Chapter 12
Anna stared up at the timber ceiling. Menlo rested his head on her chest, but neither slept. Light peeked under the door. The day was fading. When the sun dipped below the treetops, the air would cool. When Penelope Ann figured out where she was, she couldn’t keep it a secret from Aquilla forever.
Still, Anna couldn’t tear herself away from Menlo. She ran her fingers through the rough hair along the back of his neck and shoulders. Her body embraced his where she kept contact with him all the way down to her feet.
His breathing rose and fell in even waves, but he must have been watching the light, too. For the first time, he spoke. “They’ll be looking for you.”
“I know,” she murmured.
“You can’t put it off any longer,” he told her.
“I don’t want to leave,” she replied.
“I don’t want you to leave, either,” he told her. “But staying would be worse.”
She sighed. “I know.”
“I’m sure Aquilla has got his men rounded up by now,” he went on. “They’ll come for me pretty soon, and you don’t want them to find you here. I don’t want them to find you here, either.”
“I would rather go with you,” she told him. “Whatever happens, let’s stay together.”
He shook his head against her chest. “We can’t play that game anymore. We had a nice time, but that would be pushing it too far.”
“Was it just a nice time?” she asked.
“You know what I mean,” he replied.
“All right.” She sighed again. “I better go.”
They sat up together, and he kissed her long and deep. They sat on the floor, shoulder to shoulder. This could be the last time they sat together in this world.
“What will happen when they come for you?” she asked.
He shrugged. “He’ll make a show of interrogating me. He’ll ask the same questions to show how stubborn I am, and that he’s not getting anywhere by dallying around.”
“Would it make any difference if you told him what he wants to know?” she asked.
He looked away. “He doesn’t care about anything anymore but provoking Donen. It wouldn’t do me any good to tell him about Faruk.”
Anna froze. “Faruk? What about him?”
“I won’t bother telling Aquilla about him,” Menlo replied. “I doubt he’ll go through much of a charade of prying the information out of me. He’ll be too anxious to move on to the main event.”
Anna shook her head, but it didn’t work to clear her thoughts. “What about Faruk?”
He frowned. “What’s the matter?”
“You said it wouldn’t do you any good to tell him about Faruk,” she repeated.
“That’s what I said,” he replied.
“What would you tell him about Faruk?” she asked. “What would he care about Faruk?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “What is the matter with you? Why do you keep repeating the same words over and over again?”
She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. She summoned all her will to stop herself from shrieking at him. “What about Faruk, Menlo? What would it do no good to tell Aquilla about Faruk?”
He stared at her wild eyes. “He’s been trying to find out about Faruk. He brought me here under the pretext of getting me to tell him what I know.”
“He brought you here under the pretext of telling him who killed his brother in the war,” Anna returned. “Are you telling me Faruk killed Aquilla’s brother?”
He frowned again. “I thought you knew that.”
Anna leapt to her feet and paced around the room. She couldn’t stop shaking her head in agitation. “You never told me the killer was Faruk.”
“What difference does it make who it was?” he asked. “It was an Ursidrean. That’s all Aquilla cares about.”
She squatted down in front of him and hissed into his face. “I care! Do you hear me? If Faruk is the killer, this changes everything.”
“How?” he asked. “I’m just as dead if it was Faruk or somebody else.”
She grabbed him by the shoulders again. “Don’t you understand? Faruk is my sister Emily’s mate. You knew that. Why didn’t you tell me Faruk killed Aquilla’s brother?”
He pressed his lips together. “I didn’t want to tell you point blank. I didn’t want to frighten you into thinking your sister might be in danger.”
“My sister isn’t in danger,” she shot back. “She’s safe in Ursidrean territory with Faruk. I’m the one in danger here with you.”
He put out his hands to her. “Anna....”
She smacked his hands away. “Don’t Anna me. How could you keep this secret from me? How could you sleep with me just now with that secret hanging over our heads?”
He leaned back against the wall. “How was I supposed to know how you really felt about me until now? How was I supposed to know you would really stick by me? You did a couple of nice things for me, but you might still have run to Aquilla with the information if I’d told you. I wasn’t sure until now that you really cared about me enough to stand by me.”
Her anger and surprise crystallized into icy rage—not at him, but at Aquilla and Penelope Ann and all the rest of the Avitras. This was the last straw. She crouched down in front of him again and pulled the sharp weapon out of her boot. His eyes popped open when she pressed it into his hand. “Take this.”
“What am I supposed to do with it?” he asked. “Am I supposed to vanquish Aquilla in single combat? I won’t get a chance to do that.”
She shook her head, but she was already on her feet and heading toward the door. “I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with it. Just take it. You’ll need it.”
“Hey, wait,” he called after her. “Aren’t you going to tie me up again?”
She paused at the door. “I’ll find a way to get you out of here. I’m not going to wait around for Aquilla to come and kill you. I’m not sure how I’ll do it, but you’re leaving here tonight. Don’t get comfortable, because I could come for you at any time. Keep that knife handy and be ready.”
She hurried out of the store room. She barred the door the way she found it, but she took no other precautions. She raced around the house with her mind whirling. So the man Aquilla wanted most of all, the man against whom he wanted revenge for killing his brother, was Faruk, her own sister Emily’s Ursidrean mate.
This changed everything. It sealed the compact she and Menlo created by sleeping together in the store room. If she wouldn’t throw her life and future in with his for that, this erased all doubt in her mind. She couldn’t let him die here. She couldn’t let him spend one more night in that store room. Her time with him hadn’t been some risky fling. She couldn’t turn her back.
What happened to Menlo, happened to her. They were one and the same now. Emily had Faruk, Penelope Ann had Aquilla, and now she had Menlo. The love that grounded all these women to Angondra and made this faraway planet their home was hers at last.
Ever since she came over from the Lycaon, Penelope Ann tried to introduce Anna and Frieda to eligible men in the Avitras village. She even asked Aquilla to introduce them to men in other villages. They would never truly settle until they mated with Angondran men. No one could have foreseen Anna would find that grounding love in a man from another faction.
All those considerations melted in the golden sunlight. All those cares and concerns evaporated into the past. Only one thought dominated her mind: Menlo. She was his last and only hope. She had to get him out of here, no matter what it cost her.
She raced around the house. She had no time to cover her tracks. She had to get back inside and find out where Aquilla was and what he was up to. The only way she could gain any advantage on him was to put the squeeze on Penelope Ann.
She cast one glance over her shoulder. The store room door stood barred the way she found it. No one would know by looking at it that Menlo stood armed and free inside it. Her last image of him flashed through her mind. He stood on his own two feet, not crouched and bound the way Aquilla wanted him. He faced the door, ready for anything that came through it. She pitied anyone beside herself who went through that door.
She didn’t turn around fast enough, and she didn’t watch where she was going. She flew around the corner and ran straight into Aquilla. He growled once in surprise and pushed her back before she collected her thoughts enough to realize what happened.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”
She shook her stunned head. She had to pull herself together. “I was just going to find Penelope Ann.” That at least was true. She waved her hand toward the house, and for the first time noticed Piwaka standing there. He watched her with his big blinking eyes. He didn’t smile, though. He pretended to know nothing about her.
“You don’t have to run to find Penelope Ann,” Aquilla told her. “She’s right there in the house.”
Anna nodded like an idiot. What could she say to get out of this? “Thank you.”
“I’m going up to the house myself,” he went on, “just as soon as I finish talking to Piwaka.”
The fog blew out of Anna’s head. She gazed up at him. Then she glanced at Piwaka. “I’m sure Penelope Ann will want help getting the evening meal ready.”
Aquilla nodded. “The Guards are coming around later for a meeting. Penelope Ann is preparing refreshments for that. She asked me before where you were.”
Anna dropped her eyes. “I’ve been out for the day. I didn’t know she had so much work on her hands, or I’d have come back earlier.”
Aquilla turned to Piwaka. “I’ll go fetch the sentries. We’ll need them here, too. We’ll finalize the plans before the meeting.”
Piwaka nodded. “I’ll meet you back here just before the Guards come.”
Aquilla rustled his feathers and took to the air. In an instant, he was gone. Anna turned once more toward the house, but Piwaka stopped her with his hand on her arm. He pressed something cold into her hand.
“What’s this?” she asked.
He leapt onto the balcony railing and balanced there. He flexed his feathers. “Mix it with the Guards’ food. They’ll fall asleep.”