Chapter 31
JESSAMINE
“Are you ready?” Shearah asked, peeking her head inside the tent.
I was dressed, but I wasn’t ready. I was rather terrified.
I might’ve been brave when meeting the clan lord of Bolgar, but that was only because he seemed to accuse me of being ashamed of Redvyr and wanting to protect my family from such a shame.
My anger had given me the courage to lash out with brave words.
Now, standing in the new dress Sorka had sewn for me, preparing to face all of the beast fae lords, their wives, and the clans, I shrank from it.
Redvyr had been asked to meet with the clan lords before the festivities tonight.
They were too eager to discover the details of our attack by the grimlocks to wait until after the festivities tonight.
I couldn’t have asked him to stay behind just because I was frightened to walk into the gathering alone.
“Oh, Shearah, thank the gods.” I rushed to her and pulled her fully into our tent.
She looked lovely in a short dress made of red deer hide that hadn’t been dyed, with detailed stitching of vines and flowers around the hem at her knees and on the sleeves.
She laughed when I hauled her into the tent, stopping with wide eyes when she took in my attire.
“Blessed goddess.” She stepped back to look me up and down. “You look so lovely.”
“As do you.”
I glanced down at the cream-colored hide, smoothed to a soft leather, that was detailed with delicate red flowers along the scooped bodice.
It was tailored perfectly to cinch at my waist and curve over my hips, stopping just above the knee.
I wore the long boots Sorka had made for me before we left Vanglosa.
“That dress is like nothing I’ve ever seen Sorka create. She put her whole heart into it, didn’t she?”
Blushing, I nodded. “She told me she wanted to do something special for me for bringing Bes back.” I shrugged. “I told her it wasn’t just me that got her back, but she insisted.”
Shearah smiled, her tail swishing happily behind her. “You did more than you think. And now, I know you’re absolutely terrified of this first night’s feast, so we decided to come and fetch you.”
“We?”
She grabbed my hand and tugged me outside. Dayn was waiting there, staring off into the distance where the drums were already being played at the campfires.
“Are we ready, ladies?” he asked, turning to us.
“No, but we might as well go,” I admitted.
They both laughed, and the three of us set off together. The rest of the camp was quiet since everyone had already gathered close to the base of the rust-red butte that protected the camp from the fierce gales that crossed the tundra.
A piercing howl echoed into the night, then others answered the call.
Redvyr had told me that it wasn’t only the clan members that enjoyed this reunion each year.
The wolves ran together across the tundra at night, a joyful pack howling at the moon.
There was only a sliver of a crescent moon tonight peeking between the low, gray clouds.
As we neared the celebration, I counted six campfires spread out in perfect symmetry.
There was a long stone platform raised higher than the others where the clan lords and their mates and warriors sat.
The stone platforms must have been erected years ago since this was their annual meeting place.
The edges and surface looked smooth from long use.
There were long tables upon the platform and surrounding the campfires as well as benches for those not participating in the dancing.
That was what drew my eye as we entered the celebration.
Two straight lines of beast fae females performed some sort of dance in unison.
They wore extremely short skirts that barely reached the bottom of their thighs, and corset-like tops that covered their breasts and the top of their torso, leaving their bellies bare.
Their hair was unbound except for a single braid on top of their heads that wrapped around their horns.
The dance that they performed to the beat of the drums and the lively flutes that Bowden and a few men from other clans played was a joyful, seductive romp.
They swayed their hips in sinuous curves in opposite rhythm to their shoulders, their bare feet moving in tiny circles until they faced away from the dais.
The dancers trilled in unison, some kind of female war cry it seemed to me, swaying their backsides, their tails also swinging in unison.
“What is this?” I asked Shearah in a whisper.
“The first of many dances by the bathka.”
“I don’t know that word. Bathka.” Which bothered me, since I prided myself on my knowledge of the dark fae language.
“Hmm. It doesn’t have an exact translation. It means free, unbound women. They are all single and seeking their mates.”
Something soured in my belly as I watched the dance of seduction, the beautiful beast fae females showing off their bodies.
It wasn’t simply envy that burned in my chest, but admiration for the fact that the beast fae were open with their beauty, specifically feminine beauty.
It was cherished and celebrated, while my own family had made me feel vulgar and obscene for simply being born the way I was.
“Yes,” added Dayn, leaning down to whisper, “but they aren’t all seeking mates. Some are simply seeking a partner to warm their furs for the solstice.”
Shearah slapped him on the arm. “Stop looking so closely, Dayn. Or should I be seeking someone else to share my furs?”
His growl was instant. “I’ll blind myself, female, if it makes you happy. But I’ll gut anyone who dares to touch you at this solstice, or any other.”
He dragged her off to the side for a kiss, which urged me onward on my own.
While the dancers held most everyone’s attention, I noticed that Redvyr’s was solely on me as I walked up the stone steps to the platform.
He sat at the very end, which I realized was one head of the table, with an empty seat beside him, and Behrvyne sat on the opposite end.
While Behrvyne had been polite and civil, Tessa had warned me not to expect a grand welcome at the solstice gathering.
She confessed to me that she had been shunned by most beast fae her first time here.
It wasn’t much better her second time, either.
This was the third year since she had joined the Vanglosa clan, and while she had borne a child to add to their clan numbers—something that was still rare among beast faekind—she didn’t much care to join in the celebrations.
She had told Bezaliel she wanted to stay in their tent and rest from the long journey.
Bezaliel was encouraging her to come at least for a little while as they walked away to their own tent.
I’d wanted to beg off and stay with her, but I thought it would make me appear cowardly.
That wasn’t how I wanted to present myself as the future wife of the beast lord of Vanglosa.
So I mustered my courage and sauntered across the platform.
I felt eyes on me, which I expected. Redvyr had already announced clearly to Behrvyne and a group of his warriors that I was his mate, and I was an outsider.
Not only was I a light fae, but I was skald fae—the race who lived farthest from them.
I imagined that most of those here had never seen a skald fae, much less have one join them at their table.
Redvyr stood as I approached, my heart pounding fiercely by the time I reached him.
Bezaliel was in the seat on my other side, thank the gods.
He stood as well to greet me. I exhaled a sigh of relief as I settled, smiling at Tessa with Saralyn sleeping in the sling crossing her chest. It seemed Bezaliel had convinced her to come to the feast anyway.
The beast fae male across from me drank from a giant goblet that appeared to be made of black glass, a flower carved at its center. He stared at me keenly.
“Won’t you introduce us, Redvyr?”
“Aye.” He reached under the table and squeezed my hand, offering some comfort. “This is my mate, Jessamine Glenmyr.” He gestured with his free hand to the lord staring me down. “Jessamine, this is Walgar. Lord of the Stol clan. They keep along the Bluevale River to the east.”
“Hello, Lord Walgar.”
If he was surprised that I addressed him as lord, he didn’t show it.
While this lord was equal in size to the biggest of their kind, only two horns curled out of his head rather than four.
They also curled lower over his skull. Gray streaked his hair, hanging loose to his shoulders, except for several thin braids at the front that fell along his temples.
His eyes were a piercing orange, runes cascading from his forehead down along his jaw and the sides of his throat.
He may have only two horns, but he obviously had proven himself to the gods with so much rune-sign.
“You are the daughter of a king of your kind, are you not?” he asked brusquely.
“I am,” I answered evenly, noting the woman at his side, her hair silky black and also streaked with white, though her bronze-brown face showed little signs of aging. She was strikingly beautiful, her pale, gold eyes watchful.
“I find it strange you are so far from home. So far from your kind.”
A low growl resonated from Redvyr, but I squeezed his hand. He didn’t say anything, thankfully. I didn’t want him fighting anyone and everyone who seemed to disapprove of my presence here. I had to do some of my fighting on my own.
“I can imagine you do.”