"If your leader wishes to speak privately you can leave her company and I will ask mine to go," I said. My voice rang dead and hollow in my ears. Malek and Gorbanni grunted in annoyance.
The white-haired woman and man didn't like that either. They frowned and were about to protest when their leader's arm shot up and pointed toward her troops.
"Quarter of a mile and post," she commanded. Her voice sounded exactly as I had remembered it: a calm breeze blowing through a forest. It raised goosebumps across the skin of my neck and shoulders. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing again, slowly and with control. Her generals nodded and set their horses off, their bells echoing as they retreated.
"Wait for me," I said over my shoulder to Malek and Gorbanni. Gorbanni growled in annoyance and I heard his horse spin around and gallop away quickly. Malek moved his mount slower. I turned to watch and saw him look over his shoulder half a dozen times before he made it half a mile.
No one could hear what we spoke of now.
"It's been a long time . . . Kaiyer," she spoke softly from behind her mask, almost hesitant to speak my name, she said it as a beautiful, breathy exhale. I didn't say anything. My mouth was dry.
"It is you?" her voice quavered.
"Yes," I answered. I could end her now. My mace would crush the life from her in a split second. My father and brother would be avenged.
"How many years?" her horse shuffled to the side a bit and she made a snapping sound with her lips to get its attention.
"More than thirty," I said. It had been thirty-six years since I had seen her. Thirty-six years I had been without her touch, thirty-six years I had been without her body, thirty-six years since she had killed the only other people I had ever loved.
Her hands went up to her helm and untied the harness under her chin. She carefully lifted off her golden helmet. Her mask was still attached, its face etched into the image of the sun and the moon. She slowly reached behind her head and unlatched the strap, letting the mask fall away from her beautiful face.
It looked exactly as I had remembered. Her almond-shaped eyes glowed bright like hot silver and the blue ocean when she gazed at me. Her skin was as smooth as a marble statue, but any marble sculpture I would compare her to would have more flaws in it. Her lips were as red as the dying sun being buried into the sea and they made me want to taste them like a starving man wants to suck on a ripe peach.
"Let me look upon your face, Kaiyer." Again she hesitated at my name, as if she were afraid to say it. I couldn't tell if she commanded it or asked it. Everything she had ever said to me in the past had been a command. Her voice was the same but her tone was softer. Before I could puzzle out the correct reaction, my hands moved of their own accord toward my helmet to remove the piece of armor. It was less complicated than her affair. It locked into my chest plate, so I just twisted it before I lifted it off my shoulders.
Our eyes met and I had to bite my tongue to keep my expression calm. The taste of my own blood kept me from trying to kill her. Or maybe it kept me from trying to kiss her. She looked around my face, my mouth, and at the rest of my armor.
"It seems like you have not aged at all. Of course, you aren't quite the scrawny boy I remember either," she smiled lightly and continued to appraise me.
I clenched my jaw and wrapped my spare fist around the reigns of my horse. Her nonchalance was infuriating. She looked and acted as if we were simply old friends running into each other, exchanging bland pleasantries. As if I had never run my fingers through that hair, moving it aside to kiss the white skin of her perfect neck, tasting her. As if I had never felt her nails raking my back as she moaned my name. As if I had never felt her body move around mine while deep inside of her. As if she had not murdered my family in cold blood in front of me. As if we were not currently attempting to annihilate each other’s people in complete genocide.
"Why did you wish to speak to me?" I finally said after half a minute of agony. I'm sure she heard my heart beating in panic. Hers was beating calmly.
"I wanted to make certain it was you. You've been quite a thorn in our side for the last thirty years.” I smirked at her words. A thorn in their side? Her people were on the brink of extinction at my hand, and she had the gall to refer to us as a minor annoyance? “At first I didn't believe that the same Kaiyer, my Kaiyer, led this band of lost slaves. What is the name you gave yourselves?" She licked her lips and smiled seductively at me.
"The O'Baarni."
"What does it mean?"
"It is our old language. It means ‘The Ancients,’" I said. Why was I telling her this?
"The Ancients? That is an odd name."
"We were here before you. We'll be here after your kind is dust, Iolarathe." Her name slid off my tongue like sweet wine. I closed my lips into a hard line, fighting against the desire to taste hers again.
"I doubt that. You can't honestly believe that you are going to win this?" She sneered at me and gestured with her arm across the battlefield.
I didn't answer. It was obvious that the humans would be victorious. She was outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and we had been winning all of our battles against them for the last ten years.
Silence hung between us as she waited for my reply.
"You won't win. You'll die. You all will. I am here to strike a bargain." She looked back to her generals.
"A bargain right now? This should be interesting," I said flatly. She wanted mercy.
"I offer a truce. We will split the planet in half, you will take whichever side you want and we will have the other. We will never attack or enslave a human again if you vow to do the same with us." Her face was serious.
I considered for a moment before answering.
"Is that it?" I crossed my arms and relaxed my hands. The blood taste had faded from my mouth. I could do this. I could work objectively with her.
"No, there is one more thing." She hesitated and looked back over to my troops briefly. "We require one prisoner to take with us."
"Just one?" I laughed. She nodded.
"Who would this be?" I found myself smirking.
"You," she said without smiling.
"Ahh. So I can never create another army again to destroy you? That's an excellent plan. Let me go get my sack of belongings and I'll be right back," I said with as much sarcasm as Malek had used earlier.
Her face turned to anger for a few seconds before she relaxed.
"You will be treated well. You will not be harmed," she tried to reassure me.
"Not that I am going to really consider your offer, because your race has lost already and your bones will be ground into fertilizer within the week. But, I'm just intrigued, why do your people want me in exchange for some truce?"
She looked into my eyes, holding my gaze for a few seconds past what was comfortable. I forced myself to look back with confidence. She bit her lips and continued to stare into my eyes as she spoke. Her voice was urgent, her eyes pleading, willing me to believe her.
"You will not win tomorrow, Kaiyer, I can guarantee you of that. You have been successful so far because I have allowed you to be, tomorrow I will not. Tomorrow you will die, your friends will die, and your people will be thrown back into a million years of slavery. I offer you a solution that will work well for your entire race. You will be a hero and the rift between our people might be repaired. Perhaps we will share this planet in harmony one day." She smiled at me reassuringly
"I doubt that. Also, your offer ends well for everyone but me. I'm willing to sacrifice my life to see us free from your race, but I won't be a slave again." I wanted to spit on the ground but I resisted.
"You will not be a slave!" she almost screamed, then she took a deep breath. "You will be with me. You will be mine." Her eyes met mine again and for the first time she looked vulnerable.
"What are you talking about?"
"We are bonded. Forever. Don't you feel it? It hasn't been thirty years. It has been thirty-six years." Her eyes looked panicked suddenly.
"Wha
t are you saying?" I tried to control my emotions as she showed me that she was losing the grasp on her own.
"I see you when I close my eyes, I hear your voice when no one else is speaking. I've never had another lover because all I want is you, and I need you like water and food and air to breathe." She said the words quickly and her stone face broke into a look of remorse and sadness. I felt my heart swell up with pain and my throat closed so tightly that I couldn't say anything for a few moments.
"Don't you feel it too? You must. I see your eyes when you look at me. You were never good at hiding your desires. All of the other humans feared me. All of the Elvens wanted me for my status. You loved me." She looked at me again and seemed to grow frustrated. "Please, speak to me," she begged.
"You killed my father and my brother," I said flatly. It was like I had smacked her in the face.
"Would you rather I had killed you? Someone had to die. It was either going to be you, me, or them. Their deaths were the only solution. Do you understand?" She was pleading with me now, her beautiful face lined with worry.
I opened my mouth to reply but she interrupted me.
“I sent you away, thinking that my feelings would fade. It was a mistake. I thought of nothing else, and my attempts to forget you only made it clear that nothing could replace you. No one could replace you. I couldn’t live anymore without you. I decided to pull you from our army of humans, but you had already escaped. You had fled the night before and killed your handlers. You were lost to me. I had been a day too late.” Her face searched mine for a show of emotion. She must have seen something there that made her want to continue.
“Leave with me. Surrender now and we will go. It can be the two of us together, forever. I don't care if we live amongst my people or yours, or all alone. I don’t care about anything else. I just want you. My race will not die tomorrow. I will kill both of us if I have to. Don't make me decide. Come with me. I'll give you anything. Please, Kaiyer." Her eyes looked at me and they were filled with lust and something else. Love? Desire? I had never seen those emotions in Elven eyes so I couldn't identify it. I didn't even think that they loved their own offspring.
My mind spun with the thought of being with her again. Our bodies wrapped around each other. We would both live for another half a century or more. We could enjoy each other with no interruption, no humans, no Elvens, and no fear. My mouth watered when I thought about kissing her, feeling the smooth softness of her skin, wrapping my hands around her hair and pulling her head back to lick her neck as I entered her. Hearing her voice moan my name as she clung to me. I leaned forward a bit in my saddle as my body and brain blurred the lines between my imagination and reality.
Then I remembered their dead bodies lying in the grass outside of the stables. I remembered my life of fear under their rule. I remembered every cry of pain, hate, and shame I had experienced. I multiplied that a million times as I thought about the humans in my army. We would never be free if her kind were left alive. They would find a way to grow strong and enslave us again. We could only win, not accept a truce.
"I wanted you to kill me that day. I was too much of a coward to stand up and fight your entourage. I was too afraid that you would be the one to kill me. I was too afraid to end up like my father and brother. I was afraid that the feelings I had for you would not be returned, and you would kill me as easily as you did them. I am not afraid anymore, Iolarathe. I do want you. I want all the things you have said you would give me. But I also want to kill you for what you have done, and I want to destroy all of your people along with you." Her face paled and she sat up straight in her saddle. A tear slid down from her silvery eye and across her alabaster cheek. I had never seen one cry.
I pulled my helmet up and attached it over my head.
"Tomorrow your kind will cease to exist and humans will forever be free. Even if you find some way to kill me, my armies will still crush your people into dust. Then they will all be hunted like animals until every last one is exterminated." I turned my horse around and walked it away.
"Don't do this Kaiyer," she pleaded. I stopped my horse and looked over my shoulder at her, she was glittering in the sunlight like a statue of gold.
"I made a mistake when I became your lover and I made another mistake when I didn't try to kill you after you had murdered my family. There will be no more mistakes. There are half a million humans on this field that your people have enslaved. Tomorrow you will pay for your crimes. Maybe we will be together in death." I didn't wait for a response as I galloped my horse back to the sea of humans. They shifted, moved, and roared like the waves of an ocean as they cheered my approach.
Chapter 33-Kaiyer
I thought the sound of their cheers woke me, but it was the howl of the wind through the impromptu camp I had built. My mind continued to spin out of control from my memory. For a few seconds I didn't remember where I was. Then I felt my arms around Jessmei's naked body and remembered the river and the desperate gamble to save her. Her body was warm inside of my embrace and her heart beat in a relaxed and normal manner.
We were both swaddled under four different blankets so I pulled my body from around the princess and tried to exit the pile without disturbing her. The wind roared again but the trees offered shelter from most of their torment. The horses were still where I had left them and I saw that the fire had burned down to orange glowing coal. From the ashes I predicted that I might have been asleep for about six hours. There was a small amount of snow on the ground but the branches above were so thick that most of the ice was kept off of us. The dense foliage above also prevented me from viewing the clouds and guessing how much more of the storm was left.
If it had been six hours, it would be close to nightfall. I needed to prepare the camp before we set in for the night. I stood up from the blankets and almost fell over as my head spun and ached. It felt like every muscle in my body had been gnawed on by bears.
I went over to the fire and used the discarded flint to light another small pile of needles and cones. They lit quickly and I added the larger pieces of dried wood to get it burning. The small pot of broth was warm but needed more time to heat. It had probably gotten hot enough during my unconsciousness but I didn't agonize over the time I wasted preparing it.
I went back over to the horses and unsaddled the last one, taking time to rub each one down and inspect them for sores or ticks. The Elvens had taken good care of them and I couldn't find anything that needed attention. The animals did need to be covered with their riding blankets, but before that could happen I would need to move Jessmei into the tent.
I had set up many tents in my life and this one I easily put together. It was made of green, oiled canvas with wood support beams and stakes. Within ten minutes it lay positioned near the fire, absorbing warmth from the flames. I didn't think I could move Jessmei without waking her, so I went back to inspect the rest of the bags. I found more food, some repairing equipment, spare cotton pants and shirts the Elvens wore under their armor, a few more water skins, grain for the horses, and the standard weapon maintenance gear. I wondered how they managed to get all the horses loaded from inside the castle. My best guess was that they had probably assigned a few of their squad to stealing the Nia mounts and procuring traveling supplies while the others kidnapped the princess.
The pot of broth was steaming so I moved it away from the fire and dipped in a small cup I found in the pack. I hesitantly sipped on the salty concoction. It tasted amazing. My head and body still hurt like I had just been crucified by a lightning bolt, but the broth would get me in the right direction. I grabbed a wax bag of dried crackers from one of the packs and dunked it into the broth. They tasted as good as the food at the banquet in Nia.
Once I finished the small cup, I gathered more branches and needles for the fire, checked on the horses, and decided it was time to move Jessmei into the tent. I was able to carefully pick up the bedding she lay on and lift it off the ground; I kind of half-crouched, half-dragged the pad insi
de the shelter. The princess seemed to be deeply unconscious; the movement didn't wake her or even disturb her slumber. Although, it was hard to tell since she lay wrapped up like a cocooned caterpillar before it turns into a blue and silver butterfly.
I carefully unwrapped the top blanket and exposed her naked, sleeping form. Her skin was white and creamy like the fresh snow that littered the floor of the forest. Her breasts were smaller than Nadea's but created a perfect hemisphere of support for her erect pink nipples. My eyes followed the line of her taut stomach down to her hips and smooth thigh muscles; her entrance was hidden by a small amount of fine blonde and silver hair that matched the mane on her head. I felt my body respond to a different type of hunger than what the beef broth and crackers would satisfy.
It would be so easy to lean down and wrap my mouth around her nipple, to lick across her smooth skin and then taste every inch of her.
I shook my head to get my imagination in check. My body was naked and my erection stood straight up against my stomach. I sighed with regret and carefully pulled the two horse blankets off of her body and wrapped her in the ones I found in the other traveling packs. Before I left the tent I checked her toes to make sure that there were no signs of frostbite. They looked fine.
I covered up the horses and moved them near a tree where they could be tied. Then I knelt by the fire and inspected my weapons. I hadn't really paid them any attention during the last few weeks while I pursued Jessmei, and they probably needed care. The activity took my mind off devouring Jessmei's unconscious form and gave me time to think about the recent memory.
Was that the last battle I fought? Iolarathe was their general? It seemed so serendipitous, but I guessed she would be alive. I wondered what happened between Shlara and Malek. The note on my stone bed had made it seem that Malek regretted what he had done to me. Was that because of Shlara? Did I kill Iolarathe in that battle? I tried to remember more, but it was like trying to catch an individual drop of water falling from a rain storm.
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