“Oh, sweets,” Zawri said, stroking her hair. “I’m sorry I wasn’t home to get your messages. I know you must have been so frightened and alone and then…in trouble. It’ll be all right. It’s safe for you to come home. No one on Orius will ever bother you again. Or me either.”
“What?” Giss asked with a gasp. “What do you mean?” she asked drawing back.
Zawri smiled, tugging Giss under a tarp canopy in front of a lunch shop, so they could stand in the shade. “Come out of the sun, darling. Are you thirsty? Tok?” Zawri looked at the black-haired man with her. He wore a dark shirt with sleeves short enough to reveal an amber and gold hunter’s blade tattoo on his bicep. “My sister needs something cool to drink.”
“Zaw, no! I’m all right. You don’t have to ask him for anything.” Giss shook her head, dragging off the collection of gold bejeweled bangles from Zawri’s arm. No golden shackles. No meals paid for by her sister’s captor. She froze when she saw that Zawri’s skin under the bracelets was tattooed. In a golden pink ink there was a hunter’s blade and a pair of initials. She sucked in a horrified breath. “You’re marked. You’ve been—” She spun and slapped the hunter across the face. “How dare you!” she screamed.
Larsinc grabbed her and pulled her back, putting a hand over her mouth. “Calm down,” he whispered in her ear.
She struggled, only slowly becoming aware that nearly every pair of Ketturan eyes were upon them.
“Don’t hold her like that,” Zawri snapped, stepping forward until the muscular hunter caught her arm and prevented her from advancing.
“He’s not hurting her,” the hunter said. “Let her calm down, so we can take the discussion away from here.”
Gissandre bit Larsinc’s hand, but he didn’t move it.
“Don’t bite,” he warned in a dark whisper. Then he spoke in Ketturan to Varse.
Varse gestured for them to follow.
Linc picked her up and carried her through the maze of houses. He didn’t release her until they were in a garden.
Gissandre panted furiously and whirled to face Tok. “What right did you have to mark my sister’s skin? You don’t own her, you filthy scum. And you never will.”
“Gissandre!” Zawri gasped.
“It’s not that kind of mark,” Tok said. “It’s a Macon Guild mark, and it means she’s under the protection of a hunter. If anyone does harm to her, he’ll be killed. No one with a Macon hunter’s mark has ever gone unavenged, so now that she bears it she is safe wherever she goes. No one will ever hurt your sister. Not corrupt magistrates or politicians. Not greedy neighbors or anyone else. It would be a death sentence.”
“And what do you expect in return for that protection?” she snapped.
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Peace of mind.”
She blinked, her gaze darting to Zawri’s face.
“I’m all right,” Zawri said, catching her hand and squeezing it. “A better question is, how are you?” she asked, glancing at the blue silky shift.
Giss quickly crossed her arms over her breasts because she wasn’t sure whether the piercings might be noticeable. She should have chosen a more formal dress of thicker material.
“Congratulations,” Linc said.
Tok’s smile blazed, his gaze dropping to Zawri’s stomach, which she cradled with her arm.
Giss’s eyes shot back to her sister, whose face was glowing and a little fuller than normal.
She leaned close and whispered, “Are you pregnant?”
Zaw smiled and nodded. “And very happy about it!”
“Oh no. Dead realms,” Giss said, feeling the blood drain from her head. Then the world turned even blacker.
* * *
“My love,” Zawri said, kissing Gissandre’s cheek when she woke. “Please, please don’t fret so much. I was taken captive, but I’m not a captive now.”
“But they raped you. He raped you!”
“No,” Zawri said sharply. “And I never want to hear you say those words again.”
