Page 42 of Xel: Broken Bond

“Sure, yeah. Come on.” I started heading for the door, but quickly realised that Rohinavon wasn’t following me. “Are you coming?”

Her eyes narrowed as she continued to stare at me. Then she asked, “Do you have any children, Cole?”

The question came a little out of left field, but I could see why she might want to ask it. “No. But I have a whole stable full of animals that I care for on a daily basis, if that’s any comparison.”

She gave a sideways sort of shrug. “My son is my entire world. I upturned a centuries-old system and defied an entirelegionof warriors to get him safely away from my planet. Do not underestimate the things I would do to keep him safe. Because if you betray me, I will end you, and burn your entire planet to the ground.”

I paused, then looked her up and down again, slowly. She was armed, I realised belatedly, though I could see no obvious place she would be storing a weapon. But she’d shown no fear of either me or Xel, and while that could potentially be explained away if she’d been trained in hand-to-hand combat, I was now forced to reassess exactly how difficult it would have been for her to escape her planet. They would not have let her go easily. And it occurred to me to wonder how many bodies she’d left in her wake. There were weapons in the galaxy that were small enough to store in one’s pocket, at the same time as being powerfulenough to wipe out a room full of people in under ten seconds. I had no idea which weapon in particular she had, but I was suddenly certain that it was a powerful one.

Not knowing quite how to reassure her, I placed my hand over my heart. “I promise both you and your son that I will do everything in my power to see you safe. Aiden cares deeply about the welfare of the dimari. And if we can prevent your son from becoming one, he’ll be all the more eager to help you.”

She watched me for a long moment, and I did nothing to hurry her along. She had no reason to trust me, and everything to lose if I was lying.

“Fine,” she agreed eventually, setting off towards the door. I led the way down the dirt road, then across the paddock, pointing out some basic landmarks along the way, but trying not to say too much, lest I end up sounding like a tour guide. It was only as we were approaching the cottage that it occurred to me that Rohinavon hadn’t said anything about my scars. Perhaps she wasn’t all that familiar with what humans looked like, and hadn’t realised there was anything unusual about me. Or perhaps she simply had more important things on her mind. Either way, I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Mr Beans greeted us at the door, rubbing against my legs as I went in first. But Rohinavon wasn’t nearly as calm about the greeting as I was.

“What in the blazing heavens is that?” she shrieked, jumping backwards out of the door, and crashing straight into Xel.

“It’s a cat. A domestic pet,” I explained. “He won’t hurt you. He’s quite elderly. We decided to give him a home until he dies.”

“Does he bite?” she asked, not seeming terribly reassured.

“No, not at all. He’ll probably try to jump up onto your lap or rub against your legs, but that’s just his way of being friendly.”

“Oh. Well… all right, then.” She edged into the room, skirting around Mr Beans, while Xel closed the door behind us. I led theway into the kitchen. “Is there anything in particular that you can’t eat? Or anything you particularly like?”

Rohinavon looked a little embarrassed at that. “Unfortunately, Vangal is a very insular planet. We grow our own food, and the ruling council has long held the view that we don’t need to import anything from other planets. Our own native species are enough. So I found out on the smuggler’s ship that…” The scales across her chest shone violet for a moment, and I recalled a similar reaction on Xel, whenever he’d seemed uneasy about something. “I don’t actually know what most of your foods are. So… I’ll have whatever you’re having, I suppose.”

That was interesting. She was brazen and determined when she needed to be, but also ready to admit when she didn’t know something. The open humility was both refreshing and unexpected.

I decided on something fairly simple – chicken and salad sandwiches. It was a bit early for lunch, for Xel and myself, but I didn’t want to embarrass her by making her eat alone.

Was that even a thing for Vangravians? I knew nothing about their culture or their planet, so perhaps I was making a big deal over nothing?

Nonetheless, I set about preparing the food, making an extra sandwich for Rohinavon, on the assumption it might have been a while since she’d eaten. The kitchen was quiet behind me, and I couldn’t help glancing back once or twice, since Xel and Rohinavon seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot. Both of them were sitting there awkwardly, trying to avoid looking at each other. It wasn’t a great environment to be in, but at least they weren’t arguing.

I was just setting the sandwiches onto plates when I heard a muted shriek. I spun around to find that Mr Beans had jumped up onto the table in front of Rohinavon, and he was staring ather expectantly, clearly wanting a pat, while she was leaning as far back in her chair as she could manage to get away from him.

“He won’t hurt you,” I assured her. “You can gently push him onto the floor, if you really don’t want him there. But he loves having his ears rubbed, if you wanted to try making friends with him.”

Rohinavon looked startled at the idea. “We do not allow animals into our homes on Vangal,” she said. But nonetheless, she reached up to tentatively rub his ears. Predictably, Mr Beans started purring, rubbing his head more firmly against her hand.

Once the food was ready, I carried it to the table and lifted Mr Beans onto the floor. Rohinavon began eating straight away, but when I sat down and picked up my own sandwich, she jerked back from the table and made a startled noise.

“Something wrong?” I asked cautiously. Did she not like the food? Or heavens forbid, had she realised she was allergic to something?

But a moment later, she was shaking her head. “No. It’s fine. I’m sorry. Ignore me.” She took another bite of her food, avoiding my gaze.

“What’s wrong?” I asked gently. I didn’t want to push her, but at the same time, there were likely to be a multitude of cultural differences and misunderstandings – particularly once Aiden got involved – so I figured it was as well to keep things as clear as possible.

“No, it’s my fault,” she said, her scales once again rippling with violet. “On Vangal we’re taught that women eat first and males only get to eat once all the females have finished. Of course, that doesn’t apply here,” she muttered, dusting imaginary crumbs off her sleeve. “I’m sorry. And it’s not like there are actually any males around on Vangal anyway. We keep a handful of them for breeding purposes, but they don’t get to roam around or socialise. It’s just… I’m sorry. I keep tryingto convince myself that I’m so terribly progressive and defiant, but I still have all these ingrained things I was taught that are complete rubbish.”

“How long ago did you leave Vangal?” I asked. I liked the fact that she was making an effort, even if the result was a little patchy.

“Eight days.”

I almost choked on my food. “Eight days? You made it from Vangal to Rendol 4 ineight days? How the hell did you do that?” I didn’t remember all the intricate details of my galactic mapping classes in high school, but off the top of my head, I thought it should have taken closer to three weeks.