Amara nodded, a knowing look in her eye. “Perhaps it’s time to send for a doctor,” she said.
“Oh, no, Mother, please. I really don’t need a doctor.”
“Yes...you do!” Ashinji glowered at her.
Amara exchanged a look with her husband. “I believe I’ll send for one right now,” she said.
Jelena nodded in acquiescence. She knew when to give in.
Later that morning, as she and Ashinji waited in the sitting room for the doctor to arrive, Jelena, who had sensed a mood change in her husband beyond worry for her, prodded him to talk.
They had the room to themselves; Sen and Sadaiyo had gone out on official business, Misune and Lani had retreated to the bathhouse for a long soak, and Amara was upstairs dressing the twins.
“What’s gotten you so upset, Ashi?” Jelena laid her hand atop his and gazed at his profile. “I know you’re worried about me, but...”
“Yes, of course I’m worried,” he responded, then said, “That was the first time I’ve ever seen my mother embrace Sadaiyo like that. I don’t think he quite knew how to react.”
“Your parents are thrilled that their Heir is expecting his own Heir,” Jelena replied. “It means the House of Sakehera will continue after your father is gone.”
“Of course, you’re right…” Ashinji paused, then exclaimed, “Ai, Goddess!” He shook his head slowly, eyes closed. “I know it’s evil of me, but…I can’t feel any joy for my brother. I’m ashamed, Jelena… ashamed to admit I would secretly enjoy any misfortune that might befall him.”
“Oh, Ashi.” Jelena rested her head on his shoulder. “There is nothing about you that is evil. If you feel this way about your brother, then it is his own doing. He has tormented and abused you your entire life. You aren’t the one who should feel ashamed, it’s him!”
“Have I told you lately how much I love you?” Ashinji brushed his lips against her neck.
“Yes, but I can never hear it enough.” A knock at the door interrupted the moment. Amara had declined to accept full-time servants while they lived at Sendai, and so it was left to the younger family members to perform certain tasks like opening the door to visitors.
“I guess I’ll have to answer that.” Ashinji got up and exited the room, returning a moment later with a tall, gray-haired man in tow.
“Lady Sakehera summoned me to attend her daughter-in-law,” the man said to Ashinji.
“Yes, Doctor. You are here to examine my wife. She has been ill for nearly two weeks now.”
Jelena stood up and came forward. The doctor’s eyebrows shot up, but he swiftly recovered. “Come, let’s sit and you can tell me about your symptoms, my girl,” he prompted gently.
After Jelena had described the nausea and dizziness that had plagued her, the doctor nodded and asked, “When did you last bleed?”
Jelena had to stop and think.
It has been awhile, she thought. Gods! Could I be...?
Aloud, she said, “I...I think it was...well, before we left Kerala. At least two months...but I’ve been late before. I thought...I didn’t think anything of it.”
“Hmmm, yes,” the doctor replied. “Captain Sakehera, I need to examine your wife now. Perhaps you’d feel more comfortable waiting in another room?”
“Oh, no! Ashi can stay with me,” Jelena insisted.
“Very well.” The doctor indicated that she should lie down on the couch. After poking and probing Jelena with experienced hands, the doctor finished his exam by holding two fingers to the large vein in her neck for several heartbeats. He nodded once, apparently satisfied.
“Well?” Jelena asked. “Am I...?”
“Yes, my girl,” the doctor replied. He smiled and the creases at the corners of his eyes deepened. “And since you appear to be in excellent health, your pregnancy should proceed smoothly.”
“Ashi! Did you hear?” Jelena cried.
“I heard, my love...I heard!”
“Doctor, is it as I suspected?” Amara had appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
“Yes, my lady. Your daughter-in-law is indeed pregnant, and if she carries like most hikui women, she should deliver by next spring.” The doctor opened his leather satchel and removed a glass vial full of fine, white powder from its depths. He then poured a small amount of wine into a glass and shook a few grains of the powder into the deep red liquid, swirling it around until the powder had dissolved. Holding the glass out to Jelena, he ordered, “Drink this now. If you feel sick later, mix a pinch of the powder into a little wine, just as you saw me do, then drink it down. Just a pinch, mind! I will make arrangements with your mother-in-law to see you regularly from now until you deliver.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Amara said. “I will see you out.” After Amara and the doctor had left the room, Jelena wrapped Ashinji in a fierce embrace.
“Ashi, we’ve made a child!” she whispered and pressed his hand to her still-flat belly. “Our first child is in here!” She wanted to leap from the couch and fly out the window to soar high above the castle roofs. She longed to release the wild music in her soul and let the world know she carried a new life within her.
“My love…my beautiful wife.” Ashinji’s voice shook with the strength of his joy.
Slowly, Jelena ran her hands across her belly, savoring the wonder of it all.
Oh, dear Claudia…Heartmother! If only you could see me now! she thought. Your baby, your little girl. Soon, I’ll have a baby of my own. Hot tears flooded her eyes.
“The One has blessed us doubly this day.” Amara re-entered the sitting room and came over to kiss both Jelena and Ashinji.
“You knew, didn’t you, Mother?”
Amara smiled and touched Jelena on the cheek. “I’ve suspected for several days, now, but I thought perhaps you’d figure it out for yourselves.”
“I feel very dumb,” Jelena mumbled.
“Nonsense, girl,” Amara retorted. “You’ve never been pregnant before, so you’ve no cause to reproach yourself.” She looked toward the stairs. “Where are the twins? They know I’m waiting on them…Girls! Girls, come now!”
In a flurry of shrieks and giggles, Mariso and Jena came hurtling down the stairs at the sound of their mother’s voice.
“I’m taking the girls into the city to get them some new clothes,” Amara explained. “They grow so fast…” She shook her head in mock despair. “It seems as if I’m replacing everything I have for them every few weeks!” The twins, as usual, were chattering bundles of energy, each girl mirroring with uncanny precision the movements and mannerisms of her sister.
“You’d better go or they’re going to burst!” Jelena exclaimed, laughing.
“I’ve sent for some fresh food for you, since you barely touched breakfast. It should be here any moment…. Yes, yes, girls! We are going now!” Amara gave Jelena a quick peck on the cheek, then herded her little daughters out the door.
Jelena’s hand crept up to her cheek to touch the spot where Amara had kissed it. The skin tingled a little, as if a residue of her mother-in-law’s Talent had been deposited there. Until now, Amara had shown little inclination toward physical affection with Jelena other than the occasional pat on the hand. It felt deeply significant, this breakthrough, and for the first time in their brief history together, Jelena knew with certainty that Ashinji’s mother accepted her completely.
“I hate to leave you, love, but I’ve got an officer’s meeting I must attend,” Ashinji said. “We’ll tell Father about our baby tonight. He’ll be beside himself. Two grandchildren in one day!”
“Of course, you must go. I understand,” Jelena replied. “I’ll just…um, maybe go to the stables and visit Willow. She must be very restless by now. She’s not been ridden since we arrived.”
“I’ll see you tonight, then.” Ashinji kissed her and departed, leaving Jelena alone in the stillness of the now deserted apartment.
A knock at the door broke her reverie. She opened it to find an elderly hikui man holding a tray.
A young hikui woman stood behind and to the side of the man. Jelena pulled the door open a little wider to admit the pair.
“Your meal, my lady,” the man murmured as he swept past her to place the tray on the dining table. He bowed once, then exited, leaving the woman standing alone by the open doorway.
Jelena regarded her with curiosity. “Is there something you need?” she asked.
The woman—a girl really—nodded, all the while looking past Jelena’s shoulder into the room. “I was sent to serve Lady Sakehera. I am supposed to look after her daughters,” she answered in a pleasant, contralto voice. “My name is Eikko.” She bowed her head. Jelena guessed her to be about nineteen years old, plain of face and tending towards plumpness. She had wrapped her dark brown hair in a neat bun at the nape of her neck.
“Lady Sakehera and the twins just left. If you were supposed to accompany them into the city, you’re too late,” Jelena replied.
The girl gasped, her hazel eyes wide with distress. “I was told to be here promptly at the ninth hour! I know I’m not late! Oh, this will reflect badly upon me!”
Jelena couldn’t help but feel a rush of sympathy for the girl. “It’s going to be all right, Eikko,” she said soothingly. “Lady Sakehera left early. She must have decided she didn’t need help after all.”
Jelena paused to study the other girl’s face. She could see, beneath the distress, a frank curiosity in the young hikui’s eyes— curiosity about her.
She made a quick decision. “Please come in, Eikko. I would very much like to talk to you.”
“Oh, I really shouldn’t…” the girl said.
“I won’t keep you long, I promise,” Jelena assured.
“Well…all right. But I really can’t stay. I need to go tell my boss what happened.”
“Are you hungry?” Jelena picked up a sweet bun from the breakfast tray and offered it to the young servant.
“Oh, no!… I’m not allowed,” Eikko replied, shaking her head.
“Not allowed to eat breakfast?” Jelena responded quizzically.
“Not allowed to eat in front of you…” Eikko’s voice trailed off and she lowered her eyes.
Suddenly, Jelena understood. “You know who I am, don’t you?”
“Yes…Your Highness.”
Jelena shook her head in astonishment. “How is it that you know? My father has made no public announcement…I certainly haven’t gone about flaunting it…How can you know?”
Eikko seemed amused at Jelena’s bewilderment. “Servants talk, my lady,” she replied.
Of course! How could I possibly think my identity would remain a secret from the one group of people who know everything that goes on here? Jelena nearly laughed aloud at her own foolishness. “I should have known the answer to my own question,” she said.
Eikko shrugged. “Perhaps, Highness.”
Jelena frowned. “Please don’t call me that. I’m really no better than you.”
“You are the king’s daughter, my lady. That makes you a princess,” Eikko said, her tone indicating that she didn’t understand why Jelena could not see the simple logic of the situation.
“If you knew more about me, I doubt you’d feel the way you do. I’m hikui, same as you…an ordinary person.”
“Whose father just happens to be the king,” Eikko pointed out. “No, my lady, you are far from ordinary.”
Jelena sighed and picked up a sweet bun. Realizing the draught the doctor had given her had done its job, she hungrily bit into the bread. Noticing Eikko surreptitiously eyeing the food, she asked, “Have you eaten yet this morning?”, and when the other girl shook her head, she added, “Please have something. I insist.”
“No, my lady. I really am not allowed. If my boss were to find out, it would go badly for me.” Eikko’s eyes implored Jelena not to ask again.
Guilt poked Jelena like a sharp blade. “I can’t sit here and enjoy my meal while you go hungry,” she muttered, dropping the half-eaten bun back on the tray. She shook her head in dismay, remembering how Sateyuka’s words had confirmed the painful truth of how her fellow hikui were treated.
“Are all the servants in the castle hikui?” Jelena asked as she settled into a chair by the window.
After a moment’s hesitation, Eikko sat on a floor cushion. “All of the lower-downs, are,” Eikko replied. “The bosses are mostly okui, of course, though a few of us have made it up to that level.”
“The okui serving here don’t mistreat you, do they?” Jelena asked carefully.
Eikko framed her answer just as carefully. “The king doesn’t knowingly allow any of his servants to be mistreated, your Highness, but…things are as they are.”
Jelena sighed. “Maybe now, when the okui see that the king has a hikui daughter and that he loves her, things will be different,” she said quietly.
“Perhaps,” Eikko replied. “I really should be going, my lady. If I don’t report back soon…” The servant girl climbed to her feet.
“Thank you, Eikko, for staying and talking to me,” Jelena said, rising to her feet as well, “even if it was only for a little while. I’ve had so few opportunities to talk to other hikui,” she added. “I hope we’ll have another chance.”
Eikko’s warm smile transformed her plain face into something resembling loveliness. “I hope so, too…Highness.”
Jelena flinched. “I…I would rather you didn’t call me that,” she said. “I really don’t deserve that title.”
Eikko remained silent as Jelena escorted her to the door. Just before stepping across the threshold, the hikui girl turned to face Jelena. “Yes, you do,” she whispered, her eyes alive with unspoken meaning, before she hurried off.
~~~
“The One bestows yet another blessing on my House.” Sen folded Ashinji into his arms. “My son,” he whispered. “You’ve made me so very happy.” Sen held his son for many heartbeats, and never before had Jelena seen or felt their special bond more strongly. Finally, Sen released Ashinji and moved to embrace Jelena. “You, also, have made me very happy,” he said, his gray-green eyes shining. He planted a firm kiss in the center of her forehead then released her.
The remains of the evening meal had yet to be cleared from the dining table; Jelena and Ashinji had delayed their announcement until after the family had finished eating.
“I need to tell my own father soon,” Jelena stated. She shook her head, laughing. “He just found out he’s a father, and now he’s to be a grandfather as well!”
“He will be as happy as I am,” Sen replied. “Though I foresee a potential problem between us.” His face curdled into a scowl.
“What problem, Father?” Ashinji asked anxiously.
“Both of us will want to cuddle and spoil our grandchild, but we can’t do it at the same time. I predict a great deal of arguing over exactly whose turn it is to hold the baby!” Sen’s mock scowl melted into a mischievous grin.
“I wonder if I’ll have any time with my own child!” Jelena exclaimed. She turned toward Ashinji in entreaty, but he just shrugged and smiled. Jelena smiled in response, full to bursting with love for her husband and his father.
Amara, who had been sipping tea on the sitting room couch, Lani by her side, entered the conversation. “Jelena, now that you are pregnant, we must be especially careful with your training,” she said. “The energy within you can cause great harm to your unborn child. It must be meticulously controlled until the correct time.”
“You’re worrying me, Wife!” Sen rumbled. “Nothing…nothing at all must harm this grandchild!” He nervously plucked at his earlobe. “You know how talk of sorcery unsettles me. Whatever this business of the Kirians is, must it involve Jelena?”
Before Amara could answer, Sadaiyo, who had said nothing until now, spoke. “Goddess forbid that anything should happen to this particular Sakehera grandchild, for is this child not also an Onjara and thus far more valuable to you than my own, Father?” He made no attempt to soften the bitterness of his tone.
/> Jelena’s happy mood evaporated. Ashinji stiffened and she felt him struggling to remain calm.
Sen’s face fell; his eyes darkened with anger and sadness. “How can you say such a thing, Son?” he asked.
“Sadaiyo, not now…” Misune murmured, almost too low to be heard.
“I’m only speaking the truth, Wife,” Sadaiyo shot back. “Father agrees, but he’d never admit it—has never admitted it—though it’s always been plain to me and everyone else in Kerala! Ever since my little brother came mewling into the world, anything that is a part of him will be more precious to you, Father, than anything I can ever give you.”
The air in the room grew heavy, as oppressive as the atmosphere right before a summer thunderstorm.
“I think I’ll go up to bed,” Lani murmured.
“Take your sisters,” Amara directed softly, gesturing to the two little girls asleep before the hearth. Lani nodded, kissed her mother’s cheek, then rose to gather the twins up, one under each arm. They complained drowsily, but went along without much more fuss.
“Sadaiyo,” Sen said as soon as Lani and the twins had departed, “you are my firstborn…my Heir. When have I ever given you cause to doubt my regard for you?”
Sadaiyo shook his head in incredulity. “Every time you look at my brother,” his eyes flicked to Ashinji’s face then back to his father’s, “I see in your eyes the love you have for him…love I never had, nor ever will. Oh, I understand it,” he said, raising his hand to forestall Sen’s response, “but understanding is a long way from acceptance.”
“Brother, you need feel no jealousy toward me. I’ve never been a threat to you.” The anguish in Ashinji’s voice nearly broke Jelena’s heart.
“Not so, Little Brother!” Sadaiyo replied. “The people of Kerala love you about as much as they hate me. How will I ever govern them without their support? As long as you are around, my position as Lord will be severely compromised.”
“That is not true, Son! Our people don’t hate you!” Sen objected. “Perhaps, if you showed them a little more compassion…”
“Like Ashinji, perhaps? Oh, yes… kind, compassionate Ashinji! I’m sick to death of you—you and this…this half-breed who pretends she’s as good as a pureblood because she’s the king’s bastard whelp!”
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