Author's note (July 9th, 2004):
I've added a scene at the beginning of this chapter, because people asked me for
more background on Shayan and the beginning of this chapter seemed like the
perfect place to add it.
The Land Where Dragons Rule
by Alice Montrose
Chapter 4When faced with both fire and water, you might consider choosing the middle road after all.- Andrew Kaemon
When Bryenn was settled against him, Shayan took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he knew was going to be a complicated story to tell, not to mention explain.
"First of all, you must understand that part of this is new to me as well. I... did not ask to be what you call the Emperor's Leviathan, nor was I aware of it until a couple of months ago. I do not recall having special powers as a child, although water has always appealed to me. I assumed it was because my father was of Aquilaen descent, and did not give it another thought until a couple of months ago.
"My mother, Shaya Miren, was a member of the Ventaen gentry, and hers was a prosperous merchant family. They lived in a city near the southern Ventaen coast called Stor'mari. When she was 17 she met my father, Jeril, who had been hired as a guard for her family's yearly journey to Lunaesa. Like me, he was a mercenary; but unlike me, he had never known his family. All he knew was that he had been orphaned at the age of 3 by bandits who had attacked the caravan his parents and he were travelling with, and that he was born in Aquilae. He was raised in Ventae, though, and had embraced Ventaen traditions and the like. He was a man of his word and committed to the causes he supported, and my mother's family took an instant liking on him.
"I was born two years after they had taken their vows of marriage, and grew up as fairly spoiled. My father insisted on me learning the ways of a warrior, but I also received a solid education from a private tutor my grandfather hired.
"When I was fifteen, a plague erupted in Stor'mari, and my parents and most of my family passed away. Only I and two of my cousins survived. It was a rather painful blow for me, to lose almost everyone I had ever cared for. Still, when one is young, one gets over these things a bit easier. Having grown up to my father's tales of his youth, I decided to become a mercenary just like he had been. I apprenticed myself to the most famous mercenary in Ventae, and in a few years I managed to become better than my father had ever been. I found myself enjoying the freedom this lifestyle offered, and the pay isn't bad if you're good at your job and have a sense of adventure. Yet I always found myself yearning for more, but not knowing what that meant. And I'm not a very sociable person, you see... after my family died, I became afraid of creating bonds with others only to lose them as well. I had few friends and a couple of lovers, but nobody liked being around me much. Then, in my twentieth year, I met Mihail Llyr."
There was a short break, which Shayan used to gather his thoughts before he continued. He'd left Mihail behind rather abruptly, and hadn't even written to him to tell him he was all right. He would have to rectify that soon, or his friend might never forgive him.
A little sigh and he carried on, his arms tightening around Bryenn's waist just a little.
"Mihail was a mercenary as well, only he was from Aquilae. We'd seen each other a couple of times in passing, but we only got to know each other better when a lesser member of the deLunnen family needed a couple of extra guards for her escort to Fah'vale. Mihail became like an older brother to me. When he decided to start his own business and offered to take me as an associate, I accepted. It meant I had to leave Ventae and settle down in Aquilae, but it did not bother me too much. There was plenty of work, and things went really well for three years.
"But two months ago, I had to go escort an Aquilaen noble returning from Ardae to Wyrllyr..."
Over the next few days, Bryenn had a lot of time to think about Shayan's revelations, and their meaning. At first, the Ventaen had told him about his family, and his life as the son of a guard and a gentry woman, and later as an apprentice mercenary. Still, from there on it had gotten stranger and stranger, especially when Shayan had told him about his first encounters with the leviathan's spirit.
Had Bryenn himself not seen this spirit, he would have dismissed the story as a fantasy of a disturbed mind; as it was, all he could do was hope that he would not see ‘Levi' ever again. Knowing that the ghost of the leviathan haunted the Palace's halls at night was more information than he needed, thank you very much.
And then, there were the mercenary's reasons for having come to Aidus.
If one was to believe him, at first it had been pure curiosity, as well as a fair dose of boredom, that had prompted Shayan to embrace the leviathan's plans for him. He had left a well-paid job and a partner back in Aquilae, a partner by the name of Mihail Llyr who was also Shayan's distant cousin and who would look for him if the Ventaen did not return home in one year. It had been strange, to hear Shayan speak the name ‘Llyr' but claim no allegiance to that family, and having him insist to be called by his mother's family name. All the Emperor's Leviathans so far had been named Llyr... but Shayan also insisted that he was not like them, nor would he ever be.
Bryenn sighed, leaning back in the chair his bodyguard usually used for reading while in the Emperor's room, and studying one of Shayan's knives. He loathed to admit that Shayan had been right - no Leviathan in the past century had come into service of his own free will, and none of them had been insisting on staying at the Emperor's side like Shayan did. And although it did not bother him, he knew that the Knights of Aidan would not be pleased to hear of this. No, not at all... especially not after their Lord General was accused of treason by the very same man.
He sighed. He was the Emperor of Ardae, and the Knights were not exempt from owing him their allegiances. If he gave an order, they would obey.
Besides, only the future Lord General and his Second would know who Shayan really was - and the mercenary had assured Bryenn that he could persuade Andrew Kaemon to see the bright side of
their plan.
A rattling caught his attention, and moments later Shayan came through the door, looking his sweaty handsome self. The Emperor's nose flared and his eyes narrowed as he watched his bodyguard quickly lock the door and lean against it heavily.
"Bad day?" he prompted when Shayan heaved a deep sigh.
Shayan groaned. "I swear, if your stepmother tries to seduce me
one more time, I am going to shove my sword down her throat and, may all plans be damned, kill the bitch!"
His words triggered a curious reaction from Bryenn, who stood up and seethed as the temperature in the room rose a bit. "She
dares?" he seethed. "Take me to her,
now! I'll give her something else to look at, that..."
What followed was a string of loud eye-popping curses that was abruptly halted when Shayan's hand closed over Bryenn's mouth. Not one to give up easily, the Emperor resorted to biting down hard, but that only made Shayan renew his efforts to silence him.
"Be silent, dragonling! They'll hear us, if you don't keep your voice down, and then what? You're not strong enough to go anywhere just yet, and they'll just take me away and hang me"
Bryenn's eyes narrowed, but he did stop talking. Still, his blood boiled, and he impatiently pulled away Shayan's hand. "I'll kill her myself," he whispered dangerously. "I swear it, Shayan, I will. If she
ever tries to harm you, I..."
Shayan's violet eyes shone dangerously, and he pulled the struggling Emperor in his arms. "You will
not risk your life for this, Bryenn. There's a clause in my contract allowing me to refuse anyone's sexual advances, and I fully intend to use that to gain leverage against her in case something happens."
"You are
mine," the Ardaen stubbornly insisted. Nobody was going to take away his Leviathan.
Nobody!
"So I am, dragonling. And you are mine. I'd never dare to forget it."
Bryenn cooed happily, rubbing his face against Shayan's shoulder. Then he softly nibbled at his bodyguard's slender neck, causing the other man to chuckle. Pale hands found their way up the toned chest and toyed with the leather tunic's laces.
"You are sweaty from your practice, Ventaen," Bryenn whispered in his ear, his tongue lacing out to explore hidden crevices. "I think... you need... a bath..."
Shayan simply laughed.
Myrtle had started suspecting something strange was going on in the Emperor's Rooms ever since he had been banned from them in the evenings. It was not only the fact the strange Ventaen bodyguard had prevented him from doing his duty properly, oh no! He had witnessed the man lowering the dosage of wolfsbite Bryenn was given, and he had also noticed the changes in the Emperor during the past few weeks. For instance, his breath had been a bit more even, his skin no longer looked pale from sickness... and the demon they had hired as his bodyguard was watching the page do his job like a hawk watched someone threatening his prey.
Myrtle had decided that he'd be damned if he would be keeping silent about it any longer!
And he knew just the person to complain to.
"Damnation!" Krysten Aidan exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "Blasphemy! Why was I not informed of this before? What is that dog-humping Glacaen whore trying to do, kill us all?!"
Andrew watched his wife go on ranting about it with mixed feelings of pride and worry. The young page had wisely chosen to get out of her way and now watched huddled in a corner as the Emperor's cousin continued to send certain well-known personalities to hell and deeper, his eyes darting now and then to the knight, who had remained seated in the chair he had been using before the boy had entered the room.
Honestly, he did not blame Krysten for being furious about this. He himself felt a cold anger spread through his body, but he was not one to let his emotions show as easily as Krysten did.
She did settle down, eventually. Or, rather, she stopped screaming and turned to Andrew. "You will take me to him,
right now. I don't care how you do it, but you
will do it, Andrew! Unless, of course, you're in this with
them."
He grimaced at the false accusations. "I was not aware something was going on," he said. "I honestly believed this mercenary to be an honourable man. But if he
is doing something to harm the Emperor, it is my duty to stop him. I shall go report this immediately, and then..."
"You will not report anything!" she cut him out. "You don't get it, do you? Lord Hyden was in on this from the very beginning." Catching his shocked look, she carried on, "Don't play innocent with me, Andrew. It's common knowledge that he gets under that woman's skirts whenever she asks him to. No, you will not report this. You will take
me to see my
cousin, right now!"
And what else could he do but obey? She was a full-blooded Aidan, after all, and the members of that family either hated each other's guts or were fiercely loyal to one another. In Krysten's case, it was the latter, and her hatred for Lady Esthera was no novelty. Krysten had always suspected her of trying to get her son on the throne rather than allowing Bryenn to rule, and now it seemed her suspicions had been correct.
Between her and proof of those accusations stood one solid door, however, and Andrew suddenly discovered that his set of keys no longer fit the lock on that door.
"H-he changed the locks weeks ago. With Lord Hyden's permission, he said," a frightened Myrtle informed them, making both of them wince.
Krysten Aidan crossed her arms and grew pensive. "Come with me, there's another way in."
Andrew could not help but stare at her. "Another way in? But there isn't..."
"There
is. The gardener's entrance to the private garden. Bryenn and I used it before, when we were younger. Come on!"
Getting the key from the gardener took some time, though, and by the time the three of them were slipping into the private sanctuary of the Emperor's Leviathan it was already fully dark outside. Somehow they managed to get to the balcony's staircase without tripping or getting tangled in the overgrowth, and Andrew was the one to go up the stairs first, fully alert to a possible attack. The knight had seen the Ventaen mercenary at weapons practice, and the man was far too good for Andrew's liking.
The balcony's doors were open, and there was a dim light emanating from inside. Careful not to give away their presence, he gestured for his wife and the young page to remain there while he entered the room, sword drawn.
What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks. Shayan Miren was indeed there, but he was not there alone. And what was happening seemed so strange that for a moment Andrew forgot to breathe. The waterfall in the pool was flowing in slow motion, barely concealing the two people caught in a passionate dance right beyond it, and miniature sparks were kindled in the air around the area, briefly burning before they died and their place was taken by others of the same kind.
A loud "Ah!" broke the spell, and Andrew startled to find Krysten next to him, her hand covering up Myrtle's eyes to prevent the boy from seeing what was happening beyond the waterfall. Unfortunately, the room had been silent enough to cause her to be heard by the lovers as well. Suddenly the slow motion ceased, and the two were concealed from sight for a moment before Shayan Miren stepped through the water curtain, the pool's surface thankfully hiding his lower body from sight. His long hair clung to him in sensuous dark tendrils, and the gaze that fixed on Andrew, Krysten and Myrtle was not a kind one.
"You are not welcomed here," he stated plainly, his voice so cold it made even Andrew wince.
Not his wife, though - she had Aidan blood running through her veins. "How
dare you!" she exclaimed in outrage. "You... you... barbarian! How dare you talk like that to me, the Emperor's cousin! Did the Glacaen whore make you believe you have higher status than me?! I demand to see the Emperor. And if you harmed him in any way, rest assure you
will pay for it."
Andrew's hand tightened on his sword, certain he would have to defend Krysten's life every minute now. Still, the mercenary's reply was a simple raised brow, as he surveyed both Andrew and Myrtle. His eyes widened a bit as they settled on the page, but he said nothing just yet. Instead, he looked back at Krysten. "I take it you are not loyal to Lady Esthera, then?" he asked, suspicion thickening his slight accent just a bit.
"Damn right I'm not!" she blistered.
A chuckle could be heard, then, and the other person finally stepped forward, passing through the water curtain with a wince and putting an arm around the Ventaen.
"The only thing my cousin is loyal to, Shayan, is her family," the Ardaen said, his brown eyes filled with mirth. "And don't let her tell you different."
Andrew felt a hysterical laughter threatening to spill from his lips, and forced himself to hold it back as he met the Emperor's gaze. Of all the things he had expected to find, having Bryenn Aidan stand in a pool, his arm around one of Lady Esthera's supposed pawns, was not one of them.
Apparently he was not the only one. Next to him, Krysten swayed and he hurried to catch her before she could fall. Myrtle watched all this wide-eyed, a tear falling down his cheek. "Bryenn!" he exclaimed, throwing himself forward only to pull back just in time to avoid falling into the large pool.
Andrew kept his eyes on the two men in said pool as he fanned his wife. His mind told him this whole situation was impossible, that the Emperor should by no means be up and about let alone in the middle of a water-filled basin, but his eyes told him otherwise.
And then there was the Ventaen, who was watching all this as if detached from the whole situation. "Get her and the boy in the other room," he finally told Andrew. "We'll follow shortly."
The knight sought confirmation from someone much more fitting to give him orders, although that was not technically true at the moment. So what if the Emperor was up and about? That did not mean that he was
sane, did it? As far as he knew, there was only one cure for the dragon's curse, and that was finding the Leviathan. But, the Leviathan was dead.
Or was he? After all, he only had two people's word on the Aquilaen boy that had been executed being the Leviathan. Certain things did not add up, things he had witnessed a few years back and things he had seen tonight, things that had his mind swirling with possible scenarios as he led his wife in the other room and placed her in Myrtle's care.
He hurriedly returned into the other room to find Shayan Miren, already dressed, wrapping a thick robe around the Emperor. Then the mercenary placed a towel on Bryenn Aidan's shoulders and combed his fingers through the wavy red hair. Water drenched the towel which was hurriedly removed, and the Ventaen had the Emperor sent off with a quick slap on his...
Andrew blushed furiously and bowed his head as Emperor Aidan passed him by, trying hard not to think where exactly the man had been slapped. Still, the younger Ardaen lingered in the doorway, looking uncertainly at them.
Shayan merely waved his hand. "Off you go. I'll be right with you."
Just like that. No grovelling, no pleading; and he was obeyed. The curtain fell, leaving Andrew alone with the mercenary.
And some of his suspicions had just been proven true.
Dark eyes settled on him, and Shayan Miren smiled. It was not a reassuring smile, however - more like that of a predator ready to strike. "You know what I am?" he asked bluntly.
Andrew nodded, and took a step back at the same time the Ventaen took one forward. Strange, since Andrew was the only one carrying a weapon.
"Good. But you will also know this. If you
ever try to tell
anyone about it, you will not live for long. I will not be turned into a pitiful excuse of a slave, to be looked down on by you haughty Ardaen warriors. I will kill myself before that happens, and then what will you have? A situation none too different than this one. For now our goals seem to be the same. But I am warning you, knight, do not try anything against me, or you will not live long enough to regret it."
And with that, he stalked out of the room, leaving a seriously befuddled Andrew behind.
~ To Be Continued ~
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