“There is only one person in Korwahk who calls me Karrim,” he stated bizarrely, changing the subject and I spoke not a word but didn’t take my eyes from him. “My king,” he finished quietly and I braced again.

Ghost shifted so her sleek bulk rested against my lounge chair, a show of support.

My hand went from my belly back to her fur and I stroked.

What I didn’t do was speak.

“After…” he paused a moment before going on, “what happened to me, it was not my manhood I missed.” He waited and when I made no reply (though I had to say I was pretty surprised at this news), he went on, “It was my Horde. Since I could remember, my father spoke to me about my future as warrior and since I could move my limbs at my command, he started training me to be warrior. He was warrior. It was in his blood, passed down to me.

There was no day more beautiful to me than when the Dax pressed his palm to the earth and at five years of age I took my knee for the first time in service to The Horde.”

Wow. Interesting.

He kept speaking. “Therefore, there was no day worse for me than when I was cast out of it.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered because, really, I needed to be cautious with this guy but I felt I had to say something mainly because his voice shook with emotion I could not believe was fake.

He inclined his head again. “So, I would hope you could imagine my joy when the new Dax sought me out and requested my service to return to my brethren. I was not able to fight, my strength was not the same. But I could be of service using other skills. This new Dax was the mightiest I ever saw but mightier because he used more than his muscle to command. He knew the strength of any warrior was not in their steel but elsewhere. And he allowed me to use that, a power I could wield which was still at my command and strong as ever, to provide service to my nation. He asked for me not only to provide service for the Hunt, the selections and the Daxshee but to be his eyes and ears and to act for him in matters of crucial import.

And this I was, I am, I did and I do, serving my Horde proudly but more, serving the mighty Dax who begins The Golden Dynasty.”

I nodded when he stopped talking and he continued.

“It is my duty to know all and see all. It is my duty to protect Suh Tunak, my Dax and doing thus, my Korwahk. And therefore, after

she was claimed, it was my duty to watch and then seek out my queen, a foreigner, and put her to the test.” He paused then smiled a small smile. “She asked me my name, a name only her husband calls me and even though our ways were strange to her, she held firm and true to her husband.” His eyes held mine and he whispered,

“She passed the test.”

I blinked at him.

Oh my God!

Karrim didn’t give me time to freak out, he kept speaking. “And therefore, I now have grave concerns of news that she, our warrior queen, the golden one, has had her spirit broken. She hides her glory from her husband. She sheathes her claws that he enjoys challenging with his steel.”

Oh man.

I kept quiet and kept my eyes glued to him even as Diandra shifted.

I knew what that shift meant. It meant my girls were talking, Diandra was listening and now she was meddling.

Shit.

“His roar of grief was heard far in Korwahn that day you disappeared,” Karrim said softly and I felt my body go completely still. “With the violence of the storm, its abrupt halt, all knew you commanded it and many thought he had lost his child, and, the sound was so tortured, perhaps even you. All were pleased to hear you had simply taken a turn, you were well but resting.”

I pressed my lips together to deny his words bouncing around in my brain. Good words. Great words.

Dangerous words. Dangerous to my peace of mind and my heart.

“And that day, I was summoned,” Karrim pressed on. “The Horde was off to war and I usually attended my king, made certain his messages and commands were sent and received to and from warriors who fought on different fronts. But he ordered that I would not ride with The Horde when they rode on Maroo. He told me

under strictest confidence that there was another world, you, his goddess, had come to him from it and in the night, he had lost you as you had returned to it. And then he ordered me to search this earth to find a witch who could bring you home and bind you here.

He commanded that no expense was to be spared. If I had to scour the icy depths of Lunwyn, I would do so. If I had to cross the entirety of the Green Sea to search faraway lands, I would do so. I would not stop until I found the magic to bring you back home and keep you here. ” He nodded once. “And this I did.”

I was now breathing heavily.

Lahn had done this the day I disappeared. Lahn had ordered this instantly. Lahn hadn’t decided to believe me sometime in the last five months and Lahn hadn’t gone about his business.

Lahn had immediately launched plans to bring me back.

Oh God.

“Fortunately, I was able to provide this service to my king. I rode hard, lathered many horses, exchanged many riches. And I not only found the witch who brought you back but I also found a frost-haired princess of the north who graces her Raider husband’s ship, where I discovered her, a ship she dwells on when she is not gracing one of his wintry homes in Lunwyn and she confided in me that she, too, comes from your world.”

Holy crap!

“Really?” I whispered, leaning forward.

He nodded and again smiled. “Really. She and her husband are very interested in you for she has never heard of another like her.

They requested no payment for the long conversations she had with me, telling me of your world, asking about you. They only requested that I send a messenger to find them when you returned. They travel widely and I have no idea when my message will be received but when it is, she intends to visit you, my golden queen.”

Wow. Wow. Wow.

“Wow, ” I breathed, his smile widened and I heard Diandra stifle a laugh so I looked to her. Forgetting I had been a total bitch, I smiled at her and asked, “Diandra, sweetheart, isn’t that cool? ”

Her mouth went soft, her eyes grew bright and she whispered,

“Indeed it is, my love, very… cool. ”

I held her gaze and felt my eyes grow bright too.

Then I felt another tight pain in my belly, my brows drew together and I looked down at it but Karrim again spoke.

“I tell you all this, my true, golden queen, because I cannot know what happened with you and our Dax to understand why this rift continues. But I wish you to know –”

He stopped talking when I groaned as the pain came back, tighter, deeper and I bent forward reflexively, taking my hand from Ghost and wrapping it around my swollen stomach.

“Circe?” Diandra called and I stopped clenching my teeth as the pain faded away.

I pulled in a breath and let it out through my lips that I formed in a tight “O”.

Then I looked at my friend. “I’m okay, it’s just a –”

I stopped talking and Karrim shot out of his chair, Ghost shot to her four paws and Diandra shot toward me.

This was because my water broke.