All of the bedrooms and bed linens had been aired and freshened - the straw ticking replaced and the straps on the beds tightened.
Tables had been set out under the trees of the courtyard for feasting in the open - in the air and sun. A great pit had been dug, a side of beef and another of mutton roasted over a fire. There were platters of roasted vegetables and all manner of delicacies.
Delae looked over it all with satisfaction.
Out in the fields horses and cattle roamed with the sheep, cropping the rich green grass. The homestead had become much more prosperous, more settled as the years passed.
She shook then smoothed out her skirts.
“They’re coming,” Morlis’s son Alen called, racing in through the gates.
Selah stepped to her side and Delae threaded her fingers through those of her daughter’s, feeling Selah’s other hand close over hers.
It always astonished Delae that now she had to look up into Selah’s eyes.
More, how truly lovely she was.
There was only a trace of red in Selah’s rich brown hair and hers waved more than it curled, but it was lovely. Slender and less curved than Delae, she was graceful and beautiful in her serene and quiet way. Delae well knew she was a doting mother but she didn’t think she was deceived in this.
She raised her daughter’s hand to her lips and kissed it as Selah’s shoulder brushed hers in return.
Pride washed through her as her people took up their places, Dan at his forge, Morlis and Alen waiting to hold the horses. Lucie and Keran were there, with Bara, Morlis’s wife, at their back. Some of the smallholders were scattered around the courtyard. It made a pretty and welcoming picture.
The King and Queen rode in with their son Geric at their side and they made a pretty picture as well.
Hastan had always been a big and comely man, nearly as broad as a Dwarf, but he’d also been a very fair man, if occasionally too strong-willed and independent for the prospective High King, Daran. That was to be expected from Riverford, though. It had always been an independent-minded Kingdom, if not so much so as Marakis.
His close-cropped hair curled just slightly around his head and his strongly-boned face. It was easy to see why Telerach had fallen in love with him but more so for the look in his eyes when he reached a hand to his Lady-wife as they rode between the gates.
As it was easy to see why he’d fallen in love with her.
There was a merry warmth to Telerach that reached out to touch everyone around her. While not quite as curly as Delae’s, Telerach’s honey-colored hair tumbled nearly to her waist, framing an apple-cheeked face that was more pretty than beautiful but the kindness in it shone.
The love between King and Queen was clear and deep.
No other hand but the King’s would lift his Queen down from her saddle and Delae felt a small gush of sorrow for what she would never truly know. Then she put it aside as Hastan gestured for his son to join them.
Geric was a pleasant mix of both his parents, his father’s strong features softened a little by his mother’s gentler ones, with his mother’s slate-colored eyes and her hair. He was as tall as his father, and as broad through the shoulders and chest. He was a handsome young man.
Both Delae and Selah sank into small curtseys before the King and Queen.
“Your Highnesses,” Delae said, “I am Delae, widow of Kort, and landowner here.”
“Mistress Delae,” Hastan said, for he couldn’t name her Lady because of her common birth, “we would present our son, Geric, who would be our Heir.”
Delae gestured Selah up.
“And my daughter Selah…”
Turning her head, she caught Geric’s expression as Selah rose, his slate-blue eyes startled as Selah looked up at him, her own eyes widening.
Wisely, Delae made no mention of it, merely smiling graciously. “Your rooms await, your Highnesses. Baths too so you may refresh yourselves.”
There was food aplenty, Hastan noticed as they sat at table in the courtyard, cloth wound through the arbor to provide shade and cover.
Once this had been one of his poorest landholds, ever and always on the edge of poverty. They’d never failed to pay their rightful taxes and tithes although it stretched them as some years they’d paid in kind rather than coin. That had clearly changed.
There had been rumors, of course, and tales, but Delae had never complained of them herself, always gracious far beyond her station.
Now, though, now it was one of his most prosperous, a jewel in the crown of his landholdings.
He looked out at the verdant fields, at the livestock grazing there, at the vines - thick with grapes - that twined above his head, the barrels of mead, wine and beer and could find no fault.
Nor, he thought, could he find fault with anything other.
Smothering a smile, he watched Geric as he spoke in a corner of the courtyard with pretty young Selah, her head bowed gracefully; a shy smile curved her lips.
Hastan glanced at his own beloved Telerach and caught her glance as it met his.
A tremor went through him, a shiver of warmth that was the bond between them. Few of her people understood their love, not knowing that Telerach named it a true soul-bond. All he knew was that he couldn’t live without her. He raised her fingers to his lips and she smiled, all the warmth and love he could want there in her eyes.
She nodded and then glanced over at their son, too.
Hastan sighed.
It had been difficult to find him a bride among those of the other lesser Kingdoms, as much for his mother’s blood as for Riverford’s location among the outermost of the lesser Kingdoms. Many were offended by the idea he had the blood of Dwarves in his veins, as if there was something to be ashamed of in being a part of that long-lived and strong race.
To some extent Telerach’s people felt the same about men.
In the end, then, they’d had only each other. And then Geric.
Softly, Telerach said, a smile beginning to light her eyes, “It will be a good match.”
And so Delae found herself guesting and being guested by the Heir to Riverford now and again.
From a distance, Dorovan watched Selah marry the only son and Heir to the King of Riverford, having watched the love grow between them in the same way as he did now, with his arms around Delae’s shoulders as she leaned back against him. The two of them stood unseen in their copse within the trees while Geric and Selah rode together across the fields.
Daran was now High King of all men. He and the Elf Elon of Aerilann had forged an Agreement that made peace at last between Men, Elves and Dwarves. It was easier now for Dorovan to travel as fewer remarked on it, although he still had to be careful. Not all men were reconciled to parity with the long-lived Elves - who they thought of as arrogant and cold - or the Dwarves - who they considered stolid and stupid.
“So,” Delae asked, shortly after the Agreement was signed, her head in Dorovan’s lap, “Elon of Aerilann is First among equals, like a lesser King among your people?”
Amused, Dorovan nodded as he played with her hair as he was wont to do. He loved the living feel of it, the way it curled around his fingers.
“Of a sort, yes.”
Waving it away, she said with an answering smile, “Less formal, yes, yes, I know. And he is a master swordsman but you are a Swordmaster.”
He nodded.
“I am good - Elon is better,” he said equably, but searched for a better explanation. “Elon teaches the teachers.”
“Ah,” Delae said, then shook her head. “But this means it will be easier for you to come here?”
“Fewer will take note of it,” he said, lowering his lips to her forehead. “We’ll still have to be careful.”
She was still and always would be a balm to his soul.
Then suddenly she shot up to look at him. “Dorovan, I almost forgot to tell you, Selah is pregnant!”
Children and grandchildren and still most people of men took them for grante
d.
He didn’t. Excitement rushed through him.
“When is she due?” he asked.
“In the deep of summer,” Delae said, smiling. “Geric is thrilled and Selah simply glows.”
To Dorovan’s pleasure, Selah came for a visit and let her beloved friend Dorovan touch her swelling belly, her sweet gentle face full of love and wonder. He held his hand against her and felt the baby kick as he looked at Selah.
She smiled, radiantly.
Chapter Eleven
It was a dark and stormy night, much as the night when Delae had first met Dorovan, if not as cold, when Delae was sure, when she knew, watching the bright lights that danced in the air above the baby’s crib. Desperately she locked her feelings down, heartsick and terrified, hoping and praying Dorovan didn’t sense her fear, her heartbreak. She couldn’t tell him - not even him. This would be the only secret she’d ever kept from him and the only one she ever would. He must never know what she knew now.
Then, if they asked him, he wouldn’t be forced to betray himself and them…and this precious beautiful child.
If what they did worked, he would never need to and the baby would be safe, they would all be safe.
Still, she wept, alone for the first time since before Selah had been born as she touched the baby’s tender cheek. So beautiful.
As much as it grieved her, Dorovan must never learn what they now knew for certain, that Selah was indeed his daughter and her child his granddaughter.
No one must know of the baby’s mixed blood. No one could know she bore in her veins not just her father Geric’s mixed blood but her mother Selah’s. That she had the forbidden blood of all three races in her tiny veins.
That she had magic.
That she was Otherling.
Dorovan wouldn’t betray her, Delae knew. But she wouldn’t have him suffer this fear as she did. Knowing what this child might be, what it meant and would mean to his people, to the Dwarves, who, as much as they loved children and had welcomed Geric, would kill this baby out of hand just for what she was. She couldn’t do that to Dorovan, to make him keep this secret against his own people.
Even the Elves, as much as they loved children, would be torn…
Tears streamed down her cheeks and she prayed that what they planned would work. No one must ever know that the baby had magic such as Elves and Dwarves did.
It had been another long cold winter, with a storm on the horizon when Dorovan rode into the compound of Delae’s homestead. In the way of men, Hallis and Petra had long passed to their Summerlands such as men had, as had Kort’s parents and Delae had taken on Dan and Morlis’s wives in their place. All were well accustomed to seeing him there but none ever spoke of it to anyone outside the homestead, not that they saw many others on this distant edge of the Kingdom.
He knew Delae was on her way back to the homestead to meet him from a ride out to check on the smallholders.
Over the years she’d become much more successful, especially once Kort had died - knifed in an alley over a gambling debt. Elf that he was, Dorovan still found it hard to grieve much for that one.
With a nod Morlis’s oldest boy came to take Charis, his eyes glinting with delight as the Elven-bred horse followed him to the stable, eager for his ration of oats.
Dorovan smiled before turning toward the great room, so familiar to him after all these years that it was nearly a second home, anticipating Delae’s arrival with a lightening of his spirit.
Pulling off his cloak, Dorovan shook the rain out and spread it over the rack by the fire, turning in surprise at the sound of the rapid patter of bare feet as they raced down the hall from the kitchens toward him.
A child burst into the room.
“Delae!” she said and then came to a sudden halt as she saw him standing there instead. “Surprise…!”
The owner of the bare feet was a small bundle of energy of about seven full seasons, her blue-gray eyes lighting up with delight and curiosity at the sight of him.
There was a hint of her grandmother in the shape of those eyes, in the glints of red in her bouncing chestnut curls and in the bright wonder in her face. More of it in the fact that they obviously couldn’t keep shoes on her. Dorovan allowed himself a small smile as she tilted her head to look at him.
“You’re an Elf,” she said, wisely. “You’re a secret. I’m not supposed to tell.”
With a chuckle and a nod, he said, “Yes, yes and yes.”
Her gaze went to his shoulder. He still wore his harness and his swords; he’d been in the process of taking them off.
“You have swords.”
“I do,” he said, watching her as he shrugged them off his shoulders.
Tilting her head at him, those big steel blue eyes wide, twisting on one foot, she said, “Can I touch one?”
“Just one?”
She looked at him gravely. “The long one would be too heavy.”
“It would. I’m Dorovan,” he said, already enraptured. He’d seen her before of course, when she’d been little more than a baby but not recently. “And you would be Ailith.”
It meant ‘light’ in the old tongue and she was a light that was certain.
Sweet Selah’s daughter.
This one wasn’t quiet, like her gentle mother - she had the warmth, fire and energy of her grandmother.
Her eyes studied him and then she smiled. “Yes.”
Drawing his short sword he held it out to her, watched her take it in her small hands, the weight of it heavy.
“You teach people to use a sword?” she asked.
He nodded.
Looking at him with her head tilted, she said, “Would you teach me?”
She wouldn’t ask if she didn’t wish it, he understood this.
Dorovan’s eyebrows lifted, as did his heart. She was a charmer - this one - full of curiosity and mischief.
“Fetch the fireplace poker,” he said. “And we’ll see if the sword is for you.”
She ran over, ran back with it and before he asked, took it in a two-handed grip without being told.
Dorovan was delighted.
“You’ve been watching,” he said. Probably the guards and the Hunters at the castle.
Nodding sharply, she said, “Yes.”
It was clearly her favorite answer. There were no doubts, no fears in this one, she wanted to try everything, do everything.
Carefully, he adjusted her stance a little. “Like so.”
Being careful not to move out of it, she looked around then shifted her little body to get the feel of it before her blue eyes lifted to his and she nodded - her smile brilliant as she understood.
Delae walked in the door and her heart caught with both wonder and love at the sight, her throat tight as she watched them together. She’d known with that empathy they shared that Dorovan had been completely engrossed, enthralled, but at what she hadn’t known, nor that Ailith had arrived. That last had obviously been meant as a surprise and everyone had kept it.
There was that about Ailith that folk did such things.
Now she watched them, young Ailith a perfect mirror to Dorovan as he walked her through the movements of what he called the ‘forms’, as he’d taught Delae herself all those years ago.
For a moment her eyes burned, before she leaned a shoulder against the door to just watch them in silence. If there was grief in her for what she couldn’t tell Dorovan, she buried it deep beneath the joy, the pleasure of watching them together, child and Elf. His granddaughter.
Whatever else, that child was the best of all of them. She could see touches of herself and Telerach in her, in the glints of red and gold in Ailith’s chestnut hair, of them and Dorovan in the color of her eyes and now, mirroring his movements, Dorovan’s grace, his strength and her father, Geric’s. There was a stillness to her, too, that Selah must have inherited by way of Dorovan and passed down to her daughter.
Ailith became aware of her first and came running, putting the fireplace poker c
arefully aside first, to Dorovan’s approving nod. “Delae! Look who I found!”
It was so like Ailith, as if she’d discovered an unknown country all by herself.
“I see you’ve met, again,” Delae said, her gaze lifting to meet Dorovan’s, her friend of the heart.
As always, she saw the love there and if it wasn’t the depth of the soul-bond he sought, she could give him this much, everything she had. Including this. It seemed to be enough.
It was enough and more than enough for her.
“He’s teaching me how to use a sword,” Ailith said, excitedly - her little face aglow.
“I saw,” she said. “You couldn’t have a better teacher. He taught me.”
Coming up to her, Dorovan slid an arm around her. “She’s a natural, Delae.”
She gave him a look askance and then Ailith, seeing the question in both their eyes. “Yes, you can keep teaching her but Ailith it must be a secret. Promise me you won’t tell your parents.”
“I know, Delae,” Ailith said, almost in disgust, then she grinned and tried to hug them both.
It was a wonder to him. Curled up in bed around Delae, drawing his beloved friend-of-the-heart into his arms, Dorovan said, in astonishment, “I’ve never had a student as gifted.”
It was his second year teaching Ailith and he was finding more reasons to visit than just to see his beloved Delae, as much as his friend-of-the-heart eased his soul and delighted him. There was Ailith, now, too, her joy and her wonder, her passion and curiosity, her intensity. Her focus. At first he’d been enchanted and charmed but love had come almost instantly on their heels, just to see the expression in Ailith’s quick, intelligent eyes, the brightness she’d inherited from Delae.
A little surprised, Delae looked at him. “But you teach Elves.”
Not Magic Enough and Setting Boundaries Boxed Set (The Coming Storm) Page 8