by Shannon West
“I’m not ‘so’ young. Why does everyone keep saying that? I’m eighteen now.
Luc grinned at him, and then balled up his fist and hit him on the shoulder. He knew that human males, like his omak and his brother-in-law did that sometimes as a sign of affection and camaraderie, so he didn’t take offense as he normally would have. Besides, humans had strange ideas about age. His omak certainly did.
Later that same evening, he and Luc had gone down to the river that ran alongside the road they’d been walking on all day to take a dip in the cool water. It had been a hot, humid day, and a violent thunder, lightning and wind storm had passed through around mid-day, causing them to take shelter under the thick canopy of trees in the forest. It had been a fast-moving storm, at least, but the heavy rains accompanying it hadn’t done much to cool things off as Larz had hoped. About all it accomplished had been to make the road muddy and damn near impassable. When the day’s marching had ended early because of it, the first thing Larz thought about was taking a dip in the river and trying to wash off some of the mud that was splashed all over his legs and torso. It was a wide, fast-running creek, actually, though Luc was calling it a river, and they’d been arguing good-naturedly about that most of the day.
“It’s a matter of size,” Larz told him, as they sat on the bank, taking off their boots and terugas, a short, apron-like covering that was all the soldiers wore in the hot Herkon summer. Because of the weather, soldiers wore very little as a rule, their arms, legs and torsos bare to the elements. Their terugas left them bare in the back and were bright red and white, King Janos’s colors.
“I know this because my father taught me the Earthan language, and he was a good teacher, even if I tried to sleep through some of it. Actually, most of it, but I remember some things.”
“I know a river when I see one.”
“Obviously not. It’s not quite deep enough. The rule is that you can step across a stream, wade through a creek, but you have to swim a river. You can’t swim in that; it’s too shallow. It only comes up to my waist.”
“That’s because you’re freakishly tall. And it’s only shallow for you. The water comes up over my head, or at least, there are some places that do.”
“I can’t help it if Tygerians are superior in height as well as in everything else.”
Luc rolled his eyes and pushed Larz, yelling, “Come on—I’ll race you!”
They ran down the bank to reach the creek and hit the water with a huge splash. After walking all day down the dusty road to the western border, the cold water felt wonderful, especially to Larz, who had never much cared for the heat on this planet and longed for the cooler climate of his home. Luc immediately began to splash him with great gouts of water he was moving with his arm, so Larz tackled him and ducked him under the surface, being pulled in along with him.
Larz was laughing when he came back up for air and as he shook the water off him, whipping his long hair out of his face, he heard someone right in front of him, yell out, “Oh good gods! Watch what you’re doing!”
He cleared the water from his eyes with his hands and saw that it was one of King Janos’s aides, looking at him like he was some unknown and horrifying species of water monster, risen from the deep.
“Sorry about that,” Larz said, giving the man a little bow that was ironic, considering how naked Larz was. He glanced up behind him and spotted the king himself, standing fastidiously on the bank, surrounded by several of his courtiers and staring down at him with an avid gaze. His cheeks were pink, like they always seemed to be when he saw Larz.
Larz bowed even lower. “I didn’t see you there, Your Majesty.”
“Obviously,” the little aide snapped at him. “Very well, but just clear this area. The king wishes to bathe.”
“Settle down, Agnone,” the king said from behind him, his voice soft. “There’s no need to ‘clear’ anything. I can bathe over there,” he said, pointing toward a small sandbar some distance upstream. He came down the bank and began wading out into the water heading toward the sandbar and Larz noticed right away that he was wearing a short robe that exposed his tanned legs from the knees down. His legs had a light covering of hair and they were well-formed. Larz kept stealing glances at him, wondering what he was wearing under that robe. His patience was rewarded when he reached the sandbar, took off his robe and tossed it over to the bank. To Larz’s shock, he was wearing a teruga of his own, only a plain one, without the metal strips. The little tails that came down in front drifted to the surface without the extra weight on them, affording Larz a tantalizing glimpse of the king’s bare body. And when he turned, the cheeks of his ass were nicely rounded and plump. Not too fat at all, but they’d make two perfect handfuls. Larz felt his cock hardening in response to the view.
“Come with me, if you like,” the king said, turning to his aide, and giving his back to Larz and Luc. Larz fisted his hands in the water, reminding himself he didn’t like this king very much, regardless of how pretty he was and refusing to look at the gorgeous bare backside that was swaying temptingly as the king continued to pick his way down the rocky creek bed before finally reaching the edge of the deeper water in the middle.
Luc surfaced beside him and they both openly watched the royal entourage wading out toward the deepest part of the creek, which was much less crowded. They seemed to be heading for another small sand bar in the middle of the stream, and the water up to their chests. Larz wondered if it was wise to allow the king to endanger himself that way. Not that King Janos was known to take a lot of advice. But one thing Larz had noticed before on this planet was that not many people knew how to swim. In fact, they acted almost as if it were a foreign concept, and the current in this creek was much faster than it looked. It would be easy for a man to get swept off his feet and then find himself in trouble pretty quickly.
Larz had been swimming since he was little more than a baby, both in the pools inside the palace and in the rivers and streams of the Tygerian countryside. He’d been taught by his older brothers, who said everyone needed to know how to handle themselves in the water. Larz shrugged and turned away. Let the king take care of himself, or let that mob of self-important courtiers who followed him around do it for him. He turned back toward Luc, and that’s when he heard the shout of warning from upstream.
What looked like part of a tree must have fallen in the stream from the storm the night before, and it was caught in the rapid current and hurtling toward them. Larz had barely enough time to grab Luc and pull him out of the way before the thing was on top of them. It was a large piece of a tree, maybe one and a half meters long with branches sticking out of it like long, grasping arms. Larz’s grabbed hold of it and wrestled it away from him, which was not easy to do, considering how long the branches were and how they poked and tore at him. He finally managed to push it away and checked to make sure Luc was safe. He saw him climbing out on the opposite bank and was about to wade over toward him when he heard the shouts from downstream.
The tree had crashed into the sand bar near where the king and his aides had been standing, raked over it and knocked some of his aides into the water. One man was flailing his arms and going under the surface again and again, seeming to be in real danger of drowning, while the king and the others had been able to make the far bank, but found it too steep there to climb back out. They were clinging to some tree roots protruding out of the bank, and in the rapid current, the entire party looked to be in trouble.
“Luc, come help me!” Larz shouted and he waded quickly through the water toward the men to try to help. He was the first on the scene, though he could hear the shouts and see the splashes of others coming to help behind him. Some were calling for rope, but Larz could see that by the time they arrived, it would be far too late. He grabbed the aide who had sunk under the surface and yanked him out, shoving him toward Luc, who caught him and started dragging him, coughing and sputtering, toward the opposite shore.
Larz turned his attention then to t
he king, who was clinging to a root coming out of the bank, his head bobbing in and out of the water as he kept trying to get his feet on the bottom. Larz came up behind him and got his hands under the king’s arms to boost him up out of the water so he could get a better grip on a larger root higher up.
“I’m all right! Help them first!” the king yelled at him, so Larz switched his attention to two of the other aides who were slipping under the surface. He grabbed one and heaved him up and over to some of the other men who had managed to get to the sand bar. They caught him and began tugging him back to shore. He held up a hand to the last man, who took it gratefully and he pulled him into his arms.
“Put your arms around my neck,” Larz yelled over the noise of the rushing water, as he took him back across, close enough to hand off to the crowd that was gathering there.
He then turned back to the king, still clinging to the roots on the bank. “I’ll help you now, Sire,” he said, shouting to make himself heard, and Janos turned to look at him, his eyes wide and frightened. He darted a glance to the bank where the crowd of soldiers was gathering. “I-I can wait until they bring some ropes.”
“No need, Sire. I can take you back to safety now.”
Biting his bottom lip with his teeth, he finally nodded and turned slightly to grab hold of Larz’s shoulder. The current instantly grabbed at him and he slung his other arm around Larz’s neck in a panic.
“That’s it. Just hang on tight—I’ve got you.”
The king was in his arms and their faces were only an inch apart. His lips parted in surprise as he stared into Larz’s eyes. Suddenly another, smaller tangle of branches came rushing toward them and Larz whipped around in the water and bore the brunt of the rushing impact on his back. He knocked the tangle away from him, then glanced down at the king.
“Hang on tighter, Sire. The current’s strong.” He reached down and grabbed the king’s leg, bringing it up to his waist.
“What-what are you doing? You forget yourself!” he sputtered, pulling away, but Larz shook his head.
“I’m just trying to save you. I apologize, but the water’s too deep here for you to touch bottom, and the current’s way too fast anyway. Even if you managed, it would just knock you off your feet again. Keep your arms around my neck and wrap your legs around my waist. That’s the best way for me to hold onto you and still keep my balance.”
The dark blue eyes widened as the kings’ legs kept tangling with Larz’s under the water. Janos looked wildly around, probably trying to determine if there was any other alternative to this way too intimate embrace.
“Come on,” Larz said softly, coaxingly. “Put your other leg around my waist and hook your ankles together. I need to get you back to the bank.”
Janos finally nodded, catching his bottom lip again between his teeth. It was the only outward sign of how nervous he was, other than the panic in his eyes. Slowly, glancing up at Larz’s face for any sign of inappropriate emotions, Janos slowly wrapped his legs around Larz’s waist. Larz pulled him closer, settling him. His body was flush against Larz’s as he settled into the embrace, their groins rubbing together for a moment. He was facing Larz, so that put his delectable, well-shaped ass resting against Larz’s groin which meant the king’s typpid was brushing against his stomach. Larz thanked the gods for the cold water that prevented his body from responding to the situation. He slowly, carefully, turned and began wading back across the deeper water, holding the king tightly with one arm around his waist and holding one arm out for balance. The king squirmed uncomfortably and Larz bit his lips, because despite the coldness of the water, he could feel his own typpid—his “cock” as Luc called it—begin to rise to the occasion. It was brushing and bumping the king’s ass with every unsteady step, and there was not a thing Larz could do about it, except blush.
He could feel Janos’s breath hitting the side of his face and up so close, he could smell his unique scent. It reminded him a bit of the delicious odor of an incense his omak used in his private rooms. He called the scent “sandalwood.” This was almost the same, yet spicier, and seemed to come from the soap the king had been using on his hair. It was tantalizing and made Larz want to bury his nose in the king’s hair and just breathe him in. Janos’s heart was beating so hard Larz could feel it thump against his chest. He wanted to say a word of comfort, but was afraid anything he said might be misconstrued and definitely wouldn’t be appreciated, so he kept quiet.
Thankfully, they reached more shallow water quickly and Larz set the king back on his feet. He stumbled backward fast, losing his footing again so that Larz had to grab his elbow and help him back up to his feet. Janos wrenched away and without another word, turned and climbed out of the creek, with as much dignity as he could muster, considering he was naked, having lost his teruga completely in the rapid current. One of his aides who had made it to shore before him rushed toward him with his robe and the small crowd that had gathered around were full of anxious concern and questions. They bore him off up the bank and over to his waiting LV, and he never glanced back at his savior—not even once.
Chapter Seven
Janos was still shivering, though that was ridiculous, considering how hot it was inside his tent. There had been a flurry of activity since he got back, with everyone from his doctors to his generals rushing in to see if he was injured. He had assured them he was fine, but they kept fussing over him anyway, and it was about to drive him crazy. The doctors had checked him thoroughly despite his protests that he was fine and he’d allowed General Losef, who had been his father’s youngest brother, and who was as close to Janos as he allowed anyone to be, exclaim and fuss over him a bit, because it seemed to make him feel better.
“You have to be more careful, Janos,” the general was saying.
“I was being careful, Losef. I had no way of knowing that an entire tree would come sweeping down the creek that way and take all of us with it. No harm was done, after all.”
“Yes, I understand you were all extremely lucky. If that young Tygerian hadn’t been there…”
“Yes, yes, I’m aware of how fortunate we were. Now can we drop this, please?”
“But Janos, you have to reward the young men involved in the rescue of you and your aides.”
Janos frowned. “Reward them? They’re slaves—the Tygerian and the other one were in the right place at the right time, that’s all.”
“They’re your soldiers and they acted bravely on your behalf.” His uncle had drawn back at his tone, looking puzzled. Janos knew he was being insensitive and unappreciative and he didn’t know why—but he couldn’t seem to stop himself either. He didn’t want to be grateful to the beautiful Tygerian. It was the last thing he needed to be.
“But, my dear boy, the other men will expect it.”
“Then they’ll be disappointed.”
“Janos…” Losef said softly, reprovingly.
Janos sighed and lifted up his eyes to the heavens. “Oh, very well, give them a reward then. Extra rations tonight at their meal.”
“It’s not like you to be like this. Is this because one of the young men in question is…Tygerian?”
“Uncle, I really don’t care to discuss this.”
“I think that must be the case then. Janos, it’s been years since you returned to us. You need to put aside this hatred.”
“Because it’s been a few years, I should just forget what those animals did to me in that prison camp? Just brush it aside as if it never happened?”
“No, but you don’t have to relive it all the time either. And this young man wasn’t at the camp, was he?”
Janos pursed his lips, refusing to answer. His feelings weren’t rational when it came to Bastion—he knew that, but that didn’t stop them. If his uncle knew who Bastion really was…if he knew that he was a prince and the son of King Davos himself…that this young man they held as a slave was actually Prince Larz of Tygeria, he’d be horrified. Appalled. Janos was being reckless and foolhardy by not se
nding him back to his home, and if his uncle and his council knew, they’d insist on it right away. Why did that make Janos feel so miserable? He sighed heavily and stood up, pacing over to throw open the tent flap to let in some air.
“Oh, all right,” he said, turning around. “What do you propose I do? I can’t give them a promotion—I leave that up to the captains and besides, they’re both slaves! They aren’t eligible for rank in my Guard. Should I give them gold? They’d only spend it on liquor and whores! A medal to pin on their terugas, perhaps? Just what do you suggest?”
“I’ll leave it up to you,” his uncle said softly, standing up to come over to him and kiss him on the forehead. “but why do you care how they spend their money?”
Good question. Why did he care? It was nothing to him if this boy went out and found some man willing to spread his legs for him. And it would be a man, because that’s what Tygerians preferred. Why did the thought of that make him feel…jealousy?
“I know you’ll do the right thing, Nephew. Now get some rest and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Do the right thing? That would make a nice change,” he mumbled under his breath and threw himself down on the bed. Janos had known for three years now that he had to do something about the boy, damn it. But putting off dealing with it had become something of an art form for him, and he had no idea why. He even refused to call him by his real name, and kept using the name he’d given as his, as if he could perpetuate the lie in his own head!
The lost prince of Tygeria—his stupid brother should be left to deal with it. He was the one who had created this impossible situation and had brought the boy to Laltana, endangering them all when it came out. And you’re the one who didn’t send him back to his family once you knew who he was, the treacherous little voice inside him insisted. You’ll be the one they’ll punish.
He should do the right thing. He had to do the right thing. The trouble was, Janos didn’t quite how to go about it. At least not now. Things had gone on for far too long. No one would believe he hadn’t known, and he wasn’t that good an actor to pretend, anyway. He would be punished and what was even worse, his people would be punished. And all of it was his fault!