Page 63 of The Syphon King

Beth continued, “And this is Felix, Nitro’s wife.”

“Hello,” Felix said with a hand toss. “Weird bird lady here.”

“She trains birds and she’s amazing,” Beth corrected getting Zen’s shocked breath.

“Is she the one with the Bat husband?”

Laughter erupted with Felix nodding. “Guilty.”

“And this is Phelony, Bacon’s wife.”

Phelony hurried forward with her hand out. “So very very nice to meet you Zen. Love your name.”

“It’s actually Zenith but people call me Zen. Or Zeen.” She tossed her thumb up at Zodak and whispered, “It’s how he pronounces it.” Which was clearly her favorite.

Tegan came forward now with her hand out. “And I’m Tegan, Patches’ wife. I’m from Texas. Always nice to see a new face, specially when they’re so darn pretty! Look at those eyes.”

She blushed and pressed her lips together in embarrassment as Tegan gaveher a big Texas handshake.

“What I gotta do to get an introduction?” Juliette complained, barging in with her hand out now. “I’m known as the Alligator Wrangler.”

“She wrangles alligators,” Tegan clarified.

“If that wasn’t obvious,” Juliette said.

“Well, who the heck thinks some girl like you would wrangle alligators,” Tegan begged to differ in her drawl.

“I’m the wife of Kaj. I call him Kajun cuz he’s a Cajun. And he’s a Viking. Yeah, I’m bragging,” she informed Tegan, getting a shove and laugh.

“She’s always bragging,” Tegan informed. “And she’s also the sister of the Eveque.”

Juliette hung on Beth’s shoulder now. “Andsister-n-law to this wonderful woman.”

Zens’ smiles were ear to ear now. “So very happy to meet all of you,” Zen said, lit up. “When Zodak mentioned there was a party in the South Swamp, I begged to come like a child,” she confessed.

Beth spotted Sophie and Darby Mae. “Look who made it!” She waved at them, and they headed over. “I was hoping they’d come.” She hurried to Sophie first. “It’ssogood to see you again.” She gave her a hug then turned doing the same to Darby Mae.

The men moved off to the side with their own greetings while they carried on.

“We were just making introductions with Zen,” Beth explained, hurrying through another round. Spotting Sophie’s gloved hands reminded her of her gift and what happened when she’d used it with Shank. Mercy, she hoped she’d be okay in such a huge crowd.

Tegan’s laugh rang out as she put her arm around Darby Mae. “This one here is mine. I like her style.”

“We’re missing a couple wives,” Beth said. “Cat and Claire are probably here somewhere.” She asked their newcomers, “Would you ladies like to join us in the big house for some girl fun?”

Zen appeared stunned and fascinated. “Girl fun?” A concept she’d clearly never heard but wanted to experience. They all watched now as she stepped up to Zodak and took his hand. He turned and lowered his ear near her mouth. “Do you mind if I go with the ladies into the house to visit?”

“I don’t mind at all,” he said, his deep voice almost too low to hear. He put his mouth at Zen’s ear, his large hand caressing the side of her head. She smiled atwhatever he whispered then snuck a kiss on his cheek, putting a hint of a smile on his mouth as she hurried back to their circle.

Beth looked around at their group. “Wow, we’re so close to having all the wives!”

Tegan handed Beth her drink. “Hold my Kool-Aid, honey. I’ma go round up our lil lost heifers.”

WHEN THEY ALL SETTLEDinto the expanded Basilique that could now accommodate thirteen Kings and their future wives should they ever visit, Bishop stood, a victorious feat in the face of his exhausted body. “Gentlemen and Brothers. I realize it’s late and many of us are exhausted so I’m going to make this succinct.”

He strolled over to the wall where Bart covered the entire thing with a life-size map of the expansion and picked up the pointing stick. “There are three colored buildings on this map. Those that exist, those thatwillexist, and those we’ve just built. The black buildings are the ones that exist,” he pointed. “The green are those we’ve just built, and these red ones are those remaining to be built.” He pointed out other various structures. “This will be a school forthe new houses. A second library. Three more Swamp Hops or General Stores. A second Medical Facility here and three more Detainment Facilities or Jailhouse here, here, and here. They also double as a Courthouse. Here are the existing Hatch Leaders’ quarters.” He pointed them all out. “We have an average of a hundred families per Hatch. The increase was fifty percent. To skip remembering or doing the math, we were scheduled to build fifty more houses in each hatch, and we’ve done thirty. So, we’re a little ahead of schedule.”

He set the stick down, nodding through the round of applause, adding his own to it as he made his way back to the table and took his seat. “Bart will give us the current situation that has been monitored by the Marsh Matrix for the past month.”

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