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Damon nods. He’d like that too. How would it be, going to Sanvicta with Lyr? Just the two of them. On that distant island. So far from Attar. They could be free. How sweet that would be. A foolish dream.

Damon points to the hilt of his sword in the belt at his waist. “The other reason Selim likes me so much is that I saved his life once. He allowed my father permission to gift me this sword for that.”

“You told me you saved his life when the Mortingale Outlaws attacked the Rose Palace. How did it happen? How did you save his life?”

“You remember that Lukas’s mother died and Lukas was raised with me and Atticul?”

“I remember,” Lyr says. He says it as if he remembers everything Damon has said to him.

“Lukas joined the Mortingale Outlaws. They got into the Rose Palace because of him. The palace still has many of the old tunnels from the ancient temple structures running beneath it, some go right down through the cliffs to the caves on the banks of The Gleam, that is the river north of Attar, beyond the Rose Palace. As children, my brothers and I explored many of them. So Lukas knew a secret way in.” They reach the end of the orchard where a wooden fence marks the boundary of Sanglora’s gardens, Damon turns and leads Lyr south, walking alongside the fence as he continues, “He didn’t expect me to be in the palace, but I was visiting for the celebrations for the birth of my sister’s son. I joined the battle.”

Lyr looks quite shocked. “Your brother meant to assassinate the Emperor? His own uncle?”

“I told you, he ran away and joined the Mortingale Outlaws. They are rebels against the empire. Luckily we caught and killed many of them that night.”

“But Lukas got away?”

“Yes,” Damon says carefully, holding the exact details close.

“So you saved Selim’s life and he gave you that sword?”

“Yes.” Damon did not truly save Selim’s life. There had been many palace guards and enforcers fighting the outlaw incursion that night, but somehow the involvement of The One Man Army in that battle had twisted another story into one of his great glory. He draws his sword. The blade glitters in the sun. It has a faint colour to it. Not the usual silver of polished steel, but a glow of orange, yellow.

“For a weapon,” Lyr says, “that is, indeed, very beautiful.”

“It’s called Amber, The Demon Blade. It’s said to be the just blade of Zai himself. During the revolution, King Sarelik used it to drive the Hevelikar out of the Ivory Palace. He found it in the Amber Forest when Zai himself spoke to him. It has been passed down to each emperor. Sarelik’s son, King Damon, wielded it, and it was wielded by my grandfather, Emperor Erond, and then by his son Markus, before he was sent into exile. Then it went to Selim, but Selim didn’t want to keep it. He said he thought it cursed, so he gave it to my father. My father felt guilty about what he had done with me, so he asked Selim for permission to give it to me as reward for what I had done.”

“What he had done to you? What had your father done to you?”

“Ah,” Damon sighs. “That is a longer story.”

“I would like to hear it. If you have nowhere you need to be.” Lyr stops walking and leans back against the wooden fence.

“I can spare the time,” Damon says. A lie. He has much to do, but he cannot bear the thought of ending this. He isn’t touching Lyr – isn’t even considering it – but this, just being with him, feels like it's replenishing a well deep inside him that he hadn’t known had run dry. “How about you? Can you spare this time? Do you have duties in the kitchen?”

Lyr shrugs. “I am a slave and you are my Master. My duties are what you say they are.”

Damon looks at him. There’s no one around. He takes a breath and leans up against the fence next to Lyr. He says, “You know I was indentured into the army at fourteen? Ordered to serve the empire for twenty years?”

Lyr nods. He moves a little closer to Damon, so they are both leaning on the fence, close together, arms almost touching. Lyr’s forearms are bare in rolled shirt sleeves. Damon is wearing his usual sleeveless jerkin in black leather. He has not left the army behind. He still dresses like a soldier. If Damon moved a fraction of an inch, they would touch. Bare skin on bare skin.

I am a slave and you are my Master.

Just the thought of it makes his breath quicken.

Lyr says, “What did you do?” Lyr pauses. “Oh.”

It’s obvious what Lyr assumes. Damon shakes his head. “Nothing like that. I committed no crime. There is a law in Azuria, the rule of stead. It means that if someone commits a crime a close member of their family can volunteer to take the punishment in their stead. My father committed a crime against Zai. He was sentenced to twenty years indenture. Selim agreed that I could serve the sentence in his stead.”

“What did your father do?”

“I was never told… although I can guess. I told you that when Selim became Emperor he made Zai’s laws the laws of Azuria. That meant that fathering bastards became a crime against Zai.”

“But all his bastards were born before that change in the law.”

“Yes.”

“So you think your father did it again? That you have another brother.”