Chapter 10 #3
Wren frowned at Kira. “Why do you need to talk to Luatha?”
Kira moved away from the edge of the platform and toward Zoella. “Just a small matter. Tiny really.”
Auralyn folded her arms over her chest. “Luatha’s Overlord doesn’t involve herself in tiny matters. Only big ones.”
Zoella shot Kira a teasing look. “In this instance, it’s more of a child-sized matter.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you can be as obnoxious as the ginger menace sometimes?” Kira asked.
“A thousand pardons, youngest. I don’t know what got into me.” Zoella’s tiny giggle put a lie to that statement.
With a scowl, Kira snatched the communication stone from Zoella before activating it.
Liara’s smooth voice filled Kira’s ears. “Cousin.”
“I heard you’re missing something,” Kira said.
“Ah—so that’s where she got to. I was told she wandered off.”
“Yes, yes. Ziva once again found her way into Roake,” Kira said, fighting impatience. “It’ll take me a few hours to make arrangements for her to be escorted back.”
“Don’t bother.”
Kira frowned. “I don’t understand. What do you mean ‘don’t bother?’”
“I have no intention of accepting her return.”
“Can you do that?” To Auralyn and Wren, “Can she do that?”
It had been repeatedly drilled into Kira that children were important to the Tuann.
Luatha had accepted custody of Ziva, making her their responsibility.
They couldn’t absolve themselves of that responsibility just because the girl turned out to be a little more trouble than they originally thought.
“Ziva has made her preferences quite clear. This isn’t the first time she’s left the safety of the House without permission.
If she remains under our care, I suspect it won’t be the last. To be honest, I’m tired of being the bad guy in her story.
She wants to be at Roake with you. I say let her have what she wants. ”
“Where was all this understanding when Luatha tried to claim me?” Kira demanded.
Nowhere had anyone taken her desires into account. One day she’d been a salvager, content, if not necessarily happy. The next Luatha was uprooting her whole life. To hell with what she wanted.
“Be proud, cousin. We’ve learned from our mistakes with you. It’s pointless to keep Ziva somewhere she doesn’t want to be. Furthermore, you were my blood. My last living relative. She isn’t.”
Kira didn’t know how to respond to that statement.
“Of course, my magnanimity comes at a price,” Liara purred.
“What is it?”
“In return for my understanding and not accusing Roake of enticing one of our young away from the safety of our House, I want you to do something for me.”
An Overlord making a request. There was no way that could go wrong.
“Oh?”
“I suspect Harlow will send you somewhere soon.”
Kira glanced at Wren, finding Liara’s echo of his earlier words a little disconcerting.
“The emperor ordered us to stand down.”
Liara’s snort was surprisingly unladylike. “Please, cousin. Don’t insult my intelligence. Luatha may have never been friends with Roake, but we’ve made a point of studying its Overlord. Harlow will not leave one of his people out there. He’ll send someone he trusts to investigate. That means you.”
“There are plenty of Tuann under Harlow’s command that he trusts more than me.”
Oshota with centuries more experience too.
“They’re not family. You are. And that means something. You’ve also proven to be uncommonly loyal and resourceful. He’ll send you. When he does, I want Roderick to go with you.”
“Why?” Kira asked in a voice rife with suspicion.
“That’s none of your business.”
The hell it wasn’t.
“Or I can accuse Roake’s heir of kidnapping a child under my care. Your choice.”
“Look at you—playing hardball.”
“One doesn’t become Overlord by playing nice. Do we have a deal?”
Kira glanced at Wren and Auralyn, hesitating for only a moment. “Yeah. We have a deal.”
Harlow wasn’t going to like it though.
“Is there anything Roderick should know before departure?”
“Tell him to bring simple clothes. Things that will blend with non-Tuann if necessary.”
“Understood.”
Liara cut the connection an instant later.
“I take it my yer’se has a yer’se,” Wren drawled as soon as Kira handed the stone back to Zoella.
“It wasn’t my idea,” Kira grumbled.
Wren’s expression was more thoughtful than disapproving. “It’s unconventional to be sure, but then Ziva strikes me as a rather unique child.”
Auralyn didn’t seem as convinced. “She’s young for this path.”
“Unfortunately, life doesn’t always wait until we’re of age to shit on us,” Kira pointed out.
Auralyn acknowledged the truth of that statement with a small grunt.
“Don’t worry about Elena and the rest. We’ll take care of them,” Auralyn promised.
“I might need to ask you to add one more to that number.”
In retrospect, this may not have been the best time to accept Ziva as her yer’se. She hadn’t expected Luatha to wash their hands of her. Now that they had, it put Kira in a difficult position.
It was too dangerous to bring Ziva along, but the girl also needed more supervision than Harlow or the other adults in Roake were going to be able to give her with everything else going on.
“Ziva’s welcome. I think she and Elena may even end up being good for each other,” Auralyn assured her.
“I promised to write up a training guide for Ziva. I’ll be sure to send it before I leave.”
The rest of their conversation was interrupted as one of the oshota Kira recognized as Harlow’s appeared in the doorway.
“Pardon me, Heir. The Overlord would like to speak to you,” Veer announced.
Kira looked at Wren. “You called it.”
One of his eyebrows twitched upward. “The perks of knowing the man for upwards of 2,000 years.”