Honored Vow

doing during the day—that
    could be them preparing for their deaths.”
    “Yes,” Chuluun said solemnly. “I am sorry.”
    “Not to worry,” Yuri said with a shrug. “The mate of our semel is his
    reah, there’s no reason to even worry.”
    “Of course.”
    “So we’ll be above them, we’ll be able to see.”
    “Yes, our pit was built like most, like a coliseum, with entrances on
    the top and bottom so you can walk around the rim of the room and see
    everything that’s going on below.”
    “I look forward to seeing it.”

    Honored Vow

    143

    I watched Chuluun nod and turn his head just enough to catch a
    glimpse of Yuri out of the corner of his eye.
    As he drove, I studied the maahes of the tribe of Khertet.
    He was just as tall as Yuri, but he wasn’t as wide through the chest
    or shoulders. His hair was black like mine, but whereas mine was so dark
    that Logan always said he could see blue highlights in it, Chuluun’s
    looked like there might even be streaks of brown in his. He had sharp,
    chiseled features and dark-bronze skin that set off deep-set sepia-colored
    eyes. Striking man, and his voice complemented him, low and husky.
    “Since you’re going to have nothing but traditional food soon, lots of
    mutton, goat, maybe we should stop for some Thai food for now or—”
    “Whatever you choose will be great,” Yuri assured him.
    “I—” he coughed, “—apologize for earlier and—”
    “Zaboot.” Yuri smiled, cutting him off gently.
    “Spasiba,” Chuluun whispered back.
    We drove for an hour, and slowly, cautiously, my sheseru prodded
    the maahes with questions about the trials. Yuri’s would start on the third
    day; the test of blood was first, then Mikhail’s, the test of law, and finally
    mine on the fifth day, the test of heart. He then prodded about the reah,
    where she had come from, why his semel would allow her sanctuary and
    not simply return her to the semel-aten.
    “We don’t know yet who the semel-aten will be,” Chuluun told him.
    “Might we simply be gifting the semel-netjer with another reah?”
    “No.” Yuri smiled, stretching languidly, and I saw the maahes open
    his mouth to take a breath, taste my sheseru’s scent in the air. “You
    misunderstand. My reah was not simply taken as my semel’s mate because
    Logan Church chose to do so; my semel is semel-re first, semel-netjer
    second.”
    Chuluun looked at me in the rearview mirror. “You are the true-mate
    of your semel? You’re not simply a reah that he decided to take for his
    mate that was born on his land?”
    “I’m his true-mate, he is semel-re.”
    He grunted. “Then my semel’s….”
    “What?” Crane asked after he realized that Chuluun didn’t want to
    say. “Your semel’s what? Does he have a plan to use Amirah as an added
    bonus test?”

    144

    Mary Calmes

    It was obvious that the other man was flustered.
    “He’s using her,” Crane said as Chuluun took a turn off the highway
    into what looked like a busy metropolitan area. “Does your semel have a
    plan, maybe? Use the reah to screw with the other tribe leaders?”
    He couldn’t say; it would be dishonorable, disloyal. The way he
    wiggled in his seat, uncomfortable suddenly, was enough of an admission.
    “I doubt it was his idea,” I said, relieving Chuluun’s semel of any
    wrongdoing, putting the blame firmly where I was sure it deserved to be.
    “I’ll bet you that Ammon El Masry found her and made Orso take her in
    just for the purpose of using her as a diversion in the sepat.”
    “Yes,” Chuluun agreed, sighing deeply. “The reah is to be used as a
    diversion. No semel can ignore a reah, the semel-aten said.”
    “So he brought her with him, or she came before him?”
    “Before,” he told us. “She came asking to join the tribe at his
    request. As you know, he could not ask Orso to take her unless she
    belonged to his tribe, and she did not. She belonged last to the tribe of
    Ariat.”
    She had belonged to a semel who had killed himself over her
    betrayal. And she had not forced him to take his own life—no one could
    force anyone to do that—but she had been the catalyst.
    “It’s a shame that she joined your tribe just on the semel-aten’s
    word,” Yuri said, changing the subject. “Because she’s missing out.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “I mean I can’t think of anywhere more secluded or safer than this.”
    “You think it’s safe here?”
    He nodded. “Even though I haven’t seen your