Four days after Kel passed through the Chamber of the Ordeal, Jai testified against her father and Justine. Jai's swings from lucidity to incomprehension had been fairly unpredictable, but she'd held steady through the trial. The two of them were quickly sentenced to death, along with the Lord of Genlith and one other lord. Two other lords were sentenced to life long imprisonments, along with several sons of the various conspirators.

After the trial, she relapsed, her disconnect from reality as bad as it had been before she first spoke. Official war was declared not long after the trial, and Raoul had to return to his men at the front. Third Company had been out there too long without him. She slept in his bed the night before he left for the only second time since she'd been kidnapped. When he woke up, she was fully dressed, standing at his window looking out. He got up and wrapped his arms around her, scolding himself internally for feeling relieved that she was solid.

"Please come back."

Raoul smiled, grateful to hear her voice again. "I have a hundred men who think it's their job to make sure I come back. I promise you. I will come back. I hope you're here, and only here, when I return."

Jai turned around in his arms and kissed him on the cheek. "I hope so, too," she whispered in his ear. Then she drew away, and walked out of the room, pausing in the doorway to blow him a kiss and managing to summon a shadow of a smile before she left, closing the door.

For the entire year that followed, Raoul battled Scanrans along the northern border and thought about Jai. He wondered how she was doing and hoped she was healing. He constantly imagined the future they could have together. When he woke, he imagined waking to her staring at him, then giving him a smile and a kiss. When he wrote reports to Jonathan, he imagined her flitting around distracting him with her chatter and laughter. When he ate dinner, he imagined sitting down to eat with her and tossing peas at nearby noblemen. When he watched the refugee children run around before heading to Kel's camp, he imagined watching his and Jai's children grow. And when he got into bed at the end of each day, he could think of nothing but Jai.

When his former squire destroyed the strongest weapon the Scanrans had, and the war gradually came to a close, Jon gave Raoul a month off of boarder duty to return to the capital with Third Company and recruit and train new members, while Second Company left duty at the capital and returned to fight Scanra. When they arrived at the castle, Raoul was still trying to decide whether he should just do what he wanted and ride to Jai's fief the next day or be more cautious and write to her first.

As Third Company's horses walked slowly towards the stables, Raoul saw a woman in a blue-grey dress standing by the Own's practice courts. Seeing the breeze tug her white blond hair out of the ribbon that held it in place and recognizing the low off the shoulders cut of the dress, Raoul smiled; she was wearing the dress he had once told her was his favorite, the dress she'd worn the day after he'd first kissed her. As Jai ran toward him, he dismounted Drum and in a few long strides had her in his arms. He spun her around and then put her down on the ground, one arm firmly around her slim waist. Placing his other hand on her neck, he looked down at her and stroked her cheek with his thumb. Instead of kissing her, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her to the bedroom like he wanted to, he simply asked, "How have you been?"

Jai smiled, the first real smile Raoul had seen from her since before she'd been captured. "I've been okay. Slowly but surely I've healed myself, put myself back together. Sorted out the real, and gotten rid of everything else. Things have been hard, but, you know, they're starting to look up now." As she finished speaking, she tightened her arms around his neck and pulled herself up so her lips were almost touching his. "In fact, I think a kiss might make it all better."

"Just one kiss?" Raoul asked, feeling her shiver in his arms as his lips moved against hers.

"No," she whispered. "Not just one kiss. A whole lifetime of kisses and love and…" she trailed off, looking up at him with a smile.

Not needing anymore of an invitation, Raoul pulled her up to him in a deep kiss. Oblivious to the hollers of surprise and the catcalls from Third Company, who had watched the whole exchange in complete and utter shock, the two kissed passionately until, unable to resist the temptation of her body a moment longer, Raoul picked Jai up and carried her back to his room.

Six Years Later

When Third Company rode back into the castle, they were more than a little weary after their three-month chase of some unusually wily bandits. Almost to the barracks, all the men smiled in recognition of the woman waving to them, a baby boy on her hip. Watching the wind mold Jai's dress around her rounding belly and tug loose her hair, Raoul felt the familiar feelings of love, wonder and desire fill him. As they rode closer, shouts of "Da, Da, Da," filled the air as a pack of boys came running towards the men. Raoul dismounted and kneeled, letting the four boys launch themselves on him. Laughing, he hugged his four oldest sons tightly, before shooing them away and moving to hug his wife and kiss his youngest son on the forehead. He then removed Sammy from his wife's hip and handed him to Bubba. Tugging Jai as close as possible, Raoul kissed her sweetly, placing his hand on her stomach and letting the relaxing influence her presence still brought wash over him. Hearing the wolf-whistles of his men, he turned and yelled, "Silence, you insubordinate curs. See to your horses and be gone with you."

Turning back to Jai, he asked quietly, "How are you feeling?"

Jai laughed, "Pretty much the same as I felt for the majority of the last six years. How can you still worry after we've already been through this five times before?"

Raoul shrugged. "I worry. So, what do you think? Is this the last time we're going through this? Is our Esme in there?"

Jai nodded. "I'm sure of it."

"How can you be sure?"

"I was right the last five times wasn't I? I'm telling you. This one's a girl."

"Fair enough. Although I still say you got lucky the last five times. Did you and the boys enjoy staying at your fief?"

Jai nodded, and, in her usual whirlwind speed of speech, said, "We spent about four weeks there, and had a wonderful time. I taught Bubba how to fish, and he got one so large on his line he was pulled straight into the river. Thank the goddess I wasn't this big yet or I have no idea how I would have gotten him out of there. Then we spent two weeks at Stone Mountain and then went and visited your father at Goldenlake for two more weeks. I had only meant to stay for one, but your father had really made a mess of the accounts for both Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, and it took us awhile to sort it out. He took my advice and planted apple orchards in Goldenlake. Of course, Bubba and Francis tried to climb them, and I only just got there in time to catch Bubba as he fell out of it, and luckily Nana was there to catch Francis when he decided he wanted to jump out of the tree since falling had worked out so well for Bubba. But the trees really are lovely, and they already turning a very nice profit."

"Just what we need. More money. What are we going to do with all of it?"

Jai shrugged. "Well, I want to expand the school at Goldenlake, and there's a few students who I think we should fund to go to the university. Also, since little Sammy's first word was joust, I suspect once he's speaking fully he'll join the other four in insisting he wants to be a knight. Getting them everything they need for knighthood will take up plenty of it. I need to talk to Lord Wyldon about getting Bubba a proper horse. Five is young for one, but I figure we can get him one of the smaller, mild-tempered mares and then all the children can learn to ride on her. Plus, the boys broke two windows and an expensive vase over the course of our journey, and as they get bigger I suspect more and more of our money will go towards paying for damages they inflict and also for feeding and clothing them, since they all seem determined to be as tall as you by the time they're thirteen. It's exhausting just to think about."

Raoul kissed her temple and gave her a slightly worried look. "Are you sure caring for all of them and the fiefs isn't too much work for you? Especially in your condition. I can get Kel to take care of things for awhile, so I can stay here and help out."

"Oh, stop fussing. Unlike some people, I have all the energy of youth to get me through the days, and you've kept me in this "condition" as you call it for essentially six years straight, so I don't think now is the time to begin worrying about it," she said, her voice teasing. "I'm serious, Raoul. I never in my life thought it was possible to be as happy as I am when I'm taking care of our children and running the fiefs. I like having things to do. I spent too much of my life cooped up in a room doing needlepoint. Really, you don't need to worry about me. I do miss you when you're gone, but every time you leave I get to look forward to our reunion, which always leads to such an…enjoyable night."

Her last words and the look that accompanied it had Raoul pulling her to him for deep kiss when he heard someone shouting his name. Turning, he saw Numair walking quickly towards them, Jon, Alanna and George trailing behind him.

"I found it," Numair shouted.

"You found what?" Raoul asked once Numair got closer.

"The prophecy that the seers were having visions about before the rebellion. Finally, after six years, I found it," Numair said, panting slightly. "The seer who prophesized it was named Elviere Damion Makoveric. He died over a century ago. He was rather full of himself and always thought his prophecies were rather lofty. He claimed this was a prophecy about Gods, which is why I couldn't find it, but Daine gave me a book about him for Christmas, and I was reading it and it mentioned this prophecy and so I looked in his first book, and it wasn't—"

"NUMAIR!" Alanna shouted. "Just tell us what it is. You insisted they hear it at the same time as all of us. They're here. Spit it out."

Numair glared at his friend, then opened the book he was holding and read, "If the five sons and the daughter of the Giantkiller and the Blue Jay are prevented from entering this world, Tortall will fall. Only the six can save Tortall from what will come."

Visuably shaken by the notion that their children had such a burden before them, Raoul and Jai turned to look at their sons. As Bubba wrestled Francis to the ground, coating them both with mud, the other three boys jumped on them, joining in the scramble.

"You know," Raoul said, "I think the Gods only showed us three just so they didn't scare us out of having any."

Jai laughed. "You have to admit, life would be boring without all of them."

Raoul smiled and kissed her, "You're not wrong.

Jai grinned up at him saucily.

"What has you so pleased?" Raoul asked, looking down at his wife in amusement.

"I told you this one was our Esme," she responded pertly.

Raoul grinned back and swept her off her feet, eliciting even more whoops from the men. "Excuse me friends. We can examine the notion that those five heathens and our unborn daughter will save Tortall later. But now, I haven't seen my wife in three very, very long months, and we have things to talk about."

Without another word, he carried her towards their bedroom. Jai giggled and kissed his neck, leaning happily against him. "What about the boys?" she whispered.

"The men will watch them," Raoul said, opening the door to their suite and then kicking it closed behind him. Jai moved her hand up the back of his neck, pulling herself closer and kissing him along his jaw. Years of practice had taught him how to unlace Jai's gown while he carried her, a skill he happily put to use as he carefully stepped over the building blocks that littered the floor of his study. Failing to notice the stack of books and shoes fresh from the store that stood next to the bedroom door, he tripped over them and sent them tumbling all over. "By the gods woman, don't you have enough books and shoes?" he asked, faking grumpiness.

Jai laughed and shook her head, kissing him just below his ear, her fingers sliding further up into his hair. Finally reaching their bed, he laid her on it and slid her dress off. He looked down at her, his eyes moving over the soft skin that was now all his, smiling as he glimpsed her lone freckle, nestled between the curve of her breast and the swell of her stomach. "I love you," he said, his hand circling her knee and moving slowly up her leg.

She breathed in sharply and closed her eyes. "I love you, too," she said softly, her breath hitching as his hand continued its slow journey up her thigh. She opened her blue eyes partway and gave him a satisfied smile, reaching her hand out to pull him on to the bed with her. "Now hurry up and show me how much you missed me," she said huskily, bringing his lips to hers as Esme kicked out inside her, reminding them both of her presence.

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FINISHED! Obviously there is a sequel here...whether I write it is really up to you......I'm putting it to you dear reviewers to decide what I do next.....1) Finish Prince Liam's Lioness 2) Sequel to Kalasin's Guard 3) This sequel......I can do all three if that's what you wish, but let me know what you think and what order you think I should do them in.

The sequel for this one will be different then any I've done before since the main character (Esme of course) will start off at 10--obviously low romance--since I love that stuff, I will of course use her older brothers, make nods to other characters and their children and what I imagine there up to, but it will be fairly different then my other stuff--which could be good for me.

So anyways I hope you enjoyed this--let me know what you thought was good and bad and what i should try and improve on in my next story and what my next story should be---im telling you now unless there's overwhelming desire for one of the other two, Prince Liam's Lioness will probably be finished first because a lot of people have been reading it, but you can definitely help choose which is number 2.

Thanks for all of you who have reviewed, (Kate and Mandi as my moth faithful reviewers get a special thanks) and especially thanks to those who helped me through my doubts at the beginning of this story--I ended up really loving it in the end, so I'm glad you made me finish.