Chapter Fourteen...The Top of The World (continued)
They stood there for a long time, until the stars started to fade and she was on the verge of shivering. He was even
starting to become chilled.
"Come on." He said with a chuckle. "Time to head back to the real world for a little while. We'll escape again soon
enough." They always did, their world always seemed to shut down to just include the two of them when everyone
else least expected it.
Andromache nodded against him, opening her eyes to see the stars had wheeled in their heavens and time had
passed for the rest of the world at least. Nose a little bit numb and cold as ice, she pressed it against Hector's throat
with a laugh before pulling back enough to take his hand in her own.
"Everyone will sleep past noon." she stated, leading the way back to the hidden door set in the top of the mountain.
"I think we should stay in bed at least that long too." She slanted him a dancing look over her shoulder as she held
the lantern steady so he could relight it. Her own fingers were a bit numb. But it had been worth it. A thousand years
standing in that cold would have been worth it.
She waited while he shut and re-barred the door, shutting out the cold and the stars and the gods and her hand
brushed the founding stone again on her way past. She was tired but it was a good tired. Content and full and
peaceful. Her slim hand back in his larger one again they descended the stairs in comfortable silence, still wrapped
in the night above. The descent back to the mortal world was slow and steady and she stretched out their linked
hand to trace fingers across the carvings of defeats and triumphs that ran next to them. Going back from the
beginning of time to the present. Before they reached the bottom, she stopped in front of one of the recessed doors
and paused, ear to it for a moment before swinging it inward and pushing aside the hanging tapestry of feuding
bears to reveal the hallway directly outside the door to the rooms she was sharing with her husband. Looked over
her shoulder at Hector with a stifled, quiet laugh. Because Podes was asleep in front of their door in the otherwise
empty hall.
Hector had to put his free hand over his mouth and choke back the amused laugh. "now there's dedication." He said
softly, lest he wake the boy. "Think we can get in there without waking him up? If he sees us come in instead of out,
he'd feel really lax in his duties."
It was amusing that Podes took the job of babysitting Troy's crown prince so seriously, and he decided when
Andromache was off with her sisters, as she was bound to be, he'd go out on the countryside with Podes. He was a
good kid.
Podes reminded her of so many of her other brothers when they had been younger, though a bit more idealistic
than most of them. Young and eager and determined. He made her smile softly and she looked back at her
husband. Thinking - one day he would look at his own son the indulgent, laughing way he was looking at her brother
now and the thought made her heart tighten in her chest. Because of it she lifted their linked hands and pressed a
kiss to his.
"I think we can manage." she whispered quietly, gathering up the hem of her dress with the other hand to keep it
from accidently brushing her little brother and waking him. Lips pressed together, she carefully slipped over to the
door and used a trick she'd learned when she was just a child to lift the latch silently, raising the door a bit on its
hinges to keep the noise of it opening silent. Stifling her laugh, she shot her husband a wink over her shoulder and
silently slipped into the room. While Hector joined her she took one of the blankets off a nearby chair and, with
practiced ease draped it gently over her brother's sleeping form. His neck was going to be stiff tomorrow she
thought, but trying to get him to shift would wake him and she was sure he'd lived with worse before.
Back in the room she shut the door and covered her mouth with a hand, trying to keep the laughed she couldn't stop
anymore from getting too loud as she looked at her husband with dancing eyes.
"Think he'll make up a heroic story about that as well?" she teased.
"If he doesn't, I'll make up one for him. About the dedication of a young prince of Thebe who risked life and limb to
protect the prince of Troy from any harm that might come upon him during the night." Hector said with a smile. "Might
even play well with the women around here, you never know. By the end of the day he'll be caught up in his fame
and attention, he'll shirk his duties, but I'll graciously forgive him."
He'd been leaning against one of the walls while she tended to her brother, then he crossed over the short distance
between them and put his arms around her, looking very serious in a mocking sort of way. "Of course, I might
require some bribes from his oldest sister, its just the way things are done you know."
"Really?" she looked up at him just as seriously, eyes wide with surprise. Long fingers starting to undo the lacing at
the throat of his tunic. "I heard she was married." She shot her husband a look from under her lashes. "But if its so
her brother can get attention from the women... and she does have a weakness for oldest princes of Troy..." She
raised her face, eyes dancing, skin already starting to warm against his. Teased a kiss across his lips. "Just how
good a story are you going to make up?" She wanted to know with a smile.
"Big and grand, but believable. With valor and bravery and amazing skill demonstrated in equal parts." He said and
shed his tunic when she unlaced it, then took her hands and spun her toward the balcony, opening the doors. "See,
the Prince of Troy isn't used to mountain air, but he's used to sleeping with the curtains open. So he did. Well, it
knocked him out cold. He was so deeply asleep, he couldn't hear the mountain lion creep in to see the new visitor,
and possibly get a meal. So when the mountain lion was about to pounce on the bed and eat the sleeping prince
whole," He spun her toward the bed in the center of the room and tossed her gently on it, nearly jumping in beside
her, "in comes Podes, brave son of King Eetion. Risking life and limb with only a short dagger as his weapon, he
defeated the mountain lion and gave the skin to the prince in the morning as a gift. And for all his exertion, not only
was he deadly quiet through out the whole thing, so as to not wake his charge, but the only injury received by this
brave young prince was a stiff neck, jerked the wrong way while evading the lion's razor sharp claws!"
"Is that good enough? Because I'd rather hear about your weaknesses for the oldest Trojan prince."
She was laughing hard by the time Hector wrapped up his story, delighted with both it and him and she wrapped
both her arms around him at the end.
"Well, I suppose, as long as he's quiet about his fierce battle..." she teased, tangling fingers in her husband's dark
hair as she drew him down for a promising kiss. "Might even get some sympathy over that stiff neck too." Laughing
again, she traced kisses down his throat.
"As for the oldest son of Troy," she murmured, voice on the edge of a humming purr against his skin. "I hear he's
married but I don't think I'm going to let that stop me." She slid a leg across his and brushed her nails lightly down his
back. Smiling. "Think he'll give in?" she asked innocently.
"Hmm....that's a hard one to tell." He said with laughing eyes as her nails teased his flesh. "Then again, it is the
asking price, so I think he'd go along with it. After all, she doesn't stand too much of a chance once he puts his mind
to something you know. He's famous for that. Just ask the people of Thebe!"
His own hands trailed her long body as he teased her. "So I'd give it a shot if I were her."
"Mm." she managed, skin coming alive under the touch of his. Forgetting about the ghosts and the challenges of her
family. Her world consisted of only here and now, this small room and the man that was with her. And it was all she
needed.
"I suppose we'll just have to see if he has a weakness for oldest princesses of Thebe." she answered, smiling as she
drew him down for another welcoming kiss.
Apparently the crown prince of Troy did have such a weakness. And didn't protest having it exploited in the least.
Afterward, content and tangled together, there were drowsy comments about the lack of mountain lions and quiet
laughter that faded softly off into sleep. Outside, night slipped into day and Podes defeated his mountain lions in the
form of servants with invitations to different celebrations that he sent away with a fierce scowl.