Prince's Gambit (Captive Prince, #2)

by C.S. Pacat

hounds came bounding down the stone stairs to throw themselves ecstatically at Laurent, who indulged one of them with a rub behind the ears, causing a spasm of jealousy in the other.

‘Can you read and write?’ Jord asked him. ‘Yes, of course,’ said Damen. Then stopped. Jord didn’t notice.

you nit wit haha think before you speak for ONCE.

It was like being alone in a pit with a snake: the snake could relax, you could not.

If Laurent had slept at all, he hadn’t done so in the Regent’s bed.

The tent was very large. It was large enough for Damen, who was tall, to walk freely inside without having to glance nervously upwards to avoid obstructions.

lol same dude same

Laurent’s skin and the shirt were the exact same delicate shade of white.

So you can see easily see when he blushes. Got it.

On the table was the familiar map, weighted by three oranges and a cup.

HE LIKES ORANGES. EXPOSED.

Laurent picked up one of the oranges and started peeling it. One corner of the map rolled up.

‘What is it?’ said Damen. ‘You’re better than I am.’ Damen couldn’t help his amused breath of reaction to that, or the long, scrolling look from Laurent’s head to his toes and back again, which was probably a little insulting. But really.

Laurent flushed. The colour hit his cheeks hard, and a muscle tightened in his jaw as whatever he felt was forcibly repressed. It was not like any reaction that Damen had ever seen from him before, and he couldn’t resist pushing it a little further. ‘Why? Do you want to spar? We can keep it friendly,’ Damen said. ‘No,’ said Laurent.

‘Why do you give me good advice?’ asked Laurent.

My poor little prince who has been all alone since he was 13, is not used to being around good men. UGH.

Damen said, ‘Why don’t you take any of it?’

HA so sassy. Swerve.

Laurent fought like he talked. The danger lay in the way he used his mind: there was not one thing he did that was not planned in advance. Yet he was not predictable, because in this, as with everything he did, there were layers of intent, moments when expected patterns would suddenly dissolve into something else.

The advice of his father came back to him: never to take your eyes off a wounded boar; that once you engaged an animal in the hunt, you must fight it to the finish, and that when a boar was wounded, that was when it was the most dangerous animal of all. That thought nagged at him.

‘Wait,’ said Aimeric. ‘You really think Jord has seen it?’ And then he flushed as though he had given something away.

Laurent said, ‘What do you think of Jord?’ ‘I like him,’ said Damen. ‘You should be pleased with him. He was the right choice for Captain.’ There was an unhurried pause. Aside from the sounds Damen made when he picked up a vambrace, the tent was quiet. ‘No,’ said Laurent. ‘You were.’

AHHHH

It frustrates me that I cannot put you to best use.’

Always playing chess in his mind. ISTG.

‘You just surprised me,’ said Damen. ‘Sometimes I think I understand you, and at other times I can’t make you out at all.’ ‘Believe me, that sentiment is mutual.’

HAHA

Laurent was, as Orlant had once described him, a cast-iron bitch, that it was a very bad idea to get on his bad side, and that as for his good side, he didn’t have one.

Again, SASSY.

It was apparent why his uncle had kept Laurent away from the reins of power: he was good at leading.

Laurent didn’t order him put on the post. Laurent flayed him, verbally. It was not like his exchanges with Govart. It was cool, explicit, appalling, and it reduced a grown man in front of the troop as utterly as his sword thrust had done. The men got back to work after that. Damen heard one of them say, in a tone of awed admiration, ‘That boy has got the filthiest mouth I’ve ever heard.’

‘I was never a fighter,’ said Laurent. ‘That was Auguste. But after Marlas, I was obsessed with…’ Laurent stopped. Damen could see the moment when Laurent decided to continue. It was deliberate, his eyes meeting Damen’s, his tone subtly changed. ‘Damianos of Akielos was commanding troops at seventeen. At nineteen, he rode onto the field, cut a path through our finest men, and took my brother’s life. They say—they said—he was the best fighter in Akielos. I thought, if I was going to kill someone like that, I would have to be very, very good.’

Gutted.

‘Laurent seems to hold him brighter in his mind than the image of his own father.’

‘You have to understand. Auguste was made to be the pride of any father. It’s not that there was any bad blood between Laurent and the King. More like…the King doted on Auguste, but didn’t spare much time for his younger son. In many ways the King was a simple man. Excellence on the field was something he could understand. Laurent was good with his mind, good at thinking, good at working his way through puzzles. Auguste was straightforward: a champion, the heir, born to rule. You can imagine how Laurent felt about him.’ ‘He resented him,’ said Damen. Paschal gave him a strange look. ‘No, he loved him. He hero-worshipped him, the way that intellectual boys sometimes do, with older boys who excel physically. It went both ways with those two. They were devoted to one another. Auguste was the protector. He would do anything for his little brother.’

THIS BOOK. WTF. MY HEART.

Laurent didn’t need to be protected from anything.

Damen, open your effing eyes.

‘You will accompany me,’ said Laurent, ‘in lieu of a guard, and we leave at dusk. And that is as far as I will bend on this subject. Any further opining from you will not meet with a loving reception.’ ‘All right,’ said Damen. ‘All right,’ said Laurent, after a moment had passed.

‘My trick?’ said Damen. The last time Damen had seen a symbol like that on a door, it had opened to expel Govart. Laurent raised his fist and applied it to the door. Then he turned to Damen. ‘I assume that’s right? I have no idea how one usually proceeds. This is your arena, not mine.’

‘This is not my arena,’ said Damen.

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

On the third attempt, the whole grille came away from the window. It was surprisingly heavy. He placed it carefully on the floor. The thick carpet muffled any sound, as it had done when he had moved the chest. ‘After you,’ he said to Laurent, who was staring at him. Laurent almost looked as though he was going to speak, but then he just nodded, pulled himself through the window and dropped soundlessly into the alley behind the brothel. Damen followed.

HE'S SPEECHLESS. LAURENT. WHO ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT TO SAY. HE'S SPEECHLESS. HAHAHA

‘It’s not just the streetwalkers who know you’re camped at the keep. Anyone seeing a young blond man of noble birth is going to guess it’s you.’ ‘I brought a disguise,’ said Laurent. ‘A disguise,’ said Damen.

Laurent said, ‘After you.’ Damen opened his mouth. Closed it. He put his hand on the inn door, and pushed it open. Laurent followed him, after a moment spent affixing the long hanging sapphires of Nicaise’s earring to his own ear.

you're kidding

‘I want your best room,’ said Laurent, ‘with a big bed and a private bath, and if you send up the house boy, you’ll find out the hard way that I don’t like sharing.’ He delivered the innkeeper a long, cool look. ‘He’s expensive,’ said Damen to the innkeeper, by way of apology.

HAHAHAHA omg I love hahahaha

He kept one eye on Laurent, who even at the best of times could not be predicted.

Pet. Laurent’s cool-eyed arrogance proclaimed that no one could touch him. The earring said that one man could.

yes please

The earring winked at him. ‘I’m glad I brought you along. I wasn’t expecting to have to tear things out of walls. Do you visit brothels often?’ ‘No,’ said Damen.

‘You talk more,’ said Damen, ‘when you’re uncomfortable.’

such a great point

‘Look, I’ve learned a new trick.’ When he opened his hand, it was empty, as if by magic. A second later, the coin dropped out of his sleeve onto the floor. Laurent frowned at it. ‘Well, I don’t have it quite yet.’ ‘If the trick is making coins disappear, I think you do have it, actually.’

LAURENT LIKES MAGIC TRICKS. GOODNESS. He needs a HEA I swear

‘What’s the food like?’ said Laurent, his eyes on the table. Damen tore off a piece of bread, and held it like a treat to a house cat. ‘Try it.’ Laurent looked at the bread, and then he looked at the men by the fire, and then he looked at Damen, a long, cool look that would have been difficult to hold if Damen had not had, by now, a great deal of practice. And then he said, ‘All right.’ It took a moment for those words to penetrate. By the time they did, Laurent had settled next to him on the long bench. Laurent straddled it, facing Damen. Laurent was really going to do it.

‘Control yourself,’ said Laurent. And shifted in, until, facing one another on the straddled bench, they were almost chest to chest. Laurent’s hair tickled against Damen’s cheek as he brought his lips to Damen’s ear.

Damen rose and gave Laurent a long look. ‘You look pleased.’ ‘I’m the type who takes a great deal of pleasure in small victories,’ Laurent said.

yes sir

After a moment, Laurent said, ‘I don’t think I would have arrived here without your help, at least not without being followed. I am glad you came. I meant that. You were right. I’m not used to…’ He broke off. His damp hair, pushed back as it was, exposed the elegantly balanced planes of his face. Damen gave him a look.

‘You’re in a strange mood,’ said Damen. ‘Stranger than usual.’ ‘I’d say I’m in a good mood.’ ‘A good mood.’ ‘Well, not as good a mood as Volo,’ said Laurent. ‘But the food’s decent, the fire’s warm, and no one’s tried to kill me in the last three hours. Why not?’ ‘I thought you had more sophisticated tastes than that,’ said Damen. ‘Did you?’ said Laurent. ‘I’ve seen your court,’ Damen reminded him gently. ‘You’ve seen my uncle’s court,’ said Laurent.

effing facts

I don’t know. I don’t know why. I don’t know what I did to make him hate me as much as this. Why we couldn’t go as brothers to mourn— —our father—

oh Damen honeyyyyy

‘Auguste was like you,’ said Laurent. ‘He had no instinct for deception; it meant he couldn’t recognise it in other people.’

‘I’m twenty years old,’ said Laurent, ‘and I’ve been the recipient of offers almost as long as I can remember.’ ‘Is that an answer?’ said Damen. ‘I’m not a virgin,’ said Laurent. ‘I wondered,’ Damen said, carefully, ‘if you reserved your love for women.’ ‘No, I—’ Laurent sounded surprised.

Not knowing what he had done to provoke betrayal, not once, but twice, from beloved, and brother.

DAMEN

‘Because a kingmaker would always choose the weaker man. The weaker the man, the easier he is to control.’

‘What makes you think Kastor is the weaker man? You don’t know him.’ ‘But I’m coming to know you,’ said Laurent.

giggling and kicking my feet

‘Can you make it?’ Damen asked him. ‘Probably,’ Laurent said.

iconic

He turned back. Laurent was wasting a precious few seconds re-judging the distance. Damen suddenly realised that ‘probably’ did not mean ‘definitely’, and that in answering Damen’s question, Laurent had calmly given a truthful assessment of his own abilities. Damen felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. Laurent jumped;

HAHAHA