Crystal Crowned [ARC] (46 page)

“That would be acceptable.” Elecia nodded and took his hand as casually as possible.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, her hand shifted safely to the crook of his elbow. They continued through the palace in silence. Elecia’s stomach felt awkward.
Were they going to talk about last winter at all?

“How are you, ‘Cia?” Jax’s voice shifted from the laughing playboy to the dangerously broken man she knew lived beneath.

Elecia had grown up in the remnants of Western royalty. From the moment Aldrik and Jax had taken a magical shining to each other after Baldair’s “adoption” of the man, he had been in her life anytime she was near the royal family. He was one of the few people left alive who she would tolerate using her childhood nickname, and it was partly because he knew she would flay him if he used it publicaly.

“I’m well,” Elecia replied softly. “How are you?”

“Well enough. The guard here is taking shape nicely once more,” he answered casually.

Elecia glanced up at him. He had taken to wearing his hair loose and down over his shoulders after she had commented once on how it looked nice. She was surprised to see he still did and prayed to the Mother that he did not cite her as the reason for the change in style.

“That’s good. It is nice to know that one even as incompetent as yourself can put together a bunch of men and women with swords,” Elecia hummed.

“I should keep you around more often. Here I was allowing myself to feel proud of my work.” Jax laughed. “You’ll never let me get a big head, will you?”

“It shall be my duty to bear,” she replied. “How was the East?”

“Fine.”

A one word response;
how she hated those
. Elecia bit her cheeks and kept her questions to herself. The last thing she wanted to seem was eager or worried about what non-work related activities he might have participated in with any men or women.

From the moment they arrived at the garden, Elecia’s eyes were glued on the fantastic glass gazebo that she had been in awe over since her grandfather had told her why it was built. Its walls were steamed from the heat of the inside reacting to the thick snow falling around it. Elecia could only make out the green blurs that she knew to be rose bushes.

“Will you tell them for me that lunch will be ready soon?”

“Why don’t you tell them yourself?” Elecia paused, still under cover from the snow.

“I’m a guard; I should do so.” Jax grinned, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the iron of one side of the gate.

“You just don’t want to get cold and wet.” Elecia rolled her eyes before trudging into the snow. She mentally ordered herself not to glance at the pair of eyes she felt on her back as she reached the door of the glass structure.

Warmth hit her the moment she eased open the door and, once she was inside, Elecia shrugged off her cloak. Aldrik was very diligent about the temperature, and she noticed the roses were preparing themselves for another bloom as a result. It wasn’t until she rounded the central pillar she was even certain she was not alone, given that not one sound could be heard.

Aldrik sat with his arm draped around the woman who napped upon his shoulder. He was dressed in a regal white and gold ensemble, fitting of his station. Elecia had never told Vhalla, but she had always been thankful for whatever the woman had done to make Aldrik show the world that he was their ruler.

As striking as black looked on him, he needed to dress to his role. His eyes looked up from the book that was in his lap, and a smile crept upon his lips. Her cousin was handsome with his small smiles. Even Elecia could not deny that.

“My love.” Aldrik rubbed the sleeping woman’s shoulder lightly. “Elecia is here.”

Vhalla groaned softly, blinking her eyes open. She wore a long golden gown that creatively draped her in Southern classical design. Even the blue ribbon that was just under her growing bust was a nice touch. But no trick of cloth could be used to hide or diminish the massive swell of the Empress’s stomach.

“Elecia!” Vhalla struggled to sit up. A palm instinctually rested on the curve of her belly. Elecia wondered what made all pregnant women, regardless of age, class, or location, do so. “You finally came! It is so good to see you!”

“Sit, foolish woman,” Elecia demanded as Vhalla tried to stand to greet her. Aldrik did not even make an effort, his arm fastened to Vhalla’s shoulders.

“I missed you, too,” Vhalla laughed.

“All right, let me see what my cousin has inflicted upon you.” Elecia crossed over to the Empress.

Aldrik glanced away. Men—at least the good ones—always had a touch of guilt for what they were going to force their women to endure on their children’s behalf.
As they should
, Elecia believed. It was part of the reason why she insisted every man be present for the birth of their child. Not just for support and to see their offspring, but to ensure they understood what it was that their loved ones went through. It was also a direct way to point out the risk it held for mother and child. The truth was that a birthing room could as easily be the last moments of life rather than the first.

“She hasn’t allowed any clerics to touch her—”Aldrik began.

“I didn’t trust them, and I wanted the best,” Vhalla proclaimed as though the fact were obvious.

“So you said in your letter.” Elecia placed her palms on her hips, looking down at the Empress. “Really, Vhalla, it’s dangerous for a woman to go so long without a cleric taking a look.”

“It hasn’t been that long.” Vhalla rolled her eyes.

“When did she start to show?” Elecia turned to the dark-haired man. Hardly anything about him had changed since she had seen him last. It was something Elecia appreciated. Aldrik was consistent. He’d even worn his hair the same length as long as she had known him.

“Perhaps . . .” Aldrik was lost in thought. His gaze was fixed on Vhalla’s stomach as though it would tell him. “Three months ago?”

“Three months?” Elecia blinked. “You’re further than I thought then. A spring birth, I’d estimate.”

“You shouldn’t have taken so long.” Vhalla grinned up at her, and Elecia only offered an unlady-like snort in response. It was adorable when the woman thought she could return Elecia’s humor in kind.

“I was busy.” Elecia knelt down before the Empress.

“Were you?” Vhalla asked with an annoying little smile.

“Are you well?” Aldrik inquired.

“I am, cousin.” Elecia nodded with a smile just for him and completely ignored Vhalla’s question. “And you both?”

“We could not be happier,” Aldrik proclaimed boldly, his fingers wrapping around Vhalla’s still resting on the swell of her stomach.

Elecia shook her head with a small smile as the two shared a look, and she was forgotten for a moment. She wasn’t going to be the one to mention the Northern princess’s deal and cast a shadow over that look he was giving his wife.

“That’s beautiful, but she has not been properly looked at yet. Let me see if you truly have cause to be happy,” Elecia cautioned, reaching forward and placing her hands upon the swollen abdomen of the other woman.

“Is there a risk?” Aldrik leaned forward. “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know yet.” Elecia shook her head. “If she’s progressed this far without problem, then you should be well on your way to a healthy child. But we can’t be certain until I’ve taken a look at her, and more until the babe is here.”

“Right.” Aldrik sat back. Vhalla gave him a little grin. Apparently, the worried questioning was not new, and it wasn’t about to stop. “Her feet are swollen, and the small of her back aches.”

“So rub them.” Elecia rolled her eyes.

“Can it be made better?” Aldrik asked. “Perhaps some potion or—”

“Aldrik,” Vhalla stopped him with a squeeze of her hand. “I’m fine.”

Elecia saw the look her cousin was being given by his wife and returned her attention to the work at hand. She remembered how Aldrik had reacted to the miscarriage at the Crossroads. Clearly, women’s matters still troubled him deeply.

Closing her eyes, Elecia shifted her focus, delicately sending waves of magic through the veins in Vhalla’s body. Elecia checked the responses echoing back to her. If the response was slow or did not come, something was likely broken. If it was cold, that could mean there was a problem of a different sort. If it was too warm, it normally indicated sickness or infection. But everything returned to her palms with ease.

“You feel good, Vhalla,” Elecia encouraged, more for her cousin’s sake than anyone else’s. “Let me check the child also.”

Elecia probed gently, connecting through mother to what was carried within the womb. She paused, furrowing her brow and shutting her eyes once more. Listening closely, she tried to make sense of the response that echoed in her ears.

“Elecia, what is it? What’s wrong?” Aldrik asked hastily at her expression.

“Quiet,” Elecia ordered without opening her eyes. Vhalla’s heartbeat was clear and strong. However, underneath that was not one
but two
additional heartbeats.

Elecia pulled her hands away slowly, opening her eyes.
Three total heartbeats
. It was small wonder Vhalla was so large so early.

“So!” Elecia stood quickly. “Do you want a boy or a girl?”

“The baby is well? Do you know that already?” Aldrik looked with eager interest.

“Who do you think I am?” Elecia laughed. Had they not called her out from the West just for the care she could give? Though, now that she knew the truth of the Empress’s pregnancy, Elecia was thankful for it. There was a hard road ahead before these babies could be brought screaming into the world.

“It’s a boy,” Vhalla said definitively. “I’ve never had an appetite like this.” She rubbed a palm on her stomach, and Elecia withheld comment on why she thought that fact to be true. “Clearly it must be a boy to demand so much food of me.”

“Not all women are like you and have trouble eating. You carry a girl, I can feel it.” Aldrik kissed her temple.

“You can feel it?” Vhalla laughed, smiling brightly at her husband. “I carry
him
in me, I know what I feel.”

Elecia smirked. Both of them looked back to her expectantly. She turned for the door and began shrugging her cloak back on.

“I’m hungry. Maybe I’ll tell you what they are over lunch,” Elecia announced. The information was far too satisfying to give it all up at once.

There was a long silence. Elecia looked over from the ties on her cloak to see them frozen in place. Aldrik’s hand was still on Vhalla’s back, the other wrapped around hers as he helped her up. The Empress blinked at Elecia, total shock in her eyes.

“Elecia,” Aldrik finally forced on both of their behalves. “
They?
”

Elecia shook her head with a laugh. He was truly going to be in for trouble. She began to wonder what kind of father Aldrik would be. She thought she had a far better idea already of the mother before her, but Aldrik was an amusing mystery yet. Far removed from the man he once was, Elecia had faith that he would surprise them all.

“Good luck, both of you. You’ll need it for both of them.” Elecia glanced back to Vhalla’s swollen stomach.

She did not say it aloud, but she already looked forward to meeting
the children of fire and wind
.

A new fantasy epic from author Elise Kova

Coming in January 2017

Her vengeance. His vision.

Ari lost everything she once loved when the Five Guilds’ resistance fell to the Dragon King. Now, she uses her unparalleled gift for clockwork machinery in tandem with notoriously unscrupulous morals to contribute to a thriving underground organ market. There isn’t a place on Loom that is secure from the engineer turned thief, and her talents are sold to the highest bidder as long as the job defies their Dragon oppressors. 

Cvareh would do anything to see his sister usurp the Dragon King and sit on the throne. His family's house has endured the shame of being the lowest rung in the Dragons' society for far too long. The Alchemist Guild, down on Loom, may just hold the key to putting his kin in power, if Cvareh can get to them before the Dragon King's assassins. 

When Ari stumbles upon a wounded Cvareh, she sees an opportunity to slaughter an enemy and make a profit off his corpse. But the Dragon sees an opportunity to navigate Loom with the best person to get him where he wants to go. He offers her the one thing Ari can’t refuse:

A wish of her greatest desire, if she brings him to
the Alchemists of Loom
.