The Claim of Blood
Darius Mariner had not expected the Caliphs to welcome him—not by so much as an ant's fingernail. He knew he would not be offered even a glass of cold water, and yet he had at least assumed they would let him into the reception room.
That these damned bastards would treat him like this!
Barred from so much as crossing the gate, Darius flushed a furious red.
"I sent formal notice of my visit, and this is how you receive a guest? To think a house that calls itself the foremost would stoop to something so vulgar and rude!"
"Caliph etiquette contains no rule that says we must honor a hyena."
The remark came from a mere knight commander, not even of the Caliph direct line, and it was delivered without a flicker of deference. Darius let out a hollow laugh.
"Wearing your inferiority complex toward us hyenas right out in the open. Have you no shame at all?"
Rowan regarded him in silence, then twisted one corner of his mouth.
"An inferiority complex. The eldest son of House Mariner certainly has a colorful way of introducing himself. The whole world knows there is not a single respect in which Caliph falls short of Mariner."
Strength, power, land—and now an Authority as well. Everyone knew it was the Mariners who nursed the inferiority complex toward the Caliphs. Darius Mariner knew it too.
"Insolent wretch—how dare you!"
His hand was already rising when Rowan spoke.
"Our lady left word that if you strike me, it will be taken as House Mariner attacking House Caliph."
The hand stopped dead in midair.
"If you wish to be the spark that starts a war between our two houses, then by all means, proceed."
"……A war? Over striking the likes of you?"
"Well, the eldest son of House Mariner is neither heir nor anything else of consequence, is he? I fail to see so vast a difference between you and the knight commander charged with the safety of all of Caliph."
Darius shook from head to foot. His standing was in endless freefall, his pride smashed to splinters, and it felt as though his skull might split. What enraged him more was that he could not refute a single word of that insolence.
Darius Mariner was nothing but the eldest son of House Mariner. He had no claim to the heir's seat, and he held no key post within the family. If he acted on his own and a war broke out because of it, he might well lose his head to Velodic's hand.
Damn it. Damn it all! On the day Mariner destroys Caliph, I will tear you to shreds with my own hands!
Darius ground his teeth and glared at Rowan.
"All that noisy barking carries clear into the garden."
The gate, shut fast until that moment, swung wide, and three beastkin of the Caliph direct line stepped into view. From Sabrina, the veins standing hard at her temples, an overwhelming pheromone poured forth.
"Ugh."
Before a presence that vast, heavy with Authority, Darius retreated a step before he even knew he had moved. In sheer force, at least, she did not fall short of the dreaded Velodic.
"Lower your voice, unless you want to go home with your vocal cords torn."
Sabrina's ice-blue eyes looked at him as though he were something pitiful. Fury surged at the open contempt, but Sabrina was more than capable of doing exactly what she threatened, and Darius could only swallow hard.
"It's been some time, Head of House Cali—"
"She is the great sovereign of Caliph. Show the proper respect."
Rowan cut him off at once and drove his scabbard hard into the ground. Darius clenched his teeth and swallowed his pride yet again.
"……I greet the head of House Caliph."
"Say what you came to say. I'm already holding myself back from killing your wretched hide on the spot."
There was no bluff in Sabrina's voice. Unable to snap back, Darius came to the point.
"I hear House Caliph is sheltering a girl by the name of Bariya."
"Sheltering?"
Sabrina's mouth twisted. They had introduced the child as an honored guest, and he reduced it to mere shelter.
"We were worried sick after she was kidnapped. What a relief, to learn that Caliph has been looking after her."
"Ha!"
Sirka broke into a scornful laugh. Kidnapped? He called it a kidnapping?
"I was the one who found that child. Hyenas nearly killed her, and I saved her and brought her here."
It was true that, at the start, he had taken Bariya against her will. But there was not a shred of falsehood in the claim that he had saved her from the hyenas.
"Hyenas nearly killed a child?"
Darius only snorted at Sirka's words.
"Are you quite certain you saw what you think you saw, Young Lord? I am asking whether you clearly witnessed hyenas attempting to kill the child."
"Are you suggesting that I am lying, here and now?"
Bariya had, in fact, been smashing a hyena's snout with her fist, but Sirka did not so much as change color as he went on, perfectly assured.
"Several adult hyenas had a kitten surrounded, teeth bared. Anyone who saw that scene would have judged the cat to be in danger."
"A kitten ringed by hyenas. Hearing it told, it does sound dangerous. Which is precisely why I raised no particular objection to Caliph for protecting the child in my stead."
"Stop circling your words. If you have something to say, say it straight."
Baden's patience snapped, and the warning came out sharp. At that, Darius smiled.
It was the first time he had smiled since arriving. The smile was nothing short of confident, and that confidence left the Caliph beastkin oddly unsettled. The man had no reason to be sure of himself. So why was he?
"The hyenas were merely carrying out my orders, striving to bring the child back. They never threatened her."
"And you call that an explanation!"
"But of course. I would never give an order to threaten my own daughter, much less to kill her."
What followed struck the three Caliphs like thunder out of a clear sky. All three of them stared, eyes wide.
"……What did you say?"
What had that bastard just said?
Bariya—our baby is……
The daughter of Darius, eldest son of House Mariner?
"Surely you were not unaware."
Their reaction startled even Darius. So that was it. He had wondered how Bariya had slipped in among the Caliphs so easily.
"Given how poorly Caliph and Mariner get along, she must have kept silent about the hyena blood she inherited."
Faced with the three of them gone rigid, Darius grinned.
"That child is my one and only daughter, blood of my blood—Bariya Mariner. If you wish, I can have House Buten, bearers of the Blood Authority, confirm it for you."
House Buten, the bat family whose Authority governed blood. Through them, a true parent could be identified. Darius was that certain.
"Had I sent a hyena beastkin she could actually converse with, the child would have come along readily enough. Being animals, they must have given her a bit of a fright. But with relations between Caliph and Mariner as they are, I could not send one of our own."
Sophistry. Bariya had said she hated hyenas more than anything in the world, and she had remained here of her own will, bound by a contract with Caliph. All of this was nothing but Darius's scheme to take her away, no matter what it took.
And yet.
"So I ask that you return my daughter. If you refuse, then I shall have no choice, regrettably, but to conclude that Caliph has kidnapped a child of House Mariner and is holding her captive."
So long as Bariya was Darius's biological daughter, the justification lay with him. It would not matter how firmly the child testified that she wanted nothing to do with Mariner. House Mariner would be more than happy to insist that Caliph had brainwashed her, and with the whole world aware of the bad blood between the two houses, Caliph would find it difficult to claim innocence.
"Surely you will not refuse merely because you dislike Mariner. Who knows better than Caliph how painful it is to lose a child?"
"You son of a bitch—how dare you spit out words like that!"
Sabrina raised her claws and lunged. Darius shrugged and took a step back.
"Kill me here and now, and word will spread in every direction that Caliph kidnapped the child out of revenge against Mariner, then killed me to destroy the evidence. If that is what you want, do as you please."
It would be ruinous for Caliph, and for Bariya as well. Sabrina had no choice but to stop.
And in the grass, not far from the gate—
……I'm done for.
The little leopard cat who had crept after them and hidden there, hearing every word, squeezed her eyes shut. Bariya had never wanted this secret discovered. In the end, it had been found out all the same.