Chapter Five
CHAPTER
FIVE
Jaykun awoke to a sudden weight against his chest. His eyes flew open to see the point of a bladed weapon trembling just beyond the ends of his lashes.
On the other end of the weapon was a woman.
The only things keeping that blade from penetrating his eye and entering his brain were the strong hands of the other woman lying against his body.
Jileana shoved the woman back with all of her strength, her lithe body coming up off the bed in the same movement.
The woman, a total stranger but clearly from Kriza, went sprawling back onto the floor.
Jileana was on her like a flash, her naked body straddling the other woman, her hands never losing control of the attacker’s dagger hand.
With sure and amazing strength, she turned the dagger onto the Krizan woman and plunged it hard into her chest before Jaykun could even get to his feet.
“Low beast,” the Krizan woman gurgled out. “Vile thing. You will die.” Then she spit blood into Jileana’s face before taking a last shuddering breath.
“Good gods,” Jaykun gusted out, his eyes wide as he absorbed the enormity of what Jileana had just done for him.
His heart was pounding in his chest as he watched her wipe the blood off her face and get to her feet.
And somehow, inexplicably, he thought he’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life.
It was possible it was the adrenaline and gratitude of the moment, but he didn’t think so.
She was a sight to behold, standing naked over her kill.
“I … th-thank you,” he managed to say, if somewhat shakily.
“I’m sorry it came so close,” she said with a sigh. “I normally don’t sleep that soundly.”
“Me either,” Jaykun said, his awe still present in his tone. “Never.”
It was true. He should have heard the woman the moment she entered the room. He was in what was easily hostile territory and should have been sleeping with one eye open.
“My brothers!” The thought hit him like lightning.
He jerked his pants into place as he ran from the room.
It stood to reason that if Krizans were going to make an attempt on his life, they would do the same to his brothers.
He burst into the common dining hall on his way to his brothers’ rooms and pulled up short when he saw them both sitting there, calmly breaking their fast. Two sets of eyes that matched his own went wide at his wild entrance.
“Good morning, brother,” Dethan said, looking a little bemused.
“Y-you’re both … What are you eating?” he demanded of them. Poison. It could be poison.
“Some fruits … meats … as you see.”
“There was an assassin in my chambers just now. How do you know that isn’t befouled?” Jaykun demanded of them.
Alarm crossed his siblings’ features.
“An assassin?” Garreth demanded. “Worry not about the food. We aren’t foolish. Our own cook provided the meal.”
“Thank the gods,” Jaykun said on a relieved exhalation. “Thank the gods.”
“Jaykun, where is the assass—” Dethan broke off, his eyes going wide once more as.
Jileana entered the dining hall wearing nothing more than Jaykun’s tunic.
That she wasn’t Krizan was immediately obvious to his brother, and but while she might look completely harmless and unarmed, Jaykun had just claimed there had been a killer in his rooms. Dethan surged to his feet as if to cut her off before she reached Jaykun’s exposed back.
“No. It’s all right,” Jaykun said quickly once he realized to where Dethan’s attention had gone. “It wasn’t her. She’s … she … umm … she stopped the attack. She killed the assassin.”
Shocked once again and for the third time in as many minutes, Dethan eyed Jileana. The idea of her going up against a dangerous killer had to be ludicrous to an outsider.
“Was it a Krizan assassin?” Garreth asked, as doubtful as Dethan felt.
“A Krizan woman,” Jaykun informed.
Both brothers eyed Jileana skeptically once more. She smiled at them and waved, completely baffling them.
“Hi. I’m Jileana. I’m not an assassin. I’m just having a sexual exchange with Jaykun.”
Garreth choked and Dethan grinned.
“Is that so? And you are…?” Dethan said leadingly.
“Hoping to repeat the process,” she said brightly.
Garreth choked again and began coughing over his laughter.
“Jileana,” Jaykun said, determined not to blush like a young boy caught doing something wrong … even though that was exactly what he felt like. “These are my brothers, Dethan,” he said, indicating the larger of the two, “and Garreth.”
“You are much smaller than your brothers,” she observed of Garreth.
“Yes, I am,” Garreth said with a grin.
“Your brother Jaykun is very large,” she observed again.
“He also has an excellent skill in all I have needed him for thus far. I imagine you are both equally skilled individuals. Although, I should warn you now that I am not interested in sexual congress with either of you. Not that you should be insulted. You are both fine looking warriors. But I would prefer to remain with Jaykun as far as that is concerned. I’m hungry. May I have some fruit?”
All three brothers were gaping at her so she picked up a piece of fruit and pointed to it, repeating very carefully, “May I have this?”
Dethan snapped out of his disbelief first. “O-of course,” he said.
“Thank you.” She went to the table, sat down just to the side of where Garreth had been eating, crossed her legs, and began to peel her fruit.
“I don’t consider this our one meal, Jaykun,” she said, reminding him of their bargain.
“I am thinking the midday meal is the one you are required to attend. It will be easier and less rushed than the evening meal.”
“Less rushed?” Garreth asked as he picked up his cup.
“Yes. Before he has to burn like a star.”
Unfortunately, Garreth was drinking at the moment she said this, so he sputtered and coughed. “She knows about that?” he wheezed, looking around the room hastily to see who was there to overhear her. The room was empty of all save the four of them.
“Well, of course. I’ve watched him these past four nights.”
“Of course,” Dethan said. Clearly he was disturbed that she had this intimate information about his brother. “Midday meal?” he asked, arching a brow at Jaykun.
Jaykun had not prepared himself to answer his brothers’ questions about Jileana. In fact, some part of his brain had thought he could keep them completely ignorant of her existence. Now he saw just how foolish that idea had been … even more so now that she was standing there in front of them.
“Jileana is visiting the city for three days. I told her I would have a meal with her once every day while she visited.”
Dethan frowned at that. “Jaykun, we have a great deal to accomplish before winter sets in. Garreth and I return to our wives soon and you need to have the harbor secured for the winter.”
“I know what my responsibilities are,” Jaykun snapped. “But it just so happens that eating is one of those things I will be doing regardless of the constraints on my time, so I don’t foresee it interfering.”
Jaykun had changed his tone in such a way that the brothers knew, arguing further would risk his wrath—something neither of them welcomed and both had learned to avoid.
The truth of it was that Jaykun was more than capable of seeing to his responsibilities and didn’t need his brothers making attempts to corral him, even if Dethan was the eldest of the three and by right of birth seemed to think he had the management of his brothers as his responsibility.
Dethan was concerned. Women, whatever their use or function, were a distraction and a potential powder keg.
He should know. He was at present tightly entwined around the finger of a beautiful, good-hearted woman whom he had only intended to marry as a means of getting himself a kingdom and an army.
He had given up his immortality for her, now had three children by her, and couldn’t imagine living a day on this planet without her.
It was hard enough being required to campaign away from her in the summer months, but he knew he could have a much worse fate.
He could have Jaykun’s fate. Jaykun now carried the burden of the brothers’ pact with the goddess Weysa.
She had forgiven Dethan and Garreth of that duty, save for the summer months in Dethan’s case.
Garreth was simply there to assist them as needed as he fulfilled his own agenda for the god of love, Mordu, who required Garreth to open temples in his name and garner him followers just as Garreth’s brothers were doing for Weysa.
Weysa had made way for the two brothers, but it was clear she would not be so forgiving a third time.
No, their only hope for rescuing Maxum—their fourth brother—from unending torment was Jaykun.
If Jaykun performed well, he might earn a boon from the gods.
Or if they covered enough of the planet, listening to tales of the gods, maybe they could find Maxum themselves, just as they had found the Fount of Immortality that had started all of this—the fountain from which they drank and subsequently earned the wrath of the gods for their presumption.
So the complication of another woman in their midst was most unwelcome. In fact, it was quite dangerous. They could do nothing to anger the mercurial Weysa … and Jaykun dividing his attentions might do exactly that.
“She is but a woman to warm my bed,” Jaykun muttered. “Or would you deny me even that pleasure?” he asked of Dethan.
“No. Of course not,” Dethan said, his chest growing tight in empathy. His brother suffered so much. If this woman gave Jaykun even a moment’s solace, Dethan could not deny him that. Still, Dethan couldn’t keep his tongue from saying, “As long as that is all it is.”