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“Yes, yes. Very good,” I snapped. “Thank you for telling me your names so that I may promptly forget them. The only name I wish to learn ishers.”
Gahn Fallo’s massive tail thrashed in fury, sending grains of sand exploding behind him. He stalked forward, pressing his snarling face towards mine until our noses nearly touched.
“You’re a fool if you think you can come here and insult us,” he barked.
“You’re a fool if you think you can keep me from her,” I said, meeting his gaze stonily. Then, my eyebrow twitched in amusement. “Though, perhaps that would not be much of a departure from your usual state of intelligence.”
Gahn Fallo and I were about the same size. But I was quicker. I dodged the swift darting of his claws as they sought my throat. In an instant, I’d nocked an arrow, the fatal point a mere breath from Fallo’s chest.
“Do it,” he said, grinning madly, leaning forward until the point of my arrow scratched his hide. “Send your arrow right through me, you putrid purple Gahn. Go ahead. You will not pierce my heart. It was wrenched from my chest long ago by a little human hand.”
“Apparently, so was your brain,” said Buroudei with a sigh. Then, more quietly, “Perhaps the mate bond makes fools of us all.”
“Speak for yourself,” I muttered. I did not feel like a fool under the sway of the mate bond. I felt strong and proud and purposeful.
I feltchosen.
“When any one of us speaks,” said Buroudei from behind Fallo’s bulk, “it is with the weight of all five armies behind us. We speak for ourselves. For this settlement. And the new women.” Careful control crackled in his voice. “Nowput down your weapon.”
“Yes,” breathed Fallo, his fangs glinting. “Lower your tiny little spear and see what happens.”
“It’s anarrow,” I scoffed, wrinkling my nose at Fallo’s ignorance. “And I will lower it. Not because you’ve told me to. But because I refuse to waste a decent arrow on this foul excuse for a Gahn.”
Fallo snapped his jaws, but a warning grunt from Buroudei and the watchful eyes of the other three kept him in check as I lowered my arrow.
“Enough of this,” I said, my tail twitching as Fallo stepped reluctantly away from me, rolling his broad shoulders.
“Despite the fact that I expect all five of you to be braxilk talons in my sides, we are now allied,” I continued. “This has been decided. We do not need to like each other. We do not need to spend time building up false pleasantries between us. Just lead me to my mate so I may collect her and leave this place.”
Even the sand under my feet was beginning to grate on me. All shifting and grainy and leaving me feeling like I needed to rinse my skin and claws. I replaced my arrow in my quiver and slung my bow over my head once more as the other Gahns regarded me. Buroudei looked sorely tempted by my words, as if he could not wait to be rid of me.
“You need not stay here any longer than you wish,” he said evenly. “But your mate will accompany you only if she agrees to go.”
I balked.
“Why in the piercing peaks would she refuse to come with me?” I was hermate, not to mention a Gahn. I wasGahn Errok. Fastest flyer and fiercest fighter of the Deep Sky. No woman could look upon me and find me wanting. Especially not under the spell of the mate bond.
“Oh, Gahn of the Deep Sky,” said a man who had not yet spoken.Gahn Baldor. Glinting silver sight stars met mine. “You have much to learn.”
“I do not see what you lot could hope to teach me,” I growled in response.They don’t even know what arrows are called...
“But each of us has claimed our mates,” said the scarred Gahn, Taliok.
“So?” I huffed. “That is no great feat. Men of the Deep Sky claim their women, too.”
“But not new women.” That remark came from Razek.
I sighed. “That does not matter. She cannot be so different from a woman of the Deep Sky. She ismy mate. Do not claim to know more of her than I do.”
“Stop trying to help him. Let him face her. I wish to watch him flail. And fall,” Fallo muttered, his words dripping with hateful longing.
“You will be waiting a long time for such a thing,” I retorted. “Gahns of the Deep Sky do notflail. And we never fall.”
“Fine,” Buroudei said, looking at me intently.
“Fine?” I asked, my sight stars zinging to him.
“Yes, fine. We will escort you to her, now. All the new women are at the evening fire.”
