The Price of Freedom (Heirs of the Empire #2)

13. Lukas

13

LUKAS

T he next morning, Lukas reties Elric’s wrists in front of him and takes hold of the trailing rope.

Elric gazes at Lukas as he does this with his pretty bright-green eyes. As Lukas looks at him he thinks to himself that he will take this Lordling again tonight. Perhaps this time he will fuck him. Lukas wonders what skills the Lordling will have with his body and if they will match the ones he has with his mouth. The finest male concubine in the Rose Palace. What a strange, sweet prize Elric Underlia has turned out to be.

He leads Elric through the trees. His heart is so light with the pleasant memories of the night before, that he almost forgets about what happened between him and Little Lamb — and why it happened — until they are close to the place where they left the cart the evening before and Inga steps into view.

Her scarred face twists into a stern expression. “I’ve spoken to Lamb,” she says. “He has agreed that as Abul directed there will be no more talk of what happened five years ago if you do not insist upon it.”

“Why would I insist upon it?” says Lukas sourly. “I would like to move on from past failures to future triumphs.”

“We all would, Silverhand,” says Inga. “So I will thank you not to bring it up again.”

“I will not begin anything if Lamb does not,” Lukas says.

“Good. Because I did not lie, if you start with him again, I will step aside and let him end you no matter what my father might say about it.”

“Very well,” says Lukas. “And perhaps you should tell him that he needs to move on from the past.”

Inga turns away, as she does, she says, “It took Golt three days to die on that scaffold in Attar.”

Lukas says nothing. He does not wish to think about Golt. Golt had been as big as his brother. In the end, his strength had only prolonged his suffering.

Lukas walks after Inga, Elric trailing behind him. They rejoin the party in sullen silence. Little Lamb throws Lukas the odd glowering look. But mostly, things seem to have reached a tense resolution. Red Wolf nods to Lukas as he approaches the cart. Lukas stops to lean over the edge. Marko’s tail wags to see him. “Wolf,” Lukas says, “thank you for coming to my aid yesterday. How is your head?”

Red Wolf smiles one of his usual bright smiles, “Well mended, dearheart. I trust you will not have more need of my battle skills.”

“There will be no fighting today, Wolf. I assure you. I have found a new way to relieve my frustrations,” Lukas says cheerily.

Red Wolf nods, but his expression turns a little dark as he catches Lukas’s drift and looks at Elric. But if Red Wolf is jealous, then so be it. Red Wolf has plenty of lovers. He cannot begrudge Lukas such pleasures.

They set off and, as usual, Elric and Lukas drop behind the cart, letting it rumble ahead of them a distance until they feel like they are alone.

Elric says, “I remember what happened to Little Lamb’s brother.”

Lukas looks at him. He would rather not hear about that, but he doesn’t tell Elric to stop. They’re walking through another wooded copse. Trees scratch up on either side of the track. The cart is rumbling along ahead of them. The sun is filtered through tree cover. It’s almost directly above them, golden droplets falling through the leaves. And Lukas’s mind is suddenly full of Damon. Haunted by him. Damon’s ghost in the trees.

Elric wets his lips. His voice is shaky. “The whole of Attar came to watch those executions. The Long Day, they called it. It lasted more than a single day.” Lukas looks at Elric's pale face as he recalls it.

Lukas nods. He has only heard rumours about how brutal those executions were. But the night news reached the Mortingales of what had been done, Little Lamb and three of his friends had dealt Lukas a beating that almost killed him.

“And you were the only one who escaped that night?” says Elric. “How did you escape?”

“I knew the passageways beneath the Rose Palace. I could find a way out. But I had become separated from the others. There was no one I could take with me.” This is true, although not the whole truth of it. He feels it again. Damon, watching him from the trees. Damon who had found him and got him out of the palace that night.

Lukas is sure Elric is about to ask another question when he hears a strange sound. Something behind them, he thinks. He freezes. Perhaps it is not Damon watching them from the trees. Perhaps it is someone else. “What was that?” he says.

“What?” says Elric. Looking at Lukas as Lukas looks around for the source of the sounds he heard. All he can see is trees.

“I heard something,” Lukas says. “I think there is someone in the trees. I think we’re being followed.”

Elric steps closer. He puts a hand on Lukas’s arm. “Perhaps you are just imagining things because you are thinking of that terrible night.”

Lukas looks at Elric’s face. He is so pretty. His hair is so bright where the sunlight reaches it through the trees. Looking at Elric makes him feel calmer, safer than he’s felt in a long time. He can’t help himself. He needs something. Something that isn’t darkness and death. He steps close, puts his hand and his hook on Elric’s waist and leans in. They kiss, sweetly, under the trees. It’s good. It feels like a stolen delight. A tiny glimpse of a long-forgotten life. When the kiss breaks, Elric says, “Will you take me tonight, Bastard?”

“I will,” Lukas says, meaning it. “I will commit sins of the body with you, my sweet captive. Hard and rough in the forest, like a beast. Tonight and every night until we reach Lunatum.”

“How far now to Lunatum?” says Elric.

“Not much further. Two more days perhaps.”

“So we will have more nights together?” Elric says with a soft, indulgent tone. He bites his lip. “I would like to spend while you stroke me with that hook again.” He takes hold of Lukas’s hook with a gasp, almost as if he is aroused to touch it. And brings it to his mouth. He plants a kiss on the metal curve.

Lukas swallows. “You want that?” he says, feeling a little tender at the thought.

“I do.”

Lukas lets his voice get a little lighter. “Then you shall have it,” he leans closer. “I shall stroke that sweet desperate cock of yours with my hook again and after you spend you can lick it clean with your talented tongue.” And it’s strange because even a few days ago Lukas could never have imagined his hook being attractive, even arousing, to another person. But Elric truly seems to delight in it.

For a moment, Elric just stares at him, like he cannot speak. “ Bastard ,” is all he finally says. It sounds like an endearment.

They’re standing like that, gazing at each other when a shout comes through the trees. A deep voice that carries like thunder. “Hey, sly assholes. We’re not going to get to Lunatum before Surrus moon if you’re fucking in the forest like daedons.”

Little Lamb.

Elric says, “Tonight. Please. Promise you will do it. Use your hook to stroke me again.”

Lukas touches the hook to Elric’s chin, “If you behave yourself, Lordling.”

Lukas nods as they start to move towards Little Lamb who is still calling, “Come on Silverhand you luxorite bastard, pull your wet cock out of that whore’s mouth and get moving.”

They walk on following the cart as the woods become more wide grassland. Lukas exchanges some sweet looks with Elric. He doesn’t know how he can bear to wait until tonight. The idea of seeing that face break with pleasure, the thought of stroking Elric’s cock with his hook until he spends — it is so sweet he is unsure how he is able to walk.

He’s thinking of that, swaggering with a little swing to his gait, when there is a shout from the cart ahead.

Lukas stops, Inga is looking back towards them, past them, face pale. Lukas turns to see what’s behind him…

…But he hears them before he sees what’s coming…

…Imperial soldiers…

…Five of them.

One on horseback and four more on foot. They are racing out of the tree cover shouting viciously. Cries of attack. Lukas had not been watching, not been aware. Not checked thoroughly when he heard a sound in the trees. And now, suddenly, warriors are upon them. He raises his hook and moves fast to stand between them and Elric.

The first to reach them, one of the runners on foot, knocks Lukas aside with a heavy blow from his sword hilt. Lukas falls back, landing on the ground. But the soldier does not engage. Lukas looks over dazed as the soldier grabs hold of Elric, snarling, “Here you are my little luxorite. Our brave commander.”

“Get off me. Let go,” Elric screams out, squirming in the soldier’s arms.

The man holding Elric sneers, and punches Elric in the side of the face, hard enough that Elric goes limp.

Lukas scrambles to his feet, but before he can get near Elric, a second soldier is upon him, a sword against his hook.

Little Lamb reaches them and easily dispatches Lukas’s opponent with his axe. Inga has her sword drawn and fights another.

It’s bloody chaos. Another of the Imperial soldiers is down, almost in pieces from Little Lamb’s axe. Lukas goes after the one that has Elric, the one that is dragging him back towards the trees.

There was a rider too, Lukas thinks, he looks back around. The rider is thundering towards Red Wolf, still racing from the cart to the battle, no weapon. Red Wolf is defenceless in the face of an Imperial Soldier on horseback. Red Wolf was injured the previous day. Red Wolf is no fighter.

But Red Wolf is too far away for Lukas to do anything. Little Lamb is racing back towards them, running behind the rider, screaming in vicious rage. Lukas feels sure Little Lamb will take the rider down. Lukas turns and hurls himself towards the man holding Elric. Elric is recovered from the blow the man dealt him, shouting and squirming in the man’s arms. With the man having to deal with Elric, Lukas can get close. He moves quickly inside the reach of the man’s sword and sticks his hook in the man’s gut. The man groans, dropping his grip on Elric and Lukas follows by yanking the hook out with a twist and slicing the man’s throat. He pulls Elric close as the man falls to the ground.

Elric is panting and shaking in Lukas’s arms. He looks back to the melee. Inga has taken on another soldier, sword against sword. A flurry of clashes and he is down. Leaving just the rider. The rider is still in the fight. He turns his horse and charges for Lukas and Elric.

But he doesn’t reach them. Lukas hears Inga screaming something, something about her brother. And the man on the horse slumps. A blade in his neck. Inga has thrown a knife with deadly accuracy.

The horse veers off to the side as the rider falls dead from the saddle. And then Lukas can see it. Her brother. Inga had been shouting something about her brother when she threw that knife.

Because Red Wolf is lying on the ground.

Not moving.

Marko is beside him. Yipping so hard it sounds like screaming.