Chapter Text
The loud jingle of chains beating against the stone floor echoed in the enclosed halls of the castle, as a long procession of knights dragged a group of prisoners along. A sack covered the heads of the convicts, who were forced to stumble forward on their bare feet, stripped of their shoes as well as all of their belongings. The unpleasant smell of blood and sweat, mixed with the faintest hint of alcohol, tainted the immaculate air of the royal residence.
In the throne room, servants and nobles alike gathered to witness the upcoming trial as if it were the most awaited event of the season. One would think it was curious, given that the entire kingdom knew that the sentence would be an immediate one. But just like they found entertainment in frivolities and gossip, so did they enjoy the sound of bones cracking under a tightening rope, or the smell of flesh being burnt by the flames of justice.
Their hushed voices and words of dissent eventually welcomed the unfortunate party. At the front of the line, a young man stood taller than the rest of his companions, his back straight and head held high in defiance. Unlike the other prisoners, he refused to bow down to higher powers and give up on his life, despite how meaningless his efforts were.
At the sign of their king, the knight closest to the convict hit him on the legs with the flat of his sword, and, grunting, the man was forced to fall to his knees. He could feel his skin sting where the blade had struck, blood slowly dripping out of the cut and leaking down his legs onto the cold floor before everyone’s eyes. They were mocking him, calling him a fool, laughing at the last dregs of his bravery.
He gritted his teeth and swallowed down the bile rising in his throat. His body was shaking with the effort of keeping himself upright, but he wouldn’t give the crowd the satisfaction of seeing him break. Hence, when finally his head was freed from its cover, he lifted it once more for them to see. He would make sure his face would haunt their dreams for the rest of their miserable lives.
“Loetphong Nueangna-uam,” was the name the king called while sitting pompously on the elevated golden throne. His icy stare pierced through the souls of the convicts who didn’t dare look up, until it found the fire in the gaze of their leader. “Or should I call you Li Ming, captain of the Moonlight Trader?”
Whispers rose from the onlookers at the mention of the ship. She had sailed the seas for almost four years and had braved every storm, won every match against the naval army, and taken down rival vessels under the watchful command of a young man. Her reputation preceded her, as well as that of her captain. It terrorized towns and often appeared in the nightmares of the common folk. So to see its reign finally come to an end was nothing short of a miracle.
“Silence!” the annoying hiss of their voices ceased at King Suphot’s order.
Li Ming couldn’t contain a smirk, knowing that just his name could bring that much chaos. Even if his life was nearing its end, he knew that his tale would be narrated in ballads for years to come.
“Forgive me for not deigning you of my presence sooner, Your Majesty ,” he mocked, feigning a curtsey simply to rile the nobles up. “I don’t much enjoy the rigid ambiance of the royal household.”
While the king didn’t seem fazed by his rebellion, the same couldn’t be said about the queen. Li Ming noticed that she was visibly restraining herself from speaking up, her fists closed so tight around the armrests of her throne that her knuckles had gone white. She looked fiercer than her husband, in a way that suggested she wasn’t to be trifled with if he wanted to keep his head on his shoulders for a few more days.
At her side, the prince stood uncomfortably with his hands behind his back. He was looking at Li Ming curiously, his eyebrows knitted together, as if he didn’t understand a thing of what was before him.
In the end, the king decided to ignore the pirate’s impertinence in favor of listing his crimes,
“You are under arrest for piracy, smuggling, arson, looting, poaching, depredation and general lawlessness.”
Li Ming rolled his eyes.
“You are to be sentenced to death along with the entirety of your crew at first light.”
“I suppose I cannot hope for a pardon,” he attempted to ask, though his tone lacked any seriousness. “Or at least try to defend myself.”
“You are a criminal !” The queen’s retort was met with a collective groan. It seemed as if everyone was expecting her to snap sooner or later, and it didn’t bode well for any of the convicts. “What could you ever say to justify your actions?”
If Li Ming’s hands hadn't been tied behind his back, he would have lifted them as a sign of peace, “I assure you . Everything I’ve ever done has always been in good faith.”
“You’re despicable.”
“I don’t expect you to understand the pains of the common folk,” he stated, his voice finally losing all of its mirth. “You swim in your gold, get drunk on the most prestigious wine, and bathe in flower-scented waters while the poor die of famine on the streets and their carcasses are left to the vultures. We did what we had to do to survive.”
The bottom of the king’s scepter descended onto the stone floor with a loud bang, effectively nipping their argument in the bud, “That’s enough! A simple sob story will not absolve you of your crimes, pirate. You will be hanged at first light, so I suggest you spend the time you have left repenting. Guards, take them away.”
Li Ming was forcefully hauled back up by the same knight as before. His legs almost gave out at the effort and his head spun for a few seconds. He’d probably lost a lot of blood already, but it was just as well, he imagined. If he managed to live through the night, he would die with a noose around his neck in the morning.
Once again, the guards led them through the numerous halls of the castle and finally down into the dungeons. The clotted air and the rancid smell immediately hit Li Ming’s nostrils, making him gag, but he didn’t have the chance to steady himself before he was pushed without ceremony into one of the filthy cells. The clangor of the keys turning inside the lock briefly resonated in the hollow space of the prison, before leaving the scene to a heavy silence that would accompany them through the night.
Li Ming didn’t know how many candles had burnt when he eventually heard movements outside the cell. His second in command, Saleng, had immediately wrapped cloth around the cuts on his legs to stop the bleeding, despite Li Ming’s incessant protests that he was going to die anyway. After that, not a single member of his crew had tried to speak and, truthfully, he couldn’t blame them. He had led them to their downfall, after all.
He’d been greedy, choosing to follow a legend that they all knew was merely a myth, simply because the promise of so much gold to last them a lifetime had been too inviting to ignore. But their leads had guided them right into the lion’s den, in the arms of the royal household, where they had only found their doom. He deserved every curse they were sending his way.
At that moment, the faint crack of a foot stepping on hay caught his attention. He looked through the bars but the prison was so dimly lit that he couldn’t make out anything, and whoever had come was adept at hiding in the shadows.
“Who’s there?” he called, his voice hoarse with disuse and dehydration.
Seeing as nobody responded, he crawled toward the door and wrapped his hands around the cold metal bars, pushing his face as far as he could into the gap to see better. Finally, he caught a movement on his right, from the corner of his eyes.
“Show yourself!” he summoned again, with no avail.
A guard would answer his calls to mock or shut him up, he thought, and a servant would only go down into the dungeons under direct orders. No, whoever was watching them had to be someone who wasn’t supposed to be there.
Li Ming was about to give up when the mysterious visitor shifted a little toward the light: their cobalt garments shone under the fire, the quality of the fabric uncontested, effectively giving away their identity. The prince was staring at Li Ming from across the corridor, frozen in his spot, as if afraid to get closer.
“Why are you here?” the pirate inquired, curious. He couldn’t help but wonder how he’d managed to elude the surveillance of the guards; perhaps they’d even let him pass, trusting him not to get hurt. At the moment, he didn’t seem to acknowledge any of Li Ming’s attempts at beckoning him.
“Can you hear me?”
“I don’t think he can,” Saleng answered him in the prince’s stead. Li Ming hadn’t even noticed him getting closer, too focused on their guest to pay attention to his surroundings. He turned toward his second in command, confused by his statement.
“What do you mean?”
Saleng shrugged, “Rumors have it that King Suphot’s son lost his hearing three years or so ago and never left the castle since.”
Li Ming cocked his head to the side, intrigued. Such rumors had eluded him, so far. He hadn’t even been aware that the king had a son before that day.
“Woah!” when he turned back to the door, he found the prince’s face a few inches away from his, scrutinizing him.
Now that they were that close, Li Ming could finally make out the young man’s features: his plump lips, his soft skin devoid of pores, the natural blush on his cheeks, and the big, warm eyes watching his every move. He was nothing short of beautiful, a god descended on Earth, shining golden like the throne he would eventually inherit.
Li Ming pursed his lips and willed those profane thoughts away in favor of studying his demeanor. The young man didn’t seem like he wanted to start a conversation, maybe thinking that it would be futile as nobody would understand him. He looked content simply observing the pirate, as if he was trying to solve a difficult riddle.
The memory of a young girl looking up from a bed of daisies resurfaced in Li Ming’s mind. Her bunny teeth peeked out of her mouth as she smiled, watching her big brother skillfully make a crown out of the beautiful flowers. She thanked him not with words, but with a wave of her little hand, knowing that Li Ming would get what she meant.
In the present, he looked at the prince and saw the same innocence her golden eyes once held, before all the light had left them.
“What’s your name?” he signed, startling his visitor.
The prince’s eyes widened in a stupor and, for a brief second, Li Ming was afraid that he would run away. But to his surprise, the other eventually answered: “Heart.”
Heart.
He let it roll on his tongue, noticing how the prince’s eyes followed his movements, and then asked: “Does Mother dearest know you’re here?”
Heart looked almost ashamed of himself when he shook his head. It was somewhat adorable.
“Why did you come, then?” Li Ming prompted, shifting his body so he could sit properly and face the prince at the same time.
Despite his apparent shyness, Heart didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that he was talking to a criminal. On the contrary, the resolution in his gaze suggested he had a clear goal in mind.
“You are a pirate, right?” he inquired, and continued when he got the confirmation. “Can you tell me about your ship?”
Whatever Li Ming had expected it certainly wasn’t that. He’d been ready to get bribed, stabbed, poisoned, or anything that would have shortened his already finite life. Yet as he looked into Heart’s eyes, he only found curiosity and sincerity, as well as a very distinct lack of fear.
So he launched into a long narration of the Moonlight Trader’s deeds. He told Heart of the countless islands she had visited and all the treasures she had carried. And how could anyone forget about that time when she sailed into unexplored waters and came out unscathed? Or when she almost sank after a rough battle and held on until the crew could patch her up at the next port? He laid out the events as they were, without sugarcoating any of it. He told Heart of the pirates she had killed, the royal vessels she’d destroyed, and the bargains she had witnessed. He could tell that the prince appreciated his honesty and was hanging at the edge of his seat, yearning for more.
By the time he was done, the night must have been on its last legs, and despite the promise of death, the weight on his shoulder seemed a tiny bit lighter.
“Are you afraid of me?” Li Ming asked then, amazed that Heart’s only answer was to shake his head.
He huffed a laugh, “Are you pretending to be brave?”
“You’re different from the other pirates my father sentenced to death,” Heart explained. “You don’t look evil.”
“Naive then,” corrected Li Ming.
“I haven’t been outside these walls in a long time,” the prince continued, nonplussed. “I haven’t seen the colors of the market, felt the peace of the forest or the warmth of the sun, nor watched the waves crash into the rocks when the tide is high. I cannot hear the birds chirp on their trees in the morning, or the sound of a busy street, and not even the wind sing. The only way I can witness any of it is through the tales of other people.”
Heart shifted uncomfortably in his spot, his eyes wandering up to the little window on the ceiling where the rays of the moonlight still breached into the prison cell. They both knew that they were running out of time.
“You asked me why I came down here,” if possible, Heart seemed even more resolute then. There was a fire in his eyes that spoke of madness and misery alike. Li Ming knew immediately that his next words would change the course of their lives.
“If I set you free,” Heart signed slowly and deliberately accentuated every movement. “Will you take me with you?”
Li Ming sat up straighter and at the same time his jaw dropped onto the floor, “Are you asking me to kidnap you?”
A nod.
“You’re asking me to add another crime to those I’ve been sentenced to death for.”
“Seeing as you’re already a dead man, I figured it wouldn’t change much.”
There was a spark of something Li Ming couldn’t quite put his finger on in the other’s gaze. It wasn’t trust, per se, nor regret. It looked very much like hope, with a faint hint of excitement. He couldn’t quite believe that the well-behaved son of a monarch would hide such a naughty side to him, but he liked it. Especially if it spelled freedom for both of them.
Making up his mind, Li Ming reached his hand out through the bars for the prince to accept, a smirk adorning his face, as he declared: “You have a deal. The Moonlight Trader is at your service, my lord. ”