7. Chapter 7
Without the translator, communicating with Carl would be harder but not impossible. I kneeled by his side where he was tied to the narran tree. His gray eyes were as cold as ever, but now a spark of fear rested within his gaze. Good. He should fear me. The mask of friendliness I had been wearing over the past few days was gone. I allowed all my disdain and hate for the male to show on my facial features. With satisfaction, I noted the spark of fear turning into a flame.
"You tricked me." He accused in English.
I had worked hard to learn their language; I understood it more than I spoke it, but that was fine.
"You killed our gallies, women," I told him coldly, adding the last word in English.
He shook his head. "We did—"
I interrupted him, "Nek we , you."
His pupils dilated, pushing the gray aside. He was still shaking his head. "No, I didn't. How would I—"
I waved my hand, not knowing the word for intentional. I led his remark slide. "You attack us."
"You killed our people first"." He set his expression stubbornly. He wasn't scared enough yet. As a man of power, he was used to being protected; it would take a bit more for him to truly fear me. I could have used my knife to make my intentions clearer, but I didn't want to wear him out yet. We were on Vandruk. He was in my territory, and I had all the time in the world to make him talk.
Without another word, I rose. Maybe a night tied to a tree would make him more pliant.
I walked over to the fire where my warriors waited for me, past the tent housing Rachel. The temptation to go in and check on her was great, but I resisted. She, too, needed to get used to my company first.
You took a gallis against her will , my conscience accused.
I had.
"Khadahr, it is good seeing you again," Rhon-Dhar greeted me, holding out a flask filled with skoff—the Vandruk version of alcohol.
After spending so much time with the humans, the skoff tasted worse than usual. If the humans had one redeeming quality, it was their alcohol. I had never imagined there could be so many different varieties.
"It's good to be back"." I allowed an obvious shudder to move through my body after a large swallow of the vile liquid. Much to my warrior's amusement.
"Is he the leader you were after?" Rhon-Dhar nodded in Carl's direction.
"Sa, he invented the red fog, but there are others who helped… finance it." There wasn't a word in Vandruk for finance, so I used the English word trying to figure out how to explain what I meant in Vandruk to the five warriors.
"Let's say you want to build a house, but you don't have enough rocks," I tried. Gar-Mon, the warrior most known for his brawn, not his brains, chuckled.
"Not enough rocks?"
He was right. If there was something besides water that Vandruk offered in abundance, it was rocks.
"Let's just pretend for argument's sake, all right?"
The others nodded, and I continued, "So you, Rohk-Far"—one of my fiercest warriors, with rare blond hair, was pleased that I called him out—"you bring Rhon-Dhar six boulders, and you, Skar-Vol"—he was the fastest male I had ever met. Not only that, but he had endurance, too, making him a great messenger—"bring another six."
"What about me? How many do I bring?" Far-Dhar, the fourth of my warriors, wanted to know.
"You and Grahn-Hohn"—the last warrior in my group—"bring another six." I made sure they were all with me so far. "Now Rhon-Dhar has enough rocks to build a house."
"A house made from twenty-four rocks?" Gar-Mon asked, surprising all of us with his quick math skills but not with his question.
Rohk-Far hit him over the head with the palm of his hand. "Rhon-Dhar already had the other rocks."
"Oh"." Gar-Mon grinned.
"So you see, now Rhon-Dhar has a house, but is it really his, or does it belong to all of you who helped finance it?"
Understanding blossomed, and a small argument about the house's true owner broke out. I let them discuss it for a while, taking a moment to stare up at the sky at Koronae. The stars were out in full that night, and the colorful clouds danced through Koronae as if they were having a feast of their own. I hoped so. I hoped Mynarra was dancing her heart out.
My warriors fell silent, and I made sure to make eye contact with each one of them before I added another argument. "So now, let's say Rhon-Dhar holds a feast in that house. A feast of thankfulness for all of you who helped him build it, as well as your friends."
"He better have a lot of skoff"." Rohk-Far laughed.
I ignored him. "A fire breaks out during the feast, killing most of you."
Sensing I was heading for something serious, the warriors fell silent and waited for me. "Who is at fault? All of you for helping finance the house, or only Rhon-Dhar who built it?"
The following silence was thick as all five males pondered my question and words. Finally, Rhon-Dhar pointed at Carl. "I take it that I am him in this example."
I nodded, grateful he understood something I had been working out for myself over the past few days. Carl had built the portal, but others had helped. To what extent were the other humans responsible? Or was it all Carl's fault?
I didn't have the means to punish all the ones who had financed the portal or helped build it, but I had Carl in my hands. After some serious soul-searching and thinking, I came to the conclusion that I might have been able to forgive Carl for the death of our gallies and allowed ignorance as an excuse, but that wasn't his only crime. If I had allowed him to do so, he would have used me or another khadahr to rule Vandruk. He would have sent more humans and pillaged our world until there was nothing left. Not to mention the attacks of his warriors on ours.
Sa, Carl was guilty of many crimes.
"Then what about the others?" Rohk-Far asked.
"They are beyond our reach," I admitted grudgingly. "I need to talk to the other khadahrs. We need to close the portal off for good. We can't allow any more humans to come to our world."
The others nodded their agreement. Companionable, we stood around the fire for a while until it was time for us to go to sleep, save for a lone sentry. We would take turns guarding our small camp throughout the night, and I took first watch, staring between the fire and Carl. Every so often, my gaze wandered to the tent with the gallis inside, hoping she found the sleep she deserved and hoping that one day she would forgive me for taking her from her world.
I didn't even know if she had a mate or a child.
Guilt stabbed my heart at that thought. Guild and something else. Something I didn't want to dwell on. But I made myself a promise: I would find out in the morning if she had family back on Earth, and if she did, I would send her back, no matter how much I didn't like it.
She has to have a mate , my mind argued. 'She's too beautiful not to , so you better prepare yourself to let her go tomorrow .
It would have been the honorable thing to do. I just wasn't sure if I could.