Captive Prince: Volume Two

The second book in C.S. Pacat's Captive Prince trilogy continues the story of Damianos (Damen), the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos, a Mediterranean-inspired kingdom. In the first book, Damen's half-brother Kastor seized power, had their father King Theomedes killed, and shipped Damen as a slave to the rival kingdom of Vere, a nation modeled on medieval France. There, Damen was given as a pleasure slave to Prince Laurent, heir to the Veretian throne, whose older brother Auguste was killed by Damen at the Battle of Marlas. Concealing his identity behind the shortened name "Damen," he survived Laurent's cruelty and the schemes of Laurent's uncle, the Regent, who controls the kingdom and seeks to eliminate Laurent before Laurent can claim the throne. By the end of the first book, Damen agreed to accompany Laurent on a border campaign in exchange for his eventual freedom.

The novel opens as Damen rides with Laurent's fifty soldiers to the castle of Chastillon, still wearing a gold slave collar. He identifies the Regent's strategy: The men assigned to Laurent are second-rate mercenaries led by Govart, a brutal captain loyal to the Regent, and the company is designed to tear itself apart before an inevitable border ambush. In private, Laurent presses a knife into Damen's hand, angling the blade toward his own stomach and daring Damen to clarify his intentions. Damen declines but admits he wants to use it. Laurent establishes terms: obedience until the campaign ends. He then sits Damen across a map, asking about border terrain and launching their strategic partnership.

Tensions escalate on the march. When Govart publicly insults Laurent's dead brother, Laurent draws his sword, revealing extraordinary swordsmanship and driving a blade through Govart's shoulder. He strips Govart of rank, transfers the captaincy to Jord, his most reliable soldier, and extends the journey with a two-week training camp at the keep of Nesson, near the border with Vask, a mountainous territory whose clans Laurent has been cultivating as allies. He and Damen plan drills together, transforming the men into a cohesive fighting unit. Laurent reveals he trained obsessively after Marlas: "I thought, if I was going to kill someone like that, I would have to be very, very good" (70). Damen, sitting across from the man who unknowingly describes wanting to kill him, falls silent.

A riderless horse signals that Laurent's messenger was intercepted. Damen and Laurent ride to the nearby town of Nesson-Eloy, disguising themselves to evade pursuers while Laurent meets a contact carrying a ciphered message. Laurent burns the message and gives the man his signet ring with instructions to deliver it to an ally at Ravenel, the great border fortress Laurent intends to reach. Damen separates to protect the messenger and learns from a captured pursuer that the Regent has planned a three-stage assault: an attack in town, an uprising within the troop, and a mercenary ambush in the hills. Racing back, Damen finds the uprising already thwarted and argues for a preemptive night attack on the mercenaries. The troop wins decisively, losing only two men.

As the company rides south, Laurent's long-term alliances become visible. At Acquitart, Laurent's sole remaining holding, he and Damen ride to ancient ruins, where they are blindfolded and led to the camp of Halvik, a Vaskian clan leader. Laurent negotiates while Damen fulfills a Vaskian custom requiring the dominant male to service the clan women sexually, sealing the alliance. Damen and Laurent grow closer through nightly routines of undressing and strategy discussion that neither acknowledges as intimate.

News arrives that an Akielon force has destroyed a Veretian border village in retaliation for a raid the Regent engineered. Laurent and Damen ride into the hills to investigate and encounter a full Akielon army. Damen could deliver Laurent to his own people or ride home. Instead, he acts as lookout while Laurent hides, then kills an outrider who fires at Laurent. Sharing a horse afterward, Laurent admits his surprise when his uncle first tried to kill him. Damen replies, "It's not naive to trust your family" (208). They are captured by the raiders who provoked the border conflict. When the raiders menace Laurent, Damen kills two men with his hands bound. Laurent saves Damen by telling the raiders to beat him rather than execute him, buying time until Halvik's women launch a counterattack. Laurent secures prisoners as evidence against the Regent.

Returning with prisoners, the company finds the army of Lord Touars, the Regent-loyal commander of Ravenel, arrayed against them on the fields of Hellay. Aimeric, a young soldier whose father is the Regent's councillor Guion, reveals himself as the Regent's spy. Laurent shields Jord, who has been covering for Aimeric's absences out of their intimate relationship. But Laurent's countermove unfolds: Troops from Patras, an allied foreign power, crest the eastern hill. Laurent transfers command to Damen. In the battle, the formations drilled at Nesson break Touars's lines. Damen kills Touars, who recognizes him in his final moments as Damianos. Jord witnesses the revelation but stays silent.

Laurent takes the fortress by disguise: The troop dresses in captured armor and rides through Ravenel's gates unchallenged. That evening, Damen climbs to the battlements, and Laurent follows. Damen says, "Laurent, I am your slave" (304), and kisses him.

Laurent interrogates the captured Aimeric with escalating intensity until the truth emerges: The Regent sexually abused Aimeric as a child and manipulated the relationship to turn him into a spy. Laurent, nearly the same age as Aimeric, recalls a trip the Regent made to Aimeric's childhood home, and the implication hangs unspoken.

Damen prepares to leave at dawn, but Laurent comes to his chambers: "Tomorrow you leave. But you're mine now. You're still my slave tonight" (326-327). They consummate their relationship, Laurent admitting, "I...find it difficult to let go of control" (337). Damen experiences it as the most intimate encounter of his life. He wakes to Laurent smiling beside him. Laurent slips away and arranges for Damen's collar and cuffs to be removed. Before Damen can leave, the Regent's herald arrives, declaring Laurent expelled from the succession and presenting the severed head of Nicaise, a fourteen-year-old boy who tried to support Laurent. Damen refuses to leave. They find Aimeric dead by suicide, three words written before him: "I'm sorry, Jord" (361).

Laurent orders a march to Charcy, the Regent's chosen battlefield. Damen argues Laurent is playing into his uncle's hands. Laurent retaliates by revealing that the Regent conspired with Kastor to poison King Theomedes. Damen, shattered, punches Laurent, then recognizes the pattern: Laurent provokes others to avoid facing his own pain. Laurent admits, "I can't think" (372). Together they plan to take Fortaine instead, seizing genuine strategic advantage. Damen realizes that sending him as a slave to Laurent was the Regent's price for his alliance with Kastor, designed so that revealing Damen's identity would eventually destroy Laurent from within.

Laurent rides toward Fortaine, leaving Damen in command of Ravenel. A blacksmith removes Damen's collar, but Damen keeps one gold wrist-cuff. From the battlements, he sees red cloaks approaching: the army of Nikandros, a Kyros (provincial governor) of the Akielon territory of Delpha. These are the reinforcements Laurent arranged through his signet ring and chain of messengers. Nikandros dismounts, stares at Damen, and falls to his knees. The name passes through the ranks until the entire army chants: "He lives. The King's son lives. Damianos" (388). The story continues in Kings Rising.