8. Kian
KIAN
"He understood her," Alena said. "It wasn't just a reflex. Bridget tested him with straight yes-or-no questions. He answered each one correctly."
Kian put down his pen, sat back in his chair, and swiveled it to face the window.
This was great news for his mother, but before he allowed himself to celebrate, he wanted to make sure that there was really something to celebrate.
"What did Bridget ask, and how did he respond?"
"One squeeze for yes, two for no. Bridget ran him through six questions, like 'Is my hair red?' Then came 'Is my hair black?' and other questions like that, including two designed to trip him up. He got all of them right."
"That's good," he said. "I'm sure Mother is over the moon."
"She is, but she tries to play it cool and not show it. Her glow is so strong that we could turn off the lights in the ward and it would still be fully illuminated."
Kian chuckled. "She's not really trying to hide her excitement. She knows how to keep her glow in check. Did she relent on inviting Esag to see Khiann?"
"No. You need to talk to her because she dismisses me when I tell her it's not right."
"I'm not going to try to convince her to do something she doesn't want to do, and you shouldn't either.
First of all, it never works, and you know that.
Once Mother decides something, no one can convince her to change her mind.
Secondly, she is entitled to her hoarding.
She waited for Khiann for five thousand years, and every moment he's awake is precious to her. She doesn't want to share him."
"Esag is Khiann's best friend. If Khiann could communicate, and if he remembers having such a great friend, I'm sure he would want to see Esag."
"Two ifs that are not going to be relevant for weeks to come. Let it go, Alena. You've been managing our mother for two thousand years and know her better than anyone. You know I'm right."
"Yeah. It's just that I feel bad for Esag. Every time I call him with updates, I can hear his pain."
"I hear you." Kian swiveled his chair back to face his desk. "Who else is on your updates list?"
"You are always the first I call."
"I'm honored."
"Amanda is next. Then Sari. By the way, Sari has already booked a flight. She and David are arriving Sunday."
"I know. Sari called Syssi."
It wasn't easy to drag Sari out of Scotland, and Kian was grateful for every occasion that forced her to come to the village.
"How long are she and David going to stay?" he asked.
"Didn't Sari tell Syssi?"
"She might have, but I forgot to ask."
"A week with an option to extend. Sari wants to be here for Mother. She knows how important this is." Alena was quiet for a moment, but Kian could feel she wasn't done yet. "I have a feeling that Khiann's return will usher in a new era for the clan."
Kian's chest tightened with unease. "Syssi said the same thing."
"She did? When Syssi says things like that, it's as good as done."
"I know." He ran his fingers through his hair. "She didn't have a vision, but I know to take even her premonitions seriously. The question is whether the new era will be better than what preceded it or worse."
"It has to be better," Alena said. "Mother is the heart of the clan, and right now it is beating stronger and faster because she is happy. As long as Khiann doesn't disappoint her, it's going to be for the better."
"I hope so. Who else is on your to-call list?"
"Esag." She said the name with extra weight, but he ignored it. "Then Ell-rom and Morelle."
He hadn't thought of them. They hadn't known Khiann, but they were close family, and they had gone through a similar ordeal.
"I'm glad you thought of them. Does Mother remember that she has a sister and a brother who care about her?"
"She does, but right now, Khiann is her entire world. She delegates the updates to me. She hasn't spoken with Sari either."
Kian shook his head. "That's not like her, but then, I can understand. If it was Syssi on that bed, I would ignore everyone else and dedicate my attention to her."
"Yeah. I hope she will become more inclusive in a few days."
"I hope so too. What about Areana? Is she on your list?"
"I'm leaving that one to Mother," Alena said.
Kian arched a brow even though they weren't on a video call. "Why the exception? You are calling everyone else."
"I don't know. It just feels right to leave her to Mother."
"Has she called Areana?"
"I don't think so."
Kian looked at the ceiling.
His aunt was living in a converted cell three levels under downtown Los Angeles with the male who had kept Khiann in a box for five thousand years. His mother might have mixed feelings about calling her sister.
He could call Areana himself. She would tell Navuh, and the small revenge would taste sweet.
"Instead of calling Areana, you can call Kalugal and Lokan. Tell them about Khiann's progress and mention that their mother would like to hear it."
Alena laughed. "You are devious."
"I'm just being a good cousin and nephew. The family should be kept in the loop. What about Toven? Did you call him?"
"No, but I should. I'll do it right now."
"After you call Kalugal and Lokan."
She chuckled. "Right. After I call them. Bye, Kian."
He put the phone down on his desk and swiveled the chair to look out the window again.
Khiann was awake, and his mind was functioning, at least as far as understanding spoken language.
Everything else was workable, and his mother would take on the rehabilitation with gusto.
She could handle this. What she couldn't have handled was Khiann's body waking up but not his mind. That would have devastated her.
Hopefully, that was behind them, and Khiann would not deteriorate. The question was what would happen once he was released from the clinic and joined the clan as their mother's official mate.
Would she ask them to call Khiann 'Father?'
She had told them more than once that she had chosen the human males to father her children based on how much they reminded her of her lost mate.
Kian had assumed she'd meant temperament, intelligence, leadership ability, and so on, but when he'd looked upon the one he had been named after, he'd realized she had meant it literally as well as in spirit.
Still, there was no way Kian was going to call Khiann 'Father.'
He would've liked to be a better son and give his mother this gift, but he couldn't, and he hoped she would not ask it of him.
Hell, Khiann had entered stasis as a twenty-year-old. A boy, as gods and immortals went. That alone would make it impossible for Kian to call him Father even if Khiann decided to adopt all of Annani's children.
The other problem was that Kian could hardly speak to the male. His command of the old tongue would get him through a greeting, a farewell, and an apology for having such poor command of the vernacular.
It was astounding that immortals could soak up languages with ease and yet struggle with the very one their ancestors had spoken, probably because it was a dead language.
Thank the Fates for technology.
He picked up the phone again and called William.
"If you are calling about the earpieces, they are not ready yet." A chair creaked. "It's going slowly, and the bottleneck isn't the hardware. It's Toven. He gave me two hours yesterday and forty minutes this morning, but he spent half of them explaining the foreign influences on the old tongue."
Kian rubbed his eyes. "How many words do you need?"
"More than he's given me. A lot more."
"You have plenty of others to use. Esag and his buddies, the harem ladies, and even Aru, Dagor, and Negal. None of them is overly busy."
There was a pause.
"Toven is the best because he speaks the purest and most elevated version of it.
The Anumati gods speak a different dialect because the language underwent a semantic drift over time.
Even the Clan Mother has trouble understanding some of it.
The gods probably speak the purest version of it, but on our side, words from other languages have replaced many of the original ones.
The same is true for the harem ladies, Esag, Davuh, and Roven. "
"Does Toven have the time to spare?"
"No."
"Then use whoever speaks any version of the old tongue.
" Kian pulled his tablet closer. "Toven for whatever he'll give you, and don't let him tell you it has to be perfect.
It only has to be good enough for Khiann to understand what is being said to him, and vice versa.
We will fill in the missing parts and replace the wrong ones later. "
"I don't know if it will be good enough even for that," William said. "The output will be strange."
"Khiann has been asleep for five thousand years. Everything is going to be strange to him. Get me something rough and quick, and then make it better afterward."
"I'll talk to Negal tonight. Of the three, he's the easiest to work with."
"Talk to all of them. Aru will gladly help, and if Aru says the word, Dagor will fall in line."
"Yes, boss."
As he ended the call, the intercom buzzed.
"Turner's here," Shai said.
"Please send him in. And if you can, a fresh pot of coffee would be nice."
"Already brewed."
"You're the best." Kian rose from his chair and walked to the conference table.
Turner joined him, pulling a chair next to him and setting his yellow pad on the table.
"I have updates on the drone delivery," he said. "They're moving through the last leg now and will reach Safe Harbor on Monday. The munitions are already there. They came in with the resupply and were logged as agricultural equipment."
"That's good."
Losham had delivered the target list and the structural data on the building, including the depth of the roof slab, which none of them had expected him to obtain without arousing suspicion. He'd pulled it from the maintenance archive.
"We will tell Losham to summon Bertram when the drones are ready to deploy. I don't want him putting things in motion only to have the drones delayed, which would send the entire operation to hell."