Amara stiffened as if beneath an unseen blow and her hands flew to her mouth. “No,” she moaned.
“Who was that man?” Jelena gripped Ashinji’s arm and squeezed it.
He looked at her with haunted eyes. “Sadaiyo,” he replied.
***
The hazy afternoon sunlight had given way to evening’s purple shadows by the time Ashinji had finished his tale. Eikko ghosted around the sitting room, lighting the lamps. The warm glow cast by their tiny flames beat back the encroaching darkness. Hatora sprawled in her father’s lap, sleeping.
“Your father and I failed you, Son.”
Amara had listened in silence to Ashinji’s narrative, a soft shimmer of tears in her eyes the only clue to her inner turmoil. “We failed both you and your brother,” she whispered. “It caused your father such anguish that he could not love Sadaiyo as he loved…loves you, Ashi,” she continued. “Both of us were guilty of turning a blind eye to Sadaiyo’s jealousy, and by doing so, we ultimately set this terrible thing in motion.”
“No, Mother. I beg you, do not blame yourself or Father for any of this,” Ashinji pleaded. “My brother made his choice long ago. What I don’t understand is how he hid the truth from you, of all people.”
Amara dropped her face in her hands, and after a moment’s hesitation, Jelena stood and put her arms around her mother-in-law.
“He most certainly had magical help,” Gran said. “Some kind of memory-altering spell. Such magic doesn’t come cheap.”
Amara looked up and nodded. “Sadaiyo has the financial means to purchase such a spell.” She pulled a small square of yellow silk from her sleeve and dried her eyes. “I will find out exactly how he did it.” The grim look on her face made Jelena shiver.
Hatora stirred and whimpered, catching her thumb in her mouth. Sucking contentedly, she lapsed back into sleep. Ashinji’s face lit with joy, but then he sighed and the light faded.
“Sadaiyo is with Father, of course. Eventually, I must ride south to join the army…” He paused to look into his mother’s eyes. “How am I going to tell Father about all this?” Pain infused his every word.
Amara did not answer at first. Instead, she stared at her upturned palms, as if by studying the intricate tattoos marked into her skin she could somehow divine a way to deflect the sorrow that lay in store for her family.
Finally, she spoke. “There are other things that are more important to think about right now, Son, but when the time comes, both of us together will find the strength to help your father deal with this.” She rose to her feet and held out her arms. “Chiana and I will leave you two alone now. I will look after the baby tonight.”
After kissing Hatora several times on the forehead, Ashinji relinquished his daughter to her grandmother.
“Would you like to sleep with cousin Sentashi tonight, my sweet?” Amara cooed. The baby scrubbed her eyes with her fists, then fell back into a doze.
Sadaiyo and Misune had placed their son, Sentashi, in Amara’s care when they had ridden south with Lord Sen and the army. Jelena had to struggle not to hold the boy’s parentage against him; allowing Hatora to spend time with her cousin had helped.
“Shall we come to you early tomorrow morning?” Jelena asked. “We have so much more to talk about.”
For many long months, now, Jelena had studied and honed what Talent she had to its sharpest edge, all in preparation for the greatest trial of her life—completion of the Ritual of Sundering. She had long suspected the Kirians—Amara, Princess Taya, Sonoe, and now Gran—had withheld certain aspects of the Ritual from her, perhaps fearing that if she knew the entire truth, she would not willingly participate.
The Kirians were wrong. Jelena understood full well the very existence of the material world hung in the balance, and she would to do whatever it took to safeguard her daughter’s future.
“Your husband has just come home to you, Daughter. Things are not so dire that they can’t wait one more day. We will see you after dinner tomorrow,” Amara replied. She and Gran glanced at each other in the knowing way of partners sharing a difficult task. Eikko leapt from her seat on the floor near the window then started toward the door, but Amara held up a hand. “No, girl. See to your mistress. We’ll let ourselves out.”
“Yes, my lady,” Eikko said, bowing her head.
After Amara and Gran had left with the baby, Eikko inquired if she should have food sent up.
“No. I’m not hungry,” Ashinji said.
“Yes, Eikko, please. Ashi, you need to eat,” Jelena insisted. “You’re far too thin!” Exhaustion darkened the skin beneath his eyes, and it seemed to her a heavy burden of worry weighted his brow.
He’s afraid, and I think I know why.
“Did Gran speak to you of the Ritual of Sundering?” She snuggled into Ashinji’s arms as he reclined on the couch.
“She did,” he murmured.
“Don’t be afraid. The Kirians have been preparing me for months. The Key must be released from me and safeguarded in an inanimate vessel. It’s the only way they’ll be able to defeat the Nameless One.” She brushed the side of his neck with her lips and felt a shiver course through his body.
“I can’t help it. I’m terrified, my love,” Ashinji replied. Jelena sensed he wanted to say more, but something made him hesitate.
“I know there’s a chance I could die,” she acknowledged, “but I’m not afraid, especially now that I have you back.” Ashinji did not answer, only squeezed her tighter. Jelena pulled his face to hers and they kissed, gently at first, then with growing heat. “Forget the food,” she sighed. “We’ve been apart too long, Husband!”
Pulling Ashinji up by his hands, Jelena led him toward the bedchamber. His weariness seemed to fall away with each step.
When the food arrived, Eikko covered everything with cloths and laid the tray on the hearth. She knew when the princess and her husband eventually emerged from the bedchamber, they would want to eat.
Making love is hungry work! she thought, a tiny giggle escaping her lips. After a while, she helped herself to a meat pie and a glass of the crisp, pale wine the princess loved so much, knowing her mistress wouldn’t mind.
Settling down on a cushion beneath the open window, she munched on the pie and breathed in the warm, fragrant night breeze. Somewhere in the distance, voices shouted in raucous song. An owl hooted, patrolling the dark sky on silent wings. From behind the closed doors of the bedchamber, muffled cries of passion drifted.
Eikko sighed and squirmed a little with longing. She allowed herself a brief flight of fancy then pushed all such improper thoughts from her mind.
A fine okui man like Captain Sakehera is far, far beyond the reach of a girl like me!
She would have to content herself with Tori, the gardener’s assistant who’d been courting her these last two months. Drowsy with the comfort of a full belly, Eikko closed her eyes and lay down on the floor. Within a few heartbeats, she had fallen asleep.
No More Secrets
Jelena closed the bedchamber door and turned to face her husband. Ashinji stood by the bed, awash in a stream of moonlight.
Slowly, she approached, savoring the anticipation of what was to come. When she reached him, he gathered her into his arms and bent to touch his lips to hers. A stray breeze from the open window, sweet with the perfume of honeysuckle, blew a loose strand of his hair against her cheek. The gossamer sensation made syrup of her limbs.
With trembling fingers, they relieved each other of their clothes. The whip of guilt that had scored Jelena for so many days disappeared as she and Ashinji clung to each other, skin to skin, their hearts beating in sync. She laid her head on his chest and kissed the irregular scar left by the arrow which had almost taken his life. The mere thought of him alone and suffering in the war camp of her cousin Thessalina caused hot tears to spill from her eyes.
“Why are you crying, love?” Ashinji whispered. Jelena shook her head, unable to answer with words. Instead, she squeezed him tighte
r and allowed the warmth of his body to soothe her. Her hands wandered across his chest and belly, then downward to caress his swelling manhood. Ashinji gasped and shivered. Scooping her into his arms, he carried her to the bed and laid her atop the silken coverlets.
“When I was a slave in Darguinia, the one thing, the one hope, that kept me alive, was the dream of seeing you again, my love,” Ashinji whispered as he lay down beside her.
“Ashi…” The whip had returned, stinging her again with relentless ferocity. “Even after Sadaiyo told me you were dead, I didn’t believe him…not for a long time. I never felt your death. It just seemed like you were far away from me. But, in time, I let everyone convince me you really were dead, and…and…” Her throat clogged with tears, allowing no more words to pass.
“Hush, love, don’t cry,” Ashinji murmured, stroking her hair. “I know what happened. You moved on with your life, found someone else…” She could feel how it hurt him to speak those words.
“I’m sorry. I should have waited. I should have known…”
Ashinji said nothing. Jelena reached out to touch his mind and what she saw tore at her heart.
You didn’t love me enough to wait for me.
“Gods, gods, Ashi, no!” she moaned in Soldaran. “I never stopped loving you, never! You must believe that.” Look into my heart, love. The truth is there!
Like a river in flood, Ashinji’s pent-up emotions overflowed Jelena’s consciousness, nearly sweeping her away.
Forgive me, forgive me for hurting you. I know you never stopped loving me. I hate myself for thinking those terrible things. How could I ever think you’d stop loving me…
He rocked her in his arms until the torrent of remorse had spent itself. “I, of all men, have no right to reproach you!” He took a deep breath and his next words came out in a rush. “In Darguinia, in Mistress de Guera’s yard, there was another slave, a woman. In a moment of desperation, I…”
“Stop, Ashi,” Jelena shook her head. “I don’t want to know. Whatever you did, it doesn’t matter now.”
“But it does. I betrayed you, and even though I did it to escape my captivity, it still tears me up inside! No. I have no right…” He fell silent, his face suffused with pain. After a few heartbeats, he whispered, “I don’t blame you…or him, I swear. You believed me lost to you forever. And if I really were dead, I would want you to move on and find love again.”
“Ashi, you are the only man…”
“Shhh…my love. Just hold me.”
“Ashi…”
“Shhhh,” Ashinji breathed against her neck. Jelena could once again feel the heat of his arousal, and her own body’s powerful response. The words she wanted so much to say evaporated in the fire of their rising passion.
All guilt fell away as they lost themselves within each other. Their bodies had not forgotten, despite the long, cruel separation.
At the moment of climax, when her consciousness at last merged with his, Jelena’s mind cried out in wonder as the full light of Ashinji’s Talent lay revealed to her. When she had last seen it, it had looked wan and pale, like a candle flame at dawn.Something profound had occurred during the time of their separation, for now it shimmered with a multihued complexity that defied description. Jelena did not question the change, not yet, for her mind and body still rode the wave of sexual union.
Afterward, they rested, still joined in mindlink, savoring the rekindled flame of their love. Eventually, the sweet lassitude that comes after lovemaking ushered them both into sleep.
Sometime later, Jelena awoke from a dream in which she looked down upon Ashinji cradling her body in his arms, weeping. She shivered with dread and shifted to look at her husband sleeping beside her. He lay on his stomach and she noted the pale puckered scar above his right hip marking the place where another slave’s knife had nearly taken his life yet again.
Thank all the gods Magnes was there to save him that time!
She reached out to touch him, a little afraid he would disappear, chimera-like, into thin air, leaving her alone and heartbroken once again. When her fingers met warm flesh, she sighed with relief.
Ashinji awoke to her touch, almost as if he had not been asleep at all, but rather, waiting for her to stir. He rolled onto his side and pulled her close, his lips seeking hers for a drowsy kiss. She inhaled deeply, filling her nostrils with his unique scent, letting the feel of his body lull her back to sleep.
***
The raucous chatter of a pair of jays scolding each other below the bedroom window woke Jelena the next morning. She indulged in a full body stretch, luxuriating in the delicious comfort of the soft, warm bed. Shifting her head on the pillow, she gazed at Ashinji, snoring softly beside her.
Pressing her lips to his ear, she whispered, “Wake up, Husband. Your wife needs you.” Ashinji’s breath caught in his throat; he stopped snoring but remained asleep. “Wake up, Husband,” she whispered, louder this time. Ashinji’s eyes fluttered open and he smiled.
“Good morning, Wife. I still can’t quite believe I’m home in bed with you.” He caressed her cheek.
“You are home…in bed…with me.” She threw her leg over and straddled him, a wicked grin on her lips. “And now, I intend to make love to you until you beg for mercy.”
“That’ll never happen,” he growled as he twisted his fingers into her hair and pulled her down.
Later, as they lay dozing in each other’s arms, Jelena remembered what she had seen when her mind and Ashinji’s had joined last night.
“Ashi, your Talent, it’s changed,” she said. “It’s so much stronger now. How is that possible? I thought the amount of Talent an elf is born with is all he or she gets. A little or a lot…it doesn’t change. Was I wrong?”
“No, not really,” Ashinji replied. “The strength of my Talent hasn’t changed. It is as it’s always been, it’s just not blocked anymore.”
Jelena stared at him in confusion. “Someone blocked your Talent? I don’t understand. Who would do such a thing?”
“My mother.” Jelena both heard and felt her husband’s anger.
Why would Amara purposefully deny her son his birthright?
Jelena propped herself on an elbow and Ashinji followed suit. “How did you discover the block and how did you manage to overcome it?” she asked. “Your mother is a very powerful sorceress.”
“Gran discovered it and told me, but my mother did such a good job, not even Gran could break it.” Ashinji paused, as if remembering something painful. “I broke through on my own. It happened when I saw that slave catcher kill Seijon, the hikui boy we brought out of Darguinia with us. My rage was so great, it just blew through the barrier. I killed two of the slavers before I even had time to think.”
“I’m so sorry about Seijon, and I’m sorry it happened the way it did, but I’m glad you’ve regained what’s rightfully yours.” Jelena shook her head. “Why would your mother deny you something so important?”
“I asked her once why every second-born Sakehera was always pledged to the sovereign’s service,” Ashinji replied. “She said it was tradition. It had always been so, and it would always be thus. She advised me to learn acceptance. Ai, Goddess! I was so angry and frustrated.” He paused, and Jelena remained silent, waiting.
“My mother knew how much I wanted a different life,” Ashinji continued, “but she also knew my father would never break with his family’s tradition, nor she with hers. She would have known, even before I was born, the strength of my Talent, but only the females of her line are trained in high magic. So, she did the only thing she thought she could. I understand that now, though it doesn’t make me any less angry.”
Not until now did Jelena truly understand just what the block placed on Ashinji’s Talent in childhood had deprived him of. Her soul rejoiced at its unbinding.
They both lay back down and for a time, neither one spoke. At last, Jelena broke the silence.
“Ashi, how much do you know about the Ritual of Sundering?”
Ashinji frowned and propped himself up again to look at her. “Are you sure you wish to talk about this now, love?” His green eyes had grown somber.
Jelena nodded. “Yes, I’m sure. Tell me what you know.”
“The magical energy you harbor must be released from you in a controlled manner and recaptured into a new vessel, and the only way to release it is to…” He fell silent and turned his face away from her.
“To what, Ashi?” Jelena had never known Ashinji to lie, but she could sense he wanted very much to keep something from her. “What, Ashi?” she repeated. She grabbed his chin and pulled until he had to look at her.
“Did the Kirians not tell you?” he asked softly.
“Tell me what?” Jelena searched his eyes, then said, “If you mean about the danger to my life…yes, they told me, but I’ve been preparing for months! My Talent’s strong, or as strong as it can be.” She kissed him. “Your mother and the other Kirians will protect me.”
Ashinji sighed and fixed his gaze on the whitewashed ceiling. Jelena rested her head against his shoulder.
There’s something else he knows and isn’t telling me, she thought, something he’s terrified of. Gods, what could it be?
For now, she felt unwilling to push him.
Now is our time to just be together, as husband and wife.
She traced a lazy trail down his torso with a finger, hoping to lift his mood. It worked.
“Goddess’ tits, but you’re insatiable! Is there no end to your lust, woman?” Ashinji grinned in anticipation as her head disappeared beneath the coverlets.
When Jelena reached her destination, she set to work.
***
They did not leave their bed until mid-morning. After a leisurely bath and a quiet breakfast, Ashinji announced he wished to see his sisters.
The Sakehera family still resided in guest quarters in the west wing of the castle, a fair distance to walk from the royal apartments.
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