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“No.”
“It’s boring,” Khadin said.
“We could skip rocks,” Jade offered. “I know how.” Claude had taught her.
“Queens know how to do that?” Rayk’s eyes were suddenly taking up half the space of his face. “I thought you could only sing, act, cook, clean, and sew. The Queenly arts, Father calls them.”
“There’s another one you’re too little to know about,” Khadin muttered.
“You must be the oldest. Eleven?”
“Twelve.” Khadin puffed out his chest.
“Barely! You only turned twelve last cycle!”
“I’m older than you, cub!”
“Who are you calling a cub?”
“Gentlemen! Knights. Hosts!” Jade spoke over the babble. “I challenge you to a rock skipping contest. I don’t want to think about the shame if you’re beaten by a Queen—and a human one, at that!”
The cubs ran whooping ahead of her, talking strategy and encouraging each other to find the best, flattest stones.
Lena turned her chair around with a smile. “You will make a good mother, Queen Jade.’
“Queen Jade? I like the sound of that!”
“I wish you many daughters and at least one son.”
Jade’s steps faltered. “Oh? Any reason for that? To help with the shortage of Queens, I guess.”
“No.” Lena shook her graying head sadly. “The daughters you can raise—but the sons you will have to let go of and let their father raise them. It is a hard life for both mother and son.”
Jade swallowed hard. “But... But why?”
“Because that’s the way it is,” Lena said simply and buzzed off in her chair.
With stumbling feet, Jade raced to follow her and found herself in a gaggle of little spotted bodies, all clamoring to ask her questions and to start their competition.
Jade tried to forget Lena’s “blessing,” but the words hung over her like a curse instead.
“I THINK THAT WENT VERY well.”
Ardol drained his third cup of tea, his nerves shot. “I hope so. They were on me like carcass hawks!”
His father waved off his complaint with a harsh laugh. “Wait until you attend one of their meetings, not a friendly afternoon tea! You’re too soft, Ardol. I think that Queen has been corrupting you.”
“In what way?”
“Hm.” His father poured a large glass of wine for himself and put the stopper back in the bottle. “You were speaking with such passion about including Felids from all over the galaxy and speaking about the joys that the human Queens have brought your crewmates and yourself that I almost believed it.”
“What’s to doubt? Jade brings me immense joy.” Even when she tries to hide herself, she is the most genuine person I know.
“Son. You know that if Felid Queens were available, we wouldn’t need humans in our midst.”
“Need? No. Want? Why not?” he phrased his challenges like questions, knowing that questions were seen as less defiant than bold opposing statements. Still, he knew his father would soon reach a breaking point and thunder that he was not to be questioned. Ardol trod the line carefully.
“I suppose it’s the thrill of bedding one. She is much smaller. A challenge, hm?”
