Chapter 24 #2
“I do not know. He says only that he is ill, and I cannot help him. The herbs here do not work, and the human doctors don’t understand what is wrong with his body.”
Rathyn scoffs. “They are so frail, and their medicine is barbaric. I have studied extensively what they used to treat diseases. It killed humans before we came along.”
“I don’t understand why the treatments we have provided humans now haven’t worked on him,” I confess.
Rathyn’s gaze darts away but I catch something on his face: guilt. After a moment, he meets my eyes. “It is very likely that Dante does not hold a high enough station to be granted the use of many herbs we have given the humans.”
The thought makes me want to rage. “Why not cure them all? The Outerlanders are treated worse than dirt, but we are healthy. We live.”
“It is a human thing,” Rathyn starts to explain, but his ears droop and he shakes his head. “They are, perhaps, as cruel as us. Sometimes better. Sometimes worse. But my rank is not high enough to change that.”
Quilliyn is, but I do not think he has enough influence over the humans to give Dante what he needs.
“Will you allow us through the portal?”
Rathyn stares at me for a long moment. His piercings glint, reminding me of who he is—the station he holds. Of what I lost. The empty holes in my body somehow ache.
Then he takes a breath. “I will assist, but you must acknowledge that this is dangerous. If you are caught, you cannot implicate Everest or me. We are…” He hesitates, then says, “We are working to change things. Everest has opened my eyes to so much I did not see before.”
I understand what he means. Dante has done the same for me.
“I wish to make changes, but I cannot do that immediately, and I cannot do that if I am imprisoned.”
I understand what he’s asking of me. I must take Dante through the portal and go alone. And I must hope and pray to the ancient gods that if we are seen—if anyone from the village recognizes me—they do not turn me in.
I want to believe I will be safe in the place I was reared and nurtured, but there is a very good chance they were promised cum and a higher station in exchange for information.
And I cannot blame them for wanting that.
Still, for my Dante, it is worth taking every risk.
“Promise me that if we are taken, you will speak to Eissa and Quilliyn and free him. I do not care what happens to me so long as he is safe.”
Rathyn is silent for a long moment, then he closes the distance between us and tips his forehead against mine. He holds it there for longer than would be appropriate for a Vyastil of his rank and towards someone who is banished.
And that alone says everything.
“He is VySytheh.”
It is not a question, but I nod anyway. I know that Everest holds that place in Rathyn’s soul as well.
“I will do everything I can to protect him, but do everything you can to ensure no one ever finds out. If they know—”
“I know,” I tell him. I will take this secret, and I will not repeat it, even on my last breath.
Reaching into his pocket, Rathyn withdraws a small device I recognize. It calls small, personal portals. He is not of high enough rank to have gotten one legally, so I know what he’s giving up.
“I will return this to you if I am able.”
He nods as he steps back and calls out, “My Everest. We must go.”
Everest appears a moment later, looking worried. “He’s not doing well.”
I nod. “I will taaake him,” I say. The words come so much easier this time. More than before. I hold up the device. “Tarek will help.”
Everest’s eyes go wide. “You mean—”
“Yes,” I tell him. The Tarek we have dealings with have never turned me down, and they always look for any way they can disrupt Vyastilian high society.
Everest looks over at Rathyn. “I’m scared for them.”
Rathyn takes Everest into his arms and murmurs into his ear before kissing him softly, then he looks at me. “Be swift. Return quickly.”
I nod, then watch as they take their leave of the apartment.
I stand there only a moment more, alone with my fear, my anxiety, the memories of what happened the last time I so openly defied Vyastilian law, and I realize it doesn’t matter.
This is for Dante.
The portal is near the Foundry but hidden in an alley. It is undocumented, and it only responds to the key that Rathyn pressed into my hand before he and Everest fled. I stare at it, my stomach in knots, for I do not know if there is enough time to save my Dante before we are caught.
But I must try.
Taking a breath, I press my fingers to the key in the pattern Rathyn gave me, and the portal shivers and rumbles, and then with a quiet sigh, it is open.
The familiarity of it makes me ache, as does knowing that this is perhaps my one and only chance to say goodbye to Erethar. But for Dante, it is worth it.
Holding him close, I step through and feel us being pulled into the ether, nearly ripped apart before we tumble to the ground. I use my body to protect him as we hit the dirt, and I only stumble a little before I am upright again, glancing around to see where we are.
It brought us just beyond the border of my village. Dante is half-conscious in my arms, and I’m overwhelmed with the scent and sight of home.
It nearly brings me to my knees, and if it wasn’t for Dante’s soft groan of pain, I might have dropped to kiss the ground.
Taking a deep breath of the rich Eretharian air, I glance around at the trees. Morvyn glow softly at the base, creating a pathway through the forest, and for a moment, it all seems as it should be.
But the feeling doesn’t last. I realize there is no scent of cooking fires, no flickering light from torches, no song coming from the village center.
Something is off.
Something is wrong.
I walk over to a soft patch of xinhar and set Dante down. He clings to me, and I brush a lock of hair from his forehead, shushing him quietly. “Jussst rest,” I tell him. “Be back.”
He shakes his head and clings to my arms. “Don’t leave me here. What if something eats me?”
I can’t help a small grin as I stroke a touch over his jaw. “No. Nooot here.”
“Promise?”
I lean in and kiss him. “Prooomisss,” I whisper against his lips. He finally lets me go, and I slip the portal device into his pocket and give it a pat. “Escappppee if fouuund.”
“Not without you.”
I give him a stern look. “Dante.”
“Cielo,” he grunts back.
I don’t break eye contact. “Babbbeee,” I try.
In the dim glow of the fungi, I see his cheeks color. It had the exact effect I was hoping for. “Fine. Kiss me one more time.”
I do, then pull back and stand. “Be baaack.” I hate leaving him, but he is safe here. There are no natural predators of humans, and any beast that could take down a human or Vyastil is far in the outer fields. The only reason Rathyn was hurt was because he was careless.
If anything comes upon Dante, they will give him a wide berth, likely too afraid to approach such an alien scent.
I glance back at him once more, but he looks the same—half-asleep and in agony. Pressing my palm to the nearest tree, I lean against it as I begin to make my way over the uneven ground.
With each step, I am reminded I’m home. Each step feels so different from Earth. I turn my face up to the sky, where three of the moons are glowing. I had not realized I had been gone so long, we’ve reached the shadow cycle of the fourth.
I know she’s there, in her slumber, and it makes my chest ache.
So much time has passed, and that’s even more obvious when I pass through the copse of trees that line the edge of the village and realize it is dark because it is empty. The fires have gone out, the huts are vacant.
Something has gone very, very wrong.
The dream I had about my brother penetrates my mind, and I hold my breath.
Making my way down the winding path that I used to run through as a youngling, I try to push away memories that are flooding my mind. It was peaceful then.
I did not have the ability to understand who I was. What I was. What I would become. My greatest goal was to serve in my best capacity, and when I was finally—finally—selected for service to the capital, I had been thrilled.
My education had been service, and the idea of getting even a glimpse of the human world was thrilling. I did not balk—I did not even blink—when I saw the living quarters of the guards on Earth.
It was uncomfortable, cold, and lonely, but we were all trained to understand that those things simply were. They were not good. They were not bad. They were expected.
And then my entire life and everything I believed about the Vyastil, humans, and what we were doing was flipped upside down the moment a human man took me in his arms and hugged me.
Everest destroyed everything, and as much as the pain that came after turning loyal to him instead of my people still leaves me shaking at night, I have zero regrets.
I have my Dante now, thanks to him. I have tasted and felt the effects of his cum. I have been overwhelmed by his touch. I have come to understand exactly the pleasure and joy that can be had with my body, and with his.
I have touched my cock outside of breeding time, and now I know what the Vyastil from the capital have been attempting to deny us all this time.
And it was meant to be my punishment.
“What are you doing here?”
I startle at the sound of a familiar voice and turn to see a figure emerging from the shadows of a hut very near the one I had once occupied. It takes until he’s in the moonlight for me to recognize him.
My brother. He is taller than me, but so much thinner than the last time I saw him. He’s wearing age on his face, and his bright orange hair sits lifeless over his shoulders.
“Alvayn,” I say.
“Cielo.”
He does not greet me with a forehead touch. The distance between us is vast.
“What happened here?” I find the courage to ask.
His eyes narrow, and he makes an angry trill in the back of his throat. “You.”
I stare at him. I do not understand what he means.