A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(34)

“If you recall,” Dendri said, “I noted that Raja Sin was highly attracted to Ariana at the time of the negotiations.”

“That was two autumns ago! Are you telling me that after two autumns Raja Sin came here and kidnapped one of the triumvir because he was attracted to her?” This time it was Hittite who scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Then explain why they were here, unannounced, at exactly the time that Ariana Colla went missing.”

Neither triumvir could explain.

“So Raja Sin comes here, risks everything…risks war…for an attraction?” Hittite was floored.

“I must have underestimated the strength of that attraction. Either that or he hid it well. Do you know if Ariana ever returned the sentiment?”

Felone laughed. “Ariana and that thug? I think not.”

“Damn it. If what you say is true, they’ve had plenty of time to make it back to Kiltian borders,” Hittite said.

“It still doesn’t make sense. Why would he risk war?”

“Would we go to war for this?” Dendri asked. “Can we afford to go to war for this? It is not something that we would enter into lightly. But…before we talk of war…we need to find out if they are truly the guilty parties.”

“How do we do that, Adiron?” Hittite asked.

“You have an ambassador in Kilt I take it?”

“You mean a spy? Yes. We do.”

“Someone like Ariana will not go unnoticed in the Kiltian court. For one, she is a redhead. The Kiltians do not have redheads. Unless he has her hidden away somewhere, she will be seen. We need to send a messenger to your ambassador and have him be on the lookout for her. Then, the moment he sees her and can confirm she is there he can send a messenger back.”

“That will take weeks. God knows what he’ll do to her in the meantime!” Felone said angrily.

“If he indeed has her. We can’t accuse him without knowing for certain. You have to send the messenger at once. We need to know for certain before we can know how to act. And in the meantime we need to decide just what that act will be.”

“We must have her back. We can’t just leave her to those ruffians,” Felone said.

“I’m not suggesting we do,” Dendri said.

“So it’s war. We’ll march right to the bastard’s doorstep,” Felone said.

“We can’t afford another war.”

Hittite spoke softly, but he may as well have shouted. He got the attention of everyone in the room.

“You can go,” Dendri said to the innkeeper whose eyes were as wide as saucers. It would be around the city in no time what he knew. Innkeepers were not known for keeping their tongues. “But speak of this to no one,” Dendri said anyway.

“No. Not me. No sir.” The innkeeper scrambled to his feet and hurried out of the door.

“I figure we have until tomorrow before everyone knows what we do,” Dendri said dryly.

“As if the Sarens needed another reason to despise the Kiltians,” Felone said bitterly. Then he turned to Hittite. “What do you mean we can’t afford another war? Our coffers are full enough.”

“Our borders have changed. We’re still recovering from the lives lost in the last altercation with the Kiltians. We warred with them for autumns and never made any headway. If they dig in, there’ll be nothing we can do about it.”

“Not so,” Dendri disagreed. “There is another solution besides war.”

“And that is?”

“We steal her back.”





Dendri walked into his house, his heart as heavy as his mind. He had made a promise to his wife two autumns ago, and now he was facing the distinct possibility that he was going to have to break that promise.

This was not a conversation he was looking forward to.

He walked in the door and Tudman was upon him instantly.

“My lord, I beg of you. You must do something to—“

“Dendri!” Bess came running into the foyer, her color high on her cheeks and her long red hair in a wild disarray as it worked loose of the braid it had been loosely plaited into. “You have to stop her!”

There was no need to identify who “her” was.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“In the nursery!”

Dendri lengthened his stride and hurried down the hallway toward the master suite and the nursery the adjoined to it. As he entered the room he saw Yasra perched on her tiptoes at the top of a stepladder, reaching to something—he didn’t care what—up far beyond her safe reach. When he entered the room with a curse, she jolted at the sound of his voice and turned to face him, teetering dangerously and—

He made it across the room just in time to catch her. Her weight, a significant twenty pounds heavier than normal, hit him hard and he grunted under the impact. But he caught her right side up, preventing her from squashing their child.

“Oh!” she ejected as he shifted her weight more comfortably in his arms. “Thank you darling.”

“Thank you darling? Is that all you have to say to me?” he demanded of her incredulously.

“Thank you darling and I love you?” she asked hopefully.

He huffed in exasperation. “What in the world were you doing up there?”