Brianna (23 page)

“Well, don’t expect to have mirrors on all the walls and the ceiling in our home,” Brianna said with mock seriousness.

A speculative look appeared in Char’s eyes. “Mirrors on the ceiling?”

“Char!”

He laughed and hugged her to him. “I promise to leave all of the decorating to you,” he teased. “Now, if you want to have breakfast before you attend your official adoption into the Hardan royal family, you better get out of this tub. You’ve dawdled enough.”

Water streaming from her body, Brianna stepped from the tub. “And who caused me to dawdle in the first place, I might ask?” She grabbed the washcloth and dropped it on his head.

His laughter followed her as she walked dripping from the room. The angry shriek that came from the bedroom, however, had him out of the tub in a flash. A few quick strides and he stood dripping in the doorway where he found his wife confronting an unemotional Beti.

“How do people keep getting into our room?’ she said angrily. “We better not have this problem at home.”

While one part of his mind was extremely pleased that she referred to

Drakan

as

home,

another

wholeheartedly with her. Casting an angry glance at Beti, he was silenced before he could ask any questions when she held up a key.

“Kahn and I will be your servants and protectors, Princess Alalakan dem al’ Brianna. It is so commanded by the Matriarch of the Aradab,” Beti stated.

Brianna gaped as she digested that bit of information. While she was doing so, Beti’s gaze turned to Char. With a slight smile she added, “You are somewhat thin, Alalakan, but well-hung nevertheless.”

“Char! Go put your clothes on. And you,” she continued to Beti, “I don’t want any servants or bodyguards.”

Beti was undeterred by Brianna’s outburst. “You are a Hardan princess. The Aradab guard the royal family. Kahn and I volunteered. We know your ways better than any others.”

“But…”

“You are the key to the dols and the orcs. You will be protected at all costs.”

“Char,” she began in a pleading tone when he returned with a towel wrapped around his waist.

He shrugged. “Never try to argue with an Aradab. Moving a mountain one spoonful at a time is easier.”

A smug expression appeared on Beti’s face as she nodded her head once in Char’s direction. Then she left the room.

Brianna stamped her foot. “You weren’t very much help!”

Char dropped the towel from about his waist and walked naked to the huge closet where his clothing hung.

Brianna’s anger was replaced with confusion when he returned. Instead of the customary green and gold or the formal white uniform he’d worn the previous evening, he was dressed far more casually, too casually. “How can you go dressed like that? You look like an Indian out of a Western movie. Are you sure that’s proper clothing for the occasion?”

Char combed his hair back and fastened it behind his head with a silver clasp. “A what?”

“Indian—Native American—a race of people who live on Earth, sort of.”

Brianna shook her head. She was being formally adopted into a royal family, and Char was dressed in what looked like a breechcloth. He wore no shirt but had metal armguards that reached from wrist to elbow. The colors of his dragon tattoo seemed to glow more brightly. Would she ever completely understand his alien culture? “Ah, don’t you think you should put more clothing on?”

Glancing back, he smiled. “Your new family will find your choice of apparel far more intriguing than mine.”

Her pique returned. She crossed her arms over her breasts.

“I’m not going anywhere until this is settled. And if you think to sidetrack me with kisses or with threats to carry me into the throne room naked, I know very well that you’d never do it. Now, about this bodyguard business…”

Char sat down on a chair next to the bed and pulled on tall leather boots with metal knee plates. Stiff, brown leather rose above the knee plates halfway up the front of his thighs.

“Brianna, if I knew of a way to send Beti and Kahn back home, I’d do so in an instant. Ask Findal. The Aradab sense of purpose has been a thorn in his side for years. Nothing, I repeat nothing, will sway them once they’ve made up their minds.”

Rising, Char crossed the room to stand in front of her. “But I promise you that I will do my best to limit their presence. There probably isn’t much I can do here, but once we get back to Drakan, I’ll make sure they understand what privacy means.”

She crossed her arms over her chest.

He cupped her face. “Don’t you realize that I will do anything in my power to keep you happy?”

“As long as you think it’s for my own good. I’ve no doubts that there will be certain ‘restrictions’ placed on me, for my own wellbeing, once we reach Drakan,” she answered him in a dissatisfied tone.

Pulling his unresisting wife into his arms, Char carefully rethought his position.
I need her to cooperate. To do that, she
must be kept happy
. “Very well,” he sighed, “I’ll do what I can.”

Releasing her, he strode to the door, pulled it open, and called for Beti. When she appeared, he said, “While I cannot keep you or Kahn from guarding the doorway, you will not enter these rooms without approval from Brianna or myself. Is this understood?”

Beti shifted her gaze to the defiant Brianna who met her baleful stare without flinching. Sullenly, Beti jerked her head in agreement and disappeared from the room. Soon they heard the door to the outside hallway slam.

Brianna knew her smile was smug. “It’s about time I won one. Now, what the hell are you wearing?”

Smiling crookedly, he shrugged. “This is an ancient clan costume, which I’m wearing for the benefit of the Aradab and the Gattan. Both races hold very tightly to tradition. Your adoption into the Medirian royal family is unprecedented. Traditional Alalakan clan costume on my part underscores how honored I am that they have extended this honor to my wife.”

Muttering something under her breath about weird alien customs, Brianna watched as Char walked over to the dresser and slipped on a signet ring she had never seen before.

“What’s that?”

Meeting her gaze in the mirror, he said, “My father gave it to me last night. It belonged to my grandfather.”

A concerned look appeared in her eyes. “Your grandfather didn’t die while you were away, did he?”

He grinned. “No. My grandfather died four years ago. My father gave the ring to me because you carry the Alalakan heir.

Someday, whichever one of our children presents us with our first grandchild will receive my father’s ring.”

Pulling her against his chest, Char stared at her reflection as he caressed her stomach. Brianna was still naked, and he examined her closely in the mirror. Her breasts were certainly fuller than they had been, and her nipples and areolas were beginning to change from rosy pink to light brown. Brianna’s stomach, though, quickly drew his attention. Only a few weeks ago her stomach had been flat, but now there was a definite bulge that seemed to grow bigger on an almost daily basis. He felt a slight stirring beneath his hand.

In the mirror, Brianna’s contented gaze met the amazed expression in his eyes. “He’s very active, you know. That’s why I’ve been getting up so often during the night. He seems to think my bladder is a springboard.”

Char wasn’t quite sure what a springboard was, but he got the general idea. “He?”

“Hmmm, it’s a boy. Women’s intuition, you know.”

Char didn’t know, but after feeling his child move for the first time—shaking himself from his reverie and his uncertainty, Char reluctantly pushed his wife from his arms. “You will be receiving close family naked yet,” he teased. “Lately you seem to want to spend all of your time with your clothing off.”

Brianna’s head snapped up. “Over my dead body,” she began, but at his the alarmed look, she softened and said, “It’s only another Earth expression. Don’t look so shocked.”

“Then be careful what you say,” he replied in a very disgruntled tone as she began to dress.

Meri had suggested that she wear something blue or green to her adoption ceremony since these were favored on Mediria.

Naturally, Brianna chose to ignore this suggestion. She wore a bright yellow dress that left her right shoulder with its flaming dragon bare. Foregoing an elaborate hairdo, her hair flowed unconfined down her back. They’d just have to take her as she was, and she wasn’t adding any more syllables to her name.”

“Ready?”

She turned to Char. “As I’ll ever be.”

Opening a box, he placed one of the more unassuming pieces of jewelry he had bought, a red gold pendant, around her neck. For the first time, she saw the dolphin that had been carefully etched onto its surface. “You don’t want to antagonize any of the Hardans any more than necessary,” he said in the teasing tone he used so often. “Findal’s mother will take one look at that flaming dragon and faint again.”

Brianna sniffed. Tucking her arm in his as they left their suite and made their way towards the throne room, followed by the ever-present Kahn, she countered, “I became an Alalakan before I became a Hardan. I don’t care if she likes it or not.”

Char couldn’t have been more pleased with her answer, and his satisfied expression showed it. Brianna’s quick jab in the ribs, though, took the smug expression from his face.

As Brianna adjusted the pendant, Char allowed his mind to wander. While he had never been to an official ceremony marking a royal adoption before, he was sure that it wouldn’t be all that much different from various other royal functions he had attended over the years. The changes in his wife, however, both physical and mental, were very intriguing.

Earlier, when he’d felt his child move, unfamiliar emotions began to nudge his conscience. Bakom’s downfall was still of paramount importance to him. However, he willingly admitted to himself that he was fond of his new wife. Sexually, he knew it would be a long time before he tired of her, if ever. But the child… Before, he’d accepted its existence in an abstract way.

Now, however…

During the private conversation Char and his father had after dinner the previous evening, he’d agreed that his marriage to Brianna, under any other circumstances, would have been too impulsive to be accepted without comment by the Alalakan clan elders. However, the fact that she was pregnant and the Alalakan heir was due to arrive in a matter of months would ease her acceptance, though some members of the clan might oppose his own appointment as future leader. For years everyone had assumed Rodane would take the position after Jamiros decided to step down.

Char’s thoughts then settled on his older brother. As he’d explained to Brianna, on Drakan the oldest child did not automatically become his father or mother’s chief heir. That was reserved for whichever sibling presented the clan with the first child of that generation. That honor would now belong to him, not Rodane. This was not something Char had ever thought would happen and he hoped that Rodane wouldn’t be hurt by this unexpected change of events.
Rodane can have the
leadership. I only care about destroying Bakom.

His musings were interrupted by another jab from Brianna.

Bandalardrac was standing before them.

“Ready, Cousin?” he said somewhat enigmatically.

Brianna missed the warning scowl the suave Hardan received from her husband. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” she answered nervously. “I don’t have to do much of anything, do I?”

“Just stand there and look beautiful,” Ban answered while presenting his arm. Then he added, “By the way,
I
approve of your dress selection.”

A resigned expression on his face, Char followed his giggling wife into the throne room.

Brianna shifted in her chair again as the head prelate of the Medirian Church droned on. A hand squeezed her shoulder gently and she cast a smile back at Char. Then she looked out over the gathered assembly. There were hundreds of people in the throne room and every one of them was staring at her. She couldn’t wait for this ceremony to be over.

Findal leaned over and murmured, “Pompous windbag.”

Brianna bit her lip to keep from giggling.

“He’s winding down now,” Findal continued. “Then all we have to do is present you to the ambassadors and we can finally eat.”

The prelate turned towards them. “Alalakan dem al’ Brianna, Princess Hardan, I present to you the Matriarch of the Aradab.”

A very intimidating gray-headed Aradab woman strode up to the dais where Brianna sat with the rest of the royal family. She leaned over and gently traced the dragon on Brianna’s shoulder.

Then she nodded and returned to her seat.

The prelate continued, “Princess Alalakan dem al’ Brianna, I present to you the Patriarch of the Nessians.”

The Patriarch’s skin was so darkly green that it was almost black. Long, snowy white hair cascaded down his back while laugh lines wrinkled the corners of his eyes and mouth. The elderly man took both her hands in his, spread them wide, and lifted her from her chair to stand before him. “Behold,” he said in a surprisingly booming voice, “the journey of the dols and orcs begins and ends with this woman. As was foretold ages past, the flame of the dragon will return our friends and heritage to us.