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.

Then I opened them and whispered in Korwahk, “You were right, she wished that.”

“I know, my tigress,” he whispered back in English.

I kept whispering when I said in Korwahk, “Thank you for not punishing me.”

His chin jerked back slightly and his forehead came away from mine before he replied, “I would not punish you for being what you are.”

I blinked then asked softly, “What?”

“Kah Circe, you are kah Lahnahsahna, you are my warrior queen. It is who you are. It is not what anyone made you. It shines from your eyes. It is what I see in the boys I select to serve Suh Tunak. It is why I chose you. It is why we suit. It is why together we begin the Golden Dynasty of legend.” His thumb started stroking my jaw as he went on. “I cannot say I do not wish you would have thought before you acted today. If Dortak took her life, it would have ended her torment sooner and saved her from what she endured tonight. But I recognize it is who you are.” I stared up at him, heart in my throat. He was speaking in Korwahk but he was doing it slowly and I understood most of what he said and what he said, I had to admit, moved me. Then I watched his mouth twitch before he finished, “Though I will caution you at least to attempt to rein it in in future. I do not like my queen in black.”

My clothes were kickass here, it was true. But I was with him and I hoped I never had to wear that black outfit again in my life.

“Okay,” I whispered and his lips curved as his thumb swept mine.

“Okay,” he repeated.

I had more to say so I called, “Lahn?”

“Mm?” he murmured with another stroke of my jaw.

Okay, shit, it must be said there were some times when I really liked my husband. Now was one of them.

“Thanks also for not punishing your men,” I said and his grin turned to a smile.

“My Circe,” he started, “on your claiming, you stole my blade. No one, no other man, no other warrior, has ever taken my weapon. Not once. I know when your little warrior shines through, you will stop at nothing. I could not punish Bain for his weapon being seized when you had a mind to seize it for you did the same to me. He could not control you so he and Zahnin sought to control the situation. This is not grounds for punishment.”

Again, he was talking in Korwahk so I didn’t catch it all but I got the gist of it.

And the gist made me stare.

So when he received no response, Lahn spoke quietly. “I like my paint on you, my golden doe, because I like how I put it on you. But I like it more that your warrior spirit deserves the paint.”

I kept staring. Then I asked (in Korwahk), “No one has ever taken your weapon?”

He nodded.

“Wow,” I whispered and he smiled again.

“I do not know what that means, my tigress, but the way you say it and the look on your face, I do not have to ask.”

I felt my face get soft. Then I tilted my head until my forehead rested on his chin. To that, he tilted his until his lips rested on my forehead.

Then, there, he murmured, “The heavens wept at my wife’s command.”

I blinked at his throat and tilted my head back to ask what he meant but before I could say a word, from outside the cham I heard a man shout, “Kah Dax!”

Lahn’s head turned and then, to my shock (and horror, I must add), he shouted, “Enter!” in Korwahk and lifted up to sitting in the bed, taking me with him. The hides fell as he pulled my back to his front so I was facing the cham flaps, his arm across my br**sts somewhat covering my nudity from the three warriors who bent and entered our cham.

He didn’t have to shield me. They only had eyes for their king.

Rapid fire Korwahk was thrown but I got this from it:

“You are needed, my king,” one of the warriors.

“I attend my bride,” Lahn (which I thought was nice).

“It is important, my king,” another warrior.

“I leave my wife in our bed, it had better be,” Lahn.

“You have my vow it is,” the second warrior who spoke, spoke again.

Lahn hesitated before he sighed. Then he turned me in his arms, his hand came up to curl around the underside of my jaw and he dipped his face to mine.

“Rest and try to sleep, my tigress. I will return,” he said in English.

I nodded, he held my face steady and touched his lips to mine.

Then he set me in bed, threw the hides over me, exited off the side, went to the trunks, pulled out then yanked on another pair of hides and left the cham still tying them at his hips.