CHAPTER THIRTEEN #2
“The order will be delivered to Aiden’s home this afternoon,” I told Jai. “The city has a very good delivery service that comes four or five times a day.” Once that task was complete, I was able to relax more, the faint buzz of compulsion from my master’s order fading out.
I considered where to start with the rest of our conversation.
All dimari were a little apprehensive when first meeting their masters.
We were never told who our master was going to be, not even what species they were, and in the first couple of weeks, the pressure to learn the nuances and details of our new master’s life could be overwhelming.
But I suspected from his behaviour that Jai’s fears went beyond the normal nervousness about making a good impression. But at the same time, he clearly didn’t trust me yet, in addition to not trusting our master. I wondered what I could tell him that might be reassuring for him.
But the answer was fairly obvious. My own start with my master had been shaky and chaotic, and not at all what I’d been expecting. Jai had been dropped in the deep end, as it were, with Aiden having to rush away after they’d only just met. So perhaps we had more in common than he realised.
“When I first met Aiden, my crate got dropped into the middle of the jungle north of Hon,” I told him, then belatedly added, “Please, sit down.” I gestured to the seat opposite me, and for once, he complied without resisting.
“The Eumadian ship I was on was shot down by the Culrads. This was before they had joined the Alliance. Aiden opened my crate, barely had time to say hello, and then we were suddenly being shot at, before he’d even had a chance to tell me his name.
Then we went on a three day trek through the jungle, for which I only had the Eumadian uniform, not any proper combat clothes, no proper bed roll, and only protein bars for food.
I was disappointed at the time, that my master wasn’t more prepared for my arrival,” I admitted, although privately, I knew that disappointment wasn’t really the correct word.
What I understood now was that my master had had absolutely no idea I was there and had only stumbled upon me by accident.
But that certainly wasn’t something I was going to tell Jai, and was also not the point I was trying to make.
“My point is that his work in the military can include a lot of unexpected changes in plans or urgent missions that come up with hardly any notice. I know he feels very bad about having to leave you this morning.”
“I don’t care whether or not my master had to leave me,” Jai cut me off, scowling at me. “It will all be the same in the end.”
That was not the reaction I’d been expecting.
How did he maintain such open hostility in the face of my attempts to be friendly?
There was definitely something wrong here, but I was no closer to figuring out what it was.
“I’m interested to know more about your training,” I said next, hoping there were some clues in there that would help me understand him.
“You were trained as both a combat specialist and an erotic companion.”
“I have no desire to tell you about my training,” Jai said sharply. “Unless, of course, you’re going to order me to do so.”
I felt that rejection like a knife to the gut.
I felt my scales ripple, and I was unable to maintain eye contact with him.
I’d accepted having a new dimari in our family – had encouraged Aiden to adopt Jai, in fact – because I’d held a dozen or more fantasies about how delightful it would be to have so much common ground with a new friend.
I’d imagined developing private jokes, and teasing Aiden together, and having light-hearted squabbles about whose turn it was to share our master’s bed.
But instead, I was being snarled at by a man who very clearly wanted me to mind my own damn business.
“All right, then,” I said, once I’d recovered from my shock.
“In that case, I’ll tell you more about Rendol 4.
” That was what my master had ordered me to do, and Jai was going to need the information, one way or another.
I also disliked the idea of disappointing my master if I failed to prepare his new dimari for his role here.
So I told Jai about Aiden’s work in the military, and about Colonel Henderson, who ran the base.
I explained how the Culrads had recently joined the Alliance, and described the cosy villa where we lived.
And all the while, I was intensely aware of the fact that I was staring down the barrel of perhaps seventy or eighty years of both of us being bonded to Aiden, and of Jai insisting on this resentful gulf between us the entire time.
The idea that he might not like me had never even occurred to me.
After about an hour of talking, I finally fell silent. I had nothing else I needed to say to him, and he clearly had no desire to answer any of the questions I might have wanted to ask. I checked the time on my comm. It was only half past three. It was going to be a long afternoon.
But a minute or two after I trailed off, I was surprised to hear Jai speak. “How many staff work here on the base?” he asked.
I considered being difficult, but then decided to just answer the question.
Jai might be going out of his way to be antagonistic, but that wasn’t my style.
“It varies depending on what operations are going on at the time, but usually somewhere between three and five hundred. If there are a lot of active missions, the number of staff here will be lower.”
“Five hundred?” Jai said, with raised eyebrows. Then he muttered a curse that was too soft for me to catch. I waited, to see if he would ask anything else. Or, if I was lucky, perhaps he’d explain why he’d wanted to know.
A minute later, he spoke again. “Does our master ever…” He trailed off before finishing the question.
“Does he ever what?”
Jai shrugged, a deliberate attempt to look casual that failed spectacularly. “Some masters allow other people to make use of their dimari. Sexually. So I was wondering if your master has ever asked you to…”
“To have sex with someone other than him?” I guessed. “No, he hasn’t.”
Jai grunted and looked away. Was that what was bothering him?
Something to do with his training as an erotic companion?
He hadn’t yet been given any orders of a sexual nature, and I’d largely left that part out of my explanation on his role in Aiden’s life.
Sex was a reward from master to dimari, and it was certainly not my place to speculate on when or how often Aiden might decide to reward Jai that way.
I knew that Jai’s status as an erotic companion was going to make things complicated, but Aiden hadn’t said anything about what that was going to look like on a daily basis, and he certainly hadn’t asked me to explain any of it to Jai.
We both fell silent again, and with my orders officially complete, and Jai not interested in conversation, the afternoon dragged on in a way that felt like we were waiting for a continent to move enough to be measured.
With the rest of the dimari having been sent home with their new masters, I didn’t even have any work to be doing at the moment, and I resorted to staring out the window at the trees outside, counting the leaves and comparing the various shades of brown on the bark.
Finally, an hour and a half later, the door opened and Aiden came in, looking tired but not angry or upset. And for that, at least, I was grateful.
“The Parliament is interested in protecting the Vangravian woman,” he announced, as he slumped into his chair.
“They’re doing some preliminary planning.
Meanwhile, Henderson is having kittens, and I just got my ear chewed off by an Anicrian smuggler,” he added, with a wince.
“But the good news is that I’m off duty for the rest of the evening.
Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day, but let’s tackle that one when we get there.
And while I think of it, Jai, all conversation and details about anything to do with the Vangravian female are absolutely off limits for anyone except me, Kade and Colonel Henderson.
And that includes everything I just told you about my afternoon. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Jai answered, with no hint of complaint about the order.
“Okay, and just so you know, this…” He fiddled with his comm, then an image of Colonel Henderson appeared on the screen.
“…is Colonel Henderson. He’s in charge of this base.
I’ll introduce you to him in person later.
Once we get you settled in, you’ll need to go through some remedial training with our military, just to make sure you’re aware of all the various procedures we use, and Henderson will go through some screening questions with you.
That probably won’t be happening for at least a week.
We’ve still got a few things to wrap up with our last assignment, and of course, we’ve now got this Vangravian issue to deal with as well.
” He sighed and took a deep breath. “So how did you two go this afternoon?” he asked next.
I glanced at Jai. “It was… productive,” I reported, deliberately leaving any notable enthusiasm out of my voice.
Aiden would pick up on my mood, and I fully expected him to ask me about it in more detail later, once we were home.
And once we were out of earshot of Jai. I owed it to my master to give him an accurate picture of Jai’s reactions, but at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling guilty about ratting him out.
His behaviour was not at all like that of a properly trained dimari, and I could only hope that between the two of us, my master and I could work out what was wrong.
My master said nothing, but his eyes slid across to Jai. Jai met his gaze head on, his icy blue eyes meeting Aiden’s warm brown ones, and the pair of them stared at each other for a long moment.
“Well,” my master said, his tone clipped. “Let’s get packed up here and head home. It’s been a long day, and I, for one, need an early night.”