I wondered if she referred to items that had once belonged to Yukihyo’s family. “Thank you, Lady Galatea. I’ll be sure to let Yukihyo know.”
“Where would you like them put?”
“I guess on the table will be fine. I’ll tell him when he returns.”
Isidora said, “That’s not what the Lady Galatea means, Teagan.” Isidora had turned serious and pale.
The four Galatea men left and returned carrying long bundles between them. They laid two across the table, and then returned with two more. Lady Galatea said, “Thank you for your hospitality, Lady Ponidi. If we find any more of your things, we will deliver them to you. I hope on your next visit to Chione, you will bring my granddaughter with you. May I bring you gifts to take to her?”
“Yes, Lady Galatea.”
She and the other lady pressed their foreheads to mine before they left. Once the outer doors had closed, and the Galateas had driven off, the four bundles began to moan on the table. Simon gave Neema to Isidora and sent them into the kitchen. I didn’t obey his order to go with them. When Gary and another soldier tried to block my way, I stared them down. I moved to the head of one of the bundles and uncovered a face. The man drew in a deep breath.
“Help me uncover their faces.” Once the men could breathe, I started laughing so hard that I had to excuse myself to go pee. When I came back, I laughed some more. “Well, well, well. The neighbors sure do know how to welcome a girl on Chione. I never dreamed that big bad hybrid mercenaries could be taken down and wrapped like spider snacks by grandmothers. Gary, what’s all the fuss about?”
“Princess Teagan, please release us. We mean you no harm.”
“Why are you on my husband’s land?”
“To be near in case you need us,” said a young man my age with short black hair and black eyes.
“Yes, your highness. We came to surrender to you,” said another man with short brown hair.
As I walked back and forth, I noticed that they were each about twenty years old like me. I felt peace from them.
“What would you like done with ‘em, Princess?” Gary asked. I was surprised he was giving me a choice.
“Nothing, Gary. They can stay right where they are until Yukihyo, Nico, and Quaid get home.” Gary smiled at me.
“You’re going to leave us bound and on the dining table?” the black haired one asked.
“Yep. However, I have more questions. What’s your name?” I asked as I bent over the one with short black hair to look at his face at an almost upside down angle.
“My name is Zam, my lady.”
The man next to him had a shaved head, but I could tell from the new growth and his eyebrows that his hair was black. “And you are?” He stared at me for a moment before answering.
“Traviz, at your service now and until I draw my last breath.”
I scowled. I was tired of violence and death. The next man had soft dove-grey hair like Yukihyo and Neema’s, but his eyes were solid black. I wanted to like him because of his hair, and his eyes that seemed sad to me even though there were no capillaries for me to read. “What is your name?”
He turned his head so as to better see me but said nothing. I began to feel lost in the blackness of his eyes. “Teagan, are you alright?” Simon asked.
“Yes, Simon,” I said and took a deep breath.
“His name is Izaac. He is attempting to answer, but he doesn’t communicate with words,” Zam said.
The fourth one had short brown hair and the same black eyes as the others. I wondered if they really were brothers. “My name is Rozz. How did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“You bound us to you. We are hybrids, but you bound us. You’re so sweet and calm. The feeling I get from you is like a beautiful picture drawn of smoke in the air. I’m afraid to cause the air to stir and lose you.”
“I don’t know where you got the idea that I bonded to you. It was either Zared or Jazon who bonded with me when your group kidnapped us and handed us over to Arlo Dano.”
Phillip’s arm went around my waist. “Cupcake, don’t get riled up.”
I took a deep breath and asked, “Who sent you here?”
“We came on our own. What has filtered through to us from Zeth was like cool water after days of thirst. We had planned to keep our distance, but the clan leader exploited our weakness and sent us to sleep,” Traviz with the shaved head said to me.
“What weakness?”
“You, Princess Teagan. The woman seized on the peace you give us and amplified it,” Zam said.
I took a seat on the bench and propped my elbows on the table between the heads of Zam and Izaac. I clasped my hands together and rested my forehead against my crossed thumbs. Phillip rubbed circles on my back. What was I supposed to do? I knew this mess was all Zared’s fault. I sure wasn’t marrying any of them. I had three husbands and intended to avoid all future suitors somehow. I wished that I was alone in my forest with my spiders so that I could think. My thoughts were gathered together as though hands were picking up clean spider silk and setting it down somewhere else.
I sat in the clearing among trees that towered over head. The forest floor felt cool underneath my hands, butt, and legs. Bits of leaves and dirt clung to the skirt of my dress wherever it had touched the ground. Light struggled to penetrate the canopy of leaves. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the cool shelter. The tension seeped from my shoulders and jaw. A baby spider crawled to my knee. The silk fabric of my dress was a shade like that of a pink carnation and pooled around me. With my index finger, I stroked the baby spider’s abdomen. It blinked up at me with trusting eyes. Then, the baby spider picked up its legs and turned toward four silk wrapped bundles on the ground before me. Eight black eyes blinked helplessly back at me. The bundle with dove grey hair blinked at me. We are yours. We are your brothers.
“Teagan, are you still with us?” Phillip asked.
“Yes, I’m just thinking. Izaac, Traviz, Zam, and Rozz, I stand by my decision. My husband is responsible for the safety of our child and me. I will see what he wants to do with you when he returns.”
“When will that be?” Traviz asked.
“I’m not sure. He’s hunting ice bear.”
“Is that what they told you?”
“They may run into one,” Gary said. I laid my arms down on the table but kept my hands clutched together as I turned my head to look at Gary.
“They hunt our brothers anytime they sense us near. Your white-eyed husband has formed a bond of his own with your Parvac husband. Your Militia commander has made them even more dangerous. On Nephele, they took down Vawn and Xander,” Rozz said.
“On Nephele? They hunted for mean mountain goats on Nephele, not hybrids.” I thought of the rug Yukihyo had brought back for me.
“They didn’t want to upset you,” Phillip said.
“Where are Vawn and Xander now? I’ve never heard mention of them.”
“They are on board one of the warships that came to our aid from Ephors,” Simon told me.
I saw the dark hair and eyes of Eli Beck as he leaned closer, but I couldn’t hear what he asked. “Eli is here?”
I heard doors opening and closing. Loud footsteps approached. However, I had not heard the footsteps of the man behind me who picked me up from the bench and carried me into the kitchen. “Kaoti!” A soldier closed the kitchen door behind us. Kaoti sat me down on top of the island. His eyes had that dead dangerous look that had frightened me when I had first met him on Amphictyon. Isidora walked to me. Neema smiled at me. She held a silk square in her tiny hands and bit into it with her gums. “What are you doing with that, Neema?”
“I tied crushed ice inside of it for her to chew on. My mother did this for all of us.”
“Thank you. You’re really good with her.”
Kaoti had placed himself between the kitchen island where I sat and the door. In my condition, I couldn’t get down by myself. Yukihyo’s feelings were closed to me. I strained to hear. Th
en, in my mind, I saw the ceiling of the dining room. I could hear the movement of booted feet on the floor and fabric as it rubbed while men walked.
“Report,” Nico said in a quiet clipped voice.
“Two women and four men identifying themselves as Galatea clan members arrived and delivered these four men to the Princess Probus. They have identified themselves as Traviz, Zam, Izaac, and Rozz. The one called Izaac is incapable of verbal communication. He communicated telepathically with the Princess. They informed her of the capture of the ones called Vawn and Xander on Nephele,” replied one of the Parvac soldiers.
“Send me a complete report,” Nico said.
“Yes, General Cassian.”
I saw Nico walking by as he looked down dispassionately at our faces. “Men? These aren’t men. They are boys. You look the age of first year cadets,” Nico said.
Yukihyo came closer. I saw his beautiful white eyes as they appeared to Izaac. I smiled at him. “I sense her in you. Lady wife, do you listen?” Yukihyo asked as he bent forward.
“Yukihyo,” I called in my mind.
When Izaac blinked, my eyes opened to the kitchen. The door opened admitting Yukihyo. He nodded to Kaoti, walked to me, and placed his hands upon the island to the sides of each of my thighs. He pressed his forehead to mine, and I shared with him all of my thoughts. Then, he stared into my eyes after seeing the vision of Traviz, Zam, Izaac, and Rozz laid out before me like captured prey. Yukihyo kissed me and wrapped me in his arms. Then, he helped me down and took Neema from Isidora. Yukihyo gave me his arm. We entered the dining room, and Yukihyo helped me to sit on a bench placing Neema in my arms. Simon went into the kitchen and came back out with Isidora. The two of them sat beside us. Yukihyo strode to the other table, and as he did so he pulled a thick sharp knife from his belt sheath. Fear seized my heart, but I forced myself to stay silent. I had to trust Yukihyo to do what he believed best for us. Yukihyo brought the knife down, and I heard fabric as it ripped. Traviz sat up freeing himself from his shroud. Next, Yukihyo freed Zam, Izaac, and Rozz.
“The bathroom is through there. You have five minutes. Then, you will sit on that bench.” Yukihyo pointed as he spoke.
One of the soldiers gathered up the bindings and carried them into the bathroom to the waste incinerator. The hybrids followed. From across the dining room, Yukihyo met my eyes. He had made a point to the Laconian hybrids. They might choose to answer to me, but I chose to answer to Yukihyo, and they would be wise to remember it. I blushed and kissed Neema’s hair. When I looked up again, it was to find pleased smiles being exchanged between Yukihyo and Quaid.
“We should have brought Pierce and Lorca along if we are going to be babysitting those four,” Nico said.
“They have three more minutes. Perhaps they are waste unit trained,” Yukihyo said.
“They look like they are the same age as me,” I said.
Nico grinned at me. He was twice my age and probably eight or nine years older than Yukihyo and Quaid. I wasn’t sure if the hybrids were our prisoners, guests, or new family members as I watched them exit the restroom. I thought Zam and Traviz closely resembled Zeth with their black hair and similar features. Rozz looked a lot like Jazon. Izaac, with his short dove grey hair and solid black eyes, was a younger version of Zared. Again, I wondered if the hybrids really were biological brothers. No answer came to my mind. Even though their color made them difficult to read, the eyes of Traviz and Rozz seemed defiant and angry as they watched Yukihyo. However, when Izaac and Zam sat where my husband had instructed, Traviz and Rozz did, too.
“Mommy,” Neema said. She threw her silk square of melted ice onto the table and looked at me with expectant jade green eyes. Her timing was awful. I stood and carried her from the dining room into the living room where I hoped I might still be able to hear. Unfortunately, the stone walls were way too thick. Isidora joined us either by choice or because Simon had sent her out.
“What was happening?”
“Yukihyo is explaining his expectations for their behavior.”
Phillip stepped through the doorway that he had opened just widely enough to pass through and quickly closed it behind himself. “Phillip, do the hybrids that we have seen so far look to you as though they are related?”
“Genetic testing of deoxyribonucleic acid samples recovered from Arlo Dano’s base by Captain Espanoza’s investigators proves a shared sixteenth chromosome.” Isidora and I looked at Phillip and waited, but he had finished.
“What?”
“Oh, yes. It seems that they have the same father.”
“Wow. Even hybrid Laconians have big families.”
“Cupcake, they weren’t brought into existence to be loved like Neema and Niklos. Their father is trying to create soldiers who would take psychological warfare to a whole new level. However, he was unable to control his progeny.”
I wondered if they had grown up in a lab. “What did he do to them?”
“We don’t know exactly. However, we suspect he found a way to stimulate growth and activity in their frontal lobes.” Phillip met our eyes, took note of our expressions, and explained. “Aside from the obvious genetic manipulations which have allowed them to survive conception, something was done to the areas of their brains responsible for empathy and communication possibly through further genetic experimentation. They aren’t mindless or easy to control. The very nature of empathic individuals makes hurting others virtually impossible except under extreme duress or in some cases emotional disturbance.” Phillip looked pointedly at Isidora with his last words.
“Drop it with her, Phillip,” I said as I patted Isidora’s knee. “Jazon didn’t seem to have any problems when he had that knife to your neck.”
Phillip’s eyes darkened. “The older of the hybrids have been through conditioning.” Puzzled, I didn’t know what hair care had to do with anything. “Psychological conditioning, Cupcake. Let’s save that conversation for another time.”
I nodded. “Phillip, I’m tired. Will you please change Neema?”
“Sure,” he said with a grin as he took her. My smile was triumphant. “Oh, I smell why you’re tired. Come on, Creampuff. Uncle Phillip will help you.”
I thought about what Phillip had explained. Then, after Phillip had disappeared from the room with Neema, I got up and put my ear to the door that led into the dining room. I knew they would change the subject immediately if I were to enter. I could hear the sound of Quaid’s voice but couldn’t make out the words. The doors in Yukihyo’s home were almost four inches thick. I placed my hand on the handle and was about to open it a tiny crack when someone from the other side beat me to it.
“Thunk!” was the sound the door made when it hit my face.
“Ow!” I said as my hands covered my nose.
“Teagan, are you alright?” Isidora asked.
“No,” I whined.
Kaoti stood with a horrified expression on his face and his hand on the knob. He swooped me up and laid me on the massive couch. Then, he held a silk square to my nose. “Where is the doctor?” he asked Isidora.
“He’s changing Neema. I’ll get him,” she said.
“Kaoti, let me up.”
“No, you are bleeding. I have injured you.”
When I tried to get up, he splayed his hand across my clavicle to prevent it while continuing to apply pressure to my nose with his other hand.
“Lady Bosh, Eri will be happy to give you some pointers on spying when next we visit home,” Quaid said.
“Well, if I were included in conversations pertaining to me, I wouldn’t have to try to find out on my own.” The living room began to fill with people, so it was good that there was plenty of room.
“I can’t leave you alone for five minutes. Isidora is watching Neema who decided to take a nap. What did you do to your nose?”
“I am responsible,” Kaoti said.
“No, you aren’t. It was the door’s fault,” I said.
“She’s fine. It’s already stopped
bleeding. You can sit up,” Phillip said.
“No wonder you brought me a carpet instead of steaks,” I said as I pointed accusingly at Yukihyo and Nico. “You could have been hurt. Why are you hiding things from me?”
“Woman, we don’t want you upset. Anyway, we were hunting ice bear and mountain goats on the side,” Nico said.
“Eli is here, too? Why hasn’t he visited us? Is Abbie with him?”
“He is working to keep you safe,” Nico answered.
“He’s questioning them. He isn’t hurting them, is he?” I began to worry about Zeth with his terrible stomach wound.
“Fortunately, for them, Inquisitor Beck will not do anything that could cause any harm to come to you.”
I waited, but Nico said nothing more. Phillip began cleaning up my nose and upper lip. I really did need lessons from Eri.
“A storm is coming. Secure the doors and pull the guards inside,” Yukihyo told Gary. Yukihyo placed two logs on the fire and went to add wood to the other fires.
“Phillip, I think I’ll join Neema.”
Kaoti insisted on carrying me. Isidora joined Simon for a nap in their room. Neema slept contentedly under a soft fur with her thumb in her mouth. “I’ll be outside of your door and promise to knock before opening it,” Kaoti said.
I grinned at him as he closed the door. Sitting on the side of the bed, I pulled off my boots and then turned down the thick fur bed covers. Laying down, I pulled them up to my chin, yawned, and fell asleep.
Chapter Sixteen
“Are you going to sleep through dinner?” Quaid asked as he kissed me awake.
“That depends. What’s for dinner?” I asked sleepily.
“Various game meats and root vegetables. Your baby hybrids have been on their best behavior.” I ran my hand over Quaid’s and felt the short blonde hairs as they tickled my palm. I wanted to run my hands all over his chest.
“For a moment, I feared Yukihyo had decided to kill them.”
“Yes, so did the boys. That you didn’t cry out at the sight of his knife made it all too clear to them that Yukihyo’s word is law as far as you are concerned. They realized that if they hope to be near you, they must obey him as clan leader.”
The Parvac Emperor's Daughter (The Space Merchants Book 3) Page 28
