Honored Vow

been allowed four companions along
    with their sylvans and sheserus, and we joined the others walking silently
    toward the entrance of the semel of Khertet’s home.
    “Why the quiet?” Danny asked Crane as we trudged with the
    procession.

    Honored Vow

    159

    “All but one group of these people will lose their semel,” Crane
    answered him. “Some of them will lose him today. Some of them will lose
    their sheseru or their sylvan or their yareah, and one tribe has already lost
    a maahes. This is a very solemn occasion, and no one here wants to care at
    all for anyone outside their circle. Only the people from the tribe of
    Khertet are candidates for friendship, as they’re the only ones that aren’t a
    threat.”
    Danny understood, nodding as he fell into step beside Mikhail.
    It was a maze inside, tunnels carved deep into the side of the
    mountain, rock on all sides, dirt covering it at our feet, the air smelling
    damp and like something else, sandalwood incense and fire and burning
    wood.
    Finally, after easily a half an hour of walking, we were led through a
    corridor into an opening that turned out to be the pit. We gathered there,
    assembled, to be addressed by the priest of Chae Rophon, Hamid Shamon.
    He stepped forward to address us, and Jamal Hassan, the phocal, head of
    the Shu cats, stood on his right.
    I tried to listen, I really did, but the speech, the posturing of the
    semel-aten, Ammon El Masry, as he stepped forward on the man’s left,
    was all too much. We all knew what hung in the balance. The priest was
    leveraging his power against Ammon’s. If the semel-aten emerged
    victorious, he was within his power to appoint a new priest and have
    Hamid Shamon, who had served for over forty-three years—the man was
    in his seventies—exiled or ritually executed. It was the price the priest
    paid for challenging him. But if the semel-aten was killed in the pit, then
    the strong, vital priest would continue his reign and be partnered with a
    new semel-aten, together enacting law for the werepanther world.
    He spoke on, and all eyes moved from him to Ammon El Masry and
    back. I looked at the semel-aten and wondered for the millionth time why
    he would ever try and hurt Logan. If he was so terrified of losing his
    power, surely, even from running my gaze around the room, there were
    more men than my semel who would try to seize power.
    “Jin, you need to focus,” Crane cautioned me, because he knew my
    mind was drifting.
    But I was close now, hours instead of days away from seeing Logan.
    He was being kept in a cell close by, caged separately, as were all the
    semels, from one another.

    160

    Mary Calmes

    “And now let us please thank our host, Orso Bataar, semel of the
    tribe of Khertet.”
    Only Genghis Khan himself could have possibly lived up to my
    expectations. As it was, the man was tall and broad with hair that was
    graying at the temples but otherwise thick, black, and straight. His yareah,
    Khongordzol, at his side, was elegant, queenly, and smiled at us all and
    waved. Their sons—they had three—all bowed low from above us. His
    khatyu, those who would test us, were headed not by his sheseru, whom I
    had met, but by Dval Quach, the new sheseru of the tribe of Rahotep.
    Roshan Tabir, whom I had met when I was in Sobek, had been killed
    trying to carry out his semel’s orders to ambush and kill my mate. Now, as
    I looked up at Dval Quach, I knew that Ammon would have told him the
    story, told him specifically to make sure that Logan didn’t live, and all the
    men that he brought with him would have the same orders: to kill my
    mate.
    The task at hand was overwhelming, and for a moment I let all the
    fear and uncertainty flood me.
    “Stop,” Crane ordered hoarsely. “Don’t forget who you are, Jin.
    Yeah, that’s the semel-aten up there and the priest of Chae Rophon and
    some guy who gets his rocks off hurting his own kind, but you’re the only
    fuckin’ nekhene cat in existence. Get it in your head.”
    I centered and calmed.
    “We will now return to all but one tribe their princes,” the priest
    said, gesturing toward a side entrance.
    Every other entourage turned to look, holding their breath. None of
    us worried. We all knew Domin better than that.
    He was the second maahes through the archway, and his smile was
    wide and all him, wicked and warm all at the same time. I was surprised
    that Yuri moved around me and ran toward him. Domin lifted his arms,
    and my sheseru