Chapter 29
JESSAMINE
“The word he said before the earth opened up was something like, ‘Vahka-dool’,” I told Lorelyn from the bench by the fire pit, which was set in black cast iron on a short tripod, the same as in our tent. Wolf sprawled at my feet, his paw resting over my slipper.
We were gathered in Bezaliel’s tent where Tessa held Saralyn, who was nursing at her breast. Leifkyn and Dayn, who was now mostly healed, joined us as well.
Brohm stood with his arms crossed, scowling beside Dayn.
I had come to realize that while Redvyr had many strong warriors, Leifkyn, Dayn, and Brohm were those he and Bezaliel trusted the most with the more delicate information or situations in the clan.
“‘Vahka-dur’ is what you likely heard.” She rolled her tongue on the ‘r’ sound.
“Yes,” I added excitedly, “that’s exactly what he said.”
“Do you know its meaning?” asked Redvyr, sitting beside me.
“When I was young, before I came to the Vanglosa clan, my mentor was a god seer. She taught me many things. One of them was the words of the Godjin that had been recorded by others.” Her expression was sober and grave as she added, “Yes, I know the meaning of ‘Vahka-dur.’” She rolled the ‘r’ again.
“The literal meaning is, ‘By the god’s blood.’ The god seers who have heard this command in their visions believe that it is a summoning power from the god who holds command over the dark shadows of the world.
” She swallowed hard before saying, “The most feared and twisted god of the underworld, Somdahl.”
I frowned, for there was only one god of the underworld—Mavgahr. He was depicted as cold and somber, but also benevolent.
“Is this a dark fae god?” I asked, petting Wolf’s back as he snoozed. “I’ve never heard of him.”
Redvyr was scowling. “No one worships Somdahl. He keeps his souls in the deepest pits of the hells, where he tortures them endlessly. He is the lord of the most wicked and evil of spirits. He is only known as one to fear. That is likely why you have never heard of him.”
“Great,” snapped Leifkyn. “So this piece of filth Selestos was commanding the power of the most evil god known to dark faekind.”
I shivered at the thought of him dragging me down into that abyss, no telling where he’d been trying to take me and Saralyn. Redvyr wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer on the low bench we sat upon together.
“That makes sense,” I added. “When Selestos first entered the clearing with the old oak, there was a pall of heaviness that came with him. I can’t quite explain it, but I know it was dark magick radiating from Selestos.”
“I felt it,” said Bezaliel, his voice serious and deep.
“I did as well,” agreed Redvyr.
“Aye,” added Brohm.
A tinkling sound and the flapping of tiny wings alerted us to Hallizel arriving. Wolf twitched his ear and lifted his head then instantly laid it back down and closed his eyes.
The sprite had been gone for a few days since the incident in the woods. She zipped across the tent directly to Tessa and Saralyn, the babe snuggled tightly to her mother’s bosom.
“Hallizel,” said Bezaliel, the only one besides Tessa and the baby who she listened to, “did you deliver the message?”
The blue-bodied sprite turned her wide, round black eyes to the group, her taloned-feet clutching the blanket wrapping Saralyn’s legs.
The sprite was obsessed with and devoted to the infant.
According to Redvyr, it had taken Bezaliel quite a lot of convincing and coercion to get her to leave Saralyn to deliver the message to Prince Torvyn in the Solgavia Mountains.
“Yes,” she chirped in her high trilling voice. “I delivered the message.”
“Did you deliver it to Prince Torvyn? Or his priest, Vallon?”
She blinked her owlish eyes and shook her head, the blue feather-like hair at her neck puffing up. “I could not find him.”
Bezaliel heaved out a sigh. “Who did you tell?”
“My lady’s sister.” She turned to Tessa.
“Murgha?” Tessa asked excitedly. “How is she?”
Hallizel hopped up the blanket to perch on Saralyn’s middle, making a happy purring sound. “Yes, my lady,” she told Tessa. “Your sister is very well. So pretty and kind. She fed me and gave me a soft pillowy bed to sleep in before I left.”
Bezaliel growled, annoyed. “Hallizel. Why did you not tell the prince or his second as I’d asked?”
“Because Murgha said she did not think they would return anytime soon. That is what she said,” Hallizel trilled, then turned her attention to Saralyn who was no longer nursing, but sleeping soundly. “The prince and his priests are hunting the grimlocks.”
“Not very well,” Leifkyn snorted. “If they were, they’d be right here in Wyken Woods where we killed them all.”
“Perhaps,” Redvyr added soberly, “we did not kill them all. There could be more than one horde. There could be far more.”
Silence fell within the tent, the fire crackling. After a while, our thoughts buzzing but no one saying a word, Redvyr took my hand and pulled me to stand with him.
“There is nothing more to be done now. We have burned the carcasses in the woods. Shearah wants to try and save the old tree by giving it special nutrients to counteract the black magick spell that left a hole in its trunk. Dayn, you will lead a party with her tomorrow so that she may try.”
Leifkyn grinned and nudged him with his elbow. Dayn shoved him back and scowled.
“Other than that, we will keep watch at the border of the camp that leads to Wyken Woods. Be vigilant in all patrols.” He looked at Bezaliel. “See that the guards understand that the danger may not be gone.”
“Of course, my lord.” Bezaliel stood as did the others, following us to leave.
I shared a smile with Tessa. “Goodnight.”
“Come and visit tomorrow,” she told me.
“I will,” I promised.
Tessa hadn’t wanted to leave the tent, keeping Saralyn in her arms except to allow Bezaliel to hold her. She’d been relieving herself in a chamber pot in the tent, terrified that if she left even for an instant, her precious babe would be snatched from her arms.
Tessa was the clan healer, but Lorelyn and Shearah had stepped in and taken over. But Tessa’s injury wasn’t a wound to be cured with a salve or a suture. It would take time, compassion and love to heal this heart-wound.
As we stepped out, I walked toward the open area beyond their tent which was close to mine and Redvyr’s on the southern edge of the camp. The others waved and ventured off in different directions.
I faced the setting sun and the hills beyond Ghasta Vale. The fading light cast a pink and golden blanket over the snow and rolling landscape in the distance. Redvyr stepped up behind me and wrapped both arms across my upper chest, pulling me against him.
“What troubles you?”
I clasped his thick wrists, wanting to hold onto him.
Needing to feel his hold on me, his strength at my back.
There was something terrible going on in the world, an intangible menace that was growing and spreading.
My heart felt bruised and hollow from what we’d seen. What we’d survived. And it wasn’t over.
“Tessa,” was all I answered, watching the fading light paint the far-off hills, wishing the winter was over so that we could return to Vanglosa.
“Give her time,” he murmured, squeezing me close.
“How long before your men return from the Bolgar clan?”
He had sent Haslek with two others to the Bolgar clan’s winter encampment to warn them of the grimlocks. Though wed hoped we had encountered and killed the only horde, Selestos had escaped. And there was no guarantee that there weren’t more of these golems roaming the wilds of Northgall.
Redvyr had instructed the clan leader of Bolgar, which was no longer his grandfather who had died a few summers earlier, to send word to the next clan.
The new leader was a younger beast fae named Behrvyne.
Redvyr had told me that there was a chain of communication between the clans in times of crisis.
The other clans would be informed quickly to be on guard for the grimlocks.
“I’d say tomorrow or the next day.”
“Will we break camp sooner and return home?”
He pressed his mouth to the crown of my head. “Home. I love that word on your lips, my heart.”
Smiling, I admitted, “I do, too.”
He kissed me again at my temple. “As soon as we see the first sign of the snows melting over those hills, we will leave for J?hl Tundra. I’ve sent word to Behrvyne of this. The other clans will likely join us sooner as well.”
“I think Tessa will fare better when we return to Vanglosa.”
“Indeed. In the meantime, she will find comfort with visits from her new friend, the light fae, who is soon to officially join our clan. When we are bound beneath the sacred tree.”
“Hmph.” I turned in his arms and set my hands on his broad shoulders, loving the mightiness of his figure. He made me feel safe and precious. “I do not recall you officially asking me to be your wife, beast lord.”
His smile was easy and mesmerizing, his fangs prominent. He wrapped his hands around my waist, spanning his fingers across my back. “Will you become my one and only mate before my clan, Jessamine?”
I smiled. “I will tell you at winter’s end. That was our bargain, wasn’t it?”
He slid his hands to my hips and squeezed, his golden eyes dancing with the knowledge that I would certainly say yes when the time came. “It was.”
Laying my cheek against his chest, I hugged him closer. “Now what shall we do to while away the winter?”
“I can think of something.” He pressed one last kiss to the crown of my head, then took my hand and led me back to our tent.