Chapter 38

Everyone dispersed once Sorcha left with Oris. I was still sitting at the fire with Esylle and Joron. I called the four humans that had stayed to come sit with us. They had been keeping their distance since the tribes had arrived.

"Why did you refuse to go after her when she left?" I asked Esylle.

It was the first time Sorcha had stormed off that she hadn't tried to follow or demanded someone go after her. She was probably safe to go running right now since we knew where the humans were, but Esylle had been against it.

Esylle told us what had happened when she went after Sorcha after Oris and Sono fought in front of her. I was happy for them. It was the first step in them reconnecting and Sorcha deserved to know about her father. I also hadn't seen Esylle this happy since her daughter was kidnapped.

"As much as I don't like it, she's grown up now and can take care of herself. You saw what she did before she disappeared. She's coming into the powers they tell her she should have. If someone had tried to hurt her out there, there is so much she could have done to defend herself."

"What if there was a stranger out there? She keeps saying she doesn't want to hurt anyone, and she doesn't view these powers as a good thing. She's already suggested once letting the humans kill her. How do you know that idea is not still in the back of her head?"

"She doesn't know what is supposed to happen to her after all of this. She doesn't know if she's supposed to survive. She still doesn't know if she can die or not. I think you and Volaris explained things in a way that she can understand, that going to the Barons would be worse than death."

"What do they expect of us?" Bastan asked. "We are human, but this girl is special and just getting to know her, I don't want to see her killed. I've listened to the tribes speak. I don't think they want war either, they just want to live in the peace they say she was promised for."

I looked at all four men. "I won't fault you if you leave to join the other humans. You can make up a story about how we kept you here against your will when you found out about her, so they don't hurt you."

"I don't want to leave," Kibal said, as the other three men nodded. "I never thought it was right to study the tribes, but I've always wondered what it was like to do what they do. Do you think she would change me if I asked her? I could fight with the tribes, and they wouldn't be so suspicious of me if I was like them."

"You might have to talk her into it if she can figure out how to control it," I said.

I'd say this for Sorcha. If she was really a god, she wasn't abusing her powers. She felt horrible if she used them on someone by accident and needed to know someone really wanted what she had to offer. I was pretty sure the only people who would have been angry if Tollam had been stuck as a goat would have been his mother and Folcard because he couldn't spill any secrets he learned on our journey.

"You've never wondered what it's like to fly? To breathe underwater? To run like she does when she says she needs to calm down? I don't think we should hurt anyone to steal that, but if someone can just gift that, I wouldn't say no. I've thought of nothing else since Tollam ran by us as a horse."

I didn't say anything as the other three men agreed and said they had been thinking the same thing. Those thoughts had never crossed my mind even after finding out she had managed to make Tollam Theran.

Esylle asked me to walk with her. I agreed and was surprised when she didn't take my arm like she always did when we walked together. She seemed uncomfortable around me today. When we got into the woods, I asked her what was wrong. She sat on a boulder and wouldn't look at me. I couldn't remember doing anything wrong, so I tried cheering her up.

"We should be teaching her to use her fists right now, but I get why she's needed elsewhere. Though, every time I tried to teach her, she managed to disappear and leave me with you. Which I'm not complaining about, by the way."

Esylle finally met my eyes and started laughing.

"Oh, she planned that. She finally told me. Belisarus told her fairy tales about princesses and their princes or brave knights. I'm the first princess she's met, and my prince is dead. Nestran doesn't have knights, but she thinks you're close enough. Sorcha is trying to make one of her stories play out in front of her and she's figuring out what certain scents she wasn't exposed to before mean."

I sat there sputtering. That little imp! If I hadn't grown so fond of her and all her defiance, I could strangle her. If all this subterfuge trying to make her fairy tales come true didn't involve me, I'd probably think it was adorable.

"Is she seeing something I never noticed? How could I not see?" she asked.

"I never wanted you to know because I know you don't feel the same way," I said, still not looking at her. "Your child is a handful."

I finally looked up when she laughed. Why was she laughing? I knew Esylle was never cruel to anyone, and I didn't think she would be toward me when she found out how I felt. When I looked at her face, she was looking at me fondly and a little sad.

"You didn't notice, in all the time you spent around me when I was old enough, that you were my first love before I met Rivannus? You were so tall and handsome. You were always there trying to take care of me and protect me. If I hadn't met him, when my father brought up marriage, I would have insisted it be you."

"I never would have told you. They might not have fought you over Rivannus, but it would have been an issue if it were me. They thought he was a commoner with weak blood and any child you had with him would be pure human. Wow, that did not play out how they planned. It doesn't matter because it still can't happen."

"But it does matter," she said, walking over to me. She surprised me when she slipped her arms around my waist and rested her head against my chest. In all the time I'd spent around her, we had never touched like this. "I don't know if you've noticed, but my kid is kind of special. She wants us together, and she knows we want it, too. Something tells me she's not going to let some stinky Barons get in the way of that."

"If she wasn't so important to them, I'd strangle her," I said, smiling now that I knew she felt the same. "And you're right. She's probably going to do something she shouldn't again and send all the Barons running to Idric in terror."

"Are you going to kiss me or are we going to worry about what she shouldn't be doing again? We just can't go any further right now because everyone here has super hearing, apparently, and I don't know if they can smell we've had sex."

I grabbed her and yanked her to my chest.

"Esylle? Shut up and kiss me."