“Then what do you do with it?”
He smiled gently at her. “You play with dolls.”
“Play? The Simi doesn’t understand.”
He returned the doll to the table. “I guess Charonte don’t have human dolls, do they? Human girls pretend the dolls are their babies and they practice being mothers with them.”
That didn’t make sense. “Why?”
“The same reason little boys play with soldiers. So that we can pretend to be grown up for a little while.”
Simi was trying hard to understand. But it seemed silly to her. “But why?”
He shrugged. “It’s what kids do. It comforts them.”
“Human children are very strange, akri. Why won’t you let me eat them?”
Laughing, he shook his head. “Eating humans is wrong.”
“Not what my matera said … or yours.”
“It’s what your akri says.”
Simi let out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. Not kiddy eats. Or grown-up eats.” She chewed on another piece of meat. “Moo-moos are good, though.”
She paused as she caught another whiff of Mot. Turning her head, she tried to find him in the small human crowd, but there was no sight of him anywhere.
Even so, a chill went up her spine. Mot didn’t like akri. He wanted to hurt him. She knew that with every part of her being. And the best way to hurt her akri was to hurt his Simi.
I better watch for the evil.
Mot wouldn’t be happy until he made akri cry.
Leucious was furious as he made his way back to their horses. He still didn’t know why he’d bothered to try and apologize to a little girl, even if she was Acheron’s.
His father would beat him for such rancid stupidity.
For such weakness.
He was seven-and-ten. A man. No, a ruthless warrior who’d proven himself in battle. Even his father, King Tesiah of the Brakadians was proud of him and that was no easy feat.
Tesiah was a brutal warlord who had murdered all four of Leucious’s older sisters for no other reason than they’d been born daughters.
And I’ll kill you too, brat, if you disappoint me.
That was no idle threat. Just a promise made by a man who looked for any reason to beat his son.
If his father ever learned he’d purchased a doll for a little girl, there was no telling how badly he’d be punished for it. Knowing Tesiah, he’d probably make him eat the doll.
Why did I do such a thing? One moment he’d been walking past the female merchant selling them and the next …
He bought one because he’d wanted to see Simi smile.
It’d been stupid really, but Leucious couldn’t help it. Simi had been absolutely adorable in her reaction when he’d growled at her. Utterly unexpected. And her laughter had been infectious and heart-warming.
At least, he’d realized all that after his initial anger had faded.
As he neared his black warhorse, his servant bowed low enough that he almost touched Leucious’s boots. He barely gave it a thought as he swung himself up into the saddle. The moment he did, his men came rushing from all areas of the town so that they could ride with him. Not out of loyalty but rather fear of what his father would do to them should they lag behind.
