Graydon could sympathize with Kira. She'd gone to great lengths to keep Elena's existence a secret, even kept the knowledge of her birth from the girl's father at considerable cost to her relationship with Raider.
She'd left House Roake in such a way that it could have done extensive damage to the connections she'd tentatively established with them, only for her niece to hand-deliver herself to Graydon within a month.
If he didn't find the whole thing vastly amusing, he'd commiserate with her.
"Nice race by the way. I particularly liked the ending where you crashed."
An uncomfortable look crossed Kira's face as her gaze dropped. "There were some technical difficulties."
Was that what she was calling it?
"I noticed."
Kira's gaze avoided his.
"How angry was Finn afterward?" Graydon asked.
Kira lifted a shoulder. "His anger was somewhat mitigated by helping me avoid your oshota."
Graydon raised an eyebrow. So that’s how she did it. He hadn’t thought Finn had it in him. Not since the tragic circumstances that had led to the end of his relationship with his poorly chosen sword.
For him to allow Kira to knowingly put herself at risk showed their relationship had evolved—and in a healthy direction.
The bond between sword and shield took trust. One that required a certain flexibility. A sword couldn't always stay within the safety of a shield. Such a sword would be useless if it couldn't slice through their enemies.
The oshota protected, but they also knew when to concentrate on other battlefields so their chosen sword could maximize their forces.
Graydon hadn't thought Finn would ever be able to trust his sword to that extent again.
Kira was showing signs of bonding to her oshota too. If she hadn't trusted him on some level, Graydon had no doubt she would have deposited him on some random planet long before reaching Jettie.
"What I'm more interested in knowing is why you came here—to Jettie, a place you had to know we'd be."
And more important, why she'd allowed her niece to come with her.
For all that she might rebel against the Tuann, Kira had the same overprotective tendencies. If anything, her drive to safeguard her loved ones was even more overdeveloped, likely in part because of her history.
Kira affected a nonchalant shrug. "She wanted to see me race."
Graydon nodded. Uh-huh. Sounded reasonable.
"And it had nothing to do with the woman you were with when the swarm attacked?"
Graydon watched as Kira's expression closed down. It was like a mask descended, not a scrap of the Kira Graydon knew remaining. All emotion was gone, leaving only a blankness his oshota would have envied.
"How do you know about the woman?" Kira asked in a careful voice.
"The Haldeel are as paranoid as we are. But unlike us, they have no sense of privacy and have installed surveillance on all public areas of the city. Let's say I found the video of your battle illuminating."
Interest threatened to crack Kira's mask. "I'm surprised they let you see that."
"Who said I asked for permission?"
A glimmer of respect appeared before it was gone. Her forehead wrinkled. "If they have surveillance on all areas, how did a swarm grow that big?"
"That's what they'd like to know as well."
Kira's expression turned troubled as she fell silent. "The Haldeel have a leak."
