One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #3)(90)

Maud stopped next to me. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.”

“I’m going to pop over to Baha-char for a few minutes,” she said.

“Why?”

“To buy presents.” She grinned.

“Do you have money?”

“No, but I have a ton of the Draziri weapons to trade.”

Ooo. “What am I getting?”

“I’m not going to tell you and I won’t let you snoop either. You were always a terrible sneak, Dina.”

“That’s a lie. I’m an excellent sneak.”

She hugged me, hard. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I’m getting there.” I was feeling kind of wobbly, and if I stopped doing things and talking, the echo of the little inn’s death tore at me, but I would survive. I had a lot going for me. I had people who loved me. I mattered to them and when I fell, they caught me and put me back on my feet.

“Are you going to leave with Arland?” I asked.

“I haven’t decided.”

“Do you love him?”

She sighed, her face pained. “I’m trying to figure that out. He’s going to ask me to marry him tonight.”

“How do you know?”

“I spied on his conversation with his uncle.” Maud sighed. “I’m so stupid, Dina. I stood there like some love-stricken teenager and when he told his uncle he wanted to marry me, I felt… I felt things.”

“Are you going to accept?”

“No. I barely know him. I’m a mother. It’s not just my life at stake here. It’s also Helen’s. Besides, you would be left alone again.”

“I’m not alone.” I tilted my head and glanced at Sean. He must’ve felt me looking, because he turned and looked back at me. “I have someone, too.”

“It’s like that then?” Maud smiled.

“It is. If you like Arland, I’m sure he will find a way to let you figure out if you love him.”

“This crest—” she touched the crest on her armor “gives me the right to enter the territory of House Krahr as a free agent. If I turn him down and he invites me to come with him anyway, I may do that.”

“You will always have a place here. And it’s not like you’ll be far away. Arland pops over any time he pleases. If you give Arland a chance, he will take care of you and of her. You need someone to take care of you, Maud, whether you want to admit it or not.”

“I want more than that.” She bit her lip.

“I know.” I had no questions as to why Arland threw himself at that flower. He did it for me and Sean and all the others, but most of all he did it for Maud and Helen.

Maud stared away. I glanced in the direction of her gaze and saw Arland. He was looking back at her, and his eyes were warm and wistful. He never looked at me like that.

“It’s going to be difficult,” she said. “I’ll be an outcast again. I bring no money, no alliances, and no benefits. Only me and Helen. It would be Melizard all over again, with having to prove my worth. His family never did accept me. It would take a lot of work to win over another vampire House.”

“You will roll over them like a bulldozer. By the end of this year, they will be eating out of your hand. Lord Soren is already making plans.”

“What? How do you know?”

I thought of telling her about our conversation on the subject of family military service and genetic abnormalities and decided it would be more fun to leave it a surprise. “Just a feeling I have.”

She squinted at me. “What are you not telling me?”

“You should go and try it,” I told her. “Gertrude Hunt isn’t going anywhere. You can always come back. Once I figure out where to start looking for Mom and Dad, I’ll reach out.”

Her face turned grim. “Sebastien North.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know who that it? What that is?”

I shook my head. “No. But I will find out.”

“Maybe I’ll track down Klaus,” Maud said. “He should be told.”

“Good luck,” I told her. “I’ve tried. If you find him, punch him for me for disappearing.”

She hugged me. “I’m off to shop.”

“Go!” I told her. “Time is short. Tomorrow is Christmas Day.”

She grinned and took off.

A presence entered the inn. A moment later Tony stumbled into the ballroom, his face worried. “Did I miss dinner?”

“No.” I grinned at him. “An ad-hal, huh?”

He shrugged. “Sorry about that. You know how it is. We can do nothing without a directive from the Assembly. I would’ve come sooner if they’d let me.”

“Thank you for showing up.”

He sighed. “The Hiru attained space flight long before the Draziri. The best we can determine is that the Hiru, in their exploration of the galaxy, stopped on the Draziri planet. Somehow the early Draziri saw them in their natural form. Concerned that they were unduly influencing an emerging civilization, the Hiru had withdrawn from the Draziri planet. They are pacifists by nature and 99.999% of the planets in our galaxy are lethal to them. They couldn’t survive without their suits, which they hate, so there was no reason for them to stay. But the Draziri had never forgotten them. Over the years, the Draziri developed their religion right along the lines of the typical religions of early emerging civilizations: a creator god who sits in judgment and sends people to heaven or hell and they modeled this god on the image of the Hiru, a beautiful being who was a legend. The religion grew into a planetwide theocracy.”