17. Chapter 17
I didn't like that our group was so far ahead of us. If any of us ran into trouble, it would be better to be together. But then I threw a sideways glance at Rachel; it had been surely worth it.
What a gallis.
And stubborn.
She was perfect, and in time, she would realize that we were meant to be together. That she was indeed mine as I had told her. For some reason, she didn't seem to like the idea of having been claimed, and I would grant her some time to get used to it. Whether she liked it or not, though, she was mine. I would never force her to stay or do anything against her will, but she hadn't seemed to object to our earlier mating. There was a reason one word meant two things—mating as the act of sex and mating as in partners for eternity.
She would see.
I didn't like to recall the moment she had challenged me, had implied she might say nek. In that moment, I hadn't felt like a khadahr at all. I had felt like a stripping youngling, one about to prove himself to his parents and peers. She hadn't said nek, though. She didn't say sa either , my mind whispered, but I ignored it.
I estimated that we wouldn't reach my warriors until they made camp again. If Rachel and I kept going when they rested around midday, we might be able to catch them before they would bed down for the night. Her passion had taken me by surprise. The way she had responded to my touches and kisses had been exquisite and made it clear to me that Vorag had sent her for me. I might have taken her against her will, but she wasn't lamenting the fact or begging me to take her home. I took that as a win—because I had no idea what I would do if she did.
I would never hold her against her will, but I also knew that after this morning, I would never be able to let her go. I had to trust in Vorag that he had brought her into my path for a reason.
What about the priests? my mind whispered. What would their reaction be to a human gallis? One that I would make my khadahrshi?
The answer to that was simple. I didn't care.
The priests had long ago lost their power over me when they had refused to set Mynarra's spirit free.
They had demanded a third of our tithe for a special dispensation and prayers to Vorag to allow Mynarra to join our ancestors in Koronae. It had been an outrageous demand, and it was the only time Father and I had seen eye to eye and refused the payment.
Vorag would have embraced Mynarra's spirit with open arms, just like he would have all the other lost souls during that tragic day. It was not their fault their bodies were unable to pay the price and return to Vandruk's ground to nourish it and seed new life. I didn't believe in the god the priests represented. I believed in the omnipresent Vorag who knew our hearts and minds, not the one who could be bought and paid off.
Movement ahead of us caught my attention. A large army was coming down the mountain. I stopped in my tracks to stare at the spectacle that didn't come close to anything I had ever seen in my life. It was an army so large it would take a day for the rear to catch up with the front. Even from here, I made out the colors of several demesnes. Many khadahrs had united. Something unheard of.
"What is this?" Rachel asked.
"The largest army ever seen," I said in Vandruk. She didn't understand my words, but I was sure she gathered their meaning by my open astonishment.
"Do we need to run?" A small smile played along my lips. We . That one word spoke more than words.
"Nek, they… friends." I found the words in mostly English. I wanted to reassure her even though I didn't fully understand the meaning of this army. I doubted they were after us. But if they were, there would be no hiding from them.
I noticed my warriors up ahead had stopped as well, waiting for Rachel and me. We still wouldn't be meeting up with the army until midmorning tomorrow. I hated the idea of having to wait that long to find out what was happening, but there was no way around it.
"Are these all Vandruk people?" Rachel asked.
"Sa, all the clans. United."
"How many clans do you have?"
"Forty"." I held up my fingers, not having the English word for it.
"Forty?" she asked incredulously.
"Why is that"—I searched for the right word—"surprising? Humans have big army."
"We do," she agreed. "I need to talk to Carl. He told the humans for years that his team had never seen a sign of life on Vandruk."
My forehead creased as I worked her words out in my head. Some words I didn't know, so it took me longer than it should have to comprehend what she had said.
"Carl lied to you humans about us?"
She nodded. "Until Tzar-Than came, he insisted Vandruk was unpopulated."
"Why he do that?" I asked out loud even though I already had an idea why. What Rachel said made perfect sense.
"He wanted to subjugate you before he told the other humans about you."
Which made me believe that the rest of humanity would not have been too happy finding out about that. Interesting.
"He has much to answer for." Her eyes turned a shade darker as they moved toward my warriors and Carl.
For the rest of the way, we stayed silent, each of us giving leave to our thoughts to travel.
It was getting dark by the time we reached my warriors, who had already put up the tents and were roasting meat and roots.
Rachel surprised me as she walked straight over to Carl, who was, once again, tied to a tree. He looked haggard, worn out, tired. The long march was taking its toll on him. Good. Perhaps by tomorrow he would be willing to talk.
His cold, gray eyes took Rachel in.
"So you've fallen for the natives too?" He chuckled derisively. "What is it about these primitives that makes all you women want to spread their legs?"
I was about to step forward. I hadn't understood every word he said but enough to hear the insults. Rachel beat me to it, though. She went down on her haunches and slapped him across the face.
Carl laughed mockingly, wiping a small trail of blood from his lips against his shoulder.
"I see you're falling right in line with the natives. Torturing a defenseless man."
"No, I would have slapped you unbound, on Earth, for what you just said. Tell me, Carl, were you just going to kill all the Vandruks before you allowed the rest of us to find out they ever existed? Or would you have kept on pretending there never was any life here?" Rachel accused, using different words, but that was the gist of what I understood.
Carl snarled. He turned his head and stubbornly looked away from her.
"You see that army coming, right?" Rachel rose, towering over the bound male. "The numbers of that force look to be in the tens of thousands. And that's just their army. You've already killed most of their women, but I'm willing to bet there are thousands more living in towns and cities right now. And you would have killed them all?"
I didn't care about his answer. All I cared about was, "How? How would he do that?"
Carl looked up at me. He snorted and shook his head.
"You said make me king of Vandruk."
Surprised, Rachel turned to me. "He offered you that?"
I nodded.
"I don't understand."
Carl's gaze returned to the fire. "I have nothing to say to you."
I could have beat the words out of him. But I had patience. Tomorrow, we would meet up with the other khadahrs, and I wanted Carl to be in shape to answer their questions as well. Tomorrow, we would find out his evil plans. I could wait.