Epilogue Cleo
CLEO
The sun breaks over the curve of the planet below us as I take a bite of a freshly baked pastry. The buttery, sweet goodness melts on my tongue, and I do my best, and fail, not to groan out loud.
When I say I’m big, I really am big. Although timing hasn’t exactly been easy to work out, I have to be nine months gone by now. My back aches, my ankles are puffy, and Maxym loves me even more than he already did, even though I am basically a sentient moan at the current time.
“Good?” Maxym wraps an arm around me from behind, his hand caressing my stomach and avoiding the crumbs.
“Mm-hm,” I respond.
Turns out having a prince as a benefactor has some perks, not least the star flyer he gave Maxym and me when Maxym decided he wanted to leave Trefa.
I go wherever he goes, no question asked. And it wasn’t like I wanted to give birth in Tatatunga anyway. So instead, we’ve been making our way to the Sarkarnii planet, Orias, all whilst dropping in at various outposts where Maxym can ask about Gryn.
And, as is always the way, they seem to have just left, disappearing like smoke. I know it frustrates him, as does having to ask the Sarkarnii for help. But with my birth impending, we’ve run out of time.
“I’ve commed them. Some vrexer called Drelix says we can land, and he’ll meet us there,” Maxym says.
“There will be other humans too,” I remind him, as it was another reason we also chose to come to Orias.
“Of course.” Maxym gathers me in his arms and sits in the pilot seat with me on his lap. He does a very good job of making a big pregnant lady feel small and petite.
Since leaving the dome, Maxym has filled out some. Presumably all the fighting kept him from reaching his full potential. He’s impressively broad in the chest, still as heavily muscled as before only…bigger. A Gryn tank of a warrior, something he’s intensely proud of.
I very much like him bigger, especially as he’s also nestier. He seems to change out the nest he built in the largest quarters on the star flyer on an almost daily basis. I’m sure our hold is packed with nothing but nest materials. In fact, the thoughtbond tells me he’s just finished ‘making some final touches’ to his latest masterpiece.
We descend through the clouds following the co-ordinates we’ve been given, passing great mountain ranges and coming in over what is either a huge lake or an inland sea. Maxym pilots the flyer and lands where we’ve been directed as a massive Sarkarnii in his dragon form flies over us.
“I’ve asked them if they’ve been able to track down Klynn,” Maxym says.
Ever since the Sarkarnii routed the Bogarok and the Varangy from Tatatunga, no one has set eyes on Klynn. He might be a ‘vrexer’ according to Maxym, but he still cares about him in a way I think even he doesn’t quite understand. His other fellow Gryn gladiators are settled with their mates, but he somehow feels responsible for Klynn.
I’m inclined to agree with him, and given the only ship which got away was a Varangy, I can understand his fear. Klynn may have ended up in a worse situation than as a gladiator in the dome.
“If this mapping system they have is as good as they claim, maybe they can,” I say, giving his arm a supportive squeeze.
And at the same time, my stomach cramps. I drop the remains of my pastry and wrap my arms around myself.
“Little scrap?” Maxym feels my pain down the bond. “What is it?”
Almost as quick as the pain hit me, it has gone, but I’m left with a residual ache in my back I can’t ignore.
“The baby. I think he’s coming,” I say as calmly as I can, doing my level best to hide my terror through the bond.
“It is?” Maxym rises, with me in his arms. “It really is?”
“Yes, I think it’s finally time,” I say as my attempts to block him are rebuffed.
I am here for you, every step of the way, my eregri . Maxym tells me. No matter what .
And I know, I am never going to have to hide anything, from anyone, ever again.