The Golden Heart: Alliance Book One (Alliance Series 1)

by Jessamyne Hunter

  Frowning, he opened the mail and read it a second time.

  This was interesting…

  Kellan decided to get in contact with this Lord Foxav who had asked the Royal Treasury for a loan.

  “Kellan?” Kohtah tapped his shoulder to make him look up from his tab.

  He gave her an apologetic smile and quickly fished the mail to Lord Foxav. They’ve been talking to each other the whole day now and Kellan found it so easy to simply talk about anything. Lord Foxav was polite and friendly and he made Kellan feel good. It didn’t exhaust him a bit to chat with the lord, whereas the other lords and ladies could be very exhausting.

  Liking Lord Foxav was easy, and this case became more and more personal for Kellan. Even though he knew he was now biased, he didn’t stop talking to him.

  Sighing, he finished up his e-mail and put his tab away to focus on Kohtah.

  She smiled at him coyly and nudged him in his side which made him giggle.

  “So?” he started and waited for her to continue.

  “We went to a movie,” she beamed, a big smile plastered on her face.

  Kohtah’s cheeks were flushed and she made no secret about how much she had enjoyed her date with the guard. Kalik was a fine man and Kellan was happy that those two seemed to like each other quite a lot.

  “Aaand? Don’t let me tear nearly every answer out of you!” he shoved her gently against her arm as she only laughed at his sudden impatience.

  “We held hands, and he kissed my hand when we parted,” she finally answered.

  Kellan wiggled his eyebrows at it and thus made her laugh even more.

  “You!” she shoved him back, then leaned against his shoulder and sighed dreamily.

  They sat outside in the sun. Kellan had dragged her to the little garden Tawila had found a few weeks ago.

  The marble bench was warm and a little cockatrice was playing with Dershra up in the crown of the golden-leaved tree, while Kohtah and Kellan relaxed.

  “Why don’t you need a chaperone?” Kellan asked after a while.

  She lifted her head slightly and looked at him funnily.

  “I had a chaperone. One of my parents’ guards was always with us,” with that she got up and walked a few meters before Kellan lazily joined her.

  The day was beautiful and the sun was high up in the sky. The chirping of the cockatrice sounded strange but pleasant and Dershra seemed to have fun.

  Kellan was happy despite the threat of pirates lurking around the corner. He just didn’t care today.

  Sartak had left for the military moon today but would be back this evening. Everyone was so busy, but right now Kellan just enjoyed the calm and quiet.

  Kohtah hummed a melody and the cockatrice joined her tune. Soon, Kellan and Dershra joined them too and together they were making their own music.

  It seemed so mundane and ordinary that he could forget about being an ambassador and royal consort for a second. He felt like being in a bubble and he liked it too much to go back to reality for now.

  So naturally, he was happy that Kohtah was with him in this little bubble of normality.

  He’d have to go back to the serious things of life soon enough.

  At the latest when had to attend a council meeting in three hours…

  “Let’s go to the flower market!” Kohtah’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

  Without waiting for his answer, she took his hand and dragged him with her. Her sweet enthusiasm was precious in a time full of haste and seriousness.

  Half an hour later, Kellan found himself amidst a color burst of flowers.

  Kohtah stood next to Kalik while Jorax watched each of them with a big dopey smile.

  All the wonderful scents made him feel light as if he was drifting on a breeze.

  Kellan danced through the rows of flower pots and happily accepted the basket from a Phy’vohranian woman with a smile. He grabbed a handful of blue flowers with big blossoms and put them into the basket with great care.

  From somewhere nearby, the smell of warm waffles drifted by and enchanted him.

  “I’ll get you something,” Kalik said, appearing just right next to Kellan out of nowhere.

  He gave the guard a brilliant smile and watched him making his way to the food stall on the other side of this flower field.

  Waiting for the silent guard to come back, Kellan took a red flower and smelled it. It reminded him of cold nights on Voxus. He’d been out with a few friends when they’d come across a bush. The white flowers had been dusted with ice, but the sweet scent had still been strong enough to catch their attention.

  Kellan had taken one of those flowers with him and his friends had done the same. Later, they had sat down on a cliff, overseeing the city beneath them.

  It had been during a week of the tournaments and Kellan loved this memory. Sky hadn’t been there. Not anymore. Otherwise, that flower would have been ripped from his hands and squished in the taller man’s hands. Sky had shared the same opinion as his father- Kellan was girly and stupid; too gentle to ever become something more than he was.

  It had hurt. It had hurt him so much. None of them had known about him fighting in the pits or the arena. If they’d known, they wouldn’t have laughed about him and him being a pathetic child.

  Tearing away from the bad memories, Kellan wiped a tear and put the red flower into his basket. Then he went to the woman who sold these flowers.

  “Do you have The Moonlight Lady here?” he asked; his voice slightly husky.

  When she nodded gave her a sad smile. From the corner of his eye, he could see Kalik returning, arms loaded with steaming food.

  “I take them all. Send them to the palace,” he told her and she looked at him with a knowing glance.

  Right now, he didn’t have the strength to hide his feelings.

  Suddenly, he felt worn out and not hungry at all anymore.

  When she smiled at him as if to cheer him up, he knew that she had seen all the demons that had haunted him moments ago.

  19

  He sat at the window while he watched the landscape flying by.

  Dershra rested on his lap, quietly snoring and nuzzling his little head into the folds of Kellan’s robe. This time, Jarvan accompanied him.

  His Kmera-in-Law smiled gently at him, occasionally kissing his forehead whenever Kellan’s mood drifted into a slight depression.

  Sartak had been on the military moon for a few days now and he terribly missed his husband. Their bed felt too empty despite Dershra sleeping in it beside him.

  They had no real destination today, Jarvan just wanted to take Kellan’s mind somewhere else. The generals had everything mostly under control; the little war with the pirates still had no end in sight.

  “Let’s talk about Kohtah,” Kellan suddenly said, his voice sounding strange in the silence.

  He cleared his throat, but he felt slightly stupid for no reason whatsoever.

  He had wanted to bring up the matter for quite a while now because Kohtah herself didn’t dare to ask her parents again.

  The last time she had asked to get altered and changed had been a few cycles in the past, but then her request had been rejected. Ever since she feared another rejection, not wanting to anger or disappoint her parents.

  Kellan thought her concerns were unjustified. He didn’t believe her parents would get angry over it. He found them quite open-minded and from what he had read between the lines of everything Jarvan had told him about his relationship with Leylos, they seemed to have taken an unconventional route themselves.

  He didn’t think they’d be against Kohtah getting her gender changed. Maybe they had just rejected the first request, thinking she was too young to make such a decision. But Kellan made no mistake about Kohtah’s wishes. She was very sincere and serious about that matter. She had felt like a woman for a long time, yearning to finally be in the right body.

  “What about Kohtah?” Jarvan asked.

  Kellan had already noticed th
at both Leylos and Jarvan avoided calling her by a specific gender. It made his lips twitch in amusement. At least he knew that they were aware there was a problem.

  “Are you going to allow her to finally become a real woman?” he wanted to know bluntly, not even trying to beat around the bush.

  Jarvan took a shaky breath, leaning slightly away from Kellan, probably to gather his thoughts. He smiled a rueful smile, showing the human that he knew that he had been dragging the matter for quite some years now. The royal consort was well aware that Kohtah wasn’t happy at all.

  “Leylos and I have been talking about it. We came to the conclusion that if we want Kohtah to be happy, we should let Kohtah have the gender change. It’s just…Kohtah is the second in line. It makes things difficult. Kohtah won’t be able to present children with our genes. Thus they won’t be accepted as heirs. Those children would be heirs to the father, not Kohtah. Barkor and Gorotas will get the two duchies that formerly belonged to Leylos’s deceased cousins. If Sartak had two children already, Kohtah would be free of the duty to be the second in line,” Jarvan shifted uncomfortably on his seat; clearly, the topic wasn’t his favorite.

  Kellan could understand him.

  Of course, he had suspected that there was more to it than just the reluctance of parents. But Kellan had a solution which probably was not the best one could come up with but a solution nevertheless.

  “I will talk to Kohtah about this. Sartak’s firstborn is on the way. Only one more to go before Kohtah has her freedom. I know this will stir up discontent within the council, but Sartak and I will talk them into complying. Consider it done and settled,” he squeezed Jarvan’s hand.

  The other kmer smiled at him but seemingly not too content.

  “Listen, I suppose it isn’t fast enough for Kohtah and you, so I have a proposal. Have Kohtah freeze and store a good amount of vials filled with semen. She hasn’t started hormonal treatment yet, yes? Good. Have her freeze some sperm, just in case shit goes down. She can go have the gender alteration and if needed, still have heirs on her own. She just needs a surrogate or mistress or whatever. By the way, did you know she’s going out with Lord Tasax’s heir?” Kellan gave Jarvan a quizzical look.

  “I suppose the Crown Council won’t be able to complain if we do it like that. And yes, Kalik asked our permission to court Kohtah a few days ago. He is a rather good catch. His family had always had close ties to the crown. Loyal to the bone, they have served us for many generations now,” he agreed, eyes watching the fields of flowers outside their window.

  “I’ve sent letters to Lord Foxav by the way…He seems nice. Maybe I can help him,” Kellan said rather out of topic, but Jarvan gave him a knowing look.

  They’d been discussing the situation of the Phy’vohranian lord quite a lot, and then Kellan had decided to get in contact. There had already been a few exchanges of letters, but they still needed to see where things would go.

  Kellan thought…well, he rather hoped he could help somehow.

  The clock ticked and time seemed to be crawling second by second. He tried to ignore the steady stream of rambling coming from some portly lady in a golden gown with ruffles and flowers. She looked ridiculous, she looked horrendous, she looked like the glorious embodiment of a golden wine barrel.

  She wore her brown locks in a beehive-like hairdo. Whatever it was, it towered on top of her round head. Her scales along the hairline were dusted with pink blush and a big black heart was plastered on her cheek. It obviously was a parody of a beauty patch or beauty mark. Kellan couldn’t believe she was serious about this…whatever it was. He didn’t want to start about her pumped up lips and scary overdrawn lipstick.

  She moved her gloved hands- it was blast-the-stars HOT PINK LACE!- around in front of her; emphasizing whatever she was talking about.

  Kellan couldn’t hear her, couldn’t understand her. His mind was molten, his brain and eyes damaged beyond repair.

  The damned drawing room was horrific, the very expression of a degenerated ill soul, a soul of a lunatic who belonged into the madhouse.

  This drawing room depictured the very final stage of insanity. It could not be otherwise. Whoever had done this, it must have been a person mentally ill.

  The walls were a bewildering fusion of hot pink roses, golden swirls, and bright purple dots. Even the fucking furniture had the same design- ottoman, loveseat, stools, and carpets.

  The tables and shelves were of a pale piggy-pink.

  Everywhere he looked, Kellan saw little cockatrices- either carving, figurines, porcelain…just everything.

  The whole place seemed infested with cockatrices.

  Some of those beasts even flew around the room- of course, they wore pink ribbons and bows.

  He felt sorry for those little buggers.

  This was animal abuse- plain and simple.

  He wished he could tell Dershra to fly through the room and spit acid at the disturbingly smiling portraits of some long-since-gone nobles.

  Hell, he couldn’t even remember that woman’s name!

  Now she started to talk about…birth and breeding?

  Were they discussing horses now?

  Anyhow, she said stuff about stature and heritage. Maybe it wasn’t horses after all. Were there even horses on Phy’vohran? He had no idea, probably not. Maybe they were discussing scaled mounts…why did she talk about hair color now?

  What?

  What the hell was going on?

  Had that patch on her face just moved? Oh hell no! Please, dear gods!

  Now she had pink sticky paste on her teeth.

  No way!

  Kellan’s eyes grew wide.

  Did she seriously had pink diamonds on her damned teeth?!

  There was no way!

  They were heart-shaped.

  Who did this? Who had done that to her?

  Hopefully, it was the evil experiment of some super villain who had held her captive! There was no way she could have wanted this! No. Fucking. Way!

  She just continued to stuff sugar coated scones in her mouth- after having eaten two plates already.

  Kellan had eaten one. Those things had been so sweet, his teeth still hurt.

  Oh gods, please!

  Someone should make her stop stuffing those sugar bombs in her mouth. She had frosting all around her mouth and crumbles were falling on her cleavage. It was a huge cleavage, big balloon-like boobs almost falling out of her corset, which looked like a barrel because she had no waist.

  Damn! She had no waist! Why was she wearing that? Hell, why! How did Kellan deserve to sit across from her? Why had Jarvan dragged him here? Why?

  He was panicking. Kellan had no idea of what she was talking about, he had no idea who that woman was!

  Oh, thank god!

  She chose that moment to rise from her loveseat, which was a one person seat really...but just when she sat on it.

  Kellan was sitting next to Jarvan on another loveseat.

  The royal consort held a cup of tea in his hand, the contents still untouched.

  Now, that woman excused herself. Jarvan said something and Kellan just smiled at her and nodded.

  As soon as she was out of the door, he jumped up, startling up Dershra who had been sleeping on his lap.

  He frantically looked around the room, finding the windows and rushing to them.

  Kellan fumbled around the handles and finally got them to open that damn window.

  “Please! Can I just jump?” he said, already climbing on one of the shelves.

  Jarvan rolled his golden eyes, stood up and grabbed Kellan by his belt.

  “Oh, don’t exaggerate!” he reprimanded and dragged him back to the seat.

  “Look around! Look at her! Who is she even? What is she talking about! I need to get out of here!” he pleaded, getting another roll of golden eyes for it.

  “I know she is a little…extravagant. As I said, my aunt-“ he didn’t get further because Kellan interrupted him with a cry of shock. />
  “Aunt?! My ass, aunt?! That’s your freaking aunt?!” he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing, this clearly was some cruel joke.

  That woman could never be, in thousands of cycles, never ever be Harok and Jarvan’s aunt! No way! Her home and her appearance grossed him out- so much makeup and neon colors -and the two brothers were rather good-looking…and they knew how to dress properly. Well, except Jarvan, but his inappropriate robes were still beautiful to look at.

  They were eye-candy, not fucking eye-cancer!

  “Jacyrah is my aunt, yes!” Jarvan retorted, looking quite annoyed.

  Kellan only stared at him in bewilderment. That matron was his aunt…oh hell no!

  He was about to beg Jarvan to leave this place again when Jacyrah waddled back into the room.

  Her obesity was rather obscene. He didn’t mind if it was because of genes or whatever, but Jacyrah seemingly enjoyed candy too much. She didn’t look healthy, her face red and bloated. He didn’t mind curves, but these were no curves- not anymore. This was a wobbling mass she carried around and it was attached to her body.

  And who in hell’s name had allowed her to get another three plates of scones?! She should start a diet! Like now!

  She put the plates on the table where the other two plates were lying empty. She had mostly eaten them alone. Jacyrah was a black hole. Everything edible disappeared in her mouth and was then gone. While she placed down the plates, she was also eating, again!

  “Oh, honey-bun! You should eat more! For the baby!” she said, scolding him a little.

  Honey-bun?!

  Hopefully, she wouldn’t try to eat him too! Then, Luke would be right about him getting eaten by some big, bad Phy’vohranians…one big Phy’vohranian in fact.

  How could she even walk? Her weight had to be painful to carry around! He thought a glider might break down if she was ever to sit in one.

  “The baby doesn’t seem to like scones,” he remembered to answer her.

  She smiled sympathetically at him, offering him to get some cake but he quickly declined, saying he felt a little of the morning sickness since it was still early in the day.

  She just answered that she never had children, so Kellan and Jarvan were more experienced in the matter and she would just accept it.