“I love you even more now, if that’s possible, Lia,” I said gently, reaching to touch her shoulder where her birthmark was. She was covered in faded bruises, and I was afraid I might hurt her, so I withdrew my hand after barely making contact.
She lifted her fork and began eating her enormous poached goose egg. I followed her lead and began to eat my own egg, though I was hardly hungry. She ate the toast last, slathering too much jam on it, and smiling faintly as she chewed, her gaze focused on the forest beyond the window.
I could tell by her expression that she was still exhausted, and so I coaxed her back to bed. She laid with her head beside mine on my pillow, her body pressed close to mine. I couldn’t sleep, but contentedly held her, enjoying the faint, fruitlike scent of her body, and the soft sounds of her breathing, as the hours of daylight slipped past outside my window. Several hours later she awoke again, this time with more energy.
It was dark outside when we headed out to the stable to check on Khol. He appeared skinny, and tired, but he would recover, I decided. The night guard who had attended him was on duty again, and came to check on Khol himself. I rewarded the guard with a substantial purse of coins, while Lia patted her horse and spoke sweetly to him.
“Lia, I need to talk to the captain of my guard for a moment,” I said. She turned her head to smile at me, and I left her.
I found Kashun at the gate, and called him down. He appeared wearing a broad grin on his dusky face.
“I hear your princess arrived in the middle of the night, Your Grace,” Kashun observed. “You’ll pardon my candor, but the tale about the two Queens turning you out because of her is quite a famous one in this region. I told my man he was right to allow the princess entrance.”
“And he was, Kashun,” I agreed. “His good judgment will be rewarded, of course. We’ll need to prepare for what may follow, though,” I said. “Eventually there may be a response to her arrival here,” I explained. “I need more guards, even if they aren’t properly trained. I need numbers along the wall. Recruit for me as many men and women, capable of holding swords, as possible. Also, start the smithy working on more weapons.”
“Are you expecting the Fae Queen?” he asked, his eyes growing hard.
“Actually, no. The Noge Queen is the one I fear,” I said. “The Fae Queen is no threat in this situation. Still, if my cousin arrives, keep her at the gate. I’ll come out to parlay with her beyond the walls of Lauderdam.”
“I’ll see to the guards immediately, Your Grace,” he replied, offering me a full, formal, bow for the first time since I’d known the man.
When I returned to the stable, Lia was speaking quietly to Fiora, and scratching the mare on her withers. I came up behind Lia, and draped an arm across her shoulders. When she turned her head to kiss me gently, I thought my chest would explode with happiness.
“Do you feel up to taking a walk with me?” I asked. Lia nodded.
When we crossed into the woods, Lia took my hand and lifted it to her lips. She then glanced over at me and smiled.
“So, you agreed to join with Lord Gere,” I observed.
“But I never meant to do it, Pet. You believe me, don’t you?” she asked me. I nodded once. “Ania told me being joined was easier than being under Mamma’s, I mean Lore’s thumb. I never really planned to go through with it, but I thought if she believed I was doing as she wished, they’d stop watching me so carefully,” she said.
“You were still planning to run?” I asked.
“Yes, but I was trying to be more shrewd about it. Every time I ran before, Lore pointed out that I had no water, and no food, and that I wouldn’t survive six hours outside of the palace without someone to take care of me. I began studying maps in the library, trying to determine the best route, preferably one away from the main road so I would be hidden.”
“You came to me by back roads?” I asked beginning to understand the battered state she was in when she arrived. Lia nodded.
“Those maps must have been really old, because some of the roads were no longer there,” she observed. “I had to judge by the stars and cut through open country and wooded areas, and jump the fences of several farms. I became lost more than once,” she admitted. “I was afraid of Smugglers Pass, because of all of the stories my mothers told me when I was little, but actually, it was the easiest part of the journey,” she added.
“You arrived wearing a traditional Noge joining dress,” I observed.
“I escaped a little over an hour before the ceremony was to begin. Everyone was busy with preparations and the guards were celebrating the event already with a bottle of torppa I provided,” she explained. “I slipped out to the stables to see Khol, and found all of the grooms were occupied accepting horses from late guests who were still arriving. For once, there was no one to stop me. It was my only chance, so I took it. I still ended up traveling without food and water, and my clothes were a problem, but I made it,” she said, smiling at me.
“Lore will come for you, Lia,” I said.
“No. She would never believe I made it this far. She thinks I’m incompetent,” Lia replied with a note of contempt in her voice. “By now she’s taken me for dead.”
“I have to let my cousin know you’re safe,” I said.
“No! Don’t you dare, Pet,” she snapped, her hand tightening against mine as she started to panic. “I came here to be with you. You told me you still love me. If you don’t want me anymore, I’ll accept that, but don’t hand me back to them.”
“Of course I want you, Lia,” I said gently, trying to reassure her. “I’ve already started amassing an army of guards to protect you. No one will get through our wall unless we allow it.” Lia’s pale eyes reflected the moonlight as she watched me.
“Don’t tell Mata I’m here,” Lia said. “She’ll tell Lore. No wall can keep Lore out if she sets her mind on reclaiming me.”
“Your mothers need to know you’re safe,” I argued. “They must be worrying themselves to death over you.”
“Pet, I’m begging you. Please, if you love me, don’t tell her I’m here, not yet,” Lia said, appearing frightened suddenly. “Not unless we join. Lore won’t come for me if we join.”
“I won’t tell them you’re here,” I assured her. “I’ll send word you’re safe through some friends. It won’t take them long to sort it out, though. You must realize that, darling.”
“Will you join with me?” she asked, her expression too serious. “I’ll stay with you either way, if you’ll have me, but I want to be joined if you’re willing. You wanted that, before.”
“I’ll do whatever you want, Lia, but I’m not certain you’re in the right mindset to be making such lasting decisions at the moment,” I observed. “Don’t bond with me for life simply because you want to escape your mother,” I said. “We can find other ways to protect you.”
“You know that’s not why I want to be with you,” she replied curtly. “You said yes, didn’t you?” I only stared at Lia, unsure of how I should respond. “You said you’d do whatever I want,” she observed, starting to get upset again, her eyes filling with tears. “I want to join with you, Pet. That means you said yes.”
She was overwrought, trembling, her grip too tight on my hand. I drew her close to me and wrapped my free arm around her. She released my hand, her arms encircling me as she took deep breaths, trying to calm down. I pressed a kiss to her forehead before drawing back from her.
“Everything will be all right, darling. You’re safe with me,” I assured her. “Of course I still want to be joined with you. I think you need to recover first, though.”
“I’m recovered,” she said too quickly. “When can we have the ceremony?” she asked, her tone softer, but still insistent.
“I think you need a few days of rest before we decide anything,” I suggested.
“No, Pet. You don’t understand. I can’t rest until we settle this,” she argued. “When we were staying with Countess Emmuska and Earl Jestin you said we
could be joined the following day. I want to join with you tomorrow,” she insisted.
“We don’t have to rush this, Lia. I’ve never been joined before,” I said, wanting to slow her down.
“Of course you haven’t,” she replied. “You’ve been waiting for me.”
Even though it was after dark, I left Lia soaking in our bathing pool, and went to the Village Vilken Temple. An evening service was ending as I entered, and I received smiles and nods from those few local peasants with whom I traded. I hate to admit, but I knew very little about the Vilken religion. As I talked to the Celebrant about my desire to join with Lia in his temple, he asked quite a few questions about my faith. He then carefully, and promptly, explained the tenets of the Vilken Way.
I learned that Vilkerlings believed in a life force that exists in all living things. They believe you gain power through honorably killing your enemies in battle, and through caring for those weaker than yourself. That power can be felt guiding your weapons when you fight, and your hands when you work. You gain power by performing just acts, and lose it through corruption. I found it all sort of logical, but still strange. Obviously, I agreed with everything the Celebrant said, as any good covert would.
By the time I left that temple, I’d foresworn the High Temple of Fae and accepted the Vilken Way as my true path. My hair had been anointed with particularly pungent pine oil, and I was itching to wash it out. Lia would have to do the same if we were to be joined in that temple. Lia’s conversion was already scheduled for the morning, and the Celebrant promised he would happily perform our binding ritual immediately thereafter.
The ritual itself was different from the Fae and Noge traditions of ribbons. The Vilken Way binding involved anointing your mate with your own blood after slicing his or her initial into the palm of one hand. You were then to allow the blood to drip down to your fingertips, and press them to your mate’s forehead. It sounded extremely bizarre to me, savage even. Still, when I explained all of this to Lia she only nodded her consent, without voicing a single question.
We ate a quiet, late, meal that evening, both of us slightly nervous about the joining ceremony to take place the following morning. The temple bell was wrung in our village not long after, announcing the impending joining. The neighboring villages, noticing the clamor, rang their own bells in response. Per Vilken tradition, anyone within hearing range of a bell announcing a joining is invited to the ceremony.
By the following morning the usually deserted streets of Lauderdam Village were filled with people, shopping in those few stores, and selling their wares in the square. We had been instructed to wear red. Fortunately I already owned a couple of red dresses, since Lia possessed no clothing at that point. Due to the brightness of our dresses, everyone knew we were the couple being joined, and stopped to offer well wishes, for which I was required to offer payment. By the time we reached the temple I was poorer by a few hundred coins. It was well worth it, because Lia appeared happy for the first time since her arrival at Lauderdam. Suddenly the ordeal of the past year and a half fell from her shoulders as she embraced the people around us, and her new life.
After the swiftest conversion in Vilken history, our ceremony moved forward, each of us bravely slicing the other’s initial into our own palm and allowing the blood to drip down our fingertips before anointing the other with a five-point Vilken star on the forehead. The Celebrant announced us joined and I gripped Lia’s hand tightly as a nod to the ribbon binding of my own tradition, raising her hand to brush my lips across her knuckles.
Upon leaving the temple, the villagers stood by and threw dark purple torppine blooms at us, stalking us all the way back to Lauderdam Estate, singing an eerie song about a woman being carried away in the night by the besotted soul of the forest. I called upon the kitchen to feed our guests and provide honey brew, berrywine and torppa. I then opened the gates and allowed a celebration to begin on the grounds of our home that lasted long into the night.
It was Lia’s first experience with people of common birth, as even the servants in the royal palaces are selected from the lower ranking nobility. She was justifiably intrigued, so we stayed up late, learning the physically demanding Vilken dances of the peasants, and drinking more torppa than anyone should. In the early hours of the morning, villagers, brandishing small ceremonial brooms, chased us inside, as is custom, apparently, with Vilkerlings. They remained outside, still armed with their brooms, celebrating and protecting us from the soul of the forest until first light.
Since every member of our household staff, as well as our guards, were outside on the grounds of the estate reveling, we were left completely alone in our home. Lia was still smiling from the extraordinary day, and holding my hand, as she led me back to our bedchamber. Once alone I was uncertain of her again. She’d been reticent with me since her arrival, and I didn’t want to be too forward with her.
I held back as she stripped out of the red dress she wore, and then began working on mine. Within moments we were on the bed, Lia taking my mouth impatiently. I touched her gently, remembering the bruises and scratches I’d seen on her skin, and the purple mark on her breast. Already these wounds had healed, but still I was cautious with her. She became more assertive in response to my reticence, pressing me down into our bed, her teeth grazing my neck.
Her mouth took my nipple as a soft moan escaped my lips. I felt Lia smile against my breast, before she moved quickly down between my thighs. Her mouth was warm and soft on me at first. When my responses became more powerful, she pressed a finger inside of me, urging me toward climax.
I came more quickly than I would have liked, because I’d been a year and a half without sex. My body was too eager. Lia moved up the bed, taking my lips again before collapsing next to me with a self-satisfied smile.
“I love the way you taste,” she said as I shifted over her. “I wanted you constantly, while we were apart.”
“I imagined the softness of your skin,” I said, running my lips along her throat. “And I craved the scent of you. I have a tunic you wore that I never washed. I kept it under my pillow until yesterday,” I confessed, moving down to her breast.
“Was there anyone else for you?” she asked in almost a whisper.
“Of course not, darling,” I assured her, before licking the peak of her nipple. “How could I ever want anyone else after being with you?” I asked, my fingers moving down between her thighs.
The moment my fingertips brushed the soft hair between her legs she tensed, curling into a ball and turning away from me. I froze, thinking of the bite mark on her breast.
“Are you all right, Lia?” I asked.
When she didn’t respond, I sat up, suddenly feeling helpless. She was breathing hard, her arms wrapped around her knees. Cautiously, I curved my body around hers, and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. I could feel her heart hammering inside of her. Gradually her heart rate slowed, and I moved to kiss her shoulder where her birthmark stood out in the moonlight pooling through the window. She turned over on her back and looked up at me, a frightened expression on her face.
“Who was he?” I asked gently.
“Lord Gere,” she said.
That was all of the information I needed. I already knew what had happened. Lia needed to tell me, though, so I controlled my reaction and listened.
“We went for a ride on the morning before our joining was to take place. We rode all the way out to the eastern edge of the wall, where both the wall and the headland end. He asked me to dismount and look at the view of the sea with him,” she said. I swallowed my rage, not wanting her to feel my anger mounting as I anticipated what she was about to say. “He knew I was in love with you. Everyone knows, Pet. It was obvious I didn’t want him. I’d never let him kiss or touch me before. He shoved me back against the wall, saying we were to be joined, so I needed to get used to him. I screamed, trying to attract a guard, but none were near enough to hear me. I tried to push him away, and even scratched him, but he was stron
g, far stronger than I am,” she said. “He hurt me,” she added quietly. “When you started to press inside of me, I was there again in my head for just a moment, trapped against that hateful wall, smelling the dark musky scent of his skin,” she whispered.
Already my mind was working. I knew where the high lord’s estate, Breosore, was situated, in northeastern Nogeland. I was already building an army to prevent Lia from being taken from me. I had the power to make this man pay for what he’d done to my mate. I held her close, as I considered how to act against him.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I realize I should have told you about him before we were joined, but I didn’t know how you would react. I was afraid you might change your mind about joining with me if you knew.”
“Lia, you have a habit of apologizing when you’ve no need,” I whispered next to her ear. “You’ve done nothing wrong,” I added.
She turned toward me pressing her forehead against my neck, her arms tightening around me as I sifted my fingers through her hair.
****
Hundreds of gifts began appearing at the gates over the following days. There were cakes, and baskets of dates, and too many bottles of honey brew. Each gift was a wish for our happiness from our joining guests. I had the kitchen collect the items and use what might perish, storing what would keep. In that way our food stocks recovered from the extreme depletion brought on by our impromptu joining celebration.
Lia recovered too over the subsequent days, taking my hand when we walked through the woods together, and drawing me close in bed at night. She was extremely attentive to me, making love to me often, but freezing up if my hands moved below her waist.
Every time I felt the tensing of her muscles in reaction to that horrible memory, my rage and hatred toward Lord Gere intensified. Lia tried to play it off, claiming she only wanted to give me pleasure, but I knew she couldn’t bear the memories brought on by that type of contact, even with me.
For Lia’s sake, I began the work of mending the broken relationship between M’Tek and myself. I wrote a letter informing my cousin that Lia was safe with me, and that we were joined. I included an official copy off the record of joining, from the Lauderdam Village Temple of Vilken. I added a vague postscript offering to host her, and her entourage, should she choose to visit Lia, in celebration of our joining. I believed I was making an empty offer, simply placating M’Tek. I couldn’t imagine she would actually want to visit our home. As for the Noge Queen, Lia wanted to inform Lore of our joining herself, and so I gladly left that odious task to her.
A Fortunate Woman (Fortune's Favor Book 2) Page 15
