Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Kelvar
Alyx sat with her knees held close to her chest, eyes closed as she enjoyed the warmth of the fire.
The robe she wore now was slightly too big, and the loose pants too long, requiring her to roll them up a few times at the ankles before shoving her feet into too-large boots.
At least I had slit the man’s throat instead of stabbing him through the chest, and there were only a few errant drops of dried blood near the collar.
I observed her as I turned the strips of meat from the jackrabbit I had caught on their sticks in the fire.
As much as I was happy she would be warmer—and I would no longer have to endure the infuriating sight of her in nothing but a thin shift—it irked me to see her in the clothes of the man who had attacked her.
I grit my teeth so hard they creaked in my skull at the memory and tore my gaze away from her, turning it back toward the fire.
The rage that had consumed me when I returned to the camp to find her surrounded by unfamiliar riders had been blinding.
At the sight of how she kicked and fought against the man who held her by the hair, I had thrown out my hand without thinking.
Magic had shattered out of me, and the first man was dead before I even realized what I was doing.
I frowned at the strips of meat, now sizzling and popping as they finished cooking. I had no right to be so angry at the thought of her being kidnapped—after all, I had captured her first, right out from under her own parents’ noses.
Alyx hummed under her breath. “That smells good.”
I pulled one stick out of the fire and handed it to her. She smiled at me as she took it. I started to smile back but jerked my gaze away before I could fully commit to the expression.
The urge to care for her was too strong. I had jumped to her protection and itched to feed her and clothe her—this time in my clothes. But I couldn’t be having these thoughts. I would be delivering her to my Lord, hopefully tomorrow, before these urges took root in my mind and would not let go.
If the desert granted me her favor, I could soon be done with this whole misadventure. It would be for the best.
I did not know what I had done to earn the desert’s ire, but I was ready to offer her all the blood I could spare to lose to be forgiven.
We rode for three days and nights with no sign of an encampment on the horizon.
Each day, Alyx perched on Dileas’s back before me, her back pressed flush to my front.
And each night, I watched her sleep by the fire, both relieved and pained that I no longer had to bundle her in my own robe and hold her close for warmth.
Every night, I laid awake for far too long, trying not to think about the way she had felt pressed against the planes of my body as I held her to me—what I would do if she wasn’t the daughter of the Lord of a rival clan. Having her near, but just out of reach, began to drive me to distraction.
But it wasn’t just her proximity.
It was the way she didn’t seem afraid, despite being my captive. It was the way she doted on Dileas, running her finger through her mane as I built our fire every night. My mare seemed to have betrayed me as well, stretching into the touch and whickering happily each time.
On the second day, I brought it up.
“You said you would never steal my horse, but I notice you didn’t say anything about turning her against me,” I pointed out as Alyx scratched Dileas’s withers in a way that made the mare go slack jawed with pleasure. “Is that your newest plan for escape?”
“If she does turn against you for me, it’s simply because she has good taste in humans,” Alyx commented, seemingly unperturbed.
“Excuse me? What have I done to earn such insults?”
Alyx arched a silvery brow. “Besides kidnapping me in the dead of night and holding me for ransom against my will?”
I grimaced. “Actually, don’t answer that. I’d rather not know. I have my charms, though.”
“Really?” She cocked her head. “Where have you been hiding them?”
My lips twitched. “I normally don’t bring them on kidnapping missions.”
Alyx hummed noncommittally and turned her attention back toward the horse. While her father clearly saw the softness in her that endeared her to my mount, he certainly seemed to underestimate her resilience, if her willingness to verbally spar with me was any indication.
I also couldn’t ignore the way she soldiered on bravely, without complaint, day after day. After her admission that she had never slept outside, I expected the hard riding and days with nothing to eat but dried jackrabbit meat and dates to grate on her.
Instead, she seemed even more energized as time wore on.
She appeared almost excited as she watched the landscapes shift around us from powdery dunes to rocky cliffs to baked earth dotted with hard scrub.
I might have expected her brush with the riders of Clan Tibel to make her more skittish, but it was as if the proof that she was not completely helpless had only bolstered her confidence.
It only made her more beautiful.
As I watched her light the fire for us the third night—she had insisted on helping with camp now that I no longer kept her bound—a proud smile grew across her face. I had the sinking feeling that being my captive was the most freedom she had ever been allowed.
So, she bloomed like a flower in the rainy season, and I grew more exhausted and brittle by the hour.
Late afternoon on the third day, a splotch of green in the distance signaled an oasis. I reached forward and pointed so Alyx could see my hand where she sat in front of me.
“We can stop there for the night. It’s been too long since we have had shade and fresh water,” I observed.
Alyx nodded. “Dileas could use the rest.”
She patted the mare’s neck, and Dileas tossed her head as if in appreciation at the consideration.
I squeezed my thighs around my mount, as if asking whose side she was on.
After all, it was not like I hadn’t been checking her hooves and grooming her every night.
Still, Dileas seemed to have decided Alyx was her preferred human at the moment.
In response, Dileas decided that this was her signal to break into a full gallop. My magical hand on her consciousness knew she could tell that wasn’t my intent, but she was willful.
I had always liked that about her.
I threw my arms around Alyx’s waist, afraid she might be unseated by the sudden acceleration.
I needn’t have bothered. She already leaned over Dileas’s neck, moving as one with the mount as if she were born on horseback.
She might not have fought like a clansman of the desert, but she rode like one. Better than most, in fact.
Despite her competence, I could not bring myself to let go of her waist, tucking my chin over her shoulder and holding tight as we hurtled toward the oasis in the distance. Her hair mixed with Dileas’s mane, tickling my face and smelling like freedom.
A whoop split the air, and it took me a second to realize that Alyx was laughing at the unrestrained joy of the sudden sprint.
I couldn’t help the broad smile that split my own face.
It wasn’t the self-assured smirk I wore so often when doing my Lord’s bidding—the one that was more practiced than I let on, crafted to give the impression of power and certainty.
This was a real smile, and a laugh of my own followed hot on its heels.
Too soon, we hurtled past the palm trees at the edge of the oasis, and Dileas slowed to a walk, and then a stop, pawing the ground happily at the edge of a crystalline pool.
I dismounted. Alyx hopped down after me unaided.
I turned to look at her, planning to compliment her riding in the face of Dileas’s free spirit.
My voice caught in my throat.
Alyx’s cheeks were flushed, and her silvery eyes sparkled with joy.
I had the fleeting thought when I first saw her, sleeping in her father’s tent illuminated only by a sliver of moonlight, that she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
I had quickly shoved that thought aside, chiding myself for thinking such a thing about a woman I was about to hold for ransom.
Now, under the sun with her face split by a broad smile, there was no escaping the truth of the matter. She was the brightness and life and freedom of the desert, all encapsulated in a single person.
I stared at her, dumbstruck, as though seeing her for the first time, despite our close proximity over the last days.
I didn’t hear the warning trill until it was too late.
A pained scream filled the air, and Dileas reared in fear, front hooves lashing out.
Before her, a family of three caracals hissed and spat, crouched in preparation to pounce.
Muscles bunched with lethal strength in their long feline bodies and the black tufts on the tips of their ears quivered.
Alyx whirled around, hands outstretched as if she were prepared to try to reason with the predators.
Time slowed, the sound sucking from my mind even as I saw Alyx’s mouth open to shout.
The magic of the desert flared in my skull, connecting me to every living thing and grain of sand for miles—Alyx a raging bonfire of power so bright, I could barely make out the flickering flames of the caracals beside her.
I leaped into action, jumping between her and the animals and throwing my hands out, unleashing a lick of power at the closest flame of life. One of the caracals flew back, hitting a rock at the edge of the pool with a thud and a whimper.
The others were not deterred. I unsheathed my saber from my back, slicing it downward in a savage slash just as another creature jumped at me, forcing it to retreat out of my blade’s reach.
“Run!” I commanded, both shouting with my voice and sending a bolt of intention toward Dileas through our connected minds. As open to the power of the desert as I was during battle, the command came unconsciously.
I barely had time to register retreating hoofbeats and a scrabbling behind me as both Alyx and Dileas hurried to obey before the caracals advanced, two at once this time.
I threw my saber up in time to slash one across the chest, but the third had circled toward my unarmed side.
It crashed into me hard enough to rattle my teeth.
Together, we tumbled to the ground, a tangled ball of limbs and tearing claws.
I managed not to impale myself on my own saber as we rolled, but it fell from my grip as my head connected with the hard earth.
White flared behind my eyes, blinding me momentarily, as a tearing pain seared across my shoulder. Sightlessly, I threw my arms out, wrestling with the writhing, furry creature that pinned me to the ground.
Power flared unbidden, the presence of the desert in my mind turning to an all-consuming shriek. A pulse of magic exploded out of me with a wordless shout. The weight on my chest disappeared and did not return.
I blinked to clear my vision and struggled to sit up. The creature that had pinned me lay on the ground several meters away, smoking gently, a large, charred circle marring the golden fur of its body.
The one I had thrown back originally struggled to its feet and beat a hasty retreat, sensing that it was outmatched. I sighed heavily in relief marred by frustration.
I grit my teeth, ready to berate myself for not being aware of other visitors to the watering hole. Alyx’s presence had left me distracted and unbalanced.
Such thoughts flew from my head as another scream filled the air, followed by a flash of pain in my mind.
Dileas.
I flew to my feet, injured shoulder forgotten.
“Kelvar!” Alyx called out, but I was already moving, running and stumbling forward before I had fully stood.
She kneeled on the ground, a short run away from where I had fallen. Dileas lay on her side before her, and my heart dropped.
In seconds, I was at their sides, nearly shoving Alyx out of the way to get to my mount. My heart plummeted from my chest into the baked earth below me.
Dileas’s foreleg was bent at an odd angle. Pain and despair rose in my throat, choking me at the sight of bone poking through her silken coat. Blood dripped down her hoof to stain the ground below.
“She panicked and stepped in a fox hole,” Alyx said at my side, her voice tremulous, as if with pain. I barely heard it. It sounded as if I were underwater.
I had done this. I hadn’t watched for predators, and when I ordered her to run away, I had sent my normally surefooted mount into a frenzy.
My eyes burned, and the hairs on the back of my neck lifted, as sparks began to dance across my skin.
Where before, sound had been sucked out of my surroundings as the focus of battle set it, now, it pushed in on me: Dileas’s labored breathing and Alyx’s voice as she tried to say something I was too overwhelmed to understand.
Thunder rumbled far too close, and I knew it was my doing, but I could do nothing to stop it. I turned my face up to the sky and screamed. The sound was carried away by the howling of wind, as lightning split the sky, and I was lost in a storm of rage and magic.