S.U.Pacat

‘I would never ask you to do anything you found distasteful,’ said Laurent.

‘Looking at you is distasteful,’ said Nicaise.

‘I wasn’t sure you’d come back.’

‘I came back,’

They wanted to see a barbarian in the ring? Well, the barbarian could fight.

The slaves knelt in demonstration of their willing submissiveness.

The only reason Damen had that language was that his father had insisted that, for a prince, learning the words of an enemy was as important as learning the words of a friend.

looked fresh, unconcerned and fair, his golden hair bright above clothing of a blue so dark it was almost black. His blue eyes were as innocent as the sky; only if you looked carefully could you see something genuine in them.

Laurent’s fair skin and blue eyes were a combination that was rare in Patras, rarer in Akielos, and a particular weakness of Damen’s. The golden hair made it worse.

“You may hand me the leash,” said a pleasant voice, very close.

Damen looked up into a pair of limpid blue eyes.

except for the ones he had recently been staring into.

The court sounds were muted, as though they were very distant. Louder and more intimate were the sounds of insects in the gardens below, and the slow back-and-forth of greenery.