“Well, duh! Yes, I can do that. I can have mental conversations with one of you without the other two overhearing. It’s helpful when it comes to discussing things like holiday gifts.” She shook her head. “That’s how I managed to surprise Bran for Christmas last year.”
“Christmas?” he echoed, wondering what that was. Then he shook his head and refocused. “You can speak mind-to-mind to any one of us without going through Bran?”
Ursula sighed. “Yes, Zul. That’s what I just said.” She paused and frowned. “Did you not realize that?”
Zul looked down at his hands because, no, he had not realized that was possible. The concept astonished him, as he’d always known that his former prime listened in on his every communication with their second and vice versa. He was simultaneously astonished at the trust Bran gave him and the freedom that trust offered.
Ursula interpreted his silence and his grim expression correctly. Heart breaking for him, she got down from the boulder and moved beside him, setting her hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry, Zul. I didn’t realize you didn’t know about… about…” She sighed in a moment of comprehensive forgiveness for not keeping her informed. “Anyway, I’ll quit pestering. I’m sure not knowing aggravates you as much as it does me.”
He looked at her hand on his arm.
Thinking about how micromanaging and controlling his former prime was, Ursula said, “You know, Zul, your former prime was a real asshole.”
Zul shook his head and chuckled, his shoulders relaxing from the tension they’d carried. He ran the back of one knuckle down her cheek and said, “Yes,elska’adir, my former prime was a real asshole.”
She gave him a smile and returned to her boulder. “Crow, you’re wandering too far. Come closer!”
“Ah, Mama, do I have to?”
“Yes, you have to.”
The youngling pouted as he dragged his feet in obedience to his mother’s command.
Ursula looked at Zul and asked, “Will you ask Gil? Or at least try? The mate bond does not stretch so far.”
Zul blinked, astonished again. He’d not realized that the bond between mates was weaker—or at least shorter—than the bond between triad warriors.
Once again, she interpreted his expression correctly. “I think the warrior bond is stronger because it’s a matter of survival. If distance means a failure to communicate, then one of you dies which means that your mate cannot conceive young and perpetuate the species.”
“You’ve given this some thought,” he commented.
Ursula pointed to herself and simply repeated what she’d said before: “I’m female. That doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”
He dipped his chin in acknowledgement, beginning to understand how keeping her ignorant had both offended and insulted her. “I am sorry,elska’adir.”
“For not keeping me informed?”
He nodded.
“I won’t say it’s okay, because it’s not. However, I realize that you and my other two mates don’t always understand that having information isalwaysbetter than ignorance—even when I can’t do anything to change the circumstances.” Again, she tilted her head while keeping her wandering son in her peripheral vision. “How realistic is it that the Council Supreme would arrest me and torture me for information?”
Again, he was impressed by her insight. “Quite likely, actually. While females may not have political power, they are still governed by our laws and held accountable.”
“You know that’s not fair.”
“Life’s not fair,” he muttered.
Ursula snorted. “Yeah, I’ve gathered that. But shouldn’t the governed have a say in the governing?”
He looked at her, not quite understanding.
“I know you do research and look up the wildlife of Earth because you believe that Crow should know a bit about his mother’s home planet—and I approve of it. I think it’s wonderful. But perhaps you might want to do a little research on the women’s suffrage movement on Earth. Remember what I told you about women’s circumstances before the 1920s? They were much like females here on Uribern: legally chattel and ceasing to exist as distinct legal entities upon marriage—er, mating—but they were also held to the same legal accountability as men without having anything close to the same rights and privileges. For anyone remotely intelligent, that’s offensive.”
Zul blinked and listened.
“I’ve done a bit of research: not much, just a bit. I’m not a historian,” she admitted. “But I cannot help drawing parallels between Urib society now and U.S. society before the 1920s. For a culture with such advanced technology that Earth would traffick women in exchange for access to some of that technology, Uribern is incredibly backward in its societal attitude toward women… er… females.”
Slowly, he asked, “And what do you want on behalf of all females?”
