The curse of the jewels, book 1 - The Peasant Queen

VII - Great Eastern Road twenty years earlier. (1/2)

The next day, Deirane and Jensen got up at dawn. After a hot breakfast to face the day, they went to the stable to hitch their horse to the cart. Festor and Jalia were already there. The young lieutenant was putting an oddly shaped saddle on the two strange mounts the humans had spotted the night before. The simple-minded woman helped him, looking at him with adoration in her eyes.

"Are you leaving too?" asked Deirane.

"We have a long way to go," Festor replied, "we could ride together. I think we're going to the same place."

"I doubt it," replied Jensen, "but thank you."

"You're going to consult a Bawck Shaman in Chabawck?"

"How did you...?"

Jensen was speechless, astonished.

"It's marked on your daughter's face," Festor explained. "As beautiful as these tattoos are, you want to get them removed."

"That's true," replied Deirane, "and you, why are you going there?"

With a jerk of his chin, he pointed to his fiancée, who had just discovered a nest of mice. To observe them, she had left her task undone, forgetting to fasten the straps of her saddle. She was fascinated by the still little pink babies that the distraught mother was trying to shelter in her stomach pocket.

"I doubt he can do much, but I still have to try."

"Is that a good thing?" asked Deirane. "She's so innocent, nothing amazes her. She must be the happiest of us all."

"Her look at the world is very refreshing," Festor admitted, "but she deserves better than that."

Jensen went to pay the bill for the room and the fodder used. The soldier, left alone with the two women, made a final check. He pulled on the strap to check the attachment of his companion's saddle. Everything was fine. He called Jalia, who abandoned her show. As he walked past Festor, a smile lit up his face. She put an arm around his neck and kissed him.

"There's one area where she is quite normal," Deirane remarked.

"Her kisses and her love are not childish, indeed," admitted Festor. "By the way, hope we didn't disturb you last night, because she's a bit noisy in her pleasure"

Deirane pricked a blush.

"No," she said, "I didn't hear anything."

"It is improper to bring up such a subject in front of a young girl."

No one had heard Jensen come in, so his intervention surprised everyone. Festor apologized.

"I'm sorry. I had forgotten the taboos your people associate with this activity."

"It's okay, but be careful in the future. And since we're going to ride together, it would be good if during the trip you refrained from... you know what I mean."

"Now you're asking for too much. I have no reason to deprive myself on the pretext of sparing your modesty. Not to mention that she wouldn't understand. All I can promise is discretion."

"I'll be happy with that.

Jensen turned around, grumbling under his breath."

"Lustful race, he murmured.

A small fresh hand caressed her cheek. She looked up and met the face of the simpleton. She couldn't stand sadness, and seeing him in a gloomy mood, she began to cheer him up in her own way. He gave her a smile that made her happy. Impossible to remain angry with such innocence, she belonged to a race a thousand times cursed."