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The night stretched on, long and dark and perfect. At one point, Sebastian rolled over and burrowed into Lucan’s shoulder, breathing softly against Lucan’s neck.
Lucan kept a protective arm wrapped around him and tried to stay awake. It was a very real pity they did not have another trustworthy companion. A third or even a fourth to take night watches would have been perfect. As it was, Lucan tried to both rest and stay awake…
“What have we here? A couple of lost boys in the woods?”
Lucan looked into the coal-black eyes of a forest brigand and knew deep in his soul that he had absolutely and entirely failed Sebastian. The bandit’s description was brutally apt. He and the prince were curled up together like a pair of lost children, surrounded by six brutal bandits.
7 MEETING THE DEVIL
They had already been robbed. Lucan knew that immediately. At the fringes of his sleeping consciousness, he had been aware of fingers creeping about his waist, but his mind had made them Sebastian’s fingers, and not the digits of a thief. Already his fascination with the prince was proving dangerous. Sebastian was frozen in fear against his body.
They had not been entirely deprived of all their weapons. Lucan still had a knife in his belt, though his sword and bow had been moved. But it was not worth the risk of antagonizing these midnight bandits by attempting an attack.
He was forced to sit there and hope for something like mercy, entirely helpless and useless. He was the last loyal knight of Force, and here he was having failed Sebastian as surely as all the other knights. It was shameful. He would more have liked to have lost his life in the act of saving the prince rather than be alive in this situation.
“You look like a man who should have known better.” The leader of the bandits cocked his head, making fearsome eye contact with Lucan. “We were going to slash your throats, but you’re both such pretty boys. We thought we might have a better use for you.”
Lucan did not consider himself a boy, but the dark-eyed bandit had streaks of gray through thick braided hair and was probably about forty years of age. Perhaps to him he did look like a boy.
As Lucan sat up, Sebastian woke up. Some instinct made him reach immediately for Lucan’s waist, where the coin pouch containing their riches had been. He must have been paying more attention to the location of his riches, for he noticed their absence immediately.
“Where are my… where is…”
Sebastian sat up, ignoring the swords and weapons as if they did not apply to him. His hair was tousled, and his eyes were still heavy with sleep. He did not seem to notice or perhaps to care that they were surrounded.
“Lucan, what did you do with…”
“Sebastian…”
“Looking for these, blondie?”
A henchman to the right of the leader palmed Lucan’s bag of jewels in a way that made them jingle. Sebastian stared, finally becoming aware of the presence of bandits. He glanced at them for barely a second before turning intensely furious eyes on Lucan.
“You were supposed to keep them safe!”
“Seb…”
Sebastian rose to his feet, walking through the swords, which moved away from him, more out of curiosity at the boldness of this slim, tall young man who seemed immune to intimidation.
He walked up to the bandit with Lucan’s pouch and snatched it out of his hand. “These are mine!”
Lucan felt the fingers of sleep still upon him, making the scene before him seem slightly hazy. He knew he should rise, but he had a feeling that if he got up the reception would be quite different. Sebastian seemed to have a halo effect around him, a sort of royal privilege. The bandits did not seem to feel threatened by Sebastian. They did not take him seriously. They were likely impressed by his beauty. Sebastian truly was gorgeous, and pretty things always slid through life more easily than others.
There was no doubt in Lucan’s mind that this was dangerous. Sebastian’s impulsiveness was going to get them both killed one day, if his own ineptitude didn’t do the job first.
Sebastian’s reclamation of the jewels did not last long. The bandit leader snatched the bag out of Seb’s hand, and when Sebastian reached for it, he slapped Sebastian’s hand away with a sharp, slapping swat. Lucan knew very well Sebastian was fortunate that slap came from an open palm and was not instead a slice from a blade. The bandit had sheathed that already, apparently deciding the two men he was holding up were no true threat.
“Give those back. They are mine!” Sebastian made the demand stridently. The bandits laughed at him, but Sebastian did not care, drawing himself up to his full height and fixing the bandit leader with a steely stare.
