The Queen's Consorts (35 page)

Aria squealed in laughter. “I’m not a fish!”

“Are you certain? You’re slippery like one.” Calder chuckled as Aria fought against his steely grasp, kicking and laughing. It was clear she was hard to hold on to, so he gave up the battle and lifted her onto his shoulders, completely careless about her wet skirt. “You’re a fighter. I like that about you.”

Aria wrapped her arms around Calder’s neck and rested her chin on top of his head. “Can I play with your bolter?”

When Calder handed it to her without complaint, Sari gasped, “Cal!”

“She’s fine with it. Taryen and I have been practicing with her,” Calder said in confidence and turned around. He pointed to a piece of beach wood. “Get it.”

A blue steak of light lit up the gray morning, and the wood bounced across the sand when she hit it.

“Excellent!” Calder shouted triumphantly, more pleased than Aria. “Now get that one.”

Sari watched them launch an attack on helpless beach wood as she walked up. She folded her arms over her chest, glaring at Calder out of the corner of her eye as she whispered, “She’s too young.”

“No, Sari. She isn’t,” Calder argued and then switched to the queen’s language. “Many would try and harm her to get back at us, especially when the powers that be have suffered with the loss of slave labor. If she is to be the daughter of a queen, she must learn to fight like one.”

Something about that jolted Sari, especially when so many were whispering and wondering when she would start having young ones. Most queens became mothers at a young age simply out of necessity of preserving the monarchy, but the idea of Aria being theirs, not out of obligation or duty, just simply because she was special and made their lives better—it was a nice thought.

She looked up at Calder in gratitude. “You protect her for me.”

“It’s not for you, though you know how much your happiness means to me.” He reached out and squeezed Sari’s hand. “If she is your daughter, she is my daughter too. Besides, Aria reminds me of who we fight for.”

Sari knew he didn’t say it because Aria was common born. Many disapproved of a commoner spending time in their presence, but none in their inner circle had a care of Aria’s origins. It was her natural joy, her ability to find happiness in everything despite the difficult life she had lived, that meant so much to them. She was what Sari and Calder would’ve been before life made them cynical.

They were recovering, but would either of them ever be able to live free of cynicism? They didn’t have Taryen’s gift to live in the moment. The scars still ran bone-deep.

“I want to stay near the ocean,” she confessed in a whisper, hoping Aria’s next bolt shot covered up her fear. “I’m not ready for this festival.”

“You’ll enjoy the Ralatian Palace.”

Sari huffed at his certainty. Calder was the bossiest male she’d ever met. His cocky self-assuredness was one of the things she loved about him, but still…

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know that.” Calder sent her a sly smile. “You love the mountains every bit as much as the
ocean,
and you can’t deny it.”

Well, Sari couldn’t argue with that reasoning.

“When will Taryen be done with the True Heart Coalition meeting?” Sari asked when the mention of the mountains brought his handsome face up in her mind.

Calder shrugged. “He wanted to get it out of the way early. It’ll take us the rest of the day to prepare for the festivals tomorrow.”

Sari groaned at the reminder, but rather than complain, she suggested, “Shall we head back and wait for him?”

“Done with the sea?” Calder arched an eyebrow in surprise.

Sari gave him her own sly smirk.
“For now.”

“Then let’s go. Later we’ll have lunch with Leileea before she leaves with the Coalition, and I’m sure my mother will join us as well.”

“Why can’t Grandma Leileea and Grandma Gia come with us?” Aria sounded as disappointed as Sari felt.

In the past six months they’d all gone from being alone in the world to having a large family they’d grown very fond of. Both Calder and Taryen’s mothers were wonderful. Calder’s fathers were soldiers, which was very little surprise to any of them. Taryen’s fathers were both true hearts like his mother, who was actually a high priestess. She had four other sons, all of whom were warm, loving men like Taryen. Sari adored Taryen’s entire family, but they were all very busy and heavily involved with their charity work.

Likewise, Calder’s mother was actually an extremely powerful female who was head of the council here in Cavaden. Giving birth to a consort immediately raised a female to power within the government, but it turned out she had opposed Layla’s rule the entire time. As tragic as it was, she’d had difficulty having Calder, and he was her only child. Then she was forcibly separated from him hours after his birth, but she had never stopped loving him. Cavaden was its own special retreat, and their welcome here had been so very different than the Sacred City. Taryen and Calder had been as shocked as Sari that they had so many allies here by the sea. Under Gia’s rule, any who had tried to oppose the monarchy had been turned out.

Supposedly it was the same in the other palaces as well. Those who opposed the crown had all fled to the Sacred City.

“Kayla is coming.” Calder offered rather than explain once again why the others had jobs to attend to. “So are Captain Macro and Lieutenant Haven.”

“For how long?”
Aria sulked.

“Always.
Their job is to follow the queen.”

“Everyone thinks Kayla should go back with Grandma Leileea and work in the missions like the other true hearts.”

Sari frowned up at Aria as they made their way back to the palace. “No one thinks that.”

“I hear them talking.”

“But she’s bonded to the captain and the lieutenant. She has to be near the ones who serve her,” Calder assured her.
“Especially now.”

“They say it breaks the rules,” Aria said with an authority of a young one who listened and understood far more than people realized. “They say I should go back with Grandma Leileea too. That I should go to the mission schools and let Taryen’s family take care of me. Uncle
Raf
has four adopted sons and two daughters, but he said he has room for one more. Uncle Patin too, and he has no daughters.
Just boys.”

“Do you want that?” Sari asked, feeling her heart lurch because all Taryen’s brothers were very good protectors and fathers. They had tons of young ones, both adopted and of their own blood. All four of them were bonded to true heart females and had true heart lifemates. Any of their large, loving families could be appealing to an orphan. “Do you want to go back with them after the True Heart Coalition meeting?”

Aria shook her head silently, but still offered, “But I will if I have to. I don’t want you to get in trouble for keeping me. Even if you quiet any who talk about it, I still know it’s forbidden for a commoner to be in your presence.”

“We don’t listen to those old rules.” Sari arched an eyebrow at Aria. “Rules like that were made to be broken.”

“Your uncles are all good fathers, but they have many young ones. We have none.” Calder patted Aria’s leg affectionately as he reminded her. “You’re ours, Aria, and if anyone takes issue with it, you send them to
come
talk to your Daddy Calder, understand?”

Aria beamed. “Yes, I understand.”

Sari reached out and grasped Calder’s hand once more as tears stung her eyes. “I love you.”

He squeezed it tightly. “Love you too.”

Together the three of them made their way back to the castle. Sari was supposed to have been preparing for the festival for a week now, but she only just took off work the day before. It was still nice to have a little time to enjoy her family and the ocean before they left.

They’d all been working so hard.

Taryen was still at it.

“I’m tempted to call Tary to us,” Sari confessed to Calder as they walked in through one of the back doors to the palace. “I’m one step away from being a stormy mess, and I don’t want all those preparing to think I am not appreciative.”

Soldiers followed them in. Their boots clicked against the marble, but they were as quiet as possible, though they’d been guarding them unobtrusively from posts on the beach outing. Attendants, now paid for their services, headed out to clean up their picnic, but they all did a good job of giving Sari, Calder, and Aria their privacy and creating the illusion of a simple family outing.

“I agree, call Taryen.” Aria gave an impish grin. “He’s been gone all week.”

“He’s almost done,” Calder assured them, though Sari could hear the longing in his voice. He missed his lifemate too. “Oh look, it’s Grandma Gia.”

Calder’s mother had surprisingly dark hair, but her eyes were Calder’s, so light they were startling. She held out her arms in happy welcome as she walked up to them.

She tilted her head back, giving Aria a big smile. “How is my lovely lady Aria this fine morning?”

“I’m not a lady,” Aria reminded her, but grinned nonetheless.

“You’re more lady than most, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Grandma Gia says so.”

“Maybe some quality time before the parade tomorrow?”
Calder suggested, raising his eyebrows pointedly at his mother.

Aria pouted at the reminder they were going to be separated from part of their family tomorrow. “I want you to come to Ralatian Palace with us. I want my grandpas to come too.”

“We’re going to visit all the time. But for now, perhaps we’ll go watch Grandpa
Nor
and the captain prepare the soldiers for the parade tomorrow?”

“If the other soldiers can come?
How come Grandpa
Nor
and Grandpa Haltir cannot?”

“Because Grandpa
Nor
is head of the guard for this palace, and he would be lost without Grandpa Haltir by his side.” Gia reached up and picked up Aria herself, setting her down on the marble floor and brushing at her skirt like a fussing mother. “Besides, I would be terribly sad if one or both should go. I’ve grown rather fond of them after twenty-four cycles.”

Aria giggled. “I saw you kissing Grandpa Haltir in the corridor last night.”

“Mother,” Calder
chastised,
his eyes wide in horror.

“What? A kiss is nothing to be ashamed of.” Gia shrugged unapologetically. “I will never understand why the three of you are so conservative about such things. Odd for a queen and her consorts, but the sun still shines most days. I suppose it’s of little matter how you manage it.”

Calder met Sari’s gaze, and they had a silent exchange. One of the more shocking things about their arrival at the Cavaden Palace was the realization that the consorts’ abuse wasn’t common knowledge. The Rayians outside the Sacred City hadn’t advertised how deeply they mistreated Calder and Taryen in the name of pleasure training.
If it had been known, it’s very likely allies like Gia and her mates would have led a siege on the Sacred City, rules or not.

It was something that might come out eventually, along with Sari’s enslavement, and they were all willing to deal with the repercussions of it, but not today.

“Speaking of kissing.”
Gia looked back and forth between the two of them. “I believe the two of you were going to find some alone time. It’s looking quite overcast today. I would send for Taryen, but if you’re anything like
Nor
, then you can manage on your own. There’s a reason the gods chose my son to be a consort.”

Calder put a hand to his eyes, clearly still trying to become accustomed to a mother figure.

“You get your boldness from somewhere,” Sari said in the queen’s language.

Calder lowered his hand to stare at Gia imploringly, because he and Taryen tried so hard to keep things subdued on the outside. They knew how exposed Sari felt when anyone could simply glance up and know what they were up to, but it was lost on Gia. She looked to Calder with light eyes that were wide in confusion. It was clear she didn’t want to do anything to make him uncomfortable, but Rayians were just so open about some things.

“Thank you for entertaining Aria.” Calder leaned down to kiss his mother’s cheek rather than explain. “We’ll meet for lunch.”

“Lovely.” Gia gave him a wide grin and let the bewilderment go easily. Being forced to give up her only child for so long made her a bit starved for affection from Calder, and fortunately he was comfortable lavishing it on her. She brushed her dark hair behind her ears as her smile turned devious. “Lady Aria and I are going to watch the soldiers. Perhaps one day she’ll find herself a pair of strapping ones like her Grandma Gia.”

Calder gave a pained laugh. “Gods help me.”

“We’ll see you later.” Gia grabbed Aria’s hand and turned to leave. “Have fun.”

* * * *

They slept after they made love, enjoying the novelty of a lazy late-morning nap. The sun shone in from the windows of the royal suite. It felt so good. They lay above the sheets, letting the sunbeams warm their naked bodies because the joys of natural light would never get tiresome.

Sari wasn’t sure how long they rested before the sound of the doors being opened caused Calder to jerk into a sitting position beside her. He was still desperately paranoid, even in the Cavaden Palace, which was run by his own mother and filled with nothing but allies.

“Tary.” He moaned the name like a prayer, falling down next to Sari as quickly as he shot up. “Come. We’ve missed you.”

“I nearly called out to you,” Sari confessed as she blinked past the rays to see Taryen walk over to them in his royal robes. “But I resisted.”

Taryen pulled his sword off and set it next to the nightstand because Calder wasn’t the only one who was paranoid. Then he reached out and cupped Sari’s face softly. “Never resist if you feel like you need me.”

“No, the True Heart Coalition meeting was important.”

“Yes, but you’re more so.”

Sari rolled onto her back, tossing her head against Calder’s chest and putting her naked body on display for him. “Why not come to me now instead?”