“Eventhiscold?” I questioned, looking back at the pole, bringing my bow up. I tilted down slightly, trying to loosen my fingers when they curled too tightly.
He was quiet until I let the arrow fly. It hit, a little more left than I’d aimed for.
Then he said, “Lysi, this cold. It makes everything seem…quiet.”
“Then you must be sad when the cold season comes to an end,” I murmured, glancing over at him.
“Lysi, a part of me. But the end of the cold season also means traveling to a new home, so I look forward to it as well.”
I paused. I’d always figured the hordes moved around, following their game, but that was before I saw the massive layout of the encampment…the fences, the tents, thepyrokienclosure.
“Neffar?”
“It just seems like a lot of work to move this place somewhere else,” I told him, waving my hand at the encampment behind him.
“It is,” he said. “But during the cold season, we protect the encampment with the fence and build larger enclosures for thepyrokis’nesting grounds. Once the cold season ends, it is not as much work. You will see for yourself.”
“I return to my village after the cold season,” I informed him, nocking another arrow.
“But theVorakkarsurely wishes for you to stay,” he said quietly, his voice dropping. “Lysi?”
My breath left me but I didn’t release the arrow. “Why do you say that?” I rasped, turning to him.
He shifted. “Like I said, the Dakkari like to talk.”
I frowned. “And what’s been said around the horde?”
“That he has taken an interest in you,” he explained, with only slight embarrassment. “Why else would you be sharing hisvoliki?”
“Because my own needed to be built,” I explained, feeling strangely defensive. “There were other tasks to finish first.”
“A horde child could build avoliki,” the warrior scoffed. “It would have taken a day at most.”
Yet I’d stayed in Seerin’s bed for much, much longer.
Well, of course, I thought after thinking about it.He wanted sex.
“It’s not like that,” I protested. “TheVorakkarhas no interest in me.”
My words didn’t satisfy me, however. Just that evening, Seerin had told me if he was a human male in my village, he would have claimed me long ago. Had he meant sex or something else, something more?
“Rath Kitala’sVorakkartook a humanMorakkarirecently,” the warrior said next. “Most are wondering if ourVorakkarwill do the same.”
Shock held me frozen as longing and disbelief created a strange mixture of bubbling emotion in my chest.
“What do you mean? AnotherVorakkartook ahumanas his wife?”
“Lysi,” he said, inclining his head. “You did not know?”
Of course not.
How could I have known? Seerin certainly hadn’t offered up that information.
I am not yours, Nelle. Do not ever think of me as yours.
His words felt like they’d punctured through my chest.
“I assure you,” I told the warrior, “that theVorakkarhas no interest in me for hisMorakkari.ThatI know for certain.”
