by T. S. Ryder
A moment later, the crate shook and creaked as the beast grabbed it with the claws of its hind legs, and then she was up, fast, so fast, the land below suddenly so far away, the buildings around them like toys and the people like ants.
Terror shook her more than the sudden gust of chilly air... but then it hit her.
She was the only human being in existence to ever get a lift from an actual, real-life dragon.
And then she began to laugh, first out of pure hysteria, but as the day slowly settled on Elamaren and more beautiful sights opened themselves up to her view, out of exhilaration.
She was free.
Free, finally free.
And she was floating on air with a freaking flock of dragons!
All in all, it was not a bad way to start the very first day of the rest of her life.
Kenner was right when he warned her about the amount of time the voyage would last. This was an endurance flight, where it was more important to reach their destination safely than quickly, and the land of Kinai seemed to be quite far away from Skatia. She did some rough calculations in her head and came to the conclusion that Elamaren might even be somewhat larger in surface than Earth, because even though they flew to the west, it still took nearly all of the daytime hours for the Squadron to reach their homeland.
Too excited to sleep, Teresa bundled herself in the blankets inside the crate and watched the entire flight out of her little ‘window’, failing to be bored even by the fact that the largest stretch of the voyage carried them across nothing but water. Focused on their surroundings, she immediately spotted the collection of volcanic islands of various shapes and sizes that the Kinai called home, with their black sands and bridges of dark stone connecting them all. Around the islands, a belt of dangerously sharp obsidian rocks protruded from the sea, reminding her of Kenner’s dragon teeth. The largest of the islands, the one furthest to the South, boasted a tall volcano, and another seemed to be built of nothing but a thick forest and a collection of azure pools in the midst of it, with water so warm she could see wisps of steam rising off its clear surface.
It was beautiful, and Teresa could not wait to make it her new home.
They landed on one of the larger islands near the center, which had a clearing large enough to fit the entire squadron and then some. In front of the Long House, which was decorated with intricate swirling patterns burned into the wood, a gathering of ten old men and women awaited them. If they were surprised to see her, they did not show it. In fact, one of the old women came to her as soon as she was out of the crate, and helped Teresa, strained and stiff from the travel, into the Long House, where she fed her warm stew and let her sit by the fire.
All the while, as if she weren’t there, Kenner and two members of his Squadron, Arul and the woman who still looked at Teresa as if she wanted to feast on her entrails, spoke with the gathering of elders. She had no idea what transpired in that conversation, though, for they spoke in Kinai, a surprisingly sweet, almost musical language that she was determined to learn as soon as possible.
Later, much later, when Kenner took her to his home and prepared some temporary lodgings for her in his spare room, he would tell her they were reporting on their visit to Skatia, and explaining why they had brought her with them.
“There are some who fear you are a Skatian spy,” he told her openly, as he made a makeshift dais out of blocks and planks. “And I cannot blame them for being suspicious, even though I know that’s not true. We’ve had some very bad experiences with the Empire in the past, and some of their recent actions make us fear we might be heading for a new altercation.” He paused to place a thick straw mattress atop the dais, and then moved so that Teresa could set up the bedclothes he had given her to her liking.
“In the end, they agreed to either limit your range of movement to non-critical zones only,” he explained, as he watched her work, “or you’ll be granted access to the entire territory under two non-negotiable conditions. The first is that you can only enter certain areas if I am with you. The second...”
Teresa looked up at the sheet she was tucking over the mattress. “The second?” she urged Kenner to come out with it, though the look on his face made her worry.
“The second is that the second any Kinai can prove beyond reasonable doubt that you’re working against us, your life is forfeit, and you will be executed on the spot.”
She let go of the sheet and sat down on her new bed.
“Wow... that’s...” she began, but nothing coherent could come out of her mouth.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” Kenner told her, walking over and squatting on his haunches before her. He took her hands and gently rubbed his thumbs over them to soothe some of her newborn anxiety. “I should’ve anticipated something along these lines would happen, but I have very little experience with these types of situations. I was still a youngling the last time I did something so impulsive... and not one of those events affected as many people as buying your freedom and bringing you here did.”
Feeling the need to reply to Kenner’s tenderness with her own, Teresa entwined her fingers with his. She had never felt such a profound connection with anyone before in her life, such a sense that another person could understand any emotion she expressed. Somehow, it did not seem strange that this man would be the one to elicit such a response from her.
He was her dragon, ready to tear into anyone who would harm her – and her knight in shining armor, too, rescuing her from the short, brutal life of a gladiator slave.
Was it so strange, then, that she already felt such strong feelings for him?
“So who decides which rule will I live under?” she asked, her voice not as strong or as stable as she would like.
“You do,” he replied, “I managed to win that much for you, at least.”
Teresa nodded, thinking her options through. “It would be wiser to choose the first, wouldn’t it?” she said, hoping for some advice.
“Indeed,” Kenner agreed. “Though I hate how much it would limit you,” he added. “Still, there are far more areas you would be allowed into than not, and you’ll show them how wrong they were soon enough.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle. “Such faith you have in me, Kenner Darkwing,” she teased him, but there was no malice to it.
“What can I say?” he replied sheepishly. “I’m a big softie at heart.” She outright laughed to that, and the almost boyish grin on his face told her just how much he enjoyed it.
He let go of her hands and stood up.
“I’m keeping you from sleep,” he said, and Teresa rose as well.
“No, no,” she assured him. “I’m glad you are here.” She looked at him, a little nervous. “The past two days have been full of such twists and turns that I fear sometimes this was all a dream and I’ll wake up in my cot in the Pit...” She waved her head, expelling those thoughts. “You... you make me remember it’s all real.”
Kenner lifted his hand to her cheek, softly running his calloused knuckles along her jaw, and Teresa couldn’t help but tremble at the touch. “It’s real,” he whispered, “I’m real. And I’m right here if you need me.” For a moment, he looked at her as if he had more to say – or as if he might kiss her, a prospect Teresa was surprised to realize she would not mind at all – but then he left the room and quietly closed the door behind him, leaving her somehow both at ease and even more mystified than she had been before.
Chapter Six
If he had any sense of decency, Kenner thought, as he walked into his bedroom, he would find someone to take Teresa first thing tomorrow... but the thought of her sleeping anywhere but under his roof made the beast inside him furious.
Oh, how badly he wanted to press her into that mattress and push himself inside of her, to taste her pliant flesh and make her scream his name and score his back with her nails!
And she... she would’ve let him, he realized, which only made him more determined that he must not let it happen. She was much too vulner
able at the moment, and he was the only remotely familiar thing in what must’ve been a terrifying step to take into a completely new and unpredictable life. It made sense that she would seek him out for comfort, and it was so tempting to take advantage of that.
But that would make him no better than the monsters who had forced themselves on her when she was a slave, and he wanted something better, more pure, for them.
Even so, when the morning came, he found himself incapable of sending her away. Instead, the two of them fell into an easy routine, as if they had lived together for years. They’d breakfast, and then Kenner would leave for a training session, a recon flight, or whatever other business he and the Darkwings had set for that day, while Teresa cleaned up and went to attend to Elder Fanag. The old woman had taken a shine to her and was now introducing Teresa to her new home, teaching her the language, the history and the customs (to the extent the limitations Teresa was forced to endure allowed, that is). In the afternoons, she’d usually find someone who needed an extra pair of hands for this or that job, but if not, she’d travel from island to island in the areas she was allowed to move freely, getting to know Kinai and letting the people get used to her presence.
Kenner was happy she was so active and independent, but, at the same time, he treasured the moments when she sought him out. It gave him a primal kind of pleasure to take care of her needs, whether it was to cook her food or offer an empathetic ear in the times when her confidence faltered. He did his best not to crowd her or isolate her in any way, letting her find her own way, but always close enough to catch her if she stumbled.
Days passed, one by one, and before he realized it, spring had turned into summer. There were still reports of Skatian ships circling the Obsidian Ridge, but they were fewer and farther between. It still worried him, not knowing what they were up to, but he allowed himself to relax a little even as his Squadron remained vigilant in their surveys of the land. What made him especially happy was that Teresa, though still treated as a stranger, eventually became more and more welcomed, and had even made a few friends. It didn’t surprise him one bit that so many people began opening up to her. It was hard not to respect the effort she put in to prove she was worthy of their trust, or how quickly she mastered their language, though her accent still needed work.
Alas, there were still those who categorically maintained the opinion that Teresa was a viper in their midst. Though he loathed to admit it, his Second Lieutenant, Mara, was the driving force behind those suspicions.
It had started off with a few snide comments upon hearing the news about the slave girl Kenner had purchased with close to half of all the assets he possessed, but he had waved them off as teasing since the entire Squadron was on his case about it at the time anyway.
But then they arrived at Kinai, and she spoke with such fervent animosity against Teresa, even accusing her of being a spy – something Kenner was forced to shut down harshly. It was not only ridiculous and untrue, but also a direct challenge to his authority as Squadron Commander, and if Mara began having ideas above her station, he needed to quell them in the root.
At first, it seemed she had got the message, and she became careful about showing her animosity openly, but she also began to gather like-minded people around her. Their words and actions became a constant source of grief for Teresa – and, more than once, minor damage or injury.
Eventually, she even began agitating within the Squadron itself, trying to affect the unit’s cohesion, and Arul was the one who brought it to Kenner’s attention one afternoon as he poured over the recon reports. “You need to send Mara away,” he insisted. “Relocate her to another Squadron if you have to, but get her out of our hair, because if you don’t, these jealous fits of hers are going to be our ruin.”
“What do you mean, ‘jealous fits’?” Kenner asked, confused.
Arul rolled his eyes at him. “Oh, come on! You know she decided a long time ago you are hers, and reality is damned. Why do you think she’s so aggressive in her persecution? She knows you’re in love with Teresa.” Kenner flashed his second a cutting look, but Arul just scoffed it off. “You fell head over heels for her at first sight, and don’t you dare deny it,” he stated matter-of-factly. “It’s actually kind of pathetic, how Teresa and you are the only two people in Kinai who don’t realize you’re a married couple in every way except literally.”
“I am not discussing my love life...” Kenner began, and Arul interjected with an ‘or lack thereof’, which made Kenner ball one of the papers on his desk and throw it at Arul, hitting his forehead before he continued, “...with a subordinate, even if you are my best friend. But you’re wrong about Mara. We tried going for a relationship, she and me, you know that, and you know how quickly we proved to be completely wrong for each other. I don’t know what her issue with Teresa is, but she’s not nearly so petty or so volatile to attack someone just because she believes I might have romantic intentions towards them.”
Arul stood up from his chair. “You know what? Be in denial, I don’t care. But transfer the bitch. Now.” And, having said his mind, he left Kenner to his work.
That evening, when he returned home, Teresa was already in, setting the table for dinner. At first, she smiled when she saw him walk in, but her expression quickly changed to that of concern. “Well, you look like you had fun today,” she teased him, as he slumped into his usual seat at the table.
“Trust me, you don’t wanna know,” he sighed, and she poured him a cup of chilled fruit wine.
“Trust me, I do,” she told him. “But if you don’t feel like talking about it, I won’t push.”
Kenner looked at her, and Arul’s comment about how they behaved like an old married couple suddenly didn’t seem so farfetched to him.
He took Teresa’s hand in his, entwining their fingers as had long ago became their custom, and kissed her knuckles. “No, I don’t feel like talking about it,” he told her. “But I feel like breaking some rules if you’re feeling adventurous.”
Teresa gave him a curious side-glance and sat down by his side. “I’m listening.”
Kenner’s lips stretched into a mischievous, crooked grin. Half an hour later, he landed on one of the many perches atop the hill on the Isle of Ponds with Teresa safely tucked into his beast’s enormous front paw. He carefully put her on the ground, and then shifted his form back to the man and slid down the mid pole of the perch to meet her.
“It’s so beautiful,” she gasped, her eyes wide as she tried to absorb all the wonder around her. “You know, I more or less have an inkling about I’m banned from most of the areas off-limits to me, but I never figured out why this place,” she mused aloud.
“Because it’s a vantage point,” Kenner replied, deciding this was a harmless enough bauble of knowledge to share with Teresa. “This hill is the second-highest ground in all of the Kinai, and you can not only see all of the areas you’re not allowed in but how to get to them as well.”
Teresa nodded. “You know, I don’t mind the limitations as much as being kept in the dark,” she told him honestly. “It’s pretty frustrating when someone has a slip of the tongue in front of me and then scrambles to change the topic. The other day, I complained about it to Elder Fanag, and then she had a slip as well, telling me I’ll understand after my Joining – and then clammed up about it no matter how much I begged!” Kenner laughed. “It’s not funny,” Teresa pouted, annoyed.
“Oh, yes it is,” he teased her. “And you’d be laughing as well if it weren’t happening to you.”
She scoffed and punched his shoulder lightly, which only made him laugh more and draw her into an embrace, resting her back against his chest and his chin on the crook of her neck and shoulder.
“She’s right, though,” Kenner chuckled. “If the Elders allow you a Joining, and you complete it successfully, you’ll understand why we guard our secrets so closely and help us guard them just as ferociously.”
Teresa sighed, seemingly resigned to let fate take i
ts course. “Will you tell me what a Joining is?” she asked, but her tone made it clear she expected him to refuse her.
And yet, he didn’t. “Joining is what makes Kinai who and what we are,” he told her and pointed to the volcano in the distance. “Every twenty-five years, all Unjoined Kinai men and women older than twenty and younger than thirty spend the winter at the Rookery,” he told her. “That is when the beastlings hatch.”
Teresa turned her head, astonished by this new information, but though he could tell she was dying to ask more questions, the only things she said was, “You shouldn’t be telling me this.” And she was right. He shouldn’t.
But he just shrugged his shoulders, ready to stand by his decision to trust her just as unconditionally as she trusted him. “I won’t tell anyone if you won’t,” he said.
She watched him, apprehensive yet full of the desire to learn. In the end, her curiosity won. “So you are not born shape-shifters?” she asked, and he shook his head.
“How we discovered the process of Joining, no one knows for certain. There are religious texts that speak of prophecies and mystical revelations, but who knows how accurate they are. In any case, the benefits of a successful Joining are such that they make the risk of entering the beasts’ territory worth it, and though the beasts aren’t very fruitful, there are always more beastlings than there are pilgrims, so a few always remain to keep the cycle going.”
“But not all Joinings are successful?” she asked, in a strained voice.
“No,” he told her. “We don’t know why it happens, but the beast sometimes overpowers the host and they lose all control over it. They can commit horrendous acts of destruction in such a state, and must be put down.”