Whispers That Reached the Hyenas
Bariya had left a mark on the banquet that no one would soon forget. She was confident and utterly self-possessed, yet without a trace of the arrogance that came from leaning on the Caliph name—and merciless toward anyone who made an enemy of her. She possessed every quality the predator beastkin admired, and because of it she won over a great many of them.
"I had such a wonderful time today."
After the banquet, Bariya and the three Caliphs gathered in the sitting room. She had shed the dress and washed in hot water, and her body had gone loose as liquid of its own accord. A rosy flush bloomed over cheeks that had filled out soft and round.
"Thank you for holding the banquet for me."
Bariya smiled with her eyes half-closed and dipped her head—then swayed so sharply that Sirka caught her at once. Predator banquets ordinarily ran until dawn, but they had brought this one to a close late at night for Bariya's sake, young as she still was. Even so, the exhaustion seemed to have found her.
"Why are you forcing yourself to stay up? Wash and go straight to bed."
Sirka scooped her up as she scolded, and Bariya mumbled into her shoulder.
"Because I'm grateful. A thank-you only means something if I say it today."
At the sincerity of it, the three Caliphs smiled, soft and warm.
"Did you have fun?"
"Yes, Family Head. It was really, truly fun. I think I might actually be made for the stage."
"You certainly tore around well enough. What would we have done if we hadn't thrown a banquet?"
Sabrina let out a short laugh, picturing that small body charging all over the hall, panting the whole way. After a night like that, of course she was tired.
Sirka, still holding her, patted her back and asked.
"Do you want to go to another banquet?"
"I can go again?"
"As often as you like, if that's what you want."
"Then good. I'll get to wear another gorgeous dress."
"You can wear them on ordinary days, too."
"I can't. They're expensive. I don't have any money."
There was no need for her to worry about that. Madame Renouage already had a great many custom orders underway for her. Well—there was no need to tell her so just yet.
"Off to bed, little one."
When Bariya was half asleep, Baden and Sabrina drew close and each, very gently, stroked her cheek and her hair.
"Sleep well, little one."
"Sweet dreams."
"Mm-hm. You two, too."
Sirka carried Bariya out of the sitting room, and White, who had been sprawled on the floor, lurched upright and trotted after them.
"What's this, White. You're coming too?"
Chuff.
Even during the banquet she had clung to Bariya's side as if she were a guard knight.
"You two have gotten close."
They hadn't been, at first. Though even then White had been unable to hold her head up in front of Bariya, and it had only been Bariya who disliked her.
When they reached the room and Sirka laid Bariya on the bed, White sprang up as if it were the most natural thing in the world and stretched out beside her.
"Nobody said you were raised together. Get down."
Hmph.
Ignoring Sirka was White's particular talent. She blew a dismissive breath through her nose and wrapped Bariya in her enormous tail.
"Oh, you little— How dare you put that heavy thing on her?"
Sirka meant to shove her off at once. But—
"So soooft..."
Half asleep, Bariya mumbled and seized White's fur in both fists. The strength was astonishing; she lifted the hide itself a little.
Nnngh.
Even so, White endured the pain and stayed glued to Bariya's side, refusing to be parted from her.
"Tsk. Have it your way."
With Bariya holding on, there was nothing else for it. In the end Sirka gave up.
"Sleep well, little one."
She tucked the blanket in properly, then slipped from the room without a sound. Soon the breathing of Bariya and White, both sunk deep in sleep, spread quietly through the room. It was the most peaceful, the coziest night Bariya had known since coming to the Caliphs.
Word that a young honored guest had appeared among the Caliphs spread quickly through all of predator beastkin society.
And the Caliphs were no ordinary house. Unlike the families that had swollen their power through sheer numbers, they had climbed into the ranks of the great houses with only a few of their own. Joining with Frost and producing an heir who possessed an Authority had lifted their standing higher still.
Into such a house had come an honored guest whom the Family Head herself declared equal in status to the Caliph direct line. Predator society, of course, was turned on its head.
At first people assumed she was the heir's betrothed, but the moment they heard the guest was a child, that possibility was cast aside. Then the covetous ones appeared.
"If the Caliphs are willing to sponsor her, doesn't that mean the child is considerably gifted? Then surely a betrothal with her wouldn't be out of the question?"
A new prospect for marriage talks had appeared in the house of the Caliphs, who until now had only a son!
Fed by people nursing vain hopes, the rumors of Bariya spread with ridiculous speed, and before long they reached the Mariner family as well.
Darius Mariner stood before the Family Head's office with the look of a man being strangled. The one inside was the mother who had borne him, and still terror made him want to run.
"Family Head. Lord Darius Mariner has arrived."
The head butler at the door did not give him a moment. He announced him at once.
"Come in."
The door opened. It made not a sound, and that silence was all the more chilling. Darius swallowed hard and forced one foot across the threshold.
Though it was midday, the office was unnaturally dark and still. On the sofa sat Rozan Mariner—the Mariner heir he hated, his own younger sister. His eyes sharpened of their own accord at the red hair that burned bright even in the dark.
"...I greet the Family Head."
Darius clenched his teeth, but he offered his greeting to the Family Head first.
Family Head Velodic Mariner. Ash-gray hair, and her back to him as she looked out the window.
"Darius Mariner."
Velodic did not so much as accept her son's greeting. The one who called his name was the heir, Rozan.
"There's a rampant rumor that the Caliphs held a banquet welcoming an honored guest by the name of Bariya Bell."
"Rozan, this is no place for you to cut in."
"Get my title right, Darius. I am not speaking to you as your little sister. As heir of the Mariners and as Vice Head, I am calling you to account for your failure."
Rozan folded her arms and frowned. The face was only a frown. Beneath it, she was plainly delighted to have a chance to cut him down.
That damned bitch!
Fury climbed to the crown of Darius's head, but with Velodic in the room he could not spit his usual stream of curses at Rozan. In the end he could do nothing. He had to stand there and take her rebuke.
"Why in the world is that little wildcat at the Caliphs'? You said you could drag her back at any moment. You said a child could never evade a hyena's pursuit without her mother's help!"
Darius said nothing.
"Then why is that thing staying with the Caliphs as an honored guest! If you have a mouth, explain yourself, Darius!"
Even as Rozan bellowed, Velodic did not so much as stir. Faced with that utterly cold figure, Darius squeezed his eyes shut.
Bariya, that little wretch—why, of all places, did she have to run to the Caliphs!
Not anywhere else. The Caliphs. The detestable house that possessed everything the Mariners wanted, and Bariya had walked straight into it.
"...It was an unforeseen situation. Even so, she won't have told the Caliphs about the Authority."
Perhaps because of what she had suffered among the Mariners, Bariya loathed, to an extreme, the idea of her Authority becoming known. Whatever Claire had said to her, the girl had also been bound to silence. So thoroughly that even Darius had needed a long time to learn what that Authority actually was.
"If word gets out that her ability is bewitching others with pheromones, the Caliphs will shrink from her too."
Honestly, when he had first learned of that Authority, Darius had been disappointed. She had hidden it so tightly that he had thought it must be something tremendous. The name was grand, and the reality was nothing more than stirring a very faint fondness for Bariya herself. The Mariners, who needed a power strong enough to surpass the Caliphs' Authority, had been bitterly let down.
The kindness the Caliphs showed that nothing of a child was probably because of the ability as well. And for that very reason, Bariya would want to hide it all the more.
"And so? They don't know the Authority, so it's fine, and you mean to leave things exactly as they are?"
Rozan answered his explanation with nothing but a sneer.
"Among those who carry Mariner blood, that thing is the only one who possesses an Authority. We have to keep producing Authorities through her womb. What do you intend to do about that?"
Bariya was a leopard cat, and so she had never been acknowledged as a Mariner—but a child she bore later might be a hyena. That was why they had already narrowed the list of prospective fiancés for her. Then, three years ago, Claire had fled with Bariya, and every plan had come apart. Now, they said, she was with the Caliphs. With the whole design on the verge of ruin, the Mariners were in an uproar.
"Explain yourself! How exactly do you mean to bring that thing back from the Caliphs!"
Rozan's shout tore Darius's pride to shreds. But there was nothing he could say.
He had sent an assassination unit to take Bariya back, and every last one of them had died at the Caliphs' hands. He had even resorted to poison, and still, for some reason, not a single word had come back. If the heir were poisoned, he had meant to trade the antidote for Bariya. With even that a failure, Darius had no method left.