They both showed up to breakfast separately and their hair was wet, like they had tried to wash the scent of what they had done off of themselves. When she passed by him to take her seat, he smelled the faint scent of lavender coming off of her that Oris always smelled like and he had to push the heat down thinking about what they had done. She should know better by now.
Esylle wasn’t paying attention and only asked her if she had trouble sleeping without someone to hold her and that was why she was so late. She looked like she hadn’t slept much that night and Leodos knew why. Esylle seemed clueless and he didn’t want to tell her and upset her. He pushed the heat away and would try to get Lisana alone later and explain to her yet again why she couldn’t keep doing this when she wanted.
He could tell both Lisana and Oris saw the looks he was giving them and that he knew about their night and they both concentrated on their food. He thought she would spend the rest of breakfast buried in her fruit, but she looked at both Leodos and Esylle with that impish look he recognized. She asked if they had started planning the wedding yet. He was still very angry with her and didn’t say anything to upset both Lisana nor Esylle.
“We’ve only been back one day,” Esylle told her gently. “I spent yesterday feeling your bones break and worried about you while you were with those men healing their children.”
“You worried about my safety among those men and not talking to them like real people is part of why you had to feel my bones break. You need to learn to talk to them the way you talk to me when you take the throne.” Esylle opened her mouth to tell her that those people were nothing like her and Lisana cut her off. “I’m not better than them because of what I can do. You’re not better than them because of what you can do now. The fear those men felt that their children would die is the same fear you felt when I went missing. Just because we can both do things they can’t, doesn’t mean we don’t feel the same things they do. Some of them may ask to have some of the gifts you do now. Will you still think you are better than them?”
Esylle got defensive and tried to tell her that she didn’t think she was better than any of those men they talked to on the street. “Yes, you do,” Lisana said, cutting her off. “You thought they meant me harm when all they wanted was their children to get better. You grew up differently than they did and how I did. You don’t know what it’s like to be hungry, make your own food, or have to clean up after yourself. Before I left Idric, if the weather was bad, sometimes the boy he paid to go to market couldn’t bring us food. If we ran out, we had to be hungry until the weather got better and the street market opened up again. I don’t know why he didn’t grow anything in the yard except flowers, but he didn’t. I had to take care of him the way he took care of me when I was a baby before I left. You heard that street vendor. He thought I grew up with everyone at my beck and call just because I’m your daughter.”
Despite everything she had done and said since she showed herself at the pond, Esylle had never gotten angry with her until now. “I can’t help how I was raised anymore that I can change you being taken from me and raised the way you were. If you think I don’t understand these people, why are you insisting that I rule next and not you?”
Lisana didn’t react and for the first time, she was the calm one while her mother tried to control her fire. “You only need to learn one lesson. I have many.”
Now it was everyone at the table buried in their fruit and not just Oris and Lisana as the two of them argued. Leodos didn’t know why Esylle wasn’t wanting to rule now either when she had been groomed for it since birth. Now he was going to have to try to get the both of them alone to talk. Esylle was still upset and pushed away from the table and stormed off. He warned Lisana if she went back to the streets again, to bring someone with gifts like hers, or better, all three of them, even though he wanted her away from Oris.
He pushed away from the table to follow Esylle. She wasn’t in her chambers, so he had to follow the scent of jasmine. He was surprised when it led him out to the pond where Lisana first revealed herself. She had never come out here alone before and he thought she knew better. He sat next to her in the grass and pulled her down to him. She spoke before he could ask her what was wrong.
“My father is being foolish saying he’s unfit to rule now. He still has at least ten good years left in him.”
“Maybe he understands things that you don’t yet.”
“Don’t you start too about me not understanding things. It’s hard enough hearing it from my own daughter!” she snapped, pulling away from him.
He pulled her back, the way had had to do to Lisana sometimes. “Think about it. You were at the council meetings when you were old enough to prepare you. I know you saw what your rule would have been like if she wasn’t who she is. Your father was king in name only. Every law and tax that was passed was done by the Lords. Every law he suggested was shot down. I know he’s your father and you think of him as a powerful king, but his hands were tied. I think he understands this new peace needs a new ruler and he’s stepping down because he knows it’s his duty.”
“I’ve spent this entire journey watching my daughter trying to accept who she is supposed to be and grow into it. If she can accept everything she’s heard about herself so far at the age she is, why can’t he change and stay on the throne?” she pouted.
“It’s harder to accept change the older you get. There might be wisdom coming from her now, but that same girl who gets upset and runs away from us was just there not just a week ago. He knows his rule is tainted by the Lords that the common men despise and she’s still young and learning. That leaves you. You’ve been preparing for this since your thirteenth name day. I know you’re ready and so does your father. Your daughter also thinks you can do it and she only just met you again.”
“She just told me I’m spoiled and don’t understand my subjects!”
“All she told you was that you need to learn to talk to them and understand them. She’s not scared of any of those people, maybe you don’t need to be either.
“Her problem is that since she learned she didn’t need to fear the tribes or the humans, she’s not scared of anything,” she said, finally relaxing into him.
“I think there’s plenty she’s still afraid of, she just hides it from us. You saw the way those men were when she was helping their children. They don’t want to hurt her. There may be some she didn’t help that do, so I told her when she goes out today, to take those three boys with her.”
She nestled her face into his chest. “I know why she says she’s not ready, but what if I don’t think I am either? I thought I had more time before I became queen.”
“I know you can do this. You’ll have help now instead of Lords telling you what to do. She said your new council will be made up of the tribes and humans this time. I’ll be there to help and she’ll be there learning like you were.”
“If I’m going to do this, I shouldn’t hesitate. I need to form a council. I know she wanted the kings to be on it, but Terros is almost as bad as she was when she first got here about controlling himself. We need to start the process of the people electing who they want, since she seems to think that happens next.”
He didn’t say anything about what Lisana and Oris had done last night, nor that she refused to sleep with her mother that night because she was doing things she shouldn’t again. He only told her both Oris and Terros shared something they were both upset about last night at dinner. Terros was getting better at controlling himself and not flying into a rage. He also knew the heart flower now and how to calm himself.
He wanted to pull her back when she made to move away from him, but she stood and looked fierce now, the way Lisana looked sometimes. She thanked him for making it better and waited for him to stand. When he did, she came to his arms and pulled him into a kiss. She was kissing him deeper than she had before and began to tug at his belt. He knew what she wanted and he had already told her they needed to wait several times. He felt he
r smile while kissing him as she ran her hand over his groin and he reacted.
When he pulled her hands away and told her they couldn’t do this out in the open, she suggested they go back to her chambers and finish there. She was practically devouring him with her eyes and he knew she would get angry with him if he told her they couldn’t do it there either. Her eyes flashed and she demanded to know why he had to be so honorable all the time. They had both wanted this so long and she wanted to taste him.
All he wanted to do right now was scoop her up, carry her to the closest bed, and throw her on it. She was looking at him almost ferally as he was trying to calm himself to tell her again why they needed to wait. She got even angrier with him and told him Lisana told both of them they needed to have more children like her and she just told him she would accept her rule. Lust was clouding her thoughts and Leodos tried to explain Lisana meant legitimate heirs, not children born out of wedlock because they hadn’t waited.
“Then don’t make a baby this time,” she snapped. “You know I know how to prevent it because my family has been only allowed to have one for years.”
She was already angry so he told her why Lisana refused to sleep with her last night and what she had spent last night doing. He tried to explain to her that he couldn’t lay with her before they were married, then pull Lisana aside when they were alone and try to explain to her again why she wasn’t supposed to. He was surprised when she wasn’t upset with Lisana, she was still upset with him.
“I’ve been alone for nineteen years. I thought I would always be alone from now on until the day my father told me I had to remarry. Now that I know I’m marrying you and we both love each other, I don’t want to wait. I’ve wanted to be with you since I was a young girl. I’ve been trying to ignore the fact that I’ve been thinking about it since I woke up, but it gets worse the longer I’m around you. I may lose control and erupt if we don’t.”
He thought he knew what this was now. Since she now had part of the tribes in her, she was going through her first Senso and that was why she was being so aggressive with him. He knew now it wasn’t going to go away in a few days like he had previously thought. He tried to explain to her what she was going through, but she just gritted her teeth and told him to fix it. He knew they should wait until they were wed, no matter how much he wanted to lay with her, but now he didn’t have a choice. He said they should go to her chambers and she grabbed his hand and pulled him back to her room.
She was even more aggressive now and shoved him on the bed. He didn’t know what she was going through. When Lisana was going through the same thing and he stopped her, she pulled away right away and seemed hurt. He didn’t know if she would have been like Esylle was now if she had actually known what was happening to her. Based on everything she had done since that day, she most likely would have put him through one of the most awkward experiences of his life if she had reacted the way Esylle was now.
He tried to calm Esylle and slow her down, but there was no stopping her. He wanted the first time they lay together to be gentle and she would see how much he loved her. Instead, it was intense and left him gulping for air until she finally collapsed on him. Now that whatever she was feeling had passed, she snuggled into him and started talking about planning the wedding. She was acting normally again. He only hoped she didn’t take a page from her daughter’s book and could wait to do this again after they were wed.
Sono
Sono didn’t know what to expect when she asked the three of them to go with her to the streets. He thought they should take some of the human guards with them and was surprised when she got upset with him like she did her mother this morning. Volaris wouldn’t let him go with her when she left before and he noticed Fluvis and Terros stopped their sons as well. He didn’t argue with his father often and thought he should be allowed to go, but Volaris told him just because they were starting to accept her didn’t mean they would accept him.
Sono could tell none of their fathers wanted them going with her now, but wouldn’t speak against her. As they walked out the doors, she was telling them the same thing she told Esylle: they would have to learn to talk to these people. He could see people peering out their windows at the four of them when they got to the streets, but none of them came out.
When she found the market vendor, she explained who they were and introduced everyone. Sono was surprised when he shook all of their hands and seemed excited about what she was going to teach him. There was nothing in this man for him to fear. He only wanted to learn to make a sweet from her and kept thanking her for saving his child.
She led them all into the woods to show him the flower he would need and Sono had an idea. He watched the street vendor’s eye light up when he suggested while they were out here, he could teach him a Farkhi sweet. He was surprised when Oris said he could teach him a Theran treat as well. The vendor was buzzing in her ear while she smelled out the flower about how none of the people knew how the tribes ate and maybe they could teach the other vendors. He thought the tribes would be more comfortable in the streets if the markets also carried their food and he thought the humans might enjoy eating something different.
The vendor’s name was Pardin and he kept telling them that after they taught him the sweets, he wanted to bring them over to the other vendors so that they could teach them as well. Sono was confused and thought she should be setting up a council and new laws for the peace that was to come, not teaching street vendors to cook.
Pardin was walking with Oris, asking him more about the food the Theran ate and Lisana was walking behind them with a small smile on her face. He didn’t want to upset her now that she was smiling again, but he told her his thoughts.
“We have to have peace first before we start passing laws. Sharing food is a good start. Everyone has to eat.”
“Did the chair tell you this?” he asked, putting his arm around her.
“I don’t know anything that is supposed to happen now that we’re here. I didn’t know my grandfather was going to step down and my mother wouldn’t want to take his place. It only showed me what I was supposed to do, but it didn’t show me the future. Thank you for offering to teach him,” she said, leaning up to kiss his neck. He broke out in goosebumps like he always did when she kissed him.
When they arrived back to Pardin’s cottage, he led them to his kitchen and she started to teach him the sweet. He didn’t say anything to her when she made Idric food, but he found it bland and salty. He wasn’t sure how well an Idric sweet would go over if it was anything like what she had cooked for them. That was part of the reason he suggested the Farkhi sweet. She told him how much she enjoyed the food he cooked for her the first time and allowed him to every time they stopped. He wondered if she disliked Idric food now that she had tried other food.
He was still interested in how she grew up and she liked this sweet and thought others would too, so he stood at the cutting board and watched as she painted violet blossoms with egg, then quickly coated them in sugar. She was telling Pardin that he would have to be fast after washing them with egg, or he would damage the flower. She was also telling him he could make a syrup for cakes out of the same flowers. She had him start a low fire in the oven and watched him slide them in. She told him it wouldn’t take long for them to be ready and he was taking them out as soon as she put them in.
Sono had never eaten flowers before and was surprised it tasted a little like berried wine. When both Pardin and Sono told her they were surprised at how good it was and they didn’t know you could eat flowers, Sono saw her blush and look down.
She smiled at him shyly, like when they had first met. “I don’t think any of you liked the Idric food I made. The food you eat has different flavors than what I grew up eating. I thought this was something everyone might enjoy. He would make these for me if I did well in my lessons, which wasn’t often.”
He kissed her cheek now that it wouldn’t upset Oris or Neptis. Oris and Sono both spoke at once, suggestin
g to teach Pardin next. He was surprised when Oris didn’t fight him and allowed him to go first. He had already gathered elderberries and Pardin told him he had mint growing in his garden. He tried to ignore how close to him she was while she peering over his shoulder as his taught Pardin to make the crisps.
When they were finished, Pardin was just as excited about those as he was about the violet blossom candies she had made. He asked Oris to teach him next. Oris confessed he asked the Theran women how to make it, but he hadn’t got the chance to cook it yet. Oris grew up differently than Sono did. Sono was taught to fend for himself and had learned to cook at an early age. Oris grew up with other Theran cooking for him and had only learned for Lisana. Oris thought he knew enough to teach Pardin.
Sono looked on skeptically while Oris shook out all the walnuts he had gathered from his pouch and started listing all the ingredients Pardin would need. There were more than the elderberry and mint crisps Sono had taught and Sono thought Oris might be getting in over his head trying to teach a complicated recipe he had never made before.
As Oris began to give instructions, Sono realized how hard he must have tried to learn to cook for her. He told everyone he asked the other Therans about making this for her because it was his favorite sweet and he wanted her to try it. He just hadn’t had the chance to make it yet because he couldn’t get all the ingredients while they were walking. He was giving Pardin instructions like he had made this dish his entire life, and soon, it was finished and sitting in front of all of them to try.
Lisana liked his crisps and smiled at Oris and told him she could see why this was his favorite sweet. None of them realized they had been excluding Neptis until Pardin asked him about teaching him Tark food. Sono knew Tarks lived differently than they did and Neptis was only showing her affection now because she most likely showed it to him first. Neptis explained that the Tarks viewed sweets as being too indulgent and didn’t normally eat them. Most of their diet came from the sea and was savory and never sweet.
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