Work Text:
Sionell looked out over the lands of Tiglath, almost eerily still in the early morning light. She thought about getting some klah, writing a list of tasks for the day, straightening her suite before she had to wake the children for their lessons- but a sunbeam had found her spot on the window ledge. Sionell was no sunrunner, yet her untrained gift thrummed inside her in moments like this. She stretched her arms overhead, yawned, and felt the babe in her belly move: a goldfish flutter that startled her into delighted laughter.
*
Tallain pored over the castle blueprints. He needed to find just the right space to adapt, and he didn't intend to let Sionell find out about it because the construction woke her early. He had realized late last night as he watched his wife sleep that just building a nursery wasn't enough--tradition be damned, she'd never sleep in their bed again if the child were across Tiglath's public spaces. He studied the drawings before him, looking for something on the same side of the castle as the shore, for the best view.
*
Meath and his assistant walked briskly past the door of Tallain's s study, willing each other not to giggle where the regent of Tiglath might hear them. He'd been convinced for days that they were up to something, so they'd decided to give him what he expected and hatched a plan to surprise him with a party, gathering all his friends and several barrels of wickedly potent ale. Ever since they'd finished planning, they couldn't meet each other's eyes without being tempted to dissolve into laughter.
*
Sionell waited as long as she could stand before she went to Tallain's study to get him to feel the baby move. At the door of his study, though, Meath tried everything to distract her, short of claiming that a dragon was stalking up behind her in the hallway. She assured him that she had no intention of spoiling whatever it was that her husband was planning, and asked him to go inside and ask him to come out. The young man blanched. She waved a hand to release him from whatever terror her words had planted, and tucked her arm into his. They went back to her rooms, where Meath sent a message on sunlight to his assistant to go ask Tallain to join them there.
*
She woke to an empty bed and a note pinned to the frame of her mirror. "Thank you, Beloved Sionell, for giving me such a miraculous experience. Forgive me for leaving you this morning. I can't wait to tuck you into my side once more, and feel our little dragon swimming in their cave again! One thousand kisses to you both, T. " The smile on her face felt wider than the desert. She headed to the kitchen in search of some fruit and cheese for breakfast, She found Meath there, and couldn't resist teasing him about the secret he was obviously protecting. She demanded that he tell her what Tallain was up to, asked to be let into his study, even claimed to know the secret already, but Meath had known her too long. He didn't budge. As they passed a window on their way to the games room for some distraction, Meath froze, his eyes going soft in that way every sunrunner's did when they were being hailed on sunlight. She watched him, her blood thrumming, curiosity pricking her-- she never really regretted not going to Goddess Keep, but she did tend to wonder, when she found herself staring into a pair of unfocused eyes in a beam of sunlight, how it really felt to ride the light. Meath smiled and announced a message from Prince Pol, who congratulated them on the impending birth. Then, High Prince Rohan apologized for pulling Tallain away at such a time as this and promised to return him before dinner.
*
Tallain thanked the journeyman sunrunner for relaying his request to Prince Pol, and headed to the far wing. He still had a lot to accomplish before "returning home" at the end of the day. The workmen had finished roughing in their new suite, and he wanted to build some furniture with his own hands - especially the platform for their own new bed and the cradle for the baby He took a deep breath and plunged into the work.
*
The young soldiers ran all over the courtyard in the dark, scrambling to recapture the tiny stones that rolled over cobbles and disappeared among shadowy blades of grass. The trick had been meant to make Lord Tallain slip, not reduce the entire cohort new recruits to Tiglath's army to bumbling clowns, but Meath could enjoy the sight anyway. As long as the idiots kept quiet enough not to wake Sionell, at least. He swore as he saw the lights in her window reappear.
*
Sionell giggled when Meath flinched at the sight of her lamp's glow. How he could believe she'd have slept through the ruckus, she didn't know. She'd have left him all unaware that she was onto him, but it watching him squirm was too delicious. She pulled the drapes at the sound of Tallain's feet on the stair and debated for a blink whether to pretend to be asleep or to seduce him noisily enough to drown out the shenanigans below. He decided for her by calling her name softly as he opened the door, and when she went to him, he put a finger to her lips and pulled her into the hallway, He smoothed a hand over her eyes and pulled her back against his chest, steering her down the steps and across the castle to where she didn't know.*When she opened her eyes, she had no idea where she was. Tallain pressed a soft kiss into her hair and led her to a high, wide bed platform. He lit a candelabrum and held it up so she could look around the room, otherwise lit by starlight streaming in through broad, arched windows on the wall opposite. When she had seen the room, bare except for the exquisite carving on the window frames and bedposts, he beckoned her through a door across the room from where they'd entered. It was smaller, with generous windows but none so grand as in the first chamber. Tucked into a cozy corner sat a cradle, elaborately decorated with a pattern like dragon scales, with a pair of dragonets entwined across the foot, their wings spread out to either side to make handles for easily rocking the cradle with a foot while one's hands were busy. She spun and pulled her husband into a fierce kiss, and then they made use of the bed platform in spite of its lack of linens.