AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d fought both against and alongside Oxriel. I’d seen him slice through my tribesmen when Gahn Irokai and Gahn Buroudei’s forces had attacked us in Gahn Fallo’s lands, looking for the new women. I’d watched him shove his blades into the guts of Gahn Baldor’s warriors when that silver-sight-starred Gahn attacked the new settlement in search of Thereeza. And again, more recently, I’d seen his strength when we fought to get Priya back, first from Lerokan, then from Gahn Thaleo’s forces.
All of these experiences, not to mention the look of intense focus in his sight stars now, reminded me that beneath his vapid grins and goofy good moods there was a hardened warrior who would not go down easy.
Ah, well. I did not care if it was easy.
I reached behind my back for a blade.
And promptly froze, claws midway to the weapon. Oxriel stilled as well, his ears pricking back towards the crack that led into the other cave. Fiona was saying something and laughing.
Sea Sands help me. She’d already seen me with my blade aimed at Bariok today and she had not been impressed. What would she think if she came out here now and saw me hacking my way towards the silliest but easily the most well-liked male among us (I could neither account for it nor understand it, but all the new women seemed to enjoy Oxriel’s affable nature, mirroring his constant smiles with their own.)
She would not be happy if I hurt him. She might even start to hate me, if she did not already.
And if she did decide to kiss a Sea Sand male again...
She really might make it Oxriel instead of me.
That thought almost had me abandoning all logic and ripping the blade from my back. Oxriel wouldn’t be able to kiss her if I sliced the lower half of his face off, now would he? But then Fiona spoke again, and it sounded louder this time. Closer. Rage flowing through me like a second, poisoned bloodstream, I clenched my empty fist and let it fall. Oxriel watched me for another moment, then finally relaxed and lowered his blade.
Fiona and Tilly emerged from their cave at that moment. Both of them stopped short at the sight of Oxriel with a weapon in his hands.
“Whoa. What are you doing, Ox?” Fiona asked.
Ox?
“Ah,” Oxriel said, looking down at his blade, almost surprised, as if it had just appeared there while he’d been looking somewhere else. “I thought it needed... sharpening.”
The fact that he would have used the top of my skull instead of a sharpening stone was not specifically mentioned.
“Oh. Right,” Fiona said, accepting that explanation easily. “That makes sense. Guess you have to make sure you’re ready for the vaklok thing. Are all three of you going to participate? Or just Dalk?”
Look at me when you say my name.
She didn’t.
“Yes, I will,” Oxriel said, putting away his blade. “I’m very curious to see what kind of tasks there will be. Displays of strength. Maybe even games.”
“How about you, Zoren?” Tilly asked.
Male of few words, as I’d found most Death Plains warriors to be, Zoren grunted something that sounded like yes but offered nothing more.
“So the whole Sea Sand gang will compete. That’s fun!” Tilly said.
Fiona’s eyes met mine, and before she looked away I thought I saw a little bit of warmth come into the expression. Relief poured into me, and I was suddenly very, very grateful that I had not taken out my weapon as I’d been about to.
“Well,” Fiona said brightly, hands on the small, delirious curve of her hips, “We’ll be cheering you all on!”
CHAPTER NINE
Fiona
Since we hadn’t been expecting a seven-day stay when we’d left for Gahn Thaleo’s mountain in the morning, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening getting organized. We had some supplies in the shuttle, including a couple of spare sets of clothes, but they were all sized for six-foot-something Valeria and there weren’t enough garments to clothe all four of us humans for an entire week.
After talking about the problem with Zaria and some of the other Deep Sky ladies, they volunteered to help make us Deep Sky clothing sized for our human bodies. Tilly was super excited at that prospect. She’d designed and made a lot of her own clothing back on Earth and I could tell she was thrilled to learn about another planet’s clothing production, even if it was all by hand instead of using a sewing machine. Nasrin wasn’t quite as bouncing-off-the-walls-excited as Tilly was about the idea, but she was game enough.
Me?
The last time I’d sewn something was when I was sixteen, trying to make a Halloween costume. Let’s just say that by the end of that process I hadn’t even needed to use fake blood on it. I’d done my fair share of stick-and-poke tattoos on Earth, both on myself and others, but apparently I just wasn’t any good at using a needle unless it was actually supposed to be going into your skin.
