The Pharaoh and His Slave

Chapter 9

Atem's POV

I yawn as this boring meeting keeps going on. We're getting nowhere with these policy changes. "You know what let's stop for the day. We're clearly not getting anything done with all of you arguing," I say and a guard bursts in. "My Pharaoh it's your slave," he says frantically. "What with Yugi," I say getting up. "He's been taken in the market," he says. I gasp and run out to the stables. They already had my horse ready for me so I jumped on and rode out of the palace. The guards guided me through the market to where Joey was. 

When I got there, he looked up with tears in his eyes. "I'm so sorry Pharaoh. I bent down to fix my shoe and he was gone. I grabbed the guards as quick as I could and started looking, but I couldn't find him," he cries. I take a deep breath. "It's not your fault Joey. It's whomever took him," I say. "Sir we've looked all over the market and no one saw him except a shopkeeper down the street. He said all he saw was a hooded man carrying him. He said he looked to be passed out," says the guard.

"Whomever took Yugi will pay for touching him," I say. "My Pharaoh may I go inform his Grandpa of what's going on," asks Isis and I nod. She leaves with a few guards. "Lets start doing grid searches. We have to find him before Gods know what happens," I say with rage seething in my voice. "My Pharaoh we need you to stay calm. Yugi needs you to stay calm," says Joey. I let the rage slip away a little. "I know. I just hate that he got kidnapped because of me," I say. "Well umm Pharaoh," says a sheepish guard.

I look at him. "I don't mean to speak out of turn, but your boy is a good looking boy. It could be someone who wanted him for himself or herself," he says a bit timidly. "You do have a point," I say. "I'm gonna go join the searches. I lost him and I'm gonna find him," says Joey. "Joey it's clear whomever took him was going to get him no matter what. They could have hurt you too. Now I want all the guards to start searching everywhere they can think of. If anyone acts strange, investigate them. Alert the people of his disappearance so there's more eyes and ears looking out for him," I say and the guards disperse.

"Joey I want you back at the palace with me," I say as he goes to walk away. "My Pharaoh, I insist that I look for him," he says. "I need your help to get me through this until he returns. I feel lost without him safe," I say with tears in my eyes. He turns to me and nods. "C'mon lets get back to the palace away from the eyes of the people," he says and gets my horse over to me and helps me on. We ride back to the palace in silence. Not a word needed to be said. We were both in shock and  hurt.

It's like there's a light that's missing from each of us. We get off at the stables and he hands the reigns to a stable boy to take care of my horse. "How about we get some food and drink? Then we can sit down in your study and think of who would want to do this," says Joey. I nod and we put in our requests with the cook at the kitchen before going to the study. He sits across from me on one of the large couches. "I wish I could have gotten a look at the man, but it happened so fast that I didn't know he was gone till he was gone," he says.

"He was following you. Watching and waiting for the perfect time to strike. Eventually he would have gotten impatient and gotten you out of the way to get to him," I say taking out my sword. Before opening his mouth again, a knock sounds on the door. Joey gets up and gets the food from the servant before sending him away. "Alright so he was watching us the whole time. That means that there's a handful of people who could have saw him around, but didn't know what he was doing. Like that," he starts and stops like he's hiding something.

"Now's not the time to hide anything Joey," I say. He sighs and pulls out a little sack. "He was gonna give this to you on his own time, but I think that you should have it now," he says and hands it to me. I open it and tears immediately spring to my eyes. It was a solid gold cartouche with my name engraved on it. My real name. I fight back the tears and put it on. "Pharaoh do you know anyone who would take him," he asks again. I shake my head. "Well how bout I go through what we did today and go from there? Maybe there is something that I'm missing," he says. I nod and he gives me the story.

Yugi's POV

I gasp and cough awake. The first thing I notice is that I'm chained to a bed. I groan and sit up and pull at the single chain that's attached to my ankle. The chain is attached to the bed post and is locked with a key. "Haha do you really think you're going," says someone sitting in the shadows across from me. It's him. "Brad," I say. "Right you are Yugi. Now I have you right where I want you. In my bed instead of that little shit we have for a Pharaoh," he says. "The way you speak about him is treason," I say. He chuckles darkly. "You see the problem here is that no on is gonna hear you, but me," he says before grinning darkly and coming up to me.

**I am just going to forewarn everyone. There may be possible triggers past this chapter. I will be posting warnings in the chapters. Thanks everyone for your patience with my spotty updates.**