That was certainly one way to take the crown, and Kamen could not fault him his ultimatum. The world had had its fill of war for a season.
Tivanel marched halfway up the steps of Jahen's throne and turned back to his subjects. “This war ends now.”
No cheering. No coronation. Just blood and death, just Ajalira weeping over her brother's body. A brother she never had the chance to know. Now the ancient and royal Khajira blood lived on only through her and her children. It did not escape Kamen's notice how Tivanel looked on her. He wanted her now, more than ever. Ajalira was the last of Ellon Tamar's line.
But Kamen would not give her up. He would set the sea on fire before he parted with his only love.
****
Morning broke its cold dawn over the desert, and as Arinport awoke to another day, Kamen and Ajalira lay in bed. Kamen had awoken an hour earlier in the grey morning light to find himself caressing Ajalira's hip. Now with the sun up, he lay on his back with Ajalira lying in the crook of his arm. His erection tented the white sheet that lay over them. As Ajalira snuggled on his shoulder, she played with his nipple ring.
“You know, Kamen,” she said, “I am the same as ever I was.”
Kamen glanced down at her, but all he could see were her golden horns in his face. “What do you mean?”
“I will not break.”
Their sex had been gentle this past week since his discovery of her pregnancy. He liked it rough, but for the baby's sake, and her own, too, he was taking it easy.
“But isn't it dangerous?”
Ajalira kissed his chest. “Dearest one, perhaps you should not strap me to your X for a while, but that does not mean you cannot give me that magnificent cock of yours just the way I like it.”
Kamen rolled her over and lay on top of her. He pulled the sheets up around them, making soft sunlight filter through the thin fabric, illuminating Ajalira's pale skin. She was lovelier than ever. Pregnancy suited her.
“I love you, my concubine. My secret wife. Mother of my children.”
“And I love you, my master. My secret husband. Father of my children.”
Ajalira leaned up and kissed Kamen's lips. When she lay back down, her hair fell around her pillow, crowning her. “I must confess I was surprised that I conceived.”
“Really?” Kamen propped his head up on his elbow. He walked his fingers down from her full breasts to her belly. He wondered when she would start showing.
“When my mother got pregnant with Kaelmoro,” Ajalira said, “everyone was surprised.” Her voice trailed off. Kamen knew the pain of her recent loss was still with her, though it was not as deep as it could have been had she known her brother better.
Kamen patted her head and caressed her horns. “My lovely one.”
“But they should not have been so surprised. My mother was, after all, one-eighth human.”
“Human? How?”
“Do you know the story of Elemia and Abbas?”
“Who were they?”
“My great-grandparents. Elemia was full Ausir, but Abbas was only half. Elemia was promised to the eternal King of the Larenai, Kelvirith, but the prophecy was unclear, and many mistook it. In the end, it was not Elemia who would wed the King but her daughter, Mirel. Mirel, my grandmother, a quarter human.”
“So there is human blood in you?” This thought pleased Kamen.
“Yes, and it was for that reason my mother was so fertile as to conceive twice in only a dozen years. Ausir are naturally rather infertile.” She smiled wryly. “Otherwise, with our lifespans, we would have filled the world long ago.”
Kamen did not want to think about her lifespan. “And then Mirel married Arathan and had your mother and uncles.”
“Yes.” Her pause held more meaning than her word.
“What is it?” Kamen fell to touching her cheek and running his hands down her long, beautiful neck.
“Mirel was granted the immortal life of her first lord, Kelvirith, which means she would have outlived Arathan.”
“You know I've been thinking about that, don't you?”
Ajalira rolled over on her side so that she was facing Kamen. “It has consumed your every waking thought. I want to ease your worry. Mirel went with Arathan to the mountains when the Burning came upon him.”
“The Burning?” So many new Ausir things, so much to learn from his wife.
“When death approaches, an Ausir feels it as a burning in his blood. As the burning grows stronger, his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth begin to bleed. And then he dies in agony.”
“All Ausir die this way?”
Ajalira nodded.
“Why?”
“I do not know, but that is the way of things. The Burning would never come for Mirel as it did for Arathan, whom she adored more than her first husband, the God-King. So when it did come for Arathan, she went to the mountains to die with him. It is the Tamari way.”
When Kamen understood her full meaning, he leaped from bed. “No.”
“No, what?” Ajalira sat up straight.
“There'll be none of this 'going to the mountains' nonsense when I'm at death's door. I am Sunjaa. We live in Arinport. We are more civilized than to expect our wives to follow us into death.”
“You are mistaken, my love.” Ajalira crawled forward to the end of the bed, took Kamen's arms, and made him sit beside her. “If the Burning comes upon the woman first, the man goes with her to die, too. When a couple has lived a lifetime together, it is only natural. It is the Tamari way.”
So Ajalira would kill herself when Kamen died. They would die together. “But the other person is probably close to his or her own Burning anyway. Lira, you will be young and beautiful and full of life when I am feeble and these dreadlocks have gone grey.”
“And what then for me?” Her eyes, blue this morning, hardened. “Shall I go to my Burning alone? Or worse—with another man? You would deny me this consolation to die by your side?”
When she put it like that, what could he say? He had taken a Tamari for a concubine and secret wife. He had to accept certain things about Ajalira.
He nodded and kissed her lips.
“Then I will ease your heart forever, my love. And mine, too, for I had intended this from the moment I became your concubine.” Ajalira left him at the foot of the bed to fetch the dagger of their oaths. She sat beside him again and wrapped her left hand around the naked blade. “You, too.”
Kamen closed his right hand over the cold steel.
“Not you without me, nor I without you.” Ajalira looked up at him, and he understood.
“Not you without me, nor I without you.” He repeated the oath, and Ajalira jerked the blade out from between their hands, slicing their palms together, letting their blood mingle. The cuts were only slight, for she had been careful.
“Done.” She smiled sweetly.
And then all thoughts of death and separation fled from his mind, driven out by the realization that for Ajalira there was no more life without him than there was for him without her. They took turns bandaging each other’s hands, and then Kamen pounced on Ajalira and kissed her all over as she scrambled back up to the top of the bed.
As he lay down beside her, the heat of the day began to seep into the room, banishing the night's chill. “If it's a boy, what do you want to name him?” He rubbed her belly and snuggled on her neck.
She entwined her fingers with his, her pale skin next to his dark. Their children's skin would lie somewhere in between, the soft color of coffee and milk.
“If it's a girl, something Ausir.” Ajalira plucked at his dreadlocks. “After all, our daughter will have to go to the Ausir to marry King Tivanel.”
“I'm surprised he finally agreed to it. I'm just glad he did. The happiest day of my life, watching his ship sail out of Arinport.”
“What?” Ajalira almost laughed. “Why do you hate him so?”
“Because he still wants you. I hope he rots on his Norivean throne, and we never see him again.”
/>
“But we will see him when he returns for our daughter.” Ajalira kissed his nose. “Kamen, my love, you have no rivals. I am yours until we go to the mountains together, remember?”
Kamen hugged her. “If the baby is a boy, let's give him a Sunjaa name.”
“I hope to be able to use both.”
The End
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Other Books by Adonis Devereux:
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A Lotus for the Regent Page 23
