Veria felt a moment of relief. Esperan was a notoriously more peaceful kingdom than any of its neighbors. A diplomatic position for such a peaceful kingdom would be much safer than one for Londess.
“I will be gone for over two months,” Andon said, and Veria's momentary relief washed from her body, replaced by icy cold panic.
“Over two months!?” she echoed in shock. “To where?”
“Tal'lea,” he answered plainly.
Her hands trembled, the hot knot of nerves in her stomach now a boiling pit, her lungs turned to blocks of ice as if a Water Mager had frozen them. She couldn't breathe, and fear and dread choked her from speaking any words.
“There is another peace council,” Andon explained, softly and timidly, obviously aware that she was not pleased with his news.
“When?” Veria managed to ask.
“I leave tomorrow.”
Her head spun and she felt like she'd be sick on the picnic blanket. He reached for her to calm her and she swatted his hand away.
“No,” she snapped. “No, you can't do this. You can't go.”
“Veria...darling, I have to,” he muttered.
“No, you don't!” she cried. “You don't have to leave your family for over two months to go into the most hostile kingdom in the world right now!”
“If we are going to purchase the avadiso farm, I need this job,” he stated plainly.
“We will find money another way, Andon!” Veria demanded, her voice flooded with panic. “One that doesn't call you to be away from us this long and put you in danger!”
“What do you think that will be, my love?”
“I-I don't know,” she stammered. “You can make dresses—I will become a verifier! Turqa said I could charge a high rate.”
“Then you will be the one traveling all over into dangerous situations, vina,” Andon said. “And I don't want to make dresses.”
“So you want to do this? First it was need to, and now it is want.”
“Yes, I do want to do this.”
“You want to leave your family for two months? You want to put yourself in danger?”
“I want to prevent a large war from claiming thousands upon thousands of lives across the world, Veria,” Andon argued.
“I can't believe this! I can't believe you are doing this to me, again!” Veria cried. She stood abruptly and stormed back toward the house through the damp grass.
He was on his feet instantly, and caught up to her in a matter of seconds, stopping her progress back toward the house with his hands on her ribcage, turning her back toward him with heavy concern on his face.
“What am I doing to you?” he asked.
“Leaving me!” Veria snapped, her eyes hot with tears.
“I am not leaving you, Veria,” Andon said sternly.
“Yes you are! This is just like the first time,” she sobbed.
“This is nothing like the first time—Veria! I know you are upset about this, and I don't want to be apart from you and the children either, but don't be cruel and insulting,” Andon said, moving his hands to her shoulders and squeezing them. “The first time, I left with no clear intention to return to you. I did intend to attain some sort of status that would allow me to ask for your hand with your mother's approval someday, if you were still eligible, but I did not tell anyone that. And I certainly didn't intend for you to wait around for me if you could have better. But this time, you know when I will return, and when I do, we will move to our new home.”
“What if you don't come back?” she cried, her voice strangled by dread and sorrow.
Andon dropped his forehead against hers and chuckled softly. “Master Laurelgate, you have trained me well. So well, in fact, that I have defeated the infamous Twin Dragons. Together. Easily. Twice.”
“Not easily,” Veria argued as a smirk parted her lips.
“If you say so,” he laughed. “If the Twin Dragons can't defeat me, I think I can hold my own. Especially knowing what is on the horizon when I return. We are going to be married, and you are going to have my children,” he continued, softly murmuring to her as his lips moved toward hers. “You may be carrying my child right now,” he added in a whisper, moving his hands down to her abdomen and stroking it with affection. “I am going to be back the first minute I possibly can.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Why didn't you talk to me first?” she asked.
Andon sighed. “I knew you would say all the things you said,” he answered, brushing the tears from her cheek with his thumb. “And if you had cried like this and been angry with me then, before the decision had been made, I might have wavered.”
“If you knew I wouldn't want you to take the job, then why did you?” she cried.
“Because, it's what has to be done, vina,” he answered. “Your protestation is emotional. I understand them all, trust me, but I had to make the decision from logic. From reason. Not emotion. My emotions tell me to stay in bed with you in my arms every day, but the world is not going to stop for us, my love.”
“I don't know if I can be without you,” Veria whispered, sniffling against her tears as she tried to quell them. “I haven't slept a single night without you by my side in over eight months.”
“You are stronger than you make yourself out to be, Veria,” Andon murmured. “And you will be plenty occupied preparing for our move to Esperan, planning our beautiful wedding amongst the many fields of avadisos, with a beautiful dinner and dancing to follow in the courtyard of the jarrienta. Not to mention training, and researching, and taking care of the children. I promise, with as busy as you are, it will feel like I am gone the two weeks we knew I was going to be gone, and then I will be back to you.”
Veria took a deep breath and sighed. “And after this mission?” she asked, her voice still trembling even though she had managed to stop crying. “Will there be more?”
“Yoro mentioned monthly council in Barril, which as you know is only two hours away from where our home will be,” he said. “And maybe an occasional peace council of a week or two, but if it is in Barril or Londess, you and the children can come with me. And there may be other missions, yes. But I fully plan to leave diplomacy and run the avadiso farm, as soon as we are clear of the current threat.”
She nodded, swallowing hard as she took in all his words. Her chest ached knowing he would leave the following day, and she hardly managed to take two bites of food when he convinced her to come sit back down and eat, her stomach queasy and already filled with nerves, leaving little room for cheese or bread or smoked meats.
That night, they made slow, passionate, tender love for hours, during which many tears of emotion and affection were shed, and countless affirmations of love were exchanged. Veria mused that he was not only making up for the fact that they would not get the opportunity to be intimate for the next two months, but also determinedly trying to leave her with child before he departed, as the warmth of his release had filled her no less than three times.
The next morning, before dawn, he pecked her on the head and she awoke to him fully dressed and carrying a satchel. “I am scheduled for the noon ship to Barril, so I have to leave for Solderess now, my love.”
After a lingering embrace, they exchanged goodbyes and he left as quietly as possible so as not to wake the rest of the house. Veria cried for hours, softly, almost silently, in her bed until the sun came up and Aleon awoke in the nursery, demanding her attention, and she was forced to get up and go about her day.
After both children were dressed, she and Tanisca took them down for breakfast in the dining room, which the men slowly drifted into, as well. Everyone was relatively quiet, and Veria started to wonder how sour and troubled her face must be for them not to be engaging her in the usual pleasantries and chatter.
When the children finished eating, Tanisca offered to take them out to the gardens to play in the little wooden playhouse that Andon had built them from the trees that had been victims of training so that Veria could go ba
ck to bed if she wanted. Sarco, whom the children had both taken to so well over the past four months, followed them, outlining to Irea a game he used to play as a child that seemed to involve pretending to own a tavern.
Veria was left with a half eaten plate of eggs and toast and a mug of drinking coacoa that she sipped at in a daze that was partially from the complete and thorough satisfaction of the previous night's love-making and the surreal feeling that Andon was actually gone and would be gone for two months. She stared at the spot he usually occupied at the dining room table and finally was snapped out of her stupor when Strelzar sighed loudly.
“He is going to be fine, Birdie,” he stated plainly and followed his assertion with a drink of his steaming coacoa. “He took us both down easily, separately and together, with dragons. And we are, or we were, the best in the kingdom before we turned him into a monster.”
“That's what he said,” Veria muttered, hardly opening her lips.
“And he is a smart man,” Strelzar replied. “I can't say I’m terribly fond of him whisking you away to a jungle paradise to piddle in a garden—”
“It's a farm, Strelzar,” Veria rebutted. “Almost a third of the world's avadisos come from those fields.”
“Whatever you say,” he waved away her statement with a dismissive hand. “It's a flower, and a strange looking one at that. I don't care what they say, it looks nothing like a bird.”
“Did you have a point, Strelzar?” Veria grumbled, sliding her arm across the table and resting her head on it.
“Yes,” he replied. “I do. The point is, he is making the right choice. He is more noble than we are, holed up in a library digging around in books and awaiting tidbits of information from spies. Not to mention that on top of doing it for noble reasons, he's doing it for the sake of your disgustingly adorable little family. He's a lot like you, which is why I have grown quite fond of him I suppose. And why I am positive he will be fine.”
Turqa, who had been quietly listening while sipping his coacoa and reading one of the journals they had been scouring for clues for the past few months, cleared his throat and finally spoke. “I agree with Strelzar,” he said reassuringly, in his typical calm, mellow tone.
“See?” Strelzar said triumphantly. “And he rarely does that. Now, stop moping, get dressed, and come help me with some pages. No arguments,” he ordered as he stood from his chair and swooped out of the dining room.
As soon as he was gone, Veria pulled her head from the table and looked at Turqa, who had been eying her carefully over his spectacles and the journal.
“Turqa...” she ventured, her voice awkward and tentative.
“Yes, Veria?” he answered.
“I have a question,” she said, “of the physical nature.”
“Is everything alright?” he asked with concern in his voice.
“Yes, it's fine, I just—how long does it typically take after giving birth before a woman can be with child again?” she asked, a bit embarrassed to be having the conversation with the man who was now her stepfather.
“It is different for everyone,” he explained matter-of-factly, showing no signs that he felt it was awkward to discuss the topic with her. “Generally, as long as the woman is nursing the child full time, she will not be fertile. But, many things can affect a woman's fertility levels. Intense physical endeavors, lessening the frequency of nursing, stress levels, and so on.”
“Intense physical endeavors can prolong the period of infertility?” Veria asked with worry, thinking of all her training over the previous months.
“No, in fact, quite the opposite,” Turqa said. “I mean, too much, like to the point of starving the body, will definitely affect fertility negatively, but a healthy amount of exercise can return the mother to fertility earlier than normal, in a lot of cases.”
Veria felt a flutter in her chest as she realized that Andon's determination might not have been in vain.
“As your physician, I think there is a very good chance, given your recent level of training, Aleon's increase in solid foods and decrease in nursing frequency, and the amount of time that has passed since you gave birth, that you will be fertile again soon, or likely already are,” he concluded with a bit of a grin. “I suppose I should start looking at a cottage in Jura so your mother and I can be near this new baby?” he added with a tilt of his head.
“Try a two-story beach-side manor in Barril,” Veria joked. “This is Tanisca Pyer we are talking about.”
“Ahem,” Turqa cleared his throat facetiously. “Tanisca Pyer Coriant,” he corrected with a smirk, more rascally than any expression Veria had ever seen on the man's face, and she laughed.
Feeling a bit better, she heaved herself from her chair and started to head up to her room to dress, turning back before exiting the dining room to address her stepfather. “Thank you,” she said softly.
“You are welcome, my dear,” Turqa said. “I wish you and Andon the best of luck.”
She smiled and turned to leave the room, but ran straight into Strelzar's solid chest. She ricocheted off of him, stumbling back a step and he grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her, catching her eyes with a serious, intent look.
“What now?” she sighed. “I was on my way.”
“Both of you, come quickly,” he said, his voice urgent and slightly panicked. He let his grip on her go and turned to exit the dining room.
Turqa shot out of his seat, and they both followed Strelzar out into the foyer, then into the library, where Virro Ladny stood by the fire, his spindly, wiry body slumped over the mantel of the fireplace.
“Virro!” Veria gasped, rushing to him and enveloping him in a hug, which he returned with his thin arms that always felt frail, but she knew they held deceiving amount of strength.
“Virro and Aslay have been aiding us in our investigation from inside the castle since we left eight months ago,” Strelzar explained, but Veria had suspected those were his 'spies' he always mentioned the entire time. “Browan has been heavily guarded by the recruits he told us of when we returned from Kortamant.”
“The assassins?” Turqa asked.
Strelzar nodded. “And his library has been hard to infiltrate, however, Virro was finally able to get enough time during a recent gala to take a trade document that matched the date of the meeting at the castle immediately before Cadit Ohren came to Longberme, and replace it with a deception-imbued forgery by Aslay.” He pointed to a large square parchment spread out on the desk, and Veria and Turqa hurried to look at it. “It's a map, of Govaland. Specifically of Volglang, the trade route and the mines to the north.”
“What do you think this means?” Turqa asked.
“I haven't the slightest idea, but given that this document is just shy of nine years old, if it has anything to do with the plan Gordon uncovered, Browan has to be well into it by now,” Strelzar said.
“Veria...” Turqa said softly, and his voice was ripe with concern, “go get your sapphire.”
She rushed up the stairs and grabbed the talisman from her bedside table and threw it around her neck as she descended the stairs again. Back in the library, with a hand clutched around her sapphire necklace, she placed her fingers on the parchment and closed her eyes, focusing as much energy as she could on finding the energy imprints. Her father's jumped out quickly, almost latching itself to her, rather than the other way around. Her heart pounded with his panic...his dread.
What is he saying?
What does he mean?
What is he asking?
His thoughts, his terrified questions, filled her mind.
Stay calm. Don't let him see...
Somehow, I must make him see reason...
This plan would never work—it's insane!
Her energy was draining quickly, but she had to dig deeper. She needed a detail. Suddenly, she felt Strelzar's hand on hers, and he was locked on to her earth energy in his bronze talisman, amplifying her power and focus.
With a sickening surge of her fa
ther's panic, she heard the thought that encompassed the whole of her father's imprint.
He wants to take over the Southern Range of Govaland.
She let go immediately, faltering against the drain of energy and the impact of the revelation. Strelzar steadied her with a hand on her waist.
“What?” he asked urgently. “What is it? What did you find?”
Veria shuddered and gasped for breath. “He wants to take over the Southern Range of Govaland,” she echoed her father's words in the imprint breathlessly and watched as the three men in the room all adopted expressions that mirrored the shock and horror she felt inside.
“What?” Turqa uttered. “That—that can't be...”
“It can,” Strelzar said. “The Southern Range has been a weak point for hundreds of years. Made weaker in modern history with the destruction of the Southern Fortress of Diendurang during the Second Tal'lean War, which was actually started to contest the rule of the area.”
“It used to be a separate kingdom from Northern Govaland,” Virro added, “and both Londess and Tal'lea wanted to take it over. Instead of either of them emerging as victors, both were caught in a deadly winter in the unforgiving mountains before Northern Govaland reached an agreement to merge into one kingdom with the South, and drove the remaining enemy forces out entirely.”
“The trade pass has always served as a huge economic boon for Southern Govaland, and then Govaland as a whole,” Strelzar explained. “Hence, Londess and Tal'lea have always wanted to control it, as they have always been the ones paying whatever Govaland chooses to charge to use it.”
“Most import and export trade travels by sea now, though, doesn't it?” Turqa asked.
“Yes,” Strelzar said, “but if you control the Southern Range, you control the sea channel, where Govaland currently charges quite a hefty tax on trade, as well.”
“Oh dear...” Turqa sighed in defeat. “He really does want to take it over.”
“Obviously he knows he can't just attack it,” Veria said. “If it hasn't worked in any of the other attempts, he's not stupid enough to just send troops in.”
Daughter of the Diamond: Book IV of the Elementals Series Page 15