Chapter 6
“I never want to leave here,” Kaley said as she followed Tanek down the path through the pretty tropical forest. “It’s been
so peaceful.” It was evening twilight and early tomorrow the carriage was coming to take them away. “This place is perfect.
There are no evil queens or cannibalistic witches. No fairy-tale puzzles that need to be solved. We can tell people that there’s
nothing bad about the Lair. I only wish we could have met the beautiful Valona.”
“This place is too peaceful to be believed. Sometimes I get the feeling it’s all one of your Earth stories. I’d like to know
how the kids found that lizard you liked.”
“I don’t know and I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Tanek looked at her with an eyebrow raised. It was his silent question about her sayings.
Kaley didn’t explain. “How do you think Sojee is doing in arranging for the men to arrive? Do you think they’ll behave themselves?”
“If they want to live, they must,” Tanek said over his shoulder. “I’m sure I’ll be put on guard duty.”
“I don’t like that.”
“It’ll be all right,” he said. “There’ll be enough of us to keep the peace. Your magic man will probably help. Think he knows which end of a sword to hold?”
“Be careful! Garen might turn you into a frog.”
He snorted. “You and kissing frogs! It hasn’t worked so far. I’m still not a prince.”
“From the ones I’ve met, that’s good,” she mumbled, then looked up. “We’re going to the waterfall, aren’t we?” She sighed.
“That was the first place we made love. It will always be in my heart and now we can re-create it.”
“Actually, I’m going to the top to see if I can find my son. His mother is here so maybe he’s with her.”
“Toki?” Kaley smiled. Her love of animals extended to the Lelys. “I’d like to see her again.”
“Not me!” Tanek said emphatically. Their love of their son was all they shared. “I’m sure she knows where Mekos is.”
“With the princess,” Kaley replied. “How do you think they got along these last days?” She sounded hopeful.
“Don’t forget that she’s to marry Prince Nessa.”
“Who calls Aradella ‘Princess Bitchy,’” Kaley said. “Maybe we can—”
Tanek halted and looked at her. “It’s enough that men are being allowed on this island. You cannot interfere in this marriage.”
She gave him an innocent look. “You mean like you interfered in it? You declared that you and I made vows while we were alone in a cave. What I remember is that you went to
sleep while Arit and Tibby and I—” She didn’t want to remind him of what they’d seen that night. When she’d told him about
it, it had been hard for him to hear.
Tanek let out his breath. “I don’t think wives are supposed to—” He broke off.
“Contradict the wisdom of men?” She batted her lashes at him. “I would never do that.”
Tanek shook his head. “Come on, let’s find the children.” They could hear the waterfall. “I hope Mekos got a gift for my father. He—” Tanek had parted the tall reeds and when he saw the waterfall, he froze.
“What is it?” She moved to stand beside him. “Oh my goodness.”
Soaring very high up in the water were Mekos and Aradella. They were both nude, her legs wrapped around him.
Tanek stepped back behind the tall reeds and looked at Kaley. There were tears in his eyes.
She put her arms around him.
“My son has become a man,” he said.
She held him, feeling his strong heartbeat. She said nothing but waited for him to pull away and they started to walk back
the way they’d come.
“She’s so small—I almost didn’t recognize her.” Kaley’s head came up. “After this, she could be pregnant!” She’d said that
before, but if the child was obviously not Nessa’s, there could be repercussions.
“No,” Tanek said. “Not unless he allows it.”
“You mean withdrawal?”
“I don’t know what that is. He must choose to release what is necessary.”
Kaley was trying to figure that out. “You mean a man can choose when he impregnates a woman?”
“Yes, of course.”
“What about me? Us?”
He glanced back at her. “Not yet. I want to make sure you want to stay here. If you don’t like me, you may leave.”
“Wait a minute!” she said. “That means you chose to get Toki pregnant when you were just a teenager.”
“I had a dream, a very vivid dream, and I saw what would come of that union. Could you have resisted creating a son like Mekos?”
“No, I could not.” She paused. “Have you had any dreams about you and me and what we’d produce?”
“None at all.” He was walking so fast she was having trouble keeping up with him.
“Should we tell them that we know what they’ve been up to?”
“What do you think?” he said.
“Absolutely not. We should let them think they’ve kept it a secret from everyone.”
“I agree.”
She started to say that they were going to be heartbroken when Aradella had to marry someone else, but she didn’t. She was
sure that Tanek was already thinking of that. Swans mate for life. For Mekos not to get the woman he wanted would hurt him.
Forever.
When they reached the house, she had a thought. “Have your father and your mother seen each other since you were created?”
“Not that I know of.”
“What did he tell you about your mother?”
“That it was one night, she was one of the Seven, and I was to keep my mouth shut about who she was.” He went into the house.
“A good, long, boy talk,” she muttered, then followed him inside.
Early the next morning, the four of them were staring at the beat-up old flatbed wagon that had been sent for them. The woman
who drove it tied the reins to the seat, then nodded to Tanek, letting him know that he was to be the driver. The back of
the wagon was full of lumpy bags of coconuts and pineapples.
Tanek and Kaley were standing close together, watching what was going on around them. Both of them wore expressions of surprise.
While Mekos and Aradella, wearing one of her big dresses, looked at home, as if they knew everyone in the Lair, the older
couple were outsiders. Their focus had been on each other and they had met no one.
“Something happened here besides what we saw at the waterfall,” Tanek said softly. “Something much bigger. I’d like to know
what my son was up to.”
“I think Aradella can hold her own. Whatever it was, I think they did it together.”
Frowning, Tanek was looking at the dilapidated wagon. “We, meaning my son, appears to have displeased someone.”
“Maybe they need the pretty carriage for dignitaries from Selkan.” Kaley wanted to remove the worried look from her husband’s
face. “Maybe Prince Bront will be there.”
“He won’t like your shoes,” Tanek replied, referring to the glass slipper that the prince had found. He turned to Mekos. “You
two will have to ride back there. If you’re friends enough, that is.”
“We’ll manage,” Mekos said without meeting his father’s eyes. He stepped forward, then stopped and listened. “They’re coming.”
“Who is?” Tanek asked.
Mekos didn’t answer him. He went to Aradella and put his hands on her waist. In a half soar, half leap, he put her on the
back of the wagon, her legs hanging down, then he got on to sit beside her.
When Tanek looked down the road, he saw nothing, but he was used to his son’s keen hearing. He helped Kaley up to sit on the
hard narrow seat, then got up beside her and untied the reins.
“We don’t leave yet,” Mekos said in a tone he didn’t usually use.
With eyes widened in disbelief, Tanek leaned over to Kaley. “My son just gave me an order.”
“I think that’s good,” Kaley said. “He’s—” She didn’t say any more because they heard the happy voices of women. Lots of women.
And very happy.
When she and Tanek turned around to look, they saw what appeared to be every female in the Lair coming toward them. The women
were talking, some of them singing, and all of them were smiling.
When the crowd got closer to the wagon, they began tossing flowers. Mekos and Aradella were laughing as they twisted about
to catch the blossoms.
“We will come to your celebration,” the women were saying. “We will bring gifts.”
Hobbling at the side was a very old woman with three women helping her to reach them.
She was Valona’s maid. When she got close, the woman held out an extraordinary flower to Aradella.
It was dark gold and yellow, with tall spikes at the top.
“Thank you,” the old woman said. “I am free. I don’t have to lie and pretend anymore.
Thank you.” Tears were running down her face.
Aradella took the flower and bowed her head to her.
The women led the maid away.
“What is it?” Mekos asked.
“An oncidium,” Aradella answered. “Also called the butterfly orchid.”
He nodded in satisfaction that she knew.
Six women stepped forward. Their arms were tightly wrapped around their pretty daughters—who had soot on their faces and clothes.
“Our daughters are safe,” the women called to Aradella. “Thank you.”
Aradella said loudly, “We’ll send the most beautiful men from Selkan to you.”
The women gave a cheer so loud that Mekos’s ears flattened against his head. “You can’t promise them that,” he said.
“These women have been fornicating with animals. The ugliest men will look good to them.”
“Hey!” he said. “My mother is half fox.”
“Yes, but the other half of you is from Tanek, who is the best-looking man on the planet.”
Mekos gave a sound of half groan, half laughter. “Wait! Since he’s my father, does that make me second best? On the entire
planet?”
“With those ears? Not possible,” she replied. They turned back toward the women.
On the seat behind them, Tanek and Kaley looked at each other in shock. “Even if I hadn’t seen what we did, I’d know now,”
he said. “They are together.” He smiled. “I am the most handsome man on the planet?”
“Ha! There’s Prince Bront and Garen and I’m still looking for that guy who has wings. You have lots of competition.”
Tanek gave a scoffing laugh, then snapped the reins and they started moving. He said over his shoulder to his son, “What did
you do to win this much favor from them?”
“I sang to them,” Mekos said quickly. “They love my voice.”