Chapter 8 #2
The pair of First Clan warriors standing guard stiffened further upon seeing Kai, their knuckles whitening around spears with polished wood shafts.
Both were outfitted in their ceremonial uniform—hardened leather breastplates reinforced by bone and metal.
They wore cloaks made from animal hide, fastened at the shoulders with gleaming silver broaches.
There wasn’t a wrinkle, rip, fray, or smudge anywhere to be found.
Not even a stray hair was out of place in the tight buns they pinned low on the backs of their heads.
Kai nodded her approval, and the females—to their credit—didn’t treat it like a release. They remained in position, still as stone.
Inside the hall, the air was alive with sound. Bronze Raven females of Fourth Clan played music near the central dais. There were bone flutes, drums covered with animal hide, lutes, rattles, and pipes carved from animal horns.
Laughter and conversation cascaded across the hall and the stone tiers radiating outward from the dais. All nine clans mingled and arranged woven blankets to sit on.
On the dais, eight clan matriarchs gathered with Kai’s mother, Shadi, and spoke in hushed tones, their expressions subdued. Attending was their duty—there was no room for the nervous energy currently coursing through their clans.
One day, Kai would stand there as the Grand Matriarch, sitting on her cold stone throne central to eight other females as the Eternal One arranged marriages, whether or not they were wanted.
Acid climbed Kai’s throat, and she coughed to keep her throat from closing up.
Fala turned at the sound. For just a moment, Kai thought Fala might take her hand. At the very least, close some of this painful distance.
Fala only lowered her gaze and cleared her throat. “I’m going to find my mother.”
No invitation came. No room for argument, either.
Only a clear desire to be anywhere Kai wasn’t, even if for an hour.
Fala climbed the nearest tier on her right, hips sashaying her long skirt.
She wove through and around clusters of people, sharing a bright smile that Kai hadn’t seen since that morning.
Fala was more upset than she imagined. She’d never intentionally taken steps to hurt Kai. She’d gone too far, earlier, but to spend this hour apart? Kai considered following, but the truth was, it was a selfish want. Fala needed time, and Kai would give it to her.
Chilled despite the natural heat of the chamber, Kai made her way toward the dais.
Her mother, Doli, and her father, Tse, had already arranged cushions and blankets on the lowest tier.
As she approached, they nodded warm greetings, but much of their attention fell on the rest of their adult children and the younglings surrounding them.
The sheer size of her family came over her like an avalanche of ice and snow, and Kai couldn’t take another step.
No one knew her better than her blood, and she couldn’t let them see how upset she was.
She wouldn’t survive the questions—the interrogation—especially once they realized Fala wasn’t with her.
“Kai!”
Kai followed the call to where her second, Otekah Silver Wolf, sat with some of her other warriors on the second tier.
Second Daughter, Sitsi, first of Doli, sat with the warrior females, shoulder-to-shoulder with Niabi White Spirit.
Flirting, by the looks of it. Shadi would explode if another of her daughters married outside the clan.
Kai knew better than to believe Sitsi would do such a thing. She was too much like Shadi in that respect and would make a perfect Grand Matriarch one day—if Shadi would allow it. Which she wouldn’t.
“What happened?” Otekah asked once Kai lowered into the space beside her dearest friend and fiercest warrior. “Where’s Fala?”
“Fala lost a child today and took it badly. She’s with her mother.”
On the dais, the Eternal One climbed the steps, and a hush started across the room. Two of the Unseen, robed and hooded, kept pace behind her, their faces hidden. Each carried stacks of rolled parchment in a woven basket: the names.
Kai’s stomach turned, and her dry throat clicked on a swallow.
Otekah continued talking as if they had all the time in the world. “Normally, I’d think nothing of the two of you sitting apart, but tonight of all nights? What did you do?”
“Why does it have to be something I did? Why does it have to be anything?”
Otekah arched a single brow, and her lips quirked.
Kai sighed. “Fine, I—”
The rhythmic beat of the drums signaled the start of the final ceremony, and each landing strike throbbed inside Kai’s chest like a second heartbeat.
The hall went quiet, and those standing found their seats.
On the dais, the eight clan matriarchs sat on either side of Shadi’s central throne.
Each chair was backed against the central raging bonfire.
The Eternal One found Kai within the crowd and gave her a long, knowing stare.
She hadn’t taken Kai’s arguments to heart at all, and this was the only warning Kai would receive.
Without preamble, the Eternal One held out a palm to one of the Unseen, and a parchment landed there a moment later. She unrolled the paper and read. “Viho Crimson Wing.”
A male from Eighth Clan, two ovals tattooed between his brows, rose on Kai’s left side, only a few feet away. Close enough that she noted the way his throat dipped deep on a swallow.
“Ayashe Crimson Wing,” the Eternal One continued, then scanned the hall until spotting the young female standing on the other side of the room. “Come forward and have your union blessed.”
For the next few minutes, the crowd hummed as the two met before the Crimson Wing matriarch for their official blessing.
And so it went like this for the next three-quarters of an hour. The males were paired with either a single female or two, and not one of them questioned the will of the gods.
Kai was losing the feeling in her legs and butt and longed for the hour to end so she could stand and stretch.
As time passed, her thoughts often drifted toward Fala, who sat with her parents and siblings on the far side of the room, two tiers from the top.
More than anything, she wanted the hour to end so she could speak to her wife.
She didn’t like being apart from her, even if she was within sight.
“Fala Quiet Rock.”
Kai’s heart lurched, and she realized suddenly just how far her mind had drifted. She’d missed the male’s name being called. She straightened, unable to blink as her wife rose. Fala held her chin high and back straight, a cliff face against a battling storm surge.
Otekah’s hand clenched around Kai’s. “Breathe,” she whispered.
But Kai could only follow Fala’s line of sight to a male standing two tiers up and twenty feet to Kai’s left.
Not just any male. The male. The one she’d seen naked only two hours ago.
Kai’s heart leapt directly into her throat.
He, however, showed no sign of agitation or stress.
Unlike Shadi, who sat forward on her throne and clenched the stone arms. Her gaze shaped a triangular pattern through the air that started with Fala, then to the male whose name Kai still didn’t know, and finally Shadi’s attention landed on Kai just as—
“Kai Silver Wolf. Come forward and have your union blessed.”
A sharp jab landed between Kai’s shoulders. Sitsi hissed at her from behind. “Go, sister, before Mother burns you alive.”
Kai couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She’d expected this would happen, but with the hour drawing to a close, the hope of escape had begun shaping into a reality. She’d made entire plans for how she would make things up to Fala tonight, and none of them had included a husband.
A large hand broke through her blurred vision in an offer to help her up.
She followed the long length of his arm up to a firm, round shoulder.
The male’s naked, broad chest tapered to a narrow waist, and he wore supple leather pants.
Unlike before, his dark brown hair hung long and straight to mid-back.
Kai met his warm brown eyes, and he offered her a small smile.
She couldn’t return it. The Eternal One chose a male for her who was neither Silver Wolf nor Quiet Rock. He was Rising Moon.
The entire hall was buzzing. This never happened.
The male glanced around, then came to a knee before her. “Are you all right?” His rich, deep voice was so low that only those nearest Kai would have heard him.
“I’m fine,” Kai clipped.
Shadi strode toward the Eternal One and grabbed her by the wrist. Whatever she was saying, the meaning was all over her face. She wasn’t happy. In fact, she was furious.
And to think this could have all been avoided. Shadi could have helped Kai years ago when Kai first asked to be left out of this ceremony. Now, look where they were.
Kai stood, ignoring the male’s offer up, and shouldered past him. Fala waited at the bottom, gaze flicking between Kai and the male keeping pace behind her.
Fala reached for her hands and squeezed them so hard that her knuckles crushed together. “Kai, please don’t do this.”
“Do what? You’re hurting me, Fala.” She pulled her hands free and shook the blood back into them.
“Do not go up there and refuse him in front of everyone.”
Kai leaned away from the accusation and backed right into a hard chest. Startled, she stepped out of their closing ranks.
Everyone in the hall stared and whispered, waiting for the three of them to take their place on the dais.
An hour ago, she fully intended to stride right up to the Eternal One and voice her refusal.
Loudly.
Then Fala turned her back and refused to sit with her. Refused to talk to her.
Kai couldn’t lose her. Not over this.
“We should go up there,” Kai said, focusing on the male’s boots. The leather toes were scuffed, much like many from Rising Moon, as their clan managed the mountain’s infrastructure and mining.
Fala and the male exchanged a look, and then he offered Fala his right elbow. She took it, and Kai’s heart dipped toward the stone floor. Was this what her life would be now? Watching them fit while she frayed? Both beautiful, she with soft curves and he with sharp angles.
And standing opposite them…her. Exacting. Malignant. So desperate to hold onto her wife that she would cut out an entire part of herself.
Heat burned the backs of Kai’s eyes as the male offered her his remaining elbow. But her hands hung leaden at her sides. She couldn’t. It felt wrong. It was all wrong.
Fala’s eyes widened a fraction. “Kai.”
Kai shook the drowning feeling off and straightened. “I’m right behind you.”
On the dais, Shadi stood beside two other matriarchs, one representing Quiet Rock and the other Rising Moon.
Shadi and Panola Quiet Rock had come together once before to officiate the unheard-of binding between their two clans when Kai and Fala married.
Now, Inola Rising Moon was expected to bind this male to them without warning, and her frown looked deeper than Kai’s felt.
Fala and the male each stopped in front of their respective matriarchs.
The Eternal One stopped Kai at the top of the stairs, her hand loose around Kai’s wrist. “This will work out, Kai Silver Wolf. You have my word.”
Kai hated her. More than anyone or anything, Kai despised this woman.
She’d heard Kai’s fears and concerns and had dismissed them entirely.
“Then let me give you my word in return.” Kai’s tone came as if scraped across mountain stone.
“The line of the Grand Matriarch will end with me. I will bear no children from this union.”
“Kai,” Shadi hissed, eyes flaring.
Kai shouldered past the Eternal One and stood before her mother. “Say the words. Finish this.”
Shadi pulled in a deep breath through her nose, jaw clenching.
“Be glad I’m not walking from this hall right now,” Kai whispered. “Do it, and know you could have stopped this.”
To her right, the male shifted a touch closer—barely anything noteworthy. Enough to remind Kai that she wasn’t alone. His earlier words came back and almost—almost—comforted her. “Sometimes I wish I could be more like your wife; she seems ready.”
Shadi took Kai by the back of the neck and pressed their foreheads together. “Under the watchful eyes of our ancestors and the enduring strength of our people, I unite you, Kai Silver Wolf into the sacred bond of marriage.”
Shadi stepped away, and Inola Rising Moon stepped forward. The male had to bend for their tattooed foreheads to meet. “Under the watchful eyes of our ancestors and the enduring strength of our people, I unite you, Atsadi Rising Moon, into the sacred bond of marriage.”
Hearing his name for the first time, Kai almost missed Fala’s moment as Panola Quiet Rock repeated the vow. She hadn’t known him by sight, but he wasn’t an unknown. Every clan had that one person who rose above all the rest, whether that be in skill or sheer charm—he was Rising Moon’s.
Perfect. Polished.
Palatable.
Once Fala’s vow was finished, Shadi continued. “Kai Silver Wolf, First Daughter, do you vow to honor and protect this union, sharing your life and spirit in unwavering harmony?”
Kai looked past Atsadi. Fala met her gaze, a tear slipping over her high cheekbone.
“I do,” she said, and tasted the bitter lie on her tongue.
Atsadi and Fala made the same vow, and at the end, the two exchanged a smile. Kai fisted her hands and shut her eyes for the final words.
“I now pronounce you,” Shadi said, “bound. May your union be a beacon of hope and strength for us all.”
The words punched through her chest. She stumbled back. The world blurred. She couldn’t breathe.
“Kai?”
Not even the concern in Fala’s voice could hold her. Stop her from tripping down the dais stairs. Kai fought the rise of her dinner, focusing on the pathway leading to the archway out…out…out. She couldn’t be here anymore, and thanks be to the gods, her presence was no longer required.
Behind her, only silence remained.