Jullien’s stralen eyes darkened. “Couldn’t care less.”
“Yeah, don’t blame you there. No love lost here for him, either. He didn’t have much to say to me that bears repeating.”
“Sorry.”
Bastien shrugged. “As you once said, we black sheep need to stick together.”
As soon as Jullien opened the door to his condo, an ear-splitting shriek sounded.
“Paka’s home!”
Two small, dark-headed blurs came running to assault Jullien. One launched herself into his arms while the other latched onto his leg and squeezed it tight. Laughing, Jullien held his twin daughters. He kissed the cheek of the one in his arms. “Viv, meet your cousin Bastien.”
“Hi, Bastien!”
“Nice meeting you, Viv.”
The one on Jullien’s leg looked up at Bastien with a fierce frown.
Bastien knelt down to hold his hand out to her. “You must be Mira.”
Mira left her father’s leg to pull at Bastien’s lips so that she could inspect his teeth. “But if you’re Paka’s family, why don’t you gots fangs, too?”
“And black hair?” Viv chimed in as Jullien set her down. “Don’t all Ixurianir have black hair?” She slapped her hands to her face as if completely exasperated. “I’m so confuzzled.”
Laughing, Jullien picked her up again and kissed her cheek. “My paka’s human, and he’s the older brother of Bastien’s mother, who is also human. So a lot of folks on Andaria, and in some other places, don’t consider me Andarion.”
Bastien nodded. “Yeah, and I’m completely human. Sadly, I have no Andarion blood in my veins at all.”
Mira sighed heavily before she patted Bastien’s cheek in sympathy. “I am very sad for you. But we loves you anyway, kyzi. Even though you gots no fangs.”
Laughing, he smiled at her. “Thank you, Mira. I deeply appreciate that.” He ruffled her hair and flashed a grin at Ushara, who’d just come through the door to witness her daughters’ reaction to him. “They are precious. I can’t believe anything so sweet came from Julie’s surly, irritable hide.”
Jullien snorted as he went to the kitchen to get them drinks while Vasili gave Bastien a bashful, welcoming hug. “Thanks a lot.”
“Well, you have to admit, you were never this cute.” Stepping away from Vas, he tickled Mira until she squealed and jumped from his arms to run to her brother for protection.
“Neither were you.”
“True. I was too busy being the baby brat. A job I relished quite seriously.” He took the ale from Jullien’s hand and lifted it for a swig. “You remember that god-awful summer camp when Barnabas was trying to make us run the obstacle course?”
“Remember? Hell, my dignity’s still on that wall, pinned next to my left testicle.”
Bastien laughed as he turned toward Ushara and Vasili to explain the scenario for their benefit. “My uncle’s a total scabbing prick. I loved my dad, but he had some weird parenting techniques, which included occasional weekend maneuvers, and summers every year spent at Camp Hernia for a full six-week program of survival training. And poor Julie got roped in one year when you were what? Thirteen?”
“Fourteen. I was supposed to have been on my Andarion Indari.”
“Indari?” Bastien scowled.
He took a drink of ale, then explained the term for Bastien. “It’s an Andarion coming-of-age ceremony where an elder of the family takes a younger one on a quest to teach them how to survive on their own. The youngster goes out a kid and supposedly returns as a capable adult, ready to take their place in Andarion society.”
“Ah … Endurance.” That was the word Dancer had used for it—which made sense. It would be the Universal translation for the Andarion term Indari, and Dancer wouldn’t have known that Bastien had any exposure to the Andarion language.
Which made him wonder something as he made a peculiar connection. “Is Indari and Andaria related linguistically?”
Jullien saluted him with his bottle. “Impressed that you caught that. Most don’t. But yeah. Andari was the ancient word for endure.”
“Says a lot about your maternal race, drey.”
“Don’t it though.” Jullien scratched at the scar on his neck his grandmother had given him as a boy.
Wanting to quickly change the subject, Bastien returned them to the previous topic. “So how’d you end up on Kirovar for your Endurance?”
“Because I was half human and fat, none of my Andarion relatives wanted the embarrassment of being seen with me when I failed the family quest. So my aunt shuffled me off to my father, who promptly sent me to yours, who then shunted me to your uncle. Fun times.”
Yeah …
“Indeed.”
Ushara paused in her dinner preparations. Bastien caught the glint in her eyes that said she thought as much of Jullien’s parents as he did.
They were scum.