“Negotiator?” There was something his dossier hadn’t revealed. “I didn’t know Andarions had such in their world. I thought they just slugged out all their problems until someone gave up or died.”
“Not always.” Thia ran her hand over Illyse’s ears. “And his mother is one of the best ever trained. Like Hauk’s father, his mother is a military veteran who expected a lot from her three blood sons.” She paused to pour water for the lorina to drink. “Darice’s mother is also a veteran and was Keris’s wingman. I’ve heard that when Uncle Hauk told her what had happened to Keris on his Endurance, she buried a knife in Hauk’s stomach and gave him a gut wound so deep they had to remove part of his stomach to save his life.”
Sumi sucked her breath in sharply at that. What an awful thing to do, but it went along with the stories she’d been told about Andarion savagery. “You’re serious?”
Thia nodded.
“How old was he?”
“Fifteen.”
And she’d stabbed him? How could anyone do such a thing? Sumi understood grief, but that… She looked over at his nephew. “Darice’s age.”
“No, he’s fourteen. Uncle Hauk had to delay his Endurance because of an accident at school. He was still having skin grafts when he should have gone originally.”
Sumi’s jaw went slack. So she’d been right about his injuries from the pod. What the hell had he been doing out here after all that? “Was he fit for Endurance?”
“According to my father, not really. It should have been delayed longer, at least another year, but their mother insisted Uncle Hauk go and that Keris not take mercy on him.”
Shocked, Sumi tried to grasp how any mother could be like that. But then, her own mother had abandoned her and Omira to an angry alcoholic who hated them, so she was well versed with women who had no business birthing children. “Why would she do that?”
Thia ran her hand down the lorina’s spine, ruffling its fur as it arched its back against her touch. “She was furious that Uncle Hauk had allowed himself to be scarred during the accident. Apparently, he was already pledged at the time it happened, and when his betrothed’s family saw the damage to his body, they withdrew their daughter from the Hauk lineage, and embarrassed his mother greatly and publicly. My father thinks his mother sent him so that Uncle Hauk wouldn’t return. In her mind, his death during Endurance would have restored their family honor.”
That was so cold and cruel. “Is that also why he’s never married?”
She shook her head. “That’s all Dariana’s fault.”
“Dariana?”
“Darice’s mother.”
Sumi scowled as she tried to follow this nonsensical logic. “How is it her fault that he never married? Is it because she stabbed him and gave him a scar?”
“No. Andarion law and custom stipulates that if a female is widowed and there’s an unpledged male in the lineage, he is to marry her and provide for her in the absence of his fallen brother.”
Sumi remembered hearing Darice yell at him for that. “Then why hasn’t he married her already?” Keris had been dead for quite some time. The gods knew, Sumi wouldn’t have waited five minutes to drag that lush piece of malehood into her bed and ride him until he begged her for mercy.
What an idiot.
Thia ground her teeth before she answered. “Dariana hates his guts and refuses to accept him as her mate.”
Sumi’s scowl deepened. “Then why are they still pledged?”
“You’re thinking like a human,” Thia chided. “It doesn’t work that way on Andaria. Pledges are negotiated and drafted by the females. The male cannot back out of one. Ever. He is honor bound to see it through.”
“The woman, too?”
“They’re not women, they’re females. And a female’s primary duty to her family is to protect her lineage and ancestry, and to build the best possible alliance for her children. They do this by picking the best male lineage they can legally tie into. As the undisputed holders of the blood lineage, females are sacred. They can be thrown out of their homes, but they will never lose their lineage. However, if a male does something unworthy, he can be thrown out of his family’s lineage. Forever. And the last thing any male wants is to be thrown out of his family.”
“Why?”
“Andarions have a very stringent and rigid caste system. When you lose lineage, you are totally outcast from your blood family, and it cannot be undone. No Andarion is ever supposed to speak to such a being again. They are considered worse than dead. And if found in Andarion territory, the Outcast can be imprisoned or killed, without trial. It’s why all their paperwork requires a dual lineage to be listed. And why they methodically check it.”
That was so harsh. Not to mention the fact that the rest of the universe hated and feared Andarions, passionately. Even in times of peace, Andarions weren’t welcomed into the populations of other worlds. In some worlds, they were killed on sight or instantly enslaved.
The prejudice against them was extremely severe, and since they stood out, there was no way for them to hide or blend among the other known races.
“So how does an Andarion know if another has been disinherited without the paperwork?”
Thia rubbed noses with her lorina. When she met Sumi’s gaze, rage burned bright in those green eyes. “Their fathers hold them while their mothers slash them across both their left and right biceps and pectorals in a specific pattern so that everyone who sees it will know they’ve been disinherited and are Outcast. When they say ‘present arms’ they’re not talking about weaponry. They mean for their males to literally bare their arms for public inspection and scrutiny.”
Sumi vaguely recalled seeing those scars on Fain’s arms and chest when she’d been a girl, but she’d had no idea that was what had caused them. She’d assumed it was from some kind of accident. Never would she have dreamed his own parents had injured him so. “Is that why so many of the Andarion male fashions and formal military uniforms show their upper arms and pecs?”
Thia nodded. “It’s done to prove they’re legitimate sons. Fully lineaged. And those who have tattoos are either paying homage to their noble or heroic bloodlines, or to those they married into… it’s considered bragging when it’s their blood lineage. Noble when it’s the wife’s.”
Sumi sat back as she remembered all the scars that bisected Hauk’s flesh. He’d had something similar to what Thia described on the left side of his body. “What about the claw marks on Hauk’s arm? Is that —”
“No. The single claw marks, like he has, are a public chastisement from his mother for Keris’s death… One set of claw marks just means he’s displeased his matriarch. And it was done to eternally embarrass him in front of other Andarions whenever he has to make a formal public appearance, or go to temple on holy days. Should he displease his mother again, the next marks will be those of lost lineage, and he will be cast from his family.” Thia sighed. “The worst part though, is that those scars kept him from his obligatory military service that’s required of all non royal Andarion males and females after graduation. His mother should have just killed him. It would have been far kinder than marking him like that and leaving him for the rest of his breed to sneer at.”
Sumi didn’t know why, but that made her ache for him. Whether he’d been responsible or not, he must have been traumatized by his brother’s death. What kind of mother would further injure him, especially given how young he’d been at the time it’d happened?
“How did Keris die?”
“He fell during their climb. Uncle Hauk tried to save him, and ended up falling himself. He survived his own fall by crashing into a ledge and broke about a dozen bones. Even so, he managed to climb down and make it back to the pickup spot.”