Chapter 7
I didn’t know where we were. Before my eyes could catch up, my brain recognized the smell of the place, unfamiliar and yet welcome. I remembered moor flowers blooming under moonlight and getting hitched to Inkiri.
I blinked a few times. “Are we on Aer?”
Kinnek looked at me, his expression pained. “They need medical attention.”
He pulled his hands from mine and turned to the freed bagua.
That left me alone with the dizziness for almost a second, but of course I had the best mate ever. Inkiri wrapped his arms around me, and when I felt his warmth, I relaxed, took a deep breath, and…spun around. I grabbed the front of his shirt.
“Are you okay? Why the heck would you do that? Are you hurt at all? You can’t just run toward danger like that!
” I looked at him. His paw shoes were muddy, and for all I knew his black protector clothes hid blue monster blood.
“Ink, are you okay?” I let him go and ran my hands down his arms to make sure.
Inkiri started clicking at me, the tiny sounds coming extra fast as if he meant to counter my worry. He gathered my hands in his much larger ones.
“Sadir, all is well. I am well.” He bent to push my scarf aside and lick the side of my neck. “You did so well, sweet thing. My beautiful, brave human mate.”
“Right.” I let out a shuddering breath, but the excitement was far from over.
I pulled back from Inkiri’s chest to orient myself. I recognized the stone-built Raiken to our right, the decorative facade and the swirling engravings in the stone lintels and window frames.
This was Esaka, of all places. I looked a little closer and was pretty sure this was where the protectors had brought us just after the attack had happened.
Now, protectors were coming our way, orders were being shouted, and I was being scooped up by my mate once more.
“Hey,” I said, but it sounded like “thanks, and please don’t ever put me down again.”
“I don’t want anyone to accidentally bump into you, sadir. You’ve had enough roughness for one day. How are you feeling after the magic?”
Should I tell my mate about how I had almost gotten to strike down the cola asshats with lightning like Zeus?
No, scratch Zeus. He was the douchiest of gods, and too much like the cola asshats.
I was more like Thor anyway, only he had goats and I had my bagua.
Then again, Thor liked eating his goats, and I decided I was not ever going to compare myself to any god on account of that fact it was just going to make me look bad.
Also, I should maybe not tell Inkiri about my idea with the lightning. Yet.
Vergis looked over. There was something haunted in his expression. Charles was next to him, an arm around his son’s shoulders, speaking too quietly for me to hear over all the commotion.
I looked around for Kinnek. He was with the survivors, who were already being surrounded by Raikengana.
There was a lot of clicking, and they were led into the Raiken, all of them in different stages of shock.
Not that all of them looked scared though.
The bagu who’d helped the one with the shoddily bandaged feet kept his back straight and a protective arm around his friend.
Or maybe around a member of his sentenmen or senfesmen.
The Raikengana were already bringing stretchers. The survivor with the injured feet got on one. His bandages were now muddy as well, and I felt guilty. What if the wounds got infected because of me? I hoped the doctors here were good.
Lissir stood close to the survivors and talked to two protectors. He pointed out me and Inkiri, Charles and Vergis, then Tador and Lueris and the rest of those protectors, so he was already busy giving a report.
Then I spotted Kinnek again. A taupe-clad group of scholars had hidden him from view. He was talking to one of the survivors, and at first, I didn’t understand what I was seeing.
Kinnek was holding that bagu’s hands—the same bagu he’d sent out of the house first, that bagu with the holes in his horns and the scar across his throat.
I wasn’t able to make sense of it until that bagu turned his head and I made the connection.
I’d seen the exact shade of his light blue horns before.
It was in that mural in Kinnek’s house. The knowing raised its head to confirm what I’d already pieced together.
But, disturbingly, I also got details I hadn’t asked for.
Aragis. That was Aragis, Vergis’s birth father. The knowing pulled me back to years ago, to a scene that had happened not at all far from here.
The moors had been overcast that day, but the sun’s rays were poking through every now and then. A soft wind moved the grasses that grew all over the moor. The sight would have seemed quiet, serene, if not for the commotion.
Kinnek’s appearance hadn’t changed much at all since then, although he was now a completely different person. He wore black then, protector black, and two swords as well as a dagger sheathed on his thigh. That was likely where Vergis got his love for an abundance of blades from.
Kinnek’s hair was a rich midnight blue, pretty much the exact same shade as Vergis’s, no silver strands at all. Two Koa Esher with more coming up behind them were holding Aragis. Kinnek was looking at him, shock on his face.
The knowing let me see what I could only sense: Aragis was different, so different, from the person he was now. Not as starved looking, his horns whole. His skin was a dark blue, similar to Kinnek’s and Vergis’s. His eyes were the same silver color as Vergis’s, and that look in them—love.
Love, but also sadness. There was something formidable in Aragis, something…
Could you see an iron will in someone’s eyes?
Whatever was in Aragis’s gaze shifted and turned to hard and unbendable determination.
He twisted an arm free and pulled his Koa Esher attacker’s knife from its sheath.
It looked so easy, as if it barely cost him anything to do this.
It had to have cost him everything.
There was no hesitation at all when he pushed the knife into his own throat. His lips formed words, Lugarran words, and I didn’t need any proficiency in the language to understand them: I love you.
It was the last thing he gave to Kinnek. It was farewell and apology all rolled into one.
It took all my will to push the knowing away. That scene… I couldn’t even. Kinnek had lived it. Heck, Aragis had lived it, and survived it. And now Kinnek had him back.
“That’s Aragis.” I said it quietly, I thought, but Vergis heard.
He turned and glared at me, not his usual I’ll-make-you-pee-from-fear glare, but something… Did Vergis look vulnerable?
I put a hand on Inkiri’s chest. “Uhm, I need you to put me down.”
My mate did so immediately. “Do you need a bathroom, sadir? I want one of the healers to look you over before you get some rest though, just in case.”
“I’m fine, and I don’t need to pee, but thanks. Give me a moment.”
I walked over to Vergis, who had narrowed his eyes at me.
“Are you…”
I thought better of it and stopped myself before asking whether he was okay. Dang it, but the brain quality control must’ve gotten a pay raise when I’d started with the magic. Me not asking a silly question in a delicate situation was unprecedented, after all.
Clearly, Vergis wasn’t okay, and how could he be? He probably had no idea how to feel about this.
I took heart and reached for his hand. Then I dropped that hand and went for a hug, a good one. I squeezed so hard I felt a knife strapped to his side. I didn’t care. He remained stiff, but relaxed a little. After counting to five, I let go.
I cleared my throat awkwardly and took Vergis’s hand again. “Today was the first time in my life I was on a golf course, you know.”
Vergis snorted. But, unless I was hallucinating, he also squeezed my hand back. He also wasn’t making any weird comments about me hugging him and how he’d make me pay for that, so we were good.
“Thanks,” Charles said. “That was your magic, wasn’t it? Bringing the building down? The surveillance too. Thank you.” He looked over at Kinnek and Aragis. “I can’t begin to tell you what this means for Kinnek to have him back. Thank you, Rory.”
Vergis snorted.
“Son, none of that shit.” Then, like no father I had any direct experience with, he kissed Vergis on the cheek. “I love you. Always have, always will. Unconditionally. You are my child and always will be, but none of that shit.”
Okay, so Charles was good at speeches and at parenting. He was a pretty cool guy. Despite the bunker. Maybe possession of a bunker didn’t say anything about your personality at all.
Inkiri came a little closer and placed a hand on the small of my back, which was when I realized there was a new arrival.
Hove walked past the survivors, who were being taken inside, and made straight for us.
He looked worried. “Fellisse?” he said to Inkiri.
Inkiri clicked once. “He wasn’t with us. He stayed back at Kinnek’s House to take care of Zeddira.”
Hove bowed his head in relief. “Thanks ancestors. We hear from…hoag…”
“A base camp?” Charles asked.
Hove looked at Charles as if he only now realized there was another human there with us, one who actually knew the language well enough to know that a hoag was a base camp. Not that I knew what a base camp was good for, not really.
“My human father, Charles,” Vergis said.
“Welcome.” Hove bowed quickly. “And you, also.” He smiled at me warmly. “He is better. It is good mate is better,” he told Inkiri in that polite bagu way of speaking as if I weren’t there.
Inkiri clicked. “Kinnek figured out how to help Rory. I’d still like a healer to look him over. And he should rest. He used a lot of his magic. Rest is always good for him after that.”
Charles put a hand on his hip. “We should head back home to tell the others we’re okay. Son, are you ready to hop us over?”
Vergis nodded. “I’ll just need to get some sacrifices from the hatchery, then get Dad.”
“I get you ligua.” Hove called over a copper-clad teen bagu and gave him quick instructions in Lugarra. The teen nodded and went running off after giving me a curious look.
Vergis inclined his head. “Thanks.”
“My pleasing.”
Charles looked for Kinnek in the crowd. He was helping Aragis into the Raiken. It wasn’t very noticeable, but Aragis walked funny. I felt the knowing nip at me, and I had to close my eyes and concentrate on breathing for a second to push it away.
I couldn’t stomach knowing what the cola asshats had done to Aragis. What they’d done to the other bagu whose feet were still in dirty bandages. And more, I didn’t need to be a distant witness to that pain. Why did I have to be settled with magic that didn’t understand boundaries?
“Dad’s gonna stay here for a while,” Charles said. “I’ll go tell him where we’re going.” He jogged after Kinnek.
Hove smiled down at me. “I must report all of…all of everything here. But first, Inkiri, I help your mate inside to the healers. Come.”
“Thank you. Sadir, come, let’s make sure you are fine.”
He put a hand on my belly, and I had a feeling he was angling to pick me up again, so I let go of Vergis’s hand.
“Catch you later?”
He was still glaring, but he nodded.
“What is wrong?” Lissir said when he turned from talking to a group of protectors and saw us head inside the Raiken. “Are we not going back to Canada?”
Inkiri clicked. “I want the healers to see Rory, but Vergis and Charles are returning.”
Hove greeted Lissir with a bow. “If you stay to waiting for Rory and his mate, will you report me everything?”
Lissir nodded. “Yes, of course.”
Another bagu, this one in taupe, called something from the entrance of the Raiken.
Lissir responded with “Shen sa,” which I understood. It meant something like, “in a minute” or “I’ll be there in a minute.”
He looked our way. “They need Kankarra interpreters who are hangua. Some of the hostages are from Kankarraz and not captured from here. They don’t know what the Raiken is at all.”
Hove grunted. “Here, they are all safe.” He tilted his head. “I will find our Kankarra speakers. Them must be explained that the Raiken is not Kankarraz. They have…megape?”
Lissir clicked. “Rights and options, you might say in English.”
“They have rights and options. We will make clear.”
Lissir nodded and jogged up the stairs ahead of us.
I sighed. We’d done it. We’d saved Kinnek, and in doing so, so many others too. I wasn’t the biggest fan of my own magic necessarily, but today, I was glad I had it.
“Come,” Hove said, and we followed him inside the Raiken.