“Can we talk, Lannahi?” Ashared asked, leaping to his feet when Lannahi stood.
She looked at him coolly. “I’m busy now. Ask me again when we return.”
He clenched his jaw but eventually nodded and left. Lannahi didn’t see him again until an hour later when he boarded the sleigh along with Erril and Esau.
A warning howl sounded as they closed in on the village. When they reached it, a large crowd had already gathered in the square in the center of the settlement.
Dallal and Erril stopped the sleigh a few swords above the ground in front of the Amaruk who was waiting for them in the company of ten wolves.
“In the letter, you guaranteed my safety,” Lannahi said instead of a greeting. “I want you to extend your guarantee to my people as well.”
Amaruk moved his gaze across their faces. “Why should I meet your demands, Lannahi, when you haven’t met mine? I see more than three guards…” When his gaze stopped on Lizaar, who was sitting next to her, a mocking smile crept onto his lips. “…and a landshaper of unspecified function.”
“Lizaar is my advisor,” Lannahi said without blinking. “And Ashared is not my guard. If you recall, he is here by your invitation. I simply lent him the transport. If you wished for me to visit with fewer than four companions, then you should have said so.”
Amaruk arched a brow. “You want to play a word game with me, little witch?”
“I want to ensure the safety of my people. And to understand what the matter is aboutthis time. I thought my initial explanation was clear.”
A lazy smile crossed the alpha’s face. “If that’s how you want to play, so be it. Swear to me that neither you nor your people will attack firsttoday, then I will do the same.”
Lannahi gave him a heavy look. The words of the oath suited her, but the fact that Amaruk said them after he’d attacked the hunters from Goldfrost was insolent even for him.
“Has anyone told you that you are annoying?”
“Many times,” he replied with a grin.
Lannahi made a sound of disapproval, but she ultimately swore the oath and when Amaruk did the same, she ordered Dallal and Erril to land. Ashared transformed, and when she stepped out of the sleigh and moved toward Amaruk, he appeared at her side in his wolf form.
The alpha found this amusing. “Is it my imagination or your non-guard is in a bad mood?”
Lannahi suddenly discovered that today her reserves of patience were smaller than she’d assumed, and having decided that it was best to ignore unnecessary comments, she responded with the necessary question. “Where are my hunters?”
Amaruk sent her an amused look and gestured at the oblong building behind him. “My men will bring them to us. For now, come inside.”
One of the wolves accompanying him edged closer to him as she approached and began to walk at his side as Ashared walked at hers. The rest of the warriors surrounded their group but kept a comfortable distance.
Though Lannahi had heard more than once that the shapeshifter settlements were primitive, and due to Souhi’s description she more or less knew what to expect—simple wooden huts resembling tents—it had never occurred to her that there might not be chairs in them. However, when she entered the room lined with mats made of straw or tree bark, the suspicion that this might be the case began to germinate in her. When Amaruk led her along something that was closer to a doormat than a carpet to a raised platform also covered with mats, the suspicion changed to certainty.
“You can hang your coats there,” Amaruk said, pointing to the racks standing against the sloping wall on either side of the dais.
When he went to the one on the left, Lannahi moved in the opposite direction, silently grateful that she hadn’t worn a gown for the meeting and, instead, wore pants under her outerwear. After removing her cloak, she gave Lizaar a sign to join her on the platform and for her guards to remain standing alongside the room with Amaruk’s warriors.
The alpha was waiting for her in the center, dressed in loose dark pants and a buttonless shirt. “You don’t like wearing dresses, Lannahi?” he asked, running his gaze over her tunic armor, belt packs, and boots that almost reach her knees.
“I do.”
“But not today?”
“Not in the forest.”
He apparently understood the allusion because his amusement dimmed a bit. He gestured at the mat lying on the floor and took the opposite one two swords away.
Feeling the attention of the crowd that had entered the room with them, Lannahi knelt on the mat and sat on her heels. She had no idea how long she could endure the awkward position, but there was no way she would sit with her legs crossed like Amaruk.
Lizaar sat down next to her in a similar position. Ashared took a seat on her left side and like the alpha’s guard simply lay down.
Smarty, she thought with envy.
