Page 37 of Humans Don't Have Horns
“Nothing to forgive you for. You did what the law demanded of you.” I take back the bottle while he’s midsip.
“Actually, the law required me to bring you back to trial, as Minera kept shouting at me in any chance she got,” he says dryly. When I say nothing, he keeps going. Between the two of us, he was always the outgoing, chatty one. “But that was the least of my hardship. Because I took your weapons, Niska nearly bit my head off. Literally, Daton. She nearly bit my head off. And Emek—” He trembles. “I slept out of my own tent for three weeks. Three weeks!” he exclaims.
I can’t help but laugh at the sorry bastard, managing to enrage the three women no one dares to mess with all at once.
“So, come to think of it, you should have boughtmethe bree. Yeah, especially now that I saw that pretty little heretic of yours—”
“Don’t fucking talk about her,” I growl at him, my upper lip curling to reveal my teeth.Yours. He saidyours. But she’s not mine. Never was. Never will be. I’m Amada’s greatest fucking idiot.
Bahar frowns at me. “Brother, you can’t—”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Are you two brutes drunk?” Emek cries, her hands on her hips.
“Getting there,” I say, raising the bottle in salute.
“Why, I swear, it is no other than the most beautiful oracle who ever walked the land!” Bahar exclaims, but Emek only gives him a death glare.
“Leave us. I need to speak to Daton.”
“Where should I leave to, oh my beautiful, sensual oracle?” he asks her in what might sound tempting in his head but not to anyone else. He could never handle the bree. I try to be a good friend and not jeer. Fuck it. It’s too hard.
Emek sighs. “Why, Daton? Why make him drunk?”
“He’s the one who brought the bree,” I say between laughs. Then take another swig.
Bahar stands up. “Can I go to the tent tonight?”
But Emek only gives him a dry look.
“I’ll do that thing you like. The one where I—”
“Fine,” she grunts to shut him up. He actually made her blush. “Wait for me in the tent,” she says and lets him kiss her before he leaves.
“Traitor,” I call after him for leaving me alone to handle her, but he only grins widely at me.
“Kicking your mate out of your tent for three weeks. I’m almost touched that you cared so much,” I tell Emek, handing her the bree.
She gives me a hard, humorless look and takes a sip. “For a man who just escaped a death sentence and got his old job back, you look quite testy.”
“I didn’t want that job back.” But she knows that already.
“Not with the farming nonsense again.” She rolls her eyes. Lian didn’t think it was nonsense. I sigh at that. I fucked up so immensely.
“What happened between you and her?” Emek asks in a more tender voice.
“None of your fucking business,” I answer.
“It is my business. She’s important,” she says in a flat tone.
“If she’s so fucking important, why didn’t you stop Minera?” I grimace at her. She should have. She shouldn’t have left it to the warlord to have ethical objections. There’s a reason we have two separate leaders.
“I didn’t think the people were ready then to turn on Minera.” Then she adds pensively, “And truthfully, I didn’t want to believe she is the savior.”
I straighten at that. “Savior? What the fuck are you talking about?”
She sighs before she says, “Thirty years ago, at a self-transcendence ritual, I had a vision. To make a long story short, I’ve been searching for a white-haired Mongan baby since then. I didn’t realize the savior wasn’t Mongan. And I most certainly didn’t expect the savior to be a pampered, spoiled princess.”
“She’s not spoiled,” I deflect in a reflex. Well, that’s bullshit. She is indeed spoiled.
