Theodora wrapped her arms around Elena’s hips for a brief moment and let go.
But Cass noticed when she had a hold, she held hard and closed her eyes tight.
“Right, shall we meet the future king of Airen?” Elena suggested.
“I ’spose,” Dora muttered, glancing at him from under her lashes.
Elena, wisely, Cassius suspected, let that one go.
Upon introduction, he swept a low bow as Elena had done to Aelia, which he was pleased to see made her lips tick, though she tried to hide it.
Aelia boisterously greeted his men, further introductions were performed, and Theodora seemed unimpressed with Mac, but captivated by Ian.
And after Ophelia announced they were to take tea in her receiving room, with an audience of many silently watching, they moved to the stairs of the grand treehome, the girls walking before Elena and Cassius, Mac and Ian behind them, and he heard Mac say to Ian, “Well, you caught the eye of at least one Nadirii.”
“Shut up, mate,” Ian retorted.
Mac chuckled.
Cass looked to Elena.
He was again not surprised her mind was no longer on her ward.
Her gaze was riveted to her mother’s back.
Ophelia’s health had worsened visibly in the weeks since they left her. She was thin to the point of gaunt and her battle with pain was beginning to contort her attractive features.
He took Elena’s hand and murmured, “We’ll talk later, lamb.”
Her gaze drifted to him and she nodded up at him silently.
“Hear that Dora?” Aelia whispered loudly. “‘Lamb.’ I told you Papa was dreamy.”
“He would be dreamy, he’s moonshine,” Dora replied.
“And you were right!” Aelia cried. “He’s moonshine, and Princess Elena is sunshine!”
Cass looked down at Ellie.
She kept ascending the stairs, murmuring, “I’ll tell you later.”
This meant, but moments after she spoke her words, Prince Cassius of Airen did something he never thought he’d do in his life.
He entered the Nadirii Queen’s home.
And he did it smiling.
“Do you think they’re asleep?” Elena whispered.
“No,” Cass only sort of whispered.
“Do you find this odd?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think they find this odd?”
“Perhaps. However, Aelia is in fits of glee. She’s not stuck in a lifeless castle with no one to play with. The woman who will help raise her can make doves fly from her hand. And she has a sister.” He dropped his voice lower. “Dora’s mother left her once, and didn’t come home, and I’m an arsehole for sending her away from you after an attack on the castle and the worst quake we’ve felt without you getting the chance to explain things to her.”
Ellie, resting her chin to her crossed arms on his chest, his back to her bed, head up on her pillows, pushed down with her arms and replied, “It’s done. We’re moving on.”
Cass sighed.
He then brushed the backs of his finger against her cheek and changed their subject, going gently.
“Your mother has worsened.”
She turned her head so she could rest her cheek to her arms.
He curved his hand along her jaw.
“Ellie.”
“I have that medicine that G’Liam gave me. I shall ask one of our healers to test it, and if it is all right, give it to her.”
“This is probably wise,” he murmured.
“Are you offended?”
He was not.
But at her question, he was perplexed.
“Offended?”
She put her chin to her arms again to catch his gaze.
“There was no fanfare. No great parade. No grand celebration the Prince of Airen had arrived. Just tea and cakes and we were sent off home so I could make you a humble dinner of hearty vegetable pie and treacle tarts.”
He smiled at her. “It was good tea and cakes.”
“Cass.”
“And you’re an excellent cook, which is surprising.”
At that, Elena appeared perplexed.
“Why is that surprising?”
“A woman handy with a staff and a wooden spoon? You’re every man’s dream. While I sit back and get fat, you can feed me and defend my citadel.”
She lifted up in order to slap his bare chest but did this grinning.
“Not to mention, that pie was delicious and there was not a measure of meat in it,” he went on.
“I shall make you swear off meat,” she declared.
“You shall not,” he returned.
She gave him a stubborn look.
Cass had one arm about her, he wrapped the other one around, dragged her up his chest then rolled her to her back with him now pressed chest to chest to her.
When he had her as he wished, he whispered, “I am not a fanfare type of prince.”
“Well, that is good, for the Nadirii lack fanfare.”
“You are at ease here,” he noted.
“I’m home,” she replied.
“When all is said and done, lamb, if it is allowed for me to accompany you, we will find times to make certain you can be in your land where you feel home.”
He could tell what this meant to her when she breathed, “Cassius.”
“And even if I cannot accompany you. You will need to come home regardless, with Theodora, and if she wishes it, Aelia.”
Her expression softened, her hands came to his face, and he knew what that meant to her when she asked in a very low whisper, “Do you think we can have sex silently?”
“No.”
She frowned.
“Papa!” Aelia shouted from her fluffy pallet that was the level below, one Dora—apparently happily—shared that was Dora’s own. This shouting demonstrating why they could not have sex at all. “When you marry Elena, will Dora be a princess?”
“Yes!” Cass shouted in return.
“Yippee!” Aelia cried and went on loudly. “See, Dora! I told you!”
“She will?” Elena queried.
“Yes,” he repeated.
“Is that standard royal procedure?”
He raised his brows. “Do I care? I’ll be king. The only good thing I learned from my father, I can do what the fuck I want when I am king.”
She smiled up at him and through it said, “Are you absolutely certain we can’t have sex silently?”
He very much wished he could answer differently.
Alas, he could not.
“Yes.”
“Papa!” Aelia yelled.
“My darling girl!” Cass yelled back. “In fifteen minutes, if I go down there and I don’t find two sleeping beauties, I shall be most cross.”
A moment of silence before…
“We’re going to sleep right now!” Aelia assured.
“Is she going to go to sleep?” Elena whispered.
“Hell no,” Cassius muttered. “But she will stop shouting.”
Elena stifled a giggle.
Cass smiled at her as she did.
His smile faded, and his hand lifted so he could again stroke her cheek.
As he did this, his mind also wandered.
“Sweetheart,” Elena called gently, and when he focused on her again, he knew where his mind wandered could be read easily.
“I don’t wish to—” he started.
“I thought we learned about sharing.”
“We never had this,” he admitted. “She died giving birth. We never had—”
Ellie wrapped her hands around either side of his neck and stated firmly, “Her name was Liviana. She lived. She loved you. You loved her. She gave you a daughter. She is a part of our lives, a part of you, a part of your girl. Her name is Liviana, Cass. And it will not harm me at all if you speak it to me.”
They could not have sex.
But he could press a hard kiss on her lips.
And after she gave him her gif
t, this he did.
When he lifted away, he shared, “I never held Liviana in my arms and shouted at our daughter to go to sleep.”
She stroked the skin at the back of his ears with both thumbs, murmuring, “You’ve lost so very much. It would break a weaker man.”
“Make no mistake, I am broken, Ellie.”
“You appear quite whole to me.”
“It’s an illusion.”
“Then you are a master illusionist.”
“Ellie—”
“Cass, a broken man does not let the world melt away when confronted with the beloved daughter he has not seen in some time. There was no one for miles when you first held her in your arms. A broken man would be lost to her. He would be lost to everybody.”
She paused, as if reflecting, before she continued to speak.
“I would say you were lost after your mother was gone, though more, it was about never really having a home or a family. And Liviana found you. In her, you had both. And you thought you were lost after Liviana was gone. But you haven’t been. Aelia’s had a hold on you while you’ve been drifting. You just need to find your feet again, and you’ll be fine.”
He was uncertain Aelia had a hold on him, that was a burden he refused to consider he forced his young daughter to bear.
But he was beginning to feel that Elena did.
And not simply literally.
To communicate a modicum of what this made him feel, he dipped to her, grazing her cheek with his until he found her ear with his lips.
“As I am a stranger in this land, it will be up to you to find someone to look after the girls while I take you somewhere in this sun-drenched haven where no one can hear how much you enjoy all the things I’m going to do to you.”
She trembled beneath him, and at the feel, he fought getting hard.
She also whispered, “I can manage that.”
“That’s good,” he muttered, kissed the skin below her ear and then rolled off her, pulling her to her side and wrapping both arms around her so he could fit her to his front. “Now go to sleep,” he ordered.
“As you wish, my prince.”
He closed his eyes. He heard hoots of owls. He felt Ellie’s soft warmth. Her steady breathing.
He also felt her living space all around them, which was not simple, nor sparse, or even small, but was filled with personality and colors, comfortable nooks and inviting furniture.
Last, he felt the night envelope them, here, in The Enchantments, where it was not just dark, but like a soft blanket holding the sun at bay so there could be rest.
And he opened his eyes when Dora yelled, “Ellie, can Aelia try riding a horse tomorrow?”
The team up.
Aelia had successfully been silenced, so Theodora became the mouthpiece.
“Not if you both don’t go right to sleep,” Elena yelled back. She cuddled closer to him and mumbled, “I fear we’re going to have our hands full, sweetheart.”
He didn’t.
He didn’t fear it in the slightest.
He hoped they added two, three, even four more before all was said and done.
He had never wished for anything, not a thing.
But a family.
Cassius didn’t share that.
He just pulled her closer, drew in the fragrance of her hair, and in the soothing calm of The Enchantments, he fell right to sleep.
65
The Surprise
The Sisterhood of the Nadirii
THE ENCHANTMENTS
That night, in The Enchantments, many a stool was taken, many a staircase was ascended.
The Sisterhood was talking.
A number of them had met Prince Cassius of Airen on the battlefield.
He was the enemy.
But even so, it was known wide he was not like his brother.
Even in battle, a fair fight was understood.
As was the dirty.
Cassius had been fair—honorable in victory, and defeat.
Trajan had been neither.
That said, it was with great surprise the sisters watched Cassius ride behind their princess into The Enchantments, and not simply because he was a male, an Airenzian male, an Airenzian prince in their realm.
But because he rode behind their princess into The Enchantments.
A woman in Airen rode in a carriage at the back of a procession.
In the rare instance she was astride a horse, again, she rode at the back.
A man did not follow a woman.
Never.
Not ever.
Prince Cassius seemed unbothered by this.
In fact, it seemed he took no note of it at all.
And this, the Sisterhood thought, was very strange.
Not bad.
But very strange.
The talk in treehomes, around fire pits and beside streams was not solely about this.
No.
For the ones who had witnessed it were speaking widely about how Prince Cassius of Airen had greeted his daughter.
A girl-child born to an Airenzian male, especially those of the aristocracy, was disregarded to the point that this event went so far as to be ignored.
If a boy-child had not already been sired, or if another one was desired, the male set upon his wife as soon as he wished in order to beget one, as if his daughter had not been born.
Therefore, it was with great surprise that the Sisterhood watched Prince Cassius lift his daughter in his arms, hold her, smile at her, talk to her and listen to her as if what she said did not mean something.
It meant everything.
Equally surprising was how close the girl seemed to his men.
Prince Cassius clearly doted on his daughter.
All those men did.
Of course, it was not unknown that Cassius had loved his deceased wife.
But this…
Further discussed was how he was with their princess.
Elena was a skilled warrior. She also was an exceptionally powerful witch. She held more power than her sister, definitely. There were even those who believed she held more power than her mother.
Elena loved and respected her queen.
She loved and respected her mentor.
She loved and respected her lieutenants.
And she loved and respected her sisters.
They loved and respected her.
She was easy-going, spiritual, observant, focused and attentive.
Most hoped that Ophelia would name her second born as her successor.
Thus, most were troubled when it became known she would not be Queen of the Nadirii, but Queen of Airen.
Perhaps troubled wasn’t the word for it.
Perhaps worried was.
Serena had not demonstrated the traits needed to lead a realm. She was quick-tempered and vengeful and often would allow emotions to color her thinking, and her actions.
It was thought by a fair few that Elena would be an even better queen than Ophelia, and Ophelia held much respect from her sisters.
However, there was not a great deal of warmth to Ophelia.
She was not officious, though she was often remote.
She was also level-headed, introspective, diplomatic, loyal and fair.
But she was not warm.
So the loss of Elena to Airen was worrisome, not only that one of their own would be forced to live in the land of their enemy.
But that the Sisterhood would lose the woman who should be queen.
More happened that night that surprised the Sisterhood.
There had been laughter in Elena’s treehome that evening, and the anomalous sound of the deep tones of a masculine voice.
The same could be heard in Jasmine’s treehome, until other sounds were heard.
And the same could be heard in the queen’s treehome, where the last Airenzian lieutenant had been quartered, as if the queen sat at her leisure to have a chat with an Airenzian soldier.
It was most clear that Elena did not seem pu
t off by her intended.
Indeed, as they walked from the queen’s residence to Elena’s, they’d been seen holding hands.
The Sisterhood did not know what to think of any of this.
They were all trained in the art of war. Even those who did not have the inclination for it, from a young age, were required to learn basic skills with staff, daggers, bow and arrow, sword and hand-to-hand combat.
They were also all trained in witchcraft.
This requirement was much more strictly enforced. Even those who did not show talent with a spell, a potion, scrying, astral travel or the like were obliged to practice what they could and attempt to better what they lacked.
But for the most part, a woman was free to do what she wished, as long as it strengthened the Sisterhood.
Be it fighting.
Or patrolling.
Or training.
Or teaching.
Or healing.
Or weaving baskets or concocting lotions or elixirs or stitching tapestries or knitting blankets or jumpers to sell at Dellish markets to trade for things needed in The Enchantments or to gather coin for the same.
It was for the most part a social community, duties were paid by those who earned so those who fought or patrolled, trained, taught or healed were remunerated for their efforts on behalf of the Sisterhood.
Although this had worked for centuries, the Nadirii were not a nation without troubles.
There were those (albeit they were few) who were lazy, and the others looked down on them.
There were those who wished for more aggression against the male aggressors, there were those who wished for less.
There were those who did not much like the many refugees they took in, there were those who were happy for greater numbers to strengthen the Sisterhood or felt it was their duty as Nadirii to welcome any woman into their company.
There were those who intensely detested all males and wished nothing to do with them. There were those who often journeyed out of The Enchantments to seek male company, or to meet long-time lovers, or simply because they enjoyed a variety of companionship.
But all, being in touch with the magical veil, knew that the quakes were a bad omen.
And in an uncertain situation, you needed strong leadership to guide the way.
Ophelia was wasting.
Serena was problematic.
Elena seemed to be lost to them.
And now, Prince Cassius (and his men) appeared to be full of surprises.
The Plan Commences Page 47
