Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

38. The Fertility Rites

Blood surged through my veins with an abundance of a spring flood, but my senses remained dulled, divided between my two realities.

My fingers fumbled to seize Ondrey's chin and set his lips onto mine so much that it was a triumph when our mouths linked.

His hands acted more deftly to claw my clothes away. All I had on was a tunic over the trousers. So little clothes for once, less and less with every passing moment. I would have to ask him what happened to my chain shirt, the quilted padding and the rest of my kit. They cost good money.

"The world is a blur," I complained when I wore nothing but my skin. "I'm making love to you, and I can't even properly see your body."

His chest rumbled, frustratingly faint. I wanted to feel the full magnitude of his laughter. "I'm luckier. And you are as beautiful as I pictured a hundred times, no matter how afraid I was to break my vow. I... I'm sorry if the thought is too frivolous considering--"

"Sweetheart, don't apologize. When you laugh, I know you haven't buried me yet."

"Never!"

I arched to kiss him for his efforts. It was as much as I could do to help him to the climax. We had to hurry, but the less I could do with my body to caress him, the more my heart labored. The waves of gentleness washed over me, in both worlds, warmer than skin and lips.

"I won't leave you." I cradled him in the postcoital comfort. "We share too much. We're alike in all things. My soul cleaves to yours."

We did everything to start the gift of new life in my womb.

Now all three of us—me, Ondrey and the soul who would be reborn in our child—had to wait. It shouldn't take long, should it? I was wandering the River Vash already where the souls waited. I was right there, ready for it to kindle. Though I wasn't sure if it was a soul looking for a soul, or soul looking for a body, or something else. I should ask Kozima once we had returned to him--or not. Kozima... he might be a little upset about my firstborn being conceived from a consort.

"I'll save my strength for the quickening, Ondrey. Don't be afraid. Sleep. I'll be back."

"I'm not afraid," Ondrey said faintly. His beautiful body disappeared from my arms.

The moment my limbs stopped flailing in the River Vash to cling to him in the Knowable World, I went down like a stone. The maidens' hair ensnared me, dragged me through the miles of water and light, tossed me still spinning to the bottom.

Dizzy, I pushed to all fours and puked my guts out onto the fine, combed sand. Someone took a sharp intake of breath above my bent head. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve. I had my shirt and pants on in the River Vash... confusing.

"If that's how you bring the guests in, you shouldn't be surprised," I said.

"Dear Ismar, you are no guest. You're a fugitive. The maidens only hunt the souls refusing to inhale the oblivion."

The River Vash would freeze over before I'd inhale oblivion voluntarily! Ondrey and Kozima waited for me in the Knowable World. I was about to become a mother.

I lifted my eyes at the speaker, ready to give them a piece of my mind. It was a water spirit of some sort. Willowy and tall, golden-green scales down the sides of a pointy face with luminous green eyes. The hair, also green, cascaded down their back. There was no obvious bosom, but the body was sinuous. Slim arms ended with webbed hands, long-nailed.

They needed those well-trimmed nails too, since their occupation appeared to consist of sitting on the bottom of the River Vash, playing a harp. The instrument was a complicated affair of crystal and gold, about a woman's height, wedged into the fine golden sand of the bottom.