"Arabian Nights"
Part 77
by Mel
Orlando got a little lost quiet quickly. He'd never been to Karl's rooms before, not in all the months he'd been with Viggo. It didn't help that the palace seemed so much larger and foreboding when it was full of people. There was no time for inching around, if Orlando didn't look like there was somewhere he had to be anyone of the nobles or dignitaries around him could cause a problem. He should have thought to ask Sean the way, but if he had stayed any longer someone would have tried to talk him out of this.
If he had known what was going on he would have gone to find Karl sooner.
He knew the only reason he was still alive and unharmed was because of Karl. That the reasons he'd always seemed to just get away was because of the Captain's intervention. Orlando wasn't much of a street rat really, it had been Dom's forte, not his. With no other option for survival, he had been reduced to theft like the rest of the urchins on the street. If Karl hadn't shown an interest in him, Orlando was certain he'd be dead like many of the young ones who could not keep up.
So he had always loved Karl. It was all he had to offer. He sort out the older man when he could and he knew Karl would not get in trouble. Orlando couldn't give him gifts, he only stole money for food or clothing for himself, but he could make him smile. Some days he was more out of sorts then others and Orlando would do anything to get him to grin. He looked so beautiful when he laughed and Orlando wanted nothing more then to cause that reaction in the man that saved his life. If things had been a little different, Orlando would have gratefully become Karl's slave.
Everything he was, he owed to Karl.
And he hadn't even been able to see him falling apart.
Thankfully, before he had a chance to think too much on it, he was able to snag a servant who wasn't too busy, and get directions to Karl's rooms. He wasn't too far from them, and with a purposeful stride that he hoped attracted very little attention. The last thing he wanted now was for some dignitary to take an interest in him.
Orlando didn't pause to knock, both wanting to give Karl no time to hide within himself, and no chance for Orlando to talk himself out of being here. Blessedly the rooms were empty, the door almost completely muffling out the sounds of the celebration out side. They were neat and ordered, like Orlando had always thought Karl to be, simple with no lavish trimmings. He moved slowly through them, taking the calm and centring himself. Even Karl's rooms had the effect on him that the man did.
Karl was found when Orlando stood in the entrance to the bedroom. He sat at the head of the divan, his bare back pressed against the wall and his clothed legs pressed tight against his chest with his face buried into his crossed arms. His braided hair clung to his body, starting to unravel so that the free strands floated around his head in the still air.
Orlando moved into the room, his foot falls quiet against the tiles but he could see Karl stiffen. He knew he could feel him in the room. Sitting on the edge of the bed, close but not enough to touch unless he reached out. Karl didn't look at him.
"Please talk to me."
Orlando let the silence go on for a little while before he clung to the base of Karl's trousers, feeling him start against the contact, though he didn't shift away. "Please Karl."
The noise he made broke what little restraint Orlando had and he moved, pulling Karl's arms, bodily forcing his legs to move till he could straddle his lap. Digging his fingers into the Captain's hair, the action dragging his tawny eyes up. His hands stayed at his sides while he looked up at Orlando.
"I hurt Jared."
"I know," Orlando whispered, "tell me why."
"I am afraid you won't understand," Karl chocked on his words. "I don't deserve you Orlando, you shouldn't be here."
"Let me decide that. Tell me." Orlando lent forward, pressing his lips against Karl's, feeling him shiver against the touch. "Trust me, please."
For a moment all that could be heard was their breaths mingling together then Karl's eyes closed and his taunt body relaxed. He curved around Orlando, hands clinging to his hips, head resting against the pulse at the base of Orlando's neck. Orlando began to unravel the rest of his hair so that his fingers could sooth his scalp.
"My Father is a slave trader. I was brought up knowing I would one day work beside him. He specialised taking in problem slaves, slaves who didn't know there place, and then breaking them in. He never had any qualms in killing the slaves who would not break, they were unusable to him if they had any spirit left." Orlando could feel him shaking as the halted words began to pour out. "The things he made me do from the moment I could walk... it would make me sick for days afterwards. He always said I would get over my weakness, but I never did."
"Just before I left him, my Father received a group of pleasure slaves from a conquered Lord. They were pampered and spoilt; they were use to sitting beside their Lord and being treated fairly. They had forgotten they were slaves. I foolishly fell in love with one."
The fingers against his hips tightened reflectively but Orlando didn't protest, holding Karl all the tighter.
"Diya was perfect, I had never had one person in my life that made me feel as he did. I needed no more convincing that my Father's life was not for me so I made plans to leave, and take Diya with me. Somehow, my Father knew what I was doing, and he knew I had feelings for one of his new slaves. There were five of them, a mix of women and men. He." a deep shuddering breath, "I had to break them. But I could break none of them to his satisfaction. So he had me kill them. But Diya, Diya I couldn't kill. My father had me beaten while he slit his throat. Diya drowned in his own blood."
Orlando held him as Karl clung desperately to him. It took a long time for Karl to talk again and Orlando was sure his skin would never be dry of the tears they shed against it.
"I don't know if he expected me to still run after that, but I know he didn't chase me. I wandered for years before coming to Aqaba and into the Caliph's service. Jared. Jared reminds me of Diya, they look so alike, even there spirits are the same."
Orlando kissed the top of Karl's head, his behaviour towards the other boy making sense. He wasn't angry with Jared, but with himself, and with the demons that plagued him for what he had been made to do as a young man. "Then why did you hurt him, Karl?" There was more to it.
"The day I," he had trouble forming the words against Orlando's skin, "I raped him I had found who had sold Sean to the auction house. My Father had Sean before he came here." He lifted his head, haunted eyes staring at the boy he had watch grow. "Sean doesn't talk of the nightmares he has, but I know what my Father would have done to him. The same things he had taught me to do as a babe. Then Jared came in, looking as Diya did, and I was that boy again, with my father shouting in my ear and I."
Orlando swallowed, the tears making it hard to see his face. To think Karl carried this with him his whole life. It was no wonder Orlando had to work so hard to make him smile.
"Your Prince has every right to turn me away. How can I be allowed anywhere near you or the other boys when I am the monster my father created?"
Orlando kissed him, the tears making their lips slide against each other. He poured everything into Karl, his love and fear, his adoration and anxiety. All of it, with his fingers digging into Karl's hair, pulling himself closer, as if he could crawl inside this man he loved.
"You have to tell them," he whispered against his lips when he broke away, "you can't keep this from them, Karl. They love you, and they will understand." He ran his fingers over the skin, mapping the lines of Karl's face. "And they will forgive. Jared will as well."
Karl kissed him this time, a little desperate, his body clinging to the boy above him. Fresh tears washing away the last of his doubts. Putting Diya to rest peacefully inside his heart.
"Will you stand with me?"
Orlando smiled, holding him tight, "forever, love."
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go to PART 78