The Vixen Trials

A First Kiss

"Why shouldn't I marry the Prince who actually likes me and has said so"

"You said to order a slave to kiss you is wrong." Silsa's sudden uncertainty reminded Dakkoul of how young and surprisingly innocent Lord Rustavan had kept her. Yet Keilah had no compunction in using Silsa in whatever game she was playing. Anger sparked within him, fueled by the sting of her betrayal. What happened to his body didn't matter, but that she would suggest this did.

Keilah caught his unguarded expression and recoiled even as she moved her head slightly from side to side. Was she pleading with him to be quiet, to submit like a good slave? Rebellion flared in him and he decided he wouldn't, even as she turned back to Silsa. "I've changed my mind."

"Well," Silsa said, tucking a stray strand of hair back behind her ears. "We are supposed to be meeting the girls tomorrow. Come here, Hattavah." Her lips flared open.

He bowed in Lady Silsa's direction. "You do me a great honour, my Lady but I can not share a first kiss with you. It's been taken. However, Malek can."

"Me? What?" Malek hastily backed away. Dakkoul shoved him forwards. He was almost enjoying this. "This is the famous Fox-dancer himself who conquered that great Arctic Fox in the last dance. He was honored by your father, remember? He sat at the head of the table next to the King.

"I remember." Silsa's smile grew as she appraised Malek. "He wore the golden earrings. He nearly killed the Queen-Priestess."

Keilah's forehead crinkled as she said what Dakkoul thought. "But it was a fox he fought, not the Queen?"

"Ah well, everyone knows how that works," said the Lady Silsa carelessly before demanding of Malek, "Have you really never shared a first kiss before?"

He shot a look of hatred at Dakkoul before answering, "No". Dakkoul let a smirk that was itching to be out play around his lips.

"Well I suppose that would be better," tittered Lady Silsa. "I want to see if the soul kiss works and since we're both new at it, it won't be quite so embarrassing. Kiss me, Fox-dancer."

Malek slitted his eyes before awkwardly bending down over her. His lips skimmed hers.

She opened her eyes. "That wasn't long enough. I didn't get a chance to put in my tongue." Silsa pressed her mouth on his for a long time, before emerging triumphant. "Eleven! I wanted to count more but I ran out of breath."

Malek stumbled back, a dazed expression on his face and muttering under his breath.

"Another one?" Lady Silsa asked shyly, her eyes seeking out Malek who slipped behind Dakkoul. "I can go longer next time, I'm sure of it."

"Have a cupcake instead," Keilah said, passing her a large jam covered one. "And congratulations!"

"It was more fun than I possibly imagined!"

Dakkoul knew he was enjoying this too much. He tugged on Malek's arm. "Get me a cupcake. You can have another kiss on the way."

Malek pulled himself free and stepped backwards. "Get your own cupcake," he hissed.

Sniggering to himself, Dakkoul went over to the platter of cupcakes. His eyes snagged on Keilah and all his enjoyment evaporated. Best just grab a cake and leave. He'd earned one. 

Dakkoul heard footsteps behind him and again smelt the lavender.

"I'm sorry," Keilah breathed. "I shouldn't have said that." 

"Offering me up to her," he grumbled, somewhat mollified. It was better Lord Rustavan didn't know about the meeting. The kiss idea had distracted Silsa and it had been amusing watching Malek.

"Not that. I knew you wouldn't mind about that."

That hurt. She knew, of course she knew about the things he was made to do. He swallowed. Did she think his kisses meant nothing, that the one he gave her meant nothing?

Keilah bent over so her breath tickled his ear. "I don't think you are meant to be a slave. I was just repeating what my grandmother told me, but it came out all wrong."

He looked around the room, noting that everyone was gone except Silsa and Malek who were again kissing, this time on the couch. "It didn't come out wrong. That's what Wayvolkan actually believe. You like to believe everyone and everything is better than they are. Why don't you look, honestly, at what the way of the Fox is, what the Wayvolkan really are? And me, why do you persist in seeing me as Dakkoul. I am the Hattavah."

Lady Silsa released Malek and raised her eyebrows in his direction. He lowered his voice. "I'm a killer and a slave who will do anything his master tells him. I'm no fairytale Prince."

"So that's what this is all about." She pounced on his words. "You're jealous of him."

"I'd rather slit my wrists than be a Wayvolkan Prince." The scorn in his soul twisted his mouth. "I'll do what I can for you Keilah, but I won't applaud your transformation. Your mother ran from being Wayvolkan, because she understood what it meant. And you, you just embrace it."

Keilah slapped him across the cheek which shocked him more than it actually hurt. "Take that back. Take that back now!" She demanded, stamping one foot on the ground.

He made his face blank as he bowed, far lower than usual. "Apologies my Lady for my rudeness." His voice was so polite it should be offensive, if she cared about him at all.

"Is the Hattavah being rude?" Lady Silsa said from across the room, holding Malek's red face close to her. "Did he reject your kiss too?"

Dakkoul ignored both her and the pleading look Malek threw him and mock-bowed to Keilah. "I retract my statement. You are exactly as you have always been - the same simple village girl".

Her breath came in furious gasps. He could smell the sweetness of the jam, see a smear left on the corner of her lip that he had a stupid impulse to wipe off.

Keliah glared at him and hissed. "I wanted to marry you. I always thought it would be you and then you left and then I thought it would be Jagur and he's gone and he didn't want me as I am anyway. Why shouldn't I marry the Prince who actually likes me and has said so?"

"You're right," he said searching her face and seeing only the Fox, "Wayvolkan Keilah should marry the Prince and her Hattavah will help her do so."

He saw his words tear into her before she stiffened all over. "That's all you ever see me as. Wayvolkan, Wayvolkan, Wayvolkan. At least the Prince sees me and only me. He doesn't trip over my eyes like everyone else." She limped away from him.

Dakkoul couldn't stop himself. He ran after her, catching her just before she reached the door to her second room. "I loved you before I even knew your eyes were Wayvolkan. I thought they were just Keilah's eyes, as special as the rest of you. I don't say anything more because I can't."

Keilah spun around towards him. A flush blossomed across her cheeks. She seized one of his hands as she said in a low voice, "You could. You could ask me to run away with you. Ask me."

He swallowed and for a second dreamed of obeying. "I won't," he said at last. "What kind of person would I be, to ask that of you when you could be Queen?" He pulled his hand free. "You should be Queen, Keilah. I want you to be. To be admired by all, to live in a castle and have everything you desire. Not on the run with me, being hunted at every turn. I'm bad, but I'm not so bad that I'd ask that of you."

"When I'm Queen, I'll make you free."

He tried to manage a smile and failed. "You can't marry the Prince for me. You must do it for yourself, because that's what you want."

She nodded as she wiped away her tears.

He could not speak any more. He went over to Malek and Silsa with a giggle let him go.

Malek stomped behind him as they left but Dakkoul ignored him. Now the heat had gone from his head, he pondered Silsa's words. Had Malek really wounded the Queen-Priestess in the Fox dance? And if so what did that mean for Keilah in the Vixen Trials? There was only one place to get the answers: the library and he had delayed long enough.