“Sleep in, my doe, today has been busy. You and my girls need your rest. I will get on,” I assured her.
“We will be here,” she replied firmly.
“I will –”
She cut me off. “The king will expect it.”
I stopped talking and nodded because this was true, Lahn would expect it.
Then I lifted two hands and put them on her cheeks, dipping my face to hers.
“I’m so sorry about Teetru,” I whispered and I watched with surprise as her eyes went hard.
“She is a traitor,” she hissed, pulled away, turned her head to the side and then made a spitting sound with her mouth though no spit came out before she turned back to me. “I was born slave. I was lucky to have good masters, like Beetus. Packa and Gaal were not. This makes Packa timid and Gaal guarded. But we have talked many nights of you, our golden queen, who laughs with us and speaks kindly, touches kindly, whose warrior provides us with plentiful food better than we’ve ever had. You are our true golden queen and she was of Maroo but she knew the gold of your touch, just like us all. Slaves are normally commanded, not asked and not included; we do not exist, even though we serve. We exist for you. It feels good to exist. She nearly took you away from us. This is unforgivable and this will not be forgiven, not by warrior, not by warrior bride, not by free man or woman, not by slave, not by anyone Korwahk and most especially not by what you call us, Your Girls. She was honored to be among us and now her headless body rots at the bottom of a cliff, a body that will never join her spirit in the next realm. We will not miss her, not one of us. Your Dax was too good to her. He should have turned her over to the warriors to do what they are forbidden to do even to the Xacto instead of taking her head.”
Okay, mental note, do not get on Jacanda’s bad side.
This was what I thought. What I said was a whispered, “All right, sweetheart.”
She nodded and moved to the cham flaps but stopped and turned back.
“I burned her bolt of fabric with your cham as well as her other belongings and Beetus threw her bangle over the cliff. She no longer exists.”
I nodded. I got the message. I was not to speak of her again.
She nodded back.
“Goodnight, Jacanda,” I whispered.
“Eat something,” she tipped her head to the table where she’d put food. “Then sleep well, my golden queen,” she whispered back then exited the cham.
I sucked in breath. Then I lifted my hands to my cheeks and pressed in.
Then I felt the tears and shakes come again and I struggled to keep them in check.
I won this fight as the tent flaps slapped back, my eyes flew there and I watched my husband bend low and enter, accompanied by Ghost.
I stared at him as he took a step in and stopped. Ghost didn’t stop. She ambled to me so I bent in a knees to chest squat and she kept coming until I had her head in my hands. When I had a hold on her, I started to scratch behind her ears.
“The animal sprung to your aid,” Lahn declared and I kept scratching as I tipped my head back to look at him. “From now on, she sleeps with us.”
I nodded and studied his face.
He still looked pissed.
I bit my lip.
This made him look more pissed.
I stopped biting my lip.
His eyes dropped to Ghost and he looked even more pissed.
What on earth?
He looked back at me and ordered tersely, “Rise, wife, and come to me.”
I didn’t want to, mainly because he looked pissed, but I did. I gave Ghost’s head a rub, straightened and walked to him.