Page 57 of Taken to Lemora
“Ohring Eshmiri!” Raingar shouts. He throws open the doors to his chamber and I’m struck by an abundance of light. It had been gloomy and dark when I invaded his chambers before, so I didn’t get a good look at them. But seeing them now, my soul flits up out of my chest. They’re incredible and speak so much to the male who put them together like this.Beautiful.
I glance past Gorman, distracted from the topic at hand by the huge,stunningpainted glass that covers almost the entire span of wall. Brilliant kaleidoscoping colors paint beautiful portraits in pale pinks, greens and oranges all across the deep green carpet-covered floor. A small collection of sturdy hide and wego fiber seats face one another beneath the window. Bookshelves cover a visible wall.
“What are you looking at?” Raingar grunts.
I smile. “Your chambers. I didn’t get a good look before. They’re beautiful. They’re almost like what I imagine my own quarters would look like if I could have done them up myself.”
“Ourchambers.”
“What?”
“They’re yours. I told you, you hold the keys. They’re yours. Well, and mine too, if I’m allowed.” He glances left and right, weight shuffling mechanically between his feet.
“You…were serious?”
“Am I ever not serious!” He shouts.
I grin, feeling airy and complete. Not fully, but nearly. “I’m not really sure how to answer that.”
Gorman chuckles and turns back to Raingar to discuss business. “So, where do you want to meet?”
I don’t know why, but as my gaze flickers over Raingar, still huffing about the Eshmiri, I blush all the way from the top of my head to my stomach. He looks at me. I quickly look away, but my thighs still pulse a little as I wonder… We said we would try for each other. I want to try again for pleasure. I want to know if I have the tools in my arsenal to truly experience it without any pain. I want to control the experience. I want to make it nice for him by making it nice for me. I should be able to. When it comes to pleasure, Igmora taught me everything.
But will he give me another chance?
Nob, not me — will he give himself?
I am miriga. I do what I like. And I. want. him.
“Raingar?”
“I, uhm, I…we…pagh! We’ll be ready to begin on the local items the coming solar. I’ll deal with the ohring Eshmiri later this one.”
“We, Raingar?” Gorman says.
“Yeffa. We. My miriga and I.”
I blush even harder. My heart picks up its pace. My fingers squeeze in the soft fabric of my shift. “You…you want to include me in the affairs of a clan chief?”
“Only if you aren’t too busy with Lyla and Timor.” Raingar looks at me over his shoulder as he stomps into his sitting room. He scratches the top of his head and has the audacity to look humble. The nerve of the brute.
My thumb scrapes over my scar and I exhale slowly. “I…wasn’t trained to be able to manage any of the things Gorman spoke of. I don’t think I’m qualified…”
“Of course you are. You’re our miriga. You’re smart and you’re kind and you know the village. You’re better placed to do half those tasks more than I. You’ve worked with Timor, Lyla, Leelee and Moreth,” he says, referencing the tailors, the female responsible for herb cultivation and distribution, and the lead healer of his village, “so you’ll help them with the bulberry and the Walrey honey disbursements. It would be a great honor for the couple if you’d oversee the mating ceremony — you don’t have to, of course, but asteroids only know that my clan likes you better than they like me, anyway.
“I’ll deal with the kintarr.” He grimaces a little as he says that and his gaze meets mine hesitantly. “Not that you couldn’t do it. I just have contacts that will help me deal with the ohring Eshmiri. And once I figure out what in the blooding stars that Asgid festival is, you can help me with that, too. What was it again, Gorman? An Ash…ash…ash what?”
“An Ashashana,” I answer. “It’s a festival of lights in worship of Ra, the flame spirit the Asgid believe power light to all of our stars.”
Both Gorman, from the doorway, and Raingar, from his seat in a deep, cushioned chair in his sitting room, stare at me. A beat passes before Raingar says, “I guess, you’ll also be organizing the festival then.”
“A little much to be handing Essmira all at once, don’t you think?”
“She can handle it.” His fingers pick at a nonexistent spot on the leather arm of his seat. “I trust her.”
Golden light in my chest swells and glitters over everything.
“I’m happy with this arrangement if she is,” Gorman says. “It will be a relief to have some more support in supporting Raingar. He takes on too much alone.”
