Fantasyland 02 The Golden Dynasty (60 page)

He nodded back. “Pick you up in an hour,” he
muttered and moved away.

I waddled out behind him.

Truth be told, I wasn’t
that
fat. I was doing yoga and
taking walks every day and eating right because I might have a six
foot seven (in future) warrior growing inside me and he needed the
proper nutrients.

Just as a golden girl would need.

So I took care of myself.

I hadn’t learned the sex, I refused to know,
hadn’t even glanced at the ultrasound and flatly refused to hear
any news except to learn if the baby was growing healthy or not (he
or she was).

I wasn’t admitting to myself why but I knew
I did it because if I was still in Korwahk, Lahn and I wouldn’t
know until the golden moment.

So here, I didn’t want to know either.

I moved to the door, turned out the lights
in my office and met my father at the front door he was holding
open for me.

Then I went home to put on my new pregnancy
dress and say good-bye to the other me as she started her life in
her new world.

* * * * *

I looked out the window at the rain as my
best friend Marlene deep breathed in front of me.

“No kidding?” she asked.

My eyes went to her and I shook my head.

I’d just told her what I’d told Pop about
loving Lahn and why I left anyway. This included the stories I’d
shared with him on the ride there (and through his first three
beers at the party) stories of Ghost, Diandra, Narinda, Zahnin and
Sabine, challenges for the Dax and bloody fights in a tent.

Amongst other things.

She was freaking out and binge drinking.

I was deciding that my tactic of talking
about it didn’t make me feel any better and also deciding I was her
ride home (as well as Pop’s, I’d already confiscated his keys, they
were in my purse).

“Wow,” Marlene breathed. “So… he was
hot?”

I looked out the window. “Very hot.”

“And he was good in –” she started.

I cut her off not looking at her.
“
Very.
”

“Girl,” she drawled out so the one word
syllable had seven.

I sighed.

Her hand touched my arm and I felt her get
close so I looked to her to see her face had grown soft.

God, I loved Marlene.

“Honey, are you sure you don’t want to go to
that witch?” she asked quietly.

Except, right then, I didn’t love her so
much.

“I told you, no.”

“Circe, really, I don’t know. You have a
baby on the way.”

“I know and it’s still no.”

Her eyebrows went up. “But maybe he’s back
there pining for you, kicking himself that he screwed things up,
wanting you home. Maybe he’s worried about you, where you are,
where his baby is, wondering if you’re both all right. Did you
think of that?”

No, I hadn’t. Though Lahn pining for me was
a joke. He was probably raping and pillaging and cutting people up
with his sword.

And he had the Xacto to turn to.

“
I don’t care,” I replied. “But, no, in
truth, I haven’t thought of that but Lahn is not the kind of man
who
pines.
He can
get what he needs from a variety of women and he can have another
wife in a less than a year and a half. And most of the women he
could chose from would be panting to have him. He’ll be just
fine.”

“Cir –”

I pulled my arm from her hold but grabbed
her hand and squeezed. “Really, honestly, honey, like I
said…
no.
He’ll be
fine, I’ll be fine and
my
baby
will be fine. No witch. No going back. And I want another baby
shower
after
I have
this kid and at that one…” I grinned, “you serve
alcohol.”

She stared at me. Then she grinned back.

Marlene was over the moon she was giving me
my shower. She’d been planning it since she found out I was keeping
the baby which was the day she first saw me back and learned I was
pregnant. Half of Seattle was attending. She’d asked my friends,
her friends, her friend’s friends and had probably put an
announcement in the paper with an open invitation (just as long as
they brought gifts). When I’d registered at the baby store, she’d
jerked the scanner thing out of my hand, made my selections and I
could swear I saw drool on her lip once, she was so rabid. She was
baby bonkers. She couldn’t wait for me to have this kid.

Okay, I was back to loving Marlene.

Therefore, I let her hand go, pulled her in
my arms and hugged her.

“Love you, baby,” I whispered in her ear,
she gave me a squeeze and whispered the same words back.

I pulled away and turned my head when I
heard my father shout, “Time for fuckin’ cake!” and I saw him walk
out of Ernie’s kitchen (Ernie was one of Pop’s best friends, Pop
and his boys ate lunch at Ernie’s greasy spoon practically every
day if their move was even a little close to it and therefore
Circe’s party was at Ernie’s).

He had a big, rectangular cake in his hands,
the kind with white frosting, thick frosting swirls around the
edges and massive frosting flowers, these yellow. His face was
brightly illuminated by the candles burning on the cake and his
eyes were brightly lit at the thought he’d soon be eating birthday
cake.

Seriously, my Pop was birthday cake mad.
He’d serve birthday cake
with
candles if a new day dawned if he could
.

He walked toward Circe and he was, for some
reason, starting a chorus of “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow”.

I looked to Circe who was beaming.

She was happy, no doubt about it. She was
safe in this world, my friends and family had accepted her (and our
story, weirdly) without qualm (well, by the time I got there they
had).

She was no longer the toy of a tyrant or the
plaything of a ship full of pirates.

She was free.

This was good.

Very good.

Two good things came out of this. Circe was
smiling, her eyes alight and I had a life I knew I’d hold precious
currently kicking in my belly.

I smiled.

“Circe?” Marlene called and I turned to look
at her.

She looked alarmed.

“
Circe!
” she shrieked and I opened my mouth to speak but
I couldn’t get words to come out and everything, Marlene, the
restaurant behind her, the booths, everything was… it
was…

It was
melting!

Oh fuck!

My head snapped to my father.

“
Pop!
” I screamed but nothing came out even as I saw
the wavy vision of him drop the cake to the ground and start
running my way.

He didn’t make it.

All had gone black.

Then it went bright with sparkling shots of
pure gold.

Then I was standing in the middle of a cham,
a fire burning behind me and a woman with wild, ratty-assed hair
wearing a rough sarong tied around her neck fell in a dead faint to
the stone at my feet.

I saw movement in the shadows.

It came toward me.

I looked up as it formed into a man’s body
and when I did I looked into Lahn’s dark eyes.

“No,” I whispered as he kept coming at
me.

I lifted a shaky hand, palm up toward him as
my eyes drifted down to the woman at my feet. She was out like a
light.

She’d depleted her magic bringing me
back.

My eyes went back to Lahn to see he was upon
me, the hard muscle of his chest at my palm. I took a step back, he
moved fast as lightning and I was lifted in his arms.

I arched my back and screamed,
“
No!
”

“Rayloo, kah rahna fauna,” he whispered, his
arms going tight and strong as iron.

I closed my eyes hard and my body went slack
in his arms.

“No,” I whispered.

Then we were out of the cham, my ass was on
a horse and I felt Lahn immediately swing up behind me.

I opened my eyes to see the Avenue of the
Gods in front of me and feel Lahkan under me.

Lahn’s arm got tight around my protruding
ribs, he bent me low to Lahkan’s back, he buried his heels in his
steed and we shot down the avenue toward Korwahn.

Fuck.

The Search

Six weeks later…

Tigresses purred.

I knew this because my now full grown one
was lying on her side in bed with me, I had my big belly pressed
against her back, my hand was sifting through her soft, thick fur
and she was purring.

She was glad her Loolah was home. I knew
this not only because of the purring but because she told me.

Suddenly her head came up sharply and she
moved quickly to her belly, looking down her body to the door, the
purr gone, a low growl in her throat.

I closed my eyes.

Lahn was there.

“
Off, beast,” he ordered, she growled a bit
more and he clipped, “
Off.
”

She let out another growl, turned her head
to look at me, I smiled at her, she blinked her blue eyes and only
then did she get up and prowl gracefully off the bed.

I closed my eyes and waited for it.

I didn’t wait long. I never did.

Lahn joined me in bed then he pulled me to
his side, shoving his arm under me and holding me close as he
reclined on the pillows.

I had no choice but to rest my head on his
shoulder so I did. I kept my eyes closed. Then I opened them
because his fingers were drawing random patterns on my hip over the
silk of my nightgown and that felt better with my eyes closed.

The problem was, I could see his chest when
my eyes were open.

So I was screwed either way.

“
Kah Lahnahsahna, nahna rahna linas,
shalah,” he murmured,
My tigress, your golden eyes, please.

I sighed softly, pushed up to my elbow and
looked at him.

God, he was gorgeous and I freaking hated
that.

He stared in my eyes and said not a word.
Then his gaze moved over my face. Then he stared in my eyes
again.

Same drill. Every morning. Every single
morning every freaking day for six weeks.

“She keeps it locked from me,” he muttered
and I blinked.

Hmm. That was new.

And that’s also when I understood. I finally
understood what he was doing.

He was looking for my spirit.

Well, that was gone. He’d broken it.

I looked away.

His hand came up and curled around my jaw,
gently moving my face so I was looking back at him.

“I lost your eyes for five months, my doe,
and I missed them. Even having them back without your spirit
shining in them, I don’t like them turned away.”

Yep, same drill. He was being sweet.

I held his eyes. I did not stare. I did not
glare. I waited for this to be done.

Sometimes, it took longer than others.
Today, I had a feeling he was in for the long haul.

Then he did something else new. He rolled me
to my back and loomed over me, but close, and his hand moved to my
big, swollen belly, its warmth penetrating the silk.

“He comes soon,” he murmured.

This was true. It was getting close. Any day
now.

And Lahn, I also knew, had given up on his
golden girl. I knew this because he told me one time in the dead of
night when my kid kicked me so hard he woke me. And Lahn, who had
his hand on my belly, woke too. It sucked but I had to admit when I
saw his eyes in the moonlight shining bright with wonder, his
spirit exposed for me to see, his delight at feeling his child move
for the first time not even close to hidden, I liked it. All of it.
It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

And he had murmured, pressing his hand
gently into my belly, “
That
is
a warrior, my golden doe.”

I figured he wasn’t wrong. The kid could
freaking kick and he was a mover. It was like he was swimming in
there, flips, breaststroke, the whole enchilada. And he was peeved
he didn’t have more room to move and told me so frequently by
kicking the crap out of me.

Lahn took me out of my thoughts when he
informed me, “I know you don’t wish it but I will be in the bath
with you and the healer.”

I sighed again.

I’d guessed that.

Lahn had, by the way, sometime in the last
five months decided to believe me. He was looking forward to this
kid again if him sleeping with his hand on my belly or coming up
behind me whenever he came upon me standing, wrapping his arms
around me and putting both hands on it were anything to go by.

The good news was, I was to have the healer
with me. The bad news was, I was giving birth in the bathing pool.
I was thinking this would be okay, normally, but the water came
from a hot spring and I wasn’t big on my kid being boiled alive
before it took its first breath.

But I said not a word.

And anyway, maybe I was being dramatic
about the water. It wasn’t that hot.
I
bathed in it.

I didn’t reply to Lahn’s comment and it was
his turn to sigh.

“Your friends, I am told, come daily to see
you, Circe,” he told me quietly and my eyes slid away. “Linas,
shalah,” he whispered and my eyes went back.

I’d been avoiding the girls. I hadn’t seen
any of them since I returned. Not even Diandra. This was rude but I
was in a state. I didn’t want to be here and I didn’t intend to
stay here therefore I didn’t want to continue to build our
friendships because I’d missed them enough the first time.

I was going to go home.

How I was going to do that, I didn’t know
because now I really had no way of getting home unless I could get
out from under Lahn’s thumb and somehow find another witch who
didn’t mind being out of it for a day or two, losing all of her
power for a decade and sending me home.