you out and have you eaten by insects.” The bright smile belied the creepy threat. Sek-Rah flared her cloak and walked out with the doors swinging wide to let her exit.
Arbor blinked. “That is a side we have not seen in centuries. Sek-Rah is actually in a good mood.”
Myra didn’t know what to say, so she followed her ancestor out the door with Arbor at her side.
The doors were standing open, but the moment they passed through the doorway, the doors closed behind them.
“Huh. I guess the tower is insisting on privacy.”
“You think it is a thinking being?” Arbor looked surprised.
“I think it has a life of its own and my being here woke it up. I can see the energy in it when I look at the walls. I can feel it .”
“There were rumours that Sek-Rah put power into the city, but since we could not enter, no one could test it.”
Myra reached out with her new senses and found the direction she wanted to explore. There was no way to tell him that the entire city was hers and it would act to protect her. It was hard for her Terran senses to grapple with, but the new part of her took it as her right to have protection.
She worked it in her mind until she could ask him. “The Day clan, how did they stay safe?”
“The high families of the Night and Eclipse clans each provided workers for the court. They tried to protect the Days when the attack happened, but against the superior numbers, there was nothing they could do.”
He put his arm around her waist, and he remained close as they walked.
“Was there anyone from your family involved?”
“Both defending and attacking.”
Myra hadn’t thought of it as a civil war before. “What set it off?”
“Three generations of Day males taking the throne that should have gone to their mates. When women sat on the throne, all was peace.”
“And when the Days were dead and the females ceased to be, the Night and Eclipse clans took to the skies in an effort to find mates.”
“Correct. We began a course through the stars that brought us riches, mates and other worlds. Fremiat is still our home and all of our people will want to see you.”
They rounded a building, and Myra found what she was looking for. “They can come and see me, but I am not going to have sex in public.”
Arbor said innocently, “But it is tradition.”
She looked up at him in horror, and he started laughing. She moved out of his grip and walked into the gardens, leaving the mad chortling behind her.
Chapter Seven
Sek-Rah must have been manicuring the hedges. They were high, straight and deep, glossy green.
Myra ran her hand along the greenery and felt the slight prickle of thorns. The buds were there, and they nearly quivered with urgency when she touched them.
She walked the length of the hedge, changed direction and walked back up with her left hand trailing the greenery.
Arbor waited at the far end, and she approached him slowly, pausing a few feet away from him to lean toward one of the waiting buds. She kissed the tiny green nub and sent a tiny curl of light into it with a smile.
The bud swelled and opened until a crimson flower twisted out of the green concealment. The scent that came out of the flower was glorious.
Myra’s eyes closed as she inhaled the intoxicating aroma that was sweet, floral and sexy all at the same time.
“You have that effect on me as well, though hopefully not as quickly.” Arbor’s voice was amused.
“Ha, ha.”
She caressed the silken petals, and when she had gathered herself, she walked over to her consort.
“I need to learn to fight.”
“You can’t.”
“I need to. You don’t understand; if you don’t train me to fight, I will have to learn on my own and that might be a dangerous thing.”
“I mean that your body will not let you. No Day has been able to learn any martial skills. You have no coordination and no capacity for violence.”
There was nothing for it. Myra pulled her hand back and slapped
Learning to Kill: Stories