Uleni's Gamble

Uleni’s Gamble

Hope you enjoy the second book and thanks for the feedback on the first. Going to throw in the usual copyright thing below.

I’ll be short and sweet this time. If you haven’t read Flame of Cytherea yet, go read it first, or this won’t make sense… I won’t bother with clarifying scifi/fantasy category and the type of sex, since it should follow the first book, for the most part.

Copyright 2014. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this posting or subsequent postings part of this story may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

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Uleni’s Gamble

Cytherean Chronicles Book 2

Prologue:

King Talmon of Uleni sat at the head of the table. That was the only nod toward his authority in the room and it was endlessly frustrating to him. His father had died when he was young, just thirteen turns of the suns. His bloodline had shown true and he had been given true power, that of a mage. But at twenty he was still young and inexperienced.

The true power in the kingdom, the mage who had ruled in his name until his eighteenth birthday, and who had never truly given up power, sat to his right. Advisor or mage Riese, was in his fifties, and had been crafting magic for over thirty years.

It was not as if Riese controlled him, but he suspected the older man of manipulating the information he was getting. In theory, he was king and could do as he wished, but he wondered if the soldiers would follow his orders if he tried to dismiss Riese. No, the political realities were another matter altogether.

He suppressed the urge to curl his lips at the man next to Riese, mage Lian was a powerful mage as well, but a bootlicker, nothing better than an attack dog for his master. He was quite sure this one’s loyalties did not lie with him. He dared not show contempt for either man, or resist the direction they wanted to take his kingdom. Not that he had any objections to its expansion.

On his left was Colonel Ross, the man was huge at six foot three and bulging with muscle. Ross was unmatched in his ability to fight with weapons in all Uleni. To his surprise, next to Ross was a woman. He didn’t necessarily have an issue with it, but he knew Riese would be annoyed by it.

Riese said with a false humility that grated, “May we get started your majesty?”

He bowed his head and said, “You may.”

Riese frowned at him and he wondered if the contempt had leaked from his voice. He felt relief as Riese turned away from him. He would not deal with the man forever, but he wasn’t ready to make his move and remove the older generation that had served his father.

Riese asked with an edge to his voice, “Ross, I assume you have a good reason to bring a woman to this meeting?”

Ross looked completely at ease when he replied, “She is the best assassin I have, if you’d like, I can send her away? But you did tell me to bring the best…”

Riese frowned at that which almost made him chuckle. It was petty of him he knew, especially in a king. But anything that bothered Riese on a personal level made him happy.

Riese said, “Very well. The news is not good. We had expected Abelaweth and Egeria to be weakened enough during their war for us to move in and take both. They are, but with the appearance of a Flame, that complicates things a bit for us, with his power he can compensate for the number difference.”

He frowned and said, “Will he throw in with them? It is not as if we threaten the goddess with our plans.”

Ross replied, “Normally I wouldn’t think so, but the Flame is reported to have taken four mates in Abelaweth, one of them is Princess Nicole. Even more disturbing one of them is a Witch with Uleni blood. We can’t depend on him staying out of any fight.”

He carefully looked neutral at this news. He never saw the issue with a woman having power. A witch was powerful perhaps, but she would still be only one woman. But most of his nobles were rabid in the belief they needed to be killed. No doubt fearing some women’s revolt.

The excuse they gave of course was it was unnatural, he always found that hard to swallow, after all, the deity they worshipped was a woman was she not? Was it not she that gave out the talents? He was careful not to let his true feelings on this show, or he was sure the position of king would soon after be open.

He nodded toward the assassin and asked, “Is that why she is here?”

Ross said, “Yes my king, we would undoubtedly lose on the field of battle. The problem of the Flame, and the witch, must be handled more delicately than that.”

Riese stepped in, “Once that has been taken care of we will move forward with our plans…”

Chapter 1

Justin, the Flame of Cytherea, bane of darkness, was feeling rather out of his depth. It had been just a week since he had become mates with Katrina. They had made their way up close to the capitol after he learned the ladies plans. Apparently they were going to build a new inn several miles outside the capitol.

It was both a compromise for the disparate women to be both close to nature and the city. They were also sure it would do good business for people traveling to and from the city. They believed it may also draw the more affluent from the city as a nice place to stay during hunting trips. He didn’t know much about building, but he had been determined to help.

However, once they got there, he found himself at loose ends. Kind of useless.

The shell for the tavern itself was solid stone raised out of the ground by Sally in just an hour. It was about twice the size of the old tavern. On the ground floor they had a common room and kitchen about the same size, but they also had their private rooms down there.

One large bedroom for them to sleep in, a separate bedroom for personal time, and a rather alarmingly large nursery, at least he thought so. He was still only mates with Kat, but it was obvious from the size that the other ladies were thinking in that direction.

The second floor had about half as many rooms more than the old one, but they were a bit larger. He went in with Sally to see if he could help anywhere, but she just manipulated stone to further shape the inside for what they needed, he realized he couldn’t help at all, and looked for something else to do.

He was rather glad the major building had been accomplished so easily, but when he grabbed an axe and went to help with cutting trees for the woodwork, to build chairs, tables and flooring. He found Nora cutting down trees, shaving branches and cutting slats of wood effortlessly with magical air blades at a daunting speed. He shook his head in amazement, the woman was a one person saw mill.

He shook his head and gave up. They’d ask for his help if they needed any. He wondered exactly what he would be doing for the rest of his life. He had in effect, retired. His skill set as the Flame of Cytherea was rather narrow in focus, and there were no other dark gods around. He didn’t give any serious thought to accepting a life of ease through the church, he was eighteen, he would go nuts without anything to do.

Watching Nora though, he thought he was probably out of the wood cutting job. Katrina was hunting for tonight’s dinner, so he decided to just sit with Nicci and Sara, they didn’t have any skills that would lend themselves for building an inn either. He was careful to remember to keep Nicci between Sara and himself, Sara was friendly, but still didn’t react well if he got to close.

He wasn’t actually sure what kept her around, but it looked to him like she had an arrangement with Katrina for a job.

He grinned to himself, he had been worried a little, how he would support four mates, but from the look of things it would be the other way around. It stung his pride a little, but he would find a way to do his part eventually. This world was still new to him. One thing he thought would work is opening a healing center of some kind.

From what he knew, there were no true healing talents, although mages could help with some things and they used herbs and roots here for medicines. He thought he may even open up a place to go once a week in the city, for those who couldn’t make the two hour trip.

He smiled wryly, he would probably wind up waiting tables as well.

The tavern probably wouldn’t take all five of them to run it, much less six. But he thought that would be a good thing, once they had children running around he had no doubt they would all be kept busy. They would be able to be productive as they ran this place, and a healing center, while having plenty of time left over to spend time with family, both mates and children.

He smiled, it was a slower kind of life here, but he wouldn’t give it or his ladies up for anything.

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Katrina was walking back to the new tavern, it was impressive for all that it was flat land a few hours ago. She had taken down a few rabbits for dinner, she had seen a deer that was tempting, but they really didn’t have the people to feed to justify taking it down. She thought she would ask Sally to build a couple of other small buildings in the back. If they brewed their own beer it would keep down costs.

She also needed one for tools and storage. Hmm, she would need someone to go to the city and order those ingredients, as well as bedding for the twelve guest rooms and their two private rooms, and spares. Although they did have bedding for theirs already, it was thin and meant for traveling, not comfort. The list seemed to get longer as she thought about what they needed.

She was busy yes, but had never been happier. Justin if anything, had been even more attentive and amorous in bed as they tried to get pregnant. She was also very happy with the other ladies, all of them had thought the business a good idea, and she got to do what she loved.

She couldn’t help the smile that lit her eyes when she saw Justin and she waved him over to help her prepare the food, and maybe give a baby another shot? She could already be pregnant, but why take the chance? She thought that Nicole looked bored, maybe she wouldn’t mind a trip into the city?

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Nora looked around herself carefully. If all else fails she could always be a lumberjack. She wondered if her sisters looked down at her and laughed. She thought of herself as the least likely of her sisters to ever settle down, and had taken pride in the fact. Yet, here she was, ridiculously happy and putting down roots.

When Katrina had talked to them all about doing a new tavern for the family, she thought it a decent idea. She had immediately appointed herself as bouncer and security. She might be settling down, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t keep an eye on Justin anymore. Or that she didn’t want to crack heads when the occasion called for it.

She took a slice of one of the thicker trees and brought it in the tavern.

“Sally?”

Sally stuck her head out of the kitchen and asked, “What’s up?”

She asked, “Do you think you could rejoin wood after I cut it?”

Sally looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded.

She showed Sally the bottom of the slice of wood, it had a lip that went down and back forming a grooved circle.

She asked, “Can you make a stone table, that will fit that groove?”

Sally grinned, and the floor grew a stone pole about three inches wide, then a tabletop formed.

She cut the wood tabletop in half, slid both ends over the stone, then watched as Sally reconnected the pieces, making it seamless.

She said, “Great, can you do thirteen more around the room? I’ll make more tops.”

She thought that would work for bed frames as well, she just wasn’t sure about the chairs or tableware…

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Nicole was happy for something to do. She had gotten bored just sitting there. Unfortunately she had a very narrow talent and building the tavern did not require fire. Being raised as a Princess hadn’t gotten her ready for any honest labor either. But getting to the city in five minutes instead of two hours was very much something she could do.

She had a list of stuff to buy. When Katrina had told her to go in her armor at first she didn’t get why, but it was obvious by how revealing it was it would help her win any haggling contest.

She had asked they build the tavern so close to the city, mainly so she would be close to her family. She hoped her father would relent soon, but she knew he was a stubborn man. She hadn’t regretted her choice for a moment since she made it. She loved Justin as if they were made for each other…

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Sally was exhausted. Just having to put up the bare building was hard enough, and then she had shaped stoves, tables, beds, and reconnected wood for Nora. She was really the only one in the group that could do it, so she did. Despite her exhaustion however, she was feeling very proud of herself. Oh, the floors still had to go in, and Katrina wanted a couple of small buildings out back, but she’d gotten a lot done.

Everyone else except Nicole, who hadn’t gotten back yet, were gathered waiting to eat. Her stomach gurgled when she got close enough to smell the food. She gave Justin a kiss on the cheek, and without even asking she felt recharged and more awake.