5. RIEKA
5
RIEKA
I awoke with my hands and feet bound.
“Rieka! ”
I shifted at Taren’s voice, rolling on my side to find him being involuntarily ushered towards the open doors of a train carriage, resting on the tracks that led me here.
“Taren, where are they taking you?”
“The Republic. One of the other captives says we’re to become Thralls, servants of the Kensillan upper class.”
Slaves.
I moved to sit up.
“No don’t move. They think you’re human. Keep it that way.”
“What about you, what about Kris?”
“We have the Eldertides to keep us safe. Don’t you worry about us. Worry about yourself.”
“Stop with your damned spirits! They didn’t protect you from being captured, did they?”
“They led me to my sister which was all I asked of them, they will protect me should I ask that of them too.”
“Taren, I am so sorry. About everything. It’s all my fault.”
Even his inner voice was utterly sympathetic, consoling when it ought to be furious. “You did not move my feet for me Rieka. I hold no grudge against you, nor would my sister.”
How could two people born of different parents, of different Blessings, be so similar in nature? I’d thought they were joking when Kris introduced Taren to me as her elder brother.
Where Krisenya was pale and petite, possessing the bright blue eyes of a snow fox and the countenance of a drill sergeant, Taren was stoic. His body was lean and tall, his face freckled, his hair as dark a brown as the feathers on his wings and his own eyes, a falcon golden brown. They looked nothing alike. If I had encountered Taren anywhere other than The Hetra, I would have expected a Deogn accent, not a Kanahari one.
Yet they were both giggly drunks, both terrific hunters and would both swear the Eldertide of the moon would turn it red if they prayed to it long enough. It was just another thing I'd learn about how small my world had been in Deos, how tainted my perception had been of the nations and countries beyond my home’s borders.
“May the Eldertides fill your home with meat and your hearth with warmth,” Taren lamented.
My throat stung, the desire to cry constricting.
“I have neither home nor hearth you silly man.”
“Then I ask them to guide you to it, wherever it may be.”
Another uniformed man inside the carriage took hold of Taren and lifted him in. He was the last of the Blessed to be transferred inside. A moment later they slid the giant door across and sealed him away in that dark box.
“Taren, can you hear me?”
“I am still here, Rieka.”
“I will follow the train when they release me.”
“Do not be so foolish.”
“Have you met me? I’m not foolish, I’m a planner. And I plan to find you again. I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I never do.”
The train jolted into motion, and all I could do was watch as the second person I trusted with my life was taken from me.
I let my tears fall silently into the forest floor.
Hurried and determined footsteps approached, the figure stopping by my head. Their silhouette was illuminated by the night sky above, a face half-cast in the glow of firelight. A conversation passed between one figure and another. It was the uniformed woman and the weasel-faced leader.
A quick flick of her hands and I was lifted onto my feet by one of the men, dragging me the distance of the camp. Ahead of us, a second man unravelled a long rope.
He threw it over the limb of the nearest tree.
They were going to hang me. Because I wasn’t what they needed and because of what I’d witnessed, they were going to kill me and make it look like a suicide.
It wasn’t even uncommon in this part of the world. Lost travellers and lost souls. Murdered souls. I’d passed through one of the hanging forests before I’d met Leon on my way to The Hetra.
Gods, I’d been so na?ve.
I kicked out at my restraints, fighting the hands that wrestled me in place, the ropes burning where they rubbed my wrists, snapping as they broke. But they were stronger than I was right now. My heartbeat thundered in my chest when the rope touched my neck.
And when the air was cut off from my lungs, when my body was yanked up by the neck, my fingers clawing at the rope, the pressure in my head excruciating, I could only hear the silent scream in my mind.
The sound of ripping flesh drowned out my scream. My body collided with the cold earth, my legs noncompliant beneath me.
A dying man wailed in agony by my feet. The man who had held the rope was now lying in a pool of his blood, choking on it, Tiny’s muzzle buried in the man’s intestines.
Tiny ran to the other figure beside me, leaping onto the terrified man, jaw snapping shut on his throat. Shouts spread across the camp, but all I could see was my wolf. My amazing, lifesaving, and very angry wolf.
A low whistle sliced through the air.
I saw the axe too late.
The sound of cold steel as it cleaved through warm flesh was unmistakable. The first time you heard it, the sound imprinted in your mind. An unremovable tattoo on your memory.
Tiny lay motionless on the forest floor beside the dead captor, the axe embedded in his side. His whines pierced my heart. Throwing the rope from my neck, I rushed to his side.
He was terrified. Pain and anguish flowed like a river from him, spectrals flashing past my vision, one by one until they slowly started to flicker away. Tears poured down my cheeks as my hands grasped his fur.
“No no no no no no no no.”
Please come back to me. Someone, please bring him back.
“No no no no no.”
I was ripped away from my brother, strands of my hair tearing out by the root. His final spectral, the image of a little girl smiling at me, her hand outstretched, flickered out.
Everything went black.
Blood covered my hands.
The clearing stunk of it.
I could taste it on my tongue.
Standing before me were the two survivors of the massacre I had just committed, the short one and the uniformed woman. A gaping tear stretched the length of her cheek.
Their Spark-made weapons pointed at me.
Their companions, their leader ripped apart all around us, limbs strewn in ravenous delight.
My chest heaved.
My ears beat like a drum.
Something moved to my right.
I looked right into the face of the Charmer.
Her cold hand touched my cheek.
Once again everything went black.