by Dark, Raven
“Have I disturbed you, Liberator?” Those eyes sparkled, as if she found my gawking amusing.
“No, not at all. Would…” I looked over my shoulder into the hut where I could hear Steel getting dressed. An unsettled nervousness fluttered in my belly at the idea of putting her in the same room as Steel, through I couldn’t have said why. I didn’t think it was only because she was Yantu and he was a biker.
“It’s all right,” Ali’son said, drawing my attention back to her. “I didn’t intend to enter. The bell will toll soon. I wanted to speak with you before Master Leif’s men arrive for you.”
“Oh?”
She nodded at the path out front of the hut. “Walk with me for a while.”
Yes. I had so many questions begging to be asked, they barely seemed to fit inside my head, many of them about her.
“Give me a moment?” I asked, looking behind me. “Just let me ask… um…for…”
Her eyes danced. “Ask permission?”
My face burned.
Light! I’d never, ever felt silly or ridiculous with the way things were done between me and my men before. Even with the Lone Rebel Marna, I’d never questioned it, despite the Rebels’ choice to allow their men and women to live as almost equals.
“Go.” Ali’san nodded respectfully inside. “I will wait.”
I hurried into the living room and found Steel throwing on his cut and lighting a few of the torches.
“Is that her?” He grinned, looking past me at the woman standing on the step.
“Yes, and don’t stare, Master,” I hissed.
“What do you think she’d do if I asked to see that sword of hers?” His lips twitched.
“Steel. Don’t you dare.”
“What would she do?”
“Probably bonk you on the head with it. She wants to talk to me before Master Leif’s men get here.”
His brow lifted playfully. “What makes you think I’ll let you go?”
“Steel!” I hissed, mortified that she could probably hear him.
He laughed and kissed me on the forehead. “Go on.”
“Thank you.” I squeezed his hand, love for him swelling in me. I turned to head for the door, and he swatted me right across the backside.
Ali’san’s brows quirked.
I could have died.
“Ugh. Maker.” I shook my head, unsure whether to laugh or smack him. Steel laughed maniacally and disappeared into the bedroom.
I stepped out of the hut and closed the door.
“Sorry about him. He was just putting on a show.”
“I know.” Ali’san followed me out onto the path, glancing back at the line of huts where my masters stayed. Blade, who was sitting out front his and Bear’s hut, waved at us. “Your life is fascinating, Liberator. It’s not the life I would have expected of you.”
“How do you me—wait.” I stopped on the path. “Ali’san, how can you be out here, you know, like this?”
“This area of the village houses only the permanent residents who have business with the temple. They know what I am.”
“Then how are we allowed to stay here?” We strolled down the dirt path, the morning breeze cool on my bare legs and arms. It had been a long time since I’d worn just a slave’s frock.
“Master Leif requested that you and your men remain here, away from the visitors.”
Oh, he did, did he? First, he refused to help Sheriff, and now this? Maker forbid the rest of his guests have to see a cut.
I tamped the urge to say as much to her. Judging by the way she’d interacted with Master Leif, he was her tai dan. She obviously held a great deal of respect for him. Still, I doubted he had any other reason for isolating us from the rest of the village.
We headed out toward the west end of the village where a forest spread out behind the temple, apparently for miles. It was nice to be able to relax and enjoy the walk without worrying about Tahmi or anyone else finding me. It also felt strange to know I was as safe with Ali’san, with a woman, as I would have been with any of my men. I’d never seen her handle that sword of hers, but everything about her, the way she carried herself, the lithe way she moved, said she was beyond capable. I found myself looking over her shoulder at that blade more than once, wondering if I’d ever get used to the sight of a woman wearing one.
“Ali’san, when Master Leif’s men…” I bit my lip. “What will they do when they examine me? How do they plan to investigate Julian’s connection to me?”
“Honestly, I have no idea.” She shook her head and the long violet braid brushed across her back. “Nothing like this has ever happened before, well, that anyone knows of. But that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
She paused and plucked a leaf off a tree. “Whatever they do, it won’t be easy. I suspect they will want to know everything that happened with Julian, what he made you say, what he did when he was inside your mind.” She stopped on the path and set her hands on my shoulders. “Setora, I will be with you through all of this. I don’t want you to be afraid. I will help you any way I can.”
Some of the tension left me, but the conviction in her voice raised a question. She didn’t seem afraid of him the way I would have expected, and I didn’t think that was only because she was a warrior.
“Ali’san, has he ever… Has he ever done anything to you? Been inside your head, made you do things?”
“No. But only because I know how to keep him out.”
My eyes widened as we walked on.
“How do you keep him out?” I asked. “Hawk mentioned that there were Yantu techniques I could learn that would allow me to do that.”
“There are. Some are easier than others. I will teach you.”
“How much do you know about Julian?” I was avoiding far larger questions, but they all seemed so important, I wasn’t sure how to address them all. And honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know all the answers.
“I know enough. Enough to be able to help you.”
She was being evasive. Just Yantu secrecy, or something more?
“Master Leif called him something yesterday. Gin…”
“Gin Gatai.” She twirled the leaf between her fingers. “It means Shadow Walker.”
I shivered. The name fit him.
I licked my lips again, trying to figure out how to address something that had been nagging at me from the moment I saw her. “Ali’san… How… How are you able to be in my dreams? How did you save me from him?”
The corners of her mouth turned up, but she remained silent.
“It’s not just the whole hive mind, Violet thing. Otherwise, my dreams would be flooded with the minds of hundreds of Violets.”
“No. It is not.”
She wasn’t going to tell me. Light, she made Hawk look like an open book.
I wrung my hands. “You know what he wants from me, don’t you?”
She nodded.
“Okay, then, why me?”
She glanced sidelong at me, a probing, intense gaze that showed the first sign of real worry since we’d started talking about him. “I am not certain. But I do know he does want you. To the point of obsession.”
I shuddered. “I know. He called me Cama Di.”
“His queen.”
“Yes.” Feeling suddenly lost and vulnerable, I sat on a fallen log. “Ali’san, if he finds me, what would he do to me? I mean, he thinks I’m his mate, that’s obvious, but. I don’t know, I get the feeling he doesn’t want…intimacy or anything like that. Or at least not only that.”
Ali’san lowered herself smoothly onto the log beside me. She put her chin to her chest, seemingly thinking. Considering how much to tell me. After a moment, she turned sideways on the log. “Setora, you don’t know what’s been happening out there in the world, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed. “In the last few months, he’s been calling hundreds of Violets to him. Maybe more. Slaves—Violets—have been escaping their masters, getting aw
ay however they have to. Killing them if they must, just to get to him.”
My eyes slid closed. It sounded exactly like what he’d tried to make me do. “What does he want them for?”
“I don’t know. I’ve entered other Violet’s dreams like yours, usually without meaning to. I’ve seen him manipulating them, talking to them. But you should know, you’re the only one he calls Cama Di. He wants them for something, desperately. Needs them. But he wants you for something more. Something more than as a mate, and he will do anything he has to get it.”
I shook my head at the sky. “This is insane. Why would he want me? I saw him, Ali’san. He’s some sort of warrior. Why wouldn’t he want someone like you? I have no special power, no skill he can use. I’m nobody.”
A smile pulled at her lips, warm and filled with so much respect it almost made me uncomfortable. She closed her hands over mine. “You have more power than you know, Setora. Power he thinks is dangerous. Not all power comes from a blade or skill in battle. With the help of the other Yantu, somehow, we will find out what he’s after, and we will stop him before he can execute his plan. Whatever it is.”
I let out a shaky sigh. My hands were trembling under hers, and I hated it. Her grip tightened, stilling them. She’d never know how good it felt to realize I wasn’t alone in this. With my men, I wasn’t alone, and they always made it clear they would protect me, but it felt wonderful to know I had someone who really understood in a way they couldn’t.
My gaze fell to my knees before I made myself look at her. “He’s evil, isn’t he? I mean really evil.”
She looked away, out toward the woods, but I didn’t miss the shiver that wracked her frame. When she spoke, there was genuine openness, no evasiveness in her tone at all.
“Yes.”
Unsure what to say, I just sat with her, looking out at the forest, absorbing her company, trying to wrap my head around the concept of her kind of strength. Trying to understand how she could be what she was and not have been killed on sight a thousand times over.
Ali’san must have understood that I needed the silence, because she said nothing either. I doubted it was that she was as lost for words as I was. Had there been words that could have made things better, Hawk would have known them. I had a feeling that, like him, this woman was not easily thrown off her game.
But as I sat with her in silence, the questions that surrounded her spun through my head, impossible to ignore. I looked at her several times, opening my mouth, only to close it again. Everything about her seemed to defy logic, going against all that I’d been taught. Sitting with the woman from my dreams felt as surreal as looking at her. Except, how did I ask the questions on my mind without being rude?
“You have questions.” Her mouth quirked.
“That’s an understatement.”
“Ask them.”
I cleared my throat, but then chickened out. “Ali’san, what does si’an mean? The title Master Leif calls Hawk?”
All right, so I was being a wimp. Such a thing hardly mattered right now.
When she looked at me, her eyes danced. “It means ‘apprentice.’” She tapped my hand with hers. “Now, why not ask the questions you really want to ask, Liberator?”
I smiled and cleared my throat again. She was so much like Hawk.
“There are so many, I hardly know where to begin.” I met her eyes. “Where are you from? How did you…I mean how did you become…”
“How did I become a warrior?”
“Yes. How did you end up at the temple? How did Master Leif become your teacher?” They all spilled out at once. “And how in the Maker’s Name do you manage to hide what you are when you aren’t in the temple? I mean, you must be so scared all the time.”
Ali’san grinned, as if she found my fascination amusing.
“I’m sorry. I’m making you sound like some sort of…demi-god or something.”
“Not at all. None of those have easy answers, Setora. As to—”
A bell tolled, ringing out low and deep from the direction in the temple.
Ali’san stood up. “We need to get you back to your men. Master Leif’s si’an will be arriving for you shortly.”
Disappointment pricked at me, but I nodded. I had the distinct impression she’d been glad for the bell.
By the time we arrived at the huts, the nervousness at the meeting with Master Leif’s men had practically eaten a hole through my gut. At least they didn’t appear to have arrived. I put my hand to my stomach, but it did nothing to settle it.
Standing with me on the top step in front of Steel’s hut, Ali’san set her hand on my arm. “You’ll have a bit of time to prepare. Wear comfortable clothing. Have a drink of water, too. It will help you relax. And remember, I will be with you the whole time. You are safe.”
“Thank you.” I squeezed her hand. She’d never know how much better I felt hearing her say that. “Will my men be there?”
As soon as I said that, my face flushed. Maker, I probably sounded like such a wimp to a woman who, by being what she was, couldn’t afford to rely on a man except as a teacher in battle.
But Ali’san didn’t look put off. “That will be up to the si’an. For the initial examination, they probably won’t mind, but I’m not sure about after that. They’ll want as few people as possible after.”
I nodded and opened the door to let us both in, but Ali’san put her hand on my arm again, stopping me. “Setora. There is nothing wrong with needing your support system and your friends around you. Needing them doesn’t make you weak, whether they are male or female. Understand?”
Her wisdom and acceptance surprised me. It also made me feel a little less bitter toward the Yantu under Master Leif, even if I still felt a painful dislike for him.
“I understand. Will you come in while I get ready?”
She looked into the hut. The warm expression on her face slid away, replaced with a curious mask. She stepped in slowly, and I shut the door. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought she was nervous.
“Steel?” I called when I didn’t hear him inside. He didn’t answer. I waved her further into the hut. “Do you want something to drink or eat?”
“No, thank you.” Ali’san’s pale violet gaze scanned the hut, visibly taking in the unadorned clay walls, the few torches lit on the walls, the simple hard-packed clay floor.
“I’m guessing this place doesn’t look anything like inside the temple?” I asked over my shoulder.
“Not even close. The Yantu believe in minimalistic living, but not like this.”
As I walked toward the bedroom, I heard her follow. Her soft leather boots made almost no sound, much like Hawk’s, as if she was barely putting her feet down.
I washed up quickly and dressed in the same road rat clothing I’d worn on the way here while Ali’san stood near the door, declining to sit. She picked up the leather skirt I’d taken out of my pack and looked it over with wonderment.
“You wear this all the time?” She turned the crop top with its high cut back and straps over in her hands. “It’s little more than a scrap of cloth.”
I shrugged. “I know. It’s the way road rats dress in an MC.”
“Motorcycle club women have strange styles. You show so much skin.” She didn’t sound disapproving, only bewildered.
I smiled and took the top from her, slipping it on. “I know. I thought that too, at first. You get used to it.” I nodded to the sword on her back and wrinkled my nose. “Do you want to take that off?”
“No. Why would I?”
“It has to be heavy, carrying it around like that all the time.”
“My sword is no heavier to carry for me than it would be for Hawk or any other man, Liberator.”
My cheeks heated. Foot, meet mouth. “Sorry. You’re right. It’s just hard to get used to.”
She nodded and drew the sword smoothly from her scabbard. The blade gleamed, a sharp silver of danger and death in the sunlight from the window. She held it
across her wide palms. “Look. It’s not as heavy as it appears.” She held the weapon out to me.
My heart jumped. I stared at the sword, backing up a pace as if the weapon would leap up on its own and cut me. Everything about the idea of even touching a weapon felt wrong, and not just because the law said it was. “No, I’ll take your word for it.”
She turned it over in her hands. “A proper sword is made to fit the wielder,” she informed me. “Height, weight, length, are all carefully crafted to match the person holding it. And warriors are trained to handle great weights for long periods of time. I could carry this thing on my hand or my back for hours without tiring. I can use it for hours in a fight without stopping.”
I nodded in awe. What she was saying fit with the sort of strict, intense training Hawk had given the impression he’d been through.
Ali’san put the sword back in its scabbard, and I finished dressing. I got a drink of water and put my hair up, out of the way.
“What are you up to in here, Princess?”
I turned and smiled at Pretty Boy who’d just walked into the bedroom. His eyes widened when he saw Ali’san.
“Ooh. The She-Warrior.” He looked thrilled.
I almost dropped the empty glass I’d been holding and covered my mouth, nearly choking.
Ali’san cocked her head at me, her eyes alight.
“Master. Ali’san was just waiting for Master Leif’s men with me. She’s going to be with me during their examination.”
“They’re coming here?” He rolled his eyes. “Fantastic. Let me see that thing.” He held out his hand for Ali’san’s sword, his eyes lighting with profound interest.
“No.” She caught me staring and winked at me.
I stifled a laugh. Pretty Boy usually had no particular interest in weapons. Blades were Hawk’s hobby, and I knew he was only so fascinated with hers because it was a woman’s, because a female carried it. I had a sneaking suspicion he was also testing her reactions.
At her reply, he shot me a raised brow, the corners of his mouth twitching. He dropped his hand and shrugged. “Where’s Steel?”
“He wasn’t here when we came in. Are you going to stay with me during the examination?”
