Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(92)

“Korwahk,” Tor whispered.

I looked to him and asked, “What?”

He sat back (again taking me with him) and turned to me. “She describes Korwahk.”

“That sounds familiar,” Phoebe put in and we looked at her. “She’s, like, the Golden Queen?” she asked as if we could confirm then she shook her head and muttered, “I don’t know, something like that.”

“The Golden Warrior Queen of The Golden Dynasty,” Tor stated and I looked back to him to see he was looking at Phoebe. “Is she fair with golden eyes?” he asked.

“I don’t know about her eyes but yes, I think she’s blonde,” Phoebe answered.

“Honey?” I prompted Tor and his eyes came to me.

“It was reported through diplomatic dispatches while you were with me in our other world that Dax Lahn, the king of Korwahk, they are known as Dax in their language, has finally claimed his queen. She is known as the Golden Warrior Queen and it is said he’s also claimed their union begins The Golden Dynasty.”

Wow. That sounded cool.

“That sounds cool,” I said quietly but a strange flash in his eyes made me think it was anything but cool so I asked, “What?”

“It is nothing,” he muttered, turning his attention to his coffee cup and therefore I knew he was also totally lying.

So I repeated, “What?”

He took a sip and his eyes came to me. “It is nothing, my love.”

But his eyes were troubled.

I didn’t need troubled eyes. We had enough trouble.

So I repeated, sharper this time, “Tor, what?”

He held my eyes a moment then he looked to Phoebe, “She returned?”

I looked back to Phoebe to see her nod but she replied verbally too, “Yep.”

“Did she wish to return?” Tor asked.

This was an interesting question and his stress of “wish” made it more so.

Phoebe shook her head. “I don’t know, I mean, I’m not sure.”

“Do you know how she returned?” Tor went on.

Now that was an excellent question.

Phoebe shook her head again. “No, but I can ask Brianna to ask Marlene.”

“Please do so,” Tor murmured then, eyes locked on Phoebe, he finished, “Immediately.”

“Righty ho,” Phoebe whispered because my friend might be a nut but she was far from stupid but even an idiot could read Tor’s intensity. So she immediately pushed herself up, put her cup down on the coffee table then turned and then twisted to hang over the arm of the chair to grab her bag from the floor and get her phone.

Tor took another sip of coffee and it wasn’t hard to read that he was doing this to avoid me even though I was pressed to his side.

“Baby,” I called.

“Mm,” he murmured.

Totally avoiding me.

“Uh, Tor,” I called again and he turned his head to me. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Finally, he answered, it was just not the right answer.

“What it is is not for your ears.”

“Tor –” I started warningly.

He put his mug down on the side table, twisted his torso so he was facing me and placed his other hand light on my hip. “Cora, it is not for your ears. Trust me.”

“Uh, big guy, do you think there is anything that has to do with any of this that I shouldn’t know?”

“Yes,” he replied immediately. “This.”

“I’m a big girl, I can take it.”

“My love, I don’t want you to take it.”

“I’m not certain that’s your choice,” I returned.

He held my eyes and I held his right back.

Then he sighed.

Then, as Phoebe got up, murmuring into the phone and moving toward the kitchen, Tor spoke.

“If this world your friend’s friend’s friend knows is, indeed, Korwahk and this Circe was claimed by the king of that nation, I have concerns.”

“What concerns?”

“Korwahk is in the Southlands, far away from Bellebryn and Hawkvale. Things are very different there, uncivilized, some would consider it primitive but it actually isn’t. It is only different. What it is, is savage.”

I sucked in breath.

That didn’t sound good.

“Do you think she’s been –?” I started.

“What I know is, any warrior of the Korwahk Horde, most definitely their king, gets his wife one way.” He paused, I leaned in closer, he saw he wasn’t going to get away with not telling me the whole story so he finished, “He hunts her.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered, leaning back.

“Yes,” he muttered his agreement.

I just stared at him.

On a sigh, he kept talking.

“This Wife Hunt is well-known, my love. It is even attended by spectators who travel far to watch though I cannot understand what they would get from this. To my culture, this practice is sordid although it is perfectly acceptable in the Southlands and has been happening for centuries. Women are gathered, paraded through the warriors of the Horde, let loose, the warriors hunt them and claim them by fighting their brothers-in-arms for them and then, if victorious, they take the women on the spot.”