Wyvern’s Gold (The Ruins Of Men Book 1)

Chapter 28

Twenty-Eight

Ayla

T he Wyvern tried to make a gesture, but I didn't give him the chance. I knew what he was thinking! For as long as I could remember, we girls had been warned about the threat of men. I'd been bent over with my dress hiked up. Most of my legs had been exposed and my bottom had been pointed at him!

This man wouldn't be able to resist the temptation, and I knew how this would end. I'd already suffered so much to avoid it, and I wouldn't simply give in now! So I pushed, needing space. The effort didn't even make him budge, my pathetic struggles useless against him.

Fear was starting to set in. I wasn't strong enough to keep him from having his way with me. He was between me and the door. My posture had been tempting, and without any words between us, he had to think I'd been offering myself. He'd take me, rape me, and shame me. I only had one option left.

I swung as hard as I could, my open palm connecting with the side of his face. The resulting crack was loud, but the shock on his face was even more impressive. Immediately, the Wyvern stepped back, giving me plenty of room, and I took it. Bolting, I made for the door, hit the hall, and kept going.

Pain lanced up my feet, but I ignored it. All that mattered right now was fleeing, yet as I raced through the rest of the house, I saw yellow and brown at the edge of my vision. Kanik and the vividly-colored man were standing at the edge between the kitchen and the sitting room, but I didn't give them the chance to stop me either.

I needed out of here. I had to get away before one of these men took me, because I didn't want to get married. Not with the consummation before, after, or anything else!

I didn't care about my feet. It didn't matter that my dash through the house was loud and impossible to miss. No, I'd been warned about what men would do, and the pain it would cause. I'd seen Meri after she'd married Gideon. Even worse, this really had been my fault. I'd been the one with my rump in the air. No one would care if I'd thought I was alone. They'd blame me, giving him permission to do what he would. After all, he was the man.

Which meant I was now out of time. I hit the main door of the house and kept going, out into the blinding light of the day, aiming for the forest path that had brought me here. It was all I knew, and I would not suffer the torture of marriage. I'd already escaped it once before. I could do it again.

" Rymar! " the Wyvern bellowed his voice carrying even outside.

I didn't dare stop or look back. My legs were pumping as hard as they could. I crossed the grass and hit the hard-packed road, hoping I was far enough ahead - then the air rushed out of my lungs as an arm hooked me around the middle. A scream burst from my mouth. I struggled, but the man was just too strong. Lifting my feet from the ground, the yellow Dragon growled something and hauled me forcefully back towards the house. A glance showed I'd barely even made it out of the yard.

"No," I begged. "Please don't give me to him."

He said nothing, merely heaved me against his side and kept walking.

Tears were building in my eyes, but I wouldn't give up. Pounding a fist on his arm did nothing. Flailing with my feet hit nothing. The Dragon simply carried me back into the sitting room, using his red-and-turquoise tail to hook the door and slam it behind us. He didn't slow until he reached the place I'd been sitting the night before, and then he tossed me into it.

Kanik and the Wyvern moved to plant themselves on either side of me. With the yellow one in front, I was effectively blocked. Terrified and desperate, I looked between them frantically, trying to read their strangely-colored faces, wondering how bad the punishment for this was going to be and praying it wasn't marriage.

Then Kanik grabbed the book I'd been using and pressed it into my hands. I took it, lifting the hardcover like a pathetic shield between myself and them, but that seemed to be the wrong thing to do. Snarling like a monster, the brown dragon forced it open.

That wasn't what I'd expected! Not at all. I'd been prepared to fight them off, not look at a book. Standing at my right, Kanik flipped a few pages, then a few more before finding what he wanted. His finger stabbed at the image of a large cat.

" Ca-ow-gar ," he said, tracing the description beneath. Then he pointed at something else. " Bier !"

It was the third one that made sense. " Walf !"

That made the Wyvern thrust his arm out and point towards the forest while rambling off more of his foreign words in an angry voice. Then the yellow one joined in, and all three of them were bellowing at me in words I couldn't understand and at a volume that made me want to shrink into myself.

But the last picture was of a very large canine and that one word was so close. I ignored them, replaying the strange sound in my mind over and over, trying to figure out if I was right.

So I looked at Kanik and pointed at the picture. "Wolf?"

My word was soft, but the silence that claimed the room right after was even softer. Orange eyes, turquoise, and dark purple all stared at me. The men didn't twitch, didn't shift their weight, and I was pretty sure they didn't even blink.

Until the Wyvern slowly pointed to the image again. " Waulf ?" he tried.

The sound made tingles flow across my skin. It was so close . I desperately tried again. "It's a wolf."

And Kanik's mouth fell open. "English?"

" Anglas ?" the Wyvern asked.

Which made the yellow one's mouth fall open. " Sa fakon spiks Anglas ?"

But Kanik had just said one word I knew, and it shocked me enough to forget all about my need to flee. This man knew my language? Never mind how the others were saying something close enough it had to be some atrocious attempt at English. Plus, throwing me into a chair and giving me a book was the least aggressive thing I could think of.

These Dragons were trying to communicate, and I actually knew these words.

"You know what English is?" I asked, my eyes hanging on Kanik.

His breath fell out in a rush. " Spee-yak thees ?" he asked, pointing at something else. Did he mean, Speak this?

"Coyote," I said.

"Coyote," he repeated slowly. " Not koh-yo-tay ?"

"No, it's pronounced kie-oh-tee." But I felt a shock race across my skin as his words sank in. Words I knew. "Is that why you can't understand me? Your accent is different?"

" Orin ," he said, squatting down beside me, " eet is bekaze no one speeyaks these words. English is a deeyad langooage. We read it, we do not speeyak it, but Vestrian - our langooage - cowems fram eet. " His accent was thick, making me focus hard to make out what he was saying.

It took me a little longer before the meaning actually sank in. "English is a dead language, and no one speaks it anymore, but you can read it? Your own language came from it?"

He nodded, then tried again - this time clear enough I could understand him through his accent. "And I think I can make the words enough for you to listen now. Hello, Orin. It is nice to meet you."

"You know English?" I asked again, just needing to hear him confirm it.

Which was when the Wyvern dropped onto the couch beside me with a pleased groan. "Well, this makes things easier," he said. The words were twisted oddly, the vowels not quite right, but I could definitely make out what he meant. "That book is mine, so yes, I know English."

" Anglas ?" the yellow one asked again, his head rocking between all of us. " Sa speyak Anglas ?"

I was pretty sure that was supposed to be my language, but his accent was even worse than the Wyvern's. While their own language was clipped and quick, they spoke English as if they had a mouth full of stones.

But the Wyvern simply waved the yellow one to a chair. "Rymar doesn't use English as much."

"But you do?" I asked, looking between him and Kanik. "And what is a Rye-mar?"

That made the Wyvern laugh and point at the yellow one. "Rymar. That's his name."

"And no one uses English," Kanik said, his accent much better than the others.

"Why don't you use it?"

Kanik chuckled softly. "It's a dead language. Old books -" he tipped his head at the one I was still holding. "They are written in it. Knowledge that would have been lost is kept in them, but no one uses those words for conversation. Many of us learned as children, but only to read. Some of us learned to write in it, but very few. In school, we teach the children pieces so they can understand our own language better, but only in writing."

"Why doesn't anyone speak it?" I asked.

It was the Wyvern who answered. "Because the world changed."

I nodded, thinking about the battle between Heaven and Hell. "And you learned to read the books that were left behind?"

"Yes," he agreed. "You say the vowels strangely, and you do not sound like the teachers. I was always told it was only good for science. We did not realize the Moles spoke it."

"Who?"

He gestured to me. "The Moles. The people from underground. We're Dragons, we were visiting the Reapers, and you are a Mole."

"Reapers?" I asked. "Like the myths of those who take the dead?"

"No!" Kanik laughed.

And the yellow man - Rymar - leaned over his knees. " Dey reep vat dey sew. "

"They're called Reapers because they reap what they sow," the Wyvern clarified, repeating Rymar's words. Then he added, "They also have a farm near the Mole base. We trade with them for many things, unlike the Moles who simply take."

But he kept saying that, and I was sure he'd made a mistake. "No, I'm not a Mole! The people I come from are called the Righteous."

He slowly shook his head. "There is little righteous about a Mole, I assure you. Why are you here?"

I had no idea how to answer that. "Because this is where you brought me?"

His eyes narrowed. "Why aren't you in your hole? I do not know the word for it, that place under the Earth. Your kind does not allow women out, so why are you…" He gestured around us. "Here?"

With all three of these men looking at me, I debated how truthful to be. Evidently, they had some knowledge of my people, but I wasn't sure how much. Maybe I should tell them I was an explorer? Would they buy that? Probably not.

"I was a bad wife," I mumbled.

Shock took over Kanik's face. "You're married?"

"I think so."

That earned a chuckle from Rymar, which he quickly smothered by shoving a multi-colored hand over his mouth. It didn't stop his turquoise eyes from sparkling at me, filled with amusement. For a moment, he only watched me, and I wasn't sure if he was trying not to make me feel foolish or just searching for words.

Then the Wyvern cleared his throat and said, "I would love to hear how it is that you can be not sure. I would think marriage was a memorable thing, but I have never tried it."

It had been very memorable, but not in a good way. I felt a prickle on my skin at the memory of that horrible night. My heart started to beat faster. Marrying Reynold Saunders wasn't something I wanted to think about, or what these men might take from it.

"They said the words, and then he kissed me."

The corner of the Wyvern's lips moved higher. "Kissed? I think there's something that comes after that."

So I lifted my eyes and defiantly met his strange orange ones. "I stabbed him with a fork?"

His reaction was not what I expected. Sitting across from me, the Wyvern barked out a laugh. The others joined him a split-second later, clearly sharing some joke I wasn't aware of.

Then Rymar gestured at me and asked. " Uh fourk? Vhy dod yu uze a fourk, Orin ?" His accent was so thick I could only really make out the name he called me in all of that.

"My name isn't Orin. It's Ayla."

That made their laughter stop, but didn't remove the smiles.

"Ayla," Kanik said, looking me over. "I think I prefer it."

But the Wyvern asked, "Do you know what orin means?"

"No."

He leaned over and tugged at a loose lock of my hair. "Pale. Without sunlight. Pastel."

"My hair is blonde. The sun has nothing to do with it."

He shook his head slowly. "The sun has everything to do with it. Only Moles are orin-colored. Only Moles have skin as sheltered as yours. All Moles are pale, with hair like rare metals and skin that is nearly transparent. You, Ayla, are orin. That means you are a Mole."