A Northern Prince

A Northern Prince

By Nix Winter

All rights reserved, copyright 2004

Chapter One

Green steel bars weaving a curved lattice separated Sei from the world outside the palace. To him they had become the line between the things he could not remember and his life in the palace harem. No one spoke to him. He saw others, keepers and the royal harem women. Once he\'d seen another male, with long black hair and ivory skin, an impossibly beautiful male on a silver chain. Sei had never been allowed into the garden beyond the green steel lattice.

He could see the moon cross the sky through the lattice enclosed balcony though and he\'d watched four full moons swell and fade. He wasn\'t sure how he knew it, but when the moon was full, he was sure there was a lake, large and shimmering blue, by another palace where someone waited for him. Sometimes on the full moon, he\'d cry, but he didn\'t really know what he was crying for.

There were no mirrors in his rooms, but there was everything else. When his hair had been short still, he\'d been lonely, and one morning he\'d woken to find a tiny fuzzy puppy in his bed with him. Yosha was bigger now, a small white terrier with a nearly psychotic affection for a now battered blue rubber ball. Sei\'s own hair was longer, nearly to his shoulders and bleached much paler by the southern sun that filled his rooms with light.

Whoever he\'d been, he\'d grown accustomed to the solitude and light of his three room prison. Padding barefooted back into the sitting area, he looked for Yosha\'s ball, and forced himself to stop thinking of what was beyond the lattice, who he\'d been before he\'d woken up here.

The sitting room held a chair that tipped far back, that took all the pressure off his back, though he didn\'t really need it, but it was comfortable. There were hundreds of books in elegant bookcases and silk rubs on the marble floor. And there was a square envelope sitting on the table, leaning against a tall silver collar. Sei stopped, blinked. Yosha dropped the ball on one bare foot. Sei went for the envelope.

The back bore a seal in deep blue wax that he recognized as the royal seal. Carefully, nervous, he opened it and pulled out a gilt invitation. \"Your presence is requested at the ball of the New Year. There you will be presented to His Highness, King of Soray.\"

Sei bit his lip, wondered why his fingers were shaking. He didn\'t remember why, but this was something he feared. A knot of dread in his stomach, he set the invitation down and picked up the collar. It was very much like the one he\'d seen the other man wearing. The longing to be back outside the lattice, to be back at that lake with the full moon overwhelmed him so that he ran back and gripped the elegant bars of his prison with both hands. They hadn\'t bent before and they didn\'t now.

--

In the royal private dining room, the king of Soray sat at the head of the table with his two youngest sons and his daughter. She was the general of his armies. She was his favorite and his heir. The blond prince he\'d demanded as tribute from the small northern country was meant for her.

She placed the gold steak knife down on the edge of her plate, tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. \"Prince Sei Aren is here, in the palace?\"

\"I\'ve told you, Krista, he is yours, a gift for the new year,\" Edmond said, smiling. \"The old slave you keep around. He can not be interesting any longer.\"

Leo paid a great deal of attention to his potatoes. Being five years younger than Krista, the only child of a red haired slave that was favorite only so long as it took him to be born, he didn\'t have much to say in his father\'s presence. He was the youngest child, though he\'d reached his majority a full two winters past. A poet and a painter, he was an ill fit for a royal house built by warriors, for warriors. He had no slaves, but he knew of the white haired prince from the north. There were ways to watch slaves and he had books filled with sketches of the man. It had been he who\'d sent the crying captive the puppy.

\"As I said, I enjoy the one I have. I have no wish to train another,\" Krista picked up a cube of barely done steak, licking the dark sauce off before disappearing it into her mouth.

\"He\'s quite beautiful,\" Edmond said. \"I\'ve saved him for five months for you, Krista.\"

\"If it\'s that beautiful, you don\'t want me taking him to the battle front, do you? Maybe you\'ll breed him, if he\'s that beautiful. If you give him to me, he\'ll never breed.\" She said, watching her youngest brother on the sly. \"Devin\'s only interested in women or his own hand.\"

\"Hey!\" Devin snapped, pointing a silver fork at her. \"What are you getting at?\"

\"She\'s suggesting that he be given to me,\" Leo said, his mouth suddenly dry. He felt terribly small sitting there with only vegetables on his plate, daring to call himself kin to the most powerful warriors on the continent.

\"To you?\" Edmond asked, looking at Leo, then back at Krista. \"Do you fancy a slave, Leo? I thought you disapproved.\"

Vegetables could be ice cold in one\'s stomach. Light headed, Leo looked meet his father\'s eyes. \"I would like that slave.\"

\"Oh, little brother has a lust! I was almost thinking you were going to become a monk!\" Devin laughed.

Leo blushed so that his cheeks made up completely for the rocks of ice in his belly. \"I\'m not a monk.\"

Edmond snorted, took a drink from the large crystal stein. \"Krista, was thaur iur intention.\"

\"Yes. And then he should come to the east with me. He should see what this house is built on.\" She didn\'t bother smiling when she said that.

\"If that\'s what you want,\" King Edmond agreed. \"However, I will train the former Prince Sei first. I don\'t want to give Leo more than he can handle.\"

Devin laughed, but Leo just looked down at his plate. He\'d seen slaves his father had \'trained\'. He wished Krista had just accepted the beautiful, elegant blond prince. Holding his fork a little too tightly, he looked up. \"I can handle him.\"

\"You can have him when I\'m done with him,\" King Edmond said, settling the issue. \"As a going away gift.\"

Leo looked back down at his plate. He was an adult. He was classes in literature at the university, and he felt so small and pale in the company of his family.

\"That wouldn\'t give you long, Father,\" Krista said.

\"Really? You\'re here for a month, are you not?\"

\"No, I\'ll leave in a week. I just feel the need to be back with my troops. We\'re going to start the push into Equilobos this year and the troops are skittish.\"

\"It\'s those songbirds they have there. What fools. Do they really think that a bunch of long haired singers are going to keep our army out? You\'ll send me half a dozen pretty ones?\"

\"I will send you two dozen. I hear they\'re all virgins as well. That they lose their \'gift\' of magic if they lose their virginity.\"

\"Is that so?\" King Edmond leaned back against the solid oak of his chair and took down half the ale in his stein. \"Damn fools to defend themselves with weapons that aren\'t worth anything after they\'ve been fucked.\"

Devin was nodding, but they all turned to look at the door as it opened. Sei stood there, a guard holding an arm on each side of him. Head bowed, blond hair fell like a curtain between the royals watching him and the prince that wasn\'t royal any longer. He wore slacks, dark blue and pressed neatly, with a silver chain around his waist. His wrists were bound by silver manacles and chained to the chain around his waist. Another chain connected up to the collar around his throat. His shirt was well tailored, with ruffles where a collar should have been, laces where there should have been buttons. He wore no shoes still, as slaves were not permitted shoes.

\"Look up,\" King Edmond commanded.

Hearing human voices again had brought back echoes of memories for Sei, and he was sure, absolutely sure, that he was not a slave. One of the guards holding him by his hair and pulled his head up.

Krista gasped. Devlin shoved her shoulder. \"You still want to give him to Leo the Monk?\"

Leo stood. He hadn\'t thought about it not being appropriate until he\'d done it and his father was glaring at him. It was just that, to him, Sei was still a prince, still an equal. Their eyes meet. Blue as the southern sky in summer and a dusty mixed green that keep secrets.

\"Sit down, Leo.\" King Edmond said sternly. \"He is nothing now, only a slave. One does not stand for slaves.\"

Sei\'s eyes locked with Leo\'s as Leo sat back down. \"Please, I\'ll train him myself, Papa.\"

Usually only Krista had the nerve to address their father as \'Papa\'. An expectant silence grew in the room. King Edmond took a drink of his ale, watching Leo over the top of his stein. \"Very well, you train him. Consider him a gift from your sister.\"

\"You\'ll want him marked, Leo,\" Krista said. \"Take him down to the armory and have him branded. Just a small brand, on the cheek maybe. As we have to leave soon.\"

\"Tomorrow. Tonight I will mark him as mine in other ways,\" Leo said it bravely, with more aggression than he felt towards the blond prince.

\"There\'s my boy!\" King Edmond cheered. \"Take the gift to Leo\'s rooms.\"

The two eunuchs dragged Sei from the room, expertly maneuvering him no matter how he kicked and tried to get his feet braced against the floor.

\"I expect to see him obedient when you come back from the north, Leo.\"