Thia panicked. "What do we do now?"
Sumi considered her options. With no better thought, and afraid of diluting it with water, she dipped her fingers into it and placed them in his mouth.
Thia held his head as he tried to turn away from the burnt taste. But after a few minutes, he finally licked the antidote from Sumi's fingers.
Bit by bit, Sumi fed it to him and prayed it would still work like this. That they hadn't boiled all the necessary nutrients out of the root while searching.
As soon as it was all dispensed, she wiped her hand off on an antiseptic cloth, then used it to clean his wounds again.
Darice continued to stare a hole through her.
Thia hissed at him over her shoulder. "What is your problem now, Darice?"
"My mother has long suspected that he hasn't upheld his pledge to her. It's why she has yet to accept him."
Thia gave him a mocking stare. "Oh, okay, that's the reason, huh?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"If your mother really believes that, why not break pledge with him?"
"She doesn't want to see him lose his lineage. She says it would dishonor my father if she allowed that to happen."
"Ah. Glad to know that she cares so much." Thia's sarcasm was even thicker than the paste they'd made.
"What?" Darice asked defensively.
Thia stalked toward where he sat. "So it's not a slap in your father's or uncle's face every time she refuses to honor the pledge, or allow him rights to you?"
He scoffed at her words. "She's never done that. Dancer has full rights to me, he just doesn't want them."
"Bullshit! I've been there, Darice, and seen the number of times your mother has told him he could have time with you, and then he comes back alone with some ridiculous, fabricated reason why she couldn't let you go at the last minute. Honestly, I was stunned she allowed you to come with him for Endurance. But for the fact it would relegate you to perpetual infant status, I'm sure she would have backed out of this, too."
He shook his head in blatant denial. "She's told me how often she's begged him to spend time with me and he refuses. How many times I've invited him, myself, to games and he has never come to one! Not once. He wants nothing to do with me."
"Can't imagine why he'd want to avoid you," Thia mumbled, then she let out a rude laugh. "Face the truth, Dare, your mother's a liar. She's manipulative and a bully."
He shot to his feet. "Take that back!"
"I won't take back the truth. Had your mother not fed illegal drugs to your father, for years, he wouldn't have died when he did."
Clenching his fists, he glared at her. "What lie is this?"
"No lie. Honest truth. Contrary to your mother's bullshit, your father's body was recovered. Uncle Hauk didn't leave him as scavenger meat as your mother claims. With a dozen broken bones, he dragged Keris's body back, and kept watch over it until they were picked up."
Darice scoffed bitterly. "You don't know that. You weren't there."
Still, Thia gave him no quarter. "Neither were you! And for your information, I do know. Fain has the autopsy, and the order, signed by your mother, to burn Keris's body so that no one would ever discover the truth of what she'd done. Fain was there, alone, when Keris was cremated. She didn't even have the decency to attend his last rites. Then your mother buried all the evidence that showed Keris had enough drugs in his body at the time of death that he would have most likely overdosed had he not fallen first."
"If any of that's true, why does she blame Dancer for it?"
"Because he's the only one who was there when Keris died. He alone knows how high Keris was and he knows she's the real culprit."
Darice stood toe-to-toe with Thia. "Then why hasn't he told anyone? Huh?"
She snorted. "Why do you think? He refuses to disparage his brother. By the time he was out of the hospital, your mother had already concocted the lie that Uncle Hauk had saved himself by cutting the rope, and left your father to die, and that no one had found the body. The only person he tried to tell the truth to was his mother, because he didn't want her to hate him for something he didn't do."
"Yaya knows?"
"She knows. It's why she slashed him. It wasn't done as a warning. She attacked Uncle Hauk because she couldn't attack Keris. She was mortified by what your father had done, and she told Uncle Hauk that he better never breathe a word of it to anyone!"
As they continued fighting, Sumi let out a loud whistle. "Please, for the love of the gods, stop it! Both of you! Let him rest in peace without you two going at it like jacked-up snipies. If you need something to occupy yourselves with, go get our supplies and bring them here without killing each other."
Thia untied Illyse and left.
Darice paused by Sumi's side to stare down at his uncle. "Do you believe Thia?"
Why was he asking her?
"Does it matter what I think, Darice? I don't know your mother, at all. I barely know your uncle. However, he seems to be extremely kind and devoted. I can't imagine he would dishonor your mother, and I know he hasn't done so with me."
That seemed to calm him. Nodding, he ran after Thia.
Alone with Hauk, Sumi brushed her hand along the whiskers on his cheek. In the chaos of this morning, he hadn't shaved. The added growth made him look wild and untamed.
Even more masculine.
Smiling at the proud image he made even while he slept, she wound one of his thin black braids around her finger to toy with it. Unlike the rest of him, his hair and lips were so incredibly soft. Warmth spread through her at the memory of his tongue licking her fingers while she'd fed him the antidote. The sensation of his fangs brushing against her skin as he took care not to bite her, even though he was barely alert.
You are an incredibly sexy beast, Dancer Hauk. And he deserved a lot better than a female who couldn't love and appreciate him.
"Deserving's got nothing to do with anything." Her father's angry voice echoed in her head. "You think I deserved a whore who ran off in the middle of the night, and left me with two daughters to raise? Show me the Life Manual where it says things are fair and we all get what we deserve!"
As a girl, she'd thought him a fool for that reasoning. Had virulently disagreed with him.
Too bad the old bastard had been more right than he was wrong. Her heart breaking, she stroked Dancer's goatee with her thumb.
Sighing in his sleep, Dancer nuzzled his head against her hand. The unexpected sweetness touched her. Removing her poncho, she made a pillow for him.
He mumbled something in Andarion.
"Shh," she whispered, trying to soothe him.
"Munatara."
She knew he couldn't be referring to her as such, but she allowed herself to pretend for a moment that she was the one he called out for in his stupor. What would it be like to be loved that way? To have someone, just once, she could turn to for comfort?
Someone who would call her the lady of his life, and not a whore or a bitch?
It was all she'd ever wanted. Someone who could actually love her and not hurt or insult her. An impossible dream that was now lost to her forever. Even if it wasn't, Dancer would be the last person she could ever have a relationship with. Forgetting the fact that they were two different species, their siblings had married and parted as bitter enemies. And he would absolutely kill her if he ever learned that fact.
I should be terrified of you.
He could snap her in half or gut her without even raising his blood pressure.
Vicious memories of Avin surged. She still couldn't believe how easily she'd found herself in such an abusive relationship, especially after the year she'd spent with Darnell, and his insults when she'd been in college. She'd always prided herself on being independent and strong. Yet both men had lured her in with sweet words and acts of kindness. Then something would hit them wrong and they'd turn violent without warning. They'd always apologize later and swear it would never happen again.
Like a fool,
she'd believed every lie. In that, she wasn't any different than Darice, who wanted to believe his mother, in spite of the truth that was right in front of his face. But it was easy to believe in lies when all you wanted was to be loved and accepted for who and what you were.
Sometimes it was good enough just to be loved for who they thought you were.
But that wasn't real and she knew it.
"Sumi?"
She met Dancer's suddenly lucid gaze. "I'm right here."
He laid his hand over hers and moved it from his cheek to his lips so that he could place a tender kiss in her palm. Sighing, he slid his head into her lap and held her against him with one powerful arm.
"Are you awake, Dancer?"
His answer was a mumbled something she couldn't make out.
"I guess not." Sumi brushed the braids back from his face as she hummed to him one of the lullabies Omira used to sing to her. She lost herself to this one moment of pretend domesticity. The cave and everything else fell away as she studied Dancer's chiseled features, and wondered what it would be like to make love to someone like him. Someone who still had a soul and a heart.
In the serene quiet of this moment, she allowed her fantasies to run wild as she imagined living with him and Kalea in a small apartment on some planet where no one would pay them any attention, and they could go about their boring lives in total happiness.
You're such an idiot.
She was indeed. It had always been her greatest flaw. As Omira had so often mocked, she was a dreamer. Through and through.
But wanting it to be real, she leaned forward and rubbed her nose to his. Then guilt struck her hard as she remembered her mission and why she was here.
How can I ruin him?
How could she not?
Conflicted and angry at fate for dangling this in front of her when it knew she could never have such a life, she didn't move until she heard the kids returning. Only then did she gently place Dancer's head on her poncho, and put a few feet between them.
Thia came forward with a blanket while Sumi went to set up a few things for the night. As Dancer had pointed out, it wasn't safe here, but they had no choice. They had to make do. At least until morning.
And if more men came for him, she'd make them wish they were facing Dancer and not her.
As they unpacked for camp, she learned why Hauk didn't play the violin around anyone.
While digging through Hauk's bag, Darice found the case, opened it, and curled his lip in supreme disgust. "What kind of human thing is this?"
Thia's eyes narrowed angrily as she snatched the case from his grasp and closed it. "It's mine. Leave it alone." But when Thia met her gaze, she saw the truth. Thia knew it was Hauk's and was trying to save her uncle any more of Darice's contempt.
The girl placed it in her own pack while Darice continued to mumble in Andarion. "Shut up, Darice," Thia said irritably. "I'm as fluent in Andarion as you are."
That set them off into arguing with words that were meaningless to Sumi. But given the nuclear escalation of their gestures and pitch, she knew she needed to break them apart or there'd be blood on the cave walls soon.
"Thia? Can you gather more root and berries for me? We should make additional antidote for your uncle."
Glaring at Darice, she nodded. "Sure, Sumi. I'll be back in a few minutes." She took Illyse with her.
Sumi paused to watch Darice return to digging through Hauk's things. He reminded her of a little kid with a treasure chest. It was actually adorable to watch him try on Hauk's gloves and see just how much more he needed to grow to be the same size.
For the record, it was a lot. Hauk was huge.
"I'm going to start a fire, outside. Okay?"
Darice responded with a nod.
"Let me know if your uncle wakes up and needs something."
That got her a heated, furious glare.
Holding her hands up in surrender, she left them alone, even though a part of her wondered if it was the wisest thing to do. Darice held a lot of hatred and resentment toward his uncle.
Sumi sighed. Family was such a pain in the ass. A lifetime of hurt feelings and misunderstandings. Of two very different accounts of the same event that could result in all-out war between siblings and parents, even years later.
Still, it was something she craved with every part of herself. She'd always been envious of her friends who had families they could visit. Siblings and parents they got along with. She just couldn't imagine such a thing.
Trying not to think about it, she started the fire, and when Thia returned, she showed the girl how to make the antitoxin.
As soon as it was finished, she returned to the cave to find the last thing she would have ever thought possible.
Dancer was awake. And nestled up against his chest, in his arms like a little puppy, was Darice. With his chin resting on top of his nephew's head, Dancer was lacing one of his leather bracers onto the boy's arm.
She froze as their low voices reached her.
"So what was my da like as a brother?"
"He was fine, Darice."
"Just fine? Matarra says that he was the most honorable of all. That he always took care of his brothers and watched over you."
Dancer snorted. "She wasn't the one getting her head dunked into toilets by him."
Darice turned to look up at Dancer. "What? Why would he do that?"
Dancer sighed heavily as he checked the laces to make sure they weren't too tight on Darice's arm. "Your father had a temper, Dare. And I seemed to ignite it often. Sometimes by doing nothing more than breathing in the same room with him."
"Really?"
"Really. Fain has always said that I'm a particularly vexing and talented... hemorrhoid."
Sumi bit back a laugh at his editing of what she was sure his brother actually called him.
"Mostly," he continued, "because I had two older brothers who took turns bossing me every minute of every day. And because I don't like being told what to do, I always had an issue with them thinking they were my parents." Dancer touched the tip of Darice's nose. "And like you, I'm quite vocal when I don't like something."
"Is that why you never want to spend time with me? Why you never come to any of my games when I ask you to?"
Sumi's throat tightened at the pain in Darice's voice as he asked that question.
His jaw slack, Dancer lifted his head to stare down at his nephew. "I never miss your games, Dare."
Curling his lip, Darice started to rise, but Dancer held him in place. "You're a liar! Let go of me!"
With a fierce grimace, Dancer refused. He forced Darice back and held him with one arm while he turned on the small PD on his wrist. He swiped the screen with his finger. "See for yourself. I was even there at your last match when you scored the winning goal in overtime."
Darice went perfectly still as he saw what must be a photo of him during the game. His lips trembling, he used his index finger to skim through the pictures on Dancer's module. "I don't understand. If you were there, why have you never come to see me after the games?"
"Because I'm not your father and I've never been in the Andarion military. Your mother said it would shame you for your friends and their fathers to see me there. So I always go when you play and then leave afterward before any of them see me."
Sumi choked at the pain in his voice.
His brow furrowed, Darice continued to flick through the photos. "You were at my graduation?"
"I've always been there for you, Dare. And I always will be. Any time you need me, all you have to do is call."
Tears glistened in Darice's eyes as he tried to digest what Dancer showed and told him, against the lies his mother must have filled him with. "Why don't you ever take me for weekends?"
"Whenever I go to pick you up, you're always busy with school, games, practice, and your friends. Your mother says that it's better for your growth that you stay with her, especially given the shame and embarrassment I would bring to you should any of th
em see me with you. It's why I've only been allowed to train you for Endurance climbing every few months or so."
Darice swallowed hard as he clutched at his uncle's arm that held the module that catalogued how much Dancer loved him. "You don't shame or embarrass me, Dancer."
"That's not what you've said in the past. I thought I was doing what you wanted... what was best for you, by leaving you with your mother and staying in the background."
His gaze troubled and fretting, Darice fell silent as he turned off the module then laid his head on Dancer's biceps.
Sumi moved forward, expecting Darice to say something snotty to her. Or jump up indignantly from Dancer's arms. Instead, he merely watched her approach them from where he lay cradled.
"How are you feeling?"
Dancer licked his lips. "Wrung out. You?"
"I'm fine." She knelt beside them and felt his forehead with the back of her hand. "Your fever's not as bad." Then she handed him the small cup. "It's more of the antidote."