Page 20 of The Ivory King

“Someday, Aelir, you will need to produce offspring. That is a fact that you cannot shirk despite your love for me.”

“That day is far in the future. We have centuries ahead of us. I do not wish to reside in the possibility of what may come, V’alor.” I meshed his fingers with mine. “I want to live in this day, in our love, in the feelings that burst to life when I gaze upon you. I long to not hide our relationship for sneaking about sullies what we are to each other. Are you not proud to call me yours?”

“I would find no greater joy than to call you mine, but—”

“Ah! No, no but!” I wiggled closer, his hand clasped in mine. “Then we shall make an announcement of our relationship when we return to Renedith.”

“Umeris will—”

“Umeris will bluster and toss about outdated ideals. I care little for his antiquated views on most things so this will just be one more irksome pebble I toss into his slippers.”

He stared at me intently, his mind churning like the sand storms that spun across the Black Sand Isles. Or so I have heard about the sandy spin winds. I’d not ventured to the isles, few had, save the king’s secretary, and that just of late. Diplomacywith the Sandrayan people was tender yet and being handled with great care.

“Do you think that the people of our vills will honestly care little about my mother?” he asked, his voice that of a man but his question that of a small boy who had been teased unmercifully by the other children.

“They will care not. All they worry over is having enough to eat, enough gold, and ample peat to burn in the cool season. The only souls that will care about us is us.” I lifted his hand to my lips to kiss his knuckles. “Please, let us step out of the shadows, V’alor. Let our love shine for all of Renedith to see.”

His muscled chest rose and fell before he gave me a soft nod. “Very well. When we return to our vills, we can make our love known. It is not as if there are any who do not know I am warming your sheets every night.”

My heart nearly exploded with joy. I threw myself atop him, peppering his face and lips with kisses. His strong arm lay over my back as he moved me between his long legs.

“Thank you, thank you! We shall be so happy, V’alor! Every man and woman in Renedith shall be sick with envy when they see you at my side and know that you are mine: heart, body, and soul.”

He patted my bare buttock softly as I curled up on his chest like a cat in a ray of summer sun.

“Itwillbe pleasing to see the look on a certain valet’s face when next you travel to the Mossbell lands,” he confessed, making me snicker.

“You have nothing to be jealous of,” I assured him, content as a lamb in a clover field, as my happiness settled in my breast. “None shall ever stand at my side other than you, V’alor.”

He said nothing in reply, practical man that he was, for he knew that someday, in the furthest future, that vow may betested. But for now, and for many years to come, Ihdos hear my plea. My oath was as solid as the walls of this keep.

IT WAS MORE THAN AMUSING WHEN, as V’alor lounged in the tub after I’d bathed in it, my heart’s desire heard me conversing with the very same valet he had been grousing about an hour earlier.

“Lord Aelir, I am beyond thrilled to be able to tend to your every need while you are here in Avolire,” Joralf gushed as he skipped into my suite, short dark hair brushed back from his face to highlight his pleasing features, with a dish of honey cakes in hand. “I begged my masters to allow me to come in hopes that they would offer me to you since we know you do not employ valets of your own. Oh! Let me brush out your hair on the patio. The setting sun will dry it with golden highlights that will capture the candles in the royal hall.” He took me by the elbow to steer me to the open doors. I moved along with him, eager to see the look that crossed V’alor’s face when he exited the bath in the next room. “Rumor has it that there are thousands and that the light from the candles reflects off the mirrored wall, creating daylight when it is night!”

“Yes, that is true,” I replied when he placed the cakes on a side table and then released me to fetch a padded stool from a dressing table with an ornate round mirror. I snugged my robe tightly around my damp waist, knowing it would not shield much from the servant’s eager eyes. “So the twins gave you leave to tend to me?”

“They did!” He rushed over, placed the stool to face the sun as it kissed the choppy sea, and then gently arranged me as he wished. “They are so good to me. Oh this brush! It is divine! Are those desert opals in the handle?” He scurried around my room like a chipmunk, returning with my brush, my comb, and a box of ruby-red beads that I’d packed for adornment at dinners. “I know that wearing braids when in attendance to the king is forbidden for nobles, but if I am sly, I may be able to use some fine fishing line and attach the line to your circlet so that with each turn of your head your hair shall glisten like a dragon’s horde. What say you, my lord?”

I plucked a honey cake from the platter. I never could resist honey cakes or V’alor’s lips. Both were equally sweet.

“I say that you have stones the size of musk melons to enter this chamber while my lord is not dressed for your eyes,” V’alor snarled behind us. I craned my head to look over my shoulder as V’alor stalked from the bathing chamber wearing naught but a feral glint in his dark eyes. Joralf gulped loudly and shot around the stool I sat on, quaking like a tree in a storm. His gaze fell to my bare feet.

“He is here at the request of the Mossbells, and it would seem rude to dismiss him as he was brought here for my use,” I tossed out, then winced at the way that phrase sounded. “My use as a valet. Now, please, do find a robe to wear back to the barracks, my love, while I begin to ready myself for a meal with the king and his court.”

V’alor mumbled and strode about the room, gathering his scattered clothing and armor while Joralf stood in front of me with his lower lip betwixt his teeth.

I sensed my lover coming up behind me. A strong hand fell to my shoulder, his fingers caressing my throat in a possessive manner.

“I shall take my leave, my lord. Your guard shall be ready to escort you and the grand advisor when the sun has fallen behind the horizon.” V’alor gave my neck a soft squeeze. “I expect you to keep your wandering eyes in your skull lest I pluck them out and feed them to the gulls.”

“Y-y-yes, my lord. My liege. My guard captain,” Joralf stammered, his pretty eyes now squeezed tightly shut.

“Joralf will be courteous. Now go so that we are ready. The king does not like tardiness in his guests.”

V’alor took a moment to leave. I turned on my stool to watch him slip out the door, say something curt to the men stationed there, and then disappear from view. Pasil peeked around the open door, smiled, and then gently closed it.

“That man has a great fondness of thought for feeding me and my body parts to various birds,” Joralf whispered, his grip tight on his thin fishing line.

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