Epilogue

"C'mon, Meathead. We've been through this five times already. I know it's not too early to tell."

This was a sign that Kel was once again in a 'delicate condition'. Neal had grown used to the symptoms with her last five pregnancies, but it still gave him great amusement to remind her that there were only two things that made the Yamani Lump show so much emotion: her husband and her children, especially when the latter hadn't been born yet. Whistling, Neal took his time as he placed the herbs he'd just made her a morning sickness tea with back into his medicine case.

Kel growled warningly. The first few months had always been the worst for morning sickness and mood swings. After already having thrown up three times that morning, she was not in the mood to deal with Neal skirting around the obvious thing Kel wanted to know.

"What was that you said, Kel? I'm not sure I heard."

Her mouth opened to threaten him, but both adults were distracted as a loud, high pitched squeal rang out in the hallway next to Kel's office followed by the sounds of tiny feet running past the door.

Even in her sour state, Kel couldn't help but smile. The once empty and silent big house of New Hope was now never without some kind of commotion. In fact, it was filled nearly beyond capacity. The empty rooms that had once kept her awake at night were now filled with the cribs of her two children that weren't yet big enough for beds of their own plus the three beds of those that were. Dolls and play swords were scattered across the floors, not just in the nursery but also all around the house. Dom and Kel tripped over them on a daily basis, but mostly smiled unlike the servants who often grumbled at spilling tea all over themselves.

"Avarielle's got quite a pair of lungs for a three year old," Neal commented dryly, but the twitch in his lips gave him away. "For a girl who can barely construct a coherent sentence, she sure can get her point across."

"Stop beating around the bush, Nealan." Kel's voice was back to being threatening, and Neal took the hint. During every one of her other pregnancies, Kel hadn't stopped challenging Neal to duals and jousts until she was at least in her third trimester. Neal had seen nothing to doubt this pregnancy wouldn't be the exact same. Still, from that last dual when she had been pregnant with Iris, her youngest, Neal felt riding this news out was equal payback. After all, he hadn't been able to sit down properly for a week.

"Well, tell me your guess first."

Sighing, Kel pulled her loose tunic against her stomach, smoothing the fabric over the slight bulge that was starting to grow once more there. It had been a relief for Neal to tell her everything was normal, that the child growing inside of her was healthy. The tea he had made for her was also starting to rid her of the horrible nauseous feeling in her stomach and also of the pounding headache. When Ava let out another one of her signature laughs and Leo screamed down the stairs at her older sister, Laney, Kel didn't wince but just concentrated on the question at hand.

"This one feels…different," she started slowly. Neal glanced at her, eyebrows raised slightly. "I'm more sick than I was with the girls. My morning sickness normally ended by now. Not to mention, I don't have that dark line down my stomach. Mama told me she had that only when she was carrying girls."

Kel's eyes didn't rise up from her stomach for a few seconds. Finally, she smoothed out the wrinkles of her red tunic once more and then let the fabric hang loosely. Her eyes turned back to Neal expectantly, not willing to let him leave without an answer.

Giving in, Neal had just opened his mouth, but his words were drowned out by a sudden uproar from the floor below and the distinct voice of Loesia as she called for reinforcements.

"KEL!!!"

Sighing, Kel stood up, gave Neal a look that said she wasn't done with him yet as she pulled open the door, and headed down the staircase to see Loesia at the foot of them, looking up at the lady knight helplessly. She held the one-year-old Iris in her arms; the baby was looking up at her mother with bored blue eyes. Kel's youngest was by far the most calm and easy going of all of her sisters, but even as an infant, they all tended to tire the girl out. As Kel descended the last step, she didn't hesitate to take the charge from Loesia.

The front door of the house was flung open and Kel could hear rather than see where her four other daughters had gotten off to. Judging by the fact that the house was suspiciously silent, Neal's daughter and three sons were probably a part of the little mob.

It was just another summer day in New Hope. Neal and Yuki often came in late summer to spend time with their New Hope cousins and let Kel's girls have boys to beat up for a change instead of each other. This summer was slightly bitter sweet as Megumi was going to start her page training in less than two weeks. As Irnai predicted, Neal had been a wreck since the day Yuki had come to him with Meg hiding behind the skirts of her mother's kimono.

"Neal!" Kel called, as she gently smiled at Loesia and rested a hand on her shoulder. The girl had grown into a woman in her mid twenties. After the last nanny to the children of the Lord and Lady of New Hope had respectfully retired after a month on the job, Loesia had volunteered temporarily, thinking it would be good practice for the family she hoped to start soon. Now, after two days with the five rambunctious girls and the four cunning Queenscove children, Loesia was starting to think about making Tobe wait.

When Neal and Kel finally set out to look for their children, it wasn't hard to find them. Kel had known where they'd be and had actually been surprised they hadn't been there since breakfast that morning. Poor Loesia had gotten an especially hard weekend to keep the girls under control. They were always incredibly lively, but it was always worse when Dom was away. They were daddy's girls, every single one of them and when it got close to the time he'd promised he'd be home, they fought more, screamed more, and just in general became more terrors then they usually were.

Neal's four were quicker to find. They'd abandoned their cousins at the site of their mother meditating under the shade of one of the trees on the green and had gone off with their father to interrupt her.

As Kel suspected, she found her own standing like little sentries on the wall, all lined up one by one, their young faces deathly serious as they looked out into the distance for their father. The men at arms pretended not to watch them, but they met Kel's eyes with looks of amusement.

Ilane was first. The eight year old's light brown hair was very similar to Kel's own and was tied back with an impatient bow. Next to her stood Josephine, named for Dom's mother and affectionately nicknamed Josie by her father. At seven years old, she looked the most like Dom, her dark brown hair falling in curls that tumbled carelessly down her back. Her blue eyes were level as she helped the second youngest, Ava, to see over the wall. Leo, or Leondra, was at the end. The big five year old was not even bothering to hide her excited smile or her giddiness as she hopped up and down.

Kel surveyed the girls for a few minutes, just staring up at them as she shifted Iris from one hip to the other. Even the normally disinterested baby was squirming and whining to be let down.

"Girls—" Kel started to yell. She couldn't understand why they were so worked up, of course she was excited to see her husband as well, it had been a month since he'd left, but they weren't supposed to be expecting him until nightfall and it was barely past noon. Her call was drowned out as the guard at the gate made two hard blasts on his horn, signaling that there were riders coming towards the fief.

Heart in her throat, Kel trotted up the steps, taking each step careful for Iris' sake. When she reached the battlements, she was about to usher her daughters below, until she heard the signal back from the group of riders approaching. Friends. Kel glanced up for the first time and a smile just as big as any of her girls' lit her face, recognizing the very familiar flag of the King's Own and third company.

"DADDY!" Dom, Kel swore, could probably have heard the common yell, even if he was still quite a few yards away. The girls were all jumping up and down in glee, waving over the wall frantically. When Dom finally came into close enough range to see the small hands, he and a number of other Own members waved back. A bright smile was lighting Dom's still handsome face as his eyes met Kel's over his tiny fan club. For the hundredth time, Kel was reminded where all their daughters' enthusiasm came from.

The girls waited long enough to let the squad ride through the gate and start to dismount before they pounced. Dom was barely off of his mare before four girls were crawling all over him and vying for his attention. The men in his squad pretended not to notice or simply chuckled under their breaths as Dom waved them off to the barracks. He didn't waste any time as a hostler took his mount before kneeling and pulling his girls into a hug. He kissed each head and smiled at every one in turn as they regaled him with tales of new pets they'd found while he was away or games they'd beaten their male cousins at.

When Dom could finally stand again, he found his other two girls standing slightly outside the circle that surrounded him. Iris was squirming worse than ever, her chubby arms outstretched as she cooed to the man she remembered very well in her young mind. Kel wasn't bothered as she stepped forward to be enveloped in a gentle hug by Dom. The baby between them squalled, but knowing she was just being Iris, the two kissed before Kel finally handed the baby over to the welcome arms of her father.

As was typical on the nights of Dom's return home, the girl's took much longer to put to bed. With the exception of Josie, who cared little for tales of heroics and instead begged Dom to read to her, the rest, even little Iris, sat up late demanding tales of Dom's exploits. They wanted details on every immortal he'd come across, every maiden he'd saved, every run in he'd had with a bandit mage. Once all were finally asleep, or pretending to be at least, Kel and Dom leaned against the nursery door with a sigh. Both were staring at each other with a look of eagerness, but as soon as they'd moved closer a loud uh hum alerted them to Neal's presence.

Dom sighed, and turned to raise annoyed eyebrows at his cousin. "What, Meathead?"

"Oh, nothing," Neal said, all innocence as he smirked at Kel and then headed off down the hall. Over his shoulder he called quietly, "I just wanted to say congratulations and he had better be named after me."

"What in the world is he—" Dom started to grumble, but he was quickly shut up by Kel's squeal and kiss.

"You know, with another baby on the way and Laney wanting to start page training in two years, we are going to be quite poor."

Dom was lying on his side, head propped up on his elbow as he eyed his wife with impatient eyes. Kel was careful to stand out of his reach, dragging a brush through her hair. It was hard to avert her eyes from his bare chest and the longing in her stomach, but she teased him with a smile and waited for him to answer.

"We could always rob the treasury. Leo has grown quite fierce with that sword of hers."

Pretending to pout, Kel turned to put her brush down on her dresser. She took her sweet time as she crossed the room, but when she was only a few feet away from the four-poster, Dom reached up and dragged her down beside him. They were lost in each other for a few minutes until finally Dom stared down at his wife with a warm smile.

"You can complain all you want, Protector, but can you really imagine life without all of our little angels?"

Kel snorted, but the smile she gave Dom in return was filled with love and just as much warmth. Her hand ran gently through his hair, ignoring the few strands of grey that she found. After a moment's thought, she shook her head and voiced the honest opinion of her heart:

"I can't."