The Kraken King, Part 2 by Meljean Brook

Author:Meljean Brook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-04-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Mara hadn’t needed to listen. In the morning the governor told them that the Nyungar had seen the fourteen silver flyers leaving the escarpment to the southeast four nights before, along with smoke from a fire. He’d secured permission to look for the marauders’ camp, which meant a slight detour and an afternoon’s delay while his men searched the location.

Zenobia didn’t have any objection. They would make camp early, and while he saved his town, she could work on finishing her chapter. Even Helene was not too disappointed by the delay, since they would still arrive in the smugglers’ dens on the following day.

Mara and Helene boarded the walker and settled into the back. The governor’s hands lingered on Zenobia’s waist when he lifted her onto the ladder. She’d spent a restless night thinking of him, and that simple touch set her body aflame with need all over again.

It was doused when Helene lost her breakfast within the first half hour.

How could her friend ever expect to keep the pregnancy secret? After two such mornings, Zenobia wondered if the governor had guessed the reason for their haste. He knew Helene hadn’t seen her husband in some time. But perhaps men didn’t notice such things—or just attributed them to the motion of the vehicle and delicate stomachs.

Or perhaps he focused on more pressing matters, such as the raid against a marauders’ camp that loomed ahead of him.

The Nyungar led the way. Though the tall walking machine seemed to move as slowly as a man underwater, each long stride carried it so far the mountain walkers barely kept up. The crawlers scuttled swiftly at its heels. Meeng and Cooper rode the flyers at its shoulders, their engines’ buzz a constant drone.

At any other time, Zenobia might have considered it the perfect outing. So many new places to see, and such interesting machines to take them there. The escarpment on the horizon was greener than the country they passed through. Bursts of yellow flowers grew on woody shrubs rooted in sandy soil. The trees became more plentiful as they veered east, and they splashed through streams and shallow rivers. Even the heat had abated. White clouds floated above. A cool breeze blew into their faces from the south.

But today she wished for more conversation. She didn’t want to be left to her own thoughts, because they were all of the governor.

She liked that he’d established a town for his people, and built it on the ideals of the rebellion. She liked that he hunted the marauders in hopes of keeping his town safe. She liked his laugh, and his humor, and how he didn’t easily take offense to anything she said—even when she hoped he would. She suspected there was much more to him than she’d seen, such as the ruthlessness that earned him his reputation. But even when he’d been angry, he was controlled. And he hadn’t quit his pursuit of her after she’d rejected him, but he didn’t take liberties that other men might have.

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