Book 5

Siha: Rise of Rakhana

Part III

"Silver and Fire"

Casnar strides through the bridge, coming round the turn after Tetonbaum who has left the cabin in a bit of a fluster. It's not often a th'ane such as he gets into a turmoil, but the threat of what Casnar's intentions will deliver for his being unfaithful to Kasumi has Tetonbaum's gut feeling like they have been tangled on hooks.

"What did you expect, Tetonbaum," Casnar hisses at him as they make the cockpit, his torso bare but his uniform pants back on and the top and sleeves trailing, "…What right did you have to go and get Braith pregnant—"

"I'm trying to change the pathway," Tetonbaum turns to him, Feron tilting sixty degrees in his seat with the kids peering at Tetonbaum and their father from Feron's ankle and lap, "…You caused more mess than I did, what with how you were going about it—"

"But I know what I'm doing—"

"You nearly had Kolyat killed, Braith was slaved out and raped by Shala—" He sees Casnar's face change into stone at hearing about Shala, "…She's somehow forgiven you, and I doubt she's—"

"Who is Shala," Casnar has only focused on the one thing that pisses him off the most. Tetonbaum pauses, narrows his sapphires and leans towards him.

"One of Konis Traus's drells, don't worry—I've done you the favor of breaking his bones, Brother—"

"I told you to stop calling me that…No brother goes and takes his sibling's wife for his own progeny investment, Tetonbaum."

Tetonbaum leans backwards, then icily, "…What husband sets up his lover to be kidnapped and subjected to the extremes she was, Casnar." He emphasizes this with a finger drawn downward. "I visited her in Mohouni, I knew her friends and what she was doing, how she met Ylyssus, how filthy she was and—"

"Did you fuck her then?" Casnar snaps, looks at the twins, "…Sorry, kiddos, Daddy and his half-bastard sibling are—" Tetonbaum growls, and in a rare show of temper, pushes Casnar backwards…Casnar stares at him, his lips apart in stunned surprise, and then he ducks his head and pushes Tetonbaum back.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Feron gets up out of the chair, picking up the twins as they stare and Jenner starts to cry uncertainly at the tussle in the cockpit area. Having to press up tight into the alcove of the cockpit to avoid Casnar and Tetonbaum tackling and wrestling each other, he cries out, "…Stop, you guys! I got the kids here, for crying out loud."

Jaspin is watching from Feron's shoulder, eyes raptly focused on Casnar who has taken the top position and his wrists are binded by Tetonbaum's red fists, holding these away from his throat. Jenner is sucking his fingers and hiding behind Feron's chest.

"You liked that, didn't you," Casnar growls, forcing his hands downward, "…Being called the half-blood you are by me…I've only ever treated you like a brother and you defy me by taking my wife, Ylyssus's—"

"She was not averse to it," Tetonbaum, for all his charm, smiles viciously upwards, the sapphires bright and egging Casnar on…Casnar yells and tries for his brother's neck, both tebrises of the drells filling and flaring in challenge of one another. Feron looks over with one eye, Jaspin still staring over the drell's shoulder, Jenner sucking his fingers faster and looking towards the cockpit's walls and buttons.

Tetonbaum muscles Casnar over so they are on their sides and trying to break the other's strength in a temporary stalemate of muscle in confined quarters. Braith and Ylyssus come round to the bridge, Braith in her pants and top and reaching for Casnar and Tetonbaum as she ducks under Ylyssus and pushes him back with one foot.

"Stop it," Braith gives Ylyssus a warning look, then her hair falls in the way as she turns to Casnar and Tetonbaum staring at her wide-eyed and wild, "…You two…Shame on both of you…Tetonbaum, this is beneath you…Casnar, it's not what I want to see."

"What? You're not going to say it's beneath me?" he gasps.

Braith pats him on the patak, meanwhile simultaneously trickling her fingernails through Tetonbaum's golden tebris, feeling the raised spines scratch against her skin and burn her with sweet venom, "…Of course, it's below you, Casnar," she placates, "…But I wouldn't say you're above it."

"That doesn't make sense, of course I'd be above, oh," he snarls at Tetonbaum as he steps up to rise off the floor and Braith moves between the two of them.

She feels Tetonbaum's thrum in the air behind her, and Ylyssus clears his throat.

"They need the rites, Braith."

Braith looks at her husband, always and ever her even-man-drell, "…Rites…Ah, that thing they do when they're fighting over alpha-ownership, yaddy-ya-ya."

Ylyssus shrugs, his chest bear and his briefs on, "…Yes," he feels conscious of Feron's stare over the scars on his body, "…It would affect them if they were both trying to claim mating rights to you…Old instincts die hard, Braith."

"I can tell," her eyes soften as she looks at Casnar and Tetonbaum, one after the other…She can hear the purling thrum coming from Casnar's chest, and notes it is not evident in Ylyssus.

But Ylyssus was always a beta male compared to Casnar, and Tetonbaum…I wonder why Tetonbaum doesn't have the same withholdings he showed before we started our relationship…"Tetonbaum," she looks at him and turns, keeping her back towards Casnar, "…What was it like in Merce'des…How did you…release, I guess, if the instinct in you is so strong to mate and have a child, and fight your brother," she swings her hand towards Casnar, staring heatedly over her shoulder at Tetonbaum, "…Tyrannus or not, you have always acted as a companion or a lesser of him, what with being th'ane, and only when ordered were you to attack him, right?"

Tetonbaum drops his eyes from Casnar to her face, and much prefers now to see her skin with the freckles and the lips he has come to be so intimate with, "…We repress it…There are ways to do so, and we also are sent to certain prisoners who are knowledgeable of the ways of drell…I am no virgin," he raises his eyeridges meaningfully at Braith, and she gives a little understanding smile…His brush of her chin elicits a pearl string of growls from Casnar, but not Ylyssus, "…But it is to learn and use it as a weapon, not as a matter of establishing intimacy or heirs with another…Unless that is what the Master Brotherhood wishes for us to do…I may have been considered for it, but not so early in my life," he locks eyes with hers, "…I think I might have been encouraged however, by Brother Grenald."

"Who is Brother Grenald?" Braith asks, and looks at Ylyssus—staring at Tetonbaum, who raises his gaze to the other th'ane.

"Brother Grenald," Ylyssus echoes, his eyes having slitted, "…That same drell encouraged me to sleep with the women on Merce'des."

Tetonbaum nods, "…Brother Grenald is known for saying what he wants without saying it as a demand or course of action…He is a seed-planter, an idea weaver, and would not be averse to my giving you a child, Braith," his attention moves to her again, "…He means no ill."