Strong arms encompassed me, and I was lifted bodily from the water, still thrashing like a madman. I clung to Kai, and he held me as I trembled, a human anchor, promising over and over that I was safe.
"I'm sorry," I said, mortified once I'd regained my senses. I tried to wriggle free, to stand, but he refused to let me go.
"No, I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't realise you were that scared."
I set a foot on the bottom of the pool and cringed to realise I could have simply stood upright when I'd started to panic.
"I don't like getting my face wet," I mumbled. "I was okay until something grabbed my leg-"
"Your loincloth." Kai lifted the sodden material from where it was floating on the surface of the water. "It came undone. I should have thought."
I hadn't even realised I was naked. Hastily, I scrambled out of his arms.
"I'm sorry," I said again, too humiliated to think of anything else.
"It's okay," Kai soothed gently. "Come on, let's sit on the steps instead."
I followed him as he waded to shallower water, mesmerised by the way the muscles in his back rippled as he moved. Two smooth dimples broke the surface, just above his buttocks, and my attention fixed on the way droplets of water caught in the fine golden down which covered them.
I was still staring when Kai reached the lower steps and turned to sit, revealing a sparse thatch of neatly trimmed pubic hairs. Blushing, I looked away.
"In future, we'll take our clothes off before we get in," Kai said, reclining naked on the step with a smirk. He tossed our sodden loincloths aside, and they landed with a wet slap. Immediately I set about lying them flat to dry.
"Tam, come here."
I turned, facing him apprehensively. My nakedness had never shamed me. My body was Master's to command, and he preferred me dressed in as little as possible. Still, confronted with Kai, I could not help but be acutely conscious of my drawn-up balls and shrivelled cock. It felt too intimate, an unfamiliar sensation.
Kai, for his part, seemed unconcerned. He reclined easily on the sloping steps, the shallow water barely covering his groin. He kicked his legs lazily in the water, the tops of his thighs and genitals occasionally breaking the surface. He looked as relaxed as though he did this all the time. Who knows, perhaps in the army, he had.
"Don't tell me you're shy." Kai laughed.
"Don't make fun of me," I grumbled. I knew I was being pathetic, knew he'd seen me in a far more compromising position only the previous night, but the sting of shame was never rational.
"I'm sorry," he said immediately. "I wasn't laughing at you. Honestly, Tam." He raked a hand over his shorn head. "I-I'm doing this all wrong. I'm out of my depth here. Last night...." He swallowed. "I'd like us to be friends."
I blinked, surprised. "You want to be my friend?"
The smile he gave me was completely genuine. "I'd like nothing more."
҉҉҉
We spent the afternoon outside, splashing in the shallow end of the pool, then letting the blazing heat of the double suns dry us as we lazed on the warm stone flags of the terrace. Kai seemed relaxed, at peace with his new position for maybe the first time.
"Do you think it makes me a bad person, to be enjoying this?" he asked hesitantly.
We were lying side-by-side on our backs, the warm air cocooning us like the softest of blankets. Kai's eyes were closed, his chin tipped up as the rays of the suns bathed his face. He was naked-we both were-his limbs long and loose and utterly relaxed. I took a moment to simply admire him.
"Why do you think it would make you a bad person?" I asked at length.
He rolled his head to face me, piercing me with his brilliant emerald eyes. "I'm a slave," he said. "I'm being held captive by a sworn enemy of my people, forced to do as he says, wear what he says, live and breathe because he allows it. Wear his collar-" Kai choked, reaching instinctively to the steel band around his neck. "I'll never be truly naked again," he said softly.
I touched my own collar, for so long an object of comfort, reminding me I belonged to my master even when he wasn't near.
"Shouldn't I be angry?" Kai continued. "Shouldn't I be doing everything I can to escape?"
"Do you want to escape?" I asked tentatively, half-afraid of his answer. Afraid because I'd have to report it, yes, but also because, deep in my treacherous heart, I wanted Kai to stay.
How I could wish that, when our master was always forefront in my mind, I didn't know. Perhaps even slaves were capable of being selfish.
It seemed forever before he answered. "No. No, I don't want to escape. Not right now."
"And that unsettles you?"
"Shouldn't it? Am I so easily bought that spending an afternoon in the sun is all it takes for me to forget who I am-what I am? I'm a soldier of the Granthian corps, a man of honour. I should be doing everything I can to return to my regiment."
"Why?"
His face fell. "I don't know," he whispered.
I didn't tell Master about Kai's misgivings. It was only logical, I told myself, that he would feel conflicted, being torn from his old life to end up here. I could only imagine what he'd heard of being a slave, but I'd heard enough to know our master was not a typical man. He had never been cruel to me, never unjust, and I repaid his kindness with unwavering devotion. I could so easily have been purchased by another; my life could so easily have become a nightmare. All of us who lived under his roof were at his mercy, and I for one was grateful.
Master was quiet that night. He smiled warmly enough to see us, presenting in neat synchronicity either side of his chamber door, but there were dark rings under his eyes, and he slumped into his armchair before the hearth looking world-weary and exhausted.
"What have you two done today?" he asked as Kai busied himself lighting a fire in the grate.
"Kai tried to teach me to swim," I answered, helping Master out of his dusty travelling cloak.
"Oh?" he sounded curious. "How did that go?"
"Not well," I admitted, blushing. "I panicked."
"I should have taught you when you were younger," he mused.
"It was only his first try," Kai said, rising from the fireplace, where the kindling was crackling merrily.
"Indeed." Master inclined his head. "Tam, come here."
Obediently, I hung his cloak and sat myself between his knees with my back to him. He threaded his fingers through my hair, and I butted my head into his hand.
"Kai, the brush."
Kai handed it over and took his place on the bearskin rug before the hearth. Outside, the first sun had set, the second dying in a blaze of bloody scarlet, framed by the faint ghosts of the planet's rings. Already the desert heat had faded, making the cheerful fire a welcome addition.
I closed my eyes as Master brushed my hair, working out the tangles with gentle care.
"You've caught the suns," he admonished, touching my bare shoulder to indicate the spot. "You need to be more careful."
"Yes, Master."
"And you."
Even without opening my eyes, I pictured Kai freezing at Master's attention, wary, like a skittish animal.
"Master?"
"Both of you, you're positively pink. I don't want either of you to get burnt, understand?"
"It won't happen again," Kai mumbled, a sullen edge to his tone.
"I'm not forbidding you to go outside," Master said, his voice as even as the rhythmic strokes of the brush through my long hair. "Tam's skin is too pale for him to be outside for hours without protection."
I opened my eyes a crack in time to see Kai nod agreement.
My hair thoroughly detangled, Master dropped the brush to the floor and contented himself with running his fingers through the long strands, fanning it across his lap and letting it fall. Lulled by the soothing motion, I let myself drift until Master's voice startled me from my state of near-sleep.
"Kai, I want you to choose a book. Second shelf." Master's hand left my hair as he indicated the bookcase.
"Any book?" Kai asked.
"Whichever you want."
Kai rose, returning to the rug a moment later with an old, red, leather-bound tome in hand. I recognised it from the cover alone, and smiled as I would to greet an old friend.
"Sit. Open it."
Kai obeyed.
"Read aloud."
"But... it's in Thirskan, isn't it?"
"You can't read it at all?"
Kai shook his head, a little shamefaced. I frowned to myself, an old memory niggling at me.
"Isn't that Tales of the Untold?" I asked, sitting straighter to see the title embossed on the cover.
"That's right, Tam."
"But it's written in Granthian. I'm sure-"
I broke off as Kai flushed bright red and clapped a hand over my thoughtless mouth. Kai can't read. I had assumed all free men could read.