Take Me Away

Chapter summary : Now that Kordell knows where Shandaar is, what’s he going to do?

Author’s Notes: Finals are coming, I’m being slower to write… Damn finals that interfere with my story! But it’s life. Quick explanation on that first scene… it takes place a week before what’s going to happen in this chapter; what happens after Ethan met up with Xylon… last chapter. Kinda confusing, but it doesn’t affect everything. Just wanted to tell what was happening at the castle ^^;.

Take Me Away
Chapter 08 – Crossroads


Kadessa City, a week before…

Oh the headache… it was awful. Ethan wasn’t supposed to drink much due to his status in the empire, but sometimes, it couldn’t be helped. Especially when cute little men tended to flirt with him. If only Shandaar was that easy to get with… if only. Well he could always dream. He’d have loved to run his fingers through the silver bangs, feeling his skin, holding him in his arms after a long day, making love to him… but it wasn’t like it was going to happen, after what he had done. ‘Why was I such an asshole?’ he asked himself, rolling on his left side. There was no one by his side. So where was that green-haired cute thing?

He found no trace of the other man, and cursed himself for drinking too much. Bribes of the past night slowly came back to him, in a fashion that reminded him of when he woke up in Shandaar’s bed. The trip to the city… what he had heard about a silver-haired man… the green-haired guy… the drinks…

Maybe there had been sex involved! Most likely, judging by his state; he wasn’t sore, however, so he came to the conclusion he had been on top. As long as he wouldn’t be responsible for another rape, everything would be good. Or should be good… Okay, maybe he talked about Shandaar, but mentioning he was a prince. How much did he hope he hadn’t said that! Now he’d have to find that little guy, and the prince. Things were getting worse.

He got up to his feet and walked up to the bathroom, rearranging his messy brown hair as much as it was possible without a comb. Those situations stressed him. Now he might have lost both men. Once out, he looks around the room, trying to find hits on where that sex beast had gone to. Ah… there was a piece of paper on the table. Ethan rushed to it and picked it up. The following was written in a fancy handwriting:

Dear Ethan,
Thank you for the night, it has been very pleasant, and I look forward to a future meeting. On another topic, we are holding Prince Shandaar Kandi has a hostage. If the Queen doesn’t comply with our demands, we will kill him. Better find us fast…!
Xylon Daffyd, on behalf of Kordell Boldin.
PS: You’re such a sexy beast…

“FUCKER!” He wrinkled the piece of paper, almost wanting to tear it apart, but that wouldn’t have been a smart move. Instead, he put it in his pocket and storms off the room, walking up to the counter. There was a man there, instead of the female that had greeted him earlier. The royal guard grabbed him by the collar and brought him close to his face. “I came here with a small guy with green hair earlier… when has the little shit taken off?!”

“Huh… I have no idea. He just... he just gave me money in order to pay for the room and to make sure you had a good breakfast, and then he left. It was very early this morning, might have been 4 or so…” As the man seemed to choke, Ethan had no choice but to release him.

“Thank you for the information. You shall be rewarded.” As he said this, he left the inn and headed back at the castle, followed by a few more guards.

He didn’t even need to ask for an audience – the news was too big. This meant a lot for the royalty… “My Queen, I just had news of the Prince… as I had said, he was abducted. Probably a resistance faction in the vicinity of the castle. We should investigate around the city, and maybe further. Who knows where they are from and what they want from us…”

The queen managed to stay calm through what Ethan had said; she thought it was a miracle. Her son might be tortured, raped… maybe even killed. “Alright, please calm down, Sir Darby. Send a group of 50 men to search around the castle, Kadessa. If possible, get to Fatshir, or even further. Do whatever is possible to get Shandaar back. Dismissed.”

-

Fatshir

If Radwan had gotten more than 2 hours of sleep, it would have been like a miracle. All night long, he had heard not only one, but TWO couples fucking like horny rabbits while he was alone in his room. At 8 in the morning, he decided he had enough of this, and headed out of his room. Kordell and Karali were probably still asleep in their room. There was three room occupied that he hadn’t noticed when he first went to bed, but didn’t pay attention to them that much. Instead, his attention was diverted to a tall, silver-haired man dressed in large white pants and a red shirt. ‘Could that be Shandaar Kandi?!’ He followed the youth with his eyes; he wasn’t alone, but with another man. So those two guys had been going at it all night long…

“You gonna come to take a shower with me, Shandaar?” the black-haired adventurer asked, wrapping his arm casually over the other male’s shoulders.

“Nah, I’m going to… er… gonna get breakfast. I’m hungry” he said, somewhat stuttering. He imagined that it would be rather hard for a member of the royal family to get used to a commoner’s accent, and vice-versa.

“Alright then.” The tow men shared a quick kiss; the taller went back in the room, while Shandaar walked downstairs. Now safe, the warrior ran to his leaders’ room and knocked. Loud.

At least neither of the siblings had hangovers, they had barely drunk after all. It was Karali who opened the door. Her red hair was messy, there was only a sheet wrapped around her curved body, and she appeared to be tired. “Better be important. Come in.”

Kordell was lying on the bed, his arms crossed against his chest. He was naked, and it made Radwan somewhat uncomfortable. The man was hot. “Of course it’s important. When I got to get breakfast, I fell on a strange scene… Shandaar Kandi and some other guy were together last night. They kissed before the prince went downstairs. Maybe it’s the right time to get our hands on the prince…”

Oh and to hell with the sheet. The woman got it off her body, exposing her nakedness to both men. Sure that would probably get her brother hard again, but in Radwan’s case there wouldn’t be any problem with it. “Nah, not the good time. Remember. It’s going to take us an army to get rid of Shandaar. What we need is to follow them, and that’s what we’re gonna do. The moment we know that the royal forces are after us, we catch him. But we’re gonna do it smoothly. We’re gonna wait a few days, until they’re going to be in the woods, a bit before the border with Nael. From there, we’re gonna get him to be alone. We’ll have groups taking care of the teammates to kill them if necessary. Once we have Shandaar, we won’t kill him right away. We’ll wait until we have news from the castle. Then, whether or not they comply with what we want, we’re finishing that pretty boy off. Poison. Then, we make our attack on the castle, kill the queen, and take the throne to ourselves.”

She definitely had visions of grandeur, as far as the two other men thought. But that plan was silly enough to work.

“Anyways, Radwan, you’re gonna get back to our hideout and wait for your beloved Xylon to tell him what happened here. If the Queen hasn’t heard of her son in the meantime, tell her we’re holding him captive. His life is in danger. We’ll have plenty of time until they reach this place. Me and Karali are going to follow Shandaar and his friends, we’ll eventually going to get him, and you know the rest.”

”When do I leave?” the blue-haired man asked, straightening himself as he got up. Why did his boss had to look so damn good naked? He was basically getting hard at the sight.

“After breakfast. When you see the foursome leaving, come back. We’re gonna go down, eat, and then leave a few hours later.”

The man nodded and exited the room, taking a deep breath as he closed the door behind himself. Now he started to know why Xylon had random flings here and there – to keep him from going insane. He’d have to talk the possibility of him having casual sex or something along the lines, which wasn’t usually his style. But if his boyfriend did, why couldn’t he?

-

As for Shandaar, he was now in front of the counter, asking for breakfast for him and his friends. He also prayed that he hadn’t been recognized so far, not that they had encountered too much people at first. Still, he had no idea when he’d fall on some random girl who idolized him already, and would surely warn the authorities – if there were some – that he had been spotted outside of the castle.

The lack of guards hadn’t stroke him first, but now that he thought about it… there was always the possibility they simply had been asleep, it was rather early in the morning, but generally, in the countryside, they were four; two in daytime and two in for night time. He didn’t want to ask though. But that was weird anyways. Maybe he’d do a quick investigation after all. Innkeepers and bartenders usually knew of about everything that went around town. “Hey, I got a question while I’m here… we just got in yesterday, so I haven’t checked much around. Aren’t there supposed to be guards around town? It was easy getting in here.”

“Huh… yeah… guards… probably were dead asleep. They don’t do their job much. I mean, come on kid, it’s a rather poor village. Do you really think thieves would come and rob everything?”

The man had a point, and Shandaar took note of it. He’d have to talk about this lack of equality once he’d get back… if he would ever go back. It was very tempting not going back, of course. This way he’d miss his own wedding. But on the other hand, running away from his problems wouldn’t solve them. Maybe he had to marry the other princess… he had no choice. He’d have to do it. But right now, he was a free man, and could do whatever he wanted. Including being in love with Kieran. ‘I’m not a prince anymore’ he told himself as he took a bite of his food. ‘I’m a commoner.’

Soon after, he was joined by Dagmar, who just had gotten up as well. He was unable to tell the difference between the giant’s morning hair and everyday hair, but he didn’t seem that tired. “Mornin’ kid. Enjoyed yer little night with yer boyfriend?”

“Of course.” He took another bite of his toast and swallowed it before asking a question to the other man. “We were that loud?”

All the guy had to do as nod and grin. “Yep. But the other couple wasn’t exactly the most quiet as well. So I can’t really speak for the both of you. And I’ll have triple of the kid’s portion” he said to the innkeeper who had came back to the table. Considering the size of the man, he made no comment on the food. He had weirder and bigger requests anyways.

The silver-haired man’s eyes widened in disbelief at the title he just received. “I’m not a kid! Your kids are kids. I’m a grown-up.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, Shandaar. Kids… little ankle biters. I miss’ em right now. We used to eat all ‘round the table early in the morning…” Dagmar’s ramble made Shandaar chuckle, yet not totally paying attention to what was being said. It was fun seeing the bearded man talk and talk, even if no one listened; it was only fair to say he loved his family.

“Well, well well. Dagmar, I doubt Shandaar’s into what ya saying. We heard that a thousand times.” Kieran sat beside the younger male and casually wrapped his arms around the slightly smaller shoulders, giving him a light squeeze. “Good food thought? After last night, I’m really hungry, if you know what I mean, hehe.” He nudged the man and winked before getting his order placed. Ham, eggs, toasts and strawberry jam.

Raya came down soon after, apparently still tired. She barely had gotten any sleep; the constant orgasm screams having kept her awake all night long. Damn those couples. But Shandaar and Kieran were so cute! “That was a long night. Can we stay here some more? Like until noon? I’m tired.”

It wasn’t something the prince would have suggested often, but it seemed like the right thing to do. “Maybe you can ride with Kieran. You’d get some sleep this way, if he doesn’t go too fast. I’ll take the other horse.”

“Nah, I’m gonna be fine, but that’s so sweet of you. Why do you have to be into guys?” she said, pouting slightly. Both men were attractive enough to have nice girlfriends and kids, yet they were with each other. Mystery.

The man shrugged, smiling at his lover. “I don’t know. Mutual attraction I guess, for this one.” He finished the potatoes that were in his dish and steals one from Kieran’s plate with a low chuckle.

“Come on kids. Eat your stuff up. We’re leaving after getting more provisions. We’re going to try to reach the border without too much pit stops.”

Shandaar looked at the group, well aware that the trip to the closest city to Fatshir – even he had just stopped here, years ago – was long and this time, they weren’t stopping. It had almost scarred him. Sure he was a sweet ten-year-old, but even princes want to move around when they were ten… He had always loved to play. But has he had found out a while ago, he had prices to pay to be a member of the royalty. “Are you sure there’s not another way to leave the country this way? Do we really have to go through Biron? Because usually, we take a fastest route out of the Empire by reaching Logas…”

The adventurer rolled his eyes as if the silver-haired man was oblivious to everything, especially what he knew best. “For a military guy, Shandaar, think. We’re not even sure we’ll be able to go through Biron without people noticing you. We’re gonna have to get another mean of transportation if we want to smuggle you out. Like a carriage or something, and hoping that they won’t search around too much.”

That made sense. Of course they’d have to avoid crowded place from now on. ‘Why didn’t I think of this before? Maybe I’m just being distracted by what’s happening around me at this time. I need to focus more.’

“Alright then, I’ll take a few more horses and get rid of that cat… that thing just gets on my nerves at night. Bet they gave us a horny one.”

This got a laugh of the table, and Dagmar left after eating – devouring would be the right word – his plate, while the others finished their own food. Once they were “finally” done, especially according to the giant man, they were ready to leave, once again.

“I hope the army isn’t searching for me, although it’s very doubtful that they haven’t sent people to get me back there. Let’s just be careful of the people around.”

As the group left the building, Radwan came downstairs, eyeing the prince. Such an attractive young man, barely younger than himself on top of that. “So they’re heading for Biron… better tell that to the bosses” he mumbles to himself as he goes back upstairs. “If they didn’t get back at fucking, that is…”

~ TBC ~