A Kiss of Fire: A Kiss of Magic Book 2 (29 page)

Ariana finally got a good look at the man Mariah had pushed away. He was like Sin in that he was not a pretty man, not classically handsome, but there was a rugged attractiveness that could easily lure in any woman.

“Mariah I have not even had dinner yet,” she said with amusement, watching her flustered maid.

“Oh. Yes, of course,” Mariah said, her blush deepening.

“Who is your friend, Mariah?”

“This is Georg. Georg, this is my lady Ariana.”

Georg gave her a smart bow. “My lady. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m sorry if I was keeping Mariah from you. We were just passing each other in the hall and…she’s so pretty, you see. It’s hard for a man to resist.”

She smiled at his politeness and his obvious desire for her lady maid.

“You were not keeping me from her. She is free to do whatever she likes when she is not serving me.”

“Is there anything you need at present, my lady?” Mariah asked, moving toward the door to the master’s chambers.

“No Mariah. Remain here. I won’t need you again until after supper.”

“Are you certain?” Mariah asked skeptically, and Ariana wondered if her distress was apparent on her face. She made certain to school her features.

“You are free to do as you like until bath time.” Ariana took hold of the knob and let herself into the room. She shut the door on the couple. She wondered if they would pick up where they had left off when she had interrupted them. She hoped so. Mariah should be allowed this one pleasure. She had served her loyally and selflessly for long enough. It was time she took something for herself.

And who knew what tomorrow would bring?

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ariana stood shivering in the cold of the courtyard the next day kissing her husband goodbye. He wrapped his arms around her and using his majic he warmed her. She could have done so herself, but it was better coming from him. Yet she shivered still. Nothing would be able to warm the chill on her soul, not even her husband. Not unless he said he was staying.

“I will be back as soon as I am able. I will send a messenger as soon as I know which way the battle turns. If it goes ill, then I want you out of the temple as soon as possible. I would not have you traveling in your condition and in this weather, but there is no other choice. Keep safe. I have left a small amount of guards around you. I cannot spare any others, though it pains me greatly to know it is so. I would have you better protected.”

“I will be fine. Fatima and I will await your return most anxiously. See that you come back soon.”

“Yes, wife, I will obey,” he said with a chuckle as he bent to kiss her mouth. One kiss blossomed to two, then again to three, each warmer than the one before it. But before they could erupt into something far more passionate than he had time to deal with, Sin broke off from her mouth and, after hugging her close one last time, he let her go and swung up onto the back of his horse.

She imagined his perspective as he looked down on her, wondered if it was as hard for him to go as it was for her to see him leave. Then he was reeling around and kicking his stallion into a trot out of the courtyard.

Fatima stood beside her, having made her farewells before Ariana had, and now she saw tears in the older woman's eyes. Ariana took the woman in her arms. How hard it must be for her, to know she was sending one son off to fight with his brother. It was possible one or both of her sons could be killed in this altercation. Ariana knew Sin’s goal was to see his brother captured, but it was probable this would be impossible. There was no way to know for certain. And it was that uncertainty that so plagued Ariana.

She did her best to keep things as normal as possible around the temple. Lindo had left with Sin, as had almost all of his trusted men, but he had left one or two whom she was less familiar with behind to watch over her. She did not feel uncomfortable with them, but neither did she fully trust them as she might Lindo. Sin had assured her that none of them could hide anything from Lindo when they were vigorously questioned. Mordol had only been able to hide his duplicitousness because he had been such a high level Jadoc and they had not been searching for traitors. He might have been rude and crude, but he had never given them reason to suspect he was working as an agent for Sin’s brother. They hadn’t even had reason to suspect Sin’s brother. And then suddenly things had changed. All because of her. Because of the threat she and any of her children posed. Sin had disregarded this theory. He said that Vich had been planning Sin’s death long before she had come onto the scene. Her appearance had just acted as a catalyst to hasten his actions.

Ariana had to accept this as truth, since Lindo had seen into the raj’s mind. Provided Lindo was as trustworthy as he appeared to be. Maybe it was just paranoia, but there was no more powerful Jadoc than Lindo. If he had duplicity in his nature no one could find it or fight it. But Sin trusted Lindo implicitly, and the quiet man had never given her any reason to question his loyalty. She longed for Dendri Adiron right then. But then again, Dendri had not been able to read through Lindo two years earlier at their treaty conferences. The odds were he still could not.

No. She had to trust someone. But right then she felt so alone. The only comfort she had was Fatima. Together they passed the time in Fatima’s parlor, one weaving one absently stitching. But her heart was not in her work, nor was her attention, so she cursed when her needle ran through her work and into her finger for the second time. She stuck the abused finger in her moth and Fatima chuckled lightly.

“Don’t feel bad. I’ve had to take out as many rows from my loom as I have put in this past hour. I am afraid neither of us is of a mind to concentrate. Perhaps a meal then? It is about midday.”

Ariana agreed and they rang for a servant to fetch them a filling repast. Their conversation was light and stilted. Until finally Ariana sat up and shook herself mentally.

“Enough of this! I will not sit here idle while my husband is off risking his neck,”

“What do you intend to do?” Fatima asked with alarm.

“Nothing to risk myself or you,” Ariana assured her, giving her hand a comforting pat. “I only mean to say there has to be something I can do to be of some use around here. I know…I shall see to a cleaning. Top to bottom, we’ll turn the temple inside out until there’s not a speck of dust to be found anywhere. It will give me a chance to familiarize myself with the workings of the temple down to the last detail. If I am to be chatelaine of this place, I should know everything about its inner workings. I will familiarize myself with the staff…and perhaps we can find a room close by the master’s chambers to consider preparing for the nursery.”

“An excellent plan! I have been chatelaine of the temple ever since we moved here, and I am glad to hand the duties over to someone else. I would much prefer to weave than to worry about what to serve at dinner or which room needs to be set up for which guest. It was much different when we were all crowded into a small space together. There were minimal servants and all were expected to keep clean after themselves. Living in such close quarters there was no room for slovenliness. But now we have more servants than I know what to do with and there are so many rooms!”

“Never fear,” Ariana said with a chuckle. “I am used to heading a large household. As the only female member of the triumvirate it often fell to me to take charge of the capitol building and all of its inner workings. I suppose I could have shared the responsibility equally with my male counterparts, but I fear I am much too much in need of total control to allow it. That will no doubt be the same here.”

“I will gladly stay out of your way. After we are through eating I will begin to introduce you to every last member of the household staff. Including Heranna, the head housekeeper.”

Invigorated by this new challenge, Ariana threw herself into her goal of learning the temple from the bottom up. Everyone was directed to bring all questions and needs to Ariana from that moment on. She met all of the staff and began to give them commands.

The only hiccup was when she came around a corner and happened upon two maids gossiping in the hallway.

“I don’t know who she thinks she is. Lording it over the place as if she were raji. She’s nothing but a concubine. And she’ll never be anything more if she don’t give the raja the son he needs.

“They’re married,” the younger maid pointed out. “Under Saren law.”

“Saren law.” The older maid scoffed. “We’ve no use for Saren law here. This here’s Kilt and we go by Kiltian law here. She’s naught but a concubine warming the master’s bed. She can be put aside like that,” –she snapped her fingers—“if she doesn’t watch out. She should focus on pleasing the raja and leave us alone. I tell you, the day I listen to a foreigner tell me what to do is—“

“Is the day you get to keep your job,” Ariana broke into the conversation coldly.

Both maids startled to see her there and the older one paled. She began to fidget nervously. “My lady,” she greeted, giving her a hasty, half-hearted bow.

“I may not be raji yet, but I will be, I promise you that. And regardless of that, I am much beloved by the raja. Imagine how displeased he would be by a maid who disrespected the woman he loves.”

“I wasn’t saying nothing bad about you, my lady,” the younger maid spoke up hastily. “It was all her!”

“Go on about your duties. See that you spend less time gossiping and more time cleaning,” Ariana said to the younger maid who dipped a bow and hurried away, leaving Ariana to the other maid. “What is your name?”

“Lossa,” the maid replied.

“Lossa, I realize how difficult this must be for everyone. There have been many changes in so short a period of time…and with the raja off to war with his brother; it is an uncertain time for us all. But I need your help,” she said, clearly surprising the woman who had obviously expected to be dressed down for her remarks. “I need to get this house in order so that your master comes back to a calm and focused home. A place where he can relax and deal with the troubling things he may have seen or been forced to do. This battle pits brother against brother, and I don’t just mean the raja and the raj. This is civil war. Kiltian against Kiltian. It is a sad and unfortunate thing.”

“My husband has gone with the raja. I…I am worried about him.”

“As I am for my husband. But we cannot sit and fret about it. We must keep busy. Can we do that?”

“Yes my lady,” Lossa said, giving her a more meaningful bow this time before hurrying off.

Ariana did not expect to win everyone over overnight. She knew it would take a lot of dedicated work before the servants would see her as anything other than a foreigner…or a concubine. The very thought of the word made her shudder. Sin had insisted it meant nothing to her. She was his wife in his eyes. The one and only. Ever. To him she was raji, even if the laws of the Kiltian culture did not see it so.

He had told her he would change the law for her. He was raja. He would command the law be put aside and make her raji. But she had negated that thinking. She was a foreigner. It was hard enough for them to accept her without having her defile sacred traditions. No. She would earn the title of raji the way all of her predecessors had. By giving him a son. If not with this child, then with the next. If she were so fortunate as to have a next. Right then all she wanted was her husband home safe and sound. Then they would worry about the rest.

Ariana was tired beyond words by the time she got in her bath that night. She dozed while Mariah washed her hair for her, the sensation of fingers against scalp so soothing. She rinsed her hair clean, put on her nightgown and slid into bed. It was hard to sleep without Sin, knowing where he was…knowing that come the morning their fate would be decided. He would meet his brother in the field and it would all be over.

But it would not be so simple. There would be blood on the ground and majic in the air. Power would meet power; guns would meet guns. There would be cannons and archers and all of the distance fighting first, but then would come guns and swords and majic. Anything could happen. A stray bullet…she thought of the bullet that had nearly ended Sin’s life. If the powder had not been packed so imprecisely, he would be dead already. The odds were the next bullet to hit him would come at full velocity. There would be no lucky escapes then.

The bend of her thoughts made her nauseous. She got out of bed and began to pace. So it came to be that she was awake when a thunderous knock came on the door. Ariana hastened to open the door and found a man she did not recognize standing on the threshold.

“Harea has gone into labor!”

Vich’s pregnant concubine. She had forgotten she was with child.

“Where is the midwife?”

“They’ve gone to fetch her, but she is outside of Temple City. It will take some time and the babe is coming fast!”

Ariana grabbed for her robe and hurried out into the hall as she said, “Go wake my lady maid, Mariah. She is in the servant rooms adjoining this one. Tell her to come to me in Harea’s room.”

Ariana hurried through the halls of the temple to the wing where Vich’s concubines were housed. They had been living under guard ever since Vich had fled. Now she hurried past the guard, another one she did not recognize, and entered Harea’s rooms. To her surprise, she didn’t find Harea in bed laboring to birth her child into the world. As the door was shut behind her she came face to face with Raj Vich.

Shock rocketed through her as she took a step back. Vich looked worse for wear, living on the run having done him no favors. They stood there staring at one another, Vich’s women standing in the background, a phalanx of guards at his back.

Now it settled on her how she had not recognized any of the guards. She wondered inanely if they were all Vich’s men. Was the temple completely overrun? It couldn’t be. So silently? No. No one knew he was there. He was there for only one reason.

Her.

With her he knew Sin would not fight him. He would never put her life at risk. With her he would have power over Sin. Because Sin loved her.

“Don’t bother screaming. All of the guards within earshot are mine. Now, you will come and you will come quietly or there will be bloodshed on your head. I will slaughter every man woman and child in this temple.”

“Including your own?” she shot back, eyeing the women behind him. They looked nervous. She couldn’t tell if they were in support of this man or if they were just wishing he would go away and stop being the cause of strife in their lives. She had not gotten to know them well enough to know what their minds were. Perhaps if she had she would know if there was someone among them who she could turn to for support.

“This is all your fault,” he said as if she had not queried him. “Things were going quite well with my brother. All I needed was an opportunity for something quite accidental to happen to him. Perhaps he would be thrown from his horse and break his neck, or perhaps a slow inexplicable illness, an                                                                                                                                                                                                                    insidious but undetectable poisoning. There were dozens of options, but I had time to plan it all very carefully. After all, with that Jadoc bloodhound of his, anyone working to harm the raja had to be either completely ignorant of what they were doing or had to be Jadoc enough to block any intent scans. Mordol was strong enough…but somehow you—“ He hissed, a sharp sibilant sound.