The Moon Witch

by Linda Winstead Jones

  Maybe she could not see because he had not yet decided. “I am asking you not as Queen, but as your mate and the woman who loves you. Ryn, will you marry me?”

  “Yes, vidara,”

  She did not want to pry where she was not welcomed, but it was so easy to touch his mind when they were this close. And as he held her, something changed. The future that had been muddy cleared. The last of the barriers that kept her from seeing into his heart fell, and she felt the gleam of something new inside Ryn, something beautiful that he had just this moment accepted for himself.

  Love.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The Emperor Sebestyen himself had told her that Juliet was dead. For one terrible moment, Isadora had felt as if the floor had dropped out from beneath her and she was falling ten stories to the ground. And then he’d informed her that Bors had been the one to tell him of her death, and the oaf had paid for daring to deliver bad news.

  Bors was a liar, and would tell any tale in order to save his own skin. Isadora couldn’t make herself be sorry he was dead, and she could not believe that he’d been telling the truth about Juliet.

  Isadora leaned over a tense and fidgeting Empress Liane, who lay prone on the emperor’s bed. Isadora herself had recently been moved from Level Five to a room on this very Level, so she’d be closer to the empress. Her new room was smaller than the one on Level Five, plainer and more prison-like. There was only one small window, and the bed was narrow and hard. It was more to her liking than the luxury of Level Five, more like the home that was gone.

  Empress Liane had not again suggested that her personal witch take on the position of palace assassin, but Isadora knew if Kane’s sister wanted an enemy dead, she would be called upon again. Would she refuse? Did she dare? She could feel the light of her magic coming alive once again, slowly but surely. It was no longer the blazing flame it had once been, but it was no longer a weak flicker either. It was protection that fed her magic. There were many different methods of protection, as she was discovering.

  Some days she wondered if she should tell the empress that the priest Nelyk wasn’t dead. He’d just been put away in a place where he couldn’t hurt anyone else. He was no longer in a position to do harm, and to Isadora’s mind that was good enough.

  “Be still,” she instructed in a soft voice as the pregnant woman squirmed.

  “I can’t be still,” the empress declared.

  “Then do not expect an accurate reporting of your child’s condition.”

  Isadora suspected no one spoke to the empress in such a candid way, but it was certainly long past time someone did so. Besides, there was nothing Empress Liane and her emperor could do to make matters worse for her. Will was gone, home was burned, Juliet was lost, and Sophie no longer needed her sisters, no matter what Juliet had said on the night the Fyne cabin had been destroyed.

  The empress went still, and Isadora turned her full attention to her patient. The pendulum swung in an odd pattern as she whispered the spell in the old language Empress Liane would not understand. At first, the peculiar path of the swinging of the enchanted pendulum didn’t make any sense.

  And then it did.

  Isadora stepped back and dropped the pendulum into the pocket of her dark blue gown.

  “Is it a boy, as Gadhra said?” the pregnant woman asked. She sat up carefully, one hand on the mattress, the other on her massive belly. She was much too large for a woman who was not set to deliver for another three months.

  Isadora now knew why the empress was so large. “You’re going to have twins,” she said. “You must be especially careful—”

  “I cannot have twins!” The empress sat up straight but did not leave the bed. She had gone pale, but suddenly a flood of color rushed into her cheeks. “Unless it is a boy and a girl,” she said hopefully. “Sebestyen can have his heir, and I can have a daughter to call my own. The priests and Sebestyen won’t care about a girl. She can be mine. My daughter.” Empress Liane lifted expectant green eyes to Isadora.

  “Two sons,” Isadora said gently. “One conceived in shadows, another conceived in the sun.”

  Empress Liane grabbed a pillow and threw it across the room. “There must be one true and uncontested heir,” she insisted. “The country is at war at this moment because Sebestyen’s father had two sons who each claim the throne. Twins!” She stood awkwardly and threw another pillow. “I can’t have twins. Perhaps you’re wrong and this is simply one large child, or if it is twins, one could be a girl. You could be mistaken.”

  “I am not mistaken,” Isadora said calmly. “We need to concentrate on what we must do to keep you and the babies safe. The delivery of two babies can be difficult, and will require—”

  “This will require some planning,” Empress Liane said, stubbornly walking away from Isadora. “But for now, the important thing is that no one else knows.”

  “Your husband should be told. There are risks involved.”

  Empress Liane turned and glared at Isadora. “No one. Especially not Sebestyen. He will not allow twin sons to be born, don’t you understand that? We can’t tell him and he can’t be with me when the babies are born. No one but you can be with me when these children come into the world.”

  “I doubt very much that the emperor will allow me to be alone with you when it is time for delivery,” Isadora said. “What are you going to do?”

  Empress Liane turned away so Isadora could no longer see her face. “I don’t know,” she said in a lowered voice. “We will think of something.”

  Sophie rocked Ariana to sleep. There were hours still until bedtime, but her little girl was tired and needed her rest.

  Sophie needed rest herself, but lately sleep did not come easily. The safe house where she had been staying for the past three weeks was comfortable enough, and the widow who farmed here with the help of her two youngest sons had been more than gracious.

  As a matter of fact, the widow had become much too friendly with Sophie’s father. She tried to turn a blind eye, but they made it impossible. They smiled at one another, and often disappeared simultaneously, returning a few minutes or an hour later looking guilty and much too happy. Maddox Sulyen was old enough to know better than to behave in such an inappropriate manner. The widow was probably fifteen years younger than he! Sophie was very careful to dampen her abilities when the widow and her father were about. The last thing she needed at this point in time was a baby brother or sister. Or a stepmother, heaven forbid.

  The soldiers who helped with the farm and guarded Sophie were younger than her father, and a couple of them were also interested in the pretty widow. But she had eyes only for the older man. Sophie realized that she did not know her father. Not at all.

  Sophie placed a sleeping Ariana in the small bed they had shared for the past three weeks. She tried not to worry overmuch, but she had expected Kane to return days ago. Weeks ago! In her heart she believed that if something had happened to him, she would know it. If he’d died in battle, his spirit would have found his way to her to say good-bye. But three weeks!

  She’d spent her spare hours trying to end the curse that would take Kane from her if she didn’t find a way. Incantations, prayers, demands...they all went unheeded. She still felt the curse all around her. It weighed on her mind and her heart.

  A terrible thought crossed her mind. In years past, some of the men who were loved by Fyne women simply walked away. That was usually the case with older men, those who had come into the circle of the witches after their thirtieth birthdays. But was that what had happened to Kane? Had he fallen out of love with her and abandoned her here? Tears filled her eyes, stinging and unwanted. Maybe it was for the best. If she couldn’t end the curse, it would be better this way. Better to have Kane alive and elsewhere than dead because she loved him. Better for him, but just as devastating for her. She would always be looking for him. wouldn’t she? She would forever be waiting.

  “How is it possible that you’re more beautiful than you were when
I left?”

  Sophie spun around to face her husband, and all her fears fled. “I didn’t hear you come in.” She rushed to him and threw her arms around his neck, trying to hide her thoughts of abandonment and death. He didn’t appear to be hurt, but he did flinch when she hugged him. “You’re hurt.”

  “Only a little.” He kissed her, gently and warmly.

  “I’ll fix you right up,” Sophie said, a note of false cheer in her voice and those tears still caught in her eyes. “You’ll soon be as good as new.” With a new scar or two to add to his collection.

  “Don’t cry.” Kane wiped away a tear that slipped down her cheek. “There’s no reason for tears.”

  She didn’t want to lie to her husband, not ever. “I thought you weren’t coming back.”

  He took her hand and walked with her to the rocking chair, and there he sat and pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her. “I will always come back to you.” It was a nice promise, but one he might not be able to keep. Always was a long time.

  “Let me look at those wounds.” She tried to pull away, but he held fast.

  “They will wait.”

  “You flinched when I hugged you!”

  “Holding you does me much more good than a fresh bandage.”

  She settled back against him and relaxed. It was good to be here in his arms again, better even than she had imagined.

  “Did you lose many men in the battle?” she asked, thinking of all the young and old faces that had surrounded her on the journey from the Northern Palace to Fyne Mountain and beyond.

  “A few,” Kane said. “Ard and Culain fell.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. They were good men.” Sophie reached out and touched a strand of Kane’s long hair. It needed washing, he needed bathing and bandaging, and yet for now she was content just to hold him.

  “They did not fall in vain.”

  Sophie lifted her head up slightly to look into Kane’s eyes. “You won?”

  He smiled at her. “You needn’t sound so surprised.”

  “But there are so many more imperial soldiers than rebels. How—”

  “That’s changing,” he said. “The rebel following is growing. A band of soldiers from the Southern Province arrived unexpected, and another clan from Tryfyn has joined us. The Circle of Bacwyr is stirring. Some of them favor defending Sebestyen as the rightful emperor, but others believe Arik’s claim is just. Arik stayed behind to coordinate some of the new troops. He’s to meet us here in a few weeks.”

  “Weeks? What about Arthes?” Sophie asked. “What about finding Juliet and Isadora?”

  “We will march on Arthes in summer,” he said.

  “Summer! I cannot wait until summer to find my sisters!”

  He comforted her with a hand in her hair. “By summer we will have enough men to defeat the emperor and take the palace. If anyone there knows where Isadora and Juliet are, we’ll find them.”

  Summer. Just after this child she carried was born and mere weeks before Kane’s thirtieth birthday. If she didn’t find a way to bring an end to the curse, the man she loved would die in Arthes.

  There had never been a royal Anwyn wedding, so there were no traditions to follow. Juliet and Ryn made their own traditions. There was a feast at the palace to which the entire city was invited, followed by a three-day celebration with music and games and dancing to celebrate the coming of the first Anwyn King. Tonight’s ceremony would conclude the festivities.

  Whispers of the red-haired Queen with the power of sight and her Caradon lover did not go unheard. Juliet heard everything, when she so desired. Even with her newly heightened powers she maintained the ability to disengage herself from the earth and all the creatures in it, when her mind and her spirit craved quiet. But her connection with Ryn was always with her, in one way or another, and that was as it should be. He was a part of her.

  Juliet was dressed in her finest gold silk gown, and she wore jewels befitting a Queen. Ryn wore a fine suit of gold and blue, and his hair had been braided so that it fell down his back. Something new had appeared on his person; he wore a small amber stone in one earlobe, and like Juliet, he wore a circlet of gold on his head.

  As she said her marriage vows, before an assembly of attentive priestesses and the population of The City, Juliet connected only to Ryn. All else was dismissed for this precious moment in time.

  There was no mention of love in the vows. The pledge they took spoke of commitment, duty, and fidelity. It was the Anwyn way. When the ceremony was done, Ryn leaned toward Juliet, took her hands in his, and whispered in her ear, “I love you, vidara.” Together they placed their hands on the Heart of the Anwyn, and the stone began to glow.

  Connected to her husband and the Heart and the earth itself, Juliet felt a rush of knowing that went beyond everything she had experienced to this point. A sensation that was physical and spiritual rushed through her, almost knocking her off her feet. Time seemed to stand still, as information and emotion and knowledge whipped through her. It was everything she had not wanted; it was her greatest fear. And it was dazzling. More than that, it was who she was. Who she had become. It was who she had always been meant to be.

  The curse she had feared all her life would soon be ended. She did not know how or why, but she knew it would not take the man she loved from her, and it would not take Sophie’s Kane.

  Her father was coming. He had not known of her existence until Ryn’s friend had found him, and he was angry. Kei was often angry, but he was not a bad man. He would not like Ryn at first, but they would soon join forces.

  Isadora had found trouble. She was physically well, but a darkness threatened to envelope her, a darkness Juliet did not understand. It frightened her to the pit of her soul.

  Coloring everything she discovered in that instant was the certainty that she and Ryn were indeed joined forever, mated, meant to be.

  She and Ryn took their hands from the stone as one, and she looked up at him. “Did you feel that?” she asked in a whisper.

  “I felt a rush of energy, an infusion of power that was much like the coming of the wolf.”

  He had felt the energy, but had not seen all that she had seen. The knowledge that had come had been for her alone. Juliet turned to the smiling faces of their wedding guests and stepped forward. Realizing that the Queen was about to speak, the crowd hushed.

  “You have all heard the myth of the red-haired Queen who will lead the Anwyn into a time of prosperity and peace,” Juliet said in a clear voice that carried throughout the crowd. “The Queen with the gift of sight, the Queen who will bring peace with the Caradon by taking a Caradon lover in this very palace.”

  “Juliet,” Ryn said softly, his hand resting on her shoulder. “We need not explain anything.”

  “I am not that Queen,” Juliet continued. She lifted her hand to lay it over Ryn’s.

  There were a few murmurs in the crowd, and Juliet turned to face Ryn. “I see so much more now, I see more than I thought possible. The curse I have been afraid of all my life will not kill you, no matter how much I love you. It’s going to end somehow. Someday. And I see children, Ryn. Boys and girls who possess so much strength I cannot yet comprehend it. The red-haired Queen who will lead the Anwyn to a time of great prosperity and peace...she is not me. She is our firstborn daughter, and she’s already growing here.” She took his hand and pressed the palm to her still-flat stomach.

  “A daughter?” Ryn asked softly.

  “The first of many. There will be sons, too, and they will have daughters as well. Anwyn women, witches and shape-shifters who will have more power than I can even imagine.” She smiled gently. “We will one day get to live in the house you built for us, when our daughter becomes Queen. She is extraordinary, Ryn. She will be Queen by the time she turns fifteen.”

  “What else do you see?” Ryn asked.

  Those who stood close by were listening in, and word spread quickly through the crowd. Juliet leaned closer to Ryn and whispered
, “My sisters need me. I can’t stay here and fulfill a token role while they suffer. Queen Etaina’s sons and the clan leaders can see to the governing of the Anwyn while we continue the trip I began to Arthes, together.”

  Ryn nodded. He would be beside her, and a crew of guardians would travel with them. And so would her father. They needed Kei along in order to do what had to be done. She did not see what would happen once they reached the Columbyana capital. Perhaps that outcome was not yet set.

  She kissed Ryn on the mouth, and took his hand. They would not begin the journey to Arthes for another two weeks or more. Her father would arrive in a matter of days, but he would take some convincing before he agreed to join forces with them. There would be yet another full moon to lead them into the hills before it was time to leave.

  Juliet did not think overmuch on the details of the weeks to come. That could wait until tomorrow. This was her wedding night, and she had plans for her new husband.

  As they walked toward their apartment and the bed that waited there, Ryn asked with a start, “Our daughter is to be mated to a Caradon?”

  Juliet patted her husband’s hand and pulled him closer. “Don’t worry. We won’t have to face that crisis for a very long time. There will be other obstacles and many happy times to keep us busy until then.”

  In the privacy of a palace hallway Ryn pressed her back against the wall and leaned down to bring his face close to hers. He kissed her, deeply and completely. What kinds of obstacles?

  Juliet moved her mouth over the lips of her King, joyfully kissing the man who was her mate in all ways. While they kissed, she touched him in a manner that assured him she had the coming happy times on her mind. Nothing we can’t handle together, vanir.

  * * *

  The End