A League of Exiles

by Bella Forrest

  We followed Vesta, sneaking along the side of the gorge as we got closer to the Manticores. They were both young males, and were quick to tie the deer’s legs. One of them hoisted the animal over his shoulder, and then they both hurried ahead. I followed them with my True Sight, until the sound of a broken branch distracted me.

  I glanced over my shoulder and noticed movement behind us—shadows rushing between the large rocks and palm trees. “Hold on,” I whispered, and scanned the area we’d just left. “Oh, crap.”

  I didn’t need to explain myself, as a split second later, we were all brought to a halt—we were surrounded by Manticores on all sides, not just from the back.

  “Should’ve seen this coming,” Caspian muttered, then pulled his sword out.

  “We come in peace,” Vesta announced, slowly raising her hands in the air, in a defensive gesture.

  Judging by the looks on the Manticores’ faces, they didn’t really care. There were at least thirty of them, all strong and baring their fangs at us. They held spears up, their sharp tips pointed at us. My main concern revolved around the scorpion tails, the venomous spikes twitching, and also aimed at us. They seemed eager to poke us with something sharp, one way or another.

  I held my breath and drew my twin blades. My instincts told me that we wouldn’t be able to tell them much, and that we’d have to fight them into submission before we could explain our presence here—provided we didn’t get our asses handed to us, of course.

  The Manticores didn’t give Vesta a chance to state our peaceful intentions again. They launched their spears at us first, from all around. We were fast enough to dodge them all, though one did graze my shoulder before stopping halfway through the trunk of a palm tree nearby. They then came at us with their claws and spiked scorpion tails.

  I had two of my own to deal with. They were highly adept at using their tails in combat, and ridiculously fast. I couldn’t stand still for more than two to three seconds, and used every angle at my disposal to launch an attack. I dodged a poisoned tail spike, then slashed both my swords out, before quickly withdrawing. The tails were, by far, the most dangerous part in dealing with Manticores, so I figured it would be wise to keep at least ten feet between me and my opponents in order to avoid being stung.

  A quick glance around told me that the rest of my team was experiencing the same difficulty. “Listen, we’re not here to hurt you,” I said to the Manticores attacking me—now four of them, with more coming from the narrow crevices in the walls on both sides.

  I dodged another spike, then bolted between them. I spun around with my swords out and drew blood from two of them, then slid across the dirt and cut through the other two. I went for the thighs, hoping to slow them down. It would’ve been nice to have Blaze go full dragon at this point.

  A loud thud made me turn my head. I froze for a couple of seconds, until Caia’s scream pierced through my consciousness. Blaze had been stung. One of the Manticores was withdrawing his spike from Blaze’s chest, and he’d fallen flat on his back.

  There was no time, and no telling how long it would take for the venom to kill him. Crap. I shifted my focus back to my four opponents—still standing, but extremely pissed—while Caia shot fireballs at the Manticores that had surrounded her and Blaze.

  “We’re here to help you, dammit!” I growled, and went in for another double-bladed attack. The hostiles knew the trick this time. They were quick to study and remember my moves, and dodged the swords at the last minute. I wound up cutting through air. A faint rattle and swish coming from behind prompted me to lunge forward and roll on the ground. I’d avoided their spikes by just a couple of inches—too close, given what was at stake.

  I immediately sprang up and put my swords out again. The Manticores grinned, then stalked toward me, worryingly confident. Jax and Hansa had cut two of their opponents down—cutting deep enough to maim, but not kill.

  Vesta used water from the stream to confuse her opponents, while Caia continued to rage out with robust balls of fire. Fiona was hard on the defensive, until one of the Manticores got too close and left his waist vulnerable. Fiona swung hard with her left fist, and I heard the creature’s ribs crack from the violent impact. That girl’s left hook was freaking lethal.

  Caspian was just a few feet away from me, dealing with his own set of four Manticores, swinging his sword left and right as best as he could. But my instincts kept telling me to run—we were woefully outnumbered, and our dragon was down. They’d probably been following us for a while now, and we’d been too focused on the two hunters to check our six o’clock.

  “We’re looking for the swamp witch. We want to bring the daemons and Exiled Maras down!” I shouted at the Manticores. “We’re not from here! We’ve come to help! We can bring an entire army over here, of creatures you’ve never seen before, creatures that can end the daemons’ reign for good!”

  I heard a scoff before I was forced to dodge another spiked tail—a move I instantly regretted, as I watched it go right into Caspian’s shoulder blade. He’d been keeping himself as close to me as possible, fending off backstabbers. “Caspian!” I cried out.

  He grunted from the pain, then dropped to his knees and collapsed on the ground. Rage flared through me. That was the final straw. I pushed out a massive barrier and knocked all the Manticores around me backward. I rushed over to Caspian’s side and turned him over. I used my True Sight to see his face beneath the mask and goggles—he was too pale, and thousands of dark purple capillaries became visible, spidering across his face.

  The Manticores were dazed, but got back up and came at me again. I pushed another barrier out, followed by a second, much stronger one, that sent the others flying back, too. Where is this much strength coming from?

  I’d never been able to produce such potent pulses before. Enough to knock some opponents down, sure, but certainly not on that wide radius, and not against dozens of Manticores at once. They were all baffled and hissing, while the rest of my team was stunned. Caia quickly slid to her knees next to Blaze, motioning for Jax to help him. The Manticores groaned and struggled to get back up.

  “Help him, Jax, please!” she said, her voice trembling.

  I held Caspian in my arms and turned him around so he wouldn’t get direct sunlight on his face. I pulled his mask down, then bit into my wrist and pushed the open wound against his lips. Hansa, Fiona, and Vesta kept the Manticores at bay—Vesta started shooting arrows at anyone who dared come close. The Manticores were furious, their tails rattling and their chests swelling with every ragged breath.

  Caspian wasn’t drinking. In fact, he couldn’t even hold his head up anymore. My heart thudded, and dread washed over me in freezing waves. “What… What’s happening? Caspian, drink my blood… You’ll be okay, just drink my blood.”

  Jax had the same issue with Blaze, who was equally unresponsive, his face covered in dark purple tainted blood vessels. “He’s not drinking, either,” Jax gasped, then looked at the Manticores. “Help us! Help them!”

  To my surprise, the Manticores suddenly calmed down. I couldn’t hear anything, but I could have sworn they were listening to something—their yellow eyes went pale and glassy for a couple of seconds, before one of the males regained focus and looked at me. “Your blood can’t cure Manticore venom. Nothing can cure Manticore venom, besides another Manticore,” he said.

  “What do you mean? Please, help us! We’re not here to harm anyone. We’re here to offer an alliance!” I cried out, losing my mind. I couldn’t even focus with Caspian literally dying in my arms. It was too much, too fast, and I didn’t know how to cope. Not after we’d just found each other…

  “If you agree to meet with our queen, we will cure your friends,” another Manticore spoke.

  “Yes. Hell yes!” Hansa retorted. “Obviously it’s what we’re here for. Now help them!”

  Two Manticores came forward, while Hansa, Vesta, and Fiona motioned for the others to stay back. One of them stopped by Blaze’s side, and
the other came to Caspian and me. There was a twinkle of curiosity in his eyes, and only then did I realize that I could read his emotions—I could read all of them, as a sentry. They were worried, and fearful. There were waves of red-hot anger emanating from some of them, particularly the ones we’d injured. But they weren’t aggressive toward us anymore.

  “How did you do that?” the Manticore asked, as he crouched in front of me, cocking his head to one side. He was a good-looking male, with strings of leather braided into several tails of his rich, reddish mane. His amber eyes scanned me with visible interest.

  “What are you talking about?” I breathed.

  “How did you push us all away like that? No one can do what you just did,” he replied.

  “Sorry, my boyfriend is kind of dying here.” I nodded to Caspian in my arms. “Can we leave my combat skills for later?”

  My sarcasm and angst weren’t lost on him. He chuckled lightly, bringing his tail up from behind. “Don’t be alarmed, and hold him still. This will sting.”

  It hit me then, by how the spike of his tail was positioned, that he was going to use it again. I instinctively put my hand out, my fingers trembling. I was ready to launch another barrier. Whatever new strength I’d found, it wasn’t going anywhere.

  “What are you doing? Trying to finish the job?” I growled.

  “Like I said, only a Manticore can cure Manticore venom,” he said, and didn’t even flinch. I didn’t scare him at all. If anything, I fascinated him. “One shot poisons, and, eventually, it kills. The second shot counteracts the venom’s effect, and stops it from rotting the body from the inside out.”

  “Holy crap, it rots?” I murmured, my eyes wide. The Manticore replied with a nod, and I mirrored it to signal my permission for him to sting Caspian. The spike went right into his chest, the tip plunging deep into the muscle as it pushed the venom inside. Fighting fire with fire, I guess.

  He withdrew the spike, and I briefly glanced over to Blaze, who’d just been given the same “treatment”. “It will take a while for them to recover,” the Manticore in front of me said. “Expect some turbulence.”

  “Turbulence? What turbulence?” I asked, my stomach knotting.

  Before the Manticore could reply, Caspian started shaking in my arms, his convulsions violent. He groaned in pain, and I held him tight, whispering in his ear. “Shh, you’re okay, Caspian. It’ll be okay. Ride it out, baby.”

  The Manticore raised an eyebrow, watching him struggle in my firm embrace. “Well, that, mostly. His body is reacting to the venom purge. It’s actually a good sign. It means he’ll be up and running soon.”

  The sound of hooves on the ground made me look up. The Manticores brought our horses out from the shade, then motioned for us to get up. The one standing next to me lifted Caspian up from my arms and hauled him over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. “I’m Kai, by the way,” he said, irritatingly jovial given everything that had just happened. “And this is your mate, I presume.”

  I had just referred to Caspian as my boyfriend, after all. Oh, damn. Good thing Caspian was unconscious when I said that, since I wasn’t sure he was ready to receive such a title from me. Not in these wretched circumstances, anyway. Kai smirked, visibly amused by my expression for some reason. “He’ll be fine, don’t worry. Maras are resilient creatures. Now, come. Our queen wishes to hear what you people have to say.”

  “Oh, now she wants to listen,” I muttered, picking my swords off the ground and sheathing them.

  “Be thankful,” Kai replied. “We would’ve killed you by now, had she not been curious about you, outsiders.”

  Should I be thankful, though? They had nearly killed Blaze and Caspian. They had clearly followed us around, and hadn’t backed down when we specifically said we’d come in peace. My stomach churned as I followed Kai and the others deeper into the gorge.

  The Manticores were not going to make this easy on us. That, I just knew.

  Fiona

  We moved forward through the gorge for about a hundred yards, then made a sharp turn left through a side crevice. There were two Manticores between us at all times, their spears aimed at our backs. They didn’t speak, and they didn’t take their eyes off us, either. Blaze and Caspian were out cold, but at least they were still alive and not rotting on the inside.

  Neraka was all so wild and beautiful, but damn, some of its creatures were downright terrifying—and I was tempted to put the Manticores right up there with the daemons, based on what I’d just seen. No wonder the daemons wanted them out of the way in order to dominate this world!

  They let us keep our weapons, at least, though they held on to our horses. We were fast and strong, but we were no match for their numbers, especially without horses and proper knowledge of the Akrep Gorge. This place seemed a lot more intricate than what I remembered from the map.

  The sun was slowly setting in the west, to the point where its rays no longer reached this part of the ravine. We took our hoods, masks, and goggles off, but it was still uncomfortably hot. I could feel the cotton underlayer of my leather suit soaked with sweat, but at least that sensation came with a temporary hint of coolness.

  The crevice then opened out into an enormous bowl structure neatly carved into the red stone. The bottom in the middle was an arena, and the curved walls were riddled with tiny, round gaps, from which Manticores emerged. It looked like a massive hive, in a way. They led us down a set of narrow stairs leading to the arena, while the rest of their people trickled around, all of them curiously eyeing us.

  I could hear murmurs and hissing, but I couldn’t make out any words, and I figured it was part of some distinctive language or dialect. My heart skipped a beat when I recognized their queen waiting for us at the base. It was impossible to miss her—she was fiercely beautiful, and significantly taller than all the other Manticores.

  Thin strips of black leather hugged her curves, and layers of gold and unpolished gemstones covered her neck, chest, hips, and forearms. Her reddish mane was fully braided into a mohawk, with the sides neatly shaved, and she wore a gold band on her forehead as a crown. Her scorpion tail was larger than the others’, too, twitching behind her. But it was the pair of slim, iridescent wings on her back that really set her apart from the rest—they reminded me of a dragonfly, and carried a distinctive shimmer.

  Kai, the Manticore who’d helped Caspian, moved to the front of our group, while the others lined up behind us in a semicircle. The queen of Manticores gazed at us, her expression firm and unyielding as she measured each member of our team from head to toe. When her amber eyes met mine, I felt my stomach tighten. She certainly knew how to make her presence known.

  As soon as she looked away, I could breathe again. I exhaled sharply, then glanced around at the dozens of Manticores gathered around us. There were about two hundred of them—more than we’d expected, but still not enough to raise a solid army against the daemons. They were mostly males, while the females were kept separate, in an aisle behind the queen, and covered in soft, white linen hoods. There were several female Manticores among the hunters who had brought us in, so I assumed there were some gender-based hierarchies in this nest. Needless to say, I had plenty of questions at this point.

  “Our Queen Neha wanted to hear what you have to say,” Kai finally spoke, taking his position by her side. “Since you were brazen enough to come to Akrep, that is. Even daemons are wise enough to stay away, after all.”

  Jax was the first to reply. “I’m Jaxxon Dorchadas, and these are—”

  “Queen Neha wishes to hear what she has to say, in particular,” Kai cut him off, and nodded at Hansa, who blinked several times, visibly confused.

  “Me? Why me?” Hansa muttered, frowning.

  “Because she knows a warrior queen when she sees one,” Kai answered with a smirk. Queen Neha’s eyes twinkled with genuine appreciation.

  Way to go, Hansa!

  I had to give the Manticore queen credit. She was betting on the right horse he
re, since Hansa was, by far, one of the most seasoned and experienced in our group—but so was Jax. My guess was that it had something to do with her gender, which brought me back to my many questions about the nest’s hierarchy. Hopefully, they’ll be nice and answer. After they agree to help us.

  Hansa wore a proud glow as she took a step forward, holding her chin high as she spoke. “We come from another world, Your Grace. From a galaxy called Eritopia—the very birthplace of the Maras who have infested your planet. They were banished from our land thousands of years ago and given the choice to start a new life elsewhere, in exile. The idea was for them to be better and stop killing innocent creatures to satisfy their thirst for blood. They called us out here for help, but not long after we arrived, we began to peel away at the many layers of lies they used to lure us into a trap.”

  The Manticore queen listened quietly, her gaze fixed on Hansa. The other Manticores barely moved as the succubus told her the rest of our story on Neraka, beginning with day one.

  “We’ve come here in peace, Your Grace,” Hansa ended her plea, after outlining every action we’d taken and every discovery we’d made, all the way up to the moment of our arrival in the Akrep Gorge. “And we’re on our way to Draconis to look for the swamp witch that the daemons and Exiled Maras are holding hostage. If we set her free, we’ll be able to remove whatever shield is preventing us from reaching out to our people in GASP. It will allow our armies to come through, in thousands of balls of light, and lay waste to whatever army the daemons and Maras may conjure up. We have powerful creatures on our side, including dragons. It will be over for these fiends in a matter of hours, at most, and peace and balance will be restored to Neraka.”

  A couple of moments passed in absolute silence, until Kai and the queen exchanged knowing glances.

  “And what makes you certain that the swamp witch is still alive?” Kai asked.

  “We’ve had multiple confirmations up to this point, particularly from the Imen,” Hansa replied. “The witch is clever, and isn’t easy to persuade into giving away all of her secrets at once. She’s far exceeded our expectations where her resilience is concerned, and she deserves to be saved. She is also the last of her kind, therefore extremely important to our world and, as it stands, yours too.”