by Mima
Speaking of pretty, she rotated her head yet again, looking from the true Wild on her right to the tended jungle garden on the left. Yes, the Wild was much scarier. It was thick and full of movement, stretching out forever toward the horizon, like a frothing green sea.
Bear finished coiling the rope he’d carried her up with, and set about securing it to the other side, the exterior, so they could scale down into the real jungle. Moriko’s head spun from looking straight down the wall and she lunged away, lying on her back.
The whole morning had been a whirlwind, from being pierced upon waking to that emotional sex talk Donte had drowned them in. Then Bear’s re-emergence and their mysterious fuck in the ocean, followed by a slower, nastier fuck when she was draped face down over the side of the bath. Bear had remained in possession of Donte’s form all morning.
She’d taken him to the barracks and watched him choose leather armor for her. When he’d laced and buckled her into it, she’d been scared, so he’d put her on her knees and fucked her mouth and she’d steadied. He kissed her through outfitting her with a knife at her hip, small of her back, and ankle.
Another man, a human, had been brought in and dressed in the glorious armor made for Donte. He’d argued the whole time, but in the end he was a good stand-in when the helmet was in place. Bear had put on no armor, nor taken a weapon. He’d given her a flask of wine and set out not for the City gates, but the gardens.
Leon and a bevy of guards had tried to follow. Bear had ordered them away. For some reason the four martens had assumed Bear wasn’t going to fight today and a lot of growling and waving claws had commenced, but eventually Moriko made it clear they were fighting a different battle, and could the rest please go take the disguised human into the City. She didn’t understand why she was able to clearly understand Bear’s basic plan yet they all seemed to think he was being lazy.
Another marten had come and whispered a message and all of a sudden the crowd had melted away. Now here she was up on the Wall, five stories of glorious view out over her compound. She knew who lay beneath every roof and was ready to protect them all, from Grandmother to Akisa and Ty-lee to Jiselle. She was ready to face Signy and tell this fop Thad that the noble human civilization would never fall to pain and fear. Humans were too brave, too defiant for that.
Bear turned to where she sprawled in her stiff leather pants and tunic. She watched the subtle changes in his face. His square jaw pulled back, his brow softened, his flared nostrils relaxed.
“Hello, Donte.” She rose up on her elbows, giving him a tired smile.
His lips thinned and tipped, his eyes crinkling. His own version of a smile. They were both like relieved parents after a child’s fever broke. “Mate.”
Breathing quick and deep, he turned his back on the compound and looked out over the jungle. “This was the territory I was assigned as a lone alpha. The darkmage sifting stone is there.” He gestured farther south. “It will be guarded by at least two trux. My little cave was there, beyond the large stream.” He pointed to the southwest. Staring down at the rope they’d descend, he huffed. “Seems insane you were on the northern side of this Wall I watched night after night, all the time.”
She stood, with some effort, since bending was difficult in the armor. “Tell me more about what will happen now.” Bear had been very silent in the face of her questions.
Donte turned to face her, but his gaze went to the ocean at her back. The Royal Wall went out some distance into the sea, blocking all access. “Now Thad dies.”
“Thad,” she spat. Since the truxet had shared the names and faces of the four lead darkmages, she’d memorized them, like everyone else. “What a name for the cause of all this.”
Donte did his small huff. “Should his name be Nicodemous? How about Palendiforno?”
She giggled, stepping up close. Hugging him, she regretted her leather gloves.
Donte closed his thick arms around her, muscles leaping into definition. He wore only a sleeveless linen shirt and supple leather pants with knee boots. She closed her eyes as she rested her cheek against him. Her hands gripped his back and she heard the whispering in the trees like a warning.
“We might die, too.”
He said it very simply.
She listened to the words, to the finality. “All right. But I’m no sacrifice. I will help you fight.”
His palm covered her tightly braided hair. “You won’t be able to do much. There will be pain when the slave spell takes you.”
Denial and anger bubbled inside her, but she breathed past the moment to answer with more control. “Go over it clearly.” She turned her face into his hard chest.
“My goal is to keep us out of the fortress. His lack of patience will help that. I don’t expect him to be alone. He’ll be pissed and he’s losing control. He’ll want to hurt me fast, but then he’ll want to hurt you in order to hurt me. He won’t kill either of us fast because he needs to gloat.
“I have no idea how hard the slave spell will sit on me outside the fortress, but I’m sure it will be stronger than it has been with his proximity. After he fits the slave spell over you, I hope to be able to draw on our Bond for either more control outside of the slave spell, or if I already am free, more power. I’ll attack him first, always, no matter what’s happening. He’s the head of this. The others will go easier.”
“Why didn’t you want help? Leon could be hiding in place with archers, or the martens—”
“No. More fodder for them to gain power off of.”
“You’re so sure they’d lose?”
He was quiet for several breaths, his arms flexing around her. “Thad is so powerful in my mind, from what I lived with inside the fortress, that I’m simply not sure anymore. Maybe the clans could take him in an ambush, but he’s got that damned stone he can just disappear into. We’ll do this my way.”
His way seemed rather suicidal, but she’d seen inside his head. Knew he’d covered dozens of contingencies and had plans for every scenario. “And you have Bear.”
His hands moved to her shoulders. He pulled away from her clutch and looked at her, his brown eyes glowing in the midday sun, his hair in darker brown spikes. “We have Bear.”
She considered. “You’re too ready to die. When we get home, I want my honey promise. Say it.”
His breath hitched. “You know what it is to give everything.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m not going to let you do this.”
His head rocked back. “We’re not stopping now.”
With a flurry of her wrist she gestured. “Of course not. That’s not what I meant.” Her heart pumped so hard it knocked inside the leather tunic. “Were you honestly going to just hand me over and hope you go out during the battle so you don’t have to deal with me later?”
Boots scraping on the smooth Wall, unblemished by weathered time or moss or elements, he turned and strode away.
Disbelieving laughter burbled in her throat but it came from a well of terror and hurt. She wrenched it off. “You bastard. I’m going to kill him with you. I’m going to suffer for it, and you will tell me you’re coming home with me.”
He tested the line, put his leather gloves back on and gestured to her. “Too much chatter. Come on.”
“Fuck you!” She propped her fists on her hips. “Say it, Donte. Tell me you are coming home with me at the end of this and giving me my night of honey.”
He bent and wrapped the rope around his leg in a flurry of loops, then anchored it around his hand. “I’m not lying to your face.”
“I don’t want you to. I want the truth.”
“You want dreams.”
“I want a warrior, not a martyr.” Her voice surprised her. It was calm, low and steady. Inside, her nerves jittered and sparked. She wanted to run, to leap on him, to break down and sob.
“I will fight with all my heart. I promise you that.”
She shrugged. Crossed her arms.
He snarled.
; She mocked him, sending her own snarl back.
“Moriko. In your world, you have control. In the world I’m taking you into, there isn’t any.”
“There was enough for you to help the Hawks.”
He spat to the side. “I was useless.”
“You did what you could. You ruined their experiments, you drew their attention, you gathered information, you survived.” Her voice got higher with each statement.
He turned his head and stared out over the Royal compound roofs of mustard-yellow tiles, with the red, brown, and cream roofs of the City beyond.
“Yes. You survived.” She ground the words he so hated out again. “And you will fucking do it again. Not for the clans this time. For me.” Her calm had cracked and her passionate words shook. “I will not go until you say you’re going to live.”
He looked at her, fire clashing with immovable earth. “I am going to do everything I can to get you home and that means I will have to survive.”
There was something there, in his shadowed eyes. He was too removed, too resigned. Counter-plot. He hadn’t promised her the honey night, but he’d said the important piece.
Terrified of what he would do in the battle, she walked gingerly on watery knees. “Donte, you are my husband. You know this.” Her voice wavered with the tightening of her throat.
“I know this, little dumpling.”
Within range of his arms, he snagged her faster than she could gasp. His face was hard, closed. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He backed up to the edge of the Wall. Green mist spiraled up around them, like a foggy blessing from the Sacred Couple. She wished the Walls’ defenses could rub off on them.
He held her gaze and jumped. The first fall jammed her hard and stung her shoulders. The next several bounds he took, sailing down the wall by pushing off with his feet, were more graceful. When they landed, he shook himself free of the rope and she staggered over to a tree. The sting of separation from the Wall’s magic hit her skin and thumped in her skull. The power buzzed in her head, mixing with the dizzying fall.
“I can smell them.” He held out his hand.
She stared at him. He was really going to do it. Truly, Donte was taking her to evil. Gut churning, she clenched her trembling jaw and put her gloved hand in his. He brought her in to stand by his side. She would believe in him. He might think she did it because he’d tricked her into Bonding with him and she had a ridiculous sense of responsibility. True. But not all the truth.
She followed her man into the dark, shadowed forest because they’d hurt him so horribly. In order to save him, she would help him face them down, even though she was so scared her breath came in small bursts. Bear, she thought desperately. Help me.
Donte flowed through the forest like a minnow through the legs of splashing children. She flailed like a tuna on the beach. There were leaves that felt like razors and leaves that felt like silk. There were cobwebs the consistency of glue and murky spots on the ground that reminded her of sewage.
But the jungle wasn’t what she focused on. For every blur of some strange movement her body flashed cold. It wasn’t the bugs or creatures that concerned her. When would she see the darkmages? She’d seen the drawings of their faces. The tattooed, older man, Sverre. The studious-looking brown-haired man, Russ. The bladed cheekbones and sharp jaw of Thad. And of course, Signy. It was very possible she’d soon see Signy.
Donte came to a sudden stop and leaned heavily against a tree. She waited, tense and hunched, listening hard. It was so much darker down here than it had been up on the Wall. The scent of earth was strange to her, but it was still earth.
She reached her free hand to touch his shoulder. He jerked away. In the darkest recesses of her mind, she remembered how he had killed his own kind. How the slave spell still lived in him. How he had not known how to support Bear when they cut them from the clans. How he had appeared inside her private magescape and ruthlessly fucked her so she’d ask to take him to the cities.
“Do you remember when they came to cut you from the clans, how Bear curled up and faded, alone?” She licked her lips, but it was just sandpaper across sand. “I need your touch. I need to know you’re here with me.” She held her breath, waiting until it turned scalding. Suspense drew tight. Where was Donte’s head right now? Was she merely a puppet or—
Lunging toward her, Donte wrapped her in a tight grip. She hugged him back. His heart hammered even harder than hers, if that was possible, and his skin was drenched in sweat.
Fine tremors ran through his muscles. “Moriko.”
The three syllables of her name made every hair on her body stand on end. Regret. Love. Fear. He spoke to her of things she knew he held, but rarely voiced. Her throat crowded with things to say, but all she could do was hold him tighter as she struggled to breathe.
When he threw his head back and bellowed, she cringed, pressing herself entirely against him, as if she could live inside him and soothe the rage. His shout filled with every ounce of air in his lungs, and echoed. Birds screamed and fluttered around them. When he finished his muscles were like stone. He tore from her grip and dragged her on, his hand clamped to her wrist this time.
After a few more minutes of stumbling, she heard the voices. Donte was moving fast now and she ran, tripping and bent over in his wake.
Sacred Couple watch over us.
The clearing was small and marshy. When he burst from the trees, the light dazzled her and she sank to her ankles. A tree had fallen and that’s where Thad lounged, one knee drawn up, propped on one arm. A bald man patterned entirely with tattoos stood next to him talking. A shorter, thicker man crouched on a little tuft of grass, his glasses glinting in the sun as he gestured over a bloody mess.
Donte stopped. Her breath was like a zipping saw, high and fast and loud. His fingers were cutting off her circulation, her hand tingling, her bones aching. Her gaze darted around the clearing frantically, but she did not see Signy.
“My pet. You answered my call.” Thad sat up, swinging both legs forward, but the tree was large enough his feet didn’t touch the ground. “Bring her to me.”
Donte walked forward and Moriko stayed a step behind, her feet dragging through the fetid water. Thad wore a pale green silk shirt with elaborately folded sleeves and a long collar. It was a recent style import from Fifth City but hadn’t caught on in the Royal City. His shirt was stained and marked with sweat. His leather pants were scarred and stained as well. Sverre wore only light brown linen trousers that were too short for him, but his dense tattoos gave him the appearance of being completely clothed.
As they came to a stop a bodylength away, Moriko’s gaze caught on a burst of tan and red that had been hidden in the knee-high grass around the tree trunk. A body. A young man, mutilated, dull eyes staring. Moriko turned her head sharply away.
“Stop there and stay. Yes, you see? He is still mine. Why, they’ve decorated you! That must have been when I felt our connection surge.” Thad kicked his heels against the bark, apparently completely at ease. “And yours are much more feral than Sverre’s. How does it feel, Sverre, to be outclassed by the Beasts in your own chosen style?”
The older man had a smooth calm voice. “He’s the slave here, not me. I’ll study them and use them to my own advantage.”
Moriko’s chest continued to rise with sharp punches, her breath shallow enough she was getting dizzy. Every effort to slow and deepen her breath was wiped away by the sheer horror of standing here.
She glanced at Donte and cried out, yanking on her arm with her whole body weight. But he didn’t move, eyes on Thad. And so Signy, wrapped in her gray cloak, was able to sink the glinting blade she held deep into his side.
Shrieking again, Moriko lunged forward to push the attack away, but Signy stood on the extreme opposite of him. Signy withdrew the knife and sliced Moriko’s forearm as she shoved at Signy. The blade scored deep into the leather then gashed into her skin at the gap of her wrist.
The pain was lightning, sha
rp and deep. Moriko cried out again, furious. Blood oozed from Donte’s side, a burst against his cream linen tunic, and flowed over her glove. He never moved a muscle.
Signy leaned over the wound and inhaled like she was smelling a rose. “He’s alone. No one followed them.”
Moriko brought her wounded arm up to her hand imprisoned by Donte. She clasped her hand over the slice, perhaps half a finger long. It stung and throbbed. The clearing tilted beneath her feet. You are a Tallen Princess. You will not faint before evil, failing your husband. But the ground didn’t stop heaving.
Sverre stepped forward and swiped his hand forward and back in the air before Donte. Again, he never wavered, but his shirt hung in tatters, revealing several thin scratches across his chest and abdomen.
Shocked, she looked again at Sverre, but he had no weapon. His fingers pulsed green even as he licked bright blood from the tips. They had terrifying craft, these people.
Russ appeared at her side and a short scream escaped before she wrenched it off. He was her exact height, dressed in a tidy belted tunic and trousers that still held the creases of a fresh press. He smiled at her blandly. It was the kind of look you’d give to a person you passed in the market when you met their eyes.
With a wiggle of his fingers her hands were encased green. This was not the mint green of the Walls. This was a bright forest green, flecked with black. She stared in horror as her grip slid away from the cut and her right arm drew out toward him. Her muscles strained, her bones screamed, but she couldn’t stop it.
When the arm was extended out in front of him, he bent and set his mouth over the wound. She screamed again when he bit into her skin, his tongue probing with eager, agonizing skill into the cut. Her entire body was locked in place. She couldn’t even turn her neck to look away.
Her earthcraft came to her out of sheer terror and instinct. Russ was knocked three body lengths away from the force of the thrusting mound of mud she drove up under him. Now it was his turn to shriek.
Thad laughed. Moriko’s gaze jumped frantically from person to person, settling on Donte. His face was completely closed, jaw locked, staring at Thad. His grip on her wrist didn’t waver, no matter how she twisted her arm. Why didn’t he lunge and gut the man now? What was he waiting for? Was he imprisoned by the slave spell?