There’s shocked silence from everyone present. Trey is in control of the situation, our leader. “We’ll talk more after Kricket and I have had a chance to recuperate. In the interim, everyone should get as much rest as possible. The rotations ahead are sure to be trying ones.”
Trey lifts me in his arms and brings me into the house. It’s all a blur to me. I close my eyes and rest my cheek on his shoulder. I get the sense that it’s a very large place by the fact that it takes Trey a while and many, many winding staircases to get us to the top of the house. When we do come to a room, I open my eyes. We cross beyond the enormous double doors that look as though they were designed to keep everyone at bay.
The view in front of me steals my breath. The room itself is masculine in its design and decor. Copper spyglasses of different shapes and sizes sit upon tripods of dark wood by the window wall. Some are angled at the mountain range in the distance and some are pointed to the sky. Low tables with metal contraptions that look like sextants and compasses have homes near the expensive-looking interactive globes and map tables. The room could be the office and bedroom of a nineteenth-century steampunk explorer. The strangeness of finding a room like this on Ethar is just another layer of mystery to add to Trey’s already extensive list.
An almost regal bed is off to the right side, centered on that wall so as not to block the vista straight ahead. The panorama that greets my eyes as I stare outside is that of a majestic mountain range that rivals the ones I saw when I first came to Ethar in the Forest of O. Wilderness stretches out, surrounding the white-capped peaks. A wide terrace balcony runs the full length of the bedroom and is accessed through the glass doors in the glass wall.
Trey doesn’t take me to the terrace; he turns instead and takes me to the softest bed I’ve ever lain upon in my entire life. It’s four-poster mahogany-stained wood and is carved with stunning detail. A cloud of mosquito netting covers the bed. Beneath the veil of netting lie fat pillows and luxurious white sheets and blankets.
I scoot over; my head meets the exquisite white pillow as if it were falling through a cloud. Trey sits beside me on the bed and begins to unbuckle my boots, pulling off one and then the other. I close my eyes, turning on my side and half hugging, half snuggling a couple of pillows to me. When Trey begins to strip off my clothes, my eyes spring open. “Your parents are just downstairs,” I whisper-hiss.
“Is that a problem?” he asks with a small smile developing upon his lips.
“Won’t they freak out a little?”
“No. They never freak out. They wouldn’t know how to freak out. Anyway, you’ll be my consort soon.”
“They never freak out?”
“What you just witnessed downstairs is the most emotion, other than worry, that I’ve ever seen from them. They’re usually very stable.”
I narrow my eyes at him, but he’s telling the truth. “They won’t mind us being together here even though I’m not your consort yet?”
He pulls my filthy shirt off over my head. My black leggings, which are also in a disgusting state, follow closely behind it. “The only reason you’re not my consort yet is because we haven’t had the opportunity to make it official.”
When I don’t have a shred of clothing left on me, Trey stands up and strips off his clothes as well. He slides into the bed next to me, making me scoot over to make room for him. He spoons me, his head sharing one of my pillows as he tucks me close to him.
“Ugh,” I groan. “I smell like a spix.”
Trey’s nose sniffs my hair. “I smell the same as you do.” He kisses the back of my head.
“Are you sure your parents are going to be all right with this?” I know how stiff some Etharians are about any hint of impropriety. I’d heard enough gossip bantered around at the palace when I was one of its captive residents.
His voice is sleepy already. “I’m over a hundred floans old and this is my house. They’ll have to endure it. They’re not unreasonable people, Kricket. They won’t allow societal rules to supersede wisdom.”
I giggle despite everything. “You probably have a hundred rooms in this place and probably half as many beds. Your argument will have to be better than that when you talk to them.”
“I can’t bear the thought of you being anywhere other than right next to me. That’s my argument. Everyone will just have to accept it, including you.”
I smile drowsily. “I like that argument. It’s a sound angle.”
“It’s sound because it’s true,” he murmurs.
Neither of us says anything else as sleep overtakes us.
When I wake, it’s to find Trey missing. The sunlight has disappeared from the sky outside, replaced by a multitude of stars. A small lamp on the table in the sitting area casts a soft glow over the elegant occupant in the chair. Charisma is studying an atlas, poring over it as if it were a treasure map. Pulling the sheet up with me as I sit up, I rake my hand through my hair to try to calm my outlandish bedhead.
My movement alerts Charisma to the fact that I’m no longer asleep. “Greetings, Kricket,” she says in a shy way as she uses the ribbon from the binding to mark the page before she sets the atlas aside on the table. “Are you well after your nap?”
“Where’s Trey?” I ask, trying to stifle a yawn.
“He’s down on the main level. He has been sequestered with the other Cavars and his brother and father for the past few parts.”
“What are they talking about?”
“I don’t know. They won’t let me in the room with them.”
“You didn’t insist upon being in there too?”
“Well . . . no.”
“Why not?”
“Trey asked me to sit with you.”
“Would they have let you in there if you didn’t have to sit with me?”
“No. Probably not.”
“Why not?”
“They like to shelter me.”
“Do you like them to shelter you?”
She’s confused by the question. She shrugs. “I know no other way,” she says simply.
“I don’t believe that. You’re strong and capable. You take care of spixes and know how to train them to move through courses where you shoot the crap outta stuff with your sonic sayzers. You should demand to discuss your future and any plans they make to protect it.”
“How do I get them to listen to me?”
“Make them listen. Know your worth. Show them you’re capable of whatever life throws at you. Don’t expect them to understand you or like it.”