Alara Unbroken - Doug Beyer [14]
Whatever was on her mind, it would have to wait. Rafiq saw Mubin walk out into the arena, and smiled. Nothing pleased him more than seeing justice being carried out.
NAYA
Ajani only wanted to trudge back to his lair and sleep off his wounds. He wanted to lie still until the festival, and forget about the whole thing. Maybe he would find some other way to win the pride’s trust, or maybe it was simply time to go. But someone noticed him on his way into the den. It wasn’t his brother Jazal, but Zaliki, a childhood friend of the brothers. Thankfully, she was one of the only people in his pride who saw past his albino fur. Seeing the blood streaked across his white pelt, she gasped, and intercepted him at the entrance to his lair.
“Ajani, is this your blood?” she demanded. “What happened to you?”
He realized in that moment that the whole enterprise had been stupid. It was useless to try to buy the pride’s favor with a reckless stunt. He was outraged at Tenoch and his gang, but humiliated with himself.
“Never mind, Zaliki,” said Ajani. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s obviously far from nothing. Here, come into the lair and sit. I’ll bandage you, and then you’ll tell me everything.”
He sat while she bandaged him, but he didn’t tell her any details. “I was hunting. There was some … trouble in the forest. I broke my dark iron axe—the one that matches my brother’s.”
“You’re always so closed, Ajani,” Zaliki said. “You keep it all to yourself. There’s nothing in you that wants to come out? Just tell me. I can help you if you tell me. Where have you been? What did you fight? What do you think about the future?”
Ajani raised a brow at her. “That’s a broad question. Do you mean the festival? That’ll go fine. Jazal will make his speeches, and everything will work out as it always does.”
“No, no. I mean, this pride. Do you see yourself here forever? Do you think things will go well for us all in the future?” Her contrasting orange stripes glowed oddly in the gloom of the lair.
“I guess I see myself here,” said Ajani. “My brother is the kha, and I must support him. Although I’ve wondered whether I’m doing him more harm than good here in the pride.”
“I just feel like … I don’t know. What would happen if things were to change? Would we all still be a family? Would we all still stay together?”
Ajani smirked. “Why would things change? Jazal is the most stable leader this pride has ever had. Everyone loves him. We’re the most thriving pride of wild nacatl in all of Naya. What’s really on your mind?”
“It’s hard to explain. We’ll always be friends, right, Ajani?”
“Always.”
She sighed and smiled. “Thanks. That’s what I wanted to hear. So you’ll let me help you? You’ll let me in on what happened that gave you these wounds?”
Ajani’s face fell. “I told you. It’s nothing to be upset about.”
But as he should have expected, she understood anyway. He could never hide much from her. She stood and let the bandages fall.
“All right, you stubborn chunk of stone. Let me tell you what happened, and you nod when I’m getting close. Ready? Let’s see … You’ve suffered some new slight, probably by members of our own pride, and it led to a fight. You lost the fight, but you let them go, thinking it was somehow all your own fault, and now you’re holding on to all your emotions about it, and shoving them deep down inside yourself. You’ve come back not to avenge your tormentors, but to lick your wounds and hide, while the same idiots in our pride go unpunished. How am I doing?”
Ajani faced the wall. “Thank you for the bandages,” he said. “You can go now.”
Zaliki scoffed. “Look. Putting yourself in front of the evils of the world doesn’t make you a hero, Ajani,” she said. “It just makes you a target. Don’t try