Righteous Anger (Okal Rel Saga #2)

2.7: Red Reach

Mother was happy and breathless the next morning as she checked through the luggage Horth had packed for himself.

"You won't need your Nersallian dress jacket," Beryl said, taking that out. "You aren't going to stay with strangers. The Sarns will supply you with clothes. Your sword you'll wear, of course, and your new flight leathers." She repacked his shoulder bag, putting aside the long package containing his court clothes. "What else have you sent ahead to the docks?"

"Nothing," said Horth.

Beryl Nesak straightened up. The dark circles under her eyes were harsh reminders of her recent traumas, but she radiated a girlish glee despite that. "Not a thing more?"

Horth had already said as much. He just shrugged.

"You are so like your father!" exclaimed Beryl. "Zrenyl took a couple of trunks worth of stuff."

Beryl fell on Horth's neck then, hugged him, kissed him on the cheek, and straightened his hair. Tears glittered in her green eyes.

"You are a good boy," she told him. "I know that. But please be on your best behavior at Sarn Haven. And don't take things apart unless you ask first. All right, Horth?"

"Yes, Mother."

"And be careful if you go on fleet maneuvers. Remember that you still don't have a Freedom Price, and you are only a child, no matter how grown-up you look. And maybe, with regard to that Freedom Price...." She broke off, looking embarrassed, and fussed with his collar a bit more. "Oh, never mind. It's just — I know they'll take good care of you."

She fixed her hand in his vest at chest height, and spoke to his sternum, unable to look him in the eyes.

"What you did for me, about Hara," Mother said in a voice shaken by too much emotion. "I will never forget that, Horth. Nor must you. All non-eternals are impossible to trust. You must understand that, for your own safety, my true heart. I think, perhaps, you do. Now."

Horth stepped back to look his mother full in the face. He had a warning of his own to impart, and was dreadfully afraid he did not know how.

He looked at her pleadingly, and said, "Zer Sarn."

"Yes." Mother smiled. Misunderstanding his intention, she supplied information. "He is one of the Sarns. They are very proud of him and I am grateful that he chose to come, to live with me, at Black Hearth. Arn says he might have been a member of the zer'stan by now if he'd stayed on SanHome." She fussed with Horth's clothing some more. "I am so glad you'll be living at Sarn Haven. It's where I grew up. And I think you'll like Hill." She laughed. "Arn is less fun, I know. Very strictly brought up. His mother is Zer Sarn's sister, and my aunt." She bit her lip. "Oh dear, Horth, there is so much that you don't know."

Horth tried once more. "I trusted Hara," he said slowly. "You trust Zer Sarn."

"What do you mean, Horth?" Mother asked, looking spooked. "Are you trying to say that you suspect my uncle of robbing me of children, when that's the very thing he—"

"No!" Horth said quickly, afraid his attempt to explain himself was doomed to go wrong. "Zer Sarn," he tried once more, desperately, "feels wrong."

"Oh," Beryl relaxed. She stroked her son's arm. "It is because he is a zer, I suppose. A Nesak priest, as people say here at the Ava's court. I expect you've heard things about zers using drugs, just like Lorels or your father's horrid gorarelpul. But it isn't like that. Or perhaps," she smiled, "you find it hard to understand how a man could be celibate, now that you are grown up." She patted his arm. "On SanHome you will learn about all these things, Horth. You can talk to Zer Hen. He's the family priest at Sarn Haven and a good, kind man. You might even find a girl who'll help you understand." She stroked his face as she smiled, hope aquiver in her wide, green eyes at the same time as she feared to let him leave her arms.