Chapter Thirty-Four
Serenya
I hadn’t realized how serious they’d been about there being physical pain if Kael and I were separated.
My chest ached as I tried to peel my eyes open. Kael couldn’t be far from where I waited, yet nausea stirred in my belly, and there was a band around my lungs. My head had begun to throb the moment he had walked away, and it must have grown bad quickly to cause the disorientation I felt.
Bright red light stung my eyes when I managed to get them open, making me wince and cover them.
Where had the light come from?
Sunlight didn’t reach the River Caverns anywhere I’d seen. The river was too deep in the ravine.
“A moment of adjustment will make you feel better. You are unharmed.”
I recognized Saed’s voice, turning towards it instinctively.
“Unharmed?”
I echoed the word, trying to figure out how it fit with the pain.
“The sedative is entirely safe, and the aftereffects are short-lived. You should be able to open your eyes now.”
My breath caught, muscles tensing. I feared what I’d see when I opened my eyes, but remaining ignorant was worse.
I forced my eyes open again.
The red light blurred at first, then sharpened into fractured planes overhead. Large crystals set into the stone ceiling glowed with Vorrashan’s midday light, the sun a bright blot amidst the red sky.
I wasn’t in the River Caverns.
The air was drier, although not as hot as the surface, and threaded with unfamiliar scents layered over one another. So many that they all mashed together into a choking stench that made my stomach lurch.
I was lying on a stone bench covered with cushions, a blanket draped over my legs, my arms resting at my sides. I wasn’t bound, and there were no Morraki alphas looming over me.
That realization came with a flicker of relief that didn’t last long enough to settle my worries.
Saed stood a few paces away, his pale eyes calm beneath some kind of visor, posture alert in the way he always was, observing everything around him.
“What… happened?”
My voice sounded thin, my throat raw. I coughed, pressing a hand to my sternum as I tried to sit up.
“You were rendered unconscious,” Saed said evenly. “Briefly. For your safety, and for the integrity of the Ravak’torr. Teylan had me monitor you to be sure there were no ill effects even though I assured him the tranquilizer was harmless.”
The Ravak’torr.
The reminder snapped everything into focus, the haze clearing from my thoughts as I leaned over my knees. My fingers curled into the cushions beneath me, and memory came rushing back.
Kael leaving me in the main River Cavern when the robe-wearing Morraki said he had to prepare in the alpha cavern.
The ache blooming in my chest, nausea roiling in my belly as my head throbbed.
Shadows moving, hands, a strange smell, and then…
Nothing.
A sudden surge of panic tightened my throat. I sucked in a breath that didn’t feel like it reached my lungs as I scratched at the flesh over my heart where I should have felt my link to Kael.
“Kael?”
A sob tore out of me before I could stop it, my heart spasming as if my body was trying to eject the possibility that I didn’t feel him because he was dead.
Saed moved closer, one hand lifting in a placating gesture.
“Calm. Your reaction is normal. The bond is intact.”
I shook my head, still clawing at my flesh.
“It doesn’t feel intact!”
My snarl was pathetic, but it was better than whimpering.
“It feels like… Like he’s gone.”
I deflated, everything stilling as I tried to process, but Saed pulled me out before I got stuck in the spiral.
“It is a side-effect of the drug. Short-lived, like I said before. Intentional. It will return shortly.”
Side-effect.
Intentional.
My gaze snapped past him, finally taking in the space around us. We weren’t fully underground, and we weren’t alone.
Stone tiers stacked upward in a half-circle across from us, shadows pooling between spires thrusting towards the sky. I could see movement, a mass of bodies packed tight on the sandstone.
Above that, sky, and in the distance, the black towers where our shuttle had landed when I arrived on Korvashan.
Looking down again, my lips parted as I realized what was below us.
Sand in the center of an oblong arena, stone walls too high for even a Morraki to climb encircling it, black gates at each end.
I was in some kind of viewing booth above the pit, and I couldn’t help thinking of the ancient Greek Colosseum I’d seen pictures of in history classes, and the way gladiators had competed there.
My breath hitched as understanding crashed through me hard enough to make my vision blur.
“This was part of his test.”
“Correct.”
Saed hadn’t confirmed my guess, but it was a voice I thought I recognized.
Turning, my heart hammered against my ribs as I spotted one of the other Morraki who had been involved in the council meeting.
He wore robes different than the uniform Kael wore, similar to the ones worn by the Morraki who had led Kael away, and he almost blended into the stone he stood beside with his brown skin, although his green kethra stood out.
“I am Teylan. It is unfortunate we officially meet this way.”
Teylan was standing near the edge of the platform.
Even though he was clearly an alpha, his presence didn’t spark the fear I would have expected being alone with a male who wasn’t Kael.
His posture was relaxed, the tip of his tail flicking like a lazy cat, and there was enough separation between us to give me a sense of safety I knew was false.
“Did Kael explain the Ravak’torr?”
I tried to calm my thoughts and remember what I’d been told. Teylan’s Common was even more flawless than Kael’s, but I repeated the words Kael had used.
“He has to face three tests to remain Torvakai.”
A small smile lifted Teylan’s lips as he nodded.
“Correct. Did he explain the three tests?”
A weight grew in my chest, dread filling me as Teylan’s smile melted away when I shook my head.
“I thought not. Ravak’torr has three, specific types of trials, although they vary with each challenge.
One is focused on strategy, to prove he is capable of critical decision making.
Kael has already passed that one. Then there is a duress trial that proves he can lead under pressure without giving in to emotion.
The last is combat against the Morraki who issued the Ravak’torr challenge. ”
He paused to give me time to absorb what he was telling me. The tests made sense rationally, but it was hard to think rationally after being drugged and kidnapped by people I should have been able to trust.
“You abducted me to test him.”
I was trembling despite my effort not to. After what had happened in the Market, and then Rowena being attacked in the River Caverns, knocking me unconscious and blocking our connection…
“You let him think I was—”
I couldn’t finish it. The thought was too cruel.
But Teylan inclined his head.
“Your fear was necessary, but he knows you live. Blocking the bond was essential. The Ravak’torr exists to determine whether an alpha can balance instinct, logic, and duty under strain.”
It wasn’t exactly an apology, but the side of me that had watched political maneuvers most of my life could see the brilliance of it.
“And if he couldn’t? If he chose me over the test?”
My breath hitched at the sharp stab in my chest, but that was what it came down to.
Me or Torvakai.
“Then he would have forfeited his position. He would have been deemed unfit to make decisions for Morrakan.”
A hollow ache bloomed beneath my ribs. I knew how much being Torvakai meant to Kael, how much his people meant to him. Everything he had done had been for the good of the Morrak.
“You could have told me. You could have warned me, or, asked for my help?”
“No.”
Saed cut in with the denial before my anger could build.
“It would not have been true duress if you were calm within the bond. There must be no doubt remaining.”
I pressed my hand flat to my breastbone, fingers splayed over the place where our link should have thrummed with Kael’s presence. Instead, there was only a dull pressure.
“You left him to imagine the worst.”
Neither of them contradicted me.
The crowd of Morraki suddenly roared, the wave of sound rolling through the arena into the covered viewing deck and vibrating through the stone beneath me.
Flinching, my heart leapt into my throat as my gaze snapped back toward the small patch of sand I could see from my seat.
There was a surge in my chest, but then the bond went quiet again.
I trembled, not sure I wanted to stand and look into the pit. Not sure if I’d like what I saw.
There was a railing blocking my view and I’d assumed the area was empty since the crowd had been quiet, but the sudden noise told me something was happening. The gates at either end remained closed, which meant something, someone, was already inside.
Swallowing, I glanced at Teylan and Saed, but their attention was on the arena. Forcing my legs to function, I rose, the patch of pinkish-red sand growing larger.
There was something flat and square lying atop the sand near some scattered stone blocks, as if they had been stacked but knocked over. The sand was churned in some places while the edges of the area was smooth, and there were a couple irregular dark spots.
I took a step forward, a single voice rising in a roar that made my insides clench. Pain pierced my ribs again, sharp and fast, but it faded to a distant burn.
Another step and I saw motion below, limbs flying too fast for me to track, and then the combatants separated, facing each other.
Kael.
Instinct screamed it, and I confirmed it by the crimson glow of his kethra. The ones on his face and some on his chest and arms were covered, but his sides and legs were still marked by the crescents that almost looked like crowns drawn on his flesh.
The sight of him stole the breath from my lungs and the world swayed.