His arm was extended to me.
I stared at him.
“Go to your king,” Diandra whispered in my ear, her hands at my waist, pushing. “Now, my love.”
I moved to my king, he took my hand, pulled me close, bent our arms and held my hand tucked close to his chest, me to his side and we stepped off the platform, walked down the rise, through the gathered throng that was standing, silent and unmoving (except to let us through) in the driving rain.
I kept my head up, my eyes straight but that didn’t mean I didn’t cry the whole way home.
* * * * *
My girls were in the cham when we arrived and they sprung into action.
My clothes and jewels were taken away but before Packa could put a cloth to me to dry my wet skin, Lahn murmured, “Tahkoo tan,” and they hurried out of the cham.
Lahn, also still wet, his black paint seeping, but now hideless, came to me and gently he pulled me into bed not only under the silk sheet but also under the first layer of hides.
Then he pulled me into his arms, face to face, his hand cupping the back of my head pressing my face to his throat.
I listened to the rain beating on the top of the cham and wondered how the material didn’t get saturated and the wet didn’t seep through.
As I wondered this, Lahn held me close.
Then I whispered, “Your Hunt did that to her.”
“Rayloo, kah rahna fauna,” Lahn said softly, giving me a squeeze.
He understood my words even though I spoke my language, I knew it.
“Your Hunt drove her to that.” I was still whispering.
“Rayloo, Circe.”
“She was beautiful.” I kept whispering.
Lahn didn’t respond.
“He killed her beauty and slaughtered her soul.”
Lahn said nothing for a moment then he asked quietly, “Soul?”
“My people’s word for pahnsahna, her spirit,” I said just as quietly.
That got me another squeeze.
Then his hand slid from the back of my head and around to cup my jaw where a thumb under my chin pressed up gently so my head tipped back. He was looking down at me, his eyes, I could see, soft in the candlelight.
“The heavens wept,” he said in Korwahk.
I knew the air felt wrong all day because of the impending storm but I still replied in English, “That happens when innocents are punished.”
“Innocents?” he whispered.
“Ones who did no wrong,” I answered in Korwahk.
His head tilted so his forehead could rest on mine.
I closed my eyes.