Chapter Fourteen

Once they were gone, Aradishir sighed, stretching his limbs and rolling his neck before setting his shoulders. "What's next, then? I suppose we must go find my parents again, see what they've been up to since I left."

"Indeed," said a guard with faint amusement. "A message was delivered to tell you to meet them in His Majesty's private gardens when you were done meeting with Lady Kubra and Master Masood. They stressed there was no urgency, and they would be there for some time."

"Thank you." Aradishir gave his clothes a once over, but they'd be suitable for nearly anything that came up until he had to change for dinner. "I'll head there now then."

His parents were in the gazebo, a beautiful stone piece draped in various climbing plants that lent cooling shade, located on a miniature island in the middle of the large pool that dominated this part of the sprawling gardens. In the middle of the gazebo, settled on a large, plush cushion, his father's concubine Nandakumar played soft music. Beynum and Witcher sat with his father, Aaliyah and Gulzar sat with his mother.

"Hiding from the rest of the palace?" Aradishir asked with a grin as he took a seat, accepting the tray of wine a servant set beside him with a soft thank you.

Heydar took over pouring, as Merza sat on his other side and Javed nearby, conversing quietly with Beynum.

"Yes," his mother said. "It's been untenable. We—" she stopped as three guards approached.

The guards knelt and bowed, and then the sergeant at the front of the trio said, "Your Majesties, Your Highness, we have captured the errant merchants."

"Good," Shahjahan said. "Thank you. Take them and everyone else arrested today to the grand throne room."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The guards left, and Shah motioned to a servant standing off to the side awaiting orders. "Summon the council to the grand throne room. I want everyone in attendance. No excuses, save health and familial emergencies."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Shah rose and offered a hand to Fahima. "Shall we end this?"

Aradishir tossed back the wine Heydar handed him, then rose as well. "Let's end this." Out in the hall, they went their separate ways to return to their rooms and dress properly for court. The casual clothes he currently wore wouldn't do, especially when he wanted to make a statement.

In his room, he stripped off his clothes, washed up quickly, then dutifully held still—or moved only as bid—while his harem dressed him, braided his hair, and affixed jewelry. As Aradishir spent most of his time in his office, meeting rooms, parlors, or showing people around the gardens, he rarely had occasion to dress as finely as his siblings did. There simply wasn't any point when he was going to be sitting at a desk or table, well out of sight, most of the day.

When he was finally ready, dressed in green, black, and gold, harem resplendent as always, they headed out for court and whatever else the day brought.

They were almost there when someone called, "Your Highness!"

Aradishir turned, delight and misery flooding him in equal measure. "Your Highness, how are you today?

Relanya smiled, but strangely it did not quite meet her eyes. "Wonderful as always in your fine home, Your Highness. I wanted to congratulate you."

"Oh? Thank you. How did you hear so quickly?"

"The staff has been positively abuzz with the news."

"They have?" Aradishir's brows rose. "I wouldn't have thought most people would care so much, but I suppose it's not every day that multiple merchants are arrested all at once on charges of human trafficking, kidnapping, and attempted murder, and dragged to the palace to be made a spectacle of. It will be nice to have this over with finally."

Surprise filled Relanya's face, and her eyes suddenly looked less sad. "You caught them? That's marvelous. That I had not heard."

"Then what were you congratulating me for?" Aradishir said. "I admit I am thoroughly confused now."

Relanya laughed, though it was a weak effort honestly, and the momentary happiness brightening her eyes faded again, despite the fact she was clearly making an effort to maintain her levity. She must be tired or something—well, stressed, obviously , dumbass. Her visit had been nothing but one disaster after another. "Why on your engagement of course. To that beautiful woman I saw you embracing this morning, I assume."

"What woman? I haven't—oh!" Aradishir laughed. "No, not mine! I mean not me." He sighed at himself. " I mean that I am not the one getting married, though that woman was. Is. Mercy, I cannot speak anymore. The woman is Lady Kubra, a friend and ally in my fight against those stupid merchants. I offered to pay for her wedding." He quickly explained all that had transpired. "In thanks, and because she certainly deserves it, I insisted on paying for everything. She and Master Masood were quite beside themselves. I hope it gives them something happy to focus on after all the stress and fear."

"That's incredibly kind of you," Relanya said. "I feel silly. I asked several people just to be certain I was hearing right, because I thought it strange that everything was so abrupt, but then I just figured I had missed all the history that meant it wasn't abrupt, or maybe that it was some romantic, whirlwind thing."

Aradishir smiled crookedly. "Alas, marriage is not in my near future. All else aside, the focus should be on you and Bakhti right now. I would never be so rude or disrespectful to you, my brother, and a non-existent bride to have our engagements at the same time. I'm sure something will be arranged for me in a few more years." He offered his arm. "Were you on your way to the throne room to watch the proceedings?"

"No, but I would greatly like to, thank you." Relanya accepted his arm, and with guards, concubines, and handmaidens around them, they headed off to the throne room.

He wasn't surprised that Bakhti, Jahanara, and Danial were also there, though he was annoyed that Bakhtiar hadn't thought to invite Relanya, given that this sort of thing would be amongst their primary duties one day.

"There you are, and you found Relanya along the way," Fahima said warmly. "Sit with me and Jahanara, dear. It's so nice having two daughters, feels like I can finally put the boys in their place."

Shahjahan gave a snorting laugh. "My jewel, you put all of us in our place three times a day."

Fahima smirked, sharing a look with him that Aradishir had no desire to witness whatsoever.

So he ignored them, as he often did when they were acting like that, and settled into his seat.

Relanya took the seat next to his, and it took all of his training not to show his surprise. Why would she sit with him and not Bahkti?

To their father's right, Bahkti seemed wholly unbothered by the decision. If he'd even noticed, which was fifty-fifty with him.

"Summon the prisoners," Shah said to the guard at the base of the dais, who saluted and strode to the doors, where he instructed the guards outside.

Several minutes later, before the whole of the council and much of the court who'd decided to observe the public proceedings, every merchant that Aradishir had struggled with was brought into the throne room in chains.

Shah must have ordered that explicitly, because ordinarily the only prisoners kept in chains were those who were an immediate danger to those around them or at extreme risk of trying to flee. He was sending a message, and to judge by the silence that swept through the room and the expressions on several faces, the message had been received.

"Merchants," Shah said, another insult and warning. His father was, above all else, respectful to everyone. Where too many in the palace would sneer and scoff at a poor farmer or awkward laborer who'd never learned to read and write, Shah treated them with the same accord afforded his nobles. Some days, more, because no one taxed Shah's infamous patience like the spoiled brats that were, unfortunately, just as necessary to the running of the kingdom as the lower classes. "You are charged with many crimes, the most severe of which is the trafficking of people. If convicted, the punishment is execution. Steward, the list of crimes in full, if you please."

Ikram, his father's long-time steward, lifted the piece of paper in his hand and began to read. Normally a clerk would do such a thing, but Shah was determined to make his points as clear and sharp as possible.

Though he was calm, quiet, and incredibly kind, Ikram was also dangerous and fierce. Combined with his full body tattoo of snake scales and having him read out the damning list of your crimes, it was a situation that would humble even the most arrogant person.

Trafficking. Kidnapping. Abuse. Nevermind the financial crimes entailed with hiding money, the lying about cargo bound for international trade, and so many more. Not only were they facing execution, their homes and other assets would be seized to make right by every victim that could be found and returned home.

As to their families… first the culpability of wives, relatives, and so forth must be determined. Knowing his father and Ikram, those persons had already been detained and were awaiting an audience. Aradishir would probably take on that duty, as this entire matter had been given to him.

The children would be the most difficult, but people who trafficked children shouldn't be trusted with their own, certainly. So that was something else he would have to attend. Relanya would probably be good at that. Pity she could not help him, even if she wanted to, which he couldn't be certain of. She was simply too busy learning all her duties as crown princess.

"Have you anything to say in your defense?" Shah asked, calm but as cold as a desert night.

The merchants were silent, most staring sullenly at the floor, a few casting Aradishir looks of hate and loathing before being roughly nudged by guards to lower their eyes.

"The evidence is quite damning," Shah continued when the silence had stretched on. "You will of course be given a fair and honest trial, but I think we all know that it will not go in your favor. Especially you four, as you decided to kidnap Lady Kubra and kill several people in the process. No, I don't want to hear you didn't do the actual killing. I don't actually kill the soldiers of opposing armies when we must go to war, I don't actually kill our soldiers, but it is my decisions that led to their deaths. If I can take responsibility for that, so can you. The trials will begin in one week, you have that long to prepare your personal defenses and to make arrangements for your families, though of course the court and the throne can countermand them if we deem them untoward. You are dismissed."

In the end, such matters were always rather anticlimactic. They would return to their cells. They would write useless pleas for their lives. Their lawyers would do their job. Their families would be left adequate homes and funds for a stable life that would still be better than the poor ever got. As many people as possible would be found where they'd been sold across the world and brought home. International relations would be tense as Tavamara worked with various countries to get those people back.

All of that would take a lifetime. Aradishir's lifetime. A worthy way to spend a life, but it shouldn't have to be done at all.

The whole affair would be easier if he had someone to help him, work alongside him. He would of course have plenty of help, especially Lady Kubra, but an actual partner who could help with the political side of things, especially internationally… Like say a certain princess who could not be more perfect for the job…

Well, he'd managed this long; he would continue to do so. There were plenty of other people who could help him, and he'd build international alliances as he progressed.

Once the throne room was empty, he rose to leave.

"Aradishir, I would like to speak with you," Fahima said. "Wait for me in my reading room, if you do not mind."

"You say that like I have a choice," Aradishir said, even as his stomach worked itself into a thousand knots. "Of course. I'll head there now."

He nodded farewell to his father and siblings, bowed slightly in parting to Relanya, and headed off to his mother's private reading room, where wine and food were already waiting. So she'd intended this since before the throne room. Wonderful. "What did I do now?" he asked with a sigh. "This can't be about the trafficking, my parents would have simply spoken to me in the throne room."

Heydar wrapped arms around him from behind, resting his head on Aradishir's shoulder. "You worry too much. Your mother has no reason to be angry with you—"

"—except over how I can't stop making eyes at my brother's fiancé," Aradishir said bitterly. "Maybe I'll get lucky and this whole cleaning up the mess the merchants made will require me traveling overseas."

"It probably will," Fahima said from behind him, making Aradishir jump and barely refrain from screaming.

She stood where a bookcase had moved, because he was a dumbass and forgot this room had access to the secret passages. "Mother."

Fahima smiled faintly. "I did want to talk to you about Princess Relanya, as it happens."

Aradishir recoiled, pulling free from Heydar and warding off all the others. Right now he didn't want anyone touching him. "I didn't— I haven't—"

"Calm down," Fahima said gently. With anyone else, the words would have infuriated him. But his mother was not the condescending type, not unless she was purposely pissing off smarmy councilmen who thought she couldn't possibly be as smart as them. "Leave us, please," she said to all the concubines.

Once they were alone, she took his hands, rubbing the backs of them with her thumbs as she had so many times in her life. "You are smitten with her."

"How could I not be?" Aradishir asked bitterly. "I promise I won't cause problems. I haven't so far."

Fahima smiled in that soft, fond way of hers that he'd always found so soothing, even at his most upset as a child. "Whatever I tease about you being a troublemaker, the truth is that you are the least troublesome of my children. Everyone says you take after me, and this is very true. Right up to and including marrying someone intended for your sibling."

Aradishir's heart seized in his chest. "I'm not marrying her though."

"Would you, though, if you could?"

"You must know my answer to that, and I don't see why tormenting me like this—"

"Because the engagement is causing more problems than we anticipated. While as king and queen we could certainly do whatever we wanted anyway, no wise ruler upsets their people willfully when there are other options. Everyone likes Relanya, but they do not like her as queen."

"You can't… you can't be saying what I think you're saying."

Fahima smiled. "If I am?"

"She's not a taki piece to just be moved around as the player likes!" Aradishir snapped. "She should be queen, not—"

"Aradishir," Fahima cut in sternly. "You cannot think that I of all people would make people go through with something so important and pivotal if all parties were not amenable to the change."

Aradishir couldn't breathe . "What do you mean?"

Fahima laughed softly. "Silly boy, do you think that you are the only one smitten where you think you shouldn't be? The whole of the palace has noticed that you and Relanya seem more like a happy couple than she ever does with Bakhti."

"They have?" he asked, hoping his face wasn't as red as it felt. "That can't be true. She's older than me, better—"

"Nobody is better than you, my son, and any woman would be lucky to have you. After a point, age is not so important a thing. Look at me and your father. Look at Rakiah and your father. Age gaps all of us, quite significant in Rakiah's case. But he was an adult, and knew his own mind, and made his choices freely and fully informed. I promise that she is as smitten with you as you are with her. I had hoped to have this conversation in a few more days, when other matters were addressed, like speaking with her parents and getting the paperwork adjusted, so all of that was taken care of before I spoke with the two of you. But with all the recent upheaval, best to get this done. People will enjoy your courtship, where they have unfortunately been too narrow minded when she was Bakhti's promised. Anyway, even a blind fool can see those two have all the spark of a lump of mud."

Aradishir had to laugh at that, wobbly though it was. "So you think I should be engaged to Relanya instead."

"My son, half the kingdom already thinks the two of you are," Fahima said dryly. "That the rumors of her and Bakhti is just a strange mix up and people spreading falsehoods, that obviously you are the one engaged to her, just look at how well the two of you get along, and you've been seen with her son just the two of you…"

"I…I don't know how to respond to that."

"Say you agree to the change in plans."

"If Relanya is not upset with the change, then neither am I, obviously . I didn't realize I was being so pathetically obvious."

"Love should never be easy to overlook, even when it's new and still growing." She reached up to brush a strand of hair from his cheek, another motherly gesture she'd done a thousand times and always made him feel better for no reason at all. "I think you two will do very well together, and that will make the whole family and court better. It already shows. But I will let the two of you speak, of course, and make the final decision together."

Aradishir could only nod, not sure what to say, even if he could form the words.

Fahima left, and Aradishir paced restlessly around the room, pulling random books off the shelves, flipping through them without reading a single word before shoving them back into place and moving onto the next.

When the door finally opened, he nearly jumped right out of his skin. He turned around, heart in his throat—and all his worries and hope turned to anger. "You've been crying! Who—"

Relanya laughed. "You truly are the sweetest person I know, Your Highness. I was crying because I'm happy, silly thing. Come here."

Helpless to do anything but obey, Aradishir crossed the room—and very nearly stopped breathing as she cupped his face, her hands soft and warm, the scent of roses and honeysuckle surrounding them. "I am told you would not be opposed to marrying some older woman who already has a child and a dark past."

"You should be a queen," Aradishir said. "You deserve to be queen."

Relanya sighed softly, slowly pulling her hands away, leaving a tingling warmth in their wake. "Darling, all I want is a family that loves me and a home that feels safe. Also to never see snow again if I can help it."

"I…I am pretty certain I can offer most of that. If we have to travel, you might be forced to see snow again," Aradishir said, offering a smile as the last of his anxiety faded, making room for tentative joy. "I'm not nearly the catch my brother is."

"You bought me wonderful presents based on nothing but a dossier, my son is already convinced you're his future stepfather, and—well, I could go on for quite some time. I was distraught and seething with jealousy when I thought you had gotten engaged this morning. I felt so silly."

Aradishir offered his hand and squeezed gently when she took it. "Lady Kubra is my colleague, nothing more. It never occurred to me to see her as anything else, except perhaps a friend. I've been quite dazzled by you since your arrival."

"And we met because my son ran away to play with frogs," Relanya said with a sigh. "What a first impression."

"Well, it worked, because I have agreed quite happily to steal you from my brother, if you are amenable to being stolen."

She pulled her hand free, and entirely nonsensical panic overtook him for a split second before she threw her arms around his neck and dragged him into a kiss that banished any lingering worries. She tasted sweet, and kissed like he belonged to her, an arrangement he could find no issue with.

The rest of her was as soft as her hands had been, as warm as the lips claiming his, the scent of roses and honeysuckle sinking into his very bones. He slid his arms around her waist and went easily as she backed him into the nearest bookcase. "Relanya…"

"I like hearing you say my name," she whispered before kissing him again. "Are you this sweet and pliant in bed?"

"Maybe," Aradishir muttered, cheeks heating, before kissing her again.

When they eventually parted again, flushed and mussed, she said, "Your concubines call you Shir. Can I call you that too?"

"Of course. You can call me whatever you like, my princess."

"Good." She kissed him one last time then pushed away and set to straightening her clothes and hair. "Fahima said—"

"You can't call my mother by her name, oh my god!" Aradishir said. "That is entirely too familiar and scares me."

Relanya burst into giggles. "What else should I call her? You're so silly. Anyway, she said we should join her in the azure dining room when we were done talking, to enjoy a private celebration of our engagement? I spoke to Bakhtiar too, you know. We were both quite relieved to be parted, it's honestly quite ridiculous."

"Is that how you knew I actually bought the gifts?"

"I figured that out on my own, actually, but he confirmed it."

Neat and tidy again, Aradishir offered his arm as they headed out. In the hallway, his harem and her handmaidens waited for them, all grinning shamelessly. "Not a single word from any of you," Aradishir said uselessly.

"Congratulations," Heydar said, the others echoing the words. "We told you so."

"I told you not a word," Aradishir said with a sigh, not bothering to hide his grin. "Come on, dinner and a barrage of teasing awaits us, if you're ready for it, my princess."

"More than ready, my prince," Relanya replied, and kissed him quick and sharp right there in front of the guards, servants, and passersby before they continued on their way, conversation exploding in their wake.

End