Son of the Sun: An Inca Love Story

Sapa Kanan

Sapa Kanan Cápac

Nothing could have prepared me for the startled expressions of my people as I walk through the silent crowd that has gathered around Isabella and me while we walk side by side silently.

Cedar-brown eyes watch her cautiously, a sense of wonder highlighting them as they drift over this beautiful stranger, unsure what to make of her. Some are distrustful already, disbelieving that an outsider has stumbled upon their sacred land, the land gifted to us from the gods themselves. The gods who made us a mountain to bring us closer to them and harder for others to find us. They're so taken by the thought that they don't even pay their chief the respect to bow.

Well, not chief yet, I suppose. But as soon as my father is not well enough to rule our land anymore, I'll take his place as Sapa.

My gaze drifts down to Isabella, the woman I came across mid-hunt, and just as before, she drew me back in. Her thick, ebony hair of wild curls pulls away from her sweet face, the strands softer than wool yet stronger than the touch of a feather. Being unlike any of the women's hair in my village, it's no wonder she has taken me so easily with hers.

Her umber eyes, once they fluttered open moments after I found her, sent warm jitters throughout my body. They're framed by the curliest, darkest lashes, enhancing the wonderful warm browns of her face and charcoal hair. If she can look up at me like that for the rest of my life, surely I'll transcend to the new world a fortunate man.

There are only four cities that make up my world, or so I thought, until I found her and thought her to be a goddess, sent down by the sun god himself to torture me with her immeasurable beauty. Grabbing her cheeks, touching her lips, and even feeling her skin left my body on fire. If only we could understand one another.

It's wonderful, and slightly amusing, that she wants to learn the language of my people just to communicate with me. The way she lets the words fall off her tongue, caressing each one, almost leaves me longing in envy, particularly when she says my name aloud. I've never been a man of many words, and yet here I am finding all of them.

Isabella must finally feel my heavy gaze on her because she nervously looks back up at me, capturing my wandering eye. She hesitantly smiles, a grin of burning flames and flickering torches, a view so subtly bright that I'm nearly blinded. My breath catches, caught up in the view.

I send her a reassuring smile of my own and bring her a bit closer, away from the curious eyes following us.

My people are frozen by the interaction and my guards look at each other, unsure whether they should tear the woman clutching onto their future chief's hand away or not. I know I have to explain myself to them and my stubborn father and the council members, but I just want to be alone with her for the evening without having to explain myself. I know some won't approve, especially when I go to present her, but I already vowed to myself and the entity of the sun god inside of me, I'll protect her with my life. No harm will come to her as long as I'm around.

No matter what anybody else will think, I refuse to leave her to my people's assumptions.

And judging by the looks on their ashen faces, they're already thinking a lot about what I've just done.