"Yes, I really want it and I want another thing," Guntar said.
"Your wish is my command, sir."
"You must stop calling me Sir; you should call me by my name, you are my friend and lover."
"But you are a knight, I will never be one. You are asking much of me. What will others think?"
"All right, if you won't call me by name, I'll start calling you Sir."
"It would be ridiculous..." Olaf smiled while shaking his head.
"In that case, use my name if you don't want me to become ridiculous."
"It will not be easy, but if that is your wish, I'll try. I do not need to use your name, for me."
"But I need it. And I want you to make me yours, today," Guntar said lying on his back and offering himself to his young squire.
Olaf was deeply moved. Seeing the man he loved, whose body was gorgeous to his eye, giving himself in that way, stirred him deeply. Trembling, He knelt in front of him. He shyly caressed him but was now excited, and with a low voice asked again: "You really want me inside you"
"Yes, take me, make me yours. That will make me happy."
Olaf leaned against him, and Guntar guided him in: "Oh, take me, Love!"
"Yes..." Olaf said, shuddering while starting to push.
"Make me yours..."
"Here I am..." Olaf murmured feeling Guntar open for him.
"Oh, yes... push harder..."
"You are so tight..."
"It has been ten years since another man has been in me... Aaaah, that's the way, yes... Do you like it, Love?"
"Yes... it's beautiful... aaah... I'm entering... oh, how great... oh, Guntar... ooh..." Olaf moaned while sinking in the tight chute while the hot channel held his member like a glove on the hand that wears it for the first time.
The boy experienced intense pleasure, amplified by the joyous expression on his lover's face. He had trouble entering him, he had to push with vigor to get past the normal resistance of the door closed for years. Guntar evidently longed for that invasion, wanted it, and thus gave Olaf the energy needed to push himself in to the hilt in the tight hole being offered him.
"Please, my love... harder... make me feel how much you like taking me, how much you want me... make me yours, finally..." Guntar begged passionately.
"Yes... I want you... oh Guntar... ooh... do you feel me?"
"Yes... you are so manly and strong... Oh, that's beautiful... come on, take me... ride me... own me, Love..."
Olaf reached the depths of that channel, and so he started to hammer the hot and firm ass offered to him with much longing.
"Oh, yes, this way... that's beautiful... Olaf, Love... this way, go on... harder... go on... go on..." Guntar moaned shaking his head, prey to mad pleasure, brushing Olaf's flexed pectorals with his fingertips; Olaf who was taking him with sweet vigor. "Oh, Olaf, tell me I'm yours... tell me you love me..."
"Yes, you are mine, you are the wonderful man I adore..."
"Do you like being inside me?"
"Yes, it is wonderful... but later... later I want you in me."
"Certainly, my love... Oh, how good it is to feel you inside me."
"You are beautiful, Guntar."
"You too are, my beloved."
"Oh Guntar... I'm com... coooming... oooh..." the boy moaned giving him strong and decided strokes, and unloaded inside his lover with wild abandon etched on his face.
Guntar mirrored the thrusts of his lover with strong pushes and flexing his muscles so that his sphincter tightened around Olaf's hot rod; Olaf was shuddering with an intense orgasm.
"Oh Guntar... how great... Did you like it?"
"Immensely!"
"Do you like best making me yours, or being mine?"
"Both. Now I feel more complete. We really now are equals, you and I; we're really the same, you in me and I in you."
"Take me, now. I want to feel you inside me, too."
"Yes, my love, it is time now I make you mine." Guntar said, full of desire.
They switched positions and Guntar mounted Olaf who glowed welcoming him in with a wide, satisfied, smile. "Oh, at last you are in me. Oooh, how wonderful it is!"
"I'm yours, and you are mine," the young man murmured while he took Olaf with passionate vigor and gentle tenderness.
Guntar gave his semen to his beloved, in a frenzy of pleasure and joy. They lay, panting and happy; embracing, caressing and kissing each other; while their hearts slowly resumed their normal rhythms.
"I love you too much, Olaf. I cannot possibly live without you, now. You'll never leave me, would you?"
"How could I?"
"Whatever happens?"
"Whatever happens. But... how can I call you by name and break protocol in front of others? What will they think?"
"It is not uncommon that a squire and his knight become inseparable friends."
"But not a noble, like you, and a mountain boy like me; I will never become a knight, you know that."
"Don't be sad, but... it is in our own selfish interest for that to be true. Were you to became a knight, we would not be able to sleep in the same room, in the same bed every night and makelove every time we wanted to as conditions now let us."
"That's true... yes... I also don't want to be away from you anymore. I love you, Guntar. The Gods put you on my path, that day."
"Possibly the god Niel; he loved a boy."
"But not as much as we love each other! He left his boy, who knows why! If he truly loved him..."
"Gods are beyond our ken. Mayhaps a night for a god is a man's life span, or even several life spans."
"Who knows why Gods don't travel amongst men like in days of yore? I may be that we men are no more able to recognize them amongst us? Thou... art not thou a God, perchance?" Olaf asked. Guntar understood that the boy was not jesting; that he was telling him how much he was in love with him.
They returned home, happy in their newer intimacy, merrily chatting along the road, riding their horses. As soon as they arrived, a servant approached them and warned Guntar that a King's messenger was waiting for him. After dismounting his horse, not bothering to change his attire, Guntar went to meet the messenger. The man brought him an order from the King -- he had to immediately go to Court to take command of the castle guards. This was a high honor showing how high the King's esteem Guntar was.
The knight went to warn Olaf: "Lets hurry, the King awaits me. Lets take all we shall need to live in Court. We will not be back here for who knows how long. It will probably be necessary to load a couple of asses, what do you think?"
"But at Court... would we continue to stay together?" asked Olaf.
"Of course we may. Thou art my squire, so thou wilt sleep in my room as it has been."
They left, and all Guntar family bade him farewell. His father also gave him a young servant. Their small caravan went its way crossing towns and villages, stopping to sleep in castles and inns, until it reached the King's castle. The major-domo assigned Guntar his quarters. While the servant was putting all their belongings in order; Guntar changed his clothes and brought Olaf to Court to present himself to the King.
King Harold officially named him the Commander of the Chosen Guard who were charged with the safety within the castle walls, then presented him to the knights and the nobles who held charges in the court. With that, Guntar started his new duties.
Guntar was assigned three rooms near the guards' rooms. In one there was his bed with his esquire's bed at its foot. In the next room was his servant's bed and the chests and closets. Both of these rooms opened in a third room where Guntar would eat and receive. This last room opened on one side to a hidden passageway leading to the King's apartments, and on the other side to the Guard's armory, which also opened on the rooms where the guards slept, in groups of six.
First he called role of all his men to see how they were organized and carried out their duties. The last Head of the Guard did a good job, so Guntar didn't see fit to make many changes, which pleased his men. The only thing he did was to increase the training on the parade ground on the back esplanade of the castle. Training for physical confrontation with and without weapons, as well as physical training to increase strength, dexterity and resistance. He and Olaf trained with the men as a matter of course.
The duty of the Guard was to protect all internal doors of the castle and to form an escort for the King, the Queen or the Crown Prince when they left the castle. The guard was organized in three shifts, each commanded by a shift leader who reported directly to Guntar. The men of the guard were chosen amongst the most skilled and handsome soldiers and all were in their twenties. After five years of service, they were moved to the External Guard, controlling the external doors, portcullis and the castle glacis, the best of them with command ranks. The Internal Guard, unlike the external one, could not marry so the old commander explained to Guntar, as he passed him his charge, it was customary to pretend not to see anything if something happened in the bunks between young soldiers; young men in the bloom of youth and full of sexual energies needed each other... Guntar was soon aware that it happened all the time and that several almost steady couples had formed. Without saying it, he took note of that when forming shifts and did not divide couples; the men were quite happy with this.
Whenever Guntar and Olaf were alone, they made love in their room, taking each other with unbridled passion and increasing love. They didn't have a chance to make love outdoors during the day. Often Guntar, Olaf and a platoon of guards would escort the King and the Crown Prince as they hunted in the woods on the hills behind the castle.
Every day Guntar and Olaf trained in the parade ground that was behind the Keep inside the walls. One day, Guntar asked Olaf to intercept arrows he was shooting on a target using his sling. The first days it seemed an almost impossible task, but Olaf insisted on practicing and at long last he hit his first arrow in flight. Little by little he refined his technique and within a few months he was able to hit nearly all the arrows that his lover shot.
With the guards, they also trained with the sword, in the hand-to-hand combat, in the use of various weapons as well as running and jumping.
At times they also attended Court functions. Olaf liked Prince Bjorn, who now was almost seventeen years old, strong, acute, and bold.
One day Guntar said to Olaf: "I'd say that you and the Prince look like each other, in some ways, especially in your lips."
"Come on! He has wavy hair and mine is straight. He has different eyes, a different face's shape. He is more handsome than me..."
"No, absolutely not. You are more handsome than the Prince!"
"You say that because you are smitten."
"No, no. If you just wore the Prince's clothes, and he those of a squire, nobody would find it odd. You have something noble in your gait, in your figure, and in your movements."
"Come on! I am but a boy born in the mountains. I could never pass as a prince!"
"'Tisn't true. You have changed a great deal since we met. Now you ride and handle a sword like a real knight, you are able to bow and speak gentle sentences like a noble."
"But I shall never be a noble nor a knight; I am happy with my lot, provided I may stay at your side. I will never renounce you! I don't envy Prince Bjorn one iota."
"Thou mayest be but a mountain lad, as thou claim, Olaf, but I love thee with all that I am, and I will never leave thee, not even for a prince. Verily, I will never turn my back on thee."
"That is my prayer." Olaf averred.
"The more thou learn the ways of men, the more handsome thou art. I see how the damsels look upon thee here in Court. Thou art tempting to more than one of them."
"I feel pity for them. But thou too... I think that many would like to marry thee."
"But I will never marry. I have thee!"
"Not even if the King ordered thee?"
"I would renounce being a knight for I could not obey him."
"You swore him loyalty and obedience..."
"Yes. I would be happy to give my life for my king, but not my fealty to thee. Thou art first in all things."
"If he heard thee, he could make thou rue those words..." Olaf said, full of pride for this declaration of love that his lover had just made.
One day, when they had lived in Court for more than one year, Guntar was training with Olaf on the parade ground, on a sunny afternoon before mid-summer. They were practicing with pikes. It was really an hot day, so, first Guntar and then Olaf, stripped off their tunics and continued their intense training. From a window of the royal apartments, King Harold watched with pleasure how the two young men fought. It was an agreeable scene, full of force and fire, yet was elegant as a court dance. The king liked his new guards commander and his young, vigorous squire.
He admired them and decided to go downstairs to watch them more closely. Escorted by four guards, the king reached the esplanade's edge and sat on a stone, in the shadow of the keep, and watched them. The squire had raised his pike with both arms and was about to bring a downward blow on the knight who answered it with an horizontal blow from right to left. Olaf turned on his side to nimbly dodge the blow and the king gasped -- on the squire's side he saw the three red marks, parallel, at chest level; it was unmistakable. Barely controlling himself, he kept his eyes on that place that was often hidden by the squire's arms. Yes, there was no doubt, these three marks...
The king, tense, his heart beating strongly, signaled one of his guards: "Go up to the queen's quarters and ask her to come to me at once. Don't waste time!" he ordered.
The guard bowed and ran inside the castle. A few minutes later, the Queen come out, escorted by two ladies in waiting and two guards.
Se approached with a smile her husband and lightly curtsied: "You summoned me, my spouse?"
"Gertrude... yes... Move back, all of you!" he said to the ladies and to the guards. When he was alone with the queen, he said: "I want you to carefully look at that boy, Guntar's squire. Look at his left side, at the level of his nipple, and tell me what you see."
"The boy? What are... Oh! Oh my, those marks! It is not possible that... They are the marks..." the queen suddenly said as she turned pale as a sheet.
"Yes, identical... It cannot be just a coincidence?"
"Oh, Harold... I knew he was not dead!"
"Now, wait, we must be sure... Summon the midwife... then we will call that boy and we will question him in order to understand if he really..."
"Oh, I am sure, he is him! He is still living... And he was here for months... and it is he, I can feel it... And look, how beautiful he is!"
"I think so too but... let's not be overly hasty. Come, now, call the midwife and let me know when she arrives. Lets meet in the Seal Room. I shall stay here. Don't tell anybody, for the moment. But yes... he must be Niels, even if he now has another name... He looks like you, how could not be noticed that before? He has your eyes, your hair..."
"And your lips, your nose... Blessed be the Gods... I go; lets not waste any time!" the queen said making a gesture to her ladies in waiting and rushed into the castle.
King Harold remained to look at the couple training in the fight, and was admiring the boy, his son. And he was more and more convinced he was really him... after twenty years!
A lady-in-waiting approached the King and whispered something. King Harold nodded. Stood up and went to the two men who, upon seeing him approach, stopped their training and bowed.
"I am sorry to interrupt you, but the boy must come with me, now." the king said with a smile.
Olaf grabbed his tunic, "Your Grace, let me dress and..."
"No, as you are, come as you are. Now, immediately." the king said.
Olaf was amazed and looked to Guntar who lightly nodded, while asking himself the reason behind the sudden, strange request.
"Should I come, Sire?" Guntar asked.
"No, Guntar. You will wait in your rooms, I may need you later..."
Olaf followed the King, he was embarrassed that he could not dress and wondered why the king, for the first time, wanted him... The King took him to the Seal Room, in the west tower. He made the guards stop outside of the door and entered. Inside there were only the Queen and an aged woman, slightly plump, dressed like a servant.
The King sat at a table, near the Queen: "Young man, what is your name?"
"Olaf, your Grace."
"Where were you born?"
"In a small village in the mountains, in the kingdom of King Oder, close to the border with your kingdom, your Grace."
"How old are you?"
"I am twenty years old, your Grace."
"Who are your parents?"
"I never met them. I was found wrapped in a small blanket, near the well of the village. It seems that a group of brigands abandoned me there. At least, this is what the woman who grew me up told me."
"Brigands? I see... Would you please lift your left arm and show to this woman your side?" the Queen said gently looking kindly on him.
Olaf, amazed, complied with this request.
The woman looked and became pale throwing a choked cry: "For all the gods sake!"
"Is that the mark?"
"It is, your Grace, it is. Without any doubt! Three marks like these, perfectly straight, parallel, right on that point."
Olaf looked at the woman, confused, without understanding.
Then the King asked Olaf: "Can you explain how you got these three marks?"
"I think I have always had them, your Grace. I could possibly have them since my birth, I don't know."
"No, thou wert not born with them, but thou got them from this woman right while thou wert born. A mistake, possibly, but how blessed it has been!"
"This woman? When I was born? I don't understand..."
"Show him the forceps." the King said to the midwife.
The woman pulled out from a cloth an iron, similar to big bent pliers that had in one side a small vane with three deep grooves: "Thou did not want to leave your mother's womb, so I had plucked thee out with this. But I grabbed thee sorely, I made you thee this mark. Exactly there, where it is," the woman said, with tears in her eyes.
"Thou helped birth me? Thou then knowest who are my mother and father? Oh, I beseech thee, tell me!" Olaf said, deeply stirred at that news.
The woman looked towards the King and the Queen. They stood up and went near the boy.
The king said: "Thy name is not Olaf, but Niels. She is thy mother and I am thy father!"
The boy widened his eyes and went pale: "I... your Graces... How could that be possible?" the boy murmured, at a loss.
"Near the border of the lands of King Oder some brigands attacked the Queen's train and kidnapped thee. We thought thou wert kidnapped for ransom, but we learned no more about you. I am certain thou art that baby -- the marks, thy age, the place where thou were kidnapped then abandoned, all match. Thou art verily our first born Niels. The gods have given thee back to thy family, my boy, my son!" the King wept.
Then the Queen took the boy between her arms and sweetly murmured: "My son, Niels, my son."
Niels didn't know what to do or say. He was confused beyond words. He the crown prince? He the son of the King and Queen?
They talked and, little by little, the boy was convinced.
But at the end, he said: "Wilst thou allow me, I would like to talk with Guntar, my knight. He took care of me in these past two years, he rescued me in the danger, he saved me, he taught me all I know."
"Yes, certainly, but later. I will order you clothes worthy a man of your state, then... we will hold a great party and we will present thee to all the kingdom aristocracy -- the real crown prince, who was not dead, but who is again amongst us. And I will prepare thy new quarters, and give thee servants and guards... And..."
"Forgive me, your Grace, but..."
"No, not grace -- thou must call me father..."
"Yes, father... but I would like to se immediately Guntar. Right now."
"All right, I'll summon him. Meanwhile your mother and I will prepare all you need for your new life. You can wait for him here."
Niels remained alone, and sat down looking around astonished, confused, and deeply stirred by the news. He was the crown prince! But he didn't want to lose his Guntar. He had to talk with him, then to make things clear -- if they wanted him to take his place in Court, they could not end his relationship with Guntar, or else he would leave. Yes, he was determined.
Not much time elapsed and Guntar knocked at the Seal Room door. "Come in!" Niels said.
"Oh, you are here? Are you alone?"
"Yes, for the nonce. What did they tell ye?"
"To come here immediately, nothing more. What happened? You look worried. Is there a problem?"
"Yes, Guntar, just one, but a very huge one. I am... er, my name is not Olaf, but Niels... I am... um... how can I say it?"
"Niels? The disappeared first born of our King... Oh great gods! Thou mean that thou... That the King... That's why... Thou art not playing with me? Thou art Prince Niels?"
"So it seems..." the boy said and told Guntar all what the midwife, the Queen and the King told him. He ended: "But I... I don't care. They want me to take my place; and that would be right with me, even if I am scared, but I will only take place if I am able to stay with you. Therefore I intend to say to the King that we are lovers and that I don't want to lose you."
"If thou art...
"You, my love for we are equals."
"If you are the Prince... I have to treat you accordingly... and then, I am but a knight, and..."
"No, first of all we are lovers, aren't we? Take a deep breath. You asked me to stop with formalities because we were peers, and to take you... I did that, because we love each other. Now, it is I who am asking you to stay with me, to continue to be my lover and my peer. We swore that nothing and nobody would part us. Well, this also will not part us. I would renounce my name and leave the castle for you. Do not be the one who deserts me. I love you."
"I love you, it matters not that you are a mountain boy or a prince. Olaf or Niels, it's always you, my boy, my beloved."
"And you my man! Especially now that I have great need for you. These changes scare me. To call the King father, the Queen mother, and the Prince brother... You must stay close to me, now more than ever."
"Yes, I swear you, I will never leave you. I'm yours, as before. All you can ask me, I will do. I love you Ola... Niels!"
"Good, I will talk to the King, to my father, anon, and I will tell him my conditions. Stay near me, while I speak with him. I will draw strength just looking at you."
They were still talking when the King came back.
So Niels told him, with a respectful tone but determined voice: "Before I can call you father and take the place that you say belongs to me, I have to tell you some things, your Grace..."
"Tell me." King Harold merrily said.
"These twenty years I lived as a common mountain boy, then as a servant and at last as the squire of Guntar cannot be changed..."
"Oh, you will soon get used to your rank and role. We all will help you with that. And on the day you become king, your twenty years will help you be a just king for the weak and the poor..."
"Your Grace, you say one day I will be king. But I, you know, I love Guntar, I mean, we are really lovers, we make love. And I refuse to be parted from him. I would never renounce him to gain the throne. I would rather renounce my claim on the throne. He is my man, and I belong to him; we swore eternal love. I will not break this oath for anything in the world."
King Harold smiled: "This is further proof that you really are Niels. It was written in your destiny, my son. When you were born, you were dedicated to the god Niel, thus your name is Niels. And he who is consecrated to the god Niel, is destined not to unite with a woman. Therefore, you must remain united to Guntar, a man that I highly respect. There is no problem, my son."
"But a king is expected to have issue as one day to have an heir to the throne? Doesn't he need to have a queen at his side for public ceremonies?" Niels asked, still hesitant, even if relieved by the King's words.
"That is the way it is usually done, but it is not necessarily. You can adopt a son and heir, if you want, or take near you a queen, officially your wife and the mother of your children, even if you may not bed her... In Court, situations can be created. It may be enough that she has a loyal and discrete lover, of your liking, for instance. Or else, you can adopt one of Bjorn's sons as your heir... You will find the best solution..."
"Wouldn't it be more simple if prince Bjorn remained the crown prince?" Niels than asked.
"No, you are the first born, and you are the legitimate heir of the throne of this kingdom. Even though everybody now considers Bjorn crown prince, he did not go through investiture."
"I see, but, before investing me, would it not be wise for you to see from what mold I am cast... and then decide the consequences? I may be the first born, but am I your best heir?"
"As you wish, my son. But with these words you have convinced me of the nobility of your soul. And about Guntar, he brought you back to me; naught would cause me to take him away from you! This being assured, are you now ready to take your place in the Court, Niels?"
"Yes, I accept, father." the boy said simply.
"Then, first let me show you your rooms. And your mother is already preparing for you a proper wardrobe. You will have to choose servants to take care of your quarters and of you. Then you have need to learn the customs of Court, the ceremonial..." king Harold said leaving the room, followed by Niels and Guntar.
Niels was officially presented to the Court in a magnificent reception. Everybody seemed overjoyed in finding Prince Niels, as was his brother Bjorn.
When the ceremonies, and parties were over, Niels spent time in intense study with lessons and rehearsals... but he continued to train with Guntar in the military arts.
Guntar had a room near Niels', but he spent all his nights in the prince's bed, and nothing changed between them.