Chapter 8 #2
Then, a second rose, followed by the medical skyship Reid and I had spent so much time on.
That one was huge compared to the other two, and, when it shot away over the treeline at dazzling speeds, all I could do was gasp and stare.
Every other skyship followed the first one in a mad aerial dance I did not think was possible: ships rising into the air rapidly, some shooting off in a straight line, some skimming the tops of the trees.
Others took a neat little spin, or looped with joy around the clearing before they followed the rest.
The humming of the relics was not as loud as I expected it to be; it never rose higher than a fireant’s buzzing.
It filled the clearing, but as soon as they shot away over the woods, the sound disappeared.
In less than a minute, the clearing was empty, leaving behind a dozen flattened, brown areas in the moss.
Some of those areas were big, but most were no bigger than a home at Thunder Rock.
The moss would reclaim those spots in a few weeks, and no sign would remain that the Training Grounds had ever been here.
The empty clearing mirrored the empty feeling inside me.
I felt abandoned, with nowhere to go that would feel safe.
Then Reid lowered his head and brushed his mouth over my shoulder in one of those ‘kiss’ things he liked to do.
“Let’s go; no sense in lingering. Chen drew me a map.
It should take us a few weeks to get back to Haven.
” I wasn’t alone. Reid was with me, and he had been adamant that he’d never leave my side.
“I will follow you,” I told him. He was technically the one who was a stranger to this planet, but he was so confident and strong.
When I remembered how safe he made me feel, it was intoxicating.
After talking with Avrish, it also felt far less like I was flawed for wanting that—for needing it.
It felt easy to slide my hand into Reid’s and follow him into the woods with nothing but supplies strapped to our backs.
“I don’t know that we’ll be able to avoid Khawla’s notice,” I said to him in a low tone that would not carry.
The Master Scout was unpredictable; he might not give us away, but he might warn his mate, Kusha, where I was to give her the advantage.
Bitter Storm’s plume of smoke was easy to circle around, though, and we knew exactly where the Thunder Rock females had made their camp.
“Khawla is the leader of those blue guys?” Reid asked, and the glint in his eyes told me he knew exactly how disrespectful it was to speak of Thunder Rock that way.
I wanted to bristle, but then I recalled that I’d left my Clan; I’d become an outcast by choice when I had refused to fight for the throne.
I lowered my shoulders and simply nodded before carefully summing up what I knew of the male.
“He is mated to one of the biggest contenders for the throne, Kusha. They have two young children together, I believe. Khawla is our Master Scout, uncannily good at hiding and at finding things.” I tapped a claw to my chin as I contemplated what else I knew about the male.
He was older than my brother by a handful of years, so they had not been in the same training groups.
I vaguely recalled that there had been a bit of a stink about his mating with Kusha because nobody had seen the mating marks.
“Khawla is pretty calm and steady, a stickler for the rules, if I recall,” I finished finally.
“I don’t know if he’ll try to help his mate or let us go… ”
Reid hummed in the back of his throat in response, his eyes scanning the woods around us with laser focus.
He’d been doing that the entire time we’d been traveling, as if he expected trouble.
We’d gone in a big, circular motion away from the Sacred Training Grounds by now, easily bypassing both the Thunder Rock and Bitter Storm camps.
I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be as easy as that, though.
Even though the sound of the skyships had not been as loud as I thought it would be, it had been loud enough to draw attention.
I had only just finished those gloomy thoughts when the sound of a twig snapping echoed beneath the trees.
It had gotten steadily more hilly as we moved, so the sound had to come from close by.
My scales shivered along my spine, and fear made my stomach grow hard in my belly.
Was it Bitter Storm? One of the females from Thunder Rock?
The only one it definitely wouldn’t be was Khawla; he’d never do something as stupid as snap a twig while stalking someone.
Reid spun toward the sound, his hand around mine twisting to pull me behind his wide shoulders.
“Show yourself,” he said firmly. “I don’t like that sneaky stuff.
It makes me think you’re an enemy, and I don’t treat those kindly.
” He had his hand on the knife at his belt, his feet braced apart, and his eyes never left a single point between two trees and a large shrub.
He knew exactly where our stalker was hiding.
There was a furious, angry hiss that could mean anything and be from anyone, but it was Astrexa who rose from the bushes with an angry expression on her face.
Her dark blue scales caught a violet beam of sunlight and glittered beautifully, sharply reminding me that my much paler azure tone had never been good enough for my mother, even though her own scales had barely been any darker than mine.
“Tell your mongrel to back off and face me, you weakling,” Astrexa demanded as she dared to come out of the underbrush completely and approach us.
I should have known that she was going to be our biggest issue; Astrexa had way too much to prove to give up.
She, more than any of the others, would need the legitimacy that defeating me would give her claim.
Without it, I could easily imagine she’d have to go through all the contenders—and then some—in challenge after challenge.
It would be too much for any female, even a fierce brawler like her.
“Don’t call him mongrel,” I said to her, though I kept a tight grip on Reid’s hand, unwilling to get separated from him.
“His name is Reid, and he’s a good, strong male.
” That was the one thing I was certain of: any female should be proud to call him hers.
That they couldn’t see that was their failure, not his, and I wouldn’t stand for any insults.
I felt heat curl through my chest, and it was pushing out my fear of a confrontation.
I’d fought Astrexa many times in the past—I had lost to her many times and won plenty too.
I realized that if it came to protecting Reid and his honor, I’d gladly clash with this female again. I knew all her tricks.
Astrexa had locked eyes with me, a mean glint in her eyes that shot a shiver down my spine.
Okay, thinking I’d defend Reid’s honor was one thing, but honor was meaningless when it came to life and death.
That look told me that if I ended up fighting her, it would be kill or be killed.
The thought of having to strike a fatal blow turned my stomach.
Despite fighting for my spot in the hierarchy ever since my sixth molting, I had never killed anyone—until my mother tried to kill Corin’s innocent and harmless human mate.
I never wanted to do it again; it still gave me nightmares, even though I knew I’d make the same choice if I had a chance to redo that moment.
My stare-down with this tormentor from the past had made me oblivious to everything around me.
I did not realize it until Reid suddenly disturbed the moment.
He shifted between us with an angry, “Back off!” Astrexa was much closer than I had thought; she had drifted closer with stealthy movements.
It was one of those tricks fighters used at the start of a confrontation, and I was shocked to discover that I hadn’t caught it.
I should have. How could I be rusty already?
My last fight for power had been a few weeks ago, right before I’d traveled to the Shaman Training Grounds with the Queen.
“Stay out of this,” Astrexa told him. I had never thought she was stupid or reckless, but she jabbed the tip of her tail at him as if she thought she could knock him out of her way.
Hadn’t she gotten smacked into a tree by him the last time they met?
Had she not seen how easily he’d defeated Evarah?
Reid might not be as tall as a Naga male in fight mode, and he lacked protective scales, but he was not to be underestimated.
I knew that now, so it was no surprise to me when he grabbed her tail in his fist and yanked on it.
She swept across the mossy, leaf-strewn ground with a startled scream.
I thought Reid might actually pick her up and throw her, but he yanked her sideways and sent her rolling across the moss.
“I told you, back off!” he said with an impressive growl.
He’d let go of his knife, bracing his free hand on his hip as he towered over the now-prone female with a glare. “Stay away from my girl,” he added.
As my mother’s once-favorite female scrambled back upright, brushing leaves and sticks from her long, dark-blue hair, I found myself smiling.
“He says to stay away from me unless you want to taste the dirt a second time.” That made Astrexa hiss, but she did not call me a coward this time for staying behind my male.
She did not call me anything, though she was clearly furious and embarrassed, and she did not try to approach a second time.