Queen of the Gryphons: Ishtar's Legacy: Books 1 & 2

by Lisa Blackwood

  “I know.” Pain flashed across his expression, and then he glanced away and said softly, “but it is tonight I fear. The nightmares already hunt at the edge of my consciousness.”

  Another habit from before their separation had Iltani clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Then I will stay with you until you sleep and should those nightmares come hunting, I will slay them first.”

  Ditanu had always had nightmares—his gift allowed him to see bits and pieces of dark possible futures, mostly they were all jumbled up, too chaotic for his sleeping mind to make sense of. Iltani, always the protector, had stayed and soothed him after particularly nasty ones, remaining until he slipped into a more peaceful sleep.

  “Thank you, Iltani.” Ditanu picked up Kuwari and then reached out and clasped her hand in his. “I would like to hold all my living cubs this night.”

  Iltani’s free hand trailed down to her belly for a moment, and then together they left the bathing room and entered his bedchamber.

  ***

  Iltani stayed with Ditanu until his grip on her relaxed in sleep. She still held Kuwari in her arms for a few moments more, but reluctantly let the cub go. After carefully extricating herself from between Kuwari and his father, she glanced back at Ditanu’s expression, softened in sleep. On impulse, she leaned down and brushed her lips against his.

  He murmured something in his sleep but didn’t wake.

  “I love you,” she whispered and then brushed her fingers against his lips. “Although you read me so well that I think you must already know that, I still had to say it. Rest well, my love.”

  She eased off the bed. Looking around, she spotted a heavy blanket draped across the foot of the bed. She grabbed it, eyed the two chairs in front of the fire, and then decided against them in favor of the floor. It would be better for her back.

  She laid down and rested her hands against her belly.

  Sleep eluded her for a long time.

  Chapter 25

  “The mother of my cubs does not sleep on floors!”

  Iltani jerked awake and found herself almost slamming foreheads with Ditanu. The king was crouched down, leaning over her.

  “My king?”

  “You’re in my suites. I’m Ditanu here. Remember? And stop trying to change the subject.”

  “I wasn’t. I’m not,” she stammered as she tossed back the coverlet and rolled to her side.

  Ditanu held out his hand to help her up.

  She took it and he lifted her easily.

  “The mother of my cubs does not sleep on floors. Repeat it after me.”

  “I…”

  “Ishtar’s Blade shouldn’t be found on the floor either. One doesn’t just carelessly toss aside one’s favorite weapon.” Humor was slowly working its way into his voice, and she could see he was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

  “I will remember that in the future.”

  “Good.” His expression lost some of its animation. “We have much to do today.”

  His cubs. Their funeral. Oh, by Ishtar—poor Ditanu. “I will not leave your side for a moment this day.”

  He looked her in the eyes. “I am glad.”

  ***

  Iltani fingered the heavy, elaborate torque that circled her neck and draped down to cover her bare breasts. Her hair had been pulled forward over her shoulder, so the tiny braids didn’t hide Ishtar’s mark emblazoned down her spine. Ditanu told her it now covered half her back. It would be impossible for anyone to miss it. Gold glinted in her hair and circled her wrists and ankles. Another skirt of a hundred wispy layers hugged her waist, its many streamers fluttering in the slight breeze coming in from the garden. Around the waist, several of Ditanu’s gryphon feathers plucked during the blooding ceremony two days ago, had been worked in among the fluttering streamers.

  She caught a glimpse of herself in the polished silver mirror secured to the east wall. The voluptuous woman reflected there was an opulent creature of golds, tans, and indigos to match the tattoo running down her back. She was unrecognizable. The only things that soothed her at all was that the king was equally as decked out. No one was likely to notice her.

  Well, until they noticed their matching torques and learned the meaning. High Priestess Kammani had dug them out of storage, saying these had been worn by previous monarchs and their Blades who had performed the Sacred Marriage.

  Iltani fingered her torque and flushed a deeper shade of crimson. Somehow it seemed a touch obscene to her to wear a hefty chunk of gold and jewels that screamed for the entire world to see, that she and the king had had sex. It cheapened what her heart said should have been something just between the two of them.

  Not that Ishtar or a hundred centuries of tradition cared what Iltani might think.

  Her eyes slid sideways toward Ditanu and caught him echoing her motion and touching his own torque with an unfathomable expression.

  Voices from out in the hall had announced company before Priestess Kammani came through the door. “Good, you’re both ready. All is prepared. The councilors and most of the high-ranking nobility are arriving in the temple as I speak. The Processional Way is already lined with your people. I know this will be hard for you, but you must show your strength, so your people will know they are still protected by the line of the gryphon kings and greatly blessed by the Queen of the Night.”

  His aunt touched his shoulder then. “Later, you will finally have time to grieve for your lost cubs. Until then, be strong for all our sakes.”

  Kammani gave him a motherly kiss.

  “Go, put those councilors in their place and show the traitors their plan has failed.”

  Ditanu, his king’s mask back in place, scooped Kuwari up in his arms, bracing the cub against one shoulder and then reached behind him for Iltani’s hand. His strong fingers closed firmly around hers, and she matched his strides, his Shadows falling in around them.

  They would show their enemies a unified front.

  ***

  The Processional Way was as Kammani said it would be. Many of the watchers whispered silent prayers or said nothing at all as the first horse-drawn chariot rolled past, carrying the body of Humusi, next came the second chariot with Ilanum’s equally tiny body. Several of the King’s Shadows were on horseback riding ahead of and beside the chariots. An honor guard as was traditional.

  Iltani drove the third chariot herself though she would have much preferred to have her hands free to draw her sword, but Ditanu had said he wanted Iltani in the chariot with him. As for himself, the king stood stoic, his living cub held firmly in his arms—on display for all to see.

  As the chariot passed the first of the onlookers, and the prayer changed into a wave of whispering and pointed fingers, growing in volume until it caught the attention of others farther down the Processional Way.

  The city guards had to fight to keep the crowd from pressing further in, but the people started chanting the words ‘Ishtar is merciful’ over and over until it took on a multi-voiced roar.

  A funeral should have been a somber thing, but Iltani couldn’t begrudge the citizens of New Sumer their joy and newfound hope for the future.

  King Ditanu simply nodded to his people in acknowledgment.

  It wasn’t until they were almost to the temple complex that the crowd must have noticed the golden torque around hers and Ditanu’s necks, for the chant changed then to ‘Sacred Marriage.’

  At last, they arrived at the main temple, where the ancestors of the gryphon rulers had been buried since they first came to these islands almost eight thousand years ago.

  After the last chariot had rolled into the temple courtyard, Iltani studied each of the councilors where they waited upon the stairs leading up to the temple. Each one was equally shocked to see their king very much alive.

  If Priestess Kammani and a wall of her brethren hadn’t come forward at that exact moment to tend to the tiny bodies in the first two chariots, Iltani sensed the councilors would have flocked around King Ditanu, dem
anding to know why they were only learning now that he lived.

  Kammani’s interference gave Ditanu a few more hours’ peace.

  Chapter 26

  After the day-long royal funeral rites, Ditanu ordered his Shadows to clear a path for him to return to the palace. Iltani followed silently in his wake. She didn’t voice useless platitudes, merely holding her silence and being a substantial presence at his side. Once they returned to his palace, Iltani ordered food brought for Ditanu and herself and milk for Kuwari. Normally, she’d trust the errand to a passing servant or one of the palace guards, but knowing traitors could be anywhere, she only trusted other Shadows.

  The first of the Shadows started away, but something else occurred to Iltani. “Wait,” she called softly. A female Shadow turned back to her. It was the twins’ cousin, Takurtum. Iltani was glad to see the young woman had survived the massacre on Uruk. There had been too much death and Iltani knew, later, she would find time to grieve for Etum and Eluti properly. “I’ll need a pallet brought to Ditanu’s suite and made up for me there.”

  Because he’d have another fit if she slept on the floor again, but there was no way she was sleeping in his bed. She didn’t trust herself. What if he’d woken while she’d kissed him last night?

  She didn’t want to complicate things as they were just starting to fall back into that routine she loved so much.

  When they reached Ditanu’s chambers, he ordered his steward Warassuni to report to him, saying he needed to see how his city-states had fared without him. Iltani had hoped Ditanu would give himself time to heal before throwing himself back into his work, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected, either.

  Ditanu cared for his people. It was part of why she loved him.

  While he was busy discussing matters of the kingdom with his steward, Iltani took the opportunity to stake out a place to call her own. After poking around in Ditanu’s vast suites, going room to room with Kuwari and a compliment of Shadows trailing her everywhere, she eventually found her spot.

  Ditanu wouldn’t be happy, but perhaps the king needed to hear the word ‘no’ a little more often. With a grin at the cub, she waved her arm encompassing the small room which was actually the king’s wardrobe. “My territory. What do you think?”

  Of course, Kuwari didn’t answer in words. Instead, he scampered over to the lowest shelf where the servants stored the king’s sandals.

  “I think you’re a little too young to wear those just yet,” Iltani told the cub.

  After picking through them for the one he liked best, Kuwari started to chew.

  The servants soon brought the things Iltani asked for. However, the food came at the same time, and that won out over the pallet and blankets on her priority list, so she instructed the servants to arrange her ‘room’ whatever way they liked. By the tittering of the servant girls, they were discussing how to turn a closet into something befitting Ishtar’s Blade.

  Iltani couldn’t care less. It was a place to lay her head. She’d slept on bare ground more than once while back on New Assur as part of her training.

  Food in one hand, Kuwari tucked against her side with the other, she made her way into Ditanu’s receiving room where he, Warassuni, Uselli, and a few others in charge of running a city were already gathered around a table discussing reports.

  She offered her plate of food to Ditanu, who took it with a smile of greeting before returning to his impromptu meeting. Servants brought in more food and laid it out for the others.

  Her king’s needs dealt with, for now, she carried Kuwari back to Ditanu’s bedchamber and sat in one of the chairs by the fire so Kuwari could nurse from his converted water skin in relative quiet. An hour later, Kuwari had emptied his milk skin and fallen asleep. She heard the approach of feet on carpet long before the servant reached her position.

  “Lady Iltani, your room is prepared,” the servant said. Iltani recognized the girl from the time she’d helped Iltani do her hair the first night she’d returned to the island. It seemed like weeks ago now, not less than a handful of days.

  “Thank you.” Iltani couldn’t remember her name. She’d ask one of the Shadows later.

  The girl bobbed a curtsy. “We had your belongings brought over from your other room in the consort’s…old suites.”

  The poor servant flushed and verbally tripped over the word consort. Iltani couldn’t blame her. She was probably trying to figure out if Iltani was now her new mistress.

  “I am a servant the same as you.”

  The girl looked absolutely doubtful, but only mumbled, “If you say so, my lady.”

  She dismissed the girl and took Kuwari to her new room.

  It was tiny, but the floor space was long enough to fit a travel pallet in as she’d expected. Some of the pillows and ornate tapestries had made the move from her new room in the consort’s chambers to her newer room in Ditanu’s closet. Ah, the bag she’d brought with her from the training island was there as well.

  She made a thick nest for Kuwari alongside her own sleeping platform, intentionally not putting him directly upon it because she wasn’t sure if he was fully trained to go all night without accidents. He’d been good the last two nights and he seemed to know where the sand pit was in the bathroom, but there was no point in making the servant’s task more difficult than needed.

  Once Kuwari was snuggled down in his blanket nest, and he’d purred himself to sleep, she went over to her bag and pulled out an old shirt to sleep in. A bundle of letters fell out in her lap.

  Her breath caught in surprise. These ones weren’t the well-read ones she’d always had; these were the ones Burrukan had given her just before she set foot on Nineveh. In all that had happened since she’d completely forgotten about them.

  She was just picking them up when the curtain comprising her ‘bedroom door’ was drawn back and Ditanu braced a hip against the frame.

  “The closet isn’t a proper place for Ishtar’s Blade to rest her head, either.”

  “Hmmm. It’s not the floor. I figured that was your only stipulation. It’s just temporary,” Iltani said, and then added in her mind, ‘until I have a chance to hunt down every last traitor and make them pay for hurting you.’

  His expression brightened and she sensed a playful argument on the horizon, at least until his gaze dropped to the letters in her hand.

  Suddenly his king’s mask was back in place—though she’d thought she’d seen a flash of pain before it was firmly in place.

  “You did not read my letters?”

  Iltani glanced down and swiftly pulled out the other well-read tattered ones.

  “More times than I can count,” she admitted with a blush. “These ones are new to me.”

  “New?” That one word was asked by Ditanu the King, definitely not Ditanu the man.

  She hesitated, sighed, and then gave him the truth. Insofar as she knew it. “Burrukan only gave these to me the day I returned, before I stepped foot upon the island. He said if he didn’t, he would be committing treason.”

  “That cantankerous old goat,” Ditanu said with a chuckle, his king’s mask falling away as quickly as it had come.

  Now that he had an explanation as to why she hadn’t read them, he seemed unsurprised by the news.

  “Did you know or suspect some of your letters weren’t making it to me?” she asked.

  “Looking back, yes, I admit I suspected a few of my earliest ones may have gone astray until he deemed you ready to read them. You were in training and didn’t need the…distraction.” Ditanu rubbed at his clean-shaven face. “Your return letters to me never made comment as to some of the more delicate topics I wrote to you about. At first, I didn’t understand, and then it occurred to me that Burrukan might be censoring my letters or your replies. I decided it was best not to question him about it, for fear of putting my mentor in a difficult position. I didn’t always like what Burrukan did, but he always did everything in his power to protect us and our kingdom.” He gestured at the stack of
letters. “However, I did not expect this amount to have gone astray.” Ditanu sighed. “He saved me from my own foolishness more times than I can count.” He fell silent for several moments and then with his voice thick with emotion, he said, “I will miss him.”

  “I, too,” Iltani whispered, and then hesitantly, “Do you still wish me to read them, or would you…prefer if I not?”

  Ditanu cleared his throat and then nudged the pile of letters closer to her. “Keep them hidden. Our enemies would very much enjoy what I reveal in those.”

  “I should destroy them now, then, if they are that dangerous.”

  Ditanu shook his head. “I would have you read them first. Our friendship has a four-year gap in it I’d like to see filled one day. These may help fill that gap for you.” He rubbed a hand over his face again and then looked chagrined, “Is there, by chance, another stack of your letters that might not ever have made it to me?”

  Iltani swallowed and then felt around inside her pack for the last stack of letters. These were the ones she’d written to Ditanu that Burrukan had withheld. The pile wasn’t as thick as Ditanu’s letters.

  “Ah, Burrukan always saw things right in the end.” He reached out and took them from Iltani. “He was probably correct in this too. He was a military tactician until the end. Guard my letters well against our enemies, read them, and then burn them afterward.”

  Iltani started to reach for one of the letters, but he was quicker and wrapped his long fingers around his wrist. “But not today, nor tomorrow and not in any of the days until the end of this lunar cycle. I want to give us a chance to become reacquainted. If we haven’t managed to share our every secret by then, we’ll open our letters and read them aloud over a jug of wine.” He glanced at the stack of letters. “Though this mountain might take two or three nights and several pitchers of wine.”