Foretold (Daughters of Saraqael Book Three) (27 page)

“This is absolutely beautiful, Caleb,” Skye said from beneath the observer’s position as she looked around with wide eyes. Her every movement conveyed grace and unwitting sensuality. Then she turned and smiled. “Thank you so much for bringing me here.”

Caleb walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her. “I used to visit this place often when I was younger,” he said, his voice barely audible over the waterfall’s rush of noise. “I found it a peaceful haven. And I always envisioned sharing it with someone, though I didn’t know who or why.”

She held his gaze and stroked his cheek with an expression that their observer didn’t understand. Then they kissed.

Their obvious delight and pleasure in each other caused stark rage to course through the observer, whose hands clenched into fists. Things should have been much different than this. Relegated to some kind of voyeur? Watching as Simon, James and Caleb rose to unimaginable positions of power before they had even reached a century of being while other, more qualified Gloresti were overlooked?

It was revolting.

“Shall we?” Caleb said then. He braced his hands apart.

Skye smiled up at him and positioned herself in line with his arms. “Any requests?”

After a brief pause, he said, “Bruno Mars, ‘Just the Way You Are.’”

Frowning, the observer tried to decipher the odd request. Only when Skye nodded and they started moving in a form of dance was it clear. She was evidently producing some kind of music using their silent connection. They moved with remarkable synchronicity, comfortable and confident in each other’s movements. Perfect partners.

As jealousy surged out of control, the observer decided then that it would be incredibly gratifying to destroy that partnership.

And it couldn’t be done soon enough.

The ritual at the Gloresti homeland took place in the central gathering area the following morning. They opted to open it up to public viewing since so many of the Gloresti had asked about it. It went successfully and without incident. And Caleb knew that the sisters had once again awed an entire class of Estilorians.

The sisters weren’t very tired after the ritual this time, but they all asked to eat. Caleb stilled and caught Skye’s gaze when she declared her hunger, since they had just eaten the day before. She simply shrugged and blushed.

It was a rather clear sign that she actually was pregnant. It made him a bit light-headed as he realized it.

Gabriel slapped him on the back and grinned when he sensed his reaction. “Welcome to the club,” he said.

“Dad,” James added with a grin of his own.

And that made him have to sit down.

They enjoyed a breakfast of fresh fruit, waffles and orange juice in a sunlit room located in the building just off the central gathering area. A steady flow of Gloresti stopped by to introduce themselves to the sisters. An unexpected number of the visitors also chatted with James and Caleb, many of them congratulating the brothers on their pairings and marriages.

Toward the end of the meal, Alastair and Tristan walked in. Caleb raised an eyebrow and caught James’ gaze.

“Good morning,
archigos
,” Tristan said to Gabriel with a respectful bow. Then he turned to the rest of them. “And good morning to you,
kyria
,
adelfi
and
adelfos
. I am Tristan, for those of you who do not know me.”

Alastair repeated the greetings as he introduced himself, even pairing the words with a smile. Caleb thought he looked uncomfortable for all of his politeness, though. “We greatly enjoyed the demonstrations you provided,” he said. He looked at his friend. “I particularly enjoyed watching Olivia thoroughly thrash Tristan at archery.”

Tristan gave Alastair a companionable shove. “At least I tried,” he argued. “You are more skilled than I am at nearly everything and were too afraid to go out there.”

Alastair shrugged and smiled again. “It was quite obvious they all have far more ability than any of us. Much more enjoyable to watch everyone else get their pride slapped.”

“In any case,” Tristan said with a rueful shake of his head, “we both wanted to say that we are very happy for you,
adelfos
James and
adelfos
Caleb, even if we did wish we could have been the ones to pair with Saraqael’s daughters.”

His smile made the words light and friendly in tone. James and Caleb nodded in acknowledgement.

“We have heard that there is to be a battle,” Alastair said then. “It is said that there have been multiple attempts on the lives of Saraqael’s daughters and that a challenge has been issued, and you are all therefore planning to find the Mercesti and face them. Is this true?”

“It is,” Gabriel said. He exchanged a brief look with James and Caleb. This was exactly like every other conversation they had engaged in that morning.

“Then we would like to join the Gloresti who will be participating in this battle,” Alastair said, his chin raised resolutely.

“Thank you. We welcome your abilities in our cause, Alastair and Tristan,” Gabriel responded, as he had done for every other Gloresti to make the request that morning. “I’m confident you’ll make me proud as your leader. Commanders Hitoshi and Balduin and lieutenant Edra will be putting together the Gloresti force who will participate in the battle. You’ll all be departing for the main Estilorian base later today.”

“Thank you,
archigos
,” Alastair said with another bow.

Tristan bowed, as well. He looked at the sisters. “We understand that this battle is about more than just your well-being. But we do believe you are all worth defending. I think we speak for everyone when we say that we regret if we ever made you believe otherwise.”

“Thank you, Tristan and Alastair,” Skye said with a smile. “We all appreciate that.”

As the two young Gloresti left, all of the siblings exchanged somber glances and thoughts. They all realized that regardless of what their plans initially were going to be in regards to this battle, there were going to be a great many lives on the line. This was something that made none of them at all comfortable.

They knew they would have to find a way to keep as many Estilorians from harm as possible.

There were very few Waresti at the homeland when they arrived just before noon. As was usual, most of them were away from the Estilorian base and either protecting paired Corgloresti and Gloresti or hunting for Mercesti on the mainland.

Uriel, Harold, Alexius and the Waresti lieutenant, Balera, all greeted them and spent some time showing them around the homeland. To Skye, it was almost like the inside of a volcano, but instead of hot lava, the center was a large blue lake. The water went from dark blue to light blue depending upon its depth, but the water was so clear that the bottom was visible. With brilliant sunlight funneling down from the high opening of the “volcano,” the water sparkled invitingly.

“Oh, wow,” Olivia said with obvious awe. “I would love to swim in that!”

“You may certainly do so,
adelfi
Olivia,” Alexius said. “The water is quite warm and inviting.”

Skye grinned as Olivia and Alexius continued walking as they conversed. James walked on Olivia’s other side, talking to Gabriel.

She looked at Caleb.
Isn’t that sweet? Alexius has a crush on Olivia.

Crush?

Yes. A harmless romantic interest
, she explained.
I always knew Harold had one on Amber, but this one escaped my notice until now.

He frowned thoughtfully.
Harmless, hmm?
He paused.
How can you tell they have these “crushes?”

She shrugged and continued looking around curiously. She loved the way an abundance of creeping green vines fell from the high ledges to decorate the inner rock face with foliage. It was a softening touch against the rough texture of the rock.

Intuition, I guess
, she communicated at last.
It’s kind of hard to explain. You can tell by their behavior…the way they look at Amber and Olivia when they think they’re not being watched, and the way they react to the things my sisters say. They all but fall over themselves to please them. It stands out even more to me because of the unemotional nature of their class.

He didn’t question her further, but she noticed him studying both Waresti commanders with an assessing eye as the tour continued. She felt his thoughts turn to Xavier the Wymzesti, considering the young male’s actions toward her within this new perspective. She held back a smile.

“These are our training facilities,” Harold said as they walked into a large cavern. “
Archigos
Gabriel mentioned an interest in using them today.” His gaze moved from Gabriel to Amber. “You are all, of course, welcome to do so.”

The sisters turned to look at Gabriel. He flashed a charming grin. “Hey, it’s been a while since you’ve done your routines. Y’all need to stay strong, especially with everything that lies ahead.”

Knowing he was right didn’t make them any more enthused. Still, they all went obligingly into the room that Harold indicated and connected with their Lekwuesti to get some workout clothes. Skye tugged on her turquoise training tank and matching leggings, forgoing the overskirt. Then she pulled on matching turquoise slippers, carrying some socks and combat boots back out into the workout area in case she needed them.

“We’ll start with stretching over here,” Gabriel said, leading them out to one part of the space.

Woven mats covered the area. Skye sat down on one as her sisters sat nearby and they all began warming up. Her gaze moved around the room as she stretched. Uriel hadn’t ordered it emptied, so a number of Waresti were in various stages of exercise. That didn’t bother her, though. This was their home, after all. And she had gotten quite used to having an audience during these sessions.

She was highly impressed by the equipment she saw. The Waresti obviously stayed as up-to-date as possible when it came to fitness and training. The entire room was encircled by a paved track meant for jogging, a rather modern form of exercise. There were sand, gravel and water pits and grassy areas surrounded by racks of weapons, both wooden and real. She spotted weights in varying shapes and sizes and other specially-designed equipment that looked like it was intended for resistance training. Several sets of stairs had been carved into the rock face and a few Waresti were running up and down them. What appeared to be the equivalent to a rock-climbing setup comprised another portion of the area. There was even an archery range.

But what captured the majority of her attention was the intricate and expansive system of bars and platforms starting at ground level and rising up several stories in height. There were ropes and nets in addition to ladders and horizontal and vertical bars comprising the complex structure. She saw a couple of Waresti doing pull-ups using some of the lower horizontal bars. Others were climbing and using the ropes to swing from one platform to the next.

She couldn’t wait to try it.

“Time for weights,” Gabriel declared a few minutes later.

She had to admit that her body needed this. Just the effect of the stretching made a difference in how she felt. They had been so focused on their mental and spiritual activities recently that she hadn’t had time to think about her body’s need for exercise.

She saw Uriel, Knorbis and Ini-herit standing by the weapons racks, evidently discussing what they would use later. The Waresti lieutenant, Balera, was on another side of the complex chatting with Zayna, Malukali, Sebastian and Jabari. Harold and Alexius had both gotten very familiar with the sisters’ routines over the past couple months, having worked with them nearly every day at Central, so they had pulled out weights while the girls were stretching, setting them up for their use.

Gabriel walked over to evaluate them before the sisters got started. “Less weight for Olivia and Skye now,” he said, catching Harold’s gaze.

“Less?”

“Yep.” Gabriel walked over to replace a couple of the weights and pull out some others. “We’ll focus on sculpting with muscle control and attention to form rather than through the amount of weight.”

Harold and Alexius looked from Olivia to Skye. The sisters smiled at them. Much to everyone’s surprise, both commanders smiled back.

“Congratulations,” Harold said. Then he surprised them all further by extending his fist toward James, waiting for him to tap it, and then toward Caleb, an action he had learned by watching the brothers interact over time. Alexius followed suit.

It made Skye burst into a fit of giggles.

They spent twenty minutes on sets with the weights before moving over to weapons training. They started with swords, then moved on to staff weapons before transitioning to the archery range and spending some time with the targets.

Finally, Uriel introduced them to the challenge course.

“The goal is to get from the bottom to the top as quickly as possible without using your wings,” he explained. “You may use any of the equipment available on the course.”

“What’s the top time so far?” Amber asked as she looked up with interest.

“Just under five minutes,” Uriel said. “But I would not recommend your participation, little mother.”

She frowned. “Why not? We’re all pregnant.”

“Yes, but you are further along in your condition,” he explained. “This level of physical activity would not be wise.”

Gabriel put his arm around her shoulders when a decidedly disappointed expression fell across her features. He kissed the top of her head.

“I’m going to be heading into battle,” she grumbled with her arms crossed over her chest. She didn’t seem to realize that her posture accentuated her slight pregnancy belly. “You’d think I could handle this.”

“Next time, Am,” he said understandingly.

“You wanna try it first?” Skye asked Olivia. “You love to climb.”

“Trees,” Olivia argued. “Climbing trees and climbing this beast are quite different things.” She gave her sister a sideways look. “You go ahead.”

“Yay!” Skye clapped her hands and hurried over to the bottom platform.

She spent a moment looking side to side and up, tilting her head a few times to study the layout. Then she used some of the powdery substance in a container by the platform to dust her hands before moving into position and nodding to indicate she was ready.

“Go,” Uriel said.

She got a running jump and grabbed the closest high bar, using her momentum to swing herself around until she stood on top of it. Then she launched herself from the bar and caught a rope several feet away, swinging to the next highest platform. Above her was a long row of what looked like monkey bars. Knowing her upper body strength was far from stellar, she grabbed the first one and brought her leg up, hooking her ankle around the side of the bars and pulling herself up so that she was on top of the bars. Running across them was no more difficult than running along a long balance beam, something she had done a few times in her life. She was across it in a blink and jumping to the next rope and platform.

She felt her smile widen as she made her way from one obstacle to another. Sure, she was being rather creative with a few parts of the course that seemed designed for larger or stronger beings, but she wasn’t using her wings, she was using her legs and her ability to balance.

Before she knew it, she was standing on the top platform.

She looked down at everyone watching her and lifted her arms above her head. “Ta da!” she called out with a beaming grin. “How’d I do?”

“Three minutes, forty-nine seconds,” Uriel called back.

“Woohoo!” She leaped from the platform and flew back down to the ground. Her sisters exchanged high fives with her. So did James, Gabriel, Alexius and Harold.

Then she turned and threw her arms around Caleb.
I think my heart stopped a couple of times watching that
, he thought.
But, my God, you amaze me.