Dzar-Ghan (Alien Barbarians of Vandruk #3)

6. Chapter 6

Amber explained that Jenna might know a way of getting into the cave. Jittery with anticipation, I could hardly wait for us to leave, but humans, it seemed, were on their own timeline. As far as I knew, Jenna and Amber had only just met; still, it seemed spans and spans of fingerbreadths passed before the two hugged and took their goodbyes. Jenna shouldered not one but three of the practical-looking backpacks.

With a grunt, I took all three from her.

“Hey,” she protested.

I made a show of placing the backpacks on one of our carriers—several poles looped together, holding the tents and supplies. My warriors would take turns supporting them throughout our trek, which should take about three days.

Dzur-Khan and I shook elbows and embraced each other, wishing each other a good journey. To my surprise and Dzur-Khan’s annoyance, Amber hugged me as well. With a grin, I held her tight for a moment, just long enough to get Dzur-Khan’s blood rising but not too long before he would take affront and challenge me. Then we were finally off.

I always cherished treks through Vandruk. I liked being out in the open, away from the confinements of houses and the smell of too many people and animals living in the same vicinity. Catterground wasn’t a dirty city by any stretch of the imagination. We were prosperous, but every craft polluted the air in a different way. Out here, there were none of the smells of tanners curing hides, candle makers melting wax, or stonemasons rendering stones into submission. No spices from cooking diluted the air. It was just fresh without a trace of another living soul for thousands and thousands of paces. When I did catch a whiff of an animal, it only served to bring the hunter in me alive, prey or predator? I could tell them apart by their scent.

On this journey, though, it was the little human who captured my and everyone else’s attention. Her bluish-gray uniform didn’t exactly cling to her but hinted at nice curves. I enjoyed the way her head turned left and right as we started walking, taking in her new surroundings. When I caught a glimpse of her expression, it was enraptured by Vandruk, thawing my icy chest just a little bit more. I hadn’t expected to like my new mate, so this was a pleasant surprise. Amber would have been furious had she heard me calling Jenna my mate. Before we left, she lectured me that humans didn’t just mate like this. They didn’t fight for the right to pick a gallis. Instead, they had to be courted —whatever that meant. Being nice, bringing her food, giving compliments , Amber had explained. Although how to compliment one whose language I didn’t understand and who didn’t speak mine was just as beyond me as giving a compliment in itself. I hadn’t seen her create pottery or sow leather and furs, so how was I supposed to compliment her?

Complimenting Mynarra had been easy. She had been an accomplished hunter, and her cured hides were some of the best in all of Vandruk. As I mulled this over, I figured I would give it some time. I didn’t know Jenna yet like I had Mynarra. Soon, I would find out her skills with needles and leather. Perhaps she would even honor me by cooking a meal?

I had never courted Mynarra, who had declared from a very young age that one day I would be a khadahr and she my khadahrshi.

She had been brought into our home as the future khadahrshi to any of my father’s sons who would win the trials, but neither Mynarra nor I had ever doubted that it would be anybody besides me whom she would call mate.

A small smile bloomed on my lips; some days it was hard to remember what Mynarra had looked like. Too often, images of our past had overlapped in my mind, showing her to me as a youngling, but that day, I saw her clear as day in front of me. The third night after the mantle ceremony. My body had been almost healed when Mynarra took me by the hand and led me to a secluded spot in the forest. Far away from where the others camped.

‘I want you to be mine tonight,’ she said with an urgency as if she had known her life would end the next day. ‘I want this to be just between you and me.’

I had liked the idea. The next day would be busy with the hunting and choosing ceremony, and neither one of us had any doubt who I would choose as my mate. Her. Always her.

Newly mated couples would take off into the forests just like we were doing now, only tomorrow, there would be hundreds of us, and the forest would be filled with grunts and groans, making me appreciate the intimacy of the moment she had prepared so thoughtfully.

So we made love there, under the stars, where she had prepared a spot with blankets, food, and drink. It had been a promise of our lives together. She confided that this had been something she had planned since we were younglings.

Thinking of it now, I should have complimented her then on her idea and her planning, but at the time, I had been young and expected us to have a long future together.

Dzur-Khan hadn’t been much help either when I asked him about what sort of compliments he’d say. With the limited amount of time we had, he suggested praising her hair or eyes, even though neither he nor I fully understood why that was a compliment. One was born with their hair and eyes and all the other body parts. Complimenting someone on something that they didn’t choose or had any hand in creating was puzzling. Besides, I had other worries to focus on besides wooing —another strange word Amber had used—a gallis who would be my khadahrshi, which should be incentive enough.

Here or there, Jenna dropped inexplicably to her knees. The first time she did this, she startled me into action, thinking she had been hurt. Only to find her uuhing and awing over a rock. Amber hadn’t mentioned anything about the gallis being feeble-minded and it didn’t seem to make sense if she thought she could get into the cave, but by the gods, she was acting curiously.

With a gleam in her eyes, she approached me. “Water? Waro?” she asked.

I handed her my flask, thinking she was thirsty. Instead, she used it to pour over a rock. A rock!

“Gallis, what are you doing?” I yelled, startling her so hard that she dropped the flask.

We both leaned down at the same time to prevent it from spilling even more, and our foreheads hit.

“Ouch,” she exclaimed, gently touching a spot above her right eye.

“I’m sorry. Are you all right?”

“The rock,” she mumbled words I didn’t understand, only to be on her hands and knees again, frenziedly searching for something. I had an idea what it was and after sighing, I resigned myself that this trek would probably take longer than three days with her. I retrieved the blue-veined arnesuud from the ground and even used some of the precious waro to clean it before handing it to her.

“Thank you.” She beamed at me so bright one would have thought I had given her moondust. I did understand those words, though.

“You’re welcome,” I retorted in English.

She pointed at me. “Dzar-Ghan.”

Confused, I looked at her. I was sure Amber had given her my name.

“Jenna.” She pointed at herself, confusing me even more. Then she held up the rock, twisting her face endearingly into a question, and I finally realized what she wanted.

“Arnesuud,” I said.

“Arnesuud,” she repeated deferentially. She pulled out a book of paper and began writing on it with a stick-like thing that resembled our writing instruments.

She noticed me looking. “Notepad,” she explained, holding the paper up, and then, “pen.”

“Notepad, pen.” I nodded, feeling like an idiot staring at her as if she were divulging secret battle plans.

Unperturbed, my males kept moving, but I noticed them throwing glances at us.

“We need to catch up,” I reminded her, gruffer than I meant to, but she was already running toward the carrier.

I sped up my pace and followed, shaking my head and wondering what this gallis was doing to me and my mind. Most of all, I wondered why I kept following her .