Edited 2/3/14: Just doing a little editing spelling/grammar of chapters and a few added things here and there, I do lack a Beta. This story is NOT going to be completely re-written or taken down but a few changes here and there to help with the flow and slow it down a little as a few of my readers have said that it moves a little too fast. Summary has changed.
Summary: In order to save his life the Pharaoh in his panic offers the Thief King, Malik. Being the prisoner of the Thief King opens Malik's eyes to the real atrocities committed by the Pharaoh. Malik faces the challenges to choose a side. The side of the Thief King and be branded a traitor or side with the Pharaoh in his madness to hunt and kill anyone who stands against him.
M. M/M Slash (Male/Male) romance/drama/action/adventure.
Chapter 1: Taken.
Malik sprinted through the palace hallways, leaping over dead guards and slaves and dodging the palace invaders. "He's ours!" One of his pursuers called out to ward off anyone else moving in on their claimed prize.
A response of laugher, "he's a pretty one."
"He's fast."
"Don't let him get the best of you!"
Malik had been awoken from his sleep upon five men bursting into his bedchamber and ripped from his bed then pinning him to the floor. The men laughed and struggled to remove clothes. Malik screamed for the guards; to his confusion, none came. He struggled and with a few well placed kicks and shoves, he managed to escape them, with a few bruises. He fled his chamber, and the five men pursued.
They taunted him while they gave chase making whistle sounds, cat calls and laughing like he was a common Inn wench who enjoyed being chased. The way they laughed and stumbled about after him seemed like they were drunk. They were fast, and it didn't ease his mind that he had lost a few of them upon fleeing his bedchamber moments ago.
Malik ran in search of guards or anyone who could save him. It soon became apparent that the guards were fighting for their own lives or fleeing, leaving everyone within the palace to face their demise.
One of his pursuers finally stopped out of breath, but soon his focus turned upon a servant girl hiding behind a pillar. She screamed once she realized she had been spotted and ran like a rabbit, only to be chased down. Malik too was running out of energy fast. He could feel their hands reaching for him, brushing against his back and arms trying to pull him down.
Only one person that came to mind, who hated the Pharaoh enough to completely overrun the palace so frighteningly fast. Malik heard all the stories about the Thief King's raids on the Pharaoh's family tombs, the murders of the Pharaoh's priests, raids on all travelling caravans and small villages across Egypt.
It was clear in Malik's mind that the notorious Thief King was going to kill everyone here, but the Thief's main target is the Pharaoh. Malik's heart leapt in hope that his salvation laid with the Pharaoh who would be well guarded in his bedchamber. With his new destination in mind Malik hastened his pace. Soon the Pharaoh's bedchamber came into view. The doors were still closed, perhaps the invaders hadn't released whose bedchamber it belonged to, or they hadn't reached it yet, either way Malik would be saved from his pursuers once he got inside that chamber.
Malik only stopped for a moment to rip open the door and rush inside, "my Pharaoh." The words left Malik's lips to draw the attention of the Pharaoh and the guards. A heart-stopping moment when Malik realized the room full of the raiders, and the Pharaoh on his knees gagged and tied up. He was slow to react and even slower to stop running. "What have we here?" Malik was grabbed in mid run and lifted off his feet. "Come to be the little hero?" Laughter made his ears ring.
"Let go!" Malik struggled furiously eyes darted about the room for the guards, who were all dead and piled up against the far wall. It seemed clear that his death and the Pharaoh's were imminent. He stopped. However, when his eyes landed on the shadowed figure lounging back on the bed, eyes that seemed to have an inhuman glow, they seemed to take in every inch of him, and Malik felt suddenly naked under his stare.
The Pharaoh was forced to bow before the figure had broken the stare, the gag removed, "you bastard of a motherless goat herder!" The insult shot out of Atemu's mouth the moment he could open it. The men were in stitches of laughter, the Thief King just smirked, "I'll have your heads for this!" Atemu spat.
"Pharaoh," The fiendish Thief King said the title mockingly. "You already took the heads of everyone in my village, my family, my friends, my cat." His men laughed again, but the Thief King was deadly serious. "It makes me feel neglected and unloved when you do all the taking and never any giving," the Thief rose gracefully from the bed and approached his captives, "so selfish."
Malik could do nothing, but watch as the Thief moved by Atemu and stopped right before him. Malik's heart sped up, and he held his breath in fear of being killed at any moment. He got a rather good look at the Thief, dark wine red eyes, the scaring over his right eye and cheek. His head and hair covered by a white hood and a few gold chains holding the cloth in place. His cloak was open showing a well worked body of muscles.
The Thief's eyes locked onto the servant's, who had the brightest pools of liquid lavender he had ever seen. The way they silently pleaded at him to spare his life, like everyone else did that fell under his blade. Was it the tears that made them shine so much or the fear he saw in those depths? Either way, they were the nicest jewels he had yet to lay eyes on.
The Thief spoke up, not looking away at all. "What can we do, that would show your humanity side and give something back to the people. I do it all the time." The Thief turned quickly and kicked Atemu in the back knocking him to the ground. "I give food, shelter and clothing to the children you have orphaned through your quest to make the perfect kingdom." Malik's heart slammed in his chest upon seeing the dagger the Thief now possessed in his hand. "Maybe a place in my men's bed and a taste of what being a slave really means, might teach you how to be a little giving." The Thief king waved a hand, and a few men moved in to take the Pharaoh away.
"No," Atemu struggled against them fear etched his voice and features, he wouldn't survive such cruelty.
"No," the Thief King repeated looking and sounding offended. "It is more than what you, and your men offer the good people of villages you stop in, taking or doing as you wish."
"It's their duty to forfill anything my men or I ask of them!" Atemu growled back and recoiled as the Thief King towered over him. The Pharaoh saw fit to bed who he wanted by force or kill them or burn a village down if he hadn't liked it. So, it was only fair that the Pharaoh got a taste of that other end. "Release me now," Atemu said with as much regal as he could muster. "I'll spare you and allow you and your men to live out your days in my dungeon." The chamber erupted with laughter which only infuriated Atemu even more. "I'm your Pharaoh, unhand me!"
"Your guards are all dead as are your priests and your slaves." The Thief grabbed the Pharaoh by the front of his robes. "Your palace has fallen around you and by morning, it'll be burnt to the ground and you'll be a slave... there is no Pharaoh without a kingdom, and your childish protests of 'no' will not be listened to by my men or me." He shoved Atemu into the arms of his waiting men.
"You're the prize of this raid, and it would be foolish of me to deny their long-awaited payment." The Thief's eyes swept over his men. "If they'll have you," a few crude calls from the small crowd of men rose up as they reached for the Pharaoh, grabbing at him tugging at his clothes. A few just snorted in disgust. However, they watched on. The Thief's men lacked morals and a mind of their own, acted like wild animals taking orders mindlessly as long as there was payment at the end. They were the prefect kind of criminals.
"I'll do anything. Give you anything," the Pharaoh pleaded.
The Thief held up his hand and his men released Atemu for the moment, "like?"
"Safe passage to my treasury for one night."
"One night," the Thief king grinned mischievously, "I've been there four times this month," his smirk widened, at the shocked and angry look the young Pharaoh gave him. The room filled with muffled laughter.
"All the water you need," Atemu tried again, and the men around him laughed harder.
"I have an oasis," the lethal tone of the Thief King that the Pharaoh stammers over his words and frantically looked around at everyone and anything.
Malik's stomach dropped like a rock when Atemu's desperate eyes met his and a frightening clarity shone. "I'll give you him, in my place." Malik shook his head no, he wanted no part. "Full ownership." The Thief King growled low in the back of his throat, his lips curled up in a snarl, how easy it was for the Pharaoh to stake claim on people's lives as if they were his own.
Malik sucked in a breath through his teeth when the Thief's eyes racked over his body once more with a somber look and a raised eyebrow. He wasn't bad to look at, well taken care of; he doubted the boy had ever seen a hard day's work in his life; a palace life made them all soft, but what an interesting twist of events, "who are you?" The Thief asked directly.
"My cousin by marriage and would fetch a nice price on any slave market," Atemu added.
"Ah yes, a slave market," The Thief grinned, "Your cousin, you say." Atemu nodded. "No one would buy him. He would be too well known. Unless, Pharaoh you plan on giving your cousin to me in hopes that I would later try to sell him on the slave market, and you swoop in and rescue him, a risky plan." Atemu coughed and splattered trying to come up with anything, something. "How dare you!" The Thief seethed, "You killed my enter village, and you expect me to take another over you."
"He'll," The Pharaoh didn't get to finish as a well placed kick by the Thief had him off his feet for a second before slamming his back to the floor. "He'll willingly take my place, do anything you ask of him, treat him as you would me."
"Please do not do this!" Malik pleaded, helpless but to stand there. "Atemu please, you can't cast me away so..." Malik's pleading stopped when the Thief had reached up and wiped the tears away from his cheek; Malik didn't pull away or throw insults at the Thief for touching him. "We grew up together, we are basically brothers," Malik snapped hoping to change the other's mind.
The Pharaoh looked away his mind had been made up the moment he had spoken and Malik's pleading fell upon deaf ears. "What makes you think I'll not just take both of you?" The Thief grabbed Malik by his chin and a slow long lick up his cheek. Malik whimpered as the Thief groaned.
"You take him in my stead and I'll never again send my guards into the desert or after you and your men." The Thief King stopped, let Malik's face go and turned on his heels.
"Much better, keep going," The Thief urged.
"Take him in my stead and I'll give you..."
"Atemu," Malik whispered almost brokenly cutting off what the other was going to add to sweeten the deal, knowing his cousin. No, the Pharaoh had every right and really, it was everyone's duty to do all they could to save the Pharaoh if his life is endangered. Not once had it crossed Malik's mind that his cousin would hand him over for something like this, only the gods knew what would become of him at the hands of this monster.
"You could be making a greater enemy..."
"The reinforcements are here!" Came a call and the noises within the palace grew.
"Damn!" The Thief snarled, he had no intention of letting the Pharaoh live past morning, his men would be disappointed. "Time to meet the gods Pharaoh," The Thief lunged at him, just as the doors burst open; the Thief's men met the guards head on in a furious battle and the Pharaoh surrounded by his priests and carried away from harm's way.
"Retreat!" The Thief called knowing he had lost the battle here. He snatched up the loot and bent down grabbing the Pharaoh's cousin by the rear end and tugged, causing Malik to yelp and fall over his shoulder, standing and turning for the window, he threw his bag of loot to one of his men and leapt out the window, followed by the rest of his men.
TBC.
This has been edited to the best of my ability, Read & Review (Love and Cookies)