pay to see the Overlord receive news like that.”
Violet grinned, nodding her head in agreement. She was lying on her stomach on their bed, watching him undress for the night. It was her favorite pastime, as exciting as it had been every night since the first. She loved seeing that flawless body being revealed from under the weight of his armor. He knew she liked it. She had managed to hide that fact from him for a whole of two days. In truth, there was no point in trying to hide the effect he had on her.
She’d waited three years just to see him and then another three horrible days to touch him. It seemed cruel to deny her even a single glimpse or touch of him.
The Prince felt the same, she knew. They’d fought for each other long enough, both with themselves and with enemies. Areon had promised her mother there would be no tricks with her and he’d kept that promise. When they were alone, he was honest and true like a blade, belonging to her like he’d vowed on the arena.
When at last he stood naked before her hungry gaze, Violet couldn’t help but lick her lips.
He approached her, dangerous beyond measure, hers. He prowled – there was no better word for it. Violet still felt like she was in the clutches of a great beast every time he held her in his arms, but she loved the feeling. The Raider Prince was one of the most dangerous men in the known worlds, but he posed no threat to her. The danger surrounded him like a cloak, more visible when his guard was off. And it was off around her. It gave her a delicious mixture of sensations – as if she had a knife on her throat that she knew would never cut.
She let him pull her up into a fierce kiss, surrendering herself to him completely. It was a drug to have the Raider Prince drop his guard around her. For anyone else it would have been a sign of weakness, but not to her. Alone, in private, he was bare as the warrior he truly was. He still terrified her to the bone, but it only made her tremble in his arms and press to be closer to him.
He bit at her lips
softly, chuckling, low and dark. “My prize,” he said, kissing her again.
Violet knew he liked calling her that. Not because he compared her to a mere trophy, but because it showed how hard he’d fought for her. It showed he thought she was a treasure, something to hold dear forever.
And damn, she still tingled all over when he touched her. Stripped of the pretty dresses he tended to break in his lust, Violet had been waiting for him naked. He’d stepped in ready to tell her something, but the sight of her there on the bed had just made him grin and strip. Now he was kissing her with all the passionate, fiery longing they had for each other. He made no secret of how distracting he thought she was. The Prince liked joking that no enemy could outsmart him, but Violet could make him forget his enemies altogether.
Pressed against him, skin on skin, was Violet’s new favorite place to be. Her fingers mapped the contours of his flat, muscled chest. Her body fit into his embrace as if they’d been made for each other, giving her easy access to all of him. By that point, her fingers already knew every shallow dip and nook of his body, tracing over it every time he came close enough.
She moaned into the kiss when he pressed his fingers inside her. Her hands dug into his shoulders. She was pulling herself up to rub against him in need. He chuckled, letting her claw at him. She knew he felt the lust as keenly as she did, but that bastard had amazing self-control when it came to torturing her. His fingers spread her open, while his thumb rolled over her clit. The friction was so good, teasing her in exactly the way he wanted. Violet searched for words but found none. After months, he still knew how to render her speechless in a matter of seconds.
She was grinding down at his hand without shame, moaning in pleasure. His huge cock was growing hard, pushing against her belly. Intent on taking some control back, Violet slid her hand around it, giving it a firm stroke.
