Page 13 of Unfinished

Sunset streaked eyes met his own as he lowered his arms. He didn’t slow down as he reached her, and Veesha’s body hit his chest hard enough to wring another cry from the child, but that small pain wouldn’t matter if he could just get clear of the herd. He didn’t try to turn back. The animals were too close now. He imagined he could feel the warmth of their breath as they approached, the exhales of fifty beasts, the brush of talons against his far more delicate scales.

He didn’t stop running until the fire in his chest grew too great to bear. When he turned back, Veesha still held tightly in his arms, he saw thev’kelthhad already passed the area where she’d stood. Now it was his turn to tremble, for his body to shake. He knew he squeezed her too hard from the way she wiggled and squirmed, but he couldn’t force his arms to loosen. He needed to know she was still there, that he hadn’t failed.

“Veesha,k’vasha,you’re safe now. You’re safe.” He stroked the downy feathers that spanned the center of her back at the base of her wings and held her close a few moments longer. Then he carefully set her down, quickly snatching her hand and interlacing their fingers before she could think to set out on her own again. “You won’t leave the temple—home—without me again, do you understand?”

She looked up at him with her big, bright eyes, but she didn’t respond.

He knelt down so that his face was at her level. “I need you to tell me you understand, Veesha. Thev’kelthcould’ve hurt you, and there are other dangers here. You must be with me or one of the other priests if you wish to explore beyond the walls. Show me that you understand.”

Her crown feathers lifted weakly before she finally spoke. “Yes.” She looked back to where she’d stood only moments ago. “V’kelth?”

“Yes, the animals that crossed the field are calledv’kelth. You wouldn’t have seen them in the city. They like open spaces like we have here in Evathi, and although one by itself might even be friendly, they can cause great damage when they’re running as a herd. You’re too precious to risk yourself like that. A teacher is coming to live with us soon. They will take you on lots of adventures—safely,” he added.

Veesha’s fingers tightened against his hand. “You. I want adventures with you.” She looked down swiftly and refused to meet his eyes as they walked back towards the temple grounds.

R’kash had to swallow down the bile that rose when they first stepped where the herd had run. The grass was trampled and flattened, broken pieces snapped as easily as a child’s fragile limbs might’ve been, and large depressions littered the ground where the horned feet of thev’kelthhad landed, deep gouges marking the progress of their sharp claws. A single snap of one of those long, powerful, armored tails, one inopportune footfall—either could’ve ended the life of the child who walked at his side.

He moved them more quickly across the field, even though he could hear Veesha’s breaths becoming harsher. They would rest once they’d reached the security of the temple. He would hold her again if necessary, but he couldn’t bear to linger at the scene of such potential tragedy.

Before he even reached the outer walls of Evathi, he saw his men waiting for them. Jesthi was already running towards him, his face stern with worry. The others were not far behind. R’kash knew he was doubly blessed. Not only had the Lady spared his Veesha, she’d given him men who were just as much family to him as his child.

9

Sienna’s pulsewas still pounding when she finished reading R’kash’s latest message. She shivered and snuggled tighter into her couch, wishing for a blanket but coming up empty. It was late August, and warm enough that she didn’t have any out in the apartment. The air outside was still full of thick, sticky heat, but the events he’d related had sunk a chill into her bones.

His tone often changed, and she put it down to whatever translation protocols the Mate Portal Program used, but one constant among R’kash’s messages was that he was never boastful. When he’d described how he’d saved Veesha from being trampled by a herd of terror inducing animals, it was in matter-of-fact, almost dry language. She could still picture it. Maybe not the lizard-like creatures that sounded more like dinosaurs to her than anything else, but she could imagine the man in the images she’d seen rushing forward to save his child. She knew he wouldn’t have hesitated a moment.

It was growing harder and harder to tell herself that she wasn’t one hundred percent invested in her correspondence with R’kash. She was unwilling to tell her friends or family that she was in a relationship, because she knew how they’d respond once she told them the truth, but Sienna hadn’t thought of another man in weeks.

She set her palm flat over the viewscreen, wishing for a moment that she could hold his message, that it could be a tangible piece of paper, a letter like people used to write. She’d seen copies of them preserved as viewscreen accessible documents, but she wanted something she could clasp, that she could mark with the oils from her skin, that he had once touched too. Something that felt real—tangible.

Sienna let her hand slide back down to her lap. The news about Veesha had struck her so hard that she hadn’t even finished reading R’kash’s message. It was funny that a little girl she’d never met had become so important to her in such a short time, but R’kash wrote about her so often that she felt like she and Veesha were connected, even if it was only a gossamer thin thread that spanned the distance. Sienna felt like it’d be so easy for it to grow into something stronger. She had love enough to fill R’kash’s whole temple, love she’d kept bottled up inside after growing up in her mother’s house. If she could use it to do some good, to make one little girl on another planet happy, it’d be worth the years’ long effort of trying to hold it all back.

She took a moment to calm herself and lifted her head again, her eyes scanning the rest of the message on the viewscreen:

Did you go on the boat voyage you told me about? What will you do in celebration of your birth’s anniversary? Do you plan to eat this cake you described? We don’t celebrate the way you do, but when a Xithilene child has survived a year, we give them a birth chain in a familial ceremony. It’s an ancient tradition that we still practice. Please don’t worry–child mortality on Xithilene is now exceedingly low.

Veesha doesn’t have a birth chain yet, although she is past the age when she should’ve received hers. Jesthi and H’viss are going to help me find one for her with the perfect stone to match her eyes. From my research, I’ve discovered that her birth date is shortly after the end of our six-month correspondence period. Perhaps your first task at Evathi could be to oversee a celebration for Veesha so that we can all show her how much she is valued here.

Sienna felt her mouth turn up in a slight smile. She’d asked R’kash for career options, and from his initial replies, she’d had the feeling that he’d been as stumped as her. A lot of the jobs he’d listed had sounded obscure or strange. She didn’t want to be an animal handler—not with the descriptions she’d received so far of Xithilene’s dangerous fauna, or an artisan or farmer. Most likely she wouldn’t have had the expertise for those positions even if she’d wanted them. The final option R’kash had seemingly latched onto sounded a lot like an event coordinator to her. Honestly, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to organize festivals and special events at R’kash’s temple.

She imagined having a birthday party for Veesha, making it a mix of Xithilene and human traditions. It’d be a good way to show the other priests at the temple that she could contribute. From his messages, Sienna knew R’kash’s priests were a tight knit group, and she hoped they would let her in willingly.

Her wrist comm let out a high-pitched chime, and Sienna almost dropped her viewscreen. The piercing sound came again, and she still couldn’t help her shoulders from jumping, even though she’d expected the noise that time.

That particular alert was only for unwelcome visitors, i.e., her mother and now Edgar. One of them was waiting outside her building, no doubt expressing their rising irritation at the delay with either a tapping foot or stern, pained smile. She should just ignore the alert and wait for her visitor to leave, but Sienna got up and padded over to the door to check who was there. If it was her mother, it might be easier to just go down and find out what’d brought her so far across town.

She stood in front of the little screen for the bio-lock as she took in Edgar’s flushed countenance. He was glaring at the camera, and she found herself leaning forward for a better look, her hand inching closer to the “dismiss” button. Suddenly the alert chimed again, louder since she was hearing it through both her wrist comm and the bio-lock, and her finger accidentally slid against the “accept” button instead.

Edgar was already out of the camera’s frame before she could correct her mistake. Sienna looked down at her fluffy slippers and her daisy-print pjs. A quick glance at her wrist comm confirmed the time—11:29 a.m. Edgar would be appalled.And that’s just fine, she told herself. If she wanted to relax until noon on a Saturday, that wasn’t any of his business any longer.

Much faster than she would’ve liked, Edgar was at her door. Opening it made her feel a little sick, the sour taste in her mouth a warning of what was to come.

Edgar frowned, opened his mouth to speak, and then paused to give her a thorough up and down, his expression growing stormier the longer he looked. “I see you’ve been taking our breakup poorly. Did I wake you?” The implied“at 11:30”didn’t need to be spoken for her to hear it.

“No. I’ve been up for a while. Just enjoying my morning on my day off. What brings you here, Edgar?” she asked, still blocking the doorway.

“Aren’t you going to let me in?” He took a step forward, turning his body so his shoulder edged through the doorway.

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