But today, I was in my head and Bain sensed it so although he walked close and often spoke softly to me; he was letting me have my thoughts.

Bain doing this made me think that perhaps somewhere his new bride was grinning too.

I was in my head mainly because the day seemed weird. I couldn’t put my finger on why but it was weird. I woke up feeling it in the air and it hadn’t gone away.

But also, I was thinking about what Lahn said about how I came into the possession of a Korwahk scout. He clearly knew, thus must have asked, how that came about. This was not surprising; curiosity about your new mate, and that didn’t bother me. What disturbed me about this was that there was a story to tell. I thought I’d woken in a pen filled with women.

How could I be on a pirate ship?

That didn’t make any sense in a situation that made no sense. I was here, I’d been here nearly three weeks and it seemed I wasn’t going home.

But how did I get here?

And who was the Circe (or whoever) who was on a pirate ship?

I needed answers but I didn’t know how to go about finding them and I wasn’t sure I wanted them. The knowledge might be more frightening than the reality.

That said, Diandra had said something I hadn’t paid attention to at the time because I felt crap, was shaking uncontrollably and Lahn was extremely pissed, so I had other things on my mind, but when I had sunstroke, she told me the medicine was natural, not

“witchcraft”.

If you could hear animals in this world (and Ghost spoke to me, she was a baby, she didn’t have a lot of words and all of them were Korwahk so I didn’t know what she was saying half the time, but I still understood her mews and purrs and growls like human language), if horses could be so white they shone ice blue, if innocent women could go to bed in Seattle and be transported to an alternate universe – then there could be magic.

And perhaps someone here practiced it.

And perhaps that someone knew what the fuck was going on with me.

And, if I knew what that was, then maybe I could figure out what I should do.

“Dahksahna Circe,” Bain muttered and I belatedly noticed that he’d tensed at my side.

I came to myself, looked up at him then looked where his eyes were aimed.

The Eunuch was headed our way and his eyes were on me.

“Tee lapay lee Xacme,”* Bain said under his breath to me.

I looked back up at Bain and before he rearranged his features, I saw distaste in them.

Oh man.

“Kah Dahksahna,” The Eunuch murmured, bowing his head as he stopped before me.

Hmm. He called me “kah Dahksahna”. Most everyone called me

“rahna Dahksahna” or “rahna Dahksahna hahla” or “Dahksahna Circe” if they knew me pretty well.

No one simply called me their queen.

How weird.

“Poyah,” I greeted and his head came up, his face masked.

Oh man.

“I am The Eunuch,” he stated and I blinked.

“You know Eng… I mean, Valearian?” I asked.

“I speak the language of the Vale,” he answered, lifting his chin a bit.

He spoke English. Very weird. Why didn’t Lahn use this guy as an interpreter?

“Well, um… cool, uh, that’s great, I mean. Lovely to, uh… finally meet you,” I stammered. “Uh, what’s your name?”

He stared at me. Then he repeated, “I am The Eunuch.”

“Uh… okay, I’ve um… heard that but…” Yikes! “I was asking your name.”

“My name?” he asked back.

“Yes, the one you were given at birth,” I told him.

His face, already masked, closed down.

“That name was taken with my manhood, kah Dahksahna,” he informed me coldly.

Okay, there were a lot of uncomfortable conversations a person had to have in their life. When they broke up with someone, for one.

When they fucked up and had to admit they were wrong, for another. But talking to a dude who had his balls cut off about his balls being cut off beat them all.

I held his eyes. Then I said softly, “Right, but you are still that man no matter that that atrocity happened to you so… I’d like to know your name.”

At this point, Bain said something that sounded like he was asking, “What does your queen require of you?” but I wasn’t sure.

“Kah trooyha,” my name, The Eunuch answered (there it was, I was right about Bain’s question).

“Uvoo tee luh zah,” give it to her, Bain ordered firmly and impatiently.

The Eunuch looked hard at Bain for a brief second then turned to me. “Karrim, my queen,” he answered on another slight head bow.

“Shahsha,” I said softly.

He stared at me a second and then said, “You will beg my pardon; I have had many things to do. The Hunt, the selection, the ride, I have been too busy to present myself to my queen. I am giving you my apologies.”

“There’s no need, I understand.” I threw an arm out to indicate the busy Daxshee at the same time I gave him a smile. “Your responsibilities are vast. Anyone can see that.”

Another obsequious head bow and a muttered, “Shahsha.” His eyes slid to Bain and back to me so fast it was almost like I was seeing things before he went on. “I am asking you if you are managing well with tahna Dax.”