Captive of the Horde King (Horde Kings Of Dakkar #1) - Zoey Draven Page 0,57
her dress. “Careful of your slippers, Missiki,” she called. “They were just crafted, especially for you.”
It didn’t matter. I was obeying the Vorakkar. That morning, I allowed myself to be dressed in another skimpy outfit and then I’d walked myself over to the pyroki pen with my chin held high, though I felt the eyes of the horde on me.
After much reflection yesterday and a long night in an empty bed, I’d come to realize that Arokan had been right. I was a queen now and I needed to act like it. I needed to integrate myself into horde life and win over his people.
If that meant getting dirty in pyroki shit and humbling myself before the horde, I would do it. Arokan told me I was Dakkari now. And, despite what Mirari said, I wasn’t above doing dirty work just because my husband was the Vorakkar. I’d worked hard all my life. I wasn’t about to stop now.
So, in response to Mirari’s concern, I kicked off the sandals and threw them over the low gates of the enclosure, right next to her.
Her shoulders sagged. “That is not what I meant, Missiki. Now look at your feet!”
Unlike Mirari, Lavi seemed positively gleeful watching me. Her eyes twinkled with delight and amusement as she stood next to Mirari.
Casting a glance over my shoulder, I blew out another breath, eyeing a pyroki, which had ventured close to me. Those red eyes watched me and it tossed its neck, stamping its four feet on the earth, when I shoveled yet another pile into the corner.
Somehow, I’d managed to forget how absolutely terrifying they were, how massive they were. And while my hands had been shaking on the shovel for the first hour I’d been in the pen with them, they were now steady. Mostly, they ignored me, which gave me confidence.
Many of the pyroki were gone. Arokan had taken out half of the horde warriors with him to hunt down the Ghertun pack and their pyroki had gone with them.
An elderly male, who hadn’t given me his name, was in charge of the pen. He looked over at Jriva and I from the troughs he was filling with fresh water, his eyes assessing our progress. Unlike Jriva, he spoke the universal tongue and when I told him that I wanted a job at the pen, he’d told me to clean it out, despite Mirari’s immediate protests.
“If the Morakkari wishes to work with the pyroki, then she must start where I did,” he’d replied to Mirari, his tone unyielding and strong.
He’d expected me to balk and turn away. He’d expected me to leave, I saw that in his dismissive gaze. Despite my title, I didn’t have his respect. I didn’t have the respect of many of the horde after yesterday’s events.
So, he was surprised when I tied back my freshly washed and brushed hair and asked for a shovel. He handed me one hesitantly and I steeled my spine and I went to work.
“If the Vorakkar sees you doing this,” Mirari said again, “he will not be pleased.”
“Mirari,” I hissed. “Enough.”
Wisely, she closed her mouth, but she still eyed the large piles of excrement that I had to shovel. It would take me most of the afternoon.
Her shoulders sagged and then she walked to the entrance of the pen, snagging another shovel from where they were lined against the enclosure.
“What are you doing?” I asked, straightening.
“I cannot allow you to work here all afternoon,” Mirari said, tucking her long skirt up into her waistband, leaving her long legs exposed. “I will help.”
“Mirari, you don’t have to do that. This is my task.”
“I am your piki,” she simply replied, scrunching her nose when she stepped into the pen.
A little bloom of affection and gratitude for her opened in my chest as I watched her shovel a nearby pile. I shook my head, unable to keep the small smile from my face at her look of disgust.
Lavi seemed even more thrilled to watch Mirari, who bit out something in Dakkari at her when she saw the other piki grinning. Whatever she said made Lavi’s smile die and she, too, after a moment’s hesitation, slouched into the pen to help.
Jriva laughed in his Shit Corner as the three of us shoveled and any passing Dakkari looked at us in bewilderment, even lingering to watch before continuing on their way.
Once most of the pen was cleared, the pyroki master came over and dismissed us.