Torgan Wine Ch. 11

"You needed more. If bringing you into my family would not have robbed you of the little you had left I would have done it and kept you here, sweet girl."

"He's heartless, you should have kept her. My father would have let her stay with us as often as she liked." Arissa's anger sounded very much like her father's and Isonei snapped at her.

"I love my father. He is not heartless, his heart hurts. I love my family also when they are not so nice."

"That is why I did not keep you. But you should have been brought back to me."

"Yes, my Daga. I should have come home." Isonei bowed her head wishing she could curl next to him as she'd grown so used to doing.

"You sound so pitiful." Arissa leaned against her.

"She's grown accustomed to sitting with her Daga for comfort." The priest stroked her braided hair.

"I won't be offended." Her grip loosened as the priest lifted his hand.

"Sit with your Daga, sweet girl."

"Thank you." Isonei stood from the kneeler and climbed easily onto the sarg, curling in her accustomed spot with a contented sigh. "I will come home when I leave again."

"She looks so content. I want to feel that content here."

"When we lounge with the Daga, I'll let you sit with him. I feel this content when my Draeseth holds me close. I can't let you do everything I enjoy with my flower wine, but I think I could allow that."

"I was going to suggest it." The priest sounded pleased. "You should promise to behave, Lady Arissa, or it will be cut short."

"I give you my word as a daughter of Gildith." Arissa beamed at her and Isonei smiled from the sarg. "Is that really comfortable?"

"It feels like the way I used to tuck myself under his arm. Nowhere feels as much like home as this spot."

"That's why." The sheepish look on Arissa's face was quickly explained. "I was jealous when he said he was painting a picture of you on the sarg to take with you."

"I thought it was a jest!" Isonei lifted her head in surprise and both Arissa and the priest began to laugh. The elder Daga's laughter spilled from the man, echoing in the chamber.

As their amusement subsided, the priest stepped back lifting his hand from Arissa. "I hope you will return to visit me. My son rarely comes down just to talk to his poor father." The teasing tone made Arissa smile.

"I will. You're still as charming as I remember." She pressed her hand to her heart returning his gesture.

Isonei climbed from the sarg and kissed the name, pressing her cheek to it before giving the priest a warm smile and walking with Arissa out of the crypts.

"The statues are all very handsome."

"They are! My favorites are the ones that are smiling, and the elder Daga's. His is so perfectly him."

"It is." Arissa seemed much happier as they walked to the gardens. "Should we go knock on the Daga's window? We didn't linger as long as you usually do."

"We could surprise him and try the door." Isonei teased, giggling and changing their direction.

To their surprise Draeseth was sitting with the Daga in his study. Both men seemed displeased by something and they didn't look entirely pleased to be disturbed.

"Are we interrupting something?" Isonei inquired looking at them both with concern.

"Nothing important, my jewel."

"We should discuss it with her. If your match stands you'll have to deal with Lord Eliorith as much as I will."

"Father? What...?"

"What has that horrible man done now?" Arissa tugged Isonei to the short backless sofa.

"He isn't horrible." Isonei gave her a frown and a warning look.

"He wrote a letter challenging my right to bring Isonei into my family. The letter blames Prince Draeseth and claims he's trying to keep her from her kin. He's demanding she be returned to his house immediately."

"The man who kept her from her mother's family and her own sisters is claiming she's being kept from her kin. Please, allow me to write the reply." Arissa's eyes were a brilliant green very like her father's, as was the look of icy displeasure on her features.

"I will write to my father." Isonei pulled her hand away from Arissa and gave her a sharp look before rising to stand at the Daga's desk. "May I use your desk?"

"You may. The letter is on the desk."

She tuned out the angry conversation as Arissa discussed the matter with Draeseth and Daga Liadith. Her father's letter was furious. He should have known better than to address a letter like this to a Daga, though it seemed the letter was originally addressed to Daga Gildith. Isonei found a piece of paper and one of the elder Daga's elegant pens that held their ink inside.

An angry reply would be cruel, he was clearly unhappy that she was away from home and afraid she wasn't returning. She carefully worded her response, being firm but reassuring. Daga Liadith wouldn't prevent her from returning to Ara to see him and if he apologized thoroughly he might be permitted to visit in Leria; that would be important to him. Equally important was explaining she'd always had a home and family here and she would not give them up. Calling Daga Liadith a second father and Daga Gildith a beloved uncle, she gently reminded him that it was always better to have more love than less.

How to address his concerns about Draeseth was a little more difficult. Isonei explained that in Leria and Torga, Aran exclusivity was viewed like marriage. Until the year was over she was Draeseth's wife and even though it was an adjustment, she was content. Mentioning the arrangement they were discussing might upset him but it should also make him understand that he should learn to reconcile himself to her absence.

Closing with the hopeful reminder he was to write every month and that she would write back with love, she set the pen aside.

"Bring it to me." The Daga held out his hand for the letter.

Obediently, she brought it and sat on the now empty sofa as Arissa moved to read over his shoulder. Draeseth remained in his chair looking at her with an expression of dismay.

"You'll want to read this. I intend to write something a little more strongly worded but Isonei was firm." Daga Liadith smiled at her as he finished the letter.

"I'm not finished reading it yet." Arissa frowned. "Informal Aran is difficult to read."

"She called your father a beloved uncle. I'll let you read all of it before I send it, my dear Arissa." He offered it to Draeseth. "You can read Aran, can't you?"

"It is an easier language to speak than Lerian, and a more difficult one to read. It takes me some time."

"I'll help you." Arissa took the letter and brought it to Draeseth. "I don't want to wait to finish it."

"Aran isn't difficult." Isonei looked at Arissa and Draeseth with a frown.

"Compared to the plain clear lines of Lerian and Torgan, Aran is very difficult." The Daga came closer to pat her cheek with the back of his hand. "Have you seen Torgan writing?"

"No, not yet." She let him take her back to the desk.

Opening a drawer, the Daga looked through his letters until he found one to show her. The page was covered in odd markings, sharp and almost brutal in their plainness. "There are no curves at all. It looks so strange."

Daga Liadith laughed quietly. "Here, this is Prince Draeseth's name."

The cluster of lines didn't look like anything she would recognize as a name. "Is it?"

"Yes, and this is yours." He pointed out another cluster. "King Orgath very politely made it clear that if I am delaying your arrival I am responsible for keeping both Princes and yourself in an appropriate manner."

"So this is what it looks like when it's formally written?"

"There is no difference between formal and informal in the shape of the words themselves. That is an Aran peculiarity."

"Your father always wrote very prettily when he wrote formal letters! His other letters were very plain."

"That was calligraphy not an entirely different way of writing." The Daga smiled putting the letter away. "Look." He wrote the word father plainly and then in the ornate way his father used to. "The word is still the same, just a little more florid. As opposed to Aran." The curves of the word father written informally were flatter and curved downward, the vowels indicated underneath. Formally, the word curved upward, the vowels were positioned above the more rounded consonants.

"How is it more difficult? At a glance you can tell if a letter is formal or not and the vowels aren't hidden in the words like in Lerian. It makes them easier to read." She put on an innocent expression.

"You're being deliberately difficult." He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I am Aran." She fluttered her lashes.

"You want me to be kinder to your father because he's had to put up with you all of your life?" The Daga gave her a hard look.

"You forgot your father was clever, you might forget what I am, my Daga."

"Never. No one but Prince Draeseth can manage to forget that you're complicated and troublesome." He gave her an annoyed smile. "I'll be sure to remind him."

Isonei glanced over to see Draeseth and Arissa still trying to decipher the letter. "I'm not looking forward to learning another language. I'm not very good at it. Reading Lerian always gave me a headache."

Daga Liadith snorted, "Father should have made you practice more. I had to spend hours learning to read and write Aran. You came home and got to do nothing but enjoy the house."

"And I loved coming home!" She gave him an impish grin.

"I'm going to talk to your husband about remedying your lack. You can improve your Lerian while you learn Torgan." He began to grin as her own expression changed to an irked pout. "I think father would be very happy to have you speaking Lerian properly after all these years."

"He would. But he'd have less to tease me about."

"I'm sure he'll find something. He's very clever." The Daga looked over at Arissa and Draeseth as well. "I should write your father while they're occupied. Why were the two of you so happy when you came in earlier?" He sat at his desk and gathered his pen and paper. "Tell me in Lerian."

"You are not so nice." Isonei made a face at him as he laughed. "Uhhmm Arissa must behave. We uhhmm..."

"She has been well behaved, as have I." He gave her a sharp look.

Sighing in exasperation she tried again, "Yes, but in the garden. Uhhmm, Arissa may sit with my Daga."

The look of surprised delight on his face made her smile. "She's permitted to sit with me?"

"Yes, my Daga. She must behave or you will be short."

His laughter was loud enough to bring Arissa to investigate. Isonei shrugged and shook her head in confusion as the Lerian woman inquired drawing more laughter from the Daga. When he quieted, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes he managed to choke out, "In the garden. You-you must behave or I will be short." Both began to laugh and Isonei's annoyed expression seemed to amuse them more.

"Why are they laughing?" Draeseth came to stand very close.

"I must have misspoken. They're permitted to sit together in the garden but if they misbehave it will be cut short."

He bent close as if he intended to kiss her and she pressed her face to his. "You told your father that you are my wife and told him we are entering into an arrangement."

"He needs to know so that he can try to get along with you and get accustomed to the thought of my absence."

Breathlessly he whispered, "Woman. Wife."

"I think I can allow it." The Daga's amused words made her glance over to him. Arissa was perched on the arm of his chair smiling. "You may touch her. I think the restrictions can be lifted."

Draeseth's hands were moving over her hips and back as soon as the words left the Daga's mouth. Isonei tilted her face up to him and he kissed her urgently, lifting her off of her feet. The way he claimed her mouth and clutched at her, pulling at her dress, made her skin feel as though it was burning for his touch.

The splash of wine against her face made her twitch but Draeseth growled in his throat and captured her lips again as she pulled back. His hand was holding her bare thigh, squeezing roughly when a much larger measure of wine hit them in the face again. The sound that came from the Torgan's throat, a snarl crossed with what sounded like an anguished whine, made her bury her wet face in the crook of his neck. The warmth of his hand on her thigh as he rubbed it was too perfect to object to.

"If you can't behave any better than that, you won't be allowed to touch her."

"I need. My wife intends to stay with me. I need." His biting kiss on her neck made her moan helplessly. He purred in Torgan and squeezed her thigh just below the cheek of her ass.

"Enough. Until the ceremony she is still the Keran and you are meant to be helping her with her duties not making her forget them entirely." The sharpness of the Daga's tone made her try to disentangle herself, but Draeseth held her in place.

"She is my wife. What of her duty to me, and me to her?" He took a deep breath and let her down gently, straightening her dress. "She has not been permitted to perform her marital duties, we both require it."

"So you do. But you didn't listen when I told you to behave."

"Daga Liadith, let them have some time." Arissa gingerly slipped under his arm and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Prince Draeseth is not permitted to touch her. But I will give her some time this evening to... perform whatever duties she feels she should."

Isonei leaned against his chest as the Torgan clasped his hands behind his back. "Does that mean I have to choose between my duties as Keran and-"

"No," The Daga interrupted hurriedly. "I will have the maids sit with Arissa in her rooms."

"Thank you." With difficulty she stepped away from Draeseth, looking up at him with a flushed face and a small hopeful smile.

"I will be...," Draeseth swallowed and stepped toward her, "in my rooms until dinner. To see you and know I can touch you soon, if I don't calm myself I will bruise you as I did in Ara."

"You misunderstood my concession," Daga Liadith spoke carefully. "She may touch you; you are not permitted to touch her. If you do, I require her to end her evening at once. Do you both understand?"

"Yes, my Daga." Isonei began to think about how to enjoy the time without Draeseth's strong hands moving over her and holding her with his iron grip.

"No, Daga Liadith! How can I have her and not-" The anguish and anger in his voice made her press her hands to his chest before he argued his way out of the evening's pleasures.

"I can show you, my Draeseth. If you'll trust me, there is a great deal we can do." She smiled at him mischievously, "Will you trust me?"

The growling groan he gave her as he stooped to let her press her face to his almost made her forget herself and kiss him instead. "I will. I will calm myself enough to last for you, wife, I know how long you require to be satisfied."

She caressed his face and ran her fingers through his wet hair keeping her face pressed to his. "I like to take my time enjoying you, my flower wine."

"Woman."

Another splash of wine struck her in the face and she stepped back reluctantly. "I may need to calm myself as well, my Draeseth."

"I would advise it." The Daga was pouring another glass. "Before I have to waste the entire bottle of Sciacchetra."

Arissa began to laugh. "My father will never forgive you if you do." She took the glass from him and sipped it.

"Until dinner." Prince Draeseth offered quietly and bowed before leaving.

After watching him go, Isonei looked sheepishly at the Daga, "I'll add a note to my letter asking my father to give you a cask of his best."

"No need, I intend to demand several as an apology." He smiled and then shook his head. "The two of you together are indecent. As soon as I told him he could touch you again I knew I shouldn't have."

"I thought he was going to ravish you where you stood!" Arissa's cheeks were flushed. "I didn't believe you when you said he was worse than you are! You at least tried to behave." She giggled and gave the glass back to the Daga. "Let's get you washed and changed before we go to the garden."

°°°°°°°°°°

Isonei washed hurriedly as Arissa chatted to her from the attendant's bench. Draeseth had confessed to having tremendous difficulty with the informal Aran writing. Arissa had almost had to read the letter aloud to him. It meant that he hadn't been able to read the two letters she'd written to him, and it would explain why he hadn't written anything back.

Amay helped her into a clean Lerian day dress and put her hair back into the Torgan braids she'd grown accustomed to wearing as Arissa chattered on. It was impossible to follow the woman's words as her thoughts strayed back to Draeseth and the things she could try with him. The question of whether he could keep his hands to himself long enough to do as much as she hoped was the most pressing.

"You're not listening at all are you?" Arissa leaned into her reflection with a smile.

"I'm sorry; I just can't stop thinking about tonight." Isonei gave her a guilty smile.

"Will you really be able to..." Arissa blushed, "Don't you need to have him... doing things?"

"The benefits of being with someone experienced," Isonei laughed. "I know what to do to please us both." Looking in the mirror she touched the darkening mark on her neck. "He just has to control himself enough to let me."

"Did you understand what he said after he kissed you there?" Arissa eyed the spot with amusement. "It was poetically naughty."

"No, but I loved the way it sounded." She giggled with Arissa.

"He said he was going to kiss every curve of you and make you sing out with pleasure, his own song bird." Arissa pulled her out of the chair with a smile that said she expected her to be scandalized.

"You should hear him say... How does it go..." Isonei tried to imitate the sounds as Arissa's eyes widened. "I think that was, 'Milk my cock with your perfect cunny, silver jewel.' That always thrills me."

"He's not prudish at all!" Arissa laughed and embraced her "His mouth is terrible!"

"His mouth is perfection." Isonei grinned with flushed cheeks, "He has a wonderfully wicked tongue!"

The two left the rooms giggling to themselves and making their way to the gardens. The Daga wasn't yet waiting for them at the benches so they reclined together in the sun. "When you were younger, did the new Daga ever speak to you that way?"

"Never. He was very sweet and proper. I think the most scandalous thing he ever said to me was that he liked the way my lips tasted after we'd been drinking his father's wine."

"What kind of wine?" Arissa curled closer so that her cheek was on Isonei's breast.

"The good honey wine he'd gotten from my father."

"Your lips do taste good after drinking it." Arissa smiled and sighed as if she were starting to drowse.

"Anyone's lips taste good after drinking it." Isonei teased. "That's why it was my favorite until I met my flower wine."

"Father says Torgan wines are rarely sweet but flower wine is harsh and bitter."

"I thought it was awful when I first tasted it." Isonei lifted her hand to stroke Arissa's hair lightly. "Once I tasted it on my Draeseth's lips it was much more pleasant. It has a smoky, velvety flavor but you have to find it behind the harshness. You have to sip it slowly and sit with it to enjoy it." She let her eyes close completely against the bright sun.