The Devourer: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Airshan Chronicles Book 3)

by Nhys Glover

  When Prior came back, looking shame-faced and very sexy, with what was left of his clothes clinging wetly to his muscular body, we tried again.

  ‘No more intruding on their privacy,’ Zem reprimanded me in my mind.

  I poked my tongue out at him. ‘It’s not as if I’m the only one who was wondering how they got on last night.’

  ‘But we wouldn’t let our minds take us there. Now behave!’

  I laughed aloud and I saw the grins on the rest of my men’s faces—including Prior’s—that told me they had heard every word.

  I pulled my face back into order and focused on Sky again, just wondering lightly what he thought of the world after all this time.

  I saw the beach as he stared at it. But it was so much more vivid and beautiful in his mind than in mine. The air was fresher and the feel of the breeze on his skin was like a lover’s caress. And then there was Shardra, beautiful Shardra, who was his dream come true.

  Fear then intruded on the lovely scene. Fear that he would lose her. Fear that he would not have enough essence to do what was required of him. She had told him that she would not go on if he didn’t. The truth of that declaration only added to his concerns. The whole point of him staying alive this long had been to save her. But if she threw her life away because he died, then it would all have been for nothing.

  No, not for nothing. He had finally experienced love. For fifteen suns, as she grew up, he had experienced a variety of forms of love with this beautiful, perfect woman. And now he loved her in a new way, a carnal way, that both humbled and inspired him to fresh resolve. No, it was not for nothing. Love like this could never be for nothing.

  But he would do everything he could to survive and to assure Shardra did too.

  I withdrew and smiled at the others. That was better. That I could share with Shardra and Sky without shaming them.

  “You were admiring the beach and then Shardra, worrying about her unwillingness to live on if you died in the coming conflict.”

  He did blush a little then, and Shardra turned to stare up at him. “You have to stop worrying about that. We are both going to get through this. I know it!”

  He nodded but didn’t meet her eye.

  “Well,” I said, drawing the focus off the discomforted Sky. “I think we can safely say I can read you with my men’s help. What about if you think something at me.”

  Sky nodded and I went back into my wonderings about him. A blast of thought broke in to my musing like a loud shout. ‘You have nothing to fear from me, Flame. I am on your side.’

  I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. “Good to have that confirmed. But just so you know, I had already let go of all my concerns about you. Even before going into your head.”

  Sky smiled broadly. “I will have to watch my thinking from now on. But it will be a useful weapon in our arsenal. We will now go back to my cave and both try thinking specific information back to you.”

  That’s when Shardra fell backward into the sand, her puppet-strings cut. The suddenness of the vision had us all drawing back in shock. We’d witnessed these turns several times now, but it was impossible to take them for granted.

  Rather than be concerned, I quickly decided to use the moment to test our abilities further.

  “Focus please, I want to try something,” I told my men, though it took me yelling at them in my head to make them do my bidding.

  After what felt like too long a pause they finally did their part so I could do mine.

  I sent my thoughts into Shardra’s mind. At first glance, as had been the case before, I found nothing. Focussing more intently, I noticed a silver thread attached to the wall of the empty space. Curiously, I focused in on it, following it through the foggy dimness of what seemed to be some in-between world.

  As suddenly as Shardra’s vision claimed her, I shot out like one of Prior’s flames into a world of brightness and colour.

  The Devourer’s ship! I was on the Devourer’s ship, and a seer was there on the deck with the blue-robed men, many of whom looked like identical twins or triplets.

  This seer was a mere child, skinny and deathly pale. She would not last much longer, I sensed. But they hounded her to tell them about us, tell them about their master, indifferent to the fact they were killing her in the process.

  And she did tell them. In a reedy, sing-songy little voice, she told them their master was released, and therefore their current task had become that much more important. The Five had to be stopped. We had found the Key—a daemon with mighty wings—and we would stop their lud if they didn’t stop us. They were expected. The Five knew they were coming and were expecting them. They must land on the other side of the island or their boats would be sunk as they tried to land. Killing the daemon was the primary goal. All else was insignificant.

  I surged forward and went into the mind of the priest interrogating the seer. His mind was foul and frightening. I felt nauseous just being there. But I needed to pick up his thoughts. How long until they reached us? The next day. How could it be that soon? I didn’t waste my energy asking silly questions. I started to move on to another, but Shardra was being pulled back along the silver thread and I was going with her.

  I pulled out as she began to awaken.

  “What happened? You are as pale as... your husband,” Sky said, looking anxiously from Shardra to me and back again. He was holding his love in his arms, his wings wrapped protectively around her.

  I wondered what it would be like to be wrapped in such wings. Protected and safe. It would have to feel as if you were protected and safe.

  “You were there?” Shardra answered for me by posing the question.

  I nodded. “You were aware of me?”

  It was her turn to nod. “It was like you were standing next to me, watching what was happening. Then you weren’t. Did you come back?”

  “No, I went into the priest’s mind. And I’m going to have to spend some time looking at beautiful things and having pleasant thoughts to wash that foul taint out of me. Gods, they’re awful. Not like people at all. I have been into the minds of thousands of people over the suns, many of them bad—evil even—but these Devourers... they are true monsters. That poor childling. They didn’t care they were killing her.”

  “Childling?” Redin asked anxiously, almost as concerned by what had happened to Shardra as Sky had been.

  “There was a childling seer with them,” Zem answered for me. I’d been wondering if they picked up what I did. “She was near death. But she was able to tell them about Sky and about our plans to sabotage their landing-craft. So we must rethink our plans.”

  Sky stared from one to the other of the five of us. “You are impressive. What you can do is impressive.”

  I nodded. “But only so far. Shardra got us to them. She was the one who was having the vision.”

  Sky looked at Shardra and she shrugged humbly. It was no assumed posture, she truly didn’t consider her ability significant. All it had ever been to her was a problem. Something that had kept her away from the physical world.

  “So our practise has been a waste of time,” Prior said gruffly.

  “No, I don’t think so,” I said thoughtfully. “I doubt they’ll be able to call on that childling again before they arrive. Now we know what their new plan will be, we simply adjust ours to match it.”

  “We don’t know exactly where on the island they’ll land. It could be anywhere,” Laric said in complaint.

  I looked at Zem the moment the idea came. Was it his or mine? I didn’t know, and it didn’t matter.

  “We know which direction they’ll arrive from, due west,” Zem spoke for us both. “We watch the horizon for the first sign of masts and then we go to them. We sink their ship. I hate that it will mean killing the crew and the seer, but it’s the only way. We’ll fly out there on our airlings and rain what we can on the ship, drawing their fire and their focus so Sky can drop a well-placed boulder on them. It will only take one and the ship will be s
cuttled. If we focus our fire and lightning on the row-boats they will be forced to go down with the ship. No fighting required.”

  Zem delivered this plan in monotone, not liking it any more than I did. Not just because of the unintentional deaths this required, but because of the risks we would run. It was hard for them to shoot water at us from row boats. It was not so difficult from the deck of a ship.

  “So for now we keep practising?” I suggested to the group.

  There was reluctant agreement all around. No one had their heart in it. We had been given bad news in amongst the good. We needed time to process it.

  “A break first? Maybe some food? All this mind work makes me hungry,” Laric said jauntily, clambering to his feet as if the decision was made.

  But though Zem was annoyed by Laric’s attitude, I also knew he was relieved. We were not ready for more right now.

  Chapter Seven

  Now I knew I could piggyback off Shardra to get into her visions, I was fairly certain I could do the same thing during Redin’s journeys into the Nether Plane

  After eating a quick, but much-needed meal, Shardra and Sky took off for the middle of the island, while we prepared to work with Redin.

  Landor and I had gone ahead to the spot we’d selected for this work. It was about thirty strides up the beach from the main camp, just far enough that we weren’t disturbed by the crew’s comings and goings and could feel some level of privacy.

  While we waited for the others, Landor wrapped his arm around my shoulders and stared out to sea. The water was rougher than that morning, and was now a glorious turquoise blue. The sky above was a different shade of blue, but just as vibrant. There was no place in our world that compared with this lush island paradise.

  “Are you sure you can handle more of this today?” Landor asked me in concern.

  He had been the most demonstrative of my men that day, the others having kept their distance from me. I was not sure why that was because I couldn’t read their thoughts where I was concerned. It seemed they had become good at keeping parts of themselves walled off from me, even while sharing the rest.

  Reading my thoughts, Landor addressed them, reflecting on issues I had only sensed but not understood. Or felt discomforted by.

  “Last night changed everything for us,” he said. “All of us. Each man needs to come to terms with it, and what it means to him personally. Zem and I have shared our reservations with you, but the other two are just as challenged.

  “Laric, because he’s not used to being part of something he can be proud of. The last time he felt like that was when he joined the Godling’s secret army. Even while he rejoiced at the important role he’d been given, he also felt the stigma of being an abomination to his family and the world. And he felt guilt over what he could do. What he was expected to do. There is none of that with us. He no longer has to revel in being bad... And playing the protector last night... That was so out of character for him he doesn’t know what to think about it.

  “I don’t think, even with the Abs, he felt the kind of acceptance he now has with us. There he felt like he was in a competitive group where he had to fight to be the best. Here, that drive is not only unnecessary, it’s unwelcome. He’s not used to being accepted for himself. Even as a child he was never accepted for himself. Or felt loved for himself. Now he is and he’s also feeling the vulnerability of loving in return.” Landor kissed my hair before going on.

  “Prior’s demons are more obvious. He has held in check his rage and sexual needs since puberty. Now he can give full rein to all that pent up aggression. It scares him witless. What he did with you last night scared him witless. And now he doesn’t know what to do... with himself or with you. His desire for you is consuming him. And instead of easing the situation, last night just exacerbated it for him.”

  “I don’t understand,” I complained. “He didn’t hurt me. It was a bit rough, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I would have stopped him if he really started hurting me. I’m not one of those women who likes to be hurt by men. Or thinks they deserve to be.”

  I shuddered at the thought. I had been in the minds of women like that, and they disturbed me more than I wanted to admit, even to myself. I could understand a little pain to intensify arousal, but more than that... No, I had no understanding of wanting, or willingly accepting, more than that.

  “It’s not about you. I know it should be, but it’s not. None of what the others are going through right now is about you. Their feelings for you remain unchanged. Their feelings for each other are morphing, and they can deal with that. We can deal with that. But our inner demons... They are ours to fight. Ours to understand.”

  “But you seem to understand all of them,” I countered.

  He nodded. “I’ve been working on developing a close connection with each man to facilitate the creation of The Five. Part of that has been understanding what drives each of us by probing their thoughts and feelings when I found their barriers down. Invasive, yes. The right thing to do? I believe so.”

  “So can’t you help them?”

  He shook his head. “Not unless I get permission or see an opening where my counsel might be well received. Men are not like women. Even with my limited experience of life, I have figured that out.”

  I sighed and paddled my feet in the cool, clear water. The day had been hot and sticky and the water had been a constant temptation. But we had too much to do to waste time swimming. Although some disagreed. Prior had taken off before the meal for the far end of the beach where he then went into the water. It surprised me, but I had seen it as a good thing. He needed to get comfortable in water.

  “Why am I the only one who seems to have no problem with last night? I feel like I should. Like the old me, the real me, would have. But this new warrior-woman me... She feels as if she’s finally free. Like Prior and Laric, I suppose. But unlike them I’m all right with being this new me. I embrace it. Maybe there’s something wrong with me that I’m all right with it.”

  Landor laughed. “Only you would find a way to make yourself wrong when you’re the only one of us who is getting it right. Just accept you’re ahead of us in this, and remain humbly and patiently waiting for us to catch you up, all right?”

  It was my turn to laugh. Humble and patient were not two of my qualities, as he well knew. I threw myself into his arms and let him spin me around a few times.

  The others were coming closer. Our time alone was drawing to an end. I turned to watch Prior coming down the beach from the opposite direction to the others.

  The sight of him put a piece of the puzzle in place for me. Now I knew what he was actually doing in the water. And it had nothing to do with cooling down from the heat of the day. Maybe he didn’t need me if he could ease himself in the water any time he felt the need, having discovered water was not his enemy.

  I laughed at that. Of course water was his enemy. Or at least the original primal element was. Water itself was no more than a tool that primordial force used to meet his desires. A madman’s desire for revenge.

  When we’d all gathered, I suggested we sit with our backs against each other’s. I wanted to see if contact increased receptivity.

  And it was easier when we didn’t have to look at each other. Now I could see what inner demons my men battled, I felt uncomfortable and overwhelmed by the personal challenges each faced. What would it do to us if they didn’t come to terms with their issues? Would we split apart and fail? Would I lose one or all of them because they couldn’t deal with what it meant to be together?

  Yet again I was forced into helplessness. I couldn’t control what the others felt or thought. I couldn’t control the nature of our relationship. All I could do was play my part and have faith the others would win their individual challenges. I knew Landor would. I just hoped the others could too.

  Once we all sat with our backs together, I sat Redin down in front of me. “All right, now I want you to go walk on the Nether Plane and maybe find the captain
there. Go into his droplet, find out how he’s feeling about his family back home, and then return here.”

  The thin man nodded at me seriously, though nerves were making his hands shake.

  “Redin, you have done amazing things so far. This is nothing new. I doubt you’ll even be aware of me, even if I do get through to you.”

  He nodded and swallowed audibly.

  I drew in a few cleansing breaths and looked over my shoulders, one at a time. My eye level was such that all I saw were backs, towering backs, in a variety of colours.

  “Let’s do this,” I said and closed my eyes, sinking into a calm, peaceful place within myself. I let go of my worries for each of my men. I let go of my fears of the future. I was just me in a place where such things as past and future had no meaning.

  When I felt ready, I focused on Redin. I slid easily into his empty mind, no longer disconcerted by discovering no one home. I looked for the silver thread I’d seen in Shardra’s mind and, finding it, began following it.

  I bobbed back to myself to find I was surrounded by a sea of rainbows. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever witnessed. No wonder Redin loved to spend his time here.

  Before I lost focus, I noted I was stuck to the side of one droplet in the rainbow sea. It was turquoise, like the sea had been when I started this journey. I knew it was Redin, though I couldn’t have said how I knew. We seemed to be moving steadily through the flow. Droplets drifted easily out of our way. After a time—how long it was I couldn’t have estimated, even if I’d thought to do so—we reached an orange droplet. Redin nudged up to it and seemed to meld the walls of his drop with that of the other. The captain’s droplet. I’d known it was him as soon as I’d seen the colour. It was like recognising a face in a crowd.

  In the next instant, Redin and I were in the captain’s life. His personal name was Kodhl and he had a wife and three grown childlings at home in Eastsealund. That was what he still called it in his head, though he knew he needed to remember its new name. He was loyal to the Goddess and Airsha, after all, so he should support the changes they had made in his world. But it was hard to teach old men new ways, and he considered himself old. He’d have to give up his seafaring life in the next sun or two. His wife would be happy about that. Maybe he would be too, though he wondered what he’d do with all his time. A landlubber he was not and never had been.