Larkspur had been chosen by Tak not simply because of his pelt, but for his mind. It was an odd thing, in truth. The Khalif had scorned him from birth and turned him feral, accused him of stupidity and treated him like dirt, but the mind within Larkspur’s brutish form was one that had once borne great potential. There had been intelligence in there long ago—it had evolved (or devolved, as was the case) to something feral and cunning in its wickedness. He learned things quickly by simply trying them. This was how he had learned to ride the horse and control her, how to tame the sheep, how to care for things like leather and wood and construct with simple tools. Had the Khalif not stunted his mind, he might have become terribly brilliant.
Yet the feral beast he was had been fed by the first drug overdose from the rabbit. The child had suffered for it, splitting his mind into a lesser thing. Half of him continued to grow and become wise, while the other lingered in the half-life of a stupid animal. A wiser man would have recognized this as the reasoning behind the voice of the can-tah and all those terrible gods, but Larkspur was an acolyte to the faith. He would not forsake what he had been taught since birth. He would not forsake the woman to whom he had sworn his life—a bond stronger than the hold of the earth god.
“Ich werde immer seine,” Larkspur said in fluent German. There was no harsh accent as there was with his common-tongue. There never had been, but the common language was harder for him to speak and it showed. “So werden Sie. Auch mit ihrem Marken,” he said, exposing his white underside to her as he approached. “Wir sind seine.” It was apparent that the thing within him had fled—perhaps because of the brute’s own will alone. He was not as weak as the Khalif had sought to make him. “I hate that they live without fear,” he said suddenly, eyes becoming terrible. “They are arrogant to think themselves untouchable. I killed a boy for comin' after my children, but Tak drove my hand; he turned his back on the gods.”
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