Page 4 of Taken to Heimo
No matter how much time she, or any of the humans, spend with us, they all falter over our use of titles. They find it strange when one title is transferred to another, when titles change depending on the planet, when titles stack, when xub titles are taken… They always slip into the habit of calling one another by their slave names — the ones we each receive from our sires. These names matter so little, I sometimes forget I ever had one, but other times…other times, I wonder what it would sound like for her to call me by mine…
“I mean I’d like to get theRakukannaa few gifts from the market and some other things I promised her. I’ve asked Tur’Roth to take me. He’ll be here any moment. He’ll bring me to the training grounds afterwards and you and I can go home together to pack our things. Does that sound acceptable?”
Nox. Nox, nox, nox. None of it does.
She is going to the market. She is coming to the training grounds. She is going withhim. She calls this place home. She says us. And yet, I can’t. say. anything.
I told her that she could have a protector in my absence even thoughprotectoris a generous term. Tur’Roth is barely a xoking warrior. So weak.
He’s a Voraxian and though he’s not Drakesh he’s still pureblood. The wayhe pursues her. A pureblood Voraxian pursues one of these…alien things. He disgusts me. And since she disgusts me equally, it should be fine that he follows her around like a pup to a teat. But that shelikesthat he follows her… I don’t like them together.
I don’t nod. I don’t even move. I just watch her smile and put away the dishes she and I both used. I hate that she cleans up after me like a servant while wearing a petulant little smile.
“I’m going to get ready now. I need to gather some supplies. I have things I specifically want included in my gift to the Rakukanna. Are there any things you’d like for the Raku?”
“What for?” I snap.
She gives me that look again — the one that says that everything is obvious and that I’m a xoking fool — then says slowly, “They are having a baby. And they are having the first hybrid human-Voraxian baby born in this new era. Post-Hunt. It’s an exciting thing. A beautiful one. Mashallah.”
She makes a four-pointed figure across her chest, one gesture at either shoulder, one to her forehead, then one to her belly button. I don’t understand it, but I’ve learned that it’s a symbol of her Tri-God.So many strange things she gives to him…and I’m jealous of them all.
I grunt and watch her finish cleaning up, tracking her wherever she moves. I wish I didn’t, but even when my life drive beeps with messages, all I want to do is watch her.
“Perfect timing,” she says abruptly. “He’s here. I’ll see you at the setting of the first sun?”
I look away from her and nod.
“See you later, Krisxox. Have a beautiful solar.”
She waves at me. I don’t give in to the urge to respond and too soon, the door to my home slides open and shut and she leaves and the pressure in my chest swells like a wave, urging me to rush after her and drown her in my monsoonand perhaps slay Tur’Roth in the process.
I nearly rip the door off of the frame as I watch her go. Watch her cross the rope bridge. Watch the disgusting xcleranx Tur’Roth cross to meet her on an adjacent one. He bows and extends his hand. Svera grins. I can see it from here. She bows and offers him her delicate fingers. They touch.
I hallucinate a thousand ways to butcher him.
He has no right to touch her. She’smine. Nox. She’s too disgusting to be mine. I’m pure Drakesh and from an ancient line. What would my sires think seeing me with an animal like her?
So, I don’t stop her. And I don’t slaughter him. I stand there and flay myself alive as I watch them exchange words. He says something to make her laugh and that sound xokingwrecksme. And when they finally take the rope bridge leading to the market square suspended among the xribar treetops and disappear among the foliage I feel…nothing.
The swirling, churning rage and fury and disgust and revulsion and bitter, tormented happiness I feel whenever she’s near me is gone. Hollowness numbs out into an even greater hollowness.
My ridges betray a multitude of colors I can see reflected against the walls of my home. They’re darker than they should be, filled with an urgency to follow her that I can will away in my body and mind, but not in the dark, lost chasm of my soul.
4
Svera
My bags are full and weighted with the gifts I’ve prepared for Miari. I can’t believe the day has finally come! I can’t remembereverbeing so excited. No Christmas celebration with my family and the other worshippers of the Tri-God on the human moon colony, no Yom Kippur, no Eid or Iftar has ever left me with such anticipation.
I find myself bouncing on the balls of my feet with every step, the rope bridges swaying a little more precariously than usual as I do. I just want to boardnow, get on that transporter and return to the human colony on Cxrian’s moon.
I’m a little nervous to return, too, after so much time has passed. Now that I’ve taken on so much more responsibility as not just Miari’s advisor, but Voraxia’s advisor onallthings human, it’s left me feeling a little strange about my relationship with the humans and especially, the Antikythera Council that leads them. It’ll be good to communicate with Mathilda and the other Council members face-to-face to hopefully alleviate some of the tension.
To prepare, but also to help distract me, Tur’Roth joins me as we weave through the labyrinthine markets of Qath.
Stalls bearing beautiful, colorful blocks of fabric followed by vibrant spices in a dozen different shades unfurl before me. We eventually pass the foods and deserts — all of which I’ve tried, for better and certainly for the worse — and then end in clothing and technology. Each of these stalls is suspended among the trees. Rope bridges connect all of them.
I look over the wooden railings as often as I can. The world here is beautiful. The sturdy trunks and branches of the green-leafed xribar trees allow for the world of Qath to thrive despite the dangers lurking on the planet’s surface.
