Page 77 of Dark Princess: Shadows

He felt a twinge of sorrow for the secluded life she'd been forced to lead. "When you get stronger, I'll take you to see the ocean up close, and if you want, you can dip your toes in the water."

She recoiled. "Oh, no. Big bodies of water are dangerous."

He chuckled. "I've heard of the Kra-ell's aversion to deep water, which is somewhat justified. Their bodies are less buoyant. But you are built like a goddess, so you shouldn't fear the water."

She looked down at her body and then back at him. "I've seen goddesses on vids and in books, and now I have also seen Annani. I'm not nearly as beautiful as they are."

"Yes, you are." He took her hand and kissed the back of it. "Do you want to sit over there on that bench?"

"Yes." She started to turn.

"Stop right there and wait for me to get you. If you fall, it's back to the clinic. I'm sure you don't want that."

"No." She stopped with her feet dangling over the side of the cart. "I don't want to go back to that room."

He was learning how to speak to his fiercely independent and strong-willed princess. If he wanted her to do as he asked, he had to give her a good reason to do so.

Morelle was not a follower. She was a leader.

Still, he couldn't help himself, and instead of offering a hand to help her down, he put his hands on her tiny waist, lifted her out of the seat, and transferred her to the bench.

She gave him a baleful look but quickly followed it with a smile. "If you keep doing that, I will have to ask Gertrude to bring that leg exercising machine to Annani's home. Otherwise, I will not get stronger."

He sat beside her on the bench and took her hand. "That might be a good idea regardless of anything else. How are you feeling? Are you tired?"

"I've been sitting in that cart and talking. Those are not tiring activities."

He laughed. "You'd be surprised, but some people find talking exhausting. Not me, thank the merciful Fates, but for some, it's a problem."

She smiled. "I called you my storyteller when I didn't know your name."

His heart swelled. "You can call me anything you want as long as you add 'my' in front of it. I like the sound of it."

She blushed, which was completely unexpected. The fierce Morelle shouldn't feel embarrassed by some innocent flirting.

"Did I go too far?" he asked.

She looked around the small lookout point. "I don't know. Is this place considered far away for the village people?"

He stifled a laugh. "Never mind. Forget I said that. You wanted to hear Aliya's story, right?"

"Yes, please."

He turned to face her. "When we found her, she was living alone in a cave system in China, a different country that's very far from where we are. Her human mother took her to live with her people, and when the mother died, Aliya was left to fend for herself. If she'd continued looking human, she might have been okay, but after puberty, her features became more and more Kra-ell and her physical strength scared the people she lived with. She ran away and survived on her own, hiding from humans and other Kra-ell who she feared might come after her." When Morelle opened her mouth, he lifted his hand to stop her, knowing that she wanted to ask who the Kra-ell were that Aliya had feared, but if he branched into that story, they would never make it to Annani's, who was no doubt waiting for them to arrive.

"That's another story. Let's stay on this one, okay?"

Reluctantly, Morelle nodded. "A group of immortals from our community were touring the area when one of them had a vision of a child lost in those caves, so naturally they went to investigate. Turned out that the vision was from the past and that the child had grown up into the woman who'd turned the caves into a fortress, complete with traps that might have resulted in a catastrophe. Especially since one of theseimmortals was Alena, Annani's daughter, and another one, the seer who had the vision, was pregnant. "

That got Morelle's attention. "Did they evade the traps?"

"Not all of them, but most. At some point, they got trapped and couldn't get out, but then they spotted Aliya across an underground lake, and three of them swam after her, realizing that she could lead them to another exit."

"The three she fought off?"

"Yes. They chased her across the lake and some secret passages and barely caught up to her when she got topside. She fought like a tigress, inflicting injuries on all three males, and since they didn't want to hurt her, they were at a disadvantage. Finally, one of them bashed her with a rock."

Morelle winced. "Ouch."