I felt my mouth get tight and I said through stiff lips, “That’s still no excuse.”
“Yes, my dear, in your land with the father you described you were fortunate enough to have, I can see you believing that but, again, I remind you with some hesitation as I know you dislike it, that you are married to a Korwahk Horde warrior.”
I turned to look at her and when she turned to me, I locked my eyes with her. “That’s still no excuse,” I repeated quietly, she held my eyes then she heaved a sigh before nodding.
She looked forward again and so did I.
Then I remarked, “You’re only agreeing in order to agree to disagree, aren’t you?”
“It seems wise at this juncture,” she replied and I smiled.
Then I couldn’t help it, my friend was funny and after she shared some not so fun information (to say the least), I needed to release some emotion and I decided I’d do it a better way this time. So I burst out laughing again.
Diandra laughed with me.
When I sobered, before I could stop them, my eyes went to Lahn to see he was again turned on his mount toward me.
Oh man.
He called to someone and I looked away.
Diandra missed this, I could tell, when she urged gently, “Take heed, my beautiful friend, to what I say.”
I nodded, turned to her to see she was sober too, very sober and very serious.
And then I said, “I do not agree with the way these people, now my people, live their lives but I promise you, Diandra, I vow that I would do nothing that would bring harm to them.” I smiled at her. Then I whispered, “They are my people, you know.”
She returned my smile then she whispered back, “Use caution, be watchful and stay safe, my queen.”
I nodded then I heard galloping hooves and looked forward in time to see the warrior from earlier returning.
“What now?” I muttered as he passed me, circled, came back and again, this time with a small cry (coming from me), he plucked me off Zephyr, grabbed her reins, she gave a really irritated whinny and he pierced Diandra with a look and barked, “Vayoo!”
Then off we were again at a gallop but we were heading straight to the front of the line.
Straight to Lahn.
Oh shit.
The warrior slowed us to a walk, got close to Lahn and then he plucked me off the warrior’s horse and planted me in front of him. And before I settled, his arm got tight around me, my ass slid into his groin and he looked to the side and said something.
I looked where he was looking and saw Diandra next to us, the warrior gone, Zephyr riderless going with him.
Yep. Oh shit it was.
“He wishes for me to translate for you both, Dahksahna Circe,” Diandra told me.
Great. Just great.
Oh well, again, I had no choice.
“Okay, Diandra,” I said softly and aimed my eyes forward.
Lahn spoke and thus commenced our conversation with Diandra interpreting.
“You ride with me until we make camp,” Lahn ordered.
There it was. We were making camp.
Damn.
“Okey dokey,” I replied flippantly (Diandra didn’t translate that and it got me a squeeze from Lahn’s arm when I said it probably because I said it flippantly).
Lahn spoke. “While we ride, I wish to learn about your mother.”
All flippant disappeared, my back went straight and my eyes went to Diandra. She tipped her head to the side in an “I’m sorry” gesture and I turned to face forward again.
Lahn’s arm gave me another squeeze and he growled, “Circe.”
I gave in because I didn’t have any other choice.
“Okay, what do you want to know?” I asked.
“She was killed,” he stated but I shook my head.
“No, she wasn’t killed. You can be killed in an accident. She wasn’t in an accident. She was murdered.”
“By whom?”
“A robber, a thief. She walked in on him while he was in the middle of stealing; he turned his weapon on her and murdered her.”
“Was this during war?” he asked.
“No war, no one else died that day, he was a petty thief. It was just an average day, bad luck, Mom being in the wrong place at the way wrong time and then she was gone.”
Lahn was silent for long moments. Then, “You had feelings for her.”
“She was my mother,” I replied.
“You had feelings for her,” he repeated.
Yeah. Shit yeah. I had feelings for her.
I sucked in breath then said softly, “I loved her more than anything on this earth, except my Pop. She was a good Mom. No, a great one. She died a pointless death at the hands of a stupid, reckless man and I’ve lived with that knowledge my whole life… or the length of it I led when I didn’t have her.”
Again he was silent for awhile. Then, “And who took your father’s life?”
I closed my eyes.
“A dream,” I whispered.
“What?”
I pulled in breath and opened my eyes.
“He died in his sleep,” I lied a lie that cut me to the quick. “I don’t know how.”
“He commanded men?”
I smiled a sad smile. “Yeah, he commanded men.”
“Was he a king?”
My smile got sadder. “Yes, of a very small kingdom.”
“So you were princess.”
I pressed my lips together to bite back the tears. Then I nodded my head and whispered, “Yes, I was definitely a princess.”
“And now you are queen.”
“Yes, now I am queen.”
“Your father would want that for you, is this not true?” he asked and I blinked.
Boy, he orchestrated that well, clever bastard.
“Kah Dax –” I started but stopped when his arm squeezed the breath out of me.
I felt his lips at my ear where he growled, “Lahn.”
“Lahn,” I wheezed and his arm loosened but I said no more.
This got me a, “I asked you a question, Circe.”
“No,” I answered. “No, he would not care if I was queen. He’d be happy I married a peasant, just as long as it made me happy. He’d even be happy that I was a slave, just as long as I spent my days doing something that made me content.”
“No king would want that,” Lahn stated.
“They would if they loved their daughters.”
“You are wrong,” he informed me.
“I most definitely am not,” I informed him.
“You are, my tigress. A man would want his daughter showered with riches. He would want an army to be at her service to keep her safe from harm. He would want her to have the adulation of a nation of people. He would want her to be the consort of a leader of men. And if he could not find that for her, he’d want her to be in the bed of a free man, a strong man, a brave man, one who provides for her and one who has the respect of his brothers. I am a man, we may have daughters and this is what I would wish for them.”
I blinked at the landscape.
Oh my God, God, God.
How could I…?
Oh my God, God, God.
How could I forget about birth control?
Oh my God!
“Circe?” he called on another arm squeeze.
“What?” I whispered.
“Did you hear what I said?”
“Yeah.” I was still whispering.
“You have no response?”
“No, uh… you’re right. Showered with riches, army at her service, adulation, consort to a leader. That all sounds good. Pop would dig all that.”
“Dig?” Diandra asked and I turned distracted eyes to her.
“Like. He’d like that,” I explained, Diandra nodded and translated.
I looked forward.
“She jokes,” Lahn muttered (but Diandra still interpreted).
“No,” I said softly and shook my head once. “No, I’m not joking. But, the tr
uth is, Pop wouldn’t like that. What he would like is that a man would wish to give his daughter that and that that man would want the same for his daughters.”
Diandra hadn’t finished translating when Lahn’s hand came up making his arm slant at an angle across my chest so his fingers could curve around my neck and he could pull me so my full back was tight against his chest.
“We will make warriors,” he told me quietly, his voice deeper than normal.
Oh God.
“Right,” I whispered.
“But we will make daughters too so I can find them kings who wish to hand them kingdoms.”
Oh fucking God.
“Right,” I repeated on another whisper.
“You have rare beauty the like I have never seen but you will be more beautiful heavy with my seed,” he stated softly.
At his words, my breasts swelled and my head got light both at the same time. The combination was an unusual sensation and one that I did not like.
Oh man, if he didn’t shut up, I was going to pass out.
“I really need to learn the Korwahk language so Diandra doesn’t have to translate conversations like this,” I grumbled, Lahn chuckled then his lips went to my ear.
There, he murmured in my language, “Yes, my Circe, you do.”
I blinked.
Jeez, was he some kind of language savant or what? He was picking up English way faster than I was picking up Korwahk and he only had me and Diandra to listen to.
“You’re freaking me out,” I whispered.
“Sorry, my dear, I didn’t catch that,” Diandra said and I didn’t even have to look at her to know she was fighting back laughter. And losing.
“He’s freaking me out, um… shocking me, surprising me but in a not so good way. He’s learning our language very fast and it’s not natural.”
“It isn’t surprising that he would pick things up quickly. He meets often with ambassadors, dignitaries and foreigners from many lands. It is important for him to hear and understand them therefore it is known widely our Dax speaks seven languages fluently, my dear,” Diandra told me, I whipped around so fast Lahn had to jerk his head back and I stared up at him.
“You speak seven languages?” I breathed, Diandra translated and he nodded so I leaned in and kept breathing, “Seven?”
His eyes roamed my face and one side of his lips twitched before he replied in English, “Yes, Circe, seven.”
“Then why don’t you know English?” I shouted. “I mean, Valearian or whatever!”
He waited for the translation and then Diandra translated his response. “Because it is spoken in Hawkvale and Lunwyn, which are peaceful nations that do not cross the Green Sea to make war or find trouble. And it is spoken in Middleland, which is ruled by a tyrant who I would not honor by learning his language.”
Shit, that made sense. Still, it was annoying.
“Well, unlucky for you that your wife speaks the one language probably in this world that you don’t speak.”
“No,” he replied, “there are many lands too far away to wage war on Korwahk whose languages I do not know. None of them speak Valearian, which brings me to the question of what small kingdom you are from.”
Uh-oh.
I turned forward, mostly to buy time.
“Circe,” he called then Diandra translated the rest, “look at me.”
I bit my lip and turned back to him.
His eyebrows went up with his question, “What kingdom are you from?”
“Um…” Shit. Well, here goes. “Seattle.”
His brows descended but only to knit over narrowed eyes. “Seattle?”
“Yes, it’s a very small kingdom,” I told him.
“Like Bellebryn?” he asked.
Hell, I didn’t even know what Bellebryn was.
Well, I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
Shoo.
“Where is it?” he went on.
Shit.
“Uh… over the Green Sea?” I made another guess.
“Are you asking me where it is, my tigress, or telling me?” he asked.
God, why was he so cunning and clever and kingly and never missed a trick? The jerk.
“Telling you,” I answered. “But, uh… I can’t really say exactly where it is because I’m not very good at geography. I never was.”
At least that was true.
His eyes narrowed again. “Tigress Circe, you were on a ship that was overcome and looted by pirates and when they docked you were taken by Korwahk scouts as they were moving you to shore. How could you travel from a faraway land and not know where you’d travelled to get where you landed?”
Uh… what?
“What?” I whispered.
“Do you not remember how you came into the possession of a Korwahk scout?”
No, actually, I didn’t. And actually, I never thought about it.
Shit.
“Circe,” Lahn warned, I focused on him and thought fast.
“Well, uh, when we were, you know… travelling and uh… sailing, um… most of the time I was sea sick and the rest of the time I was reading a book so I didn’t pay a lot of attention and the, uh… pirates weren’t very chatty.”
He stared down at me. Then he looked over my head.
Then he muttered, “I have never heard of this Seattle.”
“It’s tiny,” I told him and his eyes came back to me so I lifted a thumb and forefinger with about a half an inch of space, squinted through it to look in his eyes and emphasized, “Teeny tiny.” I dropped my hand. “It isn’t even like a kingdom, as such, more like a… city.”
He stared at me. Then he again looked over my head and murmured, “Bellebryn.”
Whatever.
I needed to move us on.
“My mother looked like me,” I told him in an effort to change the subject, his eyes came back to me so I kept going. “It’s weird, um… strange. My Pop was dark, uh… like you. He even had olive skin. But she was fair, very fair. Usually dark is a dominant trait but I didn’t get anything from Pop. I got my Mom’s hair, her eyes, her skin –”
He cut me off to ask, “Her eyes?”
I nodded and then suddenly he dipped his face closer to mine and his hand came to my jaw.
I braced at this quick movements and it was a good thing I did when he spoke.
“If you’re given the opportunity to look deep enough, you can see a person’s spirit in their eyes but usually, they are guarded, kept safe. Not you, my tigress, the night of your claiming, even in the moonlight, I could see your spirit shining from your eyes. You hold your spirit close to the surface for all to behold and it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”
Oh.
My.
God.
Unfortunately, he kept talking. “So if she gave you your eyes, my golden doe, I can see your father mourning your mother long after her death. If you share your spirit with someone, their hold on you will never fade away.”
“Stop talking,” I whispered and felt the tears shimmering, ready to fall.
Lahn saw them and his hand glided up to my cheek, his thumb sliding below my eye, releasing the tear suspended there and capturing it against his skin.
“My tigress weeps,” he murmured.
My eyes slid away.
He again spoke. “You’ve had enough, my Circe, face forward and ride with your husband in silence. We make camp soon.”
Great, something else to look forward to.
I nodded and turned around. Lahn said something to Diandra and I looked her way to see her smiling at me, eyes alight, as they would be considering she was my Korwahk crazy romantic friend and I just stopped myself from rolling mine. Then her horse faded back into the warriors.
I looked forward and tried to focus on the landscape and my next trauma and anything else that entered my brain that was not the words my husband just said to me.
But this was difficult w
hen his arm slanted across my chest again, fingers curling around my neck in order to hold me close, his thumb sliding up and down my throat in an idle caress I tried not to think was sweet (but it was).
So, the fact was, it wasn’t difficult.
It was impossible.
Chapter Seventeen
The Challenge
I was turned and lifted then moving cradled in Lahn’s arms.
I opened my eyes to see the Daxshee was up around us, torchlight glowing everywhere.
We’d stopped by a small, rushing creek where there was an abundance of spiked grass and bowing, wispy willow trees, their green so green against the backdrop of the stark cream stone, dirt and sand landscape that it was stunning.
It became clear to me in short order that the Dahksahna didn’t assist her slaves in setting up the cham. This became clear when hides and cushions were produced, a small jug of wine, another of water, a platter of food and Ghost, who had (my poor baby) been caged for nearly six days, was let loose so I could feed and watch over her while my girls worked and the young men erected our tent. And this was clear because Teetru made it clear with lots of shakes of her head and hands up pressing the air to tell me I was to take a load off while they worked their asses off.
This did not sit well with me but, again, I had no choice. And, truth be told, I was exhausted from the ride. And I was exhausted from my chats with Diandra and Lahn. And after I had three glasses of wine while I ate, watched with no small amount of fascination what could only be described as a practiced dance of the Daxshee rising (they didn’t mess around, they clearly did this often, it was swift and also weirdly graceful) and played with Ghost, it wasn’t a surprise that, when Ghost grew drowsy, I grew drowsy with her, tucked her to my front, settled in on the hides and cushions and fell asleep.