Beni didn’t blame him. Wynter would be a fool to trust him.
“Despite our differences on this matter, allow me to escort you out in a final act of respect before we part ways.”
A brittle smile creased the male’s face, demonstrating that he was, in fact, no fool. “I will see myself out. I am not one to trust you when you are cornered. I have seen the remains of your sire on the rocks below. Despite his betrayal, I feel sympathy for him. I will not make the mistake of turning my back to you, Isnah.” He slipped down the tunnel, the darkness swallowing him up.
Isnah stared after the male, his face oddly blank for a long moment before his brow slammed down in anger. Turning, he swung around to face Beni, his eyes meeting hers where she lay on the mat.
“Get up,” he snarled.
“He is right,” Beni croaked as she pushed herself to her feet. She hadn’t spoken for days and could feel her body protesting the activity now. “Faltz won’t let you get away. He will never stop, and with me slowing you down—and I will fight you every step of the way—you will not be able to outrun him for long.”
“As long as I can cross out of our territory, it will be long enough,” he retorted with forced confidence.
A raspy giggle escaped her at his presumption. “Do you really think that you’ll be able to make it that far? If so, you are as big of an idiot as I thought. You heard Wynter…”
“Silence!” Isnah growled, his movements erratic as he stalked over to her. “You will not speak another word. You will get up and prepare to leave. Now.”
Her eyes narrowed mutinously at him as she shuffled over to the pack. If he thought she was going to make this easy, he had another think coming.
Chapter 29
“Faltz, look! Flesh reapers,” Bakin announced, his eyes squinting at the skies.
One hand rose and pointed at the wide-winged birds. Faltz looked up, frowning at the carrion eaters—vultures, the human females in the village called them. That many flesh reapers flying overhead meant only one thing: there was a corpse somewhere attracting their attention. A cold feeling sank deep within him.
Bakin glanced over at him in concern. “I doubt it is Beni,” he said.
Faltz nodded, swallowing the nausea that boiled up through him. Bakin was right. It could not be his danmi. Just behind him, he could hear the guard shifting, no doubt also watching the birds. Although his mind immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion, he knew there were many reasons to be concerned about the presence of flesh reapers. Chief among them was that that large predators could have made a recent kill. An enormous, full-grown sting tail would hover over their prey for days, eating it slowly.
Jerking his head in the direction of the circling birds, Faltz directed the guards, “Proceed cautiously. Be on guard for any sign of attack from predators.”
A mumble of agreement came as the guards followed after him. Bakin kept close to his right hand, his spear lifted cautiously in defense as they followed the faint trail leading deeper into the higher inclines of the canyon. The smell of rot filled the air, becoming thicker the closer they got to the source of the birds’ excitement. The smell was so terrible that it made Faltz’s eyes water. Whatever was there had been there for several days, exposed to the elements and sun.
As they rounded the side of a rocky face, a flesh reaper—nearly half the size of a Mintar and bearing a viciously hooked beak and a terrible visage—squawked, startling everyone as it raised its wings. Faltz growled, brandishing his spear as Bakin and the guards moved into a defensive position. The bird let out another piercing, angry cry before hopping into the air with several powerful pumps of its wings. Dark feathers floated down around them, but Faltz ignored them as he pressed forward, dread tightening within him. He glanced down into the shallow dip nestled within the jagged stones, and a sigh escaped, even as his stomach curdled with disgust.
It was not Beni!
“Faltz?” Bakin queried from just behind him.
There was not enough room for them both to stand shoulder to shoulder, so the other male had dropped just behind him. Faltz shook his head as he turned away from the gruesome sight of torn, decaying Mintar flesh. The features of the dead male were a mess, but there was plenty left for Faltz to identify the corpse. Stepping away, he motioned for Bakin to take a look.
“Not Beni. It appears to be Calth,” Faltz muttered. “He is dead, and has been for some time. Where is my mate?” he growled, squinting up the steep path that he knew would terminate in the cavern just above them.
“Beni!” he bellowed as Bakin slid pass him.
His voice bounced off the rocks, returning to him, but there was no reply from his danmi, nor did she emerge from a hiding place above. Silence descended once more in response to his shout. Why was she not responding? He would have to go to the cavern to seek her out. Perhaps she did not hear them. It seemed unlikely, but he did not know how far the cave extended into the canyon wall, and could not discern such information from the map made for them by the queen.
Impatient to be on his way, he turned to find Bakin still peering down at Calth’s remains. Using the edge of his spear, he prodded at the body with the end of it. “Faltz… did you take a good look at him?”
“He is dead. That is enough information for me,” Faltz grunted.
Bakin snorted humorlessly. “It is not that simple, and you know it. You are letting your anger cloud your mind. In this case, knowing such details is important. Calth did not merely fall or suffer some misfortune. Look at his neck. That is not a wound from a scavenger. It is from a blade, and if you look here, you can see that it came close to removing his head. Half of the neck is cut through. Beni would not have had the strength to do that.”
“Then his accomplice betrayed him. If he has my Beni, I will kill him without hesitation or regret.”
“No doubt,” Bakin agreed as he backed away. “It is curious though… If Calth stole her for his own reasons with the help of outside assistance, why would the other male have any reason to kill him?”
“I do not know,” Faltz growled. This confused him as well, and made him all the more anxious to find Beni as soon as possible.
“Faltz, I know you are not going to like this, but we cannot leave him here,” Bakin said as he set a hand on Faltz’s shoulder. “We will need to send some of the guard back to return his body as evidence to the queen, and for proper rites to see his soul to the next world.”
Faltz stiffened. What did he care if this male was sent on his way to the next world properly? As far as he was concerned, Calth had given up all such rights with his actions. The male could rot in the sun and feed the carrion eaters.
Bakin sighed. “Two males will be more than enough to return him, and we will have done our duty. The queen can decide what to do with his remains. We will still have plenty of males with us to assist in our search.”
Hand tightening around his own spear, Faltz gritted his teeth, but finally nodded his agreement. A relieved look passed over Bakin’s face as he gestured to two of his guards. The males stoically shifted by them, working together to construct an emergency carrier. Even they were unable to suppress their grimaces as they shifted the remains to a large leather skin and wrapped them securely. Faltz did not envy them the long journey back to the village with the decaying corpse.
“There is lavender in a nearby depression, about a half a day’s journey back to the village,” Bakin instructed. “Stuff it around the body in the leather as much as you can to preserve your noses.”
The males nodded in agreement, gratitude flitting across their faces as they moved, the stretcher swaying. Without a living occupant, and the body tied down securely, they were free to move at a more comfortable pace than they would have if burdened with one who was injured. That at least would allow them to return quickly.
Faltz watched solemnly as they departed before glancing once again up the sharp incline.
“Do you think we should wait for the morning to attempt
the climb? The sun will be going down by the time we approach,” Bakin observed.
Faltz shook his head. “The cavern will be dark regardless. There is more than enough light for me to see. You must make the best decision for the males under your command, but I will be going up regardless of what you decide.”
“Up we go, then,” Bakin said wryly.
As Bakin predicted, the sun was sinking low over the canyon by the time they arrived at the mouth of the cave. It yawned wide before them like an inky pit. The males retrieved the torches they had strapped to their harnesses. These were wedged into crevices to hold them steady as they retrieved tinder and swathes of woven cloth from the pouches fastened to their belts. With practiced care, they wound the cloth around the carefully measured torches and packed the tinder in the indented tip. It took little work to catch the flame on them so that they burned bright, illuminating the rough rock of the cavern walls.
The passage felt like it wound on for an eternity before the corridor widened, admitting them into a large chamber. Faltz stopped in his tracks. Although everything was worn and looked like it had likely been old when it was first set up in the cave, he understood why Mahini had insisted that he not worry about his danmi suffering any great discomfort. His eyes fell on a pad near the entrance, fury rousing in him that Calth had possibly lain there with his Beni.
Faltz shook with rage as he reminded himself that the male was already dead. He tore his gaze away, settling on the horrific sight of a leather line anchored in the wall, and a thin mat against one side of the cave with a lump curled up on it. His mate had been a prisoner in every sense of the word. Her smell saturated that side of the cavern, the air thick with the scent of her fear and anger. His heart fluttered, and he raced over to whip the blanket back, afraid of what he would find.
A thin cloud of dust choked the air, and he blinked against the fine grains of dirt and sand that had been blown into the cave. It could have also been a lump of emotion that made his throat close and his eyes water.
Beni was not there.
Males searched throughout it, their paws quiet on the rock and dirt of the cavern floor, torches flickering, illuminating even the smallest of spaces. It was obvious that she was not there at all. Even though he was relieved that she was not bound and suffering for days on end alone in a dark cave, worry gnawed at him anew.
Where was his mate?
His eyes flicked over to the guards as the fire pit was lit, providing some meager warmth, and torches were snuffed to be reused in the morning. One by one they slowly, wearily lowered themselves to the ground. Thick blankets were pulled from packs as they made themselves as comfortable as possible. Faltz dropped to the mat in front of him, soaking in the scent of Beni that still clung to the material. In the low light of the firepit, the males clustered together. It would be an uncomfortable night, like so many they had had in recent days, but Faltz hoped it would be one of their last before they could return home. He just needed to determine when she had left, and in what direction.
Frustrated, he glanced along the length of the nearest wall. He could make out signs of Beni’s captivity. He saw the track worn through the dirt where she must have paced at the full length of the tether, and another close along the length of the wall. The rich, warm scent of his mate wafted up around him. She did not have more than a couple hours head start on them. No doubt she was holed up somewhere else for the night.
At least, he hoped she was. He did not want to think of Beni stumbling around in the dark, even with a torch, when the predators came out.
Bakin’s shadow fell over him, and the male dropped at his side.
“I secured the entrance with the leather flaps. They seem to be in good condition, so at least nothing will get through while we sleep,” he said. “Any sign of Beni?”
Faltz nodded. “She has been gone for more than two and a half, maybe three hours. I just do not know what direction she may have gone.” His head turned casually to the wall nearest him, and he froze. A familiar leather pack was wedged between the wall and the bed. Beni had been carrying it around as she usually did, just in case she wanted to note anything that she saw while in the village. She had been wearing it, the strap crossed over her chest, the morning he had last seen her.
Easing forward, he gently pulled it out. It had been wedged down tight, no doubt to keep anyone from noticing that it was there. Did that mean she was not alone? Then who was with her?
His fingers fumbled with the ties, and he heard Bakin shift at his side. His friend’s breath caught in surprise.
“Is that…?”
“Yes. It is Beni’s,” Faltz replied.
The small pack came open, and he reached into it. His fingers bumped into the sharpened bit of graphite that the priest had given her along with the materials he had sent over. Although she did not use it for her booklet, he had seen her make sketches and take notes with the thin lump. She did it so frequently that it seemed half the time she was sharpening the edge of it. Smiling to himself, he rolled it out of the way with his fingertips and paused when his hand came into contact with a folded piece of parchment.
Faltz withdrew it, his chest squeezing so tight that he could barely breathe for the way hope seized him. His fingers nearly shook as he opened the four careful folds she had made. He did not know what to expect. She did not know how to write more than a sparse handful of words that she had been taught, and he did not know how to read her language.
His breath hissed out in a quiet laugh. It was a crude map. To the north, he saw a river with what had to be a cluster of human buildings—the Citadel—over which stood a figure of a woman with curly hair. The plains opened up to the south of it. It wasn’t quite accurate, and missed several topographical features, but he could make sense of it as he noticed the blocky construct that could only be the canyon with the Mintar village at the northeastern face.
On the canyon, Beni had drawn another curly-haired female figure, this one frowning. From her, there were several footprints drawn heading west with a bold arrow pointing vaguely in that direction.
“Wait. That looks like the western canyon border,” Bakin whispered. His hand dropped to trace an area not drawn on the map, where there was a known outlet to the edge of their territory. “This is the only route I know of that makes a complete passage through the canyon to the edge of our territory.”
Faltz nodded, but his attention was drawn to the rough image in front of the one representing Beni. Although it was difficult to make out any identity, the short horns of a first-season male stood out clear compared to another figure of a Mintar a much larger distance away with full horns… and jewelry?
“Is that who I think it is?” Bakin whispered, gesturing to the adorned male she had drawn.
“This news is not going to make the queen happy,” Faltz replied. “This other male is young…” He growled, and barely kept from crushing the map in his hand as the other scent in the cave become clearer to him now that he focused on it. Isnah.
“I am going to kill that male,” Faltz snarled.
Bakin looked at him in confusion and scented the air. “The scent is familiar, but I cannot pick it out.”
“Of course not. You are a guard. You have no reason other than one occasion to be around him much, whereas I have trained him for the last few annums. It is Calth’s offspring. Isnah has Beni.”
His friend gaped at him. “You do not think that Isnah killed his sire?”
“I do not know. But I worry even more for my danmi if she is with a potentially unstable male.”
Chapter 30
Beni sat up slowly, her back protesting. It was miracle she had been able to sleep at all. With the threat of wild animals filling the air with their sounds, she had been terrified to sleep just in case the fire did not deter them. She wasn’t sure what exactly she thought she would be able to accomplish if she came face to face with a giant scorpion or one of the giant snakes that the clan called great worms. Despite her fears, by some mi
racle, she eventually managed to fall asleep. It just wasn’t particularly restful. All the same, she was relieved to see that the fire, while low between her and Isnah, was still alive to keep the critters away.
The canyon was a dangerous place. From her position, seeing the miles stretch out around them along the narrow passage they were taking, they still had a long journey ahead of them before they exited it. A clatter of loose rocks from somewhere nearby made Beni shudder and pull her blanket tighter. The canyon was beautiful, but she was hating it more with every hour she spent in it. There was no way to know what predators lurked among the rocks, and thanks to Isnah, there was a good chance she would end up as a meal for one of them.
She turned a glower on the male watching her sourly. She already knew that he blamed her for their slow crawl through the passage. Isnah, not being strong enough to carry her for any great distance, was forced to deal with her rebellion. It wasn’t out of any love for the canyon, but she went as slow as possible in the hopes that it would give Faltz a chance to catch up with them. Hopefully he found her pack with her note inside and was on their trail even now.
In the meantime, she would slow their journey as much as possible. She was delighted to discover that Isnah was of an age that he had not yet developed voice, so he was helpless at commanding her. Outside of abandoning her to the canyon, he had no other options to force her hand.
She rather wished he would.
There was a small upside to the whole scenario. Isnah was intelligent enough to know that she was intentionally delaying them, and that only angered him more. To say that didn’t give her considerable satisfaction would be lying. Her lips curved into a smirk as he snarled and kicked sand over the fire with one paw, snuffing it out.
Beni didn’t bother to move as he walked to her side. Reaching down, his hand closed around her arm, and he yanked her to her feet. He had stopped wasting his breath ordering her about the day before, upon discovering that it did no good. She refused to acknowledge any order or request.
Librarian and the Beast: A Mintar Romance Page 19