Lisana
Lisana walked with the man who had spoken in the crowd. While they walked, he told her his name was Huegin. She asked him how he managed to work up the courage to speak after what she had just shown them and said she didn’t come to frighten them. When she learned he was a leader of sort among the poor, she told him the same thing she told Brellam. They would have a voice now and if they didn’t want the Lords speaking for them, he could have the people vote for him. He seemed surprised she had even suggested it.
She had seen, before she took the arrow, that all of the women and children had stayed inside and only the men came when the crier told them to. She didn’t know how much of that was because of the sickness and how much was because of what had happened on the steps. She hoped she didn’t have to become the serpent again. Because it only existed in stories, she couldn’t transform as if she was becoming a sparrow or a cat. She had to force it and rearrange her bones. When she became the creature underwater, that Neptis told her didn’t exist, it burned as she felt her legs fusing together and scales sprouting on her legs and stomach. That was easy to ignore because she knew how to deal with pain.
She knew she could become the serpent, she just had to take it slow the first time because each time a bone snapped and rearranged itself, she was in intense pain and she knew it wouldn’t stop until she was finished. She hoped to not have to become it again and did it too fast today because she had no other choice. She could feel it was hurting everyone connected to her, worse this time than the first time she became this form.
She had thought about staying that way until she was healed, but she knew the longer they stared at her that way, the more frightened they would become, so she let all of them see her weakened when she changed back. She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea at the time, but now she thought Huegin might not have spoken up if he had not seen she was just a little bit like him as well.
He was leading her through the streets with several men following. They seemed to be allowing him to speak for them and she thought again that he would make a good member of the council. Esylle and Leodos were at her back and not speaking. She could feel that both of them were worried and didn’t think she should be walking among these men. She was coming to love both of them, but thought maybe they were part of the reason these men felt overlooked. She didn’t think Esylle or Leodos ever walked the streets or spoke to any of these people and they would need to start for the peace that needed to happen.
Huegin led her into a small house that was soon filled with men from the square. Leodos and Esylle were pressed up against her and Leodos bent down to whisper to ask her if she was sure she could do this after what had just happened. She only whispered back he had to let her try. Huegin’s wife was sitting at a table and stared at her red hair, surprised. He introduced her as Simona to Esylle and Leodos and she stepped forward and let him introduce her as well. She was relieved when Esylle stopped her when she tried to curtsey to her and she told her she didn’t need to.
When Simona asked why he had brought them there, he repeated everything that had happened in front of the palace and that he brought her here because he thought she could help. Simona led them to a small bedroom where a child lay sleeping, soaked in sweat. She was crying when she told them all that the child fell asleep and she didn’t think she would wake. She stood in front of the bed to protect the child when she tried to get close. She held up her hands and said she only wanted to try to help. Simona reluctantly moved away.
She kneeled at the side of the bed and she could smell the child was dying. She couldn’t heal her unless she knew what was making her sick. Huegin held Simona back and told her if she didn’t trust Lisana to trust him when she leaned over the child to try to smell out where the sickness was coming from.
“Something is causing swelling here,” she said, placing her hand on the child’s forehead. “That’s why she sleeps. Unless the swelling goes away, she won’t wake up.” Huegin had just started to ask her if she could heal the child when she let the light flow out of her body and into the child. She knew neither Huegin, nor Simona had seen the light before or what it could do and Huegin was holding Simona back while she cried not to hurt her child.
He finally let her go when the child sat up in bed and asked why there were so many people in her bedroom. Both Huegin and Simona rushed over to embrace the child and she meant to just slip out of the room and let them be together. The room erupted with a chorus of voices of men whose children had also started sweating who wanted to take her to their houses. She agreed to go by whose child was the worst off before the men left their homes. Whatever was causing the swelling, it didn’t take much of the light to heal it.
She was following behind two men who said they were sharing a house because one of them lost theirs because they couldn’t afford the tax and both of their children were there. Esylle and Leodos both pressed themselves on either side of her and she felt boxed in. The streets here were narrow cobblestone, but there was enough space that neither of them needed to be this close to her unless they wanted something.
“You can’t let them see you faint after what you did earlier. I thought you were going to wait until you were healed until you changed back before. Why did you let them see you could be hurt after they watched you take an arrow to the chest?” Leodos whispered down at her.
“They were scared. They needed to see part of me is human like them.” She explained she didn’t think this would make her faint and they wouldn’t see her weakened because he was so concerned about it.
She had forgotten his family had done so much study on the tribes when they got to the second house and she was healing the other two children. Leodos began to ask questions about what all of the children had in common to get sick like this. He was asking questions why it was only affecting the children and not the adults. She was glad he was helping instead of getting in her way. Maybe if he learned what was causing the sickness, it wouldn’t happen again. She wasn’t sure if it would come back once she healed them. Leodos was firing off questions left and right to all of the men in the small bedroom trying to pinpoint the cause of the sickness.
Leodos finally asked the right question and the men said that one of the stalls at the market had started selling a new sweet that the children liked, but none of the adults could stomach because it was so sweet. The market vendor was there because he had already lost one child and another was very sick. Leodos began questioning him about the sweet and the vendor got defensive and said he would never sell anything that killed children. She tried to make it better by only asking him what was in it.
He told them he had found a sweet berry while hunting and had been gathering it and cooking it down with sugar into candy. She asked him to describe the berry to her because the sickness was now starting to make sense to her. When he described it as being blood red with spiky green leaves and thorns on the bush, she knew exactly why the children were getting sick.
“Belisarus taught me that berry when he was teaching me how to forage for food. It’s a cousin to the mulberry and that’s why it’s so sweet, but the thorns are a warning you’re not supposed to eat it. It tastes good, but it’s poisonous and will kill you if you eat too much of it. I can heal everyone who is sick and if you’ll stop using that berry, they won’t get sick again. We have a sweet on Idric that I used to love that I can teach you to make that I’m sure can replace this one.”
“You can cook?” the stall vendor said, looking at her skeptically.
“Why wouldn’t I know how to cook?” she asked, confused.
“If you’re really the missing princess, didn’t you grow up with other people cooking for you?”
“I wasn’t raised like a princess and I’m still not sure how to be a queen. I didn’t know who I was until I came here. I didn’t even know what my real name was until recently. I grew up cooking, cleaning my own room, washing my own hair. Everything you probably did growing up. I grew up in a stone house not much differ
ent than this one, except there was a large wall around it because no one was supposed to know I was there.”
“How will you have time to come teach me to cook a sweet with everything you say needs to happen next?”
“I’ll make time,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. She was glad no one was angry with the vendor and seemed to understand he didn’t know the berry was poisonous. She went to at least seven more houses before she was done. She was starting to get tired, but she didn’t let the men see it. She got to meet all of their wives and many of them were so happy, they embraced her, then pulled away, embarrassed and apologized and said they forgot themselves. She pulled them back into an embrace and told them just because she was who she was doesn’t mean they couldn’t touch her. She tried to joke with them that all of the tribe members couldn’t seem to stop themselves from touching her and she was used to it now. She tried to promise them things would be better and they would have a voice now. She meant to stay and talk more to get to know them, but Esylle pulled her away.
“I can feel you’re tired and your stomach is empty. We should get back and you need to eat. My stomach is upset because yours is.”
She had been ignoring her stomach for the past thirty minutes and finally agreed to leave. The men had questions if she would be their queen now and she tried to explain that she needed to learn from her mother first, who would rule now. They seemed disappointed, but didn’t argue. Before she allowed Esylle to pull her away, she grabbed the street vendor and told him she would come back to his house after lunch tomorrow and teach him to make the sweet and promised again that the children would like it just as much as the one that made them sick.
When they got back into the street, Leodos insisted on walking in front of her. He told her that he still didn’t trust the Lords and they saw her weakened today. He worried about her when they got back to the castle. He thought she should send the Lords back to their estates when they got back. She agreed to appease him and followed him back to the palace.
Oris
Oris had pulled away from his father and stalked off when he told him about his brother. He was angry his father never talked about him before and how he managed to get the rest of the Theran to never mention him around Oris. He never knew about his first wife either. He wondered if Terros would have been less hard on him growing up and he would have the same relationship Sono and Volaris had.
He tried not to let anyone see he was upset over dinner. Terros knew and kept shooting him looks like he wanted to say something, but he raised him being hard on him, never actually talking to him, so it was like he didn’t know what to say. He knew Lisana could feel him because even though she never said anything over dinner, she kept looking at him like she wanted him to talk to her. He knew he wouldn’t be able to until it no longer bothered him because she would be too busy now. He listened at dinner while both Esylle and Leodos both told her if she insisted on helping a man at the street market again, either they needed to go with her or she needed to bring someone else with gifts like hers. She was annoyed, but didn’t argue.
He was lying in a strange bed in a place he had never been before trying to concentrate on sleeping. The bed was very soft and large and the room was ornate and furnished for a prince. It wasn’t like the Theran camp. He knew he would have to get used to sleeping here, but thought he would sleep better if it was all of them in bed the way it was at Inanos. He had never slept that well before. He knew why he couldn’t ask again.
He jumped up and nearly changed to protect himself when the chamber door slowly opened. His heart did not stop beating in his chest when he smelled the resin and Lisana peeked her head around the door and slipped into his bedroom. She held her finger to her lips and padded over to his bed. He finally relaxed when she slipped in next to him and rested her head on his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair as she asked him what was bothering him at dinner.
“Your mother and Leodos are going to be angry with me if they find out you snuck in here,” he told her, even though he didn’t want her to leave.
“Then I’ll tell them it was my idea and they can get mad at me again. Something was bothering you at dinner and I didn’t want you to be alone,” she said. He shivered when she kissed his neck and she did too because she could feel him.
He sighed and told her everything Terros had told him and why it was bothering him. She seemed surprised that he never knew and told him how upset Terros was when he talked about it on Idric. She told him something he didn’t know. She told him about the day she first arrived and overheard Joron forcing Esylle to marry and have another child and how much she didn’t want to because Lisana was still missing. She tried to make it better by telling him maybe Terros was so hard on him because he wasn’t on his first son and blamed himself for his death. He loved Oris and didn’t want to lose him, so he was harder on him, thinking he was doing the right thing. She told him how Terros reacted when she first started making changes and how he didn’t want her to change Oris.
He knew he shouldn’t, but he argued with her. “If he was only hard on me because he didn’t want to lose me, why was he so against you doing anything to me that made me stronger? I felt it the day you changed us and I felt it again after the light. My senses are more and I heal like you now.”
“He loves who you are and he didn’t want me to change that. I don’t think either of our parents like seeing us hurt, even if we heal. I’ve just had to hear it longer than you have because I’ve been able to do it longer. I’m getting used to talking to my mother and Leodos. You need to learn to talk to your father.”
“Since when do you make it better for us instead of us making it better for you,” he teased, pulling her into a kiss.
She responded to his kiss and whispered in his ear she needed to get used to it because she thought that was all she would be doing from now on. He tugged at her robes and hoped she didn’t tell him no and whispered back that he would always make it better for her. She didn’t stop him and he was surprised when she took control.
She snaked on top of him and took off her robes slowly. He had never seen her like this, even their first night together. He liked it. She was kissing and licking him all over before she took his robes off. She took him in her mouth and soon had him writhing on the bed. She could feel him and was crying out while she worked him. He could feel her cries vibrating into his spine. He stopped her when he couldn’t take it anymore. She hadn’t taught them to make the heart flower yet, but it was glowing on her chest and he could feel it now.
He pulled her back up to him where he could kiss her and her hair fell on his cheeks and tickled his ears. He wasn’t sure how she wanted to, so he asked. He wasn’t used to the woman taking charge and he liked it. She laughed huskily in his ear and whispered she was trying to make him feel better. She asked him what he wanted her to do next and promised he could do whatever he wanted to her.
He rolled her over on her back and told her she shouldn’t tell a man that. She bit his ear and told him she trusted him. He knew she didn’t know what she was promising, but didn’t want to talk about it right now. This time, when he pressed into her, instead of just feeling warm wetness, he could feel what she felt when he was entering her. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to hold on long enough to wait for her feeling what he was feeling. He pressed in deeper and she moaned and he felt her tighten around him.
It was different this time than the first he was with her. He didn’t think anything could be better than their first night together, but what he was feeling now as he began to thrust into her was unlike anything he had ever felt before. She was responding differently than that first night when she was still learning. She was bucking beneath him and they were both dripping with sweat. He felt her release and couldn’t stop his when her fingernails dug into his back and she bit his shoulder. He could feel flaming hot waves shooting up from where they were joined as his seed spilled into her.
He collapsed on top of her and nuzzl
ed her neck. She stroked his back and asked him if he was feeling better now. He didn’t answer her and let the scent of the amber resin in her hair overwhelm him. She continued to stroke his back and hair like she thought he still might feel bad. He shivered as her fingers lightly teased the skin on his back. He felt much better now, he only wanted to lay there with her petting him until he had recovered to have her again. The first night, they had stayed up for hours with him teaching her. He wanted to do that again and he was surprised it didn’t bother him that the reason she responded the way she did now was because she had done this with both Neptis and Sono.
He slid down between her legs and began to lap at both their juices. When she gasped and told him she couldn’t again and it was too intense. He chuckled and slid back up to kiss her mouth. When she groaned when he pressed into her again, he asked her if she was forgetting their first night and that he could feel her now. He teased her, sliding in and out of her slowly.
“Didn’t you tell me you may need time to recover that night? Things feel differently than they did that night because I can also feel you.”
“I know it feels different. I’ve never felt anything like that before and I want to feel it again,” he said, speeding up his thrusts.
She laughed in his ear, but didn’t stop him. “We have the rest of our lives to feel this. You don’t need to cram it into one night.”
Leodos
Leodos was sitting at breakfast, silently fuming and trying not to let Esylle see. He slept in his own chambers last night, even though Esylle begged him to stay in hers, and told her he would until they were wed. He was in the room when Lisana said she would sleep in her own as well and nothing Esylle said to her would make her stay to be held to sleep. At first, Leodos thought it was just because she thought she needed to now that they were here, but now that they were at breakfast and both Lisana and Oris were late, he thought he knew exactly why she didn’t sleep with Esylle and who she really spent her night with. Everyone could tell Oris was upset about something at dinner and he had a pretty good idea how she tried to make him feel better.
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