The sky was inky blue when they stopped by a small river, and the great beast drank for ages while Sedrak set up a very small shelter and a fire. Leola’s stomach rumbled.
“You did not eat,” Sedrak told her plainly. She shook her head.
He grumbled, and retrieved some dried meat from a pouch. “My love, I have been neglectful,” he said, dipping the meat in a cask of water. He looked at her over the piece of dried game as he held it out to her. “I promise, I shall never be neglectful again.”
She took the meat, her heart beating wildly. She wanted desperately to ask him if it was true, that he had convinced Grudin to allow them to marry. She wanted desperately to hear the words, and yet she dared not compel him.
“Tonight, my love, we sleep, no more. We must ride all day to reach our army before nightfall.”
She looked at him, and wondered if he felt inside as she did: did he want to claim her as much as she wanted him to?
“Do not look at me so, Leola,” he said softly. “You tempt me, and I have sworn to my uncle to behave properly.”
“Properly?” she said, teasing him slightly.
Sedrak grunted and turned to retrieve the horse from the river.
That night he held her close beneath the furs, under the makeshift shelter that was no more than a large leather fur tossed over a cord between trees. The night was terrifyingly dark; only the glowing embers of the fire could be seen in the darkness. She would have been scared, except that she could feel Sedrak’s strength at her back and around her.
Against the small of her back, his manhood pulsed to life, and she burned with desire for what seemed like hours, thinking of him, longing to feel him inside of her. Until at last, her eyes must have fallen shut, and she slept.
* * *
They arrived after a long journey that made her legs ache at the top of a hill to see below them a valley, out of which smoke arose and a camp not unlike the one they had left in the forest was scattered about on the floor of the valley like the wooden toys of children.
Almost as soon as they had crested the hill, men seemed to rise from beneath the ground not far from them, shouting and holding weapons.
“It is your king!” Sedrak shouted. “Put down your weapons and send a messenger ahead of me. I require a hot bath, and a feast! And a tent for my companion!”
Leola tried to look back at him, but he kissed the edge of her right ear and held her tight. “Patience, my Leola,” he murmured.
When they reached the camp, Sedrak ordered Dorva to take her to be bathed, and then dressed in her own tent. Dorva agreed, bowing her head, but Leola could see the same displeasure in her eyes as previously at the camp before they had departed.
They were silent as Dorva prepared a bath for Leola. Torches had been placed by the river, and the moon that had evaded the sky behind clouds the night before was bright tonight. Leola already felt that she had arrived at her home.
“Dorva?” she asked finally, as the woman began to comb her hair, still without speaking. Leola reached her hand up to touch Dorva’s. “You are angry with me?”
Dorva sighed and pulled a tangle gently from Leola’s hair. “Not you,” she said simply.
Leola turned to face her. “Then why are you silent and cold?”
Dorva set the comb down. “It is not right,” she said quietly. Then she pressed her lips together. “It is not my place,” she said.
Leola sank into the water deeper. “Please speak your mind, Dorva,” she said.
“It is not right. The king must form an alliance with the Eastern lands. That is best for our kingdom. And you… distract him. He allows you to believe that you distract him.”
Leola sat up in the water. She dared not speak what she believed to be true to Dorva. For at times like these, she sometimes did not dare to believe that it was true; after all, Sedrak had not yet said the words to her himself. Was he only pretending, only dragging her disappointment out further?
She shivered. “I am cold, Dorva,” she said. “Please take me to…”
“Your tent,” Dorva finished.
Leola did not know what to make of her tone. “Yes,” she said simply, feeling the cold sensation deep inside her growing.
* * *
“It is not a great feast,” Sedrak said, settling himself upon a pile of furs and patting a place next to him before a table heaped with great platters of food. “But it is all they could manage.” He looked at Leola. “You are beautiful,” he said quietly.
