Jerradin looked up from the reports he had been reading.
"Yes?" He asked.
"My apologies for disturbing you, General" said the servant who had appeared in the doorway to aJeraddin's office in the Guanacan palace, "but the King demands your presence in the throne room."
The Phrasing caused one of Jeraddin's eyebrows to rise.
He demands my presence, he thought. My, my, someone is singing a different tune now that he is back on his throne.
"Very well" he said, pushing back his chair. "I hear and obey."
Entering the throne room, Jeraddin could not conceal his surprise. Unbeknownst to him, his daughter had had a similar look on her face upon seeing the yeti, a few days earlier.
"Your Majesty" he said, pronouncing the words with deliberate reluctance. "This is quite a surprise. We didn't expect you here for another day."
"We decided to go ahead of our entourage, in order to surprise you. It was a spontaneous decision on Our part."
Spontaneous? Jeraddin thought. That does not sound like you, Your Majesty.
He noticed that Argath was offering her ring for him to kiss. He pretended not to see it. The Eyes of the Queen flashed briefly, then she withdrew her hand and made a gesture, as if to say that she forgave her general this small act of defiance.
The Queen was in a good mood. In fact, she had been on cloud nine ever since she got the news of Guanaca's conquest.
Just imagine, she had thought to herself. Hundreds of merchant caravans pass through Guanaca's dominions every day and I'll make sure that the majority of the tolls and taxes they have to pay end up in my coffers. And I shall use that money wisely. Oh, yes; it will serve as my new war-fund. With it, I shall hire the best mercenary troops, have my sorcerers and weapon-smiths create new weapons and build a fleet of warship that will be the scourge of the seas. Until the glory of Vinoli is spread throughout the World. Oh, yes, the sun shall never set on the new Argathian Empire.
With her mind still full with ambitious dreams, Argath turned to Faljan, flashing him her most charming smile.
"My King why don't you give Us a tour of the palace? Its been decades since Our last visit and We are curious to see if there have been any changes made to the decor since last time."
"With pleasure, my Queen."
Faljan rose from his throne and offered Argath his arm. She accepted it and then turned to Jeraddin:
"General, We are pleased with you. Once the Wedding ceremony is over, you may return home."
Jeraddin hardly paid attention to what the Queen was saying. He was completely focused on the other Vinolian in the throne room.
"General!" Argath's voice, cut through the air like a whip, causing the lynx to realize where he was. "Did you hear what We said?"
"Yes, Your Majesty" Jeraddin replied.
"And?"
"Thank you, Your Majesty".
Satisfied, Argath nodded and then she swept out of the throne room with Faljan at her heels. With the two royals gone, Jeraddin turned his attention back to the person standing before him.
"I take it you are surprised to see me?" Nasari said, smiling and tilting her head in that way that Jeraddin had always found irresistible.
"You can say that again" he said. "How come you're here?"
"I was among the servants chosen to be part of the Queen's entourage. I would have arrived with the others, but when she decided to go on ahead, she took a few of us with her."
"I see, so does this mean you will remain here when I go home to Vinoli?"
"It does, are you disappointed that I won't be there waiting for you?"
Jeraddin smiled and shook his head.
"Would you like a tour of the palace as well?" He asked.
Nasari moved in closer to her husband, laying one paw on his chest.
"Right now" she said, "the only thing I'm interested in is being alone with you. I don't suppose there is somewhere in this palace where we can get some privacy?"
****
Jeraddin escorted Nasari to his bed chamber, where the two of them rapidly undressed. The Lynx's maleness, having woken up after having been dormant for so long and now, freed from its restraints, stood at full attention.
"Hmm" Nasari said, gazing approvingly at her mate's erection. "Someone's happy to see me. Well, I'm happy to see you too."
Smiling coyly, she reached down between Jeraddin's legs and fondled his full, round testicles, prompting their owner to moan with pleasure.
The Lovemaking that followed was brief but passionate, as it usually was during the rare moments that the two of them were together. Once it was finished, the two of them nuzzled each other affectionately, bathing in the afterglow. They remained like this for awhile, then Jeraddin spoke up:
"Do you want something to eat?" He asked.
"Come to think of it; it has been several ours since I last ate. Yes, yes, I would."
"Hold on a moment."
They both got dressed and Jeraddin left the room in search for a servant who wasn't busy. He had no luck finding one and so, he decided to go to the kitchen himself and see what he could scrounge up.
The Kitchen was bustling with activity, as expected, but Jeraddin was able to get ahold of a member of the kitchen staff and ask her if there was something here he could take with him, for a snack? There was and moments later, the lynx returned to his wife, carrying a tray with food and drink. He put the tray down on the bed and, with a gesture, invited his wife to help herself.
Nasari ate with relish, sampling each of the dishes and offering her opinion on them. She took a particular liking to the locusts roasted in honey; a local specialty, which Jeraddin did not care much for, personally. After a while, the female cat realized that her husband had been oddly quiet throughout the meal. At first, she had thought that perhaps he was too focused on the food, but then she noticed that he had hardly touched it.
"Is something the matter, dear?" She asked.
Jeraddin nodded.
"There is something I have to tell you, Nasari" he said. "I wasn't sure as to whether or not I should, since part of it is certain to upset you, but I think you deserve to know."
Nasari's curiosity was aroused. She leaned forward and, as a gesture of affection, put her paws on top of Jeraddin's own.
"Whatever it is, I'm ready for it" she said encouragingly.
She told herself that she was prepared for anything, but the next words that came out of Jeraddin's mouth nonetheless took her by surprise:
"Risha was here"he said. "She had been here in Guanaca for the past five years, as a slave in the palace."
Nasari stared at her husband, it never occurred to her to consider the possibility that he may be pulling her leg. The Expression on his face made it clear that he was serious and besides, she knew that Jeraddin would never joke about something so terrible. For a moment, Nasari could only sit there, mouth slightly open as the magnitude of what she had just been told sank in. Her first child, her little girl had been someone's property, forced to endure who knew what. No, she did not even want to think about it.
Nasari could feel tears in her eyes, she thought of wiping away, but decided not to, allowing them to stream down her cheeks.
"Where is she now?" She asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
"She left Guanaca in search of the younger Princess" Jeraddin replied. "Apparently, the two of them are a couple", he added, as an explanation.
Nasari could not help but feel a sting of envy towards her husband. She would have liked to be there when her daughter revealed something as important as that about herself, instead of having to hear it from a secondary source.
"What did you tell her? Afterwards, I mean."
"I told her the truth, of course: That no matter who she falls in love with, she will always have the love of her parents."
Nasari nodded, then a thought struck her:
"You said you met Risha, but what about Leorin? Was he here as well?"
"No, according to Risha, Leo should be with a troupe of travelling actors that they befriended."
Nasari breathed a sigh of relief. Although, minuscule, it was at least some comfort to know that at least one of her children had not spent the past five years as somebody's property. Some things were still unclear to her though? For example, who were these actors and how come Risha and Leorin had fallen in with them? More importantly, how had her daughter been reduced to slavery in the first place?
Using what Risha had told him as a source, Jeraddin filled in the gaps in Nasaris' knowledge as much as he was able. Nasari listened intently, without interrupting. Once Jeraddin had finished, she spoke up:
"Jer?"
"Yes, dear?"
"The tiger, Cerewan..."
"What about him?"
When Nasari spoke next, her voice came out as a growl.
"If you ever come to face to face with him" she said, her claws digging into the bedsheets. "Promise me that you will hurt him. Badly."
"I will."
*****
"This brings back memories" Argath mused, as she wandered the palace corridors with Faljan by her side, doing his best to keep up. "When last We were here, it was your father who sat on the throne and We were a guest in this palace. Who would have thought that years later, We would be its new Queen?"
"Well, Queen-consort" Faljan hurriedly pointed out, looking up at the female dragon. "After all, I shall still remain King of Guanaca, even after we're married."
"Of course, my King" You could roast a locust in Argath's voice. "Forgive Us, the splendor of Our surroundings caused Us to have a slip of the tongue."
"I should also point out that our marriage will not be official until it has been, how shall I put this? Consumated."
Argath stifled a groan. She was well aware of this Guanacan custom and she was not looking forward to her wedding night.
"Tell Us" she said, eager to change the subject. "How was it that you managed to retake your throne? The Report sent by General Jeraddin did not go into any detail. Can We assume that you found an ally on the other side of the walls?"
"That is exactly what happened" Faljan replied. "Yes, a person very close to the usurper helped bring about his downfall: To be precise, his favorite among his harem slaves."
"Is that so? We should like to meet with this person so that We may reward her properly for her great service."
"I'm afraid that she's already left Guanaca. One of her conditions for helping us was that all the harem girls would be set free and allowed to go wherever they wanted. Naturally, I accepted; she left with a caravan heading east, a few days ago."
"That's a shame. Well, regardless, she has Our gratitude. Incidentally, you wouldn't happen to remember her name, by any chance?"
Faljan permitted himself a small chuckle at such a question.
"One does not forget the name of a person like that" he said. "The Name given to her by her former owner was Layla, but her real name is Risha."
Had Faljan looked up he would have been privilege to a sight not seen by many: That of the Queen of Vinoli looking genuinely stunned. As if someone had just slapped her.
"What a coincidence" she said in a nonchalant tone. "I...We believe that General Jeraddin has a daughter by that same name."
"That's just it" Faljan said. "This Risha was the General's daughter." The Fennec-King shook his head, as if amazed by this. "Can you believe that? If this had been fiction, no doubt some people would have criticized the author for such a convenient plot development. It just goes to prove that reality is sometimes less realistic than fiction, doesn't it?"
"Indeed."
Faljan laughed and so did Argath, but there was a hollow quality to her laughter, her mind being elsewhere. So, Risha had not drowned five years ago, meaning that Lorenzo had been misinformed and if she was alive, then there was a high probability that Merees was alive as well.
The Queen did not like this. She did not like it at all.
