Fantasyland 02 The Golden Dynasty (41 page)

Standing with my husband outside of
Zahnin’s tent, I watched his eyebrows knit ominously and his eyes
narrow dangerously before he whispered angrily in Korwahk, “My
tigress wants me to do
what?
”

I moved in close (or closer, I was already
pretty close), put a hand light on his chest (a chest that he had
his arms crossed over), got up on my tiptoes and bent my head way
back to reply on a whisper as best I could in Korwahk and I
essentially repeated (with more detail), “You need to talk to
Zahnin. He requested this favor of me but
he
needs to do his part. He must stop taking her
against her will. He needs to back off, start wooing her, take
meals with her, bring her presents, flowers, candy, jewelry. He
needs to try to talk to her, teach her the Korwahk language. He
needs to take her for rides and show her her new country. He needs
to speak gently to her, look on her gently, touch her gently. And
when he tries anything with her, he needs to do it like
you
did it with me and seek to give
her pleasure before he takes his own. And I can’t tell him any of
that, Lahn,
you
need to tell
him all of that.”

Lahn stared down his nose at me. Then he
asked, “My queen called me away from my warriors to ask me to tell
another one of my warriors not to fuck his new wife,” there it was,
I knew
tooyo
meant
fuck
, “but
instead to bring her candy and take her for horseback rides? Do I
have this right, Circe?”

I didn’t think this was going very well.

“Um… yes?” I asked back, now not so certain
about my strategy.

Lahn kept staring at me. Then he looked over
my head. Then he sighed. Then without looking at me again, he
turned on his boot and walked away.

I was taking that as a no.

Great.

I walked back in Zahnin’s cham to see
Diandra and Claudine (who was older than Diandra but she still held
great beauty, maybe it was something in the water or just that the
Korwahk scouts had good eyes) sitting on either side of Sabine on
the bed, Claudine murmuring to her. This happened under Zahnin’s
glower from where he stood a few feet inside the tent flaps, legs
planted, arms crossed, eyes riveted to his wife and the two
women.

If he kept glaring at her like that, she’d
never calm down and let him in.

I got close to him, touched his arm, jerked
my head to the tent flaps and then, without looking to see if he
followed, I walked back outside.

He followed.

When he did, I got close, looked into his
dark eyes and saw that he was scary but he was still handsome. He
had a scar that slashed through his eyebrow which only served to
make a hot guy hotter. If he didn’t constantly wear an expression
that made him look like he wanted to rip someone’s head off, he’d
be super hot.

I sucked in breath, hoped that he truly
wished tranquility in his cham and then, in Korwahk, I told him
exactly what I told Lahn. I faltered in the middle when his glower
looked like it was flashing to rage (this was around about the time
when I told him he needed to stop taking his wife against her will)
but I sallied forth.

I finished with, “Zahnin, my protector, I
know you do not wish to hear any of this. But if you want peace in
your cham, if you want to hear cries of pleasure and sounds of
mirth, hers and,” I leaned in, “
your own
, instead of the sound of tears and the feel of
fear, then you must take heed to what I say.”

His pissed off stare didn’t waver so I kept
on.

“I will do my best, with Diandra and
Claudine, to teach her your language and the ways of your people,
to help her to understand her new life and to be able to
communicate with you and you her, but that is all we can do. You
must do the rest.”

He continued to stare down at me
angrily.

Shit. There was nothing for it.

I kept right on going. “Your king did not
break through with me until his touch stopped taking and started
giving and until, in our cham, he treated me with kindness. He is
the mightiest of Suh Tunak, he recognized the battle he had on his
hands, he analyzed it, created his strategy and then he went about
winning that battle using any means necessary. And, Zahnin,” I
edged closer and for the sake of this man who pledged to guard me
even if it meant giving his life, who backed me against Dortak and
who clearly wanted his wife to settle in her new life with him in
his cham, I admitted to him at the same time I admitted to myself,
“
my
Lahn won that battle. I now lay
awake at night waiting for him to return. When he does not, I fall
asleep looking forward to the morning when he will wake me with his
hands. He is my king, he is my warrior, he is my husband and I am
proud to say above all… he is
mine.
”

Zahnin said not one word and kept staring at
me.

I returned his stare, all out of ideas.

Then he grunted and jerked up his chin.

I took
that
as a yes.

I smiled up at him hopefully. He watched me
smile, shook his head, the scowl left his face and I saw his lips
twitch.

Yep, definitely hot. If Sabine had it in
her, there were hints that, soon, she would think she didn’t do so
badly.

Then, hopefully, Zahnin would share with her
his greatest gift and she’d feel touched and loved.

Like I felt that morning.

Good news for Sabine and Zahnin, confusing
and worrying news for me.

Shit.

* * * * *

“My wife creates rainbows,” Lahn muttered to
the roof of our cham.

It was late. We’d just gone at it hot and
heavy, so hot and heavy I came
three times,
(yep,
three
)
.
I was sated,
drowsy and in a really good mood mostly because my husband had come
home before I fell asleep but it must be noted it was also because
he’d given me three orgasms. My mood was too good to let all that
was weighing heavily on my mind weigh on it so I’d set it
aside.

I was curled up against him, my legs tangled
in his, my arm resting on his abs, my cheek to his shoulder. Lahn
was on his back, his arm was under me, curled around, his
fingertips trailing random patterns on the skin of my hip.

“Lahn,” I whispered to his chest.

“She is also mad,” he kept muttering and I
pushed up onto a forearm and looked down at him.

“Mad?” I asked.

His eyes came to me and he used one word to
explain. “Zahnin.”

I pressed my lips together.

Lahn kept talking. “Do not ask me to do
something like that again, Circe. I understand your heart guides
you in many matters. But I am warrior,
he
is warrior and this is a line we never cross. Am I
understood?”

I kept my lips pressed together and
nodded.

His eyes dropped to my mouth then his arm
tightened around me, pulling me up on his body. His other hand
lifted to shift my hair from one side of my face and hold it behind
my neck.

Then he spoke in a murmur, “I do not like my
queen’s lips pressed tight.”

I relaxed my lips and he gave a slight nod
of satisfaction then his eyes locked on mine and when he spoke
again, his voice was soft and even, fuck me, tender.

And I liked it.

“It means much to me that you let your heart
guide you. It guided you back to me after I marked you and forced
you to guard it from me.”

Oh God. He was being sweet again.

He kept talking. “But this, I fear, will
cause you harm, my doe. And I want you to use caution as you open
that heart. Zahnin is my closest lieutenant and I know much of him.
He did not come to training direct from his parents’ care. His
father was a warrior who died before he was born. A sickness took
his mother not long after. His family took him in but they didn’t
show him a great deal of kindness in the short time they had him.
This would lead me to believe he does not understand how to provide
this to his wife. Much time has passed since the Hunt so you must
not hold high hopes for him winning her for, if you do, and he does
not succeed, I know you will be crushed. This can happen and does.
There are warriors who do not break through with their wives. If
this does not happen, they can then cast them aside and attend
another Hunt. It is their reward, as a warrior of Suh Tunak, to be
provided a beauty to warm their bed, to do this willingly, to
provide for their desires and to give them sons. And it is their
right to keep seeking until that is found.”

My head tilted and I whispered, “Cast
aside?”

He nodded. “Those cast aside are taken care
of, given chams, even a slave. But they do not live the life of
bounty that a warrior’s wife lives. Although the basics are
provided, many of them must learn a trade to live a decent life.
Sometimes, they will find a free man who will wish to take them as
bride, and do, but this is rare. A warrior’s wife who is cast aside
bears the reputation that she is unfit or unable to provide for a
man’s needs and, although beautiful, will be avoided.”

Well, that sucked.

“Would… um, Sabine, Zahnin’s wife, if, um…
this happens, since she’s not from Korwahk, will she be returned to
her homeland?” I asked.

His eyes flashed and he stated firmly,
“Absolutely not.”

Hmm.

“Why?”

“She is claimed, she is Korwahk,” Lahn
stated just as firmly.

Hmm.

Time to change the subject because this one
might irritate me and I wasn’t in the mood to be irritated.

“Did, uh… you, um… grow up under your
parents’ care before training?”

It was the first personal question I’d ever
asked him.

And he didn’t hesitate in answering. “I did,
my tigress. My father was Dax and my mother was Korwahk, a great
beauty. There was tenderness in his cham even though my mother
could only give him one son, a difficult delivery rendering it
impossible to provide him more. He was happy with the warrior she
bestowed on him and he was happy with her.” His hand in my hair
fisted when his voice dropped as he shared, “And I watched my
father die during a challenge. I was warrior then and attended. As
Dahksahna and as was her duty, my mother attended as well. His end
marked her, as it did me, and she cared deeply for him. She would
have lived a pleasant life as a deposed Dahksahna, the Korwahk
people and myself providing for her but she chose not to live on
without him. She took her own life the day after his body burned on
the pyre.”

Oh my God. That was awful.

I felt myself melt into him as my hand
lifted to cup his jaw and I whispered, “Lahn.”

His eyes held mine. “I regret she did not
live to see her son best the Dax who bested her king. He was a man
it was difficult to respect and not simply because he took my
father’s head. It was a triumph in more ways than avenging my
father to take his.”

“Honey,” I breathed and his hand moved to
the side of my neck, his thumb beginning to stroke my jaw as I
watched his eyes grow warm.

“Would that you were in my bed those years
ago, Circe,” he whispered, staring deep into my eyes, “sharing with
me like you are now your golden spirit to balm my own.” I held my
breath as the silk of his words glided through me then he grinned.
“And also here to celebrate my triumph when I took my
vengeance.”

God, he was
such
a man.

I couldn’t help it, I grinned back at
him.

“
I take it that would have been…” I paused,
searching for the word in Korwahk and hoping I found it,
“
energetic.
”

His thumb stopped stroking and his fingers
sifted up into my hair, putting pressure on so my lips touched
his.

There, he whispered in English, “Oh
yes.”

I found the right word or
a
right word.

I smiled against his mouth.

His eyes heated and he growled against
mine.

Then his head slanted, his fingers pressed
further, he ground my lips against his, they opened and his tongue
instantly invaded. I made a noise in my throat and he rolled me to
my back.

Then he demonstrated how energetic he
would have felt after he seized the Dax. It was years later but
clearly the glory hadn’t faded and I knew this mainly because, even
after an already hot and heavy session, it… was…
phenomenal.

So much so, my loud moans, whimpers and
cries were noted by passersby, those inhabiting close chams and
spies paying attention as were his groans, grunts and his final
shout of climax.

And after he was through with me,
thoroughly
through with me, I fell into an
exhausted sleep not thinking about holding magic. Not thinking of
calling to the heavens to make them weep, to sending a rainbow
arcing through the sky. Not thinking that I might have the magic in
me to send myself home. And not thinking about Zahnin and his wife,
hoping all would soon be well in their cham.

No, I didn’t think any of that.

Instead, in the seconds before my husband’s
warm, hard, big body settled next to and partly over mine, his arm
wrapped around, our legs tangled, I didn’t think about
anything.

The Contest

Seven days later…

I dipped my fingers into the pot of black
paint and saw they were trembling.

I had to get a hold of myself.