The Prince’s Boy: Chapter 86

Welcome to The Prince’s Boy by Cecilia Tan, a tale of a prince and his whipping boy ensnared in a plot of dark erotic magic. Warning: explores themes of dubious consent and situations of sexual jeopardy. NSFW.

A new chapter appears every Wednesday. This week is Chapter Eighty-Six: Jorin

86: Jorin

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I had never heard Sergetten scream before, but I knew even before Seroi’s sorcerous voice began to speak that it was Sergetten whose agony we heard echo through the valley.

It sounded as if he were being flayed alive. Or worse. I could not even imagine what would cause my implacable former master to break in such a way.

Putting my hands over my ears did nothing to block the magically loudened voices. So. Seroi wanted to trade the king and Sergetten for Kenet and me.

“He is insane if he thinks I would put you into his hands!” I growled, as the voice faded away. Kenet and I moved together toward our clothes, no questioning that we had to move quickly. “That any man here would agree to such a thing…!”

“No man would,” came Roichal’s voice, from outside the tent. “Are you dressed my prince? Jorin?”

Kenet was just pulling on a pair of boots that looked slightly too large for him, completing a rough sort of uniform. “Yes, general, do come in.”

Roichal pushed the flap aside and stooped as he came in, Marksin at his heels. “I had intended to allow you to sleep past dawn,” he said wryly, “but it was not to be.”

I bowed low. “I thank you for your consideration, sir. And yours, Field Marshal. Your hospitality could not have been better.”

Marksin smirked a little at that, and so did Kenet, despite the direness of our waking. These two men had given us exactly what we had needed, strange though the scene had been.

The tent was quickly rearranged for a war council, and within minutes the drumming of hoofbeats outside heralded the arrival of the Night Riders. I could hear Kan’s voice, and the low rumble of Bear.

Bear had to duck lower than most to enter. I had forgotten that Kenet had yet to see him! Kenet flew across the tent, nearly knocking the big man from his feet with the force of his sudden embrace. Bear chuckled and patted Kenet on the back. “There now, my prince.”

Kenet loosened his hold enough to take a look at Bear and to say, “Last I saw of you, I had hit you with a candle stand! I was afraid I’d killed you!”

“Faugh! You barely grazed me. I had to play it like it was much worse than it was,” Bear said, puffing out his chest. “But, my prince, we are blocking the way.”

“Oh. Of course.” Kenet finally drew back, and came to sit beside me.

Kan entered the tent, and without hesitation took the seat on Roichal’s left (Marksin was on his right, of course).

Kenet stared openly at Kan.

I exchanged a glance with Roichal and Marksin, who shook his head slightly. No, they had told Kenet nothing of his relative. There had not been time.

Or, there would have been, had he and I not… No. I would regret my actions no longer. I had paid the price for my wrongs and been forgiven.

“A bright morning to you, Weltskin,” Kan said, as a few more men settled themselves. “You’re looking better than I’ve seen you in some time.”

“Thank you,” I replied, trying to think of what I should say. Should I… introduce them? That seemed patently ridiculous and yet…

Bear spared me. “Do not judge these rough men by their appearance, my prince,” he said, “for they are true to the crown, every one. These are the Night Riders.”

Kenet sat back, giving me a quick glance, but then only had eyes for Kan. “Jorin told me he had made your acquaintance in his travels…”

Roichal stood, raising his hands for attention. “Gentlemen, lords and leaders, we have much to discuss. Although we have discussed many strategems for attack previously, this is the first time that all of those allied against the mage are gathered together.” He turned to Kenet then, and bowed deeply. “My apologies, my prince, for the abrupt manner with which I must make this introduction. I present to you, Kan, son of Korl and Milla, and your elder brother by seven years.”

I put my hand into the small of Kenet’s back, as he swayed, thunderstruck. “How… how can this be?”

Kan grinned at him. “I know not whether I was conceived on their wedding night, only that I was born during the royal tour of the kingdom and territories, which took nearly a full year to complete.”

“But, but… why did you not accompany them back to Maldevar?” Kenet’s disbelief was thick in the air. “Surely they did not mistakenly leave a royal heir behind on the road?”

“I know only the tales my nursemaids in Frangit told me,” Kan said.

“Frangit!”

“Indeed,” Kan explained. “For when our mother bore me, the party was close to the Frangi border. A snowstorm had driven them from their desired path, and once the queen went into labor, they could travel no further. She was quite ill, as was I. They did not expect me to live. A band of Frangi traders came upon them, though, with a healer in their midst, and aided them. Or so the story goes…”

Kenet did not mince words. “What really happened?”

“I believe the party was supposed to be meeting a Frangi delegation in secret. Whether the delegation was authorized by their council or not, I cannot guess. They were attacked, and scattered into the snow.”

“Attacked by whom?” Kenet was on his feet, and I had to restrain myself from jumping up also.

“I do not know. Please, brother, I was nearly dead at the time, and merely days old.”

“Do not mock me.” Kenet’s voice was low.

Kan’s eyes twinkled, but he had the good grace not to laugh out loud. “In the mountains, I was raised by a Frangi healer and his wife from Trest. They had four sons in addition to me. I had no idea there was anything different about me from them until I was ten years old, and Sergetten appeared. You would have been about three, then. He said he had been searching for me ever since your birth.”

Kenet frowned, but I could see he was considering the veracity of Kan’s story. “Can you prove this?”

Kan spread his hands. “I can prove my blood, if you like. General? Perhaps it’s best we get this over with. Time is short.”

Roichal nodded and went to a wooden chest along one edge of the tent. He opened it and lifted out a smaller chest. Kenet’s breath caught.

“That’s how you knew!” He clearly had seen this chest before.

Roichal bowed. “Indeed, my prince, from the day you opened it, I knew you for yourself. Kan proved his lineage to me in the same manner.”

Kenet waved his hand. “Put it away. I do not need to see the test for myself. Your word, General, and that of my… brother, are enough.”

Kan stood then, and gave a bow. “I am elder, but you are named and recognized Prince of Maldevar.”

Kenet said nothing.

Roichal stepped between them. “I propose we set aside any questions of hierarchy until after today’s operation. After all, we know not whether you will even both survive the day, much less whether Korl himself will.”

They both turned to him. Kenet have a small nod of his head. “If this is to be a military operation, General, I defer to your leadership.”

Kan had a smirk on his face, but he bowed and said, “For a man of war, you are quite the peacemaker, General. I say the same. Now, have we an assault to plan?”

The two brothers took their seats. I refrained from taking Kenet’s hand in mine, though I wished there were a table so that I could, unseen.

“Our strongest advantage,” Roichal began, “is the fact that our enemy is ignorant of Kan’s existence. You bear the ability, as does Kenet, to open the passageways that run throughout the mountain. Unlike Kenet, though, you do not know your way through them.”

Roichal signaled to one of the men, who unrolled a pale skin upon the floor where all could see it. It was a drawing of the castle, with some but not all of the passages marked upon it. While Kenet had slept after our arrival I had done what I could to help them complete it, but I had never known the ways as thoroughly as he had.

Kenet knelt and held out his hand. Marksin put a pot of dark-ground ink into it, and then a stylus of glass. Kenet drew upon the skin silently.

“If I am to make a sneak attack,” Kan said, “someone who knows the way will have to accompany me. Jorin or Bear?”

“Jorin knows the inside ways better than I,” Bear said. “I only know a few of the places where the entrances are, nothing more.”

“Kenet and I used to play hide and seek in them when we were younger.” I leaned forward, looking over Kenet’s shoulder. “But he knows them best.”

“Kan and Kenet cannot go together, though…” Roichal said aloud, then broke off as an idea came to him. “What if instead of Jorin and Kenet, we deliver Kan in Kenet’s place? How quickly will the mage discern the switch?”

Kenet’s head snapped up. “We are not delivering anyone to that snake.”

“Wait, Kenet, think about it for a moment,” I said. “He no longer has a magical thread to you. He’ll need you, or Kan, to open the gate to prove lineage. That has to be why he wants us at the Rose Gate.”

Roichal considered. “And the reason he wants you there, Jorin, is so he can defeat you, and establish a new claim on the prince.”

“You cannot be seriously advocating that I remain out of the battle?” I asked.

“I am merely exploring all options,” Roichal said. “If we send one decoy, could we send two? But that would be too much, I think. Seeing you would be part of Kan’s cover.”

“I worry,” Kenet said, “that no matter what planning we make, our gravest error will be in trusting him at all. How can we ensure he delivers my father and Sergetten? Once we are in his clutches, he has no reason to honor the arrangement.”

“We don’t go through the gate until we know they are safe,” I said.

“And if he merely attacks us once we expose ourselves?” Kenet looked up at me. “This is not an honorable opponent we face, and the stakes are too high for him to play by any rules but his own. For all we know, their lives are already forfeit.”

Roichal folded his arms. “You are right. We must proceed as if our cooperation with him is itself merely a ruse on our part, with the expectation that he will do nothing that improves our position. Kenet, you will have to lead an attack party in secret into the passageways, while Kan takes your place.”

“Can he be killed?” I asked. “Our enemy, I mean.”

Kan chuckled. “He may be the most powerful mage in history, but as far as I know, his body should still be susceptible to arrows and swords, just like the rest of us. To practice Night Magic, one must still have a heart that beats and blood that flows.”

And so it went, as time grew shorter, but the plans were made as quickly as they could be. We had a few hours yet before the sun would reach zenith, but it was nearly an hour’s ride to the Rose Gate. As the planning went on, also, I could feel Kenet’s hunger rising. He contained it well, shoving it aside as any soldier would, but his was not quite like any man’s hunger for food.

I caught Roichal’s eye at one point, willing him to understand. He had been Kenet’s keeper for so long, though, he understood at once. At the end of the meeting he dismissed everyone but Kenet and myself.

“Do not dally,” he said, voice grave.

“I promise we shall be ready to go by the time the horses are,” I assured him.

He went out, and I pulled Kenet close, Kenet, whose heart was now hammering like a bird’s when caught in the cat’s paws.

I held him for a long moment against me, breathing in his scent. His fear was something I had wrought, and only I could unmake it. But there was little time. “You cannot go into battle unfortified,” I said, my voice soft and gentle. “It is your choice, however, how to take your breakfast this morning.”

He leaned his head against mine, still tense. “It is a terrifying choice to make.”

“Is it, beloved?”

“Yes, my lord.” He squeezed me more tightly for a moment, then went on. “What if this is our last time together? I want… I want so much. But at the same time, I… I…”

He could not go on. I kissed him softly, then said, “I know.”

“D-do not make me choose. Please, Jorin.”

“Hush. I only gave you the choice because I thought you would have a preference. I did not mean to test you or upset you.” I stroked his hair. Sky above, being a master was difficult. “And I did not want to force my will on you so soon after…” After having done just that.

I cradled his face in my hands then, and looked into his eyes. “Take me by mouth, then, beloved. And I promise to live through this intact, so that I shall give you the night of sweetness you have awaited so long.”

He threw his arms around my neck again, with a short sob, but then wasted no time in dropping to his knees and working at my belt buckle.

The first wet velvet slide of his tongue along the underside of my cock made me groan. I had to steady myself with a hand on his shoulder, then reached out to brace a hand against the central pole of the tent.

I anticipated him swallowing me down, but no, he kept licking, this time all around the head of my cock. He held the shaft steady with one hand, as the flicks of his tongue along the ridges of the crown set me to twitching.

“Kenet…”

Now he brought his lips into play, tugging my foreskin up over the head and then pushing it back, until suddenly he swallowed me all the way to the root.

I could feel his own desire mirroring mine, but I could not reach his cock. I could feel the surge of magic going back and forth between us. Oh, yes. Even as his head moved up and down on my shaft, I could feel my magic penetrating him, mixing with his, with the sweet golden essence that was his nobility. I wanted to drink it like nectar. No wonder Seroi had been unable to resist.

I pulled him back from me quickly, causing him to cry out in surprise. “On the pallet, please, Kenet,” I said. “I cannot bear for this to be merely one-sided.”

“Jorin!”

I pulled him up into a salty kiss and then pushed him down onto the pallet. I straddled his face, feeding my cock into his mouth at the same time I freed his slender, curving shaft and took it into my own mouth.

Oh sweetness indeed. Bound together as we were, I could easily feel how close he was to spilling and hold my own release until we were matched. Had his cock not been in my mouth, I would have given a triumphant shout. Instead, I gratefully swallowed every drop of his essence he would give me, even as he did the same for me.

Thus fortified did we go out to do battle with our enemy.

* * *

Can’t get enough of Kenet and Jorin? Visit The Prince’s Boy fan art gallery on Cecilia’s website!

About the author: Cecilia Tan is the award-winning author of many erotic books and stories and the founder of Circlet Press.

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