Chapter 2
The first thing I noticed when Inkiri slid the door of our room open was that Aer smelled different.
When Vergis had brought me here after the spider incident, the scent of those small white flowers that made you high when chewed had permeated the air, but here, I got a noseful of what it was like being in a city, not in a forest.
At first, I wasn’t sure how to categorize the differences. The white flowers had been sweet, their fragrance soft. Here, the air was thicker with strangeness, and first and foremost, I got the sense that we were close to a river.
Wide-eyed, I walked past Inkiri onto a wooden porch outside our room. It was separated from a garden by a decorative banister with carvings of vines and flowers that looked straight out of a fairy tale.
I looked out over the banister, which was tall for me, of course, but normal height for bagua.
I caught flowery scents from pots and small flower beds I could see around the area.
There was also water or mud—something briny maybe.
Patches of moss rather than grass made up most of the garden, and the earth looked moist, even had some puddles here and there.
From the moss, small white and red flowers lifted their heads to the sun.
Not a river, then, but a type of wetland garden.
More covered wooden walkways connected several buildings beyond the one our room was in, and they ran above the garden area with no way of stepping off and heading into the wet green area itself.
It had to be decorative, then; like a park, but only to look at.
I had the urge to explore the walkways. From here I could tell that the view would change depending on which walkway you were on.
Inkiri stepped up behind me, and I turned to face him. “What do you think of this place, Sadir? Do you like it?”
He sounded hopeful, although the way he was leaning against the doorframe made him look confident enough not to need hope.
“I do. It’s pretty. It’s not like anywhere I’ve ever been, but I like this place. I mean, of course it’s not like anywhere I’ve ever been. This is Aer, and I’ve only ever been to places on Earth. Obviously.”
The morning had gone well, and I was seemingly due for some awkwardness. Before I could make it worse, the sound of footsteps approaching at a jog made me turn, and I saw Nokim rushing along the porch straight for me.
Moments later, he threw his arms around me and hugged me close.
“Rory! We were so glad when we heard you in your pleasure earlier! Vergis said hugging you was okay. You saved me! And Lissir! Lissir’s fine, thanks to you. You saved everyone!”
Inkiri clicked happily. Nokim made a half purr, half growl kind of noise, and his right horn was too darn close to my face. One of these days, one of them would headbutt me with their horns and I’d end up concussed.
Also, Nokim wasn’t showing any signs that he’d be ending the hug anytime soon. Vergis, the ass, had probably told him I liked really long hugs. I didn’t want to think about what exactly they had heard. Why did we have to end up in a place that didn’t do solid, sound-dampening walls?
I patted his back. “Anytime. Uhm, mind letting me go?”
Nokim pulled back immediately, and when I saw the wide smile on his azure face, his words really hit. He’d been dead. And Lissir had been as good as dead.
I turned and looked at Inkiri, who seemed pleased by my interaction with Nokim, and realized he wasn’t wearing the black clothes he normally wore, but the ones the hotel had provided; a loose-fitting purple garment with blue petal patterns woven into it. Nokim wore the same. That was odd.
Then I remembered. Inkiri’s clothes had been torn open.
I gasped. “Ink, did you get shot?”
He had been. I knew that, remembered it, but not like a memory of something I’d been part of. This was that different kind of knowing. It had seemed natural when my hands were on the Stone of Destiny, when the Stone had sung and I’d been able to see what was going on all around me.
Now, I wasn’t so sure I could trust that unnatural knowledge, if Inkiri’s black clothes had really been shot to bits.
But the knowledge of him getting shot lived right next to the certainty that he was mine—my mate, soul mate, the word didn’t really matter.
He was for me and I was for him, like presents we’d exchanged with one another. Strangely enough, I trusted that.
Inkiri tilted his head. “Yes. They were trying to shoot you.” He rubbed my back. “But you don’t need to worry right now.” He cast a meaningful look at Nokim. “Rory is hungry and needs to eat.”
Nokim nodded. “We just ordered breakfast.” He rocked back and forth on his paw-like feet. “I’m excited to see what he likes. It’s the first honkora week here. I say we take him to see it.”
Inkiri frowned. “We decided on a few days of rest, Noki.”
Nokim crossed his arms. “Maybe he will find honkora week restful. Do not be… Oh, is it spillsport, Rory?”
“I think you mean spoilsport.” I shrugged and blinked up at Inkiri. “Sorry, but he asked.”
Inkiri clicked at me. “Nokim and his inquisitive mind. Don’t worry about it, Sadir.”
I cleared my throat. “I can definitely not worry. That’s my specialty. Anyway, what’s honk roar week? Sounds kind of noisy.”
Inkiri bent to lick my neck before he said, “It translates to seed week. It used to be when farmers bought and sold their spring harvest seeds along with that season’s harvest. These days, it’s mostly a street festival with much food and drink.”
“With wine, women, and song!” Nokim turned on the spot like a dancer before going back to his overexcited rocking.
Inkiri put his hand on the small of my back and nudged me forward. “Something to discuss later, Noki.”
“Ah, always so worried.” Nokim fell into step on my other side.
“He was worrying also back on Earth when you and Vergis were gone. Then he worried yesterday when you just smiled as if you were high, as Vergis said. I said you were probably happy because you had saved everyone, but Vergis is better at reading human faces.”
I cackled. “High? Well, that’s sanctimonious coming from someone who just randomly chews on flowers.”
“What’s sanctimonious?” Nokim asked.
I waved my hand in front of my face. “Him chewing those flowers to get high and then calling me high despite me never even smoking a joint.”
Inkiri clicked. “He is asking what the word means, Sadir.”
Of course he was. Nokim looked at me and nodded.
I cleared my throat. “It means… It’s like the pot calling the kettle black.”
“Hmm.” Nokim cocked his head. “I’m not sure what that means either. Is it about not lying? If so, Vergis wasn’t saying something that’s not true intentionally. No one was sure what was happening to you.”
I shook my head. “No, that’s not—sanctimonious is…uh…”
I looked at Inkiri, hoping he’d help me out. He did, saying a word in their language to Nokim.
“Ah. I don’t think Vergis meant it like that.
” Nokim’s conviction about Vergis’s intentions was admirable; admirably misguided.
“I don’t think he knew what was wrong with you, but we all wondered, and he guessed.
I don’t think he likes guessing when he isn’t sure what the right answer is, but he was trying to help. ”
The porch led past a set of open doors, and a glance inside the room beyond revealed a similar setup to where Inkiri and I had slept; just as nicely decorated inside and distracting enough to make me forget about Vergis and how I was pretty sure helping wasn’t anywhere in his vocabulary.
I pointed at the room. “This is basically a hotel, isn’t it?”
Nokim nodded. “Yes. These rooms are ours.”
That explained why they had heard…what they had heard. I needed to focus on being quieter when I was having sex with my monster boyfriend. I felt my cheeks heat.
Yeah, having sex with my boyfriend was a thing that was happening for me now. It made me feel ridiculously accomplished. So much so that when Nokim led the way into one of the rooms and through it, I was grinning stupidly and wondering when I was going to have sex with my boyfriend again.
With an effort, I managed to focus on my surroundings. The hotel layout immediately confused me, what with the sliding walls that functioned as doors and their tall lintels that accommodated horns.
The whole place was a maze of interconnecting rooms, and those colorful sliding walls were distracting. I didn’t think I’d be able to find my way back to the room I’d shared with Inkiri on my own.
At last, Nokim slid another wall aside, and instead of another room, there was a long hallway.
The hallway didn’t have windows of its own since it was nestled within the building, but it was still bright. I looked up, half expecting to see lights, but no. Above our heads, I could just barely make out windows in the ceiling, a solid two stories high, if not more.
To guide the light down, the bagua had used mirrors on the wall so that the entire length of the hallway was illuminated. The mirrors were set up at different angles, probably allowing for light to hit them at different times of day. It was ingenious.
“Wow.”
Nokim turned to me and tilted his head. “Our ceilings are usually higher than those on Earth,” he said, misunderstanding my awe.
I stopped and pointed. “No, the mirrors. That’s impressive.”
Inkiri chuckled. “Good to see you impressed. I should’ve remembered you like bright things, Sadir.”
I pouted up at him. “It’s not that. It’s smartly designed, and I can appreciate that.
I’ve never seen anything like this place.
” I gestured all around me, at the wall screens painted with sprawling nature scenes.
“Or anything as pretty.” I pointed at an animal I’d spotted in one of the drawings, hiding behind a tree.
It looked adorable, with fluffy white ears on top of a round white body. “And cute.”
Inkiri seemed to brighten at that. “Cute? You find ligua cute?”
“That’s what this is? Lick war?”