Elsanne

Trust no one

Elsanne felt the floor dance under her naked feet, the sizzling soapy water making it slippery on top of that and she almost went down. She extended her hands and touched the wet walls of her narrow cabin panicked, to keep her balance.

Uher, this is ridiculous.

“Loes!” She called and the door opened, her maid entering barely visible amidst the vapors, a big towel in her hands. Elsanne stepped naked from the corner, she’d commandeered and turned into a private bath and walked tentatively into the soft towel. “How did you know?” She asked tying it around her chest.

“Half the ship is puking. The pirates too,” Loes replied and they both giggled at that.

“Is the corridor empty?” Elsanne asked, when they calmed down a bit.

“The road to your room is clear, Princess,” Her maid teased. “But this is a ship, full of cutthroats. Never to be trusted.”

“Race you to it?” Elsanne teased, grabbing the handle.

“Just keep the towel on,” Loes droned. “You’re getting top heavy.”

“What?” Elsanne snapped, with a frown.

“Run Princess,” Loes urged her, deathly serious. “It’s a busy corridor.”

It wasn’t, but still they moved quite fast and locked themselves into Elsanne’s quarters. According to their rather prickly Captain, never in the history of pirating, had a crew member so much space, like her person.

Scandalous, he called it.

“Don’t lace it to the top, for Uher’s sake!” Elsanne complained, as Loes heaved and pulled at the laces, face flushed, the fight with her almond colored slim-fit shape shirt unending. “I can’t breathe!”

“Too much stuff is showing!” Loes insisted, not willing to let go.

Elsanne stooping, checked for herself.

“I’ll throw a cloak on top, that blue velvet one,” She relented. “Maybe loosen up the top knot a bit?”

Loes recoiled in horror at the suggestion.

Right.

Thank Uher, I can survive on half-breaths.

There was a knock on their door.

“We are busy!” Loes snarled, already in the process of looking for her fancy cloak.

“Who is it?” Elsanne asked, dragging her words, to buy her time.

“Your husband,” Prince Radin was heard outside the door.

“Ahm, I don’t think we’ve officially, tied the knot…”

“Your brother gave me your hand, in front of the whole Riverdor,” The Prince droned, not liking being made to wait. “I’m expected to live in your quarters.”

“Surely, you can’t anticipate me to fulfil my wifely duties,” Elsanne continued all polite, throwing the soft light cloak Loes handed her, over her shoulders. “In the middle of this awful sea storm?”

You could hear the Prince’s sigh, through the door.

“I just want to talk with my wife,” He said subdued.

Aww, that was kind of sweet, she thought blushing. It took her a good minute to beat it out of her system and give him permission to enter.

“I thought you were too injured to walk about, dear,” She said, signing for him to sit on a lone chair. The Prince rolled his eyes and collapsed on it.

“That was two weeks ago.”

Elsanne sighed pretentiously.

“Time flies, when in good company. Right Loes?”

“Can she step out of the room?” Radin asked, for some reason not looking that well. His mood worsening by the second.

“Are you seasick? There’s a bucket, I used it to wash my feet earlier…”

“I’m fine. But I want us to talk in private,” The Prince insisted, less frustrated than before. Was it her comment? Elsanne slowly hid her naked feet, under the long chemise.

“Just talk?” She asked, thin white eyebrow raised for emphasis.

“Yeah, on my word,” He retorted.

“Loes, please wait outside,” Elsanne ordered her frowning maid.

“I’ll need the chair,” She countered and the Prince jumped up shaking his head. He carried it outside for her himself.

Elsanne thought it was very kind of him.

Prince Radin didn’t talk, when the door closed leaving them alone, in the absurdly small cabin. He didn’t say anything, even after Elsanne pouted self-consciously not liking being ignored for so long. She played with one of her gold rings, the floor dancing under her naked feet, small diamonds catching the oil lamp’s light and shining brilliantly. The air thick and difficult to breathe.

“We’ll make a stop at the reefs,” Her husband said, just after she’d convinced herself that he wouldn’t, his penciled eyes the color of gleaming coal. “It would be the last before Eikenport.”

“The Reefs?” She probed.

“The pirates have a… base of operations there,” Radin explained.

“Ahm, are we just friendly with them?” She wasn’t stupid. If he wanted to talk politics, or inform her on etiquette, Elsanne wanted to know where they stood.

We’re in this together, she repeated his words in her head.

“The Khan came to an agreement with them… it’s been, almost a decade.” Radin explained, after a thoughtful pause.

“My brother, isn’t aware of this.”

“No, I believe he’s not.”

Elsanne sat back on her elbows on the small divan, letting her toes show under her chemise. Her back was hurting and the Prince kept his eyes on her face all the time, so she wasn’t worried.

“What was the agreement?” She asked, returning his stare.

Prince Radin smacked his lips. “Immunity. The freedom to stay in one place, provided they didn’t attack the Khan’s ships.”

“The Khanate, has no fleet on this side of the Scalding Sea.” Elsanne pointed, what was common knowledge to the lowest court assistant.

“That is true.”

She shook a wayward curl out of her face. “I don’t understand, what he gains from this.”

“No Issirs, or Lorians approach Eikenport. None have for decades. The pirate reefs, as we call them, are standing between Castalor and Eikenport.”

“An old, ruined port. Destroyed ages ago,” Elsanne said, recalling what she knew of the distant city port.

“A port, we slowly rebuilt anew,” Prince Radin added. “A place I wish to have under my control.”

“Your control?”

“I was given Dia Castle, as a fourth son,” He explained. “I rebuilt part of Jadefort, which allowed me to rule over the Jade Lake. It is not enough.”

Elsanne nodded. He wanted more. It was good that he was ambitious, exciting even, but that didn’t explain, why she was here. Prince Radin seeing her pondering on it, guessed correctly.

It was impressive and a little arousing.

“The Issirs will fight us for the Duchy. You being here, secures a third option and the freedom coming from my people, distrusting you.” Elsanne stared in his handsome exotic face dumbfounded. Her earlier feelings crashed.

“That’s not very romantic.” She’s blurted out, her blush darkening her skin even more.

“You don’t want them near, Princess. It’s a gift, not a curse.”

Says you, but still, not… very appealing, Elsanne thought, narrowing her eyes.

“Is this why your… mentor, elected to remain ashore?” She asked, genuinely not happy with his explanation. “Because it was strange, how he just disappeared.” The last word dying on her lips, as the Prince moving fast, covered the distance between them in the blink of an eye and fell on her, trapping a stunned Princess of Kaltha underneath him.

Elsanne, face flushed and murder in her eyes, made to open her mouth, but Prince Radin put a finger on her lips stopping her, for the second time, since she’d met him.

He looks… furious, Elsanne thought, as much scared, as surprised.

She was expecting lust, not anger.

Radin lowered his head, her jade eyes gawking large with panic and heart beating wild in her chest; kept moving closer, missing his chance for an open kiss, another surprise and whispered in her small ear, his breath tickling.

“Never speak of him again.”

Elsanne blinked, in a state of complete shock.

“Why?” She croaked, when he removed his hand.

“There are three sides in Khanate politics, Princess,” Radin said, voice barely registering. He’d a wicked mouth though, clean breath and teeth, Elsanne had to give him that. “The Khan, myself and the Heir. More really, but these are the ones of note.”

“The Heir to the Khanate doesn’t see, eye to eye with his father?” Elsanne asked breathlessly. Having his whole body pressing on her on the small sofa, was terribly distracting.

A lot of her parts were tingling something fierce.

“I liked it, how you assumed my differences with him, are to be expected,” He said with a smile, giving her a little more breathing room. “But to answer your query, aye. My bigger brother, will only do her bidding. The man you mentioned, is her right hand. That woman, is extremely dangerous and has an agenda of her own. What will come of it, is still undetermined.”

“The one the Duke offended. That is his wife,” Elsanne noted, slowly putting the pieces together.

“We will never talk about this again, not freely, not without taking precautions,” Prince Radin said getting up and freeing her in the process. “Do not assume my words, when in their presence, are sincere. She’s a monster and the man that saved us, is one as well.”

Elsanne sat up straight and examined his face.

“What are you saying, Radin?” She asked, using his name for the first time, a sudden chill on her skin, where her cloak had fallen back. The Prince returned her stare, with an appreciative grin and stooping, always nimble her husband was, planted a kiss on her soft lips.

His answer, a warning.

“Henceforth, trust no one.”