So why did he wish to hide her from all others? Calum would say he was suffering from the human failing of jealousy.
Ryn looked to his little brother, who was a fine and capable man in his own right. “You must promise to protect her when I am not here.”
“Why would you not be—”
“Promise.”
“Of course,” Denton replied in a low voice. “It is my duty as a soldier.”
“And as a brother,” Ryn added.
Denton nodded, and twisted strands of dark hair fell across his face.
When Juliet began to stir, Denton stood and walked away, and like the other soldiers, he remained at a respectable distance.
Juliet sat up, tossed aside the bearskin, and stretched her arms over her head. Her long hair was tangled and wild, but she seemed not to notice, or to care. Even her nakedness did not alarm her. She smiled at him, a bright, extraordinary smile. And he responded by making sure the barrier between them remained intact
“I am so sorry I ever suggested that I take the wolf from you.”
He nodded, understanding.
“Last night was...” She wrapped her arms around herself and looked to the clear blue sky. “Unlike anything I had ever imagined. When I ran, I felt like I was flying. The very air trembled and made way for us.”
“You make a fine wolf,” he said.
She cocked her head to one side and looked at him with golden eyes he was not yet accustomed to. They were the true and brilliant gold of a Queen, and they saw too much, barrier or no barrier. “I should rise and dress and eat, I suppose, but I really just want to sleep awhile longer.”
“You may do as you wish.”
“Would you lie down with me? Just lie beside me,” she added quickly. “Maybe put your arms around me.”
He made a reluctant move toward her, but did not say a word.
“It’s not a command, Ryn,” she said as he moved toward her. “It’s a request.”
Not that it mattered. Her word was law, and he could not refuse her. But that wasn’t why he lay down and wrapped his arms around her. He wanted to hold her, here in the forest where he could almost forget that her guardians waited so close by.
She snuggled against him. “Sleep with me, Ryn,” she said warmly. “You look tired.”
“I’m not—”
“Sleep with me,” she said again. “We are safe here. No one will bother us, not today and not tomorrow. For this moment in time, all is well.” She closed her eyes and drifted toward sleep again. “All is well, vanir.”
Vanir. It was everything he hoped for and would never have. But for now... maybe Juliet was right and all was well, for the moment.
After Juliet had fallen slack against him, Ryn closed his own eyes and felt sleep rushing upon him. He protected her body with his, and breathed in her scent as only a mate could. “Dream well, vidara," he said in a voice so low no other could hear. “I won’t leave you.” Not today.
Liane had come to enjoy her visits with Isadora. She had always known that she and Sophie’s sister had much in common, but she had never expected the woman to become a friend. The Empress of Columbyana could not afford to have friends.
This afternoon, she sat in her sitting room with Mahri and Isadora close by. Sebestyen was busy with the priests, who were all atwitter over the disappearance of Father Nelyk. Everyone was in shock that such a dedicated man could’ve deserted his post, and some of them suspected he might’ve met with foul play—though how that was possible had not yet been discerned.
Liane dismissed Mahri with a list of insignificant chores, and called Isadora to sit beside her. From the looks of the witch, she hadn’t slept at all last night. Gadhra would arrive soon, and together the two witches would bless this child Liane carried. Maybe they would tell her that she carried a daughter, not a son, and she would be able to keep this child for herself. For herself and for Sebestyen. She did not care about producing an heir and emperor. She cared only about giving birth to a healthy child.
“Your work is excellent,” Liane said softly.
“Thank you, my lady.” It seemed that the poor girl was going to choke on her words.
“You probably saved countless innocent lives last night,” Liane reminded the witch.
“I hope that is true.”
Liane sat back and watched a restless Isadora. “What did you do with him?”
Isadora did not respond.
“You can tell me what happened. Surely you’d like to share the details with someone, and as no one but I knows you did the deed, I am the logical recipient of such details.” Again, the witch remained silent.
Liane thought of pushing, even of ordering compliance, but in the end she did neither. There had been a time when Sebestyen had insisted on details from her, and she had been loath to give them. She’d preferred to spin a tale rather than to relive her unpleasant but necessary work. She would not put Isadora in that position. “Now and again, there are others in the palace who need to be dispatched, for one reason or another.”
Isadora lifted her head to look Liane in the eye. “I am not a murderer,” she said gently.
“Actually, you are,” Liane said without kindness. “Two times that I am aware of. Three, if Nelyk’s body surfaces.”
“I’m not—”
Liane silenced Isadora with a lifted hand. “I wish for you to remain my caretaker, at least until the baby is born. But in addition to your duties you could handle other chores from time to time.” She smiled. “We are in need of a palace assassin, and I can think of no one better suited to the position.”
Juliet woke, as she had for the past three afternoons, on a soft bearskin bed with Ryn at her side. He slept beside her and she knew that her guardians were not far away. Some of them rested while others kept watch. She had never been unguarded during these three days and nights, not for even one moment.
Ryn had been right all along, it seemed. The wolf was a vital and exciting part of herself, and of him. She had never run so fast or felt so strong, and even though it would be weeks before the change came to her again, she felt the power of the wolf waiting inside her, surging even as it slept.
She reached out her hand and touched Ryn’s shoulder, and he stirred but did not awake. He had remained with her for these three days, as man and as wolf. As her mate and her friend. He was still angry about their circumstances, but she sensed that the anger had faded somewhat. He could love her, and maybe one day he would.
She already loved him, to the depths of her soul. Had she fallen in love with the wolf before the man? Had she fallen in love, at least a little, on that night when he’d kept her warm and she’d comforted herself with the feel of his fur in her hands?
His eyes drifted open and he rolled toward her. Golden eyes studied her, striking and powerful, and made her breath and her heart catch and lurch. Did her eyes look like this to Ryn? Did they affect him in the same way? Catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror was still a shock. Her eyes were entirely gold now, as were all Anwyn eyes. They were golden like the stone that was the Heart of the Anwyn.
“I suppose we must go home today,” she said softly.
“We will return to The City,” Ryn said. He still did not think of the palace as home. She was afraid he never would.
She shifted toward him slightly, tipping her face up as if for a kiss. She knew he desired her, and yet he had withdrawn as if they were strangers, not lovers. There was a coolness about him, a stone wall she could not penetrate.
Before she could kiss him, he rolled away. “I hear the others stirring. You should dress.”
He handed her the leather frock and she quickly pulled it on. It was silly, perhaps, to feel any modesty when these men had not only seen her naked, but had seen her transform from an unclothed woman into a she-wolf. But as a woman, she did still have some modesty, and she was glad to be dressed as the others came awake. Like Ryn, they had little modesty themselves. Those who had been sleeping took their time coming awake
and donning their own clothes.
Ryn’s own brother was among those men. He had not been with her on that first night. The faces of the guardians had changed during these three days, so that each man might have at least one night to run without the responsibility of watching over the Queen.
They began to walk toward home, and Juliet had only to train her gaze beyond her immediate area to see that other scantily clad men also walked toward The City. Some of them were tired; others were invigorated. All of them embraced the wolf as Juliet had done.
She tried, more than once, to take Ryn’s hand in hers, but he always managed to move away very subtly before she could catch and hold his hand. There were moments when he was completely closed to her, and others when the barrier slipped and she could read his every thought. She did not need to touch him to connect in this small way. One thought came through very clearly.
He did not intend to stay. He did not intend to be the Queen’s consort, useless and insignificant, secondary and powerless. As soon as he felt that she was well settled into her position of Queen, he was going to leave. He was going to walk away from The City, his family, and his home. More importantly, he was going to walk away from her.
They entered a city reinvigorated by the returning Anwyn. As Juliet walked down the street in her simple garb, surrounded by half-dressed soldiers and her reluctant mate, people stopped to bow. They smiled at her, they whispered greetings. Juliet’s mind was on other things—most specifically Ryn. He was going to get her safely to the palace and then he was going to run. Into the hills, away from her and this life he did not want.
When they reached the palace steps, Ryn stopped. Juliet felt him withdraw moments before he stopped walking. She stopped, too, and turned to face him. She did not want to issue commands, but even more, she did not want him to leave. She hadn’t had a chance to tell him how she felt.
“You said you are bound to do anything I ask.”
“Yes,” he answered in a low voice.
Juliet took a deep breath and lifted her chin. She was Queen; she was Anwyn. And in that moment she felt the full power of her true self.
“Don’t go.”
Liane was waiting for Sebestyen when he came to their bedchamber, even though it was late. He’d been meeting with his new Minister of Defense, General Hansh Maslin. Liane didn’t care for General Maslin. He was pompous, like some of the elder priests, and he always looked at his empress as if he disdained her. At least she had never slept with him during her years as a concubine.
Sebestyen was surprised to find his wife awake, but he smiled at her. When she did not smile back, he came to the bed and sat beside her.
“What’s wrong?”
Tears she did not want welled up in her eyes. She would not be a weakling about this; she would not cry. “Isadora and Gadhra examined me this afternoon. They laid me out on a table and said things I don’t understand and swung an odd pendulum over my stomach.”
“If they’ve scared you, I will kill them both,” Sebestyen said, quite seriously.
“No.” She laid her hand over his. “It’s just...something’s not quite right, they said. I am in danger of delivering the child too soon.”
She saw the fear she felt in Sebestyen’s eyes. They could not lose this baby. There would never be another, not for either of them.
“I am to have no more sex until after the baby is born,” she said, lifting her chin slightly so she would appear to be strong. “I am to remain in bed for the majority of each and every day, though I’m allowed a short walk in the morning. No excitement, Isadora said,” Liane added in a lowered voice.
“Is that all?” Sebestyen leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.
“Is that all?” Liane sat up quickly. “Four months, Sebestyen. Four months! You can’t go four days without...” She stopped speaking. He was amused with her. Outwardly and greatly amused. “I can see to your needs in other ways,” she suggested. “If we are cautious and I don’t overexert myself and—”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Of course, such a plan did not suit him. Caution and a lack of exertion would certainly not satisfy him.
“Fine. Just be discreet,” she said. “You have embarrassed me enough for one lifetime. I don’t want to see or hear any of the women from Level Three. It will be easy enough to make arrangements for a separate bedchamber to be outfitted either here or on Level Three for your—”
Sebestyen silenced her with a kiss on the mouth. It was a deep kiss, with slightly parted lips and unexpected warmth and a very slight flicker of his tongue. There had been a time when he had not kissed her at all. She had not known how much she would love such a kiss...
He pulled away from her slowly. “There will be no separate bedchamber,” he said, his eyes narrowing.
She shook off the teasing warmth of his kiss. “If you expect me to waddle down to Level Five and take up residence there like an obedient empress...”
“I do not expect you to waddle anywhere,” Sebestyen said, resting his hand over her swollen belly. She was too large for five months, she knew that. Isadora had already expressed concern over the matter.
Her husband lay down beside her, his hand resting over their child, his breath against her hair. “There will be no waddling, no separate chamber, no women from Level Three taking your place in my bed. If we must suffer, we will suffer together.”
“Do not tease me, Sebestyen,” she said sharply.
“Trust me, I will not ever tease you about going four months without sex. It isn’t at all funny.”
Liane laughed. A few moments ago she’d thought laughter to be impossible, but here she was, resting her hand over Sebestyen’s and laughing out loud.
“I thought we agreed it wasn’t funny,” Sebestyen said dryly.
Liane snuggled against her husband. “I love you,” she said impulsively, the words leaving her mouth without thought.
For a moment the bedchamber was ominously silent, and Liane wished she could take the words back. Sebestyen would see them as weakness, and he detested weakness. And then he said, “I suppose I must love you, too, to offer four months of celibacy.”
“Five,” Liane whispered. “There’s a period of weeks after the birth...”
“Please, no more.”
Liane was tired, so she closed her eyes and held on to her husband. “I’m glad you’re going to wait for me,” she said softly. “If I were to find you with another woman again, I would likely kill you both.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Sebesyten said thoughtfully. He stroked her hair. “This new witch of yours, is she giving you any trouble at all?”
“No,” Liane answered quickly. “I need her. At least until the baby’s born, I need her.”
“At least until the baby’s born,” he repeated.
Liane nodded. She would not suggest to Sebestyen that Isadora take her old position as assassin, not tonight. If she did, Sebestyen might realize that Isadora had been responsible for Nelyk’s disappearance. He’d always rather liked Nelyk. Besides, it might be nice to have her own assassin close at hand.
Just before she drifted off to sleep, she heard Sebestyen whisper, “If anything happens to this child, Isadora Fyne will be the first one to pay.”
Juliet didn’t understand why she was so anxious and worried about the possibility of Ryn leaving The City. He understood very well.
For three days after their return to the palace, she had snapped at her servants, frightened her guards, and cried on many occasions, apparently over nothing at all. She had not complained to him or anyone else, but he had smelled the blood on her and knew there were times when she was in pain. Today she had been quiet and pale, a sign that these difficult days were behind her.
Juliet was coming into her first heat. He smelled her desire, felt it; shared it in a way he should have expected but had not. She’d bled for three days, and now she had begun to feel a burning fervor she could not explain.
It was the reason, un
known to her, that she had ordered him not to leave The City; and it was the reason he’d so willingly obeyed. By the end of the week, she’d be carrying his son.
A Queen needed many sons, it was true. The old Queen’s purebred sons still held positions of power in the palace, and would continue to serve the Anwyn for many years to come. But in time Juliet would want to be surrounded by her own sons. They would be mediators and teachers, and they would offer guidance in many different areas of expertise. It was not the life he had planned for his sons, but it was the life they would have.
He could refuse to lie with Juliet, if his will was great enough. But it was not. He’d always had a great desire for her, and even if they would live a different life than what he’d planned for them, he wanted sons. He wanted to hold them, watch them grow, teach them kiva-ball and how to throw a spear and cut stone and shoot a bow and arrow. They could still know these things, even if they would never follow in their father’s footsteps as a soldier.
Perhaps Juliet would not allow him to have such an influence on his sons’ lives. It was possible that she would deny him that place, that she would hand their sons over to priestesses and teachers to be trained in the way princes should be trained. Until he knew, how could he lie with her?
Juliet commanded his presence after a fine supper he had not shared with her. He had requested his own quarters when she’d commanded that he remain in the palace, and though she had not approved, she had allowed him to claim those quarters. They were larger and finer than his own house, and the clothes he had been given were much nicer than any a Queen’s guard would ever own.
He wanted to escape, but the fate he had told a reluctant Juliet bound them together forever had not changed. Only now, he was the prisoner.
Maybe once she was with child, she would allow him to leave. He could live the life of a rogue, returning to the palace when Juliet had need of him in her bed. He would know when the time came, just as he knew now. If he did not return in time, she would avail herself of another Anwyn male...at least until her Caradon lover appeared.
The Moon Witch Page 27