A snarl ripped from the dark-furred Tauran’s throat. Teeth gnashing, clacking warningly, he put himself right in Bainan’s face, until the youth had no choice but to lean away or risk damage from all that steaming smoke filling his field of vision.
“I’ll- I’ll- I think I hear Yhem calling me.” Bainan shook, swallowing in great gulping gasps.
Tossing the male, sending him slamming back into the trunk of a tree, waiting until Bainan fell to stomp over to him, he hauled him up by a generous fold of scruff at his nape and shoved him in Yhem’s direction.
Once the young male’d blended into the background, no spot of blond or horns to be seen, Adelric turned to me. I wasn’t afraid as he approached. Nay. After hearing all that, I was hopeful.
“I’m going to ask that you forgive me,” he spoke quietly, bending at my hem to rip off another piece, “I have as little choice in this matter as you do.”
I sincerely disagreed on that one.
“I’m going to finish this,” he spoke as he carefully tore the material into strips, lifting up the bite marks across his Mapped palm to show me, “remove your gag. Please don’t scream.” His eyes strayed to the treetops. “It will only make things worse.
Now my gown was to my knees. Those bite marks I’d put on him were deep, blood flowing steadily from the wound. The tang of copper was in my mouth, but I couldn’t drudge up a single ounce of remorse. He’d deserved it.
The gag fell away, slipping free as he loosened the ties. Seeing the logic in his words, I kept my screaming to my mind.
“You have every choice,” I countered hoarsely. “Every choice, and you chose this.”
Finishing tying off the last strips to his hand, stuffing the gag into his bag, he shook his massive head. “It might seem that way to you, demon pixie,” troubled, glowing gold orbs found mine, looking to me intently, “but nothing is ever as it seems.”
“You’re right,” my chin lifted and I glared at him, “it isn’t.”
Those swirling bursts of gold and yellow and every shade in-between could no longer hold my condemning. “It is probably wiser if I do not know,” he intoned gravely.
Of course not, because then he’d be forced to actually care.
Rummaging around in his pack, he pulled out a water skin very similar to mine but the deep green coloring, uncorking it to hold it up in offering.
“It’s water,” he mumbled, and waited.
Eyes narrowed to tiny little slits, I waited until he approached, bringing the lip of his water pouch to my mouth, to speak. “She was young, my sister, like your Vachel.” I spoke fast, knowing I didn’t have much time to convince him.
The bull man started, blinking, his lips stuck on mine as I spoke. It was something.
“They thought to sacrifice her to the beast they’d trapped in the labyrinth, a mythical creature my kind were thought to have dealt with in tragic battles and virgin sacrifices in a massive maze, one human after another dying in the name of a goddess who, as I understand it, sees us as little more than pets. A winged goddess.”
The spout at my lips faltered.
“Eventually the goddess and her court abandoned us, leaving us to fend for ourselves. We were no longer in her favor, if one could call it that. The beasts stopped coming, and what you hear whispered from my lips is the majority of the knowledge left to my people. The woods were haunted, the beasts a mere fanciful idea, our land was dying, our people along with it, the only solace drink, like my father did, take to the sea, like so many brave enough to set sail, or pick up and leave, leave behind all you’ve ever known and hope, pray for better. If your All-father is Titania’s Oberon, and your Puck the Peacock favored of the queen, I’m afraid you’ve been as duped as the humans—as you call us, the wingless. There are no gods and goddesses, or All-fathers, not as we’ve been led to believe. There will be no eternal punishment for doing the right, the proper thing! Don’t you see? We are ALL pawns in some giant game none of us stands to win! And for what? The magicked and bored’s entertainment? Adelric, please!”
Adelric shook his head, pulling the water pouch to his chest. His fingers gripped it hard enough water spilled out the top. “You’re wrong. It can’t be-”
“We had watchmen, those who watched over the labyrinth the Minotaurs would either stumble into or be lured to, to trap inside. Why did they go there? What drew them? Why did Kvigor?”
“The Great Quest...” Hands starting to tremble, the beastman lifted his injured palm to stare at it. “Worthy males are hand-picked by the All-father, a gift, tasked with a quest only they would know of.”
“Did Kvigor hear voices? Did he find something? An old ruin, a temple, a maze, perhaps? Was there dust? Did the dust sparkle? With old weapons or an object of some kind that he clings to?”
Adelric’s hand went to his hip, where he had his sword sheathed at his belt.
“Adelric!”
Wild eyes, swimming with questions, lifted.
“Please, understand, it all makes sense, just think about it! This is a mistake! It’s not a gift, our hands, the marks, it’s a curse! Just- Just look at me, I’ve the mark of both, yes? I’m the Map—a key—and a Watchmen, branded with the mark of the beast? Me?! You have to- If you knew what was good for you, you’d throw that rusted thing in a lake and forget about it! My daggers, listening to them has brought me nothing but grief!”
“No. This is a test. You speak madness” His head shook so hard it disturbed the branches. More fell, slapping at him, pricking at his fur. He didn’t seem to care or notice.
“Adelric-”
Stuffing his water skin into his pack, he motioned for me to quiet. “You say you’ve a sister, one you’d do anything for?”
“And I did,” I cried out, resisting the urge to squirm in my bindings.
The leader of the chief’s guard gave a brief nod. “Then we understand each other better than most.”
Vachel. He was somehow doing all of this for her.
“I- but I don’t understand!” My head shook vehemently. Thwack. A sharp cry escaped my lips. As I jerked another one slapped me. Another sharp, shocked cry left me.
Eyes closed, he turned his back on me, adjusting his pack on his back, his hand going to the single strap fashioned on it, his fingers squeezing it rhythmically. “I am to return and release you, come morn. As Ekodar did not specify exactly when, I’ll return just before dawn.”
“I’m not a Tauran, I wasn’t made for this weather! Please! It’s too cold at night!”
“Riadne...” So much emotion in that one word, regret, shame, guilt, yet none of it was going to make him set me free. None of this was going to get any better for me.
Where would I go, if he’d done so? More wilderness, but by myself? Would he take me? Doubtful.
It didn’t stop my sobbed pleas. “Release me, I beg you! Save me!”
“I cannot. Understand. Please understand, I- I cannot.” Those whispered words struck me harder than the whipping tree’s spikey leaved branches ever could.
Because if he did, it meant something bad would happen to his baby sister. Thinking of Vetra, my guts twisted in an ugly tangle.
“I pray to the All-father then, for your forgiveness,” he said louder, but not so loud as to be overheard by others.
Shoulders tense, back straight, he put one hooved foot in front of the other, leaving me to my fate.
“Adelric!” I screamed as he turned his back on me and left. “Please!!”
My screamed, sobbed, bellowed entreaties went unanswered.
˜˙˜*˜˙˜
It was late when I heard it, a shuffling, scuttling sound. A creature?
Imagine my surprise when the Chief himself came sauntering into view. More spry than I recalled the older male being, he practically danced around the trees. Humming a hauntingly familiar tune, he trotted right up to me, a wicked smile pulling at his wrinkled face.
It was the eyes, a violet and lavender swirling mix, that gave me a start. Their king had d
ull amber eyes that shifted to gold. When he spoke, it was the tone, his words...
“Hello, little one, having fun, are we?” Pulling back, glancing around, he cleared his throat, affecting a serious tone, and began to pace in front of me. Hands behind his hunched back, he made strange sounds with his mouth. “The taming was necessary, you see,” he began to ramble on.
I wasn’t listening.
The hour was late, the only light offered from the moons high above peeking through the leaves. There was the third moon in full view, a dark purple rimmed in a gold glow. Back home, had I seen it I’d have thought it the Trickster’s moon with a false halo. This was one of the mimicking moons Kvigor had told me about.
My skin burned, pulled tight, raw. Welts littered my body, my nightgown for a dress torn. I’d gone mad earlier, thrashing about like a feral cat, cursing and screeching, begging and pleading some more, until my voice was barely capable of a whisper, my skin split open in sections. A thousand tiny cuts freely bleeding.
That was my life in a nutshell, a thousand tiny cuts. I was just waiting for one to strike something important and put me out of my misery, or the steady bleeding to do me in.
“I will admit I’m impressed,” the Chief admitted, ruining the compliment by giggling a little.
Was he drunk? And why should I care? If I was lucky he’d stumble into a pond on his return trip and drown. The longer I watched him, listened as he spoke, the more this sense of the familiar washed over me.
“Peacock,” I whispered, keeping perfectly still for fear of bursting another lifted strip of enflamed skin open. There really was only so much a body could handle. I was reaching my limit.
That long-horned beast whipped towards me, purple eyes swirling with delight. Again he grinned. “Oh, sweet, you do remember. I was beginning to wonder if anyone would ever catch up.” His hand lifted in a flamboyant gesture, true to the queen’s favorite but strange on the chief he’d obviously talked into allowing him into cohabitating with.
“And what was his price?” My chin jerked at the borrowed body. The Chief was still in there, I knew all too well.
Peacock made a tsking sound. “Now-now, where would all the fun be in that, hmm? Giving away all the good bits when you’re so good at figuring things out?”
Maybe not fun for him, but possible leverage for me.
“What are you trying to gain?” Other than mucking about with humans to get his giblets off.
“Gain?” Purple eyes gleamed. Arms out, he lifted them up. With a sigh, he twisted his sagging limbs this way and that, as if relishing the flex and pull. “Gain? M’dear, piss the wrong magical being off one time,” he spat the words, eyes flashing a deep magenta swirling with violet, “and everything’s gone to piss.” Stomping around, mood swiftly changing from jovial to raging, he tossed his arms up. “I am Puck! Puck! On another plane, in another realm, I am not merely a fae of mischief, I am worshipped, admired even! Hell, they think me a god!”
“And were you banished from there too?” I asked politely, a benign smile twisting my lips.
“Oh,” he sneered, “you think your precious warrior king or his trollop queen are any better than me? Whom do you think oversaw your realm? Hmm? It wasn’t your warrior king, I assure you. No, he sat idly by, allowing his lady her way. Do you honestly think he cares for you or your ilk? Hah! Don’t believe the pretty words and charming voice delivering them. All honeyed lies, bullshit polished ‘til it shines, ready to feed to the masses, it is.”
And we were much better off, at first, after the Mad Queen’d left us be.
“Your Tauran, you’ve abandoned them, why try to come back now?” I could put two and two together. Children of Puck, the Abandoned. The All-father, Oberon, come to pick up the pieces. Whether the Warrior King was honorable or not, the Tauran seemed to revere him. I’d have to see for myself. Blind faith had never been my way.
A sneer and a sniffing snigger, poorly disguised disgust, was what I got in reply.
Peacock really thought himself above others. No better than the other fae, he was.
The male’s laugh was dark, nasty. “Dear Chosen, bargaining chip to the foolish, you honestly think I wanted to come back here? To this dung heap?! Hah! Nay, I was banished here, by dear Oberon himself. I fucked his deranged,” his hands waved to his left, “beloved wife, so, so many,” his eyes closed in bliss, briefly, “fucking times. He catches wind,” his pause and the slight moue of distaste twisting his lips led me to conclude he’d gotten caught in the act, “he banishes me here.” His hands cut across to his right, forming fists, and he shook his head, gritting his teeth.
“Why fuck his wife at all?” Blunt, to the point. He seemed to appreciate when his audience cut to the chase, no matter how much he danced about.
Steam wafting from his nostrils, Puck’s upper lip curled up at one corner. “Power.” An eye roll. “Why else?”
No. There was more to it than that. His eyes told more than his mouth ever would.
“And my home, my... world? What of it? Was that to be her punishment, before she was,” and I was only guessing, “pardoned?”
“Pardoned.” Puck, well, in Ekodar’s body, snorted. “She wasn’t pardoned, she was banned, physically, from walking any earths, or terras, as you think of them, worlds, she- we’d, created, left to wait for stupid inhabitants to traipse into our ruins, searching for answers in nonsense where there were none, ripe for the picking. Yes, she’s still at Oberon’s side, but at what cost? No better than a pet herself now, same as I and all others of our kind, torn from your world, this world, and any world therein from this day forth. We’re no better than wraiths on this plane, parasites! She’d have taken her punishment, she’d be a blasphemous parasitic flea with the rest of us, but she’d be free and I-”
“The land, my land, it was dying, I want to know-”
“The woods.” He shrugged. “She does so love her little games, and your world and Tavros having a physical connection, well,” his grin was more of a smirk, “you didn’t think she was going to drain my world to power the portal, with me trapped in it, over her piddly humans, did you? And all the other portals? Closed to conserve energy, an, hmmm, inconvenient inconvenience.” A small, wistful sigh. “I did so love those red skinned demons.” He shivered at something. “Some of them have two dicks, or twats, you know. Ever been fucked by two men at once?” A heavy brow waggled. “Or banged in two holes?”
“I don’t know what she sees in you,” I spat, teeth gnashing. Puck and his Queen’s abuse of others was disgusting. How many bodies had they borrowed, through their trickery and deceit? I shuddered to think.
His smile fell, teasing tone drying up. “Still stuck on your piss of an excuse for a world, are we?” His hand lifted and he waved me away like a bad smell. “Oh, posh, princess self-righteous. So your little village dies off, big whoop. It’ll be centuries yet before the planet is drained of all resources, and by then,” his grin returned and he clapped his hands, “we’ll all, King’s wrath be willing, be dead.”
“Are you not dead now?” I queried.
“Astral projection.” Those thick lips puckered, the action so odd I found myself staring. “Like I’d stay with that jackass for a face greeting me in the mirror in the morning, and for what? For her?” His smile fell. “No.” Fingers curling, he gave a sniff. “This is much more interesting, don’t you think?” When his hands lifted to his horns, he sighed. The way he was rubbing them was... disturbing. “Though I’d have much more preferred a pretty face once more. Mmph,” he made a noise, “king-chief of his people has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Rolls off the tongue nicely.”
“King-chief?” I choked on the silly title.
“Better than weak, milquetoast, pliable Chosen.” Dancing around, he mimicked in a high falsetto, “Oh, Vetra. My poor sister whah-whah, blah-blah. I must save you! Eeeeh! Oh, Kvigor, what big muscles you have! Breach me with your love wand! You’re so brave, I don’t even know you and I’m going to bond myself to
you, hooray for me! And we’re going to live happily ever after, because I’m delusional! Oh, titter-titter, I’m melting in a puddle,” his expression flattened, lip curling, “of love.”
“Stop it,” I got out between gritted teeth. My jaw ached, I clamped it shut so tight. Yes, so I’d jumped in. Stupid me. I had been played a fool. Better an honest one than a poor man’s excuse for a decent being. “Damn you,” I whispered, sniffling.
Tears pricked my eyes but I refused to give in to them. With all the scrapes and scratches marring my face, the promise of that burning, salty sting was enough to fend them off, as much as knowing I was denying him the satisfaction of knowing he’d crawled beneath my skin.
“Don’t worry,” he drawled drolly, “I’m bored with your pathetic tale already.” His eyes rolled dramatically, stopping to land on me. “Should’ve gone with me from the first, it would’ve proved infinitely more...” his gaze raked my length slowly and he licked his lips, winking, “entertaining.”
I’d just bet it would. The urge to vomit was strong this night.
“The only bit of fun to be had in that silly maze was watching Oberon slaughter those males, which your weak minded arse couldn’t even stay conscious long enough for, my queen tells me, and the fucking.” His skin shivered. “Your pair bond, frightfully large, isn’t he?” Glancing down at himself, he sighed, but when he lifted his head a calculating look crossed his face. “The cock on this one’s half, heh-hem, well, cocked.” Lifting his finger, he bent it and made a silly face. “Fucked that priestess of his silly, I did, bent the damned thing in half.”
At my horrified look he winked, “Oh, the penis, not the woman, though she is growing rather ripe, isn’t she? Only so many nipples to pierce and things to dangle from a rapidly aging body before that sparkling shine of youth simply can’t be substituted.”
“I- Wh- You-” Disgusting. Pig. Those were the words I was looking for.
“Don’t worry, still works. I checked.” Clearing his throat, he admitted sheepishly with a shrug, “Once the swelling went down.”
By the Horns Page 24