Captive of the Horde King (Horde Kings Of Dakkar #1) - Zoey Draven Page 0,89
say, I didn’t get much sleep that night, especially since Arokan didn’t join me on the pallet. He’d stayed up through the night with the warrior watch and I only saw him again at sunrise, when we left our temporary camp for the last and final day of journey.
Shortly, we moved away from the large forest, leaving it behind—and the Ghertun with it, much to my relief—and I noticed that the landscape began to change again, going from empty stretches of land and forests, to more mountainous regions of tall hills and low valleys.
“There is a small Dakkari outpost not far from here,” Arokan murmured down to me. “It is called Juniri. We enter the southlands now.”
Everything was new to me. I’d only ever been outside the walls of my village once and one time only. Now, I was covering miles and miles of strange, foreign land with my Dakkari horde king. And I felt like the world had opened to me. I felt free.
Looking at my brother’s expression as he gazed around told me he felt at least an inkling of what I felt.
Arokan called for a break in travel mid-morning, so the horde could rest for a brief while and take their second meals before we made the final push towards the new camp. We stopped at the base of a tall, jutting mountain, the ground covered in a type of red dirt that stained my feet when I slid down from Kailon’s back.
Just in time too, I couldn’t help but think, biting my lip and taking a deep breath. Nausea had been roiling through my belly all morning, but I’d managed to keep it at bay, so as not to alarm Arokan or stop the horde’s travels. But I didn’t think I could keep it in any longer.
So, I dismissed myself shortly after we stopped, claiming to Arokan that I needed to empty my bladder, and Mirari and Lavi came with me, a guard trailing not far behind. Once the guard gave me privacy, I found a secluded spot, out of eyesight of the horde, and heaved what remained of my evening meal the night before into the red dirt. I hadn’t eaten that morning, still too nervous about the Ghertun, so unless my nausea was some kind of virus…I thought that it might be caused by something else entirely.
“Missiki,” Mirari said quietly, coming to crouch beside me, a fresh cloth already out of her travel satchel.
I counted the weeks in my head. When women had gotten pregnant in my village—though that occurrence was rare since there weren’t many young females—it had always taken more than a couple months from the time of conception for morning sickness to begin. It was entirely too soon for mine to begin unless…
Unless Dakkari females had a different pregnancy term than humans.
I took the cloth from Mirari, wiping my mouth, before looking up at her. Lavi was hovering nearby too and Mirari said something to her. Lavi nodded and disappeared.
“No,” I whispered. “I don’t want Arokan to worry. Not now.”
“I sent her for water,” Mirari assured me. Relieved, I blew out a breath, before another wave of nausea hit me and I threw up again. Mirari soothed me as best as she could and when Lavi returned, she had me take a cooling sip from the cup, which helped.
Not once did I experience my bleeding time when I’d been with Arokan. My cycle had been relatively unpredictable at the village, due to a low supply of food and a high supply of stress. I hadn’t thought anything of it, but now, I was beginning to suspect that perhaps my horde king had gotten me pregnant that very first time, the night of our tassimara.
When I looked into Mirari and Lavi’s eyes, I knew they suspected what I did.
“Should I send for the healer?” Mirari asked quietly.
“No,” I said. “The guard will report to Arokan. Besides, I’m not even sure. It’s only been a couple mornings of this.”
Mirari watched me and then said, “The healer carries special Dakkari herbs and mixes for this purpose, Missiki. You wish to be sure?”
“She can tell me if…if I’m pregnant?” I whispered, shocked. “How?”
Mirari nodded and then looked at the cup of water. “I can be discreet. Relieve yourself in here and I will have her test it with her herbs.”
My cheeks burned. “You want my urine?”
“How else can you test for a baby, Missiki?” Mirari asked, confused, frowning.