A Kiss of Fire: A Kiss of Magic Book 2 (9 page)

To make her his…

“Why do you want a wife like me? Like this?” she asked him desperately. “Why kidnap someone who hates you? Surely you wish to have a wife that loves you.”

He smiled at that. “I would not have taken you for a romantic,” he said.

She flushed. “Everyone wants love. That doesn’t make me a romantic.”

“Finding love in marriage is common in your people? I thought Sarens married for position and wealth. For mixing powerful majic lines.”

He was right. They did. Love rarely came into the picture.

“It is true. We do all of that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find love in those marriages.”

He looked dubious. And he should. She knew she was creating fairytales where there were none to be had. He knew it too.

“I have chosen you for many reasons,” he said quietly. “I have chosen you because you are a very powerful shaman. I have chosen you because besides your majical power you are a powerful woman. You are used to managing a people in a position of authority. My wife would have to be able to do that. She is not merely a pretty bauble on my arm. She must help me to rule as my raji. A woman who could rule in my stead if I were away or somehow incapacitated. Right now there is my brother but…” He glossed over that. “I need a wife who can produce an heir. Fine sons who would rule upon my death. A woman who would serve as raji-mother if I should die before my son is of age to inherit.”

“Raji-mother?”

“She would rule during the autumns my son is maturing.”

“I see. And if you have no sons?”

“Then my brother and his sons would inherit the crown.”

“And how does he feel about that?”

“My brother has no say in the matter. I am Raja. He is not. Not yet anyway.”

“What kind of man is your brother?”

He ignored the question.

“I have chosen you for wife because you fire my blood like no woman ever has before. In my culture, to find such a woman is worth everything. Everything must be done to obtain her. Had you been Kiltian I would have paid a handsome bride price for you. I would have given your family anything within my power. But if that was still not enough, then I would come for you in the night and take you for myself.”

“You mean kidnap.”

“Call it that if you like. In my culture it is a part of our wooing. Even if I paid the agreed upon price and matters were settled between the family, I would still come and take my bride and sweep her away to my home.”

“And doesn’t she get to have any say in the matter?”

“Not usually. But…if there is fire on one side, there is generally fire on the other.”

“You say that because you have never been kissed by a man you hated before,” she said bitterly.

“No, but clearly I have been kissed by a woman who hates me.”

Hate was such a strong word. Did she hate him? Or did she hate him less because she was beginning to understand him? She didn’t want to understand him. She didn’t want to like him or respect him for the passion he had for caring for his people. She didn’t want any of this.

“I never asked for you. I never wanted you nor did I ever ask for you. I won’t apologize for my feelings,” she said.

Sin leaned forward a little, regarding her keenly. What he wasn’t telling her was how deeply his want of her went. What he wasn’t telling her was what his feelings were, even though he was very clear on what hers were. She would not be receptive to his desires and feelings. No more than she was receptive to him in any other way. It frustrated him even as it excited him. She would be a challenge. All he had to do, he thought, was make her see what it was she truly wanted. What it was she could have here…with him. But that would be no easy task. While other women might be lured with promises of power, she already had power. She did not need him half as much as he needed her.

At least…she hadn’t. Now she was dependent on him for everything. He bet this was the first time she had ever been in a position of little power. She would begin to crave what she was used to. He was counting on that. She would begin to crave the power he could offer her.

Him and no other.

He stood up and she immediately leapt out of her chair and backed away from him. The reaction made him frown, but he did not let it faze him. He advanced on her.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said.

“How can I not be? You’re trying to force me to do what I don’t want to do!”

“I told you, I will not force you to do anything.” He held out his hand to her and waited. She shook her head in the negative. “Come with me,” he beckoned her.

She shook her head again.

“You would prefer to stay here locked away in this room?”

“You are the one who has locked me away here. I would prefer to be home!”

“The sooner you resign yourself to the fact that that is not going to happen, the happier you will be able to make yourself here.”

“I will never be happy here,” she whispered.

He dropped his hand.

“Suit yourself,” he said softly. Then he turned on his heel and left the room.

Ariana was shocked he had left. Simply left. He had not tried to push himself onto her like he had the first day she had been there. He had not grown angry with her. Had made no demands.

He confused her.

He was insinuating himself into her good graces, she realized then. He was slowly but surely wearing her down. And it was happening quicker than she would have thought possible. But if he thought she would ever come to him of her own free will, he was going to be sorely disappointed. She might be coming to understand him, but she would never forgive him for taking her away from her life.

But…the longer she was there…the more she realized that there wasn’t all that much she was missing. Oh, she missed her power and the day-to-day demands that came with being a ruler. In fact, she would have thought she would have gone a little stir crazy by now with so little to do. But he had kept her occupied enough so far. But as for missing things…

While she was good friends with her fellow triumvirs, Mason Hittite and Jutsin Felone, there was no one she was close to who she was missing. She had no living family…save a sister whom she was estranged from. A sister whose jealousy over Ariana’s position had blinded her, had outweighed any love she may have felt for Ariana. She loved Gretha dearly, but Gretha did not share the feeling. It was a point of sadness in her life. And without Ariana there, Gretha would be next in line for inheriting the family lands and armies. She would be next in line to become triumvir.

The thought made Ariana shudder. Gretha did not have what it took to be triumvir. She was far too selfish and far too hungry for power. She was always wanting the power, but never considering what it would take to deserve it, and what to do with it once you had it. It was very likely someone would come along and wrest control of their father’s province from her. Mason and Jutsin surely wouldn’t stand for working beside someone like Gretha. They would bring their armies to bear against her and forcibly rip any power away from her that she did not deserve. Then they would find a deserving Heddah—leader of a province—and give Gretha’s territories over to him or her.

Thinking about what would happen in her absence depressed her. What was happening in Saren’s Capitol City right now? What had they done when she had come up missing? Were they close on her trail? Would they come after her? Would they go to war to retrieve her?

She didn’t know. And the not knowing was killing her.

Chapter Ten

Dendri Adiron walked into the capitol building yet again, as he had done for over two weeks now, and sought out the remaining triumvirs. He didn’t know what Hittite and Felone thought they would discover now that they hadn’t discovered before, but they summoned and he came. He didn’t bring Yasra this time. Yasra grew tired very easily these days as the end of her confinement neared. So he had left her behind.

He thought about that for a moment. Thought about becoming a father. Neither of them had expected a child so early in their marriage, but neither had they taken any precautions against such a thing. However, watching how she grew large and soft and beautiful, he thought it was something he wouldn’t be averse to doing again in exactly the same way.

Yasra however, might feel differently. She felt unwieldy and fat, tired easily and her feet tended to swell if she stood on them for too long. And yet, the more imminent the birth the more she was doing. She was adamant about everything being perfect for the baby’s arrival. Although it was beyond him how things could be any less perfect than they already were. Still, she had some kind of scheme in mind for what constituted perfection and she was determined to see it through…whatever the cost to her health.

He hated leaving her. She couldn’t be trusted to rest and take it easy. He had to be with her at all times to coax her into taking better care of herself. Bess, her best friend who lived with them, could not do or say anything to control her. She only listened to Dendri, and only when he absolutely put his foot down.

She had wanted to come to the capitol, complaining that he was treating her with kid gloves when he refused to let her come. But in the end there was nothing she could do. There was hardly anything he could do. This was an exercise in futility.

He walked into the main conference hall and saw Hittite and Felone waiting for him.

“Adiron! We’ve been waiting for you,” Felone said.

He seemed eager. Something had happened. Something had been discovered. They had been searching for Ariana since the day her guards had been found unconscious in that alley and it had been as though she had disappeared from the face of the planet, like a wisp of smoke on the wind. They had found nothing in all of this time to lead them to her.

Upon notice by the guards, the city had been shut down. Still, it had been four hours before the guards had come to. Plenty of time to spirit a captive out of the city. They had then sent teams of guards down every road at breakneck speeds, seeking to catch up with anyone who might be taking her by road.

Nothing. Whoever had taken her had not used roads to do it. So they had scoured the countryside looking for any hint. Any clue.

Nothing.

“We’ve found an innkeeper,” Felone said excitedly. “He says there were men staying at his inn for almost a week and they disappeared around the same time Ariana was taken. It may be nothing, but we thought perhaps you could see something.”

Dendri was an Aspano majji. It was the house of majic that could manipulate the mind. He was the most adept majji in the country. Possibly on the continent.

Dendri looked at the innkeeper who was sitting nervously with his hand in his hand. He was twisting it anxiously.

“I don’t know what I saw,” he said. “I don’t know that I can helps you none. But it seemed right funny hows they disappeared like that. After doing nothing for so many days. They would go out all day long, but they never said where they were going or who they were or nothing. They would pay up their bill in advance every day or two, as if they knew they’d be leaving in a heartbeat. No one pays like that. In advance.”

“Well,” Dendri said, “we’ll see what it is you saw.”

Dendri walked around the long table and approached the innkeeper. He hitched a hip onto the table and reached out to tip the man’s head back, looking in his eyes a moment. Then he closed his eyes and began to search in his memories.

A lot had happened to the man between then and now, so it was a lot to sort through and it took some time. Finally, he accessed the memories of those days, of those men.

“Look at their faces. One by one,” he said to the innkeeper.

He did. He remembered each face as if he were looking right at them that moment.

Dendri sucked in a breath.

He had been there. At the talks that had bartered a truce between the Kiltians and the Sarens. He had sat across the table from Raja Sin and his men and so he immediately recognized them when he saw them through the innkeeper’s mind’s eye.

“Did you know the Kiltian leader was in town at that time?” Dendri asked the triumvirs quickly.

“What? The—no! We had no idea they were here.”

“Then they had no business in the city?”

“Not that we were aware of,” said Hittite. “Are you saying those men were the Kiltian delegation?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“No,” Felone scoffed. “What would the Kiltians want with Ariana? Surely they wouldn’t be so foolish. They wouldn’t risk a war!”

“If you recall,” Dendri said, “I noted that Raja Sin was highly attracted to Ariana at the time of the negotiations.”

“That was two autumns ago! Are you telling me that after two autumns Raja Sin came here and kidnapped one of the triumvir because he was attracted to her?” This time it was Hittite who scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Then explain why they were here, unannounced, at exactly the time that Ariana Colla went missing.”

Neither triumvir could explain.

“So Raja Sin comes here, risks everything…risks war…for an attraction?” Hittite was floored.

“I must have underestimated the strength of that attraction. Either that or he hid it well. Do you know if Ariana ever returned the sentiment?”

Felone laughed. “Ariana and that thug? I think not.”

“Damn it. If what you say is true, they’ve had plenty of time to make it back to Kiltian borders,” Hittite said.

“It still doesn’t make sense. Why would he risk war?”

“Would we go to war for this?” Dendri asked. “Can we afford to go to war for this? It is not something that we would enter into lightly. But…before we talk of war…we need to find out if they are truly the guilty parties.”

“How do we do that, Adiron?” Hittite asked.

“You have an ambassador in Kilt I take it?”

“You mean a spy? Yes. We do.”

“Someone like Ariana will not go unnoticed in the Kiltian court. For one, she is a redhead. The Kiltians do not have redheads. Unless he has her hidden away somewhere, she will be seen. We need to send a messenger to your ambassador and have him be on the lookout for her. Then, the moment he sees her and can confirm she is there he can send a messenger back.”

“That will take weeks. God knows what he’ll do to her in the meantime!” Felone said angrily.

“If he indeed has her. We can’t accuse him without knowing for certain. You have to send the messenger at once. We need to know for certain before we can know how to act. And in the meantime we need to decide just what that act will be.”

“We must have her back. We can’t just leave her to those ruffians,” Felone said.

“I’m not suggesting we do,” Dendri said.

“So it’s war. We’ll march right to the bastard’s doorstep,” Felone said.

“We can’t afford another war.”

Hittite spoke softly, but he may as well have shouted. He got the attention of everyone in the room.

“You can go,” Dendri said to the innkeeper whose eyes were as wide as saucers. It would be around the city in no time what he knew. Innkeepers were not known for keeping their tongues. “But speak of this to no one,” Dendri said anyway.

“No. Not me. No sir.” The innkeeper scrambled to his feet and hurried out of the door.

“I figure we have until tomorrow before everyone knows what we do,” Dendri said dryly.

“As if the Sarens needed another reason to despise the Kiltians,” Felone said bitterly. Then he turned to Hittite. “What do you mean we can’t afford another war? Our coffers are full enough.”

“Our borders have changed. We’re still recovering from the lives lost in the last altercation with the Kiltians. We warred with them for autumns and never made any headway. If they dig in, there’ll be nothing we can do about it.”

“Not so,” Dendri disagreed. “There is another solution besides war.”

“And that is?”

“We steal her back.”

Dendri walked into his house, his heart as heavy as his mind. He had made a promise to his wife two autumns ago, and now he was facing the distinct possibility that he was going to have to break that promise.

This was not a conversation he was looking forward to.

He walked in the door and Tudman was upon him instantly.

“My lord, I beg of you. You must do something to—“

“Dendri!” Bess came running into the foyer, her color high on her cheeks and her long red hair in a wild disarray as it worked loose of the braid it had been loosely plaited into. “You have to stop her!”

There was no need to identify who “her” was.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“In the nursery!”

Dendri lengthened his stride and hurried down the hallway toward the master suite and the nursery the adjoined to it. As he entered the room he saw Yasra perched on her tiptoes at the top of a stepladder, reaching to something—he didn’t care what—up far beyond her safe reach. When he entered the room with a curse, she jolted at the sound of his voice and turned to face him, teetering dangerously and—

He made it across the room just in time to catch her. Her weight, a significant twenty pounds heavier than normal, hit him hard and he grunted under the impact. But he caught her right side up, preventing her from squashing their child.

“Oh!” she ejected as he shifted her weight more comfortably in his arms. “Thank you darling.”

“Thank you darling? Is that all you have to say to me?” he demanded of her incredulously.

“Thank you darling and I love you?” she asked hopefully.

He huffed in exasperation. “What in the world were you doing up there?”

“Well the curtain—“ She gestured to the crookedly hanging rod.

“And this was so critical that it could not wait until I got back?”

“Well, I suppose when you put it that way it could have waited, but—“

“I’m going to wring your neck…provided you don’t break it all on your own first!”

He dropped her feet to the ground and she leaned her body weight against him, as if she was completely dependent on him for support.

“But first could you straighten the curtain?” she asked.

He gaped at her in disbelief. Then, after a moment, he chuckled. She smiled in response to the sound, her beautiful face shining brightly.

“You took ten autumns off my life. And Bess’s and Tudman’s. You ruffled
Tudman
. The most unflappable man on the planet! Do you know how frustrating you are?”

“You’ve told me so many a time. I, however, do not see it.”

“You wouldn’t,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Very well. Let me at this curtain. What do you want done with it?”

After she got him to straighten the curtain, she stood back and eyed their handiwork.

“Yes. That will do nicely,” she said.

“Good. Now…we have to talk. Come with me.”

He took her hand and led her through the adjoining door and into the master suite. He shut the door, giving them the privacy they would need.

“What would you like to talk about?” she asked as he led her to the bed and urged her to sit down. “Was it something to do with the triumvirate? Although…it can’t be called a triumvirate any longer can it? It’s more like a biumvirate. That is, until we get Ariana back. Are we any closer to getting Ariana back?”

“A bit. That’s what I wanted to discuss. We think Raja Sin took her.”

She gasped. “Raja Sin! But…how is that possible? Why would he do such a thing? Is he trying to start another war? What more could he possibly want than what he was already given?”

Her questions were rapid fire and he waited until she drew breath.

“I don’t think his intention is to start a war. In fact, I would say he doesn’t want war any more than we do. Two autumns ago the Sarens and the Kiltians were both in dire straits, teetering on the brink of failure. It was just a question of who would give out first. It was anybody’s game. The truce and land sale was a last gasp at saving both empires from total ruin. Neither can afford to go back to that.”

“Then…why would he take Ariana?”

“I think his reasons are much baser than they are a political machination.”

“Baser?”

“He wants her. He’s wanted her ever since they sat across the table from each other two autumns ago. I suspect that want has been at a slow boil these past two autumns. But something happened…something made him explode into action. It made him willing to risk everything.”

“He would risk everything…his people, his country, his peace…for a woman?” Yasra’s cool blue eyes looked skeptical. “Are you sure?”