“Exactly.”
She slowly picked up a pearl sized onion with her fork and placed it in her mouth. She chewed, swallowed and said, “Were you starving?”
He hesitated in answering. “We were not starving. The riches of our mines had us able to buy most of the grain we needed. But without a well-rounded diet there are other things that come up. Scurvy, for one. Hopic for another. Rickets.”
“Hopic?”
“The skin turns an almost orange color. I don’t know what the deficiency is that caused it. The apothecary thinks it is from lack of green vegetables.”
“That’s horrible,” she said with intense feeling. “How were you able to sustain a war while plagued with such conditions?”
“It was not easy, believe me.”
“I do believe you.”
Ariana realized that, had they known the disadvantages the Kiltians were fighting under, they might have found a way to hold out longer…to wear the Kiltians down letting such deficiencies do the work for them. They would have done so and kept the land for themselves.
It sounded selfish even to her.
For the first time she found herself glad they had negotiated the treaty the way they had. Before then she had felt resentful, felt as though the Kiltians had had them over a barrel and had forced them to give away that which they did not want to share.
How arrogant and unfeeling they had been. How self-centered and egocentric. No wonder the Kiltians thought so little of the Sarens. No wonder they had fought like they’d crawled out of both hells for the land they now owned.
She was quiet as she continued to eat, but the delicious food was now wasted on her. The amount of guilt she felt was overwhelming. She had refused to see any of this from their perspective. It had been easier for her to dismiss them as being warmongering and greedy. Vicious and uncouth. She had never thought of it in terms of sheer survival.
The Kiltians had been fighting for their existence; the Sarens had been fighting for property.
Yes. She was now glad they had given the land to them.
No. Not given. Bought. Given implied a sacrifice. A thoughtfulness. It had been neither of those things. They had sold the land to the Kiltians at a phenomenal price…and were demanding an annual tithe on top of it. Saren was now a rich country because of it. What had the price cost the Kiltians? The riches in their mountain mines were not endless. She didn’t even know how much gold and gemstones such mines produced. Had they beggared the Kiltians in the process of becoming rich?
“Were you…were you able to afford the price you paid for the land?”
She watched his face, saw him debating his response. His hesitation spoke volumes. Even though she was completely in his power, he did not entirely trust her with the secrets of the crown.
“We were,” he said at last, “but it was a hefty price. One we were glad to pay but…it took a great deal of hard work to come up with this autumn’s tithe on top of all of the livestock and seed and machinery, as well as maintaining our usual trade for produce and grain while we were waiting for our first crops to be produced. Next autumn—“
“Will be better,” she finished for him. “Your Anima majji—I’m sorry I mean shamans—will be able to work the soil much better?”
“They learned a lot this annum. They will be able to produce several crops next summer. We will finally be rich in that way. The Anima can also encourage the breeding of the livestock, help create more live births…keep animals from dying in the birthing process. Yes…my country will finally be able to prosper. And all it took was a little land.”
“And a war,” she reminded them both needlessly.
They finished the meal in relative silence after that. Ariana didn’t know what to say really. She was seeing everything from his perspective suddenly. And she couldn’t even demand he see things from her perspective…because her perspective was not nearly so noble.
To think, it all could have been avoided had the Sarens agreed to give land to the Kiltians. Land they could more than afford to lose. Hells, even if they had given the entirety of the Triagle Territory to the Kiltians, as Sin had originally wanted, there still would be a country many times the size of what Kilt would have been.
The Kiltians and the Sarens shared a continent. They were the only two peoples on their continent. The Kiltians occupied the northern most tip of the continent, the Sarens the rest. The northern most tip was entirely mountainous, with beaches only to the east and west that were accessible. The northern coastline was sheer cliff face directly into the ocean. The small beaches to the east and west had been transformed into port cities where all their crucial imports had come in. During the war the Sarens had tried to create a blockade of ships, the attempt meant to cut off the supplies to the Kiltians that were so crucial to their survival. Now, in retrospect, she was glad it had not worked. She didn’t want to imagine these people starving to death on top of everything else they already suffered.
“You are so beautiful,” he said out of nowhere, taking her by complete surprise. She looked at him and saw the intensity with which he was staring at her and she felt immediately uncomfortable. Why did he have to do that? Just when she was beginning to relax a little he had to remind her of why he had brought her there.
To make her his…
“Why do you want a wife like me? Like this?” she asked him desperately. “Why kidnap someone who hates you? Surely you wish to have a wife that loves you.”
He smiled at that. “I would not have taken you for a romantic,” he said.
She flushed. “Everyone wants love. That doesn’t make me a romantic.”
“Finding love in marriage is common in your people? I thought Sarens married for position and wealth. For mixing powerful majic lines.”
He was right. They did. Love rarely came into the picture.
“It is true. We do all of that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find love in those marriages.”
He looked dubious. And he should. She knew she was creating fairytales where there were none to be had. He knew it too.
“I have chosen you for many reasons,” he said quietly. “I have chosen you because you are a very powerful shaman. I have chosen you because besides your majical power you are a powerful woman. You are used to managing a people in a position of authority. My wife would have to be able to do that. She is not merely a pretty bauble on my arm. She must help me to rule as my raji. A woman who could rule in my stead if I were away or somehow incapacitated. Right now there is my brother but…” He glossed over that. “I need a wife who can produce an heir. Fine sons who would rule upon my death. A woman who would serve as raji-mother if I should die before my son is of age to inherit.”
“Raji-mother?”
“She would rule during the autumns my son is maturing.”
“I see. And if you have no sons?”
“Then my brother and his sons would inherit the crown.”
“And how does he feel about that?”
“My brother has no say in the matter. I am Raja. He is not. Not yet anyway.”
“What kind of man is your brother?”
He ignored the question.
“I have chosen you for wife because you fire my blood like no woman ever has before. In my culture, to find such a woman is worth everything. Everything must be done to obtain her. Had you been Kiltian I would have paid a handsome bride price for you. I would have given your family anything within my power. But if that was still not enough, then I would come for you in the night and take you for myself.”
“You mean kidnap.”
“Call it that if you like. In my culture it is a part of our wooing. Even if I paid the agreed upon price and matters were settled between the family, I would still come and take my bride and sweep her away to my home.”
“And doesn’t she get to have any say in the matter?”
“Not usually. But…if there is fire on one side, there is generally fire on the other.”
“You say that
because you have never been kissed by a man you hated before,” she said bitterly.
“No, but clearly I have been kissed by a woman who hates me.”
Hate was such a strong word. Did she hate him? Or did she hate him less because she was beginning to understand him? She didn’t want to understand him. She didn’t want to like him or respect him for the passion he had for caring for his people. She didn’t want any of this.
“I never asked for you. I never wanted you nor did I ever ask for you. I won’t apologize for my feelings,” she said.
Sin leaned forward a little, regarding her keenly. What he wasn’t telling her was how deeply his want of her went. What he wasn’t telling her was what his feelings were, even though he was very clear on what hers were. She would not be receptive to his desires and feelings. No more than she was receptive to him in any other way. It frustrated him even as it excited him. She would be a challenge. All he had to do, he thought, was make her see what it was she truly wanted. What it was she could have here…with him. But that would be no easy task. While other women might be lured with promises of power, she already had power. She did not need him half as much as he needed her.
At least…she hadn’t. Now she was dependent on him for everything. He bet this was the first time she had ever been in a position of little power. She would begin to crave what she was used to. He was counting on that. She would begin to crave the power he could offer her.
Him and no other.
He stood up and she immediately leapt out of her chair and backed away from him. The reaction made him frown, but he did not let it faze him. He advanced on her.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said.
“How can I not be? You’re trying to force me to do what I don’t want to do!”
“I told you, I will not force you to do anything.” He held out his hand to her and waited. She shook her head in the negative. “Come with me,” he beckoned her.
She shook her head again.
“You would prefer to stay here locked away in this room?”
“You are the one who has locked me away here. I would prefer to be home!”
“The sooner you resign yourself to the fact that that is not going to happen, the happier you will be able to make yourself here.”
“I will never be happy here,” she whispered.
He dropped his hand.
“Suit yourself,” he said softly. Then he turned on his heel and left the room.
Ariana was shocked he had left. Simply left. He had not tried to push himself onto her like he had the first day she had been there. He had not grown angry with her. Had made no demands.
He confused her.
He was insinuating himself into her good graces, she realized then. He was slowly but surely wearing her down. And it was happening quicker than she would have thought possible. But if he thought she would ever come to him of her own free will, he was going to be sorely disappointed. She might be coming to understand him, but she would never forgive him for taking her away from her life.
But…the longer she was there…the more she realized that there wasn’t all that much she was missing. Oh, she missed her power and the day-to-day demands that came with being a ruler. In fact, she would have thought she would have gone a little stir crazy by now with so little to do. But he had kept her occupied enough so far. But as for missing things…
While she was good friends with her fellow triumvirs, Mason Hittite and Jutsin Felone, there was no one she was close to who she was missing. She had no living family…save a sister whom she was estranged from. A sister whose jealousy over Ariana’s position had blinded her, had outweighed any love she may have felt for Ariana. She loved Gretha dearly, but Gretha did not share the feeling. It was a point of sadness in her life. And without Ariana there, Gretha would be next in line for inheriting the family lands and armies. She would be next in line to become triumvir.
The thought made Ariana shudder. Gretha did not have what it took to be triumvir. She was far too selfish and far too hungry for power. She was always wanting the power, but never considering what it would take to deserve it, and what to do with it once you had it. It was very likely someone would come along and wrest control of their father’s province from her. Mason and Jutsin surely wouldn’t stand for working beside someone like Gretha. They would bring their armies to bear against her and forcibly rip any power away from her that she did not deserve. Then they would find a deserving Heddah—leader of a province—and give Gretha’s territories over to him or her.
Thinking about what would happen in her absence depressed her. What was happening in Saren’s Capitol City right now? What had they done when she had come up missing? Were they close on her trail? Would they come after her? Would they go to war to retrieve her?
She didn’t know. And the not knowing was killing her.
Chapter Ten
Dendri Adiron walked into the capitol building yet again, as he had done for over two weeks now, and sought out the remaining triumvirs. He didn’t know what Hittite and Felone thought they would discover now that they hadn’t discovered before, but they summoned and he came. He didn’t bring Yasra this time. Yasra grew tired very easily these days as the end of her confinement neared. So he had left her behind.
He thought about that for a moment. Thought about becoming a father. Neither of them had expected a child so early in their marriage, but neither had they taken any precautions against such a thing. However, watching how she grew large and soft and beautiful, he thought it was something he wouldn’t be averse to doing again in exactly the same way.
Yasra however, might feel differently. She felt unwieldy and fat, tired easily and her feet tended to swell if she stood on them for too long. And yet, the more imminent the birth the more she was doing. She was adamant about everything being perfect for the baby’s arrival. Although it was beyond him how things could be any less perfect than they already were. Still, she had some kind of scheme in mind for what constituted perfection and she was determined to see it through…whatever the cost to her health.
He hated leaving her. She couldn’t be trusted to rest and take it easy. He had to be with her at all times to coax her into taking better care of herself. Bess, her best friend who lived with them, could not do or say anything to control her. She only listened to Dendri, and only when he absolutely put his foot down.
She had wanted to come to the capitol, complaining that he was treating her with kid gloves when he refused to let her come. But in the end there was nothing she could do. There was hardly anything he could do. This was an exercise in futility.
He walked into the main conference hall and saw Hittite and Felone waiting for him.
“Adiron! We’ve been waiting for you,” Felone said.
He seemed eager. Something had happened. Something had been discovered. They had been searching for Ariana since the day her guards had been found unconscious in that alley and it had been as though she had disappeared from the face of the planet, like a wisp of smoke on the wind. They had found nothing in all of this time to lead them to her.
Upon notice by the guards, the city had been shut down. Still, it had been four hours before the guards had come to. Plenty of time to spirit a captive out of the city. They had then sent teams of guards down every road at breakneck speeds, seeking to catch up with anyone who might be taking her by road.
Nothing. Whoever had taken her had not used roads to do it. So they had scoured the countryside looking for any hint. Any clue.
Nothing.
“We’ve found an innkeeper,” Felone said excitedly. “He says there were men staying at his inn for almost a week and they disappeared around the same time Ariana was taken. It may be nothing, but we thought perhaps you could see something.”
Dendri was an Aspano majji. It was the house of majic that could manipulate the mind. He was the most adept majji in the country. Possibly on the continent.
Dendri looked at the innkeeper who was sitting nervously with
his hand in his hand. He was twisting it anxiously.
“I don’t know what I saw,” he said. “I don’t know that I can helps you none. But it seemed right funny hows they disappeared like that. After doing nothing for so many days. They would go out all day long, but they never said where they were going or who they were or nothing. They would pay up their bill in advance every day or two, as if they knew they’d be leaving in a heartbeat. No one pays like that. In advance.”
“Well,” Dendri said, “we’ll see what it is you saw.”
Dendri walked around the long table and approached the innkeeper. He hitched a hip onto the table and reached out to tip the man’s head back, looking in his eyes a moment. Then he closed his eyes and began to search in his memories.
A lot had happened to the man between then and now, so it was a lot to sort through and it took some time. Finally, he accessed the memories of those days, of those men.
“Look at their faces. One by one,” he said to the innkeeper.
He did. He remembered each face as if he were looking right at them that moment.
Dendri sucked in a breath.
He had been there. At the talks that had bartered a truce between the Kiltians and the Sarens. He had sat across the table from Raja Sin and his men and so he immediately recognized them when he saw them through the innkeeper’s mind’s eye.
“Did you know the Kiltian leader was in town at that time?” Dendri asked the triumvirs quickly.
“What? The—no! We had no idea they were here.”
“Then they had no business in the city?”
“Not that we were aware of,” said Hittite. “Are you saying those men were the Kiltian delegation?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“No,” Felone scoffed. “What would the Kiltians want with Ariana? Surely they wouldn’t be so foolish. They wouldn’t risk a war!”
“If you recall,” Dendri said, “I noted that Raja Sin was highly attracted to Ariana at the time of the negotiations.”
“That was two autumns ago! Are you telling me that after two autumns Raja Sin came here and kidnapped one of the triumvir because he was attracted to her?” This time it was Hittite who scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”