“Um, Diandra?” I called; she patted my hand in the crook of her arm and looked at me.

“Yes, Circe?”

“Does, um… Seerim, uh… kiss you?”

Her brows drew together. “Kiss me?”

“Don’t you have that word? Uh –”

“We have that word, of course we do, my dear. And yes, of course Seerim kisses me.”

I looked away and felt my stomach clench.

Lahn had yet to kiss me. It was weird and this had lasted so long now I was afraid of kissing him.

“Ah…” Diandra murmured on a squeeze of my hand.

I looked back at her to see she was smiling. “What?”

“The Xacto,” she started, I braced when I heard that word and she went on, “do many things for our warriors. They teach the young ones much. But they are not allowed to touch mouth to mouth.”

“What?” I asked and she turned her eyes to me.

“They aren’t allowed to kiss the warriors.”

I felt my brows lift. “Why not?”

She got close to me and her voice lowered. “Because their mouths have been many places, my dear.”

Uh… gross.

I looked forward again and mumbled, “Other parts of them have too and by your account they don’t avoid those.”

She chuckled then explained, “Yes, this is true and those places are private and special to those of us lucky enough to keep them so.

But the mouth is close to the eyes and the eyes the Korwahk believe are portals to the spirit inside. They believe, if you open these portals to the wrong people, they can steal your spirit, cripple you, render you useless, lame. A warrior does not want that. ”

Portals to the spirit. Windows to the soul. I’d heard that before and I figured they meant the same thing in a way.

She kept talking. “They do not wish for such as the Xacto to be close to the warrior spirit. That, my dear Circe, is kept safe and given only to ones they trust… ones they love.”

I bit my lip.

Diandra guessed. “The Dax has not kissed you.”

“No,” I mumbled.

“It could be, my dear, he does not know how.”

This was such a bizarre notion, my step faltered and my head snapped around to look at her. “What? ”

Her head turned to me and she stated, “It would not surprise me.”

“That’s… well, that’s crazy,” I told her.

“I see,” she grinned her wicked grin, “he pleases you much in your cham.”

He certainly did.

I felt my cheeks burn, she saw them and then she chuckled a wicked chuckle.

Then she stopped us, turned us to facing and I saw her eyes were not wicked and knowing but kind and understanding.

She wrapped her hand around my bicep and squeezed. “My beautiful Circe, your king is a ferocious warrior. He believes his spirit guides him into battle. It protects him. It keeps him strong. He would not allow anyone close to that. He would do anything to guard it and keep it safe just as he would do anything to guard his flesh and bone, his heart, his innards. He would no sooner allow a Xacto or whore or a girl he’s taken during plunder to come anywhere near that.”

Girl he’d taken during plunder?

Before I could ask, she started us walking again and advised,

“And now, perhaps, he doesn’t even think of it. If it is not part of the…” she paused and said with a smile in her voice, “festivities, I would suggest, you introduce it to the…” her hand gave mine a squeeze, “festivities. ”

“Maybe he doesn’t want me near his spirit,” I muttered, she chuckled and squeezed my hand again.

“Oh, my dear, from what I’ve seen, I think you have no worries about that.”

Hmm.

“Circe!” I heard, my head came up and I saw Narinda walking out of a cham her head turned our way.

“Narinda!” I cried, let Diandra go and ran to my friend.

When I got to her, I threw my arms around her, she threw her arms around me and we rocked each other back and forth as we embraced like identical twins cruelly separated by an evil stepmother and reunited after decades.

Then again, sharing the horrors of the parade, Hunt and wedding rite would do that to a girl.

Our torsos separated but we kept our arms around each other and smiled in each other’s faces.

“I don’t know, my queen, should I be touching you or bowed in a deep curtsy?” she teased.

“If you curtsy, I’ll have your head chopped off,” I teased back.

We grinned at each other then we sobered. My eyes moved over her face and I saw she looked healthy, fed, watered, her eyes were clear of the resignation I’d seen that night and she looked like she might even be happy.

I pulled her back in my arms and whispered in her ear, “You’re faring well?”

I felt her nod. “You?”

“Hanging in there.”