I didn’t, though. His words shut me right up. We really needed to have a discussion about how that was going to work. My plan wasn’t to live on First World permanently. I had a home on another world.
“I think Abby deserves time to relax.” Brace’s words were hard as he nailed the Emperor with a glare.
“Leaders don’t get down-time. You know that, Princeps.” The last word was drawled for an unnecessarily excessive time.
Brace and Lucas had once been quite good friends, and then I came along and made things a little complicated. Now that everything was pretty much sorted, I hoped they could be friends again. But you know males – sort of stupid a lot of the time.
Worst part was that Lucas was right. The responsibility of First World was both of ours, but so was the responsibility I shared with Brace. On Abernath.
I focused on the food again, knowing that there was going to be a struggle until we found our balance.
“I might have a solution,” Ria said casually. She held a piece of fruit. It was a melon of sorts, with the consistency and taste of watermelon, only purple with lots of tiny white seeds. “I traced home to Regali yesterday, just before the celebration. I wanted to check on Klea and see if the sacred tree was returning.”
I leaned forward in my chair. “Was the tether restored?”
She nodded, and a sense of awe and reverence flowed across her. “Yes, it was and the jungle slowly recovers. But what I wanted to say was that Klea has reigned over the packs with a diplomacy and skill that makes me very proud. She doesn’t need me to be Queen, and … while I haven’t completely decided to step aside, I’m thinking very hard on it.”
She reached out and in a swift movement took Lucas’ hand.
“I do believe I should be ruling or acting in some advisory type position,” Ria continued. “Maybe I can help with the running of First World also – we might all think on it.”
Okay, that would be like the most perfect solution to a problem I had ever heard. But I could see that Ria had not made up her mind fully. She loved her packs and her jungle. It would be a tough one and I didn’t want to force her hand. I just smiled and nodded, and she returned the gesture. No more words were needed. We knew each other pretty well now, and the silence was not uncomfortable. Her words had reminded me of something, though.
I swung my head around to Fury. The Crais half was deep in conversation at the end of the table.
“Hey, Fury!” I yelled. “Did the second sun return to Crais?”
I had forgotten that this might happen. All eyes turned to the white-haired half. Her fiery-red skin seemed to deepen further. “You asked me that last night, Supes, and the answer is still no … it hasn’t returned.”
I’m never drinking again.
Fury continued. “I checked in with my tribe. Luiz and Tasha tell me that the single sun remains and that life is slowly filtering back into the parched land.”
Sapha cleared her throat, straightening. The Dronish half had been sliding awfully close to a certain handsome, dark-skinned princeps. On purpose, I was going to guess.
“Dronish is still brimming with energy. I wondered of the return of the tethers. So I decided to check.”
Sapha made a big deal about hating Dronish and Arotia, the world she originated from. She maintained she would never live there again, but still she had looked in on them, which said a lot. It wasn’t all hate.
“Why would the other tethers return, but not those two?” I mused out loud.
A tinkly sound echoed across the space, and I recognized that tone. Noise echoed around me as Walkers and halves lurched to their feet, each attempting to bow at the god in the room.
I was slow, as usual, and it felt strange to bow to her. I knew that the older Walkers, Brace, Josian, Jedi and Colton, had prayed to this deity for a very long time. I wondered if this was the first moment she had paid them a visit.
Stepping out of that bright light she liked to wander around in, today she looked like a faerie, brightly hued hair and skin all in shades of pink. And large lavender eyes, which blinked rapidly during her observation of the room. Did the Mother just get up in the morning and choose a body like the rest of us chose clothes?
“I prevented the sun returning,” she said. “There would be no point in the sacrifice to save the worlds, if I let two of them perish anyway.”
I had always kind of known that the power we transferred between those two worlds had been too great. Crais and Dronish would not have survived the reversal.
The Mother continued. “I have called upon you today as a favor to a certain guardian and soothsayer.”
I was on my feet so fast that my chair flew out behind me, clattering onto its back. My hands gripped the table, knuckles white as I waited to hear what she would say.