Thanus 64

I followed Kiromir away from Letti’s torment. If I wasn’t a swan, I would have chased Letti’s fires to the end of the earth just to have that much sheer piss and vinegar on my side. Sorrin waited for us, so we wouldn’t have breakfast with the rest of the flock. Hesitant, I went with him, but our people needed our words.

I hadn’t expected Sorrin’s grace when I approached. I didn’t have Kiromir’s high status, and while Sorrin held less regard for status than most, he had never quite interacted with me on the level he did Kiromir. Even when Kiromir made me his second for my calm, Sorrin kept me at arm’s length.

“Come, Thanus. You join us this morning.” His arm extended to welcome me to approach. A knot formed in my throat, and I glanced about.

“Are you sure?” I really couldn’t believe it.

Kiromir looked back and canted his head. Sorrin raised a brow.

“I’m the left,” Kiromir had to clarify. He was fully willing to step down from his station among the highborns to stay with me, to accept my station as his own.

“So? He’s second and your bondmate. He’s as good as your name now, too, you know.” Sorrin sniffed and led us back to his home, and nicer than any of ours—quickly built things from budget constraints. His had age and care to it with white siding and raw beams exposed in places. Even a garden around the sides of it wrapped around and grew things that weren’t flowers. If I closed my eyes and sniffed, I could smell some other plants we’d have to ask about later, but most everything had hypnotic spiced scents of medicine and healer’s secrets.

The door swung open to reveal quaint living quarters with a bit of an effeminate touch to it. Rich colors collaborated with one another as we took Sorrin’s offer of a seat. Kiromir looked far more comfortable than I as he sat down and reached for a pitcher and glass on the hand-carved coffee table in front of him. The rich dark liquid bubbled free from the pitcher, and he tilted it back with a sigh. Cranberry juice? The sharp notes drew me in, and I took the offer to get some myself.

“We grow and make most everything we need here, but we really don’t have too much to spare beyond our own number, so take it while it lasts.” Sorrin’s acid green eyes bore holes in me as I tipped a glass back to my mouth. Staring at him felt like being a child all over again. Nevertheless, the juice tasted surprisingly good, and I don’t think I’d had anything this fresh in twenty years.

“While it lasts?” Kiromir paused to stare at his glass.

“If we have to share with your tribe for the long term, our stores aren’t going to last us.” Sorrin plucked a handful of fruit off the table, some sort of medley that looked a little too fancy for the life I knew as a wildling. Fruit didn’t get cut for us. It got eaten. I had to watch Kiromir’s lead on what to do.

He spooned some onto a small serving plate and glanced over to me. Instinctively, he knew I felt a little lost. Usually, I saw Kiromir as this brawler. I saw the power of him, but I never got to see the elegant side of him, the manners. With a delicate grace, he handed me the plate and a fork, drawing his eyes from the food to a fork, and then to me once more. I took it hesitantly and followed his lead.

“So, you wanted Thanus here to speak?” Kiromir served himself with a practiced ease and grace before adjusting his posture so sit higher.

“Yes. As your second and bondmate, he deserves to know what we’ve been witness to.” Sorrin seemed to glance over me and approve of my behavior. Five minutes ago and outside these walls, I’d have been eating with my hands and shouting with a full mouth to keep the flock in line. This calm, collected scenario made my ikris twitch. Kiromir rested a hand on my knee to console me. I’d never seen the delegation, just the brute force he enforced with.

Kiromir nodded and squeezed my knee. Sorrin’s eyes darted between the hand and us. Sorrin squinted at Kiromir’s hand and the posturing of us. For a moment, I saw some doubt in his expression. Did he doubt our binding? Did he question my fitness? No. His look went back to Kiromir with that doubt. He wondered how Kiromir took the left. I wondered that, too, in short moments. Then I remembered the moments leading up to our binding and how vulnerable he had been when I—nope! I had to keep those thoughts at bay.

“Rolyn has been dabbling in your affairs for quite some time, as I’m sure you have suspicions.” Sorrin finally said.

Kiromir tilted his head left and right. We’d talked about it before. We knew from our news sources that contracts ended with more brute force than an ordinary human could execute. We knew that Rolyn probably cherrypicked contracts from her high position within the Sentinels. Nothing that came from them boded well, and we had this sense of obligation for everything.

“Well, if you didn’t know, the Sentinels have been working with them in exchange for some rather strange agreements. What I’m going to tell you may make you a little sick, and I’d ask you set my crockery down before you hear it, but I can assure you that the boy and Niala are alive.” Kiromir and I both set our plates down. I saw his fork placement, face down to the side on the rim of the plate. I followed suit as I waited for the bad news.

“Our numbers are dwindling. Less of them are finding bondmates, and we have less people that are having or can have children. That’s how Revik convinced them to go to medical school, you know? He agreed to try and figure out if we could make artificial insemination work.” Sorrin’s lip went flat and white. Kiromir’s fist clenched, and I snaked my hand into the one he had on my knee earlier. We squeezed one another as we waited for the unspoken to be said.

“They more than likely took Niala for that. It seems that the Sentinels know a few things about her that we don’t. They have information on her flock and know what she is.” Sorrin didn’t spell it out for us, but I could imagine.

“Is that why they took Gaff?” I thought to ask and worried I’d spoken out of turn.

If it bothered Sorrin, he didn’t indicate it as he focused on me with intent. “Not likely, but with recent events, he’s likely very useful to them.”

The color drained from Kiromir. “It’s because they’re compatible that they’ll keep him alive, isn’t it?”

Sorrin nodded.

“That could be so dangerous at her age….” My breath halted in my chest. I felt glad Kiromir had put his plate down because he gripped me so hard that Letti might need to give me a touch after we left. I didn’t react, though.

“Do you think they care?” Sorrin’s eyes turned severe as he sat up a little and lifted his chin. “No, they don’t care! They’re disposable, and the lack of respect for life with them has become disgusting.”

“This isn’t about Niala or Gaffriel anymore. This is about humans having our kind… This is a danger to us all. If they think they can breed and tame us….” I spoke out of turn on purpose. Kiromir couldn’t form words, and I had to be his voice as his teeth creaked, gold eyes flashing that hidden fire.

“The flock, then family.” Kiromir eked out.

“This puts all the flocks in danger.” Sorrin’s eyes actually glinted now with his green healer’s light.

“And it’s our fault.” Kiromir bowed his head over his unclenched fist and took a cleansing breath.

“No. This is Rolyn. It may be your blood, but I know Lowak would have never stood for it. He never did. That’s why they separated. After Revik left and they knew where your heart would lay, they were desperate for another child to carry on the bloodline, and this was the result. So Niala was the nail in the coffin for you, as far as Rolyn was concerned.” Sorrin’s voice filled with low threat, and I felt better knowing we wouldn’t owe a debt like this to the songbirds.

“Now. Niala has value to us outside of all of this. I’ve watched your children since Niala joined them, watched you and yours. Niala’s oblivion… I am proud to say that Niala has brought magic with her. Your little girls coming up are inundated with her spirit. Also, their tongues have been changed because of her influence. They’re stronger, and the Wanderers will be a powerhouse in time. It’s why I begged you to let her stay with us during migration… She didn’t need to be all over the flocks.” Sorrin said.

“But Kiromir has magic, too, though.” I blurted and silenced fast as Kiromir shot me a warning glance. Sorrin raised a brow.

The way his eyes were, the glow he got in them when excited did not reflect the blue of his fires. Instead, the light glowed the gold of his eyes, and as kids, I had seen it happen to him before he got his fire.

“I know. He was supposed to come live with us when he was little to train it up, but Revik wasn’t showing the potential they wanted.” Sorrin shook his head.

Kiromir had hurt in his voice as he spoke. “Change of subject if it’s not relevant, please.”

I could hardly wonder what he felt. Kiromir knew he had magic he couldn’t use and had to hide that part from everyone. It felt like another level of being a swan.

“It’s not too late, but I digress, then.” Sorrin seemed genuinely apologetic.

“What happened to Revik, really?” Kiromir asked as his hand slipped from mine. He folded over with his elbows on his knees and hands on his face. He wasn’t shaking with sobs, but even through his curtain of chestnut hair, I could tell that he wept.

“He found a bondmate that wasn’t acceptable. We couldn’t get more information than that about her. All of our sources said she was human.” Sorin sounded hesitant.

“I saw her. We don’t have hair like that. She had a human name. Her eyes were blue.” Kiromir whispered.

“Felice?” I thought to ask. I had seen the girl, too. She smelled like Revik at the time, so I couldn’t tell.

“Rolyn banished him. Whatever she used against him was such that he never returned to any of us, so I’m assuming that it was bad.” Sorrin said.

“I want to go after Rolyn. I’ll take care of my mother.” Kiromir’s words grew firm, teeth pitched into a snarl as he raised his wet face. Tears stained his face, but that blue glow dominated his eyes, his fires.

“You know what the penalty is if she’s found, right?” Sorin had to ask to be sure.

“And I’d do it with my own hands. She has committed crimes against flock, put us all in danger, and committed crimes against family. Blood was shed by her hands. Her work was involved in the attempt on my men’s lives, on Thanus’s. I only had a day with him, and she had a bomb put in his trailer.” His breath went ragged.

“Keep that anger. You’ll need it. As for Thanus, may I delegate?” Sorrin looked from Kiromir to me.

“You may ask,” Kiromir answered for me.

“Kiromir, you’re too emotional right now, and we need you at our side to take out half the Sentinel elders. We’re going to end a family line doing this, but it’s necessary. The Skysinger line ends with this.”

“And the Soulstar,” Kiromir muttered.

“We’ve not found Revik. If Felice was not human, there may still yet be a chance for Soulstar.” Sorin knew something more than he was saying. If more like Niala existed…

“I’m not concerned with keeping the status quo. I think we all know who Niala’s soul will end up choosing if we don’t intervene. She’ll end up with the wanderers. I can only hope there’s time to teach the boy.” Sorrin grinned.

“What?” It was like hearing a record screech. I never thought that when I took Kiromir that I might be ending a bloodline. It felt so beyond what I wanted at that moment. I didn’t think of the implications of Niala inheriting our people, but she couldn’t. She was an outsider, even now. Gaffriel, inborn, one of us, from a long line, not a spectacular line, but a long one for sure, had that chance. He would be the one people would look to.

Kiromir shot me a resigned look of disgust. Of course, it was not without resignation and a fight, but I reminded myself that if Gaffriel lived through this with Niala… I needed to be harder on him than any of the others.

“Yeah. I thought as much. That’s why Thanus needs to be the one searching for them. If they escaped like that message claims, then he needs to find them while you take care of your familial duties, Kiromir.” Sorrin dismissed the conversation by picking up his plate once more. The switch from business to pleasantries slipped seamlessly. But Kiromir tensed, his hands shaking.

“Do you agree, Thanus?” Sorin inclined his head, an impassive look on his face.

I looked to Kiromir for his response, but his eyes turned away from me. “I do.”

“And Kiromir, do you trust Thanus?” Sorrin asked.

“Above all others. He is my most excellent complement.” He had that hint of Lowak again in his steel voice.

I postured myself. I didn’t like the coldness, but then again, Kiromir’s implicit trust meant everything to me.

Sorin sat his food down, signaling us to finish. I had barely touched mine. “Thanus, stay here with me. Kiromir… You go find our elders. Your elders will be there, too, as well as our own warriors. They’ll see to you.” He waved a hand at Kiromir dismissively.

“Are you ok with this?” I thought to ask him as I grabbed for the hem of his shirt. But, thankfully, the tug brought his attention back to me. He looked so severe and sharp that it felt like an entirely different person than the man I bound two nights prior.

“Only if you are.” His voice went whisper quiet and full himself. I wasn’t afraid. He stamped his aura down hard. No. His aura ebbed because mine was covered it. My calm flowed stronger now than his own fear.

He brought his head down to mine, chin on my temple as he sighed. “Find our kids.” Then he left.

Sorrin tilted his head and smiled that knowing smile. “Young and in love, how tragic you cannot enjoy it.”

“The faster I find ours, the sooner I can ease his fever,” I said the moment that Kiromir’s back turned towards the door. Sorrin raised a brow a fraction of an inch.

“I suppose there hasn’t been time, has there. Let us both make this quick so you can bring our lost ones home,” Sorrin said.

“Lost one, you mean. Niala isn’t ours,” I reminded him.

“Oh, no. See, the moment that we all agreed that their binding was almost assured… Well, we can make assumptions that she’s marked by his soul and, as the left, now belongs to us… presumably.” Sorrin said this with all the air of a diplomat.

“Unless Gaffriel takes the left,” I muttered. While not uncommon, we’d heard about it, for the man to take the left for a strong woman. So nobody could guess between her and Gaffriel, just like Letti and Dimal. We thought they’d both be rights, or at least her. We made so many jokes about it, but Letti turned out to be a lefty all the same, though. I sighed heavily.

“Well, we make all assumptions in good faith. The message that was sent said they’d meet at his legend, correct?” Sorrin’s voice flowed smooth and sharp.

His words gave me the motivation I needed, and we talked strategy. Despite my brazenness and lack of tact, I could be clever when I needed to. I had impressed him, and my mission had only just begun.