“I know I said we could raise a houseful of orphans, but don’t you think we should rebuild Firewall first so we have somewhere to put them?” Ronen eyed the three little boys his wife had collected on their journey through Staria. She’d insisted on rerouting the drunken party of knights, taking a trip to every village between Daggerpoint and Battlewar, even if that village was a half-day’s ride out of the way. A journey that should have been a matter of days, took weeks.
“What?” Jayne demanded, turning to look at him from where she stood next to the controls to the Divinity portal. She appeared to know what she was doing as she pressed the buttons and turned the many dials.
Turning her attention to the three dark-headed brothers, she asked, “You all don’t care that we don’t have a castle yet, do you? Hughe? William? Tree?”
The three boys quickly shook their heads in denial. They didn’t say much, especially the youngest, Tree, who wasn’t much older than three. After the tragedy they’d witnessed while living in the isolation of the forest borderlands, Ronen couldn’t blame them. After their parents were murdered in front of them, they’d been shipped from family to family. None of the borderland peasants had the resources to care for three young ones for very long periods of time, though they’d done their best.
“See, they’re fine. I’m fine. Are you fine?” She arched a meaningful brow, and he knew she wanted him to reassure the children they were wanted.
Ronen cleared his throat, still not completely used to the affections his wife wanted him to express toward the children. “Yea. I’m pleased to have such fine boys.”
They merely stared back at him in confusion that he’d say such an unmanly thing. Oh, the things a man would do to please a wife.
“Why don’t you take them out to the fire ceremony we saw them building outside? Or help them get settled into the spare room in the Mace Tower while I handle this.” She turned her attention back to what she’d been doing.
“I’m not leaving you alone,” Ronen stated. Jayne smiled, but didn’t argue.
The portal was kept hidden in a special room beyond the old iron-door prisons, very unlike the cell Jayne had been kept in upon her arrival. Ronen almost laughed at himself for believing Divinity’s lies about keeping the women locked up while they adjusted to the new dimension.
The room was more of a cave, hand dug especially for the portal to keep it hidden beneath the castle in an underground clearing. At the end of the clearing, a large domed vault had been constructed by Divinity to reflect the architecture of the castle. A soft blue glow shone onto the portal from the far, high corner of the cave.
“How does it work?” William, the middle child asked his oldest brother softly.
“Magic,” Hughe responded, confident in his answer.
“That’s right,” Jayne said. “Magic.”
Ronen suppressed a laugh. For someone who fought really hard not to be part of a family, she took to mothering better than any woman he’d ever seen—especially to children who were not her own blood.
“That should do it,” she announced, pressing one last button before backing away from the controls to stand beside Ronen. She wore a pair of breeches and a tunic shirt tailored for her smaller frame. Even a small knife graced her waist, at his insistence. Though she swore she didn’t need it and that her fists would do just fine.
“How do you know it will work?” he asked.
She angled her body so she stood before the boys. “I used the secure code for Divinity’s head of entertainment and offered to let him hold a warriors’ battle challenge here in Staria with the promise of so much money he’d not be able to refuse coming himself to seal the offer.”
Ronen covered his mouth and coughed loudly, warning the soldiers he’d ordered to hide in the stairwell to be on alert. Jayne might think she could take on all of Divinity with her fists, but he wasn’t taking any chances with her life. After a few minutes, the light on the portal began to shift from blue to a light gold.
Ronen saw his wife grin. “We’re just going to talk to them, right, Jayne?”
“He’s coming.” Jayne lifted her hands to her hips and stared at the center light. A dark shadow began to appear.
“Uh, Jayne, right?” Ronen persisted, wondering why he hadn’t demanded she promise to behave when he had the chance.
Oh yea, she started kissing my stomach and I forgot.
He swallowed hard, refusing to listen to his suddenly very interested cock.
Jayne’s grin widened as a smiling figure emerged. “Go hide in the stairwell, boys, and see how your new mom kicks a little otherworlder ass.”
The End