She nodded. There was no reason not to. This man was her father-in-law. She would know him until he died. Unfortunately, at this moment, he looked fitter than the goat that was chasing Kiri into Igmal’s arms. For an instant, she wondered about his magic, if there was such a thing, and she looked at theburrain its sheath at his belt. She remembered clearly the stark cold and frightening heat of it, and the image of her mother. She said to Argana, “I will walk with my father-in-law, Argana.” She felt him stiffen beside her, knew he hated her saying that, and it pleased her. She was determined that soon there would be laughter at Kinloch, that there would be normalcy—bickering, arguing, jesting, wrestling, children yelling at each other, all of it, all of what life was meant to be, not this coldly oppressive atmosphere that Varrick had brought to Kinloch.
“So, you wish to speak of Caldon?”
He said nothing until they were beyond the hearing of any of the Kinloch people. “The sun is bright this morning,” he said finally. “It is a fine day.”
She laughed. “Not for long, I wager. Every time I’ve believed that the sun would remain strong and bright, the mist rolled in and reduced it to nothing in but minutes. Should you care to wager about this, Varrick?”
“Why don’t you call me lord?”
“You’re my father-in-law. Why should I? Don’t you know that I respect you since you’re my husband’s father?”
He looked as if he wanted to strangle her. “I will wager that the sun remains high and strong today,” he said, his white slender hands still fisted at his sides. “If I am right, I want something from you.”
“What would that be?”
“I want you to bear my child.”
“You what?” She stared up at him, so surprised that no other words formed in her mind. “Youwhat?” she said again.
“I can’t kill my own son and take you. Thus you will be my concubine and bear my child. Cleve will never know. But the child we produce will have more skill in the magic arts than I have, than your father had, Chessa. You owe it to the force of all that remains hidden from mortals to produce a child who will claim an inheritance no man has ever possessed. Forget the stupid wager, I did not mean to say it. This is more important than you or your husband or anything. Tell me, Chessa, will you be my concubine? Will you bear my child who will be a great sorcerer?”
She stared up at him and said very calmly, “So Cleve was right. You would have killed Argana to have me. But it was a stupid plan, Varrick. Cleve was right again. What would you have done then? Killed your own son?”
“Nay, he wasn’t right. I would have killed Argana because it was a matter of honor. I want you, but not as my wife since you are married to Cleve. Answer me now, Chessa. Will you bear my child?”
What was she to say? To do? She forced herself to say calmly, “Perhaps sometimes in the future, Varrick.”
“Nay, we mustn’t wait. Men die in the flicker of an eyelid. It must be now.”
“I can’t, Varrick,” she said, still calm, now smiling at him. “I am pregnant with Cleve’s child.”
“Youwhat?” Cleve stared down at her, too many memories running riot in his mind, unable to take in what she’d said. He’d been kissing her, caressing her breasts when she’d told him, just blurted it out without adornment. He just shook his head at her. He cupped her chin in his hand, which was difficult to manage since he was on top of her. “Again, Chessa? Yet again you carry my child? I had believed we were well beyond your games by now. At least it isn’t Ragnor’s child this time.”
“Listen to me, Cleve, and you’ll understand how clever I’ve been. Your father decided he wanted me to bed with him and bear his child.”
“Hewhat?” Cleve smote his forehead with his palm, nearly falling on her. “You wait until you’re making my eyes cross with pleasure and then you tell me that my father wants a babe by you? He’s an old man, curse him. I’ll slit his damned throat for this. He’s as perfidious as Ragnor, just smarter, but this wasn’t very smart. He wants to bed you? I’ll kill him, Chessa, and you’ll not gainsay me.”
“Nay, I won’t gainsay you, Cleve. But listen to me. Varrick doesn’t really wantme,he just believes with all his soul that a child we would produce would be the greatest magician ever to live. He is old enough to be my father. When he wanted to speak to me, I looked at him and then at Argana and agreed that I’d go walking with my father-in-law. I thought he would choke me, but he didn’t. He had this on his mind, you see. No, when he told me that the child he and I would produce would be the sorcerer of the millennium, that was when I told him I couldn’t do it since it was your babe I carried in my womb. I don’t know if you should kill him just yet.”
Cleve lifted himself off her. His desire was like the cool ashes in the fire pit, banked for the night. He sat on the edge of the bed, naked, his hands clasped between his knees. “My father wants my wife. Aye, I knew that, but after you stopped him from killing Argana, I believed it over. He knew that all of us realized his motive, thus I believed you safe from him. But this. By all the gods, what am I to do? I should kill him. That would end it once and for all. Ah, but that would leave Argana and her sons alone as well as all his people.”
She came up on her knees and hugged her arms around his chest. She kissed the back of his neck, breathed in the scent of his flesh, the scent of his golden hair. She kissed the scar that ran down the side of his face. This time, to her joy, he didn’t flinch away from her. She kissed his shoulder. “I’m sorry I told you when I did. You now have no more interest in matters of the flesh, do you?” She was looking over his shoulder.
He grunted but didn’t turn to her.
“I told you, Cleve, because you must make me pregnant. We can no longer just think of lust, as we did last night and the night before and the night before that. We must now think very hard of a babe.”
He did turn back to her then, shoving her onto her back and coming over her. He balanced himself above her on his elbows. “My life has taken many strange turns. You’re the strangest, Chessa. Nay, don’t argue with me, you know it’s true, you know that you’ve twisted me about and made me question everything that I was, everything that I ever wanted to be. You’ve been pregnant more times without producing a child than any woman alive. Now you’ve done it again. I have to think lustful thoughts. Every time I look at you I think of loving you, caressing you with my mouth, coming into you. A child follows when these thoughts become actions. There is naught more either of us can do. I don’t suppose you told him how many months you were pregnant with my child?”
“He didn’t ask,” she said, kissing Cleve’s chin. “I think he was so surprised, that what I’d said was so unexpected, that it didn’t occur to him. He’s probably been thinking about it all through the afternoon and evening,” she continued, trying to pull him back down to her, but he wouldn’t move, just stared down at her, now balancing himself on his hands. She stroked her hands down his back to his buttocks. He frowned at her, but she just squeezed and smiled up at him. “You feel so very nice,” she said, and arched up, but it didn’t encourage him. Her fingers were between his thighs now, lightly touching him, searching, enjoying him.
“Don’t,” he said, shaking his head at her. “I love you, aye, that’s true enough, though I never wanted to, but now that I do, I will just have to accept it, but even with this love I have for you I still have no interest in this, at least right now. Pay attention, Chessa. You must know that my father is at this very moment deciding what he will do. It worries me, Chessa, for he is ruthless. He wants you. By all the gods, must every man on this wretched earth want you? Must I constantly look at every man to see if there is lust in his eyes and that his eyes are fastened on you?”
“Ragnor didn’t really want to marry me. He wanted to marry Utta or you.”
“I wish you’d say that another way. Now, be quiet and stop doing that with your hands. I mean it, Chessa, I must think, I must decide what is best to do. You’re right, I can’t kill him yet. Tomorrow you may be certain he’ll want to know when the babe will be born. Oh, damnation, part your legs and let me take you. Perhaps my seed will come deep into your womb and you will accept it.”
He didn’t touch her further, just pushed her legs apart and came into her, sliding deep and hard. He closed his eyes against the feeling of her soft flesh around him. She’d taken him, she’d been ready for him, yet he knew if he didn’t slow, she would gain no pleasure. It would be her own fault for being pregnant yet again with his babe, but he shook his head even as he thought it. He wasn’t thinking of a babe when he brought his mouth to her, nor did he think of a babe when he watched her arch upward, yelling in her pleasure. He smiled when he came again into her, harder this time, and she brought him deep and stroked her hands over his back as he moved within her. “I love you,” he said when he reached his pleasure.
