“Ow!” she yelped, nicking herself on a chipped glass. “Serves me right for thinking nonsense.”
She rinsed the cut in cold water and wrapped a paper towel around it. She went to the bathroom to find a Band-Aid and spotted the pregnancy test dissolving in a puddle in the tub. She’d forgotten it in the excitement. The result was ruined. Cat felt ready to vomit, but she didn’t know if it was the cut, morning sickness, or the realization that Cal now had a family she’d have to meet-a family who had never gotten the chance to approve of her-that lived in a castle, had its own crest, traced its lineage for generations and had never heard of the Equal Rights Amendment. My God, she realized. They’re Republicans!
“Excuse me, my lady…”
Lelani startled her. For a four-footed being, the horse-girl was surprisingly silent. Cat was also jumpier than usual. It would be some time before her nerves settled.
“Please, don’t call me that,” Cat said.
“How should I address you?”
“‘Cat’ is fine.”
Lelani looked uncomfortable with the notion but pushed on regardless. “I was curious as to the duration of the captain’s interrogation?”
“A few hours. It doesn’t get more serious than a dead cop. He has to explain how and why he left the scene, without implicating you or Seth. He has to convince them that he was dazed and injured. That he got the jump on his assailants, but was too injured to pursue or radio for help. Otherwise there’ll be disciplinary action.”
“I see.”
Cat found the centaur hard to read; she was so guarded with her emotions. She thought the girl might be judging Cal. “He’ll bend the truth to its limits,” Cat added, defensively. “It’s not in his nature to lie outright.”
“I know,” the centaur responded.
Again, Cat couldn’t make heads or tails of Lelani’s enigmatic responses. She went to the kitchen and put a pot of water on the burner. This time Cat could hear soft clopping on the hardwood as Lelani followed her. For a large creature, the centaur was amazingly graceful navigating the cramped living space of bipedal humans. She wasn’t as big as an actual horse, but big enough to have caused Cat some concern when Cal left her behind in their home. She had yet to knock over a lamp or break a piece of furniture. Cat wished she could say the same for the other one, as something, probably porcelain, just hit the ground and shattered in her bedroom. A weak, “Sorry!” emanated from the back of her apartment.
“Some tea?” Cat asked Lelani.
“Yes, thank you,” the centaur responded. This time, Cat noted a smidgeon of pleasure in her response.
The horse-girl-horse- woman — was very polite. For some reason, Cat expected someone who was half horse to behave more like an animal. Was it even housebroken? Where would she do her business? Cat took out a few days’ worth of old newspaper from the recycling bin and placed it on the kitchen table, just in case. There were a million questions Cat wanted to ask but didn’t know how to begin. She prepared the tea and brought it into the living room on a tray with biscuits. She sat on the couch while Lelani lowered herself on the floor next to the coffee table. Folding her legs beneath her, the centaur still came up to eye level. If Cat concentrated on the woman’s chest and up, she looked like any other gorgeous redhead in an olive-green turtleneck knit.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Cat asked.
“Is what dangerous, my lady?”
“Squatting like that. I seldom see horses lie down, unless they’re sick. Something to do with twisting their intestines or delicate leg bones. Do you sleep standing?”
“I am not a horse,” Lelani responded, with a slight edge.
“Oh,” Cat said. She scratched the house-training question from her list. “I’ve never met a centaur before.”
“Clearly.”
“I’m sorry if I offended you.”
“My intelligence quotient measures in the top two percent of my class. I attend one of the finest schools in the Twelve Kingdoms. My family can trace its lineage for a thousand years.”
Cal was right. These things were very proud-and very defensive.
Cat was off to a bad start. This being, strange as it was, had saved her family and restored her husband’s past to him. Lelani was important to Cal. Whatever her trepidation about the future, Cat would try to remain on friendly terms with the centaur.
“Does your family also live in Aandor?” Cat asked. “If you don’t mind my asking?”
“My tribe lives in the Blue Forest. We are hunter-gatherers. Archduke Athelstan has granted the forest safe haven from hunting and logging by humans. Centaurs patrol the single road that runs through it and keep it free of highwaymen. Traders breathe easily once their caravans reach the Blue. The road to Aandor City is the safest and most profitable in the Twelve Kingdoms.”
“Is that where all centaurs live?”
“It is now. We numbered in the millions, once.”
“What happened?”
“War. But nature, too. Our females need twelve months to carry a foal to term and almost two years before they can have another. Beyond a few hundred residents, our villages become burdened. Humans build sewers and aqueducts. They farm and produce enough goods to support large cities. My people cannot-or will not-adapt to a faster pace of life. Without treaties like the Blue Forest Accord and leaders like Athelstan, centaurs will fade from Aandor as they did from this world.”
“Centaurs lived here?”
“Many races lived here who now no longer exist.”
“Why?”
“No one is sure. Fear. Racism. I suspect peace was tenuous. Perhaps I’ll research it and write a thesis one day.”
“Is that what’s happening on your world… why you came here? To escape?”
“Many are in jeopardy, not just centaurs, not just Aandor. Aandor is the anchor that steadies the ships of state in the Twelve Kingdoms. Our courts are fair, our economy strong, and the rights of minorities are protected. Through trade and diplomacy, we maintain peace with, and between, the kingdoms around us. Coming here was a desperate attempt to keep Archduke Athelstan’s claim to Aandor viable. Both the captain and I stand to lose everything if we fail.”
The word “everything” unsettled Cat. She and Bree had once been Cal’s everything. Her place in his life had diminished overnight.
“Ain’t it funny?” Seth said from the hall. “Laws of physics might change from universe to universe, but the laws of human nature are exactly the same.”
Cat didn’t realize he had come into the room to eavesdrop. She poured more tea into both their cups and offered some to Seth.
“Thanks, I’ll stick with beer,” he said. “So what exactly happened on your world?”
“The concord between the kingdoms had loopholes,” Lelani explained. “Many chose to exploit them.”
“The fine print-another constant across multiple universes,” Seth snorted. He sat down and put his feet on the coffee table. “Notice how charity and goodwill toward men are in short supply everywhere in creation? And people wonder why I’m a cynic.”
“Let her finish,” Cat said. “Get your feet off the table.”
“In Aandor, titles are passed through sons,” Lelani continued. “Women are valued for their pedigree and dowries. All the ruling families conspired to breed a boy with the blood of twelve kings, who, according to the continental treaty, would have the rightful claim to the title of emperor. A race began.”
“A race?” Cat asked.
Seth shook his head and laughed. “A breeding contest. A royal fuckfest. ‘Think of England’ and all that.”