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Damon slides his finger out and pushes Lyr flat on his back. Open and supine on the bed. He kisses his way down Lyr’s chest, past the four glowing brands and onto his belly. His kisses harder on the soft flesh, nibbling and biting to make Lyr cry out. He tastes the thick liquid that drips from Lyr’s cock and moves further down, positioning himself between Lyr’s legs. He puts his hands on Lyr’s thighs to force them wider, lifting one of them up onto his shoulder. And he licks Lyr’s hole, taking it slow.

Lyr makes a sound. A chattering whimper, something beyond pleasure. Damon licks again. Lyr tastes like earth and musk. Lyr’s hole is the centre of Damon’s world. He pushes his tongue inside him. He fucks Lyr with his tongue, jabbing it in and out. Lyr squirms, pushing closer like he wants more. It feels like Lyr is a flower opening to the sun.

Damon twists his tongue, fucks, pulls out and licks. He slides his finger back into Lyr and licks around it. He adds a second finger, crooks inside, licks Lyr’s hole as he works his fingers.

Lyr makes an extraordinary noise as he spends, jerking violently in Damon’s arms as Damon licks and strokes him through every last wave of his pleasure.

Like so many other nights on Sanvicta, when they have exhausted themselves with each other’s bodies, they lie together, soft in each other’s arms, and they talk.

Sometimes it reminds Damon of their time on the Azuria Ascendant. Bright-eyed quick-witted Lyr asking Damon questions about his life, his history, his family.

“Tell me about King Damon,” says Lyr. “The King you are named for.”

“King Damon was the only son of King Sarelik,” says Damon, pausing and remembering long days being educated at the Rose Palace. “The son of Sarelik and his Hevelikar wife. The one the Hare talked about. The ancestor that means I too have Hevelikar blood. Perpetu was twice a traitor. She married Sarelik but remained loyal to her Hevelikar family. She continued to worship the Twelve Sidu in secret. Perpetu was responsible for marrying Zai with its origins in Artemia. She is the reason we still celebrate the Twelve Feasts and count the Sidu as the prophets of Zai.

“But she took it too far and suspicions of her grew. Some people said she was trying to return Azuria to the faith of Artemia, that she held Artemian ceremonies and had a secret stock of books and Arcanum cards and other holy objects. She ended up fleeing Azuria with her son Damon, when he was a boy of ten, to escape what was being said about her being a traitor and a heretic. Damon and Perpetu were taken in by the people of Vashti. This was before Vashti was part of the empire and at the time there was still a Hevelikar branch family in control there. Damon and Perpetu stayed for five years. Sarelik was urged to marry again. He took to wife a noblewoman called Imma. She gave him a daughter, Princess Ferra.

“But even with Imma, Sarelik had no more sons. He adored Ferra. She was a young child when Azuria first conquered the western half of Pluma, and Sarelik renamed the island Pluma-Ferris.”

“So before that, it was just Pluma?”

“That’s right. Trysta would call herself Plumian. The Ferris is for Ferra. The Azurian part, the west, is Ferra, the east is Pluma. Princess Ferra grew up to become a devotee of Zai and the first Bride of Zai. She is called Blessed Ferra, the Zai Mother. There are statues of her everywhere. She established the Temple of the Immurite. My sister Ferra is named after her.”

“Why have I never met your sister?” says Lyr. “I have met all the rest of your family.”

Damon laughs. “Ferra was there at the feast before the Pleasure Night. But, truly, Lyr, you haven’t met half of my family. Ferra lives in the Rose Palace, but she is weak.” Damon pauses. “Vindar is lucky to have her. He is an old man and she is beautiful. The only Princess of the Darek line. I have been wondering if there is a reason my father gave her to him.”

“What reason?”

“My father never told me the crime against Zai he was convicted of. But it seems likely he slept with another woman who wasn’t his wife and fathered another bastard. Selim’s Rose Court took a different view of that sin than the Courts of his brother Markus or his father Erond, but twenty years indenture is still a harsh sentence for such a crime. I suppose it could simply be that Selim’s Court thought a man with four bastard sons ought to feel a heavier weight of justice. But if he was simply careless with some pillow worker or noblewoman, why has he never mentioned this child? I know about Lukas, Tobi and Kerik.”

“What has that to do with Vindar?” says Lyr.

“Vindar, you know they call him the Thousand Eyes? He’d know. He’d know what my father did. And Vindar was promised Ferra not long after. Perhaps he knows the identity of this child and my father wants it kept secret.”

Lyr rolls onto his back. Damon pulls himself up on one arm to look down at him. “Ferra and Vindar have a child, don’t they?”

“One. Umbert. You’ve seen him. He is Selim’s page.”

“He is in the royal line?”

“I suppose. After Atticul and Endrew.” Damon checks himself. “After Atticul.”

“It just made me think of something your father said when you were taken from the scaffold. When he heard you would face justice for your confession of sins of the body. He said that Atticul and Vindar would have their way.”

“Atticul wants me dead. And if not dead, with my reputation smeared enough that he can be sure I am no threat to him.”

“I know, but what about Vindar? Would Vindar want that?”

“Vindar is an inscrutable man.”

“But you think he used his knowledge of your father’s crime against Zai to force your father to give him Ferra as bride. Being married to her means his son has Darek blood. Perhaps he means for his son to take the throne. If that happened he would rule as Regent.”

“I suppose.”

“I think Vindar has been trying to get you killed for years. I think Vindar was the one who had you sent away to war, perhaps he even made sure your father’s sin was discovered to make that happen. I think that when you proved a great warrior, he started telling Atticul that you are a threat to his succession. Came up with the Ullinor question to scare him. I think he hoped that if he kept stoking that fire you would kill Atticul and he would be rid of both of you. It didn’t work how he wanted, but that animosity got Endrew killed. Perhaps he also disposed of Kerik.”

“Lyr,” says Damon in a low tone, shaking his head, “Ah, perhaps this is true. Who can say? Perhaps every word is true. But what does it matter now? If Vindar was working to destroy me, then Vindar has won. If his next move is to find a way to be rid of Atticul, so be it. Let us leave Azuria to its blood and politics. I care not for any of it.”