"Of Princes And Slaves"
Part 5
by Osiris Brackhaus & Beryll
- Ardeth Bey (Oded Fehr) -
Waking up to darkness and a warm, breathing form next to me, for a moment I was confused as to where I was. For a long, sweet moment I thought I was lying in my tent, surrounded by the safety of my tribe with the presence of a beautiful slave girl in my arms to kiss me and smile at me when she woke.
But there was to much light for the confines of a tent and the body next to me smelled all wrong, triggering fear instead of longing.
It was the prince, having sneaked into my bed, now cuddling next to me as if I was his favorite lap dog. And to my disgust I realized that not only had he thrown an arm over my chest but somehow he had also managed to wrap one of my arms around himself. Or maybe I had even done so myself in sleep. Did he have no respect for privacy at all?
Had I been more awake I might have realized there was no privacy to be had for a slave but my muddled mind just considered strangling him to teach the lesson.
Then a small sound intruded into my sleep-fogged attention and suddenly I knew that it had not been the prince's presence that had woken me up. It was the sound of footsteps, almost inaudible naked feet on stone floor trying very hard to be quiet. No, not trying to be quiet but sneaking and that had wakened my warrior's instinct. Nobody was supposed to be sneaking around here.
I opened my eyes without moving, carefully scanning the room for movement. The stars shed some light through the high windows illuminating enough of the prince's chamber for me to notice the two dark figures slowly approaching the prince's bed from opposite directions. And they were most certainly sneaking, moving in a low crouch, hiding something that would have glinted had it caught the light in their sleeves.
They were so intent on the bed that they didn't notice when I quietly disentangled myself from the prince and got up from my pallet. There was no cover to use on my own way over to the bed so I would have to hope, I would be fast enough so they wouldn't know I was there before it was to late.
Silently I cursed the fact that I was unarmed. I would have to take one of them down with my first move or my chances would be slim, still wounded as I was. On completely soundless feet I started towards the bed. Might be they were well versed in sneaking but they had never been taught to walk silently on the ever whispering sands of the desert. The stone floor did not really present a challenge to me.
They reached the bed before me, both bending over it from their respective sides, searching for their prey. Only when they did not find it, did they raise their heads again in a startled movement and scanned the rooms for the whereabouts of their quarry.
But I had reached the bed myself and hid in it's shadow. They were communicating with signs but I did not wait for them to finish. One quick move brought me behind one of them. The other would have to circle around the bed to get at me. Hopefully that would give me the time to finish the first.
His head was clean shaven so that gave me no hair to grab him, but I still managed to get a firm hold of him and then simply slammed his head forward with all force. It connected with the bedframe with a satisfying 'thud'. His arms flayed helplessly, dazzled but not unconcious yet. I had time to slam him down once more before his comrade was around the bed and lunged at me with the knife he had now drawn from his sleeve.
I dodged the first thrust of the knife and moved backward to assess my opponent. He was much smaller than me and of slight build, but he moved with the speed of a striking snake, following me immediately, slashing his knife in an upward motion that would have opened my belly had I not kept moving.
He pressed forward relentlessly, driving me back towards the line of columns and the stream. He was incredibly fast but slowly I was seeing the pattern in his moves and could anticipate them. Thrust forward, slash upward, slash downward, backhanded thrust, slash at the legs, thrust upward. Obviously he did not consider me a worthy opponent for he never varied his moves.
So he was extremely surprised, when I suddenly lunged forward after his upward slash and caught his arm in the down-movement, catching his knife hand in a firm grip. I drew him close to me, crushing the wrist of his hand in my grip as hard as I could. He gave a strangled cry and did as I had hoped - he dropped the knife. Now we were on more even terms.
But he was not willing to give up that easily. His kick into my stomach caught me by surprise and my grip on him loosened. His eyes searched for the glimmer of his knife but I did not allow him the time to find it, punching him into the face with my free hand. Both of us stumbled backward, when he lost his balance and tripped in the stream, that we had reached now.
He came to lie beneath me and I did the simple thing. I pressed his head under water to drown him. His arms flayed wildly but I put all of my weight between his shoulders and slowly he was going still.
I kept him under for a bit longer to make sure he was truly dead, when a voice intruded into my actions. "What are you doing...?"
I looked over to my pallet to find the prince awake, staring over at me in sleepy confusion. "Nothing, my prince." The answer came so quickly I had really no idea where it had come from. Still keeping the head of the assassin firmly under water I stared back at him, silently willing him to go back to sleep.
"You are drowning someone..." he complained, sounding more annoyed at the fact of being woken up than by my actions.
"They were trying to kill you." I explained bluntly.
"Oh." the prince rubbed his sleepy eyes and then sank back down onto the pallet. "Well, keep one alive for questioning." he ordered and then went back to sleep.
To say it was eerie would have been an understatement. I had just saved his life and he simply went back to sleep. And then it hit me. I HAD saved his life. Why in the name of all my ancestors had I done that? Was I going completely out of my mind? There was absolutely no sensible reason why I should protect the evil creature who had tormented me so and taken my life and my honor. But the simple truth was that I had not been awake enough to consider what I was doing. My instincts just had taken over.
And now I was in a fine mess. By saving the prince's life I was now partially responsible for all he would do from this day on. I had given him the breath to continue his life so his actions were my actions as well. I kicked the dead assassin hard. Stupid wrench! Couldn't he have come in a night where the prince slept in his own bed? Then he would still be alive and the prince would be dead.
But that would have presented me with other problems. Like facing charges of having murdered the prince myself. I did not even want to dwell on the method of execution that would have brought down on me. Not to mention that I would have lost any chance to change my fate back to a brighter future. No, even if I had had the time to consider my actions I would probably have done the same. Not for the prince but for myself.
I dragged the dead body out of the stream and let it lie there. The guards would find something useful to do with it in the morning, I was sure. Then I went over to the bed to check, if the other one was still alive or if I had cracked his skull. Luckily he was still breathing, albeit shallowly. Not my problem. He had said alive, not unharmed. I sat down on the bed and ripped one of his linen blankets into long stripes and tied the assassin with them, leaving him lying face down on the bed.
For a long moment I just sat there next to him, massaging my aching wound. To much movement to quickly. I really needed to take up my training again of I would get stiff.
With a yawn I went back to my pallet. It was still the middle of the night. Still some hours of sleep. It would be interesting to watch, how the prince would react when he was awake. I lay down again, this time keeping a careful distance from my uninvited guest, but I could have spared myself the trouble. The moment I got comfortable and started drifting off to sleep, the prince turned around in his sleep, snuggling close to me, resting his head against my chest.
With a defeated sigh I wrapped an arm around him. Obviously there was no fighting him. At least not when he was asleep.
----
- Prince Nekhem (Orlando Bloom) -
"Don't panic, my Prince! We will rescue you!"
My mind numb with sleep and happiness I struggled hard to make sense of what Senem-Nef's voice said to me.
"And you, bastard, don't you dare to move or we will skewer you like the wild boar you are!"
Still my captain's words didn't make sense to me, but his constant rambling prevented me from going back into the sweet dreams it had called me from.
"Senem-Nef. Stop it. Let me sleep."
Drowsy as I was, I pulled the heavy arm I felt across my shoulder closer to my chest, annoyed by the wary resistance I felt in it. Was there no way a prince could get a decent sleep in this palace?
Frowning with annoyance, I tried to open my eyes, only to blink in irritation at the tip of a sword I saw mere fingers away from my nose.
Instantly, I was awake, scanning the room around me without
moving. I found not only Senem-Nef in front of my bed, but also a whole cluster
of guards, all with their swords drawn, all staring at me ferociously.
Well, on a second thought, two corrections to that: First, it was not my bed
I was lying in, but the pallet of my slave, and second, they were staring
at him with barely veiled threat, as if trying to protect me from some unnamed
evil.
"My Prince", Senem-Nef started once more, "If you move carefully, he'll not be able to harm you!"
Again frowning with confusion, I tried to make sense of my captain's warning. Who would harm me? My barbarian slave? What a stupid idea.
Completely ignoring the whole set of swords pointing at us, I turned around to see if my slave posed any threat to me. And, as expected, only found my confusion and annoyance mirrored in his beautiful face.
Turning back my attention to my over-protective captain and his men, I said:
"Senem-Nef, you are captain of my guard and my most trusted soldier. Your loyalty to me is beyond praise, but right now, you're acting like a toothless crone with no more wits left in her mind than to insult everyone you meet."
Blustering with indignation, the large Nubian put on an expression even more stern, explaining with grave importance:
"My Lord Prince, he has killed two men with his bare hands tonight, and now he has taken you captive. Are you out of your mind to ignore the danger you are in?"
"The only danger I see here, my dear captain, are you and your men."
In a way, it was fun to have them misunderstand the evidence they must have found in my room this morning. Of course, the truth was so far from anything one might have expected that I could not really blame them. But none the less, dear Senem-Nef was making a fool of himself right now.
"Dear Senem-Nef", I said with my desert warrior's arm still wrapped tightly around me, "of those men you mention, he killed only one."
Confusion spread in the soldiers' faces, and I seized the moment to slip out of my barbarian's embrace, stand up from the pallet and wrap the linen sheet around me in a single, flowing motion.
"And I do not see he captivated me in any way I did not desire."
Leaving the flimsy cloth open long enough for even the last
soldier to understand I was wearing nothing else, I inwardly cackled with
glee at the confused looks they shot between me and my now-uncovered slave.
I really was in a dramatic mood this morning, for I boldly stepped between
the soldiers, forcing them to let me pass towards my bed, exclaiming pointedly:
"These men you talk of, dear captain, were assassins, sent here to kill your prince, and it is only by the brave intervention of this very slave you are still threatening with you weapons drawn that I am among the living this morning."
Stepping up the pedestal of my own bed, I turned around to glare at my soldiers.
"I cannot remember anyone of you to have been here tonight, when my life was at risk."
Staring down every single one of them took me a while, but
finally, all of them sheathed their swords, their eyes cast down in proper
acceptance of their failure. My slave, all but forgotten by the soldiers,
still rested on his pallet, observing the scene in front of him with undisguised
fascination.
Even Senem-Nef bowed his head to me, but I was not yet finished with them.
"It is not to me that you have to bow in apology, it is to my slave who did your very duty last night. And more than that, he has left one of the fiends alive to be questioned by you. For my prolonged health."
Slightly confused, the soldiers looked from me to the neatly packed-up prisoner on my bed to my barbarian on his pallet and back to me again, completely at a loss of what to do with this strange situation. What a funny display.
Finally, it was Senem-Nef who gathered his wits first, turning to me, bowing once more, saying:
"Please accept my apologies for failing you, my Highness. I praise the gods to have offered you this unexpected protection, and I will personally make sure that the surviving assassin will hand us all necessary information."
"Of course you will, dear captain", I said as friendly and forgiving as I could. stepping down on the same level as my soldiers again. "I trust you, and you know that just as well as I know that no-one is free of failures. I do blame neither you nor your soldiers for last night's attack on my life, I only trust you with the swift discovery of the assassins' employer."
Putting my hand gently on the huge Nubian's shoulder, I inclined my head in a gesture of respect, and then dismissed both Senem-Nef and the soldiers with another nod. Carefully, I made sure that they carried out both the dead and the captured assassin, before I turned my attention to my barbarian slave.
He was stilly lying on his pallet, raised onto one of his
elbows for support, looking at me with an expression that might have been
amusement just as well as not.
Now what was I to think of him? He showed no real sign of respect, not even
an attempt of meekness, and yet he had saved my life tonight.
"Now what am I to make of that?", I asked, more to myself than to anybody else in the room, staring at my slave ponderously.
And this arrogant bastard just stared back! Smiling politely,
almost meekly, yes, but he stared back at me!
Of course, as soon as he noticed me noticing him, he cast his eyes down, intently
observing the ground underneath my feet. One of these days, this bloody slave
would drive me mad.
"One moment you say you hate me", I started, "the next you safe my life in danger of your own. I know I should give you a token of my gratitude now - but, by the gods, I have no idea why you did so."
And I couldn't trust him. However much I was besotted with
this barbarian, there was no denying the fact he defeated two armed men with
his bare hands tonight, even with his shoulder only partially healed. He was
a dangerous warrior, still, and no laws or shackles would change that.
It made me nervous to know such a skilled warrior of doubtful loyalties in
my immediate vicinity. I had even slept in his bed tonight, cuddled in his
arms!
And yet - he had fought for my life.
In addition, he was devastatingly handsome, once the grime
had been washed off his body, and to know he was not a meek toy only increased
his appeal.
Was it too dangerous a game I was playing here? My wild, barbarian warrior
was definitely a goal worth of some effort, yet I was unsure if the prize
I would have to pay might not be far too high.
I hated situations when I could not make up my mind!
But what had the priestess of our Lady Isis said to me? Follow your heart, and your actions will be within the will of the gods. All right, then, it doesn't make much sense to me, but I would try.
"I am supposed to offer you a gift, but I think we both know that the only gift you would accept from my hands is the one thing I am not willing to give you."
His freedom. I could see it in his eyes, even if he tried to keep them down. He despised being a slave, being here, everything around him. Maybe even me.
"You have reminded me of how foolish it is to trust you so, and yet, in the same action, have given me more reason to trust you than ever before. If there is something you would like me to give to you for your honorable deed tonight, please say so. If not, I'll see if I find something suitable on my own."
That sounded almost like a threat, and I could not really bring myself to suppress a smile. Never before I had been in such a strange situation, but I felt happy, nonetheless. Not that I could really retrace why, but I couldn't bring myself to bother.
With a dismissing nod in the direction of my fiercely handsome slave, I turned around and began to step down towards the pool, intend on getting myself cleansed and dressed at least partially according to custom. But when my feet just touched the still surface of the tiny lake, I had an idea of at least a small token of gratitude I could offer my desert warrior. Quite unfitting to be given to a slave by a prince of the realm, but it just felt like the right thing to do.
So I turned around to him once more, and in a voice loud enough to be clearly heard in all my room, I said:
"Oh yes, slave, one last thing."
Interesting to see how he stared at me. Was it because he had thought I already had forgotten this subject or that I was wearing not one bit of clothing right now? Silently, I wished for the later, and added mirthfully:
"Thank you."
----
- Ardeth Bey (Oded Fehr) -
To hear him thank me was a strange experience. The first moment I thought he was mocking me. His tone was mirthful enough to believe that. But in his eyes sparkled something that was not just enjoyment of the humiliation he had heaped onto his guards and of making fun of me. There was also a deeper happiness that told me that he was truly grateful.
He could not be stupid enough to believe that I had saved his life because he was near my heart. But obviously he had decided that I was not an immediate danger either.
He would have been better off listening to his guard's captain. My estimate of his intelligence would have risen tremendously, had he decided to have me killed on the spot. I would have done it, were our places exchanged. But being dead would have been a major downside.
With a wry grin to myself I realized that I was beginning to find humor in my wretched situation. As the prince immersed himself in water I sat up and stretched my arms and legs. With him sleeping half on top of me I had not been able to move much and my wound was starting to itch. A sure sign that it was healing well. I should definitely start training.
I watched the prince get dressed and painted by his other slaves and wondered, if I should ask permission to leave. Either he would think I was mocking him again, like I had done the previous evening when we had been gaming, or he would start to believe that I was turning into a loyal slave. Both possibilities didn't hold much appeal. It would have been wise to make him believe I was broken and under control. But I could just not bring myself to pretend.
So I just got up and left for the roof to get some movement into my body again. The ladder was still leaning against the wall, but this time I ignored it and instead climbed to the top, using the small carvings and ledges decorating the whole palace.
The moment I reached the top warm desert wind caressed my face and reminded me, why I hated the prince. He had stolen my life and my home. He had used me. He was a vile creature, worshipping evil spirits. I should not start to think even remotely friendly of him. Difficult to accomplish when he had shown me quite a lot of kindness and patience and had so far been genuinely sorry for what he had done to me.
But it was only a question of time till he ran short of patience and would show his arrogance and wickedness, I told myself and started training. First some stretching to warm up and then the ancient, time honored moves of unarmed warfare that I had been taught by my father from the day I reached my fifth summer.
Soon I lost myself in the flowing moves and forgot where I was. The sun was coming up and beating down on my exposed back mercilessly, the wind of the desert was hot in my face and the smell of sand carried even to this roof. It was easy to imagine I was back home. Easy to sink into the grace of movement.
Only when the sun reached it's zenith and the grumbling of my stomach turned to loud to ignore, did I stop. I was all warm and more comfortable with my body again. As if I had made it my own again after it had been taken so brutally and without my consent.
I ended my training with a short prayer to the spirits of the wind to carry notice to my loved ones that I still lived, that I would find a way back to them. I did not dare pray to my ancestors, not wanting to disgrace them with my attention.
--
I had expected to find the prince gone when I returned, after finding myself some food in the palace kitchen. But he was sitting at the gaming board again. Opposite him sat a second man, this one a little older than the prince and of completely different make.
He also wore elaborate dress and make up, but next to him lay a well fashioned short sword and his whole posture showed the easy grace of a trained warrior. Moving quietly I sat down by the stream, not to far away to listen in on their conversation unobserved.
"I do not know how anything like this could come to pass." the prince's guest was just saying. "It is unheard of! I will investigate the matter personally, brother."
So this was the young falcon of the realm. Firstborn son of their living god, the one who would one day wield power over all of their lands. I looked at him curiously and inwardly recoiled from what I found. Not a falcon but a sly snake staring out from flat, black eyes. He was smiling pleasantly now, obviously trying to reassure the prince, but there was a falseness to him that I could just not put my finger on. I wished I had come a little earlier so I would have known what they were talking about.
I needn't have worried, for my prince – as I called him in my mind, not to confuse the two – obliged me nicely. "It would seem that whoever tried to have me killed is more influential then I first gave credit for." he said thoughtfully. "How else would he have been able to have the captive assassin removed before he could be questioned?"
His brother nodded gravely and deep concern showed in his voice when he answered: "Yes, so it would seem. But who could find you a threat?"
But his eyes stayed just as flat and unmoved and it did not escape me that his fingers were fidgeting nervously at the hilt of his sword. Worry about his little brother? Or maybe something else?
"So how did you manage to escape those assassins?" he asked with an edged curiosity that made me shiver. This was a dangerous man. All my senses told me so. How could my prince sit so calmly with a poisonous snake right in his lap? Did he have no sense at all?
He hadn't. "Oh, I have brought back a barbarian slave from the campaign father send me on. He was more observant than my guards and got rid of the assassins nicely."
How could be just expose this asset to a potential enemy? Stupid twit. I tried to move further into the shadow of a column, but both prince's eyes were already roaming the room and both found me easily.
"Come over here, slave!" My prince commanded and I had no choice but to obey. Better to appear really meek and harmless now. His brother would certainly see how dangerous I could be and might use the opportunity to remove me from his game.
I walked over to them with my eyes fixed firmly to the floor, kneeling a pace away from them. I felt the eyes of the prince's brother bore into me like daggers. I did not even have to look up to be sure that there would be an emotion in those eyes now and that it would not be a pleasant one.
"He killed one of the assassins with his bare hands." my prince chattered on, as proud as if he had done it himself. "And he also managed to capture the other one."
"He looks pretty dangerous." his brother observed, steel in his voice.
"Oh well, so my dear Senem-Nef tells me as well but he has not hurt me so far. As I just told you, he even saved my life."
"You would do better not to trust a barbarian." his brother advised, his voice all oily and sweet, "They can turn on you any moment. Believe me, I know the lot. Have fought them often enough. Better have him removed now."
Somehow I had known he would say something like that. It wouldn't have surprised me either, if he had just cut of my head personally.
There was a bit of annoyance in my prince's voice now but he tried to stay polite. "I will consider it." he said but all three of us knew that he would not.
"Look at me, slave!" the prince's brother commanded and I slowly looked up, trying to keep my face completely impassive. The eyes I looked into were flat and emotionless no longer. Hatred and anger burned in them and a seething evil that scared me. This one was definitely worshipping evil spirits.
"If you lay one finger on my brother, I will make you suffer." he said, his fingers twitching again like they were already imagining what he was going to do. "Nekhem is the thing closest to my heart and you will not interfere!"
I managed to nod meekly and lower my eyes again in the process. If my prince was the thing closest to his heart, how far away must everything else be from it? And what a puzzling command. Do not interfere? Suddenly I had a clear idea who had send those assassins, even if I had no idea why.
"You may go, slave." my prince told me gently and I fled them as quickly as pretense allowed. This was a man to fear and I was in absolutely no position to fight him and still had already unwittingly made him my enemy. What more would fate heap on me?
The last thing I heard, before I was out of hearing range was the prince's brother speaking, again all friendly and helpful: "You better leave Theben for a while until I have uncovered who your enemy is and have dealt with him. I will let you know when it is safe to return." As if that would ever happen while he was alive...
If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to: Osiris Brackhaus & Beryll
go to PART 6