2
"What do you mean!" Ianto demanded as he stared at the smug man.
"The Crown Prince has allocated the payments and this is what you are due" he repeated, poking the small purse of gold on the table between them.
"I still don't understand why I am being let go" he frowned as he stared at the small purse, less than an eighth of what he knew he was owed for one year of his service, if he had even asked for payment that is.
"He has responsibilities now, a new wife to wed and bed" the Queen's Hand huffed, "He had no need for his riders anymore, he personally signed yours!"
"Show me!" Ianto roared with uncommon rage.
The parchment held his Prince's ornate scrawl as he released Ianto from service and wished him all the best.
All the best.
Really?
Ianto scooped up the purse and flew from the room before the Hand could stop him and he raced along the corridor then slammed into the map room where the Crown Prince was leaning over a map as he talked with an advisor.
Another first.
A meeting without him in attendance.
Ianto tossed the small purse onto the map table and stood glowering at his prince.
The Crown Prince straightened up and looked at the purse with confusion, then at his personal assassin.
Not that the outside world knew that.
To the outside world looking in, Ianto was a companion, sometimes even called the 'Future King's Fool' behind fans and goblets.
"So this is it?" Ianto asked calmly, "Of all that we have been … what I thought we were to one another …"
Ianto struggled to calm himself knowing his anger was showing, "You promised me things, things I never asked for and always told you I did not require. All I wanted was a good retirement one day, to sit at your feet like a loyal dog in the twilight."
The Crown Prince finally moved, picking up the purse and staring at it, then his friend. Ianto took his silence as he always did, as cowardice.
"I always knew you lied, I even called you on it enough times to know that any affections were one sided but I thought you at least valued my service." Ianto was now letting go his anger, only sorrow remaining as he stepped back from the table and the life he now saw was not to be.
The parchment fluttered from his fingers onto the table to join the purse as Ianto shook his head with bewilderment.
"Yan" the Crown Prince said softly, letting the purse roll from his finger tips as he started to move around the table but Ianto was not a fool, he was an assassin and he was faster.
Out the door and gone before his prince could hope to reach him, Ianto ran.
He brushed past the Queen's Hand who was still puffing back up the hallway; the fat fuck was so out of condition it was an embarrassment to Her Majesty.
His horse was saddled, ready for the small trip he was scheduled to take on the behalf on the bastard son of a bitch that had just torn his heart out and stomped on it with such ease.
He swung into the saddle and Rhys looked up as he noted the look on the lord's face for the first time.
He had never seen sorrow before.
Anger, hatred, even a rare moment of mirth but never in the years he had tended the royal stables had he seen the Crown Prince's oldest companion show sorrow.
He watched the horse fly from the keep and frowned as he turned to look back at the castle with a growing dread.
Something had happened.
.
.
.
Ianto's mind had been going over that last day like it was stuck on repeat and he shook himself from his fugue as his horse slowed.
Andy was still talking as they neared a waterhole and Ianto let his mount have its head as he loosened the reins to allow it to drink while Andy stopped talking as he let his as well.
"I know who you are" Andy finally said with a sigh, "The sword was the first thing, them looking for you but when your horse leans forward I see the brand on his neck. You need to train his mane to lie across it."
Ianto swore as he looked at the royal seal, the horse had been a gift from his prince and he sighed as he nodded.
"I don't' understand" Andy said quietly, "It is said that you are his shadow. His most treasured companion, why are you running?"
"He turned me away" Ianto said sadly as he admitted the deception, "After all we have been through, since small children I have protected him. Loved him."
The last was spoken with a snort of anger and Ianto shifted in his saddle.
"His father is dead, he must accept the crown. With it comes a queen, a realm and a life that has no place for a plaything like me" Ianto said with a shrug, "He tried to pay me for my love with a token of distain. I may have been a bit vocal in my displeasure at his lack of consideration."
"Oops?" Andy chortled and Ianto found himself laughing as he looked back at his final moments with his Cariad.
"Yeah" he sighed. "It never occurred to me that he would cut me from his life. I was foolish enough to think I might still warm his hearth."
"And bed?" Andy whispered, "Were those whispers true?"
Ianto shrugged, not wanting to speak of his greatest folly, to give his heart to …
An employer?
Although chaste their naked bodies had lain together, their hands exploring and kisses stolen.
For to receive payment for services when your main job was to hold him in the dark …
What did that make him?
Back there in that room, the sound of the gold chinking in the purse had told him what he was to Jack.
Nothing more than a whore.
