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Chapter 3
Vahadr
I’ve not had all that many dealings with humans. They aren’t particularly significant in the grand scheme of things—barely even civilized.
Still, one is currently crouched before my infant, which is surprising in its own right. And as I’m surrounded by astoundingly incompetent staff, it seems I’m once more in a position where I must do everything myself. Including discovering why this civilian has dared approach Asili.
“Well?” I say when she does nothing. Her full, dusky-red lips part as she stares up at me, but a strangled noise is all that escapes from her in response to my question.
Is this how the females of her race typically communicate? Absurd.
“Stand up at least, will you?”
She instantly springs to her feet—at least I know she understands Common, although whether she can speak it has yet to be deduced—and as her earthy green eyes dart between me and Asili, I take a moment to study her.
Shapely, small, and thick, with a luxurious head of glossy brown waves that tumble elegantly around her full breasts. A fine specimen, at least, if a little on the short side. Her eye-line barely grazes my chest.
“I wonder,” I say crisply when still more time passes and she makes no move to speak, “if I shall have to wait all day before you explain to me what you are doing with my son.”
Her breath hitches and her fingers clench into the loose, faded green material of her sweater.
“I was…” she says in a voice that is breathy and actually rather lovely. “I was just…”
“Yes?” I say when she once more falls to silence.
“She wanted to take me back to Mother,” Asili’s high voice interjects, although he doesn’t so much as look up from his game while addressing me.
“What?” I frown minutely at the human. “Have you been paid to steal away my offspring?”
“No!” she snaps in fear, and finally, a semblance of basic intellect and understanding bleeds into her features. “No, I saw him wandering all alone near a busy road, and so I just…I was just checking to see if he needed help if he was lost. I didn’t know who he was.”
“Who else would he be?” I say. “I see no other paired couples in the area.”
“I mean, he could have—”
“In fact,” I continue, “I see no other people at all. Just news reporters, my staff, and myself.”
“I don’t know! Maybe—”
“And, of course, an infant who looks famously and distinctly like his sire.”
She opens her mouth to respond, but I take a step towards her. “Tell me the truth, what were you doing with my son?”
“Nothing!” she snaps, her dark brows drawing together and her eyes narrowing. “If you’re so paranoid about everything, why’d you let him out of your sight to begin with?”
When I pull up in surprise at her tone, staring at her with my own silent shock, her face instantly crumples. I can read quite clearly the exact moment her emotions switch from annoyed to panicked realization, and yet she makes no move to try to take back her words or apologize for her tone.
Interesting.
“Look, I saw a child playing by the road,” she says after a moment. “Unsupervised and near a potentially dangerous environment. I just wanted to make sure that he was okay.”
“Your Imperial Majesty!”
I feel my face bleed back into an expressionless mask of annoyance as I hear the reedy voice of my most recent assistant scurrying towards us.
“Your Reverence, there you are.” He pulls up beside us briskly, the light green flesh on his thin face looking somewhat paler than usual. “We have a problem. Unfortunately, your son is—”
“Right here,” I finish for him mildly. Asili chooses this moment to knock over his strange pile of rocks and move to stand beside me.
