The Regent's Knight

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

Thirteen years later, little had changed among the friends.

“Touché!”

Sir Tovin’s triumphant cry echoed off the stone walls of the drawing room as he brought his sword down on Sir Berik’s exposed neck. Commanding troops in the southland gave him little opportunity to gather with his old friends; to pass the time waiting for the regent, they’d decided to spar, to test each other’s mettle and see who really was the best knight of the kingdom. It was a familiar jest between them, a title Tovin secretly knew belonged to him, if the way he could make the regent beg for his touch in bed had any say in the matter.

The first round of the swordfight was Tovin and Berik; after a playful display, Tovin brought Berik to his knees under a barrage of quick, cutting blows. Now he stood over his friend and resisted the urge to rub in his victory. “I win. Next.”

“No fair,” Berik said, pushing the sword away. “Best of three, what do you say?”

Sir Giles slapped the back of Berik’s bushy head as he stepped onto the plush carpet they had dubbed the sparring field. The fact that Berik knelt was the only reason Giles could reach. “I say move your fat ass,” he snapped as he took an opening stance in front of Tovin. Raising his sword in a challenge, he added, “It’s my turn.”

Berik sighed and hauled himself to his feet. “Your ass is getting pretty chunky, too,” he said, tapping his sword against Giles’s backside.

Giles turned to swing at him, but Berik laughed and danced out of reach of his friend’s sword. “You would look,” Giles growled.

“I would,” Berik conceded. His conquests in the bedroom far outnumbered his triumphs on the battlefield, as he was the first to admit. Moving to the sidelines, he stood beside Sir Lohden, who was busy ignoring the whole lot of them, an open book in one hand that he tried desperately to concentrate on while the others sparred. Berik leaned over his friend’s shoulder and whispered loudly, “Now you have a nice ass, Lohden.”

“Shut up,” Lohden told him. When Berik took a step closer, he added, “Touch my ass and die by my blade, knight.”

With a bored sigh, Tovin leaned on his sword. He’d hoped to beat all three of them before Amery made an appearance. “Are you guys quite through?”

“Quite,” Giles agreed. Leveling his sword at Tovin, he grinned. “En garde!”

Without further warning, he attacked. Tovin managed to get his own sword up between them and he parried the first thrust, but Giles came at him fast, using his small stature to his advantage. For a few breathless moments Tovin thought he would fall beneath the blade, and he gave ground until the carpet disappeared and the heels of his heavy boots rang off the stone floor. If he left the carpet completely, he’d have to concede the fight, and Giles was the older knight, more experienced, Tovin would give him that—

He heard the chamber door scrape open and from the corner of his eye saw the regent enter the room. Amery. At the sight of his lover, strength flooded his body, a sudden rush of adrenaline that gave him the edge he needed to push Giles back. I can’t lose now. I’ll never hear the end of it. Bad enough to be teased by his fellow knights, but by the regent himself? There’d be no end to the comments Amery would make in the bedroom.

The tide of the battle turned as Giles tried desperately to dodge his blows, but Tovin gave into the heat of the moment and the thought of lying in his lover’s arms later as a victor. He could almost feel the regent’s hand brush across his brow, twining through his shoulder-length hair, straightening his curls between those long, tapered fingers as they made love. That was all the edge he needed to turn the fight in his favor.

Behind him, Amery called out, “Gentlemen.” When no one responded, the regent clapped his hands to get their attention.

Not NOW. Tovin lunged for Giles. Not when I’m winning.

The older man stumbled back and, for a second, Tovin thought this was it—he had won again. It was down to just him and Lohden then, and that was no contest…but Giles caught himself and parried Tovin’s next thrust with a deafening strike that numbed Tovin’s wrist when their swords clashed. “Giles,” he growled, pushing his friend away.

“Gentlemen, please,” Amery called out. Tovin laughed at the frustration in the regent’s voice. “We have matters to discuss here—”

“We’re in the middle of something,” Tovin explained, as if Amery couldn’t see that. “A few more minutes, Your Highness, and we’ll be right with you.”

He turned and winked at the regent, who stared at him as if stunned. In a harsh whisper, Amery spat, “How dare you defy me.”

Then Giles’s sword crashed down on his again and Tovin cursed himself for letting that smooth hair and those smoldering eyes distract him from the fight. The regent fumbled for control of the moment. “I said—”

Through clenched teeth, Tovin replied, “We heard what you said.” He parried Giles’s next thrust more easily and slashed at the older man without mercy. “We’re ignoring you.”

“Tovin,” Berik warned, his low voice a growl beneath the clash of steel. “Ye gods, you two, don’t start again.”

Stepping between the sparring partners, Amery glared at Tovin. The intensity of his gaze set Tovin’s blood on fire, but he crushed the lust that rose within him. We’re not alone, he reminded himself, stepping around Amery to attack Giles. Tonight we can smother each other with sweetness but right now the others are here, they don’t know, they CAN’T… “Get out of my way,” he snarled, shoving Amery aside.

“Sir Tovin,” Amery started, tugging on his arm to distract him. “I am your regent. You obey me—”

Giles brought his sword down on Tovin’s arm, hard, the steel biting into the metal armor the knight wore to protect himself. With a grimace, he shrugged Amery off and turned to meet Giles’s challenge. “This has gone on long enough,” he muttered, raising his sword to strike his friend to the ground. “Won’t you fall already?”

Giles flashed him an unctuous smile. “I’m tenacious.”

“Sir Tovin, listen to me.” The regent caught Tovin’s arm again, stepping into the fray. “I command the both of you to stop this now!”

Suddenly Giles’s blade slipped beneath Tovin’s own, dangerously close to Amery. Too close. Reacting on instinct alone, Tovin shoved the regent out of reach. As he did so, Giles’s blade danced along his armor and slipped easily between the links in Tovin’s chain mail.

Bright pain blossomed beneath Tovin’s ribs, forcing him to hitch his breath as he spun away from his opponent. “Gah,” he gasped. For a heart-stopping moment he staggered on his feet, his knees buckling beneath him. He pressed a hand to his side, as if he could extinguish the fire flaring through him. I won’t fall. I can’t. I was supposed to win. “Giles…”

Then Amery’s arms were around him. Tovin let himself fall into his regent’s embrace. “Oh, hell,” Amery whispered, hands fluttering over Tovin’s own. “Let me see. Tove, let me see the wound. Please…”

Above them, Giles’s grin turned sick, as if he’d swallowed something unpleasant. “I’m sorry,” he was saying to anyone who’d listen, but Amery pushed him away when he tried to lean closer. “I didn’t mean—”

“I told you to stop it,” the regent admonished. “But, no, you won’t listen to me. I’m just the regent. It’s just my damn kingdom.”

“Shut up,” Tovin breathed. In the safety of his lover’s arms, he felt the thrill of the battle drain away, leaving him shaky and unsteady. His side throbbed, but it wasn’t a stabbing pain—he didn’t think the blade had managed to pierce his skin. Taking a deep breath, he sat up and leaned his head against Amery’s shoulder. So warm, this body beside his. So strong, these arms that held him. When he glanced up to see the concern written out on Amery’s smooth face, he wanted nothing more than to kiss it away.

But they weren’t alone. Remembering the others, Tovin sat up on his own and slapped at Amery’s hands. “I’m fine,” he mumbled, trying to inspect the broken links in his mail, but with everyone crowding around him, he had no light. “I said, I am fine. It’s just a scratch. Giles isn’t that good with the blade and you guys know it, so get off me, all of you.”

“Tovin,” Berik started.

But Tovin pushed himself to his feet and wobbled for a second before breaking away from them all. “I’m fine,” he repeated.

And he was—there was no blood on his surcoat, so the sword hadn’t made it past the armor, right? He didn’t think so. Cautiously he stretched his arm and felt the muscle pull along his side. “I demand a rematch,” he declared. Frowning at his friends, he added, “That didn’t count.”

Giles’s face broke into a toothy grin. “Like hell it didn’t count. I won. You fell by my blade—”

“I was distracted,” Tovin told him, glaring at Amery, still on his knees. “The regent—”

Amery surged to his feet. “I forbid it,” he said hotly. “I did not send for my best knights just so you could maim and kill each other in my drawing room. No.”

Ignoring him, Tovin bent to retrieve his sword, but Amery placed one foot over the blade to force the knight to look up at him. “You can spar later. I have things to say that cannot wait.”

“We had to wait for you,” Tovin reminded him. With a twist of his wrist, he slipped the blade out from beneath Amery’s foot, knocking the regent back. “You can wait for us.”

“I won,” Giles said again. “So now I spar with Lohden.”

But Tovin shook his head. “I demanded a rematch. That means the last one didn’t count.”

“I want a rematch, too,” Berik stated. “That’s not fair—”

“Shut up,” Tovin and Giles chimed in unison.

When Tovin took a challenging stance in front of his old friend, Amery cleared his throat noisily. “A night in the stocks if you fight again,” he announced.

Giles wavered between raising his blade to meet Tovin and listening to the commands of his regent. At that hesitation, Amery pressed his advantage. Looking from face to face, he confronted all four of them. “Am I talking here? Is anyone listening?”

“I’m not fighting,” Lohden pointed out. He sank into one of the chairs at the conference table and sighed lustily. “Is this going to take all night? Because I have things to do.”

“Like what?” Berik wanted to know as he took a seat across from his friend. “Sleep? What an exciting night life you have.”

“Giles?” Tovin cajoled. He raised his sword in anticipation. “Are we fighting here or what?”

Giles glanced at Amery’s fiery gaze and shrugged. “I didn’t come all this way just to sleep in stocks.”

“He’s bluffing.” Tovin knew the regent too well; as long as Tovin was at the castle, he knew he wouldn’t be sleeping in the prison. The regent would never allow it. No matter how angry Amery grew with him, Tovin knew he’d sleep in the regent’s arms at night, but he couldn’t say that out loud. Instead, he deepened his voice and intoned, “I challenge you, Sir Giles. Do you deny or accept?”

“Tovin,” Giles warned with a jerk of his head in Amery’s direction. “Can’t this wait?”

Amery declared, “It will wait.” In three steps he was in Tovin’s face, bristling, and Tovin struggled to keep from smiling at the anger that clouded his lover’s features. Quietly, so the others wouldn’t overhear, the regent asked, “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” Tovin whispered. He glanced past Amery to frown at Giles, who had abandoned the sparring field to join their friends at the table. “We can discuss this later. They’re watching us.”

“Let them,” Amery muttered. “Am I not the regent here? Can I not inquire after the health of my best knight?”

Tovin felt a smile tug at his lips. “We were fighting for that title,” he admitted, sheathing his sword. “I have not yet won it.” He raised his voice to add, “If that coward Giles would be so kind as to return to the pitch, perhaps we can fight on.”

“No.” Avery turned to glare at his other knights, as if a look from him alone could prevent their match. “I forbid it.”

Absently, the regent reached out, his hand finding the chipped links in Tovin’s armor where Giles’s sword had cut. Even through the chain mail, Tovin felt his blood surge at the touch. He closed his eyes, imagining the two of them alone, the armor gone between them and those fingers trailing over ticklish flesh…

Then he remembered their friends, damn it, and Tovin swatted that hand away. “Amery,” he warned. Before the regent could reply, Tovin stormed past him to the conference table, a scowl twisting his face in anger. Throwing himself into an empty chair, he glared at Amery, a challenge shining in his eyes. “Well? What is it you needed to tell us that couldn’t possibly wait until our contest was over?”