Sandstorm (48 page)

“So you would not miss it if you were moved further inland?”

“…No, Majesty.” Beynum looked at him in confusion, sensing that the conversation was more
than the curiosity of the King.

“What, precisely, are your crimes?”

Beynum’s grin returned. “Stealing; selling stolen goods. I think the captain wished I’d been a
bit more bloodthirsty, but I find knocking a man out is healthier for me than killing him.”
Shah heard Nanda make a noise that was a mix of amusement and exasperation. It would
be entertaining to see how the ever-serious Nanda got along with the more carefree
Beynum. “So no family, no great crimes to dismiss…any other attachments, Beynum?”
Beynum shook his head slowly, as if unsure he wanted to give that response. “None,
Majesty.”

“Excellent. My father quite enjoyed the fights into which his own harem often got. I think he
liked how much they fought for his attention. I do not hold with such things.” He stood up and
walked toward Beynum. “Nanda is my only so far; you will be the second. I expect you to be
a team. Is that clear?”

“H—“ Beynum shook his head, blindly standing up as Shah bid, and never got to finish his
sentence as the King leaned up to kiss him – hard, possessively, and not knowing how to
back away from a challenge Beynum was returning it before he had a chance to comprehend
anything beyond that he was being kissed.

Shah broke the kiss and stepped away, holding out a hand and bringing forward Nanda.

“This is Nandakumar. I expect you to get along.”

Beynum shook his head, then looked at Nanda, examining him as thoroughly the second
time as he had the first. “Get along how?”

This time Shah laughed, and he could see that Nanda was smiling. “Do you object, Beynum
my pirate, to joining my harem?”

“No…” Beynum looked at Shah. “I think you’re crazy, Majesty. But you won’t find me
objecting.”

“Palace is going to be filled to the brim. People will be spilling out of their rooms.” Beynum leaned on the balcony ledge, watching the crowd being herded through the wide front courtyard and into the palace.

Long, thin fingers traced the edge of his tattoo, and then Nanda was leaning over his shoulder, humming idly in thought. “Shah will have no free time while they’re all here. We’ll have to see if we can hide him from time to time.”

Bey laughed. “That shouldn’t be too hard.” He shifted his gaze from the crowd to where the King stood watching everything, arms folded across his chest, mouth turned down in pensive frown as he listened to the men talking and arguing around him. “So what precisely happened?”

Nanda moved to stand next to him, folding his arms on the ledge and leaning over to get a better look. “A storm. That close to the coast, it was bound to happen eventually. Though if I recall correctly, this is the first one of such magnitude in some years.” More than a few of the people who happened to glance up continued to stare as long as they could, eager to get a good look at the men on the balcony who could only be members of the King’s harem. “Guess we’ll be bloated for a bit, then. But at least it looks like a good number of them survived it.”

“Maybe half, or so the early estimates are reporting.”

Bey grimaced. “I stand corrected. Poor Shah.”

“Poor everyone,” Nanda said dryly. “Give it a week and this place will be thick with hostility.” Bey clapped him on the back. “Then I guess you’d better brush off a few of your happier tunes and keep them too busy dancing to fight.”

“And what are you going to be doing then?” Nanda demanded, stepping out of range.

“Laugh at you of cou…” Bey drifted off and leaned further over the balcony. “It couldn’t be.” He shook his head. “I think I’m seeing things.”

Nanda just looked at him.

“I could have sworn I saw my mother.”

“Possible, I suppose.” Nanda smirked. “But personally I think Aik just got you good this morning.”

Bey smirked, incident forgotten. “How would you know? You stay in bed longer than a court woman out all night with a man she isn’t married to.”

“At least I was never the man they snuck off to see,” Nanda replied tartly, abandoning the balcony to return to the cooler air inside, the long tail of his hair swinging back and forth behind him, secured by a series of dark red ribbons.

Laughing loudly enough to draw the attention of several from the crowd below, Bey followed Nanda back inside. “Do you want me to bring up the rumors about you?”

“Try and see what happens to you.”

Bey just grinned. “You love challenging me, don’t you?”

“You’re going to keep the Queen waiting if you don’t hurry up.”

“Is it that late already? Drat it – I’ll get you later then.” Bey darted forward suddenly, grabbed Nanda by the waist and hauled him close for a quick kiss. “Stay out of trouble while I’m gone, Nanda.”

Nanda fought a smile. “Trouble goes with you, always. Now get.” Laughing, Beynum let him go and headed for the door. “Then enjoy your peace and quiet while it lasts!” He was still laughing as he made his way through the hallways, towards the private courtyard where the Queen would be waiting.

“Beynum! Is that you? Beynum!”

Bey froze in the middle of the intersecting hallways as the sharp, biting voice washed over him. He looked down the hallway packed with villagers still waiting for rooms to be made available, stunned to see the small, thin woman shoving through the crowd toward him. Her eyes were still as sharp as a fine dagger.

“It is you. And just look at you!” She said it like he was fifteen again, good clothes covered in sand torn to shreds after he’d gotten into a fight with the village chief’s son. Or at least they’d always let her think it had only been fighting.

He drew back as she reached out to touch him. “Mother,” he said again, voice level. “It’s good to see you’re doing well.”

“Pah! No thanks to you.” She folded her arms across her flat chest and glared at him. “Told me you’d come back, and now I find you living the fancy life here in the palace. Ever spare me a thought?”

“I did return home, mother.” Bey mimicked her stance. “Imagine my surprise to learn that you’d run off with the sheep herder.”

“Because I was tired of being abandoned! First my useless husband, and then my equally useless son.”

Bey rolled his eyes. There was no point in arguing with her. He’d learned that long ago.

“But I guess you wouldn’t be too interested in your poor old mother when you’ve got all this.

How’d you manage it?” The expression made her opinion on the matter quite clear.

Honestly. Bey rolled his eyes again. “It’s good to see you’re doing well, mother. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m busy.”

“That’s all you have to say? Get back here! Right now!”

“I’m not the one who ran away, am I mother? I promised I’d return home. When I did, I came with gold, silk and those cinnamon nuts you like so much.” Bey looked over his shoulder.

“And you weren’t there. Goodbye, Mother.” Bey left her standing in the hallway and continued on toward the waiting Queen.

*~*~*~*

“Thank you, Beynum.” The Queen smiled at him. “Your presence does more for my safety than a dozen guards.”

“Always an honor, Queen.” Beynum bowed. “To put my uncouth ways to noble use. A good day to you and yours.” He bowed again, this time to three harem women standing nearby, then left them outside the doors to their rooms and took a rambling route back to his own.

An uproar made him pause as he passed by one of the smaller courtyards, filled with people who would ordinarily not fill that section of the palace. Men gambling, drinking. Women playing games of their own, drinking nearly as much. He let his eyes roam, quickly finding his mother in the crowd. Found that he hadn’t forgotten all the signs, and that she was drinking but not yet drunk.

He left before she could chance to look up and see him. But at least if she was drinking, she wouldn’t be doing much else. He wondered what poor man would have to deal with her later that night, heartily glad that it was no longer him.

Banishing thoughts of her, Beynum focused on lunch, which he had not been able to eat while he was out with the Queen. Should have eaten before he left, but watching the people arrive had distracted him.

The rooms were empty when he reached them, but a glance into the garden area revealed that someone was enjoying lunch outside.

“What put a frown on your face?” Aik asked as Beynum joined him.

Beynum sat and began helping himself to Aik’s lunch. “I’m hungry, that’s what.”

“I see. Have you heard about tonight?”

“No,” Bey replied. “I was keeping the Queen company while she was outside. Only returned just now.”

Aik moved his food out of Bey’s reach. “Call for your own food.”

“I want your food.” Bey leaned up and stretched across the table, snatched the plate away and set it in front of him.

Aik made a face. “Pirate.”

“Monk.”

“Funny,” Aik said with a grin that still had a shred of his old shyness in it, though not much of it. “I don’t think monks are allowed to do what I was doing to Witcher last night.” Bey sucked thoughtfully on a piece of dark red fruit, the juice staining his lips. He contemplated Aik. “Oh? And just what did you do?”

“Should I tell you or show you?”

Shoving the plate aside, Bey licked his lips. “How much time before we do whatever you still have to tell me about?”

“Not until dinner. Shah’s throwing a banquet.”

“Then show and tell me. I’m a pirate; we can be slow about these things.” Aik smirked and pushed the table out of the way. “I’ll go very very slowly.”

*~*~*~*

Dinner normally was held in the grand hall. To welcome and comfort the displaced villagers taking refuge in their palace, Shah and his Queen had arranged for a massive banquet, complete with all the entertainment they could muster.

Dressed in fine silk dyed a pure, rich black, decorated with gleaming gold, the royal harems drew more eyes than even the royal couple. The King, Queen and the seven men and women of their harems were around the main table, sitting around it in disordered, casual fashion.

Bey laughed as he teased back and forth with a member of the Queen’s harem. The table erupted in laughter and he reached for more wine.

But the laughter faded into the background as he looked up and his eyes landed on a woman in the crowd. One who was staring straight at him, waiting in stony silence. Showing no reaction, Bey merely sipped his wine and then leaned into Shah, beside whom he sat, and murmured in his ear. “The small woman, staring.”

Shah showed no reaction, merely sipped the wine that Bey held up for him. But he gave a minute nod.

“Have her escorted away. She’ll cause trouble.”

Bey drew the shallow wine dish back to his own lips as Shah finished, and drank from the same spot, finishing the wine. Beside him, Shah motioned for a guard and spoke quietly. His fingers drifted up and down Bey’s spine.

Minutes later the banquet hall went quiet as a woman began to shout and snarl and fight the guards that were trying to quietly drag her away. Shah frowned and motioned, and the guards ceased trying to be nice. One clapped a hand over her mouth, and secured her arms, dragging her out with another to assist as she kicked and fought.

“That’s going to be an interesting story,” Shah murmured quietly.

Bey laughed and poured more wine as the talking and laughing resumed.

When the banquet finally wound to an end, Bey walked with Nanda while the others escorted the Queen to her chamber’s.

“So you did see your mother,” Nanda said quietly.

Bey made a face but did not reply.

“You don’t really look like her.”

“For which I was always grateful,” Bey said with a grin. “I think that’s part of the reason she was always so hard on me. Too much of a reminder, me, of what she scared off. I’d be upset at losing me too, if I was her.”

Nanda rolled his eyes, but his reply was prevented by the arrival of the others.

“So, Beynum my pirate.” Shah folded his arms across his chest and stared at Bey with mild amusement. “Should I ask what you did to anger her so?”

“So quick to assume I did something,” Bey made a face. “That was my mother if you must know.”

Shah’s amusement faded and he let his arms drop as he closed the space between them.

His hands landed on Bey’s waist, fingers and thumb stroking tight muscle. He looked up, frowning. “Why were you so concerned?”

“My mother is a shrew. She wasn’t too pleased to see me so comfortably situated here when she’s still a ‘mere’ peasant.” A grin. “I didn’t think she’d kick up a fuss until I saw her glaring at me. To be honest, I thought she’d find a way to get drunk long before the banquet.” Shah shook his head and leaned up to give Bey a quick, hard kiss. “You should have said something sooner. That incident could have been far worse than it was.” Bey nodded, burying his fingers in Shah’s thick short hair to hold his head in place as he kissed his King deeply. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t think much on it.”

“You didn’t think much on your mother?” Nanda asked from the corner where he was allowing Aik to help bind his hair for sleeping. “After you’ve not seen her in all this time?” Shrugging, Bey released Shah’s head to hold him in a loose embrace. “I don’t think much on the past. It doesn’t interest me. She was my present and future for a long time. Then it was the ship. Now it’s here, so that’s all I think on. She chose to give up on me, for no good reason, and ran off with the first man she could fool. Doesn’t interest me anymore. I should have realized sooner she could be a problem, but that’s as far as my concern in regards to her goes.”

Moving behind him, Shah traced the lines of the tattoo spread across Bey’s back.

“No regrets to keep you up at night, pirate?” Witcher asked lazily from where he was stretched out on Shah’s low bed.

Bey grinned. “None. I make my decisions and don’t look back. Too much in front of me to waste time with what’s behind me.” He started laughing. “Well, some things behind me are worth looking back for.” Spinning around he captured Shah, pinning the chuckling King to the wall.