Page 49 of Taken to Voraxia
Xoran stiffens and watches me without blinking. He doesn’t speak. On his other side, a young Voraxian boy approaches and hands him a huge goblet.
I start when a soft voice whispers, “Rakukanna.”
I turn to see a young girl holding a similar goblet towards me. I take it from her with a quick thanks in Voraxian, which I’m pretty sure is pronouncedStree-vay-yuh-ah.The girl blinks at me and smiles and giggles just a little bit before scurrying away.
“Was that wrong?” I say with a smile.
“Stree’vay yah,” Xoran says and his mouth twitches. He glances again at the package in my lap. “It means, honored one. You honor her greatly by using this term. She is but a youth, one called Maru. She still carries the name of her youth and has not yet been honored with a title.”
“That’s not a reason not to honor her. Even children have honor. Even slaves.”
Xoran doesn’t answer right away. He just lifts his cup and bows his head. I mimic the gesture and take a sip from the rock chalice when he does. The outside of the rock is roughhewn, but the inside is smooth.
“I would be pleased for our paths to align,” he says as he sets his goblet down onto the wide arm of the chair. Still, I feel nervous. His words contradict his body language. He’s so closed.
“Me too,” I answer. “I just don’t want to disappoint you.”
“There will be many tasks to undertake as Rakukanna, particularly in your stewardship of the human colony.” He cocks his head towards the bustling throngs of singing, laughing, shouting, drinking, eating people.
I look up and my heart, which already floated so light in my chest, threatens to bound into the sky, taking me with it. “Svera!”
Like by some magic, Svera steps through the crowd wearing a pale gold head wrap and an ankle-length tunic — the only person here with their chest covered. The lovely cloth brings out the brown in her skin and the flecks of green in her eyes.
I jerk up, but Xoran’s heavy fingers circle my wrist. He holds me gently, a lightness to his touch that gives me the impression he’s restraining himself admirably, but that it’s not what he wants. What he wants is something else…I know what he wants.
The Xanaxana is liquid heat, spilling and spewing through me, and when I look into Xoran’s knowing face I nearly black out when the Xanaxana surges through my stomach and chest and thighsand lower lips.He did this. He did this for her. He did this forme.
“Rakukanna!” Svera rushes up to me, stopping just short of my knees. She drops to one of her own and nods at both me and Xoran before rising again.
I don’t know how I’m supposed to stay in my seat and finally don’t bother. I break free of Xoran’s grip, lurch up and throw my arms around her neck and we both devolve into a fit of laughter.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” I bury my face in her neck and hair covering for the length of an inhale before pulling back.
“Raku invited us,” she says on a laugh.
“I can’t believe it.”
She grins and as I look her over, she seems just as bright as ever. Healthy, but more than that, she seems so sure. Not the youngest of our friend group, a colony oucast, but a woman who has seen oceans and crossed them, who has discovered worlds.
“Hexa, Raku invited us. He said that until the trial, I am still a guest of the Rakukanna so it would be wrong of me not to be in attendance. Plus, I doubt Krisxox would have been happy if he’d missed the party, even if he did have to take me as his date.” She laughs and over her shoulder I see the Dra’Kesh with the same flowing white hair I had on the ship.
She leans towards me, conspiratorially. “There were a number of women who came by his home and solicited an invitation from him to your Rakukanna ceremony. But he had to tell them that he’s babysitting me instead. It was frankly, hilarious. Also, very ick.” She makes a face. “So many women…”
“Oh stars. Just the male for you then, isn’t he?”
She palms her forehead and releases a heavy breath that makes me laugh. “It has taken some…adjustment.”
“Are you okay though? In all seriousness? Is he treating you right?”
“Yes, he is. He obviously doesn’t like me, but that’s okay. I’d rather him not like me than like me too much, if you know what I mean.” I don’t know if she means to, but she glances at Xoran as she says that.
“The place he lives is awesome,” she continues, “Going outside alone is terrifying. Qath is essentially, a hot, sticky wilderness. The weather is dramatic, to say the least and everything is mammoth — the plants, the trees, the insects, the creatures. Terrifying creatures howl almost the entire lunar. I didn’t sleep for the first few, but I’m starting to get used to them. It’s strange but, I feel closer to God in Qath. Water falls from the sky there. They call it rain. It’s…unbelievable.”
“Water from the sky? Giant insects?” I shudder. “That sounds…insane.”
Svera laughs. “It really is.”
“But Krisxox. You’re living alone with him. Isn’t that against the Tri-God religion?”
