Second Contact (Okal Rel Saga #1)

Chapter 14.4 - Reckless Acts

Di Mon walked as fast as he could without breaking into a run, wanting to get home, and dove down the spiral stairs of Green Pavillion without acknowledging the salutes of the errants on guard. It wasn't until he had reached the reception room at the base of the stairs that he let himself acknowledge he had come to see the Reetion. He wanted to ask him about the new blit, but it wasn't just that. He wanted to see him for the pleasure of it.

That was terrible.

Tomorrow I may be challenged by a better sword, he thought. What does it matter if I talk to Ranar? But it still mattered. Di Mon struggled to resist what he suspected, not even naming it to himself.

"What are you worried about, Di Mon?" Darren used to mock him. "You don't believe you've got a soul in need of ancestral approval to be reborn. It is we who damn ourselves in this life. That's all."

Sarilous entered from the inward door.

"Kertatt?" Di Mon asked.

"Your nephew will be fine," she assured him. "The burns were superficial. Eva is settled in your bedroom. Vretla?"

"On her way to TouchGate with a H'Usian highborn for pilot," he replied, feeling brittle. "Tessitatt must fly out after them to settle up."

"It will be done," said Sarilous, searching his expression for unspoken truths. Looking at her he felt the weight of the years which did not show in his own mirror.

I am old, he thought. The old should have the right to die. He was heartily sick of himself but not, yet, of Monitum even if it could not offer him a single, extra highborn to be his heir or fly his wounded protégé to hospital.

"H'Us has sent word to Red Reach about Vretla," Di Mon told Sarilous, "hoping they will send a sword to stand against D'Ander over Perry D'Aur."

Sarilous reacted as if stung. "Red Reach will be here, then," she said with painful calm, "before Vretla is back to confirm that you had her permission to send her."

"I didn't," Di Mon said, unabashed. He tossed his head back, nostrils flaring. Sarilous felt like the embodiment of the responsibilities he bore.

There was a pause, filled with a strained silence. Then Sarilous said, "You could have dispatched Perry D'Aur in Den Eva's."

"You mean slit her throat? And tell D'Ander that Delm's errants did it?" Di Mon barked a self-mocking laugh. "I would personally kill any errant of Monitum who took orders like that, or stood by to see them done."

"But there would have been no duel, tomorrow, for H'Us to be worried about if there had been no prisoner," Sarilous pointed out.

"There are times when I doubt the necessity of bonding gorarelpul," Di Mon told her tartly. "This is not one." He shook his head. "The Demish rebel will not die at my hands."

"You think she is innocent," Sarilous stated, with thin respect for the issue's importance.

"I do not think she is stupid," Di Mon asserted with compensating force. "She needs Vrellish support at court to sustain her daughter's claim to Barmi!" Artificially whipped up to begin with, his vehemence swiftly collapsed. He fidgeted, making a throwaway gesture. "But I'll concede that some of her people might be stupid enough, and okal'a'ni methods are in character for the likes of those she commands. They might even have meant to get Vretla. Red Reach raiding parties favor Killing Reach for its lawlessness and Red Hearth looks the other way as hard as it can."

Sarilous said, firmly, "You will have to avoid a challenge. Perhaps if you went to TouchGate yourself, and waited there until Vretla is—"

"I will fight if I decide to!" cried Di Mon.