"The arrangements have all been made, Nasir," Lady Shahista assured her son during their daily discussion. "You will be married on the last day of this moon, and may crown Safiya at the same ceremony. The entire court speaks of little else but your impending marriage and her expanding waistline."

"The court, yes, but what of the people?" Nasir asked, though he wasn't really expecting an answer. "Will they accept the changes we are making, or think we are trying to become too much like Pomerania?" he said, giving voice to his worries, though nothing but outright rebellion was going to change his mind.

"The people of Iska seem truly delighted to be able to celebrate a royal wedding and a coronation, though some of the older generations grumble about the lack of a male heir before marriage." Shahista shook her head, dismissing those grumbles as what they were - just grumbles. "As far as the people are concerned, they know nothing of the plans to give Safiya true power near equal to your own, and we will have to move slowly on that account. But I agree the best way to gain acceptance of that plan is to garner affection for her, and the best way to do that is to put her at the forefront of your educational plans for the populace at large. Have her open schools, visit chapels; have her be seen to be a mother of the country as a whole, just as you are seen as the father. They will want to know she has power after a few years of knowing she cares for them."

"Yes," he admitted, pausing in his pacing back and forth across the room. "That's a good plan," he admitted, though he didn't look all that much relieved. The attempt on Idris' life had shaken him enough that he'd ordered their enemies' heads taken down and burned. He knew Idris had meant well, but better not to enflame their enemies' anger and encourage their desire for revenge. Still, something had to be done to bring their country together.

Shahista watched him pace, smiling gently at her son. "When you have sons, you will be able to take a tour of the country with your queen," she reminded him. "It may take several months, but on each stop you will be seen by the people, and you will do such things as endowing libraries, schools, and clinics in each place. Little brings a population together so well as the knowledge that their prince cares for them."

Nasir arched a brow at his mother's mistake. He had never been a prince, not really. He'd been an exile, one in line for the throne, but never a prince. And now, he was the king. "And if this child is a daughter?" he asked, hoping the goddess would see fit to give them a son, as so much depended on it.

"Then you will simply have to wait a little longer before you can make that journey together," Shahista said confidently. "I have faith in Safiya's ability to bear many children to you."

It wasn't that he wouldn't welcome a daughter. Oh, he'd welcome half a dozen daughters, if only the first was a son. But he wasn't so desperate as to take another wife or impregnate another woman. No, his heart belonged to Safi, and no other. She would give him a son, or they would find another way. Change customs, allow daughters to inherit the throne, like they did in Edessa. Something. He realized with a jolt that his hands were curled into fists at the worries that were laid upon his shoulders, and he shook them loose at his sides.

"It is difficult to be patient," he observed. "How have you managed it all these years?"

She smiled at him fondly. "I had my companions to keep me from despair," she told him. "I had Sasha, and Teres, and Safiya. I do not think they understand that they are the daughters I could not bear myself. But in caring for them, in raising them, I could assure myself that I was, in a way, caring for you in your exile."

He nodded, moving to one knee to crouch in front of her, taking both her hands in his and kissing each one. They might have been parted for years, but it was no secret that he adored her; as he'd adored his father and his brothers and been devastated to witness their deaths. No, their murders. "I am glad," he said. Glad that she'd had Safi and Teres and Sasha - the daughters of her heart, just as he'd had Ezra and Idris, the brothers of his. "I am glad because I love her, and I want you to love her, too."

"Darling, I loved her before you did," Shahista laughed, stroking her hand over his hair. "I chose her from the slave market." She sobered for a moment, frowning thoughtfully. "It would be a good idea to eradicate those flesh peddlers from Valentia," she said. "Slavery is nominally banned here, but men and women and children are still sold in the shadow markets of Valens and Tipora. I cannot simply buy every one of them."

Nasir smiled, not only because his mother loved his intended, but because she wanted the same things for Valentia that he did. "I agree," he told her. "Slavery is cruel and hateful and inhumane. We must do what we can to banish it from all of Valentia," he said, gray eyes flashing with determination before moving to his feet again and turning to pour himself a cup of strong, black coffee. "Idris has just come from Tipora, where he put down a rebellion. Those who cling to Clovis' ties to Lotharingia."

"Well, Tipora has been trouble for generations," his mother admitted reluctantly, sighing as she clasped her hands on her lap. "I know little of strategy, I cannot help with the practical application of such wishes. But I believe it will be easier to remove the slavers from Valens than it will to eradicate them in Tipora."

"Perhaps, though Valens is a port. Pirates and slavers come through Valens on a regular basis. We might have to send troops in order to stop it," he reasoned, offering her that first cup of coffee.

"Thank you, my love." Taking the little cup into her hands, Shahista sipped the coffee, smiling at the bitter taste. "If we could find the former crew of the Wayfarer's Lady, we might be able to convince certain of those pirates to turn buccaneer for us."

"The Wayfarer's Lady?" Nasir echoed. He'd heard the name of the ship from Safi, with regard to Sasha. "The ship that brought Sasha here?" he asked, as he poured a cup of coffee for himself. "How would we find the crew, when we've no idea what happened to them?" he asked, though his mind was conjuring a few thoughts of his own.

"I have people of my own searching for news of them," she assured him. "I have reason to believe that the captain and several of the crew escaped the executioner's blade and returned to the sea, but as yet, my people have not discovered the name of their ship, nor their preferred location to dock."

"Perhaps they avoid us. There are other ports, after all," he pointed out, as he returned to claim a chair and sip at his coffee. In truth, they could be anywhere. It would be a little like looking for a needle in a haystack. "Perhaps we are going about this the wrong way," he suggested. "Perhaps instead of looking for them, we should give them cause to look for us."

"Indeed?" Shahista raised her brows, waiting for him to say what she thought he might be about to suggest. Sasha was certainly capable of looking after herself, but she wasn't entirely sure the girl would agree to being bait without assurities that her former family would not be harmed.

Safi's eyes widened in shock, looking worriedly between them both. "I-I did not mean to speak where I am not welcome to offer my opinion," she said hurriedly, silenced when Shahista touched her hand.

"You have done nothing wrong, Safi."

"No, no, my love. I am only amused that we have all had the same thought," Nasir was quick to reassure her, reaching to give her free hand a squeeze, a warm smile on his face. "I believe if there is anyone who can tame Idris, it just may be Sasha," he told her, in agreement.

"Or they will kill each other," Shahista commented in amusement, letting Nasir comfort his beloved.

Safiya giggled quietly, reassured by them both as she leaned toward Nasir. "I do not think he needs to be tamed, but I think he is uncivilized," she said quietly. "And Sasha is too civilized. She has lost some of the wildness that we love in her, trying too hard to be the perfect sister. She is so very afraid of being abandoned."

"But you would never abandon her, anymore than I would abandon Idris. I do agree that he needs to be ....tempered a little, but were we to take all the wildness out of him, he would no longer be himself. Perhaps the same can be said for Sasha," Nasir remarked, mostly in agreement with them both.

"Sasha requires a husband who will not take from her the things that make her unique in Valentia," Shahista said thoughtfully. "Perhaps what Idris requires is consequences close to home for his lack of foresight. If he were to act without thinking and it affected Sasha, she would not let it rest, and that, I think, would be more effective than all the royal commands in the world."

"Yes, but I do not want to use Sasha as a ploy to tame Idris," Nasir said, though he thought he understood his mother's meaning. Nor did he want to use her as bait to draw the crew of the Wayfarer's Lady back home, though Safi had not heard of that plan, as yet.

"She likes him," Safi told him, with a wicked cast to her smile. "Very much, though she did not let him see that. She would not object if you arranged this match, I am certain. She was very clear on that, but only if he never finds out that she actually talked about the match before it was made."

"Hm, he has to get married sometime," Nasir considered. He would prefer his friends marry for love than for political reasons, but there seemed to have been a spark between Idris and Sasha, even if either had consciously noticed it themselves. "I could demand it of him, but I would prefer him to think it is his idea."

Shahista's expression warmed as she smiled, suddenly certain she knew how to make it Idris' idea. "Then, my darling, all you need do is discuss with him rewards for those of his men who performed well and suggest that perhaps she should be wed to one of them," she told her son. "If the spark truly has taken root, he will make his wishes plain."

Nasir grinned. "That is a brilliant, if evil, plan," he told his mother. Why hadn't he thought of it' Perhaps because he was not a woman, and his mind didn't work that way. He had not had to spend his entire life maneuvering amidst harem politics, after all.

Shahista inclined her head to her son, smiling cheerfully. "Is it truly evil if it results in the ending we seek?" she asked in an innocent tone.

"Not if it serves our purpose and no harm comes from it," he replied. He did not want to force an unhappy or unwanted marriage on either Idris or Sasha, but that was not their intention. "Safi, has Sasha ever mentioned whether she knows what became of the crew of the Wayfarer's Lady?"

Curiosity lit up Safiya's eyes as she looked to her lover. "She believes them to be dead," she told him unhappily. "She believes that if any of them had survived, they would have found her by now."

"Not necessarily," Nasir remarked, looking expectantly to his mother for an explanation. It was she who had mentioned them to him, in the first place, and she who had put out feelers to find them.

Shahista sighed softly. "They were not all executed," she explained to Safiya. "And perhaps they are still looking for her, but she has been in the royal harem for seven years. There is no place more isolated, more insular. No woman of the harem is known by name outside the palace. How could they possibly even begin to find her?"

Nasir picked up where his mother left off. "If we were to put out word that the Commander is taking a bride and that bride is Sasha, it's possible it might attract the attention of her pirate family and bring them here to Iska." Not for a rescue, but for a celebration, he thought.

"Sasha would be so happy to see them again," Safiya predicted, her own face bright with hope. "Would such a thing truly be possible" She misses them greatly."

Nasir shrugged, uncertainly. He couldn't say one way or another, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. "It's worth a try. What's the worst that can happen?"

Shahista could think of a couple of ways this could go wrong, but she could always set a few things in motion to mitigate those. "Shall I have Idris come to you now, then, or will you save your gentle wickedness for tomorrow?" she asked her son in amusement.

"Tomorrow, I think," Nasir said. "Let him spend a little more time with Sasha before I suggest a marriage," he said, an almost evil smile on his face, or at least, mischievous. Oh, this was going to be fun, and Idris deserved a little comeuppance.

"If he keeps barking at her, she is going to slap him again," Safi pointed out. When she had left the harem, Sasha had been in the inner courtyard, running through sword drills with Idris correcting her stance from where he was propped on cushions.

"I would like to see that," Nasir said, grinning. He dearly loved his brother-in-arms, but he could not help his amusement at the thought of seeing him bested by a woman. He took a final sip of his coffee before setting the empty cup aside.

"I shall return to the harem, in that case," Shahista said, taking the opportunity to leave the young couple alone. She rose to her feet, waving Safi back down before the girl could rise with her. "Perhaps my presence will prevent Sasha from ripping out his stitches if he goes too far."

"Yes, please remind him that he is my commander and that I do need him alive and well," Nasir told his mother, rising to his feet to bid her farewell.

Yet it was the moments afterward that touched her heart the most, Safi had found, after the delirious pleasures had been shared and sated, when she lay in the arms of the man she loved, feeling him relaxed against her. He was never more himself than he was in those moments. Her fingers gently traced his cheek and jaw as she smiled up at him.

"I will be a good wife," she promised softly.

"And a good mother and queen," he added, smiling down at her and pressing another kiss to her lips. Perhaps even in that order - wife, mother, queen. As far as he was concerned, she was already a good wife, even if they had not yet been officially wed. "I love you, Safi, with all my heart and soul," he told her, kissing her yet again.

"I am very glad," she murmured back to him, smiling into those kisses as she nestled closer. "My only regret is that we will have to dress and part ways before you meet with the council this afternoon."

"But we will see each other later, if you wish," he reminded her, rolling to his side and pulling her over with him so that he did not crush her with his weight. He touched her hair, twirling a strand about his finger. "You may come to me whenever you wish, Safi. All I have, all I own is yours, as well as mine."

"When I am your wife, I will," she promised him, "but as your Teliran, I can only come when you summon me. Technically, I am your property, as are my sisters in the harem." She stroked his chest as she settled in beside him. "May I eat with you this evening?"

"But, sevgili, no one need know when I have or have not summoned you. I give you the freedom to come to me whenever you choose, and if anyone questions you regarding such a thing, all they need do is ask me," he insisted, his arms going around her once again.

"But why would you summon me in the middle of an audience with an ambassador, or an inspection of your guard?" she pointed out with a smile. "It will only be this way for a few more weeks, beloved. When I am queen, they will simply have to put up with me wandering through your important meetings because I am lonely."

Nasir chuckled. "You have a point," he said, though he had not meant for her to follow him around like a shadow. In point of fact, she would likely find a good portion of his day filled with the various duties of his station would bore her to tears. But that was not what he had meant. "I am sure you can find better things to do." He didn't bother to answer her question regarding dinner, as he thought it went without saying.

"Lady Shahista seems very sure I will have a great deal to do," she mused. "She says I must have more lessons, and I must meet with the wives of the diplomats and form friendships with them so they may influence their husbands."

"Lady Shahista would know best," he replied, his fingers in gentle caress of her cheek before combing through her hair. He would not presume to tell his mother or his future wife what was expected of them. The harem and women's duties were his mother's realm, not his. "She did suggest that you and I should travel a little, once we are wed. Let the people come to know you."

She lifted her head to look at him in surprise, though there was a soft hope in her eyes as well. "I have never been outside the palace," she murmured. "You would take me to other places as well?"

"Yes, of course," he replied, looking a little surprised at the look on her face, but then this was all new territory, not only for them, but for their country. "You are not a prisoner here, Safi. And once you become my wife and queen, you will have the freedom to go where you wish and do as you wish, but you should not go alone. It is not safe. We will go together."

She laughed softly. "Beloved, we may well be making changes, but I do not think we can force the people to accept a queen who travels alone for quite some time to come," she assured him, hugging close. "But it will be pleasant to be able to see the city I have listened to for so long."

"Perhaps not, but I do not wish you to feel you are a prisoner here, Safi. If there is anywhere you wish to go, you need only ask, and I will do my best to make that happen," he explained, falling silent a moment before continuing, a smile on his face. "Perhaps we will even visit Carib one day."

"Other countries?" This seemed to utterly amaze Safiya. For a woman who had no memory of ever being outside the harem palaces, just the thought of leaving the city was astonishing.

"Perhaps," Nasir replied, reluctant to promise anything, but hopeful it would be so. "The world is changing, Safi. We must be able to change with it."

"I will go wherever you go, and be happy to be with you," she promised him fervently. "And we will raise our children to know us as loving parents first, yes?"

"Yes," he confirmed, touching a kiss to her nose. He did not bother to mention how much of this depended on their firstborn being a son, but if it was not, he was sure there would be other children. One of them was sure to be a son, or so he hoped. "We will spoil them rotten and raise them to know they are loved," he said, teasing her a little.

She laughed, hugging closer to him. "How many children would you like?" she asked impishly. "I know we will have three sons. How many daughters to fill your home?"

"If we are to have three sons, why not have three daughters?" he teased, eyes bright with amusement. He knew six children was a lot to ask of a woman, but he was mostly teasing.

Laughing again, Safi poked at his side wickedly in response. "And will you also bear them and birth them?" she asked in amusement. "It is already a tiring experience, and we are not even a third of the way to holding our first son."

Nasir chuckled at her teasing, though he sobered a little to hear she was having difficulty. "Are you not well?" he asked, his expression betraying his concern. He knew women carrying children sometimes became ill, and he also knew not all pregnancies ended in healthy births.

"I am very tired a lot of the time," she told him, "but I am assured it is normal, and that I shall not be so very tired in a few weeks. Apparently the babe takes a lot of energy from the mother in the first months and the last months of their bearing."