by Viola Grace
“Why not a healer?”
“I fell into those...” she flapped with her hands and jabbed with her fingers, “Blue thorns with purple points. I have to break the stuff down with heat, disperse it, and then, the healers can flush it out.”
Daku looked at her in shock. “Acu thorns? Your body was covered by acu thorns, and you are still moving around?”
“The healer there said that they were either slow-acting because of my species, or they don’t affect me at all. I am guessing on slow-acting because I am not that lucky.”
Ageka looked at Daku. “She is considered a daughter of this house. Don’t do anything that would make me burn you.”
“Yes, madame. She is safe with me.” He nodded. “I will take care of her.”
Ageka chuckled. “You can barely take care of yourself, Obscure. Just keep your lust bottled around this one.”
“I beg your pardon, madame. I have never forced myself on a woman.”
Kyna growled. “I am not a child. What if I want to force myself on him?”
She paused as they both looked at her. “Ignore that. I am really tired and rather sore.”
She closed her eyes and sank below the water. She slowly raised her head, and she looked around. “Damn, you are both still here.”
Daku smiled, and Ageka sighed and shook her head. “Ky-nah, if you want to have him, have him, but don’t come crying to me if you get more than you bargain for.”
She perked up. “There is bargaining?”
He chuckled.
Ageka threw her hands up in the air. “I will see you for tea tomorrow, Lady Ky-nah.”
“Yes, Lady Ageka. Have a nice night.”
The older woman left, and they were alone for a moment before Larada returned and said, “There are no appointments open tonight, my lady. They can get you in midmorning, and the healer will be there immediately after.”
“Right. Thank you.”
“What would you like for your dinner?”
“I am just up for a pot of tea and a cracker. Nothing big.”
Larada nodded and left her.
Daku frowned. “I have a meal coming; you can have some of that if you like.”
She shook her head. “I am not up for much.”
“You are in a lot of pain.”
“I have had worse, but this is not comfortable. The bath is helping, though.”
“There were acu bushes near where I grew up. I got stung once, and my arm was shrieking with pain for days.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.”
He nodded, his mouth tense. “Why couldn’t the masseuse fit you in?”
“Their hands get tired. We restrict the number of clients that they see per day, so they don’t get fatigued.” She smiled.
“I have an idea. I will be right back.”
He got out of the water, and the moisture sheeted off him. It was a closer view of the male Rai physique than she had seen prior to this, and he did not have one once of interest in her if what she knew about erections was accurate.
He talked to the host assigned to his quarters and returned to her, sliding into the water. “Sorted. Now, tell me about the guardian who assaulted you.”
“He didn’t succeed; he just tried to rip my robes off and pin me to the wall.” She shrugged and closed her eyes because his dark gaze was intense.
“What happened to him?”
She snorted. “I screamed the house down, and he met the Sacred Flame. We determined that his illness was not an illness but rather a rut, and he needed to be with a woman who was interested in him. That wasn’t here.”
“Who was he?”
She looked at him directly and said, “No.”
He looked innocent. “What?”
“No, you are not going to go find him or send a friend of yours after him. This was over two years ago, and there has not been a repeat of the event.”
“What kind of counselling did you get afterward?”
She blinked. “What?”
“You didn’t?”
“No. I talked with friends, but I could see the burn in him and knew that it wasn’t actually me that he was after. He would have fucked a turtle at that point. I am actually glad that it was me. I was trained to yell.”
“And Rai women are trained to quiet. So, in that situation, you were the best target, but because of it, I believe that those around you are now rather protective of you.”
“They are. I am both useful and fun.” She smiled and leaned her head and elbows back on the edge of the tub. Now that she knew he wasn’t interested, she could relax a bit.
She looked at him through narrowed eyes and sighed. Yeah, he was lovely, masculine, and built to rescue damsels in distress. She was going to be pulling images of him out at opportune times.
When she felt her fingers getting pruney, she smiled at him and sat up. “Well, thank you for the conversation, guardian, but I am in danger of poaching, so I will leave you to your own recreation.”
He inclined his head. “I shall see you later.”
She got out of the tub and padded over to the wraps, and tucked it around herself before slipping the robe over her shoulders. Daku was watching with a politely interested expression. She nodded. “Good evening.”
He smiled. “It might be.”
Chapter Seven
Kyna was halfway through catching up on the latest gossip while she ate her cracker, and Larada brushed her hair into a long red wave while chattering. She muttered at some of the burrs that were stuck in the long stuff but finally got it straightened out to her satisfaction.
Larada tied it in her night-time tail, which was bound every six inches. “There. That will keep it straight.”
“Thank you, Larada. Now, go and get some rest. I still have these reports to go over, and then, I will go to sleep. I promise.” She smiled encouragingly.
“If I see those dark circles tomorrow, I am going to ask Ageka to confine you to your room.” Larada smiled.
“Tomorrow is the festival. It’s why I made sure to be home today.”
Her keeper sighed. “Fine. You will be confined to your rooms the day after that.”
“Unless I go to bed.”
“Correct.” She smiled and got to her feet. “I will see you at breakfast, and you had better be rested.”
Kyna read the reports translated for her, and she flipped through the follow-ups from the guardians’ dispatchers. The guardians who recovered at the retreat were stronger, in better spirits, and more able to deal with surprises when they returned. They all also had interests in their new hobbies. Kyna smiled. It was that exterior focus that led them to a calmer state.
She grinned and was looking through the consumption figures for food and bedding when there was a polite scratching on her door. “Come in.”
Hulura smiled and bowed. “Lady, I would like you to help me fulfill an appointment.”
“Certainly. Anything I can do to help.”
Hulura nodded and smiled. “I thought you would say that.”
The masseuse slid the door back and got to her feet.
“What is going on?”
“One of the guests is interested in learning therapeutic massage. With the situation that Larada described, I thought you would be amenable as long as there was a chaperone.”
Kyna looked at the hopeful woman. “Who is the client?”
“That guardian, Lord Daku of the Southern Velt. I had not thought him interested in something like this, but if they show any glimmer of interest in learning, we have to oblige.”
“That is the credo of this place. Well, I already feel like hell; how much worse can it get?”
“I will be watching carefully so that Lady Ageka can’t kill me.”
She put her tablet aside and said, “Where are we going to do this?”
Daku stepped inside with the kit that Hulura normally carried. “I thought that this would be a suita
ble location. If it is successful, you can simply sleep.”
Kyna met Hulura’s gaze, and they both smiled. This was going to be a lot of pain.
Hulura got to work, laying out a folded layer of sheet and giving Daku the instruction.
“By laying out everything in advance, you don’t need to fumble with oily hands. This folded cloth will go across her breasts and this one across her hips. You should warm the room if you can.”
Daku knelt at the small brazier used for cool nights, and he had it producing a soft heat in seconds.
Kyna was only wearing her robe, so when she was asked to lie face down on the sheets, she slid the robe off and draped it across the foot of her bed before slipping under the sheet and pulling it up over her hips.
Hulura smiled. “In a therapy session, the therapist isn’t usually staring at the patient like that.”
Daku inclined his head. “Apologies, I am here to learn.”
“With her on the bed, you have two options. Leaning over or with your knees to either side of her. As this is an instructional event, choose what makes you comfortable.”
Kyna listened as Hulura told him how to start, where to start, and how to do a recon of her condition with his fingertips.
When he had been thoroughly briefed, she heard the sound of oil dripping and then his hands rubbing together. She pulled her braid up and out, away from her neck. She settled, and he spread his hands across her shoulders. Hulura monitored and corrected his finger placement, and he began to knead her body.
As he moved over her bruises and found the little pain bombs underneath, she exhaled slowly and tried to keep herself relaxed. It was an effort. She wanted to scream the house down, but instead, she did what she always did when the pain in her body had become intolerable before. She exhaled.
He was thorough; she would give him that. She lay calmly, and he evacuated one acid-filled cyst after another. The key to purging the acid was to not let it build up and concentrate in the blood. That meant that she needed to have someone do what he was doing. It was him now when it hurt a little, or Hulura tomorrow when the pain would make her pass out. She had things to do tomorrow.
He moved down her back, and he moved from leaning on her to straddling her. He rubbed his hands over her back to her hips, and then he moved to work on one leg at a time. He even found the blister in the arch of her foot.
He moved the sheet up, and he worked on her butt with definite care and attention before he draped the sheet over her again.
Hulura chuckled. “Lady Kyna, please roll to your back now. Lord Daku, I might want to recruit you for a position here. You seem to have taken to it.”
Kyna rolled to her back, and Daku put the folded fabric across her breasts and another section across her hips. He kept the lower sheet to her waist, and he went in search of the little nodules again.
“Madame Hulura, it isn’t the skill that I am exhibiting; it is an appreciation for the subject.”
Kyna looked at him, but he was fixed on his work. Her front had taken the least amount of damage, and it was only when he massaged the last bit out of her that she inhaled and exhaled slowly. He wiped his hands off on the cloth set aside for it, and he smiled. “How is that?”
She nodded and gave him a small smile. “Good. Better. Thank you.”
Hulura looked at her and saw the bruising that was appearing under her skin. “I will get Adali.”
Kyna pulled the sheet up, and Daku moved to help her. “Is something wrong?”
She shook her head. “No. Everything is as it should be. Thank you again. Did you learn anything useful?”
“Your skin is very soft. You didn’t want to distract me, so you swallowed your pain. I have had acu spikes in me. I know how much it burns. You were jabbed by one hundred and twenty-three. You must be in agony.”
She lifted her hand to see what was happening. “The thorn oil is spreading under my skin. I think I am turning purple.”
Kyna lay still as the healer came and took a look at her. There was a sympathetic hiss, and then, the healer’s eyes went blind. Adali was the best with trauma, and as he healed the extensive bruising that was rapidly spreading, she saw him swaying.
She sighed and said, “Adali, please stop. You are about to pass out.”
He shook his head, “No, Lady, I can do this.”
She put her hand on his arm. “No, you can’t. Go to bed. You too, Hulura. Thank you both. I promise to seek you out in the morning, Adali, after you have had a good night’s rest.”
The healer blinked and disengaged. “I barely did anything.”
“It is fine, Adali. Now go and get some rest. Thanks for coming to the call of an emergency.”
Daku helped clean up, and Kyna got up and got back into her sleeping robe. She didn’t care who was watching. She felt like she had just been run over by a road paver.
Daku helped settle her back in bed, and she nodded her thanks. When she was alone and the night was quiet, she let her pain out in light whimpers and deep sobs hidden under her blanket.
When another body joined her in the bed, she sobbed and hiccupped. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so loud.”
Daku pressed a kiss to her temple and held her while the cool from his kiss spiralled through her and eased the fire on her nerves. He kissed her cheek, and then, he kissed her lips. When his lips moved along hers, she inhaled sharply. He whispered against her mouth, “Don’t tell anyone I can do this.”
The kiss sent energy through her that was akin to lying in a cool stream. She raised her hand and touched his cheek; the cool of his skin was similar to what was moving through her. When the burn under her skin stopped, he moved his head away and held her against him. “My life has just become complicated.”
The words in the dark room hung between them. The warm fuzzy feeling of being cared for died under that dump of ice water.
“I am not here to complicate anything. I just want to do my job and keep learning. I do thank you for your help today and just now, but I am not asking for anything.” She jerked her hand from his cheek. “Sorry.”
She curled her fingers into a fist and hid it beneath the blanket.
“I am glad I could relieve your pain somewhat. Good night, Snow Bunny.”
She lowered her head and muttered, “Good night.”
He moved away from her, and she didn’t hear her door close. She peeped at her doorway, and he was seated there, one leg bent and head tilted back to watch the stars. She didn’t know why, but the fact that he was there made her feel better.
She settled down to get what rest she could before Ageka found out about the massage and got her sash in a twist.
She woke up before dawn and knew what had to be done. Daku was out of her doorway, so she got out of bed and got dressed in the clothes she wore in the kitchen. She eased herself out via the main hall and headed for the kitchen.
Once in her previous domain, she started to work on baking bread. It helped her focus and kept her calm. There was a lot of science to it, and it was a skill that she had glad to have acquired. She could never do it back home with her joints swollen and screaming. This was something she did for herself that others could benefit from, just like the cooking.
Once the dough was warming and rising, she worked on the custard filling.
Chilling it quickly was always an issue, but fortunately, the retreat had a chiller that iced a pan, and she poured a thin layer of the custard on it, scraped it, put it in a new bowl, and did the same again until the pan was warm, and then, she repeated it.
By the time she was pulling the trays of custard buns out and leaving them on the counter, she was grinning like a fiend. She made two tea trays and balanced them as she headed back to the VIP rooms. She put one tray in her room and walked through the bathing area to kneel next to Daku’s door, ease the door open, and slide the tray in.
She closed his door and went back to her room to finish the paperwork before having
her buns and tea for breakfast.
She was in the healers’ office when they arrived, and after a light treatment, she was pronounced fit to play at the festival.
Now, she had to get into the day robe and have the outer formal robe ready for the evening performance. She got to have fun as well, so it was up to Larada to figure out a hairstyle that could do both.
Chapter Eight
It was a construct of amazing proportions, but then, Kyna would expect nothing less. Her hair was bound in locks that were swagged and twisted. “Where did those hairpins come from?”
Larada blinked. “They were on your table. I thought you had gotten them on your travels. Oh, dear. Were they a gift?”
“I didn’t buy them, so if they were there, someone must have left them.” She chuckled and looked at herself in the mirror. “I was going to ask if there was a card, and then, I realized that it would be ridiculous.”
Larada paused. “There is a card. It was under the pins.”
She sighed. “Can you read it to me?”
“I don’t think I should.”
“Please.” Her frustration was in that one word.
Larada left her for a moment and returned. “Snow Bunny, use these carefully. That’s it. No signature.”
“Right, so that doesn’t really narrow things down. Can I see one?”
The pin she was handed had what she thought was a flower, but it was a flower carved out of a large gemstone. In a slightly strangled tone, she asked, “How many of these are there?”
“About twenty. Why?”
“Oh. Nothing. Can you make sure they are in tight? These, I don’t want to lose, just in case the gift-giver changes their mind.”
“I doubt anyone would take back a gift they gave to you.”
“I am not sure of anything. So, am I wearing the purple today?”
“That is what Ageka has had brought in. Your performance outfit will be here, and you can return before sunset and will be taken back to the festival in a chair.”
Kyna whined, “I hate taking chairs.”
Larada chuckled and kept pinning the locks of hair together until Kyna was wearing a work of art. The daily-wear clothing went on after that, and when she left her quarters, she was the living doll that now represented the retreat.