A Royal Affair (27 page)

I saw that the enemy were fleeing—men on foot staggering toward the end of the valley, mounted officers forcing exhausted horses to last desperate spurts of speed.

I swung Xavier and kicked him to pursuit, and another figure detached from the place of mud with me.

It was Aleksey.

He lifted in his saddle and pointed his sword. His cry of, “
Charge
!” was lost beneath the dreadful screaming of the dying horses and men, but he took flight and was followed, and we descended as a massed and bloodied mob upon the fleeing men.

They had nowhere to go, for Aleksey’s infantry commanded the neck of the valley, and so the enemy remnant was cut down between cavalry and foot, and then there was no blue left at all.

We took no prisoners.

It was the custom.

I
THINK
Aleksey’s true courage and genius only became clear to me at the end of this battle. His officers were gathering around him, congratulating him, all flutter and excitement and heightened delight, when he told them it was not yet over, that we had now the opportunity to destroy their army for good. We must attack the troops sent to the peninsula as deception. He was beyond exhausted, we all were, but he rallied them to his cause, took them with him in spirit—and we
rode
.

We rode as massed cavalry, the infantry forced-marching behind, slower but inevitable, like a great wave of death heading east. We, on horses, rode hard, not eating or sleeping or sparing the beasts. We vastly outnumbered the remnant of the enemy army that had never expected to have to engage us at all. They were the deception. When we appeared on the hill above the valley into which they had moved after the fire, we must have looked as death might look to a man breathing his last tired breaths. We swept down upon them with no mercy, sparing neither man nor boy, woman nor horse. All were slaughtered. To be fair to Aleksey and his army, and I suppose to me, anyone who has not been in such a rout, such a terrible place of death, should not comment upon what takes place to those who have. To think that we might stop and compare one person with another, decide fate carefully and weigh value of life, is wholly unrealistic, and we did not do it. If it moved, we hunted it down and killed it. If it made sound, it was trampled. For my part, I did not kill any of the horses, but I hardly hold this up as an example of my great generosity of spirit. It is only that I prefer horses to most men I have met and had no grudge against them at all.

When the killing was done, we had entirely destroyed the massed armies of the Saxefalian state. It was ours for the taking.

Aleksey and I must have deconstructed that war a thousand times after the event. In every conversation I would declare that it had been nothing but chaos and confusion—the signal fires lighting but sending up no smoke, the gunpowder trenches failing—and he would always point out that war was inevitably chaotic and every war was fogged by confusion. In that case, I argued, why bother to plan at all, and he would patiently explain, once more, that if we had not done all that planning, what we did achieve would have been lost along with what we failed to win. And he always won our arguments by asking slyly
who won the war, Niko
? To which I had to reply
we did
. For we did. Saxefalia surrendered its captured territory to Hesse-Davia, and we forced them to make war reparations as well.

W
E
MARCHED
upon the capital within a week. Reunited with our infantry and all our supply trains, we reformed, polished our boots, and with Aleksey at the head of his army, we took the city. There was not one occasion of looting or raping. Aleksey had no qualms about hanging a man for such a crime, which was unusual for his time. My experience of war had been different, and I rather missed scalps hanging from my saddle and had thought that all such noncombatants would be seen as spoils of war. I did not mention this to Aleksey. Upon reflection, I preferred his way of conducting himself as victor. But then I was beginning to prefer Aleksey’s way in all things. I was in love.

W
E
CAMPED
outside the city on the wide, flat plains that led to the coast. It was a time to heal, repair, and consolidate, and all those great things that any army, even a victorious one, must do. I very quickly reverted to my role as doctor, and I dug Jules out from his enforced sequestration in the infantry (much to his relief) to try once more to establish some kind of medical station for the men. Our plans to set up battlefield stations at different places within the front lines had completely been lost to the chaos of the war. I had not even been a doctor; neither had Jules—another plan lost amongst so many. However, just as every boy dreaming of war should take part in one before he decides whether it is a glorious thing or not, so should every doctor actually fight and be wounded. He would then appreciate how these things affect a man. I have often wondered if men had to give birth whether they would be more sympathetic to a woman in her birth pains.

I had no shortage of new wounds to experiment upon. I saw things that would make any man sicken and value his own health. I think it helped me ignore the wounds in my side and thigh, which were healing and now seemed as nothing compared to missing limbs, pierced organs, or damage inside the body that I could not see but which I knew would engender slow and agonizing death. These latter men, I helped along their way with an overuse of laudanum. I had complete medical authority, and if men so badly injured did not come out of my tent alive, no one was the wiser as to why or how they had died. I felt the drug did more to ease their passing than did the priests who flocked to our victorious soldiers in droves—now that the fighting had ceased.

H
ESSE
-D
AVIA
HAD
been formed many years before the current king’s reign by the amalgamation of two smaller principalities, Hesse and Davia. Unbeknownst to me, a similar plan had been proposed for Saxefalia, should the war go in Hesse-Davia’s favor. Saxefalia was far too large and wealthy to become merely sequestered land. It was to become a new principality in its own right. King Gregor intended to invest his heir, George, as Prince of Saxefalia.

The royal party arrived a few days after Aleksey had won his great victory. Apparently they had been following us the whole way to Saxefalia, taking a leisurely pace so they might come upon the entertainment (the battle) and watch its spectacle (the dying). It was far better than watching a tournament, after all. They had expected, of course, to come across an orderly battlefield with massed squares of infantry, watch a cavalry charge, planned for and executed with precision of timing to match the king’s need to see the best of the action. Fortunately, they missed the battle we fought. I think, had they been there, they would have been swept up in the chaotic charge and lost, mistaken for combatants. As it was, they trailed in some days after all the action, losing some of their royal impact. They seemed incredibly out of place in this world of soldiers, but Aleksey could hardly treat them so. He had to greet his father and the new Prince of Saxefalia with all due respect and honor and hand George his new territory. It was all feasting and ceremony and whatnot, and I took no part in any of it.

It made my head hurt even to hear of it, so I usually grunted and carried on cutting off legs when Jules tried to interest me in this gossip.

It was childish, I know, but I had fought the war (to some minds I had won their war for them), but I did not get the reward I wanted: Aleksey. I saw him all the time, but still,
still
, I did not see him as I wished. We were both as busy, if not busier, than we had been on the march or in the battles. The arrival of his damn family did nothing to aid my sense of growing frustration.

P
ROSPECT
WAS
a large city with a great deal of wealth from trade with their neighbors to the east, so I was not surprised when the royal court did not come to the camp and pitch a tent with us, but heard instead that they had requisitioned many wealthy houses and had moved into them. I
was
surprised, however, to discover that Aleksey had abandoned us to move into a villa as well. It was not like him, and he went down in my estimation. Of course, he was very low in that anyway at this time, for he had hardly spoken to me for days, and I was sulking. It is not pleasant to be a man in love. I should have remembered this from my experiences with James Harcourt, but to be fair, this was different. I wanted to see more of Aleksey, whereas James I had wanted to kill.

I was very short and abrupt with Aleksey, therefore, when he actually sought me out one day. To be fair, I had just taken off a man’s leg and was sure I had wasted my time, because he would not survive the night. I was tired and bloody, as well as sulking and in love. Aleksey lounged nonchalantly against his horse, eyeing me as I attempted to clean some of the blood from my hands in a bucket outside my tent.

“Hello.”

I nodded to him, flicking the bloody water a little too close, so he had to step back or have his immaculate uniform ruined. I was not immaculate.

“How are your wounds? Your face looks very well.”

It was. It had healed, and I had almost forgotten it had been so damaged. I’d had no one to attempt to kiss it, after all. I felt like pointing this out to him, but it was not
my
place to remind
him
of what we had once been. When I sulk I do it very thoroughly. Instead, I asked, “What do you want, Your Highness?
I
am very busy.” I put a great deal of stress on
I
because
he
appeared to have the time to bathe and wear a clean uniform.

“I wanted to show you my new medals.”

I straightened. “I am honored that you have come to this lowly camp of
working
soldiers to find me for such delight. Are they very shiny?”

He chuckled. “Very.”

I came over, wiping my hands. “Show me, then, and let me get back to work.”

“I cannot.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, go away, Aleksey.”

“I cannot show you them for they are not here. They are at our new house.” He laughed outright at my expression and came as close as he dared, given we were in the main thoroughfare and many men milled around. “I have taken a house.
For us
. Your face! You
are
fun to tease, Niko. Tell me again how much you hate me, go on, for it always amuses me.” He swung up onto his horse and passed me a piece of paper. “Here is the address. Finish here when you can. If my presence is not enough to tempt you to overcome your bad temper, then perhaps the fact that it has indoor tubs of hot water big enough to submerge a man—or
two
—will make you hasten your duties. Good day, Doctor.”

I watched him ride off, the little piece of paper held loosely in my fingers. The poor man with the amputated leg had died. I gave it little mind. I had a tub large enough to submerge two men to think about. I was warm at just the thought.

M
Y
BELIEF
that Aleksey should stay and accommodate himself with his army only lasted until I discovered I was included in his new accommodation plans. I was more than happy for us both to see nothing more of tents or soldiers. My hypocrisy occasionally dismayed me, but not so much that I was bothered to change.

I did not, however, become such a reprobate as to drop my instruments there and then and follow him. I stayed on all day helping the men who needed me, and only then left Jules to his shift and consulted the piece of paper once more.

The villa was on a bluff overlooking the ocean. It was built in the grand European style. These people were a great deal wealthier than their neighbors in Hesse-Davia. Aleksey had won his country a very great victory indeed. It made me wonder why Saxefalia had gone to war at all, given their spoils, had they won, would have been so paltry, but I suppose men lead their countries to war with very little justification sometimes. It was all about the glory.

I entered the courtyard and handed my reins to a man who assured me that Xavier would be taken care of as well as I. I had to suppress a smile at this and wished Xavier well in that endeavor. He had never, to my knowledge, expressed such preferences, but should he find a suitable young stallion, he was welcome to try.

I made my way into the house. It was well lit by candles, which I then noted led in a winding trail through the hallways. I followed like a moth to their flame, quite unable to stop myself, such was my desire.

He was submerged in a pit in the floor from which aromatic steam arose. I had never seen anything more welcome or more beautiful. His wet hair stuck up at odd angles, and he grinned with delight at my expression, but still he was only perfection in my eyes. “Take off your uniform, Nikolai. Let me watch.”

His voice held that level of command that made me realize that these last few days had had a profound effect upon Aleksey. He was twenty-three, a soldier, and had gone through the usual rituals that mark the passage from boyhood to manhood many years ago. But now he had led a victorious army in war. He had captured a kingdom. He was a
conqueror
.

None of this alarmed me in the slightest. I suspected that now I had someone who could share more than just his body. We met more as equals, and the anticipation was the greater for it.

I did as he requested. I stripped and let my filthy clothing fall away from me at last. I stood entirely naked for his inspection. We had been naked together before, but this was quite different. All before had been hurried and fumbled, pleasure snatched from times and from places we should not have. Now I believed time actually slowed down for us. I stood with all my height and muscle, my wounds and scars—and my manhood rose and sought him out. He held out his hand, and I descended into the water….