Book 4
Siha: Rise of Rakhana
Part II
Braith's voice calls him from his sleep and he wakes and looks for her near him, "…Casnar…I heard something." He lies very still but his fingers move for the gun he keeps under the pillow on which his head rests next to hers.
"Braith," he whispers, "…go into the other room. Keep quiet." He moves the blanket aside to let her sit up.
Even with her swollen belly, she still moves with the same quickness he remembers.
Casnar brings the gun with him. Towards a room cast by light from a star outside, and Casnar moves silently into the shadow slanted behind the light let in by the frame of the doorway…He listens with one teness ( ear ) to the wall, and brings the gun up as he indicates to Braith peeking out from the sitting room attached to their boudicea ( bedroom ) to keep quiet…
Not that she is new to this…Braith moves back behind the frame of the sitting room's door and slides down the wall, hands on her belly over her silk shift…She brings both knees out to the sides to accommodate the discomfort of her stretched abdomen…Silently she prays that Casnar does not meet his end in the other room.
Anything can happen. Anything.
Since they had been reunited in Thorolf, Braith and he had been on the run with Ylyssus Tan'nanshul…Not only from family but from friends…They found themselves lost, but together, and they were not found…Too, for a time, it was Tetonbaum helping to prevent them from being discovered but Tetonbaum was captured, retained by Merce'des.
Kasumi was forced to flee with others…That was the last Tetonbaum saw of his wife and Kasumi her husband.
Casnar chose Clios, a place where no one could find them far south beyond the borders of Rakka…Ylyssus helped them learn of it.
Konis Traus was out there.
Cartira, too.
Casnar took hold of the gun with both hands and moved into the next room, turning to the window—seeing a shadow before this moved.
"Tetonbaum…"
He lowered the gun, grasping his half-brother's hand. The two pull together for a long embrace. Casnar made a noise, this some cross between a choke and a sharp breath in…It is a long time before they separate, Braith coming to stand by the doorway, folding her hands over her belly.
They look each other over. Tetonbaum, dressed in dark fatigues and wearing a cap off the side of his crests, wavy and dark in the night...His sapphire eyes smile as they always do, "…Here," he purrs deeply, "…you've been hiding, I see…" His gaze moves to Braith's paleness, reminding him painfully of his wife somewhere yet to be found. Tetonbaum's gaze lowers from the snow-gray eyes and freckles to the swell behind her hands as she walks from out of the bedroom. Casnar places his hand around her waist. "Nefen Shepard, a look that flatters you."
She offers a small grin, "…Thanks, Tetonbaum," her eyes ease some from the relief it is him and not an Al'Kin or Kerhasi, "…We heard you'd been taken…Was our intel wrong?"
He sees her make an inquisitive gesture towards his clothes. "I was sent off world."
"That explains the new digs," Casnar says, "…No longer a high th'ane?"
"It was decided I should be elevated," Tetonbaum touches his finger to his cap, "…Jehush guard, and then Special Tactical."
"I'm surprised they have a sized uniform for your muscles," Casnar flicks the suiting.
With a glance to the window letting in the moon, "…We should unite you with our friends," his sapphires, deep now in the dark, move to Casnar, "…Kasumi has been located," he looks to Braith, "…I have found Ylyssus, he waits. Leave everything behind. We must leave before we lose this opportunity…Everything will be provided, but come swiftly."
Casnar steps out after Braith, who follows Tetonbaum down into the forested area outside the house they have made there…Braith hobbles a bit with a contraction that makes her eyes bulge. She grabs onto Tetonbaum for support, raising her face to meet the concern in his expression.
"It has been how long…" Judging by her size, "…eight months?"
"About right," she replies, "…and a week."
Tetonbaum helps her descend the next planks. The abode was designed much as a house in two trees. Situated in a gathering of branches a few dozen feet wide in all four directions of the compass, thick hardwood as long as a human is tall in the diameter of but one treelimb alone, their home is accessible by ropes and boards, built in staccato rhythm to wind sharply downward. They stop at another platform on which now Braith, Tetonbaum and Casnar turn to head through the remaining five levels of wooden bridges and stepladders to the forest floor.