He Freed the Kings He Once Chained, They Chose to Bind Him novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Whip
Ren wakes with a riding crop in his hand and three chained kings staring at him; he drops it, tears up the order for the evening rite in front of the guards, and learns that nobody can leave without a seal Mariam wears on her neck.
Ren Ito woke up with a riding crop in his hand and three kings staring at him.
The last thing he remembered was the end of a double shift in Manila, a vending machine and a very long hallway.
Now he was standing in a bedchamber the size of his old ward, in a dark blue coat that was not his, with leather in his fist.
The three men sat on the floor at the foot of a huge bed.
Each wore a silver cuff on his right wrist, and each cuff ran on a chain to a bolt in the bedpost.
The nearest one, a tawny-haired man with a scar through his eyebrow, looked at the crop and then at Ren's face.
"You're early today," he said, and spat on the rug.
Ren looked down at his own hand.
He had seen enough ruined bodies in his life to read these three at a glance.
Welts had healed white across the back of the quiet one with the black hair.
The slim one with the long ponytail was too thin, and he was smiling at Ren, bright and steady, with nothing behind it.
The tawny one's wrist was swollen red around the silver.
Ren knew what this room had been used for.
He knew whose body he was standing in.
So he walked to the fireplace and dropped the crop on the coals.
The leather curled and hissed.
Nobody in the room moved.
"My lord?"
A guard captain stood in the open doorway with two men behind him.
"The morning rite, my lord. Shall we bring the irons up?"
"No," Ren said.
His voice came out hoarse and unfamiliar, with an accent that had never been his.
"Nobody brings anything up. Get out, all of you, and send a maid with boiled water, clean linen and honey."
"Honey, my lord?"
"For a burn. Go."
The captain's eyes flicked to the three on the floor and back to him.
He bowed and went.
Ren crouched in front of the tawny-haired man, slowly, with his hands where Ken could see them.
"I'm going to look at your wrist."
"Look all you want." Amber eyes held his. "You always do."
"I'm not going to hurt it."
"You said that last month."
Ren felt that in his chest.
He did not argue.
"What's your name?" he asked instead.
The man blinked.
"You know my name."
"Say it anyway."
"Ken Park." A muscle moved in his jaw. "King of the East, since you like to forget."
"Ken." Ren held out his palm, open and low. "Give me your hand."
It took a long time.
Then the chain rattled and Ken laid his wrist across Ren's palm.
The skin around the silver was hot and angry.
Ren pressed two fingers above the cuff and felt a pulse racing there.
"It's burning you."
"It's silver." Ken's mouth twisted. "It stops my beast. It's meant to burn."
Ren's stomach turned over, but his hands stayed gentle.
He poured water from the carafe on the table onto a clean napkin and laid it over the swollen skin.
Ken hissed.
Then his shoulders came down a fraction, and he let his head tip back against the bedframe.
"Why," said the man with the black hair.
It was the first time he had spoken.
His voice was low and flat, and his eyes were on Ren's hands.
"Because it hurts," Ren said. "What's yours?"
The man did not answer.
The slim one answered for him, with that bright smile.
"That's Ryu, my lord, King of the North. You've always known his name. And I'm Su Ming, as you know, and I'll do whatever you like today. You only have to tell me what."
Ren wanted to be sick.
"I like nothing," he said. "Today I'd like to wash this wrist and have some tea."
Su Ming's smile did not change at all.
That was worse.
The door opened again, and a small woman in black silk came in carrying a tray.
"There you are, love," she said warmly. "You look dreadful. Sit."
She was in her late forties, small and plain, with graying hair pinned back, and she set the tray down on the table without looking for room.
A cord hung around her neck, and on it was a gold seal as big as a plum.
"Lady Mariam brings your tea every morning, my lord," Su Ming said.
"Your stepmother," Ryu added, so quietly that Ren barely heard.
So that was who she was.
"Drink that first," Mariam told Ren. "It's your father's blend. You always take the morning after hard."
Ren took the cup.
Her hands were small and steady, and she smelled of orange peel.
"The captain says you've dismissed the rite," she said, still gentle. "I only carry the papers, love, so tell me what you want done with this one."
She held out a sheet with a dark seal at its foot.
Ren read the first line.
It ordered the three kings bound to the bedposts at sundown for the evening rite, as the old king had decreed.
He tore it in half.
Then he tore it again, and dropped the pieces onto the fire.
In the doorway, a maid with a water jug stopped dead, and behind her the guard captain stood with his mouth open.
"There is no evening rite," Ren said. He said it loud enough for the corridor. "Not tonight, not ever. Anyone who touches these three answers to me."
Mariam looked at the ash and then at him.
"Of course, love," she said. "You're the prince."
"What's that seal?"
"Your father's. His hands shook so much the last year that I signed for him." She touched it. "I'll give it up at your crowning, thirty days from now."
"Then I'll write the Release for these three today. I'll sign it myself."
"The Release needs the king's seal, love, and the seal stays with me until the crown. That's the law." She patted his arm. "Drink your tea."
She went out, and the maid went after her, and the room was quiet.
Ren put the cup down untouched.
He unlocked nothing, because the keys were on a ring he had not found yet.
He walked to the heavy door, swung it wide, and stood aside.
"Go," he said. "All three of you. Walk out."
Nobody moved.
Ryu looked at the open doorway and did not stand.
"Try it," he said.
"What?"
"If any of us leaves this wing without the sealed Release, the Western garrison in his capital marches by morning." Ryu's eyes finally came up to Ren's. "You wrote that order yourself. It's why we've never run."
Ren looked at the open door, and at the seal he could not reach.
Then he looked at the three men who could walk out of it and bring their cities down.
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