Page 2 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

Things were not going to be easy, and he had no idea how they were going to bridge a gap of five thousand years. Annani was planning to take him to her home as if he were still her mate, and that was not going to be easy either. Perhaps it would have been better if he were to join his four companions in the house they were going to share. The nurses were going to take turns watching over them because none of them could be independent yet, and Annani could come visit.

But he could not say that. It would have offended and disappointed her.

Khiann circled the ward again, but he had lost his concentration and clipped the corner of a supply cart, then nearly collided with a monitor. He also grazed the frame of the washroom door.

When he came within a handsbreadth of an instrument cart and swerved so hard he nearly hit the wall, Annani let out a sound that was half laugh and half cry of alarm.

"Mind the wall, Khiann! You are going to hurt yourself."

"I am going to be fine." He reversed, turned the chair around, and took the next corner cleanly. "See?"

"That was perfect." She clapped, her glow intensifying with her delight.

That was incentive enough to keep going.

When he drove well, she lit up. When he bumped into things, she gasped and offered guidance, and in those few moments she was entirely unguarded, all that ancient composure forgotten.

He had begun to do a little of both on purpose. A clean turn to earn her clapping. A near miss to earn her gasp. He was not above clipping a cart he could have missed if it meant catching the sight of her half rising from her chair.

It was shameless, but he was not ashamed. Not of that. He was, however, too embarrassed to act on what he truly wanted.

He wanted to bring the chair to a stop in front of her, reach up, pull her down into his arms, and hold her in his lap as he had in their dream wedding, but his arms were still too weak. The best he could do was reach for her while lying in bed, with her leaning over him, but it would not be the embrace of a mate. She would feel how little strength he had and would pity him.

He did not want her pity.

This was not what she had waited five thousand years for. She deserved to be held by a man whose arms could hold her and offer strength and sanctuary.

The double doors opened again, and a man stepped through, one Khiann had not seen before. He looked like a middle-aged human, but he was not. He wore some sort of formal attire, and the smile on his face seemed almost painted on.

He stopped a few paces from the chair and bowed deeply. "Master Khiann," he said in the old tongue, with an accent Khiann had heard from no one else, not even Annani. It was old and pure. "It is very good to see you."

"This is Ogidu," Annani said. "I know that you do not remember him, but he remembers you."

She had told him about the Odus, his betrothal gift to her, and he knew they were part living tissue and part machine. He had hoped that something would stir in him upon seeing them, like the warmth he always felt when Annani was near or the affinity he felt when Esag came to visit. But he felt nothing except mild curiosity.

"Forgive me, Master Khiann." Ogidu straightened and produced from somewhere a folded cloth. "I did not mean to become emotional." He touched the cloth once to each eye as if he were blotting tears. "I have been looking forward to this day for some time now."

Khiann did not know what to think.

Had the Odu been moved to tears?

Annani had told him that the Odus had been gaining sentience after uncovering a hidden protocol their maker had embedded in their minds, but she had not said they were capable of such emotion.

Was it simply mimicry?

"I have been looking forward to meeting you as well," Khiann said, though he had not thought much, if at all, about the Odus. "Annani has told me a lot about you. She said that you make excellent tea."

That won him a bright smile, which had been the point. "Thank you, Master. Oridu will prepare a fresh pot once we get home."

Home. A word loaded with meaning.

He was going home.

2

ANNANI

Annani had come prepared with a pair of sun-filtering goggles to protect Khiann's eyes. He was a god, so his eyes were naturally sensitive to harsh light, but he had also just emerged from a five-thousand-year stasis during which he had been locked inside a dark box.