Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky, #1)(28)

“I will handle the matrons alone.” She looked at the others. “You know your tasks. Let them be done.”



* * *



Iktan caught up to her as she was approaching her rooms. One moment she was alone, the next xe was there.

“That was well done.”

“I wondered when you would show up,” she said, not slowing her pace. “I’m surprised you let me walk this far unaccompanied.”

“You were not unaccompanied. I had one of my tsiyos watching you.”

She had been joking. The truth both pleased and angered her. She wasn’t ungrateful. But if she wasn’t safe in her own home…

“But you still cannot trust Abah.”

“I admit I am surprised she agreed to minister to the public.”

“As am I,” Iktan admitted. “But she must see some personal benefit in it to acquiesce so easily.”

She stopped, turning to Iktan. “How do you think she knew of Ochi?” She was still flabbergasted the girl had brought up her brother. How had she even discovered that he was alive? Naranpa told everyone he was dead, and he was to her. The only person who knew she had a brother who was not only very much alive but also the head of a successful crime syndicate in the Maw was standing next to her.

“It would not be so hard to find out if one went looking,” Iktan said dismissively. Xe resumed walking, and she reluctantly followed.

They reached the entrance to her rooms. She paused, leaning against the door. “Isn’t it strange, though? For her to know?” She didn’t believe it was Iktan who had told Abah of Ochi, but she also didn’t believe her connections to the Maw and to her last living relative would be as easy to discover as Iktan suggested. Naranpa had been thorough when she had destroyed her past. If someone had gone resurrecting it, maybe Iktan’s first suspicions that the attempt against her life had nothing to do with Carrion Crow might have merit. But she had walked the streets of Odo today, felt the menace rolling from its people all aimed at the priesthood. Having felt that, seen that, and knowing this was the second attempt by someone bearing haahan, it was difficult to entertain some Maw connection. In her experience, often the simplest answer was the correct one.

“What are you thinking, Nara?”

She ran an absent hand through her hair, letting her fingers twist in the strands that had come loose from her coiled buns. “She bested me today at Conclave. Made me look like a fool.”

“Not so badly. You recovered.”

“She should be censured for the way she spoke to me. But if I raise it, it will seem petty. It might be petty.”

“Then we find another way.”

Her vexation gave way to alarm. “I don’t think I like the sound of that.” Abah was a pain in her side, but she was still a member of the priesthood, still sacred. “Iktan, please tell me you don’t mean…”

Xir look was baleful. “Despite your belief that I am some kind of monster, Nara, I do not solve all my problems with murder.”

“Fine, fine,” she said, waving xir outrage away. “I apologize. What do you suggest I…”

Her words drifted off as she frowned, noticing something. A scratch on Iktan’s neck, low and just beneath the collar. It looked red and raw and had not been there before the Conclave.

“What happened to your neck?” she asked.

Xe tilted xir head, effectively hiding the scratch. “It’s nothing.”

“It looks like it hurts. Have you cleaned it? I have water and willow bark in my room.” She straightened. “Perhaps you should—”

“I said it is nothing, Nara. I’ll treat it when we’re done here.”

Suspicions blossomed in her mind. “Where were you during the Conclave? I saw you come in late.”

Xe turned dark eyes to her. Xir gaze was always so direct, so intimate. It made her shiver. “No.”

She flinched. Despite their occasional bickering, they never shut each other out like that. “What business could you have when I told you to do nothing until I—”

“It did not concern you, Nara.” And the heat xe pushed into xir voice, the sly emphasis on you, made xir intent clear.

She inhaled sharply in disbelief. Iktan had lovers. Of course xe had lovers. Xe was clever, sensual, beautiful, and dangerous. What person wouldn’t thrill at xir attention? But xe had always been discreet enough not to throw it in her face. And certainly not to show up with love marks on xir neck for the world to see. A sour spike of jealousy shot through her gut, and she did not like it.

“Eche I understand. But you? Led around by your genitals? I thought you had better sense.” It was a low blow, purposefully cruel, and she regretted it the moment it left her lips.

Iktan said nothing, instead staring at someone in the middle distance over her shoulder, not meeting her eyes but not turning away.

And she knew the conversation was over.

Frustrated, she pushed her shoulder against her bedroom door. Before she could fully open it, Iktan slipped in. She followed, watching xir check the corners, the privy, the alcove where she hung her robes. Xe even ran a hand under her bedding, checking for she wasn’t sure what. Even when Iktan was mad at her, which xe clearly was, xe would not leave her in danger. Only when xe seemed satisfied that no one was lying in wait to kill her did xe return to the door.