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As Cassandra had suggested, Zelda did not set out immediately for the Gold Keep in Eriallon. She knew the knights would need time to find a milk substitute or a wet nurse to feed Aereth. Cassandra volunteered to head into Veracru, the farmland countryside, and find a nursing goat she could purchase or – if it came to that – steal. Not wanting to leave Calain to her fate any longer than they had to, she donned her armor and set out immediately on Sunny with a tether rope for the prospective goat.
Gweneth decided to patrol the battlements and watch for enemies, having realized they had left the fortress unguarded while Zelda was giving birth. And so, Selene was left alone with Zelda and the baby. They sat upright in the bed together, looking down at the child as it rested on Selene’s breasts. The tiny girl’s fat cheek pushed plump in her eye as she dreamt, sucking absently on her little finger, her wispy auburn hair tumbling in her eyes.
“Aereth,” whispered Selene, her arm around Zelda, who snuggled happily against her. “I shall guard her with my life until the end of my days, my lady. This I swear to you.”
Zelda smiled. Selene’s hand was stroking her long golden hair, and it felt so soothing, she almost wanted to sleep. But she kept her eyes open. There was no time to rest. Calain was in danger! The thought of leaving her child behind to return to Eriallon frightened and saddened her, but she could not leave Calain to her fate.
Calain should have been there with them, in Wolf Fortress, smiling on the baby, sharing meals, sparring in the yard. It felt wrong that she wasn’t there. Zelda had felt Calain’s heart quickening to alarming heights a few times, and she knew the queen of Eriallon had spoken true in her letter. Even if she didn’t actually have Calain hostage, Calain was most certainly in danger, and Zelda needed to follow the beat of her heart to find her. As soon as Cassandra returned, Zelda would set out.
Selene twitched aside the fabric of Zelda’s unlaced gown-front, exposing one of her breasts. Though Aereth had fed recently, Zelda’s breasts were still heavy with milk. They were swollen and plump and the pink nipples rigid. Selene looked at the exposed one with hooded eyes and gently cupped it, massaging it carefully. Zelda lifted her chin at this touching and closed her eyes.
“Do they ache, my lady?” Selene asked anxiously.
“Only a little. I know a spell to make them better—” Zelda halted and blushed. Melvalda had taught her how to ease away the ache in her breasts with a healing spell, and she was embarrassed, knowing Selene had probably realized the lesson had been hands-on. Melvalda had carefully caressed Zelda’s swollen breasts until they were both aroused, all the while working out the soreness. She hated that Selene had realized what she’d almost admitted, but Selene didn’t say a word about it, instead sighing and muttering, “By the gods, do I miss sucking your tits.”
Zelda laughed, her breasts wobbling. Selene cupped the exposed one gently as it jiggled against her fingers. Her dark eyes were full of hunger and longing as she looked at it.
“Here . . .” Zelda whispered. “Help make them lighter . . .” So saying, she rose up on her knees, offering her heavy breast to Selene. Selene, with Aereth sleeping obliviously on her chest, turned her head with eyes that burned hunger and slowly sucked Zelda’s small nipple into her lips. She suckled deeply, cupping Zelda’s heavy breast so that it spilled over her gentle fingers.
Zelda sighed in relief and blushed a little as the milk lifted away, dripping down Selene’s lips as she suckled. Selene pressed her face deeper, until Zelda’s pale breast had risen in a mound against her face. She reached up as she was suckling and pushed Zelda’s hair back over her shoulder, tugged at her laces, until her gown had suddenly fallen away, then her slip, and she slid her hand in Zelda’s panties and gently fondled her clitoris.
Zelda bit her lip as her clitoris throbbed to life, pulsing with hunger under the gentle stroke of Selene’s careful fingers. Selene’s touch was tender as always as she slowly worked Zelda to gasping and sighing. Zelda could barely hold herself up on her knees, for her thighs were trembling. She reached out blindly and cupped Selene’s face as she suckled, stroked her dark hair, and whispered her name. Then Selene’s fingers slid deep inside her sex, plunging slowly and deliberately through her sudden moisture, and Zelda’s head fell back and she called out Selene’s name. Selene moaned as she suckled deeper, and Zelda’s hungry sex clenched tight over her fingers.
Later, as the sun was setting in the window, Zelda lay snuggled in Selene’s bulging arm, sleepy-eyed and content after a round of five orgasms. Selene seemed drowsy and content as well. Little Aereth was still sleeping on her chest, unaware that anything had taken place, and Selene was stroking her hair.
“I should not have touched you so soon after giving birth,” apologized Selene.
“This was a mystical pregnancy,” Zelda reminded her. “I am healed already.”
“That is good to know.”
Zelda looked up at Selene, then suddenly kissed her on the cheek. Selene blushed a little.
“I don’t know what I would do without you,” Zelda confessed, resting her head again on Selene’s shoulder.
Selene looked down at her in surprise. “You mean that, my lady?”
“Yes,” said Zelda. “You’re always there when I need you, even when I don’t deserve it."
There was a pause, and then Selene said soothingly, “I know you feel guilty for Calain’s behavior, but you should not. You did the best you could with the knowledge you had at the time. Any of us might have done the same in your place. Calain will understand. Eventually. She was always a bit slow.”
Zelda laughed softly. “I hope you’re right.”
Selene hesitated, then said, “My lady, I have something for you. A gift.”
Zelda glanced up in surprise. “Oh?”
“Yes. I was going to give it to you back in Priine, but th-then . . . e-everything with Cassandra a-and . . .”
Zelda tried not to laugh: Selene was flustered and nervous and her cheeks were flaming! How cute! What could this present be? Zelda sat up and smiled, looking at Selene eagerly, ignoring the fact that one of her heavy breasts was still hanging from her gown-front and beading creamy white milk.
Selene carefully sat up as well, allowing baby Aereth to slide gently onto a pillow, where she lay on her belly, still sucking her stubby finger. Selene then tucked Zelda’s large breast back into the fold of her gown and laced it up for her. Zelda watched curiously.
“This present requires that I am properly robed, I see,” Zelda teased.
“It does, my lady,” said Selene, smiling. When she had finished lacing Zelda up, she took a small box from her trouser pocket and opened the lid, presenting the contents to Zelda.
Zelda gasped, her blue eyes fluttering wide. A necklace with a gold chain was inside, and fastened to the chain was a beautiful blue jewel that almost perfectly matched Zelda’s eyes. “Oh, Selene!” Zelda cried, tears rising in her eyes.
“I s-saw it in the window and thought of you,” Selene stammered nervously and blushed more brightly than ever. “Do you like it?”
“I love it!” Zelda cried, carefully sliding the necklace from the box. She held it aloft, staring at it with large eyes. “No one has ever given me a present like this! This is something a highborn lady would wear!”
“I thought you could enchant it,” said Selene, “to protect you from the Bane Stones. Then my lady would be safe.”
“Yes,” said Zelda thoughtfully. “Melvalda taught me a charm that I could use to make their effect on me lessen.”
“I imagine she taught you a great many things,” said Selene.
When Zelda looked up, Selene was smiling at her. The words had been playful and teasing, but Zelda blushed prettily. “Yes,” she admitted. “I can’t pretend she did not. She is an older woman. She knows much in the way of pleasing a lady.”
“Perhaps I should have asked her for instruction,” joked Selene. “Here . . .” She took the necklace and gently fastened it about Zelda’s throat, so that the great blue jewel rested just above her cleavage.
Zelda looked down and pinched the jewel in her slender fingers. It gleamed innocently in the dusk-light that reached, pink and purple, through the window. Zelda closed her eyes and cast the spell, and when she opened them again, she could feel the jewel humming now with her charm. She looked up at Selene fondly and leaned forward, kissing her on the lips.
Selene blushed a little brighter. “It suits you,” she said. “I knew it would bring out your eyes. And now it has a charm to protect you when I cannot.”
Zelda touched Selene’s cheek. “I promise, I shall return and I shall return with Calain. You needn’t fear.”
Selene smiled sadly. “I am always afeared for the ones I love, even when I needn’t be. Tis my nature.”
Zelda laughed. “I suppose it is.”
Without warning, Selene took Zelda in her strong arms and kissed her passionately. Zelda moaned and slid her arms around Selene’s neck as their heads turned and they frowned through the kiss.
***
CASSANDRA RETURNED that evening with a mother goat and her kid, both on tethers tied to her horse. She led them into the training yard, and since there was no barn, she allowed them to roam the stables and eat the hay there. And now that there were goats roaming the fortress, and now that Cassandra had safely returned, the knights decided to close the gates of Wolf Fortress against the press of Dark Bloom Forest. For Zelda had not been able to verify the strength of the stronghold’s enchantments. She confessed that elven magick baffled her.
With Cassandra’s return, Zelda had one last meal with the knights. Then she packed her satchel and went upstairs to say farewell to her baby.
Little Aereth cooed happily when she was awoken by her mother. Her green eyes, so like Yrsa’s, opened and brightened with joy, and she giggled shrilly when Zelda tickled her ear. Smiling, Zelda lifted the baby into her arms and cradled her, swaying back and forth and humming. The baby looked up at her in happy content.
“I promise,” Zelda said soothingly, “I’ll come back to you. And my knights shall watch over you. And I shall bring Calain. You’ll like her. She has green eyes like you. And she’s brave and strong and sweet and gentle. And one day when you’re older, I shall take you to see your other mother, Yrsa, the bear queen! And she will love you.”
Not understanding a word that was being said, Aereth blinked, then suddenly smiled, showing her toothless mouth, as she reached up with pudgy hands and snatched clumsily at Zelda’s long, golden hair.
Zelda smiled and hugged the baby close. She heard footsteps, and when she looked up, Gweneth and Cassandra had come. Gweneth was walking slowly with her hands in her pockets, while Cassandra was walking serenely with her hands behind her back. Both women watched Zelda and her baby with soft affection in their eyes. They drew near, and Gweneth stroked Aereth’s hair as she watched the child fondly. Cassandra put a massaging hand on Zelda’s shoulder.
“We shall guard her with our lives,” said Gweneth, still looking down at the baby, who cooed at her touch. Her dark blue eyes flicked up to Zelda. “Just focus on bringing Calain back, hmm?” She leaned over and kissed Zelda slowly on the lips. Zelda felt something in her hiccup, as it always did whenever Gweneth kissed her so sweetly.
Then Cassandra turned Zelda’s face to hers with a gentle hand. The gray eyes were alight with such serious fire that Zelda felt her heart thump. And then Cassandra was kissing her fervently and so hungrily, she moaned before she could stop herself.
When Cassandra had pulled away, she and Gweneth drew near and huddled close, their arms around Zelda, their foreheads touching hers. Zelda shivered between them as the baby continued to reach up, snatching at her hair. She knew they were praying for her safe return – not to any particular gods. They were simply frightened.
“I shall return,” Zelda promised.
Gweneth’s hands were shaking. To hide the fact, she kissed Zelda on the head, then gathered Aereth from Zelda’s arms and into her own, turning away. “Selene is downstairs milking the goat,” she said with a laugh. “I’m going to find a cloth or a horn or something, so we can feed this little goblin.”
Zelda knew Gweneth was trying very hard to stay nonchalant and not become emotional. Meanwhile, Cassandra was simply standing, her hands in her pockets, staring at Zelda with a sort of ache that startled her.
“Fare thee well,” Cassandra said quietly, her voice very soft and very sad.
Zelda managed a trembling smile. Then she turned and left the fortress.