Page 49 of Dead Crown
Jaki leaned in while the man reached around as if to grab his rear. One of the women snorted as they slunk off, no doubt to do some squeezing and touching of their own in privacy.
Jaki and the man started to leave together, and they made no effort to be quiet.
“Wine always makes me want to get fucked hard,” said the man.
“Good, because wine makes me want to fuck someone hard,” Jaki said as they passed the bushes from earlier which were quieter except for the rustles of whoever was behind them.
They kept up the little touches and flirting on the way back to Jaki’s rooms. A few courtiers were about since some had tired of the dancing and the noise.
“You can go,” Jaki told the guards near his rooms. “We might get loud.”
The man laughed and leaned in toward Jaki. “There are ways to keep me quiet.”
The guards left without a word. Once they were in the sitting room and the door was shut, Jaki and the man put a respectable distance between them.
“I hope calling people snow angels isn’t your typical line,” Jaki said as he removed his cloak, grateful their little awkward charade was over.
Lord Smith undid the clasp on his. “You wear a lot of white and silver. It’s the first thing that popped into my head.”
“Since you came back, I’m guessing you had no issues.”
“None. Except for the usual woes of traveling long distances.”
Jaki went to the sideboard. “Do you want whiskey or anything?”
“I’d prefer water. I had enough wine at dinner.”
Jaki poured them both a glass of water from a pitcher. Tivar wasn’t the only one who could send a spy.
“He guessed nothing,” said the man. “I was simply one of many to leech off the court.”
Good glamors were quite expensive, and the best came from someone in the Glasswood or Eveningwood Kingdom far to the south. Some said they were in Elysia or southern Cumbershire too. The problem was that the maker, or makers, because no one really knew, kept themselves a secret, and they only sold their work through a string of others. It made sense because with such good glamors, they’d be a target for those who wanted to use them for nefarious purposes.
Supposedly, it took time and a lot of blood from the maker to make a good glamor, and it was a special ability. Not anyone could learn to create one that would last and also change a person’s eye color which was the hardest thing to alter.
Even more difficult was a glamor that could change the wearer in many different ways. Lord Smith had a cousin in West Iceland who was also called Lord Smith, and they hadn’t spoken in ages after the split. Lord Smith had impersonated his western relative.
Jaki sat on the couch opposite of the lord after handing him the water. “Are you sure he noticed nothing?”
“I’m sure. I’ve been to my cousin’s area many times before the Kingdom split, so I could speak of it as if it were my holding. The other courtiers suspected nothing. A couple asked about my stomach issues, and I didn’t know my cousin had developed any problems. I said I’d found a better medicine that seemed to be working.”
Jaki took a deep breath. “And Lumi?”
The lord glanced at him. “He’s alive, and he’s Tivar’s pleasure slave. I saw him a few times. Tivar kept him naked and leashed like a pet.”
Jaki clutched his glass. “How did he seem?”
“Like…” Lord Smith shook his head. “He wasn’t injured or anything, and he didn’t appear scared. He didn’t look as if he were all there either. His treatment seemed to be something he simply accepted like…in the way a prisoner does after a time. Tivar would occasionally get handsy with him, and it…seemed to arouse him.”
“Did he grow flushed?”
“No.”
So being touched and fondled made his body react. The heat would be if he knew sex was coming, and it seemed Tivar didn’t use him in front of others. The fact that he’d acted in such away after being trapped with his older, adoptive brother likely meant years of sexual abuse had taken place. Saying no wasn't an option.
At court, he'd fucked whoever because he’d been expected to by Tivar, and he’d played the role of pleasure slave and entertainer. Fucking had been a job, and he’d said it made him feel like he owned a person in a way afterward.
Perhaps that was how Lumi kept himself together. He lied and lied to himself, and since he was back with his abuser, he simply accepted whatever because he had no other choice. Tivar wouldn’t send Lumi back to get him pregnant or find out more info, so he had to be imagining he’d never leave the place again.
