Bakhtiar grinned boyishly."Yes.Don't worry, you'll learn all of them.Soon, you won't want to travel the palace any other way because this method is so much more peaceful."
Aaralyn laughed and followed him into the tunnels.Though they were completely dark, or near enough, Bakhtiar seemed to have no trouble wending his way along, holding fast to Aaralyn's hand the whole time.
Eventually, they spilled out into what seemed to be a storeroom, and from there into an enormous open room divided into sections by furniture and plants.In one section sat the rest of the harem, three of them playing taaki, while Taher read a book.
Reza saw them first and grinned."They're back."
"They?"Kurosh echoed in delight even as he turned."You're here!Finally!"He was across the room so quickly that Aaralyn felt slightly dizzy."Welcome, wildflower.Can I finally be impertinent with all that lovely hair?"
"Yes?It's the color of carrots, hardly…" he forgot what he was going to say as long, deft fingers combed through his curls, nails scraping along his scalp."Oh."
Reza kissed Bakhtiar softly."We told you he would join.Nobody who draws you like that is adverse to the idea."
Aaralyn groaned, head dropping—and colliding with Kurosh's bare shoulder, which made it easy for him to stroke those evil fingers along the back of his neck."I cannot believe you wound up with that drawing.I'm going to have words with Rostam about running into me that day."
"I think he'll like what Bakhtiar has to say better," Taher said with a laugh."We're all extremely grateful to him for the mishap that allowed that drawing to find its way to us.A servant brought it assuming one of us had done it and dropped it somehow, or that we'd had it commissioned by an artist who lost it."
"My breath was quite taken," Bakhtiar said, that barest hint of shyness re-emerging, such an endearing quality in someone who had no reason to be shy at all.
An arm slid around his waist and pulled him free of Kurosh."You have to share."
Kurosh grinned lazily and leaned over Aaralyn's shoulder to kiss Farrokh—then kissed Aaralyn before rising back to his full height.
"We're happy to have you with us at last," Farrokh said from behind him."I knew the moment I met you in the garden that you would fit right in.Kurosh had already said as much, and his intuition is flawless, but meeting you for myself really made it obvious."
"It was just a drawing," Aaralyn whispered.
"It was much more than that," Reza said, taking his own kiss.After a lifetime of so little, only stolen moments with virtual strangers or sort-of friends behind buildings, the surfeit of affectionate kisses was dangerously addictive.
Taher kissed him next."Your drawing showedcaring, when often any stray drawings that come to our attention are…not fit for public viewing.People make many assumptions, and have vivid imaginations.It can be quite upsetting."
"Yes, that's quite disgusting."He would never have eventhoughtto draw erotic imaginings of Bakhtiar and his harem.Just the idea of doing so made his skin crawl.
Farrokh gently kissed the side of his neck, above where he'd been bruised, then said in his ear, "If you wanted to draw such things for all of us, though, I think we'd quite enjoy that."
Aaralyn shivered."I've never drawn anything like that.It—" He licked his lips, staring at Kurosh, those pale, sharp eyes that seemed to miss nothing."It would take a lot of practice."
"There is that spark I saw hints of.You burn softly, wildflower, but you burn all the same."Kurosh stole him back, kissing him much more ardently while the others looked on."Nothing at all like the rest of us: bossy and greedy and taking our prince as we please."Aaralyn shivered."No, you're much too sweet for that, another pretty thing for us to play with.Once you are healed up, that pretty throat no longer covered in Havarin abuses, we will play thoroughly."
Aaralyn's stupid, useless skin was red all the way down his neck, he could feel it."I don't— I've never done much of anything.There was never much time, not for me with all my studies."There was no way he could match them in knowledge and skill.He'd probably look quite fumbling and silly.
"Don't worry, the rest of us are more than slutty enough to teach you whatever you want to know," Farrokh said dryly."Especially our errant prince, who used to sneak out and pay whores to fuck him."
"I will never hear the end of that," Bakhtiar said, while Aaralyn gaped, not certain if he was horrified or aroused or both by the images in his mind."You're alarming him.Quit it.He's had quite enough excitement for one night, and the gods alone know what other trouble Havarin will cause before we can finally get rid of them.Not that kind of get rid of," he added, glaring at Kurosh.
"We'll see.Come along, wildflower, how about a hot bath?Then you will probably crash quite hard from the night's events.Everything else will keep until tomorrow."
"All right," Aaralyn replied, smiling as they dragged him away, scarcely daring to believe this was real and not a dream he would soon wake up from.
Though reality returned, harsh and sharp, when it came time to remove his leg.Everyone around him was so beautiful and flawless looking…
"Do you need help?"Farrokh asked.
"No, it's all right, I just…" felt hopelessly out of place, despite the fact they'd made it very clear they wanted him here.
"He had two of these made, you know," Kurosh said as he knelt and began to remove the leg and layers of protective padding.He handed it all off to Taher, who took it away somewhere out of his line of sight."He called this the 'plain one,' and pouted that he couldn't give you the 'proper' one."
"Plain?"Aaralyn asked in bewilderment."It's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned, including the family mirror I had to give away to make it here."
