Page 121 of The Weaver

Rekosh chittered, drawing her more snugly against his side. “You are late my friends. Did you let old stoneskull lead?”

“Even I could have followed the trail you left, needlelegs,” Urkot replied, his blue eyes alight.

“Now I know you did not heed our lessons,” said Ketahn with a smile of his own. “You may as well have left a thread in your path for us to follow.”

“Exactly as I intended,” Rekosh said.

“I am sure it was. Such carelessness could only have been intentional.”

Rekosh’s amusement faded as his eyes drifted to the camp. He couldn’t see anything over the thorn wall but for the smoke billowing from the pit at the camp’s center and the now empty tree platform. “Is it done?”

“Yes.” Ketahn followed Rekosh’s gaze with his own. “A few attempted to flee. We sent them all to join their queen.”

Urkot strode closer, grasped the back of Rekosh’s head, and dragged him down, pressing their headcrests together.

“I am glad we found you two.” The blue-marked vrix’s voice was thick and gruff as he momentarily tightened his grip. When he stepped back, his blue eyes met Rekosh’s before flicking to Ahmya.

She offered him a smile. “We are glad to be found.”

Rekosh nuzzled his mate’s hair. “You have taken the words from my throat,kir’ani vi’keishi.”

“Unfortunately for all of us, your supply is unlimited.” Telok strode up to Rekosh and met his gaze. “Yet I am glad to again be deprived of peaceful silence.”

He mimicked Urkot’s gesture, though he withdrew sooner.

Something warm and full bloomed in Rekosh’s chest. “Thank you, my brother.”

Ketahn came next to touch headcrests. When he moved back, he raised a lower hand, holding up Rekosh’s bag. “And I believe this is yours.”

The bag was a little dirtier than before, but intact.

Which meant the dress was unharmed.

Rekosh would’ve gladly watched a thousand such dresses burn if it kept his mate safe, but he could not deny his relief and gratitude.

“Thank you. But you may soon regret returning this to me, Ketahn,” Rekosh said with a chitter, taking the bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Ahmya helped lift his long hair out of the way of the strap.

Once the bag was in place, he tilted his head and looked Ketahn over, from the top of his headcrest to the tips of his legs and back again. “Ketahn, I am glad to see you, but…why are you here?”

“Garahk returned to Kaldarak with Lacey and told us what happened,” Ketahn said, eliciting a relieved sigh from Ahmya. “He apologized for losing you.”

Ahmya looked at Garahk around the others. “You did not lose us.”

The thornskull, his white hide smeared with mud, brought his forearms together in apology. “I was leader of the hunt, and you are mine. Mine to guide, to shield.”

“We are alive now because of you, Garahk. Because of all of you.” Rekosh tapped a knuckle to his headcrest in respect.

Garahk thumped the ground with a foreleg and chittered. “How many did you give death to, weaver? Four, five? Again, I have missed yourshar’thai. It must have burned bright as the sun.”

“One of those must be counted for Telok. He…” Rekosh’s eyes drifted to Ketahn again, and whatever he’d been about to say faded from his mind. His mandibles twitched as he regarded his friend again. “You have not answered my question, Ketahn.”

Ketahn bumped a foreleg against Rekosh’s. “I could not leave two of my family at the mercy of the Tangle. You would have done the same, would you not?”

“Yes, but you have been inseparable from Ivy and Akalahn. You have been so protective of them that you have seemed ready to attack anyone who so much as looks at them for a moment too long.”

Telok grunted in amused agreement.

Garahk pounded his chest with a fist. “They are with my heartsflame and our broodlings. Nalaki watches over them.”

---