I really can't thank Todger65 enough for continuing to help edit these chapters! It is greatly appreciated!
*****
They retired to their room giggling and Isonei could tell that Arissa was already quite taken with the Daga. Amay and the other maids helped them out of their gowns and jewelry and into their night dresses. They were left alone in relatively short order and stretched across the larger bed.
Isonei sighed, turning her head to look at Arissa, neither of them were tired. "If this were years ago I would suggest we dress and slip out of the window to walk the gardens."
"Why don't we?"
Arissa laughed.
"We retired to our rooms as my father suggested. I'm not ready to sleep yet, and I still want to learn the, what was it, Sievenis-Seinevis Jara?
"Seivenis Jara. We would have to get dressed first. The Torgan gowns are heavy and warm if you want to try one."
Venturing into the closet given to her for her dresses they looked over the Torgan gowns. The solidly black one and the dark grey she'd worn earlier were absent. Arissa chose one that was largely a slate blue with black brocade accents, marveling at all of the layers that were meant to go under it. Isonei chose one very similar in a color close to the wine she'd learned to enjoy.
Once in silk stockings and all of the layers, they doused the lamps and opened a window, awkwardly clambering out.
"How can they even move in these dresses?"
Arissa hissed at her.
"I don't think they do," Isonei whispered back as they clasped hands and moved into the gardens. "Draeseth says they move gracefully, but I think they must do a lot of being very still. They tangle in your legs and try to strangle you even when you lounge."
Arissa made a pitying face at her and squeezed her hand.
"What about leaving off some of the layers? There are so many!"
"He promised he would have some made in lighter fabrics, but he said the layers are important. I left off the shirt and the undermost skirt and he claimed I was half naked!"
Arissa laughed quietly.
"They are warm. There's a chill in the air tonight but I only feel it on my face and fingers."
"Torga is supposed to be cold; perhaps that's why they're so heavy."
"Perhaps. I've seen paintings of the Torgan Mountains; they looked cold."
"The mountains can be cold at times." Draeseth's voice offered from the shadows. "Torgan women are well covered for propriety sake and for warmth. You both look... lovely." He bowed before coming closer. "Were you not ordered to your rooms?"
"We retired to them and then decided to walk the gardens."
Arissa answered curtly as if she expected him to call the guard.
"I like seeing you in the Lerian clothes, my Draeseth. The black and cream with the scarlet sash is very striking."
"But not in Torgan clothes?" He frowned at her slightly.
"You're beautiful in those as well, but they hide more of your magnificent form than I like." She smiled at him warmly and he offered her a growling grunt.
"I prefer your form to be for my eyes alone."
"I like to show you off. You are too beautiful to hide under so many layers of fabric and leather." She teased him, coming closer to wrap her arms around his waist.
Draeseth's hands remained clasped behind him. "You tease me when I can do nothing about it, woman."
"How fortunate I'm in so many layers, or I might be tempted to tease you too greatly." She saw his face flush and his eyes glitter in the bright moonlight.
"Why don't we find a place to sit and talk? My father didn't get to speak with you, and I would like to."
Arissa was giving her a disapproving look as she turned around.
"I will not have her chided for being affectionate. My wife is loving; I will not change her." He returned Arissa's disapproval with his own.
In the face of his black scowl Arissa swallowed nervously.
"My flower wine, if she were chiding me it would be very clear. Be nice and apologize please."
He made a loud noise in his throat that startled a sleeping bird out of a nearby tree. Arissa's eyes widened.
"My Draeseth?" Isonei's tone cooled considerably.
"Forgive me Lady Arissa. My mood is sour."
The look on Arissa's face was incredulously amused.
"That man seems sweet to you?"
"He is very like honey to my lips."
She lifted her chin slightly.
"She enjoys the sounds I make." Draeseth leaned against her. "My wife finds me pleasing when no one else does."
Moving to some nearby benches, devoid of their cushions, Arissa perched on one and curled her legs under her.
"But you still take your sour moods out on her?"
"I try not to. I sometimes fail." He looked at the bench with annoyance before settling himself on it, lying on his back and folding his hands over his stomach.
"Why are you so unhappy? If an Aran makes you miserable-"
Draeseth cut her off abruptly, "She is my happiness. Before her I had none and without her it was taken from me." He gazed up at Isonei as she perched next to him and caressed his hands. "If you cannot be mine alone, I will make an arrangement with you. But I will not do it gladly, wife. I want you to myself."
The admission made her want to smile as much as it made her heart ache. She curled and leaned against his hip. "The way you say it makes me think of the story of the maiden of the fields."
"I have never heard it. Tell it to me my jewel." He smiled faintly up at her, letting her entwine her fingers in his.
"Ealdith, the God of the fields, had quarreled with his twin, Ealdir, the Goddess of the hunt, and left her to walk his realms. In one field he heard the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. He stood at the very edge of the field and listened, coming back day after day to hear more.
He didn't know it was the sound of a sister singing at her younger brother's grave, and he didn't know he wasn't the only one listening. Tyhnoth, the God of death had also heard her and had come to listen day after day from inside the mounds.
To get her attention, the God of the fields blessed those closest to the sound of her voice and they bore such a bounty that her village became renowned for its fertile soil. And the God of death covered the mounds in tiny white flowers and spoke soft soothing words to her each time she visited.
She came to love them both, Ealdith with his bounty for her friends and family and Tyhnoth with his gentleness and kindness. When the time came, the God of death claimed her and the God of the fields was beside himself with grief, the fields stopped bearing their bounty. Nothing grew and a time of hunger and sadness settled on all of the lands.
People began to die of hunger and as they did they went to the God of death and the one who sat at his side to plead for him to speak to the God of the fields. The woman knew what had happened and pleaded with him to allow her to speak to Ealdith. After a time of refusing, he relented to her tears and permitted it.
Ealdith was so pleased to see her that he agreed to let the fields bear enough to feed those who were left as he set about trying to find a way to keep her by his side."
"The God of death could do nothing?" Draeseth frowned and looked at her sourly.
"He could do a great deal. When she returned to him the famine above started again. Tyhnoth refused to allow the dead to enter his halls. They roamed the lands of the living, hungry and thirsty, not alive but unable to rest. Maeralya had to step in and settle the matter. She told her sons that the woman would have her time split between them. For half of the year she lives with Tyhnoth, and the other half with Ealdith.
Neither is completely happy with the arrangement, for half of the year nothing grows in the fields, and we have never stopped burning our dead. But on years when the harvest is very poor we say she's giving Tyhnoth a child and spending the year with him. And on years when it's very rich and abundant-"
"She's giving a child to the God of the fields." Draeseth looked thoughtful. "Even your religion is complicated."
Isonei began to laugh, "How is that complicated my flower wine?"
"She didn't even mention that Ealdith and Ealdir, brother and sister, are also lovers."
Arissa made a face.
"The Aran religion has lovely stories if you can forget they're all very incestuous."
"It's different for Gods. All of the priests I've asked said so." The dubious look on her Draeseth's face said she'd need to explain but Arissa began before she could.
"One Goddess gave birth to the world, and then all of the Gods? Do they have the same father as the world?"
Arissa looked at her with feigned innocence.
"No, the world is their father."
Draeseth made a strangled sound, pulling his hands away to cover his face.
"The Gods take lovers amongst themselves? But aren't they all brothers and sisters, and I think, cousins as well?"
"They're Gods!" Isonei folded her arms and gave Arissa an annoyed look.
Draeseth muttered in Torgan and Arissa began to laugh.
"They're very fond of their Gods, you shouldn't say that where she can hear you. But it's a source of endless amusement to me that the most scandalous of their religious festivals is the one that doesn't celebrate incest."
"Ganas be merciful." His lips were twisted as he looked up at her. "My children will be raised in my religion."
"Children belong to their father's House, if we were to have children, of course they would be raised in your religion, but they would be taught to respect the beliefs of others as I was. If I chose to have an arrangement with anyone else, they would travel with me and they
would
see my religion as well, my flower wine. "
"Agreed." He frowned and then grunted, leaning up onto his elbows, "Are you permitted to make an arrangement with me?"
"I was made to promise not to marry you in this year, nothing was said of arrangements." The look of smug satisfaction on his face was too enticing to endure.
Leaning in, knowing he couldn't touch her, she was the one in charge of the kiss and she wanted to leave him breathless. Beginning soft and slow, letting him be the one to open his mouth to invite her deeper for a change was heady. Isonei kept control of the kiss, not breaking it until he groaned helplessly into her mouth. As she pulled back she gave his lower lip a playful nip, murmuring sweetly, "I think I forgot to tell you that I forgive you."
The look of desire on his beautiful face as she stood made her belly flutter. "Woman."
"We should go back to our chambers."
Arissa breathed, rising to grab Isonei's hand and pull her away.
"Will you think of me in the bath?" Isonei couldn't help but tease him as she turned back and saw him watching her go.
"I will think of turning you over my knees, my wicked wife." He growled out with a grim smile.
"If you're not careful I'll start thinking that's where I belong." She laughed as his smile widened. Her heart felt light as Arissa pulled her toward their rooms. "I've never seen any man as beautiful as my Draeseth when he looks at me that way."
"I've never seen anyone kissed that way."
