By the Horns

by Jeanette Lynn

  “So it’s true, then?” Yhem spoke quietly as I took the plate Suzaela offered, already filled up and ready to go. I sent the high priestess a small smile of thanks for the absence of yarmishe and abundance of rolls threatening to topple my breakfast plate. Lifting a two pronged fork, I was just about to dig in when I caught the grey-haired beast of a male eyeing me.

  “Is it spicy? Am I eating it wrong? What did I do? Why are you staring at me?” My chin dipped and I examined the fluffy green glob of... scrambled eggs, I was hoping.

  When he just continued to stare I set my fork down. Uneasiness slithered though me. I had the feeling this wasn’t about the food.

  “Bargained with the All-father for tokens.”

  The naturally frowny, sourpussed, grey-furred Minotaur’s eyes widened at Adelric’s explanation. “Tokens? Then that’s what be with the,” his hand lifted and he gestured about my head, “and the- the- Ye know.”

  No. Ye did not know. “What’s wrong with my face?”

  “Eyes are golder,” Adelric was quick to reassure.

  Thinking of the bars and the burn marks on my arms, my hand lifted to my face. “It’s that bad?” Was my face striped now? It didn’t feel it. What was amiss?

  “Never seen the like on a female, nor the likes of a wingless. It’s in the books, yes?”

  Burn marks? Books?”

  “I’m not disfigured,” I muttered, scowling and wincing. Ow!

  “Pains ye?” Yhem nodded in understanding. “Get her good on baidle berry wine, fix her right up ‘til the worst of it’s over.”

  He thought it was going to get worse? I needed to be inebriated for the worst of it? It was going to get worse?

  “That why ye dove in head first?” A thick hand lifted, doubly thick finger boldly pointing to Adelric’s borrowed blanket. “Tell ye now, no one’s goin’ to be comin’ ta call with Ekodar and Kvigor carryin’ on as they have, and now wit’, well, wit’ that.” His hand waved. “Prophecy gunk scare ‘em much, if not more, than our unruly ruler. No need to rush. Competition’s next to nothin’. Never seen ye jump on-”

  “Drop it.” Adelric’s nostrils flared and he bared his teeth.

  “Fine.” Yhem threw his hands up as his friend’s nose started to produce a thick cloud of smoke. “Only sayin’, if claiming the chit is some form of recompense or way to get closer to the All-father, it ain’t-”

  The sound of Adelric’s mug as it slammed to the table, smashing under his meaty fist, was deafening. “What I do and what I don’ is none of anyone’s concern, ye ken? Dinna ye have things to do? Should be goin’ and doin’ them, eh.”

  Jumping up, I hopped back. Adelric’s hand went to my arm as if to keep me in place, slipping away guiltily when he caught several maidens’ eyes widening at the display.

  Appetite gone, I slid the steaming mug Suzaela had set in front of me only minutes before in front of him as he picked up cup shards, settling back to lift the cup of water Vachel poured as she watched me give up my drink, handing it to me, to my lips.

  Yhem jerked back as if he thought Adelric meant to chuck the broken pieces at him next when he lifted them and tossed them onto the empty platter between them.

  “You have come for something, Yhemesh?” Adelric prompted, his smiling eyes a somber, dull bronze.

  “Wanted to talk about a few things. New developments.” The male’s eyes slid to Suzaela, who was pretending not to listen, before sliding past Vachel and making their way back to me.

  “If this is about Ekodar denouncing my mother, there’s no need. We already know. I’d like to think she was the first to know, seeing as she’d left him first, but I know there are those, aside from the Chief’s blind followers, who wonder if that was not so.”

  “He claims he’s to be taking another to bond with when the caravan arrives.” Yhem grunted, scratching at his cheek.

  “You sound skeptical,” the dark-furred Minotaur pointed out.

  Adelric sounded as if he was happy his mother wasn’t tied to the beast, giving me the impression Suzaela had been the one to end things.

  “I am,” Yhem said easily. “Things are not the same without you.”

  The dark-furred bull made a clicking noise as his teeth snapped. “You expected all to remain the same?”

  “Without the glue keeping it all together... things, they are unraveling, fast.”

  “Good.” Snatching a biscuit right from my plate, his head tilted so as not to let on to others, my secret, not so secret lover tossed me a quick wink.

  As any hopes I wouldn’t be whatever it was he’d decided we were, my chest ached like someone had just scooped the insides out. Slap me and kiss me, it was sweet torture.

  It doesn’t matter, I tried to tell myself, none of this matters. The most important thing? Figuring out my next move. Puck needed to be stopped before it was too late.

  Thinking of all the things that could have come to pass while I was incapacitated, I grimaced. Gods, I hoped it wasn’t too late. And the great Warrior King wishes me to simply go about my day, as if I should have no worries? Was he mad?!

  Stupid question. Of course he was!

  “What new developments have arisen these past few days?” I directed my question to Yhem, who looked shocked I’d even thought to address him.

  “These past few days?” he said slowly, glancing from Adelric to my person as if to seek permission.

  Ignoring that weirdness, I raised an eyebrow, eyeing him challengingly.

  “Milady,” he started, startling the stockings I wasn’t wearing clean off of me, “many a thing have come to pass since your... slumber.”

  Slumber? Snorting, I grabbed a biscuit and took a huge bite, chewing as I eyed him thoughtfully.

  Swallowing my bite, I waved my half-eaten biscuit at him. “You make it sound as if I was a princess under a curse. Do I look a fairytale, newly awoken from her prince’s life giving kiss, come to life to you?”

  “You look like you just came back from death,” Vachel offered helpfully. “Nay, death itself. If death had gold flecks in its eyes and great black lumps on its head.” The youth looked to her mother. “Does the reaper of souls have gold eyes and ugly lumps on its face? Or scars like sealed molten-”

  “Vachel,” Adelric and Suzaela barked out harshly.

  “What have I said? She asked what she looked like! It is not my fault the All-father has returned her deformed,” she began to argue.

  “Enough.” Adelric’s voice held a growl I’d never heard him use with his sibling before.

  Vachel’s ears flicked, flattening to the sides of her head and her face dropped.

  Deformed?! Resisting the urge to fondle these so called great black lumps on my head, as it was so eloquently put, wondering just how much of a horror I looked, I held still. Hands sliding to my lap, my fingers clenched.

  “I meant no offense,” Suzaela’s youngest said quietly. There was an apology in there somewhere, I was certain. If I dug deep enough. Maybe if my brain squinted and I feigned deafness.

  “Thank you for your... honesty,” I murmured dryly but not unkindly. I was beginning to understand Vachel’s impulsiveness, her mouth moving as she thought, before she’d thought better of it, better than anyone. A personal quirk of hers I was coming to accept, expect, even.

  “Take a small nap and everything and everyone goes to pot,” I joked.

  “A small nap?” The food in Yhem’s mouth slid out, a noodle-like piece of green dangling from his lips as his mouth dropped in a gape. The short, shocked laugh that left the creature seated across from me at my incredulous look gave me pause. “Several weeks is hardly a nap!” he burst out, blurting the words out, eyes wide in his long face.

  “Weeks?” I squawked out, eyes darting around. “I’ve been gone for weeks?!

  ˜˙˜*˜˙˜

  To say things were awkward after Yhem’s little announcement was putting it mildly. What was worse was the table full of guiltridden looks.

  No one had intended to
tell me, if ever.

  Eventually everyone settled back to their chatting and eating, while I was left to let all of this soak in.

  “It is settled, then?” Yhem asked Adelric cryptically, catching my notice.

  Peeking at him from beneath my lashes surreptitiously, I found the male glancing to me pointedly to give his friend a long, telling look.

  Adelric said nothing. There was not even a grunt. I’d grown accustomed to expect nothing less.

  “There is much talk. Some have come to label those who do not follow outsiders. Some goin’ so far to call them bahdajri.”

  “This doesn’t surprise me,” my dark-furred companion said easily. He was brooding, thoughtful.

  “It had been implied, in quiet circles, they think some to be in hiding.”

  That got the ex-enforcer’s back up. “They think me a coward?”

  Vachel’s sigh was gusty, annoyed. Pointing her fork at her sibling, a thick square of spongy bread dipped in blue sauce dripping from the end, she clucked her tongue. “Fools. All of them.” swallowing the food squirreled away in the side of her cheek, she let a protective growl loose. “I told you to let me handle my own. Look at this now, Adel? They label us cowards, think us hiding in temple. I am not a coward, and neither are you! Why, then, should we pretend to be?”

  “We are not cowards, or in hiding. We are biding our time,” Suzaela reassured. “Saving you, daughter mine, from a fate worse than-”

  “You do not know him! Kerberos could be a good male,” Vachel snarled. “Cephonie speaks highly of her brother. She-”

  “Is biased,” the high priestess voice rose and others quieted, “and we do not know who to trust at this moment, who may or may not be held under Ekodar’s hand.” Or more importantly, Puck’s, now that he’d added Kvigor to his body borrowing harem.

  The family matriarch’s gaze scanned the table, stopping on the maidens and Yhem pointedly. Not once did those glowing eyes land on me, making my insides warm in reaction.

  “Let them say what they will, Taurans always talk, and that’s all it is.” Lifting her steaming mug to her lips, she took a slow slip. “The truth will out.”

  As if his mother’s words had the desired effect, Adelric deflated.

  “It may be wise,” Yhem suggested, “if once in a while some were to make an appearance... Mayhap to pick up supplies in the village? Let them, ah, see?” His hand waved lightly in my direction and he shrugged. “It would take a blind, old fool not to notice she has been since marked by the Father.”

  A rumbling grumble left the beast next to me. Glancing to me through the corner of his eye, his boxy body shifted. A thick hand went to his chin, where he began stroking the scraggly stubble of his beard. “It is not without merit.”

  “Sounds delightful!” Vachel chimed in, excited by the idea. “I’ve been cooped up in this golden palace for far too long. I am starting to grow restless. When do we leave?”

  “Not you,” Adelric muttered, pointing a thick finger at his sibling. “You will remain here, in safety.”

  “Am I never to do anything?! I will die in this sparkling relic!” The youth huffed, cutting the sound short at her mother and brother’s answering chuffs.

  “You do not seem to fully grasp the situation, I fear,” Suzaela intoned darkly, before Adelric could interject.

  Pretending not to hear Vachel’s outburst, Yhem, focused on Adelric, clacked his teeth noisily. “Ekodar put Bainan’s other half in charge until his sibling’s return. I fear all may soon come to ruin under the impetuous youth’s hand. An appearance of their old leader may be just what is needed to remind the men. Gavrael is but a pup.”

  “Remind them of what?” Adelric made a snuffling sound. “That I have left them?”

  Everything in the big, oversized yak looking man softened, apparent in the look in his eyes and the sad smile on his face. “What it’s like to have a male with his men’s interests at the helm.”

  “I will think on it, Yhem.” Adelric stood, Yhem following.

  Yhem’s hefty battle axe was lifted, settled over his shoulder, the strap he’d attached to the handle serving for him to lug it around.

  Reaching across the table, the men put their left hands to each other’s shoulders and blew steam across the space.

  “Until next meet, brother.”

  “Next meet.” Pausing at the end of the hall, Yhem darted a look between us over his shoulder. “One or the other. Leaving the line dangling has never caught anyone anything but grief.”

  “Next meet, Yhemen.” The dark-furred Tauran’s expression closed off, signaling the end of his acceptance of anymore of Yhem’s insights.

  That night I knew I was to sleep alone, Adelric making his excuses with everyone else. No invitation was issued as to my welcome in his domicile. I guess he’d chosen the other.

  Just about everyone else had dispersed, like cockroaches scrambling to get away, after Suzaela’s exit right after dinner. Vachel, the last to leave, had hesitated as if she wished to speak with me but ultimately left.

  And I was left to my lonesome.

  Folding Adelric’s blanket, knowing it somehow meant more than I’d realized by wearing it, I placed it neatly in front of the door to his room.

  Peacock certainly had the upper hand in this now, more so than before, I feared. If ever there was a time to accept the Tauran’s almighty All-father and his gifts, now was it.

  ˜˙˜*˜˙˜

  Standing in the middle of the forest of foliage, staring up at the chips of glass that were left of the crumbling panels of skylight this far out, pretending to be stars, arms outstretched, I did a slow circle. I was far enough out I hoped to go unheard by others. It would afford me some privacy.

  “Hello?” I muttered, nose wrinkling as mud squished beneath my toes. It was raining lightly, the cool sprinkling calming the horrible itch in my skin. Suzaela insisted I take to the waters when it grows too intense, as she called the dark pool of water, but I was growing impatient to get this, all of it, over with. The salve I’d accepted at her behest, was enough for now

  I’d admit, the itching was worst upon waking and whilst I tried to fall asleep. It would seem, no matter the fae behind it, I was doomed to lead a life of suffering of some kind at their hands. Sparkle sprinkling dust loving bastards.

  “Ah... warrior king person? Oberon? You said to call when I was ready. Well, you know, here I am. So... let’s get this over with, hm?”

  Silence but for the life teeming around me.

  I remained out there until the cacrows began to call as the suns rose.

  No male filled with fae came to receive my acceptance or bestow any gifts upon me.

  I couldn’t say this was the first time I’d felt left in the lurch, and doubted it would be my last. This, all of it, begged the question, though: what was I to do if he’d decided I wasn’t worthy?

  I’ll keep trying, I told myself in way of soothing. It did nothing for my frazzled nerves.

  Drenched and cold, the weather growing colder by the day, the sudden change to me not surprising after Yhem’s slip about my slumber, I trudged off to bed. They’d been waiting to tell me, possibly in worry over my reaction, easing me into things one day at a time. More than likely Suzaela’s idea. She was the more thoughtful of her lot. Based on my response to Yhem’s announcement, the decision to wait to tell me until I was more rested up, if they’d ever intended to, sounded all the wiser.

  In passing by the small hall that led to Adelric’s room, I found the passageway empty, his blanket gone.

  Right. Saved him the trouble of having to ask for it.

  A familiar bellow echoed in the distance, startling me, and I waited.

  It sounded again and again, until I almost answered that mournful call.

  Glancing down at my form, I shrugged. What better time than when you felt like you matched the weather, dreary from the inside out.

  The antechamber and its many corridors whistled hollowly. The air was damp as I exite
d, drizzle misting down. I couldn’t say I minded when it was like this, cool, calm, quiet, not another soul around, the sound of rain gently falling, whips of wind in the backdrop the only noise. But for that noise...

  Lifting the hem of my shift dress, splashing right through the puddles starting to form along the gravel walk, the bellowing menace rattling the gate roaring away, one would’ve thought Kvigor had never left.

  Red flushed eyes met mine. “You are mine,” he snarled on a menacing growl. “MINE.”

  “You wanted to hand me to your Enforcer, did you not?” I was proud my voice didn’t catch, appearing calm and cool on the outside. I am the rain, I told myself.

  All beast and barely man, his lip curled and he snapped his teeth. “For safe keeping! I never thought he’d try and take you from me.”

  “I’m not a pet, and I won’t be fought over,” I stated mildly. I was the one playing games for once, testing the waters.

  The growl that ripped from his throat had me shivering for all the wrong reasons. “When I get past this- this-”

  “Obstacle?”

  “They’re keeping me from you!”

  Not entirely untrue, though I tended to look at it as keeping myself to safety.

  “I won’t have you with that thing, that parasite, latched onto you,” I replied in a reasonable tone.

  “He’s in my head! Even now, listening, thinking, whispering... horrible things. Argh...”

  Thinking of what Adelric had said on this, I smiled faintly, the tips of my lips pulling up slightly, my shoulders lifting in a short shrug. “Never figured you for weak.” My chin tipped towards the house. “Suppose I got the better end of the bargain after all.”

  “Mine. MINE! I claimed you. ME! Not a- a- bahdajri!”

  “Your brother is not an outsider, a misfit, or any other stupid thing that fool is feeding you, whispering in your ear,” I ground out, my hands dropping to fist at my sides.

  He caught the action, lips twitching. It was then I saw the purple flecks sparkling in those bright eyes. Oh, darling, your Puck is showing. I was certain I could fix that.

  “You wish to claim me, husband?” Hands rising up, fingers beckoned.