“Ethan?” My voice shakes when he doesn’t answer. There are too many places for a small boy to disappear out here.
The woods fall silent, then, from nowhere, two kids race toward me. Green skin. Orcs. No Ethan.
“Where’s Ethan?” I ask. Evve knows some basic English, which is more than I know of Orcan. I’ve been here two months and haven’t taken the time to learn their language.
Evve points toward the river. Ethan doesn’t know how to swim!
My heart jumps into my throat as I run, yelling his name. When I reach the river, I slam to a halt. Ethan is treading water in a shallow section of the river, with Verig standing next to him, coaching him.
“He’s fine,” I say, trying to catch my breath.
“Ethan learn swim,” Evve says beside me. “Late.”
“Yes, he’s learning late,” I agree. I never had anyone teach him. Which I should have, considering we live beside a river in New Earth.
By now, Verig sees me and guides Ethan out of the water.
“Mom, I can swim!” Ethan calls out as he runs to me.
I bend down and hug him tightly. I don’t want him to know how scared I was. “You ran off without telling me where you were going.”
“We were playing hide and seek. We found Verig.”
“I see.” I lift my eyes to Verig. They’re bonding. While that warms my heart, it also scares me. “Thank you for teaching him how to swim. But next time, ask, please.”
“All younglings need to learn to swim, especially on a world with many rivers and lakes. Knowledge and skills keep us alive.”
Ethan tugs on my tunic. “Can I play with Evve?”
“Ethan not hurt,” Evve says. I think she senses I’m upset. She’s the only one.
“Yes, go play, but not near the river.” The kids run back toward the camp. I’m glad he’s found someone to play with finally. “He’s young, Verig. He doesn’t know how to survive out here. Neither of us does.”
“I will teach him.”
“He’s not your child,” I say, then bite my lip. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong. And what I said the other day…I didn’t know you had a child.”
His face turns stone cold.
When I place my hand on his arm, he pulls away, turns, and picks up his sword from where he leaned it against a tree. “I have work to do.”
Without looking back, Verig slogs through the silt along the shoreline to a particularly muddy area, and returns to scraping moss off the rocks. As he places the clumps in a three-foot-wide, thigh-high basket, I spot another nine baskets nearby, all waiting for moss. Another tedious, dirty task for a male who performs his work with pride and honor…like everything he does.
Yanzu isn’t the ass here. I am.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
VERIG
Tansey’s scent clings to my furs, keeping me from sleeping. Speaking to her by the river yesterday muddled my head more than it should have. And not because she apologized for her comments.
She knows about Haaka and Veeya, my greatest treasures, but not my only ones.
Tansey and Ethan belong to me, and yet I’m not sure I deserve them. I’ve failed her, my grak, and my people. Losing my position as neld changes nothing. I am still a warrior, but I am useless if I cannot be the warrior my grak needs or the male my female needs.
I did not listen to her wishes. I put myself above her, making a decision that affected all of us. In mating a female, there is no neld, no grak, only male and female. Two parts of a whole. I ignored that truth.
“Wake, Verig,” Kodex says through my door as he pounds on it. “You have escort duty.”
