“Hurry!” Elli gasped again. “He’s going to flame!”
Roke seemed to believe her at last, because he squeezed under the fence—with a great more difficulty since he was so much bigger than her—and barely got out of the rampaging zorel’s way.
Finding his quarry gone, Demon screamed in rage and blew a stream of flame from his nostrils in their direction.
Elli ducked and pulled Roke’s head down at the same time. She was barely in time—she could feel the deadly heat of the huge zorel’s flames radiating against the back of her head and rippling down her spine. But thank goodness, nothing caught on fire.
“Stay down,” she muttered to Roke, hoping he would listen to her. “Just stay down—we have to wait until the Fury passes.”
The big warrior said nothing but he laid low with her until, with an angry snort, they heard the big zorel gallop away.
At last Elli dared to raise her head. She saw that Demon was galloping around and around the training ring fence, which was too high for him to jump, snorting angrily and blowing puffs of black smoke.
The Tenebrian nobles had backed a prudent distance away, all of them keeping a close eye on the huge, angry beast. Some of them also seemed to be settling up their bets for Elli saw money being exchanged. The sight made her sick and angry at the same time.
“What did I tell you?” Roke’s deep voice was shaky and furious as he looked up at her at last. “Didn’t I say that thing was fucking dangerous? But did you listen? No!” He stood and dusted himself off, glaring at her the whole time. “I mean, are you fucking trying to get yourself killed? Why in the Seven Hells did you rush in there like that?”
“They were hurting him!” Elli flared. “And besides, I didn’t know that they would make him so angry they’d send him into a Fury!”
“What does that mean? You keep saying that—in a Fury—what is that?” Roke demanded.
“It’s similar to when a Kindred warrior goes into Rage,” Elli tried to explain. “It’s sort of a temporary loss of sanity—the anger just takes over and there’s nothing you can do until it passes. As soon as he calms down, I can try again.”
“Try again? After what we just saw?” Roke demanded incredulously. “That beast just fucking killed a man and you want to try again?”
“Of course I do,” Elli said tartly. “As soon as he’s calmed down. I just need to get close enough to catch his eye so if I approach him slowly…”
“Like hell, you will,” Roke growled. “We’re getting the Seven Hells out of here while you’re still in one piece! If I have to, I’ll throw you over my shoulder and drag you back to my ship!”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Elli snapped, glaring up at him.
“You just watch me, little priestess! In fact, you’re coming with me right now!”
Roke made a lunge for her but Elli evaded him. She was about to dash to the other side of the training ring when a fruity, familiar voice remarked,
“Well, a rather disappointing show, I must say, I’m afraid.”
Whirling around, Elli saw the Crown Prince strolling towards them. He was using a golden walking stick that looked expensive enough to buy Elli’s entire village back home and his golden velvet frock coat glimmered in the weak sunshine.
“Your Majesty!” she gasped, keeping one eye on the Prince and one on Roke, who had straightened up but still looked ready to grab her and run.
“Most disappointing,” the Crown Prince repeated, scowling. “Tell me, my dear, did you simply exaggerate your skill with zorels or was everything you said to me an outright lie?”
“I didn’t lie or exaggerate!” Elli lifted her chin high. “But your grooms drove Demon into a Fury! That was why he flamed up and killed the man who was shocking him. But I can still tame him, once he calms a bit.”
“That man was our best groom,” the Crown Prince said dryly. “He was also—according to the other servants working in the stable—Demon’s ‘favorite’. Now tell me, my dear, how do you expect to do anything with the beast when he’s willing to kill his favorite groom?”
“His Majesty has a point,” Roke growled.
Elli wanted to stamp her foot in frustration. She knew how things looked to the untrained eye—a murderous, savage zorel who was completely out of control and a little slip of a girl who was claiming she could train him despite his violent actions. But the very fact that Demon had gone into a Fury proved to her that he was like the other zorels she had worked with on her father’s ranch. She could train him if only they would give her a chance!
“Look, Your Majesty,” she said, speaking directly to the Crown Prince and ignoring Roke who was glowering behind her. “I know how bad this looks, but zorels are like people—they have their limits. And unfortunately, your grooms pushed Demon past his. As soon as he calms down and the Fury passes, he’ll feel sorry for what he’s done and be easier to reason with.”
The Crown Prince snorted.
“Easier to reason with? You can’t reason with a beast like that! The only thing you can do with such a creature is break him to your will—and I am seriously beginning to doubt that you can do that, my dear Lady Ellilah.”
“You haven’t really given me a chance yet, Your Majesty,” Elli protested. “If I can just look Demon in the eye, I can communicate with him. I know I can!”
“I don’t think—” the Crown Prince began but his words were interrupted by a high, mournful keening coming from the training ring.
Looking over, Elli saw that Demon was nosing at the burned remains of the dead groom, who lay in a twisted heap at the far end of the ring. Delicately, with one foreclaw, the big zorel turned the limp form over and sniffed it. Upon seeing no signs of life, he lifted his great black head and keened again.
It was a high, lonely sound filled with grief. It raised goosebumps on the backs of Elli’s arms—well, on the arm which hadn’t had all the little hairs singed off it anyway—and sent a chill down her spine.
The sound of the zorel’s grief seemed to unsettle the Tenebrian nobles as well. They were glancing with apprehension at the training ring and muttering among themselves.
But to Elli, this was a good sign—it was exactly what she’d been hoping for.
“You see?” she demanded, pointing to Demon. “The Fury has passed and he realizes what he’s done. He’s sorry now—ashamed of himself. I’ll be able to deal with him much more easily now.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” Roke asked, frowning. “How are you going to get close enough to him to look him in the eyes without him clawing you or burning you to death?”
“He is extremely tall…” Elli said, frowning. “Which makes catching his eye a problem…”
Cocking her head to one side, she considered the situation. Her eyes lighted on the top of the wooden training fence and she had an idea.
“I know!” She turned to the Crown Prince. “Your Majesty, please have one of your servants run back to the palace and fetch me a ladder and a bowl full of those delicious pink fruits—krispers I think they’re called—and bring it back here to me at once.”
“Well…” The Crown Prince frowned and then shrugged. “All right—I suppose I may as well give you one more try. After all, if you die in the attempt, it’s your own fault. You there—boy!” he shouted to one of the stable hands.
The Tenebrian boy turned absolutely purple at being addressed by the Crown Prince himself but he rushed over at once and threw himself on his knees before the monarch.
“Yes, Y-y-your M-majesty?” he stuttered, barely audible with his face pressed into the grass. “What can this h-humble servant do for you?”
“Get up and do whatever it is this girl tells you.” The Crown Prince sounded bored. “And be quick about it, boy!”
The stable boy jumped to attention and faced Elli who repeated her request for a ladder and a bowl of krispers.
“And bring me some sweet biscuits too, if the kitchen can spare any,” she added. “I never knew a zorel yet th
at didn’t have a terrible sweet tooth.”
The boy nearly fell over again bowing to her and then he took off for the palace at a dead run, as though Demon himself was chasing him.
“All right, my dear.” The Crown Prince eyed her speculatively. “You shall have one more chance. Let’s see what you do with it.”
Then he strolled off, leaving Elli alone with Roke, who was still glaring down at her with barely repressed anger.
Twenty-Eight
“I told you—I just need to be high enough to catch his eye. This really is unnecessary,” Ellilah protested, tugging at the rope Roke was tying around her waist.
“It’s necessary for my peace of mind,” he growled. “And you’ll wear it so I can yank you down if I have to. It’s either that or I’m throwing you over my shoulder and taking you back to my ship right fucking now!”
“All right, all right.” She glared at him and sighed. “You’re getting all worked up over nothing, you know. As soon as I establish contact with Demon, he’ll be as sweet as a lambkin—you’ll see.”
“Right. I’ll believe it when I see it,” Roke said shortly. He still had more than half a mind to just toss the little priestess over his shoulder and carry her back to his ship. But he knew if he did that, Ellilah would never forgive him. Also, the fact that she was on a quest to save another priestess’s life gave him pause.
He knew the Goddess had tasked him with protecting Ellilah but presumably she also cared about the health of the one Ellilah was trying to save. So he had decided—very reluctantly—to let the curvy little priestess try again. But only with safety measures in place.
Ellilah’s idea was to sit on the top of the fence and try to catch Demon’s eye. Roke had approved this plan on the condition that she have a rope tied around her waist—a rope which he would be holding the other end of. If the huge zorel started rampaging again or tried to flame her, Roke intended to yank her backwards off the fence, catch her in his arms, and carry her to safety.
Ellilah didn’t like this at all, but Roke wasn’t budging. If she wanted to take a second shot at taming the huge, murderous beast in the training ring, she had to accept his safety measures or he was taking her back to his ship at once. Reluctantly, she had agreed, though she was still complaining even as he finished tying the knot securely around her waist.
“There.” Roke straightened up. “Now I feel slightly better about letting you try this.”
Ellilah sighed again and shook her head, but this time she didn’t protest. She simply climbed the ladder, which had been propped against the side of the training fence, and sat on the top of the fence with her legs dangling over the side.
Demon took notice of this new arrangement at once. Lifting his head from the body of the burned groom, he snorted and came trotting over.
The sight of the huge zorel approaching made Roke feel like someone had dumped a load of dry ice into the pit of his belly. His hands tightened on the rope and sweat broke out on his forehead as he prepared to yank the little priestess to safety if necessary.
But Ellilah seemed not to be worried at all.
“Pass me that bowl of krispers,” she whispered to Roke, from the corner of her mouth. “Hurry—I need them!”
Keeping one hand tight on the rope, Roke took a few steps up the ladder and handed her the silver bowl full of the round, pink fruits. Elli picked one out and took a big, loud bite out of it, making certain that the juicy sound of her crunching the fruit’s crisp flesh could be clearly heard.
Demon came cautiously closer to her, snorting uncertainly as he eyed the intruder who was right on the edge of his territory. Ellilah didn’t move until the huge brute was right beside her, his long muzzle just level with her knees. Then she looked up and appeared to notice him for the first time.
“Oh, hello, Demon,” she said pleasantly and took another juicy bite of the fruit in her hand. Then she held the rest of it out to the huge zorel. “Would you like to try some?”
At her gesture, Demon tossed his head and snorted smoke, taking a step back from her.
There was a collective gasp from the watching Tenebrian nobles and again Roke’s hands tightened on the rope around her middle. He was all set to yank her down into his arms. If Demon made one more threatening move…
But then Ellilah leaned forward and looked directly into the zorel’s slitted eyes.
“Now, don’t be like that,” she said gently but firmly. “Come here and let me get to know you—we’re going to be friends.”
Demon snorted again but this time he came to her. Ellilah put out her small hand with the half-eaten krisper and he sniffed at it. After a moment, he lipped it delicately from her palm and crunched it between his great jaws.
“That’s more like it. Would you like another?” Ellilah asked him.
Roke watched in disbelief as the huge creature actually nodded its head, as though it understood her! What power did she have over these beasts? Whatever it was, it seemed to come as naturally as breathing to Ellilah.
“All right. Here. But you have to let me pet you if you want it,” she told the big zorel, reaching into the bowl for another fruit.
Demon didn’t appear to have a problem with this deal. He came closer yet and took another krisper from Ellilah’s small hand. As he crunched this one, she stroked his broad forehead and long muzzle, patting between the flaring nostrils which now breathed only mild puffs of benign white smoke.
Roke was amazed all over again at the little priestess’s courage. Despite having seen the huge beast flame a groom to death not thirty minutes before, she showed not a bit of fear as she stroked the huge head and deadly jaws. And Demon, for his part, seemed to enjoy being stroked.
“Now, do you want to tell me what happened just now?” Ellilah inquired, just as though she was talking to a young child who had done something wrong. She pointed to the dead groom, lying at the far end of the training ring. “What happened there?”
Demon hung his huge head and snorted and Roke could have sworn that the massive beast was actually expressing sorrow or guilt for his misdeeds.
“All right now, all right.” Ellilah stroked the huge head again and looked into the zorel’s eyes. “You let your temper get away with you, didn’t you?” she asked gently.
Once more, the huge head nodded up and down.
“And you’re sorry now, aren’t you?”
Another nod and Demon let out a keening wail.
“I know you didn’t mean to.” Ellilah wrapped her arms around the massive muzzle and pulled it close, so that Demon’s head was resting on her knees as she stroked him. “They shouldn’t have poked at you with pain prods but you shouldn’t have lost your temper, either,” she lectured softly. “This is what happens when you let the Fury take over—you do things you’re sorry for and can’t take back.”
Demon keened again and Roke swore that the huge slitted eyes—now golden rather than red—were actually filling with what appeared to be tears of remorse.
“I know you miss him.” Ellilah leaned over to give the huge head a hug. “I know you’re sorry. But don’t cry, baby—I’m here now. And I’m going to take care of you.”
Demon nuzzled her anxiously, nearly knocking her off the fence with the force of his affection. But this time Roke felt no need to yank her down and save her. To his amazement—and the apparent astonishment of the whole Tenebrian Court—she had tamed the monstrous zorel whose head was bigger than her torso, and he was, indeed, acting as quiet as a lambkin, just as Ellilah had predicted.
“Well!” The Crown Prince had come up beside Roke. He was staring in wonder up to where Ellilah was sitting on the top of the fence, still cradling Demon’s huge head. “So she wasn’t lying,” he remarked to Roke, his bulging eyes wide with wonder. “She really is a Zorel Entrancer!”
“The finest one in all of Pok,” Roke said proudly, staring up to Ellilah as well. “And the galaxy, for that matter. Taming and training zorels is in her blood—it’s her purpose in life.
”
And as he watched the little priestess with the huge, dangerous zorel, he really felt he must be right. This instant connection Ellilah had with zorels was more than a knack—it was clearly a gift from the Goddess herself. And just as clearly, Ellilah was most in her element when she was using it.
So why was she so determined to return to a life she clearly wasn’t suited to?
This is where she belongs, Roke thought, watching her stroke and cuddle the fearsome Demon. Or not here, exactly, but out on a ranch, training zorels. The Goddess wouldn’t have given her such a gift otherwise.
He just wondered if Ellilah would ever be able to use her gift again after her quest was complete.
Twenty-Nine
“So Demon’s truly sorry he killed that groom?” Roke sounded skeptical as he raised an eyebrow at Elli. They were resting in their room at the palace after a full afternoon of getting to know the huge zorel.
“Yes, he truly is!” Elli insisted, frowning up at the big warrior. “Albie was his favorite groom and he really didn’t mean to burn him. He was just trying to get away from the rope and the pain prods they were poking him with, poor darling.”
Roke snorted.
“That ‘poor darling’ nearly killed you as well, before you tamed him. Just look at this.”
He walked over and raised her right arm, showing the angry red burn she’d gotten from her first encounter with Demon. It really was painful, Elli had to admit, though she’d scarcely noticed it during her time with the big zorel.
“That was an accident,” she said, frowning as she pulled her arm away. “He said he was sorry for that, too.”
Roke frowned at her.
“You’re talking like he was actually speaking to you!”
“Well, you know—he almost was.” Elli leaned forward excitedly. “Do you know, with most zorels I usually just get a sense of their emotions—what they’re feeling, what they want or what they’re afraid of—things like that. But with Demon, the connection was so…” She shook her head, trying to think of how to explain. “It was so easy—so effortless. And yet so deep.”
The Priestess and the Thief: Kindred Tales 30 Page 14