The Unsuitable Slave. (NC-17) Part 18/34
“Well that was odd.”
Jared continued to breathe slow, he didn’t look at Chad.
“Been a lot of odd things with your Master and mine recently.” Chad was being conversational, with small, curious glances at Jensen's slave.
Jared didn’t make a sound.
“Started with the day Prince Jensen turned up with you and the other two, then two days later, they let the other two go. Just let them go, and they went with Captain Beaver.” Chad paused, got no reaction.
“It turned stupid strange when they returned, with that kid, in the middle of battle.”
Jared closed his eyes. Not going to take the bait.
Chad went for the jugular, “That there, just now, he bowed to you, Child. Bowed, and called you Jared.”
Jared snapped. “Jared is a popular name for a child of the Realm.” Damn.
Chad laughed, “Knew you couldn’t play dumb forever, because you certainly aren’t.” He touched Jared’s arm, “I’m not part of the slave gossip club, I’m not going to say anything. If we’re going to do what has been asked of us we need to trust each other. It would be easy for you to use that passage,” Chad nodded to the study, “It takes you to the outer walls, by the stables. You could run, it wouldn’t take long to reach your troops, and in this confusion, with all the refugees, it wouldn’t be difficult. Do you want to? I can unlock you.”
“No. Do you?”
“Nah. I’ve never been anything but a slave, I wouldn’t have the first idea what to do, and if I got back to the North, I’d still be a slave. Misha and Victoria are good to me. I’ll stay, take what comes. I think we should trust Jensen. There’s things he’s done, I can’t say them all, but he’s a good man.”
“You think?”
“He’s been a bastard to you, there has been talk about it. Something about you twists his guts up. Lady Victoria has a theory.”
Jared scoffed, “What is this grand theory?”
Chad spoke softly, “He fell in love with you.”
Jared shifted uncomfortably. “You can unchain me now, Chad.”
Chad bounced up on his heels, poised, just like that, Jared blinked, it was such a fast, graceful move, like an acrobat. He knew Chad had to possess the same skills as Alona but his manner was so entirely different that he had forgotten it. “I’ll leave them on until later. You see I’ve a theory about you.”
Jared was amused, “Oh! Pray tell.”
“Chad was crossing the room to the door. “You care for Jensen. If I take these off you’re going to use that passage to go after him. You’ll get yourself killed for no purpose, and I’ll be left with too much to do on my own. So, yeah, for selfish reasons you stay this way. I’ll be back. He blew a kiss at Jared. Hope chewed Jared's toes for a few minutes before settling with a squeaky purr, on his feet.
Chad released him five hours later, too late to have a hope of tracking Jensen and Kane.
Kane, that threw him for the biggest loop. What was Chris doing with Jensen? His brain ached, tying itself in complicated knots just trying to figure it out, but he was doomed not to know, he had no outside knowledge. Moons, if Jensen’s words could be trusted then he’d never had the correct knowledge in the first place.
***
It was peculiar sleeping in his Master’s bed alone. He should have been comfortable, reveling in the luxury, no longer confined to a cold, hard floor, but his brain wouldn’t switch off. The space was too large, the comfort unfamiliar. Ghosting memories of Jensen's arm resting over his chest and the breathy snuffles of Jensen spooning him, with his head on his shoulder, assaulted him. He missed Jensen, and that made no sense.
He rose at dawn, lit the fire, tidied himself to the approved standard, collected two breakfasts, ate what he could and consigned the rest to the fire. He made the bed, used the laundry and tidied the room, all the while tripping on Hope, letting her catch on threads and pounce on whatever moved. Then it was done, and all he had was to wait. The time hung heavy, the air still and silent. He watched at the window and even the traders seemed subdued in their work.
Chad bounced in after lunchtime, Jared drew his own sword from the sheath and Chad teased him for choosing the girly, jeweled one. He stopped laughing after a bout where he was thoroughly outclassed. Jared took time to analyze his moves, suggest improvement and even took his arm, held it loosely as he demonstrated better technique. They sat together after practice and made a plan. Jared found parchment and they made lists, Chad sketched the layout of Palace apartments, where Court Slaves resided with their owners. From the study windows, the view of the hill beyond the fortress filled with a steady stream of weary, bedraggled people carrying a smattering of belongings.
They heard the knock at the main door and Chad ducked behind the desk. Jared moved back into the bedroom and lay on the bed, grateful that he had thought to remove the clothes he had been sparring in, yet hadn’t had time to wash his sweat or tidy his hair. There was another knock. The caller was unwilling to disturb Jensen in an intimate moment. Jared wondered if he should stay silent and hope they would turn away but he knew that Jensen would always answer. In fact he was sure that, in most situations, he would not turn a visitor away even in the most heated sexual moments with his slave. He could not imitate his Master’s voice and he didn’t want to explain if he remained silent and Ethan or Mackenzie walked in, regardless.
“Um yes.” was his strangled answer. He cleared his throat and tried again, attempting to control his jitters, “Come in.”
He had a sheet pulled up to his neck when Alona stepped softly inside the room. She surveyed the area quickly, looking for Jensen.
“Em. Jensen stepped out. Did you need something Al?”
“Ethan sent me, to continue with your formal training. He thought that Jensen may need a break. I can see he already took one. She smiled at Jared, appraising his position on the bed “You’re flushed, did he give you private study, Child?”
Jared made a face that he thought best approximated embarrassment. “Mm. Yeah.”
She giggled, “Oh, Child. I had better not stay. I shall ask Ethan to track him down and find a better time.”
Jared started to nod and then realized the danger in that intention, “No, wait Alona. He said he would be taking a ride out, this eve, before sundown, that I could rest at that time. We should take that opportunity.”
“I should check with Jensen. It would be correct.”
“No. It would be better if he did not find out. It would be pleasant surprise when he finds my skills improved. Please, Al.”
She took time to think about it and then answered, a little uncomfortably “Yes, alright, I don’t think that would be wrong.”
Jared couldn’t help a small stab of guilt, wondering if it could get her into trouble when he was discovered, but he pushed it away and gave a tight smile as she turned to leave.
She turned back just as she opened the door. “Are you getting along with everything? If you need some help with that you must say, I’ve seen it all you know.” She directed her gaze to his midriff, hidden below the covers.
Jared gripped the sheet tighter and shook his head vigorously. “No, No. It’s all under control, Alona.”
Her peals of laughter faded as she made her way back to Ethan’s rooms.
***
The last of the daylight faded beyond the windows. Alona had been gentle and her instruction had been useful. Jared now understood all forms of greeting and could assist at table. He wasn’t sure, in the circumstances, if he would ever need to use such skills but it had given him something to concentrate on, a diversion from his worries for Jensen.
Chad had arrived some minutes after she left and Jared didn’t ask, but he wondered if he’d been watching for her exit. He brought a canvas bag with him. “Gifts,” he’d chuckled. The blond slave lifted an object for him to see more clearly in firelight. Jared shook his head and frowned, reached his hand to take it.
“What do I do with it?”
Chad began to laugh, and then stopped abruptly. He looked at his new friend as if he had grown two heads and turned green.
“You seriously don’t know, do you?”
Jared turned the smooth tapering cone in his hand, feeling the flare at the base, he gave another shake of his head.
Chad swallowed hard and tipped the bag. “Tell me if you recognize anything.”
There were some thin leather ties and a set of wicked looking metal clamps with jewelled chains, and then finally, something familiar. Jared paled and picked up the smooth curved imitation of a penis. He paled and his fingers shook as he held the object so similar to the one the physician had used to torment him.
“This. It was, er, used. The physician used it.”
Chad became silent and looked sideways at Jared. He fiddled with the strings of the bag before blowing out a breath and reaching to take Jared's trembling hand. “I’ve got a reputation with the other slaves for being a complete dick. I’m not the perfect example that Alona is. Misha never wanted me that way and I suppose I was imperfect goods, pre-owned in the North and all that. What I didn’t know about sex before I was fifteen isn’t worth knowing. I was a virgin, they kept you that way, if they thought you were pretty, could make them enough money. I was familiar with all these toys, could use them to make me feel good, but the first time was still scary. I remember that, and I’m not so much of an ass that I don’t see how much this is freaking you out. Alona will tell you that you can’t discuss your relationship with Jensen. I’m telling you, as a friend, that I think you have to tell somebody, and I am never going to break that confidence. Stars, I’m not even here, right?”
Jared chewed his lip and looked to the floor.
Chad spoke uncharacteristically gently, “Start at the beginning, tell me how Jensen came to procure you.”
Jared would never be able to explain how it was that the cocky slave with the spiky blonde hair broke through his defenses and stayed with him for hours as he sobbed for the loss of his family, his identity, his life and after-life, and then again for the brutal loss of his innocence to a man he wanted to hate but couldn’t. Chad sat through it with him, let him spill the whole mixed-up tale of his experience, with just a short prompt when he faltered, or a pat of his hand when he managed to verbalize his pain. He didn’t offer platitudes or judgement, he just listened. He didn’t tell him that tears would heal him or suggest he shouldn’t cry, he simply found a stash of Jensen’s handkerchiefs and stayed at Jared’s side. He didn’t even ask why, after all that, Jared sobbed at the thought of losing Jensen.
Chad returned the items to the bag and stashed it out of sight. He fetched the cuffs when Jared requested them and fitted them for him, leaving them unchained. He ensured his friend was comfortable in Jensen’s bed and that Hope was safely tucked on the eiderdown with him. At some point before he allowed his puffed red eyes to close for sleep, Jared realized why Lord and Lady Collins valued their rather brash slave, so much.
***
Even the pillowy-soft decadence which couched Jared in warm comfort could not prevent his lurch into anxious wakefulness in the moments before sunrise. His eyes struggled to open, they were swollen and sticky-shut with the salt tears of his shattering breakdown. He felt raw, tender in places that had no right to feel, but it was alright, nobody had come to take him in the night, either his secret was safe or nobody cared who he had been. The full weight of his trauma had been relieved and he could carry on, he would feel the closeness of his Master through the cuffs and would continue with his instructions on the paper he had been given. He would live in the present, without thinking on the meaning of the commands and without dwelling on probabilities and grim futures. Chad had taught him that, or maybe Jensen, perhaps both in their own way. A slave lives to serve, in the present only, because anything else is the responsibility of their Master.
He read his Master’s words on the page, traced them with his own hand, thought of the deep green eyes and freckled face, the freckle on his lip and the ones over his shoulders. He pictured the way the man smiled and the feel of his fingers, cold against his heated skin. Jensen’s words on the parchment said he’d be thinking of him now, his slave, his Child, that in the time when the sun rose hopeful over the hills, he would be doing this too. The bag was where Chad left it. He tipped the contents onto the bed and inspected them once more. He picked up the small jeweled clamps, turned them in his hand, squeezed the tip of his finger between the gripping jaws and recalled where he had seen such items. He imagined them in Jensen’s hands. Jensen would kiss him hard and deep, crawl on top of him, the hard naked planes of his chest against him, his strong arms and legs pinning him in place. He would lick and suck at his skin, pull on his collar to remind him of his place, tease and squeeze his nipples before pushing him flat with a palm on his brand and making those soothing noises that Jensen had used to calm him, since his very first touch.
Jared’s hands traversed his own chest in imitation, then taking the first clamp he held it open, squeezed his left nub to a hardened point and clamped the metal jaws shut with a sudden hot point of pain and an erotic shiver that extended to his toes. Jensen would want him to moan, would enjoy the flare of pain in his eyes and have Jared touch his erect cock with him, feel the arousal it created. He clipped the other clamp around his right nipple, shivering in expectation as it closed, but letting it snap regardless. His cock stood upright and weeping now, he licked his hand and grasped the shaft firm, with the other hand he tugged experimentally on the short jeweled chain on the clamps. He gasped, his back arched and his cock slid through the loose grasp of his hand.
He wondered what Jensen was imagining, what act he would be desecrating Jared with if he were here, his hot, slick, wanting flesh writhing hard against his slave’s body. Jared twisted as he tugged over his cock, the way Jensen would. Jared closed his eyes, buried his face into the pillow that still smelled of his Master and let Jensen’s hand take over, let him tease and stop, then strip fast at the flesh, squeeze, torment stroke and smooth, him. He came hard onto his stomach and panted, alone in the soft support of the feather bed. He traced a hand through the viscous mess on his firm belly, spread the warm stain to the dent of his hip and raised a finger to his mouth, imagined the soft, long fingers of the older man, parting his lips, tasted himself in compliance with his Master’s instructions. He didn’t retch. It did get easier, more familiar.
***
Cookie raised one eyebrow as her stare was drawn to the shining jeweled chain between his nipples, she was too polite to glance lower, at the setting, sticky mess. “Well, you two must be starving. You can tell Jensen he should be looking after you better, he wants to decorate you, he should fetch his own food.” She grinned as she handed him the tray.
Wearing the nipple clamps was easy enough, numbness quickly settled. Removing them was the bitch. In retrospect he had gone about it too quickly and it brought tears of pain to Jared’s eyes as his blood-flow resumed too quickly. “Sheesh!” He thought Jensen would laugh at him, a full body, belly laugh but he would kiss him too and massage the poor reddened peaks.
Chad benefited from the sore nipples as they chafed on the shirt Jared wore for sparring, he laughed at Jared wincing through standard moves and the young swordsman barely avoided being beaten by the blue-eyed slave.
When they were done with sparring and planning, they sat together, on the floor and Chad reintroduced the bag of items to Jared. He explained the dildo and the ass plug and showed him how to lube and care for himself. Jared declined a demonstration and was treated to a laugh and sarcastic comment about shyness. He promised to practice on his own but he couldn’t bring himself to believe Chad’s assurances that they were safe and fun to use. When Chad was done teasing him he wriggled on his knees and chewed at his fingernail, Chad smacked his hand from his mouth in the same way Jensen always did. His question was hesitant, face partially hidden by his retreating hand. “What happens when a slave is presented?”
Chad paused, “I don’t think Jensen is going to let that happen.”
“He’s not here Chad. Humor me, I’m curious.”
“It is a literal thing. You are presented to Court by your Master, well at least to be sampled by the men of the Court because ladies do not participate in public. It is a demonstration of your obedience and trust in your Master and a symbol of his acceptance of your overall purpose. You have to understand the way a Court Slave is regarded.”
“We are property. What more is there?”
“We are the same as any other slave. Ultimately, we are property of the Kingdom, not of our owner. We all belong to the King and his Court. We represent the ideal that a slave serves its Master and the Kingdom with total obedience and affection and that is rewarded with affection in return, but never love because that would be inappropriate. We are undamaged because it must be seen by the citizens and by other Nations that our Masters are merciful and our submission is not obtained through violence and torture. Of course, it is generally forgotten that the training of a Court Slave is at least six moons before they reach the Palace and in order to achieve obedience any pain is permissible provided it does not cause permanent scarring. Retraining or resale can be ordered at any time that the slave is unsatisfactory, though it is regarded as a weakness of the Master.”
“Is that what happened to you?” It was the first time Jared had seen Chad look small and pained.
“I guess I was mostly there already, in our land a slave is born and raised that way. Still it was hard. They teach you to be the best. The very pinnacle of our profession.” Chad spat the sentence bitterly and Jared wondered if he had been wise to stir the slave’s bad memories. “It’s all about appearances. Arranged marriages are not unheard of, political expediency can lead to unhappy partnerships. It is useful to have an outlet for frustrations that will not cause an international incident. Single men can also be unwise in their casual encounters. A Court Slave who is introduced as a virgin cannot spread disease. Of course a single slave cannot compete with the pleasures of a brothel and the King does not want his Lords to appear loose with their affections so a balance is struck to keep them away from such establishments. Slaves are shared at public occasions and by private arrangement and few activities are off limits.”
“So. Why present us?”
“It is accepted practice within the region and especially with the slave dealing countries, to provide comfort to visiting dignitaries, it oils the wheels of politics, but you surely knew that.”
“Of course, but why a Presentation and the Summit specifically?”
“Oh, Child! Because you are young, beautiful and innocent. You are a real prize to the most discerning of men. It will be seen as a mark of great honor and regard to the visitors in the room that the Prince himself offers his own slave to them, in your first service. Your successful submission, with your coloring and appearance, clearly of the Realm, will be a source of pride and kudos for the King and a sign of strength to other slaving nations.”
“There was a book, the physician showed me it. There were pictures of slaves being used by more than one Master at a time.”
Chad smirked, “Well, with the right ones that can be fun.” Jared paled and Chad became serious. “My presentation, there were seven, all separate. Misha wouldn’t allow anyone to damage me. I was too busy concentrating on getting it right to have fun. It was scary and I was sore but it was over in a night and I have never had to service as many in a short time since.”
“I can’t do that.” Jared's voice cracked, he looked terrified.
Chad took his hand “You’d be surprised what you can do, but why torture yourself with the thought when Jensen isn’t here. Circumstances are different now his father is no longer King, he would have demanded that Jensen show his dominance by taking your virginity in front of the room. Joshua has allowed a doctor’s certificate and I have never seen him stay for long or participate in public. He will ensure that appearances are correct but I think he is not all comfortable with the concept. I am sure we will see changes.”
Jared nodded dumbly. He wished he hadn’t asked, wondered how easy it would be to get lost in crowds of refugees.
Chad took his hand, rubbed it. “Cuffs?” he asked. Jared nodded and held his wrists to him, he would live in the now, safe in his Master’s ownership.
***
They visited the laundry while servants and slaves took their break. Linen swapped, Chad and Jared set about inspecting the clothes that were stored at the base of the piles, on the bottom shelves, that had a layer of fine dust settling on them. Finding worn but respectable clothing for the male slaves seemed simple enough. They estimated sizes between them and kept the designs flexible and plain. The girls were a completely different matter. Chad was experienced in the variety of women’s undergarments, but estimating sizes to fit the likes of Alona and Danneel was impossible, he had to cover his mouth to stifle the giggles that were produced when Chad paraded in a pink corset that could barely lace, with a full skirt that swirled about his shins. In the end they decided to ask Lady Victoria for her assistance in acquiring garments for the girls. Chad joked that she might well ask him to model the girls’ clothes anyway.
***
The third day seemed easier. It had become a routine. A distant good morning to Jensen on the rays of a rising sun, breakfast, sparring with Chad, cleaning and time playing with Hope. A prayer for the refugees multiplying in makeshift homes beyond fortress walls, training with Alona and more time with Chad. At the end of the day he wished Jensen and Chris well on the points of the stars and glow of the moons. It couldn’t last but it wasn’t his place to worry about anything other than the tasks he had been set.
He no longer removed his cuffs except to wash and at night he pushed his face into the pillow and breathed the scent of Jensen.
Part Nineteen
Masterpost
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