The Harem Master (37 page)

"You don't know me well enough to have missed me," Demir said quietly.

"That's not for you to decide," Sabah said. "I am sorry for my careless words. Would you please come see Ihsan?"

Demir hesitated, started to refuse, but every time he heard Ihsan's name his stomach clenched and his chest lurched. Maybe seeing him would reinforce all the reasons pining after a prince twelve years his junior was the definition of foolish, especially when he had nothing to offer. He wasn't an assassin, a smart and gentle lord, or a bodyguard. Soon, he would be nothing but a man with skills nobody needed, too old to appeal to anyone who could have the same in a younger man.

"All right," he finally said, but he could not return the smile that Sabah offered him.

He followed Sabah through the halls to Ihsan's room, where four guards in black sashes stood guarding the door. Their eyes widened when they saw Demir. "Harem Master! Welcome home!"

"Thank you," Demir said, casting a look at Sabah, who was technically harem master still. Sabah, however, only looked amused.

"That reminds me, I should return your keys," Sabah said and unwound the gold chain wrapped around his waist. He held them out. "It is good to have you back, Harem Master."

Bemused, Demir fastened the keys around his waist, some of the tension bleeding away to have the familiar weight where it had been every day of his life for so many years.

Nodding to the guards, Sabah led the way into Ihsan's room. It was dark when they entered, only a few candles lit here and there. Ihsan was not in his bed, as Demir had expected, but arranged in a nest of blankets and pillows and cushions in the lounging nook across the room. Kitt and Haluk sat on either side of him.

Kitt broke into a wide grin. "Lord Demir!" Surging to his feet, he crossed the room, grabbed Demir's face in both hands, and dragged him down into a quick, hard kiss that was over as soon as it began. "Welcome home. We were just discussing if we needed to hunt you down."

"What in the name of the Divine… You can't…"

"Kitt," Ihsan said with a sigh. "Get back here, and if you do not start behaving I will chain you to the bed—not in a good way."

Rolling his eyes, softly grumbling in Rittuen, Kitt returned to Ihsan's side.

Demir slowly dragged his eyes over them, gaze finally resting on Ihsan. He looked awful, the wound on his throat still red and painful-looking, his chest wrapped in bandages. Demir's stomach clenched as he truly realized just how close Ihsan had come to dying. His hair, lank and messy, was pulled back in a loose tail, and it looked like he wore only a loose pair of faded maroon pants, the hem of which were visible where his leg partly stuck out of the pile of blankets covering him.

Kneeling, Demir bowed his head and said, "I am happy to see you alive, Your Majesty."

"I am happy to be alive," Ihsan said wryly. "Thank you for returning when we gave you no reason to do so, and every reason to refuse. I hope Haluk has taken good care of you."

Demir nodded then slowly looked up. "Of course, Majesty."

Curiosity flickered across Ihsan's face, but whatever question he wanted to ask, he apparently chose not to as he said, "Come and sit with me, by your pleasure. Though if you prefer to find your bed, I of course understand."

Going to bed would be the wiser course, but he had already discarded that option at least twice—no point in retreating to it now. Demir rose and moved closer, sitting near Ihsan's feet within arm's reach of Haluk. Opposite Haluk, Kitt gave a small, smirking little smile, like he knew good and well that Demir was purposefully keeping distance between them.

Which he very much needed to do when he was far too familiar with Kitt's kisses, could still feel the most recent one throbbing on his lips like a burn.

Sabah sat opposite Demir and helped himself to the tea on a nearby tray before handing the cup to Ihsan. He leaned over Ihsan and gave Haluk a brief kiss. "Welcome home."

Haluk carded his fingers through Sabah's hair, smiled softly. "It's good to be home. Did Demir tell you who else has returned with us?"

"No." Sabah tilted his head. "Who?"

"Altan," Ihsan said, smiling. "My brother has come home. The wretch had better come see me tomorrow. Is he well? When did he return to Tavamara?"

"He never left," Demir replied wryly. "Apparently he has been living with my parents this entire time."

Ihsan smiled. "The Harem Masters are loyal to a fault, fortunately for us. How is your mother? How is Lady Irmak? Emre?"

"All well, and Irmak is set to marry your brother to cover up the scandal with your father," Haluk replied. "A pity we cannot tell the truth of all that has happened lately. It makes for quite the story."

"I would greatly prefer not to live in so tumultuous a story," Ihsan said, reaching up to gently touch his neck, face tightening, anger and sadness flickering across it. "One more dramatic story and I'm going to be too battered and ugly to leave my room."

Kitt, Haluk, and Sabah gave him reproving looks. "You're not ugly, Ihsan," Sabah said.

Ihsan made a face. "It hardly matters. There are more important things to worry about than how pretty I am. Like how soon I am allowed to move around again. It was my neck that was wounded, not my legs, and I hardly need to move to manage court.  I can at least do that while Euren manages everything else."

"No," Kitt said, the other two chorusing him.

"Respect," Demir cut in, "but His Majesty holding court is not a bad idea, to my mind. There is no council, court has been closed how many days? The discontent and fear rampant in the palace will have spread to the city, and it will not take long for it to spread further. Holding court is something His Majesty can manage if he does so with care. He will have his harem to attend him the whole time, make sure he does not overtax himself. And seeing him working, his wound still apparent, will instill more confidence than almost anything else we can do. Unless I am mistaken, which I could be, as my skills lie with—"

"If you say your skills lie with the harem, like they have no use anywhere else, I am going to set this fussing trio upon you," Ihsan said.

Kitt snorted. "One day the two of you are going to get caught up in a game of who can be more self-sacrificing. It will be both tragic and hilarious to watch." He rested a pensive gaze on Demir. "Although given how alike you are, I bet the same tricks that work on Ihsan work on you."

Sabah elbowed him in the gut, shooting him a quelling look. "Stop it."

Muttering in Rittuen again, something about stubborn idiots if Demir heard correctly, Kitt turned back to Ihsan and fussed with his blankets, brushed back his hair, fingers lingering on the livid scar. "I wish I could have killed the bastard twice."

"Once was enough," Ihsan said, capturing his hand and kissing the palm. "Stop being angry with yourself." He kept hold of Kitt's hand as he settled back against his pillows once more. "Hopefully we can soon dismantle the council and the ambassadors, have done with this mess and focus on the kingdom the way we should. Though we will have to rebuild the council…"

Sabah huffed. "It is the dead of night and we're all tired, stop discussing matters that can wait. You wanted to talk to De—Lord Demir, not bore him to death."

"I am honored to be trusted with my king's worries," Demir replied. "I will continue to help however I can."

"Your devotion humbles all of us, Lord Demir," Ihsan said quietly. "I certainly do not merit it, and am eternally grateful you give it anyway. Thank you for indulging my selfish wants and coming to see me tonight."

Demir bowed his head, wishing his stupid heart would keep to a proper pace. That it did not hurt to breathe, that longing and bitter reality did not leave him bleeding. "It is an honor to serve, Majesty, always. I will leave you to your rest, and Merciful Divine grant you a speedy recovery."

"Goodnight," Ihsan said softly.

"Goodnight, Majesty."

"I'll walk back with you," Sabah said, standing with him and following him out.

What had he expected? To be asked to stay? Whatever Sabah had told him in the hall, words that continued to worry the edges of his mind like a tongue worried a toothache, Ihsan had his harem back. It was only a matter of formality that prevented the royal harems being official again, and once the council's doings were revealed, nobody would protest.

Once the dust settled, no one would need him anymore. The Harem Masters of Tavamara would join the history books once and for all, fade from memory, as would he as the palace resumed its regular rhythms and adjusted to new ones.

Soon, no one would notice his absence at all.

"Are you all right, Lord Demir?" Sabah asked.

Demir nodded. "I'm fine."

Sabah gently grabbed his arm, forced him to halt, then let go. He peered up at Demir, seeing far too much. "I don't think you are. I think you are either oblivious or refusing to see."

"See what?" Demir asked.

Heaving a sigh, Sabah asked, "Would you permit me an impertinence, Lord Demir?"

Too bemused and frustrated to refuse, Demir sighed and said, "Yes."

Sabah reached up, fingers ghosting over Demir's cheek, then pushed gently into his hair, curled into it, and drew Demir's head down. Demir's breath hitched as realization dawned, but his thoughts scattered as Sabah kissed him, brief and whisper soft. Drawing back the barest bit, Sabah said, "We missed you."

"I don't…" Demir drew back a bit more, stared at him. "You cannot mean—" He broke off as something slapped over his mouth in the very moment he saw someone come up behind Sabah to do the same.

A sharp, stinging sensation came from the back of his neck, followed by a wash of wooziness right before the dark came crashing down.

"If you try to make me stay in bed one more day, I—"

"All right," Kitt conceded sourly, raking his hands through his sleep-mussed hair, an expression on his face that could only be described as petulant. "But you'd better stay where I put you."

"Where I put me, thank you," Ihsan retorted but nodded. Anything was better than lying in bed day after day after day. He'd done that already: trapped in his bed for countless hours, listening to the agony around him, to men screaming words that Ihsan hadn't understood, though the desperation and anguish in them was clear enough. The Lavarrien healers had mostly been apathetic about prisoner care, and even the kind ones had been so only by comparison.

And all Ihsan had been able to do was lie there, drowning in his own pain and the misery of the whole, all of it coated by sand and dust, sweltering heat and freezing cold. Every day he lingered in his bed, even if it was in the middle of the royal palace, brought those memories closer and closer to the surface. He could not take one more day; he would lose his mind.

More importantly, people needed to see him up and walking around, needed to know he was capable. Euren was doing magnificently and hardly needed his help, but the presence of Queen and King would do much to calm and reassure people.

Kitt and Haluk helped him prepare, dressing him in form-fitting slate gray pants, a black, knee-length skirt, a black shirt, and gray sleeves trimmed in interlocking black, silver, and dark gray triangles. Haluk bound his hair in a simple braid, which he tied off with a dark gray ribbon. "Where is Sabah?" Ihsan asked. "I thought he would be joining us for breakfast."

He'd also secretly hoped that Sabah would convince Demir to join them. It wasn't much of a breakfast, was in fact going to be a long, tedious, frustrating one, but he had hoped all the same.

Not surprising he wasn't, though. Certainly not unexpected. Demir probably had a new, vastly more promising life waiting for him as soon as he rid himself of the palace once and for all. That Ihsan had no idea what that life could be, could not follow Demir's thoughts as he could those of Euren, Kitt, Haluk, and Sabah… However much he cared for Demir, they had not known each other very long, and a man like Demir had no reason to settle for an ugly, fragile king whose family had long brought Demir only ill.

"They'll probably meet us there, stop fretting yourself to death," Haluk said gruffly. "I'm sure they're busy with the concubines. There is a lot of work to do; the council wasted no time hauling in two hundred prospective concubines, and that is a lot of people to take care of, especially in the wake of so much upheaval."

"Nevermind the chaotic state of the palace," Kitt added, shaking out his skirt, then combing back his hair and binding it into a loose knot at the base of his neck. "Anyway, the meeting is not for nearly an hour; there's still time for them to show."

"I could—" Haluk broke off as a knock came at the door. Striding across the room, he pulled the door open—then smiled and opened it wider. "Good morning, Your Highness, Lord Emre."

"Good morning."

Ihsan's head turned sharply toward that voice, smile overtaking his frown as he crossed the room to embrace Altan. "I feared I would never see you again, brother." He clung tightly, his brother's form familiar and strange all at once. "You are a happy sight."

"It's good to be back and to have you home," Altan said gruffly, slowly pulling away. His eyes fell to Ihsan's neck. "I heard this reunion almost did not happen. I am not surprised you're more stubborn than a knife." He reached out, prodded at a couple of the scars on Ihsan's face. "Looks like you're more stubborn than a lot of knives. I know you've always been jealous that you're not as pretty as me, big brother, but I think this was the wrong way to deal with the problem."

"Be quiet," Ihsan said with a laugh. "Even uglier than you I'm still more likeable."

Altan grinned and lightly smacked the side of his face. "So am I welcome back to Tavamara and the royal family, brother?"

"You know you are. Stop being an ass, or I'll reinstate that exile." Ihsan hugged him again, then turned and embraced Emre. "Thank you, brother in the sands, for all you and yours have done. Whatever debt you thought owed is long since repaid, and I am fairly certain I am back in your debt."

"We're honored to help," Emre said. "All your troubles still do not equal what we face in the Desert every day of our lives. Are you healing well?"