The Keeper (The Endless Chronicles Book 1)

by Nikki Mccormack

  “There is no need for you to leave,” Kochan stated, his tone more that of a loving father than a superior. “Naago-ra can take the Keeper and go to speak with Settek’s father. He has promised to return with whatever information he finds.”

  The Keeper didn’t dare start pacing, though the need to release some of her anxious energy was starting to make her skin itch. The Endless woman took care of it for her, storming back and forth in her head, torn between asking him to come and urging him to stay behind, away from danger. It wasn’t only the Endless woman who wanted him close either. Whatever the catalyst, curiosity or something else, the Keeper wasn’t ready to part ways with him yet and the realization made her head hurt.

  I want you with me, Deynas.

  Deynas stiffened and started to turn toward her, then caught himself. His umahk-ra flared with a black distress. “I request your permission to go with them, Master. I believe that understanding the Keeper and helping her could prove important to the future of the Endless tribes. We shouldn’t continue to risk the safety of this village by lingering here.”

  Kochan’s brows pinched together. “If this is really what you wish, Deynas-ra, I will not deny you. Your shoulder, however, should have another day of rest at the least before you attempt piloting. Consider the damage you could do.”

  “I’ve considered it. The Keeper will pilot my craft today.”

  A stifling tightness in her chest released. For his sake, she held back a relieved smile.

  Kochan turned a questioning look on her and she nodded.

  “Very well, then. At least allow me to provide a faster flyer for Naago-ra in exchange for your old one. It will slow you down.”

  “Thank you, Master. I’ll go check that my flyer is ready.” With that, Deynas all but sprinted from the room.

  Kochan turned a shrewd look on her. “You didn’t try to discourage him, did you, Keeper?”

  She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “He is right, we must leave here.”

  “All four of you?”

  She drew up the hood of her cloak. It was the easiest way to hide her doubt from him. “He made his own choice.”

  “Did he? Or did the influence of the woman he once loved serve to persuade him?”

  Still loves. “Perhaps that is a question you should ask him.”

  Kochan stepped to one side, clearing the doorway for her to precede him out, and inclined his head with grudging respect. He didn’t like the decision, but he would not fight with her on it. No matter what she looked like or what questions he now had about her, she was still a revered being. She would rather rest more, but the decision was made. It was time to go and show that she had the strength to pilot. The Endless woman had no doubt, so neither would she.

  It didn’t take long to move Naago’s things to the newer flyer Kochan gave him. Deynas and Settek had already swapped their belongings between their two crafts. A powerful tension filled the air, growing more potent whenever Naago and Deynas came within speaking range. The most the two Endless men exchanged was a frosty look. Naago avoided her questioning gaze. For once, both men appeared more at ease in the crossbreed’s presence than in each other’s. Whatever brought about this fresh animosity would have to be resolved soon if they were going to work together.

  The Keeper buckled herself into the pilot stand on the silver and black flyer Settek had traded to Deynas, aware that Naago was scowling at her all the while. Settek hooked himself up on the red flyer with a broad grin made menacing by his pointed teeth. If she closed her eyes, however, she could see no malice in the pleased glow of his spirit. He was more at peace with himself now and delighted to have his flyer back. Perhaps he would be less eager to throw it out as a bargaining chip in the future. It was good that Deynas had traded him.

  Thinking of Deynas, she glanced over one shoulder to where he stood staring at the passenger stand. He seemed loathe to take his place there. When he caught her watching, he shook himself and climbed up. She twisted around as far as her harness would allow.

  “I am honored that you would trust me to pilot for you, Deynas-ra.”

  “It’s out of necessity. Don’t read too much into it.” He set his jaw and finished buckling in.

  Even knowing that his words were just a shield, an effort to keep her away and protect himself, it felt like he’d jabbed her through the heart. Still, the truth in his umahk-ra told her far more than his words. In it she saw pain and longing, anger and pleasure all blended into a convoluted mess of emotion. No wonder he was defensive. He was a cyclone in human form. There had to be some way to relieve that.

  Convincing him not to come might have been a good start.

  She faced forward, her jaw now set as tight as his. When everyone was ready, she started the flyer, bringing it up to a low hover and shifting her weight to test the balance of the unfamiliar craft. Kochan wished them a safe journey and she accelerated, diving over the cliff and letting it fall. The exhilaration of the drop cleared her head and she breathed deep of the warm afternoon air then pulled the craft out of the drop and sped across the crisp blue sky, riding just above the dunes. Despite her pain and weariness, it felt good to fly again. The Endless woman was calm and content, guiding her movements as easily as if they were truly one being.

  The pleasure was short-lived. They weren’t more than an hour from the village, the sun already dipping low on the horizon, when the nagging call of the Blooded Women stopped again. The strength of the arriving demon’s spirit served as a warning and she pounded the throttle to full, jumping the flyer ahead of the other two to catch their attention.

  The beast appeared ahead of and slightly above them, a great hawk-like creature, covered in feathers of gold set to flame by the light of the setting sun. The magnificent demon angled into a dive, its wingspan great enough to reach across all three flyers. Naago and Settek veered their crafts out in opposite directions, sweeping clear of the line of attack. The Keeper dove down, skimming below the creature’s belly.

  The demon twisted in the air, its tail striking the top off a dune into a cloud of sand as it came around to give chase. Naago and Settek were both coming back around to the center behind it, but the beast had no interest in them and there was little they could do to stop it. The flyers weren’t equipped with anything powerful enough to take on such a creature. Despite that, Naago fired a wind chasing net from his flyer, wrapping one of the beast’s taloned feet with it. The demon twisted and swept its wing out, striking the side of Naago’s flyer and sending it careening out of control.

  Naago!

  “Drop us down lower,” Deynas shouted.

  She complied, diving the craft down close to the sand. The demon couldn’t fly as low without striking its wings, but it didn’t let up, keeping close above and a little behind them. She couldn’t see what had become of Naago, but Settek was still with them. He swung low over the right wing, trying to interfere with its flight without getting hit. The demon veered toward him, forcing him to back off, then turned back to harry them.

  Deynas grabbed hold of her support stand and clipped himself onto it, holding on tight. He leaned close. “I need you to swing out and up fast. Get me above its right shoulder,” he shouted.

  Whatever he was planning, it couldn’t help being dangerous. Her chest tightened with dread. “No.”

  “Do it! You know it won’t give up until it kills you.”

  And with him on the same flyer, it would kill them both. She clenched her jaw and jerked the craft out to one side and up, easing the throttle at the last possible second, positioning them above the startled demon’s shoulder. Deynas unclipped and she leaned hard to the opposite side to counterbalance when he sprinted across the wing and jumped. Her heart felt like it stopped, watching him drop through the air, telescoping out his staff with a flick of his wrist on the way down. Settek cried out something that sounded like encouragement.

  The blade of the staff sank in before his feet made contact and he drove it down hard through
the demon’s spine with the momentum of his fall. The creature shrieked and twisted over. The Keeper lost sight of Deynas then and had to accelerate up to get out of range of a flailing wing. Then the beast plowed into the dunes, sending a wall of sand spraying up high into the air as it slid to a stop.

  The Keeper landed beside the dead demon and peered around, looking for some sight of the Endless man while she unclipped her harness.

  Deynas.

  Settek landed beside her and hopped off his flyer. A ways back, she spotted Naago heading their direction, still on his craft. The sight of him brought only a tiny glimmer of relief. Now she had to find Deynas. The call to keep drew her then, an irresistible demand, and she got down from the flyer.

  “Settek, look for Deynas-ra, please.” Her voice was shaking.

  The crossbreed’s grave nod wasn’t at all encouraging.

  She turned to the dead demon, placed a hasty hand upon it and invited it to her. At least its death had been quick. Even so, in her weakened state, the pain drove her to her knees and brought tears to her eyes.

  “I see him.”

  Settek’s words gave her the will to get her back to her feet. She stumbled across the sand after the crossbreed to a still figure lying several yards back before the point of impact. He must have fallen when the demon first twisted over. Fear drove her hard enough that she reached his side at the same time Settek did and sank to her knees, throwing back the hood of her cloak to see him better.

  He lay on his side, breathing shallowly, eyes closed. Not dead. She closed her eyes. His umahk-ra flickered, weakened by pain, but not even close to death. Opening her eyes, she breathed a soft sigh and brushed his hair away from his eyes with a careful touch.

  Naago landed a few feet away and jumped off the flyer.

  Deynas murmured something. She leaned down, putting her ear near his lips. After a few shallow breaths, he spoke again.

  “Don’t ever let me do that again.”

  She couldn’t stop a soft, relieved laugh. She swiped away a rogue tear, brushing it off before Naago could see. Then she sat back on her heals, leaving a hand resting on Deynas’s shoulder.

  “What hurts?”

  He chuckled. It turned into a cough followed by an agonized groan. “Maybe I should tell you what doesn’t. It’d be faster.”

  Settek lowered himself down on one knee. “Can you stand?”

  Deynas rolled over on his back and looked up at the crossbreed, squinting against the bright orange glow of the sunset. Blood streamed from a wound above his eyebrow and sand mixed with blood covered the side of his face.

  “Help me get this shoulder back in place and I can manage.”

  Naago stepped in then. “Dislocated it again, huh? Probably should have stayed behind and let it heal.”

  Deynas gave the other man an icy look.

  “Perhaps you missed him saving our asses just a moment ago,” Settek remarked, his tone almost flippant though his gold eyes flashed a challenge at Naago.

  “Ah yes. I suppose so.” Naago gave a hard swallow. Pride was always painful going down. “Let me in here and we’ll get this shoulder straightened out again.”

  The Keeper rose and her knees buckled.

  Naago caught her and guided her to one side, then lowered her gently down, his eyes full of concern.

  “Are you all right?”

  She looked past him at Deynas. “Help him. I’ll be fine.”

  Naago did as directed, though he didn’t look happy about it. The shoulder moved back in easier this time. Deynas ground his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, which made the bleeding worse from the cut above his brow. He stayed that way, battling the pain while Naago went and dug a cloth out of his flyer. He gave the cloth to Deynas who pressed it to the wound to stop the bleeding.

  “Anything else need immediate care?”

  “No,” Deynas answered through gritted teeth.

  The Keeper got unsteadily to her feet and brushed past Naago to kneel by Deynas again. “Get me some water and another rag if you have one.”

  Naago complied, wearing his silence like armor.

  “Settek, could you see if his staff is salvageable.”

  “Anything you ask, Keeper.”

  The crossbreed strode away. A few minutes later, Naago returned with the requested items. Then he went to sit in sullen silence beside his flyer while she cleaned the blood and sand from Deynas’s face, being slow about it so they could both rest before trying to travel again.

  His brilliant blue eyes opened, glazed with pain. “You fell a moment ago. Are you fit to fly?”

  “More so than you. I can manage the last few miles to the traveler’s haven.”

  “What happened? Is it weakness from last night still?”

  The worry in his strained voice caused a ridiculous flutter in her stomach. She deliberately avoided his eyes, turning her focus to removing every trace of blood from his face. “It is partly that. The Blooded are deliberately selecting demons that I must keep. That way if the demon fails to kill me, it will still weaken me. They know the physical and emotional toll the deaths will have on me, though they can’t know how badly the last one went. Perhaps they hope to wear me down enough that I’ll give up from exhaustion if they can’t kill me outright.”

  “Kill you? Don’t you mean kill her?”

  She gave him a hard look. “Don’t complicate things.” She touched the hand still holding a cloth over the wound. “Move your hand so I can see.”

  He took the cloth away. The bleeding had slowed. A little more pressure and it would stop. She took the cloth from him and pressed it on the wound while cleaning closer around the edges.

  He closed his eyes again. “You do fly like her.”

  She pressed her lips together, keeping quiet as she lifted the cloth again then gestured Naago over to help her bandage the wound. Settek returned with the staff handle, apparently undamaged, though he was breathing hard from the effort of wrenching the weapon free. Then the crossbreed and Naago got Deynas to his feet and helped him to his place on the black and silver flyer.

  The Keeper followed, allowing Naago to help her up into the pilot’s place. She glanced at Deynas before attaching her harness. This was the second time he’d almost died because of her. Perhaps she should have encouraged him to stay behind. Then again, where would the three of them be now if he hadn’t been there?

  Once she was in place, she leaned back into the stand and rested her head against it for a moment.

  Behind her, Deynas gave a ragged chuckle. “We’re a fine pair.”

  “That we are.” For some reason, her cheeks flushed when she said it.

  She took the control handles with shaking hands and they resumed their flight, leaving the second sacrificial demon behind.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Deynas stood on a dune within sight of the group cabin they’d rented. The night was brisk and the cold made his shoulder ache as if something gnawed at the joint from within, something with very sharp teeth. His ribs were stiff and achy along with much of the rest of his body after his unplanned airborne tussle with the demon. As much as he needed the rest, the painkillers they had with them weren’t strong enough to help him sleep for long. To avoid waking the others with his restlessness he came out here.

  “Is it the pain keeping you awake?”

  Apparently, he hadn’t been quiet enough leaving.

  The chill breeze brought the smell of her to him. She smelled like Argus. Like the desert. Salt and sweat with a certain heady undertone he couldn’t quite name. He glanced over at her. The silver in her eyes and hair shone in the starlight, framing her fine features in dark radiance. Breathtakingly beautiful. It took him a moment to remember what she’d asked and gather his wits enough to respond.

  “Yes, mostly.”

  She turned to face him.

  He tried to look away, but the worry in her eyes caught him and held him fast. “Is something wrong?”

  She wrung her hands, the gesture d
isarmingly human. “I sense the call to keep coming.”

  His stomach twisted. He still cared far too deeply for Argus and it was becoming harder to remember that this woman wasn’t her. If he’d never known Argus still lived in her, it might be easier to let go, but now the lines were blurring, not just for him, but also, he suspected, for the Keeper. Or was he just seeing what he wanted to see in her behavior?

  He took a deep breath, drawing crisp air into his lungs to ease the emotional aching. “How soon?”

  Her shoulders lifted in a helpless little shrug. “Very soon.”

  “You think it’s a trap?”

  “It seems likely.”

  Deynas reached up, wincing at the flare of pain in his shoulder. Without her, he would have to pilot the flyer, but that was a minor concern. He unclasped the chain around his neck and took a step closer to her.

  She shifted back from him. “What are you doing?”

  “You said this pendant protects my spirit. Maybe it will help protect you from them.”

  “But I’m not…”

  He silenced her with a fierce look then walked behind her and drew the chain around her neck. “Lift your hair.”

  She obliged and he hesitated a moment, his attention captured by the black roots that twined down along the right side of her neck, disappearing into her cloak. Physical proof that she wasn’t the woman he loved anymore. Where else did those roots weave upon her skin?

  The desire to touch her caught him unaware. He took another deep breath, searching for his ever more elusive will. His fingers brushed her skin when he clasped the chain and let the pendant down gently to hang around her neck.

  Soft. Warm. Real.

  She dropped her hair.

  When he moved around in front of her again, she was holding up the god’s blood pendant in her fingers, her striking eyes riveted upon it.

  “This was your mother’s. I can’t take this.”