The Prince's Boy

THE PRINCE'S BOY: CHAPTER 46

46: Jorin

I spent the night restless, expecting at any moment Sergetten might come back and plough me. I tugged at the collar around my neck, quite sure that it was too tight by just a bit, not enough to be dangerous, just enough to annoy. I lay there wondering what kind of magic he would ply in the name of my "training" and what cruelties he might visit on me.

I remembered with sudden vividness the beating that Seroi had administered, while his phantom hand had stroked me. My cheeks burned thinking on it, which might seem odd, given the experiences I had lived through since. Yet there was nothing mortifying about being loved by the Night Riders, even when I was writhing helpless with lust before them. The only humiliating thing had been when Sergetten had collared me, but now that I understood it for what it was, I no longer felt mortified at all.

And yet the memory of being lifted on the chain like a criminal before the entire court, and of the way my cock strained toward Kenet as the king had slashed open his clothes... I had barely thought of it since I had been exiled from the castle, but now the scene consumed my thoughts utterly. I shivered, remembering how Korl had promised he would not stop beating me until Kenet begged him to.

There would be no Kenet here, though. Would Sergetten beat me until his arm tired? It was clear I could do nothing to please him and I had little desire to do so. Merely saving myself pain was not a good enough reason to bow before him. Was it? Perhaps it did not matter and he would just take his pleasure as he wished. I recalled Kan's admonition that I should keep my hole greased if I could. I wondered how often Sergetten would want to fuck me, and how much enthusiasm I would be required to show.

It must have been near dawn when I at last slept soundly, and then when I woke there was daylight coming through the narrow windows at the edges of the room. I was stiff, as if once I had fallen asleep, I had not moved. I sat up slowly to find a meal sitting on a low table next to the bed. A small amount of milk in a cup, and some boiled grains with bits of dried fruit, and a small piece of salt beef. I ate it greedily; no banquet had ever seemed more sumptuous after the traveling provisions and soldier's meals I had been living on. I half expected Sergetten to appear at any moment and correct me for eating too fast or using my hands instead of the spoon and dull knife provided, but he did not.

I assumed he was keeping watch over me, though. I would be a fool not to. I examined the limits of the room. The table had a stone bowl and a few other implements on it, but nothing much of interest. There were a few jars with large stoppers in them in a small cabinet to one side, and there was a shelf that looked as if it should hold books, but there were no books to be found. There were various lanterns and candleholders all around the place, none of which particularly matched, as if they had been collected over a long period of time. Through the tall, narrow slits of glassed-in windows I could see a wide green field and the edge of a forest.

When I had examined everything in the room three times over, and still there had been no sign of Sergetten, I tried the door. It opened, which surprised me. I looked out onto the landing of a dark staircase and decided not to venture further for now. I went back to sit on the bed. There were no clothes for me anywhere that I could discover, and I took stock of my physical health.

The balm Sergetten had used yesterday had left my arse feeling no ill effects of the rough usage. There were a few lingering bruises here and there from various things, but nothing worth devoting much attention to.

I wondered how long that would last.

Eventually I tired and lay down again, dozing off easily this time.

When I woke, there was a new meal on the low table, and some of the things on the table along the wall had moved, which made me wonder about how truly tired I was. I ate more slowly this time. There was a generous portion of bread and one slim slice of salty ham, and some of the fruit of high summer. And a draught of clear, sweet water that had to have come from a deep well.