by Tony Roberts
Lalaas had decided enough was enough. He pushed the man away and thrust forward. Dragan parried, jumping back and almost falling over his chair. He stepped away hurriedly but Lalaas came again, sword blurring down from high. This was blocked but Dragan left his chest open and Lalaas twisted so he was side-on and slid the tip of his sword in between two ribs and into the heart.
Dragan stood in shock, his eyes bulging, then his knees gave way and he fell heavily to the floor, shaking the room. Lalaas stood over him for a moment, then pulled out a small cloth and wiped his blade in distaste. He turned back to face Amne who was still kneeling by the chair. “It’s all over, ma’am.”
“Oh, Lalaas! It’s Amne when we’re alone, remember? I’m so glad to see you!” She struggled to get up but her legs were cramped from having to kneel for so long, and the chain that bound her hands was also looped to a ring bolt in the floor that stopped her from getting away from that position.
Lalaas slid his sword away and came to her side. He smiled and looked to see how he could free her. There was a lock in the chain. “Ah, Dragan must have the key. A moment, Amne.” He was soon back, a small brass key in his hand. He unlocked the chain and freed Amne’s hands. They came up around his neck, surprising him.
“Now Lalaas, you did promise to kiss me, didn’t you? It would be bad manners not to follow that through.”
“Ah Amne…..”
“Oh, Lalaas, please, I’ve been so frightened – and then I saw you and everything was going to be alright – I knew it! Please – you did say you would.”
Lalaas looked at her big wide eyes, the smile, the look of relief and joy on her face, then sighed. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
Amne made a little cry of delight, then struck like a venomous slitherer, capturing his lips, thrusting her tongue past his teeth and rolling around his surprised tongue. Lalaas held her, locked to the princess in a passionate kiss he thought he’d never have.
For Amne, it was an experience beyond words. Her eyes shut, her world was spinning in joy, pleasure and happiness. He kissed as good as he looked. It was the fulfilment of one ambition she’d wanted, and she didn’t want it to end any time soon. She almost purred in a muffled sort of way, still melding her tongue around his. Her skin tingled and the heat built up within her. The desire to make love to him began to engulf her. She had to have him, she knew she had to.
Lalaas unfastened her hands from around his neck and pulled away as gently as he could. His face was slightly flushed, and he smiled, slowly shaking his head. “No, Amne, not that – you are married and a princess. I am a commoner and a captain. I would hang and I certainly do not wish to betray the principles I believe in.”
Amne whimpered and pouted. “I want you, Lalaas, I want you!”
“I know, and you are so beautiful and desirable,” he placed his hands on her cheeks, looking deeply into her eyes. “I would so dearly love to be yours, but we both know it cannot be. I will not betray what I believe in; neither will I take another man’s woman. Please, Amne, honour my wishes.”
Amne’s lips trembled. “Lalaas…..”
“I will never have another woman, Amne. I shall wait for you, even unto the next life if it so pleases the gods.”
“Lalaas…” Amne was now openly weeping, but not with pain, with the emotional release of being rescued, Lalaas’ words and the knowledge he was in love with her as much as she was with him. “I will be yours one day, I promise.”
Lalaas nodded, then wiped the tears running down her face. “Let me get you out of this humiliating slave harness.”
Amne nodded, sniffing. His hands unfastened the leather straps around her back and the narrow strips fell away. “Oh, now I’m naked – my clothes were discarded by him,” she indicated the corpse of Dragan, “when he took me prisoner.”
“Worry not, Amne, I came prepared,” Lalaas grinned and walked over to the back of the room. He had brought with him a small pack and picked this up. He returned it and opened it before Amne. “Underclothes, and a dress – not your favourite but one good enough.”
Amne smiled in gratitude and began dressing. Her legs were still wobbly and she leaned on Lalaas for support. He held her and she clutched hold of him tightly. “I bet I smell,” she observed, sniffing herself.
“Ah, to someone like me, a gutter-dweller, you smell like a crop of newly grown flowers.”
Amne chuckled. “You’re no gutter-dweller, you’re a wonderful, handsome, gorgeous strong man. I so love you, Lalaas.”
“Ah, I’m no perfect flawless vision you think I am.”
“Neither am I – you must think me terrible for my affairs, Lalaas. I just can’t help it – I want you so much and The Corpse either refuses to even admit I exist half the time, or does not touch me in the way I need the rest of the time. He has no idea how to please a woman!”
“You are a princess, a mother, a woman with such responsibilities. I do not envy you one bit.”
Amne huffed. “Well I would swap everything – oh alright not my two daughters, since I love them so – but everything except them to be yours. You kiss like a god.”
“I’ve never been kissed by a god so I wouldn’t know what that is like,” Lalaas commented with a wry smile.
Amne giggled and hugged him. “Oh, hold me, I cannot walk – my legs ache so much.” She almost fell against him, and so Lalaas picked her up and she put her arms round his neck again, smiling contentedly. “I don’t want to be anywhere else in the entire world than here with you now.”
“We must return to the palace. Your husband is anxious for you to be reunited with him.”
Amne’s face fell. “Now don’t go ruining the moment, Lalaas! By the way, how did you find out where I was?”
“That was simple; that fool there spread the word around he was recruiting, and it didn’t take long for us to work out who it was, so I disguised myself in the back streets and taverns and posed as an out-of-work ex-soldier. I took up the offer when I was approached and so came here. I was fully prepared to take whatever action I deemed necessary; Prince Elas had given me total discretion. He is worried, Amne, so don’t be too hard on him.”
Amne nodded and allowed her rescuer to take her out of the room. “Oh, the guards!”
“Dead by now, I suspect. My men watched me and would have surrounded this place once I went in; I gave them orders not to allow anyone out. If they were armed, then to take care of them, otherwise arrest them.”
He took her downstairs and out through a short passageway to the night air of Kastan City. Amne breathed in deeply; the sky never seemed so welcome to her as it did at that moment.
A day later Lalaas was summoned to the throne room. He was surprised. That room wasn’t normally used by Prince Elas unless there was something significant to order, announce or issue. Elas thought it wasn’t proper for him to use the emperor’s throne for trivial matters. Lalaas was told to present himself in his best parade uniform.
He did so, and walked down the red carpet towards the seated duo at the end on the raised platform, Elas and Amne. Guards flanked the carpet, smartly dressed, standing to attention with their volgars presented in the ‘guard’ position, clasped in both hands in front of them. It was symbolic and ceremonial only.
Lalaas walked to the bottom of the platform and halted by the first step. He knelt, his head bowed as custom dictated. Elas commanded him to stand again. Lalaas stood straight, he attention fixed on the two. Elas was dressed in a white coloured jerkin with purple edging, denoting him to be of the imperial line. A narrow golden crown sat on his head. His face was severe – but then it always was.
Amne was Amne. She had been completely cleaned up and dressed and smartened to the point of dazzling everyone. Her hair was almost shimmering in the light of the candles, adorned with pins of blue gemstones and a golden tiara with blue gems inset rested atop it.
She wore a long, loose wormspun dress of dark red. It flowed to her ankles but had a slight split on one side. She crosse
d her legs briefly, showing him some leg, then it was gone as fast as it had appeared. Flirt, he mused, catching her lips twitching.
“Captain Lalaas,” Elas intoned deeply, his voice almost booming from the ceiling. Lalaas thought maybe that was the desired effect of the acoustics of the room. Designed to impress. “You have performed a service over and above that required by your post. Yet again you have proved your loyalty to us by your actions, and therefore it has been decided that a suitable reward is to be awarded to you.”
Lalaas looked in surprise at Elas, then to Amne. She inclined her head once, a brief look of satisfaction flirting across her features before it was gone. So this was Amne’s idea, Lalaas realised. He wondered what in the name of Kastan it was going to be. Nothing embarrassing I hope, he thought with alarm.
Prince Elas clicked his fingers towards a page, standing attentively with a scroll rolled up and tied with purple ribbon on a deep red cushion. An imperial edict! Only those were tied with purple ribbon. That was something set in stone and could only be undone by someone of the ruling House.
The page came down to the main floor and passed the cushion to Lalaas who took the scroll. The page then turned about and returned to his position. “Open it, Captain,” Amne said, her voice unable to completely hide the excitement she felt.
Lalaas untied the ribbon and unrolled the document. He read it and his eyes widened, then he looked up, utterly speechless.
“Henceforth from this day on,” Elas announced, “Captain Lalaas is ennobled with the rank of Baron, and further titled Baron Niksos.”
Lalaas felt the room swim. Words could not come to his mouth. Baron Niksos? Niksos? That was the main town on Zipria. Was that a baronetcy? He had no idea – now he would have to find out what this all meant to him. Not trusting his voice, he bowed low, almost touching the steps with his forehead.
Amne stood and came down the steps. She took his hand and made him stand up straight. “Now, Lalaas Niksos, you will have to learn what it is to be a minor nobleman.” She held out her hand to him, and automatically he took it and kissed it. Amne smiled again, a quite wicked one, and turned to climb back to her seat. She paused and looked over her shoulder. “The map room in a watch’s time.”
Lalaas was dismissed by Elas with the stern advice to take his new title seriously. Lalaas, in a daze, returned to his room and sat there staring at the scroll which was lying on his clothes chest, a foreign object in a room cluttered with otherwise familiar things. A noble! He had no idea what that would mean to him, or to others. To be sure, his men had all looked pleased as he had passed them out of the throne room, but what of the other people? What, in particular, to the nobility? He was certain some would not look upon this as anything but unwelcome.
It was time. Still wearing his ceremonial uniform – his state of mind was such that he had forgotten to change – he made his way to the map room. Guards outside demonstrated that the princess was within, and he was allowed entry.
The lights were on, torches flickering, and Amne was standing by the table, running her hand over the contours of the terrain, as if deep in thought. “Ma’am,” he announced his arrival, bowing.
Amne flicked her hand dismissively. “Come here, Baron, Captain, Lalaas,” she said, a curious smile on her face. “Do you know why I persuaded my Corpse of a husband to ennoble you?”
“No, Amne, I-I never guessed this was coming!”
“Well, something you said to me yesterday when you rescued me from that awful place. You said you would wait for me for as long as it took.” She glided up to him and ran a hand down his jacket. “Mmmm, you look gorgeous in that – I could almost be seduced, you know,” she giggled. “Ah, you nearly made me forget what I was saying. If you and I ever get the opportunity to be together, then it could only be if you are a nobleman, and so I persuaded Elas to do it.”
“So…… I’ve been made a noble for the possibility of a future together, should it occur?”
Amne nodded. “One big barrier removed. Only one remaining.”
“Prince Elas,” Lalaas said automatically. His face suddenly became alarmed.
Amne frowned. “Oh, Lalaas, no, no, no! Whatever I may be, and you would be quite right to call me a seductress and adulteress, I am not going to arrange for the death of The Corpse.”
“Good, Amne, I would be quite distressed and probably shun you if I suspected that.”
“No, he will have to die a natural death or of some unforeseen mishap. I will not scheme to do that, no matter how I might wish him to be out of our way.”
Lalaas nodded, relieved. “So, how was the Prince when you were returned to him? He didn’t seem to be any different when I was there just after we got back.”
Amne shrugged, returning to the map and looking down at it. “His usual self – although I did detect some kind of relief, whether that was because I was not in Dragan’s clutches or whatever I don’t know. He’s too much a closed book; keeps too much inside so I don’t know what he’s thinking. At least my daughters were happy to see me.”
“Yes, they have been quite distressed these past days.”
Amne looked at him. “I’m grateful to you for making sure they were alright; Elas just doesn’t know how to act towards children. My handmaidens told me you came to the children every night.” She suddenly slammed her fist on the table top and whirled, her back to him. Lalaas frowned, then stepped towards her, seeing a slight trembling of her shoulders. “Amne? Ma’am?”
She spun round, tears glistening on her cheeks. “If only Elas acted half as good to the children! Oh why, why, why were you not a nobleman before? We could be so happily married with children and you’d be a fantastic father and husband and I’d be complete!”
He took her in his arms and held her close. Amne sobbed into his chest, crushing the material in her fingers. She finally edged back, looking up at him. “Ah look at me, what a wreck! You reduce me to tears so easily. Shame on you,” she smiled, the wetness still on her face.
Lalaas produced a sleeve cloth and dabbed her face. “We cannot change the past. What has happened has happened. I am here; I shall always look after your best interests and make sure you’re alright. I cannot physically love you, Amne, but I can do everything else.”
She nodded heavily. “I know – and I’m so grateful and pleased about that. Do you know I fantasise about you being in my bed? It gives me shivers. I think if you did make love to me I’d pass out.”
“What – and miss all the fun?”
Amne burst into laughter. “Oh, you! That’s something I’ve noticed about you since you’ve been here! That sense of humour. I thought you didn’t have one when we first met – you were so serious, but being with Elas makes me realise compared to him, you’re the court jester!”
“Having a sense of humour as guard captain is essential,” Lalaas explained deadpan. “Otherwise I’d go mad.”
Amne punched him lightly on the arm. “So what’re your faults, then? Surely it isn’t in bed?”
“I have no idea Amne, I’ve never had the pleasure.”
She leaned forward, her mouth open. “Really? You’re not joking?”
Lalaas shrugged. “Never had the chance or the inclination. I would only make love to the woman I marry. Not before.”
“You’re an unusual one, you do keep on surprising me. Well, don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul.” She straightened and touched the table again. “Baron Niksos. You know where Niksos is, don’t you?”
“Zipria, ma’am.”
“Yes, Zipria. Out of the way, that distant island. Shrouded with long forgotten tales of legends and fables. I always wanted to see the place. It’s supposed to be a romantic island, too. Exceptional moonlit nights, or so I’m told. Sailors say it’s easy to navigate around the island. Long, sandy beaches….mmm all I need is a handsome strong nobleman on an equine to take me for a long moonlit ride along one of those beaches.”
Lalaas grinned. “Not much chance of that, is there?”
/> “Not for the moment, but I’m not going to let go of that dream – not as long as you and I are breathing. So, Baron, you have the title. It means you have to write to the castellan of Niksos castle and ask him about the state of affairs there, the estates and so on. I understand the old title lapsed some years ago and the estates were taken over by the crown, as these things tend to happen in those circumstances. So, we have the full ownership of the estates, but they are being looked after by caretakers, paid for out of imperial funds.
“What now will happen is that you will take over that estate and pay for everything.”
Lalaas looked alarmed. “But – I have virtually nothing!”
“Relax, Lalaas,” Amne smiled and came up to him again. She pressed against him, a warm, vibrant woman. “In this, I can teach you what to do. Makes a change, mm? You will receive income from the land, the produce, the rents. In return you will pay for the upkeep of everything and pay the wages of those who work the land.”
Lalaas scratched his head. “That’s going to be a headache, Amne.”
“Not really, I have got the accounts for that estate for the past ten years and you can look at them. You’ll need to keep the castellan involved as he’s over there and is your link to the caretaker and estate managers. They will need paying, too.”
Lalaas puffed out his cheeks. “That and being guard captain?”
“Oh it’ll be alright, a man of your abilities! At least you’re now equal in social rank to Vosgaris.”
“Ah yes, I don’t know what he’ll say about that.”
Amne looked mischievous and turned away. Lalaas was disappointed; he quite enjoyed feeling Amne up against him. “I have come to realise just how important certain things are to me during the past few days. Being raped over and over made me feel as if I was worthless, but I know that was a false impression. My daughters matter to me terribly – having them in my arms again showed me what I should hold dear to me. Your love, their love. I’ve been awful, haven’t I?”
“Amne…”
“Don’t try to excuse me. I’ve been – a whore. There, I’ve said it! Having affairs left and right. That poor man Telekan, I led him to that building, wanting to make love to him, and it led to his death and my abduction. How selfish of me!”