Dreams Made Flesh

us," Mephis whispered back.
    "Oooh." Peyton looked up at Saetan, his gold eyes sparkling with anticipation.
    "If we're ready, gentlemen," Saetan said, handing the ship back to Mephis.
    "And I suppose you're going to end up muddy to the knees and smelling like pond water," a female voice said.
    Saetan turned to face the woman now standing in the doorway. He had no complaints about Lady Broghann, the Purple Dusk-Jeweled witch who was the boys' governess and teacher, but he was feeling a little too raw to accept a challenge from anyone, especially a woman.
    Then he saw the humor in her eyes that balanced the stern tone of voice.
    "I expect some mud will be inevitable," Saetan said solemnly.
    "Yay!" Peyton said, only to be elbowed again by Mephis.
    Puppy is going to be black-and-blue before he figures out when to keep quiet, Saetan thought.
    "Now," Lady Broghann said. "Don't go drinking so much grog that you run aground."
    "What's grog?" Peyton asked, starting to bounce with impatience.
    "You would know if you had paid attention to the lesson about sailing," she replied.
    While Peyton's face scrunched up in thought, Saetan turned away and coughed to clear the laughter from his throat.
    Finally able to look suitably grim, he turned back to his captains. "Shall we go?" Then he noticed the boys' appearance.The trousers were worn to the point of looking shabby, and there was a long tear on the left sleeve of Peyton's shirt…neatly mended but still apparent. "Why are you wearing those clothes?"
    "This is the attire of adventurous sailors," Lady Broghann said.
    Curious, Saetan studied her. "According to… ?"
    "My mother. I have three younger brothers."
    And her younger brothers had a clever older sister.
    "An unquestionable authority," Saetan said with a small bow.
    "What's grog taste like?" Peyton asked, having circled back to something more interesting than clothes.
    "It tastes like milk," Saetan replied.
    "Sailors drink milk?"
    "Short ones do."
    While Peyton was working out why Mephis was snickering, Commander Saetan led captains Mephis and Peyton to the Phantom Sea, where they tested their ships against Murky Mists, Wailing Whirlpools… and sea dragons.
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    2
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    Hekatah stood at the window of her mother's private receiving room, rubbing her belly to soothe the whelp inside her while she stared at the back garden.
    How much did Saetan know? Was the comment about not having to maintain a household simply a comment, or did he know about the little house she kept in Draega for the pretty toy-boys? It wasn't that she didn't enjoy sex with Saetan. He was an exquisite lover. How could a man who had been Witch's Consort for years not be exquisite in bed? But he wasn't as much fun. She couldn't play with him the way she could the toy-boys. So why shouldn't she enjoy a romp with a male she could dominate? Besides, it wasn't like she was doing anything wrong. Fidelity and sexual exclusivity were required of the male in a marriage, not the female. Males served, after all.
    But Warlord Princes were a law unto themselves, and a Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince might not think the status of a wedding ring was sufficient reason to overlook his wife's lovers.
    Her mother, Martella, entered the room, unhappiness and embarrassment rolling off her in waves.
    "We had to go to a different butcher, so the Darkness only knows what the cook will set before us for the evening meal. And the bastard demanded payment before he'd hand over the meat!" Martella s mouth thinned to a petulant line. "I had to return the pearl brooch I'd bought last week in order to pay for the meat." She sighed as she joined Hekatah at the window. "Your… husband … is being difficult about assisting the family, isn't he?"
    "He says he won't make another loan because the extra million gold marks he gave Father wasn't used for the estates as they'd agreed."
    "How could it be?" Martella cried. "Your brothers wanted that new carriage and team of horses, and then there was that payment that the Queen demanded we make because that witch was broken when Caetor got a little too enthusiastic about enjoying himself."
    "Didn't she tell him she was virgin?" Hekatah asked.
    "Well, of course she did. But she wasn't anyone important. Nothing would have come of it if her family hadn't gone to the Queen and made a formal accusation. And they said it was rape, insisting the girl hadn't agreed to have sex. The Queen gave your father and Caetor a choice: They could pay all the