Chapter Fourteen
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Jaykun awoke to a heavy, strong punch slamming into his chest. He was grabbed by both arms and hauled up onto his feet.
No mean trick considering his size and weight.
Still disoriented, he shoved at the man who was manhandling him and became aware enough in time to throw up an arm and block the roundhouse punch aiming for his head.
Instinctively he countered the attack and sent a crushing punch into his attacker’s jaw.
The man, of equal build and strength to Jaykun, staggered back under the force of the hit.
He recovered quickly, though, and lunged forward with renewed fervor.
But suddenly Jileana was between them, shoving the other man away with all of her strength and standing protectively in front of Jaykun. “Silan, enough! Enough of this!” she barked at him.
“What is he doing here?” Silan demanded of her, his big body lunging forward threateningly. But she pushed him back again and Jaykun realized Silan allowed it because he didn’t want to hurt her. “In your bed?”
“He was sleeping. And I had hoped this morning he would be making love to me. But you have ruined that!”
“Good! You are an unmated woman, Jileana! This is highly improper!”
She sighed as if in exasperation. “Silan, you are the most uptight and prudish selkie ever to be born on this planet. That mode of thinking is so far out of date it has a grizzled old beard. And even if it were a reasonable thought, why would you try to resolve the issue by throwing punches? Honestly. Are all my brothers this pigheaded?”
Ah. Brother. Well, that explained things a little more clearly to Jaykun.
For a moment he had been afraid that Silan was her lover and Jaykun had inadvertently found himself in the bed of another man’s woman.
In truth, he didn’t know enough about Jileana to know if stringing two men along at the same time was something she would do.
But the thought sat ill with him. No, he realized, he did know her well enough to know she wasn’t the sort to do something like that.
She was a decent and honest person. He had gotten that much of a sense of her.
“Your sister is an adult capable of making her own choices,” he said to Silan. “She is a sensible, intelligent woman. It is her choice who she decides to consort with, is it not?”
Silan seethed, growled, and clenched his fists as if he were trying to use every ounce of his self-control to keep from ripping his sister away from Jaykun and lunging for Jaykun’s throat.
Jaykun smiled. Let him try, he thought. He would be in for a rude awakening. Jaykun was not easily brought down.
“Silan, enough,” Jileana again barked at him.
“Where have you been?” Silan demanded after turning his attention back to her. “Do you know the state you’ve put Father in? You’ve been to the Overworld, haven’t you? That’s where this is from, isn’t it?” he demanded of her, jerking his chin in Jaykun’s direction.
“Silan, stop being rude!” she snapped, losing her temper.
She placed a hand at the center of her brother’s chest and shoved him hard.
“Yes, I’ve been to the Overworld.” She shoved him again.
“And yes, he is a human.” Another shove.
“And yes $ he is my lover. And yes, this is none of your business! Now, you either let me introduce you properly and civilly or you leave right now.”
“Fine. I’m leaving. And I’m going to tell Father what you’ve done.”
“No, you aren’t! You are going to allow me the courtesy of explaining myself to Father without your interference and prejudiced opinions!”
“Just try to stop me,” he dared her on a sneer. Then he turned on his heel and marched out of the cave.
“Damn. I’m sorry,” she said, turning to face him. “Truly sorry for my brother’s deplorable behavior. Your welcome here should not be like that.”
“It’s fine,” Jaykun assured her as he pulled her closer. “He’s not the first brother I’ve met who disliked a man courting his sister.”
“Is that what this is? Courting?” she asked with a tease in her tone. “It feels so much more sordid than that.”
He laughed. “Perhaps. But you are worth more than a cold, thoughtless tumble. I cannot promise you much, but I can promise you that.”
“Why, Jaykun, that’s practically romantic,” she said with a laugh. “Now come, let’s break our fast, and we can go see the empress and then my father. Hopefully we can attend him before my brother poisons him too harshly against you.”
“Then perhaps we should attend your father first and the empress next. I do not wish for your father to think too ill of me. It’s bad enough that I am committing egregious sins with his daughter.”
“How funny humans are, that love is a sin.”
“Well, love is not so much a sin, but a man using a woman for sex with no thought to making her a wife is apparently frowned upon in polite society. It is different from culture to culture of course, but it seems to be a trend throughout all the lands I have been to.”
“It is like that here in some respects as well. Or it was. Some people prefer the old ways, but the younger ones are more free-spirited like I am. My father will have to accept that about me. And he has … for the most part. But my brothers are another matter. They are overprotective of me. Severely so in Silan’s case. ”
“Well, I do not wish to incur the wrath of any of your brothers or your father. By the by, how many brothers are we talking about?”
“Only six.”
“Six!” Jaykun choked out. “And all are overprotective of you?”
“No. There is a fair enough balance between those who are and those who are not. I mean, to some extent they all are, but some of them understand that it is my life to live as I see fit. So long as you do not harm me, you have nothing to worry about from them.”
“And how many are zealously overprotective like Silan?”
“Silan is in a class by himself. However, there are two others of a similar bent. Not quite so fanatical, but similar.”
“Lovely. And the other three are more fair. Well, at least they are split in twain and not all will be wanting my head on a platter.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, patting his chest. “We’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.”
There was the sound of a throat clearing behind her and Jileana turned about to see Dremu standing there awkwardly.
“Dremu! I forgot all about you! I am so sorry!” she exclaimed.
“It’s all right, my lady. I found a place to sleep with some of the other servants. They got a cave just for those who are coming and going as guests. It was nice. Nicest place I’ve slept in a long time.”
Dremu put the trunk he’d had tied to his back on the floor of the cave. “I checked,” he said. “Not one drop of water got in.”
“It was a part of the spell I cast. It makes things light and waterproof. It helps when we have to travel here and there with things we don’t want to get wet for whatever reason.
Though I must say it isn’t something that comes up often.
We usually don’t mind getting things wet.
Now come on. We have a busy day ahead. Dremu, you can follow Mishka around today.
She is a serving girl who works here. Follow her lead and you will learn what is expected of you. ”
“Yes, my lady. Anything you want,” he said, bowing low to her.
“Enough. I am no empress in need of kowtowing,” she scolded him, lifting him up straight.
“I am just a woman trying to give a man a new way of life. When you are used to life here you can decide what you would like to do. You will earn coin and you will find people here friendly and accepting. Perhaps even fascinated by who you are. Later I will bring you to my mother and she will cast magic on you that will allow you to breathe underwater. It will be necessary if you are going to be living here.”
“A s-s-spell?” the man said nervously. “Oh, I don’t—”
“Dremu, you have been so brave so far already. Surely you have seen mages. A sea witch is no different. Although, I daresay my mother is far more powerful than the average mage. She won’t hurt you.
No one will hurt you while you are under my protection.
If anyone misuses you in any way, you let me know immediately. ”
“Yes, my lady,” he said with a tremulous smile.
“Now, I’m sure everyone is hungry. So let me fetch something for us to eat.”
“Oh no, my lady! I can do it! I already know where the … kitchen is. Or rather, the cave where they prepare the trays.” He turned to Jaykun.
“It’s not really a kitchen so much because there’s very little cooking done.
But you should see these huge cauldrons they have where they boil the fishes sometimes.
The fishes in shells, that is. Like crab and such.
I never had crab before last night. I’ve never tasted anything so good.
Anyway, let me go get it. I’ll be back in a shake.
” Dremu turned and dashed off, heading out of the cave.
“Well, he’s excited to be here,” Jaykun said with a chuckle.
“And you aren’t?” she asked archly, a brow lifting.
“Oh, I’m excited all right. But it has less to do with being here and more to do with what I’m seeing right now,” he said, sliding a lascivious look down the length of her body.
“Stop!” She laughed. “Time enough for such things later. Dremu will be back quickly.”
“Then I shall have to be quicker!”
She squealed when he grabbed her up off her feet and threw her down onto the bed.