I blinked at him.
Oh my God!
Karrim didn’t give me time to freak out, he kept speaking. “And therefore, I now have grave concerns of news that she, our warrior queen, the golden one, has had her spirit broken. She hides her glory from her husband. She sheathes her claws that he enjoys challenging with his steel.”
Oh man.
I kept quiet and kept my eyes glued to him even as Diandra shifted.
I knew what that shift meant. It meant my girls were talking, Diandra was listening and now she was meddling.
Shit.
“His roar of grief was heard far in Korwahn that day you disappeared,” Karrim said softly and I felt my body go completely still. “With the violence of the storm, its abrupt halt, all knew you commanded it and many thought he had lost his child, and, the sound was so tortured, perhaps even you. All were pleased to hear you had simply taken a turn, you were well but resting.”
I pressed my lips together to deny his words bouncing around in my brain. Good words. Great words.
Dangerous words. Dangerous to my peace of mind and my heart.
“And that day, I was summoned,” Karrim pressed on. “The Horde was off to war and I usually attended my king, made certain his messages and commands were sent and received to and from warriors who fought on different fronts. But he ordered that I would not ride with The Horde when they rode on Maroo. He told me under strictest confidence that there was another world, you, his goddess, had come to him from it and in the night, he had lost you as you had returned to it. And then he ordered me to search this earth to find a witch who could bring you home and bind you here. He commanded that no expense was to be spared. If I had to scour the icy depths of Lunwyn, I would do so. If I had to cross the entirety of the Green Sea to search faraway lands, I would do so. I would not stop until I found the magic to bring you back home and keep you here.” He nodded once. “And this I did.”
I was now breathing heavily.
Lahn had done this the day I disappeared. Lahn had ordered this instantly. Lahn hadn’t decided to believe me sometime in the last five months and Lahn hadn’t gone about his business.
Lahn had immediately launched plans to bring me back.
Oh God.
“Fortunately, I was able to provide this service to my king. I rode hard, lathered many horses, exchanged many riches. And I not only found the witch who brought you back but I also found a frost-haired princess of the north who graces her Raider husband’s ship, where I discovered her, a ship she dwells on when she is not gracing one of his wintry homes in Lunwyn and she confided in me that she, too, comes from your world.”
Holy crap!
“Really?” I whispered, leaning forward.
He nodded and again smiled. “Really. She and her husband are very interested in you for she has never heard of another like her. They requested no payment for the long conversations she had with me, telling me of your world, asking about you. They only requested that I send a messenger to find them when you returned. They travel widely and I have no idea when my message will be received but when it is, she intends to visit you, my golden queen.”
Wow. Wow. Wow.
“Wow,” I breathed, his smile widened and I heard Diandra stifle a laugh so I looked to her. Forgetting I had been a total bitch, I smiled at her and asked, “Diandra, sweetheart, isn’t that cool?”
Her mouth went soft, her eyes grew bright and she whispered, “Indeed it is, my love, very… cool.”
I held her gaze and felt my eyes grow bright too.
Then I felt another tight pain in my belly, my brows drew together and I looked down at it but Karrim again spoke.
“I tell you all this, my true, golden queen, because I cannot know what happened with you and our Dax to understand why this rift continues. But I wish you to know –”
He stopped talking when I groaned as the pain came back, tighter, deeper and I bent forward reflexively, taking my hand from Ghost and wrapping it around my swollen stomach.
“Circe?” Diandra called and I stopped clenching my teeth as the pain faded away.
I pulled in a breath and let it out through my lips that I formed in a tight “O”.
Then I looked at my friend. “I’m okay, it’s just a –”
I stopped talking and Karrim shot out of his chair, Ghost shot to her four paws and Diandra shot toward me.
This was because my water broke.
Oh man.
I looked at Diandra and finished. “I’m okay; it’s just that I’m having a baby.”
She smiled into my face.
Karrim rushed to the steps and shouted down, “Call the Dax immediately! His child comes!”
Great.
Karrim had a big mouth.
Diandra pulled me carefully out of the lounge chair, murmuring, “Let’s get you down those stairs while we still can.”
This, I thought, was a good idea. So I followed her after I got to my feet and Karrim rushed back to us. They walked me to the stairs, one on each side holding my arms tightly like I was an invalid, not just pregnant.
I ignored this and turned to Diandra. “We must talk.”
“Yes, my dear,” she nodded, “but perhaps not now.”
We made it to the top of the stairs. “I need to explain.”
“I’m sure you do,” she let me go, took a step down then turned and grabbed my hand, starting to lead me down as Karrim spotted me from behind, “but later.”
“There was a reason I was –” I started, she stopped halfway down the stairs and gripped my hand tight.
“Circe, can you please concentrate on getting down the stairs, successfully delivering the warrior who will succeed the Dax and then we’ll chat about why you locked yourself away to lick your wounds, grieve your lost world, consider your future… all of which I, and all your friends, already understand. Does that sound good to you?”
I grinned. “Yeah, sweetheart, that sounds good to me.”
She nodded smartly, muttered, “Dohno,” and she and Karrim finished leading me down the stairs were all my girls, save Twinka, were waiting, bouncing on their toes with ill-concealed excitement.
Shit.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The God and Goddess
“Push, my golden queen,” the healer, standing behind me in the bathing pool supporting my torso with her arms wrapped under my armpits, hands curled around my shoulders, urged in my ear.
My eyes stayed locked to Lahn’s as I breathed, “Right.”
It was official. I was never having another child. And I wasn’t because this shit hurt like a mother.
And I wasn’t all fired up about how the Korwahk delivered babies. That was, me in a Korwahk-style nightgown in the pool, the healer holding me up at my back, one of her (three! like I needed that much fucking company!) assistants holding me on one side, another on the other, the third outside the pool for some reason I did not ask and, best of all (not!), my ankles resting on Lahn’s broad shoulders. This was, by the way, a Lahn who was in his hides, kneeling in the pool ready to catch the kid should he ever deign to make an appearance.
