Birun smiled.“So, you care about her.”
“Yes.I...yes.” Aken-Var sighed.“She glows to my vision.”
Birun paused.“That is high praise from you.”
“It was unexpected.She was just sitting in a cell with her eyes dull and waiting for her next fight.She bloomed when light touched her, and that is when I had her unmarked.”
Birun blinked.“But from what the ladies tell me, she is marked now.”
“Yes.Members of the women’s quarters resented her effect on me and threw her in a cell.After a few days, she used the jewels I had furnished her with to replace her original marks.When blood was found on one of the trays they were using to feed her, someone looked in on her.She was slumped against the back wall, and she looked at them with dull eyes.She said,There, now you don’t have to worry, I am off the menu.”He grimaced.“I confess to misdirecting my anger in the court.She stood there with blood running down her, completely unrepentant.When she said that if I put her in the women’s quarters again, she would repeat it, I gave up.She went up in the warrior-for-hire files and was on a mission days later.This was the third.”
“But you still want her.”
“More with everything I learn about her.She calls me a liar, and she was right.I blithely promised her that she would be safe.I was so wrong.”
Birun smiled.“How do your people find a mate?”
“The glow.If our would-be partner glows to our eyes and we are physically compatible, we make our public declaration and contract.I was told that my mate would be a warrior of a dead world with no marks.”
Birun snorted.“So, when you saw her, you made it happen.”
“Yes.I have been using my men to keep an eye on her, but she spots me every time, so I asked them to bug the vessel, and that is going fairly well.”
Birun laughed.“Until she catches you.”
“I am hoping that won’t happen before I can meet with her in person.”
“You think she will allow that?”
Aken-Var sighed.“Thanks to the spying, I know when and where we will meet.I just have to make sure she is alive until then.”
Birun laughed.“Are you worried about that?”
“One of my generals has put a price on her.I am respecting her urge to be out and on this mission.Her recent life has been a series of confinements, and it was something that I had not considered.I was treating her like a free woman, not someone who had been in and out of bond, or in this case, she had been taken on her way to her bond.She had not known peace since her world was broken.”
Birun nodded.“Trin had family through it, but she still bears some trauma from what happened, before and after.Her craving for a calm environment is intense.She is also a little baby-crazy, which is good considering that our child should be here in eight months.Isolde’s child will be her practice baby.”
“Are you sure that Coren will not come and claim them?It is within his right.”
Birun smiled.“He will have to deal with Trin and Cori.They will not easily surrender their sibling.Doubly for their nibling.”
Aken-Var frowned.“Nibling?”
“Child of either gender from a sibling.”Birun grinned.“It is cute.”
Aken-Var realized that, at that point, Birun was completely besotted by his consort.He was jealous of the big, winged bastard.
Baket began to alert him, and Aken-Var turned to see Margo standing with a damp cloth cleaning her nose, mouth, and neck.Blood was still all over her suit.
“So, now the Hmrain are in on the gossip session.Hey, Birun.Aken-Var, what the hell are you doing to Baket?He’s going to get an identity crisis.”
“He is kin, and the easiest to walk in.”Aken-Var looked at her warily.He took in a deep breath.“I will say this when we are face-to-face again, but I am sorry.I am sorry I healed you without your consent.I am sorry I brought you to a place where you should have been safe and left you with those who betrayed both of us over jealousy.I am sorry I shouted at you when you replaced your markings, and I am sorry that I let you leave.”
She came to a halt.“I was not expecting that.”
He stood.“I will do better in person, Yalut-yah.”
* * * *
