Adrienne

by D Renee Bagby

  Adrienne looked at Khursid with hopeful eyes. “I wouldn’t be in danger of being attacked if I visited Sondo?” she asked softly.

  Khursid shook his head. “No one in any kingdom would be stupid enough to attack you, Queen Adrienne. Most fear King Malik, and those who don’t are fools. Any citizen of Sondo who even suggests the idea would meet a horrible death when King Malik found out.” He patted her hand in reassurance. “Our king will let nothing happen to you.”

  Adrienne hoped he was right. With a calm she didn’t feel, she stood and smoothed her dress. Everything had happened too much, too fast.

  “I’m tired. I think I’ll go take a nap before lunch.” She didn’t wait for Khursid to agree before starting away.

  She didn’t remember the walk back to her room, because she was in too much of a daze. How could a kingdom like Sondo exist? Khursid said its citizens were there willingly, but children didn’t have the power or means to leave. She wanted nothing to do with a kingdom who abused children in such a way.

  It took her a moment to realize Malik stood in the room waiting for her. She blinked at him several times, forgetting her anger at him to ask what possessed him to sign a treaty with Sondo—any treaty. The words didn’t get past her lips.

  Suddenly she saw the treaty in all of its glory and knew exactly why she hadn’t before. Adrienne could only view the complete treaty when she and Malik were in a secured room together. Before they were wed, Malik only had to be alone to read the treaty. Getting married changed the terms of the spell that bound it in secrecy.

  Adrienne considered the information before her and knew it should be forgotten until the time came to use it, as lives were at stake.

  “You are confused,” Malik said, breaking the silence. He kept his voice soft because he didn’t know how Adrienne would react. He had wanted her to speak to him first—to forgive him.

  “I’m tired.” She didn’t mean from her walk, but from everything. It was one stress after another.

  Malik ushered her to the bed. Once he had her settled beneath the covers, he sat by her side and held her hand. She didn’t pull away from him and that gave him hope.

  “You have nothing to fear from Sondo.”

  “How did you know I was thinking of Sondo?”

  He moved her hand to caress his temple. “I felt your laughter and knew happiness. Then I felt your horror and I came here to meet you. As soon as you entered the room and shut the door, the treaty appeared in my mind. Specifically the parts about Sondo.” He smiled at her. “I took an educated guess.”

  “They force children to—”

  “No, they do not,” Malik interrupted. He smoothed a hand over her forehead in a soothing manner. “Sondo’s laws are strict because of the freedoms its people are allowed to take. Children under the age of ten are not to be touched.”

  “They’re still children.”

  “I agree—they are still children. However, at the age of ten, the children are given the choice to stay or to leave. They are not forced or swayed in any way. Those who choose to leave become wards of Iniko or Ulan, their choice. That is what our treaty states.”

  Adrienne closed her eyes to digest all of this info. It was wrong and went against everything she believed. She didn’t know how to deal with a country whose policies raised strong moral objections within her. Malik seemed to see nothing wrong.

  “Why your sudden interest in Sondo, my lady?”

  “Rena told me Khursid is gay. It kind of snowballed.”

  Malik chuckled. “I take your meaning and I am as yet still confused, my lady. Please elaborate.”

  Adrienne repeated everything Khursid had told her. She sat up during the middle of the telling so she could judge his reaction better.

  He nodded and said, “I knew Travers had issues with Khursid. I did not think Khursid’s sexual preference was it.”

  “Travers? What does High Chancellor Travers have to do with this?”

  “Travers is Khursid’s father.”

  Adrienne fell over, the bed cushioning her short fall. Malik couldn’t have surprised her more if he had said Saj was Khursid’s father.

  He laughed at her reaction. “Is their relationship so surprising?”

  She righted herself, then answered, “Yes! They look nothing alike. They act nothing alike. Are you sure it’s Travers?”

  “Positive, my lady. Khursid takes more after his mother—Travers’s wife—than his father.”

  Without thinking, Malik leaned forward and placed his lips against Adrienne’s. He couldn’t help it, her cute antics overwhelmed his sense. He’d held her hand throughout their conversation and she hadn’t pulled away from him. They hadn’t been this close in weeks.

  He didn’t come back to himself until Adrienne pulled away from him.

  “Malik, I think—”

  “Forgive me, my lady. I did not mean to take advantage of this moment,” he whispered. He searched her eyes to discern her emotions. He felt nothing from her. Not anger or upset, but not lust either. “I understand I betrayed your trust, but know I did not mean to.”

  “You should have told me about the harem,” she whispered.

  “Yes, I should have. You must believe I would have told you, if I had but remembered.”

  “How do you forget an entire harem consisting of nearly one hundred women?” she asked incredulously. “You obviously remembered them long enough to bar them from the wedding.” She tried to retrieve her hand from Malik but he wouldn’t let her go.

  “I did not bar them from the wedding, Adrienne.”

  “You wanted them to come?” she yelled.

  Malik shouted, “No.” He lowered his voice to a normal tone. “The moment Travers announced he had found you, all thoughts of any other women fled my mind.”

  “What about that other woman? She looked like she was on more than your mind.”

  “I will not discuss Kerest with you. She is a part of my past that I am ashamed of.”

  “You didn’t look—”

  Malik interrupted in a ragged tone, “You walked in on a one-sided kiss, Adrienne. Kerest was my first, and she used that designation to take liberties. I neither encouraged nor wanted her to touch me. I have asked her never to return to Ulan, because I do not wish to hurt you again.” He touched her cheek and whispered, “I want only you, Adrienne. I have wanted you since the blood spell found you.”

  She pulled away from him. “You didn’t know me then.”

  “That did not matter, Adrienne. You are mine. The blood spell said as much.”

  “So it didn’t matter who, so long as the blood spell chose her, then, huh?”

  “You twist my words.”

  “I’m calling it like I see it, Malik. You would be having this conversation with some other woman if the blood spell hadn’t chosen me.”

  Malik nodded in agreement, though he hated to concede to Adrienne’s point. “You are soul of my soul, Adrienne. We were meant to be together. Dimensional space could not separate us.”

  “‘Soul of my soul’? What does that mean?”

  Malik searched for a term or phrase Adrienne would understand. He answered, “Your people would call us soul mates.”

  “Wait. What?”

  “That is what that particular blood spell does. It searches for the one woman who is my soul mate. She alone is my equal, and worthy of being my queen. For me there is no other but you, my Adrienne.”

  Adrienne’s marriage to Malik didn’t happen randomly. The spell picked her because she was his soul mate. This news made all her tension disappear. All this time she’d thought any woman from Earth could rule with Malik, and the blood spell had clued in on her first. But if she was Malik’s soul mate, there could be no other.

  That news made her happy, but there was still the matter of the harem with which to contend.

  “Why didn’t you disband the harem, if I’m the only one for you?”

  “I told you, I forgot their presence. I ceased caring for them—I
did not care for those women to begin with. I retrieved you and never gave them another thought, not until I saw the Keeper in the throne room.”

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  “It is the truth. I would have told you and I would have disbanded them had I but remembered. You drove thoughts of any other woman from my mind. My attention, my entire being, is focused solely on you.”

  A knock at the door interrupted whatever Adrienne would have said.

  Malik yelled, “Not now.”

  The door opened anyway. Saj and Mushira entered and closed the door. They faced Adrienne and Malik solemnly.

  Malik stood and said in a deadly quiet voice, “I said not now. Get. Out.”

  Saj responded, “I barred the ladies of the harem from the wedding, both ceremony and feast.”

  “I kept everyone from even hinting about the harem to you, My Queen,” Mushira said. “As I kept them from mentioning anything that might make you think badly of King Malik. I did not mean to deceive you, and I ask for your forgiveness.”

  “You?” Adrienne asked. She looked between them.

  “I make no apologies for my actions,” Saj said. “I thought only of the good of the kingdom. We needed our queen. If she found out about the harem, Queen Adrienne would have protested the marriage longer. I would have dismissed the girls outright; however, I did not have the authority to do such as that.”

  Malik said through his teeth, “If you had reminded me, Saj, I would have dismissed them.”

  “True. I wished to conceal them, not remind you, since you had forgotten. I exercised the full extent of my power to keep the girls hidden and relations sanguine between my king and queen,” Saj replied. He bowed at the waist as though to say “you’re welcome” for the favor he had rendered.

  Adrienne couldn’t believe her ears. She pointed to the door and said, “Get out. Both of you leave. Now. Don’t say anything else, just get out.”

  Mushira opened her mouth to plead her case.

  “She said not another word,” Malik growled.

  Saj urged Mushira from the room and closed the door behind them.

  Malik stared at it in confusion. In the history of his rule, Saj had never done anything like this. These past few weeks of misery were because Saj elected to hide the truth rather than let Malik deal with it and abolish his harem.

  Several explosions in rapid succession made Malik whirl around and face Adrienne. She’d destroyed every vase in the room, which Hani had placed there in case Adrienne ever needed them.

  “Adrienne?”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, staring at her hands.

  Malik went to Adrienne’s side. He took her hands in his and brought them to his lips. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I should not have forgotten the harem. My carelessness caused you pain. I will not be so forgetful in the future.”

  He laid a gentle kiss on her hands, then he turned and scanned the mess Adrienne had made. He released her and started towards the first vase. The glass would need to be cleaned up and Adrienne was not in the mood to suffer the presence of their servants. He would clean it himself.

  “Leave it,” Adrienne said softly.

  “Adrienne?” He looked back at her.

  She stood and walked over to him. Taking his hand, she pulled him into the bathroom, away from the broken glass, and closed the door. She looked into his eyes and asked, “Did you go to the harem after you brought me here?”

  “No. Adrienne, I have already—”

  She placed a finger over his lips. “Am I being an idiot for trusting you?”

  He removed her finger to answer, “No, you are not, my Adrienne.”

  “I don’t want it mentioned ever again. What’s done is done. I don’t want to think about this anymore, either.”

  “Allow me to help you forget,” Malik said in a low voice. He tilted her chin so she looked at him.

  “Please.”

  His lips met hers and the world faded away.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Adrienne smoothed her dress over her knees as she knelt in front of the she-cat. The cat was dark burgundy with a sprinkling of pale yellow spots across her shoulders. Belatedly, Adrienne wondered if mulits had any set color scheme or patterning.

  Today she would choose her cub. The last few days had been spent getting to know Malik all over again. Now that their relationship was back on track, she wanted her bribe.

  She smiled at the she-cat as it eyed her. “Hello.”

  “You do not reek of the power of which Malik lays claim,” the she-cat finally said.

  Adrienne nodded. “You’re right, I don’t.”

  “Who are they?”

  She glanced back at Chancellor Riler and Chancellor Sabri. She’d hoped the men would stop following her when they found out her destination. No such luck.

  “They are children asking for mommy’s permission when daddy already said no,” Adrienne said. She smirked at the chancellors’ insulted looks. It served them right for trying to get her on their side so she would convince Malik.

  Sabri asked, “You can understand the she-cat, Majesty?”

  “Can’t you?” She would have thought the chancellors powerful enough to understand and communicate with animals.

  Travers answered as he entered the room, “It is a rare mage who can understand animals, especially the animals of Ulan, Queen Adrienne. In my experience, only the Mage Guild masters and King Malik are capable of such a feat.” He sketched a quick bow and smiled at her as he straightened.

  “Oh.” She looked back at Feyr. She’d understood him from their first meeting and thought her entourage had exaggerated her abilities to make her feel better. Was communicating with animals really all that rare?

  “Yes, Adrienne, it is,” Feyr answered.

  She frowned at that. “Could you only answer questions I ask out loud, please?”

  Feyr gave his usual feline smile. He stuck his muzzle in her face, his grin growing when their audience gasped. “The volume of your thoughts made me think it was a question asked aloud.”

  “Sorry,” she said softly. She gave Feyr’s nose a pat and he retreated to his previous position. Her attention returned to his mate. Given the expression on the she-cat’s face, Adrienne could tell the cat wasn’t happy. She asked the obvious question, “He didn’t ask you, did he?”

  The she-cat snuffed at that. “Oh, he asked. Though his request left no room for refusal.”

  Adrienne nodded. That sounded like Malik. “Do you want me to have one of your cubs?” she asked and hoped the answer was still yes.

  Travers answered before the she-cat could. “If it is King Malik’s wish, the she-cat has no say in the matter. He is King of Ulan, and she resides in Ulan.”

  The matter-of-fact quality of Travers’s voice made Adrienne mad. Nothing gave Malik the right to separate a child from its mother, especially not to pay Adrienne’s bribe.

  “My child was a bribe to you then, Malik’s mate?” the she-cat asked in a curious tone. She cocked her head to the side.

  Adrienne shrugged. “In a manner of speaking. He saw my interest in Feyr and thought a younger version would cheer me up. For my part, I had to leave my room.”

  “A bribe then,” the she-cat agreed. She cast her eyes away from Adrienne to look down at her sleeping young. One cub with blue and grey tiger-stripes was fully awake and watched the newcomers with fascination. “I do not think my mate weak, not anymore,” she began.

  Feyr explained, “She thought my life in the palace made me less than the free mulits of Ulan.”

  “In other words, she thought you were tamed,” Adrienne clarified, mostly for herself, and nodded. “I can understand how you would fear something like that for your cubs. But—”

  “But Feyr is not tamed. He proved that during the challenges when he won the right to court me. His time with Malik did not turn him into a kept animal.” She looked at Adrienne. “I cannot say the same for you.”

  And suddenly the
real problem presented itself. The act of giving up one of her cubs wasn’t the she-cat’s issue—the she-cat feared Adrienne would turn it into a weakling.

  Adrienne would probably baby the cub beyond reason. Just looking at all of them asleep made her want to cuddle them close. A feat that would prove hard once the cub was Feyr’s size, but she doubted she would stop.

  “But?” asked Riler when Adrienne didn’t finish.

  Adrienne rose and dusted off her dress, frowning at a little brown spot that didn’t shake loose. Looks like she would be changing before lunch…again.

  “I respect your decision,” she said to the she-cat. She gave Feyr’s head a pat and left the room.

  She crossed the threshold, then stopped. Malik leaned against the wall to the immediate left of the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed. He looked like he was asleep. She thought to walk past without waking him, but Malik had other plans.

  “I meant for you to have one of Feyr’s cubs, Adrienne,” he said without opening his eyes.

  Adrienne turned back. “What you meant and what truly happened are two totally different things, Malik.”

  Chancellor Riler and Chancellor Sabri inched past the royal couple and escaped quickly down the hallway.

  “Do you usually back down so easily when someone tells you no?” he asked with an edge of scorn.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. Why did he want to pick another fight when they had just made up? Or was this to be their relationship, one fight after the next followed by amazing make-up sex?

  After a calming breath, she said, “You promised me something that wasn’t your right to give in the first place, Malik. She said no. I’m not bully enough to take a child from its mother by force.”