Rehoboam is not so good at this game to know the reason behind the stress wrinkle at the edge of her smile or the extra twitch of her fluted little ears, but he knew enough to understand that they were signs of something. Indications of some greater plan simmering beneath her composed surface, as much a signifier of disaster as was preternatural calm or yellow skies. What he does not miss, however, is her derisive snort at his comment and the way her smooth jaw wrinkled as she clenched her teeth.
Interesting.
Her answer to his probing questions is just as slippery, and he is left to contemplate her wading figure in silence. If he were honest, he was growing tired of the non-answers. It seemed like an awful lot of work to go through for a bachelor living ostracised from his family and all-but scorned by his brothers, but who was he to judge? Maybe the reason Nyimara hadn't enacted revenge on the Cove so far was because she wasted too much of her time backing lost causes rather than a lack of desire.
I want you to suffer as I suffered. Her words earn a narrowing of his eyes, but he wasn't honestly certain how to take that. From all accounts,
she had come out victorious in the end by bending Cullen to her will and then escaping with him. That didn't remove the possibility that she had been ill-treated in the meantime of course, but he doubted that the likes of Tyr had ever harmed her, unless Reh had seriously misjudged him. He tensed as she raced toward him through the water like a small kelpie, but did not shy away at her dramatics. And as she began to slow, he found himself leaning forward, ready to defend himself if need be. A fight, at least, would have some sort of outcome rather than this dogged sort of questioning that was only leading him in circles.
"You stallions?" He echoed, eyes glittering and head tilting inquisitively.
"So I bear the blame of the nameless villains that haunt your dreams? Come now, Nyimara. You expect me to believe that you have ever, in your life, acted subservient to anyone? You went in as a trinket and made the Boss your bitch," His tail lashed against his hocks as he chuckled, the sound cold in his mouth. Poking at the golden stallion whose reputation had tarnished the Lagoon's name for years to come probably wasn't smart, but so far as Reh was concerned, he wasn't here, much less capable of defending himself. He narrowed his eyes in her direction with a small shake of his head.
"Don't lie to me."
He shook his head and moved to join her sedately without reacting to her commentary about the acacia tree under which they stood.
"And I'm pretty sure my father allowed you to take your children with you rather than sending you away before you could even meet your firstborn." Rehoboam hadn't necessarily intended to reveal his upcoming fatherhood to Nyimara as it felt too much like a tool that she could use to cut him. But the words had been said and he could not take them back. The fact that Shenzi might also carry a child of his was a secret he would keep to himself lest speaking it aloud allowed it to become true.
"So perhaps you should count yourself lucky, Ny." He concluded, his voice hard but not necessarily threatening as his gaze cut away from hers.
"You, at least, caused your own imprisonment."