I was now breathing heavily.
Lahn had done this the day I disappeared. Lahn had ordered this instantly. Lahn hadn’t decided to believe me sometime in the last five months and Lahn hadn’t gone about his business.
Lahn had immediately launched plans to bring me back.
Oh God.
“Fortunately, I was able to provide this service to my king. I rode hard, lathered many horses, exchanged many riches. And I not only found the witch who brought you back but I also found a frost-haired princess of the north who graces her Raider husband’s ship, where I discovered her, a ship she dwells on when she is not gracing one of his wintry homes in Lunwyn and she confided in me that she, too, comes from your world.”
Holy crap!
“Really?” I whispered, leaning forward.
He nodded and again smiled. “Really. She and her husband are very interested in you for she has never heard of another like her. They requested no payment for the long conversations she had with me, telling me of your world, asking about you. They only requested that I send a messenger to find them when you returned. They travel widely and I have no idea when my message will be received but when it is, she intends to visit you, my golden queen.”
Wow. Wow. Wow.
“Wow,” I breathed, his smile widened and I heard Diandra stifle a laugh so I looked to her. Forgetting I had been a total bitch, I smiled at her and asked, “Diandra, sweetheart, isn’t that cool?”
Her mouth went soft, her eyes grew bright and she whispered, “Indeed it is, my love, very… cool.”
I held her gaze and felt my eyes grow bright too.
Then I felt another tight pain in my belly, my brows drew together and I looked down at it but Karrim again spoke.
“I tell you all this, my true, golden queen, because I cannot know what happened with you and our Dax to understand why this rift continues. But I wish you to know –”
He stopped talking when I groaned as the pain came back, tighter, deeper and I bent forward reflexively, taking my hand from Ghost and wrapping it around my swollen stomach.
“Circe?” Diandra called and I stopped clenching my teeth as the pain faded away.
I pulled in a breath and let it out through my lips that I formed in a tight “O”.
Then I looked at my friend. “I’m okay, it’s just a –”
I stopped talking and Karrim shot out of his chair, Ghost shot to her four paws and Diandra shot toward me.
This was because my water broke.
Oh man.
I looked at Diandra and finished. “I’m okay; it’s just that I’m having a baby.”
She smiled into my face.
Karrim rushed to the steps and shouted down, “Call the Dax immediately! His child comes!”
Great.
Karrim had a big mouth.
Diandra pulled me carefully out of the lounge chair, murmuring, “Let’s get you down those stairs while we still can.”
This, I thought, was a good idea. So I followed her after I got to my feet and Karrim rushed back to us. They walked me to the stairs, one on each side holding my arms tightly like I was an invalid, not just pregnant.
I ignored this and turned to Diandra. “We must talk.”
“Yes, my dear,” she nodded, “but perhaps not now.”
We made it to the top of the stairs. “I need to explain.”
“I’m sure you do,” she let me go, took a step down then turned and grabbed my hand, starting to lead me down as Karrim spotted me from behind, “but later.”
“There was a reason I was –” I started, she stopped halfway down the stairs and gripped my hand tight.
“Circe, can you please concentrate on getting down the stairs, successfully delivering the warrior who will succeed the Dax and then we’ll chat about why you locked yourself away to lick your wounds, grieve your lost world, consider your future… all of which I, and all your friends, already understand. Does that sound good to you?”
I grinned. “Yeah, sweetheart, that sounds good to me.”
She nodded smartly, muttered, “Dohno,” and she and Karrim finished leading me down the stairs were all my girls, save Twinka, were waiting, bouncing on their toes with ill-concealed excitement.
Shit.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The God and Goddess
“Push, my golden queen,” the healer, standing behind me in the bathing pool supporting my torso with her arms wrapped under my armpits, hands curled around my shoulders, urged in my ear.
My eyes stayed locked to Lahn’s as I breathed, “Right.”
It was official. I was never having another child. And I wasn’t because this shit hurt like a mother.
And I wasn’t all fired up about how the Korwahk delivered babies. That was, me in a Korwahk-style nightgown in the pool, the healer holding me up at my back, one of her (three! like I needed that much fucking company!) assistants holding me on one side, another on the other, the third outside the pool for some reason I did not ask and, best of all (not!), my ankles resting on Lahn’s broad shoulders. This was, by the way, a Lahn who was in his hides, kneeling in the pool ready to catch the kid should he ever deign to make an appearance.
Apparently I was wrong. Kah teenkah tunakan wasn’t peeved he didn’t have enough room to move. He liked it in there and he was staying.
My body just was done with him being there.
The problem was, as hard as I tried, as deep as I pushed, I couldn’t get the kid out.
And this had been going on a long time. Too long. I was worn right the fuck out.
I pushed with all I had left, which really wasn’t a lot, then gave up, my head falling back on the healer’s shoulder because I couldn’t hold it up anymore, my eyes losing contact with Lahn’s for the first time since this shit started (except, of course, when I closed them to push).
“Circe, my dear, please, please, push,” Diandra encouraged.
She was wandering the side of the bathing pool with Ghost prowling at her side, watching, wringing her hands and as the minutes passed, visibly moving from excitement, to minor freak out, to major freak out and now she was not hiding out and out panic.
“I can’t,” I whispered, the pain ripping through me, I couldn’t push and fight the pain at the same time. It just wasn’t happening.
“I must cut, my Dax,” the healer said quietly.
“Me,” Lahn growled fiercely.
“He is not coming,” the healer continued quietly, stating the obvious.
“Me!” Lahn barked and her arms tightened around me.
“My queen, please, you must push,” she whispered in my ear.
I nodded weakly, lifted my head and tried again. I had little left, I gave it all I could, squeezing my eyes tight and digging my heels in Lahn’s shoulders but nothing doing.
I collapsed back into the arms supporting me.
“My Dax,” the healer hissed urgently, “I must cut.”
“You cut, I lose my queen,” Lahn growled and I closed my already closed eyes tighter.
“Maybe I can sew her together, like she did the warrior,” the healer suggested.
Oh man. Primitive experimental surgery.
Fucking great.
“You will not cut,” Lahn growled again and I felt his fingers wrap tight around my ankles. “My doe,” he called, his voice soft, “give me your eyes.”
I fought the pain, pulled in breath and with effort lifted my head.
Then I stared at what I saw. It was a hazy stare but I saw it.
Yes, I definitely saw it. Clear and unhidden.
Lahn was scared.
“My tigress does not admit defeat,” he told me, his fingers tightening around my ankles. “My golden warrior never admits defeat.” My eyes closed slowly and his fingers gave me a squeeze so I opened them. “Push, baby,” he whispered.
He held my eyes and just like that day in our cham, something came over me, something I didn’t know I had, it surged through me, taking over and I gri
tted my teeth, nodded my head, closed my eyes, dug my heels in my husband’s shoulders and I pushed.
Hard.
Then again.
And again.
And a-fucking-gain.
“He crowns,” an assistant whispered.
“Praise the True Mother,” the healer breathed.
Then I pushed again.
And again.
“That’s it, my Circe,” Lahn encouraged, his fingers not curled around my ankles anymore but stroking deep into the flesh of my inner thighs, his arms wrapped around to do it.
So I pushed again and Lahn’s hands moved from me to between my legs as I felt him come.
“Oh Circe!” Diandra cried with delight.
“The king’s blade!” the healer called quickly.
I collapsed into my supporting arms as water splashed around me.
Hallelujah. He was out!
I licked my lips and rolled my head on the healer’s shoulder to see the last assistant was now in the water too and working with Lahn between my legs.
Then I heard his deep, now thick, voice call, “My Circe,” and I rolled my head back to see him holding up a perfect, tiny, black-fuzzy-headed baby boy.
And he was perfect. Absolutely. From the top of his fuzzy head to the tips of his baby toes.
He was also bawling his brains out.
I lost sight of my baby when the tears filled my eyes.
Then my body jerked and my scream pierced the air when new pain tore through my belly.
“Take the child!” the healer yelled and my body bucked then convulsed as pain washed anew, water splashed around me, people switched places and Lahn barked, “What is happening?”
After a few moments when my belly was prodded as was between my legs, the healer answered happily, “There comes another. Push my queen, push.”
Another?
I twisted my head to look at her as she positioned herself again behind me.
“Another? Another what?”
“You carry twins,” she told me, “push, my true golden queen.”
Twins?
My eyes shot to Lahn and I snapped, “Do you have twins in your family?”
He stared at me and ordered, “Circe, push.”
“Tell me!” I shrieked.
“Yes!” he clipped. “My father was birthed before his sister who shared his womb.”
Oh. My. God!
“And you didn’t think to tell me?” I screeched.
“Circe, my love, push!” Diandra cried.
I glared at Lahn.
Then I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, dug my heels into my king’s shoulders (hard) and I pushed.
My daughter slid out easily.
She had golden fuzz on her head.
* * * * *
I felt the bed move and my eyes drifted open about the time Lahn had settled tight to my side. I saw his head was up and he was nodding at someone so I turned my head and saw Diandra and the healer beside the bed, each holding a swaddled bundle.
Diandra bent first with my dark-headed son and rested him on my chest. The healer came second, laying my golden-headed daughter close next to her brother. At the same time, Lahn’s arm closed around his newborn children as well as me and mine moved around my babies.
Diandra and the healer moved silently away, the door closing behind them.
My eyes went to Lahn when I felt his lips brush my temple then the bed moved as he shifted and I watched as he touched his lips to each fuzzy head.
And, incidentally, with each touch of his lips, my heart melted.
His head came up and his face came close to mine.
Then he declared in his soft, sweet voice, “I name him Tunahn, the horse. As my father named me after the tiger god, proud, fierce and cunning, I name our warrior after the horse god, strong, clever and loyal.”
There it was, that was Dax Lahn, naming our kid without even asking what I thought.
Though, I kind of liked “Tunahn” and I definitely liked the reasons he chose it.
“Now, kah teenkah tunakanahsa,” he whispered. “What do you name our daughter?”
Oh. We were taking turns.
Okay, I could dig that.
“Isis,” I blurted for reasons unknown to me. It just came out.
“Isis,” he whispered, his eyes drifting to her golden head and the way he said those two syllables, I decided that was it. My girl was Isis. Then his eyes came to me. “Why do you name our golden princess this?”
I tilted my head a little as it hit me for the first time that my husband and I shared something weird and pretty freaking cool.
So I replied quietly, “Your parents named you after a god and my parents named me after a goddess. Circe was the goddess of magic. Isis, too, is a goddess. She’s the goddess of motherhood and magic.”
Lahn grinned a grin I liked a whole lot.
Then he whispered, “This pleases me.”
It pleased me too and, damn it all, it pleased me that it pleased him.
I stared into his eyes and whispered back, “Dohno.”
His long, strong arm tightened around his family and his eyes dropped to my mouth. My warmed heart warmed more as my breath caught and my eyes dropped to his. It was coming toward mine. And when our lips touched, his opened and mine didn’t hesitate to do the same nor did the tip of my tongue hesitate moving to touch the sweetness of his and at that touch, warmth rushed through me, strong and unbelievably sweet.
He lifted his head and I knew with one look in his eyes, he’d felt the same.
“I am very proud of you, my golden doe,” he whispered.
“Shahsha,” I whispered back.
“Though,” his lips twitched, “I think the last time you dug your heels in my shoulders it was less an effort to bring our daughter into this world than it was something else.”
He wasn’t wrong about that.
My eyes slid away.
“Circe,” he called and my eyes slid back. Then he shared gently, “There has been only one moment in my life when I have been happier than I am in this one and that was sharing the beauty your magic created while you told me you loved me.” His arm gave us another squeeze. “Thank you, baby.”
I bit my lip as that slid through me warm and sweet as well.
Okay, I was in trouble. I wasn’t going to be able to hold up against this kind of sweet.
Still, the moment warranted it so I couldn’t help but whisper, “You’re welcome, Lahn.”
His eyes warmed further then his head descended so he could brush his lips against my forehead, my temple and then my lips.
Then he settled at my side and urged quietly in my ear, “Rest, my doe. I will hold you and our family safe as you sleep.”
Okay, shit. Shit, shit, shit.
This was beyond sweet. This was beautiful.
“Okay,” I whispered, my arm going tight around the tiny bundles sleeping on my chest, I pulled in a soft breath, let it out on a light sigh and closed my eyes.
A few minutes later, me and my family slept safe in my husband’s strong arm.
* * * * *
I heard his roar, it wasn’t exactly close but it wasn’t far away and my eyes opened.
Soft candlelight lit our room from the four, tall iron holders around the head of our bed. The rest of the room was in darkness but as the shouted words came at me, my eyes drifted over my two swaddled babies resting on their backs in the bed, tucked close to the curve of my body and I tipped my head back on the pillows.
Looking through our room and the opened doors to the bathing room, I saw my husband standing on the balcony, backlit by the bright lights of many torches coming up from the street.
“Your golden warrior queen proves again my claiming her beauty heralds The Golden Dynasty!” Lahn was shouting. “She battled mightily and refused to taste defeat when the fruit of our union, the future of our empire challenged her. As my golden queen always does, she triumphed, bringing forth not one but two heirs planted from my se
ed in her golden womb!”
An excited, shocked cheer rang out but Lahn spoke over it.
“A strong, warrior prince who will be your future Dax and a beautiful golden princess who will rain beauty and bounty on all Korwahk!”
Another boisterous cheer but again Lahn kept talking right through it.
“Prince Tunahn and Princess Isis sleep in the web of safety woven from my golden queen’s magic and my might, they will grow and flourish until they carry forth our Dynasty for all our people!”
Another cheer and more from Lahn right over it.
“Hail Prince Tunahn! Hail Princess Isis! And hail your golden Queen Circe!”
These cheers rang out, hailing my kids and me but I knew Lahn was done. As usual, he didn’t bask in the frenzy he created. He turned and walked to me.
I watched him move thinking that was laying it on a bit thick but I couldn’t help but like it.
I felt my precious bundles shift and tore my eyes from Lahn to see both my babies were awake and moving in their tight wraps. Tunahn’s movements seemed agitated, even demanding. Isis’s seemed exploratory, her unseeing eyes blinking; she was awake but appeared content.
Lahn’s weight hit the bed even as the cheers continued to ring out and he whispered, “They wish to suckle, kah rahna fauna.”
Oh man.
I nodded thinking I’d have to get used to this so I might as well start now and, wincing, I shifted up to sitting.
Lahn carefully picked up Isis and handed her to me after I pulled the drawstring loose over my breasts.
“Our princess first,” he murmured as I cautiously took her.
I was positioning her, feeling a little weird and a lot embarrassed as I offered my nipple to my daughter and Lahn picked up the fussing Tunahn.
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