Rosalie
Of all the Sarkarnii on Vorostor, Dante is the most unlikely uncle to all of these young Sarkarnii. In fact, I’d go so far as to say he is the least likely adult figure I’d have picked.
But, as the sarkarnlings slowly start to surround us, inspecting me and questioning Dante, it would appear they have accepted him as their adult, so who am I to judge? They’re very curious about me in general, taking hold of my hand and my arms, looking at my skin.
Through all of this, the little female Sarkarnii has not let go of my hand. Instead she has hold of her tail, holding it to her face as she sucks on her thumb and watches the others with a pair of huge eyes.
Somewhere, something which sounds like a gong booms, and all the chatter around us stops.
“What’s that?”
“Lessons,” the sarkarnling who spoke earlier says. “They’re important.”
“Then food,” another one says.
“Also very important.” I smile.
“We have to go. Will you come back soon, Dante?” the bigger sarkarnling asks. “Will you bring your mate?”
“Yes,” I say emphatically, before Dante gets a chance to say anything. “We will be back very soon.”
I might not have spent much time around children, given I was an only child, but I’ve always liked them, with the thoughts always there I’d want my own one day.
Shame any fleeting relationships I had with men of my own age were frittered away in a lack of commitment, or with older men who were not willing to get ‘tied down’ again.
I thought my chance would never come.
As swiftly as they arrived through the plants, the little Sarkarnii are slipping away again. I look down to find my little sarkarnling has gone from my side, and as I look up, I see her disappearing behind a large leaf. She turns and shows me her open palm before she is gone.
“What did she do?” I turn to Dante and mimic the action.
His face becomes impassive. “It is an old Haisarkarnii gesture. Some of these sarkarnlings are from that particular class.”
“Haisarkarnii?”
“Priests of the ancestors,” Dante says, as if that explains everything. “Her gesture was to indicate she considers you part of her family.”
I get a pain in my chest, a throb which I don’t quite understand. I’ve never really thought about having children myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them, just at thirty-one, I thought my time had most probably passed.
Dante looks at me with a slightly puzzled expression, his eyes clouded as he sways slightly.
“Is this it?” I ask him, moving closer to inspect the huge, scaly male. “Is this you turning into a…Kursarkarnii?”
Heat flows from him. Dante blows out a hot breath filled with smoke and cinders.
“It’s been a while,” he slurs. “I hoped the mating mix might have worked instead.”
He moves closer to me, tracing a claw through my hair. I feel it tug on the dried blood which has stuck some of it to my scalp, and he frowns the frown of a drunkard.
“What is this?”
“I need a bath.”
A wet smile opens up on Dante’s face. “I have aquiums.”
“I don’t even want to imagine what your aquiums are like, Dante, not after having seen your dining hall.”
“They are wet,” he says, his voice even more muzzy. “You would like them.”
“I think I’ll use the one in my quarters, if you don’t mind.”
“You should see our aquiums. They are the best on Vorostor,” Dante says earnestly, his hand tracing down the side of my face.
I realize I don’t have much of an alternative.
I’ve already ended up in his med bay due to the behavior of his crew, and I’m not sure I want to take a risk wandering around on his ship unaccompanied.
Plus it will give me the chance to find out more about his mutation and potentially how likely it is it will be solved.
We pass back through the airlock, not before I’ve had a final check over my shoulder to see if the little female Sarkarnii is still around, but she isn’t. I wish I’d asked her for her name, but the whole experience was completely overwhelming.
“Do the rest of the warlords know about the sarkarnlings?” I ask as we exit the med bay.
Dante shakes his head. “I was entrusted with them,” he says. “They are my responsibility.”
I am absolutely astounded he even knows the word.
A gaggle of Sarkarnii appear at the far end of the passageway. The instant they see us, they scramble to get away, a flashing bundle of scales, sparks, and smoke.
I come to a halt and look at Dante. He looks at me, his forehead creased, his eyes still clouded.
“What did you do?” I demand.
“Nothing they won’t recover from,” Dante growls. “They hurt you, and I cannot allow it to go unpunished.”
“But Dante, they’re your crew…”
“Doesn’t matter,” he grumbles. “If they hurt you, there has to be consequences.”
“It was mayhem in the dining hall.” I take his hand. He’s cold to the touch, and I don’t like it, not when the one constant thing about Dante was the heat from his body. “You have a lot of crew, do they all have the same meal time?”
“They eat when they want,” Dante says.
“And what about work and relaxing?”
He shrugs a shoulder. “As long as the work gets done. They can work around their needs.”
“So, is anyone actually controlling what they eat, what they do, what they take?”
“Me?” Dante says, looking confused. “Or at least I’ll deal with any warrior who takes too much or not enough.”
An alarm sounds. The piercing shrill siren seems to get inside my head.
“It would seem that has happened today,” Dante says. “You need to come with me.”
“Why? Chances are your crew are going to want to have nothing to do with me if you punished them for roughhousing in my vicinity.”
“Because I need you, little flame. Being close to you is all which is keeping me from the very edge,” Dante pants.
I’m not entirely sure he is not close to the edge, but I’ll let Dante be the judge of it. He’s obviously not going to move unless I do, so I hold out my hand and find myself scooped into his arms as he takes off at a pace I could not possibly keep up with.
I hear my voice, calling out his name, which is lost to the wind. It would appear I am all in with this Sarkarnii warlord, who has far more secrets than he has ever let on.