48 pages • 1-hour read
Captive Prince
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Chapters 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of enslavement, racism, gender and/or transgender discrimination, anti-gay bias, sexual violence and/or harassment, rape, child abuse, child sexual abuse, graphic violence, sexual content, and physical and emotional abuse.
Chapter 3 Summary
Two guards take Damen back to his room. One of the guards challenges Damen to a fight, but the other guard, whose name is Jord, holds him back. Jord explains that the large man in the arena was Govart, a former member of the King’s guard and one of the Regent’s favorites. Damen realizes that the Regent may view Damen’s victory as a slight. Radel admits to drugging Damen, though he says it was harmless. Many days pass without any activity for Damen other than bathing, eating, and relaxing, but he feels tense. No one will speak to him beyond a few words, and Radel constantly lectures him on pleasing the prince.
On the sixth day, Damen finds Laurent in the baths and considers killing him but knows he wouldn’t make it out of Vere alive. Laurent orders Damen to undress and then undress him. The overly complicated Veretian clothes frustrate Damen. Laurent says he waited six days for the Regent to leave so that they could be alone. Laurent asks about Marlas, and Damen admits to fighting there. Laurent says Damen is looking for a fight and orders Damen to bathe him. Laurent’s body reminds Damen of the enslaved woman who bathed him in Akielos, which arouses him. Laurent notices and tries to hit Damen, who grabs Laurent’s arm. Damen sees that Laurent isn’t aroused, so he lets go and lets Laurent hit him. Laurent orders the guards to put Damen on the cross, even when a guard notes that the Regent would take issue with Laurent hurting Damen.
Guards strap Damen to a wooden cross, his face pressed to the wood. Laurent stands in front of Damen while a guard with a whip stands behind Damen. Laurent tells the guard to start, and pain blinds Damen. Eventually, the guard stops, and Laurent says he should have had Damen whipped on the first day. Damen says Laurent has no honor, which provokes another round of whipping. Afterward, Laurent says he was at Marlas but wasn’t allowed to fight. He says Akielons have no honor and that Damen should blame Prince Damianos, who killed Auguste, for his punishment.
Chapter 4 Summary
After the lashing, Radel is furious with Damen for angering Laurent. The servants and guards become more amicable. The two guards, Jord and Orlant, talk with Damen more frequently, asking him about Akielos. Damen discovers that “pets” aren’t enslaved, so the harems aren’t guarded, and it might be easier to escape. He also learns that same-sex pairings are the norm in Vere to avoid “bastards,” or children out of wedlock. Laurent, however, is known for being a prude, though his guards all fantasize about having sex with him.
The Regent returns and visits Damen with Guion and Audin. They’re appalled by the wounds on Damen’s back, and they debate how to discipline the prince. Damen says they would flog and dismiss soldiers who disobeyed orders in Akielos. The Regent emphasizes the importance of maintaining peace with Akielos, which Damen finds respectable. Alone, Damen remembers Marlas. In the battle, a stray arrow killed the Veretian King, and Damen killed Auguste, which led to victory for Akielos. Laurent was only 14 years old, so the Regent took over and signed a treaty, surrendering Delpha, the disputed land between Akielos and Vere. Damen worries that the Veretians will discover his identity as the Prince-Killer.
Radel questions Damen about his interaction with the Regent, noting that Damen understands the Veretian hierarchy. The Regent will rule for 10 more months until Laurent comes of age. The Regent has summoned Damen to court, and servants flock to Damen’s room, cleaning him, dressing him, painting his face, and covering him in jewelry.
In court, Damen sees Laurent, dressed in blue, while the court, Regent, and guard are dressed in red. The Regent criticizes Laurent for whipping Damen, but Laurent says Damen attacked him. A guard testifies that Laurent wanted Damen to die under the whip, and the Regent strips Laurent of all but one territory, reduces his allowance, and demands that he visit Delpha. Laurent accuses the Regent of catering to Kastor. The Regent tells Laurent to embrace Damen, which he does, calling Damen a “slut” and implying that Kastor and the Regent both had sex with Damen. Damen draws back, accidentally smearing paint on Laurent, who uses the incident as a reason to again blame Damen. The Regent ends the meeting, and Laurent takes Damen’s chain, leading him away.
Chapter 5 Summary
As Laurent leads Damen away, courtiers express sympathy toward Damen. He notes that all five Councillors stood with the Regent, so no one can interfere with the Regent’s orders. Laurent leads Damen to a garden, tying his thin, gold leash to a post. Laurent says the Prince’s Guard won’t like that Damen spoke to the Regent and breaks Damen’s leash. Councillor Herode appears, trying to persuade Laurent to forgive him, but he’s startled, thinking Damen broke his own leash. Guards hold Damen down while Laurent walks off with Herode.
Audin’s young pet, Nicaise, approaches Damen, who is now chained again. Damen lies, telling Nicaise that Laurent went back to the audience chamber, and Nicaise leaves an enslaved Akielon with Damen. The man’s name is Erasmus, but before he and Damen can talk, Vannes and a couple of nobles interrupt them. Vannes speculates on Damen’s sexual ability, and Laurent interrupts. One of the nobles’ pets, Ancel, offers to perform sex acts on Damen in the gardens, and Laurent agrees. Damen refuses, but they tie him to a bench. Ancel performs oral sex on Damen, who isn’t aroused. Laurent instructs Ancel on how to perform oral sex but steps away before Damen has an orgasm. Vannes is satisfied, and Damen is furious. Nicaise approaches, and everyone leaves except Damen, Laurent, and Nicaise. Nicaise tells Laurent to go to the Regent, but Laurent chooses to wait. When Nicaise threatens to tell the Regent, Laurent provokes Nicaise, questioning his age. Audin prefers young boys, and Nicaise is almost too old for Audin. Nicaise insists that Audin likes him and promised to keep him, but Laurent says Audin will sell him anyway. Laurent suggests buying Nicaise, but Nicaise sneers at Laurent’s lack of land or money. Nicaise suggests that Laurent will tell Audin that he’s attracted to Nicaise, which seems to upset Laurent. He acknowledges Nicaise’s intelligence and signals for them to go to the Regent.
Chapters 3-5 Analysis
Though events happen rapidly in Captive Prince, the novel casts an eerie sense of the passage of time whenever Damen is left in his room. In Chapter 3, Damen reflects on this: “As the day waned and nothing whatsoever occurred, Damen realised he felt a sense of anticlimax, almost disappointment, which was absurd” (46). His feeling of anticlimax, often marked by a sudden transition from important or tense events to meaningless or unimportant stasis, is brought on by the contrast between the intensity of his encounters with the Veretians and the emptiness of the reality of enslavement in Vere. Much like the servants in Akielos, Damen learns that he spends most of his time waiting for something to do rather than actively engaging with his captors or other characters. As a prince, Damen did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and he often reflects on training, interacting with members of court, strategizing with the military, and interacting with his enslaved servants. However, he has now changed places with those servants and finds the reality of captivity meaningless. He isn’t in a constant struggle to escape or perpetually pitted against Laurent in a battle of wills but, instead, rests on silks, waiting for something momentous to happen.
Another of the novel’s themes, Identity and Self-Discovery Under Oppression, emerges through Damen’s newfound friendships after Laurent has him whipped. Though defeating Govart in the ring leads Orlant to challenge Damen, “being pulverized under the Prince’s lash had apparently made him one of the fraternity” (60). The reasoning behind this response is clear from the behavior of the guards and the “pets.” Submission is the only way to behave in Vere unless one is a member of the ruling class. Fighting in the ring was a display of power and will, which framed Damen as a possible rebel or superior in the eyes of the servants and guards. Being whipped, on the other hand, frames Damen as a survivor of the abuses of the ruling class, which is a position to which almost everyone in Vere can relate. In fact, one of the key details Jord and Orlant reveal in this new camaraderie is gossip about Laurent, specifically that Laurent is “frigid.” Beyond this gossip, Damen also realizes that the guard’s “loyalty apparently did not prohibit the fantasy of fucking the Prince taking on mythic proportions” (61), thematically reflecting the issue of consent inherent in The Dynamics of Power and Consent. While the guards sympathize with Damen through their shared powerlessness, this same powerlessness leads them to fantasize about taking power by force, specifically through sexually assaulting someone more powerful than them, particularly Laurent.
As Damen gains some connections among Laurent’s guards, he learns more about Laurent’s sexuality, specifically that Laurent is known for asexuality. In Chapter 3, Laurent calls Damen to the bath, ordering him to undress before having Damen undress him too. In this situation, the obvious conclusion is that Laurent is setting up a sexually charged situation, and Damen is already frustrated by his attraction to Laurent. However, Laurent insists that his only intention is to bathe, and Damen notes how Laurent is “coolly immodest about his nudity” (52), implying that Laurent isn’t trying to have sex with Damen. When Laurent senses Damen’s arousal and tries to hit him, Damen grabs his wrist but notes: “Laurent was not even a little amorous […] that part of him, quite as sweetly made as the rest, was quiescent” (53). Laurent’s lack of arousal further indicates that Laurent isn’t interested in sex with Damen, despite the seemingly sexual scenario into which he forced Damen. Combined with the foreshadowing of Audin’s pederasty, this scene implies that Laurent may have been abused as a child, which can result in issues around sexual trust, safety, self-esteem, and responses to sexual stimuli.
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