Shadows of the Night (Kingdom Key Book 2)

by TylerRose.

  She turned on him. He saw those large black eyes, the hard, not quite human breaths. He took her by the elbow up to the front door and directly into the nearly empty closet under the stairs. A yank to turn on the light and he held her tight against him with one arm around her back and another to the back of her head.

  “Let her go,” he said, and repeated himself several times. “Be at peace. Let her go.”

  She held him just as tight around his ribs, not able to get a handle on…whatever this was…that had gotten away from her so completely. She was fighting the whirling rampage inside her head, not knowing how to regain her usual composure.

  “I’ve got you, Wildflower,” he said, voice calm and solid when she felt like she was flying apart in all directions.

  He could only hold on and wait for the break, however long that took. She needed another few minutes before the cacophony in her mind shattered and the demon within released her. She all but fell against her uncle with the weakness in her legs.

  He opened the door picked her up bodily across his arms to carry up the stairs to her bedroom. Shestna was there, said not a single word as he followed. He didn’t have to say anything. Having asked Tyler to share so often previously, she’d done it reflexively. He’d felt everything she had from the second shove into the stream. Her crash was hard, fast and complete. Within seconds of being placed on the bed, she was asleep.

  “Catch her when she falls,” Shestna said under his breath, seeing with his own eyes exactly what Addie had warned him of. “How did this happen?”

  “You went to visit Jerome, right?” Radames asked, still sitting next to her.

  “Yes.”

  “Did she touch him?”

  “She did.”

  “That is how this happened. After so long away from him, she got a big jolt of his crystal energy. It energized the goddess within. She came out with the provocation of the husband hitting Zarabeth and he was too stupid to take her warning.”

  “He’s fortunate she didn’t finish him,” Shestna said.

  “He has no idea how fortunate he is,” Radames agreed. “She should be fine when she wakes. Will you wait with her?”

  “Of course. You should go back to the family.”

  Radames headed for the door, stopping short as Zarabeth was about to come in.

  “Best to leave her be for now,” he told his daughter.

  “I’ve never seen her like that before, Da. Does she need anything?”

  “No. Go tell your husband I will see him on the front porch right now.”

  She hurried down, Radames following at a slower pace. He took to standing on the top step of the porch. Pali came around the driveway side, stopping at the bottom step to look up to his father in law. He had bathed and changed his clothes.

  “You wanted to see me.”

  Radames looked down on the boy from twice as far as he would were they on even ground. “The next time you lay a hand on my daughter or the children you give to her, I will let Tyler fulfill her threat.”

  “I think the girl lies about killing a man,” Pali scoffed.

  “You go on thinking that. See how far it gets you. She told you to keep thirty feet away from her. I’m telling you to stay out of her sight altogether until she leaves.”

  “She’s just a girl.”

  “No, Pali. She’s not. Our family keeps and protects some of the most ancient secrets of Earth. If you do not find your place within the family during this gathering, if you do not find your loyalty to us, I will send you away and Zarabeth will divorce you. Finish putting up your tent.”

  Pali walked away without a word.

  Tyler woke feeling tiredbut herself again. She remembered what had happened, but didn’t know why it had happened. Shestna repeated what Radames had said about touching Jerome after so long, the jolt waking up the goddess within.

  “We will have to be more careful about that in the future,” he concluded. “Are you strong enough to go downstairs?”

  “Yes, but I don’t want to. I’m embarrassed.”

  “Don’t be. He hit your cousin and you took action.”

  “Not that part,” she said. “I was totally out of control. I couldn’t stop myself. It was like I was inside but my body was controlled by someone else. I’m never out of control. I hated every second.”

  “I think it was being controlled by someone else, Tyler. The force inside you is like a separate being. She’s going to make herself known now and then. She’s been doing that all along, I’d bet. You need to make friends with her. Come on. Let’s go downstairs for supper.”

  “I need to clean up first. I’m all dusty from the yard.”

  She wiped down with a damp cloth and changed clothes. The aunts and grandmothers were coming back to the porch from helping with the meals at their individual family’s stove. She and Shestna joined them at the table. Addie poured her a glass of iced tea from the pitcher.

  “Thank you.”

  “I knew he’d hit her before. I never caught him. Thank you, Tyler,” Aishe said. Zarabeth’s mother, the one usually watching over the cousins when they’d been little.

  Tyler made no reply. She couldn’t. She had no words to reply with. The eyes were darting to her over and over from around the yard, the family having gotten a good look at what had grown up among them. What they had helped to raise over the years. They tried not to think too harshly, but some of them were a bit more worried about their own personal safety.

  Gramma took her hand, capturing her attention. “It’s okay, child. They’ll get over it. Just sit here and smoke your pipe. We’ll have a meal and things will be normal again fast enough.”

  Tyler brought her pipe to her hands. A few tokes did sound good, to quell the lingering anxiety.

  Nearly all of the garden had been harvested. Extraneous plant matter was being turned into the compost pile by two of the younger men. The aunts and grandmothers were shelling peas and beans on the table. Tyler and Sta reached to help and he learned the art of shelling peas.

  [Why are the men looking at me oddly now?] he asked.

  [Because you are doing women’s work.]

  [Oh. Is that all.]

  She smiled to herself at his dismissing tone. He could not have cared less that others thought it was women’s work. It was what he chose to do.

  “What is your family like when gathered, Shestna?” Gramma asked.

  “Except for the children, they are measured and calculating and reserved. But we are children of the Emperor of Voran and not allowed to be what others would call normal. The Emperor likes to have his family around him in a courtyard that has a pool, so he can have all of his wives present and nude to watch them swim.”

  The aunts and grandmothers chuckled around the table.

  “How many wives does he have?” Aishe asked.

  “Thirty two at the moment. Numerous of them are with child. His youngest offspring was born a few days ago. I have 153 siblings.”

  “He’s a busy man!” Addie said, the table erupting into unexpectedly loud laughter.

  The peas done, Shestna carried the bowl and followed Tyler across the yard to a cooking stove. Water was already boiling. Nadya, Addie’s 4th child and second daughter, smiled at him and took the bowl to pour the little spheres in.

  Trestle tables came out of the shed. Shestna helped the men carry, and earned no small respect when he could carry an entire table top by himself. Held high over his head, he walked faster than the others and easily placed the top on the end pieces without assistance. Every girl and unoccupied woman carried the chairs.

  “Tyler, you and Shestna will sit with me on the porch,” Addie said, coming herself to get her own plate.

  Plates in hand, the line began. Each pot and pan held a different food. It was Tyler’s turn to tell Shestna what each thing was. He took a small portion of everything, perfectly willing to taste every dish on the line. He insisted on carrying Addie’s plate for her when it was full. The table was lively with more
talk of families in other areas of the country, new children and grandchildren, recent and upcoming marriages.

  Once the main meal was finished and plates taken to be washed, Tyler and Aishe brought out four of the pies. Cut into six pieces and served out to the adults and some of the kids, Shestna had his first taste of the pies he had helped to make that morning. The filling was sweet and tart, the hard cubes of rhubarb having softened to easily squish against the roof of the mouth. The crust was flaky and delicious.

  “I have tasted many wonderful foods today,” he said to Addie. “Thank you for such hospitality.”

  “You are the first man Tyler has brought to her family,” Addie replied. “That means there is something special about you. We recognize this.”

  “Shestna, come sit with us,” Radames invited.

  The brothers and Nadya’s husband were there with him to talk. Tyler nodded Shestna off.

  “I’m here to be with you, Femina.”

  “This is how it’s done,” she told him. “Men go and talk in one place and women in another.”

  He stood to go, paused himself to bend over and kiss her. Only then did he leave her side. She watched him walk with confidence to the chair waiting for him.

  “Well, there is no doubting you love the man,” Aishe said. “And he certainly loves you.”

  Several heads nodded around the table.

  “I never said I don’t love him,” Tyler replied.

  “So marry him.”

  “He and I have had that conversation. I cannot promise him monogamy. I like men too completely to promise never to be with any man other than him. He understands. Maybe I’ll marry him at some point ten years from now. Just not now.”

  “You should be two years married and pregnant with your second child by now,” Aishe’s mother said. “Keeping your house clean.”

  “You don’t know anything about me to know what I should do, Donka,” Tyler replied, flat and emotionless. “Excuse me, Gramma.”

  She was off the porch, phone in hand and dialing as she passed through the circle of men like they weren’t even there.

  “Yes, Ma’am?” Ch’Wik answered.

  “How is she?”

  “It was a rough night, but she made it through.”

  The circle of five men stared with wide eyes as she walked barefoot over the fire in the middle without even pausing, like she didn’t know it was there. The low flames flattened under her rather than licking up her legs and sun dress, suppressed by her energy as she passed over them. All eyes went next to Shestna, then to Radames.

  “Apparently there are things we should know,” his brother Stevo said.

  “I think it is time,” Radames said, opening his cooler to get out another round of beers. He pulled his chair in closer, the rest following suit.

  Shestna twisted off the cap and drank deep, having discovered he liked Earth beer. He listened to Radames’ version of the story Adelaide had told. There wasn’t much difference. Not enough to matter.

  “Why should I not have told her to walk it off?” Stevo asked when the story was finished.

  “Because one of these times, she will start walking and not stop. She will literally walk the width of this country, turn around and go back the other way. Without a Conduit or a Conservator, it is harder to stop her. I was able to do it only because I didn’t let her get very far.”

  Shestna had an instant urge to find her and stop her walking a thousand miles.

  “Pardon my swift exit,” he said, leaving the seat to dash between campers, expecting to see her on the other side of the stream and quarter of a mile away.

  He stopped short, seeing her pace an area ten feet long this side of the tree. She turned off the phone and put it in the pocket of her dress, stopping her pacing to look at the sky.

  “Everything well at home?” he asked.

  “Well enough. The guys are doing their job.”

  “Good. Shall we take a walk along the stream?” he asked, taking her hand. “What’s that building there?”

  “The barn where they processed the indigo two hundred years ago.”

  “Would you consider keeping the two K’Tran on as your own personal guards and escorts when Mariah no longer needs them?”

  “According to Mariah, she doesn’t need them now,” Tyler said. “But no, I don’t want guards. I don’t need escorts.”

  “You know about the pentagon, right? That there is the one at the top, then two with crystal energy. At the bottom are two escort companions, to do exactly what they have already done for you while you were on K’Tran.”

  “Knowing about it doesn’t mean I want it.”

  “Yet you agree to have me as your Apogee,” he pointed out.

  “You want to be the leader for a while, you be the leader. Whatever makes you feel better.”

  “Then as the Apogee, I say that I will hire the two men indefinitely and they will be your companions and escorts until someone kills Solomon. After that, we will see.”

  “You did that on purpose to trick me,” she accused.

  He stopped walking, turned to take her into his arms for a loose embrace…and was delighted that she pressed her pelvis to his rather than holding herself away. Even in her annoyance, she was still fully accepting of him.

  “I would never trick you into anything, Femina. A man gets a lot farther with you when his motives are transparent. All I want is for you to be safe. I want to have people who know where you are to help me keep you safe.”

  “I don’t think there’s any such thing for me, Sta. There’s never going to be such a thing as safe ever again.”

  A quiet candor of thoughts he’d long held himself.

  “Please treat your two men the way you did on K’Tran. They are not the enemy. They are your best allies,” he said.

  “I hate when you do that, you know.”

  “Do what?”

  “Talk sense into me,” she said.

  He laughed, turning her the rest of the way to walk back to the house. She let him put his arm around her shoulders. They were in time to see Addie heading inside, more tired than she should have been.

  “It’s going to be tonight,” Tyler said to Shestna. “I’m going to be with her. Tell Radames to start cooking the feast.”

  Shestna nodded her off. He stood at the bottom of the porch steps, watching his love hold the door open for her grandmother. He returned to the fire, passing her message to her uncle.

  Radames looked to his brother. “That young gator still on the bank over there?”

  “It was when we were walking back,” Shestna replied.

  “Heath.”

  Radames’ oldest son sat up straighter at his fire. “Yes, Father?”

  “You and the boys dig out the cooking pit. Get it ready. Now.”

  They finished chugging down their beers first. Grabbing shovels from the tool shed, they went to the bare patch halfway between the campers and the tree. They found a corner of a plank of wood first, then used shovels to uncover the entire plank.

  “Come with us, Shestna,” Radames invited. “Let us go catch an alligator together in the sunset.”

  The six men worked as a team. Two went into the stream with a net while the other four circled around the animal. When they were too close, it darted forward to leap into the water and was captured in the net. The gator and the two men both fell into the water, but the animal was too trapped to make his escape. The four went down into the stream to gather up the net and drag the sixty pound animal up the other bank.

  Radames performed the kill and Stevo gutted it on the spot, burying the entrails. Carried back triumphantly, the animal was swiftly skinned and seasoned with salt on the outside and in the cavity. Stuffed with cut up lemons, whole garlic heads sliced in half, and whole onions also cut in half and sewn with cooking twine, the gator was wrapped in wet burlap the women had been soaking since the men left. Another thick wrapping with stiff silver foil and it was ready for the fire.

  The pit
had been uncovered and the previous fire remains shoveled out. Embers from the five fires that had been building all day long were being moved to it. Enough had been left behind to rebuild each family fire. Two bags of charcoal briquettes had been added to the pit as well, to ensure the fire would burn long enough.

  Using ropes as a sling at both ends of the tightly wrapped package, four men worked together to lower the alligator into the 36” deep pit. Soon as it was in place, the younger men swiftly filled in the hole with the dirt that had been on top of the wood cover. The cover on the top marked the spot to remind people where the fire was.

  “How long will it take to cook?” Shestna asked.

  “About twelve hours,” Radames replied. “Let’s get a beer.”

  “I’d like to check on Tyler.”

  “She’s fine, my friend. Sit and have a beer and then we will both go look in on them.”

  “The women are washing the dishes,” Pali said with a sneer, pausing on the other side of the circle from Shestna.

  “What of it,” Shestna replied.

  “You like to do women’s work. You should join them.”

  Shestna laughed. “I do as pleases me. When you are First Prince of Earth and ruler of your own Principality, you can do as pleases you.”

  Radames and the other men chuckled over their beers. Pali scowled and continued through between the campers to the tent on the other side.

  “He is trying very hard to prove himself a man,” Shestna observed. “Some things never change.”

  “No, they do not. Tell me about Voran,” Radames said. “Your own Principality?”

  “It’s a lovely city about half an hour to the west from the capital. Far enough from my father that he does not look over my shoulder every minute. Near enough that I can serve him readily.”

  “I suppose fathers and sons never change,” Stevo said, and finished his bottle.

  “I cannot wait any longer,” Shestna declared. “I want to look in on Tyler.”

  Radames went with him into the house and up to the second floor. Addie’s room was on the East side of the house. First door on the left at the top of the stairs. Tyler was a silent and still as a stone with her legs folded up in the rocking chair.