by S. K Munt
‘Good then, so I don’t have to explain myself. We take security seriously Larkin- and that makes it easier for us to be more lax with punishments. If a murderer doesn’t get to sneak in to Arcadia a second or third time, we don’t have to take drastic measures.’ He began to walk toward me and stopped a meter or so away. ‘And now that we’ve straightened everything out, can I ask what the hell you’re doing in my room without permission… and in piggy tails?’
My heart skipped a beat- I’d been so caught up in the conversation that I’d forgotten my purpose for coming again and now that I was remembering it, I was feeling a bit intimidated by my own ambition. But it wasn’t for the first time. In fact, being more ambitious than I ought to have been was a condition I’d been suffering since birth and seeing as how I wasn’t being cured of it, I’d resigned to the fact that I may as well just see it through.
‘I came to see you,’ I said frankly, and frank interest was the look I got in return. I relaxed my book and let it slide down my hip until my arm was hanging at my side, and then bit my thumbnail of the other hand, making my eyes look as big and vulnerable as I could manage. ‘Is that okay? I didn’t know how to find you without alerting Kohén to the fact that I wanted to see you alone so…’ I dropped my eyes and tried to look sorry, and though I felt like a complete idiot, when I looked up again through my lashes, I was pleased to see that his pupils had dilated. ‘I mean…’ I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and aimed for self-conscious bunny-wabbit. ‘I… I can go and summon you officially if I have to-’ I turned to move and when his fingers wrapped around my arm, holding in the grin was almost impossible.
‘It’s fine Larkin,’ Karol’s voice had dropped an octave, and he rubbed my arm, fixing me with a concerned look that was every bit as fake as my self-consciousness was. His eyes drifted from mine, to my hair, then down to my chest and then back up again. ‘I had cause to speak with you this morning anyway, and my door’s always open for you- you know that.’
Cause to do what… apologize perhaps? Or gloat?
‘I do?’
He smiled his flagitious smile. ‘You do now.’ He glanced at my hair again and I saw him swallow. ‘What did you need?’
‘I need to trust you,’ I responded quickly, keeping my voice soft and feminine as Maryah had taught us to do. I widened my eyes a little and added: ‘And I need you to keep what I say between us… it’s a confession of sorts, and one with possible ramifications for me that I couldn’t bear to...’ I lowered my head and sighed, shaking my head. ‘I’m so scared…’
‘Don’t be,’ his voice was as silken and sticky as cobwebs, ‘I’m sure that I can help. But tell me first… does Kohén know that you’re here?’
‘No,’ I whispered, and let my lip tremble. ‘This is the first thing I’ve ever felt the need to keep from him, and I feel sick about it but I know that you’re the only man in Arcadia with the power to…’ I bit my lip. ‘I mean, you’re the only one who can…after I woke up this morning I realised…’
Karol’s eyes flared and he leaned against the door, blocking my exit while caging me in. And he was so tall and broad that I did feel caged. ‘Just say it, Larkin,’ he whispered. ‘My power has limits, but my mind has always managed to find a way around those limits…’
‘Really?’ I breathed, trying to look hopeful.
He dragged his teeth across his lower lip. ‘Actually yes- just last night I gave the girl of my wet dreams her first orgasm, even though I’m forbidden from making advancements on her for another five years.’
Okay yeah, he wanted to gloat...
‘Well then…’ I said, for nothing else to say that wouldn’t get me whipped.
‘I’m damned well, for it.’ He rubbed my arm again and this time, he did so slowly and smoothly, and left his hand lingering near my breast. ‘So tell me what you need from me now, and I’ll do whatever I can in my power to help- and then some.’
I smiled and moved into him. ‘Is it true that you’re leaving tonight for Janiel?’
Karol’s brows pulled together in confusion. ‘Yes… why?’
I inched in closer. ‘Are you going alone? Or are you permitted to take… servants?’
Karol blinked. ‘Why do you ask?’
I bit my lip and said. ‘There’s a servant who needs to go with you. She’s in trouble, and if she’s left behind…’ I reached up and touched his hair, brushing it behind his ear and almost jumped when his entire body folded in toward mine like a magnet had been activated. What was with this guy? Did he know what a lousy, reluctant lay I’d be? ‘Well, I don’t even want to think of how she’ll suffer. But if you take her with you- you’ll be rewarded for it, that I can promise you.’
‘Larkin!’ Karol had the grace to look shocked. ‘That’s a VERY big request! What’s brought this about?’
‘Sex, and the need to express love with someone you love…’ I let my finger trail down his jaw. ‘And the need to keep it hidden. You understand THAT kind of need, don’t you? Please… tell me you can help me!’
Karol stared at me. ‘Are you CERTAIN that I’m not dreaming?’
I leaned in and kissed his cheek, aware of the energy misting around us, and though I’d intended to create such a charge, I was a little startled to know that I could be this close to him without throwing up. I’d counted on my skin crawling to be close to his, and yet there was nothing repugnant about his aura. In fact, he was warm, and his scent was pleasant enough to make my nostrils twitch. ‘No, your highness,’ I whispered. ‘You are very much awake…’ I trailed my finger along his sharp jaw. ‘And if you tell me that you can find a way to take a servant along, I will show you just how grateful I am, by making another dream of yours come true...’ my voice was soft, and my touch softer yet and a slight green glow blazed along the underside of his jaw, making me feel powerful. Actually, it made me feel like Scarlet O’Hara.
‘Fuck…’ Karol looked down at me and groaned. ‘So help me but I’ll find a way, if that’s what you want.’ He rotated and pressed me to the door, resting one hand on either side of my shoulder to pin me under him. ‘Actually, there’s not much I wouldn’t do, to make you look at me the way you’re looking at me right now, little swan...’
I wet my lips as his leaned closer. ‘Really?’ He was about to kiss me, and damn it, but my heart was pounding.
‘Really…’ he whispered, and there was coffee on his breath intermingled with the scent of peppermint toothpaste, sharp and warm. In another life, as rankled as I was with Kohén and hell-bent on vengeance, I could have lifted my mouth to his beautiful older brother’s, just to feel something. And as it was, the way he touched his lips to the corner of my mouth in a prelude to a kiss was smooth enough to momentarily distract me from the fact that I hated him.
But not smooth enough.
‘Thank God…’ I wrapped my arms around his neck and then leaned back and said brightly: ‘In that case- I need you to take a servant, a guard and their two children! And if anyone tries to change your mind, you need to stand your ground like the powerful man you claim to be, okay?’ I paused, smiling winsomely. ‘And then some!’
Karol pushed off me, looking like I’d just dumped a bucket of ice water on his too-big erection, and I tensed, prepared for the fight of my life.
2.
I’d never had someone look at me the way Karol was looking at me before- like I was so asinine that he was going to rip the meat off my bones with his teeth.
‘Excuse me?!’ he barked. ‘Are we having the same conversation here?’
‘Of course,’ I said loftily. ‘I told you that I needed you to take a servant across the country and YOU said that you could take a few!’
‘I thought that you meant you!’ he snapped, and his eyes were forest-black now. ‘Why would I take another? And how DARE you bait me with the offer of sexual rewards only to… for fuck’s sake Larkin!’ He zoomed in and smashed me back against the door. ‘Do you think I’m the kind of man you can just toy with?!’<
br />
‘I don’t know why you’d assume that I’d have sex with you when that would be against the law,’ I said, holding his gaze steadily even though I was trembling with fright. ‘I came to you for help, but it’s not for me... it’s for my maid, Lindy.’
‘What?!’
‘She’s pregnant,’ I whispered, and his eyes bulged again so I began speaking rapidly. ‘Yes, with her third and yes that’s against the law and yes you could have me banished for trying to get you to break that law for me but… but I meant it when I said that I needed you! And if you help me get her out of Arcadia so that her poor child won’t be taken from her and Coaxley I will return the favour with one of my own! And I have something you want!’
‘Something I’m tempted to take for free right now to set you straight over who needs whose favour here!’ he ranted, and I shushed him, but he gave me a rotten look and turned away. ‘No, okay? I’m sorry that you’re upset about your friend and I must admit that I’m rather fond of the Trevasse family, and it will hurt me to have to hold them accountable for this… but the law is the law, and a prince has a responsibility to his nation!’
‘But it’s not just Lindy and Coaxley who are in trouble here!’ I protested, my eyes filling with tears as I followed him. ‘It’s a baby, Karol! A poor little baby! What they’ve done was an accident and it’s illegal but it’s not immoral, or every kingdom in Arcadia would have a two-child law- but they don’t! If you get her transferred to Janiel or Yael before the child is born then they won’t be law-breakers, the kid will be raised with parents who love her the way I wasn’t, and you WILL be my hero.’
‘Your heroes get cold beds, big debts and dashed hopes,’ Karol muttered, motioning out the window and towards my statue.
‘They also get devoted friends,’ I whispered tearfully. ‘And Lindy is the only mother I’ve ever known. Karol… please…’
He looked back at me and frowned. ‘You think I’m going to drown in your tears after being blinded by your feigned attraction?’
I sniffled. ‘We’re taught to seduce you, your highness, but to keep the tears in at any cost. I assure you, these are genuine, and if her baby is taken from her, or if she dies…’
‘Dies?’
I leaned against the edge of the desk and hugged my book tightly. ‘She’s only six months along and she’s been having complications for days. If she doesn’t get help soon-’
‘The problem will be solved!’
I shot him a look and he actually lowered his eyes. ‘There’s that skeleton of yours again,’ I said, and pushed off the desk. ‘Serves me right for believing that maybe you had at least one redeeming quality. How you manage to heal with an ice-cold heart is beyond me!’
‘Don’t…’ he said, and he sounded tired. ‘Honestly, Larkin, you just don’t get it. Yes I can get her out of here but I couldn’t do so with a good conscience- not only would I have to lie to my parents, but I’d be making an exception that I couldn’t repeat for someone equally as kind and equally as devoted to someone else, as Lindy is to you.’ He stepped towards me and held out his hands. ‘And if I could wriggle anyone out of the binds of our kingdom’s laws, little swan, it would be you I released anyway- not Lindy.’ He crossed his arms. ‘But the end result is the same- I can’t break a law that’s been put in place to benefit Arcadia.’
‘You’ll just bend the ones to fit them into your harem?’ I accused. ‘Not two minutes ago you were willing to screw me from here to Janiel-’
‘I wouldn’t have slept with you, or come onto you out of loyalty to Kohén and to adhere to your contract,’ he retorted, and managed to look me straight in the eye when he did. ‘I was just excited by the opportunity to make you fall for me so as soon as you turned twenty-one, you’d come to me as I’ve asked and with a bounce in your step.’ He sat on the desk next to me, looking weary. ‘But I have to be a leader, Larkin, and a fair one, to honour Miguel Barachiel. For every third born child handed over to us, there is one less hungry mouth to feed and one more job being done by someone who has been fed and cared for. I know it doesn’t seem fair but I’ve read about countries that existed before us where the people bred like rabbits and produced millions of starving children. And whether my father likes to acknowledge or not- Calliel is already struggling to feed those we have allowed to be born so far, and nowhere more than Yael, where they have no farming industry to speak of to support their relaxed laws.’ He looked me in the eye and said: ‘Lindy will lose her child to the Given, but that child would be cared for. And hey…’ he slapped my shoulder. ‘There are no Barachiel’s being born this year, so at least you don’t have to worry about it ending up in a Harem, five years from now.’
‘Do you think Kohl would agree that being fed was compensation for being loved?’ I demanded, taking his hand off my shoulder. ‘Because I don’t!’
‘You’ve never been starving, and neither has my indentured little brother. And to answer your question from earlier, yes we’ve been eating plainer food up in this wing lately, so that you ladies don’t cease to be spoiled. It’s not love, but it is consideration.’
‘You’ll still be the last ones to starve and you know it, and if you are a true leader, you’ll seek no comfort from that,’ I said standing and turning on him, ‘unless you help me.’
Karol gave me a condescending look. ‘You think Lindy’s unborn child is going to solve the locust issue?’
‘The locust issue is solved!’ I said. ‘But I’m only going to give you that solution if you get that entire family out of Arcadia. Tonight- before you leave. And I won’t hear you begging slippery roads or blizzards either- your royal ass will be safe, and so if they go with you, they’ll be safe too with no ‘accidental,’ carriage accidents.’
Karol ran his hands through his hair, looking exasperated. ‘What’s this new nonsense?’
‘It’s not nonsense, and if you don’t believe me- listen and decide for yourself, for I received a very interesting letter this morning.’
Karol sighed again. ‘We don’t get mail on Sundays.’
‘I know. This wasn’t posted- it was left for me by a dead girl six months ago.’ Karol’s brow rose again and I smiled tightly, opening the book. ‘Would you like to hear Martya’s final words to me Karol? Or shall I post it to Elbert Yael instead? Because I won’t be going to your father if you can’t help me, and the letter explains precisely why.’
Karol sat back down on the desk. ‘Read it,’ he said tersely. ‘Now.’
I smiled and looked down at the page, wondering if I was about to become a hero, or be cast into the Wildwoods forever.
You’ve got a royal flush honey- so sit then show!
‘Dear Larkin…’ I began, my voice trembling. ‘I hope this letter finds us both in a position where we can laugh off my paranoia, but as I write it, I am frantically packing to leave Eden forever, and I am feeling equal measures of triumph, paranoia and hysteria, so forgive me if I sound a little crazy but… but just in case I don’t make it to St Miguel, here is a copy of the real formula for the locust panacea, because the one I have handed to the king is missing one crucial ingredient and-’ I glanced up at Karol and saw that he was staring at me with wide eyes, ‘-it’s yours. Look, this is going to come off as confusing but… You should know that King Elijah threatened me before I left.’ I heard Karol breathe in sharply, but I went on. ‘It may very well be an empty threat and should be, because my formula will work, and I know it will work because it’s not just this field I practiced it on, but my grandmother’s as well.
My mother, as you knew, grew up on their farm near Rachiel, and the fact that they’ve been so devastated by locusts is my driving reason for curing the problem. So after I worked out this formula, I sent the ingredients to them in concentrate to try, and learned this very afternoon that it worked- their farm was the only one spared in that entire region after these past two weeks. Theirs, and our dear little garden.’ I looked up at Karol again and was greeted with wide green eyes. I cleare
d my throat and went on. ‘So I have created a cure to end the last of God’s apocalyptic wrath, and something tells me that it’s a cure that the king needs more than he’s let on. When I saw our garden this afternoon I realised what a valuable secret I had, and that handing it over to one man could be an error… and the way that he just treated me for misspeaking, well, I fear that I am too smart for my own good.’
‘I’ve never been one to mince words but I will do so now- Elijah took me aside and whispered that if I was lying, I would pay for it dearly, and that there is a room in the harem where such punishments can be carried out- a room in which no one will think my screams amiss or of terror, rather than pleasure and it wouldn’t matter if I had a contract or not so long as he had charges to lay against me.’ My voice trembled and when I glanced at Karol again- my suspicions were confirmed because he looked positively sick. ‘But then he added that I wasn’t the kind of girl whose screams he craved, so I should be very careful about who I embarrass in the future- because exceedingly-rational girls tend to make the most ill-advised choices when they finally give in to their emotions; choices which turn out to be their last.’ Karol groaned but I went on, my voice shaking now that I’d put myself in the position to end up in such a room with three out of four of the Barachiel men. ‘Needless to say this rattled me but I’d been prepared for such a thing- clever little duck that I am, I’ve written down the formula for this cure only twice. One is missing two key ingredients and is in Elijah’s hands now that he’s torn up my contract, and the other is written over the next page. If I make it to St Miguel alive, I’ll send a correct formula to King Elijah immediately and hopefully, become a renowned scientist in the next few years- one who knows that she has earned her King’s respect rather than his ire. But if I do not, and my forthright way of talking has already sealed my fate, then you need to take this formula and guard it with your life because it is your ticket out of here.’