Chapter Twenty-One
Antares’s shadow danced in the candlelight on the castle stone wall. He stood near the balcony looking out into the darkness, listening to waves he could not see crash against the jagged cliffs below.
“It is done.”
He turned to see Andor and Kadir looking very somber and nodded in response to Andor’s words. He had nothing left to say. It had all been argued to death and back over the past several days. The loyal seven were mixed on this war. Several agreed with it in principle, but knew the planet had been through enough. A few strongly opposed. Kadir, in particular, had been vocal about finding some way to make peace, not wanting to finish a war started by people no longer alive to tell them what the war had genuinely been about. However, Antares had been too hell-bent to really listen to any of them. He hated the position he was in—heart obliterated, gut not guiding him true, head uncertain about everything.
“Has Naveenah been seen?”
“No.”
Kadir’s response was swift and succinct. Antares wasn’t certain what answer he had hoped for, but no wasn’t it. He didn’t know whether to be worried for her or assume she was with Nikolai.
“What of the other females? Have they been secured?”
“As you said, they are below. Antares, I would ask one last time for you to reconsider.”
He looked first to Andor, then Kadir, almost wanting them to talk him back to his senses.
“Our last war is barely over. Our people cannot withstand another. They will not make it through. We will not make it through.”
A swift shard of pain penetrated him. He remembered that night in his bed with Naveenah and how it all ended. He could not let this rest.
“What do you want me to do, Andor? Lay down for the nay-chi?”
“The nay-chi have not brought trouble to our planet, ever, as far as you know, but you want to go to war without even checking basic facts. I am loyal to you, Antares…”
Kadir’s words hung in the air between them. The unspoken words were the most damning. Antares’s normal quick-fire temper lay dormant. He wondered if he even had it in him to lead this war. His thoughts were so consumed with Naveenah and Nikolai. He needed to see them. This war wasn’t about the nay-chi or the legends, or the stories he’d been told as a boy. This war was an age-old war over the heart of a female, a war that perhaps could be prevented with simple communication.
In the moment, in his bed chamber, he was enraged with hatred instilled in him by his father and his own sense of betrayal. In hindsight, he realized no one had betrayed him. If Naveenah had found comfort and solace in the arms of his brother, it was certainly her right to do so. Their arrangement had been completely separate of anything else, and in the beginning, he hadn’t expected anything more than conceiving a child with her. He had, after all, been dead set on a Vaturian queen.
“In truth, I am conflicted.”
It took much for him to admit that. His head was saying finish what you started, his gut was saying you don’t know all you need to know, and his heart was aching for the two people he loved most in all the universe. A war between him and Nikolai would never bring them together and in reality would tear the fabric of the planet to its core. Could he truly do that to his people? Especially since he really wasn’t certain what he was fighting over in the first place.
“Then call this off,” Kadir pleaded.
It was the first time in his life he’d been so hesitant about a decision. Perhaps that in itself was his answer.
“Antares, we don’t need another war.”
Andor sounded so tired. They all were. He knew and understood that.
“What happens if I stand down, and they annihilate us?”
“You have my word we will not.”
He looked up to the door to see Nikolai and Naveenah standing arm in arm, the rest of his loyal five warriors surrounding him.
God’s truth it was good to see him, and wonderful to see Naveenah. His love for her had eaten itself so deep into his soul that she had become a part of him. Seeing her now, even on his brother’s arm, was like coming home.
They moved into the room. Nikolai stepped to the side. Kadir, Rodolph, and Hador all stood with him. In an instant Antares understood the meaning.
“We speak for the nay-chi, brother. We mean you no harm. We never have.”
Antares took it all in, let it seep deep into his bones.
“How stupid I must be. My brother and three of my closest friends and warriors? All nay-chi? I had no clue.”
He felt ashamed and utterly unfit to lead battle or a country. Perhaps this was the end of the road for him. If it was, he wouldn’t be entirely sorry. He had done much, lived much.
“Why would you, brother? You thought our race extinct. But if we had meant to harm you, Antares, we would already have done so.”
He looked at Naveenah. She was radiant and looked at him with only love shining in her eyes. He wanted to go to her, take her in his arms, and love her for all eternity. She would make an excellent queen, the perfect queen, the only one Vaturia had ever needed, and he wondered how he had not seen it before.
“Leave us.”
Everyone but Nikolai and Naveenah left without another word. Tides were changing, the sand sifting beneath his feet, and there was so much he needed to understand before he did anything.
“Explain how you can possibly be nay-chi?”
Nikolai stood tall and still, his arm wrapped protectively around Naveenah.
“Our mother was nay-chi. It was a fifty-fifty shot.”
He searched his memory for any hint of any of this. In all the horrible stories his father had relayed to him, never once did he even suggest that his mother and brother were nay-chi.
“So you think you are better than me.”
His pride forced the question out before he even thought about it, and he was duly censured by Nikolai’s cold stare.
“Yes, brother, I think I am perfection walking and you, nothing but a mere mortal.”
A small smile caught Antares off guard, but he hid it from them by placing his hand over his mouth.
“There is much you do not know about nay-chi. You were raised by a bigoted man who twisted your mind with lies. That is not your fault, but what you do now, going to war against an innocent people, that you will be held responsible for.”
Nikolai squeezed Naveenah’s hands before releasing her and stepping forward.
“Don’t you see, Antares? You wanted to restore Vaturia. Together we can bring a level of peace to her that no one in our lifetime has ever known. That would be one damn fine legacy, brother.”
Antares closed his eyes against a wave of overwhelming emotions. “I have many questions.”
“I’ll give you all the answers I have.”
He opened his eyes and looked to Naveenah. He had one very real and important question only she could answer. He moved to her, but did not touch her.
“Do you love Nikolai?”
She smiled tenderly. “With all my heart and soul.”
He found it hard to breathe for a moment and started to pull away from her when she grabbed his arm.
“Don’t you want to know if I love you?”
The question confused him. She had just said she loved his brother. “Is this a game?”
“Never.”
He looked to Nikolai, who was standing, hands clasped behind his back, not seeming worried about whatever his female was up to.
“I have no patience for riddles tonight.”
She took the one step that closed the space between them and touched his face softly. He released a breath.
“I have thought of myself as such a strong man all my life, but you, you make me puddle on the floor with just one touch.”
He wouldn’t touch her. He wasn’t certain he could stop from making love to her if he did, and she still had not answered his question.
“Antares, I have not lied to you. I told you the night we made love th
at I love you. That is no game, no riddle. My love is yours if you want it—” She looked over his shoulder to Nikolai, then back into his eyes. “—and if you are willing to share it.”
“Share it. Share my female? My female!”
He pushed her hands away from him and turned to Nikolai, but he had already stepped around him and in front of Naveenah.
“Antares, you want to reform Vaturia into something new and wonderful, do you not?”
What that had to do with Naveenah, he knew not, and he wasn’t ready to discuss Vaturia until this business with Nikolai was settled.
“Female, are you saying you cannot choose between us?”
She poked her head around Nikolai, the look on her face feeling like a slap to him.
“Oh, so now I’m female again, am I? You’re being a child, Antares. It is not that I cannot choose. It’s that I do not see a reason why I should. You and Nikolai love one another. You have the same mission in life. We could create for ourselves a wonderful life—not just for the people of Vaturia, but for ourselves—one with deep and abiding love.”
She and Nikolai exchanged a look he did not like, but that showed him that if he did not at least consider what she was proposing, he could lose them both forever.
“What you are proposing is…”
“Perfection. Brother, think on it. We both love her. For me, there will be no other female. She is my rianu. I believe she was created to be the bond that secures not only our relationship, but lasting peace for our planet. Together we can partake of the rianahl, an ancient nay-chi ceremony that bonds the souls. We three can be suvanar-renu, and Naveenah will bear us children as you believed. It will be a new Vaturia the likes of which no one has ever seen.”
Nikolai took Naveenah’s hand and placed it on Antares’s and held them both in place. “Antares, it is more than you ever dreamed, and it is all being offered to you now.”
“Please, Antares. Please say yes.”
Naveenah’s eyes begged him, but his head was spinning. It wasn’t a bad idea. In many ways it was the exact perfection Nikolai had said, but it was simply not an idea he had ever once in his life contemplated. All his dreams of a future Vaturia included himself and a Vaturian queen, but he never imagined the love he felt now for Naveenah. He never imagined reuniting his people with the nay-chi. He never imagined that his brother would love so deeply. He never imagined he would be considering a life bonded to two people, but it made sense in more ways than simply emotionally. The other human females, perhaps they would stand a better chance of conceiving if they were mated to more than one male.
“What?”
The mirrored looks of reproach on both his brother and Naveenah’s face pulled him from his musings.
“You are scheming again, brother. For just a moment, let’s keep this whole thing a bit smaller.”
He did not appreciate Nikolai’s intrusion on his thoughts, but felt a need to deny the charge.
“I know not of what you speak. There was no scheming.”
Naveenah took his hands in hers. “Antares, you brought me here against my will. I think we built a relationship despite that beginning based on trust and respect. I haven’t asked you for anything up until now. Let me love you both. Don’t make me choose and tear my heart in two. It won’t heal.” She brushed his cheek. “Trust me now when I say I have enough love for you both.”
He did not answer her aloud, though in his heart he knew he could never refuse her. Even more, he wasn’t opposed to the idea. In some ways it even set on his heart as…perfection.
He cupped her face in his hands and placed a searing kiss on her lips.
“Damn, but I’ve missed you, magita.”
Nikolai stepped close and placed his hands on her shoulders, pulling her back against his chest as he looked into Antares’s eyes.
“We are what we are, brother. Suvanar-renu. There is no need for explanation. It does not need to fit into the world you thought you knew before this moment. It simply is. Allow the bonding.”
Antares straightened his spine to its full length, standing tall and straight as he took this first step for his new Vaturia and more, for the female he loved beyond life.
“How do we do this?”
“I will call my people, and you will call yours. We will have the bonding out here on the balcony.” Nikolai moved to the balcony and threw the doors open wide. “So it can be witnessed by everyone.”
Antares felt a shiver of pure excitement. This would unite their planet in a way he had not seen. This was the beginning he had been seeking all this time. He brought Naveenah’s hand to his lips, awed by how a simple human female could bring peace between him and the people he feared and hated all his life. She looked at him with such love in her eyes that he knew, though this was all uncharted territory, all would be well.
He looked to Nikolai and raised his hand in the air.
“Call, then, for the bonding.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Naveenah stood on the castle balcony, adorned in robes of rich fabrics, dripping in jewels and bathed in candlelight. She awaited the start of the ritual. She had not seen either Antares or Nikolai in three days while she was being prepared for the ceremony and could not wait another moment for it to begin.
There were so many people on the ground below. She had not truly realized how populated a place Vaturia was until she had stepped out and been overwhelmed by the sea of people here to watch the ceremony. She was not certain of what they had been told, but as she stepped onto the balcony, the people below cheered. That had to have been a good sign…she hoped.
She had been told to step out and wait, but given little information about the ceremony itself. She knew only that it would not take long and it would be performed by Juelle, the woman who raised Nikolai, and Llil, the current leader of the nay-chi council. Bangles on her wrists jingled as she nervously twisted her hands. A cool, calming breeze floated across her body, blowing loose tendrils of her hair onto her face.
Juelle and Llil stepped out with her. This was finally the moment. She drew a deep breath as the two women came and stood before her. Llil held up a wreath made of some rather pungent leaves entwined with gold thread and clear, sparkling gems.
“Naveenah, in the way of the nay-chi, I bless this crown and this union. Mi sputa con vey nuwar ke bon halo de supto rianu.” She delicately placed the wreath on Naveenah’s head. “Our God is your God now. Our people are your people.”
Naveenah bowed her head and closed her eyes as the weight of it all settled on her. She was taking on so much more than simply declaring her love for two men. She was pledging her heart and her loyalty to all of Vaturia. Her people would now come to depend on her just as much as they did on Antares, and she would also be aide to the nay-chi, which was an overwhelming proposition as there was still so much to learn about their ways.
“I will seek to do only good for Vaturia and all her people.”
Juelle then stood forward and took Naveenah’s hands in hers. She opened her eyes and looked into the fiery green ones before her.
“I have waited many years for this day, hemta. Though I never bore any children of my own, I could not love Nikolai more if I had. Antares also has always held a special place in my heart. Though he never knew me, I watched over him, I loved him.” She squeezed Naveenah’s hands. “And now I give them both to you to love until the time you take your last breath and leave this realm for truth. Love them well, dear one.”
Juelle stepped back, but her words, so perfectly spoken, had brought tears to Naveenah’s eyes. She didn’t have long to consider all of it as first Nikolai and then Antares stepped out onto the balcony from opposite doors to stand side by side with her. The crowd below cheered again with full force as each man took one of her hands in theirs.
Antares was damn handsome in his gold, long coat. With its intricate brocading, it was practically a work of art. Nikolai, in his leather and black, with a burgundy velvet vest and a silk cape hanging aroun
d his shoulders, had cuffs adorned with the same clear gems that graced the wreath she wore. No two men ever could have looked better.
Llil stepped forward again, and the crowd below fell silent. Naveenah didn’t think they could possibly hear what was being said, but she supposed in truth, they didn’t need to hear it. She did.
“The suvanar-renu is the most rare and sacred vow of our people. In all the universe, I know nothing that is a stronger bond than this. Do each of you understand the depth of this vow, and that after this ceremony is completed, there will be no going back?”
All three nodded. Naveenah felt a surge of excitement in her body, and she squeezed each man’s hand.
“I have never known of a suvanar-renu ceremony being done for mixed races. Before this, it was only for mated nay-chi, but Nikolai has convinced me that times are changing and that this union will bring peace once and for all to Vaturia, and I may be an ancient female, but I am not so fixated on my ways that I cannot see the need for change and am not open to the possibilities this union brings. I, therefore, have agreed to give my blessing to this suvanar-renu and claim it in both this realm, Terra-li and Chibelle, the realm beyond this one. For all eternity these souls are bound to one another.”
She went on to pray in the language of the nay-chi, and though Naveenah couldn’t understand a word of it, she understood the meaning. She drew long, slow breaths, giving herself and all she was not only to Nikolai and Antares but to the nay-chi faith and the ultimate God of the universe. She surrendered everything she was, and in return, picked up the destiny Taryn had so passionately implored her to take on.
“So in front of all these witnesses, both nay-chi and Vaturian, I proclaim them to be suvanar-renu. May peace rain down on their souls and that of their children.” She turned and looked out over the balcony at the crowd below. “I also lay the blessing of this union on all of you here tonight. May peace forever reign in Vaturia!”
She held a staff high over her head, and arcs of light in varying colors jumped from one cloud to the other, lighting up the sky as well as the land. It was stunningly beautiful.
To Love a King [The Reformation 1] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour) Page 21
