The Unfinished Song: Taboo by Maya Tara

Author:Maya, Tara [Maya, Tara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-25T04:00:00+00:00

Kavio

“Zavaedi, since we’re walking, mind if we start talking?” asked the Olani. He had a deep voice with the rolling, lilted accent of the far north coast.

Kavio inclined his head, while he searched for the man’s name. Svego.

“Of course, Tavaedi Svego.”

The lithe man paused and flipped his hair back. He had the same flirtatious manner of many Olani that Kavio had known, but beneath the superficial mannerisms, there was a certain reserve about him.

“Oh, my no, sweetling, I’m not a Tavaedi. I’m just a slave.”

“I thought all Olani were Tavaedi.”

“Not in our tribe, sugarloaf.”

“Yet Nargano sent you as his envoy?” Kavio didn’t like the implications of that. Usually an envoy was a person of power, if not a Tavaedi, then kin or spouse of the one who dispatched him.

“Fa, don’t you worry,” said Svego. He pinched his fingers together. “I am this close to the War Chief, trust me. Close as a thong on a foot-long dong.”

Kavio grimaced. “Thank you for that Vision. But just to be clear, are you saying that you…and Nargano…. I thought he had a wife.”

“Oh, he does. Not to mention slave girls. And me. I’m just like one of his girls, but a lot prettier.”

“But…then…”

Svego laughed. “Sweetling, Nargano bumps his rump to anything that thumps.”

Kavio nodded. It still disturbed him that Nargano would have sent a slave as an envoy, it smacked of disrespect. He couldn’t understand how an Olani could not be a Tavaedi.

“Did you have something in particular you wanted to ask me about?” he asked Svego, who fidgeted like a man with something unpleasant he didn’t know how to say.

“Zavaedi, it is not my place to tell another man how to humiliate his slave, but if you wish him to accompany us, you might consider another punishment. His lagging is dragging us all down.”

It took a blink or two for Kavio to understand. “Ah.” He glanced backward at the last member of their party, now far behind the others, Gremo grunting to haul his boulder.

“Gremo is not my slave. He asked to come, as a favor, and I granted it.”

Svego looked skeptical. “He’s very handsome, under all that wild hair. Is he your lover? Is he trying to prove his worth to you by pulling the rock?”

“Handsome? Gremo?” Kavio laughed. “Maybe to an Olani. My tastes lie in a different direction.” He was careful not to let his eyes wander toward Dindi. He had a feeling Svego was shrewd about such things.

“Nonetheless,” pressed Svego. “The rock? A problem.”

“You have no idea,” Kavio said dryly. Still, Svego had a point. They couldn’t travel the whole way to the Blue Waters tribehold like this. “I’ll talk to Gremo after we make camp.”

“If you don’t mind, may I help him?”

Kavio raised his eyebrows at the slender Olani. “You want to help him pull the rock?”

“I want to help him fix his hair. And the stink! Fa! I like a big, sweaty man, but there’s good clean sweat and then there’s three-day stale stink.”

“If you can convince him, be my guest.

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