“Maybe you’re just smart,” I suggested.
“Do you really think so, my lady?”
“Well, sure.” I laughed a little. Oszin thought Ijaru was lacking in some common sense because she’d helped him escape. But being a clever scholar and having common sense were two very different things. Mist dragons, I knew, were mostly illiterate but Ijaru had been picking up reading very fast.
It’s helpful, Peri signed. It’s hard to change my signs for the tutor.
Well, at least I guess that was what she said because Ijaru said,
“I’m sure. You’re used to doing things one way and now you have to learn a new language!” Ijaru tried to sign as she spoke, when she had a word for it, for practice. “I don’t mind! It’s fun!”
Okay, good night, kids, Peri said. I’m a tired old lady.
Phoebe scoffed. “We’re as tired as anyone. But Raia should be back soon. I’m going to put Rina to bed myself.”
Abel, Forrest and Niko were out at the base while the rest of the men were playing some card game in the cellar, where the wine kegs were kept, probably indulging more than they should, but I was glad they were enjoying themselves now and then, and the house was well guarded.
Ijaru fed Kajira and helped me get ready for bed.
“Is that Raia in the courtyard?” I asked, hearing voices.
She peeked out a corner of the window. “Yesss….”
“Are they kissing?”
“Not yet…he has his hands on her arms.”
I ambled over behind her and we both looked out the crack in the curtains.
“I can almost hear what they’re saying,” Ijaru said.
“We shouldn’t spy,” I said. But of course, I was straining to hear. I didn’t understand why Raia and Merrick hadn’t gotten closer when they seemed to be together so often. “I bet Abel usually leaves his windows open…”
We hurried over to Abel’s room. Yes, the windows were open and the dark, moonlit space was freezing, but we could hear Raia and Merrick’s voices trapped within the garden walls and carried straight up to us like a secret.
As soon we looked out the windows here, we were met with the sight of Merrick kissing her. It was a good kiss, too. Deep and long. His arms went around her and she stood on her tip toes.
“Ahh…” I was hugging myself with excitement. “Finally!”
“This is the best spying ever,” Ijaru whispered.
“Raia…” Merrick drew back.
“I thought you’d never…do that,” Raia said. “It was worth the wait.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice sounded heavy. “I’ve wanted to. I—I never meant to get involved here.”
“It’s okay,” Raia said. “I understand the military life! I’ll go where you go. I like traveling. I can take care of myself. I’m not a human girl.”
“No, you definitely aren’t that. Of course, not all human girls are ladylike. But I haven’t encountered very many who will listen to me ramble about mathematics and cartography.”
“Anytime,” Raia said. “I’ve learned a lot. But when are you gonna let me teach you a few things, huh?”
“You and Abel really are polar opposites,” he said, with a faint laugh. But then he got serious—again. Ugh. “I…I’m definitely—interested. I mean—the dreams I’ve had about you.” He paused. “Damnit…”
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I frowned a little. Is he married already? I hadn’t thought of that, but maybe…he had a wife somewhere. Maybe it was that sort of thing.
“Can I…come up for a bit?”
“Of course! Anything! I’ll make you a cup of tea and you can tell me anything that’s on your mind. Really. I’ve heard it all.” She squeezed his hand and then ran ahead eagerly. He paused and rubbed his palm, flexing his fingers like it hurt, and then he went after her.
I felt a small prickle of anxiety. “Ijaru,” I said. “Go downstairs and tell the guys to put their game aside for a bit and come up here.”
She obviously had no concerns. Her eyes went wide and clueless. “Oh…okay.”
She hurried out the door, always quick to follow an order, and I went to my room and got my knife. I was already out of breath. The babies felt like they were about to pop out of me and it seemed like they hadn’t left any space for my organs or lungs. I already looked like I was nine and a half months pregnant and it had barely been seven months. One of them started kicking and then I felt like I had to pee again.
“Oh, just wait—” I waddled over to Phoebe’s room and knocked. “Phoebe?”
No answer. Downstairs, the door opened and now I heard Raia and Merrick talking to her. Maybe she had decided to rock Rina by the hearth for a little while before coming up. I don’t know why I had such a tingly feeling. They all had friendly voices.
I made my way down the stairs. Aurek and Oszin would be mad at me for doing this by myself at this point, but—story of my life. My whole childhood was spent getting yelled at for being more active than I was supposed to be.
“She’s so cute,” Raia was saying. “Can I hold her?”
“Of course! She won’t go to sleep, the little night owl.”
“Phoebe—we were going to have tea. Do you want some? I could make it,” Merrick said.
“Oh, sure,” Raia said. “There’s a blend in that tin on the shelf. Hey, little fishie fishie fishie… You want my earring? Ow!”
“Yeah, she does that.”
I reached the bottom of the stairs and saw that Merrick was going to the cabinet to get cups. He saw me there and looked startled.
“Oh—Your Majesty. I didn’t expect to see you there.”
“I told Ijaru to bring all the men up and we could all have a little tea,” I said.
“How did you know we were having tea?” His eyes darted. “You have a knife.”
“Oh, I carry it under my coat often, just in case. Since I’m alone this evening…you know.” I heard laughter under my feet. Hmm. It seemed as if Ijaru might have gotten sucked in to the game instead of bringing the men upstairs.
He rubbed his hand again. “Do you have any healing balm handy?” he asked. “I was transcribing all day.”
Raia has been seeing Merrick for months. This is all just paranoia. You’re pregnant and you’re getting some weird ideas…
“Yes. Of course.” I was reluctant to take my eyes off him, but I went to the medicine cabinet, which was in the hall.
I paused and rubbed my hand the same way he had rubbed his own. Thumb across the center of the palm. This is where my brother’s sigil appeared.
Suddenly I was very worried and I knew I couldn’t handle it myself, but I just wasn’t sure. I rushed down the stairs. Aurek, Oszin, Gilbert and Rin were playing cards, with Ijaru’s father trying to help Aurek, by the looks of it, although Aurek looked way too sloshed to be playing a good game.
“Guys! Hey!”
“Moth!” Oszin waved me toward him. “You shouldn’t be running down the stairs.”
“I—I know… But please come upstairs. Right now. Please. Act normal, but—”
Gilbert stood up, but I wasn’t very comforted by the way he wobbled.
“I told you guys not to get too drunk!” I said.
“So many damn guards outside…what could go wrong?” Aurek asked.
“C’mon…c’mon…when someone says go, I come,” Gilbert said.
“Yeah you do.” Rin guffawed.
I grabbed Rin and shook him, then poked him with the tip of my knife’s scabbard. He kept laughing. “I’m serious!” I hissed. “I think Merrick might have a sigil on his hand!” I didn’t really want to say it in front of Ijaru and Morhu; I didn’t know if I could trust them with that sort of thing, but I didn’t have time for anymore joking around.
They all sobered up—as best they could—very quickly. Oszin ran for the stairs, and I followed him. Oszin usually didn’t drink as much as other men, thankfully. He always had an edge of mistrust that kept him sober.
“Himika…be careful…,” he said behind me. “You stay down here.”
“Remember, act normal, I’m not sure!” I said.
With all that time wasted, we came upstairs just as Merrick was handing Phoebe and Raia cups of tea.
“Phoebe, wait—wait. Can I talk to you for a second?” I gasped out the words. At this point, acting normal wasn’t working very well. I was clutching my belly and breathing like I’d run ten miles.
“Himika, what’s wrong?” Phoebe quickly put down the tea.
I saw Merrick looking completely panicked. “No!” he snapped. “No!”
I was already drawing my knife, and Oszin his sword. Merrick pulled his sword and I threw my blade. I hoped I was right about all this. But if I was and I hesitated, Phoebe might die, and then all her guardians would die too.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Himika
The knife hit Merrick’s chest. Then Oszin was on him, kicking him to the ground, putting his blade to his throat.
“No! Stop!” Raia screamed. “What is happening?”
Merrick shut his eyes and lifted his hands in defeat. “They have my family!”
Oszin kept his foot on his chest but he lifted the sword a little. “Are you a guardian? Tell us everything right now.”
“I am a guardian. I wish to the gods I wasn’t. Rothair found me—no—first he found my family. My parents. My two younger sisters, only thirteen and fifteen. I came home and he was there. He’d taken them, he said, to a prison underground, and he would keep them alive as long as I worked for him. He wanted me to get close to the priestess.”
“You were going to kill me?” Phoebe snatched Rina back and edged into Rin’s arms, as he had just come up the stairs.
“I really do have the worst taste in men,” Raia said.
“Raia—I’m so sorry—” He was looking pale. “I didn’t want to kill Phoebe at all. Before I came here, I consented to the elders casting a spell on me that would force my hand. I didn’t know any of you yet. It was an easy choice between my family’s lives and yours—then. Because I didn’t know anything yet. Now I do, but it was too late to take it back. And I didn’t mean to involve you. When we first talked I thought it was just talking. But we did—have such good walks. Damn it. If you kill me…please save my family. I don’t care about myself, just them.”
“He needs a healer,” Oszin said.
The babies were kicking inside me and I was feeling faint. I tried to move to the nearest chair.
“Ooh…” I felt like I might have peed myself. I didn’t quite make it. I heard screams around me as my body thudded to the floor, but it seemed to come from somewhere else.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Oszin
“Himika!” I ran to her side as the guards came in to take care of Merrick. She was limp when I picked her up, and I felt something warm on my hand—blood.
“She’s bleeding. If you all hadn’t had too much to drink someone could have caught her!”
“Well, she was running around like a…a…cat,” Rin said, obviously looking for a better metaphor and failing.
“I told her to stay in bed,” Aurek said. “Is she—” He put his hands on her. “Himika?”
“She’s unconscious. I have to get her to bed. If she loses the babies…”
“They did say twins are usually early,” Phoebe said. “How early is too early?”
I rushed Himika to bed. Blood was trickling out of her. I felt completely panicked. What did I know about babies? I’d spent my life protecting her. I never thought she would even have a baby. Now I couldn’t stand how vulnerable she looked, her small body so heavy with two children. How could my delicate girl manage such a task as this?
I looked frantically for some sort of medicine—towels—
“Moth…” I just wanted her to wake up. If she woke up, I felt like she’d be fine. She had enough will to live. I’d seen that in a battle. If a fallen man just stayed awake…the chances were much better.
“Moth! Why were you running around up and down stairs carrying a knife around anyway? Fighting isn’t your job.” Her eyelids didn’t even flutter. “Don’t leave me. I’ll never forgive them.”
“So…you know…,” she whispered.
I clutched her hand. “There you are. Look at me.”
“Oszin…you were such…an ass…leaving me. Just to prove…something. You could’ve come back without a tongue. I wouldn’t like that.”
I still didn’t like how dreamy her smile was.
There was a healer in the room now, a crystal dragon, and a human midwife as well. They seemed to be moving around in shadows, in another world. All I saw was Himika, trying to will her to stay with me.
“I am sorry,” I said. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have left. I wanted you to see me as useful. And strong. Around Seron and Ezeru, all the skills I was once praised for seemed like nothing. But when I saw Seron under the influence of the mist, I realized that he can still be hurt too. There were moments when I was so terrified—I just wanted to be home with you. We’re all strong in our own ways. I understand that.”
She sighed softly.
“Moth…” I clenched her hand hard. “Come on. Keep talking to me.”
The crystal dragon healer had her other hand. A slight frown tugged at his mouth.
“Is she okay? What’s happening? Can you tell?”
“This could be serious,” he said. “I don’t have as much crystal magic as I would have underground. She shouldn’t have been running around stressing herself.”
“I tried to tell her…” Aurekdel walked up next to me. I realized he’d been standing by the door, listening. He brushed my arm and followed it to my hand, and folded his over both of ours. I would have found this weird, once. Now it actually calmed me down, and I thought, If Himika died, I would lose them too.
I was struck by how hard this hit me. I loved my parents, but I had always quested for more than they had, until I was Himika’s guard. I had such a high position for a Kamiri, I felt somewhere in between worlds.
I had missed the sun. I had struggled with being a mere human among dragons. But one thing I had found was equal footing with kings. Even Himika herself had never treated me quite like that.
“Seron could have helped her,” he said. Then, “Let me have her hand for a moment.”
I drew away. Aurek’s hand clutched hers. His other hand moved to the swell of her belly.
“Do you have any healing abilities?” I asked him.
“Every crystal dragon has a little. My magic has always been better at connection. But we’ve already seen the children heal once.” He took a crystal from his pocket and placed it on her stomach. “Come on, little ones. Rescue your mother from her own hubris.”
We were all silent with tension as Aurek concentrated.
The crystal glowed so bright I squinted, and I heard Aurek’s breath catch with anticipation as he sensed something working. Light seemed to spread through Himika’s veins, spiderwebs of blue racing along her skin before they faded, and she opened her eyes again.
“Ah!” the healer said. “I felt that!”
“Mm…” Himika looked at us. “I feel so warm all of a sudden.” She held up her hand. It was glowing with the mark that bonded Aurek and Himika when they married.
Aurek exhaled with deep relief.
“What happened?” Himika said.
“Your babies saved your ass again,” Aurek said. He clutched his head. “All this and I’m still so damn drunk…”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Himika
After that, I was completely forbidden from getting out of bed. Oszin and Aurekdel would hardly let me pee without them. The midwife gave me quite a talking to, that I was having twins, and the children of a seven foot tall man who was also a dragon, and I was very small and fragile, so if I wanted to have healthy babies and not die, I had better stay in bed.
She didn’t exactly say it in those words, but I got the idea.
But, I realized what a close call it had been. I was quite shaken. And Seron and Ezeru had to make it home first. Now we had guards inside the house, and most of the liquor stash was removed for good measure. It was only fair.
It was a wonderful time in most ways. I couldn’t wait to meet the babies that healed me. Maybe Phoebe had more graceful, easy pregnancies but had Rina healed her lately? I hoped for a girl and a boy, just like Rin and me.
Merrick was locked up and Phoebe’s guardians questioned him thoroughly.
“Sir Forrest said he would have done the same thing,” Raia told me. “Rothair made him choose between his family and people he’d never met. I mean, who wouldn’t choose their family? Once he got to know us, it was too late. He had already made a magical bargain and Rothair had some sort of spell cast on him. Abel pointed out that Merrick had done a lot to help us. There was no evidence he ever tried to sabotage Abel’s work.”
“So…what about you?”
“Well, I think…if he was my husband, I would want him to choose my life over the priestess,” Raia said.
“He doesn’t have a wife, does he?”
“Oh no no! Just parents and sisters. The only problem is…well…the priestess.”
“She won’t ever be the priestess, though,” I said. “I mean, hopefully!”
“No. But…Forrest said he felt a little bit of a pull to Phoebe even before she awakened. So if they bring the priestess here…” Raia turned red. “I don’t know how they would feel about it.”
“They?”
“Merrick and the priestess.”
“You don’t mean he would be with both of you!?”
Raia stared at me. “You think that’s weird?”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set: A Fantasy Romance Page 78