Sarah jumped to her feet and spun around to face him, noting that he had crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes narrowed and his jaw so tight it ticked. “Ane-ata said you made the elders send him on a deadly hunt because of me.”
“And you believed her.” His voice was a low growl, dark with anger. “You immediately accept the word of a silly, hysterical female that impugns my honor.”
Sarah had expected his support, his reassurance. Now, she’d even managed to make him angry. She should have asked him for an explanation of Ane-ata’s thinking, rather than accusing him as Ane-ata did. Her emotions were so raw that she hadn’t even considered what the implication would mean to him.
She hated herself for her weakness, but she couldn’t stop her tears from coming. Words babbled out of her, broken by ugly sobs. She knew she wasn’t making any sense as she tried to explain to him what had happened, and how terrible it had made her feel.
As soon as the tears started, Jotahan’s demeanor shifted again. He quickly pulled her close to him, his hand stroking her back as he held her. “Shh, drahi. Calm yourself. Tell me what happened.”
Once she managed to explain, with some difficulty, his body was hard with anger and his scales glowed unchecked. His softly whispered reassurances told her that anger wasn’t directed at her any longer. He explained that now that he understood what had caused her question, and her distress. He realized she hadn’t meant to insult him.
“Ane-ata has always been a fool,” he said in a harder tone than he’d used to soothe her, once her weeping slowed to short, miserable sniffles.
She hated herself for giving into this weakness, even though it meant that Jotahan could see how much the encounter had hurt her and show more patience and understanding than he might have otherwise.
“She’s right. Kevos hates me. Lots of people here hate me.”
He gripped her braided bun in one large hand, tugging her head away from his chest so she was forced to look up at him. “Do not surrender so easily, my drahi. It isn’t in your nixir nature. You will win over the hearts and minds of the people of Draku Rin, simply by being yourself and showing them how good your people can be.”
“I’m not the woman you think I am, Jotahan. I want to quit. I want to give up. I’m never going to fit in here. Not all humans are fighters.”
He’d stiffened as soon as she said she wanted to quit, and she realized that was probably not the best choice of words when his arm tightened around her waist. “Do not make me follow you to Gaia, Sarah. I will, if you insist, but my people will not harm you here, no matter how unkind their words might be. Your people will kill me if they ever detect my presence in their land.”
She shook her head, her arms clutching around his waist. “No, I would never put you in that kind of danger. Death wouldn’t even be the worst fate some humans might visit upon you if they captured you.” The thought of him being vivisected in some top secret research facility made her nauseous and terrified at the same time.
His hands freed the braided knot on her head, working it loose from its pins, then stroking the braid as if he could never get enough of the silky feel of her hair. “You can’t mean to give up what we have between us. Is our love really not enough for you to want to fight to keep it?”
Sarah hugged him tighter, her sudden terror at the thought of letting him go nearly paralyzing her. “No! I will fight. I will keep fighting. We’ll make this work. I’ll find a way to convince your people to trust me.”
She closed her eyes on a new wave of tears that she wanted to push back. “I pray that Kevos returns safely from this hunt, though, because Ane-ata has put it in everyone’s heads now that I would be responsible for his death if he doesn’t.”
Jotahan huffed in amusement. “Kevos is more than capable of hunting the vislog. He will be deeply offended when he hears that Ane-ata suggested he would certainly die.”
“So, it’s not that dangerous?” Hope filled her. Perhaps everyone would realize this was all an exaggeration.
“A vislog? They are extremely dangerous. They are the size of… what are those odd, hairy beasts from your world with the tusks and the long breathing appendage? I have seen drawings in historical records from Gaia of them.”
She pulled away from him just enough to look up at his face, hoping he was joking. “You mean… no… you can’t mean a woolly mammoth! They’ve been extinct for ages.”
He nodded. “Wool-e ma’am moth. That was probably what they were called. A vislog is that size, but has many rows of teeth in its massive head, long legs, sharp claws, and a crown of horns. Oh, and a venomous tail spine.”
Sarah’s jaw gaped open. “Please tell me Kevos has an army of hunters with him to take this thing down.”
Jotahan snorted. “Hunters usually work alone. Yan-kanat males are very territorial about our hunting grounds. It is difficult to convince us to hunt together, even against the deadliest of prey.” He cupped her face, his thumb brushing away the last of the dampness from her tears. “This is one reason why we lost to the nixirs and their armies. I have been trying to change that in the training grounds, and the younger hunters and guardians are learning to apply group tactics, but it is a slow process and not all trainers have willingly adopted the changes to our traditions.”
She clutched his forearms, staring up at his face. “Jotahan, could Kevos die on this hunt?”
“He could.” He gripped her chin gently, lowering his head to kiss her. “But he probably won’t.”
38
Four cycles after Ane-ata’s baseless accusations towards his drahi, and himself, Jotahan still overheard the whispers talking about the confrontation. Those conversations always died when people recognized him, but he was aware they started back up again after he left the area. Well-meaning associates approached him in private to express their concerns about Sarah, and he tried to keep in mind that they were only acting out of good intentions so that he didn’t end up hurting them.
He had made it very clear the cycle after Ane-ata’s verbal attack on Sarah that it was completely false, and that Kevos had willingly volunteered to do the hunt. This fact was reiterated by the other hunters of the lodge, all of whom insisted that Kevos had looked forward to the hunt, viewing it as a welcome challenge of his skill and courage.
Sadly, the gossip was too strong for these facts to matter. There were rumors that Sarah had tried to shove Ane-ata off the platform, that she had attacked Ane-ata with physical violence, and that she had been the one to shout in the younger female’s face.
Jotahan believed Sarah’s recounting of the events. He knew she would fight back if she felt threatened, but she would never strike out first. The incident was being used by those who hated nixirs to turn the rest of the skilev against her, and it infuriated him that so many of his fellow yan-kanat were being swayed by such vicious propaganda. That was a nixir tactic, since the minds of their people were so easily swayed by those they followed, and it was easy for them to form unreasoning mobs. He never would have expected such a thing to work on the free-thinking yan-kanat. His people didn’t even like to hunt as a group. He couldn’t imagine why they were suddenly so willing to think as a group.