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"You're one of a kind. I'd like to Read you, if only to see how you're put
together."
Anksha put the candies in her mouth and crunched them. "You Read me when I
broke my arm and leg."
"Yes," Amiri persisted. "But that was a low level Reading. I want to do a
complete Reading. I want to know everything. After all, if you were to get
hurt, how would I recognize what was wrong if I didn't know what was right."
Anksha gave her a suspicious look. "How would I get hurt? I'm Anksha, the
demon-eater, the troll-tamer."
"There are great evils moving in the world now, Anksha "
"Not now, later." Anksha fled down the hallway.
Amiri let out a hiss of frustration. She would try Isranon.
* * * *
Nainee sat in the kitchen talking to the cook with her infant on her lap,
his face half-concealed by her blouse while he suckled. The day felt pleasant
with a sea breeze cutting across through the opened windows to ease both the
heat of the ovens and the rising warmth of that summer morning. She nibbled a
piece of blue-veined white cheese between sentences about children and baking.
The aroma of strawberry breads filled the air, completing the pleasure of
sitting in a kitchen. The cook, a plump pleasant woman, had eight children
that she loved to talk about, and Nainee wondered what it would be like to
raise one of her own, rather than see it sold as soon as she could wean it.
Most of the nibari kept to themselves, but Nainee's training as a hostess and
her outgoing nature led her to interact with the human servants at the
mansion.
Anksha came in and paused, staring at the infant longingly. Her hands
fluttered across her flat stomach.
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"You want one of your own, don't you?" asked Nainee kindly.
Anksha's expression drooped. "I can't have any. I'm one of a kind."
Nainee could not think what to say to that. She could find no words to ease
the sorrow she heard in Anksha's voice. It had recently begun to dawn upon
Nainee that Anksha wanted to be a mother. Possibly it was because Anksha had
finally fallen in love with someone. There was no way that Isranon could ever
give Anksha a baby. He was not a demon-eater. Which made it all the sadder to
Nainee.
"Would you like to hold him, Anksha?" Nainee asked, indicating her child.
Anksha sighed and shook her head rapidly. The movement dislodged the top
scarf.
Nainee frowned, tilting her head to see better. "Aren't you hot in all those
scarves?" She reached out and moved the scarves.
Anksha blinked, and grabbed at the scarves, covering her neck again. "No. I
like them."
"I didn't ask if you liked them. I asked were you hot? Your face is
flushed."
Anksha kept her hand on her neck as a look of panic crept across her
features.
Nainee looked more closely at Anksha. "There's something on your neck."
Anksha paled and fled.
Nainee took that as an admission that what she saw on Anksha's neck was
real. She rose and went looking for Haig, with her child riding on her hip.
Nainee found him with Jun in the Golden Room, a chamber done all in shades of
bright yellow and soft gold, from the carpets and curtains to the ornate wall
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hangings. Dark furniture, divans and chairs, contrasted pleasantly against the
other colors. The Lemyari had begun using this one as a feeding chamber where
they could drink from their nibari in privacy.
Haig had a nibari kneeling in second position before him, with her arms
extended to the front and wrists crossed while Haig's stout legs framed her
back. His face nestled in her dark hair, as he took his breakfast from the
side of her neck.
A thirteen-year-old nibari, named Nolly, stood close to Jun, observing the
way he fed upon an older nibari kneeling between his outstretched legs in
first position. Nolly was a new one, taken from Liuthan's herds and not yet
blooded or bedded for the first time. It had still not been decided whether
she would be given to Jun, Keahi, or Garin for the completion of her training
and her blooding. In the meantime, Jun wanted to ease her into it.
Haig finished, licked the wound closed, and waved his nibari aside, dabbing
at his mouth with a handkerchief to remove the blood from his lips. He lifted
his eyes at Nainee's entrance. "What?"
Motioning him aside, Nainee said, "Haig, something is wrong with Anksha."
Haig frowned and leaned against the door facing. "What do you mean?"
"Someone has bitten her," Nainee whispered. "That's why she's wearing all of
those scarves."
Haig snorted, following that with a loud guffaw. "Hah! That's hard to
believe."
Nainee sniffed at him. "I know what I saw. Who would have done it?"
Haig scratched his nose and chuckled again. "It isn't a matter of who would
have done it. It's a matter of who she might have allowed to do it. And I can
tell you who would not have done it."
Nainee sighed at Haig's intransigence. "Could it have been Isranon?"
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"That's exactly who itcan'thave been. He's her blood-slave. And he doesn't
have it in him."
Nainee wished that Haig were not always so disparaging of her observations
concerning Anksha. Sooner or later he would have to admit she was right about
some of it. "Didn't you tell me that someone told him to bite her if she asked
him to?"
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