Chapter Eighteen

"You better put him out right now! I'm not letting that bastard spend another night alone with you."

Remus darted down the hall as Lord Dubois lifted his boot. Fuck no, he wasn't. He slammed it into the door which wasn't the sturdiest. The wood cracked, and a line of light appeared as the door opened a little.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Remus roared.

Lord Dubois turned his puce face and didn't get to do much else before Remus grabbed him by the throat. In the room, he caught a glimpse of Sébastien with his hair wet and stringy like he'd just finished washing it. He was also completely naked.

Besides that very obvious fact, he'd snatched his sword, ready to fight anyone who came busting in. Remus noticed his terrified expression before he shoved Lord Dubois past the doorway and lifted his fist just as the door slammed shut.

"Remus! No!"

Arms grabbed him from behind as a couple of men hauled him backward. Lord Dubois stumbled as Lord Rochefort rushed over.

Ahead, Tom came out of his room in his sleep clothes as Remus shouted. "I'll fucking kill him! Let me go!"

Lord Rochefort got in front and grabbed his shirt. Remus would have knocked him down and charged for Lord Dubois if the others hadn't been holding him back with all of his might.

"Remus-" said Lord Rochefort.

"I'll fucking pound his face to a pulp! He was going to attack the Prince."

"Stop for a second-"

"I won't stop! He kicked the fucking door open! He's drunk, and he'll hurt-"

"Arrest him! Right now!" Lord Dubois pointed at Remus as voices came from behind, and boots stomped up the stairs.

"Shut the fuck up!" snapped Lord Rochefort. "You've already caused enough trouble."

Lord Dubois's mouth dropped as Tom inserted himself between them. "Whatever's going on here, we all need to step back for a moment and calm down. Prince Sébastien?"

The Prince didn't answer, and Remus could only imagine what he'd thought while alone in the room with a man trying to bust down the door.

Lord Rochefort stayed in front of Remus who'd finally stopped trying to break free, and he pushed him back before turning to Lord Dubois. "Get in my room."

"Fuck you! I want him arrested-"

"Get in my room! Now!"

"Don't take that tone with me! You're the same rank, and you can't tell me what to do-"

"The Prince should arrest you for what you just did! You pretty much attacked him!"

"I hit the door, not him!"

Lord Dubois stomped across the hall and into another room. Lord Rochefort followed, and as soon as the door closed, both started yelling at each other.

Remus took a breath and told himself to unclench his fists. "Er, Prince Sébastien?"

"The door won't close right," Sébastien said through it.

Which meant he couldn't get dressed if he had to hold it shut. Thanks to the cracks in the frame near the knob, it would never properly close without some serious repair. Remus took the doorknob and pulled on it to keep it closed. Tom gave him a warning look.

"I'm holding it closed," said Remus. "Sébastien, get dressed."

"For fuck's sake." Tom rubbed his face and whispered. "Lord Dubois tried to bust in while the Prince was changing?"

"Pretty much." While roaring about Remus being there. Fucking idiot.

Others stood in the hall with befuddled expressions. A few appeared wary of Remus like he'd started shit just because. Tom flapped his hands at them and ordered them back to bed.

"Stop staring and making it all worse or I'll stick you outside in tents. If Lord Rochefort or Prince Sébastien need you, they'll say so."

They grumbled as they returned to wherever they'd been before. Some citizens at the far end who'd come up at the racket started to head back down, although Remus was sure the drinking and whatnot would be done pretty soon.

Everybody would be talking the next day.

Tom awkwardly stood there while Sébastien must have dressed with lightning speed. Finally, he said Remus could come in.

"Only Remus. No one else."

Tom backed away as Remus slipped in and tried to close the door. Lord Dubois had busted the rusty latch too. The old, dry wood of the place couldn't withstand such violent kicks. Remus leaned on it as the Prince stood in his sleep clothes with his cloak thrown on and laced up the front. He‘d stuck his arms through the side slits and folded them.

"Are you all right?" asked Remus.

"As fine as you can expect," Sébastien snarled before he rubbed a small spot on his upper chest. "Did you beat his face in?"

"No. I grabbed him by the throat, shoved him, and threatened to rearrange his features and kill him. Lord Rochefort got between us and some others grabbed me. Erm, what the fuck happened?"

Sébastien's eyes flicked to the wall. The two lords were still arguing with each other in Lord Rochefort's room. "I was washing and nearly done, and he started pounding on the door while demanding that I send you out. I told him to piss off, but he wouldn't stop. He said I have to get rid of you."

Remus glanced at the basin and water bucket in the corner. "I didn't think he'd go this far-I mean, you already stomped on his throat."

"He won't let that happen too easily if he can."

"You have to send him back."

Sébastien shook his head. "I can't."

"He damn near attacked you! He literally busted the door open!"

"I can't send him back, especially this early in Midland."

"You know he intends to do…something," Remus whispered. "Biatano is likely when he has a definite plan because the Regent thinks you'll grow relaxed, but he's taking any chance to undermine you now because the sooner-"

"Remus, think," hissed Sébastien. "This early after reaching Midland? What do you think Lord Dubois will say when he comes before the Regent? That he was an arse and deserved to be sent away? No. He'll say that you've been freed, you're aiding me, and I let you run rampant. He'll have a string of lies, truths, and half-truths that‘ll make me look worse, and the Regent will happily take all of that to use as he pleases. Or he'll say all of the truth, and the Regent will still twist it to suit him because I can't do right in his eyes. He'll spread around Soleil that I'm consorting with a potential enemy and-" He rubbed his face with both hands. "I can't risk it this early. If there's going to be a treason charge against me, it needs to be later, and preferably after we have an army ready to stand with us. Not this early."

"Okay, but-"

"The Regent also isn't going to like it if there's clear proof that you're truly helping me and not only tagging along because I said so. You're supposed to hate and stab me in the back first chance so you can escape after I'm dead. Why do you think he didn't complain about you coming along? If you do his dirty work, yay." Sébastien gave a bitter smile. "He's hoping you'll kill me and flee. Then he can point the finger at the enemy and cry about his precious nephew."

He was right. If they sent Lord Dubois back now, it would cause more problems. The Earl could literally say anything, and the Regent would further lie and twist things. Sébastien may as well hand him a dagger. He wanted that bastard out, but parts of this had to be a waiting game to give themselves more time.

"Fine, but I'm not leaving you alone like that again," said Remus. "If I had stayed out longer in the town to walk around, I wouldn't have heard or known a thing. Beyond complaining, I thought he'd managed to control himself since you scared him on the ship."

"Not for long. I'm an ignorant twenty-two-year-old idiot with his head stuck between someone's legs."

"We're not splitting up like earlier," said Remus.

"All right. I get it."

And he wasn't going to say how the image of Sébastien in all of his naked glory would forever be imprinted on his brain.

"We can't sleep in here," Sébastien said just as someone knocked.

"Prince Sébastien?"

"Let him in."

Lord Rochefort entered. Remus was used to seeing him in his day clothes, not a pair of drawers and a baggy sleep shirt. The lord glanced at the ruined door.

"Fuck."

"Does he have some excuse for trying to bust in while I was naked?" spat Sébastien.

Lord Rochefort leaned against the wall. "He said he was perfectly within his right to do that because you're unsafe with Remus in such close quarters. Since you took off his collar and cuffs to free him without telling anyone, it's obvious you are two fucking, and your mind is beyond clouded."

Sébastien scoffed.

"He must be your first cock for you to do something so outrageous and unsafe. Oh, and since Remus must be fucking your brains out every night, causing you to lose all sense, you're going to end up dead because of Remus. At the very least, he'll sabotage us and flee back to Rowland when he has a good chance. As Lord Dubois put it, you need to get Remus's cock out of your ass and mouth, and you need to appropriately deal with him." Lord Rochefort rolled his eyes.

"Deal with him?" Sébastien said in a deadly quiet. "By doing what?"

"By punishing him and keeping him properly chained and collared at all times so he's basically helpless."

"What I do is none of his business."

"I know-"

"We're also not fucking."

"No one's head is between anyone's legs either," said Remus.

Lord Rochefort raised a hand. "Those are his words, not mine. Free means you're both consenting adults, and you can do or not do what you want. Lord Dubois isn't going to forget this, so you better put him in his place later. I told Lord Dubois that you're an adult, and you've given no real reason for him to think you're incapable of caring for yourself. I'm pretty sure that went in one ear and out of the other."

"Figures," grumbled Remus.

"I've told you how he is," said Lord Rochefort. "Prince, you understand how he is too. He can't admit he's wrong, and he only cares about what he thinks is right. Also, he's smashed on whiskey. I could smell it."

"I'll tell him myself tomorrow morning that if he ever does such a thing again, he's out. I will not have people busting in when I'm washing or making demands of me. I want to go to sleep, and if he gets within fifteen feet of me before tomorrow morning before I'm ready to deal with him, Remus might not be able to save his throat."

"Very well, Your Majesty," Lord Rochefort gave a hasty bow and exited.

"We need to pick a new room," said Sébastien.

***

They would have taken the original lord's rooms earlier if it wasn't in bad shape. In the bedroom, the mattress had been left behind, and it smelled like mold. The curtains around it were in tatters, and the whole bedroom looked like a place where Remus might wake up to see a ghost standing at the door and pointing at him. Not that he believed in stuff like that.

The sitting room smelled musty, and no one had bothered to clean it up. The other rooms were small and good enough for a night, but they'd all been claimed, and Sébastien didn't feel like booting someone out or setting up their tent outside.

They'd been given pallets earlier for their room, and they moved those over. Once all of their stuff was in the sitting room, Remus placed his pallet in front of the door and said he'd sleep there just in case.

Sébastien seemed unsure of what to do with his, and Remus suggested he could sleep by the window. They'd opened it for air, and the stale odor wouldn't be so bad.

The Prince put his pallet closer so that when they laid down, Sébastien's head was quite close to Remus's, and his feet were pointed the opposite way. It was rather odd, and Remus assumed he wanted to be close in some way without their bodies being side by side.

Even once they were in their pallets, their weapons were within easy reach, the door was locked, and a nice breeze from the open window made the air a little easier, he could sense the Prince's tension. Earlier had surely jarred him more than he'd truly admit.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Remus asked in a low voice, trying to offer the Prince the option to talk if he wanted.

"He didn't touch me."

"Still…"

Sébastien was silent. Remus kept thinking of earlier with the apology kiss on his cheek, the soft one on his neck, the Prince's hand on his arm, and the words he'd never imagined hearing.

Despite trying, he couldn't get rid of the image of the Prince naked. Why did he have to be such a sucker for pretty men on the slimmer side?

Along with the image of the Prince's lightly muscled body, he kept seeing the cracked mask which he didn't like. Sébastien had been terrified while alone and ready to kill if Lord Dubois had gotten in. Remus hadn't thought of it at the moment, so solely focused on keeping him away from the Prince, but he'd probably saved Lord Dubois's life again. If he'd gone in there while raging, the threatened Prince probably would have gutted him.

They might have been able to get past that by twisting the facts a little as needed and saying the lord had ill intentions involving the naked Prince. It wouldn't hold in the long run because the Regent would squawk murder once he heard. It might have kept the rest of the men compliant and willing to follow for a while longer. Considering the ruined door and his being smashed on whiskey, it would have been likely for the others to believe it.

"Tell me something," murmured Sébastien.

"What?"

"A story from Rowland or something like that."

"Oh, er…" He must have needed something to distract his mind.

Remus told him the story about the wolf saving the first people there.

"Whether he saved them from the storm, or a big pack of wolves that wanted to eat them afterward, both stories contain the pregnant woman," said Remus. "She became the Queen of Rowland, and her husband became the King. They had twins."

"Like you and Quintus."

"Yeah, except they didn't betray each other. Supposedly, Rowland ruled South Sea too. They sent Prince Angelo to rule it, sort of like you being the Duke of Midland, I guess."

"Were the people there South Sea fairies?" asked Sébastien. "The sort without our magic, I mean. We don't have many stories about them in Soleil."

"I don't know. The stories never mention what kind of magic the first Queen and King of Rowland had either. Were they South Sea fairies or like the rest of us? Prince Angelo supposedly gave his life to protect South Sea from some kind of beast that came. There's not much detail, although there's a version where he gets into an epic sword fight with the monster."

"What's the monster?"

"Some say it's a kind of demon because of those inscriptions in South Sea. As if he came from the human's Hell. A devil." Remus shook his head as he stared at the dark ceiling. "I think they just picked something that sounded scary, and none of that happened. History is so fuzzy from back then, you've got people making up talking roosters."

Sébastien snorted at the mention of that Soleilian story. "Our talking rooster is rather interesting to imagine."

"I think, since Prince Angelo supposedly was young when he passed, that someone tried to invade or something like that, and he unfortunately died fighting. The thing is, if Elira still walked the realm back then, and there was some grave threat, why not call Elira like some supposedly did?"

"A lot of Kingdoms have stories of an enormous threat that came. I guess using Elira to fight it sounded too easy."

"Yeah, and it makes a good tale to tell by the fire, so people keep it up." Remus wished there was a way to know the true history which was probably a lot less interesting in some ways.

"In a thousand years, the wolf will have fought a bunch of evil, giant snails that tried to slime the fairies to death."

Remus chuckled at the image of a bunch of evil snails inching after a few panicked fairies with their eye stalks going in different directions. "That'd be a terrible way to go. No, wait. A singing rooster will fight the evil snails."

Sébastien gave a tiny laugh.

***

Sébastien gave Lord Dubois such a verbal ass-whupping the next day, Remus almost expected the lord to shrivel into nothing. His face turned purple with suppressed rage, and it didn't help that every man in their group who could fit into the hall was watching.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Sébastien finally asked as he sat at the crummy High Table and looked down his nose.

"I'm merely concerned for your safety," Lord Dubois gritted out.

"By barging in while I was alone and trying to wash up? I think I've been quite clear on how inappropriate you were, so don't use bullshit excuses."

"You freed him, although you really can't. He's the Rowland Prince so he'll always be a slave."

"Excuse me?"

"He's the enemy, and the Regent would not permit you to free the man who killed his Uncle and the Regent of Rowland."

"It's rather obvious he didn't do that, and no one believes that story. We merely stay out of Rowland's affairs, family or otherwise, to keep the peace. I freed him since I don't believe he's committed a crime, and the story isn't right."

"I believe he did." Lord Dubois flicked his eyes toward Remus.

"You didn't complain quite so boldly about a supposed murderer coming along before," said Lord Rochefort. "If I was so worried about the Prince being in close quarters with a murderer, I wouldn't have left them alone for a second. Remus has been alone with Prince Sébastien many times, and besides your nitpicking when you felt like it, you didn't seem that afraid."

Lord Dubois glared at Lord Rochefort who returned it. "He was also collared."

"I'm done with your bullshit," said Sébastien. "If you act so foolishly one more time, I'll send you back to Soleil. Don't test me, and don't ever overstep your boundaries again. This is your final warning."

"I'll take my men if you do that."

The room grew quiet at the words. It wasn't outright treason, but it was walking a dangerous line since a lord can't take his men and leave without permission.

Sébastien leaned forward. "Go ahead. You can all be accused of treason and abandoning your post. Drag your men into that, Lord Dubois, and see how many friends you make. Or how the Regent reacts."

Lord Dubois held his gaze with no visible fear. The Regent would take his side and protect him, and he damn well knew it.

"Anything else to say?" asked Sébastien.

"No, Your Majesty."

"See that it stays that way."

***

Since people talk, and someone must have thought to send out a message, the next location wasn't nearly as hostile when they arrived four days later. It was hardly a village and more like a hamlet that had popped up outside of a winery where they used grapes grown right there.

Someone said they'd gotten word from Rowing Rest, and while they were a bit suspicious, they welcomed the Prince. Their first success would surely make things easier overall since the people of Rowing Rest hadn't wasted time by blabbing. Others would also hear the Prince wasn't an asshole.

While the hamlet had no soldiers, the people were unhappy because they too hadn't been permitted to use the quarry near Rowing Rest. They wanted stone homes, not ones of wood since they planned to stay and work their plots and the fields of grapes. The winery was the oldest building there. It was made from stone and needed serious repairs.

Sébastien said they were permitted to use the quarry, and there were no more restrictions on it. Once he settled in Biatano, they could write or send a messenger at any time if they had problems.

When Sébastien asked the gathered people who they would like for a lord, they couldn't decide.

"We don't need one," said a horned woman with a baby on her hip. "If we've got a problem, we take a vote because there's so few of us."

"But you might like someone to speak for you, and if this place ever grows, you'll have one of your bloodlines set over you."

"Midland ain't much for growing," she said. "This hamlet might not be here in a century."

"It's still valuable in case something ever happens."

The people tried to pick the winery owner, and she said she had enough to do with the business. Making wine was her life. Judging by her husband's blotchy complexion and veiny nose, drinking her wine was his life.

They finally picked a cat fairy couple who supposedly had good heads on their shoulders.