Honored Vow

by Mary Calmes

  “The security of the location,” Chuluun answered him, glancing over at Yuri. “And because my tribe won all the tests of strength at the last feast of the valley, and two of our number became Shu warriors. I myself was asked to take the oath of the Shu but prefer to stay as the maahes of my tribe. My semel asked me to remain as well.”

  And I had known he was powerful, I could feel it rippling off him.

  “You must shift very fast.” Yuri smiled at him.

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t,” Yuri confessed.

  “But I remember you in the pit in Sobek,” Chuluun told him. “A stronger, more powerful panther I have never seen.”

  Yuri nodded but said nothing.

  “So after meeting your semel and the priest in the morning,” Crane chimed in. “Then what, maahes?”

  “Then the day is for the mates to prepare themselves to see their semels, and that evening they will.”

  “When my reah sees his mate,” Yuri began, “what happens?”

  “Our pit is attached to the cells where we keep prisoners when—”

  “You lock up members of your tribe?” I asked him.

  “Of course, don’t you?”

  It was an outdated, archaic practice, and I was beginning to understand why the priest had chosen the tribe of Khertet. They were not modernized and seemed ensconced in old practices and antiquated ideas.

  “Sorry,” I said quickly. “So your prison, you said, is attached to your pit?”

  “Yes.”

  “So there’s a door,” Yuri clarified.

  “An enormous grate that lifts and lowers,” Chuluun explained. “All the semels will be released through it to find their mates, and we’ll see who comes out alive.”

  “So the preparation that the mates are doing during the day—that could be them preparing for their deaths.”

  “Yes,” Chuluun said solemnly. “I am sorry.”

  “Not to worry,” Yuri said with a shrug. “The mate of our semel is his reah, there’s no reason to even worry.”

  “Of course.”

  “So we’ll be above them, we’ll be able to see.”

  “Yes, our pit was built like most, like a coliseum, with entrances on the top and bottom so you can walk around the rim of the room and see everything that’s going on below.”

  “I look forward to seeing it.”

  I watched Chuluun nod and turn his head just enough to catch a glimpse of Yuri out of the corner of his eye.

  As he drove, I studied the maahes of the tribe of Khertet.

  He was just as tall as Yuri, but he wasn’t as wide through the chest or shoulders. His hair was black like mine, but whereas mine was so dark that Logan always said he could see blue highlights in it, Chuluun’s looked like there might even be streaks of brown in his. He had sharp, chiseled features and dark-bronze skin that set off deep-set sepia-colored eyes. Striking man, and his voice complemented him, low and husky.

  “Since you’re going to have nothing but traditional food soon, lots of mutton, goat, maybe we should stop for some Thai food for now or—”

  “Whatever you choose will be great,” Yuri assured him.

  “I—” he coughed, “—apologize for earlier and—”

  “Zaboot.” Yuri smiled, cutting him off gently.

  “Spasiba,” Chuluun whispered back.

  We drove for an hour, and slowly, cautiously, my sheseru prodded the maahes with questions about the trials. Yuri’s would start on the third day; the test of blood was first, then Mikhail’s, the test of law, and finally mine on the fifth day, the test of heart. He then prodded about the reah, where she had come from, why his semel would allow her sanctuary and not simply return her to the semel-aten.

  “We don’t know yet who the semel-aten will be,” Chuluun told him. “Might we simply be gifting the semel-netjer with another reah?”

  “No.” Yuri smiled, stretching languidly, and I saw the maahes open his mouth to take a breath, taste my sheseru’s scent in the air. “You misunderstand. My reah was not simply taken as my semel’s mate because Logan Church chose to do so; my semel is semel-re first, semel-netjer second.”

  Chuluun looked at me in the rearview mirror. “You are the true-mate of your semel? You’re not simply a reah that he decided to take for his mate that was born on his land?”

  “I’m his true-mate, he is semel-re.”

  He grunted. “Then my semel’s….”

  “What?” Crane asked after he realized that Chuluun didn’t want to say. “Your semel’s what? Does he have a plan to use Amirah as an added bonus test?”

  It was obvious that the other man was flustered.

  “He’s using her,” Crane said as Chuluun took a turn off the highway into what looked like a busy metropolitan area. “Does your semel have a plan, maybe? Use the reah to screw with the other tribe leaders?”

  He couldn’t say; it would be dishonorable, disloyal. The way he wiggled in his seat, uncomfortable suddenly, was enough of an admission.

  “I doubt it was his idea,” I said, relieving Chuluun’s semel of any wrongdoing, putting the blame firmly where I was sure it deserved to be. “I’ll bet you that Ammon El Masry found her and made Orso take her in just for the purpose of using her as a diversion in the sepat.”

  “Yes,” Chuluun agreed, sighing deeply. “The reah is to be used as a diversion. No semel can ignore a reah, the semel-aten said.”

  “So he brought her with him, or she came before him?”

  “Before,” he told us. “She came asking to join the tribe at his request. As you know, he could not ask Orso to take her unless she belonged to his tribe, and she did not. She belonged last to the tribe of Ariat.”

  She had belonged to a semel who had killed himself over her betrayal. And she had not forced him to take his own life—no one could force anyone to do that—but she had been the catalyst.

  “It’s a shame that she joined your tribe just on the semel-aten’s word,” Yuri said, changing the subject. “Because she’s missing out.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “I mean I can’t think of anywhere more secluded or safer than this.”

  “You think it’s safe here?”

  He nodded. “Even though I haven’t seen your home yet, the wide open spaces, the fact that your ancestors built into solid rock—I’m sure it’s like a fortress.”

  “And that appeals to you.”

  “It does,” he told him. “You know how a sheseru thinks; we crave a castle to defend and hole up in to protect the people we love.”

  “Yes, you are all the same.”

  “We’re simple.”

  “Which is a blessing.”

  Yuri nodded, and I saw Chuluun’s first real smile.

  Inside the restaurant, we all sat down on the floor with pillows and a low table. There was hot tea with milk, and then Chuluun ordered many dishes for us all to share. He started talking about Amirah again, and how many of the semels were already distracted.

  “I don’t know which semel is which,” he told us. “Only the priest knows, even our own semel does not. Only when and if the semel can claim their mate in their werepanther form will we know who belongs to which tribe.”

  “But you’d be able to tell which semel was which by the maahes with them,” I pressed him.

  “No.” He shook his head. “The princes are not allowed to speak their lineage, are not allowed to speak at all to anyone. They take a vow of silence when they enter with their semels.”

  “They haven’t been allowed to speak for two months?”

  “No.”

  “But they stay with the semels?”

  “If they can.” He looked sad suddenly. “We have lost one maahes already, and even though he has been dead now for two weeks, we can do nothing, as we don’t know who he belongs to. When they join you tomorrow, only then will we know who is missing.”

  Domin could be dead.

  I turned to Yuri, who gave me a quick shake of his head. “
What?”

  “You actually think that your maahes was the one to die?” Yuri scoffed.

  I thought about it. “No, actually.”

  Yuri nodded. “There’s no maahes here stronger.”

  “Are you certain?” Chuluun asked Yuri, taking offense, as he was one as well.

  “I am,” he told him. “And I mean no disrespect, but you cannot be stronger than Domin Thorne.” He looked back at me. “Think about your maahes, Jin.”

  And I was trying to, not really understanding, until Crane bumped me with his knee. Only then did it hit me. Yuri meant because only Domin had been a semel as well. Logan Church had given another semel the place of maahes in his tribe because he knew he was strong enough to rein Domin in if need be. Normal leaders were not secure enough to take a chance like that, but because Logan had, that made Domin superior and strongest, as he had his werepanther form.

  “I understand,” I told Crane.

  “Good.” He nodded before turning back to Chuluun. “So what’s been happening to the semels?”

  Chuluun was watching Yuri instead of listening, so it took a minute for him to look back at Crane. “Sorry?”

  “The beset of my reah wanted to know what the treatment of the semels has been up to this time,” Danny told him.

  I had nearly forgotten he was there.

  “Hello,” Danny snapped, and I was surprised. This was not the respectful man from earlier; something was wrong.

  I turned to him and was surprised to find his eyes locked on Yuri as well.

  “Are the semels beaten?” Crane wanted to know, and he asked his question softly, with more finesse than Danny had.

  Chuluun turned his head to look at my best friend. “My semel uses a whip to communicate with them, so yes, they are struck daily.”

  “And they’re all in their panther form now?”

  “Yes. It’s why their mates are not allowed to see them until tomorrow night. Today completes the full eight-week cycle of the semels as animals. In the evening, they are allowed to shift into their werepanther form, which they will remain in until they either kill their mates or recognize them. If they kill their mates, or any other but their mates in the pit, they are instantly ordered back into panther form, where they will remain and someday forget they were ever men.”

  It was horrible, the idea you could kill the person you loved and then forget not only loving them, but your humanity as well.

  “That’s barbaric,” Danny said, getting up. “Where’s the bathroom?”

  He was being combative and surly, and I had no idea why.

  One of the other two men with Chuluun pointed toward the back. I had tried to catch all the men’s names but only remembered Krem and Berhna, who had come with Chuluun to the terminal.

  “Your boy needs manners,” Krem turned and told me.

  “I’ll teach him,” I assured him.

  He nodded.

  When Danny came back, he took a seat between Crane and Yuri, explaining that where he had been was uncomfortable. There were questions for Mikhail. Both Krem and Berhna had many for him, as he was a sylvan in America, and they wanted to know about living in tribes there. He was more than happy to explain. Apparently the punishment for crimes was severe in their tribe: branding and marking were common practices, as well as death. As Mikhail explained, quietly, confidently, I watched the men listening attentively. Parts of what he was saying were very appealing to them, perhaps mostly the system of having a trial.

  “Our sylvan does not speak for us as you do for your cats, he merely recites the law.”

  In every tribe I had ever known, sylvans were advocates for the members, not merely the yardstick to be judged by. The enormity of the tribal differences seemed daunting, so it was nice that we all enjoyed eating together.

  The food was good, and it didn’t hurt that we were all starving. But Thai food was one of my favorite things, anyway. After a while, Yuri got up, and minutes later, Chuluun leaned toward me but didn’t speak.

  “Yes?”

  “Reah,” he said, swallowing, “in my tribe, we must ask permission before we take something that belongs to another.”

  Take was a term that encompassed many things, and I understood that. “What of mine would you like to have, maahes?”

  “I would taste your sheseru if he would allow it.”

  I took a breath. “In my tribe, my people make decisions for themselves. The choice would be Yuri’s alone.”

  “Thank you,” he said, and he got up fast, jogging across the restaurant.

  “Wait,” Danny gasped, leaning forward. “Jin, you can’t just give Yuri to that—”

  “I didn’t give Yuri to anyone. I don’t own my sheseru; he’s a member of my tribe.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Like that guy could make Yuri do anything he doesn’t want to,” Mikhail scoffed. “Yuri could break him in half if he wanted.”

  “Or fold him in half,” I offered. “Which is probably more along the lines of what Chuluun was thinking when he asked for permission.”

  “Oh God, what’s with you and being a crass piece of crap?” Crane scolded me.

  “Sorry.”

  But they didn’t come back, and Mikhail had to order Danny to stay where he was instead of getting up to go look for them.

  “Yuri wouldn’t just—that would be so disrespectful to Logan.”

  “How so?” Taj asked Danny. “Yuri’s been working like a madman, been training harder than all the rest of us combined, and now, on the eve of seeing his semel, a day before his leg of the trial, he gets to maybe fuck and drain off some of the tension. C’mon, he deserves it.”

  “If that’s even an option,” Crane chimed in.

  Taj scoffed. “Are you kidding? Did you see how that guy was looking at him? So an option—I could smell his scent change from here.”

  So had I, but as crass as my best friend thought I was, I had not mentioned the change in Chuluun.

  “Isn’t it rude to just go off and screw somewhere while the rest of us—”

  “Panthers usually copulate together in large rooms or after meals,” Berhna said, interrupting Danny. “Do you not practice this in your tribe?”

  “No,” Danny sneered at him. “That’s disgusting.”

  “It’s something that only a tribe shares and is a way for tribe members to insure that their semel and his mate are truly a mated pair and not in name only.”

  “It’s revolting and vile,” Danny said, shuddering.

  I turned to two of our hosts and saw how humiliated they looked and the hatred they bore my cousin. He was not making friends. “His ideas about things will change once he attends the heru-ur in Sobek, huh?” I grinned, waggling my eyebrows for them.

  Krem’s face broke into a wide grin, and after a moment Berhna’s did as well.

  “Oh yeah, that rocked,” Crane cackled, and both men joined him, laughing hard.

  Danny, who knew that the heru-ur was called every year in Sobek after the feast of the valley, knew that it was basically a huge orgy, flushed dark red and dropped his eyes to the table.

  Mikhail cleared his throat, and I looked at him.

  “You should send him home,” he mouthed to me.

  “I can’t,” I said out loud, “but we’ll all take turns coaching him.”

  He nodded and then stretched, smiling. “None of you know Yuri very well if you think he’s fucking in the bathroom.”

  And his statement brought all table conversation to an end.

  “No?” Crane asked.

  “No,” Mikhail said, chuckling. “I’ve known Yuri Kosa since I was eight and he was seven.” He turned to look at me. “He’s my best friend.”

  I knew they were close, I just didn’t know how close.

  “They’re talking, maybe doing more, but beyond that—he’s your sheseru first, Jin. Screwing his new friend in the bathroom wouldn’t disrespect Logan, but it would make it hard for him to protect you from a position of defenselessnes
s. He would never allow his ability to guard you to be compromised.”

  And I knew that. “I know.”

  “So Chuluun is gay?” Danny asked Krem.

  He squinted at Danny. “I don’t understand this question. In our tribe, panthers are not considered to have a preference until they find their mate and then are simply considered to be mated.”

  “You’re all bi?” He was dumbfounded.

  “One cannot know the sex of one’s mate until the mate is discovered, so if you only sleep with men or women, might you not miss your mate by limiting your choices?”

  Danny just stared at him.

  “Doesn’t it make more sense to taste all that you would so that you may find your mate?”

  “It makes perfect sense,” Mikhail agreed.

  Krem turned to my sylvan. “Only a semel must choose a female mate, as he must procreate, and that has always seemed, to us, unfair.”

  “To me too,” Mikhail agreed.

  “So your tribe has no problem with Jin being Logan’s mate and him being a man?” Crane asked him.

  “No. A male reah seems like the natural progression of finding your mate. It never seemed fair to me that semels alone are locked into the sex of their mates because they must procreate, but now, with the coming of your semel and your reah, I see that this is not the case. We were all pleased to hear that there was one semel among the six who had a male mate.”

  “I should have been born here,” I told Krem.

  “And we grieve that you were not, if you were met with any but joy when you were discovered to be a reah.”

  My smile, I was sure, was bittersweet.

  THE drive down the endless two-lane highway did not have enough to look at to keep me awake. I dozed, fading in and out, listening in intervals to Crane talking to Yuri and Chuluun, Yuri and Chuluun talking, and Crane and Chuluun talking.

  True to Mikhail’s word, Yuri and the maahes of the tribe of Khertet had been speaking privately out on a balcony and not having sex in the bathroom. Yuri’s scowl after Mikhail leaned close and whispered to him was blistering. Apparently that I had even entertained such a thought did not sit well with my sheseru. But I could tell from Chuluun’s actions, the way he crowded into my sheseru’s space, grazed his cheek over the back of his shoulder, and draped his arm across his seat that he was more than interested in getting Yuri in bed.