Honored Vow

didn’t speak the lineage because we were all aware of what tribes we
    belonged to, so that extra posturing wasn’t necessary. But between all of
    us, it still took a while, and by the time we were ready to go, I was antsy.
    Just getting started, just driving somewhere, would make me happy. I
    wanted my mate, and just being in the same area as him, just knowing he
    was close, would help ease my rolling stomach, fluttering pulse, and
    jittery, like-I-was-on-crack demeanor. I knew I was a mess, but as soon as
    I saw Logan, in whatever form he took, I would be better. Just being in the
    same country as him had taken away my nausea. Things were already
    looking up.
    “Can we go?” I asked after an acceptable moment of silence had
    passed.
    “Of course.”
    There were five Jeeps parked outside of Arrivals, waiting there at the
    curb with a driver in each. They looked just like the one I had at home,
    and when I told that to Chuluun, that pleased him as well.
    “When you visit me, you can ride in my baby,” I told him.

    Honored Vow

    141

    “Thank you,” he said hoarsely, and the smile was genuine.
    Crane and Yuri came with me in the first Jeep, and Chuluun got in to
    drive, replacing the man who was there, sending him to another. Mikhail
    and Danny were in the next vehicle back, and Andrian and Taj were in the
    third. All the luggage was piled into the fourth one, and the last had the
    rest of the khatyu that Chuluun had brought with him. Once everyone was
    seated, we got on the road.
    “Are you hungry at all?” Chuluun asked us.
    “Starving,” Yuri said from the passenger seat.
    “No one is allowed to see their semel until tomorrow night, so we
    should get you all fed, since we’re not in a hurry.”
    “Sounds good,” my sheseru agreed.
    I wanted to say something, to ask why I couldn’t see Logan, but
    before I got my mouth open, Crane’s hand was on my thigh. When I
    turned to look at him, he gave me a slight shake of his head before he
    widened his eyes. And I got it. It was time to listen, not speak.
    “Can you give us the timeline?” Yuri asked.
    “For the beginning of the trials, you mean?” Chuluun wanted to
    clarify.
    “Yes.”
    “Well, as your sylvan said, it will take us all day to reach our home.
    Tomorrow morning when you rise, all mates of the semels and their
    entourages will meet with our semel and the priest of Chae Rophon. He is
    here with his phocal and his Shu warriors to officiate the sepat, but he will
    only interfere if he sees a rule broken. The trials themselves will be
    performed by my semel, myself, and our tribe. It was a great honor to be
    chosen to host the sepat, and my semel has had the priest here for eight
    weeks preparing him.”
    “Why did the priest choose your tribe, do you think?”
    “The security of the location,” Chuluun answered him, glancing over
    at Yuri. “And because my tribe won all the tests of strength at the last feast
    of the valley, and two of our number became Shu warriors. I myself was
    asked to take the oath of the Shu but prefer to stay as the maahes of my
    tribe. My semel asked me to remain as well.”
    And I had known he was powerful, I could feel it rippling off him.
    “You must shift very fast.” Yuri smiled at him.

    142

    Mary Calmes

    “Yes.”
    “I don’t,” Yuri confessed.
    “But I remember you in the pit in Sobek,” Chuluun told him. “A
    stronger, more powerful panther I have never seen.”
    Yuri nodded but said nothing.
    “So after meeting your semel and the priest in the morning,” Crane
    chimed in. “Then what, maahes?”
    “Then the day is for the mates to prepare themselves to see their
    semels, and that evening they will.”
    “When my reah sees his mate,” Yuri began, “what happens?”
    “Our pit is attached to the cells where we keep prisoners when—”
    “You lock up members of your tribe?” I asked him.
    “Of course, don’t you?”
    It was an outdated, archaic practice, and I was beginning to
    understand why the priest had chosen the tribe of Khertet. They were not
    modernized and seemed ensconced in old practices and antiquated ideas.
    “Sorry,” I said quickly. “So your prison, you said, is attached to your
    pit?”
    “Yes.”
    “So there’s a door,” Yuri clarified.
    “An enormous grate that lifts and lowers,” Chuluun explained. “All
    the semels will be released through it to find their mates, and we’ll see
    who comes out alive.”
    “So the preparation that the mates are