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“You think I could be seduced by you?”

Xan lets his eyes slide up and down Jemel’s body. “Let us see. I will make a simple deal with you. I would never take an unwilling man. So stay there, where you stand, and I will kiss you. Or flee now, and I will not.”

“Very well,” Jemel stammers out. And he turns and flees.

10

XAN

Left alone in the baths, Xan dresses and returns to his chambers.

It is early, grey light beginning to touch the edge of the horizon. He lies down on his unmade bed.

It is still before the time that silent servants come to light the fire. He slides under the bed’s fur against the chill in the air.

Idly, he palms his cock through his breeches, thinking of the priest. He had not gone to the bath house with any real intentions, only interested to see if the priest did appear as Atticul had said he would.

And he was delighted when he did. He likes this strange chaste man in ways he cannot explain. He is aroused by him, which is strange enough for a man whose face he has never seen and whose body is slender and small, almost as well-hidden as his face in shapeless robes.

But there is more that is a mystery. Atticul wants him dead. What threat could he possibly be to an Emperor?

The priest has the strangest air about him. His mix of indignation and piety mixed with something else, something Xan is sure he sees, a desperate confused wanting. Xan has never met anyone like him.

Last night, a comely male concubine had been sent to Xan’s rooms. Xan sent him away. Not like him, but he wanted to focus on testing Jemel in the morning and he knows well that he is better at seduction when he has desire high in his blood.

Now, he regrets that decision. It would have been pleasant to bounce that pretty creature on his cock. And if he had, perhaps he would have been less overwhelmed by Jemel’s flustered stammering.

Although he is sure he could contrive a way to have that comely creature sent back to him, he satisfies himself with his own palm and thoughts of the Azurian priest stammering behind his veil.

When he is satiated, lying, sleepless despite the sky outside only beginning to be kissed by dawn, again he finds himself thinking of Atticul’s offer. He is sure that Jemel desires him now. There was no doubt in the way his breath hitched, the way he shuddered to be close to Xan’s naked body. The creature is clearly desperate to be touched but equally desperate not to allow such a thing.

Xan finds it hard to imagine being bound in such a way. And by nothing more than faith.

Seduce the priest and win Trysta’s freedom and freedom for Pluma. Fine prizes both. He knows Atticul’s deal is a foul thing — but he cannot help thinking that there would be no sweeter way he could earn such grand boons than parting Jemel’s thighs.

He needs to consider this carefully, but his mind is too clouded with his lusts. He must discuss this matter with the rest of his crew. They will give him a clear path forward.

As Xan walks through the streets of Attar, beggars rush up to him, lured in by his fine clothing. He barks out at them in Plumian and they cower away, clearly scared of this tall man speaking a tongue they either do not know, or know to be forbidden.

There is tension in the air of the sprawling city outside the jewelled citadel of the Rose Palace. He can taste it. This city is ready to ignite with the weather foul and the ascension of a new and unpopular Emperor coming. And that must be something he can turn to his advantage.

The people of this city must be looking for a reason to rebel. Emperor Selim introduced many laws, justifying them with his Book of the Rules. Atticul declared he would change those rules, but it seems this has not made the people happy, only restless in the uncertainty. It is not surprising after such an announcement. Some who were bent under the yoke of that cruel faith are now asking why such things were done if the Faith does not require it. And those who were devout will be even more betrayed that rules they have lived by, in promise of grand rewards from their God, are being dismantled. Atticul is a fool, an arrogant fool. And it will have pleased no one that he used his uncle’s funeral to aggrandise himself.

There will likely be riots any day now, with luck, riots as bloody as the ones that killed Emperor Erond, when the city starved due to his fear of plague. And if the Mortingales that hide in this city can time their attack right it will cause more unrest. Perhaps the people could be persuaded to storm the Rose Palace itself and destroy it when Atticul rides north after his ascension.

He reaches the docks with his mind full of these thoughts and stamps up the gang plank of The Mother of Men.

It is a small ship, with two masts. At rest in the dock, the sails have been taken down to be patched and cared for. It has space for a crew of twenty and a hold for trading goods.

First to greet him is his Captain. Longwise is over fifty and his gait is slightly stooped. He walks with a stick, his left leg taken in battle over a dozen turns ago, but a better ship’s Captain Xan has never known.

Heb the Navigator is right behind Longwise as ever, a long brown arm snaking around Longwise’s thick waist. Heb is bright eyed and although Xan does not know his age he looks young enough to be Longwise’s son. But he is no such thing. There are no secrets on ships and Xan knows Heb is a frequent guest in Longwise’s bed, although not the only one of the crew to find a place there.

Xan greets Longwise and Heb with hearty embraces and is ushered quickly below deck into the galley. Many more of the crew are there, breaking their fast on a stew of roots and barley, spiced to smell like the vittles of home. Xan’s belly growls. He seats himself and is delighted when a wooden bowl of the stew is placed before him by the round-faced cook.

A thin woman with a scarred face sits at the table, drinking ale. She raises her cup to him as he clomps down the steps. “Xan, at last,” she says in clumsy, but serviceable Plumian.

“Inga,” Xan says, lifting the cup of firewine that he is handed and nodding a greeting to her before beginning to eat eagerly.