Dance With the Enemy (22 page)

She smiled -- a tentative gesture. “I am stealthy like Shemek.”

Tahruk smiled as well, though the thought of Shemek brought unwelcomed feelings, severing the mood. He remained gentle with his chosen still, whispering something in her ear that made her cheeks grow red as she suppressed a giggle and assisted him in moving her off his lap. With a wink, he opened the carriage door, then turned back to help her out.

“My bag!” She spun around, swaying on unsteady legs.

“I’ll get it,” Tahruk assured her, moving past her and back into the carriage. “I don’t see it,” he called seconds later.

Elenya frowned. “Perhaps it slipped behind the cushion?” She tried to peek back inside, though the brightness of the daylight in the courtyard contrasting with the coach’s darkened interior made it difficult to see.

“Ya? Are you okay?” The familiar voice that sounded at her back made Elenya and Tahruk both stiffen.

“Shemek!” Elenya’s swift turn had her grabbing his arm to steady herself and Shemek taking advantage of the situation to slip an arm around her shoulders to pull her to his side.

“Careful there. You certainly don’t want to fall now.” He chuckled, moving her a step or two from the carriage door, just out of Tahruk’s view. “Are you well? It seemed to be taking you a long time to exit the coach. I was concerned since you went to see your father off...”

“Yes, we did. And you were to go as well, or so he thought.” There was a hint of accusation in Elenya’s tone as she skirted the issue of a less than hasty departure from the coach.

Shemek acted as if he didn’t notice. “I was given an offer I couldn’t refuse.” He practically beamed. “It hasn’t been announced yet, but I’ve been given a position in the King’s elite forces,” he whispered to her. “Infiltration specialist for the King himself.”

“Really?” Elenya felt his elation, her voice rising as she began to congratulate him. Shemek shushed her with a finger to the lips. “Congratulations,” she whispered when he pulled his hand away and nodded. She hugged him. “Oh, Shemek, that’s great!”

Or was it? She noted the frown on Tahruk’s face when he exited the coach with the missing bag looking even smaller now clutched tightly in his clenched fist.

“It had slipped down at the far end of the seat,” he told her returning the bag, cool eyes assessing his chosen and Shemek.

“Thank you for finding it, my lord,” she answered, her voice edged with uncertainty. After studying him for a moment, she turned back to Shemek. “It was nice to see you again, Shemek. I’m sure we’ll bump into one another now that you’re staying. My lord and I have business back in our chamber…”

Both men started to speak at once interrupting Elenya. Shemek laughed and motioned for a sour faced Tahruk to go ahead.

“I just remembered something that must be taken care of. I won’t be long.” His final sentence was spoken as a warning.

Elenya stared at him for a moment then bristled at his glare. Her chin tilting upward, nose raised in the air, she turned back to Shemek, though her thoughts remained on her own warrior. How dare he! She would not play his game … telling her he loved her one second then accusing her with his looks the next!

“Walk with me then, since I’ve been dismissed?” she asked Shemek “You can tell me whatever you were going to say before you were interrupted.” She cast a furtive glance back at the seething warrior before slipping a hand through Shemek’s offered arm and turning in the direction of the family gardens, not their rooms. She may have had a misguided moment of boldness, but even she was not fool enough to take another man to their chambers. Especially a man she wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable with anymore.

Come on! This is Shemek, your old friend, not just any other man
, her mind told her. Yes, this was Shemek. So why didn’t it feel like it used to before she left Aleone?

Elenya seemed unable to find a comfortable position. She had to force herself to sit still while she visited with Shemek at the table where she’d spent so many of her waiting hours at Zanak. She told him a bit about the stories she’d written and he expressed an interest in seeing them sometime. They skipped around the subjects of the battle, how Shemek had been wounded and then his hand in ending the battle. King Travensworth and Andorak’s warriors had already figured out who was behind the travesties, but Shemek had been instrumental in ferreting out the depths of the man’s powers and who could and could not be trusted so as to reinstate the young King back to his throne. Always one for a good mystery, Elenya enjoyed that part of the conversation. It wasn’t until he mentioned the commission to become a part of Andorak’s elite warriors and that the Sharanis family had offered him lodging in their guest chambers that Elenya’s discomfort grew to an unbearable level.

“I should be going now,” she told him abruptly after his announcement. “I really need to rest before the lunch hour. Lady Neria is a stickler for being on time.” She laughed, trying to cover her sudden angst.

Shemek nodded, his face settling into a mask of confusion before he rose quickly to assist her with her struggle to push the chair back and rise to her feet. She stepped away from him as soon as she was up.

“It must be hard for you. I don’t know if I ever imagined you looking this way.”

Elenya felt the heat rise up her neck into her cheeks. She could think of nothing to say other than to thank him for the visit.

“I enjoyed it, Ya. Perhaps I can see you again.” He laughed. “No doubt I will since I’ll be staying here until I’m needed or we go for extended training drills.”

Elenya hoped her smile didn’t look as fake as it felt. She knew it didn’t reach her eyes. “Of course. Good day, Shemek.”

Hurrying from the gardens, she didn’t see the figure turning the corner from the other direction and would have ran straight into Redahn had he not stepped aside and caught her with an outstretched arm. The momentum swung them both around, her back colliding with his chest.

“What’s the hurry, little white-faced girl? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Perhaps you have a wardrobe full of skeletons from your past?”

Pushing his arm off, Elenya stepped away and turned to glare at him. “Marked women do not have the luxury of skeletons, Redahn. Surely you know what would happen if we did.” She shook her head and threw up her arms before spinning to leave again. “You are so annoying! All of you,” she called back to a chuckling Redahn.

“You really shouldn’t do that to her, you know. Especially in her condition.”

Redahn shook his head, his mouth turned upward on one side in a lopsided grin. “Neither should you. The girl’s confused enough as it is. Between her concerns over her feelings for my brother, her disdain for the marking, and fretting about her family being so far away, especially now that she’s having a baby… She certainly doesn’t need an old boyfriend thrown into the mix.” He stared down at Shemek who didn’t outright refute the claim.

“You heard her, my lord. Marked women have no skeletons.”

“Maybe not, but they can still wish they did. Close enough.”

Both men laughed.

“Come, my young friend, I’ll show you how to get to the guest chambers from here. You’re actually in the family wing and I’m not so sure you’d be welcomed here without a family member. At least not yet. If you work things right, you’ll have full run of Zanak in no time. You’ve already endeared yourself to my father, which is akin to a small coup. My mother will be no problem at all, though Nema … she’s liable to see right through you. And my brother. Ha! There’s no hope for you there, I’m afraid.” Redahn threw his head back and laughed, then continued talking without bothering to keep his voice down even though some of what he was saying should have been reserved for the two in conversation only, not for others who might be listening nearby. Even the walls of Zanak were said to have ears from time to time.

Chapter 36

The day was closing in on the noon hour and Tahruk still had not returned to their chambers. Elenya paced around the sun room wringing the small kerchief she’d been using to fan herself. She’d felt warm, not at all well, since she’d returned from the gardens. Why had she gone with Shemek instead of demanding Tahruk escort her to their chambers? Surely once inside she could have convinced him with a few more kisses that he needed to stay.

She sat down with a soft thud on the overstuffed settee, the emotions of the day, the past three days, weighing heavy on her. Leaning back, she fanned herself with the kerchief.
Why
could she not cool down? The baby’s slight movements unsettled her stomach as did the ache in her back and lower abdomen. She squirmed trying to get comfortable, deciding to prop her feet on the sofa as well even though it would look quite unladylike if someone was to come in and see her that way. She was beyond caring at that moment, her dislike of mankind, especially men, at an all-time crest.

There, she thought, spreading her skirts about her legs to maintain some modicum of decency before reaching up to rub her temples. Her head had begun to throb. She closed her eyes and leaned back, her neck no longer interested in supporting a too heavy head.

That’s when she felt it, the moment of extreme pressure and then the moisture that made her think she was either bleeding or had lost control.

“No, no, no,” she whispered, suddenly paralyzed and unsure of what she should do. The midwife to the Courts who had come to check on her a few times had said four more weeks. She’d told her a bit of what she might expect and assured her she would make it in time to help her through the process. Elenya had been nervous but assured. After all, women had been having babies since the beginning of time. It was a natural process, right?

She shook her head, fairly certain this wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. Fear gripped her as her stomach clinched tightly around the baby only to let up and do it again much too quickly. The moisture had begun to soak her skirts and seep into the cushions beneath her. “Think, Elenya, think,” she told herself. She knew she needed to go for help.

The contractions were already coming in progressively harder waves, making movement near impossible. She worked with a slow, continual determination until her feet were firmly planted back on the ground. Pushing herself into a standing position was a battle in itself, though she finally managed that as well. “Good,” she encouraged herself continually along the way, hating the way her wet skirts felt clinging to her. “It’s no different than when you’d get all wet with the sea spray,” she chastised her body. This was not the time to get all squeamish, not when her baby’s life might well lay in the balance.

With slow, deliberate movements, she made her way to the door. Hand on the handle, she looked down. Okay, she was up, walking, and the pains has subsided just a bit. Surely she could change before going for help.

Breathing through the pain, she pushed away from the door and waddled toward her rooms. The bell pull caught her eye while she held tight to the door jamb through another bought of increasingly harder pains.
I thought you were tougher than this, Ya.
She heard Shemek’s disapproval from years ago when she’d refused to get up after tripping and bloodying her knee during one of their secret excursions. She shook her head remembering how he’d confessed later he’d been terrified she was seriously hurt and he’d be found out for helping her carry out her crazy schemes all those times. She was barely thirteen at the time, him not much older. She doubted he’d have been in too much trouble. What she wouldn’t do to have him there to chastise her now.

Her vision swam and blurred, then refocused long enough for her to locate the bell pull. “It’s okay, baby.” She patted her stomach and reached for the rope, unsure if her hand actually made contact before she went down.