Once again, huge thanks to Todger65 for helping me edit!
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The tunic Draeseth chose to wear to lunch was one that looked like it was made to go with her gown, black with the same flowers as her dress, embroidered in her dress' shade of grey. Walking through the halls and courtyards on his arm, Isonei felt giddily happy. Getting to bring her Draeseth into the family rooms was a joy.
It was marred slightly by the servant directing them out into the gardens when they reached the family dining area. She wondered what had changed the Daga's mind.
Approaching the table laid in the garden, she saw immediately why. Burgath was seated at the table laid for four with her Daga. She hoped he understood what a rare thing he was being permitted.
"Daughter of Liadith." The Daga smiled wryly as he inclined his head. Burgath rose politely to offer a stiff bow. "Prince Draeseth."
"My Daga." Isonei offered a warm smile and bowed her head, before turning to greet Burgath more coolly, "Prince Burgath." The inclination of her head was far more like that which Daga Gildith had given him than her usual friendly greetings.
Draeseth bowed to the Daga when she had finished, "Daga Liadith." He glanced to Burgath, "Brother."
The Daga was clearly amused as he accepted Prince Draeseth's greeting graciously. "When Prince Burgath said there had been a small family quarrel this morning I wasn't expecting this. It usually takes a great deal to make Lady Isonei angry."
"My wife has been taking up my bad habits." Draeseth made certain she was settled in her chair before he took his own seat beside his brother.
"It wasn't a small thing to me." Seated next to the Daga she gave the larger of the two Torgans a rueful smile.
"I would have that explained more fully." The Daga looked intently at Prince Burgath.
"I interrupted them. Twice. The first time my brother and I quarreled. The second time his servant would not allow me into the room. Foolishly, I believed it to be owed to my brother's annoyance. I struck the servant and entered." Burgath paused, glancing at her. "This was not well received, particularly because the man was trying to prevent me from seeing the daughter of Liadith in a state of undress."
"You entered the bedroom?" The Daga was frowning and straightening in his chair.
"No, my Daga. We were at the breakfast table." Isonei tried to suppress her smile as Draeseth began to blush.
"In your chemise?"
The Daga half turned to her with a questioning look, switching to Lerian.
"No, my Daga, only the black silk stockings my husband pleases."
She had to struggle not to laugh as he looked to the blushing Torgan and then out into the garden before sucking his lips against his teeth.
He cleared his throat, "A man might be forgiven such a mistake, once."
"It is my intention to listen in the future, Daga Liadith. My brother's fury was less fearsome than Lady Isonei's." Burgath inclined his head apologetically.
"I didn't know my Isonei could speak so sharply. It was..." the look on Draeseth's face made her flush with delight, "pleasing."
"It pleased you to hear her speak to me that way?" Burgath frowned and sounded as if he wished to begin a new argument.
"It pleases me to know my sweet wife can be sharp when she desires. It would be less pleasant if she turned that sharp tongue on me, but for turning it on the man who struck my servant for doing his duty and laid eyes upon what is mine? What man would fault his wife for her words or tone?" Draeseth's stern face as he spoke to his brother made her wish she could be sitting next to him, if not in his lap.
"Not a man whose wife looks at him that way."
Daga Liadith reached out and stroked one of the Torgan braids keeping her silver hair up. "I may consult you on how to persuade my wife to look at me like that, once the match has been finalized, Prince Draeseth."
The growling grunt he responded with made the Daga's eyebrows raise and sent Isonei into a fit of giggles.
"Once again your eloquence astounds, brother." Burgath ran a hand down his face.
"He may be giving me a demonstration." The Daga made a gesture and tiered trays bearing food were arranged on the table in front of them. "My father always swore laughter was the way to win a woman's heart."
"I don't think I ever knew him to be wrong, my Daga." Isonei smiled at him warmly.
"Do you make him laugh as well?" He began filling both of their plates with the bite sized morsels displayed in front of them.
"I try, and sometimes I succeed." She gave Draeseth a mischievous smile and watched his lips curve.
"She does. I am not a man who laughs often and long, but she brings me joy." He lapsed into Torgan and Burgath smiled, nodding.
"She brings out the poetry in you, brother. He said she fills him with joy like a cup running over, the more he drinks of it the more he has."
"My father would approve." The Daga glanced at her with a faint smile.
"If he brings you as much joy you might consider a more permanent match."
"I am considering it, my Daga. He is uhhmm a need of my heart."
The desirous look Draeseth gave her made her blush.
"I would suggest you misspoke, but that is such a charming way of phrasing it I can't think of better." The Daga tapped the table next to her plate. "Eat. If you keep speaking so sweetly you may sour the food."
Burgath snorted as Draeseth murmured in Torgan, "You might try speaking a language she can understand if you're going to flatter her shamelessly."
"If he were trying to flatter her he would." The Daga offered the annoyed prince a commiserating look as he put a bite into his mouth.
Isonei beamed at the adoring Torgan across from her as she took a bite of the crisped bread, not paying attention to its toppings. She shuddered, and Draeseth laughed reaching across to take the other half of the bite from her. "What is it?" He put it in his mouth and smiled. "It's good, why did you make that face?"
"Capers."
The look on the Daga's face as he took a bite said he'd remembered her dislike of them and had done it deliberately. She eyed her plate suspiciously.
"Your Daga is repaying you for your childishness?" Draeseth began to take several of the crisped breads from the tray, as if he intended to eat heartily.
"He knows I can't object after my bad behavior." Isonei tentatively took another bite and reached for her cup. She enjoyed spicy food but whatever he'd had them fill the dates with made her mouth burn.
"Won't object, not can't." The Daga was enjoying himself.
"Can't, my Daga." She drained her cup and shuddered again, her mouth no longer burned but the drink had been the soured milk drink he favored when they were children. After she was certain she wasn't going to throw up she continued, "I behaved horribly. Falling asleep while hiding like a willful child-"
"You're forgiven." He was smiling as if he'd won a prize. "I hadn't expected you to drain the cup."
"Whatever is in the dates, my Daga... it burns."
He looked less pleased and tried one, spitting it out and reaching for his own cup.
"I told them to make it spicy enough to make you drink, not to burn your mouth."
With a frown and gesture he summoned the servants, "Remove these and bring Lady Isonei something cooling for her mouth."
"Sit with me." Draeseth was scowling as she looked up at him, "You look ill."
"The sour milk has never agreed with me." Isonei let her lips twist ruefully. "I stay where I sit until I'm given permission to leave the table."
The Torgan shifted his scowl to her Daga. "You would punish her for childishness by being more childish?"
"It seemed appropriate." The Daga's careful tone should have been a warning but Isonei could see that Draeseth wasn't going to take it.
"How often did your father speak 'Turnabout is fair play'? Your children are going to be exciting, my Daga. May you have as many as Daga Gildith."
She gave him the sweetest smile she could muster.
"You forgot to say 'may they all take after you.'"
He sipped his milk with a sparkle in his muddy green eyes.
"I wouldn't do that to Arissa, my Daga, may they all take after your father." Fluttering her lashes sent him into a howl of laughter.
He patted her cheek with the back of his hand as he smiled broadly.
"There is a reason you were my father's favorite. After lunch we'll take your husband down to speak with him."
The intake of breath from both Torgans got her attention. Draeseth looked as though he wished to firmly decline, but Burgath began speaking in a hushed tone. The pair began to argue in Torgan.
"Is your husband religious?"
The Daga leaned to ask quietly.
"Yes, my Daga. The grave flower upset him and uhhmm when I explain-"
"He was afraid?"
"Yes, my Daga."
The Daga interrupted the two Torgan Princes by knocking on the table. "It would please me to take Prince Draeseth into the family crypt to speak with my father. But if he is religious, as Lady Isonei says, I will not be offended if he declines."
"Thank you, Daga Liadith." Draeseth bowed his head respectfully.
"You will have to explain to me, how did a religious Torgan find himself participating in the Festival of Maeralya?" The Daga resumed eating.
"I have been asked that many times, Daga Liadith." Draeseth looked at her with a grim smile. "I saw my Isonei, glowing, beautiful and cold, afraid in the moonlight. I ached to wrap her in my cloak and protect her. I did not intend to drink with her, and I after I did I had intended only to speak with her in my chamber." He scowled as Burgath smirked and muttered something in Torgan.
"But I found, once her mask was removed, I was face to face with the most exquisite creature I had ever seen. And she..." He stopped as if he could not find words looking at her helplessly.
"What did you do?"
The Daga asked with amusement.
"I touched his beautiful face and asked him-" She took a breath and was interrupted by the servant bringing her a small delicate glass of goat cheese custard drizzled with honey.
"She asked me, 'Who would want to hit such a beautiful face?' The way she looked at me, I knew. I knew I would make her mine." He blushed slightly, "I took her to bed and begged her to stay with me."
Isonei began to laugh, shaking her head. "I remember it differently." The look on Draeseth's face was almost a pout. "You took me to bed and told me I was yours, and that my father could keep his wine, you would take his daughter."
The Torgan grinned. "I keep my word as well as you do. Promising to allow you to leave me was the most difficult thing I have ever done. And I did beg."
"You persuaded. Or were you not talking about convincing me to stay?" Isonei dipped the tiny silver spoon into the custard and took a taste.
