Page 26 of Xel: Broken Bond

“He’s supposed to sleep in the kennels,” I reminded her – though she knew that perfectly well already.

“And while I’m here, I don’t see why he can’t spend a night in the house.” She smiled at me, all sweetness and light, while I just rolled my eyes. “I’ll feed him, I’ll let him out to pee, and he can sleep in my room.”

“He can’t stay here because it means he’s going to want to stay in here tomorrow night as well, and the night after that, and it’s going to be a nightmare trying to convince him to go back into his kennel.”

“So let him sleep in the house every night,” Leesha said, with a shrug. “You’ve already said he’s never going to get adopted. And he’s only going to be around for another couple of months.”

“We’ve been saying that for an entire year,” I pointed out. “And he’s still kicking on without a care in the world.”

“He’s fifteen,” Leesha reminded me. “He can’t live forever.”

“And I can’t adopt every animal that struggles to find a home.”

Leesha gave me a haughty look, then waltzed off down the hallway to the spare bedroom, backpack in tow. I rolled my eyes and sighed at Bribie, who gave a cheerful huff, then headed straight for the rug in the living room.

A moment later, the front door opened and Xel came in, brushing a few stray leaves out of his hair. The wind had picked up in the last hour or so, and the trees around the house were dropping leaves like there was no tomorrow.

“Bo says goodnight,” he told me, closing the door with an effort. “I checked the cats on the way out as well, and Mr Beans hasn’t spilled his water yet. But I was thinking…” He paused, his gaze roaming over the floorboards. “Since he’s very old, maybe he would be happier spending the nights in the house with us? Maybe that’s why he keeps spilling his water; because he’s bored, or lonely.”

“Oh heck, not you as well,” I grumbled. Xel looked abashed, and I realised that the casual complaint had come across as a reprimand.

“No, it’s okay,” I rushed to assure him. “It’s just that Leesha’s staying the night, and every time she does, she brings Bribie into the house.” I waved him forward, pointing through the doorway to the living room, where Bribie was now comfortably stretched out on the rug.

Xel’s eyebrows rose. “Leesha is staying?” he asked, and I couldn’t quite figure out what his tone meant. Was he pleased? Or surprised? Or resentful?

Hearing her name, Leesha popped her head out of her bedroom, then grinned and sauntered down the hallway towards us. “I’m pretty sure Rose is going to calve tonight,” she told Xel. “So Cole said I could stay the night. We’ll take turns checking on her, and then, if she does give birth, it’s always as well to have asecond pair of hands around. Not that… I mean, you have hands, of course,” she stuttered, gesturing helplessly towards Xel, and that was very like her, always wanting to include everyone. “Butexperiencedhands, I guess. Someone who knows how to help, and…”

Xel laughed, waving away her fumbling attempt to explain. “It’s fine,” he said good-naturedly. “I have never seen any animal give birth before. I wouldn’t have a clue what to do. But I would like to see it, if the baby does come.”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Leesha agreed. “Let me just find the contact for your comm…” She fiddled with her own comm for a moment, and then Xel’s beeped. After the vet had left, I’d finally remembered that I urgently needed to order him one of his own, and I’d just managed to sneak in the order in time for the last delivery of the afternoon. The package had arrived at just after four o’clock, and Xel had spent the next half an hour setting the device up to respond to the Eumadian language, to display Eumadian script, and to sync with the house comm that was already installed in my kitchen.

“There you go,” Leesha said. “I’ll wake you up if anything interesting is happening.”

“Thank you,” Xel said, looking thoroughly pleased about it. Then he turned to me. “Would you like me to make some dinner?” he asked. “I found a few recipes on the grid, and Bo suggested one that she thinks you would like. It’s chicken and rice with a particular type of sauce… I don’t quite remember the ingredients…” He searched through the database on his comm, seeming flustered, and I interrupted him before he could get too anxious.

“That sounds great,” I said. “There’s some chicken in the freezer – enough that there should be plenty for Leesha as well – and I’d be very grateful if you could cook for us all.” I would balance out the workload by insisting that I clean up afterwards.

“Yes, sir,” he said, and the words held far more enthusiasm than they had when he’d first arrived. A few mistakes aside, we seemed to be making good progress with each other. “I’ll go and take a quick shower, and then get to work.”

He darted off down the hallway, leaving both me and Leesha staring after him.

“Well, he’s… a bit unexpected,” Leesha said, once Xel had shut himself in the bathroom. “Bo said your uncle used to own him?”

I took a split second to wonder where Leesha had learned anything about the dimari. A moment later, I dismissed the question. Leesha knew all sorts of things that I didn’t, and I’d long ago given up trying to figure her out. “Yeah, he did,” I replied instead. “And losing a master is supposedly a hugely traumatic event for a dimari. So Aiden – he’s some dimari expert from the military – convinced me to adopt Xel. But I… Fuck, I don’t know,” I muttered, wandering into the living room and all but collapsing on the sofa. “He doesn’t exactly seem traumatised. Confused and unsettled, maybe, but he’s not collapsing in a heap because my uncle’s not around anymore.”

Leesha nodded and perched herself on the edge of the sofa. “I have a cousin who owns a dimari. I’m not particularly close to her, but I’ve met her dimari once or twice. And Xel is… not like hers at all. Xel is far more outspoken. He’s not rude, don’t get me wrong,” she added hastily. “But he just said he would like to see Rose calve. Dimari don’t go around saying what they do or don’t want. They just do as they’re told.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m not his real master. He’s not forced to obey me.”

Leesha huffed and tugged on her braid. “Yeah, but it’s just… weird. He offered to make dinner – which is perfectly normal, dimari want to please their master – but then after you’d said yes, he decided to go have a shower first. A similarthing happened with my cousin’s dimari once, and Deah said something like ‘Perhaps it would be best if I change my clothes first to avoid getting grass in the soup?’ It was a question, not a decision, and he seemed terrified he was disappointing my cousin in the process. Xel just… goes and does stuff.”

I considered that for a moment. But I honestly couldn’t summon much concern about it. “Everything he’s doing is stuff that needs to be done, though. He’s polite, he’s making good decisions, he’s trying to be helpful. I mean, yeah, I agree with you, it’s not normal dimari behaviour, but does that mean it’s necessarily a problem?”

Leesha gave me a helpless look. “You’ve still got this Aiden guy’s contact details, right?” I nodded. “Might be worth discussing it with him. Just to make sure.”

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Half an hour later, I was glowering at Leesha, though since she was turned away from me, she was none the wiser about my foul mood.