Chapter 6 #2
I told the land, but it had been paying attention anyway. There were a few more exchanges in Lugarran, and Inkiri nodded and added something in turn before leaning toward me.
“Stay very close to me, sadir, and be very quiet.”
I nodded, and just like that, we started toward the castle.
I wasn’t sure what I had expected. I felt jittery, and the colors were brighter.
Everything seemed more immediate. My heart was beating so loudly that I was scared the Koa Esher would hear, that I would be the one who tipped them off to our presence.
My guys were quiet, after all, and so were Lueris and the other protectors.
Even Charles didn’t make all that much noise as he wove his way through the overgrown area between the sand pit and the castle.
Inkiri held on to my wrist and kept me from stumbling and falling. The touch also soothed me, his determination spreading to me. It told me he knew what he was doing, and he had my back.
We passed the lake. It was completely still, a green blanket of algae covering most of it, and my eyes caught on a leaf that had been blown off the trees by the wind and was now dying and curling on top of the algae, not sinking, just floating there, its purpose as a leaf lost. It was the most unimportant detail to focus on, but I couldn’t help myself.
When we got to the trees, everyone ducked, and so did I, carefully picking my way through the branches that had fallen and were making it hard to get from the golf course to the castle.
The landscapers I was certain had maintained this place were long since gone, and nature, in victorious glee, was retaking the green.
We stopped once at a signal from Charles, and I held my breath. I had no idea what he’d seen, but I reached out to the land.
They aren’t aware of you. They feel safe here. No one has ever challenged their presence.
I let out the breath I’d been holding only when my lungs started burning, and before I was all done breathing, we moved again. Instead of looking around, I focused on Inkiri’s hand around my wrist and on Lissir’s horns and the white line running along their length.
Relief flooded me when we got to the castle wall.
I stepped on some broken glass and flinched at how it crunched under my weight.
When nothing happened and we all kept moving, I glanced up.
A window on the first floor was broken. That was not exactly a normal sight unless there were beasts hunting for food.
I instinctively covered my mouth and looked around for rapid movement, for something hunting me.
None of them are close enough, but some have changed how they move. They smelled or sensed you and are coming, the land said. Well, what a cheery thought that was.
I clenched my teeth. Do you know when they’ll get here?
If you don’t stay too long, they will not find you. They have been hunting cats, dogs, and other pets who lost their people.
Awesome. The monsters ate pets when they couldn’t find people. Just perfect. But they preferred me. Perfecter.
Inkiri looked back at me, his brow furrowed. I shook my head and gave him a thumbs-up. No need to slow us down when we were this close to getting Kinnek back and the others out, whether Charles was supportive of that or not.
We moved on, and now it was harder to keep my eyes focused on Lissir’s horns. Every movement, every sway of a sapling in the wind made me look that way and scan for too many eyes, for teeth ready to tear me apart.
The rectangle of the castle ended in a corner up ahead, and beyond that, I could see the newer building.
There was a brief stop before the castle wall gave way to the other buildings, and Charles moved back down our group toward me.
“Can you tell me where he is in there?”
I asked the land, and it considered. Do you not see him? it said, and—it was amused?
I glanced over Charles’s shoulder. My jaw dropped.
“For real?”
Kinnek was looking out the window. He saw us, and his eyes went wide, his hard features relaxing so that he looked younger again, more like the Kinnek I knew. He signaled toward us using some military hand gestures maybe. Charles turned.
“The fucking—you brilliant fucking bastard,” Charles mumbled and put a hand on Vergis’s shoulder, almost as if he wanted to stop his son from running toward his dad.
Someone said something in Lugarra, and I caught “mene,” meaning two.
“Hands on your gun, boy, eyes everywhere. Your dad has things in hand, it would seem,” Charles whispered.
Lissir, along with one of the other protectors, made his way forward toward Kinnek, who had vanished back into the building and out of sight.
“Sadir, watch the land,” Inkiri whispered to me. “I will watch over you.”
I nodded. What had Fellisse once said about Raikengana knowing what needed to be done and just doing it? I closed my eyes.
Can you do that thing where I see everything?
The land seemed amused. Yes, if you will let me.
I didn’t see how I let it do anything, because the vertigo hit me hard right away. I was pulled out, out of myself, and then I stretched like a rubber toy.
I was back in the courtyard, where another three Koa Esher had come out from somewhere in the main building. I was also in front of the building we were huddled behind, and the two there had started an agitated conversation. One of them was gesticulating wildly.
Farther out, there were the beasts, running.
It was a horde of small yellow ones with orange-brown bristles studding their spines.
Each one was maybe the size of a pig, but their faces were flat, and one of them stopped, its jaws closing around a small animal—a weasel?
The small creature barely had time to scream before it died horribly.
The creature’s teeth were sharp, two serrated sets made for cutting right through flesh and bone.
It swallowed the bite it had taken out of the weasel without chewing, blood smearing across its face.
I turned away from those things. Inkiri. I wanted my mate.
He was close to me, alternating between looking at the window Kinnek had appeared in and glancing back every few seconds. Everyone’s attention was on that window now, framed by Lissir and the larger protector who’d followed him.
As I watched, the window opened, two bagua inside pulling the two wings of it wide. A bagu I didn’t know climbed out.
Relief sang in my bones. This was one of the people the Koa Esher had taken, and he was finally going to be free now.
But there was something wrong with him. He looked normal, at first glance, but he moved stiffly, like he’d forgotten how. He was also very thin. The protector with Lissir held out his arms, and the thin bagu shrank away as if he’d been struck.
It was then that I saw his horns. Someone had drilled holes through his light blue horns, one through each.
I knew Inkiri’s horns were sensitive. When Kinnek cuddled with Charles, he’d often rub his horns over Charles’s face or neck.
What the Koa Esher had done to this bagu must’ve caused him terrible pain. I shuddered.
The involuntary move made Inkiri draw closer to me and rub my back. Him doing so pulled my attention to him. Vergis glanced at me, then at the window, then he was back to keeping an eye out, just like Charles. They both had their guns at the ready.
“Where’s Dad?” Vergis whispered, his tone urgent.
“He’ll be right out.” Charles’s voice was steady. He trusted Kinnek.
I pushed my attention out again. Back in the courtyard, the larger group of Koa Esher started moving toward the gate.
Two others emerged from a side door and crossed the courtyard from one end to the other, calling to the group that was leaving.
Not all were mages, but one of them was, his left horn almost normal while his right one looked like a corkscrew.
I wished I understood their guttural language, but all I had to go on was what I could see.
Another minute shift in attention showed me those beasts; yellow, ugly, and hungry. They were coming for me.
They devoured a family of deer, the land told me. They hunt as a group. The deer never stood a chance.
Oh, so they didn’t just eat cats and dogs, they also killed Bambi and Bambi’s family. Just great. I was not made for this kind of thing. I didn’t want to know all this stuff and see all these things.
I focused on the window again. Lissir gently helped the thin bagu out of the window, and from inside the room, Kinnek helped another bagu, this one not well-fed by any means, but visibly pregnant.
Okay, I wasn’t made for this, but I would do whatever I could to help every single bagu who was being held and hurt in that building.
My training had made it so I wasn’t totally lost to the vertigo and the speechlessness spreading my awareness usually brought, so I said, “We have to help them all. Get everyone out of there. Please, Ink.”
My mate frowned and looked over at the window.
I kept an inner eye on the Koa Esher who were rounding the outer wall at the opposite end of the castle, and while I had no idea what their setup here was, I could imagine where they were going.
The building where they kept their slaves, the building where they abused them.
“Please. We have to hurry. They’re coming.”
That was true in more ways than one. The yellow beasts didn’t show any signs of tiring. The hunt seemed to energize them, if anything.
Back where we were, Lueris said something in Lugarra to Tador, then beckoned the others and headed toward the window. Kinnek had already organized an orderly escape, it seemed, but he was pivoting. Instead of climbing out the window, he held out his hand, and Lissir handed him two of his daggers.
They exchanged whispered words. I understood one: marsen. It meant protect.