Chapter 15
LUALHATI
“Ihate to admit it,” I said as Warden Hallum helped me out of the sled, “but you were right about the pants.”
They’d kept my buns nice and toasty on the frosty sled ride through the forest. I very much appreciated it. My tiny little skirt and skimpy panties certainly wouldn’t have been up to the task.
“Why do you hate to admit it?” he asked, holding my elbow as I tried not to let my heels stab down into the mucky snow and trap me. “It is merely a fact.”
“I guess I don’t really hate it. It’s just kind of a saying.”
“It seems rather dramatic,” he griped.
“That’s humans, for you.”
“Not you, though.”
That made me laugh. It puffed, misting, into the bitter air as we reached the door.
“I just about threw a temper tantrum when you very reasonably told me to wear proper pants outside in the cold.”
“That was not you being dramatic,” he said, almost sounding defensive on my behalf. Who the hell did he need to defend me against? Myself? “That was merely…whimsy.”
“Whimsy,” I repeated blankly.
“Yes.”
“You think I’m whimsical?”
“Yes.”
Huh. I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not.
Considering who it was coming from, it likely wasn’t. I couldn’t think of anything Warden Hallum might value less than something like whimsy. Maybe messiness? But he’d likely place me in that category, too, due to the sheer volume of crap I’d stuffed into his house.
Lovely.
“I need a drink,” I announced. “And a dance.”
I was going to get a little buzz going and shake my butt on the dancefloor until I no longer felt like such a sad sack. Warden Hallum gave me a bit of an odd look, but he held the door open for me anyway, gesturing me inside with his tail.
The saloon was dark, with a few strategically placed candles here and there, and the fire burning low in the hearth. It was fantastic mood lighting, and coupled with the music playing from somebody’s tablet. I totally felt like I was at some kind of real dance.
Shiloh and Tasha came over to me right away, looking for hugs.
“Just give me a second!” I said breathlessly, trying to get out of my pants without removing my boots or flashing my ass at anybody in the process. Once I’d gotten them off, I held them in a crumpled pile, looking for somewhere to put them.
A place for the pants materialized in front of me. It was Warden Hallum’s outstretched hand.
“Thanks!” I plopped the pants down, like his hand was a hook I could hang them on. He shook them out, then carefully folded them into a tight square before placing them on a chair near the door. “Now jacket. And put the gloves inside the sleeve this time,” he advised sternly.
“I keep losing them,” I explained to Tasha and Shiloh.
“If you do lose them, we certainly have extras,” Tasha said.
“If she needs extras,” Warden Hallum said, watching me closely to make sure I didn’t toss my gloves into some dark, forgotten corner, “then I will make some for her.”
“Fair enough,” Tasha said. She and Shiloh glanced at each other.
“Hello, Doctor!” Xennet tumbled into our little group, closely followed by Dorn.
“Hi, Xennet! You look great!”
“I am wearing my tuxedoroni!” he said proudly.
“I can see that! I remember it from our first meeting! Fabulous choice,” I said, patting him on the chest approvingly. “And you too, Dorn!”
“Warden Hallum,” Xennet said. “You must make a tuxedelilah of your own. For important events such as this dance celebration!”
“My uniform will suffice.” He took my jacket – with the gloves inside the sleeves – and placed it on top of the pants. Then, he removed his hat, completing the little pile.
“I assure you it will not suffice,” Xennet said gravely. “It is not party appropriate!”
“Don’t bother, Xennet,” I said, casting a teasing grin Warden Hallum’s way. “He’s being very stubborn about everybody’s outfit choices tonight. Besides, I see that Warden Tenn has got his uniform on as well.”
Warden Tenn was standing in front of the bar, speaking to Rivven, who stood behind it.
“Come on,” Shiloh said, taking my hand. “Let’s go get you a drink.”
“Perfect,” I said. “Just so everybody knows, I am one hundred percent off doctor duty tonight.”
“You got it,” Shiloh said. “Rivven! Can you get Lualhati some of that new batch? A human-sized portion, please.” She grimaced at me. “Alcohol doesn’t really affect them. They drink it like it’s water or milk or something. In these big giant beer steins.”
I hadn’t tried any of what Rivven had on tap yet. But I had seen him drinking large glasses of it. He passed such a glass over to me now, filled less than a third of the way to the top.
“Go slow and sip it,” Shiloh advised. “It’s fairly strong. It’s like a fermented bracku milk liqueur. But in this latest batch, we’ve added a bit of tuhla fruit preserve to it.”
I took a small sip. “Ooh. That’s dangerous!” I said, savouring the sweetness of the drink. “It’s so good. I could drink way too much of it.”
“I know, right?” Tasha said.
“This is why I warned you,” Shiloh said with a giggle.
“Good thing I ate dinner before I came!”
“Definitely,” Shiloh replied. “You’ll have energy for dancing, and hopefully won’t be too hungover tomorrow! We also have snacks.”
Hearing his wife’s words, Rivven pointed his tail towards some trays of dried fruit and cheese at the far end of the bar.”
“Excellent,” I said. I took another big gulp of my drink. Syrupy warmth was working its way through my veins. “Alright, ladies.” I put down my glass. “I’m going to dance. Join me?”
Join me, they did. We all gathered in the centre of the saloon’s dining room. The tables and chairs had been pushed aside to make room for the dancefloor.
“Oh, I love this one!” Tasha said as a catchy song with a heavy bass beat started up. She tapped her toe almost primly, bopping her blonde head along.
“That’s not dancing!” I cried. “Come on, don’t make me do this on my own!” I started shaking my hips and raising my hands over my head. Shiloh followed my lead, getting into the music, and even Tasha started loosening up a bit.
“Am I doing this right?” Xennet said, sidling up to us. He began kicking madly. Shiloh, Tasha, and I danced out of his way.
“That’s some fancy footwork, Xennet!” I called over the music. “But maybe you could focus on keeping your feet on the ground. Like Dorn!”
Although, Dorn wasn’t exactly the best example of dancing I could have given to Xennet. He was doing this kind of swaying, bouncing motion, with his fists raised in front of his chest for some reason, like a boxer.
“Dorn’s style of dancing is too restrained for my tastes,” Xennet said, spreading his arms wide and doing a big sashay across the floor.
“How about this?” He crouched down, then jumped impressively high with his arms aimed straight up.
Almost like he was diving into water, but upside down and into the air instead.
“I like that move,” I told him, shimmying to the beat and tossing my hair. “Keep doing that one.”
With any luck, all that leaping about would tire him out.
Thrilled by my praise, Xennet continued his crouch-jump routine with a big smile on his pale green face.
To spice things up, he added the occasional spin on his knees, flourishing his tail like a dancing ribbon.
Dorn just continued on in his oddly lumbering fashion, fists clenched, bending his knees and straightening them over and over.
Occasionally, he let out a grunt of effort, though his movements really weren’t very demanding.
I finally figured out that they were gruff sounds of concentration, not physical exertion.
He seemed to be trying very hard to keep to some kind of rhythm that matched the song.
His pal Xennet had no issues in that arena.
He was surprisingly musical, managing to wrangle his chaotic energy in such a way that it hit all the big beats.
Warden Tenn and Rivven didn’t dance, preferring to stay by the bar.
Warden Hallum, apparently, preferred to stay all by himself by the door. He stood stationed there, a sentinel who seemed to have assigned himself the duty of guarding my ugly pants. As if anybody in their right mind would ever be tempted to steal them.
Although, if he was meant to be guarding the clothes, he wasn’t doing the best job of it. He wasn’t looking at our piled stuff on the chair.
He was only looking at me.
Without even being consciously aware of it, my movements slowed, became more sultry.
I rolled my hips, running my hands down the sides of my body, emphasizing my curves.
Whenever I twirled his direction, I shot him a glance from beneath my eyelashes.
His eyes never left me. His jaw was tense as stone, his spine erect, his hands held tightly behind his back.
I danced until my feet ached. And then, I took off my boots and danced some more. I didn’t stop until my legs were numb and my hair was sticking to my neck with sweat. When my knees felt like they might give out from fatigue, I returned to the bar.
“Drink, please!” I said between panting breaths. Rivven handed me another one of those delightfully sweet concoctions. Completely parched, I forgot Shiloh’s advice about sipping it until most of it was gone.
Oops.
Hoping to stave off a bout of true drunkenness, I nabbed some fruit and cheese from the platters and asked Rivven for some water. When he put it down in front of me, he asked me how I was enjoying the dance so far.
“It’s been great! Although that guy is a bit of a party pooper.” I tipped my head towards the door where Warden Hallum loomed.
“A party…what?”
“A stick in the mud.”
“The warden is a stick?”
“Just not the party type, I guess. I told him he didn’t need to stay, but he insisted. Do you think he’ll dance at all?”
“Perhaps if you ask him to,” Rivven suggested. “But I am not sure. He is a very serious man. He makes a very good warden.”
“Indeed he does.”
That new serving of alcohol was winding its way through my system. Loose and tipsy, I leaned forward over the bar, putting my weight on my elbows.
“What’s his deal?” I asked Rivven. “About becoming a warden, I mean. All I got out of him was that he’d come here with a child.” I gasped. “Oh my goodness! Was it you?”
“Me?” Rivven blinked his blue eyes. “No.”
“Oh.”
Rats. I was hoping to get a little more intel on the subject.
“He came here with Xennet.”
“Xennet?” I twisted in my seat to find Xennet doing a dance move that involved spinning his own tail over his head like a lasso. He also, inexplicably, appeared to be yodelling.
“Yes,” Rivven said. “It is common knowledge among us. Xennet has shared the story with us many times. I do not think he would mind me telling you that Warden Hallum was present at his trial.”
“He was at Xennet’s trial? In what capacity?”
“Warden Hallum was the one who turned him in.”
“Oh my God.” I swallowed hard. It felt a bit like my nice drink was going to come right back up again. “How could he?”
“How could he not?” Rivven asked, looking at me in confusion. “He found Xennet covered in blood beside his victim. There was nothing else to do but report the situation.”
“I mean…I guess so,” I said, letting out a shaky breath. Jesus.
“But he did not abandon Xennet,” Rivven went on. “When Xennet could not put up funds for legal representation, Warden Hallum acted as Xennet’s legal defence himself.”
“He did?”
“He did. From what Xennet has told us, Warden Hallum was ruthless and thorough in his defence. He did everything he could to get Xennet a favorable verdict. But it was not enough. There is no legal defence for murder in the Zabrian Empire.”
“Tasha told me that,” I replied through a tight throat. “Feels incredibly unfair. Especially for children, like you guys were.”
“It is the reality of the system we were born into,” Rivven said.
He picked up a glass and began polishing it as he finished his story.
“When Xennet’s guilty verdict was read out, and he was informed of his impending exile to this world, Warden Hallum resigned his military post on the spot.
Right there in the courtroom, in front of Xennet and the Imperial Justice Committee of Zabria. ”
I wasn’t watching Rivven anymore. Breathing heavily, my hands shaking, I sought Warden Hallum out from across the room, over the heads of the dancers. Our gazes connected. Collided.
“Because of his high rank and his many cycles of service to the Empire, they allowed him to act as Xennet’s escort, to stay here with him – and us – as the new provincial warden. Of course, that was long ago,” Rivven said. “We were all younger then.”
I tried to picture it. Warden Hallum as a younger man, protecting a terrified little Xennet.
My heart was hurting. Literally hurting. And it wasn’t from the cardio of all that dancing.
“Thank you, Rivven,” I said, sliding out of my seat. In my bare feet, I crossed the room to Warden Hallum.
I didn’t know what I was going to say. Or what I was going to do.
I just knew I had to be with him.