Page 44 of Taken to Lemora
Raingar still hasn’t caught me by the time Willa frees a pad pad hobbled near the outer entrance of the cave and hands the reins over to me. “Here, take mine. Her name’s Geroo. She’s a good lass. She’ll guide ya.”
“Thank you, Willa,” I tell her when I’m wobbly on the back of the beast.
Willa pats the massive creature on the nose thoughtfully before peering up at me with a soft smile. “I know I don’t know you well enough to say this yet, but I’m proud of you, miriga.”
I’m shaky — I’m not used to confrontation like this — and I’m not sure what to do with her praise. So I just smile and say, “What does miriga mean?”
She looks surprised at my question, but her grin splits into something gorgeous a moment later. “Miriga means queen.”
I…I don’t know what to say. I just sit there staring down at her positively agog while she chuckles lightly and rubs the massive nose of the beast swaying beneath me. “I…”
“It’s an old title.” Willa shrugs. “Doesn’t mean much in practice, but it means a lot in spirit. In soul. This clan, well, we may be just as furious with Raingar as you are right now, miriga, but when he told us that his horns burned for you all those solars ago, we knew that the universe must have sent us something special. A fierce female to contend with that ole’ bastard.
“And the universe has not disappointed. We love you just as much, even though we’ve known you a fraction of the time. We love you because he loves each of us something fierce, just like we love him and since you’ve come to us, we’ve never seen him quite so wild. I believe that male might love you more than he loves Lemora and I don’t think anyone has ever loved Lemora more than him.
“He’s just got to get it right. But if anyone can, you can whip some sense into him.” She winks at me and I can’t help but keep smiling that shaky smile. I can’t decide if her words make me feel a little more frightened, or angry, or happy, or both better and worse at the same time.
“I’m not sure he deserves to be forgiven just yet…”
“Oh nob!” She holds up both hands and backs away from me toward the gaping mouth of the first cave. “Absolutely not. Head back to his keep. Get some good sleep. Let him run around for a little while longer.”
“His keep?”
“Yeffa. I’ll tell him you went to Merquin’s. She’ll keep him busy for the lunar. Better that then actually going there yourself only to have him cursing up your window all lunar long.”
I snort, genuinely pleased as I grab the reins of the pad pad’s bridle and press my heels into its hide. It starts forward immediately. “You are a devious creature,” I tease.
“You’ve no idea, miriga.” She laughs and then swats the bottom of my pad pad just as sounds of Raingar hissing echo through the cave system. “Now, be gone with you!”
The pad pad moves off into a trot and then a full canter and, though I’ve never ridden one of these beasts before, I hang on for dear life and ride it like it’s my hundredth time and that I’m a female who’s never known what it means not to be free.
10
Essmira
True to Willa’s plan, Raingar doesn’t realize that I’m sleeping in his own private quarters until the next solar. And I sleep well. His living chambers are behind the door at the end of the left corridor, but his bedroom is actually up, up, up, the spiral staircase at the top of the tower. I’ve barricaded myself in now and am bracing my arms against the heavy desk I’ve got propped up against the door while Raingar pounds on its other side.
“You…you infernal wench! Open this door!”
“Never!” I shout, feeling manic. Feeling wild. Feeling utterly uncaged despite the fact that I am caged. I laugh and snort at the same time. “Not until you apologize, you…you stupid brute!”
“ME? A STUPID BRUTE!” He bangs on the door with both fists, making the heavy black wood rattle in its frame.
I search my mind for insults, finding that I don’t actually know many. “You…you’re dumber than an Egama if you think I’m going to open this door!”
“An Egama! You kept me awake all lunar worrying! How dare you!”
“How dareI?” I shout, pushing harder against the desk as it jolts across the floor a half a step. “You’re the one who almost got Jaygar killed!”
“And I apologized!”
“You don’t know how to apologize!”
“YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT! I’M THE OHRING CLAN CHIEF! I DON’T APOLOGIZE TO ANYBODY!”
“And I’m the miriga! I know what it means!” I’ve never shouted before in my life, not at anyone or anything and it’s ohring exhilarating. “It doesn’t mean I’m some delicate flower!” My hair flies around my face, curls sticking to my neck in sweat. I’m using all of my weight to keep the desk in place and I’m fairly assured that Raingar could still destroy both door and desk if he really wanted to get in.
I glance behind me quickly and spot a chest. Quickly abandoning my post, I race over to it and start dragging it toward the door. “I’m…no…delicate…blossom!”
