Page 79 of Taken to Lemora
“I don’t like it.”
I bark out a wild laugh and sling one arm over her shoulders. I take her closest hand. I bring it to my lips as I steer her down, away from the Asgid, away from the platforms where the party is at its thickest, to those where things are a little more subdued.
Asgid, Rekkaru, Lemoran, hybrids and Hypha all stretch out, lounging on the beds, carpets and poufs Essmira organized. They smoke from large water pipes and stuff themselves silly. But I’m not looking for these creatures. I’m looking for just two.
I guide Essmira down two levels to a platform shrouded in shadows. Close to the Dark Flats, it’s illuminated primarily by their light, which I know is the only reason Essmira hasn’t panicked yet. But as soon as we step onto the platform and the two figures rise, one much, much larger than the other, and Essmira wades into the light of the torches and sees them, she freezes.
I chuckle and gesture between my female and the off-worlders. “Essmira, this is the Raku and Rakukanna of Voraxia, and their kit, the Rakuka of Voraxia. Raku, Rakukanna, this is Essmira, my mate and miriga to our clan.”
The tall, blue-skinned Voraxian male steps forward and surprises me when he offers Essmira the Lemoran greeting. He catches the air and brings it to his heart. “It is an honor to meet you,” he says and I know no greater honor than having my mate addressed bythismale. Not like this. Not on the planes of my home beneath a brilliant sunset made of exploding kintarr sands while, in his other arm, there lies a sleeping kit.
A hybrid with her mother’s red skin and her father’s straight black hair, her tail hangs limply over the cradle of his forearm as she coos softly in her sleep. She is so little. Such a perfect little thing. My hold on Essmira’s shoulder slides down to her low back as she wavers, likely in shock.
“I…I…” she stammers in Voraxian and I laugh. It’s one of the few times I’ve seen her anything less than eloquent. “I mean…forgive me. I am honored to meet you Raku, Rakukanna, Rakuka,” she says, inclining her head at the little one as she offers them the Lemoran greeting in return.
It is the Rakukanna however, who steps forward and abandons all sense of formality. She pulls my female roughly away from me and throws her arms around my female’s neck. She is just shorter than Essmira and would look entirely Drakesh were it not for her facial features and the soft brown curls growing out of her head, so much looser and lighter than Essmira’s.
She says something against Essmira’s neck that sounds like, “Sanke dee zstaares,” before she repeats in Voraxian, “I can’t believe I’m meeting you.”
Slowly, so slowly, Essmira lifts her arms — they’re shaking — and she hugs the female back, gripping her tighter and tighter until it looks like we might need Niahhorru machinery in order to pry the females apart.
In Voraxian, Essmira replies, “It is my honor, Rakukanna…”
“Nox, nox. None of that, now. It’sMiariand you’re Essmira and for all that it matters, we’re sisters.”
“Sisters?”
“Sisters, hexa. There were six of us hybrids born at the same time, but we were scattered to the stars. I never thought…” Her voice hitches and she rubs at her face, smearing the paint she wears around her eyes. She looks nothing like a Rakukanna should, and yet the male at her side could not look more proud. I feel my own chest puff out in response as he meets my gaze and gives me a gentle nod.
You know, I think I might actually come totoleratethis male.
The Rakukanna — Miari — sniffs again, this time more deeply, and loops her arm through Essmira’s. I don’t mind as she guides my female away from me and they take a seat on one of the low poofs. I just stand behind her and wait, as I will wait for her for the rest of my life — impatiently, perhaps, but I’ll do it.
“I never thought I’d find them. And then we met Ashmara but she…” She shakes her head.
Essmira snorts lightly and it soothes my soul. I ease into my stance, letting my muscles melt down my bones. “She doesn’t much count. Ashmara is Eshmiri, through blood and soul.”
“Exactly. But aside from myself and Darro, we haven’t managed to find any of the missing until you.”
“Darro?” Essmira asks.
“I think,mee-lawv,” Raku says, interrupting and calling her by a moniker I’ve never heard before, but that sounds like an entirely different language —perhaps, human?
He steps up behind her and touches her hair while Essmira looks at me over her shoulder, searching for strength. I see calm fill her eyes when I go to her and take the poof at her side. I take her hand. She laces her fingers through mine.
“Hexa?” The Rakukanna says when it sounds like her Raku will no longer continue.
He smiles, “Apologies. I was distracted by the way the light from the Dark Flats reflects off of your eyes.”
“Stop trying to distract me. I’m trying to tell a story,” she says, feigning an exasperation that is betrayed by the large, goofy smile on her face.
Raku takes a seat next to her, across the low table where food and drink sits ready, enough to last us the lunar and then some, and fat candles burn bright. He lays his kit across the poof beside him and covers her with a blanket. He absently strokes her hair and I squeeze Essmira’s hand twice as she makes a soft sound, a happy sound.
Raku smirks, “I was just going to say that Essmira doesn’t know any of this history, so I suggest that you start where all good stories start,milawv.”
“And where is that?”
“The beginning.”