Syd entered the foyer to find the wrong therion waiting for her. At least, not the one she had expected. Considering the interaction she had seen between Kerr and the two male therions the previous day, she had guessed the one who would have come calling for her at Aelius’s home would be the tall, gray-furred one with a black spot around his eye. He had come across as the more proactive sort. Instead, the therion who turned to look up at her was the smaller, foxlike man with a brown, brindle stripped coat.
“Dobroye utro,” the man said with a thick accent and a nod of his horned head. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Syd nodded back. “My name is Jadis Ahlstrom, but you can call me Syd.”
“Timur of Clan Nox,” the man made a strange gesture with his right hand that Jadis had never seen before. “Third of Fourth of Nox va Ratosh.”
Jadis had no idea what the second part of Timur’s introduction was supposed to mean, but it felt like it had cultural importance, so she just nodded in acknowledgement. Since the man was of Clan Nox, Jadis assumed he was probably related to Kerr in some way. That didn’t mean he was direct family, of course, since not everyone in the clan would be blood relations. Still, with the way he had been acting the previous day, she doubted he was a passing acquaintance. While Syd didn’t want to be impolite, she also didn’t want to waste a lot of time dancing around uncomfortable topics, so she wasted no time in getting to the point.
“Did you have business with me? Or are you here to see Kerr?”
“I… do not think Kerr will see me,” Timur answered. “She is angry, yes. I have hope you will speak to her for me. You are her mate, yes?”
Now that he was speaking in longer sentences, Jadis realized that the foxlike therion’s accent was very similar to a Russian accent from Earth. She could understand him well, since he spoke clearly, though his pronunciation was heavily colored by his native language. If all of Clan Nox had similar accents, Jadis briefly wondered why Kerr had no accent to speak of, until she remembered that her lover had a skill for learning languages.
“Kerr is my mate,” Syd confirmed. “But before I even consider speaking to her about you at all, I need to know what your relationship to her is.”
Timur’s eyes widened at the statement, as though he was both shocked and confused. His clawed hands twitched nervously as he shuffled back and forth, like he wasn’t sure what to say next. As he searched for the right words, Syd took the time to better observe the therion’s appearance.
As she had noted before, the man had a strange array of metal bands, colored cloth, and jewels decorating his horns. They were in the same pattern she had seen before, which matched the taller companion he had been with in the market square. His armor was made of boiled leather and had been designed for ease of movement, and he had a bow and quiver strapped to his back. Syd noted that he also had a curved short sword with a thick blade on his hip, and a buckler dangling on the other side. He was certainly dressed for combat, and he had clearly put his equipment to work on frequent occasions. His weapons and armor showed the bite of battle with many scratches, nicks, and old scars, though overall his appearance was tidy and well-kept. The man had the worn look of a veteran, and while his demeanor made him seem young, Jadis guessed he was older than he seemed.
“Did Kerr not tell you our father’s name?”
The question was not what Syd had figured Timur would land on. Hesitating for just a moment, Jadis’ mind accelerated through old memories of conversations she had once had with Kerr in a dank, dark cave. Nox va Ratosh. That had been the name the archer had given for her father. And, by context, that meant…
“You’re Kerr’s brother?” Syd asked with raised eyebrows.
“Da, yes,” Timur nodded. “Kerr is One of Thirteenth of Nox va Ratosh. I am her older brother.”
Jadis knew from Kerr’s explanations that the clan heads of therions, at least in the Verdant Sea, usually had a lot of mates to show off how strong they were. Clan Nox’s leader, Kerr’s father, had fifteen wives, and one hundred and twelve children. Possibly more, since Kerr had said she hadn’t spoken to anyone from her tribe in four years, but there were at least that many. Putting together the context clues, Jadis guessed that what Timur had meant by “Third of Fourth” had been that he was the third child of Nox va Ratosh’s fourth wife. Which meant Kerr was the first child of her father’s thirteenth wife.
“Okay, yes, I understand,” Syd said, her stiff posture relaxing a small amount. “I’m sorry, Kerr doesn’t talk about Clan Nox all that often. I don’t mean to sound rude, but she never mentioned your name or the names of the rest of her siblings.”
Timur didn’t look happy by the admission, but he stoically nodded his head. Taking a step forward, he made another strange symbol with his right hand, one that Jadis took for religious in nature, though she wasn’t sure.
“I am not surprised,” Kerr’s brother said. “Nyet, no, not surprised. Kerr has, ah, broken ties.”
Broken ties.
Kerr had told Jadis that she had left the Verdant Sea because she wanted to explore the world and travel new paths. Not once had she ever mentioned any issues between her and her clan. Whenever she did speak of her father or family in general, it was never with any negative emotion. Then again, she never spoke of them in happy tones, either. Wistful, perhaps, but never with any desire to see her family again. Jadis had figured Kerr had not gotten along all that well with her parents and siblings due to her crass nature and had left to find her own way. However, broken ties sounded a lot more serious than Jadis had originally suspected.
“I’m not going to pretend that I understand everything here,” Syd bluntly told the waiting therion. “I am definitely missing some context. However, I don’t really have the time to talk right now. Kerr and some of my family are leaving on our airship in the next fifteen minutes. I need to go be with them.”
“Kerr is leaving?” Timur asked with rising urgency. “For how long? Will she be back? Where is she going? When will—”
“She’ll be back in a week,” Syd cut the therion’s panicked tumble of words off. “Possibly sooner. Look, if you have a message you want me to pass along to her, I can do that. Just know that I won’t force her to talk to you, if that’s what you’re after.”
Timur’s anxious expression turned into one of wry amusement.
“One cannot force Kerr to do anything.”
“You are her brother, then,” Syd replied with a smirk.
Shuffling a little closer, Timur folded his arms and made a formal bow. As he spoke, he kept his eyes low, not meeting Syd’s gaze, which she took for a sign of respect rather than avoidance or furtiveness.
“Please tell Kerr that Vadim’s words are true. Father is sick. He will die soon. Vremeni malo. Please come home.”
“I am… sorry to hear that,” Syd managed to get out after a slight hesitation. “You have my condolences. I’ll talk to Kerr.”
“That is all I ask. Blagodaryu vas. Thank you.”
“Okay, ah, I have to run,” Syd said awkwardly while Timur continued to bow. “Will you still be in the city for a while? Maybe we can talk later?”
“Yes, of course,” the therion man finally raised his head. “Please come share a hunt with us. I will tell Vadim. He is… eager to meet our sister’s mate.”
As Jadis internally speculated on the meaning behind Timur’s emphasis of the word “eager”, the man explained where he and his kin were staying in the city. Jadis already had a packed schedule planned out for the next few days, but she decided she would have to find a way to work in a visit to Kerr’s brother. Or, brothers, as it seemed to be the case. At least two of the therions were her siblings, it seemed. How many more of the dozens of therions from that group were direct relations to Kerr? They all had the same horn decorations, from what Jadis could recall. Was that because they were all the sons and daughters of Nox va Ratosh? Or were the bands and jewelry a clan-wide tradition, regardless of parentage?
Walking with Timur out the front door of Aelius’ manor, Syd bowed at the therion in a polite farewell.
“I’ll come looking for you and your clan soon,” Syd assured him. “And I will tell Kerr what you told me.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Timur repeated with another low bow. “May the gods favor you.”
“Pretty sure a few of them do,” Syd murmured to herself before summoning her wings.
As Syd took to the sky in a hurried flight to get back to the airship, the truth was that Jadis had already told Kerr exactly what had happened. There were three of her, after all, and it wasn’t difficult for her to have her Dys self lead her lover a small distance away from the Leviathan to have a private conversation. Even while Syd was still telling Timur goodbye, Dys was recounting the conversation to Kerr, word for word.
“Ignore them,” Kerr said flippantly a few moments after Dys finished speaking. “They don’t have anything to say worth hearing. You have many, many better things to do than waste time with Vadim and Timur or any of the rest of that pack.”
“Are you sure?” Dys asked, her head tilted to one side as her gaze tried to find Kerr’s green eyes. “Timur seemed pretty earnest. And your father—”
“We don’t have the time to spare to visit that old dog,” she waved the concern away while still looking out over the city, eyes pointed north. “He’ll be ash and bones by the time we got to the Verdant Sea, anyway.”
“Not necessarily,” Dys countered. “The Leviathan lets us cover a lot of distance. From what I’ve seen of the maps, we could probably make it there from here in a few days.”
“No.”
Dys’ concern deepened at Kerr’s blunt refusal. Her horned lover rarely spoke in such serious tones, never mind her change in attitude. Jadis could see that she was trying to act like she didn’t care, yet by the involuntary twitches of her tail and the set of shoulders, it was obvious that the whole situation was bothering her greatly.
“What did he do to you?”
Dys’ soft question drew Kerr’s attention away from the horizon. Looking up, her expression melted, just a little, from ice to something softer, if no less unhappy.
“Don’t make that face at me,” she scolded Dys. “He didn’t do anything like I can tell you’re thinking. If he had, I would have cut off his balls and shoved them up his ass.”
“Then what happened?” Dys pressed. “Something had to. You aren’t the kind of person who wouldn’t care that their father is dying.”
Kerr let out a shaky sigh, her arms folded across her chest and eyes turned back to the distant sky.
“We had a fight. A bad one. It was about—it was stupid. We both said things that I know we meant. I know we still do. Gods. Fuck him. After that, I left, and I didn’t look back. That’s really all there is to it.”
There was obviously a lot more to it; Jadis didn’t need to be a mind reader to tell. However, she could also tell that she had pushed her lover about as far as was reasonable, under the circumstances. She wanted to find out more. What the fight was about, why it was so bad that she would leave her whole life behind. But Kerr, Aila, Eir, and Severina were leaving. Imminently. Nothing good could come from forcing her lover to talk when she wasn’t ready to. Especially not before such an important mission.
Putting her hand against Kerr’s cheek, she gently forced the therion to look her in the eye.
“Can we talk about this after you get back?” Dys asked quietly.
“If you really want to,” Kerr grumbled, sounding just a little bit more like her usual self. “You’re such a fucking soft sack when it comes to this kind of shit.”
“I’m nothing but soft for my loves,” Dys murmured while pressing her forehead against Kerr’s. “Except in the ways that matter.”
“True,” Kerr’s expression turned into a toothy grin. “Can’t really call that meat pillar between your legs soft with a straight face.”
Kissing Kerr, Dys enjoyed the feel and taste of her lover’s tongue and lips one more time before releasing her and turning back towards the Leviathan. However, before she had fully turned away, Kerr’s hand clutched tightly onto her shirt, preventing her from pulling away.
“You can talk with Timur and Vadim, if you want,” Kerr said, her voice as quiet as a winter night. “Just… don’t tell them about our pups. I don’t want to worry about that argument right now.”
“It’s an argument?”
“It will be,” Kerr said with another sigh. “Fuck. Why the fuck did they have to come here, of all gods be damned places?”
“Just lucky, I guess,” Dys shrugged.
Kerr let out a mirthless laugh as she let go of Dys’ shirt and started walking next to her back towards the airship.
“Luck always follows you around, doesn’t it,” the archer mused.
“Good luck or bad luck?”
“Fuck if I know.”
237