Clan and Crown (47 page)

Once the temperature for the bath had
been set, Egilka knelt before Clajak and pulled his clanmate’s
clothes off. Bevau came into the room with a tray. He too crouched
down and handed the Dramok a large bottle of water. Clajak downed
it thirstily, not slowing even when Egilka worked to get his shirt
off.

The prince sighed, setting the empty
water bottle down. “Oh, that’s much better,” he said, sounding more
like his old self.

“I imagine so. You let yourself get
dehydrated.” Bevau waved a bite-sized chunk of roasted ronka in
front of his face, a leftover from the barely touched dinner of the
night before.

Clajak ducked his face away. “I can’t.
If I eat, I swear I’ll puke.”

Bevau set the meat aside and opened a
pouch. “Then sip on this protein drink. You need something in you
to build your strength back up. Just a little at a
time.”

Clajak obeyed. His eyelids drooped
tiredly as Egilka finished undressing him, not complaining even
though his sand-encrusted clothing must have abraded his skin as it
was peeled off.

With Clajak naked, Egilka pulled his
own clothes off. He didn’t miss the appreciative ogling from both
Bevau and Clajak. The fact that Clajak wanted to look at him naked
had to be a good sign about the Dramok’s state of mind.

Egilka bent to take Clajak’s arm,
tugging him up so he could follow him to the basin. “You’ll feel
even better once you’re cleaned up.”

“I suppose. At least there’s a nice
bath toy coming in with me. Oh, make that two nice bath toys,”
Clajak said, noting Bevau also undressed.

“A toy to the future Emperor of
Kalquor? I’ve been called worse,” Bevau grinned.

His choice of words couldn’t have been
more unfortunate. Clajak halted, one foot on the first step down
into the cooling bath.

“I can never be emperor. I’m no
leader,” he muttered.

Before Clajak could go off on his lack
of readiness again, Egilka asserted, “No one expects you to be, not
yet. No one with conscience, at any rate. Everyone knows your
mother lost her life. They know Zarl is temporarily incapacitated.
The entire Empire mourns our loss. Their thoughts are with you, not
against you.”

Clajak shook his head, the fear and
guilt playing over his face once more. “They would hate me if they
knew I was supposed to have gone on that trip with them. That I
pretended to be sick to get out of that twice damned holiday. Given
the choice between me and my mother, between me and my father’s
health, which do you think Kalquor would pick? I know what the
people want, and it’s not me.”

Bevau helped Egilka shove him down the
steps and into the water. As he pushed, Bevau said, “If you had
gone to Joshada, there would be no trade. Empress Irdis would not
have lived even with you dead at her side. She would be glad you
stayed behind, Clajak.”

“She gave you her leave to play ill,”
Egilka reminded him. “Not only were you spared, but Tidro stayed
behind because he thought you needed him. You saved him, Clajak!
Instead of two emperors crippled, or an emperor crippled and two of
his clanmates dead, Tidro remains whole and with us.”

Clajak looked at the Imdiko in
surprised realization. Tidro staying safely behind to tend him had
not occurred to the prince.

Still, survivor’s guilt was not so
easily shunted aside. “I just – I can’t help but think it’s somehow
my fault. That I might have been able to do something to save my
mother.”

Bevau pushed at him, this time to make
him sit down in the waist-deep water. “It’s always that way. I
don’t know of a soldier under my command who hasn’t blamed himself
at least a little when a friend or a civilian dies in front of him.
It’s happened to me too. There is always that thought ‘I could have
done something’ to keep you awake at night ... even if it’s a
lie.”

Clajak went quiet as Egilka washed him.
His brow furrowed, signaling he was thinking hard. Egilka and Bevau
remained silent, letting him churn over his thoughts.

At last the Dramok emitted a shaky
laugh. “Do you want to know something really stupid? Another
thought that has no merit but I can’t shake it off?”

“Tell us,” Bevau encouraged.

“That if I do step in for Zarl, that it
will somehow mean his death. It makes no sense, but I keep thinking
that if I act as Dramok emperor, even for a few days, fate will
decide he has no reason to live.”

It was exactly what Govi had predicted.
Egilka had no time to be impressed however. An idea suddenly
occurred to him, blazing forth to fill him with
excitement.

He didn’t even pause to think it over
before blurting, “What if you only speak the words Zarl gives you?
What if instead of replacing him, you act as his
mouthpiece?”

Clajak’s look was quizzical. “What do
you mean?”

“We will have an itinerary for the next
council meeting before it starts as always, right? You can tell
Zarl what is on it. Ask him if there is anything in particular he
wants said on any of the items on the agenda. Let Tidro and Yuder
speak for themselves, as they always do.”

Light dawned in Clajak’s eyes. “You
mean, don’t insert any of myself into it. Don’t make decisions as
if I am Zarl.”

Egilka could see the idea gave him
hope. “Well, don’t fear speaking up if you think it’s warranted. If
there is anything you as Crown Prince would say about items brought
before us, then say it. Just keep your place and operate for the
Imperial Clan only as the Dramok Emperor’s go-between.”

Clajak sat up straight. He seemed to
throw aside the depressed exhaustion that had held sway for the
last few days. “Do you think the Royal Council will allow
it?”

Egilka waved his hand dismissively.
“We’ll give them no choice. We can discuss it with Yuder and Tidro
to see if they will support it.”

Clajak gave him the most genuine smile
he’d managed since the catastrophe. He looked at Bevau, clearly
wondering what their companion thought of the matter.

It was another moment during which
Egilka wished Bevau was their Nobek, voicing his opinion as more
than a mere advisor and friend. His vote needed to
count.

Meanwhile, the high commander looked
surprised to have his opinion in demand. His tone a touch unsure,
he said, “It sounds reasonable to me. Why not?”

Clajak looked relieved. “Of course it’s
reasonable. Egilka would not come up with anything else.” He gave
the Imdiko a sheepish look. “I’ve put you through the wringer these
last few days, haven’t I?”

Egilka gave him a scowl that was only
half-pretended. “You may not add me to this guilt complex you’ve
decided to grow. All I want is my Dramok to get through this and
get back to his usual shenanigans as soon as he’s able.”

Clajak wasn’t quite ready to let the
matter go. “I don’t deserve you.”

“No, not for one second. It’s a good
thing you know how to use these.” Egilka reached into the water to
grab Clajak’s cocks. “Otherwise, it might be me who runs off and
hides in a cave.”

He leaned in and kissed Clajak. The
kiss probably felt of passion to his Dramok because there was a
great deal of that, but it was borne of desperation. Clajak was
taking his first shaky steps back to life. Egilka thought it would
not take much to send him running away again. The hours of not
knowing where his clanmate was, the awful blankness when Clajak was
there in body ... Egilka could not stand any of it to happen
again.

The Imdiko had known he loved Clajak
more than anyone else in the universe. He was only now realizing
how much he’d come to need the other man in his life. Watching his
younger clanmate succumb to seemingly insurmountable grief and
feeling unable to reclaim him had shredded Egilka’s heart and soul.
Clajak drove him insane much of the time ... but Egilka couldn’t
imagine life without him.

Unable to put any of it into words,
Egilka poured all the hurt and terror and need he’d felt into that
kiss. Clajak responded, lust feeding strength into his exhausted
but sturdy body. He grew plump and hot in Egilka’s hands, his mouth
feeding voraciously from his Imdiko’s lips. Clajak’s hands skated
over Egilka’s chest, abdomen, and groin, knowing every inch that
would make the Imdiko shiver.

Another’s hand smoothed over Egilka’s
ponytail. It tugged the tie loose, sending the Imdiko’s hair down
to cascade over his shoulders and back. Bevau’s fingers combed
through the coarse mass before trailing down his spine. The Nobek
caressed his buttocks, sending electric impulses through Egilka’s
body. A finger teased his anus, goading it to open so that it could
slip inside him. It stroked in and out, finding the places where
pressure felt best.

Egilka continued to kiss Clajak, so he
couldn’t see what Bevau did to his Dramok. It was something good
from the way his clanmate jerked and moaned, sometimes at odds with
Egilka’s strokes on his cocks.

Only when the kiss broke to allow the
two men to gasp for air did Egilka know for certain that Bevau
finger-fucked Clajak too. The Nobek’s heavy lidded eyes watched
them, both rising and falling over his working fingers, using him
to stimulate themselves as they masturbated each other. His chest
rose and fell quickly, betraying the excitement he felt to be a
part of their play.

As if they shared one mind, Clajak and
Egilka turned to the high commander. They kissed his perfect face,
nuzzling his ears and licking his lips in eager abandon. His head
rotated back and forth, tasting one prince and then the other.
Hastening breaths mingled. Egilka tasted primitive male from Bevau.
He thought he could detect the rising power of Clajak’s returning
Dramok nature too. How notes of personality could be translated
into flavor, he wasn’t sure. He dimly thought it might be worth a
research study.

The three men were a knot of questing
hands and mouths, their bodies writhing against each other as they
for once did not battle for supremacy. Instead it was a glorious
sharing of equals, each man striving to give the other two what
they needed most. The touches were caring, the enticements tender
as they brought each other to full, moaning arousal. At differing
times, Egilka was on his knees before the other two, their bodies
dripping water from the bath upon him as he suckled on their rigid
lengths. At other times, it was he who stood as one or two eager
mouths enveloped him in warmth.

The Imdiko lost all knowledge of time
as they helped each other attain greater and greater heights of
sensual bliss. It was as if each man loathed the coming climaxes
and fought to keep completion at bay for as long as possible. The
water around them cooled, but they only burned hotter as the
lovemaking went on. In the end, Egilka knew there was not one
centimeter of his body that had not gone unexplored. From toe to
crown, he was fondled, licked, kissed, and penetrated where
possible. He in turn mapped all parts of his lovers with touch,
taste, sight, and smell. They could not have known each other more
intimately.

At last, final passion would not be
denied. It rose up, demanding its conquest over their trembling,
fervent bodies. Like the first time they had been with Bevau,
Egilka found himself on the bottom of the pile. Somehow it felt
right to be there, the weight of the other two men pinning his
lithe frame.

He lay from the waist up over the edge
of the basin, thick towels cushioning his head, chest and belly.
His legs hung in the water. Clajak joined to him, his thick primary
cock moving to empty and then bury deep within his ass. Bevau drove
into the Dramok, shoving Clajak even farther inside Egilka,
returning him to his clanmate in the most profound way possible.
The soft grunts of effort filled the Imdiko’s ears like the
sweetest music.

As his Dramok melded with him, Clajak’s
lips continually rained kisses on the back of Egilka’s head and
shoulders. His hands rubbed up and down the Imdiko’s ribcage,
claiming and giving all at once. The heartsick prince was there
with him, not running or fading away.

Egilka had Clajak back. He could feel
that. Tears dripped from his eyes, sprinkling gratitude to be lost
in the towels beneath his face.

* * * *

Clajak sensed himself piecing back
together, becoming whole again. Not that he’d reclaimed the
shattered bits of his former soul. No, those parts were gone
forever, lost with his mother. Instead, he found new bits of life
to stitch onto what was left, new fragments coming together in a
patchwork, gifted to him from the man above and the man beneath
him.

Egilka’s reliable warmth enfolded him,
a haven as thrilling as it was familiar. Clajak couldn’t stop
celebrating his Imdiko with caresses and kisses, loving the man as
he never had before. When the bottom had dropped out of Clajak’s
life, when he’d lost his way, Egilka had remained there. The Imdiko
had been an anchor tied to his flailing Dramok, keeping him from
being swept away.

Then there was the man on top of him,
inside him, feeding Clajak the strength and resolve that had bled
away. Every time the world seemed ready to heap more trouble upon
the Dramok, Bevau appeared. He fended off the worst of those
determined to drown Clajak and protected the prince from everyone,
including Clajak himself. While Egilka was the anchor that kept the
Dramok from drifting away into the endless depths of nothing, Bevau
had been the life preserver that brought him back to
safety.