Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Ayla
"I
'm not a Mole!" I insisted. "I was one of the Righteous - until they threw me out."
" Fer da fork ?" Rymar asked.
"Because they said I tried to kill a man." I paused. "Well, attack."
"A fork isn't exactly a lethal weapon," the Wyvern said.
I paused, replaying his words to make sure I had them right. His accent was still strong, yet his English was perfect. Strangely so. How did he even know the word "lethal?"
"A fork was all I could reach," I explained. "When Mr. Morgan slapped me, I told him to go to Hell, so he was going to punish me harder. I kneed him in the genitals before he could hit me again, so they made me marry Mr. Saunders, and they held me so I couldn't hurt him the same way."
Rymar snorted out a laugh before shoving both hands over his lips. Kanik had the opposite reaction. His eyes got big and his lips parted at my words. Sitting on the couch, the Wyvern simply watched me with those stoic orange eyes.
"And that's the man you stabbed with a fork?"
I nodded quickly, not sure if I was making things better or worse for myself. "They made us marry, then I was Mrs. Saunders, so he kissed me. One of the men holding me relaxed after that, which let me pull away and grab the fork." I huffed a grunt, realizing there was an important part missing. "We were in the dining hall."
"Interesting," the Wyvern almost purred.
But Kanik ignored him. "So they chained you out on that tree because you broke a law?"
"God's law," I agreed. "The sixth commandment."
" So see a crim'nal? " Rymar asked, his words easier to understand every time he tried to speak my language.
"No," Kanik told him. "She's a refugee."
"She's also willing to kill," the Wyvern told them.
"I didn't want to!" I insisted. "I just didn't want to marry them. I told them so, but they wouldn't listen. Just like I didn't mean to tempt you when I was washing my clothes, but you still grabbed me. All I did was defend myself, and I should have a right to that."
Slowly his lids blinked, hiding the orange of his eyes for a breath, but the most dangerous of the Dragons never pulled his gaze away from me.
"And yet all you've told me is that you might actually be dangerous." He tilted his head slightly as if daring me to deny it. "You've already attacked one man when he wasn't expecting it. That makes you like a snake. I'm just wondering when you plan to strike the next."
"A snake?" I couldn't hide the huff of indignation. "From you? That's rich, Wyvern."
His face snapped to face mine. "What did you call me?"
I swallowed. "The Wyvern. Dark with light stripes and a blue tail. They said you were deadly."
His smile returned, but this time it wasn't friendly. "I am. That also isn't my name."
"Oh."
"It's Zasen," he said. "The Wyvern is my sign. Rymar is the Rose. Kanik is the Dragonfly. Everyone has one. We choose when we become adults and use it to identify ourselves in case there's more than one person in town with the same name."
"So what should I call you, sir?" I asked. "If it's like a last name, would that make you Mr. Wyvern?"
"You should call me Zasen," he said. "No one uses those archaic titles anymore. They're only heard in fairy tales for children."
"Oh." I nodded, but decided to plow ahead to my next concern, since he could finally answer. "The hunters who hauled me out said you'd eat me. Dragons, I mean."
"I prefer venison." He leaned closer, his expression no longer amused. "What about you?"
I quickly shook my head. "I don't normally care for meat, sir."
"Why?" He looked intense and neither of the other men tried to stop him.
Licking my lips nervously, I tried my best to answer. "My father forced me to eat it, but it turns my stomach. I have never handled meat well. They say it's from my mother's line, which may be true, because she would only eat plants without needing to be beaten. I think the rabbit that night was the first time it didn't make me nauseous."
"And what kinds have you had?"
I shrugged. "It's meat. We get vegetables, tubers, fungus, and meat."
"Just meat?"
"Just meat," I agreed. "Pale and stringy or ground into a paste, not red and juicy like the rabbit."
He licked his lips, and I gasped, shoving my hand over my mouth. Beside me, Kanik tensed and across from me, Rymar sat up. What the Wyvern had meant as a gesture of thought shocked me more than anything else. When his tongue protruded from his lips, it was dark grey, nearly black. His brow furrowed.
"What did I do this time?"
"Your tongue!"
And he laughed, shoving it between his teeth to let me see. "I show you fangs and my stinger, and you want to touch. My tongue is colored differently from yours, and you spook?"
I kept my voice demure. "It was simply not what I expected."
He leaned just a bit closer. "My skin is striped, I have a tail, and you thought my tongue would be like yours?"
"Stupid?"
"Amusing." Then he pointed at Kanik. "His is purple."
I turned and Kanik obediently stuck out his tongue. Sure enough, it was nearly a match to those darker marks on the backside of his neck. Curious now, I turned my eyes to Rymar. A smile claimed his face, and he also stuck out his tongue, showing a bright blue thing! No, turquoise. Somewhere in the middle? It was darker than his stripes, but still a similar color.
"Are all Dragons like that?" I asked.
"Yes," Kanik assured me. "Our coloration on the outside is continued inside. Males tend to be more vibrant while females are often in shades similar to our chests and bellies, just like most lizards."
"So you're lizards?" I asked. "Or Dragons?"
The Wyvern - Zasen - lifted a hand as if asking the others to let him answer. "Tell me, Ayla, what do you know of Dragons?"
All I could do was shake my head, but their acceptance of my answers was starting to make me feel brave. No matter what I said, none of these three men had tried to punish me. I wasn't sure if my words had simply been proper or if they were merely that kind, but either way, it felt like the truth was working for me, so I intended to keep using it.
"Not much," I explained. "Our lessons in school were confusing. They said the sins of women caused us to be kicked out of Eden, and the sins of men caused us to be evicted from the Earth. The battle between God and the Devil raged, and God lost because there were too few Righteous. Now, we are the last, and the heathens - the Dragons and the wild men - are the only ones who can survive on the Devil's world. Earth has become a dangerous place because of evil's influence."
"The Earth," he told me, "has become wild. That is not the same as dangerous. It is certainly not the same as evil. It simply means you need to learn about it before you go running off without shoes." He canted his head and lifted a brow.
"Then give me some," I told him.
He nodded his head once. "I will once your feet are healed. The doctor who treated you was very clear that you should not walk outside on dirt even with the bandages."
That wasn't at all what I'd expected. "You're going to give me shoes?"
"Why wouldn't I?" And he leaned closer, resting his elbows on his knees.
I looked at Kanik, wishing he would interrupt this discussion, because it was starting to feel like an interrogation. But when he simply smiled, I sighed and decided to just answer the question.
"Because you don't want me to escape?"
"You still tried," Zasen pointed out. "What I want to know is why you ran, Orin?" He let out a little grunt. "Ayla, I mean. Why did you decide today that you no longer want our help?"
The book was still in my lap, and my fingers tightened on the cover. "I didn't mean to tempt you. I was merely trying to wash my things, unaware you were in the house. Any of you! So I didn't watch my posture. You see, I would rather you not force yourself on me." I couldn't meet his eyes. "After everything I've been through, I don't want to end up married anyway."
"Married?" Kanik asked.
Which made Rymar ramble off something in their own language. Kanik replied. Zasen tried to wave them down, but it wasn't working. Those two continued to trade words back and forth for a moment.
Then Rymar turned his turquoise eyes on me. They were filled with the same cold stoicism the Wyvern's normally had. "How daz..." He paused and pulled in a breath. "How does bendinding..." His eyes flicked to Kanik, who nodded, so Rymar kept going. "...make marriage?"
Zasen answered before I could, but his reply was also in their own words. " Sa meenz reip ."
"Fuck," Kanik breathed, the harsh word one I'd never heard before.
Zasen grunted at that, then lifted both hands over his face and dragged them down to his chin. "I'm sorry. I should've said something. Even if you didn't understand, I should've made sure you knew I was there." He sighed. "I simply intended to move your dress back down. It was pulled high, and I guessed that you thought you were alone. Ayla, I was trying to spare your modesty."
"Oh," I breathed.
He nodded, realizing I understood. "We are not Moles. We are all Dragons, and our women have claws."
"But I don't."
"No," Kanik said. "Yet this house has many forks."
Somehow, that made me feel better. I wasn't sure if it was meant to be a joke, yet I'd also seen the knives in the drawers. Plus, the simple fact that I could now talk to them changed everything! No longer was I left to figure out this new world simply by watching.
But there was one thing they hadn't quite clarified. "Does everyone know English?" I asked, the question probably unexpected or rude.
"No," Zasen assured me. "We are taught some with science, but most don't remember much."
"Yet all of you speak it," I insisted.
"Read," Zasen corrected. "This is the most I have ever spoken the language. I am probably making a complete mess of it. Kanik should be much better. Rymar?" His laugh made it clear he knew how crushed the yellow Dragon's words were. "We will get better."
And while they weren't making a "complete mess" of my language, they were somewhat hard to understand. They were also changing the way they said the letters with each sentence and enunciating better and better. That didn't remove their accent, but it was helping. I knew what would help more, though.
"Maybe I can learn your language?" I asked. "That might make it easier, but if nothing else, the more you say, the less strange you and Rymar twist the sounds. Kanik simply has an accent, or maybe I'm getting used to how you three speak?" I offered the last so I wouldn't shame them, even if it was mostly a lie.
Kanik chuckled at that as if he could see through my weak attempt at being polite. "I am trying to mimic you and the way you pronounce the letters. I know the words because I teach English to children. Zasen knows it from books." He tipped his head at the book in my lap. "But few of us have had a reason to use it, and none of us have heard someone who uses it all the time speak it."
One thing in all of that stood out to me. "Why do you teach children a language that is dead?"
"Because Vestrian is made from it," Kanik explained. "Since the fall of man, the sounds have shifted and the pronunciation has changed to adapt. Long ago, history books say there was Old English, then it changed to Middle English, and eventually it turned to Standard English - which seems to be the type you use. The next stage of change was Vestrian."
"Which isn't English," I said, checking to make sure I understood him.
But Kanik smiled. "It's like English's cousin. Close, if you know how to use it."
"Will you teach me?" I begged.
He glanced at Zasen, smiled, and then nodded. "Yes, I think that might be a good idea. We can start tomorrow, hm?"
"And for today," Zasen said, "you can finish reading that book. It might help more than you know."
"Okay," I agreed. "But where's Idaho?"
That made the Wyvern chuckle. "Right here. Well, it was."
"Oh." I bit my lip. "But I thought we were near the ocean?"
"Oh, I got this," Kanik said, hopping up. "I will be right back."
And with that, he hurried from the room. Next, I heard the sound of his feet on the stairs. That brought up one more question.
"Am I not allowed to know what is on the second level?"
"The what?" Zasen asked.
" Sacund floor ," Rymar answered, mangling the first word. " Tail har ."
"Tell," Zasen said, enunciating the word. "Her."
So Rymar pointed at me. "Tell her."
Which made the Wyvern turn his eyes back to me. "Rymar and Kanik have their rooms up there."
"And you?" I asked.
He shook his head. "You are sleeping in my room."
"So where will you sleep?"
He patted the arm of the couch he was sitting on. "Right here, just like a gentleman."
I nodded, taking that in. Thankfully, Kanik's return made all of us look at him, meaning I didn't have to figure out anything polite to say in response. I wasn't sure how I felt about sleeping in the Wyvern's room, using his bed, and taking over his space. I also wasn't about to offer to share it with a man!
"Zasen, you can start lunch," Kanik said. "I got this."
"Dismissed," Zasen joked before jerking his chin at Rymar and rambling off words that weren't English.
With a nod, Rymar pushed to his feet and the pair left, but Kanik was busy spreading a large piece of paper out on the low table between us. In his other hand, he had a book. One in his language. The paper was large, but once it was spread across the short table, he knelt on the other side. First, he gestured to my book, then to the map before him.
"Look closely. This is the world now. In your hand is the world of a thousand years ago, or almost." One claw traced a section of land. "Idaho."
I looked, then looked at the map in my book, then looked at his again. "But…"
He pointed to the east, indicating the water. "Inland sea. It translates to the Vestern - er, Western Interior Sea and happened when the poles melted. It didn't happen fast, but it still ruined the empire that existed at the time. It was called America, and Idaho was a part of it."
"The ice melting did all that?" I gasped.
Kanik nodded enthusiastically. "And it got hot. Really hot. Fish died because the water wouldn't hold as much air. Plants couldn't grow where they were supposed to, and millions of people starved."
"Millions?" I was skeptical, convinced he'd made a mistake in his choice of number.
Kanik simply nodded again, making sure I could understand. " Millions , because once upon a time, there were a lot of people on the planet. Now? Not so much. And everything is bigger." He lifted the other book and opened it. The words made no sense, but the picture did. It showed a man beside a dog, or maybe a wolf. "Back then, they looked like this." He flipped a few pages. "Now, it's like this." The canine's back reached the man's ribs instead of his thigh.
"That's amazing!"
He laughed. "Coming from a girl who spent her life underground? I'm sure. Rabbits used to weigh about ten pounds. Now they're closer to forty. Everything is bigger, and that makes it a lot more dangerous."
"Cows?" I asked, thinking of the things I'd read about in my forbidden library.
He shook his head. "Didn't live. Supposedly, there are some on the other side of the sea, but none here. All extinct."
"Deer?"
He stood and held his hand just above his head. "A lot bigger. One feeds a few families, though."
I gestured to the book he held. "And that's your language?"
"Yes."
"It doesn't look like English," I pointed out.
He turned the book so the words faced me. "It will once you know the rules. The first thing to know is that double-V, what you call a double-U, is pronounced differently. Like V. That's why it's Vestrian, not Westrian."
"Why would it be Westrian?" I asked, sure I'd missed something.
"Because," he explained, "we live in the western hemisphere of the Earth. When people shifted to share one language and the borders of countries no longer meant anything, English became Vestrian."