Page 33 of Feast

Thusar scratched his chin and a thoughtful growl rolled in his chest at the lowest limit of audibility.

“A gift indeed,” he said at last.

“Are you going to take me back to Rolf?” Ika asked. And then, just to drive her point home, she added. “He will be angry if you don’t.”

Thusar sat back and studied her for a moment.

“I’m certain he will be angry. But no, we will not give you back. Not yet, at least.”

Ika felt that dull ache pulsing behind her eyes. The feeling that always came just before her eyes started leaking. She struggled to hold those bitter tears back. She did not want to give these ukkur the satisfaction of seeing her like that.

“Why not?” she choked past the lump in her throat.

Thusar heaved a deep sigh.

“Rolf has been keeping you hidden. He doesn’t want any ukkur else to know about you. And perhaps that is wise. But now that we have you, I intend to uncover your secrets. I intend to find out what you are, little Ika.”

“I’m an ukkur.” The first drop spilled from her eye.

“No. I don’t think you are.”

This ukkur chief was serious. He was going to keep her a prisoner. A captive. He and the other ukkur would no doubt probe and examine her body just as Gunnar had done earlier.

Ika felt panic rising up in her chest.

Her hand went to her throat, her unconscious reflex whenever she found herself feeling nervous or anxious. But this time, her fingers did not find what they were searching for. In all the tumult of the preceding hours, Ika had not realized what was missing.

Her necklace.

It was gone.

A cold chill swept over her body, worse than any of the fear she had experienced in the past night and day. That necklace meant everything to her. She did not know why exactly, but she could not bear to lose it. To lose that small connection to the mystery of who and what she really was.

“My necklace!” she blurted. Her eyes were leaking something fierce now. Tears were streaming down her cheeks in hot stripes. “The nith must have taken it. Please, we have to go back to that vehicle and search for it. Please…”

She didn’t care that she was begging. All that mattered was the necklace.

Thusar’s face tightened as if he’d been stabbed. As if he were in pain at seeing Ika so upset.

He raised his hand, signalling her to be quiet.

His other hand went to the pouch at his hip and drew something out. He let it fall, dangling from his forefinger.

It was the necklace.

He offered it to Ika, and she took it gratefully, unable to speak through the tightness in throat. Ika’s tears kept right on coming, but their flavor had changed from bitter to sweet.

“I found it in the nith wagon,” Thusar said, answering the question that Ika’s throat would not allow her to ask. “It didn’t appear to be a nith design, so I thought it might be somehow connected to you.”

Ika bowed her head and slipped the braided leather cord around her neck. The soothing weight of the ring settled between her breasts, right over her heart. At least that one little piece of her world had been set right again.

“Thank you,” she said when she was able to.

Thusar grunted.

His face had already hardened again, and he leaned forward, resting his square chin on his fist.

“I have given you something,” he said. “Now I expect something in return. You will answer my questions, Ika.”