CHANGELING: Book Two in the Weaver Series Read online

  Elder Nyt pointed negligently and a female servant jumped to attention. She didn’t just command her own selections—she chose what all of us in her immediate vicinity would consume. When the final red sleeve withdrew and the last plate was set all eyes went to Nyt but ours. We were too busy staring at the mini mountain of waeta jiggling in front of us.

  Cass cringed away internally. “Silver…”

  I sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Go hide; I’ll try to be fast.”

  With my twin absent I could stare at Mez with impunity. My gaze rose and ran right into his. We froze for a moment as if there’d been an actual physical collision. Judging by the path his eyes had taken, he’d been frowning at our hair. I plastered a completely artificial, sunny smile on our lips.

  I asked across the table, “Will you be visiting Denu with us today?”

  His nod ‘yes’ was nearly imperceptible.

  Elder Nyt tapped her spoon on an eggshell-thin cup filled with kush juice. The expression of her personal servant was one of fleeting horror at the abuse of the fragile vessel. “Today is a day to reconnect with loved ones and take a much needed respite from our efforts to learn one another’s ways. Please keep in mind that you will be representing more than just yourself when you leave. I expect the same behavior of my adopted children as I do my own.” She emphasized her words with a swirl of her spoon in the air. “That said, do have fun.”

  With her free hand, Nyt took a dainty sip from her cup. Ela and Fid Tal went for their utensils at exactly the same time. Both paused, regarding one another with a solemn cool demeanor. Ela withdrew her hand and laid it in her lap. Fid Tal’s nostrils flared as if she’d been insulted and her first bite took an eternity to travel to her mouth. The temptation to fling a glob of waeta her way was an itch in our palm. Ela was all good grace and fluttering lashes as she hurriedly took her turn. I assumed, as Fid Tal’s son, Mez might go next but his shoulders remained slightly hunched as he waited. I turned at the sound of nine other spoons clinking to the right.

  A little dumbfounded I murmured out of the side of our mouth to Ela, “Why does Mez go last?” Kal never set up any rules at our table. It was come one come all, with no pecking order.

  She wrinkled her nose at us. “Males always do. Eat so that he may. His food is cold.”

  Sure enough, when I looked at his breakfast I noticed it was a grain similar to porridge that turned gummy and tasteless if left too long. Nyt must have chosen it for him intentionally.

  I darted the shallow spoon into our gelatinous meal and kept our head bowed until the rustle of movement in Mez’s direction indicated he’d begun eating. Aniy customs, especially in formal situations, were tedious and unnecessary in my view. Most likely they heralded back to a time when the women had a need to drive their rule home in every way possible to the warmongering men.

  No one spoke for a span as they filled their stomachs and one by one the emptied dishes disappeared as red-sleeved arms removed them. Cass tentatively poked at our awareness, saw we were through with the waeta, and then settled firmly in the captain’s chair.

  “Did I miss anything, Silver?”

  I shot the memory of Mez being forced to go last at my sister, feeling all righteous and indignant on his behalf. “Other than a demonstration of how to treat Axsian males like second class citizens—no.”

  Dismissal chimes rang. Ela unfolded her long body from the floor. When Cass leaned on the table edge to stand Nyt’s voice cut through the cheerful chatter.

  “Stay a moment, Bogan.”

  Ela looked torn between taking charge of Lil and the others or staying to help us. In the end, the four won out over our two in one and she gave a bolstering pat to the sides of our braids. Fid Tal and Mez remained as well. The serving staff stayed frozen, unsure if they should proceed with the cleanup or give us privacy. A soft murmur, like the pound of distant surf let us know others around the room were still breaking their fast.

  Nyt snapped a finger and the red army guarding the table dispersed. She folded her hands neatly together to exclusively address Tal. “Fid Tal, your male progeny has petitioned the Guild of Discovery without your backing. While it is highly unorthodox for an applicant to be welcomed to the fold without maternal approval, it can be done if an active Agent endorses the petition. Your male child has been accepted.”

  Chapter Twenty Two: Mixed Signals

  Mez was so still across from us that he seemed locked in a frozen instant of time. His chest wasn’t moving to draw breath and his eyes were dull charcoal lumps. Her Highness turned to her son, cheeks trembling with emotion.

  Through zippered teeth she hissed, “You had no right! Withdraw your petition immediately!”

  Tal had her spies everywhere. It was some feat that this had been kept from her. Our money was on Kal being the Agent who spoke for Mez, but other strings had to have been pulled for this to be the first Fid Tal heard of it. For all we knew, Elder Nyt could have encouraged the petition be pushed through for a mysterious convoluted political reason we knew nothing about.

  Nyt’s hard voice cut out anything Mez would have said. “That is not a possibility. He has taken the oath and now belongs to the Guild—to be used in whatever manner they see fit. Currently they have decided he should finish his education, train in his spare hours, and double as an extra guard for the Singularity.”

  The dark skin between Tal’s eyebrows wrinkled in disgust. “You would allow a Guild to undercut a Maternal Right? How wise is that with Baelc undermining our position? He is my son! It is my duty to guide his life.”

  Elder Nyt pulled rank. Head canted to look down her long straight nose she spoke precisely through thinned lips. “You will make peace with this decision and move on Fid Tal or I will find a more amenable Fid. I have not been pleased with your service as of late. What progress have you made in crushing the rebels? If you cannot manage this city properly for me I will find another of our Clan who can.”

  Shock hit Fid Tal. I could see the ligaments in her neck strain all the way to her collarbone. She looked dehydrated, like the prospect of losing her political power had drained the life from her body. Her fingernails scraped the table painfully as she dragged leaden arms into her lap.

  Through ashen lips, Tal whispered, “That will not be necessary, Elder. With utmost respect, may I be excused?”

  At a nod of dismissal from Nyt, Fid Tal left the hall and her only child without looking back once. A cold wash of an emotion we couldn’t pin down danced through us as we stared at Mez’s expressionless face. The Elder never did anything without a plan within a plan and an eye to the future. Warily we turned to face Nyt.

  I asked, “What do you have in store for us, Ealdemodor? There must be some reason for our presence?”

  She smiled; her countenance alight with feigned joy. “If I had to tell you, I would be very disappointed indeed. You are both dismissed. Enjoy your day. Stay out of mischief.”

  Mez came to life in a fit of motion on his side of the table. He ‘ported to us and tucked an arm in ours to steer us through the aisles of segregated color and out the yawning arch of the hall. Eyes followed us and the muscles in his forearm were jumping under the light touch of our hand. If it was up to us we’d ‘port right out of here but there had to be a reason Mez wanted us to be seen together by Nyt’s household. When the thick wall cut us out of sight Mez tugged us into a more public area and murmured a warning under his breath.

  “Denu.”

  The colorful private complex disappeared to be replaced by familiar dim blue luminescing walls and roughly hewn primitive but comfortable furniture. A large bed took up most of the space and we were laying on it. Mez’s warren in Denu was slightly larger than our own but frankly he needed it and we didn’t. Instead of being playful or trying to roll us over into a kiss to annoy Cass, Mez sat and threw his legs over the side, giving us a view of his broad shoulders. The seams of his sky blue robes were straining and his muscles looked like they might rupture right out of his clothes.


  Cass asked, “Are you okay, Mez?”

  He took a deep breath. “Go change. You look like them. I cannot…just go.”

  Confused, we awkwardly inched off the mattress. Cass argued, “You shouldn’t leave, Silver. He’s upset. I’ll go and you force him to tell you what’s wrong.”

  I didn’t want to confront him. Truth be told, his emotions were scary and made me want to run far and fast. Cass ghosted away and I finished pushing our body into a sitting position. Our feet dangled depressingly so I hopped down and rounded the foot of the bed.

  Mez gave a quick head turn and snapped, “I said go change.”

  I kept coming. “I’m ignoring you. Last I checked I’m the same person no matter what I wear. Get over yourself, sweetie.”

  Mez was staring determinedly at the wall. He growled like an old arthritic dog warning away a toddler with a lollipop. “Your hair looks ridiculous. It doesn’t suit you. The Elder is trying to make you think like an Aniy.”

  I laughed, a short bark of sound. “We think what we like, Mez. Since when did you forget that fact?” I bumped his knee with a thigh.

  Mez looked at me and his face was a masterpiece of strong contradictory emotions. I wasn’t adept enough to figure them all out. He looked like he might fall apart in a bloody pile if I poked too hard. I reached up to pick at a braid and scratch our scalp. “This hair crap was Cassandra’s idea to give Ela a break from our badass attitude. I hate it. If you want it down you’re going to have to do it. I’m too impatient to figure it out.”

  Two hands that could palm our head with ease wrapped around our waist. He turned me around then lifted me onto his lap. Sure fingers sought out cleverly concealed pins and they plinked as they were thrown to the floor. Ela’s work was undone in seconds. He cupped the top of our head with one outspread hand and began to rub our roots. I leaned into it.

  “I think I could guess at some of the reasons you’re upset, Mez. I’m not you, though.”

  I wiggled our hips to get in a better position and his free arm curled around our waist from behind, pulling us even closer. He paused in the scalp massage to move our dark hair to the side then resumed his relaxing ministration.

  Mez inhaled up our neck to our ear. “I can do other things besides talk, Silver.”

  A low heat burst forth like sparklers and continued to travel to every cell in our body. My thoughts jammed and I stuttered, “K-Kal w-would be up…set if we broke his trust, Mez.” He kissed the lobe of our ear and the arm around our middle crept up to cross snuggly over our breasts. Something stirred underneath us at the juncture of his thighs. Fear splashed like a tsunami over the growing irresistible pleasure.

  From the tunnel that led to our shared living space and our own chamber came a cool warning. “You should listen to Silver, Nefa. I would be disappointed if your duties as an Agent were interrupted by broken bones.” Kal shredded his light field.

  I couldn’t see him very well from our vantage point facing the opposite direction. Mez inhaled up our neck again then dumped us in a heap on the floor at his feet. I tilted our head back and squinted up at him. “You must be suffering from asshole-itis. I’ve got a cure for that.”

  Mez stood, grabbed his bed frame by its side and threw the whole thing in Kal’s direction with barely a grunt of exertion. Kal saw it coming and dodged into the tunnel.

  Mez screamed, “I’m tired of being everyone’s plaything. It never ends! Never!”

  I kicked the back of his knees with both feet, hoping it hurt without doing real harm. He wind-milled his arms to no affect and landed flat on his back. I jumped on his chest and dug our full body weight plus two bony knee caps into the meaty parts just on the inside of his shoulder joints. It was impossible to get in his face or we’d shift the center of our gravity and lose any advantage but I screamed back at him, “Get it together! No one here wants to run your life like Tal or even Elder Nyt. I’m on your freaking side! Kal is on your side! What is wrong with you, Mez?”

  He screamed back, “Get off me, Silver!”

  Cass chose the wrong moment to check in. I felt her disbelief then anger.

  “What the crap, Sister?”

  “I don’t know, Cass. I just don’t know.”

  We jumped when Kal pinned our upper arms to our ribs and lifted us off Mez. With a finely placed kick to the jaw he knocked his nephew out cold. Kal released us to stand then grabbed our chin.

  “What happened before this, Cilda?” He was breathing through flared nostrils and his mouth was turned down at the sides.

  Cass slapped his arm down angrily and I answered. “Something at the breakfast before Nyt released us for our ‘free’ day. She told Tal Mez had been accepted to the Guild of Discovery as an Agent, and then threatened to take away her position as Fid. Tal left him. She walked out and left her only son so she could keep her day job. Did you speak for him with the guild?”

  Kal sucked air through his teeth and rubbed the back of his bald head. “I did. The rest is all Nyt and The Elders. Whatever you might think, my sister loves her son and it had to have been in his best interest for her to leave him there. You do not understand our ways.”

  Pissed, I said, “Maybe you should enlighten me then, Kal?”

  He changed the subject. “You neglect your Leoght Cor. I can smell it.”

  Cass straightened. “She what? What do you mean smell it?”

  Kal wove his neck at us. “You treat Mez as if he is human and he is not. Have you studied Axsian biology at all?”

  I angled our head down at his seemingly sleeping, now peaceful face. “Some, enough to know we’re not one hundred percent physically compatible. Should we be talking over him like this? Is he going to be okay?”

  Our guardian turned away. “Pain helps males to stifle the urges. Follow me to the table. He will recover. His training will be more rigorous than my precisely aimed foot. Mez may yet regret his oath.”

  It was nice to be home in Denu, even with the rough start. Cass snagged a kush out of the bowl Kal always kept on the table and broke off a spike. She held it to our mouth for a moment to savor the smell. The Aniy thought it barbaric to drink straight from the shell but the juice tasted so much better that way.

  Kal took time adjusting himself in his seat and fidgeting around as if needles protruded from his chair. He frowned at us as we let the dregs of juice drip into our open mouth.

  “Are you done?”

  Cass set the empty spiked shell on the table. “Now we are. Do I need to let you and Silver discuss Aniy sex without me? Who’s minding Sil if you’re here?”

  Kal raised an eyebrow. “Sil is fine and none of your concern. Leave if the subject matter makes you uncomfortable, Cass.”

  Now it was our turn to fidget. Cass stayed.

  Taking a deep breath, Kal plunged onward. “How often have you been intimate with Mez? Have you completed intercourse and then denied him too long or are you not to that stage at all?”

  The tangy juice we’d just finished was eating at the lining of our stomach suddenly. “Not to that…stage. You do realize this is embarrassing, right?”

  He rubbed the top of his head so hard we could hear the whiskers rasp against his palm in a sand paper shush. “You persist in defending your independence but on this you must accept guidance. Axsian males, whether they are Imini or Aniy, possess a set of biological imperatives that must be carefully handled. They are tied to what your human doctors would call the androgen system in humans—sight is key, as well as scent and touch. How many times since the Bindao hit have you touched one another skin to skin in a private moment and not copulated?”

  Our ears filled with white noise and my brain shuffled through every panting, failed attempt at intimacy on my part. The closer I got to the present day the more instances of Mez’s grabby insistent advances there were but I’d just figured he was frustrated. Guilt had made me excuse his aggressive tendencies. It must be more than that. “I think more than thirty and less than fifty. The days blur toge
ther after a while.”

  Cass murmured, “That sounds about right. For two people not ‘doing it’ you guys are pretty busy.”

  Ire reared its head. “Hah! So says the girl who has virtual sex in the Web every night.”

  Kal’s voice cut into our bickering. “Mez should not have let this go on. He knows better even if you do not.” He slapped the table making the fruit bowl jump and then froze, waiting to see if any kush would explode. When nothing happened he rose and placed the bowl next to the red light alcove in the kitchen. He paced for a moment before taking his seat across from us again. Both hands shot into the air in exasperation. “I do not understand what he could have been thinking!”

  Mez answered from just outside his warren. “I was thinking my Leoght Cor is afraid. I was thinking that if I just gave her time she would become used to me. I was also not thinking, too.”

  I stood and Cass spat, “Oh boy!” Our chair fell over backwards with a loud clack.

  I took in his swollen jawline and sheepish, repentant expression. He was giving us pleading obsidian doe eyes like nobody’s business. A ball of nesting snakes was unraveling in our middle and I felt like we should punch something. “I’m not afraid of you! I’m scared of me and the way you make me feel. On top of that, I still have no idea why Kal is worried and you’ve been acting so…different. Somebody needs to spill the beans already!”

  Mez walked over to our downed chair. His eyes never left ours as he bent to pick it up. “It is my fault, Eam. I should have discussed things with her. In my defense that does tend to kill the mood.”

  Our eyes stayed on Mez but our ears listened to Kal.

  In rough-voiced reproval, Kal said, “Mood or no, Nefa, you should have taken more care. Fix this. I have to leave but I trust you have control now? Should I knock you out again before I go?”

  Good natured teasing entered his tone. “No, Eam I am fine. That was an excellent kick. I saw it coming but I couldn’t move out of the way in time. Perhaps you could teach me?”