The Magician's Witch

Return to the Future Part 2

Eilis, Erik, and Sanaz fell into a new routine. They all took turns milking the goats, mucking out their stalls, fetching water from the stream, and cooking. Eilis knew Erik could cook, but Sanaz was shocked one morning when she came into the kitchen to see him hovering over the stove. He smiled politely, greeting her kindly, and returned his focus to the skillet in front of him.

"W...where did you learn to cook," she asked him hesitantly.

"Before I came to Persia, I traveled by myself for a time," Erik explained quietly. "I taught myself how to cook the basics. I did not eat very often, only as often as I needed to sustain myself. Eilis, of course, changed that."

Eilis walked in then, carrying two buckets of goat's milk.

"What did I change," she asked as she set the buckets down and removed her shoes which were caked with mud; it had rained the night before.

Erik turned and smiled at her. "I was telling Sanaz how you forced me to eat more," he teased.

Eilis snorted, picking up the buckets again and setting them down closer to the stove. "You make it sound as though I tied you to a chair and forced food down your throat."

Erik's eyes twinkled as he turned to her. "You may as well have."

Eilis smirked and shook her head, then reached up to kiss his cheek. "I used more persuasive methods than that. And don't tell me you didn't like it," she implied.

Erik chuckled and handed her a glass of ginger tea, which she accepted gratefully.

A day or so after everyone had left, Eilis began to feel the familiar signs of pregnancy. Her morning sickness hadn't gotten bad yet, but she felt dizzy a lot of the time, and her stomach felt queasy. To stave it off, Erik began making her ginger tea every morning.

They ate breakfast together, Aria sitting in her new high chair with a small spoon in her round little hand (she was left-handed like her father), as she attempted to feed herself yogurt. Eilis had begun introducing her to solid foods—yogurt, mashed potatoes, pureed vegetables—to supplement her diet of breastmilk. Her teeth were beginning to come in, giving Eilis an incentive to ween her baby off relying on her entirely for sustenance. She even started introducing goat's milk to Aria's diet, which Aria took to quite well.

Aria held the spoon as daintily as she could manage in her hand as she lifted it to her mouth and swallowed another little bit of yogurt. Only a little bit of white froth clung to the corners of her lips.

Eilis grinned as she wiped her daughter's face. "You are a very quick learner, little one," she told Aria. Aria gave her mother a knowing look, not quite able to voice her opinions yet.

Nadir had ridden through a few days ago ahead of the court on its way to Mazandaran. He seemed worn, world-weary, and desperate, and shocked to find that Laleh, Bakhita, Dara, and Malid had gone. He regretted not being there to bid them farewell.

The Shah had postponed their journey through the mountains after the tumultuous first few months brought on by the death of Mirza Taqi Khan, installing his replacement, marrying his sister off to the new Grand Vizier's son, and Erik's disappearance. Nadir seemed unsurprised to find Sanaz there with them and warned Erik and Eilis not to go into the village until the palace's caravan passed.

Sanaz needed heaps of reassurance that Nadir would not betray her whereabouts to the Khanum. She sat in her room and refused to come out until Nadir left.

According to Nadir, there had been a city-wide search sent out to find Erik and return him to the palace after the three men were found in the room inside the harem. The man who Erik and Eilis had left alive and who Eilis had cursed had been questioned at length about what he had witnessed. He was so far gone that they were only able to extract a few coherent sentences from the scourged man. The Khanum, her patience worn thin, had thrown him into the torture chamber afterward, and she had flown into an unhinged rage, demanding that Erik and Eilis be found and brought back to the palace, where she planned on torturing them both.