24. Annani
ANNANI
"My daughter Sari is coming to see you in a little while," Annani said. "Do you remember me telling you about her?"
Two squeezes.
"That is quite all right. I will tell you again.
" She smoothed the blanket over Khiann's chest. "Sari is my fourth child.
She lives in the North Lands and crossed half the world to meet you.
She meant to come yesterday morning, but you slept the day away, and I did not want her first sight of you to be of you sleeping.
Although, to be honest, she was curious, so she came down here and peeked at you from the doorway. "
His brows rose.
"Do not be upset. You must realize that I have told my children a lot about you, and now that you are here, they cannot wait to see you."
The corner of his mouth lifted.
"She would like to sit with you for a little while if that is acceptable to you?"
There was a pause, long enough that Annani's chest tightened, and then one squeeze.
It was a relief, but after his panic over Kian, she did not take the yes for granted.
"You have already met my eldest daughter, Alena, and my youngest, Amanda, but you do not remember Amanda visiting.
Sari is very different from Alena. She has chestnut hair, like yours.
It is also thick and luxurious like yours used to be and will be again once it grows back.
Sari is just as kind as Alena but more organized.
She runs the arm of the clan that remained in the northern lands.
It is called Scotland now, but you probably will not remember that the next time I tell you about it. "
Khiann kept looking at her with that slight smile, as if merely listening to her voice was enough to bring him pleasure.
He used to tell her he could listen to her talk for hours without ever growing tired of her voice.
Annani heard the doors swing open behind her, and as she glanced at the time on one of the monitors, she saw it was exactly ten o'clock.
Sari had always been punctual to a fault, even as a child, and evidently that had not changed.
She approached slowly, making sure Khiann saw her coming without turning his head.
She was dressed in her usual style, more businesslike than casual yet still feminine and pretty.
A deep blue silk blouse, black trousers, and black low-heeled pumps.
Her hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders, framing her face and accentuating her deep blue eyes.
She stopped and took a deep breath. "Welcome to the herd," she said in the old tongue, slowly and with a terrible accent.
Khiann's brows drew together.
Annani pressed her lips tight, but the laugh escaped anyway. "She means tribe, or family. My children do not speak our tongue." She sighed. "Nearly no one does."
Khiann's mouth curved upward more than it had since he had woken up, and it kept climbing until it reached both sides.
"He smiled at me." Sari lifted a hand to her chest.
"He did, and it is the biggest smile I have seen on his face so far."
"I'm honored." Sari dipped her head. "I'll try to mangle more words in the old tongue if that makes him happy."
Annani turned to Khiann. "If you have not guessed already, this is Sari, and she is very glad that she made you smile. She will try again, so be ready to hear strange things."
Khiann looked at Sari for a long moment. Then he pulled his hand out from under Annani's, moved it two finger-widths across the blanket toward her daughter, and let it rest there, palm tilted open.
Annani stifled a gasp.
He had never offered his hand before because he had not been able to, and now that he had regained some control, he was expending his hard-earned energy on her daughter.
"Should I?" Sari looked at her.
"Of course, you should. You do not reject a hand offered in friendship. But this is a new milestone for him, so be gentle."
Sari nodded and took Khiann's hand as though it were made of spun sugar and held it. "Hello," she said in English, probably because she was too emotional to remember the word in the old tongue.
For a while, no one said anything.
"You can ask Khiann questions to which the answer is yes or no," Annani said quietly. "One squeeze means yes, two mean no."
"Truly?" Sari lit up, reminding Annani of her as a little girl. "Ask him if he is happy to be here."
Annani translated.
"One squeeze." Sari beamed.
"Ask him if the food is good."
"He is still fed through a tube, dearest."
"Then that's a no." Sari wrinkled her nose at Khiann in sympathy. "I hope you get better soon and can eat normal food. How are you expected to get stronger if all you get are intravenous liquids?"
Annani translated as best she could. She did not know the word for intravenous.
"That was not a yes or no question, Sari."
"Sorry. I just want to tell him that I am so happy he found his way home."
Annani translated.
"He squeezed my hand. Does it mean that he's happy too?"
Khiann was now looking at Annani, not Sari, and his eyes were communicating what his mouth still could not.
"He is."
Sari let go of Khiann's hand with the same gentleness she had taken it, laying it carefully on top of the blanket.
"David is waiting for me in the café. Will you join us later, Mother?"
"Yes, I will. After Khiann falls asleep, but until then, I will tell him about your teenage shenanigans so he will give me that beautiful smile again."
"What shenanigans?" Sari asked with mock innocence. "I was a perfectly behaved young woman."
"You were polite," Annani agreed. "And you still are. But that did not keep you from mischief."
Sari laughed. "Like mother, like daughter." She turned to Khiann. "Goodbye for now, dear one," she said in passable old tongue.
Once Sari was gone, Annani did as she had promised, telling Khiann amusing tales from Sari's youth, and he kept smiling, just as she had hoped, until his eyelids lost their fight with gravity and he fell asleep again.
Annani rose to her feet, adjusted the blanket, kissed his cheek, and then walked out the doors.
She did not frequent the café. Her people loved her, but their deference to her made them uncomfortable, and she did not enjoy having that effect on them.
Today, though, she was meeting her daughter and her daughter's mate, so she had to break protocol, but since she could hide her presence, she could join Sari and David without anyone noticing.
They waited for her at a table nestled next to the hedge, with three cups already ordered and a chair pulled out for her, but since she was under a shroud, they didn't see her approaching.
David jumped to his feet when she let the shroud slip for a moment.
"Clan Mother. You snuck up on us."
"I am sorry. Please, do not get up for me. I am creating a bubble so people will not pay attention to us."
"You don't need to do that," Sari said as Annani sat down.
She laughed. "When I make an appearance, I want it to count. If people see me doing ordinary things like having coffee with my daughter and her mate at the café, I will lose all my mystique."
"There is absolutely no chance of that." Sari wrapped her hands around her cup, and her amused expression turned serious. "Kian briefed me about Thursday."
"I assumed he would."
Sari looked at her over the rim. "How are you taking it? Do you approve of the attack?"
Annani let out a breath. "You know my preference is to preserve life whenever possible.
I would rather have these males put in stasis, but that is not an option.
Losham is the best hope for the people on that island, mostly because he is under our control, and also because he is not as cruel and bloodthirsty as the others.
" She lifted the cup and took a small sip.
"My heart aches for their mothers. We do not know whether any of those juniors are the sons of the harem ladies or just regular immortals that Navuh claimed were born to them, but they might be. "
"Have the harem ladies been told?" David asked.
Annani shook her head. "It is better that they do not know. These males have done monstrous things, and it is better that the ladies are not aware of those things or of their demise. I will not mourn them, but I will mourn what they could have been if they were born somewhere else."
"It might not have changed how they turned out," David said. "The soul is put where it needs to be."
Sari shook her head. "I'd rather move on to happier topics. I saw the four guards on my way out. Are they still named John Doe One through Four?"
"Sadly, they are. Esag thinks that one of them is named Adaluh, but until the guard can confirm it, we are not referring to him by that name."
"Then my suggestion from dinner stands. John, Paul, George, and Ringo."
"We are not naming my mate's guards after The Beatles, Sari."
"Why not? I think that the one at the end looked like a Ringo."
"You don't even like their songs," David said. "You just like the names."
"That's why they fit. They're short, easy to remember, and they don't carry emotional baggage or attachment of any sort."