“She would not,” Mirari admitted, with a certainty in her voice that surprised me.
“Why?”
“I do not…” she trailed off, casting a glance behind her shoulder at the guard, who stayed ten paces back. “I do not know if it is my place to say. I would not wish to anger theVorakkar.”
“TheVorakkaris not here and I will not tell him,” I told her. “Please. I need to know what I’m getting myself into, how to handle her.”
Mirari relented, “She is a blood relation to theVorakkar. She is very protective of him.”
My lips parted. “How is she related?” A thought occurred to me and I asked, “What doesKivalemean?”
Mirari’s shoulders sagged. “Hukan was the older sister of theVorakkar’smother.Kivaleis a term of respect, honoring that blood line.”
Hukan was Arokan’s aunt.
Damn.
“Hukan is very protective of her line,Missiki,” Mirari explained. “Her aversion to you is expected. Pay her no mind. She is old. Her years in this life, the tragedies that she has faced within her line, have left her bitter and angry.”
What tragedies?I wondered. Did Arokan experience the same tragedies too?
That didn’t make me feel any better. She’d known Arokan’s given name, which meant that she was close to him. I’d known that. Still, she’d gotten under my skin, she’d managed to hurt me. I told her something that I’d never voiced out loud before.
She thought I was weak, that I wouldn’t be able to do my duty when it came to the horde. In a way, I suspected she was right. I was out of my element, thrown into a life I wasn’t prepared for. I’d never evenwantedto be queen to Arokan’s horde and I sure as hell didn’t ask for it.
But now, it didn’t matter. Iwasqueen. It was done. Arokan had chosen me for reasons I still didn’t understand and his aunt hated me for it.
“Is she the only relation theVorakkarhas within the horde?” I asked.
“Lysi,” Mirari said. “She is the last female of their line. He is the last male. Unless you bear theVorakkara daughter and a son.”
I went quiet, processing her words. I couldn’t force Hukan to accept me. She merely tolerated my presence because of Arokan.
Whatever needs to happen will happen, I decided. It was best not to dwell on it.
A cracking branch made me stiffen and our heads jerked towards the sound. But through the density of the forest, I could see nothing or no one.
Memories of my mother rose, though I tried to push them back. Suddenly, I was fifteen again, alone in the icy forest during the cold season, desperately looking for my mother, a tangy, metallic smell permeating the air. Something had been watching me, something had been following me.
“We should turn back now,Missiki,” Mirari said, breaking me out of that particular memory. “We have gone far enough.”
I nodded, my heart beat drumming in my chest, and we turned around, heading back towards the camp. I heard another branch snap behind us and we picked up the pace, none of us talking until we reached the edge of the camp again. Even the Dakkari feared the beasts in the wilds, it seemed.
A small burst of relief made me exhale a sharp breath when I saw the busy camp, much busier than it had been that morning. A short distance away, I saw my tent, but the thought of returning filled me with restlessness so I turned away.
“Missiki,” Mirari called, questioning.
“Let’s walk through camp and see if anything needs to be done,” I said in return.
She sputtered, protesting, and hurried her pace to keep up with me, as did Lavi. “Missiki, you areMorakkarinow. You do not help with these things. TheVorakkarwould be most displeased if—”
“What am I expected to do here?” I asked, stopping to turn towards her. “I need to dosomething.”
“I do not know what theVorakkar’s plans are for you but I do not—”
I cut her off by saying, “Well, let me go ask him. Where is he?”
Mirari’s gold painted eyelids fluttered in shock.
