Torgan Wine Ch. 06

"Sit beside me." Draeseth took hold of her arm behind the elbow.

"You have to wait for the Daga's judgment, my Draeseth, be calm and patient. For me?" Isonei stepped closer placing a hand on his chest.

He pulled her closer and pressed his face to hers. "If I must."

She waited until he reluctantly released her. Glancing to the Daga, as she returned from the sides of the now seated Torgan Princes, she saw him give an almost imperceptible nod of approval.

"I had intended to speak on the matter during the course of the meal, but it seems no one will eat well until the matter has been resolved. The daughter of Liadith has only pleasant things to say of you Prince Draeseth. She believes these bruises to be from enthusiasm." He took his seat and the first part of the evening meal was brought out, cheeses and artfully arranged salad leaves, partly filled with sauces and sprinkled with nuts that could be lifted and eaten individually. The Princes waited patiently for him to continue.

"I disagree. I think you choose to leave bruises deliberately and it will not be permitted to continue." She watched as Draeseth stiffened at the words, gritting his teeth and looking incensed. "Not in this house. Lady Isonei will, however, be permitted to continue to Torga with you both when I am content that the Prince Draeseth understands her position and her value."

"Her value is above gold and jewels. Above station and title." Draeseth spoke adamantly with a clenched fist laid on the table.

"And still you treat her roughly. A man may say sweet words, his actions show the truth." The Daga spoke without looking at the Torgans, placing food on Isonei's plate and his own.

The faint sound of grinding teeth reached the Daga's table as Burgath whispered something inaudible to Draeseth and began to take a few of the arranged cheeses from the tray in front of them.

"How may I show you, Daga Liadith. My Isonei knows that my words are truthful."

"That you will have to decide on your own." The Daga's eyes were a bright clear green as he admonished menacingly, "However, you will be as gentle as a lamb when you are permitted to spend time with her under my roof."

"I understand." Draeseth inclined his head and looked back up at Isonei with a mix of relief and trepidation. "Will she be permitted to return to her place at my side?"

"Not until I am content." He took a bite and watched Draeseth carefully as Burgath tried to encourage him to eat. "Eat. Lady Isonei is concerned for your well-being."

"As I am concerned for hers. She chews her lip bloody when she's unhappy." He looked at Isonei meaningfully and she realized she was worrying the inside of her lip again.

"Still? I thought she would grow out of that." The Daga turned with a frown. "Chew your food not your lip."

"I didn't even realize I was doing it." Isonei picked up one of the pieces of salad on her plate and carefully ate it without spilling the contents.

Draeseth chose one of the salad leaves like the one she had eaten and placed it on his plate before eating it in a single bite. He grimaced faintly and chose several pieces of cheese as Burgath had done.

"Lady Isonei tells me you call her a perfect jewel." Daga Liadith ate slowly to allow his guests time to clear their own plates. "Are you aware that Arans are... complicated creatures? And that she may not be as perfect as you believe her to be?"

Swallowing before he spoke, Draeseth looked at the Daga distrustfully. "She is perfect for me," he placed careful emphasis on the last word. "Gentle, affectionate and considerate. That she teases me until I can no longer bear it, is more of a pleasure than an imperfection." He shifted his gaze to Isonei with a faint smile, "I cannot help but be keenly aware that Arans are complex and difficult to understand." His eyes shifted back to the Daga and his smile faded, "As are Lerians."

"We think ourselves straightforward." The Daga smiled coolly.

"As do Arans, my Daga." Isonei's excessively sweet interjection earned her an annoyed glance from the Daga. "We're often baffled that Lerians and Torgans have so much difficulty with simple things like arrangements and family."

"You seem to understand Lerians without difficulty, and I have never grasped the finer points of Aran..." the Daga gestured with annoyance.

"You never thought it was worth grasping, my Daga." At her pointed words he blinked and sat straighter in his seat. "I was advised by the elder Daga to speak with more honesty than gentleness to you, my Daga. Something that does not come easily to me."

After regarding her carefully for a moment he spoke in Lerian, "I have always faulted you for your excessive gentleness. But to see a sharper side to you when you aren't angry is almost disconcerting."

"That wasn't sharp, my Daga. Pointed, perhaps.

"Only an Aran would make that distinction." His lips twisted.

"It is the difference between a slice and a thrust." Draeseth offered with a defiant half smile. "A valid distinction." Isonei beamed at him.

"You prefer to charm her rather than tease her?" The Daga made a gesture and the second part of the meal was brought, meats sliced and wrapped around roasted vegetables, and vegetables hollowed and filled with meats arranged on more platters.

"My Draeseth does both, he does so many things skillfully." She almost laughed as he blushed lightly and gave her a stern look. "He's getting much better at the stern looks. I'm trying to give him practice."

His eyes began to glitter. "My jewel, you are the only one I have difficulty looking at sternly. How can I be stern with the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, who smiles at me adoringly and calls me magnificent?"

"I do adore you, and you are magnificent, my Draeseth." Isonei could feel the warm flush on her face and her grin widened as his face softened into a doting smile.

"When I get you home to Kroscur, I will not allow you farther than my garden for a month. I need you to myself."

"I want to see your garden and you in it. I liked walking in the garden in Ara with you."

"I will show you my flowers and lay you down among them, my perfect jewel. My garden-" Draeseth stopped speaking as Burgath gripped his arm and hissed at him in Torgan.

"If you continue speaking this way, openly, daughter of Liadith, I will have the match finalized."

"Do not make marriage to me a punishment, Daga Liadith." Draeseth admonished in a low flinty voice. "I would have her choose me."

"My apologies Prince Draeseth. You may consider it her choice if she continues." The Daga began to put more on her plate. "Do you have anything further to say, Lady Isonei?"

Isonei looked at her plate and tried to find a way to explain the promises she'd made that wouldn't be hurtful to Draeseth. The silence stretched but she couldn't find words that would serve.

"Is it not enough that you rob me of my limited time with her, you must rob me of her voice as well?" Draeseth's pained rasp was accompanied by the sound of his chair pushing away from the table.

Looking up she saw him give a curt bow and leave the table. Under any other circumstances the Daga would be justified in arranging his departure. Before the Daga could speak, Isonei whispered, "That was cruel, my Daga, not only to him but to me. I had almost forgotten that you could be so detestable." She met his shocked and furious glare with all of the contempt and disdain she could summon.

"Be careful what you say next." He snapped, slamming his hand onto the table.

"I will say nothing." Her livid whisper was followed by the toppling of her chair as she stood so forcefully it fell backward. Stalking from the dining hall, she knew going to her room would end with her cornered and forced to apologize for her bad behavior, and following Draeseth would end with her compelled into a match. The garden was the only place she could safely go.

The elder Daga had been fond of walking it, the outer garden would give her a place to walk and cool her head. She walked around it twice before a servant was sent out to fetch her back inside. Directed back to her room she was told to wait for the Daga.

The thought of speaking to him was still too wretched to bear. Feeling defiant, Isonei slipped into her room full of dresses to tug off the new scarlet overdress and pull on the plain black that Draeseth had brought for her. The scarlet dress she laid over the foot of her bed before she slipped out of her window. Walking the garden in the dark until she felt like facing the Daga seemed a better idea. If she was going to be compelled to apologize against her will, she might as well do something that would justify it.

She had almost made another three laps of the outer garden before she saw a servant with lantern raised coming down the path. Childishly, she stepped off of the path and behind one of the slim trees. Isonei fully expected to be seen and called back to the path, but the servant passed by. There was a certain thrill to the idea that struck her; hide and seek in the dark. It wasn't far from what the current Daga had been wont to do as a child. The elder Daga would probably be amused by it.

Finding a good place to hide would be the difficult part. The Daga had known all of the best places. Perhaps... If she went toward the stables, there was a barn that used to be filled with hay.

It wasn't as full as she remembered it being as a child, but there was still enough that if she were careful she could hide in the back unseen. Quickly, before someone came to check it, she climbed in and found a spot to curl into. In her long sleeves it wasn't as itchy as it might have been, and she tried very hard not to think of mice. She fell asleep in the hay waiting for her urge for childishness to be satisfied.

°°°°°°°°°°

The sun was coming up when Isonei heard Draeseth bellowing her name as he had in the palace garden in Ara. Rubbing her face and clambering out of the hay she saw Krouth rounding the side of the barn. He stopped and gave a loud sharp whistle before coming toward her with a profoundly displeased expression.

"The Daga insisted on waking Prince Draeseth when I informed his servant you were not in his Highness' chambers. Waking to the news you had been missing all night has put-"

"Isonei!" Draeseth sounded furious, snarling in Torgan as he stormed toward her. She thought he was going to throw her over his shoulder but instead he lifted her up above his head and shook her before pulling her back down and into a crushing embrace.

"I'm sorry Draeseth, I couldn't bear to speak to the Daga and I was being childish. I didn't think he would disturb you."

"You slept in the hay to avoid speaking to me?" The Daga spoke quietly, having come up behind Draeseth while she was being crushed. The sound of his voice made her want to keep being childish. "Isonei? I require an answer." There was a sharpness to it that grated.

"I can't apologize for my behavior at dinner and you would have demanded it. I can't, and I didn't, see any way other than to avoid you."

"I was taken to task when I went to speak to the elder Daga of your disappearance. A match is not a punishment, and you were made to promise not to marry in this year. I have behaved wretchedly as a host and as a Daga." There was a deep breath. "That you would flee your Daga's house is a source of shame, this must be mended."

She pressed her face into Draeseth's tunic, but her eyes widened as he tilted her head up and pulled her lip away from her teeth as if she had been chewing on it. "We will speak of this promise later, but you will apologize for frightening him, and me. You will mend what must be mended."

"I intend to. I'm still just so angry."

"Then take him to task, fleeing is far worse." He stroked her cheek.

"I didn't allow her to. I gave her no choice but to flee." She heard the sound of the Daga sucking his lips against his teeth. "I cannot, in good conscience, rob you of your time. When she is less angry with me, I ask you to allow her to return."

Isonei winced, he was relenting and allowing her to go but she had duties and the elder Daga would not be pleased if she shirked them. "Who will act as Keran?"

"Making a match at this time is not wise. I'll speak with Arissa perhaps in a few years she'll be willing to-"

"You need someone, my Daga. Arissa is playful and mischievous, but she is Daga Gildith's daughter and she will not allow you to make grave mistakes, if you listen to her." She gave Draeseth an apologetic look before stepping away from him and looking at the Daga, "If you'll accept my apology for my childishness, for hurting you, I'll stay to act as Keran as you asked. But I need to be with my Draeseth as much as possible."

"I accept your apology. I am not clear on Aran etiquette, but is exclusivity the same as a match?" He studied her carefully.

"It has to be renewed. A match is done once, like a Torgan marriage."

"But an arrangement remains in place until it is dissolved..." Daga Liadith frowned.

"An arrangement is different. An arrangement can be added to and altered more easily. Neither are to be taken lightly, but being exclusive is more weighty and demanding. To be compelled to continue it when neither desires it would be soul-crushing."

"You chose to enter into this with someone you didn't know?"

"Yes, for which I have been thoroughly chidden." Isonei turned her head to look up at Draeseth and reached for his hand. "He's the only one to make me want to consider it, and a year of my life didn't seem so great a sacrifice if it didn't go well."

"As it was explained to my King, exclusivity is as close as Arans come to marriage. She will be greeted as my wife in Torga." Draeseth brought her hand to his lips and she smiled to feel him lightly kissing the backs of her fingers.

"I now understand your anger. I was keeping a matched pair apart. That she cannot yet choose to remain matched to you is painful enough." The Daga smiled wryly, "I hope you will choose to stay, but my admonishment stands. There will be no further bruising of her in my house."

"If Isonei is staying I will remain with her, Daga Liadith. Though she will have to explain to me what it is she has volunteered herself for."

"A Keran is someone who ensures proprieties are observed while a match is being considered. Arissa either has been or will be invited to stay here while they consider it and I would be-" Draeseth's strangled coughing interrupted her and she poked him in the side. "I would be sleeping in her room and staying with her when she isn't in the company of others. She isn't permitted to be alone, or alone with the Daga."

"Can no one else sleep in her room?" Draeseth pulled her closer with a stern expression firmly in place.

"No, it has to be a female member of the Daga's family if he has any. If there are none, it must be a member of hers."

"Krouth would be more trustworthy as far as propriety goes my jewel." His lips curved in a smug smile.

"He's certainly more proper than you are, my magnificent beast." Isonei tried to keep herself composed as he made a growling grunt. "But I am fully capable of respectable behavior as long as I'm not trying to be respectable with you." She jabbed her finger into his chest.

He began to laugh low in his throat, "My perfect jewel, you have apologized to your Daga, and now you need to apologize to me. You wish to chide me for not having enough decorum before you do?"

"Someone should." The Daga spoke dryly. "The missive was sent before I came to speak with you last night, Isonei. I anticipate the answer in a few days at most. Daga Gildith will expect you to behave in a manner befitting a daughter of Liadith."

"I will do my best, my Daga." Trying to step away from Draeseth was impossible, he held her where she was. "I may need to spend some time before breakfast apologizing to my Draeseth."

"So it would seem. You may have until the answer arrives, I will not disturb you." There was a barely noticeable tiredness in the Daga's voice.

"My Daga, if you should need me... I am sorry for the way I behaved."

"Join me for lunch; both you and Prince Draeseth." He smiled and touched his hand to his heart.

"Thank you, my Daga." Isonei returned the gesture as Draeseth released her to bow.

She stood next to Draeseth as the Daga walked back toward his house. A bath and time with Draeseth were what she wanted most at the moment but she was glad she'd been invited for lunch it eased her mind about her Daga. She was still standing and watching when Draeseth swept her up and started back toward the rooms he had been given.

"Do you wish to delay arriving in Torga so greatly?" His reproachful tone made her wince.

"No, my flower wine, you told me to mend what must be mended. He needs to know he's still cared for, and he needs someone to stay and keep him company. Arissa is a good choice."

"You do what I say?" Draeseth snorted.

"I've been trying. Some things are easier than others." Running a finger over his scarred lips, she traced the curve of his wicked smile.

"Perhaps with practice it will become more effortless." The way he purred the words made her face flush.

"Most things do, my flower wine." Isonei started to tease him, "You please me effortlessly and you haven't had nearly as much practice as you should."

"I will have my practice, and you will have yours, woman."

"Can we practice in the bath?" Wrinkling her nose, she pulled a piece of hay off of her dress.

"First, I want to hear about this promise. Who made you promise not to marry me? Andnaeuth?" Draeseth spat the name.

"No. My father required me to promise, but I did give it to Andnaeuth as well to reassure him. I think they were both worried I would leap into something permanent without thinking." She studied his scowl. "Deciding to stay with someone exclusively requires more than a year. You are persuasive, my beautiful Draeseth. I didn't think it would be a difficult promise to keep until after I was so tightly wrapped in your arms."

"The Daga dislikes your father. I am quickly sharing his view." He made an impatient gesture with his head and Krouth opened the door to their rooms.

"I love my father. He's not an easy man but he does his best." Her words seemed to soften his face.

Once inside, Draeseth set her down gently. "I am not an easy man either, my jewel. But he should not interfere."

"And if it were your daughter? What would you be doing if she wanted to go away with a man she barely knew to a place that is known for coldness? To say nothing of the marks you leave when you're affectionate and the temper you're known for."

His jaw clenched and he made an annoyed scoffing sound in his throat.

"Imagine yourself in his position and think more kindly of him, please, my Draeseth?"

"His Highness might expect more prudence from his own daughters, Lady Isonei." Krouth interjected gently, making her turn to look at him.

"So did my father. He said he hadn't thought me stupid." Looking at his impassive face, she clearly remembered his disapproval and it prompted her to ask him coolly, "Do you believe me stupid for my choices, Krouth?"

The tall, slim Torgan straightened and inclined his head, "Not stupid, Lady Isonei, impulsive and free with your affections. A cooler climate breeds more prudent and reserved people."

Glancing back to Draeseth she inquired sweetly, "Were you born somewhere warm, my flower wine?"

"I was born in the heat of summer, my jewel. An inauspicious time of year." Draeseth had started to smile again.

"And kept out of the cold weather and away from cold people for all your life?" Her curiosity had an edge to it and he grinned.