Chapter Six

Nearly a week had passed since he'd surrendered the greater part of his duties attending Relanya to his brother-in-law. His sister had tried to do it herself, but the crazy woman had just had a baby, for the love of the Gods. Thankfully, Mother had put a brisk end to that.

He still saw her around the palace, and could often hear her playing with her son in their private garden, but generally he only got to see her at dinner, which he determinedly attended every single night—to the amusement of his family, when he was well known to avoid the banquets whenever he could.

Hopefully they didn't realize why he was so determined to have dinner in the public hall these days. The last thing he needed was his family realizing he was smitten with Relanya. His parents would give him the lecture of a lifetime, his sister would tease him, and dear gods, if his brother ever found out… Well, one of them would have to die, that was absolute.

Aradishir set aside the contracts he'd been reading through as a favor to his sister and scrubbed at his face, willing away the exhaustion that washed over him. "Would you call for some tea, Heydar?"

"Of course, my prince." Heydar kissed him softly, then rose gracefully and went to see to it.

Flopping backward to sprawl on the floor, completely uncaring how childish the move was, especially given he was in his office, Aradishir stared at the ceiling and sighed. What was wrong with him? His entire life had been handed to him, and all he could do was mope about the one woman he couldn't have.

Still, the thought that she would always be right there but forever out of reach…

It had only been a little over a week since her arrival. To be this smitten was stupid. It was a silly infatuation. He'd get over it soon and be embarrassed with himself, and she'd be a wonderful sister. She would be an amazing queen, was already an amazing mother…

His stomach knotted at the thought of Relanya having children with Bakhtiar. They'd be beautiful children, and hopefully take more after their mother than their father…

Aradishir sat up sharply, palms pressed to the sides of his head as he stared unseeing at the contracts he needed to finish reviewing.

Hopelessly smitten with a so-called commoner? No problem. A royal guard? Fine. A thief? Had definitely gotten him yet another stern lecture, but overall, acceptable. His brother's betrothed?

He jerked upright as the door slid open, and mustered a smile for Heydar, who held the requested tray of tea. "Thank you."

Setting the tray down, Heydar poured for him and offered the cup for Aradishir to sip, gently stroking his cheek as he withdrew it. "Will you tell me what has been troubling you so much this past week, my prince? We can all see it, the three of us."

"Nothing. It's stupid. The less I talk about it—think about—the better off we'll all be."

"We are here to share those burdens with you, Ari." Heydar placed two fingers under his chin and gently tilted his head up. "Princess Relanya?"

Aradishir turned away, humiliation tearing through him. "My feelings are inappropriate—and fleeting, no doubt. I just want to be left alone until this childish infatuation passes."

Heydar sighed softly, but only murmured, "As you wish, my prince," before coaxing Aradishir into finishing the tea and snacks. Once the meal was done and the dishes taken away, he went back to work on the contracts, marking the sections he had problems with and making notes for his sister to read over whenever she had the chance. "All right, let's stretch our legs before the meeting with the silk merchants." He was exhausted just thinking about it, but these meetings with the various merchant guilds were vital to all the changes he wanted to make to counter the trafficking.

Outside, the day was as sweltering as ever, but in the ornate, carefully arranged and maintained royal gardens, water and shade kept everything cool. Aradishir settled on a low, angled chair by the largest part of the artificial stream that wended through the garden, in the shade of a lush olive tree that had been planted when he was born. Fish darted about in the water, and birds sang all over the garden, though they would fall silent the moment they realized his sister's cat had gotten loose again.

"Have a guard capture that cat before my mother sees him and kills my sister," Aradishir said with a huff of laughter.

Heydar snorted. "I'll get it. The poor guards just wind up running laps until the cat gets bored. He headed in the direction of the bush Aradishir had indicated, and when he was just a few paces from it, a sleek, gold cat with black ears and paws bolted from cover and across the garden. "Damn it, cat!"

Laughing, but feeling bad, Aradishir got up to help, and the two of them chased the cat around the garden, darting around trees and leaping over bushes and across the stream. "Cat!" Aradishir said and made a lunge for it—only to slip on the moss by the stream and tumble right into the water.

He sat up just in time to watch the damned cat clear the east wall to go investigate a different garden. "I'm going to skin that thing alive one of these days."

Heydar started to reply, sweaty and dirty and equally annoyed, when a beautiful, painfully familiar laugh rolled across the garden.

Groaning, face hot with exertion and mortification, Aradishir hauled himself to his feet and waded out of the water as Relanya drew closer, flanked by her handmaidens.

"Are you all right, Your Highness?" Relanya asked. "That was quite the tumble."

Aradishir climbed up the bank and onto the path, where a servant was already rushing up with a drying cloth. "I'm fine. As usual with my escapades, nothing is damaged except my dignity. Last time, I tried to stop a disagreement in the main pavilion and wound up doused in sugar syrup. I don't recall what happened before that ."

"Puppies," Heydar said drolly. "My prince was attacked by a pack of puppies and toppled into a fountain."

Relanya and her handmaidens giggled—and it only worsened as Aradishir shot Heydar a glare.

Unrepentant, Heydar replied, "Shall I list the incidents before that? Like the time you were caught sneaking around the night market?"

"You were there too," Aradishir muttered.

"What is the night market?" one of the handmaidens asked.

Aradishir's face went hot, and even Heydar looked chagrined at having mentioned something so crass in front of a princess and her retinue. Setting his shoulders, he nevertheless said, "When the official market closes, after the sun sets, people arrive to sell various items that are not appropriate for daylight hours."

"Or entirely legal," Aradishir added.

"Oh, I see," Relanya said, eyes glittering, and Aradishir very nearly threw himself right back into the stream. To cool off or drown, he hadn't yet decided.

As if sensing his thoughts, Heydar curved his arm around Aradishir, resting a hand gently but firmly on his hips, and leaned in to kiss his shoulder, right at the space between throat and shirt where skin was bared. "Shall we return to your rooms, my prince? The meeting with the silk merchants is soon, and I doubt you want to show up looking like…well, a wet cat."

"I hate you," Aradishir muttered, before sweeping Relanya the best bow he could manage under the soaking-wet circumstances. "I'll see you this evening at dinner, Your Highness. Hopefully in a dryer state."

"At dinner, Your Highness," Relanya replied, hand in front of her mouth, eyes still sparkling with something Aradishir could not name.

He smiled stiffly and departed, pulling away from Heydar's touch as they threaded through the gardens until they reached the back entrance of his rooms. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go drown myself in the bath."

"What in the world happened to you?" Merza asked, dropping the papers he'd been reading over and surging to his feet. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," Aradishir said bitterly, jerking away from their attempts to touch. "First I nearly got her killed, and now I looked like a perfect fucking fool. What's next? Hurting her feelings? Breaking a limb like my stupid brother? Getting into a fight with one of those stupid clods on the council? Bah." He waved them off when they tried again to help him, shucking his wet clothes on his way to the bath.

He slid into the hot water and sat so that it was up to his chin.

Normally he didn't mind his propensity to get himself into absurd situations, like the sugar syrup from the previous week. And who cared if his future sister-in-law thought he was a clumsy twit? But the humiliation of it all burned through him anyway, every laugh and giggle and amused glance. Between looking abjectly stupid and the way assassins had nearly gotten to them… the way Relanya had been able to fight, but Aradishir could only cower…

Even if he were the eldest child, she wouldn't want him.

He still couldn't believe that Javed, Heydar, and Merza wanted him. He was the youngest and least interesting of his siblings, and spent his days doing all the 'boring' work they didn't want to do.

The sound of muted splashing jerked him from his thoughts, and he scowled to see all three of the men occupying his thoughts had joined him. "I really think it best if you leave me alone for now. I can barely stand myself; I certainly don't expect anyone else to."

Javed slid onto the bench next to him and kissed his cheek. "You're too hard on yourself, my prince. Or are you forgetting that Bakhtiar isn't here because he broke his leg doing something stupid?"

The barest hint of a smile crept onto Aradishir's lips. "True. But he didn't do it in front of someone he's supposed to be impressing."

Heydar snorted. "He's lucky you're the one making the first impressions." He took Aradishir's right hand and squeezed it gently. "You are too harsh with yourself, like always. There was nothing in Princess Relanya's eyes but fondness." He grinned in that slow, sharp way of his that always spelled trouble. "Especially fondness for how your wet clothes clung to every last detail of you."

Aradishir's face grew hot as he flailed upright. "She did not! Or something."

The others laughed, and it was Merza, moving to stand between his legs, who said, "My prince, there are people who would pay shocking amounts of money to own anything you wore, to see you naked for just ten seconds. I would be astonished if she didn't admire you."

"She's betrothed to Bakhtiar, and it's not the same thing as…" Wanting him . Plenty of people wanted to fuck him, for all manner of reasons, but none of them because they wanted Aradishir. Even if she wasn't promised elsewhere, wanting to fuck him wasn't the same as wanting him .

No, he'd wind up married to a woman of the court, more than likely, at most somebody from the Great Desert to continue strengthening that relationship. "I need to get ready for the meeting with the merchants." He climbed out of the bath and fetched a drying cloth himself, though the others caught up in time to help him dress, something he normally enjoyed.

Right then, though, he just wanted to be alone, to lick his wounds in private, regather himself to act like the prince he was, stop being so maudlin and clumsy and hopelessly pathetic.

Once he was clean and dressed again, Aradishir went back to meetings and contracts, until he had to prepare for dinner. He stood still as his harem dressed him in dark blue and green, with gold, sapphire, and emerald jewelry to accent. He'd invited a few merchants to dine with them tonight, mingling with guests invited by his sister and parents, a combination which should make for an interesting dinner, though also a working one. Not something he looked forward to after such an exhausting day, but it was necessary so that was the end of the matter.

"Shall we?" he asked his harem once they were all ready, forcing back the exhaustion trying to creep over him.

They each kissed him softly before falling into place around him as they headed for the banquet hall, royal guards further flanking them for protection. He should be able to wander the palace in safety, hardly needing the same protections as his parents and Bakhtiar—when he actually bothered to be here—but these days it sometimes felt like he was in more danger than them.

He really couldn't wait for this whole mess to be settled, but the truth was that it would likely take years, even decades, to effect the kinds of changes he wanted. It would all be easier if he had more help at his level, but getting nobles to assist him was like trying to make his sister's cat behave, and he doubted even the chance to become a princess would motivate any of them. Nobody wanted to fight such a brutal battle, especially when it seemed like someone tried to kill him at least once every few weeks.

Whoever he did wind up marrying, they'd probably be certain to stay far away from the mess, attend other duties, and hope they weren't used against him anyway.

Such gloomy thoughts were for later. For the present, he forced his mind to the banquet, the proper conversations to have, what he needed from the guests he'd invited, and a stern reminder not to stare longingly at his brother's betrothed.