Her stomach tightened, threatening to lose the little she’d eaten.
“Perhaps, my daughter, you need time to reconsider. We can further speak of this matter at the end of Thaddis’s visit, when you have had a chance to know him.”
Daria bit her lip, striving for words of firmness and tact. She stood up. “My mind is made up.” She risked a glance at Thaddis and succeeded in pulling away her hand.
Anger blazed in his eyes, stretching the skin tight over his cheekbones, until he did indeed resemble a predator. “This is your final answer?” He hissed the words at her.
Her hands shook. Daria clenched them into fists to hide any betraying tremble. “I know my own wishes.” She chilled her words, no longer caring about their affect on him. “I have no desire to become your bride.”
A buzz of startled conversation sprang up.
Thaddis grabbed his eating knife. The firestone in the gold hilt glittered as he raised it.
The room stilled into icy silence.
Iceros and her brothers all catapulted to their feet.
Daria raised her hands, edging away from the irate king, ready to block any assault. She didn’t dare make the situation worse by attacking the ruler of Ocean’s Glory, but she would defend herself, if necessary.
Iceros’s bodyguard rushed forward from his place against the wall.
With one blow, Thaddis drove the blade into the table in front of her. “You will regret this day.” Not glancing right or left, he pushed his chair away from the table and strode toward the exit, leaving Daria standing alone.
~ ~ ~
The next morning, Daria rose early to seek out her father. Dreading the consequences of her public declaration, she’d shifted around all night, her thoughts more twisted than the sheets on her bed. Over and over, she’d seen Thaddis stab his knife into the table and shivered from the menace in his threat.
Daria waited, impatient for dawn. In the commotion of the previous evening, she hadn’t had time to speak privately with her father. She needed to face him as soon as possible, allow any waves of his anger to break over her, and try to explain an othersense feeling about Thaddis that conflicted with Iceros’s regard for the young ruler.
She found Iceros in her mother’s garden, sitting on a bench made from the mandrawn shell. He’d propped his foot on a three-legged footstool, probably on Issa’s insistence. The wide hand-like leaves of the pan-pan tree cast fingered shade over him, and tiny silver blossoms had drifted free from their clusters and fallen into his hair. The deepening of the worry lines on his forehead showed the toll the last month had taken on him. Even the trimmed beard could not hide the pain lines bracketing his mouth. She’d bet he’d refused Issa’s medicine today.
His solemn green gaze measured her, but he didn’t say anything.
Does he find me wanting? Daria resisted shifting her feet. How could she explain what she couldn’t understand?
The weight of his regard pressed on her chest, and without a proper greeting she blurted out, “Are you angry with me?”
He hesitated and stroked his beard, a sure sign of agitation. “Yes. And even more, disappointed. I wish you to be happy in your future marriage. Thaddis is a fine man. Son of a good king. You didn’t give yourself a chance to know him—to love him. That you refused him without consideration…without diplomacy.… Your actions have strained relations with a generations-old ally.”
“But—”
He held up his hand. “Thaddis’s extreme reaction to your refusal does give me pause. I can understand the frustrations of a man rejected. However, I didn’t like his threats. He always did have a temper, and being an only child led his parents to indulge him.” Iceros’s gaze grew distant; he was apparently remembering the past.
Daria waited, impatient.
“By the end of his fosterage here, he’d seemed to have mastered his temper. But before that…a few times an argument with Indaran came to blows.” A slight smile curved his lips. “Those two were both so stubborn. But after a period of reflection, Thaddis would apologize, and they would again be fast friends.”
Her father seldom spoke about Indaran, and when he did, Daria eagerly grasped his words, crumbs to a heart starving for stories of her brother.
Iceros’s eyes sharpened to emeralds. “You, daughter, will write a formal apology. Claim the unexpectedness of the proposal.”
Horror lanced through her. “You’re not saying I have to reconsider my answer?”
“No,” he said, his voice heavy.
“Perhaps I can claim a secret love, one not even you knew about.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Is there such a man?”
She thought about Khan. “Only in my dreams.”
“From you, Daria, that statement has power.” He stroked his beard again. “Perhaps your gift senses your future.”
He understands. Relief quivered through her body and must have reflected on her face.
One corner of Iceros’s mouth pulled up, easing away the pain lines. “May he come soon, so I’ll have those grandbabies I want to dandle on my knee. Although perhaps Cihkel and Elanath will beat you to it.”
“You know,” she half laughed, half accused.
“Cihkel is too much like me. I recognized the same look on his face that I saw in the mirror when I courted your mother.”
A commotion arose at the vine-and-flower-bedecked gate leading to the garden.
They stopped their conversation to listen.
Iceros’s guard challenged and was answered.
A soldier strode through, his ruddy cheeks flushed from exertion. The tiny swirling kir shell on the collar of his uniform showed him to be stationed at Pilot’s Point. He halted in front of her father, drawing his stocky body to full length, and fisting hand to chest. “My king. I must report that King Thaddis didn’t stop at Pilot’s Point to discharge Ral, the pilot who guided him out of the harbor. I've checked at Ral’s house to be sure. His wife says he’s never been home.”
As if preparing for action, Iceros jolted to his feet, winced, and grabbed Daria’s shoulder for balance. “You’re sure he was on board?”
“Yes, the guard at the wharf saw him with King Thaddis’s party. And we didn’t have the chain stretched across the channel. As Your Highness knows, we never do for the flagship from Ocean’s Glory.”
Iceros turned to Daria. “This puts an entirely different construction on matters,” he said, his voice low. “I don’t want you to have a husband who'll make such ill-judged decisions. Even less do I want him for an enemy. Let’s hope when Thaddis’s temper cools, he will return Ral with an apology. Otherwise…” He paused thinking.
The soldier slid forward. “What are your orders, sire?”
“Keep the chain up, even if the flagship were to return. Double the guard at Pilot’s Point and the wharf. Be alert for any signal flags flying from the palace. We will add a new one to the list.” He squeezed Daria’s shoulder. “Yellow. It will mean your princess has been kidnapped, and any departing ship needs to be searched from topmast to keel.”
Daria gasped.
Iceros’s gaze seemed to pin her with shards of green glass. “And you, daughter, from now on, will have a constant bodyguard.”
~ ~ ~
Khan roamed the beach, lit by the glow of the double moons. Even more than his earlier vision of Seagem, with its lavender sky and green beach, the sight of two moons, the second one dimmer than the first, reminded him that he really wasn’t on Earth. The thought both exhilarated and scared him.
He glanced at the dark ocean. Lacy wavelets made night music, and the moisture in the air felt good to his desert-dry skin. He found his way to the rock where he’d sat with Daria and paced back and forth, hoping she’d join him soon.
“Khan!”
He whirled.
She ran to him, the white gown she wore fluttering behind her.
“Daria!” He held out his arms.
She dashed to his embrace, and he lifted her, spinning them a
round, until her feet left the sand. Their laughter joined.
Lowering her, he showered kisses over her face, then cupped her cheeks and pressed his mouth to hers, hard and fast.
Daria’s arms slipped around his waist and held him, kissing him back.
He ran his tongue over her lips. They parted, and he slipped his tongue into her mouth, gently exploring.
She met him, at first tentative, then gaining confidence.
Heat blazed through his body. He stepped back slightly lest she feel his hardness press into her.
Daria sighed in protest.
Khan smiled and reached up to trail a finger over the silken skin from her neck to the top of her shoulder. He wondered what she’d do if he untied the ribbons holding her nightgown closed.
Daria made a small sound of pleasure.
Khan moved his finger to the nape of her neck, kneading the muscles. Then he lifted her hair and dropped a kiss on the sweet spot underneath, allowing his lips to linger.
“Um.” She arched her head. “That feels so good.”
He kissed his way up her neck and nibbled on her earlobe.
Should he go farther? Slip off the gown? Every part of his body demanded he respond to her. Take her. Make her his. But if he truly cared for her… “In your culture, Daria, would it be wrong for us to make love?”
She paused, glancing away, and then met his gaze. “Not wrong …”
“But not right, either.” Taking a deep breath, he struggled to rein in his passion. Maybe I should go throw myself in the ocean. He eased back a step, taking her hand and leading her to the rock. Without a word, they sat, side by side.
She pulled the necklace from under her gown.
To his surprise, the Lovestar dangled on the chain. He cupped the shell in his palm, where it shone translucent in the moonlight.
“I had the court jeweler make it into a pendent. I wear it under my clothes so no one sees. I don’t want to have to explain about my phantom lover.”
Too moved for words, he leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. Then he released the pendent and fished in the pocket of his robe, pulling out the other half of the shell, and holding it out. “I keep it with me, too.”
She placed her hand over the Lovestar and looked into his eyes. The energy spun between them, awareness of their sexual attraction, their connection.
Daria reached up to pinch his chin. “At least in our dream world, you don’t have to worry about my brothers coming after you.”
Amused, he took her hand, placing a kiss on her palm. “To kill me, or to force you to marry me?”
“Either.”
“It wouldn’t be force if we married, habibti.”
Something changed in her eyes, leaving her with a solemn look on her face.
“What’s wrong?”
She grimaced. “You can tell?”
“I guess you would say my othersense tells me something’s wrong.”
“We’re lucky to be meeting in a dream. Right now, I’m so guarded, we wouldn’t be able to meet… At least not alone.”
“Guarded? Why?”
“I turned down a suitor, Thaddis. A friend of the family. A powerful man.” She squeezed his hand. “I might have rejected him, even if I didn’t know you. But knowing you made the idea of marriage to him impossible.”
“I can understand his pain at losing you, habibti, but for my sake, I’m glad you turned him down.” He brought her hand to his lips again and kissed it, then nibbled across her fingers.
“He feels no pain. I’ve wounded his pride is all.”
Khan gave her a quick glance, but she didn’t seem upset. “Should I go beat him up for you?” he teased.
She snorted. “You wouldn’t be able to get near him.”
“How about if I haunt him in an othersense dream?”
“My father…” Her tone turned somber. “My father’s afraid he’s going to kidnap me.”
Fear knifed through him, followed by helplessness. I can’t protect her!
He let go and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her tighter against him, trying without words to make her feel safe…loved.
She laid her head on his shoulder.
They sat in silence, watching the moons set.
When dawn lightened lavender and gold shadows around them, their embrace dissolved.
CHAPTER NINE
Two weeks later, commanded to Iceros’s presence, Daria marched down the corridor behind the stocky body of one of her father’s guards. The tone of the king’s summons vibrated trepidation along her othersense, banishing the sense of well being from her dream with Khan.
Anxious to learn why the demanding summons, she quickened her steps through a hallway muraled in sea creatures both real and imagined. Behind her trailed her own guardian shadow, Larciat.
As she walked, Daria’s shoulder blades twitched.
Larciat’s unrelenting scrutiny bored into her back like a cobbler’s awl. Her skin constricted drum-tight over muscles tense from the days of constant surveillance. Though she chaffed at the restriction, guilt followed her as surely as did her guard. It was her fault that everything had changed. If she hadn’t angered Thaddis….
Yet just the thought of mating with Thaddis made waterbugs skate up her skin. Khan, I so wish you were here.
When she approached the door of Iceros’s study, two guards snapped to attention, another reminder of Seagem’s altered circumstances. The single traditional bodyguard for Iceros had doubled, and an increased watch patrolled outside the palace.
One of the men she knew well. Micfal’s grandson, Philan, was a good friend of hers.
He nodded a greeting. Tall and broad-shouldered, with gingery hair and his grandsire’s blue eyes, Philan had been Daria’s sparring partner on many occasions. “You are expected, Princess.” He opened the carved ironwood door.
She gave him a distracted smile before entering her father’s sanctum, where the real work of governing the kingdom took place. The large room’s tall, arched windows allowed in plenty of sunlight, which played over the cluttered furnishings and bounced off the golden wood of the polished floor.
Her father stood with his back to her, staring out the canted window to the shoal-dotted ocean. In one hand, he clutched a crumpled paper.
The breeze, heavy with the tang of the sea, circulated through the room, stirring the maps cluttered on a long table in the middle, scattering the stacks of papers on the huge desk in front of the window, and riffling the books and parchments on two large bookcases built into the walls.
Daria didn’t take a seat in one of the old leather-covered chairs that circled the desk. She knew better than to relax when her father had issued a formal summons.
Iceros bent his arm a few inches and crushed his fist around the paper. Without turning, he said, “I’ve asked wisdom of Yadarius, yet He appears not. My dreams are empty of His presence.”
A frisson of fear shot down Daria’s spine. Mine also. Her othersense buzzed in her ears, making her dizzy. She grabbed the back of the nearest chair.
Yadarius didn’t visit everyone each night; perhaps the SeaGod was busy elsewhere. But for Him to ignore a prayer, especially the king’s, was unusual. He might not grant one’s request, but He’d always acknowledge having received the petition. “Have you asked others? What do the priests and priestesses say?”
Iceros swung around, his expression grave. “Both Archpriest Caifed and Archpriestess Anza say Yadarius visits no one,” he said, his voice ragged. “I’ve told them to make inquiries, see if anyone has spoken to Him in the last few days.”
“Losing touch with the SeaGod will panic the people,” she said, her own apprehension increasing.
“I’ve warned Caifed and Anza to be discrete. They’ll pretend to be looking for a certain symbolic message, but won’t say what. That way they can question everyone about their dreams.”
“It will still take several days for the priests and priestesses to question all the people.”<
br />
“I know.”
“What about the window to Zacatlan? Does Guinheld stay connected with Her people?”
“I had Anza look through the window and talk to their Archpriestess. They’ve had no problems. The Archpriestess spoke to Guinheld. But you know how the Healing Goddess stays remote from the Others. She hadn’t contacted Yadarius in some time. When She tried, She couldn’t find Him.”
If the Healing Goddess can’t find the SeaGod… She didn’t even want to speculate on what that might mean.
After a pause, the king fingered the telescope case dangling from the chain around his neck. “What about your othersense, Daria? Do you sense anything?”
Daria scrunched her face in frustration. “Yes, I do. But I can’t interpret what I sense. Nothing’s been clear since the day the warning came to avoid Ocean’s Glory.”
“I should have heeded your request. Allowed you to remain here.”
“I should have tried harder to communicate my concerns.”
“What’s cooked must be eaten,” the king said, his voice turning brisk. “We can’t look back. Now, I want you to search the library, see if there’s any record of prior incidences of the SeaGod’s total silence. Caifed and Anza say there’s nothing in their records, but maybe you can find something in ours.”
“Yes, Father.” At least, Daria had a task she could do to help.
“There’s something else.” He held up the crumpled paper. “This just arrived from First Counselor Ogan.” Iceros dropped the dispatch on the desk. “The boy, Thaddis, that I once knew and loved has changed. Grown into someone I no longer recognize. I can only be glad his parents aren’t alive to see it.”
Daria’s heart started to beat in slow, painful thumps. “What does Ogan say?”
“Thaddis’s rage has not abated. Ogan says he’s plotting something vengeful. When Ogan tried to remonstrate with him for kidnapping Ral, Thaddis demoted him. Now he cannot find what Thaddis plans, nor what he’s done with Ral. Ogan commits treason to send me word. I pray Thaddis doesn’t find out.”
Her father looked at her, his gaze piercing. “I didn’t really believe before that Thaddis would kidnap you. But now, Daria, I have an ill feeling about this.”
Sower of Dreams (The Gods' Dream Trilogy) Page 9
