Free The Swords of Gregara - Jenala, a sci-fi romance by Cynthia Woolf Page A

alone often for months at a time.”
    “I know.   But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”   He bent his head and kissed her.  
    “Oh, pweeze.   Can we go, ‘fore I bweed to deaf.”   Zlaten said, his head tilted back to stop his nose bleed.
    “If you don’t shut up, I’ll hit you again.”
    Zlaten backed away.   “All wight.   All wight.   Don’t hit me again.”
    “Now that he knows he’s not going to die, he’s going to be a pain in the ass all the way back to Rucem.   I’ll send Lottie home when I get there.   She should be back here by tomorrow morning.   In the mean time, stay inside, keep the alarms on and the entrances all locked.   Okay?”   He leaned down and kissed her again heedless of Zlaten and his protests.   “Promise me.”
    “I promise.   Until Lottie gets home, then she will protect me as she always has.”
    She saw a shadow cross his face.   Uncertainty.   She strove to remove it.   “I’ll   be fine.   I promise to be especially cautious.”   She wanted to ask him if he would return, but was afraid she wouldn’t like the answer.   Afraid he would choose the Valmud over her.   She couldn’t face that, not now, not with her secret.

    *****

    It had been six months.   She’d heard a few times from Santro.   Letters he’d sent to Brenton and he’d forwarded to Jenala.   He’d gotten Zlaten to Brenton, who’d sent him to the new town doctor.   A young woman named Riza Lamrona.   Zlaten was tried and found guilty for the murder of Jenala’s father Oliria and then was extradited to the Otula.   Once there, Zlaten was again tried for murder and found guilty.   The council sentenced him to life on the prison planet Solara.  
    She knew after the trial Santro would be champion of the Otula again.   It would be his place to challenge for the Valmud.    He would win, she had no doubt.  
    Jenala rubbed her still expanding tummy.   The baby, her baby, kicked as though to tell her to ‘leave me alone’.   Jenala laughed and rubbed her belly again.
    “What makes you laugh, wife?”   Santro stood in the doorway, his large body casting a shadow over her.
    Jenala turned and faced him.   The result of their lovemaking evident for him to see.
    “A baby?   You’re having a baby?   Why didn’t you tell me?   Why…?”
    Jenala turned away, tears too close to the surface for her to look upon his beloved face.   “I didn’t want this to sway you.   I wanted you to come back of your own free will.   Because you wanted to, because you…”
    He was by her side in two long strides.   “Jenala.   Look at me, love.”   He raised her face to him.   “I came as soon as I was able.   It took much longer than I expected to find someone to replace me as Valmud.   My father no longer wants the position.   He was ready to retire and have me succeed him.   I explained that I could not do that.   But I couldn’t leave until I’d made arrangements for my tribe to go on without me.”
    “I never wanted to be a burden to you.   Neither of us.”   She patted her belly.
    Santro held her face gently in his palms and wiped away her tears with his thumbs.   “You are my wife, Jenala Delasa Baltin and I love you more than life itself.”
    “You do?”
    “I’ve been yours since I saw your glorious red hair flying about as you fought with Zlaten.   Then when you looked up at me, with so much trust in those beautiful blue eyes of yours, I fell completely, hopelessly in love with you.”
    “And I you.   Since the moment I first saw you.   I knew you would not harm me, that you would protect me.   It was as though I’d met my other half, my soul, my heart.”  
    “And what of our little one?”   He touched her stomach with such gentleness, Jenala almost cried.   “When is he or she due?”
    “In less than a month.   I have already thought of a name for a boy.   Kreston Oliria Baltin, to honor both of our fallen family.   Do you like