“He spoke and sang of wondrous places hidden in Saetlund and the strange creatures that dwelled therein. When he finished I asked if any of his tales were true. He advised me to seek that answer for myself.”
Joar stood up and said to Teth, “Let me take on this task for a while.”
“Not going to say no to that offer.” Teth grinned. “Turning a spit isn’t the thrilling pastime I thought it would be.”
“Lahvja, would you like me to trade places with you?” Ara offered.
Lahvja shook her head. “I prefer to stay close to the cooking. The scent of the meat lets me know if it needs more seasoning.”
“Nimhea?” Ara asked the princess.
“Thanks, but no,” Nimhea answered. “I’m still learning how to keep the fires hot.”
Teth sat beside Ara. He took her hand in his, lacing their fingers, and she was filled with a warmth that had nothing to do with the fires.
“Shall I continue?” Joar asked.
“Please,” said Ara, wishing she could snuggle into the curve of Teth’s arm, but she wasn’t yet comfortable with such an open display in front of her companions.
“The bard’s tales had been so fascinating, I was eager to hear more,” Joar said. “But I slept so deeply he was gone by the time I woke the next morning.”
Hearing Joar’s story, Ara was convinced his bard had in truth been Eni in disguise. It bore too many similarities to their visit from the old woman in the Fjerian forest for her not to be suspicious. It made her all the more curious about Joar. First Wuldr, then Eni. What designs did the gods have for this hunter?
Teth’s grip tightened on her hand. They exchanged a look, and she knew he believed Joar had had a visit from Eni, too.
“When the time came for me to leave Fjeri,” Joar continued, “I set my path toward Daefrit and the Ghost Cliffs, a place the bard had sung of. He had described its dread creatures in such a way that they came alive in my mind.
“Despite my urge to rush there, I took my time going south and lingered in the Daefritian grasslands for two years. I knew I must understand all types of wilderness. To favor only those with infamy would not be the way of a true hunter but that of a man of greed seeking trophies and fame.”
An unbidden memory of corpses impaled on the thorns of bone-white trees crept into Ara’s mind, a cold reminder of the reward such trophy-seekers could expect from the gods.
Joar continued, “The grasslands were kind in their temperate climes, but posed a challenge. Though brimming with game, there is little cover for a large hunter. I had to find ways to conceal myself in order to stalk the herds that are always alert, always expecting an attack. Wild dogs and great cats were my competitors. I struggled to live in peace with them.
“In the dry season I was challenged to exist without fire, for a single errant spark could set the plains alight. The only thing with greater hunger than wildfire is the Devourer himself.”
He made a sign over himself, unfamiliar to Ara but what she guessed must be a ward against evil.
“When the next winter approached, I traveled to the Punishing Desert by way of the Ghost Cliffs.”
“What did you make of the Bone Forest?” Ara asked.
“The bard bade me stay out of the Bone Forest,” Joar replied. “He said to enter that holy place would be to gamble foolishly with my life. Everything he’d told me about the Ghost Cliffs proved to be true, so I contented myself with walking its perimeter.”
He gestured to the helmet sitting atop his pack. “Though it was in sight of the Bone Forest that I faced my greatest battle. I stood atop a cliff, gazing upon the bleached trees. Tempting dreams of striding into those woods and besting what lay within crept into my mind. It was then I heard a fierce cry and looked up to see death’s shadow about to engulf me. I only escaped by throwing myself off the cliff to a ledge below. The butcher crow pursued. We fought for what must have been minutes but felt like hours. Each time I met its eyes I saw my doom, but also the choice to beat it back. I hoped the crow would tire and abandon the attack, but it became clear that the spirit world waited to claim one of us. In the end, I feigned injury, appearing to collapse, and the bird became too confident in its imminent kill. When it reared back, ready to drive its beak through my chest, I buried a spear in its heart.”
Joar lowered his head, breathing out a long sigh.
“You regret killing it?” Teth blurted in disbelief.
“I live and thrive in the deepest wilds of Saetlund to honor Wuldr,” Joar told him. “I hunt only to eat and kill only when attacked. I took no pleasure in the demise of such a magnificent creature. Though I am grateful for the protection it gifted me after our battle.”
Teth looked at Joar as though the hunter had grown a beak. “You’re a little mad, aren’t you?”
Joar shrugged, then turned his gaze to the roasting spits. “Is our meal ready? I’m ravenous.”
Lahvja examined the cuts of meat turning over the fires. “Soon.”
He gave a grunt of disappointment.
“Did you spend two years in the desert as well?” Ara asked.
With a nod, Joar said, “It was the most difficult part of my journey thus far. I am a child of the north, of the cold seas. The desert is a place I still struggle to understand. Its sun put a torch to my skin, its moon stung me with cold. The absence of water was a bane to my spirit. My sustenance came from creatures I’d never considered hunting before. Snakes, lizards, insects. Wuldr made stark my assumptions about game and food. I learned not to despise things simply because they were unfamiliar and that disgust is used as a disguise for ignorance.”
“That’s true,” Lahvja said as she sprinkled additional seasonings onto the meat. “Though I could never eat a snake. Snakes are friends.”
Teth shuddered, and Ara smiled at him.
“What was your favorite thing to eat in the desert?” Nimhea asked.
“Bats,” Joar answered. “The wings crisp up, and the meat has a good chew.” He glanced skyward. “If you’d like, I could net some for us another night. The bats in Vijeri can get very large.”
Teth shuddered. “Let’s stick with deer.”
Joar frowned at the thief, and Teth lifted his hands.
“I admit my ignorance. But can we leave it be for now?”
Ara didn’t understand Joar’s comment to Lahvja about none of the deer being wasted until he began to eat. And eat. And eat.
Everyone else had finished their dinner long before the hunter swallowed his final bite.
Teth finished licking his fingers, then whispered to Ara, “Do you think if I ate like that I’d get taller?”
“Sorry. That’s not how it works,” she whispered back.
“A fine meal.” Joar slapped his stomach, then let out a loud belch.
“I don’t think they heard you back in the village,” Nimhea said, then she belched even louder.
Wrinkling her nose, Lahvja said, “When I’m cooking, I expect better manners.”
“Apologies to the cook.” Nimhea winked at her.
Joar belched again. Huntress growled at him.
“She’s on my side.” Lahvja reached over to pet the wolf.
Joar gave Huntress an accusing look. “You never objected before.”
Huntress replied with an indignant sniff.
A light wind stirred the trees. Huntress sniffed again, while at the same time Joar stood up and took a deep breath.
“We should get into the cocoons,” he told them. “It’s about to rain.”
“How do you know it’s about to rain?” Teth asked.
Joar ignored him.
Ara’s heart began to beat so hard it seemed impossible that the others couldn’t hear it.
You will have to share.
She stole a glance at Teth, who seemed perfectly at ease as he helped Joar
quench the fire.
“Do we need to set a watch?” Nimhea asked.
“Huntress will keep watch for us,” Joar told her. “You can rest without trepidation.”
Nimhea nodded, then took Lahvja’s hand, and the two of them walked to one of the sleeping pods. Ara watched Nimhea help Lahvja into the cocoon and wondered if either of them felt the frenzy of emotions that she did. They looked so calm.
“Are you ready?” Teth was at her side.
Ready for what?
“Of course,” Ara replied in tight voice.
“Sleep well,” Joar bade them.
She tried to smile, but it felt like a grimace.
Teth gave Ara a leg up while she found the opening of the cocoon and then scrambled in. She held the cocoon open while Teth levered himself inside. He buttoned the flaps, and darkness swallowed them.
Clearing his throat, Teth asked, “Do you mind if I sleep with my shirt off? It helps with the heat, and I can use it as a pillow.”
“I don’t mind,” Ara said, knowing she wanted to take her tights off, but she decided to keep that to herself.
What followed was an awkward bumping into each other in the cramped space as Teth took off his shirt while Ara attempted to discreetly peel the tights from her legs. Every movement set the cocoon to swinging.
Ara smoothed her tunic so it covered her to mid-thigh and stretched out on her side, then unbraided her hair, waiting for the cocoon to still. She felt Teth lie down beside her, and the light touch of his breath on her skin let her know he was facing her. She turned toward him and settled on her side.
When the cocoon stopped swinging, they lay in silence. His scent was all around her. Notes of pine and river stones mixing with the lush green of the jungle.
“Ara,” Teth said quietly. He reached out, twining his fingers in her hair and gently pulling his hand through the loose waves.
She could hear in his voice the same thing she felt. That it was unbearable to be so close and keep apart. “I know.”
They kept still, their breath mingling. Every inch of Ara’s body thrummed, aching with the need to be in Teth’s arms. It felt like a cruel trick of the universe that only last night, they’d decided it was too soon to share a bed and now here they were, in the smallest space Ara had ever tried to sleep in, let alone share.
Raindrops began to bounce off the canvas stretched above the cocoon. Sporadic at first, the rain grew to a downpour that drummed all around them.
“Joar was right,” Ara said.
“Of course he was,” Teth grumbled.
Ara listened to the steady rhythm of the rain. “Do you think the rain would hide any sounds we make?”
“I don’t—” The sound of giggling followed by a loud shushing cut through the drum of raindrops.
“There’s your answer,” Teth whispered.
While Ara didn’t like the idea of anyone hearing things she liked to imagine doing with Teth, she couldn’t take the simmering tension in her body.
She murmured, “What if we’re very, very quiet?”
“Is that possible?” he asked, a smile in his voice.
“I’d like to find out,” she answered softly. She lifted her hand and rested her fingertips on his cheek.
There was a pause, then Teth spoke with a new roughness in his voice. “I’m game.”
“Keep still.” Very slowly she traced the shape of his face. She let her fingers trail over his lips and chin, then along his throat. Her hand moved over his bare shoulder and upper back, feeling his lean, taut muscles. Her breath quickened. She brought her hand back to his shoulder and slid her palm down his arms.
When her fingers touched his wrist, Teth caught her hand.
“My turn,” he whispered.
“I’m not finished,” she objected. “I’ve barely begun.”
“I promise you’ll have another chance,” he whispered. “But I need to touch you. Let me.”
He released her hand, and Ara kept still. He began by mirroring her exploration, touching her face first. He cupped her cheek in his hand, and his thumb traced the shape of her mouth. His fingers ran down her throat, then his fingertips played along her collarbone. He stroked the back of her neck, making her shiver.
Leaving her tunic in place, Teth ran his hand down the side of her body until he reached her upper thigh. There he slipped his hand beneath the hem of her tunic. He went very still when his fingers discovered her bare skin. Her lips parted, and a tiny gasp escaped. Not wanting Teth to think the sound was one of alarm, she moved closer.
Teth carefully slid his hand up to her hip, stopping there. His palm curved around the rise of her body, and his thumb stroked her hip bone. She trembled with each new sensation.
“More?” he whispered.
She could barely get the word out. “Yes.”
His fingers drifted from her hip to her abdomen, caressing gently. He moved his hand over her navel to her sternum. When he began to explore further, Ara had to bite her lip to stay silent. His touch was exquisite agony.
She reached for him, her lips touched his, and he drew her into a kiss. Her breath came fast, and she ran her palm over the planes of his chest and stomach as her body demanded more. Her fingers toyed with the waistband of his trousers. She started to unbutton them, but suddenly Teth broke off their kiss and grasped her wrist.
“You don’t want—” Ara’s heart pounded.
“Yes, I want.” Teth sounded like he spoke through clenched teeth. He drew a ragged breath, then continued, “But we decided last night that it’s too soon. What I want isn’t . . . gods, this is hard . . . it isn’t what we should do.”
He rested his forehead against hers. “Not until we’re both sure of it.”
She wanted to argue. Her body shrieked its frustration, but she drew her hand back and threaded her fingers through his. “You’re right.”
They stayed like that, hands clasped and leaning into each other. It took a long time for Ara’s breath and pulse to slow.
Teth let out a long sigh. “Are you ready to sleep?”
“Yes,” she lied. Her heartbeat may have calmed, but her limbs were still taut with the memory of his touch.
“Turn over.”
When she did, Teth pulled her close, fitting her into the curve of his body. With his arm curled around her and the length of his body pressing against hers, Ara doubted she’d sleep at all. But in time her eyelids grew heavy and the tension in her body eased. Her mind drifted into the world of dreams.
11
Ara could have sworn she’d barely fallen asleep when something tugged hard on the cocoon, startling her awake.
“Dawn,” Joar’s voice boomed. “We must depart.”
Beside her, Teth groaned and stretched.
“Did you sleep?” he asked.
“A little,” she said. “You?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied. She could hear the smile in his voice as he nuzzled the back of her neck. “You may have to fill me in on whether what I remember was real or a really good dream.”
Ara laughed softly. “You’re terrible.”
“But that’s why you like me.” He pulled her close and kissed her ear.
She laughed again and unbuttoned the cocoon flap.
They passed two more days and nights in the depths of the Vijeri wilderness. During their nights in the cocoon, Ara and Teth agreed they should try to sleep right away. But while she was curled against him, Teth’s fingers sometimes began to wander. His lips found her neck and shoulders. She reveled in his touch until she could bear no more, then lay awake for what seemed like hours, waiting for sleep to come.
Midmorning on the third day, the jungle noises began to fade until they vanished completely. After days of traveling through ceaseless cacophony, the silence made Ara’s skin crawl. Despite the quiet, she couldn’t
shake the feeling that they were being watched.
Joar paused on the trail. “Something has changed.”
Ara pushed past Nimhea then Joar to take lead of the group. The trail had abruptly widened to become a true path. It curved to lead them along a pond covered in green scum. Ara caught sight of a moss deer feeding in the far shallows, its camouflage so perfect she could only tell it was there when it bent its head to take another mouthful of swamp grass. Beyond the swamp, the path opened further to where light blazed forth. The jungle shrank from it. As they approached, the light became so bright Ara had to shade her eyes with her hand.
They entered a clearing, and as her vision adjusted, Ara realized the source of the light was the sun. A perfect circle had been carved out of the otherwise impenetrable green. Nothing grew in the clearing save vines that snaked across bare earth to climb and cover an object at its center. As it was cloaked by vines, Ara couldn’t tell what the structure was made of, but its dome shape suggested a hide or hut.
“So this has to be it, right?” Teth asked quietly.
“Seems likely,” Ara replied. Her heart knocked sharply against her ribs.
They’d found the Tangle. She tried to calm the sparks of nerves beneath her skin, but her mind threw images from the Bone Forest at her: the horror of the bodies impaled on stark white branches, the hulk of butcher crows staring down at them, the traps in the labyrinth. Before they had reached Ofrit’s Apothecary, death had been waiting at every turn.
What waited in the Tangle?
To all of them, she said, “Stay close.”
She led them cautiously toward the dome, ever searching the clearing for signs of movement or danger.
The jungle remained silent. The air perfectly still. Waiting.
Despite being close to the dome, Ara still couldn’t make out how it had been constructed. Vines covered every inch of it except a single arched opening. As she circled the squat structure, Ara guessed she’d be able to stand at full height once inside, but none of the others would. She doubted Joar would fit at all.
“I’m going inside,” Ara decided. “Nimhea and Lahvja will come with me. Joar and Teth should stay here and keep watch.”
Cast in Secrets and Shadow Page 11