Chapter 8
Will woke up in an empty tent, the walls dull grey with the dusk outside and the only source of light was an oil lamp on the table. He slowly sat up and rolled and flexed the shoulder to test the muscles. It was still a bit tender but certainly much better than it had been this morning. He smiled broadly. Kell's kiss had definitely helped.
He had thought of the prince using his name, he realized then. Gods, he's really getting to me.
~I should hope so.~
~It's not proper, Ashiná.~
~He gave you his permission to use his name.~
~But I still shouldn't, not even think it.~
~Oh, I don't think he'll mind.~ Ashiná had a smile to her voice. ~And I believe he's planning on making you use it a lot. Maybe even scream it a few times.~
It took Will's sleep muddled mind a moment to fully understand what the guardian was getting at and then he blushed forcefully, suddenly very, very grateful for the dark and empty tent. He busied himself searching out his pack and a pair of breeches not to have to think about all the new things Ashiná had put in his head. Most definitely not. This whole affair with the prince was still too new and delicate to rush forth with. He'd only get hurt if it were to be smashed now. He found his boots, dotted with what were dark, dried stains of blood, and an informal, plain tunic in his pack.
~Are you going somewhere?~
~I need to relieve my bladder.~
~You shouldn't leave the tent, Will.~
~Well, I'm not using the chamber-pot here where someone could come in.~ Someone being the prince. He pushed back the tent flap and looked out into the evening.
The camp that spread out before him in the narrow vale between the low foothills of the Knee was almost as large as the main camp, being a mixture of the prince's and high commander Jayce's troops. Tents stood in numerous straight rows around the area where the commanders' larger tents were assembled and campfires could be seen here and there. Certainly a fair amount of evening meals were being consumed in the company of comrades, the thought made Will's stomach rumble.
He wondered where the sorcerers had made their camp but couldn't see any indication to where it might be; he missed their cheerful company and thought to join them for an evening snack. But the prince would miss him and most certainly raise all hells to find him. That he would, Will knew.
From afar he heard the clatter of wagon wheels and the rustling of a large number of horses and guessed the animals were getting their final meal for the day. Soldiers moved around among the tents, cleaning armor or sharpening weapons, hardly anyone even glanced at Will when he walked by, without his grey coat he was just another man in camp.
It wasn't hard to find a secluded enough spot among the trees and he went about his business with a deep sigh. Relieved both by the emptying bladder as the temporary freedom from bunk and tent.
Further into the forest he could hear the soft babbling of water. A bath wasn't a bad notion; he hadn't had one proper since they left main camp, well, if you didn't count the sponging off they must have given him to clean the blood from his skin. Gods, he hoped the prince hadn't been there then.
~You should go back, Will.~
~I'm okay,~ he said absently, chewing on the inside of his lower lip at the thought of the prince standing over him while he was naked and vulnerable in sickbed.
~No. You shouldn't be up and about, much less taking a bath. The prince will be furious if he returns and you're not there.~
That was probably true. Will had no wish to see the prince in such a mood. Better then to be there when he came for the night and perhaps steal a kiss or two. Will blinked and started. Why this strange hope now? When he moments ago shuddered at the thought of being seen naked by the prince. These contradictory feelings were bothersome, distracting. But the prince did have the most wonderful kisses, he remembered. What harm would it do to have one more?
But the hope for affection was quickly shattered when Will came back into camp and realized he was already too late. Prince Kell Deasir al E'Tharion of the kingdom of Waunban stood outside his tent with his arms crossed over his chest and, judging by the set of his shoulders and the firm bit of his jaw, he was more than a little angry. His eyes looked like they would start shooting fire at any second. The poor soldier that happened to walk by gave him one wary glance and then decided it would be safer to take the long way around.
Will swallowed and stopped at a safe distance. He kept his eyes lowered to avoid the full force of that fierce look, but it still managed to make him wish he was somewhere else entirely.
"Why are you up and where have you been?" the prince demanded to know in a dangerously low voice.
Will wanted to get into the tent to avoid the entire camp to see what threatened to become most embarrassing. The prince didn't move out of the way, though, too angry to care what people saw or believed.
"I… umm… I just needed to… you know, and…"
"That's what the chamber-pot is for."
"I don't like using those and I was only gone for a few minutes." He got a bit annoyed at the persistent pampering and looked up to say as much. But whatever harsh words he'd had on his tongue just vanished then and he could only stare. The prince's eyes were so dark they were purple.
"I don't care what you like or not, you should be in bed." The prince waited for an answer and when he failed to get one he took a suddenly concerned step towards Will. "Are you ill?"
Will blinked. "No…" He looked closer, yes; the eyes really were purple though they were slowly changing back to their normal deep blue as the prince stepped closer.
"You should get back into bed, Will. You look a bit pale." Kell herded him into the tent and towards the bunk.
"Your eyes..?"
"What about them?"
Will stopped and turned to take another look, but they were all back to normal now. "They were purple," he said slowly.
"Oh, that. Yes, they change color sometimes. My mother's eyes do too. Strong emotions, she says. Though others like to say it's the sign of true noble blood," the prince said a bit dismissively. He put a hand on Will's shoulder and made him sit down on the bunk before closely studying Will's face for any sign of weakness caused by the sorcerer's unauthorized excursion and would give him a good reprimanding if it was so. Will looked away then.
"You were really angry with me, weren't you?" he asked quietly. The prince sank down in a crouch in Will's vision.
"I was worried, Will," he corrected, but after a moment admitted, "Yes, and angry. I don't like it when people disappear without telling me. Especially someone as badly hurt as you." His voice was gentler now and Will dared insist.
"But I'm not hurt anymore."
"You're still recovering." Firmly said, no point arguing.
"You'll never let me out of here, will you, my prince?" he asked with a quirk to his lips.
"Not as long as you're not doing as I tell you, sorcerer," he smiled softly.
Gods, how I love that smile, Will barely gave himself time to think before he leaned forward for a kiss. He must have taken the prince by surprise because he gasped and the eyes were wide when Will dared look into them. But then a hand pushed gently at his back and Kell rose up on his knees to meet him. Fingers buried in his hair and then he felt a tongue tickling his lips and he parted them willingly.
Gods of earth and air! He liked these feelings that were roused and rushing through him. His heart began to thud heavily in his chest and his muscles quivered where hands touched him. There was a heat stirring between his legs and he pressed closer to the body against him.
"I'll be up and walking tomorrow," he murmured against Kell's mouth when they pulled back a little for air.
"No, you won't. You'll be in bed," the prince replied firmly and flicked out his tongue to taste him.
"Yes, I will." He pulled out of reach with a teasing smile.
"Stop arguing and shut up or I'll pull rank on you. You're ruining the mood."
"Then I'll turn you into a toad."
"Then you'll really have to kiss me to turn me back."
The thought of kissing a large, warty toad was too much and Will started laughing.
"Not funny," the prince grumbled as his hands covertly slid up under Will's tunic and shirt to touch bare skin.
"Gods, don't do that," Will gasped and pushed them back down again.
"Why not? Seems to me you like it." There was a smug smile on the prince's face.
"Someone could come."
"I'll kick them out."
"Please, Kell. Not in the middle of a war camp."
The prince stopped then and sat back to look at him, sad and serious. Will tilted his head, both curious and concerned.
"Something the matter, my prince?"
"You said my name. And I didn't even have to tell you," he said in nearly a whisper.
There was a tense expression around the prince's eyes and an unhappy set to his mouth, the lips thinner than they usually were. Suddenly worried, Will reached out to put gentle fingers to his cheek. "There's something else."
Kell lowered his eyes and hesitated to answer. "When you were shot… I held you… and you said my name so softly and I thought it was the last time I'd ever hear you say it." His voice failed him and he turned away to hide the distress.
"No, my prince. Don't…"
"Don't scare me like that again," Kell interrupted and turned blue, pleading eyes to Will.
"I won't," he promised willingly and Kell turned his face into Will's touch with a sigh. Kell's warm breath slipped through his fingers and he cupped them around Kell's cheek, garnering a soft smile and a kiss to his palm, seeking comfort more than anything else. The kiss then traveled up his wrist and forearm as the sleeve of his tunic was pushed out of the way. Kell held his wrist steady with one hand as his lips continued their leisurely journey up his arm, the other hand finding its way back under his shirt.
Will tensed and bit his lip, stifling a shiver of pleasure, and grabbed hold of the roaming hand. "Please…"
Kell gave him a long look and when Will didn't do or say anything he drew back his hands and released him. "You sure are testing my patience, Will."
"I'm sorry. It just feels wrong to be… intimate here, now." He straightened his tunic absently. And he needed more time to think about the possibility that such a thing could happen. And what it would mean if it did, because more people than just the two of them would be affected by the choices they made.
The prince looked at him with his head tilted slightly. "Have you been with anyone before?"
Will knew he blushed, he wasn't used to getting that question thrown at him so boldly, these were private matters. "A few times," he answered despite himself at the curious look the prince gave him. "There was this girl back home that always teased me and I got really upset by it. One day my master told me to do something about it because I couldn't concentrate on what he was teaching me. So I went to see her and asked why she was mean to me and it all ended in the barn behind the stables." Will couldn't help but smile. "I don't think my master had meant for me to do that with her, but it just so happened she'd fancied me for a while."
"You dog," the prince grinned at him. "In a barn?"
"Well, yes. It was still summer and it was quite convenient, close to my master's house as well as hers. But hay is prickly and the fleas' bites really itch."
The prince laughed. "I can imagine. What happened to the girl?"
That was a sensitive memory still, the loss of a first love, if a boy that young really could know true love. "She stopped seeing me when a new family moved into the house next to hers. They had a son that was a few years older and really tall. I guess she liked tall boys better."
"Her mistake, then." The prince cupped a hand around Will's neck. "Her loss." He leaned closer and gazed into Will's eyes. "My gain."
Will giggled as a moist mouth fastened to his neck. "Please, Kell. Not here, not now." He gave the wide shoulders a push and the prince sighed disappointed, his warm breath curling against Will's skin.
"Fine. But you better get into bed and sleep, then." He pushed himself to his feet. "Or I'll make you ease this ache I've got in my breeches."
Will had never been so glad to go to sleep.
* * * * * * * *
Will was bored. He had been ordered by Kell to stay inside the tent that morning before the prince left with his men and Piotry had also been ordered to keep an eye on Will. He had managed to persuade Piotry to at least let him walk around outside or he'd likely go mad being cooped up in the tent all day. Piotry took his need for exercise as a sign of recovery and allowed it, but only if Will promised not to venture too far and return immediately when he got tired.
Stay here. Sit still. Eat now. Go to bed. Will snorted. Just because the prince himself – highness of all he surveyed – had been out all day with the sorcerers and his troops to make one last effort to fight down the marauders.
Will had been obedient to begin with and stayed around the tent, but when Piotry had gone to take care of his duties as the only sorcerer in the others' absence, Will took the opportunity and went off to the horses' lines. He wanted to see to his gelding that Kell had told him they had taken care of for him and eventually he found it among a few other reserve mounts. Though it didn't seem to recognize him it was sure happy to eat the apple Will brought it.
It was the thundering of numerous hooves that first told him the troops had returned and early too. He hurried back through camp, worried that something had happened that made them come back already, and made it to the line of tents just in time to see the commanders in the front trot by in full pace. All their faces were grim and more than one was scowling angrily. Will wondered what had gotten them all into this mood and how he would tackle the prince; after all, the tent was a bit too small for that kind of temper.
He was right. The prince was stalking the length of the tent when Will silently stepped in. All he got as a greeting was a dark scowl and the sharp sound of leather gloves whipped down on the table.
Will kept in the background for a while until the worst had subsided. Meanwhile he studied the prince critically. There were large bloodstains on his armor and tunic, and his braid was frayed and coming loose. But Will couldn't see any wounds on him and supposed none of the blood was the prince's own.
Kell sighed after a while and began to divest himself of dirty armor and clothes. Will offered help with the worst buckles and put cuirass and chain mail away to be cleaned later.
"What happened, my prince?" he dared to ask.
Kell frowned and rubbed the stiff muscles in his neck with a dirty hand. "We might have a larger problem than we first thought."
"How so? Anything I can do?"
The prince snorted. "Not unless you can magic people away."
Will tried not to take offence; the prince was clearly still frustrated. "Explain."
Blue eyes turned and fixed on him at that short demand. "The marauders are not simple bandits as we thought and they've been here for longer than the few weeks they've been pestering us."
Will waited patiently for Kell to continue.
"We came upon their camp and it turns out they have women and children there. They've built huts and made the caverns habitable and they even got crops growing." He irritably slashed out a hand supposedly in the direction of the distant camp. "I can't wage war on women and children, Will. And after today's fights not many of their men are still alive and the few who are are being hunted down as we speak."
Will contemplated this news as he watched the prince begin to wipe off the worst stains from his armor, his movements harsh and impatient, a reflection of his anger and frustration.
"The families won't survive without their men," he said after a while when the silence lengthened.
"I know that, Will!" the prince snapped back. "Gods, do you really think I planned to make those children orphans and death doomed on the same day?" He threw the rag away with a few choice curses.
Will held on to his calm in the face of the price's temper. "That's why you've got to help them now."
Surprised, blue eyes turned to him. "Help them? Why should I? They're trespassing." And then after a moments thought and a narrowing of eyes, "How?" The prince had a conscience after all.
"They'll need food and clothes for the winter, traps and bows for hunting, blankets, furs, grain. That sort of help."
"They're women and children, Will. None of the boys are older than ten. I can't very well leave them in the middle of the forest."
"They've managed so far without you."
Kell scowled at him.
Then there were loud screaming and shouting outside, and the prince walked out of the tent one step ahead of Will. Soldiers on horseback had captured two of the marauders and were now dragging the tied and beaten men through camp towards the prince's tent. A crowd gathered to look and among them Will could see a few of the higher ranking commanders, though none of them stepped forward to take command in the prince's presence.
The soldiers' postures fairly radiated victory and one of them jumped off his horse to push the prisoners face down in the dirt at the prince's feet. Will didn't like the way the two obviously exhausted and defeated men were being treated, but he held his tongue as the prince raised a hand to demand silence.
"I am Prince Kell Deasir al E'Tharion of Waunban and highest ranking commander in this camp," he said in a voice ripe with authority. "I demand to know who you are and why you are waging war on my men and in my father's kingdom."
All he got was silence and proud, disdaining glares.
Without waiting for an order of any kind the soldier pounced and began kicking the prisoners to the ground, adding more bruises to already battered bodies. "You'll answer when the prince's talking to you!" he shouted at them, spittle flying from his lips.
Kell didn't seem to want to stop the abuse anytime soon and Will just couldn't stand it any longer, these men had suffered enough. Marauders or not, this was not an honorable way to treat prisoners.
"Stop this immediately!" His voice was far angrier than he had intended but it didn't matter, the soldier as well as every other man around them froze and stared wide-eyed at him. Even the prince turned to stare at him, although those eyes held more of anger and incredulity than fear.
Will ignored Kell best he could and walked up to the panting, struggling men on the ground, the crowd around them taking a few cautious steps out of his way. Will sank down in a crouch to get on eye level and studied the two bruised, weather-beaten faces and saw every hardship and fight for survival written there. To these men a simple beating was nothing, losing their family and freedom would devastate them.
"You're not waging a war against us, are you? You're just trying to survive." Will's voice was low enough to make a few of the soldiers want to step closer, he sensed the prince approaching from behind as well.
"We never asked fer this fightin'," one of the two prisoners spat, his accent rough and different, a scar running across his right cheek. "You attacked us!"
"I'm sorry." Will bowed his head slightly and saw the surprised glance the two men gave each other. "I'm Will. What's your name?"
"Roan," the scarred one said after a moment's hesitation. "He's Poe." He jerked his head at his companion, an older man with a black, swollen eye. Will could easily heal all their injuries but he hesitated with this crowd looking on. And he doubted his care would be appreciated by either party.
"Where are you from, Roan?"
"Home," he answered evasively.
"And where's home to you?"
"Right here in these woods. Least it was 'til you all came lootin' and burnin'!"
Will frowned slightly and the soldier who had been advancing to reprimand the prisoner thought better of it and stopped where he was. Then Will felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder and rose to his feet to meet the prince's piercing gaze.
"A word, sorcerer," he said in a very low, dark voice. "If you please." He turned back to the tent without waiting for Will.
"Beat them again and you'll answer to me," Will said to the soldiers and saw the ripple of unease that went through the crowd at his words. He also noticed the quick glance Roan and Poe gave each other. "Guard them well, I'll be back later to speak to them."
Two brave soldiers stepped forward to haul the two prisoners up and off to the line of chains that had been bolted into the ground for the securing of prisoners. Will watched for a moment before he felt the crowd's eyes on him and then turned with a knot forming in his stomach. Taking a deep breath Will prepared to face the prince.
He was waiting for him and all his anger was evident in the color of his eyes. It was the second time in two days that Will saw them as purple, and both times out of anger because of him, it occurred to Will.
"My prince?" he said warily.
"How dare you command my men before me unasked for!" he growled, a hand fisting by his side. "You're undermining my authority and far overstepping your bounds, sorcerer. And on top of it all you sit down before them and apologize for my actions, my decisions, my commands!"
"It felt like the right thing to do when…"
"Oh, now, did it!" the prince cut him short.
"We've killed so many of them!" Will tried to defend himself, but the prince would have none of it.
"And what about the men they've killed? Men under my command! My soldiers have families too, so don't try to save their hides with that excuse."
"They never wanted to fight!" Will exclaimed, angry and frustrated because the prince wouldn't stop and listen.
"Then they should've just surrendered and it'd all been over with," Kell said coldly.
"And they'd be in the dungeons or rotting in a shallow grave somewhere, accused of treason or uprising and their families would still be without their fathers!"
The prince bared his teeth and scowled but didn't argue. Will took the moment's silence to try and calm him to reasoning.
"Didn't you hear what they said? They live in these woods and you know that now, you saw their home. They've been here for years probably."
"My father never received any taxes or tithes from them, which means they're trespassing and thieving and poaching on the king's property. They deserve the dungeons for that."
"No, Kell. You're going about this all wrong. You've got to –"
The prince cut him off with a snarl and a threatening step towards him. The prince had never seemed more intimidating than he did in that moment and Will almost shied back. "It's insolent not to use my proper title. You've disobeyed me for the last time tonight. I'll have you confined to your tent until I'm ready to deal with you."
Will couldn't breathe all of a sudden. The prince's words shot him straight through the heart where the crossbow bolt had failed and left him stunned. Not even thoughts ran through his mind, only pain and panic and confusion.
Gods of mercy! It hurts!
The prince turned away to let Will understand that he was required to leave and presented with the rigidly held back, he could do nothing else. His feet brought him out of the tent and through camp in a direction he didn't even consider in his shocked daze. He just walked and didn't really care where he ended up. He didn't see any of the thoughtful, curious faces looking after him as he vanished among the trees.
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