by V. K. Ludwig
I ignored that foreboding twinge in my stomach. “To… burn his body?”
“No, Naney.” She shook her head rapidly, green eyes blinking back tears with how the wind must have blown grit at them during her ride back to camp. “He’s alive. Bound on a yuleshi and surrounded by Vetusian warriors. They’re heading north.”
That twinge in my stomach intensified, but it ripped me open when Yral stated the obvious. “Toward the Jal’zar males in hiding.”
“No.” There had to be a mistake. “Perhaps it’s another one.”
Tjer’ka shrugged. “It might be, but there are no more warriors guarding the building where they kept him.”
“Zavis said he would take care of the captured warrior.”
From the corner of my eyes I saw Yral press her lips into a white line before she said, “What if he didn’t succeed?”
The blood cooled and thickened in my veins, and Zavis’ words resonated at the back of my mind to the sluggish pace of my heart, They’d execute me for treason if anybody caught me.
Parched and suddenly dry, my throat refused that next swallow. What if he’d tried to poison the warrior and someone caught him? The thought of them executing Zavis…
“I need to see it for myself.” I jumped up and turned toward where we kept our yuleshis. “Where is the vasani poison?”
Mother called behind me, “You are in no condition to—”
“I’m well.” Because Zavis had made it so, in more ways than one. “How long of a ride?”
“If they kept on course,” Tjer’ka said, “an argos, perhaps two.”
Yral followed me into the corral, grabbed two headstalls from the fence, and handed me one. “I’m coming with you.”
There was no time to argue, so I threw a saddle onto the yuleshi, girthed it up, and swung myself onto its back. Tjer’ka opened the gate, and I rode up to where another female handed me my quiver and bow.
I didn’t turn to make sure Yral kept up with me as I sprinted across the plains. For over an argos, I searched their tracks until I finally found them printed into the dirt, my heart beating so fast my ribs ached by the time I caught sight of them.
We reined into a forest that lined the layered rock walls, thickly overgrown with fragrant oljesh ferns and vines that spun between young trunks. My heart matched each beat of a paw as we closed in on the unit of Vetusians, their formation like a black cloud ready to pour misery onto Solgad.
“I count at least a hundred warriors,” Yral whispered. “See those who are forming a circle in the front? I bet that’s where the Jal’zar is.”
“Let’s find out.”
Dropping my reins, I let my weight steer the yuleshi through the brush. From my quiver, I grabbed an arrow, the wooden shaft smooth between my grasp. Stiff fingers wrapped around my bow.
Since they rode at a walk, it didn’t take us long until we caught up with them. We rode alongside them, hidden between foliage, twigs, and vines.
My lips parted for a prayer, begging Mekara that Zavis was among those Vetusians, alive and well. Not a single plea made it past my lips.
If Zavis was there, he’d betrayed me.
If he wasn’t there, he was likely dead.
Horns came into view, and the rest of the Jal’zar followed soon after. They must have relieved him of fingers, given the red-soaked bandages around his hands. Badly bruised and bandaged at the tip, his tail hung limp and unmoving from the yuleshi he rode.
“It has to be the warrior they’d captured,” I said.
Yral’s pupils darted across my face. “I thought you saw him.”
I cringed. “I didn’t get a good look.”
“Not that it matters. He’s clearly leading them toward the hiding spots.” There was a pause before she added, “Do you think the warden is dead?”
A fissure formed on the surface of my heart.
Another step of my yuleshi.
Please be alive.
More Vetusians came into view.
Please be alive.
My eyes caught on those bristles of a beard I’d stroked many times. They wandered to lips I’d bitten, nibbled, and kissed. In the end, they settled on the black uniform encapsulating a torso I’d once scarred.
No…
My mind reeled at the view before me, and my core hollowed as if someone had gutted me. It stood in strange contrast to that one moment, that joyful fraction of time, where my lungs deflated with a sigh of relief.
Zavis was alive and well.
And he’d betrayed me.
Why else would he ride beside the Jal’zar, leading his warriors to slaughter more of my kind? And if that didn’t offer enough proof, what about those missing females Yral had mentioned earlier? The many units riding the plains?
He’d said it wouldn’t be long until they came to round us up. Perhaps it had already started, just in case this mission to find the young Jal’zar males failed? Was that why he’d wanted us to go west? To funnel us into our defeat?
I hated the pity on Yral’s face as she looked at me, no matter how much my foolishness had earned it. “What now?”
“You’ll turn around and warn as many females as possible,” I whispered, gripping my bow tighter. “Tell them to head as far north as the drought belt takes them. I’ll take care of the Jal’zar male.”
“You’re going to kill him?”
“I failed us.” Because I’d trusted Zavis. “But I can still save those young males hiding underground. Did you bring vasani poison?”
“Yes.”
“Put some on my claw.”
She did as she was told. “You can’t take on this many Vetusians.”
“No, but they’ll chase behind me, so I better be prepared to fight them off,” I said. “Once I storm out of the forest and lead them away, you shoot another arrow to make them believe it’s an ambush. Hide in one of the nearby tunnels until you can return to warn the others.”
She nodded. “I will.”
I nocked the arrow.
I took a deep breath.
When I drew back, my pulse rushed in my ears. As if on reflex, the tip of my arrow pointed at Zavis. I’d promised I would kill him so many times — I should have.
Perhaps I could now.
If I was quick enough, I could kill him first. No doubt it would cause a moment of confusion and outrage. A perfect distraction to kill the warrior.
I gazed over the tip of the arrow.
I aimed.
The string hummed.
Fourteen
Zavis
Thick brush covered the forest beside us, the trees thin but tall. Animals scurried. Leaves rustled. My muscles strung tight with each noise.
“I don’t like riding this close to those trees,” I said, my skin pebbled as if a thousand eyes stared at me from between leaves. “My gut is telling me there’s an ambush just around the next rock.”
But nothing happened.
“How much longer until we reach this damn group?” I asked.
The Jal’zar male jutted his chin toward the north-east and lifted his hand to point. “The path between those hills—”
A phwt whistled through the air.
A breeze sliced along my neck
Warm blood splattered my cheeks.
Beside me, the Jal’zar warrior collapsed with a groan, and his mangled torso crashed against my yuleshi’s shoulder before it slumped back and down along the rump of his beast.
He dangled there, thighs strapped to the saddle, blood dripping down his forehead from where his eye should have been.
Should have.
Instead, a long, wooden shaft filled the socket, driving my pulse into a thundering rhythm.
An arrow.
With orange feathers.
Naney…
I pulled the reins, adrenaline already chasing the scales of my black nano armor across my hand, my neck. Where was she?
“Ambush!” someone shouted.
Guns clanked from chest holsters, followed by the whir of the electric
impulses charging inside the thorium core. All around me, warriors pointed barrels toward the forest, scaled fingers on the trigger, waiting for an attack.
None came.
“Enemy in the understory!” a warrior shouted. “Sprinting westward.”
My head snapped to where he pointed, and my eyes caught white braids disappearing between thick layers of foliage.
Sudden coldness struck me at the core.
Foolish, careless female.
Infuriating Naney.
Torin’s voice boomed through the brigade. “Team Alpha, capture that warrior!”
Capture.
The word alone left traces of blood on my tongue. It crept into my nose, stuck to my hands, turned me nauseous and dizzy. Nobody would capture my female.
I wouldn’t let them.
Five black yuleshis stormed past me, their thunderous steps shaking the ground, rattling my bones, trembling my fingers. They would hunt her down in no time.
The moment I turned, another arrow whistled. Someone shouted “attack,” and chaos unraveled our formation. Whoever else hid between the foliage decided to take us on.
The least of my concerns.
I steered my mount after the group pursuing Naney. I kicked my heels against my yuleshi’s rump. Kicked again. Kicked a third time.
Trees.
Shrubs.
Charred trunks.
It all passed in a flicker of light and dark as my yuleshi thrust into a gallop, yet I spurred the beast harder, faster.
I had to reach her first.
Had to save her from… them.
My yuleshi passed the first two warriors trailing her. The third sprawled on the ground with an arrow protruding from his forehead. A paralyzing numbness came over my chest as I closed in on the two warriors ahead.
An arrow whistled ahead of me.
And another.
But no third, and the closer I came to them, the more it became apparent as to why: her quiver was empty.
One of the warriors caught up with her and, without warning, jumped off his mount and threw himself at Naney. Both hit the ground, stirring up dirt and ash, and the warrior’s gun slipped from the tangle of limbs.
The more the cloud settled, the faster my heart clanked against the back of my throat. Scaled fingers wrapped around Naney’s throat, black-clothed thighs caged her knees.
“A fucking female,” the warrior shouted. “Bunch of filthy savages.”
Naney kicked her legs, writhed her body, her face going pallid. My vision tunneled on her trembling chin and the rushing of blood roared inside my ears. He would kill her.
Unless I killed him first…
I grabbed my gun.
I aimed at the second warrior.
Pulled the trigger.
I didn’t see him fall. Only heard the thud of his body as I jumped off my yuleshi, though I could have sworn the dust he swirled up whispered execution.
Shooting was impossible without putting Naney at risk, and I charged at the one who fought her. “Get off!”
Every muscle in my body seared with raging heat when I threw myself against him. We rolled once, twice. I pinned him underneath me and punched him hard enough that something in his face crackled.
His bloodshot eyes widened with recognition, staring at me for a moment too long. I saw it all. The judgment. The disgust. The resolve that I’d finally snapped, killing my own kind.
I punched it.
It didn’t go away.
My arms lifted on their own, and the edges of my vision blurred red. Perhaps the veins in my eyes had popped. Or perhaps it was his blood that splattered into my face as my fists smashed into his skull.
My knuckles cracked.
Warm heat clung to my hands.
Sharp bone cut along the edges of my palm.
The bottom of my eye twitched when I rose and took in the scene. I’d beaten one of my warriors to a pulp. Another lay on the ground with the telltale pinhole of an electric charge gun on his forehead.
A groan pulled me out of my stupor.
Beside me, Naney fought off the remaining two warriors who had caught up to her.
To us.
For a surreal moment, I watched her fight, pride swelling my chest over every stab her tailclaw landed on my warriors before they dropped. How fierce she was. How beautiful—
A sharp pain pierced my side.
I stared down at myself, at where her claw had stabbed between my ribs, the end of her tail bloodied. Numbness crept into my core, slowly spreading across my torso, while my heart stumbled over each consecutive beat.
I blinked down at Naney.
Her icy expression slipped, morphing into one of utter shock. Purple eyes widened, and her pupils flicked between mine, the warriors I’d killed, and where her claw struggled to pull out from behind my ribs.
A violent tremble parted her lips. “You betrayed me.”
The ground disappeared from underneath me. My shoulders hit ungiving dirt, compacted from many moons of drought. Ash whirled up around me, scratching the back of my throat each time I sucked in small breaths.
“Zavis!” Her knees sunk into the dirt beside me, and those metal clasps on the ends of her braids clanked a melody. “I didn’t know it was you when I stabbed.”
“Just another scar.” I reached my palm to cup her cheek, missing several times before I sensed the warmth of her skin. “You’ve done way worse to me, and I’ve survived it all.”
She shook her head and tears glistened in the corners of her eyes. “My claw is poisoned.”
“Oh.” That was all I said before a deep chuckle dislodged from my narrowing throat, but it somehow died in a gurgle I needed to cough away. “Well, you did say you’d kill me…”
An odd noise vibrated between us, calm and soothing, turning the pain spreading across my body into nothing more than a twinge. It took me a moment to find its source — Naney.
“You have a nice hum. It’s almost like purring,” I said, flinching as she finally struggled her claw from my body. “Are you courting me?”
Something between a cry and a laugh ripped a bunch of tears from her eyes before it changed into a sob. “Mekara showed me this moment.”
“Not such a lousy shaman after all.”
“I trusted you.” Her fingers curled on my chest, and her arms trembled. “Why did you betray me, Zavis, why?”
“To keep you safe.”
As if on cue, the ground vibrated underneath me with the approaching units Torin must have sent behind us. Each thundering beat of a yuleshi’s paw drove shudders across my skin.
They would count one and one together. Two dead warriors. One shot with a weapon only my kind could fire; the other beaten to death, his blood all over my fists. Torin might have saved me from treason once, but not even he could make this evidence go away.
I was a dead male.
“They’ll execute me,” I said. “You need to get out of here, Naney.”
“I hate you,” she sniffled. “But I don’t want you to die.”
“Say that again.”
She wiped her eye. “Which one?”
“Either.”
She hummed louder. “I can find the weed that neutralizes—”
“No.” Against the searing grip of whatever poison spread through me, I rolled onto all fours and slowly pushed myself up. “I’ll only slow you down.”
I grabbed the reins of the nearest yuleshi and led the beast closer. Uncoordinated hands to her shapely hips, I lifted her onto the beast’s back and helped her swing her leg over.
“Take those you love as deep into the storms as you can manage,” I said. “This war only just started. Ride as fast and as far as you can. Don’t look back.”
Her trembling lips opened and closed several times. “This is the third time you’re saving me. You once said if one of us has to die, it’ll be you. Why, Zavis?”
The answer was simple.
“Because you’re a female worth dying for, Naney.” One
last time, I stroked over those thighs I’d kissed only two nights ago. “Before you leave, can I ask you something?”
She nodded.
“If I were Jal’zar, would you have let me claim you the night we spent in the nabu?”
A thousand emotions warred across her beautiful face before she said, “I would have let you claim me, Jal’zar or not.”
That was all I’d wanted.
“Be safe, Naney.” A slap on the yuleshi’s croup, and the beast took off. “Go!”
I let myself collapse onto the ground, watching her blur with the sands the wind whipped around the plains. An odd pain expanded in my core as the distance grew between us, like a chain wrapped around my ribs which tugged me toward her. In the end, it pulled so hard my face hit the dirt.
Fifteen
Naney
Now
Yral leaned her back against the wall of the tent, arms crossed in front of her chest. “How long has it been?”
I loosened the ropes on Zavis’ wrists some. “Fourteen sun cycles.”
A time that reflected itself in the gray strands that now streaked his black hair, especially around his beard. Fine wrinkles spread from the outside corners of his eyes. If I removed his shirt, would I find a scar on his stomach? Or had it faded away?
“Where is Zerim?” I asked.
Yral sighed. “He went to hunt tendetu.”
“A small blessing.”
“For now.”
“This fool paid a freeraider to bring him here, endangering us all,” I snarled and rose from Zavis’ cot. “That Jal’zar will sell the information on his whereabouts the moment he comes across someone willing to pay. The Warlords would fight amongst themselves over who gets to arrest him. Surely, he had to know this, so why did he come?”
Yral plagued me with a moment’s pause before she said, “Perhaps zovazay urged him here.”
“There’s no zovazay.” There couldn’t be, regardless of other… circumstances. “Whatever he believes I have of his, he’s mistaken.”
She said nothing more, but Yral’s silence echoed with unspoken words just the same. All this time, something within me had been amiss. Even the richest hums of males roused no interest in me, so I had remained alone. My mating heats had never plagued me again.