Chapter 10
We were happily soaking after Inkiri’s barb had released when I heard something. Splashing, and voices.
“Is there someone here? Do we have to leave?” I whispered against Inkiri’s pointy ear. I’d gotten a little sleepy, but the noises had me alert again in seconds, a skill the apocalypse had taught me.
“There might be, but we can stay for as long as we want, sweet thing.”
“Right.” I looked around but couldn’t see anyone in the fog. “Who was that?”
He clicked. “A few protectors came in earlier.”
“And you couldn’t tell me before you barbed me?”
Weirdo Husband chuckled. “Tell you to stop when you were aching for my barb? No, sadir, I would never.”
I flushed, but he wouldn’t be able to tell because of the warm water. “You’re saying they heard.”
“You sounded very pleased, so it’s good they heard.” Why he had to be so smug about me accidentally being noisy, I had no idea.
I looked toward the other pools. One seemed empty, though I couldn’t see its far edge, but if I craned my neck, I could just about make out the surface of the other, the one closest to the entrance, broken by ripples from other bathers. Soakers. That was all I saw of them though.
“I can’t believe we did this with people here. Although, scratch that. You said people might come in. You just didn’t tell me, which…I guess I can believe.” Honestly, I was too spent and glowy to muster even the smallest bout of shame.
“They’ll be very jealous of me for having found such a sweet mate, and they’ll envy my skill in making him whimper with just my touch.”
“You’re saying you’re using me to show off your sexual prowess.” I considered it. That was good, wasn’t it? That was trophy mate stuff.
Inkiri licked my neck. “Should we see about finding some food and getting some rest, or do you want to stay in the water longer?”
I sighed. “Food sounds amazing, actually. And I guess I could sleep.”
We got up and out of the warm water, Inkiri going first and taking my wrist to help me. He didn’t let go as he led me toward the exit, which meant we had to pass the other occupied pool.
The two bagua greeted us with your average onora kesh vaie, which was a polite way of saying hello. Then there was more conversation I couldn’t follow.
After a few beats, Inkiri turned to me. “These two protectors are the ones who helped you find your adder stone when we first came to Esaka and we had you entered as my mate. Do you remember?”
My mouth fell open before I gave them an uncertain wave. “Oh, of course. They made sure I was okay when I started crying outside the Raiken.”
Inkiri clicked. “Happy tears?”
“Yes, those.”
One of the Raikengana asked something, and once again, the only thing I caught was the “gu” question marker at the end of the sentence.
Inkiri hummed. “He wonders whether we’ll be coming with them tomorrow. To Earth.”
I tilted my head like a bagu. “You mean those two, what, signed up for the new exciting thing the Raiken is doing?”
“It sounds like they did. Hove has been selecting promising candidates for the outpost he’s been tasked with building. It’s necessary, especially with the news of the Koa Esher on Earth and the human mages who want to make sure the beasts roam there.”
“Oh, so Hove is in charge of all of that?” I moved toward the towels I’d spotted on a stone shelf, but Inkiri was faster, pulling one down and wrapping me in it.
It was so big that it covered all of me, and it was very soft.
Really, Earth could learn a thing or ten about how bathing should be done from the Raiken.
“He’s in charge of one of the outposts that are to be built. He will be the dena of that outpost. The goal is to properly establish it as a Raiken, and Hove has border experience, tactical knowledge, and he speaks the language.”
“Oh. Well, that’s cool. Makes sense to have someone higher up there, what with Zeddira still healing, right?”
Inkiri nodded then spoke to the two bagua again. I heard him use Zeddira’s name, so he was probably just translating. Both said something back, and they seemed eager from how they nodded. The water broke into tiny waves around them.
“They say how glad they are that Zeddira is safe. When news came that he had been killed by the Koa Esher, everyone was shocked. The Koa Esher have not been able to deal the Raiken or a House that kind of loss in a long time.”
I inwardly reached for the land, who was distant.
It was a bit like talking over the phone with someone, but through a very bad connection.
I got the feeling that it wasn’t putting too much stock in other bagua being happy about Zeddira not being dead, but it liked that the Koa Esher had failed at getting their way.
Really, no one seemed to like those guys.
Inkiri and I said our goodbyes after a little more small talk, during which I mostly just smiled like the amazing trophy mate I was.
We’d been given a guest room a short walk away from the baths.
It was bright and simply furnished, with a table and seating pillows in the front room and two bedrooms in the back.
Lissir, and maybe Vergis if he got back soon enough, would be taking the other room.
On the table in the front room, there was a selection of food, some of which I recognized, and next to the table, baskets with fresh clothes had been set out.
I stretched, wondering whether it was worth changing out of the too-large shibiya clothes from the baths just for dinner when the day was already waning while Inkiri uncovered the dishes, most of them cold except for one pot that sat on a little heated stone.
“Hey, should we bring some food over to Kinnek? And to Lissir?”
Inkiri patted the cushion next to him, and I sat, deciding that getting changed was way too much trouble.
“We don’t have to. The healers are going to make sure they get food too. You don’t have to worry about them.”
I nodded and reached for some vinné. “Okay. Hey, do you think Kinnek is going to stay here? For Aragis, I mean.”
Inkiri put a few things on a plate and put it in front of me. More unfamiliar food for me to try.
“I don’t know.” He narrowed his eyes. “It’s a difficult situation. Charles has never spoken about it to me, and I wouldn’t ask Kinnek himself, but it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
I nodded. “He thought Aragis was dead.” I wasn’t sure how much I should tell Inkiri about what I knew, so I left it at that.
Inkiri sighed. “It’s—ah, you have a word. Incorrigible?”
“Inconceivable, you mean?”
He hummed. “Yes. It’s inconceivable. But Kinnek has him back now. There is a future there again, although it will look different from what could have been.”
Inkiri was right about that. I nodded and thought about it all through the quiet meal we shared.
By the time we were done, it was dark outside, and I could see one of the moons through the window. By the time Inkiri and I headed to one of the rooms and went to sleep, neither Kinnek nor Lissir had shown up, and Vergis was either roaming the castle, or he was still in Canada.
I slept until I drifted back into the detached feeling, the thing where I wasn’t where my body was, but could instead shift my attention to other places.
Fellisse and Nokim were first and foremost on my mind.
I wanted to make sure my guys were okay, even if finding them from this side of the veils took a lot of concentration. I managed it though.
They were both still at the house back in Canada.
Nokim was in the kitchen, packing up food while talking to two other Raikengana in taupe.
He was clearly explaining things about the kitchen, going by his pointing at the toaster oven and pulling a garlic press from a drawer.
I was reminded of my mother telling a new au pair how the fancy fridge worked.
The two Raikengana were a lot more interested than she had been, oohing and aahing as they took the garlic press from Nokim and tried it out themselves.
I moved on. I spotted Charles in a back room on the first floor, moving weapons from a locker to a duffel bag—the same one he’d had ready in less than five minutes when we’d gone to save Kinnek, and it hit me: the veil.
The veil to the monster world still needed to be closed, and they were getting ready for that.
Well, not with the garlic press in the kitchen, obviously, but Charles was gearing up for action.
I squirmed in my sleep, but that was ruining my focus, and I wanted to check in on Fellisse. I concentrated again.
The big bagu was in the basement where Zeddira was resting on a cot.
Zeddira didn’t look too hot, the blue of his face a lot more ashen than was normal for him.
He had two very fluffy pillows under his head so his horns didn’t bother him while he rested, and Fellisse had found him a warm black-and-white checkered comforter.
The basement itself wasn’t too bad a place to keep someone in recovery. It got light from low windows set high in the ceiling, and it was fully finished. It even had one of Kinnek’s murals on one wall.
In my magically disembodied state, I shifted my attention to the art. It showed a bagu child with dark blue skin sitting in the grass and leaning against an apple tree, a book open in his lap. I had no doubt at all who that kid was.
Kinnek had painted Vergis with so much attention to detail, from his lashes to the carefully blended color, to the concentration on his face and a small tear at the hem of his jeans. Vergis had been a cute kid, and Kinnek had made absolutely sure there would always be a memory of that around.
I smiled when I realized little Vergis had a black cat on his shirt, all but half of its face and whiskers hidden by the book he was reading. I’d have totally worn a shirt like that at that age too, and I’d wear it now.