Chapter 13
They had been walking for several hours when Azreth suddenly pulled Raiya toward the side of the road. She followed his gaze, and far in the distance, she could just make out a few mounted figures in gleaming silver armor. She let him pull her to a rocky ridge beside the road, out of view of passersby. They crouched there, watching the figures approach.
More Paladins. It appeared that they hadn’t seen Azreth, because they passed by without stopping.
Raiya glanced up at Azreth. She was surprised he was hiding rather than attacking. There were only five of them. He could have killed them if he’d wanted to. Perhaps he was growing more patient. Or perhaps there was something else stopping him.
He still looked tired. Earlier that day, she’d seen him stumble over a rock in the road. It had been bizarre, like seeing a mountain cat trip. Creatures as strong and graceful as Azreth didn’t stumble.
They waited for the Paladins to move out of sight, then she confronted him. “What’s wrong, Azreth?”
He looked over at her, scowling.
“You’re unwell,” she said. “And if something is wrong with you, it affects me, too. I am not threatening you. I’m stating a fact. So don’t take out your frustration on me.”
“I am half bound to your husband, and I would like not to be,” he growled.
“There’s something else. You’re ill. Is it the binding? Is it hurting you?”
“No.”
“Then what is it? Ash and blood. We’re allies, aren’t we? We need to be able to trust each other at least a little bit. Otherwise, what use are we to each other?”
He sneered. “Do you truly expect me to trust a woman who betrayed her own husband?”
A string in the harp of her soul, drawn taut, suddenly snapped. “I didn’t betray him! He betrayed me! He betrayed me a thousand times. You have no idea what he’s done to me, how he’s tormented me, you could never understand…”
Azreth looked surprised by the outburst, but unsympathetic. “You pledged yourself to him. You were mates.”
“Yes. I was an idiot. So I suppose I deserved it all. I’ll admit that. It was my own fault for loving him. He fooled me into thinking he was someone he wasn’t. And I’ve paid for it with the past year of my life. I’ve been humiliated and belittled and used in every way. Living with him has made me into someone I hardly recognize. I don’t even know who I am anymore, or what the point of all this is.” She clenched a fist in her hair, so angry that she wanted to rip it out.
Azreth stared at her, frowning slightly. “He tricked you?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Raiya rubbed a hand over her face. He was never going to understand. Even other mortals didn’t understand, so how could he? “I thought he loved me.” Did demons know what love was? She searched for another way to put it. “I thought he would protect me. That’s what he promised to do. Instead, he treated me like… like he treated you. Like I was a bound thing for him to use as he wished.”
She took a breath to calm herself. “Please tell me what’s happening. If I can’t depend on you because you’re about to keel over, I’d like to know. I deserve to know.”
He didn’t look angry like he had when she’d asked that morning, but he said nothing. Raiya was about to give up and keep walking when he finally spoke.
“I need rest.”
Was that all? “We can stop for a while. That’s fine.”
“No. I need sleep.”
Raiya raised her eyebrows. “You said demons didn’t sleep.”
“I lied.”
She paused, adjusting to this information. “How often do you need to sleep?”
“Once every seven days,” he said, blinking slowly. “It has been twelve.”
He’d been hiding this all along. He’d been afraid to tell her. Because sleeping would make him vulnerable. He couldn’t destroy her or punish her for betraying him or make good on any of his other threats while he was sleeping.
“Did you think I would hurt you while you slept?” she asked, unnerved.
Azreth said nothing, but his silence was telling.
“I wouldn’t do something like that,” she said. “I would never murder someone in cold blood while they were helpless.”
Azreth leaned against the rocks behind him, staring her down. She didn’t think he believed her.
“You have my word,” she said. She could see him slowly being persuaded—if not because he believed her, then because he was simply too exhausted to go on. “People on the mortal plane sleep every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. Very few of them die from it, I assure you.”
“Mortals care for each other. They do not care for demons.”
She couldn’t argue with that. She didn’t know what more to tell him. Impulsively, she started to reach for his hand, but then she recalled the violently negative reaction he’d had the last time she’d tried to touch him. She settled beside him, hugging her knees to her chest.
Azreth opened his mouth, and it hung silently for a moment before any sound came out, as if he still couldn’t decide whether to speak. “I will sleep very deeply. You will not be able to wake me.”
That meant that he’d be even more vulnerable than she’d thought, and also that she would be on her own if the Paladins—or anything else—happened upon them.
She disliked how defeated he looked. Like he was certain he was signing his own death warrant. “I’ll make sure nothing happens,” she assured him. “You’ll be safe here.”
There was nothing more to be said, it seemed, because Azreth finally stretched out on the ground, long and straight on his back, in the seclusion the little cliff offered above the road. He took off the enchanted bracelet and handed it to her as the glamour faded. He didn’t seem to have trouble with spell fever from enchantment overuse like mortals did, but perhaps it was still too uncomfortable to wear it to sleep.
He closed his eyes.
Raiya couldn’t help but watch him.
It took less than a minute. He slowly went dead still, his entire body going slack. She almost thought his breathing had stopped, but then she realized it had only grown incredibly slow, his chest expanding only three or four times in the span of a minute. His prosthetic arm disappeared as the spell lost power.
“Azreth?” she said quietly.
He didn’t move.
She reached out and brushed her fingertips against his arm. He didn’t move. Didn’t even twitch.
Taken by an overpowering curiosity, she raised her hand to his neck, letting her thumb and middle fingers rest on either side of his throat. She squeezed slightly. His pulsed thrummed dully under her touch, but he remained limp and still, unaware.
Stunned, she sat back. He’d been telling the truth. He was dead to the world. It would really be up to her to protect him from any threats, and she had to hope she was up to the task.
“Nothing will happen by,” she told herself, settling against the rock behind her. No one could see them from the road, and no one would have a reason to come this way. They would be fine.
She took the baton from her belt and laid it across her lap so it would be ready to use, nonetheless.
A couple of hours in,she realized that she’d forgotten to ask him how long he would sleep. By the time night had fallen and he still hadn’t awoken, she was beginning to think it might be longer than she expected.
As the night went on, the cold crept through her skin and into her bones, and eventually she stowed her pride and curled up beside Azreth to leech his warmth. He still hadn’t moved.
She’d been lying there for an hour or more, wide awake and alert, when she heard a footstep beside her. Something metal touched her throat, and when she moved, it nicked her. She took a sharp breath.
“Don’t move,” came a voice from the darkness.
She didn’t. Her heart raced as she searched the darkness, blind. After a moment, a shaft of rune-covered crystal lit up in front of her, and she winced in the sudden light. The mage torch was in the hand of the young night elf male holding a sword to her throat.
Raiya’s baton was still clenched in her hand by her side, but she wasn’t brave enough to lift it. The boy looked twitchy. He’d probably slice clean through her throat by the time she raised it halfway.
“Lady Raiya, it’s me!” whispered a familiar voice from somewhere nearby.
“Be quiet,” the male hissed.
“What’s wrong with saying that? I don’t want her to be frightened.”
He groaned. “By the Goddess, Jai. Don’t talk so politely. This isn’t how you threaten someone. She’s not your friend.”
“I didn’t say she was.”
The two of them had approached so quietly that Raiya hadn’t heard them over the sound of wind in the grass. Amazing that they were suddenly so loud now. “What do you want?” Raiya asked.
The sword, which had drooped slightly during the argument, jerked up to touch her chin again. “Be still,” the male commanded.
“Madira, you’re hurting her! She’s bleeding, look! Stop, just let her go.”
“Are you joking?”
A hand reached over in the darkness and shoved him. With a frustrated growl, he moved the sword away from Raiya’s neck and glared down at her.
Raiya dared to tilt her head to look over at Jai. She was on Azreth’s other side, holding a knife near his throat. An iron blade. She smiled at Raiya.
“You followed us,” Raiya said.
“We came to help you,” Jai replied. She glanced down at Azreth, her brow pinching. “The demon’s not waking up.”
“He’s in a deep sleep,” Raiya said. “He told me he can’t easily be awoken from it.”
“Fantastic news,” Madira said flatly. “Just kill him now, before he wakes.”
Raiya was stricken with panic. “No! No. Please don’t. Jai, I’m begging you, don’t do that.”
Jai looked surprised. “Why not?”
Madira sneered. “Because she knew what he was all along, and she’s working with a demon voluntarily. I told you.”
“No she’s not.” Jai looked at Raiya tentatively. “Are you?”
“It’s not what you think. He’s not dangerous.” She’d never told a bolder lie.
Jai looked sympathetic. “I saw him hurt you.”
Raiya shook her head vigorously. “He has never hurt me.”
“He was threatening you,” Madira said. “Jai told me what she saw.”
She couldn’t deny that. In a way, she was touched. Jai had been worried for her.
Raiya slowly sat up, laying a hand protectively over Azreth’s chest. “He was afraid.”
“He didn’t look afraid,” Jai said.
“He has been hurt before.” He’d never said it outright, but she knew. “Have you ever seen a street dog who growls at anyone who comes near it, even when it’s offered a friendly hand?”
Jai was frowning. She glanced up at her brother, and he looked conflicted.
Raiya considered reaching for her baton. Instead, she slowly reached out and put her hand over Jai’s. The girl didn’t resist as Raiya inched the knife away from Azreth’s neck.
“I’m sorry for hiding this,” Raiya said, “but most of what I told you was true. We’re running from a man who almost killed me and tried to bind Azreth.”
Jai’s eyebrows went up. “A lord did that?”
“Of course he did,” Madira muttered. “Human lords care nothing for their people.” He shifted from foot to foot, indecisive. “But he’s still a demon. It’s irresponsible to let him go free. He’s dangerous.”
“I’ve heard people say the same about night elves,” Raiya said. Madira scowled at her.
Jai slowly pocketed her iron knife. “He seemed perfectly nice when I met him. Maybe he really is. Maybe demons aren’t as bad as people say.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Madira muttered, but he lowered his sword anyway.
For a few moments, none of them seemed to know what to do. The elves had clearly been expecting a fight and were at a loss now that they hadn’t found one.
“We need to remove the binding Lord Han-gal put on Azreth,” Raiya said. “We’re going to Ontag-ul to try to find someone who knows about these things.”
Jai brightened. “You’re going to speak with the people at the Temple of Moratha, then?”
Raiya had considered the temple, but that was where Nirlan had found Eunaios. She’d found Eunaios to be less than trustworthy. “You think followers of the dark goddess would help us?” she asked skeptically.
“There are some clever mages there. Some of them are a bit odd, but they’re not like other humans. They don’t discount people just because of their race. If anyone would be willing to help you, it’s them.”
Raiya looked down at Azreth’s slumbering form as she considered it. The followers of Moratha didn’t cling to the same moral standards that most of society did, and it was well known that they dabbled in dark magics like bindings and demonology. They might be Azreth’s only chance.
She nodded. “I will go to them. Thank you.”
Madira crossed his arms. “This isn’t going to go well,” he said, looking at Azreth.
“I’ll be fine.”
“It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s everyone else. How many people has he killed so far?”
“Not too many,” Raiya said evasively. “Would it please you to know that it was mostly Paladins?”
Madira’s expression was guarded, but his eyebrows went up a little.
Jai spoke for him. “Madira hates Paladins,” she said, grinning mischievously.
“I’m finding that I don’t particularly like them, either,” Raiya said.
It was nearlymorning when Azreth finally awoke. Almost an entire day had passed.
He jerked awake with a sharp intake of breath. He looked up at her, his eyes aglow, and she was surprised by how glad she was to see him again.
“Good morning,” she said.
He looked up at her blankly. As he slowly sat up, he looked down at himself, as if making sure he still had all his parts. His phantom arm reappeared, giving off a soft magenta glow as the magic threaded together.
He looked up at her again, and there was a strange expression on his face. He was surprised.
“Do you feel better?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.
He didn’t answer, but looked her up and down. His eyes locked onto her neck, noting the nick the night elves had left there—little more than a paper cut.
“What is that?”
She looked down. “Um. There was a small incident.” She felt his pulse of anger and fear. At this proximity, it drifted off his skin like a perfume.
“What happened?”
She decided it would be best to tell the truth. She was having a hard enough time gaining his trust, and lying to him wouldn’t help. “The night elves from the Roamer camp. I think they were suspicious of you, so they followed us.”
His nostrils flared. “They attacked you?”
“No. It was a misunderstanding. Everything is fine now.”
“But you’re hurt.”
“It’s nothing.”
He leaned in. “It is not nothing. If someone hurts you, you should punish them. If they think you will tolerate being hurt, they will do it again. You must learn to defend yourself.”
She stiffened a little, because she sensed he was thinking of another person who had hurt her. The person. “Are you worried about me being hurt, Azreth?” she asked wryly.
“I take no pleasure in your pain.”
He sounded far more earnest than she’d expected. She was taken aback for a moment. “I understand,” she said. “But this is not like when Nirlan hurt me. They’re young. And, frankly, they’re night elves. They were trying to help, in their way.”
He frowned like he still didn’t understand, but he didn’t argue.
She was starting to find that confused frown endearing. He didn’t understand, but he was trying to. Before she met him, she would never have guessed that a demon would want to understand the perspective of mortals.
“I will follow your lead in this,” he said reluctantly.
She smiled. “Thank you.”