Page 50 of Taken to Nobu
“The Dra’Kesh planet was folded into the Voraxian federation. So as not to disgrace them, we agreed that the Bo’Raku would remain equal to the other xub’Raku, rather than treated as a protectorate, much as your human moon is regarded currently. I was named Okkari that day by my people and elevated to Va’Raku by the Raku of the time. The Bo’Raku of the time was exiled and the next, now fallen Bo’Raku took his place.”
Her body tenses in my arms, fingers tracing small patterns over my plates. I take that hand and bring it to my mouth, then kiss my way down her palm to the inside of her wrist. “He will face his retribution in the tsanui where I will skin him alive, remove his plates, pluck out his eyes and his claws and his teeth and then leave him there to die.”
She snorts, the sound one of pleasure and flicks her eyes up at me. “That might be the most romantic thing anybody’s ever said to me.”
“It is the truth. For harming you, tsanui is my right. I will be cruel.”
“I know. I just…never mind.”
“You will tell me what is on your mind, Kiki.”
For a moment, I think she will not, then she says, “I’m just nervous to see him again.”
“You have built him up into a monster in your mind. And while he is monstrous, he is no different than any other male. Than me. He is only flesh and blood. You will see just how much he can bleed.”
She smirks again. “Xhivey.” Her pronunciation is terrible, but I am pleased that she tries in Voraxian all the same. “You still didn’t answer my question though.”
“You are correct. My long explanation is merely a way to tell you that we were once Dra’Kesh until Voraxia expanded from its current capital to other planets. They arrived on Nobu first. Blood mixed — back then the Xanaxana was strong, weaving many Xiveri mates. What you see now in this village and across the villages of Nobu are the product of those couplings, so many generations later. Some of us still have evidence of this.” I pull the strands of white hair flowing from my scalp towards her, letting them drape across the back of her hand.
She watches them without speaking and I can read nothing in her expression.
Disgruntled, I say, “Do you hate us because we have Dra’Kesh blood flowing through our veins?”
“Nox. I don’t. I did, but really the person I hated most was me.”
I feel anger at her words and it warps my speech. “Hating yourself for what another did to you is nonsensical.”
“It might seem that way, but it’s true. I don’t evenreallyhate Bo’Raku. I mean, I do. But what I hate more was the fact that I couldn’t beat him.”
“All warriors lose battles. We are not invincible…”
“It wasn’t that I lost.” There’s a hiccup in her voice and when she pulls her gaze to meet mine this time, I understand that she’s revealing something to me that is utterly and profoundly sacred. “It wasn’t even that he raped me. I’d had sex before. I knew what it was like. My mom went through the Hunt and what she described wasn’t terrible. She even said she felt pleasure. Svera’s mom went through it too, but she wasn’t selected. Miari’s mom died.
“Mentally, I prepared for the Hunt. I knew that there were so many possibilities and I thought I accounted for them all. I knew my body would heal from whatever they did to me and it did, but…”
She bites her lips together. I do not speak. I wait for as long as it takes her, until finally she exhales, her breath fanning across my chest, making every place it touches tingle. “He laughed.”
I do not speak. I cannot. By her small admission — two little words — I am gutted. Flayed. Massacred. Dishonored. I feel that to share the same blood that he does makes me nothing in this moment and suddenly I understand how Kiki must have felt. What drove her.
“It was the single most degrading and humiliating moment of my life. The pain I could have handled, but the laughter… I hear it all the time. When I’m asleep. When I’m awake.”
“Do you hear it now?”
She pauses. “No.
“That is because Pe’ixal is ruled by hate. Do not be like him. Not when there is something much more powerful that can drive you to becoming the greatest warrior Nobu has ever seen, for you are already the most fearsome Xhea we have ever witnessed.”
She bites her bottom lip and looks up at me, terror in her gaze dimmed. She shines brighter now than she did, or perhaps I am only imagining things. “The Xanaxana, you mean?”
“I was going to say love.”
She lifts a hand and gently brushes her fingers through my hair, paying particular attention to the strands in white. My scalp prickles as she scrapes her nails across it. “Pe’ixal,” she says. “Bo’Raku… I didn’t think I could even say his name out loud.”
“Names have power here. More than this pleasure sound you call laughter. Pe’ixal’s name has been revealed for all of Voraxia to hear. He sits in a well of shame he cannot crawl out of and as soon as the first icefall ends, he will stand trial for his crimes and I will exact tsanui in your honor.” I press my mouth to the top of her head and inhale the scent of her hair. “He will either die or be exiled where the only beings alive to hear his laughter are the hevarr.”
She snorts again, making the laughter sound. “I’d love to see him get eaten by a hevarr. That would be fun.”
This time,Iam the one to make this snorting laughter sound. “Then it is as you wish. And speaking of hevarr, you will need to meet with Hurr early on the coming solar. The hevarr has been successfully skinned. You will now help the xub’Hurr in the tanning and curing process.”
