Serpent's Claim (Serpent's Touch 2)

AMIRA

Lady Igaed poked her needle through the embroidery she was working on. Her canvas was stretched so tight in the frame, I heard every single stitch she made.

“Is Lord Kyllen coming home tonight?” she asked, laying stitches in an uninterrupted battery of pokes.

At the sound of Kyllen’s name, my heart leaped and skidded. It was the fourth day since he’d been gone, but it felt like an eternity.

“Yes.” I clutched the cup of tea in my hands. “He said he’d be home tonight.”

There wasn’t much else for me to do at the palace but eat and sleep. With the blindfold on, I couldn’t even join Lady Igaed in needlework to kill time until Kyllen’s return. I agreed to meet with her this morning only because sitting in my room alone had started to feel way too much like hiding behind a crate in Madame’s tent.

“Did he say where he was traveling?” Lady Igaed inquired for the second time since we’d gotten together after breakfast.

We were sitting on a patio of sorts. The way the High Lord’s palace was constructed, living spaces blended with the outdoors seamlessly. Bedrooms were carved into the thick branches of the great royal trees, with walls and partitions added where needed. Halls and common areas often remained under the open sky, shaded only by the leafy canopy above.

A breeze caressed my face. Lights filtered through my blindfold in an ever-changing pattern as sun rays must be playing between the leaves above us. Geltar, the woman assigned to be my maid, had told me that Lady Igaed had invited me to join her in her drawing room. Yet here we were, in the breeze and sun, under the leafy canopy. This wasn’t “a room” in the sense that I was used to.

“No. Kyllen didn’t tell me where he was going when he left,” I replied, keeping my head down.

I hadn’t expected him to leave me alone so soon, barely a day after we first arrived in Lorsan. Before he left, he’d kissed me and given me a long hug that still hadn’t felt nearly long enough. Then, he’d placed something on my ring finger.

“This will protect you while I'm gone.”

“What is it?” I felt the object carefully. It was a ring with a stone that had a hole drilled in it. I remembered he wore it on his pinky.

“It’s a hag’s stone. Magic flows through it, carving a passage. Right here.” He took my hand and pressed one of my fingers to the smooth funnel of the hole. “It’ll protect you from curses or from the effects of anything they may decide to add to your food.”

“Don’t trust anyone,”his words sounded in my head again.

Holding the teacup with my fingers overlapping, I traced the smooth edges of the hole in the stone on Kyllen’s ring. It felt warm and, in a way, comforting.

“Hmm.” Lady Igaed kept energetically stabbing the canvas with her needle. “Lord Kyllen has been rather secretive, hasn’t he?”

She hit a nerve. It bothered me that he left without telling me where he was going and why. I trusted him implicitly, but he chose to keep secrets from me.

My thoughts rushed to the day he left again. We’d had breakfast together. He’d wished to know which eggs I liked better, fish eggs or pickled frog eggs. He’d ordered both for me to try. I’d told him I still preferred chicken eggs, which made him laugh.

Oh God, I missed that laugh. Longing speared through my chest so strong it hurt. I wrapped my fingers tighter around the teacup, trying not to fall apart, not in front of Lady Igaed.

I willed my voice not to shake. “I’m sure he has his reasons.”

“Does he?” she echoed. “I don’t see what they could be. We’re all his family here. We welcomed him back. The High Lord was planning a big celebration to mark his return. And he just left…”

She let the end of the last sentence hang in the air, as if inviting me to explain.

Only what could I say other than Kyllen probably didn’t want to talk about his travel plans because he didn’t want anyone to know? Maybe he didn’t trust his family, just like he obviously didn’t fully trust me.

When I’d asked him where he was going, he’d told me to wait and see. The waiting part was killing me now even more than my inability to see.

“Men,” Lady Igaed huffed, and I imagined her shaking her head. “It’s best for a woman never to rely on one.”

It was a curious statement coming from the woman who was married to Lord Bherlon, the son of the High Lord of Ellohi, and who was expected to rule these lands alongside her husband one day.

“Are you and Lord Bherlon bonded mates?” I blurted out.

She chuckled. “Oh no, sweetie. Finding your fated mate is so rare, one can spend their entire life searching and waiting in vain. It’s hardly worth it. Most fae unions are not bonded. And frankly, it’s easier that way.”

“Easier? How?”

“A bond requires a strong emotional involvement. To the point that if one of the mates dies, the other one quickly follows. It’s sad, really.” She heaved a sigh. “Whereas a practical, arranged union allows a woman to keep a lot more of herself—her heart, her soul, even her body in some cases.”

I tried not to sound naïve but couldn’t fight my curiosity. “Isn’t sex required in a marriage?”

She giggled softly.

“Not necessarily. A state marriage really only requires your mind and your wallet, or whatever status and property each partner contributes to the union. My father, High Lord of Stevali, transferred a great portion of his prime hunting grounds to Ellohi as part of our marriage arrangement. Lord Udren had signed an alliance with him in return.”

“Oh…” I took a sip of my now tepid tea.

I had so much to learn about this new way of life. Now, that I had more free time than ever before, I wished I could find books to read about it. Except that with the blindfold on, it would be impossible to read, anyway.

“But you don’t have to concern yourself with any of that, my dear,” Lady Igaed pointed out. “Humans don’t become either spouses or bonded mates to fae. At least, I’ve never heard of that ever happening.”

Her dismissive tone stabbed through me like her needle through the canvas in the frame.

“What do they become?” I asked with apprehension.

“There haven’t been many of your kind in Nerifir. I haven’t heard of one ever coming to Lorsan, for obvious reasons.” She clearly was referring to the necessity of my blindfold. “Legends from other kingdoms of Nerifir say humans make for great lovers. They’re also easy to breed. Your birthrate is much higher than that of fae, despite your shorter lifespan, or maybe because of it. Also, a child born to a human is always a fae. That’s convenient to have in a lover, especially if one has no legitimate heirs.”

I set my cup down on a side table. If I tried to take another sip, I’d probably choke on it. There was also a real danger of me dropping it as my hands trembled. I fisted them, hating that Lady Igaed could surely see the distress her words had caused in me. I’d never been good at hiding my emotions.

“There is no need to worry, sweetie,” she cooed. “As long as you’re young and pretty, you’ll be able to find a lord anywhere in Nerifir to take care of you.”

I wasn’t sure if her words were meant to console me, but they did nothing of the sort. I’d come to Nerifir to be free. Not to become someone’s mistress or…a breeder.

The tight bodice of the dress that Geltar had laced me in that morning seemed to get even tighter. I bent my head, but there was no scarf for me to hide in. The dress didn’t even have a collar, leaving my neck and shoulders exposed. It felt like my very soul had been exposed, too, bare and vulnerable.

Someone walked out onto the terrace where we were sitting.