You see now, don’t you? Darius thought hopelessly, spearing another piece of meat with his fork, but only pushing it randomly around his plate.
I will pray to Tolah that your death is quick, young Darius, Brin said solemnly.
That’s not funny, Brin.
Who says I was joking?
Well, I’d better just get it over with. Hugh looks ready to split in two.
Walk with Tolah, Darius, Brin said consolingly, and Darius heard him add, I sure wish I could; anywhere but here would be preferable.
Gathering all of his Breken courage, Darius pushed his plate away and looked up into the angry glare of Hugh. “I know you saw me today, Hugh. I can explain.”
Dearra and Carly abruptly ceased their conversation, and Dearra swung her gaze onto Darius, waiting for him to continue.
“Can you, really, Darius? I would like to hear how it came to pass that you met alone in the desert with one of your people. Why would you need to go so secretively? What could you not share with us? Unless, of course, you meant to betray us.”
William shook his head in denial at Hugh’s accusations, but it was Daniel who spoke on his friend’s behalf. “Hugh, I don’t know what the boy was doing, but I know that it wasn’t anything to do us harm. He’s stupid, but he’s no traitor.”
Darius crinkled his brow for a moment. When he thought about it, that was exactly what he was: a traitor, not to these people, but to his own. The thought left him as quickly as it came, however, for in his heart, he had never thought himself to be truly Breken. To Daniel, he said, “Thank you…I think. Listen: I had to make contact outside of the usual method. I needed to know that Phillip still lived and that this wasn’t a game being played for the ransom of a child they never intended to return.”
“And?” Dearra asked, her voice trembling with concern for her brother’s safety. She had never really let herself believe anything serious would ever happen to Pip, but hearing Darius say the words aloud had sent crippling fear racing through her veins.
Darius offered her a comforting smile and placed a hand on her arm before saying, “He’s fine, Dearra. Alive and well.”
“How do we know we can trust this woman?” Hugh demanded. “Why would she even meet with you in the first place? Everything I know about the Breken says they act only for personal gain. I can’t imagine she would just agree to provide you with information for no reason at all.”
“She?” Dearra said, the timid squeak from the moment before, replaced with a lion’s muted purr.
Darius cleared his throat and continued to speak to Hugh, but avoided meeting Dearra’s eyes with his own.
“Her family is the one that holds Phillip. She herself has been in charge of his…care. Our families have some…unique ties to one another, and she still feels some…obligation to me.”
“Obligation?” Dearra said, her purr growing to a soft growl.
Carly set her fork down and inched slightly back from the table.
Nice, Darius. I never knew you could dance so well. Careful now—here’s where the tune gets faster, Brin warned.
Hugh was not one to be put off, and his patience was wearing thin. “What kind of ties? What sort of obligations?”
“Well…sir, it’s complicated. She…she’s sort of like…well, it’s different, of course, but in a way, I guess you could say she’s—and it’s really important you understand—”
“Darius!” Hugh roared.
“She’s my wife!”
Hugh’s jaw dropped a good two inches and stayed that way. Daniel, William, and Carly got to their feet and moved as far away from Dearra as the room would allow, for though they valued their own skin enough to get out of harm’s way, no one wanted to miss what would happen next.
Darius seemed to shrink before their eyes. He turned to face Dearra, who had not moved an iota, and looked slowly up from the floor. In all of his life, Darius had not seen anything that filled him with more dread than the sight that greeted him. Her face was completely passive. She wore an expression of calm. But when his eyes met hers, he saw that, in them, there was no blue to be found. Every trace of the beautiful sapphire had been swept away, and only the golden fire remained.
Without blinking, Dearra said, “Darius, I wish to speak with you alone. I would like to take a walk. The air will do me good.”
Hugh had recovered enough at this point to at least think of Darius’s safety. “Leave the sword, Dearra. Darius can take his, but Brin stays here.” He half expected an argument, and braced himself to hold firm.
Dearra only nodded without looking away from Darius and said, “Fine. I won’t be needing Brin, anyway.”
As Darius followed her into the chill night air, he thought his friends looked as though they were already in mourning. He knew it wasn’t going to come to that, but it didn’t help when Brin said, It’s been a privilege to know you, Darius, on his way out the door.
***
Darius wondered if the Bandar night was chillier than normal, or if it was the manifestation of Dearra’s mood he was feeling. He turned to her and said, “Dearra, I—”
“Shhhh,” Dearra interrupted. She made no effort to renew the conversation, but only continued to walk.
Twenty minutes passed as they walked further and further from the inn, and closer to the sea. Darius tried to speak on two more occasions. On the first try she simply shushed him again, and on the second she held up a hand and shook her head. After that, he decided to wait for her cue and walked in silence.
He knew she was furious. He had never seen her quite this angry, and he had seen her pretty angry in the past. He deserved it, he knew, but how was he supposed to have told her about Mili? When they first met, there had been no need. Later on, it hardly seemed the time. Darius could hear the conversation in his mind: “Thank you so much for the kiss, Dearra. It was the most wonderful moment in my entire life. And oh, by the way, I’m married.” Or better yet, “Now that I’ve told you I love you, I should probably mention Mili?” Darius shuddered at the thought. If Dearra noticed, she gave no indication and only continued to walk.
The moon was fully risen by the time they reached the rocky beach. Darius held his breath in anticipation of the conversation they were about to have. He saw that her eyes had returned to normal, and he supposed it a good sign, even though it only meant she had her anger under control, not that it was gone.
She turned to face him and he braced for the storm, but none of the scenarios he’d imagined on their trek to that spot had prepared him for the pain of what came next. Dearra opened her mouth to speak, but instead, she collapsed onto the sharp stones beneath them and wept bitterly, grasping onto his legs for support. Darius was left speechless as a sharp stab of agony tore through his chest. This was followed by an equally excruciating jolt to his mind. Brin was close enough to know everything that was happening, and he was echoing Dearra’s obvious pain. Darius silently thanked Brin for not interfering.
Darius lowered himself to the ground to cradle Dearra in his arms. “Please, Dearra,” he begged, rocking her gently, “I can take anything but your tears.”
“Who is she?” Dearra said, her voice thick with misery.
“No one, I swear. She’s no one.”
“Darius!”
“All right, Dearra. Don’t cry, my love. I’ll tell you everything, just…please, don’t cry.”
Dearra fought to control her breathing and hiccupped a little as she swallowed back her tears and leaned into his chest.
“She is my wife,” Darius began. He felt Dearra tense in his arms, and hurried to explain. “But it’s not like a joining. That comes later. In my world, station is everything. We are married off as infants for the familial ties those unions provide. I was married to Mili when she was still in her cradle.”
“And you are bound to that joining?” Dearra asked, unable to comprehend a marriage where neither party was bound by any vows of faithfulness, not to mention love. “Even though you had no say in the match?
”
“We are married as children, but we are joined as adults. She was to become my banu, my bride, when I returned from our raid to Maj. I put it off as long as I could, but my father had become insistent. Her family is very powerful, and my constant delays were becoming an embarrassment for him, and my father told me I needed to be done with it. Once she birthed my first son I could have easily cast her aside and never have had to look at her again, but that was something I just couldn’t do. I couldn’t formalize our union in good conscience. I was waiting—I didn’t even know what for—but now I know it was you, Dearra. I was waiting for you. I had no idea what love even was until you showed me.”
Darius finished speaking and waited expectantly for her reply. He prayed to whatever gods were listening that she would see he never meant to hurt her. Surely she understood that it was only a formality and that he had had no say in the matter.
When she finally spoke, her voice was more even than it had been before, and Darius allowed the tension building inside him to ease a fraction. “You hurt me, Darius,” she said, almost too softly to be heard.
“I know, Dearra. But I swear on my life it was never intentional. I would do anything to earn back your trust.”
“Anything?” she asked hesitantly, her voice quavering slightly as she strained to control the anguish she felt.
“Anything! I swear, my love. Anything.” Darius knew he should stay focused, but he couldn’t help himself, and he lavished small kisses across her tear stained face, pausing only when she opened her mouth to speak.
“Darius,” she began.
“Yes, love?” he asked hopefully.
“Tell me…”
“Yes, Dearra,” he encouraged.
“Tell me what happened between us in your room back in Maj was my fault,” she said in a rush.
If the sea had dried up in an instant and fish had started falling from the sky, Darius couldn’t have been more surprised than he was at that moment.
“Dearra, you can’t be serious,” he whispered.
Dearra sat straighter in his lap and said with all sincerity, “I’ve never been more serious in my life. You did say you would do anything.”
“And if I do this, you’ll forgive me?”
“Oh, I forgave you when you told me you had been waiting for me without even knowing it, but since you offered to do anything, I’d be a fool to pass up this opportunity.” A small grin grew on her lips, and she swiped at the few, remaining tears that remained on her face.
“Dearra. That’s—”
Dearra smiled triumphantly. “Anything. You said,”
Darius sighed. “Fine. It was all your fault. Now, kiss me, Dearra.” As her lips met his, the sting of his coerced confession eased slightly.
“So now what?” Dearra asked, once their lips had parted.
“Now what?”
“Yeah. How do you get out of this marriage thing? There must be some way to end this arrangement.”
Darius chuckled a little before answering. “Don’t worry about it, Dearra. I left that ‘marriage’ behind when I left the Breken.”
“Does she feel that way about it?”
“Well, no, not exactly. But it has nothing to do with her having any sort of feelings for me. She just wants the power and position. She may be daughter of the highest ranked house, but that doesn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things. Now, if she were mother of the heir to the Fourth House with ties to Falco, then her position would be more secure.”
“Your people are really twisted, you know that, right?”
“Look who’s talking! Brin told me about your family tree, Dearra. It’s the Breken in you that works every situation so it ends to your advantage.”
“That’s ridiculous! I don’t—”
“Stop! Just stop before you embarrass yourself. Wasn’t it you who just said you had already forgiven me, but would be a fool to pass up the opportunity to get me to concede to your argument?”
Dearra blushed and looked down at her boots.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Be that as it may,” she said, “you still haven’t answered my question. How exactly do you get out of this marriage?”
“You are the most stubborn woman I have ever met.”
“Yes, I am. Now, answer me.”
Knowing he had been beaten, Darius gracefully gave in to her demand. As they walked back toward the inn, he detailed the finer points of Breken divorce.
Chapter 22
They held hands on their return to the inn, Dearra walking closely beside Darius. The day had been a long one, and Dearra felt as though she hadn’t slept in a week. All she could think about was how much she wanted to slip into bed and get some much needed rest. But just as the inn was in sight, Brin said, Oh, no! It can’t be!
Darius drew his sword and put Dearra behind him, and since she was unarmed, she didn’t think to argue. Before they had time to question the cause of Brin’s anxiety, he said, Get back to the inn! Now!
“What Brin? What is it?” Dearra asked as she ran toward the inn.
It’s Jacob; he’s here.
They flew up the stairs, Darius taking them two at a time. “Where, Brin?” he growled at him from the top step.
Before Brin could answer the question, Carly screamed and Darius crashed through the girls’ bedroom door.
Jacob stood there looking almost as stunned as Carly, making it evident he had not expected Carly to be there at that particular moment. Jacob’s sword was drawn. He held a knife in the other hand. He and Darius stood facing one another, both sizing the other up, neither one of them moving.
Carly had backed into the corner of the room. A thin trickle of blood ran down her neck indicating Jacob had held the knife there in an attempt to ensure her silence.
Daniel was next to barge through the door. Seeing as Carly’s scream had knocked all rational thought from his head, he wore a shirt which remained unbuttoned, and though he had managed to don pants, his feet were bare. He had also forgotten his sword. He looked at Carly and saw the blood that pooled in the hollow of her throat and dripped lazily to the floor. His eyes flashed pain, then rage, and he turned to Jacob, but Darius stopped his charge to prevent him from harm.
William and Hugh were next into the room, having taken the few, extra seconds to pull on their boots. While Darius restrained Daniel, Jacob took the opportunity to leap out the open window behind him—the same one through which he had entered—and shimmy back down to the road below.
Dearra saw Brin waiting for her on the chest at the foot of her bed, and she scooped the blade up. Without another word, she, William, and Hugh left to pursue Jacob into the dark streets of Bandar.
Daniel continued to thrash and swung at Darius, trying to break free of the Breken’s grip. “Let me go, damn it!” he shouted. “I’ll kill him! Let me go!”
Darius knew how Daniel felt, but he also knew that if he let Daniel go, he would only wind up getting himself killed, seeing as he was barely half-dressed, bootless, and without sword or knife. Darius also knew no words would reach his friend when he was like this, so he did the only thing he could do—he held on, and waited for the rage to subside. Carly helped some on that score, for when she reached her fingers up to examine the small nick at her neck, she gave a tiny yelp of pain, and Daniel froze at the sound.
“Let me go, Darius.”
This time, Darius did release him.
Daniel went to her, stroked her hair, and gently caressed her cheek before examining the cut at her neck. “It’s okay, sweet. It’s shallow. The bleeding has already begun to stop.”
Hachiro came ambling into the room at that moment, with Kyoko following closely behind. Both looked bleary eyed and confused by all of the commotion.
Hachiro was the first to speak. “What? What? What is happen here? Much noise. Much scream.”
“It’s all right, Hachiro,” Darius said, almost casually. “Someone stopped by to say hello, but they’re gone now.�
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Hachiro nodded. If the threat had already gone, then as far as he was concerned, there was no reason to stay awake, and he headed back to his bed.
Kyoko lingered a bit longer until Darius asked if she needed something.
“No, sir. I was just wondering why the little miss were naked, is all.” Kyoko shook her head as if confused by the strange foreigners, then she, too, left the room to head back to her bed.
Carly had completely forgotten she had gone to bed without her sleeping gown. It was true that the Parsaian nights were quite cool, but Dearra had a habit of adding a lot of wood to the fire before she went to sleep, and Carly found it a bit too warm for her liking.
In all the excitement, Darius hadn’t noticed Carly’s state of undress, but now that Kyoko had pointed it out, he couldn’t help but look. He had thought Dearra small, but Carly was tiny, looking as though it would take no more than a soft breeze to blow her over. He had seen Etrafarians before, of course, but never without their garments. Carly’s form seemed almost bird-like to him. Her bones appeared fine and light. Her skin seemed to have a soft glow about it. Her appearance was fascinating, really. Looking at her, he couldn’t imagine how the people of Maj hadn’t noticed there was something different about her.
“Darius,” Daniel said quietly as he held Carly gently in his arms.
“Yes, Daniel?” he asked, still somewhat distracted by his evaluation of the diminutive Etrafarian before him.
“If you don’t stop looking at her I’m going to gouge your eyes out from your head. It’s nothing personal, you understand. I still consider you a friend.”
Carly turned crimson and crushed herself more tightly to Daniel’s chest. She blushed more deeply, and Darius could almost swear the temperature of the room rose along with her color.
“Oh! I’m sorry!” Darius said, realizing what he was doing. “Carly I…I meant no disrespect. I was just looking, that is to say, examining…what I mean is—”
“Darius!” Daniel said, cutting him off. “Just get out.”
Darius almost tripped over his feet as he hurried toward the door.
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