"Do you think you like her, though? She is beautiful, that much I see, and smaller than I imagined she might be. But do you think you will be compatible?"
Bain sighed and sipped his drink. "Defiant little thing, full of tricks and venom. I think we will keep one another entertained, but a union between a Peregrine and a Feral is never a perfect match. We steal them by landing in a random place in the forest and catching whichever one we can get ahold of. My brother was lucky. He happened to find his true mate and loved her until his dying breath. Most Peregrines do not care for their Feral wives any more than as the mother of their children. Outside of their marriage, they are blatantly unfaithful, as if such behavior is encouraged."
"Will you be susceptible to the seductive behaviors of the Psittacus females, desperate in their desires to climb the social ladder to its highest point?" Asio took a drink as if to drown away such a disgusting thought. He did not like the ladies all flocking to his quarters, complaining of lightheadedness and anxiety. If they would loosen their corsets and their aspirations for Asio to introduce them to a Peregrine, they would find that they might be otherwise content with their status.
Bain smiled. "I am a male, Asio. I have needs just like any other. I also have responsibility and duty. They must come before my personal desires at all times. When I am married, I will be faithful to my wife and my city. To betray one would destroy the other. How can I expect thousands of Avians to trust me if she cannot, and she is the one who will bear my children?"
"You will be a good king, Bain. You are smart, but, more than that, you do what is right. It is hard to find a king who does not follow some sort of greed. Kings lust for power, for wealth, for territory, for women...and even if you do not, someone out there will crave what you have and try to take it from you," Asio said, without giving a name to Bain's least favorite.
Bain took a drink, letting the rum linger in his mouth before he swallowed it, feeling its bite. "Then I will have to kill them. I mean to protect this city and her. I nearly killed her trying to catch her. I do not intend to lose her. For everything I have put her through, I am obligated to give her the best life I can. I am sure you will do the same when you find your own female."
"Ah," Asio smiled. "If only that could happen! What female would want a half-blind, Grounded, Feral doctor as their mate? Unfortunately, I cannot go out and catch myself a Feral either. I would probably crash into the gates before I even got out of the city and then imagine how ugly I would be."
Bain shook his head. "You underestimate yourself, my friend. Love is like the wind; it touches even those who don't deserve it. Inevitably, you will feel it, no matter how you try to hide."
"The day I go to meet it, will be the day I fall to my death," he chuckled. Bain knew he was afraid to fly. His vision was too poor to safely navigate and he had been in a terrible accident because of it and mangled his leg so that it had difficulty bending and one wing. Though he spoke of flying jokingly, it was only to conceal his true feelings.
Bain drummed his fingers against his glass. "We will see. But you may be right, after all, I am about to marry a girl I captured. She doesn't love me, nor I her. Sure, I do not want to see her dead or even in pain, and I like when she gets mischievous, but I do not feel what Victor did for his wife."
"At least not yet," Asio said, downing the remainder of his rum. He stared at Bain for a moment. "You must forgive yourself, Bain. This was an accident. The guilt is all over your face and if you don't move past it, you will succumb to it. If word does get around that you intentionally wounded this Feral during capture, everyone will falter in their loyalty. If you portray confidence because you truly believe it was an accident, because it was, they will follow your lead."
Bain rubbed his palms against his face. "How will she forgive me for doing this to her? She thinks I was trying to kill her for something unrelated. Yes, maybe she will eventually understand, but she will hate me for taking her from Deepfell, as all Ferals do. I cannot help but feel guilty for doing that, because I would hate to be taken from my home and forced to live somewhere so different. I feel bad for her for everything that is happening to her and that I cannot do anything about it. If Peregrines don't mate with Ferals, there will be no more Peregrines!"
"It is a difficult choice. In fact, it can hardly be called a choice," Asio muttered.
"It's a duty. That's what we were taught to call it. It is our duty to our race to capture and rape the women who can keep it going," Bain spat.
"Then it is good that this female was caught by you. Of all the Peregrines, I could never see you raping anyone, or harming anyone...intentionally anyway," he smiled. "If anyone can find a different way for the future of your kind, it would be you."
Bain snorted. "Thank you. I am glad that you don't see me as a rapist."
Asio chuckled. "Though, I remember when we went to the fall festival and you had had quite a bit of cider..."
"No," he groaned. "Don't bring up that Psittacus girl, oh, what was her name? Kieza?"
"You took her back to your quarters and everyone could hear her carrying on all the way down here. Every girl was infatuated with the idea of being with you for weeks after that," Asio laughed.
"Oh, yeah, she was loud. But we were crazy, the lot of us, so high on being Peregrines in training that we couldn't even see straight. The duty, the honor. We were above everything. I thought Rutiger would lose himself in the women, but he found something he liked more. Violence."
"Some never came down," Asio said quietly, eyes flashing to silver and away again. "And some...share Rutiger's brand of lust."
"What happened?"
Asio grimaced, stretching out his bad leg, reluctant to speak of it. "Well, I was returning from a call in the High Quarter two nights ago. I was walking along and I heard someone talking so I stopped. It sounded so familiar I thought they were speaking to me, to get my attention. Then, a Hawk hit the ground not ten feet from where I stood. He must have fallen twenty feet at least and died on impact if he was not dead before. He was the second Hawk to die this month. I'm sure you would have heard about it if you had not come straight here from Deepfell."
Bain frowned, deeply concerned. "Whose voice was it?"
Asio swallowed and shook his head. There was a long stretch of silence while the Feral considered his response, the weight of it heavy. "I'm sure it was Coldwind."
"We all know he has his ulterior motives for doing things, but why would he kill a Hawk? He took an oath, as we all did, to protect the Avians of this city. That is not to say that I trust him in the slightest, but do you really think he would go that far?"
"I don't know. I just know what I heard."
"Then I want you to take a closer look at the body before they burn him. I want to know if there was foul play involved or if it was an accident. I cannot simply have him arrested on a whim. If I could, it would have already been done. We need evidence and more than hearing his voice in the night. Many men could sound like him," Bain sighed.
"I understand," Asio nodded. "It would seem suspicious if your friend had coincidentally heard your rival's voice just before a murder. Everyone would think it was some plan to get rid of him just because you dislike him. If the sentence for murder is death, many would begin to fear you for condemning those that lose your favor."
"Such complications are the joys of power. I cannot be a hated king. I would not live long enough to finish my drink," he chuckled into his glass. "Though, I may need an ocean of rum to get me through it."
Sorren whimpered softly, the sound tugging at Bain's chest, drawing his attention instantly. His smile faded and he swallowed. Her head rolled to the side away from him.
"She will wake up soon. The fluids are almost done, though. Would you like to leave her here for the night?" Asio stood up and took the glasses, setting them on the countertop. He checked the bag of fluids and gave it a slight squeeze, before lifting Sorren's right hand and pushing two of his fingers against her wrist, taking her pulse.
Bain felt a wave of protectiveness wash over him. It was not so much that he did not trust Asio, but that he did not trust her to stay put. Asio would have a hard time keeping her contained; he did not know how easily she seemed to slip between the fingers of those reaching for her. He would sleep better knowing that she was contained within his apartments and that he could subdue her if needed. He doubted that his friend would be strong enough to wrestle her down on his own.
Bain waited until Asio had finished. "I will take her with me."
Asio seemed to relax, glad that he would not be pressured with the task of protecting and restraining a wild female, though he would have just kept her in the cushioned room at the end of the hall. As much as he wanted to speak with another Feral, he knew that she would only be more confused by his presence. He remembered briefly how she had reached out for him and then pushed it from his mind. "Yes, of course," he replied.
Bain stood and moved around to the opposite side of the padded table, once more tucking her half-cloak around her. He slipped his arms beneath her legs and back, drawing her up against his chest, ignoring the raging soreness in his arms. Only when she was tight within his grasp, did he feel as though he had any power over her. At all other times, she seemed to have him at her whim, just waiting to make the wrong move and fall into her traps. It seemed fitting that even she had not been able to resist her own curiosity. Bain wondered what other simple objects like mirrors she would be fascinated with.
"Thank you for the drink, Asio," Bain said. "I truly needed it."
"You will need many more, I'm sure. I've heard that females tend to bite when scared," he chuckled. "Oh, and you'll need this as well, no doubt," he said. Asio produced a capped syringe and tucked it in Bain's belt pocket. "She must rest, by her own will or not. Returning from anesthesia can be frightening and even though I do not believe in sedating females, she mustn't tear her stitches out."
"Oh," Bain said, his eyebrows knitted together in concern. Would he be able to handle her if she woke up and went berserk in his living quarters? He could only imagine the destruction that would ensue.
Asio chuckled at his expression and opened the door for him, watching the king step out into the hall with his bundled prize. "I will see you tomorrow to tend to her wound. Then, I can teach you how to dress it so I can spend the maximum amount of time hiding in my apartments with my wonderful cheap alcohol while you two get to know each other."
Bain smiled broadly. "Is that so?" He laughed. "I will see you tomorrow."