‘No,’ she protested, jogging to keep up. ‘We’ll help look and don’t even think about arguing. Grace and Indira need our help, so don’t you dare ask us to sit on our asses waiting.’
‘Can you track?’ Bhyr demanded over his shoulder rather than tell her she was ridiculous.
Somehow, she picked up on his hidden frustration and her voice gentled. ‘No, but we can help coordinate the search and offer insight into how they’ll think and react.’ Her voice firmed. ‘You’ll need us once you find them. If they’ve been hurt.’
‘Breeders commanding warriors. Disgusting.’ Rahm and his followers peeled off to head down another tunnel, their exodus stating their intention not to help.
Something about the way his Second had spoken of his breeder sat wrongly.
Bhyr went over the message from Wyrm again in his memory. His blood boiled. His pace increased to a run. He would find the one who touched his mate. Once he did, pain would gain new meaning.
30
Indira
Alone in the nest and not expecting Bhyr until after last sunset, I studied glyphs, washed, ate, and thought about how best to approach Bhyr with the news some claimed women wanted to return to Earth. Curled up on a floor cushion, I enjoyed my “me time” and ended up chuckling at myself. Happiness had seemed impossible when I’d arrived. I’d thought my life was over. I realised now it had changed into something new and exciting–an adventure.
One thing that might make it better was getting an animal companion to lavish affection on. I’d always wanted a pet, but never had time to dedicate to its care. What would the alien equivalent of a puppy be like?
Hearing a voice outside, I got up to investigate. I opened my mouth to call out but a frisson of unease stopped me.
Who was visiting the First’s home unexpected and unannounced?
‘Breeder?’ came the voice again. ‘Come attend me.’
Heart lodged into my throat, I shoved my back against the wall and dropped into a squat. Silence rotted in the open air, but I said not a word.
‘We know it is there.’
I took my knife from where I stashed it in my boot.
‘It is not curious?’
The unseen glare I sent towards the disembodied voice could have cut glass.
‘Good, breeder.’ The voice took on a cajoling tone that did not mask the frustration beneath it. ‘It knows it would displease its warrior to find it outside the den.’ A pause. ‘Will it not come out and look us in the eye? Humans claim this is a sign of respect? This warrior shows the respect deserved. How disappointing it does not.’
This fucking guy.
‘You can’t come inside this nest because the First would hunt you down and end you.’ The truth of those words and his lack of response freed me to stand and walk away. ‘You might have gotten away with taking me if I left of my free will, but I’m not some dumb chick who thinks with her tits.’
I went to turn the corner and pondered if Bhyr needed to know about this. He’d be mad and do that alpha male bit of threatening to bust heads, but what good would it do?
I’d handled it.
Bhyr’s fear of what might have happened would distract him from the real danger of getting his Horde back under the thumb.
To make this relationship work, I needed to pull my weight. Not add more because I was too hapless to handle the smaller issues myself.
A feeble voice warbled, ‘Indira?’
My boot scuffed on the stone as I jerked to a halt.
‘He’ll kill me. God, Indira, please, don’t leave. He’s going to kill me.’
Well, shit.
The voice was familiar. I had a think. ‘Grace?’
‘Yes!’
‘How did you know my name?’ I asked, suspicious.
‘From the ship. Your voice. Cristina told me your name. Everyone knows you. I never said thank you for helping me. I should have.’ A pause. ‘I voted for you.’
So, the depressed recluse had gotten a vote? Splendid. I ground my palm into my face. ‘Who has you?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘How did he get you?’
‘I… I wasn’t smart. Cristina went out, and I didn’t want to go with her. I hate it here. I heard someone calling, and I thought I could try….’ A soft sob. ‘I left the nest. So stupid. I didn’t think. Please come out here. He won’t kill me if you do. He wants you alive. I’m just... I don’t want to die!’
She was bait.
I considered shucking the unasked for burden of leadership. I remembered Ella and how I’d deferred trying to help her. Could I live with myself if the same happened again? If I stayed safe and summoned Bhyr, the warrior would kill Grace. Not only would it keep his identity a secret, it would preserve the opportunity to snatch me. With me, she stood a chance. Without me, she was dead. Not because I was special or worth more than her, but because of who would come for me. It wasn’t fair nor my responsibility. It wasn’t fair, but it wasn’t her fault.
So, I left the nest.
Grace lay crumpled over a saddle. The warrior I hated above all others wound a hank of her blonde hair around his fist. He pulled her head back to expose her throat. He pressed a dagger to it, double-edged, leaf-shaped.
‘Stand here.’ He jerked his chin. ‘Now.’
Silent and stiff-backed, I complied, meeting his gaze.
‘Is it armed?’ he asked.
A frisk would prove me a liar, so I didn’t bother lying. ‘Yes.’ I brought the knife up from where I’d been hiding it, tucked up my sleeve.
‘Drop it.’ I did. A smile stretched Arj Wyrm’s hard mouth. ‘It can write the god’s tongue?’ He waited for my nod. ‘It will message the First.’
It took me a heartbeat to lie after all.
I was a lure for bigger game, and I refused to sing to his tune. ‘I did already.’
His face took on a suspicious mien.
Biting my bottom lip, I let a tremble that wasn’t fake enter my voice. ‘I was scared. I begged him to come home.’
Satisfaction crawled across his expression. ‘Good, breeder. Very good.’ Releasing Grace, he jumped from the goodbeast.
Between one blink and the next, he grabbed the back of my neck and forced my head down, twisting it to the side. He used the tip of his blade to cut a slice behind my ear, stab something that crunched, and then wedged it from under my skin.
He let me go with a shove.
I caught my balance before I fell, hand flying to the wound. I straightened. My fingers came away wet with blood. ‘Did the transmitter have a tracker?’
‘Yes, and I could have disabled it.’ He opened his hand to let the shard of metal hit the rocky path. He ground it under his heel. ‘But removing it was the first of many mistakes corrected when it comes to you humans. We go.’ He pointed at the saddle. ‘Mount.’ He bent over to pick up my antler knife.
I flashed a glance towards Grace, hoping she would have taken the time to run while his attention was elsewhere.
She huddled on the goodbeast, weeping into her sleeve.
Hours later, I was ready to kill myself.
‘All goes to plan.’
Wyrm wouldn’t shut up.
‘The First is wild over the loss of his breeder by now.’
He’d bragged nonstop.
Taking my silence for submission, his grandstanding became so loud, it startled birds into flight.
‘The First dared name this warrior an exile. Vzzt! The best of a generation forsaken. The Horde is nothing without this warrior’s guidance.’
I couldn’t stand it.
The smug look on his face grew each time I ignored him.
‘Hel Bhyr the Betrayer will taste defeat at my hands.’
‘Doubtful,’ I said through pinched lips.
‘It speaks.’ He sneered.
‘Even if he had come after me, the First isn’t stupid. It wouldn’t have taken him long to out think you, your asinine plan, and then run circles around you.’ I rubbed the la
st bit in. ‘Exile.’
He tensed. ‘This Horde warrior is Arj Wyrm.’
‘If you say so.’
Bhyr had explained to be an exile was a punishment feared over death. Stripped of all titles and honours, the male was no longer associated with the Horde. That he was unwilling or unable to grasp that didn’t bode well for us.
He reined the good beast to a halt. ‘It spoke wrongly.’
My eyes roamed the craggy landscape, searching for potential escape. ‘Hm?’
‘It says, “It wouldn’t have taken him long.” Wouldn’t. Why not “will”?’
I stared straight ahead without blinking. ‘I misspoke.’
‘It lied.’ Disapproval coloured his voice. ‘It did not send the message.’
Grace whimpered.
My body unlocked more from irritation than a lack of fear over the consequences. I faced him. ‘I lied. You assumed I’d do what you wanted. Why? Because you’re used to bullying your victims and having them cower.’ I stared him down with as much courage as I could muster. ‘I stood in the First’s shadow and told him no. You don’t scare the likes of me.’
Sweat broke out on my forehead, but I didn’t back down. He was a bully. If you let them see your fear, they’d feed off it like a parasite.
Wyrm’s eyes narrowed with a forced smile. His hand fisted on the beast leads until the leather creaked. ‘Clever gash. We cannot change this as it no longer has a holosphere.’ He chuckled. ‘No matter.’
His own holosphere wrapped around his body.
‘What are you doing?’
‘We should tell the First what this warrior intends to do with his breeder.’
I looked away, swallowing.
‘This warrior sees how it seduced the First.’ Wyrm finished his message and dismissed the floating screen. ‘This human has strength despite its fear. That is attractive to us. We used to have dominant females. Queens.’ He snorted. ‘It is worthy of a warrior’s notice.’
‘The First’s motivations for wanting me are his alone and none of your business.’
‘His motivations are every warrior’s business. The First has changed. His decisions of late make no sense.’ Wyrm shook his head. ‘Hel Bihter broke Law and left Vøtkyr. He returns diminished. Does the First punish him? No! He gives him another human female taken from a warrior in need. What of this warrior? He has no breeder. It,’ he poked Grace in the back of the head, ‘should have been mine. Worse, the Verak King and Zython’s Avatar offered the Horde insult. Did the First respond with a show of our might? No!’ He ranted for another hour at the top of his lungs. While Grace hunched and shivered, I cut my eye at him. ‘I will have a son. Even if I must rut over every fat ugly human Destruction saw fit to breed off Creation.’
This is who pushed Ella to the brink.
He accepted no responsibility for his actions and perceived himself as the victim. He believed he deserved Grace to replace the female he’d lost through abuse and neglect.
We forded a river.
The current moved swiftly, but was shallow enough to navigate without drowning.
We weren’t restrained.
While we’d be wet in a dangerous cold, the snow fell heavily enough that if we gained enough distance, we could lose the warrior, and he our trail. Getting through the night alive would mean finding a grotto with a hot spring, but the planet was riddled with geothermal nodes. It was risky.
We can do it.
I caught Grace’s eye and then motioned with my head towards the water.
Her eyes went white all around. She shook her head in frantic snaps that had me biting my tongue until it bled.
That was that then.
She wouldn’t run, and I wouldn’t leave her.
We didn’t travel far, a quarter of the evening at most. I could tell it would take hundreds of man hours to search the endless barren of Vøtkyr’s mountainous terrain and forested steppes to find us.
He took us to a cave.
Not one of the warm underground grottos the Horde preferred, but a hole in the ground. It had icicles and dead skeletons. Cobwebs. Piles of bug-infested guano and things that skittered in the corners.
Dark, damp and freezing.
This fucking guy.
I skirted the tuskbeast skeleton taking up a third of the space, an eye on its nest of branching antlers. I gave one a quick tug, hoping to loosen one of those babies. The dried bone wouldn’t be as sharp as my well-honed knife, but it was better than nothing.
Grace gave a shrill cry.
Rather than grit her teeth and walk through the pain of cramped legs, she let Wyrm drag her off the saddle. He tossed her into the dirt and left her to shiver at his feet.
‘Breeder.’ He grabbed his crotch and gave it a jostle. ‘Ready this warrior.’
Paling to an ashen grey, Grace covered her face with her hands. She folded like a limp rag. ‘I can’t do this,’ she cried. ‘I can’t. I can’t, can’t….’
His face darkened.
I swayed back at the acrid wash of anger radiating from him. My back hit a gritty wall, and I dropped onto my butt.
She would get herself killed. Worse, she would get me killed. I had made my peace with doing whatever he wanted if it meant survival. I was going to live to see Bhyr rip this guy’s spine out his ass and beat him to death with it.
Just had to stay alive.
I wanted Grace to stay alive, too, and it fell down to me to step up. I had to act. It was a leader’s responsibility to protect and sacrifice for their people.
Bhyr taught me that.
Scrunching my eyes closed, I stood. ‘Leave her alone.’ I shook and radiated “keep away” vibes. As far as distracting him with my body went, it was a poor effort. ‘I’ll do it. Okay?’
Grace’s head rose.
She stared at me with wet eyes full of fragile hope.
I couldn’t stomach looking at her. I wanted to save her, but that didn’t mean I could stand the sight of her.
Cautious, I minced closer to the furious male, cringing with every step. ‘She won’t do it and you’ve killed enough of us. So… use me instead.’ My voice warbled and cracked along with my resolve, but I kept moving. ‘Okay?’
A muscle jumped under Wyrm’s eye. He exhaled. A swinging arm backhanded me across the face.
I lay on the floor until I stopped seeing double.
Grace was bawling.
‘This warrior chose,’ said Wyrm, implacable. ‘Obey.’
Faltering, I picked myself up, annoyed all Grace could think to do was shrink further into herself.
Was she going to turn invisible?
‘This is stupid. You won’t even get any pleasure out of it.’ I palmed the side of my head, amazed everything felt the right shape. I licked my lips and tasted metal. ‘Why bother?’
He jabbed a meaty finger towards my groin and glowered. ‘Where is the Keeping that should guard the First’s chalice, female? Where?’
‘You’re doing this to make a point?’ My free hand fisted as I fought to modulate my voice. ‘The First took it off me. He explained why. I’m not going to again. You’re not deaf, Exile, you’re arrogant, thinking you know better.’
Wyrm stiffened. Done with humouring me, he seized Grace by the hair.
Heart rabbiting, I tried for a tuskbeast horn and almost lost an eye. I cursed. Out of time, and out of ideas, I charged.
Which was dumb, because he caught me around the throat, then shook me within an inch of my life. I scrabbled at his forearm to tear free, but my sweaty hands failed to grip the plates of his exoskeleton.
Scratching at his fist, Grace breathed in ragged gusts between her bloodcurdling screams. Her stark white, rolling eyes landed on mine.
At whatever she saw in me, she calmed, and borrowed a backbone from some hidden well of strength.
In a quavering voice, she told him, ‘No!’
He slapped her.
31
Indira
It was an accident.
Wyrm meant to use a fraction of his strength to subdue us. I wriggled like a fish on a hook, and Grace flailed in his grip like a gutted kill.
We distracted him.
So, when he let go of me, and I doubled over to suck in my first breath in close to a minute, he clipped her to get her moving, and Grace’s head whipped around from the force of it. Then kept on turning. All the way past her shoulder.
Maybe her bones breaking made a noise.
A crack, or a crispy snick.
I heard nothing but my bleat of horror.
Her body spun a beat behind the twist of her head, golden hair a rippling curtain.
When she hit the ground, a flat thud my body absorbed as a blow, her red-rimmed eyes looked beyond the cave to the sky, a tear freezing on her cheek.
I went real quiet then.
Wyrm nudged her with his toe. ‘Humans.’ He glanced at me with a half amused, half disgusted grin, like I was supposed to share the joke.
Horror bowled over me with devastating force. My knees knocked, and the vertebrae in my spine loosened and slipped. ‘You!’ I flung myself at him with no other intention but to see him bleed. ‘You, you, you.’ I punctuated each word with a bare-knuckled punch.
He restrained me with crippling ease.
‘One seed gobbler is as good as any other.’ He manhandled me to his front. ‘Humans are animals. The tightness of your slits are all the Horde speak of. This is what you offer us? Weak sons and filth of the flesh.’
He put me on my knees.
I flailed, and my hand smacked into Grace’s face.
She had not been strong when weakness meant dragging down everyone around her. I hadn’t liked her. We had not been kind to each other. In a sane world, we would never have been friends or even met.
She hadn’t deserved to die.
Aggrieved, I cupped her cooling cheek and keened.
Wyrm cuffed the side of my head. Black spots skittered across my vision. ‘Shut up.’ He hefted his cock from his codpiece, the barbed head bulbous and shiny with blood. The daulm were lumpy and knotted they were so distended. He pumped the angry looking pole, knuckles hitting my chin on his upward tugs. ‘Tongue it.’
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