Honored Vow

needs manners,” Krem turned and told me.
    “I’ll teach him,” I assured him.
    He nodded.

    Honored Vow

    147

    When Danny came back, he took a seat between Crane and Yuri,
    explaining that where he had been was uncomfortable. There were
    questions for Mikhail. Both Krem and Berhna had many for him, as he
    was a sylvan in America, and they wanted to know about living in tribes
    there. He was more than happy to explain. Apparently the punishment for
    crimes was severe in their tribe: branding and marking were common
    practices, as well as death. As Mikhail explained, quietly, confidently, I
    watched the men listening attentively. Parts of what he was saying were
    very appealing to them, perhaps mostly the system of having a trial.
    “Our sylvan does not speak for us as you do for your cats, he merely
    recites the law.”
    In every tribe I had ever known, sylvans were advocates for the
    members, not merely the yardstick to be judged by. The enormity of the
    tribal differences seemed daunting, so it was nice that we all enjoyed
    eating together.
    The food was good, and it didn’t hurt that we were all starving. But
    Thai food was one of my favorite things, anyway. After a while, Yuri got
    up, and minutes later, Chuluun leaned toward me but didn’t speak.
    “Yes?”
    “Reah,” he said, swallowing, “in my tribe, we must ask permission
    before we take something that belongs to another.”
    Take was a term that encompassed many things, and I understood
    that. “What of mine would you like to have, maahes?”
    “I would taste your sheseru if he would allow it.”
    I took a breath. “In my tribe, my people make decisions for
    themselves. The choice would be Yuri’s alone.”
    “Thank you,” he said, and he got up fast, jogging across the
    restaurant.
    “Wait,” Danny gasped, leaning forward. “Jin, you can’t just give
    Yuri to that—”
    “I didn’t give Yuri to anyone. I don’t own my sheseru; he’s a
    member of my tribe.”
    “Yeah, but—”
    “Like that guy could make Yuri do anything he doesn’t want to,”
    Mikhail scoffed. “Yuri could break him in half if he wanted.”

    148

    Mary Calmes

    “Or fold him in half,” I offered. “Which is probably more along the
    lines of what Chuluun was thinking when he asked for permission.”
    “Oh God, what’s with you and being a crass piece of crap?” Crane
    scolded me.
    “Sorry.”
    But they didn’t come back, and Mikhail had to order Danny to stay
    where he was instead of getting up to go look for them.
    “Yuri wouldn’t just—that would be so disrespectful to Logan.”
    “How so?” Taj asked Danny. “Yuri’s been working like a madman,
    been training harder than all the rest of us combined, and now, on the eve
    of seeing his semel, a day before his leg of the trial, he gets to maybe fuck
    and drain off some of the tension. C’mon, he deserves it.”
    “If that’s even an option,” Crane chimed in.
    Taj scoffed. “Are you kidding? Did you see how that guy was
    looking at him? So an option—I could smell his scent change from here.”
    So had I, but as crass as my best friend thought I was, I had not
    mentioned the change in Chuluun.
    “Isn’t it rude to just go off and screw somewhere while the rest of
    us—”
    “Panthers usually copulate together in large rooms or after meals,”
    Berhna said, interrupting Danny. “Do you not practice this in your tribe?”
    “No,” Danny sneered at him. “That’s disgusting.”
    “It’s something that only a tribe shares and is a way for tribe
    members to insure that their semel and his mate are truly a mated pair and
    not in name only.”
    “It’s revolting and vile,” Danny said, shuddering.
    I turned to two of our hosts and saw how humiliated they looked and
    the hatred they bore my cousin. He was not making friends. “His ideas
    about things will change once he attends the heru-ur in Sobek, huh?” I
    grinned, waggling my eyebrows for them.
    Krem’s face broke into a wide grin, and after a moment Berhna’s did
    as well.
    “Oh yeah, that rocked,” Crane cackled, and both men joined him,
    laughing hard.

    Honored Vow

    149

    Danny, who knew that the heru-ur was called every year in Sobek
    after the feast of the valley, knew that it was basically a huge orgy, flushed
    dark red and dropped his eyes to the table.
    Mikhail cleared his throat, and I looked at him.
    “You should send him home,” he mouthed to me.
    “I can’t,” I said out loud, “but we’ll all take