Page 21 of Invocation

He sat down across from her and scooted something across the tabletop toward her. A long strip of cloth. The enchanted translator he had worn at the Ardanian camp. He must have gone to get it recharged by an enchanter.

She fastened it around her neck beneath the other collar.

“Is it working?” he said after a moment.

She ground her teeth a little, not wanting to speak to him. “Seems like it,” she said, quietly enough to not be overheard. She could understand the voices at the tables nearby now. It turned out that the woman who’d been talking loudly at the table behind her for the past hour had been complaining about her mother-in-law.

He was quiet for a long moment. “I’m sorry.”

She tilted her head away from him, looking out at the tables behind him.

He shifted in his seat. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

She gave a short, harsh laugh. “Of course not. Why would I be frightened by a Varai bringing me to Vondh Rav and dressing me up like a slave?”

He set his elbows on the table and leaned forward. He moved an arm as if to reach out and touch her hand, then pulled it back instead. Novikke wondered if the two of them touching would look strange to anyone watching. Did Varai ever have those kinds of relationships with their slaves? Her stomach turned at the idea.

“Do you want to leave?”

Her eyes flicked toward his. He looked like he was dreading her answer. It was a real offer then, not just empty words. He really was sorry.

“No.”

He looked relieved.

She noticed a head at another table turn toward them. It was the same man who’d looked at her earlier.

Aruna turned to see what she was looking at, and the man turned away. “No one will touch you,” he said, and nodded at her collar. “Because of that. They know you’re mine.”

“Am I?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s what they’ll think,” he amended. “People respect that here.”

“Because humans are objects to be owned here.”

His gaze dulled a little. “They are intelligent, dangerous creatures that must be kept under control if they are present in our society at all,” he corrected her.

She bristled. “Am I to be kept under control, then?”

“This is for show, Novikke. Nothing has changed.”

She tucked her lips together, looking toward the bar again. “What did you think about that girl with the bruises? Or did you even notice her?”

“I noticed her.”

“And?”

A crease formed between his eyebrows. He didn’t answer.

“Dangerous creatures that must be controlled,” Novikke said. “That’s what you think?”

“Of course not.”

“It’s what you believed when you lived here?”

She saw his chest rise and fall once before he answered. His eyes never left hers.

“I suppose I did.”

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