Jaya leans forward in her seat as the hologram depicts a mother Xaviann cradling a little, gray, horned baby swaddled in colorful blankets. “The drug affected the children?” she asks. “How?”
“Well, first of all, you remember how I told you of the two venoms that we-”
The doors to the conference room rush open and in storms a tall Xaviann male; Prince Kiahn. His eyes scan the four of us around the table until he comes to me, and seems to straighten his spine before he bows his head in greeting like he hadn’t just come charging in here like an enraged bull.
My gaze briefly flicks up to his horns and I have to stifle the smile forming at the thought of him butting heads and locking horns with another Xaviann.
“Kiahn,” Vel says, standing and returning his bow. “I was just educating the humans on… well, many things, really.”
The Prince doesn’t look amused as he grunts in acknowledgment, and gives Vel a curt nod. “I have been speaking to the staff in the kitchens and-”
“You were in the kitchens?” Vel asks, unable to hide the scoffing noise she makes.
Prince Kiahn blinks at her, his jaw clenching before he says. “We need to see to it that we serve foods that are not harmful to the humans.”
“Ohhh,” Vel grins, picking up her tablet, “so my fascination with humans was ‘weird’ and ‘obsessive’ when we were growing up, but now you need my weird, obsessive interests to make sure we don’t poison your new toy?”
“Vel,” Kiahn warns, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
“You two grew up together?” I ask, the question flying out of my mouth before I’d really registered it. Prince Kiahn opens his beautiful green eyes to look at me again.
“I’m his second cousin, once removed,” Vel supplies as she saunters out of the room, seemingly highly amused that she’s irritating the Prince.
“Can we get you removed a second time?!” he calls out after her.
We can all hear her chuckling as she walks down the hall.
When the doors whoosh shut, Prince Kiahn stands there, and Lois, Jaya and I remain seated, the three of us waiting for him to… do something now that he’s interrupted our lesson.
His eyes scan the table top, seeing the hologram of the baby Xaviann levitating in mid-air. He blinks rapidly and then his gaze finds me, holding me captive for far too long to be casual before it drops to my throat. I don’t miss the way his body sways forward a little before he seems to catch himself. “Well,” he nods, giving the shiny tabletop a swift double tap with his index and middle finger. “See you at dinner.”
With that, he bows again, before turning and leaving.
OceanofPDF.com
12
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter 12 - Kiahn
Aunt Zalora sits at the opposite end of the lengthy dining table, playing a game of duos with her long-distance friend, Lox. She wears a face of intense concentration as she ponders her next move, the game projecting groups of various playing tiles mid-air in front of her from her personal comm orb, floating by her shoulder.
My fingers tap the surface of the polished wood in front of me.
“Kindly find somewhere else to brood, young nephew,” she drawls, her gaze not deviating from her game - not even once. “Lox and I are currently tied, and I need to concentrate if I’m to win this round.”
“What were you thinking, buying a human slave?!” I accuse, unable to heed her request.
She reaches up to the projected game and slides one tile to a different grouping, collecting points before it’s her friend’s turn. “What were you thinking when you tried to buy her?”
“I wanted to save her.”
My aunt chuckles lightly, and moves two more tiles around her game. “How altruistic of you, Kiahn. Remind me to mention your benevolent ways to your father, the next time his majesty deigns to visit our little principality.”
“I do not care what father thinks of me.”
It’s now that Zalora breaks her concentration on her game, and tilts her head to peer at me. “You should,” is all she says before she’s back to muttering curses at the fact that her friend just matched two high-scoring tiles.
I know she is right in her own way. The more in favor I am with my father, the more of my people he will allow to join his Great Council - the more voices being heard from the Northern Principality when decisions are being made. Though, Aunt Zalora has loftier aspirations for her games, since she has always sought for my father to name me as his successor over his other princes, from his other principalities. I have no designs on ruling at the capital. All my energy is spent by trying to do right by my people, in my little slice of Xaavia.
“Alright,” I say, pretending to concede, “and what would the king think of me entering a breeding contract with a female who not only isn’t of a noble bloodline, but isn’t even Xaviann? Would that put me in his favor?”
“Don’t be facetious, Kiahn, it’s unbecoming of a prince,” Zalora comments, shifting another tile to pocket double points in her game. “Did you know that the Raxians have been known to mate with humans?”
I furrow my brow as this sudden deviation from the topic at hand. “The Raxians? The species whose skin changes color?”
“Yes,” Zalora nods, gaze intent on her game as she keeps vigil over her opponent’s moves. “And Vel informs me that the resulting offspring have not only been known to display a wider range of skin-colors, but their health is more robust, too.” She tuts as her friend, Lox performs a move that restricts my aunt’s best-scoring tiles from being played. She decides to actually look at me now as she says, “so, I think your father may well be intrigued by the idea that you are willing to try something new. Who knows, maybe yours and Niska’s child will be born with long-extinct Bloodline Venoms. There are several of those in our family history, you know.” Turning back to her game, she apparently means business now as she takes one of her long, black gloves off. Using the uncovered hand, Aunt Zalora pushes two tiles to her opponent’s piles and grins smugly at the resulting block the manoeuvre forces Lox into. “Besides, it’s just one contract. Either it will bear fruit, or it will not. But there will be more contracts after this one.”
Something about how dismissive my aunt is being about this whole thing is rubbing my horns the wrong way. “But Niska didn’t really have much of a choice, did she? Does she even know the dangers of-”
“No one’s dragging the poor girl to the breeding bench, Kiahn,” Zalora snaps, her hot gaze on me now, apparently irritated with the conversation. Good. I want her irritated. At least then she will entertain what I’m saying instead of being indifferent. “She wants this. She wants to secure her and her friends somewhere safe for humans. She will know all the terms before she signs that contract. She will be looked after, but she’s a smart female. She knows that doesn’t come for free. No one is mistreating her, I can assure you of that.”
She wants this?
I… I do not know if I believe such a thing. She is so small and soft, and I am-
I could really hurt her.
“And you-” Zalora lifts her cane, pointing the golden top at me down the line of the table, “- you need this, Kiahn. You need to start entering bridal contracts, you need to start producing heirs so we can strengthen our family. Maybe the contract with the human will be barren, maybe the two of you will produce an heir whose Bloodline Venom is so strong, we are elevated above your father’s current favorites. I do not know what will come of this, all I know is that you need to get over your hesitancy to breed. You are not your father. You will not repeat his mistakes.”
