Wherever I Am

Chapter 27 - Part 1

"You don't do things halfway, do you, Kevin," Cornelia said, looking Calara over. "With a little luck, she won't go into labor tonight. I'm sure she won't be able to get comfortable, but we'll do what we can."

"She speaks our language, Cornelia," Allie snapped. "You can talk directly to her."

"Of course," Cornelia said, smiling and holding her hands out to Calara. "May I?"

She hesitantly handed the baby over, looking at the people in Cornelia's tent.

Cornelia sat on a folding chair and Calara on the other one. Sorina, Reginar, and I stood while Allie and Nathan sat on the bed. It was crowded.

I took Calara's hand. "Lady Cornelia will make sure you're safe for the night. I will leave you in her hands."

With that, I left, and Nathan and Reginar followed, but Reginar gestured for us to go to his tent. Once we ducked inside, Nathan asked, "What the fuck did Sinense do this time?"

"Hostage," Reginar said. "It's a thing, or can be. You provide someone valuable to you as the equivalent of a down payment on an agreement. In this case, both sides show up for breakfast in the morning. Sinense pulled a pretty fast one to keep you from having to make a snap decision. So now, the question is whether Ishen becomes Sir Ishen."

"How could you do that?" Sir Lucien asked as he came into the tent, "Milords?"

"I know that peerage has been honored," Reginar continued, "or even granted to a defeated foe or as a part of negotiations like this in the past."

"Forgive me, Milords. Sir Tilwen was a friend. I would return his vest and weapons to his parents."

"He wasn't married?"

"He had not yet chosen a wife, so he had no heir."

There was something in Lucien's voice. I glanced at Reginar, who had the barest of smiles.

"In that case," Reginar said, "those definitely should be given to his parents. Sir Lucien. Are you willing to trade your vest, saber, and belt to Ishen for Sir Tilwen's?"

Lucien nodded.

"He's effectively landed, so it'd have to be at least a Primor like Lord Boian," Reginar said.

"Really, Lord Reginar," Lucien said.

"You have an objection?"

"He isn't human."

"But he is," Reginar continued, "and that's the crux of all of this. He has no wolf background. He is human and hominid, which is an ancient form of human. Sir Lucien, you understand that we come from other worlds?"

"I understand, Milords, that the ones who attacked Baemardis Keep were from an unknown world, even to you."

"Exactly, and the Sobecks are primitive humans from yet another world we haven't found yet."

"But Milord Reginar," Lucien said. "They're here."

Lucien had a point, and Reginar was starting to sound like Danus with that pronouncement.

"That is true, but Master Sobeck died without giving us that knowledge," Reginar said. "I wonder if this Orvin has that knowledge, and that's why we've had this new run on Sobecks. We need to meet back up with Lord Boian to compare notes. If he's continued to have the same encounters we have, we're up to at least a few hundred of these primitives. There's no way to breed that many adults this quickly. Most of them have been pure primitive Sobecks, not hybrids. The land here won't support that many, which can explain both the lack of wildlife and the attacks on us. Still, they had to come from somewhere else...some other world, and in droves. Now that seems to have stopped or slowed down a lot."