“What do you mean, a potion? And since when do you practice sorcery?” M’Tek asked, taking a step back from me as if I were somehow dangerous. “What potion could cause this?”
“I’d rather not say,” I confessed. “You’re both making me extremely nervous,” I added.
“It’s all right, cousin,” M’Tek said in a gentle voice. “It’s only that I’m not used to feeling drawn to you in this way. I’ve always seen you as family. It’s unsettling, unpleasant even, to be attracted to someone you view as your little sister,” M’Tek confessed.
Lore’s gaze shifted to M’Tek as a fierce sort of expression reshaped Lore’s delicate features. I had the strangest sense that they were somehow communicating. “You needn’t worry, Lore. You’re far more vulnerable to Pet than I am,” M’Tek said aloud, turning and stepping away from me to join Lore in front of the windows. Lore turned her back to me for only a moment to wrest the window open. A cool breeze wound through the room from across the lake. I noticed their eyes were returning to normal and took a deep breath in relief. I opened the door to the office.
“I’m sorry I disturbed you with this,” I said quietly. “Where’s Astrid?”
“Ania arrived a couple of hours ago. She offered to watch her,” Lore said.
“Is Ania in her rooms?” I asked.
“She is, but you shouldn’t be anywhere near her at the moment, or even Astrid for that matter,” Lore suggested. “I’m not sure you realize the potency of this enchantment.”
“Lia’s all right,” I said. “She can retrieve Astrid,” I added, stepping backwards out through the door.
“Wait, Pet,” Lore called, halting me. “Tell me more about this magic. How did you discover it?” reluctantly, I stepped back through the threshold.
“I created a potion from a flowering vine I’ve been cultivating. I wanted to add it to my berrywines,” I admitted. “I thought it would improve their popularity.”
“Whatever it is, you can’t use it,” M’Tek said quickly. “It’s too powerful to be safe as it is.”
“I realize that,” I agreed, feeling reassured by M’Tek’s pragmatic manner. I stepped back into the room, closing the door again. “Lore you’re the only person I know who can control magic. What is this?”
“I’ve absolutely no idea,” Lore confessed raising both hands. “I only know it’s powerful. Did you bring a flower from this plant with you from Lauderdam?” she asked. I shook my head.
“No. I brought a small bottle of the potion. I used only a drop, on my skin. I noticed the effect was strange, and I wanted to ask if either of you knew anything about this plant.”
“I know nothing of potions. That’s more M’Tek’s area,” Lore admitted, shifting her attention to her mate. “M’Tek, have you ever come across anything like this?”
“I have not. I’ll look into it, of course,” M’Tek replied. “What plant did you say it is?”
“I didn’t,” I said quietly. “It’s a wild variety of woodrose I found in the Eponymous Mountains.”
“You’ve clearly done something to alter the effect,” M’Tek said. “Woodrose seeds make you relax, and laugh, and that’s if you chew or swallow them. I’ve never known of anything that can make a person crave sex in this way, just from smelling it. What makes this stranger, cousin, is you’re the one with this on your skin, and you seem unaffected.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m unaffected,” I replied, not really wanting to explain. “It’s worn off.”
Lore gazed at M’Tek again and something passed between them. I sensed they were arguing without words. M’Tek looked angry for a moment, Lore more intense than I’d ever seen her. Lore took a step away from M’Tek, coming around the desk to me, and M’Tek’s hand reached out, catching Lore’s wrist, holding her tightly at her side. M’Tek raised her dark eyebrows and shook her head at Lore.
“Lore is curious about this potion you’ve made,” M’Tek said evenly. “Did you bring it with you?”
Hesitantly, I produced the concoction from my pocket, and stepped forward to my former desk. I placed the little bottle squarely in front of M’Tek and watched as they both stared at it, Lore with an expression of fascination, M’Tek with concern. Neither moved forward to pick it up. Finally, M’Tek raised her gaze to mine.
“Now that I’m growing used to it, I’m all right. I don’t like to think of you walking the halls alone in this state. May I accompany you back to your apartment?” M’Tek offered.
“Please. It was strange on the way over,” I said, accepting her offer with relief. “And will you collect Astrid for me? She’s been around me when I’ve used the tincture before. It doesn’t affect her.”
“Of course, cousin,” M’Tek agreed.
M’Tek walked past the bottle on the desk without glancing at it, and we left. As we walked the broad hallways of the palace, servants and guests alike stopped to follow me with their eyes as I passed. I might have been completely naked without the tincture and received less attention.
“If you still smell this way, I’m not certain attending the celebration tomorrow would be wise,” M’Tek observed.
“In a few hours it will fade,” I assured her. “I rode with my Vilken guard only twelve hours after using it before.
“Vilkerling’s are blunted creatures. They have almost no sense of smell,” M’Tek observed. “It wouldn’t have effected them in the same way it does a Fae.”
“What about the Noge, cousin?” I asked, smiling as I cut my eyes to her. “You saw Lore’s reaction. She was as affected by this potion as you are, possibly more so. I know we Fae are very different from Vilkerlings. We’re far more sensitive, but the Noge are not. I think we judge the Vilkerlings unfairly,” I suggested. “They’re not so entirely different from us. They have a more reserved way of interacting, and the nobles were not very much fun at our Fae parties, but they’re interesting in their way.”
“You find Vilkerlings interesting now?” M’Tek asked, laughing out loud at me. “I remember the dread you experienced when I asked you to go to Lore, in Vilkerland, when she was newly crowned.”
“Because I was an ignorant bigot,” I said evenly. “I’m not proud of my behavior toward the Vilkerlings during that period.”
“And now you look on both Lore and me as bigots,” M’Tek observed.
“Please, don’t put words in my mouth,” I said cautiously.
“Well, you may be right,” she said, raising a hand to stop my argument.
“You have your reasons for viewing the Vilkerlings as you do,” I replied.
“To be honest, I’m not as certain about all of that as I once was,” M’Tek replied. “But enough about Vilkerlings. Tell me. Why did you trust us with this potion?” M’Tek asked, changing the subject completely. “You have as much as told me you regard Lore and me as tyrants who will stop at nothing to have our way. You must realize there’s tremendous power in what you handed us. If you’re correct and it affects Vilkerlings and Noge as well as Fae, you may have handed us a weapon of nearly unfathomable power.”
“You’re not a tyrant, cousin. And I know the danger in what I created. I came looking for you, not Lore,” I admitted. “I sought your advice, not hers. I trust you as I would a sister,” I said, smiling at her as I repeated what she had said earlier.
“I’m glad to hear it,” she said, grinning. “And Lore won’t act without my consent. I swear to you.”
“I trust you, M’Tek,” I repeated.
M’Tek fell silent as we approached Ania’s door. When she knocked I stood several feet back from the threshold. Still, Ania’s vibrant blue eyes focused on me with an intensity that made me nervous. M’Tek spoke to her, standing between us until Ania went back to collect Astrid. When I stepped forward to collect my daughter, Ania pushed past M’Tek wrapping her arms around Astrid and me.
“I only this moment realized how much I’ve missed you, Pet,” Ania said in a low, seductive voice close to my ear. “Will you stay and visit? Mata can
return Astrid to Lia. I’d love to spend time with you, just the two of us, my beautiful cousin.” Ania pressed close to me, her breath warm on my neck, her hands moving through my hair.
“Pet is busy,” M’Tek said sharply, grasping her daughter’s shoulders to draw her away from me. “And Lia is waiting for her,” M’Tek added, guiding Ania back into her apartment and closing the door in her face.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, embarrassed at what I had caused. “I honestly had no idea I could create so much awkwardness.”
“You didn’t notice anything unusual with Lia?” M’Tek asked.
“I did,” I admitted. “But I thought she might have accidently splashed the tincture on her hands when she applied it to my neck,” I said. “I had no idea I was the conduit.”
“Lia applied it to you?” M’Tek asked.
“I didn’t want to use it,” I admitted.
“Lia made you to use it, but chose not to use it herself?” M’Tek asked.
“Don’t make me go into detail M’Tek. Just believe me when I say, it was too much when we both used it,” I explained. “I only brought it to show you. Without Lia’s insistence, I wouldn’t have tried it again. I knew it was dangerous.”
When we reached the door to my apartment, we didn’t speak for a few moments as I shuffled Astrid from one hip to the other, and my daughter’s arms tightened around my neck.
“Well, I have delivered you safely,” M’Tek observed with a wry smile. “For your sake, I hope the effects of this potion dissipate soon.”
“Yes,” I agreed, smiling. “The sooner the better.”
She took a step back from me and nodded. I grinned and she leaned forward to kiss Astrid’s forehead. When she stepped back I noticed her pupils were quite large again. She was as affected by the tincture as everyone else, but simply more self-contained.
“I suggest you stay in this evening. I’ll send your meals up with instructions to knock and leave them at the door,” she assured me.
“Thank you, cousin,” I replied as I turned the knob to return to the safety of my apartment.
By the following morning I was, happily, no longer attracting every man or woman within scent range of me. Lia was returned to normal as well. I rode with M’Tek and Lia all morning, while Ania helped pull the coming event together, and Lore watched Astrid. Everything was going well, and I believed Lia, Astrid, and I would enjoy a holiday with our family with hardly another trace of discomfort, until I learned, upon returning to the stable, that Lord Gere and his entourage of twelve guards and a manservant had arrived. The grooms were busy settling in the newly arrived horses. M’Tek graciously told them to take their time.
Upon hearing the news of Lord Gere’s arrival, Lia’s pale eyes darted to meet mine. I noticed the transformation of her posture from relaxed but proper riding form, into rigid, and too straight. Khol quickly picked up on Lia’s emotional shift, and began dancing under her, and pawing at the ground, as if preparing for flight. M’Tek’s gaze shifted back and forth between Lia and me, finally settling on me with a puzzled expression.
I quickly dismounted from Reika, abandoning my new horse in the aisle without a groom to collect her, and went to Lia, seizing Khol’s reins in an effort to calm him as he reared. Lia was trying to appear unruffled, but she was spinning inside her head.
“Darling, everything is going to be all right. I’m here with you,” I said in hardly more than a whisper, wanting more than anything to shield her from what she was feeling. “We can be packed and on our way within the hour if you’d like to leave.”
“It was only a broken attachment,” M’Tek observed from beside me, her gaze too intense on me. “Why should she run from the man?”
I shifted my attention from M’Tek to Lia, wanting desperately to soothe my mate. Instead, I patted Khol’s neck firmly and he settled some. Lia dropped down from his back, focusing on me.
“Mata’s right, Pet,” Lia said stiffly. “I’ll not run from him.”
Lia took Khol’s reins from me and led her nervous horse toward the only available crossties, in the center of the aisle. When I turned back to Reika, M’Tek was watching me with blatant curiosity. She dismounted and took a step closer to me.
“My daughter is terrified,” M’Tek observed quietly. “I can understand a mild level of awkwardness, but not terror,” she added. I collected Reika’s reins, and led the mare toward her stall while M’Tek walked Eren beside us. “What don’t I know? And why did you suddenly become so protective of Lia, cousin?”
“Because Lia became frightened. How would you have me react?” I snapped at M’Tek, before leading Reika into her stall. My cousin’s eyes widened in astonishment at my tone. “I won’t see her upset,” I said more quietly.
M’Tek raised her hand to call a groom from attending another horse. He rushed over and M’Tek’s focus shifted from me to the groom for only a moment.
“Eren’s slightly stiff in her left hock,” she explained to the groom. “I’d like Chan’Tuk to check her over, and apply a poultice to the hock.”
“I’ll see to it, Your Highness,” the groom said, bowing to M’Tek before he walked Eren toward the wash area. M’Tek stared down the aisle at Khol and Lia for a few moments, running a hand through the side of her hair as she considered her daughter. For a moment I thought she might leave me to question Lia, but then her attention returned to me. “I can think of very few reasons why my daughter would react in such a way,” M’Tek observed, scrutinizing me. “Fewer still that would also justify your very obvious anger, and sudden need to protect her.”
“I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you there’s nothing there,” I said evenly. “You will not learn any more from me, however.”
M’Tek didn’t like my response. Her gaze sharpened on me as she stepped into Reika’s stall, but then she went to the mare’s head and spoke gently to her. I ran my stirrups up and unbuckled the girth on both sides as M’Tek stroked Reika’s neck. I placed the girth across the top of my saddle and then lifted the saddle from Reika’s back, placing it over her stall door. M’Tek unlatched the noseband and throatlatch of Reika’s bridle and gently lifted the bridle forward over her ears. Reika dropped her head and shook it, sending her dark forelock flying across her face.
“The grooms are still busy. I’ll find a bucket for you, and a sponge so you can wash her down,” M’Tek said, gathering my tack and leaving me alone with my horse for a moment.
Suddenly my emotions were welling up inside of me, as I stepped to the back corner of Reika’s stall, leaning against the wall for support. Rage and a sense of helplessness coursed through me, as I started to shake. I knew how I wanted to kill Lord Gere. His death needed to appear a suicide, or an accident. Otherwise Lia would realize what I’d done. I had planned to lure him out to the cliff’s edge at Lareem, to my mother’s vantage point, and then simply push him over the side. I needed the cliffs of Lareem to make it an easy kill. I thought about Sweet Lake, considering whether I might drown him somehow. He was a large, strong man. I’d have to incapacitate him to do it. I knew enough about poisons and the terrain around Saranedam that I might find something if I thought about it. I was brainstorming for possibilities when M’Tek’s voice brought me back to the moment.
“I have brought your bucket, cousin,” M’Tek said, interrupting my planning process. I met her gaze, realizing she had been watching me for a while. I straightened and took a deep breath, trying to appear normal.
“Thank you,” I replied.
When I didn’t move immediately, she stepped into Reika’s stall and began washing the mare down for me. M’Tek worked quickly, and within moments she had nearly finished.
“Lia’s putting Khol away,” M’Tek observed. “I’ll finish up here for you, if you want to walk back with her.”
Without replying, I hurried past M’Tek, reaching Khol’s stall as Lia was coming out of it. She looked for her mother, and then scrutinized the grooms busily attending horses. When her gaze
returned to me I could feel her anxiety deep in my gut.
“I’m all right, Pet. You warned me that this might happen,” Lia said. “I need to face him, and then it will be over.”
“I love you,” I whispered.
Lia stepped closer to me, and I wrapped an arm across her back. Her head dropped to my shoulder, and I reached my other hand to her cheek. She took my hand, squeezing it before she released it.
“It was a shock at first, but I can handle this. I’ll go face him now and get it over with,” she said, raising her head as we began walking back toward the palace.
“No, Lia. I don’t want you doing that,” I insisted. “Right now, we’ll head back to our apartment and take a nice, long, bath together,” I said gently. “I will then go, alone, to explain to Lord Gere about the exact distance he is to maintain from you at all times,” I assured her. “You may catch sight of him from across the room, but he will not approach you, nor will he speak to you.”
“You can’t shield me from everything,” she whispered.
“Maybe not, Lia,” I agreed. “But I will protect you from that monster.”
Lia and I went back to our apartment, and spent the remainder of the morning together. We didn’t mention Lord Gere again, though I doubt he was any further from her mind than he was from mine. Still, we took a long soak in the oversized copper tub, and then ate in our sitting room. I opened a particularly potent bottle of torppa, but couldn’t stomach the taste after the first sip. The flavor was too bitter for me with the rage still pulsing through my veins. Bitter or not, Lia drank the entire bottle, and then coaxed me back to bed where we made love. I held her in my arms until I knew she slept. I watched her sleep for a while, her sweet lips barely parted, her golden hair obscuring the side of her face. Finally, I rose and dressed, heading toward my old office in the hopes of finding Lore. She was my only ally in this disaster.
I walked in without knocking, to find M’Tek and Lore were both in the office. M’Tek looked like that terrifying Fae Princess from Vilken legend, her black hair wild, and her eyes filled with rage. She was pacing my old office like a caged wolf, while Lore sat behind my old desk, a perfect example of restraint, except for one finger that was tapping rapidly against the surface of the desk. M’Tek halted and fixed her menacing glare on me as I entered.
A Fortunate Woman Page 26