Page 5 of Warrior's Reign
They’d met while Reign was in her last stretch and Ibu returning to complete a specialty track—their age gap hadn’t prevented them from becoming friends.
Ibu’s appearance hadn’t changed much. She still wore her hair just above the shoulder in loose waves, a modern departure for the Jorokai dynasty. Her makeup was light and shimmery, and she’d adorned her ears with the dangling crystals she preferred. She hadn’t aged a day. But the Yadeshi didn’t age, not really.
Ibukay huffed, looking impatient. “I don’t have time for small talk. When can you meet me? I’m in Naidekai. Evvek says he can’t pinpoint your location within more than a two-hundred kilometer radius. I’ve been instructed to ask you what dark market tech you’re using to scramble your location, because it is stellar and he’ll pay in blood or sexual favors for your contact.”
Well, one of those things she’d definitely bartered for the tech. “What did you hunt me down for, Ibukay?”
“My life is in danger,” Ibu said, sounding far too cheerful. “I need someone I can trust. I believe you will serve.”
* * *
“Bdakhun.”
Vykhan stepped into Ibukay’s office. Her personal assistant and foundation manager argued in her face over the placements of Malko’s newest batch of recovered aliens.
“Little sister.” He raised his voice a notch to be heard over the bickering. It was shameful behavior in front of theirBdakhun,but Ibukay allowed such things so it was not his place to comment. “May we speak?”
He could make the human quit in a week. There could be no one disquiet guarding Ibukay, and the hours he had spent combing through Reign Obe’shan’s recent history troubled him. A piece of his heart. . .twisted. Why did it have to beher?
The only person beside Lohail who had ever threatened his Silence. The only person he had ever contemplated giving up his Silence for. And she did not even know it.
He had his duty, however. “Regarding the human.”
Ibukay eyed his expression. “Of course. Just let me. . .” She began to sidle away.
“Bdakhun.”
Ibukay snapped her fingers. “I forgot. There was a comm for you. Encoded. Your aide asked me to mention it if I saw you before he did.”
“Nothing came through to my wrist unit.”
“Well, it wouldn’t, that’s a secured palace line. Go take your comm. We’ll talk later.”
“Bdakhun.”
She fluttered her fingers at him and dashed off, grabbing a staff person to take with her as a shield. Vykhan allowed her strategic retreat and left the suite, making the short walk to his personal quarters in the palace.
He disliked coded messages. Anyone whom he would desire communication from knew how to reach him through regular means. On foot, to speak face-to-face like warriors. Not hiding behind tech where one could not judge a person’s aura, or see their hands and feet.
They’d begun the day he’d taken the bait that had almost gotten hisBdakhunkilled, the female who if was not quite as a daughter to him, he regarded as of much of a sister as he would ever have. Not only a sister, but worthy of his life and service, as she dedicated hers to a cause more noble and selfless than any of the pet projects of her elder siblings and other members of the royal household favored. Aantif, as it had been named but those weary of saying the correct name, the Anti-Alien Trafficking Force, was Ibukay’s purpose. Thus it was his.
Vykhan returned the comm, blocking visual.
“Old friend.”
The voice was disguised. Vykhan knew it anyway.
“It has been too long.”
The silence stretched. Vykhan still did not speak.
“To you, it must be as if a ghost has reached out from another time.”
A ghost? No, Lohail, a lord of Anthhori, was far too real.
“Will you not speak, Vykhan?”
“Why have you contacted me?” Vykhan asked finally, voice emotionless. Any inflection of emotion was a risk. Though the lack also told the ghost something Vykhan would rather not reveal.
