Page 25 of Defiance
It had only been hours since—
“Aelia has friends here,” he blurted, trying to cover up what Roka had probably already figured out. “The humans are starting to have families and define their lives. And they’re accepting.” He swallowed, thinking of Charlie. “I saw Aelia playing with Pom Pom this afternoon. She seems happy.”
Roka squinted at him, his red eyes shining bright. “You have good acting chops, but that’s laying it on thick for a speciesthat doesn’t form families. Might want to tone down your performance next time.”
Novak’s tail smacked the ground. “Just because we don’t know our neolates doesn’t mean we don’t want to,” he snapped back. “What a shriveled, brittle soul. You used to be one of my closest allies, Roka.”
A bit of the fire died in Lokurian’s glare. He clenched his fangs and let go of the bars.
“You should always assume Guei knows every piece on the board,” the venandi offered quietly. “And the people working for her don’t always know which piece they are or if they’re even in the game.”
“So be wary of everyone,” Novak surmised. Roka gave him a slow nod. “That’s nothing new.”
“It’s not hyperbole. Assume you’re making every move out in the open.”
Novak’s plume mail skittered across his back warily. “Understood. Any other gems of wisdom?”
Lokurian looked him up and down with a crease between his brow plates. “GroundSakharelfruit will cover the scent. Put a satchel in your bags and rub your hands and skin with it. The blue one upstairs can print it for you.”
Novak blinked, his ears and stare pinned on the venandi’s face.“Sakharel.”
Roka gave him the ghost of his old, smooth smile. “Make sure she uses it too, ah?”
Then he sat down on the floor with his back turned as the morning lightened, staring up at colorful drawings taped to the wall.
10
A deep buzz hit Ferulis like a bone saw, lighting up the nerves in his arm. He jolted from sleep with a grizzled snarl, practically punching his own wrist to turn off the comm.
“Ferulis,” he barked at his holotab. When nothing happened, he blinked and squinted down at the screen. It was a vid comm from Renata, his holoscreen blurred with a prompt overlay asking for camera permission. Clearing his throat, he stood up with the help of a crutch, rubbed a hand over his spires to make sure he hadn’t speared his own godforsaken pillows, and righted his undershirt.
“What is it—”
His mouth went slack. He’d assumed that the call would come from Agent Gaul or Vindilus Renatex. Instead, two bundles of cloth with wrinkled faces were smooshed together between four big shilpakaari palms.
“Are those cabbages?” he gruffed, sure that his good eye was still bleary and fooling him. He hopped gracefully over to a bar stool, hugging the crutch to his side with practiced ease.
A human female laughed like chimes and his heart rate spiked. He enlarged his screen and tapped a light in his bedroom.
“We wanted to officially share the news, sir,” the reserved voice of Ezraji Zarabi came through the line, laced with a smileand disbelieving exhaustion. “Hukaari, both boys. Their names are Matteo and Novit.”
“Souls,” Ferulis breathed, slowing near the bartop in his suite.
“We’re pretty sure they’re identical,” the woman’s voice, which he now recognized as Dr Ahlberg, said from behind the camera.
“Let me see you, mara,” Ferulis said, waving the new father away with his talons. Amelia turned his view around and he smiled, mandibles fluttering. Her pale cheeks were flushed, her golden silk matted from exertion where it splayed out on a fresh pillow. When she smiled though, it was with the awe of parenthood. The joy of being on the precipice of an adventure. “How are you?”
Amelia bit her lip and gave him a nod. “Very good. Everything went well. They’re small for human infants, but we expected that.”
“Next you’ll have to learn what they eat,” Ferulis chuckled.
“I guess so! We haven’t tried yet.” A bead of water squeezed out of the corner of her eye. “Thank you for everything, Chairman Ferulis. Dr Singh has been a godsend. And the fruit,” she laughed, her lip trembling in a way that alarmed him. “I haven’t been able to taste it yet, but it smells delicious.”
The vid feed zoomed back as it transferred to Ezraji’s holotab and the delegate handed one of the whelps to her in bed. She opened the little one’s wrappings so that he could see.
“This one’s Novit,” she said.
Ferulis found himself leaning in. The boy was grey-green with a bright blue blush across his cheeks. He had a flat nose with two slits on either side like his father, and tendrils curled tightly behind his head. But his eyes were human with dark blue brows and lashes, and he had only two arms which were curled into his chest while he slept.
