Kismet's Kiss: A Fantasy Romance (Alaia Chronicles) (42 page)

“What if you’re the only woman with whom he shares his
heart
?” Priya’s gaze deepened with sympathy. “You love each other? You’ve given your heart to him as well?”

“I have,” she whispered.

“Then if your heart is here, how can you leave?” She gave Varene’s hands another soft squeeze.

“Priya.” The male voice startled them both, and Varene turned to find Sohad dressed in sky-blue and smiling adoringly at his bride. When Priya saw him, she gave a wordless, happy sigh.

“Royal Healer.” Sohad bowed formally, though a beatific smile warmed his cheeks.

“Blessings on you both,” Varene said, and stepped forward to kiss his cheek, hoping she hadn’t disgraced herself with her internal tumult. Then she slipped away, needing to be farther from such bliss.

She crossed the room, inordinately aware of the whirl of conversations and happy laughter from those standing all around her. Kuramos hadn’t yet arrived, although his wives and children were there to celebrate the nuptials. Varene looked around for a place to sit in relative privacy for the ceremony. No spot seemed particularly secluded, so she settled at the end of a row of pillows along the far wall. She felt guilty about not being more sociable on her last day in Kad, but it seemed kinder not to spread her melancholy.

She knelt on the burgundy velvet cushion and sent her thoughts toward Teganne. With Priya and Sohad wed, she’d be free to return to her life there. She’d be back among old friends, and over time, maybe she could learn to forget. To bury herself again.

No.
She couldn’t do that anymore. Her hand slid over the braids she’d plaited at her temples; they met at her nape and rippled down over the rest of her flowing hair. She’d chosen to let her hair be neither free like the Kaddites’ nor simply yanked back in a ponytail as she’d always worn it, but something else—new for her, and elegant, she hoped, to match the swan-white skirt and brassiere top from Kuramos’s wooden trunk.

The man with the sea-god’s eyes had coaxed her out of her comfortable seashell, and now the old shell wouldn’t fit her anymore. She’d need to find a new one, bigger and brighter. Kuramos had made her aware of herself again, stirred her to recognize her own wants and desires. But her biggest need—for him, forever—was something his own situation would never let him fulfill.

And then, suddenly, there he was.

Her lungs forgot their rhythm when she saw him framed in the arch of the entranceway. His scimitar hung in a scabbard of jeweled gold beside the white garments he, too, had chosen. The snowy cloth of his churidar and vest, studded with sapphires of deep plum, revealed his broad shoulders and his tanned skin. The skin she’d so recently smelled and touched and nestled against.

His eyes searched the room, and when they met hers, her gut tensed. Steel rammed through his gaze, and she clamped her fingers around the rolled edge of the pillow. Then he turned his head and strode to the other end of the room.

Varene closed her eyes and exhaled. Her head said this pain was the necessary price of giving in to their love—but that didn’t make it easier to bear. In fact, if he was feeling as she was, they were now suffering more, much more, than if they’d never tumbled into bed.

When she faced front and opened her eyes, she was startled to meet a different stare—Taleen’s. Kuramos’s shy Fifth Wife was sitting in the row of pillows just in front of her.

By Fate
, Varene realized,
she saw. She knows.

Feeling like a rabbit crossed by a shadow, Varene gave a tight smile.

Taleen’s copper eyes turned surprisingly sympathetic.

Both women were silent for a few moments, and then Taleen left her pillow and moved to the one beside Varene. Varene’s stomach quivered.

Kuramos’s wife stared down at the peony-shaded toes peeping from her sandals as if gathering her thoughts, and finally whispered, “Healer, he’s a good man.”

Varene nodded. “The best.”

A smile rose to the sultana’s lips. “Yes. And he deserves the best.”

Varene’s face stiffened. “I want that for him, too.”

Noting the shift, Taleen retreated on her pillow. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”

“That’s just it.” Varene shook her head. “How can you say that? How can who your husband loves be none of your business?”

Taleen gave a slow nod. “I went from being an only wife to being the Fifth Wife of Kad,” she said softly. “It wasn’t a simple thing.”

“So…you were married before Kuramos? I had no idea.”

“Umar was a pasha’s eldest son. The pasha was manipulated into rebellion by the Lakshyya, a rival family of the House of Kad. Although my husband and I were royalists, family duty prevailed. Umar fought Kuramos for his father.” She gave a sad shrug.

“And he died in the fighting? Are you telling me…Kuramos killed your first husband?” Varene sucked in her breath.

“Neither had a choice, Healer. Kismet had woven their fates.”

Taleen’s face was composed, even queenly, but deep in her eyes, Varene saw grief curled there.

“The sultan defeated my father-in-law,” the sultana continued. “As is tradition, a marriage was arranged to seal the end of the rebellion. My father-in-law had no daughters himself, so…”

“You were a new widow, yet forced to remarry? Taleen, I can’t imagine—”

“I would have done much more than that to end the war that had taken Umar from me.”

Varene exhaled. “You loved him.”

“More than my life. And he had asked me, should anything befall him in the battle, to honor him by healing the rift between his father and his sultan. I would have married Kuramos just for Umar. I didn’t foresee—well, I didn’t expect to find myself for the second time with a wonderful husband. And with a son.”

Taleen glanced at Prince Burhan, who was standing beside a table filled with food. She smiled, then projected her voice into warning tones. “I told you already, not until after the ceremony!”

Burhan gave a mischievous grin and withdrew his fingers from a pile of cardamom cookies. Little Tahir, standing hopefully beside him, put his hand behind his back and tried to look innocent.

Varene chortled. “Did I mention your son broke into the palace to make sure you were surviving? He loves you very much.”

Mirth crinkled Taleen’s eyes. “He told me.” Then her face grew serious. “And yes, Burhan does love me, as I love him. I’d give my life for him—and so would Kuramos. As you and I have agreed, the sultan is a good man. The best.” She patted Varene’s arm, hesitating. “Are our ways of marriage so different that you can’t find peace with them?”

Varene blinked, astonished. “You would accept it? Kuramos marrying me?”

“Of course,” the sultana said patiently. “We are a family, all of us. You’ve nursed us back to health with your skills and your care, helped our children, made our husband happy—as he has always tried to do for us. Why would we not want you with us?”

Varene snapped her mouth closed, then glanced at Sulya, leaning against a wall across the room, a pensive expression on her face. “I don’t think everyone feels that way.”

“Sulya can be…difficult to be around at times. But in the end, even she must bow to Kismet. The god’s wisdom is beyond that of mortals.”

“Taleen, I… Do you realize what your husband offered me?” she whispered.
To make me his Sha’Lai.

The Fifth Wife sat silent for a moment. “Whatever it was, it’s his right as the sultan.”

“I believe in Fate too. But I’m not sure I could be as understanding—or as forgiving—as you.”

“It’s not my place to judge.”

“But it
is
. That’s my point!”

The corners of Taleen’s mouth turned up. “Life is varied and complicated, Healer. We cannot control all that happens—we can only do what we must, what we should, and make ourselves and others happy when we have the chance. That is life, in all its glory. But there’s one thing I’d like you to consider.”

“And that is?”

“It would be lovely for us all to have another sister.” She kissed Varene on the cheek and left her sitting there, speechless.

“S
un’s gold for the Goddess.”

Varene listened as Priya’s jolly-faced aunt, Sabrang, spoke the words. Swathed in gold like her niece, Sabrang reached for the bride’s hand as the wedding guests watched.

“Sky’s blue for the God.” The aunt laid Sohad’s hand upon Priya’s, then slid a white silken veil from her neck and looped it over their wrists. “White for eternal peace and harmony under the stars.”

Varene glanced at Kuramos, who, since Fate had cursed her, sat directly in front of her in the row ahead. Beside him sat his wives according to their ranks, from Rajvi at his side to Sulya at the far end.

Varene’s gaze was drawn again and again to the accusatory set of his shoulders. Of his face, little more than the curve of his onyx lashes was visible as he gazed at the nuptial couple. She could guess at his expression, and was glad not to be facing it.

Sabrang lifted up two garlands of leaves and berries. “Green is for growing; for a good harvest for you and yours and a full table all your lives.” She placed a garland around the groom’s neck, then the bride’s.

There was a light touch on Varene’s arm, and she turned. Young Mishka gave her a big smile and dropped to the edge of Varene’s pillow. “Hello,” the princess whispered.

Varene smiled back, grateful for her notice. Mishka sat close and leaned on her companionably as they watched the ceremony. Most of it was very Kaddite and new to Varene.

Sabrang reached into a silver pail and sprinkled a handful of sand over the bride and groom’s sandals. “The desert of Kad, so you’ll always remember from whence you came, and where you will go when your time in this world is complete.”

A movement distracted Varene, and she spied Tahir grinning impishly at her from between Sulya and Taleen’s pillows. As soon as Varene saw him, he withdrew, then peeked out again a few seconds later. She had to squelch a chuckle.

“Pomegranate flowers,” said Priya’s aunt, holding a scarlet bloom aloft. “A prayer for the children this couple will bear. Two families join today through marriage; may their bloodlines continue long after Naaz has called this bride and groom home to Her.” She tucked the sprig into Priya’s waistband, over her belly, and held her hand there for a moment in blessing.

Beside Varene, Mishka shifted on the pillow, staring intently at the entrance to a nearby hallway. Varene glanced to see what had caught the girl’s interest and saw a cookie rolling into view on the marble floor. Mishka rose and moved toward it, as did Tahir, with a small giggle. The angle of the hall prevented Varene from seeing whoever had set the cookie into motion, but the children picked up the sweet, examined it, and then walked the way it had come as if to find out.

Burhan eyed the retreating pair from his cushion and followed them a few moments later. Kuramos watched his teenage son depart and glanced down the hall, frowning, before turning back to the altar.

“Evening falls,” said Priya’s aunt, and nodded at the servants stationed beneath each sconce to light the torches. Soon the blaze of the torches surpassed the waning light from the dome above. A surprised squawk rang out, and Gunjan launched himself off a sconce as it flamed to life. The audience tittered as he landed on a table and tucked his head under his wing, embarrassed.

“Just as we walk by Naaz’s light beneath Idu’s sky in the day,” Sabrang intoned, “by night, the bridal couple will rely on each other for warmth and comfort.” She passed a glowing candle to Sohad, who lit a matching one in his bride’s hand.

In the row ahead of Varene, the Third Wife, Nireh, gave a dreamy sigh that belied her prim posture.

“Now,” Sabrang said, “Preserving the Peace. When these two find themselves at odds, will they work together to maintain their union?” The audience leaned in, holding their collective breath, and Varene wondered what was coming.

Priya and Sohad tucked their free hands behind their backs and moved to face each other. Without touching the white veil that wrapped their wrists, they released each other’s hands and pulled apart, snatching at the veil before it slipped to the floor. The audience clapped their appreciation at the successful catch. “Huzzah!”

The nuptial game was new to Varene, and for a moment, she imagined herself up there with Kuramos, smiling into each other’s eyes as they prepared to grab for the veil…