Page 8 of Dead Crown
He’d been through far worse and lived. He could do it again. Survival was a talent.
What irony the Prince had done what Lumi planned to do to someone else, although without violence.
Somehow, he managed to grab his coat as he crawled, although the fabric was insubstantial in his numb fingers. A faint bitterness remained in his mouth as he managed to stand and make his way back out to the courtyard on legs that were barely there. He paused for a moment in the open air.
Even though the lands were dying, nothing quite matched what passed for dawn in that part of the realm near the Winter Solstice. The nights grew longer, and it was pure dark outsidebefore midafternoon. The sun started to creep up around five or so in the morning, and while it tried, it never went as high as it did in spring and summer.
The sky was dark blue with a golden glow to one side as the sun struggled to make its way. Surely, the sky never looked the same anywhere else. It wouldn’t even dare to try. The gentle lightening of the blue to clear to gold was perfection, and where the dark still reigned, stars twinkled, ready to die and give up as the sun’s light eclipsed them.
While the crops were less, the Tree dulled, the hunting lessened, and the Crown was dead, the sky followed the same pattern and could always be depended on day after day, season after season.
It was the one thing Lumi could trust. It had looked the same years ago when he learned how painful the dawn could be, and new beginnings could be a prolonged, agonizing end to everything before. It was the same sky he’d seen above him for days on end while the weight crushed him, and he’d learned how pain was a reward.
His chest tightened as he stumbled to his left. He just had to let the cold in and numb his mind too. It was another talent.
He went past the hall where the King’s rooms were. The guards on either side of his doors said nothing as he wobbled by the open archway to the hall. He went by a few more open halls, through a side garden, and inside to a corridor. Even without the wind and the slightly warmer air, the cold seemed to tighten its grasp as he went up a set of stairs. His hands could barely manage the doorknob of his room.
The small space was for him. He sank to his knees in front of the dead fire. Even fires didn’t last as long anymore, and they used to go for a whole day without being fed. Elira had made it so.
He managed to toss in a few logs before summoning fire from his hand. At least he had that for the time being. Even though pleasure slaves could break the contract and leave whenever they pleased, sometimes, their owners liked to make them wear a collar with lirek at all times.
It was just a show of their mastery over the slave by repressing their magic. King Elswere hadn’t done that, and Lumi’s plain leather collar wasn’t even locked. He could take it off to bathe or sleep in his room, and he had to wear it if he went out. It was a term in his contract since Elswere liked the look of a collared man even though his dick could barely get hard anymore.
He was sure his fingers couldn’t handle the silver buckle now, so he didn’t bother. It was hard enough to remove his clothes. Once he was finally bare, he dragged his blanket from the bed, swaddled himself in it, and curled up in front of the fire as it crackled. For a moment, he almost wished he could scorch himself with his own magic as the cold seemed to come from his core.
He shivered and dozed as the room warmed, and his frozen bits stung. Once he didn’t feel so bad, he forced himself to his basin. In the looking glass above it, he noticed the scrape on his temple from when his head had been introduced to the floor. The rest of him was pale, and his grey hair was messed up. He plucked a piece of blanket fuzz from one of his black ears and froze as he remembered how they ended up that way.
He clutched the edges of the basin as he forced away thoughts threatening to rise. That time didn’t exist. This was him now, and he had to focus on the matter at hand.
If the Prince tried to pry things from him and failed, he wouldn’t give up so easily. Somehow, he suspected or knew something. How and why was a mystery.
The best thing for Lumi to do was to pretend he was ignorant and knew nothing. He was a pleasure slave and nothing morethan high-class entertainment for those who liked to hear a tale or a poem before they used one end or both.
To run or act differently meant he had something to hide. In that case, it must be worth prying from him, and he couldn’t allow that.
He washed himself the best he could and applied cream to the scrape. Sleep was what he needed so he could go out later and do what he did best.
***
When he entered the Hall for dinner that night, attired in black with silver trim, he wore his usual smile. The court physician had gotten rid of the scrape, and a little powder hid the dark shadows under his eyes. As though nothing had happened and his whole life wasn’t a farce, Lumi headed for one of the round tables with a huge smile. It was easy to make an old lady blush and giggle with a few well-chosen compliments about her eyes.
Lumi remembered a lot of things he heard from the courtiers, and he tucked those little bits in his mind. When he asked a lady about her first child’s marriage, she gushed about her daughter being pregnant. Six more months and they’d have a new member of the family. In those few moments, she must have thought she was special because he remembered. He must also care since he asked.
Once the food started to come out, he went up to the High Table and slunk right into Prince Jaki’s lap like nothing happened last night.
Prince Jaki showed no surprise as Lumi smiled up at him and spoke in a low voice. “If you wanted to know all of my worst fears, what humiliates me most, or whatever you want, you have but to ask, my Prince. It seems truth resin makes me sick, but if that’s what you like, you could tie me down, and we’ll pretend.”
“And you’ll give me pretend honesty?” asked Prince Jaki.
“Not to you.”
“What’s your worst fear?”
“That one day, I’ll be older, and no one will want to fuck me. Who wants an old pleasure slave? Hm? I’ll have to get a job like any commoner. No one will think I’m clever or worthy of thought even if it’s only for my ass.”
Prince Jaki raised an eyebrow. “That’s what you are now. A commoner with a job.”
“No, I’m a commoner allowed to serve at the court. That's not quite the same in my eyes.”
